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diff --git a/23107.txt b/23107.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0358448 --- /dev/null +++ b/23107.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16786 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Book of Discovery, by Margaret Bertha (M. B.) Synge + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Book of Discovery + The History of the World's Exploration, From the Earliest + Times to the Finding of the South Pole + +Author: Margaret Bertha (M. B.) Synge + +Release Date: October 20, 2007 [EBook #23107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF DISCOVERY *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Swanson + + + + +[Frontispiece: PTOLEMY'S MAP OF THE WORLD, ORIGINALLY DRAWN ABOUT A.D. +150. From the first printed edition of 1472 (the first book to have +printed maps) and the famous Rome edition of 1508. It is only necessary +to compare this map with the mythical geography represented in a +mediaeval map such as the Hereford map of the world, made _eleven +centuries_ later to recognise the extraordinary accuracy and +scientific value of Ptolemy's geography.] + + + + +A BOOK OF DISCOVERY +THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S EXPLORATION, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO +THE FINDING OF THE SOUTH POLE + + +By M. B. SYNGE, F.R.Hist.S. +AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF THE WORLD" +"A SHORT HISTORY OF SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND" ETC. + + +_FULLY ILLUSTRATED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES AND WITH MAPS_ + + +[Illustration: THE _GOLDEN HIND_ (_From the Chart of "Drake's +Voyages"_)] + + +LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, LTD. +35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C., & EDINBURGH + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +"Hope went before them, and the world was wide." + + +Such was the spirit in which the exploration of the world was +accomplished. It was the inspiration that carried men of old far beyond +the sunrise into those magic and silent seas whereon no boat had ever +sailed. It is the incentive of those to-day with the wander-thirst +in their souls, who travel and suffer in the travelling, though there +are fewer prizes left to win. But + + "The reward is in the doing, + And the rapture of pursuing + Is the prize." + +"To travel hopefully," says Stevenson, "is a better thing than to +arrive." This would explain the fact that this Book of Discovery has +become a record of splendid endurance, of hardships bravely borne, +of silent toil, of courage and resolution unequalled in the annals +of mankind, of self-sacrifice unrivalled and faithful lives laid +ungrudgingly down. Of the many who went forth, the few only attained. +It is of these few that this book tells. + +"All these," says the poet in Ecclesiastes--"all these were honoured +in their generation, and were the glory of their times ... their name +liveth for evermore." + +But while we read of those master-spirits who succeeded, let us never +forget those who failed to achieve. + + "Anybody might have found it, but the Whisper came to Me." + +Enthusiasm too was the secret of their success. Among the best of crews +there was always some one who would have turned back, but the world +would never have been explored had it not been for those finer spirits +who resolutely went on--even to the death. + +This is what carried Alexander the Great to the "earth's utmost verge," +that drew Columbus across the trackless Atlantic, that nerved Vasco +da Gama to double the Stormy Cape, that induced Magellan to face the +dreaded straits now called by his name, that made it possible for men +to face without flinching the ice-bound regions of the far North. + +"There is no land uninhabitable, nor sea unnavigable," asserted the +men of the sixteenth century, when England set herself to take +possession of her heritage in the North. Such an heroic temper could +overcome all things. But the cost was great, the sufferings intense. + +"Having eaten our shoes and saddles boiled with a few wild herbs, we +set out to reach the kingdom of gold," says Orellana in 1540. + +"We ate biscuit, but in truth it was biscuit no longer, but a powder +full of worms,--so great was the want of food, that we were forced +to eat the hides with which the mainyard was covered; but we had also +to make use of sawdust for food, and rats became a great delicacy," +related Magellan, as he led his little ship across the unknown Pacific. + +Again, there is Franklin returning from the Arctic coast, and stilling +the pangs of hunger with "pieces of singed hide mixed with lichen," +varied with "the horns and bones of a dead deer fried with some old +shoes." + +The dangers of the way were manifold. + +For the early explorers had no land map or ocean chart to guide them, +there were no lighthouses to warn the strange mariner of dangerous +coast and angry surf, no books of travel to relate the weird doings +of fierce and inhospitable savages, no tinned foods to prevent the +terrible scourge of sailors, scurvy. In their little wooden sailing +ships the men of old faced every conceivable danger, and surmounted +obstacles unknown to modern civilisation. + + "Now strike your Sails ye jolly Mariners, + For we be come into a quiet Rode." + +For the most part we are struck with the light-heartedness of the olden +sailor, the shout of gladness with which men went forth on these +hazardous undertakings, knowing not how they would arrive, or what +might befall them by the way, went forth in the smallest of wooden +ships, with the most incompetent of crews, to face the dangers of +unknown seas and unsuspected lands, to chance the angry storm and the +hidden rock, to discover inhospitable shores and savage foes. Founded +on bitter experience is the old saying-- + + "A Passage Perilous makyth a Port Pleasant." + +For the early navigators knew little of the art of navigation. + +Pytheas, who discovered the British Isles, was "a great +mathematician." Diego Cam, who sailed to the mouth of the Congo, was +"a knight of the King's household." Sir Hugh Willoughby, "a most +valiant gentleman." Richard Chancellor, "a man of great estimation +for many good parts of wit in him." Anthony Jenkinson, a "resolute +and intelligent gentleman." Sir Walter Raleigh, an Elizabethan +courtier, and so forth. + +It has been obviously impossible to include all the famous names that +belong to the history of exploration. Most of these explorers have +been chosen for some definite new discovery, some addition to the +world's geographical knowledge, or some great feat of endurance which +may serve to brace us to fresh effort as a nation famous for our seamen. +English navigators have been afforded the lion's share in the book, +partly because they took the lion's share in exploring, partly because +translations of foreign travel are difficult to transcribe. Most of +these stories have been taken from original sources, and most of the +explorers have been allowed to tell part of their own story in their +own words. + +Perhaps the most graphic of all explorations is that written by a native +of West Australia, who accompanied an exploring party searching for +an English lad named Smith, who had been starved to death. + +"Away, away, away, away; we reach the water of Djunjup; we shoot game. +Away, away, away through a forest away, through a forest away; we see +no water. Through a forest away, along our tracks away; hills ascending, +then pleasantly away, away, through a forest away. We see a +water--along the river away--a short distance we go, then away, away, +away through a forest away. Then along another river away, across the +river away. Still we go onwards, along the sea away, through the bush +away, then along the sea away. We sleep near the sea. I see Mr. Smith's +footsteps ascending a sandhill; onwards I go regarding his footsteps. +I see Mr. Smith dead. Two sleeps had he been dead; greatly did I weep, +and much I grieved. In his blanket folding him, we scraped away the +earth. The sun had inclined to the westward as we laid him in the +ground." + +The book is illustrated with reproductions from old maps--old +primitive maps, with a real Adam and Eve standing in the Garden of +Eden, with Pillars of Hercules guarding the Straits of Gibraltar, with +Paradise in the east, a realistic Jerusalem in the centre, the island +of Thule in the north, and St. Brandon's Isles of the Blest in the +west. + +Beautifully coloured were the maps of the Middle Ages, "joyous charts +all glorious with gold and vermilion, compasses and crests and flying +banners, with mountains of red and gold." The seas are full of +ships--"brave beflagged vessels with swelling sails." The land is +ablaze with kings and potentates on golden thrones under canopies of +angels. While over all presides the Madonna in her golden chair. + +The Hereford Mappa Mundi, drawn in the thirteenth century on a fine +sheet of vellum, circular in form, is among the most interesting of +the mediaeval maps. It must once have been gorgeous, with its gold +letters and scarlet towns, its green seas and its blue rivers. The +Red Sea is still red, but the Mediterranean is chocolate brown, and +all the green has disappeared. The mounted figure in the lower +right-hand corner is probably the author, Richard de Haldingham. The +map is surmounted by a representation of the Last Judgment, below which +is Paradise as a circular island, with the four rivers and the figures +of Adam and Eve. In the centre is Jerusalem. The world is divided into +three--Asia, "Affrica," and Europe. Around this earth-island flows +the ocean. America is, of course, absent; the East is placed at Paradise +and the West at the Pillars of Hercules. North and South are left to +the imagination. + +And what of the famous map of Juan de la Cosa, once pilot to Columbus, +drawn in the fifteenth century, with St. Christopher carrying the +infant Christ across the water, supposed to be a portrait of +Christopher Columbus carrying the gospel to America? It is the first +map in which a dim outline appears of the New World. + +The early maps of "Apphrica" are filled with camels and unicorns, lions +and tigers, veiled figures and the turrets and spires of strange +buildings-- + + "Geographers in Afric maps + With savage pictures fill their gaps." + +"Surely," says a modern writer,--"surely the old cartographer was less +concerned to fill his gaps than to express the poetry of geography." + +And to-day, there are still gaps in the most modern maps of Africa, +where one-eleventh of the whole area remains unexplored. Further, in +Asia the problem of the Brahmaputra Falls is yet unsolved; there are +shores untrodden and rivers unsurveyed. + +"God hath given us some things, and not all things, that our successors +also might have somewhat to do," wrote Barents in the sixteenth century. +There may not be much left, but with the words of Kipling's _Explorer_ +we may fitly conclude-- + + "Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges-- + Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!" + +Thanks are due to Mr. S. G. Stubbs for valuable assistance in the +selection and preparation of the illustrations, which, with few +exceptions, have been executed under his directions. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + I. A LITTLE OLD WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + II. EARLY MARINERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 + III. IS THE WORLD FLAT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 + IV. HERODOTUS--THE TRAVELLER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 + V. ALEXANDER THE GREAT EXPLORES INDIA . . . . . . . . . . . 35 + VI. PYTHEAS FINDS THE BRITISH ISLES . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 + VII. JULIUS CAESAR AS EXPLORER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 + VIII. STRABO'S GEOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 + IX. THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND PLINY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 + X. PTOLEMY'S MAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 + XI. PILGRIM TRAVELLERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 + XII. IRISH EXPLORERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 + XIII. AFTER MOHAMMED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 + XIV. THE VIKINGS SAIL THE NORTHERN SEAS . . . . . . . . . . . 93 + XV. ARAB WAYFARERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 + XVI. TRAVELLERS TO THE EAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 + XVII. MARCO POLO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 + XVIII. THE END OF MEDIAEVAL EXPLORATION . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 + XIX. MEDIAEVAL MAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 + XX. PRINCE HENRY OF PORTUGAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 + XXI. BARTHOLOMEW DIAZ REACHES THE STORMY CAPE . . . . . . . . 150 + XXII. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 + XXIII. A GREAT NEW WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 + XXIV. VASCO DA GAMA REACHES INDIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 + XXV. DISCOVERY OF THE SPICE ISLANDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + XXVI. BALBOA SEES THE PACIFIC OCEAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 + XXVII. MAGELLAN SAILS ROUND THE WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 + XXVIII. CORTES EXPLORES AND CONQUERS MEXICO . . . . . . . . . . 205 + XXIX. EXPLORERS IN SOUTH AMERICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 + XXX. CABOT SAILS TO NEWFOUNDLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 + XXXI. JACQUES CARTIER EXPLORES CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 + XXXII. SEARCH FOR A NORTH-EAST PASSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 + XXXIII. MARTIN FROBISHER SEARCHES FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE . . . 245 + XXXIV. DRAKE'S FAMOUS VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD . . . . . . . . . 249 + XXXV. DAVIS STRAIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 + XXXVI. BARENTS SAILS TO SPITZBERGEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 + XXXVII. HUDSON FINDS HIS BAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 +XXXVIII. BAFFIN FINDS HIS BAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 + XXXIX. SIR WALTER RALEIGH SEARCHES FOR EL DORADO . . . . . . . 285 + XL. CHAMPLAIN DISCOVERS LAKE ONTARIO . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 + XLI. EARLY DISCOVERERS OF AUSTRALIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 + XLII. TASMAN FINDS TASMANIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 + XLIII. DAMPIER DISCOVERS HIS STRAIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 + XLIV. BEHRING FINDS HIS STRAIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 + XLV. COOK DISCOVERS NEW ZEALAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 + XLVI. COOK'S THIRD VOYAGE AND DEATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 + XLVII. BRUCE'S TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 + XLVIII. MUNGO PARK AND THE NIGER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 + XLIX. VANCOUVER DISCOVERS HIS ISLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 + L. MACKENZIE AND HIS RIVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362 + LI. PARRY DISCOVERS LANCASTER SOUND . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 + LII. THE FROZEN NORTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 + LIII. FRANKLIN'S LAND JOURNEY TO THE NORTH . . . . . . . . . . 382 + LIV. PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 + LV. THE SEARCH FOR TIMBUKTU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 + LVI. RICHARD AND JOHN LANDER DISCOVER THE MOUTH OF THE NIGER 399 + LVII. ROSS DISCOVERS THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE . . . . . . . . . 403 + LVIII. FLINDERS NAMES AUSTRALIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410 + LIX. STURT'S DISCOVERIES IN AUSTRALIA . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 + LX. ROSS MAKES DISCOVERIES IN THE ANTARCTIC SEAS . . . . . . 428 + LXI. FRANKLIN DISCOVERS THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE . . . . . . . 432 + LXII. DAVID LIVINGSTONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440 + LXIII. BURTON AND SPEKE IN CENTRAL AFRICA . . . . . . . . . . . 450 + LXIV. LIVINGSTONE TRACES LAKE SHIRWA AND NYASSA . . . . . . . 456 + LXV. EXPEDITION TO VICTORIA NYANZA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460 + LXVI. BAKER FINDS ALBERT NYANZA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467 + LXVII. LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474 + LXVIII. THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486 + LXIX. NORDENSKIOLD ACCOMPLISHES THE NORTH-EAST PASSAGE . . . . 501 + LXX. THE EXPLORATION OF TIBET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511 + LXXI. NANSEN REACHES FARTHEST NORTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521 + LXXII. PEARY REACHES THE NORTH POLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530 + LXXIII. THE QUEST FOR THE SOUTH POLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536 + + DATES OF CHIEF EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545 + INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549 + + + + +COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Ptolemy's Map of the World about A.D. 150 . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + Taken from the first printed edition of 1472 and the Rome + edition of 1508. + + FACING PAGE +The Polos leaving Venice for their Travels to the Far East . . . 118 + From a Miniature at the head of a late 14th century MS. of the + _Travels of Marco Polo_, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. + +The Hereford Mappa Mundi of 1280 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 + The original, made by RICHARD DE HALDINGHAM, Prebendary of + Hereford, hangs in the Chapter House Library, Hereford + Cathedral. + +Map of the World drawn in 1500, the first to show America . . . . 168 + By JUAN DE LA COSA. + +The Dauphin Map of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 + Made by PIERRE DESCELLIERS 1546, by order of Francis I. for + the Dauphin (Henri II.) of France. + +Barents's Ship among the Arctic Ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 + From a coloured woodcut in Barents's _Three Voyages_ + (De Veer), published in 1598. + +Ross's Winter Quarters in Felix Harbour . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404 + +The First Communication With Eskimos at Boothia Felix, 1830 . . . 404 + From Drawings by ROSS in the _Narrative of his Expedition to + the North Magnetic Pole, A Second Voyage in Search of a + North-West Passage_, 1829-33. + +Shackleton's Ship, the _Nimrod_, among the Ice in McMurdo Sound . 538 + From _The Heart of the Antarctic_ (published by Heinemann), by + kind permission of Sir ERNEST SHACKLETON. + + + + +BLACK & WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS + + + FACING PAGE +The Unrolling of the Clouds: the World as known at the time of + Homer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 + +The Unrolling of the Clouds: the World as known at the time of + Ptolemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 + +The Unrolling of the Clouds: the World as known at the end of + the 13th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 + +The Best Portrait of Columbus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 + From the original Painting by an unknown artist in the Naval + Museum, Madrid. + +The Unrolling of the Clouds: the World as known at the time of + Columbus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 + +Amerigo Vespucci . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 + From the Sculpture by GRAZZINI at the Uffizi Gallery, + Florence. + +Ferdinand Magellan, the first Circumnavigator . . . . . . . . . . 198 + From the Engraving by FERDINAND SELMA. + +Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to sail round the World . 252 + After the Engraving attributed to HONDIUS. + +The Unrolling of the Clouds: the World as known at the time of + Drake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 + +Karakakova Bay, where Captain Cook was murdered . . . . . . . . . 334 + From the Engraving in the Atlas to COOK'S _Voyages_. + +The Unrolling of the Clouds: the World as known at the time of + Cook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336 + +Mungo Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350 + From the Engraving in PARK'S _Travels into the Interior of + Africa_, 1799. + +Search for a North-West Passage: Parry's Ships cutting through + the Ice into Winter Harbour, 1819 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370 + From a Drawing by WILLIAM WESTALL, A.R.A., of a Sketch by + Lieut. BEECHEY, a member of the expedition. From PARRY'S + _Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of the North-West + Passage_. + +Lhasa and the Potala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520 + From a Photograph by a member of Younghusband's Expedition to + Thibet. + +At the North Pole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534 + From the Photograph in Admiral PEARY'S book _The North Pole_. + +Captain Roald Amundsen taking Sights at the South Pole . . . . . 544 + From a Photograph. + +Acknowledgment is due to the courtesy of Mr. John Murray and the +_Illustrated London News_ for the photograph taken at the South Pole, +facing page 544; to Admiral Peary for that taken at the North Pole, +facing page 534; and to Sir Ernest Shackleton and Mr. Heinemann for +the colour-plate of the _Nimrod_. Permissions have also been granted +by Mr. John Murray (for illustrations from Livingstone's books and +Admiral McClintock's _Voyage of the Fox_); by Messrs. Macmillan (for +the colour-plate of the Polos leaving Venice, from the Bodleian); and +by Messrs. Sampson, Low, Marston, & Co. (for illustrations from Sir +H. M. Stanley's books). + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT + + + PAGE +The Garden of Eden with its Four Rivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 + From the Hereford Map of the World. + +Babylonian Map of the World on Clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 + In the British Museum. + +The oldest known Ships: between 6000 and 5000 B.C. . . . . . . . 4 + From a pre-Egyptian Vase-painting. + +Egyptian Ship of the Expedition to Punt, about 1600 B.C. . . . . 7 + From a Rock-carving at Der el Bahari. + +The Ark on Ararat, and the Cities of Nineveh and Babylon . . . . 8 + From LEONARDO DATI'S Map of 1422. + +A Phoenician Ship, about 700 B.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 + From a Bas-relief at Nineveh. + +Map of the Voyage of the Argonauts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 + +The Pillars of Hercules, as shown in a Mediaeval Map . . . . . . 20 + HIGDEN'S Map of the World. 1360 A.D. + +The Pillars of Hercules, as shown in the Anglo-Saxon Map of the + World, 10th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 + +A Greek Galley, about 500 B.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 + From a Vase-painting. + +Jerusalem, the Centre of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 + From the Hereford Map of the World, 13th century. + +A Merchant-Ship of Athens, about 500 B.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 + From a Vase-painting. + +The Coast of Africa, after Ptolemy (Mercator's Edition), showing + Hanno's Voyage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 + +A Sketch Map of Alexander's Chief Exploratory Marches from Athens + to Hyderabad and Gaza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 + +Alexandria in Pizzigani's Map, 14th century . . . . . . . . . . . 44 + +North Britain and the Island of Thule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 + From MERCATOR'S edition of Ptolemy's Map. + +A Portion of an old Roman Map of the World, showing the roads + through the Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + From the Peutinger Table. + +The World-Island according to Strabo, 18 A.D. . . . . . . . . . . 65 + +Hull of a Roman Merchant-Ship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 + From a Roman model at Greenwich. + +A Roman Galley, about 110 A.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 + From Trajan's Column at Rome. + +The First Stages of a Mediaeval Pilgrimage, London to Dover . . . 78 + From MATTHEW OF PARIS'S _Itinerary_, 13th century. + +Jerusalem and the East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 + From MATTHEW OF PARIS'S _Itinerary_, 13th century. + +Ireland and St. Brandon's Isle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 + From the Catalan Map, 1375. + +The Mysterious Isle of St. Brandon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 + From MARTIN BEHAIM'S Map, 1492. + +The World-Map of Cosmas, 6th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + The oldest Christian Map. + +The Mountain of Cosmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 + +A Viking Ship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 + From Professor MONTELIUS'S book on Scandinavian archaeology. + +A Khalif on his Throne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 + From the Ancona Map, 1497. + +A Chinese Emperor giving Audience, 9th century . . . . . . . . . 100 + From an old Chinese MS. at Paris. + +The Scene of Sindbad's Voyages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 + From EDRISI'S Map, 1154. + +Sindbad's Giant Roc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 + From an Oriental Miniature Painting. + +Jerusalem and the Pilgrims' Ways to it, 12th century . . . . . . 109 + From a Map of the 12th century at Brussels. + +Two Emperors of Tartary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 + From the Catalan Map, 1375. + +A Tartar Camp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 + From the Borgian Map, 1453. + +Initial Letter from the MS. of Rubruquis at Cambridge . . . . . . 113 + +How the Brothers Polo set out from Constantinople with their + nephew Marco for China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 + From a Miniature Painting in 14th century _Livre des + Merveilles_. + +Marco Polo lands at Ormuz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 + From a Miniature in the _Livre des Merveilles_. + +Kublai Khan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 + From an old Chinese Encyclopaedia at Paris. + +Marco Polo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 + From a Woodcut in the first printed edition of MARCO POLO'S + _Travels_, 1477. + +A Japanese Fight against the Chinese at the time when Marco Polo + first saw the Japanese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 + From an ancient Japanese Painting. + +Sir John Mandeville on his Travels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 + From a MS. in the British Museum. + +An Emperor of Tartary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 + From the Map ascribed to SEBASTIAN CABOT, 1544. + +A Caravan in Cathay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 + From the Catalan Map, 1375. + +The Turin Map of the World, 8th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 + +A T-map, 10th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 + +A T-map, 13th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 + +The Kaiser holding the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 + From a 12th-century MS. + +The "Anglo-Saxon" Map of the World, drawn about 990 A.D. . . . . 137 + From the Cotton MSS. in the British Museum. + +Africa--from Ceuta to Madeira . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 + From FRA MAURO'S Map, 1457. + +The Voyage to Cape Blanco from Cape Bojador . . . . . . . . . . . 142 + From FRA MAURO'S Map, 1457. + +A Portion of Africa illustrating Cadamosto's Voyage beyond Cape + Blanco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 + From FRA MAURO'S Map, 1457. + +Sketch of Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 + From FRA MAURO'S Map of the World, 1457. + +Negro Boys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 + From CABOT'S Map, 1544. + +The West Coast of Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 + From MARTIN BEHAIM'S Map, 1492. + +The Parting of Columbus with Ferdinand and Isabella, 3rd August + 1492 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 + From DE BRY'S account of the _Voyages to India_, 1601. + +Columbus's Ship, the _Santa Maria_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 + From a Woodcut of 1493, supposed to be after a Drawing by + COLUMBUS. + +Columbus landing on Hispaniola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 + From a Woodcut of 1494. + +The first Representation of the People of the New World . . . . . 163 + From a Woodcut published at Augsburg between 1497 and 1504. + +The Town of Isabella and the Colony founded by Columbus . . . . . 166 + From a Woodcut of 1494. + +Vasco da Gama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 + From a contemporary Portrait. + +Africa as it was known after da Gama's Expeditions . . . . . . . 175 + From JUAN DE LA COSA'S Map of 1500. + +Calicut and the Southern Indian Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 + From JUAN DE LA COSA'S Map, 1500. + +The Malabar Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 + From FRA MAURO'S Map. + +A Ship of Albuquerque's Fleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 + From a very fine Woodcut in the British Museum. + +A Ship of Java and the China Seas in the 16th century . . . . . . 187 + From LINSCHOTEN'S _Navigatio ac Itinerarium_, 1598. + +One of the first Maps of the Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 + From DIEGO RIBERO'S Map, 1529. + +Magellan's Fleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 + From MERCATOR'S _Mappe Monde_, 1569. + +A Ship of the 16th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 + From AMORETTI'S translation of _Magellan's Voyage round the + World_. + +"Hondius his Map of the Magellan Streight" . . . . . . . . . . . 201 + From a Map by JODOCUS HONDIUS, about 1590. + +The first Ship that sailed round the World . . . . . . . . . . . 203 + Magellan's _Victoria_, from HULSIUS'S _Collection of Voyages_, + 1602. + +Hernando Cortes, Conqueror of Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 + After the original Portrait at Mexico. + +The Battles of the Spaniards in Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 + From an ancient Aztec Drawing. + +Pizarro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 + From the Portrait at Cuzco. + +Peru and South America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 + From the Map of the World, 1544, usually ascribed to SEBASTIAN + CABOT. + +Peruvian Warriors of the Inca Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 + From an ancient Peruvian Painting. + +Part of North America, showing Sebastian Cabot's Voyage to + Newfoundland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 + From the Map of 1544, usually ascribed to CABOT. + +Jacques Cartier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 + From an old Pen-drawing at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. + +Canada and the River St. Lawrence, showing Quebec . . . . . . . . 231 + From LESCARBOT'S _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, 1609. + +New France, showing Newfoundland, Labrador, and the St. Lawrence 233 + From JOCOMO DI GASTALDI'S Map, about 1550. + +Ivan Vasiliwich, King of Muscovie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 + From an old Woodcut. + +Anthony Jenkinson's Map of Russia, Muscovy, and Tartary . . . . 242-3 + Published in 1562. + +Greenlanders as seen by Martin Frobisher . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 + From Captain BESTE'S Account of Frobisher's _Voyages_, 1578. + +Sir Francis Drake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 + From HOLLAND'S _Heroologia_, 1620. + +The Silver Map of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 + From Medallion in British Museum. + +The Silver Map of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 + From Medallion in British Museum. + +The _Golden Hind_ at New Albion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 + From the Chart of Drake's _Voyages_. + +The _Golden Hind_ at Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 + From the Chart of Drake's _Voyages_. + +An Eskimo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 + From a Water-colour Drawing by JOHN WHITE, about 1585. + +A Ship of the late 16th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 + From Ortelius, 1598. + +Nova Zembla and the Arctic Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 + From a Map in DE BRY'S _Grands Voyages_, 1598. + +Barents in the Arctic--"Hut wherein we wintered" . . . . . . . . 269 + From DE VEER'S Account of the _Voyages of Barents_, 1598. + +Hudson's Map of his Voyages in the Arctic . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 + From his Book published in 1612. + +A Ship of Hudson's Fleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 + From his _Voyages_, 1612. + +Baffin's Map of his Voyages to the North . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 + From original MS., drawn by BAFFIN, in the British Museum. + +Sir Walter Raleigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 + +Raleigh's Map of Guinea, El Dorado, and the Orinoco Coast . . . . 289 + From the original Map, drawn by RALEIGH, in British Museum. + +The first Settlement at Quebec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 + From CHAMPLAIN'S _Voyages_, 1613. + +The Defeat of the Iroquois by Champlain . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 + From a Drawing in CHAMPLAIN'S _Voyages_, 1613. + +An early Map of "Terra Australis" called "Java la Grande" . . . . 297 + From the "Dauphin" Map of 1546. + +The Wreck of Captain Pelsart's Ship, the _Batavia_, on the Coast + of New Holland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 + From the Dutch account of PELSART'S _Voyages_, 1647. + +Van Diemen's Land and two of Tasman's Ships . . . . . . . . . . . 304 + From the Map drawn by TASMAN in his "Journal." + +Dampier's Ship, the _Cygnet_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 + From a Drawing in the Dutch edition of his _Voyage Round the + World_, 1698. + +Dampier's Strait and the Island of New Britain . . . . . . . . . 311 + From a Map in DAMPIER'S _Voyages_, 1697. + +Chart of Behring's Voyage from Kamtchatka to North America . . . 317 + From a Chart drawn in 1741 by Lieut. WAXELL. + +The Island of Otaheite, or St. George . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 + From a Painting by WILLIAM HODGES. + +A Maori Fort on the Coast between Poverty Bay and Cape Turnagain 323 + From an Engraving in the Atlas to COOK'S first _Voyage_. + +Captain Cook's Vessel beached at the Entrance of Endeavour River 327 + From an Engraving in the Atlas to COOK'S first _Voyage_. + +Captain James Cook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 + From the Painting by DANCE in the Gallery of Greenwich + Hospital. + +Port Jackson and Sydney Cove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 + From the Atlas to the _Voyage de l'Astrolabe_. + +A Nile Boat, or Canja . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 + From BRUCE'S _Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile_. + +An Arab Sheikh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 + From BRUCE'S _Travels_. + +The Camp of Ali, the Mohammedan Chief, at Benown . . . . . . . . 353 + From a Sketch by MUNGO PARK. + +Kamalia, a Native Village near the Southern Course of the Niger . 355 + From a Sketch by MUNGO PARK. + +A Native Woman washing Gold in Senegal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356 + From a Sketch by MUNGO PARK, made on his last expedition. + +Vancouver's Ship, the _Discovery_, on the Rocks in Queen + Charlotte's Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360 + From a Drawing in VANCOUVER'S _Voyage_, 1798. + +Parry's Ships, the _Hecla_ and _Griper_, in Winter Harbour . . . 369 + From a Drawing in PARRY'S _Voyage for the North-West Passage_, + 1821. + +The North Shore of Lancaster Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 + From a Drawing in PARRY'S _Voyage for the North-West Passage_, + 1821. + +A Winter View of Fort Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375 + From a Drawing, by WILLIAM BACK, in Franklin's _Journey to the + Polar Sea_, 1823. + +Franklin's Expedition to the Polar Sea on the Ice . . . . . . . . 377 + From a Drawing, by WILLIAM BACK, in Franklin's _Journey to the + Polar Sea_, 1823. + +An Eskimo watching a Seal Hole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 + From a Drawing in PARRY'S _Second Voyage for a North-West + Passage_, 1824. + +Fort Franklin, on the Great Bear Lake, in the Winter . . . . . . 383 + From a Drawing in FRANKLIN'S _Second Expedition to the Polar + Sea_, 1828. + +Franklin's Expedition crossing Back's Inlet . . . . . . . . . . . 385 + From a Drawing, by Lieut. BACK, in Franklin's _Second + Expedition to the Polar Sea_, 1828. + +The Boats of Parry's Expedition hauled up on the Ice for the + Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389 + From a Drawing in PARRY'S _Attempt to Reach the North Pole_, + 1828. + +Major Denham and his Party received by the Sheikh of Bornu . . . 393 + From a Drawing by Major DENHAM. + +The first European Picture of Timbuktu . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 + From a Drawing in CAILLE'S _Tomboctou_, 1829. + +Richard and John Lander paddling down the Niger . . . . . . . . . 401 + From a Drawing in the account of LANDER'S _Travels_, 1835. + +The Rosses on their Journey to the North Magnetic Pole . . . . . 407 + From a Drawing in ROSS'S _Second Voyage for a North-West + Passage_, 1835. + +"Somerset House," Ross's Winter Quarters on Fury Beach . . . . . 409 + From a Drawing in ROSS'S _Second Voyage for a North-West + Passage_, 1835. + +Matthew Flinders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411 + +Cape Catastrophe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415 + From FLINDERS' _Voyages_. + +The Huts of the Crew of the _Porpoise_ on the Sandbank, Wreck + Reef . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418 + From FLINDERS' _Voyages_. + +Captain Sturt at the Junction of the Rivers Darling and Murray . 423 + From the _Narrative of Sturt's Expedition_. + +The Burke and Wills Expedition leaving Melbourne, 1860 . . . . . 425 + From a Drawing by WILLIAM STRUTT, an acquaintance of Burke. + +Burke and Wills at Cooper's Creek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426 + From a Woodcut in a contemporary Australian account of the + expedition. + +Part of the Great Southern Ice Barrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 + From ROSS'S _Voyage in the Antarctic Regions_. + +Eskimos at Cape York watching the approach of the _Fox_ . . . . . 434 + From McCLINTOCK'S _Voyage in Search of Franklin_. + +The Three Graves on Beechey Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 + From McCLINTOCK'S _Voyage in Search of Franklin_. + +Exploring Parties starting from the _Fox_ . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 + From McCLINTOCK'S _Voyage in Search of Franklin_. + +Livingstone, with his Wife and Family, at the Discovery of Lake + Ngami . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441 + From LIVINGSTONE'S _Missionary Travels_. + +The "Smoke" of the Zambesi (Victoria) Falls . . . . . . . . . . . 447 + After a Drawing in LIVINGSTONE'S _Missionary Travels_. + +Burton in a Dug-out on Lake Tanganyika . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 + After a Drawing by BURTON. + +Burton and his Companions on the march to Victoria Nyanza . . . . 453 + From a Humorous Sketch by BURTON. + +The _Ma-Robert_ on the Zambesi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457 + After a Drawing in LIVINGSTONE'S _Expedition to the Zambesi_. + +M'tesa, King of Uganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462 + From SPEKE'S _Journey to Discover the Source of the Nile_. + +The Ripon Falls on the Victoria Nyanza . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 + From SPEKE'S _Journey to Discover the Source of the Nile_. + +Captains Speke and Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465 + +Baker and his Wife crossing the Nubian Desert . . . . . . . . . . 469 + From BAKER'S _Travels_. + +Baker's Boat in a Storm on Lake Albert Nyanza . . . . . . . . . . 471 + From BAKER'S _Albert Nyanza_. + +The Discovery of Lake Bangweolo, 1868 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 + From LIVINGSTONE'S _Last Journals_, by permission of Mr. John + Murray. + +Livingstone at Work on his Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481 + From a Sketch by H. M. STANLEY. + +Livingstone entering the Hut at Ilala on the Night that he Died . 483 + From LIVINGSTONE'S _Last Journals_, by permission of Mr. John + Murray. + +The last Entries in Livingstone's Diary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484 + +Susi, Livingstone's Servant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 + From a Sketch by H. M. STANLEY. + +Stanley and his Men marching through Unyoro . . . . . . . . . . . 489 + From a Sketch, by STANLEY, in _Through the Dark Continent_. + +"Towards the Unknown": Stanley's Canoes starting from Vinya + Njara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495 + From _Through the Dark Continent_. + +The Seventh Cataract--Stanley Falls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496 + From _Through the Dark Continent_. + +The Fight below the Confluence of the Aruwimi and Livingstone + Rivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 + From a Sketch, by STANLEY, in _Through the Dark Continent_. + +Nordenskiold's Ship, the _Vega_, saluting Cape Chelyuskin . . . . 505 + From a Drawing in HOVGAARD'S _Nordenskiold's Voyage_. + +Menka, Chief of the Chukches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507 + +The _Vega_ frozen in for the Winter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509 + From a Drawing in HOVGAARD'S _Nordenskiold's Voyage_. + +The Potala at Lhasa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513 + From KIRCHER'S _China Illustrata_. + +Dr. Nansen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525 + After a Photograph. + +The Ship that went Farthest North: the _Fram_ . . . . . . . . . . 527 + From a Photograph. + + + + +A BOOK OF DISCOVERY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A LITTLE OLD WORLD + + +No story is complete unless it begins at the very beginning. But where +is the beginning? Where is the dawn of geography--the knowledge of +our earth? What was it like before the first explorers made their way +into distant lands? Every day that passes we are gaining fresh +knowledge of the dim and silent past. + +Every day men are patiently digging in the old heaps that were once +the sites of busy cities, and, as a result of their unwearying toil, +they are revealing to us the life-stories of those who dwelt therein; +they are disclosing secrets writ on weather-worn stones and tablets, +bricks and cylinders, never before even guessed at. + +Thus we read the wondrous story of ancient days, and breathlessly +wonder what marvellous discovery will thrill us next. + +For the earliest account of the old world--a world made up apparently +of a little land and a little water--we turn to an old papyrus, the +oldest in existence, which tells us in familiar words, unsurpassed +for their exquisite poetry and wondrous simplicity, of that great +dateless time so full of mystery and awe. + +"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth +was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and +the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.... And God said, +Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide +the waters from the waters. And God ... divided the waters which were +under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.... +And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one +place, and let the dry land appear.... And God called the dry land +Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas." + +Thus beautifully did the children of men express their earliest idea +of the world's distribution of land and water. + +And where, on our modern maps, was this little earth, and what was +it like? Did trees and flowers cover the land? Did rivers flow into +the sea? Listen again to the old tradition that still rings down the +ages-- + +"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden ... and a river +went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, +and became four heads. The name of the first is Pison ... and the name +of the second river is Gihon; the name of the third river is Hiddekel +(Tigris). And the fourth river is Euphrates." + +[Illustration: THE GARDEN OF EDEN WITH ITS FOUR RIVERS. From the +Hereford Map of the World.] + +Now look at a modern map of Asia. Between Arabia and Persia there is +a long valley watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, rivers which rise +in Armenia and flow into the Persian Gulf. This region was the +traditional "cradle of the human race." Around and beyond was a great +world, a world with great surging seas, with lands of trees and flowers, +a world with continents and lakes and bays and capes, with islands +and mountains and rivers. + +There were vast deserts of sand rolling away to right and to left; +there were mountains up which no man had climbed; there were stormy +seas over which no ship had ever sailed. But these men of old had never +explored far. They believed that their world was just a very little +world with no other occupants than themselves. They believed it to +be flat, with mountains at either end on which rested a solid metal +dome known as the "firmament." + +In this shining circle were windows, in and out of which the sun would +creep by day and the moon and stars by night. And the whole of this +world was, they thought, balanced on the waters. There was water above, +the "waters that be above the firmament," and water below, and water +all round. + +[Illustration: BABYLONIAN MAP OF THE WORLD ON CLAY. Showing the ocean +surrounding the world and the position of Babylon on the Euphrates. +In the British Museum.] + +Long ages pass away. Let us look again at the green valley of the +Euphrates and Tigris. It has been called the "nursery of +nations"--names have been given to various regions round about, and +cities have arisen on the banks of the rivers. Babylonia, Mesopotamia, +Chaldea, Assyria--all these long names belonged to this region, and +around each centres some of the most interesting history and legend +in the world. + +Rafts on the river and caravans on the land carried merchandise far +and wide--men made their way to the "Sea of the Rising Sun," as they +called the Persian Gulf, and to the "Sea of the Setting Sun," as they +called the Mediterranean. They settled on the shores of the Caspian +Sea, on the shores of the Black Sea, on the shores of the Red Sea. +They carried on magnificent trade--cedar, pine, and cypress were +brought from Lebanon to Chaldea, limestone and marble from Syria, +copper and lead from the shores of the Black Sea. + +And these dwellers about Babylonia built up a wonderful civilisation. +They had temples and brick-built houses, libraries of tablets +revealing knowledge of astronomy and astrology; they had a literature +of their own. Suddenly from out the city of Ur (Kerbela), near the +ancient mouth of the Euphrates, appears a traveller. There had +doubtless been many before, but records are scanty and hard to piece +together, and a detailed account of a traveller with a name is very +interesting. + +"Abram went ... forth to go into the land of Canaan.... And Abram +journeyed, going on still toward the South. And there was a famine +in the land. And Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there." He would +have travelled by the chief caravan routes of Syria into Egypt. Here +about the fertile mouth of the Nile he would have found an ancient +civilisation as wonderful as that to which he was accustomed in +Babylonia. It was a grain-growing country, and when there was famine +in other lands, there was always "corn in Egypt"--thanks to the mighty +life-giving Nile. + +But we must not linger over the old civilisation, over the wonderful +Empire governed by the Pharaohs or kings, first from Memphis (Cairo) +and then from the hundred-gated Thebes; must not linger over these +old pyramid builders, the temple, sphinxes, and statues of ancient +Egypt. Before even Abram came into their country we find the Egyptians +famous for their shipping and navigation. Old pictures and tombs +recently discovered tell us this. + +[Illustration: THE OLDEST KNOWN SHIPS: BETWEEN 6000 AND 5000 B.C. From +a pre-Egyptian vase-painting.] + +On the coast of the Red Sea they built their long, narrow ships, which +were rowed by some twenty paddlers on either side, and steered by three +men standing in the stern. With one mast and a large sail they flew +before the wind. They had to go far afield for their wood; we find +an Egyptian being sent "to cut down four forests in the South in order +to build three large vessels ... out of acacia wood." + +Petrie tells us of an Egyptian sailor who was sent to Punt or Somaliland +"to fetch for Pharaoh sweet-smelling spices." He was shipwrecked on +the way, and this is the account of his adventures-- + +"'I was going,' he relates, 'to the mines of Pharaoh and I went down +on the sea on a ship with a hundred and fifty sailors of the best of +Egypt, whose hearts were stronger than lions. They had said that the +wind would be contrary, or that there would be none. But as we +approached the land the wind rose and threw up high waves. As for me, +I seized a piece of wood; but those who were in the vessel perished, +without one remaining. A wave threw me on an island; after that I had +been three days alone without a companion beside my own heart, I laid +me in a thicket, and the shadow covered me. I found figs and grapes, +all manner of good herbs, berries and grain, melons of all kinds, fishes +and birds. I lighted a fire and I made a burnt-offering unto the gods. +Suddenly I heard a noise as of thunder, which I thought to be that +of a wave of the sea. The trees shook and the earth was moved. I +uncovered my eyes and I saw that a serpent drew near; his body was +as if overlaid with gold, and his colour as that of true lazuli.' + +"'What has brought thee here, little one, to this isle, which is in +the sea and of which the shores are in the midst of the waves?' asked +the serpent. + +"The sailor told his story kneeling on his knees, with his face bowed +to the ground. + +"'Fear not, little one, and make not thy face sad,' continued the +serpent, 'for it is God who has brought thee to this isle of the blest, +where nothing is lacking and which is filled with all good things. +Thou shalt be four months in this isle. Then a ship shall come from +thy land with sailors, and thou shalt go to thy country. As for me, +I am a prince of the land of Punt. I am here with my brethren and children +around me; we are seventy-five serpents, children and kindred.' + +"Then the grateful sailor promised to bring all the treasures of Egypt +back to Punt, and 'I shall tell of thy presence unto Pharaoh; I shall +make him to know of thy greatness,' said the Egyptian stranger. + +"But the strange prince of Punt only smiled. + +"'Thou shalt never more see this isle,' he said; 'it shall be changed +into waves.'" + +Everything came to pass as the serpent said. The ship came, gifts were +lavished on the sailor from Egypt, perfumes of cassia, of sweet woods, +of cypress, incense, ivory tusks, baboons, and apes, and thus laden +he sailed home to his own people. + +[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SHIP OF THE EXPEDITION TO PUNT, ABOUT 1600 +B.C. From a rock-carving at Der el Bahari.] + +Long centuries after this we get another glimpse at the land of Punt. +This time it is in the reign of Queen Hatshepsu, who sent a great trading +expedition into this famous country. Five ships started from Thebes, +sailing down the river Nile and probably reaching the Red Sea by means +of a canal. Navigation in the Red Sea was difficult; the coast was +steep and inhospitable; no rivers ran into it. Only a few fishing +villages lay along the coasts used by Egyptian merchants as markets +for mother-of-pearl, emeralds, gold, and sweet-smelling perfumes. +Thence the ships continued their way, the whole voyage taking about +two months. Arrived at Punt, the Egyptian commander pitched his tents +upon the shore, to the great astonishment of the inhabitants. + +"Why have ye come hither unto this land, which the people of Egypt +know not?" asked the Chief of Punt. "Have ye come through the sky? +Did ye sail upon the waters or upon the sea?" + +Presents from the Queen of Egypt were at once laid before the Chief +of Punt, and soon the seashore was alive with people. The ships were +drawn up, gang-planks were very heavily laden with "marvels of the +country of Punt." There were heaps of myrrh, resin, of fresh myrrh +trees, ebony and pure ivory, cinnamon wood, incense, baboons, monkeys, +dogs, natives, and children. "Never was the like brought to any king +of Egypt since the world stands." And the ships voyaged safely back +to Thebes with all their booty and with pleasant recollections of the +people of Somaliland. + +[Illustration: THE ARK ON ARARAT AND THE CITIES OF NINEVEH AND BABYLON. +From Leonardo Dati's map of 1422.] + +In spite of these little expeditions the Egyptian world seemed still +very small. The Egyptians thought of the earth with its land and sea +as a long, oblong sort of box, the centre of which was Egypt. The sky +stretched over it like an iron ceiling, the part toward the earth being +sprinkled with lamps hung from strong cables lighted by night and +extinguished by day. Four forked trunks of trees upheld the sky roof. +But lest some storm should overthrow these tree trunks there were four +lofty peaks connected by chains of mountains. The southern peak was +known as the "Horn of the Earth," the eastern, the "Mountain of Birth," +the western, the "Region of Life," the northern was invisible. And +why? Because they thought the Great Sea, the "Very Green," the +Mediterranean, lay between it and Egypt. Beyond these mountain peaks, +supporting the world, rolled a great river, an ocean stream, and the +sun was as a ball of fire placed on a boat and carried round the ramparts +of the world by the all-encircling water. + +So we realise that the people living in Babylonia about the river +Euphrates, and those living in Egypt about the river Nile, had very +strange ideas about the little old world around them. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +EARLY MARINERS + + +The law of the universe is progress and expansion, and this little +old world was soon discovered to be larger than men thought. + +Now in Syria--the highway between Babylonia and Egypt--dwelt a tribe +of dusky people known as Phoenicians. Some have thought that they were +related to our old friends in Somaliland, and that long years ago they +had migrated north to the seacoast of that part of Syria known as +Canaan. + +Living on the seashore, washed by the tideless Mediterranean, they +soon became skilful sailors. They built ships and ventured forth on +the deep; they made their way to the islands of Cyprus and Crete and +thence to the islands of Greece, bringing back goods from other +countries to barter with their less daring neighbours. They reached +Greece itself and cruised along the northern coast of the Great Sea +to Italy, along the coast of Spain to the Rock of Gibraltar, and out +into the open Atlantic. + +How their little sailing boats lived through the storms of that great +ocean none may know, for Phoenician records are lost, but we have every +reason to believe that they reached the northern coast of France and +brought back tin from the islands known to them as the Tin Islands. +In their home markets were found all manner of strange things from +foreign unknown lands, discovered by these master mariners--the +admiration of the ancient world. + +[Illustration: A PHOENICIAN SHIP, ABOUT 700 B.C. From a bas-relief +at Nineveh.] + +"The ships of Tarshish," said the old poet, "did sing of thee in thy +market, and thou wast replenished and made very glorious in the midst +of the seas; thy rowers have brought thee into great waters; the east +wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas." + +All the world knew of the Phoenician seaports, Tyre and Sidon. They +were as famous as Memphis and Thebes on the Nile, as magnificent as +Nineveh on the Tigris and Babylon on the Euphrates. Men spoke of the +"renowned city of Tyre," whose merchants were as princes, whose +"traffickers" were among the honourable of the earth. "O thou that +art situate at the entry of the sea," cries the poet again, when the +greatness of Tyre was passing away, "which art a merchant of the people +from many isles.... Thy borders are in the midst of the seas; thy +builders have perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy ship-boards +of fir trees ... they have taken cedars of Lebanon to make masts for +thee. Of the oaks of Basan have they made thy oars.... Fine linen with +broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be +thy sail.... The inhabitants of Sidon ... were thy mariners; thy wise +men were thy pilots." + +As time goes on, early groups round the Euphrates and the Nile continue, +but new nations form and grow, new cities arise, new names appear. +Centuries of men live and die, ignorant of the great world that lies +about them--"Lords of the eastern world that knew no west." + +England was yet unknown, America undreamt of, Australia still a +desolate island in an unknown sea. The burning eastern sun shone down +on to vast stretches of desert-land uninhabited by man, great rivers +flowed through dreary swamps unrealised, tempestuous waves beat +against their shores, and melancholy winds swept over the face of +endless ocean solitudes. + +And still, according to their untutored minds, the world is flat, the +world is very small and it is surrounded by ever-flowing waters, beyond +which all is dark and mysterious. + +Around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, revealed by the boundless +energy and daring skill of the Phoenicians, there were colonies along +the coasts of Africa and Europe, though they were not yet called by +their names. They have discovered and explored, but they have kept +their information to themselves, and they have specially refused to +divulge their voyages to the Greeks. + +A story is told at a later date than this of a Phoenician shipmaster +who was bound for the Tin Islands, when he suddenly discovered that +he was being followed by a strange ship evidently bent on finding out +where these unknown islands lay. The Phoenician purposely ran his ship +on to a shoal in order to keep the secret of the discovery. When he +returned home his conduct was upheld by the State! + +But though the Phoenicians have left us no record of their travels +and voyages, they had been the carriers of knowledge, and it was from +them that the Greeks learnt of "the extreme regions of the world" and +of the dim "far west." Indeed, it is highly probable that from the +Phoenicians they got material for their famous legend of the Argonauts +and their adventures in the Black Sea. Though the story is but legendary, +and it has been added to with the growing knowledge of the world, yet +it gives an idea of the perils that beset the sailors of those remote +ages and of their limitations. + +And again we must remind ourselves that both the Phoenicians and early +Greeks had, like the Egyptians and Babylonians, childish ideas as to +the form of the earth. To them it was a circular plane, encircled by +the ocean, which they believed to be a broad, deep-running river +flowing round and round the world. Into this ocean stream ran all the +rivers and seas known to them. Over the earth was raised a solid +firmament of bronze in which the stars were set, and this was supported +on tall pillars "which kept the heaven and the earth asunder." + +The whole delightful story of the Argonauts can be read in Kingsley's +"Heroes." It is the story of brave men who sailed in the ship _Argo_, +named after the great shipbuilder Argos, to bring back the Golden +Fleece from Colchis in the Black Sea. + +Nowhere in all the history of exploration have we a more poetical +account of the launching of a ship for distant lands: "Then they have +stored her well with food and water, and pulled the ladder up on board, +and settled themselves each man to his oar and kept time to Orpheus' +harp; and away across the bay they rowed southward, while the people +lined the cliffs; and the women wept while the men shouted at the +starting of that gallant crew." They chose a captain, and the choice +fell on Jason, "because he was the wisest of them all"; and they rowed +on "over the long swell of the sea, past Olympus, past the wooded bays +of Athos and the sacred isle; and they came past Lemnos to the +Hellespont, and so on into the Propontis, which we call Marmora now." +So they came to the Bosphorus, the "land then as now of bitter blasts, +the land of cold and misery," and a great battle of the winds took +place. + +[Illustration: A MAP OF THE VOYAGE OF THE ARGONAUTS. Drawn according +to the principal classical traditions. The voyage through the ocean +which, according to the ancient idea, surrounded the world will be +especially noted.] + +Then the Argonauts came out into the open sea--the Black Sea. No Greek +had ever crossed it, and even the heroes, for all their courage, feared +"that dreadful sea and its rocks and shoals and fogs and bitter freezing +storms," and they trembled as they saw it "stretching out before them +without a shore, as far as the eye could see." + +Wearily they sailed on past the coast of Asia; they passed Sinope and +the cities of the Amazons, the warlike women of the east, until at +last they saw the "white snow peaks hanging glittering sharp and bright +above the clouds. And they knew that they were come to Caucasus at +the end of all the earth--Caucasus, the highest of all mountains, the +father of the rivers of the East. And they rowed three days to the +eastward, while the Caucasus rose higher hour by hour, till they saw +the dark stream of Phasis rushing headlong to the sea and, shining +above the treetops, the golden roofs of the Child of the Sun." + +How they reached home no man knows. Some say they sailed up the Danube +River and so came to the Adriatic, dragging their ship over the snowclad +Alps. Others say they sailed south to the Red Sea and dragged their +ship over the burning desert of North Africa. More than once they gave +themselves up for lost, "heartbroken with toil and hunger," until the +brave helmsman cried to them, "Raise up the mast and set the sail and +face what comes like men." + +After days and weeks on the "wide wild western sea" they sailed by +the coast of Spain and came to Sicily, the "three-cornered island," +and after numerous adventures they reached home once more. And they +limped ashore weary and worn, with long, ragged beards and sunburnt +cheeks and garments torn and weather-stained. No strength had they +left to haul the ship up the beach. They just crawled out and sat down +and wept, till they could weep no more. For the houses and trees were +all altered, and all the faces which they saw were strange; and their +joy was swallowed up in sorrow while they thought of their youth and +all their labour, and the gallant comrades they had lost. And the people +crowded round and asked them, "Who are you that sit weeping here?" + +"We are the sons of your princes, who sailed away many a year ago. +We went to fetch the Golden Fleece and we have brought it back." Then +there was shouting and laughing and weeping, and all the kings came +to the shore, and they led the heroes away to their homes and bewailed +the valiant dead. Old and charming as is the story of the Argonauts, +it is made up of travellers' tales, probably told to the Greeks by +the Phoenicians of their adventures on unknown seas. + +The wanderings of Ulysses by the old Greek poet Homer shows us that, +though they seldom ventured beyond the Mediterranean Sea, yet the +Greeks were dimly conscious of an outer world beyond the recognised +limits. They still dreamt that the earth was flat, and that the ocean +stream flowed for ever round and round it. There were no maps or charts +to guide the intrepid mariners who embarked on unknown waters. + +The siege of Troy, famous in legend, was over, and the heroes were +anxious to make their way home. Ulysses was one of the heroes, and +he sailed forth from Asia Minor into the AEgean Sea. But contrary winds +drove him as far south as Cape Malea. + +"Now the gatherer of the clouds," he says, in telling his story, +"aroused the North Wind against our ships with a terrible tempest, +and covered land and sea alike with clouds, and down sped night from +heaven. Thus the ships were driven headlong, and their sails were torn +to shreds by the might of the wind. So we lowered the sails into the +hold in fear of death, and rowed the ships landward apace." + +Throughout all ages Cape Malea has been renowned for sudden and violent +storms, dreaded by early mariners as well as those of later times. + +"Thence for nine whole days was I borne by ruinous winds over the +teeming deep; but on the tenth day we set foot on the land of the +lotus-eaters who eat a flowery food." + +Now ten days' sail to the south would have brought Ulysses to the coast +of North Africa, and here we imagine the lotus-eaters dwelt. But their +stay was short. For as soon as the mariners tasted the "honey-sweet +fruit of the lotus" they forgot their homes, forgot their own land, +and only wanted to stay with the "mild-eyed melancholy lotus-eaters." + + "They sat them down upon the yellow sand, + Between the sun and moon upon the shore; + And sweet it was to dream of Fatherland, + Of child, and wife, and slave; but evermore + Most weary seem'd the sea, weary the oar, + Weary the wandering fields of barren foam. + Then someone said: 'We will return no more'; + And all at once they sang, 'Our island home + Is far beyond the wave; we will no longer roam.'" + +"Therefore," said Ulysses, "I led them back to the ships, weeping and +sore against their will, and dragged them beneath the benches. Soon +they embarked and, sitting orderly, they smote the grey sea water with +their oars. Thence we sailed onward, stricken at heart. And we came +to the land of the Cyclops." + +No one knows exactly where the land of the Cyclops is. Some think it +may be Sicily and the slopes of Mount Etna facing the sea. + +The famous rock of Scylla and whirlpool of Charybdis, known to the +ancients as two sea-monsters, near the Straits of Messina, next +claimed his attention. Let us see how Ulysses passed them. + +"We began to sail up the narrow strait," he says, lamenting. "For on +the one side lay Scylla and on the other mighty Charybdis sucking down +the salt sea water. Like a cauldron on a great fire she would seethe +up through all her troubled deeps, and overhead the spray fell on the +top of either cliff--the rock around roared horribly, and pale fear +gat hold on my men. Toward her, then, we looked, fearing destruction; +but Scylla meanwhile caught from out my hollow ships six of my company. +They cried aloud in their agony, and there she devoured them shrieking +at her gates, they stretching forth their hands to me in their death +struggles. And the most pitiful thing was this, that mine eyes have +seen of all my travail in searching out the paths of the sea." + +Some have thought that the terrifying stories of Scylla, Charybdis, +and the Cyclops were stories invented by the Phoenicians to frighten +travellers of other nations away from the sea that they wished to keep +for themselves for purposes of trade. + +It would take too long to tell of the great storm that destroyed the +ships and drowned the men, leaving Ulysses to make a raft on which +he drifted about for nine days, blown back to Scylla and Charybdis +and from thence to the island of Ogygia, "in the centre of the sea." +Finally he reached his home in Ithaca so changed, so aged and +weather-worn, that only his dog Argus recognised him. + +This, very briefly, is Homer's world-picture of a bygone age, when +those who were seized with a thirst for travel sailed about the +Mediterranean in their primitive ships, landing on unnamed coasts, +cruising about unknown islands, meeting strange people, encountering +strange adventures. + +It all reads like an old fairy tale to us to-day, for we have our maps +and charts and know the whereabouts of every country and island about +the tideless Mediterranean. + +[Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--I. The world as known +at the time of Homer.] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +IS THE WORLD FLAT? + + +Still, although the men of ancient time were learning fast about the +land and sea, they were woefully ignorant. Hesiod, a Greek poet, who +lived seven hundred and fifty years before the Christian era, declared +that the world was flat, and the ocean stream or the "perfect river," +as he called it, flowed round and round, encompassing all things. + +Still, there was something beyond the water--something dim, +mysterious, unknowable. It might be the "Islands of the Blest"; it +might be the "sacred isle." One thing he asserted firmly: "Atlas +upholds the broad Heaven ... standing on earth's verge with head and +unwearied hands," while the clear-voiced Hesperides guarded their +beautiful golden apples "beyond the waters of Ocean." + + "Hesperus and his daughters three + That sung about the golden tree." + +But who thinks now of the weary Titan doomed for ever to support the +ancient world on his head and hands, when the atlas of to-day is brought +forth for a lesson in geography? + +About this time comes a story--it may be fact or it may be fiction--that +the Phoenicians had sailed right round Africa. The voyage was arranged +by Neco, an enterprising Egyptian king, who built his ships in the +Red Sea in the year 613 B.C. The story is told by Herodotus, the Greek +traveller, many years afterwards. + +"Libya," he says, "is known to be washed on all sides by the sea, except +where it is attached to Asia. This discovery was first made by Neco, +the Egyptian king, who sent a number of ships manned by Phoenicians +with orders to make for the Pillars of Hercules (now known as the +Straits of Gibraltar), and return to Egypt through them and by the +Mediterranean Sea. The Phoenicians took their departure from Egypt +by way of the Erythraean Sea, and so sailed into the Southern Ocean. +When autumn came (it is supposed they left the Red Sea in August) they +went ashore, wherever that might happen to be, and, having sown a tract +of land with corn, waited until the grain was fit to cut. Having reaped +it, they set sail, and thus it came to pass that two whole years went +by, and it was not till the third year that they doubled the Pillars +of Hercules and made good their voyage home. On their return they +declared (I, for my part, says Herodotus, do not believe them, but +perhaps others may) that in sailing round Libya they had the sun upon +their right hand. In this way was the extent of Libya first discovered." + +[Illustration: THE PILLARS OF HERCULES, AS SHOWN IN A MEDIAEVAL MAP. +Higden's Map of the World, 1360 A.D.] + +To modern students, who have learnt more of Phoenician enterprise, +the story does not seem so incredible as it did to Herodotus; and a +modern poet, Edwin Arnold, has dreamed into verse a delightful account +of what this voyage may have been like. + +Ithobal of Tyre, Chief Captain of the seas, standing before Neco, +Pharaoh and King, Ruler of Nile and its lands, relates the story of +his two years' voyage, of the strange things he saw, of the hardships +he endured, of the triumphant end. He tells how, with the help of +mechanics from Tarshish, Tyre, and Sidon, he built three goodly ships, +"Ocean's children," in a "windless creek" on the Red Sea, how he loaded +them with cloth and beads, "the wares wild people love," food-flour +for the ship, cakes, honey, oil, pulse, meal, dried fish and rice, +and salted goods. Then the start was made down the Red Sea, until at +last "the great ocean opened" east and south to the unknown world and +into the great nameless sea, by the coast of that "Large Land whence +none hath come" they sailed. + +Ithobal had undertaken no light task; contrary winds, mutiny on board, +want of fresh water, all the hardships that confront the mariner who +pilots his crews in search of the unknown. Strange tribes met them +on the coast and asked them whither they went. + + "We go as far as the sun goes + As far as the sea rolls, as far as the stars + Shine still in sky. To find for mighty Pharaoh what his world + Holds hidden." + +South and ever south they sailed, "day after day and night succeeding +night, close clinging to the shore." New stars appeared, lower and +lower sank the sun, moons rose and waned, and still the coast stretched +southwards till they reached a "Cape of Storms" and found the coast +was turning north. And now occurred that strange phenomenon mentioned +by Herodotus, that while sailing westwards the sun was on their right +hand. "No man had seen that thing in Syria or in Egypt." + +A year and a half had now passed away since they left home, but onward +to the north they now made their way, past the mouth of the golden +waters (Orange River), past the Congo, past the Niger, past the island +of Gorillas described by Hanno, who explored the west coast under Neco +either before or after this time, until at last the little Phoenician +ships sailed peacefully into the Mediterranean Sea. + + "Here is the Ocean-Gate. Here is the Strait + Twice before seen, where goes the Middle Sea + Unto the Setting Sun and the Unknown-- + No more unknown, Ithobal's ships have sailed + Around all Africa. Our task is done. + These are the Pillars, this the Midland Sea. + The road to Tyre is yonder. Every wave + Is homely. Yonder, sure, Old Nilus pours + Into this Sea, the Waters of the World, + Whose secret is his own and thine and mine." + +It will ever remain one of the many disputed points in early geography +whether or not Africa was circumnavigated at this early date. If the +Phoenicians did accomplish such a feat they kept their experiences +a secret as usual, and the early maps gave a very wrong idea of South +Africa. On the other hand, we know they had good seaworthy ships in +advance of their neighbours. + +[Illustration: THE PILLARS OF HERCULES, AS SHOWN IN THE ANGLO-SAXON +MAP OF THE WORLD, TENTH CENTURY.] + +"I remember," says Xenophon, "I once went aboard a Phoenician ship, +where I observed the best example of good order that I ever met with; +and especially it was surprising to observe the vast numbers of +implements which were necessary for the management of such a small +vessel. What numbers of oars, stretchers, ship-hooks, and spikes were +there for bringing the ship in and out of the harbour! What numbers +of shrouds, cables, ropes, and other tackling for the ship! What a +vast quantity of provisions were there for the sustenance and support +of the sailors!" Captain and sailors knew where everything was stowed +away on board, and "while the captain stood upon the deck, he was +considering with himself what things might be wanting in his voyage, +what things wanted repair, and what length of time his provisions would +last; for, as he observed to me, it is no proper time, when the storm +comes upon us, to have the necessary implements to seek, or to be out +of repair, or to want them on board; for the gods are never favourable +to those who are negligent or lazy; and it is their goodness that they +do not destroy us when we are diligent." + +[Illustration: A GREEK GALLEY ABOUT 500 B.C. From a vase-painting.] + +There is an old story which says that one day the Greeks captured a +Phoenician ship and copied it. However this may be, the Greeks soon +became great colonisers themselves, and we have to thank a Greek +philosopher living in Miletus, on the coast of Asia Minor, for making +the first map of the ancient world. Of course, the Babylonians and +Egyptians had made maps thousands of years before this, but this +Greek--Anaximander introduced the idea of map-making to the +astonished world about the year 580 B.C. What was the map like? It +was "a bronze tablet, whereupon the whole circuit of the Earth was +engraved with all its seas and rivers." + +This is all we know. But this map-making Greek was famous for another +idea in advance of his time. He used to study the heavens and the earth, +and after much study he made up his mind that the earth was round and +not flat. He taught that the world hung free in the midst of the universe, +or rather in the midst of the waters. The centre of the earth was at +Delphi. In the world of legend there was a reason for this. Two eagles +had been let loose, one from the eastern extremity of the world, the +other from the west, and they met at Delphi--hence it was assumed that +Delphi was at the centre of the world. And Delphi at this time was +such a wonderful city. On the slopes of Mount Parnassus it stood high +on a rock--on the heights stood the temple of Apollo with its immense +riches, its golden statue of the great god, and its ever-smoking fire +of wood. + +[Illustration: JERUSALEM, THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD. From the Hereford +Map of the World, thirteenth century.] + +In the same way, in those days of imperfect geography, as we hear of +Delphi being the centre of the Greek world, so we hear of Jerusalem +being considered the central point of the world. + +"This is Jerusalem," says Ezekiel, "in the midst of the nations and +countries that are round about her." In the Mappa Mundi (thirteenth +century) in Hereford Cathedral, Jerusalem is still the centre of the +earth. + +Following close on these ideas came another. It, too, came from Miletus, +now famous for its school of thought and its searchers after truth. + +A _Tour of the World_ is the grand-sounding title of the work of +Hecataeus, who wrote it about 500 years B.C. It contains an account +of the coast and islands of the Mediterranean Sea and an outline of +all the lands the Greeks thought they knew. In the fragments that have +come down to us, the famous old geographer divides both his work and +the world into two parts. One part he calls Europe, the other Asia, +in which he includes Africa bounded by the river Nile. He held that +these two parts were equal. They were divided from one another by the +Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea, while round +the whole flat world still flowed the everlasting ocean stream. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HERODOTUS--THE TRAVELLER + + +The greatest traveller of olden times now comes upon the +scene--Herodotus, the Greek, the "Father of History." + +He is a traveller as well as a writer. He has journeyed as one eager +for knowledge, with a "hungry heart" and a keen, observant eye. He +tells us what he has seen with his eyes, what he has heard with his +ears. He insists that the world is flat, he acknowledges that it is +divided into two parts--Europe and Asia; but he can afford to laugh +at those who draw maps of the world "without any sense to guide them," +in which they make the whole world round as if drawn with a pair of +compasses, with the ocean stream running round it, making Europe and +Asia of equal size. + +His first journey is to Egypt. + +"I speak at length about Egypt," he says, "because it contains more +marvellous things than any other country--things too strange for words. +Not only is the climate different from that of the rest of the world +and the rivers unlike any other rivers, but the people also, in most +of their manners and customs, reverse the common practice of mankind. +The women are employed in trade and business, while the men stay at +home to spin and weave. Other nations in weaving throw the woof up +the warp, but an Egyptian throws it down. In other countries, sons +are constrained to make provision for their parents; in Egypt it is +not only the sons, but the daughters. In other countries the priests +have long hair; in Egypt their heads are shaven. Other nations fasten +their ropes and hooks to the outside of their sails, but the Egyptians +to the inside. The Greeks write and read from left to right, but the +Egyptians from right to left." + +After sailing for some seven hundred miles up the river Nile from the +coast, past Heliopolis, the once famous city of Ancient Egypt, past +Memphis, the old capital, past Thebes, with its hundred gates, to +Elephantine, the "ivory island," opposite to what is now Assuan, he +is more than ever puzzled about its course and the reason of its +periodical floods. + +"Concerning the nature of the river, I was not able to gain any +information from the priests. I was particularly anxious to learn from +them why the Nile, at the commencement of the summer solstice, begins +to rise and continues to increase for a hundred days--and why, as soon +as that number is past, it forthwith retires and contracts its stream, +continuing low during the whole of the winter until the summer solstice +comes round again. On none of these points could I obtain any +explanation from the inhabitants, though I made every inquiry." + +The sources of the Nile entirely baffled Herodotus as they baffled +many another later explorer long years after he had passed away. "Of +the sources of the Nile no one can give any account, since the country +through which it passes is desert and without inhabitants," he +explains, his thirst for knowledge unsatisfied. Some priest +volunteers this explanation. On the frontiers of Egypt are two high +mountain-peaks called Crophi and Mophi; in an unfathomable abyss +between the two rose the Nile. But Herodotus does not believe in Crophi +and Mophi; he inclines to the idea that the Nile rises away in the +west and flows eastward right across Libya. + +He travelled a little about Libya himself, little realising the size +of the great continent of Africa through which he passed. Many a strange +tale of these unknown parts did he relate to his people at home. He +had seen the tallest and handsomest race of men in the world, who lived +to the age of one hundred and twenty years--gold was so abundant that +it was used even for the prisoners' chains--he had seen folks who lived +on meat and milk only, never having seen bread or wine. + +[Illustration: A MERCHANT-SHIP OF ATHENS, ABOUT 500 B.C. From a +vase-painting.] + +Some thirty days' journey from the land of the lotus-eaters he had +found tribes who hunted with four-horse chariots and whose oxen walked +backwards as they grazed, because their horns curve outwards in front +of their heads, and if they moved forwards these horns would stick +in the ground. + +Right across the desolate sandy desert of the north, Herodotus seems +to have made his way. The "region of the wild beasts" must have been +truly perilous, "for this is the tract," he says, "in which huge +serpents are found, and the lions, the elephants, the bears, and the +horned asses." + +He also tells us of antelopes, gazelles, asses, foxes, wild sheep, +jackals, and panthers. There is no end to the quaint sights he records. +Here is a tribe whose wives drive the chariots to battle, here another +who paint themselves red and eat honey and monkeys, another who grow +their hair long on the right side of their heads and shave it close +on the left. Back through Egypt to Syria went our observant traveller, +visiting the famous seaport of Tyre on the way. "I visited the temple +of Hercules at that place and found two pillars, one of pure gold, +the other of emerald, shining with great brilliancy at night." That +temple was already two thousand three hundred years old. + +Herodotus makes some astounding statements about various parts of the +world. He asserts that a good walker could walk across Asia Minor, +from north to south, in five days, a distance we know now to be three +hundred miles! He tells us that the Danube rises in the Pyrenees +Mountains and flows right through Europe till it empties its waters +into the Black Sea, giving us a long and detailed account of a country +he calls Scythia (Russia) with many rivers flowing into this same Black +Sea. + +But here we must leave the old traveller and picture him reading aloud +to his delighted hearers his account of his discoveries and +explorations, discussing with the learned Greeks of the day the size +and wonders of the world as they imagined it. + +News travelled slowly in these bygone days, and we know the Phoenicians +were very fond of keeping their discoveries secret, but it seems +strange to think that Herodotus never seems to have heard the story +of Hanno the Carthaginian, who coasted along the west of North Africa, +being the first explorer to reach the place we know as "Sierra Leone." + +Hanno's "Periplus," or the "Coasting Survey of Hanno," is one of the +few Phoenician documents that has lived through the long ages. In it +the commander of the expedition himself tells his own story. With an +idea of colonising, he left Carthage--the most famous of the +Phoenician colonies--with sixty ships containing an enormous number +of men and women. + +"When we had set sail," says Hanno shortly, "and passed the pillars +(of Hercules) after two days' voyage, we founded the first city. Below +this city lay a great plain. Sailing thence westward we came to a +promontory of Libya thickly covered with trees. Here we built a temple +to the Sea-god and proceeded thence half a day's journey eastward, +till we reached a lake lying not far from the sea and filled with +abundance of great reeds. Here were feeding elephants and a great +number of other wild animals. After we had gone a day's sail beyond +the lakes we founded cities near to the sea." + +Making friends with the tribes along the coast, they reached the +Senegal River. Here they fell in with "savage men clothed with the +skins of beasts," who pelted them with stones so that they could not +land. Past Cape Verde they reached the mouth of the Gambia, "great +and broad and full of crocodiles and river-horses," and thence coasted +twelve days to the south and again five days to the south, which brought +them to Sierra Leone--the Lion Mountain as it was called long years +after by the Portuguese. + +Here Hanno and his party landed, but as night approached they saw flames +issuing from the island and heard the sound of flutes and cymbals and +drums and the noise of confused shouts. + +"Great fear then came upon us; we sailed therefore quickly thence much +terrified, and passing on for four days found at night a country full +of fire. In the middle was a lofty fire, greater than all the rest, +so that it seemed to touch the stars. When day came on we found that +this was a great mountain which they called the chariot of the gods." +They had a last adventure before they turned homewards at what they +called the Isle of Gorillas. Here they found a "savage people" +(Gorillas) whom they pursued, but were unable to catch. At last they +managed to catch three. "But when these, biting and tearing those that +led them, would not follow us, we slew them and, flaying off their +skins, carried them to Carthage." + +Then abruptly this quaint account of the only Phoenician voyage on +record stops. "Further," says the commander, "we did not sail, for +our food failed us." + +[Illustration: THE COAST OF AFRICA, AFTER PTOLEMY (MERCATOR'S +EDITION). This map shows the extent of Hanno's voyage from the Pillars +of Hercules, past the Equator, to what is now called Sierra Leone.] + +Further knowledge of the world was now supplied by the Greeks, who +were rapidly asserting themselves and settling round the coast of the +Mediterranean as the Phoenicians had done before them. As in more +ancient days Babylonians and Egyptians had dominated the little world, +so now the power was shifting to the Greeks and Persians. The rise +of Persia does not rightly belong to this story, which is not one of +conquest and annexation, but of discovery, so we must content +ourselves by stating the fact that Persia had become a very important +country with no less than fifty-six subject States paying tribute to +her, including the land of Egypt. Efforts to include Greece had failed. + +In the year 401 B.C. one Artaxerxes sat on the throne of Persia, the +mighty Empire which extended eastwards beyond the knowledge of Greeks +or Phoenicians, even to the unknown regions of the Indus. He had reigned +for many years, when Cyrus, his brother, a dashing young prince, +attempted to seize the throne. Collecting a huge army, including the +famous Ten Thousand Greeks, he led them by way of Phrygia, Cilicia, +and along the banks of the Euphrates to within fifty miles of the gates +of Babylon. The journey took nearly five months, a distance of one +thousand seven hundred miles through recognised tracks. Here a battle +was fought and Cyrus was slain. + +It was midwinter when the Ten Thousand Greeks who had followed their +leader so loyally through the plains of Asia Minor found themselves +friendless and in great danger in the very heart of the enemy's country. + +How Xenophon--a mere Greek volunteer, who had accompanied the army +from the shores of Asia Minor--rose up and offered to lead his +countrymen back to Greece is a matter of history. It would take too +long to tell in detail how they marched northward through the Assyrian +plains, past the neighbourhood of Nineveh, till they reached the +mountain regions which were known to be inhabited by fierce fighters, +unconquered even by the powerful Persians. + +Up to this time their line of retreat had followed the "royal road" +of merchants and caravans. Their only chance of safety lay in striking +north into the mountains inhabited by this warlike tribe who had held +out amid their wild and rugged country against the Persians themselves. +They now opposed the Greeks with all their might, and it took seven +days of continuous fighting to reach the valley which lay between them +and the high tableland of Armenia. They crossed the Tigris near its +source, and a little farther on they also crossed the Euphrates not +far from its source, so they were informed by the Armenians. They now +found themselves some five or six thousand feet above sea-level and +in the midst of a bitter Armenian winter. Snow fell heavily, covering +all tracks, and day after day a cold north-east wind, "whose bitter +blast was torture," increased their sufferings as they ploughed their +way on and on through such depths of snow as they had never seen before. + +Many died of cold and hunger, many fell grievously sick, and others +suffered from snow-blindness and frostbite. + +But Xenophon led his army on, making his notes of the country through +which they were toiling, measuring distances by the day's march, and +at last one day when the soldiers were climbing a steep mountain, a +cry, growing louder and more joyous every moment, rent the air-- + +"Thalassa! Thalassa! The sea! The sea!" + +True enough, on the distant horizon, glittering in the sunlight, was +a narrow silver streak of sea--the Black Sea--the goal of all their +hopes. The long struggle of five months was over; they could sail home +now along the shores of the Black Sea. They had reached the coast near +the spot Colchis, where the Argonauts landed to win the Golden Fleece +long centuries before. + +In a work known as the _Anabasis_, Xenophon wrote the adventures of +the Ten Thousand Greeks, and no geographical explorer ever recorded +his travels through unknown countries more faithfully than did the +Greek leader of twenty-three hundred years ago. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ALEXANDER THE GREAT EXPLORES INDIA + + +Still greater light was shed on the size of the world by Alexander +the Great on his famous expedition to India, by which he almost doubled +the area of the world known to the people of his time. It was just +sixty years after Xenophon had made his way right across Asia to the +shores of the Black Sea when Alexander resolved to break, if possible, +the power of the Persians. + +The great Persian Empire extended from the shores of the Mediterranean +right away to the east, far beyond the knowledge of the Greeks. Indeed, +their knowledge of the interior of Asia was very imperfect, and +Alexander's expedition was rather that of an explorer than of a +conqueror. How he overthrew the Persians and subdued an area as large +as Europe in the space of twelve years reads like a romance rather +than fact, and it is not for us to tell the story in detail. Rather +let us take up the story, after Alexander has fought and conquered +the Persians twice, besieged Tyre, taken the Phoenician fleet, +occupied Egypt, marched across the desert and crossed the Euphrates, +passed over the plain and followed the Tigris to near Nineveh, where +he crossed that river too, fought another famous battle over the +Persians, which decided the fate of King and Monarchy and opened to +him the capitals of Babylon and Susa, wherein the immense treasures +of the Persian Empire were stored. King of all Asia, he sat on the +throne of the Persian kings under a golden canopy in the palace of +Persepolis. + +So far the whole expedition was over country known, if imperfectly, +to the Greeks. Now we have to follow the conquering hero more closely +as he leads us into an unknown land away to the east, known as "the +farthest region of the inhabited world towards the east, beyond which +lies the endless sandy desert void of inhabitants." And all the while +the great land of India lay beyond, and beyond again was China, and +away far over the ocean sea lay America--and they knew it not. + +Alexander was a young man yet, only twenty-six. It was four years since +he had left Europe, and in that short time he had done wonders. He +had conquered the whole western half of the Persian Empire. Now he +resolutely turned his face to the unknown east and started forth on +an expedition of exploration. + +Following the main highway from Media, which to-day leads from Teheran, +capital of modern Persia, into the land of the Turkomans and the borders +of Russia, he found himself between the great salt desert and the +mountains, which to-day mark the frontier of Persia. Suddenly, to his +great surprise, the Caspian Sea came into sight. It seemed about the +same size as the Black Sea, and he concluded it was connected with +the Sea of Azof, though the men of his day were certain enough that +it was the most northern of four great gulfs connected with the outer +ocean which flowed round the world. + +Onwards towards the east he marched with his great army. To conciliate +the tribes through which he passed, he adopted Persian dress. This +annoyed his Greek countrymen, but, "as they admired his other virtues, +they thought he might be suffered to please himself a little and enjoy +his vanity." + +Arrived at the modern boundary between Persia, Afghanistan, and Russia, +he and his men pushed on across Afghanistan, by the caravan route that +had long existed from the shores of the Caspian, by modern Herat, +Kandahar,[1] which still bears the conqueror's name, and Kabul to +India. Their way lay through deep snow, deeper than they had ever seen +before; and by the time they had reached the mountains of Kabul it +was midwinter. + +[Footnote 1: Kandahar = Alexandria in a modern form.] + +Between Alexander and India still lay the lofty range of the Hindu +Koosh or Indian Caucasus. But before going south toward India, he +turned northwards to explore the unknown country which lay about the +river Oxus. They found the Oxus, a mighty stream, swollen with melting +snows. There were no boats and no wood to build them, so Alexander +pioneered his men across in "life-preservers" made out of their +leather tent coverings and stuffed with straw. This river impressed +the Greeks even more than the Euphrates and Tigris, as it impressed +many an explorer and poet since these early days. Let us recall Matthew +Arnold's famous description of the Oxus, now seen for the first time +by the Greeks. + + "But the majestic river floated on, + Out of the mist and hum of that low land, + Into the frosty starlight, and there moved + + * * * * * + + Brimming, and bright, and large; then sands begin + To hem his watery march and dam his streams, + And split his currents; that for many a league + The shorn and parcell'd Oxus strains along + Through beds of sand and matted rushy isles-- + Oxus, forgetting the bright speed he had, + In his high mountain-cradle in Pamere, + A foil'd circuitous wanderer--till at last + The long'd for dash of waves is heard, and wide + His luminous home of waters opens, bright + And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bathed stars + Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea." + +Here in this valley the Greeks met more determined opposition than +they had yet encountered since entering Asia, and over two years were +occupied in reducing this single district (now Bokhara and Turkestan) +to submission, though it was only some three hundred and fifty miles +square, and in one single year Alexander had conquered a kingdom over +one thousand miles in width. + +It was not till the spring of 327 B.C. that he was ready to cross the +Hindu Koosh and begin the great expedition into India. The night before +the start Alexander discovered that his troops were now so heavily +laden with spoils that they were quite unfit for the long march. So +in the early morning, when they were all ready to start, he suddenly +set fire to his own baggage, and, giving orders that all his men were +to do the same, the army started for the passes of the lofty mountain +range. And-- + + "... as a troop of pedlars from Kabul + Cross underneath the Indian Caucasus, + That vast sky neighbouring mountain of milk snow; + Crossing so high, that, as they mount, they pass + Long flocks of travelling birds dead on the snow, + Choked by the air, and scarce can they themselves + Slake their parch'd throats with sugar'd mulberries-- + In single file they move, and stop their breath, + For fear they should dislodge the o'erhanging snows." + +The banks of the river of Kabul were reached at last. Sending part +of the army by the now famous Kyber Pass toward the Indus, Alexander +himself undertook to subdue the mountain tribes and get control of +the Chitral passes. The shepherds of this region opposed him +vigorously, but swiftly and pitilessly the King of Asia sacked their +peaceful homes, and city after city fell to him as he advanced towards +the boundaries of Kashmir. + +At last the valley of the Indus was reached. A bridge of boats was +hastily thrown over, and Alexander and his army passed to the other +side. + +Porus, the ruler of the country between the Indus and the river Hydaspes +(Jehlam), sent presents of welcome to the invader, including three +thousand animals for sacrifice, ten thousand sheep, thirty elephants, +two hundred talents of silver, and seven hundred horsemen. The new +king was also greeted with presents of ivory and precious stones. Even +from far Kashmir came greetings to Alexander, whose fame was spreading +rapidly. He now entered the Punjab, the "Land of the Five Rivers." +But on the other side of the river Hydaspes a different reception +awaited him. + +There the king (Porus) had assembled a sturdy, well-disciplined troop +to dispute the passage of the river, which still separated the new +King of Asia from his territory. But under cover of a mighty +thunderstorm Alexander contrived to cross, though the river was +rushing down yellow and fierce after the rains. Secretly the Greeks +put together their thirty-oared galleys hidden in a wood, and utterly +surprised Porus by landing on the other side. In their strange +wanderings the Greeks had fought under varying conditions, but they +had never faced elephants before. Nevertheless, they brilliantly +repulsed an onslaught of these animals, who slowly retreated, "facing +the foe, like ships backing water, and merely uttering a shrill, piping +sound." Despite the elephants the old story was repeated, civilised +arms triumphed over barbarians, and the army of Porus was annihilated, +his chariots shattered, and thirty-three thousand men slain. + +The kingdom beyond the Hydaspes was now Alexander's. Ordering a great +fleet of rafts and boats to be built for his proposed voyage to the +mouth of the Indus, he pushed on to complete the conquest of the Five +Stream Land, or the Punjab--the last province of the great Persian +Empire. This was India--all that was known at this time. The India +of the Ganges valley was beyond the knowledge of the Western world--the +Ganges itself unknown to the Persians. And Alexander saw no reason +to change his mind. + +"The great sea surrounds the whole earth," he stoutly maintained. + +But when he reached the eastern limit of the Punjab and heard that +beyond lay a fertile land "where the inhabitants were skilled in +agriculture, where there were elephants in yet greater abundance and +men were superior in stature and courage," the world stretched out +before him in an unexpected direction, and he longed to explore farther, +to conquer new and utterly unknown worlds! + +But at last his men struck. They were weary, some were wounded, some +were ill; seventy days of incessant rain had taken the heart out of +them. + +"I am not ignorant, soldiers," said Alexander to the hesitating troops, +"that during the last few days the natives of this country have been +spreading all sorts of rumours to work upon your fears. The Persians +in this way sought to terrify you with the gates of Cilicia, with the +plains of Mesopotamia, with the Tigris and Euphrates, and yet this +river you crossed by a ford and that by means of a bridge. By my troth, +we had long ago fled from Asia could fables have been able to scare +us. We are not standing on the threshold of our enterprise, but at +the very close. We have already reached the sunrise and the ocean, +and unless your sloth and cowardice prevent, we shall thence return +in triumph to our native land, having conquered the earth to its +remotest bounds. I beseech you that ye desert not your king just at +the very moment when he is approaching the limits of the inhabited +world." + +But the soldiers, "with their heads bent earthwards," stood in silence. +It was not that they _would_ not follow him beyond the sunset; they +_could_ not. Their tears began to flow, sobs reached the ears of +Alexander, his anger turned to pity, and he wept with his men. + +"Oh, sir," at last cried one of his men, "we have done and suffered +up to the full measure of the capacity of mortal nature. We have +traversed seas and lands, and know them better than do the inhabitants +themselves. We are standing now almost on the earth's utmost verge, +and yet you are preparing to go in quest of an India unknown even to +the Indians themselves. You would fain root out, from their hidden +recesses and dens, a race of men that herd with snakes and wild beasts, +so that you may traverse as a conqueror more regions than the sun +surveys. But while your courage will be ever growing, our vigour is +fast waning to its end. See how bloodless be our bodies, pierced with +how many wounds and gashed with how many scars! Our weapons are blunt, +our armour worn out! We have been driven to assume the Persian dress! +Which of us has a horse? We have conquered all the world, but are +ourselves destitute of all things." + +The conqueror was at last conquered. The order to turn back was +reluctantly given by the disappointed king and leader. It was received +with shouts of joy from the mixed multitudes of his followers, and +the expedition faced for home. Back they marched through the new lands +where no less than two thousand cities had owned his sway, till they +came to the banks of the river where the ships were building. Two +thousand boats were ready, including eighty thirty-oared galleys. + +It was now September 326 B.C. + +Nearchus from Crete was made Admiral of the new fleet, which at dawn +one October morning pushed out upon the river Hydaspes and set sail +downstream towards the unknown sea, Alexander standing proudly on the +prow of the royal galley. The trumpets rang out, the oars moved, and +the strange argosy, "such as had never been seen before in these parts," +made its way down the unknown river to the unknown sea. Natives swarmed +to the banks of the river to wonder at the strange sight, marvelling +specially to see horses as passengers on board! The greater part of +the army followed the ships on land, marching along the shores. At +last the waters of the Hydaspes mingled with those of the Indus, and +onwards down this great river floated the Persian fleet. Alexander +had no pilots, no local knowledge of the country, but with his +"unquenchable ambition to see the ocean and reach the boundaries of +the world," he sailed on, "ignorant of everything on the way they had +to pass." In vain they asked the natives assembled on the banks how +far distant was the sea; they had never heard of the sea! At last they +found a tide mixing its salt waters with the fresh. Soon a flood-tide +burst upon them, forcing back the current of the river, and scattering +the fleet. The sailors of the tideless Mediterranean knew nothing of +the rise and fall of tides. They were in a state of panic and +consternation. Some tried to push off their ships with long poles, +others tried to row against the incoming tide; prows were dashed +against poops, oars were broken, sterns were bumped, until at last +the sea had flowed over all the level land near the river mouth. + +Suddenly a new danger appeared! The tide turned and the sea began to +recede. Further misfortunes now befell the ships. Many were left high +and dry; most of them were damaged in some way or another. Alexander +sent horsemen to the seashore with instructions to watch for the return +of the tide and to ride back in haste so that the fleet might be +prepared. + +Thus they got safely out to sea on the next high tide. + +Alexander's explorations were now at an end. Leaving Nearchus to +explore the seacoast at the mouth of the Indus, he left the spot near +where the town of Hyderabad now stands, and turned his face toward +the home he was never to reach. We must not linger over his terrible +coast journey through the scorching desert of Beluchistan the billows +of sand, the glare of the barren sea, the awful thirst, the long hungry +marches of forty miles a day under the burning Eastern sun. + +[Illustration: A SKETCH-MAP OF ALEXANDER'S CHIEF EXPLORATORY MARCHES +FROM ATHENS TO HYDERABAD AND GAZA. The dotted line shows the course +of Nearchus' voyage down the river Indus, along the northern shores +of the Indian Ocean, and up the Persian Gulf to Babylonia.] + +Our story is one of discovery, and we must turn to Nearchus, Admiral +of the fleet, left behind at the mouth of the Indus to explore the +coast to the Persian Gulf, where he was to meet Alexander if possible. +Shortly after the fleet had emerged from the mouth of the Indus a +violent south-west monsoon began to blow and Nearchus was obliged to +seek shelter in a harbour, which he called the port of Alexander, but +which to-day is known as Karachi, the most western seaport of India. +The waters of the Indian Ocean were quite unknown to the Greeks, and +they could only coast along in sight of land, anchoring at different +points for the men to land and get water and food. Past the wild barren +shores of Beluchistan they made their way; the natives subsisted on +fish entirely even as they do to-day--even their huts being made of +fish bones and their bread of pounded fish. + +They had but one adventure in their five months' cruise to the Persian +Gulf, but we have a graphic account of how the terrified Greeks met +a shoal of whales and how they frightened the whales away. Here is +the story. One day towards daybreak they suddenly saw water spouting +up from the sea, as if being violently carried upwards by whirlwinds. +The sailors, feeling very frightened, asked their native guides what +it meant. The natives replied that it was caused by whales blowing +the water up into the air. At this explanation the Greek sailors were +panic-stricken and dropped the oars from their hands. Nearchus saw +that something must be done at once. So he bade the men draw up their +ships in line as if for battle and row forward side by side towards +the whales, shouting and splashing with their oars. At a given signal +they duly advanced, and when they came near the sea-monsters they +shouted with all their might and blew their trumpets and made all +possible noise with their oars. On hearing which, says the old story, +"the whales took fright and plunged into the depths, but not long after +came to the surface again close to the sterns of the vessels and once +more spouted great jets of water. Then the sailors shouted aloud at +their happy and unlooked-for escape," and Nearchus was cheered as the +saviour of the fleet. It is not uncommon to-day for steamers bound +from Aden to Bombay to encounter what is called a "school of whales" +similar to those which alarmed the fleet of Nearchus in the year 323 +B.C. + +The expedition was completely successful and Nearchus pioneered his +fleet to the mouth of the Euphrates. + +But the death of Alexander the Great and the confusion that followed +set back the advance of geographical discovery in this direction for +some time. + +[Illustration: ALEXANDRIA IN PIZZIGANI'S MAP, FOURTEENTH CENTURY. The +river with the buildings on its bank is the Nile.] + +Alexandria--one of the many towns founded by Alexander--had become +the world centre of the learned from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Its +position was unrivalled. Situated at the mouth of the Nile, it +commanded the Mediterranean Sea, while by means of the Red Sea it held +easy communication with India and Arabia. When Egypt had come under +the sway of Alexander, he had made one of his generals ruler over that +country, and men of intellect collected there to study and to write. +A library was started, and a Greek, Eratosthenes, held the post of +librarian at Alexandria for forty years, namely, from 240-196 B.C. +During this period he made a collection of all the travels and books +of earth description--the first the world had ever known--and stored +them in the Great Library of which he must have felt so justly proud. +But Eratosthenes did more than this. He was the originator of +Scientific Geography. He realised that no maps could be properly laid +down till something was known of the size and shape of the earth. + +By this time all men of science had ceased to believe that the world +was flat; they thought of it as a perfect round, but fixed at the centre +in space. Many had guessed at the size of the earth. Some said it was +forty thousand miles round, but Eratosthenes was not content with +guessing. He studied the length of the shadow thrown by the sun at +Alexandria and compared it with that thrown by the sun at Syene, near +the first cataract of the Nile, some five hundred miles distant, and, +as he thought, in the same longitude. The differences in the length +of these two shadows he calculated would represent one-fiftieth of +the circumference of the earth which would accordingly be twenty-five +thousand miles. There was no one to tell him whether he had calculated +right or wrong, but we know to-day that he was wonderfully right. But +he must know more. He must find out how much of this earth was habitable. +To the north and south of the known countries men declared it was too +hot or too cold to live. So he decided that from north to south, that +is, from the land of Thule to the land of Punt (Somaliland), the +habitable earth stretched for some three thousand eight hundred miles, +while from east to west--that is, from the Pillars of Hercules (Straits +of Gibraltar) to India--would be some eight thousand miles. All the +rest was ocean. Ignoring the division of the world into three +continents, he divided it into two, north and south, divided by the +Mediterranean and by a long range of mountains intersecting the whole +of Asia. + +Then the famous librarian drew a map of the world for his library at +Alexandria, but it has perished with all the rest of the valuable +treasure collected in this once celebrated city. We know that he must +have made a great many mistakes in drawing a map of his little island +world which measured eight thousand miles by three thousand eight +hundred miles. It must have been quaintly arranged. The Caspian Sea +was connected with a Northern Ocean, the Danube sent a tributary to +the Adriatic, there was no Bay of Biscay, the British Isles lay in +the wrong direction, Africa was not half its right size, the Ganges +flowed into the Eastern Ocean, Ceylon was a huge island stretching +east and west, while across the whole of Asia a mountain chain stretched +in one long unbroken line. And yet, with all his errors, he was nearer +the truth than men three centuries later. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +PYTHEAS FINDS THE BRITISH ISLES + + +For some centuries past men had been pushing eastward, and to west, +vast lands lay unexplored, undreamt of, amongst them a little far-off +island "set in a silver sea." Pytheas was the first explorer to bring +the world news of the British Isles. + +About the time that Alexander was making his way eastward through +Persia, Pytheas was leaving the Greek colony of Marseilles for the +west and north. The Phoenicians, with their headquarters at Carthage, +had complete command of the mineral trade of Spain--the Mexico of the +ancient world. They knew where to find the gold and silver from the +rivers--indeed, they said that the coast, from the Tagus to the +Pyrenees, was "stuffed with mines of gold and silver and tin." The +Greeks were now determined to see for themselves--the men of Carthage +should no longer have it all their own way. Where were these tin islands, +kept so secret by the master-mariners of the ancient world? + +A committee of merchants met at Marseilles and engaged the services +of Pytheas, a great mathematician, and one who made a study of the +effect of the moon on the tides. All sorts of vague rumours had reached +the ears of Pytheas about the northern regions he was about to visit. +He would discover the homes of the tin and amber merchants, he would +find the people who lived "at the back of the north wind," he would +reach a land of perpetual sunshine, where swans sang like nightingales +and life was one unending banquet. + +So Pytheas, the mathematician of Marseilles started off on his +northern trip. Unfortunately, his diary and book called _The Circuit +of the Earth_ have perished, and our story of geographical discovery +is the poorer. But these facts have survived. + +The ships first touched at Cadiz, the "Tyre of the West," a famous +port in those days, where Phoenician merchants lived, "careless and +secure" and rich. This was the limit of Greek geographical knowledge; +here were the Pillars of Hercules, beyond which all was dim and +mysterious and interesting. Five days' sail, that is to say, some three +hundred miles along the coast of Spain, brought Pytheas to Cape St. +Vincent. + +He thought he was navigating the swift ocean river flowing round the +world. He was, therefore, surprised to find as he rounded the Cape +that the current had ceased, or, in his own words, the "ebb came to +an end." Three days more and they were at the mouth of the Tagus. Near +this part of the coast lay the Tin Islands, according to Greek ideas, +though even to-day their exact locality is uncertain. Pytheas must +have heard the old tradition that the Cassiterides were ten in number +and lay near each other in the ocean, that they were inhabited by people +who wore black cloaks and long tunics reaching to the feet, that they +walked with long staves and subsisted by their cattle. They led a +wandering life; they bartered hides, tin, and lead with the merchants +in exchange for pottery, salt, and implements of bronze. + +That these islands had already been visited by Himilco the +Carthaginian seems fairly certain. He had started from Cadiz for the +north when Hanno started for the south. From the Tin Islands his fleet +had ventured forth into the open sea. Thick fogs had hidden the sun +and the ships were driven south before a north wind till they reached, +though they did not know it, the Sargasso Sea, famous for its vast +plains of seaweed, through which it was difficult to push the ships. + +"Sea animals," he tells us, "crept upon the tangled weed." It has been +thought that with a little good fortune Himilco might have discovered +America two thousand years before the birth of Columbus. But Himilco +returned home by the Azores or Fortunate Islands, as they were called. + +Leaving the Tin Islands, Pytheas voyaged on to Cape Finisterre, +landing on the island of Ushant, where he found a temple served by +women priests who kept up a perpetual fire in honour of their god. +Thence Pytheas sailed prosperously on up the English Channel till he +struck the coast of Kent. Britain, he announced, was several days' +journey from Ushant, and about one hundred and seventy miles to the +north. He sailed round part of the coast, making notes of distances, +but these are curiously exaggerated. This was not unnatural, for the +only method of determining distance was roughly based on the number +of miles that a ship could go in an hour along the shore. Measuring +in this primitive fashion, Pytheas assures us that Britain is a +continent of enormous size, and that he has discovered a "new world." +It is, he says, three cornered in shape, something like the head of +a battleaxe. The south side, lying opposite the coast of France, is +eight hundred and thirty-five miles in length, the eastern coast is +sixteen hundred and sixty-five miles, the western two thousand two +hundred and twenty-two--indeed, the whole country was thought to be +over four thousand miles in circumference. These calculations must +have been very upsetting to the old geographers of that age, because +up to this time they had decided that the whole world was only three +thousand four hundred miles long and six thousand eight hundred broad. + +He tells us that he made journeys into the interior of Britain, that +the inhabitants drink mead, and that there is an abundance of wheat +in the fields. + +"The natives," he says, "collect the sheaves in great barns and thrash +out the corn there, because they have so little sunshine that an open +thrashing-place would be of little use in that land of clouds and rain." +He seems to have voyaged north as far as the Shetland Islands, but +he never saw Ireland. + +Having returned from the north of the Thames, Pytheas crossed the North +Sea to the mouth of the Rhine, a passage which took about two and a +half days. He gives a pitiable account of the people living on the +Dutch coast and their perpetual struggle with the sea. The natives +had not learnt the art of making dykes and embankments. A high tide +with a wind setting toward the shore would sweep over the low-lying +country and swamp their homes. A mounted horseman could barely gallop +from the rush and force of these strong North Sea tides. + +But the Greek geographers would not believe this; they only knew the +tideless Mediterranean, and they thought Pytheas was lying when he +told of the fierce northern sea. Pytheas sailed past the mouth of the +Elbe, noting the amber cast upon the shore by the high spring tides. +But all these interesting discoveries paled before the famous land +of Thule, six days' voyage north of Britain, in the neighbourhood of +the frozen ocean. Grand excitement reigned among geographers when they +heard of Thule, and a very sea of romance rose up around the name. +Had Pytheas indeed found the end of the world? Was it an island? Was +it mainland? In the childhood of the world, when so little was known +and so much imagined, men's minds caught at the name of Thule--Ultima +Thule--far-away Thule, and weaved round it many and beautiful legends. +But to-day we ask: Was it Iceland? Was it Lapland? Was it one of the +Shetland Isles? + +[Illustration: NORTH BRITAIN AND THE ISLAND OF THULE. From Mercator's +edition of Ptolemy's map.] + +"Pytheas said that the farthest parts of the world are those which +lie about Thule, the northernmost of the Britannic Isles, but he never +said whether Thule was an island or whether the world was habitable +by man as far as that point. I should think myself"--the speaker is +Strabo, a famous Greek traveller who wrote seventeen books of +geography--"I should think myself that the northern limit of habitude +lies much farther to the south, for the writers of our age say nothing +of any place beyond Ireland, which is situate in front of the northern +parts of Britain." Pytheas said that Thule was six days' sail north +of Britain. "But who in his senses would believe this?" cries Strabo +again. "For Pytheas, who described Thule, has been shown to be the +falsest of men. A traveller, starting from the middle of Britain and +going five hundred miles to the north, would come to a country somewhere +about Ireland, where living would be barely possible." + +The first account of the Arctic regions likewise reads like pure +romance to the ignorant and untravelled. "After one day's journey to +the north of Thule," says Pytheas, "men come to a sluggish sea, where +there is no separation of sea, land, and air, but a mixture of these +elements like the substance of jelly-fish, through which one can +neither walk nor sail." Here the nights were very short, sometimes +only two hours, after which the sun rose again. This, in fact, was +the "Sleeping Palace of the Sun." + +With all this wealth of discovery, Pytheas returned home by the Bay +of Biscay to the mouth of the Gironde; thence he sailed up the Garonne, +and from the modern town of Bordeaux he reached Marseilles by an +overland journey. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JULIUS CAESAR AS EXPLORER + + +Our next explorer is Julius Caesar. As Alexander the Great had combined +the conqueror with the explorer, so now history repeats itself, and +we find the Roman Caesar not only conquering, but exploring. It was +Caesar who first dispelled the mist that lay over the country about +the French Seine, the German Rhine, the English Thames--Caesar who +gives us the first graphic account of crossing the English Channel +from France to England. Pytheas had hinted at the fog-bound lands of +the north--Caesar brought them into the light of day. + +Since the days of Alexander the centre of Empire had shifted from Greece +to Rome, and Rome was now conquering and annexing land, as Persia had +done in the olden days. Hence it was that Julius Caesar was in the +year 58 B.C. appointed Governor of a new province recently brought +under Roman sway, stretching from the Alps to the Garonne and northward +to the Lake of Geneva, which at this time marked the frontier of the +Roman Empire. Caesar made no secret of his intentions to subdue the +tribes to the north of his province and bring all Gaul under the +dominion of Rome. His appointment carried with it the command of four +legions, including some twenty thousand soldiers. His chance soon came, +and we find Caesar, with all the ability of a great commander, pushing +forward with his army into the very heart of France one hundred and +fifty miles beyond the Roman frontier. + +On the banks of the river Saone he defeated a large body of Celtic +people who were migrating from Switzerland to make their homes in the +warmer and roomier plains at the foot of the Pyrenees. + +While the defeated Celts returned to their chilly homes among the +mountains, victorious Caesar resolved to push on at the head of his +army toward the Rhine, where some German tribes under a "ferocious +headstrong savage" threatened to overrun the country. After marching +through utterly unknown country for three days, he heard that fresh +swarms of invaders had crossed the Rhine, intending to occupy the more +fertile tracts on the French side. They were making for the town we +now call Besancon--then, as now, strongly fortified, and nearly +surrounded by the river Doubs. By forced marches night and day, Caesar +hastened to the town and took it before the arrival of the invaders. + +Accounts of the German tribes even now approaching were brought in +by native traders and Gaulish chiefs, until the Roman soldiers were +seized with alarm. Yes, said the traders, these Germans were "men of +huge stature, incredible valour, and practised skill in wars; many +a time they had themselves come across them, and had not been able +to look them in the face or meet the glare of their piercing eyes." + +The Romans felt they were in an unknown land, about to fight against +an unknown foe. Violent panic seized them, "completely paralysing +every one's judgment and nerve." Some could not restrain their tears; +others shut themselves up in their tents and bemoaned their fate. "All +over the camp men were making their wills," until Caesar spoke, and +the panic ceased. Seven days' march brought them to the plain of Alsace, +some fifty miles from the Rhine. A battle was fought with the German +tribes, and "the enemy all turned tail and did not cease their flight +until they reached the Rhine." Some swam across, some found boats, +many were killed by the Romans in hot pursuit. + +For the first time Romans beheld the German Rhine--that great river +that was to form a barrier for so long between them and the tribes +beyond. But Caesar's exploration was not to end here. The following +year found him advancing against the Belgae--tribes living between +the Rhine and the Seine. In one brilliant campaign he subdued the whole +of north-eastern Gaul from the Seine to the Rhine. Leaving Roman +soldiers in the newly conquered country, he returned to his province, +and was some eight hundred miles away when he heard that a general +rebellion was breaking out in that part we now know as Brittany. He +at once ordered ships to be built on the Loire, "which flows into the +ocean," oarsmen to be trained, seamen and pilots assembled. + +The spring of 56 B.C. found Caesar at the seat of war. His ships were +ready on the Loire. But the navy of the Veneti was strong. They were +a sea-going folk, who knew their own low rocky coast, intersected by +shallow inlets of the sea; they knew their tides and their winds. Their +flat-bottomed boats were suitable to shallows and ebbing tides. Bows +and stern stood high out of the water to resist heavy seas and severe +gales; the hulls were built of oak. Leather was used for sails to +withstand the violent ocean storms. The long Roman galleys were no +match for these, and things would have gone badly had not Caesar devised +a plan for cutting the enemy's rigging with hooks "sharpened at the +end and fixed to long poles." With these, the Romans cut the rigging +of the enemy's ships forming the fleet of Brittany; the sails fell +and the ships were rendered useless. One after another they were easily +captured, and at sunset the victory lay with the Romans. + +The whole of Gaul, from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, seemed now subdued. +Caesar had conquered as he explored, and the skill of his +well-disciplined army triumphed everywhere over the untrained courage +of the barbarian tribes. + +Still, the German tribes were giving trouble about the country of the +Rhine, and in the words of the famous _Commentaries_, "Caesar was +determined to cross the Rhine, but he hardly thought it safe to cross +in boats. Therefore, although the construction of a bridge presented +great difficulties on account of the breadth, swiftness, and depth +of the stream, he nevertheless thought it best to make the attempt +or else not cross at all." Indeed, he wanted to impress the wild German +people on the other side with a sense of the vast power of the Roman +Empire. The barbarian tribes beyond must, indeed, have been impressed +with the skill of the Roman soldier. For in ten days the bridge was +completed: timber had been hewn from the forest, brought to the banks +of the Rhine, worked into shape, piles driven into the bed of the river, +beams laid across. And Caesar led his army in triumph to the other +side. They stood for the first time in the land of the Germans, near +the modern town of Coblenz, and after eighteen days on the farther +side, they returned to Gaul, destroying the bridge behind them. + +Caesar had now a fresh adventure in view. He was going to make his +way to Britain. The summer of 55 B.C. was passing, and "in these parts, +the whole of Gaul having a northerly trend, winter sets in early," +wrote Caesar afterwards. There would be no time to conquer, but he +could visit the island, find out for himself what the people were like, +learn about harbours and landing-places, "for of all this the Greeks +knew practically nothing. No one, indeed, readily undertakes the +voyage to Britain except traders, and even they know nothing of it +except the coast." + +Caesar summoned all the traders he could collect and inquired the size +of the island, what tribes dwelt there, their names, their customs, +and the shortest sea passage. Then he sent for the ships which had +vanquished the fleet of Brittany the previous year; he also assembled +some eighty merchant ships on the northern coast of Gaul, probably +not very far from Calais. + +It was near the end of August, when soon after midnight the wind served +and he set sail. A vision of the great Roman--determined, +resolute--rises before us as, standing on the deck of the galley, he +looks out on to the dark waters of the unknown sea bound for the coast +of England. After a slow passage the little fleet arrived under the +steep white cliffs of the southern coast about nine o'clock next +morning. Armed forces of barbarians stood on the heights above Dover, +and, finding it impossible to land, Caesar gave orders to sail some +seven miles farther along the coast, where they ran the ships aground +not far from Deal. + +But the visit of the Romans to Britain on this occasion lasted but +three days, for a violent storm scattered the ships with the horses +on board. + +"The same night," says Caesar, "it happened to be full moon, which +generally causes very high tides in the ocean, a fact of which our +men were not aware." + +Indeed, we may well believe that a night of full moon and an unusually +high tide would be a mystery to those children of the Mediterranean. +Their ships had been beached and were lying high and dry when the +rapidly rising tide overwhelmed them. Cables were broken, anchors lost, +panic ensued. + +But Caesar's glory lay in overcoming obstacles, and it is well known +how he got his troops and ships safely back across the Channel, and +how preparations were hurried on in Gaul for a second invasion of +Britain. This is not the place for the story of his campaign. He was +the first to raise the curtain on the mysterious islands discovered +by Pytheas. + + "Far to the west, in the ocean wide, + Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies, + Sea-girt it lies, where giants dwelt of old." + +Caesar's remarks on this new-found land are interesting for us to-day. +He tells us of "a river called the Thames, about eight miles from the +sea." "The interior of Britain," he says, "is inhabited by a people +who, according to tradition, are aboriginal. The population is +immense; homesteads closely resembling those of the Gauls are met with +at every turn, and cattle are very numerous. Gold coins are in use, +or iron bars of fixed weight. Hares, fowls, and geese they think it +wrong to taste; but they keep them for pastime or amusement. The climate +is more equable than in Gaul, the cold being less severe. The island +is triangular in shape, one side being opposite Gaul. One corner of +this side, by Kent--the landing-place for almost all ships from +Gaul--has an easterly, and the lower one a westerly, aspect. The extent +of this side is about five hundred miles. The second trends off towards +Spain. Off the coast here is Ireland, which is considered only half +as large as Britain. Halfway across is an island called 'Man,' and +several smaller islands also are believed to be situated opposite this +coast, in which there is continuous night for thirty days. The length +of this side is eight hundred miles. Thus the whole island is two +thousand miles in circumference. The people of the interior do not, +for the most part, cultivate grain, but live on milk and flesh-meat, +and clothe themselves with skins. All Britons, without exception, +stain themselves with woad, which produces a bluish tint. They wear +their hair long." + +Caesar crossed the Thames. "The river can only be forded at one spot," +he tells us, "and there with difficulty." Farther he did not go. And +so this is all that was known of Britain for many a long year to come. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +STRABO'S GEOGRAPHY + + +Strabo wrote his famous geography near the beginning of the Christian +era, but he knew nothing of the north of England, Scotland, or Wales. +He insisted on placing Ireland to the north, and scoffed at Pytheas' +account of Thule. + +And yet he boasted a wider range than any other writer on geography, +"for that those who had penetrated farther towards the West had not +gone so far to the East, and those on the contrary who had seen more +of the East had seen less of the West." + +Like Herodotus, Strabo had travelled himself from Armenia and western +Italy, from the Black Sea to Egypt and up the Nile to Philae. But his +seventeen volumes--vastly important to his contemporaries--read like +a romance to us to-day, and a glance at the map laid down according +to his descriptions is like a vague and distorted caricature of the +real thing. And yet, according to the men of his times, he "surpasses +all the geographical writings of antiquity, both in grandeur of plan +and in abundance and variety of its materials." + +Strabo has summed up for us the knowledge of the ancient world as it +was in the days of the Emperor Caesar Augustus of the great Roman Empire, +as it was when in far-off Syria the Christ was born and the greater +part of the known earth was under the sway of Rome. + +A wall-map had already been designed by order of Augustus to hang in +a public place in Rome--the heart of the Empire--so that the young +Romans might realise the size of their inheritance, while a list of +the chief places on the roads, which, radiating from Rome, formed a +network over the Empire, was inscribed on the Golden Milestone in the +Forum. + +[Illustration: A PORTION OF AN OLD ROMAN MAP OF THE WORLD, SHOWING +THE ROADS THROUGH THE EMPIRE, RIVERS, MOUNTAINS, AND THE SURROUNDING +SEAS. This is a portion--a few inches--taken from the famous Peutinger +Table, a long strip map on parchment, of the fourth century, derived +from Augustan maps according to the measurements of Caesar Augustus +Agrippa. It will be noticed how the roads, beginning with the Twelve +Ways, which start from Rome in the centre, go in straight lines over +all obstacles to the towns of the Empire. Distances are marked in stadia +(about 1/9 mile).] + +We may well imagine with what keen interest the schoolmen of Alexandria +would watch the extension of the Roman Empire. Here Strabo had studied, +here or at Rome he probably wrote his great work toward the close of +a long life. He has read his Homer and inclines to take every word +he says as true. Herodotus he will have none of. + +"Herodotus and other writers trifle very much," he asserts, "when they +introduce into their histories the marvellous like an interlude of +some melody." + +In like manner he disbelieves poor Pytheas and his accounts of the +land of Ultima Thule and his marvellous walks through Britain, while +he clings to the writings of Eratosthenes. + +But in common with them all Strabo believes the world to be one vast +island, surrounded on all sides by ocean into which the rivers flow, +and the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf are but inlets. So is also the +Mediterranean or "Our Sea," as he prefers to call it. This earth-island +reaches north to south, from Ireland, "barely habitable on account +of the cold," to the cinnamon country (Somaliland), "the most +southerly point of the habitable earth." From west to east it stretches +from the Pillars of Hercules right "through the middle of Our Sea" +to the shores of Asia Minor, then across Asia by an imaginary chain +of mountains to an imaginary spot where the Ganges, lately discovered, +emptied its waters into the world-surrounding ocean stream. + +[Illustration: THE WORLD-ISLAND ACCORDING TO STRABO, 18 A.D. The blank +space within the circle is one vast sea surrounding the world.] + +The breadth of the habitable earth is three thousand miles, the length +about seven thousand--a little world, indeed, with the greater world +lying all around it, still undreamt of by the old student of geography +and the traveller after truth. + +He begins his book with a detailed account of southern Spain. He tells +of her two hundred towns. "Those best known are situated on the rivers, +estuaries, and seas; but the two which have acquired the greatest name +and importance are Cordova and Cadiz. After these Seville is the most +noted.... A vast number of people dwell along the Guadalquivir, and +you may sail up it almost a hundred and twenty miles from the sea to +Cordova and the places a little higher up. The banks and little inlets +of this river are cultivated with the greatest diligence. The eye is +also delighted with groves and gardens, which in this district are +met with in the highest perfection. For fifty miles the river is +navigable for ships of considerable size, but for the cities higher +up smaller vessels are employed, and thence to Cordova river-boats. +These are now constructed of planks joined together, but they were +formerly made out of a single trunk. A chain of mountains, rich in +metal, runs parallel to the Guadalquivir, approaching the river, +sometimes more, sometimes less, toward the north." + +He grows enthusiastic over the richness of this part of southern Spain, +famous from ancient days under the name of Tartessus for its wealth. +"Large quantities of corn and wine are exported, besides much oil, +which is of the first quality, also wax, honey, and pitch ... the +country furnishes the timber for their shipbuilding. They have +likewise mineral salt and not a few salt streams. A considerable +quantity of salted fish is exported, not only from hence, but also +from the remainder of the coast beyond the Pillars. Formerly they +exported large quantities of garments, but they now send the +unmanufactured wool remarkable for its beauty. The stuffs +manufactured are of incomparable texture. There is a superabundance +of cattle and a great variety of game, while on the other hand there +are certain little hares which burrow in the ground (rabbits). These +creatures destroy both seeds and trees by gnawing their roots. They +are met with throughout almost the whole of Spain. It is said that +formerly the inhabitants of Majorca and Minorca sent a deputation to +the Romans requesting that a new land might be given them, as they +were quite driven out of their country by these animals, being no longer +able to stand against their vast multitudes." The seacoast on the +Atlantic side abounds in fish, says Strabo. "The congers are quite +monstrous, far surpassing in size those of Our Sea. Shoals of rich +fat tunny fish are driven hither from the seacoast beyond. They feed +on the fruit of stunted oak, which grows at the bottom of the sea and +produces very large acorns. So great is the quantity of fruit, that +at the season when they are ripe the whole coast on either side of +the Pillars is covered with acorns thrown up by the tides. The tunny +fish become gradually thinner, owing to the failure of their food as +they approach the Pillars from the outer sea." + +He describes, too, the metals of this wondrous land--gold, silver, +copper, and iron. It is astonishing to think that in the days of Strabo +the silver mines employed forty thousand workmen, and produced +something like 900 pounds a day in our modern money! + +But we cannot follow Strabo over the world in all his detail. He tells +us of a people living north of the Tagus, who slept on the ground, +fed on acorn-bread, and wore black cloaks by day and night. He does +not think Britain is worth conquering--Ireland lies to the north, not +west, of Britain; it is a barren land full of cannibals and wrapped +in eternal snows--the Pyrenees run parallel to the Rhine--the Danube +rises near the Alps--even Italy herself runs east and west instead +of north and south. His remarks on India are interesting. + +"The reader," he says, "must receive the accounts of this country with +indulgence. Few persons of our nation have seen it; the greater part +of what they relate is from report. Very few of the merchants who now +sail from Egypt by the Nile and the Arabian Gulf to India have proceeded +as far as the Ganges." + +He is determined not to be led astray by the fables of the great size +of India. Some had told him it was a third of the whole habitable world, +some that it took four months to walk through the plain only. "Ceylon +is said to be an island lying out at sea seven days' sail from the +most southerly parts of India. Its length is about eight hundred miles. +It produces elephants." + +Strabo died about the year 21 A.D., and half a century passed before +Pliny wrote _An Account of Countries, Nations, Seas, Towns, Havens, +Mountains, Rivers, Distances, and Peoples who now Exist or Formerly +Existed_. Strange to say, he never refers in the most distant way to +his famous predecessor Strabo. He has but little to add to the +earth-knowledge of Strabo. But he gives us a fuller account of Great +Britain, based on the fresh discoveries of Roman generals. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND PLINY + + +In the year 43 A.D. the Emperor Claudius resolved to send an expedition +to the British coast, lying amid the mists and fog of the Northern +Ocean. + +A gigantic army landed near the spot where Caesar had landed just a +hundred years before. The discovery and conquest of Britain now began +in real earnest. The Isle of Wight was overrun by Romans; the south +coast was explored. Roman soldiers lost their lives in the bogs and +swamps of Gloucestershire. The eastern counties, after fierce +opposition, submitted at the last. The spirit of Caractacus and +Boadicea spread from tribe to tribe and the Romans were constantly +assailed. But gradually they swept the island. They reached the banks +of the river Tyne; they crossed the Tweed and explored as far as the +Firths of Clyde and Forth. From the coast of Galloway the Romans beheld +for the first time the dim outline of the Irish coast. In the year +83 A.D. Agricola, a new Roman commander, made his way beyond the Firth +of Forth. + +"Now is the time to penetrate into the heart of Caledonia and to +discover the utmost limits of Britain," cried the Romans, as they began +their advance to the Highlands of Scotland. While a Roman fleet +surveyed the coasts and harbours, Agricola led his men up the valley +of the Tay to the edge of the Highlands, but he could not follow the +savage Caledonians into their rugged and inaccessible mountains. To +the north of Scotland they never penetrated, and no part of Ireland +ever came under Roman sway, in that air "the Roman eagle never +fluttered." The Roman account of Britain at this time is interesting. +"Britain," says Tacitus, "the largest of all the islands which have +come within the knowledge of the Romans, stretches on the east towards +Germany, on the west towards Spain, and on the south it is even within +sight of France.... The Roman fleet, at this period first sailing round +this remotest coast, gave certain proof that Britain was an island, +and at the same time discovered and subdued the Orkney Islands, till +then unknown. Thule was also distinctly seen, which winter and eternal +snow had hitherto concealed.... The sky in this country is deformed +by clouds and frequent rains; but the cold is never extremely rigorous. +The earth yields gold and silver and other metals--the ocean produces +pearls." + +The account of Ireland is only from hearsay. "This island," continues +Tacitus, "is less than Britain, but larger than those of Our Sea. +Situated between Britain and Spain and lying commodiously to the Bay +of Biscay, it would have formed a very beneficial connection between +the most powerful parts of the Empire. Its soil, climate, and the +manners and dispositions of its inhabitants are little different from +those of Britain. Its ports and harbours are better known from the +concourse of merchants for the purposes of commerce." + +Not only the British Isles, but a good deal of the wild North Sea and +the low-lying coast on the opposite side were explored by Roman ships +and Roman soldiers. Caesar had crossed the Rhine; he had heard of a +great forest which took a man four months to cross, and in 16 A.D. +a Roman general, Drusus, penetrated into the interior of Germany. +Drusus crossed the Rhine near the coast, made his way across the river +Weser, and reached the banks of the Elbe. But the fame of Drusus rests +mainly on his navigation of the German Ocean or North Sea in a Roman +fleet. Near the mouth of the Rhine a thousand ships were quickly built +by expert Romans. "Some were short, with narrow stern and prow and +broad in the middle, the easier to endure the shock of the waves; some +had flat bottoms that without damage they might run aground; many were +fitted for carrying horses and provisions, convenient for sails and +swift with oars." + +The Roman troops were in high spirits as they launched their splendid +fleet on the Northern Ocean and sailed prosperously to the mouth of +the Elbe, startling the Frisians into submission. But no friendliness +greeted them on the farther side of the river. The Germans were ready +to defend their land, and further advance was impossible. Returning +along the northern coast, the Romans got a taste of the storms of this +northern ocean, of which they were in such complete ignorance. + +"The sea, at first calm," says Tacitus, "resounded with the oars of +a thousand ships; but presently a shower of hail poured down from a +black mass of clouds, at the same time storms raging on all sides in +every variety, the billows rolling now here, now there, obstructed +the view and made it impossible to manage the ships. The whole expanse +of air and sea was swept by a south-west wind, which, deriving strength +from the mountainous regions of Germany, its deep rivers and boundless +tract of clouded atmosphere, and rendered still harsher by the rigour +of the neighbouring north, tore away the ships, scattered and drove +them into the open ocean or upon islands dangerous from precipitous +rocks or hidden sandbanks. Having got a little clear of these, but +with great difficulty, the tide turning and flowing in the same +direction as that in which the wind blew, they were unable to ride +at anchor or bale out the water that broke in upon them; horses, beasts +of burthen, baggage, even arms were thrown overboard to lighten the +holds of the ships, which took in water at their sides, and from the +waves, too, running over them. Around were either shores inhabited +by enemies, or a sea so vast and unfathomable as to be supposed the +limit of the world and unbounded by lands. Part of the fleet was +swallowed up; many were driven upon remote islands, where the men +perished through famine. The galley of Drusus or, as he was hereafter +called, Germanicus, alone reached the mouth of the Weser. Both day +and night, amid the rocks and prominences of the shore, he reproached +himself as the author of such overwhelming destruction, and was hardly +restrained by his friends from destroying himself in the same sea. +At last, with the returning tide and a favouring gale, the shattered +ships returned, almost all destitute or with garments spread for +sails." + +[Illustration: HULL OF A ROMAN MERCHANT-SHIP. From a Roman model in +marble at Greenwich.] + +The wreck of the Roman fleet in the North Sea made a deep impression +on the Roman capital, and many a garbled story of the "extreme parts +of the world" was circulated throughout the Empire. + +Here was new land outside the boundaries of the Empire--country great +with possibilities. Pliny, writer of the _Natural History_, now arises +and endeavours to clear the minds of his countrymen by some account +of these northern regions. Strabo had been dead some fifty years, and +the Empire had grown since his days. But Pliny has news of land beyond +the Elbe. He can tell us of Scandinavia, "an island of unknown extent," +of Norway, another island, "the inhabitants of which sailed as far +as Thule," of the Seamen or Swedes who lived in the "northern half +of the world." + +"It is madness to harass the mind with attempts to measure the world," +he asserts, but he proceeds to tell us the size of the world as accepted +by him. "Our part of the earth, floating as it were in the ocean, which +surrounds it, stretching out to the greatest extent from India to the +Pillars at Cadiz, is eight thousand five hundred and sixty-eight +miles ... the breadth from south to north is commonly supposed to be +half its length." + +But how little was known of the north of Europe at this time is shown +by a startling statement that "certain Indians sailing from India for +the purposes of commerce had been driven by tempests into Germany." + +"Thus it appears," concludes Pliny, "that the seas flow completely +round the globe and divide it into two parts." + +How Balbus discovered and claimed for the Empire some of the African +desert is related by Pliny. He tells us, too, how another Roman general +left the west coast of Africa, marched for ten days, reached Mt. Atlas, +and "in a desert of dark-coloured sand met a river which he supposed +to be the Niger." + +The home of the Ethiopians in Africa likewise interested Pliny. + +"There can be no doubt that the Ethiopians are scorched by their +vicinity to the sun's heat, and that they are born like persons who +have been burned, with beard and hair frizzled, while in the opposite +and frozen parts of the earth there are nations with white skins and +long light hair." + +Pliny's geography was the basis of much mediaeval writing, and his +knowledge of the course of the Niger remained unchallenged, till Mungo +Park re-discovered it many centuries after. + +[Illustration: A ROMAN GALLEY, ABOUT 110 A.D. From Trajan's Column +at Rome.] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +PTOLEMY'S MAPS + + +And so we reach the days of Ptolemy--the last geographer of the Pagan +World. This famous Greek was born in Egypt, and the great Roman Empire +was already showing signs of decay, while Ptolemy was searching the +great Alexandrian library for materials for his book. Alexandria was +now the first commercial city of the world, second only to Rome. She +supplied the great population in the heart of the Empire with Egyptian +corn. Ships sailed from Alexandria to every part of the known world. +It was, therefore, a suitable place for Ptolemy to listen to the yarns +of the merchants, to read the works of Homer, Herodotus, Eratosthenes, +Strabo, Pliny, and others, to study and observe, and finally to write. + +He begins his great geography with the north-west extremities of the +world--the British Isles, Iverna, and Albion as he calls Ireland and +England. But he places Ireland much too far north, and the shape of +Scotland has little resemblance to the original.[2] He realised that +there were lands to the south of Africa, to the east of Africa, and +to the north of Europe, all stretching far away beyond his ken. He +agrees with Pliny about the four islands in the neighbourhood of +Scandinavia, and draws the Volga correctly, He realises, too, that +the Caspian is an inland sea, and unconnected with the surrounding +ocean. + +[Footnote 2: If Ptolemy's longitudes are adjusted, he becomes +extraordinarily correct.] + +[Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--II. THE WORLD AS KNOWN +TO PTOLEMY AND THE ROMANS.] + +Perhaps the most remarkable part of Ptolemy's geography is that which +tells us of the lands beyond the Ganges. He knows something of the +"Golden Chersonese" or Malay Peninsula, something of China, where "far +away towards the north, and bordering on the eastern ocean, there is +a land containing a great city from which silk is exported, both raw +and spun and woven into textures." + +The wonder is that Ptolemy did not know more of China, for that land +had one of the oldest civilisations in the world, as wondrous as those +of Assyria and Egypt. But China had had little or no direct intercourse +with the West till after the death of Ptolemy. Merchants had passed +between China and India for long centuries, and "the Indians had made +journeys in the golden deserts in troops of one or two thousand, and +it is said that they do not return from these journeys till the third +or fourth year." This was the Desert of Gobi, called golden because +it opened the way to wealth. + +But perhaps the most interesting part of this great geography, which +was to inform the world for centuries yet to come, was the construction +of a series of twenty-six maps and a general map of the known world. + +This was one of the most important maps ever constructed, and forms +our frontispiece from mediaeval copies of the original. The twelve +heads blowing sundry winds on to the world's surface are +characteristic of the age. The twenty-six maps are in sections. They +are the first maps to be drawn with lines of latitude and longitude. +The measurements are very vague. The lines are never ruled; they are +drawn uncertainly in red; they are neither straight nor regular, +though the spaces between the lines indicate degrees of fifty miles. +The maps are crowded with towns, each carefully walled in by little +red squares and drawn by hand. The water is all coloured a sombre, +greeny blue, and the land is washed in a rich yellow brown. A copy +can be seen at the British Museum. + +It is only by looking back that we can realise the progress made in +earth-knowledge. Ptolemy wrote just a thousand years after Homer, when +the little world round the Mediterranean had become a great Empire +stretching from the British Isles to China. + +Already the barbaric hordes which haunted the frontiers of the Roman +Empire were breaking across the ill-defended boundaries, desolating +streams were bursting over the civilised world, until at last the storm +broke, the unity of the Empire was ended, commerce broken up, and the +darkness of ignorance spread over the earth. + +During this time little in the way of progress was made, and for the +next few centuries our only interest lies in filling up some of the +shadowy places of the earth, without extending its known bounds. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +PILGRIM TRAVELLERS + + +Meanwhile a new inspiration had been given to the world, which affected +travelling to no small extent. + +In far-off Roman province of Syria, the Christ had lived, the Christ +had died. And His words were ringing through the land: "Go ye and make +disciples of all the nations, preach the gospel to every creature." +Here at once was a new incentive to travel, a definite reason for men +to venture forth into the unknown, to brave dangers, to endure hardship. +They must carry their Master's words "unto the ends of the world." +The Roman Empire had brought men under one rule; they must now be +brought to serve one God. So men passed out of Syria; they landed on +the islands in the Mediterranean, they made their way to Asia Minor +and across to Greece, until in the year 60 A.D. we get the graphic +account of Paul the traveller, one of the first and most famous of +the missionaries of the first century. + +Jerusalem now became, indeed, the world centre. A very stream of +pilgrim travellers tramped to the Holy City from far-away lands to +see for themselves the land where the Christ had lived and died. + +The pilgrim age begins with the journey of a woman--the beautiful and +learned daughter of the King of Britain, Helena, mother of the Emperor +Constantine. She was a student of divinity and a devoted Christian. +In the year 326 she undertook the difficult journey to Jerusalem, where +she is reported to have discovered the "true cross," which had been +buried, with Pilate's inscription in "Hebrew and Greek and Latin." +When the news of her discovery was noised abroad a very rush of pilgrims +took place from every part of the world. Indeed, one pilgrim--his name +is unknown--thought it worth while to write a guide-book for the +benefit of his fellow-travellers. His _Itinerary from Bordeaux to +Jerusalem_ is very interesting, being the first Christian guide-book +and one of the earliest travel-documents ever written for the use of +travellers. This ancient "Bradshaw" has been translated into English +and throws light on fourth-century travelling. Enthusiastic indeed +must these early pilgrims have been to undertake the long and toilsome +journey. + +[Illustration: THE FIRST STAGES OF A MEDIAEVAL PILGRIMAGE: LONDON TO +DOVER. From Matthew of Paris's _Itinerary_, thirteenth century.] + +The guide-book takes them, save for crossing the Bosphorus, entirely +by land. It leads them from the "city of Bordeaux, where is the river +Garonne in which the ocean ebbs and flows for one hundred leagues more +or less," to Arles, with thirty changes and eleven halts in three +hundred and seventy-two miles. There were milestones along the Roman +roads to guide them, and houses at regular intervals where horses were +kept for posting. From Arles the pilgrim goes north to Avignon, crosses +the Alps, and halts at the Italian frontier. Skirting the north of +Italy by Turin, Milan, and Padua, he reaches the Danube at Belgrade, +passes through Servia and Bulgaria and so reaches Constantinople--the +great new city of Constantine. "Grand total from Bordeaux to +Constantinople, two thousand two hundred and twenty-one miles, with +two hundred and thirty changes and one hundred and twelve halts." + +"From Constantinople," continues the guide-book, "you cross the +strait and walk on through Asia Minor, passing the spot where lies +King Hannibal, once King of the Africans." Thus onward through the +long dreary miles to Tarsus, where "was born the Apostle Paul," till +Syria is reached at last. + +Then the "Bradshaw" becomes a "Baedeker." Long and detailed accounts +are given of the country through which the pilgrim has to pass. From +Caesarea he is led to Jezreel by the spot "where David slew Goliath," +by "Job's country house" to Sichem, "where Joseph is laid," and thence +to Jerusalem. Full accounts follow of the Holy City and Mount Sion, +"the little hill of Golgotha where the Lord was crucified," the Mount +of Olives, Jericho, Jordan, Bethlehem, and Hebron. "Here is a monument +of square form built of stone of wondrous beauty," in which lie Abraham, +Isaac, Jacob, Sara, Rebecca, and Leah. + +"From Constantinople to Jerusalem is one thousand one hundred and +fifty-nine miles, with sixty-nine changes and fifty-eight halts." + +Here the guide-book ends abruptly with a brief summary of distances. +Thither then flocked the pilgrims, some by land and some by sea, men +and women from all parts of the world. + +"Even the Briton, separated from our world, leaves the setting sun +and seeks a place known to him only by fame and the narrative of the +Scriptures." + +One of the earliest was Paula of Rome--a weak, fragile woman accustomed +to a life of luxury and ease, but, fired with the enthusiasm of her +religion, she resolved to brave the dangers and hardships of a journey +to the East. Her travels were written by St. Jerome. + +"When the winter was spent and the sea was open," he writes, "she longed +and prayed to sail.... She went down to the harbour, accompanied by +her brother, her relatives, her connections and, more than these, by +her children, who strove to surpass the affection of the kindest of +mothers. Soon the sails were swelling in the breeze, and the ship, +guided by the oars, gained the open sea. Little Lexotinus piteously +stretched forth his hands from the shore. Rufina, a grown-up girl, +by her tears silently besought her mother to stay until she was married. +Yet she herself, without a tear, turned her eyes heavenward, +overcoming her love for her children by her love for God.... Meanwhile +the ship was ploughing the sea--the winds were sluggish and all speed +slow." But the ship passed between Scylla and Charybdis and reached +Antioch in safety. From this spot she followed the guide-book +directions until she arrived at Jerusalem. How Paula and one of her +young daughters walked over the rough ground, endured the hardships +of desert-life, and finally lived twenty years at Bethlehem, would +take too long to tell. And she was but one of many. + +[Illustration: JERUSALEM AND THE EAST. From Matthew of Paris's +_Itinerary_, thirteenth century.] + +Sylvia of Aquitaine, travelling at the same time, wrote a strangely +interesting account of her travels. The early part of her manuscript +is lost, and we find her first in Arabia. All was new and strange. + +"Meanwhile as we walked we arrived at a certain place, where the +mountains between which we were passing opened themselves out and +formed a great valley, very flat and extremely beautiful; and beyond +the valley appeared Sinai, the holy mount of God.... This is the same +great and flat valley in which the children of Israel waited during +the days when holy Moses went up into the Mount of God.... It was late +on the Sabbath when we came to the mountain, and, arriving at a certain +monastery, the kindly monks who lived there entertained us, showing +us all kindliness." Sylvia had to ascend the mountain on foot "because +the ascent could not be made in a chair," but the view over "Egypt +and Palestine and the Red Sea and the Mediterranean which leads to +Alexandria, also the boundless territory of the Saracens, we saw below +us, hard though it is to believe, all of which things these holy men +pointed out to us." + +But we must not follow her to Jerusalem, or to Mesopotamia, where she +saw "the great river Euphrates, rushing down in a torrent like the +Rhine, but greater." She reached Constantinople by the guide-book +route, having spent four years in travel, and walked two thousand miles +to the very "limit of the Roman Empire." Her boundless energy is not +exhausted yet. "Ladies, my beloved ones," she writes, "whilst I +prepare this account for your pious zeal, it is already my purpose +to go to Asia." + +But we must turn away for a moment from the stream of pilgrim travellers +wending their weary way from Britain, France, Spain, and the east to +Jerusalem, to follow the travels of St. Patrick through the wilds of +Ireland. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +IRISH EXPLORERS + + +Patrick had been a pilgrim to Rome from the banks of the Clyde, where +he lived, and, having seen the Pope, he had returned to Ireland by +sea, landing on the Wicklow coast in the year 432. Hungry and tired +after the long voyage, he tried to get some fish from the fishermen, +but they replied by throwing stones at him, and he put out to sea again +and headed north. Past Bray Head, past the Bay of Malahide he sailed, +but he could get neither fish nor food till he reached a spot between +the Liffey and the Boyne, where he built his first Christian church. + +Now in the fifth century, when light first breaks over Ireland, it +breaks over a land torn by perpetual tribal strife, a land in the chaos +of wild heathendom. It was reserved for St. Patrick to save her from +increasing gloom. + +Patrick and his companions now sailed on past Louth, by the low-lying +shore with long stretches of sandy flats, on under the shadow of great +peaks frowning over the sea. He landed near Downpatrick, founded +another church, and spent the winter in these parts, for the autumn +was far advanced. Spring found him sailing back to the Boyne and +attacking the fierce heathen king at Tara, the capital of Ireland. +From Tara five great roads led to different parts of the island. St. +Patrick now made his way through Meath to the very heart of the country, +building churches as he went. Thence he crossed the Shannon, entered +the great plain of Roscommon, passed by Mayo, and at length reached +the western sea. He had now been eight years in Ireland, eight laborious +years, climbing hills, wading through waters, camping out by night, +building, organising, preaching. He loved the land on the western sea, +little known as yet. + + "I would choose + To remain here on a little land, + After faring around churches and waters. + Since I am weary, I wish not to go further." + +St. Patrick climbed the great peak, afterwards called Croaghpatrick, +and on the summit, exposed to wind and rain, he spent the forty days +of Lent. From here he could look down on to one of the most beautiful +bays in Ireland, down on to the hundred little islands in the glancing +waters below, while away to the north and south stretched the rugged +coast-line. And he tells us how the great white birds came and sang +to him there. It would take too long to tell how he returned to Tara +and started again with a train of thirteen chariots by the great +north-western road to the spot afterwards known as Downpatrick Head; +he passed along the broken coast to the extreme north where the great +ocean surf breaks on the rugged shore, returning again to the Irish +capital. He travelled over a great part of Ireland, founded three +hundred and fifty churches, converted heathen tribes to Christianity +and civilisation, and finally died at Armagh in 493. His work was +carried on by St. Columba, a native of Ireland, who, "deciding to go +abroad for Christ," sailed away with twelve disciples to a low rocky +island off the west coast of Scotland, where he founded the famous +monastery of Iona, about 563. Thence he journeyed away to the Highlands, +making his way through rugged and mountainous country that had stayed +the warlike Romans long years before. He even sailed across the stormy +northern sea to the Orkney Islands. + +Let us picture the Scotland of the sixth century in order to realise +those long lonely tramps of St. Columba and his disciples across the +rough mountains, through the dense forests, across bleak moors and +wet bogs, till after dreary wanderings they reached the coast, and +in frail ships boldly faced the wild seas that raged round the northern +islands. + +"We can see Columba and his disciples journeying on foot, as poor and +as barely provided as were Christ and His disciples, with neither +silver nor gold nor brass in their purses, and over a wilder country +and among a wilder people." + +[Illustration: IRELAND AND ST. BRANDON'S ISLE. From the Catalan map, +1375.] + +These pilgrims tramped to and fro clad in simple tunics over a monkish +dress of undyed wool, bound round the waist by a strong cord, all their +worldly goods on their backs and a staff in their hands. The hermit +instinct was growing, and men were sailing away to lonely islands where +God might be better served apart from the haunts of men. Perhaps it +was this instinct that inspired St. Brandon to sail away across the +trackless ocean in search of the Island of Saints reported in the +western seas. His voyage suggests the old expedition of Ulysses. A +good deal of it is mythical, some is added at a later date, but it +is interesting as being an attempt to cross the wide Atlantic Ocean +across which no man had yet sailed. For seven years St. Brandon sailed +on the unknown sea, discovering unknown islands, until he reached the +Island of Saints--the goal of his desires. And the fact remains that +for ten centuries after this an island, known as Brandon's Isle, was +marked on maps somewhere to the west of Ireland, though to the end +it remained as mysterious as the island of Thule. + +Here is the old story. Brandon, abbot of a large Irish monastery +containing one thousand monks, sailed off in an "osier boat covered +with tanned hides and carefully greased," provisioned for seven years. +After forty days at sea they reached an island with steep sides, where +they took in fresh supplies. Thence the winds carried the ship to +another island, where they found sheep--"every sheep was as great as +an ox." + +"This is the island of sheep, and here it is ever summer," they were +informed by an old islander. + +This may have been Madeira. They found other islands in the +neighbourhood, one of which was full of singing-birds, and the passing +years found them still tossing to and fro on the unknown sea, until +at last the end came. "And St. Brandon sailed forty days south in full +great tempest," and another forty days brought the ship right into +a bank of fog. But when the fog lifted "they saw the fairest country +eastward that any man might see, it was so clear and bright that it +was a heavenly sight to behold; and all the trees were charged with +ripe fruit." And they walked about the island for forty days and could +not find the end. And there was no night there, and the climate was +neither hot nor cold. + +"Be ye joyful now," said a voice, "for this is the land ye have sought, +and our Lord wills that you laden your ship with the fruit of this +land and hie you hence, for ye may no longer abide here, but thou shalt +sail again into thine own country." + +[Illustration: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLE OF ST. BRANDON IN MARTIN BEHAIM'S +MAP, 1492. As geographical knowledge increased, map-makers were +compelled to put Brandon's Isle farther and farther away from Ireland, +until here we find it off the coast of Africa and near the Equator.] + +So the monks took all the fruit they could carry, and, weeping that +they might stay no longer in this happy land, they sailed back to +Ireland. Hazy, indeed, was the geography of the Atlantic in the sixth +century. Nor can we leave St. Brandon's story without quoting a modern +poet, who believed that the voyage was to the Arctic regions and not +in the Atlantic. + + "Saint Brandon sails the Northern Main, + The brotherhood of saints are glad. + He greets them once, he sails again: + So late! Such storms! The saint is mad. + He heard across the howling seas + Chime convent bells on wintry nights; + He saw, on spray-swept Hebrides, + Twinkle the monastery lights: + But north, still north, Saint Brandon steered, + And now no bells, no convents more, + The hurtling Polar lights are reached, + The sea without a human shore." + +Some three hundred years were to pass away before further discoveries +in these quarters revealed new lands, three hundred years before the +great energy of the Vikings brought to light Iceland, Greenland, and +even the coast of America. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +AFTER MOHAMMED + + +So once more we turn back to the East. Jerusalem is still the centre +of the earth. But a change has passed over the world, which influenced +not a little the progress of geography. Mohammed in the seventh century +lived and died in Arabia. "There is but one God, and Mohammed is His +prophet," proclaimed his followers, the Arabs or Saracens as they were +called. And just as men had travelled abroad to preach Christianity +to those who knew it not, so now the Mohammedans set forth to teach +the faith of their Lord and Master. But whereas Christianity was taught +by peaceful means, Mohammedanism was carried by the sword. The Roman +provinces of Syria and Egypt had been conquered by the Arabs, and the +famous cities of Jerusalem and Alexandria were filled with teachers +of the new faith. The Mohammedans had conquered Spain and were pressing +by Persia towards India. + +What deep root their preaching took in these parts is still evident. +Still the weary fight between the two religions continues. + +The first traveller of note through this distracted Europe was a +Frenchman named Arculf, a Christian bishop. When he had visited the +Holy Land and Egypt his ship was caught in a violent storm and driven +on to the west coast of Scotland. After many adventures Arculf found +himself at the famous convent of Iona, made welcome by an Irish monk +Adamnan, who was deeply interested in Arculf's account of his +wanderings, and wrote them down at his dictation, first on waxed +tablets, copied later on to parchment. How tenderly the two monks dwell +on all the glories of Jerusalem. "But in that beautiful place where +once the Temple had been, the Saracens now frequent a four-sided house +of prayer, which they have built, rudely constructing it by raising +boards and great beams on some remains of ruins, which house can hold +three thousand men at once." And Arculf draws on the waxed tablet the +picture of some church or tomb to make his narrative clearer to his +friend Adamnan. + +Perhaps the most interesting part of all the travels is the account +of the lofty column that Arculf describes in the midst of Jerusalem. + +"This column," he says, "as it stands in the centre of the heaven, +shining straight down from above, proves that the city of Jerusalem +is situated in the middle of the earth." + +Arculf's journey aroused great interest among the newly converted +Christians of the north, and Willibald, a high-born Englishman, +started off in 721 to explore farther. But the road through Europe +was now full of danger. The followers of Mohammed were strong, and +it required true courage to face the perils of the long journey. +Willibald was undaunted, and with his father and two brothers he sailed +from Southampton, crossed to France, sailed up the Seine to Rouen, +and reached Italy. Here the old father died. Willibald and his brothers +travelled on through "the vast lands of Italy, through the depths of +the valleys, over the steep brows of the mountains, over the levels +of the plains, climbing on foot the difficult passes of the Alps, over +the icebound and snow-capped summits," till they arrived at Rome. +Thence they made their way to Syria, where they were at once thrown +into prison by Mohammedan conquerors. They were brought before the +ruler of the Mohammedan world, or Khalif, whose seat was at Damascus. +He asked whence they came. + +"These men come from the western shore, where the sun sets: and we +know not of any land beyond them, but water only," was the answer. + +Such was Britain to the Mohammedans. They never got a footing in that +country: their Empire lay to the east, and their capital was even now +shifting to Bagdad. + +[Illustration: THE WORLD-MAP OF COSMAS, SIXTH CENTURY. This is the +oldest Christian map. It shows the flat world surrounded by the ocean, +with the four winds and the four sacred rivers running out of the +terrestrial Paradise; beyond all is the "terra ultra oceanum," "the +world beyond the ocean, where men dwelt before the flood."] + +But before turning to their geographical discoveries we must see how +Cosmas, the Egyptian merchant-monk, set the clock back by his quaint +theories of the world in the sixth century. Cosmas hailed from +"Alexander's great city." His calling carried him into seas and +countries remote from home. He knew the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian +Gulf, and the Red Sea. He had narrowly escaped shipwreck in the Indian +Ocean, which in those days was regarded with terror on account of its +violent currents and dense fogs. As the ship carrying the merchant +approached this dread region, a storm gathered overhead, and flocks +of albatross, like birds of ill-omen, hovered about the masts. + +"We were all in alarm," relates Cosmas, "for all the men of experience +on board, whether passengers or sailors, began to say that we were +near the ocean and called out to the pilot: 'Steer the ship to port +and make for the gulf, or we shall be swept along by the currents and +carried into the ocean and lost.' For the ocean rushing into the gulf +was swelling with billows of portentous size, while the currents from +the gulf were driving the ship into the ocean, and the outlook was +altogether so dismal that we were kept in a state of great alarm." + +That he eventually reached India is clear, for he relates strange +things concerning Ceylon. "There is a large oceanic island lying in +the Indian Sea," he tells us. "It has a length of nine hundred miles +and it is of the like extent in breadth. There are two kings in the +island, and they are at feud the one with the other. The island, being +as it is in a central position, is much frequented by ships from all +parts of India, and from Persia and Ethiopia, and from the remotest +countries, it receives silk, aloes, cloves, and other products ... +farther away is the clove country, then Tzinista (China), which +produces silk. Beyond this there is no other country, for the ocean +surrounds it on the east." + +Cosmas was the first to realise that China was bounded on the east +by the ocean. He tells us a good story about the "Lord of India," who +always went to war with two thousand elephants. "Once upon a time this +king would lay siege to an island city of the Indians, which was on +every side protected by water. A long while he sat down before it, +until, what with his elephants, his horses, and his soldiers, all the +water had been drunk up. He then crossed over to the city dryshod and +took it." + +[Illustration: THE MOUNTAIN OF COSMAS, CAUSING NIGHT AND DAY AND THE +SEASONS.] + +But, strange as are the travels and information of Cosmas, still +stranger is his _Christian Topography_. His commercial travelling +done he retired, became a devout Christian monk, and devoted his +leisure time in trying to reconcile all the progress of geographical +knowledge with old Biblical ideas. + +He assures us that the world is flat and not round, and that it is +surrounded by an immense wall supporting the firmament. Indeed, if +we compare the maps of Cosmas in the sixth century with those of the +Babylonians thousands of years before, there is mighty little +difference. With amazing courage he refutes all the old theories and +draws the most astounding maps, which, nevertheless, are the oldest +Christian maps which survive. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE VIKINGS SAIL THE NORTHERN SEAS + + +A more interesting force than the pilgrim travellers now claims our +attention, and we turn to the frozen north, to the wild region at the +back of the north wind, for new activity and discovery. Out of this +land of fable and myth, legend and poetry, the fierce inhabitants of +Scandinavia begin to take shape. Tacitus speaks of them as "mighty +in fame," Ptolemy as "savage and clothed in the skins of wild beasts." + +From time to time we have glimpses of these folk sailing about in the +Baltic Sea. They were known to the Finns of the north as "sea-rovers." +"The sea is their school of war and the storm their friend; they are +sea-wolves that live on the pillage of the world," sang an old Roman +long years ago. The daring spirit of their race had already attracted +the attention of Britons across the seas. The careless glee with which +they seized either sword or oar and waged war with the stormy seas +for a scanty livelihood, raiding all the neighbouring coasts, had +earned them the name of Vikings or creek men. Their black-sailed ships +stood high out of the water, prow and stern ending in the head and +tail of some strange animal, while their long beards, their loose +shirts, and battleaxe made them conspicuous. "From the fury of the +Northmen save us, Lord," prayed those who had come in contact with +these Vikings. + +In the ninth century they spring into fame as explorers by the discovery +of Iceland. It was in this wise. The chief of a band of pirates, one +Naddod, during a voyage to the Faroe Islands was driven by a storm +upon the eastern coast of an unknown land. Not a soul was to be seen. +He climbed a high mountain covered with snow and took a look round, +but though he could see far and wide, not a human being could he detect. +So he named it Snow-land and sailed home to relate his adventures. + +A few years later another Viking, Gardar, bound for the west coast +of Scotland, was likewise blown by a storm on to the coast of Snow-land. +He sailed right round and found it to be an island. Considering that +it was unsafe to navigate the icy northern seas in winter, he built +himself a hut on the island, lived there till the spring, and returned +home. His account of the island fired the enthusiasm of an old Viking +called Floki, who sailed away, meaning to take possession of the newly +discovered country. At the Faroe Islands he let fly three ravens. The +first returned, the second came back to the ship, the third guided +the navigator to the island which he sought. He met a quantity of drift +ice about the northern part of the island and called it Ice-land, the +name it has borne ever since. But amid the Arctic ice he spent a desolate +winter; the island seemed full of lofty mountains covered with eternal +snow. His companions, however, were delighted with the climate and +the soil. + +"Milk drops from every plant and butter from every twig," they said; +"this was a land where men might live free from the tyranny of kings." +Free, indeed, for the island was totally uninhabited. + +[Illustration: A VIKING SHIP. A reconstruction (from Prof. +Montelius's book on Scandinavian archaeology) of an actual Viking ship +found, almost complete, at Gokstad, Norway.] + +Iceland soon became a refuge for pirates and other lawless characters. +Among these was a young Viking called Erik the Red. He was too lawless +even for Iceland, and, being banished for three years, he sailed away +in 985 in search of new lands. At the end of his three years he returned +and reported that he had discovered land with rich meadows, fine woods, +and good fishing, which he had named Green-land. So glowing was his +description that soon a party of men and women, with household goods +and cattle, started forth in twenty-five ships to colonise the new +land. Still the passion for discovery continued, and Erik's son Lief +fitted out a vessel to carry thirty-five men in quest of land already +sighted to the west. + +It was in the year 1000 that they reached the coast of North America. +It was a barren and rocky shore to which Lief gave the name of Rock-land. +Sailing farther, they found a low coast wooded to its edge, to which +they gave the simple name of Woody-land. Two days later an island +appeared, and on the mainland they discovered a river up which they +sailed. On low bushes by the banks of the river they found sweet berries +or wild grapes from which a sort of wine was made, so Lief called the +land Vin-land. It is now supposed that Vinland and Woodyland are really +Newfoundland and Labrador on the shores of North America. After this, +shipload followed shipload from Iceland to colonise Vinland. But +without success. + +So the Viking discoveries in these cold and inhospitable regions were +but transitory. The clouds lifted but for a moment to settle down again +over America, till it was rediscovered some five hundred years later. + +Before leaving these northern explorers let us remind ourselves of +the old saga so graphic in its description of their ocean lives-- + + "Down the fiord sweep wind and rain; + Our sails and tackle sway and strain; + Wet to the skin + We're sound within. + Our sea-steed through the foam goes prancing, + While shields and spears and helms are glancing + From fiord to sea, + Our ships ride free, + And down the wind with swelling sail + We scud before the gathering gale." + +Now, while these fierce old Vikings were navigating unknown seas, +Alfred the Great was reigning over England. Among his many and varied +interests he was deeply thrilled in the geography of the world. He +was always ready to listen to those who had been on voyages of discovery, +and in his account of the geography of Europe he tells us of a famous +old sea captain called Othere, who had navigated the unknown seas to +the north of Europe. + +"Othere told his lord, King Alfred, that he dwelt northmost of all +Northmen, on the land by the western sea. He said that the land is +very long thence to the north; but it is all waste save that in a few +places here and there Finns reside. He said that he wished to find +out how far the land lay right north, or whether any man dwelt to the +north of the waste. Then he went right north near the land, and he +left all the way the waste land on the right and the wide sea on the +left for three days. There was he as far north as the whale-hunters +ever go. He then went yet right north, as far as he could sail in the +next three days. After sailing for another nine days he came to a great +river; they turned up into the river, but they durst not sail beyond +it on account of hostility, for the land was all inhabited on the other +side. He had not before met with any inhabited land since he came from +his own home, for the land was uninhabited all the way on his right +save by fishermen, hunters, and fowlers, and they were all Finns, and +there was always a wide sea on his left." + +And as a trophy of distant lands and a proof of his having reached +farthest north, Othere presented the King with a "snow-white walrus +tooth." + +But King Alfred wanted his subjects to know more of the world around +them, and even in the midst of his busy life he managed to write a +book in Anglo-Saxon, which sums up for us the world's knowledge some +nine hundred years after Ptolemy--nine hundred barren years as far +as much geographical progress was concerned. Alfred does not even +allude to Iceland, Greenland, or Vinland. The news of these +discoveries had evidently not reached him. He repeats the old legend +of Thule to the north-west of Ireland, "which is known to few, on +account of its very great distance." + +So ends the brief but thrilling discoveries of the Northmen, who knew +not fear, and we turn again to landsmen and the east. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ARAB WAYFARERS + + +And now we leave the fierce energy of the Northmen westwards and turn +to another energy, which was leading men toward the east, to the lands +beyond the Euphrates, to India, across central Asia, even into far +Cathay. + +These early travellers to the east were for the most part Arabs. +Mohammed had bidden his followers to spread his teaching far and wide; +this teaching had always appealed more to the eastern than to the +western mind. So farther and farther to the east travelled the Arabs, +converting the uncivilised tribes that Christianity had not reached. + +What a contrast are these Arabs to the explorers of the vigorous north. +They always travelled by land and not by that sea which was life to +the Viking folk. To the Arabs the encircling ocean was a very "Sea +of Darkness"; indeed, the unknown ocean beyond China was called the +"Sea of Pitchy Darkness." Their creed taught that the ocean was +boundless, so that ships dared not venture out of sight of land, for +there was no inhabited country beyond, and mariners would assuredly +be lost in mists and fogs. So, while the Vikings tossed fearlessly +about the wild northern seas, the Arab wayfarers rode eastward by +well-known caravan tracks, trading and teaching the ways of Mohammed. +Arabic enterprise had pushed on far beyond Ptolemy's world. The Arab +centre lay in the city of Bagdad, the headquarters of the ruler or +Khalif of the Mohammedan world. They had already opened up a +considerable trade with the rapidly rising Mongol Empire, which no +European had yet reached. + +[Illustration: A KHALIF ON HIS THRONE. From the Ancona map, 1497.] + +But as this country was to play a large part in the travels of the +near future, it will be interesting to hear the account given by two +Mohammedan friends who journeyed thither in the year 831, just four +hundred years before Marco Polo's famous account. The early part of +their story is missing, and we raise the curtain when they have arrived +in the land of China itself, then a very small empire compared with +what it is now. + +"The Emperor of China reckons himself next after the King of the Arabs, +who they all allow to be the first and beyond all dispute the most +powerful of kings, because he is the head of a great religion. In this +great kingdom of China they tell us there are over two hundred cities; +each city has four gates, at each of which are five trumpets, which +the Chinese sound at certain hours of the day and of the night. There +are also within each city ten drums, which they beat at the same time +as a public token of their obedience to the Emperor, as also to signify +the hour of the day and of the night, to which end they also have dials +and clocks with weights. + +"China is a pleasant and fruitful country; the air is much better than +the Indian provinces: much rain falls in both these countries. In India +are many desert tracts, but China is inhabited and peopled throughout +its whole extent. The Chinese are handsomer than the Indians, and come +nearer the Arabs, not only in countenance, but in dress, in their way +of riding, in their manners, and in their ceremonies. They wear long +garments and girdles in form of belts. The Chinese are dressed in silk +both winter and summer, and this kind of dress is common to the prince +and the peasant. Their food is rice, which they often eat with a broth +which they pour upon the rice. They have several sorts of fruits, apples, +lemons, quinces, figs, grapes, cucumbers, walnuts, almonds, plums, +apricots, and cocoanuts." + +[Illustration: A CHINESE EMPEROR GIVING AUDIENCE, NINTH CENTURY. From +an old Chinese MS. at Paris, showing an Emperor of the dynasty that +was ruling when the two Mohammedans visited China in 831.] + +Here, too, we get the first mention of tea, which was not introduced +into Europe for another seven hundred years, but which formed a Chinese +drink in the ninth century. This Chinese drink "is a herb or shrub, +more bushy than the pomegranate tree an of a more pleasant scent, but +somewhat bitter to the taste. The Chinese boil water and pour it in +scalding hot upon this leaf, and this infusion keeps them from all +distempers." + +Here, too, we get the first mention of china ware. "They have an +excellent kind of earth, wherewith they make a ware of equal fineness +with glass and equally transparent." + +There is no time here to tell of all the curious manners and customs +related by these two Mohammedans. One thing struck them as indeed it +must strike us to-day. "The Chinese, poor and rich, great and small, +learn to read and write. There are schools in every town for teaching +the poor children, and the masters are maintained at public charge.... +The Chinese have a stone ten cubits high erected in the public squares +of their cities, and on this stone are engraved the names of all the +medicines, with the exact price of each; and when the poor stand in +need of physic they go to the treasury where they receive the price +each medicine is rated at." + +It was out of such travels as these that the famous romance of "Sindbad +the Sailor" took shape--a true story of Arab adventures of the ninth +and tenth centuries in a romantic setting. As in the case of Ulysses, +the adventures of many voyages are ascribed to one man and related +in a collection of tales which bears the title of _The Arabian Nights_. + +Of course, Sindbad was a native of Bagdad, the Arab centre of everything +at this time, and of course he journeyed eastwards as did most +Mohammedans. + +"It occurred to my mind," says Sindbad, "to travel to the countries +of other people; then I arose and collected what I had of effects and +apparel and sold them, after which I sold my buildings and all that +my hand possessed and amassed three thousand pieces of silver. So I +embarked in a ship, and with a company of merchants we traversed the +sea for many days and nights. We had passed by island after island +and from sea to sea and land to land, and in every place we sold and +bought and exchanged merchandise. We continued our voyage until we +arrived at an island like one of the gardens of Paradise." + +Here they anchored and lit fires, when suddenly the master of the ship +cried aloud in great distress: "Oh, ye passengers, come up quickly +into the ship, leave your merchandise and flee for your lives, for +this apparent island, upon which ye are, is not really an island, but +it is a great fish that hath become stationary in the midst of the +sea, and the sand hath accumulated upon it and trees have grown upon +it, and when ye lighted a fire it felt the heat, and now it will descend +with you into the sea and ye will all be drowned." As he spoke the +island moved and "descended to the bottom of the sea with all that +were upon it, and the roaring sea, agitated with waves, closed over +it." + +Let Sindbad continue his own story: "I sank in the sea with the rest. +But God delivered me and saved me from drowning and supplied me with +a great wooden bowl, and I laid hold upon it and gat into it and beat +the water with my feet as with oars, while the waves sported with me. +I remained so a day and a night, until the bowl came to a stoppage +under a high island whereupon were trees overhanging the sea. So I +laid hold upon the branch of a lofty tree and clung to it until I landed +on the island. Then I threw myself upon the island like one dead." + +After wandering about he found servants of the King of Borneo, and +all sailed together to an island beyond the Malay Peninsula. And the +King of Borneo sent for Sindbad and heaped him with honours. He gave +him costly dress and made him superintendent of the seaport and adviser +of affairs of state. And Sindbad saw many wonders in this far-distant +sea. At last "one day I stood upon the shore of the sea, with a staff +in my hand, as was my custom, and lo! a great vessel approached wherein +were many merchants." They unloaded their wares, telling Sindbad that +the owner of their goods, a man from Bagdad, had been drowned and they +were selling his things. + +"What was the name of the owner of the goods?" asked Sindbad. + +"His name was Sindbad of the Sea." + +Then Sindbad cried: "Oh, master, know that I am the owner of the goods +and I am Sindbad of the Sea." + +Then there was great rejoicing and Sindbad took leave of this King +of Borneo and set sail for Bagdad--the Abode of Peace. + +[Illustration: THE SCENE OF SINDBAD'S VOYAGES AS SHOWN IN EDRISI'S +MAP, 1154. The romance of "Sindbad the Sailor" is really a true story +of Arab adventures at sea during the ninth and tenth centuries, put +into a romantic setting and ascribed to one man. In the above map, +which is a portion of the map of the world made by the famous Arab +geographer, Edrisi, in 1154 A.D., many of the places to which Sindbad's +story relates have been identified. Their modern names are as +follows:-- + +Kotroba is (probably) Socotra. Rami, the "Island of Apes," +Koulam Meli is Coulan, near Cape is Sumatra. + Comorin. Maid Dzaba, the "island with the +HIND is INDIA. volcano," is Banca. +Serendib is Ceylon. Senf is Tsiampa, S. Cochin--China. +Murphili (or Monsul), the "Valley Mudza (or Mehrage) is Borneo. + of Diamonds," is Masulipatam. Kamrun is Java. +Roibahat, the "Clove Islands," are Maid, the Camphor Island, is + the Maldive Islands. Formosa. + Edrisi's names are those which are used in the _Arabian Nights_.] + +But the spirit of unrest was upon him and soon he was off again. Indeed, +he made seven voyages in all, but there is only room here to note a +few of the most important points in each. This time he sailed to the +coast of Zanzibar, East Africa, and, anchoring on the beautiful island +of Madagascar, amid sweet-smelling flowers, pure rivers, and warbling +birds, Sindbad fell asleep. He awoke to find the ship had sailed away, +leaving him without food or drink, and not a human being was to be +seen on the island. + +"Then I climbed up into a lofty tree and began to look from it to the +right and left, but saw nothing save sky and water and trees and birds +and islands and sands." + +At last he found an enormous bird. Unwinding his turban, he twisted +it into a rope and, tying one end round his wrist, tied the other to +one of the bird's great feet. Up flew the giant bird high into the +sky and Sindbad with it, descending somewhere in India in the Valley +of Diamonds. This bird was afterwards identified as an enormous eagle. + +"And I arose and walked in that valley," says Sindbad, "and I beheld +its ground to be composed of diamonds, with which they perforate +minerals and jewels, porcelain, and the onyx, and it is a stone so +hard that neither iron nor rock have any effect upon it. All that valley +was likewise occupied by serpents and venomous snakes." + +Here Sindbad found the camphor trees, "under each of which trees a +hundred men might shade themselves." From these trees flowed liquid +camphor. "In this island, too, is a kind of wild beast, called +rhinoceros--it is a huge beast with a single horn, thick, in the middle +of its head, and it lifteth the great elephant upon its horn." + +Thus, after collecting heaps of diamonds, Sindbad returned to +Bagdad--a rich man. + +[Illustration: SINDBAD'S GIANT ROC. From an Oriental miniature +painting.] + +Again his soul yearns for travel. This time he starts for China, but +his ship is driven out of its course and cast on the Island of Apes, +probably Sumatra. These apes, "the most hideous of beasts, covered +with hair like black felt," surrounded the ship. They climbed up the +cables and severed them with their teeth to Sindbad's great alarm. +He escaped to the neighbouring islands known as the Clove Islands, +and again reached Bagdad safely. Again and yet again he starts forth +on fresh adventures. Now he is sailing on the seas beyond Ceylon, now +his ship is being pursued by a giant roc whose young have been killed +and eaten by Sindbad. Sindbad as usual escapes upon a plank, and sails +to an island, where he meets the "Old Man of the Sea," probably a huge +ape from Borneo. On he passed to the "Island of Apes," where, every +night, the people who reside in it go forth from the doors of the city +that open upon the sea in their fear of the apes lest they should come +down upon them in the night from the mountains. After this we find +Sindbad trading in pepper on the Coromandel coast of modern India and +discovering a wealth of pearls by the seashore of Ceylon. But at last +he grew tired of seafaring, which was never congenial to Arabs. + + "Hateful was the dark blue sky, + Vaulted o'er the dark blue sea; + Sore task to heart, worn out by many wars; + And eyes grown dim with gazing on the pilot stars." + +So he leaves private adventuring alone and is appointed by the Khalif +of Bagdad to convey a letter and present to the Indian prince of +Ceylon--an expedition that lasts him twenty-seven years. The presents +were magnificent. They included a horse worth ten thousand pieces of +gold, with its saddle adorned with gold set with jewels, a book, a +splendid dress, and some beautiful white Egyptian cloth, Greek carpets, +and a crystal cup. Having duly delivered these gifts, he took his leave, +meaning to return to his own country. But the usual adventures befell +him. This time his ship was surrounded by a number of boats on board +of which were men like little devils with swords and daggers. These +attacked the ship, captured Sindbad, and sold him to a rich man as +a slave. He set him to shoot elephants from a tree with bows and arrows. +At last, after many other adventures and having made seven long voyages, +poor Sindbad reached his home. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +TRAVELLERS TO THE EAST + + +But if the Sindbad saga is based on the stories of Mohammedan travellers +and sum up Arab adventure by sea in the tenth century, we must turn +to another Arab--Massoudy by name--for land travel of the same period. +Massoudy left his home at Bagdad very young and seems to have penetrated +into every Mohammedan country from Spain to farther India. In his +famous _Meadows of Gold_, with its one hundred and thirty-two chapters, +dedicated to "the most illustrious Kings," he describes the various +lands through which he has travelled, giving us at the same time a +good deal of incorrect information about lands he has never seen. + + "I have gone so far towards the setting sun + That I have lost all remembrance of the east, + And my course has taken me so far towards the rising sun + That I have forgotten the very name of west." + +One cannot but look with admiration on the energetic Arab traveller, +when one remembers the labour of travel even in the tenth century. +There were the long, hot rides through central Asia, under a burning +sun, the ascent of unknown mountains, the crossing of unbridged rivers. +From his lengthy work we will only extract a few details. Though he +had "gone so far toward the setting sun," his knowledge of the West +was very limited, and while Vikings tossed on the Atlantic westwards, +Massoudy tells us that it is "impossible to navigate beyond the Pillars +of Hercules, for no vessel sails on that sea; it is without cultivation +or inhabitant, and its end, like its depth, is unknown." Such was the +"Green Sea of Darkness" as it was called by the Arabs. Massoudy is +more at home when he journeys towards the rising sun to the East, but +his descriptions of China, the "Flowery Land," the "Celestial +Country," were to be excelled by others. + +We must pass over Edrisi, who in 1153 wrote on "The going abroad of +a curious Man to explore all the Wonders of the World," which wonders +he explored very imperfectly, though he has left us a map of the world, +which may be seen to-day at the Bodleian Library at Oxford. + +But we cannot pass over Benjamin of Tudela in so few words. "Our +Benjamin" he is called by Pinkerton, who in the eighteenth century +made a wonderful collection of voyages and travels of all ages. "Our +Benjamin" was a Jew hailing from Tudela in Spain, and he started forth +on his travels with a view to ascertaining the condition and numbers +of Jews living in the midst of the great Mohammedan Empire. Benjamin +made his way in the year 1160 to the "exceeding great city" of +Constantinople, which "hath none to compare with it except Bagdad--the +mighty city of the Arabs." With the great temple of St. Sophia and +its pillars of gold and silver, he was immensely struck. In wrapt +admiration he gazed at the Emperor's palace with its walls of beaten +gold, its hanging crown suspended over the Imperial throne, blazing +with precious stones, so splendid that the hall needed no other light. +No less striking were the crimson embroidered garments worn by the +Greeks, who rode to and from the city like princes on horseback. +Benjamin turns sadly to the Jewish quarter. No Jew might ride on +horseback here. All were treated as objects of contempt; they were +herded together, often beaten in the streets. + +[Illustration: JERUSALEM AND THE PILGRIMS' WAYS TO IT IN THE TWELFTH +CENTURY. From a map of the twelfth century at Brussels.] + +From the wealth and luxury of Constantinople Benjamin makes his way +to Syria. At Jerusalem he finds some two hundred Jews commanding the +dyeing trade. And here we must remind ourselves that the second crusade +was over and the third had not yet taken place, that Jerusalem, the +City of Peace, had been in the hands of the Mohammedans or Saracens +till 1099, when it fell into the hands of the Crusaders. From Jerusalem, +by way of Damascus, Benjamin entered Persia, and he gives us an +interesting account of Bagdad and its Khalifs. The Khalif was the head +of the Mohammedans in the same way that the Pope was the head of the +Christians. "He was," says "Our Benjamin," "a very dignified personage, +friendly towards the Jews, a kind-hearted man, but never to be seen." +Pilgrims from distant lands, passing through Bagdad on their way to +Mecca, prayed to be allowed to see "the brightness of his face," but +they were only allowed to kiss one end of his garment. Now, although +Benjamin describes the journey from Bagdad to China, it is very +doubtful if he ever got to China himself, so we will leave him +delighting in the glories of Bagdad, with its palm trees, its gardens +and orchards, rejoicing in the statistics of Jews, and turn to the +adventures of one, Carpini, who really did reach Tartary. + +This Carpini, or Friar John, was a Franciscan who was chosen by the +Pope to go to the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which was threatening +to overrun Christendom. On 16th April 1245, Friar John left the +cloister for the unknown tract of country by which he had to pass into +China. By way of Bohemia he passed into Russia, and, having annexed +Brother Benedict in Poland and Brother Stephen in Bohemia, together +with a guide, Carpini made his way eastwards. It was mid-winter; the +travellers had to ride on Tartar horses, "for they alone could find +grass under the snow, or live, as animals must in Tartary, without +hay or straw." Sometimes Friar John fell so ill that he had to be placed +in a cart and carried through the deep snow. + +[Illustration: TWO EMPERORS OF TARTARY. From the Catalan map, 1375.] + +It was Easter 1246, just a year after their start, that Friar John +and his companions began the last section of their journey beyond the +Volga, and "most tearfully we set out," not knowing whether it was +"for life or for death." So thin had they all become that not one of +them could ride. Still they toiled on, till one July day they entered +Mongolia and found the headquarters of the Great Khan about half a +day's journey from Karakorum. They arrived in time to witness the +enthronement of the new Khan in August. Here were crowds of ambassadors +from Russia and Persia as well as from outlying parts of the growing +Mongol Empire. These were laden with gifts--indeed, there were no less +than five hundred crates full of silks, satins, brocades, fur, gold +embroidery. Friar John and his companions had no gifts to offer save +the letter from the Pope. + +Impressive, indeed, in the eyes of the once cloistered friar must have +been this first sight of Eastern splendour. High on a neighbouring +hill stood the Khan's tent, resting on pillars plated with gold, top +and sides covered with silk brocades, while the great ceremony took +place. But the men of the West were not welcomed by the new Emperor +of the East. It was supposed that he intended shortly to unfurl his +Standard against the whole of the Western world, and in November Friar +John and his companions found themselves formally dismissed with a +missive from the Great Khan to the Pope, signed and sealed by the Khan +himself. + +[Illustration: A TARTAR CAMP. From the Borgian map, 1453.] + +The return journey was even more trying; winter was coming on, and +for nearly seven months the Pope's faithful envoys struggled on across +the endless open plains of Asia towards Russia, resting their eyes +on vast expanses of snow. At last they reached home, and Friar John +wrote his _Book of the Tartars_, in which he informs us that Mongolia +is in the east part of the world and that Cathay is "a country in the +east of Asia." To the south-west of Mongolia he heard of a vast desert, +where lived certain wild men unable to speak and with no joints in +their legs. These occupy themselves in making felt out of camel's hair +for garments to protect them from the weather. + +Again Carpini tells us about that mythical character figuring in the +travel books of this time--Prester John. "The Mongol army," he says, +"marched against the Christians dwelling in the greater India, and +the king of that country, known by the name of Prester John, came forth +with his army to meet them. This Prester John caused a number of hollow +copper figures to be made, resembling men, which were stuffed with +combustibles and set upon horses, each having a man behind on the horse, +with a pair of bellows to stir up the fire. At the first onset of the +battle these mounted figures were sent forward to the charge; the men +who rode behind them set fire to the combustibles and then strongly +blew with the bellows; immediately the Mongol horses and men were burnt +with wild-fire and the air was darkened with smoke." + +We shall hear of Prester John again. For within a few years of the +return of Friar John, another Franciscan friar, William de Rubruquis, +was sent forth, this time by the French king, Louis, to carry letters +to the Great Khan begging him to embrace Christianity and acknowledge +the supremacy of the Pope. William and his chosen companions had a +painful and difficult journey of some months before they reached the +camps on the Volga of one of the great Mongol lords. Indeed, "if it +had not been for the grace of God and the biscuit which we brought +with us, we had surely perished," remarks the pious friar in the history +of his adventures. Never once did they enjoy the shelter of a house +or tent, but passed the nights in the open air in a cart. At last they +were ordered to appear at the Court of the great ruler with all their +books and vestments. + +"We were commanded to array ourselves in our sacred vestments to appear +before the prince. Putting on, therefore, our most precious ornaments, +I took a cushion in my arms, together with the Bible I had from the +King of France and the beautiful Psalter which the Queen bestowed upon +me: my companion at the same time carried the missal and a crucifix; +and the clerk, clothed in his surplice, bore a censer in his hand. +In this order we presented ourselves ... singing the Salve Regina." +It is a strange picture this--the European friars, in all the vestments +of their religion, standing before the Eastern prince of this far-off +country. They would fain have carried home news of his conversion, +but they were told in angry tones that the prince was "not a Christian, +but a Mongol." + +[Illustration: INITIAL LETTER FROM THE MS. OF RUBRUQUIS AT CAMBRIDGE. +Probably representing the friars starting on their journey.] + +They were dismissed with orders to visit the Great Khan at Karakorum. +Resuming their journey early in August, the messengers did not arrive +at the Court of the Great Khan till the day after Christmas. They were +miserably housed in a tiny hut with scarcely room for their beds and +baggage. The cold was intense. The bare feet of the friars caused great +astonishment to the crowds of onlookers, who stared at the strange +figures as though they had been monsters. However, they could not keep +their feet bare long, for very soon Rubruquis found that his toes were +frozen. + +Chanting in Latin the hymn of the Nativity, the visitors were at last +admitted to the Imperial tent, hung about with cloth of gold, where +they found the Khan. He was seated on a couch--a "little man of moderate +height, aged about forty-five, and dressed in a skin spotted and glossy +like a seal." The Mongol Emperor asked numerous questions about the +kingdom of France and the possibility of conquering it, to the +righteous indignation of the friars. They stayed in the country till +the end of May, when they were dismissed, having failed in their mission, +but having gained a good deal of information about the great Mongol +Empire and its somewhat mysterious ruler. + +But while the kingdoms in Europe trembled before the growing expansion +of the Mongol Empire and the dangers of Tartar hordes, the merchants +of Venice rejoiced in the new markets which were opening for them in +the East. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MARCO POLO + + +Now Venice at this time was full of enterprising merchants--merchants +such as we hear of in Shakspere's _Merchant of Venice_. Among these +were two Venetians, the brothers Polo. Rumours had reached them of +the wealth of the mysterious land of Cathay, of the Great Khan, of +Europeans making their way, as we have seen, through barren +wildernesses, across burning deserts in the face of hardships +indescribable, to open up a highway to the Far East. + +So off started Maffio and Niccolo Polo on a trading enterprise, and, +having crossed the Mediterranean, came "with a fair wind and the +blessing of God" to Constantinople, where they disposed of a large +quantity of their merchandise. Having made some money, they directed +their way to Bokhara, where they fell in with a Tartar nobleman, who +persuaded them to accompany him to the Court of the Great Khan himself. +Ready for adventure, they agreed, and he led them in a north-easterly +direction; now they were delayed by heavy snows, now by the swelling +of unbridged rivers, so that it was a year before they reached Pekin, +which they considered was the extremity of the East. They were +courteously received by the Great Khan, who questioned them closely +about their own land, to which they replied in the Tartar language +which they had learnt on the way. + +Now since the days of Friar John there was a new Khan named Kublai, +who wished to send messengers to the Pope to beg him to send a hundred +wise men to teach the Chinese Christianity. He chose the Polo brothers +as his envoys to the Pope, and accordingly they started off to fulfil +his behests. After an absence of fifteen years they again reached +Venice. The very year they had left home Niccolo's wife had died, and +his boy, afterwards to become the famous traveller, Marco Polo, had +been born. The boy was now fifteen. + +[Illustration: HOW THE BROTHERS POLO SET OUT FROM CONSTANTINOPLE WITH +THEIR NEPHEW MARCO FOR CHINA. From a miniature painting in the +fourteenth century _Livre des Merveilles_.] + +The stories told by his father and uncle of the Far East and the Court +of the greatest Emperor on earth filled the boy with enthusiasm, and +when in 1271 the brothers Polo set out for their second journey to +China, not only were they accompanied by the young Marco, but also +by two preaching friars to teach the Christian faith to Kublai Khan. + +[Illustration: MARCO POLO LANDS AT ORMUZ. From a miniature in the +_Livre des Merveilles_.] + +Their journey lay through Armenia, through the old city of Nineveh +to Bagdad, where the last Khalif had been butchered by the Tartars. +Entering Persia as traders, the Polo family passed on to Ormuz, hoping +to take ship from here to China. But, for some unknown reason, this +was impossible, and the travellers made their way north-eastwards to +the country about the sources of the river Oxus. Here young Marco fell +sick of a low fever, and for a whole year they could not proceed. +Resuming their journey at last "in high spirits," they crossed the +great highlands of the Pamirs, known as the "roof of the world," and, +descending on Khotan, found themselves face to face with the great +Gobi Desert. For thirty days they journeyed over the sandy wastes of +the silent wilderness, till they came to a city in the province of +Tangut, where they were met by messengers from the Khan, who had heard +of their approach. But it was not till May 1275 that they actually +reached the Court of Kublai Khan after their tremendous journey of +"one thousand days." The preaching friars had long since turned +homewards, alarmed at the dangers of the way, so only the three +stout-hearted Polos were left to deliver the Pope's message to the +ruler of the Mongol Empire. + +[Illustration: THE POLOS LEAVING VENICE FOR THEIR TRAVELS TO THE FAR +EAST. From a miniature which stands at the head of a late 14th century +MS. of the _Travels of Marco Polo_ (or the Book of the Grand Khan) +in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The drawing shows the Piazzetta at +Venice, with the Polos embarking, and in the foreground indications +of the strange lands they visited.] + +"The lord of all the earth," as he was called by his people, received +them very warmly. He inquired at once who was the young man with them. + +"My lord," replied Niccolo, "he is my son and your servant." + +"Then," said the Khan, "he is welcome. I am much pleased with him." + +So the three Venetians abode at the Court of Kublai Khan. His summer +palace was at Shang-tu, called Xanadu by the poet Coleridge-- + + "In Xanadu did Kublai Khan + A stately pleasure dome decree, + Where Alph, the sacred river, ran + Through caverns measureless to man + Down to a sacred sea. + So twice five miles of fertile ground, + With walls and towers were girdled round: + And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, + Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree; + And here were forests ancient as the hills, + Enfolding sunny spots of greenery." + +So the three Venetians abode at the Court of the Chinese Emperor for +no less than seventeen years. Young Marco displayed so great +intelligence that he was sent on a mission for the Khan some six months' +journey distant; and so well did he describe the things he had seen +and the lands through which he had passed, that the Khan heaped on +him honours and riches. Let us hear what Marco says of his lord and +master. + +[Illustration: KUBLAI KHAN. From an old Chinese Encyclopaedia at +Paris.] + +"The Great Khan, lord of lords, named Kublai, is of middle stature, +neither too full nor too short: he has a beautiful fresh complexion, +his colour is fair, his eyes dark." + +The capital of the Empire, Pekin, two days' journey from the sea, and +the residence of the Court during the months of December, January, +and February, called out the unbounded enthusiasm of the Polos. The +city, two days' journey from the ocean, in the extreme north-east of +Cathay, had been newly rebuilt in a regular square, six miles on each +side, surrounded by walls of earth and having twelve gates. + +"The streets are so broad and so straight," says Marco, "that from +one gate another is visible. It contains many beautiful houses and +palaces, and a very large one in the midst, containing a steeple with +a large bell which at night sounds three times, after which no man +must leave the city. At each gate a thousand men keep guard, not from +dread of any enemy, but in reverence of the monarch who dwells within +it, and to prevent injury by robbers." + +This square form of Pekin, the great breadth of the straight streets, +the closing of the gates by sound of a bell--the largest in the +world--is noted by all travellers to this far-eastern city of Cathay. + +But greater even than Pekin was the city of Kin-sai (Hang-tcheou-fou), +the City of Heaven, in the south of China. It had but lately fallen +into the hands of Kublai Khan. + +"And now I will tell you all its nobleness," says Marco, "for without +doubt it is the largest city in the world. The city is one hundred +miles in circumference and has twelve thousand stone bridges, and +beneath the greater part of these a large ship might pass. And you +need not wonder there are so many bridges, because the city is wholly +on the water and surrounded by it like Venice. The merchants are so +numerous and so rich that their wealth can neither be told nor believed. +They and their ladies do nothing with their own hands, but live as +delicately as if they were kings. These females also are of most angelic +beauty, and live in the most elegant manner. The people are idolaters, +subject to the Great Khan, and use paper money. They eat the flesh +of dogs and other beasts, such as no Christian would touch for the +world. In this city, too, are four thousand baths, in which the citizens, +both men and women, take great delight and frequently resort thither, +because they keep their persons very cleanly. They are the largest +and most beautiful baths in the world, insomuch that one hundred of +either sex may bathe in them at once. Twenty-five miles from thence +is the ocean, and there is a city (Ning-po) which has a very fine port, +with large ships and much merchandise of immense value from India and +other quarters." + +[Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--III. The world as known +at the end of the thirteenth century after the travels of Marco Polo +and his contemporaries.] + +But though Marco revels in the description of wonderful cities, he +is continually leading us back to the Great Khan himself. His festivals +were splendid. The tables were arranged so that the Emperor sat higher +than all the others, always with his face to the south. His sons and +daughters were placed so that their heads were on a level with his +feet. Some forty thousand people feast on these occasions, but the +Khan himself is served only by his great barons, their mouths wrapped +in rich towels embroidered in gold and silver, that their breath might +not blow upon the plates. His presents were on a colossal scale; it +was no rare occurrence for him to receive five thousand camels, one +hundred thousand beautiful horses, and five thousand elephants +covered with cloth of gold and silver. + +"And now I will relate a wonderful thing," says Marco. "A large lion +is led into his presence, which, as soon as it sees him, drops down +and makes a sign of deep humility, owning him its lord and moving about +without any chain." + +His kingdom was ruled by twelve barons all living at Pekin. His +provinces numbered thirty-four, hence their method of communication +was very complete. + +"Messengers are sent to divers provinces," says Marco, "and on all +the roads they find at every twenty-five miles a post, where the +messengers are received. At each is a large edifice containing a bed +covered with silk and everything useful and convenient for a +traveller ... here, too, they find full four hundred horses, whom the +prince has ordered to be always in waiting to convey them along the +principal roads.... Thus they go through the provinces, finding +everywhere inns and horses for their reception. Moreover, in the +intervals between these stations, at every three miles are erected +villages of about forty houses inhabited by foot-runners also employed +on these dispatches. They wear large girdles set round with bells, +which are heard at a great distance. Receiving a letter or packet, +one runs full speed to the next village, when his approach being +announced by bells, another is ready to start and proceed to the next, +and so on. By these pedestrian messengers the Khan receives news in +one day and night from places ten days' journey distant; in two days +from those twenty off, and in ten from those a hundred days' journey +distant. Thus he sends his messengers through all his kingdoms and +provinces to know if any of his subjects have had their crops injured +through bad weather; and, if any such injury has happened, he does +not exact from them any tribute for that season--nay, he gives them +corn out of his own stores to subsist on." + +This first European account of China is all so delightful that it is +difficult to know where to stop. The mention of coal is interesting. +"Throughout the whole province of Cathay," says Marco, "are a kind +of black stones cut from the mountains in veins, which burn like logs. +They maintain the fire better than wood. If you put them on in the +evening they will preserve it the whole night, and it will be found +burning in the morning. Throughout the whole of Cathay this fuel is +used. They have also wood, but the stones are much less expensive." + +Neither can we pass over Marco's account of the wonderful stone bridge +with its twenty-four arches of pure marble across the broad river, +"the most magnificent object in the whole world," across which ten +horsemen could ride abreast, or the Yellow River (Hoang-ho), "so large +and broad that it cannot be crossed by a bridge, and flows on even +to the ocean," or the wealth of mulberry trees throughout the land, +on which lived the silkworms that have made China so famous for her +silk. + +Then there are the people famous for their manufacture of fine +porcelain ware. "Great quantities of porcelain earth were here +collected into heaps and in this way exposed to the action of the +atmosphere for some forty years, during which time it was never +disturbed. By this process it became refined and fitted for +manufacture." Such is Marco's only allusion to china ware. With regard +to tea he is entirely silent. + +But he is the first European to tell us about the islands of Japan, +fifteen hundred miles from the coast of China, now first discovered +to the geographers of the West. + +"Zipangu," says Marco, "is an island situated at a distance from the +mainland. The people are fair and civilised in their manners--they +possess precious metals in extraordinary abundance. The people are +white, of gentle manners, idolaters in religion under a king of their +own. These folk were attacked by the fleet of Kublai Khan in 1264 for +their gold, for the King's house, windows, and floors were covered +with it, but the King allowed no exportation of it." + +[Illustration: MARCO POLO. From a woodcut in the first printed edition +of Marco Polo's _Travels_, Nuremburg, 1477.] + +Thus Marco Polo records in dim outline the existence of land beyond +that ever dreamed of by Europeans--indeed, denied by Ptolemy and other +geographers of the West. In the course of his service under Kublai +Khan he opened up the eight provinces of Tibet, the whole of south-east +Asia from Canton to Bengal, and the archipelago of farther India. He +tells us, too, of Tibet, that wide country "vanquished and wasted by +the Khan for the space of twenty days' journey"--a great wilderness +wanting people, but overrun by wild beasts. Here were great Tibetan +dogs as large as asses. Still on duty for Kublai Khan, Marco reached +Bengal, "which borders upon India." But he was glad enough to return +to his adopted Chinese home, "the richest and most famous country of +all the East." + +At last the Polo family wearied of Court honours, and they were anxious +to return to their own people at Venice. However, the Khan was very +unwilling to let them go. One day their chance came. The Persian ruler +was anxious to marry a princess of the house of Kublai Khan, and it +was decided to send the lady by sea under the protection of the trusted +Polos, rather than to allow her to undergo the hardships of an overland +journey from China to Persia. + +So in the year 1292 they bade farewell to the great Kublai Khan, and +with the little princess of seventeen and her suite they set sail with +an escort of fourteen ships for India. Passing many islands "with gold +and much trade," after three months at sea they reached Java, at this +time supposed to be the greatest island in the world, above three +thousand miles round. At Sumatra they were detained five months by +stress of weather, till at last they reached the Bay of Bengal. Sailing +on a thousand miles westwards, they reached Ceylon--"the finest island +in the world," remarks Marco. It was not till two years after their +start and the loss of six hundred sailors that they arrived at their +destination, only to find that the ruler of Persia was dead. However, +they gave the little bride to his son and passed on by Constantinople +to Venice, where they arrived in 1295. + +[Illustration: A JAPANESE FIGHT AGAINST THE CHINESE AT THE TIME WHEN +MARCO POLO FIRST SAW JAPANESE. From an ancient Japanese painting.] + +And now follows a strange sequel to the story. After their long absence, +and in their travel-stained garments, their friends and relations +could not recognise them, and in vain did they declare that they were +indeed the Polos--father, son, and uncle--who had left Venice +twenty-four long years ago. It was no use; no one believed their story. +So this is what they did. They arranged for a great banquet to be held, +to which they invited all their relations and friends. This they +attended in robes of crimson satin. Then suddenly Marco rose from the +table and, going out of the room, returned with the three coarse, +travel-stained garments. They ripped open seams, tore out the lining, +and a quantity of precious stones, rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and +emeralds poured forth. The company were filled with wonder, and when +the story spread all the people of Venice came forth to do honour to +their famous fellow-countrymen. + +Marco was surnamed Marco of the Millions, and never tired of telling +the wonderful stories of Kublai Khan, the great Emperor who combined +the "rude magnificence of the desert with the pomp and elegance of +the most civilised empire in the Old World." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE END OF MEDIAEVAL EXPLORATION + + +The two names of Ibn Batuta and Sir John Mandeville now conclude our +mediaeval period of travel to the Eastward. Both the Arab and the +Englishman date their travels between the years 1325 and 1355; but +while Ibn Batuta, the traveller from Tangiers, adds very valuable +information to our geographical knowledge, we have to lay the travel +volumes of Sir John Mandeville aside and acknowledge sadly that his +book is made up of borrowed experiences, that he has wantonly added +fiction to fact, and distorted even the travel stories told by other +travellers. And yet, strange to say, while the work of Ibn Batuta +remains entirely disregarded, the delightful work of the Englishman +is still read vigorously to-day and translated into nearly every +European language. In it we read strange stories of Prester John, "the +great Emperor of India, who is served by seven kings, seventy-two dukes, +and three hundred and sixty earls"; he speaks of the "isle of Cathay": +he repeats the legend of the island near Java on which Adam and Eve +wept for one hundred years after they had been driven from Paradise; +he speaks of giants thirty feet high, and of Pigmies who came dancing +to see him. + +[Illustration: SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE ON HIS TRAVELS. From a MS. in the +British Museum.] + +We turn to the Arab traveller for a solid document, which rings more +true, and we cannot doubt his accounts of shipwreck and hardships +encountered by the way. Ibn Batuta left Tangiers in the year 1324 at +the early age of twenty-one on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He made his way +across the north of Africa to Alexandria. Here history relates he met +a learned and pious man named Imam. + +"I perceive," said Imam, "that you are fond of visiting distant +countries?" + +"That is so," answered Ibn Batuta. + +"Then you must visit my brother in India, my brother in Persia, and +my brother in China, and when you see them present my compliments to +them." + +Ibn Batuta left Alexandria with a resolve to visit these three persons, +and indeed, wonderful to say, he found them all three and presented +to them their brother's compliments. + +He reached Mecca and remained there for three years, after which he +voyaged down the Red Sea to Aden, a port of much trade. Coasting along +the east coast of Africa, he reached Mombasa, from which port, so soon +to fall into the hands of the Portuguese, he sailed to Ormuz, a "city +on the seashore," at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Here he tells +us of the head of a fish "that might be compared to a hill: its eyes +were like two doors, so that people could go in at one eye and out +at the other." Crossing central Arabia and the Black Sea, he found +himself for the first time in a Christian city, and was much dismayed +at all the bells ringing. He was anxious to go north through Russia +to the Land of Darkness, of which he had heard such wonderful tales. +It was a land where there were neither trees, nor stones, nor houses, +where dogs with nails in their feet drew little sledges across the +ice. Instead he went to Constantinople, arriving at sunset when the +bells were ringing so loud "that the very horizon shook with the noise." +Ibn was presented to the Emperor as a remarkable traveller, and a letter +of safe conduct was given to him. + +He then made his way through Bokhara and Herat, Kandahar and Kabul, +over the Hindu Koosh and across the Indus to Delhi, "the greatest city +in the world." But at this time it was a howling wilderness, as the +inhabitants had fled from the cruelty of the Turkish Emperor. Into +his presence our traveller was now called and graciously received. + +"The lord of the world appoints you to the office of judge in Delhi," +said the Emperor; "he gives you a dress of honour with a saddled horse +and a large yearly salary." + +Ibn held this office for eight years, till one day the Emperor called +him and said: "I wish to send you as ambassador to the Emperor of China, +for I know you are fond of travelling in foreign countries." + +The Emperor of China had sent presents of great value to the Emperor +of India, who was now anxious to return the compliment. Quaint, indeed, +were the gifts from India to China. There were one hundred high-bred +horses, one hundred dancing girls, one hundred pieces of cotton stuff, +also silk and wool, some black, some white, blue-green or blue. There +were swords of state and golden candlesticks, silver basins, brocade +dresses, and gloves embroidered with pearls. But so many adventures +did Ibn Batuta have on his way to China that it is certain that none +of these things ever reached that country, for eighty miles from Delhi +the cavalcade was attacked and Ibn was robbed of all he had. For days +he wandered alone in a forest, living on leaves, till he was rescued +more dead than alive, and carried back to Delhi. The second start was +also unfortunate. By a circuitous route he made his way to Calicut +on the Malabar coast, where he made a stay of three months till the +monsoons should permit him to take ship for China. The harbour of +Calicut was full of great Chinese ships called junks. These junks +struck him as unlike anything he had seen before. "The sails are made +of cane reed woven together like a mat, which, when they put into port, +they leave standing in the wind. In some of these vessels there will +be a thousand men, sailors and soldiers. Built in the ports of China +only, they are rowed with large oars, which may be compared to great +masts. On board are wooden houses in which the higher officials reside +with their wives." + +[Illustration: AN EMPEROR OF TARTARY. From the map ascribed to +Sebastian Cabot, 1544.] + +The time of the voyage came; thirteen huge junks were taken, and the +imperial presents were embarked. All was ready for a start on the morrow. +Ibn stayed on shore praying in the mosque till starting-time. That +night a violent hurricane arose and most of the ships in the harbour +were destroyed. Treasure, crew, and officers all perished, and Ibn +was left alone and almost penniless. He feared to return to Delhi, +so he took ship, which landed him on one of a group of a thousand islands, +which Ibn calls "one of the wonders of the world." The chief island +was governed by a woman. Here he was made a judge, and soon became +a great personage. But after a time he grew restless and set sail for +Sumatra. Here at the court of the king, who was a zealous disciple +of Mohammed, Ibn met with a kind reception, and after a fortnight, +provided with provisions, the "restless Mohammedan" again voyaged +northwards into the "Calm Sea," or the Pacific as we call it now. It +was so still, "disturbed by neither wind nor waves," that the ship +had to be towed by a smaller ship till they reached China. + +"This is a vast country," writes Ibn, "and it abounds in all sorts +of good things--fruit, corn, gold, and silver. It is traversed by a +great river--the Waters of Life--which runs through the heart of China +for a distance of six months' journey. It is bordered with villages, +cultivated plains, orchards, and markets, just like the Nile in +Egypt." + +Ibn gives an amusing account of the Chinese poultry. "The cocks and +hens are bigger than our geese. I one day bought a hen," he says, "which +I wanted to boil, but one pot would not hold it and I was obliged to +take two. As for the cocks in China, they are as big as ostriches." + +"'Pooh,' cried an owner of Chinese fowls, 'there are cocks in China +much bigger than that,' and I found he had said no more than the truth." + +"Silk is very plentiful, for the worms which produce it require little +attention. They have silk in such abundance that it is used for clothing +even by poor monks and beggars. The people of China do not use gold +and silver coin in their commercial dealings. Their buying and selling +is carried on by means of pieces of paper about the size of the palm +of the hand, carrying the seal of the Emperor." The Arab traveller +has much to say about the superb painting of China. They study and +paint every stranger that visits their country, and the portrait thus +taken is exposed on the city wall. Thus, should a stranger do anything +to make flight necessary, his portrait would be sent out into every +province and he would soon be discovered. + +"China is the safest as well as the pleasantest of all the regions +on the earth for a traveller. You may travel the whole nine months' +journey to which the Empire extends without the slightest cause to +fear, even if you have treasure in your charge. But it afforded me +no pleasure. On the contrary, my spirit was sorely troubled within +me to see how Paganism had the upper hand." + +[Illustration: A CARAVAN IN CATHAY. From the Catalan map, 1375.] + +Troubles now broke out among the Khan's family, which led to civil +wars and the death of the Great Khan. He was buried with great pomp. +A deep chamber was dug in the earth, into which a beautiful couch was +placed, on which was laid the dead Khan with his arms and all his rich +apparel, the earth over him being heaped to the height of a large hill. + +Batuta now hurried from the country, took a junk to Sumatra, thence +to Calicut and by Ormuz home to Tangier, where he arrived in 1348. +He had done what he set forth to do. He had visited the three brothers +of Imam in Persia, India, and China. In addition he had travelled for +twenty-four years and accomplished in all about seventy-five thousand +miles. + +With him the history of mediaeval exploration would seem to end, for +within eighty years of his death the modern epoch opens with the +energies and enthusiasm of Prince Henry of Portugal. + +For the last few centuries we have found all travel undertaken more +or less as a religious crusade. + +So far during the last centuries, travel had been for the most part +by land. Few discoveries had been made by sea. Voyages were too +difficult and dangerous. The Phoenicians had ventured far with +intrepid courage. The Vikings had tossed fearlessly over their stormy +northern seas to the yet unknown land of America, but this was long +ago. Throughout the Middle Ages hardly a sail was to be seen on the +vast Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, no ships ventured on what was held +to be the Sea of Darkness, no man was emboldened to risk life and money +on the unknown waters beyond his own safe home. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +MEDIAEVAL MAPS + + +We cannot pass from the subject of mediaeval exploration without a +word on the really delightful, if ignorant, maps of the period, for +they illustrate better than any description the state of geography +at this time. The Ptolemy map, summing up all the Greek and Roman +learning, with its longitudes and latitudes, with its shaped +continents and its many towns and rivers, "indicates the high-water +mark of a tide that was soon to ebb." + +With the decline of the Roman Empire and the coming of Christianity +we get a new spirit inspiring our mediaeval maps, in which Jerusalem, +hitherto totally obscure, dominates the whole situation. + +The _Christian Topography_ of Cosmas in the sixth century sets a new +model. Figures blowing trumpets representing the winds still blow on +to the world, as they did in the days of Ptolemy, but the earth is +once more flat and it is again surrounded by the ocean stream. Round +this ocean stream, according to Cosmas, is an outer earth, the seat +of Paradise, "the earth beyond the ocean where men dwelt before the +Flood." + +Although these maps of Cosmas were but the expression of one man's +ideas, they served as a model for others. + +There is, at Turin, a delightful map of the eighth century with the +four winds and the ocean stream as usual. The world is divided into +three--Asia, Africa, and Europe. Adam and Eve stand at the top; to +the right of Adam lies Armenia and the Caucasus; to the left of Eve +are Mount Lebanon, the river Jordan, Sidon, and Mesopotamia. At their +feet lie Mount Carmel, Jerusalem, and Babylon. + +[Illustration: THE TURIN MAP OF THE WORLD, EIGHTH CENTURY.] + +In Europe we find a few names such as Constantinople, Italy, France. +Britannia and Scotland are islands in the encircling sea. Africa is +suitably represented by the Nile. + +Of much the same date is another map known as the Albi, preserved in +the library at Albi in Languedoc. The world is square, with rounded +corners; Britain is an island off the coast of Spain, and a beautiful +green sea flows round the whole. + +An example of tenth-century map-making, known as the Cottoniana or +Anglo-Saxon map, is in the British Museum. Here is a mixture of Biblical +and classical knowledge. Jerusalem and Bethlehem are in their place +and the Pillars of Hercules stand at the entrance of the Mediterranean +Sea. The British Isles are still distorted, and quantities of little +unnamed islands lie about the north of Scotland. In the extreme east +lies an enormous Ceylon; in the north-east corner of Asia is drawn +a magnificent lion with mane and curling tail, with the words around +him: "Here lions abound." Africa as usual is made up of the Nile, +Alexandria at its mouth, and its source in a lake. + +[Illustration: A T-MAP, TENTH CENTURY.] + +[Illustration: A T-MAP, THIRTEENTH CENTURY.] + +There is another form of these early maps. They are quite small and +round. They are known as T-maps, being divided into three +parts--Europe, Asia, and Africa. Jerusalem is always in the centre, +and the ocean stream flows round. + +[Illustration: THE HEREFORD MAPPA MUNDI OF 1280. Drawn by Richard de +Haldingham and Lafford, who was Prebendary of Lincoln (hence his name +Lafford) before 1283, and Prebendary of Hereford in 1305. The original +map hangs in the Chapter House Library of Hereford Cathedral. In it +the original green of the seas reproduced here as green has become +a dark brown by age.] + +After the manner of these, only on a very large scale, is the famous +_Mappa Mundi_, by Richard of Haldingham, on the walls of the Hereford +Cathedral of the thirteenth century. Jerusalem is in the centre, and +the Crucifixion is there depicted. At the top is the Last Judgment, +with the good and bad folk divided on either side. Adam and Eve are +there, so are the Pillars of Hercules, Scylla and Charybdis, the Red +Sea coloured red, the Nile and the Mountains of the Moon, strange beasts +and stranger men. + +With the Hereford map came in that pictorial geography that makes the +maps of the later Middle Ages so delightful. + +[Illustration: THE KAISER HOLDING THE WORLD. From a twelfth-century +MS.] + +"This is indeed the true way to make a map," says a modern writer. +"If these old maps erred in the course of their rivers and the lines +of their mountains and space, they are not so misleading as your modern +atlas with its too accurate measurements. For even your most primitive +map, with Paradise in the east--a gigantic Jerusalem in the +centre--gives a less distorted impression than that which we obtain +from the most scientific chart on Mercator's projection." + +[Illustration: THE "ANGLO-SAXON" MAP OF THE WORLD, DRAWN ABOUT 990 +A.D. This map, which is found in one of the Cotton MSS. in the British +Museum, is a geographical achievement remarkable in the age which +produced it. It may perhaps be the work of an Irish scholar-monk. It +shows real knowledge and scientific insight in one of the gloomiest +of the "dark ages" of Europe.] + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +PRINCE HENRY OF PORTUGAL + + +But now a new era was about to begin--a new age was dawning--and we +open a wonderful chapter in the history of discovery, perhaps the most +wonderful in all the world. In Portugal a man had arisen who was to +awaken the slumbering world of travel and direct it to the high seas. + +And the name of this man was Henry, a son of King John of Portugal. +His mother was an Englishwoman, daughter of "John of Gaunt, +time-honoured Lancaster." The Prince was, therefore, a nephew of Henry +IV. and great-grandson of Edward III. of England. But if English blood +flowed in his veins he, too, was the son of the "greatest King that +ever sat on the throne of Portugal," and at the age of twenty he had +already learned something of the sea that lay between his father's +kingdom and the northern coast of Africa. Thus, when in the year 1415 +King John planned a great expedition across the narrow seas to Ceuta, +an important Moorish city in North Africa, it fell to Prince Henry +himself to equip seven triremes, six biremes, twenty-six ships of +burden, and a number of small craft. These he had ready at Lisbon when +news reached him that the Queen, his mother, was stricken ill. The +King and three sons were soon at her bedside. It was evident that she +was dying. + +"What wind blows so strongly against the side of the house?" she asked +suddenly. + +"The wind blows from the north," replied her sons. + +"It is the wind most favourable for your departure," replied Philippa. +And with these words the English Queen died. + +This is not the place to tell how the expedition started at once as +the dead Queen had wished, how Ceuta was triumphantly taken, and how +Prince Henry distinguished himself till all Europe rang with his fame. +Henry V. of England begged him to come over and take command of his +forces. The Emperor of Germany sent the same request. But he had other +schemes for his life. He would not fight the foes of England or of +Germany, rather would he fight the great ocean whose waves dashed high +against the coast of Portugal. He had learned something of inland +Africa, of the distant coast of Guinea, and he was fired with the idea +of exploring along this west coast of Africa and possibly reaching +India by sea. + +Let us recall what was known of the Atlantic only six centuries ago. +"It was," says an old writer, "a vast and boundless ocean, on which +ships dared not venture out of sight of land. For even if the sailors +knew the direction of the winds they would not know whither those winds +would carry them, and, as there is no inhabited country beyond, they +would run great risk of being lost in mist and vapour. The limit of +the West is the Atlantic Ocean." + +The ocean was a new and formidable foe, hitherto unconquered and +unexplored. At last one had arisen to attempt its conquest. As men +had lifted the veil from the unknown land of China, so now the mists +were to be cleared from the Sea of Darkness. + +On the inhospitable shores of southern Portugal, amid the "sadness +of a waste of shifting sand, in a neighbourhood so barren that only +a few stunted trees struggled for existence, on one of the coldest, +dreariest spots of sunny Portugal," Prince Henry built his naval +arsenal. In this secluded spot, far from the gaieties of Court life, +with the vast Atlantic rolling measureless and mysterious before him, +Prince Henry took up the study of astronomy and mathematics. Here he +gathered round him men of science; he built ships and trained +Portuguese sailors in the art of navigation, so far as it was known +in those days. + +Then he urged them seawards. In 1418 two gentlemen of his household, +Zarco and Vaz, volunteered to sail to Cape Bojador towards the south. +They started off and as usual hugged the coast for some way, but a +violent storm arose and soon they were driven out to sea. They had +lost sight of land and given themselves up for lost when, at break +of day, they saw an island not far off. Delighted at their escape, +they named it Porto Santo and, overjoyed at their discovery, hastened +back to Portugal to relate their adventures to Prince Henry. They +described the fertile soil and delicious climate of the newly found +island, the simplicity of its inhabitants, and they requested leave +to return and make a Portuguese settlement there. To reward them, +Prince Henry gave them three ships and everything to ensure success +in their new enterprise. But unfortunately he added a rabbit and her +family. These were turned out and multiplied with such astonishing +rapidity that in two years' time they were numerous enough to destroy +all the vegetation of the island. + +So Porto Santo was colonised by the Portuguese, and one Perestrello +was made Governor of the island; and it is interesting to note that +his daughter became the wife of Christopher Columbus. But the original +founders, Zarco and Vaz, had observed from time to time a dark spot +on the horizon which aroused their curiosity. Sailing towards it, they +found an island of considerable size, uninhabited and very attractive, +but so covered with woods that they named it Madeira, the Island of +Woods. + +But although these two islands belong to Portugal to-day, and although +Portugal claimed their discovery, it has been proved that already an +Englishman and his wife had been there, and the names of the islands +appear on an Italian map of 1351. + +[Illustration: AFRICA--FROM CEUTA TO MADEIRA, THE CANARIES, AND CAPE +BOJADOR. From Fra Mauro's map, 1457.] + +The story of this first discovery is very romantic. In the reign of +Edward III. a young man named Robert Machin sailed away from Bristol +with a very wealthy lady. A north-east wind carried them out of their +course, and after thirteen days' driving before a storm they were cast +on to an island. It was uninhabited and well wooded and watered. But +the sufferings and privations proved too much for the poor English +lady, who died after three days, and Machin died a few days later of +grief and exposure. The crew of the ship sailed away to the coast of +Africa, there to be imprisoned by the Moors. Upon their escape in 1416 +they made known their discovery. + +So Zarco and Vaz divided the island of Madeira, calling half of it +Funchal (the Portuguese for fennel, which grew here in great +quantities) and the other half Machico after the poor English +discoverer Machin. The first two Portuguese children born in the +island of Madeira were called Adam and Eve. + +Year after year Prince Henry launched his little ships on the yet +unknown, uncharted seas, urging his captains to venture farther and +ever farther. He longed for them to reach Cape Bojador, and bitter +was his disappointment when one of his squires, dismayed by +travellers' tales, turned back from the Canary Islands. + +"Go out again," urged the enthusiastic Prince, "and give no heed to +their opinions, for, by the grace of God, you cannot fail to derive +from your voyage both honour and profit." + +[Illustration: THE VOYAGE TO CAPE BLANCO FROM CAPE BOJADOR. From Fra +Mauro's map, 1457.] + +And the squire went forth from the commanding presence of the Prince +resolved to double the Cape, which he successfully accomplished in +1434. Seven years passed away, till in 1441 two men--Gonsalves, master +of the wardrobe (a strange qualification for difficult navigation), +and Nuno Tristam, a young knight--started forth on the Prince's +service, with orders to pass Cape Bojador where a dangerous surf, +breaking on the shore, had terrified other navigators. There was a +story, too, that any man who passed Cape Bojador would be changed from +white into black, that there were sea-monsters, sheets of burning +flame, and boiling waters beyond. The young knight Tristam discovered +the white headland beyond Cape Bojador, named it Cape Blanco, and took +home some Moors of high rank to the Prince. A large sum was offered +for their ransom, so Gonsalves conveyed them back to Cape Blanco and +coasted along to the south, discovering the island of Arguin of the +Cape Verde group and reaching the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, +reached by Hanno many centuries before this. + +Here he received some gold dust, and with this and some thirty negroes +he returned to Lisbon, where the strange black negroes "caused the +most lively astonishment among the people." The small quantity of gold +dust created a sensation among the Portuguese explorers, and the +spirit of adventure grew. No longer had the Prince to urge his +navigators forth to new lands and new seas; they were ready and willing +to go, for the reward was now obvious. The news was soon noised abroad, +and Italians, then reckoned among the most skilful seamen of the time, +flocked to Portugal, anxious to take service under the Prince. + +"Love of gain was the magic wand that drew them on and on, into unknown +leagues of waters, into wild adventures and desperate affrays." + +The "Navigator" himself looked beyond these things. He would find a +way to India; he would teach the heathen to be Christians. He was always +ready to welcome those with superior knowledge of navigation; so in +1454 he sent an Italian, known to history as Cadamosto, to sail the +African seas. The young Venetian was but twenty-one, and he tells his +story simply. + +"Now I--Luigi Ca da Mosto--had sailed nearly all the Mediterranean +coasts, but, being caught by a storm off Cape St. Vincent, had to take +refuge in the Prince's town, and was there told of the glorious and +boundless conquests of the Prince, the which did exceedingly stir my +soul--eager it was for gain above all things else. My age, my vigour, +my skill are equal to any toil; above all, my passionate desire to +see the world and explore the unknown set me all on fire with +eagerness." + +In 1455 Cadamosto sailed from Portugal for Madeira, now "thickly +peopled with Portuguese." From Madeira to the Canaries, from the +Canaries to Cape Blanco, "natives black as moles were dressed in white +flowing robes with turbans wound round their heads." Here was a great +market of Arab traders from the interior, here were camels laden with +brass, silver, and gold, as well as slaves innumerable. + +But Cadamosto pushed on for some four hundred miles by the low, sandy +shore to the Senegal River. The Portuguese had already sailed by this +part of the coast, and the negroes had thought their ships to be great +birds from afar cleaving the air with their white wings. When the crews +furled their sails and drew into shore the natives changed their minds +and thought they were fishes, and all stood on the shore gazing stupidly +at this new wonder. + +Cadamosto landed and pushed some two hundred and fifty miles up the +Senegal River, where he set up a market, exchanging cotton and cloth +for gold, while "the negroes came stupidly crowding round me, +wondering at our white colour, which they tried to wash off, our dress, +our garments of black silk and robes of blue cloth." + +Joined by two other ships from Portugal, the Italian explorer now +sailed on to Cape Verde, so called from its green grass. + +"The land here," he tells us, "is all low and full of fine, large trees, +which are continually green. The trees never wither like those in +Europe; they grow so near the shore that they seem to drink, as it +were, the water of the sea. The coast is most beautiful. Many countries +have I been in, to East and West, but never did I see a prettier sight." + +But the negroes here--big, comely men--were lawless and impossible +to approach, shooting at the Portuguese explorers with poisoned arrows. +They discovered that the capital of the country was called Gambra, +where lived a king, but the negroes of the Gambra were unfriendly; +there was little gold to be had; his crews fell sick and ill, and +Cadamosto turned home again. But he had reached a point beyond all +other explorers of the time, a point where "only once did we see the +North Star, which was so low that it seemed almost to touch the sea." +We know that he must have been to within eleven degrees of the Equator, +and it is disappointing to find the promising young Italian +disappearing from the pages of history. + +[Illustration: A PORTION OF AFRICA FROM FRA MAURO'S MAP ILLUSTRATING +CADAMOSTO'S VOYAGE BEYOND CAPE BLANCO.] + +And now we come to the last voyage planned by Prince Henry, that of +Diego Gomez, his own faithful servant. It followed close on +Cadamosto's return. + +No long time after, the Prince equipped a ship called the _Wren_ and +set over it Diego Gomez, with two other ships, of which he was +commander-in-chief. Their orders were to go as far as they could. Gomez +wrote his own travels, and his adventures are best told in his own +words. We take up his story from the far side of Cape Blanco. + +"After passing a great river beyond Rio Grande we met such strong +currents in the sea that no anchor could hold. The other captains and +their men were much alarmed, thinking we were at the end of the ocean, +and begged me to put back. In the mid-current the sea was very clear, +and the natives came off from the shore and brought us their merchandise. +As the current grew even stronger we put back and came to a land, where +were groves of palms near the shore, with their branches broken. There +we found a plain covered with hay and more than five thousand animals +like stags, but larger, who showed no fear of us. Five elephants with +two young ones came out of a small river that was fringed by trees. +We went back to the ships, and next day made our way from Cape Verde +and saw the broad mouth of a great river, which we entered and guessed +to be the Gambia. We went up the river as far as Cantor (some five +hundred miles). Farther than this the ships could not go, because of +the thick growth of trees and underwood. When the news spread through +the country that the Christians were in Cantor, they came from Timbuktu +in the north, from Mount Gelu in the south. Here I was told there is +gold in plenty, and caravans of camels cross over there with goods +from Carthage, Tunis, Fez, Cairo, and all the land of the Saracens. +I asked the natives of Cantor about the road to the gold country. They +told me the King lived in Kukia and was lord of all the mines on the +right side of the river of Cantor, and that he had before the door +of this palace a mass of gold just as it was taken from the earth, +so large that twenty men could hardly move it, and that the King always +fastened his horse to it. While I was thus trafficking with these +negroes, my men became worn out with the heat, and so we returned +towards the ocean." + +[Illustration: SKETCH OF AFRICA FROM FRA MAURO'S GREAT MAP OF THE WORLD, +1457. In the African portions of Fra Mauro's map which have already +been given they are shown exactly as Fra Mauro drew them, with the +north at the _bottom_ and the south at the _top_, as is nearly always +the case in mediaeval maps. In this outline of Africa, which is +generally supposed to show the results of Prince Henry's labours, the +map has been put the right way up. It was prepared between 1457 and +1459.] + +But Diego Gomez had succeeded in making friends with the hostile +natives of this part. He left behind him a better idea of Christian +men than some of the other explorers had done. His own account of the +conversion of the Mohammedan King who lived near the mouth of the river +Gambia, which was visited on the return voyage, is most interesting. + +"Now the houses here are made of seaweed, covered with straw, and while +I stayed here (at the river mouth) three days, I learned all the +mischief that had been done to the Christians by a certain King. So +I took pains to make peace with him and sent him many presents by his +own men in his own canoes. Now the King was in great fear of the +Christians, lest they should take vengeance upon him. When the King +heard that I always treated the natives kindly he came to the river-side +with a great force, and, sitting down on the bank, sent for me. And +so I went and paid him all respect. There was a Bishop there of his +own faith, who asked me about the God of the Christians, and I answered +him as God had given me to know. At last the King was so pleased with +what I said that he sprang to his feet and ordered the Mohammedan Bishop +to leave his country within three days." + +So when the Portuguese returned home, Prince Henry sent a priest and +a young man of his own household to the black King at the mouth of +the Gambia. This was in 1458. + +"In the year of our Lord 1460, Prince Henry fell ill in his town on +Cape St. Vincent," says his faithful explorer and servant, Diego Gomez, +"and of that sickness he died." + +Such was the end of the man who has been called the "originator of +modern discovery." What had he done? He had inspired and financed the +Portuguese navigators to sail for some two thousand miles down the +West African coast. "From his wave-washed home he inspired the courage +of his men and planned their voyages, and by the purity of his actions +and the devotion of his life really lived up to his inspiring motto, +'Talent de bien faire.'" And more than this. For each successive +discovery had been carefully noted at the famous Sagres settlement, +and these had been worked up by an Italian monk named Fra Mauro into +an enormous wall-map over six feet across, crammed with detail--the +work of three years' incessant labour. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +BARTHOLOMEW DIAZ REACHES THE STORMY CAPE + + +But though Prince Henry was dead, the enthusiasm he had aroused among +Portuguese navigators was not dead, and Portuguese ships still stole +forth by twos and threes to search for treasure down the West African +coast. In 1462 they reached Sierra Leone, the farthest point attained +by Hanno of olden days. Each new headland was now taken in the name +of Portugal: wooden crosses already marked each successive discovery, +and many a tree near the coast bore the motto of Prince Henry carved +roughly on its bark. Portugal had officially claimed this "Kingdom +of the Seas" as it was called, and henceforth stone crosses some six +feet high, inscribed with the arms of Portugal, the name of the +navigator, and the date of discovery, marked each newly found spot. + +It was not until 1471 that the navigators unconsciously crossed the +Equator, "into a new heaven and a new earth." They saw stars unknown +in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Northern Pole star sank nearly +out of sight. Another thirteen years and Diego Cam, a knight of the +King's household, found the mouth of the Congo and erected a great +Portuguese pillar on the famous spot. It was in the year 1484 that +Diego Cam was ordered to go "as far to the south as he could." He crossed +the Equator, which for past years had been the limit of knowledge, +and, continuing southwards he reached the mouth of the mighty river +Congo, now known as the second of all the African rivers for size. +The explorer ascended the river, falling in with peacefully inclined +natives. But they could not make themselves understood, so Cam took +back four of them to Portugal, where they learned enough Portuguese +to talk a little. They were much struck with Portugal and the kind +treatment they received from the King, who sent them back to their +country laden with presents for their black King at home. So with Diego +Cam they all sailed back to the Congo River. They were received by +the King in royal state. Seated on a throne of ivory raised on a lofty +wooden platform, he could be seen from all sides, his "black and +glittering skin" shining out above a piece of damask given to him to +wear by the Portuguese explorer. From his shoulder hung a dressed +horse's tail, a symbol of royalty; on his head was a cap of palm leaves. + +It was here in this Congo district that the first negro was baptized +in the presence of some twenty-five thousand heathen comrades. The +ceremony was performed by Portuguese priests, and the negro King +ordered all idols to be destroyed throughout his dominions. Here, too, +a little Christian church was built, and the King and Queen became +such earnest Christians that they sent their children to Portugal to +be taught. + +[Illustration: NEGRO BOYS, FROM CABOT'S MAP, 1544.] + +But even the discoveries of Diego Cam pale before the great achievement +of Bartholomew Diaz, who was now to accomplish the great task which +Prince Henry the Navigator had yearned to see fulfilled--the rounding +of the Cape of Storms. + +The expedition set sail for the south in August 1486. Passing the spot +where Diego Cam had erected his farthest pillar, Diaz reached a +headland, now known as Diaz Point, where he, too, placed a Portuguese +pillar that remained unbroken till about a hundred years ago. Still +to the south he sailed, struggling with wind and weather, to Cape Voltas, +close to the mouth of the Orange River. Then for another fortnight +the little ships were driven before the wind, south and ever south, +with half-reefed sails and no land in sight. Long days and longer nights +passed to find them still drifting in an unknown sea, knowing not what +an hour might bring forth. At last the great wind ceased to blow and +it became icy cold. They had sailed to the south of South Africa. +Steering north, Diaz now fell in with land--land with cattle near the +shore and cowherds tending them, but the black cowherds were so alarmed +at the sight of the Portuguese that they fled away inland. + +We know now, what neither Diaz nor his crew even suspected, that he +had actually rounded, without seeing, the Cape of Good Hope. The coast +now turned eastward till a small island was reached in a bay we now +call Algoa Bay. Here Bartholomew Diaz set up another pillar with its +cross and inscription, naming the rock Santa Cruz. This was the first +land beyond the Cape ever trodden by European feet. Unfortunately the +natives--Kafirs--threw stones at them, and it was impossible to make +friends and to land. The crews, too, began to complain. They were worn +out with continual work, weary for fresh food, terrified at the heavy +seas that broke on these southern shores. With one voice they protested +against proceeding any farther. But the explorer could not bear to +turn back; he must sail onwards now, just three days more, and then +if they found nothing he would turn back. They sailed on and came to +the mouth of a large river--the Great Fish River. Again the keen +explorer would sail on and add to his already momentous discoveries. +But the crews again began their complaints and, deeply disappointed, +Diaz had to turn. "When he reached the little island of Santa Cruz +and bade farewell to the cross which he had there erected, it was with +grief as intense as if he were leaving his child in the wilderness +with no hope of ever seeing him again." To him it seemed as though +he had endured all his hardships in vain. He knew not what he had really +accomplished as yet. But his eyes were soon to be opened. Sailing +westward, Diaz at last came in sight of "that remarkable Cape which +had been hidden from the eyes of man for so many centuries." + +[Illustration: THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA. From Martin Behaim's map, +1492.] + +Remembering their perils past, he called it "the Stormy Cape" and +hastened home to the King of Portugal with his great news. The King +was overjoyed, but he refused to name it the Cape of Storms. Would +not such a name deter the seamen of the future? Was not this the +long-sought passage to India? Rather it should be called the Cape of +Good Hope, the name which it has held throughout the centuries. In +the course of one voyage, Diaz had accomplished the great task which +for the past seventy years Prince Henry had set before his people. +He had lifted for the first time in the history of the world the veil +that had hung over the mysterious extremity of the great African +continent. The Phoenicians may have discovered it some seventeen +hundred years before Diaz, but the record of tradition alone exists. + +Now with the new art of printing, which was transforming the whole +aspect of life, the brilliant achievement of Bartholomew Diaz was made +known far and wide. + +It was shortly to be followed by a yet more brilliant feat by a yet +more brilliant navigator, "the most illustrious that the world has +seen." The very name of Christopher Columbus calls up the vision of +a resolute man beating right out into the westward unknown seas and +finding as his great reward a whole new continent--a New World of whose +existence mankind had hardly dreamt. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS + + +Every event in the eventful life of Christopher Columbus is of supreme +interest. We linger over all that leads up to the momentous start +westwards: we recall his birth and early life at Genoa towards the +middle of the fifteenth century, his apprenticeship to his father as +a weaver of cloth, his devotion to the sea, his love of the little +sailing ships that passed in and out of the busy Genoese harbour from +all parts of the known world. At the age of fourteen the little +Christoforo went to sea--a red-haired, sunburnt boy with bright blue +eyes. He learnt the art of navigation, he saw foreign countries, he +learnt to chart the seas, to draw maps, and possibly worked with some +of the noted Italian draughtsmen. At the age of twenty-eight, in 1474, +he left Genoa for Portugal, famous throughout the world for her recent +discoveries, though as yet the Stormy Cape lay veiled in mystery. +Columbus wanted to learn all he could about these discoveries; he made +voyages to Guinea, Madeira, and Porto Santo. He also went to England +and "sailed a hundred leagues to the island of Thule in 1477." + +He was now a recognised seaman of distinction, with courteous manners +and fine appearance. He set himself to study maps and charts at Lisbon, +giving special attention to instruments for making observations at +sea. For many long years he had been revolving a scheme for reaching +India by sailing westward instead of the route by Africa. The more +he studied these things the more convinced he became that he was right. + + "What if wise men had, as far back as Ptolemy, + Judged that the earth like an orange was round. + None of them ever said, 'Come along, follow me, + Sail to the West and the East will be found.'" + +It was not till the year 1480 that Columbus proposed to the King of +Portugal his idea of sailing westwards. He explained his reasons: how +there were grounds for thinking there was an unknown land to the west, +how artistically sculptured pieces of wood had been driven across the +ocean by the west wind, suggesting islands not yet discovered, how +once the corpses of two men with broad faces, unlike Europeans, had +been washed ashore, how on the west coast of Ireland seeds of tropical +plants had been discovered. + +The King listened and was inclined to believe Columbus. But his +councillors persuaded him to get from the Genoese navigator his plans, +and while they kept Columbus waiting for the King's answer they sent +off some ships privately to investigate the whole matter. The ships +started westward, encountered a great storm, and returned to Lisbon, +scoffing at the scheme of the stranger. When this news reached his +ears, Columbus was very angry. He would have nothing more to do with +Portugal, but left that country at once for Spain to appeal to the +King and Queen of that land. + +Ferdinand and Isabella were busy with affairs of state and could not +give audience to the man who was to discover a New World. It was not +till 1491 that he was summoned before the King and Queen. Once more +his wild scheme was laughed at, and he was dismissed the Court. Not +only was he again indignant, but his friends were indignant too. They +believed in him, and would not rest till they had persuaded the Queen +to take up his cause. He demanded a good deal. He must be made Admiral +and Viceroy of all the new seas and lands he might discover, as well +as receiving a large portion of his gains. The Queen was prevailed +on to provide means for the expedition, and she became so enthusiastic +over it that she declared she would sell her own jewels to provide +the necessary supplies. Columbus was created Admiral of the Ocean in +all the islands and continents he might discover; two little ships +were made ready, and it seemed as though the dream of his life might +be fulfilled. The explorer was now forty-six; his red hair had become +grey with waiting and watching for the possibility of realising his +great scheme. + +[Illustration: THE PARTING OF COLUMBUS WITH FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, +3RD AUGUST 1492. From De Bry's account of the _Voyages to India_, 1601.] + +At last the preparations were complete. The _Santa Maria_ was to lead +the way with the Admiral on board; she was but one hundred tons' burden, +with a high poop and a forecastle. It had been difficult enough to +find a crew; men were shy about venturing with this stranger from Genoa +on unknown seas, and it was a motley party that finally took service +under Columbus. The second ship, the _Pinta_, was but half the size +of the flagship; she had a crew of eighteen and was the fastest sailer +of the little squadron, while the third, the _Nina_ of forty tons, +also carried eighteen men. + +[Illustration: COLUMBUS'S SHIP, THE _SANTA MARIA_. From a woodcut of +1493 supposed to be after a drawing by Columbus himself.] + +On 3rd August 1492 the little fleet sailed forth from Spain on a quest +more perilous perhaps than any yet on record. No longer could they +sail along with a coast always in sight; day after day and night after +night they must sail on an unknown sea in search of an unknown land. +No one ever expected to see them again. It has well been said that, +"looking back at all that has grown out of it in the four centuries +that have elapsed, we now know that the sailing of those three little +boats over the bar was, since the Fall of Rome, the most momentous +event in the world's history." The ships steered for the Canary Islands, +and it was not till 9th September that the last land faded from the +eyes of that daring little company. + +[Illustration: THE BEST PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS. From the original +painting (by an unknown artist) in the Naval Museum at Madrid.] + +Something of a panic among the sailors ensued when they realised their +helpless position; some even burst into tears, begging to be taken +home. The days passed on. By the 16th they had come within the influence +of the trade winds. + +"The weather was like April," says Columbus in his journal. Still +westward they sailed, eagerly looking for signs of land. Now they see +two pelicans, "an indication that land was near," now a large dark +cloud to the north, another "sign that land is near." + +As the days pass on, their hopes die away and "the temper of the crews +was getting uglier and uglier as the three little vessels forged +westward through the blue weed-strewn waters." On 9th October hope +revives; all night they hear birds passing through the still air. + +On the evening of the 11th a light was seen glimmering in the distance; +from the high stern deck of the _Santa Maria_ it could be plainly seen, +and when the sun rose on that memorable morning the low shores of land +a few miles distant could be plainly seen. "Seabirds are wheeling +overhead heedless of the intruders, but on the shore human beings are +assembling to watch the strange birds which now spread their wings +and sail towards the island. + +"The _Pinta_ leads and her crew are raising the 'Te Deum.' The crews +of the _Santa Maria_ and the _Nina_ join in the solemn chant and many +rough men brush away tears. Columbus, the two Pinzons, and some of +the men step into the cutter and row to the shore." Columbus, fully +armed under his scarlet cloak, sprang ashore, the unclothed natives +fleeing away at sight of the first white man who had ever stepped on +their shores. Then, unfurling the royal standard of Spain and setting +up a large cross, the great navigator fell on his knees and gave thanks +to God for this triumphant ending to his perilous voyage. He named +the island San Salvador and formally took possession of it for Spain. +It was one of the Bahama group, and is now known as Watling Island +(British). + +"Thus was the mighty enterprise achieved, mighty in its conception, +still more important in its results." + +But Columbus thought he had discovered the Indies, a new route to the +east and the Cathay of Marco Polo. He had done more than this; he had +discovered another continent. He had sailed over three thousand miles +without seeing land, a feat unparalleled in the former history of +discovery. + +He made friends with the natives, who resembled those of the Canary +Islands. "I believe they would easily become Christians," wrote +Columbus. "If it please our Lord at the time of my departure, I will +take six from here that they may learn to speak." He also notes that +they will make good slaves. + +[Illustration: COLUMBUS LANDING ON HISPANIOLA. From a woodcut of +1494.] + +From island to island he now made his way, guided by natives. He hoped +to find gold; he hoped to find Cathay, for he had a letter from Ferdinand +and Isabella to deliver to the Great Khan. The charm and beauty of +these enchanted islands were a source of joy to the explorer: "The +singing of the little birds is such that it appears a man would wish +never to leave here, and the flocks of parrots obscure the sun." The +island of Cuba "seemed like heaven itself," but Columbus could not +forget that he was searching for gold, for Oriental spices, for the +land of Marco Polo, as he hastened from point to point, from island +to island. Already the _Pinta_ under Martin Pinzon had gone off +independently in search of a vague land of gold, to the vexation of +the Admiral. A worse disaster was now to befall him. On Christmas Day, +off the island of Hayti, the _Santa Maria_ struck upon a reef and went +over. Columbus and his crew escaped on board the little _Nina_. But +she was too small to carry home the double crew, and Columbus made +a little fortress on the island where the native King was friendly, +and left there a little colony of Spaniards. + +He now prepared for the homeward voyage, and one January day in 1493 +he left the newly discovered islands and set his face for home in +company with the _Pinta_, which by this time had returned to him. For +some weeks they got on fairly well. Then the wind rose. A violent storm +came on; the sea was terrible, the waves breaking right over the little +homeward-bound ships, which tossed about helplessly for long days and +nights. Suddenly the _Pinta_ disappeared. The wind and sea increased. +The little forty-ton _Nina_ was in extreme peril, and the crew gave +themselves up for lost; their provisions were nearly finished. +Columbus was agonised lest he should perish and the news of his great +discovery should never reach Spain. Taking a piece of parchment, he +noted down as best he could amid the tossing of the ship a brief account +of his work, and, wrapping it in a waxed cloth, he put it into an empty +cask and threw it overboard. Then, while the mountainous seas +threatened momentary destruction, he waited and prayed. + +Slowly the storm abated, and on 18th February they reached the Azores. +A few days for refreshment and on he sailed again, feverishly anxious +to reach Spain and proclaim his great news. But on 3rd March the wind +again rose to a hurricane and death stared the crew in the face. Still, +"under bare poles and in a heavy cross-sea," they scudded on, until +they reached the mouth of the Tagus. The news of his arrival soon spread, +and excited crowds hurried to see the little ship that had crossed +the fierce Atlantic. Bartholomew Diaz came aboard the _Nina_, and for +a short time the two greatest explorers of their century were together. +An enthusiastic welcome awaited him in Spain. Was he not the "Admiral +of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy of the Western Indies," the only man who +had crossed the unknown for the sake of a cherished dream? + +"Seven months had passed since Columbus had sailed from Spain in the +dim light of that summer morning. Now he was back. Through tempestuous +seas and raging winter gales he had guided his ship well, and Spain +knew how to do him honour. His journey from the coast to the Court +was like a royal progress. The roads were lined with excited people; +the air was rent with shouts of joy." + +[Illustration: THE FIRST REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE OF THE NEW WORLD. +From a woodcut published at Augsburg between 1497 and 1504. The only +copy known is in the British Museum. The inscription states that the +Americans "eat each other," "become a hundred and fifty years of age, +and have no government."] + +On Palm Sunday, 1493, he passed through the streets of Seville. A +procession preceded him in which walked the six natives, or Indians +as they were called, brought home by Columbus; parrots and other birds +with strange and radiant colouring were also borne before the +triumphant explorer, who himself rode on horseback among the mounted +chivalry of Spain. From windows and roofs a dense throng watched +Christopher Columbus as he rode through the streets of Seville. From +here he passed on to Barcelona, to be received by the King and Queen. + + "The city decked herself + To meet me, roar'd my name: the king, the queen, + Bad me be seated, speak, and tell them all + The story of my voyage, and while I spoke + The crowd's roar fell as at the 'Peace be still.' + And when I ceased to speak, the king, the queen, + Sank from their thrones, and melted into tears, + And knelt, and lifted hand and heart and voice + In praise to God who led me thro' the waste. + And then the great 'Laudamus' rose to heaven." + +It is curious to think what a strange mistake caused all their rejoicing. +Not only Spain, but the whole civilised world firmly believed that +Columbus had discovered some islands off the coast of Asia, not far +from the land of the Great Khan, in the Indian seas. Hence the islands +were called the West Indies, which name they have kept to this day. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A GREAT NEW WORLD + + +The departure of Columbus six months later on his second voyage was +a great contrast to the uncertain start of a year ago. The new fleet +was ready by September 1493. The three largest ships were some four +hundred tons' burden, with fourteen smaller craft and crews of fifteen +thousand men. There was no dearth of volunteers this time. High-born +Spaniards, thirsting for the wealth of the Indies, offered their +services, while Columbus took his brother James and a Benedictine monk +chosen by the Pope. They took orange and lemon seeds for planting in +the new islands, horses, pigs, bulls, cows, sheep, and goats, besides +fruit and vegetables. + +So, full of hope and joyful expectation, they set sail; and so well +had Columbus calculated his distance and direction with but imperfect +instruments at his disposal, that he arrived at the islands again on +3rd November. It was another new island, which he named Domenica, as +the day was Sunday. Making for the island of Hayti, where he had left +his little Spanish colony, he passed many islands, naming Guadeloupe, +San Martin, Santa Cruz, and others. Porto Rico was also found, but +they arrived at Hayti to find no trace of Spaniards. Disaster had +overtaken the colony, and the deserted men had been killed by the +natives who had apparently been so friendly. Another spot was selected +by Columbus, and a town was soon built to which he gave the name of +Isabella. + +[Illustration: THE TOWN OF ISABELLA AND THE COLONY FOUNDED BY COLUMBUS. +From a woodcut of 1494.] + +This is not the place to tell of the miserable disputes and squabbles +that befell the little Spanish colony. We are here concerned with the +fuller exploration of the West Indies by Columbus. Taking three ships +provisioned for six months, with a crew of fifty-two, he set out for +the coast of Cathay. Instead of this, he found the island of Jamaica, +with its low, hazy, blue coast of extreme beauty. Still convinced that +he was near the territory of the Great Khan, he explored the coast +of Cuba, not realising that it was an island. He sailed about among +the islands, till he became very ill, fever seized him, and at last +his men carried him ashore at Isabella, thinking that he must die. +He recovered to find a discontented colony, members of which had +already sent back stories to Spain of the misdeeds of their founder. +Columbus made up his mind to return to Spain to carry a true report +of the difficulties of colonisation in the Indies. + +"It was June 1496 before he found himself again in the harbour of Cadiz. +People had crowded down to greet the great discoverer, but instead +of a joyous crew, flushed with new success and rich with the spoils +of the golden Indies, a feeble train of wretched men crawled on +shore--thin, miserable, and ill. Columbus himself was dressed as a +monk, in a long gown girded with a cord. His beard was long and unshaven. +The whole man was utterly broken down with all he had been through." + +But after a stay of two years in Spain, Columbus again started off +on his third voyage. With six ships he now took a more southerly +direction, hoping to find land to the south of the West Indies. And +this he did, but he never lived to know that it was the great continent +of South America. Through scorching heat, which melted the tar of their +rigging, they sailed onwards till they were rewarded by the sight of +land at last. Columbus had promised to dedicate the first land he saw +to the Holy Trinity. What, then, was his surprise when land appeared +from which arose three distinct peaks, which he at once named La +Trinidad. The luxuriance of the island pleased the Spaniards, and as +they made their way slowly along the shore their eyes rested for the +first time, and unconsciously, on the mainland of South America. It +appeared to the explorer as a large island which he called Isla Santa. +Here oysters abounded and "very large fish, and parrots as large as +hens." Between the island and the mainland lay a narrow channel through +which flowed a mighty current. While the ships were anchoring here +a great flood of fresh water came down with a great roar, nearly +destroying the little Spanish ships and greatly alarming both Columbus +and his men. It was one of the mouths of the river Orinoco, to which +they gave the name of the Dragon's Mouth. The danger over, they sailed +on, charmed with the beautiful shores, the sight of the distant +mountains, and the sweetness of the air. + +[Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--IV. The world as known +at the end of the fifteenth century after the discoveries of Columbus +and his age.] + +Columbus decided that this must be the centre of the earth's surface, +and with its mighty rivers surely it was none other than the earthly +Paradise with the rivers of the Garden of Eden, that "some of the +Fathers had declared to be situated in the extreme east of the Old +World, and in a region so high that the flood had not overwhelmed it." +The world then, said Columbus, could not be a perfect round, but +pear-shaped. With these conclusions he hastened across to Hayti where +his brother was ruling over the little colony in his absence. But +treachery and mutiny had been at work. Matters had gone ill with the +colony, and Columbus did not improve the situation by his presence. +He was a brilliant navigator, but no statesman. Complaints reached +Spain, and a Spaniard was sent out to replace Columbus. This +high-handed official at once put the poor navigator in chains and +placed him on board a ship bound for Spain. Queen Isabella was +overwhelmed with grief when the snowy-haired explorer once again stood +before her, his face lined with suffering. He was restored to royal +favour and provided with ships to sail forth on his fourth and last +voyage. But his hardships and perils had told upon him, and he was +not really fit to undertake the long voyage to the Indies. However, +he arrived safely off the coast of Honduras and searched for the straits +that he felt sure existed, but which were not to be found till some +eighteen years later by Magellan. The natives brought him cocoanuts, +which the Spaniards now tasted for the first time; they also brought +merchandise from a far land denoting some high civilisation. Columbus +believed that he had reached the golden east, whence the gold had been +obtained for Solomon's temple. + +Had Columbus only sailed west he might have discovered Mexico with +all its wealth, and "a succession of splendid discoveries would have +shed fresh glory on his declining age, instead of his sinking amidst +gloom, neglect, and disappointment." At the isthmus of Darien, +Columbus gave up the search. He was weary of the bad weather. Incessant +downpours of rain, storms of thunder and lightning with terrific +seas--these discouraged him. Disaster followed disaster. The food was +nearly finished; the biscuit "was so full of maggots that the people +could only eat it in the dark, when they were not visible." Columbus +himself seemed to be at the point of death. "Never," he wrote, "was +the sea seen so high, so terrific, so covered with foam; the waters +from heaven never ceased--it was like a repetition of the deluge." + +He reached Spain in 1504 to be carried ashore on a litter, and to learn +that the Queen of Spain was dead. He was friendless, penniless, and +sick unto death. + +"After twenty years of toil and peril," he says pitifully, "I do not +own a roof in Spain." + + "I, lying here, bedridden and alone, + Cast off, put by, scouted by count and king, + The first discoverer starves." + +And so the brilliant navigator, Christopher Columbus, passed away, +all unconscious of the great New World he had reached. Four centuries +have passed away, but-- + + "When shall the world forget + The glory and the debt, + Indomitable soul, + Immortal Genoese? + Not while the shrewd salt gale + Whines amid shroud and sail, + Above the rhythmic roll + And thunder of the seas." + +It has been well said, "injustice was not buried with Columbus," and +soon after his death an attempt was made, and made successfully, to +name the New World after another--a Florentine pilot, Amerigo +Vespucci. + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE WORLD, DRAWN IN 1500, THE FIRST TO SHOW +AMERICA. By Juan de la Cosa, who is supposed to have been the pilot +of Columbus. At the top, between the two green masses representing +America, La Cosa has drawn Columbus as St. Christopher carrying the +infant Christ, according to the legend.] + +It was but natural that when the first discoveries by Columbus of land +to westward had been made known, that others should follow in the track +of the great navigator. Among these was a handsome young Spaniard--one +Hojeda--who had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage. Soon after, +he fitted out an expedition, 1499, reaching the mainland of the yet +unknown continent near the Trinidad of Columbus. With him was Amerigo +Vespucci. Here they found a native village with houses built on tree +trunks and connected by bridges. It was so like a bit of old Venice +that the explorers named it Little Venice or Venezuela, which name +it bears to-day. + +Nothing was publicly known of this voyage till a year after the death +of Columbus, when men had coasted farther to the south of Venezuela +and discovered that this land was neither Asia nor Africa, that it +was not the land of Marco Polo, but a new continent indeed. + +"It is proper to call it a New World," says Amerigo Vespucci. "Men +of old said over and over again that there was no land south of the +Equator. But this last voyage of mine has proved them wrong, since +in southern regions I have found a country more thickly inhabited by +people and animals than our Europe or Asia or Africa." + +[Illustration: AMERIGO VESPUCCI. From the sculpture by Grazzini in +the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.] + +These words among others, and an account of his voyages published in +Paris, 1507, created a deep impression. A letter from Columbus +announcing his discoveries had been published in 1493, but he said +nothing, because he knew nothing, of a New World. Men therefore said +that Amerigo Vespucci had discovered a new continent, "wherefore the +new continent ought to be called America from its discoverer Amerigo, +a man of rare ability, inasmuch as Europe and Asia derived their names +from women." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +VASCO DA GAMA REACHES INDIA + + +Thus the name of America was gradually adopted for the New World, though +the honour and glory of its first discovery must always belong to +Christopher Columbus. + +But while all this wonderful development westwards was thrilling the +minds of men, other great discoveries were being made to the East, +whither the eyes of the Portuguese were still straining. Portugal had +lost Columbus; she could lay no claim to the shores of America +discovered by Spaniards, but the sea-route to India by the East was +yet to be found by one of her explorers, Vasco da Gama. His achievement +stands out brilliantly at this time; for, within a few years of the +discovery of the New World, he had been able to tell the world that +India and the East could be reached by the Cape of Good Hope! + +The dream of Prince Henry the Navigator was fulfilled! + +How Vasco da Gama was chosen for the great command has been graphically +described by a Portuguese historian, whose words are received with +caution by modern authorities. The King of Portugal--Dom +Manuel--having set his kingdom in order, "being inspired by the Lord, +took the resolution to inform himself about the affairs of India." +He knew that the province of India was very far away, inhabited by +dark people who had great riches and merchandise, and there was much +risk in crossing the wide seas and land to reach it. But he felt it +a sacred duty to try and reach it. He ordered ships to be built according +to a design of Bartholomew Diaz, the Hero of the Cape, "low amidships, +with high castles towering fore and aft; they rode the water like +ducks." The ships ready, the King prayed the Lord "to show him the +man whom it would please Him to send upon this voyage." Days passed. +One day the King was sitting in his hall with his officers when he +raised his eyes and saw a gentleman of his household crossing the hall. +It suddenly occurred to the King that this was the man for his command, +and, calling Vasco da Gama, he offered him the command at once. He +was courageous, resolute, and firm of purpose. On his knees he accepted +the great honour. A silken banner blazing with the Cross of the Order +of Christ was bestowed upon him; he chose the _S. Gabriel_ for his +flagship, appointed his brother to the _S. Raphael_, and prepared for +his departure. Books and charts were supplied, Ptolemy's geography +was on board, as well as the _Book of Marco Polo_. All being ready, +Vasco da Gama and his captains spent the night in the little chapel +by the sea at Belem, built for the mariners of Henry the Navigator. + +Next morning--it was July--they walked in solemn procession to the +shore, lighted candles in their hands, priests chanting a solemn +litany as they walked. The beach was crowded with people. Under the +blazing summer sun they knelt once more before taking leave of the +weeping multitudes. Listen to the Portuguese poet, Camoens, who makes +Vasco da Gama the hero of his "Lusiad"-- + + "The neighbouring mountains murmur'd back the sound, + As if to pity moved for human woe; + Uncounted as the grains of golden sand, + The tears of thousands fell on Belem's strand." + +So the Portuguese embarked, weighed anchor, and unfurled the sails +that bore the red cross of the Order of Christ. The four little ships +started on what was to be the longest and most momentous voyage on +record, while crowds stood on the shore straining their eyes till the +fleet, under full sail, vanished from their sight. + +[Illustration: VASCO DA GAMA. From a contemporary portrait.] + +After passing Cape Verde, in order to escape the currents of the Gulf +of Guinea, Vasco da Gama steered south-west into an unknown part of +the South Atlantic. He did not know that at one time he was within +six hundred miles of the coast of South America. Day after day, week +after week passed in dreary monotony as they sailed the wide ocean +that surrounds St. Helena, "a lonely, dreary waste of seas and +boundless sky." Everything ends at last, and, having spent ninety-six +days out of sight of land and sailed some four thousand five hundred +miles, they drifted on to the south-west coast of Africa. It was a +record voyage, for even Columbus had only been two thousand six hundred +miles without seeing land. November found them in a broad bay, "and," +says the old log of the voyage, "we named it St. Helena," which name +it still retains. After a skirmish with some tawny-coloured Hottentots +the explorers sailed on, putting "their trust in the Lord to double +the Cape." + +But the sea was all broken with storm, high rolled the waves, and so +short were the days that darkness prevailed. The crews grew sick with +fear and hardship, and all clamoured to put back to Portugal. + +With angry words Vasco da Gama bade them be silent, though "he well +saw how much reason they had at every moment to despair of their lives"; +the ships were now letting in much water, and cold rains soaked them +all to the skin. + +"All cried out to God for mercy upon their souls, for now they no longer +took heed of their lives." At last the storm ceased, the seas grew +calm, and they knew that, without seeing it, they had doubled the +dreaded Cape, "on which great joy fell upon them and they gave great +praise to the Lord." + +But their troubles were not yet over. The sea was still very rough, +"for the winter of that country was setting in," and even the pilot +suggested turning back to take refuge for a time. When Vasco da Gama +heard of turning backward he cried that they should not speak such +words, because as he was going out of the bar of Lisbon he had promised +God in his heart not to turn back a single span's breadth of the way, +and he would throw into the sea whosoever spoke such things. None could +withstand such an iron will, and they struggled on to Mossel Bay, +already discovered by Diaz. Here they landed "and bought a fat ox for +three bracelets. This ox we dined off on Sunday; we found him very +fat, and his meat nearly as toothsome as the beef of Portugal"--a +pleasant meal, indeed, after three months of salted food. Here, too, +they found "penguins as large as ducks, which had no feathers on their +wings and which bray like asses." + +But there was no time to linger here. They sailed onwards till they +had passed and left behind the last pillar erected by Diaz, near the +mouth of the Great Fish River. All was new now. No European had sailed +these seas, no European had passed this part of the African coast. +On Christmas Day they found land to which, in commemoration of Christ's +Nativity, they gave the name of Natal. Passing Delagoa Bay and Sofala +without sighting them, Vasco da Gama at last reached the mouth of a +broad river, now known as Quilimane River, but called by the weary +mariners the River of Mercy or Good Tokens. Here they spent a month +cleaning and repairing, and here for the first time in the history +of discovery the fell disease of scurvy broke out. The hands and feet +of the men swelled, their gums grew over their teeth, which fell out +so that they could not eat. This proved to be one of the scourges of +early navigation--the result of too much salted food on the high seas, +and no cure was found till the days of Captain Cook. Arrived at +Mozambique--a low-lying coral island--they found no less than four +ocean-going ships belonging to Arab traders laden with gold, silver, +cloves, pepper, ginger, rubies, and pearls from the East. + +[Illustration: AFRICA AS IT WAS KNOWN AFTER DA GAMA'S EXPEDITIONS. +From Juan de la Cosa's map of 1500.] + +There were rumours, too, of a land belonging to Prester John where +precious stones and spices were so plentiful that they could be +collected in baskets. His land could only be reached by camels. "This +information rendered us so happy that we cried with joy, and prayed +God to grant us health that we might behold what we so desired," relates +the faithful journal. But difficulties and delays prevented their +reaching the ever-mythical land of Prester John. Their next +landing-place was Mombasa. Here they were nearly killed by some +treacherous Mohammedans, who hated these "dogs of Christians" as they +called them. And the Portuguese were glad to sail on to Melindi, where +the tall, whitewashed houses standing round the bay, with their +coco-palms, maize fields, and hop gardens, reminded them of one of +their own cities on the Tagus. Here all was friendly. The King of +Melindi sent three sheep and free leave for the strangers to enter +the port. Vasco, in return, sent the King a cassock, two strings of +coral, three washhand basins, a hat, and some bells. Whereupon the +King, splendidly dressed in a damask robe with green satin and an +embroidered turban, allowed himself to be rowed out to the flagship. +He was protected from the sun by a crimson satin umbrella. + +Nine days were pleasantly passed in the port at Melindi, and then, +with a Christian pilot provided by the King, the most thrilling part +of the voyage began with a start across the Arabian Gulf to the west +coast of India. For twenty-three days the ships sailed to the +north-east, with no land visible. Suddenly the dim outline of land +was sighted and the whole crew rushed on deck to catch the first glimpse +of the unknown coast of India. They had just discerned the outline +of lofty mountains, when a thunderstorm burst over the land and a +downpour of heavy rain blotted out the view. + +[Illustration: CALICUT AND THE SOUTHERN INDIAN COAST. From Juan de +la Cosa's map, 1500.] + +At last on 21st May--nearly eleven months after the start from +Portugal--the little Portuguese ships anchored off Calicut. + +"What has brought you hither?" cried the natives, probably surprised +at their foreign dress; "and what seek ye so far from home?" + +"We are in search of Christians and spice," was the ready answer. + +"A lucky venture. Plenty of emeralds. You owe great thanks to God for +having brought you to a country holding such riches," was the +Mohammedan answer. + +"The city of Calicut," runs the diary, "is inhabited by Christians. +They are of a tawny complexion. Some of them have big beards and long +hair, whilst others clip their hair short as a sign that they are +Christians. They also wear moustaches." + +Within the town, merchants lived in wooden houses thatched with palm +leaves. It must have been a quaint sight to see Vasco da Gama, +accompanied by thirteen of his Portuguese, waving the flag of their +country, carried shoulder high through the densely crowded streets +of Calicut on his way to the chief temple and on to the palace of the +King. Roofs and windows were thronged with eager spectators anxious +to see these Europeans from so far a country. Many a scuffle took place +outside the palace gates; knives were brandished, and men were injured +before the successful explorer reached the King of Calicut. The royal +audience took place just before sunset on 28th May 1498. The King lay +on a couch covered with green velvet under a gilt canopy, while Vasco +da Gama related an account of Portugal and his King, the "lord of many +countries and the possessor of great wealth exceeding that of any King +of these parts, adding that for sixty years the Portuguese had been +trying to find the sea-route to India. The King gave leave for the +foreigners to barter their goods, but the Indians scoffed at their +offer of hats, scarlet hoods, coral, sugar, and oil. + +"That which I ask of you is gold, silver, corals, and scarlet cloth," +said the King, "for my country is rich in cinnamon, cloves, ginger, +pepper, and precious stones." + +Vasco da Gama left India with a scant supply of Christians and spices, +but with his great news he now hurried back to Portugal. What if he +had lost his brother Paul and over one hundred of his men after his +two years' absence, he had discovered the ocean-route to India--a +discovery more far-reaching than he had any idea of at this time. + +"And the King," relates the old historian, "overjoyed at his coming, +sent a Nobleman and several Gentlemen to bring him to Court; where, +being arrived through Crowds of Spectators, he was received with +extraordinary honour. For this Glorious Price of Service, the +Privilege of being called Don was annexed to his Family: To his Arms +was added Part of the King's. He had a Pension of three thousand Ducats +yearly, and he was afterwards presented to greater Honours for his +Services in the Indies, where he will soon appear again." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +DISCOVERY OF THE SPICE ISLANDS + + +It was but natural that the Portuguese, flushed with victory, should +at once dispatch another expedition to India. + +Was there some vexation in the heart of the "Admiral of India" when +the command of the new fleet was given to Pedro Cabral? History is +silent. Anyhow, in the March of 1500 we find this "Gentleman of Great +Merit" starting off with thirteen powerfully armed ships and some +fifteen hundred men, among them the veteran explorer Bartholomew Diaz, +a party of eight Franciscan friars to convert the Mohammedans, eight +chaplains, skilled gunners, and merchants to buy and sell in the King's +name at Calicut. The King himself accompanied Cabral to the waterside. +He had already adopted the magnificent title, "King, by the Grace of +God, of Portugal, and of the Algarves, both on this side the sea and +beyond it in Africa, Lord of Guinea and of the Conquest, Navigation, +and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India." + +Then Cabral, flying a banner with the royal arms of Portugal, started +on a voyage which was to secure for Portugal "an empire destined to +be richer and greater than all her dominions in Asia." Sailing far +to the west, he fell in with the South American continent and was +carried to a new land. The men went on shore and brought word that +"it was a fruitful country, full of trees and well inhabited. The people +were swarthy and used bows and arrows." That night a storm arose and +they ran along the coast to seek a port. Here Mass was said and parrots +exchanged for paper and cloth. Then Cabral erected a cross (which was +still shown when Lindley visited Brazil three hundred years later) +and named the country the "Land of the Holy Cross." This name was, +however, discarded later when the new-found land was identified with +Brazil already sighted by Pinzon in one of the ships of Christopher +Columbus. + +Meanwhile, unconscious of the importance of this discovery, Cabral +sailed on towards the Cape of Good Hope. There is no time to tell of +the great comet that appeared, heralding a terrific storm that +suddenly burst upon the little fleet. In the darkness and tempest four +ships went down with all hands--amongst them old Bartholomew Diaz, +the discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, who thus perished in the waters +he had been the first to navigate. + +September found Cabral at last at anchor off Calicut. He found the +King yet more resplendent than Vasco da Gama the year before. The old +historians revel in their descriptions of him. "On his Head was a Cap +of Cloth of Gold, at his Ears hung Jewels, composed of Diamonds, +Sapphires, and Pearls, two of which were larger than Walnuts. His Arms, +from the Elbow to the Wrist and from the knees downwards, were loaded +with bracelets set with infinite Precious Stones of great Value. His +Fingers and Toes were covered with Rings. In that on his great Toe +was a large Rubie of a surprising Lustre. Among the rest there was +a Diamond bigger than a large Bean. But all this was nothing, in +comparison to the Richness of his Girdle, made with precious stones +set in Gold, which cast a Lustre that dazzled every Body's Eyes." + +He allowed Cabral to establish a depot at Calicut for European goods, +so a house was selected by the waterside and a flag bearing the arms +of Portugal erected on the top. For a time all went well, but the +Mohammedans proved to be difficult customers, and disputes soon arose. +A riot took place; the infuriated native traders stormed the depot +and killed the Portuguese within. Cabral in revenge bombarded the city, +and, leaving the wooden houses in flames, he sailed away to Cochin +and Cananor on the coast of Malabar. Soon after this he returned home +with only six out of the thirteen ships, and from this time he +disappears from the pages of history. + +Just before his return, the King of Portugal, thinking trade was well +established between India and his own country, dispatched a "valiant +gentleman" in command of four ships to carry merchandise to the newly +discovered country. But his voyage and adventures are only important +inasmuch as he discovered the island of Ascension when outward bound +and the island of St. Helena on the way home. So favourable was the +account of this island that all Portugal admirals were ordered for +the future to touch there for refreshments. + +The news of Cabral's adventures at Calicut inspired a yet larger +expedition to the East, and Vasco da Gama, now Admiral of the Eastern +seas, was given command of some fifteen ships which sailed from the +Tagus in February 1502. The expedition, though avowedly Christian, +was characterised by injustice and cruelty. Near the coast of Malabar +the Portuguese fleet met with a large ship full of Mohammedan pilgrims +from Mecca. The wealth on board was known to be enormous, and Don Vasco +commanded the owners to yield up their riches to the King of Portugal. +This they somewhat naturally refused to do. Whereupon the Portuguese +fired, standing calmly to watch the blazing ships with their human +freight of men, women, and children. True, one historian declares that +all the children were removed to the Portuguese ship to be converted +into good little Catholics. Another is more nearly concerned with the +money. "We took a Mecca ship on board of which were three hundred and +eighty men and many women and children, and we took from it fully twelve +thousand ducats, with goods worth at least another ten thousand. And +we burned the ship and all the people on board with gunpowder on the +first day of October." + +[Illustration: THE MALABAR COAST. From Fra Mauro's map.] + +Their instructions to banish every Mohammedan in Calicut was +faithfully obeyed. Don Vasco seized and hanged a number of helpless +merchants quietly trading in the harbour. Cutting off their heads, +hands, and feet, he had them flung into a boat, which was allowed to +drift ashore, with a cruel suggestion that the severed limbs would +make an Indian curry. Once more Calicut was bombarded and Don Vasco +sailed on to other ports on the Malabar coast, where he loaded his +ships with spices taken from poor folk who dared not refuse. He then +sailed home again, reaching Portugal "safe and sound, _Deo gratias_," +but leaving behind him hatred and terror and a very quaint idea of +these Christians who felt it their duty to exterminate all followers +of Mohammed. + +Conquest usually succeeds discovery, and the Portuguese, having +discovered the entire coast of West, South, and a good deal of East +Africa and western coast of India, now proceeded to conquer it for +their own. It was a far cry from Portugal to India in these days, and +the isolated depots on the coast of Malabar were obviously in danger, +when the foreign ships laden with spoil left their shores. True, Vasco +da Gama had left six little ships this time under Sodrez to cruise +about the Indian seas, but Sodrez wanted treasure, so he cruised +northwards and found the southern coasts of Arabia as well as the island +of Socotra. He had been warned of the tempestuous seas that raged about +these parts at certain seasons, but, heeding not the warning, he +perished with all his knowledge and treasure. + +Expedition after expedition now left Portugal for the east coast of +Africa and India. There were the two cousins Albuquerque, who built +a strong fort of wood and mud at Cochin, leaving a garrison of one +hundred and fifty trained soldiers under the command of one Pacheco, +who saved the fort and kept things going under great difficulties. +On the return of Albuquerque, the hero of Cochin, the King decided +to appoint a Viceroy of India. He would fain have appointed Tristan +d'Acunha,--the discoverer of the island that still bears his +name,--but he was suddenly struck with blindness, and in his stead +Dom Francisco Almeida, "a nobleman of courage and experience," sailed +off with the title of Viceroy. Not only was he to conquer, but to command, +not only to sustain the sea-power of Portugal, but to form a government. + +There is a story told of the ignorance of the men sent to man the ships +under Almeida. So raw were they that they hardly knew their right hand +from their left, still less the difference between starboard and +larboard, till their captain hit on the happy notion of tying a bundle +of garlic over one side of the ship and a handful of onions over the +other, so the pilot gave orders to the helmsman thus: "Onion your helm!" +or "Garlic your helm!" + +[Illustration: A SHIP OF ALBUQUERQUE'S FLEET. From a very fine woodcut, +published about 1516, of Albuquerque's siege and capture of Aden. In +the British Museum.] + +On the way out, Almeida built a strong fortress near Zanzibar, +organised a regular Portuguese Indian pilot service, and established +his seat of government at Cochin. Then he sent his son, a daring youth +of eighteen, to bombard the city of Quilon, whose people were +constantly intriguing against the Portuguese. Having carried out his +orders, young Lorenzo, ordered to explore the Maldive Islands, was +driven by a storm to an "island opposite Cape Comorin, called Ceylon, +and separated from thence by a narrow sea," where he was warmly received +by the native King, whose dress sparkled with diamonds. Lorenzo +erected here a marble pillar with the arms of Portugal carved thereon +and took possession of the island. He also sent back to Portugal the +first elephant ever sent thither. + +Ceylon was now the farthest point which flew the flag of Portugal toward +the east. Doubtless young Lorenzo would have carried it farther, but +he was killed at the early age of twenty-one, his legs being shattered +by a cannon-ball during a sea-fight. He sat by the mainmast and +continued to direct the fighting till a second shot ended his short +but brilliant career. The Viceroy, "whose whole being was centred in +his devotion to his only son, received the tidings with outward +stoicism." "Regrets," he merely remarked, "regrets are for women." + +Nevertheless he revenged the death of his son by winning a victory +over the opposing fleet and bidding his captains rejoice over "the +good vengeance our Lord has been pleased, of His mercy, to grant us." + +But the days of Almeida were numbered. He had subdued the Indian coast, +he had extended Portuguese possessions in various directions, his term +of office was over, and he was succeeded by the famous Albuquerque, +who had already distinguished himself in the service of Portugal by +his efforts to obtain Ormuz for the Portuguese. Now Viceroy of India, +he found full scope for his boundless energy and vast ambition. He +first attacked Calicut and reduced it to ashes. Then he turned his +attention to Goa, which he conquered, and which became the commercial +capital of the Portuguese in India for the next hundred years. Not +only this, but it was soon the wealthiest city on the face of the earth +and the seat of the government. Albuquerque's next exploit was yet +more brilliant and yet more important. + +[Illustration: A SHIP OF JAVA AND THE CHINA SEAS IN THE SIXTEENTH +CENTURY. From Linschoten's _Navigatio ac Itinerarium_, 1598.] + +In 1509 he had sent a Portuguese explorer Sequira with a small squadron +to make discoveries in the East. He was to cross the Bay of Bengal +and explore the coast of Malacca. Sequira reached the coast and found +it a centre for trade from east and west, "most rich and populous." +But he had reason to suspect the demonstrations of friendship by the +king of these parts, and refused to attend a festival prepared in his +honour. This was fortunate, for some of his companions who landed for +trade were killed. He sailed about the island of Sumatra, "the first +land in which we knew of men's flesh being eaten by certain people +in the mountains who gild their teeth. In their opinion the flesh of +the blacks is sweeter than that of whites." Many were the strange tales +brought back to Cochin by Sequira from the new lands--rivers of +oil--hens with flesh as black as ink--people with tails like sheep. + +Anyhow, Albuquerque resolved that Malacca should belong to the +Portuguese, and with nineteen ships and fourteen hundred fighting men +he arrived off the coast of Sumatra, spreading terror and dismay among +the multitudes that covered the shore. The work of destruction was +short, though the King of Pahang and King Mahomet came out in person +on huge elephants to help in the defence of their city. At last every +inhabitant of the city was driven out or slain, and the Portuguese +plundered the city to their hearts' content. The old historian waxes +eloquent on the wealth of the city, and the laden ships started back, +leaving a fort and a church under the care of Portuguese conquerors. +The amount of booty mattered little, as a violent storm off the coast +of Sumatra disposed of several ships and a good deal of treasure. + +The fall of Malacca was one of vast importance to the Portuguese. Was +it not the key to the Eastern gate of the Indian Ocean--the gate through +which the whole commerce of the Spice Islands, the Philippines, Japan, +and far Cathay passed on its road to the Mediterranean? Was it not +one of the largest trade markets in Asia, where rode the strange ships +of many a distant shore? The fame of Albuquerque spread throughout +the Eastern world. But he was not content with Malacca. The Spice +Islands lay beyond--the Spice Islands with all their cloves and +nutmegs and their countless riches must yet be won for Portugal. + +Up to this year, 1511, they had not been reached by the Portuguese. +But now Francisco Serrano was sent off from Malacca to explore farther. +Skirting the north of Java, he found island after island rich in cloves +and nutmeg. So struck was he with his new discoveries that he wrote +to his friend Magellan: "I have discovered yet another new world larger +and richer than that found by Vasco da Gama." + +It is curious to remember how vastly important was this little group +of islands--now part of the Malay Archipelago and belonging to the +Dutch--to the explorers of the sixteenth century. Strange tales as +usual reached Portugal about these newly found lands. Here lived men +with "spurs on their ankles like cocks," hogs with horns, hens that +laid their eggs nine feet under ground, rivers with living fish, yet +so hot that they took the skin off any man that bathed in their waters, +poisonous crabs, oysters with shells so large that they served as fonts +for baptizing children. + +Truly these mysterious Spice Islands held more attractions for the +Portuguese explorers than did the New World of Columbus and Vespucci. +Their possession meant riches and wealth and--this was not the end. +Was there not land beyond? Indeed, before the Spice Islands were +conquered by Portugal, trade had already been opened up with China +and, before the century was half over, three Portuguese seamen had +visited Japan. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +BALBOA SEES THE PACIFIC OCEAN + + +It is said that Ferdinand Magellan, the hero of all geographical +discovery, with his circumnavigation of the whole round world, had +cruised about the Spice Islands, but what he really knew of them from +personal experience no one knows. He had served under Almeida, and +with Albuquerque had helped in the conquest of Malacca. After seven +years of a "vivid life of adventure by sea and land, a life of siege +and shipwreck, of war and wandering," inaction became impossible. He +busied himself with charts and the art of navigation. He dreamt of +reaching the Spice Islands by sailing _west_, and after a time he laid +his schemes before the King of Portugal. Whether he was laughed at +as a dreamer or a fool we know not. His plans were received with cold +refusal. History repeats itself. Like Christopher Columbus twenty +years before, Magellan now said good-bye to Portugal and made his way +to Spain. + +Since the first discovery of the New World by Spain, that country had +been busy sending out explorer after explorer to discover and annex +new portions of America. Bold navigators, Pinzon, Mendoza, Bastidas, +Juan de la Cosa, and Solis--these and others had almost completed the +discovery of the east coast, indeed, Solis might have been the first +to see the great Pacific Ocean had he not been killed and eaten at +the mouth of the river La Plata. This great discovery was left to Vasco +Nunez de Balboa, who first saw beyond the strange New World from the +Peak of Darien. Now his discovery threw a lurid light on to the +limitation of land that made up the new country and illuminated the +scheme of Magellan. + +Balboa was "a gentleman of good family, great parts, liberal education, +of a fine person, and in the flower of his age." He had emigrated to +the new Spanish colony of Hayti, where he had got into debt. No debtor +was allowed to leave the island, but Balboa, the gentleman of good +family, yearned for further exploration; he "yearned beyond the +sky-line where the strange roads go down." And one day the yearning +grew so great that he concealed himself in a bread cask on board a +ship leaving the shores of Hayti. For some days he remained hidden. +When the ship was well out to sea he made his appearance. Angry, indeed, +was the captain--so angry that he threatened to land the stowaway on +a desert island. He was, however, touched by the entreaties of the +crew, and Balboa was allowed to sail on in the ship. It was a fortunate +decision, for when, soon after, the ship ran heavily upon a rock, it +was the Spanish stowaway Balboa who saved the party from destruction. +He led the shipwrecked crew to a river of which he knew, named Darien +by the Indians. He did _not_ know that they stood on the narrow neck +of land--the isthmus of Panama--which connects North and South America. +The account of the Spanish intrusion is typical: "After having +performed their devotions, the Spaniards fell resolutely on the +Indians, whom they soon routed, and then went to the town, which they +found full of provisions to their wish. Next day they marched up the +country among the neighbouring mountains, where they found houses +replenished with a great deal of cotton, both spun and unspun, plates +of gold in all to the value of ten thousand pieces of fine gold." + +A trade in gold was set up by Balboa, who became governor of the new +colony formed by the Spaniards; but the greed of these foreigners quite +disgusted the native prince of these parts. + +"What is this, Christians? Is it for such a little thing that you +quarrel? If you have such a love of gold, I will show you a country +where you may fulfil your desires. You will have to fight your way +with great kings whose country is distant from our country six suns." + +So saying, he pointed away to the south, where he said lay a great +sea. Balboa resolved to find this great sea. It might be the ocean +sought by Columbus in vain, beyond which was the land of great riches +where people drank out of golden cups. So he collected some two hundred +men and started forth on an expedition full of doubt and danger. He +had to lead his troops, worn with fatigue and disease, through deep +marshes rendered impassable with heavy rains, over mountains covered +with trackless forest, and through defiles from which the Indians +showered down poisoned arrows. + +At last, led by native guides, Balboa and his men struggled up the +side of a high mountain. When near the top he bade his men stop. He +alone must be the first to see the great sight that no European had +yet beheld. With "transports of delight" he gained the top and, "silent +upon a peak in Darien," he looked down on the boundless ocean, bathed +in tropical sunshine. Falling on his knees, he thanked God for his +discovery of the Southern Sea. Then he called up his men. "You see +here, gentlemen and children mine, the end of our labours." + +The notes of the "Te Deum" then rang out on the still summer air, and, +having made a cross of stones, the little party hurried to the shore. +Finding two canoes, they sprang in, crying aloud joyously that they +were the first Europeans to sail on the new sea, whilst Balboa himself +plunged in, sword in hand, and claimed possession of the Southern Ocean +for the King of Spain. The natives told him that the land to the south +was _without end_, and that it was possessed by powerful nations who +had abundance of gold. And Balboa thought this referred to the Indies, +knowing nothing as yet of the riches of Peru. + +[Illustration: ONE OF THE FIRST MAPS OF THE PACIFIC. From Diego +Ribero's map, 1529.] + +It is melancholy to learn that the man who made this really great +discovery was publicly hanged four years later in Darien. But his news +had reached Magellan. There was then a great Southern Ocean beyond +the New World. He was more certain than ever now that by this sea he +could reach the Spice Islands. Moreover, he persuaded the young King +of Spain that his country had a right to these valuable islands, and +promised that he would conduct a fleet round the south of the great +new continent westward to these islands. His proposal was accepted +by Charles V., and the youthful Spanish monarch provided Spanish ships +for the great enterprise. The voyage was not popular, the pay was low, +the way unknown, and in the streets of Seville the public crier called +for volunteers. Hence it was a motley crew of some two hundred and +eighty men, composed of Spaniards, Portuguese, Genoese, French, +Germans, Greeks, Malays, and one Englishman only. There were five +ships. "They are very old and patched," says a letter addressed to +the King of Portugal, "and I would be sorry to sail even for the Canaries +in them, for their ribs are soft as butter." + +Magellan hoisted his flag on board the _Trinidad_ of one hundred and +ten tons' burden. The largest ship, _S. Antonio_, was captained by +a Spaniard--Cartagena; the _Conception_, ninety tons, by Gaspar +Quesada; the _Victoria_ of eighty-five tons, who alone bore home the +news of the circumnavigation of the world, was at first commanded by +the traitor Mendoza; and the little _Santiago_, seventy-five tons, +under the brother of Magellan's old friend Serrano. + +What if the commander himself left a young wife and a son of six months +old? The fever of discovery was upon him, and, flying the Spanish flag +for the first time in his life, Magellan, on board the _Trinidad_, +led his little fleet away from the shores of Spain. He never saw wife +or child again. Before three years had passed all three were dead. + +Carrying a torch or faggot of burning wood on the poop, so that the +ships should never lose sight of it, the _Trinidad_ sailed onwards. + +"Follow the flagship and ask no questions." + +Such were his instructions to his not too loyal captains. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +MAGELLAN SAILS ROUND THE WORLD + + +They had left Seville on 20th September 1519. A week later they were +at the Canaries. Then past Cape Verde, and land faded from their sight +as they made for the south-west. For some time they had a good run +in fine weather. Then "the upper air burst into life" and a month of +heavy gales followed. The Italian count, who accompanied the fleet, +writes long accounts of the sufferings of the crew during these +terrific Atlantic storms. + +"During these storms," he says, "the body of St. Anselm appeared to +us several times; one night that it was very dark on account of the +bad weather the saint appeared in the form of a fire lighted at the +summit of the mainmast and remained there near two hours and a half, +which comforted us greatly, for we were in tears only expecting the +hour of perishing; and, when that holy light was going away from us, +it gave out so great a brilliancy in the eyes of each, that we were +like people blinded and calling out for mercy. For without any doubt +nobody hoped to escape from that storm." + +Two months of incessant rain and diminished rations added to their +miseries. The spirit of mutiny now began to show itself. Already the +Spanish captains had murmured against the Portuguese commander. + +"Be they false men or true, I will fear them not; I will do my appointed +work," said the commander firmly. + +It was not till November that they made the coast of Brazil in South +America, already sighted by Cabral and explored by Pinzon. But the +disloyal captains were not satisfied, and one day the captain of the +_S. Antonio_ boarded the flagship and openly insulted Magellan. He +must have been a little astonished when the Portuguese commander +seized him by the collar, exclaiming: "You are my prisoner!" giving +him into custody and appointing another in his place. + +Food was now procurable, and a quantity of sweet pine-apples must have +had a soothing effect on the discontented crews. The natives traded +on easy terms. For a knife they produced four or five fowls; for a +comb, fish for ten men; for a little bell, a basket full of sweet +potatoes. A long drought had preceded Magellan's visit to these parts, +but rain now began with the advent of the strangers, and the natives +made sure that they had brought it with them. Such an impression once +made there was little difficulty in converting them to the Christian +faith. The natives joined in prayer with the Spaniards, "remaining +on their knees with their hands joined in great reverence so that it +was a pleasure to see them," writes one of the party. + +The day after Christmas again found them sailing south by the coast, +and early in the New Year they anchored at the mouth of the Rio de +la Plata, where Solis had lost his life at the hands of the cannibals +some five years before. He had succeeded Vespucci in the service of +Spain, and was exploring the coast when a body of Indians, "with a +terrible cry and most horrible aspect," suddenly rushed out upon them, +killed, roasted, and devoured them. + +Through February and March, Magellan led his ships along the shores +of bleak Patagonia seeking for an outlet for the Spice Islands. Winter +was coming on and no straits had yet been found. Storm after storm +now burst over the little ships, often accompanied by thunder and +lightning; poops and forecastles were carried away, and all expected +destruction, when "the holy body of St. Anselm appeared and +immediately the storm ceased." + +[Illustration: AN ATLANTIC FLEET OF MAGELLAN'S TIME. From Mercator's +_Mappe Monde_, 1569, where the drawing is spoken of as "Magellan's +ships."] + +It was quite impossible to proceed farther to the unknown south, so, +finding a safe and roomy harbour, Magellan decided to winter there. +Port St. Julian he named it, and he knew full well that there they +must remain some four or five months. He put the crew on diminished +rations for fear the food should run short before they achieved their +goal. This was the last straw. Mutiny had long been smouldering. The +hardships of the voyage, the terrific Atlantic storms, the prospect +of a long Antarctic winter of inaction on that wild Patagonian +coast--these alone caused officers and men to grumble and to demand +an immediate return to Spain. + +But the "stout heart of Magellan" was undaunted. + +On Easter Day the mutiny began. Two of the Spanish captains boarded +the _S. Antonio_, seized the Portuguese captain thereof, and put him +in chains. Then stores were broken open, bread and wine generously +handed round, and a plot hatched to capture the flagship, kill Magellan, +seize his faithful Serrano, and sail home to Spain. + +The news reached Magellan's ears. He at once sent a messenger with +five men bearing hidden arms to summon the traitor captain on board +the flagship. Of course he stoutly refused. As he did so, the messenger +sprang upon him and stabbed him dead. As the rebellious captain fell +dead on the deck of his ship, the dazed crew at once surrendered. Thus +Magellan by his prompt measures quelled a mutiny that might have lost +him the whole expedition. No man ever tried to mutiny again while he +lived and commanded. + +The fleet had been two whole months in the Port S. Julian without seeing +a single native. + +"However, one day, without any one expecting it, we saw a giant, who +was on the shore of the sea, dancing and leaping and singing. He was +so tall that the tallest of us only came up to his waist; he was well +built; he had a large face, painted red all round, and his eyes also +were painted yellow around them, and he had two hearts painted on his +cheeks; he had but little hair on his head and it was painted white." + +The great Patagonian giant pointed to the sky to know whether these +Spaniards had descended from above. He was soon joined by others +evidently greatly surprised to see such large ships and such little +men. Indeed, the heads of the Spaniards hardly reached the giants' +waists, and they must have been greatly astonished when two of them +ate a large basketful of biscuits and rats without skinning them and +drank half a bucket of water at each sitting. + +With the return of spring weather in October 1520, Magellan led the +little fleet upon its way. He was rewarded a few days later by finding +the straits for which he and others had been so long searching. + +[Illustration: FERDINAND MAGELLAN, THE FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATOR OF THE +WORLD. After the engraving by Selma in Navarrete's _Coleccion de los +Viages_.] + +"It was the straight," says the historian simply, "now cauled the +straight of Magellans." + +A struggle was before them. For more than five weeks the Spanish +mariners fought their way through the winding channels of the unknown +straits. On one side rose high mountains covered with snow. The weather +was bad, the way unknown. Do we wonder to read that "one of the ships +stole away privily and returned into Spain," and the remaining men +begged piteously to be taken home? Magellan spoke "in measured and +quiet tones": "If I have to eat the leather of the ships' yards, yet +will I go on and do my work." His words came truer than he knew. On +the southern side of the strait constant fires were seen, which led +Magellan to give the land the name it bears to-day--Tierra del Fuego. +It was not visited again for a hundred years. + +[Illustration: A SHIP OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. From Amoretti's +translation of _Magellan's Voyage round the World_.] + +At last the ships fought their way to the open sea--Balboa's Southern +Ocean--and "when the Captain Magellan was past the strait and saw the +way open to the other main sea he was so glad thereof that for joy +the tears fell from his eyes." + +The expanse of calm waters seemed so pleasant after the heavy tiring +storms that he called the still waters before him the Pacific Ocean. +Before following him across the unknown waters, let us recall the +quaint lines of Camoens-- + + "Along these regions, from the burning zone + To deepest south, he dares the course unknown. + A land of giants shall his eyes behold, + Of camel strength, surpassing human mould; + And, onward still, thy fame his proud heart's guide, + Beneath the southern stars' cold gleam he braves + And stems the whirls of land-surrounded waves, + For ever sacred to the hero's fame, + These foaming straits shall bear his deathless name. + Through these dread jaws of rock he presses on + Another ocean's breast, immense, unknown, + Beneath the south's cold wings, unmeasur'd, wide, + Received his vessels, through the dreary tide, + In darkling shades, where never man before + Heard the waves howl, he dares the nameless shore." + +Three little ships had now emerged, battered and worn, manned by crews +gaunt and thin and shivering. Magellan took a northerly course to avoid +the intense cold, before turning to cross the strange obscure ocean, +which no European had yet realised. Just before Christmas the course +was altered and the ships were turned to the north-west, in which +direction they expected soon to find the Spice Islands. No one had +any idea of the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. + +[Illustration: "HONDIUS HIS MAP OF THE MAGELLAN STREIGHT." From a map +by Jodocus Hondius, about 1590. It gives a particularly clear picture +of the ideas held by the age following Magellan's discovery of the +land which, it was supposed, enveloped the southern point of South +America.] + +"Well was it named the Pacific," remarks the historian, "for during +three months and twenty days we met with no storm." + +Two months passed away, and still they sailed peacefully on, day after +day, week after week, across a waste of desolate waters. + + "Alone, alone, all, all alone, + Alone on a wide, wide sea." + +At last one January day they sighted a small wooded island, but it +was uninhabited; they named it S. Paul's Island and passed on their +way. They had expected to find the shores of Asia close by those of +America. The size of the world was astounding. Another island was +passed. Again no people, no consolation, only many sharks. There was +bitter disappointment on board. They had little food left. "We ate +biscuit, but in truth it was biscuit no longer, but a powder full of +worms. So great was the want of food that we were forced to eat the +hides with which the main yard was covered to prevent the chafing +against the rigging. These hides we exposed to the sun first to soften +them by putting them overboard for four or five days, after which we +put them on the embers and ate them thus. We had also to make use of +sawdust for food, and rats became a great delicacy." No wonder scurvy +broke out in its worst form--nineteen died and thirteen lay too ill +to work. + +For ninety-eight days they sailed across the unknown sea, "a sea so +vast that the human mind can scarcely grasp it," till at last they +came on a little group of islands peopled with savages of the lowest +type--such expert thieves that Magellan called the new islands the +Ladrones or isle of robbers. Still, there was fresh food here, and +the crews were greatly refreshed before they sailed away. The food +came just too late to save the one Englishman of the party--Master +Andrew of Bristol--who died just as they moved away. Then they found +the group afterwards known as the Philippines (after Philip II. of +Spain). Here were merchants from China, who assured Magellan that the +famous Spice Islands were not far off. Now Magellan had practically +accomplished that he set out to do, but he was not destined to reap +the fruits of his victory. + +With a good supply of fresh food the sailors grew better, and Magellan +preferred cruising about the islands, making friends of the natives +and converting them to Christianity, to pushing on for the Spice +Islands. Here was gold, too, and he busied himself making the native +rulers pay tribute to Spain. Easter was drawing near, and the Easter +services were performed on one of the islands. A cross and a crown +of thorns was set upon the top of the highest mountain that all might +see it and worship. Thus April passed away and Magellan was still busy +with Christians and gold. But his enthusiasm carried him too far. A +quarrel arose with one of the native kings. Magellan landed with armed +men, only to be met by thousands of defiant natives. A desperate fight +ensued. Again and again the explorer was wounded, till "at last the +Indians threw themselves upon him with iron-pointed bamboo spears and +every weapon they had and ran him through--our mirror, our light, our +comforter, our true guide--until they killed him." + +Such was the tragic fate of Ferdinand Magellan, "the greatest of +ancient and modern navigators," tragic because, after dauntless +resolution and unwearied courage, he died in a miserable skirmish at +the last on the very eve of victory. + +[Illustration: THE FIRST SHIP THAT SAILED ROUND THE WORLD. Magellan's +_Victoria_, from Hulsius's _Collection of Voyages_, 1602.] + +With grief and despair in their hearts, the remaining members of the +crew, now only one hundred and fifteen, crowded on to the _Trinidad_ +and _Victoria_ for the homeward voyage. It was September 1522 when +they reached the Spice Islands--the goal of all their hopes. Here they +took on board some precious cloves and birds of Paradise, spent some +pleasant months, and, laden with spices, resumed their journey. But +the _Trinidad_ was too overladen with cloves and too rotten to +undertake so long a voyage till she had undergone repair, so the little +_Victoria_ alone sailed for Spain with sixty men aboard to carry home +their great and wonderful news. Who shall describe the terrors of that +homeward voyage, the suffering, starvation, and misery of the weary +crew? Man after man drooped and died, till by the time they reached +the Cape Verde Islands there were but eighteen left. + +When the welcome shores of Spain at length appeared, eighteen gaunt, +famine-stricken survivors, with their captain, staggered ashore to +tell their proud story of the first circumnavigation of the world by +their lost commander, Ferdinand Magellan. + +We miss the triumphal return of the conqueror, the audience with the +King of Spain, the heaped honours, the crowded streets, the titles, +and the riches. The proudest crest ever granted by a sovereign--the +world, with the words: "Thou hast encompassed me"--fell to the lot +of Del Cano, the captain who brought home the little _Victoria_. For +Magellan's son was dead, and his wife Beatrix, "grievously sorrowing," +had passed away on hearing the news of her husband's tragic end. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +CORTES EXPLORES AND CONQUERS MEXICO + + +One would have thought that the revelation of this immense sheet of +water on the far side of America would have drawn other explorers to +follow, but news was slowly assimilated in those days, and it was not +till fifty-three years later that the Pacific was crossed a second +time by Sir Francis Drake. + +In the maps of the day, Newfoundland and Florida were both placed in +Asia, while Mexico was identified with the Quinsay of Marco Polo. For +even while Magellan was fighting the gales of the Atlantic _en route_ +for his long-sought strait, another strange and wonderful country was +being unveiled and its unsurpassed wealth laid at the feet of Spain. +The starting-place for further Spanish exploration had been, from the +days of Columbus, the West Indies. From this centre, the coast of +Florida had been discovered in 1513; from here, the same year, Balboa +had discovered the Pacific Ocean; from here in 1517 a little fleet +was fitted out under Francisco Hernando de Cordova, "a man very prudent +and courageous and strongly disposed to kill and kidnap Indians." As +pilot he had been with Columbus on his fourth voyage some fourteen +years before. He suggested that his master had heard rumours of land +to the West, and sure enough, after sailing past the peninsula of +Yucatan, they found signs of the Eastern civilisation so long sought +in vain. + +"Strange-looking towers or pyramids, ascended by stone steps, greeted +their eyes, and the people who came out in canoes to watch the ships +were clad in quilted cotton doublets and wore cloaks and brilliant +plumes." + +They had heard of the Spaniards. Indeed, only one hundred miles of +sea divided Yucatan from Cuba, and they were anything but pleased to +see these strangers off their coast. + +"Couez cotoche" (Come to my house), they cried, for which reason +Cordova called the place Cape Catoche, as it is marked in our maps +to-day. Along the coast sailed the Spaniards to a place called by the +Indians Quimpeche, now known as Campechy Bay. They were astonished +to find how civilised were these natives, and how unlike any others +they had met in these parts. But the inhabitants resented the landing +of Cordova and his men, and with arrows and stones and darts they killed +or wounded a great number of Spaniards, including the commander +himself, who sent an account of his voyage to the Governor of Cuba +and died a few days later. + +His information was interesting and inspiring, and soon young Juan +Grijalva was on his way to the same land, accompanied by "two hundred +and fifty stout soldiers" and the old pilot, Alvarado, who had led +both Columbus and Cordova. Grijalva explored for the first time the +coast of this great new country. + +"Mexico, Mexico," repeated the Indians with whom they conversed. Gold, +too, was produced, gold ornaments, gold workmanship, until the young +and handsome Grijalva was fitted out completely with a complete suit +of gold armour. He returned enthusiastic over the new land where lived +a powerful ruler over many cities. Surely this was none other than +the Great Khan of Marco Polo fame, with the riches and magnificence +of an Eastern potentate--a land worthy of further exploration. + +The conqueror of Mexico now comes upon the scene--young, bold, devout, +unscrupulous, "a respectable gentleman of good birth"--Hernando +Cortes. Great was the enthusiasm in Cuba to join the new expedition +to the long-lost lands of the Great Khan; men sold their lands to buy +horses and arms, pork was salted, armour was made, and at last Cortes, +a plume of feathers and a gold medal in his cap, erected on board his +ship a velvet flag with the royal arms embroidered in gold and the +words: "Brothers, follow the cross in faith, for under its guidance +we shall conquer." + +[Illustration: HERNANDO CORTES, CONQUEROR OF MEXICO. After the +original portrait at Mexico.] + +His address to his men called forth their devotion: "I hold out to +you a glorious prize, but it is to be won by incessant toil. Great +things are achieved only by great exertions, and glory was never the +reward of sloth. If I have laboured hard and staked my all on this +undertaking, it is for the love of that renown, which is the noblest +recompense of man. But if any among you covet riches more, be but true +to me, as I will make you masters of such as our countrymen have never +dreamed of. You are few in number, but strong in resolution; doubt +not but that the Almighty, who has never deserted the Spaniard in his +contest with the infidel, will shield you, for your cause is a just +cause, and you are to fight under the banner of the Cross." + +In this spirit of enthusiasm the fleet sailed from the shores of Cuba +on 18th February 1519, and was soon on its way to the land of Mexico. +The pilot Alvarado was with this expedition also. Rounding Cape +Catoche and coasting along the southern shores of Campechy Bay, with +a pleasant breeze blowing off the shore, Cortes landed with all his +force--some five hundred soldiers--on the very spot where now stands +the city of Vera Cruz. "Little did the conqueror imagine that the +desolate beach on which he first planted his foot was one day to be +covered by a flourishing city, the great mart of European and Oriental +trade--the commercial capital of New Spain." + +On a wide, level plain Cortes encamped, his soldiers driving in stakes +and covering them with boughs to protect themselves from the scorching +rays of the fierce, tropical sun. Natives came down to the shore, +bringing their beautiful featherwork cloaks and golden ornaments. +Cortes had brought presents for the great King--the Khan as he +thought--and these he sent with a message that he had come from the +King of Spain and greatly desired an audience with the Great Khan. +The Indians were greatly surprised to hear that there was another King +in the world as powerful as their Montezuma, who was more god than +king, who ate from dishes of gold, on whose face none dared look, in +whose presence none dared speak without leave. + +To impress the messengers of the King, Cortes ordered his soldiers +to go through some of their military exercises on the wet sands. The +bold and rapid movement of the troops, the glancing of the weapons, +and the shrill cry of the trumpet filled the spectators with +astonishment; but when they heard the thunder of the cannon and +witnessed the volumes of smoke and flame issuing from these terrible +engines, the rushing of the balls as they hissed through the trees +of the neighbouring forest shivering their branches, they were filled +with consternation. + +To the intense surprise of the Spaniards, these messengers sketched +the whole scene on canvas with their pencils, not forgetting the +Spanish ships or "water-houses" as they called them, with their dark +hulls and snow-white sails reflected in the water as they swung lazily +at anchor. + +Then they returned to the King and related the strange doings of the +white strangers who had landed on their shores; they showed him their +picture-writing, and Montezuma, king of the great Mexican empire which +stretched from sea to sea, was "sore troubled." He refused to see the +Spaniards--the distance of his capital was too great, since the +journey was beset with difficulties. But the presents he sent were +so gorgeous, so wonderful, that Cortes resolved to see for himself +the city which produced such wealth, whatever its ruler might decree. +Here was a plate of gold as large as a coach wheel representing the +sun, one in silver even larger, representing the moon; there were +numbers of golden toys representing dogs, lions, tigers, apes, ducks, +and wonderful plumes of green feathers. + +The man who had sailed across two thousand leagues of ocean held lightly +the idea of a short land journey, however difficult, and Cortes began +his preparations for the march to Mexico. He built the little +settlement at Vera Cruz, "The Rich Town of the True Cross," on the +seashore as a basis for operations. Although the wealth allured them, +there were many who viewed with dismay the idea of the long and +dangerous march into the heart of a hostile land. After all they were +but a handful of men pitted against a powerful nation. Murmurs arose +which reached the ears of Cortes. He was equal to the occasion and +resolutely burnt all the ships in the harbour save one. Then panic +ensued. Mutiny threatened. + +"I have chosen my part!" cried Cortes. "I will remain here while there +is one to bear me company. If there be any so craven as to shrink from +sharing the dangers of our glorious enterprise, let them go home. There +is still one vessel left. Let them take that and return to Cuba. They +can tell there how they have deserted their commander and their +comrades, and patiently wait till we return loaded with the spoils +of Mexico." + +He touched the right chord. Visions of future wealth and glory rose +again before them, confidence in their leader revived, and, shouting +bravely, "To Mexico! to Mexico!" the party started off on their +perilous march. It was 16th August 1519 when the little army, "buoyant +with high hopes and lofty plans of conquest," set forth. The first +part of the way lay through beautiful country rich in cochineal and +vanilla, with groves of many-coloured birds and "insects whose +enamelled wings glistened like diamonds in the blazing sun of the +tropics." + +Then came the long and tedious ascent of the Cordilleras leading to +the tableland of Mexico. Higher and higher grew the mountains. Heavy +falls of sleet and hail, icy winds, and driving rain drenched the little +Spanish party as they made their way bravely upwards, till at last +they reached the level of seven thousand feet to find the great +tableland rolling out along the crest of the Cordilleras. + +Hitherto they had met with no opposition among the natives they had +met. Indeed, as the little army advanced, it was often found that the +inhabitants of the country fled awestruck from before them. Now the +reason was this. The Mexicans believed in a god called the Bird-Serpent, +around whom many a legend had grown up. Temples had been built in his +honour and horrible human sacrifices offered to appease him, for was +he not the Ruler of the Winds, the Lord of the Lightning, the Gatherer +of the Clouds? But the bright god had sailed away one day, saying he +would return with fair-skinned men to possess the land in the fulness +of time. Surely, then, the time had come and their god had come again. +Here were the fair-skinned men in shining armour marching back to their +own again, and Cortes at their head--was he not the god himself? The +cross, too, was a Mexican symbol, so Cortes was allowed to put it up +in the heathen temples without opposition. + +The inhabitants of Tlascala--fierce republicans who refused to own +the sway of Montezuma--alone offered resistance, and how Cortes fought +and defeated them with his handful of men is truly a marvel. + +It was three months before they reached the goal of all their +hopes--even the golden city of Mexico. The hardships and horrors of +the march had been unsurpassed, but as the beautiful valley of Mexico +unfolded itself before them in the early light of a July morning, the +Spaniards shouted with joy: "It is the promised land! Mexico! +Mexico!" + +"Many of us were disposed to doubt the reality of the scene before +us and to suspect we were in a dream," says one of the party. "I thought +we had been transported by magic to the terrestrial paradise." + +Water, cultivated plains, shining cities with shadowy hills beyond +lay like some gorgeous fairyland before and below them. At every step +some new beauty appeared in sight, and the wonderful City of the Waters +with its towers and shining palaces arose out of the surrounding mists. + +The city was approached by three solid causeways some five miles long. +It was crowded with spectators "eager to behold such men and animals +as had never been seen in that part of the world." + +At any moment the little army of four hundred and fifty Spaniards might +have been destroyed, surrounded as they were by overwhelming numbers +of hostile Indian foes. It was a great day in the history of European +discovery, when the Spaniard first set foot in the capital of the +Western world. Everywhere was evidence of a crowded and thriving +population and a high civilisation. At the walls of the city they were +met by Montezuma himself. Amid a crowd of Indian nobles, preceded by +officers of state bearing golden wands, was the royal palanquin +blazing with burnished gold. It was borne on the shoulders of the nobles, +who, barefooted, walked slowly with eyes cast to the ground. +Descending from his litter, Montezuma then advanced under a canopy +of gaudy featherwork powdered with jewels and fringed with silver. +His cloak and sandals were studded with pearls and precious stones +among which emeralds were conspicuous. Cortes dismounted, greeted the +King, and spoke of his mission to the heathen and of his master, the +mighty ruler of Spain. Everywhere Cortes and his men were received +with friendship and reverence, for was he not the long-lost Child of +the Sun? The Spanish explorer begged Montezuma to give up his idols +and to stop his terrible human sacrifices. The King somewhat naturally +refused. Cortes grew angry. He was also very anxious. He felt the +weakness of his position, the little handful of men in this great +populous city, which he had sworn to win for Spain. The King must go. +"Why do we waste time on this barbarian? Let us seize him and, if he +resists, plunge our swords into his body!" cried the exasperated +commander. + +This is no place for the pathetic story of Montezuma's downfall. +Prescott's _Conquest of Mexico_ is within the reach of all. It tells +of the Spanish treachery, of the refusal of the Mexican ruler to accept +the new faith, of his final appeal to his subjects, of chains, +degradation, and death. It tells of the three great heaps of gold, +pearls, and precious stones taken by Cortes, of the final siege and +conquest. + +[Illustration: THE BATTLES OF THE SPANIARDS IN MEXICO. From an ancient +Aztec drawing, showing a leader of the Spaniards with his native allies +defeating the Mexicans.] + +The news of this immense Mexican Empire, discovered and conquered for +Spain, brought honours from the King, Charles V., to the triumphant +conqueror. + +Nor did Cortes stop even after this achievement. As Governor and +Captain-General of Mexico, he sent off ships to explore the +neighbouring coasts. Hearing that Honduras possessed rich mines and +that a strait into the Pacific Ocean might be found, Cortes led an +expedition by land. Arrived at Tabasco, he was provided with an Indian +map of cotton cloth, whereon were painted all the towns, rivers, +mountains, as far as Nicaragua. With this map and the mariner's compass, +he led his army through gloomy woods so thick that no sun ever +penetrated, and after a march of one thousand miles reached the +seacoast of Honduras, took over the country for Spain to be governed +with Mexico by himself. + +This enormous tract of country was known to the world as "New Spain." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +EXPLORERS IN SOUTH AMERICA + + +The success of Cortes and his brilliant conquest of Mexico gave a new +impulse to discovery in the New World. The spirit of exploration +dominated every adventurous young Spaniard, and among those living +in the West Indies there were many ready to give up all for the golden +countries in the West, rumours of which were always reaching their +ears. + +No sooner had these rich lands been realised than the news of Magellan's +great voyage revealed the breadth of the ocean between America and +Asia, and destroyed for ever the idea that the Spice Islands were near. +Spanish enterprise, therefore, lay in the same direction as heretofore, +and we must relate the story of how Pizarro discovered Peru for the +King of Spain. He had accompanied Balboa to Darien, and had with him +gazed out on to the unknown waters of the Pacific Ocean below. With +Balboa after crossing the isthmus of Darien he had reached Panama on +the South Sea, where he heard of a great nation far to the south. Like +Mexico, it was spoken of as highly civilised and rich in mines of gold +and silver. Many an explorer would have started off straightway for +this new country, but there was a vast tract of dark forest and tangled +underwood between Panama and Peru, which had damped the ardour of even +the most ardent of Spanish explorers. + +But Pizarro was a man of courage and dauntless resolution, and he was +ready to do and dare the impossible. He made a bad start. A single +ship with some hundred men aboard left Panama under the command of +Pizarro in 1526. He was ignorant of southern navigation, the Indians +along the shore were hostile, his men died one by one, the rich land +of Peru was more distant than they had thought, and, having at length +reached the island of Gallo near the Equator, they awaited +reinforcements from Panama. Great, then, was the disappointment of +Pizarro when only one ship arrived and no soldiers. News of hardships +and privations had spread through Panama, and none would volunteer +to explore Peru. By this time the handful of wretched men who had +remained with Pizarro, living on crabs picked up on the shore, begged +to be taken home--they could endure no longer. Then came one of those +tremendous moments that lifts the born leader of men above his fellows. +Drawing his sword, Pizarro traced a line on the sand from east to west. +"Friends," he cried, turning to the south, "on that side are toil, +hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, desertion, and death, and on +this side ease and pleasure. There lies Peru with its riches, here +Panama and its poverty. For my part, I go south." + +So saying, he stepped across the line. Twelve stout-hearted men +followed him. The rest turned wearily homewards. The reduced but +resolute little party then sailed south, and a voyage of two days +brought them within sight of the long-sought land of Peru. +Communication with the natives assured them that here was wealth and +fortune to be made, and they hurried back to Panama, whence Pizarro +sailed for Spain, for permission to conquer the empire of Peru. It +is interesting to find Cortes contributing some of his immense wealth +from Mexico towards this new quest. + +In February 1531 three small ships with one hundred and eighty soldiers +and thirty-six horses sailed south under Pizarro. It was not till the +autumn of 1532 that he was ready to start on the great march to the +interior. A city called Cuzco was the capital--the Holy City with its +great Temple of the Sun, the most magnificent building in the New World, +had never yet been seen by Europeans. But the residence of the King +was at Caxamalea, and this was the goal of the Spaniards for the +present. + +Already the news was spreading through the land that "white and bearded +strangers were coming up from the sea, clad in shining panoply, riding +upon unearthly monsters, and wielding deadly thunderbolts." + +[Illustration: PIZARRO. From the portrait at Cuzco.] + +Pizarro's march to the heart of Peru with a mere handful of men was +not unlike that of Cortes' expedition to Mexico. Both coveted the rich +empire of unknown monarchs and dared all--to possess. Between Pizarro +and his goal lay the stupendous mountain range of the Andes or South +American Cordilleras, rock piled upon rock, their crests of +everlasting snow glittering high in the heavens. Across these and over +narrow mountain passes the troops had now to pass. So steep were the +sides that the horsemen had to dismount and scramble up, leading their +horses as best they might. Frightful chasms yawned below them, +terrific peaks rose above, and at any moment they might be utterly +destroyed by bodies of Peruvians in overwhelming numbers. It was +bitterly cold as they mounted higher and higher up the dreary heights, +till at last they reached the crest. Then began the +descent--precipitous and dangerous--until after seven days of this +the valley of Caxamalea unrolled before their delighted eyes, and the +little ancient city with its white houses lay glittering in the sun. +But dismay filled the stoutest heart when, spread out below for the +space of several miles, tents as thick as snowflakes covered the ground. +It was the Peruvian army. And it was too late to turn back. "So, with +as bold a countenance as we could, we prepared for our entrance into +Caxamalea." + +The Peruvians must already have seen the cavalcade of Spaniards, as +with banners streaming and armour glistening in the rays of the evening +sun Pizarro led them towards the city. As they drew near, the King, +Atahualpa, covered with plumes of feathers and ornaments of gold and +silver blazing in the sun, was carried forth on a throne followed by +thirty thousand men to meet the strangers. It seemed to the Spanish +leader that only one course was open. He must seize the person of this +great ruler at once. He waved his white scarf. Immediately the cavalry +charged and a terrible fight took place around the person of the ruler +of Peru until he was captured and taken prisoner. Atahualpa tried to +regain his liberty by the offer of gold, for he had discovered--amid +all their outward show of religious zeal--a greed for wealth among +these strange white men from over the stormy seas. He suggested that +he should fill with gold the room in which he was confined as high +as he could reach. Standing on tiptoe, he marked the wall with his +hand. Pizarro accepted the offer, and the Spaniards greedily watched +the arrival of their treasure from the roofs of palace and temple. +They gained a sum of something like three million sterling and then +put the King to death. Pizarro was the conqueror of Peru, and he had +no difficulty in controlling the awestruck Peruvians, who regarded +the relentless Spaniards as supernatural--the Children of the Sun +indeed. + +[Illustration: PERU AND SOUTH AMERICA. From the Map of the World of +1544, usually ascribed to Sebastian Cabot. At the top is shown the +river Amazon, discovered by Orellana in 1541.] + +A year later these Children of the Sun entered the old town of +Cuzco--the capital of this rich empire--where they found a city of +treasure surpassing all expectation. Meanwhile Almagro, one of the +most prominent among the Spanish explorers, had been granted a couple +of hundred miles along the coast of Chili, which country he now +penetrated; but the cold was so intense that men and horses were frozen +to death, while the Chilians, clad in skins, were difficult to subdue. +Almagro decided that Cuzco belonged to him, and miserable disputes +followed between him and Pizarro, ending in the tragic end of the +veteran explorer, Almagro. + +As the shiploads of gold reached the shores of Spain, more and more +adventurers flocked over to the New World. They swarmed into "Golden +Castile," about the city of Panama, and journeyed into the interior +of the yet new and unknown world. There are terrible stories of their +greed and cruelty to the native Indians. One story says that the Indians +caught some of these Spaniards, tied their hands and feet together, +threw them on the ground, and poured liquid gold into their mouths, +crying, "Eat, eat gold, Christian!" + +Amongst other adventurers into South America at this time was Orellana, +who crossed the continent from ocean to ocean. He had accompanied one +of Pizarro's brothers into the land of the cinnamon forests, and with +him had crossed the Andes in search of another golden kingdom beyond +Quito. The expedition under Pizarro, consisting of some three hundred +and fifty Spaniards, half of whom were horsemen, and four thousand +Indians, set forward in the year 1540 to penetrate to the remote regions +in the Hinterland, on the far side of the Andes. Their sufferings were +intense. Violent thunderstorms and earthquakes terrified man and +beast; the earth opened and swallowed up five hundred houses; rain +fell in such torrents as to flood the land and cut off all communication +between the explorers and cultivated regions; while crossing the lofty +ridge of the Andes the cold was so intense that numbers of the party +were literally frozen to death. At length they reached the land of +the cinnamon trees, and, still pushing on, came to a river which must +be crossed to reach the land of gold. They had finished their provisions, +and had nothing to subsist on now save the wild fruit of the country. +After following the course of the river for some way, Pizarro decided +to build a little vessel to search for food along the river. All set +to work, Pizarro and Orellana, one of his chief captains, working as +hard as the men. They set up a forge for making nails, and burnt charcoal +with endless trouble owing to the heavy rains which prevented the +tinder from taking fire. They made nails from the shoes of the horses +which had been killed to feed the sick. For tar they used the resin +from the trees, for oakum they used blankets and old shirts. Then they +launched the little home-made boat, thinking their troubles would be +at an end. For some four hundred miles they followed the course of +the river, but the supply of roots and berries grew scarcer and men +perished daily from starvation. So Pizarro ordered Orellana to go +quickly down the river with fifty men to some inhabited land of which +they had heard, to fill the boat with provisions, and return. + +Off started Orellana down the river, but no villages or cultivated +lands appeared; nothing was to be seen save flooded plains and gloomy, +impenetrable forests. The river turned out to be a tributary of a much +larger river. It was, indeed, the great river Amazon. Orellana now +decided to go on down this great river and to desert Pizarro. True, +his men were utterly weary, the current was too strong for them to +row against, and they had no food to bring to their unhappy companions. +There was likewise the possibility of reaching the kingdom of gold +for which they were searching. There were some among his party who +objected strongly to the course proposed by Orellana, to whom he +responded by landing them on the edge of the dense forest and there +leaving them to perish of hunger. + +It was the last day of 1540 that, having eaten their shoes and saddles +boiled with a few wild herbs, they set out to reach the kingdom of +gold. It was truly one of the greatest adventures of the age, and +historic, for here we get the word El Dorado, used for the first time +in the history of discovery--the legendary land of gold which was never +found, but which attracted all the Elizabethan sailors to this +romantic country. It would take too long to tell how they had to fight +Indian tribes in their progress down the fast-flowing river, how they +had to build a new boat, making bellows of their leather buskins and +manufacturing two thousand nails in twenty days, how they found women +on the banks of the river fighting as valiantly as men, and named the +new country the Amazon land, and how at long last, after incredible +hardship, they reached the sea in August 1541. They had navigated some +two thousand miles. They now made their rigging and ropes of grass +and sails of blankets, and so sailed out into the open sea, reaching +one of the West India islands a few days later. + +And the deserted Pizarro? Tired of waiting for Orellana, he made his +way sorrowfully home, arriving after two years' absence in Peru, with +eighty men left out of four thousand three hundred and fifty, all the +rest having perished in the disastrous expedition. And so we must leave +the Spanish conquerors for the present, still exploring, still +conquering, in these parts, ever adding glory and riches to Spain. +Indeed, Spain and Portugal, as we have seen, entirely monopolise the +horizon of geographical discovery till the middle of the sixteenth +century, when other nations enter the arena. + +[Illustration: PERUVIAN WARRIORS OF THE INCA PERIOD. From an ancient +Peruvian painting.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +CABOT SAILS TO NEWFOUNDLAND + + +It was no longer possible for the Old World to keep secret the wealth +of the New World. English eyes were already straining across the seas, +English hands were ready to grasp the treasure that had been Spain's +for the last fifty years. While Spain was sending Christopher Columbus +to and fro across the Atlantic to the West Indies, while Portugal was +rejoicing in the success of Vasco da Gama, John Cabot, in the service +of England, was making his way from Bristol to the New World. News +of the first voyage of Columbus had been received by the Cabots--John +and his son Sebastian--with infinite admiration. They believed with +the rest of the world that the coast of China had been reached by sailing +westward. Bristol was at this time the chief seaport in England, and +the centre of trade for the Iceland fisheries. The merchants of the +city had already ventured far on to the Atlantic, and various little +expeditions had been fitted out by the merchants for possible +discovery westward, but one after another failed, including the "most +scientific mariner in all England," who started forth to find the +island of Brazil to the west of Ireland, but, after nine miserable +weeks at sea, was driven back to Ireland again by foul weather. + +Now Columbus had crossed the Atlantic, Cabot got leave from the English +King, Henry VII., "to sail to the east, west, or north, with five ships +carrying the English flag, to seek and discover all the islands, +countries, regions, or provinces of pagans in whatever part of the +world." + +Further, the King was to have one-fifth of the profits, and at all +risks any conflict with Spain must be avoided. Nothing daunted, Cabot +started off to fulfil his lord's commands in a tiny ship with eighteen +men. We have the barest outlines of his proceedings. Practically all +is contained in this one paragraph. "In the year 1497 John Cabot, a +Venetian, and his son Sebastian discovered on the 24th of June, about +five in the morning, that land to which no person had before ventured +to sail, which they named Prima Vista or first seen, because, as I +believe, it was the first part seen by them from the sea. The +inhabitants use the skins and furs of wild beasts for garments, which +they hold in as high estimation as we do our finest clothes. The soil +yields no useful production, but it abounds in white bears and deer +much larger than ours. Its coasts produce vast quantities of large +fish--great seals, salmons, soles above a yard in length, and +prodigious quantities of cod." + +[Illustration: PART OF NORTH AMERICA, SHOWING SEBASTIAN CABOT'S +VOYAGE TO NEWFOUNDLAND. From the Map of 1544, usually ascribed to Cabot. +The names in brackets are inserted in order to make this extract and +its reference to Cabot's discoveries clear.] + +So much for the contemporary account of this historic voyage. A letter +from England to Italy describes the effect of the voyage on England. +"The Venetian, our countryman, who went with a ship from Bristol in +quest of new islands, is returned and says that seven hundred leagues +hence he discovered land, the territory of the Great Khan. He coasted +for three hundred leagues and landed; he saw no human beings, but he +has brought hither to the King certain snares which had been set to +catch game and a needle for making nets. He also found some felled +trees. Wherefore he supposed there were inhabitants, and returned to +his ships in alarm. He was there three months on the voyage, and on +his return he saw two islands to starboard, but would not land, time +being precious, as he was short of provisions. He says the tides are +slack and do not flow as they do here. The King of England is much +pleased with this intelligence. The King has promised that in the +spring our countryman shall have ten ships to his order, and at his +request has conceded to him all the prisoners to man his fleet. The +King has also given him money wherewith to amuse himself till then, +and he is now at Bristol with his wife and sons. His name is Cabot, +and he is styled the great Admiral. Vast honour is paid to him; he +dresses in silk, and the English run after him like mad people." + +Yet another letter of the time tells how "Master John Cabot has won +a part of Asia without a stroke of the sword." This Master John, too, +"has the description of the world in a chart and also in a solid globe +which he has made, and he shows where he landed. And they say that +it is a good and temperate country, and they think that Brazil wood +and silks grow there, and they affirm that that sea is covered with +fishes." + +But "Master John" had set his heart on something greater. Constantly +hugging the shore of America, he expected to find the island of Cipango +(Japan) in the equinoctial region, where he should find all the spices +of the world and any amount of precious stones. + +But after all this great promise Master John disappears from the pages +of history and his son Sebastian continues to sail across the Atlantic, +not always in the service of England, though in 1502 we find him +bringing to the King of England three men taken in the Newfoundland, +clothed in beasts' skins and eating raw flesh, and speaking a language +which no man could understand. They must have been kindly dealt with +by the King, for two years later the poor savages are "clothed like +Englishmen." + +Though England claimed the discovery of this Newfoundland, the +Portuguese declared that one of their countrymen, Cortereal--a +gentleman of the royal household--had already discovered the "land +of the cod-fish" in 1463. But then had not the Vikings already +discovered this country five hundred years before? + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +JACQUES CARTIER EXPLORES CANADA + + +All the nations of Europe were now straining westward for new lands +to conquer. French sailors had fished in the seas washing the western +coast of North America; Verazzano, a Florentine, in the service of +France, had explored the coast of the United States, and a good deal +was known when Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, steps upon the scene and +wins for his country a large tract of land about the river St. Lawrence. +His object was to find a way across America to Cathay. With two little +ships of sixty tons and sixty-one "chosen men," Cartier left St. Malo +on 20th April 1534. With prosperous weather he tells us he made the +coast of Newfoundland in three weeks, which would mean sailing over +one hundred miles a day. He was a little too early in the season, for +the easterly winds which had helped him on his way had blocked the +east coast of the island with Arctic ice. Having named the point at +which he first touched land Cape Bona Vista, he cruised about till, +the ice having melted, he could sail down the straits of Belle Isle +between the mainland of Labrador and Newfoundland, already discovered +by Breton fishermen. Then he explored the now familiar Gulf of St. +Lawrence--the first European to report on it. All through June the +little French ships sailed about the Gulf, darting across from island +to island and cape to cape. Prince Edward Island appealed to him +strongly. "It is very pleasant to behold," he tells us. "We found +sweet-smelling trees as cedars, yews, pines, ash, willow. Where the +ground was bare of trees it seemed very fertile and was full of wild +corn, red and white gooseberries, strawberries, and blackberries, as +if it had been cultivated on purpose." It now grew hotter, and Cartier +must have been glad of a little heat. He sighted Nova Scotia and sailed +by the coast of New Brunswick, without naming or surveying them. He +describes accurately the bay still called Chaleur Bay: "We named this +the Warm Bay, for the country is warmer even than Spain and exceedingly +pleasant." They sailed up as far as they could, filled with hope that +this might be the long-sought passage to the Pacific Ocean. Hope Cape +they named the southern point, but they were disappointed by finding +only a deep bay, and to-day, by a strange coincidence, the point +opposite the northern shore is known as Cape Despair--the Cap d'Espoir +of the early French mariners. Sailing on to the north amid strong +currents and a heavy sea, Cartier at last put into a shelter (Gaspe +Bay). Here, "on the 24th of July, we made a great cross thirty feet +high, on which we hung up a shield with three fleurs-de-lis, and +inscribed the cross with this motto: 'Vive le roi de France.' When +this was finished, in presence of all the natives, we all knelt down +before the cross, holding up our hands to heaven and praising God." + +[Illustration: JACQUES CARTIER. From an old pen drawing at the +Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.] + +Storms and strong tides now decided Cartier to return to France. He +knew nothing of the Cabot Strait between Newfoundland and the land +afterwards called Nova Scotia, so he guided his little ships right +through the Straits of Belle Isle, and after being "much tossed by +a heavy tempest from the east, which we weathered by the blessing of +God," he arrived safely home on 5th September, after his six months' +adventure. He was soon commissioned to continue the navigation of +these new lands, and in May 1535 he safely led three ships slightly +larger than the last across the stormy Atlantic. Contrary winds, heavy +gales, and thick fogs turned the voyage of three weeks into five--the +ships losing one another not to meet again till the coast of Labrador +was reached. Coasting along the southern coast, Cartier now entered +a "very fine and large bay, full of islands, and with channels of +entrance and exit in all winds." Cartier named it "Baye Saint Laurens," +because he entered it on 10th August--the feast of St. Lawrence. + +Do any of the English men and women who steam up the Gulf of St. Lawrence +in the great ocean steamers to-day, on their way to Canada, ever give +a thought to the little pioneer French ships that four hundred years +ago thought they were sailing toward Cathay? + +"Savages," as Cartier calls the Indians, told him that he was near +the mouth of the great river Hochelaga (now the St. Lawrence), which +became narrower "as we approach towards Canada, where the water is +fresh." + +"On the first day of September," says Cartier, "we set sail from the +said harbour for Canada." Canada was just a native word for a town +or village. It seems strange to read of the "lord of Canada" coming +down the river with twelve canoes and many people to greet the first +white men he had ever seen; strange, too, to find Cartier arriving +at "the place called Hochelaga--twenty-five leagues above Canada," +where the river becomes very narrow, with a rapid current and very +dangerous on account of rocks. For another week the French explorers +sailed on up the unknown river. The country was pleasant, well-wooded, +with "vines as full of grapes as they would hang." On 2nd October, +Cartier arrived at the native town of Hochelaga. He was welcomed by +hundreds of natives,--men, women, and children,--who gave the +travellers as "friendly a welcome as if we had been of their own nation +come home after a long and perilous absence." The women carried their +children to him to touch them, for they evidently thought that some +supernatural being had come up from the sea. All night they danced +to the light of fires lit upon the shore. + +[Illustration: CANADA AND THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE, SHOWING QUEBEC +(KEBEC). From Lescarbot's _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, 1609.] + +The next morning Cartier, "having dressed himself splendidly," went +ashore with some of his men. All were well armed, though the natives +seemed peacefully disposed. They marched along a well-beaten track +to the Indian city, which stood in the midst of cultivated fields of +Indian corn and maize. Again the inhabitants met them with signs of +joy and gladness, and the King was carried shoulder high, seated on +a large deer-skin with a red wreath round his head made of the skins +of hedgehogs instead of a crown. + +A curious scene then took place. The King placed his crown on the head +of the French explorer, before whom he humbled himself as before a +god. Thus evidently did the people regard him, for they brought to +him their blind, their lame, and their diseased folk that he might +cure them. Touched with pity at the groundless confidence of these +poor people, Cartier signed them with the sign of the cross. "He then +opened a service book and read the passion of Christ in an audible +voice, during which all the natives kept a profound silence, looking +up to heaven and imitating all our gestures. He then caused our trumpets +and other musical instruments to be sounded, which made the natives +very merry." + +Cartier and his men then went to the top of the neighbouring mountain. +The extensive view from the top created a deep impression on the French +explorer; he grew enthusiastic over the beauty of the level valley +below and called the place Mont Royal--a name communicated to the busy +city of Montreal that lies below. + +Winter was now coming on, and Cartier decided against attempting the +homeward voyage so late in the year; but to winter in the country he +chose a spot between Montreal and Quebec, little thinking what the +long winter months would bring forth. The little handful of Frenchmen +had no idea of the severity of the Canadian climate; they little dreamt +of the interminable months of ice and snow when no navigation was +possible. Before Christmas had come round the men were down with +scurvy; by the middle of February, "out of one hundred and ten persons +composing the companies of our three ships, there were not ten in +perfect health. Eight were dead already. The sickness increased to +such a pitch that there were not above three sound men in the whole +company; we were obliged to bury such as died under the snow, as the +ground was frozen quite hard, and we were all reduced to extreme +weakness, and we lost all hope of ever returning to France." From +November to March four feet of snow lay upon the decks of their little +ships. And yet, shut up as they were in the heart of a strange and +unknown land, with their ships icebound and nought but savages around, +there is no sound of murmur or complaint. "It must be allowed that +the winter that year was uncommonly long" is all we hear. + +[Illustration: NEW FRANCE, SHOWING NEWFOUNDLAND, LABRADOR, AND THE +ST. LAWRENCE. From Jocomo di Gastaldi's Map, about 1550. The "Isola +de Demoni" is Labrador, and "Terra Nuova" and the islands south of +it make up Newfoundland. The snaky-like line represents a sandbank, +which was then thought, and agreed, to be the limit of fishing. Montreal +(Port Real) will be noticed on the coast.] + +May found them free once more and making for home with the great news +that, though they had not found the way to Cathay, they had discovered +and taken a great new country for France. + +A new map of the world in 1536 marks Canada and Labrador, and gives +the river St. Lawrence just beyond Montreal. A map of 1550 goes further, +and calls the sea that washes the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador +the "Sea of France," while to the south it is avowedly the "Sea of +Spain." + +[Illustration: THE "DAUPHIN" MAP OF THE WORLD. MADE BY PIERRE +DESCELIERS, 1546, TO THE ORDER OF FRANCIS I., FOR THE DAUPHIN (HENRI +II. OF FRANCE). This map gives a remarkably clear and interesting view +of geographical knowledge in the first half of the sixteenth century. +(It is to be noted that all objects on one side of the Equinoctial +are reversed.)] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +SEARCH FOR A NORTH-EAST PASSAGE + + +England was now awaking from her sleep--too late to possess the Spice +Islands--too late for India and the Cape of Good Hope--too late, it +would seem, for the New World. The Portuguese held the eastern route, +the Spaniards the western route to the Spice Islands. But what if there +were a northern route? All ways apparently led to Cathay. Why should +England not find a way to that glorious land by taking a northern +course? + +"If the seas toward the north be navigable we may go to these Spice +Islands by a shorter way than Spain and Portugal," said Master Thorne +of Bristol--a friend of the Cabots. + +"But the northern seas are blocked with ice and the northern lands +are too cold for man to dwell in," objected some. + +"_There is no land uninhabitable, nor sea unnavigable_," was the +heroic reply. + +"It was in this belief, and in this heroic temper, that England set +herself to take possession of her heritage, the north. But it was not +till the reign of Edward VI. that a Company of Merchant Adventurers +was formed for the discovery of Regions, Dominions, Islands, and +places unknown," with old Sebastian Cabot as its first governor, and +not till the year 1553 that three little ships under Sir Hugh Willoughby +and Richard Chancellor were fitted out for a northern cruise. They +carried letters of introduction from the boy-king of England to "all +Kings, Princes, Rulers, Judges, and Governors of the Earth in all +places under the universal heaven," including those "inhabiting the +north-east parts of the world toward the mighty Empire of Cathay." + +Sir Hugh Willoughby, "a most valiant gentleman," hoisted the English +flag on the _Bona Esperanza_, a good little ship of one hundred and +twenty tons. The next in command was Richard Chancellor, "a man of +great estimation for many good parts of wit in him," who sailed the +_Edward Bonadventure_, which though not so fast as the flag-ship, was +slightly larger. So certain were the promoters that the ships would +reach the hot climates beyond Cathay that they had them sheathed with +lead to protect them from worms which had proved so destructive in +the tropics before. + +The account of the start of these first English Arctic explorers is +too quaint to be passed in silence. "It was thought best that by the +20th of May the Captains and Mariners should take shipping and depart +if it pleased God. They, having saluted their acquaintance, one his +wife, another his children, another his kinsfolk, and another his +friends dearer than his kinsfolk, were ready at the day appointed. +The greater ships are towed down with boats and oars, and the mariners, +being all apparelled in sky-coloured cloth, made way with diligence. +And being come near to Greenwich (where the Court then lay), the +Courtiers came running out and the common people flocked together, +standing very thick upon the shore: the Privy Council, they looked +out of the windows of the Court, and the rest ran up to the tops of +the towers, and the mariners shouted in such sort that the sky rang +again with the noise thereof. But, alas! the good King Edward--he only +by reason of his sickness was absent from this show." + +The ships dropped down to Woolwich with the tide and coasted along +the east coast of England till "at the last with a good wind they hoisted +up sail and committed themselves to the sea, giving their last adieu +to their native country--many of them could not refrain from tears." +Richard Chancellor himself had left behind two little sons, and his +poor mind was tormented with sorrow and care. + +By the middle of July the North Sea had been crossed, and the three +small ships were off the shores of Norway, coasting among the islands +and fiords that line that indented kingdom. Coasting still northward, +Willoughby led his ships to the Lofoten Islands, "plentifully +inhabited by very gentle people" under the King of Denmark. They sailed +on-- + + "To the west of them was the ocean, + To the right the desolate shore." + +till they had passed the North Cape, already discovered by Othere, +the old sea-captain who dwelt in Helgoland. + +A terrible storm now arose, and "the sea was so outrageous that the +ships could not keep their intended course, but some were driven one +way and some another way to their great peril and hazard." Then Sir +Hugh Willoughby shouted across the roaring seas to Richard Chancellor, +begging him not to go far from him. But the little ships got separated +and never met again. Willoughby was blown across the sea to Nova Zembla. + + "The sea was rough and stormy, + The tempest howled and wailed, + And the sea-fog like a ghost + Haunted that dreary coast. + But onward still I sailed." + +The weather grew more and more Arctic, and he made his way over to +a haven in Lapland where he decided to winter. He sent men to explore +the country, but no signs of mankind could be found; there were bears +and foxes and all manner of strange beasts, but never a human being. +It must have been desperately dreary as the winter advanced, with ice +and snow and freezing winds from the north. What this little handful +of Englishmen did, how they endured the bitter winter on the desolate +shores of Lapland, no man knows. Willoughby was alive in January +1554--then all is silent. + +And what of Richard Chancellor on board the _Bonadventure_? "Pensive, +heavy, and sorrowful," but resolute to carry out his orders, "Master +Chancellor held on his course towards that unknown part of the world, +and sailed so far that he came at last to the place where he found +no night at all, but a continual light and brightness of the Sun, +shining clearly upon the huge and mighty Sea." After a time he found +and entered a large bay where he anchored, making friends with the +fisher folk on the shores of the White Sea to the north of Russia. +So frightened were the natives at the greatness of the English ships +that at first they ran away, half-dead with fear. Soon, however, they +regained confidence and, throwing themselves down, they began to kiss +the explorer's feet, "but he (according to his great and singular +courtesy) looked pleasantly upon them." By signs and gestures he +comforted them until they brought food to the "new-come guests," and +went to tell their king of the arrival of "a strange nation of singular +gentleness and courtesy." + +Then the King of Russia or Muscovie--Ivan Vasiliwich--sent for Master +Chancellor to go to Moscow. The journey had to be made in sledges over +the ice and snow. A long and weary journey it must have been, for his +guide lost the way, and they had travelled nearly one thousand five +hundred miles before Master Chancellor came at last to Moscow, the +chief city of the kingdom, "as great as the city of London with all +its suburbs," remarks Chancellor. Arrived at the King's palace, Master +Chancellor was received by one hundred Russian courtiers dressed in +cloth of gold to the very ankles. The King sat aloft on a high throne, +with a crown of gold on his head, holding in his hand a glittering +sceptre studded with precious stones. The Englishman and his +companions saluted the King, who received them graciously and read +the letter from Edward VI. with interest. They did not know that the +boy-king was dead, and that his sister Mary was on the throne of England. +The King was much interested in the long beards grown by the Englishmen. +That of one of the company was five foot two inches in length, "thick, +broad, and yellow coloured." "This is God's gift," said the Russians. + +[Illustration: IVAN VASILIWICH, KING OF MUSCOVIE. From a sixteenth +century woodcut.] + +To Edward VI. of England the King sent a letter by the hands of Richard +Chancellor, giving leave readily for England to trade with Russia. + +Master Chancellor seems to have arrived home again safely with his +account of Russia, which encouraged the Merchant Adventurers to send +forth more ships to develop trade with this great new country of which +they knew so little. + +To this end Anthony Jenkinson, "a resolute and intelligent gentleman," +was selected, and "with four tall, well-appointed ships he sailed on +12th May 1557 toward the land of Russia." He reached Cape North on +2nd July, and a few days later he passed the spot where Sir Hugh +Willoughby and all his company had perished. Anchoring in the Bay of +St. Nicholas, he took a sledge for Moscow, where he delivered his +letters safely to the King. So icebound was the country that it was +April 1558 before he was able to leave Moscow for the south, to +accomplish, if possible, the orders of the Merchant Adventurers to +find an overland route to Cathay. With letters of introduction from +the Russian King to the princes and kings through whose dominions he +was to pass, Master Jenkinson made his way to the Volga, whence he +continued his voyage with a Russian captain who was travelling south +in great style to take up a command at Astrakan with five hundred boats +laden with soldiers, stores, food, and merchandise. + +After three months' travelling, and having passed over some one +thousand two hundred miles, the Englishman reached the south. The city +of Astrakan offered no attractions and no hope of trade, so Jenkinson +boldly took upon himself to navigate the mouth of the Volga and to +reach the Caspian Sea. He was the first Englishman to cross Russia +from the White Sea to the Caspian. Never before on the Caspian had +the red cross of St. George been seen flying from the masthead of a +ship sailed by Englishmen. After three weeks' buffeting by contrary +winds, they found themselves on the eastern shores, and, getting +together a caravan of one thousand camels, they went forward. No sooner +had they landed than they found themselves in a land of thieves and +robbers. Jenkinson hastened to the Sultan of these parts, a noted +robber himself, to be kindly received by the Tartar Prince, who set +before him the flesh of a wild horse and some mare's milk. Then the +little English party travelled on for three weeks through desolate +land with no rivers, no houses, no inhabitants, till they reached the +banks of the Oxus. "Here we refreshed ourselves," says the explorer, +"having been three days without water and drink, and tarried there +all the next day making merry with our slain horses and camels." For +a hundred miles they followed the course of this great river until +they reached another desert, where they were again attacked by bands +of thieves and robbers. + +It was Christmas Eve when they at last reached Bokhara, only to find +that the merchants were so poor that there was no hope of any trade +worth following, though the city was full of caravans from India and +the Far East. And here they heard that the way to Cathay was barred +by reason of grievous wars which were going on. Winter was coming on; +so Jenkinson remained for a couple of months before starting on his +long journey home. With a caravan of six hundred camels he made his +way back to the Caspian, and on 2nd September he had reached Moscow +safely with presents of "a white cow's tail of Cathay and a drum of +Tartary" for the King, which seemed to give that monarch the greatest +pleasure. He evidently stayed for a time in Russia, for it is not till +the year 1560 that we find him writing to the Merchant Adventurers +that "at the next shipping I embark myself for England." + +[Illustration: ANTHONY JENKINSON'S MAP OF RUSSIA, MUSCOVY, AND +TARTARY, PUBLISHED IN 1562.] + +While Jenkinson was endeavouring to reach the Far East by land, a +Portuguese named Pinto had succeeded in reaching it by sea. The +discovery of Japan is claimed by three people. Antonio de Mota had +been thrown by a storm on to the island of Nison, called by the Chinese +Jepwen--Japan--in the year 1542. Pinto claims to have discovered it +the same year. It seems that the Japanese were expecting the return +of a god, and as the white men hove in sight they exclaimed: "These +are certainly the Chinchi cogies spoken of in our records, who, flying +over the waters, shall come to be lords of the lands where God has +placed the greatest riches of the world. It will be fortunate for us +if they come as friends." + +Now men of the time refused to believe in the travels of Mendex Pinto. +"He should be called Mendax Pinto," said one, "whose book is one +continued chain of monstrous fiction which deserves no credit," while +a hundred and fifty years later Congreve wrote-- + + "Ferdinando Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, + Thou liar of the first magnitude." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +MARTIN FROBISHER SEARCHES FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE + + +So far the expeditions of Willoughby, Chancellor, and Jenkinson had +all failed to reach the Far East. The Spanish had a way thither by +Magellan's Strait, the Portuguese by the Cape of Good Hope. England +in the middle of the sixteenth century had no way. What about a +North-West Passage leading round Labrador from the Atlantic to the +Pacific? England was waking up to possibilities of future exploration. +She was also ready and anxious to annoy Spain for having monopolised +the riches and wealth of the New World. And so it was that Queen +Elizabeth turned with interest to the suggestions of one of her +subjects--Martin Frobisher--"a mariner of great experience and +ability," when he enthusiastically consulted her on the navigation +of the North-West Passage. For the last fifteen years he had been trying +to collect ships and men for the enterprise. "It is the only thing +in the world left undone whereby a notable mind might be made famous +and fortunate," he affirmed. + +But it was not till the year 1576 that he got a chance of fitting out +two small ships--two very small ships--the _Gabriel_ of twenty tons, +the _Michael_ of twenty-five tons, to explore the icy regions of the +north. A wave of the Queen's hand gladdened his heart as he sailed +past the palace of Greenwich, where the Court resided, and he was soon +sailing northward harassed and battered by many storms. His little +ten-ton pinnace was lost, and the same storm that overtook the little +fleet to the north of Scotland so terrified the captain of the _Michael_ +that he deserted and turned home with the news that Frobisher had +perished with all hands. + +Meanwhile Frobisher, resolute in his undertaking, was nearing the +coast of Greenland--alone in the little _Gabriel_ with a mere handful +of men all inexperienced in the art of navigating the Polar seas. + + "And now there came both mist and snow, + And it grew wondrous cold" + +as Frobisher sailed his storm-beaten ship across the wintry seas. But +"I will sacrifice my life to God rather than return home without +discovering a north-west passage to Cathay," he told his eighteen men +with sublime courage. Passing Cape Farewell, he sailed north-west with +the Greenland current, which brought him to the icebound shores near +Hudson's Bay. He did not see the straits afterwards discovered by +Hudson, but, finding an inlet farther north, he sailed some hundred +miles, in the firm belief that this was the passage for which he was +searching, that America lay on his left and Asia on his right. Magellan +had discovered straits in the extreme south; Frobisher made sure that +he had found corresponding straits to the extreme north, and +Frobisher's Straits they were accordingly named, and as such they +appeared on the maps of the day till they had to be renamed Lumley's +Inlet. The snow and ice made further navigation impossible for this +year, and full of their great news they returned home accompanied by +an Eskimo. These natives had been taken for porpoises by our English +explorers, but later they were reported to be "strange infidels whose +like was never seen, read, or heard of before." + +[Illustration: GREENLANDERS AS SEEN BY MARTIN FROBISHER. From Captain +Beste's account of Frobisher's voyages, 1578.] + +Martin Frobisher was received with enthusiasm and "highly commended +of all men for his great and notable attempt, but specially famous +for the great hope he brought of the passage to Cathay." Besides the +Eskimo the explorers carried home a black stone, which, when thrown +on the fire by one of the sailor's wives, glittered like gold. The +gold refiners of London were hastily called in, and they reported that +it contained a quantity of gold. + +A new incentive was now given to Polar exploration. The Queen herself +contributed a tall ship of some two hundred tons to the new expedition +that was eagerly fitted out, and the High Admiral of all seas and waters, +countries, lands, and isles, as Frobisher was now called, sailed away +again for the icy north, more to search for gold than to discover the +North-West Passage. He added nothing more to the knowledge of the world, +and though he sailed through the strait afterwards known as Hudson's +Strait, he never realised his discovery. His work was hampered by the +quest for gold, for which England was eagerly clamouring, and he +disappears from our history of discovery. + +The triumphant return of Francis Drake in 1580 laden with treasure +from the Spice Islands put into the shade all schemes for a north-west +passage for the moment. + +Nevertheless, this voyage of Martin Frobisher is important in the +history of exploration. It was the first attempt of an Englishman to +make search amid the ice of the Arctic regions--a search in which so +many were yet to lay down their lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +DRAKE'S FAMOUS VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD + + "Call him on the deep sea, call him up the sound, + Call him when ye sail to meet the foe; + Where the old trade's plyin' and the old flag flyin', + They shall find him ware an' wakin', as they found him long ago!" + HENRY NEWBOLT. + + +Drake's famous voyage, as it is known to history (1577-1580), was +indeed famous, for although Magellan's ship had sailed round the world +fifty years before, Drake was the first Englishman to do so, and, +further, he discovered for us land to the south of Magellan's Strait +round which washed the waters of Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, showing +that the mysterious land marked on contemporary maps as Terra +Australis and joined to South America was a separate land altogether. +He also explored the coast of America as far north as Vancouver Island, +and disclosed to England the secret of the Spice Islands. The very +name of Drake calls up a vision of thrilling adventure on the high +seas. He had been at sea since he was a boy of fifteen, when he had +been apprenticed to the master of a small ship trading between England +and the Netherlands, and many a time he had sailed on the grey North +Sea. "But the narrow seas were a prison for so large a spirit born +for greater undertakings," and in 1567 we find Drake sailing forth +on board the _Judith_ in an expedition over to the Spanish settlements +in America under his kinsman, John Hawkins. Having crossed the +Atlantic and filled his ships with Spanish treasure from "the Spanish +Main," and having narrowly escaped death from the hands of the +Spaniards, Drake had hurried home to tell of the riches of this new +country still closed to all other nations. Two years later Drake was +off again, this time in command himself of two ships with crews of +seventy-three young men, their modest aim being nothing less than to +seize one of the Spanish ports and empty into their holds the "Treasure +House of the World." What if this act of reckless daring was +unsuccessful? The undertaking was crowned with a higher success than +that of riches, for Drake was the first Englishman to see the waters +of the Pacific Ocean. His expedition was not unlike that of Balboa +some sixty years before, as with eighteen chosen companions he climbed +the forest-clad spurs of the ridge dividing the two great oceans. +Arrived at the top, he climbed up a giant tree, and the Golden Sea +of which he had so often heard--the Pacific Ocean of Magellan, the +waters washing the golden shores of Mexico and Peru--all lay below +him. Descending from the heights, he sank upon his knees and "humbly +besought Almighty God of His goodness to give him life and leave to +sail once in an English ship in that sea." + +[Illustration: SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. From Holland's _Heroologia_, 1620.] + +Jealously had the Spanish guarded this beautiful Southern Sea, now +her secrets were laid bare, for an Englishman had gazed upon it and +he was not likely to remain satisfied with this alone. + +In 1573 Drake came home with his wonderful news, and it was not long +before he was eagerly talking over with the Queen a project for a raid +into this very Golden Sea guarded by the Spaniards. Elizabeth promised +help on condition that the object of the expedition should remain a +secret. Ships were bought for "a voyage to Egypt"; there was the +_Pelican_ of one hundred tons, the _Marygold_ of thirty tons, and a +provision ship of fifty tons. A fine new ship of eighty tons, named +the _Elizabeth_, mysteriously added itself to the little fleet, and +the crews numbered in all some one hundred and fifty men. No expense +was spared in the equipment of the ships. Musicians were engaged for +the voyage, the arms and ammunition were of the latest pattern. The +flagship was lavishly furnished: there were silver bowls and mugs and +dishes richly gilt and engraved with the family arms, while the +commander's cabin was full of sweet-smelling perfumes presented by +the Queen herself. Thus, complete at last, Drake led his gay little +squadron out of Plymouth harbour on 15th November 1577, bound for +Alexandria--so the crews thought. + +Little did Drake know what was before him, as, dressed in his seaman's +shirt, his scarlet cap with its gold band on his head, he waved farewell +to England. Who could foresee the terrible beginning, with treachery +and mutiny at work, or the glorious ending when the young Englishman +sailed triumphantly home after his three years' voyage--the world +encompassed? + +Having reached the Cape de Verde Islands in safety, the object of the +expedition could no longer remain a secret, and Drake led his squadron +boldly across the Atlantic Ocean. + +On 5th April the coast of Brazil appeared, but fogs and heavy weather +scattered the ships and they had to run into the mouth of the La Plata +for shelter. Then for six weary weeks the ships struggled southward, +battered by gales and squalls during which nothing but the daring +seamanship of the English navigators saved the little vessels from +destruction. It was not till 20th June that they reached Port St. Julian +of Magellan fame, on the desolate shores of Patagonia. As they entered +the harbour, a grim sight met their eyes. On that windswept shore was +the skeleton of the man hung by Magellan years before. + +[Illustration: THE SILVER MAP OF THE WORLD. From the medallion in the +British Museum, probably struck in 1581, showing the line of Drake's +voyage from England in 1577 westwards through the Magellan Strait to +California and New Albion.] + +History was to repeat itself, and the same fate was now to befall an +unhappy Englishman guilty of the same conduct. + +Drake had long had reason to suspect the second in command, Doughty, +though he was his dear friend. He had been guilty of worse than +disobedience, and the very success of the voyage was threatened. So +Drake called a council together and Doughty was tried according to +English law. After two days' trial he was found guilty and condemned +to die. One of the most touching scenes in the history of exploration +now took place. One sees the little English crews far away on that +desolate shore, the ships lying at anchor in the harbour, the block +prepared, the altar raised beside it, the two old friends, Drake and +Doughty, kneeling side by side, then the flash of the sword and Drake +holding up the head of his friend with the words, "Lo, this is the +end of traitors." + +It was now midwinter, and for six weeks they remained in harbour till +August came, and with three ships they emerged to continue their way +to the Straits of Magellan. At last it was found and boldly they entered. +From the towering mountains that guarded the entry, tempests of wind +and snow swept down upon the "daring intruders." As they made their +way through the rough and winding waters, they imagined with all the +other geographers of their time that the unknown land to the south +was one great continent leading beyond the boundaries of the world. +Fires lit by the natives on this southern coast added terror to the +wild scene. But at the end of sixteen days they found themselves once +more in the open sea. They were at last on the Pacific Ocean. But it +was anything but pacific. A terrible tempest arose, followed by other +storms no less violent, and the ships were driven helplessly southward +and westward far beyond Cape Horn. When they once more reached the +coast they found in the place of the great southern continent an +indented wind-swept shore washed by waves terrific in their height +and strength. In the ceaseless gale the _Marygold_ foundered with all +hands and was never heard of again. A week later the captain of the +_Elizabeth_ turned home, leaving the _Pelican_, now called the _Golden +Hind_, to struggle on alone. After nearly two months of storm, Drake +anchored among the islands southward of anything yet known to the +geographers, where Atlantic and Pacific rolled together in one +boisterous flood. Walking alone to the farthest end of the island, +Drake is said to have laid himself down and with his arms embraced +the southernmost point of the known world. + +[Illustration: THE SILVER MAP OF THE WORLD. The reverse half, showing +the route of Drake's voyage home from California in 1579-1580, through +the Spice Islands and the Indian Ocean. The end of the homeward track, +round the Azores, will be seen on the previous Silver Map +illustration.] + +He showed that the Tierra del Fuego, instead of being part of a great +continent--the Terra Australis--was a group of islands with open sea +to east, south, and west. This discovery was first shown on a Dutch +silver medallion struck in Holland about 1581, known as The Silver +Map of the world, and may be seen to-day in the British Museum. + +[Illustration: SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, THE FIRST ENGLISHMAN TO SAIL ROUND +THE WORLD. After the engraving attributed to Hondius.] + +Remarking that the ocean he was now entering would have been better +called "Mare Furiosum" than "Mare Pacificum," Drake now directed his +course along the western coast of South America. He found the coast +of Chili, but not as the general maps had described it, "wherefore +it appeareth that this part of Chili hath not been truly hitherto +discovered," remarked one on board the _Golden Hind_. Bristling with +guns, the little English ship sailed along the unknown coast, till +they reached Valparaiso. Here they found a great Spanish ship laden +with treasure from Peru. Quickly boarding her, the English sailors +bound the Spaniards, stowed them under the hatches, and hastily +transferred the cargo on to the _Golden Hind_. They sailed on +northwards to Lima and Panama, chasing the ships of Spain, plundering +as they went, till they were deeply laden with stolen Spanish treasure +and knew that they had made it impossible to return home by that coast. +So Drake resolved to go on northward and discover, if possible, a way +home by the north. He had probably heard of Frobisher's Strait, and +hoped to find a western entrance. + +As they approached the Arctic regions the weather grew bitterly cold, +and "vile, thick, stinking fogs" determined them to sail southward. +They had reached a point near what we now know as Vancouver Island +when contrary winds drove them back and they put in at a harbour, now +known as San Francisco, to repair the ship for the great voyage across +the Pacific and home by the Cape of Good Hope. Drake had sailed past +seven hundred miles of new coast-line in twelve days, and he now turned +to explore the new country, to which he gave the name of New Albion. +The Indians soon began to gather in large quantities on the shore, +and the King himself, tall and comely, advanced in a friendly manner. +Indeed, he took off his crown and set it on the head of Drake and, +hanging chains about his neck, the Indians made him understand that +the land was now his and that they were his vassals. + +[Illustration: THE _GOLDEN HIND_ AT NEW ALBION. From the Chart of +Drake's Voyages. 1589.] + +Little did King Drake dream, as he named his country New Albion, that +Californian gold was so near. His subjects were loving and peaceable, +evidently regarding the English as gods and reverencing them as such. +The chronicler is eloquent in his detailed description of all the royal +doings. + +"Before we left," he says, "our General caused to be set up a monument +of our being there, as also of Her Majesty's right and title to that +kingdom, namely, a plate of brass, fast nailed to a great and firm +post, whereon is engraved Her Grace's name and the day and year of +our arrival here, and of the free giving up of the province, both by +the people and king, into Her Majesty's hands, together with Her +Highness' picture and arms in a piece of sixpence current money. The +Spanish never so much as set foot in this country--the utmost of their +discoveries reaching only to many degrees southward of this place. + +"And now, as the time of our departure was perceived by the people, +so did the sorrows and miseries seem to increase upon them--not only +did they lose on a sudden all mirth, joy, glad countenance, pleasant +speeches, agility of body, but with signs and sorrowings, with heavy +hearts and grieved minds, they poured out woeful complaints and moans, +with bitter tears and wringing of their hands, tormenting themselves. +And, as men refusing all comfort, they only accounted themselves as +those whom the gods were about to forsake." + +Indeed, the poor Indians looked on these Englishmen as gods, and, when +the day came for them to leave, they ran to the top of the hills to +keep the little ship in sight as long as possible, after which they +burnt fires and made sacrifices at their departure. + +Drake left New Albion on 23rd July 1579, to follow the lead of Magellan +and to pass home by the southern seas and the Atlantic Ocean. After +sixty-eight days of quick and straight sailing, with no sight of land, +they fell in with the Philippine Islands, and on 3rd November with +the famous Spice Islands. Here they were well received by the King--a +magnificent person attired in cloth of gold, with bare legs and shoes +of Cordova skins, rings of gold in his hair, and a chain "of perfect +gold" about his neck. The Englishmen were glad enough to get fresh +food after their long crossing, and fared sumptuously on rice, hens, +"imperfect and liquid sugar," sugar-canes, and a fruit they call figo, +with plenty of cloves. On a little island near Celebes the _Golden +Hind_ was thoroughly repaired for her long voyage home. But the little +treasure-laden ship was nearly wrecked before she got away from the +dangerous shoals and currents of these islands. + +"Upon the 9th of January we ran suddenly upon a rock, where we stuck +fast from eight of the clock at night till four of the clock in the +afternoon the next day, being, indeed, out of all hope to escape the +danger; but our General, as he had always hitherto showed himself +courageous, so now he and we did our best endeavours to save ourselves, +which it pleased God so to bless, that in the end we cleared ourselves +most happily of the danger." + +[Illustration: THE _GOLDEN HIND_ AT JAVA. From the Chart of Drake's +Voyages.] + +Then they ran across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope +in calm weather, abusing the Portuguese for calling it the most +dangerous Cape in the world for intolerable storms, for "This Cape," +said the English, "is a most stately thing and the finest Cape we saw +in the whole circumference of the earth." + +And so they came home. After nearly three years' absence Drake +triumphantly sailed his little _Golden Hind_ into Plymouth harbour, +where he had long ago been given up as lost. Shouts of applause rang +through the land at the news that an Englishman had circumnavigated +the world. The Queen sent for Drake to tell his wonderful story, to +which she listened spellbound. A great banquet was held on board the +little ship, at which Elizabeth was present and knighted Drake, while +she ordered that the _Golden Hind_ should be preserved "as a worthy +rival of Magellan's _Victoria_" and as "a monument to all posterity +of that famous and worthy exploit of Sir Francis Drake." It was +afterwards taken to pieces, and the best parts of wood were made into +a chair at Oxford, commemorated by Cowley's lines-- + + "To this great ship, which round the world has run + And matched in race the chariot of the sun; + + * * * * * + + Drake and his ship could ne'er have wished from fate + A happier station or more blest estate; + For lo, a seat of endless rest is given + To her in Oxford and to him in Heaven." + +Sir Francis Drake died at sea in 1596. + + "The waves became his winding sheet, the waters were his tomb, + But for his fame the ocean sea was not sufficient room." + +[Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--V. The world as known +after its circumnavigation by Sir Francis Drake in the years +1577-1580.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +DAVIS STRAIT + + +But even while Drake was sailing round the world, and Frobisher's +search for a north-west passage had been diverted into a quest for +gold, men's minds were still bent on the achievement of reaching Cathay +by some northern route. A discourse by Sir Humphrey Gilbert to prove +the existence of a passage by the north-west to Cathay and the East +Indies, in ten chapters, was much discussed, and the Elizabethan +seamen were still bent on its discovery. + +"When I gave myself to the study of geography," said Sir Humphrey, +"and came to the fourth part of the world, commonly called America, +which by all descriptions I found to be an island environed round by +sea, having on the south side of it the Strait of Magellan, on the +west side the Sea of the South, which sea runneth toward the north, +separating it from the east parts of Asia, and on the north side the +sea that severeth it from Greenland, through which Northern Seas the +Passage lieth which I take now in hand to discover." + +The arguments of Sir Humphrey seemed conclusive, and in 1585 they chose +John Davis, "a man well grounded in the principles of the art of +navigation," to search for the North-West Passage to China. They gave +him two little ships, the _Sunshine_ of fifty tons, with a crew of +seventeen seamen, four musicians, and a boy, and the _Moonshine_ of +thirty-five tons. It was a daring venture, but the expedition was +ill-equipped to battle with the icebound seas of the frozen north. +The ships left Dartmouth on 7th June, and by July they were well out +on the Atlantic with porpoises and whales playing round them. Then +came a time of fog and mist, "with a mighty great roaring of the sea." +On 20th July they sailed out of the fog and beheld the snow-covered +mountains of Greenland, beyond a wide stream of pack-ice--so gloomy, +so "waste, and void of any creatures," so bleak and inhospitable that +the Englishmen named it the Land of Desolation and passed on to the +north. Rounding the point, afterwards named by Davis Cape Farewell, +and sailing by the western coast of Greenland, they hoped to find the +passage to Cathay. Landing amid the fiords and the "green and pleasant +isles" about the coast, they anchored a while to refresh, and named +their bay Gilbert Sound, after Sir Humphrey and Davis' own little boy, +Gilbert, left at home. + +"The people of the country," says Davis, "having espied our ships, +came down unto us in their canoes, holding up their right hand toward +the sun. We doing the like, the people came aboard our ships, men of +good stature, unbearded, small-eyed, and of tractable conditions. We +bought the clothes from their backs, which were all made of seals' +skins and birds' skins, their buskins, their hose, their gloves, all +being commonly sewed and well dressed." + +[Illustration: AN ESKIMO. From a water-colour drawing by John White, +about 1585, who may have seen Eskimo either in Frobisher's or Davis's +voyages.] + +These simple Greenlanders who worshipped the sun gave Davis to +understand that there was a great and open sea to the north-west, and +full of hope he sailed on. But he soon abandoned the search, for the +season was advancing, and, crossing the open sea, he entered the broad +channel named after him Davis Strait, crossed the Arctic Circle, and +anchored under a promontory, "the cliffs whereof were orient as gold," +naming it Mount Raleigh. Here they found four white bears of "a +monstrous bigness," which they took to be goats or wolves, till on +nearer acquaintance they were discovered to be great Polar bears. +There were no signs of human life, no wood, no grass, no earth, nothing +but rock, so they coasted southwards, and to their joy they found an +open strait to the west free from ice. Eagerly they sailed the little +_Moonshine_ and _Sunshine_ up the opening, which they called +Cumberland Sound, till thick fogs and adverse winds drove them back. +Winter was now advancing, the six months' provisions were ended, and, +satisfied with having found an open passage westward, Davis sailed +home in triumph to fit out another expedition as soon as spring came +round. His news was received with delight. "The North-West Passage +is a matter nothing doubtful," he affirmed, "but at any time almost +to be passed, the sea navigable, void of ice, the air tolerable, and +the waters very deep." + +With this certainty of success the merchants readily fitted out +another expedition, and Davis sailed early in May 1586 with four ships. +The little _Moonshine_ and _Sunshine_ were included in the new fleet, +but Davis himself commanded the _Mermaid_ of one hundred and twenty +tons. The middle of June found him on the west coast of Greenland, +battling his way with great blocks of ice to his old quarters at Gilbert +Sound. What a warm welcome they received from their old Eskimo friends; +"they rowed to the boat and took hold on the oars and hung about with +such comfortable joy as would require a long discourse to be uttered." +Followed by a wondering crowd of natives eager to help him up and down +the rocks, Davis made his way inland to find an inviting country, "with +earth and grass such as our moory and waste grounds of England are"; +he found, too, mosses and wild flowers in the sheltered places. But +his business lay in the icy waters, and he boldly pushed forward. But +ice and snow and fog made further progress impossible; shrouds, ropes, +and sails were turned into a frozen mass, and the crew was filled with +despair. "Our men began to grow sick and feeble and hopeless of good +success, and they advised me that in conscience I ought to regard the +safety of mine own life with the preservation of theirs, and that I +should not through my over-boldness leave their widows and fatherless +children to give me bitter curses." + +So Davis rearranged his crews and provisions, and with the _Moonshine_ +and a selection of his best men he determined to voyage on "as God +should direct him," while the _Mermaid_ should carry the sick and +feeble and fainthearted home. Davis then crossed over the strait +called by his name and explored the coast about Cumberland Sound. Again +he tried here to discover the long-sought passage, but the brief summer +season was almost past and he had to content himself with exploring +the shores of Labrador, unconsciously following the track made by John +Cabot eighty-nine years before. + +But on his return home the merchants of London were disappointed. Davis +had indeed explored an immense extent of coast-line, and he had brought +back a cargo of cod-fish and five hundred seal skins, but Cathay seemed +as far off as ever. One merchant prince, Sanderson by name, was still +very keen, and he helped Davis to fit out yet another expedition. With +three ships, the _Sunshine_, the _Elizabeth_, and the _Helen_, the +undaunted Arctic explorer now found himself for the third summer in +succession at his old halting-place, Gilbert's Sound, on the west +coast of Greenland. + +Leaving his somewhat discontented crews to go fishing off the coast +of Labrador, he took the little twenty-ton pinnace, with a small party +of brave spirits like his own, and made his way northwards in a free +and open sea. The weather was hot, land was visible on both sides, +and the English mariners were under the impression that they were +sailing up a gulf. But the passage grew wider and wider, till Davis +found himself with the sea all open to west and north. He had crossed +the Arctic Circle and reached the most northerly point ever yet reached +by an explorer. Seeing on his right a lofty cliff, he named it +"Sanderson his Hope," for it seemed to give hope of the long-sought +passage to Cathay. + +It was a memorable day in the annals of discovery, 30th June 1587, +when Davis reached this famous point on the coast of Greenland. "A +bright blue sea extended to the horizon on the north and west, +obstructed by no ice, but here and there a few majestic icebergs with +peaks snowy shooting up into the sky." To the eastward were the granite +mountains of Greenland, and beyond them the white line of the mightiest +glacier in the world. Rising immediately above the tiny vessel was +the beetling wall of Hope Sanderson, with its summit eight hundred +and fifty feet above sea-level. At its base the sea was a sheet of +foam and spray. It must have been a scene like fairyland, for, as Davis +remarked, there was "no ice towards the north, but a great sea, free, +large, very salt and blue, and of an unsearchable depth." + +But again disappointment awaited him. That night a wind from the north +barred further advance as a mighty bank of ice some eight feet thick +came drifting down toward the Atlantic. Again and again he attempted +to get on, but it was impossible, and reluctantly enough he turned +the little ship southwards. + +"This Davis hath been three times employed; why hath he not found the +passage?" said the folk at home when he returned and reported his doings. +How little they realised the difficulties of the way. The commander +of the twenty-ton _Ellen_ had done more than any man had done before +him in the way of Arctic exploration. He had discovered seven hundred +and thirty-two miles of coast from Cape Farewell to Sanderson's Hope; +he had examined the whole coast of Labrador; he had "converted the +Arctic regions from a confused myth into a defined area." "He lighted +Baffin into his bay. He lighted Hudson into his strait. He lighted +Hans Egede to the scene of his Greenland labour." And more than this, +says his enthusiastic biographer: "His true-hearted devotion to the +cause of Arctic discovery, his patient scientific research, his +loyalty to his employers, his dauntless gallantry and enthusiasm form +an example which will be a beacon-light to maritime explorers for all +time to come." + + "And Davis three times forth for the north-west made, + Still striving by that course t'enrich the English trade; + And as he well deserved, to his eternal fame, + There, by a mighty sea, immortalised his name." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +BARENTS SAILS TO SPITZBERGEN + + +With the third failure of John Davis to find the North-West Passage +the English search for Cathay came to an end for the present. But the +merchants of Amsterdam took up the search, and in 1594 they fitted +out an expedition under William Barents, a burgher of Amsterdam and +a practical seaman of much experience. The three voyages of Barents +form some of the most romantic reading in the history of geographical +discovery, and the preface to the old book compiled for the Dutch after +the death of Barents sums up in pathetic language the tragic story +of the "three Voyages, so strange and wonderful that the like hath +never been heard of before." They were "done and performed three +years," says the old preface, "one after the other, by the ships of +Holland, on the North sides of Norway, Muscovy, and Tartary, towards +the kingdoms of Cathay and China, showing discoveries of the Country +lying under 80 degrees: which is thought to be Greenland; where never +any man had been before, with the cruel Bears and other Monsters of +the sea and the unsupportable and extreme cold that is found to be +in these places. And how that in the last Voyage the Ship was enclosed +by the Ice, that it was left there, whereby the men were forced to +build a house in the cold and desert country of Nova Zembla, wherein +they continued ten months together and never saw nor heard of any man, +in most great cold and extreme misery; and how after that, to save +their lives, they were constrained to sail about one thousand miles +in little open boats, along and over the main Seas in most great danger +and with extreme labour, unspeakable troubles, and great hunger." + +Surely no more graphic summary of disaster has ever appeared than these +words penned three hundred and fourteen years ago, which cry to us +down the long, intervening ages of privation and suffering endured +in the cause of science. + +[Illustration: A SHIP OF THE LATE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. From Ortelius, +1598.] + +In the year 1594, then, four ships were sent forth from Amsterdam with +orders to the wise and skilful pilot, William Barents, that he was +to sail into the North Seas and "discover the kingdoms of Cathay and +China." In the month of July the Dutch pilot found himself off the +south coast of Nova Zembla, whence he sailed as the wind pleased to +take him, ever making for the north and hugging the coast as close +as possible. On 9th July they found a creek very far north to which +they gave the name of Bear Creek, because here they suddenly discovered +their first Polar bear. It tried to get into their boat, so they shot +it with a musket, "but the bear showed most wonderful strength, for, +notwithstanding that she was shot into the body, yet she leapt up and +swam in the water; the men that were in the boat, rowing after her, +cast a rope about her neck and drew her at the stern of the boat, for, +not having seen the like bear before, they thought to have carried +her alive in the ship and to have showed her for a strange wonder in +Holland; but she used such force that they were glad they were rid +of her, and contented themselves with her skin only." This they brought +back to Amsterdam in great triumph--their first white Polar bear. But +they went farther north than this, until they came to a plain field +of ice and encountered very misty weather. Still they kept sailing +on, as best they might, round about the ice till they found the land +of Nova Zembla was covered with snow. From "Ice Point" they made their +way to islands which they named Orange Islands after the Dutch Prince. +Here they found two hundred walrus or sea-horses lying on the shore +and basking in the sun. + +[Illustration: NOVA ZEMBLA AND THE ARCTIC REGIONS. From a map in De +Bry's _Grands Voyages_, 1598.] + +"The sea-horse is a wonderful strong monster of the sea," they brought +back word, "much bigger than an ox, having a skin like a seal, with +very short hair, mouthed like a lion; it hath four feet, but no ears." +The little party of Dutchmen advanced boldly with hatchets and pikes +to kill a few of these monsters to take home, but it was harder work +than they thought. The wind suddenly rose, too, and rent the ice into +great pieces, so they had to content themselves by getting a few of +their ivory teeth, which they reported to be half an ell long. With +these and other treasures Barents was now forced to return from these +high latitudes, and he sailed safely into the Texel after three and +a half months' absence. + +His reports of Nova Zembla encouraged the merchants of Amsterdam to +persevere in their search for the kingdoms of Cathay and China by the +north-east, and a second expedition was fitted out under Barents the +following year; but it started too late to accomplish much, and we +must turn to the third expedition for the discovery which has for ever +made famous the name of William Barents. It was yet early in the May +of 1596 when he sailed from Amsterdam with two ships for the third +and last time, bound once more for the frozen northern seas. By 1st +June he had reached a region where there was no night, and a few days +later a strange sight startled the whole crew, "for on each side of +the sun there was another sun and two rainbows more, the one compassing +round about the suns and the other right through the great circle," +and they found they were "under 71 degrees of the height of the Pole." + +Sighting the North Cape of Lapland, they held on a north-westerly +course till on 9th June they came upon a little island which they named +Bear Island. Here they nearly met their end, for, having ascended a +steep snow mountain on the island to look around them, they found it +too slippery to descend. "We thought we should all have broken our +necks, it was so slippery, but we sat up on the snow and slid down, +which was very dangerous for us, and break both our arms and legs for +that at the foot of the hill there were many rocks." Barents himself +seems to have sat in the boat and watched them with intense anxiety. +They were once more amid ice and Polar bears. In hazy weather they +made their way north till on the 19th they saw land, and the "land +was very great." They thought it was Greenland, but it was really +Spitzbergen, of which he was thus the discoverer. + +Many things astonished the navigators here. Although they were in such +high latitudes, they saw grass and leafy trees and such animals as +bucks and harts, while several degrees to the south "there groweth +neither leaves nor grass nor any beasts that eat grass or leaves, but +only such beasts as eat flesh, as bears and foxes." + +[Illustration: BARENTS IN THE ARCTIC: "HUT WHEREIN WE WINTERED." From +De Veer's account of the voyages of Barents, 1598.] + +By 1st July he had explored the western shore and was sailing south +to Bear Island. He never landed on the coast of Spitzbergen: so we +have no further account of this Arctic discovery. Sailing across the +wide northern sea now known as Barents Sea, he made land again in the +north of Nova Zembla, and, hugging the western shore, came to Ice Point. +Here they were sorely harassed by Polar bears and floating ice and +bitter gales of wind. Still they coasted on till they had rounded the +northern end of Nova Zembla and unexpectedly sailed into a good harbour +where they could anchor. The wind now blew with redoubled vigour, the +"ice came mightily driving in" until the little ship was nearly +surrounded, "and withal the wind began more and more to rise and the +ice still drave harder and harder, so that our boat was broken in pieces +between the ship and the ice, and it seemed as if the ship would be +crushed in pieces too." + +As the August days passed on, they tried to get out of their prison, +but it was impossible, and there was nothing for it but to winter "in +great cold, poverty, misery, and grief" in this bleak and barren spot. +The successful pilot was to explore no more, but the rest of the tragic +tale must be shortly told. With the ice heaping high, "as the salt +hills that are in Spain," and the ship in danger of going to pieces, +they collected trees and roots driven on to the desolate shores from +Tartary, "wherewith as if God had purposely sent them unto us we were +much comforted." Through the September days they drew wood across the +ice and snow to build a house for the winter. Only sixteen men could +work and they were none too strong and well. + +[Illustration: BARENTS'S SHIP AMONG THE ARCTIC ICE. From a coloured +woodcut in the account of Barents's three voyages by Gerard de Veer, +published in 1598.] + +Throughout October and November they were snowed up in their winter +hut, with "foul stormie weather" outside, the wind blowing ceaselessly +out of the north and snow lying deep around. They trapped a few foxes +from day to day to eat, making warm caps out of their fur; they heated +stones and took them into their cabin beds, but their sheets froze +as they washed them and at last their clock froze too. + +"They looked pitifully upon one another, being in great fear that if +the extremity of the cold grew to be more and more we should all die +there with the cold." Christmas came and went and they comforted one +another by remembering that the sun was as low as it could go, and +that it must begin to come to them again; but "as the day lengthens, +so the cold strengthens," and the snow now lay deeper until it covered +the roof of their house. + +The New Year found them still imprisoned, "with great cold, danger, +and disease." January, February, March, April passed and still the +little ship was stuck fast in the ice. But as the sun began to gain +power, hope revived, and they began to repair their boats, to make +new sails, and repair tackle. They were too weak and ill to do much +work, but by the middle of June the boats were fairly ready and they +could cut a way through the ice to the open sea. This was their only +hope of escape, to leave the ship behind and embark in two little open +boats for the open sea. + +"Then William Barents wrote a letter, which he put into a musket's +charge and hanged it up in the chimney, showing how we came out of +Holland to sail to the kingdom of China, and how we had been forced +in our extremity to make that house and had dwelt ten months therein, +and how we were forced to put to sea in two small open boats, for that +the ship lay fast in the ice." + +Barents himself was now too ill to walk, so they carried him to one +of the little boats, and on 14th June 1597 the little party put off +from their winter quarters and sailed round to Ice Point. But the pilot +was dying. "Are we about Ice Point?" he asked feebly. "If we be, then +I pray you lift me up, for I must view it once again." + +Then suddenly the wind began to rise, driving the ice so fast upon +them "that it made our hair stand upright upon our heads, it was so +fearful to behold, so that we thought verily that it was a foreshadowing +of our last end." + +They drew the boats up on to the ice and lifted the sick commander +out and laid him on the icy ground, where a few days later he died--"our +chief guide and only pilot on whom we reposed ourselves next under +God." The rest of the story is soon told. + +On 1st November 1597 some twelve gaunt and haggard men, still wearing +caps of white fox and coats of bearskin, having guided their little +open boats all the way from Nova Zembla, arrived at Amsterdam and told +the story of their exploration to the astonished merchants, who had +long since given them up as dead. + +It was not till 1871 that Barents' old winter quarters on Nova Zembla +were discovered. "There stood the cooking-pans over the fireplace, +the old clocks against the wall, the arms, the tools, the drinking +vessels, the instruments and the books that had beguiled the weary +hours of that long night, two hundred and seventy-eight years ago." +Among the relics were a pair of small shoes and a flute which had +belonged to a little cabin-boy who had died during the winter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +HUDSON FINDS HIS BAY + + +Henry Hudson was another victim to perish in the hopeless search for +a passage to China by the north. John Davis had been dead two years, +but not till after he had piloted the first expedition undertaken by +the newly formed East India Company for commerce with India and the +East. It was now more important than ever to find a short way to these +countries other than round by the Cape of Good Hope. So Henry Hudson +was employed by the Muscovy Company "to discover a shorter route to +Cathay _by sailing over the North Pole_." He knew the hardships of +the way; he must have realised the fate of Willoughby, the failure +of Frobisher, the sufferings of Barents and his men, the difficulties +of Davis--indeed, it is more than probable that he had listened to +Davis speaking on the subject of Arctic exploration to the merchants +of London at his uncle's house at Mortlake. + +Never did man start on a bolder or more perilous enterprise than did +this man, when he started for the North Pole in a little boat of eighty +tons, with his little son Jack, two mates, and a crew of eight men. + +"Led by Hudson with the fire of a great faith in his eyes, the men +solemnly marched to St. Ethelburga Church, off Bishopsgate Street, +London, to partake of Holy Communion and ask God's aid. Back to the +muddy water front, opposite the Tower, a hearty God-speed from the +gentlemen of the Muscovy Company, pompous in self-importance and lace +ruffles--and the little crew steps into a clumsy river-boat with +brick-red sails." + +After a six weeks' tumble over a waste of waters, Hudson arrived off +the coast of Greenland, the decks of the little _Hopewell_ coated with +ice, her rigging and sails hard as boards, and a north-east gale of +wind and snow against her. A barrier of ice forbade further advance; +but, sailing along the edge of this barrier--the first navigator to +do so--he made for the coast of Spitzbergen, already roughly charted +by Barents. Tacking up the west coast to the north, Hudson now explored +further the fiords, islands, and harbours, naming some of +them--notably Whale Bay and Hakluyt Headland, which may be seen on +our maps of to-day. By 13th July he had reached his Farthest North, +farther than any explorer had been before him, farther than any to +be reached again for over one hundred and fifty years. It was a land +of walrus, seal, and Polar bear; but, as usual, ice shut off all further +attempts to penetrate the mysteries of the Pole, thick fog hung around +the little ship, and with a fair wind Hudson turned southward. "It +pleased God to give us a gale and away we steered," says the old ship +log. Hudson would fain have steered Greenland way and had another try +for the north. But his men wanted to go home, and home they went, through +"slabbie" weather. + +But the voice of the North was still calling Hudson, and he persuaded +the Muscovy Company to let him go off again. This he did in the following +year. Only three of his former crew volunteered for service, and one +of these was his son. But this expedition was devoid of result. The +icy seas about Nova Zembla gave no hope of a passage in this direction, +and, "being void of hope, the wind stormy and against us, much ice +driving, we weighed and set sail westward." + +[Illustration: HUDSON'S MAP OF HIS VOYAGES IN THE ARCTIC. From his +book published in 1612.] + +Hudson's voyages for the Muscovy Company had already come under the +notice of the Dutch, who were vying with the English for the discovery +of this short route to the East. Hudson was now invited to undertake +an expedition for the Dutch East India Company, and he sailed from +Amsterdam in the early spring of 1609 in a Dutch ship called the +_Half-Moon_, with a mixed crew of Dutch and English, including once +more his own son. Summer found the enthusiastic explorer off the coast +of Newfoundland, where some cod-fishing refreshed the crews before +they sailed on south, partly seeking an opening to the west, partly +looking for the colony of Virginia, under Hudson's friend, Captain +John Smith. In hot, misty weather they cruised along the coast. They +passed what is now Massachusetts, "an Indian country of great hills--a +very sweet land." On 7th August, Hudson was near the modern town of +New York, so long known as New Amsterdam, but mist hid the low-lying +hills and the _Half-Moon_ drifted on to James River; then, driven back +by a heat hurricane, he made for the inlet on the old charts, which +might lead yet east. + +It was 2nd September when he came to the great mouth of the river that +now bears his name. He had been beating about all day in gales and +fogs, when "the sun arose and we saw the land all like broken islands. +From the land which we had first sight of, we came to a large lake +of water, like drowned land, which made it to rise like islands. The +mouth hath many shores and the sea breaketh on them. This is a very +good land to fall in with, and a pleasant land to see. At three of +the clock in the afternoon we came to three great rivers. We found +a very good harbour and went in with our ship. Then we took our nets +to fish and caught ten great mullets of a foot and a half long each, +and a ray as great as four men could haul into the ship. The people +of the country came aboard of us, seeming very glad of our coming, +and brought green tobacco--they go in deer skins, well-dressed, they +desire clothes and are very civil--they have great store of maize, +whereof they make good bread. The country is full of great and tall +oaks." To this he adds that the women had red copper tobacco pipes, +many of them being dressed in mantles of feathers or furs, but the +natives proved treacherous. Sailing up the river, Hudson found it a +mile broad, with high land on both sides. By the night of 19th September +the little _Half-Moon_ had reached the spot where the river widens +near the modern town of Albany. He had sailed for the first time the +distance covered to-day by magnificent steamers which ply daily +between Albany and New York city. Hudson now went ashore with an old +chief of the country. "Two men were dispatched in quest of game," so +records Hudson's manuscript, "who brought in a pair of pigeons. They +likewise killed a fat dog and skinned it with great haste with shells. +The land is the finest for cultivation that ever I in my life set foot +upon." + +Hudson had not found a way to China, but he had found the great and +important river that now bears his name. Yet he was to do greater things +than these, and to lose his life in the doing. The following year, +1610, found him once more bound for the north, continuing the endless +search for a north-west passage--this time for the English, and not +for the Dutch. On board the little _Discovery_ of fifty-five tons, +with his young son, Jack, still his faithful companion, with a +treacherous old man as mate, who had accompanied him before, with a +good-for-nothing young spendthrift taken at the last moment "because +he wrote a good hand," and a mixed crew, Hudson crossed the wide +Atlantic for the last time. He sailed by way of Iceland, where "fresh +fish and dainty fowl, partridges, curlew, plover, teale, and goose" +much refreshed the already discontented crews, and the hot baths of +Iceland delighted them. The men wanted to return to the pleasant land +discovered in the last expedition, but the mysteries of the frozen +North still called the old explorer, and he steered for Greenland. +He was soon battling with ice upon the southern end of "Desolation," +whence he crossed to the snowy shores of Labrador, sailing into the +great straits that bear his name to-day. For three months they sailed +aimlessly about that "labyrinth without end" as it was called by Abacuk +Prickett who wrote the account of this fourth and last voyage of Henry +Hudson. But they could find no opening to the west, no way of escape. + +[Illustration: A SHIP OF HUDSON'S FLEET. From his _Voyages_, 1612.] + +Winter was coming on, "the nights were long and cold, and the earth +was covered with snow." They were several hundred miles south of the +straits, and no way had been found to the Pacific; they had followed +the south shore "to the westernmost bay of all," James Bay, but lo! +there was no South Sea. Hudson recognised the fact that he was +land-bound and winter-bound in a desolate region, with a discontented +crew, and that the discontent was amounting to mutiny. On 1st November +they hauled up the ship and selected a wintering place. Ten days later +they were frozen in, and snow was falling continuously every day. "We +were victualled for six months, and of that which was good," runs the +record. For the first three months they shot "partridges as white as +milk," but these left with the advent of spring, and hunger seized +on the handful of Englishmen wintering in this unknown land. "Then +we went into the woods, hills, and valleys--and the moss and the frog +were not spared." Not till the month of May did the ice begin to melt +and the men could fish. The first day this was possible they caught +"five hundred fish as big as good herrings and some trout," which +revived their hopes and their health. Hudson made a last despairing +effort to find a westward passage. But now the men rose in mutiny. +"We would rather be hanged at home than starved abroad!" they cried +miserably. + +So Hudson "fitted all things for his return, and first delivered all +the bread out of the bread room (which came to a pound apiece for every +man's share), and he wept when he gave it unto them." It was barely +sufficient for fourteen days, and even with the fourscore small fish +they had caught it was "a poor relief for so many hungry bellies." + +With a fair wind in the month of June, the little _Discovery_ was headed +for home. A few days later she was stopped by ice. Mutiny now burst +forth. The "master" and his men had lost confidence in each other. +There were ruffians on board, rendered almost wild by hunger and +privation. There is nothing more tragic in the history of exploration +than the desertion of Henry Hudson and his boy in their newly discovered +bay. Every detail of the conspiracy is given by Prickett. We know how +the rumour spread, how the crew resolved to turn the "master" and the +sick men adrift and to share the remaining provisions among themselves. +And how in the early morning Hudson was seized and his arms bound behind +him. + +"What does this mean?" he cried. + +"You will know soon enough when you are in the shallop," they replied. + +The boat was lowered and into it Hudson was put with his son, while +the "poor, sick, and lame men were called upon to get them out of their +cabins into the shallop." Then the mutineers lowered some powder and +shot, some pikes, an iron pot, and some meal into her, and the little +boat was soon adrift with her living freight of suffering, starving +men--adrift in that icebound sea, far from home and friends and all +human help. At the last moment the carpenter sprang into the drifting +boat, resolved to die with the captain sooner than desert him. Then +the _Discovery_ flew away with all sail up as from an enemy. + +And "the master" perished--how and when we know not. + +Fortunately the mutineers took home Hudson's journals and charts. +Ships were sent out to search for the lost explorer, but the silence +has never been broken since that summer's day three hundred years ago, +when he was deserted in the waters of his own bay. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +BAFFIN FINDS HIS BAY + + +Two years only after the tragedy of Henry Hudson, another Arctic +explorer appears upon the scene. William Baffin was already an +experienced seaman in the prime of life; he had made four voyages to +the icy north, when he was called on by the new Company of Merchants +of London--"discoverers of the North-West Passage"--formed in 1612, +to prepare for another voyage of discovery. Distressed beyond measure +at the desertion of Henry Hudson, the Muscovy Company had dispatched +Sir Thomas Button with our old friend Abacuk Prickett to show him the +way. Button had reached the western side of Hudson's Bay, and after +wintering there returned fully convinced that a north-west passage +existed in this direction. Baffin returned from an expedition to +Greenland the same year. The fiords and islets of west Greenland, the +ice-floes and glaciers of Spitzbergen, the tidal phenomena of Hudson's +Strait, and the geographical secrets of the far-northern bay were all +familiar to him. "He was, therefore, chosen as mate and associate" +to Bylot, one of the men who had deserted Hudson, but who had sailed +three times with him previously and knew well the western seas. So +in "the good ship called the _Discovery_," of fifty-five tons, with +a crew of fourteen men and two boys, William Baffin sailed for the +northern seas. May found the expedition on the coast of Greenland, +with a gale of wind and great islands of ice. However, Baffin crossed +Davis Strait, and after a struggle with ice at the entrance to Hudson's +Strait he sailed along the northern side till he reached a group of +islands which he named Savage Islands. For here were Eskimos +again--very shy and fearful of the white strangers. "Among their +tents," relates Baffin, "all covered with seal skins, were running +up and down about forty dogs, most of them muzzled, about the bigness +of our mongrel mastiffs, being a brindled black colour, looking almost +like wolves. These dogs they used instead of horses, or rather as the +Lapps do their deer, to draw their sledges from place to place over +the ice, their sledges being shod or lined with bones of great fishes +to keep them from wearing out, and the dogs have furniture and collars +very fitting." + +The explorers went on bravely till they were stopped by masses of ice. +They thought they must be at the mouth of a large bay, and, seeing +no prospect of a passage to the west, they turned back. When, two +hundred years later, Parry sailed in Baffin's track he named this place +Baffin Land "out of respect to the memory of that able and enterprising +navigator." + +The _Discovery_ arrived in Plymouth Sound by September, _without the +loss of one man_--a great achievement in these days of salt junk and +scurvy. + +"And now it may be," adds Baffin, "that some expect I should give my +opinion concerning the Passage. To these my answer must be that +doubtless there _is_ a Passage. But within this Strait, which is called +Hudson Strait, I am doubtful, supposing to the contrary." + +Baffin further suggested that if there was a Passage it must now be +sought by Davis Strait. + +Accordingly another expedition was fitted out and Baffin had his +instructions: "For your course, you must make all possible haste to +Cape Desolation; and from hence you, William Baffin, as pilot, keep +along the coast of Greenland and up Davis Strait, until you come toward +the height of 80 degrees, if the land will give you leave. Then shape +your course west and southerly, so far as you shall think it convenient, +till you come to the latitude of 60 degrees, then direct your course +to fall in with the land of _Yedzo_, leaving your further sailing +southward to your own discretion: although our desires be if your +voyage prove so prosperous that you may have the year before you that +you go far south as that you may touch the north part of Japan from +whence we would have you bring home one of the men of the country and +so, God blessing you, with all expedition to make your return home +again." + +The _Discovery_ had proved a good little ship for exploration, so she +was again selected by Baffin for this new attempt in the far north. +Upon 26th March 1616 she sailed from Gravesend, arriving off the coast +of Greenland in the neighbourhood of Gilbert Sound about the middle +of May. Working against terrible winds, they plied to the northward, +the old ship making but slow progress, till at last they sighted +"Sanderson his Hope," the farthest point of Master Davis. Once more +English voices broke the silence of thirty years. The people who +appeared on the shore were wretchedly poor. They lived on seals' flesh, +which they ate raw, and clothed themselves in the skins. Still +northwards they sailed, cruising along the western coast. Though the +ice was beginning to disappear the weather kept bitterly cold, and +on Midsummer Day the sails and ropes were frozen too hard to be handled. +Stormy weather now forced them into a sound which they named Whale +Sound from the number of whales they discovered here. It was declared +by Baffin to be the "greatest and largest bay in these parts." + +But beyond this they could not go; so they sailed across the end of +what we now know as Baffin's Bay and explored the opposite coast of +America, naming one of the greater openings Lancaster Sound, after +Sir James Lancaster of East India Company fame. + +"Here," says Baffin pitifully, "our hope of Passage began to grow less +every day." + +It was the old story of ice, advancing season, and hasty conclusions. + +[Illustration: BAFFIN'S MAP OF HIS VOYAGES TO THE NORTH. From the +original MS., drawn by Baffin, in the British Museum.] + +"There is no hope of Passage to the north of Davis' Straits," the +explorer further asserts; but he asserts wrongly, for Lancaster Sound +was to prove an open channel to the West. + +So he returned home. He had not found the Passage, but he had discovered +the great northern sea that now bears his name. The size of it was +for long plunged in obscurity, and the wildest ideas centred round +the extent of this northern sea. A map of 1706 gives it an indefinite +amount of space, adding vaguely: "Some will have Baffin's Bay to run +as far as this faint Shadow," while a map of 1818 marks the bay, but +adds that "it is not now believed." + +For the next two hundred years the icebound regions of the north were +practically left free from invasion, silent, inhospitable, +unapproachable. + +But while these Arctic explorers were busy battling with the northern +seas to find a passage which should lead them to the wealth of the +East, others were exploring the New World and endeavouring by land +and river to attain the same end. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +SIR WALTER RALEIGH SEARCHES FOR EL DORADO + + +It is pleasant to turn from the icy regions of North America to the +sunny South, and to follow the fortunes of that fine Elizabethan +gentleman, Sir Walter Raleigh, to "the large, rich, and beautiful +Empire of Guiana and the Great and Golden City of Manoa (which the +Spaniards call El Dorado)." Ever since the conquest of Peru, sixty +years before, there had floated about rumours of a great kingdom +abounding in gold. The King of this Golden Land was sprinkled daily +with gold dust, till he shone as the sun, while Manoa was full of golden +houses and golden temples with golden furniture. The kingdom was +wealthier than Peru; it was richer than Mexico. Expedition after +expedition had left Spain in search of this El Dorado, but the region +was still plunged in romantic mists. Raleigh had just failed to +establish an English colony in Virginia. To gain a rich kingdom for +his Queen, to extend her power and enrich her treasury was now his +greatest object in life. What about El Dorado? + +"Oh, unwearied feet, travelling ye know not whither! Soon, soon, it +seems to you, you must come forth on some conspicuous hilltop, and +but a little way further, against the setting sun, descry the spires +of El Dorado." + +February 1595 found him ready and leaving England with five ships and, +after a good passage of forty-six days, landing on the island of +Trinidad, and thence making his way to the mouth of the Orinoco. Here +Raleigh soon found that it was impossible to enter the Orinoco with +his English ships, but, nothing daunted, he took a hundred men and +provisions for a month in three little open boats, and started forward +to navigate this most difficult labyrinth of channels, out of which +they were guided by an old Indian pilot named Ferdinando. They had +much to observe. The natives, living along the river-banks, dwelt in +houses all the summer, but in the winter months they constructed small +huts to which they ascended by means of ladders. + +These folk were cannibals, but cannibals of a refined sort, who "beat +the bones of their lords into powder" and mixed the powder with their +drinks. The stream was very strong and rapid, and the men rowed against +it in great discomfort, "the weather being extreme hot, the river +bordered with very high trees that kept away the air, and the current +against us every day stronger than the other," until they became, as +Raleigh tells us, "wearied and scorched and doubtful." + +The heat increased as they advanced, and the crews grew weaker as the +river "ran more violently against them." But Raleigh refused to return +yet, lest "the world would laugh us to scorn." + +Fortunately delicious fruits hung over the banks of the Orinoco, and, +having no bread and for water only the thick and troubled water of +the river, they refreshed themselves gladly. So they rowed on up the +great river, through province after province of the Indians, but no +El Dorado appeared. Suddenly the scene changed as if by magic, the +high banks giving way to low-lying plains; green grass grew close to +the water's edge, and deer came down to feed. + +"I never saw a more beautiful country," says Raleigh, "nor more lively +prospects, hills raised here and there over the valleys, the river +winding into different branches, plains without bush or stubble, all +fair green grass, deer crossing our path, the birds towards evening +singing on every tree with a thousand several tunes, herons of white, +crimson, and carnation perching on the riverside, the air fresh with +a gentle wind, and every stone we stooped to pick up promised either +gold or silver." His account of the great cataract at the junction +of the tributary Caroni is very graphic. They had already heard the +roar, so they ran to the tops of some neighbouring hills, discovering +the wonderful "breach of waters" which ran down Caroli, and from that +"mountain see the river how it ran in three parts, about twenty miles +off, and there appeared some ten or twelve overfalls in sight, every +one as high over the other as a church tower, which fell with that +fury that the rebound of waters made it seem as if it had been all +covered over with a great shower of rain; and in some places we took +it at the first for a smoke that had risen over some great town." + +[Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH.] + +The country was the province of Guiana, but it was not El Dorado, the +object of their quest. And though it was very beautiful, it was +inhabited by cannibals; moreover, winter was advancing, and they were +already some four hundred miles from their ships in little open boats +and in the heart of a strange country. + +Suddenly, too, the river began to rise, to "rage and overflow very +fearfully," rain came down in torrents accompanied by great gusts of +wind, and the crews with no change of clothes got wet through, sometimes +ten times a day. "Whosoever had seen the fury of that river after it +began to rise would perchance have turned his back somewhat sooner +than we did if all the mountains had been gold or precious stones," +remarked Raleigh, who indeed was no coward. So they turned the boats +for home, and at a tremendous rate they spun down the stream, sometimes +doing as much as one hundred miles a day, till after sundry adventures +they safely reached their ships at anchor off Trinidad. Raleigh had +not reached the golden city of Manoa, but he gave a very glowing account +of this country to his Queen. + +"Guiana," he tells her, "is a country that hath yet her maidenhood. +The face of the earth hath not been torn, the graves have not been +opened for gold. It hath never been entered by any army of strength, +and never conquered by any Christian prince. Men shall find here more +rich and beautiful cities, more temples adorned with gold, than either +Cortes found in Mexico or Pizarro in Peru, and the shining glory of +this conquest will eclipse all those of the Spanish nation." + +But Raleigh had brought back no gold, and his schemes for a conquest +of Guiana were received coldly by the Queen. She could not share his +enthusiasm for the land-- + + "Where Orinoco, in his pride, + Rolls to the main no tribute tide, + But 'gainst broad Ocean wages far + A rival sea of roaring war; + While in ten thousand eddies driven + The billows fling their foam to heaven; + And the pale pilot seeks in vain + Where rolls the river, where the main." + +But, besides the Orinoco in South America, there was the St. Lawrence +in North America, still very imperfectly known. Since Jacques Cartier +had penetrated the hitherto undisturbed regions lying about the "river +of Canada," little had been explored farther west, till Samuel +Champlain, one of the most remarkable men of his day, comes upon the +scene, and was still discovering land to the west when Raleigh was +making his second expedition to Guiana in the year 1617. + +[Illustration: RALEIGH'S MAP OF GUINEA, EL DORADO, AND THE ORINOCO +COAST. From the original map, drawn by Raleigh, in the British Museum. +This map, like so many of the older charts, is drawn upside down, the +South being at the top and the East on the left, while the Panama Isthmus +is at the bottom on the right. The river above the "Lake of Manoa" +is the Amazon.] + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +CHAMPLAIN DISCOVERS LAKE ONTARIO + + +To discover a passage westward was still the main object of those who +made their way up the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. This, too, was the +object of Samuel Champlain, known as "the Father of New France," when +he arrived with orders from France to establish an industrial colony +"which should hold for that country the gateway of the Golden East." +He had already ascended the river Saguenay, a tributary of the St. +Lawrence, till stopped by rapids and rocks, and the natives had told +him of a great salt sea to the north, which was Hudson's Bay, discovered +some seven years later, in 1610. He now made his way to a spot called +by the natives Quebec, a word meaning the strait or narrows, this being +the narrowest place in the whole magnificent waterway. He had long +been searching for a suitable site for a settlement, but "I could find +none more convenient," he says, "or better situated than the point +of Quebec, so called by the savages, which was covered with nut trees." +Accordingly here, close to the present Champlain market, arose the +nucleus of the city of Quebec--the great warehouse of New France. + +[Illustration: THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AT QUEBEC. From Champlain's +_Voyages_, 1613. The bigger house in front is Champlain's own +residence.] + +Having passed the winter of 1608 at Quebec, the passion of exploration +still on him, in a little two-masted boat piloted by Indians, he went +up the St. Lawrence, towards Cartier's Mont Royal. From out the thick +forest land that lined its banks, Indians discovered the steel-clad +strangers and gazed at them from the river-banks in speechless wonder. +The river soon became alive with Indian canoes, but the Frenchmen made +their way to the mouth of the Richelieu River, where they encamped +for a couple of days' hunting and fishing. Then Champlain sailed on, +his little two-masted boat outstripping the native canoes, till the +unwelcome sound of rapids fell on the silent air, and through the dark +foliage of the islet of St. John he could see "the gleam of snowy foam +and the flash of hurrying waters." The Indians had assured him that +his boat could pass unobstructed through the whole journey. "It +afflicted me and troubled me exceedingly," he tells us, "to be obliged +to return without having seen so great a lake, full of fair islands +and bordered with the fine countries which they had described to me." +He could not bear to give up the exploration into the heart of a land +unvisited by white men. So, sending back his party, accompanied only +by two Frenchmen as brave as himself, he stepped into an Indian canoe +to be carried round the rapids and so continue his perilous +journey--perilous, indeed, for bands of hostile natives lurked in the +primeval forests that clothed the river-banks in dense masses. + +As they advanced the river widened out; the Indian canoes carried them +safely over the broad stream shimmering in the summer sun till they +came to a great silent lake over one hundred miles long, hitherto +unexplored. The beauty of the new country is described with enthusiasm +by the delighted explorer, but they were now in the Mohawk country +and progress was fraught with danger. They travelled only by night +and lay hidden by day in the depth of the forest, till they had reached +the far end of the lake, named Lake Champlain after its discoverer. +They were near the rocky promontory where Fort Ticonderoga was +afterwards built, when they met a party of Iroquois; war-cries pealed +across the waters of the lake, and by daybreak battle could no longer +be averted. Champlain and his two companions, in doublet and hose, +buckled on their breastplates, cuisses of steel and plumed helmets, +and with sword and arquebus advanced. Their firearms won the day, but +all hope of further advance was at an end, and Champlain returned to +Quebec with his great story of new lands to the south. It was not till +the spring of 1611 that he was again free to start on another exploring +expedition into the heart of Canada. + +[Illustration: THE DEFEAT OF THE IROQUOIS BY CHAMPLAIN AND HIS PARTY +ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN. From a drawing in Champlain's _Voyages_, 1613.] + +His journey to the rapids of the St. Louis has been well described: +"Like specks on the broad bosom of the waters, two pigmy vessels held +their course up the lonely St. Lawrence. They passed abandoned +Tadoussac, the channel of Orleans, the tenantless rock of Quebec, the +wide Lake of St. Peter with its crowded archipelago, and the forest +plain of Montreal. All was solitude. Hochelaga had vanished, and of +the savage population that Cartier had found sixty-eight years before, +no trace remained." + +In a skiff with a few Indians, Champlain tried to pass the rapids of +St. Louis; but oars, paddles, and poles alike proved vain against the +foaming surges, and he was forced to return, but not till the Indians +had drawn for him rude plans of the river above, with its chain of +rapids and its lakes and its cataracts. They were quite impassable, +said the natives, though, indeed, to these white strangers everything +seemed possible. + +"These white men must have fallen from the clouds," they said. "How +else could they have reached us through the woods and rapids which +even we find it hard to pass?" Champlain wanted to get to the upper +waters of the Ottawa River, to the land of the cannibal Nipissings, +who dwelt on the lake that bears their name; but they were enemies, +and the natives refused to advance into their country. + +Two years later he accomplished his desire, and found himself at last +in the land of the Nipissings. He crossed their lake and steered his +canoes down the French river. Days passed and no signs of human life +appeared amid the rocky desolation, till suddenly three hundred +savages, tattooed, painted, and armed, rushed out on them. Fortunately +they were friendly, and it was from them that Champlain learned the +good news that the great freshwater lake of the Hurons was close at +hand. + +What if the Friar Le Caron, one of Champlain's party, had preceded +him by a few days, Champlain was the first white man to give an account +of it, if not the first to sail on its beautiful waters. For over one +hundred miles he made his way along its eastern shores, until he reached +a broad opening with fields of maize and bright patches of sunflower, +from the seeds of which the Indians made their hair-oil. After staying +a few days at a little Huron village where he was feasted by friendly +natives, Champlain pushed on by Indian trails, passing village after +village till he reached the narrow end of Lake Simcoe. A "shrill clamour +of rejoicing and the screaming flight of terrified children" hailed +his approach. The little fleet of canoes pursued their course along +the lake and then down the chain of lakes leading to the river Trent. +The inhabited country of the Hurons had now given place to a desolate +region with no sign of human life, till from the mouth of the Trent, +"like a flock of venturous wild fowl," they found themselves floating +on the waters of Lake Ontario, across which they made their way safely. + +It was a great day in the life of Champlain when he found himself in +the very heart of a hostile land, having discovered the chain of inland +lakes of which he had heard so much. But they were now in the land +of the Iroquois--deadly foes of the Hurons. There was nothing for it +but to fight, and a great battle now took place between the rival tribes, +every warrior yelling at the top of his voice. Champlain himself was +wounded in the fray, and all further exploration had to be abandoned. +He was packed up in a basket and carried away on the back of a Huron +warrior. "Bundled in a heap," wrote the explorer, "doubled and +strapped together after such a fashion that one could move no more +than an infant in swaddling clothes, I never was in such torment in +my life, for the pain of the wound was nothing to that of being bound +and pinioned on the back of one of our savages. As soon as I could +bear my weight, I got out of this prison." How Champlain wintered with +the Hurons, who would not allow him to return to Quebec, how he got +lost while hunting in one of the great forests in his eagerness to +shoot a strange-looking bird, how the lakes and streams froze, and +how his courage and endurance were sorely tried over the toilsome +marches to Lake Simcoe, but how finally he reached Montreal by way +of Nipissing and the Ottawa River, must be read elsewhere. Champlain's +work as an explorer was done. Truly has he been called the Father of +New France. He had founded Quebec and Montreal; he had explored Canada +as no man has ever done before or since. Faithful to the passion of +his life, he died in 1635 at Quebec--the city he had founded and loved. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +EARLY DISCOVERERS OF AUSTRALIA + + +While the French and English were feverishly seeking a way to the East, +either by the North Pole or by way of America, the Dutch were busy +discovering a new land in the Southern Seas. + +And as we have seen America emerging from the mist of ages in the +sixteenth century, so now in the seventeenth we have the great Island +Continent of Australia mysteriously appearing bit by bit out of the +yet little-known Sea of the South. There is little doubt that both +Portuguese and Spanish had touched on the western coast early in the +sixteenth century, but gave no information about it beyond sketching +certain rough and undefined patches of land and calling it Terra +Australis in their early maps; no one seems to have thought this +mysterious land of much importance. The maritime nations of that +period carefully concealed their knowledge from one another. The proud +Spaniard hated his Portuguese neighbour as a formidable rival in the +race for wealth and fame, and the Dutchman, who now comes on the scene, +was regarded by both as a natural enemy by land or sea. + +Magellan in 1520 discovered that the Terra Australis was not joined +to South America, as the old maps had laid down; and we find Frobisher +remarking in 1578 that "Terra Australis seemeth to be a great, firm +land, lying under and about the South Pole, not thoroughly discovered. +It is known at the south side of the Strait of Magellan and is called +Terra del Fuego. It is thought this south land about the pole Antarctic +is far bigger than the north land about the pole Arctic; but whether +it be so or not, we have no certain knowledge, for we have no particular +description thereof, as we have of the land about the North Pole." + +[Illustration: AN EARLY MAP OF "TERRA AUSTRALIS," CALLED "JAVA LA +GRANDE" IN ITS SUPPOSED EASTERN PART. From the "Dauphin" map of 1546. +There was then supposed to be a great mainland of Java, separated from +the island of "Java Minor" by a narrow strait. See the copy of the +whole of this map in colour, where it will be seen that the "Terra +Australis" was supposed to stretch from east to west.] + +And even one hundred years later the mystery was not cleared up. "This +land about the straits is not perfectly discovered whether it be +continent or islands. Some take it for continent, esteeming that Terra +Australis or the Southern Continent may for the largeness thereof take +a first place in the division of the whole world." + +The Spaniards were still masters of the sea, when one Lieutenant Torres +first sailed through the strait dividing Australia from New Guinea, +already discovered in 1527. As second in command, he had sailed from +America under a Spaniard, De Quiros, in 1605, and in the Pacific they +had come across several island groups. Among others they sighted the +island group now known as the New Hebrides. Quiros supposed that this +was the continent for which he was searching, and gave it the name +of "Terra Australis del Espirito Santo." And then a curious thing +happened. "At one hour past midnight," relates Torres in his account +of the voyage, "the _Capitana_ (Quiros' ship) departed without any +notice given us and without making any signal." + +After waiting for many days, Torres at last set sail, and, having +discovered that the supposed land was only an island, he made his way +along the dangerous coast of New Guinea to Manila, thus passing through +the straits that were afterwards named after him, and unconsciously +passing almost within sight of the very continent for which he was +searching. + +This was the end of Spanish enterprise for the present. The rivals +for sea-power in the seventeenth century were England and Holland. +Both had recently started East India Companies, both were keen to take +a large part in East Indian trade and to command the sea. For a time +the Dutch had it all their own way; they devoted themselves to founding +settlements in the East Indies, ever hoping to discover new islands +in the South Seas as possible trade centres. Scientific discovery held +little interest for them. + +As early as 1606 a Dutch ship--the little _Sun_--had been dispatched +from the Moluccas to discover more about the land called by the +Spaniards New Guinea, because of its resemblance to the West African +coast of Guinea. But the crews were greeted with a shower of arrows +as they attempted a landing, and with nine of their party killed, they +returned disheartened. + +A more ambitious expedition was fitted out in 1617 by private +adventurers, and two ships--the _Unity_ and the _Horn_--sailed from +the Texel under the command of a rich Amsterdam merchant named Isaac +Le Maire and a clever navigator, Cornelius Schouten of Horn. Having +been provided with an English gunner and carpenter, the ships were +steered boldly across the Atlantic. Hitherto the object of the +expedition had been kept a secret, but on crossing the line the crews +were informed that they were bound for the Terra Australis del Espirito +Santo of Quiros. The men had never heard of the country before, and +we are told they wrote the name in their caps in order to remember +it. By midwinter they had reached the eastern entrance of the Straits +of Magellan, through which many a ship had passed since the days of +Magellan, some hundred years before this. Unfortunately, while +undergoing some necessary repairs here, the little _Horn_ caught fire +and was burnt out, the crews all having to crowd on to the _Unity_. +Instead of going through the strait they sailed south and discovered +Staaten Land, which they thought might be a part of the southern +continent for which they were seeking. We now know it to be an island, +whose heights are covered with perpetual snow. It was named by Schouten +after the Staaten or States-General of Holland. Passing through the +strait which divided the newly discovered land from the Terra del Fuego +(called later the Straits of Le Maire after its discoverer), the +Dutchmen found a great sea full of whales and monsters innumerable. +Sea-mews larger than swans, with wings stretching six feet across, +fled screaming round the ship. The wind was against them, but after +endless tacking they reached the southern extremity of land, which +Schouten named after his native town and the little burnt +ship--_Horn_--and as Cape Horn it is known to-day. + +But the explorers never reached the Terra Australis. Their little ship +could do no more, and they sailed to Java to repair. + +Many a name on the Australian map to-day testifies to Dutch enterprise +about this time. In 1616, Captain Dirck Hartog of Amsterdam discovered +the island that bears his name off the coast of Western Australia. +A few years later the captain of a Dutch ship called the _Lewin_ or +_Lioness_ touched the south-west extremity of the continent, calling +that point Cape Lewin. Again a few years and we find Captain Nuyts +giving his name to a part of the southern coast, though the discovery +seems to have been accidental. In 1628, Carpentaria received its name +from Carpenter, a governor of the East India Company. Now, one day +a ship from Carpenter's Land returned laden with gold and spice; +and though certain men had their suspicions that these riches had been +fished out of some large ship wrecked upon the inhospitable coast, +yet a little fleet of eleven ships was at once dispatched to reconnoitre +further. Captain Pelsart commanded the _Batavia_, which in a great +storm was separated from the other ships and driven alone on to the +shoals marked as the Abrolhos (a Portuguese word meaning "Open your +eyes," implying a sharp lookout for dangerous reefs) on the west coast +of Australia. It was night when the ship struck, and Captain Pelsart +was sick in bed. He ran hastily on to the deck. The moon shone bright. +The sails were up. The sea appeared to be covered with white foam. +Captain Pelsart charged the master with the loss of the ship, and asked +him "in what part of the world he thought they were." + +"God only knows that," replied the master, adding that the ship was +fast on a bank hitherto undiscovered. Suddenly a dreadful storm of +wind and rain arose, and, being surrounded with rocks and shoals, the +ship was constantly striking. "The women, children, and sick people +were out of their wits with fear," so they decided to land these on +an island for "their cries and noise served only to disturb them." +The landing was extremely difficult owing to the rocky coast, where +the waves were dashing high. When the weather had moderated a bit, +Captain Pelsart took the ship and went in search of water, thereby +exploring a good deal of coast, which, he remarked, "resembled the +country near Dover." But his exploration amounted to little, and the +account of his adventures is mostly taken up with an account of the +disasters that befell the miserable party left on the rock-bound +islands of Abrolhos--conspiracies, mutinies, and plots. His was only +one of many adventures on this unknown and inhospitable coast, which +about this time, 1644, began to take the name of New Holland. + +[Illustration: THE WRECK OF CAPTAIN PELSART'S SHIP THE _BATAVIA_ ON +THE COAST OF NEW HOLLAND, 1644. From the Dutch account of Pelsart's +_Voyages_, 1647.] + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +TASMAN FINDS TASMANIA + + +At this time Anthony Van Diemen was governor at Batavia, and one of +his most trusted commanders was Abel Tasman. In 1642, Tasman was given +command of two ships "for making discoveries of the Unknown South +Land," and, hoisting his flag on board the _Sea-Hen_, he sailed south +from Batavia without sighting the coast of Australia. Despite foggy +weather, "hard gales, and a rolling sea," he made his way steadily +south. It was three months before land was sighted, and high mountains +were seen to the southeast. The ship stood in to shore. "As the land +has not been known before to any European, we called it Anthony Van +Diemen's Land in honour of our Governor-General, who sent us out to +make discoveries. I anchored in a bay and heard the sound of people +upon the shore, but I saw nobody. I perceived in the sand the marks +of wild beasts' feet, resembling those of a tiger." + +Setting up a post with the Dutch East India Company's mark, and leaving +the Dutch flag flying, Tasman left Van Diemen's Land, which was not +to be visited again for over one hundred years, when it was called +after its first discoverer. He had no idea that he was on an island. +Tasman now sailed east, and after about a week at sea he discovered +a high mountainous country, which he named "Staaten Land." "We found +here abundance of inhabitants: they had very hoarse voices and were +very large-made people; they were of colour between brown and yellow, +their hair long and thick, combed up and fixed on the top of their +heads with a quill in the very same manner that Japanese fastened their +hair behind their heads." + +Tasman anchored on the north coast of the south island of New Zealand, +but canoes of warlike Maoris surrounded the ships, a conflict took +place in which several Dutch seamen were killed, the weather grew +stormy, and Tasman sailed away from the bay he named Murderer's +Bay--rediscovered by Captain Cook about a hundred years later. + +"This is the second country discovered by us," says 'Tasman. "We named +it Staaten Land in honour of the States-General. It is possible that +it may join the other Staaten Land (of Schouten and Le Maire to the +south of Terra del Fuego), but it is uncertain; it is a very fine country, +and we hope it is part of the unknown south continent." Is it necessary +to add that this Staaten Land was really New Zealand, and the bay where +the ships anchored is now known as Tasman Bay? When the news of Tasman's +discoveries was noised abroad, all the geographers, explorers, and +discoverers at once jumped to the conclusion that this was the same +land on whose coast Pelsart had been wrecked. "It is most evident," +they said, "that New Guinea, Carpentaria, New Holland, Van Diemen's +Land make all one continent, from which New Zealand seems to be +separated by a strait, and perhaps is part of another continent +answering to Africa as this plainly does to America, making indeed +a very large country." + +After a ten months' cruise Tasman returned to Batavia. He had found +Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand, without sighting Australia. + +A second expedition was now fitted out. The instructions for the +commodore, Captain Abel Jansen Tasman, make interesting reading. The +orders are detailed and clear. He will start the end of January 1644, +and "we shall expect you in July following attended with good success." + +"Of all the lands, countries, islands, capes, inlets, bays, rivers, +shoals, reefs, sands, cliffs, and rocks which you pass in this +discovery you are to make accurate maps--be particularly careful about +longitude and latitude. But be circumspect and prudent in landing with +small craft, because at several times New Guinea has been found to +be inhabited by cruel, wild savages. When you converse with any of +these savages behave well and friendly to them, and try by all means +to engage their affection to you. You are to show the samples of the +goods which you carry along with you, and inquire what materials and +goods they possess. To prevent any other European nation from reaping +the fruits of our labour in these discoveries, you are everywhere to +take possession in the name of the Dutch East India Company, to put +up some sign, erect a stone or post, and carve on them the arms of +the Netherlands. The yachts are manned with one hundred and eleven +persons, and for eight months plentifully victualled. Manage +everything well and orderly, take notice you see the ordinary portion +of two meat and two pork days, and a quarter of vinegar and a +half-quarter of sweet oil per week." + +[Illustration: VAN DIEMAN'S LAND AND TWO OF TASMAN'S SHIPS. From the +map drawn by Tasman in his "Journal."] + +He was to coast along New Guinea to the farthest-known spot, and to +follow the coast _despite adverse winds_, in order that the Dutch might +be sure "whether this land is not divided from the great known South +Continent or not." + +What he accomplished on this voyage is best seen in "The complete map +of the Southern Continent surveyed by Captain Abel Tasman," which was +inlaid on the floor of the large hall in the Stadthouse at Amsterdam. +The Great South Land was henceforth known as New Holland. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +DAMPIER DISCOVERS HIS STRAIT + + +It was not long before the great stretch of coast-line carefully +charted by Tasman became known to the English, and while the Dutch +were yet busy exploring farther, Dampier--the first Englishman to +visit the country--had already set foot on its shores. + +"We lie entirely at the mercy of the Dutch East India Company's +geography for the outline of this part of the coast of New Holland: +for it does not appear that the ships of any other nation have ever +approached it," says an old history of the period. + +Some such information as this became known in South America, in which +country the English had long been harassing the Spaniards. It reached +the ears of one William Dampier, a Somersetshire man, who had lived +a life of romance and adventure with the buccaneers, pillaging and +plundering foreign ships in these remote regions of the earth. He had +run across the Southern Pacific carrying his life in his hand. He had +marched across the isthmus of Panama--one hundred and ten miles in +twenty-three days--through deep and swiftly flowing rivers, dense +growths of tropical vegetation full of snakes, his only food being +the flesh of monkeys. Such was the man who now took part in a +privateering cruise under Captain Swan, bound for the East Indies. + +On 1st March 1686, Swan and Dampier sailed away from the coast of Mexico +on the voyage that led to Dampier's circumnavigation of the globe. +For fifty days they sailed without sighting land, and when at last +they found themselves off the island of Guam, they had only three days' +food left, and the crews were busy plotting to kill Captain Swan and +eat him, the other commanders sharing the same fate in turn. + +"Ah, Dampier," said Captain Swan, when he and all the men had refreshed +themselves with food, "you would have made but a poor meal," for Dampier +was as lean as the Captain was "fat and fleshy." Soon, however, fresh +trouble arose among the men. Captain Swan lost his life, and Dampier +on board the little _Cygnet_ sailed hurriedly for the Spice Islands. + +[Illustration: DAMPIER'S SHIP THE _CYGNET_. From a drawing in the +Dutch edition of his _Voyage Round the World_, 1698.] + +He was now on the Australian parallels, "in the shadow of a world lying +dark upon the face of the ocean." It was January 1688 when Dampier +sighted the coast of New Holland and anchored in a bay, which they +named Cygnet Bay after their ship, somewhere off the northern coast +of eastern Australia. Here, while the ship was undergoing repairs, +Dampier makes his observations. + +"New Holland," he tells us, "is a very large tract of land. It is not +yet determined whether it is an island or a main continent, but I am +certain that it joins neither to Africa, Asia, or America." + +"The inhabitants of this country," he tells us, "are the miserablest +people in the world. They have no houses, but lie in the open air without +any covering, the earth being their bed and the heaven their canopy. +Their food is a small sort of fish, which they catch at low tide, while +the old people that are not able to stir abroad by reason of their +age and the tender infants wait their return, and what Providence has +bestowed on them they presently broil on the coals and eat it in common. +They are tall and thin, and of a very unpleasing aspect; their hair +is black, short, and curled, like that of the negroes of Guinea." + +This Englishman's first description of the Australian natives cannot +fail to be interesting. "After we had been here a little while, we +clothed some of the men, designing to have some service from them for +it; for we found some wells of water here, and intended to carry two +or three barrels of it aboard. But it being somewhat troublesome to +carry to the canoes, we thought to have made these men to have carry'd +it for us, and therefore we gave them some clothes; to one an old pair +of breeches, to another a ragged shirt, to a third a jacket that was +scarce worth owning. We put them on, thinking that this finery would +have brought them to work heartily for us; and our water being filled +in small, long barrels, about six gallons in each, we brought these +our new servants to the wells and put a barrel on each of their shoulders. +But they stood like statues, without motion, but grinn'd like so many +monkeys staring one upon another. So we were forced to carry the water +ourselves." + +They had soon had enough of the new country, weighed anchor, and steered +away to the north. Dampier returned to England even a poorer man than +he had left it twelve years before. After countless adventures and +hairbreadth escapes, after having sailed entirely round the world, +he brought back with him nothing but one unhappy black man, "Prince +Jeoly," whom he had bought for sixty dollars. He had hoped to recoup +himself by showing the poor native with his rings and bracelets and +painted skin, but he was in such need of money on landing that he gladly +sold the poor black man on his arrival in the Thames. + +But Dampier had made himself a name as a successful traveller, and +in 1699 he was appointed by the King, William III., to command the +_Roebuck_, two hundred and ninety tons, with a crew of fifty men and +provisions for twenty months. Leaving England in the middle of January +1699, he sighted the west coast of New Holland toward the end of July, +and anchored in a bay they called Sharks Bay, not far from the rocks +where the _Batavia_ was wrecked with Captain Pelsart in 1629. He gives +us a graphic picture of this place, with its sweet-scented trees, its +shrubs gay as the rainbow with blossoms and berries, its many-coloured +vegetation, its fragrant air and delicious soil. The men caught sharks +and devoured them with relish, which speaks of scarce provisions. +Inside one of the sharks (eleven feet long) they found a hippopotamus. +"The flesh of it was divided among my men," says the Captain, "and +they took care that no waste should be made of it, but thought it, +as things stood, good entertainment." + +As it had been with Pelsart, so now with Dampier, fresh water was the +difficulty, and they sailed north-east in search of it. They fell in +with a group of small rocky islands still known as Dampier's +Archipelago, one island of which they named Rosemary Island, because +"there grow here two or three sorts of shrubs, one just like rosemary." +Once again he comes across natives--"very much the same blinking +creatures, also abundance of the same kind of flesh-flies teasing them, +with the same black skins and hair frizzled." Indeed, he writes as +though the whole country of New Holland was a savage and worthless +land inhabited by dreadful monsters. + +"If it were not," he writes, "for that sort of pleasure which results +from the discovery even of the barrenest spot upon the globe, this +coast of New Holland would not have charmed me much." His first sight +of the kangaroo--now the emblem of Australia--is interesting. He +describes it as "a sort of raccoon, different from that of the West +Indies, chiefly as to the legs, for these have very short fore-legs, +but go jumping upon them as the others do, and like them are very good +meat." This must have been the small kangaroo, for the large kind was +not found till later by Captain Cook in New South Wales. + +But Dampier and his mates could not find fresh water, and soon wearied +of the coast of New Holland; an outbreak of scurvy, too, decided them +to sail away in search of fresh foods. Dampier had spent five weeks +cruising off the coast; he had sailed along some nine hundred miles +of the Australian shore without making any startling discoveries. A +few months later the _Roebuck_ stood off the coast of New Guinea, "a +high and mountainous country, green and beautiful with tropical +vegetation, and dark with forests and groves of tall and stately +trees." Innumerable dusky-faced natives peeped at the ship from behind +the rocks, but they were not friendly, and this they showed by climbing +the cocoanut trees and throwing down cocoanuts at the English, with +passionate signs to them to depart. But with plenty of fresh water, +this was unlikely, and the crews rowed ashore, killed and salted a +good load of wild hogs, while the savages still peeped at them from +afar. + +Thus then they sailed on, thinking they were still coasting New Guinea. +So doing, they arrived at the straits which still bear the name of +the explorer, and discovered a little island which he called New +Britain. He had now been over fifteen months at sea and the _Roebuck_ +was only provisioned for twenty months, so Dampier, who never had the +true spirit of the explorer in him, left his discoveries and turned +homewards. The ship was rotten, and it took three months to repair +her at Batavia before proceeding farther. With pumps going night and +day, they made their way to the Cape of Good Hope; but off the island +of Ascension the _Roebuck_ went down, carrying with her many of +Dampier's books and papers. But though many of the papers were lost, +the "Learned and Faithful Dampier" as he is called, the "Prince of +Voyagers," has left us accounts of his adventures unequalled in those +strenuous ocean-going days for their picturesque and graphic details. + +[Illustration: DAMPIER'S STRAITS AND THE ISLAND OF NEW BRITAIN. From +a map in Dampier's _Voyages_, 1697.] + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +BEHRING FINDS HIS STRAIT + + +In the great work of Arctic exploration during the eighteenth and +nineteenth centuries, it is to England and Russia that we owe our +knowledge at the present day. It is well known how Peter the Great +of Russia journeyed to Amsterdam to learn shipbuilding under the Dutch, +and to England to learn the same art under the English, and how the +Russian fleet grew in his reign. Among the Danish shipbuilders at +Petersburg was one Vitus Behring, already a bold and able commander +on the high seas. + +The life of the great Russian Czar was drawing to its close--he was +already within a few weeks of the end--when he planned an expedition +under this same Vitus Behring, for which he wrote the instructions +with his own hands. + +"(1) At Kamtchatka two decked boats are to be built. (2) With these +you are to sail northward along the coast and, as the end of the coast +is not known, this land is undoubtedly America. (3) For this reason +you are to inquire where the American coast begins, and go to some +European colony and, when European ships are seen, you are to ask what +the coast is called, note it down, make a landing, and after having +charted the coast return." + +Were Asia and America joined together, or was there a strait between +the two? The question was yet undecided in 1725. Indeed, the east coast +of Asia was only known as far as the island of Yezo, while the Pacific +coast of America had been explored no farther than New Albion. + +Peter the Great died on 28th January 1725. A week later Behring started +for Kamtchatka. Right across snow-covered Russia to the boundary of +Siberia he led his expedition. March found him at Tobolsk. With rafts +and boats they then made their way by the Siberian rivers till they +reached Yakutsk, where they spent their first winter. Not till the +middle Of June 1726 did Behring reach the capital of East Siberia. +The rest of the journey was through utterly unknown land. It was some +six hundred and eighty-five miles eastwards to Okhotsk through a rough +and mountainous country, cut up by deep and bridgeless streams; the +path lay over dangerous swamps and through dense forest. + +The party now divided. Behring, with two hundred horses, travelled +triumphantly, if painfully, to Okhotsk in forty-five days. The town +consisted of eleven huts containing Russian families who lived by +fishing. Snow lay deep on the frozen ground, and the horses died one +by one for lack of food, but the undaunted explorer had soon got huts +ready for the winter, which was to be spent in felling trees and pushing +forward the building of his ship, the _Fortuna_, for the coming voyage +of discovery. Behring himself had made a successful journey to the +coast, but some of the party encountered terrible hardships, and it +was midsummer 1727 before they arrived, while others were overtaken +by winter in the very heart of Siberia and had to make their way for +the last three hundred miles on foot through snow in places six feet +deep. Their food was finished, famine became a companion to cold, and +they were obliged to gnaw their shoes and straps and leathern bags. +Indeed, they must have perished had they not stumbled on Behring's +route, where they found his dead horses. But at last all was ready +and the little ship _Fortuna_ was sailing bravely across the Sea of +Okhotsk some six hundred and fifty miles to the coast of Kamtchatka. +This she did in sixteen days. The country of Kamtchatka had now to +be crossed, and with boats and sledges this took the whole winter. +It was a laborious undertaking following the course of the Kamtchatka +River; the expedition had to camp in the snow, and few natives were +forthcoming for the transport of heavy goods. + +It was not till March 1728 that Behring reached his goal, Ostrog, a +village near the sea, inhabited by a handful of Cossacks. From this +point, on the bleak shores of the Arctic sea, the exploring party were +ordered to start. It had taken over three years to reach this +starting-point, and even now a seemingly hopeless task lay before +them. + +After hard months of shipbuilding, the stout little _Gabriel_ was +launched, her timber had been hauled to Ostrog by dogs, while the +rigging, cable, and anchors had been dragged nearly two thousand miles +through one of the most desolate regions of the earth. As to the food +on which the explorers lived: "Fish oil was their butter and dried +fish their beef and pork. Salt they were obliged to get from the sea." +Thus supplied with a year's provisions, Behring started on his voyage +of discovery along an unknown coast and over an unknown sea. On 13th +July 1728 the sails of the _Gabriel_ were triumphantly hoisted, and +Behring, with a crew of forty-four, started on the great voyage. His +course lay close along the coast northwards. The sea was alive with +whales, seals, sea-lions, and dolphins as the little party made their +way north, past the mouth of the Anadir River. The little _Gabriel_ +was now in the strait between Asia and America, though Behring knew +it not. They had been at sea some three weeks, when eight men came +rowing towards them in a leathern boat. They were the Chukches--a +warlike race living on the north-east coast of Siberia, unsubdued and +fierce. They pointed out a small island in the north, which Behring +named the Isle of St. Lawrence in honour of the day. Then he turned +back. He felt he had accomplished his task and obeyed his orders. +Moreover, with adverse winds they might never return to Kamtchatka, +and to winter among the Chukches was to court disaster. After a cruise +of three months they reached their starting-point again. Had he only +known that the coast of America was but thirty-nine miles off, the +results of his voyage would have been greater. As it was, he ascertained +that "there really does exist a north-east passage, and that from the +Lena River it is possible, provided one is not prevented by Polar ice, +to sail to Kamtchatka and thence to Japan, China, and the East Indies." + +The final discovery was left for Captain Cook. As he approached the +straits which he called after Behring, the sun broke suddenly through +the clouds, and the continents of Asia and America were visible at +a glance. + +There was dissatisfaction in Russia with the result of Behring's +voyage, and though five years of untold hardship in the "extremest +corner of the world" had told on the Russian explorer, he was willing +and anxious to start off again. He proposed to make Kamtchatka again +his headquarters, to explore the western coast of America, and to chart +the long Arctic coast of Siberia--a colossal task indeed. + +So the Great Northern Expedition was formed, with Behring in command, +accompanied by two well-known explorers to help, Spangberg and +Chirikoff, and with five hundred and seventy men under him. It would +take too long to follow the various expeditions that now left Russia +in five different directions to explore the unknown coasts of the Old +World. "The world has never witnessed a more heroic geographical +enterprise than these Arctic expeditions." Amid obstacles +indescribable the north line of Siberia, hitherto charted as a +straight line, was explored and surveyed. Never was greater courage +and endurance displayed. If the ships got frozen in, they were hauled +on shore, the men spent the long winter in miserable huts and started +off again with the spring, until the northern coast assumed shape and +form. + +One branch of the Great Northern Expedition under Behring was composed +of professors to make a scientific investigation of Kamtchatka! These +thirty learned Russians were luxuriously equipped. They carried a +library with several hundred books, including _Robinson Crusoe_ and +_Gulliver's Travels_, seventy reams of writing-paper, and artists' +materials. They had nine wagonloads of instruments, carrying +telescopes fifteen feet long. A surgeon, two landscape painters, one +instrument maker, five surveyors accompanied them, and "the convoy +grew like an avalanche as it worked its way into Siberia." Behring +seems to have moved this "cumbersome machine" safely to Yakutsk, +though it took the best part of two years. Having left Russia in 1733, +it was 1741 when Behring himself was ready to start from the harbour +of Okhotsk for the coast of America with two ships and provisions for +some months. He was now nearly sixty, his health was undermined with +vexation and worry, and the climate of Okhotsk had nearly killed him. + +On 18th July--just six weeks after the start--Behring discovered the +continent of North America. The coast was jagged, the land covered +with snow, mountains extended inland, and above all rose a peak +towering into the clouds--a peak higher than anything they knew in +Siberia or Kamtchatka, which Behring named Mount St. Elias, after the +patron saint of the day. He made his way with difficulty through the +string of islands that skirt the great peninsula of Alaska. Through +the months of August and September they cruised about the coast in +damp and foggy weather, which now gave way to violent storms, and +Behring's ship was driven along at the mercy of the wind. He himself +was ill, and the greater part of his crew were disabled by scurvy. +At last one day, in a high-running sea, the ship struck upon a rock +and they found themselves stranded on an unknown island off the coast +of Kamtchatka. Only two men were fit to land; they found a dead whale +on which they fed their sick. Later on sea-otters, blue and white foxes, +and sea-cows provided food, but the island was desolate and +solitary--not a human being was to be seen. + +[Illustration: THE CHART OF BEHRING'S VOYAGE FROM KAMTCHATKA TO NORTH +AMERICA. From a chart drawn in 1741 by Lieut. Waxell, a member of +Behring's expedition. It is also interesting for the drawing of the +sea-cow, one of the very few authentic drawings of this curious animal, +which has long been extinct, and is only known by these drawings.] + +Here, however, the little party was forced to winter. With difficulty +they built five underground huts on the sandy shore of the island now +known as Behring Island. And each day amid the raging snowstorms and +piercing winds one man went forth to hunt for animal food. + +Man after man died, and by December, Behring's own condition had become +hopeless. Hunger and grief had added to his misery, and in his sand-hut +he died. He was almost buried alive, for the sand rolled down from +the pit in which he lay and covered his feet. He would not have it +removed, for it kept him warm. Thirty more of the little expedition +died during that bitter winter on the island; the survivors, some +forty-five persons, built a ship from the timbers of the wreck, and +in August 1742 they returned to Kamtchatka to tell the story of +Behring's discoveries and of Behring's death. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +COOK DISCOVERS NEW ZEALAND + + +But while the names of Torres, Carpenter, Tasman, and Dampier are still +to be found on our modern maps of Australia, it is the name of Captain +Cook that we must always connect most closely with the discovery of +the great island continent--the Great South Land which only became +known to Europe one hundred and fifty years ago. + +Dampier had returned to England in 1701 from his voyage to New Holland, +but nearly seventy years passed before the English were prepared to +send another expedition to investigate further the mysterious land +in the south. + +James Cook had shown himself worthy of the great command that was given +to him in 1768, although exploration was not the main object of the +expedition. Spending his boyhood in the neighbourhood of Whitby, he +was familiar with the North Sea fishermen, with the colliers, even +with the smugglers that frequented this eastern coast. In 1755 he +entered the Royal Navy, volunteering for service and entering H.M.S. +_Eagle_ as master's mate. Four years later we find him taking his share +on board H.M.S. _Pembroke_ in the attack on Quebec by Wolfe, and later +transferred to H.M.S. _Northumberland_, selected to survey the river +and Gulf of St. Lawrence. So satisfactory was his work that a few years +later he was instructed to survey and chart the coasts of Newfoundland +and Labrador. While engaged on this work, he observed an eclipse of +the sun, which led to the appointment that necessitated a voyage to +the Pacific Ocean. It had been calculated that a Transit of Venus would +occur in June 1769. A petition to the King set forth: "That, the British +nation being justly celebrated in the learned world for their +knowledge of astronomy, in which they are inferior to no nation upon +earth, ancient or modern, it would cast dishonour upon them should +they neglect to have correct observations made of this important +phenomenon." The King agreed, and the Royal Society selected James +Cook as a fit man for the appointment. A stout, strongly built collier +of three hundred and seventy tons was chosen at Whitby, manned with +seventy men, and victualled for twelve months. With instructions to +observe the Transit of Venus at the island of Georgeland (Otaheite), +to make further discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean and to explore +New Zealand if possible, Cook hoisted his flag on H.M.S. _Endeavour_ +and started in May 1768. + +It was an interesting party on board, joined at the last moment by +Mr. Joseph Banks, a very rich member of the Royal Society and a student +of Natural History. He had requested leave to sail in "the ship that +carries the English astronomers to the new-discovered country in the +South Sea." "No people ever went to sea better fitted out for the +purpose of Natural History, nor more elegantly," says a contemporary +writer. "They have a fine library, they have all sorts of machines +for catching and preserving insects, they have two painters and +draughtsmen--in short, this expedition will cost Mr. Banks 10,000 +pounds." + +Their astronomical instruments were of the best, including a portable +observatory constructed for sixteen guineas. But most important of +all was the careful assortment of provisions, to allay, if possible, +that scourge of all navigators, the scurvy. A quantity of malt was +shipped to be made into wort, mustard, vinegar, wheat, orange and lemon +juice and portable soup was put on board, and Cook received special +orders to keep his men with plenty of fresh food whenever this was +possible. He carried out these orders strenuously, and at Madeira we +find him punishing one of his own seamen with twelve lashes for refusing +to eat fresh beef. Hence they left Rio de Janeiro "in as good a condition +for prosecuting the voyage as on the day they left England." + +[Illustration: THE ISLAND OF OTAHEITE, OR ST. GEORGE. From a painting +by William Hodges, who accompanied Captain Cook.] + +Christmas Day was passed near the mouth of the river Plate, and, early +in the New Year of 1769, the _Endeavour_ sailed through the Strait +of Le Maire. The wealthy Mr. Banks landed on Staaten Island and hastily +added a hundred new plants to his collection. Then they sailed on to +St. George's Island. It had been visited by Captain Wallis in the +_Dolphin_ the previous year; indeed, some of Cook's sailors had served +on board the _Dolphin_ and knew the native chiefs of the island. All +was friendly, tents were soon pitched, a fort built with mounted guns +at either side, the precious instruments landed, and on 3rd June, with +a cloudless sky and in intolerable heat, they observed the whole +passage of the planet Venus over the sun's disk. + +After a stay of three months they left the island, taking Tupia, a +native, with them. Among other accomplishments this Tupia roasted dogs +to perfection, and Cook declares that dogs' flesh is "next only to +English lamb." + +They visited other islands in the group--now known as the Society +Islands and belonging to France--and took possession of all in the +name of His Britannic Majesty, George III. + +All through the month of September they sailed south, till on 7th +October land was sighted. It proved to be the North Island of New +Zealand, never before approached by Europeans from the east. It was +one hundred and twenty-seven years since Tasman had discovered the +west coast and called it Staaten Land, but no European had ever set +foot on its soil. Indeed, it was still held to be part of the Terra +Australis Incognita. + +The first to sight land was a boy named Nicholas Young, hence the point +was called "Young Nick's Head," which may be seen on our maps to-day, +covering Poverty Bay. The natives here were unfriendly, and Cook was +obliged to use firearms to prevent an attack. The Maoris had never +seen a great ship before, and at first thought it was a very large +bird, being struck by the size and beauty of its wings (sails). When +a small boat was let down from the ship's side they thought it must +be a young unfledged bird, but when the white men in their +bright-coloured clothes rowed off in the boat they concluded these +were gods. + +Cook found the low sandy coast backed by well-wooded hills rising to +mountains on which patches of snow were visible, while smoke could +be seen through the trees, speaking of native dwellings. The natives +were too treacherous to make it safe landing for the white men, so +they sailed out of Poverty Bay and proceeded south. Angry Maoris shook +their spears at the Englishmen as they coasted south along the east +coast of the North Island. But the face of the country was unpromising, +and Cook altered his course for the north at a point he named Cape +Turnagain. Unfortunately he missed the only safe port on the east coast +between Auckland and Wellington, but he found good anchorage in what +is now known as Cook's Bay. Here they got plenty of good fish, wild +fowl, and oysters, "as good as ever came out of Colchester." Taking +possession of the land they passed in the name of King George, Cook +continued his northerly course, passing many a river which seemed to +resemble the Thames at home. A heavy December gale blew them off the +northernmost point of land, which they named North Cape, and Christmas +was celebrated off Tasman's islands, with goose-pie. + +[Illustration: AN IPAH, OR MAORI FORT, ON THE COAST BETWEEN POVERTY +BAY AND CAPE TURNAGAIN. From an engraving in the Atlas to Cook's first +_Voyage_.] + +The New Year of 1770 found Cook off Cape Maria van Diemen, sailing +south along the western coast of the North Island, till the _Endeavour_ +was anchored in Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte's Sound, only about seventy +miles from the spot where Tasman first sighted land. + +Here the English explorer landed. The country was thickly wooded, but +he climbed a hill, and away to the eastward he saw that the seas washing +both east and west coasts of the northern island were united. He had +solved one problem. Tasman's Staaten Land was not part of a great +southern continent. He now resolved to push through his newly +discovered straits between the two islands, and, having done this, +he sailed north till he reached Cape Turnagain. And so he proved beyond +a doubt that this was an island. The men thought they had done enough. +But Cook, with the true instinct of an explorer, turned a deaf ear +to the murmurings of his crew for roast beef and Old England, and +directed his course again south. From the natives he had learned of +the existence of two islands, and he must needs sail round the southern +as he had sailed round the northern isle. Storms and gales harassed +the navigators through the month of February as they made their way +slowly southwards. Indeed, they had a very narrow escape from death +towards the end of the month, when in a two days' gale, with heavy +squalls of rain, their foresail was split to pieces and they lost sight +of land for seven days, nearly running on to submerged rocks which +Cook named The Traps. + +It was nearly dark on 14th March when they entered a bay which they +suitably christened Dusky Bay, from which they sailed to Cascade Point, +named from the four streams that fell over its face. + +"No country upon earth," remarks Cook, "can appear with a more rugged +and barren aspect than this does from the sea, for, as far inland as +the eye can reach, nothing is to be seen but the summit of these rocky +mountains." At last on 24th March they rounded the north point of the +South Island. Before them lay the familiar waters of Massacre Bay, +Tasman Bay, and Queen Charlotte Sound. + +"As we have now circumnavigated the whole of this country, it is time +for me to think of quitting it," Cook remarks simply enough. + +Running into Admiralty Bay, the _Endeavour_ was repaired for her +coming voyage home. Her sails, "ill-provided from the first," says +Banks, "were now worn and damaged by the rough work they had gone +through, particularly on the coast of New Zealand, and they gave no +little trouble to get into order again." + +While Banks searched for insects and plants, Cook sat writing up his +_Journal_ of the circumnavigation. He loyally gives Tasman the honour +of the first discovery, but clearly shows his error in supposing it +to be part of the great southern land. + +The natives he describes as "a strong, raw-boned, well-made, active +people rather above the common size, of a dark brown colour, with black +hair, thin black beards, and white teeth. Both men and women paint +their faces and bodies with red ochre mixed with fish oil. They wear +ornaments of stone, bone, and shells at their ears and about their +necks, and the men generally wear long white feathers stuck upright +in their hair. They came off in canoes which will carry a hundred +people; when within a stone's throw of the ship, the chief of the party +would brandish a battleaxe, calling out: 'Come ashore with us and we +will kill you.' They would certainly have eaten them too, for they +were cannibals." + +The ship was now ready and, naming the last point of land Cape Farewell, +they sailed away to the west, "till we fall in with the east coast +of New Holland." They had spent six and a half months sailing about +in New Zealand waters, and had coasted some two thousand four hundred +miles. + +Nineteen days' sail brought them to the eagerly sought coast, and on +28th April, Cook anchored for the first time in the bay known afterwards +to history as Botany Bay, so named from the quantity of plants found +in the neighbourhood by Mr. Banks. Cutting an inscription on one of +the trees, with the date and name of the ship, Cook sailed north early +in May, surveying the coast as he passed and giving names to the various +bays and capes. Thus Port Jackson, at the entrance of Sydney harbour, +undiscovered by Cook, was so named after one of the Secretaries of +the Admiralty--Smoky Cape from smoke arising from native +dwellings--Point Danger by reason of a narrow escape on some +shoals--while Moreton Bay, on which Brisbane, the capital of +Queensland, now stands, was named after the President of the Royal +Society. As they advanced, the coast became steep, rocky, and +unpromising. + +"Hitherto," reports Cook, "we had safely navigated this dangerous +coast, where the sea in all parts conceals shores that project suddenly +from the shore and rocks that rise abruptly like a pyramid from the +bottom more than one thousand three hundred miles. But here we became +acquainted with misfortune, and we therefore called the point which +we had just seen farthest to the northward, Cape Tribulation." + +It was the 10th of May. The gentlemen had left the deck "in great +tranquillity" and gone to bed, when suddenly the ship struck and +remained immovable except for the heaving of the surge that beat her +against the crags of the rock upon which she lay. Every one rushed +to the deck "with countenances which sufficiently expressed the +horrors of our situation." Immediately they took in all sails, lowered +the boats, and found they were on a reef of coral rocks. Two days of +sickening anxiety followed, the ship sprang a leak, and they were +threatened with total destruction. To their intense relief, however, +the ship floated off into deep water with a high tide. Repairs were +now more than ever necessary, and the poor battered collier was taken +into the "Endeavour" river. Tupia and others were also showing signs +of scurvy; so a hospital tent was erected on shore, and with a supply +of fresh fish, pigeons, wild plantains, and turtles they began to +improve. Here stands to-day the seaport of Cooktown, where a monument +of Captain Cook looks out over the waters that he discovered. + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN COOK'S VESSEL BEACHED AT THE ENTRANCE OF +ENDEAVOUR RIVER, WHERE THE SEAPORT OF COOKTOWN NOW STANDS. From an +engraving in the Atlas to Cook's first _Voyage_.] + +The prospect of further exploration was not encouraging. "In whatever +direction we looked, the sea was covered with shoals as far as the +eye could see." As they sailed out of their little river, they could +see the surf breaking on the "Great Barrier Reef." Navigation now +became very difficult, and, more than once, even Cook himself almost +gave up hope. Great, then, was their joy when they found themselves +at the northern promontory of the land which "I have named York Cape +in honour of His late Royal Highness the Duke of York. We were in great +hopes that we had at last found out a passage into the Indian Seas." +And he adds an important paragraph: "As I was now about to quit the +eastern coast of New Holland, which I am confident no European had +ever seen before, I once more hoisted the English colours, and I now +took possession of the whole eastern coast in right of His Majesty +King George III., by the name of New South Wales, with all the bays, +harbours, rivers, and islands situated upon it." + +This part of the new land was called by the name of New South Wales. + +So the _Endeavour_ sailed through the straits that Torres had +accidentally passed one hundred and sixty-four years before, and, just +sighting New Guinea, Cook made his way to Java, for his crew were sickly +and "pretty far gone with longing for home." The ship, too, was in +bad condition; she had to be pumped night and day to keep her free +from water, and her sails would hardly stand the least puff of wind. +They reached Batavia in safety and were kindly received by the Dutch +there. + +Since leaving Plymouth two years before, Cook had only lost seven men +altogether--three by drowning, two frozen, one from consumption, one +from poisoning--none from scurvy--a record without equal in the +history of Navigation. But the climate of Batavia now wrought havoc +among the men. One after another died, Tupia among others, and so many +were weakened with fever that only twenty officers and men were left +on duty at one time. + +Glad, indeed, they were to leave at Christmas time, and gladder still +to anchor in the Downs and to reach London after their three years' +absence. The news of his arrival and great discoveries seems to have +been taken very quietly by those at home. "Lieutenant Cook of the Navy," +says the _Annual Register_ for 1771, "who sailed round the globe, was +introduced to His Majesty at St. James's, and presented to His Majesty +his _Journal_ of his voyage, with some curious maps and charts of +different places that he had drawn during the voyage; he was presented +with a captain's commission." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +COOK'S THIRD VOYAGE AND DEATH + + +Although the importance of his discoveries was not realised at this +time, Cook was given command of two new ships, the _Resolution_ and +_Adventure_, provisioned for a year for "a voyage to remote parts," +a few months later. And the old _Endeavour_ went back to her collier +work in the North Sea. + +Perhaps a letter written by Cook to a friend at Whitby on his return +from the second voyage is sufficient to serve our purpose here; for, +though the voyage was important enough, yet little new was discovered. +And after spending many months in high latitudes, Cook decided that +there was no great southern continent to the south of New Holland and +New Zealand. + + +"DEAR SIR,"--he writes from London in September 1775--"I now sit down +to fulfil the promise I made you to give you some account of my last +voyage. I left the Cape of Good Hope on 22nd November 1772 and proceeded +to the south, till I met with a vast field of ice and much foggy weather +and large islets or floating mountains of ice without number. After +some trouble and not a little danger, I got to the south of the field +of ice; and after beating about for some time for land, in a sea strewed +with ice, I crossed the Antarctic circle and the same evening (17th +January 1773) found it unsafe, or rather impossible, to stand farther +to the south for ice. + +"Seeing no signs of meeting with land in these high latitudes, I stood +away to the northward, and, without seeing any signs of land, I thought +proper to steer for New Zealand, where I anchored in Dusky Bay on 26th +March and then sailed for Queen Charlotte's Sound. Again I put to sea +and stood to the south, where I met with nothing but ice and excessive +cold, bad weather. Here I spent near four months beating about in high +latitudes. Once I got as high as seventy-one degrees, and farther it +was not possible to go for ice which lay as firm as land. Here we saw +ice mountains, whose summits were lost in clouds. I was now fully +satisfied that there was no Southern Continent. I nevertheless +resolved to spend some time longer in these seas, and with this +resolution I stood away to the north." + + +In this second voyage Cook proved that there was no great land to the +south of Terra Australis or South America, except the land of ice lying +about the South Pole. + +But he did a greater piece of work than this. He fought, and fought +successfully, the great curse of scurvy, which had hitherto carried +off scores of sailors and prevented ships on voyages of discovery, +or indeed ships of war, from staying long on the high seas without +constantly landing for supplies of fresh food. It was no uncommon +occurrence for a sea captain to return after even a few months' cruise +with half his men suffering from scurvy. Captain Palliser on H.M.S. +_Eagle_ in 1756 landed in Plymouth Sound with one hundred and thirty +sick men out of four hundred, twenty-two having died in a month. Cook +had resolved to fight this dreaded scourge, and we have already seen +that during his three years' cruise of the _Endeavour_ he had only +to report five cases of scurvy, so close a watch did he keep on his +crews. In his second voyage he was even more particular, with the result +that in the course of three years he did not lose a single man from +scurvy. He enforced cold bathing, and encouraged it by example. The +allowance of salt beef and pork was cut down, and the habit of mixing +salt beef fat with the flour was strictly forbidden. Salt butter and +cheese were stopped, and raisins were substituted for salt suet; wild +celery was collected in Terra del Fuego and breakfast made from this +with ground wheat and portable soup. The cleanliness of the men was +insisted on. Cook never allowed any one to appear dirty before him. +He inspected the men once a week at least, and saw with his own eyes +that they changed their clothing; equal care was taken to keep the +ship clean and dry between decks, and she was constantly "cured with +fires" or "smoked with gunpowder mixed with vinegar." + +For a paper on this subject read before the Royal Society in 1776, +James Cook was awarded a gold medal (now in the British Museum). + +But although the explorer was now forty-eight, he was as eager for +active adventure as a youth of twenty. He had settled the question +of a southern continent. Now when the question of the North-West +Passage came up again, he offered his services to Lord Sandwich, first +Lord of the Admiralty, and was at once accepted. It was more than two +hundred years since Frobisher had attempted to solve the mystery, +which even Cook--the first navigator of his day--with improved ships +and better-fed men, did not succeed in solving. He now received his +secret instructions, and, choosing the old _Resolution_ again, he set +sail in company with Captain Clerke on board the _Discovery_ in the +year 1776 for that voyage from which there was to be no return. He +was to touch at New Albion (discovered by Drake) and explore any rivers +or inlets that might lead to Hudson's or Baffin's Bay. + +After once more visiting Tasmania and New Zealand, he made a prolonged +stay among the Pacific Islands, turning north in December 1777. Soon +after they had crossed the line, and a few days before Christmas, a +low island was seen on which Cook at once landed, hoping to get a fresh +supply of turtle. In this he was not disappointed. Some three hundred, +"all of the green kind and perhaps as good as any in the world," were +obtained; the island was named Christmas Island, and the _Resolution_ +and _Discovery_ sailed upon their way. A few days later they came upon +a group of islands hitherto unknown. These they named after the Earl +of Sandwich, the group forming the kingdom of Hawaii--the chief island. +Natives came off in canoes bringing pigs and potatoes, and ready to +exchange fish for nails. Some were tempted on board, "the wildness +of their looks expressing their astonishment." Anchorage being found, +Cook landed, and as he set foot on shore a large crowd of natives pressed +forward and, throwing themselves on their faces, remained thus till +Cook signed to them to rise. + +[Illustration: CAPIAIN JAMES COOK. From the painting by Dance in the +gallery of Greenwich Hospital.] + +With a goodly supply of fresh provisions, Cook sailed away from the +Sandwich Islands, and after some five weeks' sail to the north the +"longed-for coast of New Albion was seen." The natives of the country +were clad in fur, which they offered for sale. They exacted payment +for everything, even for the wood and water that the strangers took +from their shores. The weather was cold and stormy, and the progress +of the little English ships was slow. By 22nd March they had passed +Cape Flattery; a week later they named Hope Bay, "in which we hoped +to find a good harbour, and the event proved we were not mistaken." +All this part of the coast was called by Cook King George's Sound, +but the native name of Nootka has since prevailed. We have an amusing +account of these natives. At first they were supposed to be dark +coloured, "till after much cleaning they were found to have skins like +our people in England." Expert thieves they were. No piece of iron +was safe from them. "Before we left the place," says Cook, "hardly +a bit of brass was left in the ship. Whole suits of clothes were stripped +of every button, copper kettles, tin canisters, candlesticks, all went +to wreck, so that these people got a greater variety of things from +us than any other people we had visited." + +It was not till 26th April that Cook at last managed to start forward +again, but a two days' hard gale drove him from the coast and onwards +to a wide inlet to which he gave the name of Prince William's Sound. +Here the natives were just like the Eskimos in Hudson's Bay. The ships +now sailed westward, doubling the promontory of Alaska, and on 9th +August they reached the westernmost point of North America, which they +named Cape Prince of Wales. They were now in the sea discovered by +Behring, 1741, to which they gave his name. Hampered by fog and ice, +the ships made their way slowly on to a point named Cape North. Cook +decided that the eastern point of Asia was but thirteen leagues from +the western point of America. They named the Sound on the American +side Norton Sound after the Speaker of the House of Commons. Having +passed the Arctic Circle and penetrated into the Northern Seas, which +were never free from ice, they met Russian traders who professed to +have known Behring. Then having discovered four thousand miles of new +coast, and refreshed themselves with walrus or sea-horse, the +expedition turned joyfully back to the Sandwich Islands. + +On the last day of November, Cook discovered the island of Owhyhee +(Hawaii), which he carefully surveyed, till he came to anchor in +Karakakooa Bay. + +The tragic death of Captain Cook at the hands of these natives is well +known to every child. The reason for his murder is not entirely +understood to-day, but the natives, who had hitherto proved friendly, +suddenly attacked the English explorer and slew him, and "he fell into +the water and spoke no more." + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN COOK, THE DISCOVERER OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS, +WITH HIS SHIPS IN KEALAKEKUA BAY, HAWAII, WHERE HE WAS MURDERED. From +an engraving in the Atlas to _Cook's Voyages_, 1779.] + +Such was the melancholy end of England's first great navigator--James +Cook--the foremost sailor of his time, the man who had circumnavigated +New Zealand, who had explored the coast of New South Wales, named +various unknown islands in the Pacific Ocean, and discovered the +Sandwich Islands. He died on 14th February 1779. It was not till 11th +January 1780 that the news of his death reached London, to be recorded +in the quaint language of the day by the _London Gazette_. + +"It is with the utmost concern," runs the announcement, "that we inform +the Public, that the celebrated Circumnavigator, Captain Cook, was +killed by the inhabitants of a new-discover'd island in the South Seas. +The Captain and crew were first treated as deities, but, upon their +revisiting that Island, hostilities ensued and the above melancholy +scene was the Consequence. This account is come from Kamtchatka by +Letters from Captain Clerke and others. But the crews of the Ships +were in a very good state of health, and all in the most desirable +condition. His successful attempts to preserve the Healths of his +Crews are well known, and his Discoveries will be an everlasting Honour +to his Country." + +_Cook's First Voyages_ were published in 1773, and were widely read, +but his account of the new country did not at once attract Europeans +to its shores. We hear of "barren sandy shores and wild rocky coast +inhabited by naked black people, malicious and cruel," on the one hand, +"and low shores all white with sand fringed with foaming surf," with +hostile natives on the other. + +[Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--VI. The world as known +after the voyages of Captain Cook (1768-1779).] + +It was not till eighteen years after Cook's death that Banks--his old +friend--appealed to the British Government of the day to make some +use of these discoveries. At last the loss of the American colonies +in 1776 induced men to turn their eyes toward the new land in the South +Pacific. Banks remembered well his visit to Botany Bay with Captain +Cook in 1770, and he now urged the dispatch of convicts, hitherto +transported to America, to this newly found bay in New South Wales. + +So in 1787 a fleet of eleven ships with one thousand people on board +left the shores of England under the command of Captain Phillip. After +a tedious voyage of thirty-six weeks, they reached Botany Bay in +January 1788. + +Captain Phillip had been appointed Governor of all New South Wales, +that is from Cape York to Van Diemen's Land, still supposed to be part +of the mainland. But Phillip at once recognised that Botany Bay was +not a suitable place for a settlement. No white man had described these +shores since the days of Captain Cook. The green meadows of which Banks +spoke were barren swamps and bleak sands, while the bay itself was +exposed to the full sweep of violent winds, with a heavy sea breaking +with tremendous surf against the shore. + +"Warra, warra!" (begone, begone), shouted the natives, brandishing +spears at the water's edge as they had done eighteen years before. +In an open boat--for it was midsummer in these parts--Phillip surveyed +the coast; an opening marked Port Jackson on Cook's chart attracted +his notice and, sailing between two rocky headlands, the explorer +found himself crossing smooth, clear water with a beautiful harbour +in front and soft green foliage reaching down to the water's edge. +Struck with the loveliness of the scene, and finding both wood and +water here, he chose the spot for his new colony, giving it the name +of Sydney, alter Lord Sydney, who as Home Secretary had appointed him +to his command. + +[Illustration: PORT JACKSON AND SYDNEY COVE A FEW YEARS AFTER COOK +AND PHILLIP. From the Atlas to the _Voyage de l'Astrolabe_.] + +"We got into Port Jackson," he wrote to Lord Sydney, "early in the +afternoon, and had the satisfaction of finding the finest harbour in +the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in perfect +security." + +"To us," wrote one of his captains, "it was a great and important day, +and I hope will mark the foundation of an empire." + +But, interesting as it is, we cannot follow the fortunes of this first +little English colony in the South Pacific Ocean. + +The English had not arrived a day too soon. A few days later the French +explorer, La Perouse, guided hither by Cook's chart, suddenly made +his appearance on the shores of Botany Bay. The arrival of two French +men-of-war caused the greatest excitement among the white strangers +and the black natives. + +La Perouse had left France in 1785 in command of two ships with orders +to search for the North-West Passage from the Pacific side--a feat +attempted by Captain Cook only nine years before--to explore the China +seas, the Solomon Islands, and the Terra Australis. He had reached +the coast of Alaska in June 1786, but after six weeks of bad weather +he had crossed to Asia in the early part of the following year. + +Thence he had made his way by the Philippine Islands to the coasts +of Japan, Korea, and "Chinese Tartary." Touching at Quelpart, he +reached a bay near our modern Vladivostock, and on 2nd August 1787 +he discovered the strait that bears his name to-day, between Saghalien +and the North Island of Japan. Fortunately, from Kamtchatka, where +he had landed, he had sent home his journals, notes, plans, and maps +by Lesseps--uncle of the famous Ferdinand de Lesseps of Suez Canal +fame. + +On 26th January 1788 he landed at Botany Bay. From here he wrote his +last letter to the French Government. After leaving this port he was +never seen again. Many years later, in 1826, the wreck of his two ships +was found on the reefs of an island near the New Hebrides. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +BRUCE'S TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA + + +Perhaps one of the strangest facts in the whole history of exploration +is that Africa was almost an unknown land a hundred years ago, and +stranger still, that there remains to-day nearly one-eleventh of the +whole area still unexplored. And yet it is one of the three old +continents that appear on every old chart of the world in ancient days, +with its many-mouthed Nile rising in weird spots and flowing in sundry +impossible directions. Sometimes it joins the mysterious Niger, and +together they flow through country labelled "Unknown" or "Desert" or +"Negroland," or an enterprising cartographer fills up vacant spaces +with wild animals stalking through the land. + +The coast tells a different tale. The west shores are studded with +trading forts belonging to English, Danes, Dutch, and Portuguese, +where slaves from the interior awaited shipment to the various +countries that required negro labour. The slave trade was the great, +in fact the only, attraction to Africa at the beginning of the +eighteenth century. In pursuit of this, men would penetrate quite a +long way into the interior, but through the long centuries few +explorers had travelled to the Dark Continent. + +Towards the end of the century we suddenly get one man--a young Scottish +giant, named James Bruce, thirsting for exploration for its own sake. +He cared not for slaves or gold or ivory. He just wanted to discover +the source of the Nile, over which a great mystery had hung since the +days of Herodotus. The Mountains of the Moon figure largely on the +Old World maps, but Bruce decided to rediscover these for himself. +Herodotus had said the Nile turned west and became the Niger, others +said it turned east and somehow joined the Tigris and Euphrates. Indeed, +such was the uncertainty regarding its source that to discover the +source of the Nile seemed equivalent to performing the impossible. + +James Bruce, athletic, daring, standing six feet four, seemed at the +age of twenty-four made for a life of travel and adventure. His business +took him to Spain and Portugal. He studied Arabic and the ancient +language of Abyssinia. He came under the notice of Pitt, and was made +consul of Algiers. The idea of the undiscovered sources of the Nile +took strong hold of Bruce's imagination. + +"It was at this moment," he says, "that I resolved that this great +discovery should either be achieved by me or remain--as it has done +for three thousand years--a defiance to all travellers." + +A violent dispute with the old bey of Algiers ended Bruce's consulate, +and in 1765, the spirit of adventure strong upon him, he sailed along +the North African coast, landed at Tunis, and made his way to Tripoli. +On the frontier he found a tribe of Arabs set apart to destroy the +lions which beset the neighbourhood. These people not only killed but +ate the lions, and they prevailed on Bruce to share their repast. But +one meal was enough for the young explorer. + +In burning heat across the desert sands he passed on. Once a great +caravan arrived, journeying from Fez to Mecca, consisting of three +thousand men with camels laden with merchandise. But this religious +pilgrimage was plundered in the desert soon after. Arrived at Bengazi, +Bruce found a terrible famine raging, so he embarked on a little Greek +ship bound for Crete. It was crowded with Arabs; the captain was +ignorant; a violent storm arose and, close to Bengazi, the ship struck +upon a rock. Lowering a boat, Bruce and a number of Arabs sprang in +and tried to row ashore. But wave after wave broke over them, and at +last they had to swim for their lives. The surf was breaking on the +shore, and Bruce was washed up breathless and exhausted. Arabs +flocking down to plunder the wreck, found Bruce, and with blows and +kicks stripped him of all his clothes and left him naked on the barren +shore. At last an old Arab came along, threw a dirty rag over him, +and led him to a tent, whence he reached Bengazi once more, and soon +after crossed to Crete. + +[Illustration: A NILE BOAT, OR CANJA. From Bruce's _Travels to +Discover the Source of the Nile_.] + +It was not till July 1768 that the explorer at last reached Cairo _en +route_ for Abyssinia, and five months later embarked on board a Nile +boat, or canja. His cabin had close latticed windows made not only +to admit fresh air, but to be a defence against a set of robbers on +the Nile, who were wont to swim under water in the dark or on goatskins +to pilfer any passing boats. Then, unfurling her vast sails, the canja +bore Bruce on the first stage of his great journey. The explorer spent +some time in trying to find the lost site of old Memphis, but this +was difficult. "A man's heart fails him in looking to the south," he +says; "he is lost in the immense expanse of desert, which he sees full +of pyramids before him. Struck with terror from the unusual scene of +vastness opened all at once upon leaving the palm trees, he becomes +dispirited from the effect of the sultry climate." + +For some days the canja, with a fair wind, stemmed the strong current +of the Nile. "With great velocity" she raced past various villages +through the narrow green valley of cultivation, till the scene changed +and large plantations of sugar-canes and dates began. "The wind had +now become so strong that the canja could scarcely carry her sails; +the current was rapid and the velocity with which she dashed against +the water was terrible." Still she flew on day after day, till early +in January they reached the spot "where spreading Nile parts +hundred-gated Thebes." Solitude and silence reigned over the +magnificent old sepulchres; the hundred gates were gone, robbers +swarmed, and the traveller hastened away. So on to Luxor and Karnac +to a great encampment of Arabs, who held sway over the desert which +Bruce had now to cross. The old sheikh, whose protection was necessary, +known as the Tiger from his ferocious disposition, was very ill in +his tent. Bruce gave him some lime water, which eased his pain, and, +rising from the ground, the old Arab stood upright and cried: "Cursed +be those of my people that ever shall lift up their hand against you +in the desert." + +He strongly advised Bruce to return to Kenne and cross the desert from +there instead of going on by the Nile. Reluctantly Bruce turned back, +and on 16th February 1769 he joined a caravan setting out to cross +the desert to the shores of the Red Sea. + +"Our road," he says, "was all the way in an open plain bounded by +hillocks of sand and fine gravel--perfectly hard, but without trees, +shrubs, or herbs. There are not even the traces of any living creature, +neither serpent, lizard, antelope, nor ostrich--the usual inhabitants +of the most dreary deserts. There is no sort of water--even the birds +seem to avoid the place as pestilential--the sun was burning hot." +In a few days the scene changed, and Bruce is noting that in four days +he passes more granite, porphyry, marble, and jasper than would build +Rome, Athens, Corinth, Memphis, Alexandria, and half a dozen more. +At last after a week's travel they reached Cossier, the little +mud-walled village on the shores of the Red Sea. Here Bruce embarked +in a small boat, the planks of which were sewn together instead of +nailed, with a "sort of straw mattress as a sail," for the emerald +mines described by Pliny, but he was driven back by a tremendous storm. +Determined to survey the Red Sea, he sailed to the north, and after +landing at Tor at the foot of Mount Sinai, he sailed down the bleak +coast of Arabia to Jidda, the port of Mecca. + +[Illustration: AN ARAB SHEIKH. From Bruce's _Travels_.] + +By this time he was shaking with ague and fever, scorched by the burning +sun, and weather-beaten by wind and storm--moreover, he was still +dressed as a Turkish soldier. He was glad enough to find kindly English +at Jidda, and after two months' rest he sailed on to the Straits of +Babelmandeb. Being now on English ground, he drank the King's health +and sailed across to Masuah, the main port of Abyssinia. Although he +had letters of introduction from Jidda he had some difficulty with +the chief of Masuah, but at last, dressed in long white Moorish robes, +he broke away, and in November 1769 started forth for Gondar, the +capital of Abyssinia. + +It was nearly one hundred and fifty years since any European of note +had visited the country, and it was hard to get any information. + +His way led across mountainous country--rugged and steep. "Far above +the top of all towers that stupendous mass, the mountain of Taranta, +probably one of the highest in the world, the point of which is buried +in the clouds and very rarely seen but in the clearest weather; at +other times abandoned to perpetual mist and darkness, the seat of +lightning, thunder, and of storm." Violent storms added to the terrors +of the way, trees were torn up by the roots, and swollen streams rushed +along in torrents. + +Bruce had started with his quadrant carried by four men, but the task +of getting his cumbersome instruments up the steep sides of Taranta +was intense. However, they reached the top at last to find a huge plain, +"perhaps one of the highest in the world," and herds of beautiful cattle +feeding. "The cows were completely white, with large dewlaps hanging +down to their knees, white horns, and long silky hair." After +ninety-five days' journey, on 14th February Bruce reached Gondar, the +capital, on the flat summit of a high hill. + +Here lived the King of Abyssinia, a supposed descendant of King +Solomon; but at the present time the country was in a lawless and +unsettled condition. Moreover, smallpox was raging at the palace, and +the royal children were smitten with it. Bruce's knowledge of medicine +now stood him again in good stead. He opened all the doors and windows +of the palace, washed his little patients with vinegar and warm water, +sent away those not already infected, and all recovered. Bruce had +sprung into court favour. The ferocious chieftain, Ras Michael, who +had killed one king, poisoned another, and was now ruling in the name +of a third, sent for him. The old chief was dressed in a coarse, dirty +garment wrapped round him like a blanket, his long white hair hung +down over his shoulders, while behind him stood soldiers, their lances +ornamented with shreds of scarlet cloth, one for every man slain in +battle. + +Bruce was appointed "Master of the King's horse," a high office and +richly paid. + +But "I told him this was no kindness," said the explorer. "My only +wish was to see the country and find the sources of the Nile." + +But time passed on and they would not let him go, until, at last, he +persuaded the authorities to make him ruler over the province where +the Blue Nile was supposed to rise. Amid great opposition he at last +left the palace of Gondar on 28th October 1770, and was soon on his +way to the south "to see a river and a bog, no part of which he could +take away"--an expedition wholly incomprehensible to the royal folk +at Gondar. Two days' march brought him to the shores of the great Lake +Tsana, into which, despite the fact that he was tremendously hot and +that crocodiles abounded there, the hardy young explorer plunged for +a swim. And thus refreshed he proceeded on his way. He had now to +encounter a new chieftain named Fasil, who at first refused to give +him leave to pass on his way. It was not until Bruce had shown himself +an able horseman and exhibited feats of strength and prowess that leave +was at last granted. Fasil tested him in this wise. Twelve horses were +brought to Bruce, saddled and bridled, to know which he would like +to ride. Selecting an apparently quiet beast, the young traveller +mounted. + +"For the first two minutes," he says, "I do not know whether I was +most in the earth or in the air; he kicked behind, reared before, leaped +like a deer all four legs off the ground--he then attempted to gallop, +taking the bridle in his teeth; he continued to gallop and ran away +as hard as he could, flinging out behind every ten yards, till he had +no longer breath or strength and I began to think he would scarce carry +me to the camp." + +On his return Bruce mounted his own horse, and, taking his +double-barrelled gun, he rode about, twisting and turning his horse +in every direction, to the admiration of these wild Abyssinian folk. +Not only did Fasil now let him go, but he dressed him in a fine, loose +muslin garment which reached to his feet, gave him guides and a handsome +grey horse. + +"Take this horse," he said, "as a present from me. Do not mount it +yourself; drive it before you, saddled and bridled as it is; no man +will touch you when he sees that horse." Bruce obeyed his orders, and +the horse was driven in front of him. The horse was magic; the people +gave it handfuls of barley and paid more respect to it than to Bruce +himself, though in many cases the people seemed scared by the +appearance of the horse and fled away. + +On 2nd November the Nile came into sight. It was only two hundred and +sixty feet broad; but it was deeply revered by the people who lived +on its banks. They refused to allow Bruce to ride across, but insisted +on his taking off his shoes and walking through the shallow stream. +It now became difficult to get food as they crossed the scorching hot +plains. But Bruce was nearing his goal, and at last he stood at the +top of the great Abyssinian tableland. "Immediately below us appeared +the Nile itself, strangely diminished in size, now only a brook that +had scarcely water to turn a mill." Throwing off his shoes, trampling +down the flowers that grew on the mountain-side, falling twice in his +excitement, Bruce ran down in breathless haste till he reached the +"hillock of green sod" which has made his name so famous. + +"It is easier to guess than to describe the situation of my mind at +that moment, standing in that spot which had baffled the genius, +industry, and inquiry of both ancients and moderns for the course of +near three thousand years. Kings had attempted this discovery at the +heads of their armies--fame, riches, and honour had been held out for +a series of ages without having produced one man capable of wiping +off this stain upon the enterprise and abilities of mankind or adding +this desideratum for the encouragement of geography. Though a mere +private Briton, I triumphed here over kings and their armies. I was +but a few minutes arrived at the source of the Nile, through numberless +dangers and sufferings, the least of which would have overwhelmed me +but for the continual goodness and protection of Providence. I was, +however, but then half through my journey, and all those dangers which +I had already passed awaited me again on my return. I found a +despondency gaining ground fast upon me and blasting the crown of +laurels I had too rashly woven for myself." + +Bruce then filled a large cocoa-nut shell, which he had brought from +Arabia, full of the Nile water, and drank to the health of His Majesty +King George III. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +MUNGO PARK AND THE NIGER + + +Bruce died in the spring of 1794. Just a year later another Scotsman, +Mungo Park, from Selkirk, started off to explore the great river +Niger--whose course was as mysterious as that of the Nile. Most of +the early geographers knew something of a great river running through +Negroland. Indeed, Herodotus tells of five young men, the Nasamones, +who set out to explore the very heart of Africa. Arrived at the edge +of the great sandy desert, they collected provisions and supplied +themselves with water and plunged courageously into the unknown. For +weary days they made their way across to the south, till they were +rewarded by finding themselves in a fertile land well watered by lakes +and marshes, with fruit trees and a little race of men and women whom +they called pigmies. + +And a large river was flowing from west to east--probably the Niger. +But the days of Herodotus are long since past. It was centuries later +when the Arabs, fiery with the faith of Mohammed, swept over the +unexplored lands. "With a fiery enthusiasm that nothing could +withstand, and inspired by a hope of heaven which nothing could shake, +they swept from district to district, from tribe to tribe," everywhere +proclaiming to roving multitudes the faith of their master. In this +spirit they had faced the terrors of the Sahara Desert, and in the +tenth century reached the land of the negroes, found the Niger, and +established schools and mosques westward of Timbuktu. + +Portugal had then begun to play her part, and the fifteenth century +is full of the wonderful voyages inspired by Prince Henry of Portugal, +which culminated in the triumph of Vasco da Gama's great voyage to +India by the Cape of Good Hope. + +Then the slave trade drew the Elizabethan Englishmen to the shores +of West Africa, and the coast was studded with forts and stations in +connection with it. Yet in the eighteenth century the Niger and +Timbuktu were still a mystery. + +In 1778 the African Association was founded, with our old friend Sir +Joseph Banks as an active member inquiring for a suitable man to follow +up the work of the explorer Houghton, who had just perished in the +desert on his way to Timbuktu. + +The opportunity produced the man. Mungo Park, a young Scotsman, bitten +with the fever of unrest, had just returned from a voyage to the East +on board an East India Company's ship. He heard of this new venture, +and applied for it. The African Association instantly accepted his +services, and on 22nd May 1795, Mungo Park left England on board the +_Endeavour_, and after a pleasant voyage of thirty days landed at the +mouth of the river Gambia. The river is navigable for four hundred +miles from its mouth, and Park sailed up to a native town, where the +_Endeavour_ was anchored, while he set out on horseback for a little +village, Pisania, where a few British subjects traded in slaves, ivory, +and gold. Here he stayed a while, to learn the language of the country. +Fever delayed him till the end of November, when the rains were over, +the native crops had been reaped, and food was cheap and plentiful. +On 3rd December he made a start, his sole attendants being a negro +servant, Johnson, and a slave boy. Mungo Park was mounted on a strong, +spirited little horse, his attendants on donkeys. He had provisions +for two days, beads, amber, and tobacco for buying fresh food, an +umbrella, a compass, a thermometer and pocket sextant, some pistols +and firearms, and "thus attended, thus provided, thus armed, Mungo +Park started for the heart of Africa." + +[Illustration: MUNGO PARK. From the engraving in Park's _Travels into +the Interior of Africa_, 1799.] + +Three days' travelling brought him to Medina, where he found the old +king sitting on a bullock's hide, warming himself before a large fire. +He begged the English explorer to turn back and not to travel into +the interior, for the people there had never seen a white man and would +most certainly destroy him. Mungo Park was not so easily deterred, +and taking farewell of the good old king, he took a guide and proceeded +on his way. + +A day's journey brought him to a village where a curious custom +prevailed. Hanging on a tree, he found a sort of masquerading dress +made out of bark. He discovered that it belonged to a strange bugbear +known to all the natives of the neighbourhood as Mumbo Jumbo. The +natives or Kafirs of this part had many wives, with the result that +family quarrels often took place. If a husband was offended by his +wife he disappeared into the woods, disguised himself in the dress +of Mumbo Jumbo, and, armed with the rod of authority, announced his +advent by loud and dismal screams near the town. All hurried to the +accepted meeting-place, for none dare disobey. The meeting opened with +song and dance till midnight, when Mumbo Jumbo announced the offending +wife. The unlucky victim was then seized, stripped, tied to a post, +and beaten with Mumbo's rod amid the shouts of the assembled company. + +A few days before Christmas, Park entered Fatticonda--the place where +Major Houghton had been robbed and badly used. He therefore took some +amber, tobacco, and an umbrella as gifts to the king, taking care to +put on his best blue coat, lest it should be stolen. The king was +delighted with his gifts; he furled and unfurled his umbrella to the +great admiration of his attendants. "The king then praised my blue +coat," says Park, "of which the yellow buttons seemed particularly +to catch his fancy, and entreated me to give it to him, assuring me +that he would wear it on all public occasions. As it was against my +interests to offend him by a refusal, I very quietly took off my +coat--the only good one in my possession--and laid it at his feet." +Then without his coat and umbrella, but in peace, Park travelled onward +to the dangerous district which was so invested with robbers that the +little party had to travel by night. The howling of wild beasts alone +broke the awful silence as they crept forth by moonlight on their way. +But the news that a white man was travelling through their land spread, +and he was surrounded by a party of horsemen, who robbed him of nearly +all his possessions. His attendant Johnson urged him to return, for +certain death awaited him. But Park was not the man to turn back, and +he was soon rewarded by finding the king's nephew, who conducted him +in safety to the banks of the Senegal River. + +Then he travelled on to the next king, who rejoiced in the name of +Daisy Korrabarri. Here Mungo learnt to his dismay that war was going +on in the province that lay between him and the Niger, and the king +could offer no protection. Still nothing deterred the resolute +explorer, who took another route and continued his journey. Again he +had to travel by night, for robbers haunted his path, which now lay +among Mohammedans. He passed the very spot where Houghton had been +left to die of starvation in the desert. As he advanced through these +inhospitable regions, new difficulties met him. His attendants firmly +refused to move farther. Mungo Park was now alone in the great desert +Negroland, between the Senegal and the Niger, as with magnificent +resolution he continued his way. Suddenly a clear halloo rang out on +the night air. It was his black boy, who had followed him to share +his fate. Onward they went together, hoping to get safely through the +land where Mohammedans ruled over low-caste negroes. Suddenly a party +of Moors surrounded him, bidding him come to Ali, the chief, who wished +to see a white man and a Christian. Park now found himself the centre +of an admiring crowd. Men, women, and children crowded round him, +pulling at his clothes and examining his waistcoat buttons till he +could hardly move. Arrived at Ali's tent, Mungo found an old man with +a long white beard. "The surrounding attendants, and especially the +ladies, were most inquisitive; they asked a thousand questions, +inspected every part of my clothes, searched my pockets, and obliged +me to unbutton my waistcoat and display the whiteness of my skin--they +even counted my toes and fingers, as if they doubted whether I was +in truth a human being." He was lodged in a hut made of corn stalks, +and a wild hog was tied to a stake as a suitable companion for the +hated Christian. He was brutally ill-treated, closely watched, and +insulted by "the rudest savages on earth." The desert winds scorched +him, the sand choked him, the heavens above were like brass, the earth +beneath as the floor of an oven. Fear came on him, and he dreaded death +with his work yet unfinished. At last he escaped from this awful +captivity amid the wilds of Africa. Early one morning at sunrise, he +stepped over the sleeping negroes, seized his bundle, jumped on to +his horse, and rode away as hard as he could. Looking back, he saw +three Moors in hot pursuit, whooping and brandishing their +double-barrelled guns. But he was beyond reach, and he breathed again. +Now starvation stared him in the face. To the pangs of hunger were +added the agony of thirst. The sun beat down pitilessly, and at last +Mungo fell on the sand. "Here," he thought--"here after a short but +ineffectual struggle I must end all my hopes of being useful in my +day and generation; here must the short span of my life come to an +end." + +[Illustration: THE CAMP OF ALI, THE MOHAMMEDAN CHIEF, AT BENOWN. From +a sketch by Mungo Park.] + +But happily a great storm came and Mungo spread out his clothes to +collect the drops of rain, and quenched his thirst by wringing them +out and sucking them. After this refreshment he led his tired horse, +directing his way by the compass, lit up at intervals by vivid flashes +of lightning. It was not till the third week of his flight that his +reward came. "I was told I should see the Niger early next day," he +wrote on 20th July 1796. "We were riding through some marshy ground, +when some one called out 'See the water!' and, looking forwards, I +saw with infinite pleasure the great object of my mission--the +long-sought-for majestic Niger glittering to the morning sun, as broad +as the Thames at Westminster, and flowing slowly _to the eastward_. +I hastened to the brink and, having drunk of the water, lifted up my +fervent thanks in prayer to the Great Ruler of all things, for having +thus far crowned my endeavours with success. The circumstance of the +Niger's flowing towards the east did not excite my surprise, for +although I had left Europe in great hesitation on this subject, I had +received from the negroes clear assurances that its general course +was _towards the rising sun_." + +He was now near Sego--the capital of Bambarra--on the Niger, a city +of some thirty thousand inhabitants. "The view of this extensive city, +the numerous canoes upon the river, the crowded population, and the +cultivated state of the surrounding country, formed altogether a +prospect of civilisation and magnificence which I little expected to +find in the bosom of Africa." The natives looked at the poor, thin, +white stranger with astonishment and fear, and refused to allow him +to cross the river. All day he sat without food under the shade of +a tree, and was proposing to climb the tree and rest among its branches +to find shelter from a coming storm, when a poor negro woman took pity +on his deplorable condition. She took him to her hut, lit a lamp, spread +a mat upon the floor, broiled him a fish, and allowed him to sleep. +While he rested she spun cotton with other women and sang: "The winds +roared and the rains fell. The poor white man, faint and weary, came +and sat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him milk, no wife +to grind his corn"; and all joined in the chorus: "Let us pity the +white man, no mother has he." + +[Illustration: KAMALIA, A NATIVE VILLAGE NEAR THE SOUTHERN COURSE OF +THE NIGER. From a sketch by Mungo Park.] + +Mungo Park left in the morning after presenting his landlady with two +of his last four brass buttons. But though he made another gallant +effort to reach Timbuktu and the Niger, which, he was told, "ran to +the world's end," lions and mosquitoes made life impossible. His horse +was too weak to carry him any farther, and on 29th July 1796 he sadly +turned back. "Worn down by sickness, exhausted by hunger and fatigue, +half-naked, and without any article of value by which I might get +provisions, clothes, or lodging, I felt I should sacrifice my life +to no purpose, for my discoveries would perish with me." Joining a +caravan of slaves, he reached the coast after some nineteen hundred +miles, and after an absence of two years and nine months he found a +suit of English clothes, "disrobed his chin of venerable encumbrance," +and sailed for home. He published an account of the journey in 1799, +after which he married and settled in Scotland as a doctor. But his +heart was in Africa, and a few years later he started off again to +reach Timbuktu. He arrived at the Gambia early in April 1805. "If all +goes well," he wrote gaily, "this day six weeks I expect to drink all +your healths in the water of the Niger." He started this time with +forty-four Europeans, each with donkeys to carry baggage and food, +but it was a deplorable little party that reached the great river on +19th August. Thirty men had died on the march, the donkeys had been +stolen, the baggage lost. And the joy experienced by the explorer in +reaching the waters of the Niger, "rolling its immense stream along +the plain," was marred by the reduction of his little party to seven. +Leave to pass down the river to Timbuktu was obtained by the gift of +two double-barrelled guns to the King, and in their old canoes patched +together under the magnificent name of "His Majesty's schooner the +_Joliba_" (great water), Mungo Park wrote his last letter home. + +[Illustration: A NATIVE WOMAN WASHING GOLD IN SENEGAL. From a sketch +by Mungo Park made on his last expedition.] + +"I am far from desponding. I have changed a large canoe into a tolerably +good schooner, on board of which I shall set sail to the east with +a fixed resolution to discover the termination of the Niger or perish +in the attempt; and though all the Europeans who are with me should +die, and though I myself were half-dead, I would still persevere; and +if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at least +die on the Niger." + +It was in this spirit that the commander of the _Joliba_ and a crew +of nine set forth to glide down a great river toward the heart of savage +Africa, into the darkness of the unexplored. + +The rest is silence. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + +VANCOUVER DISCOVERS HIS ISLAND + + +While Mungo Park was attempting to find the course of the Niger, the +English were busy opening up the great fur-trading country in North +America. Although Captain Cook had taken possession of Nootka Sound, +thinking it was part of the coast of New Albion, men from other nations +had been there to establish with the natives a trade in furs. The +Spaniards were specially vigorous in opening up communications on this +bleak bit of western coast. Great Britain became alarmed, and decided +to send Captain Vancouver with an English ship to enforce her rights +to this valuable port. + +Vancouver had already sailed with Cook on his second southern voyage; +he had accompanied him on the _Discovery_ during his last voyage. He +therefore knew something of the coast of North-West America. "On the +15th of December 1790, I had the honour of receiving my commission +as commander of His Majesty's sloop the _Discovery_, then lying at +Deptford, where I joined her," says Vancouver. "Lieutenant Broughton +having been selected as a proper officer to command the _Chatham_, +he was accordingly appointed. At day dawn on Friday the 1st of April +we took a long farewell of our native shores. Having no particular +route to the Pacific Ocean pointed out in my instructions, I did not +hesitate to prefer the passage by way of the Cape of Good Hope." + +In boisterous weather Vancouver rounded the Cape, made some +discoveries on the southern coast of New Holland, surveyed part of +the New Zealand coast, discovered Chatham Island, and on 17th April +1792 he fell in with the coast of New Albion. It was blowing and raining +hard when the coast, soon after to be part of the United States of +America, was sighted by the captains and crews of the _Discovery_ and +_Chatham_. Amid gales of wind and torrents of rain they coasted along +the rocky and precipitous shores on which the surf broke with a dull +roar. It was dangerous enough work coasting along this unsurveyed +coast, full of sunken rocks on which the sea broke with great violence. +Soon they were at Cape Blanco (discovered by Martin D'Aguilar), and +a few days later at Cape Foulweather of Cook fame, close to the +so-called straits discovered by the Greek pilot John da Fuca in 1592. +Suddenly, relates Vancouver, "a sail was discovered to the westward. +This was a very great novelty, not having seen any vessel during the +last eight months. She soon hoisted American colours, and proved to +be the ship _Columbia_, commanded by Captain Grey, belonging to Boston. +He had penetrated about fifty miles into the disputed strait. He spoke +of the mouth of a river that was inaccessible owing to breakers." (This +was afterwards explored by Vancouver and named the Columbia River on +which Washington now stands.) + +Having examined two hundred and fifteen miles of coast, Vancouver and +his two ships now entered the inlet--Da Fuca Straits--now the boundary +between the United States and British Columbia. All day they made their +way up the strait, till night came, and Vancouver relates with pride +that "we had now advanced farther up this inlet than Mr. Grey or any +other person from the civilised world." + +"We are on the point of examining an entirely new region," he adds, +"and in the most delightfully pleasant weather." Snowy ranges of hills, +stately forest trees, vast spaces, and the tracks of deer reminded +the explorers of "Old England." The crews were given holiday, and great +joy prevailed. Natives soon brought them fish and venison for sale, +and were keen to sell their children in exchange for knives, trinkets, +and copper. As they advanced through the inlet, the fresh beauty of +the country appealed to the English captain: "To describe the beauties +of this region will be a very grateful task to the pen of a skilful +panegyrist--the serenity of the climate, the pleasing landscapes, and +the abundant fertility that unassisted nature puts forth, require only +to be enriched by the industry of man with villages, mansions, and +cottages to render it the most lovely country that can be imagined." + +A fortnight was spent among the islands of this inlet, which "I have +distinguished by the name of Admiralty Inlet," and on 4th June 1792 +they drank the health of the King, George III., in a double allowance +of grog, and on his fifty-fourth birthday took formal possession of +the country, naming the wider part of the strait the Gulf of Georgia +and the mainland New Georgia. The two ships then made their way through +the narrow and intricate channels separating the island of Vancouver +from the mainland of British Columbia, till at last, early in August, +they emerged into an open channel discovered by an Englishman four +years before and named Queen Charlotte's Sound. Numerous rocky islets +made navigation very difficult, and one day in foggy weather the +_Discovery_ suddenly grounded on a bed of sunken rocks. The _Chatham_ +was near at hand, and at the signal of distress lowered her boats for +assistance. For some hours, says Vancouver, "immediate and inevitable +destruction presented itself." She grounded at four in the p.m. Till +two next morning all hands were working at throwing ballast overboard +to lighten her, till, "to our inexpressible joy," the return of the +tide floated her once more. Having now satisfied himself that this +was an island lying close to the mainland, Vancouver made for Nootka +Sound, where he arrived at the end of August. + +[Illustration: VANCOUVER'S SHIP, THE _DISCOVERY_, ON THE ROCKS IN +QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND. From a drawing in Vancouver's _Voyage_, +1798.] + +At the entrance of the Sound he was visited by a Spanish officer with +a pilot to lead them to a safe anchorage in Friendly Cove, where the +Spanish ship, under one Quadra, was riding at anchor. Civilities were +interchanged "with much harmony and festivity. As many officers as +could be spared from the vessel, and myself dined with Senor Quadra, +and were gratified with a repast we had lately been little accustomed +to. A dinner of five courses, consisting of a superfluity of the best +provisions, was served with great elegance; a royal salute was fired +on drinking health to the sovereigns of England and Spain, and a salute +of seventeen guns to the success of the service in which the _Discovery_ +and _Chatham_ were engaged." But when the true nature of Vancouver's +mission was disclosed, there was some little difficulty, for the +Spaniards had fortified Nootka, built houses, laid out gardens, and +evidently intended to stay. Vancouver sent Captain Broughton home to +report the conduct of the Spaniards, and spent his time surveying the +coast to the south. Finally all was arranged satisfactorily, and +Vancouver sailed off to the Sandwich Islands. When he returned home +in the autumn of 1794 he had completed the gigantic task of surveying +nine thousand miles of unknown coast chiefly in open boats, with only +the loss of two men in both crews--a feat that almost rivalled that +of Captain Cook. + +It has been said that Vancouver "may proudly take his place with Drake, +Cook, Baffin, Parry, and other British navigators to whom England +looks with pride and geographers with gratitude." + + + + +CHAPTER L + +MACKENZIE AND HIS RIVER + + +Even while Vancouver was making discoveries on the western coast of +North America, Alexander Mackenzie, an enthusiastic young Scotsman, +was making discoveries on behalf of the North-Western Company, which +was rivalling the old Hudson Bay Company in its work of expansion. +His journey right across America from sea to sea is worthy of note, +and it has well been said that "by opening intercourse between Atlantic +and Pacific Oceans and forming regular establishments through the +interior and at both extremes, as well as along the coasts and islands, +the entire command of the fur trade of North America might be obtained. +To this may be added the fishing in both seas and the markets of the +four quarters of the globe." + +Mackenzie had already explored the great river flowing through North +America to the Arctic seas in 1789. He had brought back news of its +great size, its width, its volume of water, only to be mistrusted, +till many years later it was found that every word was true, and +tributes were paid not only to his general accuracy, but to his general +intelligence as an explorer. + +In 1792 he started off again, and this time he discovered the immense +country that lay hidden behind the Rocky Mountains, known to-day as +British Columbia. He ascended the Peace River, which flows from the +Rocky Mountains, and in the spring of 1793, having made his way with +much difficulty across this rugged chain, he embarked on a river +running to the south-west. Through wild mountainous country on either +side he paddled on; the cold was still intense and the strong mountain +currents nearly dashed the canoes to pieces. His Indian guides were +obstinate, ignorant, and timid. Mackenzie relates some of his +difficulties in graphic language: "Throughout the whole of this day +the men had been in a state of extreme ill-humour, and as they did +not choose to vent it openly upon me, they disputed and quarrelled +among themselves. About sunset the canoe struck upon the stump of a +tree, which broke a large hole in her bottom, a circumstance that gave +them an opportunity to let loose their discontents without reserve. +I left them as soon as we had landed and ascended an elevated bank. +It now remained for us to fix on a proper place for building another +canoe, as the old one was become a complete wreck. At a very early +hour of the morning every man was employed in making preparations for +building another canoe, and different parties went in search of wood +and gum." While the boat was building, Mackenzie gave his crew a good +lecture on their conduct. "I assured them it was my fixed unalterable +determination to proceed in spite of every difficulty and danger." + +The result was highly satisfactory. "The conversation dropped and the +work went on." + +In five days the canoe was ready and they were soon paddling happily +onwards towards the sea, where the Indians told him he would find white +men building houses. They reached the coast some three weeks later. +The Salmon River, as it is called, flows through British Columbia and +reaches the sea just north of Vancouver Island, which had been +discovered by Vancouver the year before. + +Alexander Mackenzie had been successful. Let us hear the end of his +tale: "I now mixed up some vermilion in melted grease, and inscribed +in large characters, on the south-east face of the rock on which we +had slept last night, this brief memorial--'Alexander Mackenzie, from +Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred +and ninety three.'" + + + + +CHAPTER LI + +PARRY DISCOVERS LANCASTER SOUND + + +The efforts of Arctic explorers of past years, Frobisher, Davis, +Baffin, Behring, and Cook, had all been more or less frustrated by +the impenetrable barrier of ice, which seemed to stretch across the +Polar regions like a wall, putting an end to all further advance. + +Now, early in the nineteenth century, this impenetrable bar of ice +had apparently moved and broken up into detached masses and icebergs. +The news of a distinct change in the Polar ice was brought home by +various traders in the Greenland waters, and soon gave rise to a revival +of these voyages for the discovery of the North Pole and a passage +round the northern coast of America to the Pacific Ocean. For this +coast was totally unknown at this time. Information was collected from +casual travellers, whale-fishers, and others, with the result that +England equipped two ships for a voyage of discovery to the disputed +regions. These were the _Isabella_ (385 tons) and the _Alexander_ (252 +tons), Commander Ross being appointed to one and Lieutenant Parry to +the other. + +Parry had served on the coast of North America, and had written a little +treatise on the stars in the Northern Hemisphere. He was thinking of +offering his services for African discovery when he caught sight of +a paragraph in a paper about an expedition for the discovery of the +North-West Passage. He wrote at once that "he was ready for hot or +for cold--Africa or the Polar regions." And he was at once appointed +to the latter. The object of the voyage was clearly set forth. The +young explorers were to discover a passage from Davis Strait along +the northern coast of America and through the Behring Strait into the +Pacific Ocean. Besides this, charts and pictures were to be brought +back, and a special artist was to accompany the expedition. Ross +himself was an artist, and he has delightfully illustrated his own +journals of the expedition. The ships were well supplied with books, +and we find the journals of Mackenzie, Hearne, Vancouver, Cook, and +other old travelling friends taken for reference--thirty Bibles and +sixty Testaments were distributed among the crews. For making friends +with the natives, we find a supply of twenty-four brass kettles, one +hundred and fifty butchers' knives, three hundred and fifty yards of +coloured flannel, one hundred pounds of snuff, one hundred and fifty +pounds of soap, forty umbrellas, and much gin and brandy. The +expedition left on 18th April 1818, and "I believe," says Ross, "there +was not a man who did not indulge after the fashion of a sailor in +feeling that its issue was placed in His hands whose power is most +visible in the Great Deep." + +Before June had set in, the two ships were ploughing their way up the +west coast of Greenland in heavy snowstorms. They sailed through Davis +Strait, past the island of Disco into Baffin's undefined bay. Icebergs +stood high out of the water on all sides, and navigation was very +dangerous. Towards the end of July a bay to which Ross gave the name +of Melville Bay, after the first Lord of the Admiralty, was passed. +"Very high mountains of land and ice were seen to the north side of +Melville's Bay, forming an impassable barrier, the precipices next +the sea being from one thousand to two thousand feet high." + +The ships were sailing slowly past the desolate shores amid these high +icebergs when suddenly several natives appeared on the ice. Now Ross +had brought an Eskimo with him named Sacheuse. + +"Come on!" cried Sacheuse to the astonished natives. + +"No--no--go away!" they cried. "Go away; we can kill you!" + +"What great creatures are these?" they asked, pointing to the ships. +"Do they come from the sun or the moon? Do they give us light by night +or by day?" + +Pointing southwards, Sacheuse told them that the strangers had come +from a distant country. + +"That cannot be; there is nothing but ice there," was the answer. + +Soon the Englishmen made friends with these people, whom they called +Arctic Highlanders, giving the name of the Arctic Highlands to all +the land in the north-east corner of Baffin's Bay. Passing Cape York, +they followed the almost perpendicular coast, even as Baffin had done. +They passed Wolstenholme Sound and Whale Sound; they saw Smith's Sound, +and named the capes on either side Isabella and Alexander after their +two ships. And then Ross gave up all further discovery for the time +being in this direction. "Even if it be imagined that some narrow strait +may exist through these mountains, it is evident that it must for ever +be unnavigable," he says decidedly. "Being thus satisfied that there +could be no further inducement to continue longer in this place, I +shaped my course for the next opening which appeared in view to the +westward." This was the Sound which was afterwards called "Jones +Sound." + +"We ran nine miles among very heavy ice, until noon, when, a very thick +fog coming on, we were obliged to take shelter under a large iceberg." +Sailing south, but some way from land, a wide opening appeared which +answered exactly to the Lancaster Sound of Baffin. Lieutenant Parry +and many of his officers felt sure that this was a strait communicating +with the open sea to westward, and were both astonished and dismayed +when Ross, declaring that he was "perfectly satisfied that there was +no passage in this direction," turned back. He brought his expedition +back to England after a seven months' trip. But, though he was certain +enough on the subject, his officers did not agree with him entirely, +and the subject of the North-West Passage was still discussed in +geographical circles. + +When young Lieutenant Parry, who had commanded the _Alexander_ in +Ross' expedition, was consulted, he pressed for further exploration +of the far north. And two expeditions were soon fitted out, one under +Parry and one under Franklin, who had already served with Flinders +in Australian exploration. Parry started off first with instructions +to explore Lancaster's Sound; failing to find a passage, to explore +Alderman Jones Sound, failing this again, Sir Thomas Smith's Sound. +If he succeeded in getting through to the Behring Strait, he was to +go to Kamtchatka and on to the Sandwich Islands. "You are to +understand," ran the instructions, "that the finding of a passage from +the Atlantic to the Pacific is the main object of this expedition." + +On board the _Hecla_, a ship of three hundred and seventy-five tons, +with a hundred-and-eighty-ton brig, the _Griper_, accompanying, Parry +sailed away early in May 1819. The first week in July found him crossing +the Arctic Circle amid immense icebergs against which a heavy +southerly swell was violently agitated, "dashing the loose ice with +tremendous force, sometimes raising a white spray over them to the +height of more than a hundred feet, accompanied with a loud noise +exactly resembling the roar of distant thunder." + +The entrance to Lancaster Sound was reached on 31st July, and, says +Parry: "It is more easy to imagine than to describe the almost +breathless anxiety which was now visible in every countenance, while, +as the breeze increased to a fresh gale, we ran quickly up the Sound." +Officers and men crowded to the masthead as the ships ran on and on +till they reached Barrow's Strait, so named by them after the Secretary +of the Admiralty. + +"We now began to flatter ourselves that we had fairly entered the Polar +Sea, and some of the most sanguine among us had even calculated the +bearing and distance of Icy Cape as a matter of no very difficult +accomplishment." + +Sailing westward, they found a large island, which they named Melville +Island after the first Lord of the Admiralty, and a bay which still +bears the name of Hecla and Griper Bay. "Here," says Parry, "the ensigns +and pendants were hoisted, and it created in us no ordinary feelings +of pleasure to see the British flag waving, for the first time, in +those regions which had hitherto been considered beyond the limits +of the habitable world." + +[Illustration: PARRY'S SHIPS, THE _HECLA_ AND _GRIPER_, IN WINTER +HARBOUR, DECEMBER 1819. From a drawing in Parry's _Voyage for the +North-West Passage_, 1821.] + +Winter was now quickly advancing, and it was with some difficulty that +the ships were forced through the newly formed ice at the head of the +Bay of the Hecla and Griper. Over two miles of ice, seven inches thick, +had to be sawn through to make a canal for the ships. As soon as they +were moored in "Winter Harbour" the men gave three loud and hearty +cheers as a preparation for eight or nine months of long and dreary +winter. By the end of September all was ready; plenty of grouse and +deer remained as food through October, after which there were foxes +and wolves. To amuse his men, Parry and his officers got up a play; +_Miss in her Teens_ was performed on 5th November, the last day of +sun for ninety-six days to come. He also started a paper, _The North +Georgian Gazette and Winter Chronicle_, which was printed in England +on their return. The New Year, 1819, found the winter growing gloomier. +Scurvy had made its appearance, and Parry was using every device in +his power to arrest it. Amongst other things he grew mustard and cress +in boxes of earth near the stove pipe of his cabin to make fresh +vegetable food for the afflicted men. Though the sun was beginning +to appear again, February was the coldest part of the year, and no +one could be long out in the open without being frostbitten. It was +not till the middle of April that a slight thaw began, and the +thermometer rose to freezing point. On 1st August the ships were able +to sail out of Winter Harbour and to struggle westward again. But they +could not get beyond Melville Island for the ice, and after the ships +had been knocked about by it, Parry decided to return to Lancaster +Sound once more. Hugging the western shores of Baffin's Bay, the two +ships were turned homewards, arriving in the Thames early in November +1820. "And," says Parry, "I had the happiness of seeing every officer +and man on board both ships--ninety-three persons--return to their +native country in as robust health as when they left it, after an +absence of nearly eighteen months." + +[Illustration: THE SEARCH FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE: THE CREWS OF +PARRY'S SHIPS, THE _HECLA_ AND _GRIPER_, CUTTING THROUGH THE ICE FOR +A WINTER HARBOUR, 1819. Drawn by William Westall, A.R.A., after a +sketch by Lieut. Beechey, a member of the expedition.] + +Parry had done more than this. He not only showed the possibility of +wintering in these icy regions in good health and good spirits, but +he had certainly discovered straits communicating with the Polar sea. + +[Illustration: THE NORTH SHORE OF LANCASTER SOUND. From a drawing in +Parry's _Voyage for the North-West Passage_, 1821.] + + + + +CHAPTER LII + +THE FROZEN NORTH + + +Meanwhile Franklin and Parry started on another expedition in the same +month and year. While Parry's orders were to proceed from east to west, +Franklin was to go from west to east, with a chance--if remote--that +they might meet. He was to go by Hudson's Bay to the mouth of the Copper +Mine River and then make his way by sea eastward along the coast. +Franklin had made himself a name by work done in the Spitzbergen waters; +he was to succeed in the end where others had failed in finding the +North-West Passage. The party selected for this work consisted of +Captain Franklin, Dr. Richardson, a naval surgeon, two midshipmen, +Back and Hood, one of whom was afterwards knighted, and an English +sailor named John Hepburn. + +Just a fortnight after Parry's start these five English explorers +sailed on board a ship belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, but it +was the end of August before they arrived at the headquarters of the +Company. They were cordially received by the Governor, and provided +with a large boat well stored with food and arms. Amid a salute of +many guns and much cheering the little party, with some Canadian rowers, +started off for Cumberland House, one of the forts belonging to the +Hudson Bay Company. Six weeks' hard travelling by rivers and lakes, +now dragging the boats round rapids, now sleeping in "buffalo-robes" +on the hard ground, brought the party to the first stage of their +journey. Snow was now beginning to fall, and ice was thick on the rivers, +when Franklin resolved to push on to Lake Athabasca that he might have +more time to prepare for the coming voyage in the summer. Leaving +Richardson and Hood at the fort, he started off with Back and the +faithful Hepburn on 18th January 1820, in the very heart of the Arctic +winter. Friends at the fort had provided him with Indian snowshoes +turned up at the toes like the prow of a boat--with dog sledges, furs, +leather trousers, drivers, and food for a fortnight. The snow was very +deep, and the dogs found great difficulty in dragging their heavy +burdens through the snow. But the record was good. A distance of eight +hundred and fifty-seven miles was accomplished in sixty-eight days, +with the thermometer at fifty degrees below zero. The hardships +endured are very briefly recorded: "Provisions becoming scarce; dogs +without food, except a little burnt leather; night miserably cold; +tea froze in the tin pots before we could drink it." + +Lake Athabasca was reached on the 26th of March and preparations for +the voyage were pushed forward. Four months later they were joined +by Richardson and Hood. "This morning Mr. Back and I had the sincere +gratification of welcoming our long-separated friends, Dr. Richardson +and Mr. Hood, who arrived in perfect health with two canoes." This +is the simple entry in Franklin's journal. + +Everything was now ready. Spring in these northern climates was +enchanting. "The trees quickly put on their leaves after the long, +hard winter months, and the whole vegetable world comes forth with +a luxuriance no less astonishing than agreeable." At the same time +clouds of mosquitoes and stinging sand-flies made the nights horrible. +On 18th July the little party in high glee set forward in canoes rowed +by Canadian boatmen, hoping to reach the Copper Mine River before +winter set in. But the difficulties of the way were great, provisions +were scarce, the boatmen grew discontented, ice appeared early, and +Franklin had to satisfy himself with wintering at a point five hundred +and fifty miles from Lake Athabasca, which he called Fort Enterprise. +Here there was prospect of plenty, for large herds of reindeer were +grazing along the shores of the lake, and from their flesh "pemmican" +was made; but the winter was long and cheerless, and Franklin soon +realised that there was not enough food to last through it. So he +dispatched the midshipman Back to Lake Athabasca for help. Back's +journey was truly splendid, and we cannot omit his simple summary: +"On the 17th of March," he says, "at an early hour we arrived at Fort +Enterprise, having travelled about eighteen miles a day. I had the +pleasure of meeting my friends all in good health, after an absence +of nearly five months, during which time I had travelled one thousand +one hundred and four miles on snow-shoes and had no other covering +at night than a blanket and deer skin, with the thermometer frequently +at forty degrees below zero, and sometimes two or three days without +tasting food." By his courage and endurance he saved the whole party +at Fort Enterprise. By June the spring was sufficiently advanced to +set out for the Copper Mine River, and on July they reached the mouth +after a tedious journey of three hundred and thirty-four miles. + +[Illustration: A WINTER VIEW OF FORT ENTERPRISE. From a drawing, by +Wm. Back, in Franklin's _Journey to the Polar Sea_, 1823.] + +The real work of exploration was now to begin, and the party embarked +in two canoes to sail along the southern coast of the Polar sea, with +the possibility always of meeting the Parry expedition. But the poor +Canadian boatmen were terrified at the sight of the sea on which they +had never yet sailed, and they were with difficulty persuaded to embark. +Indeed, of the two crews, only the five Englishmen had ever been on +the sea, and it has been well said that this voyage along the shores +of the rock-bound coast of the Arctic sea must always take rank as +one of the most daring and hazardous exploits that have ever been +accomplished in the interest of geographical research. The two canoes +hugged the icy coast as they made their way eastward, and Franklin +named the bays, headlands, and islands for a distance of five hundred +and fifty-five miles, where a point he called Cape Turnagain marks +his farthest limit east. Here is George IV. Coronation Gulf studded +with islands, Hood's River, Back's River, Bathurst's Inlet, named +after the Secretary of State, and Parry Bay after "my friend, Captain +Parry, now employed in the interesting research for a North-West +Passage." + +[Illustration: FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION TO THE POLAR SEA ON THE ICE. From +a drawing, by Wm. Back, in Franklin's _Journey to the Polar Sea_, 1823.] + +The short season for exploration was now over; rough weather and want +of food turned them home, only half satisfied with their work. The +worst part of their journey was yet to come. Perhaps never, even in +the tragic history of Arctic exploration, had greater hardships been +endured than Franklin and his handful of men were to endure on their +homeward way. On 22nd August the party left Point Turnagain, hoping +by means of their newly discovered Hood River to reach Fort Enterprise. +The ground was already covered with snow, and their food was reduced +to one meal a day when they left the shores of the Arctic sea for their +long inland tramp. Needless to say, the journey had to be performed +on foot, and the way was stony and barren. For the first few days nothing +was to be found save lichen to eat, and the temperature was far below +freezing-point. An uncooked cow after six days of lichen "infused +spirit into our starving party," relates Franklin. But things grew +no better, and as they proceeded sadly on their way, starvation stared +them in the face. One day we hear of the pangs of hunger being stilled +by "pieces of singed hide mixed with lichen"; another time the horns +and bones of a dead deer were fried with some old shoes and the "putrid +carcase of a deer that had died the previous spring was demolished +by the starving men." + +At last things grew so bad that Franklin and the most vigorous of his +party pushed on to Fort Enterprise to get and send back food if possible +to Richardson and Hood, who were now almost too weak and ill to get +along at all. Bitter disappointment awaited them. + +"At length," says Franklin, "we reached Fort Enterprise, and to our +infinite disappointment and grief found it a perfectly desolate +habitation. There were no provisions--no Indians. It would be +impossible for me to describe our sensations after entering this +miserable abode and discovering how we had been neglected; the whole +party shed tears, not so much for our own fate as for that of our friends +in the rear, whose lives depended entirely on our sending immediate +relief from this place." A few old bones and skins of reindeer were +collected for supper and the worn-out explorers sat round a fire made +by pulling up the flooring of the rooms. It is hardly a matter of +surprise to find the following entry in Franklin's journal: "When I +arose the following morning my body and limbs were so swollen that +I was unable to walk more than a few yards." + +Before November arrived another tragedy happened. Hood was murdered +by one of the party almost mad with hunger and misery. One after another +now dropped down and died, and death seemed to be claiming Franklin, +Richardson, Back, and Hepburn when three Indians made their appearance +with some dried deer and a few tongues. It was not a moment too soon. +The Indians soon got game and fish for the starving men, until they +were sufficiently restored to leave Fort Enterprise and make their +way to Moose Deer Island, where, with the Hudson Bay officers, they +spent the winter recovering their health and strength and spirits. + +When they returned to England in the summer of 1822 they had +accomplished five thousand five hundred and fifty miles. They had also +endured hardships unsurpassed in the history of exploration. When +Parry returned to England the following summer and heard of Franklin's +sufferings he cried like a child. He must have realised better than +any one else what those sufferings really were, though he himself had +fared better. + +While Franklin had been making his way to the Copper Mine River, Parry +on board the _Fury_, accompanied by the _Hecla_, started for Hudson's +Strait, by which he was to penetrate to the Pacific, if possible. Owing +to bad weather, the expedition did not arrive amid the icebergs till +the middle of June. Towering two hundred feet high, the explorers +counted fifty-four at one time before they arrived at Resolution +Island at the mouth of Hudson Strait. There were already plenty of +well-known landmarks in the region of Hudson's Bay, and Parry soon +made his way to Southampton Island and Frozen Strait (over which an +angry discussion had taken place some hundred years before). He was +rewarded by discovering "a magnificent bay," to which he gave the name +of the "Duke of York's Bay." The discovery, however, was one of little +importance as there was no passage. The winter was fast advancing, +the navigable season was nearly over, and the explorers seemed to be +only at the beginning of their work. The voyage had been dangerous, +harassing, unproductive. + +They had advanced towards the Behring Strait; they had discovered two +hundred leagues of North American coast, and they now prepared to spend +the winter in these icebound regions. As usual Parry arranged both +for the health and amusement of his men during the long Arctic +months--even producing a "joint of English roast beef" for Christmas +dinner, preserved "by rubbing the outside with salt and hanging it +on deck covered with canvas." There were also Eskimos in the +neighbourhood, who proved a never-ceasing source of interest. + +[Illustration: AN ESKIMO WATCHING A SEAL HOLE. From a drawing in +Parry's _Second Voyage for a North-West Passage_, 1824.] + +One day in April--snow had been falling all night, news spread that +the Eskimos "had killed something on the ice." "If the women," says +Parry, "were cheerful before, they were now absolutely frantic. A +general shout of joy re-echoed through the village; they ran into each +others' huts to communicate the welcome intelligence, and actually +hugged one another in an ecstasy of delight. When the first burst of +joy had at last subsided the women crept one by one into the apartment +where the sea-horses had been conveyed. Here they obtained blubber +enough to set all their lamps alight, besides a few scraps of meat +for their children and themselves. Fresh cargoes were continually +arriving, the principal part being brought in by the dogs and the rest +by the men, who tied a thong round their waist and dragged in a portion. +Every lamp was now swimming with oil, the huts exhibited a blaze of +light, and never was there a scene of more joyous festivity than while +the cutting up of the walruses continued." For three solid hours the +Eskimos appeared to be eating walrus flesh. "Indeed, the quantity they +continued to get rid of is almost beyond belief." + +It was not till early in July that the ship could be moved out of their +winter's dock to renew their efforts towards a passage. They were not +a little helped by Eskimo charts, but old ice blocked the way, and +it was the middle of August before Parry discovered the Strait he called +after his two ships, "the Strait of the Fury and Hecla," between +Melville Peninsula and Cockburn Island. Confident that the narrow +channel led to the Polar seas, Parry pushed on till "our progress was +once more opposed by a barrier of the same impenetrable and hopeless +ice as before." He organised land expeditions, and reports, "The +opening of the Strait into the Polar sea was now so decided that I +considered the principal object of my journey accomplished." + +September had come, and once more the ships were established in their +winter quarters. A second month in among the ice must have been a severe +trial to this little band of English explorers, but cheerfully enough +they built a wall of snow twelve feet high round the _Fury_ to keep +out snowdrifts. The season was long and severe, and it was August before +they could get free of ice. The prospect of a third winter in the ice +could not be safely faced, and Parry resolved to get home. October +found them at the Shetlands, all the bells of Lerwick being set ringing +and the town illuminated with joy at the arrival of men who had been +away from all civilisation for twenty-seven months. On 14th November +1823 the expedition arrived home in England. + +Still the restless explorer was longing to be off again; he was still +fascinated by the mysteries of the Arctic regions, but on his third +voyage we need not follow him, for the results were of no great +importance. The _Fury_ was wrecked amid the ice in Prince Regent's +Inlet, and the whole party had to return on board the _Hecla_ in 1825. + + + + +CHAPTER LIII + +FRANKLIN'S LAND JOURNEY TO THE NORTH + + +The northern shores of North America were not yet explored, and +Franklin proposed another expedition to the mouth of the Mackenzie +River, where the party was to divide, half of them going to the east +and half to the west. Nothing daunted by his recent sufferings, +Franklin accepted the supreme command, and amid the foremost +volunteers for service were his old friends, Back and Richardson. The +officers of the expedition left England in February 1825, and, +travelling by way of New York and Canada, they reached Fort Cumberland +the following June; a month later they were at Fort Chipewyan on the +shores of Lake Athabasca, and soon they had made their way to the banks +of the Great Bear Lake River, which flows out of that lake into the +Mackenzie River, down which they were to descend to the sea. They +decided to winter on the shores of the Bear Lake; but Franklin could +never bear inaction, so he resolved to push on to the mouth of the +Great River with a small party in order to prospect for the coming +expedition. + +So correct had been Mackenzie's survey of this Great River, as it was +called, that Franklin, "in justice to his memory," named it the +Mackenzie River after its "eminent discoverer," which name it has +borne ever since. In a little English boat, with a fair wind and a +swift current, Franklin accomplished three hundred and twelve miles +in about sixty hours. The saltness of the water, the sight of a +boundless horizon, and the appearance of porpoises and whales were +encouraging signs. They had reached the Polar sea at last--the "sea +in all its majesty, entirely free from ice and without any visible +obstruction to its navigation." + +On reaching the coast a silken Union Jack worked by Franklin's dying +wife was unfurled. She had died a few days after he left England, but +she had insisted on her husband's departure in the service of his +country, only begging him not to unfurl her flag till he arrived at +the Polar shores. As it fluttered in the breeze of these desolate shores, +the little band of Englishmen cheered and drank to the health of the +King. + +"You can imagine," says Franklin, "with what heartfelt emotion I first +saw it unfurled; but in a short time I derived great pleasure in looking +at it." + +It was too late to attempt navigation for this year, although the +weather in August was "inconveniently warm," so on 5th September, +Franklin returned to winter quarters on the Great Bear Lake. During +his absence a comfortable little settlement had grown up to +accommodate some fifty persons, including Canadian and Indian hunters +with their wives and children. In honour of the commander it had been +called Fort Franklin, and here the party of explorers settled down +for the long months of winter. + +[Illustration: FORT FRANKLIN, ON THE GREAT BEAR LAKE, IN THE WINTER. +From a drawing in Franklin's _Second Expedition to the Polar Sea_, +1828.] + +"As the days shortened," says Franklin, "it was necessary to find +employment during the long evenings for those resident at the house, +and a school was established from seven to nine for their instruction +in reading, writing, and arithmetic, attended by most of the British +party. Sunday was a day of rest, and the whole party attended Divine +Service morning and evening. If on other evenings the men felt the +time tedious, the hall was at their service to play any game they might +choose, at which they were joined by the officers. Thus the men became +more attached to us, and the hearts and feelings of the whole party +were united in one common desire to make the time pass as agreeably +as possible to each other, until the return of spring should enable +us to resume the great object of the expedition." + +April brought warmer weather, though the ground was still covered with +snow, and much boat-building went on. In May swans had appeared on +the lake, then came geese, then ducks, then gulls and singing birds. +By June the boats were afloat, and on the 24th the whole party embarked +for the Mackenzie River and were soon making their way to the mouth. +Here the party divided. Franklin on board the _Lion_, with a crew of +six, accompanied by Back on board the _Reliance_, started westwards, +while Richardson's party was to go eastwards and survey the coast +between the mouth of the Mackenzie River and the Copper Mine. On 7th +July, Franklin reached the sea, and, with flags flying, the _Lion_ +and the _Reliance_ sailed forth on the unknown seas, only to ground +a mile from shore. Suddenly some three hundred canoes full of Eskimos +crowded towards them. These people had never seen a white man before, +but when it was explained to them that the English had come to find +a channel for large ships to come and trade with them, they "raised +the most deafening shout of applause." They still crowded round the +little English boats, till at last, like others of their race, they +began to steal things from the boats. When detected they grew furious +and brandished knives, they tore the buttons off the men's coats, and +for a time matters looked serious till the English showed their +firearms, when the canoes paddled away and the Eskimos hid themselves. + +With a fair wind the boats now sailed along the coast westward, till +stopped by ice, which drove them from the shore. Dense fogs, stormy +winds, and heavy rain made this Polar navigation very dangerous; but +the explorers pushed on till, on 27th July, they reached the mouth +of a broad river which, "being the most westerly river in the British +dominions on this coast and near the line of demarcation between Great +Britain and Russia, I named it the Clarence," says Franklin, "in honour +of His Royal Highness the Lord High Admiral." A box containing a royal +medal was deposited here, and the Union Jack was hoisted amid hearty +cheers. + +[Illustration: FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION CROSSING BACK'S INLET. From a +drawing, by Lieut. Back, in Franklin's _Second Expedition to the Polar +Sea_, 1828.] + +Still fogs and storms continued; the farther west they advanced, the +denser grew the fog, till by the middle of August, winter seemed to +have set in. The men had suffered much from the hard work of pulling +and dragging the heavy boats; they also endured torments from +countless swarms of mosquitoes. They were now some three hundred and +seventy-four miles from the mouth of the Mackenzie River and only +half-way to Icy Cape; but Franklin, with all his courage and with all +his enthusiasm, dared not risk the lives of his men farther. "Return +Reef" marks his farthest point west, and it was not till long after +that he learnt that Captain Beechey, who had been sent in the _Blossom_ +by way of Behring Strait, had doubled Icy Cape and was waiting for +Franklin one hundred and sixty miles away. + +On 21st September, Fort Franklin was reached after three months' +absence. Dr. Richardson had already returned after a successful coast +voyage of some eight hundred miles. + +When he had left Franklin he had, on board the _Dolphin_, accompanied +by the _Union_, sailed along the unknown coast eastward. Like +Franklin's party, his expedition had also suffered from fogs, gales, +and mosquitoes, but they had made their way on, naming inlets, capes, +and islands as they passed. Thus we find Russell Inlet, Point Bathurst, +Franklin's Bay, Cape Parry, the Union and Dolphin Straits, named after +the two little ships, where the _Dolphin_ was nearly wrecked between +two masses of ice. They had reached Fort Franklin in safety just before +Franklin's party, and, being too late to think of getting home this +year, they were all doomed to another winter at the Fort. They reached +England on 26th September 1827, after an absence of two years and a +half. + +Franklin had failed to find the North-West Passage, but he and +Richardson had discovered a thousand miles of North American coast, +for which he was knighted and received the Paris Geographical +Society's medal for "the most important acquisition to geographical +knowledge" made during the year. It was a curious coincidence that +the two Arctic explorers, Franklin and Parry, both arrived in England +the same month from their various expeditions, and appeared at the +Admiralty within ten minutes of one another. + + + + +CHAPTER LIV + +PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE + + +Parry had left England the preceding April in an attempt to reach the +North Pole by means of sledges over the ice. To this end he had sailed +to Spitzbergen in his old ship the _Hecla_, many of his old shipmates +sailing with him. They arrived off the coast of Spitzbergen about the +middle of May 1827. Two boats had been specially built in England, +covered with waterproof canvas and lined with felt. The _Enterprise_ +and _Endeavour_ had bamboo masts and paddles, and were constructed +to go on sledges, drawn by reindeer, over the ice. + +"Nothing," says Parry, "can be more beautiful than the training of +the Lapland reindeer. With a simple collar of skin round his neck, +a single trace of the same material attached to the sledge and passing +between his legs, and one rein fastened like a halter round his neck, +this intelligent and docile animal is perfectly under the command of +an experienced driver, and performs astonishing journeys over the +softest snow. Shaking the rein over his back is the only whip that +is required." + +Leaving the _Hecla_ in safe harbour on the Spitzbergen coast, Parry +and James Ross, a nephew of John Ross, the explorer, with food for +two months, started off in their two boat-sledges for the north. They +made a good start; the weather was calm and clear, the sea smooth as +a mirror--walruses lay in herds on the ice, and, steering due north, +they made good progress. + +Next day, however, they were stopped by ice. Instead of finding a smooth, +level plain over which the reindeer could draw their sledges with ease, +they found broken, rugged, uneven ice, which nothing but the keen +enthusiasm of the explorer could have faced. The reindeer were useless, +and they had to be relinquished; it is always supposed that they were +eaten, but history is silent on this point. The little party had to +drag their own boats over the rough ice. They travelled by night to +save snow-blindness, also that they could enjoy greater warmth during +the hours of sleep by day. + +[Illustration: THE BOATS OF PARRY'S EXPEDITION HAULED UP ON THE ICE +FOR THE NIGHT. From a drawing in Parry's _Attempt to Reach the North +Pole_, 1828.] + +Parry describes the laborious journey: "Being 'rigged' for +travelling," he says, "we breakfasted upon warm cocoa and biscuit, +and after stowing the things in the boats we set off on our day's journey, +and usually travelled about five and a half hours, then stopped an +hour to dine, and again travelled five or six hours. After this we +halted for the night as we called it, though it was usually early in +the morning, selecting the largest surface of ice we happened to be +near for hauling the boats on. The boats were placed close alongside +each other, and the sails supported by bamboo masts placed over them +as awnings. Every man then put on dry socks and fur boots and went +to supper. Most of the officers and men then smoked their pipes, which +served to dry the awnings. We then concluded our day with prayers and, +having put on our fur dresses, lay down to sleep," alone in the great +ice desert. Progress was slow and very tedious. One day it took them +four hours to cover half a mile. On 1st July they were still labouring +forward; a foot of soft snow on the ground made travelling very +exhausting. Some of the hummocks of ice were as much as twenty-five +feet above sea-level; nothing was to be seen but ice and sky, both +often hidden by dense fog. Still the explorers pushed on, Parry and +Ross leading the way and the men dragging the boat-sledges after. July +12th was a brilliant day, with clear sky overhead--"an absolute +luxury." For another fortnight they persevered, and on 23rd July they +reached their farthest point north. It was a warm, pleasant day, with +the thermometer at thirty-six in the shade; they were a hundred and +seventy-two miles from Spitzbergen, where the _Hecla_ lay at anchor. + +"Our ensigns and pendants were displayed during the day, and severely +as we regretted not having been able to hoist the British flag in the +highest latitude to which we had aspired, we shall perhaps be excused +in having felt some little pride in being the bearers of it to a parallel +considerably beyond that mentioned in any other well-authenticated +record." On 27th July they reluctantly turned to the south, and on +21st August they arrived on board the _Hecla_ after an absence of +sixty-one days, every one of the party being in good health. Soon after +they sailed for England, and by a strange coincidence arrived in London +at the same time as Franklin. + +Many an attempt was yet to be made to reach the North Pole, till at +last it was discovered by Peary, an American, in 1909. + + + + +CHAPTER LV + +THE SEARCH FOR TIMBUKTU + + +It is a relief to turn from the icy north to the tropical climate of +Central Africa, where Mungo Park had disappeared in 1805. The mystery +of Timbuktu and the Niger remained unsolved, though more than one +expedition had left the coast of Africa for the "mystic city" lying +"deep in that lion-haunted inland." Notwithstanding disaster, death, +and defeat, a new expedition set forth from Tripoli to cross the great +Sahara Desert. It was under Major Denham, Lieutenant Clapperton, and +Dr. Oudney. They left Tripoli in March 1822. "We were the first English +travellers," says Denham, "who had determined to travel in our real +character as Britons and Christians, and to wear our English dress: +the buttons on our waistcoats and our watches caused the greatest +astonishment." It was the end of November before they were ready to +leave the frontier on their great desert journey. The long enforced +stay in this unhealthy border town had undermined their health; fever +had reduced Denham, Dr. Oudney was suffering from cough and pains in +his chest, Clapperton was shivering with ague--a state of health +"ill-calculated for undertaking a long and tedious journey." A long +escort of men and camels accompanied them into the merciless desert, +with its burning heat and drifting sands--"the Sea of Sahara" as the +old cartographer calls it. December found them still slowly advancing +over the billowy sand, deeply impressed and horrified at the number +of slave skeletons that lay about the wind-swept desert. The new year +brought little relief. "No wood, no water," occurs constantly in +Denham's journal. "Desert as yesterday; high sandhills." Still they +persevered, until, on 4th February 1823, they were rewarded by seeing +a sheet of water, "the great Lake Tchad, glowing with the golden rays +of the sun in its strength." Was this, after all, the source of the +Niger? Its low shores were surrounded with reedy marshes and clumps +of white water-lilies, there were flocks of wild ducks and geese, birds +with beautiful plumage were feeding on the margin of the lake, pelicans, +cranes, immense white spoonbills, yellow-legged plover--all were +dwelling undisturbed in this peaceful spot. And this most remarkable +lake lay eight hundred feet above the Atlantic, between the watersheds +of Nile, Niger, and Congo. + +But Lake Tchad was not their goal; they must push on over new country +where no European had been before. A fortnight later they reached +Kukawa, the capital of Bornu, once a great Mohammedan empire. "We were +about to become acquainted with a people who had never seen or scarcely +heard of a European," says Denham, "and to tread on ground, the +knowledge and true situation of which had hitherto been wholly unknown. +We advanced towards the town of Kuka in a most interesting state of +uncertainty, whether we should find its chief at the head of thousands, +or be received by him under a tree, surrounded by a few naked slaves." + +Their doubts were soon set at rest by the sight of several thousand +cavalry, drawn up in line. They were received by an Arab general, "a +negro of noble aspect, dressed in a figured silk robe and mounted on +a beautiful horse." They had passed from the region of hidden huts +to one of great walled cities, from the naked pagan to the cultivated +follower of Mohammed, from superstition to mosques and schools, from +ignorance to knowledge. The Sheikh, who received the travellers in +a small room with armed negroes on either side, asked the reason of +their long and painful journey across the desert. "To see the country," +answered the Englishmen, "and to give an account of its inhabitants, +produce, and appearance, as our sultan was desirous of knowing every +part of the globe." + +[Illustration: MAJOR DENHAM AND HIS PARTY RECEIVED BY THE SHEIKH OF +BORNU. From a drawing by Major Denham.] + +The Sheikh's hospitality was overwhelming; he had huts built for them, +"which," says Denham, "were so crowded with visitors that we had not +a moment's peace, and the heat was insufferable." He sent presents +of bullocks, camel-loads of wheat and rice, leather skins of butter, +jars, and honey. The market of Kuka was famous. It was attended by +some fifteen thousand persons from all parts, and the produce sold +there was astonishing. Here Clapperton and Dr. Oudney stayed all +through the summer months, for both were ill, and Oudney was growing +rapidly worse. Denham meanwhile went off on exploring expeditions in +the neighbourhood. + +On 14th December, Clapperton and Oudney left the friendly Sheikh and +made their way to Kano. But the rough travelling proved too much for +Oudney; each day found him weaker, but he valiantly journeyed on. On +12th January he ordered the camels to be loaded as usual, and he was +dressed by Clapperton, but he was too ill to be lifted on to his camel, +and a few hours later he died. + +Clapperton was now alone "amid a strange people" in a land "hitherto +never trodden by European foot," and very ill himself. But he reached +Kano, the famous trading centre of the Haussas, containing some forty +thousand inhabitants. Here again the market impressed him deeply, so +full was it of cosmopolitan articles from far-distant lands. After +a month's stay at Kano, now the capital of the northern province of +Nigeria of that name, he set out for Sokoto, though very ill and weak +at the time. He was assured of kind treatment by the Sultan. He arrived +on 16th March, and "to impress them with my official importance I +arrayed myself in my lieutenant's coat trimmed with gold lace, white +trousers, and silk stockings, and, to complete my finery, I wore +Turkish slippers and a turban." Crowds collected on his arrival, and +he was conducted to the Sultan, who questioned him closely about Europe. +"I laid before him a present in the name of His Majesty the King of +England, consisting of two new blunderbusses, an embroidered jacket, +some scarlet breeches, cloves and cinnamon, gunpowder, razors, +looking-glasses, snuff-boxes, and compasses." + +"Everything is wonderful!" exclaimed the Sultan; "but you are the +greatest curiosity of all! What can I give that is acceptable to the +King of England?" + +"Co-operate with His Majesty in putting a stop to the slave trade," +was Clapperton's answer. + +"What, have you no slaves in England?" The Englishman replied, "No!" +to which the Sultan answered: "God is great; you are a beautiful +people." But when Clapperton asked for leave in order to solve the +mystery of the Niger, the Sultan refused, and he was obliged to return +to Kuka, where he arrived on 8th July. A week later he was joined by +Denham. "It was nearly eight months since we had separated," says +Denham, "and I went immediately to the hut where he was lodged; but +so satisfied was I that the sunburnt, sickly person that lay extended +on the floor, rolled in a dark-blue shirt, was not my companion, that +I was about to leave the place, when he convinced me of my error by +calling me by my name. Our meeting was a melancholy one, for he had +buried his companion. Notwithstanding the state of weakness in which +I found Captain Clapperton, he yet spoke of returning to Sudan after +the rains." But this was not to be, and a month later we find the two +explorers turning homewards to Tripoli, where they arrived at the end +of January. + +But, with all his long travelling in Africa, Clapperton had not seen +the Niger, and, although the effects of his fever had not worn away, +he spent but two months in England before he was off again. This time +he sailed to the Gulf of Guinea, and from a place on the coast near +the modern Lagos he started by a new and untried route to reach the +interior of the great Dark Continent. It was September 1825 when he +left the coast with his companions. Before the month was over, the +other Europeans had died from the pestilential climate of Nigeria, +and Clapperton, alone with his faithful servant, Richard Lander, +pushed on. At last he saw the great Niger near the spot where Mungo +Park and his companions had perished. At Bussa they made out the tragic +story of his end. They had descended the river from Timbuktu to Bussa, +when the boat struck upon some rocks. Natives from the banks shot at +them with arrows; the white men then, seeing all was lost, jumped into +the river and were drowned. The Niger claimed its explorer in the end, +and the words of Mungo Park must have occurred to Clapperton as he +stood and watched: "Though I myself were half-dead, I would still +persevere; and if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, +I would at least die on the Niger." + +From Bussa, Clapperton made his way to Kano and Sokoto; but on 13th +April 1827, broken down by fever, he died in the arms of his faithful +servant. With his master's papers and journal, Lander made his way +home, thus establishing for the first time a direct connection between +Benin and Tripoli, the west coast and the north. + +Still the mouth of the Niger had not been found. This discovery was +reserved for this very Richard Lander and his brother John. + +Just a year after the death of Clapperton a young Frenchman, Rene Caille, +tempted by the offer of ten thousand francs offered by the French +Geographical Society for the first traveller who should reach that +mysterious city, entered Timbuktu 20th April 1829, after a year's +journey from Sierra Leone. And from his pen we get the first direct +account of the once important city. "At length," he says, "we arrived +safely at Timbuktu, just as the sun was touching the horizon. I now +saw this capital of the Sudan, to reach which had so long been the +object of my wishes. To God alone did I confide my joy. I looked around +and found that the sight before me did not answer my expectations. +I had formed a totally different idea of the grandeur and wealth of +it. The city presented nothing but a mass of ill-looking houses, built +of earth. Nothing was to be seen in all directions but immense plains +of quicksand of a yellowish white colour. The sky was a pale red as +far as the horizon, all nature wore a dreary aspect, and the most +profound silence prevailed: not even the warbling of a bird was to +be heard. The heat was oppressive; not a breath of air freshened the +atmosphere. This mysterious city, which has been the object of +curiosity for many ages, and of whose civilisation, population, and +trade with the Sudan such exaggerated notions have prevailed, is +situated in an immense plain of white sand, having no vegetation but +stunted trees and shrubs, and has no other resources save its trade +in salt." + +[Illustration: THE FIRST EUROPEAN PICTURE OF TIMBUKTU. From a drawing +in Caille's _Tomboctou_, 1829.] + +It is curious to note what a burst of interest was aroused in England +at this time with regard to Timbuktu. Thackeray wrote in 1829-- + + "In Africa (a quarter of the world) + Men's skins are black, their hair is crisp and curl'd; + And somewhere there, unknown to public view, + A mighty city lies, called Timbuktu." + +while the same year Tennyson's poem on Timbuktu won for him the prize +at Cambridge University for the best poem of the year. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI + +RICHARD AND JOHN LANDER DISCOVER THE MOUTH OF THE NIGER + + +Lander, the "faithful attendant of the late Captain Clapperton," as +he is called in his instructions, was burning to be off again to explore +further the mysterious Niger. No pecuniary reward was to be his; he +was a poor man, and just for the love of exploring the unknown he started +off. He had inspired his brother with a desire to solve the great +mystery; so on 22nd February 1830 the two brothers arrived at Cape +Coast Castle and made their way to Bussa, which place they entered +on 18th June. Sitting on a rock overlooking the spot where Mungo Park +had perished, the brothers resolved to "set at rest for ever the great +question of the course and termination of the great Niger." + +It was 20th September before preparations were completed for the +eventful voyage from Bussa to the mouth of the Niger. For provisions +they took three large bags of corn and one of beans, a couple of fowls, +and two sheep to last a month, while the king added rice, honey, onions, +and one hundred pounds of vegetable butter. Then in two native canoes +the Landers embarked on the great river, the "Dark Water" as it was +more often called, while the crowds who came down to the riverside +to bid them farewell knelt with uplifted hands, imploring for the +explorers the protection of Allah and their prophet. It was indeed +a perilous undertaking; sunken reefs were an ever-present danger, +while the swift current ran them dangerously near many jagged rocks. +For nearly a month they paddled onward with their native guides in +anxiety and suspense, never knowing what an hour might bring forth. +On 7th October a curious scene took place when the King of the Dark +Water came forth in all his pomp and glory to see the white strangers +who were paddling down the great river. Waiting under the shade of +a tree, for the morning was very hot, the Landers observed a large +canoe paddled by twenty young black men singing as they rowed. In the +centre of the boat a mat awning was erected: in the bows sat four little +boys "clad with neatness and propriety," while in the stern sat +musicians with drums and trumpets. Presently the king stepped forth. +He was coal black, dressed in an Arab cloak, Haussa trousers, and a +cap of red cloth, while two pretty little boys about ten years of age, +acting as pages, followed him, each bearing a cow's tail in his hand +to brush away flies and other insects. Six wives, jet black girls in +neat country caps edged with red silk, accompanied him. To make some +impression on this pompous king, Lander hoisted the "Union flag." +"When unfurled and waving in the wind, it looked extremely pretty, +and it made our hearts glow with pride and enthusiasm as we looked +at the solitary little banner. I put on an old naval uniform coat, +and my brother dressed himself in as grotesque and gaudy a manner as +our resources would afford; our eight attendants also put on new white +Mohammedan robes." Other canoes joined the royal procession and the +little flotilla moved down the river. "Never did the British flag lead +so extraordinary a squadron," remarks Lander. As the King of the Dark +Water stepped on shore the Englishmen fired a salute, which frightened +him not a little till the honour was explained. Having now exchanged +their two canoes for one of a larger size, they continued their journey +down the river. + +[Illustration: RICHARD AND JOHN LANDER PADDLING DOWN THE NIGER. From +a drawing in the account of Lander's _Travels_, 1835.] + +On 25th October they found the waters of the Niger were joined by +another large river known to-day as the Benue, the Mother of Waters, +flowing in from the east. After this the banks of the river seemed +to grow hilly, and villages were few and far between. "Our canoe passed +smoothly along the Niger, and everything was silent and solitary; no +sound could be distinguished save our own voices and the plashing of +the paddles with their echoes; the song of birds was not heard, nor +could any animal whatever be seen; the banks seemed to be entirely +deserted, and the magnificent Niger to be slumbering in its own +grandeur." + +"One can imagine the feelings," says a modern writer, "in such +circumstances of the brothers, drifting they knew not whither, in +intolerable silence and loneliness on the bosom of a river which had +caused the death of so many men who had endeavoured to wrest from it +its secret." Two days later a large village appeared, and suddenly +a cry rang through the air: "Holloa, you Englishmen! You come here!" +It came from a "little squinting fellow" dressed in an English +soldier's jacket, a messenger from the Chief of Bonney on the coast, +buying slaves for his master. He had picked up a smattering of English +from the Liverpool trading ships which came to Bonney for palm-oil +from the river. There was no longer any doubt that the mouth of the +Niger was not far off, and that the many-mouthed delta was well known +to Europeans under the name of the "Oil Rivers" flowing into the Bight +of Benin. + +Lander pushed on till he had paddled down the Brass River, as one of +the many branches was called, when he heard "the welcome sound of the +surf on the beach." + +The mystery of the Niger, after a lapse of two thousand five hundred +years since its existence had been recorded by Herodotus, was solved +at last. + + + + +CHAPTER LVII + +ROSS DISCOVERS THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE + + +The first attempt to discover the North-West Passage by means of steam +instead of sail was made by Captain Ross, who, since his expedition +in 1819, had been burning to set off again for the Arctic regions. +The reward of 20,000 pounds held out to the discoverer of a north-west +passage had been repealed, but an old friend, Felix Booth, decided +to finance Ross, the Government having refused. "After examining +various steamships advertised for sale," says Ross, "I purchased the +_Victory_, which had been once employed as a packet." With food and +fuel for one thousand days, and accompanied by his nephew, James Ross, +who had been with Parry on his recent Polar voyage, he left England +the end of May 1829, not to return for many a long year. Disasters +soon began. The _Victory_ began to leak, her engines were defective, +and there was nothing for it but to heave up her paddles and trust +to sail. Sailing to the northward, they found the sea smooth and the +weather so warm that they could dine without a fire and with the +skylights off. Entering Lancaster Sound, they sailed up Prince +Regent's Inlet. They soon discovered the spot where the _Fury_ had +been wrecked four years before and abandoned by Captain Parry with +whom was James Ross, who now found the stores which had been safely +hidden on that occasion. As they made their way up the inlet, strong +currents and vast masses of ice hard and solid as granite more than +once threatened them with destruction. + +"Imagine," says Captain Ross, "these mountains hurled through a narrow +strait by a rapid tide, meeting with the noise of thunder, breaking +from each other's precipices huge fragments, till, losing their former +equilibrium, they fall over headlong, lifting the sea around in +breakers and whirling it in eddies." + +Escaping these perils, Ross entered a fine harbour. Here he landed, +hoisted the colours, and took possession of the new land he had found, +and, drinking the King's health, called the land Boothia, after his +patron. For the next two months, August and September, he carefully +explored the coast of this newly discovered Boothia for some three +hundred miles, naming points and capes and islands after friends at +home and on board. Heavy squalls of snow and ever-thickening ice +pointed out the necessity of winter quarters, and 1st October found +the _Victory_ imprisoned by thick immovable ice. "The prison door was +shut upon us for the first time," says Ross sadly. "Nothing was to +be seen but one dazzling, monotonous extent of snow. It was indeed +a dull prospect. Amid all its brilliancy, this land of ice and snow +has ever been, and ever will be, a dull, dreary, heart-sinking, +monotonous waste, under the influence of which the very mind is +paralysed. Nothing moves and nothing changes, but all is for ever the +same--cheerless, cold, and still." + +The explorers little thought that this was to be their home for the +next three years. They spent a fairly cheerful Christmas with mince +pies and "iced cherry brandy" taken from the stores of the _Fury_, +and early in 1830 the monotony was broken by the appearance of Eskimos. +These were tremendously dressed up in furs, a shapeless mass, and Ross +describes one as resembling "the figure of a globe standing on two +pins." They soon became friendly, taking the Englishmen to see their +snow huts, drawing them charts of Boothia Gulf beyond Felix Harbour, +while in exchange the explorers taught English to the little Eskimo +children and ministered to their ailments, the ship's carpenter even +making a wooden leg for one of the natives. + +[Illustration: ROSS'S WINTER QUARTERS IN FELIX HARBOUR.] + +[Illustration: THE FIRST COMMUNICATION WITH ESKIMOS AT BOOTHIA FELIX, +JANUARY 1830. SIR JOHN ROSS'S EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE, +1829-1833. From drawings by Ross in his _Narrative of a Second Voyage +in Search of a North-West Passage_.] + +So the long winter passed away. A few land journeys with sledges only +ended in disappointment, but at last the vessel was free of ice and +joyfully they hoisted her sails. But worse disappointment was in store. +She had sailed for three miles when they met a ridge of ice, and a +solid sea forbade any further advance. In vain did they try to saw +through the ice. November found the poor _Victory_ hopelessly icebound +and her crew doomed to another winter in the same region. + +It was not till May that a journey across the land of Boothia to the +west coast was possible. Ross and his nephew had been calculating the +position of the North Magnetic Pole all the long winter, and with signs +of spring they set forth. + +"Our journey had a very new appearance. The mother of two Eskimos led +the way with a staff in her hand, my sledge following with the dogs +and one of the children, guided by one of the wives with a child on +her back. After a native sledge came that of Commander Ross, followed +by more Eskimos. Many halts were made, as our burdens were heavy, the +snow deep, and the ice rough." + +After a fortnight's travelling past the chain of great lakes--the +woman still guiding them--the Rosses, uncle and nephew, separated. +James Ross now made for the spot where the Magnetic Pole was supposed +to be. His own account shows with what enthusiasm he found it. "We +were now within fourteen miles of the calculated position of the +Magnetic Pole and now commenced a rapid march, and, persevering with +all our might, we reached the calculated place at eight in the morning +of the 1st of June. I must leave it to others to imagine the elation +of mind with which we found ourselves now at length arrived at this +great object of our ambition. It almost seemed as if we had accomplished +everything that we had come so far to see and to do; as if our voyage +and all its labours were at an end, and that nothing remained for us +but to return home and be happy for the rest of our days. Amid mutual +congratulation we fixed the British flag on the spot and took +possession of the North Magnetic Pole and its adjoining territory in +the name of Great Britain and King William IV. We had plenty of +materials for building, and we therefore erected a cairn of some +magnitude under which we buried a canister containing a record of the +interesting fact." Another fortnight found the successful explorers +staggering back to the _Victory_ with their great news, after an +absence of twenty-eight days. + +Science has shown that the Magnetic Pole revolves, and that Ross's +cairn will not again mark its exact position for many a long year to +come. + +[Illustration: THE ROSSES ON THEIR JOURNEY TO THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE. +From a drawing in Ross's _Second Voyage for a North-West Passage_, +1835.] + +By the end of August the ice had broken and the _Victory_ was once +more in full sail, but gales of wind drove her into harbour, which +she never left again. Despite their colossal efforts, it soon became +apparent that yet another winter would have to be passed in the frozen +seas. The entries in Ross's journal become shorter and more despondent +day by day. "The sight of ice to us is a plague, a vexation, a torment, +an evil, a matter of despair. Could we have skated, it would not have +been an amusement; we had exercise enough and, worst of all, the ice +which surrounds us obstructed us, imprisoned us, annoyed us in every +possible manner, had become odious to our sight." By October there +was no open water to be seen; "the hopeful did not hope more, and the +despondent continued to despair." + +This was their third winter in the ice--food was growing scarce, the +meat was so hard frozen that it had to be cut with a saw or thawed +in warm cocoa. Snow-blindness afflicted many of the men badly. At last +came the summer of 1833, but the _Victory_ was still fast in her winter +quarters, and all attempts to release her had failed. They now decided +to abandon her and to drag their boats over the ice to the wreck of +the _Fury_, replenishing their stores and trusting to some whaler to +take them home. We get a pathetic picture. "The colours were hoisted," +says Ross, "and nailed to the mast, we drank a parting glass to our +poor old ship, and, having seen every man out, I took my own adieu +of the _Victory_ in the evening. She had deserved a better fate. It +was like parting with an old friend." + +On 23rd April the weary explorers began dragging their boats and the +last month's provisions over the ice in the face of wind and snow. +The journey was painful and distressing. They found Barrow's Strait +full of impenetrable ice, and resolved to pass the winter on Fury beach, +which seemed almost like home to the half-starved men. Erecting a house +which they called "Somerset House," they prepared for a fourth winter. +For severity it was unequalled, the crew developed scurvy, and all +were suffering sorely when, in the following August, the unfortunate +party was rescued by the whaler, "_Isabella_ of Hull, once commanded +by Captain Ross." It was the ship in which Ross had made his first +Arctic exploration. At first the mate refused to believe the story +of these "bear-like" men. The explorers and Ross had been lost these +two years. But, almost frantic with delight, the explorers climbed +on board the _Isabella_ to be received with the heartiest of cheers +when their identity was disclosed. "That we were a repulsive-looking +people, none could doubt," says poor Ross, "unshaven since I know not +when, dirty, dressed in rags of wild beasts, and starved to the very +bones, our gaunt and grim looks, when contrasted with those of the +well-dressed and well-fed men around us, made us all feel what we really +were, as well as what we seemed to others." Then followed a wild scene +of "washing, dressing, shaving, eating, all intermingled," while in +the midst of all there were questions to be asked and the news from +England to be heard. Long accustomed to a cold bed on the hard snow +or the bare rock, few of them could sleep that night in the comfort +of the new accommodation. + +They were soon safely back in England, large crowds collecting to get +a glimpse of Captain Ross. His own words best end the account of his +travels. "On my arrival in London," he says, "on the 20th of October +1883, it became my first duty to repair to the royal palace at Windsor, +with an account of my voyage, and to lay at the feet of His Majesty +the British flag which had been hoisted on the Magnetic Pole." + +[Illustration: "SOMERSET HOUSE," ROSS'S WINTER QUARTERS ON FURY BEACH. +From a drawing in Ross's _Second Voyage for a North-West Passage_, +1835.] + + + + +CHAPTER LVIII + +FLINDERS NAMES AUSTRALIA + + +We must now return to Australia, as yet so imperfectly explored, and +take up the story of the young colony at Sydney. + +For seven years it thrived under the careful management of Governor +Phillips, who was then replaced by one Hunter. With the new governor +from England arrived two young men destined to distinguish themselves +in the exploration of New South Wales. They were midshipman Matthew +Flinders and surgeon George Bass. The reading of _Robinson Crusoe_ +had created in young Flinders a passion for sea-adventure, and no +sooner had the _Reliance_ anchored in Sydney harbour than the two young +friends resolved on an exploring expedition to the south. For there +were rumours afloat that Van Diemen's Land did not join the main +continent of New South Wales. Little enough help was forthcoming for +the expedition, and the friends had to content themselves with a little +boat eight feet long--the _Tom Thumb_--and only a boy to help them. +But with all the eager enthusiasm of youth they sailed from Port Jackson +on 25th March 1796. It is impossible to follow all their adventures +as they attempted the survey of the coast. A storm on the 29th nearly +swallowed up the little _Tom Thumb_ and her plucky sailors. + +"At ten o'clock," says Flinders, "the wind, which had been unsettled +and driving electric clouds in all directions, burst out in a gale. +In a few minutes the waves began to break, and the extreme danger to +which this exposed our little bark was increased by the darkness of +the night and the uncertainty of finding any place of shelter. Mr. +Bass kept the sheet of the sail in his hand, drawing in a few inches +occasionally, when he saw a particularly heavy sea following. I was +steering with an oar. A single wrong movement or a moment's inattention +would have sent us to the bottom. After running near an hour in this +critical manner, some huge breakers were distinguished ahead; it was +necessary to determine what was to be done at once, for our bark could +not live ten minutes longer. On coming to what appeared to be the +extremity of the breakers, the boat's head was brought to the wind, +the mast and sail taken down, and the oars taken out. Pulling then +towards the reef during the intervals of the heaviest seas, in three +minutes we were in smooth water--a nearer approach showed us the beach +of a well-sheltered cove in which we anchored for the rest of the night. +We thought Providential Cove a well-adapted name for the place." + +[Illustration: MATTHEW FLINDERS.] + +Important local discoveries were made by the young explorers, and +their skill and courage earned for them a better equipment for further +exploration. A whale-boat provisioned for six weeks, and a crew of +six, were placed at the disposal of Bass in order that he might discover +whether Van Diemen's Land was joined to the mainland or whether there +was a strait between. Cook had declared that there was no strait. +Flinders now tells the story of his friend's triumphant success in +finding the straits that now bear his name. He tells how Bass found +the coast turning westward exposed to the billows of a great ocean, +of the low sandy shore, of the spacious harbour which "from its relative +position to the hitherto known parts of the coasts was called Port +Western." His provisions were now at an end and, though he was keen +to make a survey of his new discovery, he was obliged to return. This +voyage of six hundred miles in an open boat on dangerous and unknown +shores is one of the most remarkable on record. It added another three +hundred miles of known coast-line, and showed that the shores of New +Holland were divided from Van Diemen's Land. So highly did the +colonists appreciate this voyage of discovery that the whale-boat in +which Bass sailed was long preserved as a curiosity. + +A small boat of twenty-five tons, provisioned for twelve weeks, was +now put at the disposal of the two friends, Flinders and Bass, to +complete the survey of Van Diemen's Land, and in October 1798 they +sailed for the south. With gales and strong winds blowing across the +channel now known as Bass Strait, they made their way along the +coast--the northern shores of Van Diemen's Land--till they found a +wide inlet. Here they found a quantity of black swans, which they ate +with joy, and also kangaroos, mussels, and oysters. This inlet they +called Port Dalrymple, after the late hydrographer to the Admiralty +in England. On 9th December, still coasting onward, they passed +Three-Hummock Island and then a whole cluster of islands, to which, +"in honour of His Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, I gave +the title of Hunter's Isles." And now a long swell was noticed from +the south-west. "It broke heavily upon a small reef and upon all the +western shores, but, although it was likely to prove troublesome and +perhaps dangerous, Mr. Bass and myself hailed it with joy and mutual +congratulation, as announcing the completion of our long-wished-for +discovery of a passage into the southern Indian Ocean." + +Calling the point where the island coast turned Cape Grime, they sailed +along the western shores, their little boat exposed to the swell of +the southern ocean. Sailing joyfully from point to point and naming +them at will, the two explorers reached the extreme west, which they +called South-West Cape. This had been already sighted by one of Cook's +party in 1773. South Cape and Tasman's Head had been likewise charted +as points at the extreme south of New South Wales. So the explorers +sailed right round the island on which Tasman had landed one hundred +and fifty-six years before, and after an absence of five months they +reached Sydney with their important news. Bass now disappears from +the annals of exploration, but his friend Flinders went off to England +and found in our old friend Banks a powerful friend. He was given a +stout north-country ship, H.M.S. _Investigator_ of three hundred and +thirty-four tons, with orders to return to New Holland and make a +complete survey of the coast, and was off again in July 1801 with young +John Franklin, his nephew, aboard. + +The _Investigator_ arrived at Cape Leuwin in December and anchored +in King George's Sound, discovered by Vancouver some ten years before. +By the New Year he was ready to begin his great voyage round the Terra +Australis, as the new country was still called. Indeed, it was Flinders +who suggested the name of Australia for the tract of land hitherto +called New Holland. His voyage can easily be traced on our maps to-day. +Voyaging westward through the Recherches group of islands, Flinders +passed the low, sandy shore to a cape he named Cape Pasley, after his +late Admiral; high, bleak cliffs now rose to the height or some five +hundred feet for a distance of four hundred and fifty miles--the great +Australian Bight. Young Franklin's name was given to one island, +Investigator to another, Cape Catastrophe commemorated a melancholy +accident and the drowning of several of the crew. Kangaroo Island +speaks for itself. Here they killed thirty-one dark-brown kangaroos. +"The whole ship's company was employed this afternoon skinning and +cleaning the kangaroos, and a delightful regale they afforded after +four months' privation from almost any fresh provisions. Half a +hundredweight of heads, forequarters, and tails were stewed down into +soup for dinner, and as much steaks given to both officers and men +as they could consume by day and night." + +[Illustration: CAPE CATASTROPHE. From Flinders' _Voyages_.] + +In April 1802 a strange encounter took place, when suddenly there +appeared a "heavy-looking ship without any top-gallant masts up," +showing a French ensign. Flinders cleared his decks for action in case +of attack, but the strangers turned out to be the French ship _Le +Geographe_, which, in company with _Le Naturaliste_, had left France, +1800, for exploration of the Australian coasts. + +Now it was well known that Napoleon had cast longing eyes upon the +Terra Australis--indeed, it is said that he took with him to Egypt +a copy of _Cook's Voyages_. Flinders, too, knew of this French +expedition, but he was not specially pleased to find French explorers +engaged on the same work as himself. The commanders met as friends, +and Baudin, the French explorer, told how he had landed also near Cape +Leuwin in May 1801, how he had given the names of his two ships to +Cape Naturaliste and Geographe Bay, and was now making his way round +the coast. Flinders little guessed at this time that the French were +going to claim the south of New South Wales as French territory under +the name of Terra Napoleon, though it was common knowledge that this +discovery was made by Englishmen. + +"Ah, captain," said one of the French crew to Flinders, "if we had +not been kept so long picking up shells and catching butterflies at +Van Diemen's Land you would not have discovered this coast before us." + +When Baudin put in at Port Jackson a couple of months later, he inquired +of the Governor the extent of British claims in the Pacific. + +"The whole of Tasmania and Australia are British territory," was the +firm answer. + +After this encounter Flinders discovered and named Port Phillip, at +the head of which stands the famous city of Melbourne to-day, and then +made his way on to Port Jackson. He had managed his crews so well that +the inhabitants of Port Jackson declared they were reminded of England +by the fresh colour of the men amongst the _Investigator_ ship's +company. The Frenchmen had not fared so well. One hundred and fifty +out of one hundred and seventy were down with scurvy and had to be +taken to the hospital at Sydney. + +Before the end of July, Flinders was off again, sailing northwards +along the eastern coast of New South Wales. October found him passing +the Great Barrier reefs, and on the 21st he had reached the northernmost +point, Cape York. Three days of anxious steering took the +_Investigator_ through Torres Strait, and Flinders was soon sailing +into the great Gulf of Carpentaria. Still hugging the coast, he +discovered a group of islands to the south of the gulf, which he named +the Wellesley Islands, after General Wellesley, afterwards Duke of +Wellington. Here he found a wealth of vegetation; cabbage palm was +abundant, nutmegs plentiful, and a sort of sandal-wood was growing +freely. He spent one hundred and five days exploring the gulf; then +he continued his voyage round the west coast and back to Port Jackson +by the south. He returned after a year's absence with a sickly crew +and a rotten ship. Indeed, the _Investigator_ was incapable of further +service, and Flinders decided to go back to England for another ship. +As passenger on board the _Porpoise_, early in August 1802, he sailed +from Sydney for the Torres Strait accompanied by two returning +transports. All went well for the first four days, and they had reached +a spot on the coast of Queensland, when a cry of "Breakers ahead!" +fell on the evening air. In another moment the ship was carried amongst +the breakers and struck upon a coral reef. So sudden was the disaster +that there was no time to warn the other ships closely following. As +the _Porpoise_ rolled over on her beam ends, huge seas swept over her +and the white foam leapt high. Then the mast snapped, water rushed +in, and soon the _Porpoise_ was a hopeless wreck. A few minutes later, +one of the transports struck the coral reef: she fell on her side, +her deck facing the sweeping rollers, and was completely wrecked. The +other transport escaped, sailed right away from the scene of disaster, +and was never seen again by the crew of the _Porpoise_. The dawn of +day showed the shipwrecked crew a sandbank, to which some ninety-four +men made their way and soon set sailcloth tents on the barren shore. +They had saved enough food for three months. Flinders as usual was +the moving spirit. A fortnight later in one of the ship's boats, with +twelve rowers and food for three weeks, he left Wreck Reef amid ringing +cheers to get help from Sydney for the eighty men left on the sandbank. + +"The reader," says the hero of this adventure, "has perhaps never gone +two hundred and fifty leagues at sea in an open boat or along a strange +coast inhabited by savages; but, if he recollect the eighty officers +and men upon Wreck Reef, and how important was our arrival to their +safety and to the saving of the charts, journals, and papers of the +_Investigator's_ voyage, he may have some idea of the pleasure we felt, +particularly myself, at entering our destined port." + +Half-starved, unshaven, deplorable indeed were the men when they +staggered into Sydney, and "an involuntary tear started from the eye +of friendship and compassion" when the Governor learnt how nearly +Flinders and his friends had lost their lives. + +[Illustration: THE HUTS OF THE CREW OF THE _PORPOISE_ ON THE SANDBANK, +WRECK REEF. From Flinders' _Voyages_.] + +A few days later Flinders left Sydney for the last time, in a little +home-built ship of twenty-nine tons, the _Cumberland_. It was the +first ship ever built in the colony, and the colonists were glad it +should be of use to the man who had done so much for their country. +With all his papers and his beloved journals, Flinders put to sea +accompanied by a ship to rescue the men left on Wreck Reef. Three months +later, owing to the leaky condition of the ship, he landed at Mauritius. +Here he was taken prisoner and all his papers and journals were seized +by the French. During his imprisonment a French_ Voyage of Discovery_ +was issued, Napoleon himself paying a sum of money to hasten +publication. All the places discovered by Flinders, or "Monsieur +Flinedore" as the French called him, were called by French names. +Fortunately before reaching Mauritius, Flinders had sent duplicate +copies of his charts home, and the whole fraud was exposed. Flinders +did not reach home till 1810. A last tragedy awaited him. For he died +in 1814, on the very day that his great book, _The Voyage to Terra +Australis_, was published. Flinders was a true explorer, and as he +lay dying he cried, "I know that in future days of exploration my spirit +will rise from the dead and follow the exploring ship!" + + + + +CHAPTER LIX + +STURT'S DISCOVERIES IN AUSTRALIA + + +Since the days of Flinders, much discovery had been done in the great +new island-continent of Australia. The Blue Mountains had been crossed, +and the river Macquarie discovered and named after the governor of +that name. But Sturt's famous discovery of the river Darling and his +descent of the Murray River rank among the most noteworthy of a +bewildering number of lesser expeditions. + +Captain Sturt landed with his regiment, the 39th, at Sydney in the +year 1827, "to guard the convicts." His first impressions of Sydney +are interesting. "Cornfield and orchard," he says, "have supplanted +wild grass and brush; on the ruins of the forest stands a flourishing +town; and the stillness of that once desert shore is now broken by +the bugle and by the busy hum of commerce. It is not unusual to see +from thirty to forty vessels from every quarter of the globe riding +at anchor at one time." + +Sir Ralph Darling, Governor of New South Wales, soon formed a high +opinion of Sturt's ability, and when an expedition was proposed into +the interior for further exploration, he appointed him leader. + +There was a universal opinion in the colony that in the middle of the +unknown continent lay a large inland sea. Oxley had made his way to +a shallow ocean of reeds where the river Macquarie disappeared; +natives spoke of "large waters" containing "great fish." To open up +the country and to ascertain the truth of these rumours were the objects +of this new expedition which left Sydney in November 1828. It consisted +of Hamilton Hume, the first Australian-born explorer, two soldiers, +eight convicts, fifteen horses, ten bullocks, and a small boat on a +wheeled carriage. Across the roadless Blue Mountains they started, +followed the traces of Oxley, who had died just a week before they +started, and about Christmas time they passed his last camp and began +to break new ground. Through thickets of reeds and marshy swamps they +pushed on; the river Macquarie had entirely disappeared, but on 2nd +February they suddenly found a large river some eighty yards broad +enclosing an unbroken sheet of deep water. "Our surprise and delight," +says Sturt, "are better imagined than described. Our difficulties +seemed at an end. The banks were too steep to allow of watering the +cattle, but the men eagerly descended to quench a thirst increased +by the powerful sun. Never shall I forget their cry of amazement, nor +the terror and disappointment with which they called out that the water +was too salt to drink!" Leaving his party, Sturt pushed on, but no +fresh water was to be found, so he named the river the Darling, after +the Governor, and returned, but not till he had discovered brine +springs in the bed of the river, which accounted for its saltness. +Sturt had found no inland sea, but in the Darling he had discovered +a main channel of the western watershed. + +He now proposed to follow the line of the Murrumbidgee, "a river of +considerable size and impetuous current," and to trace it if possible +into the interior. Several of his old party again joined him, and once +more he rode out of Sydney on this new quest. + +The journey to the banks of the Murrumbidgee lay through wild and +romantic country, but as they journeyed farther, broad reed belts +appeared by the river, which was soon lost in a vast expanse of reeds. +For a moment or two Sturt was as one stunned; he could neither sleep +nor rest till he had regained the river again. When at last he did +so he found the water was deep, the current rapid, and the banks high. +But he turned on all hands to build the whale-boat which he had designed +at Sydney for the purpose. Early in January he writes home: "I was +checked in my advance by high reeds spreading as far as the eye can +reach. The Murrumbidgee is a magnificent stream. I do not yet know +its fate, but I have taken to the boats. Where I shall wander to God +only knows. I have little doubt, however, that I shall ultimately make +the coast." + +By 6th January the boat was ready and Sturt started on his memorable +voyage. After passing the junction of the Lachlan, the channel +gradually narrowed; great trees had been swept down by the floods and +navigation rendered very dangerous. Still narrower grew the stream, +stronger the current. "On a sudden, the river took a general southern +direction. We were carried at a fearful rate down its gloomy banks, +and at such a moment of excitement had little time to pay attention +to the country through which we were passing. At last we found we were +approaching a junction, and within less than a minute we were hurried +into a broad and noble river. It is impossible to describe the effect +upon us of so instantaneous a change. We gazed in silent wonder on +the large channel we had entered." + +The Murrumbidgee had joined the great Murray River as Sturt now called +it, after Sir George Murray of the Colonial Department. + +To add to the unknown dangers of the way, numbers of natives now +appeared in force on the banks of the river, threatening the white +men with "dreadful yells and with the beating of spears and shields." + +Firearms alone saved the little crew, and the rage of the natives was +turned to admiration as they watched the white men paddling on their +great river while some seventy black men swam off to the boat like +"a parcel of seals." + +The explorers now found a new and beautiful stream flowing into the +Murray from the north, up which the boat was now turned, natives +anxiously following along the grassy banks, till suddenly a net +stretched across the stream checked their course. Sturt instinctively +felt he was on the river Darling again. "I directed that the Union +Jack should be hoisted, and we all stood up in the boat and gave three +distinct cheers. The eye of every native was fixed upon that beautiful +flag as it waved over us in the heart of a desert." + +While they were still watching, Sturt turned the head of the boat and +pursued his way down the great Murray River. Stormy weather at the +end of January set in; though they were yet one hundred and fifteen +miles from the coast, the river increased in breadth, cliffs towered +above them, and the water dashed like sea-waves at their base. + +On the 5th of February they were cheered by the appearance of sea-gulls +and a heavy swell up the river, which they knew must be nearing the +sea. On the twenty-third day of their voyage they entered a great lake. +Crossing to the southern shore, they found to their bitter grief that +shoals and sandbanks made it impossible for them to reach the sea. +They found that the Murray flowed into Encounter Bay, but thither they +could not pass. The thunder of the surf upon the shore brought no hope +to the tired explorers. They had no alternative but to turn back and +retrace their way. Terrible was the task that lay before them. On +half-rations and with hostile natives to encounter they must fight +their way against wind and stream. And they did it. They reached the +camp on the Murrumbidgee just seventy-seven days after leaving it; +but to their dismay it was deserted. The river, too, had risen in flood +and "poured its turbid waters with great violence." + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN STURT AT THE JUNCTION OF THE RIVERS DARLING +AND MURRAY. From the _Narrative of Sturt's Expedition_.] + +"For seventeen days," says Sturt, "we pulled against stream with +determined perseverance, but in our short daily journeys we made but +trifling way against it." The effects of severe toil were painfully +evident. The men lost the muscular jerk with the oars. Their arms were +nerveless, their faces haggard, their persons emaciated, their +spirits wholly spent. From sheer weariness they fell asleep at the +oar. No murmur, however, escaped them. + +"I must tell the captain to-morrow," said one, thinking that Sturt +was asleep, "that I can pull no more." But when the morrow came he +said no word, but pulled on with his remaining strength. One man went +mad. The last ounce of flour was consumed when relief arrived, and +the weary explorers at last reached Sydney with their great news. + +The result of this discovery was soon seen. In 1836 a shipload of +English emigrants arrived off Kangaroo Island, and soon a flourishing +colony was established at the mouth of the Murray River, the site of +the new capital being called Adelaide, after the wife of William IV. + +After this Sturt tried to cross Australia from south to north; but +though he opened up a good deal of new country, he failed to reach +the coast. He was rewarded by the President of the Royal Geographical +Society, who described him as "one of the most distinguished explorers +and geographers of our age." + +The feat of crossing Australia from south to north, from shore to shore, +was reserved for an Irishman called Burke in the year 1861. The story +of his expedition, though it was successful, is one of the saddest +in the history of discovery. The party left Melbourne in the highest +spirits. No expense had been spared to give them a good outfit; camels +had been imported from India, with native drivers, and food was +provided for a year. The men of Melbourne turned out in their hundreds +to see the start of Burke with his four companions, his camels, and +his horses. Starting in August 1860, the expedition arrived at +Cooper's Creek in November with half their journey done. But it was +not till December that the party divided, and Burke with his companions, +Wills, King, and Gray, six camels, and two horses, with food for three +months, started off for the coast, leaving the rest at Cooper's Creek +to await their return in about three months. After hard going they +reached a channel with tidal waters flowing into the Gulf of +Carpentaria on 28th March, but they could not get a view of the open +ocean because of boggy ground. + +[Illustration: THE BURKE AND WILLS EXPEDITION LEAVING MELBOURNE, 1860. +From a drawing by Wm. Strutt, an acquaintance of Burke.] + +They accomplished their task, but the return journey was disastrous. +Short rations soon began to tell, for they had taken longer than they +had calculated, and no food was to be found by the way. Gray was the +first to fail and to die. Heavy rains made the ground impossibly heavy, +and the camels sank to the ground exhausted. Finally they had to be +killed and eaten. Then the horses went. At long last the three weary +men and two utterly worn-out camels dragged themselves to Cooper's +Creek, hoping to find their companions and the food they had left there +four months ago. It was 21st April. Not a soul was to be seen! + +"King," cried Wills, in utter despair, "they are _gone_!" + +As the awful truth flashed on them Burke--their leader--threw himself +on to the ground, realising their terrible situation. They looked +round. On a tree they saw the word "Dig." In a bottle they found a +letter: "We leave the camp to-day, 21st April 1861. We have left you +some food. We take camels and horses." + +[Illustration: BURKE AND WILLS AT COOPER'S CREEK. From a woodcut in +a contemporary Australian account of the expedition.] + +Only a few hours ago the party had left Cooper's Creek! And the +explorers were too weak and tired to follow! They ate a welcome supper +of oatmeal porridge and then, after resting a couple of days; they +struggled on their way, three exhausted men and two tired camels. Their +food was soon finished, and they had to subsist on a black seed like +the natives called "nardoo." But they grew weaker and weaker, and the +way was long. The camels died first. Then Wills grew too ill to walk, +and there was nothing for it but to leave him and push on for help. +The natives were kind to him, but he was too far gone, and he died +before help could arrive. Burke and King sadly pushed on without him, +but a few days later Burke died, and in the heart of Australia the +one white man, King, was left alone. It was not till the following +September that he was found "sitting in a hut that the blacks had made +for him. He presented a melancholy appearance, wasted to a shadow and +hardly to be distinguished as a civilised being except by the remnants +of clothes on him." + +So out of that gay party of explorers who left Melbourne in the summer +of 1860 only one man returned to tell the story of success and the +sadder story of suffering and disaster. + + + + +CHAPTER LX + +ROSS MAKES DISCOVERIES IN THE ANTARCTIC SEAS + + +Now, while explorers were busy opening up Australian inland, Ross was +leaving the Australian waters for his voyage to the south. Four years +after the return of the Ross polar expedition, Sir John Franklin had +been made Governor of Van Diemen's Land, where he was visited by the +ships sent out from England on the first Antarctic expedition under +the command of Sir James Ross, who had returned to find himself famous +for his discovery of the North Magnetic Pole. + +An expedition had been fitted out, consisting of the _Erebus_ and the +_Terror_--ships which later on made history, for did they not carry +Sir John Franklin to his doom in the Arctic regions some years later? +The ships sailed in the autumn of 1839 by way of the Cape of Good Hope, +and excited great interest at Hobart Town, where the commanders, Ross +and Crozier, were warmly received by the Governor. In a bay, afterwards +called Ross Cove, the ships were repaired after the long voyage, while +an observatory was built by the convicts under the personal +supervision of Sir John Franklin. Interesting news awaited the +explorers, too, at Hobart Town. Exploration had taken place in the +southern regions by a French expedition under D'Urville and an +American, Lieutenant Wilkes--both of which had made considerable +discoveries. Ross was somewhat surprised at this, for, as he said, +"England had ever _led_ the way of discovery in the southern as well +as in the northern regions," but he decided to take a more easterly +course, and, if possible, to reach the South Magnetic Pole. + +On 5th November 1840 the ships were off again, shaping their course +for Auckland Island, nine hundred miles from Hobart Town. The island +had been discovered in 1806 by Captain Bristow. He had left some pigs, +whose rapid increase filled the explorers with surprise. Christmas +Day found them still sailing south, with strong gales, snow, and rain. +The first iceberg was seen a few days later, and land on 11th January. + +"It was a beautifully clear evening," says Ross, "and we had a most +enchanting view of the two magnificent ranges of mountains whose lofty +peaks, perfectly covered with eternal snow, rose to elevations of ten +thousand feet above the level of the ocean." These icy shores were +inhospitable enough, and the heavy surf breaking along its edge +forbade any landing. Indeed, a strong tide carried the ships rapidly +and dangerously along the coast among huge masses of ice. "The ceremony +of taking possession of these newly discovered lands in the name of +our Most Gracious Sovereign Queen Victoria was proceeded with, and +on planting the flag of our country amid the hearty cheers of our party, +we drank to the health, long life, and happiness of Her Majesty and +His Royal Highness Prince Albert." + +The end of the month found them farther south than any explorer had +sailed before. Everything was new, and they were suddenly startled +to find two volcanoes, one of which was active; steam and smoke rising +to a height of two thousand feet above the crater and descending as +mist and snow. Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, Ross called them, in +memory of his two ships. They sailed on, but soon were stopped by a +huge barrier of solid ice like a great white wall, one thousand feet +thick and one hundred and eighty feet above sea-level. They knew now +they could get no farther this season--they had reached a point one +hundred and sixty miles from the Pole. Could they but have wintered +here "in sight of the brilliant burning mountain and at so short a +distance from the Magnetic Pole," they might easily have reached it +the following spring,--so they thought,--but reluctantly Ross had to +turn. "Few can understand the deep feelings of regret with which I +felt myself compelled to abandon the perhaps too ambitious hope I had +so long cherished of being permitted to plant the flag of my country +on both Magnetic Poles of our globe." + +The whole of the great southern land they had discovered received the +name of Queen Victoria, which name it keeps to-day. They had been south +of the Antarctic Circle for sixty-three days, when they recrossed it +on 4th March. A few days later they narrowly escaped shipwreck. An +easterly wind drove them among some hundreds of icebergs. "For eight +hours," says Ross, "we had been gradually drifting towards what to +human eyes appeared inevitable destruction; the high waves and deep +rolling of our ships rendered towing with boats impossible, and our +situation was the more painful from our inability to make any effort +to avoid the dreadful calamity that seemed to await us. The roar of +the surf, which extended each way as far as we could see, and the dashing +of the ice fell upon the ear with painful distinctness as we +contemplated the awful destruction that threatened in one short hour +to close the world and all its hopes and joys and sorrows upon us for +ever. In this deep distress we called upon the Lord ... and our cry +came before Him. A gentler air of wind filled our sails; hope again +revived, and before dark we found ourselves far removed from every +danger." + +[Illustration: PART OF THE GREAT SOUTHERN ICE BARRIER, 450 MILES LONG, +180 FEET ABOVE SEA-LEVEL, AND 1000 FEET THICK. From Ross's _Voyage +in Antarctic Regions_.] + +April found them back again in Van Diemen's land, and though Ross sailed +again the following autumn into southern latitudes, he only reached +a point some few miles farther than before--being again stopped by +a great wall barrier of thick ice. After this he took his ship home +by way of Cape Horn, and "the shores of Old England came into view +on the 2nd of September 1843." After an absence of four years Ross +was welcomed home, and honours were showered on him, including the +award of the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of Paris. + + "Till then they had deemed that the Austral earth, + With a long, unbroken shore, + Ran on to the Pole Antarctic, + For such was the old sea lore." + + + + +CHAPTER LXI + +FRANKLIN DISCOVERS THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE + + +The whole coast-line of North America had now been charted, but the +famous North-West Passage, for which so many lives had been laid down, +had yet to be found. Sir John Barrow, "the father of modern Arctic +discovery," Secretary to the Admiralty, now decided to dispatch +another expedition to forge this last link and to connect, if possible, +the chain of all former discoveries. + +Many were the volunteers who came forward to serve in the new Arctic +expedition. But Sir John Franklin claimed the command as his special +right. + +"No service," he declared, "is nearer to my heart." + +He was reminded that rumour put his age at sixty, and that after a +long life of hard work he had earned some rest. + +"No, no!" cried the explorer; "I am only fifty-nine!" + +This decided the point, and Franklin was appointed to the _Erebus_ +and _Terror_, recently returned from the Antarctic expedition of Sir +James Ross. The ships were provisioned for three years, and with a +crew of one hundred and twenty-nine men and several officers, Sir John +Franklin left England for the last time on 19th May 1845. He was never +seen again! + +All were in the highest spirits, determined to solve the mystery of +the North-West Passage once and for all! So certain were they of success +that one of the officers wrote to a friend: "Write to Panama and the +Sandwich Islands every six months." + +On 4th July the ships anchored near the island of Disco on the west +coast of Greenland. After which all is silence. The rest of the story, +"one of the saddest ever told in connection with Arctic exploration," +is dovetailed together from the various scraps of information that +have been collected by those who sailed in search of the lost expedition +year by year. + +In 1848, Sir James Ross had sailed off in search of his missing friend, +and had reached a spot within three hundred miles of the _Erebus_ and +_Terror_ four months after they had been abandoned, but he returned +with no news of Franklin. + +Then Sir John Richardson started off, but found no trace! Others +followed. The Government offered 20,000 pounds, to which Lady Franklin +added 3000 pounds, to any one who should bring news of Franklin. By +the autumn of 1850 there were fifteen ships engaged in the search. +A few traces were found. It was discovered that Sir John Franklin had +spent his first winter (1845-46) at Beechey Island. Captain McClure +sailed along the north coast of America and made his way from the +Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean--thus showing the existence of a +north-west passage, for which he and his men were highly rewarded, +for at this time no one knew that Franklin had already found a passage +though he had not lived to tell the story of triumph and success. But +it was not till after years of silence that the story of the missing +expedition was cleared up. Lady Franklin purchased and fitted out a +little steam yacht, the _Fox_, of one hundred and seventy-seven tons. +The command was given to Captain McClintock, known to be an able and +enthusiastic Arctic navigator. He was to rescue any "possible survivor +of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, and to try and recover any records of +the lost expedition." + +[Illustration: ESKIMOS AT CAPE YORK WATCHING THE APPROACH OF THE _FOX_. +From McClintock's _Voyage in Search of Franklin_.] + +The 12th August found the little _Fox_ in Melville Bay made fast to +an iceberg, and a few days later she was frozen firmly into an ice-pack. +For two hundred and forty-two days she was beset, drifting all through +the long, bitter winter with the ice, till on 25th April 1858, after +having been carried over a thousand miles, she was released. +McClintock, undaunted by danger, turned northwards, and by May he had +reached Melville Bay. Thence up Lancaster Sound, he reached Beechey +Island in August and found there three lonely graves of three sailors +from the _Erebus_ and _Terror_. Here the English commander erected +a tablet sent out by Lady Franklin. + +[Illustration: THE THREE GRAVES ON BEECHEY ISLAND. From McClintock's +_Voyage in Search of Franklin_.] + +On the morning of 16th August, McClintock sailed from Beechey Island, +but the short summer was passing quickly and they had no fresh news +of the Franklin expedition. Half-way through Bellot Strait the _Fox_ +was again icebound, and another long winter had to be faced. By the +middle of February 1859 there was light enough to start some sledging +along the west coast of Boothia Felix. Days passed and McClintock +struggled on to the south, but no Eskimos appeared and no traces of +the lost explorers were to be found. Suddenly they discovered four +men walking after them. + +A naval button on one of the Eskimos attracted their attention. + +"It came," said the Eskimo, "from some white people who were starved +upon an island where there are salmon, but none of them had seen the +white men." + +Here was news at last--McClintock travelled on some ten miles to Cape +Victoria, where the Eskimos built him a "commodious snow-hut in half +an hour." Next morning the entire village of Eskimos arrived--some +forty-five people--bringing relics of the white men. There were silver +spoons, part of a gold chain, buttons, knives made of the iron and +wood of the wrecked ships. But none of these people had seen the white +men--one man said he had seen their bones upon the island where they +died, but some were buried. They said a ship "having three masts had +been crushed by the ice out in the sea to the west of King William's +Island." One old man made a rough sketch of the coast-line with his +spear upon the snow; he said it was eight journeys to where the ship +sank. + +McClintock hastened back to the ship with his news--he had by his +sleigh-journey added one hundred and twenty miles to the old charts +and "completed the discovery of the coast-line of Continental +America." + +[Illustration: EXPLORING PARTIES STARTING FROM THE _FOX_. From +McClintock's _Voyage of the_ "Fox" _in Search of Franklin_.] + +On 2nd April more sledge-parties started out to reach King William's +Island--the cold was still intense, the glare of the sun painful to +their eyes. The faces and lips of the men were blistered and cracked; +their fingers were constantly frostbitten. After nearly three weeks' +travelling they found snow-huts and Eskimos at Cape Victoria. Here +they found more traces of Franklin's party--preserved meat tins, brass +knives, a mahogany board. In answer to their inquiries, they heard +that two ships had been seen by the natives of King William's Island; +one had been seen to sink in deep water, the other was forced on shore +and broken up. "It was in the fall of the year (August or September)," +they said, when the ships were destroyed, that all the white people +went away to the large river, taking a boat with them, and that in +the following winter their bones were found there. + +McClintock now made his way to the opposite coast of King William's +Island. Here he found Eskimos with pieces of silver-plate bearing the +crest and initials of Sir John Franklin and some of his officers. They +said it was five days' journey to the wreck, of which little now +remained. There had been many books, said the Eskimos, but they had +been destroyed by the weather. One woman volunteered a statement. +"Many of the white men," she said, "dropped by the way as they went +to the Great River. Some were buried and some were not. Their bodies +were discovered during the winter following." Moving onwards, +McClintock reached the Great Fish River on the morning of 12th May. +A furious gale was raging and the air was heavy with snow, but they +encamped there to search for relics. With pickaxes and shovels they +searched in vain. No Eskimos were to be found, and at last in despair +the little party of explorers faced homewards. McClintock was slowly +walking near the beach, when he suddenly came upon a human skeleton, +lying face downwards, half buried in the snow. It wore a blue jacket +with slashed sleeves and braided edging and a greatcoat of +pilot-cloth. + +The old woman was right. "They fell down and died as they walked along." +And now the reward of the explorers was at hand. On the north-west +coast of King William's Island was found a cairn and a blue ship's +paper, weatherworn and ragged, relating in simple language, written +by one of the ship's officers, the fate of the Franklin expedition. +The first entry was cheerful enough. In 1846 all was well. His Majesty's +ships, _Erebus_ and _Terror_, wintered in the ice--at Beechey Island, +after having ascended Wellington Channel and returned to the west side +of Cornwallis Island. Sir John Franklin was commanding the expedition. +The results of their first year's labour was encouraging. In 1846 they +had been within twelve miles of King William's Island, when winter +stopped them. But a later entry, written in April 1848, states that +the ships were deserted on 22nd April, having been beset in ice since +September 1846--that Sir John Franklin had died on 11th June 1847, +and that Captain Crozier was in command. + +Then came the last words, "And start to-morrow twenty-sixth for Back's +Fish River." That was all. + +After a diligent search in the neighbourhood for journals or relics, +McClintock led his party along the coast, till on 30th May they found +another relic in the shape of a large boat, with a quantity of tattered +clothing lying in her. She had been evidently equipped for the ascent +of the Great Fish River. She had been built at Woolwich Dockyard; near +her lay two human skeletons, a pair of worker slippers, some watches, +guns, a _Vicar of Wakefield_, a small Bible, New Testament, and Prayer +Book, seven or eight pairs of boots, some silk handkerchiefs, towels, +soap, sponge, combs, twine, nails, shot, and cartridges, needle and +thread cases, some tea and chocolate, and a little tobacco. + +Everything was carefully collected and brought back to the ship, which +was reached on 19th June. Two months later the little _Fox_ was free +from ice and McClintock reached London towards the end of September, +to make known his great discovery. + +The rest of the story is well known. Most of us know the interesting +collection of Franklin relics in the United Service Institution in +London, and the monument in Waterloo Place to "the great navigator +and his brave companions who sacrificed their lives in completing the +discovery of the North-West Passage." + +It was acknowledged "that to Sir John Franklin is due the priority +of discovery of the North-West Passage--that last link to forge which +he sacrificed his life." + +And on the marble monument in Westminster Abbey, Tennyson, a nephew +of Sir John Franklin, wrote his well-known lines-- + + "Not here, the white north hath thy bones, and thou, + Heroic Sailor Soul, + Art passing on thy happier voyage now + Towards no earthly pole." + + + + +CHAPTER LXII + +DAVID LIVINGSTONE + + +"I shall open up a path to the interior or perish." + +Such were the words of one of the greatest explorers of Africa in the +nineteenth century. Determination was the keynote of his character +even as a young boy. At the age of ten he was at work in a cotton factory +in Scotland: with his first week's wages he bought a Latin grammar. +Fourteen hours of daily work left little time for reading, but he +educated himself, till at nineteen he was resolved to be a medical +missionary. + +"In the glow of love which Christianity inspires, I resolved to devote +my life to the alleviation of human misery." He was accepted for service +by the London Missionary Society, and in the year 1840 he sailed for +South Africa. After a voyage of three months he arrived at Cape Town +and made his way in a slow ox-waggon seven hundred miles to Kuruman, +a small mission station in the heart of Bechuanaland where Dr. Moffat +had laboured for twenty years. He did well, and two years later he +was sent north to form another mission station at Mabotsa (Transvaal). +Having married Moffat's daughter Mary, he worked in these parts till +June 1849, when, with his wife and three children, he started with +oxen and waggon for a journey northwards. Across the great Kalahari +Desert moved the exploring family, till they came to the river called +Zouga, which, said the natives, led to a large lake named Lake Ngami. +In native canoes, Livingstone and his little family ascended this +beautifully wooded river, "resembling the river Clyde above Glasgow," +till on 1st August 1849, Lake Ngami appeared, "and for the first time," +says Livingstone, "this fine sheet of water was beheld by Europeans." +The lake was two thousand eight hundred feet above the sea, but the +climate was terribly unhealthy. The children grew feverish, and +mosquitoes made life a misery to them, while the tsetse fly made further +exploration for the moment impossible. So the family journeyed back +to headquarters for a time. But Livingstone was unsatisfied, and once +more in 1851 we find him starting again with wife and children to seek +the great river Zambesi, known to exist in central Africa, though the +Portuguese maps represented it as rising far to the east of +Livingstone's discovery. + +[Illustration: LIVINGSTONE, WITH HIS WIFE AND FAMILY, AT THE DISCOVERY +OF LAKE NGAMI. From Livingstone's _Missionary Travels_.] + +"It was the end of June 1851," he tells us, "that we were rewarded +by the discovery of the Zambesi in the centre of the continent. This +was an important point, for that river was not previously known to +exist there at all. As we were the very first white men the inhabitants +had ever seen, we were visited by prodigious numbers of Makololo in +garments of blue, green, and red baize." Livingstone wanted to know +more of this unknown river, but he now decided that exploring with +a wife and family was not only perilous, but difficult, so he returned +to the coast, put them on a homeward-bound ship for England, and +returned to central Africa to continue his work of exploration alone. + +It was 11th November 1853 when Livingstone left the town of Linyanti +in the very heart of central Africa for his great journey to the west +coast to trace the course of the Zambesi. + + "The Zambesi. Nobody knows + Whence it comes and whither it goes." + +So ran an old canoe-song of the natives. + +With twenty-seven faithful black Makololos, with "only a few biscuits, +a little tea and sugar, twenty pounds of coffee and three books," with +a horse rug and sheepskin for bedding and a small gipsy tent and a +tin canister, fifteen inches square, filled with a spare shirt, +trousers, and shoes for civilised life, and a few scientific +instruments, the English explorer started for a six months' journey. +Soon his black guides had embarked in their canoes and were making +their way up the Zambesi. "No rain has fallen here," he writes on 30th +November, "so it is excessively hot. The atmosphere is oppressive both +in cloud and sunshine." Livingstone suffered badly from fever during +the entire journey. But the blacks took fatherly care of him. "As soon +as we land," he says, "the men cut a little grass for my bed, while +the poles of my little tent are planted. The bed is made and boxes +ranged on each side of it, and then the tent pitched over all. Two +Makololos occupy my right and left both in eating and sleeping as long +as the journey lasts, but my head boatman makes his bed at the door +of the tent as soon as I retire." + +As they advanced up the Barotse valley, rains had fallen and the woods +had put on their gayest hue. Flowers of great beauty grew everywhere. +"The ground begins to swarm with insect life, and in the cool, pleasant +mornings the place rings with the singing of birds." + +On 6th January 1854 they left the river and rode oxen through the dense +parts of the country through which they had now to pass. Through heavy +rains and with very little food, they toiled on westward through miles +and miles of swamp intersected by streams flowing southward to the +Zambesi basin. One day Livingstone's ox, Sindbad, threw him, and he +had to struggle wearily forward on foot. His strength was failing. +His meagre fare varied by boiled zebra and dried elephant, frequent +wettings and constant fever, were reducing him to a mere skeleton. +At last on 26th March he arrived at the edge of the high land over +which he had so long been travelling. "It is so steep," he tells us, +"that I was obliged to dismount, and I was so weak that I had to be +led by my companions to prevent my toppling over in walking down. Below +us lay the valley of the Kwango in glorious sunlight." Another +fortnight and they were in Portuguese territory. The sight of white +men once more and a collection of traders' huts was a welcome sight +to the weary traveller. The commandant at once took pity on Livingstone, +but after a refreshing stay of ten days the English explorer started +off westward to the coast. For another month he pursued his way. It +was 31st May 1854. As the party neared the town of Loanda, the black +Makololos began to grow nervous. "We have stood by each other hitherto +and will do so to the last," Livingstone assured them, as they all +staggered into the city by the seashore. Here they found one Englishman +sent out for the suppression of the slave trade, who at once gave up +his bed to the stricken and emaciated explorer. "Never shall I forget," +he says, "the luxury I enjoyed in feeling myself again on a good English +bed after six months' sleeping on the ground." + +Nor were the Makololos forgotten. They were entertained on board an +English man-of-war lying off the coast. Livingstone was offered a +passage home, but he tells us: "I declined the tempting offers of my +friends, and resolved to take back my Makololo companions to their +Chief, with a view of making a path from here to the east coast by +means of the great river Zambesi." + +With this object in view, he turned his back on home and comfort, and +on 20th September 1854 he left Loanda and "the white man's sea," as +the black guides called the Atlantic Ocean that washes the shores of +West Africa. Their way lay through the Angola country, rich in wild +coffee and cotton plantations. The weather was as usual still and +oppressive, but slowly Livingstone made his way eastward. He suffered +badly from fever as he had done on the outward journey. It had taken +him six months to reach Loanda from central Africa; it took a year +to complete the return journey, and it was September 1855 before +Linyanti was again reached. Waggons and goods left there eighteen +months before were safe, together with many welcome letters from home. +The return of the travellers after so long an absence was a cause of +great rejoicing. All the wonderful things the Makololos had seen and +heard were rehearsed many times before appreciative audiences. +Livingstone was more than ever a hero in their eyes, and his kindness +to his men was not forgotten. He had no difficulty in getting recruits +for the journey down the Zambesi to the sea, for which he was now making +preparations. + +On 3rd November he was ready to resume his long march across Africa. +He was much better equipped on this occasion; he rode a horse instead +of an ox, and his guide, Sekwebu, knew the river well. The first night +out they were unfortunately caught in a terrific thunderstorm +accompanied by sheet-lightning, which lit up the whole country and +flooded it with torrents of tropical rain. + +A few days' travelling brought the party to the famous Zambesi Falls, +called by the natives "where smoke sounds," but renamed by Livingstone +after the Queen of England, Victoria. The first account of these now +famous Falls is very vivid. "Five columns of vapour, appropriately +named smoke, bending in the direction of the wind, appeared to mingle +with the clouds. The whole scene was extremely beautiful. It had never +been seen before by European eyes. When about half a mile from the +Falls, I left the canoe and embarked in a lighter one with men well +acquainted with the rapids, who brought me to an island in the middle +of the river and on the edge of the lip over which the water rolls. +Creeping with care to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which +had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambesi. In looking down +into the fissure one sees nothing but a dense white cloud; from this +cloud rushed up a great jet of vapour exactly like steam, and it mounted +two or three hundred feet high." + +[Illustration: THE "SMOKE" OF THE ZAMBESI (VICTORIA) FALLS. After a +drawing in Livingstone's _Missionary Travels_.] + +Livingstone now continued his perilous journey with his hundred men +along the Zambesi, the country once densely populated, now desolate +and still. The Bakota tribes, "the colour of coffee and milk," were +friendly, and "great numbers came from all the surrounding villages +and expressed great joy at the appearance of a white man and harbinger +of peace." They brought in large supplies of food, and expressed great +delight when Livingstone doctored their children, who were suffering +from whooping-cough. As they neared the coast, they became aware of +hostile forces. This was explained when they were met by a Portuguese +half-caste "with jacket and hat on," who informed them that for the +last two years they had been fighting the natives. Plunging thus +unconsciously into the midst of a Kafir war rendered travelling +unpleasant and dangerous. In addition, the party of explorers found +their animals woefully bitten by the tsetse fly, rhinoceroses and +elephants were too plentiful to be interesting, and the great white +ant made itself tiresome. + +It was 3rd March before Livingstone reached Tete, two hundred and sixty +miles from the coast. The last stages of the journey had been very +beautiful. Many of the hills were of pure white marble, and pink marble +formed the bed of more than one of the streams. Through this country +the Zambesi rolled down toward the coast at the rate of four miles +an hour, while flocks of water-fowl swarmed upon its banks or flew +over its waters. Tete was the farthest outpost of the Portuguese. +Livingstone was most kindly received by the governor, but fever again +laid him low, and he had to remain here for three weeks before he was +strong enough to start for the last stage of his journey to the coast. +He left his Makololos here, promising to return some day to take them +home again. They believed in him implicitly, and remained there three +years, when he returned according to his word. Leaving Tete, he now +embarked on the waters of the Zambesi, high with a fourth annual rise, +which bore him to Sena in five days. So swift is the current at times +that twenty-four hours is enough to take a boat from Tete to Sena, +whereas the return journey may take twenty days. + +"I thought the state of Tete quite lamentable," says Livingstone, but +that of Sena was ten times worse. "It is impossible to describe the +miserable state of decay into which the Portuguese possessions here +have sunk." + +Though suffering badly from fever, Livingstone pushed on; he passed +the important tributary of the Zambesi, the Shire, which he afterwards +explored, and finally reached Quilimane on the shores of the Indian +Ocean. It was now 20th May 1856, just four years after he had left +Cape Town on his great journey from west to east, since when he had +travelled eleven thousand miles. After waiting six weeks on the "great +mud bank, surrounded by extensive swamps and rice grounds," which form +the site of Quilimane, Livingstone embarked on board a gunboat, the +_Frolic_, for England. He had one Makololo with him--the faithful +Sekwebu. The poor black man begged to be allowed to follow his master +on the seas. + +"But," said Livingstone, "you will die if you go to such a cold country +as mine." + +"Let me die at your feet," pleaded the black man. + +He had not been to Loanda, so he had never seen the sea before. Waves +were breaking over the bar at Quilimane and dashing over the boat that +carried Sekwebu out to the brig. He was terribly alarmed, but he lived +to reach Mauritius, where he became insane, hurled himself into the +sea, and was drowned! + +On 12th December 1856, Livingstone landed in England after an absence +of sixteen years. He had left home as an obscure missionary; he returned +to find himself famous. The Royal Geographical Society awarded him +its gold medal; France and Scotland hastened to do him honour. Banquets +and receptions were given for him, and finally this "plain, +single-minded man, somewhat attenuated by years of toil, and with his +face tinged by the sun of Africa," was received by the Queen at Windsor. +The enthusiasm aroused by this longest expedition in the history of +African travel was unrivalled, and the name of Livingstone was on every +lip. But meanwhile others were at work in central Africa, and we must +turn from the discoveries of Livingstone for the moment. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIII + +BURTON AND SPEKE IN CENTRAL AFRICA + + +Livingstone had just left Loanda and was making his way across Africa +from west to east, when an English expedition set forth to find the +Great Lakes still lying solitary and undiscovered, although they were +known to exist. If we turn to the oldest maps of Africa, we find, rudely +drawn and incorrectly placed, large inland waters, that may +nevertheless be recognised as these lakes just about to be revealed +to a wondering world. Ptolemy knew of them, the Arabs spoke of them, +Portuguese traders had passed them, and a German missionary had caught +sight of the Mountains of the Moon and brought back strange stories +of a great inland lake. + +The work of rediscovering the lakes was entrusted to a remarkable man +named Richard Burton, a man whose love of adventure was well known. +He had already shown his metal by entering Mecca disguised as a Persian, +and disguised as an Arab he had entered Harar, a den of slave traders, +the "Timbuktu of Eastern Africa." On his return he was attacked by +the Somalis; one of his companions was killed, another, Speke, escaped +with terrible spear-wounds, and he himself was badly wounded. + +Such were the men who in 1856 were dispatched by the Royal Geographical +Society for the exploration of the mysterious lakes in the heart of +central Africa. Speke gives us an idea of the ignorance prevailing +on this subject only fifty-six years ago: "On the walls of the Society's +rooms there hung a large diagram constructed by two missionaries +carrying on their duties at Zanzibar. In this section map, swallowing +up about half of the whole area of the ground included in it, there +figured a lake of such portentous size and such unseemly shape, +representing a gigantic slug, that everybody who looked at it +incredulously laughed and shook his head--a single sheet of sweet +water, upwards of eight hundred miles long by three hundred broad, +equal in size to the great salt Caspian." + +It was April 1857 before Burton and Speke had collected an escort and +guides at Zanzibar, the great slave market of East Africa, and were +ready to start for the interior. "We could obtain no useful information +from the European merchants of Zanzibar, who are mostly ignorant of +everything beyond the island," Burke wrote home on 22nd April. + +At last on 27th June, with thirty-six men and thirty donkeys, the party +set out for the great malarious coast-belt which had to be crossed +before Kaze, some five hundred miles distant, could be reached. After +three months' arduous travelling--both Burton and Speke were badly +stricken with fever--they reached Kaze. Speke now spread open the map +of the missionaries and inquired of the natives where the enormous +lake was to be found. To their intense surprise they found the +missionaries had run three lakes into one, and the three lakes were +Lake Nyassa, Tanganyika, and Victoria Nyanza. They stayed over a month +at Kaze, till Burton seemed at the point of death, and Speke had him +carried out of the unhealthy town. It was January before they made +a start and continued their journey westward to Ugyi. + +"It is a wonderful thing," says Drummond, "to start from the +civilisation of Europe, pass up these mighty rivers, and work your +way alone and on foot, mile after mile, month after month, among strange +birds and beasts and plants and insects, meeting tribes which have +no name, speaking tongues which no man can interpret, till you have +reached its sacred heart and stood where white man has never trod +before." + +[Illustration: BURTON IN A DUG-OUT ON LAKE TANGANYIKA. After a drawing +by Burton.] + +As the two men tramped on, the streams began to drain to the west and +the land grew more fertile, till one hundred and fifty miles from Kaze +they began to ascend the slope of mountains overhanging the northern +half of Lake Tanganyika. "This mountain mass," says Speke, "I consider +to be the True Mountains of the Moon." From the top of the mountains +the lovely Tanganyika Lake could be seen in all its glory by Burton. +But to Speke it was a mere mist. The glare of the sun and oft-repeated +fever had begun to tell on him, and a kind of inflammation had produced +almost total blindness. But they had reached the lake and they felt +sure they had found the source of the Nile. It was a great day when +Speke crossed the lake in a long canoe hollowed out of the trunk of +a tree and manned by twenty native savages under the command of a +captain in a "goatskin uniform." On the far side they encamped on the +opposite shore, Speke being the first white man to cross the lake. + +Having retired to his hut for the night, Speke proceeded to light a +candle and arrange his baggage, when to his horror he found the whole +interior swarming with black beetles. Tired of trying to brush them +away, he put out his light and, though they crawled up his sleeves +and down his back, he fell asleep. Suddenly he woke to find one crawling +into his ear, and in spite of his frantic efforts it crept in farther +and farther till it reached the drum, which caused the tired explorer +intense agony. Inflammation ensued, his face became drawn, he could +with difficulty swallow a little broth, and he was quite deaf. He +returned across the lake to find his companion, Burton, still very +ill and unfit for further exploration. + +So Speke, although still suffering from his ear, started off again, +leaving Burton behind, to find the great northern lake spoken of as +the sea of Ukerewe, where the Arabs traded largely in ivory. There +was a great empire beyond the lake, they told him, called Uganda. + +But it was July 1858 when the caravan was ready to start from Kaze. +Speke himself carried Burton's large elephant gun. "I commenced the +journey," he says, "at 6 p.m., as soon as the two donkeys I took with +me to ride were caught and saddled. It was a dreary beginning. The +escort who accompanied me were sullen in their manner and walked with +heavy gait and downcast countenance. The nature of the track increased +the general gloom. + +"For several weeks the caravan moved forward, till on 3rd August it +began to wind up a long but gradually inclined hill, until it reached +its summit, when the vast expanse of the pale blue waters of the Nyanza +burst suddenly upon my eyes! It was early morning. The distant sea-line +of the north horizon was defined in the calm atmosphere, but I could +get no idea of the breadth of the lake, as an archipelago of islands, +each consisting of a single hill rising to a height of two or three +hundred feet above the water, intersected the line of vision to the +left. A sheet of water extended far away to the eastward. The view +was one which even in a well-known country would have arrested the +traveller by its peaceful beauty. But the pleasure of the mere view +vanished in the presence of those more intense emotions called up by +the geographical importance of the scene before me. I no longer felt +any doubt that the lake at my feet gave birth to that interesting river +(Nile), the source of which has been the subject of so much speculation +and the object of so many explorers. This is a far more extensive lake +than Tanganyika; it is so broad that you could not see across it, and +so long that nobody knew its length. This magnificent sheet of water +I have ventured to name Victoria after our gracious sovereign." + +[Illustration: BURTON AND HIS COMPANIONS ON THE MARCH TO THE VICTORIA +NYANZA. From a humorous sketch by Burton.] + +Speke returned to Kaze after his six weeks' eventful journey, having +tramped no less than four hundred and fifty-two miles. He received +a warm welcome from Burton, who had been very uneasy about his safety, +for rumours of civil war had reached him. "I laughed over the matter," +says Speke, "but expressed my regret that he did not accompany me, +as I felt quite certain in my mind I had discovered the source of the +Nile." + +Together the two explorers now made their way to the coast and crossed +to Aden, where Burton, still weak and ill, decided to remain for a +little, while Speke took passage in a passing ship for home. + +When he showed his map of Tanganyika and Victoria Nyanza to the +President of the Royal Geographical Society in London, Sir Roderick +Murchison was delighted. + +"Speke, we must send you there again," he said enthusiastically. + +And the expedition was regarded as "one of the most notable discoveries +in the annals of African discovery." + + + + +CHAPTER LXIV + +LIVINGSTONE TRACES LAKE SHIRWA AND NYASSA + + +Burton and Speke had not yet returned from central Africa, when +Livingstone left England on another expedition into the interior, with +orders "to extend the knowledge already attained of the geography of +eastern and central Africa and to encourage trade." Leaving England +on 10th March 1858, he reached the east coast the following May as +British Consul of Quilimane, the region which lies about the mouth +of the Zambesi. Livingstone had brought out with him a small +steam-launch called by the natives the _Ma-Robert_ after Mrs. +Livingstone, the mother of Robert, their eldest child. In this little +steam-launch he made his way up the Shire River, which flows into the +Zambesi quite near its mouth. "The delight of threading out the +meanderings of upwards of two hundred miles of a hitherto unexplored +river must be felt to be appreciated," says Livingstone in his diary. +At the end of this two hundred miles further progress became impossible +because of rapids which no boat could pass. "These magnificent +cataracts we called the Murchison Cataracts, after one whose name has +already a world-wide fame," says Livingstone. Leaving their boat here, +they started on foot for the Great Lake described by the natives. It +took them a month of hard travelling to reach their goal. Their way +lay over the native tracks which run as a network over this part of +the world. "They are veritable footpaths, never over a foot in breadth, +beaten as hard as adamant by centuries of native traffic. Like the +roads of the old Romans, they run straight on over everything, ridge +and mountain and valley." + +[Illustration: THE _MA-ROBERT_ ON THE ZAMBESI. After a drawing in +Livingstone's _Expedition to the Zambesi_.] + +On 18th April, Lake Shirwa came into sight, "a considerable body of +bitter water, containing leeches, fish, crocodiles, and hippopotami. +The country around is very beautiful," adds Livingstone, "and clothed +with rich vegetation, and the waves breaking and foaming over a rock, +added to the beauty of the picture. Exceedingly lofty mountains stand +near the eastern shore." + +No white man had gazed at the lake before. Though one of the smaller +African lakes, Shirwa is probably larger than all the lakes of Great +Britain put together. Returning to Tete, the explorer now prepared +for his journey to the farther Lake Nyassa. This was to be no new +discovery. The Portuguese knew the locality of Lake Shirwa, and at +the beginning of the seventeenth century Nyassa was familiar to them +under another name. Landing at the same spot on the Shire banks as +before, Livingstone, with thirty-six Makololo porters and two native +guides, ascended the beautiful Shire Highlands, some twelve hundred +feet above sea-level, and crossed the range on which Zomba, the +residence of the British Commissioner for Nyassaland, now stands. When +within a day's march of their goal they were told that no lake had +ever been heard of in the neighbourhood, but, said the natives, the +river Shire stretched on, and it would take two months to reach the +end, which came out of perpendicular rocks which towered almost to +the skies. + +"Let us go back to the ship," said the followers; "it is no use trying +to find the lake." + +But Livingstone persevered, and he was soon rewarded by finding a sheet +of water, which was indeed the beginning of Lake Nyassa. It was 16th +September 1859. + +"How far is it to the end of the lake?" he asked. + +"The other end of the lake? Who ever heard of such a thing? Why, if +one started when a mere boy to walk to the other end of the lake, he +would be an old grey-headed man before he got there," declared one +of the natives. Livingstone knew that he had opened up a great waterway +to the interior of Africa, but the slave trade in these parts was +terrible, gangs being employed in carrying the ivory from countries +to the north down to the east coast. The English explorer saw that +if he could establish a steamer upon this Lake Nyassa and buy ivory +from the natives with European goods he would at once strike a deadly +blow at the slave trade. His letters home stirred several missionaries +to come out and establish a settlement on the banks of the Shire River. +Bishop Mackenzie and a little band of helpers arrived on the river +Shire two years later, and in 1862 Mrs. Livingstone joined them, +bringing out with her a little new steamer to launch on the Lake Nyassa. +But the unhealthy season was at its height, and "the surrounding low +land, rank with vegetation and reeking from the late rainy season, +exhaled the malarious poison in enormous quantities." Mrs. +Livingstone fell ill, and in a week she was dead. She was buried under +a large baobab tree at Shapunga, where her grave is visited by many +a traveller passing through this once solitary region first penetrated +by her husband. + +The blow was a crushing one for Livingstone, and for a time he was +quite bewildered. But when his old energy returned he superintended +the launching of the little steamer, the _Lady Nyassa_. But +disappointment and failure awaited him, and at last, just two years +after the death of his wife, he took the _Lady Nyassa_ to Zanzibar +by the Rovuma River and set forth to reach Bombay, where he hoped to +sell her, for his funds were low. + +On the last day of April 1864 he started on his perilous journey. Though +warned that the monsoon would shortly break, he would not be deterred. +And after sailing two thousand five hundred miles in the little boat +built only for river and lake, "a forest of masts one day loomed through +the haze in Bombay harbour," and he was safe. After a brief stay here, +Livingstone left his little launch and made his way to England on a +mail-packet. + +But no one realised at this time the importance of his new discoveries. +No one foresaw the value of "Nyassaland" now under British +protectorate. Livingstone had brought to light a lake fifteen hundred +and seventy feet above the sea, three hundred and fifty miles long +and forty broad, up and down which British steamers make their way +to-day, while the long range of mountains lining the eastern bank, +known as the Livingstone range, testify to the fact that he had done +much, even if he might have done more. + + + + +CHAPTER LXV + +EXPEDITION TO VICTORIA NYANZA + + +While Livingstone was discovering Lake Nyassa, Speke was busy +preparing for a new expedition to find out more about the great sheet +of water he had named Victoria Nyanza and to solve the vexed question: +Was this the source of the Nile? + +In April 1860, accompanied by Captain Grant, an old friend and brother +sportsman, he left England, and by way of the Cape reached Zanzibar +some five months later. The two explorers started for their great +inland journey early in October, with some hundred followers, bound +for the great lake. But it was January 1861 before they had covered +the five hundred miles between the coast and Kaze, the old +halting-station of Burton and Speke. Through the agricultural plains +known as Uzarana, the country of Rana, where many negro porters +deserted, because they believed the white men were cannibals and +intended to eat them when safe away from the haunts of men; through +Usagara, the country of Gara, where Captain Grant was seized with +fever; through Ugogo's great wilderness, where buffalo and rhinoceros +abounded, where the country was flooded with tropical rains, on to +the land of the Moon, three thousand feet above sea-level, till the +slowly moving caravan reached Kaze. Here terrible accounts of famine +and war reached them, and, instead of following Speke's route of 1858, +they turned north-west and entered the Uzinza country, governed by +two chieftains of Abyssinian descent. Here Speke was taken desperately +ill. His cough gave him no rest day or night; his legs were "reduced +to the appearance of pipe-sticks." But, emaciated as he was, he made +his way onwards, till the explorers were rewarded by finding a +"beautiful sheet of water lying snugly within the folds of the hills," +which they named the Little Windermere, because they thought it was +so like "our own English lake of that name. To do royal honours to +the king of this charming land, I ordered my men," says Speke, "to +put down their loads and fire a volley." + +The king, whom they next visited, was a fine-looking man, who, with +his brother, sat cross-legged on the ground, with huge pipes of black +clay by their sides, while behind them, "squatting quiet as mice," +were the king's sons, six or seven lads, with little dream-charms under +their chins! The king shook hands in true English fashion and was full +of inquiries. Speke described the world, the proportions of land and +water, and the large ships on the sea, and begged to be allowed to +pass through his kingdom to Uganda. The explorers learnt much about +the surrounding country, and spent Christmas Day with a good feast +of roast beef. The start for Uganda was delayed by the serious illness +of Grant, until at last Speke reluctantly decided to leave him with +the friendly king, while he made his way alone to Uganda and the Lake +Victoria Nyanza. It was the end of January 1861 when the English +explorer entered the unknown kingdom of Uganda. Messengers from the +king, M'tesa, came to him. "Now," they said, "you have really entered +the kingdom of Uganda, for the future you must buy no more food. At +every place that you stop for the day, the officer in charge will bring +you plantains." + +[Illustration: M'TESA, KING OF UGANDA. From Speke's _Journey to +Discover the Source of the Nile_.] + +The king's palace was ten days' march; the way lay along the western +coast of the Lake Victoria Nyanza, the roads were "as broad as our +coach roads cut through the long grass straight over the hills and +down through the woods. The temperature was perfect. The whole land +was a picture of quiescent beauty, with a boundless sea in the +background." + +On 13th February, Speke found a large volume of water going to the +north. "I took off my clothes," he says, "and jumped into the stream, +which I found was twelve yards broad and deeper than my height. I was +delighted beyond measure, for I had, to all appearance, found one of +the branches of the Nile's exit from the Nyanza." + +But he had not reached the Nile yet. It was not till the end of July +that he reached his goal. + +"Here at last," he says, "I stood on the brink of the Nile, most +beautiful was the scene, nothing could surpass it--a magnificent +stream from six hundred to seven hundred yards wide, dotted with islets +and rocks, the former occupied by fishermen's huts, the latter by +crocodiles basking in the sun. I told my men they ought to bathe in +the holy river, the cradle of Moses." + +Marching onwards, they found the waterfall, which Speke named the +Ripon Falls, "by far the most interesting sight I had seen in Africa." +The arm of the water from which the Nile issued he named "Napoleon +Channel," out of respect to the French Geographical Society for the +honour they had done him just before leaving England in presenting +their gold medal for the discovery of Victoria Nyanza. + +[Illustration: THE RIPON FALLS ON THE VICTORIA NYANZA. From Speke's +_Journey to Discover the Source of the Nile_.] + +The English explorers had now spent six months in Uganda. The +civilisation in this country of M'tesa's has passed into history. +Every one was clothed, and even little boys held their skin-cloaks +tightly round them lest their bare legs might by accident be seen! +Everything was clean and orderly under the all-powerful ruler M'tesa. +Grant, who arrived in the end of May, carried in a litter, found Speke +had not yet obtained leave from the king to "open the country to the +north, that an uninterrupted line of commerce might exist between +England and Uganda by means of the Nile." But at last on 3rd July he +writes with joy: "The moment of triumph has come at last and suddenly +the road is granted." + +The explorers bid farewell to M'tesa. "We rose with an English bow, +placing the hand on the heart, whilst saying adieu; and whatever we +did M'tesa in an instant mimicked with the instinct of a monkey." + +In five boats of five planks each tied together and caulked with rags, +Speke started with a small escort and crew to reach the palace of the +neighbouring king, Kamrasi, "father of all the kings," in the province +of Unyoro. After some fierce opposition they entered the palace of +the king, a poor creature. Rumours had reached him that these two white +men were cannibals and sorcerers. His palace was indeed a contrast +to that of M'tesa. It was merely a dirty hut approached by a lane +ankle-deep in mud and cow-manure. The king's sisters were not allowed +to marry; their only occupation was to drink milk from morning to night, +with the result that they grew so fat it took eight men to lift one +of them, when walking became impossible. Superstition was rife, and +the explorers were not sorry to leave Unyoro _en route_ for Cairo. +Speke and Grant now believed that, except for a few cataracts, the +waterway to England was unbroken. The Karuma Falls broke the monotony +of the way, and here the party halted a while before plunging into +the Kidi wilderness across which they intended to march to save a great +bend of the river. Their path lay through swampy jungles and high grass, +while great grassy plains, where buffaloes were seen and the roar of +lions was heard, stretched away on every side. + +[Illustration: CAPTAINS SPEKE AND GRANT.] + +Suddenly they reached a huge rock covered with huts, in front of which +groups of black men were perched like monkeys, evidently awaiting the +arrival of the white men. They were painted in the most brilliant +colours, though without clothes, for the civilisation of Uganda had +been left far behind. Pushing on, they reached the Madi country, where +again civilisation awaited them in the shape of Turks. It was on 3rd +December that they saw to their great surprise three large red flags +carried in front of a military procession which marched out of camp +with drums and fifes playing. + +"A very black man named Mohammed, in full Egyptian regimentals, with +a curved sword, ordered his regiment to halt, and threw himself into +my arms endeavouring to kiss me," says Speke. "Having reached his huts, +he gave us two beds to sit upon, and ordered his wives to advance on +their knees and give us coffee." + +"I have directions to take you to Gondokoro as soon as you come," said +Mohammed. + +Yet they were detained till 11th January, when in sheer desperation +they started off, and in two days reached the Nile. Having no boats, +they continued their march overland till 15th February, when the masts +of Nile boats came in sight, and soon after the two explorers walked +into Gondokoro. Then a strange thing happened. "We saw hurrying on +towards us the form of an Englishman, and the next moment my old friend +Baker, famed for his sports in Ceylon, seized me by the hand. What +joy this was I can hardly tell. We could not talk fast enough, so +overwhelmed were we both to meet again. Of course we were his guests, +and soon learned everything that could be told. I now first heard of +the death of H.R.H. the Prince Consort. Baker said he had come up with +three vessels fully equipped with armed men, camels, horses, donkeys, +and everything necessary for a long journey, expressly to look after +us. Three Dutch ladies also, with a view to assist us (God bless them!), +had come here in a steamer, but were driven back to Khartum by sickness. +Nobody had dreamt for a moment it was possible we could come through." + +Leaving Baker to continue his way to central Africa, Speke and Grant +made their way home to England, where they arrived in safety after +an absence of three years and fifty-one days, with their great news +of the discovery of Uganda and their further exploration of Victoria +Nyanza. When Speke reached Alexandria he had telegraphed home: "The +Nile is settled." But he was wrong. The Nile was not settled, and many +an expedition was yet to make its way to the great lakes before the +problem was to be solved. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVI + +BAKER FINDS ALBERT NYANZA + + +Baker had not been long at Gondokoro when the two English explorers +arrived from the south. + +"In March 1861," he tells us, "I commenced an expedition to discover +the sources of the Nile, with the hope of meeting the East African +expedition of Captains Speke and Grant that had been sent by the English +Government from the south _via_ Zanzibar for that object. From my youth +I had been innured to hardship and endurance in tropical climates, +and when I gazed upon the map of Africa I had a wild hope that I might +by perseverance reach the heart of Africa." + +These are the opening lines of the published travels of Samuel Baker, +famous as an elephant-hunter in Ceylon and engineer of the first +railway laid down in Turkey. Like Livingstone, in his early +explorations, Baker took his wife with him. "It was in vain that I +implored her to remain, and that I painted the difficulties and perils +still blacker than I supposed they really would be; she was resolved +to share all dangers and to follow me through each rough footstep of +the wild life before me." + +On 15th April 1861, Baker and his wife left Cairo to make their way +southward to join the quest for the source of the Nile. They reached +Korosko in twenty-six days, and crossed the Nubian desert on camels, +a "very wilderness of scorching sand, the simoon in full force and +the thermometer in the shade standing at 114 degrees Fahr." By Abu +Hamed and Berber they reached Atbara. It now occurred to Baker that +without some knowledge of Arabic he could do little in the way of +exploration, so for a whole year he stayed in northern Abyssinia, the +country explored by Bruce nearly ninety years before. + +[Illustration: BAKER AND HIS WIFE CROSSING THE NUBIAN DESERT. From +Baker's _Travels_.] + +It was therefore 18th December 1862 before he and Mrs. Baker left +Khartum for their journey up the Nile through the slave-driven Sudan. +It was a fifty days' voyage to Gondokoro. In the hope of finding Speke +and Grant, he took an extra load of corn as well as twenty-two donkeys, +four camels, and four horses. Gondokoro was reached just a fortnight +before the two explorers returned from the south. + +Baker's account of the historical meeting between the white men in +the heart of Africa is very interesting: "Heard guns firing in the +distance--report that two white men had come from the sea. Could they +be Speke and Grant? Off I ran and soon met them; hurrah for Old England. +They had come from the Victoria Nyanza from which the Nile springs. +The mystery of ages solved! With a heart beating with joy I took off +my cap and gave a welcome hurrah as I ran towards them! For the moment +they did not recognise me; ten years' growth of beard and moustache +had worked a change, and my sudden appearance in the centre of Africa +appeared to them incredible. As a good ship arrives in harbour battered +and torn by a long and stormy voyage, so both these gallant travellers +arrived in Gondokoro. Speke appeared to me the more worn of the two. +He was excessively lean; he had walked the whole way from Zanzibar, +never having ridden once during that wearying march. Grant was in rags, +his bare knees projecting through the remnants of trousers." + +Baker was now inclined to think that his work was done, the source +of the Nile discovered, but after looking at the map of their route, +he saw that an important part of the Nile still remained undiscovered, +and though there were dangers ahead he determined to go on his way +into central Africa. + +"We took neither guide nor interpreter," he continues. "We commenced +our desperate journey in darkness about an hour after sunset. I led +the way, Mrs. Baker riding by my side and the British flag following +close behind us as a guide for the caravan of heavily laden camels +and donkeys. And thus we started on our march in central Africa on +the 26th of March 1863." + +It would take too long to tell of their manifold misfortunes and +difficulties before they reached the lake they were in search of on +16th March 1864. How they passed through the uncivilised country so +lately traversed by Speke and Grant, how in the Obbo country all their +porters deserted just a few days before they reached the Karuma Falls, +how Baker from this point tried to follow the Nile to the yet unknown +lake, how fever seized both the explorer and his wife and they had +to live on the common food of the natives and a little water, how +suddenly Mrs. Baker fell down with a sunstroke and was carried for +seven days quite unconscious through swamp and jungle, the rain +descending in torrents all the time, till Baker, "weak as a reed," +worn out with anxiety, lay on the ground as one dead. + +It seemed as if both must die, when better times dawned and they +recovered to find that they were close to the lake. + +Baker's diary is eloquent: "The day broke beautifully clear, and, +having crossed a deep valley between the hills, we toiled up the +opposite slope. I hurried to the summit. The glory of our prize burst +suddenly upon me! There, like a sea of quicksilver, lay far beneath +us the grand expanse of water, a boundless sea-horizon on the south +and south-west, glittering in the noonday sun, while at sixty miles' +distance, blue mountains rose from the lake to a height of about seven +thousand feet above its level. It is impossible to describe the triumph +of that moment; here was the reward for all our labour! England had +won the sources of the Nile! I looked from the steep granite cliff +upon those welcome waters, upon that vast reservoir which nourished +Egypt, upon that great source so long hidden from mankind, and I +determined to honour it with a great name. As an imperishable memorial +of one loved and mourned by our gracious Queen, I called this great +lake 'the Albert Nyanza.' The Victoria and the Albert Lakes are the +two sources of the Nile." + +Weak and spent with fever, the Bakers descended tottering to the +water's edge. "The waves were rolling upon a white pebbly beach. I +rushed into the lake and, thirsty with heat and fatigue, I drank deeply +from the sources of the Nile. My wife, who had followed me so devotedly, +stood by my side pale and exhausted--a wreck upon the shores of the +great Albert Lake that we had long striven to reach. No European foot +had ever trod upon its sand, nor had the eyes of a white man ever scanned +its vast expanse of water." + +[Illustration: BAKER'S BOAT IN A STORM ON LAKE ALBERT NYANZA. From +Baker's _Albert Nyanza_.] + +After some long delay, the Bakers procured canoes, "merely single +trees neatly hollowed out," and paddled along the shores of the newly +found lake. The water was calm, the views most lovely. Hippopotami +sported in the water; crocodiles were numerous. Day after day they +paddled north, sometimes using a large Scotch plaid as sail. It was +dangerous work. Once a great storm nearly swamped them. The little +canoe shipped heavy seas; terrific bursts of thunder and vivid +lightning broke over the lake, hiding everything from view. Then down +came the rain in torrents, swept along by a terrific wind. They reached +the shore in safety, but the discomforts of the voyage were great, +and poor Mrs. Baker suffered severely. On the thirteenth day they found +themselves at the end of the lake voyage, and carefully examined the +exit of the Nile from the lake. They now followed the river in their +canoe for some eighteen miles, when they suddenly heard a roar of water, +and, rounding a corner, "a magnificent sight suddenly burst upon us. +On either side of the river were beautifully wooded cliffs rising +abruptly to a height of three hundred feet and rushing through a gap +that cleft the rock. The river pent up in a narrow gorge roared +furiously through the rock-bound pass, till it plunged in one leap +of about one hundred and twenty feet into a dark abyss below. This +was the greatest waterfall of the Nile, and in honour of the +distinguished President of the Royal Geographical Society I named it +the Murchison Falls." Further navigation was impossible, and with oxen +and porters they proceeded by land. Mrs. Baker was still carried in +a litter, while Baker walked by her side. Both were soon attacked again +with fever, and when night came they threw themselves down in a wretched +hut. A violent thunderstorm broke over them, and they lay there utterly +helpless, and worn out till sunrise. Worse was to come. The natives +now deserted them, and they were alone and helpless, with a wilderness +of rank grass hemming them in on every side. Their meals consisted +of a mess of black porridge of bitter mouldy flour "that no English +pig would notice" and a dish of spinach. For nearly two months they +existed here, until they became perfect skeletons. + +"We had given up all hope of Gondokoro," says Baker, "and I had told +my headman to deliver my map and papers to the English Consul at +Khartum." + +But they were not to die here. The king, Kamrasi, having heard of their +wretched condition, sent for them, treated them kindly, and enabled +them to reach Gondokoro, which they did on 23rd March 1865, after an +absence of two years. They had long since been given up as lost, and +it was an immense joy to reach Cairo at last and to find that, in the +words of Baker, "the Royal Geographical Society had awarded me the +Victoria Gold Medal at a time when they were unaware whether I was +alive or dead and when the success of my expedition was unknown." + + + + +CHAPTER LXVII + +LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNEY + + +In the year 1865 "the greatest of all African travellers" started on +his last journey to central Africa. + +"I hope," he said, "to ascend the Rovuma, and shall strive, by passing +along the northern end of Lake Nyassa and round the southern end of +Lake Tanganyika, to ascertain the watershed of that part of Africa." + +Arrived at Zanzibar in January 1866, he reached the mouth of the Rovuma +River some two months later, and, passing through dense thickets of +trees, he started on his march along the northern bank. The expedition +consisted of thirteen sepoys from Bombay, nine negroes from one of +the missions, two men from the Zambesi, Susi, Amoda, and others +originally slaves freed by Livingstone. As beasts of burden, they had +six camels, three Indian buffaloes, two mules, four donkeys, while +a poodle took charge of the whole line of march, running to see the +first man in the line and then back to the last, and barking to hasten +him up. + +"Now that I am on the point of starting on another trip into Africa," +wrote Livingstone from Rovuma Bay, "I feel quite exhilarated. The mere +animal pleasure of travelling in a wild, unexplored country is very +great. Brisk exercise imparts elasticity to the muscles, fresh and +healthy blood circulates through the brain, the mind works well, the +eye is clear, the step firm, and a day's exertion makes the evening's +repose thoroughly enjoyable." + +But misfortunes soon began. As they marched along the banks of the +Rovuma the buffaloes and camels were badly bitten by the tsetse fly, +and one after another died. The cruelty of the followers to the animals +was terrible. Indeed, they were thoroughly unsatisfactory. + +One day a party of them lagged behind, killed the last young buffalo, +and ate it. They told Livingstone that it had died and tigers had come +and devoured it. + +"Did you see the stripes of the tiger?" asked Livingstone. + +Yes; all declared that they had seen them distinctly--an obvious lie, +as there are no striped tigers in Africa. + +On 11th August, Livingstone once more reached Lake Nyassa. "It was +as if I had come back to an old home I never expected again to see, +and pleasant it was to bathe in the delicious waters again. I feel +quite exhilarated." + +Having sent word to the Arab chief of Kota-Kota on the opposite coast, +and having received no reply to his request to be ferried across the +lake, he started off and marched by land round the southern end, +crossing the Shire River at its entrance. He continued his journey +round the south-western gulf of Lake Nyassa, till rumours of Zulu raids +frightened his men. They refused to go any farther, but just threw +down their loads and walked away. He was now left with Susi and Chuma +and a few boys with whom he crossed the end of a long range of mountains +over four thousand feet in height, and, pursuing a zigzag track, +reached the Loangwa River on 16th December 1866, while his unfaithful +followers returned to the coast to spread the story that Livingstone +had been killed by the Zulus! + +Meanwhile the explorer was plodding on towards Lake Tanganyika. The +beauty of the way strikes the lonely explorer. The rainy season had +come on in all its force, and the land was wonderful in its early green. +"Many gay flowers peep out. Here and there the scarlet lily, red, yellow, +and pure white orchids, and pale lobelias. As we ascended higher on +the plateau, grasses which have pink and reddish brown seed-vessels +were grateful to the eye." + +Two disasters clouded this month of travel. His poor poodle was drowned +in a marsh and his medicine-chest was stolen. The land was famine-bound +too; the people were living on mushrooms and leaves. "We get some +elephants' meat, but it is very bitter, and the appetite in this country +is always very keen and makes hunger worse to bear, the want of salt +probably making the gnawing sensation worse." + +On 28th January, Livingstone crossed the Tshambezi, "which may almost +be regarded as the upper waters of the Congo," says Johnstone, though +the explorer of 1867 knew it not. + +"Northwards," says Livingstone, "through almost trackless forest and +across oozing bogs"; and then he adds the significant words, "I am +frightened at my own emaciation." March finds him worse. "I have been +ill of fever; every step I take jars in my chest, and I am very weak; +I can scarcely keep up the march." At last, on 1st April, "blue water +loomed through the trees." It was Lake Tanganyika lying some two +thousand feet below them. Its "surpassing loveliness" struck +Livingstone. "It lies in a deep basin," he says, "whose sides are nearly +perpendicular, but covered well with trees, at present all green; down +some of these rocks come beautiful cascades, while buffaloes, +elephants, and antelopes wander and graze on the more level spots, +and lions roar by night. In the morning and evening huge crocodiles +may be observed quietly making their way to their feeding-grounds, +and hippopotami snort by night." + +Going westwards, Livingstone met a party of Arabs amongst whom he +remained for over three months, till he could make his way on to Lake +Meoro, reported to be only three days' journey. It took him sixteen +days to reach it. "Lake Meoro seems of goodly size," he says, "and +is flanked by ranges of mountains on the east and west. Its banks are +of coarse sand and slope gradually down to the water. We slept in a +fisherman's cottage on the north shore." + +After a stay of six weeks in the neighbourhood, Livingstone returned +to the Arabs, until the spring of 1868, when he decided to explore +the Lake Bangweolo. In spite of opposition and the desertion of more +men, he started with five attendants and reached this--one of the +largest of the central African lakes--in July. Modestly enough he +asserts the fact. "On the 18th I saw the shores of the lake for the +first time. The name Bangweolo is applied to the great mass of water, +though I fear that our English folks will bogle at it or call it +Bungyhollow. The water is of a deep sea-green colour. It was bitterly +cold from the amount of moisture in the air." + +This moisture converted the surrounding country into one huge bog or +sponge, twenty-nine of which Livingstone had to cross in thirty miles, +each taking about half an hour to cross. + +[Illustration: THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE BANGWEOLO, 1868: LIVINGSTONE ON +THE LAKE WITH HIS MEN. From Livingstone's _Last Journals_, by +permission of Mr. John Murray.] + +The explorer was still greatly occupied on the problem of the Nile. +"The discovery of the sources of the Nile," he says, "is somewhat akin +in importance to the discovery of the North-West Passage." It seemed +to him not impossible that the great river he found flowing through +these two great lakes to the west of Tanganyika might prove to be the +Upper Nile. + +It was December before he started for Tanganyika. The new year of 1868 +opened badly. Half-way, he became very ill. He was constantly wet +through; he persistently crossed brooks and rivers, wading through +cold water up to his waist. "Very ill all over," he enters in his diary; +"cannot walk. Pneumonia of right lung, and I cough all day and all +night. I am carried several hours a day on a frame. The sun is vertical, +blistering any part of the skin exposed, and I try to shelter my face +and head as well as I can with a bunch of leaves." + +On 14th February 1869 he arrived on the western shores of the lake, +and after the usual delay he was put into it canoe for Ujiji. Though +better, he was still very ill, and we get the pathetic entry, "Hope +to hold out to Ujiji." + +At last he reached the Arab settlement on the eastern shores, where +he found the goods sent to him overland from Zanzibar, and though much +had been stolen, yet warm clothes, tea, and coffee soon revived him. +After a stay of three months he grew better, and turned westwards for +the land of the Manyuema and the great rivers reported to be flowing +there. + +He was guided by Arabs whose trade-route extended to the great Lualaba +River in the very heart of Africa some thousand miles west of Zanzibar. +It was an unknown land, unvisited by Europeans when Livingstone +arrived with his Arab escort at Bambarra in September 1869. + +"Being now well rested," he enters in his diary, "I resolved to go +west to Lualaba and buy a canoe for its exploration. The Manyuema +country is all surpassingly beautiful. Palms crown the highest heights +of the mountains, and the forests about five miles broad are +indescribable. Climbers of cable size in great numbers are hung among +the gigantic trees, many unknown wild fruits abound, some the size +of a child's head, and strange birds and monkeys are everywhere." + +With the Arab caravan he travelled almost incessantly zigzagging +through the wonderful Manyuema country until, after a year's wandering, +he finally reached the banks of the Lualaba (Congo) on 31st March 1871. + +It was a red-letter day in his life. "I went down," he says, "to take +a good look at the Lualaba here. It is a mighty river at least three +thousand yards broad and always deep. The banks are steep; the current +is about two miles an hour away to the north." Livingstone was gazing +at the second-largest river in the world--the Congo. But he thought +it was the Nile, and confidently relates how it overflows all its banks +annually as the Nile does. + +At Nyangwe, a Manyuema village, Livingstone stayed for four months. +The natives were dreadful cannibals. He saw one day a man with ten +human jaw-bones hung by a string over his shoulder, the owners of which +he had killed and eaten. Another day a terrible massacre took place, +arising from a squabble over a fowl, in which some four hundred perished. +The Arabs too disgusted him with their slave-raiding, and he decided +that he could no longer travel under their protection. So on 20th July +1871 he started back for Ujiji, and after a journey of seven hundred +miles, accomplished in three months, he arrived, reduced to a skeleton, +only to find that the rascal who had charge of his stores had stolen +the whole and made away. + +But when health and spirit were failing, help was at hand. The meeting +of Stanley and Livingstone on the shores of the Lake Tanganyika is +one of the most thrilling episodes in the annals of discovery. Let +them tell their own story: "When my spirits were at their lowest ebb," +says Livingstone, "one morning Susi came running at the top of his +speed and gasped out, 'An Englishman! I see him!' and off he darted +to meet him. The American flag at the head of a caravan told of the +nationality of the stranger. Bales of goods, baths of tin, huge kettles, +and cooking-pots made me think, 'This must be a luxurious traveller +and not one at his wits' end, like me.'" + +It was Henry Morton Stanley, the travelling correspondent of the _New +York Herald_, sent at an expense of more than 4000 pounds to obtain +accurate information about Dr. Livingstone if living, and if dead to +bring home his bones. + +[Illustration: LIVINGSTONE AT WORK ON HIS JOURNAL. From a sketch by +H. M. Stanley.] + +And now Stanley takes up the story. He has entered Ujiji and heard +from the faithful Susi that the explorer yet lives. Pushing back the +crowds of natives, Stanley advanced down "a living avenue of people" +till he came to where "the white man with the long grey beard was +standing." + +"As I advanced slowly towards him," says Stanley, "I noticed he was +pale, looked worried, wore a bluish cap with a faded gold band round +it, had on a red-sleeved waistcoat and a pair of grey tweed trousers. +I walked deliberately to him, took off my hat, and said, 'Dr. +Livingstone, I presume?' + +"'Yes,' said he, with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly. + +"Then we both grasp hands and I say aloud, 'I thank God, Doctor, I +have been permitted to see you.' + +"'You have brought me new life--new life,' murmured the tired +explorer," and for the next few days it was enough for the two +Englishmen to sit on the mud verandah of Livingstone's house, talking. +Livingstone soon grew better, and November found the two explorers +surveying the river flowing from the north of Tanganyika and deciding +that it was not the Nile. + +Stanley now did his best to persuade Livingstone to return home with +him to recruit his shattered health before finishing his work of +exploration. But the explorer, tired and out of health though he was, +utterly refused. He must complete the exploration of the sources of +the Nile before he sought that peace and comfort at home for which +he must have yearned. + +So the two men parted--Stanley to carry Livingstone's news of the +discovery of the Congo back to Europe, Livingstone to end his days +on the lonely shores of Lake Bangweolo, leaving the long-sought +mystery of the Nile sources yet unsolved. + +On 25th August 1872 he started on his last journey. He had a +well-equipped expedition sent up by Stanley from the coast, including +sixty men, donkeys, and cows. He embarked on his fresh journey with +all his old eagerness and enthusiasm, but a few days' travel showed +him how utterly unfit he was for any more hardships. He suffered from +intense and growing weakness, which increased day by day. He managed +somehow to ride his donkey, but in November his donkey died and he +struggled along on foot. Descending into marshy regions north of Lake +Bangweolo, the journey became really terrible. The rainy season was +at its height, the land was an endless swamp, and starvation threatened +the expedition. To add to the misery of the party, there were swarms +of mosquitoes, poisonous spiders, and stinging ants by the way. Still, +amid all the misery and suffering, the explorer made his way on through +the dreary autumn months. Christmas came and went; the new year of +1873 dawned. He could not stop. April found him only just alive, carried +by his faithful servants. Then comes the last entry in his diary, 27th +April: "Knocked up quite. We are on the banks of R. Molilamo." + +[Illustration: LIVINGSTONE ENTERING THE HUT AT ILALA ON THE NIGHT THAT +HE DIED. From Livingstone's _Last Journals_, by permission of Mr. John +Murray.] + +[Illustration: THE LAST ENTRIES IN LIVINGSTONE'S DIARY.] + +They laid him at last in a native hut, and here one night he died alone. +They found him in the early morning, just kneeling by the side of the +rough bed, his body stretched forward, his head buried in his hands +upon the pillow. The negroes buried his heart on the spot where he +died in the village of Ilala on the shores of Lake Bangweolo under +the shadow of a great tree in the still forest. Then they wrapped his +body in a cylinder of bark wound round in a piece of old sailcloth, +lashed it to a pole, and a little band of negroes, including Susi and +Chuma, set out to carry their dead master to the coast. For hundreds +of miles they tramped with their precious burden, till they reached +the sea and could give it safely to his fellow-countrymen, who conveyed +it to England to be laid with other great men in Westminster Abbey. + + "He needs no epitaph to guard a name + Which men shall praise while worthy work is done. + He lived and died for good, be that his fame. + Let marble crumble: this is living-stone." + +[Illustration: SUSI, LIVINGSTONE'S SERVANT. From a sketch by H. M. +Stanley.] + + + + +CHAPTER LXVIII + +THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT + + +The death of Livingstone, the faithfulness of his native servants in +carrying his body and journals across hundreds of miles of wild country +to the coast, his discovery of the great river in the heart of Africa, +and the great service in Westminster Abbey roused public interest in +the Dark Continent and the unfinished work of the great explorer. +"Never had such an outburst of missionary zeal been known, never did +the cause of geographical exploration receive such an impetus." + +The dramatic meeting between Livingstone and Stanley on the shores +of Lake Tanganyika in 1871 had impressed the public in England and +America, and an expedition was now planned by the proprietors of two +great newspapers, the _London Daily Telegraph_ and the _New York +Herald_. Stanley was chosen to command it. And perhaps there is hardly +a better-known book of modern travels than _Through the Dark +Continent_, in which he has related all his adventures and discoveries +with regard to the Congo. Leaving England in August 1874 with three +Englishmen and a large boat in eight sections, the _Lady Alice_, for +the navigation of lake and river, the little exploring party reached +Zanzibar a few weeks later and started on their great inland journey. +The way to Victoria Nyanza lay through what is now known as German +East Africa. They reached Ugogo safely and turned to the north-west, +entering an immense and silent bush-field, where no food was +obtainable. On the eighth day five people died of starvation and the +rest of the expedition was only saved by the purchase of some grain +from a distant village. But four more died and twenty-eight miles under +a hot sun prostrated one of the white men, who died a few days later. +Thus they entered Ituru, "a land of naked people, whose hills drained +into a marsh, whence issue the southernmost waters of the Nile." + +Here they were surrounded by angry savages on whom they had to fire, +and from whose country they were glad to escape. + +On 27th February 1875, after tramping for one hundred and three days, +they arrived at their destination. One of the white men who was striding +forward suddenly waved his hat, and with a beaming face shouted out, +"I have seen the lake, sir; it is grand." + +Here, indeed, was the Victoria Nyanza, "which a dazzling sun +transformed into silver," discovered by Speke sixteen years before, +and supposed to be the source of the Nile. The men struck up a song +of triumph-- + + "Sing, O friends, sing; the journey is ended. + Sing aloud, O friends; sing to the great Nyanza. + Sing all, sing loud, O friends, sing to the great sea; + Give your last look to the lands behind, and then turn to the sea. + Lift up your heads, O men, and gaze around. + Try if you can to see its end. + See, it stretches moons away, + This great, sweet, fresh-water sea." + +"I thought," says Stanley, "there could be no better way of settling, +once and for ever, the vexed question, than by circumnavigating the +lake." + +So the _Lady Alice_ was launched, and from the shores of Speke Gulf, +as he named the southern end, the explorer set forth, leaving the two +remaining Englishmen in charge of the camp. + +"The sky is gloomy," writes Stanley, "the rocks are bare and rugged, +the land silent and lonely. The rowing of the people is that of men +who think they are bound to certain death; their hearts are full of +misgivings as slowly we move through the dull dead waters." The waters +were not dead for long. A gale rose up and the lake became wild beyond +description. "The waves hissed as we tore along, the crew collapsed +and crouched into the bottom of the boat, expecting the end of the +wild venture, but the _Lady Alice_ bounded forward like a wild courser +and we floated into a bay, still as a pond." + +So they coasted along the shores of the lake. Their guide told them +it would take years to sail round their sea, that on the shores dwelt +people with long tails, who preferred to feed on human beings rather +than cattle or goats. But, undaunted, the explorer sailed on, across +the Napoleon Channel, through which flowed the superfluous waters of +the lake rushing northward as the Victoria Nile. "On the western side +of the Channel is Uganda, dominated by an Emperor who is supreme over +about three millions of people. He soon heard of my presence on the +lake and dispatched a flotilla to meet me. His mother had dreamed the +night before that she had seen a boat sailing, sailing like a fish-eagle +over the Nyanza. In the stern of the boat was a white man gazing +wistfully towards Uganda." + +On reaching the port a crowd of soldiers, "arrayed in crimson and black +and snowy white," were drawn up to receive him. "As we neared the beach, +volleys of musketry burst out from the long lines. Numerous kettles +and brass drums sounded a noisy welcome, flags and banners waved, and +the people gave a great shout." + +[Illustration: STANLEY AND HIS MEN MARCHING THROUGH UNYORO. From a +sketch, by Stanley, in _Through the Dark Continent_.] + +Such was Stanley's welcome to M'tesa's wonderful kingdom of Uganda, +described by Speke sixteen years before. The twelve days spent at the +court of this monarch impressed Stanley deeply. Specially was the king +interested in Christianity, and the English explorer told the story +of the Creation and the birth of the Messiah to this intelligent pagan +and his courtiers. "Ten days after we left the genial court, I came +upon the scene of a tragedy. We were coasting the eastern side of a +large island, having been thirty-six hours without food, looking for +a port where we could put in and purchase provisions. Natives followed +our movements, poising their spears, stringing their bows, picking +out the best rocks for their slings. We were thirteen souls, they +between three and four hundred. Seeing the boat advance, they smiled, +entered the water, and held out inviting hands. The crew shot the boat +towards the natives; their hands closed on her firmly, they ran with +her to the shore and dragged her high and dry about twenty yards from +the lake. Then ensued a scene of rampant wildness and hideous ferocity +of action beyond description. The boat was surrounded by a forest of +spears and two hundred demons contended for the first blow. I sprang +up to kill and be killed, a revolver in each hand, but as I rose to +my feet the utter hopelessness of our situation was revealed to me." + +To make a long story short, the natives seized the oars, and, thinking +the boat was now in their power, they retired to make their plans. +Meanwhile Stanley commanded his crew to tear the bottom boards up for +paddles, and, pushing the boat hastily into the water, they paddled +away, their commander firing the while with his elephant rifle and +explosive bullets. They were saved. + +On 6th May the circumnavigation was finished and the _Lady Alice_ was +being dragged ashore in Speke Gulf with shouts of welcome and the waving +of many flags. But sad news awaited him. He could see but one of his +white companions. + +"Where is Barker?" he asked Frank Pocock. + +"He died twelve days ago," was the melancholy answer. + +Stanley now took his whole expedition to Uganda, and after spending +some months with the King he passed on to Lake Tanganyika, crossing +to Ujiji, where he arrived in May 1876. Here five years before he had +found Livingstone. + +"We launched our boat on the lake and, circumnavigating it, discovered +that there was only a periodical outlet to it. Thus, by the +circumnavigation of the two lakes, two of the geographical problems +I had undertaken to solve were settled. The Victoria Nyanza had no +connection with the Tanganyika. There now remained the grandest task +of all. Is the Lualaba, which Livingstone had traced along a course +of nearly thirteen hundred miles, the Nile, the Niger, or the Congo? +I crossed Lake Tanganyika with my expedition, lifted once more my +gallant boat on our shoulders, and after a march of nearly two hundred +and twenty miles arrived at the superb river. Where I first sighted +it, the Lualaba was fourteen hundred yards wide, pale grey in colour, +winding slowly from south and by east. We hailed its appearance with +shouts of joy, and rested on the spot to enjoy the view. I likened +it to the Mississippi as it appears before the impetuous, full-volumed +Missouri pours its rusty brown water into it. A secret rapture filled +my soul as I gazed upon the majestic stream. The great mystery that +for all these centuries Nature had kept hidden away from the world +of science was waiting to be solved. For two hundred and twenty miles +I had followed the sources of the Livingstone River to the confluence, +and now before me lay the superb river itself. My task was to follow +it to the ocean." + +Pressing on along the river, they reached the Arab city of Nyangwe, +having accomplished three hundred and thirty-eight miles in +forty-three days. And now the famous Arab Tippu-Tib comes on the scene, +a chief with whom Stanley was to be closely connected hereafter. He +was a tall, black-bearded man with an intelligent face and gleaming +white teeth. He wore clothes of spotless white, his fez was smart and +new, his dagger resplendent with silver filigree. He had escorted +Cameron across the river to the south, and he now confirmed Stanley +in his idea that the greatest problem of African geography, "the +discovery of the course of the Congo," was still untouched. + +"This was momentous and all-important news to the expedition. We had +arrived at the critical point in our travels," remarks Stanley. "What +kind of a country is it to the north along the river?" he asked. + +"Monstrous bad," was the reply. "There are large boa-constrictors in +the forest suspended by their tails, waiting to gobble up travellers. +You cannot travel without being covered by ants, and they sting like +wasps. There are leopards in countless numbers. Gorillas haunt the +woods. The people are man-eaters. A party of three hundred guns started +for the forest and only sixty returned." + +Stanley and his last remaining white companion, Frank Pocock, +discussed the somewhat alarming situation together. Should they go +on and face the dwarfs who shot with poisoned arrows, the cannibals +who regarded the stranger as so much meat, the cataracts and +rocks--should they follow the "great river which flowed northward for +ever and knew no end"? + +"This great river which Livingstone first saw, and which broke his +heart to turn away from, is a noble field," argued Stanley. "After +buying or building canoes and floating down the river day by day, either +to the Nile or to some vast lake in the far north or to the Congo and +the Atlantic Ocean." + +"Let us follow the river," replied the white man. + +So, accompanied by Tippu-Tib, with a hundred and forty guns and seventy +spearmen, they started along the banks of the river which Stanley now +named the Livingstone River. + +"On the 5th of November 1876," says Stanley, "a force of about seven +hundred people, consisting of Tippu-Tib's slaves and my expedition +departed from the town of Nyangwe and entered the dismal forest-land +north. A straight line from this point to the Atlantic Ocean would +measure one thousand and seventy miles; another to the Indian Ocean +would measure only nine hundred and twenty miles; we had not reached +the centre of the continent by seventy-five miles. + +"Outside the woods blazed a blinding sunshine; underneath that immense +roof-foliage was a solemn twilight. The trees shed continual showers +of tropic dew. As we struggled on through the mud, the perspiration +exuded from every pore; our clothes were soon wet and heavy. Every +man had to crawl and scramble as he best could. Sometimes prostrate +forest-giants barred the road with a mountain of twigs and branches. +For ten days we endured it; then the Arabs declared they could go no +farther. I promised them five hundred pounds if they would escort us +twenty marches only. On our way to the river we came to a village whose +sole street was adorned with one hundred and eighty-six human skulls. +Seventeen days from Nyangwe we saw again the great river and, viewing +the stately breadth of the mighty stream, I resolved to launch my boat +for the last time. Placing thirty-six of the people in the boat, we +floated down the river close to the bank along which the land-party +marched. Day after day passed on and we found the natives increasing +in wild rancour and unreasoning hate of strangers. At every curve and +bend they 'telephoned' along the river warning signals; their huge +wooden drums sounded the muster for fierce resistance; reed arrows +tipped with poison were shot at us from the jungle as we glided by. +On the 18th of December our miseries culminated in a grand effort of +the savages to annihilate us. The cannibals had manned the topmost +branches of the trees above the village of Vinya Njara to shoot at +us." + +A camp was hastily constructed by Stanley in defence, and for several +days there was desperate fighting, at the end of which peace was made. +But Tippu-Tib and his escort refused to go a step farther to what they +felt was certain destruction. Stanley alone was determined to proceed. +He bought thirty-three native canoes and, leading with the _Lady +Alice_, he set his face towards the unknown country. His men were all +sobbing. They leant forward, bowed with grief and heavy hearts at the +prospect before them. Dense woods covered both banks and islands. +Savages with gaily feathered heads and painted faces dashed out of +the woods armed with shields and spears, shouting, "Meat! meat! Ha! +ha! We shall have plenty of meat!" + +"Armies of parrots screamed overhead as they flew across the river; +legions of monkeys and howling baboons alarmed the solitudes; +crocodiles haunted the sandy points; hippopotami grunted at our +approach; elephants stood by the margin of the river; there was +unceasing vibration from millions of insects throughout the livelong +day. The sun shone large and warm; the river was calm and broad and +brown." + +[Illustration: "TOWARDS THE UNKNOWN": STANLEY'S CANOES STARTING FROM +VINYA NJARA. From _Through the Dark Continent_.] + +By January 1877 the expedition reached the first cataract of what is +now known as the Stanley Falls. From this point for some sixty miles +the great volume of the Livingstone River rushed through narrow and +lofty banks in a series of rapids. For twenty-two days he toiled along +the banks, through jungle and forest, over cliffs and rocks exposed +all the while to murderous attacks by cannibal savages, till the +seventh cataract was passed and the boats were safely below the falls. +"We hastened away down river in a hurry, to escape the noise of the +cataracts which for many days and nights had almost stunned us with +their deafening sound. We were once more afloat on a magnificent stream, +nearly a mile wide, curving north-west. 'Ha! Is it the Niger or Congo?' +I said." + +[Illustration: THE SEVENTH CATARACT, STANLEY FALLS. From _Through the +Dark Continent_.] + +But day after day as they dropped down stream new enemies appeared, +until at last, at the junction of the Aruwimi, a tributary as large +as the main stream, a determined attack was made on them by some two +thousand warriors in large canoes. A monster canoe led the way, with +two rows of forty paddlers each, their bodies swaying to a barbarous +chorus. In the bow were ten prime young warriors, their heads gay with +the feathers of the parrot, crimson and grey: at the stern eight men +with long paddles decorated with ivory balls guided the boat, while +ten chiefs danced up and down from stem to stern. The crashing of large +drums, a hundred blasts from ivory horns, and a song from two thousand +voices did not tend to assure the little fleet under Stanley. The +Englishman coolly anchored his boats in mid-stream and received the +enemy with such well-directed volleys that the savages were utterly +paralysed, and with great energy they retreated, pursued hotly by +Stanley's party. + +[Illustration: THE FIGHT BELOW THE CONFLUENCE OF THE ARUWIMI AND THE +LIVINGSTONE RIVERS. From a sketch, by Stanley, in _Through the Dark +Continent_.] + +"Leaving them wondering and lamenting, I sought the mid-channel again +and wandered on with the current. In the voiceless depths of the watery +wilderness we encountered neither treachery nor guile, and we floated +down, down, hundreds of miles. The river curved westward, then +south-westward. Ah, straight for the mouth of the Congo. It widened +daily. The channels became numerous." + +Through the country of the Bangala they now fought their way. These +people were armed with guns brought up from the coast by native traders. +It was indeed an anxious moment when, with war-drums beating, +sixty-three "beautiful but cruel canoes" came skimming towards +Stanley with some three hundred guns to his forty-four. For nearly +five hours the two fleets fought until the victory rested with the +American. "This," remarks Stanley, "was our thirty-first fight on the +terrible river, and certainly the most determined conflict we had +endured." + +They rowed on till the 11th of March; the river had grown narrower +and steep, wooded hills rose on either side above them. Suddenly the +river expanded, and the voyagers entered a wide basin or pool over +thirty square yards. "Sandy islands rose in front of us like a seabeach, +and on the right towered a long row of cliffs white and glistening, +like the cliffs of Dover." + +"Why not call it Stanley Pool and those cliffs Dover Cliffs?" suggested +Frank Pocock. And these names may be seen on our maps to-day. Passing +out of the Pool, the roar of a great cataract burst upon their ears. +It was the first of a long series of falls and rapids which continued +for a distance of one hundred and fifty-five miles. To this great +stretch of cataracts and rapids Stanley gave the name of the +"Livingstone Falls." At the fifth cataract Stanley lost his favourite +little native page-boy, Kalulu. The canoe in which he was rowing shot +suddenly over the rapids, and in the furious whirl of rushing waters +poor little Kalulu was drowned. He had been born a prince and given +to Stanley on his first expedition into Africa. Stanley had taken him +to Europe and America, and the boy had repaid his kindness by faithful +and tender devotion till that fatal day, when he went to his death +over the wild Livingstone Falls. Stanley named the rapid after him, +Kalulu Falls. + +But a yet more heart-rending loss was in store for him. Progress was +now very slow, for none of the cataracts or rapids could be navigated; +canoes as well as stores had to be dragged over land from point to +point. Frank Pocock had fallen lame and could not walk with the rest. +Although accidents with the canoes were of daily occurrence, although +he might have taken warning by the death of Kalulu, he insisted that +his crew should try to shoot the great Massassa Falls instead of going +round by land. Too late he realised his danger. The canoe was caught +by the rushing tide, flung over the Falls, tossed from wave to wave, +and finally dragged into the swirling whirlpool below. The "little +master" as he was called was never seen again! Stanley's last white +companion was gone! Gloom settled down on the now painfully reduced +party. + +"We are all unnerved with the terrible accident of yesterday," says +Stanley. "As I looked at the dejected woe-stricken servants, a choking +sensation of unutterable grief filled me. This four months had we lived +together, and true had been his service. The servant had long ago merged +into the companion; the companion had become the friend." + +Still Stanley persevered in his desperate task, and in spite of danger +from cataracts and danger from famine, on 31st July he reached the +Isangila cataract. Thus far in 1816 two explorers had made their way +from the ocean, and Stanley knew now for certain that he was on the +mighty Congo. He saw no reason to follow it farther, or to toil through +the last four cataracts. "I therefore announced to the gallant but +wearied followers that we should abandon the river and strike overland +for Boma, the nearest European settlement, some sixty miles across +country." + +At sunset on 31st July they carried the _Lady Alice_ to the summit +of some rocks above the Isangila Falls and abandoned her to her fate. + +"Farewell, brave boat!" cried Stanley; "seven thousand miles up and +down broad Africa thou hast accompanied me. For over five thousand +miles thou hast been my home. Lift her up tenderly, boys--so +tenderly--and let her rest." + +Then, wayworn and feeble, half starved, diseased, and suffering, the +little caravan of one hundred and fifteen men, women, and children +started on their overland march to the coast. + +"Staggering, we arrived at Boma on 9th August 1877; a gathering of +European merchants met me and, smiling a warm welcome, told me kindly +that I had done right well. Three days later I gazed upon the Atlantic +Ocean and saw the powerful river flowing into the bosom of that +boundless, endless sea. But grateful as I felt to Him who had enabled +me to pierce the Dark Continent from east to west, my heart was charged +with grief and my eyes with tears at the thought of the many comrades +and friends I had lost." + +The price paid had indeed been great; he had lost his three English +companions and one hundred and seventy natives besides. But for years +and years to come, in many a home at Zanzibar, whither Stanley now +took his party by sea, the story of this great journey was told, and +all the men were heroes and the refrain of the natives was chanted +again and again-- + + "Then sing, O friends, sing: the journey is ended; + Sing aloud, O friends, sing to this great sea." + +Stanley had solved the problem of the Congo River at last. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIX + +NORDENSKIOLD ACCOMPLISHES THE NORTH-EAST PASSAGE + + +The North-West Passage, for the accomplishment of which so many brave +lives had been laid down, had been discovered. It now remained for +some explorer to sail round the North-East Passage, which was known +to exist, but which, up to this time, no man had done. + +Nordenskiold the Swede was to have this honour. Born in 1832 in Finland, +he had taken part in an Arctic expedition in 1861, which attempted +to reach the North Pole by means of dog-sledges from the north coast +of Spitzbergen. Three years later he was appointed to lead an +expedition to Spitzbergen, which succeeded in reaching the highest +northern latitude which any ship had yet attained. In 1870 his famous +journey to Greenland took place, and two years later he left Sweden +on another Polar expedition; but misfortunes beset the expedition, +and finally the ships were wrecked. The following year he commanded +a reconnoitring expedition. He passed Nova Zembla and reached the +mouth of the Yenisei. This was the first time that a ship had +accomplished the voyage from the Atlantic Ocean. Thus Nordenskiold +had gained considerable knowledge of the Northern Seas, and he was +now in a position to lay a plan of his schemes before King Oscar, who +had always interested himself in Arctic discovery. His suggestions +to the King are of singular interest. + +"It is my intention," he says, "to leave Sweden in July 1878 in a steamer +specially built for navigation among ice, which will be provisioned +for two years at most. The course will be shaped for Nova Zembla, where +a favourable opportunity will be awaited for the passage of the Kara +Sea. The voyage will be continued to the mouth of the Yenisei, which +I hope to reach in the first half of August. As soon as circumstances +permit, the expedition will continue its voyage along the coast to +Cape Chelyuskin, where the expedition will reach the only part of the +proposed route which has not been traversed by some small vessel, and +is rightly considered as that which it will be most difficult for a +vessel to double during the whole North-East Passage; but our vessel, +equipped with all modern appliances, ought not to find insuperable +difficulties in doubling this point, and if that can be accomplished, +we will probably have pretty open water towards Behring's Straits, +which ought to be reached before the end of September. From Behring +Strait the course will be shaped for some Asiatic port and then onwards +round Asia to Suez." + +King Oscar and others offered to pay the expenses of the expedition, +and preparations were urged forward. The _Vega_ of 300 tons, formerly +used in walrus-hunting in northern waters, was purchased, and further +strengthened to withstand ice. On 22nd June all was ready, and with +the Swedish flag with a crowned O in the middle, the little _Vega_, +which was to accomplish such great things, was "peacefully rocking +on the swell of the Baltic as if impatient to begin her struggle against +waves and ice." She carried food for thirty people for two years, which +included over three thousand pounds of bacon, nine thousand pounds +of coffee, nine thousand pounds of biscuits. There were pemmican from +England, potatoes from the Mediterranean, cranberry juice from +Finland. Fresh bread was made during the whole expedition. A few days +later the _Vega_ reached Copenhagen and steamed north in the finest +weather. + +"Where are you bound for?" signalled a passing ship. + +"To Behring Sea," was the return signal, and the Swedish crew waved +their caps, shouting their joyful news. + +At Gothenburg they took on eight sledges, tents, and cooking utensils, +also two Scotch sheep dogs and a little coal-black kitten, which lived +in the captain's berth till it grew accustomed to the sea, when it +slept in the forecastle by day and ran about stealing the food of the +sleeping sailors by night. + +On 16th July they crossed the Polar Circle. "All on board feel they +are entering upon a momentous period of their life," says the explorer. +"Were we to be the fortunate ones to reach this goal, which navigators +for centuries had striven to reach?" + +The south-west coast of Nova Zembla was reached on 28th July, but the +weather being calm and the sea completely free of ice, Nordenskiold +sailed onwards through the Kara Strait or Iron Gates, which during +the winter was usually one sheet of ice, until they anchored outside +the village of Khabarova. The "village" consisted of a few huts and +tents of Russian and Samoyedes pasturing their reindeer on the Vaygets +Island. On the bleak northern shores stood a little wooden church, +which the explorers visited with much interest. It seemed strange to +find here brass bas-reliefs representing the Christ, St. Nicholas, +Elijah, St. George and the Dragon, and the Resurrection; in front of +each hung a little oil lamp. The people were dressed entirely in +reindeer skin from head to foot, and they had a great collection of +walrus tusks and skins such as Othere had brought centuries before +to King Alfred. + +Nordenskiold's account of a short drive in a reindeer sledge is amusing. +"Four reindeer were put side by side to each sledge," he says. "Ivan, +my driver, requested me to hold tight; he held the reins of all four +reindeer in one hand, and away we went over the plain! His request +to keep myself tight to the sledge was not unnecessary; at one moment +the sledge jumped over a big tussock, the next it went down into a +pit. It was anything but a comfortable drive, for the pace at which +we went was very great." + +On 1st August the _Vega_ was off again, and soon she had entered the +Kara Sea, known in the days of the Dutch explorers as the "ice-cellar." +Then past White Island and the estuary of the great Obi River, past +the mouth of the Yenisei to Dickson Island, lately discovered, she +sailed. Here in this "best-known haven on the whole north coast of +Asia they anchored and spent time in bear and reindeer hunting." "In +consequence of the successful sport we lived very extravagantly during +these days; our table groaned with joints of venison and bear-hams." + +They now sailed north close bound in fog, till on 20th August "we +reached the great goal, which for centuries had been the object of +unsuccessful struggles. For the first time a vessel lay at anchor off +the northernmost cape of the Old World. With colours flying on every +mast and saluting the venerable north point of the Old World with the +Swedish salute of five guns, we came to an anchor!" + +[Illustration: NORDENSKIOLD'S SHIP, THE _VEGA_, SALUTING CAPE +CHELYUSKIN, THE MOST NORTHERLY POINT OF THE OLD WORLD. From a drawing +in Hovgaard's _Nordenskiold's Voyage_.] + +The fog lifting for a moment, they saw a white Polar bear standing +"regarding the unexpected guests with surprise." + +When afterwards a member of the expedition was asked which moment was +the proudest of the whole voyage, he answered, without hesitation: +"Undoubtedly the moment when we anchored off Cape Chelyuskin." + +It had been named thus by the "Great Northern Expedition" in 1742 after +Lieutenant Chelyuskin, one of the Russian explorers under Laptieff, +who had reached this northern point by a land journey which had entailed +terrible hardships and suffering. + +"Next morning," relates Nordenskiold, "we erected a cairn on the shore, +and in the middle of it laid a tin box with the following document +written in Swedish: 'The Swedish Arctic Expedition arrived here +yesterday, the 19th of August, and proceeds in a few hours eastward. +The sea has been tolerably free from ice. Sufficient supply of coals. +All well on board. + + "'A. E. NORDENSKIOLD.' + + +And below in English and Russian were the words, 'Please forward this +document as soon as possible to His Majesty the King of Sweden.'" + +Nordenskiold now attempted to steam eastwards towards the New Siberian +Islands, but the fog was thick, and they fell in with large ice-floes +which soon gave place to ice-fields. Violent snowstorms soon set in +and "aloft everything was covered with a crust of ice, and the position +in the crow's nest was anything but pleasant." They reached Khatanga +Bay, however, and on 27th August the _Vega_ was at the mouth of the +Lena. + +"We were now in hopes that we should be in Japan in a couple of months; +we had accomplished two-thirds of our way through the Polar sea, and +the remaining third had been often navigated at different distances." + +So the _Vega_ sailed on eastwards with an ice-free sea to the New +Siberian Islands, where lie embedded "enormous masses of the bones +and tusks of the mammoth mixed with the horns and skulls of some kind +of ox and with the horns of rhinoceros." + +All was still clear of snow, and the New Siberian Islands lying long +and low in the Polar seas were safely passed. It was not till 1st +September that the first snows fell; the decks of the _Vega_ were white +with snow when the Bear Islands were reached. Fog now hindered the +expedition once more, and ice was sighted. + +"Ice right ahead!" suddenly shouted the watch on the forecastle, and +only by a hair's-breadth was the _Vega_ saved. On 3rd September a thick +snowstorm came on, the Bear Islands were covered with newly fallen +snow, and though the ice was growing more closely packed than any yet +encountered they could still make their way along a narrow ice-free +channel near the coast. Snowstorms, fog, and drifting ice compelled +careful navigation, but a pleasant change occurred early in September +by a visit from the natives. We have already heard of the Chukches +from Behring--the Chukches whom no man had yet vanquished, for when +Siberia was conquered by a Kossack chief in 1579, the Chukches in this +outlying north-eastern corner of the Old World, savage, courageous, +resolute, kept the conquerors at bay. For the last six weeks the +explorers had not seen a human being on that wild and desolate stretch +of coast, so they were glad enough to see the little Chukches with +their coal-black hair and eyes, their large mouths and flat noses. +"Although it was only five o'clock in the morning, we all jumped out +of our berths and hurried on deck to see these people of whom so little +was known. The boats were of skin, fully laden with laughing and +chattering natives, men, women, and children, who indicated by cries +and gesticulations that they wished to come on board. The engine was +stopped, the boats lay to, and a large number of skin-clad, bare-headed +beings climbed up over the gunwale and a lively talk began. Great +gladness prevailed when tobacco and Dutch clay pipes were distributed +among them. None of them could speak a word of Russian; they had come +in closer contact with American whalers than with Russian traders." +The Chukches were all very short and dressed in reindeer skins with +tight-fitting trousers of seal-skin, shoes of reindeer-skin with +seal-skin boots and walrus-skin soles. In very cold weather they wore +hoods of wolf fur with the head of the wolf at the back. + +[Illustration: MENKA, CHIEF OF THE CHUKCHES.] + +But Nordenskiold could not wait long. Amid snow and ice and fog he +pushed on, hoping against hope to get through to the Pacific before +the sea was completely frozen over. But the ice was beginning to close. +Large blocks were constantly hurled against the ship with great +violence, and she had many a narrow escape of destruction. + +At last, it was 28th September, the little _Vega_ was finally and +hopelessly frozen into the ice, and they made her fast to a large +ice-block. Sadly we find the entry: "Only one hundred and twenty miles +distant from our goal, which we had been approaching during the last +two months, and after having accomplished two thousand four hundred +miles. It took some time before we could accustom ourselves to the +thought that we were so near and yet so far from our destination." + +Fortunately they were near the shore and the little settlement of +Pitlekai, where in eight tents dwelt a party of Chukches. These little +people helped them to pass the long monotonous winter, and many an +expedition inland was made in Chukche sledges drawn by eight or ten +wolf-like dogs. Snowstorms soon burst upon the little party of Swedish +explorers who had made the _Vega_ their winter home. "During November +we have scarcely had any daylight," writes Nordenskiold; "the storm +was generally howling in our rigging, which was now enshrouded in a +thick coat of snow, the deck was full of large snowdrifts, and snow +penetrated into every corner of the ship where it was possible for +the wind to find an opening. If we put our heads outside the door we +were blinded by the drifting snow." + +Christmas came and was celebrated by a Christmas tree made of willows +tied to a flagstaff, and the traditional rice porridge. + +By April large flocks of geese, eider-ducks, gulls, and little +song-birds began to arrive, the latter perching on the rigging of the +_Vega_, but May and June found her still icebound in her winter +quarters. + +[Illustration: THE _VEGA_ FROZEN IN FOR THE WINTER. From a drawing +in Hovgaard's _Nordenskiold's Voyage_.] + +It was not till 18th July 1879 that "the hour of deliverance came at +last, and we cast loose from our faithful ice-block, which for two +hundred and ninety-four days had protected us so well against the +pressure of the ice and stood westwards in the open channel, now about +a mile wide. On the shore stood our old friends, probably on the point +of crying, which they had often told us they would do when the ship +left them." + +For long the Chukches stood on the shore--men, women, and +children--watching till the "fire-dog," as they called the _Vega_, +was out of sight, carrying their white friends for ever away from their +bleak, inhospitable shores. + +"Passing through closely packed ice, the _Vega_ now rounded the East +Cape, of which we now and then caught a glimpse through the fog. As +soon as we came out of the ice south of the East Cape, we noticed the +heavy swell of the Pacific Ocean. The completion of the North-East +Passage was celebrated the same day with a grand dinner, and the _Vega_ +greeted the Old and New Worlds by a display of flags and the firing +of a Swedish salute. Now for the first time after the lapse of three +hundred and thirty-six years was the North-East Passage at last +achieved." + +Sailing through the Behring Strait, they anchored near Behring Island +on 14th August. As they came to anchor, a boat shot alongside and a +voice cried out in Swedish, "Is it Nordenskiold?" A Finland carpenter +soon stood in their midst, and they eagerly questioned him about the +news from the civilised world! + +There is no time to tell how the _Vega_ sailed on to Japan, where +Nordenskiold was presented to the Mikado, and an Imperial medal was +struck commemorating the voyage of the _Vega_, how she sailed right +round Asia, through the Suez Canal, and reached Sweden in safety. It +was on 24th April 1880 that the little weather-beaten _Vega_, +accompanied by flag-decked steamers literally laden with friends, +sailed into the Stockholm harbour while the hiss of fireworks and the +roar of cannon mingled with the shouts of thousands. The Royal Palace +was ablaze with light when King Oscar received and honoured the +successful explorer Nordenskiold. + + + + +CHAPTER LXX + +THE EXPLORATION OF TIBET + + +Perhaps no land in the world has in modern times exercised a greater +influence over the imagination of men than the mysterious country of +Tibet. From the days of Herodotus to those of Younghusband, travellers +of all times and nations have tried to explore this unknown country, +so jealously guarded from Europeans. Surrounded by a "great wilderness +of stony and inhospitable altitudes" lay the capital, Lhasa, the seat +of the gods, the home of the Grand Lama, founded in 639 A.D., mysterious, +secluded, sacred. Kublai Khan, of Marco Polo fame, had annexed Tibet +to his vast Empire, and in 1720 the mysterious land was finally +conquered by the Chinese. The history of the exploration of Tibet and +the adjoining country, and of the various attempts to penetrate to +Lhasa, is one of the most thrilling in the annals of discovery. + +We remember that Benjamin of Tudela in the twelfth century, Carpini +and William de Rubruquis in the thirteenth, all assert that they passed +through Tibet, but we have no certain records till several Italian +Capuchin friars succeeded in reaching Lhasa. There they lived and +taught for some thirty-eight years, when they were withdrawn. And the +little "Tibetan Mission," as it was called, came to an end. + +It was yet early in the eighteenth century. England was taking up her +great position in India, and Warren Hastings was anxious to open up +friendly relations with Tibet beyond the great Himalaya ranges. To +this end he sent an Englishman, George Bogle, with these instructions: +"I desire you will proceed to Lhasa. The design of your mission is +to open a mutual and equal communication of trade between the +inhabitants of Tibet and Bengal. You will take with you samples, for +a trial of such articles of commerce as may be sent from this country. +And you will diligently inform yourself of the manufactures, +productions, and goods which are to be procured in Tibet. The following +will also be proper subjects for your inquiry, the nature of the roads +between the borders of Bengal and Lhasa and the neighbouring countries. +I wish you to remain a sufficient time to obtain a complete knowledge +of the country. The period of your stay must be left to your +discretion." + +Bogle was young; he knew nothing of the country, but in May 1774 his +little expedition set off from Calcutta to do the bidding of Warren +Hastings. By way of Bhutan, planting potatoes at intervals according +to his orders, Bogle proceeded across the eastern Himalayas toward +the Tibetan frontier, reaching Phari, the first town in Tibet, at the +end of October. Thence they reached Gyangtse, a great trade centre +now open to foreigners, crossed the Brahmaputra, which they found was +"about the size of the Thames at Putney," and reached the residence +of the Tashi Lama, the second great potentate of Tibet. This great +dignitary and the young Englishman made great friends. + +"On a carved and gilt throne amid cushions sat the Lama, cross-legged. +He was dressed in a mitre-shaped cap of yellow broadcloth with long +bars lined with red satin, a yellow cloth jacket without sleeves, and +a satin mantle of the same colour thrown over his shoulders. On one +side of him stood his physician with a bundle of perfumed sandal-wood +rods burning in his hand; on the other stood his cup-bearer." + +Such was this remarkable man as first seen by the English, "venerated +as God's vice-regent through all the eastern countries of Asia." He +had heard much of the power of the "Firinghis," as he called the English. +"As my business is to pray to God," he said to Bogle, "I was afraid +to admit any Firinghis into the country. But I have since learned that +they are a fair and just people." + +[Illustration: THE POTALA AT LHASA: A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY VIEW. From +Kircher's _China Illustrata_. The only good representation of the +Potala until photographs were obtainable in the twentieth century.] + +Bogle would have proceeded to Lhasa, the home of the Grand Lama, but +this permission was refused, and he had to return to India with the +information he had collected. + +The next Englishman to enter Tibet was Thomas Manning, the first to +reach the sacred city of Lhasa. He was a private adventurer, who had +lived in China and learnt the language. Attended by a Chinese servant, +and wearing a flowing beard of singular length, he left Calcutta, +crossed into Bhutan, and arrived at the Tibetan border in October 1811. +Then he crossed the Brahmaputra in a large ferry-boat, and arrived +within seven miles of Lhasa. On 9th December the first European entered +the sacred city since the expulsion of the Capuchin friars. The view +of the famous Potala, the lofty towering palace, filled him with +admiration, but the city of which Europe, knowing nothing, had exalted +into a magnificent place, was very disappointing. + +"We passed under a large gateway," says Manning, "whose gilded +ornaments were so ill-fixed that some leaned one way and some another. +The road as it winds round the palace is royally broad; it swarmed +with monks, and beggars were basking in the sun. There is nothing +striking in its appearance; the habitations are begrimed with smut +and dirt. The avenues are full of dogs--in short, everything seems +mean and gloomy. Having provided himself with a proper hat, Manning +went to the Potala to salute the Grand Lama, taking with him a pair +of brass candlesticks with two wax candles, some 'genuine Smith's +lavender water, and a good store of Nankin tea, which is a rare delicacy +at Lhasa. Ushered into the presence of the Grand Lama, a child of seven, +he touched his head three times on the floor, after the custom of the +country, and, taking off his hat, knelt to be blessed by the little +monarch.' He had the simple and unaffected manners of a well-educated +princely child. His face was affectingly beautiful--his beautiful +mouth was perpetually unbending into a graceful smile, which +illuminated his whole countenance." + +Here Manning spent four months, at the end of which time he was recalled +from Pekin, and reluctantly he was obliged to return the way he came. + +The next man to reach the forbidden city was a Jesuit missionary, the +Abbe Huc, who reached Lhasa in 1846 from China. He had adopted the +dress of the Tibetan Lama--the yellow cap and gown--and he piloted +his little caravan across the wide steppes on horseback, while his +fellow-missionary, Gabet, rode a camel and their one Tartar retainer +rode a black mule. It took them a year and a half to reach the sacred +city of Lhasa, for many and great were the difficulties of the way. +Their first difficulty lay in crossing the Yellow River, which was +in flood. + +"It is quite impossible to cross the Yellow River," they were told. +"Eight days ago the river overflowed its banks and the plains are +completely flooded." + +"The Tartars only told us the truth," remarked Huc sadly. "The Yellow +River had become a vast sea, the limits of which were scarcely visible: +houses and villages looked as though they were floating upon the waves. +What were we to do? To turn back was out of the question. We had vowed +that, God willing, we would go to Lhasa whatever obstacles impeded." + +And so they did. The camels were soon up to their knees in a thick +slimy compost of mud and water, over which the poor animals slid on +their painful way. Their courage was rewarded, native ferry-boats came +to their rescue, and they reached the other side in safety. They were +now on the main caravan route to the Tibetan frontier and the Koko-Nor. +Immense caravans were met, with strings of camels extending for miles +in length. Three times between the Yellow River and the Koko-Nor Lake +did they pass the Great Wall built in 214 A.D. After over four months +of travel Huc arrived at the monastery of Kunkum on the borderland +of Tibet. This was the home of four thousand Lamas all clothed in red +dresses and yellow mitres, and thither resorted the worshippers of +Buddha from all parts of Tartary and Tibet. + +"The site is one of enchanting beauty," says Huc. "Imagine in a +mountain-side a deep, broad ravine adorned with fine trees and alive +with the cawing of rooks and yellow-beaked crows and the amusing +chatter of magpies. On the two sides of the ravine and on the slopes +of the mountain rise the white dwellings of the Lamas. Amid the dazzling +whiteness of these modest habitations rise numerous Buddhist temples +with gilt roofs, sparkling with a thousand brilliant colours. Here +the travellers stayed for three months, after which they made their +way on to the Koko-Nor Lake. + +"As we advanced," says Huc, "the country became more fertile, until +we reached the vast and magnificent pasturage of Koko-Nor. Here +vegetation is so vigorous that the grass rose up to the stomachs of +our camels. Soon we discovered far before us what seemed a broad silver +riband. Our leader informed us that this was the Blue Sea. We urged +on our animals, and the sun had not set when we planted our tent within +a hundred paces of the waters of the great Blue Lake. This immense +reservoir of water seems to merit the title of sea rather than merely +that of lake. To say nothing of its vast extent, its waters are bitter +and salt, like those of the ocean." + +After a month spent on the shores of the Blue Lake, an opportunity +offered for the advance. Towards the end of October they found that +an embassy from Lhasa to Pekin was returning in great force. This would +afford Huc and his companion safe travelling from the hordes of +brigands that infested the route through Tibet. The caravan was +immense. There were fifteen hundred oxen, twelve hundred horses, and +as many camels, and about two thousand men. The ambassador was carried +in a litter. Such was the multitude which now started for the thousand +miles across Tibet to Lhasa. + +After crossing the great Burkhan Buddha range, the caravan came to +the Shuga Pass, about seventeen thousand feet high, and here their +troubles began. + +"When the huge caravan first set itself in motion," says Huc, "the +sky was clear, and a brilliant moon lit up the great carpet of snow +with which the whole country was covered. We were able to attain the +summit by sunrise. Then the sky became thickly overcast with clouds +and the wind began to blow with a violence which became more and more +intense." + +Snow fell heavily and several animals perished. They marched in the +teeth of an icy wind which almost choked them, whirlwinds of snow +blinded them, and when they reached the foot of the mountain at last, +M. Gabet found that his nose and ears were frostbitten. As they +proceeded, the cold became more intense. "The demons of snow, wind, +and cold were set loose on the caravan with a fury which seemed to +increase from day to day." + +"One cannot imagine a more terrible country," says poor Huc. + +Not only were the animals dying from cold and exposure, but men were +beginning to drop out and die. Forty of the party died before the +plateau of Tangla had been crossed, a proceeding which lasted twelve +days. The track, some sixteen thousand feet above the sea, was bordered +by the skeletons of mules and camels, and monstrous eagles followed +the caravan. The scenery was magnificent, line upon line of snow-white +pinnacles stretched southward and westward under a bright sun. The +descent was "long, brusque, and rapid, like the descent of a gigantic +ladder." At the lower altitude snow and ice disappeared. It was the +end of January 1846, when at last our two travellers found themselves +approaching the longed-for city of Lhasa. + +"The sun was nearly setting," says Huc, "when we found ourselves in +a vast plain and saw on our right Lhasa, the famous metropolis of the +Buddhist world. After eighteen months' struggle with sufferings and +obstacles of infinite number and variety, we were at length arrived +at the termination of our journey, though not at the close of our +miseries." + +Huc's account of the city agrees well with that of Manning: "The palace +of the Dalai Lama," he says, "merits the celebrity which it enjoys +throughout the world. Upon a rugged mountain, the mountain of Buddha, +the adorers of the Lama have raised the magnificent palace wherein +their Living Divinity resides in the flesh. This place is made up of +various temples; that which occupies the centre is four storeys high; +it terminates in a dome entirely covered with plates of gold. It is +here the Dalai Lama has set up his abode. From the summit of his lofty +sanctuary he can contemplate his innumerable adorers prostrate at the +foot of the divine mountain. But in the town all was different--all +are engaged in the grand business of buying and selling, all is noise, +pushing, excitement, confusion." + +Here Huc and his companion resided for two and a half months, opening +an oratory in their house and even making a few Christian converts. +But soon they were ordered to leave, and reluctantly they travelled +back to China, though by a somewhat different route. + +After this the Tibetans guarded their capital more zealously than +before. Przhevalsky, "that grand explorer of Russian nationality," +spent years in exploring Tibet, but when within a hundred and sixty +miles of Lhasa he was stopped, and never reached the forbidden city. + +Others followed. Prince Henri of Orleans got to within one hundred +miles of Lhasa, Littledale and his wife to within fifty miles. Sven +Hedin, the "Prince of Swedish explorers," who had made so many famous +journeys around and about Tibet, was making a dash for the capital +disguised as a Mongolian pilgrim when he, too, was stopped. + +"A long black line of Tibetan horsemen rode towards us at full gallop," +he relates. "It was not raining just at that moment, so there was +nothing to prevent us from witnessing what was in truth a very +magnificent spectacle. It was as though a living avalanche were +sweeping down upon us. A moment more and we should be annihilated! +We held our weapons ready. On came the Tibetans in one long line +stretching across the plain. We counted close upon seventy in all. +In the middle rode the chief on a big handsome mule, his staff of +officers all dressed in their finest holiday attire. The wings +consisted of soldiers armed to the teeth with gun, sword, and lance. +The great man, Kamba Bombo, pulled up in front of our tent." After +removing a red Spanish cloak and hood he "stood forth arrayed in a +suit of yellow silk with wide arms and a little blue Chinese skull-cap. +His feet were encased in Mongolian boots of green velvet. He was +magnificent." + +"You will not go another step towards Lhasa," he said. "If you do you +will lose your heads. It doesn't the least matter who you are or where +you come from. You must go back to your headquarters." + +So an escort was provided and sorrowfully Sven Hedin turned his back +on the jealously guarded town he had striven so hard to reach. + +The expedition, or rather mission, under Colonel Younghusband in 1904 +brings to an end our history of the exploration of Tibet. He made his +way to Lhasa from India; he stood in the sacred city, and "except for +the Potala" he found it a "sorry affair." He succeeded in getting a +trade Treaty signed, and he rode hastily back to India and travelled +thence to England. The importance of the mission was accentuated by +the fact that the flag, a Union Jack bearing the motto, "Heaven's Light +our Guide," carried by the expedition and placed on the table when +the Treaty was signed in Lhasa, hangs to-day in the Central Hall at +Windsor over the statue of Queen Victoria. + +The veil so long drawn over the capital of Tibet had been at last torn +aside, and the naked city had been revealed in all its "weird +barbarity." Plans of the "scattered and ill-regulated" city are now +familiar, the Potala has been photographed, the Grand Lama has been +drawn, and if, with the departure of Younghusband, the gates of Lhasa +were once more closed, voices from beyond the snowy Himalayas must +be heard again ere long. + +[Illustration: THE WORLD'S MOST MYSTERIOUS CITY UNVEILED: LHASA AND +THE POTALA. From a photograph by a member of Younghusband's expedition +to Tibet and Lhasa, 1909(?).] + + + + +CHAPTER LXXI + +NANSEN REACHES FARTHEST NORTH + + +No names are better known in the history of Arctic exploration than +those of Nansen and the _Fram_, and although others have done work +just as fine, the name of Nansen cannot be omitted from our _Book of +Discovery_. + +Sven Hedin had not long returned from his great travels through eastern +Turkestan and Tibet when Nansen was preparing for his great journey +northwards. + +He had already crossed Greenland from east to west, a brilliant +achievement only excelled by Peary, who a few years later, crossed +it at a higher latitude and proved it to be an island. + +Now the movement of ice drift in the Arctic seas was occupying the +attention of explorers at this time. A ship, the _Jeannette_, had been +wrecked in 1881 off the coast of Siberia, and three years later the +debris from the wreck had been washed up on the south-west coast of +Greenland. So it occurred to Nansen that a current must flow across +the North Pole from Behring Sea on one side to the Atlantic Ocean on +the other. His idea was therefore to build a ship as strong as possible +to enable it to withstand the pressure of the ice, to allow it to become +frozen in, and then to drift as the articles from the _Jeannette_ had +drifted. He reckoned that it would take three years for the drift of +ice to carry him to the North Pole. + +Foolhardy and impossible as the scheme seemed to some, King Oscar came +forward with 1000 pounds toward expenses. The _Fram_ was then designed. +The whole success of the expedition lay in her strength to withstand +the pressure of the ice. At last she was ready, even fitted with +electric light. A library, scientifically prepared food, and +instruments of the most modern type were on board. The members of the +expedition numbered thirteen, and on Midsummer Day, 1893, "in calm +summer weather, while the setting sun shed his beams over the land, +the _Fram_ stood out towards the blue sea to get its first roll in +the long, heaving swell." Along the coast of Norway, past Bergen, past +Trondhjem, past Tromso, they steamed, until in a north-westerly gale +and driving snow they lost sight of land. It was 25th July when they +sighted Nova Zembla plunged in a world of fog. They landed at Khabarova +and visited the little old church seen fifteen years before by +Nordenskiold, anxiously inquiring about the state of the ice in the +Kara Sea. Here, amid the greatest noise and confusion, some +thirty-four dogs were brought on board for the sledges. On 5th August +the explorer successfully passed through the Yugor Strait into the +Kara Sea, which was fairly free from ice, and five weeks later sailed +past Cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost point of the Old World. + +"The land was low and desolate," says Nansen. "The sun had long since +gone down behind the sea; only one star was to be seen. It stood straight +above Cape Chelyuskin, shining clearly and sadly in the pale sky. +Exactly at four o'clock our flags were hoisted and our last three +cartridges sent out a thundering salute over the sea." + +The _Fram_ was then turned north to the west of the New Siberian Islands. +"It was a strange thing to be sailing away north," says Nansen, "to +unknown lands, over an open rolling sea where no ship had been before. +On to the north, steadily north with a good wind, as fast as steam +and sail can take us through unknown regions." + +They had almost reached 78 degrees north when they saw ice shining +through the fog, and a few days later the _Fram_ was frozen in. "Autumn +was well advanced, the long night of winter was approaching, there +was nothing to be done except prepare ourselves for it, and we converted +our ship as well as we could into comfortable winter quarters." + +By October the ice was pressing round the _Fram_ with a noise like +thunder. "It is piling itself up into long walls and heaps high enough +to reach a good way up the _Fram's_ rigging: in fact, it is trying +its very utmost to grind the _Fram_ into powder." + +Christmas came and went. The New Year of 1894 dawned with the +thermometer 36 degrees below zero. By February the _Fram_ had drifted +to the 80th degree of latitude. "High festival in honour of the 80th +degree," writes Nansen. "Hurrah! Well sailed! The wind is whistling +among the hummocks, the snow flies rustling through the air, ice and +sky are melted into one, but we are going north at full speed, and +are in the wildest of gay spirits. If we go on at this rate we shall +be at the Pole in fifty months." + +On 17th May the 81st degree of latitude was reached. Five months passed +away. By 31st October they had drifted to the 82nd. "A grand banquet +to-day," says Nansen, "to celebrate the 82nd degree of latitude. We +are progressing merrily towards our goal; we are already half-way +between the New Siberian Islands and Franz Josef Land, and there is +not a soul on board who doubts that we shall accomplish what we came +out to do; so long live merriment." + +Now Nansen planned the great sledge journey, which has been called +"the most daring ever undertaken." The winter was passed in peaceful +preparation for a start in the spring. When the New Year of 1895 dawned +the _Fram_ had been firmly frozen in for fifteen months. A few days +later, the ship was nearly crushed by a fresh ice pressure and all +prepared to abandon her if necessary, but after an anxious day of ice +roaring and crackling--"an ice pressure with a vengeance, as if +Doomsday had come," remarked Nansen--it quieted down. They had now +beaten all records, for they had reached 83 degrees latitude. + +And now preparations for the great sledge journey were complete. They +had built kayaks or light boats to sail in open water, and these were +placed on the sledges and drawn by dogs. Nansen decided only to take +one companion, Johansen, and to leave the others with the _Fram_. + +"At last the great day has arrived. The chief aim of the expedition +is to push through the unknown Polar sea from the region around the +New Siberian Islands, north of Franz Josef Land and onward to the +Atlantic Ocean near Spitzbergen or Greenland." Farewells were said, +and then the two men bravely started off over the unknown desert sea +with their sledges and twenty-eight dogs. For the first week they +travelled well and soon reached 85 degrees latitude. "The only +disagreeable thing to face now is the cold," says Nansen. "Our clothes +are transformed more and more into complete suits of ice armour. The +sleeve of my coat actually rubbed deep sores in my wrists, one of which +got frostbitten; the wound grew deeper and deeper and nearly reached +the bone. At night we packed ourselves into our sleeping-bags and lay +with our teeth chattering for an hour before we became aware of a little +warmth in our bodies." + +[Illustration: DR. NANSEN. After a photograph.] + +Steadily, with faces to the north, they pressed on over the blocks +of rough ice, stretching as far as the horizon, till on 8th April +further progress became impossible. Nansen strode on ahead and mounted +one of the highest hummocks to look around. He saw "a veritable chaos +of ice-blocks, ridge after ridge, and nothing but rubble to travel +over." He therefore determined to turn and make for Franz Josef Land +some four hundred and fifty miles distant. They had already reached +86 degrees of latitude, farther north than any expedition had reached +before. + +As they travelled south, they rejoiced in the warmth of the sun, but +their food was growing scarce, and they had to kill a dog every other +day to feed the others, till by May they had only thirteen dogs left. +June found them having experienced tremendous snowstorms with only +seven dogs left. Although they were in the latitude of Franz Josef +Land, no welcome shores appeared. It was now three months since they +had left the _Fram_; the food for the dogs was quite finished and the +poor creatures were beginning to eat their harness of sailcloth. +Mercifully before the month ended they managed to shoot a seal which +provided them with food for a month. "It is a pleasing change," says +Nansen, "to be able to eat as much and as often as we like. Blubber +is excellent, both raw and fried. For dinner I fried a highly successful +steak, for supper I made blood-pancakes fried in blubber with sugar, +unsurpassed in flavour. And here we lie up in the far north, two grim, +black, soot-stained barbarians, stirring a mess of soup in a kettle, +surrounded on all sides by ice--ice covered with impassable snow." + +A bear and two cubs were shot and the explorers stayed on at "Longing +Camp" as they named this dreary spot, unable to go on, but amply fed. + +On 24th July we get the first cheerful entry for many a long day: "Land! +land! after nearly two years we again see something rising above that +never-ending white line on the horizon yonder--a new life is beginning +for us!" + +Only two dogs were now left to drag the sledges, so the two explorers +were obliged to help with the dragging. For thirteen days they +proceeded in the direction of land, dragging and pushing their burdens +over the ridges of ice with thawing snow. At last on 7th August they +stood at the edge of the ice. Behind lay their troubles; before was +the waterway home. Then they launched their little kayaks, which +danced over the open waters, the little waves splashing against their +sides. When the mist cleared they found themselves on the west coast +of Franz Josef Land, discovered by an Austro-Hungarian expedition in +1874. + +They were full of hope, when a cruel disappointment damped their joy. +They had landed and were camping on the shore, when a great storm arose +and the wind blew the drift ice down till it lay packed along the coast. +The little ships were frozen in, and there was no hope of reaching +home that winter. Here they were doomed to stay. Fortunately there +were bears and walrus, so they could not starve, and with magnificent +pluck they set to work to prepare for the winter. For many a long day +they toiled at the necessary task of skinning and cutting up walrus +till they were saturated with blubber, oil, and blood, but soon they +had two great heaps of blubber and meat on shore well covered over +with walrus hides. + +[Illustration: THE SHIP THAT WENT FARTHEST NORTH: THE _FRAM_. From +a photograph.] + +September was occupied in building a hut amid the frost and snow with +walrus hides and tusks, warmed inside with train-oil lamps. Here under +bear skins they slept and passed the long months of winter. In October +the sun disappeared, the days grew darker. Life grew very monotonous, +for it was the third Polar winter the explorers had been called on +to spend. They celebrated Christmas Day, Nansen by washing himself +in a "quarter of a cup of warm water," Johansen by turning his shirt. +The weather outside was stormy and almost took their breath away with +its icy coldness. They longed for a book, but they wiled away the hours +by trying to calculate how far the _Fram_ could have drifted and when +she was likely to reach home. They were distressed at the dirt of their +clothes, and longed to be able to throw away the heavy oily rags that +seemed glued to their bodies. They had no soap, and water had no effect +on the horrible grease. It was May before the weather allowed them +to leave the hut at last. Hopefully they dragged their kayaks over +the snow, the sledge runners fastened on to their feet, and so made +their way southwards down Franz Josef Land. + +Once Nansen was very nearly drowned. The explorers had reached the +south of the Islands, and, having moored their little boats together, +they ascended a hummock close by, when to their horror they saw the +kayaks were adrift. Nansen rushed down, threw off some clothes, and +sprang into the water after them. He was none too soon, for already +the boats were drifting rapidly away. The water was icy cold, but it +was a case of life or death. Without the boats they were lost men. +"All we possessed was on board," says Nansen, "so I exerted myself +to the utmost. I redoubled my exertions though I felt my limbs gradually +stiffening; at last I was able to stretch out my hand to the edge of +the kayak. I tried to pull myself up, but the whole of my body was +stiff with cold. After a time I managed to swing one leg up on to the +edge and to tumble up. Nor was it easy to paddle in the double vessel; +the gusts of wind seemed to go right through me as I stood there in +my wet woollen shirt. I shivered, my teeth chattered, and I was numb +all over. At last I managed to reach the edge of the ice. I shook and +trembled all over, while Johansen pulled off the wet things and packed +me into the sleeping-bag. The critical situation was saved." + +And now came one of those rare historic days in the history of +exploration. It was 17th June 1896. Nansen was surveying the lonely +line of coast, when suddenly the barking of a dog fell on his ear, +and soon in front he saw the fresh tracks of some animal. "It was with +a strange mixture of feelings," he says, "that I made my way among +the numerous hummocks towards land. Suddenly I thought I heard a human +voice--the first for three years. How my heart beat and the blood rushed +to my brain as I halloed with all the strength of my lungs. Soon I +heard another shout and saw a dark form moving among the hummocks. +It was a man. We approached one another quickly. I waved my hat; he +did the same. As I drew nearer I thought I recognised Mr. Jackson, +whom I remembered once to have seen. I raised my hat; we extended a +hand to one another with a hearty 'How do you do?' Above us a roof +of mist, beneath our feet the rugged packed drift ice." + +"Ar'n't you Nansen?" he said. + +"Yes, I am," was the answer. + +And, seizing the grimy hand of the Arctic explorer, he shook it warmly, +congratulating him on his successful trip. Jackson and his companions +had wintered at Cape Flora, the southern point of Franz Josef Land, +and they were expecting a ship, the _Windward_, to take them home. +On 26th July the _Windward_ steamed slowly in, and by 13th August she +reached Norway, and the news of Nansen's safe arrival was made known +to the whole world. A week later the little _Fram_, "strong and broad +and weather-beaten," also returned in safety. And on 9th September +1896, Nansen and his brave companions on board the _Fram_ sailed up +Christiania Fjiord in triumph. + +He had reached a point farthest North, and been nearer to the North +Pole than had any explorer before. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXII + +PEARY REACHES THE NORTH POLE + + +The 6th April 1909 is a marked day in the annals of exploration, for +on that day Peary succeeded in reaching the North Pole, which for +centuries had defied the efforts of man; on that day he attained the +goal for which the greatest nations of the world had struggled for +over four hundred years. Indeed, he had spent twenty-three years of +his own life labouring toward this end. + +He was mainly inspired by reading Nordenskiold's _Exploration of +Greenland_, when a lieutenant in the United States Navy. In 1886 he +got leave to join an expedition to Greenland, and returned with the +Arctic fever in his veins and a scheme for crossing that continent +as far north as possible. This after many hardships he accomplished, +being the first explorer to discover that Greenland was an island. +Peary was now stamped as a successful Arctic explorer. The idea of +reaching the North Pole began to take shape, and in order to raise +funds the enthusiastic explorer delivered no less than one hundred +and sixty-eight lectures in ninety-six days. With the proceeds he +chartered the _Falcon_ and left the shores of Philadelphia in June +1893 for Greenland. His wife, who accompanied him before, accompanied +him again, and with sledges and dogs on board they made their way up +the western coast of Greenland. Arrived at Melville Bay, Peary built +a little hut; here a little daughter was born who was soon "bundled +in soft warm Arctic furs and wrapped in the Stars and Stripes." No +European child had ever been born so far north as this; the Eskimos +travelled from long distances to satisfy themselves she was not made +of snow, and for the first six months of her life the baby lived in +continuous lamplight. + +But we cannot follow Peary through his many Polar expeditions; his +toes had been frozen off in one, his leg broken in another, but he +was enthusiastic enough when all preparations were complete for the +last and greatest expedition of all. + +The _Roosevelt_, named after the President of the United States, had +carried him safely to the north of Greenland in his last expedition, +so she was again chosen, and in July 1908, Peary hoisted the Stars +and Stripes and steamed from New York. + +"As the ship backed out into the river, a cheer went up from the +thousands who had gathered on the piers to see us off. It was an +interesting coincidence that the day on which we started for the +coldest spot on earth was about the hottest which New York had known +for years. As we steamed up the river, the din grew louder and louder; +we passed President Roosevelt's naval yacht, the _Mayflower_, and her +small gun roared out a parting salute--surely no ship ever started +for the ends of the earth with more heart-stirring farewells." + +President Roosevelt had himself inspected the ship and shaken hands +with each member of the expedition. + +"I believe in you, Peary," he had said, "and I believe in your success, +if it is within the possibility of man." So the little _Roosevelt_ +steamed away; on 26th July the Arctic Circle was crossed by Peary for +the twentieth time, and on 1st August, Cape York, the most northerly +home of human beings in the world, was reached. This was the dividing +line between the civilised world on one hand and the Arctic world on +the other. Picking up several Eskimo families and about two hundred +and fifty dogs, they steamed on northwards. + +"Imagine," says Peary--"imagine about three hundred and fifty miles +of almost solid ice, ice of all shapes and sizes, mountainous ice, +flat ice, ragged and tortured ice; then imagine a little black ship, +solid, sturdy, compact, strong, and resistant, and on this little ship +are sixty-nine human beings, who have gone out into the crazy, +ice-tortured channel between Baffin Bay and the Polar sea--gone out +to prove the reality of a dream in the pursuit of which men have frozen +and starved and died." + +The usual course was taken, across Smith's Sound and past the desolate +wind-swept rocks of Cape Sabine, where, in 1884, Greely's ill-fated +party slowly starved to death, only seven surviving out of +twenty-four. + +Fog and ice now beset the ship, and on 5th September they were compelled +to seek winter quarters, for which they chose Cape Sheridan, where +Peary had wintered before in 1905. Here they unloaded the _Roosevelt_, +and two hundred and forty-six Eskimo dogs were at once let loose to +run about in the snow. A little village soon grew up, and the Eskimos, +both men and women, went hunting as of yore. Peary had decided to start +as before from Cape Columbia, some ninety miles away, the most +northerly point of Grant Land, for his dash to the Pole. + +On 12th October the sun disappeared and they entered cheerfully into +the "Great Dark." + +"Imagine us in our winter home," says Peary, "four hundred and fifty +miles from the North Pole, the ship held tight in her icy berth one +hundred and fifty yards from the shore, ship and the surrounding world +covered with snow, the wind creaking in the rigging, whistling and +shrieking around the corners of the deck houses, the temperature +ranging from zero to sixty below, the icepack in the channel outside +us groaning and complaining with the movement of the tides." + +Christmas passed with its usual festivities. There were races for the +Eskimos, one for the children, one for the men, and one for the Eskimo +mothers, who carried babies in their fur hoods. These last, looking +like "animated walruses," took their race at a walking pace. + +At last, on 15th February 1909, the first sledge-party left the ship +for Cape Columbia, and a week later Peary himself left the _Roosevelt_ +with the last loads. The party assembled at Cape Columbia for the great +journey north, which consisted of seven men of Peary's party, +fifty-nine Eskimos, one hundred and forty dogs, and twenty-eight +sledges. Each sledge was complete in itself; each had its cooking +utensils, its four men, its dogs and provisions for fifty or sixty +days. The weather was "clear, calm, and cold." + +On 1st March the cavalcade started off from Cape Columbia in a freezing +east wind, and soon men and dogs became invisible amid drifting snow. +Day by day they went forward, undaunted by the difficulties and +hardships of the way, now sending back small parties to the depot at +Cape Columbia, now dispatching to the home camp some reluctant +explorer with a frostbitten heel or foot, now delayed by open water, +but on, on, till they had broken all records, passed all tracks even +of the Polar bear, passed the 87th parallel into the region of perpetual +daylight for half the year. It was here, apparently within reach of +his goal, that Peary had to turn back three years before for want of +food. + +Thus they marched for a month; party after party had been sent back, +till the last supporting party had gone and Peary was left with his +black servant, Henson, and four Eskimos. He had five sledges, forty +picked dogs, and supplies for forty days when he started off alone +to dash the last hundred and thirty-three miles to the Pole itself. +Every event in the next week is of thrilling interest. After a few +hours of sleep the little party started off shortly after midnight +on 2nd April 1909. Peary was leading. + +"I felt the keenest exhilaration as I climbed over the ridge and +breasted the keen air sweeping over the mighty ice, pure and straight +from the Pole itself." + +They might yet be stopped by open water from reaching the goal. On +they went, twenty-five miles in ten hours, then a little sleep, and +so on again, then a few hours' rest and another twenty miles till they +had reached latitude 89 degrees. + +Still breathlessly they hurried forward, till on the 5th they were +but thirty-five miles from the Pole. + +"The sky overhead was a colourless pall, gradually deepening to almost +black at the horizon, and the ice was a ghastly and chalky white." + +On 6th April the Pole was reached. + +"The Pole at last!" writes Peary in his diary. "The prize of three +centuries! My dream and goal for twenty years. Mine at last! I cannot +bring myself to realise it. It all seems so simple and commonplace." + +Flags were at once hoisted on ice lances, and the successful explorer +watched them proudly waving in the bright Arctic sunlight at the Pole. +Through all his perilous expeditions to the Arctic regions, Peary had +worn a silken flag, worked by his wife, wrapped round his body. He +now flew it on this historic spot, "which knows no North, nor West, +nor East." + +[Illustration: PEARY'S FLAG FLYING AT THE NORTH POLE, APRIL 1909. By +the courteous permission of Admiral Peary, from his book _The North +Pole_, published by Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton.] + +Not a vestige of land was to be seen; nothing but ice lay all around. +They could not stay long, for provisions would run short, and the ice +might melt before their return journey was accomplished. + +So after a brief rest they started off for Cape Columbia, which they +reached after a wild rush of sixteen days. It had taken them +thirty-seven days to cover the four hundred and seventy-five miles +from Cape Columbia to the Pole, from which they had returned at the +rate of thirty miles a day. + +The whole party then started for the _Roosevelt_, and on 18th July +she was taken from her winter quarters and turned towards home. Then +came the day when wireless telegraphy flashed the news through the +whole of the civilised world: "Stars and Stripes nailed to the North +Pole." + +The record of four hundred years of splendid self-sacrifice and +heroism unrivalled in the history of exploration had been crowned at +last. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIII + +THE QUEST FOR THE SOUTH POLE + + +An American had placed the Stars and Stripes on the North Pole in 1909. +It was a Norwegian who succeeded in reaching the South Pole in 1911. +But the spade-work which contributed so largely to the final success +had been done so enthusiastically by two Englishmen that the +expeditions of Scott and Shackleton must find a place here before we +conclude this _Book of Discovery_ with Amundsen's final and brilliant +dash. + +The crossing of the Antarctic Circle by the famous _Challenger_ +expedition in 1874 revived interest in the far South. The practical +outcome of much discussion was the design of the _Discovery_, a ship +built expressly for scientific exploration, and the appointment of +Captain Scott to command an Antarctic expedition. + +In August 1901, Scott left the shores of England, and by way of New +Zealand crossed the Antarctic Circle on 3rd January 1902. Three weeks +later he reached the Great Ice Barrier which had stopped Ross in 1840. +For a week Scott steamed along the Barrier. Mounts Erebus and Terror +were plainly visible, and though he could nowhere discover Parry +Mountains, yet he found distant land rising high above the sea, which +he named King Edward VII.'s Land. Scott had brought with him a captive +balloon in which he now rose to a height of eight hundred feet, from +which he saw an unbroken glacier stream of vast extent stretching to +the south. It was now time to seek for winter quarters, and Scott, +returning to McMurdo Bay named by Ross, found that it was not a bay +at all, but a strait leading southward. Here they landed their stores, +set up their hut, and spent the winter, till on 2nd November 1902 all +was ready for a sledge-journey to the south. For fifty-nine days Scott +led his little land-party of three, with four sledges and nineteen +dogs, south. But the heavy snow was too much for the dogs, and one +by one died, until not one was left and the men had to drag and push +the sledges themselves. Failing provisions at last compelled them to +stop. Great mountain summits were seen beyond the farthest point +reached. + +"We have decided at last we have found something which is fitting to +bear the name of him whom we most delight to honour," says Scott, "and +Mount Markham it shall be called in memory of the father of the +expedition." + +It was 30th December when a tremendous blizzard stayed their last +advance. "Chill and hungry," they lay all day in their sleeping-bags, +miserable at the thought of turning back, too weak and ill to go on. +With only provisions for a fortnight, they at last reluctantly turned +home, staggering as far as their depot in thirteen days. Shackleton +was smitten with scurvy; he was growing worse every day, and it was +a relief when on 2nd February they all reached the ship alive, "as +near spent as three persons can well be." But they had done well: they +had made the first long land journey ever made in the Antarctic; they +had reached a point which was farthest south; they had tested new +methods of travel; they had covered nine hundred and sixty miles in +ninety-three days. Shackleton was now invalided home, but it was not +till 1904 that the _Discovery_ escaped from the frozen harbour to make +her way home. + +Shackleton had returned to England in 1903, but the mysterious South +Pole amid its wastes of ice and snow still called him back, and in +command of the _Nimrod_ he started forth in August 1907 on the next +British Antarctic expedition, carrying a Union Jack, presented by the +Queen, to plant on the spot farthest south. He actually placed it within +ninety-seven miles of the Pole itself! + +With a petrol motor-car on board, Eskimo dogs, and Manchurian ponies, +he left New Zealand on 1st January 1908, watched and cheered by some +thirty thousand of his fellow-countrymen. Three weeks later they were +in sight of the Great Ice Barrier, and a few days later the huge +mountains of Erebus and Terror came into sight. Shackleton had hoped +to reach King Edward VII.'s Land for winter quarters, but a formidable +ice-pack prevented this, and they selected a place some twenty miles +north of the _Discovery's_ old winter quarters. Getting the wild +little Manchurian ponies ashore was no light job; the poor little +creatures were stiff after a month's constant buffeting, for the +_Nimrod's_ passage had been stormy. One after another they were now +led out of their stalls into a horse-box and slung over the ice. Once +on _terra firma_ they seemed more at home, for they immediately began +pawing the snow as they were wont to do in their far-away Manchurian +home. + +[Illustration: SHACKLETON'S SHIP, THE _NIMROD_, AMONG THE ICE IN +McMURDO SOUND, THE WINTER LAND QUARTERS OF THE BRITISH ANTARCTIC +EXPEDITION. _By Sir Ernest Shackleton's permission from his book "The +Heart of the Antarctic," published by Mr. Heinemann_.] + +The spacious hut, brought out by Shackleton, was soon erected. Never +was such a luxurious house set up on the bleak shores of the Polar +seas. There was a dark room for developing, acetylene gas for lighting, +a good stove for warming, and comfortable cubicles decorated with +pictures. The dark room was excellent, and never was a book of travels +more beautifully illustrated than Shackleton's _Heart of the +Antarctic_. + +True, during some of the winter storms and blizzards the hut shook +and trembled so that every moment its occupants thought it would be +carried bodily away, but it stood its ground all right. The long winter +was spent as usual in preparing for the spring expedition to the south, +but it was 29th October 1908 before the weather made it possible to +make a start. The party consisted of Shackleton, Adams, Marshall, and +Wild, each leading a pony which dragged a sledge with food for +ninety-one days. + +"A glorious day for our start," wrote Shackleton in his diary, +"brilliant sunshine and a cloudless sky. As we left the hut where we +had spent so many months in comfort we had a feeling of real regret +that never again would we all be together there. A clasp of the hands +means more than many words, and as we turned to acknowledge the men's +cheer, and saw them standing on the ice by the familiar cliffs, I felt +we must try to do well for the sake of every one concerned in the +expedition." + +New land in the shape of ice-clad mountains greeted the explorers on +22nd November. "It is a wonderful place we are in, all new to the world," +says Shackleton; "there is an impression of limitless solitude about +it that makes us feel so small as we trudge along, a few dark specks +on the snowy plain." + +They now had to quit the Barrier in order to travel south. Fortunately +they found a gap, called the Southern Gateway, which afforded a direct +line to the Pole. But their ponies had suffered badly during the march; +they had already been obliged to shoot three of them, and on 7th +December the last pony fell down a crevasse and was killed. They had +now reached a great plateau some seven thousand feet above the sea; +it rose steadily toward the south, and Christmas Day found them "lying +in a little tent, isolated high on the roof of the world, far from +the ways trodden by man." With forty-eight degrees of frost, drifting +snow, and a biting wind, they spent the next few days hauling their +sledges up a steep incline. They had now only a month's food left. +Pressing on with reduced rations, in the face of freezing winds, they +reached a height of ten thousand and fifty feet. + +It was the 6th of January, and they were in latitude 88 degrees, when +a "blinding, shrieking blizzard" made all further advance impossible. +For sixty hours the four hungry explorers lay in their sleeping-bags, +nearly perished with cold. "The most trying day we have yet spent," +writes Shackleton, "our fingers and faces being continually +frostbitten. To-morrow we will rush south with the flag. It is our +last outward march." + +The gale breaking, they marched on till 9th January, when they stopped +within ninety-seven miles of the Pole, where they hoisted the Union +Jack, and took possession of the great plateau in the King's name. + +"We could see nothing but the dead-white snow plain. There was no break +in the plateau as it extended towards the Pole. I am confident that +the Pole lies on the great plateau we have discovered miles and miles +from any outstanding land." + +And so the four men turned homewards. "Whatever our regret may be, +we have done our best," said the leader somewhat sadly. Blinding +blizzards followed them as they made their way slowly back. On 28th +January they reached the Great Ice Barrier. Their food was well-nigh +spent; their daily rations consisted of six biscuits and some +horse-meat in the shape of the Manchurian ponies they had shot and +left the November before. But it disagreed with most of them, and it +was four very weak and ailing men who staggered back to the _Nimrod_ +toward the end of February 1909. + +Shackleton reached England in the autumn of 1909 to find that another +Antarctic expedition was to leave our shores in the following summer +under the command of Scott, in the _Terra Nova_. It was one of the +best-equipped expeditions that ever started; motor-sledges had been +specially constructed to go over the deep snow, which was fatal to +the motor-car carried by Shackleton. There were fifteen ponies and +thirty dogs. Leaving England in July 1910, Scott was established in +winter quarters in McMurdo Sound by 26th January 1911. It was November +before he could start on the southern expedition. + +"We left Hut Point on the evening of 2nd November. For sixty miles +we followed the track of the motors (sent on five days before). The +ponies are going very steadily. We found the motor party awaiting us +in latitude 80-1/2 degrees south. The motors had proved entirely +satisfactory, and the machines dragged heavy loads over the worst part +of the Barrier surface, crossing several crevasses. The sole cause +of abandonment was the overheating of the air-cooled engines. We are +building snow cairns at intervals of four miles to guide homeward +parties and leaving a week's provisions at every degree of latitude. +As we proceeded the weather grew worse, and snowstorms were frequent. +The sky was continually overcast, and the land was rarely visible. +The ponies, however, continued to pull splendidly." + +As they proceeded south they encountered terrific storms of wind and +snow, out of which they had constantly to dig the ponies. Christmas +passed and the New Year of 1912 dawned. On 3rd January when one hundred +and fifty miles from the Pole, "I am going forward," says Scott, "with +a party of five men with a month's provisions, and the prospect of +success seems good, provided that the weather holds and no unforeseen +obstacles arise." + +Scott and his companions successfully attained the object of their +journey. They reached the South Pole on 17th January only to find that +they had been forestalled by others! And it is remarkable to note that +so correct were their observations, the two parties located the Pole +within half a mile of one another. + +Scott's return journey ended disastrously. Blinding blizzards +prevented rapid progress; food and fuel ran short; still the weakened +men struggled bravely forward till, within a few miles of a depot of +supplies, death overtook them. + +Scott's last message can never be forgotten. "I do not regret this +journey which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardship, help one +another, and meet death with as great fortitude as ever in the past.... +Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, +endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the +heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must +tell the tale; but surely, surely, a great, rich country like ours +will see that those who are dependent upon us are properly provided +for." + +It was on 14th December 1911 that Captain Amundsen had reached the +Pole. A Norwegian, fired by the example of his fellow-countryman, +Nansen, Amundsen had long been interested in both Arctic and Antarctic +exploration. In a ship of only forty-eight tons, he had, with six others, +made a survey of the North Magnetic Pole, sailed through the Behring +Strait, and accomplished the North-West Passage, for which he was +awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. On his +return he planned an expedition to the North Pole. He had made known +his scheme, and, duly equipped for North Polar expedition in Nansen's +little _Fram_, Amundsen started. Suddenly the world rang with the news +that Peary had discovered the North Pole, and that Amundsen had turned +his prow southwards and was determined to make a dash for the South +Pole. Landing in Whales Bay some four hundred miles to the east of +Scott's winter quarters, his first visitors were the Englishmen on +board the _Terra Nova_, who were taking their ship to New Zealand for +the winter. + +Making a hut on the shore, Amundsen had actually started on his journey +to the Pole before Scott heard of his arrival. + +"I am fully alive to the complication in the situation arising out +of Amundsen's presence in the Antarctic," wrote the English explorer, +"but as any attempt at a race might have been fatal to our chance of +getting to the Pole at all, I decided to do exactly as I should have +done had not Amundsen been here. If he gets to the Pole he will be +bound to do it rapidly with dogs, and one foresees that success will +justify him." + +Although the Norwegian explorer left his winter quarters on 8th +September for his dash to the Pole, he started too early; three of +his party had their feet frostbitten, and the dogs suffered severely, +so he turned back, and it was not till 20th October, just a week before +Scott's start, that he began in real earnest his historic journey. +He was well off for food, for whales were plentiful on the shores of +the Bay, and seals, penguins, and gulls abounded. The expedition was +well equipped, with eight explorers, four sledges, and thirteen dogs +attached to each. + +"Amundsen is a splendid leader, supreme in organisation, and the +essential in Antarctic travel is to think out the difficulties before +they arise." So said those who worked with him on his most successful +journey. + +Through dense fog and blinding blizzards the Norwegians now made their +way south, their Norwegian skis and sledges proving a substantial help. +The crevasses in the ice were very bad; one dog dropped in and had +to be abandoned; another day the dogs got across, but the sledge fell +in, and it was necessary to climb down the crevasse, unpack the sledge, +and pull up piece by piece till it was possible to raise the empty +sledge. So intense was the cold that the very brandy froze in the bottle +and was served out in lumps. + +"It did not taste much like brandy then," said the men, "but it burnt +our throats as we sucked it." + +The dogs travelled well. Each man was responsible for his own team; +he fed them and made them fond of him. Thus all through November the +Norwegians travelled south, till they reached the vast plateau +described by Shackleton. One tremendous peak, fifteen thousand feet +high, they named "Frithjof Nansen." + +On 14th December they reached their goal; the weather was beautiful, +the ground perfect for sledging. + +"At 3 p.m. we made halt," says Amundsen. "According to our reckoning, +we had reached our destination. All of us gathered round the colours--a +beautiful silken flag; all hands took hold of it, and, planting it +on the spot, we gave the vast plateau on which the Pole is situate +the name of 'The King Haakon VII.' It was a vast plain, alike in all +directions, mile after mile." + +Here in brilliant sunshine the little party camped, taking +observations till 17th December, when, fastening to the ground a +little tent with the Norwegian flag and the _Fram_ pennant, they gave +it the name "Polheim" and started for home. + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN ROALD AMUNDSEN TAKING SIGHTS AT THE SOUTH POLE. +From a photograph, by permission of Mr. John Murray and the +_Illustrated London News_.] + +So the North and South Poles yielded up their well-hoarded secrets +after centuries of waiting, within two and a half years of one another. + +They had claimed more lives than any exploration had done before, or +is ever likely to do again. + +And so ends the last of these great earth-stories--stories which have +made the world what it is to-day--and we may well say with one of the +most successful explorers of our times, "The future may give us +thrilling stories of the conquest of the air, but the spirit of man +has mastered the earth." + + + + +DATES OF CHIEF EVENTS + + +PAGE DATE + 4 The oldest known Ships . . . . . . . . . . . . . B.C. 6000-5000 + 7 Expedition to Punt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 1600 + 11 Phoenician Expeditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 700 + 19 Neco's Fleet built . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 613 + 23 Anaximander, the Greek, invents Maps . . . . . . " 580 + 25 Hecataeus writes the First Geography . . . . . . " 500 + 27 Herodotus describes Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . " 446 + 30 Hanno sails down West Coast of Africa . . . . . . " 450 + 32 Xenophon crosses Asia Minor . . . . . . . . . . . " 401 + 38 Alexander the Great finds India . . . . . . . . . " 327 + 41 Nearchus navigates the Indian Ocean . . . . . . . " 326 + 45 The Geography of Eratosthenes . . . . . . . . . . " 240-196 + 48 Pytheas discovers the British Isles and Thule . . " 333 + 55 Julius Caesar explores France, Britain, Germany . " 60-54 + 61 Strabo's Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 18 + 68 Agricola discovers the Highlands . . . . . . . . " 83 + 71 Pliny's Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 170 + 74 Ptolemy's Geography and Maps . . . . . . . . . . " 159 + 78 The First Guide for Travellers . . . . . . . . . Fourth century + 83 St. Patrick explores Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432-93 + 85 St. Columba reaches the Orkney Isles . . . . . . . . . . . 563 + 85 St. Brandon crosses the Atlantic . . . . . . . . Sixth century + 90 Willibald travels from Britain to Jerusalem . . . . . . . . 721 + 92 The Christian Topography of Cosmas . . . . . . . Sixth century + 94 Naddod the Viking discovers Iceland . . . . . . . . . . . . 861 + 95 Erik the Red discovers Greenland . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985 + 95 Lief discovers Newfoundland and North American Coast . . . 1000 + 97 Othere navigates the Baltic Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 890 + 99 Mohammedan Travellers to China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831 +103 Edrisi's Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1154 +108 Benjamin of Tudela visits India and China . . . . . . . . . 1160 +110 Carpini visits the Great Khan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1246 +112 William de Rubruquis also visits the Great Khan . . . . . . 1255 +115 Maffio and Niccolo Polo reach China . . . . . . . . . . 1260-71 +117 Marco Polo's Travels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1271-95 +126 Ibn Batuta's Travels through Asia . . . . . . . . . . . 1324-48 +126 Sir John Mandeville's Travels published . . . . . . . . . . 1372 +134 Hereford Mappa Mundi appeared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1280 +137 Anglo-Saxon Map of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990 +138 Prince Henry of Portugal encourages Exploration . . . . . . 1418 +140 Zarco and Vaz reach Porto Santo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1419 +140 Zarco discovers Madeira . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1420 +142 Nuno Tristam discovers Cape Blanco . . . . . . . . . . . . 1441 +143 Gonsalves discovers Cape Verde Islands . . . . . . . . . . 1442 +144 Cadamosto reaches the Senegal River and Cape Verde . . . . 1455 +145 Diego Gomez reaches the Gambia River . . . . . . . . . . . 1458 +148 Death of Prince Henry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1460 +149 Fra Mauro's Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1457 +150 Diego Cam discovers the Congo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1484 +152 Bartholomew Diaz rounds the Cape of Good Hope . . . . . . . 1486 +153 Martin Behaim makes his Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1492 +160 Christopher Columbus discovers West Indies . . . . . . . . 1492 +166 Columbus finds Jamaica and other Islands . . . . . . . . . 1493 +167 Columbus finds Trinidad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1498 +169 Death of Columbus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1504 +170 Amerigo Vespucci finds Trinidad and Venezuela . . . . . . . 1499 +175 First Map of the New World by Juan de la Cosa . . . . . . . 1500 +177 Vasco da Gama reaches India by the Cape . . . . . . . . . . 1497 +181 Pedro Cabral discovers Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1500 +188 Francisco Serrano reaches the Spice Islands . . . . . . . . 1511 +192 Balboa sees the Pacific Ocean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1513 +203 The First Circumnavigation of the World . . . . . . . . 1519-22 +206 Cordova discovers Yucatan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1517 +206 Juan Grijalva discovers Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1518 +209 Cortes conquers Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1519 +217 Pizarro conquers Peru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1531 +221 Orellana discovers the Amazon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1541 +225 Cabot sails to Newfoundland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1497 +228 Jacques Cartier discovers the Gulf of St. Lawrence . . . . 1534 +236 Sir Hugh Willoughby finds Nova Zembla . . . . . . . . . . . 1553 +238 Richard Chancellor reaches Moscow _via_ Archangel . . . . . 1554 +240 Anthony Jenkinson crosses Russia to Bokhara . . . . . . . . 1558 +244 Pinto claims the discovery of Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . 1542 +245 Martin Frobisher discovers his Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . 1576 +249 Drake sails round the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1577-80 +260 Davis finds his Strait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1586 +269 Barents discovers Spitzbergen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1596 +275 Hudson sails into his Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1610 +281 Baffin discovers his Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1616 +285 Sir Walter Raleigh explores Guiana . . . . . . . . . . . . 1595 +290 Champlain discovers Lake Ontario . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1615 +298 Torres sails through his Strait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1605 +299 Le Maire rounds Cape Horn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1617 +302 Tasman finds Tasmania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1642 +306 Dampier discovers his Strait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1698 +312 Behring finds his Strait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1741 +322 Cook discovers New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1769 +326 Cook anchors in Botany Bay, Australia . . . . . . . . . . . 1770 +333 Cook discovers the Sandwich Islands . . . . . . . . . . . . 1777 +338 La Perouse makes discoveries in China Seas . . . . . . . 1785-8 +347 Bruce discovers the source of the Blue Nile . . . . . . . . 1770 +353 Mungo Park reaches the Niger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1796 +359 Vancouver explores his Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1792 +362 Mackenzie discovers his River and British Columbia . . 1789-93 +366 Ross discovers Melville Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1818 +368 Parry discovers Lancaster Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1819 +372 Franklin reaches the Polar Sea by Land . . . . . . . . 1819-22 +378 Parry's discoveries on North American Coast . . . . . . . . 1822 +382 Franklin names the Mackenzie River . . . . . . . . . . . . 1825 +386 Beechey doubles Icy Cape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1826 +388 Parry attempts the North Pole by Spitzbergen . . . . . . . 1827 +392 Denham and Clapperton discover Lake Tchad . . . . . . . . . 1822 +396 Clapperton reaches the Niger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1826 +397 Rene Caille enters Timbuktu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1829 +402 Richard and John Lander find the Mouth of the Niger . . . . 1830 +404 Ross discovers Boothia Felix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1829 +405 James Ross finds the North Magnetic Pole . . . . . . . . . 1830 +411 Bass discovers his Strait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1797 +413 Flinders and Bass sail round Tasmania . . . . . . . . . . . 1798 +416 Flinders surveys South Coast of Australia . . . . . . . . 1801-4 +421 Sturt traces the Darling and Murray Rivers . . . . . . 1828-31 +424 Burke and Wills cross Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861 +429 Ross discovers Victoria Land in the Antarctic . . . . . . . 1840 +432 Franklin discovers the North-West Passage . . . . . . . . . 1847 +440 Livingstone crosses Africa from West to East . . . . . 1849-56 +452 Burton and Speke discover Lake Tanganyika . . . . . . . . . 1857 +454 Speke sees Victoria Nyanza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1858 +457 Livingstone finds Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa . . . . . . . 1858-64 +461 Speke and Grant enter Uganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861 +468 Baker meets Speke and Grant at Gondokoro . . . . . . . . . 1861 +470 Baker discovers Albert Nyanza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1864 +477 Livingstone finds Lakes Meoro and Bangweolo . . . . . . . . 1868 +482 Stanley finds Livingstone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1871 +484 Livingstone dies at Ilala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1873 +499 Stanley finds the Mouth of the Congo . . . . . . . . . . . 1877 +509 Nordenskiold solves the North-East Passage . . . . . . . . 1879 +519 Younghusband enters Lhasa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1904 +524 Nansen reaches Farthest North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1895 +534 Peary reaches the North Pole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1909 +544 Amundsen reaches the South Pole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1911 + + + + +INDEX + + +Abram, 4. + +Abyssinia, 344-7. + +Afghanistan, 36. + +Africa, 20-2, 72, 103, 127, 339. + + " Central, 349-56, 391-402, 442-500. + + " South, 152, 173-6, 440. + + " West Coast, 22, 30, 139, 143-51, 349. + +Agricola, 68. + +Alaska, 317, 334, 338. + +Albert Nyanza, 470. + +Albuquerque, Alphonso d', 184-8. + +Alexander the Great, 35-43. + +Alexandria, 45, 74. + +Alfred the Great, 96. + +Almagro, Diego de, 220. + +Almeida, Francisco, 184-6. + + " Lorenzo, 185-6. + +Alvarado, Pedro de, 206, 208. + +Amazon, 221. + +America (Central), 168, 170, 191, 205. + + " (North), 95, 228, 255, 275, 316, 358. + + " (South), 167, 170, 180, 196, 215, 252. + +Amundsen, R., 542-4. + +_Anabasis_ (of Xenophon), 34. + +Anaximander, 23. + +Andes, 217, 220. + +Antarctic regions, 331, 428-31, 536-44. + +Arab explorers, 98-107, 126. + +_Arabian Nights, The_, 101. + +Arctic regions, 53, 238, 259-84, 312-8, 365-90, 403-9, 501-10, 521-35. + +Arculf, 88-90. + +Argonauts, 13-6. + +Auckland, 429. + +Australia, 296-301, 307-11, 326-38, 410-27. + + +Babylonia, 3-4, 32. + +Back, Sir George, 372-4, 382. + +Baffin, William, 280-3. + +Baffin's Bay, 282-3. + +Bagdad, 109. + +Bahamas, 160. + +Baker, Sir Samuel, 465-73. + +Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, 190-3. + +Balbus, 72. + +Bangweolo, Lake, 477. + +Banks, Sir Joseph, 320, 336, 349, 413. + +Barents, William, 265-72. + +Bass, George, 410-3. + +Baudin, Nicholas, 414. + +Behring, Vitus, 312-8. + +Behring's Strait, 312-8, 334. + +Benjamin of Tudela, 108. + +Black Sea, 14. + +Bogle, George, 512. + +_Book of the Tartars_, 97. + +Boothia, 404. + +Borneo, 102. + +Botany Bay, 326, 336. + +Brandon's Isle, 86-7. + +Brazil, 181, 196. + +British Columbia, 358, 362. + + " Isles, 48, 50-2, 57-60, 66-9, 74. + +Bruce, James, 339-48. + +Burke, R. O'Hara, 424. + +Burton, Sir Richard, 450-5. + +Button, Sir Thomas, 280. + + +Cabot, John and Sebastian, 224-7. + +Cabral, Pedro, 180-2. + +Cadamosto, Luigi, 143-5. + +Caille, Rene, 396. + +Calicut, 129, 177-8, 181-3, 186. + +California, 255. + +Cam, Diego, 150-1. + +Canada, 228-34. + +Cano, Juan del, 204. + +Carpentaria, 300, 416. + +Carpini, Johannes, 110. + +Cartier, Jacques, 228-34. + +Caspian Sea, 36, 240. + +Cassiterides, _see_ "Tin Islands." + +Cathay, _see_ China. + +Ceylon, 91, 105, 124, 185-6. + +Champlain, Samuel, 290-5. + +Chancellor, Richard, 235-9. + +Chatham Island, 358. + +Chelyuskin, Cape, 504, 522. + +Chili, 220, 254. + +China, 75, 92, 99-101, 110-24, 130-1. + +Chitral, 38. + +_Christian Topography_, 92, 133. + +Christmas Island, 333. + +Chukches, 315, 507. + +Circumnavigation of Africa, 19-22. + + " " the World, 196-204, 249-57, 308. + +Clapperton, Lieut. Hugh, 391-6. + +Cochin, 184-5. + +Columbus, Christopher, 155-70. + +Cook, James, 319-35. + +Congo River, 150-1, 480, 491-500. + +Cordova, Francisco Hernando de, 205. + +Cortes, Hernando, 207-14. + +Cosmas, 90-2, 132. + +Cuba, 161, 166. + + +Dampier, William, 306-11. + +Darien, 168, 191-2. + +Davis, John, 259-64. + +Davis Strait, 260, 281. + +Delphi, 24. + +Denham, Major, 391-5. + +Diaz, Bartholomew, 151-4, 180-1. + +Drake, Sir Francis, 249-58. + +Drusus (Germanicus), 69-71. + + +Edrisi, 108. + +Egypt, 4-8, 26. + +"El Dorado," 222, 285. + +Eratosthenes, 45-7. + +Erik, 94. + +Eskimos, 246, 262, 281, 367, 379, 385, 405, 435. + + +Flinders, Matthew, 410-8. + +Floki, 94. + +Florida, 205. + +France, _see_ Gaul. + +Franklin, Sir John, 368, 372-8, 382-7, 482-9. + +Franz Joseph Land, 526-8. + +"Friar John," _see_ Carpini. + +Frobisher, Martin, 245-8, 296. + + +Gama, Vasco da, 171-9, 182-3. + +Gambia River, 30, 145, 349, 355. + +Gardar, 94. + +Gaul, 53-8. + +Germany, 55-7, 69-71. + +Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 259. + +Gobi Desert, 75, 118. + +Gomez, Diego, 145-8. + +Good Hope, Cape of, 21, 152-4, 174, 181, 257. + +Grant, Captain J. A., 460-6. + +Greenland, 95, 246, 260-3, 274, 282, 501, 521. + +Grijalva, Juan, 206. + +Guiana, 287-8. + + +Hanno, 29-32. + +Hawaii, 333, 335. + +Hawkins, Sir John, 250. + +Hayti, 161, 168, 191. + +Hecataeus, 25. + +Hedin, Sven, 518. + +Helena, 77-8. + +Henry of Portugal, Prince, 138-49. + +Herodotus, 19-22, 26-9. + +Himilco, 49. + +Holland, 51. + +Homer, 16-8. + +Honduras, 213-4. + +Horn, Cape, 253, 300. + +Houghton, Major, 350-1. + +Huc, Abbe, 514-8. + +Hudson, Henry, 273-9. + +Hudson River, 276. + + " Strait, 248, 277, 281. + +Hudson's Bay, 246, 372. + +Huron Lake, 294. + + +Ibn Batuta, 126-32. + +Iceland, 94, 277. + +India, 38-43, 66, 128, 177-86. + +Ireland, 59, 63, 66, 69, 83-6. + +Ithobal, 20-3. + +_Itinerary from Bordeaux to Jerusalem_, 78-9. + + +Jamaica, 166. + +Japan, 123, 241, 282. + +Java, 124, 328. + +Jenkinson, Anthony, 240-1. + +Jerusalem, 24, 77-9, 89. + +Julius Caesar, 54-60. + + +Kamtchatka, 313-8. + +Kara Sea, 504, 522. + + " Strait, 503. + +King Edward VII.'s Land, 536. + +Kin Sai, 120. + +Kublai Khan, 115-25. + +Kyber Pass, 38. + + +Labrador, 96, 228, 262-4. + +Ladrones Islands, 202. + +Lander, John and Richard, 396, 399-402. + +La Perouse, Comte de, 338. + +Lapland, 238. + +Le Maire, Isaac, 299. + +Lhasa, 511-20. + +Libya, 20, 27-9. + +Lief, 95. + +Livingstone, David, 440-9, 456-9, 474-85. + + +Machin, Robert, 141. + +McClintock, Sir Leopold, 433-9. + +McClure, Sir R. J. Le M., 433. + +Mackenzie, Alexander, 362-4, 382. + +Madagascar, 103. + +Madeira, 86, 140. + +Magellan, Ferdinand, 190, 193-202, 296. + +Magellan's Strait, 198-9, 253. + +Magnetic Poles, 405, 430. + +Malabar, 182-3. + +Malacca, 187-8. + +Malay Archipelago, 188-9. + +Mandeville, Sir John, 126. + +Manilla, 298. + +Manning, Thomas, 513. + +Maoris, 303, 322. + +Maps (ancient), 24, 46, 62, 75, 92, 108, 133-7, 149, 305. + +Massoudy, 107. + +_Meadows of Gold_, 107. + +Mesopotamia, 2-4. + +Mexico, 206-14. + +Mongolia, _see_ China. + +Montreal, 232, 292, 295. + +Mota, Antonio de, 241. + +Mozambique, 176. + +Mumbo Jumbo, 350. + +Murchison Falls, 472. + +Murray River, 421. + +Murrumbidgee River, 420-4. + + +Naddod, 94. + +Nansen, Fridtjof, 521-9. + +Natal, 175. + +Nearchus, 41-5. + +Neco, 19-20. + +New Albion, 255, 333, 358. + +Newfoundland, 96, 225-7, 275. + +New Guinea, 298, 303-5, 310. + +New Holland, _see_ Australia. + +New South Wales, 328, 410, 415. + +New Zealand, 303, 322-6. + +Niger River, 72, 348, 353-6, 396, 399-402. + +Nigeria, 394-402. + +Nile, The, 4-9, 27, 339-42, 345-7, 454-62, 468, 470. + +Nordenskiold, Baron, 501-10. + +North-East Passage, 235-40, 315, 501-10. + +North-West Passage, 245-64, 290, 332, 366, 403, 433. + +North Pole, 531-5. + +Nova Scotia, 229. + +Nova Zembla, 237, 265-72, 503. + +Nyassaland (and lake), 458-9, 475. + + +Ontario, 294. + +Orellana, Francisco de, 220-2. + +Orinoco, 167, 285-8. + +Otaheite, 320-2. + +Othere, 96. + +Oudney, Dr., 391-4. + +Oxus, 37, 117, 241. + + +Pacific Ocean, 130, 192, 199-203, 250, 253. + +Panama, 191, 250, 306. + +Park, Mungo, 348-56, 396. + +Parry, Sir W. E., 365-71, 378-81, 388-90. + +Patagonia, 196-9, 252. + +Paula, 80. + +Peary, R. E., 530-5. + +Pekin, 115, 119. + +Pelsart, Captain, 300, 309. + +_Periplus_ (of Hanno), 29. + +Persia, 32-3, 117. + +Peru, 216-20. + +Philippine Islands, 202, 256. + +Phillip, Captain, 336. + +Phoenicians, 10-3, 19-23, 29-32. + +Pilgrims, 77-92. + +Pinto, Mendex, 241-2. + +Pizarro, Francisco, 215-23. + +Pliny, 66, 71-3. + +Polo, Niccolo, Maffio, and Marco 115-25. + +Prester John, 111, 126, 176. + +Prickett, Abacuk, 277, 280. + +Przhevalsky, N. M., 518. + +Ptolemy, 74-6. + +Punjab, 39. + +Punt, 5-8. + +Pytheas, 48-53. + + +Quebec, 290. + +Quilimane River, 175. + +Quiros, Pedro Fernandez De, 298. + + +Raleigh, Sir Walter, 285-9. + +Red Sea, 5-7, 20-1, 343. + +Richardson, Sir John, 372-87. + +Ripon Falls, 463. + +Ross, Sir James, 388, 403-9, 428-31, 433. + +Ross, Sir John, 365-8, 403-9. + +Rubruquis, William de, 112-4. + +Russia, 238-40, 313. + + +Sahara, 391. + +St. Brandon, 85-7. + +St. Columba, 84-5. + +St. Lawrence River, 228, 230, 290. + +St. Louis River, 292. + +St. Patrick, 83-4. + +St. Paul's Island, 200. + +Sandwich Islands, 333, 335. + +San Francisco, 255. + +Sargasso Sea, 50. + +Scandinavia, 72, 93, 97. + +Schouten, Cornelius, 299. + +Scotland, 68, 84-5. + +Scott, Captain R. F., 536-42. + +Senegal River, 30, 144, 351. + +Sequira, Diogo Lopes de, 186. + +Serrano, Francisco, 188, 194. + +Shackleton, Sir E. H., 536-40. + +Shirwa, Lake, 457. + +Siberia, 313-8. + +Sierra Leone, 29-30, 143. + +"Sindbad the Sailor," 101-6. + +Society Islands, 322. + +Socotra, 184. + +Solis, Juan Diaz de, 196. + +Somaliland, _see_ Punt. + +South Pole, 536-44. + +Spain, 49, 64. + +Speke, J. H., 450-5, 460-6. + +Spice Islands, 188-90, 203, 256. + +Spitzbergen, 269, 274, 388, 501. + +Staaten Land, 299, 303, 324. + +Stanley, Sir H. M., 480-2, 486-500. + +Stanley Falls, 494. + +Strabo, 52, 61-7. + +Sturt, Captain, 418-24. + +Sudan, The, 468. + +Sumatra, 104, 124, 130, 187. + +Sydney, 337. + +Sylvia of Aquitaine, 80-2. + + +Tacitus, 69-71. + +Tanganyika, 452, 476, 491. + +Tartary, 110. + +Tasman, Abel Jansen, 302-5. + +Tasmania, 302-5, 413. + +Tchad, Lake, 392. + +Thule, 51-3, 97. + +Tibet, 123, 511-20. + +Tierra del Fuego, 199, 254. + +Timbuktu, 391-8. + +"Tin Islands," The, 10, 12, 48-50. + +Tippu Tib, 492. + +Torres, Luiz Vaez de, 298. + +Torres Strait, 298. + +Trinidad, 167. + +Tsana, Lake, 345. + +Tyre, 29. + + +Uganda, 461, 488. + +Ulysses, 16-8. + + +Vancouver, 255, 357-61. + +Vancouver, Captain, 357-61. + +Van Diemen's Land, 302, 410-2. + +Vasco da Gama, _see_ Gama. + +Vera Cruz, 208-9. + +Vespucci, Amerigo, 169-70. + +Victoria Falls, 445. + + " Nyanza, 454, 462, 487. + +Vikings, 93-6. + + +West Indies, 160-1, 164-8. + +White Sea, 238. + +Willibald, 90. + +Willoughby, Sir Hugh, 235-8. + +Wills, W. J., 424-6. + + +Xenophon, 22-4, 33-4. + + +Younghusband, Sir F. E., 519. + + +Zambesi River, 442-8. + + + + +PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Book of Discovery, by +Margaret Bertha (M. B.) Synge + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF DISCOVERY *** + +***** This file should be named 23107.txt or 23107.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/1/0/23107/ + +Produced by Ron Swanson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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