C3-R,E^T EXPLORERS BEFORE COLUMBUS. ^ ^mm ^ A PAPER READ BEFORE r i, ■■ THE 3^ltcvain\ and Hlstovlcal ^odctiv (Qtxclicc^ t FEBRUARY 2nd, 1883, B Y croiiiisr :eiiej^jdt^^ :f. ti. s. o. » » ■ ^m 1 1 QUEBEC: rRlNTKM AT THK " MoHMN(» CHKONUILK " OKKll K. 188a. IT i I GrlE^'B^AJI? EXPLORERS BEFORE COLUMBUS. A PAPER READ BEFORE THE FEBRUARY 2nd, 1833, BY — jonnsr zRE-A^iDE, IF. :ei. s. o QUEBEC: rulNTED AT THE " MOUNINQ CHRONICLE" OFFICE. 1883 fiREAT EXPLOREES BEFORE COLUMBUS. I havo undcrtiikon to deal very briefly with a single fea- ture of human jirogn^ss, that which lias to do with the growth of man's knowlediiv^ of the earth which he inhabits. Our great int(»r-0(;eanic highway will hardly have reached completion when the nations will be invparing to celebrate the 4()0th anniviM'sary of the discovery of this continent by Columbus. That great event was so unlooked for, was attended with circumstancH's so strange and romantic, and was destined to exert so marked an influence on the human race, that it has, to some extent, overshadowed the hardly less praiseworthy explorations of earlier navigators. Even for the honor of i hat service to mankind which, has render- ed his name illustrious, there are claimants who preceded him by centuries, while others sought by an eastward, what his studies prompted him to seek by a westward, course. The spread of geographical knowledge was, indeed, more gradual than has been generally supposed and, in order to indicate the steps by which it advanced, it may be well to give a brief sketch of the progress of discovery from the earliest times to tie 12th century. I will then consider more at length the voyagers who preceded Columbus in the four centuries of which the last was distinguished by his own gTeat triumph. The earliest description that has come down to us of the distribution of mankind over the face of the earth is that of the 10th chapter of Genesis. It contains, as Professor Rawlinson tells us, " an account of the nations with which the Jews, at the date of its composition, had some acquain- tance." Eastward, those nations did not extend beyond the — 4 — Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf; wostvvard, the Adriatic seems to have been their limit; iliey rangcnl as far north as a short distance beyond the northern shore of the I'hixino, while southward they covered the l\'ninsula of Arabia and the Nile country to nearly opposite the JStiait of JJabelman- deb. Compared with the world as it is known to us to-day, that of the writer in Genesis was exeeedinil^-ly limited. Nevertheless, he indicates the beg-inniiigs oi" that westward movement, which was, agesa'.erward;s tore-settle this great continent, and the ethnic ailinities which he implies corres- pond with those which modern research has revealed. To what extent the rest of the world was peopled at that time •ve can only conjecture from vvrhat it had come to be at a later *^eriod, but that there weic other nations besides those men- tioned in existence then, it is reasonable to conclude. The record, says Canon Ilawlinson, " does not set up to be, and it certainly is not complete, it is a genealogical arrangement of the races best known to Moses and to those for whom he wrote, not a scientific sch'^me embracing all the tribes and •nations existing in the ■'vorld at the tinn^" We may, there- fore, infer, that exploration had already made considerable progTess. Among the nations mentioned are some of those which contributed to make up the groat Aryan race to which we belong. The migration which was to plant the agents of civilization in India and Iran, and along the shores of the Mediterranean, and thence to the Atlnnti(% the North Sea and the Baltic, had already begun. It ^vould be out of place in such a paper as this to touch on such a vexed ques- tion of ethnology afj the limits of the Ilamites and the Shemites. The admission, just quoted, of Canon llawlinson. ccHainly simplifies the matter, and allows some claims of science without offence to those of Scripture. It would bo interesting to inquire from what beginnings and by what processes the human race came to be thus spread over the earth's surface. Where was man's earliest home ? Various aiiHvvors have been given to this question, t^^ome have fixed upon CtMiiral Asia, others have raised up from the ocean's depths the buried continent of Lemuria, in the Indian Ocean. In liis " Preadamites," Dr. Winchell gives a cliart of -the progressive dispi'rsion of mankind from this supposed primitive centre. In his " Ishind Life," Mr. Walkice has set himself strongly iji opposition to this theory, though he admits that there is ground for believing that some large islands — as large as IMadngascar, perhaps — once existed in the designated locality. More summarily he dismisses the "Atlantis" theory, on which Mr. Ignatius Donni^lly has written what is, at least, an entin'taining book. We can, even without asking for any modilication of the continents as they exist, imagine the fathers of mankind pushing farther east or farther west, as their necessities urged them, first on foot, tlien on horse-back or in wagons, and iinally in the rude boats of primitive construction. Next neigh- bors, and prol)ably akin l)y blood, as they were by tongue, to those for whom tlie record in (renesis was primarily written, were the for(>most of ancient explorers and coloni- zers. Long b.'fore Athens had a iianie, the PhcDnicians were a nation of skilled mechanics, of merchant princes, and had learned to give permanence to their thoughts by writing. Unhappily their literature has perished, and even of their language only a few scattered fragments haA'^e survived. Tyre was a strong city in Joshua's time. The cunning work of the Hidonians is frequently referred to by Homer, and in both sacred and profane history and poetry the skill and daring of 1he early Phoenician navigators are abundantly attested. If we comprise under the same cate- gory them and the Carthaginians, the jiortion of the globe traversed by or known to that hardy and enterprising race w^as of no small extent, even according to modern ideas. W(^ know that ages belore the Chris' ian era they had made their way to Britain and to the Baltic, and that they acted — 6 — as carriers westward of the fabrics and products of the far East is sulliciently establislKHl. XvMiophoii coimnends the proficioncy to which they had brou.n'ht the art of sliip})uild- ing, and tlieir orderly arraiig(nnent of tuckh^ and cargo. There is reason to believe that the rhcrniciuns knew more of distant regions than they pretended, havhig cone I'aled their discoveries lest others should compete with them in trade and rob them of their profits. ICveu the argument that they were not unaware of the existen(x> of this conti- nent has some support. Dr. Daniel Wilson, in a pa]>ei* read before the American Associaiion, at Montreal, savs that 'at periods, in-ol^ably wide apart, races from the Old "Wo "Id have reached the shores of th(^ American continent a.id planted there the germs of later tribes," and in his inaugural address to the English Literature t^^ectioii of the Royal Society of Canada, he says that " then* seems nothing im- probable in the assumption that the more ancient voyagers from the INIediterranean, who claimed to have circumnavi- gated Africa and were familiar wiih the islands of the Atlantic, may have found their way to the great coritinent which la)?^ beyond." Ojie of the most interesting records of the exploring exp.'riences of ancient navigators is the "Voyage of Hanno," the authenticity of whicli Heeren sees no good reason why any one should doubt. It is extant in a translation supposi^d to have been made by som;> Greek mei:?hant from the* original Punic, llanno's expc^dition is thought to have tak(>n place about 500 B. C. in the most flourishing days of the Carthaginian Ilepuldic. Setting out with GO ships and 30,000 men and w^omen, afi "^- two days' sail beyond the Filial s of Henniles, he came to a ]^lace where the city Thymiaterium was founded. Passing many w^ondrous scenes and seeing elei>hants and other wild animals, they came to the river Lixus, on th(i banks of which a tribe of shepherds fed their flocks, and from them they obtained interpreters. At the mouth of another river — 1— , they saw crocodiles and hippopotami. At Cerne they were as far from the Straits as the latter were from CartLay Scylax of Caryanda ; westward, they touched the Pyrenees and ihe Atlantic, where Herodotus speaks of the Celts and Iberian (^ynesians as having their al)ode. In the' days of Eratostln"v>s, who died towards the close of the second century, these limits had been pushed back consideral)ly — India ])eing known as far as its southern extremity while — 10 — much additional light had been cast on the northern por- tions of Europe. Among whose to whom this added know- ledge was due may be mentioned Xenophon, Pytheas, Ctesias, Aristotle and Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander the Great. Xenophon cleared up the obscurity that hung over regions partially known before his time. Aristotle dealt with the earth as a naturalist, rather than a geogra- pher. Of Ctesias little has come down to us and for that we are mainly indebted to the diligent ecclesiastical di- plomatist, Photius. He was a pretentious writer and it is doubtful whether his experience was as comprehensive as his imagination. Whether by travel or by inquiry, he had, however, added some interesting contriljutions to the sum of Greek knowledge concerning the East, especially India, in those times. His account of the fauna and flora of the peninsula was largely mingh'd with faT)le, and his jealous detraction of the works of his prede(?essors would havdly add to our respect for his character. Pytheas has an interest for us as bv.ing what now-a-days would be termed a French- man. He was a nativ(^ of the Greek colony of Massilia, then renowned for its learning and enterprise. In the latter part of the 4th Century B. C. he sailed tlirough the columns of Hercules and turiK^d northwards past the coast of t^pain and France until he reached Britain, which he was the iirst Greek to explore. He proce(>ded thence to the Baltic, pass- ing, on his Av ay, a region whii.'h be called Thule and which some suppose to be Jutland. Then retracing his course, he arrived at the month of tlie Rhine, where he became acquainted with a German nation called the Osthiones, that is, Ost-wohner, or dwt'llers in the east. Having <'oast- ed along till he came to another river, he ascended it and thus made his way back overland to Massilia. Alexander the Great's exjiedition to Asia inaugurated a new era in geogra[)hical dis(.'overy, making the Greeks acquainted with countries aud nations previously known — 11 — to tliom only l)y hoarsay, Arriaii, Qiiiutus Curtjus and riutarcli (as well as other writers), have left us complete accounts of his oonqiiests and their results on the countries which he invaded, lie went no farther eastward than the Ilyphasis, Imt he t^ere formed a project which tended to add considerably to the knowleds^'e of Asia already acquired. Ke sent a s>'reat armada down the Indus and the explorers reached the Ocean after a voyaj^e oi' nine months. There they observed what to them was the mystery of the tides, and the King was so pleased with the success that had been achieved that he formed aUother scheme which was to have a survey made of the entire coast from the mouth of the Indus to that of the Euj^hrates. "While others re- coiled from so arduous a task, Nearchus undertook it, and after seven months, reai^hed the Persian Gulf From Alexander- to Julius Cccsar is a natural transition. Diirina: the interval Roman conquest had canied on the work beL>'un by the riidMiicians and continued by the Greeks. CjBsar's Commentarii's, supplemented b}^ the works of Tacitus, a cf»ntury and a-half later, present pictures of the ancestors of the three most civiliz(>d nations of Europe, of which it would not })e easy to over-estimate the value. But, as yet, we sei^ little^- extension of the boundvirics of the known world. Barely contemporary with Ca3sar was the Greek geographer, Strabo, whose account of the world of his ao-e is one of the treasurers of the past which have escaped the ravage's of time. His work contains a careful summino'-up of all tlu! geographical knowledge which had been won by former explorers and commenlators. The historians proper, both Greek and Latin, necessarily treat largely of geoo-ra- l>hical subjects and the works of such writers as Pausanias, Pliny and Dionysius of Ilalicarnassus are also valuable from the same point of view. The poets have also thrown considerable light on the geogrnphical discoveries of the ancients. Pomponius Mela, a Spaniard, who in tlie reigns of — 12 — Calig-ula and Claudius, wrote a treatise on gerography, customs and manners, gives descriptions of Europe, Asia and Africa, which are not without interest. There is a passage in Scipio's Dream, in which Cicero gives a general view of the earth as known in his day, which seems in certain respects to anticipate some discoveries generally attributed to later investigation. He makes Africanus speak of the small jiortion of the earth that is inhabited, and also of the Antipodes who dwell on the other side of it. After comparing the inhabited earth to a small island in the midst of the ocean, he asks whether the fame of any European is likely to cross the Caucasus or the Ganges, or whether the people of the distant East or West or South will ever hear the name of even the most illustrious Roman. The names of Africanus, the elder and the younger, and of Cicero, who has thus brought them together in his philosophic fancy, have, far in excess of the hopes of any of them, long since transcended those barriers of fame which the great orator and statesman thought impassable. Though many generations had still to come and go before those obstacles which furnished Cicero with his illustration of the fleeting nature of lame were so surmounted as to allow of easy intercourise between those on either side, even in Ptolemy's map of the world, we can see signs of the coming dawn, which should disclose the vast East to the wondering, West. It looked as if the prophecy oC the chorus in Senecas Medea of the time when there should be no more limit to men's knowledge of the earth, were already on the way to fulfilment, as if, before the Roman Empire began its decline, its proud rulers were to have a glimpse of that mighty world, which had not been included in their own orbis terrarum. Tt is, perhaps, an indication of the wider views so characteristic of Christianity, which embraced in its reconciling and redeeming mission, not one great conqucr- ^ing people, but " all j^eople that on earth do dwell," that in — 13 — tho second century, Pausaiiias i^ublished his itinerary or travellers' g-uide to ancient G-reece. It was from Christiaii missionaries Ihat tho Itomans were first to learn the lesson that the nations beyond the confines of their power had their part in the scheme of existence and were worthy of study and consideration. They had grown accustomed, as Gibbon says, to "confound the Roman monarchy with the g'lobe of the earth," but were now to learn what they should after- wards acutely feel, the importance of races whom they had scornfully iii'nored. Before the close of the second century, zealous missionaries had preached the Gosi')el, not only in every province of the liluipire, but in many of the remote regions beyond it. The tradition that l:^t. Thomas evangel- ized a part of India, is well known. The native Christians of Malabar firmly believed it when they were first visited by the Portuguese. More authentic is the record of the establishment of Christianity in the Chinese Province of Shensi, by the Nestorians, as attested by the Siganfu tablet, discovered in 1025. The He v. "Wells Williams, who lectured in Montreal a few years ago, and who spent much of his life in China, has no doubt of its genuineness, Arnobius, who wrote in the beginning of the third century, mentions the Seres among those who had, in part, accepted Christianity in his time. The monks who l)rought the eggs of the silk- worm to Const an{ino]de in the middle of the sixth century had long resided in China, and, as Mr. Williams says, it is reasonable to suppose that they were not the first or the only ones who went thither to preach the G-ospel. On the other hand, let us see whether the Chinese had been doing anything to overcome the barriers that s(»parated them from the western world. It is certain that the Greeks took the name (ser) for silkworm from the Chinese name for the same useful insect. IIow did it reach them? Nenrchus, al- ready mentiom^d, is the first to speak of the ^eric stuffs of India and of the people of the Seres. It is thought that — 14 — the Priiicos of the House of Tsin extended their sway to Central Asia, and that thus the trade was carried in caravans to the countries tiloni'- tlie Oxus. Those who acted as carriers seem to have ke])t the secret of the manu- facture, if they knew it, to themselves, for the Romans, thoug-h they made abundant use of silk, hmg- continued ignorant of it. Ill the early silk-trade, it is not likely that there was any contact between the Chinese and the Occidentals. The commodity passed, j^robably, through many sucix'ssive hands, before it reached those who were to wear it. In the year 140 B.C., an emperor of the 1 Ian dynasty sent ag-eneral with an army into Central Asia, and the general wrote a description on his return of all the countries and people that he had seen. This is known from Chinese sources. After that, for 120 years, the trade route remained open, until the turbulent Iluingnu, who, in later centuries, were to tur)i their strength against Europe, succeeded in closing it. But never, at any time, had the trafTic come further west than the Caspian. There it was taken up by Tui'ke(\s and western merchants, who acted as middlemen. The day was to come wliiMi inwc curiosity to kaow more of the western nations was to impid an ardent dis-i])l(} of Buddha (or Confucius,) to turn his steps westward. It was towards the end of the 4th century that Fa-llian, a monk, accompanied by a few of his brethern, started on a journey over the hills and far away to the lands of the setting sun. They crossed the desert, which Marco Polo was to tra- verse 800 years later, passed through the country of the Ouigours, the Khanates when^ the Czar now reigns, through Afghanistan, through the Punjaul) and a great part of India. From the continent they sailed to Ceylon, of which Jamboulos, the Greek merchant (mentioned in Tzetzes) had already written an account in his Book of Wonders. Fi'om there they went to Java, where they stayed live months, and thence they returned home by way of Canton and Nankin. — 15 — It was of such roligious kiiowh'dgo as would coufiTni him in his faith that Ha-IIian was mostly in quest, and ho was greatly pli-ased with ceremonies and other signs of piety which he witnessed among the people with whom he })e- came acquainted. A still more interesting Chinese traveller was he who, in the fifth century of our era, discovered Fou Sang which, if we can credit some learned inquinn's, was neither more nor less than the continent of America. The story has been translated from the Chinese annals of Li Yen by M. de Guignes and is to tin; eirect that a Buddhist priest of China discovered a country called Foii Siing, the description of which, "u several particulars, is applicable to the western portion of this continent. The mention of horses is hardly consistent, however, with the natural history of North Ame- rica at that period, which was too late for Mr. Huxley's plio- hippus and too early for the introduction of its descendants by Europeans. The narrative is important, nevertheless, as indicating the enlightened curiosity and exploring enterprise of the Chinese of that time. The name of Cosmas Indicopleustes bears evidence of the growing interest which western nations were taking in the great peninsula whose inhabitants are now our own fellow- subjects. He was an Egyptian merchant who traded to India by the way of the Red Sea, and who after an active life spent in commercial pursuits, retired to a monastery and amused himself by writing out his theories and expe- riences. His To])Oirr(ij)liia Christiana, ihowgh it contains a good deal of nonsense, is not without value. He ti-ied to prove that the earth was a vast oblong plain, surrounded by the ocean. While its weight presses it downward 'he iiery forces within tend to raise it up and thus it is kept sus- pended in vacuo. Beyond the circumambient ocean to the east man was created and there was tiie paradise of gladness where men dwelt before the Flood : after that event Noah — 16 — and his Sons wore borne in the ark to the earth which wo now inhabit. Mr. Ignatius Donnelly, in his "Atlantis," cites Cosmas as making the Deluge begin from the west in support of the reality of Plato's story in the Timceus. Not- withstanding his odd notions, Cosmas gives some valuable information concerning the natural history of the countries that he visited, especially India and Ceylon. Besides missions and commerce, a new force began now to impel men to travel — the veneration for shrines and holy places. Among those who made the tour of the Holy Land and left an exact account of what they saw was Arcul- phus, a French Ijishop, who in the seventh century, visited Jerusalem and the oilier scenes in Palestine made dear to the heart of the Christian by hallowed associations. His nar- rative has a special value as shewing at least the antiquity of the lot^ition of places menlioned in Iho Gospel record, still revered l)y i)ious pilgrims of all denominations. Ho also visited and described Damascus, Tyre, Jaffa, Alexandria and Constantinople. Another pilgrim of less exalted rank but no hvss interest, though he wrote no book, was Crodric, the Hermit, whose story is so delightfully told by Charles Kingsley. Having been a merchant-sailor for sixteen years, and pros]-)cred in his career, he began to think that there were other things than money-making to live for. So, having worshipped at the shrines of St. Andrew and St. Cuthlx^t of Fame, and still yearning for the blessedness of a soul at peace with G-od and with itself, he took the Cross and start- ed for Jerusalem, facing dilliculties incredible, but managing at last to reach his destination. He made his way home by Spain, so as to visit the sanctuary of St. James of Compos- • tella. Then he settled down as a hermit at Finchale, near Durham. His pilgiimage took place sever il centuries after Arciilph's, but another Englishman, named Willibald, a member of a wealthy family, made the same journey in the Tth century. It would be out of place iii paper like the — 17 — present to say anythiiii'' ol" Ihe woiideiiul voyage of St. Bren- dan to the Land of Promise. Though generally regarded as an allegory, it had, no doubt, some basis in fact and, at any rate, it marks the impulse for pilgrimage and exploration which ha subject that to this day the Arab origin of the Chinese Moslem can be di'- tected in their faces and forms. In the middle of the eighth century an alliance existed between the Emperor of China and tlie C'aliph of Bagdad and the former was even supplied with soldiers by the latter, during his conllict with a rebel general. WIkmi the war was over, the victorious Arab — 18 — troops w'vYv ;illoliod land and iillowed to settle in the Em- pire, l^ut not only did the discijjli's of the Prophet thus extend the boundaries of i>-eooTapliieal knowledj^e by war and trade ; they also i'urnisli(>d tlie world with some dili- gent exi^lorers. 01" these one of the most noted is ^oleyman, a merchant of Bassora, on the Persian Crulf, who, in the middle of the ninth (•(^itnry, traA'elled over a great part of the East. Of tlv slory of his voyaLO'^^ P'irt was written by himself, the remainder ])y a «>'»'on-rai)her named Abouzeyd Hassan. Their combined narrative treats of the Chinese, the Hindoos and of a jDortion of the African continent* Still more famous was Ibn Batuia or Abd Allah el Lawati' a native of Tangier in Morocco, who, in the beginning of the second quarter of the fourte(Mith century, start«>d out on a tour over a great portion of the then known world. Like a true Mussulman, he began his explorations by a pilgrim- age to Mecca, \>'hich he reached by way of Ah'xandria a Cairo. Having asc(>nded lh(> Nile as far as Nubia, he was prevented by disturbances which had just broken out from proceeding further in that direi-tion. He, therelbre, made for Asia Minor, visiting by the way all the sacred i)laces in Palestine, as well as Tp-e, Tiberias and Damascus. At this last named city he saw with veneration the stone which preserved the imprint of Moses' footstep. Bassora, t^hiraz, Bagdad, Tabnn-z, Medina and Mecca then in suc- cession received the pilgrim. Meetinn- at the Holy City thou- sands of his fellow-worshippers, he had no difliculty in forming a party which was made up cf merchants to accom- pany him in his peregrinations. Their first exploration was through Arabia Felix. From there they crossed over to Abyssinia, whence they entered the country of the Ber- bers. In one of their towns, Makdisbu, a kind of primitive civilization was observed, and some of the better class of the people were epicures in their way. Proceeding along the coast our travellers arrived at Zanzibar, where having — 19 — staid somo timo, thoy made their way along southern Ara- bia to Ormuz on the Persian Gulf. From there, after pass- ing through Persia, Ibn liatuta made a second pilgrimage to Mecca, Then be again visited the Nile region, from which he passed through Syria, touching at Jerusalem, Tripoli, and other cities, tc Aiialolia. At Erzeroum he saw an aerolite that weighed 020 lbs. Crossing the Bhick Sea, be landed in the Crimea, reached the city of Astrakhan at the mouth of the Volga, where the Tartar King was then . passing the winter. The princess, his wife, daughter of the Greek Emperor, being about to make the journey to Constantinople, Ibn IJatuta was asked to be her escort, a charge which he gallantly accepted. On the way the au- gust party was guarded by ."JOOO men, who carried a mosque which could be set up at every stage. At the Byzantine capital, Ibn Batuta was received with much distinction and he took advantage of his position to make himself ac- quainted with all points of interest and to gather all pos- sible information. Afterwards he re-traversed the desert to Chorasm, to Bokhara, to Balkh, and at every stage in his wanderings he saw the traces of the devastating march of Barbarian conquerors. Having arrived at Herat, he conceiv- ed the project of visiting the farthest East. At Delhi, he w^as appointed ambassador to the Emperor of China, but, as we shall presently be accompanying another traveller in the same direction, perhaps we had better take leave of the enterprising Ibn Batuta at this point, merely adding that he reached the distant city to which he w^as commissioned and went even as far as the Great Wall, having on the journey visited Ceylon, Sumatra and a number of other j)laces of interest. In 1348, we find him once more at Mecca and in the following year, he returned to Tangier. But not to rest — lie had enjoyed the cliarm of travel so long- that repos(3 was a burden to him. So he set out anew and penetrated to the heart of Africa, traversing the desert of — 20 — Sahara and sojourn iiig lor a tinn; in the great tradhig city oi Tinil)uetoo. In VlitS, 29 years after his iirst departure I'roin Tangier, Ibii Batuta setth-d at Fez, in the dominions of the Emperor of Morocco, having won by his untiring energy and enlightened curiosity, the merited r(>putation of one of the greatest explorers of the middle ages. If the Mohammedans had their distinguished traveller in Ibn Batuta, the Jews hud one scarcely less illustrious (especially a:^' he lived t\vo centuries earlier,) in the well known Benjamin of Tudela. lie was the son of a rabbi, who dwelt in the kingdom of Navarre, at that time the home of many members of his scattered race. lie did not venture so far eastward as Ibn Batuta, but he left a full ac- count of whatever was worthy of note in what he saw and, some say, in what he did not see. AVhile Gi])bon, though severally criticizing the relations which pass under Benjamiirs name, sees no reason to doubt their genu- ineness. Dean Milman questions their reality and is in- clined to regard them as mere compilations. At the same time it is acknowledged that the writings which bear his name give a pictur<^ of the civilized world in the 12th century which is of considerable value to t]w historian. As he made it a matter of solemn duty to inquire particu- larly wherever he went into the condition of his co-nation- alists, they are especially important as a contribution to medieval Jewish history. It is quite possible that he tra- velled just enough to make a basis lor the narrative which he supplemented with the aid of books — a plan which he has certainly not been lone in adopting. Among those whom aflairs of state led some distance eastw^ard may be mentioned Photius, a man of note both in literary and ecclesiastical annals. He employed the years of his diplomatic exile at Bagdad, not so much in describing the scenes or persons by whom he was sur- rounded, as in rescuing i'rom oblivion many writings of the — 21 — aiiciouts which, hut lor him, would have pa.sst'd wholly out of memory. Whaiovor may have ])i}(}n his offencos as a churchman, ibr this service to literature, ho deserves to })e had iu grateful remembrance. But the days were ap- proaching when the kindly relations of which Charle- magne's correspondenci^ and the mission of IMiotius give evidence were to be chanucd for a struggle in which the (^ross and the Crescent should meet as deadly foes, and Western Christi-ndom, stirred \y a common imiiulse, should move eastward to rescue the Holy Laud and the shrines of the Faith IVom the occupation of scornful iniidels. That the Crusaders were not without their influence on the progress of exploration by giving intensity to the spirit which, iii those ages, enti!red so largely into it, cannot be denied. Robertson thinks, indeed, that their eHect on trade was injurious and temporarily it may have been so. But any sentiment which impels men to do great things whether for the love of religion or for the glory which they may bring, must ultimately stimulate every kind of human endeavor. Religion, chivalry and commerce were oftjn combined, indeed, in impelling men to undertake enter- prises attended with danger as well as with profit and ho- nour. Milman tells us that the " silks, jewels, spices, paper and other products of the east were brought home from Palestine by the pious but not unworldly merchants of Venice, Pisa, Marseilles and even of France and Ger- many." If time permitted, some reference might be made to the deeds of the adventurous Norsemen and especially to their voyages to Iceland, Greenland and the New World. I may, however, before proceeding, pause just a moment to mention a recent valuaWe addition that has been made to the already important manuscript collection of this Society. Dr. Marsden has received from the venerable Mr. Hender- son, of Megantic, his admirable contribution to the litera- 09 ture of exploration entitled " The Discovery of America by the Icelanders." Followino- the argument of TIafn, in his " Anticjuitates Americanie," Mr. Henderson urges that the men who, pushing on from conquest to conquest, had in turn discovered the Ferroe Isles, Iceland and Greenland (not to speak of other discoveries in other directions,) were just the men from whom such an exploit as the discovery of America might have been, expected. The subject is one of exceeding interest and Mr. Henderson has treated it with ability, skill and judgment. We might also consider the claims to a previous discovery of these shores by the Irish, as set down in the saga of Are Marsson and maintained with considerable ability by M. Beauvois. The energetic conquests of Jean de Bethencourt among th(^ Canary Is- lands also belong to this branch of exploring enterprise. But Atlantic exploration is a subject bj itself and is associated with Columbus and his successors, rather than with the old-world explorers who did their own useful work before him. With your permission, then, we will iigain turn our attention Eastward. The most remarkable of tln^ great explorers, whose researches in the eastern hemisphere, did so much to prepare the way for the opening up to the nations of Europe of this continent, were Carpini (with Stephen of Bohemia,) Rubruquis and Marco Polo. Carpini was born at Perugia in Itoly towards the dose of the twelfth century. The task for which he was selected by Pope Innocent IV was one of much delicacy and not a little danger. It was no less then to bear an embassy to the formidable Mongol emperor, the successor of Zengis Khan. It took Carpini and his party some time to reach even the beginning of the Mongol dominions, although they then extended as far westward as the Dnieper. They were then in the country of the Coraans, where they were presented to Fniice Bathy. The papal briefs were present- on cd to this vice-roy in Slavonic, Arabic and Tartar. Having read thedocumei>ts, Bathy ordered th(^ ambassadors to start at onc(! for Caracorum. The journey Avas a rapid one — the horses being changed six times a day. The country through which they passed was almost a desert, sparsely inhabited by tribes whom the Mongols had conquered and c.islaved. Having traversed Turkestan, they came to Kara-Kithay where the governor received them with due honor and gave them what he considered suitable entertainment. They then continued their journey through a cold, mountainous region and at last on the 22nd of July, 1245, they reached the environs of the royal cily. The emperor had just died and the election of his successor had not yet taken place. The empress-dowager meanwhile acting as regent, it w^as to Her Majesty the ambassadors were i^resented. They saw a countless multitude of princes and dukes on horse- back occupying all the surrounding heights. Every day they appeart>d in a diilerent garb, sometimes in white and purple, sometimes in scarlet and A-vhite, and so on. On the harness of som(M)f the horses there w^as silver valued at twenty marks. A month ])assed before the heir was pro- claimed emperor, and the mission of C'arpini anc Jean de lioheme began to como to an end. It brought thnn little in-olit, except the experience which it gave them of strange scenes and people, and the renown and promotion which it w^on for them on their return. After their presentation to the newly enthroned emperor, they were detained for a month, getting no satisfaction and but poor fare and treat- ment. They were not (iven allowed the privilege of enter- ing Caracorum.* Finally, they were haughtily dismissed with a letter which bore the impress of a scornful fatalism, as though Okkaday and Kuyuk, his successor, were God's servants, whose duty it was to command while other men, including the Pope and all Christian prince illed upon to obey. Possibly, the fact that His Homiess, either — 24 — lorgetiiiig the eastern custom of sending- gil'ts or not deem- ing- its observance necessary, had sent no present with his ambassadors, may have aflec-ted both tlie treatment of Car- y. iii and the tone of the reply, llis mission gained for Carpini the archbishopric of Antivari and the fame of a great traveUer. Some years later, DeRubruquis, a Belgian, was des- patched on a similar mission, at the command of St. Louis of France. He had the privilege, which had been denied to Carpini, of being admitted into Caracorum. The city, as Gibbon tells us, contained two streets, the one of Chinese mechanics, the other of Mohammedan traders, and several places of religious worship — a Nestorian Church, two mosques, and twelve temples of various idols. Ivubruquis found there a countryman of his own, by name Boucher, who had made for the Khan, a silver tree, support<'d l)y four lions and ejecting four different liquors. Abulghazi, a Tartar writer, whose manuscript w^as discovered by some Russians, mentions the painiers of Cathay. We now come to a traveller — one of the most distin- guished in the annals of (Exploration — Marco Polo. Though his great name is generally more associated with commer- cial than with religious motives, it was to the latter that he, too, owed his iirst start in the career in which he was des- tined to become so successful. He came of an adventurous race — originally of Dalmatia. His father, Niccolo and his uncle, Matteo, merclianl-princes of Venice, had establish- ed a branch house at Constantinople, while their brother Andrea managed another business in the Crimea. From there they had reached by the Volga "^e camp of the Mongol prince of that time and had disposed of some of their more valuable wares. A war breaking out, they left the camp for Bokhara when^ they lived three years. They were then engaged by the followers of Hoolagoo, the con- queror of Persia, to accompany them to the Court of Kublai Khan. The groat emperor received them hospitably and, having- already learned the Tartar tongue, they were able to converse with their royal entertainer, who was just then thinking of sending an embassy to His Holiness. They took their leave of the great Khan in 12GG, accom- panied by one of the Emperor's suite named Cogatal. The latter falling ill, they had to make their way home alone, and it was not till after three years that they reached Ar- menia. Arriving at Acre, they heard of the death of Pope Clement IV, but they were well received by the legate, Tebaldo, who, being soon after elected Clement's succes- sor, gave a reply to Kublai and commissioned two monks to accompa the Polo brothers. During his long previous absence, Niecolo's wife had died, having given birth to a son. This son, now about 17 years old, was the celebrated Marco, who began his career by going with his father and uncle on their important embassy. To give any thing like a satisfactory sketch of Marco's career would requne a paper and a pretty long one to itself and, as my purpose is to indicate the general course of discovery, not to give the lives of discoverers, I must be exceedingly brief. It is almost needless to say that doubt has been cast upon the accounts which Marco Polo has left of his travels, as well as upon those of his predecessors. But if he did not witn*^ "^s all that he recounts, he tells us himself that he heard it from persons of credit. ll\ moreover, some persons have pro- nounced him untrustworthy, others, quite as capable of judging as to his veracity, have cleared him of the imputa- tion. He was not a man of science and is not to be criti- cized as though he professed in all that he wrote to make an exact scientific statement. He made his few ngtes, pro- bably, in haste, as he had leisure, and dictated, for the most part, from memory, to his chosen amanuensis, the narra- tive which bears his name. Under such circumstances per- fect accuracy is not to be looked for. It is enough that his story is in the main true and, in no caso, wrilton intention- ally to deceive. As Ivobertson points out, it is io his credit that those who knew most placed most conlidenco in his relations, and to him Columbus owed it, in a great mea- sure, that he discovered the New "World. To-day, when the remotest parts ol" the earth are practically within hear- ing distance of each other, when it is a small thing to make the tour of half the Globe, and not an uncommon thing to circumnavigate it. Polo's marvt Is have lost their charm of novelty. It is only as marking an important stage in the progress of geographical science that his account of his tra- vels is interesting to us. He traversed great parts of China, Tartary, llindostan, lie describes the city of Pekin which he calls C'auibalu, he visited Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, and he was aware of the existence of Japan. At a time when the notion which prevailed of the earth's dimensions were most indefmite, it was no inconsiderable gain to real know- ledge to add so many vast regions, so many large islands, so many oceans and seas to the map of the world, to double its known extent. That he was a man of quick observa- tion and able to describe intelligibly wliat passed before; him is shown by the fact that the history of Kublai's trumph, as recorded by him, is pronounced correct by those who have had the opportunity of examining the native annals of China. Plis ability and resourci; are proved by his long run of su(.'cess under trying circum- stances. Ilis skill in adapting hims-'lf to his surroundings is made evident by his having been elected to fill a high office at Chehkiang, whieh he held for three years — the only civil ofTice, Mr. Wolls AVilliams says, over held in China by a European, at least until within the last 80 years. He must also have understood Chinese to administer the affairs of his governorship, though some have jealously denied it. The three Poli were altogether 24 years in the East, and when they returned home, they were so changed — 2T — ill appeariiUGO that thoy had some didiculty iu (.onviiKdng their iricnds that they were really themselves. The story runs that, in order to show how prosi)erous they haa been, tliey t^a\'e a public least, in which they appeared in rich apparel, the suits being- arranged one over another so that, disrobing in succession, they appeared in turn in crimson satin, in damask and in velvet, and that they then produced the rags in which they had reached home, but these too disguised, so that, being- ripped oj^en, they exhi- bited a prolusion of diamonds and all precious stones and jev.'els. Persons of all raiikis than iloeked around them and so accustomed had Marco become to the use of the term million, then not so common in Europe as it is to- day, that tln^y du])bed him Messir Millioni. Contemporary witli Marco l*olo, was an Armeniai:. Prince, named 1 laitho, who paid a visit to the grand Khan on amatter of tribute. Monte Corvo or Corvino a distinguished missionary, was born in ApuHa in 1247, and in 1288 was sent to Tartary by Pope Nicholas IV. In 1291 he arrived in India where he remained for a year, preaching and baptizing such of the natives as received his message. He then set out for Cathay, v.here he was kindly received by the Khan. He built a church at Caml>alu, that is, Pekin. Clement Y., made him Archbishop of Tartary and sent him seven men to serve under him as suffragans. Both he and Marco Polo make mention of Prester John, an alleged Christian prince gcmerally located in Central Asia, but whom the Portuguese claimed to ha\e traced to Abyssinia. "When the extent to which Christianity prevailed in the middle ages, among the Tartar tribes — " one of the most curious questions" as Milman says, " in Oriental history " — is remem- bered, the existence of such a potentate is not impossible. Some of the Nestorian priests said he was Jung Khan, a Tartar chief in the Karacorum range who was slain by Zenghis Khan in 1202. Mosheim thinks he may have been one of — 28 — the Nestoriaiis themsolvos who, by his inlliience over his converts, raised himsi'lf or was raised by them to the throne. Others, set him down as the Grand Lama of Thi- bet, and Gibbon deems the story partly due to a mistaken notion as to the Lama's creed and functions, and the proba- bility of Christianity having been professed by some of the Khans and hordes of the Mongols. One of the latest of many writers on the subject regards Prester John as a Khan of the Keraites. (Uo worth's Ilistorij of the Mongoh). There is no more interesting chapter in human history than the record of Christian missions in Tartary and China, but it is a topic which my time will only allow me to indicate. (See Letlres Edifiantes, Annales de la Fat, Purchas's Pili^rims and also (especially for "Prester .Tolin") Baring-Gould's Curious Mt/tha of III e Middle As:;es). Oderic, a friar hos left a journal of his mission work in which he tells of the elibrts at evan- gelization of the Nestorians and others who had preceded him. "What strikes one as most remarkable in connection with these apostolic labors is the toleration (so much in contrast with the wild habits generally ascribed to chiefs and people) with which they often met the advances of the strangers. The following quotation from Corvino's account of his mis- sionary life will give some idea of the spirit ])y which he and his brethern were actuated, and of the content with which they bore the privations of an exile which to the wordly would have been intolerable. " It is now," he says in his diary, " twelve years since I have heard any news from the West. I am l)ecome old and grey-headed but it is rather through labors and tribulations than through age, for I am only fifty-eight years old. I have learned the Tartar language and literature, into which I have translat- ed the whole New Testament and the Psalms of David, and have caused them to be transcribed with the utmost care. I write and read and preach openly and freely the testi- mony of the law of Christ." — 20 — Sir John Maude ville is th(; great English traveUor who look up the Avork orexploriilioii soon after the Polo family left oil". He set out on his travels in the vear 1322, and, ac- cording to his own account, visited Tartary, Persia, Arme- nia, Libya, Chakhra, India, greater and less, and the Is- lands around it, Amazonia and Ethiopia. After an absence of thirty years and more, he returned home, "distressing rheumaiic gouts iixing the end of his labour against his v/ill." His book was approved by the Pope, and he turned it first from latin into French and then again into English, " that eveiy man of my nation may understand it." Sir John wrote his book chielly for the convenience of pilgrims go- ing to the Holy Land, to which it is a sort of traveller's guide with full descriptions of all the holy places. Like Marco Polo, he tells both of what he saw and of what others told him that they had seen. Some of his tales reached him, no doubt, as the elder Disraeli suggests, from the Ara- bian story-teller. While absent, he served under the Sul- tan of Babylon (Cairo) and the Khan of Cathay. The for- mer oflered the valiant knight his daughter and a province of his domain, but Mandeville would not accept the condi- tions, one of which was that he should forswear his faith. His good service won him, however, what he much prized, admittance to the holy places at Jerusalem. It is a strange and wonderful world to which he introduc(>d his readers, and his book soon became the rage all over Europe. Talking trees and ladies transformed to dragonesses and p(>ople with only one leg whose locomotion was as that of u hooj) are only a few of the marvellous phenomena which he relates Wh(>n Galland published his Conies Arabcs in the begin- ning of the last century, the source of many of the mira- hilia of medieval travellers was discovered, for it is now known that th(^ Thousand and one Nii^hts, were in existence (in a form which has, however, been consid(>rably modiiied) as early ai the 10th century. As to his nnd travels, it has — 80 — been observed tlitit Sir John Mandevillc's narrative (espe- cially touching the far East) resembles that of Odoric, al- ready mentioned, to such a dogreo that soinc think they must have travelled together. It is also noteworthy that Odo- ric's book was written some twenty years before Sir John's and some critics have been cruel enough to ask whether he saw more of India or Cathay than what he found in the pages of the Lombard Friar. Yet, not withstanding all the sus- picion of which he has been the olyect, impartial exami- tion has redounded to the great traveller's credit and plac- ed him before the world as a man of true w^orth, honest and clear-sighted, and only ••redulous after the I'ashion of his times. Between the days when Sir John ^landeville was the standard author of travels to all that could read or listen in "Western civilization and the present, when we, who live in a world of which he did not dream, hear daily what is happening in a farther East than tliat to which he ventur- ed, there is a suggestive contra.st. To till up the intm-val, to recount the i")rogress of exploration and discovery from then till now, to cross the Atlantic with Columbus and his successors, to accompany Vasco de (iama around the ('ai)e of Storms, to sail with Jacques-Cartier up the St. Lawrence, to follow on the track of La Salle and Iberville, to go with Frobisher and Hudson, and Franklin and Kane to tlio frozen North, with Tasman, Van Dieman and Cook to seek a nev/ w^orld in southern seas, to dare witli lioss and Wilkes antarctic dangers, to penetrate with Speke and Burton, with Baker and Livingstom', to the heart of Africa, — that is a task which we cannot now attempt. To even mention the noble multitude of great names which mark the steps in that i)rogress would be a i/ia^-mtm opus. Even if we were to conline ourselves to a single province of ex- ploring enterprise, such as that which has illustrated our own continent, or even our own Dominion, theri' would ~ 31 — be ample malA'rial, in the merest sketch, for a lecture of no moderate length. And yet the work of exploration is, after all, but well begun. The world has slowly unfolded its dimensions and various qualities to many generations of seekers. But, though we know its extent and can parcel it out by names, how much of it is still iinconquered by civilization, of how much of it are the characteristics only matter for conjecture, ind never in the whole range of geographic develoitmont were so many engaged in " Voyage and travaile," as ISir John Mandeville named it, than in this, our age, when lands and nations far apart in space have been drawn so close by the railway and the tele- graph, and a better feeling of man's relations to man. The modern explorer has advantages and manifold appliances to further his aims, which his predecessor in the middle ac-es had to do without ; and it is when w^e think of the difficulties and retarding drawbacks and dangers which those old heroes, among them that travel by knd and water, had to encounter — dilHculties and drawbacks so great that we still pray weekly for those who have to con- tend with them — it is then that we are conscioiis of the great debt of gratitude which we owe to them, without whose valiant dutifulness we should not be either what or where we are.* * The iiDiiortiiul discoveries of Covilhiim niid 1>. Diaz would iiave been iiu'luded in my slvcteli, only that the careers of both those brave explorers, though befjjinninfr before, ended scveriU year:" after, the date (1402) on whicii I had fixed as mv limit. — J. K.