N a Foe dese nai LUMINOUS LIFE PRESERVER. ZN oN JAMES SANGSTER & COMPANY, 31, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. Nin np” x TP i ® [—) rm By uy aw mm, { AIT, Am, = i Qi” Av Xi Smal ) Zl AL BALI fm adi 1 —— Ty [ PICTORIAL CHRONICLES OF THE MICH TY DEZP, Some ademorable Sayings about the Mighty Deep. “ And the gathering together of the waters called he seas.”—GENEsIs. ON thy great waters God’s spirit did brood, While yet the earth lay In silence and sorrow. The joys of a mother not known ! Over thee hovered In mystical motion Flowing and ebbing Yet visibly, the Omnipotent’s breath ! From THE GERMAN OF F. L. STOLBERG. The deep Moans round with many voices. TENNYSON. THE sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free! Without a mark, without a bound, It runneth the earth’s wide regions round; It plays with the clouds; it mocks the skies ; Or like a cradled creature lies. I love, oh! how I love to ride On the fierce, foaming, bursting tide, When every next wave drowns the moon, Or whistles aloft his tempest tune, And tells how goeth the world below, And why the sou’-west blasts do blow. B. W. Procros. RorL on, thou deep and dark-blue ocean, roll! Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; Man marks the earth with ruin—his control Stops with the shore—upon the watery plain The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own. When, for a moment, like a drop of rain, He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, Without a grave, unknell’d, uncoffin’d, and unknown. Byron. DIAMOND POINT, the Entrance to the PORT OF CALCUTTA. EIS RONICLES 4% MIGHTY DEEP; + The Sea, Pts Ships and Sailors. BEING A RECORD FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES To OUR OwN Day OF THE MOST REMARKABLE MARITIME ADVENTURES, VOYAGES, DISCOVERIES, ConrLicTs, DEEDS OF BRAVERY AND DANGER, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE EXPLOITS OF OUR OWN COUNTRYMEN, AND THE FounpiNGg, EXTENSION, AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORLD-WIDE BRITISH EMPIRE. THE WHOLE FORMING A VALUABLE, INTERESTING, AND INSTRUCTIVE COMPENDIUM. COLLECTED AND EDITED BY FRANCIS WATT, M.A. tr —— EMBELLISHED WITH UPWARDS OF ONE HUNDRED EXCELLENT WOODCUTS, And a Series of Coloured Plates from authentic Scenes in Foreign Lands, PRINTED IN THE BEST STYLE OF CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY. / 887 LONDON: JAMES SANGSTER AND COMPANY, PATERNOSTER ROW, Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London. HEIL 9 al 5% AIW3 Holi eEd 2 M Al A TABLE OF CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION EARLY SHIPS AND SEA FicHTS—THE COR- VUS, OR CRANE scores inietunssnssassiosrunsaesises THE SEARCH FOR THE GOLDEN FLEECE— OLD SHIP INTERIORS - THE PH@NICIANS: THEIR WEALTH AND ENTERPRISE .occovsvs cess es XERXES IN GREECE—HIS ‘NAVAL OPERA- TIONS—HI1s IMPERIOUS BEHAVIOUR ...... BATTLE OF SALAMIS—DEFEAT OF XERXES —How THE SEA FicHTS OF OLD TIMES WERE CONDUCTED .... THE RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND— “THE SEA! THE SEA !”’—END OF THE ENERRTRISE vo) sonsoriiareriarsos stains saiareons sss SIEGE OF TYRE—EFFORTS ON BOTH SIDES — PICTURES FROM THE STRIFE: -+:.sessee0e SEA CONFLICTS OF THE ROMANS AND CAR- THAGINIANS—FINAL TRIUMPH OF THE 800100880 cr att ess ase ses. nes ssn nse ees esr iss cst asaser sense cece cesses es esesescce reser assent ar) ROMANS, ii... ov essnsirsnansansscnses sh sisensnsons SYRACUSE—ROMAN ATTACK ON THAT CITY —INGENUITY OF ARCHIMEDES «ee.es.cusis THE FouNDATION OF CARTHAGE-—FABLES OF 1TS ORIGIN—ITS EARLY PROGRESS... DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE—SCENES OF CARNAGE AND HORROR CiTY AND LIGHT-HOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA —STORY OF THE ARCHITECT eeeecenseccnses THE VOYAGE OF CLEOPATRA —— ‘THE BARGE SHE SAT IN, LIKE A BURNISHED THRONE ” salu. INVASION OF ENGLAND BY THE SAXONS— THE BEGINNINGS OF OUR NATION THE FOUNDER OF THE MARITIME GREAT- NESS OF ENGLAND— His Navar Ex- PLOITS — HIS STRUGGLE WITH THE 100 ER ME SEA PICTURES FROM ENGLISH HISTORY NAvAL EXPLOITS AND ADVENTURES OF OUR COUNTRYMEN... EARLY HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS— A COUNTRY WON FROM THE SEA... MARCO PoLO—WONDROUS SEA STORIES OF AN OLD-TIME VOYAGER MARCO PoLo—HI1S FURTHER VOYAGES AND DESCRIPTIONS Cae eaa SIR JoHN MAUNDEVILLE, KT.—PICTURES OF OLD CONSTANTINOPLE, GREECE, AND EIR TD AGT uss enssvenne srnnonasnataisssns nes vsanss EARLY COMMERCE AND PROGRESS — GRADUAL RISE OF THE EUROPEAN MARI- TIMP, STATES sis seus 155snaneansvassniriavhcononsos VENICE—*‘ THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC” —IER FORMER GLORY Nava. WAR oF VENICE AND GENOA— EARLY MISFORTUNES AND FINAL Suc- CESSES OF THE VENETIANS seaeeesrersasesvas PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR — His DISCOVERIES ON THE AFRICAN COAST— His UNTIMELY DEATH ssesss assesses sane 0 ceesse ccs sen sts setae st ann, qt00e evessens sessen sessss css nants sssnan ®evsse tress ses ass sent inn., sss sssscssvannsses tas ess ses sssesrsrs nnn PAGE X11i 15 22 27 34 38 42 51 54 62 66 71 73 76 8o 84 87 97 100 109 114 120 124 THE EARLY Lire or CoLUMBUS—PRE- VIOUS ATTEMPTS TO FIND A SEA ROUTE TO THE INDIES (34s ssstessrassvsnasroisss DIFFICULTIES OF COLUMBUS IN CARRYING ouT HIS PLANS — His PERSEVERANCE AND FINAL TRIUMPH ADVENTURES OF THE FOLLOWERS CoLuMBUS — THE FOUNTAIN OF PETUAL YOUTH — DISCOVERY OF SouTH SEA ... THE BRAVE DEEDS OF Joun Fox— HE DELIVERS CHRISTIAN SLAVES FROM CAPTIVITY IN THE TURKISH GALLEYS THE HOMEWARD VOYAGE OF THE FIVE SHIPS FROM TURKEY — THEIR FIGHT WITH THE VESSELS OF THE KING OF SPAIN A GreaT Tipan RIVE R—OLD Fariek THAMES—ITS CONNECTION WITH ENG LISH HISTORY AND LITERATURE ....eoees MARTIN FROBISHER—HIS VOYAGE TO ARCTIC SEAS-—HE SEES STRANGE SIGHTS THERE ..... ethno ssloraine Ts MARTIN FROBISHER — NATIVES OF THE NORTH—SOME QUEER GUESSES... suse. AN OLD ATTEMPT TO FIND THE NORTH- WEST PASSAGE—THE VOYAGE OF MASTER Joun Davis EARLY LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH— His ForREIGN VOYAGES — His COURAGE AND BRAVERY ...... oy sseses an OF PER- THE se tes..isssssetabeee ssa seessees esses senses sss ser ssnenias FERC RT TI vessnsn seen see see ses ree seater sts esssttang shes esses esssst en nennne Sir FRANCIS DRAKE— THE SLAVE TRADE ° IN FORMER TIMES—FIGHTS WITH THE SPANIARDS | owe seas ssninsssionanssna sans SIR FRANCIS DRAKE—IN SOUTH AMERICA —RETURN HOME—RECEPTION AT COURT —ToBACCO SMOKING....... ae yn awa nn inisnaises SIR FRANCIS DRAKE — ¢‘ SINGEING THE SraNISH KING'S BEARD ”—-THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA ROBERT BLAKE—HI1S VICTORIES OVER THE Durca—His CHARACTER VOYAGE OF FRANCIS PELSART TO AUSTRAL- ASIA (1628-29)—Hi1s SHIPWRECK AND FURTHER ADVENTURES .ecteeesessvsnsansces PELSART’S VOYAGE — FORTUNES OF THE CREW—TREACHERY OF CORNELIS—DoOM OF THE CONSPIRATORS ADMIRAL VERNON’S EXPEDITION TO CAR- TAGENA — How WE CONQUERED AND RELINQUISHED OUR CONQUESTS ANSON’s VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD— SOME AccouNT OF THE COMMANDER ... ANSON’S VOYAGE-—VICISSITUDES OF THE SEA—DANGERS FROM TEMPEST cctereneenes ANSON’S VOYAGE — ROBINSON CRUSOE’S IsLAND—ITS PLEASANTNESS AND FER- TILITY ANSON’S VOYAGE—ATTACK ON PAITA— REMARKABLE INCIDENTS ssvesnseressssnvessas sess sesnes “es cess ass seers sss enn ssnann, gy sees sessssvessssensrane 408000000 000000000000 000s0000IINETIRsERRsIIE m373439 PAGE 128 139 144. 150 156 160 166 171 178 182 187 191 197 203 213 216 220 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. ANSON’S VOYAGE—ISLAND OF QUIBO—ITS PEARY, OYSTERS AND TURTLES serecscse res ANSON’s VOYAGE—CAPTURE OF THE TREA- SURE SHIP—END OF THE NARRATIVE... THE PRESS GANG—ADVENTURES OF A SURGEON—FRIENDS IN TROUBLE .ceuuutus CRUELTY ON NEw Way To CURE THE SICK, AND ITS RESULTS THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE Last CEN- TURY—VOYAGE FOR NEGROES TO THE GAMBIA DR. JOHNSON AMONG THE WESTERN ISLES =-VISIT TO MACDONALD ‘c:veseserasnris FurRTHER VOYAGES OF DR. JOHNSON DEPARTURE FROM COLL—VARIOUS AD- VENTURES CAPTAIN COOK — EARLY LIFE — FIRST VovAGE RoUND THE WORLD CAPTAIN COOK—FURTHER VOYAGES AND "DISCOVERIES—INTERCOURSE WITH THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDERS. ..oeestesss teresesnier CAPTAIN CouK — EXPEDITION TO THE ARCTIC OCEAN—CRUISE IN THE PACIFIC —REMARKABLE ADVENTURES..c...+ CAPTAIN COOK — ADVENTURES IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS — LAST VOYAGE— DEATH AND CHARACTER -«:r> escosesvences SHETLAND FISHERMEN—AN OLD NORSE SEA-SONG—A MONSTER OF THE DEEP... A SHIPWRECK IN SHETLAND—THE SUR- VIVOR CT THE DISASTER. CHURCH ON THE SHETLAND SHORE — STRANGE SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH IT sone sar aevant tensa ste niinis NEeLsoN—HIs EARLY YEARS —NORTHWARD Ho l—HOME AGAIN ..veiereraen vis NELSON—BATTLE OFF CAPE ST. VINCENT —BOARDING OF THE SAN NICOLAS ...... NELSON — ATTACK ON SANTA CRUZ— NELSON LOSES AN ARM NELSON — THE MIGHT OF DENMARK’S CROWN—BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN ...... NELSON — BEGINNING OF THE ACTION— SIGNAL TO DESIST DISREGARDED ......... NELSON—PROGRESS OF THE FIGHT—VIcC- TORY OF THE BRITISH — TERMS OF PEACE etna aden rian anne NELSON — BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR — GLORIOUS DEATH OF ENGLAND’S GREAT- EST NAVAL COMMANDER .coccenrersesssnesner A MiIDSHIPMAN’S FIRST EXPERIENCES— ROUGHING IT ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR ADVENTURES OF A PRIZE SHIP—ALL HANDS ASLEEP !'—AN ISLAND ANCHOR- AGE. iy cro aa hasssaitresne satssnnsasos nen nsoron ine A NARROW EscaPpE — How THE PILoT SAVED ‘THE SHIP: es:e00e0ee0ss COMBAT WITH A RUSSIAN FRIGATE — BOARDING THE ENEMY..c.cceviiennnnnnnn ON THE SHORES OF THE SOLWAY—SAL- MON FISHING—DANGERS OF THE TIDE... A HARPOONING YARN—AN ExcITING CON- TEST—** IN HIS FLURRY ? tocvrrsisiarssrnee THE Loss oF THE SHIP ¢‘ ARIEL”—A TERRIBLE POSITION—BRAVE MEN AND COWARD oieiiasiissiinserisneiide risa nhenivisemnds PAUL JoNES—HIs BIRTH AND EARLY AD- VENTURES—HIS EXPLOITS IN THE ME- TROPOLIS es seses esses ttasssss ts see senass tonne EE sss see es ere ese ctr ett sts ts tates een sss rant esssss reason se teesssestase soqnnn sesecscssasnian cesenee ttess tse tet ester tes sss sse nts aen tenn ete PAGE 236 240 245 249 252 255 260 267 278 285 324 329 334 337 340 364 370 PAUL JONES — NAVAL SERVICE WITH THE AMERICANS — DARING CoAsT EXPEDI- TIONS sos vrsos 0is PAUL JONES — FURTHER ADVENTURES Last YEARS AND DEATH .... LIFEBOATS, HARBOURS, AND LiGHTHOUSES —LIFE IN A LIGHTHOUSE TRIAL OF A PIRATE CREW—SCENES IN THE CoURT HOUSE—A JUST SENTENCE ...... THE BURNING SHIP—A STRANGE TALE OF TITE SEA ania raerar ess osesi vans cas THE BURNING SHIP—THE VESSEL BLows UP—DISAPPOINTED HOPES ........ AN ADVENTURE IN CORK—A MIDSHIP- MAN’S ADVENTURE—A STRANGE HIDING- PLACE i iia virins ive esha bas reste tes AN OCEAN WANDERER — How MASTER BENJAMIN WENT TO SEA — His FIRST ADVENTURES ...... SEA YARNS—SHARKS—THE BURNING Sup —A VALUABLE COD ..... A COURT-MARTIAL ON BOARD SHIP — DIFFERENT CHARACTERS OF ENGLISH AND FRENCH SAILORS — EFFECTS OF TERROR ON THE MIND or WRECK OF THE ** ROYAL CHARTER "— sesse ess srrsss ste assen assesses sasssss ese “ss sscsssss sceneries iesasstee ese cssccssssnst tonnes tessssss ase ne A MoTHER’S HEROISM — ORDINARY INCIDENTS OF A SAILORS LIFE AT SE A ies adie ves Srasat are sit eaa ners MISSIONARY FOLK — MUSIC ON THE WATERS "—MORAVIANS BOUND FOR THE CAPE oii . ON BOARD aA MISSIONARY VESSEL — AN HEROIC PARTY—EFFECT OF THE LABOURS OF MISSIONARIES TRIALS OF YOUNG OFFICERS—A ‘WELL- DESERVED PUNISHMENT—A SHORE AD- VENTURE THE PIRATE AND ITS VICTIM—A DEVICE TO SAIL SLOow — A BoLD FRONT TO DANGER FURTHER ADVENTURES WITH PIRATES — A SHARP COMBAT—UNEXPECTED HELP ON SUMMER SEAS—FISHING FOR SHARKS —A DANGEROUS PREDICAMENT THE MYSTERY OF THE ‘‘ STORMY PETREL” —A STRANGE DISCOVERY— ASTONISH- MENT OF JONATHAN ..c.coeun.. EXMOUTH’S ATTACK ON ALGIERS—SAILING OF THE FLEET—BEFORE THE FIGHT ... EXMOUTH’S ATTACK ON ALGIERS— ‘“‘ THE BATTLE RAGES Long AND Loup ”— INCIDENTS OF THE FIGHT ....... ExMouTH’s ATTACK ON ALGIERS — CON- CLUSION OF THE BATTLE—DESTRUCTION OF THE PIRATE STRONGHOLD. :scsrseasvense THE MERCANTILE MARINE — VARIOUS RANKS ON BOARD—THE LOT OF THE SAILOR us viens SIR JOHN FRANKLIN—SUFFERINGS OF HIS EXPEDITION—ITS TERRIBLE FATE Arctic EXPEDITION OF SIR GEORGE NARES — THE PALZOCRYSTIC SEA — BRAVE HEARTS IN THE COLD NORTH... GREELY’S EXPEDITION—TERRIBLE SUFFER- INGS — HUMAN COURAGE AND ENDUR- ANCE ivi, A SAILOR’S REFLECTIONS AT THE END OF HIS VOYAGE—WITCHERY AND INTEREST OF THE SEA—FAREWELL ! cveiveeininirniene trees ser asrasenen ane tess eceneannn esesesccsnss esters ne Ss esesse ctr ett strstr atresia cts annnts esesss sre eennne esses ccsves Bes sesces ets ete att its tetas stan tan Seer arserestr terete eters att tte trtane en PAGE 402 408 413 419 425 432 436 445 450 456 461 466 469 474 478 484 436 491 495 498 503 507 List of Coloured Plates and Wood Engrabings. COLOURED PLATES. LUMINOUS LIFE TRESERVER crvscrasesnisssncsssrasassarisosesss AST SIGHT OF OLD ENGLAND. cscs esererrisirsssssovansivasens's FALLS OF INTAGARA siereissnsresssasassnsssannisnnisssusosssas OLD FORT NEAR RUODE ISLAND creescissssesesancrscncoes “EREBUS” AND ‘“ TERROR” IN ARCTIC REGIONS CAPE OMMAN, NORTHERN SIBERIA .coccereerernenncares SILVER SPRING, FLORIDA WOOD ENGRAVINGS. AMONG THE ICEBERGS vsasessresrsrsssnnconssones ANCIENT GALLEY .ovvevsserersscransiissases A A GALLEY—FROM A PAINTING ON THE WALLS oF POMPEII FROM A BAS-RELIEF AT POMPEII «ceeeecesnse THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP * ARGO ”— FROM THE TOWNLEY COLLECTION SHIP—FROM A PAINTING ON THE WALLS OF "POMPEI .... occ revesnnssisnpssosssanasrsissvons FASTERN SEA:GOING SHIP: «.ervsivirsoervenses SHIP ON THE TOMB OF ““NAEVOLEIA TYCHE ET DE MUNATIUS,” AT POMPEII ANCIENT MARITIME WARFARE .ecceceescnsees WESTERN VIEW OF THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS INEETUNE vis ceasensasers vanrssssnrantessnsnansrans sves EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE vessecresssnnsnnsnssnsss IUINS OF TYRE wecicsan vaivsssnsnaress sasansiasissse PROW OF ROMAN GALLEY serveserersnserenes AMPHITHEATRE AT SYRACUSE «ieuvveeserenes RUINS OF THE PALACE OF NERO ...ccs.ee. COIN OF MACEDONIA .,,.cverersosssurissosseses SAXON SHIPS USED IN THE INVASION OF BRITAIN. criss ioi ian iuiisshneivioaniaslsas sibnasires EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE «ivsivsessenverasssencss DANISH WAR SHIP ..iaeesiesevssissvsionssner IBMBLEMATIC. TAILPIECE: sevessisssave rersroavanes EMBARKATION OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE AT FIELVORTSLUYS «. svisassserinvssiansses sansns EMELEMATIC, TAILPIECE sreessssncssnnsrvaresns ENGLISH SHIPS OF WAR OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. oceesaveveasssinsinvaisasioriestrarisvenent EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE ...ce0.ee. SHIPS OF THE TIME OF MARCO $00 css ses ses ssners cscs nee ssessecse seesscss POLO ve-ee PAGE xiii I5 18 19 24 25 30 MEDIEVAL BOATS air arnisn assis srsstssarerss VIEW FROM CANDILEE, ON THE BOSPHORUS MARMORA SIDE NEAR SERAGLIO POINT, CONSTANTINOPLE ..cettrassreseansese: ENGLISH SHIPS, FOURTEENTH CENTURY... ENGLISH SHIPS, FIFTEENTH CENTURY ... THE EMBARKATION OF HENRY VIII. AT DOVER, MAY JT, T520 .coersreirecnsssnaennee VICTOR PISANI, VENETIAN ADMIRAL ...... EMBLEMATIC! TATLPIECE waressressresrepessnsses CoruMBUS UNFOLDS HIS PLANS TO FER- DINAND AND ISABELLA .cv.evsvaescrnissnsorsve EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE Jeacseseense-ves JuaN PONCE DE LEON ..... EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE .ves-riersneressinresse EDWARD [11. AND GOWER .¢v.es.x 000000 erricse PALACE: OF THE SAVOY /sisssressacsrresrs COLLISION WITH AN ICEBERG va MASTER JOHN DAVIS PLANNING HIS VOY- AGES TO THE NORTH SEAS «ve:vnese serserses SIR WALTER RALEIGH IN THE TOWER ... EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE HAWEINS—DRALR.......esesvisbrssussasssenssnere DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA .cuveeee THE SPANISH ARMADA ATTACKED BY THE ENGLISH FLEET .osisssunssenssivsneesinns venir sre EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE EMBLEMATIC. TAILPIECE sesivsssesssncaessenresss WRECK OF CAPTAIN PELSART’S ¢“ BATAVIA” CAST AWAY .ivcssnsrares ranesasionanesssssnsivis arses VERNON—ANSON couse -reerasvsans DESTRUCTION OF SHEERNESS .. aralaadie SATLOR ON STAR. .eveei erisenatanavosnecnnsvasnssssw ese. ees sss vss ssesessrtannens eave sss css wwenevesiensne FVONLISpICCE. ve Vignette Title. 77 157 237 317 397 477 PAGE 100 108 110 III 113 193 195 197 203 205 211 215 219 221 viii WOOD ENGRAVINGS. CoAsT ON ROBINSON CRUSOE’S ISLAND ... EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE ....ceeevse. ATTACK ON A SPANISH SETTLEMENT ...... THE GREAT ROOKERY ON THE ISLAND OF QUIBD «0viiversnss sethasetnensissererrans EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE a BEECHY HEADw:ee 0:0: ave LAND’S END.. cessssean sess sssecen AFRICAN SLAVE- TRADING. VILLAGE De- STROYED BY THE BOATS OF BRITISH CRUISERS GATHERING EGGS IN "THE HEBRIDES THE LAST STRAND OF THE ROPE............ CAPTAIN COOK ...s:.., sess assoc See sesits ities et tst sents s tet atsasattr ans ssessecrava sentir rar ane STAITHS, NEAR Wit, WHERE Cook WAS APPRENTICED ... Ses es PASSEMA ISLAND, NEW ‘SourH “WALES, OCCUPIED BY CAPTAIN CooK . EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE ......... oss CAPTAIN COOK VISITING BoTaNy TLE in SCENE IN SANDWICH Jstanys, X VISITED BY CAPTAIN COO ........0su0neen errsss sears DeATH OF CAPTAIN Cook SER SEA LIONS AN EXTINCT TYPE oF ‘Sure et aativatmnnanidse THE NORTHERN LIGHTS . PARSONAGE HOUSE, BURNHAM THORPE GA HUGE BEAR 2 ses iiiner iene: CAPTAIN PHIPPS’ EXPEDI TION. CAT TACKED BY A STOEM........ SE rs BoAT oF HELSINBURG "SCUDDING BALTIC GALE .......nivs sans SUMMER SCENE IN DENMARK artsy THE ““ VICTORY” NELSON'S Frac Swrp WESTMINSTER HALL ........ LorD NELSON... axe vanese ss DANGERS OF THE BAY ..c.oooerncarseninees ON THE SHORES OF THE SOLWAY......eer... THE ONLY SURVIVORS ........ DOVER CLIFFS..c.ncxue es saessnsainens roid FIGHT BETWEEN THE ‘* DRAKE ” AND THE ¢¢ RANGER” teresa trees ses ietesentsass retiree IN A cer esnsennes sess sesisiissssasss nee ssesessesias sesesserncs ses essen cesses sericncesanne EMBLEMATIC "TAILPIECE .ovesvsresesviens JOHN SMEATON, LIGHTHOUSE ENGINEER. THE LIFEBOAT “tessssscennss sven #88 ess sseare tes ses ese eraasasesane ney PAGE 283 291 297 301 307 309 315 317 HARBOURS OF REFUGE ON THE NORWAY COAST.. felon LIGHTHOUSE, FARALLAN ISLAND ol CONSTRUCTING A LIGHTHOUSE IN MEDITERRANEAN NEAR KINGSTON, JAMAICA ... EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE ..... A’ Sup oN FirE............ a EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE FALLS OF THE INN, AUSTRIA = ...ccoiivinsnes CASCADES OF GAVARNIL-PYRENEES ......... A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA COMING BACK WITH THE ANCHOR BURNING SHIP AT SEA... aaa PUSHING OFF THE LIFEBOAT .cccveevee... RETURN OF THE LIFEBOAT.. Sse rieie WRECK OF THE ‘‘ ROYAL CHARTER ” A MOTHER'S DEVOTION. -ieiesirericicancsraciss DANA oN Duty IN THE NIGHT WATCH. EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE ..vereen..n EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE .. we LIVINGSTONE’S STEAM- LAUNCH THE £4 “Ma. ROBERT Drie nits sive ssnsnenrsnseinne ENTERING THE DOCKS icvivvevrerestsantosisnne SPECIMEN OF ENGLISH SHIP-BUILDING ... FAcsiMILE OF Corn. MACGREGOR’S LETTER Ros RoY(JoHN MACGREGOR)AND HIS CANOE ON SUMMER SEAS ........ NEAR PorT ROYAL cahavis ATTACK ON ALGERINE: PIRATES ...cccvnvusien VE MBILEMATIC TAILPIECE .ovvccserorsaionsnenns GRACE DARLING .. ies aheetses TAKING OFF THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN OuR CoAST DEFENCES .... EMBLEMATIC TAILPIECE ...... SHIPWECKED SAILORS ON RAFT. SS tisasaata ree FRANKLIN... ht aenes THE see sss sis asserts areata nnanns ster lestetser neti ansans ses esses vans cress asviee cesses cesesvecs ane Sees ste iegete een seesstanannn nanan . THE MEN OF THE “ALERT” IN THE EXTREME NORTH, MAy, 1876 FALL OF A DOG-SLEDGE OVER THE CLIFFS THE FATE OF FRANKLIN ..coi renee THE Boy SIMPSON GETTING HIS BIBLE 10 LERD TO CROMER .secereesersns “THE Lass THAT lovep A SAILOR — PAREEWELLY iii srcinsierir ans esentrssass “escscsasecssnne ILLUMINATED ENGRAVINGS OF | THE MIGHTY DEED, HE importance and advantage of educating the mind through the eye is now-a-days at least universally admitted. Take, for instance, the map or plan of a town. How many pages of letterpress would be necessary to describe the relation which one street bears to another, the exact position of the principal buildings, the size of one part as compared with another! Let the same thing be represented on a chart, and the whole is taken in at a glance. Take again some object which is famous in art and literature alike—the statue of the dying gladiator, for example. Let us quote Byron’s famous lines, in which he interprets the meaning of the figure :— “1 see before me the gladiator lie; He leans upon his hand—his manly brow Consents to death, but conquers agony, And his droop’d head sinks gradually low— And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one, Like the first of a thunder-shower ; and now The arena swims around him—he is gone Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hail'd the wretch who won.” This is, no doubt, very beautiful and graphic, but it is one step further from the real (or supposed) incident than the statue (and what is true of a statue is to quite the same extent true of a picture). There is something wanting in the mere letterpress which the representation of the figured outline does undoubtedly supply. Take another illustra- tion: there is a great room in Greenwich Hospital called the Painted Hall. Itis hung round with portraits of the most eminent sailors, almost all of them English. There are also pictures by great artists of some of our well-nigh innumerable naval triumphs. Among the most memorable are those which commemorate the exploits of Nelson— those exploits of which in our work we speak so largely. Here he is seen boarding an enemy’s vessel ; here again he is seen mortally wounded, struck down in the midst of a . great victory. More moving still are the mementoes of him placed in cases round the hall ;—there is the coat covered with stars which he wore when he received his death wound ; the sword of state which was placed on his coffin when the mortal shell of so great a soul lay in state in that same hall ; there is a letter written by him shortly before the battle of Trafalgar. Do not our hearts burn within us as we gaze on all these things, and are we not more deeply impressed and moved than we could possibly be by pages of the most eloquent description ? ix X : JHE WONDERS OF THE DEEFL No doubt, however, the best way of all is to combine the pictorial with the typo- graphical, and thus produce at once the most vivid and the most exact impression to which it is possible to attain. Such is the course we intend to pursue. We shall take care to accompany our letterpress description of great events with a series of carefully prepared illustrations, so as vividly to bring before the mind of the studious reader the particular lesson which in each case we wish to inculcate. Among our illustrations, the coloured ones deserve special mention ; and we shall therefore devote some little space to a detailed mention of them. Our Frontispiece— “ DIAMOND POINT, THE ENTRANCE TO THE PORT OF CALCUTTA. It is of note and interest from its position so near to the chief town of our great Indian empire—an empire built up in no small degree by the courage, skill, and endurance of English sailors. To record these exploits is the chief object of the coloured illustrations with which we have illustrated our sea sketches. Calcutta itself is a place of great interest. “Its name is derived from Cutta, a temple dedicated by the Hindoos to Caly, the goddess of time ;” but it is not -this curious circumstance that causes us to fix our attention specially upon it. That is much more due to the fact that it is from it, as a centre, that we administer the mild and beneficent rule which is blessed every day by millions of Asiatics. [Frontispiece. On our title-page is a pleasing representation of what concerns all who lead a sea- faring life. It is that of the— “LUMINOUS LIFE PRESERVER.” This almost explains itself. In a dark night the cry rings through the ship, “A man overboard.” What use is it to fling spars and life-belts to him? Before attention has been roused he has already fallen far behind the vessel, and he cannot distinguish in the black waste of waters the tiny objects which, were he to reach them, would ensure his safety. But the “ Luminous Life Preserver ” gets over this difficulty. A light so made as to be practically inextinguishable is fixed on the top and kindled before the preserver is thrown overboard. Thus the castaway clearly sees in what direction to steer his course, whilst those on board the ship or in the boats know where to steer #zes» course in order to find Aim. [Vignette Title. The next scene to which we desire to call the attention of our readers is after a painting by the well-known and justly-celebrated artist, Sir John Gilbert, entitled,— “THE LAST SIGHT OF OLD ENGLAND.” It is a scene of true and touching pathos. A party of emigrants, country people for the most part, are on board ship bound for some of our colonies. Strong, sturdy fellows the men are, neat and modest-looking the women. Well fitted they look to make themselves a home in the new country they have chosen. We do not grudge them to their new home, but it seems hard that they are forced to leave the place where their fathers dwelt. But no thought of future prosperity at present fills their minds. They are gazing on the ILLUMINATED ENGRAVINGS. xd fast-receding line of coast. It is the last view they will in all probability ever get of Old England ; and sad is the look on their faces as they feel the force of this terrible convic- tion. The children do not quite understand the meaning of all this ; indeed, we see that one, regardless of all else, plays heedlessly with the dog, but others feel that something unusual is happening, and one very young child looks amazedly into its grandmother’s face. In after years these same children will hear of the home beyond the sea from which they and their fathers have come, and, looking back to the dim recesses of memory, they will be able to recall, and no more than recall, this incident. [Page 77. The next three illustrations to which we draw the reader's attention are taken from the great North American continent. There the faces of nature are exhibited on a scale to which the inhabitants of the Old World are unaccustomed. If the reader will turn to the pages to which we refer him, he will find ample proof of the truth of our statement. First, we have an illustration which hardly requires the title,— “THE FALLS OF NIAGARA,”— to tell us what it is, for these famous Falls are so well known, that our pictorial representa- tion, which so faithfully and accurately reproduces their outline, will be at once recognised for what it is by the great majority of our readers. . The hyper-critical might, it may be, object that this is not a sea-scene. To this we reply, that in no ambiguous or uncertain sense it is one of the wonders of the mighty deep; and it is most remarkable on this account that it is one of the few—the very few—occasions in which a detail of river scenery equals in greatness and sublimity a great ocean spectacle. [Page 157. The second of our North American illustrations represents— “OLD FORT, NEAR RHODE ISLAND.” It is truly said by Horace, “ Nihil est ab omni parte beatum ;” and great as are the attrac- tions of the New World, still that part of it inhabited by the English race does want one great attraction. There are no very old buildings there. What would England be with- out these eloquent memories of the past that exist in such profusion and such grandeur in every one of its many shires? It would still, no doubt, be a fair and pleasant country ; but it would not be the England as we know it—that country where the present gets an added and intensified interest from its connection with the past. All this is as yet wanting in America. Nearly all the great historic monuments of the English race are older than the discovery of the New World ; and of course it was not till that New World had been populated for some time that people began to build their erections which were able to endure, and to be beautified, by the mellowing influence of centuries. Still, America has a few—a very few—interesting and pathetic monuments, here and there something that we may fairly term an old-time ruin. These are nearly all war-forts, and the reason is evident. These forts were raised in the days of the early settlers to protect them from the Indians. They were naturally some of the very earliest and the very strongest buildings constructed by Europeans there. They were likewise, paradoxical as it may seem, the first to be neglected, and the reason for this also is evident. The red xl. THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. men were soon driven back, and the country became quiet and civilized. Then there was no more use for the forts. They were left to decay. Such is the history of the old fort near Rhode Island, of which but a few fragments remain. [Page 237. “THE EREBUS AND ZERROR IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS,”— is a representation of the two famous ships in which Sir John Franklin and a number of brave men sailed northward in 1845 to try to find a north-west passage. How disas- trously they fared is told at length in the articles devoted to the subject in our work. We shall not repeat the story of their adventures in this place. But whilst it is true that their «expedition terminated in failure, yet it was a failure more glorious than many successes, “It is not given to mortals to command success,” says Shakspeare in a memorable pas- sage. This is true ; but what he adds thereto is also true when he says, that to deserve success is even more than to attain it. In the very best sense of the term these men «deserved success. [Page 317. Another picture connected with the Arctic regions is that of— “CAPE OMMAN, NORTHERN SIBERIA.” Nothing could more vividly bring before the minds the terrible desolation and awful solitude of those regions than this illustration. The far-off touch of human life repre- sented by the piece of broken mast only tends to add to the horror of this “ abomination of desolation.” And yet, at certain seasons, this scene has a wild beauty of its own. The midnight sun shines with strange glow on the large pale green masses of ice; the Aurora Borealis lights up the perpetual midnight of the winter months with fantastic and magic splendour. [Page 397. Our third picture from North America is that of— “SILVER SPRING, FLORIDA,” as to which we shall only remark that it shows in a very striking manner the rich and juxuriant vegetation which the warm sun and the abundant moisture call forth in that part of the New World. Florida, “Land of Flowers,” as the old Spanish explorers called it, is indeed a wonderful country. What has been said of much of the United States is in a special degree true of it: “ Tickle it with a hoe, and it laughs with a harvest.” We con- fidently anticipate a brilliant future for this remarkable part of the Union, when in the ‘space of years its vast resources will have been more fully developed. [Page 477. EEE . : ‘THE SEA.” Tis but one word, and that one of the shortest, but how much meaning there lies in it, and how variously human ears, on whom it falls, will interpret that meaning ! : Love and hate, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, are roused at the sound. xiii : B xiv 7 INTRODUCTION. To the dweller in the city it means pleasant holiday time—release, for a little, from the cares of business; the merchant thinks upon it as the source of his wealth, or it may be the source of his ruin; the fisherman and sailor each as the scene of his daily exertions—the place where (to quote the words of the Scotch song) he “wins the bairnies’ bread” ; but many a widow and bereaved mother shudders at the very noise of its waters: it is the roar of the “evil beast” that has devoured the loved one. Then, again, the very idea of the sea calls up different feelings in different sections of the human race. To the mild Hindoo it is the black water—an object of vague wonder and dread. To the Persian, to the halfsavage Calmuck, it is but the shadow of a name. To the free Briton it is a word which comprehends well-nigh his whole existence. It speaks to him of safety. He knows that the silver streak which cuts him off from immediate connection with the Continent, cuts him off also from the danger of sudden surprise; it speaks to him of the glorious past of his country, of the flag that has braved for a thousand years the battle and the breeze; of victories by which proud foes have been vanquished; of exploits still more glorious over the opposing forces of nature ; the terrible dangers of the Arctic Ocean braved ; new continents and islands discovered ; every part of the world, in short, visited and explored, and its fairest parts colonized and cultivated. It speaks also of England’s commercial supremacy, ot that enterprise which has given us the carrying trade of the world, and the greater portion of its commerce. Dull indeed must be the spirit of the dweller in Britain or Greater Britain, of the genuine inhabitant of any part of our vast empire, whose heart does not burn within him as he seriously reflects on the meaning of that little word, the Sea. The Sea, then, is the subject, the stirring subject, of our book. We shall treat of it in all its moods, and from many and various points of view. We shall tell of the brave and memorable deeds of great sailors, adventurers, and explorers alike, amidst the terrible isolation and cruel coldness of the Arctic circle, and amidst the warmth and splendour and variety of tropical regions. Many nations and many ages of the world’s history will pass in review before us. All the many phases of man’s struggle with nature will present themselves to our gaze. We shall meet continually with the exploits of our race, and hail them for our own with a proud sense of satisfaction. There is one difficulty. Our subject is an enormous one. Much must be left unsaid for want of space in which to put it; of time in which to say it. We shall try to pick out what is of the very best, “the finest of the wheat,” and lay it before our readers. Our volume will be a collection of Sea Pieces presenting a complete naval gallery. It will also be, for the most part, “by the best masters.” Many great writers have told the tale of the sea—Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville, in medieval times ; vigorous old Hakluyt, in the Elizabethan era. In more modern times, Robert- son, Prescott, Irving, have written of it historically ; Byron, Tennyson, and a hundred other poets, have sung of it; Scott, Cowper, Marryat, and other eminent novelists, have written their most interesting volumes on the subject. From these and other masters we shall select with no sparing hand. We shall supply the connecting links, the elucida- tion necessary. Here and there we shall venture a word of our own. But let us not prolong this introduction. Our magic bark is ready; the wind whistles through the cordage; “the sea with many voices moans around ;” the scent of brine is in the air; the sun beams down on us from a cloudless sky. Come, then, dear reader, to ship ! to ship! ANCIENT GALLEY. THE SHA: Hts Ships and Sailors, EARLY Snips AND SEA FIGHTS. WK” OTHING certain & can be said con- cerning the origin of navigation. We may, however, be as- sured that the oldest vessel mentioned in history is Noah’s ark, of which God Himself gave the design, and directed the form and all the measures, but solely with the view which He had of its containing the family of Noah, and all the animals of the earth and air. This art, without doubt, was in its begin- ning gross and imperfect: planks, rafts, small boats, and little barks. The manner in which fish move in the water and birds in the air might suggest to mankind the 15 Tue frorvus, OR fRANE. thoughts of imitating the aids nature has given those animals by oars and sails. However it were, they have attained by degrees the art of building vessels in the perfection we now see them. The ships of the ancients may be divided into two species: those for transporting merchandise—onerarie naves ; and ships of war, often called long ships—/onge naves. The first were small vessels, which were commonly called open barks, because they had no deck. These little barks had no beaks, called 7ostra, used in sea fights, to run against and sink the enemy’s ships. The long ships used in war were of two sorts. The one had only one bench of oars on each side, the other more. Of those which had only one bench, some had twenty oars, others thirty, some 16 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP fifty, or even an hundred. Nothing is more common than the names of ships in Greek authors. The rowers were placed half on one side of the vessel, and half on the other, on the same line. Amongst the vessels of several benches of oars, some had two only—&zremes ; others three—77iremes ; some four—quadriremes ; others five—quingueremes ; and others a greater number, as we shall see in the sequel. Those most spoken of by authors, and of which the ancients made most use in battles, were the #riremes and guin- queremes; by which names the reader will permit us to express the ships with three and five benches of oars. We find in all the ancient authors a clear and evident distinction between these two sorts of vessels. Some were called skips of thirty oars; ships of fifty oars, etc., and these were ranked in the number of small ships. We shall see presently the difference there was in the number of the crews on board each of them. The latter were dis- tinguished by their several benches of oars, as well as magnitude. It is therefore not to be doubted, that the ancients had ships with several benches of oars—two, three, four, five, six, to thirty or forty; but only those of a small number of benches were of use, the rest being only for show. To know of what nature these several benches of oars were, and how they could be put in motion, is a difficulty, and has always been a matter of dispute amongst the learned moderns, which in all pro- bability may continue for ever undecided. ‘The most able and experienced persons in naval affairs amongst us believe the thing utterly impossible. And indeed it would be so, if we suppose that these different ranks of oars were placed perpendicularly over one another. But we see the con- trary upon Trajan’s column, on which the biremes and triremes have their benches placed obliquely, and, as it were, by steps one above the other. The arguments opposed to the opinion of those who admit several ranks of oars in vessels, are, it must be owned, very strong and conclusive; but what force can the best reasons in the world have against real facts, and an experience confirmed by the testimony of all the ancient writers. It appears that the rowers were dis- tinguished from the place or step where they sat. The lowest were called Z%ala- mites, those in the middle Zugites, and those above ZVranites. The latter had larger pay than the others, without doubt, because they handled longer and heavier oars than those of the lower benches. It is still a question, whether in great ships each oar had only one man to it, or more, as now in the galleys of France. In the biremes and triremes on the column of Trajan, there is only one rower to a bench on each side. It is very probable that there were more in larger vessels. There are descriptions in Athenzus of ships of astonishing and incredible magni- tude. The first two were Ptolemy Philo- pator’s, king of Egypt. One of them carried forty benches of oars, and was four hundred feet long, and fifty-seven broad. Four thousand rowers hardly sufficed to put this enormous hulk in motion. It was launched by a machine, composed of as much wood as was necessary in making fifty ships of five benches of oars. How shall we conceive the making use of the fifty benches of oars in this vessel? But indeed it was only for show. The other ship, called Zalamega, because it had beds and apartments in it, was three hundred and twelve feet and a half in length, and forty-five in its greatest breadth. Its height, including the tent or pavilion upon its deck, was almost sixty feet. All around it (except the head) there was a double gallery of immense extent. It was really a floating palace. Ptolemy caused it to be built to carry himself and his whole court upon the Nile. Atheneus does not mention the number of its ranks or benches of oars. The third vessel is that which Hiero II., king of Syracuse, caused to be built under ANCIENT SHIPS. 17 the direction of the famous Archimedes. It had twenty benches of oars, and was of incredible magnificence. No port of Sicily being capable of containing it, Hiero made a present of it to Ptolemy Philopator, and sent it to Alexandria. Though the hold or sink was very deep, one man emptied it by the means of a machine invented by Archi- medes. These vessels, which were only for show, have, properly speaking, no relation to our subject. As much may be said of that of Philip, the father of Perfeus, mentioned by Livy. It had sixteen benches of oars ; but could scarce be made to move, on account of its magnitude. What Plutarch says of the galleys of Demetrius Poliorcetes is very surprising, and he takes care to apprize the reader that he speaks with the strictest truth, and with- out any exaggeration. That prince, who itis known was well versed in the arts, and very inventive in regard to machines of war, had also caused several galleys of fifteen and sixteen benches of oars to be built—not merely for ostentation, as he made a wonderful use of them in battles and sieges. Lysimachus, not being able to be- lieve what was said of them, sent to desire him, through his enemy, to let his galleys row before him; and when he had seen their swift and easy motion, he was in- expressibly surprised, and could scarce venture to believe his own eyes. These vessels were of astonishing beauty and magnificence ; but their lightness and agility seemed still more worthy of admira- tion than their size and splendour. But we will confine ourselves to those which were more known and common, principally the galleys of three, four, and five benches of oars, and observe upon the use made of them in battles. There is no mention in Homer of vessels with several benches of oars: it was not till after the Trojan war that the use of them was introduced, and the era unknown. The Corinthians were the first who changed the ancient form of galleys, and built those of three benches of oars, and perhaps also of five. Syracuse, a Corinthian colony, piqued herself, especially in the time of Dionysius the Elder, upon imitating the industry of the city, from which she derived her origin ; and even at length surpassed it by carry- ing that to perfection which the former had only designed. The wars which she had to support against Carthage obliged her to devote all her cares and application to naval affairs. Those two cities were at that time the greatest maritime powers in the world. Greece, in general, had not yet dis- tinguished herself in this respect. It had been the plan and design of Lycurgus ab- solutely to prohibit the use of navigation to his citizens ; and that from two motives, equally worth the wise and profound policy of that legislator. His first view was to re- move from his republic all commerce with strangers, lest such mixture should alter the purity of its manners, and weaken the severity of the maxims he had established. In the second place, he was for banishing from the Lacedemonians all desire of aggrandizing themselves, and all hope of making conquests, considering that dire ambition as the ruin of states. Sparta therefore at first had only a very small number of ships. Athens was originally no better provided with them. It was Themistocles, who, penetrating into the future, and foreseeing at a distance what they had to apprehend from the Persians, converted the whole power of Athens into a maritime force, equipped upon a different pretext a nu- merous fleet, and, by that wise provision, preserved Greece, obtained immortal glory for his country, and put it into a condition to become in a short time superior to all the neighbouring states. During almost five ages, Rome, if Poly- bius may be believed, was entirely ignorant of what a vessel, galley, or fleet was. As she was solely employed in subjecting the states around, she had no occasion for them. When she began to send her troops 18 ZHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. into Sicily, she had not a single bark of her own, and borrowed vessels of her neigh- bours to transport her armies. But she soon perceived that she could not oppose the Carthaginians, whilst they were masters of the sea. She therefore conceived the de- sign of disputing the empire of it with them, and of equipping a fleet. A quinqueremis, which the Romans had taken from the enemy, gave birth to the thought, and served them for a model: In less than two months they built an hundred galleys of five, and twenty of three benches of oars. They formed mariners and rowers by an exercise before unknown to them ; and in the first battle they gave the Carthaginians, they overcame them, though the most powerful nation of the world by sea, and the most expert in naval affairs. The fleet of Xerxes, when it set out from 3 Asia to attack Greece, consisted of more than twelve hundred galleys with three benches of oars, of which each carried two hundred and thirty men; and three thou- sand galleys of thirty or fifty oars, besides transports, which one with another carried fourscore men. The other galleys, supplied by the provinces of Europe, had each two hundred men on board. Those which set out from Athens, during the Peloponnesian war, to attack the Syracusans, carried as A GALLEY.—FROM A PAINTING ON THE WALLS OF POMPEII. - many ; from whence we may suppose the usual compliment of those vessels was two hundred men. The battle of Salamis is one of the most famous of antiquity ; but we have no very particular account of it. The Athenians distinguished themselves in it by invincible valour, and their commander still more by his ability and prudence. He persuaded the Greeks, not without much difficulty, to stop in a strait, which rendered the supe- THE CORVUS, OR CRANE. 19 riority in number of the Persian vessels useless; and he delayed engaging till a certain wind, very contrary to the enemy, began to blow. The last battle of the Athenians, in the port of Syracuse, occasioned their ruin. Because they exceedingly apprehended the beaks of the enemy’s galleys, of which they had made a sad experience in the former actions, Nicias had provided grappling irons in order to prevent their effect, and come immediately to blows as upon shore. But the enemy, who perceived it, covered the heads and upper parts of their galleys with leather, in order to give less hold to the grapples, and avoid being boarded. Their discharges did much greater execution. The Athenians were overwhelmed by a hail of stones, which never missed their aim, whilst their darts and arrows were almost always ineffectual, from the motion and agitation of the vessels. Their ancient glory and power suffered shipwreck in this last battle. FROM A BAS-RELIEF ON A TOMB AT POMPEII. Polybius has a short but very fine descrip- tion of a sea-fight, which was to the Romans a happy omen of the future, and made way for the conquests which were to assure them of the empire of the sea. It is that of Myla, in Sicily, against the Carthaginians, in which the consul Duillius commanded. What is particular in this battle is a machine of a new invention, made fast to the top of the heads of the Roman ships, and called corvus. It was a kind of crane, drawn up on high, and suspended by cords, which had a heavy cone of iron, called corvus, at its extremity, that was let down with im- petuosity upon the ships of the enemy, to break through the planks of the decks, and grapple them. This machine was the prin- cipal cause of the victory, the first the Romans ever gained at sea. This corvus, or crane, consisted of the mast or tree fixed in the forecastle of the height of four fathoms, and about twelve or sixteen inches in diameter. Upon the top of it there was an iron pivot, upon which turned the neck of the crane, with the cor- vus very sharp-pointed. The corvus hung 20 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. by the rope, which ran through a pulley at the end of the neck of the crane. When the end of this rope was let go, it fell with such a force into the enemy’s ship, that it pierced through the deck in the forecastle; but as it might come out again through the same hole, it was necessary to add the mov- able hooks that were affixed to it in the manner of hinges, so that when the corvus pierced through the deck they gave way, and opened again of themselves immediately, to seize whatever they were drawn against. The corvus was let fall, when within the proper distance from the enemy’s ship, from the highest part of the neck of the crane, and as soon as it had grappled, the bridge, with iron claws to fasten by, was let down. The same Polybius describes more exten- sively a famous naval battle near Ecnoma, a city of Sicily. The Romans, commanded by the consuls Attilius Regulus and L. Manlius, had three hundred and thirty deck ships, and a hundred and forty thousand men, each vessel carrying three hundred rowers, and one hundred and twenty sol- diers. The Carthaginian fleet commanded by Hanno and Amilcar had three hundred and fifty vessels, and above one hundred and fifty thousand men. The design of the former was to carry the war into Africa, which the others were extremely interested to prevent. Everything, therefore, was dis- posed for a battle. The order of battle of the Romans at this time was entirely unusual. They did not draw up in one or more lines, which was very common, lest the enemy should get between their lines with the advantage of their number, and took care to face on all sides. Besides which, as the enemy’s strength consisted in the agility of their ships, they thought it necessary to row in an oblique line, and observe an order of battle not easy to be broke. For this purpose, the two ships of six benches, on board of which were the con- suls Regulus and Manlius, were placed in the front, side by side. They were each followed by a file of ships, called the first and second fleet. The vessels of each file stood off, and enlarged the file as they drew up, turning their heads outwards. The two first fleets being thus drawn up in the form of a beak or wedge, the third line of ships was formed, called the third fleet. This closed the space, and faced the enemy ; so that this order of battle had the form of a triangle. These three lines com- posed a kind of divided whole, consisting of three fleets, for so they were called. This third line, or third fleet, towed the trans- ports, on board of which were the cavalry, which formed a second body. And lastly, the fourth fleet, or the Triarii (for so it was called), brought up the rear, in such a manner, that it extended beyond the two sides of the line in front of it ; and this was the third body. In this disposition the order of battle represented a wedge or beak, of which the forepart was hollow, and the base solid; but the whole strong, fit for action, and hard to break. The Carthaginians, on their side, drew up almost their whole fleet in one line. The right wing, commanded by Hanno, and consisting of the lightest and nimblest galleys, advanced very much ahead of the fleet, to surround those of the enemy that were opposite to it, and had their heads all facing towards it. The left wing, consisting of the fourth part of the fleet, was drawn up in form of a horn-work, or gibbet, and inclined towards the coast. Amilcar, as admiral, commanded the centre, and this left wing. He made use of stratagem to separate the Roman fleet. The latter, who assured themselves of victory over a fleet drawn up with so great an extent, began by attacking the centre, which had orders to retire by little and little, as if giving way to the enemy, and preparing to fly. The Romans did not fail to pursue them—by which movement the first and second fleet (we have before observed which to distin- guish by those names) parted from the third, that had the transports in tow, and the fourth, in which were the Triarii de- signed to support them. When they were ZHE CORVUS, OR CRANE, 21 at a certain distance, upon a signal given from Amilcar’s galley, the Carthaginians fell all at once upon the vessels that pur- sued them. The Carthaginians had the advantage of the Romans in the nimble- ness of their ships, and the address and facility with which they either advanced or retired ; but the vigour of the Romans in the charge, their cranes for grappling the enemy’s vessels, the presence of the two consuls, who fought at their head, and in whose sight they were infinitely ardent to signalize themselves, inspired them with no less confidence than the Carthaginians had on their side. Such was the engagement here. At the same time Hanno, who com- manded the right wing, fell in with the ships of the Triarii, and put them into dis- order and confusion. On the other side, the Carthaginians, who were in form of a fork or gibbet, and near shore, drew up in a line, and charged the ships that towed the transports. The latter immediately let go the cords and came to blows with them, so that the whole battle was divided into three parts, which made as many different fights at considerable distances from each other. As’ the forces were very near equal on both sides, so was the advantage at first. At length the squadron commanded by Amilcar, not being able to resist any longer, was put to flight, and Manlius made fast the ships he had taken to his own. Regulus, at the same time, went to the aid of the Triarii and transports, with the vessels of the second fleet, which had not suffered at all. Whilst he engaged Hanno, the Triarii, who had before given way, re- sumed courage, and returned to the charge with vigour. The Carthaginians, attacked in front and rear, could not resist long, and fled. Whilst this passed, Manlius returned, and perceived the third fleet driven close to the shore by the left wing of the Carthaginians. The transports and Triarii being safe, they joined him and Regulus, to make haste and extricate it out of the danger in which they saw it; and it would have been entirely defeated, if the Carthaginians, through fear of being grappled, and thereby reduced to come to blows, had not contented them- selves with shutting it in near the shore, without daring to attack it. The consuls, coming up at very good time, surrounded the Carthaginians, and took fifty sail of them with their whole complements. Such was the event of this sea-fight, in which the Romans were entirely victorious. Twenty-four of their ships and above thirty of the Carthaginians perished in it. None of the Roman ships of war fell into the enemy’s hands, who lost more than sixty-four. The Romans never, even in the time of their greatest power, fitted out in their own names, and alone, so great a fleet as this we now speak of; which Polybius observes upon. it. Four years before, they were absolutely ignorant of what a fleet was, and now set sail with three hundred and thirty deck ships. When we consider the rapidity with which these vessels were built, we are tempted to imagine that they were of a very small size, and could not contain abundance of hands. We find here the contrary. Polybius tells us a circumstance, which is nowhere else so clearly explained, and which it is extremely important to know : that is, that each galley carried three hundred rowers and one hundred and twenty soldiers. How much room must the rigging, provision, water, and other stores of such a galley require! We see in Livy that they sometimes carried provisions and water for forty-five days, and without doubt sometimes for a longer term. The corvus, or crane, of which mention has been already made, was a machine for grappling ships, and shows us that the an- cients found no means so effectual to assure themselves of victory as to join in close fight or board the enemy. They often carried balistas and catapultus on board to discharge darts and stones. Though these 22 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. machines, which served them instead of our cannon, had surprising effects, they only used them when ships were at a cer- tain distance, and boarded them as soon as “possible. It is in this indeed, and only in this, that the valour of troops really appears. The galleys, of which these two fleets consisted, were of three benches of oars, or at most, of five, except those of the two consuls, which had six. At the battle of Myla, the admiral-galley had seven benches of oars. It is easy to judge, that these admiral-galleys were not merely for show, and that they must have been of more service in the battle than any of the rest. THE SEARCH FOR THE ‘GOLDEN FLEECE. JE here give an ac- 2~ count, after Gillies (to whom, with Rollin and Ruther- ford, let us once for all express our obli- .r'gations), -vof the voyage of Jason in the ship Argo, said to be in search of the golden fleece. Jason, Admetus, and other chieftains of Thessaly, having equipped a small fleet in the neighbour- ing harbour of Iolcus, and particularly the ship Argo, of superior size and con- struction to any before known, were ani- mated with a desire to visit foreign lands, to plant colonies in those parts of them that appeared most delightful, and to retort on their inhabitants the injuries which Greece had suffered from strangers. The princes of the north having proclaimed this spirited design over the central and south- ern provinces, the standard of enterprise and glory was speedily surrounded by the flower of the Grecian youth, who eagerly embraced this honourable opportunity to signalize their manly valour. Peleus, Tydeus, Telamon, and, in general, the fathers of those heroic chiefs who, in the fro SHIP JNTERIORS. succeeding age, shone with distinguished lustre in the plains of Troy, are numbered among the leaders of the Argonauts. They were accompanied by the chosen warriors, and by the venerable prophets of their respective tribes; by an Esculapius, the admired father of the healing art, and by the divine Orpheus, whose sublime genius was worthy to celebrate the amazing series of their adventures. These adventures, however, have been too much adorned by the graces of poetry to be the proper subjects of historical com- position. The designs of the Argonauts are veiled under the allegorical, or at least doubtful phrase, “of carrying off the golden fleece ;” which, though easily explained, if we admit the report that the inhabitants of the eastern banks of the Euxine extended fleeces of wool, in order to collect the golden particles which were carried down by the torrents from Mount Caucasus, is yet described in such various language by ancient writers, that almost every modern who examines the subject, thinks himself entitled to offer, by way of explanation, some new conjecture of his own. But in opposition to the most approved of these conjectures, we may venture to affirm, that the voyage to Colchis was not undertaken OLD SHIP INTERIORS. 23 ‘with a view to establish extensive plans of commerce, or to search for mines of gold, far less to learn the imaginary art of con- verting other substances into that precious metal ; all such motives supposing a degree of speculation and refinement unknown in that age to the gallant but uninstructed youth of Thessaly. The real object of the expedition may be discovered by its con- sequences. The Argonauts fought, con- quered, and plundered; they settled a colony on the shores of the Euxine; and carried into Greece a daughter of the king of Colchis, the celebrated Medea, a prin- cess of Egyptian extraction, whose crimes and enchantments are condemned to eter- nal infamy in the immortal lines of ~ Euripides. As the Athenians were the most cele- brated of the Greeks, we here give an account of their maritime affairs, with some additional remarks on ancient ships. If the Athenians were inferior to the Lacedemonians in respect to cavalry, they carried it infinitely against them in naval affairs. The principal parts of a ship were the prow or head, the poop or stern, and the middle, called in Latin cezina, the hulk or waist. The prow was the part in the front of the waist or belly of the ship; it was generally adorned with paintings and different sculp- tures of gods, men, or animals. The beak, called 7ostrum, lay lower, and level with the water ; it was a piece of timber which projected from the prow, covered at the point with brass and sometimes with iron. The other end of the ship opposite to the prow was called the poop. There the pilot sat and held the helm, which was a longer and larger oar than the rest. The waist was the hollow of the vessel, or the hold. The ships were of two kinds. The one were rowed with oars, which were ships of war ; the other carried sails, and were ves- sels of burden, intended for commerce and transports. Both of them sometimes made use of oars and sails together; but that very rarely. The ships of war are also very often called long-ships by authors, and by that name distinguished from vessels of burden. The long-ships were further divided into two species: those which were called actuarie naves, and were very light vessels like our brigantines, and those called only long-ships. The first were usually termed open ships, because they had no decks. Of these light vessels there were some larger than ordinary, and had some twenty, some thirty, and others forty oars, half on one side and half on the other, all on the same line. The long-ships, which were used in war, were of two ‘sorts. Some had only one rank of oars on each side; the others two, three, four, five, or a greater number to forty ; but these last were rather for show than use. The long-ships of one rank of oars were called Aphractes, that is to say, uncovered, and had no decks. This distinguished them from the Cataphractes, which had decks. They had only small places to stand on at the head and stern in the time of action. The ships most commonly used in the battles of the ancients were those which carried from three to five ranges of oars, and were called #7i7emes and quingueremes. It is a great question, and has given occasion for abundance of learned disser- tations, how these ranges of oars were disposed. Some will have it that they were placed at length like the ranks of oars in the modern galleys. Others maintain that the ranges of the biremes, triremes, quinqueremes, and so on to the number of forty in some vessels, were one above another. To support this last opinion in- numerable passages are cited from ancient authors, which seem to leave no manner of doubt in it, and are considerably corrobor- ated by the column of Trajan, which repre- sents these ranks one above another. Father Montfaucon, however, avers that all the persons of greatest skill in naval affairs 24 : THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. whom he had consulted, declared that the thing conceived in that manner seemed to them utterly impossible. But such a way of reasoning is a weak proof against the experience of so many ages confirmed by so many authors. It is true that in admitting these ranks of oars to be disposed perpen- dicularly one above another, itis not easy to comprehend how they could be worked ; but in the biremes and triremes of the column of Trajan the lower ranks are placed ob- liquely, and as it were rising by degrees. In ancient times the ships with several ranks of oars were not known ; they made use of long-ships, in which the rowers, of whatever number they were, worked all upon the same line. Such was the fleet which the Greeks sent against Troy. It was composed of twelve hundred sail, of which the galleys of Beeotia had each an hundred and twenty men, and those of Philoctetes fifty ; and this no doubt includes the greatest and smallest vessels. Their galleys had no decks, but were built like THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP ARGO.—FROM THE TOWNLEY COLLECTION. common boats; which is still practised, says Thucydides, by the pirates, to prevent their being so soon descried at a distance. The Corinthians are said to have been the first who changed the form of ships, and instead of simple galleys, made vessels with three ranks, to add, by the multiplicity of oars, to the swiftness and impetuosity of their motion. Their city, advantageously situated between two seas, lay well for commerce, and served as a staple for merchandise. From their example the in- habitants of Corcyra and the tyrants of Sicily equipped also many galleys of three ranks a little before the war against the Persians. It was about the same time the Athenians, at the warm instances of Themistocles, who foresaw the war which soon after broke out, built such ships, the whole deck not being yet in use; and from thenceforth they applied themselves to naval affairs with incredible ardour and success. The beak of the prow (rostrum) was that part of the vessel of which most use was made in sea-fights. Ariston of Corinth THE ROWERS. persuaded the Syracusans, whose city was besieged by the Athenians, to make their prows lower and shorter, which advice gained them the victory. For the Athen- ians’ prows being very high and very weak, their beaks struck only the parts above water, and for that reason did very little damage to the enemy’s ships; whereas the Syracusans, whose prows were strong and low, and their beaks level with the water, sunk often at a single stroke the triremes of the Athenians. Two sorts of people served on board these galleys. The one were employed in steering and working the ship, who were the rowers (remiges), and the mariners (naute) ; the other were soldiers intended for the fight, and are meant in Greek by the word e¢pizatai. This distinction was not understood in the earlier times, when the same persons rowed, fought, and did all the necessary services of the ship; which was also not wholly disused in later days, for Thucydides, in describing the arrival of A ol She. SHIP.—FROM A PAINTING ON THE WALLS OF POMPEII. the Athenian fleet at the small island of Sphacteria, observes that only the rowers of the lowest bench remained in the ships, and that the rest went on shore with their arms. 1. The condition of the rowers was very hard and laborious. The rowers were dis- tinguished from their several stages. The lower rank were called #halamites, the middle zugites, and the highest thranites. Thucydides remarks that the latter had greater pay than the rest, because they worked with longer and heavier oars than those of the lower benches. It seems that the crew, in order to act in concert, and with better effect, were sometimes guided by the singing of a man, and sometimes by the sound of an instrument ; and this grateful harmony served not only to regulate the motion of their oars, but to diminish and soothe the pains of their labour. It is a question amongst the learned whether there was a man to every oar in these great ships, or several, as in the galleys of these days. What Thucydides 25. 26 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. observes on the pay of the Thranites seems to imply that they worked single ; for if others had shared the work with them, wherefore had they greater pay given them than those who managed an oar alone, as the latter had as much and perhaps more of the labour than them? Father Mont- faucon believes that in the vessels of five ranks there might be several men to one oar. He who took care of the whole crew and commanded the vessel was called nauclerus, and was the principal officer. The second was the pilot, gubernator ; his place was in the poop, where he held the helm in his hand and steered the vessel. His skill consisted in knowing the coasts, ports, rocks, shoals, and especially the winds and stars; for before the invention of the compass, the pilot had nothing to direct him during the night but the stars. 2. The soldiers who fought in the ships were armed almost in the same manner with those of the land-armies. ians at the battle of Salamis had an hundred and fourscore vessels, and in each of them eighteen fighting men, four of whom were archers and the rest heavy- armed troops. The officer who com- manded these soldiers was called #rzerarchus, and the commander of the whole fleet navarchus, or strategus. We cannot exactly say the number of soldiers, mariners, and rowers that served on board each ship, but it generally amounted to two hundred more or less, as appears from Herodotus’s estimate of the Persian fleet in the time of Xerxes, and in other places where he mentions that of the Greeks. I mean here the great vessels, the triremes, which were the species most in use. The pay of those who served in these ships varied very much at different times. When young Cyrus arrived in Asia, it was only three oboli, which was half a drachma, or fivepence; and the treaty between the Persians and Lacedeemonians was con- cluded upon this foot, which gives reason to believe that the usual pay was three oboli.. Cyrus, at Lysander’s request, added The Athen-*| a fourth, which made sixpence-halfpenny a day. It was often raised to a whole drachma, which is about tenpence French. In the fleet fitted out against Sicily, the Athenians gave a drachma a day to the troops. The sum of sixty talents (180,000 livres), which the people of Egesta ad- vanced the Athenians monthly for the maintaining of sixty ships, shows that the pay of each vessel for a month amounted to a talent—that is to say, to three thousand livres, which supposes that each ship’s com- pany consisted of two hundred men, each of whom received a drachma, or tenpence a day. As the officers’ pay was higher, the republic perhaps either furnished the over- plus, or it was deducted out of the total of the sum advanced for a vessel by abating something in the pay of the private men. The same may be said of the land troops as has been said of the seamen, except that the horse had double their pay. It appears that the ordinary pay of the foot was three oboli a day, and that it was augmented ac- cording to times and occasions. Thimbron the Lacedemonian, when he marched against Tissaphernes, promised a darick a month to each soldier, two to a captain, and four to the colonels. Now a darick a month is four oboli a day. Young Cyrus, to animate his troops, whom a too long march had discouraged, instead of one darick, promised one and a half to each soldier, which amounted to a drachma, or tenpence French a day. It may be asked how the Lacedz- monians—whose iron coin, the only species current amongst them, would go nowhere else—could maintain armies by sea and land, and where they found money for their subsistence. It is not to be doubted that they raised it, as the Athenians did, by contributions from their allies, and still more from the cities, to which they gave liberty and protection ; or from those they had conquered from their enemies. Their second fund for paying their fleets and armies was the aids they dfew from the king of Persia. THE PHENICIANS. 27 THE Puenicians : THER WEALTH AND HAT learned but little-known writer, Dr. Ru- therford, of Ux- bridge, has very justly remarked that the situation of the Phcenicians was ad- mirably adapted to extend their commercial intercourse to every part of the earth. Possessing a part of Asia, and placed on the confines of Africa and Europe, if they did not form a centre of interest and union to the inhabitants of the globe, they at least had it in their power to communicate to every nation the benefits of every climate. There were diffi- culties, however, in ancient navigation, which prevented or retarded their estab- lishing such an universal intercourse and commerce among nations. Of all the arts which have attracted the study or contem- plation of mankind, none is more surprising in the rise, from its early efforts to its sub- sequent improvement, than that of naviga- tion. From the small canoe, in which the Indian descends his native river, or ven- tures out into the adjacent ocean, to the noble and majestic edifice containing a thousand men, with provisions and accom- modations for many months, and conveying all this vast apparatus on the wings of the wind, across immense seas, to the most distant shores, the progress is so prodigious and astonishing, as to give us the highest idea of the human powers when enlightened and enlarged by the experience of many centuries. As the first form of vessels adapted to navigation must have been ex- tremely rude, the method of conducting A ENTERPRISE. them was no less awkward and defective. Skill, as well as experience, was required to assist the efforts of the rowers by the action of the winds. The method of arresting a ship in its course, by means of that simple but admirable machine, the anchor, must have been long unknown. The discoveries of modern times, which, by ascertaining the polarity of the magnet, determine the distance from land, and trace the paths of the ocean, were con- cealed from the early mariners, who had no other method of directing their course, than by observing the course of the sun and the position of the stars. Their navi- gation of consequence was timid and un- certain. They crept along the shores, and cautiously avoided losing sight of land. Years were requisite for performing voy- ages which are now finished in a few months. Even in the mildest climates, and on the calmest seas, it was only during the summer season that maritime enterprises were pursued. It would have been deemed hazardous to an extreme, by the ancient mariners, to have braved the fury of the elements and the surges of the ocean during the winter months. Under all these disadvantages, however, the active and persevering spirit of the Pheenicians exerted itself in naval and commercial enterprises. The history of this people furnishes a remarkable proof of the won- ders which industry can perform, and of the opulence to which commerce can raise a nation which applies to it with ardour. The first voyages which they performed were in the Mediterranean, of which they frequented all the ports. Coasting along the shores of this sea, they made settle- ments in the isles of Cyprus and Rhodes, 28 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. and extending their navigation, passed suc- cessively into Greece, Thrace, Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia. Penetrating into the ex- tremities of Europe, they visited the Gauls, discovered the southern part of Spain, and gave a name to that kingdom, which it still retains. Hitherto their navigation, like that of all the ancient nations, had been confined to the Mediterranean ; and the south of Spain was the boundary of their voyages. Pass- ing the southern point of that country, the Pheenician sailors perceived that the Medi- terranean communicated by a narrow channel with another sea. The dread of encountering unknown latitudes, and the perils which presented themselves in cross- ing this unexplored and formidable passage, long deterred the Phcenician pilots; but, incited by the love of gain, and encouraged by their perpetual successes, about 1250 years before the Christian era they ven- tured beyond the boundaries of ancient navigation, and passing the Straits of Gades, entered the ocean. Success crowned the boldness of the enterprise. They landed on the western coast of Spain. This first voyage was followed by others; and the Phcenicians soon sent colonies into the country, founded cities there, and formed permanent settlements. Their lu- crative traffic to these regions induced them to erect, on an isle known at present by the name of Cadiz, a fortified place, which they might employ as a repository or warehouse for the Spanish trade. To secure the possession of that isle, they built a city, to which, from the purposes of its erection, they gave the name of Cadiz. The advantages which the Phcenicians derived from this trade were sudden and extraordinary. Spain presented the same spectacle to its first visitants that America presented to the Spaniards in the sixteenth century. ‘The ancient Spaniards, like the Americans, were destitute of arts and in- dustries. Their country abounded with gold and silver ; but the inhabitants, un- acquainted with the value of these precious metals, applied them to common uses. The Pheenicians availed themselves of this ignorance. In exchange for oil, glass, and trinkets, so much coveted by barbarians, they received such a quantity of silver, that their ships could not contain the treasure. They were obliged to take out the lead with which their anchors were loaded, and put the silver in its place. The wealth which the Phcenicians drew from Spain was not confined to the pre- cious metals. Wax, honey, vermilion, iron, lead, copper, and above all, tin, were valu- able articles of traffic. This last metal was unknown to other nations till it was intro- duced by the Phceenicians. Spain was not the only country beyond the Pillars of Hercules into which the Pheenicians had penetrated. Accustomed to the navigation of the ocean, they ex- tended their discoveries to the left of the Straits of Gades as far as to the right ; and visiting the western coasts of Africa, formed settlements there a little after the Trojan war. While the Phoenicians possessed the trade of the north and the west, they drew to themselves the commerce of the south and the east, which is said to have been opened by the Egyptians. Having become masters of several commodious harbours towards the bottom of the Arabian Gulf, they established a regular intercourse with Arabia and the continent of India on the one hand, and with the eastern coast of Africa on the other. They landed the valuable cargoes which they brought from these opulent meetings at Elath, the safest harbour in the Red Sea towards the north. Thence they were carried by land to Rhi- nocolura, the nearest port in the Mediter- ranean to the Arabian Gulf; and being re-shipped in that harbour, were trans- ported to the Pheenician capital. Thus the wealth of Persia, India, Africa, and Arabia centred in Tyre, and thence was distributed over the western parts of the world. In order to secure the commerce of FHENICIAN ENTERPRISE. 29 these countries which they had discovered or visited, the Phcenicians founded colo- nies and cities, in the most commodious situations, as far as their voyages extended. About eighty years after the Trojan war they founded the city of Gades, on a small island near the western coast of Andalusia, and soon afterwards those of Adrymetum, Leptis, Utica, and Copsa, in Africa. In their voyages to Greece, Thrace, and Italy, they built cities and planted colonies in Cittium, Thera, Argos, Thebes, Samo- thrace, and Thasus. Soon after this we find Pheenician colonies on every island of the Mediterranean, in the Balearic Isles, in Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Malta, and many parts of the northern coasts of Africa. The revolution which the con- quests of Joshua made in the countries of Canaan was favourable to the coloniza- tion of the Pheenicians. After the irruption and devastation of the Hebrew tribes, the greater part of the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, finding themselves threatened with immediate destruction, endeavoured to save themselves by flight. Sidon offered them an asylum ; but the territory of that city not sufficing to support the multitude of exiles, they were under a necessity of exploring unknown countries, and seeking new settlements. The Phcenicians lent them their ships, and employed this acces- sion of subjects to extend their trade and to people their different cities. Hence that vast number of colonies which, taking their departure from Pheenicia, soon after diffused themselves through all the skirts of Africa and countries of Europe. No event is more remarkable in the Pheenician history than the foundation of a new state on the African coast about 89o years before the Christian era. The foun- dation and growth of Carthachadta, or the New Town, have been adorned by poetical fiction ; but its consequent greatness made an important figure in the history of the world. Situated on a bold projection of the African coast, in the very centre of the Mediterranean, Carthage comprehended within her view the east, as well as the west, and embraced, by the extent of her commerce, all the seas, and all the coun- tries of the known world. An excellent port offered a secure asylum to ships; the natural fertility of the adjacent soil; the happy site of the town, surrounded by a cluster of islands and countries conveni- ently situated for commerce ; the adventu- rous spirit of the merchants and mariners ; the skill and industry of the artisans, together with the wisdom of the govern- ment, which was never shaken by seditions, nor oppressed by tyranny, till the later periods of the commonwealth—all con- tributed to the sudden increase and rapid improvement of the Carthaginian colony. From the enlargement of its territory it be- came a separate state, which soon rivalled and afterwards surpassed the mother coun- try ; and, in a duration of seven hundred years, comprehended within its dominion the finest portion of Africa, as well as a great part of Spain, Sicily, Corsica, Sar- dinia, Malta, with the Balearic and the Fortunate Islands. From the enumeration of the countries to which the Pheenicians traded, of the cities which they built, and the colonies which they planted, in the various and distant parts of the world, an idea may be formed of the greatness and extent of their commerce. As in ancient times the nations of the earth had little intercourse or connection with each other, the Phoeni- cians were employed as factors and carriers to all their neighbours, and became masters. of all the trade that was carried on in the- known world. Their ships conveyed the productions of every climate, and the empire of the sea was in their possession. Other nations applied to them when any great maritime enterprise or distant ex- pedition was to be undertaken. The fleets, which Solomon fitted out, to sail from the Red Sea to Ophir and Tarshish, probably on the eastern coast of Ethiopia, were con- ducted by Pheenician pilots, who had been accustomed to visit these countries before Cc 30 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP the time of Solomon. It was to Phoenician mariners that Necho, king of Egypt, above 610 years before Christ, gave the extraor- dinary commission to circumnavigate Africa. That prince sent a Pheenician fleet from the borders of the Red Sea, with injunc- tions to keep along the African coasts, to make the tour of them, and to return to Egypt by entering the Mediterranean at the Pillars of Hercules or Straits of Gib- | raltar. The Phcenicians, taking their de- parture from the Red Sea, entered the southern ocean, and constantly followed the coasts. After having employed two seasons in this navigation, they doubled the southern promontory of Africa, and arriving at the Pillars of Hercules, entered the Mediterranean, and reached the mouths of the Nile in the third year of their voyage. Sacred and profane history agree in EASTERN SEA-GOING SHIP. \ extolling the opulence and power of the Pheenicians. When the Israelites invaded Palestine, gold and silver abounded in that country ; magnificence and luxury reigned in private apartments; the sovereigns of the little districts into which it was divided were clothed in purple; the people wore golden earrings ; and even the camels were adorned with studs, chains, and plates of gold. The Babylonian cloak, the most superb article of dress among the Romans in the period of their greatest luxury, was frequent among the spoils of Canaan. At the time of the Trojan war, the immense riches of Sidon were diffused among the, neighbouring nations, and supplied them with all that could contribute to regal pomp and ostentatious magnificence. The commerce, opulence, and splendour of Pheenicia continued to increase till the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel present a picture of Tyre in these distant ages, and celebrate the mart of nations with that enthusiasm and sublimity which distinguish the language of inspiration. XERXES IN GREECE. 3t XERXES IN ‘GREECE. Mis Navar PrerATIONS—flIS JuPERIOUS BEHAVIOUR. invasion of Greece by Xerxes, with an account of the naval opera- tions, is here de- scribed. The invasion being resolved upon, Xerxes, that he might omit nothing which could contribute to the success of his undertaking, Store into a confederacy with the Carthaginians, who were at that time the most potent people of the West, and made an agreement with them, that whilst the Persian forces should attack Greece, the Carthaginians should fall upon the Grecian colonies that were settled in Sicily and Italy, in order to hinder them from coming to succour the other Grecians. The Carthaginians made Amilcar their general, who did not content himself with raising as many troops as he could in Africa, but with the money that Xerxes had sent him, engaged a great number of soldiers out of Spain, Gaul, and Italy in his service; so that he collected an army of three hundred thousand men, and a proportionable number of ships, in order to execute the projects and stipulations of the league. Thus Xerxes, agreeably to the prophet Daniel's prediction, Aaving through his power and his great riches stirred up all the nations of the then known world against the realm of Greece—that is to say, of all the west under the command of Amilcar, and of all the east, that was under his own banner—set out from Susa, in order to enter upon this war, in the fifth year of his reign, which was the tenth after the battle of Marathon, and marched towards Sardis, the place of rendezvous for the whole land-army, whilst that by sea advanced along the coasts of Asia Minor towards the Hellespont. Xerxes had given orders to have a passage cut through mount Athos. This is a mountain in Macedonia, now a province of European Turkey, which reaches a great way in the Archipelago, in the form of a peninsula. It is joined to the land only by an isthmus of about half a league over. We have already taken notice, that the sea in this place was very tempestu- ous, and occasioned frequent shipwrecks. Xerxes made this his pretext of the orders he gave for cutting through the mountain : but the true reason was the vanity of signalizing himself by an extraordinary enterprize, and by doing a thing that was extremely difficult. Accordingly Herodo- tus observes, that this undertaking was more vainglorious than useful, since he might with less trouble and expense have had his vessels carried over the Isthmus, as was the practice in those days. . The passage he caused to be cut through the mountain was broad enough to let two galleys with three banks of oars each pass through it abreast. This prince, who was extravagant enough to believe that all nature and the very elements were under his command, in consequence of that opinion, wrote a letter to mount Athos in the following terms : Athos, thou proud and aspiring mountain, that liftest up thy lead unto the heavens, I advise thee not to be so audacious, as to put rocks and stones, which cannot be cut, in the way of my workmen. If thou givest them that opposition, I shall cut thee entirely down, and throw thee head- 32 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP, long into sea. At the same time he ordered his labourers to be whipped, in order to make them carry on the work the faster. As soon as the spring of the year came on, he directed his march towards the Hellespont. Being arrived there, he had a mind to see a naval engagement for his curiosity and diversion. To which end a throne was erected for him under an eminence ; and in that situation, seeing all the sea crowded with his vessels, and the land covered with his troops, he felt a secret joy diffuse itself through his soul, whilst he was thus surveying with his own eyes the vast extent of his power, and considering himself as the most happy of mortals: but reflecting soon afterwards, that of so many thousands of men, in an hundred years time there would not be one living soul remaining, his joy was turned into grief, and he wept at the consideration of the uncertainty and instability of human things. He might have found another subject of reflection, which would have more justly merited his tears and affliction, had he turned his thoughts upon himself, and considered the reproaches he deserved for being the instrument of shortening that fatal term to millions of people, whom his cruel ambition was going to sacrifice in an unjust and unnecessary war. Artabanes, who neglected no opportunity of making himself useful to the young prince, and of instilling sentiments of kindness ‘into him towards his people, laid hold of this moment, in which he found him touched with a sense of tenderness and humanity, and led him into further reflections upon the miseries that the lives of most men are accompanied with, and that render them so melancholy and so burdensome to them; endeavouring at the same time to make him sensible of the duty and obligations that are incumbent upon princes, who, not being able to prolong the natural life of their subjects, ought at least to do all that lies in their power to alleviate the pains, and to sweeten the bitterness of it. In the same conversation Xerxes asked his uncle if he still persisted in his first opinion, and if his advice would be still, not to make war against Greece, supposing he had not seen the vision which occa- sioned him to change his sentiments. Artabanes owned he still had his fears, and that he was very uneasy concerning two things. “What are those two things,” replies Xerxes? “The land and the sea,” says Artabanes: “the land because there is no country that can feed and maintain so numerous an army ; the sea, because there are no ports capable of receiving such a multitude of vessels.” The king was very sensible of the strength of this reasoning ; but as it was now too late to go back, he made answer, that in great undertakings men ought not so narrowly to examine all the inconveniences that may attend them; that if they did, no signal enterprises would ever be attempted; and that if his pre- decessors had observed so scrupulous and timorous a rule of politics, the Persian empire would never have risen to that pitch of greatness and glory it was now at. Xerxes, at a vast expense, had caused a bridge of boats to be built upon the sea, for the passage of his forces from Asia into Europe. The space that separates the two continents, formerly called the Hellespont, and now called the Straitsof the Dardanelles, or of Gallipoli, is seven stadias in breadth, which is near an English mile. A violent storm rising on a sudden, soon after broke down the bridge. Xerxes, hearing this news on his arrival, fell into a transport of passion; and in order to avenge himself of so cruel an affront, commanded two pair of chains to be thrown into the sea, as if he meant to shackle and confine it, and that his men should give it three hundred strokes of a whip, and speak to it in this manner: Zhou troublesome and unhappy element, thus does thy master chastise thee for having affronted him without reason. Know, that Xerxes will eastly find means to pass over thy waters, in spite of all thy billows and resistance. The extravagance THE BRIDGES OF XERXES. 33 of this prince did mot stop here;’ but making the undertakers of the work answerable for events, which the least in the world depend upon the power of man, he ordered all the persons to have their heads cut off who had had the direction and management of that undertaking. Xerxes commanded two other bridges to be built anew, one for the army to pass over, and the other for the baggage and the sides, in order to fix and secure all these vessels against the violence of the winds, and against the current of the water. On the east side they left three passages or vacant spaces between the vessels, that there might be room for small boats to go and come easily, as there was occasion, to and from the Euxine Sea. After this, upon the land on both sides they drove large piles into the earth with huge rings fastened to them, to which —H HHH ML me _ [I = 1 EN beasts of burden. He appointed workmen more able and expert than the former, and this was the manner they went about it. They placed three hundred and sixty vessels across, some of them having three banks of oars, and others fifty oars apiece, with their sides turned towards the Euxine Sea; and on the side that faced the Aigean Sea they put three hundred and fourteen. They then cast large anchors into the water on both I I Ili = I To Ti - I | L 0 SHIP ON THE TOMB OF ‘ N/EVOLEIA TYCHE ET DE MUNATIUS,” AT POMPEII were tied six mighty cables, which went over each of the two bridges; two of which cables were made of hemp, and four of a sort of reeds, which were made use of in those times for the making of cordage. Those that were made of hemp must have been of an extraordinary strength and thick- ness, since every cubit of those cables weighed a talent. The cables, laid over the whole extent of the vessels lengthwise, reached over the sea from one side to the other. 34 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. When this part of the work was finished, quite over the vessels lengthwise, and over the cables we have been speaking of, they laid the trunks of trees, cut purposely for that use, and flat boards again over them, fastened and joined together, to serve as a kind of floor or solid bottom; all of which they covered over with earth, and added rails or battlements on each side, that the horses and the cattle might not be frightened with seeing the seaintheir passage. This was the form of those famous bridges that were built by Xerxes. When the whole work was completed, a day was appointed for their passing over. And as soon as the first rays of the sun began to appear, sweet odours of all kinds were abundantly spread over both the bridges, wh the way was strewed with myrtle. At the same time Xerxes poured out libations into the sea; and turning his face towards the sun, the principal object of the Persian worship, he implored the assistance of that god in the enterprise he had undertaken, and desired the continuance of his pro- tection till he had made the entire conquest of Europe, and had brought it into sub- jection to his dominion; this done, he threw the vessel, which he used in making his libations, together with a golden cup and a Persian scimitar, into the sea. The army was seven days and seven nights in passing over these straits ; those who were appointed to conduct the march lashing the poor soldiers all the while with whips, in order to quicken their speed. BATTLE oF DALAMIS. DEFEAT OF XERXES. flow THE SEA fieHTS OF PLo Times WERE E here give an ac- _ count of the great sea victory of Sala- mis, by which the mighty fleet of Xerxes was de- stroyed. Before the battle a division arose among the commanders of the Grecian fleet; and the confederates, in a council of war, which was held for that purpose, were of very different sentiments concerning the place that was to be resolved upon for engaging the enemy. Some of them, and indeed the major part, at the head of whom was Eurybiades, the generalissimo of the fleet, were for having them advance near the ¢ ffonpucTED. Isthmus of Corinth, to the end that they might be nearer the land-army, which was posted there for the guarding of that pas- sage under the command of Cleombrotus, who was Leonidas’s brother, and that they might likewise have it more in their power to defend the Peloponnesus. Others of them, at the head of whom was Themistocles, alleged that it would be a betraying of their country to abandon so advantageous a post as that of Salamis. And as the last mentioned general was speaking with a good deal of warmth in the defence of his opinion, Eurybiades lifted up his cane over him in a ‘menacing manner. Strike, says the Athenian, unmoved at the insult, du? hear me; and continuing his discourse, proceeded to show of what importance it was for the fleet of the Grecians, whose BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 35 vessels were lighter, and much fewer in number than those of the Persians, to give battle in such a strait as that of Salamis was, which would render the enemy in- capable of using a great part of their forces. Eurybiades, who could not help being touched with this extraordinary instance of moderation in Themistocles, submitted to his reasons, or, at least, complied with his opinion, for fear the Athenians, whose ships made up above one-half of the fleet, should separate themselves from the allies, as their general had taken occasion to insinuate. A council of war was likewise held on the side of the Persians, in order to determine whether they should hazard a naval engagement, Xerxes himself being come to the fleet to take the advice of his captains and officers, who were all unanimous in their suffrages for giving of battle, because they knew it was agreeable to the king’s inclination. Queen Artemisa was the only person who opposed that resolution. She represented the dangerous consequences of engaging with a people that was more conversant and more expert in maritime affairs than the Persians were; alleging that the loss of a battle at sea would be attended with the ruin of their army at land ; whereas, by drawing out the ANCIENT MARITIME WARFARE. war into length, and by their advancing nearer the Peloponnesus, they should create jealousies and divisions among their enemies, or rather, augment the division that was already very great amongst them ; that the confederates in that case would not fail to separate from one another in order to go and defend each of them his own country and territory; and that then the king without difficulty, and almost without striking a stroke, might make himself master of all Greece. This advice, though exceed- ing prudent, was not followed; and the resolution that was taken was to give battle and risk a sea-engagement. Xerxes, imputing the ill-success of all his former engagements which they had had at sea to his own absence, was resolved to be witness of this from the top of an eminence, where he caused a throne to be erected for that purpose. The king being thus placed in the sight of his navy, might perhaps contribute, in some measure, to animate his forces ; but there is another way of doing it, which is much more sure and effectual, by the prince’s real presence and example, when he himself shares in the danger, and by that means shows himself worthy of being the soul and head of a brave and numerous body of men, that are ready 36 ZHRE WONDERS OF THE DEEP to die in his service. A prince that has not this sort of courage and firmness, which nothing can shake, and which even rises and increases by danger, may never- theless be endued with other excellent qualities; but then he is by no means proper to command an army. No qualifi- cation whatsoever can supply the want of courage in a general: and the more he labours to show the appearance of it, when he has not the reality, the more he dis- covers his cowardice and fear. There is, it must be owned, a vast difference between a general officer and a simple soldier. Xerxes ought not to have exposed his person otherwise than as becomes a prince; that is to say, as the head, not as the hand: as he whose business is to direct and give orders, not as those who are appointed to execute. But to keep himself entirely at a distance from danger, and to act no other part than that of a spectator, was really renouncing the quality and office of a general. Themistocles, knowing that some of the commanders in the Grecian fleet still enter- tained thoughts of sailing towards the Isthmus, contrived to have notice given under-hand to Xerxes, that, as the Grecian allies were now assembled together in one place, it would be an easy matter for him to subdue and destroy them altogether; whereas, if they once separated from one another, as they were going to do, he might never meet with another opportunity so favourable. The king gave into this sentiment, and immediately commanded a great number of his vessels to surround Salamis by night, in order to make it impracticable for the Greeks to quit their post. Nobody among the Grecians perceived that their army was thus encompassed. _ Aristides came by night-time from Zgina, where he had some forces under his command, and with very great danger crossed through the whole fleet of the enemies. When he came up to Themis- tocles’s tent, he took him aside, and spoke to him in the following manner: “If we are wise, Themistocles, we shall from henceforward lay aside that vain and childish dissension that has hitherto divided us, and shall strive with a more noble and useful emulation, which of us shall render the best service to his country—you by commanding and doing the duty of a wise and able captain, and I by obeying your orders, and by assisting you with my person and advice.” He then informed him of the army’s being surrounded with the ships of the Persians, and warmly exhorted him to give them battle without delay. Themistocles, extremely astonished at such a greatness of soul, and such a noble and generous frankness, was somewhat ashamed that he had suffered himself to be thus surpassed by his rival, but, without being ashamed to own it, he promised Aristides that he would henceforward imitate his generosity, and even exceed it, if it were possible, throughout the rest of his conduct. Then, after having imparted to him the stratagem he had imagined to deceive the barbarian, he desired him to go in person to Eurybiades, in order to convince him that there was no other means of safety for them than that of engaging the enemy by sea at Salamis; which commission Aristides executed with pleasure and success, for he was in great credit and esteem in the opinion of that general. They began then on both sides to prepare themselves for the battle. The Grecian fleet consisted of three hundred and eighty sail of ships, which in every- thing followed the direction and orders of Themistocles. Now, as nothing escaped this Athenian’s foresight, and as he, like an able commander, knew how to improve every circumstance and incident to ad- vantage, before he would begin the engage- ment, he waited till a certain wind, which rose regularly every day at a certain hour, and which was entirely contrary to the enemy, began to blow. As soon as this wind rose the signal was given for battle. The Persians, who knew that their king EXPLOITS OF QUEEN ARTEMISA. 37 had his eyes upon them, advanced with such a courage and impetuosity as were capable of striking an enemy with terror. But the heat of the first attack quickly abated when they came to be engaged. Everything was contrary to, and dis- advantageous for them: the wind, which blew directly in their faces; the height and the heaviness of their vessels, which could not move and turn without great difficulty, and even the number of their ships likewise, which was so far from being WESTER first that betook themselves to flight, and were quickly followed by the rest of the fleet. But Queen Artemisa distinguished herself by incredible efforts of resolution and courage, so that Xerxes, who saw in what manner she had behaved herself, cried out, that the men had behaved like women in this engagement, and that the women had showed the courage of men. The Athenians, being enraged that a woman had dared to appear in arms against them, had promised a reward of ten thousand drachmas to any one that should be able =o = = : N VIEW OF THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS, advantageous to them, that it only served to embarrass them in a place so straight and narrow as that they fought in; whereas on the side of the Grecians everything was done with order and measure, without hurry and without confusion, because everything was subject and obedient to the direction of one commander. The Ionians, whom Themistocles had advertised by characters engraven upon stones along the coasts of Eubcea to remember from whom they derived their original, were the Te — tf — = — Hash bo ES ae to take her alive; but she had the good fortune to escape their pursuits. If they had chanced to have taken her, surely she could deserve nothing less from them than the highest commendations, and the most honourable and generous treatment. Such was the success of the battle of Salamis, one of the most memorable actions which we find recorded in ancient history, and which has and will render the name and courage of the Grecians famous through all generations. There was a great number of the Persian ships taken, 38 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. and still a much greater sunk, upon this occasion. Many of their allies, who dreaded the king’s cruelty no less than the rage of the enemy, made the best of their way into their own country, in order to be out of his reach. THE RETREAT oF THE TEN THOUSAND. “ Tue SEA ! Jue SEA J ENTERPRISE. ¥/f; HERE is no more Y) famous story in Grecian history than that which tells of the attack made by Cyrus on the great Asian empire of his brother Ar- taxerxes. He was killed in this attack. Then the Greek auxiliaries were obliged to re- tire. This is the memorable retreat of the 10,000 of which Xenophon writes. Its most famous passage is where the sea was caught sight of. Here it is, with some of the subsequent maritime adventures. After many privations they crossed the country of the Chalybes, who are the most valiant of all the barbarians in those parts. When they killed any one, they cut off his head and carried it about in triumph, sing- ing and dancing. They kept themselves close shut up in their cities, and when the army marched, fell suddenly upon the rear, after having carried everything of value in the country into places of safety. After twelve or fifteen days’ march, they arrived at a very high mountain, called Tecqua, from whence they descried the sea. The first who perceived it raised great shouts of joy for a considerable time, which made Xenophon imagine that the vanguard was attacked, and go with all haste to support Exp OF THE it. As he approached nearer, the cry of the sea ! the sea! was heard distinctly, and the alarm changed into joy and gaiety, and when they came to the top, nothing was heard but a confused noise of the whole army crying out together, #%e sea / the sea! who could not refrain from tears, nor from embracing their generals and officers. And then, without waiting for orders, they heaped up a pile of stones, and erected a trophy with broken bucklers and other arms. From thence they advanced to the moun- tains of Colchis, one of which was higher than the rest, and of that the people of the country had possessed themselves. The Greeks drew up in battle at the bottom of it to ascend, for the access was not imprac- ticable. Xenophon did not judge it proper to march in line of battle, but by files; because the soldiers could not keep their ranks from the inequality of the ground, that in some places was easy, and in others difficult, to climb; which might discourage them. That advice was approved, and the army formed according to it. The heavy- armed troops amounted to fourscore files, each consisting of about an hundred men, with eighteen hundred light-armed soldiers, divided in three bodies; one of which was posted on the right, another on the left, and a third in the centre. After having encouraged his troops by representing to them that this was the last obstacle he had RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND. 39 to surmount, and implored the assistance of the gods, the army began to mount the hill. The enemy were not able to support their charge, and dispersed. They passed the mountain, and encamped in villages, where they found provisions in abund- ance. : A very strange accident happened there to the army, which put them into great consternation ; for the soldiers, finding abundance of bee-hives in that place, and eating the honey, they were taken with violent vomiting and fluxes, attended with raving fits ; so that those who were least ill seemed like drunken men, and the rest either furiously mad, or dying. The earth was strewed with their bodies as after a defeat ; however none of them died, and the distemper ceased the next day, about the same hour it had taken them. The third or fourth day the soldiers got up, but in the condition people are after taking a violent medicine. Two days after the army arrived near Trebisond, a Greek colony of Sinopians, situate upon the Euxine, or Black Sea, in NEPTUNE. the province of Colchis. Here they lay encamped for thirty days, and acquitted themselves of the vows they had made to Jupiter, Hercules, and the other deities, to obtain an happy return into their own country. They also celebrated there the games of the horse and foot-races, wrest- ling, boxing, the pancratium; the whole attended with the greatest joy and solem- nity. After having offered sacrifices to the several divinities, and celebrated the games, they deliberated upon the proper measures for their return into Greece. They con- cluded upon going thither by sea, and for that purpose Chirisophus offered to go to Anaxibius, the admiral of Sparta, who was his friend, to obtain ships of him. He set out directly, and Xenophon regulated the order it was necessary to observe, and the precautions to be taken for the security of the camp, provisions, and forage. He believed it also proper to make sure of some vessels, exclusively of those that were expected, and made some expeditions against the neighbouring people. As Chirisophus did not return so soon as was expected, and provisions began to be 40 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. wanting, it was resolved to proceed by land, because there was not a sufficient number of ships to transport the whole army, and those, which the precaution of Xenophon had procured, were allotted to carry the women, the old and sick men, with all the unnecessary baggage. The army continued its march, and lay ten days at Cerasus, where there was a general review of the troops, who were found to amount to eight thousand six hundred men out of about ten thousand, the rest having died in the retreat, of their wounds, fatigues, or dis- eases. In the small time the Greeks continued in these parts, several divisions arose, as well with the inhabitants of the country, as with some of the officers, who were jealous of Xenophon’s authority, and endeavoured to render him odious to the army. But his wisdom and moderation put a stop to those disorders; having made the soldiers sensible that their safety depended upon preserving union and good understanding amongst themselves, and obedience to their generals. From Cerasus they went to Cotyora, which is not very remote from it. They there deliberated again upon the proper measures for their return. The inhabitants of the country represented the almost insu- perable difficulties of going by land, from the defiles and rivers they had to pass, and offered to supply the Greeks with ships. This seemed the best expedient, and the army embarked accordingly. They arrived the next day at Sinope, a city of Paphla- gonia, and a colony of the Milesians. Chirisophus repaired thither with galleys, but without money, though the troops ex- pected to receive some. He assured them that the army should be paid as soon as they were out of the Euxine Sea, and that their retreat was universally celebrated, and the subject of the discourse and admiration of all Greece. ‘The soldiers, finding themselves near enough to Greece, desired to make some booty before they arrived there, and with that view resolved to nominate a general with full authority, whereas till then all affairs were determined in the council of war by the plurality of voices. They cast their eyes upon Xenophon, and caused him to be desired to accept that office. He was not insensible to the honour of com- manding in chief; but he foresaw the consequences, and desired time to consider. After having expressed the highest sense of gratitude for an offer so much to his honour, he represented, that to avoid jea- lousy and division, the success of affairs, and the interest of the army, seemed to require that they should choose a Lacedz- monian for their general ; the Spartan state being at that time actually mistress of Greece, and in consideration of that choice, would be disposed to support them. This reason was not relished, and they objected to it, that they were far from intending a servile dependence upon Sparta, or to submit to regulate their enterprises by the pleasure or dislike of that state, and pressed him again to accept the command. He was then obliged to explain himself sincerely and without evasion, and declared that, having consulted the gods by sacrifice upon the offer they made him, they had manifested their will by evident signs, from whence it appeared that they did not ap- prove their choice. It was surprising to see the impression which the sole mention of the gods made upon the soldiers, otherwise very warm and tenacious ; and who besides are commonly little affected with the mo- tives of religion. Their great ardour abated immediately, and without making any reply, they proceeded to elect Chiri- sophus, though a Lacedzmonian, for their general. His authority was of no long continuance. Discord, as Xenophon had foreseen, arose amongst the troops, who were angry that their general prevented their plundering the Grecian cities by which they passed. This disturbance was principally excited by the Peloponnesians, who composed one-half of the army, and saw with pain Xenophon, RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND. 41 an Athenian, in authority. Different mea- sures were proposed; but nothing being concluded, the troops divided themselves into three bodies, of which the Achaians and Arcadians—that is, the Peloponnesians —were the principal, amounting to four thou- sand five hundred heavy-armed foot, with Lycon and Callimachus for their generals. Chirisophus commanded another party of about fourteen hundred men, besides seven hundred light-armed infantry. Xenophon had the third, almost the same in number, of which three hundred were light-armed soldiers, with about forty horse, which were all the cavalry of the army. The first, having obtained ships from the people of Heraclea, to whom they had sent to demand them, set out before the rest to make some booty, and made a descent on the port of Calpe. Chirisophus, who was sick, marched by land, but without quitting the coast. Xenophon landed at Heraclea, and entered into the heart of the country. New divisions arose. The imprudence of the troops and their leaders had involved them in ill-measures, not without loss, from whence the address of Xenophon extricated them more than once. Being all reunited again, after various success, they arrived by land at Chrysopolis in Caledonia, over against Byzantium, whither they repaired some days after, having passed the small arm of the sea which separates the two continents. They were upon the point of plundering that rich and powerful city, to revenge a fraud and injury which had been done them, and from the hope of enriching themselves once for all, when Xenophon ran thither. He admitted the justness of their revenge, but he made them sensible of the fatal consequences which would attend it. “ After your pillaging this city, and destroying the Lacedemonians established in it, you will be deemed the mortal ene- mies of their republic, and of all their allies. Athens, my country, that had four hundred galleys at sea and in the arsenals when it took up arms against them, great sums of money in its treasury, a revenue of a thousand talents, and was in possession of all the isles of Greece, and of many cities in Europe and Asia, of which this was one, has nevertheless been reduced to’ yield to their power, and submit to their sway. And do you hope, who are but an handful of men, without generals, provi- sions, allies, or any resource either from Tissaphernes, who has betrayed you, or the king of Persia, whom you have attempted to dethrone ; can you hope, I say, in such a condition to make head against the Lace- deemonians ? Let us demand satisfaction to be made us, and not avenge the fault of the Byzantines by a much greater crime of our own, which must draw upon us inevit- able ruin.” He was believed, and the affair accommodated. But to follow them further would lead us too far from our subject. 42 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. SIEGE OF JYRE. EFFORTS ON BOTH SIDES— PICTURES FROM THE STRIFE. article the fall of the most celebrated maritime city of the ancient world. We: mean Tyre, taken after a terri- ble siege by Alexander the Great. This city was justly entitled the queen of the sea, that element bringing to it the tribute of all nations. She boasted her hav- ing first invented navigation, and taught mankind the art of braving the wind and waves by the assistance of a frail bark. The happy situation of Tyre, the con- veniency and extent of its ports, the char- acter of its inhabitants, who were industrious, laborious, patient, and extremely courteous to strangers, invited thither merchants from all parts of the globe ; so that it might be considered, not so much as a city belonging to any particular nation, as the common city of all nations, and the centre of their commerce. Upon Alexander’s advancing towards it, the Tyrians sent him an embassy with presents for himself and refreshments for his army. They were willing to have him for their friend, but not for their master; so that when he discovered a desire of en- tering their city, in order to offer up in it a sacrifice to Hercules, its tutelar god, they refused him admission. But this conqueror, after gaining so many victories, had too mighty a soul to put up such an affront, and thereupon was resolved to force them to it by a siege, which they, on the other side, were determined to sustain with the utmost vigour. The spring was now coming on. Tyre was at that time seated in an island of the sea, about a quarter of a league from the continent. It was surrounded with a strong wall an hundred and fifty feet high, which the waves of the sea washed; and the ‘Carthaginians (a colony from Tyre)— a mighty people and sovereign of the ocean, whose ambassadors were at that time in the city to offer up to Hercules, according to ancient custom, an annual sacrifice—had engaged themselves to succour the Tyrians. "Twas this made them so haughty. Firmly determined not to surrender, they fix machines on the ramparts and on the towers ; arm their young men, and build work-houses for the artificers, of whom there were great numbers in the city; so that every part resounded with the noise of war- like preparations. They likewise cast iron grapples, to throw on the enemy’s works and tear them away; as also cramp-irons, and such-like instruments, invented for the defence of cities. Alexander imagined that there were essential reasons why he should possess himself of Tyre. He was sensible that he could not invade Egypt easily so long as the Persians should be masters of the sea, nor pursue Darius with safety, in case he should leave behind him so large an extent of country, the inhabitants of which were either enemies, or suspected to be so. He likewise was afraid lest some insurrection should break out in Greece, and that his enemies, after having retaken in his absence the maritime cities of Asia Minor, and in- creased their fleet, would make his country the seat of war during his being employed in pursuing Darius in the plains of Babylon. These apprehensions were the more justly grounded, as the Lacedemonians had de- SIEGE OF TYRE. 43 clared openly against him, and the Athenians sided with him more out of fear than affection. But, that in case he should conquer Tyre, all Phoenicia being then subject to him, he would be able to dispossess the Persians of half their naval army, which consisted of the fleet of that province, and would soon make himself master of the island of Cyprus and of Egypt, which could not resist him the instant he * was become sovereign of the seas. On the other side, one would have imagined that, according to all the rules of war, Alexander, after the battle of Issus, ought to have pursued Darius vigorously, and neither give him an opportunity of recovering from the fright into which his defeat had thrown him, nor allow him time to raise a new army; the success of the enterprise, which appeared infallible, being the only thing that could make him for- midable and superior to all his enemies. Add to this, that in case Alexander should not be able to take this city (which was not very unlikely), he would discredit his own arms ; would lose the fruit of his victories, and prove to the enemy that he was not invincible. But God, who had appointed this monarch to chastise the pride of Tyre, as will be seen hereafter, did not once per- mit those thoughts to enter his mind, but determined him to lay siege to that city, in spite of all the difficulties which opposed so hazardous a design, and the many reasons which should have prompted him to pursue quite different measures. It was impossible to come near this city in order to storm it without making a bank which should reach from the continent to the island, and an attempt of this kind would be attended with difficulties that were seemingly insurmountable. The little arm of the sea, which separated the island from the continent, was exposed to the west wind, which often raised such dreadful storms there that the waves would in an instant sweep away all the works. Besides, as the city was surrounded on all sides by the sea, there was no fixing scaling ladders, nor throwing up batteries, but at a distance in the ships ; and the wall, which advanced into the sea towards the lower part, pre- vented people from landing—not to mention that the military engines which might have been put on board the galleys, could not do much execution, the waves were so very tumultuous. But nothing was capable of checking or vanquishing the resolution of Alexander, who was determined to win this city at any rate. However, as the few vessels he possessed lay at a great distance from him, and as the siege of so strong a city might possibly last a long time, and so retard his other enterprises, he thought proper to attempt an accommodation. Accordingly he sent heralds, who proposed a peace between Alexander and their city; but these the Tyrians killed, contrary to the law of nations, and threw them from the top of the walls into the sea. Alexander, exasperated at so cruel an outrage, formed a resolution at once, and employed his whole attention in raising a dyke. He found in the ruins of old Tyre, which stood on the continent, and was called Pale- Tyros, materials to make piers, taking all the stones and rubbish from it. Mount Libanus, which was not far distant from it, so famous in Scripture for its cedars, fur- nished him with wood for piles and other timber-work. The soldiers began the pier with great alacrity, being animated by the presence of their sovereign, who himself gave out all the orders; and who, knowing perfectly how to insinuate himself into, and gain the affections of the soldiers, excited some by praises, and others by slight reprimands, which were intermixed with kind expres- sions, and softened by promises. At first they advanced with pretty great speed, the piles being easily driven into the slime, which served as mortar for the stones ; and as the place where these works were carry- ing on was at some distance from the city, they went on without interruption. But the farther they went from the shore, the 44 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP greater difficulties they met with, because the sea was deeper, and the workmen were very much annoyed by the arrows shot from the tops of the walls. The enemy, who were masters of the sea, coming for- ward in great boats, and razing every part of the dyke, prevented the Macedonians from carrying it on with vigour. Then adding insults to their attacks, they cried aloud to Alexander's soldiers, ‘That it was a noble sight to see those conquerors, whose names were so renowned all the world over, carrying burthens on their backs like so many beasts.” And they would afterwards ask them, in a contemptuous tone of voice, “whether Alexander were greater than Neptune, and if they pretended to prevail over that god?” But these taunts did but inflame the courage of the soldiers. At last the bank appeared above water, began to show a level of a considerable breadth, and to draw near the city. Then the besieged, per- ceiving with terror the vastness of the work, which the sea had till then kept from their sight, came in their ship-boats in order to view the bank, which was not yet very firm, These boats were full of slingers, bowmen, and others who hurled javelins, and even fire ; and being spread to the right and left about the bank, they shot on all sides upon the workmen, and several of these were wounded—it not being possible for them to ward off the blows, because of the great ease and swiftness with which the boats moved backwards and forwards; so that they were obliged to leave the work to de- fend themselves. It was therefore resolved that skins and sails should be spread to cover the workmen, and that two wooden towers should be raised at the head of the bank, to prevent the approaches of the enemy. On the other side, the Tyrians made a descent on the shore, out of the view of the camp, where they landed some soldiers, who cut to pieces those that carried the stones : and on Mount Libanus there also were some Arabian peasants, who, meeting the Macedonians straggling up and down, killed near thirty of them, and took very near the same number. These small losses obliged Alexander to separate his troops into different bodies. The besieged, in the meantime, employed every invention, every stratagem that could be found, to ruin the enemy’s works. They took a transport-vessel, and, filling it with brushes, and such-like dry materials, made a large enclosure near the prow, wherein they threw all these things, with sulphur and pitch, and other combustible matters. In the middle of this enclosure they set up two masts, to each of which they fixed two sail-yards, on which were hung kettles full of oll, and such-like unctuous substances. They afterwards loaded the hinder-part of the vessel with stones and sand, in order to raise the prow; and, taking advantage of a favourable wind, they towed it to sea by the assistance of their galleys. As soon as they were come near the towers, they set fire to the vessel in question, and drew it towards the point or extremity of the bank. In the meantime, the sailors who were therein leaped into the sea and swam away. Immediately the fire catched, with great violence, the towers and the rest of the works which were at the head of the bank ; and then the sail-yards, being driven back- wards and forwards, threw oil upon the fire, which very much increased the flame. But, to prevent the Macedonians from extin- guishing it, the Tyrians, who were in their galleys, were perpetually hurling at the towers fiery darts and burning torches, in- somuch that there was no approaching them. Several Macedonians lost their lives in a miserable manner on the bank, being either shot through with arrows, or burnt to death ; whilst others, throwing down their arms, leaped into the sea. But as they were swimming away, the Tyrians, wishing to take them alive rather than kill them, maimed their hands with clubs and stones, and, after disabling them, carried them off. At the same time the besieged, coming out of the city in little boats, beat down the PERSEVERANCE OF ALEXANDER. 45 edges of the bank, tore up its stakes, and burnt the rest of the engines. Alexander, though he saw most of his designs defeated and his works demolished, was not at all dejected upon that account. His soldiers endeavoured, with redoubled vigour, to repair.the ruins of the bank ; and they raised new engines with so prodigious a speed as quite astonished the enemy. Alexander himself was present on all ac- casions, and superintended every part of the works. His presence and great abilities advanced these still more than the multitude of hands that were employed in them. The whole was nearly finished, and brought almost to the wall of the city, when there arose on a sudden an impetuous wind, which drove the waves with so much fury against the bank, that the cement and other things that bound it gave way, and now the waves, rushing through the stones, broke it in the middle. As soon as the great heap of stones which supported the earth was thrown down, the whole sunk at once, as into a deep pit. Any warrior but Alexander would that instant have quite laid aside his enterprise, and indeed he himself debated whether he should not raise the siege. But a superior Power, who had foretold and swore to ruin Tyre, and whose orders this prince only executed, prompted him to continue the siege, and, supporting all his fears, inspired him with courage and confidence, and fired the breasts of his whole army with the same sentiments. For now the soldiers, as though they had been but that moment arrived before the city, forgetting the several evils they had undergone, began to raise a new mole, and they worked at it inces- santly. Alexander was sensible that it would not be possible for him either to complete the bank or take the city so long as the Tyrians should continue masters of the sea. He therefore resolved to assemble before Sidon his few remaining galleys. At the same time the kings of Aradus and Byblos, hearing that Alexander had conquered their cities, they abandoned the Persian fleet, joined him with theirs and that of the Sidonians, which made in all eighty sail. There arrived also, much about the same time, ten galleys from Rhodes, three from Sole and Mallos, ten from Lycia, and one from Macedonia, having fifty rowers. A little after, the kings of Cyprus, hearing that the Persian army had been defeated near the city of Issus, and that Alexander had possessed himself of Pheenicia, brought him a reinforcement of upwards of one hundred and twenty galleys. The king, whilst his soldiers were pre- paring the ships and engines, took some troops of horse, with his own regiment of guards, and marched towards a mountain of Arabia, called Antilibanus. The tender regard he had for an old gentleman, for- merly his tutor, who was absolutely resolved to follow his pupil, exposed Alexander to very great danger. This was Lysimachus, who gave the name of Achilles to his scholar, and called himself Phenix. When the king was got to the foot of the moun- tain, he leaped from his horse, and began to walk. His troops got a considerable way before him. It was already late, and Alexander not being willing to leave his preceptor, who was very corpulent, and scarce able to walk, he by that means was separated from his little army, accompanied only by very few soldiers, and in this manner spent the whole night very near the enemy, who were so numerous that they might easily have overpowered him. However, his usual good fortune and courage extri- cated him from this danger; so that, coming up afterwards with his forces, he advanced forward into the country, won all the strongholds either by force or capitu- lation, and returned the eleventh day to Sidon, where he found Alexander, son of Polemocrates, who had brought him a re- inforcement of four thousand Greeks from Peloponnesus. The fleet being ready, Alexander took some soldiers from among his guards, and these he embarked with him, in order to D 46 THE WONDERS OF 7HE DEEP. employ them in close fight with the enemy, and then set sail towards Tyre in battle array. He himself was at the point or ex- tremity of the right wing, which spread itself in the main ocean, being accompanied by the kings of Cyprus and Pheenicia ; the left was commanded by Craterus. The Tyrians were at first determined to give battle ; but after they heard of the uniting of these forces, and saw the army advance with mighty parade (for Alexander had halted to wait the coming up of his left wing), they kept all their galleys in the har- bours, to prevent the enemy from entering them. When the king saw no one appear, he advanced nearer the city; and, finding it would be impossible for him to force the port which lay towards Sidon, because of the great narrowness of the entrance, and its being defended by a large number of galleys, all whose prows were turned towards the main ocean, he only sunk three of them which lay without, and afterwards came and cast anchor, with his whole fleet, pretty near the bank, along the shore, where his ships were sheltered. Whilst all these things were doing, the new bank was carried on with great vigour. The workmen threw into the sea whole trees, with all their branches on them, and laid great stones over these, on which they put other trees, and the latter they covered with clay, which served instead of mortar. Afterwards, heaping more trees and stones on these, the whole, thus joined together, formed one entire body. This bank was made wider than the former ones, in order that the towers, which were built in the middle, might be out of the reach of such arrows as should be shot from those ships which might attempt to break down the edges of the bank. The besieged, on the other side, exerted themselves with extra- ordinary bravery, and did all that lay in their power to stop the progress of the work. But nothing was of so much service to them as their divers, who, swimming under water, came unperceived quite up to the bank, and with hooks drew such branches forward as projected beyond the work, and, pulling forward with great strength, forced away everything that was over them. This was one zemora to the carrying on of the work ; however, after many delays, the patience of the workmen surmounting every obstacle, it was at last finished in its utmost perfection. The Macedonians placed mili- tary engines of all kinds on the bank, in order to shake the walls with battering rams, and hurl on the besiegers arrows, stones, and burning torches. ' At the same time Alexander ordered the Cyprian fleet,commanded by Andromachus, to take its station before the harbour which lay towards Sidon; and that of Phcenicia before the harbour which was on the other side of the bank, facing Egypt, towards that part where his Own tent was pitched, and enabled himself to attack the city on every side. The Tyrians, in their turn, prepared for a vigorous defence. On that side which lay towards the bank they had erected towers on the wall, which was of a prodigious height, and of a pro- portionable breadth; the whole built with great stones cemented together with mor- tar. The access to any other part was very near as difficult, the enemy having fenced the foot of the wall with great stones, to keep the Greeks from approaching it. The business then was, first to draw these away, which could not be done but with the utmost difficulty, because, as the soldiers stood in ships, they could not keep very firm on their legs. Besides, the Tyrians advanced with covered galleys, and cut the cables which held the ships at anchor, so that Alexander was obliged to cover, in like manner, several vessels of thirty rowers each, and to station these cross-wise, to secure the anchors from the attacks of the Tyrian galleys. But still, divers came and cut them unperceived, so that they were at last forced to fix them with iron chains. After this, they drew these stones with cable-ropes, and, carrying them off with engines, they were thrown to the bottom of the sea, where it was not possible for them to do any 4d STORM INTERRUPTS THE SIEGE. 47 further mischief. The foot of the wall being thus cleared, the vessels had very easy access to it. In this manner the Tyrians were invested on all sides, and attacked at the same time both by sea and land. The Macedonians had joined (two and two) galleys, with four men chained to each oar, in such a manner that the prows were fastened together, and the sterns so far distant one from the other as was neces- sary for the pieces of timber between them to be of a proper length. After this they threw from one stern to the other sail-yards, which were fastened together by planks, laid cross-wise, in order for the soldiers to stand fast on the space. The galleys being thus equipped, they rowed towards the city, and shot (under covert) against those who defended the walls, the prows serving them as so many parapets. The king caused them to advance about midnight, in order to surround the walls, and make a general assault. The Tyrians now gave themselves up for lost, when on a sudden the sky was or A RUINS OF TYRE. overspread with such thick clouds as quite took away the faint glimmerings of light which before darted through the gloom. The sea rises by insensible degrees, and the billows, being swelled by the fury of the winds, raise to a dreadful storm. The vessels dash one against the other with so much violence, that the cables which before fastened them together are either loosened or break to pieces, the planks split, and, making a horrible crash, carry off the soldiers with them ; for the tempest was so furious, that it was not possible to manage or steer galleys thus fastened to- gether. The soldier was a let and hindrance to the sailor, and the sailor to the soldier; “and, as happens on such occasions, that man obeyed whose business it was to command, fear and anxiety throwing all things into confusion. But now the rowers exerted themselves with so much vigour that they got the better of the sea. At last they brought the ships near the shore, but the greatest part in a shattered condition. 48 THE WONDERS OF THE DEZP. At the same time there arrived at Tyre thirty ambassadors from Carthage, who did not bring the least succours, though they had promised such mighty things. Instead of this, they only made excuses, declaring that it was with the greatest grief the Car- thaginians found themselves absolutely unable to assist the Tyrians in any manner ; for that they themselves were obliged to take up arms, not as before for empire, but to save their country. And, indeed, the Syracusans were laying waste all Africa at that time with a powerful army, and had pitched their camp not far from the walls of Carthage. The Tyrians, though frus- trated in this manner of the great hopes they had conceived, were no ways dejected. They only took the wise precaution to send most of their women and children to Car- thage, in order that they themselves might be in a condition to fight as desperadoes, and bear more courageously the greatest calamities which might befal them, when they had once lodged in a secure asylum what they most valued in the world. There was in the city a brazen statue of Apollo, of an enormous size. This colossus had formerly stood in the city of Gela in Sicily. The Carthaginians having taken it about the year 412 before Christ, had given it, by way of present, to the city of Tyre, which they always considered as the Mother of Carthage. The Tyrians had set it up in their city, and worship was paid to it. Dur. ing the siege, on a dream which one of the citizens had, the Tyrians imagined that Apollo was determined to leave them and go over to Alexander. Immediately they fastened, with a gold chain, his statue to Hercules’s altar, to prevent the deity in question from leaving them. For these people were silly enough to believe that after his statue was thus fastened down it would not be possible for him to make his escape, and that he would be prevented therein by Hercules, the tutelar god of the city. What a strange idea the heathens had of their divinities ! Some of the Tyrians proposed the restor- ing of a sacrifice which had been discon- tinued for many ages, and this was, to sacrifice a child, born of free parents, to Saturn. The Carthaginians, who had bor- rowed this sacrilegious custom from their founders, preserved it till the destruction of their city ; and had not the old men, who were Invested with the greatest authority in Tyre, opposed this cruelly superstitious custom, a child would have been butchered on this occasion. The Tyrians, finding their city exposed every moment to be taken by storm, re- solved to fall upon the Cyprian fleet, which lay at anchor off Sidon. They took the opportunity to do this at a time when the seamen of Alexander’s fleet were dispersed up and down, and that he himself was with- drawn to his tent, pitched on the seashore. Accordingly, they came out, about noon, with thirteen galleys, all manned with choice soldiers, who were used to sea-fights, and, rowing with all their might, came thunder- ing on the enemy’s vessels. Part of them they found empty, and the rest had been manned in great haste. Some of these they sunk, and drove several of them against the shores, where they dashed to pieces. The loss would have been still greater, had not Alexander, the instant he heard of this sally, advanced, at the head of his whole fleet, with all imaginable despatch against the Tyrians. However, these did not wait their coming up, but withdrew into the harbour, after having also lost some of their ships. And now, the engines playing, the city was warmly attacked on all sides, and as vigorously defended. The besieged, taught and animated by imminent danger, and the extreme necessity to which they were re- duced, invented daily new arts to defend themselves, and repulse the enemy. They warded off all the arrows which the cross- bow-menshot against them, by the assistance of turning wheels, which either broke them to pieces, or carried them another way. They deadened the violence of the stones that were hurled at them by setting up a A GENERAL ASSAULT. ap kind of sails and curtains made of a soft substance which easily gave way. To annoy the ships which advanced against their walls, they fixed grappling-irons and scythes to joists or beams ; then, bending their engines, which were in the shape of crossbows, they laid these great pieces of timber upon them instead of arrows, and shot them off on a sudden at the enemy. These crushed some to pieces by their great weight, and the hooks or pensile scythes with which they were armed, tore others to pieces, and did considerable damage to their ships. © They also had brazen shields, which they drew red-hot out of the fire, and, filling these with burning sand, hurled them in an instant from the top of the wall upon the enemy. There was nothing the Mace- + donians so much dreaded as this last in- vention, for, the moment this burning sand had got to the flesh, over the extremity of the coat of mail, it pierced to the very bone, and stuck so close that there was no pulling it off, so that the soldiers, throwing down their arms and tearing their clothes to pieces, were in this manner exposed, naked and defenceless, to the shot of the enemy. It was then that Alexander, disheartened at so vigorous a defence, debated seriously whether it would not be proper for him to raise the siege and go for Egypt; for, after having overrun Asia with prodigious rapi- dity, he found his progress unhappily re- tarded, and lost before a single city the opportunity of executing a great many projects of infinitely greater importance. On the other side, he considered that it would be a great blemish to his reputation, which had done him greater service than his arms, should he leave Tyre behind him, and thereby prove to the world that he was not invincible. He therefore resolved to make a last effort with a greater number of ships, which he manned with the flower of his army. Accordingly, a second naval engagement was fought, in which the Tyrians, after fighting with intrepidity, were obliged to draw off their whole fleet towards the city. The king pursued their rear very ‘ful motives, fought like lions. close, but was not able to enter the harbour, he being repulsed by arrows shot from the walls ; however, he either took or sunk a great number of their ships. Alexander, after letting his forces repose themselves two days, advanced his fleet and his engines, in order to attempt a general assault. Both the attack and defence were now more vigorous than ever. The courage of the combatants increased with danger ; and each side, animated by the most power- Wherever the battering-rams had beat down any part of the wall, and the bridges were thrown out, instantly the Argyraspides mounted the breach with the utmost valour, being headed by Admetus, one of the bravest officers in the army, who was killed by the thrust of a partisan, as he was encouraging his sol- diers. The presence of the king, and especially the example he set, fired his troops with unusual bravery. He himself ascended one of the towers which was of a prodigious height, and there was exposed to the greatest danger his courage had ever hurried him into; for, being immediately known by his zzsignia and the richness of his armour, he served as a butt to all the arrows of the enemy. On this occasion he per- formed wonders, killing, with javelins, several of those who defended the wall; then, advancing nearer to them, he forced some with his sword, and others with his shield, either into the city or the sea, the tower where he fought almost touching the wall. He soon went over it, by the assis- tance of floating-bridges, and, followed by the nobility, possessed himself of two towers and the space between them. The batter- ing-rams had already made several breaches; thefleethad forced intothe harbour,and some of the Macedonians had possessed them- selves of the towers which were abandoned. The Tyrians, feeling the enemy master of their rampart, retired to an open place called Agenor, and there stood their ground; but Alexander marching up with his regi- ment of body-guards, killed part of them, and obliged the rest to fly. At the same 50 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. time, Tyre being taken on that side which lay towards the harbour, the Macedonians ran up and down every part of the city, sparing no person who came in their way, they being highly exasperated at the long resistance of the besieged, and the barbari- ties they had exercised towards some of their comrades who had been taken in their return to Sidon, and thrown from the battle- ments, after their throats had been cut in the sight of the whole army. The Tyrians, feeling themselves oppressed on all sides, some fly to the temple, there to implore the assistance of the gods; others; shutting themselves in their houses, escape the sword of the conqueror by a voluntary death ; in fine, others rush upon the enemy, firmly resolved to sell theirlives atthe dearest rate. Most of the citizens were got on the housetops, whence they threw stones, and whatever came first to hand, upon such as advanced forward into the city. The king gave orders for killing all the inhabitants (those excepted who had sheltered them- selves in the temples), and to set fire to every part of Tyre. -Although this order was published by sound of trumpet, yet not one person who carried arms flew to the asylums. The temples were filled with such old men and children only as had remained in the city. The old men waited at the doors of their houses in expectation, every instant, of being sacrificed to the rage of the soldiers. "Tis true, indeed, that the Sidonian soldiers who were in Alexander’s camp saved great numbers of them ; for, having entered the city indiscriminately with the conquerors, and calling to mind their ancient affinity with the Tyrians, Agenor having founded both Tyre and Sidon, they, for that reason, carried off great numbers privately on board their ships, and conveyed them to Sidon. By this kind deceit, fifteen thousand were saved from the rage of the conqueror ; and we may judge of the greatness of the slaughter from the number of the soldiers who were cut to pieces on the rampart of the city only, they amounting to six thou- sand. However, the king’s anger not being - yet appeased, he exhibited a scene which appeared dreadful, even to the conquerors ; for, there remaining two thousand men after the soldiers had been glutted with slaughter, Alexander caused them to be fixed upon crosses along the seashore. He pardoned the ambassadors of Carthagé, who were come to their metropolis, to offer up a sac- rifice to Hercules, according to annual custom. The number of prisoners, both foreigners and citizens, amounted to thirty thousand, all told. As for the Macedonians, the loss in their ranks was very incon- siderable. Alexander himself sacrificed to Hercules, and conducted the ceremony with all his land forces under arms, in concert with the fleet. He also solemnized gymnastic exer- cises in honour of the same god, in the temple that was dedicated to him. With regard to the statue of Apollo, above-men- tioned, he took off the chains from it, restored it to its former liberty, and com- manded that this god should thenceforwards be surnamed Friilalexander; that is, the friend of Alexander. If we may credit Timeus, the Greeks begun to pay him this solemn worship for having occasioned the taking of Tyre, which happened the day and hour that the Carthaginians had carried off this statue from Gela. The city of Tyre was taken about the end of September, after having sustained a seven months’ siege one of the most terrible kaows in human history. ROME AND CARTHAGE. st SEA fONFLICTS OF THE ROMANS AND CARTHAGINIANS. distinguished by their perseverance. A signal example of this is their great struggle with the Carthaginians in the three Punic wars, and especially interesting is the ac- count which historians give as to their efforts to make them- selves equal in sea warfare with them, for they were sensible that whilst the Cartha- ginians should continue masters at sea, the maritime places would always side with them, and put it out of their power to ever drive them out of Sicily. Besides, they could not with any patience see Africa enjoy ‘a profound tranquillity at a time that Italy was infested by so many incursions of its enemies. They now first projected the design of a fleet, and of disputing the empire of the sea with the Carthaginians. The undertaking was bold, and in outward appearance rash ; but then it showed the courage and the grandeur of the Roman genius. The Romans were not then pos- sessed of one single vessel which they could call their own, and the ships which had transported their forces into Sicily had been borrowed of their neighbours. They were inexperienced in sea affairs, had no carpenters for the building of ships, and knew nothing of the quinqueremes or five- oared galleys, in which the chief strength of fleets at that time consisted. But happily, the year before, one had been taken upon the coasts of Italy, which served as a model to build others by. The Romans now applied themselves with ardour and finaL TRIUMPH OF THE Romans. incredible industry to the building of ships in the same form; and in the meantime they got together a set of rowers, who were taught an exercise and discipline utterly unknown to them before, in the following manner. Benches were made on the shore, in the same order and fashion with those of galleys. The rowers were seated on these benches, and taught, as if they had been furnished with oars, to throw themselves backwards with their arms drawn to their breasts; and then to throw their bodies and arms forward in one regular motion, the instant their commanding officer gave the signal. In two months, one hundred five-oared and twenty three-oared galleys were built ; and after some time had been spent in exercising the rowers on ship- board, the fleet put to sea; and went in quest of the enemy. Duilius was the con- sul of it. The Romans coming up with the Cartha- ginians near the coast of Myle, they pre- pared for an engagement. As the Roman galleys, by their being clumsily and hastily built, were neither very nimble nor easy to work, this inconvenience was supplied by a machine invented immediately, and after- wards known by the name of the crow, by the help of which they grappled the enemy’s ships, boarded them, and immediately came to close engagement. The signal for fighting was given. The Carthaginian fleet consisted of an hundred and thirty sail under the command of Hannibal—a different person from the great Hannibal. He himself was on board a galley of seven benches of oars, which had once belonged to Pyrrhus. The Carthaginians, highly despising enemies who were utterly un- 52 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEL acquainted with sea affairs, imagined that their very appearance would put them to flight, and therefore came forward boldly, with little expectation of fighting; but firmly imagining they should reap the spoils which they had already devoured with their eyes. They were, nevertheless, a little surprised at the sight of the above- mentioned engines, raised on the prow of every one of the enemy’s ships, and which was entirely new to them. But their aston- ishment increased when they saw these engines drop down at once; and being thrown forcibly into their vessels, grapple them in spite of all resistance. This changed the form of the engagement, and obliged the Carthaginians to come to close engage- ment with their enemies, as though they had fought them on land. They soon were unable to sustain the attack of the Roman vessels, upon which a horrible slaughter ensued ; and the Carthaginians lost four- score vessels, among which was the ad- miral’s galley, he himself escaping with difficulty in a small boat. So considerable and unexpected a victory raised the courage of the Romans, and seemed to redouble their vigour for the continuance of the war. Extraordinary honours were bestowed on Duilius, who was the first Roman that had a naval triumph decreed him. Besides which, a rostral pillar was erected in his honour, with a noble inscription; which pillar is now ‘standing in Rome. During the two following years, the Romans grew insensibly stronger at sea, by their gaining several naval victories. But these were considered by them only as essays preparatory to the great design they meditated of carrying the war into Africa, and of combating the Carthaginians in their own country. There was nothing the latter dreaded more ; and to divert so dangerous a blow, they resolved to fight the enemy, whatever might be the consequence. The Romans had elected M. Atilius Regulus and I. Manlius their consuls for this year. Their fleet consisted of three hundred and thirty vessels, on board of which were one hundred and forty thou- sand men, each vessel having three hun- dred rowers, and an hundred and twenty soldiers. That of the Carthaginians, com- manded by Hanno and Hamilcar, had twenty vessels more than the Romans, and a greater number of men in proportion. The two fleets came in sight of each other. No man could behold two such formidable navies, or be a spectator of the extraordi- nary preparations they made for fighting, without being under some concern, on see- ing the danger which menaced two of the most powerful states in the world. As the courage on both sides was equal, and no great disparity in the forces, the fight was obstinate, and the victory long doubtful; but at last the Carthaginians were over- come. More than sixty of their ships were taken by the enemy, and thirty were sunk. The Romans lost twenty-four, not one of which was taken by the Carthaginians. The fruit of this victory, as the Romans had designed it, was their sailing to Africa, after having refitted their ships, and pro- vided them with all necessaries for carrying on a long war in a foreign country. They landed happily in Africa, and began the war by taking a town called Clypea, which had a commodious haven. From thence, after having sent an express to Rome, to give advice of their landing, and to receive orders from the senate, they overran the open country, in which they made terrible havoc, bringing away whole flocks of cattle, and twenty thousand prisoners. They were afterwards defeated at Carthage. They made greater preparations than before to recover their loss; and put to sea, the following campaign, three hundred and sixty vessels. The Carthaginians sailed out to meet them with two hundred; but were beat in an engagement fought on the coasts of Sicily, and an hundred and four- teen of their ships were taken by the Romans. The Romans were overtaken by a storm on their return, which almost destroyed ROME AND CARTHAGE. 53 their whole fleet. The like misfortune be- fel them also the following year, and for five years nothing memorable was performed on either side. The Romans were once of opinion that their land forces would alone be capable of finishing the war, but it being protracted beyond their expectation, they returned to their first plan, and made extraordinary efforts to fit out a new fleet. The public treasury was at a low ebb ; but this want was supplied by private purses— so ardent was the love which the Romans bore their country. Every man, according to his circumstances, contributed to the common expense ; and, upon public secu- rity, advanced money without the least scruple, for an expedition on which the glory and safety of Rome depended. One man put out a ship at his own charge; another was equipped by the contributions of two or three; so that, in a very little time, two hundred were ready for sailing. The command was given to Lutatius, the consul, who immediately put to sea. The enemy’s fleet had retired into Africa, by which means the consul easily seized upon all the advantageous posts in the neigh- bourhood of Lilybaum; and, foreseeing that he should soon be forced to fight, he did all that lay in his power to secure to himself the success of it; and employed the interval in exercising his soldiers and sea- men at sea. He was soon informed that the Cartha- ginian fleet drew near, under the command of Hanno, who landed in a small island called Hiera, lying opposite to Drepanum. His design was to reach Eryx undiscovered by the Romans, in order to supply the army there; to reinforce his troops, and take Barcha on board to assist him in the expected engagement. But the consul, suspecting his intention, was beforehand with him; and having assembled all his best forces, sailed for the small island Agufa, which lay near the other. He acquainted his officers with the design he had of attacking the enemy on the morrow. Accordingly, at daybreak, he put all things in readiness, when unfortunately the wind was favourable to the enemy, which made him hesitate whether he should give them battle. But considering that the Cartha- ginian fleet, when unloaded of its provisions, would become lighter and more fit for action ; and besides, would be considerably strengthened by the forces and presence of Barcha, he came to a resolution at once ; and, notwithstanding the foul weather, made directly to the enemy. The consul had choice forces, able seamen, and excellent ships, built after the model of a galley that had been lately taken from the enemy ; and which was the completest, in its kind, that had ever been seen. The Cartha- ginians, on the other hand, were destitute of all these advantages. As they had been the entire masters at sea for some years, and the Romans did not once dare to face them, they had them in the highest contempt, and looked upon themselves as invincible. On the first report of the motion of the enemy, the Carthaginians had put to sea a fleet fitted out in haste, as appeared from every circumstance of it: the soldiers and sea- men being all mercenaries, newly levied, without the least experience, resolution, or zeal, since it was not for their own country they were going to fight. This soon ap- peared in the engagement. They could not sustain the first attack. Fifty of their vessels were sunk, and seventy taken with their whole crews. The rest favoured by a wind which rose very seasonably for them, made the best of their way to the little island from whence they had sailed. There were upwards of ten thousand taken pri- soners. The consul sailed immediately for Lilybseum. When the news of this defeat arrived at Carthage, it occasioned so much the greater surprise and terror, as it was less expected. The senate lost their courage, and saw themselves quite unable to continue the war. As the Romans were now masters of the sea, it was not possible to send re- inforcements to the armies in Sicily. The foe was obliged to submit. 54 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. SYRACUSE. Roman ATTACK ON THAT fITY—|NGENUITY OF count of the most famous mechani- cian of antiquity— Archimedes of Syra- cuse — and of the efforts he made to protect that town about the year 214 B.C. Marcellus determined to besiege the city by sea and land : by land, on the side of Hexa- pyla; and by sea, on that of the quarter Achradina, the walls of which were washed by the waves of the sea. He gave Appius the command of the land forces, and reserved that of the fleet to himself. It consisted of sixty galleys of five benches of oars, which were full of soldiers armed with bows, slings, and darts to scour the walls. There were a great number of other vessels, laden with all sorts of engines used in attacking places. The Romans, carrying on the assault at two different places, Syracuse was in great consternation, and apprehended that nothing could oppose so terrible a power and such mighty efforts. And it had in- deed been impossible to have resisted them without the assistance of a single man, whose wonderful industry was everything to the Syracusans: this was Archimedes. He had taken care to supply the walls with all things necessary for a good defence. As soon as his engines began to play on the land side they discharged upon the infantry all sorts of darts and stones of an enormous weight, which flew with so much ARCHIMEDES. noise, force, and rapidity that nothing could oppose their shock. They beat down and dashed to pieces all before them, and threw all the ranks of the besiegers into terrible disorder. Marcellus succeeded no better on the side of the sea. Archimedes had disposed his machines in such a manner as to throw darts to any distance. Though the enemy lay far from the city, he reached them with his larger and more forcible engines and catapultee. When they over- shot their mark he had smaller propor- tioned to the distance, which put the Romans into such confusion as made them incapable of attempting anything. This was not the greatest danger. Archimedes had placed lofty and strong machines behind the walls, which, suddenly letting fall vast beams with immense weight at the end of them upon the ships, sunk them to the bottom. Besides this, he caused an iron grapple to be let out by a chain, the person who guided the engine having catched hold of the head of a ship with this hook ; by the means of a weight let down within the walls it was lifted up and set upon its stern, and held so for some time ; then, by letting go the chain, either by a wheel or a pulley, it was let fall again with its whole weight either on its head or side, and often entirely sunk. At other times the machines dragging the ship towards the shore by cords and hooks, after having made it whirl about a great while, dashed it to pieces against the points of the rocks which projected under the walls, and thereby destroyed all within it. Galleys, frequently seized and suspended in the air, INGENUITY OF ARCHIMEDES. 55 were whirled about with rapidity, exhibit- ing a dreadful sight to the spectators, from whence they were let fall into the sea, and sunk to the bottom with all that were in them. Marcellus had prepared at great expense machines called Sambuce, from their re- semblance to a musical instrument of that name. He appointed eight galleys of five benches for that use from which the oars were removed ; from the one on the right, and from the others on the left side. These were joined together, two and two, on the sides without oars. This machine con- sisted of a ladder of the breadth of four feet, which, when erect, was of equal height with the walls. It was laid at length upon the sides of two galleys joined together, and extended considerably beyond their beaks ; upon the masts of these vessels were affixed cords and pullies. When it was to work, the cords were made fast to the extremity of the machine, and men upon the poop drew it up by the help of the pullies; others at the head assisted in raising it with levers. The galleys after- wards being thrust forward to the foot of the walls, the machines were applied to them. The bridge of the Sambuca was then let down (no doubt after the manner of a drawbridge), upon which the besiegers - passed to the walls of the place besieged. This machine had not the expected effect. Whilst it was at a considerable distance from the walls, Archimedes dis- charged a vast stone upon it that weighed ten quintals, then a second, and immediately after a third ; all of which, striking against it with dreadful force and noise, beat down and broke its supports, and gave the galleys upon which it stood such a shock that they parted from each other. Marcellus, almost discouraged and at a loss what to do, retired as fast as possible with his galleys, and sent orders to his land forces to do the same. He called also a council of war, in which it was resolved the next day before sunrise to endeavour to approach the walls. They were in hopes by this means to shelter themselves from the engines, which for want of a distance proportioned to their force would be rendered ineffectual. But Archimedes had provided against all contingencies. He had prepared engines long before, as we have already observed, - which were adapted to all distances, and carried a proportionate quantity of darts. To these he had provided timbers of all sizes that required little time in making ready, and consequently the least machines were most frequent in discharging. He had besides .made small chasms or loop- holes in the walls at little distances, where he had placed scorpions, which, not carry- ing far, wounded those who approached without its being perceived from whence they were discharged. When the Romans, according to their design, had gained the foot of the walls, and thought themselves very well covered, they found themselves exposed either to an infinity of darts or overwhelmed with stones, which fell directly upon their heads ; there being no part of the wall which did not continually pour that mortal hail upon them. This obliged them to retire. But they were no sooner removed than a new discharge of darts overtook them in their retreat ; so that they lost great numbers of men, and almost all their galleys were dis- abled or beat to pieces without their being able to revenge their loss in the least upon their enemies. For Archimedes had planted most of his machines in security behind the walls; and the Romans, says * Plutarch, repulsed by an infinity of wounds. without seeing the place or hand from which they came, seemed really to fight with the gods. Marcellus, though at a loss what to do, and not knowing how to oppose the | machines of Archimedes, could not, how- ever, forbear pleasantries upon them. “Shall we persist,” said he to his workmen and engineers, “in making war upon this Briareus of a geometrician, who treats my galleys and sambucas so rudely? He in- THE WONDERS finitely exceeds the fabled giants with their hundred hands in his perpetual and sur- prising discharges upon us.” Marcellus had reason for referring to Archimedes only. For the Syracusans were really no more than members of the engines and machines of that great geometrician, who was himself the soul of all their powers and operations. All other arms were unem- ployed, for the city at that time made use of none, either defensive or offensive, but those of Archimedes. Marcellus at length, perceiving the Romans OF 7HE DEEP. so much intimidated, that if they saw upon the walls only a small cord or the least piece of wood, they would immediately fly, crying out that Archimedes was going to discharge some dreadful machine upon them, he renounced his hopes of being able to make a breach in the place, gave over his attacks, and turned the siege into a blockade. The Romans conceived they had no other resource than to reduce the great number of people in the city by famine in cutting off all provisions that might be brought to them either by sea or & i ST HER ikidy 2 ki PROW OF ROMAN GALLEY. Gila rs RE Ye he x LTTE SE A vy CE AR LA) Ces, RPI > land. During the eight months in which they laid siege to the city, there were no kind of stratagems which they did not invent, nor any actions of valour left un- tried, almost to the assault itself, which they never dared to attempt more. So much force upon some occasions have a single man and a single science when rightly applied. Deprive Syracuse of only one old man, the great strength of the Roman arms must inevitably take the city; his sole presence arrests and disconcerts all their designs. There is, amongst these machines, of which we can scarce conceive the effects, matter to tempt us to call their reality in question if it were allowable to doubt the evidence of writers, such, for instance, as Polybius, an almost contemporary author, who treated facts entirely recent and such as were well known to all the world. But how can we refuse our consent to the united authority of Greek and Roman historians in regard to circumstances of which whole armies were witnesses and experienced the effects, and which had so great influence in the events of the war? What passed in this siege of Syracuse shows how high the EFFORTS. T0 AID SYRACUSE. 57 ancients had carried their genius and art in besieging and supporting sieges. Our artillery, which so perfectly imitates thunder, has not more effect than the engines of Archimedes, if they have so much. A burning-glass is spoken of, by the means of which Archimedes is said to have burnt part of the Roman fleet. That must “have been an extraordinary invention ; but as no ancient author mentions it, it is, no doubt, a modern tradition without any foundation. Burning-glasses were known to antiquity ; but not of that kind, which indeed seems impossible. After Marcellus had resolved to confine himself to the blockade of Syracuse, he left Appius before the place with two-thirds of the army, advanced with the other into the island, and brought over some cities into the Roman interest. At the same time Himilcon, general of the Carthaginians, arrived in Sicily with a great army, in hopes of reconquering it and expelling the Romans. Hippocrates left Syracuse with ten thou- sand foot and five hundred horse to join him, and carry on the war in concert against Marcellus. Epicydes remained in the city to command there during the blockade. The fleets of the two people appeared at the same time on the coast of Sicily ; but that of the Carthaginians, seeing itself weaker than the other, was afraid to hazard a battle, and soon sailed back for Carthage. ‘Marcellus had continued eight months before Syracuse with Appius, according to Polybius, when the year of his consulship expired. Livy places the expedition of Marcellus in Sicily and his victory over Hippocrates in this year, which necessarily fell out in the second year of the siege. And, indeed, Livy has given us no account of this second year, because he had ascribed to it what passed in the first. For it is highly improbable that nothing memor- able happened in it. This is the conjecture of M. Crevier, professor of rhetoric in the College of Beauvais, who has lately published a new edition of Livy with re- marks, with which we are convinced the public will be well satisfied. The first : 58 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. volume of this work appeared some months “ago, in the front of which there is a long preface worthy of being read. Marcellus employed a great part of the second year of the siege in several expe- ditions in Sicily. In his return from Agrigentum, upon which he had made an ineffectual attempt, he came up with the army of Hippocrates, which he beat, and killed above eight thousand men. This advantage kept those in their duty who had entertained thoughts of going over to the Carthaginians. After the gaining of this victory he returned against Syracuse, and having dismissed Appius for Rome, who went thither to demand the consulship, he put Crispinus into his place. In the beginning of the third campaign, Marcellus, almost absolutely despairing of. being able to take Syracuse, either by force, because Archimedes continually opposed him with invincible obstacles, or famine, as the Carthaginian fleet, which was re- turned more numerous than before, easily threw in convoys, deliberated whether he should continue before Syracuse to push the siege, or turn his endeavours against Agrigentum. But before he came to a final determination, he was inclined to try whether he could not make himself master of ‘Syracuse by some secret intelligence. There were many Syracusans in his camp who had taken refuge there in the beginning of the troubles. A slave of one of these secretly carried on an intrigue, into which fourscore of the principal persons of the city engaged, who came in companies to consult with him in his camp, concealed in barks under the nets of fishermen. The conspiracy was upon the point of taking effect, when a person named Attalus, in resentment for not having been admitted into it, discovered the whole to Epicydes, who put all the conspirators to death. This enterprise having miscarried in this manner, Marcellus found himself in new difficulties. Nothing came into his thoughts but the grief and shame of raising a siege after having consumed so much time, and sustained the loss of so many men and ships in it. An accidental event presented him a resource, and gave new life to his hopes. Some Roman vessels had taken one Damippus, whom Epicydes had sent to negotiate with Philip, King of Macedon. The Syracusans expressed a great desire to ransom this man, and Marcellus was not averse to it. A place near the port Trogilus was agreed on for the conferences concern- ing the ransom of the prisoner. As the deputies went thither several times, it came into a Roman soldier’s thoughts to consider the wall with attention. After having counted the stones, and examined with his eye the measure of each of them, upon a calculation of the height of the wall he found it to be much lower than it was believed, and concluded that with ladders of a moderate size it might be easily scaled. Without loss of time he related the whole to Mar- cellus. The general is not always the only wise man in an army ; a private soldier may sometimes furnish him with important hints. Marcellus did not neglect this ad- vice, and assured himself of its reality with his own eyes. Having caused ladders to be got ready, he took the opportunity of a festival which the Syracusans celebrated for three days in honour of Diana, during which the inhabitants gave themselves up entirely to rejoicings and good cheer. At the time of night when he conceived that the Syracusans, after their debauch, began to grow drowsy and fall asleep, he made a thousand chosen troops, in profound silence, advance with their ladders to the wall When the first got to the top without noise or tumult, the others followed, encouraged by the boldness and success of their leaders. These thousand soldiers, taking the advan- tage of the enemy’s stillness, who were either drunk or asleep, soon scaled the wall. Having thrown down the gate of Hexapyla, they took possession of the quarter of the city called Epipolis. It was then no longer time to deceive, but terrify the enemy. The Syracusans, awakened by the noise, began to rouse, PAST GLORY OF SYRACUSE, 59° and to put themselves in motion. cellus made all his trumpets sound together, which so frightened and alarmed them that all the inhabitants fled, believing every quarter of the city possessed by the enemy. The strongest and best part, however, called Achradina, was not yet taken, because separated by its walls from the rest of the city. Marcellus at daybreak entered Villanova, or the new city, by the quarter called Tycha. Epicydes, having immediately drawn up some troops which he had in the isle joining Achradina, marched against Marcellus ; but finding him stronger and better attended than he expected; after a slight skirmish he shut himself up in the quarter Achradina. All the captains and officers with Mar- * cellus congratulated him upon this extra- ordinary success. For himself, when he had considered from an eminence the lofti- ness, beauty, and extent of that city, he is said to shed tears, and to have been moved with the unhappy condition it was upon the point of experiencing. He called to mind the two powerful Athenian fleets which had been sunk before this city, and the two numerous armies cut in pieces, with the illustrious generals who com- manded them; the many wars sustained with so much valour against the Cartha- ginians ; the many famous tyrants and potent kings; Hiero particularly, whose memory was still recent, who had signalized himself by so many royal virtues, and still more by the important services he had rendered the Roman people, whose interests had always been as dear to him as his own; struck with this remembrance, he believed it incumbent upon him, before he attacked Achradina, to send to the besieged to exhort them to surrender voluntarily, and prevent the ruin of their city. His remon- strances and exhortations had no effect. He then, to prevent being interrupted in his rear, attacked a fort called Euryale, which lay at the bottom of the new town, and commanded the whole country on the Mar-~ land side. After having carried it, he turned all his efforts against Achradina. During these transactions Hippocrates and Himilcon arrived. The first with the Sicilians having placed and fortified his camp near the great gate, and given the signal to those who were in possession of Achradina, attacked the old camp of the Romans, in which Crispinus commanded ; Epicydes at the same time made a sally upon the posts of Marcellus. Neither of these enterprises were successful. Hippo- crates was vigorously repulsed by Crispinus, who pursued him as far as his entrench- ments, and Marcellus obliged Epicydes to shut himself up in Achradina. As it was then the autumn, there hap- pened a plague, which killed great numbers in the city, and still more in the Roman and Carthaginian camps. The malady was not excessive at first, and proceeded only from the bad air and season. But after- wards the communication with the infected, and even the caretaken of them, dispersed the contagion ; from whence it happened that some neglected and absolutely abandoned died of the violence of the distemper, and others received help which became fatal to those who brought it. Death, and the sight of such as were buried, continually presented a mournful object to the eyes of the living. Nothing was heard night and day but groans and laments. At length the being accustomed to the evil had hardened their. hearts to such a degree, and so far extinguished all sense of com- passion in them, that they not only ceased to grieve for the dead, but left them with- out interment. Nothing was to be seen everywhere but dead bodies, exposed to the view of those who expected the samc fate. ‘The Carthaginians suffered much more from it than the others. As they had no place to retire to, they almost all perished, with their generals Hippocrates and Himilcon. Marcellus, from the break- ing out of the disease, had brought his soldiers into the city, where the roofs and shade was of great relief to them ; he lost, 60 THE WONDERS OF TAFE DELP however, no inconsiderable number of them by the terrible ravages of the pesti- lence. Bomilcar, notwithstanding, who com- manded the Carthaginian fleet, and had made a second voyage to Carthage to bring back a new supply, returned with an hundred and thirty ships and seven hundred transports. He was prevented by contrary winds from doubling the cape of Pachynus. Epicydes, who was afraid that if those winds continued this fleet might be discouraged and return to Africa, left Achradina to the care of the generals of the mercenary troops and went to Bomil- car, whom he persuaded to try the event of a naval battle. Marcellus, seeing the troops of the Sicilians increase every day, and that if he stayed and suffered himself to be shut up in Syracuse he should be very much pressed at the same time by sea and land, resolved, though not so strong in ships, to oppose the passage of the Carthaginian fleet. As soon as the high winds abated, Bomilcar stood to sea in order to double the cape. But when he saw the Roman ships advance towards him in good order, on a sudden, for what reason is not said, he took to flight, sent orders to the transports to regain Africa, and retired to Tarentum. Epicydes, who had been disappointed in such great hopes, and was apprehensive of returning into a city already half taken, made sail for Agri- gentum, rather with design to wait the event of the siege in that place than attempt any movement from thence. When it was known in the camp of the Sicilians that Epicydes had quitted Syra- cuse and the Carthaginians Sicily, they sent deputies to Marcellus, after having sounded the disposition of the besieged, to treat upon the conditions Syracuse should sur- render. It was agreed with unanimity enough on both sides that what had appertained to the kings should appertain to the Romans; that the Sicilians should retain all the rest, with their laws and liberty. After these preliminaries, they demanded a conference with those Epi- cydes had charged with the government in his absence. They told them they had been sent by the army to Marcellus and the inhabitants of Syracuse, in order that all the Sicilians, as well within as with- out the city, might have the same fate, and that no separate convention might be made. Having been permitted to enter the city, and to confer with their friends and rela- tions, after having informed them of what they had already agreed with Marcellus, and given them assurances that their lives would be safe, they persuaded them to begin by removing the three governors Epicydes had left in his place, which was immediately put in execution. The difficulty was not to obtain what they demanded from Marcellus, but to preserve tranquillity and union amongst those in the city. The deserters, convinced that they should be delivered up to the Romans, inspired the foreign soldiers with the same fear. Both the one and the other having, therefore, taken arms whilst the deputies were still in the camp of Marcellus, they began by cutting the throats of the magistrates newly elected ; and dispersing themselves on all sides, put all to the sword they met, and plundered whatever fell in their way. That they might not be without leaders, they ap- pointed six officers—three to command in Achradina, and three in the isle. The tumult being at length appeased, the foreign troops were informed from all hands it was concluded with the Romans that their cause should be entirely distinct from that of the deserters. At the same instant the deputies sent to Marcellus arrived, who fully undeceived them. Amongst those who commanded in Syra- cuse there was a Spaniard named Mericus ; him means was found to corrupt. He gave up the gate near the fountain Arethusa to soldiers sent by Marcellus in the night to take possession of it. At daybreak the next morning Marcellus made a false attack at Achradina, to draw all the forces of the DEATH OF ARCHIMEDES. 61 citadel and the isle adjoining to it to that side, and to facilitate the throwing some troops into the isle, which would be un- guarded, by the means of some vessels he had prepared. Everything succeeded ac- ~ cording to his plan. The soldiers whom those vessels had landed in the isle, finding almost all the posts abandoned, and the gates by which the garrison of the citadel had marched out against Marcellus still open, they took possession of them after a slight encounter. Marcellus having re- ceived advice that he was master of the isle and of part of Achradina, and that Mericus, with the body under his com- mand, had joined his troops, ordered a retreat to be sounded, that the treasures of the kings might not be plundered, which did not amount so high as was imagined. The deserters having escaped, a passage being expressly made -for them, the Syra- cusans opened all their gates to Marcellus, and sent deputies to him with instructions to demand nothing further from him than the preservation of the lives of themselves and their children. Marcellus having as- sembled his council, and some Syracusans who were in his camp, gave his answer to the deputies in their presence: “That Hiero for fifty years had not done the Roman people more good than those who had been masters of Syracuse some years past had intended to do them harm; but that their ill-will had fallen upon their own heads, and they had punished them- selves for their violation of treaties in a more severe manner than the Romans could have desired. That he had besieged Syracuse during three years, not that the Roman people might reduce it into slavery, but to prevent the chiefs of the revolters from continuing it under oppression. That he had undergone many fatigues and dangers in so long a siege; but that he thought he had made himself ample amends by the glory of having taken that city, and the satisfaction of having saved it from the entire ruin it seemed to deserve.” After having placed a guard upon the treasury, and safeguards in the houses of the Syracusans, who had with- drawn into his camp, he abandoned the city to be plundered by the troops. Itis reported that the riches which were pillaged in Syracuse at this time exceeded all that could have been expected at the taking of Carthage itself. An unhappy accident interrupted the joy of Marcellus, and gave him a very sensible affliction. Archimedes, at the time when all things were in this confusion at Syra- cuse, shut up in his closet like a man of another world, who had no share in what passed in this, was intent upon the study of some geometrical figure, and not only his eyes, but the whole faculties of his soul were so engaged in this contemplation that he had neither heard the tumult of the Romans, universally busy in plundering, nor the report of the city’s being taken. A soldier on a sudden comes in upon him, and bids him follow him to Marcellus. Archimedes desired him to stay a moment, till he had solved his problem and finished the demonstration of it. The soldier, who regarded neither his problem nor demon- stration, enraged at this delay, drew his sword and killed him. Marcellus was exceedingly afflicted when he heard the news of his death. Not being able to restore him to life, of which he would have been very glad, he applied himself to honour his memory to the utmost of his power. He made a diligent search’ after all his relations, treated them with great distinction, and granted them pecu- liar privileges. As for Archimedes, he caused his funeral to be celebrated in the most solemn manner, and erected him a monument amongst the great persons who had distinguished themselves most at Syracuse. 62 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP Yaz FouNDATION OF LARTHAGE. ERE we retrace our steps for a little. Our purpose is to bring the founda- tion and destruction of Carthage close together before the mind of the studious reader. This article tells of the first topic ; the one that follows it of the second. Carthage, in Africa, was a colony from Tyre, the most renowned city at that time for commerce in the world. Tyre had long before transplanted another colony into that country, which built Utica, made famous by the death of the second Cato, who for this reason is generally called Cato Uticensis. Authors disagree very much with regard to the era of the foundation of Carthage. It is a difficult matter, and not very material, to reconcile them ; at least, agree- ably to the plan laid down by us, it is sufficient to know within a few years the time in which that city was built. Carthage existed a little above seven hundred years. It was destroyed under the consulate of Cn. Lentulus, and L. Mummius, the 6o3rd year of Rome, 3859th of the world, and 145 before Christ. The foundation of it may therefore be fixed at the year of the world 3158, when Joash was king of Judah, ninety-eight years before the building of Rome, and 846 before our Saviour. The foundation of Carthage is ascribed to Elisa, a Tyrian princess, better known by the name of Dido. Ithobal, king of Tyre, and father of the famous Jezebel, called in Scripture Ethbaal, was her great J aBLES OF ITS PriGiN—]Ts EARLY PROGRESS. grandfather. She married her near relation Acerbas, called otherwise Sicharbas and Sichzus, an extremely rich prince, and Pygmalion, king of Tyre, was her brother. This prince, having put Sichzeus to death, in order that he might have an opportunity to seize his immense treasures, Dido eluded the cruel avarice of her brother by | withdrawing secretly with all her dead husband’s possessions. After having long wandered, she at last landed on the coast of the Mediterranean, in the gulf where Utica stood, and in the country of Africa, properly so called, distant almost fifteen miles from Tunis, once so famous for its corsairs ; and there settled with her few followers, after having purchased some lands from the inhabitants of the country. Many of the neighbouring people, invited by the prospect of lucre, repaired thither to sell to these foreigners the necessaries of life, and shortly after incorporated them- selves with them. These inhabitants who had been thus gathered from different places, soon grew very numerous. The citizens of Utica considering them as their countrymen, and as descended from the same common stock, deputed envoys with very considerable presents, and exhorted them to build a city in the place where they had first settled. The natives of the ‘country, from a sentiment of esteem and respect which is frequently shown to strangers, made them the like offers. Thus all things conspiring with Dido’s views, she built her city, which was appointed to pay an annual tribute to the Africans for the ground it stood upon ; and called Carthada, or Carthage, a name that, in the Pheenician and Hebrew tongues (which have a great STORY OF DIDO. 63 affinity), signifies the New City. It is said that when the foundations were dug, a horse’s head was found, which was thought a good omen, and a presage of the future warlike genius of that people. The Tyrians landing near this holy ground, And digging here, a prosperous omen found ; From under earth a courser’s head they drew, Their growth and future fortune to foreshow : This fated sign their foundress Juno gave, Of a soil fruitful, and a people brave. — Dryden. This princess was afterwards courted by Iarbas, king of Getulia, and threatened with a war in case of a refusal. Dido, who had bound herself by an oath not to con- sent to a second marriage, being incapable of violating the faith she had sworn to Sichaeus, desired time for deliberation, and for appeasing the manes of her first hus- band by sacrifice. Having, therefore, ordered a pile to be raised, she ascended it, and drawing out a dagger she had con- cealed under her robe, stabbed herself with it. Virgil has made a great alteration. in this history, by supposing that Aneas, his hero, was contemporary with Dido, though there was an interval of near three centuries between the one and the other ; the era of the building of Carthage being fixed three hundred years lower than the destruction of Troy. This liberty is very excusable in a poet, who is not tied to the scrupulous accuracy of an historian ; we admire, with great reason, the judgment he has shown in his plan, when, in order to make the Romans (for whom he wrote) be affected with his subject, he has the art of introduc- ing into it the implacable hatred which subsisted between Carthage and Rome, and ingeniously deduces the original of it from the very remote foundation of these two rival cities. Carthage, whose beginnings, as we have observed, were very weak, grew larger by insensible degrees where it was founded. But its dominion was not long confined to Africa. The inhabitants of this ambitious city extended their conquests into Europe by invading Sardinia, seizing a great part of Sicily, and reducing almost all Spain; and having sent powerful colonies everywhere, they enjoyed the empire of the seas for more than six hundred years; and formed a state which was able to dispute for pre- eminence with the greatest empires of the world, by their wealth, their commerce, their numerous armies, their formidable fleets, and, above all, by the courage and ability of their captains. The first wars waged by the Carthagin- ians were to free themselves from the annual tribute which they had engaged to pay the Africans, for the land these had permitted them to settle in. This conduct does them no honour, as the settlement was granted them upon condition of their paying a tribute. One would be: apt to imagine that they were desirous of covering the obscurity of their original by abolish- ing this proof of it. But they were not successful on this occasion. The Africans had justice on their side, and they pros- pered accordingly, the war being terminated by the payment of the tribute. The Carthaginians afterwards carried their arms against the Moors and Numi- dians, and won conquests from both. Being now emboldened by these happy successes, they shook off entirely the tri- bute which gave them so much uneasiness, and possessed themselves of a great part of Africa. pie About this time there arose a great dis- pute between Carthage and Cyrene, on account of their respective limits. Cyrene was a very powerful city, situated on the Mediterranean, towards the greater Syrtis, and had been built by Battus, the Lacedee- monian. It was agreed on each side that two young men should set out at the same time from either city, and that the place of their meeting should be the common boun- dary te both states. The Carthaginians (these were two brothers named Philaeni) made the most haste ; and their antagonists, pretending that foul play had been used, 04 and that these two brothers above men- tioned had set out before the time ap- pointed, refused to stand to the agreement, unless the two brothers (to remove all sus- picion of their unfair dealing) would con- sent to be buried alive in the place where they had met. They acquiesced with the proposal, and the Carthaginians erected, on that spot, two altars to their memories, and paid them divine honours in their city, and from that time the place was called the altars of the Phileni, Are Philenorum, and served as the boundary of the Carthaginian empire, which extended from thence to the Pillars of Hercules. History does not inform us exactly, either of the time when the Carthaginians entered Sardinia, or of the manner how they got possession of it. This island was of great use to them ; and, during all their wars, supplied them abundantly with pro- visions. It is separated from Corsica by a strait of about three leagues over. The metropolis of the southern and most fertile part of it was Caralis or Calaris, now called Cagliari. On the arrival of the Carthagi- nians, the natives withdrew to the moun- tain$ in the northern part of the island, which are almost inaccessible, and whence the enemy could not dislodge them. The Carthaginians seized likewise on the Baleares, now called Majorca and Minorca. Port. Magon, in the latter island, was so called from Mago, a Carthaginian general, who first made use of, and fortified it. It is not known who this Mago was, but it is very probable that he was Hannibal's bro- ther. This harbour is, at this day, one of the most considerable in the Mediterra- nean. These isles furnished the Carthaginians with the most skilful slingers in the world ; they doing them great service in battles and sieges. They slung large stones of above a pound weight; and sometimes | threw leaden bullets with so much violence that they would pierce even the strongest HE WONDERS OF ZHE DEEPER missed the blow. The inhabitants of these islands were accustomed, from their in- fancy, to handle the sling; for which pur- pose their mothers placed, on the bough of a high tree, the piece of bread designed for their children’s breakfast, who were not allowed a morsel till they had brought it down with their slings. From this practice these islands were called Baleares and Gymnasie by the Greeks, because the in- habitants used to exercise themselves so early in slinging of stones. Spain, abounding with mines of gold and silver, and peopled with a martial race of men, had sufficient to excite both the avarice and ambition of the Carthaginians, who were more of a mercantile than of a warlike disposition, even from the genius and constitution of their republic. They doubtless knew that their Phcenician an- cestors, as Diodorus relates, taking advan- tage of the happy ignorance of the Spani- ards, with regard to the immense riches which were hid in the bowels of their lands, first took from them these precious treasures, in exchange for commodities of the lowest value. They likewise foresaw, that if they could once subdue this coun- try, it would furnish them abundantly with well-disciplined troops for the conquest of other nations, as actually happened. The occasion of the Carthaginians first landing in Spain was to assist the inhabi- tants of Cadiz, who were invaded by the Spaniards. That city, as well as Utica and Carthage, was a colony of Tyre, and even more ancient than either of them. The Tyrians having built it, established there the worship of Hercules, and erected in his honour a magnificent temple, which be- came famous in after ages. The success of this first expedition of the Carthaginians, made them desirous of carrying their arms into Spain. It is not exactly known in what period they entered Spain, nor how far they ex- tended their first conquests. It is probable helmets, shields and cuirasses, and were so | that these were slow in the beginning, as dexterous in their aim, that they scarce ever | the Carthaginians had to do with very war- EXTENT OF THAE CARTHAGINIAN EMPIRE. 65 like nations, who defended themselves with great resolution and courage. Nor would they ever have accomplished their design, as Strabo observes, had the Spaniards (united in a body) formed but one state, and mutually assisted one another. But as every canton, every people were entirely detached from their neighbours, and had not the least correspondence with them, the Carthaginians were forced to subdue them one after another. This circum- stance occasioned, on one hand, their ruin, and on the other protracted the war, and made the conquests of the country much more difficult ; accordingly it has been ob- served, that though Spain was the first pro- vince which the Romans invaded on the continent, it was the last they subdued, and was not entirely subjected to their power till after having made a vigorous opposition for upwards of two hundred years. It appears from the accounts given by Polybius and Livy, of the wars of Hamil- car, Asdrubal, and Hannibal, in Spain, which will ever be memorable, that the arms. of the Carthaginians had not made any considerable progress in that country till this period, and that the greatest part of Spain was then unsubdued. But in twenty years’ time they completed the conquests of almost the whole country. At the time that Hannibal set out for Italy, all the coast of Africa, from the Phileenorum Are (by the greater Syrtis) to the Pillars of Hercules, was subject to the Carthaginians. Passing through the straits, they had conquered all the western coast of Spain, along the ocean, as far as the Pyrenean hills. This coast, which lies on the Mediterranean, had been almost wholly subdued by them, and it was there they had built Carthago Nova ; and they were masters of all the country as far as the river Iberus, which bounded their dominions. Such was at that time the ex- tent of their empire. In the centre of the country, some nations had indeed held out against all their efforts, and could not be subdued by them. The period in which the Carthaginians first carried their arms into Sicily is not exactly known. All we are certain of is, that they were already possessed of some part of it at the time that they entered into a treaty with the Romans; the same year that the kings were expelled, and consuls appointed in their room, viz. twenty-eight years before Xerxes invaded Greece. This treaty, which is the first we find mentioned to have been made between these two nations, speaks of Africa and Sardinia as possessed by the Carthaginians ; whereas the conventions with regard to Sicily re- late only to those parts of the island which were subject to them. By this treaty it is expressly stipulated, that neither the Romans nor their allies shall sail beyond the fair Promontory, which was very near Carthage, and that such merchants as shall resort to this city for traffic shall pay only certain duties as are settled in it. It appears by the same treaty that the Carthaginians were particularly careful to exclude the Romans from all the countries subject to them, as ‘well as from the know- ledge of what was transacting in them ; as though the Carthaginians, even at that time, took umbrage at the rising power of the Romans, and already harboured in their bosoms the secret seeds of the jealousy and diffidence that were one day to burst out in long and cruel wars, and which nothing could extinguish but the ruin of one of the contending empires, so fierce were their mutual hatred and animosity. - Such is the early history of this great maritime state, one of the most famous of antiquity. 66 . THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. DestrucTioN OF LARTHAGE. = N this article we give from an emi- nent authority the story of the taking of Carthage by Scipio and his Ro- man army, which at the time of its destruction contained 700,000 souls. It stood at the bottom of a gulf, surrounded with the sea, and in the form of a peninsula, whose neck (that is, the isthmus which joined it to the continent) was twenty- five stadia, or a league and a quarter in breadth. The peninsula was three hundred and sixty stadia, or eighteen leagues round. On the west side there projected from it a long neck of land, half a stadium, or twelve fathoms broad ; which, advancing into the sea, divided it from a morass, and was fenced on all sides with rocks and a single wall. On the south side, towards the con- tinent, where stood the citadel called Byrsa, the city was surrounded with a triple wall, thirty cubits high, abstracted from the parapets and towers, with which it was flanked all round at equal distances, each interval being fourscore fathoms. Every tower was four stories high, and the walls but two; they were arched, and in the lower part were stalls large enough to hold three hundred elephants with their fodder, etc. ; over these were stables for four thousand horses, and lofts for their food. There likewise was room enough to lodge twenty thousand foot and four thousand horse. In fine, all these were contained within the walls. The walls were weak and low in one place only; and that was a neglected angle, which began at the neck of land above mentioned, and extended as SCENES OF (ARNAGE AND MorRrOR. far as the harbours, which were on the west side. There were two of them that had a communication one with the other, and but one entrance, seventy feet broad, and shut up with chains. The first was appro- priated for the merchants, it containing several distinct habitations for the seamen. The second, or inner harbour, was for the ships of war, in the midst of which stood an island called Cothon, lined, as the harbour was, with large quays, in which were distinct receptacles for sheltering from the weather two hundred and twenty ships; and over these, magazines or storehouses, wherein was lodged whatever is necessary for arming and equipping of fleets. The entrance into each of these receptacles was adorned with two marble pillars of the Ionic order; so that both the harbour and the island represented on each side two magnificent galleries. In this island was the admiral’s palace; and as it stood op- posite to the mouth of the harbour, he could from thence discover whatever was doing at sea, though no one from thence could see what was transacting in the inward part of the harbour. The merchants, in like manner, had no prospect of the men of war; the two ports being separated by a double wall, and each having its particular gate that led to the city without passing through the other harbour. So that Car- thage may be divided into three parts: the harbour, which was double, and called sometimes Cothon, from the little island of that name ; the citadel, named Byrsa; the city, properly so called, where the inhabit- ants dwelt, which lay round the citadel, and was called Megara. At daybreak, Asdrubal, perceiving the ignominious defeat of his troops, in order BUILDING OF THE MOLE. 67 that he might be revenged on the Romans, and, at the same time, deprive the inhabi- tants of all hopes of accommodation and pardon, brought all the Roman prisoners he had taken upon the walls, in sight of the whole army. There he put them to the most exquisite torture, putting out their eyes, cutting off their noses, ears, and fingers ; tearing their skin to pieces with iron rakes or harrows ; and then threw them headlong from the top of the battlements. So inhuman a treatment filled the Cartha- ginians with horror ; however, he did not spare even them; but murdered many senators who had been so brave as to oppose his tyranny. : Scipio, finding himself absolute master of the isthmus, burnt the camp which the enemy had deserted, and built a new one for his troops. It was in a square form, surrounded with large and deep entrench- ments, and fenced with strong palisades. On the side which faced the Carthaginians he built a wall twelve feet high, flanked -at proper distances with towers and redoubts ; and on the middle tower he erected a very high wooden fort, from whence could be seen whatever was doing in the city. This wall was equal to the whole breadth of the isthmus—that is, four miles and three- quarters. The enemy, who were within arrow-shot of it, employed their utmost efforts to put a stop to this work ; but, as the whole army toiled at it day and night without intermission, it was finished in twenty-four days. Scipio reaped a double advantage from this work : first, his forces were lodged more safely and commodiously than before ; secondly, he thereby cut off all provisions from the besieged, to whom none could be brought but by land ; which distressed them exceedingly, both because the sea is frequently very tempestuous in that place, and because the Roman fleet kept a strict guard. This proved one of the chief causes of the famine which raged soon after in the city. Besides, Asdrubal distributed the corn that was brought, only among the thirty thousand men who served under him, he not valuing what became of the inhabitants. To distress them still more, through want of provisions, Scipio attempted to stop up the mouth of the haven by a mole, begin- ning at the above-mentioned neck of land, which was near the harbour. The besieged looked at first upon this attempt as ridicu- lous, and accordingly they insulted the workmen ; but at last, seeing them make an astonishing progress every day, they began to be afraid, and to take such measures as might, if possible, render the attempt un- successful. Every one, to the women and children, fell to work, but so privately that all Scipio could learn from the prisoners was that they had heard a great noise in the harbour, but did not know the cause or occasion of it. At last, all things being ready, the Carthaginians opened on a sudden a new outlet on the other side of the haven, and appeared at sea with a numerous fleet, which they had then built with the old materials found in their maga- zines. It is generally allowed that had they attacked the Roman fleet directly, they must infallibly have taken it; because, as no such blow was expected, and every man was otherwise employed, the Carthaginians would have found it without rowers, soldiers, or officers. But the ruin of Carthage, says the historian, was decreed. Having therefore only offered a kind of insult or bravado to the Romans, they returned into the harbour. Two days after they brought forward their ships, with a resolution to fight in good earnest, and found the enemy ready for them, This battle was to determine the fate of both parties. It lasted a long time, each exerting themselves to the utmost ; the one to save their country now reduced to the last extremity, and the other to complete their victory. During the fight, the Carthaginian brigantines, gliding along under the large Roman ships, broke to pieces sometimes their sterns, and at other times their rudders and oars; and if they were briskly attacked, they retreated 63 with surprising swiftness, and returned im- mediately to the charge. two armies had fought with equal success till sunset, the Carthaginians thought proper to retire ; not that they thought themselves overcome, but in order to begin the fight again on the morrow. Part of their ships, not being able to run swiftly enough into the harbour, because the mouth of it was too narrow, took shelter under a very spacious terrace, which had been thrown up against the walls to unload goods, and on the side whereof a small rampart had been raised during this war to prevent the enemy from possessing themselves of it. Here the fight was again renewed with more vigour than ever, and lasted till late at night. The Carthaginians suffered very much, and the few ships of theirs which got off sailed for shelter to the city. Morning being come, Scipio attacked the terrace and won it, though with great difficulty ; after which he posted and fortified himself on it, and built a brick wall close to those of the city, and of the same height with them. When it was finished, he commanded four thousand men to get on the top of it, and to hurl incessantly from thence darts and javelins on the enemy, who were extremely annoyed thereby, because, as the two walls were of equal height, there was scarce one dart but did execution. Thus ended this cam- paign. : During the winter quarters Scipio en- deavoured to overpower the enemy’s troops without the city, who annoyed very much the soldiers who brought his provisions, and protected such as were sent to the besieged. For his purpose he attacked a neighbouring fort, called Nepheris, where they used to shelter themselves. In the last battle, above seventy thousand of the enemy, as well as soldiers and peasants who had. been en- listed, had been cut to pieces; and the fort was carried with great difficulty, after sus- taining a siege of two and twenty days. The seizure of this fort was followed by the surrender of almost all the strongholds in Africa, and contributed very much to the At last, after the | THE WONDERS OF THE DELP. taking of Carthage itself, into which from that time it was almost impossible to bring any provisions. Early in the spring Scipio attacked, at one and the same time, the harbour called Cothon and the citadel. Having possessed himself of the wall which surrounded this port, he threw himself into the great square of the city that was near it, from whence was an ascent to the citadel, up three streets, on each side of which were houses, from the tops whereof a shower of darts were discharged upon the Romans, who were obliged, before they could advance farther, to force the houses they came first to, and post themselves in them, in order to dislodge from thence the enemy who fought from the neighbouring houses. The combat, which was carried on from the tops and in every part of the houses, continued six days, during which a dreadful slaughter was made. To clear the streets and make way for the troops, the Romans dragged aside with hooks the bodies of such of the inhabitants as had been slain or precipitated headlong from the houses, and threw them into pits, the greatest part of them being still alive and panting. In this toil, which lasted six days and as many nights, the soldiers were relieved from time to time by fresh ones, without which they would have been quite spent. Scipio was the only person who did not take a wink of sleep all this time, he giving out his orders in all places, and scarce allowing himself leisure to take the least refreshment. There was still reason to believe that the siege would last much longer, and occasion a great effusion of blood. But, on the seventh day, there appeared a company of men in a suppliant posture and habit, who desired no other conditions but that the Romans would please to spare the lives of all those who should be willing to leave the citadel, which request was granted them, only the deserters were excepted. Accordingly there came out fifty thousand men and women, who were sent into the fields under a strong guard. The deserters, ASDRUBAL CURSED BY HIS WIFE. 69 who were about nine hundred, finding they would not be allowed quarter, fortified themselves in the temple of Aisculapius, with Asdrubal, his wife and two children ; where, though their number was but small, they might have held out a long time, because the temple stood on a very high hill, upon rocks, and to which the ascent was by sixty steps. But at last, exhausted by hunger and watchings, oppressed with fear, and seeing their destruction at hand, they lost all patience, when, abandoning iil | nin J i el 1 prt i the lower part of the temple, they retired to the uppermost story, and resolved not to quit-it but with their lives. In the meantime Asdrubal, being desirous of saving his own life, came down privately to Scipio, carrying an olive-branch in his hand, and threw himself at his feet. Scipio showed him immediately to the deserters, who, transported with rage and fury at the sight, vented millions of imprecations against him, and set fire to the temple. Whilst it was lighting, we are told that RUINS OF THE PALACE OF NERO. Asdrubal’s wife, dressing herself as splen- didly as possible, and placing herself with her two children in sight of Scipio, ad- dressed him with a loud voice : “I call not down,” says she, “curses upon thy head, O Roman ; for thou only takest the privi- lege allowed by the laws of war. But may the gods of Carthage, and thou in concert with them, punish according to his deserts the false wretch who has betrayed his country, his gods, his wife, his children!” Then, directing herself to Asdrubal, ¢ Per- fidious wretch,” says she, “thou basest o: creatures ! This fire will presently con- sume both me and my children ; but as to thee, too shameful general of Carthage, go—adorn the gay triumph of thy con- queror—suffer, in the sight of all Rome, the tortures thou so justly deservest!” She had no sooner pronounced these words, than, seizing her children, she cut their throats, threw them into the flames, and afterwards rushed into them herself, and so died. 70 THE WONDERS OF THE DLCEP. ~ With regard to Scipio, when he saw this famous city, which had flourished seven hundred years, and might have been com- pared to the greatest empires, on account of the extent of its dominions both by sea and land, its mighty armies, its fleets, elephants, and riches, and that the Cartha- ginians were even superior to other nations, by their courage and greatness of soul, since, though despoiled of arms and ships, they yet had sustained for three whole years all the hardships and calamities of a long siege ; seeing, I say, this city quite ruined, historians relate that he could not refuse tears to the unhappy fate of Car- thage. He reflected that cities, nations, and empires are liable to revolutions no less than particular men ; that the like sad fate had befallen Troy, anciently so powerful; and, since this time the Assyrians, Medes and Persians, whose dominions were once of so wide an extent; and, lately, the Macedon- ians, whose empire had diffused so much splendour round the world. Full of these mournful ideas, he repeated the following | verses of Homer,— ¢¢ The day shall come, that great avenging day, ‘Which Troy’s proud glories in the dust shall lay, When Priam’s pow’rs and Priam’s self shall fall, And one prodigious ruin swallow all,” denoting thereby the future destiny of Rome, as he himself confessed to Polybius, who desired Scipio to explain himself on this occasion. Had his understanding been illuminated by truth, he would have discovered what we are taught in Scripture, that because of unrighteous dealings, injuries, and riches got by deceit, a kingdom is translated from one people to another. - Carthage is destroyed because its avarice, perfidiousness, and cruelty are arrived to their utmost height. The like fate will attend Rome, when its luxury, ambition, pride, and unjust usurpa- tions, concealed beneath a specious and delusive show of justice and virtue, shall have compelled the sovereign Lord, the Disposer of empires, to teach by its fall the whole world an important lesson. Carthage being taken in this manner, Scipio gave the plunder of it (the gold, the silver, the statues, and other offer.ngs which should be found in the temples ex- cepted) to his soldiers for some days. He afterwards bestowed several military rewards on them, as well as on the officers, two of whom had particularly distinguished them- selves, z¢z. Tib. Gracchus, and Cai. Fan- nius, who first scaled the walls. After this, adorning a very small ship (an excellent sailer) with the enemy’s spoils, he sent it to Rome with the news of the victory. At the same time, he ordered the inhabi- tants of Sicily to come and take possession of the pictures and statues which the Car- thaginians had plundered them of in the former wars. ‘When he restored, to the citizens of Agrigentum, Phalaris’s famous bull, he told them that this bull, which was, at one and the same time, a monument of the cruelty of their ancient kings and of the lenity of their present sovereigns, ought to make them sensible which would be most advantageous for them, to live under the Sicilian’s yoke or the government of the Romans. Having exposed to sale part of the spoils of Carthage, he commanded, on the most severe penalties, his family not to take, or even buy any of them; so careful was he to remove from himself, and all belonging to him, the least suspicion of being avari- cious. When the news of the taking of Carthage was brought to Rome, the people aban- doned themselves to the most immoderate transports of joy, as though the public tran- quillity had not been secured till this instant. They revolved in their minds all the calamities which the Carthaginians had brought upon them, in Sicily, in Spain, and even in Italy, for sixteen years together; during which, Hannibal had plundered four hundred towns, destroyed three hun- dred thousand men, and reduced Rome itself to the utmost extremity. Amidst the remembrance of these past evils, the people in Rome would ask one another, whether THE ARCHITECT OF ALEXANDRIA. 71 it were really true that Carthage was in ashes. All ranks and degrees of men emulously strove who should show the greatest gratitude towards the gods; and the citizens were, for many days, employed wholly in sclemn sacrifices, in public prayers, in sports and spectacles. Thus was the event celebrated. Lity AND fiIGHT-HOUSE OF ‘ALEXANDRIA. Ze T is natural to expect / that whatever de- rives itself from Alexander must have something great, noble, and majestic In: it; which are the characters of the city he caused to be built, and called after his name in Egypt. He charged Dinocrates with the direction of this important undertaking. The history of that architect is very singular. He was a Macedonian. Confiding in his genius and great ideas, he set out for the army of Alexander, with design to make himself known to that prince, and to pro- pose views to him as he conceived would suit his taste. He got letters of recommen- dation from his relations and friends to the great officers and leading men at the court, in order to obtain a more easy access to the king. He was very well received by those ‘to whom he applied, who promised to in- troduce him as soon as possible to Alexan- der. As they deferred doing it. from day to day, under pretence of wanting a favourable opportunity, he took their delays to imply evasion, and resolved to present himself. His stature was advantageous, his visage agreeable, and his address spoke a person of condition. Relying, therefore, upon his good mien, he stripped himself of his usual habit, anointed his whole body with oil, crowned himself with a wreath of poplar, STORY OF THE ARCHITECT. and throwing a lion’s skin over his shoul- ders, took a club in his hand, and in that equipage approached the throne, upon which the king sat dispensing justice. The novelty of the sight having opened his way through the crowd, he was perceived by Alexander, who, surprised at his appear- ance, ordered him to approach, and asked who he was. He replied, “I am Dino- crates the Macedonian, an architect, who bring thoughts and designs to Alexander worthy his greatness.” The king gave him the hearing. He told him that he had formed a design of cutting mount Athos into the form of a man, that should hold a great city in his left hand, and in his right a cup to receive all the rivers which ran from that mountain, and to pour them into the sea. Alexander, relishing this gigantic design, asked him whether there were lands enough about this city to supply corn for its subsistence ? ‘And having been answered, that it would be necessary to bring that by sea, he told him that he applauded the boldness of the design, but could not approve the choice of the place he had pitched upon for the execution of it. He however retained him near his person, .adding, that he would employ his ability in other undertakings. Alexander accordingly, in the voyage he made into Egypt, having discovered a port there that was very well sheltered and of easy access, surrounded by a fertile country, and abounding with conveniences on ac- 72 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. count of its neighbourhood to the Nile, he commanded Dinocrates to build a city adjoining to it, which was called Alexan- | The architect's skill | dria after his name. and the prince’s magnificence vied with each other in embellishing it, and seemed to exceed themselves in order to render it one of the greatest and most superb cities of the world. It was enclosed within a vast extent of walls, and fortified with towers. It had a port, aqueducts, fountains, and canals of great beauty; an almost infinite | number of houses for the inhabitants, + squares, lofty edifices, public places for the celebration of games and shows; in a word, temples and palaces so spacious, and in so great a number, that they took up almost a third part of the whole city. I have observed elsewhere in what manner Alexandria became the centre of the com- merce of the east and west. A considerable structure, afterwards erected in the neighbourhood of this city, rendered it still more famous—I mean the light-house of the island of Pharos. Sea- ports were usually fortified with towers, as well for their defence, as to guide those who sailed in the night by the means of fires kindled upon them. These towers were at first of a very simple species; but Ptolo- meus Philadelphus caused one so great and magnificent to be erected in the island of Pharos, that some have ranked it amongst the wonders of the world: it cost eight hundred talents—that is to say, one million eight hundred thousand livres, The isle of Pharos was about seven | . . | stadia, or something more than a quarter | of a league, from the continent. promontory or rock against which the waves of the sea broke. It was upon this rock Ptolomzus Philadelphus built the tower of Pharos of white stone, of surprising magni- ficence, with several arched storeys not un- like the tower of Babylon, which had eight such storeys. He gave the direction of this work to a celebrated architect called Sostra- tus, who cut this inscription upon the tower : Sostratus of Cnidos, son of Dexiphanes, to It had a | the gods preservers, tn favour of those who go by sea. In the history of Philadelphus, the reader may see what has been said upon this inscription. An author, who lived about six hundred years ago, speaks of the tower of Pharos, as of an edifice subsisting in his time. The height of the tower according to him was three hundred cubits ; that is to say, four hundred and fifty feet, or an hundred and fifty yards. A manuscript scholiast upon Lucian, cited by Isaac Vossius, affirms, that for its size it might be compared with the pyramids of Egypt; that it was square ; that its sides were almost a stadium, near two hundred and eight yards; that its top might be descried an hundred miles, or about thirty or forty leagues. This tower soon took the name of the island, and was called Pharos, which name was afterwards given to other towers erected for the same use. The isle on which it was built became a peninsula in process of time. Queen Cleopatra joined it to the mainland by a mole, and a bridge from the mole to the island: a considerable work, in which Dexiphanes, a native of the isle of Cyprus, presided. She gave him, by way of reward, a considerable office in her court, and the direction of all the buildings she afterwards caused to be erected. We find, from more than one example, that expert architects were very much hon- oured and esteemed amongst the ancients. The inhabitants of Rhodes had settled a considerable pension upon Diognetus, one of their citizens, to reward him for the machines of war which he had made for them. It happened that a foreign archi- tect, who called himself Callias, had made ' a model in little, of a machine, capable, as he pretended, of lifting and removing any weight whatsoever, and thereby excelling all other machines. Diognetus, judging the thing absolutely impossible, was not ashamed to confess that it surpassed his skill. The pension of the latter was trans- ferred to Callias, as far the more expert artist. When Demetrius Poliorcetes was JHE VOYAGE OF CLEOPATRA. 75 preparing to make his terrible Helepolis approach the walls of Rhodes, which he besieged, the inhabitants called upon Callias to make use of his machine. He declared it to be too weak to remove so great a weight. The Rhodians then perceived the enormous fault they had committed, in treating a citizen to whom they had such great obligations with so much ingratitude. They beseeched Diognetus in the most earnest manner to assist his country, ex. posed to the utmost danger. He refused at first, and remained for some time in- But when he flexible to their entreaties. saw the priests, and the most noble chil- dren of the city, bathed in their tears, come to implore his aid, he complied at last, and could not withstand so moving a spectacle. The question was, to prevent the enemy’s approaching their formidable machine to the wall. He effected it without much difficulty, having laid the land under water, over which the Helepolis was to pass, which rendered it absolutely useless, and obliged Demetrius to raise the siege, by an accommodation with the Rhodians. Diognetus was loaded with honours, and double his former pension settled upon him. THE YoYAGE oF {LEOPATRA. “THE BARGE SHE SAT IN, LIKE A BURNISHED JurONE." P NTONY, after the de- feat of Brutus and Cassius in the battle of Philippi, having passed over into Asia, in order to establish the authority of the Triumvirate there, the kings, princes, and ambassadors of the East came thither in throngs to make their court to him. He was in- formed that the governors of Pheenicia, which was in the dependence of the king- dom of Egypt, had sent Cassius aid against Dolabella. He cited Cleopatra before him, to answer for the conduct of her governors, and sent one of his lieutenants to oblige her to come to him in Cilicia, whither he was going to assemble the States of that province. That step became very fatal to Antony in its effects, and occasioned his ruin. His love for Cleopatra having awakened passions in him till then con- cealed or asleep, inflamed them even to madness, and finally deadened and extin- guished the few sparks of honour and virtue he might perhaps still retain. Cleopatra, assured of her charms, by the proof she had already so successfully made 74 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEF of them upon Julius Cesar, was in hopes that she could also very easily captivate Antony, and the more because the former had known her only when she was very young, and had no experience of the world ; whereas she was going to appear before Antony at an age wherein women, with the bloom of their beauty, unite the whole force of wit to treat and conduct the greatest affairs. Cleopatra was at that time five-and-twenty years old. She pro- vided herself, therefore, with exceeding rich presents, great sums of money, and especially the most magnificent habits and ornaments ; and with still higher hopes in her attractions and the graces of her person, more powerful than dress or even gold, she began her voyage. Upon her way she received several let- ters from Antony, who was at Tarsus, and from his friends, pressing her to hasten her journey, but she only laughed at their instances, and used never the more dili- gence for them. After having crossed the sea of Pamphylia, she entered the Cydnus, and going up that river, landed at Tarsus. Never was more splendid or magnificent equipage seen than hers. The whole poop of her ship flamed with gold, the sails were purple, and the oars inlaid with silver. A pavilion of cloth of gold was raised upon the deck, under which appeared that queen, habited like Venus, and surrounded with the most beautiful virgins of her court, of whom some represented the Nereids, and others the Graces. Instead of trumpets were heard flutes, hautboys, harps, and other such instruments of music, warbling the softest airs, to which the oars kept time, and rendered the harmony more agreeable. Perfumes burnt on the deck, which spread their odours to a great distance upon the river, and on each side of its banks, covered with an infinitude of people, whom the novelty of the spectacle had drawn thither. As soon as her arrival was known, the whole people of Tarsus went out to meet her ; so that Antony, who at that time was giving audience, saw his tribunal abandoned by all the world, and not a single person with him but his lictors and domestics. A rumour was spread that it was the god- dess Venus, who came in masquerade to make Bacchus a visit for the good of Asia. She was no sooner landed than Antony sent to compliment and invite her to sup- per. But she answered his deputies that she should be very glad to regale him her- self, and that she would expect him in the tents she had caused to be got ready upon the banks of the river. He made no diffi- culty in going thither, and found the pre- parations of a magnificence not to be expressed. He admired particularly the beauty of the branches, which had been disposed with abundance of art, and were so luminous, that they made midnight seem an agreeable day. Antony invited her, in his turn, for the next day. But whatever efforts he had used to exceed her in his entertainment, he con- fessed himself overcome, as well in the splendour as disposition of the feast, and was the first to rally the parsimony and plainness of his own in comparison with the sumptuosity and elegance of Cleo- patra’s. The queen, finding nothing but what was gross in the pleasantries of Antony, and more expressive of the soldier than the courtier, repaid him in his own coin, but with so much wit and grace that he was not in the least offended at it. For the beauties and charms of her conver- sation, attended with all possible sweet- ness and gaiety, had attractions in them still more irresistible than her form and feature, and left such incentives in the heart, the very soul, as were not easily conceivable. She charmed whenever she but spoke, such music and harmony were in her utterance and the sound of her voice. Little or no mention was made of the complaints against Cleopatra, which were, besides, without foundation. She struck Antony so violently with her charms, and got so absolute an ascendant over him, that he could refuse her nothing. LZUXURY OF CLEOPATRA. 75 Great feasts were made every day. Some new banquet still out-did that which pre- ceded it, and she seemed to study to excel herself. Antony, in a feast which she made, was astonished at seeing the riches dis- played on all sides, and especially at the great number of gold cups enriched with jewels, and wrought by the most excellent workmen. She told him, with a disdainful air, that those were but trifles, and made him a present of them. The next day the banquet was still more superb. Antony, according to custom, had brought a good number of guests along with him, all officers of rank and distinction. She gave them all the vessels and plate of gold and silver used at the entertainment. Without doubt, in one of these feasts, happened what Pliny, and after him Macro- bius, relate. Cleopatra jested, according to custom, upon Antony’s table, as very in- differently served and inelegant. Piqued with the raillery, he asked her, with some warmth, what she thought would add to its magnificence ? Cleopatra answered coldly that she could expend more than a half- million of pounds upon one supper. He affirmed that she only boasted, that it was impossible, and that she could never bring it to bear. A wager was laid, and Plancus was to decide it. ' The next day they came to the banquet. The service was magni- ficent, but had nothing so very extraor- dinary in it. Antony calculated the ex- pense ; demanded of the queen the price of the several dishes, and with an air of raillery, as secure of victory, told her that they were still far from a million. Stay,” said the queen, “this is only a beginning. I shall try whether I can’t spend a million only upon myself.” A second table was brought, and, according to the order she had before given, nothing was set on it but a single cup of vinegar. Antony, sur- prised at such a preparation, could not imagine for what it was intended. Cleo- patra had at her ears two of the finest pearls that were ever seen, each of which was valued at a million of livres. One of these pearls she took off, threw it into the vinegar, and after having made it melt, swallowed it. She was preparing to do as much by the other. Plancus stopped her, and de- ciding the wager in her favour, declared Antony overcome. Plancus was much in the wrong to envy the queen the singular and peculiar glory of having devoured two millions in two cups. A young Greek, who went to Alexandria to study physic, upon the great noise those feasts made, had the curiosity to assure himself, with his own eyes, in regard to them. Having been admitted into An- tony’s kitchen, he saw, amongst other things, eight wild boars roasting whole at the same time ; upon which he expressed surprise at the great number of guests that he supposed were to be at this supper. One of the officers could not forbear laughing, and told him that they were not so many as he imagined, and that there could not be above ten in all, but that it was necessary everything should be served in a degree of perfection, which every moment ceases and spoils. For,” added he, “it often happens that Antony will order his supper, and a moment after for- bid it to be served, having entered into some conversation that diverts him. For that reason not one, but many suppers are provided, because it is hard to know at what time he will think fit to eat. Cleopatra, lest Antony should escape her, never lost sight of him, or quitted him day or night ; always employed in diverting and retaining him in her chains. She played with him at dice, hunted with him, and when he exercised his troops was always present. Her sole attention was to amuse him agreeably, and not to leave him time to conceive the least disgust. One day, when he was fishing with an angle, and caught nothing, he was very much displeased on that account, because the queen was of the party, and he was unwilling to seem to want address or good fortune in her presence. It therefore came into his thoughts to order fishermen to 76 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. dive secretly under water, and to fasten some of the large fishes to his hook, which they had taken before. That order was executed immediately, and Antony drew up his line several times with a great fish at the end of it. This artifice did not escape the fair Egyptian. She affected great admiration and surprise at Antony’s good fortune, but told her friends privately what had passed, and invited them to come the next day, and be spectators of a like pleasantry. They did not fail When they were all got into the fishing- boats, and Antony had thrown his line, she commanded one of her people to dive immediately into the water to prevent Antony’s divers, and to make fast a large salt fish, of those that came from the kingdom of Pontus, to his hook. When Antony perceived his line had its load, he drew it up. It is easy to imagine what a great laugh arose at the sight of that salt fish ; and Cleopatra said to him, Leave the line, good general, to us, the kings and queens of Pharos and Canopus, your busi- ness is to fish for cities, kingdoms, and princes. All this glory, however, came soon to i an end, for at the naval battle of Actium, | Antony was completely defeated by Octa- vius. His death and that of Cleopatra followed immediately. Invasion of ENGLAND BY THE SAxops. - 5 tell in this article x (following Hume generally in our early English his- tory) the story of how Britain be- came England. sea. : The Saxons had been for some time regarded as one of the most warlike tribes of the Teutonic race, and had become the terror of the neighbouring nations. They had dif- fused themselves from the northern parts of Germany and the Cimbrian Chersonesus, and had taken possession of all the sea-coast, from the mouth of the Rhine to Jutland; whence they had long infested by their piracies all the eastern and southern parts of Britain and the northern of Gaul. In order to oppose their inroads, the Romans Tue BEGINNINGS OF Pur Natron. had established an officer, whom they called “Count of the Saxon shore ;” and as the naval arts can flourish among a civilized people alone, they seem to have been more successful in repelling the Saxons than any of the other barbarians by whom they were invaded. The dissolution of the Roman power invited them to renew their inroads ; and it was an acceptable circumstance that the deputies of the Britons appeared among them, and prompted them to undertake an enterprise to which they were of themselves sufficiently inclined. Hengist and Horsa, two brothers, pos- sessed great credit among the Saxons, and were much celebrated both for their valour and nobility. They were reputed, as most of the Saxon princes, to be sprung from Woden, who was worshipped as a god among those nations, and they were said to be his great-grandsons—a circumstance which added much to their authority. We shall not attempt to trace any higher the LAST SIGHT OF OLD ENGLAND. FROM A PAINTING BY SIR JOHN GILBERT, INVASION OF BRITAIN. = origin of those princes and nations. It is evident what fruitless labour it must be to search in those barbarous and illiterate ages for the annals of a people, when their first leaders known in any true history were believed by them to be the fourth in descent from a fabulous deity, or from a man exalted by ignorance into that charac- ter. The dark industry of antiquaries, led by imaginary analogies of names, or by uncertain traditions, would in vain attempt v to pierce into that deep obscurity which covers the remote history of those nations. These two brothers, observing the other provinces of Germany to be occupied by a warlike and necessitous people, and the rich provinces of Gaul already conquered or overrun by other German tribes, found it easy to persuade their countrymen to embrace the sole enterprise which promised a favourable opportunity of displaying their valour and gratifying their avidity. They 41 Tl 21 Al JAE | jm | I ar ll i He : Sul mg] HT = SAXON SHIPS USED IN THE INVASION OF BRITAIN. 0 li il 1 A oil HE — i 7 I i ya i WY i rT i a I —— embarked their troops in three vessels, and, about the year 449 or 450, carried over 1,600 men, who landed in the Isle of Thanet, and immediately marched to the defence of the Britons against the northern invaders. The Scots and Picts were unable to resist the valour of these auxiliaries ; and the Britons, applauding their own wisdom in calling over the Saxons, hoped hence- forth to enjoy security under the powerful protection of that warlike people. But Hengist and Horsa, perceiving from their easy victory over the Scots and Picts, with what facility they might subdue the Britons themselves, who had not been able to resist those feeble invaders, were de- termined to conquer and fight for their own grandeur, not for the defence of their degenerate allies. They sent intelligence to Saxony of the fertility and riches of Britain ; and represented as certain the subjection of a people so long disused to arms, who, being now cut off from the Roman empire, of which they had been a province during so many ages, had not yet acquired any union among themselves, and F 78 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP were destitute of all affection to their new liberties, and of all national attachments and regards. The vices and pusillanimity of Vortigern, the British leader, were a new ground of hope; and the Saxons in Ger- many, following such agreeable prospects, soon reinforced Hengist and Horsa with 5,000 men, who came over in seventeen vessels. The Britons now began to enter- tain apprehensions of their allies, whose numbers they found continually augment- ing; but thought of no remedy, except a passive submission and connivance. This weak expedient soon failed them. The Saxons sought a quarrel, by complaining that their subsidies were ill-paid, and their provisions withdrawn, and immediately tak- ing off the mask, they formed an alliance with the Picts and Scots, and proceeded to open hostility againt the Britons. The Britons, impelled by these violent extremities, and roused to indignation against their treacherous auxiliaries, were necessitated to take arms; and having de- posed Vortigern, who had become odious from his vices, and from the bad event of his rash counsels, they put themselves under the command of his son Vortimer. They fought many battles with their enemies ; and though the victories in these actions be disputed between the British and Saxon annalists, the progress still made by the Saxons proves that the advantage was com- monly on their side. In one battle, how- ever, fought at Eglesford, now Ailsford, Horsa, the Saxon general, was slain, and left the sole command over his countrymen in the hands of Hengist. This active general, continually reinforced by fresh numbers from Germany, carried devastation into the most remote corners of Britain; and being chiefly anxious to spread the terror of his arms, he spared neither age nor sex nor condition, wherever he marched with his victorious forces. The private and public edifices of the Britons were re- duced to ashes. The priests were slaugh- tered on the altars by those idolatrous ravagers. The bishops and nobility shared the fate of the vulgar. The people flying to the mountains and deserts, were inter- cepted and butchered in heaps. Some were glad to accept’ of life and servitude under their victors. Others, deserting their native country, took shelter in the province of Armorica; where, being charitably re- ceived by a people of the same language and manners, they settled in great numbers, and gave the country the name of Brittany. The British writers assign one cause which facilitated the entrance of the Saxons into this island ; the love with which Vortigern was at first seized for Rowena, the daughter of Hengist, and which that artful warrior made use of to blind the eyes of the impru- dent monarch. The same historians add, that Vortimer died; and that Vortigern, being restored to the throne, accepted of a banquet from Hengist, at Stonehenge, where 300 of his nobility were treacherously slaughtered, and himself detained captive. But these stories seem to have been in- vented by the Welsh authors, in order to palliate the weak resistance made at first by their countrymen, and to account for the rapid progress and licentious devasta- tions of the Saxons. After the death of Vortimer, Ambrosius, a Briton, though of Roman descent, was invested with the command over his coun- trymen, and endeavoured, not without success, to unite them in their resistance against the Saxons. Those contests in- creased the animosity between the two nations, and roused the military spirit of the ancient inhabitants, which had before been sunk into a fatal lethargy. Hengist, how- ever, notwithstanding their opposition, still maintained his ground in Britain ; and in order to divide the forces and attention of the natives, he called over a new tribe of Saxons, under the command of his brother Octa, and of Ebissa, the son of Octa; and he settled them in Northumberland. He himself remained in the southern parts of the island, and laid the foundation of the kingdom of Kent, comprehending the county of that name, Middlesex, Essex, and PROGRESS OF THE INVADERS. 79 _ part of Surrey. He fixed his royal seat at Canterbury, where he governed about forty years; and he died in or near the year 488, leaving his newly-acquired dominions to his posterity. The success of Hengist excited the avidity of the other northern Germans; and at different times, and under different leaders, they flocked over in multitudes to the inva- sion of this island. These conquerors were chiefly composed of three tribes—Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, who all passed under the common appellation, sometimes of Saxons, sometimes of Angles; and speak- ing the same language, and being governed by the same institutions, they were naturally led from these causes, as well as from their common interest, to unite themselves against the ancient inhabitants. The re- sistance however, though unequal, was still maintained by the Britons, but became every day more feeble ; and their calamities admitted of few intervals, till they were driven into Cornwall and Wales, and pro- tected by the remote situation or inaccessi- ble mountains of those countries. The first Saxon State, after that of Kent, which was established .in Britain, was the kingdom of South Saxony. In the year 477, &Alla, a Saxon chief, brought over an army from Germany, and, landing on the southern coast, proceeded to take possession of the neighbouring territory. The Britons, now armed, did not tamely abandon their possessions ; nor were they expelled, till defeated in many battles by their warlike invaders. The most memorable action, mentioned by historians, is that of Mear- credes Burn; where, though the Saxons seem to have obtained the victory, they suffered so considerable a loss as somewhat retarded the progress of their conquests. But Alla, reinforced by fresh numbers of his countrymen, again took the field against the Britons, and laid siege to Andred- Ceaster, which was defended by the garri- son and inhabitants with desperate valour. The Saxons, enraged by this resistance, and by the fatigues and dangers which they had sustained, redoubled their efforts against the place, and when masters of it, put all their enemies to the sword without distinc- tion. This decisive advantage secured the conquests of Alla, who assumed the name of king, and extended his dominion over Sussex and a great part of Surrey. He was stopped in his progress to the east by the kingdom of Kent; in that to the west by another tribe of Saxons, who had settled there. It was in this manner that the fore- fathers of the English nation came to the island which they came to possess as their own ; such were the beginnings from which the future sea lords of the world sprung. We can note their courage and daring, even in this early state of their progress towards what was ultimately to be a world-wide dominion. 80 ZHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP THE FOUNDER oF THE MARITIME ‘GREATNESS OF ENGLAND. Mis Navar Fxproits. — fis STRUGGLE WITH A QO yg wn @ So NE 22 V NE of the chief titles ) which Alfred the ES Great has to the admiration of pos- 0) Hs terity, is the fact 2 that he is the real a founder of the sea Jo greatness of England. Here is the account of some of his naval exploits in the struggle y with the Danes. The king, after rebuilding the ruined cities, particularly London, which had been destroyed by the Danes in the reign of Ethelwolf, established a regular militia for the defence of the king- dom. He ordained that all his people should be armed and registered; he as- signed them a regular rotation of duty; he distributed part into the castles and fortresses, which he built at proper places ; he required another part to take the field on any alarm, and to assemble at stated places of rendezvous; and he left a suffi- cient number at home, who were employed in the cultivation of the land, and who afterwards took their turn in military ser- vice. The whole kingdom was like one great garrison; and the Danes could no sooner appear in one place, than a suffi- cient number was assembled to oppose them, without leaving the other quarters defenceless or disarmed. But Alfred, sensible that the proper method of opposing an enemy who made incursions by sea, was to meet them on their own element, took care to provide himself with a naval force, which, though the most natural defence of an island, had hitherto been totally neglected by the English. He increased the shipping of THE Panes. his kingdom both in number and strength, and trained his subjects in the practice, as well of sailing as of naval action. He distributed his armed vessels in proper stations round the island, and was sure to meet the Danish ships either before or after they had landed their troops, and to pursue them in all their incursions. Though the Danes might suddenly by surprise disembark on the coast, which was generally become desolate by their frequent ravages, they were encountered by the English fleet in their retreat, and escaped not, as formerly, by abandoning their booty, but paid by their total destruc- tion the penalty of the disorders which they had committed. In this manner Alfred repelled several inroads of these piratical Danes, and main- tained his kingdom during some years, in safety and tranquillity. A fleet of a hun- dred and twenty ships of war was stationed upon the coast; and being provided with warlike engines, as well as with expert sea- men, both Frisians and English (for Alfred supplied the defects of his own subjects by engaging able foreigners in his service), maintained a superiority over those smaller bands with which England had so often been infested. But at last Hastings, the famous Danish chief, having (A.D. 893) ravished all the provinces of France, both along the sea-coast and the Loire and Seine, and being obliged to quit that country, more by the desolation which he himself had occasioned than by the resist- ance of the inhabitants, appeared off the coast of Kent with a fleet of 330 sail ! The greater part of the enemy disem- barked in the Rother, and seized the fort of Apuldore. Hastings himself, command- ALFRED AND ZAE DANES. 81 ing a fleet of eighty sail, entered the Thames, and fortifying Milton, in Kent, began to spread his forces over the coun- try and to commit the most destructive ravages. But Alfred, on the first alarm of this descent, flew to the defence of his people at the head of a select band of soldiers, whom he always kept about his person, and gathering to him the armed militia from all quarters, appeared in the field with a force superior to the enemy. All straggling parties, whom necessity or love of plunder had drawn to a distance from their chief encampment, were cut off by the English; and these pirates, instead of increasing their spoil, found themselves cooped up in their fortifications, and obliged to subsist by the plunder which they had brought from France. Tired of this situa- tion, which must in the end prove ruinous to them, the Danes at Apuldore rose sud- denly from their encampment, with an intention of marching towards the Thames, and passing over into Essex. But they DANISH WAR SHIP. | An LHR TR AE RN ww escaped not the vigilance of Alfred, who encountered them at Farnham, put them to rout, seized all their horses and baggage, and chased the runaways on board their ships, which carried them up the Colne to Mersey, in Essex, where they entrenched themselves. and probably by concert, made a like move- ment; and deserting Milton, took posses: sion of Bamflete, near the Isle of Canvey, in the same county, where he hastily threw up fortifications for his defence against the power of Alfred. Hastings at the same time, Unfortunately for the English, Guthrum, prince of the East Anglian Danes, was now dead ; as was also Guthred, whom the king had appointed governor of the Northum- brians ; and those restless tribes, being no longer restrained by the authority of their princes, and being encouraged by the ap- pearance of so great a body of their countrymen, broke into rebellion, shook off the authority of Alfred, and yielding to their inveterate habits of war and depreda- tion, embarked on board two hundred and forty vessels, and appeared before Exeter, 82 THE WONDERS OF ZTHE DEEP. in the West of England. Alfred lost not a moment in opposing this new enemy. Hav- ing left some forces at London to make head against Hastings and the other Danes, he marched suddenly to the West, and fall- ing on the rebels before they were aware, pursued them to their ships with great slaughter. These ravagers, sailing next to Sussex, began to plunder the country near Chichester ; but the order which Alfred had everywhere established sufficed here, without his presence, for the defence of the place; and the rebels meeting with a new repulse, in which many of them were killed and some of their ships taken, were obliged to put again to sea, and were discouraged from attempting any other enterprise. Meanwhile, the Danish invaders in Essex having united their force under the com- mand of Hastings, advanced into the inland country, and made spoil of all around them; but soon had reason to repent of their teme- rity. The English army left in London, assisted by a body of the citizens, attacked the enemy’s entrenchments at Bamflete, overpowered the garrison, and having done great execution upon them, carried off the wife and two sons of Hastings. Alfred generously spared these captives, and even restored them to Hastings, on condition that he should depart the kingdom. But though the king had thus honourably rid himself of this dangerous enemy, he had not entirely subdued or expelled the in- vaders. The piratical Danes willingly followed in an incursion any prosperous leader who gave them hopes of booty ; but were not so easily induced to relin- | quish their enterprise or submit to return, baffled and without plunder, into their native country. Great numbers of them after the departure of Hastings, seized and fortified Shoebury, at the mouth of the Thames ; and having left a garrison there, they marched along the river till they came to Boddington, in the county of Gloucester; where, being reinforced by some Welsh, they threw up entrenchments and prepared for their defence. The king here sur- rounded them with the whole force of his dominions ; and as he had now a certain prospect of victory, he resolved to trust nothing to chance, but rather to master his enemies by famine than assault. They were reduced to such extremities, that having eaten their own horses, and having many of them perished with hunger, they made a desperate sally upon the English ; and though the greater number fell in the action, a considerable body made their es- cape. These roved about for some time in England, still pursued by the vigilance of Alfred; they attacked Leicester with success, defended themselves in Hertford, and then fled into Watford, where they were finally broken and subdued. The small remains of them either dispersed themselves among their countrymen in Northumberland and East Anglia, or had recourse again to the sea, where they exer- cised piracy, under the command of Sige- fert, a Northumbrian. This freebooter, well acquainted with Alfred’s naval prepa- rations, had framed vessels of a new con- struction, higher, and longer, and swifter than those of the English; but the king soon discovered his superior skill by build- ing vessels still higher, and longer, and swifter than those of the Northumbrians; and falling upon them, while they were exercising their ravages in the West, he took twenty of their ships; and having tried all the prisoners at Winchester, he hanged them as pirates, the common ene- mies of mankind. The well-timed severity of this execution, together with the excellent posture of de- fence established everywhere, restored full tranquillity in England, and provided for the future security of the government. The East Anglian and Northumbrian Danes, on the first appearance of Alfred upon their frontiers, made anew the most hum- ble submissions to him; and he thought it prudent to take them under his immediate government, without establishing over them a viceroy of their own nation. The Welsh CHARACTER OF ALFRED. 83 also acknowledged his authority ; and this great prince had now, by prudence, and justice, and valour, established his sove- reignty over all the southern parts of the island, from the English Channel to the frontiers of Scotland ; when (A.D. gor) he died in the vigour of his age and the full strength of his faculties, after a glorious reign of twenty-nine years and a half, in which he deservedly attained the appellation of Alfred the Great, and the title of Founder of the English Monarchy. The merits of this prince, both in private and public life, may with advantage be set in opposition to that of any monarch or citizen which the annals of any age or any nation can present to us. He seems in- deed to be the model of that perfect character, which, under the denomination of a sage, or wise man, philosophers have been fond of delineating, rather as a fiction of their imagination than in hopes of ever seeing it really existing: so happily were all his virtues tempered together, so justly were they blended, and so powerfully did each prevent the other from exceeding its proper boundaries! He knew how to reconcile the most enterprising spirit with the coolest moderation, and the most obstinate perseverance with the earliest flexibility ; the most severe justice with the gentlest lenity ; the greatest vigour in commanding with the most perfect affa- bility of deportment ; the highest capacity and inclination for science, with the most shining talents for action. His civil and his military virtues are almost equally the objects of our admiration ; excepting only that the former, being more rare among princes, as well as more useful, seem chiefly to challenge our applause. Nature also, as if desirous that so bright a production of her skill should be set in the fairest light, had bestowed on him every bodily accom- plishment, vigour of limb, dignity of shape and air, with a pleasing, engaging, and open countenance. Fortune alone, by throwing him into that barbarous age, deprived him of historians worthy to trans- mit his fame to posterity ; and we wish to see him delineated in more lively colours, and with more particular strokes, that we may at least perceive some of those small specks and blemishes, from which, as a man, it is impossible he could be entirely exempted ; but it scarcely seems indeed that he pessessed such, so noble was his character, even seen through the dim mist of centuries, so great his courage, so admi- rable and perfect his possession of every virtue that he stands out in singular pre- eminence above all other monarchs. i Alvi 84 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. Sea Pictures prom Engrise History. NavaL ExpLoITS AND JADVENTURES OF OUR ffOUNTRYMEN. scattered sea-pic- tures from English history. The first tells of the loss of the White Ship, by which Prince William, only son of Henry I., was killed. This prince had now reached his eighteenth x year ; and the king, from the facility with which he himself had usurped the crown, dreading that a like revolution might subvert his family, had taken care to have him recognised successor by the states of the kingdom, and had carried him over to Normandy, that he might receive the homage of the barons of that duchy. The king on his return set sail from Barfleur, and was soon carried by a fair wind out of sight of land. The prince was detained by some accident ; and his sailors, as well as their captain, Thomas Fitz-Stephens, having spent the interval in drinking, were so flustered that, being in a hurry to follow the king, they heedlessly carried the ship on a rock, where she immediately foundered. William was put into the long boat and had got clear of the ship, when, hearing the cries of his natural sister, the Countess of Perche, he ordered the seamen to row back in hopes of saving her; but the numbers who then crowded in soon sunk the boat, and the prince with all his retinue perished. Above a hundred and forty young noble- men, of the principal families of England and Normandy, were lost on this occasion. A butcher of Rouen was the only person on board who escaped; he clung to the mast, and was taken up next morning by fishermen. Fitz-Stephens also took hold of the mast; but being informed by the butcher that Prince William had perished, he said that he would not survive the disaster, and he threw himself headlong into the sea. Henry entertained hopes for three days that his son had put into some distant port of England ; but when certain intelligence of the calamity was brought him, he fainted away; and it was remarked that he never after was seen to smile, nor ever recovered his wonted cheer- fulness. The death of William may be regarded, in one respect, as a misfortune to the Eng- lish ; because it was the immediate source of those civil wars which, after the demise of the king, caused such confusion in the kingdom. But it is remarkable that the young prince had entertained a violent aversion to the natives; and had been heard to threaten that, when he should be king, he would make them draw the plough, and would turn them into beasts of burden. These prepossessions he in- herited from his father, who, though he was wont, when it might serve his purpose, to value himself on his birth as a native of England, showed, in the course of his government, an extreme prejudice against that people. All hopes of preferment, to ecclesiastical as well as civil dignities, were denied them during this whole reign ; and any foreigner, however ignorant or worth- less, was sure to have the preference in every competition. As the English had given no disturbance to the government during the course of fifty years, this in- veterate antipathy in a prince of so much THE FIGHT AT SLUISE. 85 temper as well as penetration forms a pre- sumption that the English of that age were still a rude and barbarous people even compared to the Normans, and impresses us with no very favourable idea of the Anglo-Saxon manners. Our next picture depicts the naval fight of Sluys, or Sluise, in the reign of Edward 111, in the year 1340. This fight may properly be taken as the beginning of the great contest known as the Hundred Years’ War between France and England. Edward had many difficulties with which to contend at first; but he was a prince of too much spirit to be discouraged by the first difficulties of an undertaking, and he was anxious to retrieve his honour, which former losses had tarnished. For this purpose he had sent orders to sum- mon a parliament by his son Edward, whom he had left with the tiile’ of Guardian, and to demand some supply in his urgent necessities. The barons seemed inclined to grant his request; but the knights, who often, at this time, acted as a separate body from the burgesses, made EMBARKATION OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE AT HELVOETSLUYS. some scruple of taxing the constituents without their consent; and they desired the guardian to summon a new parliament, which might be properly empowered for that purpose. The situation of the king and parliament was, for the time, nearly similar to that which they constantly fell into about the beginning of the last cen- tury, and similar consequences began visibly to appear. The king, sensible of the frequent demands which he should be obliged to make on his people, had been anxious to ensure to his friends a seat in the House of Commons, and at his instiga- tion the sheriffs and other placemen had made interest to be elected into that assembly, an abuse which the knights de- sired the king to correct by the tenor of his writ of summons, and which was accordingly remedied. On the other hand, the knights had professedly annexed con- ditions to their intended grant, and required a considerable retrenchment of the royal prerogatives, particularly with regard to purveyance, and the levying of the ancient feudal aids for knighting the king's eldest 86 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. son, and marrying his eldest daughter. The new parliament, called by the guardian, retained the same free spirit; and, though they offered a large supply of 30,000 sacks of wool, no business was concluded ; be- cause the conditions which they annexed appeared too high to be compensated by a temporary concession. But when Edward himself came over to England, he sum- moned another parliament, and he had the interest to procure a supply on more moderate terms. A confirmation of the two charters, and of the privileges of boroughs, a pardon for old debts and trespasses, and a remedy for some abuses in the execution of common law, were the chief conditions insisted on ; and the king, in return for his concessions on these heads, obtained from the barons and knights an unusual grant, for two years, of the ninth sheaf, lamb, and fleece on their estates, and from the burgesses a ninth of their movables at their true value. The whole parliament also granted a duty of forty shillings on each sack of wool exported, on each three hundred wool-fells, and on each last of leather, for the same term of years ; but dreading the arbitrary spirit of the crown, they expressly declared that this grant was to continue no longer, and was not to be drawn into precedent. Being soon after sensible that this supply, though considerable and very unusual in that age, would come in slowly and would not answer the king’s urgent necessities, proceeding both from his debts and his preparations for war, they agreed that twenty thousand sacks of wool should immediately be granted him, and their value be deducted from the ninths which were afterwards to be levied. But there appeared at this time another jealousy in the parliament, which was very reasonable, and was founded on a senti- ment that ought to have engaged them rather to check than support the king in all those ambitious projects so little likely to prove successful, and so dangerous to the nation if they did. Edward, who, be- fore the commencement of the former campaign, had, in several commissions, assumed the title of King of France, now more openly in all public deeds, gave himself that appellation, and always quar- tered the arms of France with those of England in his seals and ensigns. The parliament thought proper to obviate the consequences of this measure, and to de- clare that they owed him no obedience as King of France, and that the two kingdoms must for ever remain distinct and inde- pendent (14 Edward IIL). They un- doubtedly foresaw that France, if subdued, would in the end prove the seat of govern- ment, and they deemed this previous protestation necessary, in order to prevent their becoming a province to that monarchy. A frail security after the event had really taken place! As Philip was apprised from the prepara- tions which were making both in England and the Low Countries, that he must ex- pect another invasion from Edward, he fitted out a great fleet of goo vessels manned with 40,000 men, and he stationed them off Sluise, with a view of intercepting the king in his passage. The English navy was much inferior in number, consisting only of 240 sail ; but whether it were by the superior abilities of Edward or the greater dexterity of his seamen, they gained the wind of the enemy and had the sun in their backs, and with these advantages began (A.D. 1340, June 13th) the action. The battle was fierce and bloody; the English archers, whose force and address were now much celebrated, galled the French on their approach ; and when the ships grappled together, and the contest became more steady and furious, the example of the king, and of so many gallant nobles who accompanied him, animated to such a degree the seamen and soldiery, that they maintained every- where a superiority over the enemy. The French also had been guilty of some im- prudence in taking their station so near the coast of Flanders, and choosing that THE NETHERLANDS AND THE SEA. 87 place for the scene of action. The Flem- ings, descrying the battle, hurried out of their harbours and brought a reinforcement to the English, which, coming unexpectedly, had a greater effect than mn proportion to its power and numbers.. Two hundred and thirty French ships were taken; 30,000 Frenchmen were killed, with two of their admirals ; the loss of the English was in- considerable compared to the greatness and importance of the victory. None of Philip’s courtiers, it is said, dared to inform him of the event, till his fool or jester gave him a hint, by which he discovered the loss that he had sustained. Another sea-picture from English history is represented by the illustration with which we accompany this article. It is the em- barkation of the Prince of Orange, after- wards William III, at Helvoetsluys, on his expedition to England, which expedi- tion resulted in the revolution of 1688. (;, HE Netherlands G77 he { J form a kingdom AN of moderate ex- WA tent, situated on Th the borders of the el ocean, opposite By , Opp eT to the south-east He coast of England, and stretching { I from the frontiers of France to \ those of Hanover. The country 5, is principally composed of low ' and humid grounds, presenting a vast plain, irrigated by the waters from all those neighbouring states which are traversed by the Rhine, the Meuse, and A founTRY WON FROM THE PEA. the Scheldt. This plain, gradually rising towards its eastern and southern extremities, blends on the one hand with Prussia, and on the other with France. Having, there- fore, no natural or strongly marked limits on those sides, the extent of the kingdom could only be determined by convention ; and it must be at all times subject to the arbitrary and varying influence of European policy. Its greatest length, from north to south, is about 220 English miles; and its breadth, from east to west, is nearly 140. Two distinct kinds of men inhabit this kingdom ; the one occupying the valleys of the Meuse and the Scheldt, and the high 88 ZHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. grounds bordering on France, speak a dialect of the language of that country, and evidently belong to the Gallic race. They are called Walloons, and are distin- guished from the others by many peculiar qualities. Their most prominent character- istic is a propensity for war, and their principal source of subsistence the working of their mines. They form nearly one fourth of the population of the whole kingdom, or about 1,300,000 persons. All the rest of the nation speak Low German, in its modifications of Dutch and Flemish ; and they offer the distinctive characteristics of the Saxon race,—talents for agriculture, navigation, and commerce ; perseverance rather than vivacity; and more courage than taste for the profession of arms. They are subdivided into Flemings,—those who were the last to submit to the house of Austria ; and Dutch,—those who formed the republic of the United Provinces. But there 1s no difference between these two subdivisions, except such as has been pro- duced by political and religious institutions. The physical aspect of the people is the same; and the soil, equally low and moist, is at once fertilized and menaced by the waters. The history of this last-mentioned portion of the nation is completely linked to that of the soil which they occupy. In remote times, when the inhabitants of this plain were few and uncivilized, the country formed but one immense morass, of which the chief part was incessantly inundated and made sterile by the waters of the sea. Pliny the naturalist, who visited the northern coasts, has left us a picture of their state in his days. “There,” says he, “the ocean pours in its flood twice every day, and produces a perpetual uncertainty whether the country may be considered as a part of the continent or of the sea. The wretched inhabitants take refuge on the sand-hills, or in little huts, which they construct on the summits of lofty stakes, whose elevation is conformable to that of the highest tides. When the sea rises, they appear like navi- gators; when it retires, they seem as though they had been shipwrecked. They subsist on the fish left by the refluent waters, and which they catch in nets formed of rushes or sea-weed. Neither tree nor shrub is visible on these shores. The drink of the people is rain water, which they preserve with great care; their fuel, a sort of turf, which they gather and form with the hand. And yet these unfortunate beings dare to complain against their fate, when they fall under the power and are incorporated with the empire of Rome !” The picture of poverty and suffering which this passage presents is heightened when joined to a description of the country. The coasts consisted only of sand-banks or slime, alternately overflowed or left im- perfectly dry. A little farther inland trees were to be found, but on a soil so marshy that an inundation or a tempest threw down whole forests, such as are still at times discovered at eight or ten feet depth below the surface. The sea had no limits ; the rivers no beds nor banks; the earth no solidity—for, according to an author of the third century of our era, there was not, in the whole of the immense plain, a spot of ground that did not yield under the foot- steps of man. It was not the same in the southern parts, which form at present the Walloon country. These high grounds suffered much less from the ravages of the waters. The ancient forest of the Ardennes, extend- ing from the Rhine to the Scheldt, sheltered a numerous though savage population, which in all things resembled the Germans, from whom they derived their descent. The chase and the occupations of rude agriculture sufficed for the wants of a race less poor and less patient, but more - unsteady and ambitious than the fishermen of the low lands. Thus it is that history presents us with a tribe of warriors and conquerors on the southern frontier of the country; while the scattered inhabit- ants of the remaining parts seemed to have fixed there without a contest, and to THE NETHERLANDS AND THE SEA. 89 have traced out for themselves, by necessity and habit, an existence which any other people must have considered insupportable. This difference in the nature of the soil and in the fate of the inhabitants appears more striking when we consider the present situation of the country. The high grounds, formerly so preferable, are now the least valuable part of the kingdom, even as regards their agriculture ; while the ancient marshes have been changed by human industry into rich and fertile tracts, the best parts of which are precisely those con- quered from the grasp of the ocean. In order to form an idea of the solitude and desolation which once reigned where we now see the most richly cultivated fields, the most thriving villages, and the wealthiest towns of the Continent, the imagination must go back to times which have not left one monument of antiquity and scarcely a vestige of fact. ENGLISH SHIPS OF WAR OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. The history of the Netherlands is, then, essentially that of a patient and industrious population struggling against every obstacle which nature could oppose to its well-being ; and, in this contest, man triumphed most completely over the elements in those places where they offered the greatest resistance. This extraordinary result was due to the hardy stamp of character im- printed by suffering and danger on those who had the ocean for their foe; to the nature of their country, which presented no lure for contest ; and, finally, to the tolera- tion, the justice, and the liberty nourished among men left to themselves, and who found resources in their social state which rendered change neither an object of their wants nor wishes. About half a century before the Christian era, the obscurity which enveloped the North of Europe began to disperse; and the expedition of Julius Cesar gave to the 90 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. civilized world the first notions of the Netherlands, Germany, and England. Cmxsar, after having subjugated the chief part of Gaul, turned his arms against the warlike tribes of the Ardennes, who refused to accept his alliance or implore his pro- tection. They were called Belge by the Romans; and at once pronounced the least civilized and the bravest of the Gauls. Caesar there found several ignorant and poor but intrepid clans of warriors, who marched fiercely to encounter him; and, notwithstanding their inferiority in numbers, in weapons, and in tactics, they nearly destroyed the disciplined armies of Rome. They were, however, defeated, and their country ravaged by the invaders, who found less success when they attacked the natives of the low grounds. The Menapians, a people who occupied the present provinces of Flanders and Antwerp, though less numerous than those whom the Romans had last vanquished, arrested their progress both by open fight and by that petty and harassing contest,—that warfare of the people rather than of the soldiery, so well adapted to the nature of the country. The Roman legions retreated for the first time, and were obliged to content themselves by occupying the higher parts, which now form the Walloon provinces. But the policy of Caesar made greater progress than his arms. He had defeated rather than subdued those who had dared the contest. He consolidated his victories without new battles; he offered peace to his enemies, in proposing to them alliance; and he required their aid, as friends, to carry on new wars in other lands. He thus attracted towards him, and ranged under his banners, not only those people situated to the west of the Rhine and the Meuse, but several other nations more to the north, whose territory he had never seen; and particularly the Batavians—a valiant tribe, stated by various ancient authors, and par- ticularly by Tacitus, to be a fraction of the Catti, who occupied the space comprised between these rivers. The young men of these warlike people, dazzled by the splen- dour of the Roman armies, felt proud and happy in being allowed to identify them- selves with them. Cesar encouraged this disposition, and even went so far on some occasions as to deprive the Roman cavalry of their horses, on which he mounted those new allies, who managed them better than their Italian riders. He had no reason to repent these measures: almost all his sub- sequent victories, and particularly that of Pharsalia, being decided by the valour of the auxiliaries he obtained from the Low Countries. : These auxiliaries were chiefly drawn from Hainault, Luxembourg, and the country of the Batavians; and they formed the best cavalry of the Roman armies, as well as their choicest light infantry force. The Batavians; also signalized themselves on many occasions, by the skill with which they swam across several great rivers with- out breaking their squadrons’ ranks. They were amply rewarded for their military services and hazardous exploits, and were treated like stanch and valuable allies. But this unequal connection of a mighty empire with a few petty states must have been fatal to the liberty of the weaker party. Its first effect was to destroy all feeling of nationality in a great portion of the popula- tion. The young adventurer of this part of the Low Countries, after twenty years of service under the imperial eagles, returned to his native wilds a Roman. The generals of the empire pierced the forests of the Ardennes with causeways, and founded towns in the heart of the country. The result of such innovations was a total amalgamation of the Romans and their new allies ; and little by little the national character of the latter became entirely obliterated. But to trace now the precise history of this gradual change would be as impossible as it will be one day to follow the progress of civilization in the woods of North America. But it must be remarked that this meta- morphosis affected only the inhabitants of THE NETHERLANDS AND THE SEA. oI the high grounds, and the Batavians (who were In their origin Germans) properly so called. The scanty population of the rest of the country, endowed with that fidelity to their ancient customs which characterizes the Saxon race, showed no tendency to mix with foreigners, rarely figured in their ranks, and seemed to revolt from the southern refinement which was so little in harmony with their manners and ways of life. It is astonishing, at the first view, that those beings, whose whole existence was a contest against famine or the waves, should show less repugnance than their happier neighbours to receive from Rome an abundant recompense for their services. But, the greater their difficuty to find sub- sistence in their native land, the stronger seemed their attachment ; like that of the Switzer to his barren rocks, or of the mari- ner to the frail and hazardous home that bears him afloat on the ocean. This race of patriots was divided into two separate people. Those to the north of the Rhine were the Frisons ; those to the west of the Meuse, the Menapians, already mentioned. The Frisons differed little from those early inhabitants of the coast, who, perched on their high-built huts, fed on fish, and drank the water of the clouds. Slow and successive improvements taught them to cultivate the beans which grew wild among the marshes, and to tend and feed a small and degenerate breed of horned cattle. But if these first steps towards civilization were slow, they were also sure; and they were made by a race of men who could never retrograde in a career once begun. The Menapians, equally repugnant to foreign impressions, made, on their parts, a more rapid progress. They were already a maritime people, and carried on a consider- able commerce with England. It appears that they exported thither salt, the art of manufacturing which was well known to them; and they brought back in return marl, a most important commodity for the Improvement of their land. They also understood the preparation of salting meat, with a perfection that made it in high re- pute even in Italy; and, finally, we are told by Ptolemy that they had established a colony on the eastern coast of Ireland, not far from Dublin. The two classes of what forms at present the population of the Netherlands thus followed careers widely different during the long period of the Roman power in these parts of Europe. While those of the high- lands and the Batavians distinguished themselves by a long-continued course of military service or servitude, those of the plains improved by degrees their social condition, and fitted themselves for a place in civilized Europe. The former received from Rome great marks of favour in exchange for their freedom. The latter, rejecting the honours and distinctions lavished on their neighbours, secured their national independence, by trusting to their industry alone for all the advantages they gradually acquired. Were the means of protecting themselves and their country from the inundations of the sea known and practised by these ancient inhabitants of the coast? or did they occupy only those elevated points of land which stood out like islands in the middle of the floods? These questions are amongst the most important presented by their history : since it was the victorious struggle of man against the ocean that fixed the extent and form of the country. It appears almost certain, that in the time of Caesar they did not labour at the construc- tion of dikes, but that they began to be raised during the obscurity of the following century ; for the remains of ancient towns are even now discovered in places at pre- sent overflowed by the sea. These ruins often bring to light traces of Roman con- struction, and Latin inscriptions in honour of the Menapian divinities. It is, then, certain that they had learned to imitate those who ruled in the neighbouring coun- tries : a result by no means surprising ; for even England, the mart of their commerce, and the nation with which they had the 02 THE WONDERS most constant intercourse, was at that period occupied by the Romans. But the nature of their country repulsed so effec- tually every attempt at foreign domination, that the conquerors of the world left them unmolested, and established arsenals and formed communications with Great Britain only at Boulogne and in the island of the Batavians near Leyden. This isolation formed in itself a powerful and perfect barrier between the inhabitants of the plain and those of the high grounds. The first held firm to their primitive cus- toms and their ancient language: the second finished by speaking Latin, and borrowing all the manners and usages of Italy. The moral effect of this contrast was, that the people, once so famous for their bravery, lost, with their liberty, their energy and their courage. One of the Batavian chieftains, named Civilis, formed an exception to this degeneracy, and, about the year 70 of our era, bravely took up arms for the expulsion of the Romans. He effected prodigies of valour and perseve- rance, and boldly met and defeated the enemy both by land and sea. Reverses followed his first success, and he finally concluded an honourable treaty, by which his countrymen once more became the allies of Rome. But after this expiring effort of valour, the Batavians, even though chosen from all nations for the body-guards of the Roman emperors, became rapidly degenerate; and when Tacitus wrote, ninety years after Christ, they were already looked on as less brave than the Frisons and the other people beyond the Rhine. A century and a half later saw them con- founded with the Gauls ; and the barbarian conquerors said, that ‘they were not a nation, but merely a prey.” Reduced into a Roman province, the southern portion of the Netherlands was at this period called Belgic Gaul; and the name of Belgium, preserved to our days, has until lately been applied to distinguish OF THE DEEP that part of the country situated to the south of the Rhine and the Meuse, or nearly that which formed the Austrian Netherlands. During the establishment of the Roman power in the North of Europe, observation was not much excited towards the rapid effects of this degeneracy, compared with the fast-growing vigour of the people of the lowlands. The fact of the Frisons having, on one occasion, near the year 47 of our era, beaten a whole army of Romans, had confirmed their character for intrepidity. But the long stagnation produced in these remote countries by the colossal weight of the empire, was broken, about the year 230, by an irruption of Germans or Salian Franks, who, passing the Rhine and the Meuse, established themselves in the vici- nity of the Menapians, near Antwerp, Breda, and Bois-le-duc. All the nations that had been subjugated by the Roman power ap- pear to have taken arms on this occasion and opposed the intruders. But the Me- napians united themselves with these new- comers, and aided them to meet the shock of the imperial armies. Carausius, origin- ally a Menapian pilot, but promoted to the command of a Roman fleet, made common cause with his fellow-citizens, and pro- claimed himself Emperor of Great Britain, where the naval superiority of the Mena- pians left him no fear of a competitor. In recompense of the assistance given him by the Franks, he crossed the sea again from his new empire, to aid them in their war with the Batavians, the allies of Rome; and having seized on their island, and mas- sacred nearly the whole of its inhabitants, he there established his faithful friends the Salians. Constantius and his son Constan- tine the Great vainly strove, even after the death of the brave Carausius, to regain pos- session of the country; but they were forced to leave the new inhabitants in quiet possession of their conquest, which they now peaceably enjoyed. AN OLD-TIME VOYAGER. 93 Marco Poro—WonDRous SEA STORIES OF AN OLD-TIME VOYAGER. FE give here a brief account of some part of the voyages of Marco Polo, the old Venetian, who was born in the great city of the Adriatic in the year 1254, when Henry III., the first of the jubilee kings, was reigning in England. Marco was taken by his father to the East, and there entered the service of Kubla- Khan, Emperor of China, that Emperor of whom Coleridge sings so harmoniously,— In Xanadu did Kubla-Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree ; Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round : And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ; And here were forests ancient as the hills Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. After manifold adventures, Marco Polo re- turned to his native land, and died in 1324. We here give Polo’s account of India, Japan, and Ceylon, with brief notes of mari- time affairs connected therewith, and trust the reader will find it as interesting as it is curious. “We will now enter into the affairs of India, and begin with their ships, which are made of fir with one deck, on which are twenty cabins, more or less, according to the bigness of the ships, each for one merchant, They have a good rudder, and four masts with four sails, and some two masts, which they either raise or take down at pleasure. Some greater ships have thirteen divisions on the inside, made with boards enchased, so that if by a blow of a whale, or a touch of a rock, water gets in, it can go no farther than that divi- sion, and the leak being found, is soon stopped. They are double—that is, have two courses of boards, one within the other, and are well caulked with oakum, and nailed with iron, but not pitched, for they have no pitch, but anointed with an oil of a certain tree mixed with lime and hemp, beaten small, which binds faster than pitch or lime. The greater ships have three hundred mariners, the others two hundred, or one hundred and fifty, as they are in bigness and in burthen, from five to six thousand bags of pepper; and they were wont to be larger than now they are, the sea having broken into parts and islands, that the defect of water in some places causeth them to build less. They use also oars in these ships, four men to one oar; and the greater ships have with them two or three less ships, able to carry a thousand bags of pepper, having sixty mariners or upwards on board ; which small ships serve sometimes to tow the greater. They have also with them ten small boats for fishing and other services fastened to the sides of the larger ships, and let down when they ° please to use them. They sheath their ships also after a year’s usage, so that then they have three courses of boards, and they proceed in this manner sometimes till there be six courses, after which they break them up. Having spoken of the ships, we will speak of India, and, first, of certain islands. Zipangu—i.e. Japan—is an island on the G 94 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP east, one thousand five hundred miles distant from the shores of Mangi, very great, the people of white complexion, of gentle behaviour, in religion idolaters, and have a king of their own. They have gold in great plenty, for few merchants come thither, and the king permits no exportation of it; and they which have carried on commerce there speak of the king’s house covered with gold, as churches here with lead, gilded windows, floors of gold. There are also many pearls. Once the fame of these riches made Kubla-Khan to send to conquer it two of his barons, with a great fleet of ships; one named Abbaca, and the other Vensansin, who, going from Zaitum and Quinsay, arrived there, but falling out between themselves, could take but one city, and there beheaded all they took, except eight persons, which by an enchanted pre- ciousstone, enclosed in theright arm between the skin and flesh, could not be wounded with iron ; whereupon, with wooden clubs, at the command of the two barons, they were slain, It happened one day that a northern wind blew hard, which was dangerous to the ships riding there, so that some were lost, some put out farther to sea, and others, with the two leaders and a few principal persons, returned home. Out of many broken ships some escaped by boards and swimming to an island not inhabited, four miles off Zipangu, and were about thirty thousand, without provision or arms, against whom the Zipanguaners, after the tempest was calmed, sent out a fleet of ships, and an army. These coming on land to seek the wrecked Tartars without order, gave occasion to the Tartars to wheel about, the island being high in the midst, and to get unseen to their ships, which were left unmanned, with the streamers displayed, and in them they sailed to the chief city of Zipangu, where they were admitted without suspicion, and found few others but women. The King of Zipangu besieged them six months, and they, having no relief, yielded themselves, and their lives were saved. This happened A.D. 1264. The Khan, for the ill-conduct of his two commanders, cut off the head of one, and sent the other to a desert island called Zerga, where he caused offenders to die by sewing them, their hands bound, in a new- flayed hide of a buffalo, which, drying, shrinketh so as it puts them to vast tortures, which lead to a miserable death. The idols in this and the adjoining islands are made with heads of kine, swine, dogs, and in other fashions more monstrous, as with faces on their shoulders, with four, ten, or even a hundred hands; and to these they ascribe most power, and do most reverence, and say, that so they learned of their pro- genitors. They sometimes eat their enemies, which they take with great joy, and for great dainties; at least, so it is reported of them. The sea in which this island lies is called the sea of Cin, or Chin; that is, the sea against Mangi, and in the language of that island Mangi is called Chin, or Chint, which sea is so large, that the mariners and expert pilots who frequent it say that there are seven thousand four hundred and forty islands therein, the most part of them in- habited ; that there grows no tree which yields not a good smell, and that there grow many spices of divers kinds, especially lignum aloes, and pepper black and white. The ships of Zaitum are a year in their voyage, for they go in winter and return in summer, having winds of two sorts, which keep their seasons, and this country is far from India; but I will leave them, for I never was there, nor are they subject to the Khan, and return to Zaitum ; from hence, sailing south-westward one thousand five hundred miles, passing a gulf called Cheinan, which continues two months sailing to the northward, still confining on the south-east of Mangi, and elsewhere with Ania and Toloman and other provinces before named. Within it are infinite islands all in a manner inhabited : in them is found abundance of gold, and they trade one with another. This gulf seems like another world ; and after one thousand and five hundred miles, sailing across this gulf, is the country of WONDERFUL ANIMALS. 95 Ziambar, rich and great, having a king and a language of their own, idolaters, and pay- ing tribute to the Grand Khan of twenty elephants, and lignum aloes in great quan- tities yearly. A.D. 1268, the Khan, hearing of the riches of this island, sent thither Sagatu with an army to invade it. Acam- bate, the king thereof, was old, and made his composition by paying the tribute, which has been mentioned. There are many woods of black ebony there, which are of infinite value. Sailing thence betwixt the south and south-east, one thousand five hundred miles, is Java, at present supposed by mariners the greatest island in the world, being above three thousand miles in circuit, under a king who payeth tribute to none, the Khan not offering to subject it, because of the length and danger of the voyage. The merchants of Zaitum and Mangi fetch thence abundance of gold and spices. South and south-westward six hundred miles from Java are two islands—one Sondur, which is the greater, the other Condur, less, both desolate. Fifty miles south-east from them is a province, or firm land, very rich and great, named Lochae, the people idolaters, having a language of their own, as well as a king. There grows brazil wood in great plenty, much gold, elephants, wild beasts, and fowl, a fruit called Bercias, large as lemons, very good ; the place is mountainous and savage, and the king permits not any one to come thither, lest they should know his country and attempt to conquer it. There are abundance of porcelain shells for money transported to other places. Five hundred miles southward from Lochae is the isle Pentan, a savage place, which produceth in all the woods sweet trees; sixty miles in the way the sea is in many places but four fathom, after which, sailing to the south-east thirty miles farther, is the island and king- dom of Malaiur, which hath a peculiar king and language to itself, and here a great trade is carried on in spices from Pentan. One hundred miles south-east is Java the Less, in compass about two thousand miles, and hath in it eight kingdoms, and the people have many languages; they are idolaters, have abundance of treasure, spices, ebony, and brazil, and are so far to the south, that the north star cannot there be seen. Master Marco was in six of those kingdoms, of which he gives the following account, leaving the other two which he saw not :— One of these eight kingdoms is Felech, where the idolaters, by frequent trade with Saracens, are converted to the law of Mohammed. In the cities the moun- taineers are very beastly, eating man’s flesh and all kinds of impure food, and worship all day what they first see in the morning. Next to that is Basma, which hath a language by itself ; they live without law like beasts, and sometimes send hawks to the Khan, who lays claim to all the island. For savage beasts they have wild elephants, and unicorns much less than elephants, like the buffalo in hair, their feet are like elephants’ feet, they have one horn in the midst of the forehead, and hurt none therewith, but with the tongue and knee ; for on their tongue are certain long prickles, and sharp, and when they hurt any they trample on him, and press him down with their knees, and then tear him to pieces with their tongue. The head is like a wild boar’s, which he carries downwards to the ground. They love to stand in the mire, and are filthy beasts, and not such unicorns are said to be in our parts, which suffer themselves to be taken by maids, but quite contrary. They have many apes, and of several kinds; they have goshawks black as ravens, great and good for prey. There are certain small apes, in their faces like men, which they put in boxes, and preserve with spices, and sell them to merchants, who carry them through the world, showing them for pig- mies, or little men. Samare is the next kingdom, where Master Marco stayed five months against his will, forced by ill weather. There none of the stars of Charles's Wain are seen. He once went on shore with two thousand people, and there fortified for those five months, 96 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. for fear of those brutish men-eaters, and traded meanwhile with them for victuals. They have excellent fish, wine of the date- tree, very wholesome for phthisis, dropsy, and diseases of the spleen; some white, some red, and Indian nuts as big as a man’s head, the middle whereof is full of a pleasant liquor better than wine: they eat of all sorts of flesh without any difference. Dragoian is another of these kingdoms claimed by the Khan, having a king and language of their own. I was told of an abominable custom, that when one is sick, they send to inquire of the sorcerers whether he shall escape? If the devils answer No, the kindred send for some whose office it is to strangle the sick party; after which they cut him in pieces, and the kindred eat him with great jollity, even to the marrow of the bones ; for, say they, if any substance of him should remain, worms would breed thereof, which would want food, and so die, to the great torture of the soul of the deceased. The bones they afterwards take and carry into some caves in the hills, that no beast may touch them. If they take any stranger, they eat him in the same manner. Lambria is the fifth kingdom of Java, in which is great plenty of brazil, of the seeds whereof Master Marco brought to Venice, and sowed them, but in vain, the soil being P| too cold. They have unicorns in great abun- dance, and choice of beasts and fowls. Fanfur, the sixth kingdom, hath the best camphire, which is sold weight for weight with gold. In that province they make meal out of great and long trees, as thick as two men can fathom ; whence, paring of the thin bark and wood about three fingers thick, the pith within is meal, which they put in water, and stir it very well, the lightest dross swimming, and the finest settling to the bottom, and then the water being cast away they make paste, of which Master Marco brought some to Venice, tasting not much unlike barley-bread. The wood of this tree thrown into the water sinks like iron, of which they make lancets, but short; for if long they would be too heavy to bear. These they sharpen and burn at the tops, with which so prepared they will pierce through armour sooner than if they were made of iron. About one hundred and fifty miles from Lambria, sailing northwards, are two islands, one called Nocueran, in which the inhabitants live like beasts, go all naked, both men and women, and worship idols, have excellent trees, cloves, sanders white and red, 1ndian nuts, brazil, and other spices; the other Angaman, savage as the former, and where I was told they had dogs’ heads and teeth. AN ACCOUNT OF GREAT FEOPLEZ. 97 Marco Poro (continued). His FURTHER YovaGes AND PESscripTIONS. SYATLING hence one thousand miles to the west, and a little to the north- west, is Zeilan, two thousand and four hundred miles in circuit, and anciently three thousand and six hundred miles, as is seen in the maps of the mariners of those places ; but the north winds have made a great part of it sea. It is the finest island in the world ; the king is called Sendernaz. The men and women are idolaters, go naked, save that they cover their privities with a cloth ; have no corn, but rice and oil of Sesamino, milk, flesh, wine of trees, abundance of brazil, the best rubies in the world—sap- phires, topazes, amethysts, and other gems. The king is said to have the very finest ruby that was ever seen—as long as one’s hand, and as big as a man’s arm, without spot, shining like a fire, not to be bought for money. Kubla-Khan sent and offered the value of a city for it; but the king answered he would not give it for the treasure of the world, nor part with it, because it had been his ancestors’. The men are unfit for soldiers, and hire others when they have occasion. From Zeilan, sailing sixty miles to the west, lies the great province of Malabar, which is not an island, but firm continent, called India the Greater, the richest province in the world ; there are in it four kings, the chief of which is Sinder Candi, in whose kingdom they fish for pearls, viz., betwixt Malabar and Zeilan, in a bay where the sea is not above ten or twelve fathom ; in which divers descend, and in bags or nets tied to their bodies, bring up the oysters, in which are the pearls ; and because there are some great fish which kill the fisher- men, they hire certain Brahmins to charm them, and these have the twentieth, and the king the tenth. These oysters are found through the whole month of April, and till the middle of May, and not at any time else. In September they find them in a place above three hundred miles off, and till the midst of October. The Khan goes as naked as the rest, save that he wears scme honourable ensigns, as a collar of precious stones about his neck, and a thread of silk to his breast, with one hun- dred and four fair pearls strung thereon to count his prayers by, of which he must daily say so many to his idols. A sort of bracelet he weareth on three places on his arms, and likewise on his legs, on his fingers, and on his toes. The prayers which he says are Pacauca, Pacauca, Pacauca, one hundred and four times. This king hath one thousand concubines, and if any please him, he takes her, as once he did from his brother, whence wars had followed ; but the mother threatening to cut off her breasts, which had nourished them, if they proceeded, the quarrel was composed. He hath many horsemen for his guard, which always accompany him, who, when the king dies, throw themselves voluntarily into the fire when he is burnt, to do him service in the next world. This prince and his brethren, the kings of Malabar, buy their horses from Ormus and other parts ; the country breeds none, and if it sometimes falls out that it does, yet are they there bred ill-favoured and 98 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. naught. Condemned persons will offer themselves to die in honour of such an idol, which is performed by twelve knives, and twelve wounds in divers parts of the body, at every blow saying, ‘I kill myself in honour of that idol;’ and the last he thrusts in his heart, and is then burnt by his kindred. The wives also cast them- selves into the fire with their husbands, disrepute following those who refuse it. They worship idols, and most of them adore cows, and would not eat so holy flesh as beef for all the world. There are some called Gaui, who eat such oxen as die of themselves, but may not kill them, and daub over their houses with ox-dung. These Gaui are of the posterity of those which slew St. Thomas, and cannot enter the place where his body is. They sit on carpets on the ground in this kingdom : they have no corn but rice; are not a martial people ; kill no beasts, but when they will eat any, get the Saracens to do it, or other people; wash twice a day, N 0 \ J Fs i Hee im no il il SWE morning and evening, both men and women, and will not otherwise eat, which they who observe not are accounted heretics. They touch not their meat with their left hand, but use that hand only to wipe, and for other unclean uses. They drink each in his own pot, and will not touch another man’s pot, nor suffer their own to touch their mouth, but hold it over, and pour it in. To strangers who have no pot, they pour drink into his hands, and oblige him to drink with them. Justice is severely administered for crimes, and a creditor may in some cases encom- pass his debtor with a circle, which he dares not pass till he hath paid the debt or given security ; if he does, he is to be put to death: and Master Marco once saw the king himself on horseback thus encircled by a merchant, whom he had long delayed and put off ; neither would the king go out of the circle which the merchant had drawn till he had satisfied him, the people applauding the king’s AN END OF MARCO POLO. 99 justice. They are very scrupulous of drinking wine made of the grape, and they which do it are not thought worthy or honest men, or admitted to be witnesses, a thing denied also to him who sails by sea, for they say such men are desperate. They think lechery no sin. It is very hot, and they have no rain but in June, July, and August, without which refreshing of the air they could not live. They have many physiognomers and soothsayers, which observe beasts and birds, and have an unlucky hour every day in the week called Choiach, as on Monday, betwixt two and three, on Tuesday the third hour, and on Wednesday the ninth, etc., through all the year, set down in their books. They curiously observe nativities. At thirteen years old they put their boys to get their own livings, who run up and down to buy and sell, having a small stock given them to begin, and in pearl season they buy a few pearls, and sell them again to the merchants, which cannot well en- dure the sun, for little gain ; what they get they bring to their mothers to dress for them, for they may not eat at their father’s cost. They have idols, male and female, to whom they offer their daughters, who, when the monks or priests appoint, sing and dance to the idols, and very often set victuals before them, saying that they eat, leaving it the space of a meal, singing all the while, and then they fall to eating in earnest, after which they return home, The cause of these sacrifices is the house- hold quarrels betwixt the god and goddess, which, if they should appease, they should lose their blessing. The great men have litters made of large canes, which they fasten artificially to some upper place to prevent tarantulas biting, and also fleas and other vermin, and for fresh air. The place of St. Thomas’s sepulchre is a small city, not much frequented by mer- chants, but very much by Christians and Saracens for devotion. The Saracens hold him a great prophet, and call him Ananias, that is, a holy man. The Christians take of the earth where he was slain, which is red, and carry it with them with great reverence, and give it, mixed with water, to the sick. A.D. 1288, a great prince, having more rice than room to lay it in, made bold with St. Thomas’s Church, in the room where pilgrims were received ; but, by a vision of St. Thomas in the night, was so terrified, that he quickly left the place. The inhabitants are black—not so born, but became so by often anointing themselves with jessamine oil, to obtain that beauty. They paint the devil white, and their idols black. The cow-worship- pers carry with them to battle some of the hair of a wild ox, as a preservation against dangers, and therefore such hairs are sold at a high price.” But lest the reader is becoming in- credulous, we had better close Marco Polo’s old tales. MEDIAVAL BOATS. 100 L THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. SIR Jon MaunpeviLLe, Kr. freTures OF Pro J{ONSTANTINOPLE, (REECE, AND THE East. VIEW FROM CANDILEE, ON THE BOSPHORUS. NGLISH people have always been great tra- vellers in times past as well as in times present. One of the most famous of old travellers among our fellow-countrymen was Sir John Maundeville, Kt, who was born at St. Albans, set out in 1322, wandered for thirty years, and then came back. We pick out a few bits here and there, following the excellent version given in Bohn’s Anti- quarian Library. Here, first, is an account of Constantinople long before it came into the hands of the Turks. Constantinople is a very fair and good city, and well walled, and it is three- cornered. There is an arm of the sea of Hellespont, which some men call the mouth of Constantinople, and some men call it the Brace (or arm) of St. George ; and that arm incloses two parts of the city. And upward to the sea, upon the water, was wont to be the great city of Troy, in a very fair plain; but that city was destroyed by the people of Greece, and little thereof now appears, because it is so long since it was destroyed. AN ACCOUNT OF GREECE. I0I About Greece there are many isles, as Cal- liste, Calcas, Cetige, Tesbria, Mynea, Flaxon, Melo, Carpate, and Lemne. In this latter isle is Mount Athos, that passeth the clouds. And there are divers languages and many countries obedient to the emperor, namely, Turcople, Pyneynard, Cornagne, and many others, as Thrace and Macedonia, of which Alexander was king. In this country was Aristotle born, in a city called Stagyra, a little from the city of Thrace. And at Stagyra Aristotle lieth; and there is an altar upon his tomb. And they make great feasts for him every year, as though he were a saint. And at his altar they hold their great councils and their assemblies, expecting that through inspiration of God and of him they shall have the better council. In this country are very high hills, to- ward the extremity of Macedonia. And there is a great hill, called Olympus, which divides Macedonia and Thrace, so high that it passeth the clouds. And there is another hill, called Athos, so high that the shadow of it reaches to Lemne, which is an island seventy-six miles distant. At the summit of this hill the air is so clear, that no wind is found there, and therefore no animal may live there; and the air is dry. And men say in those countries that philosophers once went upon those hills, and held to their nose a sponge moistened with water, to have air, because the air above was so dry; and at the summit in the dust of those hills, they wrote letters and figures with their fingers, and at the year’s end they came again, and found the same letters and figures which they had written the year before, without any change. And therefore it appears evident that these hills pass the clouds and join to the pure air. At Constantinople is the palace of the emperor, very handsome and well built; and therein is a fair place for joustings, or for other plays and sports. And it is made with stages, and hath steps about, that every man may see well, and not intercept the view of those behind. And under these stages are stables well vaulted for the emperor’s horses; and all the pillars are of marble. And within the church of St. Sophia, an emperor once would have buried the body of his father when he was dead; and, as they made the grave, they found a body in the earth, and upon the body lay a fine plate of gold, on which was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, letters that sald thus: ¢ Jesus Christ shall be born of the Virgin Mary, and I believe in Him.” And the date when it was laid in the earth was two thousand years before our Lord was born. The plate of gold is still pre- served in the treasury of the church. And they say that it was Hermogenes, the wise man. Although the men of Greece are Chris- tians, yet they vary from our faith ; for they say that the Holy Ghost may not come of the Son, but only of the Father. And they are not obedient to the Church of Rome, nor to the pope; for they say that their patriarch hath as much power over the sea as the pope hath on this side the sea. And therefore Pope John XXII. sent letters to them, how Christian faith should be all one, and that they should be obe- dient to the pope, who is God’s vicar on earth, to whom God gave His full power to bind and to assoil, and therefore they should be obedient to him. But they sent back divers answers, amongst others saying thus: “ We believe well that thy power is great upon thy sub- jects. We may not suffer thy great pride. We are not in purpose to fulfil thy great covetousness. The Lord be with thee ; for our Lord is with us.—Farewell.” And no other answer might he have of them. They make their sacrament of the altar of unleavened bread, because our Lord made it of such bread when He made His Maundy. And on Shere-Thursday they make their unleavened bread, in token of the Maundy, and dry it in the sun, and keep it all the year, and give it to sick men instead of God's body. And they make but one unction when they christen 102 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP children. They anoint not the sick. And they say that there is no purgatory, and that the souls shall have neither joy nor pain till the day of doom. They say, moreover, that fornication is not a deadly sin, but a thing that is accord- ing to nature; and that men and women should wed but once; and whosoever weddeth oftener than once, their children are bastards, and begotten in sin. Their priests also are wedded. They say, also, that usury is no deadly sin; and they sell | benefices of holy church; and so do men in other places (God amend it when His will is!), and that is a great scandal; for now is simony king crowned in holy church : God amend it for His mercy! And they say that in Lent men shall not fast, or sing mass, except on the Saturday and on the | Sunday. And they fast not on the Satur- days, except it be Christmas Eve, or Easter Eve. They suffer not the Latins to sing at their altars ; and if they do by any chance, they immediately wash the altar with holy water. And they say that there should be but one mass said at one altar upon one day. They say also that our Lord never ate, but that he made sign of eating. They say, moreover, that we sin deadly in shaving our beards; for the beard is token of a man, and the gift of our Lord. And they say that we sin deadly in eating of animals that were forbidden in the Old Testament and by the old law, as swine, hares, and other beasts that chew not their cud. And they say that we sin in eating flesh on the days before Ash Wednesday, and in eating flesh on the Wednesday, and eggs and cheese on the Fridays. And they curse all those who abstain from eating flesh on the Saturday. The emperor of Constantinople appoints the patriarch, the archbishops, and the bishops, and gives the dignities and the benefices of churches, and deprives those who deserve it, when he finds any cause; and so is he lord both temporal and spiritual in his country. And although these things touch not to our way, nevertheless they touch to that that | | | I have promised you, to show you a part of the customs, and manners, and diversities of countries. And because this is the first country that is discordant in faith and in belief, and varies from our faith on this side the sea, therefore I have set it here, that you may know the diversity that is between our faith and theirs. For many men have great liking to hear of strange things of diverse countries. Here is Sir John’s wonderful account of Java. Beside the isle I have spoken of, there is another great isle called Sumobor, the king of which is very mighty. The people of that isle make marks in their faces with a hot iron, both men and women, as a mark of great nobility, to be known from other people; for they hold themselves most noble and most worthy of all the world. They have wars always with the people that go all naked. Fast beside is another rich isle called Beteinga. And there are many other isles thereabout. Fast beside that isle, to pass by sea, is a great isle and extensive country, called Java, which is near two thousand miles in circuit. And the king of that country is a very great lord, rich and mighty, having under him seven other kings of seven other surrounding isles. This isle is well in- habited, and in it grow all kinds of spices more plentifully than in any other country, as ginger, cloves, canel, sedewalle, nutmegs, and maces. And know well that the nut- meg bears the maces ; for right as the nut of the hazel hath a husk in which the nut is inclosed till it be ripe, so it is of the nut- meg and of the maces. Many other spices and many other goods grow in that isle; for of all things there is plenty, except wine. Gold and silver are very plentiful. The king of that country has a very noble and wonderful palace, and richer than any in the world, for all the steps leading to halls and chambers are alternately of gold and silver; and the pavements of halls and chambers are squares of gold and silver ; and all the walls within are covered with gold and silver in thin plates; in which WONDERS OF THE EAST. 103 plates are inlaid stories and battles of knights, the crowns and circles about whose heads are made of precious stones and rich and great pearls. And the halls and the chambers of the palace are all covered within with gold and silver, so that no man would believe the richness of that palace unless he had seen it. And know well that the king of that isle is so mighty, that he hath many times overcome the great chan of Cathay in battle, who is the greatest emperor under the firmament, either beyond the sea or on this side ; for they have often had war between them, because the great chan would oblige him to hold his land of him ; but the other at all times defendeth himself well against him. After that isle is another large isle, called Pathan, which is a great kingdom, full of fair cities and towns. In that land grow trees that bear meal, of which men make - good bread, white, and of good savour; and it seemeth as it were of wheat, but it 1s not quite of such savour. And there are other trees that bear good and sweet honey; and others that bear poison, against which there is no medicine but one; and that is to take their own leaves, and stamp them and mix them with water, and then drink it, for no medicine will avail. The Jews had sent for some of this poison by one of their friends, to poison all Christendom, as I have heard them say in their confession before dying; but, thanked be Almighty God, they failed of their purpose, although they caused a great mortality of people. And there are other trees that bear excellent wine. And if you like to hear how the meal comes out of the trees, men hew the trees with a hatchet, all about the foot, till the bark be separated in many parts ; and then comes out a thick liquor, which they receive in vessels, and dry it in the sun; and then carry it to a mill to grind, and it becomes fair and white meal - and the honey, and the wine, and the poison, are drawn out of other trees in the same manner, and put in vessels to keep. In that isle is a dead sea, or lake, that has no bottom; and if any- thing fall into it, it will never come up again. In that lake grow reeds, which they call Thaby, that are thirty fathoms long; and of these reeds they make fair houses. And there are other reeds, not so long, that grow near the land, and have roots full a quarter of a furlong or more long, at the knots of which roots precious stones are found that have great virtues; for he who carries any of them upon him may not be hurt by iron or steel; and therefore they who have those stones on them fight very boldly both on sea and lang; and, there- fore, when their enemies are aware of this, they shoot at them arrows and darts with- otit iron or steel, and so hurt and slay them. And also of those reeds they make houses and ships, and other things, as we here make houses and ships of oak, or of any other trees. And let no man think that I am joking, for I have seen these reeds with my own eyes many times, lying upon the river of that lake, of which twenty of our fellows might not lift up or bear one to the earth. Beyond this isle men go by sea to another rich isle, called Calonak, the king of which has as many wives as he will; for he makes search through the country for the fairest maidens that may be found, who are brought before him, and he taketh one of them after another, and so forth in succession; so that he hath a thousand wives or more. Thus the king has many children, sometimes a hundred, sometimes two hundred, and sometimes more. He hath also as many as fourteen thousand elephants, or more, which are brought up amongst his serfs in all his towns. And in case he has war with any of the kings around him, he causes certain men of arms to go up into wooden castles, which are set upon the elephants’ backs, to fight against their enemies; and so do other kings thereabouts; and they call the ele- phants warkes. And in that isle there is a great wonder ; for all kinds of fish that are there in the 104 TALE WONDERS OF IHRE DEEP. sea come once a year, one kind after the other, to the coast of that isle in so great a multitude that a man can see hardly any- thing but fish; and there they remain three days, and every man of the country takes as many of them as he likes. kind of fish, after the third day, departs and goes into the sea. And after them come another multitude of fish of another kind, and do in the same manner as the first did another three days; and so on with the other kinds, till all the divers kinds of fishes have been there, and men have taken what they like of them. And no man knows the cause; but they of the ‘country say that it is to do reverence to their king, who is the most worthy king in the world, as they say, because he fulfils the commandment of God to Adam and Eve, “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth ;” and because he multiplies so the world with children, therefore God sends him the fishes of divers kinds, to take at his will, for him and all his people; and thus all the fishes of the sea come to do him homage as the most noble and excellent king of the world, and that is best beloved of God, as they say. There are also in that country a kind of snails, so great that many persons may lodge in their shells, as men would do in a little house. And there are other snails that are very great, but not so huge as the other, of which, and of great white serpents with black heads, that are as great as a man’s thigh, and some less, they make royal meats for the king and other great lords. And if a man who is married die in that country, they bury his wife alive with him, for they say that it is right that she make him company in the other world, as she did in this. From that country they go by the Sea of Ocean, by an isle called Caffolos; the natives of which, when their friends are sick, hang them on trees, and say that it is better that birds, which are angels of God, eat them, than the foul worms of the earth. Then we come to another isle, the inhabi- And that | I tants of which are of full cursed kind, for they breed great dogs, and teach them to strangle their friends, when they are sick, for they will not let them die of natural death ; for they say that they should suffer great pain if they abide to die by them- selves, as nature would; and, when they are thus strangled, they eat their flesh as though it were venison. : Afterwards men go by many isles by sea to an isle called Milk, where are very cursed people ; for they delight in nothing more than to fight and slay men ; and they drink most gladly man’s blood, which they call Dieu. And the more men that a man may slay, the more worship he hath amongst them. And thence they go by sea, from isle to isle, to an isle called Tracoda, the inhabitants of which are as beasts, and un- reasonable, and dwell in caves which they make in the earth, for they have not sense to make houses. And when they see any man passing through their countries, they hide them in their caves. And they eat flesh of serpents, and they speak nought, but hiss, as serpents do. After that isle, men go by the Sea of Ocean, by many isles, to a great and fair isle called Nacumera, which is in circuit more than a thousand miles. And all the men and women of that isle have dogs’ heads; and they are reasonable and of good understanding, except that they wor- ship an ox for their god. And also every man of them beareth an ox of gold or silver on his forehead, in token that they love well their god. And they go all naked, except a little clout, and are large men and warlike, having a great target that covers all the body, and a spear in their hand to fight with. And if they take any man in battle, they eat him. The king is rich and powerful, and very devout after his law; and he has about his neck three hundred orient pearls, knotted, as paternosters are here of amber. And as we say our Pater Noster and Ave Maria, counting the pater- nosters right, so this king says every day devoutly three hundred prayers to his god, STRANGE MEN AND STRANGE BEASTS. 105 before he eats; and he beareth also about his neck an orient ruby, noble and fine, which is a foot in length, and five fingers large. And when they choose their king, they give him that ruby to carry in his “hand, and so they lead him riding all about the city. And that ruby he shall bear always about his neck; for if he had not that ruby upon him, they would not hold him for king. The chan of Cathay has greatly coveted that ruby, but he might never have it, neither for war, nor for any manner of goods. This king is so righteous and equitable in his judgments, that men may go safely through all his country, and bear with them what they like, and no man shall be bold enough to rob them. Hence men go to another isle called Silha, which is full eight hundred miles in circuit. In that land is much waste, for it is so full of serpents, dragons, and cocko- drills, that no man dare dwell there. These cockodrills are serpents, yellow and rayed above, having four feet, and short thighs, and great nails like claws; and some are five fathoms in length, and some of six, eight, or even ten; and when they go by places that are gravelly, it appears as if men had drawn a great tree through the gravelly place. And there are also many wild beasts, especially elephants. In that isle is a great mountain, in the midst of which is a large lake in a full fair plain, and there is great plenty of water. And they of the country say that Adam and Eve wept on that mount a hundred years, when they were driven out of paradise. And that water, they say, is of their tears ; for so much water they wept, that made the aforesaid lake. And at the bottom of that lake are found many precious stones and great pearls. In that lake grow many reeds and great canes, and there within are many cockodrills and serpents, and great water leeches. And the king of that country, once every year, gives leave to poor men to go into the lake to gather precious stones and pearls, by way of alms, for the love of God, that made Adam. To guard against the vermin, they anoint their arms, thighs, and legs with an ointment made of a thing called limons, which is a kind of fruit like small pease, and then they have no dread of cockodrills, or other venomous things. This water runs, flowing and ebbing, by a side of the mountain; and in that river men find precious stones and pearls, in great abundance. And the people of that isle say commonly, that the serpents and wild beasts of the country will do no harm to any foreigner that enters that country, but only to men that are born there. From that isle, in going by sea towards the south, is another great isle, called Dondun, in which are people of wicked kinds, so that the father eats the son, the son the father, the husband the wife, and the wife the husband. And if it so befal that the father or mother or any of their friends are sick, the son goes to the priest of their law, and prays him to ask the idol if his father or mother or friend shall die; and then the priest and the son go before the idol, and kneel full devoutly, and ask of the idol; and if the devil that is within answer that he shall live, they keep him well ; and if he say that he shall die, then the priest and the son go with the wife of him that is sick, and they put their hands upon his mouth and stop his breath, and so kill him. And after that, they chop all the body in small pieces, and pray all his friends to come and eat; and they send for all the minstrels of the country and make a solemn feast... And when they have eaten the flesh, they take the bones and bury them, and sing and make great melody. The king of this isle is a great and powerful lord, and has under him fifty-four great isles, which give tribute to him; and in every one of these isles is a king crowned, all obedient to that king. In one of these isles are people of great stature, like giants, hideous to look upon; and they have but one eye, which is in the middle of the forehead ; and they eat no- 106 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. thing but raw flesh and fish. And in an- other isle towards the south dwell people of foul stature and cursed nature, who have no heads, but their eyes are in their shoulders. In another isle are people who have the face all flat, without nose and without mouth. In another isle are people that have the lip above the mouth so great, that when they sleep in the sun they cover all the face with that lip. And in another isle there are dwarfs, which have no mouth," but instead of their mouth they have a little round hole; and when they shall eat or drink, they take it through a pipe, or a pen, or such a thing, and suck it in. And in another isle are people that have ears so long that they hang down to their knees. And in another isle are people that have horses’ feet. In another isle are people that go upon their hands and feet like beasts, and are all skinned and feathered, and would leap as lightly into trees, and from tree to tree, as squirrels or apes. In another isle are people almost like them, And in another isle are people that go always upon their knees, and at every step they go it seems that they would fall ; and they have eight toes on every foot. Many other divers people of divers natures there are in other isles about, of the which it were too long to tell. From these isles, in passing by the Sea of Ocean towards the east, by many days, men find a great kingdom called Mancy, which is in India the Greater ; and it is the best land, and one of the fairest in all the world ; and the most delightful and plenti- ful of all goods. In that land dwell many Christians and Saracens, for it is a good and great country, and there are in it more than two thousand great and rich cities, besides other great towns. And there is greater plenty of people there than in any other part of India. In that country is no needy man ; and they are very fair people, but they are all pale. And the men have thin and long beards, though with a few hairs, scarcely any man having more than fifty hairs in his beard, and one hair set here, another there, as the beard of a leopard or cat. In that land are many fairer women than in any other country beyond the sea; and therefore they call that land Albany, because the people are white. And the chief city of that country is called Latoryn; it is a day from the sea, and much larger than Paris. In that city is a great river, bearing ships, which go to all the coasts on the sea; for no city of the world is so well stored of ships. And all the inhabitants of the city and of the country worship idols. In that country the birds are twice as large as they are here. There are white geese, red about - the neck, with a great crest like a cock’s comb upon their heads ; and they are much greater there than here’ And there is great abundance of serpents, of which men make great feasts, and eat them at great solemnities. And he that maketh there a feast, be it ever so costly, unless he have serpents it is not esteemed. There are many good cities in that country, and men have great plenty of all wines and victuals cheap. In that country are many churches of religious men of their law; and in the churches are idols as great as giants. And to these idols they give to eat at great festival days, in this manner: they bring before them meat, hot from the fire, and they let the smoke go up towards the idols; and then they say that the idols have eaten, and then the religious men eat the meat afterwards. In that country are white hens without feathers, but they bear white wool, as sheep do here. In that country, women that are unmarried carry tokens on their heads, like coronets, to be known for unmarried. Also in that country are beasts taught by men to go into waters, rivers, and deep ponds, to take fish ; which beast is little, and men call them loyres. And when men cast them into the water, anon they bring up great fishes, as many as men will. And from that city, at a distance of many ZTE CITY OF CANSAY. 10% days’ journey, is another city, one of the greatest in the world, called Cansay, that is to say, the city of heaven. It is full fifty miles about, and is so populous that in one house men make ten households. In that city are twelve principal gates; and before each gate, three or four miles dis- tant, is a great town or city. That city is situated upon a great lake on the sea, like Venice. And in that city are more than twelve thousand bridges; and upon every bridge are strong and good towers, in which dwell the wardens to keep the city from the great chan. And on the one side of the city runs a great river all along the city. And there dwell Christians, and many merchants and other people of divers nations, because the land is so good and abundant. And there grows very good wine, which they call bigon, which is very strong and mild in drinking. This is a royal city, where the king of Mancy formerly resided; and there dwell many religious men, much resembling the order of friars, for they are mendicants. From that city men go by water, solacing and disporting them, till they come to an abbey of monks fast by, who are good religious men, after their faith and law. In that abbey is a great and fair garden, where are many trees of divers kinds of fruits ; and in this garden is a little hill, full of pleasant trees. In that hill and garden are various animals, as apes, monkeys, baboons, and many other divers beasts ; and every day, when the monks have eaten, the almoner carries what remains to the garden, and strikes on the garden gate with a silver clicket that he holds in his hand, and anon all the beast of the hill, and of divers places of the garden, come out, to the number of three or four thousand ; and they come in manner of poor men; and men give them the remnants in fair vessels of silver gilt. And when they have eaten, the monk strikes again on the garden gate with the clicket, and all the beasts return to the places they came from. And they say that these beasts are souls of worthy men, that resemble in likeness the beasts that are fair ; and therefore they give them meat for the love of God. And the other beasts, that are foul, they say, are souls of poor men ; and thus they believe, and no man may put them out of this opinion. These beasts they take when they are young, and nourish them thus with alms, as many as they may find. And I asked them if it had not been better to have given that relief to poor men, rather than to the beasts. And they answered me, and said that they had no poor men amongst them in that country ; and though it had been so that poor men had been among them, yet were it greater alms to give it to those souls that here do their penance. Many other marvels are in that city, and in the country thereabout, that were too long to tell you. From that city men go by land six days to another city called Chilenfo, of which the walls are twenty miles in circumference. In that city are sixty bridges of stone, so fair that no man may see fairer. In that city was the first seat of the king of Mancy, for it is a fair city and plentiful in all goods. Hence we pass across a great river called Dalay, which is the greatest river of fresh water in the world ; for where it is narrowest it is more than four miles broad. And then men enter again the land of the great chan. That river goes through the land of pigmies, where the people are small, but three spans long ; and they are right fair and gentle, both the men and the women. They live but six or seven years at most; and he that liveth eight years is considered very aged. These men are the best workers of gold, silver, cotton, silk, and of all such things, that are in the world. And they have oftentimes war with the birds of the country, which they take and eat. This little people neither labour in lands nor in vineyards; but they have great men amongst them, of our stature, who till the land and labour amongst the vines for them. And of the men of our stature they 108 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP have as great scorn and wonder as we should have among us of giants. There is a great and fair city amongst others, with a large population of the little people ; and there are great men dwelling amongst them; but when they get children, they are as little as the pigmies; and therefore they are for the most part all pigmies, for the nature of the land is such. From that city men go by land, by many cities and towns, to a city called Jamchay, which is noble and rich, and of great profit to the lord ; and thither go men to seek all kinds of merchandise. The lord of the country hath every year, for rent of that - city (as they of the city say), fifty thousand cumants of florins of gold; for they count there all by cumants, and every cumant is ten thousand florins of gold. The king of that country is very powerful, yet he is under the great chan, who hath under him twelve such provinces. In that country, in the good towns, is a good custom; for whoever will make a feast to any of his MARMORA SIDE NEAR SERAGLIO POINT, CONSTANTINOPLE. friends, there are certain inns in every good town ; and he that will make a feast will say to the host, ‘Array for me, to-morrow, a good dinner for so many people,” and tells him the number, and devises him the viands ; and he says, also, “Thus much I will spend, and no more.” And anon the host arrays for him, so fair, and so well, and so honestly, that there shall lack nothing ; and it shall be done sooner, and with less cost, than if it were done in his own house. Five miles from that city, towards the head of the river of Dalay, is another city, called Menke, in which is a strong navy of ships, all white as snow, from the colour of the trees of which they are made ; and they are very great and fair ships, and well ordained, and made with halls and cham- bers, and other easements, as though it were on land. From thence men go by many towns and many cities to a city called Lanteryne, eight days from the city last mentioned. This city is ‘situated upon a fair, great, and broad river, called Cara- EARLY COMMERCE AND PROGRESS. 109 maron, which passes through Cathay; and it often overflows and does much harm. “But enough of this,” our reader exclaims. “ Why ’tis more incredible than Marco Polo himself. Let us, if you please, get on surer ground.” FarLy ComMERCE AND PROGRESS. COMMERCIAL in- ' tercourse between the northern and southern ¥ regions of Europe began about the early part of the fourteenth century, or, at most, a little sooner. Until, indeed, the use of the magnet was thoroughly under- stood, and a competent skill in marine architecture, as well as navigation, acquired, the Italian merchants were scarce likely to attempt a voyage perilous in itself, and rendered more formidable by the imaginary difficulties which had been sup- posed to attend an expedition beyond the straits of Hercules. But the English, acustomed to their own rough seas, were always more intrepid, and probably more skilful navigators. Though it was extremely rare, even in the fifteenth century, for an English trading vessel to appear in the Mediterranean, yet a famous military armament, that destined for the crusade of Richard I., displayed at a very early time the seamanship of our countrymen. In the reign of Edward II., we find men- tion in Rymer’s collection of Genoese ships trading to Flanders and England. His son was very solicitous to preserve the friend- ship of that opulent republic ; and it is by his letters to the senate, or by royal orders restoring ships unjustly seized, that we come by a knowledge of those facts which histor- ians neglect to relate. Pisa shared a little in this traffic, and Venice more considerably; but Genoa was beyond all competition at the head of Italian commerce in these seas during the fourteenth century. In the next, her general decline left it more open to her rival ; but we doubt whether Venice ever maintained so strong a con- nection with England. Through London and Bruges, their chief station in Flanders, the merchants of Italy and of Spain trans- ported oriental produce to the farthest parts of the North. The inhabitants of the Baltic coast were stimulated by the desire of pre- cious luxuries which they had never known ; and these wants, though selfish and frivolous, are the means by which nations acquire civility, and the earth is rendered fruitful of its produce. As the carriers of this trade, the Hanseatic merchants resident in Eng- land and’ Flanders derived profits through which eventually of course those countries were enriched. It seems that the Italian vessels unloaded at the marts of London or Bruges, and that such a part of their cargoes as were intended for a more northern trade came there into the hands of the German merchants, In the reign of Henry VI, England carried on a pretty extensive traffic with the countriesaround the Mediterranean, for whose commodities her wool and woollen cloths enabled her to pay. The commerce of the southern division, though it did not, I think, produce more extensively beneficial effects upon the pro- gress of society, was both earlier and more splendid than that of England and the neighbouring countries. Besides Venice, H II10 ZHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP which has been mentioned already, Amalfi kept up the commercial intercourse of Christendom with the Saracen countries before the first crusade. It was the sin- gular fate of this city to have filled up the interval between two periods of civilization, in neither of which she was destined to be distinguished. Scarcely known before the end of the sixth century, Amalfi ran a brilliant career, as a free and trading re- public, which was checked by the arms of a conqueror in the middle of the twelfth. \ Since her subjugation by Roger, King of Sicily, the name of a people who for a while connected Europe with Asia has hardly been repeated, except for two discoveries falsely imputed to them, those of the Pan- dects and of the compass. But the decline of Amalfi was amply compensated to the rest of Italy by the constant elevation of Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, in the twelfth and ensuing ages. The crusade led immediately to this grow- ing prosperity of the commercial cities. ENGLISH SHIPS, FOURTEENTH CENTURY. Besides the profit accruing from so many naval armaments which they supplied, and the continual passage of private adventurers in their vessels, they were enabled to open a more extensive channel of oriental traffic than had hitherto been known. These three Italian republics enjoyed immunities in the Christian principalities of Syria ; possessing separate quarters in Acre, Tripoli, and other cities, where they were governed by their own laws and magistrates. Though the progress of commerce must, from the condition of European industry, have been slow, it was uninterrupted ; and the settle- ments in Palestine were becoming im- portant as factories, an use of which Godfrey and Urban little dreamed, when they were lost through the guilt and imprudence of their inhabitants. Villani laments the injury sustained by commerce in con- sequence of the capture of Acre, “situated, as it was, on the coast of the Mediterranean, in the centre of Syria, and, as we might say, of the habitable world, a haven for all merchandise, both from the East and the West, which all the nations of the earth PROGRESS OF COMMERCE. I11 + frequented for this trade.” But the loss was soon retrieved, not, perhaps, by Pisa and Genoa, but by Venice, who formed connexions with the Saracen governments, and maintained her commercial intercourse with Syria and Egypt by their licence, though subject, probably, to heavy exac- tions. Sanuto, a Venetian author at the beginning of the fourteenth century, has left a curious account of the Levant trade which his countrymen carried on at that time. Their imports it is easy to guess, and it appears that timber, brass, tin, and lead, as well as the precious metals, were exported to Alexandria, besides oil saffron, and some of the productions of Italy, and even wool and woollen cloths. The European side of the account had therefore become respect- able. The commercial cities enjoyed as great privileges at Constantinople as in Syria, and: they bore an eminent part in the vicissitudes of the Eastern Empire. After the capture of Constantinople by the Latin crusaders, ENGLISH SHIPS, FIFTEENTH CENTURY. the Venetians, having been concerned in that conquest, became of course the favoured traders, under the new dynasty ; possessing their own district in the city, with their magistrate, or podestd, appointed at Venice, and subject to the parent republic. When ‘the Greeks recovered the seat of their Empire, the Genoese, who from jealousy of their rivals had contributed to that revo- lution, obtained similar immunities. This powerful and enterprising State, in the four- teenth century, sometimes the ally, some- times the enemy of the Byzantine court, maintained its independent settlement ac Pera. From thence she spread her sails into the Euxine, and, planting a colony at Caffa in the Crimea, extended a line of commerce with the interior regions of Asia which even the skill and spirit of our own times has not yet been able to revive. The French provinces which border on the Mediterranean Sea partook in the advantages which it offered. Not only Marseilles, whose trade had continued in a certain degree throughout the worst ages, but Narbonne, Nismes, and especially 112 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. Montpelier, were distinguished for com- mercial prosperity. A still greater activity prevailed in Catalonia. From the middle of the thirteenth century (for we need not trace the rudiments of its history), Barce- lona began to emulate the Italian cities in both the branches of naval energy, war, and commerce. Engaged in frequent and severe hostilities with Genoa, and sometimes with Constantinople, while their vessels traded to every part of the Mediterranean, and even of the English Channel, the Catalans might justly be reckoned among the first of maritime nations. The commerce of Barcelona has never since attained so great a height as in the fifteenth century. The introduction of a silk manufacture at Palermo, by Roger Guiscard in 1148, gave, perhaps, the earliest impulse to the industry of Italy. Nearly about the same time the Genoese plundered two Moorish cities of Spain, from which they derived the same art. In the next age, this became a staple manufacture of the Lombard and Tuscan republics, and the cultivation of mulberries was enforced by their laws. Woollen stuffs, though the trade was, perhaps, less con- spicuous than that of Flanders, and though many of the coarser kinds were imported from thence, employed a multitude of work- men in Italy, Catalonia, and the South of France. Among the trading companies into which the middling ranks were dis- tributed, those concerned in silk and woollen manufacture were most numerous and honourable. A property of a natural substance, long overlooked, even though it attracted observa- tion by a different peculiarity, has influenced by its accidental discovery the fortunes of mankind more than all the deductions of philosophy. It is, perhaps, impossible to ascertain the epoch when the polarity of the magnet was first known in Europe. The common opinion, which ascribes its discovery to a citizen of Amalfi, in the fourteenth century, isundoubtedly erroneous. Guiot de Provins, a French poet, who lived about the year 1200, or, at the latest, under St. Louis, describes it in the most unequi- vocal language. James de Vitry, a bishop in Palestine, before the middle of the thirteenth century, and Guido Guinmizzelli, an Italian poet of the same time, are equally explicit. The French as well as Italians claim the discovery as their own; but whether it were due to either of these nations, or rather learned from their inter- course with the Saracens, is not easily to be ascertained. For some time, perhaps, even this wonderful improvement in the art of navigation might not be universally adopted by vessels sailing within the Medi- terranean, and accustomed to their old system of observations. But when it became more established, it naturally in- spired a mere fearless spirit of adventure. It was not, as has been mentioned, till the beginning of the fourteenth century that the Genoese, and other nations around that inland sea, steered into the Atlantic Ocean towards England and Flanders. This intercourse with the northern countries enlivened their trade with the Levant, by the exchange of productions which Spain and Italy do not supply, and enriched the merchants, by means of whose capital the exports of London and of Alexandria were conveyed into each other’s harbours. The usual risks of navigation, and those incident to commercial adventure, produce a variety of questions in every system of jurisprudence, which though always to be determined, as far as possible, by principles of natural justice, must in many cases depend upon established customs. These customs of maritime law were anciently re- duced into a code by the Rhodians, and the Roman emperors preserved or reformed the constitutions of that republic. It would be hard to say how far the tradition of this early jurisprudence survived the decline of commerce in the darker ages; but after it began to recover itself, necessity suggested, or recollection prompted, a scheme of regulations resembling in some degree, but much more enlarged than those of antiquity. This was formed into a A So \ 7 =a) 13s) N= pe Sh THE EMBARKATION OF HENRY VIII. AT. DOVER, MAY 3I, I520. written code, “Il Consolato del Nare,” not much earlier, probably, than the middle of the thirteenth century; and its promulgation seems rather to have proceeded from the citizens of Barcelona than from those of Pisa or Venice, who have also claimed to be the first legislators of the sea. Besides regulations simply mercantile, this system has defined the mutual rights of neutral and belligerent vessels, and thus laid the basis of the positive law of nations in its most important and disputed cases. The King of France and Count of Provence solemnly acceded to this maritime code, which hence acquired a binding force within the Mediterranean Sea ; and SHAOD HHNIIIYV IH C11 114 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. in most respects the merchant law of Europe is at present conformable to its provisions. A set of regulations, chiefly borrowed from the “ Consolato,” was compiled in France under the reign of Louis IX., and prevailed in our own country. These have been de- nominated the laws of Oleron, from an idle story that they were enacted by Richard I., while his expedition to the Holy Land lay at anchor in that island. Nor was the North without its peculiar code of maritime jurisprudence ; namely, the ordinances of Wisbuy, a town in the isle of Gothland, principally compiled from those of Oleron, before thet year 1400, by which the Baltic traders were governed. To give our readers a further notice of the state of naval affairs about the close of the middle ages, we here give an illus- tration representing the embarkation of Henry VIII. at Dover, in 1520, upon his famous visit to France to take part in the interview known as “The Field of the Cloth of Gold,” so eloquently described by Shakespeare in his “ Henry the Eighth,” which will be present to our readers’ minds. VENICE —"“THE QUEEN oF THE ‘ADRIATIC L HE queen of Y the Adriatic,” Venice, that city on the sea, de- serves special mention in a work like this. That famous republic de- duces its original, and even its liberty, from an era be- yond the commencement of the middle ages. The Vene- tians boast of a perpetual emancipation from the yoke of barbarians. From that igno- minious servitude some natives, or, as their historians will have it, nobles of Aquileja, and neighbouring towns, fled to “the small cluster of islands that rise amidst the shoals at the mouth of the Brenta. Here they built the town of Rivoalto, the modern Venice, in 421; but their chief settlement was, till the beginning of the ninth century, at Malamocco. A living writer has, in a passage of remarkable eloquence, described the sovereign republic, immovable upon the bosom of the waters from which her palaces emerge, contemplating the successive tides Venice. HER FORMER [fLorY. of continental invasion, the rise and fall of empires, the change of dynasties, the whole moving scene of human revolution ; till, in her own turn, the last surviving witness of antiquity, the common link between two periods of civilization, has submitted to the destroying hand of time. Some part of this renown must, on a cold-blooded scru- tiny, be detracted from Venice. Her in- dependence was, at the best, the fruit of her obscurity. Neglected upon their islands, a people of fishermen might with- out molestation elect their own magistrates —a very equivocal proof of sovereignty in cities much more considerable than But both the Western and the Eastern Empire alternately pretended to exercise dominion over her; she was con- quered by Pepin, son of Charlemagne, and restored by him, as the chronicles say, to the Greek emperor Nicephorus. There is every appearance that the Venetians had always considered themselves as subject, in a large sense not exclusive of their municipal self- government, to the Eastern Empire. And this connection was not broken in the early part, at least, of the tenth century. But “Ad RULER OF THE WAITERS AND THEIR POWERS) 115 for every essential purpose, Venice .might long before be deemed an independent State. Her doge was not confirmed at Constantinople ; she paid no tribute, and lent no assistance in war. Her own navies, in the ninth century, encountered the Normans, the Saracens, and the Sclavonians in the Adriatic Sea. Upon the coast of Dalmatia were several Greek cities, which the Empire had ceased to protect; and which, like Venice itself, became republics for want of a master. Ragusa was one of these, and, more fortunate than the rest, survived as an independent city till our own age. In return for the assistance of Venice, these little seaports, in 997, put themselves under her government; the Sclavonian pirates were repressed ; and after acquiring, partly by consent, partly by arms, a large tract of maritime territory, the doge took the title of Duke of Dalmatia, which is said by Dandolo to have been confirmed at Constantinople. Three or four centuries, however, elapsed before the republic be- came secure of these conquests, which were frequently wrested from her by re- bellions of the inhabitants, or by her power- ful neighbour the King of Hungary. A more important source of Venetian greatness was commerce. In the darkest and most barbarous period, before Genoa, or even Pisa, had entered into mercantile pur- suits, Venice carried on an extensive traffic both with the Greek and Saracen regions of the Levant. The crusades enriched and aggrandized Venice more perhaps than any other city. Her splendour may, however, be dated from the taking of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204. In this famous enterprise, which diverted a great arma- ment destined for the recovery of Jerusalem, the French and Venetian nations were alone engaged; but the former only as private adventurers, the latter with the whole strength of their republic under its doge, Henry Dandolo. Three-eighths of the city of Constantinople, and an equal proportion of the provinces, were allotted to them in the partition of the spoil, and the doge took the singular but accurate title, Duke of three-eighths of the Roman Empire. Their share was increased by purchases from less opulent crusaders, especially one of much importance, the island of Candia, which they retained till the middle of the seventeenth century. These foreign ac- quisitions were generally granted out in fief to private Venetian nobles under the supremacy of the republic. It was thus that the Ionian Islands, to adopt the vocabu- lary of our day, came under the dominion of Venice, and guaranteed that sovereignty which she now began to affect over the Adriatic. Those of the Archipelago were lost in the sixteenth century. This political greatness was sustained by an increasing commerce. No Christian State preserved so considerable an intercourse with the Mohammedans. While Genoa kept the keys of the Black Sea by her colonies of Pera and Caffa, Venice directed her vessels to Acre and Alexandria. These connec- tions, as is the natural effect of trade, deadened the sense of religious antipathy ; and the Venetians were sometimes charged with obstructing all efforts towards a new crusade, or even any partial attacks upon the Mohammedan nations. The earliest form of government at Venice, as we collect from an epistle of Cassiodorus in the sixth century, was by twelve annual tribunes. Perhaps the union of the different islanders was merely fede- rative. However, in 697, they resolved to elect a chief magistrate by name of duke, or, in their dialect, doge of Venice. No councils appear to have limited his power, or represented the national will. The doge was general and judge ; he was sometimes permitted to associate his son with him, and thus to prepare the road for hereditary power ; his government had all the pre- rogative, and, as far as in such a state of manners was possible, the pomp of a monarchy. But he acted in important matters with the concurrence of a general assembly ; though from the want of positive restraints, his executive government might 116 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. be considered as nearly absolute. Time, however, demonstrated to the Venetians the imperfections of such a constitution. Limitations were accordingly imposed on the doge in 1032 ; he was prohibited from associating a son in the government, and obliged to act with the consent of two elected counsellors, and, on important occasions, to call in some of the principal citizens. No other change appears to have taken place till 1172; long after every other Italian city had provided for its liberty by constitutional laws, more or less successful, but always manifesting a good deal of contrivance and complication. Venice was, however, dissatisfied with her existing institutions. General assemblies were found, in practice, inconvenient and unsatisfactory. Yet some adequate safe- guard against a magistrate of indefinite powers was required by freemen. A repre- sentative council, as in other republics, justly appeared the best innovation that could be introduced. The Great Council of Venice, as estab- lished in 1172, was to consist of four hun- dred and eighty citizens, equally taken from the six districts of the city, and annually renewed. But the election was not made immediately by the people. Two electors, called tribunes, from each of the six districts, appointed the members of the council by separate nomination. These tribunes, at first, were themselves chosen by the people ; so that the intervention of this electora] body did not apparently trespass upon the democratical character of the constitution. But the Great Council, principally composed of men of high birth, and invested by the law with the appointment of the doge, and of all the councils of magistracy, seem, early in the thirteenth century, to have assumed the right of naming their own constituents. Besides appointing the tri- bunes, they took upon themselves another privilege ; that of confirming or rejecting their successors, before they resigned their functions. These usurpations rendered the annual election almost nugatory ; the same members were usually renewed, and though the dignity of councillor was not yet here- ditary, it remained, upon the whole, in the same families. In this transitional state the Venetian government continued during the thirteenth century ; the people actually debarred of power, but an hereditary aris- tocracy not completely or legally confirmed. The right of electing, or rather re-electing the Great Council, was transferred in 1297 from the tribunes, whose office was abolished to the council of forty ; they balloted upon the names of the members who already sat; and whoever obtained twelve favouring balls out of forty retained his place. The vacancies occasioned by rejection or death were filled up by a supplemental list formed by three electors, nominated in the great council But they were expressly prohibited by laws of 1298 and 1300, from inserting the name of any one whose paternal ancestors had not enjoyed the same honour. Thus an exclusive hereditary aristocracy was finally established. And the personal rights of noble descent were rendered complete in 1319 by the abolition of all elective forms. By the constitution of Venice, as it was then settled, every descendant of a member of the Great Council, on attaining twenty- five years of age, entered as of right into that body, which of course became un- limited in its numbers. But an assembly so numerous as the Great Council, even before it was thus thrown open to all the nobility, could never have conducted the public affairs with that secrecy and steadiness which were charac- teristic of Venice ; and without an inter- mediary power between the doge and the patrician multitude, the constitution would have gained nothing in stability to com- pensate for the loss of popular freedom. The Great Council had proceeded very soon after its institution to limit the ducal pre- rogatives. That of exercising criminal justice, a trust of vast importance, was transferred, in 1179, to a council of forty members annually chosen. The executive government itself was thought too consider- oe i ELECTION OF THE VENETIAN DOGE. 117 able for the doge without some material limitations. Instead of naming his own assistants, or pregadi, he was only to preside in a council of sixty members, to whom the care of the State in all domestic and foreign relations, and the previous deliberation upon proposals submitted to the Great Council, was confided. This council of pregadi, generally called in later times the senate, was enlarged in the fourteenth century by sixty additional members; and as a great part of the magistrates had also seats in it, the whole number amounted to between two and three hundred. Though the legislative power, properly speaking, remained with the Great Council, the senate used to impose taxes, and had the exclusive right of making peace and war. It was annually renewed, like almost all other councils at Venice, by the Great Council. But since even this body was too numerous for the preliminary dis- cussion of business, six councillors, forming, along with the doge, the seigniory, or visible representative of the republic, were em- powered to despatch orders, to correspond with ambassadors, to treat with foreign States, to convoke and preside in the coun- cils, and perform other duties of an admin- istration. In part of these they were obliged to act with the concurrence of what was termed the college, comprising: besides themselves, certain select councillors, from different constituted authorities. It might be imagined, that a dignity so shorn of its lustre as that of doge would not excite an overweening ambition. But the Venetians were still jealous of extin- guished power ; and while their constitution was yet immature, the Great Council planned new methods of restricting their chief magis- trate. An oath was taken by the doge on his election, so comprehensive as to em- brace every possible check upon undue influence. He was bound not to corre- spond with foreign States, or to open their letters, except in the presence of the seigniory ; to acquire no property beyond the Venetian dominions, and to resign what he might already possess; to interpose, directly or indirectly, in no judicial process, and not to permit any citizen to use tokens of subjection in saluting him. As a further security, they devised a remarkably com- plicated mode of supplying the vacancy of his office. Election by open suffrage is always liable to tumult or corruption ; nor does the method of secret ballot, while it prevents the one, afford in practice any ade- quate security against the other. Election by lot incurs the risk of placing incapable persons in situations of arduous trust. The Venetian scheme was intended to combine the two modes without their evils, by leaving the absolute choice of their doge to electors taken by lot. It was presumed that, among a competent number of persons, though taken promiscuously, good sense and right principles would gain such an ascendancy as to prevent any flagrantly improper nomin- ation, if undue influence could be excluded. For this purpose, the ballot was rendered exceedingly complicated, that no possible ingenuity or stratagem might ascertain the electoral body before the last moment. A single lottery, if fairly conducted, is certainly sufficient for this end. At Venice, as many balls as there were members of the Great Council present, were placed in an urn. Thirty of these were gilt. The holders of gilt balls were reduced by a second ballot to nine. The nine elected forty, whom lot reduced to twelve. The twelve chose twenty-five by separate nomination. Amelot de la Houssaye asserts this ; but, according to Contareni, the method was by ballot. The twenty-five were reduced by lot to nine ; and each of the nine chose five. These forty-five were reduced to eleven as before ; the eleven elected forty-one, who were the ultimate voters for a doge. This intricacy appears useless, and consequently absurd ; but the original principle of a Venetian election (for something of the same kind was applied to all their councils and magis- trates) may not always be unworthy of imitation. In one of our best modern statutes, that for regulating the trials of contested elections, we have seen this mix- 118 70E WONDERS OF THE DEEP. ture of chance and selection very happily introduced. An hereditary prince could never have remained quiet in such trammels as were imposed upon the Doge of Venice. But early prejudice accustoms men to consider restraint, even upon themselves, as advan- tageous ; and the limitations of ducal power appeared to every Venetian as fundamental as the great laws of the English constitution do to ourselves. Many doges of Venice, especially in the middle ages, were consider- able men ; but they were content with the functions assigned to them, which, if they could avoid the tantalising comparison of sovereign princes, were enough for the am- bition of republicans. For like the chief magistrates of their country, her noble citizens for ever, they might thank her in their own name for what she gave, and in that of their posterity for what she withheld. Once only a doge of Venice was tempted to betray the freedom of the republic. Marin Falieri, a man far advanced in life, in 1255, engaged, for some petty resent- ment, in a wild intrigue to overturn the government. The conspiracy was soon discovered, and the doge avowed his guilt. An aristocracy so firm and so severe did not hesitate to order his execution in the ducal palace. For some years after what was called the closing of the Great Council, or the law of 1296, which excluded all but the families actually in possession, a good deal of dis- content showed itself among the common- alty, Several commotions took place about the beginning of the fourteenth century, with the object of restoring a more popular regimen. Upon the suppression of the last, in 1310, the aristocracy sacrificed their own individual freedom, along with that of the people, to the preservation of an imaginary privilege. They established the famous council of ten, that most remarkable part of the Venetian constitution. This council, it should be observed, consisted, in fact, of seventeen ; comprising the seigniory, or the doge and his six councillors, as well as the ten properly so called. The council of ten had by usage, if not by right, a controlling and dictatorial power over the senate and other magistrates ; rescinding their decisions, and treating separately with foreign princes. Their vast influence strengthened the exe- cutive Government, of which they formed a part, and gave a vigour to its movements, which the jealousy of the councils would possibly have impeded. But they are chiefly known as an arbitrary and inquisitorial tri- bunal, the standing tyranny of Venice. Excluding the old council of forty, a regular court of criminal judicature, not only from the investigation of treasonable charges, but of several other crimes of magnitude, they inquired, they judged, they punished, ac- cording to what they called reasons of state. The public eye never penetrated the mystery of their proceedings; the accused was sometimes not heard, never confronted with witnesses ; the condemnation was secret as the inquiry, the punishment undivulged like both. The terrible and odious ma- chinery of a police, the insidious spy, the stipendiary informer, unknown to the care- lessness of feudal Governments, found their natural soil in the republic of Venice. Tumultuous assemblies were scarcely pos- sible in so peculiar a city; and private conspiracies never failed to be detected by the vigilance of the council of ten. Com- pared with the Tuscan republics, the tran- quillity of Venice is truly striking. The names of Guelf and Ghibelin hardly raised any emotion in her streets, though the Government was considered, in the first part of the fourteenth century, as rather in- clined towards the latter party. But the wildest excesses of faction are less dis- honouring than the stillness and moral degradation of servitude. Until almost the middle of the fourteenth century, Venice had been content without any territorial possessions in Italy ; unless we reckon a very narrow strip of sea coast, bordering on her lagoons, called the Dogato. Neutral in the great contest between the Church and the Empire, between the free “IN PURPLE WAS SHE ROBED 119 cities and their sovereign, she was respected by both parties, while neither ventured to claim her as an ally. But the rapid progress of Mastino della Scala, Lord of Verona, with some particular injuries, led the senate to form a league with Florence against him. Villani mentions it as a singular honour for his country to have become the confederate of the Venetians, “who, for their great ex- cellence and power, had never allied them- selves with any State or prince, except at their ancient conquest of Constantinople and Romania.” The result of this combin- ation was to annex the district of Treviso to the Venetian dominions. But they made no further conquests in that age. On the contrary, they lost Treviso in the unfortunate war of Chioggia, and did not regain it till 1389. Nor did they seriously attempt to withstand the progress of Gian Galeazzo Visconti ; who, after overthrowing the family of Scala, stretched almost to the Adriatic, and altogether subverted for a time the balance of power in Lombardy. But upon the death of this prince in 1404, a remarkable crisis took place in that country. He left two sons, Giovanni Maria, and Filippo Maria, both young, and under the care of a mother, who was little fitted for her situation. Through her misconduct, and the selfish ambition of some military leaders, who had commanded Gian Gale- azzo's mercenaries, that extensive dominion was soon broken into fragments. Bergamo, Como, Lodi, Cremona, and other cities revolted, submitting themselves in general to the families of their former princes, the earlier race of usurpers, who had for nearly a century been crushed by the Visconti. A Guelf faction revived, after the name had long been proscribed in Lombardy. Fran- cesco da Carrara, Lord of Padua, availed himself of this revolution to get possession of Verona, and seemed likely to unite all the cities beyond the Adige. No family was so odious to. the Venetians as that of Carrara. Though they had seemed in- different to the more real danger in Gian Galeazzo’s lifetime, they took up arms against this inferior enemy. Both Padua and Verona were reduced, and the Duke of Milan ceding Vicenza, the republic of Venice came suddenly into the possession of an extensive territory. Francesco da | Carrara, who had surrendered in his capital, was put to death in prison at Venice—a cruelty perfectly characteristic of that Government, and which would hardly have been avowedly perpetrated, even in the fifteenth century, by any other State in Europe. Notwithstanding the deranged condition of the Milanese, no further attempts were made by the senate of Venice for twenty years. They had not yet acquired that decided love of war and conquest, which soon began to influence them against all the rules of their ancient policy. They were still left some wary statesmen of the old school, to check ambitious designs. Sanuto has preserved an interesting account of the wealth and commerce of Venice in those days. This is thrown into the mouth of the doge Mocenigo, whom he represents as dissuading his country, with his dying words, from undertaking a war against Milan. “ Through peace our city has every year,” he said, “ten millions of ducats employed as mercantile capital in different parts of the world ; the annual profit of our traders upon this sum amounts to four millions. Our housing is valued at 7,000,000 ducats ; its annual rent at 500,000. Three thousand merchant-ships carry on our trade; forty- three galleys, and three hundred smaller vessels, manned by 19,000 sailors, secure our naval power. Our mint has coined 1,000,000 ducats within the year. From the Milanese dominions alone we draw 1,000,000 ducats in coin, and the value of 900,000 more in cloths; our profit upon this traffic may be reckoned at 600,000 ducats. Proceeding as you have done to acquire this wealth, you will become masters of all the gold in Christendom ; but war, and especially unjust war, will lead infallibly to ruin. Already you have spent goo,oco ducats in the acquisition of Verona and 120 THLE WONDERS OF THE DEEP Padua ; yet the expense of protecting these places absorbs all the revenue which they yield. You have many among you, men of probity and experience ; choose one of these to succeed me ; but beware of Fran- cesco Foscari. If he is doge, you will soon have war, and war will bring poverty and loss of honour.” Mocenigo died, and Fos- cari became doge : the prophecies of the former were neglected ; and it cannot be wholly affirmed that they were fulfilled. Yet Venice is described, by a writer thirty years later, as somewhat impaired in opu- lence by her long warfare with the dukes of Milan. The latter had recovered a great part of their dominions as rapidly as they had lost them. Giovanni Maria, the elder brother, a monster of guilt even among the Visconti, having been assassinated, Filippo Maria assumed the government of Milan and Pavia, almost his only possessions. But though weak and unwarlike himself, he had the good fortune to employ Carmagnola, one of the greatest generals of that military age. Most of the revolted cities were tired "had been more successful. of their new masters, and their inclinations conspiring with Carmagnola’s eminent talents and activity, the house of Vis- conti reassumed its former ascendancy from the Sessia to the Adige. Its fortunes might have been still more prosperous if Filippo Maria had not rashly, as well as ungratefully, offended Carmagnola. That great captain retired to Venice, and inflamed a disposition towards war which the Florentines and the Duke of Savoy had already excited. The Venetians had previously gained some im- portant advantages in another quarter, by reducing the country of Friuli, with part of Istria, which had for many centuries de- pended on the temporal authority of a neighbouring prelate, the patriarch of Aquileia. They entered into this new alliance. No undertaking of the republic Carmagnola led on their armies, and in about two years Venice aquired Brescia and Bergamo, and, in 1426, extended her boundary to the river Adda, which she was destined never to pass, and which became the ultimate boundary of her dominion. Navar War oF YEncE AND GENOA. exploits of these two republics may afford a more interesting spectacle to some minds than any other part of Italian history. Compared with mili- tary transactions of the same age, they are more sanguinary, more brilliant, and exhibit fully as much skill and intrepidity. But maritime warfare is scanty in circum- EARLY MISFORTUNES AND FINAL SUCCESSES OF THE i VENETIANS. stances, and the indefiniteness of its locality prevents it from resting in the memory. And though the wars of Genoa and Venice were not always so unconnected with territorial politics as those of the former city with Pisa, yet, from the alternation of successes and equality of forces, they did not often produce any decisive effect. One memorable encounter in the Sea of Mar- mora, where the Genoese fought and con- quered single-handed against the Venetians, the Catalans, and the Greeks, hardly be- longs to the Italian history. BR MISFORTUNES OF PISANI 121 But the most remarkable war, and that productive of the greatest consequences, was one that commenced in 1378, after several acts of hostility in the Levant, wherein the Venetians appear to have been the principal aggressors. Genoa did not stand alone in this war. A formidable con- federacy was exerted against Venice, who had given provocation to many enemies. Of this Francis Carrara, Seignior of Padua, and the King of Hungary, were the leaders. But the principal struggle was, as usual, upon the waves. During the winter of 1378, a Genoese fleet kept the sea, and ravaged the shores of Dalmatia. The Venetian armament had been weakened by an epidemic disease; and when Vittor Pisani, their admiral, gave battle to the VITTOR PISANI, VENETIAN ADMIRAL. enemy, he was compelled to fight with a hasty conscription of landsmen against the best sailors in the world. Entirely defeated, and taking refuge at Venice with only seven galleys, Pisani was cast into prison, as if his ill-fortune had been his crime. Mean- while the Genoese fleet, augmented by a strong reinforcement, rode before the long natural ramparts that separate the lagoons of Venice from the Adriatic. Six passages intersect the islands which constitute this barrier, besides the broader outlets of Brondolo and Fossone, through which the waters of the Brenta and the Adige are discharged. The lagoon itself, as is well known, consists of extremely shallow water, unnavigable for any vessel, except along the course of artificial and intricate pas- 122 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. sages. Notwithstanding the apparent diffi- culties of such an enterprise, Pietro Doria, the Genoese admiral, determined to reduce the city. His first successes gave him reason to hope. He forced the passage, and stormed the little town of Chioggia, built upon the inside of the isle bearing that name, about twenty-five miles south of Venice. Nearly four thousand prisoners fell here into his hands: an augury, as it seemed, of a more splendid triumph. In the consternation this misfortune inspired at Venice, the first impulse was to ask for peace. The ambassadors carried with them seven Genoese prisoners, as a sort of peace- offering to the admiral, and were em- powered to make large and humiliating concessions, reserving nothing but the liberty of Venice. Francis Carrara strongly urged his allies to treat for peace. But the Genoese were stimulated by long hatred, and intoxicated by this unexpected op- portunity of revenge. Doria, calling the ambassadors into council, thus addressed them: “ Ye shall obtain no peace from us, I swear to you, nor from the Lord of Padua, till first we have put a curb in the mouths of those wild horses that stand upon the Place of St. Mark. When they are bridled, you shall have enough of peace. Take back with you your Genoese captives, for I am coming within a few days to release both them and their companions from your prisons.” When this answer was reported to the senate, they prepared to defend themselves with the characteristic firmness of their government. Every eye was turned towards a great man unjustly punished, their admiral Vittor Pisani. He was called out of prison to defend his country amidst general acclamations ; but, equal in magnanimity and simple republican patriotism to the noblest characters of antiquity, Pisani repressed the favouring voices of the multitude, and bade them reserve their enthusiasm for St. Mark, the symbol and war-cry of Venice. Under the vigorous command of Pisani, the canals were fortified or occupied by large vessels, armed with artillery; thirty-four galleys were equipped ; every citizen contributed according to his power. In the entire want of commercial resources (for Venice had not a merchant ship during this war) private plate was melted ; and the senate held out the promise of ennobling thirty families, who should be most forward in this strife of patriotism. The new fleet was so ill provided with seamen, that for some months the admiral employed them only in manceuvring along the canals. From some unaccountable supineness, or more probably from the in- superable difficulties of the undertaking, the Genoese made no assault upon the city. They had indeed fair grounds to hope its reduction by famine or despair. Every access to the continent was cut off by the troops of Padua ; and the King of Hungary had mastered almost all the Venetian towns in Istria and along the Dalmatian coast. The doge Contarini, taking the chief com- mand, appeared at length with his fleet near Chioggia, before the Genoese were aware. They were still less aware of his secret design. He pushed one of the large round vessels, then called cocc/e, into the narrow passage of Chioggia, which connects the lagoon with the sea, and mooring her athwart the channel, interrupted that com- munication. Attacked with fury by the enemy, this vessel went down on the spot, and the doge improved his advantage, by sinking loads of stones, until the passage became absolutely unnavigable. It was still possible for the Genoese fleet to follow the principal canal of the lagoon towards Venice and the northern passages, or to sail out of it by the harbour of Brondolo ; but whether from confusion or from mis- calculating the dangers of their position, they suffered the Venetians to close the canal upon them by the same means they had used at Chioggia, and even to place their fleet in the entrance of Brondolo, so near to the lagoon that the Genoese could not form their ships in line of battle. The circumstances of the two combatants were 2 PEACE OF TURIN. #2 Ww thus entirely changed. But the Genoese fleet, though besieged in Chioggia, was impregnable, and their command of the land secured them from famine. Venice, notwithstanding her unexpected success, was still very far from secure; it was difficult for the doge to keep his position through the winter ; and if the enemy could appear in open sea, the risks of combat were extremely hazardous. It is said that the senate deliberated upon transporting the seat of their liberty to Candia, and that the doge had announced his intention to raise the siege of Chioggia, if expected succours did not arrive by the 1st of January, 1380. On that very day, Carlo Zeno, an admiral who, ignorant of the dangers of his country, had been supporting the honour of her flag in the Levant, and on the coasts of Liguria, appeared with a reinforcement of eighteen galleys, and a store of pro- visions. From that moment the confidence of Venice revived. The fleet, now superior in strength to the enemy, began to attack them with vivacity. After several months of obstinate resistance, the Genoese, whom their republic had ineffectually attempted to relieve by a fresh armament, blocked up in the town of Chioggia, and pressed by hunger, were obliged to surrender. Nine- teen galleys only out of forty-eight were in good condition ; and the crews were equally diminished in the ten months of their occupation. of Chioggia. The pride of Genoa was deemed to be justly humbled ; and even her own historian confesses that God would not suffer so noble a city as Venice to become the spoil of a conqueror. Each of the two republics had sufficient reason to lament their mutual prejudices, and the selfish cupidity of their merchants, which usurps in all maritime countries the name of patriotism. Though the capture of Chioggia did not terminate the war, both parties were exhausted, and willing, next year, to accept the mediation of the Duke of Savoy. By the peace of Turin, Venice surrendered most of her territorial pos- sessions to the King of Hungary. That prince and Francis Carrara were the only gainers. Genoa obtained the isle of Tenedos, one of the original subjects of dispute—a poor indemnity for her losses. Though, upon a hasty view, the result of this war appears more unfavourable to Venice, yet in fact it is the epoch of the decline of Genoa. From this time she never commanded the ocean with such navies as before; her commerce gradually went into decay ; and the fifteenth century, the most splendid in the annals of Venice, is, till recent times, the most ignominious in those of Genoa. But this was partly owing to internal dissensions, by which her liberty, as well as glory, was for a time suspended. 124 7HE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. Prince HENRY THE NAVIGATOR. : HE fortunate issue of the expedition of the Portuguese against the Moors of Barbary in 1417 added strength to the nation, and pushed it on to new under- takings. In order to render these successful, it was neces- sary that they should be conducted by a person who possessed abilities capable of discerning what was attainable, who en- joyed leisure to form a regular system for prosecuting discovery, and who was ani- mated with ardour that would persevere in spite of obstacles and repulses. Happily for Portugal, she found all those qualities in Henry, Duke of Viseo, the fourth son of King John by Philippa of Lancaster, sister of Henry IV., King of England. That prince, in his early youth, having accom- panied his father in his expedition to Barbary, distinguished himself by many deeds of valour. To the martial spirit, which was the characteristic of every man of noble birth at that time, he added all the accomplishments of a more enlightened and polished age. He cultivated the arts and sciences, which were then unknown and despised by persons of his rank. He applied with peculiar fondness to the study of geography; and by the instruction of able masters, as well as by the accounts of travellers, he early acquired such knowledge of the habitable globe as discovered the great probability of finding new and opu- lent countries by sailing along the coast of Africa. Such an object was formed to Mis Piscoveries ON THE AFRICAN foast—jflis Pxrimery PEaTH. awaken the enthusiasm and ardour of a youthful mind, and he espoused with the utmost zeal the patronage of a design which might prove as beneficial as it appeared to be splendid and honourable. In order that he might pursue this great scheme without interruption, he retired from court immediately after his return from Africa, and fixed his residence at Sagres, near Cape St. Vincent, where the prospect of the Atlantic Ocean invited his thoughts continually towards his favourite project, and encouraged him to execute it. In this retreat he was attended by some of the most learned men in his country, who aided him in his researches. He applied for information to the Moors of Barbary, who were accustomed to travel by land into the interior provinces of Africa, in quest of ivory, gold-dust, and other rich commodities. He consulted the Jews settled in Portugal. By promises, rewards, and marks of respect, he allured into his service several persons, foreigners as well as Portuguese, who were eminent for their skill in navigation. In taking those pre- - paratory steps, the great abilities of the prince were seconded by his private virtues. His integrity, his affability, his respect for religion, his zeal for the honour of his country, engaged persons of all ranks to applaud his design and to favour the exe- cution of it. His schemes were allowed by the greater part of his countrymen to pro- ceed neither from ambition nor the desire of wealth, but to flow from the warm bene- volence of a heart eager to promote the happiness of mankind, and which justly entitled him to assume a motto for his DISCOVERY OF MADEIRA. 125 device, that described the quality, by which he wished to be distinguished—~#%e talent of doing good. His first effort, as is usual at the com mencement of any new undertaking, was extremely inconsiderable. He fitted out a single ship (1418), and giving the command of it to John Gonzalez Zarco and Tristan Vaz, two gentlemen of his household, who voluntarily offered to conduct the enter- prise, he instructed them to use their utmost efforts to double Cape Bojador, and thence to steer towards the south. They, according to the mode of navigation which still prevailed, held their course along the shore; and by following that direction, they must have encountered almost insuperable difficulties in attempt- ing to pass Cape Bojador. But fortune came in aid to their want of skill, and pre- vented the voyage from being altogether fruitless. A sudden squall of wind arose, drove them out to sea, and when they ex- pected every moment to perish, landed them on an unknown island, which from their happy escape they named Porto Santo. In the infancy of navigation, the discovery of this small island appeared a matter of such moment, that they instantly returned to Portugal with the good tidings, and were received by Henry with the applause and honour due to fortunate ad- venturers. This faint dawn of success filled a mind ardent in the pursuit of a favourite object with such sanguine hopes as were sufficient incitements to proceed. Next year (1419) Henry sent out three ships under the same commanders, to whom he joined Bartholomew Perestrello, in order to take possession of the island which they had discovered. When they began to settle in Porto Santo, they observed towards the south a fixed spot in the horizon like a small black cloud. By degrees they were led to conjecture that it might be land, and steering towards it, they arrived at a con- siderable island, uninhabited and covered with wood, which on that account they called Madeira. As it was Henry’s chief object to render his discoveries useful to his country, he immediately equipped a fleet to carry a colony of Portuguese to these islands (1420). By his provident care, they were furnished not only with the seeds, plants, and domestic animals com- mon in Europe ; but as he foresaw that the warmth of the climate and fertility of the soil would prove favourable to the rearing of other productions, he procured slips of the vine from the island of Cyprus, the rich wines of which were then in great request, and plants of the sugar-cane from Sicily, into which it had been lately intro- duced. These throve so prosperously in this new country, that the benefit of culti- vating them was immediately perceived, and the sugar and wine of Madeira quickly became articles of some consequence in the commerce of Portugal. As soon as the advantages derived from this first settlement to the west of the European continent began to be felt, the spirit of discovery appeared less chimerical and became more adventurous. By their voyages to Madeira, the Portuguese were gradually accustomed to a bolder naviga- tion, and instead of creeping servilely along the coast, ventured into the open sea. In consequence of taking this course, Gilianez, who commanded one of Prince Henrys ships, doubled Cape Bojador (1433), the boundary of the Portuguese navigation upwards of twenty years, and which had hitherto been deemed unpassable. This successful voyage, which the ignorance of the age placed on a level with the most famous exploits recorded in history, opened a new sphere to navigation, as it discovered the vast continent of Africa, still washed by the Atlantic Ocean, and stretching towards the south. Part of this was soon explored ; the Portuguese advanced within the tropics, and in the space of a few years they dis- covered the river Senegal, and all the coast extending from Cape Blanco to Cape de Verd. Hitherto the Portuguese had been guided in their discoveries, or encouraged I 126 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. to attempt them, by the light and informa- tion which they received from the works of the ancient mathematicians and geogra- phers. But, when they began to enter the torrid zone, the notion which prevailed among the ancients, that the heat, which reigned perpetually there, was so excessive as to render it uninhabitable, deterred them for some time from proceeding. Their own observations, when they first ventured into this unknown and formidable region, tended to confirm the opinion of antiquity concern- ing the violent operation of the direct rays of the sun. As far as the river Senegal the Portuguese had found the coast of Africa inhabited by people nearly resem- bling the Moors of Barbary. When they advanced to the south of that river, the human form seemed to put on a new appearance. They beheld men with skins black as ebony, with short curled hair, flat noses, thick lips, and all the peculiar fea- tures which are now known to distinguish the race of negroes. This surprising alter- ation they naturally attributed to the in- fluence of heat, and if they should advance nearer to the line, they began to dread that its effects would be still more violent. Those dangers were exaggerated, and many other objections against attempting farther discoveries were proposed by some of the grandees, who, from ignorance, from envy, or from that cold, timid prudence which rejects whatever has the air of novelty or enterprise, had hitherto condemned all Prince Henry's schemes. They repre- sented that it was altogether chimerical to expect any advantage from countries situated in that region which the wisdom and experience of antiquity had pro- nounced to be unfit for the habitation of men ; that their forefathers, satisfied with cultivating the territory which Providence had allotted them, did not waste the strength of the kingdom by fruitless pro- jects in quest of new settlements; that Portugal was already exhausted by the expense of attempts to discover lands which either did not exist, or which nature destined to remain unknown; and was drained of men who might have been em- ployed in undertakings attended with more certain success, and productive of greater benefit. But neither their appeal to the authority of the ancients, nor their reason- ings concerning the interests of Portugal, made any impression upon the determined philosophic mind of Prince Henry. The discoveries which he had already made convinced him that the ancients had little more than a conjectural knowledge of the torrid zone. He was no less satisfied that the political arguments of his opponents with respect to the interest of Portugal were malevolent and ill-founded. In those sentiments he was strenuously supported by his brother Pedro, who governed the kingdom as guardian of their nephew Alphonso V., who had succeeded to the throne during his minority (1438); and, instead of slackening his efforts, Henry continued to pursue his discoveries with fresh ardour. But, in order to silence all the murmurs of opposition, he endeavoured to obtain the sanction of the highest authority in favour of his operations. With this view, he applied to the Pope, and represented, in pompous terms, the pious and unwearied zeal with which he had exerted himself during twenty years, in discovering unknown countries, the wretched inhabitants of which were utter strangers to true religion, wan- dering in heathen darkness, or led astray by the delusions of Mahomet. He besought the holy father, to whom, as the vicar of Christ, all the kingdoms of the earth were subject, to confer on the crown of Portugal a right to all the countries possessed by infidels, which should be discovered by the industry of its subjects, and subdued by the force of its arms. He entreated him to enjoin all Christian powers, under the highest penalties, not to molest Portugal while engaged in this laudable enterprise, and to prohibit them from settling in any of the countries which the Portuguese should discover. He promised that, in all I DEATH OF PRINCE HENRY. 127 their expeditions, it should be the chief object of his countrymen to spread the knowledge of the Christian religion, to establish the authority of the holy see, and to increase the flock of the universal pastor. As it was by improving with dexterity every favourable conjuncture for acquiring new powers that the Court of Rome had gradually extended its usurpations, Eugene IV., the Pontiff to whom this application was made, eagerly seized the opportunity which now presented itself. He instantly perceived that, by complying with Prince Henry’s request, he might exercise a prero- gative no less flattering in its own nature than likely to prove beneficial in its con- sequences. A bull was accordingly issued, in which, after applauding in the strongest terms the past efforts of the Portuguese, and exhorting them to proceed in that laudable career on which they had entered, he granted them an exclusive right to all the countries which they should discover, from Cape Non to the continent of India. Extravagant as this donation, compre- hending such a large portion of the habit- able globe, would now appear even in Catholic countries, no person in the fifteenth century doubted that the Pope, in the plenitude of his apostolic power, had a right to confer it. Prince Henry was soon sensible of the advantages which he derived from this transaction. His schemes were authorized and sanctified by the bull ap- proving of them. The spirit of discovery was connected with zeal for religion, which, in that age, was a principle of such activity and vigour as to influence the conduct of nations. All Christian princes were de- terred from intruding into those countries which the Portuguese had discovered, or from interrupting the progress of their navigation and conquests. The fame of the Portuguese voyages soon spread over Europe. Men, long accus- tomed to circumscribe the activity and knowledge of the human mind within the limits to which they had been hitherto confined, were astonished to behold the sphere of navigation so suddenly enlarged, and a prospect opened of visiting regions of the globe, the existence of which was unknown in former times. The learned and speculative reasoned and formed theories concerning those unexpected discoveries. The vulgar inquired and wondered ; while enterprising adventurers crowded from every part of Europe, soliciting Prince Henry to employ them in this honourable service. Many Venetians and Genoese, in particular, who were, at that time, superior to all other nations in the science of naval affairs, entered aboard the Portuguese ships, and acquired a more perfect and extensive knowledge of their profession in that new school of navigation. In emulation of these foreigners, the Portuguese exerted their own talents. The nation seconded the designs of the prince. Private mer- chants formed companies (1446), with a view to search for unknown countries. The Cape de Verd Islands, which lie off the promontory of that name, were dis- covered (1449), and soon after the isles called the Azores. As the former of these are above three hundred miles from the African coast, and the latter nine hundred miles from any continent, it is evident, by their venturing so boldly into the open seas, that the Portuguese had, by this time, improved greatly in the art of navigation. While the passion for engaging in new undertakings was thus warm and active, it received an unfortunate check by the death of Prince Henry, whose superior knowledge had hitherto directed all the operations of the discoverers, and whose patronage had encouraged and protected them. But not- withstanding all the advantages which they derived from these, the Portuguese, during his life, did not advance, in their utmost progress towards the south, within five degrees of the equinoctial line; and, after their continued exertions for half a century (from 1412 to 1463), hardly fifteen hundred miles of the coast of Africa were discovered. To an age acquainted with the efforts of navigation in its state of maturity and 128 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. improvement, those essays of its early years must necessarily appear feeble and unskil- ful. But, inconsiderable as they may be deemed, they were sufficient to turn the curiosity of the European nations into a new channel, to excite an enterprising spirit, and to point the way to future dis- coveries. THe Farry Lire of {orumsus. PrEVIOUS ATTEMPTS TO FIND A SEA Route TO THE MONG the foreigners whom the fame of the discoveries made by the Portuguese had allured into their service, was Christopher Colon or Columbus, a subject of the re- public of Genoa. Neither the time nor place of his birth are known with certainty ; but he was descended of an honourable family, though reduced to in- digence by various misfortunes. His an- cestors having betaken themselves for subsistence to a sea-faring life, Columbus discovered, in his early youth, the peculiar character and talents which mark out a man for that profession. His parents, instead of thwarting this original propensity of his mind, seem to have encouraged and con- firmed it, by the education which they gave him. After acquiring some knowledge of the Latin tongue, the only language in which science was taught at that time, he was instructed in geometry, cosmography, astronomy, and the art of drawing. To these he applied with such ardour and predilection, on account of their connection with navigation, his favourite object, that he advanced with rapid proficiency in the study of them. Thus qualified, he went to sea at the age of fourteen (1461), and began his career on that element which conducted him to so much glory. His early voyages were to those ports in the Mediterranean which his countrymen the Genoese fre- JNDIES. quented. This being a sphere too narrow for his active mind, he made an excursion to the northern seas (1467), and visited the coasts of Iceland, to which the English and other nations had begun to resort on account of its fishery. As navigation, in every direction, was now become enterpris- ing, he proceeded beyond that island, the Thule of the ancients, and advanced several degrees within the polar circle. Having satisfied his curiosity, by a voyage which tended more to enlarge his knowledge of naval affairs than to improve his fortune, he entered into the service of a famous sea- captain, of his own name and family. This man commanded a small squadron, fitted - out at his own expense, and by cruising sometimes against the Mahometans, some- times against the Venetians, the rivals of his country in trade, had acquired both wealth and reputation. With him Colum- bus continued for several years, no less distinguished for his courage than for his experience as a sailor. At length, in an obstinate engagement, off the coast of Portugal, with some Venetian caravels, returning richly laden from the Low- Countries, the vessel on board which he served took fire, together with one of the enemy’s ships, to which it was fast grappled. In this dreadful extremity his intrepidity and presence of mind did not forsake him. He threw himself into the sea, laid hold of a floating oar, and by the support of it, and his dexterity in swimming, he reached PLANS OF. COLUMBUS. i I 1 Se es COLUMBUS UNFOLDS HIS PLANS TO FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. 129 130 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. the shore, though above two leagues distant, and saved a life reserved for great under- takings. As soon as he recovered strength for the journey, he repaired to Lisbon, where many of his countrymen were settled. They soon conceived such a favourable opinion of his merit, as well as talents, that they warmly solicited him to remain in that kingdom, where his naval skill and experience could not fail of rendering him conspicuous. To every adventurer, animated either with curiosity to visit new countries, or with am- bition to distinguish himself, the Portuguese service was at that time extremely inviting, Columbus listened with a favourable ear to the advice of his friends, and having gained the esteem of a Portuguese lady, whom he married, fixed his residence in Lisbon. This alliance, instead of detaching him from a sea-faring life, contributed to en- large the sphere of his naval knowledge, and to excite a desire of extending it still farther. His wife was a daughter of Bar- tholomew Perestrello, one of the captains employed by Prince Henry in his early navigations, and who, under his protection, had discovered and planted the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira. Columbus got possession of the journals and charts of this experienced navigator, and from them he learned the course which the Portuguese had held in making their discoveries, as well as the various circumstances which guided or encouraged them in their attempts. The study of these soothed and inflamed his favourite passion ; and while he contem- plated the maps, and read the descriptions of the new countries which Perestrello had seen, his impatience to visit them became irresistible. In order to indulge it, he made a voyage to Madeira, and continued during several years to trade with that island, with the Canaries, the Azores, the settlements in Guinea, and all the other places which the Portuguese had discovered on the continent of Africa. By the experience which Columbus ac- quired, during such a variety of voyages, to almost ®very part of the globe with which, at that time, any intercourse was carried on by sea, he was now become one of the most skilful navigators in Europe. But, not satis- fied with that praise, his ‘ambition aimed at something more. The successful progress of the Portuguese navigators had awakened a spirit of curiosity and emulation, which set every man of science upon examining all the circumstances that led to the dis- coveries which they had made, or that afforded a prospect of succeeding in any new and bolder undertaking. The mind of Columbus, naturally inquisitive, capable of deep reflection, and turned to speculations of this kind, was so often employed in re- volving the principles upon which the Portu- guese had founded their schemes of dis- covery, and the mode on which they had carried them on, that he gradually began to form an idea of improving upon their plan, and of accomplishing discoveries which hitherto they had attempted in vain. To find out a passage by sea to the East Indies, was the great object in view at that period. From the time that the Portuguese doubled Cape de Verd, this was the point at which they aimed in all their navigations, and, in comparison with it, all their dis- coveries in Africa appeared inconsiderable. The fertility and riches of India had been known for many ages; its spices and other valuable commodities were in high request throughout Europe ; and the vast wealth of the Venetians, arising from their having en- grossed this trade, had raised the envy of all nations. But how intent soever the Portuguese were upon discovering a new route to those desirable regions, they searched for it only by steering towards the south, in hopes of arriving at India, by turning to the east, after they had sailed round the farther extremity of Africa. This course was still unknown, and, even if dis- covered, was of such immense length, that a voyage from Europe to India must have appeared, at that period, an undertaking extremely arduous, and of very uncertain issue. More than half a century had been iors HIS GREAT DESIGNS. 31 employed in advancing from Cape Non to the equator ; a much longer space of time might elapse before the more extensive navigation from that to India could be accomplished. These reflections upon the uncertainty, the danger and tediousness of the course which the Portuguese were pur- suing, naturally led Columbus to consider whether a shorter and more direct passage to the East Indies might not be found out. After revolving long and seriously every circumstance suggested by his superior knowledge in the theory as well as practice of navigation, after comparing attentively the observations of modern pilots with the hints and conjectures of ancient authors, he at last concluded that, by sailing directly towards the west, across the Atlantic Ocean, new countries, which probably formed a part of the great continent of India, must infallibly be discovered. Principles and arguments of various kinds, and derived from different sources, induced him to adopt this opinion, seemingly as chimerical as it was new and extraordinary. The spherical figure of the earth was known, and its magnitude ascertained with some degree of accuracy. From this it was evi- dent that the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, as far as they were known at that time, formed but a small portion of the terraqueous globe. It was suitable to our ideas concerningthe wisdom and beneficence of the Author of Nature to believe that the vast space still unexplored was not covered entirely by a waste unprofitable ocean, but occupied by countries fit for the habitation of man. It appeared likewise extremely probable, that the continent, on this side of the globe, was balanced by a proportional quantity of land in the other hemisphere. These conclusions concerning the existence of another continent, drawn from the figure and structure of the globe, were confirmed by the observations and conjectures of modern navigators. A Portuguese pilot, having stretched farther to the West than was usual at that time, took up a piece of timber artificially carved, floating upon the sea; and as it was driven towards him by a westerly wind, he concluded that it came ° from some unknown land, situated in that quarter. Columbus’s brother-in-law had found, to the west of the Madeira Isles, a piece of timber fashioned in the same manner, and brought by the same wind ; and had seen likewise canes of an enor- mous size floating upon the waves, which resembled those described by Ptolemy as productions peculiar to the East Indies. After a course of westerly winds, trees, torn up by the roots, were often driven upon the coasts of the Azores, and at one time the dead bodies of two men with singular fea- tures, resembling neither the inhabitants of Europe nor of Africa, were cast ashore there. As the force of this united evidence, arising from theoretical principles and prac- tical observations, led Columbus to expect the discovery of new countries in the western ocean, other reasons induced him to believe that these must be connected with the continent of India. Though the ancients had hardly ever penetrated into India farther than the banks of the Ganges, yet some Greek authors had ventured to describe the provinces beyond that river. As men are prone, and at liberty, to mag- nify what is remote or unknown, they re- presented them as regions of an immense extent. Ctesias affirmed that India was as large as all the rest of Asia. Onesicritus, whom Pliny the naturalist follows, contended that it was equal to a third part of the habitable earth. Nearchus asserted that it would take four months to march in a straight line from one extremity of India to the other. The journal of Marco Polo, who had proceeded towards the East far beyond the limits to which any European had ever advanced, seemed to confirm these exaggerated accounts of the ancients. By his magnificent descriptions of the kingdoms of Cathay and Cipango, and of many other countries, the names of which were unknown in Europe, India appeared to be a region of vast extent. From these 132 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. accounts, which, however defective, were the most accurate that the people of Europe had received at that period, with respect to the remote parts of the East, Columbus drew a just conclusion. He contended that in proportion as the continent of India stretched out towards the east, it must, in consequence of the spherical figure of the earth, approach nearer to the islands which had lately been discovered to the west of Africa ; that the distance from the one to the other was probably not very consider- able ; and that the most direct as well as shortest course to the remote regions of the East, was to be found by sailing due west. This notion concerning the vicinity of India to the western parts of our con- tinent was countenanced by some eminent writers among the ancients, the sanction of whose authority was necessary, in that age, to procure a favourable reception to any tenet. Aristotle thought it probable that the Columns of Hercules, or Straits of Gibraltar, were not far removed from the East Indies, and that there might be a communication by sea between them. Seneca, in terms still more explicit, affirms that, with a fair wind, one might sail from Spain to India in a few days. The famous Atlantic island described by Plato, and supposed by many to be a real country, beyond which an unknown continent was situated, is represented by him as lying at no great distance from Spain. After weigh- ing all these particulars, Columbus, in whose character the modesty and diffidence of true genius was united with the ardent enthusiasm of a projector, did not rest with such absolute assurance either upon his own arguments or upon the authority of the ancients, as not to consult such of his con- temporaries as were capable of comprehend- ing the nature of the evidence which he produced in support of his opinion. As early as the year 1474, he communicated his ideas concerning the probability of dis- covering new countries, by sailing westwards, to Paul, a physician of Florence, eminent for his knowledge of cosmography, and who, from the learning as well as candour which he discovers in his reply, appears to have been well entitled to the confidence which Columbus placed in him. He warmly approved of the plan, suggested several facts in confirmation of it, and encouraged Columbus to persevere in an undertaking so laudable, and which must redound so much to the honour of his country, and the benefit of Europe. ever be honoured. For this Paul must DIFFICULTIES OF COLUMBUS. 133 Dirricurties of LCoLumBus IN LARRYING OUT HIS PLANS. 4 O a mind less cap- Y able of forming and of executing great designs than that of Columbus, all those reasonings and observations and authorities would have served only as the foundation of some plausible and fruitless theory, which might have fur ‘N nished matter for ingenious dis- course or fanciful conjecture. But with his sanguine and enterprising temper, specu- lation led directly to action. Fully satisfied himself with respect to the truth of his system, he was impatient to bring it to the test of experiment, and to set out upon a voyage of discovery. The first step towards this was to secure the patronage of some of the considerable powers in Europe, capable of undertaking such an enterprise. As long absence had not extinguished the affection which he bore to his native coun- try, he wished that it should reap the fruits of his labours and invention. With this view, he laid his scheme before the senate of Genoa, and making his country the first tender of his service, offered to sail under the banner of the republic, in quest of the new regions which he expected to discover. But Columbus had resided for so many years in foreign parts, that his countrymen were unacquainted with his abilities and character ; and, though a maritime people, were so little accustomed to distant voyages, that they could form no just idea of the principles on which he founded his hopes Mis PERSEVERANCE AND friNaL TrIiumPH. of success. They inconsiderately rejected his proposal, as the dream of a chimerical projector, and lost for ever the opportunity of restoring their commonwealth to its ancient splendour. Having performed what was due to his country, Columbus was so little discouraged by the repulse which he had received, that, instead of relinquishing his undertaking, he pursued it with fresh ardour. He made his next overture to John II., King of Por- tugal, in whose dominions he had been long established, and whom he considered, on that account, as having the second claim to his service. : Here every circumstance seemed to pro- mise him a more favourable reception. He applied to a monarch of an enterprising genius, no incompetent judge in naval affairs, and proud of patronizing every attempt to discover new countries. His subjects were the most experienced navi- gators in Europe, and the least apt to be intimidated either by the novelty or bold- ness of any maritime expedition. In Portu- gal, the professional skill of Columbus, as well as his personal good qualities, were thoroughly known ; and as the former ren- dered it probable that his scheme was not altogether visionary, the latter exempted him from the suspicion of any sinister intention in proposing it. Accordingly, the king listened to him in the most gracious manner, and referred the consideration of his plan to Diego Ortiz, Bishop of Ceuta, and two Jewish physicians, eminent cosmographers, whom he was ac- customed to consult in matters of this kind. 134 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. As in Genoa, ignorance had opposed and disappointed Columbus ; in Lisbon he had to combat with prejudice, an enemy no less formidable. The persons, according to whose decision his scheme was to be adopted or rejected, had been the chief directors of the Portuguese navigations, and had advised to search for a passage to India, by steering a course directly opposite to that which Columbus recommended as shorter and more certain. They could not, therefore, approve of his proposal without submitting to the double mortifica- tion of condemning their own theory and of acknowledging his superior sagacity. After teasing him with captious questions, and starting innumerable objections, with a view of betraying him into such a particular explanation of his system as might draw from him a full discovery of its nature, they deferred passing a final judgment with respect to it. In the meantime they con- spired to rob him of the honour and advan- tages which he expected from the success of his scheme, advising the king to despatch a vessel secretly, in order to attempt the proposed discovery, by following exactly the course which Columbus seemed to point out. John, forgetting on this occasion the sentiments becoming a monarch, meanly adopted this perfidious counsel. But the pilot chosen to execute Columbus’s plan had neither the genius nor the fortitude of its author. Contrary winds arose, no sight of approaching land appeared, his courage failed, and he returned to Lisbon, execrat. ing the project as equally extravagant and dangerous. Upon discovering this dishonourable transaction, Columbus felt the indignation natural to an ingenious mind, and in the warmth of his resentment determined to break off all intercourse with a nation cap- able of such flagrant treachery. He instantly quitted the kingdom, and landed in Spain towards the close of the year 1484. As he was now at liberty to court the protection of any patron whom he could engage to approve of his plan, and to carry it into execution, he resolved to propose it in person to Ferdinand and Isabella, who at that time governed the united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. Butas he had already experienced the uncertain issue of applica- tions to kings and ministers, he took the precaution of sending into England his brother Bartholomew, to whom he had fully communicated his ideas, in order that he might negotiate, at the same time, with Henry VII, who was reputed one of the most sagacious as well as opulent princes in Europe. It was not without reason that Columbus entertained doubts and fears with respect to the reception of his proposals in the Spanish court. Spain was, at that juncture, engaged in a dangerous war with Granada, the last of the Moorish kingdoms in that country. The wary and suspicious temper of Ferdinand was not formed to relish bold or uncommon designs. Isabella, though more generous and enterprising, was under the influence of her husband in all her actions. The Spaniards had hitherto made no efforts to extend navigation beyond its ancient limits, and had beheld the amazing progress of discovery among their neigh- bours the Portuguese, without one attempt to imitate or to rival them. The war with the infidels afforded an ample field to the national activity and love of glory. Under circumstances so unfavourable, it was impos- sible for Columbus to make rapid progress with a nation naturally slow and dilatory in forming all its resolutions. His character, however, was admirably adapted to that of the people, whose confidence and protec- tion he solicited. He was grave, though courteous in his deportment; circunfspect in his words and actions ; irreproachable in his morals ; and exemplary in his attention to all the duties and functions of religion. By qualities so respectable, he not only gained many private friends, but acquired such general esteem that, notwithstanding the plainness of his appearance, suitable to the mediocrity of his fortune, he was not « OPPOSITION OF SCIENCE FALSELY SO CALLED” 135 considered as a mere adventurer, to whom indigence had suggested a visionary project, but was received as a person to whose pro- positions serious attention was due. Ferdinand and Isabella, though fully occupied by their operations against the Moors, paid so much regard to Columbus as to remit the consideration of his plan to the queen’s confessor, Ferdinand de Tala- vera. He consulted such of his country- men as were supposed best qualified to decide with respect to a subject of this kind. But true science had, hitherto, made so little progress in Spain, that the pre- tended philosophers, selected to judge in a matter of such moment, did not com- prehend the first principles upon which Columbus founded his conjectures and hopes. Some of them, from mistaken notions concerning the dimensions of the globe, contended that a voyage to those remote parts of the East, which Columbus expected to discover, could not be per- formed in less than three years. Others concluded that either he would find the ocean to be of infinite extent, according to the opinion of some ancient philosophers ; or, if he should persist in steering towards the West beyond a certain point, that the convex figure of the globe would prevent his return, and that he must inevitably perish, in the vain attempt to open a communication between the two opposite hemispheres, which nature had for ever disjoined. Even without deigning to enter into any particular discussion, many rejected the scheme in general, upon the credit of a maxim, under which the ignorant and unenterprising shelter themselves in every age, “That it is presumptuous in any person to suppose that he alone possesses knowledge superior to all the rest of man- kind united.” They maintained that, if there were really any such countries as Columbus pretended; they could not have remained so long concealed, nor would the wisdom and sagacity of former ages have left the glory of this invention to an obscure Genoese pilot. It required all Columbus's patience and address to negotiate with men capable of advancing such strange propositions. He had to contend not only with the obstinacy of ignorance, but with what is still more intractable, the pride of false knowledge. After innumerable conferences, and waiting five years in fruitless endeavours to inform and to satisfy judges so little capable of deciding with propriety, Talavera, at last, made such an unfavourable report to Fer- dinand and Isabella, as induced them to acquaint Columbus that, until the war with the Moors should be brought to a period, it would be imprudent to engage in any new and extensive enterprise. Whatever care was taken to soften the harshness of this declaration, Columbus considered it as a final rejection of his proposals. But, happily for mankind, that superiority of genius which is capable of forming great and uncommon designs is usually accompanied with an ardent enthu- siasm, which can neither be cooled by delays not damped by «disappointment. Columbus was of this sanguine temper. Though he felt deeply the cruel blow given to his hopes, and retired immediately from a court where he had been amused so long with vain expectations, his confidence in the justness of his own system did not diminish, and his impatience to demonstrate the truth of it by an actual experiment became greater than ever. Having courted the protection of sovereign States without success, he applied next to persons of inferior rank, and addressed successively the Dukes of Medina Sidonia and Medina Celi, who, though subjects, were possessed of power and opulence more than equal to the enterprise which he projected. His negotiations with them proved as fruitless as those in which he had been hitherto engaged ; for these noblemen were either as little convinced by Columbus’s argu- ments as their superiors, or they were afraid of alarming the jealousy and offending the pride of Ferdinand by countenancing a scheme which he had rejected. 136 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP Amid the painful sensations occasioned by such a succession of disappointments, Columbus had to sustain the additional | distress of having received no accounts of his brother, whom he had sent to the court of England. In his voyage to that country, Bartholomew had been so unfor- tunate as to fall into the hands of pirates, who, having stripped him of everything, detained him a prisoner for several years. At length he made his escape, and arrived in London, but in such extreme indigence that he was obliged to employ himself, during a considerable time, in drawing and selling maps, in order to pick up as much money as would purchase a decent dress, in which he might venture to appear at court. He then laid before the king the proposals with which he had been entrusted by his brother, and, notwithstanding Henry's excessive caution and parsimony, which rendered him averse to new or expensive undertakings, he received Columbus’s over- tures with more approbation than any monarch to whom they had hitherto been presented. Meanwhile, Columbus being unacquainted with his brother’s fate, and having now no prospect of encouragement in Spain, re- solved to visit the court of England in person, in hopes of meeting with a more favourable reception there. He had already made preparations for this purpose, and taken measures for the disposal of his children during his absence, when Juan Perez, the guardian of the monastery of Rabida, near Palos, in which they had been educated, earnestly solicited him to defer his journey for a short time. Perez was a man of considerable learning, and of some credit with Queen Isabella, to whom he was known personally. He was warmly attached to Columbus, with whose abilities as well as integrity he had many opportunities of being acquainted. Prompted by curiosity or by friendship, he entered upon an ac- curate examination of his system, in con- junction with a physician settled in the neighbourhood, who was a considerable proficient in mathematical knowledge. This investigation satisfied them so thoroughly, with respect to the solidity of the principles on which Columbus founded his opinion, and the probability of success in executing the plan which he proposed, that Perez, in order to prevent his country from being deprived of the glory and bene- fit which must accrue to the patrons of such a grand enterprise, ventured to write to Isabella, conjuring her to consider the matter anew, with the attention which it merited. Moved by the representations of a person whom she respected, Isabella desired Perez to repair immediately to the village of Santa Fé, in which, on account of the siege of Granada, the court resided at that time, that she might confer with him upon this important subject. The first effect of their interview was a gracious invitation of Columbus back to court [1491 ],accompanied with the present of a small sum to equip him for the journey. As there was now a certain prospect that the war with the Moors would speedily be brought to a happy issue by the reduction of Granada, which would leave the nation at liberty to engage in new undertakings, this, as well as the mark of royal favour with which Columbus had lately been honoured, encouraged his friends to appear with greater confidence than formerly in sup- port of his scheme. The chief of these, Alonso de Quintanilla, comptroller of the finances in Castile, and Luis de Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues in Aragon, whose meritorious zeal in promot-- ing this great design entitles their names to an honourable place in history, introduced Columbus to many persons of high rank, and interested them warmly in his behalf. But it was not an easy matter to inspire Ferdinand with favourable sentiments. He still regarded Columbus’s project as extra- vagant and chimerical ; and in order to render the efforts of his partisans ineffectual, he had the address to employ in this new negotiation with him some of the persons DISINTERESTEDNESS OF COLUMBUS. 137 who had formerly pronounced his scheme to be impracticable. To their astonishment, Columbus appeared before them with the same confident hopes of success as formerly, and insisted upon the same high recom- pense. He proposed that a small fleet should be fitted out, under his command, to attempt the discovery, and demanded to be appointed hereditary admiral and viceroy of all the seas and land which he should discover, and to have the tenths of the profits, arising from them, settled irrevocably upon himself and his descendants. At the same time, he offered to advance the eighth part of the sum necessary for accomplishing his design, on condition that he should be entitled to a proportional share of benefit from the adventure. If the enterprise should totally miscarry, he made no stipula- tion for any reward or emolument whatever. Instead of viewing this conduct as the clearest evidence of his full persuasion with respect to the truth of his own system, or being struck with that magnanimity which, after so many delays and repulses, would stoop to nothing inferior to its original claims, the persons with whom Columbus treated began meanly to . calculate the expense of the expedition, and the value of the reward which he demanded. The expense, moderate as it was, they represented to be too great for Spain, in the present exhausted state of its finances. They con- tended that the honours and emoluments claimed by Columbus were exorbitant, even if he should perform the utmost of what he had promised ; and if all his sanguine hopes should prove illusive, such vast concessions to an adventurer would be deemed not only inconsiderate, but ridiculous. In this imposing garb of caution and prudence, their opinion appeared so plausible, and was so warmly supported by Ferdinand, that Isabella declined giving any counte- nance to Columbus, and abruptly broke off the negotiation with him which she had begun. This was more mortifying to Columbus than all the disappointments which he had hitherto met with. The invitation to court from Isabella, like an unexpected ray of light, had opened such prospects of success as encouraged him to hope that his labours were at an end; but now darkness and uncertainty returned, and his mind, firm as it was, could hardly support the shock of such an unforeseen reverse. He withdrew in deep anguish from court, with an inten- tion of prosecuting his voyage to England as his last resource. About that time Granada surrendered, and Ferdinand and Isabella, in triumphal pomp, took possession of a city [Jan. 2, 1492], the reduction of which extirpated a foreign Power from the heart of their domin- ions, and rendered them masters of all the provinces, extending from the bottom of the Pyrenees to the frontiers of Portugal. As the flow of spirits which accompanies success elevates the mind, and renders it enterprising, Quintanilla and Santangel, the vigilant and discerning patrons of Columbus, took advantage of this favourable situation, in order to make one effort more in behalf of their friend. They addressed themselves to Isabella, and after expressing some surprise that she, who had always been the munificient patroness of generous undertakings, should hesitate so long to countenance the most splendid scheme that had ever been proposed to any monarch, they represented to her that Columbus was aman of a sound understanding and virtuous character, well qualified, by his experience in navigation, as well as his knowledge of geometry, to form just ideas with respect to the structure of the globe and the situa- tion of its various regions ; that, by offering to risk his own life and fortune in the execution of his scheme, he gave the most satisfying evidence both of his integrity and hope of success ; that the sum requisite for equipping such an armamentashe demanded was inconsiderable, and the advantages which might accrue from his undertaking were immense; that he demanded no recompense for his invention and labour, but what was to arise from the countries 138 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. which he should discover; that, as it was worthy of her magnanimity to make this noble attempt to extend the sphere of human knowledge, and to open an inter- course with regions hitherto unknown, so it would afford the highest satisfaction to her piety and zeal, after re-establishing the Christian faith in .those provinces of Spain from which it had been long banished, to discover a new world, to which she might communicate the light and blessing of Divine truth ; that if now she did not decide instantly, the opportunity would be irretriev- ably lost ; that Columbus was on his way to foreign countries, where some prince, more fortunate or adventurous, would close with his proposals, and Spain would for ever bewail the fatal timidity which had excluded her from the glory and advantages that she had once in her power to have enjoyed. These forcible arguments, urged by persons of such authority, and at a juncture so well chosen, produced the desired effect. They dispelled all Isabella’s doubts and fears ; she ordered Columbus to be instantly recalled, declared her resolution of employ- ing him on his own terms, and regretting the low estate of her finances, generously offered to pledge her own jewels, in order to raise as much money as might be needed in making preparations for the voyage. Sant- angel, in a transport of gratitude, kissed the queen’s hand, and in order to save her from having recourse to such a mortifying expedient for procuring money, engaged to advance immediately the sum that was requisite. Columbus had proceeded some leagues on his journey, when the messenger from Isabella overtook him. Upon receiving an account of the unexpected revolution in his favour, he returned directly to Santa Fé, though some remainder of diffidence still mingled itself with his joy. But the cordial reception which he met with from Isabella, together with the near prospect of setting out upon that voyage which had so long been the object of his thoughts and wishes, soon effaced the remembrance of all that he had suffered in Spain during eight tedious years of solicitation and suspense. The negotia- tion now went forward with facility and dispatch, and a treaty of capitulation with Columbus was signed on the seven- teenth of April, one thousand four hundred and ninety-two. The chief articles of it were:—1. Ferdinand and Isabella, as sovereigns of the ocean, constituted Colum- bus their high admiral in all the seas, islands, and continents which should be discovered by his industry ; and stipulated that he and his heirs for ever should enjoy this office, with the same power and pre- rogatives which belonged to the high admiral of Castile, within the limits of his jurisdiction. 2. They appointed Columbus their viceroy in all the islands and continents which he should discover; but if, for the better administration of affairs, it should hereafter be necessary to establish a separate governor in any of those countries, they authorized Columbus to name three persons, of whom they would choose one for that office ; and the dignity of viceroy, with all its immunities, was likewise to be hereditary in the family of Columbus. 3. They granted to Columbus and his heirs for ever the tenth of the free profits accruing from the productions and commerce of the countries which he should discover. 4. They declared that if any controversy or law-suit shall arise with respect to any mercantile transaction in the countries which should be discovered, it should be determined by the sole authority of Columbus, or of judges to be appointed by him. 5. They permitted Columbus to advance one-eighth part of what should be expended in preparing for the expedition, and in carrying on commerce with the countries which he should discover, and entitled him, in return, to an eighth part of the profit. Though the name of Ferdinand appears conjoined with that of Isabella in this trans- action, his distrust of Columbus was still so violent that he refused to take any part in the enterprise as King of Aragon. As the COMPANIONS AND FOLLOWERS OF COLUMBUS. 139 whole expense of the expedition was to be defrayed by the Crown of Castile, Isabella reserved for her subjects of that kingdom an exclusive right to all the bene- fits which might redound from his success. Such is an account of the career of Columbus up to the time when he started on his voyage. The story of that voyage has been so often told that we shall not repeat it here. We have preferred to give less known incidents in the life of the great navigator. Suffice it to say that his efforts were gloriously successful,—that, in short, he discovered America. ‘ADVENTURES OF THE FOLLOWERS OF SOLUMBUS. E give here an ac- count of the most famous adventures of the companions and followers of Columbus. One is the search by Juan Riv ! Mee Ponce de Leon for the fountain ex of perpetual youth, supposed to be in Florida ; the other is x tho discovery (of ithe South ~~ Sea,—when, as Keats says in his magnificent sonnet, the chief and his followers stood silent, “with wild surmise upon a peak in Darien.” Juan Ponce de Leon, having acquired both fame and wealth by the reduction of Puerto Rico, was impatient to engage in some new enterprise. He fitted out three ships at his own expense, for a voyage of discovery (1512), and his reputation soon drew together a respectable body of fol- lowers. He directed his course towards the Lucayo Islands; and after touching at several of them, as well as of the Bahama Isles, he stood to the south-west, and dis- covered a country, hitherto unknown to the Spaniards, which he called Florida, either because he fell in with it on Palm Sunday, or on account of its gay and beautiful appearance. He attempted to land in different places, but met with such JOUNTAIN OF PERPETUAL YOUTH.— DISCOVERY OF THE SOUTH SEA vigorous opposition from the natives, who were fierce and warlike, as convinced him that an increase of force was requisite to effect a settlement. Satisfied with having opened a communication with a new country, of whose value and importance he conceived very sanguine hopes, he re- turned to Puerto Rico, through the chan- nel now known by the name of the Gulf of Florida. It was not merely the passion of search- ing for new countries that prompted Ponce de Leon to undertake this voyage ; he was influenced by one of those visionary ideas, which at that time often mingled with the spirit of discovery, and rendered it more active. A tradition prevailed among the natives of Puerto Rico, that in the isle of Bimini, one of the Lucayos, there was a fountain of such wonderful virtue as to renew the youth, and recall the vigour of every person who bathed in its salutary waters. In hopes of finding this grand restorative, Ponce de Leon and his fol- lowers ranged through the islands, search- ing, with fruitless solicitude and labour, for the fountain, which was the chief object of their expedition. That a tale so fabulous should gain credit among simple, unin- structed Indians is not surprising. That it should make any impression upon an enlightened people appears, in the present 140 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. age, altogether incredible. The fact, how- ever, is certain; and the most authentic Spanish historians mention this extravagant sally of their credulous countrymen. The Spaniards, at that period, were engaged in a career of activity which gave a romantic turn to their imagination, and daily pre- sented to them strange and marvellous objects. A new world was opened to their view. They visited islands and con- tinents of whose existence mankind in former ages had no conception. In those delightful countries nature seemed to assume another form: every tree, and plant, and animal, was different from those of the ancient hemisphere. They seemed to be transported into enchanted ground; and, after the wonders which they had seen, nothing, in the warmth and novelty of their admiration, appeared to them so extraordinary as to be beyond belief. If the rapid succession of new and striking scenes made such impression even upon the sound understanding of Columbus, that he boasted of having found the seat of Paradise, it will not appear strange that Ponce de Leon should dream of discover- ing the fountain of youth. Soon after the expedition to Florida, a discovery of much greater importance was made in another part of America. Balboa having been raised to the government of the small colony at Santa Maria in Darien, by the voluntary suffrage of his associates, was so extremely desirous to obtain from the Crown a confirmation of their election, that he despatched one of his officers to Spain, in order to solicit a royal com- mission, which might invest him with a - legal title to the supreme command. Con- scious, however, that he could not expect success from the patronage of Ferdinand’s , ministers, with whom he was unconnected, or from negotiating in a court to the arts of which he was a stranger, he endeavoured to merit the dignity to which he aspired, and aimed at performing some signal service that would secure him the pre- ference to every competitor. Full of this idea, he made frequent inroads into the adjacent country, subdued several of the caziques, and collected a considerable quantity of gold, which abounded more in that part of the continent than in the islands. In one of those excursions, the Spaniards contended with such eagerness about the division of some gold, that they were at the point of proceeding to acts of violence against one another. A young cazique, who was present, astonished at the high value which they set upon a thing of which he did not discern the use, tumbled the gold out of the balance with indignation ; and, turning to the Spaniards, “Why do you quarrel (says he) about such a trifle? If you are so passionately fond of gold as to abandon your own country and to disturb the tranquillity of distant nations for its sake, I will conduct you to a region where the metal which seems to be the chief object of your admiration and desire is so common that the meanest utensils are formed of it.” Transported with what they heard, Balboa and his companions inquired eagerly where this happy country lay, and how they might arrive at it. He informed them that at the distance of six suns, that is of six days’ journey towards the south, they should discover another ocean, near to which this wealthy kingdom was situated ; but if they intended to attack that powerful State, they must assemble forces far superior in number and strength to those with which they now appeared. This was the first information which the Spaniards received concerning the great southern ocean, or the opulent and ex- tensive country known afterwards by the name of Peru. Balboa had now before’ him objects suited to his boundless am- bition, and the enterprising ardour of his genius. He immediately concluded the ocean which the cazique mentioned to be that for which Columbus had searched without success in this part of America, in hopes of opening a more direct communi- cation with the East Indies; and he con- DESCRIPTION OF -THE COUNTRY. 141 jectured that the rich territory which had been described to him must be part of that vast and opulent region of the earth. Elated with the idea of performing what so great a man had attempted in vain, and eager to accomplish a discovery which he knew would be no less acceptable to the king than beneficial to his country, he was impatient until he could set out upon this enterprise, in comparison of which all his former exploits appeared inconsiderable. But previous arrangement and preparation were requisite to ensure success. He began with courting and securing the friendship of the neighbouring caziques. He sent some of his officers to Hispaniola with a large quantity of gold, as a proof of his past success, and an earnest of his future hopes. By a proper distribution of this, they secured the favour of the gover- JUAN PONCE DE LEON. nor, and allured volunteers into the service. A considerable reinforcement from that island joined him, and he thought himself in a condition to attempt the discovery. The isthmus of Darien is not above sixty miles in breadth; but this neck of land, which binds together the continents of North and South America, is strengthened by a chain of lofty mountains stretching through its whole extent, which render it a barrier of solidity sufficient to resist the impulse of two opposite oceans. The mountains are covered with forests almost inaccessible. The valleys in that moist climate, where it rains during two-thirds of the year, are marshy, and so frequently overflowed that the inhabitants find it necessary, in many places, to build their houses upon trees, in order to be elevated at some distance from the damp soil, and the odious reptiles engendered in the putrid waters. Large rivers rush down with an K 142 7HE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. impetuous current from the high grounds. In a region thinly inhabited by wandering savages, the hand of industry had done nothing to mitigate or correct those natural disadvantages. To march across this un- explored country, with no other guides but Indians, whose fidelity could be little trusted, was, on all those accounts, the boldest enterprise on which the Spaniards had hitherto ventured in the New World. But the intrepidity of Balboa was such as distinguished him among his countrymen at a period when every adventurer was conspi- cuous for daring courage (1513). Nor was bravery his only merit; he was prudent in conduct, generous, affable, and possessed of those popular talents which, in the most desperate undertakings, inspire confidence and secure attachment. Even after the junction of the volunteers from Hispaniola, he was able to muster only an hundred and ninety men for his expedition. But they were hardy veterans, inured to the climate of America, and ready to follow him through every danger. A thousand Indians attended them to carry their pro- visions; and to complete their warlike array, they took with them several of those fierce dogs, which were no less formidable than destructive to their naked enemies. Balboa set out upon this important - expedition on the first of September, about the time that the periodical rains began to abate. He proceeded by sea, and without any difficulty, to the territories of a cazique whose friendship he had gained; but no sooner did he begin to advance into the interior part of the country, than he was retarded by every obstacle which he had reason to apprehend, from the nature of the territory or the disposition of its in- habitants. Some of the caziques, at his approach, fled to the mountains with all their people, and carried off or destroyed | whatever could afford subsistence to his troops. Others collected their subjects, in order to oppose his progress; and he quickly perceived what an arduous under- | taking it was, to conduct such a body of | men through hostile nations, across swamps and rivers and woods which had never been passed but by straggling Indians. But by sharing in every hardship with the meanest soldier, by appearing the foremost to meet every danger, by promising con- fidently to his troops the enjoyment of honour and riches superior to what had been attained by the most successful of their countrymen, he inspired them with such enthusiastic resolution that they followed him without murmuring. When they had penetrated a good way into the mountains, a powerful cazique appeared in a narrow pass, with a numerous body of his subjects, to obstruct their progress. But men who had surmounted so many obstacles, despised the opposition of such feeble enemies. They attacked them with impetuosity, and. having dispersed them with much ease and great slaughter, con- tinued their march. Though their guides had represented the breadth of the isthmus to be only a journey of six days, they had already spent twenty-five in forcing their way through the woods and mountains. Many of them were ready to sink under such uninterrupted fatigue in that sultry climate, several were taken ill of the dysentery and other diseases frequent in that country, and all became impatient to reach the period of their labours and sufferings. At length the Indians assured them that from the top of the next mountain they should discover the ocean which was the object of their wishes. When, with infinite toil, they had climbed up the greater part of that steep ascent, Balboa commanded his men to halt, and advanced alone to the summit, that he might be the first who should enjoy a spectacle which he had so long desired. As soon as he be- held the South Sea stretching in endless prospect below him, he fell on his knees, and lifting up his hands to heaven, re- turned thanks to God, who had conducted him to a discovery so beneficial to his country and so honourable to himself. His followers, observing his transports of «q PEAK IN DARIEN? : 233 joy, rushed forward to join in his wonder, exultation, and gratitude. They held on their course to the shore with great alacrity, when Balboa, advancing up to the middle in the waves with his buckler and sword, took possession of that ocean in the name of the king his master, and vowed to defend it, with these arms, against all his enemies. That part of the great Pacific or Southern Ocean, which Balboa first discovered, still retains the name of the Gulf of St. Michael, which he gave to it, and is situated to the east of Panama. From several of the petty princes, who governed in the dis- tricts adjacent to that gulf, he extorted provisions and gold by force of arms. Others sent them to him voluntarily. To these acceptable presents, some of the caziques added a considerable quantity of pearls; and he learned from them, with much satisfaction, that pearl oysters abounded in the saa which he had newly discovered. Together with the acquisition of this wealth, which served to sooth and en- courage his followers, he received accounts which confirmed his sanguine hopes of future and more extensive benefits from the expedition. All the people on the coast of the South Sea concurred in informing him that there was a mighty and opulent kingdom situated at a considerable distance towards the south-east, the inhabitants of which had tame animals to carry their burdens. In order to give the Spaniards an idea of these, they drew upon the sand the figure of the llamas, or sheep, after- wards found in Peru, which the Peruvians had taught to perform such services as they described. As the llama, in its form, nearly resembles a camel, a beast of burden deemed peculiar to Asia, this circumstance, in conjunction with the discovery of the pearls, another noted production of that country, tended to confirm the Spaniards in their mistaken theory with respect to the vicinity of the New World to the East Indies. But though the information which Balboa received from the people on the coast, as well as his own conjectures and hopes, rendered him extremely impatient to visit this unknown country, his prudence re- strained him from attempting to invade it with a handful of men exhausted by fatigue and weakened by diseases. He determined to lead back his followers, at present, to their settlement at Santa Maria, in Darien, and to return next season with a force more adequate to such an arduous enterprise. In order to acquire a more extensive knowledge of the isthmus, he marched back by a different route, which he found to be no less dangerous and difficult than that which he had formerly taken. But to men elated with success, and animated with hope, nothing is insur- mountable. Balboa returned to Santa Maria (1514), from which he had been absent four months, with greater glory than almost any other of the Spanish discoverers, great as their exploits un- doubtedly were. 144 7HE WONDERS OF 70E DEEP THE Brave Deeps of Joun Fox. He PeLIvERS [AHRISTIAN PLAVES FROM fapTiviTY IN THE ERE is a brave tale of the Elizabethan period. It is the worthy enterprise of John Fox, an English- man, in delivering 266 Christians out of the cap- tivity of the Turks at Alexan- dria, on the 3rd of January, 1577. Among our merchants here in England, it is a common voyage to traffic to Spain ; whereunto a ship called the Z%ree Half Moons, manned with eight and thirty men, well fenced with munitions, the better to encounter their enemies withal, and having wind and tide, set from Ports- mouth, 1563, and bended her journey towards Seville, a city in Spain, intending there to traffic with them. And falling near the Straits, they perceived themselves to be beset round about with eight galleys of the Turks, in such wise that there was no way for them to fly or to escape away, but that either they must yield or else be sunk, which the owner perceiving, manfully en- couraged his company, exhorting them valiantly to show their manhood, showing them that God was their God, and not their enemies’, requesting them also not to faint in seeing such a heap of their enemies ready to devour them; putting them in mind also, that if it were God’s pleasure to give them into their enemies’ hands, it was not they that ought to show one displeasant look or countenance there against; but to take it patiently, and not to prescribe a day and time for their deliverance, as the citizens of Bethulia did, but to put them- selves under His mercy. And again, if it were His mind and good will to show His 5) | TurkisH FALLEYS. mighty power by them, if their enemies were ten times so many, they were not able to stand in their hands ; putting them, likewise, in mind of the old and ancient worthiness of their countrymen, who in the hardest extremities have always most pre- vailed, and gone away conquerors; yea, and where it hath been almost impossible. “Such,” quoth he, “hath been the valiant- ness of our countrymen, and such hath been the mighty power of our God.” With such other like encouragements, exhorting them to behave themselves man- fully, they fell all on their knees, making their prayers briefly unto Ged ; who, being all risen up again, perceived their enemies, by their signs and defiances, bent to the spoil, whose mercy was nothing else but cruelty ; whereupon every man took him to his weapon. Then stood up one Grove, the master, being a comely man, with his sword and target, holding them up in defiance against his enemies. So likewise stood up the owner, the master’s mate, boatswain, purser, and every man well appointed. Now like- wise sounded up the drums, trumpets, and flutes, which would have encouraged any man, had he never so little heart or courage in him. Then taketh him to his charge John Fox, the gunner, in the disposing of his pieces, in order to the best effect, and sending his bullets towards the Turks, who likewise bestowed their pieces thrice as fast towards the Christians. But shortly they drew near, so that the bowmen fell to their charge in sending forth their arrows so thick amongst the galleys, and also in doubling their shot so sore upon the galleys, MISERIES OF THE SIAVES 145 that there were twice so many of the Turks slain as the number of the Christians were in all. But the Turks discharged twice as fast against the Christians, and so long, that the ship was very sore stricken and bruised under water; which the Turks, perceiving, made the more haste to come aboard the ship; which, ere they could do, many a Turk bought it dearly with the loss of their lives. Yet was all in vain, boarded they were, where they found so hot a skirmish, that it had been better they had not meddled with the feast; for the Eng- lishmen showed themselves men indeed, in working manfully with their brown bills and halberds, where the owner, master, boat- swain, and their company stood to it so lustily, that the Turks were half-dismayed. But chiefly the boatswain showed himself valiant above the rest, for he fared amongst the Turks like a wood lion; for there was none of them that either could or durst stand in his face, till at last there came a shot from the Turks which brake his whistle asunder, and smote him on the breast, so that he fell down, bidding them farewell, and to be of good comfort, encouraging them, likewise, to win praise by death, rather than to live captives in misery and shame, which they, hearing, indeed, in- tended to have done, as it appeared by their skirmish ; but the press and store of the Turks were so great, that they were not long able to endure, but were so over- pressed, that they could not wield their weapons, by reason whereof they must needs be taken, which none of them in- tended to have been, but rather to have died, except only the master’s mate, who shrunk from the skirmish, like a notable coward, esteeming neither the value of his name, nor accounting of the present ex- ample of his fellows, nor having respect to the miseries whereunto he should be put. But in fine, so it was, that the Turks were victors, whereof they had no great cause to rejoice or triumph. Then would it have grieved any hard heart to see these infidels so violently entreating the Christians, not having any respect of their manhood, which they had tasted of, nor yet respecting their own state, how they might have met with such a booty as might have given them the overthrow ; but no remorse hereof, or any- thing else doth bridle their fierce and tyrannous dealing, but the Christians must needs to the galleys, to serve in new offices; and they were no sooner in them, but their garments were pulled over their ears, and torn from their backs, and they set to the oars. I will make no mention of their miseries, being now under their enemies’ raging stripes. I think there is no man will judge their fare good, or their bodies unloaden of stripes, and not pestered with too much heat, and also with too much cold; but I will go to my purpose, which is to show the end of those being in mere misery, which continually do call on God with a steadfast hope that He will deliver them, and with a sure faith that He can do it. Nigh to the city of Alexandria, being a haven town, and under the dominion of the Turks, there is a road, being made very fencible with strong walls, whereinto the Turks do customably bring their galleys on shore every year, in the winter season, and there do trim them, and lay them up against the spring-time; in which road there is a prison, wherein the captives and such prisoners as serve in the galleys are put for all that time, until the seas be calm and passable for the galleys, every prisoner being most grievously laden with irons on their legs, to their great pain, and sore dis- abling of them to any labour; into which prison were these Christians put and fast warded all the winter season. But ere it was long, the master and the owner, by means of friends, were redeemed, the rest abiding still in the misery, while that they were all, through reason of their ill-usage and worse fare, miserably starved, saving one John Fox, who (as some men can abide harder and more misery than other some can, so can some likewise make more shift, and work more duties to help their state 146 7HRE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. and living, than other some can do) being somewhat skilful in the craft of a barber, by reason thereof made great shift in help- ing his fare now and then with a good meal. Insomuch, till at the last God sent him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison, so that he had leave to go in and out to the road at his pleasure, paying a certain stipend unto the keeper, and wear- ing a lock about his leg, which liberty like- wise five more had upon like sufferance, who, by reason of their long imprisonment, not being feared or suspected to start aside, or that they would work the Turks any mischief, had liberty to go in and out at the said road, in such manner as this John Fox did, with irons on their legs, and to return again at night. In the year of our Lord 1577, in the winter season, the galleys happily coming to their accustomed harbourage, and being discharged of all their masts, sails, and other such furnitures as unto galleys do appertain, and all the masters and mariners of them being then nested in their own homes, there remained in the prison of the said road two hundred threescore and eight Christian prisoners who had been taken by the Turks’ force, and were of fifteen sundry nations. Among which there were three Englishmen, whereof one was named John Fox, of Woodbridge, in Suffolk; the other, William Wickney, of Portsmouth; in the county of Southampton; and the third, Robert Moore, of Harwich, in the county of Essex ; which John Fox, having been thirteen or fourteen years under their gentle entreatance, and being too weary thereof, minding his escape, weighed with himself by what means it might be brought to pass, and continually pondering with himself thereof, took a good heart unto him, in the hope that God would not be always scourging His children, and never ceasing to pray Him to further his intended enterprise, if that it should redound to His glory. Not far from the road, and somewhat from thence, at one side of the city, there | was a certain victualling house, which one | Peter Vuticaro had hired, paying also a certain fee unto the keeper of the road. This Peter Vuticaro was a Spaniard born, and a Christian, and had been prisoner above thirty years, and never practised any means to escape, but kept himself quiet without touch or suspect of any conspiracy, until that now this John Fox using much thither, they break one to another their minds, concerning the restraint of their liberty and imprisonment. So that this John Fox, at length opening unto this Vuticaro the device which he would fain put in practice, made privy one more to this their intent; which three debated of this matter at such times as they could compass to meet together, insomuch that, at seven weeks’ end they had sufficiently concluded how the matter should be, if it pleased God to further them thereto ; who, making five more privy to this their device, whom they thought that they might safely trust, determined in three nights after to ac complish their deliberate purpose. Where- upon the same John Fox and Peter Vuti- caro, and the other five appointed to meet altogether in the prison the next day, being the last day of December, where this John Fox certified the rest of the prisoners what their intent and device was, and how and when they minded to bring that purpose to pass, who thereunto persuaded them with- out much ado to further their device; which, the same John Fox seeing, delivered unto them a sort of files, which he had gathered together for this purpose by the means of Peter Vuticaro, charging them that every man should be ready, discharged of his irons, by eight of the clock on the next day at night. On the next day at night, the said John Fox, and his five other companions, being all come to the house of Peter Vuticaro, passing the time away in mirth for fear of suspect till the night came on, so that it was time for them to put in practice their device, sent Peter Vuticaro to the master of the road, in the name of one of the A PERILOUS TIME. 147 masters of the city, with whom this keeper was acquainted, and at whose request he also would come at the first ; who desired him to take the pains to meet him there, promising him that he would bring him back again. The keeper agreed to go with him, asking the warders not to bar the gate, saying that he would not stay long, but would come again with all speed. In the mean-season, the other seven had provided them of such weapons as they could get in that house, and John Fox took him to an old rusty sword-blade with- out either hilt or pommel, which he made to serve his turn in ‘bending the hand end of the sword instead of a pommel, and the other had got such spits and glaves as they found in the house. The keeper being now come unto the house, and perceiving no light nor hear- ing any noise, straightway suspected the matter ; and returning backward, John Fox, standing behind the corner of the house, stepped forth unto him; who, per- ceiving it to be John Fox, said, “O Fox, what have I deserved of thee that thou shouldest seek my death?” ¢ Thou villain,” quoth Fox, “hast been a bloodsucker of many a Christian’s blood, and now thou shalt know what thou hast deserved at my hands,” wherewith he lift up his bright shining sword of ten years’ rust, and stroke him so main a blow, as therewithal his head clave asunder so that he fell stark dead to the ground. Whereupon Peter Vuticaro went in and certified the rest how the case stood with the keeper, and they came presently forth, and some with their spits ran him through, and the other with their glaves hewed him in sunder, cut off his head, and mangled him so that no man should discern what he was. Then marched they toward the road, whereinto they entered softly, where were five warders, whom one of them asked, saying, who was there? Quoth Fox and his company, “ All friends.” Which when they were all within proved contrary ; for, quoth Fox, “ My masters, here is not to every man a man, wherefore look you, play your parts.” Who so behaved themselves indeed, that they had despatched these five quickly. Then John Fox, intending not to be barren of his enterprise, and minding to work surely in that which he went about, barred the gate surely, and planted a can- non against it. Then entered they into the jailer’s lodge, where they found the keys of the fortress and prison by his bedside, and there got they all better weapons. In this chamber was a chest wherein was a rich treasure, and all in ducats, which this Peter Vuticaro and two more opening, stuffed themselves so full as they could between their shirts and their skin ; which John Fox would not once touch, and said, “ that it was his and their liberty which he fought for, to the honour of his God, and not to make a mart of the wicked treasure of the infidels.” Yet did these words sink nothing unto their stomachs ; they did it for a good intent. So did Saul save the fattest oxen to offer unto the Lord, and they to serve their own turn. But neither did Saul scape the wrath of God therefor, neither had these that thing which they desired so, and did thirst’ after. Such: is God's justice. He that they put their trust in to deliver them from the tyrannous hands of their enemies, He, I say, could supply their want of necessaries. Now these eight, being armed with such weapons as they thought well of, thinking themselves sufficient champions to en- counter a stronger enemy, and coming unto the prison, Fox opened the gates and doors thereof, and called forth all the prisoners, whom he set, some to ramming up the gate, some to the dressing up of a certain galley which was the best in all the road, and was called Zhe Captain of Alexandria, where- into some carried masts, sails, oars, and other such furniture as doth belong unto a galley. At the prison were certain warders whom John Fox and his company slew, in the killing of whom there were eight more of 148 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP the Turks which perceived them, and got them to the top of the prison, unto whom John Fox and his company were fain to come by ladders, where they found a hot skirmish, for some of them were there slain, some wounded, and some but scarred, and not hurt. As John Fox was thrice shot through his apparel, and not hurt, Peter Vuticaro and the other two, that had armed them with the ducats, were slain, as not able to wield themselves, being so pestered with the weight and uneasy carrying of the wicked and profane treasure; and also divers Christians were as well hurt about that skirmish as Turks slain. Amongst the Turks was one thrust through, who (let us not say that it was ill- fortune) fell off from the top of the prison wall, and made such a groaning that the inhabitants thereabout (as here and there stood a house or two), came and questioned him, so that they understood the case, how that the prisoners were paying their ran- soms ; wherewith they raised both Alex- andria, which lay on the west side of the road, and a castle which was at the city’s end next to the road, and also another fortress which lay on the north side of the road, so that now they had no way to escape but one, which by man’s reason (the two holds lying so upon the mouth of the road) might seem impossible to be a way for them. So was the Red Sea im- possible for the Israelites to pass through, the hills and rocks lay so on the one side, and their enemies compassed them on the other. So was it impossible that the walls of Jericho should fall down, being neither undermined nor yet rammed at with engines, nor yet any man’s wisdom, policy, or help set or put thereunto. Such im- possibilities can our God make possible. He that held the lions’ jaws from rending Daniel asunder, yea, or yet from once touching him to his hurt, cannot He hold the roaring cannons of this hellish force? He that kept the fire’s rage in the hot burning oven from the three children that praised His name, cannot He keep the fire’s flaming blasts from among His elect? Now is the road fraught with lusty sol- diers, labourers, and mariners, who are fain to stand to their tackling, in setting to every man his hand, some to the carrying in of victuals, some munitions, some oars, and some one thing some another, but most are keeping their enemy from the wall of the road. But to be short, there was no time misspent, no man idle, nor any man’s labour ill-bestowed or in vain. So that in short time this galley was ready trimmed up. Whereinto every man leaped in all haste, hoisting up the sails lustily, yielding themselves to His mercy and grace, in whose hands is both wind and weather. Now is this galley afloat, and out of the shelter of the road; now have the two castles full power upon the galley ; now is there no remedy but to sink. How can it be avoided? The cannons let fly from both sides, and the galley is even in the middest between them both. What man can devise to save it? There is no man but would think it must needs be sunk. There was not one of them that feared the shot which went thundering round about their ears, nor yet were once scarred cr touched with five-and-forty shot which came from the castles. Here did God hold forth His buckler, He shieldeth now this galley, and hath tried their faith to the uttermost. Now cometh His special help; yea, even when man thinks them past all help, then cometh He Himself down from heaven with his mighty power, then is His present remedy most ready. For they sail away, being not once touched by the glance of a shot, and are quickly out of the Turkish cannons’ reach. Then might they see them coming down by heaps to the water’s side, in companies like unto swarms of bees, making show to come after them with galleys, bustling themselves to dress up the galleys, which would be a swift piece of work for them to do, for that they had neither oars, masts, sails, nor any- PRAYER HINDERS NO MAN. 149 thing else ready in any galley. But yet they are carrying into them, some into one galley, and some into another, so that, being such a confusion amongst them, without any certain guide, it were a thing impossible to overtake the Christians ; beside that, there was no man that would take charge of a galley, the weather was so rough, and there was such an amazedness amongst them. And verily, I think their god was amazed thereat; it could not be but that he must blush for shame, he can speak never a word for dulness, much less can he help them in such an extremity. Well, howsoever it is, he is very much to blame to suffer them to receive such a gibe. But howsoever their god behaved himself, our God showed Himself a God indeed, and that He was the only living God ; for the seas were swift under His faithful, which made the enemies aghast to behold them ; a skilfuller pilot leads them, and their mariners bestir them lustily; but the Turks had neither mariners, pilot, nor any skilful master, that was in readiness at this pinch. When the Christians were safe out of the enemy’s coast, John Fox called to them all, telling them to be thankful unto Almighty God for their delivery, and most humbly to fall down upon their knees, beseeching Him to aid them to their friends’ land, and not to bring them into another danger, since He had most mightily delivered them from so great a thraldom and bondage. Thus when every man had made his peti- tion, they fell straightway to their labour with the oars, in helping one another when they were wearied, and with great labour striv- ing to come to some Christian land, as near as they could guess by the stars. But the winds were so contrary, one while driving them this way, another while that way, so that they were now in a new maze, thinking that God had forsaken them and left them to a greater danger. And forasmuch as there were no victuals now left in the galley, it might have been a cause to them (if they had been the Israelites) to have murmured against theit God ; but they knew how that their God, who had delivered Israel, was such a loving and merciful God, as that He would not suffer them to be confounded in whom He had wrought so great a wonder, but what calamity soever they sustained, they knew it was but for their further trial, and also (in putting them in mind of their further misery) to cause them not to triumph and glory in themselves therefor. Having, I say, no victuals in the galley, it might seem one misery continually to fall upon another’s neck ; but to be brief, the famine grew to be so great that in twenty- eight days, wherein they were on the sea, there died eight persons, to the astonish- ment of all the rest. So it fell out that upon the twenty-ninth day after they set from Alexandria, they fell on the isle of Candia, and landed at Galli- poli, where they were made much of by the abbot and monks there, who caused them to stay there while they were well refreshed and eased. They kept there the sword wherewith John Fox had killed the keeper, esteeming it as a most precious relic, and hung it up for a monument. When they thought good, having leave to depart from thence, they sailed along the coast till they arrived at Tarento, where they sold their galley, and divided it, every man having a part thereof. The Turks, on receiving so shameful a foil at their hands, pursued the Christians, and scoured the seas, where they could imagine that they had bent their course. And the Christians had departed from thence on the one day in the morning and seven galleys of the Turks came thither that night, as it was certified by those who followed Fox and his company, fearing lest they should have been met with. And then they came afoot to Naples, where they departed asunder, every man taking him to ‘his next way home. From whence John Fox took his journey unto Rome, where he was well entertained by an Englishman who pre- sented his worthy deed unto the Pope, who rewarded him liberally, and gave him letters unto the King of Spain, where he 150 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. was very well entertained of him there, who for this his most worthy enterprise gave him in fee twenty pence a day. From whence, being desirous to come into his own country, he came thither at such time as he conveniently could, which was in the year of our Lord God 1579; who being come into England went unto the Court, and showed all his travel unto the Council, who considering of the state of this man, in that he had spent and lost a great part of his youth in thraldom and bondage, ex- tended to him their liberality, to help to maintain him now in age, to their right honour and to the encouragement of all true-hearted Christians. Tue HomewarRD Yovage oF THE Five SHIPS FROM JURKEY. THEIR fiGHT WITH THE YESSELS OF THE King /- HERE is an Eliza- bethan story of a worthy fight per- formed, in a voyage from Turkey, by five ships from London against eleven galleys and two frigates of the King of Spain. It is written by one Philip Jones, who gives us the following account :— “The merchants of London, being of the incorporation for the Turkey trade, having received intelligences and advertise- ments from time to time that the King of Spain, grudging at the prosperity of this kingdom, had not only of late arrested all English ships, bodies, and goods in Spain, but also, maligning the quiet traffic which they used, to and in the dominions and provinces under the obedience of the Great Turk, had given orders to the captains of his galleys in the Levant to hinder the passage of all English ships, and to en- deavour by their best means to intercept, take, and spoil them, their persons and goods ; they hereupon thought it their best OF SPAIN. course to set out their fleet for Turkey in such strength and ability for their defence that the purpose of their Spanish enemy might the better be prevented, and the voyage accomplished with greater security to the men and ships. For which cause five tall and stout ships, appertaining to London and intending only a merchant’s voyage, were provided and furnished with all things belonging to the seas, the names whereof were these :— 1. The Merchant Royal, a very brave and goodly ship, and of great report. 2. The Zody. 3. The Edward Bonaventure. 4. The William and john. 5. The Susan. These five departing from the coast of England in the month of November, 1583, kept together as one fleet till they came as high as the isle of Sicily, within the Levant. And there, according to the order and direction of the voyage, each ship began to take leave of the rest, and to separate himself, setting his course for the particular port whereunto he was bound—one for Tripolis in Syria, another for Constanti- nople, the chief city of the Turk’s empire, IN THE PORT OF ZANTE. I5I situated upon the coast of Roumelia, called of old Thracia, and the rest to those places whereunto they were privately appointed. But before they divided themselves, they all together consulted of and about a certain and special place for their meeting again after the lading of their goods at their several ports. And in conclusion, the general agreement was to meet at Zante, an island near to the main continent of the west part of Morea, well known to all the pilots, and thought to be the fittest place for their rendezvous; concerning which meeting it was also covenanted on each side and promised, that whatsoever ship of these five should first arrive at Zante, should there stay and expect the coming of the rest of the fleet for the space of twenty days. This being done, each man made his best haste, according as wind and weather would serve him, to fulfil his course and to despatch his business ; and no need was there to admonish or encourage any man, seeing no time was ill-spent nor opportunity omitted on any side in the performance of each man’s duty, according to his place.’ It fell out that the Zvby, which was bound for Constantinople, had made such good speed, and gotten such good weather, that she first of all the rest came back to the appointed place of Zante, and not for- getting the former conclusion, did there cast anchor, attending the arrival of the ‘rest of the fleet, which accordingly (their business first performed) failed not to keep promise. The first next after the Zvby was the Royal Merchant, which, together with the William and John, came from Tripolis in Syria, and arrived in Zante within the compass of the aforesaid time limited. These ships, in token of the joy on all parts conceived for their happy meeting, spared not the discharging of their ord- nance, the sounding of drums and trumpets, the spreading of ensigns, with other warlike and joyful behaviours, expressing by these outward signs the inward gladness of their minds, being all as ready to join together in mutual consent to resist the cruel enemy as now in sporting manner they made mirth and pastime among themselves. These three had not been long in the haven but the Edward Bonaventure, to- gether with the Swsaz her consort, were come from Venice with their lading, the sight of whom increased the joy of the rest, and they, no less glad of the presence of the others, saluted them in most friendly and kind sort, according to the manner of the seas. And whereas some of these ships stood at that instant in some want of vic- tuals, they were all content to stay in the port till the necessities of each ship were supplied, and nothing wanted to set out for their return. In this port of Zante the news was fresh and current of two several armies and fleets, provided by the King of Spain, and lying in wait to intercept them : the one consist- ing of thirty strong galleys, so well appointed in all respects for the war that no necessary thing wanted, and this fleet hovered about the Straits of Gibraltar. The other army had in it twenty galleys, whereof some were of Sicily and some of the island of Malta, under the charge and government of John Andreas Dorea, a captain of name serving the King of Spain. These two divers and strong fleets waited and attended in the seas for none but the English ships, and no doubt made their account and sure reckon- ing that not a ship should escape their fury. And the opinion also of the inhabi- tants of the isle of Zante was, that in respect of the number of galleys in both these armies having received such strait commandment from the king, our ships and men being but few and little in comparison of them, it was a thing in human reason impossible that we should pass either with- out spoiling, if we resisted, or without com- position at the least, and acknowledgment of duty to the Spanish king. But it was neither the report of the attendance of these armies, nor the opinions of the people, nor anything else, that could daunt or dismay the courage of 152 7HE WONDERS OF THE DEEP our men, who, grounding themselves. upon the goodness of their cause and the promise of God to be delivered from such as without reason sought their destruction, carried re- solute minds notwithstanding all impedi- ments to adventure through the seas, and to finish their navigation maugre the beards of the Spanish soldiers. But lest they should seem too careless and too secure of their estate, and by laying the whole and entire burden of their safety upon God’s providence should foolishly presume altogether of His help, and neglect the means which was put into their hands, they failed not to enter into counsel among themselves and to deliberate advisedly for their best defence. And in the end, with general consent, the Merchant Royal was appointed Admiral of the fleet and the Zoby Vice-Admiral, by whose orders the rest promised to be directed, and each ship vowed not to break from another whatsoever extremity should fall out, but to stand to it to the death, for the honour of their country and the frustrating of the hope of the ambitious and proud enemy. Thus in good order they left Zante and the Castle of Grecia, and committed them- selves again to the seas, and proceeded in their course and voyage in quietness, with- out sight of any enemy till they came near to Pantalarea, an island so called be- twixt Sicily and the coast of Africa; into sight whereof they came the 13th day of July, 1586. And the same day, in the morning, about seven of the clock, they descried thirteen sails in number, which were of the galleys lying in wait of purpose for them in and about that place. As soon as the English ships had spied them, they by-and-by, according to a common order, made themselves ready for a fight, laid out their ordnance, scoured, charged, and primed them, displayed their ensigns, and left nothing undone to arm themselves thoroughly. In the meantime, the galleys more and more approached the ships ; and in their banners there appeared the arms of the isles of Sicily and Malta, being all as then in the service and pay of the Spaniard. Immediately both the admirals of the galleys sent from each of them a frigate to the admiral of our English ships, which being come near them, the Sicilian frigate first hailed them, and demanded of them whence they were; they answered that they were of England, the arms whereof appeared in their colours. Whereupon the said frigate expostulated with them, and asked why they delayed to send or come with their captains and pursers to Don Pedro de Leiva, their General, to acknowledge their duty and obedience to him, in the name of the Spanish king, lord of those seas. Our men replied and said that they owed no such duty nor obedience to him, and therefore would acknowledge none ; but commanded the frigate to de- part with that answer, and not to stay longer upon her peril. With that away she went; and up came towards them the other frigate of Malta; and she in like sort hailed the admiral, and would needs know whence they were and where they had been. Our Englishmen in the admiral, not disdaining an answer, told them that they were of England, merchants of Lon- don, had been in Turkey, and were now returning home ; and to be requited in this case, they also demanded of the frigate whence she and the rest of the galleys were. The messenger answered, ‘We are of Malta, and for mine own part, my name is Cavalero. These galleys are in service and pay to the King of Spain, under the conduct of Don Pedro de Leiva, a noble- man of Spain, who hath been commanded hither by the king with this present force and army of purpose to intercept you. You shall therefore,” quoth he, ‘do well to repair to him to know his pleasure; he is a nobleman of good behaviour and courtesy, and means you no ill.’ The captain of the English Admiral, whose name was Master Edward Wilkinson, now one of the six masters of Her Majesty's Royal Navy, replied and said, ‘We pur- pose not at this time to make trial of Don “HAVE THESE ENGLISHMEN YIELDED. 153 Pedro his courtesy, whereof we are sus- picious and doubtful, and not without good cause ;’ using withal good words to the messenger, and willing him to come aboard him, promising security and good usage, that thereby he might the better know the Spaniard’s mind. Whereupon he indeed left his frigate and came aboard him, whom he entertained in friendly sort, and caused a cup of wine to be drawn for him, which he took, and: began, with his cap in his hand and with reverent terms, to drink to the health of the Queen of England, speak- ing very honourably of Her Majesty, and giving good speeches of the courteous usage and entertainment that he himself had received in London at the time that the Duke of Alencon, brother to the late French king, was last in England. And after he had well drunk, he took his leave, speaking well of the sufficiency and good- ness of our ships, and especially of the Merchant Royal, which he confessed to have seen before riding in the Thames near London. He was no sooner come to Don Pedro de Leiva, the Spanish General, but he was sent off again, and returned to the English Admiral, saying that the plea- sure of the General was this, that either their captains, masters, and pursers should come to him with speed, or else he would set upon them, and either take them or sink them. The reply was made by Master Wilkinson aforesaid that not a man should come to him ; and for the brag and threat of Don Pedro, it was not that Spanish bravado that should make them yield a jot to their hindrance, but they were as ready to make resistance as he to offer an injury. Whereupon Cavalero the messenger left bragging, and began to persuade them in quiet sort and with many words ; but all his labour was to no purpose, and as his threat did nothing terrify them, so his per- suasion did nothing move them to do that which he required. At the last he entreated to have the merchant of the Admiral carried by him as a messenger to the General, that ~ 50 he might be satisfied and assured of their minds by one of their own company. But Master Wilkinson would agree to no such thing ; although Richard Rowit, the mer- chant himself, seemed willing to be em- ployed in that message, and laboured by reasonable persuasions to induce Master Wilkinson to grant it—as hoping to be an occasion by his presence and discreet answers to satisfy the General, and thereby to save the effusion of Christian blood, if it should grow to a battle. And he seemed so much the more willing to be sent, by how much deeper the oaths and protesta- tions of this Cavalero were, that he would (as he was a true knight and a soldier) de- liver him back again in safety to his com- pany. Albeit, Master Wilkinson, who, by his long experience, had received sufficient trial of Spanish inconstancy and perjury, wished him in no case to put his life and liberty in hazard upon a Spaniard’s oath ; but at last, upon much entreaty, he yielded to let him go to the General, thinking indeed that good speeches and answers of reason would have contented him, whereas, other- wise, refusal to do so might peradventure have provoked the more discontentment. ~ Master Rowit, therefore, passing to the Spanish General, the rest of the galleys, having espied him, thought, indeed, that the English were rather determined to yield than to fight, and therefore came flocking about the frigate, every man cry- ing out, ‘Que nucvas ? que nuevas? Have these Englishmen yielded?’ The frigate answered, ‘Not so ; they neither have nor purpose to yield. Only they have sent a man of their company to speak with our General” And being come to the galley wherein he was, he showed himself to Master Rowit in his armour, his guard of soldiers attending upon him, in armour also, and began to speak very proudly in this sort: ‘Thou Englishman, from whence is your fleet? Why stand ye aloof off? know ye not your duty to the Catholic king, whose person I here represent? Where are your bills of lading, your letters, passports, and the chief of your men? Think ye my 154 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP attendance in these seas to be in vain, or my person to no purpose? Let all these things be done out of hand, as I command, upon pain of my further displeasure, and the spoil of you all” These words of the Spanish General were not so outrageously pronounced as they were mildly answered by Master Rowit, who told him that they were all merchantmen, using traffic in honest sort, and seeking to pass quietly, if they were not urged further than reason. As for the King of Spain, he thought (for his part) that there was amity betwixt him and his Sovereign, the Queen of Eng- land, so that neither he nor his officers should go about to offer any such injury to English merchants, who, as they were far from giving offence to any man, so they would be loth to take an abuse at the hands of any, or sit down to their loss, where their ability was able to make de- fence. And as touching his commandment aforesaid for the acknowledging of duty in such particular sort, he told him that, where there was no duty owing there none should be performed, assuring him that their whole company and ships in general stood reso- lutely upon the negative, and would not yield to any such unreasonable demand, joined with such imperious and absolute manner of commanding. ‘Why, then,” said he, ‘if they will neither come to yield, nor show obedience to me in the name of my king, I will either sink them or bring them to harbour; and so tell them from me.” With that the frigate came away with Master Rowit, and brought him aboard to the English Admiral again, according to promise, who was no sooner entered in but by-and-by defiance was sounded on both sides. The Spaniards hewed off the noses of the galleys, that nothing might hinder the level of the shot; and the English, on the other side, courageously prepared them- selves to the combat, every man, according to his room, bent to perform his office with alacrity and diligence. In the meantime a cannon was discharged from out the Ad- miral of the galleys, which, being the onset ‘honour thereof shall be thine!’ of the fight, was presently answered by the English Admiral with a culverin; so the skirmish began and grew hot and terrible. There was no powder nor shot spared, each English ship matched itself in good order against two Spanish galleys, besides the inequality of the frigates on the Spanish side. And although our men performed their parts with singular valour, according to their strength, insomuch that the enemy, as amazed therewith, would oftentimes pause and stay, and consult what was best to be done, yet they ceased not in the midst of their business to make prayer to Almighty God, the revenger of all evils and the giver of victories, that it would please Him to assist them in this good quarrel of theirs, in defending themselves against so proud a tyrant, to teach their hands to war and their fingers to fight, that the glory of the victory might redound to His name, and to the honour of true religion, which the in- solent enemy sought so much to overthrow. Contrarily, the foolish Spaniards, they cried out, according to their manner, not to God, but to our Lady (as they term the Virgin Mary) saying, ‘Oh, Lady, help! Oh, blessed Lady, give us the victory, and the Thus with blows and prayers on both sides, the fight continued furious and sharp, and doubtful a long time to which part the victory would incline, till at last the Admiral of the galleys of Sicily began to warp from the fight, and to hold up her side for fear of sinking, and after her went also two others in like case, whom all the sort of them enclosed, labour- ing by all their means to keep them above water, being ready by the force of English shot which they had received to perish in the seas. And what slaughter was done among the Spaniards the English were uncertain, but by a probable conjecture apparent afar off they supposed their loss was so great that they wanted men to con- tinue the charging of their pieces; where- upon with shame and dishonour, after five hours spent in the battle, they withdrew themselves. And the English, contented Reta eel a THE PRAISE OF THE ENGLISH. 155 in respect of their deep lading rather to continue their voyage than to follow in the chase, ceased from further blows, with the loss of only two men slain amongst them all, and another hurt in his arm, whom Master Wilkinson, with his good words and friendly promises, did so comfort that he nothing esteemed the smart of his wound, in respect of the honour of the victory and the shameful repulse of the enemy. Thus, with dutiful thanks to the mercy of God for His gracious assistance in that danger, the English ships proceeded in their navigation. And coming as high as Algiers, a port town upon the coast of Barbary, they made for it, of purpose to refresh themselves after their weariness, and to take in such supply of fresh water and victuals as they needed. They were no sooner entered into the port, but imme- diately the king thereof sent a messenger to the ships to know what they were. With which messenger the chief master of every ship repaired to the king, and acquainted him not only with the state of their ships in respect of merchandise, but with the late fight which they had passed with the Spanish galleys, reporting every particular circumstance in word as it fell out in action; whereof the said king showed himself marvellous glad, entertain- ing them in the best sort, and promising abundant relief of all their wants ; making general proclamation in the city, upon pain of death, that no man, of what degree or state soever he were, should presume either to hinder them in their affairs or to offer them any manner of injury in body or goods; by virtue whereof they despatched all things in excellent good sort with all favour and peaceableness. Only such prisoners and captives of the Spaniards as were in the city, seeing the good usage: which they received, and hearing also what service they had performed against the fore- said galleys, grudged exceedingly against them, and sought as much as they could to practise some mischief against them. And one amongst the rest, seeing an Englishman alone in a certain lane of the city, came upon him suddenly, and with his knife thrust him in the side, yet made no such great wound but that it was easily recovered. The English company, hearing of it, acquainted the king of the fact; who immediately sent both for the party that had received the wound and the offender also, and caused an executioner, in the pre- sence of himself and the English, to chastise the slave even todeath, which was performed, to the end that no man should presume to commit the like part or to do anything in contempt of his royal commandment. The English, having received this good justice at the king’s hands, and all other things that they wanted or could crave for the furnishing of their ships, took their leave of him, and of the rest of their friends that were resident in Algiers, and put out to sea, looking to meet with the second army of the Spanish king, which waited for them about the mouth of the Strait of Gibraltar, which they were of necessity to pass. But coming near to the said strait, it pleased God to raise, at that instant, a very dark and misty fog, so that one ship could not discern another if it were forty paces off, by means whereof, together with the notable fair Eastern winds that then blew most fit for their course, they passed with great speed through the strait, and might have passed, with that good gale, had there been five hundred galleys to withstand them and the air never so clear for every ship to be seen. But yet the Spanish galleys had a sight of them, when they were come within three English miles of the town, and made after them with all possible haste ; and although they saw that they were far out of their reach, yet in a vain fury and foolish pride, they shot off their ordnance and made a stir in the sea as if they had been in the midst of them, which vanity of theirs ministered to our men notable matter of pleasure and mirth, see- ing men to fight with shadows and to take so great pains to so small purpose. But thus it pleased God to deride and 156 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. delude all the forces of that proud Spanish king, which he had provided of purpose to distress the English ; who, notwithstanding, passed through both his armies—in the one, little hurt, and in the other, nothing touched, to the glory of His immortal name, the honour of our prince and coun- try, and the just commendation of each man’s service performed in that voyage.” Such is his account. iA Great Tipp River—0QLp FATHER THAMES. Js ffonNECTION WITH ENcLisH MisTorY AND JireraTURE. v7. HE Thames is not i the sea indeed; but it has a very intimate connec- tion with it. tide flows far up between its banks, and it connects the greatest city in the world, and the capital of the greatest maritime empire of ancient or modern times with the sea, from which its glory springs. Hence the fitness of its introduction into this volume. The Thames is indeed connected in a peculiarly intimate manner with all that relates to the English nation. What river has such a noble history? What river has such countless wealth in stately ships on its bosom, or in huge storehouses on its banks? Great poets have sung its praises, mighty sovereigns have rowed on its waters, England’s most famous buildings are reared beside it. Our illustration represents two scenes from the past annals of the river. In one, Edward the Third receives the poet Gower into the royal barge. In the other, we have a picture of a great London building long since destroyed. This was the Savoy The, Palace, which belonged to the famous John of Gaunt. He held the earldom of Derby, of which Castleton Castle, built by Peveril of the Peak, a natural son of the Con- queror, formed a part. This place has been frequently referred to by many great writers. Gaunt possessed also the Honor of Hertford; and at Hertford Castle he and the rest of the chivalric family of Edward III paid many generous attentions to the French King John, their guest and prisoner. The London palace of Gaunt, the Savoy, was John’s assigned residence. Here, we are told, every effort was made to make him forget that he was a captive, but this was impossible; when he was en- treated to lay aside his melancholy, and derive consolation from cheerful thoughts, John smiled mournfully, and answered in the words of the sweet Psalmist of Israel, “ How shall we sing in a strange land ? ” The dukedom of Lancaster, as held by Gaunt, was a sort of petty kingdom, of which the town of Lancaster was the capital. This prince was extremely un- popular with the English Commons, who, under Wat Tyler, burned his palace of the Savoy, and would have taken his life could they have found him. To show that plunder was not their object, they pro- oe 2 RE Cs Ee FALLS OF NIAGARA. DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP SUDBURY. 157 claimed death to all who should take or secrete anything found in the palace. But among the destruction of so much plate, gold, and jewels, it was hardly wonderful that one man’s integrity should fail him. The theft of a silver cup did not pass un- observed, and the stern rebels, to vindicate the purity of their motives, flung the culprit with the cup into the flames, or, as some chroniclers say, into the Thames, saying, “We be zealous of truth and justice, and not thieves or robbers.” In the last century the Savoy served in part “as lodgings for private people, for barracks,and a scandalous infectious prison for the soldiery and for transports.” But all this has ceased some time. In the great insurrection just men- tioned, perished on Tower Hill, Simon de Sudbury, son of Nicholas Tibald, gentleman, of Sudbury in Suffolk. He was eighteen years Bishop of London, and, on being ele- vated to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, rebuilt the walls and west gate. In Stow’s Annals we have an appalling account of EDWARD III, AND GOWER. his death :—* Being compassed about with many thousands, and seeing swords about his head drawn in excessive number, threatening to him death, he said unto them thus : ¢ What is it, dear brethren, you purpose to do? What 15 mine offence committed against you, for which ye will kill me? You were best to take heed, that if I be killed, who am your pastor, there come not on you the indignation of the just Revenger, or at the least, for such a fact, all England be put under interdiction.’ He could scarce pronounce these words before they cried out with a horrible noise, that they neither feared the interdiction nor the Pope to be above them. The Archbishop, seeing death at hand, spake with comfortable words, as he was an eloquent man, and wise beyond all wise men of the realm ; lastly, after forgiveness granted to the executioner that should be- head him, he kneeling down offered his neck to him that he should strike it off; being stricken in the neck, but not deadly, he, putting his hand to his neck, said thus : ‘Aha! it is the hand of God’ He had L 158 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEZ "not removed his hand from the place where the pain was, but that being suddenly stricken, his finger ends being cut off, and part of the arteries, he fell down ; but yet he died not, till, being mangled with eight strokes in the neck and in the head, he fulfilled a most worthy martyrdom.” His body lay unburied till the next afternoon, and then his head was set up on London Bridge. Another historic the building on Thames is the Tower. The passengers in the penny steamers on the river pass a gate, now closed up, on the water-way. This gate is Traitors’ Gate, through which those accused or convicted of high treason were led. It is through here the seven bishops were taken. On the 27th of April, 1688, James II. brought on the crisis by com- manding a declaration of indulgence to be read by the clergy in all the churches. Then met together at Lambeth, in solemn deliberation, the Seven Bishops, who, under that designation, subsequently became so PALACE OF THE SAVOY. famous ; they were, the Archbishop San- croft, and Bishops Lloyd of St. Asaph, Ken of Bath and Wells, Turner of Ely, Lake of Chichester, White of Peterborough, and Trelawny of Bristol. The result was the preparation of a petition, stating their aversion to the act demanded of them, for many reasons, but especially because Parlia- ment had often declared such a power as that exercised by James was illegal. This was presented to the king, who, by way of answer, sent the whole seven to the Tower. The excitement of the people may be imagined, especially of those who were eye- witnesses of the conveyance of the bishops by water from Whitehall to the Tower, and thence, at a later day, to Westminster Hall to be tried. The greater part, indeed, of the immense concourse of spectators on both occasions actually knelt and prayed aloud for them as they passed. They were found Not Guilty ” of the false, fictitious, malicious, pernicious, and seditious libel charged against them. Here was a severe check. But James would not understand it. Two of the judges were dismissed, and CAESARS PASSAGE OF THE THAMES. 139 the whole body of the English clergy (two hundred only excepted) ordered to be pro- secuted for disobedience to the king's command. What was to be done? The condition of affairs thus desperate, another civil war apparently about to burst in all its horrors upon the country. Eminent men met in secret council at lady Place, Hurley, where, it is said, certain important documents connected with the determina- tion that was come to were signed in a recess of the vaults. The determination was, that the Prince of Orange should be called in to aid the English people. He had married James’s daughter, and was therefore accept- able to many of the Royalists, but had, of course, no claim to the throne, therefore was more likely to study the interest of those who might elevate him to that dig- nity. Above all, he had been unflinchingly “true to his own republic, notwithstanding many temptations, and had thus given earnest that he would be equally true in whatever new relations he might form. He was, consequently, on the whole, the very man required to establish a compromise between the long-conflicting parties and principles of English politics. William landed at Torbay on the 4th of November, 1688, and James presently found himself without a friend or a soldier or a subject by his side, to remind him he had been king of England. = So, having previously sent his wife, Maria Beatrix, and the young prince his son, over to France, he followed them, and was withdrawn from the eyes of his former subjects. A great many interesting chapters might be written, we have often thought, on the famous people have who crossed the Thames. What discussion, for instance, as to the place where Caesar crossed! One fine old topographer is singularly energetic in fixing the place of Cesar’s passage: “It is im- possible I should be mistaken in the place, because here the river is scarce six foot deep; and the place at this day, from stakes fixed there, it is said, by Cesar, is called Coway Stakes ; to which we may add that Cesar makes the bounds of Cassivelan, where he fixes this his passage, to be about eighty miles distant from that sea which washes the east part of Kent, where he landed. Now this ford we speak of is at the same distance from the sea; and I am the first, that I know of, who has mentioned and settled it in its proper place.” Itisa rational belief of the English antiquaries that there was a great British Road from Richborough to Canterbury, and thence to London. Ceesar’s formidable enemy, Cas- sivelaunus, had retreated in strong force to the north bank of the Thames; and Ceasar speaks of the river as dividing the territories of that chieftain from the maritime states. If we look upon the map of England, we shall see how direct a march it was from Canterbury to Oatlands near Walton, with- out following the course of the river above London. Crossing at this place, Cesar would march direct, turning to the north, upon the capital of Cassivelaunus,—Veru- lam, or Cassiobury. Here we see the peace- ful river gliding amidst low wooded banks, disturbed only by the slow barge as it is dragged along its stream. At the bend of the river are to this hour these celebrated stakes. They were minutely described in 1735 in a paper read to the Society of An- tiquaries, by Mr. Samuel Gale: “As to the wood of these stakes, it proves its own an- tiquity, being by its long duration under the water so consolidated as to resemble ebony, and will admit of a polish, and is not in the least rotted. It is evident from the ex- terior grain of the wood that the stakes were the entire bodies of young oak-trees, there not being the least appearance of any mark of any tool to be seen upon the whole circumference ; and if we allow in our cal culation for the gradual increase of growth towards its end, where fixed in the bed of the river, the stakes, I think, will exactly answer the thickness of a man’s thigh, as described by Bede ; but whether they were covered with lead at the ends fixed in the bottom of the river, is a particular I could not learn ; but the last part of Bede's de- 160 THE WONDERS OF THE DELP scription is certainly just, that they are im- movable, and remain so to this day.” Mr. Gale adds, that since stating that the stakes were immovable, one had been weighed up, entire, between two loaded barges, at the time of a great flood. Gibson, the editor of Camden, confirms the strong belief of his author that at Coway Stakes was the ford of Cesar, by the follow- ing observations :—‘ Not far from hence upon the Thames is Walton, in which parish 1s a great camp of about twelve acres, single work and oblong. There is a road lies through it, and it is probable that Walton takes its name from this remarkable vallum.” Mr. Gale, in his paper in the “Archeologia,” mentions “a large Roman encampment up in the country directly southward, about a mile and a half distant from the ford, and pointing to it.” Here he imagines Cesar himself entrenched. When we consider that the Romans occu- pied Britain for more than four centuries, it is extremely hazardous to attempt to fix an exact date to any of their works. En- campments such as these are memorials of defence after defence which the invader threw up against the persevering hostility of the native tribes, or native defences from which the Britons were driven out. For ninety-seven years after the second expedi- tion of Caesar, the country remained at peace with Rome. Augustus threatened an invasion, but his prudence told him that he could not enforce the payment of tribute without expensive legions. The British princes made oblations in the Capital ; and, according to Strabo, “rendered almost the whole island intimate and familiar to the Romans.” Such are some of the memories that fill our minds as we think of the river Thames. MaRTIN FROBISHER, jis Yovace TO JARCTIC Seas—fie SEES STRANGE SIGHTS 4 BISHER is one of those bold sea- men whose names stand high on England’s roll of fame. . We give here an account, written by Dionise Settle, of one of his voyages to the west and north- west regions in the year 1577. Settle tells us, then, that on Whit- a being the sixth-and-twentieth day of May, in the year of our Lord God 1577, Captain Frobisher departed from Blackwall — with one of the Queen’s Majesty’s ships called the A4#, of nine score ton or thereabout, and two other little THERE. barques likewise, the one called the Gabriel, whereof Master Fenton, a gentleman of my Lord of Warwick’s, was captain; and the other the Michael, whereof Master York, a gentleman of my lord admirals, was cap- tain, accompanied with seven score gentle- men, soldiers, and sailors, well furnished with victuals and other provisions necessary for one half-year—on this, his second year, for the further discovering of the passage to Cathay and other countries thereunto ad- jacent, by west and north-west navigations, which passage or way is supposed to be on the north and north-west parts of America, and the said America to be an island en- vironed with the sea, where through our merchants might have course and recourse with their merchandise from these our FROBISHERS STRAIT. 161 northernmost parts of Europe, to those Oriental coasts of Asia, in much shorter time and with greater benefit than any others, to their no little commodity and profit that do or shall traffic the same. Our said cap- tain and general of this present voyage and company, having the year before, with two little pinnaces to his great danger, and no small commendations, given a worthy at- tempt towards the performance thereof, is also pressed—when occasion shall be minis- tered to the benefit of his prince and native country — to adventure himself further therein. As for this second voyage, it seemeth sufficient that he hath better ex- plored and searched the commodities of those people and countries, with sufficient commodity unto the adventurers, which, in his first voyage the year before, he had found out. Upon which considerations the day and year before expressed, he departed from Blackwall to Harwich, where making an accomplishment of things necessary, the last of May we hoisted up sails, and with a merry wind the 7th of June we arrived at the islands called Orchades, or vulgarly Orkney, being in number thirty, subject and adjacent to Scotland, where we made pro- vision of fresh water, in the doing whereof our general licensed the gentlemen and sol- diers, for their recreation, to go on shore. At our landing the people fled from their poor cottages with shrieks and alarms, to warn their neighbours of enemies, but by gentle persuasions we reclaimed them to their houses. frighted with pirates, or some other enemies, that move them to such sudden fear. Their houses are very simply builded with pebble stone, without any chimneys, the fire being made in the midst thereof. The good man, wife, children, and other of their family, eat and sleep on the one side of the house, and their cattle on the other, very beastly and rudely in respect of civilization. They are destitute of wood, their fire is turf and cow shardes. They have corn, bigge, and oats, with which they pay their king’s rent to the | It seemeth they are often | maintenance of his house. They take great quantity of fish, which they dry in the wind and sun; they dress their meat very filthily, and eat it without salt. Their apparel is after the nudest sort of Scotland. Their money is all base. Their Church and re- ligion is reformed according to the Scots. The fishermen of England can better declare the dispositions of those people than I, wherefore I remit other their usages to their reports, as yearly repairers thither in their courses to and from Iceland for fish. We departed here hence the 8th of June, and followed our course between west and north-west until the 4th of July, all which time we had no night, but that easily, and without any impediment, we had, when we were so disposed, the fruition of our books, and other pleasures to pass away the time, a thing of no small moment to such as wander in unknown seas and long navi- gations, especially when both the winds and raging surges do pass their common and wonted course. This benefit endureth in those parts not six weeks, while the sun is near the tropic of Cancer, but where the pole is raised to 70 or 8o degrees, it con- tinueth the longer. All along these seas, after we were six days sailing from Orkney, we met, floating in the sea, great fir-trees, which, as we judged, were, with the fury of great floods, rooted up, and so driven into the sea. Ice- land hath almost no other wood nor fuel but such as they take up upon their coasts. It seemeth that these trees are driven from some part of the Newfoundland, with the current that setteth from the west to the east. The 4th of July we came within the mak- ing of Friesland. From this shore, ten or twelve leagues, we met great islands of ice of half a mile, some more, some less in com- pass, showing above the sea thirty or forty fathoms, and as we supposed fast on ground, where, with our lead, we could scarce sound the bottom for depth. Here, in place of odoriferous and fragrant smells of sweet gums and pleasant notes 162 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. of musical birds, which other countries in more temperate zones do yield, we tasted the most boisterous Boreal blasts, mixed with snow and hail, in the months of June and July, nothing inferior to our untem- perate winter: a sudden alteration, and especially in a place of parallel, where the pole is not elevated above 61 degrees, at which height other countries more to the north, yea unto 70 degrees, show themselves more temperate than this doth. All alorg this coast ice lieth as a continual bulwark, and so defendeth the country, that those which would land there incur great danger. Our general, three days together, attempted with the ship boat to have gone on shore, which, for that without great danger he could not accomplish, he deferred it until a more convenient time. All along the coast lie very high mountains, covered with snow, except in such places where, through che steepness of the mountains, of force it must needs fall. Four days coasting along this land we found no sign of habitation. Little birds which we judged to have lost the shore, by reason of thick fogs which that country is much subject unto, came flying to our ships, which causeth us to suppose that the country is both more tolerable and also habitable within than the outward shore which maketh show or signification. From hence we departed the 8th of July, and the 16th of the same we came with the making of land, which land our general the year before had named the Queen’s Fore- land, being an island, as we judge, lying near the supposed continent with America, and on the other side, opposite to the same, one other island, called Halles Isle, after the name of the master of the ship, near adjacent to the firm land, supposed con- tinent with Asia. Between the which two islands there is a large entrance or strait, called Frobisher’s Strait, after the name of our general, the first finder thereof. This said strait is supposed to have passage into the Sea of Sur, which I leave unknown as yet. : It seemeth that either here, or not far hence, the sea should have more large en- trance than in other parts within the frozen or untemperate zone, and that some con- trary tide, either from the east or west, with main force casteth out that great quantity of ice which cometh floating from this coast, even unto Friesland, causing that country to seem more untemperate than others much more northerly than the same. I cannot judge that any temperature under the Pole, being the time of the sun’s northern declination, half a year together, and one whole day (considering that the sun’s elevation surmounteth not twenty- three degrees and thirty minutes), can have power to dissolve such monstrous and huge ice, comparable to great mountains, except by some other force, as by swift currents and tides, with the help of the said day of half a year. Before we came within the making of these lands; we tasted cold storms, insomuch that it seemed we had changed with winter, if the length of the days had not removed us from that opinion. At our first coming, the straits seemed to be shut up with a long mure of ice, which gave no little cause of discomfort unto us all ; but our general (to whose diligence, imminent dangers and difficult attempts seemed nothing in respect of his willing mind for the commodity of his prince and country), with two little pinnaces prepared of purpose, passed twice through them to "the east shore, and the islands thereunto adjacent ; and the ship, with the two barques, lay off and on something farther into the sea from the danger of the ice. Whilst he was searching the country near the shore, some of the people of the country showed themselves, leaping and dancing, with strange shrieks and cries, which gave no little admiration to our men. Our gene- ral, desirous to allure them unto him by fair means, caused knives and other things to be proffered unto them, which they would not take at our hands; but being laid on the ground, and the party going away, they | came and took up, leaving something of “ MONSTROUS ISLANDS OF ICE 163 theirs to countervail the same. At the length, ‘two of them, leaving their weapons, came down to our general and master, who did the like to them, commanding the com- pany to stay, and went unto them, who, after certain dumb signs and mute con- gratulations, began to lay hands upon them, | but they deliverly escaped, and ran to their bows and arrows and came fiercely upon them, not respecting the rest of our com- pany, which were ready for their defence, but with their arrows hurt divers of them. We took the one, and the other escaped. Whilst our general was busied in searching the country, and those islands adjacent on the east shore, the ships and barques, having great care not to put far into the sea from him, for that he had small store of victuals, were forced to abide in a cruel tempest, chancing in the night amongst and in the thickest of the ice, which was so monstrous that even the least of a thousand had been of force sufficient to have shivered our ship and barques into small portions, if God (who in all necessities hath care upon the infirmity of man) had not provided for this our extremity a sufficient remedy, through the light of the night, whereby we might | well discern to flee from such imminent dangers, which we avoided with fourteen bourdes in one watch, the space of four hours. If we had not incurred this danger amongst these monstrous islands of ice, we should have lost our general and master, and the most of our best sailors, which were on the shore destitute of victuals; but by the valour of our master gunner, Master Jackman and Andrew Dier, the master’s mates, men expert both in navigation and other good qualities, we were all content to incur the dangers afore rehearsed, before we would, with our own safety, run into the seas, to the destruction of our said general and his company. The day following, being the 19th of July, our captain returned to the ship with good news of great riches, which showed itself in the bowels of those barren mountains, wherewith we were all satisfied. A sudden | mutation. The one part of us being almost swallowed up the night before, with cruel Neptune's force, and the rest on shore, taking thought for their greedy paunches how to find the way to Newfoundland ; at one moment we were racked with joy, for- getting both where we were and what we had suffered. Behold the glory of man: to-night contemning riches, and rather look- ing for death than otherwise, and to-morrow devising how to satisfy his greedy appetite with gold. Within four days after we had been at the entrance of the straits, the north-west and west winds dispersed the ice into the sea, and made us a large entrance into the Straits, that without impediment, on the 19th July, we entered them; and the 2oth thereof our general and master, with great diligence, sought out and sounded the west shore, and found out a fair harbour for the ship and barques to ride in, and named it after our master’s mate, Jackman’s Sound, and brought the ship, barques, and all their company to safe anchor, except one man which died by God’s visitation. At our first arrival, after the ship rode at anchor, our general, with such company as could well be spared from the ships, in marching order entered the land, having special care by exhortations that at our entrance thereinto we should all with one voice, kneeling upon our knees, chiefly thank God for our safe arrival; secondly, beseech Him that it would please His Divine Majesty long to continue our Queen, for whom he, and all the rest of our com- pany, in this order took possession of the country ; and thirdly, that by our Christian study and endeavour, those barbarous people, trained up in paganry and infi- delity, might be reduced to the knowledge of true religion, and to the hope of sal- vation in Christ our Redeemer, with other words very apt to signify his willing mind and affection towards his prince and country, whereby all suspicion of an undutiful sub- ject may credibly be judged to be utterly exempted from his mind. All the rest of 164 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP bo A : the gentlemen, and others, deserve worthily herein their due praise and commendation. These things in order accomplished, our be obedient in things needful for our own safeguard to Master Fenton, Master Yorke, and Master Beast, his lieutenant, while he was occupied in other necessary affairs con- cerning our coming thither. After this order we marched through the country, with ensign displayed, so far as was thought needful, and now and then heaped up stones on high mountains and other places, in token of possession, as like- wise to signify unto such as hereafter may chance to arrive there that possession is taken in the behalf of some other prince by those which first found out the country. Whoso maketh navigation to these countries hath not only extreme winds ‘and furious seas to encounter withal, but also many monstrous and great islands of ice: a thing both rare, wonderful, and greatly to be regarded. We were forced sundry times, while the ship did ride here at anchor, to have con- tinual watch, with boats and men ready with hawsers, to knit fast unto such ice which with the ebb and flood were tossed to and fro in the harbour, and with force of oars to hail them away, for endangering the ship. Our general certain days searched this supposed continent with America, and not finding the commodity to answer his expec- tations, after he had made trial thereof, he departed thence, with two little barques, and men sufficient, to the east shore, being straight and torquet, of length two yards lacking two inches, being broken in the top, . where we might perceive it hollow, into general commanded all the company to | the supposed continent of Asia, and left the | ship, with most of the gentlemen soldiers and sailors, until such time as he either thought good to send or come for them. The stones on this supposed continent with America be altogether sparkled, and glister in the sun like gold; so likewise doth the sand in the bright water, yet they verify the old proverb, “All is not gold that glistereth.” On this west shore we found a dead fish floating, which had in his nose a horn, which some of our sailors putting spiders, they presently died. I saw not the trial hereof, but it was reported unto me of a truth, by the virtue whereof we supposed it to be the sea unicorn. After our general had found out good harbour for the ship and barques to anchor in, and also such store of gold ore as he thought himself satisfied withal, he returned to the Michael, whereof Master Yorke afore- said was captain, accompanied with our master and his mate, who, coasting along the west shore, not far from whence the ship rode, they perceived a fair harbour, and willing to sound the same, at the en- trance thereof they espied two tents of seal skins, unto which the captain, our said master, and other company resorted. At the sight of our men the people fled into the mountains ; nevertheless, they went to their tents, where, leaving certain trifles of ours, as glasses, bells, knives, and such like things, they departed, not taking anything of theirs except one dog. They did in like manner leave behind them a letter, pen, ink, and paper, whereby our men whom the captain lost the year before, and in that people’s custody, might (if any of them were alive) be advertised of our presence and being there. On the same day, after consultation, all the gentlemen, and others likewise that could be spared from the ship, under the conduct and leading of Master Philpot (unto whom, in our general’s absence, and his lieutenant, Master Beast, all the rest were obedient), went ashore, determining to see if by fair means we could either allure them to familiarity, or otherwise take some of them, and so attain to some knowledge of those men whom our general lost the year before. At our coming back again to the place where their tents were before, they had re- moved their tents farther into the said bay or sound, where they might, if they were “ANNE WARWICK S SOUND AND ISLE.” 165 driven from the land, flee with their boats into the sea. We, parting ourselves into two companies, and compassing a mountain, came suddenly upon them by land, who, espying us, without any tarrying fled to their boats, leaving the most part of their oars behind them for haste, and rowed down the bay, where our two pinnaces met them and drove them to shore. But if they had had all their oars, so swift are they in rowing, it had been lost time to have chased them. When they were landed they fiercely as- saulted our men with their bows and arrows, who wounded three of them with our ar- rows, and perceiving themselves thus hurt, they desperately leaped off the rocks into the sea and drowned themselves ; which if they had not done, but had submitted them- selves, or if by any means we could have taken alive (being their enemies as they judged), we would both have saved them, and also have sought remedy to cure their wounds received at our hands. But they, altogether void of humanity, and ignorant what mercy meaneth, in extremities look for no other than death, and perceiving that they should fall into our hands, thus miser- ably by drowning rather desired death than otherwise to be saved by us. The rest, perceiving their fellows in this distress, fled into the high mountains, Two women, not being so apt to escape as the men were, the one for her age, and the other being encumbered with a young child, we took. The old wretch, whom divers of our sailors supposed to be either a devil or a witch, had her buskins plucked off to see if she were cloven-footed, and for her ugly hue and deformity we let her go; the young woman and the child we brought away. We named the place where they were slain Bloody Point, and the bay or harbour Yorke’s Sound, after the name of one of the captains of the two barques. Having this knowledge both of their fierceness and cruelty, and perceiving that fair means as yet is not able to allure them to familiarity, we disposed ourselves, con- trary to our inclination something, to be returned to their tents, and made a spoil of the same, where we found an old shirt, a doublet, a girdle, and also shoes of our men whom we lost the year before; on nothing else unto them belonging could we set our eyes. Their riches are not gold, silver, or precious drapery, but their said tents and boats, made of the skins of red deer and seal skins, also dogs like unto wolves, but for the most part black, with other trifles, more to be wondered at for their strange- ness than for any other commodity needful for our use. Thus returning to our ship the 3rd of August, we departed from the west shore, supposed firm with America, after we had anchored there thirteen days, and so the 4th thereof we came to our general on the east shore, and anchored in a fair harbour named Anne Warwick’s Sound, and to which is annexed an island, both named after the Countess of Warwick—Anne War- wick’s Sound and Isle. In this isle our general thought good for this voyage to freight both the ships and barques with such stone or gold mineral as he judged to countervail the charges of his first and this his second navigation to these countries, with sufficient interest to the ven- turers whereby they might both be satisfied for this time and also in time to come (if it please God and our prince) to expect a much more benefit out of the bowels of those septentrional parallels, which long time hath concealed itself till at this present, through the wonderful diligence and great danger of our general and others, God is contented with the revealing thereof. It riseth so abundantly, that from the beginning of August to the 22nd thereof (every man following the diligence of our general), we raised above ground 200 tons, which we judged a reasonable freight for the ship and two barques, in the said Anne Warwick’s Isle. We did not doubt but that future times would greatly benefit thereby ; such at least was our hope. 166 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. MARTIN FROBISHER (continued). N the meantime of our abode here some of the country people came to show themselves unto us sundry times from the main shore, near adjacent to the said isle. Our general, de- sirous to have some news of his men whom he lost the year before, with some company with him, repaired with the ship boat to commune or sign with them for familiarity, whereunto he is persuaded to bring them. They at the first show made tokens that three of his five men were alive, and desired pen, ink, and paper, and that within three or four days they would return, and, as we judged, bring those of our men ~ which were living with them. They also made signs or tokens of their king, whom they called Cacough, and how ne was carried on men’s shoulders, and a man far surmounting any of our company in bigness and stature. With these tokens and signs of writing, pen, ink, and paper were delivered them, which they would not take at our hands, but being laid upon the shore, and the party gone away, they took up; which like- wise they do when they desire anything for change of theirs, laying for that which is left so much as they think will countervail the same, and not coming near together. It seemeth they have been used to this trade or traffic with some other people ad- joining, or not far distant from their country, After four days some of them showed themselves upon the firm land, but not Natives OF THE NorTH— SOME QUEER GuEssEs. where they were before. Our general, very glad thereof, supposing to hear of our men, went from the island with the boat and sufficient company with him. They seemed very glad, and allured him about a certain point of the land, behind which they might perceive a company of the crafty villains to lie lurking, whom our general would not deal withal, for that he knew not what com- pany they were, so with few signs dismissed them and returned to his company. Another time, as our said general was coasting the country with two little pin- naces, whereby at our return he might make the better relation thereof, three of the crafty villains with a white skin allured us to them. Once again our general, for that he hoped to hear of his men, went towards them ; at our coming near the shore whereon they were, we might perceive a number of them lie hidden behind great stones, and those three in sight labouring by all means possible that some would come on land ; and perceiving we made no haste, by words nor friendly signs, which they used by clapping their hands, and being without weapon, and but three in sight, they sought further means to provoke us thereunto. One alone laid flesh on the shore, which we took up with the boat- hook as necessary victuals for the relieving of the man, woman, and child whom we had taken, for that as yet they could not digest our meat; whereby they perceived themselves deceived of their expectation, for all their crafty allurements. Yet once again, to make, as it were, a full show of their crafty natures and subtle sleights, to the intent thereby to have entrapped and NATIVES OF THE NORTH. 167 taken some of our men, one of them counterfeited himself impotent and lame of his legs, who seemed to descend to the water’s side with great difficulty, and to cover his craft the more, one of his fellows came down with him, and in such places where he seemed unable to pass, he took him on his shoulders, set him by the water’s side, and departed from him, leaving him, as it should seem, all alone; who, playing his counterfeit pageant very well, thought thereby to provoke some of us to come on shore, not fearing but that one of us might make our party good with a lame man. Our general, having compassion of his impotency, thought good, if it were possible, to cure him thereof ; wherefore he caused a soldier to shoot at him with his calever, which grazed before his face. The counter- feit villain deliverly fled without any im- pediment at all, and got him to his bow and arrows, and the rest from their lurking holes with their weapons, bows, arrows, slings, and darts. Our general caused some calevers to be shot off at them, whereby, some being hurt, they might here- after stand in more fear of us. This was all the answer for this time we could have of our men, or of our general's letter. Their crafty dealing at these three several times being thus manifest unto us, may plainly show their disposition in other things to be correspondent. We judged that they used these stratagems thereby to have caught some of us for the delivering of the man, woman, and child, whom we had taken. They are men of a large corporature, and good proportion ; their colour is not much unlike the sunburnt countryman, who laboureth daily in sun for his living. They wear their hair something long, and cut before either with stone or knife, very disorderly. Their women wear their hair long, knit up with two loops, showing forth on either side of their faces, and the rest faltered upon a knot. Also, some of their women tint their faces proportionally, as chin, cheeks, and forehead and the wrists of their hands, whereupon they lay a colour which continueth dark azurine. They eat their meat all raw, both flesh, fish, and fowl, or something parboiled with blood, and a little water, which they drink. For lack of water, they will eat ice that is hard frozen as pleasantly as we will do sugar-candy, or other sugar. If they, for necessity’s sake, stand in need of the premises, such grass as the country yieldeth they pluck up and eat, not daintily, or saladwise, to allure their stomachs to appetite, but for necessity’s sake, without - either salt, oils, or washing, like brute beasts devouring the same. They neither use table, stool, or table-cloth for comeli- ness: but when they are imbrued with blood, knuckle deep, and their knives in like sort, they use their tongues as apt instruments to lick them clean; in doing whereof they are assured to lose none of their victuals. They keep certain dogs, not much unlike wolves, which they yoke together, as we do oxen and horses, to a sled or trail, and so carry their necessaries over the ice and snow, from place to place, as the captain, whom we have, made perfect signs. And when those dogs are not apt for the same use, or when with hunger they are con- strained for lack of other victuals, they eat them, so that they are as needful for them, in respect of their bigness, as our oxen are for us. They apparel themselves in the skins of such beasts as they kill, sewed together with the sinews of them. All the fowl which they kill they skin, and make thereof one kind of garment or other to defend them from the cold. They make their apparel with hoods and tails, which tails they give, when they think to gratify any friendship shown unto them ; a great sign of friendship with them. The men have them not so syde as the women. The men and women wear their hose close to their legs, from the waist to the knee, without any open before, as well the one kind as the other. Upon their legs 168 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. they wear hose of leather, with the fur side inward, two or three pair on at once, and especially the women. In those hose they put their knives, needles, and other things needful to bear about. They put a bone within their hose, which reacheth from the foot to the knee, whereupon they draw their said hose, and so in place of garters they are holden from falling down about their | fect. They dress their skins very soft and supple, with the hair on. In cold weather or winter they wear the fur side inward, and in summer outward. Other apparel they have none but the said skins. Those beasts, fishes, and fowls which they kill are their meat, drink, apparel, houses, bedding, hose, shoes, thread, and sails for their boats, with many other necessaries, whereof they stand in need, and almost all their riches. The houses are tents made of seal skins, pitched up with four fir quarters, four- square, meeting at the top, and the skins sewed together with sinews, and laid there- upon ; they are so pitched up, that the entrance into them is always south, or against the sun. They have other sort of houses, which we found not to be inhabited, which are raised with stones and whalebones, and a skin laid over them to withstand the rain, or other weather ; the entrance of them being not much unlike an oven’s mouth, whereunto, I think, they resort for a time to fish, hunt, and fowl, and so leave them until the next time they come thither again. Their weapons are bows, arrows, darts, and slings. Their bows are of wood, of a yard long, sinewed on the back with firm sinews, not glued to, but fast girded and tied on. Their bow strings are likewise sinews. Their arrows are three pieces, nocked with bone and ended with bone ; with those two ends, and the wood in the midst, they pass not in length half a yard, or little more. They are feathered with two feathers, the pen end being cut away, and the feathers laid upon the arrow with the broad side to the wood, insomuch that they seem, when they are tied on, to have four feathers. They have likewise three sorts of heads to those arrows : one sort of stone or iron, proportioned like to a heart ; the second sort of bone, much like unto a stopt head, with a hook on the same; the third sort of bone likewise, made sharp at both sides, and sharp pointed. They are not made very fast, but lightly tied to, or else set in a nocke, that, upon small oc- casion, the arrow leaveth these heads behind them ; they are of small force except they be very near when they shoot. Their darts are made of two sorts: the one with many forks of bones in the fore end, and likewise in the midst ; their pro- portions are not much unlike our toasting- irons, but longer; these they cast out of an instrument of wood very readily. The other sort is greater than the first aforesaid, with a long bone made sharp on both sides, not much unlike a rapier, which I take to be their most hurtful weapon. They have two sorts of boats made of leather, set out on the inner side with quarters of wood, artificially tied together with thongs of the same ; the greater sort are not much unlike our wherries, wherein sixteen or twenty men may sit; they have for a sail dressed the guts of such beasts as they kill, very fine and thin, which they sew together ; the other boat is but for one man to sit and row in, with one oar. Their order of fishing, hunting, and fowl- ing, are with these said weapons; but in what sort or how they use them we have no perfect knowledge as yet. I can suppose their abode or habitation not to be here, for that neither their houses nor apparel are of such force to withstand the extremity of cold that the country seemeth to be infected withal ; neither do 1 see any sign likely to perform the same. Those houses, or rather dens, which stand there, have no sign of footway, or anything else trodden, which is one of the chiefest tokens of habitation. And those tents, which they bring with them, when they AN INFERIOR RACE. 169 have sufficiently hunted and fished, they remove to other places; and when they have sufficiently stored them of such victuals as the country yieldeth, or bringeth forth, they return to their winter stations or habitations. This conjecture do I make for the infertility which I perceive to be in that country. They have some iron, whereof they make arrow-heads, knives, and other little instru- ments, to work their boats, bows, arrows, and darts withal, which are very unapt to do anything withal, but with great labour. It seemeth that they have conversation with some other people, of whom for ex- change they should receive the same. They are greatly delighted with anything that is bright or giveth a sound. What knowledge they have of God, or what idol they adore, we have no perfect intelligence. I think them rather an#/iro- pophagt, or devourers of man’s flesh, than otherwise ; that there is no flesh or fish which they find dead (smell it never so filthily), but they will eat it as they find it without any other dressing. A loathsome thing, either to the beholders or the hearers. There is no manner of creeping beast hurtful, except some spiders (which as many affirm are signs of great store of gold), and also certain stinging gnats, which bite so fiercely that the place where they bite shortly after swelleth, and itcheth very sore. They make signs of certain people that wear bright plates of gold in their foreheads and other places of their bodies. The countries on both sides the straits lie very high, with rough, stony mountains, and great quantity of snow thereon. There is very little plain ground, and no grass except a little, which is much like unto moss that groweth on soft ground, such as we get turfs in. There is no wood at all. To be brief, there is nothing fit or profitable for the use of man which that country with root yieldeth or bringeth forth; howbeit there is great quantity of deer, whose skins are like unto asses’, their heads or horns do far exceed, as well in length as also in breadth any in these our parts or countries : their feet likewise are as great as our oxen’s, which we measured to be seven or eight inches in breadth. There are also hares, wolves, fishing bears, and sea-fowl of sundry sorts. As the country is barren and unfertile, so are they rude, and of no capacity to culture the same to any perfection ; but are contented by their hunting, fishing, and fowling, with raw flesh and warm blood, to satisfy their greedy paunches, which is their only glory. There is great likelihood of earthquakes or thunder, for there are huge and monstrous mountains, whose greatest sub- stance are stones, and those stones so shapen with some extraordinary means, that one is separated from another, which is dis- cordant from all other quarries. There are no rivers or running springs, but such as through the heat of the sun, with such water as descendeth from the mountains and hills, whereon great drifts of snow do lie, are engendered. It argueth also that there should be none ; for that the earth, which with the extremity of the winter is so frozen within that that water which should have recourse within the same to maintain springs hath not his motion, whereof great waters have their origin, as by experience is seen other- wise. Such valleys as are capable to receive the water, that in the summer time, by the operation of the sun, descendeth from great abundance of snow, which continually lieth - on the mountains, and hath no -passage, sinketh into the earth, and so vanisheth away, without any runnel above the earth, by which occasion or continual standing of the said water the earth is opened and the great frost yieldeth to the force thereof, which in other places, four or five fathoms within the ground, for lack of the said moisture, the earth even in the very summer time is frozen, and so combineth the stones together, that scarcely instruments with great force can unknit them. 1 170 THE WONDERS Of THE DEEP. Also, where the water in those valleys can have no such passage away, by the continuance of time in such order as is before rehearsed, the yearly descent from the mountains filleth them full, that at the lowest bank of the same they fall into the next valley, and so continue as fishing ponds, in summer time full of water, and in the winter hard frozen, as by scars that remain thereof in summer may easily be perceived ; so that the heat. of summer is nothing comparable or of force to dissolve the extremity of cold that cometh in winter. Nevertheless, I am assured, that below the force of the frost, within the earth, the waters have recourse, and empty themselves out of sight into the sea, which, through the extremity of the frost, are constrained to do the same; by which occasion the earth within is kept the warmer, and springs have their recourse, which is the only ~ nutriment of gold and minerals within the same. There is much to be said of the com- modities of these countries which are couched within the bowels of the earth, which I let pass till more perfect trial be made thereof. Thus conjecturing, till time, with the earnest industry of our general and others (who, by all diligence, remain pressed to explore the truth of that which is un- explored, as he hath to his everlasting praise found out that which is like to yield an innumerable benefit to his prince and country), offer further trial, I conclude. The 23rd August, after we had satisfied our minds with freight sufficient for our vessels, though not our covetous desires, with such knowledge of the country, people, and other commodities as are before re- hearsed, the 24th thereof we departed there hence : the 17th of September we fell with the Land’s End of England, and so to Milford Haven, from whence our general rowed to the court for order to what port or haven to conduct the ship. We lost our two barques in the way homeward : the one the 29th of August, the other the 31st of the same month, by occasion of great tempest and fog; how- beit, God restored the one to Bristol, and the other making his course by Scotland to Yarmouth. In this voyage we lost two men, one in the way by God’s visitation, and the other homeward, cast overboard with a surge of the sea. I could declare unto the readers the latitude and longitude of such places and regions as we have been at, but not alto- gether so perfectly as our masters and others, with many circumstances of tem- pests and other accidents incident to sea- faring men, which seem not altogether strange, but I let them pass to their reports as men most apt to set forth and declare the same. I have also left the names of the countries on both the shores untouched for lack of understanding the people’s language, as also for sundry respects not needful as yet to be declared. Countries new explored, where com- modity is to be looked for, do better accord with a new name given by the explorers than an uncertain name by a doubtful author. Our general named sundry islands, mountains, capes, and harbours after the names of divers noblemen, and other gentle- men his friends, as well on the one shore as also on the other. : ly THE VOYAGE OF MASTER JOHN DAVIS. 171 AN Orb ATTEMPT To Finp THE NorTH-WEST PASSAGE. 4. O find the North- > West Passage has been a dream of English sailors from the time of Queen Elizabeth to the “é time of Queen “Y® Victoria. Here is a picture ® of the time of the last men- tioned lady of the good ship : Arizona, which on her passage over the ocean comes somewhat incautiously against an iceberg, as if she were deter- mined to try whether steam or ice were the stronger, and to find out if science was going to be as easily vanquished as in old days by King Cold. Yet in those old days men had brave hearts, and fought well against the terrors of the Arctic regions, as the narrative which we now translate of Master John Davis, of the time of good Queen Bess, will show. Certain honourable personages and worthy gentlemen of the Court and country, with divers worshipful merchants of London and of the West Countrie, moved with desire to advance God’s glory, and to seek the good of their native country, consulting together of the likelihood of the discovery of the North-West Passage, which hereto- fore had been attempted, butunhappily given over by accidents unlooked for, which turned the enterprisers from their principal purpose, resolved, after good deliberation, to put down their adventures, to provide for necessary shipping, and a fit man to be chief conductor of this so hard an fm YovaGe oF MASTER [JOHN Pavis. enterprise. The setting forth of this action was committed by the adventurers espe- cially to the care of Master William San- derson, merchant of London, who was so forward therein, that besides his travel, which was not small, he became the greatest adventurer with his purse, and commended unto the rest of the company one Master John Davis, a man very well grounded in the principles of the art of navigation, for captain and chief pilot of this exploit. Thus, therefore, all things being put in a readiness, we departed from Dartmouth the 7th of June, 1585, towards the dis- covery of the aforesaid North-West Passage with two barques, the one being of fifty tons, named the Sunshine, of London, and the other being thirty-five tons, named the Moonshine, of Dartmouth. The 14th, with contrary wind, we were forced to put into Scilly. The 15th we departed thence, having the wind north and by east, moderate and fair weather. The 16th we were driven back again, and were constrained to arrive at New Grimsby, at Scilly ; here the wind remained contrary twelve days, and in that space the captain, the master, and I went about all the islands, and the captain did plan out and describe the situation of all the islands, rocks, and harbours to the exact use of navigation, with lines and scale thereunto convenient. The 1st of July we saw great store of porpoises, the master called for a harping- iron, and shot twice or thrice ; sometimes 172 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP he missed, and at last shot one and struck him in the side, and wound him into the ship ; when we had him aboard, the master said 1t was a darley head. The 2nd we had some of the fish boiled, and it did eat as sweet as any mutton. The 3rd we had more in sight, and the master went to shoot at them, but they were so great that they burst our irons, and we lost both fish, irons, pastime, and all; yet, nevertheless, the master shot at them with a pike, and had well-nigh gotten one, but he was so strong that he burst off the bars of the pike, and went away. Then he took the boat-hook, and hit one with that; but all would not prevail, so at length we let them alone. The 6th we saw a very great whale, and “every day after we saw whales continually. The 19th of July we fell into a great whirling and brustling of a tide, setting to the northward ; and sailing about half a league we came into a very calm sea, which bent to the south-south-west. Here we heard a mighty great roaring of the sea, as if it had been the breach of some shore, the air being so foggy, and full of thick mist, that we could not see the one ship from the other, being a very small distance asunder ; so the captain and the master, being in distrust how the tide might set them, caused the Moonshine to hoist out her boat and to sound, but they could not find ground in three hundred fathoms and better. Then the captain, master, and I went towards the breach to see what it should be, giving charge to our gunners that at every blast they should shoot off a musket shot, to the intent we might keep ourselves from losing them ; then coming near to the breach, we met many islands of ice floating, which had quickly com- passed us about. Then we went upon some of them, and did perceive that all the roaring which we heard was caused only by the rolling of this ice together. Our company seeing us not to return, according to our appointment, left off shoot- ing muskets and began to shoot falconets, for they feared some mishap had befallen us; but before night we came aboard again, with our boat laden with ice, which made very good fresh water. Then we bent our course towards the north, hoping by that means to double the land. The 20th, as we sailed along the coast, the fog brake up, and we discovered the land, which was the most deformed, rocky, and mountainous land that ever we saw, the first sight whereof did show as if it had been in form of a sugar loaf, standing to our sight above the clouds, for that it did show over the fog like a white liste in the sky, the tops altogether covered with snow, and the shore beset with ice a league off into the sea, making such irksome noise as that it seemed to be the true pattern of desolation, and after the same our captain named it the land of desolation. The 21st the wind came northerly and overblew, so that we were constrained to bend our course south again, for we per- ceived that we were run into a very deep bay, where we were almost compassed with ice, for we saw very much towards the north-north-east, west, and south-west ; and this day and this night we cleared our- selves of the ice, running south-south-west along the shore. Upon Thursday, being the 22nd of this month, about three of the clock in the morning, we hoisted out our boat, and the captain, with six sailors, went towards the shore, thinking to find a landing- place, for the night before we did per- ceive the coast to be void of ice to our judgment; and the same night we were all persuaded that we had seen a canoe rowing along the shore, but afterwards we fell in some doubt of it, but we had no great reason so to do. The captain, rowing towards the shore, willed the master to bear in with the land after him; and be- fore he came near the shore, by the space of a league, or about two miles, he found so much ice that he could not get to land by any means. Here our mariners put to their lines to see if they could get any fish, IN STRANGE SEAS. 173 because there were so many seals upon the coast, and the birds did beat upon the water, but all was in vain : the water about this coast was very black and thick, like to a filthy standing pool ; we sounded, and had ground in 120 fathoms. While the captain was rowing to the shore our men saw woods upon the rocks, like the rocks of Newfoundland, but I could not discern them ; yet it might be so very well, for we had wood floating upon the coast every day, and the Moonshine took up a tree at COLLISION WITH AN ICEBERG. sea not far from the coast, being sixty foot of length and fourteen handfuls about, having the root upon it. After the captain came aboard, the weather being very calm and fair, we bent our course toward the south, with intent to double the land. The 24th, the wind being very fair at east, we coasted the land, which did lie east and west, not being able to come near the shore by reason of the great quantity of ice. At this place, because the weather was somewhat cold by reason of the ice, M 174 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. and the better to encourage our men, their allowance was increased. The captain and the master took order that every mess, being five persons, should have half a pound of bread and a can of beer every morning to breakfast. The weather was not very cold, but the air was moderate, like to our April weather in England. When the wind came from the land or the ice it was somewhat cold, but when it came off the sea it was very hot. The 25th of this month we departed from sight of this land at six of the clock in the morning, directing our course to the north-westward, hoping in God’s mercy to find our desired passage, and so continued above four days. The 29th of July we discovered land in 64 degrees 15 minutes of latitude, bearing north-east from us. The wind being con- trary to go to the north-westward, we bear in with this land to take some view of it, being utterly void of the pester of ice, and very temperate. Coming near the coast we found many fair sounds and good roads for shipping, and many great inlets into the land, whereby we judged this land to be a great number of islands standing together. Here, having moored our barque in good order, we went on shore upon a small island to seek for water and wood. Upon this island we did perceive that there had been people, for we found a small shoe and pieces of leather sewed with sinews, and a piece of fur, and wool like to beaver. Then we went upon another island on the other side of our ships, and the captain, the master, and I, being got up to the top of a high rock, the people of the country, having espied us, made a lamentable noise, as we thought, with great outcries and screechings ; we, hearing them, thought it had been the howling of wolves. At last I halloed again, and they likewise cried; then we, perceiving where they stood—some on the shore, and one rowing in a canoe about a small island fast by them—we made a great noise, partly to allure them to us, and partly to warn our company of them. Whereupon Master Bruton and the master of his ship, with others of their company, made great haste towards us, and brought our musicians with them from our ship, purposing either by force to rescue us, if needs should so require, or with courtesy to allure the people. When they came unto us, we caused our musicians to play, ourselves dancing and making many signs of friend- ship. At length there came ten canoes from the other islands, and two of them came so near the shore where we were, that they talked with us, the other being in their boats a pretty way off. Their pronunciation was very hollow through the throat, and their speech such as we could not understand, only we allured them by friendly embracings and signs of courtesy. At length one of them, pointing up to the sun with his hand, would presently strike his breast so hard, that we might hear the blow. This he did many times before he would any way trust us. Then John Ellis, the master of the Moonshine, was appointed to use his best policy to gain their friend- ship, who strook his breast and pointed to the sun after their order, which when he had divers times done they began to trust him, and one of them came on shore, to whom we threw our caps, stockings, and gloves, and such other things as then we had about us, playing with our music, and making signs of joy, and dancing. So the night coming we bade them farewell, and went aboard our barques. The next morning, being the 3oth of July, there came thirty-seven canoes row- ing by our ships, calling to us to come on shore ; we not making any great haste unto them, one of them went up to the top of the rock, and leaped and danced as they had done the day before, showing us a seal skin, and another thing made like a tim- brel, which he did beat upon with a stick, making a noise like a small drum. Where- upon we manned our boats and came to them, they all staying in their canoes. We came to the water’s side, where they were, A PERY TRACTABLE PEORLE." 175 and after we had sworn by the sun, after their fashion, they did trust us. So I shook hands with one of them, and he kissed my hand, and we were very familiar with them. We were in'so great credit with them upon this single acquaintance, that we could have anything they had. We bought five canoes of them; we bought their clothes from their backs, which were all made of seal-skins and birds’ skins ; their buskins, their hose, their gloves, all being commonly sewed and well dressed, so that we were fully persuaded that they have divers arti- ficers among them. We had a pair of buskins of them full of fine wool like beaver. of birds’ skins with their feathers on them. We saw among them leather dressed like glover’s leather, and thick thongs like white leather of good length. We had of their darts and oars, and found in them that they would by no means displease us, but would give us whatsoever we asked of them, and would be satisfied with whatsoever we gave them. They took great care one of an- other, for when we had bought their boats, then two others would come, and carry him away between them that had sold us his. They are a very tractable people, void of craft or double dealing, and easy to be brought to any civility or good order, but we judged them to be idolaters, and to worship the sun. During the time of our abode among these islands we found reasonable quantity of wood, both fir, spruce, and juniper; which, whether it came floating any great distance to these places where we found it, or whether it grew in some great islands near the same place by us not yet dis- covered; we know not. But we judge that it groweth there farther into the land than we were, because the people had great store of darts and oars which they made none account of, but gave them to us for small trifles, as points and pieces of paper. We saw about this coast marvellous great abundance of seals sculling together like sculls of small fish. We found no fresh Their apparel for heat was made water among these islands, but only snow- water, whereof we found great pools. The cliffs were all of such ore as Master Fro- bisher brought from Meta Incognita. We had divers shewes of study or Moscovie glass, shining not altogether unlike to crystal. We found an herb growing upon the rocks, whose [ruit was sweet, full of red juice, and the ripe ones were like currants. We found also birch and willow - growing like shrubs low to the ground. These people have great store of furs as we judged. They made shows unto us the 3oth of this present, which was the second time of our being with them, after they perceived we would have skins and furs, that they would go into the country and come again the next day with such things as they had; but this night the wind coming fair the captain and the master would by no means detract the purpose of our discovery. And so the last of this month, about four of the clock in the morning, in God’s name we set sail, and were all that day becalmed upon the coast. The 1st of August we had a fair wind, and so proceeded towards the north-west for our discovery. The 6th of August we discovered land in 66 degrees 40 minutes of latitude, alto- gether void from the pester of ice; we anchored in a very fair road, under a very brave mount, the cliffs whereof were as orient as gold. This mount was named Mount Raleigh ; the road where our ships lay at anchor was called Totnes Road; the sound which did compass the mount was named Exeter Sound ; the foreland towards the north was called Dier’s Cape ; the foreland towards the south was named Cape Walsingham. So soon as we were come to an anchor in Totnes Road under Mount Raleigh, we espied four white bears at the foot of the mount. We, supposing them to be goats or wolves, manned our boats and went towards them, but when we came near the shore we found them to be white bears of a monstrous bigness; we, being desirous of fresh victual and the sport, 176 TEE WONDERS OF THE DEEF began to assault them, and I being on land, one of them came down the hill right against me. My piece was charged with hail-shot and a bullet; I discharged my piece and shot him in the neck; he roared a little, and took the water straight, making small account of his hurt. Then we followed him with our boat, and killed him with boars’ spears, and two more that night. We found nothing in their maws, but we judged by their dung that they fed upon grass, because it appeared in all respects like the dung of a horse, wherein we might very plainly see the very straws. The 7th we went on shore to another bear, which lay all night upon the top of an island under Mount Raleigh, and when we came up to him he lay fast asleep. I levelled at his head, and the stone of my piece gave no fire ; with that he looked up and laid down his head again; then I shot, being charged with two bullets, and struck him in the head; he, being but amazed, fell backwards, whereupon we ran all upon him with boar spears and thrust him in the body, yet for all that he grip- ped away our boar spears, and went towards the water, and as he was going down he came back again. Then our master shot his boar spear and struck him in the head, and made him to take the water, and swim into a cove fast by, where we killed him and brought him aboard. The breadth of his fore-foot from one side to the other was fourteen inches over. They were very fat, so as we were con- strained to cast the fat away. We saw a raven upon Mount Raleigh. We found withies, also, growing like shrubs, and flowers like primroses in the said place. The coast is very mountainous, altogether without wood, grass, or earth, and is only huge mountains of stone, but the bravest stone that ever we saw. The air was very moderate in this country. The 8th we departed from Mount Raleigh, coasting along the shore which lieth south-south-west and east-north-east. The 9th our men fell in dislike of their ” allowance, because it was so small as they thought. Whereupon we made a new proportion, every mess, being five to a mess, should have four pound of bread a day, twelve wine quarts of beer, six new land fishes, and the flesh days a gin of pease more; so we restrained them from their butter and cheese. The 11th we came to the most southerly cape of this land, which we named the Cape of God’s Mercy, as being the place of our first entrance for the discovery. The weather being very foggy, we coasted this north land ; at length, when it brake up, we perceived that we were shot into a very fair entrance or passage, being in some places twenty leagues broad, and in some thirty, altogether void of any pester of ice, the weather very tolerable, and the water of the very colour, nature, and quality of the main ocean, which gave us the greater hope of our passage. Having sailed north-west sixty leagues in this entrance, we discovered certain islands standing in the midst thereof, having open passages on both sides. Whereupon our ships divided themselves, the one sailing on the north side, the other on the south side of the said isles, where we stayed five days, having the wind at south-east, very foggy, and foul weather. The 14th we went on shore, and found signs of people, for we found stones laid up together like a wall, and saw the skull of a man or a woman. The 15th we heard dogs howl on the shore, which we thought had been wolves, and therefore we went on shore to kill them. When we came on land the dogs came presently to our boat very gently, yet we thought they came to prey upon us, and therefore we shot at them and killed two, and about the neck of one of them we found a leathern collar, whereupon we thought them to be tame dogs. There were twenty dogs like mastiffs, with pricked ears and long bushed tails ; we found the dogs to be very curious animals. Then we went farther, and found two sleds made END OF TIE VOYAGE. 177 like ours in England. The one was made of fir, spruce, and oaken boards, sawn like inch boards; the other was made all of whalebone, and there hung on the tops of the sleds three heads of beasts which they had killed. We saw here larks, ravens, and partridges. The 17th we went on shore, and in a | little thing made like an oven with stones I found many small trifles, as a small canoe made of wood, a piece of wood made like an image, a bird made of bone, beads having small holes in one end of them to hang about their necks, and other small things. The coast was very bar- barous, without wood or grass. The rocks were very fair, like marble, full of veins of divers colours. We found a seal which was killed not long before, being flayed and hid under stones. Our captain and master searched still for probabilities of the passage, and first found that this place was all islands with great sounds passing between them. MASTER JOHN DAVIS TLANNING HIS VOYAGES TO THE NORTH SEAS. Secondly, the water remained of one colour with the main ocean without altering. Thirdly, we saw to the west of those isles three or four whales in a scull, which they judged to come from a westerly sea, because to the eastward we saw not any whale. Also, as we were rowing into a very great sound lying south-west from whence these whales came, upon the sudden there came a violent countercheck of a tide from the south-west against the flood which we came with, not knowing from whence it was : maintained. Fifthly, in sailing 20 leagues within the mouth of this entrance, we had sounding in go fathoms, fair, grey, oozy sand, and the farther we run into the west- wards, the deeper was the water, so that hard aboard the shore among these isles we could not have ground in 330 fathoms. Lastly, it did ebb and flow six or seven fathom up and down, the flood coming from divers parts, so as we could not per- ceive the chief maintenance thereof. After this we returned to England, reach- ing Dartmouth on the 3oth of September. 178 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. EARLY LiFe oF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. ow er ITTLE is known con- | cerning the youth of Sir Walter Raleigh. He was a younger son, descended of an ancient family, and was born at a farm called Hayes, near the mouth of the river Otter, in Devon- shire, in the year 1552. He 1 went to Oriel College, Oxford, at an early age, and gained high praise for the quickness and precocity of his talents. In 1569 he began his military career in the civil wars of France, as a volunteer in the Protestant cause. It is conjectured that he remained in France for more than six years, and returned to England in 1576. Soon after, he repaired to the Netherlands, and served as a volunteer against the Spaniards. In such schools, and under such leaders as Coligni and the Prince of Orange, Raleigh’s natural aptitude for political and military science received the best nurture : but he was soon drawn from the war in Holland by a pursuit which had captivated his imagination from an early date—the prosecution of discovery in the New World. In conjunction with his half- brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a man of courage and ability, and a skilful sailor, he made an unsuccessful attempt to establish a colony in North America. Returning home in 1579, he immediately entered the queen’s army in Ireland, and served with good esteem for personal courage and professional skill, until the suppression of the rebellion in that country. He owed his introduction to court, and the personal favour of Eliza- beth, as is traditionally reported, to a for- tunate and well-improved accident, which is too familiar to need repetition here. It is probable, however, that his name and talents were not unknown, for we find him employed almost immediately in certain matters of diplomacy. Among the cares and pleasures of a courtier’s life, Raleigh preserved his zeal for American discovery. He applied his own resources to the fitting out another expedi- tion in 1583, under command of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, which proved more un- fortunate than the former one; two out of the vessels returned home in consequence of sickness, and two were wrecked, including that in which the admiral sailed ; and the only result of the enterprise was the taking possession of Newfoundland in the name of England. Still Raleigh’s desire for Ameri- can adventure was not damped. The Con- tinent northward of the Gulf of Florida was at this time unknown. But Raleigh, upon careful study of the best authorities, had concluded that there was good reason for believing that a considerable tract of land did exist in that quarter; and with the assent of the queen in council, from whom he obtained letters patent, grant- ing to himself and his heirs, under certain reservations, property in such countries as he should discover, with a right to pro- vide for their protection and administra- tion, he fitted out two ships, which sailed in April, 1584. The first land which they made was an island named Okakoke, running parallel to the coast of North Carolina. They were well received by the natives, and returned to England in the RALEIGH A VOLUNTEER. 179 following autumn, highly pleased. Nor was less satisfaction felt by Raleigh, or even by the queen, who conferred on him the honour of knighthood, a title which was then in high esteem, inasmuch as it was bestowed by that wise princess with a most frugal and just discrimination. She also gave him a very lucrative mark of favour, in the shape of a patent for licensing the selling of wine throughout the kingdom; and she directed that the new country, in allusion to herself, should be called Vir- ginia. Raleigh did not think it politic, perhaps was not allowed, to quit the court to take charge in person of his undertaking ; and those to whom he intrusted the difficult task of directing the infant colony appear to have been unequal to their office. Itis not necessary to pursue the history of an enterprise which proved unsuccessful, and in which Sir Walter personally bore no share. He showed his earnestness by fitting out several expeditions, which must have been a heavy drain upon his fortune. But he is said to have derived immense wealth from prizes captured from the Spaniards; and we may here observe that the lavish magnificence in dress, especially in jewels, for which Raleigh was remarkable, even in the gorgeous court of Elizabeth (his state dress is said to have been enriched with jewels, to the value of 460,000), may be considered less as an extravagance than as a safe and portable investment of treasure. A mind less ac- tive might have found employment more than enough in the variety of occupations which pressed upon him at home He possessed a large estate, granted out of forfeited lands in Ireland; but this was always a source rather of expense than of profit, until, in 1601, he sold it to the Earl of Cork. .He was Seneschal of the Duchies of Cornwall and Exeter, and held the wardenship of the Stannaries; and in 1586, as well as formerly in 1584, we find that he possessed a seat in parliament. In 1587 the formidable preparation of the Spanish Armada withdrew the mind of Raleigh, as of all Englishmen, from objects of minor importance, to the defence of their country. He was a member of the council of war directed to prepare a general scheme of defence, and held the office of Lieu- tenant-General of Cornwall, in addition to the charge of the Isle of Portland; but as on this occasion he possessed no naval command, he was not actively engaged in the destruction of that mighty armament. In 1589 he served as a volunteer in the expedition of Norris and Drake to Portugal, of which some account has been given in the life of the latter. Nor were his labours unrewarded even in that unfortunate enter- prise ; for he captured several prizes, and received the present of a gold chain from the queen, in testimony of her approbation of his conduct. Soon after these events, Raleigh retired to his Irish property, being driven from court, according to some authorities, by the enmity of the Earl of Essex, then a young man just rising into favour. He there renewed a former intimacy with the poet Spenser, who, like himself, had been rewarded with a grant of land out of for- feited estates, and then resided at Kilcolman Castle. Spenser has celebrated the return of his friend in the beautiful pastoral “Colin Clout’s come home again;” and in that, “and various passages of his works, he has made honourable mention of the highly poetic spirit which enabled the ¢ Shepherd of the Ocean,” as he is there denominated, to appreciate the merit of the Fairy Queen,” and led him to promote the publi- cation of it by every means in his power. The loss of Raleigh’s court favour, if such there was, could not have been of long duration on this occasion. But he in- curred more serious displeasure in con- sequence of a private marriage contracted with Elizabeth Throgmorton, one of the queen’s maids of honour, a lady of beauty and accomplishments, who proved her worth and fidelity in the long train of mis- fortunes which beset the latter years of Raleigh’s life. In consequence of this 180 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. intrigue, he was committed to the Tower. One or two amusing anecdotes are related of the devices which he employed to obtain forgiveness, by working on that vanity which was the queen’s chief foible. He succeeded in appeasing his indignant mistress so far as to procure his release ; and about the same time, in 1594, she granted to him the valuable manor of Sherborne, in Dorset- shire : but though she requited his services, she still forbade his appearance at court, where he now held the office of captain of the yeomen of the guard. Raleigh was peculiarly fitted to adorn a court by his im- posing person, the graceful magnificence of his taste and habits, the elegance of his manners, and the interest of his conversa- tion. These accomplishments were sure SIR WALTER RALEIGH IN THE TOWER. passports to the favour of Elizabeth; and he improved to the utmost the constant opportunities of intercourse with her which his post afforded, insomuch that, except the Earls of Leicester and Essex, no one ever seems to have stood higher in her graces. But Elizabeth's jealousy on the subject of her favourites’ marriages is well known, and her anger was lasting, in proportion to the value which she set on the incense of Raleigh’s flattery. He retired, on his disgrace, to his new estate, in the improvement and em- bellishment of which he felt great interest. But though deeply alive to the beauties of nature, he had been too long trained to a life of ambition and adventure to rest con- tented in the tranquil routine of a country ‘life ; and during this period of seclusion, he EXPEDITION TO GUIANA 181 again turned his thoughts to his favourite subject of American adventure, and laid the scheme of his first expedition to Guiana, in search of the celebrated El Dorado, the fabled seat of inexhaustible wealth. Having fitted out, with the assistance of other private persons, a considerable fleet, Raleigh sailed from Plymouth, February 6th, 1595. He left his ships in the mouth of the river Orinoco, and sailed four hundred miles into the interior in boats. It is to be re- corded to his honour that he treated the Indians with great kindness; which, con- trasted with the savage conduct of the Spaniards, raised so friendly a feeling to- wards him, that for years his return was eagerly expected, and at length was hailed with delight. The hardships of the under- taking, and the natural advantages of the country which he explored, are eloquently described in his own account of the ¢ Dis- covery of Guiana.” But the setting in of the rainy season rendered it necessary to return, without having reached the promised land of wealth; and Raleigh reaped no other fruit of his adventure than a certain quantity of geographical knowledge, and a full conviction of the importance of colon- ising and taking possession of the newly- discovered region. This continued through life to be his favourite scheme ; but neither Elizabeth nor her successor could be in- duced to view it in the same favourable light. Such was the early life of Raleigh ; of his later years, and his sad imprisonment in the Tower, his last voyage, and his execution we do not here speak. We prefer to pause at the earlier and brighter portion of his career. 182 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. SiR Francis DRAKE. Tue Stave TRADE IN FORMER Times— J 1GHTS WITH THE HIS Drake,” says | § Camden, “(to re- late no more than what I have heard from himself), was born of mean pa- rentage in Devon- shire, and had Francis Russell (afterwards Earl of Bedford) for : his godfather, who, according to the custom, gave him his Christian name. Whilst he was yet a child, his father, em- bracing the Protestant doctrine, was called in question by the law of the Six Articles made by Henry VIII against the Protes- tants, fled his county, and withdrew himself into Kent.” “ Thus,” says quaint old Fuller, “did God divide the honour betwixt two counties, that the one might have his birth, and the other his education.” The date of his birth is involved in great uncertainty, which has not been cleared up by his latest biographer, who quotes the inscriptions of two portraits, which disagree as to his age. The years 1539, 1541, and 1546, not to mention others, have been assigned by different writers ; but the safest assertion to make is that he was born somewhere between those extreme periods, and probably about 1542. According to local tradition, Drake first saw the light in an humble cottage on the banks of the Tavy, in Devonshire, and not far from South Tavistock. The cottage was demolished some forty years ago, till which time it had remained unchanged; a stall for cattle, belonging to the farm-house hard by now stands, or recently stood, upon its site. Sir Francis Drake, the nephew of the SPANIARDS. great sea hero, and the inheritor of his for- tune and honours, in the'dedication of the “Voyage Revived,” gives some information of the family. He describes the poverty and the persecution for conscience’ sake of the hero’s father. He says that, after his flight into Kent, the good man was con- strained to inhabit in the hull of a ship, wherein many of his younger sons were born. He adds that he had twelve sons in all, and that, “as it pleased God to give most of them a being upon the water, so the greatest part of them died at sea; but the youngest, though he went as far as any, yet died at home, whose posterity inherits that which he, by himself, and this noble gentle- man, the eldest brother (the great Francis), was hardly, yet worthily, gotten.” « After the death of King Henry,” con- tinues Camden, “he (the father) got a place among the seamen in the king's navy, to read prayers to them; and soon after he was ordained deacon, and made vicar of the church of Upnor upon the river Medway, the road where the fleet usually anchoreth. But by reason of his poverty he put his son to the master of a barque, his neighbour, who used to coast along the shore, and some- times to carry merchandise into Zealand and France.” Mr. Barrow has remarked, that there is not now, nor ever was, either church or chapel at Upnor, but that a small castle was built there by Queen Elizabeth to protect the anchorage. Yet, no doubt, there was a small chapel in that castle, and in this the father of the great Drake may have been chaplain. Or he may have been vicar of Hoo Church, which stands on the hill just IN THE SLAVE TRADE. : 133 ‘behind Upnor, and which still serves as a parish church to that village. There may be a trifling slip as to a name, but there can be no doubt of Camden’s correctness as to the fact that Drake’s father held some church preferment in this immediate neighbour- hood. He was, no doubt, a man of con- siderable acquirements, and one that took pains with the education of his sons. The great Drake, though sent so early to sea, was very far from being an illiterate man. In all times the coasting trade has been considered an admirable school for seamen. This was the training of Drake, as after- wards of Captain Cook. According to Fuller, his first master “held Drake hard to his business; and pains with patience in his youth knit the joints of his soul, and made them more solid and compacted.” But, if a hard master in the beginning, the old skipper became very fond of his appren- tice. “The youth,” says Camden, “ being painful and diligent, so pleased the old man by his industry, that, being a bachelor, he at his death bequeathed his barque unto him by will and testament.” As master of this craft Drake continued his active way of life. He had gotten to- gether some little money. At this time Captain Hawkins (afterwards Sir John), another Devonshire man, a bold sailor and a skilful navigator, was fitting out at Ply- mouth an expedition for the new world. Such expeditions presented irresistible attraction to adventurous seamen, and to many adventurers that were no seamen. There was no conceivable limit to the riches and beauty of the American con- tinent ; every man hoped to obtain a fortune by going thither and hitting upon some gold mine. Hawkins had made one or two voyages to the new world before. Drake, who appears to have been previously acquainted with him, resolved to accompany him in his present expedition ; so, selling hisbarque, and taking with him all the money and goods he had in the world, he hastened away to Plymouth and joined Hawkins. Queen Elizabeth had lent one of her ships royal to the general (or admiral, as we should now say). The rest of the squadron, fur- nished by private speculators, consisted of four ships and two very small vessels. One of these ships, named the Judith, was in- trusted to the command of Francis Drake, whose skill must have been known and prized by Hawkins, as he was but a young man at the time. The expedition sailed from Plymouth in October, 1567. Its main scope appears to have been to purchase negroes on the coast of Africa, to carry these unfortunate creatures to the West Indies, and sell them to the Spaniards. Hawkins’ good fortune forsook him in this his last great adventure. Everything went wrong. First there was a storm off Cape Finisterre, which lasted four days, and greatly damaged the general’s ship. Then there was some hard fighting near Cape de Verd, where the negroes would not submit to be made slaves and carried off. Seven or eight men were wounded, and died of lockjaw. “I myself,” says the devout Hawkins, ‘had one of the greatest wounds, yet, thanks be to God, escaped.” Farther down the coast, at St. Jorge da Mina, where Hawkins joined a negro king who was making war on a neighbouring black potentate, he had six slain and forty wounded. And (what Hawkins appears to have considered as a still greater misfortune) he was duped and tricked by his ally the negro king, who, after promising him all the prisoners that should be taken, marched off with six hundred of them, and left our Christian general only some two hundred and fifty “men, women, and children.” ¢ But,” says Hawkins, with virtuous indignation, “in the negro nation is seldom or never found truth.” Having chained and em- barked all the negroes they could get, our adventurers, who were half slave-dealers, and half buccaneers, quitted the coast of Guinea and made for the West Indies. At some islands the Spaniards trafficked with them, giving them gold and silver for their black people; but in other islands they would not engage in this traffic. For this 184 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. conduct Hawkinsdetermined to punish them. Having landed two hundred of his men, he stormed and took the town of Rio da Hacha, with the loss of two men only. At and uncontradicted statement to this effect, ' and as Drake suffered imprisonment for his the port of San Juan d’Ulloa, in the Bay of | name of Drake never once occurs in any Mexico, they were not quite so fortunate. Hawkins had evidently been joined by a number of buccaneer ships, who were practising in those waters without any commission, either from the Queen of England (who was not then at war with Spain) or from any other sovereign or state. He confesses himself that he was more than half inclined to attack a Spanish fleet which came into the bay with specie and bullion on board, to the value of nearly two millions sterling. After he had been for some time in port, he says the English were taken by surprise, and the Spaniards, | most perfidiously falling upon them, killed a great number of their men, seized, plun- dered, and burned three of their ships, making the crews prisoners, and obliged the remainder of the smaller ships to retreat, without provisions or water, and in a most miserable plight. But, according to the rela- tion which Hawkins himself gave to that ex- cellent collector and compiler, old Hakluyt, the English did not retreat until they had sunk, or were supposed to have sunk, the’ Spanish admiral, burned the vice-admiral, and sent another of their chief ships to the bottom—as was believed. Hawkins was obliged to abandon his ship, the Jesus of Lubeck, which Queen Elizabeth had lent him, which was of seven hundred tons burthen, and the only vessel deserving to be called a ship in his squadron; and only the Afinion and the Judith, Drake's barque of fifty tons, got safely out of this un- lucky bay and most desperate fight. In this disastrous expedition Drake lost all the money he had in the world, and brought a stain upon his reputation which would have been fatal to him if he had lived in more modern times. For he shamefullydisobeyed orders, and deserted Hawkins, his superior and his friend, in the hour of need and danger. As we have Hawkins’ own solemn misconduct, it seems rather strange that Mr. Barrow should suppress the fact and say that “it is somewhat remarkable that the | of the accounts of this very uninteresting and unfortunate voyage.” In the very chapter in which this passage occurs, Mr. Barrow himself quotes more than one ac- count of the voyage, in which the name of Drake and the name of his vessel are men- tioned, and Hawkins’ account must have come under his eye in Hakluyt’s book, of which he has made so much use. Southey, who understood his business better than to attempt enhancing the fame of his hero by suppressing or slurring over the truth, has given the facts in a footnote. Hawkins complained of Drake’s ‘forsaking him in his great misery, and shifting for himself.” Herrera, who wrote with the prejudice of a Spaniard against a man who became one of the most formidable enemies Spain ever knew, says that Drake, instead of obeying Hawkins’ orders, and waiting for him when he was in his great peril, fled with all the prize-money that had been made, and reach- ing England reported that Hawkins was lost, and that he had distributed the money among his men, although in reality he (Drake) had kept it all himself. “This,” adds Herrera, “was his beginning ; and, though the queen kept him three months in prison, she pardoned him upon intercession, and so the matter rested.” This story about the money is false ; but Drake merited his imprisonment, and some- thing worse, for his disobeying orders and abandoning his friend and superior officer, who, together with his people, suffered in- credible hardships before he could get to England. Camden does not mention the imprisonment ; but he says that Drake hardly escaped with the loss of all thathe had. He, however, showed skilful seamanship, and brought the little Jzd:th safely home ; and in those days craft and skill could be pleaded in extenuation of almost every offence fall- ATTACKS ON THE SPANIARDS. 185 ing short of high treason. A chaplain be- longing to the queen's fleet comforted Drake with the assurance that, as he had been treacherously used by the Spaniards in the Gulf of Mexico, he might lawfully recover in value upon the King of Spain, and repair his losses upon him whenever and wherever he could. Fuller says, “The case was clear in sea-divinity ; and few are such in- fidels as not to believe doctrines which make for their own profit. Whereupon Drake, _-though a poor private man, undertook to revenge himself on so mighty a monarch, who, not contented that the sun riseth and setteth in his dominions, may seem to desire to make all his own where he shineth.” It entered largely into the policy of the virgin- queen to wink at this right of private war, or to encourage her subjects in their private attacks upon the navy and colonies of Spain. Fuller, though a divine, and writing not during her reign, but during the Common- wealth and under Charles II., could not discover anything much amiss in this system, for he looked upon the Spaniards only as Papists, and as such the natural enemies of all good Protestants. Let us see,” he ex- claims, “let us now see how a dwarf, stand- ing on the mount of God’s providence, may prove an overmatch for a giant!” Being readily joined by a number of sea-adven- turers, who mustered among them money enough to fit out a vessel, Drake made two or three voyages to the West Indies, to gain intelligence, and learn the navigation of those parts ; but Camden adds that he also got some store of money there “by playing the seaman and the pirate.” In 1570 he obtained a regular commission from Queen Elizabeth, and cruised to still better purpose among the Spanish West India Islands. In 1 572—apparently with the same roving commission from the queen, and with the determination of attacking the Spaniards wherever it could be done with hope of success and plunder, albeit there was still no declared war between England and Spain—he sailed again for the Spanish main with the Pas/a, of Plymouth, of seventy tons, and the Swan, of the same port, of twenty-five tons, of which his brother, John Drake, was captain. The united crews of these two small craft amounted, in men and boys, to seventy-three; “all voluntarily as- sembled, of which the eldest man was fifty, all the rest under thirty; and so divided that there were forty-seven in one ship, and twenty-six in the other, both richly furnished with victuals and apparel for a whole year, and no less heedfully provided of all manner 186 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. of munition, artillery, stuff and tools, that were requisite for such a man-of-war, in such an attempt, but especially having three dainty pinnaces made in Plymouth, taken asunder all in pieces, and stowed aboard, to be set up as occasion served.” At Port Pheasant, an uninhabited place on the South American coast, Drake landed, built a fort, or stockade, by felling trees, and began to put his two pinnaces together. The day after his arrival he was joined by a barque from the Isle of Wight, belonging to Sir Edward Horsey, “ wherein James Rouse was captain, and John Overy master, with thirty men, of which some had been with our captain (Drake) in the same place the year before.” Master Rouse brought in with him a Spanish carvello of Seville, which he had taken the day before, and a shal- lop with oars, which he had taken at Cape Blanche. “This Captain Rouse, understanding our captain’s purpose, was desirous to join in consort with him, and was received on conditions agreed upon between them.” With this insignificant force Drake took and plundered the town of Nombre de Dios, and made great spoils among the Spanish shipping. In leading them to the attack of the king’s treasure- house, Drake told his people, “ That he had now brought them to the mouth of the Treasury of the World ; which, if they did not gain, none but themselves were to be blamed.” He received a dangerous wound; but this he concealed for a long time, “know- ing, if the general’s heart stoops, the men’s will fail ; and that if a bright opportunity once setteth, it seldom riseth again.” To an hidalgo, who had a parley with him after the fight, Drake frankly said, “That he wanted only some of that excellent com- modity, gold and silver, which that country yielded, for himself and his company, and that he was resolved, by the help of God, to reap some of the golden harvest which they (the Spaniards) had got out of the earth, and then sent into Spain to trouble the earth.” After this exploit he proceeded to Carthagena, and there took two Spanish | ships, one of which was two hundred and forty tons, having previously despatched his brother and one Ellis Hixon to examine the river Chagres, which traverses part of the isthmus of Darien, where he had been the year before. After taking other prizes, and sinking the Swan, in order to strengthen the crews in the pinnaces, Drake landed, and partially crossing the isthmus of Darien, obtained a view of the great Pacific,an ocean as yet closed to English enterprise, and with his eyes longingly fixed upon its waters, he prayed God to grant him “life and leave once to sail an English ship in those seas.” He also implored the Divine assistance to be enabled to make a perfect discovery of the same. ¢ Hereunto,” says Camden, “he bound himself with a vow ; and from that time forward his mind was pricked on con- tinually night and day to perform his vow.” Sir William Davenant, in a whimsical drama, produced and played in the time of Charles II., commemorated these events. Drake, jun. No English keel hath yet that ocean plowed. : Pedro. If prophecy from me may be allowed, Renowned Drake, Heaven does decree That happy enterprise to thee ; For thou of all the Britons art the first That boldly durst This Western World invade ; And as thou now art made The first to whom that ocean will be shown, So to thy Isle thou first shalt make it known. The adventures which followed were ex- traordinary and very hazardous. John Drake was killed, being mortally wounded in the belly while attempting to board a Spanish frigate from the pinnaces, and another young man, called Richard Allen, was slain with him. Six of the company fell sick and died within two or three days, and thirty at a time were very sick of a calenture. “Among the rest, Joseph Drake, another of our cap- tain’s brothers, died in our captain’s arms of the same disease.” At last Drake shaped his course for England, with his frail barques absolutely loaded and crammed with trea- sure and plundered merchandise; and on SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 187 August 9, 1573, he anchored at Plymouth. It was a Sunday, and the townsfolk were at church; but when the news spread thither that Drake was come, there re- mained few or no people with the preacher ; all running out to witness the blessing of God upon the dangerous adventures and enterprises of the captain, who had spent one year, two months, and some odd days, in this voyage.” Or, in the words of one who couples loyalty with religion, ‘all hastening to see the evidence of God’s love and blessing towards our gracious queen and country, by the fruit of our captain’s labour and success. SOLI DEO GLORIA.” Drake, being employed in the interval in the service of the queen in Ireland, was forestalled in the honour of being the first Englishman to sail on the Pacific by one John Oxenham, of Plymouth, who had served under him as a common sailor and cook ; but as this man merely floated a “pinnace ” on the South Sea in 1575, and was taken by the Spaniards and hanged (together with forty of his comrades) as a pirate at Lima, “being unable to produce any power or commission from the queen,” he could scarcely be an object of envy to the “dragon Drake,” as he was not unfre- quently called. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE (continued). Jn SourH AMERICA—RETURN floME-_RECEPTION AT ffourRT— x N ''r577, under! the secret sanction of Elizabeth, Drake departed from Ply- expedi- tion to the Spanish Owing to foul weather and other delays, he did not , fairly quit England until the very end of the year. This time his squad- ron consisted of five vessels, the largest of which, the Pelican, was of a hundred tons, the smallest, the Clhristopher pinnace, of only fifteen tons. The united crews amounted to a hundred and sixty-four men, gentlemen and sailors. Among the gentle men were some young men of noble families, who (not to mention the plunder antici- pated) went out to learn the art of naviga- tion. Our old dramatists were only dealing with facts when they represented the court gallants or men of pleasure and dissipation about town looking to a cruise on the VP Toeacco SMOKING. Spanish main as a good and honourable means of recruiting their wasted finances. After many adventures along the coasts of the South American continent, where some of his attacks and surprises were com- pletely successful, Drake and his choice comrades came to Port Julian, on the coast of Patagonia, near the Straits of Magelhaens, where they were much comforted by finding a gibbet standing—a proof that Christian people had been there before them. Drake, during his stay in Port Julian, put to death ‘ Master Doughtie,” a gentleman of birth and education, and next in authority or in consideration to the general. This dark story is still involved in much mystery, not- withstanding the laudable endeavours of Southey to rescue the fame of one of our greatest naval heroes from the suspicion of a most foulmurder. Mr. Barrow, Drake’s latest biographer, has thrown no new light upon the subject. Camden relates the sad story thus :—* In this very place John Doughtie, an industrious and stout man, and the next 188 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP unto Drake, was called to his trial for raising a mutiny in the fleet, found guilty by twelve men, after the English manner, and con- demned to death, which he suffered un- dauntedly, being beheaded, having first received the holy communion with Drake. And, indeed, the most impartial persons in the fleet were of opinion that he had acted seditiously ; and that Drake cut him off as an emulator of his glory, and one that re- garded not so much who he himself excelled in commendations for sea matters, as who he thought might equal him. Yet wanted there not some who, pretending to under- stand things better than others, gave out that Drake had in charge from Leicester to take off Doughtie, upon any pretence what- soever, because he had reported abroad that the Earl of Essex was made away by the cunning practices of Leicester.” A story told by Drake’s nephew and namesake about a plan - entertained by Doughtie to create a mutiny and murder the general or admiral has been rejected with the contempt it merits, for it injures the case by attempting to prove too much, and it contains some things which are al- together incredible. Mr. Francis Fletcher, “preacher and pastor of the fleet at that time” (even the buccaneers were a God- fearing race, and liked always to have a chaplain or two with them), has left a written account of “this bloody tragedy,” as he himself calls it. The chaplain speaks very cautiously ; but he does not appear to have believed in any great guilt in Doughtie. He says that the origin of the dislike against him was in the outward voyage, upon occa- sion of taking a Portuguese prize (the sort of subject upon which these adventurers were continually quarrelling), but that “now more dangerous matter and of greater weight is laid to his charge, and that by the same persons, namely, for words spoken by him to them, being in England, in the general's garden in Plymouth, long before our depar- ture thence, which had been their parts and duties to have discovered them at that time, and not to have concealed them for a time and place not so fitting; but how true it was wherewith they charged him upon their oaths, I know not; but he utterly denied it, upon his salvation, at the hour of com- municating the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, at the hour and moment of his death, affirming that he was innocent of such things whereof he was accused, judged, and suffered death for. Of whom I must needs testify the truth for the good things of God I found in him, in the time we were conversant, and especially in the time of his afflictions and trouble, till he yielded up the spirit to God ; I doubt not to immor- tality. He feared God, he loved His word, and was always desirous to edify others, and conform himself to the faith of Christ.” Fletcher goes on to describe Doughtie as a very accomplished person. ¢ For his quali- ties, in a man of his time, they were rare, and his gifts very excellent for his age: a sweet orator, a pregnant philosopher, a good gift for the Greek tongue, and a reasonable taste of Hebrew ; a sufficient secretary to a noble personage of great place, and in Zealand an approved soldier; and not be- hind many in the study of the law for his time.” We leave the story in the same ob- scurity in which we found it. On the 20th of August, 1578, Drake reached Cape Virgenes, and began to sail through the Strait of Magelhaens, being the third navigator who performed that most difficult passage. On the 6th of September he cleared the strait and entered the Pacific, which he found rough and turbulent above measure. A tempest, which for fifty days never ceased, drove our daring navigator far to the south, and to the extremity of the land which has since been named “Cape Horn.” Thus he was enabled to displace the old Zerra incognita from a considerable portion of the space which it had previously occupied in maps and charts. “We altered the name,” says Fletcher the chaplain, “to Terra nunc bene cognita (or land now well- known).” Drake went ashore, and leaning over the face of a jutting promontory, as far as he could, he came back and told his RETURN HOME. 189 sailors that now he had been farther south than any man living. On the 30th of Oc- tober the wind fell fair and moderate ; and our adventurers sailed towards the north- west, running pleasantly along the shores of the South American continent, and keeping a good look-out for prizes, whether on sea or on land. Having obtained an immense booty by plundering the Spanish towns on the coasts of Chili and Peru, and by taking, among many other vessels, a royal galleon, called the Cacafuego, richly laden with plate, he sailed to the north in the hope of finding a passage back to the Atlantic a little above California. He, in short, went in quest of the north-east passage. He reached latitude 48° N.; but there the extreme severity of the cold discouraged his men, and so, putting back 10° he took shelter in Port San Fran- cisco. After staying five weeks in this port, Drake boldly determined to follow the ex. ample of Magelhaens, and steer across the Pacific for the Moluccas. He had gone through the winding and, in many places, narrow and most difficult Strait of Magel- haens without any chart or guide whatsoever; but he was so fortunate as to obtain from the master of a trading ship, from Panama to the Philippine islands, a sea-card, which showed him the track across the Pacific. He made Ternate, one of the Moluccas, and the capital of that group, in safety, and thence set his course for Java. His sea- card had now long ceased to be of any use ; yet he steered through unknown seas, through an intricate navigation among rocks and islands, and without a pilot. Among the Celebes his ship struck upon the point of one of those coral reefs which so abound. in those seas; but at the ebb of tide she fell over on one side, slipped off from the ledge, and floated into deep water. From Java, Drake sailed right across the Indian Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope, which he doubled without accident, or, in the words of an original narrator in Hakluyt—¢ We ran hard aboard the Cape, finding the report of the Portingals (Portuguese) most false, who affirmed that it is the most dangerous cape in the world, never without intolerable storms and present danger to travellers which come near the same.” He put into Sierra Leone, and stayed there two days, taking in water and procuring oysters and fruit. He arrived at Plymouth on the 26th of September, 1580, after an absence of two years, ten months, and some odd days, during which he had circumnavigated the globe, and spent many months on the almost unknown south-western coasts of America. Of his five ships he had brought back with him only one; but Captain John Winter; who had deserted him, had arrived with his vessel long before, causing it to be believed by the good people of Plymouth that Drake had perished at sea, or in some heavy fight with the Spaniards. Of the ad- venturers who had quitted Plymouth with him, many besides Doughtie had found a grave on the solitary shore or in the deep sea ; but such as returned with him spoke favourably of the attention he had bestowed upon their health and comfort. On first getting within the tropical regions he had bled all the people with his own hand. Francis Fletcher, the chaplain, much ap- plauds “the great experience of our, general, who had often himself proved the force of the burning zone, and whose advice always prevailed much to the preserving of a moderate temper in our constitutions.” The Devonshire circumnavigator and hero was received with transports of joy by the people of Plymouth. The day of his arrival was spent in feasting and rejoicing, with bell-ringing from morning till night. The very next day he made a happy pil- grimage to the poor cottage near Tavistock, in which he was born, and in which his father had suffered religious persecution as well as poverty. Drake was now rich—his ship was filled with gold, silver, silk, pearls, and precious stones. “The news,” says honest Stow, ‘“ of this his great wealth so far fetched was miraculous strange, and of all men held impossible and incredible ; but both proving true, it fortuned that many misliked it and reproached him : besides all N 190 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP this there were others that devised and divulged all possible disgraces against Drake and his followers, deeming him the master-thief of the unknown world; yet nevertheless, the people generally, with exceeding admiration, applauded his won- derful long adventures and rich prize.” After letting a few months pass, that appearances might be preserved, and that her people might have time to declare their own feelings and opinions, and make them known to the world, the queen summoned the circumnavigator to London. most graciously received at court, and Eliza- beth now asserted more firmly her right of navigating the ocean in all its parts, and denied the exclusive right which the Spaniards claimed over the seas and lands of the new world. From this time she her- self aspired to ¢¢ The large command of waters and of isles.” And though the queen yielded so far as to - pay a considerable sum out of the treasure Drake had brought home to the procurator of certain foreign merchants who urged (and not without reason) that they had been unjustly robbed, enough was left to make it a profitable adventure for the privateers. At her orders Drake’s ship was drawn up in a little creek near Deptford, there to be preserved as a monument of the most memorable voyage that the English had ever yet performed. On the 4th of April, 1581, “ Her Majesty dining at Deptford, after dinner entered the ship which Captain Drake had so happily guided round about the world, and being there, a bridge which her Majesty had passed over, brake, being upon the same more than two hundred persons, and no man hurt by the fall ; and there she did make Captain Drake Knight, in the same ship, for reward of his services. The arms given him were a ship on the world.” For many a year Sir Francis Drake’s ship at Deptford was an object of curiosity and admiration. It became the great resort of holiday people, the cabin being converted into a sort of Drake was | tavern well furnished with “full cups and banquets.” When the rot had consumed her, some of the sound wood was converted into a chair, which was presented to the Univer- sity of Oxford, with a short copy of verses written by Cowley. None of these ten lines are very good, nor can we much admire the point of the concluding four :— “ Drake and his ship could not have wish’d from fate An happier station or more blessed estate. For lo! a seat of endless rest is given— To her in Oxford, and to him in Heaven.” The circumnavigator had brought back with him, from St. Augustine’s, in Florida, a Spaniard named Pedro Morales, and a Frenchman named Nicholas Bourguignon ; and from these two individuals, who had been six years in the country, Hakluyt obtained in 1586 some information ¢ touch- ing the state of those parts.” Their account was well calculated to send more adven- turous Englishmen into Spanish America. During part of the year 1585, and the whole of 1586, Sir Francis Drake was actively and profitably employed against Philip IT. on the coasts of Spain and Por- tugal, in the Canaries, the Cape de Verdes, the West India islands, and on the coast of South America, where Carthagena and other towns were taken and plundered. These operations bear a close family resem- blance to those of Morgan, Mansvelt, Peche, Lasound, and the other “ brethren of the coast,” or buccaneers, who so plundered the Spanish main in the following century. The booty which was brought home, or which was reported to Government by Drake, must have been considered but as a poor compensation for the toils that were endured and the losses that were sustained. It was valued only at £60,000, over and above 200 pieces of brass and 4o pieces of iron cannon. This had cost the lives of about 750 men, who, for the most part, died of calenture. The poor soldiers and sailors got only £20,000 to divide among them. In the course of this expedition Drake visited the English colony in Vir- - “THE STINKING SMOKE THEREOF” I9I ginia, which had been recently planted by Sir Walter Raleigh, and finding the colo- nists in extreme distress, he took them on board and brought them home with him. It is said that tobacco was first brought into England by the men who returned from Virginia with Drake. The name of the weed was obtained from the island on which it was first found growing—Tobago. “These men who were thus brought back,” says Camden, ‘“were the first that I know of, that brought into England that Indian plant which they call Tabacca and Nicotia, or Tobacco, which they used against crudities, being taught it by the Indians. Certainly from that time forward it began to grow into great request, and to be sold at an high rate, which, in a short time, many men everywhere, some from wantonness, some for health’s sake, with insatiable desire and greediness, sucked in the stinking smoke thereof through an earthen pipe, which presently they blew out again at their nostrils : insomuch that tobacco shops are now as ordinary in most towns as tap- houses and taverns.” SIR Francis DraAKE (continued). « SINGEING THE SPANISH King’s BEARD Tue PEFEAT OF wie DY THE ARMADA. N 1587, when for- midable prepara- tions were making in ‘the ports of Spain and Portugal 2 for the grand Ar- TA mada and the invasion of FOR England, Elizabeth appointed Drake to the command of a > fleet equipped for the pur- pose of destroying the enemy’s ships in their own harbours. This force did not exceed thirty sail, and only four were of the navy royal ; the rest, with the exception of two yachts belonging to the queen, being furnished by merchant-adventurers. = Drake sailed from Plymouth on the znd of April. On the 16th of that month he fell in with two ships of Middleburgh, which had come from Cadiz, and by the captains of which he was informed that there was great store of warlike provision at Cadiz, where the Spani- ards were busily employed in shipping it for Lisbon, the grand dep6t for the Armada.- On the 19th of April, between night and morn- ing, “the dragon Drake,” whose very name now spread terror, dashed into Cadiz Bay. Besides galleys there were sixty ships, and many vessels of inferior size, all protected by land-batteries. When over against Cadiz town he was smartly assailed by five galleys ; but he soon drove them under the guns of the castle. A great Ragusan ship of 1000 tons, richly laden, and furnished with forty pieces of brass, was presently sunk. “There came,” says one of the sailors engaged, “two galleys more from St. Mary’s port and two from Port Real, which shot freely at us, but altogether in vain; for they went away with our blows, well beaten for their pains.” Drake burned, sunk, or took from thirty- five to forty ships, some of which were of the largest size, and it appears he might have done much more mischief but for the necessity he was under of securing as much booty, in goods, as he could, for the benefit of the merchant adventurers, who had lent their ships, and provided crews and equip- ments in the hope of some profitable return. These goods were removed by the English sailors from the captured ships, close under a tremendous fire of land-batteries. The 192 THE WONDERS OF THE DEED mariner, from whom we have already quoted, says, “We found little ease during our abode here, by reason of their continual shooting from the galleys, the fortresses, and from the shore; where continually, at places convenient, they planted new ord- nance to offend us with : besides the incon- venience which we suffered from their ships, which, when they could defend no longer, they set on fire to come among us. Whereupon, when the flood of tide came, we were not a little troubled to defend us from their terrible fire, which, nevertheless, was a pleasant sight for us to behold, because we were thereby eased of a great labour, which lay upon us day and night, in discharging the victuals and other pro- visions of the enemy. Thus, to the great astonishment of the King of Spain, this strange and happy enterprise was achieved in one day and two nights; which bred such a corrosion in the heart of the Marquis of Santa Cruz, High Admiral of Spain, that he never enjoyed a good day after, but within a few months (as may justly be supposed) died of extreme grief and sorrow. . And so, having performed this notable service, we came out of the road of Cadiz on Friday morning, the 21st of the said month of April, with very small loss, not worth the mentioning.” They carried away four large Spanish ships laden with provisions ; and the stores and other goods they otherwise obtained must have been immense. “ Thus,” says our sailor, “being victualled with bread and wine at the enemy’s cost, for divers months, our general despatched Captain Crosse into England with his letters. After whose departure we shaped our course towards Cape Sacre, taking sundry ships, destroying fishing-boats, and the profitable fisheries, but dealing favourably with the men and sending them ashore.” It appears that between Cadiz and Cape St. Vincent nearly 100 vessels of all sorts were taken or burned, and that four castles or forts were destroyed on shore ; the English occasionally landed and attacked the fortifications—* the better to enjoy the benefit of the place, and to ride in harbour at their pleasure.” Drake, who was a humorist, called this “ singeing the King of Spain’s beard.” “ And thence,” continues our sailor, “we came before the haven of Lisbon, anchoring near unto Cascaes, where the Marquis Santa Cruz was with his galleys, who, seeing us chase his ships ashore, and take and carry away his barques and caravels,was content to suffer us there quietly to tarry, and likewise to depart, and never charged us with one cannon-shot. And when our general sent him word that he was ready to exchange certain bullets with him, the marquis refused his challenge, sending him word that he was not then ready for him, nor had any such commission from the king. “So there being nothing more to be done or gotten in this quarter, away we go for the Azores.” Within twenty or thirty leagues of St. Michael they fell in with the huge Portuguese galleon or carrack, called the St. Philip. “This carrack, without any great resistance, we took, bestowing the people thereof in certain vessels well fur- nished with victuals, and sending them courteously home into their country. And this was the first carrack that ever was taken coming from the East Indies; which the Portuguese took for an evil sign, because the ship bore the king’s own name! . And here, by the way, is to be noted that the taking of this carrack wrought two extraordinary effects in England: first, in teaching others that carracks were no such bugs but that they might be taken (as since, indeed, it hath fallen out in the taking of the Madre de Dios, and firing and sinking of others); and secondly, in acquainting the English nation more generally with the particularities of the exceeding riches and wealth of the East Indies; whereby them- selves and their neighbours of Holland have been encouraged, being men as skilful in navigation, and of no less courage than the Portingals, to share with them in the East Indies, where their strength is nothing so great as heretofore hath been supposed.” 4 GOOD DEED. 193 According to our hearty sailor, another conviction, derived from Drake’s experience of galley-fighting, was this—‘“That four English men-of-war would always be a match for twenty Spanish galleys.” Before the summer was over Drake returned tri- umphantly to Plymouth with a whole fleet and an amazingly rich booty. He gener- indentings and circlings it was to be con- veyed twenty-four miles, through valleys, wastes, and bogs, and through a mighty rock, thought to be impenetrable. But Drake gave his money freely, and animated DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. ously spent a considerable part of his own prize-money in supplying the town of Ply- mouth with good fresh water, for hitherto there was none, except what the inhabitants fetched from a place a mile distant. The head of the spring, from which it was now to be brought, was between seven and eight miles distant in a direct line ; but by of Plymouth (which it has ever since sup- plied) was celebrated with a procession and festival at which the hero was present. “ Perhaps,” says Southey, “the day of that peaceful triumph was the happiest of the engineers and workmen with some of | Drake’s public life.” He also erected at his own resolute and persevering spirit. The work was soon finished, and the first flowing of the blessed stream into the town his own expense various mills on the stream for the use of the town, vesting the property in the commonalty for ever. 104 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP Whether his “singeing ” did or did not cause the death of the Marquis of Santa Cruz, who was reputed the best naval com- mander of Spain, and whose loss is said to have been fatally felt in the management of the grand Armada, it is quite certain that his operations delayed the sailing of that armament more than a year, and gave Elizabeth that time to prepare for her defence. Drake’s next service at sea was as vice- admiral in the fleet under Charles Lord Howard of Effingham, lord-high-admiral of England, which, with the assistance of the elements, and the many blunders commit- ted by the Spaniards, scattered and de- stroyed the “Invincible Armada.” The admirable seamanship of Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher, contributed largely to the happy result. On the last day of July, when the fighting in the Channel was over, and the scattered Spaniards in full retreat, “Drake wrote to the Secretary Wal- singham—¢ There never was anything pleased me better than the seeing the enemy flying with a southerly wind to the northward. We have the Spaniards before us, and mind, with the grace of God, to wrestle another pull with them! With the grace of God, if we live, I doubt it not but ere it be long so to handle the matter with the Duke of Sidonia, as he shall wish himself at St. Mary’s port among his vine-trees.” If Drake’s advice had been taken, and if the English ships had been properly provided with ammunition, instead of being obliged to wait in order to receive it from shore, it is probable that neither the Duke of Sidonia nor any other officer of the Armada would have got back to Spain to relate the frightful discomfiture they had sustained. In the following year (1589) Drake was employed as admiral in an expedition sent to Portugal, in the hope of expelling the Spaniards, who had taken possession of that kingdom by establishing the claims of Antonio, a pretender, around whom the English expected the Portugese would rally. The pretender Antonio also expected assistance from Muley Hamet, king or emperor of Morocco; and the Dutch furnished some ships and companies of soldiers. The whole expedition was badly planned, most miserably supplied with money and the other means of war, and but lamely executed after the landing of the troops. It was also disgraced by cruelties unusual even in that age, and inexcusable, notwithstanding the provocation which the English had so recently received on their own shores. Southey, with proper feeling, stigmatizes the barbarities committed. Mr. Barrow only praises the ability and bravery displayed by the English. The expedition had cost England the loss of six thousand men. In 1595 Drake and Sir John Hawkins, “ who had good experience in these parts,” represented to Elizabeth that the best place for striking a blow at the gigantic power of Spain was in the West Indies. An arma- ment was therefore prepared, and Drake was associated in the command with old Hawkins, to whom more than a quarter of a century before he had given cause for such serious discontent. They sailed together with six of the queen’s ships and twenty- one other ships and barques, on board of which was embarked a land force under the orders of Sir Thomas Baskerville and Sir Nicholas Clifford. According to Hak- luyt the whole expedition numbered 2,500 men and boys. There were too many in command, and the usual bad consequences ensued. Nothing is so bad in war as councils of war. After losing time and temper in debate they were obliged to give up an attempt on the Canaries with some loss. When they got among the West India Islands, Drake and Hawkins not only quarrelled but separated for some time, and before reaching the east end of Puerto Rico, old Hawkins died, his death being generally attributed to the agitation of his mind. One of Drake’s smallest vessels was captured by the Spaniards, who, by putting the crew of it to the torture, ex- A FATAL DISEASE. 195 tracted information respecting the plans of the expedition. When Drake attacked the ‘town of San Juan de Puerto Rico he found that place fully warned and prepared, as were all other places in that neighbourhood. One great Spanish shot struck the admiral’s ship through the mizen; another, striking through her quarter into the steerage, where the general was sitting at supper, drove his stool from under him, but hurt him not; but it wounded Sir Nicholas Clifford, Master Brown, Captain Stratford, with one or two more who were sitting at the plunder and destroy the city of Panama and some other places on the Pacific. Baskerville’s force consisted of 750 soldiers. They found that the Spaniards were on the alert, and that a new fort had been erected for defending a narrow pass through which they must go. They were also told that there were two more forts beyond this one. “They had so much of this breakfast,” says Fuller, “that they thought they should sur- feit with a dinner and supper of the same.” Accordingly they returned towards Nombre de Dios sorely harassed and half starved. Baskerville lost in this expedition eighty or THE SPANISH ARMADA ATTACKED BY THE ENGLISH FLEET. same table. Sir Nicholas and Brown died of their hurts. In the end Drake was driven from San Juan with a loss of about roo men in killed and wounded. Sailing “away he took and burned Rio de la Hacha, Rancheria, Santa Martha, and Nombre de Dios ; getting no greater spoil than twenty tons of silver and two bars of gold. Drake remained in the harbour of Nombre de Dois, a most unhealthy place, while Sir Thomas Baskerville, with a part of the land forces, made a vain and ruinous attempt to cross the isthmus of Darien, in order to ninety men and officers. In the year 1680 the English Buccaneers under Coxon, Saw- kins, and Peter Harris (though scarcely more than 300 strong), traversed the isth- mus and plundered and took or burned all the shipping in Panama harbour ; but they were assisted by 300 Mosquito Indians, and the secret of their coming was not known to the Spaniards. A fatal disease now broke out among: soldiers and sailors in the fleet, and soon deprived them of the important services of their chief surgeon. When many of his men and three of his captains had died, the 196 THE WONDERS CF THE DELFT. hardy Drake himself fell sick, and after struggling some twenty days with his ma- lady, and the grief occasioned by his failures, he expired at an early hour of the morning of the 28th January, 1596. On the same day the fleet anchored in Puerto Bello, and in sight of that place by the capture and plunder of which he had first established his great reputation, his body received a sailor's funeral. ‘The waves became his winding-sheet, The waters were his tomb ; But for his fame, the ocean sea Was not sufficient room.” So. sang one of his admiring contempo- raries. Sir Thomas Baskerville took the command of the fleet, and immediately led it back for England. Sixty Spanish ships were at sea to intercept him. He fell in with twenty sail of them off Cuba, but he fought his way gallantly through, causing the destruction ofa great Spanish ship ; and ‘he arrived at Plymouth early in May 1596, though with very little booty. According to Stow’s dates, Drake was fifty-five years old when he died; but the question of his age cannot be settled, as it is not known when he was born. During a part of his life Sir Francis was .an active member of the Lower House. He twice represented Bossiney or Tintagal, in Cornwall. In the parliament of 1592-3 ‘he sat for Plymouth, and his name appeared upon most of the committees. He recom- mended energetic and extensive measures ‘both by sea and land, and spoke for a grant -of three subsidies to the queen to enable her to prosecute the war with Spain. ‘Though his reputation as a skilful sea- ‘man and a bold commander was deservedly great, still, unless we judge him by the cir- cumstances and the moral standard of his own times, he must appear, in many of his exploits, in no other light than that of a dar- ing and fortunate buccaneer. ‘He was more skilful,” says Stow, “in all points of navigation than any that ever was before his time, in his time, or since his death. He was also of a perfect memory, great observation, eloquent by nature, skilful in artillery, ex- pert and apt to let blood, and give physic unto his people according to the climate. He was low of stature, of strong limbs, broad-breasted, round-headed, brown-haired, full- bearded, his eyes round, large, and clear, well-favoured, fair, and of a cheerful coun- tenance. His name was a terror to the French, Spaniards, Portingals, and Indians. Many princes of Italy, Germany, and others, as well enemies as friends, in his lifetime desired his picture. He was the second that ever went through the Straits of Magel- haens, and the first that ever went round about the world. He was lawfully married unto two wives, both young, yet he himself and ten of his brethren died without issue : he made his younger brother, Thomas, his heir, who was with him in the most and chiefest of his employments. In brief, he was as famous in Europe and America as Tamerlane in Asia and Africa.” Honest Stow, however," admits that the great man had his faults. He enumerates among his imperfections, that he was over-ambitious of honour, inconstant in friendship, and too greatly affected to popularity. Fuller adds to Drake’s high qualities, that he was a very religious man towards God and his houses, chaste in his life, just in his dealings, true to his word, merciful to those that were under him, hating nothing so much as idle- ness, and seeing to all things himself, “never wont to rely on other men’s care, how trusty or skilful soever they might seem to be, but always contemning danger, and refusing no trial.” According to some less favour- able accounts he was ostentatious, vain- glorious, and much given to boasting. Per- haps the highest compliments to his skill and indomitable courage are to be found in the characters drawn of him by his mortal enemies, who, indeed, “honoured his memory in the bitterness of their en- mity towards him.” At Panama two days’ holidays were kept to rejoice at his death as a foe and at his damnation as a heretic. The most popular of the Spanish poets of the day composed an epic poem to revile ROBERT BLAKE. 197 him ; and the Spaniards long excused their own humiliating defeats by representing Drake as having been a magician, and in very close alliance with the devil. But even in his native county of Devon- shire Drake was long held to have been a magician, though one only practising in the Magia Alba, or white and innocent magic. The abundant property which he left was much diminished by a prosecution instituted by the crown against his younger brother, heir, and executor, Thomas Drake. It is said that this process rested solely upon “a pretended debt ;” and this will be easily credited by those who best know the un- generous, grasping spirit which prevailed at court, and among public men, during the last clouded years of Queen Elizabeth, and during the whole reign of James I. The estate which remained, however, placed Thomas’s son Francis in such a station that he was created a baronet by James I., and returned as a member or knight of the shire for his county. RoBERT BLAKE. Js YicTorIES OVER THE PurcH —fiis fHARACTER. &> OBERT BLAKE > was born at the sea- ,\ port town of Bridg- water, in Somerset- shire, in August, 1598. His father, Humphrey Blake, was a merchant at Bridgwater, in which neigh- bourhood he purchased an estate, having accumulated a considerable fortune in the Spanish trade. Humphrey Blake had several children, of whom Robert was the elder. He was educated in the free school of Bridgwater, whence he went to Oxford, and became a member of St. Alban’s Hall in 1615, whence he removed to Wadham College. In 1617 he took the degree of B.A., and in 1619 was a candidate for a fellowship in Merton College, but was unsuccessful, as he had previously been in standing for a scholar- ship of Christ Church. He rose early, studied hard, and though he was fond of field sports and other violent exercises, seems to have acquired a fair quantity of scholastic learning. He returned to Bridg- 198 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. water when about twenty-five years old, and lived quietly on his paternal estate till 1640, with the character of a blunt, bold man, of ready humour and fearless expression of his sentiments, which, both in - politics and religion, were adverse to the pretensions of the court. These qualities gained for him the confidence of the Presbyterian party in Bridgwater, by whom he was returned to the Parliament of April, 1640. The speedy dissolution of that assembly gave him no opportunity of trying his powers as a debater; and he lost his election to the Long Parliament. But on the break- ing out of the civil war, he displayed his principles by entering the Parliamentary army, and was soon made a captain of dragoons. We have little information concerning his services till 1643, when we find him in- trusted with the command of a fort at Bristol, under Colonel Fiennes, when the city was besieged by the Royalists. Here his impetuous temper had nearly brought him to an untimely death; for, having maintained his fort and killed some of the king’s soldiers after the garrison had sur- rendered, Prince Rupert was with difficulty induced to spare his life, which was held to have been forfeited by this violation of the laws of war. Blake served afterwards in Somersetshire, as lieutenant colonel, under Popham, who was governor of Lyme. He took Taunton for the Parliament, by an unexpected attack, and obtained ten pieces of cannon and a large quantity of ammuni- tion. In 1644 he was, appointed governor of Taunton, which was a place of great ~ consequence, being the only Parliamentary fortress in that quarter. In that capacity he distinguished himself by the skill, courage, and constancy with which, during two successive sieges, he maintained the town against the Royalists in 1645; an important service, for which the Parliament voted £2,000 to the garrison, and £500 to the governor. In 1646 Colonel Blake re- duced Doncaster Castle, which was nearly one of the last events of the war. Next to Cromwell, he was probably the ablest and most successful military officer in the Parliamentary army. It is recorded that he disapproved of the extremity to which matters were pushed against Charles, and that he was heard to say that he would as freely venture his life to save the king's as he had ever done it in the service of the Parliament. In February, 1649, Colonel Blake, in conjunction with two officers of the same rank, Deane and Popham, was appointed to command the fleet. It may be taken asa proof that, notwithstanding the fame of our early navigators, the king's service at sea had never been treated with much attention; that, down to later times than those of which we now write, the chief command of a fleet seems never to have been given to a man of naval education and habits. It is probable that the sea-service then held out no inducements strong enough to tempt men of high birth to submit to its incon- veniences, and that the command of a fleet was esteemed too great a post to be con- ferred on a man of humble origin. For this new employment Blake showed signal capacity. When the embers of the war were stirred up after the king's death he was ordered to the Irish Seas in pursuit of Prince Rupert, whom he blockaded in the harbour of Kinsale for several months. Despair of relief induced the prince at last to make a daring effort to break through the Parliamentary squadron, in which he succeeded ; but with the loss of three ships. Blake pursued him to the Tagus, where, being denied liberty to attack his enemy by the King of Portugal, in revenge he captured and sent home a number of ships richly laden, on their way from Brazil Towards the latter end of 1650, Prince Rupert escaped out of the Tagus, and Blake followed him up the straits, thence to Carthagena, and thence to Malaga, which was a neutral port. In January, 1651, he attacked, and, with the exception of two ships, in one of which Prince Rupert and his brother Prince Maurice escaped, de- BLAKE AND 7HE . DUICH. 199 stroyed the Royalist fleet, in the harbour; a breach of international law which can only be justified on the alleged ground that Ru- pert had destroyed British ships in the same harbour. These services were recompensed by the Parliament with the post of Warden of the Cinque ports ; and in March an Act was passed constituting Blake, with his col- leagues Deane and Popham, admirals and generals of the fleet for the year ensuing. In that capacity, he took Jersey, Guernsey, and the Scilly Islands from the Royalists; a service for which he was again thanked by Parliament. In this year he was elected a member of the Council of State. March 25, 1652, Blake was appointed sole admiral for nine months, in expectation of a war with Holland. The Dutch United States and England were at this time the two most powerful maritime countries in the world ; and it is hard to find any better reason than national rivalry for the bloody war which broke out between them in the spring of this year ; a war which seems to have been begun on a point of etiquette, at the discretion of the admirals, without orders for hostilities being known to be given by the governments on either side. On May 18, a fleet of forty-two Dutch ships, commanded by the celebrated Van Tromp, appeared off the Goodwin Sands. Being challenged by Major Bourne, who commanded a squadron in the Downs, they professed to have been driven from their anchorage off Dunkirk by stress of weather; but, instead of drawing off the coast as they were required to do, they sailed to Dover and cast anchor, in a manner which showed the deliberate design of insulting the British flag. Blake lay some distance to the westward in Rye Bay. Intelligence was immediately sent to him, and on his approach the Dutch weighed anchor, and seemed about to retreat; but changing their course, they sailed direct for the English fleet. When within musket-shot, Blake ordered a single gun to be fired at the Dutch admiral’s flag, which was done thrice. Van Tromp returned a broadside, and a hot and well-contested action ensued, and was maintained till nightfall. Under cover of the darkness the Dutch retreated, losing two ships (one sunk, the other taken), and leaving the possession of the field and the honour of the victory in the hands of the English. The States appear neither to have authorized nor approved of the con- duct of their admiral; for they left no ° means untried to satisfy the English govern- ment ; and when they found the demands of the latter so high as to. preclude ac- commodation, they dismissed Van Tromp, and intrusted the command of their fleet to De Ruyter and De Witt. Meanwhile, Blake’s activity was unremitting. He gained a rich harvest of prizes among the Dutch homeward-bound merchantmen, which were pursuing their way without sus- picion of danger; and, when he had sent home forty good prizes and effectually - cleared the Channel, he sailed to the northward, dispersed the fleet engaged in the herring fishery, and captured a hundred of the vessels composing it, together with a squadron of twelve ships of war sent out to protect them. The hostile fleets again came to an engagement, September 28, in which the: advantage was decidedly in favour of the English, the rear-admiral of the Dutch being taken, and three or four of their ships disabled. Night put an end to the action ; and though for two days the English maintained the pursuit, the light- ness and uncertainty of the wind prevented them from closing with the enemy, who escaped into Goree. After this battle the drafting off of de- tachments on various services reduced the English fleet to forty sail, and those, it is said, in consequence of the negligence or jealousy of the executive government, were ill provided with men and ammunition, and other requisite supplies. Thus weakly fur- nished, Blake lay in the Downs, when Van Tromp again stood over to the English coast, with eighty men-of-war. Of that undaunted spirit which usually prompts the British seaman to refuse no odds, Blake 200 THE WONDERS OF 7HE DEEP had an ample share ; indeed, he did much to infuse that spirit into the service. But there are odds for which no spirit can make up, and as he had a brave and skilful enemy, the result of his rashness was that he was well beaten. The action com- menced at two o'clock in the morning of November 29, and lasted till six in the evening. Not more than half the ships on either side were engaged; but out of this small number of English vessels, two of war were taken, and four destroyed; the rest were so shattered that they were glad to, run for shelter into the river Thames. The Dutch remained masters of the narrow seas and Van Tromp, in an idle bravado, sailed; through the Channel with a broom at his mast-head, as if he had swept it clear of English ships. However, neither the admiral nor the nation were of a temper to submit to this indignity. Monk and Deane were joined in the commission with Blake, and the fleet was repaired with such diligence, that on the 8th of February, 1653, he sailed from Queenborough with sixty ships of war, and was soon joined by twenty more from Portsmouth. On the 18th he fell in with Van Tromp, with nearly equal force, conducting a large convoy of merchantmen up the Channel A running battle ensued, which was con- tinued during three consecutive days, until, on the 2oth, the Dutch ships, which, to suit the nature of their coast, were built with a smaller draught of water than the English, obtained shelter in the shallow waters of Calais. In this long and obstinate fight, the Dutch lost only eleven men-of-war and thirty merchant vessels; but the number killed is said to have amounted to 1500 on either side—a loss of life of most unusual amount in naval engagements. About the end of April Blake and his colleagues sailed over to the coast of Holland with a fleet of 100 sail. The Dutch fleet took shelter in the Texel, where they were watched by Deane and Monk, while Blake sailed to the north. The Dutch fleet however got out, and on the 3rd of June Deane and Monk brought them to an engagement off the North Foreland. On the first day the Dutch seem to have had somewhat the advantage: on the 4th Blake arrived with a reinforce- ment of eighteen sail ; the English gained a complete victory, and if the Dutch had not saved themselves in the shallow waters of Calais, the whole fleet would doubtless have been sunk or taken. Ill health obliged him then to quit the sea, so that he was not present at the last great victory of July 29, in which Van Tromp was killed. But out of respect for his services the Parliament presented him with a gold chain, as well as the admirals who had actually commanded in the battle. When Cromwell dissolved the Long Parliament in April, 1653, and afterwards assumed the office of Protector, Blake, though in his principles a republican, did not refuse to acknowledge the new ad- ministration. In conjunction with Deane and Monk he published a declaration of their resolution, “notwithstanding the late change, to proceed in the performance of their duties, and the trust reposed in them, against the enemies of the Commonwealth.” He is reported to have said to his officers, «It is not our business to mind state-affairs, but to keep foreigners from fooling us.” He sat in the two first Parliaments sum- moned by the Protector, who always treated him with great respect. Nor was Crom- well’s acknowledged sagacity in the choice men at fault when he chose Blake to command a strong fleet sent into the Mediterranean in November, 1654, to uphold the honour of the English flag, and to demand reparation for the slights and injuries done to the nation during that stormy period of civil war, when our own discord had made others daring against us. In better hands such a mission could not have been placed. Dutch, French, and Spaniards alike concurred in rendering un- usual honours to his flag. The Duke of Tuscany and the order of Malta made compensation for injuries done to the English commerce. The piratical states of BLAKE OFF CADIZ 201 Algiers and Tripoli were terrified into sub- mission, and promised to abstain from further violence. The Dey of Tunis held out, confident in the strength of his fortifi- cations. “Here,” he said, “are our castles of Goletta and Porto Ferino: do your worst ; do you think we fear your fleet?” Blake took the same course against Tunis as Lord Exmouth did in more recent times against Algiers. He bore right into the bay of Porto Ferino, engaged the fortress within musket-shot, and in less than two hours silenced or dismounted its guns; and sending a detachment of boats into the harbour, burnt the shipping which lay there. This was in March, 1655. After ‘this example he found no more difficulty in dealing with the African states. War having been declared between Spain and England, in 1656, Blake took his station to blockade the bay of Cadiz. At this period his constitution was much broken, insomuch that, in the expectation of a speedy death, he sent home a request that some person proper to be his successor might be joined in commission with him. General Montague was accordingly sent out with a strong squadron. Being obliged to quit the coast of Spain in September to obtain water for his fleet, Blake left Captain Stayner with seven ships to watch the enemy. In this interval the Spanish Plate fleet appeared. Stayner captured four ships richly laden with bullion ; the rest escaped. Montague conducted the prizes home, so that Blake was again left alone in the Mediterranean. In the ensuing spring, having learnt that another Plate fleet had put into the island of Teneriffe, he sailed thither, and arrived in the road of Santa Cruz, April 20th, 1657. The bay was strongly fortified, with a formidable castle at the entrance, and a connected chain of minor forts all round it. The naval force collected there was also con- siderable, and strongly posted, the smaller vessels being placed under the guns of the forts, the galleons strongly moored with their broadsides to the sea; insomuch that the Spanish governor, a man of courage and ability, felt perfectly at ease as to the security of his charge. The master of a Dutch ship, which was lying in the har- bour, was less satisfied, and went to the governor to request leave to quit the har- bour; “For I am sure” he said, “that Blake will presently be among you.” The governor ‘made a confident reply—¢ Be- gone, if you will, and let Blake come if he dares.” Daring was the last thing want- ing; nor did the admiral hesitate, as a wise man might well have done, about the real difficulties of the enterprise in which he was about to engage. The wind blow- ing into the bay, he sent in Captain Stayner with a squadron to attack the shipping, placed others in such a manner as to take off, and, as far as possible, to silence the fire of the castle and the forts, and himself following, assisted Stayner in capturing the galleons, which, though inferior in number, were superior in size and force to the English ships. This was completed by two o'clock in the afternoon, the engage- ment having commenced at eight in the morning. Hopeiess of being able to carry the prizes out of the bay against an adverse wind, and a still active enemy, Blake gave orders to burn them : and it is probable that he himself might have found some difficulty in beating out of the bay under the fire of the castle, which was still lively, when all at once the wind, which bad blown strong into the bay, suddenly veered round to the south-west, and favoured his retreat, as it had favoured his daring ap- proach. Of this, the most remarkable as it was the last exploit of Blake's life, Clarendon says, ‘The whole action was so incredible, that all men who knew the place wondered that any sober man, with what courage soever endowed, would ever have undertaken it; and they could hardly persuade themselves to believe what they had done: while the Spaniards comforted themselves with the belief, that they were devils and not men jyho had destroyed them in such a manner. So much a strong 202 ZHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. resolution of bold and courageous men can bring to pass, that no resistance or advan- tage of ground can disappoint them ; and it can hardly be imagined how small a loss the English sustained in this unparalleled action, not one ship being left behind, and the killed and wounded not exceeding two hundred men ; when the slaughter on board the Spanish ships and on shore was in- credible.” It will be recollected with in- terest that, on the same spot, Nelson lost his arm, in an unsuccessful night attempt to capture Santa Cruz with an armed force in boats. For this service the thanks of Parlia- ment were voted to the officers and sea- men engaged, with a diamond ring to the Admiral worth Asoo. Blake returned to his old station off Cadiz; but the increase of his disorders, which were dropsy and scurvy, raised a desire in him to return to England, which, however, he did not live to fulfil. He died as he was entering Plymouth Sound, August 17th, 1657. His body was transported to London, and buried with great pomp in a vault in Henry VIIL’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey, at the public expense. After the Restoration it was thought unworthy to remain in that treasure- house of England’s departed greatness; and with the bones of others who had found a resting-place there during the short period of the Commonwealth, it was transferred to St. Margaret's churchyard. It has been disputed whether this was done with more or less of indecency; but the matter is little worth inquiry. The real indecency and folly lay in thinking that any ground, however sanctified by the reverent associa- tions of centuries, could be polluted by the tomb of a man whose leading passion was the glory of his country, and who made the name and flag of that country respected wheresoever he carried it—a man of whom not one mean or interested action is re- corded, and whose great qualities extorted praise even from the Royalists. Bate, in his ‘ Elenchus Moguum,” speaks of him as a man ‘ blameable in this only, that he joined with the parricides;” and it may be remarked that Dr. Bate’s horror of a parricide did not prevent his being physi- cian to Cromwell, as well as to Charles I. and II. He was a man of the strictest honesty, liberal to the extent of his fortune, and so disinterested, that he left only Asoo. He was a man of low stature. We conclude with Clarendon’s character of this great man. “He was of private extraction, yet had enough left him by his father to give him a good education, which his own inclination disposed him to receive in the University of Oxford, where he took the degree of a Master of Arts, and was enough versed in books for a man who intended, not to be of any profession, having sufficient of his own to maintain him in the plenty he affected, and having then no appearance of ambition to be a greater man than he was. He was of a me- lancholic and sullen nature, and spent his time most with good fellows, who liked his moroseness, and a freedom he used in inveighing against the licence of the time and the power of the court. They who knew him inwardly, discovered that he had an anti-monarchical spirit, when few men thought the government in any danger.” After a short sketch of Blake's actions in the civil war, the noble author continues, “He then betook himself wholly to the sea, and quickly made himself signal there. He was the first man that declined the old track, and made it manifest that the science might be attained in less time than was imagined, and despised those rules which had long been in practice, to keep his ship and his men out of danger ; which had been held in former times a point of great ability and circumspection, as if the principal art requisite in the captain of a ship had been to be sure to come safe home again. He was the first man who brought the ships to contemn castles on shore, which had been thought ever very formidable, and were discovered by him to make a noise only, and to fright those who could be rarely hurt by them. He FRANCIS PELSART, 203 was the first who infused that proportion of courage into the seamen, by making them see by experience what mighty things they could do, if they were resolved, and taught them to fight in fire as well as upon water; and though he has been very well imitated and followed, he was the first that gave the example of that kind of naval courage, and bold and resolute achievements.” The earliest life of Blake which we have seen is in a second volume of a collection entitled “Lives, English and Foreign,” published at the beginning of the last cen- tury. Clarendon’s “History of the Re- bellion,” Heath’s ¢ Chronicles of the Civil Wars,” the Memoirs of Ludlow, Whitelock, and other contemporary authorities, will furnish minute accounts of the many battles of which we have here only made short mention. : ovaGe or Francis PELSART TO AUSTRALASIA (1628-29). ~ VT has appeared very strange to some very able judges of voyages, that the Dutch should make so great account of the southern coun- tries as to cause the map of them to be laid down in the pavement of the Stadt House at Amsterdam, and yet pub- lish no descriptions of them. This mystery was a good deal heightened by one of the ships that first touched on Carpenter's PHIPWRECK AND fURTHER ADVENTURES. Land, bringing home a considerable quan- tity of gold, spices, and other rich goods; in order to clear up which, it was said that these were not the product of the country, but were fished out of the wreck of a large ship that had been lost upon the coast. But this story did not satisfy the inquisitive, because not attended with circumstances necessary to establish its credit; and there- fore they suggested that, instead of taking away the obscurity by relating the truth, this story was invented in order to hide it more effectually. This suspicion gained ground the more when it was known that 204 THE WONDERS OF 708 DEEP. the Dutch East India Company from Batavia had made some attempts to con- quer a part of the Southern continent, and had been repulsed with loss, of which, however, we have no distinct or perfect relation, and all that hath hitherto been collected in reference to this subject, may be reduced to two voyages. All that we know concerning the following piece is, that it was collected from the Dutch journal of the voyage, and having said thus much by way of introduction, we now proceed to the translation of this short history. The directors of the East India Com- pany, animated by the return of five ships, under General Carpenter, richly laden, caused, the very same year, 1628, eleven vessels to be equipped for the same voyage ; amongst which there was one ship called the JABatavia, commanded by Captain Francis Pelsart. They sailed out of the Texel on the 28th of October, 1628; and as it would be tedious and troublesome to the reader to set down a long account of things perfectly well known, I shall say nothing of the occurrences that happened in their passage to the Cape of Good Hope ; but content myself with observing that on the 4th of June, in the following year, 1629, this vessel, the Batavia, being separated from the fleet in a storm, was driven on the Abrollos or shoals, which lie in the latitude of 28 degrees south, and which have been since called by the Dutch, the Abrollos of Frederic Houtman. Cap- tain Pelsart, who was sick in bed when this accident happened, perceiving that his ship had struck, ran immediately upon deck. It was night indeed ; but the weather was fair, and the moon shone very bright; the sails were up ; the course they steered was north-east by north, and the sea appeared as far as they could behold it covered with a white froth. The captain called up the master and charged him with the loss of the ship, who excused himself by saying he had taken all the care he could; and that having discerned this froth at a distance, he asked the steersman what he thought of it, who told him that the sea appeared white by its reflecting the rays of the moon. The captain then asked him what was to be done, and in what part of the world he thought they were. The master replied, that God only knew that; and that the ship was fast on a bank hither- to undiscovered. Upon this they began to throw the lead, and found that they had forty-eight feet of water before, and much less behind the vessel. The crew im- mediately agreed to throw their cannon overboard, in hopes that when the ship was lightened she might be brought to float again. They let fall an anchor, however ; and while they were thus employed, a most dreadful storm arose of wind and rain; which soon convinced them of the danger they were in; for, being surrounded with rocks and shoals, the ship was continually striking. They then resolved to cut away the main- mast, which they did, and this augmented the shock, neither could they get clear of it, though they cut it close by the board, because it was much entangled with the rigging ; they could see no land except an island which was about the distance of three leagues, and two smaller islands, or rather rocks, which lay nearer. They im- mediately sent the master to examine them, who returned about nine in the morning, and reported that the sea at high water did not cover them, but that the coast was so rocky and full of shoals that it would be very difficult to land upon them; they resolved, however, to run the risk, and to send most of their company on shore to pacify the women, children, sick people, and such as were out of their wits with fear, whose cries and noise served only to disturb them. About ten o'clock they embarked these in their shallop and skiff, and, per- ceiving their vessel began to break, they doubled their diligence ; they likewise en- deavoured to get their bread up, but they did not take the same care of the water, not reflecting in their fright that they might be much distressed for want of it on shore ; FPELSARTS SHIPIWVRECK. 205 and what hindered them most of all was the brutal behaviour of some of the crew that made themselves drunk with wine, of which no care was taken. In short, such was their confusion, that they made but three trips that day, carrying over to the island 180 persons, twenty barrels of bread, and some small casks of water. The master returned on board towards evening, and told the captain that it was to no pur- WRECK OF CAPTAIN PELSART'S SHIP ‘‘ BATAVIA.” pose to send more provisions on shore, since the people only wasted those they had already. Upon this the captain went in the shallop, to put things in better order, and was then informed that there was no water to be found upon the island; he endeavoured to return to the ship in order to bring off a supply, together with the most valuable part of their cargo, but a storm suddenly arising, he was forced to return. The next day was spent in removing their 0 206 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP water and most valuable goods on shore; and afterwards the captain in the skiff, and the master in the shallop, endeavoured to return to the vessel, but found the sea ran so high that it was impossible to get on board. In this extremity the carpenter threw himself out of the ship, and swam to them, in order to inform them to what hardships those left in the vessel were re- duced, and they sent him back with orders for them to make rafts, by tying the planks together, and endeavour on these to reach the shallop and skiff ; but before this could be done, the weather became so rough that the captain was obliged to return, leaving, with the utmost grief, his lieutenant and seventy men on the very point of perishing on board the vessel. Those who were got on the little island were not in a much better condition, for, upon taking an ac- count of their water, they found they had not above forty gallons for forty people, and on the larger island, where there were 120, their stock was still less. Those on the little island began to murmur, and to com- plain of their officers, because they did not go in search of water, in the islands that were within sight of them, and they re- presented the necessity ‘of this to Captain Pelsart, who agreed to their request, but ~ insisted before he went to communicate his design. to the rest of the people; they con- sented to this, but not till the captain had declared that, without the consent of the company on the large island, he would, rather than leave them, go and perish on board the ship. When they were got pretty near the shore, he who commanded the boat told the captain that if he had any- thing to say, he must cry out to the people, for that they would not suffer him to go out of the boat. The captain immediately attempted to throw himself overboard in order to swim to the island. Those who were in the boat prevented him; and all that he could obtain from them was, to throw on shore his table-book, in which he wrote to inform them that he was gone to look for water in the adjacent islands. He accordingly coasted them all with the greatest care, and found in most of them considerable quantities of water in the holes of the rocks, but so mixed with the sea- water that it was unfit for use ; and there- fore they were obliged to go farther. The first thing they did was to make a deck to their boat, because they found it was im- practicable to navigate those seas in an open vessel. Some of the crew joined them by the time the work was finished ; and the captain having obtained a paper, signed by all his men, importing that it was their desire that he should go in search of water, he immediately put to sea, having first taken an observation by which he found they were in the latitude of 28 degrees 13 minutes south. They had not been long at sea before they had sight of the continent, which appeared to them to lie about sixteen miles north by west from the place they had suffered shipwreck. They found about twenty-five or thirty fathoms water ; and as night drew on, they kept out to sea; and after midnight stood in for the land, that they might be near the coast in the morning. On the 9th of June they found themselves as they reckoned, about three miles from the shore ; on which they plied all that day, sailing sometimes north, sometimes west ; the country appear- ing low, naked, and the coast excessively rocky; so that they thought it resembled the country near Dover. At last they saw a little creek, into which they were willing to put, because it appeared to have a sandy bottom ; but when they attempted to enter it, the sea ran so high that they were forced to desist. On the 10th they remained on the same coast, plying to and again, as they had done the day before; but the weather growing worse and worse, they were obliged to abandon their shallop, and even throw part of their bread overboard, because it hindered them from clearing themselves of the water, which their vessel began to make very fast. That night it rained most terribly, which, though it gave them much DISCOVERY OF WATER. 20% trouble, afforded them hopes that it would prove a great relief to the people they had left behind them on the islands. The wind began to sink on the 11th; and as it blew from the west-south-west, they continued their course to the north, the sea running still so high that it was impossible to ap- proach the shore. On the 12th, they had an observation, by which they found them- selves in the latitude of 27 degrees ; they sailed with a south-east wind all that day | along the coast, which they found so steep that there was no getting on shore, inas- much as there was no creek or low land without the rocks, as is commonly observed on sea-coasts ; which gave them the more" pain because within land the country ap- peared very fruitful and pleasant. They found themselves on the 13th in the latitude of 25 degrees 4o minutes; by which they discovered that the current set to the north. They were at this time over against an opening ; the coast lying to the north-east, they continued a north course, but found the coast one continued rock of red colour all of a height, against which the waves broke with such force that it was impossible for them to land. The wind blew very fresh in the morn- ing on the 14th, but towards noon it fell calm ; they were then in the height of 24 degrees, with a small gale at east, but the tide still carried them farther north than they desired, because their design was to make a descent as soon as possible ; and with this view they sailed slowly along the coast, till, perceiving a great deal of smoke at a distance, they rowed towards it as fast as they were able, in hopes of finding men, and water, of course. When they came near the shore, they found it so steep, so full of rocks, and the sea beating over them with such fury, that it was impossible to land. Six of the men, however, trusting to their skill in swimming, threw themselves into the sea and resolved to get on shore at any rate, which with great difficulty and danger they at last effected, the boat re- maining at anchor in twenty-five fathoms water. The men on shore spent the whole day in looking for water; and while they were thus employed, they saw four men, who came up very near; but one of the Dutch sailors advancing towards them, they immediately ran away as fast as they were able, so that they were distinctly seen by those in the boat. These people were black savages, quite naked, not having so much as any covering about their middle. The sailors, finding no hopes of water on all the coast, swam on board again, much hurt and wounded by their being beat by” the waves upon the rocks ; and as soon as they were on board, they weighed anchor, and continued their course along the shore, in hopes of finding some better landing- place. On the 25th, in the morning, they dis- covered a cape, from the point of which there ran a ridge of rocks a mile into the sea, and behind it another ridge of rocks. They ventured between them, as the sea was pretty calm ; but finding there was no passage, they soon returned. About noon they saw another opening, and the sea being still very smooth, they entered it, though the passage was very dangerous, inasmuch as they had but two feet water, and the bottom full of stones, the coast appearing a flat sand for about a mile. As soon as they got on shore they fell to digging in the sand, but the water that came into their wells was so brackish that they could not drink it, though they were on the very point of choking for thirst. At last, in the hollows of the rocks, they met with con- siderable quantities of rain-water, which was a great relief to them, since they had been for some days at no better allowance than a pint a-piece. They soon furnished them- selves in the night with about eighty gallons, perceiving, in the place where they landed, that the savages had been there lately, by a large heap of ashes and the remains of some cray-fish. On the 16th, in the morning, they re- turned on shore, in hopes of getting more water, but were disappointed ; and having 208 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEFL. now time to observe the country, it gave them no great hopes of better success, even if they had travelled farther within land, which appeared a thirsty, barren plain, covered with ant-hills, so high that they looked afar off like the huts of negroes; and at the same time they were plagued with flies, and those in such multitudes that they were scarce able to defend them- selves. They saw at a distance eight savages, with each a staff in his hand, who advanced towards them within musket-shot; but as soon as they perceived the Dutch sailors moving towards them, they fled as fast as they were able. It was by this time about noon, and, perceiving no appearance either of getting water, or entering into any correspondence with the natives, they re- solved to go on board and continue their course towards the north, in hopes, as they were already in the latitude of 22 degrees 17 minutes, they might be able to find the river of Jacob Remmescens ; but the wind veering about to the north-east, they were not able to continue longer upon that coast, and therefore reflecting that they were now above one hundred miles from the place where they were shipwrecked, and had scarce as much water as would serve them in their passage back, they came to a settled resolution of making the best of their way to Batavia, in order to acquaint the Governor-General with their misfortunes, and to obtain such assistance as was necessary to get their people off the coast. On the 17th they continued their course to the north-east, with a good wind and fair weather ; the 18th and 19th it blew hard, - and they had much rain. On the 20th they found themselves in 19 degrees 22 minutes; on the 22nd they had another observation, and found themselves in the height of 16 degrees ro minutes, which surprised them very much, and was a plain proof that the current carried them northwards at a great rate. On the 27th it rained very hard, so that they were not able to take an observa- tion; but towards noon they saw, to their great satisfaction, the coasts of Java, in the latitude of 8 degrees, at the distance of about four or five miles. They altered their course to west-north-west, and towards evening entered the gulf of an island very full of trees, where they anchored in eight fathoms water, and there passed the night. On the 28th, in the morning, they weighed, and rowed with all their force, in order to make the land, that they might search for water, being now again at the point of perishing for thirst. Very happily for them, they were no sooner on shore than they discovered a fine rivulet at a small distance, where, having comfortably quenched their thirst, and filled all their casks with water, they about noon continued their course for Batavia. On the 29th, about midnight, in the second watch, they discovered an island, which they left on their starboard. About noon they found themselves in the height of 6 degrees 48 minutes. About three in the afternoon they passed between two islands, the westernmost of which appeared full of cocoa trees. In the evening they were about a mile from the south point of Java, and in the second watch exactly between Java and the Isle of Princes. The 3oth, in the morning, they found them- selves on the coast of the last-mentioned island, not being able to make above two miles that day. On July 1st the weather was calm, and about noon they were three leagues from Dwaersindenwegh, that is, Thwart-the-way Island; but towards the evening they had a pretty brisk wind at north-west, which enabled them to gain that coast. On the 2nd, in the morning, they were right against the island of Topershoetien, and were obliged to lie at anchor till eleven o'clock, waiting for the sea-breeze, which, however, blew so faintly that they were not able to make above two miles that day. About sunset they per- ceived a vessel between them and Thwart- the-way Island, upon which they resolved to anchor as near the shore as they could that night, and there wait the arrival of the ADVENTURES OF JEROM CORNELIS. 209 ship. In the morning they went on board her, in hopes of procuring arms for their defence, in case the inhabitants of Java were at war with the Dutch. They found two other ships in company, on board one of which was Mr. Ramburg, counsellor of the Indies. Captain Pelsart went im- mediately on board his ship, where he acquainted him with the nature of his mis- fortune, and went with him afterwards to Batavia, in order to prosecute the object of his mission. PELSART'S V OYAGE (continued). FORTUNES OF THE fREW—TREACHERY OF fforNELIS—DoOM soliciting succours from the Governor - General, in order to return to the crew who were left upon the islands, among whom there happened such transactions as, in their condition, the reader would little expect, and perhaps will hardly credit. In order to their being thoroughly understood, it is necessary to observe that they had for supercargo one Jerom Cornelis, who had been formerly an apothecary at Harlem. This man, when they were on the coast of Africa, had + plotted with the pilot and some others to run away with the vessel, and either to carry her into Dunkirk, or to turn pirates in her on their own account. This super- cargo had remained ten days on board the wreck, not being able in all that time to get on shore. Two whole days he spent on the mainmast, floating to and fro, till at last, by the help of one of the yards, he got to land. When he was once on shore, the command, in the absence of Captain Pelsart, devolved of course upon him, which immediately revived in his mind his old design, insomuch that he resolved to lay hold of this opportunity to make himself master of all that could be saved out of the wreck, conceiving that it would be easy to surprise the captain on his return, and determining to go on the account—that is to say, to turn pirate in the captain’s vessel. In order to carry this design into execution, he thought necessary to rid themselves of such of the crew as were not like to come into their scheme; but before he proceeded to dip his hands in blood, he obliged all the conspirators to sign an instrument, by which they engaged to stand by each other. The whole ship’s company were on shore in three islands, the greatest part of them in that where Cornelis was, which island they thought fit to call the burying-place of Batavia. One Mr. Weybhays was sent with another body into an adjacent island to look for water, which, after twenty days’ search, he found, and made the appointed signal by lighting three fires, which, how- ever, were not seen nor taken notice of by those under the command of Cornelis, because they were busy in butchering their companions, of whom they had murdered between thirty and forty ; but some few, however, got off upon a raft of planks tied together, and went to the island where Mr Weybhays was, in order to acquaint him with the dreadful accident that had hap- pened. Mr. Weybhays having with him forty-five men, they all resolved to stand upon their guard, and to defend themselves to the last man, in case these villains should attack them. This indeed was their design, THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. for they were apprehensive both of this body, and of those who were on the third island, giving notice to the captain on his return, and thereby preventing their inten- tion of running away with his vessel. But as this third company was by much the weakest, they began with them first, and cut them all off, except five women and seven children, not in the least doubting that they should be able to do as much by Weybhays and his company. In the mean- time, having broke open the merchant's chests, which had been saved out of the wreck, they converted them to their own use without ceremony. The traitor, Jerom Cornelis, was so much elevated with the success that had hitherto attended his villainy, that he immediately began to fancy all difficulties were over, and gave a loose to his vicious inclinations in every respect. He ordered clothes to be made of rich stuffs that had been saved, for himself and his troop, and having chosen out of them a company of guards, he ordered them to have scarlet coats, with a double lace of gold or silver. There were two minister’s daughters among the women, one of whom he took for his own mistress, gave the second to a favourite of his, and ordered that the other three women should be common to the whole troop. He after- wards drew up a set of regulations, which were to be the laws of his new principality, taking to himself the style and title of Captain-General, and obliging his party to sign an act, or instrument, by which they acknowledged him as such. These points once settled, he resolved to carry on the war. He first of all embarked on board two shallops twenty-two men, well armed, with orders to destroy Mr. Weybhays and his company ; and on their miscarrying, he undertook a like expedition with thirty- seven men, in which, however, he had no better success ; for Mr. Weybhays, with his people, though armed only with staves, ad- vanced even into the water to meet them, and after a brisk engagement, compelled these murderers to retire. Cornelis then thought fit to enter into a negotiation, which was managed by the chaplain, who remained with Mr. Weybhays, and after several comings and goings from one party to the other, a treaty was con- cluded upon the following terms—viz., That Mr. Weybhays and his company should for the future remain undisturbed, provided they delivered up a little boat, in which one of the sailors had made his escape from the island in which Cornelis was with his gang, in order to take shelter on that where Weybhays was with his company. It was also agreed that the latter should have a part of the stuffs and silks given them for clothes, of which they stood in great want. But, while this affair was in agitation, Cornelis took the oppor- tunity of the correspondence between them being restored, to write letters to some French soldiers that were in Weybhays’s company, promising them six thousand livres apiece if they would comply with his demands, not doubting but by this artifice he should be able to accomplish his end. His letters, however, had no effect; on the contrary, the soldiers to whom they were directed ‘carried them immediately to Mr. Weybhays. Cornelis, not knowing that this piece of treachery was discovered, went over the next morning, with three or four of his people, to carry to Mr. Weyb- hays the clothes that had been promised him. As soon as they landed, Weybhays attacked them, killed two or three, and made Cornelis himself prisoner. One Wonterloss, who was the only man that made his escape, went immediately back to the conspirators, put himself at their head, and came the next day to attack Weybhays, but met with the same fate as before—that is to say, he and the villains that were with him were soundly beat. Things were in this situation when Captain Pelsart arrived in the Sardam frigate. He sailed up to the wreck, and saw with great joy a cloud of smoke ascend- ing from one of the islands, by which he knew that all his people were not dead.. CAFTURE OF THE CONSPIRATORS 211 He came immediately to an anchor, and | surprise her, that they had already murdered having ordered some wine and provisions | 125 persons, and that they had attacked to be put into the skiff, resolved to go in person with these refreshments to one of | these islands. = He had hardly quitted the ship before he was boarded by a boat from the island to which he was going. = There were four men in the boat, of whom Weyb- hays was one, who immediately ran to the captain, told him what had happened, and begged him to return to his ship immedi- ately, for that the conspirators intended to on board armed. They told him he should know when they were on board the ship. The captain replied that they should come on board, but that they must first throw their arms into the sea, which if they did not do immediately, he would sink them as they lay. As they saw that disputes were to no purpose, and that they were entirely in the captain’s power, they were obliged to obey. They accordingly threw their arms overboard, and were then taken into the vessel, where they were instantly put in him and his company that very morning with two shallops. While they were talking the two shallops appeared ; upon which the captain rowed to his ship as fast as he could, and was hardly got on board before they arrived at the ship’s side. = The captain was surprised to see men in red coats laced with gold and silver, with arms in their hands. He demanded what they meant by coming AWAY, irons. One of them, whose name was John Bremen, and who was first examined, owned that he had murdered with his own hands, or had assisted in murdering, no less than twenty-seven persons. The same evening Weybhays brought his prisoner Cornelis on board, where he was put in irons and strictly guarded. On the 18th of September, Captain Pelsart, with the master, went to take the rest of the conspirators in Cornelis’s island. They went in two boats. The villains, as 212 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. soon as they saw them land, lost all their courage, and fled from them. They sur- rendered without a blow, and were put in irons with the rest. The captain’s first care was to recover the jewels which Cornelis had dispersed among his accomplices : they were, however, all of them soon found, except a gold chain and a diamond ring ; the latter was also found at last, but the former could not be recovered. They went next to examine the wreck, which they | found staved into a hundred pieces ; the | keel lay on a bank of sand on one side, the fore part of the vessel stuck fast on a rock, and the rest of her lay here and there as the pieces had been driven by the waves, so that Captain Pelsart had very little hopes of saving any of the merchandise. One of the people belonging to Weybhays’s com- pany told him that one fair day, which was the only one they had in a month, as he was fishing near the wreck, he had struck the pole in his hand against one of the chests of silver, which revived the captain a little, as it gave him reason to expect that something might still be saved. They spent all the 19th in examining the rest of the prisoners, and in confronting them with those who escaped from the massacre. On the 2oth they sent several kinds of refreshments to Weybhays’s company, and carried a good quantity of water from the isle. There was something very singular in finding this water ; the people who were on shore there had subsisted near three weeks on rain-water, and what lodged in the clefts of the rocks, without thinking that the water of two wells which were on the island could be of any use, because they saw them constantly rise and fall with the tide, from whence they fancied they had a communi- cation with the sea, and consequently that the water must be brackish ; but upon trial they found it to be very good, and so did the ship's company, who filled their casks with it. On the 21st the tide was so low, and an east-south-east wind blew so hard, that during the whole day the boat could not get out. On the 22nd they attempted to fish upon the wreck, but the weather was so bad that even those who could swim very well durst not approach it. On the 25th the master and the pilot, the weather being fair, went off again to the wreck, and those who were left on shore, observing that they wanted hands to get anything out of her, sent off some to assist them. The captain went also himself to encourage the men, who soon weighed one chest of silver, - and some time after another. As soon as these were safe ashore they returned to their work, but the weather grew so bad that they were quickly obliged to desist, though some of their divers from Guzarat assured them they had found six more, which might easily be weighed. On the 26th, in the afternoon, the weather being fair, and the tide low, the master returned to the place where the chests lay, and weighed three of them, leaving an anchor with a gun tied to it, and a buoy, to mark the place where the fourth lay, which, not- withstanding their utmost efforts, they were not able to recover. On the 27th the south wind blew very cold. On the 28th the same wind blew stronger than the day before ; and as there was no possibility of fishing in the wreck for the present, Captain Pelsart held a council to consider what they should do with the prisoners: that is to say, whether it would be best to try them there upon the spot, or to carry them to Batavia, in order to their being tried by the Companys officers. After mature deliberation, reflect- ing on the number of prisoners, and the temptation that might arise from the vast quantity of silver on board the frigate, they at last came to a resolution to try and execute them there, which was accordingly done with the utmost method and order; and they embarked immediately afterwards for Batavia. VERNON'S EXPEDITION. 213 ‘ADMIRAL ERNON'S EXPEDITION TO CARTAGENA. Mow WE [FONQUERED AND RELINQUISHED OUR fronQuesTs. stray passages from the story of Admiral Vernon's expedition to Porto Bello and Cartagena during the war with Spain, sketched in the next article They are abridged from one of the most brilliant works of that \ great novelist, Tobias Smollett, who acted as surgeon's mate on board one of the vessels of the transport fleet. Our forces being landed and stationed, set about erecting a fascine battery to cannonade the principal fort of the enemy ; and in something more than three weeks, it was ready to open. That we might do the Spaniards as much honour as possible, it was determined, in a council of war, that five of our largest ships should attack the fort on one side, while the. battery, strengthened by two mortars and twenty- four cohorns, should ply it on the other; and it, with others destined for this service, immediately weighed, and in less than half an hour came to an anchor before the castle of Bocca Chica, with a spring upon our cable, and the cannonading (which indeed was dreadful) began. The surgeon, after having crossed himself, fell flat on the deck ; and the chaplain and purser, who were stationed with us in quality of assistants, followed his example, while the Welshman and I sat upon a chest looking at one another with great discomposure, scarce able to refrain from the like prostration. | And that the reader may know it was not a common occasion that alarmed us thus, I must inform him of the particulars of this dreadful din that astonished us. The fire of the Spaniards proceeded from eighty-four great guns, besides a mortar and small arms, in Bocca Chica; thirty-six in Fort St. Joseph ; twenty in two fascine batteries, and four men of war, mounting sixty-four guns each. This was answered by our land- battery mounted with twenty-one cannon, two mortars, and twenty-four cohorns, and five great ships of seventy or eighty guns, that fired without intermission. We had not been many minutes engaged, when one of the sailors came calling, “ Yo, ho, avast there—scaldings ! ” ¢ Scaldings !” answered Morgan; “Cot knows ’tis hot enough indeed ; who are you?” “Here's one!” replied the voice; and I imme- diately knew it to be that of my honest friend Jack Rattlin, who, coming towards me, told me, with great deliberation, he was come to be docked at last, and discovered the remains of one hand, which had been shattered to pieces with a grape shot. I lamented with unfeigned sorrow his mis- fortune, which he bore with heroic courage, observing that every shot had its commis- sion: “It was well it did not take him in the head! or if it had, what then? he should have died bravely, fighting for his king and country. Death was a debt which every man owed, and must pay; and that now was as well as another time.” I was much pleased and edified with the maxims of this sea-philosopher, who endured the amputation of his left hand without shrink- 214 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. ing, the operation being performed (at his request) by me. > Having cannonaded the fort during the space of four hours, we were all ordered to slip our cables, and sheer off ; but next day the engagement was renewed, and continued from the morning till the afternoon, when the enemy’s fire from Bocca Chica slackened, and towards evening was quite silenced. A breach being made on the other side, by our land battery, large enough to admit a middle-sized baboon, provided he could find means to climb up to it, our general proposed to give the assault that very night, and actually ordered a detachment on that duty. Providence stood our friend upon this occasion, and put it into the hearts of the Spaniards to abandon the fort, which might have been maintained by resolute men till the day of judgment against all the force we could exert in the attack. And while our soldiers took possession of the enemy’s ramparts without resistance, the same good luck attended a body of sailors, who made themselves masters of Fort St. Joseph, the fascine batteries, and one Spanish man-of-war ; the other'three being burnt or sunk by the foe, that they might not fall into our hands. The taking of these forts, in the strength of which the Spaniards chiefly confided, made us masters of the outward harbour, and occasioned great joy among us, as we laid our accounts at finding little or no opposi- tion from the town; and indeed, if a few great ships had sailed up immediately, be- fore they had recovered from the confusion and despair that our unexpected success had produced among them, it is not impossible that we might have finished the affair to our satisfaction, without any more blood- shed. But this step our heroes disdained as a barbarous insult over the enemy’s distress, and gave them all the respite they could desire, in order to recollect themselves. After having put garrisons into the forts we had taken, and re-embarked our soldiers and, artillery (a piece of service that de- tained us more than a week), we ventured up to the mouth of the inner harbour, guarded by a large fortification on one side, and a small redoubt on the’ other, both of which were deserted before our approach, and the entrance of the harbour blocked up by several old galleons, and two men-of-war that the enemy had sunk in the channel. We made shift, however, to open a passage for some ships, that favoured a second land- ing of our troops at a place called La Quinta, not far from the town, where, after a faint resistance from a body of Spaniards, who opposed their disembarkation, they en- camped with a design of besieging the castle of St. Lazar, which overlooked and com- manded the city. Whether our renowned general had nobody in his army who knew how to approach it in form, or that he trusted entirely to the fame of his arms, I shall not determine ; but, certain it is, a re- solution was taken in a council of war, to attack the place with musketry only. This was put in execution, and succeeded ac- cordingly ; the enemy giving them such a hearty reception, that the greatest part of their detatchment took up their everlasting residence on the spot. Our chief, not relishing this kind of com- plaisance in the Spaniards, was wise enough to retreat on board with the remains of his army, which, from eight thousand able men landed on the beach near Bocca Chica, was now reduced to fifteen hundred fit for ser- vice. The sick and wounded were squeezed into certain vessels, which thence obtained the name of hospital ships, though methinks they scarce deserved such a creditable title, seeing few of them could boast of their surgeon, nurse, or cook; and the space between decks was so confined, that the miserable patients had not room to sit up- right in their beds. This inhuman dis. regard was imputed to the scarcity of surgeons ; though it is well known that every great ship in the fleet could have spared one at least for this duty,—an ex- pedient which would have been more than sufficient to remove this shocking in- convenience. But perhaps the general was AN UNFORTUNATE PLIGHT. 215 too much of a gentleman to ask a favour of this kind from his fellow chief, who, on the other hand, would not derogate so much from his own dignity, as to offer such assistance unasked ; for, I may venture to affirm, that by this time the demon of dis- cord, with her sooty wings, had breathed her influence upon our councils; and it might be said of these great men (I hope they will pardon the comparison) as of Czsar and Pompey, the one could not brook a superior, and the other was im- patient of an equal; so that, between the pride of one, and insolence of another, the enterprise miscarried. sioned a universal dejection, which was not at all alleviated by the objects that daily and hourly entertained our eyes, nor by the prospect of what must have inevitably happened, had we remained much longer in this place. Such was the economy in some ships that, rather than be at the trouble of interring the dead, their commanders ordered their men to throw their bodies ~ overboard, many without either ballast or winding-sheet ; so that numbers of human carcases floated in the harbour, until they were devoured by sharks and carrion crows, which afforded no agreeable spectacle to those who survived. At the same time the A day or two after the attempt on St. Lazar, the admiral ordered one of the Spanish men-of-war we had taken to be mounted with sixteen guns, and manned with detachments from our great ships, in order to batter the town ; accordingly, she was towed into the inner harbour in the night, and moored within half a mile of the walls, against which she began to fire at daybreak ; and continued about six hours exposed to the opposition of at least thirty pieces of cannon, which at length obliged our men to set her on fire, and get off as well as they could in their boats. The disappointments we suffered occa- \ 0 S NU Gal Zc dl wl lh ES = 38 oa wet season began, during which a deluge of rain falls, from the rising to the setting of the sun, without intermission ; and that no sooner ceases than it begins to thunder and lighten with such continued flashing, that one can see to read a very small print by the illumination. The change of the atmosphere, occasioned by this phenomenon, conspired, with the stench that surrounded us, the heat of the climate, our own constitution, impoverished by bad provisions, and our despair, to in- troduce the bilious fever among us, which raged with such violence, that three-fourths of those whom it invaded died in a deplor- 216 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. able manner ; the colour of their skin being by the extreme putrefaction of the juices, changed into that of soot. Our conductors, finding things in this situation, perceived it was high time to relinquish our conquests; and this we did after having rendered their artillery useless, and blown up their walls with gunpowder ; and such was the end of the expedition to Cartagena. ‘ANsopNs oYAGE Rounp THE WW oRLD. 7 NE of the most re- markable voyages ever made by our countrymen is that performed by An- son’s expedition, circumnavigated the globe in the years 1740-1744. a On 17th October, 1739, war, which Walpole had in vain tried to avert, was declared with Spain. Admiral Vernon took Porto Bello, but failed before Cartagena, as already de- scribed. Anson, with six ships, was sent to aid the attack, but the plans were not well arranged, and he had to act for him- self. After a number of surprising adven- tures, Anson, having made the circuit of the globe, returned home in 1739, with only one ship out of the six, but with a vast quantity of treasure. We give one scattered picture, drawn by one of his companions, from his story, prefacing it with an account of the hero himself. George, the youngest son of William Anson, Esq., of Shugborough, Staffordshire, was born in the parish of Colwich, in that county, on the 23rd of April, 1697. His grandfather, William Anson, was an emi- nent barrister in the reign of James the First, and having realized a handsome fortune, purchased the estate and manor of Shugborough. which SOME AccouNT OF THE [foMMANDER. The subject of this memoir is reported to have evinced an early predilection for a sea life, his attention being greatly taken with the narratives of voyagers; and in January, 1712, he entered the navy on board the ARuly, under the command of Captain Peter Chamberlain, whom he ac- companied into the Monmoutf, and subse- quently the Hampshire frigate, in which last ship he was made acting lieutenant, about 1716, by Sir John Norris, then com- manding the North Sea fleet. Very little is known or recorded respect- ing the early career of this celebrated offi- cer. In 1717 he appears to have been a lieutenant on board the Montague, in the action between the British fleet, under Sir George Byng, and the Spanish fleet, under Don Antonio Castanita, when the latter were defeated with great loss. From the Monta- gue, Mr. Anson was promoted to the rank of master and commander, 19th June, 1722, and appointed to the Weazle sloop of war. In this vessel he maintained the character of an active officer, performing good service in the North Sea, and on the 1st of Feb- ruary following he was made post captain, and appointed to command the Scarborough frigate. He shortly afterwards proceeded to the coast of America, for the protection of the infant colonies, then threatened, in conse- quence of a rupture with Spain. He ap- pears to have executed this service greatly LIFE OF ANSOMN. 217 to the satisfaction of the colonists, as well as the government at home, and received some flattering and valuable testimonials from the planters of South Carolina. His presence on that station deterred the Span- iards from their meditated aggression, and the captain of the Garland frigate dying, Captain Anson removed into that ship, sending the Scarborough home; but it was not until 1730, some time after peace was concluded, that he received orders to return to England. He next commanded the Diadem, and subsequently the Syuirrel, upon the home station, until 1734, when he was again ordered to visit the coast of America for the purpose of ascertaining the truth of some reported aggressions committed by the Spaniards upon the British settlements. Finding these rumours and apprehensions groundless, he returned home, paid off the Squirrel, and now, for the first time since he entered on his arduous profession, passed upwards of two years on shore. During the peace, continual complaints were made respecting the depredations committed by the Spanish Guarda Costas on English vessels trading to the eastern ports of America and the Spanish main. At length the grievance attained such a height, that a committee of the House of Commons was appointed to examine wit- nesses ; and having, amongst other com- plaints, summoned one Jenkins, master of the Rebecca, of Glasgow, he averred that not only had his vessel been plundered and his crew maltreated by the Spaniards, but that one of his ears had been cut off, placed in his hand, and he was insolently desired to carry it to his king ; informing him that if they had him there he should be treated in like manner. When asked, ¢“ What were his feelings under this treatment?” he re- plied, “I recommended my soul to God, and my cause to my country.” The indig- nation of Parliament and the country was aroused at the recital of this brutal and audacious outrage, and public clamour rose to such a height in consequence, that, coupled with some breaches of a conven- tion on the part of Spain, the king of Eng- land was induced to declare war against that country, on the roth of October, 1739, amidst the general acclamation of the people. At this period Captain Anson was in command of the Centurion, upon the coast of Africa, and the governmént, having determined upon attacking the Spanish settlements, recalled him in order to take command of one of the contemplated ex peditions. The narrative of this celebrated voyage is briefly told, in the following article, on his return. Commodore Anson does not appear to have been received by the Lords of the Admiralty with the cordiality he anti- cipated after his perilous adventure, and which he had a right to expect, although the whole nation was loud in his praise. The Board disregarded his application for Mr. Brett his first lieutenant’s promotion, and this induced him to refuse his own com- mission of rear-admiral when a flag pro- motion was made in 1744. In December of that year a change took place in the Government ; Lord Winchilsea retired from the Admiralty, and was suc- ceeded by the Duke of Bedford, who immediately selected Anson as one of his board ; and on the zoth of April, 1745, he received two steps of promotion at once, being advanced to ‘Rear-admiral of the White, passing over the intervening step of the Blue. He had previously been returned to Parliament for the borough of Hendon, and from that time to his death he sat at the Board of Admiralty, with trifling inter- vals, occasionally hoisting his flag ; and he successively attained to the highest honours of his profession. In 1747 he took command of the squad- ron, cruising off Cape Finisterre, and de- feated Monsieur de la Jonquire, capturing six of his ships and a valuable convoy. The treasure found in the captured ships amounted to £300,000. It was landed at Plymouth, and being conveyed to London in wagons, was paraded through the streets 218 1HE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. to the bank in grand military procession, amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. In the evening the city was illuminated. The treasure taken by Anson from the Spaniards in the South Seas has been com- puted at £751,000, including that found in the Acapulco ship. For this exploit he was advanced to the peerage on the 13th June, 1747, by the title of Lord Anson, Baron of Soberston, in Hants. He assumed the appropriate motto of “Nil desperandum.” In the same year he greatly strengthened his political interest by marrying the eldest daughter of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, an able lawyer and influential statesman, who availed himself of every means to further the interests of his relatives and dependents to the remotest degree. In May, 1758, Lord Anson tock com- mand of the grand fleet, and blockaded Brest, whilst the combined land and sea forces attacked St. Malo and other towns on the coast of France. In December he returned to Spithead, struck his flag, and resumed his post at the Admiralty. Much of the success which attended our opera- tions by sea during the Seven Years’ War is attributable to the able and judicious measures of Lord Anson, who during that | period, directed our naval affairs. He rejoiced in the confidence and esteem of the nation generally, and never suffered in his popularity, excepting for a short period during the unhappy tragedy of Admiral Byng, who fell a victim to the political intrigues of the times, in which Anson’s father-in-law, the chancellor, appears to have borne a discreditable part. On several occasions Lord Anson had the honour of conveying under his flag His Majesty, George IL, to the continent when he visited his German dominions; and also of bringing over Queen Charlotte, when affianced to George III. in 1761. Lord Anson’s professional advancement took place as follows :—Entered the navy, 1712; lieutenant, 1717; commander, 1722; captain, 1723; rear-admiral, 1745; vice- admiral, 1746 ; admiral, 1748 ; and in 1755 he was made vice-admiral of Great Britain, and admiral and commander-in-chief of His Majesty's fleets. Early in 1762 his constitution became much impaired, and he was advised to repair to Bath for the use of the waters. He died rather suddenly at his seat, Moor Park, on the 6th of June; his remains were interred at Colwich, in the county of Stafford. Lord Anson left no issue, and his lady having died two years before him, he bequeathed the bulk of his property to George Adams, Esq., his sister’s son. The title became extinct, but was revived, in 1806, in the person of the eldest son of the afore-mentioned George Adams, who assumed the name of Anson, being the father of the present Earl of Lichfield. In person Lord Anson was agreeable, though not handsome; in conversation extremely reserved ; he is reported to have been addicted to gambling, and to have suffered from his inexperience. His dis- position was generous and benevolent, and he possessed great fortitude of mind and indomitable resolution under difficulties, as the many cases recorded in the narrative of his voyage testify. His character has been drawn by many hands, and is thus summed up by Sir John Barrow in his lately published “ Life of Lord Anson” :— “He was a man of great medesty and simplicity of manners, and so reserved in general society as to give some truth to the point of Williams’ doz mot, that ‘he had been round the world but never in it.’ Walpole also is not far from the truth in calling him ¢ the silent son of the Chancel- lor” His silence and reserve, however, were not the offspring of any deficiency of knowledge or want of ability, either on general or professional acquirements, but from that natural diffidence of his own merit, and a reluctance of speaking in public, which very many men of consider- able talents have not been able to over- come; while others with a parsimony of intellect are by no means deficient in volubility of speech. As a representative DUTCH FLEET IN THE MEDWAY. 219 in the House of Commons, and subse- quently as a peer of the realm—as a member of the Board of Admiralty, hold- ing for many years the high and responsible situation of First Lord—it does not appear, from the Parliamentary history, that he ever spoke on any subject, professional or other- wise, although many naval questions of considerable importance, in both Houses, were brought into discussion; but there were always able civilians in the Board to represent his sentiments. In the records of the Admiralty there is abundant evidence of his constant and unremitting attention to the various duties of that department, and of the large share he had in them.” Again: “The fleets that he fitted out, with a rapidity never before known, afford no ground for the imputation of slowness ; the truth appears to be, that he was slow to decide, but quick to execute. He was not certainly possessed of shining abilities, but a plain, straightforward, matter-of-fact man, attentive to the duties of his office, well acquainted with the practical part of “is profession, and—what is perhaps equally DESTRUCTION important—with the character of the officers belonging to it.” It has been often remarked that not a single monument, private or public, has been raised to the memory of a man whose exploits occupy such a distinguished place in the annals of the British navy. His late majesty, William the Fourth, who greatly respected his memory, ordered a ward in ‘Greenwich Hospital to be called “ Anson Ward,” and caused to be transported thither from Windsor the figure-head of the Cexn- turion, where it is likely to remain as long as the material endures. The figure is a lion rampant, and measures sixteen feet in height. Had we possessed such com- manders always, Britain would have been spared many terrible reverses and some dis- graces more terrible than any reverses. Our illustration recalls one of the worst of these, when, in the reign of Charles II., the Dutch fleet were allowed to sail up the Medway and destroy Sheerness, owing to the state of our navy, the money for the support of which had been squandered by the “ merrie monarch” with reckless profusion. OF SHEERNESS. 220 ZHBE WONDERS .OF 7HE DEE? ‘ANsoN's VOYAGE (continued). YICISSITUDES OF THE SEA—DANGERS FROM TEMPEST. £g) AVA FOS 2X ~~ NeW EFORE the stern most ships of the squadron were clear of the Straits of Le Maire, the serenity of the sky was sud- denly changed, and S gave us all the presages of an \ impending storm ; and immedi- ately the wind shifted to the southward, and blew in such violent squalls, that we were obliged to hand our top-sails, and reef our mainsail: the tide, too, which had hitherto favoured us, now turned against us, and drove us to the east- ward with prodigious rapidity, so that we were in great anxiety for the Wager and the Anna Pink, the two sternmost vessels, fearing they would be dashed to pieces against the shore of Staten Land ; nor were our apprehensions without foundation, for it was with the utmost difficulty they es- caped. And now the whole squadron, instead of pursuing their intended course to the S.W., were driven to the eastward by the united force of the storm and of the currents ; so that next day, in the morning, we found ourselves near seven leagues to the eastward of Staten Land, which then bore from us N.W. The violence of the current which had set us with so much pre- cipitation to the eastward, together with the force and constancy of the westerly winds, soon taught us to consider the doubling of Cape Horn as an enterprise that might prove too mighty for our efforts, though some amongst us had lately treated the difficulties which former voyagers were said to have met with in this undertaking as little better than chimerical, and had sup- posed them to arise rather from timidity and unskilfulness, than from the real em- barrassments of the winds and seas; but we were severely convinced that these cen- sures were rash and ill-grounded: for the distresses with which we struggled, during the three succeeding months, will not easily be paralleled in the relation of any former naval expedition. This will, I doubt not, be readily allowed by those who shall care- fully peruse the ensuing narration. From the storm which came on before we had well got clear of Straits Le Maire, we had a continual succession of such tem- pestuous weather, as surprised the oldest and most experienced mariners on board, and obliged them to confess that what they had hitherto called storms were in- considerable gales, compared with the violence of these winds, which raised such short, and at the same time, such moun- tainous waves, as greatly surpass in danger all seas known in any other part of the globe. And it was not without great rea- son that this unusual appearance filled us with continual terror ; for, had any one of these waves broke fairly over us, it must, in all probability, have sent us to the bot- tom. Nor did we escape with terror only ; for the ship rolling incessantly gunwale-to, gave us such quick and violent motions, that the men were in perpetual danger of being dashed to pieces against the decks or sides of the ship. And though we were ex- tremely careful to secure ourselves from these shocks, by grasping some fixed body, yet many of our people were forced from their hold ; some of whom were killed and others greatly injured; in particular, one of our best seamen was canted overboard “THE STORM FIEND THEN AROSE 221 and drowned, another dislocated his neck, a third was thrown into the main-hold and broke his thigh, and one of our boat- swain’s mates broke his collar-bone twice ; not to mention many other accidents of the same kind. These tempests, so dreadful in themselves, though unattended by any other unfavourable circumstance, were yet rendered more mischievous to us by their inequality, and the deceitful intervals which they at some times afforded; for though we were oftentimes obliged to lie-to for days together under a reefed mizen, and were sometimes reduced to lie at the — _— — SAILOR ON SPAR. mercy of the waves under our bare poles, yet now and then we ventured to make sail with our courses double-reefed; and the weather, proving more tolerable, would perhaps encourage us to set our top-sails ; after which, the wind, without any previous notice, would return upon us with re- lin doubled force, and would in an instant tear our sails from the yards. And that no circumstance might be wanting which could aggrandize our distress, these blasts generally brought with them a great quan- tity of snow and sleet, which cased our rigging and froze our sails, thereby render- P THE WONDERS 222 OF THE DEEP. ing them and our cordage brittle, and apt to snap upon the slightest strain; adding great difficulty and labour to the working of the ship, benumbing the limbs of our people, and making them incapable of exerting themselves with their usual ac- tivity, and even disabling many of them, by mortifying their toes and fingers. It were indeed endless to enumerate the various disasters of different kinds which befell us; and I shall only mention the most material, which will sufficiently evince the calamitous condition of the whole squadron during the course of this navi- gation. It was on the 7th of March that we passed Straits Le Maire, and were imme- diately afterwards driven to the eastward by a violent storm and the force of the current which set that way. For the four or five succeeding days we had hard gales of wind from the same quarter, with a most prodigious swell ; so that though we stood, during all that time, towards the S.W., yet we had no reason to imagine we had made any way to the westward. In this interval we had frequent squalls of rain and snow, and shipped great quantities of water; after which, for three or four days, though the seas ran mountains high, yet the weather was rather more moderate: but, on the 18th, we had again strong gales of wind with extreme cold, and at midnight the main top-sail split, and one of the straps of the main dead-eyes broke. From hence, to the 23rd, the weather was more favour- able, though often intermixed with rain and sleet, and some hard gales; but, as the waves did not subside, the ship, by labour- ing in this lofty sea, was now grown so loose in her upper works, that she let in the water at every seam, so that every part within board was constantly exposed to the sea-water, and scarcely any of the officers ever lay in dry beds. Indeed, it was very rare that two nights ever passed without many of them being driven from their beds by the deluge of water that came upon them. thrown to the poor sailor. On the 23rd we had a most violent storm of wind, hail, and rain, with a very great sea ; and though we handed the main-top- sail before the height of the squall, yet we found the yard sprung ; and soon after, the foot rope of the main-sail breaking, the main-sail itself split instantly to rags, and, in spite of our endeavours to save it, much the greater part of it was blown overboard. On this the commodore made the signal for the squadron to bring-to; and the storm at length flattening to a calm, we had an opportunity of getting down our main-top-sail yard to put the carpenters at work upon it, and of repairing our rigging ; after which, having bent a new main-sail, we got under sail again with a moderate breeze. But in less than twenty-four hours we were attacked by another storm still more furious than the former ; for it proved a perfect hurricane, and reduced us to the necessity of lying-to under our bare poles. As our ship kept the wind better than any of the rest, we were obliged in the after- noon to wear ship, in order to join the squadron to the leeward, which otherwise we should have been in danger of losing in the night ; and as we dared not venture any sail abroad, we were obliged to make use of an expedient which answered our purpose : this was putting the helm a- weather, and manning the four shrouds. But though this method proved successful for the end intended, yet in the execu- tion of it one of our ablest seamen was canted overboard ; and, notwithstanding the prodigious agitation of the water, we perceived that he swam very strong, and it was with the utmost concern that we found ourselves incapable of assisting him ; and we were the more grieved at his unhappy fate, since we lost sight of him struggling with the waves, and conceived, from the manner in which he swam, that he might continue sensible for a consider- able time longer of the horror attending his irretrievable situation. Here we may re- mark, it is strange that some spar was not On pieces of A MAN OVERBOARD / 223 spar and wreck sailors have been known to drift for some days (our illustration shows a case of this kind), and finally reach the land, or been saved by the boats of a passing vessel. Now-a-days sailors are better off, since a life-preserver, with a burning light, may be thrown, as is exemp- plified by our frontispiece. The light shows both the sinking man and the rescuers whither to direct their course. Before this last-mentioned storm was quite abated, we found two of our main- shrouds broke, which we set up immedi- ately ; and from hence we had an interval of three days less tempestuous than usual, but accompanied with a thick fog, in which. we were obliged to fire guns almost every half-hour, to keep our squadron together. On the 31st we were alarmed by a gun, fired from the Gloucester, and a signal made by her to speak with the commo- dore. We immediately bore down to her and were prepared to hear of some terrible disaster ; but we were apprised of it before we joined her, for we saw that her main- yard was broken in the slings. This was a grievous misfortune to us all at this junc- ture; as it was obvious it would prove a hindrance to our sailing, and would detain us the longer in these inhospitable latitudes But our future success and safety were not to be promoted by repining, but by resolu- tion and activity ; and therefore, that this unlucky incident might delay us as little as possible, the commodore ordered several carpenters to be put on board the Gloucester from the other ships of the squadron, in order to repair her damage with the utmost expedition. And the captain of the Z7ya/ complaining at the same time that his pumps were so bad, and the sloop made so great a quantity of water, that he was scarcely able to keep her free, the commodore ordered him a pump ready fitted from his own ship. It was very fortunate for the Gloucester and the Z7yal, that the weather proved more favourable this day than for many days, both before and after ; since by this means they were enabled to receive the assistance which seemed essential to their preserva- tion, and which they could scarcely have had at any other time, as it would have been extremely hazardous to have ventured a boat on board. The next day, that is, on the 1st of April, the weather returned again to its customary bias, the sky looked dark and gloomy, and the wind began to freshen and to blow in squalls ; however, it was not yet so bois- terous as to prevent our carrying our top- sail close reefed ; but its appearance was such as plainly prognosticated that a still severer tempest was at hand ; and accord- ingly, on the 3rd of April, there came on a storm, which both in its violence and con- tinuation (for it lasted three days) exceeded all that we had hitherto encountered. In its first onset we received a furious shock from a sea which broke upon our larboard quarter, where it stove in the quarter gallery, and rushed into the ship like a deluge; our rigging, too, suffered ex- tremely, for one of the straps of the main dead-eyes was broke, as was also a main- shroud and puttock-shroud, so that, to ease the stress upon the masts and shrouds, we lowered both our main and fore-yards, and furled all our sails ; and in this posture we lay-to for three days, when, the storm some- what abating, we ventured to make sail under our courses only ; but even this we could not do long, for the next day, which was the 7th, we had another hard gale of wind, with lightning and rain, which obliged us to lie-to again till night. It was wonderful that, notwithstanding the hard weather we had endured, no extra- ordinary accident had happened to any of the squadron since the breaking of the Gloucester’s main-yard; but this wonder soon ceased, for at three the next morning, several guns were fired to leeward, as signals of distress. And the commodore making a signal for the squadron to bring-to, we, at daybreak, saw the Wager a considerable way to leeward of any of the other ships ; and we soon perceived that she had lost her mizen-mast and main-top-sail yard. 224 THE WONDERS OF THE DEE? We immediately bore down to her, and found this disaster had arisen from the badness of her iron-work; for all the chain-plates to windward had given way upon the ship’s fetching a deep roll. This proved the more unfortunate to the Wager, as her carpenter had been on board the Gloucester ever since the 31st of March, and the weather was now too severe to permit him to return. Nor was the Wager the only ship of the squadron that had suffered in the last tempest ; for, the next day, the signal of distress was made by the Anna Pink, and, upon speaking with the master, we learnt that they had broken their fore-stay and the gammon of the bowsprit, and were in no small danger of having all the masts come by the board; so that we were obliged to bear away until they had made all fast, after which we haled upon a wind again. And now, after all our solicitude, and the numerous ills of every kind, to which we had been incessantly exposed for near forty days, we had great consolation in the flattering hopes we entertained, that our fatigues were drawing to a period, and that we should soon arrive in a more hospitable climate, where we should be amply repaid for all our past sufferings. For, towards the latter end of March, we were advanced, by our reckoning, near 10° to the westward of the westermost point of Terra del Fuego, and this allowance being double what for- mer navigators have thought necessary to be taken, in order to compensate the drift of the eastern current, we esteemed our- selves to be well advanced within the limits of the Southern Ocean, and had therefore been ever since standing to the northward, with as much expedition as the turbulence of the weather and our frequent disasters permitted. And, on the 13th of April, we were but a degree in latitude to the south- ward of the west entrance of the Straits of Magellan ; so that we fully expected, in a very few days, to have experienced the celebrated tranquillity of the Pacific Ocean. But these were delusions which only - served to render our disappointment more terrible ; for the next morning, between one and two, as we were standing to the northward, and the weather, which had till then been hazy, accidentally cleared up, the Pink made a signal for seeing land right ahead ; and it being but two miles distant, we were all under the most dreadful appre- hensions of running on shore ; which, had either the wind blown from its usual quar- ter with its wonted vigour, or had not the moon suddenly shone out, not a ship amongst us could possibly have avoided. But the wind, which some few hours before blew in squalls from the S.W., having for- tunately shifted to W.N.W., we were en- abled to stand to the southward, and to clear ourselves of this unexpected danger; so that by noon we had gained an offing of nearly two leagues. By the latitude of this land we fell in with, it was agreed to be a part of Terra del Fuego, near the southern outlet de- scribed in Frezier’s chart of the Straits of Magellan, and was supposed to be that point called by him Cape Noir. It was indeed most wonderful, that the currents should have driven us to the eastward with such strength ; for the whole squadron es- teemed themselves upwards of ten degrees more westerly than this land, so that, in running down, by our account, about nine- teen degrees of longitude, we had not really advanced above half that distance: And now, instead of having our labours and anxieties relieved by approaching a warmer climate and more tranquil seas, we were to steer again to the southward, and were again to combat those western blasts which had so often terrified us; and this, too, when we were weakened by our men fall- ing sick and dying apace, and when our spirits, dejected by a long continuance at sea, and by our late disappointment, were much less capable of supporting us in the various difficulties which we could not but expect in this new undertaking. Add to all this, too, the discouragement we re- ceived by the diminution of the strength ROBINSON CRUSOES ISLAND. 225 of the squadron ; for, three days before this, have fallen in with this land in the night, we lost sight of the Severn and the Pear! | and by being less favoured by the wind in the morning; and though we spread our ships, and beat about for some time, yet we never saw them more; whence we had apprehensions that they too might and the moon than we were, might have run on shore and have perished. Full of these dejected thoughts and gloomy pre- sages, we continued our voyage. ‘Anson's V oYAGE (Continued). ROBINSON firusoE’s JSLAND—ITS PLEASANTNESS AND oe HE expedition touched at Juan Fernandes (or Fer- nandezasit is now- a-days more com- monly spelt), fam- ous throughout all \ time as the island where Alex- ander Selkirk, the original of Robinson Crusoe, was cast away. The chronicler of the expedition gives the following account of the place :— The island of Juan Fernandes lies in the, latitude of 33° 40’ South, and is a hundred and ten leagues distant from the continent of Chili. It is said to have received its name from a Spaniard, who resided there some time with a view of settling it. The island itself is of an irregular figure, its greatest extent being between four and five leagues, and its greatest breadth somewhat short of two leagues. The only safe anchor- ing at this island is on the North side, where there are three bays, but the middlemost, known by the name of Cumberland Bay, is the widest and deepest, and in all respects much the best; the other two bays, de- nominated the East and West bays, are scarcely more than good landing-places, where boats may conveniently put their casks on shore. As Cumberland Bay is by far the most JERTILITY. commodious road in the island, so it is advisable for all ships to anchor on the western side of this bay, within little more than two cables’ length of the beach. Here they may ride in forty fathom of water, and be, in a great measure, sheltered from a large, heavy sea, which comes rolling in whenever an eastern or a western wind blows. It is, however, expedient, in this case, to cackle or arm the cables with an iron chain, or good rounding, for five or six fathom from the anchor, to secure them from being rubbed by the foulness of the ground. I have before observed, that a northerly wind, to which alone this bay is exposed, very rarely blew during our stay here; and, as it was then winter, it may be supposed, in other seasons, to be less frequent. In- deed, in those few instances, when it was in that quarter, it did not blow with any great force: but this perhaps might be owing to the highlands on the southward of the bay, which checked its current, and thereby abated its violence; for we had reason to suppose that, a few leagues off, it blew with considerable force, since it sometimes drove before it a prodigious sea, in which we rode forecastle-in. But though the northern winds are never to be appre- hended, yet the southern winds, which generally prevail here, frequently blow off the land in violent gusts and squalls, which, 226 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. however, rarely last longer than two or three minutes. This seems to be owing to the obstruction of the southern gale by the hills in the neighbourhood of the bay ; for the wind being collected by this means, at last forces its passage through the narrow valleys, which, like so many funnels, both facilitate its escape and increase its violence. These frequent and sudden gusts make it difficult for ships to work in with the wind off-shore, or to keep a clear hawse when anchored. The northern part of this island is com- posed of high craggy hills, many of them inaccessible, though generally covered with trees. The soil of this part is loose and shallow, so that very large trees on the hills soon perish for want of root, and are easily overturned; which occasioned the unfortunate death of one of our sailors, who being upon the hills in search of goats, caught hold of a tree upon the declivity to assist him in his ascent, and this giving way, he immediately rolled down the hill, and though in his fall he fastened on another tree of considerable bulk, yet that too gave way, and he fell amongst the rocks, and was dashed to pieces. Mr. Brett, too, met with an accident only by resting his back against a tree, near as large about as him- self, which stood on a slope; for the tree giving way, he fell to a considerable distance, though without receiving any harm. The southern, or rather the S.W. part of the island, is widely different from the rest, being dry, stony, and destitute of trees, but very flat and low, compared with the hills on the northern part. This part of the island is never frequented by ships, being surrounded by a steep shore, and having little or no fresh water ; and besides, it is exposed to the southerly wind, which gener- ally blows here the whole year round, and in the winter solstice very hard. The trees of which the woods on the northern side of the island are composed, are most of them aromatics, and of many different sorts. there are none of them of a size to yield any considerable timber, except the myrtle- trees, which are the largest on the island, and supplied us with all the timber we made, use of; but even these would not work to a greater length than forty feet. The top of the myrtle-tree is circular, and appears as uniform and regular as if it had been clipped by art; it bears on its bark an excrescence like moss, which in taste and smell resembles garlic, and was used by our people instead of it. We found here, too, the pimento-tree, and likewise the cabbage-tree, though in no great plenty. Besides a great number of plants of various kinds which are to be met with upon the island, but which we were not botanists enough either to describe or attend to, we found there almost all the vegetables which are usually esteemed to be particularly adapted to the cure of those scorbutic disorders, which are contracted by salt diet and long voyages. For here we had great quantities of water-cresses and purslane, with excellent wild sorrel, and a vast profusion of turnips and Sicilian radishes : these two last, having some re- semblance to each other, were confounded by our people under the general name of turnips. We usually preferred the tops of the turnips to the roots, which were often stringy ; though some of them were free from that exception, and remarkably good. These vegetables, with the fish and flesh we found here, and which I shall more particularly describe hereafter, were not only extremely grateful to our palates, after the long course of salt diet which we had been confined to, but were likewise of the most salutary consequence to our sick in recovering and invigorating them, and of no mean service to us who were well, in destroying the lurking seeds of the scurvy, from which perhaps none of us were totally exempt, and in refreshing and restoring us to our wonted strength and activity. Besides the vegetables I have mentioned, of which we made perpetual use, we found many acres of ground covered with oats and clover. There were also some few cabbage-trees upon the island, as observed FERTILITY OF THE ISLAND. 227 before ; but as they generally grew on the precipices, and in dangerous situations, and as it was necessary to cut down a large tree for every single cabbage, this was a dainty that we were able but rarely to indulge in. The excellence of the climate and the looseness of the soil render this place ex- tremely proper for all kinds of vegetation ; for if the ground be anywhere accidentally turned up, it is immediately overgrown with turnips and Sicilian radishes ; and therefore Mr. Anson having with him garden-seeds of all kinds, and stones of different sorts of fruits, he, for the better accommodation of his countrymen who should hereafter touch here, sowed both lettuces, carrots, and other garden plants, and set in the woods a great variety of plum, apricot, and peach stones. These last he has been informed have since thriven to a very remarkable degree ; for some gentlemen, who, in their passage from Lima to Old Spain, were taken and brought to England, having procured leave to wait upon Mr. Anson, to thank him for his generosity and humanity to his prison- ers, some of whom were their relations, they, in casual discourse with him about his transactions in the South Seas, par- ticularly asked him if he had not planted a great number of fruit-stones on the island of Juan Fernandes, for they told him, their late navigators had discovered there num- bers of peach-trees and apricot-trees, which being fruits before unobserved in that place, they concluded them to be produced from kernels set by him. And this may in general suffice as to the soil and vegetable productions of this place : but the face of the country, at least of the north part of the island, is so ex- tremely singular, that I cannot avoid giving it a particular consideration. I have already taken notice of the wild, inhospitable air with which it first appeared to us, and the gradual improvement of this uncouth land- scape as we drew nearer, till we were at last captivated by the numerous beauties we discovered on the shore. And I must now add that we found, during the time of out residence there, that the inland parts of the island did no ways fall short of the sanguine prepossessions which we first entertained in their favour. For the woods which covered most of the steepest hills were free from ail bushes and underwood, and afforded an easy passage through every part of them; and the irregularities of the hills and pre- cipices in the northern part of the island necessarily traced out by their various com- binations a great number of romantic val- leys, most of which had a stream of the clearest water running through them, that tumbled in cascades from rock to rock, as the bottom of the valley, by the course of the neighbouring hills, was at any time broken into a sudden sharp descent. Some particular spots occurred in these valleys, where the shade and fragrance of the con- tiguous woods, the loftiness of the over- hanging rocks, and the transparency and frequent falls of the neighbouring streams, presented scenes of such elegance and dignity as would perhaps with difficulty be rivalled in any other part of the globe. It is in this place, perhaps, that the simple productions of unassisted nature may be said to excel all the ficititious descriptions of the most animated imagination. I shall finish this article with a short account of that spot where the commodore pitched his tent, and which he made choice of for his own residence, though I despair of conveying an adequate idea of its beauty. The piece of ground which he chose was a small lawn, that lay on a little ascent, at the distance of about half a mile from the sea. In the front of his tent there was a large avenue cut through the woods to the sea-side, which, sloping to the water with a gentle descent, opened a prospect of the bay and the ships at anchor. This lawn was screened behind by a tall wood of myrtle sweeping round it, in the form of a theatre, the ground on which the wood stood rising with much sharper ascent than the lawn itself, though not so much but that the hills and precipices within land towered up considerably above the tops of 228 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. the trees, and added to the grandeur of the view. There were, besides, two streams of crystal water, which ran on the right and left of the tent, within a hundred yards’ dis- tance, and were shaded by the trees which skirted the lawn on either side, and com- pleted the symmetry of the whole. It remains now only that we speak of the animals and provisions which we met with at this place. Former writers have related that this island abounded with vast numbers of goats, and their accounts are not to be questioned, this place being the usual haunt of the buccaneers and privateers who formerly frequented those seas. And there are two instances—one of a Musquito Indian, and the other of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, who were left by their respec- tive ships, and lived alone upon this island for some years, and consequently were no strangers to its produce. Selkirk, who was the last, after a stay of between four and five years, was taken off the place by the Duke and Duchess, privateers of Bristol, as may be seen at large in the journal of their voyage. His manner of life, during his solitude, was in most particulars very re- markable ; but there is one circumstance he relates, which was so strangely verified by our own observation, that I cannot help reciting it. He tells us, among other things, as he often caught more goats than he wanted, he sometimes marked their ears and let them go. This was about thirty- two years before our arrival at the island. Now it happened that the first goat that was killed by our people at their landing had his ears slit, whence we concluded that he had doubtless been formerly under the power of Selkirk. This was indeed an animal of most venerable aspect, dignified with an exceeding majestic beard, and with many other symptoms of antiquity. During our stay on the island, we met with others marked in the same manner, all the males being distinguished by an exuberance of beard and every other characteristic of ex- treme age. But the great numbers of goats, which former writers described to have been found upon this island, are at present very much diminished; for the Spaniards, being in- formed of the advantages which the buc- caneers and privateers drew from the provisions which goat’s-flesh here fur- nished them with, they have endeavoured to extirpate the breed, thereby to deprive their enemies of .this relief. For this purpose they have put on shore great numbers of large dogs, which have increased apace, and have destroyed all the goats in the accessible part of the country; so that there now remain only a few amongst the crags and precipices, where the dogs can- not follow them. These are divided into separate herds of twenty or thirty each, which inhabit distinct fastnesses, and never mingle with each other. By this means we found it extremely difficult to kill them; and yet we were so desirous of their flesh, which we all agreed much resembled venison, that we got knowledge, I believe, of all their herds; and it was conceived, by comparing their numbers together, that they scarcely exceeded two hundred upon the whole island. I remember we had once an opportunity of observing a remark- able dispute betwixt a herd of these animals and a number of dogs; for, going in our boat into the eastern bay, we saw some dogs running very eagerly upon the foot, and being willing to discover what game they were after, we lay upon our oars some time to view them, and at last we saw them take to a hill, and looking a little further, we observed upon the ridge of it a herd of goats, which seemed drawn up for their reception. There was a very narrow path, skirted on each side by precipices, on which the master of the herd posted himself front- ing the enemy, the rest of the goats being all behind him, where the ground was more open. As this spot was inaccessible by any other path, excepting where this champion had placed himself, the dogs, though they ran up-hill with great alacrity, yet, when they came within about twenty yards of him, durst not encounter him (for he DOGS AND GOATS. 229 would infallibly have driven them down the precipice), but gave over the chase, and quietly laid themselves down, panting at a great rate. The dogs, who, as I have mentioned, are masters of all the accessible parts of the island, are of various kinds, but some of them very large, and are multiplied to a prodigious degree. They sometimes came down to our habitations at night, and stole Goat’s-flesh, as I have mentioned, being scarce, we rarely being able to kill above one a day, and our people growing tired of fish (which, as I shall hereafter observe, abounds at this place), they at last condescended to eat seals, which by degrees they came to relish, and called it lamb. The seal, numbers of which haunt this island, hath been so often described by former writers, that it is unnecessary to say ‘anything par- — COAST OF ROBINSON CRUSOE’S ISLAND our provision ; and once or twice they set upon single persons, but assistance being at hand, they were driven off without doing any mischief. As at the present it is rare for goats to fall in their way, we conceived that they lived principally upon young seals ; and indeed some of our people had the curiosity to kill dogs sometimes and dress them, and they seemed to agree that they had a fishy taste. But there is another amphibious creature to be met with here, called a sea-lion, that bears some resemblance to a seal, though it is much ticular about them in this place. larger. This too we ate, under the de- nomination of beef; and as it is so extra- ordinary an animal, I conceive, it well merits a particular annotation. They are in size, when arrived at their full growth, from twelve to twenty feet in length, and from 230 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. eight to fifteen in circumference. They are extremely fat, so that, after having cut through the skin, which is about an inch in thickness, there is at least a foot of fat before you can come at either lean or bones; and we experienced, more than once, that the fat of some of the largest afforded us a butt of oil. They are like- wise very full of blood, for if they are deeply wounded in a dozen places, there will instantly gush out as many fountains of blood, spouting to a considerable distance ; and to try what quantity of blood they contained, we shot one first, and then cut his throat, and measuring the blood that came from him, we found, that besides what remained in the vessels,—which to be sure was considerable,—we got at least two hogsheads. Their skins are covered with short hair of a light dun colour, but their tails and their fins are almost black; their fins or feet are divided at the ends, like fingers, the web which joins them not reaching to the extremities, and each of these extremi- ties is furnished with a nail. They have a distant resemblance to an overgrown seal, though in some particulars there is a mani- fest difference, especially in the males, who have a large snout or trunk hanging down five or six inches below the end of the upper jaw. This particular the females have not, and this renders the countenance of the male and female easy to be distin- guished from each other, and besides, the males are of a much larger size. One of them was the master of the flock, and from his driving off the other males, and keeping a great number of females to himself, he was by the seamen ludicrously styled the Bashaw. These animals divide their time equally between the land and sea, continuing at sea all the summer, and coming on shore at the setting in of winter, where they reside during the whole season. In this interval they engender and bring forth their young, and have generally two at a birth; these they suckle with their milk, they being at first about the size of a full-grown seal. During the time of these animals’ con- tinuance on shore, they feed on the grass and verdure which grows near the bank of the fresh-water streams; and when not employed in feeding, sleep in herds in the most miry places they can find out. As they seem to be of a very lethargic disposi- tion, and not easily awakened, each herd was observed to place some of their males at a distance, in the nature of sentinels, who never failed to alarm them, whenever our men attempted to molest, or even to approach them; and they were very cap- able of alarming, even at a considerable distance, for the noise they make is very loud and of different kinds, sometimes grunting like hogs, and at other times snorting like horses in full vigour. They often, especially the males, have furious battles with each other, principally about their females; and we were one day extremely surprised by the sight of two animals, which at first appeared different from all we had ever observed; but, on a nearer approach, they proved to be two sea-lions, who had been goring each other with their teeth, and were covered over with blood; and the one before mentioned, who generally lay surrounded with a troop of females, which no other male dared to approach, had not acquired that envied pre- eminence without many bloody contests, of which the marks still remained in the numer- ous scars which were visible in every part of his body. We killed many of them for food, par- ticularly for their hearts and tongues, which we esteemed good eating, and preferable to those of bullocks. There was no difficulty in killing them, for they were incapable either of escaping or resisting, their motion being the most unwieldy that can be conceived, their blubber, all the time they are moving, being agitated in large waves under their skins. However, a sailor one day being carelessly employed in skinning a young sea- lion, the female from whence he had taken it came upon him unperceived, and getting his head in her mouth, she with her teeth JUAN FERNANDEZ: ITS FISH, ETC, 231 scored his skull in notches in many places, and thereby wounded him so desperately, that, though all possible care was taken of him, he died in a few days. These are the principal animals which we found upon the island ; for we saw but few birds, and those chiefly hawks, blackbirds, owls, and humming-birds. We saw not the pardela, which burrows in the ground, and which former writers have mentioned to be found there; but as we met with their holes, we supposed that the dogs had de- stroyed them, as they have almost done the cats, which were very numerous in Selkirk’s time ; but we saw not above one or two during our whole stay. However, the rats still keep their ground, and continue here in great numbers, and were very trouble- some to us, by infesting our tents nightly. But that which furnished us with the most delicious repasts at this island remains still to be described. This was the fish, with which the whole bay was most plentifully stored, and with the greatest variety ; for we found here cod of a prodigious size, and by the report of some of our crew, who had been formerly employed in the New- foundland fishery, not in less plenty than is to be met with on the banks of that island. We caught also cavallies, gropers, large breams, maids, silver-fish, congers of a peculiar kind, and above all, a black fish which we most esteemed, called by some a chimney-sweeper, in shape resembling a carp. Indeed, the beach is everywhere so full of rocks and loose stones, that there is no possibility of hauling the seine ; but with hooks and lines we caught what numbers we pleased, so that a boat with two or three lines would return loaded with fish in about two or three hours’ time. The only interruption we ever met with arose from great quantities of dog-fish and large sharks which sometimes attended our boats and prevented our sport. Besides the fish we have already mentioned, we found here one delicacy in greater perfec- tion, both as to size, flavour, and quantity, than is perhaps to be met with in any other part of the world : this was sea craw-fish. They generally weighed eight or nine pounds apiece, were of a most excellent taste, and lay in such abundance near the water's edge, that the boat-hooks often struck into them, in putting the boat to and from the shore. These are the most material articles relating to the accommodations, soil, vege- tables, animals, and other productions of the island of Juan Fernandes, or Fernandez, to give it the modern name. THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. ANSON'S VY OYAGE— (continued). C” NE of the most re- markable inci- dents of the voyage was the attack on the town of Paita, in Spanish South America. We here give the ("account of that attack. The town of Paita is situ- ated in the latitude of 5° 12’ south, in a most barren soil, com- posed only of sand and slate. The extent of it is but small, containing in all less than two hundred families. The houses are only ground-floors, the walls built of split cane and mud, and the roofs thatched with leaves. These edifices, though extremely slight, are abundantly sufficient for a climate where rain is con- sidered as a prodigy, and is not seen in many years ; so that it is said, that a small quantity of rain falling in this country in the year 1728, it ruined a great number of buildings, which mouldered away, and as it were melted before it. The inhabitants of Paita are principally Indians and black slaves, or at least a mixed breed, the whites being very few. The port of Paita, though in reality little more than a bay, is esteemed the best on that part of the coast; and is indeed a very secure and commodious an- chorage. It is greatly frequented by all vessels coming from the north, since it is here only that the ships from Acapulco, Sonsonnate, Relaleijo, and Panama can touch and refresh in their passage to Callao; and the length of these voyages (the wind for the greatest part of the year being full against them) renders it impos- sible to perform them without calling upon ATTACK ON PAITA—REMARKABLE JNcIDENTS. the coast for a recruit of fresh water. It is true, Paita is situated on so parched a spot, that it does not itself furnish a drop of fresh water, or any kind of greens or provisions, except fish and a few goats; but there is an Indian town called Colan, about two or three leagues distant to the northward, from whence water, maize, greens, fowls, etc., are brought to Paita on balsas or floats, for the conveniency of the ships that touch here; and cattle are sometimes brought from Piura, a town which lies about fourteen leagues up in the country. The water brought from Colan is whitish, and of a disagreeable appearance, but it is said to be very wholesome, for it is pretended by the inhabitants, that it runs through large woods of sarsaparilla, and that it is sensibly impregnated therewith. This port of Paita, besides furnishing the northern trade bound to Callao with water and necessaries, is the usual place where passengers from Acapulco or Panama, bound to Lima, disembark ; for, as it is two hundred leagues from hence to Callao, the port of Lima, and as the wind is generally contrary, the passage by sea is very tedious and fatiguing, but by land there is a tolerably good road parallel to the coast, with many stations and villages for the ac- commodation of travellers. The town of Paita is itself an open place ; its sole protection and defence being a single fort. It was of consequence to us to be well informed of the fabric and strength of this fort ; and by the examination of our prisoners, we found that there were eight pieces of cannon mounted in it, but that it had neither ditch nor outwork, being only surrounded by a plain brick wall ; and that the garrison consisted of only one weak ATTACK ON PAITA. 233 company ; but the town itself might possibly arm three hundred men more. Mr. Anson having informed himself of the strength of the place, resolved, since he was a man of the greatest daring, to attempt it that very night. We were then about twelve leagues distant from the shore, far enough to prevent our being discovered ; yet not so far but that, by making all the sail we could, we might arrive in the bay with our ships in the night. However, the commodore prudently considered that this would be an improper method of proceed- ing, as our ships being such large bodies might be easily discovered at a distance, even in the night, and might thereby alarm the inhabitants, and give them an opportun- ity of removing their valuable effects. He therefore, as the strength of the place did not require our whole force, resolved to attempt it with our boats only, ordering the eighteen-oared barge, and our own and the Tryal’s pinnaces, on that service ; and hav- ing picked out fifty-eight men to man them, well provided with arms and ammunition, he gave the command of the expedition to Lieutenant Brett, and gave him his neces- sary orders. And the better to prevent the disappointment and confusion which might arise from the darkness of the night, and ATTACK ON A SPANISH SETTLEMENT. the ignorance of the streets and passages of the place, two of the Spanish pilots were ordered to attend the lieutenant, and to conduct him to the most convenient land- ing-place, and were afterwards to be his guides on shore. And that we might have the greater security for their faithful be- haviour on this occasion, the commodore took care to assure all our prisoners, that if the pilots acted properly, they should all of them be released, and set on shore at this place; but in case of any misconduct or treachery, he threatened them that the pilots should be instantly shot, and that he would carry all the rest of the Spaniards who were on board him prisoners to Eng- land. So that the prisoners themselves were interested in our success, and there- fore we had no reason to suspect our con- ductors either of negligence or perfidy. And on this occasion I cannot but remark a singular circumstance of one of the pilots employed by us in this business. It seems (as we afterwards learnt) he had been taken by Captain Clipperton above twenty years before, and had been forced to lead Clip- perton and his people to the surprise of Truxillo, a town within land to the south- ward of Paita, where, however, he contrived to alarm his countrymen, and to save them, though the place was taken. Now that the only two attempts on shore which were 234 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEPF. made at so long an interval from each other should be guided by the same person, and he, too, a prisoner both times, and forced upon the employ contrary to his inclination, is an incident so very extraordinary, that I could not help taking notice of it. But to return to the matter in hand. During our preparations, the ships them- selves stood towards the port with all the sail they could make, being secure that we were yet at too great a distance to be seen. But, about ten o'clock at night, the ships being then within five leagues of the place, Lieutenant Brett, with the boats under his command, put off, and arrived at the mouth of the bay without being discovered; but no sooner had he entered it, than some of the people on board a vessel riding at anchor there perceived him, who instantly put off in their boat, rowing towards the fort, shouting and crying, “The English, the English dogs,” etc., by which the whole town was suddenly alarmed, and our people soon observed several lights hurrying back- wards and forwards in the fort, and other marks of the inhabitants being in great motion. Lieutenant Brett, on this, en- couraged his men to pull briskly up to the shore, that they might give the enemy as little time as possible to prepare for their defence. However, before our boats could reach the shore, the people in the fort had got ready some of their cannon, and pointed them towards the landing-place ; and though in the darkness of the night it might be well supposed that chance had a greater share than skill in their direction, yet the first . shot passed extremely near one of the boats, whistling just over the heads of the crew. This made our people redouble their efforts; so that they had reached the shore, and were in part disembarked, by the time the second gun fired. As soon as our men landed, they were conducted by one of the Spanish pilots to the entrance of a narrow street, not above fifty yards distant from the beach, where they were covered from the fire of the fort ; and being formed in the best manner the shortness of the time would | | allow, they immediately marched for the parade, which was a large square at the end of this street, the fort being one side of the square, and the Governor’s house another. In this march (though performed with toler- able regularity) the shouts and clamours of threescore sailors, who had been confined so long on shipboard, and were now, for the first time, on shore in an enemy’s country, joyous as they always are when they land, and animated, besides, in the present case with the hopes of an immense pillage,—the huzzas, I say, of this spirited detachment, joined with the noise of their drums, and favoured by the night, had aug- mented their numbers, in the opinion of the enemy, to at least three hundred; by which persuasion the inhabitants were so greatly intimidated, that they were much more solicitous about the means of their flight than of their resistance; so that, though upon entering the parade, our people received a volley from the merchants who owned the treasure then in the town, and who, with a few others, had ranged them- selves in a gallery that ran round the Gov- ernor’s house, yet that post was immediately abandoned upon the first fire made by our people, who were thereby left in quiet possession of the parade. On this success Lieutenant Brett divided his men into two parties, ordering one of them to surround the Governor’s house, and if possible to secure the Governor, whilst he himself, with the other, marched to the fort with an intent to force it. But, contrary to his expectation, he entered it without oppo- sition ; for the enemy, on his approach, abandoned it, and made their escape over the walls. By this means the whole place was mastered in less than a quarter of an hour's time from the first landing, with no other loss than that of one man killed on the spot, and two wounded ; one of which was the Spanish pilot of the Zeresa, who re- ceived a slight bruise by a ball which grazed on his wrist. Indeed, another of the com- pany, the Honourable Mr. Keppel, son to the Earl of Albemarle, had a very narrow THE SAILORS MASQUERADING. 235 escape; for, having on a jockey cap, one side of the peak was shaved off close to his temple by a ball, which however did him no other injury. And now Lieutenant Brett, after this success, placed a guard at the fort, and another at the Governor's house, and appointed sentinels at all the avenues of the town, both to prevent any surprise from the enemy, and to secure the effects in the place from being embezzled. And this being done, his next care was to seize on the custom-house, where the treasure lay, and to examine if any of the inhabitants remained in the town, that he might know what further precautions it was necessary to take ; but he soon found that the numbers left behind were no ways formidable ; for the greatest part of them (being in bed when the place was surprised) had run away with so much precipitation, that they had not given themselves time to put on their clothes. And in this precipitate rout the Governor was not the last to secure himself, for he fled betimes half naked, leaving his wife, a young lady of about seventeen years of age, to whom he had been married but three or four days, behind him, though she too was afterwards carried off in her shift by a couple of sentinels, just as the detachment, ordered to invest the house, arrived before it. This escape of the Governor was an un- pleasing circumstance, as Mr. Anson had particularly recommended it to Lieutenant Brett to secure his person, if possible, in hopes that by that means we might be able to treat for the ransom of the place ; but it seems his alertness rendered it impossible to seize him. The few inhabitants who remained were confined in one of the churches under a guard, except some stout negroes which were found in the place. These, instead of being shut up, were em- ployed the remaining part of the night to assist in carrying the treasure from the custom-house and other places to the fort. However, there was care taken that they should be always attended by a file of musketeers. The transporting the treasure from the custom-house to the fort was the principal occupation of Mr. Brett’s people, after he had got possession of the place. But the sailors, while they were thus employed, could not be prevented from entering the houses which lay near them, in search of private pillage. And the first things which occurred to them, being the clothes which the Spaniards in their flight had left behind them, and which, according to the custom of the country, were most of them either embroidered or laced, our people eagerly seized these glittering habits, and put them on over their own dirty trousers and jackets, not forgetting, at the same time, the tie or bag-wig and laced hat, which were generally found with the clothes; and when this practice was once begun, there was no preventing the whole detachment from imitating it. And those who came latest into the fashion, not finding men’s clothes sufficient to equip themselves, they were obliged to take up with women’s gowns and petticoats, which (provided there was finery enough) they made no scruple of putting on, and blending with their own greasy dress ; so that when a party of them, thus ridiculously metamorphosed, first ap- peared before Mr. Brett, he was extremely surprised at their appearance, and could not immediately be satisfied they were his own people—and indeed his surprise was not at all unnatural. 236 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. ANSON'S Vova GE = (continued). JsLanD OF Quiso—]Jts PEARL PysTERS oii AND TURTLES. HE following account 5 of the island of Quibo, and the pearl oysters and turtles thereof, will, we be- lieve, be found ex- tremely entertaining. This island of Quibo is extremely convenient for wood- ing and watering, for the trees grow close to the high-water mark, and a large rapid stream of fresh water runs over the sandy beach into the sea; so that we were little more than two days in laying in all the wood and water we wanted. The whole island is of a very moderate height, excepting one part. It consists of a con- tinued wood spread over the whole surface of the country, which preserves its verdure all the year round. Amongst the other wood we found there abundance of cassia, and a few lime trees. It appeared singular to us that, considering the climate and the shelter, we should see no other birds there than parrots, parroquets, and macaws; in- deed, of these last there were prodigious flights. Next to these birds, the animals we found there in most plenty were mon- keys and guanos, and these we frequently killed for food; for though there were many herds of deer upon the place, yet the difficulty of penetrating the woods pre- vented our coming near them, so that though we saw them often, we killed only two during our stay. Our prisoners assured us that this island abounded with tigers; and we did once discover the print of a tiger's paw upon the beach, but the tigers themselves we never saw. The Spaniards, too, informed us that there was often found in the woods a most mischievous serpent, called the flying snake, which they said darted itself from the boughs of trees on either man or beast that came within its reach, and whose sting they believed to be inevitable death. Besides these mis- chievous land animals, the sea hereabouts is infested with great numbers of alligators of an extraordinary size; and we often observed a large kind of flat-fish, jumping a considerable height out of the water, which we supposed to be the fish that is said frequently to destroy the pearl divers, by clasping them in its fins as they rise from the bottom ; and we were told that the divers, for their security, are now always armed with a sharp knife, which, when they are entangled, they stick into the belly of the fish, and thereby disengage themselves from its embraces. Whilst the ship continued here at anchor, the commodore, attended by some of his officers, went in a boat to examine a bay which lay to the northward; and they afterwards ranged all along the eastern side of the island. And in the places where they put on shore in the course of this expedition, they generally found the soil to be extremely rich, and met with great plenty of excellent water. In particular, near the N.E. point of the island, they discovered a natural cascade, which sur- passed, as they conceived, everything of this kind which human art or industry has hitherto produced. It was a river of trans- parent water, about forty yards wide, which ran down a declivity of near a hundred and fifty yards in length. The channel it ran in was very irregular, for it was entirely formed of rock, both its sides and bottom QLD FORT, ear RHODE ISLAND MACAWS ON THE WING. 237 being made up of large detached blocks, and by these the course of the water was frequently interrupted ; for in some places it ran sloping with a rapid but uniform motion, while in other parts it tumbled over the ledges of rock with a perpen- “dicular descent. All the neighbourhood of this stream was a fine wood ; and even the huge masses of rock which overhung the water, and which, by their various projec- tions, formed the inequalities of the channel, were covered with lofty forest trees. Whilst the commodore and those who were with him were attentively view- ing this place, and were remarking the different blendings of the water, the rocks, THE GREAT ROOKERY ON THE ISLAND OF QUIBO. and the wood, there came in sight (as it were with an intent still to heighten and animate the prospect) a prodigious flight of macaws, which, hovering over this spot, and often wheeling and playing on the wing about it, afforded a most brilliant appearance, by the glittering of the sun on their variegated plumage; so that some of the spectators cannot refrain from a kind of transport, when they recount the com- plicated beauties which occurred in this extraordinary waterfall In this expedition which the boat made along the eastern side of the island, though they met with no inhabitants, yet they saw many huts upon the shore, and great heaps Q 238 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEPF. of shells of fine mother-of-pearl scattered up and down in different places. These were the remains left by the pearl-fishers from Panama, who often frequent . this place in the summer season; for the pearl oysters, which are to be met with every- where in the bay of Panama, are so plentiful at Quibo, that by advancing a very little way into the sea, you might stoop down and reach them from the bottom. They are usually very large, and out of curiosity we opened some of them with a view of tasting them, but we found them extremely tough and unpalatable. And having mentioned these oysters and the pearl-fishery, I must beg leave to recite a few particulars relating thereto. The oysters most productive of pearls are those found in considerable depths ; for though what are taken up by wading near shore are of the same species, yet the pearls found in them are very rare and very small. It is said, too, that the pearl partakes in some degree of the quality of the bottom on which the oyster is found; so that if the bottom be muddy, the pearl is dark and ill-coloured. The taking up oysters from great depths for the sake of the pearls they contain, is a work performed by negro slaves, of which the inhabitants of Panama and the neigh- bouring coast formerly kept great num- bers, which were carefully trained to this business. And these are said not to be esteemed complete divers till they have by degrees been able to protract their stay under water so long, that the blood gushes out from their nose, mouth, and ears. And it is the tradition of the country, that when this accident has once befallen them, they dive for the future with much greater facility than before; and they have no ap- prehension either that any inconvenience can attend it, the bleeding generally stop- ping of itself, or that there is any probability of their being ever subject to it a second time. But to return from this digression. Parts of this island are much frequented with sea-birds. The young of these made not bad eating. We named one place where these congregated the Great Rookery, and frequently drew supplies therefrom. Though the pearl-oyster, as has been said, was incapable of being eaten, yet the sea at this place furnished us with another dainty in the greatest plenty and perfec- tion. This was the turtle, of which we took here what quantity we pleased. There are generally reckoned four species of turtle; that is, the trunk turtle, the loggerhead, the hawksbill, and the green turtle. The two first are rank and unwholesome; the hawksbill (which furnishes the tortoiseshell) is but indifferent food, though better than the other two; but the green turtle is generally esteemed, by the greatest part of those who are acquainted with its taste, to be the most delicious of all eatables. And that it is a most wholesome food, we are amply convinced by our own experience ; for we fed on this last species, or the green turtle, for near four months, and consequently, had it been in any degree noxious, its ill effects could not possibly have escaped us. At this island we took what quantity we pleased with great facility ; for as they are an amphibious animal, and get on shore to lay their eggs, which they generally deposit in a large hole in the sand, just above the high-water mark, covering them up, and leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun. We usually dispersed several of our men along the beach, whose business it was to turn them on their backs when they came to land ; and the turtle being thereby pre- vented from getting away, we carried them off at our leisure. By this means we not only secured a sufficient stock for the time we stayed on the island, but we took a number of them with us to sea, which proved of great service, both in lengthening out our store of provision, and in heartening the whole crew with an almost constant supply of fresh and palatable food ; for the turtle being large, they generally weighing about 2o00lbs. weight each, those we took with us lasted us near a month, and by PIENTY OF TURTLE. 239 that time we met with a fresh recruit on the coast of Mexico, where we often saw them in the heat of the day, floating in great numbers on the surface of the water, fast asleep. When we discovered them we “usually sent out our boat with a man in the bow, who was a dexterous diver, and when the boat came within a few yards of the turtle, the diver plunged into the water, and took care to rise close upon it; and seizing the shell near the tail, and pressing down the hinder parts, the turtle, when awakened, began to strike with its claws, which motion supported both it and the diver till the boat came up and took them in. By this management we never wanted turtle for the succeeding four months in which we continued at sea; and though, when at Quibo, we had already been three months on board, without otherwise putting our feet on shore, than in the few days we stayed at this island of Quibo (except those employed in the attack of Paita), yet in the whole seven months from our leaving Juan Fernandes to our anchoring in the harbour of Chequetan, we buried no more in the whole squadron than two men,—a most incontestable proof that the turtle, on which we fed for the last four months of this term, was at least innocent, if not something more, Considering the scarcity of provisions on some parts of the coast of these seas, it appears wonderful that a species of food so very palatable and salubrious as turtle, and so much abounding in those parts, should be proscribed by the Spaniards as unwhole- some, and little less than poisonous. Perhaps the strange appearance of this animal may have been the foundation of this ridiculous and superstitious aversion, which is strongly rooted in all the inhabit- ants of that coast, and of which we had many instances in the course of this navi- gation. I have already observed that we put our Spanish prisoners on shore at Paita, and that the Glucester sent theirs to Manta; but as we had taken in our prizes. some Indian and negro slaves, we did not set these on shore with their masters, but continued them on board, as our crews were thin, to assist in navigating our ships. These poor people being possessed with the prejudices of the country they came from, were astonished at our feeding on turtle, and seemed fully persuaded that it would soon destroy us; but finding that none of us died, nor even suffered in our health, by a continuation of this diet, they at last got so far the better of their aversion as to be persuaded to taste it, to which the absence of all other kinds of fresh provisions might not a little contribute. However, it was with great reluctance, and very sparingly, that they first began to eat of it; but the relish improving upon them by degrees, they at last grew extremely fond of it, and pre- ferred it to every other kind of food, and often felicitated each other on the happy experience they had acquired, and the delicious and plentiful repasts it would be always in their power to procure, when they should again return back to their country. Those who are acquainted with the manner of life of these unhappy wretches, need not be told, that next to large draughts of spirituous liquors, plenty of tolerable food is the greatest joy they know, and consequently the discovering a method which would always supply them with what quantity they pleased of a food more luxurious to the palate than any their haughty lords and masters could indulge in, was doubtless a circumstance which they considered as the most fortunate that could befall them ; and we cannot say that they were altogether wrong in this. 240 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. ‘ANSON'S VovAGE (continued). fAPTURE OF THE TREASURE Suip—END OF NARRATIVE. : it was found > that the main object of the expedition,— the attack in con- , junction with Vernon on Cartagena,—was impossible of accom- plishment, it became of great importance to seize some of the Spanish treasureships which sailed across the ocean laden with the spoils of the New World. This was accomplished by the capture of the Manila galleon, which is thus chronicled :— “Anson gave out at Macao, where he had put in to refit, that he was bound to Batavia, and thence to England; and though the westerly monsoon was now set in, when that passage is considered as im- practicable, yet, by the confidence he had .expressed in the strength of his ship and the dexterity of his people, he had per- -suaded not only his own crew, but the people of Macao likewise, that he proposed to try this unusual experiment; so that there were many letters put on board him by the inhabitants of Canton and Macao for their friends in Batavia. But his real design was of a very differ- ent nature; for he knew that instead of one annual ship from Acapulco to Manila, there would be this year, in all probability, two ; since, by being before Acapulco, he had prevented one of them from putting to sea the preceding season. He therefore resolved to cruise for these returning vessels off Cape Espiritu Santo, on the island of Samal, which is the first land they always make in the Phillippine Islands. And as June is generally the month in which they THE arrive there, he doubted not but what he should get to his intended station time enough to intercept them. It is true they were said to be stout vessels, mounting forty-four guns apiece, and carrying about five hundred hands, and might be expected to return in company; and he himself had but two hundred and twenty-seven hands on board, of which near thirty were boys. But this disproportion of strength did not deter him, for he knew his ship to be much better fitted for a sea-engagement than theirs, and as he had reason to expect that his men would exert themselves in the most extraordinary manner when they had in view the immense wealth of these Manila galleons. This project the commodore had resolved on in his own thoughts, ever since his leaving the coast of Mexico. And the greatest mortification which he received from the various delays he had met with in China, was his apprehension lest he might be thereby so long retarded as to let the galleons escape him. Indeed, at Macao it was incumbent on him to keep these views extremely secret; for there being a great intercourse and a mutual connection of interests between that port and Manila, he had reason to fear that if his designs were discovered, intelligence would be im- mediately sent to Manila, and measures would be taken to prevent the galleons from falling into his hands. But being now at sea, and entirely clear of the coast, he summoned all his people on the quarter- deck, and informed them of his resolution to cruise for the two Manila ships, of whose wealth they were not ignorant. He told them he should choose a station where he could not fail of meeting with them; and WAITING FOR THE TREASURE SHIP. 241 though they were stout ships and full manned, yet, if his own people behaved with their accustomed spirit, he was certain he should prove too hard for them both, and that one of them at least could not fail of becoming his prize. He further added, that many ridiculous tales had been propagated about the strength of the sides of these ships, and their being impenetrable to cannon-shot; that these fictions had been principally invented to palliate the cowardice of those who had formerly en- gaged them ; but he hoped there were none of those present weak enough to give credit to so absurd a story. For his own part, he did assure them upon his word that when- ever he met with them he would fight them so near that they should find his bullets, instead of being stopped by one of their sides, should go through them both. This speech of the commodore’s was received by his people with great joy. For no sooner had he ended, than they ex- pressed their approbation, according to naval custom, by three strenuous cheers, and all declared their determination to succeed or perish, whenever the opportunity presented itself. And now their hopes, which since their departure from the coast of Mexico had entirely subsided, were again revived, and they all persuaded themselves that, notwithstanding the various casualties and disappointments they had hitherto met with, they should yet be repaid the price of their fatigues, and should at last return home enriched with the spoils of the enemy. For, firmly relying on the assurances of the commodore that they should certainly meet with the vessels, they were all of them too sanguine to doubt a moment of mastering them ; so that they considered themselves as having them already in their possession. And this confidence was so universally spread through the whole ship’s company, that the commodore having taken some Chinese sheep to sea with him for his own provision, and one day inquiring of his butcher why, for some time past, he had seen no mutton at his table, asking him if the sheep were killed, the butcher very seriously replied that there were indeed two sheep left, but if his honour would give him leave, he proposed to keep those for the enter- tainment of the general of the galleons. It was the last of May when the Cen- turion arrived off Cape Espiritu Santo, and the next day began the month in which the galleons were to be expected. The com- modore, therefore, made all necessary pre- parations for receiving them, having hoisted out his long-boat and lashed her alongside, that the ship might be ready for engaging, if they fell in with the galleons in the night. All this time, too, he was very solicitous to keep at such a distance from the cape as not to be discovered. But it hath been since learnt that, notwithstanding his care, he was seen from the land, and advice of him was sent to Manila, where it was at first disbelieved, but on reiterated intelli- gence (for it seems he was seen more than once) the merchants were alarmed, and the governor was applied to, who undertook (the commerce supplying the necessary sums) to fit out a force consisting of two ships of thirty-two guns, one of twenty guns, and two sloops of ten guns each, to attack the Centurion on her station. And some of these vessels did actually weigh with this view; but the principal ship not being ready, and the monsoon being against them, the commerce and the governor dis- agreed, and the enterprise was laid aside. This frequent discovery of the Centurion from the shore was somewhat extraordinary ; for the pitch of the cape is not high, and she usually kept from ten to fifteen leagues distant; though once, indeed, by an in- draught of the tide, as was supposed, they found themselves in the morning within seven leagues of the land. As the month of June advanced, the ex- pectancy and impatience of the commo- dore’s people each day increased. And I think no better idea can be given of their great eagerness on this occasion, than by copying a few paragraphs from the journal of an officer who was then on board ; as it 242 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. will, I presume, be a more natural picture of the full attachment of their thoughts to the business of their cruise than can be given by any other means. The paragraphs I have selected, as they occur in order of time, are as follows :— ¢ May 31.—Exercising our men at their quarters in great expectation of meeting with the galleons very soon ; this being the eleventh of June, their style. ¢ June 3.—XKeeping in our stations, and looking out for the galleons.’ ¢ June 5.—Begin now to be in great expectation, this being the middle of June, their style.’ ¢ June 11.—Begin to grow impatient at not seeing the galleons.’ ¢ June 13.—The wind having blown fresh easterly for the forty-eight hours past, gives us great ex- pectations of seeing the galleons soon.’ ¢ June 15.—Cruising on and off, and looking out strictly.’ ¢ June 19.—This being the last day of June, N.S., the galleons, if they arrive at all, must ap- pear soon.’ From these samples it is sufficiently evident how completely the treasure of the galleons had engrossed their imagination, and how anxiously they passed the latter part of their cruise, when the certainty of the arrival of these vessels was dwindled down to probability only, and that probability became each hour more and more doubtful. However, on the zoth of June, being just a month from their arrival on their station, they were relieved from this state of .un- certainty, when at sun-rise they discovered a sail from the mast-head, in the S.E. quarter. On this, a general joy spread through the whole ship; for they had no doubt but this was one of the galleons, and they expected soon to see the other. The commodore instantly stood towards her, and at half an hour after seven they were near enough to see her from the Centurion’s - deck ; at which time the galleon fired a gun and took in her top-gallant sails, which was supposed to be a signal to her consort, to hasten her up; and therefore the Cen- Zurion fired a gun to leeward, to amuse her. The commodore was surprised to find that in all this time the galleon did not change her course, but continued to bear down upon him; for he hardly believed, what afterwards appeared to be the case, that she knew his ship to be the Centurion, and resolved to fight him. About noon the commodore was a little more than a league distant from the galleon, and could fetch her wake, so that she could not now escape; and, no second ship ap- pearing, it was concluded that she had been separated from her consort. Soon after the galleon hauled up her fore-sail, and brought- to under top-sails, with her head to the northwards, hoisting Spanish colours, and having the standard of Spain flying at the top-gallant mast-head. Mr. Anson in the meantime had prepared all things for an engagement on board the Centurion, and had taken all possible care, both for the most effectual exertion of his small strength, and for avoiding the confusion and tumult too frequent in actions of this kind. He picked out about thirty of his choicest hands and best marksmen, whom he distributed into his tops, and who fully answered his expectation by the signal services they performed. As he had not hands enough remaining to quarter a suffi- cient number to each great gun in the customary manner, he therefore, on his lower tier, fixed only two men to each gun, who were to be solely employed in loading it, whilst the rest of his people were divided into different gangs of ten and twelve men each, which were constantly moving about the decks to run out and fire such guns as were loaded. By this management he was enabled to make use of all his guns, and, instead of firing broadsides with intervals between them, he kept up a constant fire without intermission, whence he doubted not to procure very signal advantages ; for it is common with the Spaniards to fall down upon the decks when they see a broadside preparing, and to continue in that position till it is given, after which they rise again, and, presuming the danger to be sometime over, work their guns, and fire with great briskness till another broadside THE FIGHT WITH THE TREASURE SHILE 243 is ready. But the firing gun by gun, in the manner directed by the commodore, ren- dered this practice of theirs impossible. The Centurion being thus prepared and nearing the galleon apace, there happened a little after noon several squalls of wind and rain, which often obscured the galleon from their sight. Butwhenever it cleared up, they observed her resolutely lying-to, and towards one o’clock the Centurion hoisted her broad pendant and colours, she being then within gun-shot of the enemy. And the commodore observing the Spaniards to have neglected clearing their ship till that time, as he then saw them throwing over- board cattle and lumber, he gave orders to fire upon them with the chase-guns, to em- barrass them in their work, and to prevent them from completing it, though his general directions had been not to engage till they - were within pistol-shot. The galleon re- turned the fire with two of her stern-chasers, and the Centurion getting her spritsail-yard fore and aft, that if necessary she might be ready for boarding, the Spaniards in a bravado rigged their spritsail-yard fore and aft likewise. = Soon after, the Centurion came abreast of the enemy within pistol shot, keeping to the leeward with a view of preventing them from putting before the wind and gaining the port of Jalapay, from which they were about seven leagues dis- tant. And now the engagement began in earnest, and for the first half - hour Mr. Anson over-reached the galleon and lay on her bow, where, by the great wideness of his port, she could traverse almost all his guns upon the enemy, whilst the galleon could only bring a part of hers to bear. Immedi- ately on the commencement of the action, the mats with which the galleon had stuffed her netting took fire and burnt violently, blazing up half as high as the mizen-top. This accident (supposed to be caused by the Centurion’s wads) threw the enemy into great confusion, and at the same time alarmed the commodore, for he feared lest the galleon should be burnt, and lest he “which was in flames, into the sea. . million and a half of dollars. himself too might suffer by her driving on board him. But the Spaniards at last freed themselves from the fire by cutting away the netting, and tumbling the whole mass, But still the Centurion kept her first advan- tageous position, firing her cannon with great regularity and briskness, whilst at the same time the galleon’s decks lay open to her top-men, who, having at their first volley driven the Spaniards from their tops, made prodigious havoc with their small arms, killing or wounding every officer but one that ever appeared on the quarter-deck, and wounding in particular the general of the galleon himself. And though the Centurion, after the first half-hour, lost her original situation, and was close alongside the galleon, and the enemy continued to fire briskly for near an hour longer, yet at last the commodore’s grape-shot swept their decks so effectually, and the number of their slain and wounded was so consider- able, that they began to fall into great dis- order, especially as the general, who was the life of the action, was no longer capable of exerting himself. The embar- rassment was visible from on board the commodore. For the ships were so near, that some of the Spanish officers were seen running about with great assiduity to pre- vent the desertion of their men from their quarters. But all their endeavours were in vain, for after having as a last effort fired five or six guns with more judgment than usual, they gave up the contest, and the galleon’s colours being singed off the ensign- staff in the beginning of the engagement, she struck the standard at her maintop- gallant mast-head, the person who was employed to do it having been in imminent peril of being killed, had not the com- modore, who perceived what he was about, given express orders to his people to desist from firing. Thus was the Centurion possessed of this rich prize, amounting in value to near a She was called the Nostra Signora de Cabadonga, 244 THE WONDERS OF 7TAE DEEP. and was commanded by the general Don Jeronimo de Montero, a, Portuguese by birth, and the most approved officer for skill and courage of any employed in that service. The galleon was much larger than the Centurion, had five hundred and fifty men and thirty-six guns mounted for action, besides twenty-eight pidreroes in her gun- wale, quarters, and tops, eachof which carried a four-pound ball. She was very well fur- nished with small-arms, and was particularly provided against boarding, both by her close quarters, and by a strong network of two-inch rope, which was laced over her waist, and was defended by half pikes. She had sixty-seven killed in the action, and eighty-four wounded, whilst the Cezn- turion had only two killed, and a lieutenant and sixteen wounded, all of whom, but one, recovered: of so little consequence are the most destructive arms in untutored and unpractised hands ! The treasure thus taken by the Centurion having been for at least eighteen months the great object of their hopes, it is im- possible to describe the transport on board, when, after all their reiterated disappoint- ments, they at last saw their wishes accom- plished. But their joy was near being suddenly damped by a most tremendous incident ; for no sooner had the galleon struck, than one of the lieutenants coming to Mr. Anson to congratulate him on his prize, whispered him at the same time that the Centurion was dangerously on fire near the powder-room. The commodore received this dreadful news without any apparent emotion, and, taking care not to alarm his people, gave the necessary orders for ex- tinguishing it, which was happily done in a short time, though its appearance at first was extremely terrible. It seems some cartridges had been blown up by accident between decks, whereby a quantity of oakum in the after-hatchway, near the after powder-room, was set on fire; and the great smother and smoke of the oakum occasioned the apprehension of a more extended and mischievous fire. At the same instant, too, the galleon fell on board the Centurion on the starboard quarter, but she was cleared without doing or receiving any considerable damage. The commodore made his first lieutenant, Mr. Saumarez, captain of this prize, ap- pointing her a post-ship in his Majesty's service. Captain Saumarez, before night, sent on board the Centurion all the Spanish prisoners, but such as were thought the most proper to be retained to assist in navigating the galleon. And now the commodore learnt, from some of these prisoners, that the other ship, which he had kept in the port of Acapulco the preceding year, instead of returning in company with the present prize, as was expected, had set sail from Acapulco alone much sooner than usual, and had, in all probability, got into the port of Manila long before the Cen- turion arrived off Espiritu Santo; so that Mr. Anson, notwithstanding his present success, had great reason to regret his loss of time at Macao, which prevented him from taking two rich prizes instead of one. At this happy moment we take leave of Anson and his brave companions.” THE DAYS OF THE PRESS GANG. 245 HE following nar- rative brings vividly before our minds the days of the press-gang, when men were seized by force, notwithstanding our boasted British liberty, and made to serve as sailors. The writer, a young surgeon, tells us that he was on his way to Wap- BEECHY HEAD, THe Press Gana. JADVENTURES OF A SURGEON— 'RIENDS IN Trou ELE. ping, and “as I crossed Tower Wharf, a squat tawny fellow, with a hanger by his side and a cudgel in his hand, came up to me, calling, ‘Yo ho! brother, you must come along with me.” As I did not like his appearance, instead of answering his salutation, I quickened my pace, in hope of ridding myself of his company ; upon which he whistled aloud, and imme- diately another sailor appeared before me, who laid hold of me by the collar, and began to drag me along. Not being in 246 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. a humour to relish such treatment, I dis- engaged myself of the assailant, and, with one blow of my cudgel, laid him motionless on the ground ; and perceiving myself surrounded in a trice by ten or a dozen more, exerted myself with such dexterity and success, that some of my opponents were fain to attack me with drawn cutlasses; and after an obstinate engagement, in which I received a large wound on my head, and another on my left cheek, I was disarmed, taken prisoner, and carried on board a pressing tender, where, after being pinioned like a malefac- tor, I was thrust down into the hold among a parcel of miserable wretches, the sight of whom well-nigh - distracted me. As the commanding officer had not humanity enough to order my wounds to be dressed, and I could not use my own hands, I ~ desired one of my fellow captives who was unfettered, to take a handkerchief out of my pocket, and tie it round my head, to stop the bleeding. He pulled out my handkerchief, ’tis true, but instead of ap- plying it to the use for which I designed it, went to the grating of the hatchway, and, with astonishing composure, sold it before my face to a woman then on board, for a quart of gin, with which he treated his companions, regardless of my circum- stances and entreaties. I complained bitterly of this robbery to the midshipman on deck, telling him at the same time, that unless my hurts were dressed, I should bleed to death. But compassion was a weakness of which no man could justly accuse this person, who, squirting a mouthful of dissolved tobacco upon me through the gratings, told me ‘I was a mutinous dog, and that I might die for anything he cared!’ Finding there was no other remedy, I appealed to patience, and laid up this usage in my memory, to be called at a more fitting opportunity. In the meantime, loss of blood, vexation, and want of food con- tributed, with the noisome stench of the place, to throw me into a swoon, out of which I was recovered by a tweak of the nose, administered by the tar who stood sentinel over us, who at the same time regaled me with a draught of flip, and comforted me with the hopes of being put on board of the Z%under next day, where I should be freed of my handcuffs, and cured of my wounds by the doctor; and next day, I was accordingly, with the other pressed men, put on board of the Z7%under, lying at the Nore. When we came along- side, the mate, who guarded us thither, ordered my handcuffs to be taken off, that I might get on board the easier; this cir- cumstance being perceived by some of the company who stood upon the gangboards to see us enter, one of them called to Jack Rattlin, who was busied in doing this friendly office for me, ‘Hey, Jack, what Newgate galley have you boarded in the river as you came along? Have we not thieves enow among us already ?’ Another, observing my wounds, which remained exposed to the air, told me my seams were uncaulked, and that I must be new payed. A third, seeing my hair clotted together with blood, as it were into distinct cords, took notice that my bows were manned with the red ropes, instead of my side. A fourth asked me if I could not keep my yards square without iron braces. And, in short, a thousand witticisms of the same nature were passed upon me before I could get up the ship’s side. After we had all been entered upon the ship’s books, I inquired of one of my ship- mates where the surgeon was, that I might have my wounds dressed, and had actually got as far as the middle deck (for our ship carried eighty guns) in my way to the cock- pit, when I was met by the same midship- man who had used me so barbarously in the tender. He, seeing me free from my chains, asked with an insolent air who had released me. To this question I foolishly answered, with a countenance that too plainly declared the state of my thoughts, ¢ Whoever did it, I am persuaded did not consult you in the affair.’ / CRUEL TREATMENT BY AN OFFICER. 247 I had no sooner uttered these words, than he cried, ¢ I'll teach you to talk so to your officer” So saying, he bestowed on me several severe stripes with a supple jack he had in his hand, and, going to the commanding officer, made such a report of me, that I was immediately put in irons by the master-at-arms, and a sentinel placed over me. Honest Rattlin, as soon as he heard of my condition, came to me, and administered all the consolation he could, and then went to the surgeon in my behalf, who sent one of his mates to dress my wounds. This mate was no other than an old friend Thompson, whom I knew in London. If I knew him at first sight, it was not easy for him to recognise me, dis- figured with blood and dirt, and altered by the misery I had undergone. Unknown as I was to him, he surveyed me with looks of compassion, and handled my sores with great tenderness. When he had applied what he thought proper, and was about to leave me, I asked him if my misfortunes had dis- guised me somuch thathe could not recollect my face. Upon this address he observed me with great earnestness for some time, and at length protested he could not recollect one feature of my countenance. To keep him no longer in suspense I told him my name, which when he heard, he embraced me with affection, and professed his sorrow at seeing me in such a disagreeable situation. I made him acquainted with my story, and - when he heard how inhumanly I had been used in the tender, he left me abruptly, assuring me I should see him again soon. I had scarce time to wonder at his sudden departure, when the master-at-arms came to the place of my confinement, and bade me follow him to the quarter-deck, where I was examined by the first lieutenant, who commanded the ship in the absence of the captain, touching the treatment I had re- ceived in the tender from my friend the midshipman, who was present to confront me. I recounted the particulars of his be- haviour to me, not only in the tender, but since my being on board the ship, part of which being proved by the evidence of Jack Rattlin and others who had no great devotion for my oppressor, I was dis- charged from confinement, to make way for him, who was delivered to the master-at- arms to take his turn in the bilboes. And this was not the only satisfaction I enjoyed, for I was, at the request of the surgeon, exempted from all other duty than that of assisting his mates, in making and adminis- tering medicines to the sick. This good office I owed to the friendship of Mr. Thompson, who had represented me in such a favourable light to the surgeon, that he demanded me of the lieutenant to supply the place of his third mate, who was lately dead. When I had obtained this favour, my friend Thompson carried me down to the cockpit, which is the place allotted for the habitation of the surgeon’s mates ; and when he had shown me their berth (as he called it), I was filled with astonishment and horror. We descended by divers ladders to a space as dark as a dungeon, which, I understood, was im- mersed several feet under water, being immediately above the hold. I had no sooner approached this dismal gulf, than my nose was saluted with an intolerable stench of putrified cheese and rancid butter, that’ issued from an apartment at the foot of the ladder, resembling a chandler’s shop, where, by the faint glimmering of a candle, I could perceive a man with a pale, meagre countenance, sitting behind a kind of desk, having spectacles on his nose, and a pen in his hand. This (I learned of Mr. Thomp- son) was the ship’s steward, who sat there to distribute provision to the several messes, and to mark what each received. He therefore presented my name to him, and desired I might be entered in his mess; then, taking a light in his hand, conducted me to the place of his residence, which was a square of about six feet, surrounded with the medicine-chest, that of the first mate, his own, and a board by way of table fastened to the after powder-room. It was 248 THE WONDERS OF TRAE DEEP. also inclosed with canvas nailed round to the beams of the ship, to screen us from ~ the cold, as well as from the view of the midshipmen and quartermaster, who lodged within the cable-tiers on each side of us. In this gloomy mansion he entertained me with some cold salt pork, which he brought from a sort of locker fixed above the table; and calling for the boy of the mess, sent for a can of beer, of which he made excel- lent flip to crown the banquet. By this time I began to recover my spirits, which had been exceedingly de- pressed with the appearance of everything about me, and could no longer refrain from asking the particulars of Mr. Thomp- son’s fortune since I had seen him in London. He told me that, being disap- pointed in his expectations of borrowing money to gratify the rapacious secretary at the Navy Office, he found himself utterly unable to subsist any longer in town, and had actually offered his service, in quality of mate, to the surgeon of a merchant ship, bound to Guinea; when, one morning, a young fellow of whom he had some ac- LAND'S END. quaintance came to his lodgings, and informed him that he had seen a warrant made out in his name at the Navy Office, for surgeon’s second mate of a third-rate. This unexpected piece of good news he could scarcely believe to be true, more especially as he had been found qualified at Surgeons’ Hall for third mate only; but that he might not be wanting to himself, he went thither to be assured, and actually found it so; whereupon, demanding his warrant, it was delivered to him, and the oaths administered immediately. That very afternoon he went to Gravesend in the tilt-boat, from whence he took place in the tide-coach for Rochester ; next morn- ing got on board the ZVunder, for which he was appointed, then lying in the har- bour at Chatham; and the same day was mustered by the clerk of the cheque. And well it was for him that such expedi- tion was used; for, in less than twelve hours after his arrival, another William Thompson came on board, affirming that he was the person for whom the warrant was expedited ! A CURIOUS CONTROVERSY. 249 My friend was grievously alarmed at this accident, the more so, as his namesake had very much the advantage over him both in assurance and dress. However, to acquit himself of the suspicion of imposture, he pro- duced several letters written from Scotland to him in that name, and, recollecting that his indentures were in a box on board, he brought them up, and convinced all present that he had not assumed a name which did not belong to him. His competitor, enraged that they should hesitate in doing him justice (for to be sure the warrant had been designed for him), behaved with so much indecent heat, that the command- ing officer (who was the same gentleman I had seen) and the surgeon were offended at his presumption, and making a point of it with their friends in town, in less than a week got the first confirmed in his station. “I have been on board,” said he, ‘ever since; and, as this way of life is becoming familiar to me, have no cause to complain of my situation. The surgeon is a good-natured, indolent man; the first mate (who is now on shore on duty) is indeed a little proud and choleric, but in the main a friendly honest fellow. The lieutenants I have no concern with; and as for the captain, he is too much of a gentle- man to know a surgeon’s mate, even by sight” Soon after this we started on our voyage. Beechy Head and Land's End were successively passed, and with a fine breeze we sailed westward,” on which course we will leave them, SaveLty oN Boarp a Man-0F-W ar, HE sailor’s lot, even $ at the present time, is a hard one. How much worse it was rather more than a century ago, let this extraordinary narrative of the cruel proceed- ings of a captain of a man-of- war bear witness :— Crpain Oakum, having received sailing orders, came on board, and brought along with him a surgeon of his own country, who was grossly ignorant, and intolerably assuming, false, vindictive, and unforgiving; a merciless tyrant to his inferiors, an abject sycophant to those above him. In the morning after the captain came on board, our first mate, according to custom, went to wait on him with a sick list, which, when this grim commander had perused, he cried Ji New Vax TO ffure THE PICK, AND ITS RESULTS. with a stern countenance, ‘Blood and oons ! sixty-one sick people on board my ship !| Harkee, you sir, I'll have no sick in my ship” The Welshman replied ‘he should be very glad to find no sick people on board ; but, while it was otherwise, he did no more than his duty in presenting him with a list.” ‘That's for you and your list ! ’ said the captain, throwing it at him ; ¢I say, there shall be no sick in this ship while I have the command of her.” Mr. Morgan being nettled at this treatment, told him his indignation ought to be directed to Heaven, who visited his people with distempers, and not to him, who con- tributed all in his power towards their cure. The bashaw, not being used to such be- haviour in any of his officers, was enraged to fury at this satirical insinuation, and, stamping with his foot, called him insolent scoundrel, threatening to have him pinioned 250 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. to the deck, if he should presume to utter another syllable. But the blood of Carac- tacus being thoroughly heated, disdained to be restricted by such a command, and began to manifest itself in, ‘Captain Oakum, I am a shentleman of birth and parentage (look you), and peradventure I am moreover —Here his harangue was broken off by the captain’s steward, who, being Morgan’s countryman, hurried him out of the cabin before he had time to exasperate his master to a greater degree ; and this would certainly have been the case ; for the indignant Welshman could hardly be hindered by his friend’s argu- ments and entreaties from re-entering the presence-chamber and defying Captain Oakum to his teeth. He was, however, appeased at length, and came down to the berth, where, finding Thompson and me at work preparing medicines, he bade us leave off our labour to go to play, for the captain, by his sole word, and power, and command, had driven sickness a pegging to the tevil, and there was no more malady on board. He soon drank off a gill of brandy, sighed grievously, poured forth an ejacu- lation of ‘Cot pless my heart, liver, and lungs!’ and then began to sing a Welsh song with great earnestness of voice. I could not conceive the meaning of this, and saw by the looks of Thompson, who at the same time shook his head, that he suspected poor Cadwallader’s brains were unsettled. He, perceiving our amazement, told us he would explain the mystery; but at the same time bade us take notice that he had lived poy, patchelor, married man, and widower, almost forty years, and in all that time there was no man, nor mother’s son in the whole world who durst use him so ill as Captain Oakum had done. Then he acquainted us with the dialogue that had passed between them, as I have already related it; and had no sooner finished this narration than he received a message from the surgeon to bring the sick-list to the quarter-deck, for the captain had ordered all the patients thither to be reviewed. This inhuman order shocked us ex- tremely, as we knew it would be impossible to carry some of them on the deck without imminent danger of their lives ; but, as we likewise knew it would be to no purpose for us to remonstrate against it, we repaired to the quarter-deck in a body to see this extraordinary muster, Morgan observing by the way that the captain was going to send to the other world a great many evidences to testify against himself. When we appeared upon deck, the captain bade the doctor, who stood bowing at his right hand, look at these lazy lubberly sons of bitches, who were good for nothing on board but to eat the king’s provision, and encourage idleness in the skulkers. The surgeon grinned approbation, and taking the list, began to examine the complaints of ‘each as they could crawl to the place appointed. The first who came under his cognizance was a poor fellow just freed of a fever, which had weakened him so much that he could hardly stand. Mr. Mack- shane (for that was the doctor’s name) having felt his pulse, protested he was as well as any man in the world; and the captain delivered him over to the boat- swain’s mate, with orders that he should receive a round dozen at the gangway im- mediately, for counterfeiting himself sick ; but before the discipline could be executed, the man dropped down on the deck, and had well-nigh perished under the hands of the executioner. The next patient to be considered laboured under a quartan ague, and being then in his interval of health, discovered no other symptoms of distemper than a pale meagre countenance and emaciated body ; upon which he was de- clared fit for duty, and turned over to the boatswain ; but, being resolved to disgrace the doctor, died upon the forecastle next day during his cold fit. The third com- plained of a pleuritic stitch and spitting of blood, for which Dr. Mackshane prescribed exercise at the pump to promote expector- CUNNING OF A MADMAN. 251 ation ! but whether this was improper for one in his situation, or that it was used to excess, I know not, but in less than half-an- hour he was suffocated with a deluge of blood that issued from his lungs. A fourth with much difficulty climbed to the quar- ter-deck, being loaded with a monstrous ascites, or dropsy, that invaded his chest so much he could scarce fetch his breath ; but his disease being interpreted into fat, occasioned by idleness and excess of eating, he was ordered, with a view to promote perspiration and enlarge his chest, to go aloft immediately. It was in vain for this unwieldy wretch to allege his utter inca- pacity ; the boatswain’s driver was com- manded to whip him up with the cat-and- nine-tails. The smart of this application made him exert himself so much, that he actually arrived at the puttock shrouds; but when the enormous weight of his body had nothing else to support it than his weakened arms, either out of spite or ne- cessity, he quitted his hold, and plumped into the sea, where he must have been drowned, had not a sailor, who was in a boat alongside, saved his life, by keeping him afloat till he was hoisted on board by a tackle. ; It would be tedious and disagreeable to describe the fate of every miserable object that suffered by the inhumanity and ignorance of the captain and surgeon, who so wantonly sacrificed the lives of their fellow-creatures. Many were brought up in the height of fevers, and rendered delirious by the injuries they received in the way. Some gave up the ghost in the pre- sence of their inspectors ; and others, who were ordered to their duty, languished a few days at work among their fellows, and then departed without any ceremony. On the whole, the number of the sick was re- duced to less than a dozen; and the authors ‘of this reduction were applauding themselves for the services they had done to their king and country, when the boat- swain’s mate informed his honour that there was a man below lashed to his ham- mock, by direction of the doctor’s mate, and that he begged hard to be released ; affirm- ing he had been so maltreated only for a grudge Mr. Morgan bore him, and that he was as much in his senses as any man aboard. The captain hearing this, darted a severe look at the Welshman, and ordered the man to be brought up immediately ; upon which Morgan protested with great fervency that the person in question was as mad as a March hare ; and begged for the love of Cot they would at least keep his arms pinioned during his examination, to prevent him from doing mischief. This request the commander granted for his own sake, and the patient was produced, who insisted upon his being in his right wits with such calmness and strength of argument, that everybody present was in- clined to believe him, except Morgan, who affirmed there was no trusting to appear- ances ; for he himself had been so much imposed upon by his behaviour two days before, that he had actually unbound him with his own hands, and had well-nigh been murdered for his pains. This was con- firmed by the evidence of one of the waiters, who declared he had pulled this patient from the doctor’s mate, whom he had gotten down, and almost strangled. To this the man answered that the witness was a creature of Morgan’s, and was sub- orned to give his testimony against him by the malice of the mate, whom the defendant had affronted by discovering to the people on board that Mr. Morgan's wife kept a gin-shop in Ragfair. This anecdote pro- duced a laugh at the expense of the Welsh- man, who, shaking his head with some emotion, said, ¢ Ay, ay, 'tis no matter. Cot knows, it is an arrant falsehood.” Captain Oakum, without any further hesitation, ordered the fellow to be unfettered ; at the same time threatening to make Morgan exchange situations with him for his spite ; but the Briton no sooner heard the de- cision in favour of the madman, than he got up to the mizen-shrouds, crying to Thompson and me to get out of his reach, 252 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP for we should see him play the devil with a vengeance. We did not think fit to disre- gard his caution, and accordingly got up on the poop, whence we beheld the maniac (as soon as he was released) fly at the captain like a fury, crying, ‘I'll let you know, you scoundrel, that I am commander of this vessel, and pummel him without mercy. The surgeon, who went to the assistance of his patron, shared the same fate ; and it was with the utmost difficulty that he was mastered at last, after having done great execution among those who opposed him.” THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE JiasT CENTURY. # HE following ac- J count of a slaver’s voyage refers to a time little more than a hundred years ago, when slave-trading was considered quite a proper com- mercial enterprise. Now-a-days we should seldom witness the scenes in our illustration of a slave village destroyed by a British force. “We took horse immediately, and alighted early next morning at Deal, where I found my uncle in great concern on account of my absence, because he had received his despatches, and must have weighed with the first fair wind, whether I had been on board or not. Next day, a brisk easterly gale springing up, we set sail, rounded Beachy Head, and in eight and forty hours got clear of the Channel. When we were about two hundred leagues to westward of the Land’s End, the captain, taking me apart into the cabin, told me ~ that now he was permitted by his instruc- tions, he would disclose the intent and destination of our voyage. ‘The ship,’ said he, ‘which has been fitted out at a great expense, is bound for the coast of Guinea, where we shall exchange part of our cargo for slaves and gold dust; from Yoyage FOR NEGROES TO THE GAMBIA. whence we will transport our negroes to Buenos Ayres in New Spain, where (by virtue of passports obtained from our own court and that of Madrid) we will dispose of them and the goods that remain on board for silver, by means of our super- cargo, who is perfectly well acquainted with the coast, the lingo, and inhabitants.’ Being thus let into the secret of our ex- pedition, I borrowed of the supercargo a Spanish grammar, dictionary, and some other books of the same language, which I studied with such application that, before we arrived in New Spain, I could maintain a conversation with him in that tongue. Being arrived in the warm latitudes, I or- dered (with the captain’s consent) the whole ship’s company to be blooded and purged, myself undergoing the same evacuation, in order to prevent those dangerous fevers to which northern constitutions are subject in hot climates ; and I have reason to believe that this precaution was not unserviceable, for we lost but one sailor during our whole passage to the coast. One day, when we had been about five weeks at sea, we descried to windward a large ship bearing down upon us with all the sail she could carry. Upon which my uncle ordered the studding-sails to be hoisted, and the ship to be cleared for en- gaging ; but, finding that (to use the sea- AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADING VILLAGE DESTROYED BY THE BOATS OF BRITISH CRUISERS. man’s phrase) we were very much wronged by the ship which had us in chase, and which by this time had hoisted French col- ours, he commanded the studding-sails to be taken in, the courses to be clewed up, the main topsail to be backed, the tompions to be taken out of the guns, and every man to repair to his quarters. While everybody was busied in the performance of these orders, Strap came upon the quarter-deck, trembling and looking aghast, and, with a voice half-suppressed by fear, asked if I thought we were a match for the vessel in pursuit of us. Observing his consternation, 1 said, ‘What! are you afraid, Strap?’ ‘Afraid I” he replied, ‘n-n-no; what should I be afraid of? I thank God I have a clear conscience ; but I believe it will be a ZI1ASY¥Ad NI TISSTA F- ¢Ce 254 7HE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. bloody battle, and I wish you may not have occasion for another hand to assist you in the cockpit.’ I immediately perceived his drift, and making the captain acquainted with his situation, desired he might be stationed below with me and my mates. My uncle, incensed at his pusillanimity, bade me send him down instantly, that his fear might not infect the ship’s company ; whereupon I told the poor steward that I had begged him for my assistant, and de- sired him to go down and help my mates to get ready the instruments and dressings. Notwithstanding the satisfaction he must | | jolly boys, stand by me, and let us give one have felt at these tidings, he affected a shy- ness of quitting the upper deck, and said he hoped I did not imagine he was afraid to do his duty above board ; for he believed himself as well prepared for death as any man in the ship, no disparagement to me or the captain. I was disgusted at this affectation ; and, in order to punish his hypocrisy, assured him he might take his choice, either of going down to the cockpit with me, or of staying upon deck during the engagement. Alarmed at this indiffer- ence, he replied, ¢ Well, to oblige you, I'll go down, but remember it is more for your sake than my own.” So saying, he disap- peared in a twinkling, without waiting for an answer. By this time, we could observe two tier of guns in the ship which pursued us, and which was now but two short miles astern. This discovery had an evident effect upon the sailors, who did not scruple to say that we should be torn to pieces and blown out of the water, and that, if in case any of them should lose their precious limbs, they must go a-begging for life, for there was no provision made by the merchants for those poor souls who are maimed in their service. The captain, understanding this backwardness, ordered the crew abalt, and spoke to them thus: ‘My lads, I am told you hang your heads. I have gone to sea thirty years, a man and a boy, and never saw English sailors afraid before. Mayhap you may think I want to expose you for the lucre of gain. Whosoever thinks so, thinks a lie, for my whole cargo is insured ; so that, in case I should be taken, my loss would not be great. The enemy is stronger than we, to be sure. What then? have we not a chance for carrying away one of her masts, and so get clear of her? If we find her too hard for us, ’tis but striking at last. If any man is hurt in the engagement, I promise, on the word of an honest seaman, to make him a recompense according to his loss. So now, you that are lazy, lub- berly, cowardly dogs, get away and skulk in the hold and bread-room ; and you that are broadside for the honour of Old England.’ This eloquent harangue was so well adapted to the disposition of his hearers, that one and all of them, pulling off their hats, waved them over their heads, and saluted him with three cheers ; upon which he sent his boy for two large case-bottles of brandy ; and, having treated every man with a dram, they repaired to their quarters and waited impatiently for the word of command. I must do my uncle the justice to say that in the whole of his disposition he behaved with the utmost intrepidity, conduct, and deliberation. The enemy being very near, he ordered me to my station, and was just going to give the word for hoisting the colours and firing, when the supposed Frenchman hauled down his white pennant, jack, and ensign, hoisted English ones, and fired a gun ahead of us. This was a joyful event to Captain Bowling, who immediately showed his colours and fired a gun to lee- ward, upon which the other ship ran along- side of us, hailed him, and, giving him tc know that she was an English man-of-war of forty guns, ordered him to hoist out his boat and come on board. This command he obeyed with the more alacrity because, upon inquiry, he found that she was com- manded by an old messmate of his, who was overjoyed to see him, detained him to dinner, and sent his barge for the super- cargo and me, who were very much caressed on his account. As this commander was DESCRIPTION OF ARMIDEL. 255 destined to cruise upon the French in the latitude of Martinico, his stem and quarters were adorned with white fleurs-de-lis, and the whole shell of the ship so much dis- guised for a decoy to the enemy, that it was no wonder my uncle did not know her, although he had sailed on board of her many years. We kept company with her four days, during which time the captains were never asunder, and then parted, our course lying different from hers. In less than a fortnight after our separa- tion, we made the land of Guinea, near the mouth of the River Gambia ; and trading along the coast as far to the southward of the Line as Angola and Bengula, in less than six months disposed of the greatest part of our cargo, and purchased four hun- dred negroes, my adventure having been laid out in gold dust. Our complement being made up, we took our departure from Cape Negroe, and ar- rived in the Rio de la Plata in six weeks, having met with nothing remarkable in our voyage, except an epidemic fever, not un- like the jail distemper, which broke out among our slaves and carried off a good many of the ship’s company, among whom I lost one of my mates. Having produced our passport to the Spanish governor, we were received with great courtesy, sold our slaves in a very few days, and could have put off five times the number at our own price, though we were obliged to smuggle the rest of our merchandise, con- sisting of European bale-goods, which, how- ever, we made shift to dispose of at a great advantage.” Our readers cannot fail to notice the confused, matter-of-fact way in which the narrator talks. Dr. Jonpson among tHE WESTERN IsLEs. the autumn of 1773, made his celebrated voyage to the West- ern Isles of ‘Scot- Q ) RE land. We ‘select a / J sh few of the more interesting Vo \ =) a passages. “In the morning, September A the twentieth, we found our- N selves on the edge of the sea. Having procured a boat, we dismissed our Highlanders, whom I would recommend to the service of any future travellers, and were ferried over to the Isle of Skye. We landed at Armidel, where we were met on the sands by Sir Alexander Macdonald, who YisiT TO MacpoNaLD. was at that time there with his lady, pre- paring to leave the island and reside at Edinburgh. Armidel is a neat house, built where the Macdonalds had once a seat, which was burnt in the commotions that followed the Revolution. The walled orchard which belonged to the former house still remains. It is well shaded by tall ash trees, of a species, as Mr. Janes the fossilist informed ‘me, uncommonly valuable. This plantation is very properly mentioned by Dr. Camp-- bell in his new account of the state of Britain, and deserves attention ; because it proves that the present nakedness of the Hebrides is not wholly the fault of nature. As we sat at Sir Alexander’s table we were entertained, according to the ancient 256 THE WONDERS OF THE DELP. usage of the north, with the melody of the bagpipe. Everything in those countries has its history. As the bagpiper was play- ing, an elderly gentleman informed us that in some remote time, the Macdonalds of Glengary having been injured or offended by the inhabitants of Culloden, and resolv- ing to have justice or vengeance, came to Culloden on a Sunday, where, finding their enemies at worship, they shut them up in the church, which they set on fire ; and this, said he, is the tune that the piper played while they were burning. Narrations like this, however uncertain, deserve the notice of a traveller, because they are the only records of a nation that has no historians, and afford the most genuine representation of the life and character of the ancient Highlanders. In our passage from Scotland to Skye we were wet for the first time with a shower. This was the beginning of the Highland winter, after which we were told that a “succession of three dry days was not to be expected for many months. The winter of the Hebrides consists of little more than rain and wind. As they are surrounded by an ocean never frozen, the blasts that come to them over the water are too much softened to have the power of congelation. The salt lochs, or inlets of the sea, which shoot very far into the island, never have any ice upon them, and the pools of fresh water will never bear the walker. The snow that sometimes falls is soon dissolved by the air or the rain. This is not the description of a cruel climate, yet the dark months are here a time of great distress; because the summer can do little more than feed itself, and winter comes with its cold and its scarcity upon families very slenderly provided. The third or fourth day after our arrival at Armidel brought us an invitation to the Isle of Raasay, which lies east of Skye. It is incredible how soon the account of any event is propagated in these narrow coun- tries by the love of talk which much leisure produces, and the relief given to the mind in the penury of insular conversation by a new topic. The arrival of strangers at a place so rarely visited excites rumour and quickens curiosity. I know not whether we touched at any corner where fame had not already prepared us a reception. To gain a commodious passage to Raa- say, it was necessary to pass over a large part of Skye. We were furnished therefore with horses and a guide. In the islands there are no roads, nor any marks by which a stranger may find his way. The horse- man has always at his side a native of the place, who, by pursuing game, or tending cattle, or being often employed in messages or conduct, has learned where the ridge of the hill has breadth sufficient to allow a horse and his rider a passage, and where the moss or bog is hard enough to bear them. The bogs are avoided as toilsome at least, if not unsafe, and therefore the journey is made generally from precipice to precipice ; from which, if the eye ventures to look down, it sees below a gloomy cavity, whence the rush of water is sometimes heard. But there seems to be in all this more alarm than danger. The Highlander walks carefully before, and the horse, accustomed to the ground, follows him with little devi- ation. Sometimes the hill is too steep for the horseman to keep his seat, and some- times the moss is too tremulous to bear the double weight of horse and man. The rider then dismounts, and all shift as they can. Journeys made in this manner are rather tedious than long. A very few miles require several hours. From Armidel we came at night to Cori- atachan, a house very pleasantly situated between two brooks, with one of the highest hills of the island behind it. It is the residence of Mr. Mackinnon, by whom we were treated with very liberal hospitality, among a more numerous and elegant com- pany than it could have been supposed easy to collect. The hill behind the house we did not climb. The weather was rough, and the height and steepness discouraged us. We LITERATURE IN THI HEBRIDES. 237 were told that there is a cairn upon it. A cairn is a heap of stones thrown upon the grave of one eminent for dignity of birth or splendour of achievements. It is said that by digging an urn is always found under these cairns: they must therefore have been thus piled by a people whose custom it was to burn the dead. To pile stones is, I believe, a northern custom, and to burn the body was the Roman practice ; nor do I know when it was that these two acts of sepulture were united. The weather was next day too violent for the continuation of our journey; but we had no reason to complain of the inter- ruption. We saw in every place what we GATHERING EGGS IN THE HEBRIDES. chiefly desired to know—the manners of the people. We had company, and if we had chosen retirement, we might have had books. I never was in any house of the islands where I did not find books in more lan- guages than one, if I had stayed long enough to want them, except one from which the family was removed. Literature is not neglected by the higher rank of the Hebridians. It need not, I suppose, be mentioned, that in countries so little frequented as the islands, there are no houses where travellers are entertained for money. He that wan- ders about these wilds either procures re- 258 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. commendations to those whose habitations lie near his way, or, when night and weari- ness come upon him, takes the chance of general hospitality. If he finds only a cot- tage, he can expect little more than shelter, for the cottagers have little more for them- selves; butif his good fortune brings him to the residence of a gentleman, he will be glad of a storm to prolong his stay. There is, however, one inn by the seaside at Sconsor, in Skye, where the post-office is kept. At the tables where a stranger is received, neither plenty nor delicacy is wanting. A tract of land so thinly inhabited must have much wild-fowl ; and I scarcely remember to have seen a dinner without them. The moor-game Is everywhere to be had. That the sea abounds with fish needs not be told, for it supplies a great part of Europe. The Isle of Skye has stags and roebucks, but no hares. They send very numerous droves of oxen yearly to England, and therefore cannot be supposed to want beef at home. Sheep and goats are in great numbers, and they have the common domestic fowls. But as here is nothing to be bought, every family must kill its own meat, and roast part of it somewhat sooner than Apicius would prescribe. Every kind of flesh is undoubtedly excelled by the variety and emulation of English markets ; but that which is not best may be yet very far from bad, and he that shall complain of his fare in the Hebrides has improved his delicacy more than his manhood. Their fowls are not like those plumped for sale by the poulterers of London, but they are as good as other places commonly afford, except that the geese, by feeding in the sea, have universally a fishy rankness. These geese seem to be of a middle race between the wild and domestic kinds. They are so tame as to own a home, and so wild as sometimes to fly quite away. Their native bread is made of oats or barley. Of oatmeal they spread very thin cakes, coarse and hard, to which unaccus- tomed palates are not easily reconciled. The barley cakes are thicker and softer; I began to eat them without unwillingness ; the blackness of their colour raises some dislike, but the taste is not disagreeable. In most houses there is wheat flour, with which we were sure to be treated, if we stayed long enough to have it kneaded and baked. As neither yeast nor leaven are used among them, their bread of every kind is unfermented. They make only cakes, and never mould a loaf. Aman of the Hebrides—for of thewomen’s diet I can give no account—as soon as he appears in the morning, swallows a glass of whisky ; yet they are not a drunken race— at least, I never was present at much in- temperance—but no man is so abstemious as to refuse the morning dram, which they call a ska/k. The word whisky signifies water, and is applied by way of eminence to strong water, or distilled liquor. The spirit drank in the north is drawn from barley. I never tasted it, except once for experiment at the inn in Inveraray, when I thought it preferable to any English malt brandy. It was strong, but not pungent, and was free from the empyreumatic taste or smell. What was the process I had no opportunity of inquiring, nor do I wish to improve the art of making poison pleasant. Not long after the dram may be expected the breakfast, a meal in which the Scots, whether of the lowlands or mountains, must be confessed to excel us. The tea and coffee are accompanied not only with butter, but with honey, conserves, and marmalades. If an epicure could remove by a wish, in quest of sensual gratifications, wherever he had supped, he would breakfast in Scot- land. In the islands, however, they do what I found it not very easy to endure. They pollute the tea-table by plates piled with large slices of Cheshire cheese, which mingles its less grateful odours with the fragrance of the tea. Where many questions are to be asked, some will be omitted. I forgot to inquire how they were supplied with so much exotic luxury. Perhaps the French may bring JHE CUISINE OF THE HEBRIDES. 259 them wine for wool, and the Dutch give them tea and coffee at the fishing season, in exchange for fresh provision. Their trade is unconstrained ; they pay no cus- toms, for there is no officer to demand them ; whatever, therefore, is made dear only by impost, is obtained here at an easy rate. A dinner in the Western Islands differs very little from a dinner in England, except that in the place of tarts there are always set different preparations of milk. This part of their diet will admit some improve- ment. Though they have milk, and eggs, and sugar, few of them know how to com- pound them in a custard. Their gardens afford them no great variety, but they have always some vegetables on the table. Pota- toes at least are never wanting, which, though they have not known them long, are now one of the principal parts of their food. They are not of the mealy, but of the viscous kind. Their more elaborate cookery, or made dishes, an Englishman, at the first taste, is not likely to approve, but the culinary compositions of every country are often such as become grateful to other nations only by degrees; though I have read a French author, who, in the elation of his heart, says that French cookery pleases all foreigners, but foreign cookery never satis- fies a Frenchman. Their suppers are like their dinners, various and plentiful. The table is always covered with elegant linen. Their plates for common use are often of that kind of manufacture which is called cream coloured, or queen’s ware. They use silver on all occasions where it is common in England, nor did I ever find a spoon of horn but in one house. The knives are not often either very bright or very sharp. They are indeed instruments of which the Highlanders have not been long acquainted with the general use. They were not regularly laid on the table before the prohibition of arms and the change of dress. Thirty years ago the Highlander wore his knife as a companion to his dirk or dagger, and when the com- pany sat down to meat, the men who had knives cut the flesh into small pieces for the women, who with their fingers conveyed it to their mouths. There was, perhaps, never any change of national manners so quick, so great, and so general, as that which has operated in the Highlands by the last conquest and the subsequent laws. We came thither too late to see what we expected, a people of peculiar appearance and a system of anti- quated life. The clans retain little now of their original character ; their ferocity of temper is softened, their military ardour is extinguished, their dignity of independence is depressed, their contempt of government subdued, and their reverence for their chiefs abated. Of what they had before the late conquest of their country, there remain only their language and their poverty. Their language is attacked on every side. Schools are erected, in which English only is taught, and there were lately some who thought it reasonable to refuse them a version of the Holy Scriptures, that they might have no monument of their mother-tongue. That their poverty is gradually abated cannot be mentioned among the unpleasing consequences of subjection. They are now acquainted with money, and the possibility of gain will by degrees make them indus- trious. Such is the effect of the late regu- lations, that a longer journey than to the Highlands must be taken by him whose curiosity pants for savage virtues and bar- barous grandeur. At the first intermission of the stormy weather we were informed that the boat which was to convey us to Raasay attended us on the coast. We had from this time our intelligence facilitated and our con- versation enlarged by the company of Mr. Macqueen, minister of a parish in Skye, whose knowledge and politeness give him a title equally to kindness and respect, and who from this time never forsook us till we were preparing to leave Skye and the ad- jacent places. 260 TFHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP The boat was under the direction of Mr. Malcolm Macleod, a gentleman of Raasay. The water was calm and the rowers were vig- orous, so that our passage was quick and pleasant. When we came near the island we saw the laird’s house, a neat modern fabric, and found Mr. Macleod, the pro- prietor of the island, with many gentlemen, expecting us on the beach. We had, as at all other places, some difficulty in landing. The crags were irregularly broken, and a false step would have been very mischievous. It seemed that the rocks might, with no great labour, have been hewn almost into a regular flight of steps; and as there are no other landing places, I considered this rugged ascent as the consequence of a form of life inured to hardships, and therefore not studious of nice accommodations. Still it served our purpose; we got safelyto land.” FurtHER Vovages oF Dr. Jomnsop. rative of Dr. John- son's voyage, taking it up at the time whenthe party were detained on the Q island of Coll (or SME Col, as he spells it) by a storm. The faithful Boswell was of course one of the party. “ After having listened for some days to the tempest, and* wandered about the island till our curiosity was satisfied, we began to think about our departure. To leave Col in October was not very easy. We how- ever found a sloop which lay on the coast to carry kelp; and for a price, which we thought levied upon our necessities, the master agreed to carry us to Mull, whence we might readily pass back to Scotland. As we were to catch the first favourable breath, we spent the night not very ele- gantly nor pleasantly in the vessel, and were landed next day at Tabor Morar, a port in Mull, which appears to an unex- perienced eye formed for the security of ships ; for its mouth is closed by a small PEPARTURE FROM frorr—Yarious JADVENTURES. island, which admits them through narrow channels into a basin sufficiently capacious. They are indeed safe from the sea, but there is a hollow between the mountains through which the wind issues from the land with very mischievous violence. There was no danger while we were there, and we found several other vessels at anchor, so that the port had a very com- mercial appearance. The young laird of Col, who had deter- mined not to let us lose his company while there was any difficulty remaining, came over with us. His influence soon appeared, for he procured us horses, and conducted us to the house of Doctor Maclean, where we found very kind entertainment and very pleasing conversation. Miss Maclean, who was born and had been bred at Glasgow, having removed with her father to Mull, added to other qualifications a great know- ledge of the Erse language, which she had not learned in her childhood, but gained by study, and was the only interpreter of Erse poetry that I could ever find. The isle of Mull is perhaps in extent the third of the Hebrides. It is not broken by waters nor shot into promontories, but ISZAND OF STAFFA. 261 is a solid and compact mass, of breadth nearly equal to its length. Of the dimen- sions of the larger islands there is no knowledge approaching to exactness. I am willing to estimate it as containing about three hundred square miles. Mr. Boswell’s curiosity strongly impelled him to survey Iona, or Icolmkill, which was to the early ages the great school of theology, and is supposed to have been the place of sepulture for the ancient kings. I, though less eager, did not oppose him. That we might perform this expedition, it was necessary to traverse a great part of Mull. We passed a day at Dr. Maclean’s, and could have been well contented to stay longer. But Col provided us horses, and we pursued our journey. This was a day of inconvenience, for the country is very rough, and my horse was but little. We travelled many hours through a track, black and barren, in which, however, there were the relics of humanity, for we found a ruined chapel in our way. Having not any experience of a journey in Mull, we had no doubt of reaching the. sea by daylight, and therefore had not left Dr. Maclean’s very early. We travelled diligently enough, but found the country— for road there was none—very difficult to pass. We were always struggling with some obstruction or other, and our vexation was not balanced by any gratification of the eye or mind. We were now long enough acquainted with hills and heath to have lost the emotion that they once raised, whether pleasing or painful, and had our mind em- ployed only on our own fatigue. We were, however, sure, under Col’s protection, of escaping all real evils. There was no house in Mull to which he could not introduce us. "He had intended to lodge us for that night with a gentleman that lived upon the coast, but discovered on the way that he then lay in bed without hope of life. We resolved not to embarrass a family in a time of so much sorrow, if any other expedient could be found; and as the island of Ulva was over against us, it was determined that we should pass the strait and have recourse to the laird, who, like the other gentlemen of the islands, was known to Col. We expected to find a ferry-boat, but when at last we came to the water, the boat was gone. We were now again at a stop. It was the 16th of October, a time when it is not con- venient to sleep in the Hebrides without a cover, and there was no house within our reach but that which we had already de- clined. While we stood deliberating, we were happily espied from an Irish ship that lay at anchor in the strait. The master saw that we wanted a passage, and with great civility sent us his boat, which quickly con- veyed us to Ulva, where we were very liberally entertained by Mr. Macquarry. To Ulva we came in the dark, and left it before noon the next day. A very exact description, therefore, will not be expected. We were told that it is an island of no great extent, rough and barren, inhabited by the Macquarrys,—a clan not powerful nor numerous, but of antiquity, which most other families are content to reverence. The name is supposed to be a depravation of some other ; for the Erse language does not afford it any etymology. Macquarry is proprietor both of Ulva and some adjacent islands, among which is Staffa, so lately raised to renown by Mr. Banks. When the islanders were reproached with their ignorance or insensibility of the won- ders of Staffa, they had not much to reply. They had indeed considered it little, be- cause they had always seen it; and none but philosophers, nor they always, are struck with wonder otherwise than by novelty. How would it surprise an unen- lightened ploughman to hear a company of sober men inquiring by what power the hand tosses a stone, or why the stone, when it is tossed, falls to the ground ! Of the ancestors of Macquarry, who thus lie hid in his unfrequented island, I have found memorials in all places where they could be expected. 262 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. Inquiring after the relics of former man- ners, I found that in Ulva, and, I think, nowhere else, is continued the payment of the mercheta mulierum—a fine in old times due to the laird at the marriage of a virgin. The original of this claim, as of our tenure of Borough English, is variously delivered. It is pleasant to find ancient customs in old families. This payment, like others, was, for want of money, made anciently in the produce of the land. Macquarry was used to demand a sheep, for which he now takes a crown, by that inattention to the’ uncertain proportion between the value and the denomination of money, which has brought much disorder into Europe. A sheep has always the same power of supply- ing human wants, but a crown will bring at one time more, at another less. Ulva was not neglected by the piety of ancient times ; it has still to show what was once a church. In the morning we went again into the boat, and were landed on Inch Kenneth, an island about a mile long, and perhaps half a mile broad, remarkable for pleasant- ness and fertility.. It is verdant and grassy, and fit both for pasture and tillage; but it has no trees. Its only inhabitants were Sir Allen Maclean and two young ladies, his daughters, with their servants. Romance does not often exhibit a scene that strikes the imagination more than this little desert, in these depths of western obscurity, occupied not by a gross herds- man, or amphibious fisherman, but by a gentleman and two ladies, of high birth, polished manners, and elegant conversation, who, in a habitation raised not very far above the ground, but furnished with unex- pected neatness and convenience, practised all the kindness of hospitality and refine- ment of courtesy. Sir Allan is the chieftain of the great clan of Maclean, which is said to claim the second place among the Highland families, yielding only to Macdonald. Though by the misconduct of his ancestors, most of the extensive territory which would have descended to him has been alienated, he still retains much of the dignity and authority of his birth. When soldiers were lately wanting for the American war, appli- cation was made to Sir Allan, and he nominated a hundred men for the service, who obeyed the summons, and bore arms under his command. He had then, for some time, resided with the young ladies in Inch Kenneth, where he ‘lives not only with plenty, but with elegance, having conveyed to his cottage a collection of books, and what else is necessary to make his hours pleasant. When we landed, we were met by Sir Allan and the ladies, accompanied by Miss Macquarry, who had passed some time with them, and now returned to Ulva with her father. We all walked together to the man- sion, where we found one cottage for Sir Allan, and I think two more for the domestics and the offices. We entered, and wanted little that palaces afford. Our room was neatly floored and well lighted ; and our dinner, which was dressed in one of the other huts, was plentiful and deli- cate. In the afternoon Sir Allan reminded us that the day was Sunday, which he never suffered to pass without some religious dis- tinction, and invited us to partake in his acts of domestic worship, which I hope neither Mr. Boswell nor myself will be suspected of a disposition to refuse. The elder of the ladies read the English Ser- vice. Inch Kenneth was once a seminary of ecclesiastics, subordinate, I suppose, to Icolmkill. Sir Allan had a mind to trace the foundation of the college, but neither I nor Mr. Boswell, who bends a keener eye on vacancy, were able to perceive them. Our attention, however, was sufficiently engaged by a venerable chapel, which stands yet entire, except that the roof is gone. It is about sixty feet in length, and thirty in breadth. On one side of the altar is a bas-relief of the blessed Virgin, and by A REMARKABLE CAVE. 263 it lies a little bell, which, though cracked and without a clapper, has remained there for ages, guarded only by the venerableness of the place. The ground round the chapel is covered with grave-stones of chiefs and ladies, and still continues to be a place of sepulture. Inch Kenneth is a proper prelude to Icolmkill. It was not without some mourn- ful emotion that we contemplated the ruins of religious structures and the monuments of the dead. On the next day we took a more distinct view of the place, and went with the boat to see oysters in the bed, out of which the boatmen forced up as many as were wanted. Even Inch Kenneth has a subordinate island, named Sandiland,—I suppose in contempt,—where we landed, and found a rock, with a surface of perhaps four acres, of which one is naked stone, another spread with sand and shells—some of which I picked up for their glossy beauty,—and two covered with a little earth and grass, on which Sir Allan has a few sheep. 1 doubt not but when there was a cottage at Inch Kenneth, there was a hermitage upon Sandiland. Having wandered over those extensive plains, we committed ourselves again to the winds’ and waters ; and after a voyage of about ten minutes, in which we met with nothing very observable, were again safe upon dry ground. We told Sir Allan our desire of visiting Icolmkill, and entreated him to give us his protection and his company. He thought proper to hesitate a little ; but the ladies hinted that, as they knew he would not finally refuse, he would do better if he pre- served the grace of ready compliance. He took their advice, and promised to carry us on the morrow in his boat. We passed the remaining part of the day in such amusements as were in our power. Sir Allan related the American campaign, and at evening one of the ladies played on her harpsichord, while Col and Mr. Boswell danced a Scottish reel with the other. We could have been easily persuaded to a longer stay upon Inch Kenneth, but life will not be all passed in delight. The session at Edinburgh was approaching, from which Mr. Boswell could not be absent. In the morning our boat was ready; it was high and strong. Sir Allan victualled it for the day, and provided able rowers. We now parted from the young laird of Col, who had treated us with so much kindness, and concluded his favours by consigning us to Sir Allan. Here we had the last embrace of this amiable man, who, while these pages were preparing to attest his virtues, perished in the passage between Ulva and Inch Kenneth. Sir Allan, to whom the whole region was well known, told us of a very remarkable cave, to which he ‘would show us the way. We had been disappointed already by one cave, and were not much elevated by the expectation of another. It was yet better to see it, and we stopped at some rocks on the coast of Mull. The mouth is fortified by vast fragments of stone, over which we made our way, neither very nimbly nor very securely. The place, however, well repaid our trouble. The bottom, as far as the flood rushes in, was encumbered with large pebbles, but as we advanced, was spread over with smooth sand. The breadth is about forty-five feet. The roof rises in an arch, almost regular, to a height which we could not measure; but I think it about thirty feet. This part of our curiosity was nearly frustrated ; for though we went to see a cave, and knew that caves are dark, we forgot to carry tapers, and did not discover our omission till we were wakened by our wants. Sir Allan then sent one of the boatmen into the country, who soon re- turned with one little candle. We were thus enabled to go forward, but could not venture far. Having passed inward from the sea to a great depth, we found on the right hand a narrow passage, perhaps not more than six feet wide, obstructed by 264 THE WONDERS OF 7HE DEEL. great stones, over which we climbed, and _ came into a second cave, in breadth twenty- five feet. The air in this apartment was very warm, but not oppressive, nor loaded with vapours. Our light showed no tokens of a feculent or corrupted atmosphere. i fi fl 9 uv 0 0 n. A i, A 7 ) Day i 7 j an a Here was a square stone, called, as we were told, Fingal’s Table. When we had satisfied our curiosity in the cave, so far as our penury of light per- | mitted us, we clambered again to our boats, and proceeded along the coast of Mull to a THE LAST STRAND OF THE ROPE. headland called Atun, remarkable for the | of broken pilasters, set one behind another columnar form of the rocks, which rise in a series of pilasters, with a degree of regu- larity, which Sir Allan thinks not less worthy of curiosity than the shore of Staffa. Not long after, we came to another range of black rocks, which had the appearance to a great depth. This place was chosen by Sir Allan for our dinner. We were easily accommodated with seats, for the stones were of all heights, and refreshed ourselves and our boatmen, who could have no other rest till we were at Icolmkill. “AMONG THE RUINS OF I0ONA” 265 The evening was now approaching, and we were yet at a considerable distance from the end of our expedition. We could there- fore stop no more to make remarks in the way, but set forward with some degree of eagerness. The day soon failed us, and the moon presented a very solemn and pleasing scene. The sky was clear, so that the eye commanded a wide circle ; the sea was neither still nor turbulent; the wind neither silent nor loud. We were never far from one coast or another, on which, if the weather had become violent, we could have found shelter, and therefore contem- plated at ease the region through which we glided in the tranquillity of the night, and saw now a rock and now an island grow gradually conspicuous and gradually ob- scure. I committed the fault which I had just been censuring, in neglecting, as we passed, to note the series of this placid navigation. We were very near an island, called Nun’s Island, perhaps from an ancient convent. Here is said to have been dug the stone which was used in the buildings of Icolmkill. Whether it is now inhabited we could not stay to inquire. At last we came to Icolmkill, but found no convenience for landing. Our boat could not be forced very near the dry ground, and our Highlanders carried us over the water. We are now treading that illustrious island which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses ; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and from my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or vir- tue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona. We came too late to visit monuments ; some care was necessary for ourselves. Whatever was in the island Sir Allan could demand, for the inhabitants were Macleans; but having little, they could not give us much. He went to the head man of the island, whom fame—but fame delights in amplifying—represents as worth no less than fifty pounds. He was perhaps proud enough of his guests, but ill prepared for our entertainment; however, he soon pro- duced more provision than men not luxu- rious require. Our lodging was next to be provided. We found a barn well stocked with hay, and made our beds as soft as we could. Iona has long enjoyed, without any very credible attestation, the honour of being re- puted the cemetery of the Scottish kings. It is not unlikely that, when the opinion of sanctity was prevalent, the chieftains of the isles, and perhaps some of the Norwegian or Irish princes, were deposited in this venerable enclosure. But by whom the subterraneous vaults are peopled is now utterly unknown. The graves are very numerous, and some of them undoubtedly contain the remains of men who did not expect to be so soon forgotten. Not far from this awful ground may be traced the garden of the monastery; the fishponds are yet discernible, and the aque- duct which supplied them is still in use. There remains a broken building, which is called the Bishop’s House: I know not by what authority. It was once the resi- dence of some man above the common rank, for it has two storeys and a chimney. We were shown a chimney at the other end, which was only a niche, without per- foration; but so much does antiquarian credulity or patriotic vanity prevail, that it was not much more safe to trust the eye of our instructor than the memory. 266 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP There is in the island one house more, and only one, that has a chimney. We entered it, and found it neither wanting repair nor inhabitants; but to the farmers, who now possess it, the chimney is of no great value ; for their fire was made on the floor, in the middle of the room, and not- withstanding the dignity of their mansion, they rejoiced, like their neighbours, in the comforts of smoke. It is observed that ecclesiastical colleges are always in the most pleasant and fruit- ful places. While the world allowed the monks their choice, it is surely no dis- honour that they chose well. This island is remarkably fruitful. The village near the churches is said to contain seventy families, which, at five in a family, is more than a hundred inhabitants to a mile. There are perhaps other villages; yet both corn and cattle are annually exported. But the fruitfulness of Iona is now its whole prosperity. The inhabitants are re- markably gross and remarkably neglected ; I know not if they are visited by any minister. The island, which was once the metropolis of learning and piety, has now no school for education, nor temple for worship, only two inhabitants that can speak English, and not one that can write or read. The people are of the clan of Maclean ; and though Sir Allan had not been in the place for many years, he was received with all the reverence due to their chieftain. One of them being sharply reprehended by him for not sending him some rum, declared after his departure, in Mr. Bos- well’s presence, that he had no design of disappointing him; ‘For, said he, I would cut my bones for him; and if he had sent his dog for it, he should have had it’ When we were to depart, our boat was left by the ebb at a great distance from the water ; but no sooner did we wish it afloat, than the islanders gathered round it, and by the union of many hands pushed it down the beach; every man who could contribute his help seemed to think himself happy in the opportunity of being, for a moment, useful to his chief. We now left those illustrious ruins, by which Mr. Boswell was much affected, nor would I willingly be thought to have looked upon them without some emotion. Per- haps, in the revolutions of the world, Iona may be sometime again the instructress of the western regions.” Dr. Johnson’s pictures of life in the Western Islands more than a century ago are no doubt sufficiently amusing. Here, as elsewhere, however, many things have happened since then. Civilization has made great progress, and new industries have been developed. Even a profit is derived from the very wildness of the islands. Thus, in some parts, the eggs of sea-birds are regularly collected, as seen in our illustration. In difficult parts of the cliff, the more daring of the adventurers descend, by the aid of a rope, the most perpendicular part of the rock. Sometimes the rope, all unseen by those above or below, is frayed away on a point of rock, till it becomes just sufficient to support the weight attached. How terrible is then the peril of him whose life is dependent on the last strand of the rope, is shown better than we can tell by our illustration. CAPTAIN COOK. 267 Laptamn Look. EARLY FiFE—fIRST Yovacge RouND THE YorLp. JAMES COOK was descended from an obscure family in RR Northumberland ; 0S) Z, his father, James ON Cook, having occu- pied the humble station of a servant in hus bandry, and his mother, whose Christian name was Grace, being a person of the same rank and condition. They were noted in their lowly station for honesty, sobriety, and diligence, were settled for some time before his birth at Marton, a village in the North Riding of Yorkshire; and in this place their son James, destined to give celebrity to their name and family, was born on the 27th of October in the year 1728. Having re- ceived the first rudiments of education at his native place, he was further instructed in writing and the first five rules of arith- metic at Ayton, near which place his father was settled in the service of Thomas Skot- tow, Esq.; and, at the age of 13 years, he was apprenticed to a shopkeeper at Staiths, a fishing-town about ten miles from Whitby. The sea, however, was the object towards which he manifested an early inclination ; and, in consequence of some disagreement with his master, he obtained his discharge, and determining to indulge his natural pro- pensity, he bound himself for seven years to Messrs. Walker, of Whitby, quakers by religious profession, who employed two ships in the coal trade. At the expiration of his apprenticeship he continued in vessels of this description as a common sailor, till at length he was appointed mate in one of Mr. John Walker's ships. At this time he was not distinguished by any peculiar trait of character, though without doubt he must have acquired a considerable degree of knowledge in practical navigation. In the spring of the year 1755, when hostilities commenced between England and France, Mr. Cook and the ship to which he belonged happened to be in the river Thames, and after concealing him- self for some time to avoid being impressed, he determined to enter voluntarily into the British navy. His first situation in his Majesty’s service was on board the Zagle man-of-war, to the command of which Captain (afterwards Sir Hugh) Palliser was appointed in October, 1755. As anactive, diligent seaman, he recommended himself to the captain’s notice ; and in consequence of his own acknowledged merit, as well as some private influence, he obtained, on the 16th of May, 1759, a master’s warrant for the Grampus sloop; but this appoint. ment not taking effect, he was made master of the Garland, a ship which had sailed before he could join her ; and there- fore, on the 19th of May he was appointed to the Mercury. This ship was destined to North America, where she joined the fleet under the command of Sir Charles Saunders, which, in conjunction with the land forces under General Wolfe, was en- gaged in the famous seige of Quebec. As it was necessary to take the soundings in the river St. Lawrence between the island of Orleans and the north shore, directly in front of the French fortified camp at Mont- morency and Beauport, Mr. Cook was recommended by Captain Palliser, who 268 THE WONDERS OF TEE DEEP well knew his sagacity and resolution, to this difficult and hazardous service. He performed it, with great personal risk, to the satisfaction of his employers, and furnished the admiral with a complete and correct draught of the channel and soundings. Before this time it is thought that he had scarcely ever used a pencil, and that he had no knowledge of drawing. He afterwards surveyed those parts of the river below Quebec, which navigators had found to be attended with difficulty and danger. This business was executed with his customary diligence and skill ; and when his undertak- ing was finished, his chart of the river St. Lawrence was published, with the necessary soundings and directions for navigating that river. This chart has superseded the neces- sity of any other. After the expedition to Quebec, Mr. Cook was appointed, by warrant from Lord Colville, master of the Northumberland man-of-war, and in this station his conduct was such as to gain him the esteem and friendship of his commander. During the station of his ship at Halifax he read Euclid, and devoted his leisure hours to the study of astronomy and other branches of science. | In. September, 1763, ithe Northumberland came to Newfoundland to assist in the recapture of the island from the French; and after this service was accomplished, Mr. Cook surveyed the harbour of Placentia and the heights of the place, with a diligence which engaged the notice of Captain (afterwards Admiral) Greaves, the governor of Newfoundland. The governor formed a very high opinion of his abilities and character, and this opinion was amply confirmed by the con- curring testimony of all the officers under whom he had served. Upon Mr. Cook’s return to England, towards the close of the year 1762, he married an amiable woman, who deserved and enjoyed his tenderest affection and regard. Early in 1763 he accompanied Captain Greaves to Newfoundland as sur- veyor of its coasts; and having executed the business that had been assigned to him, he returned to England. In April, 1764, he was appointed, under the orders of Commodore Palliser, marine surveyor of Newfoundland and Labrador; and of the satisfactory manner in which he executed this office, the charts which he afterwards published afford sufficient evidence. These services were continued till the year 1767; and whilst he was employed in them, he transmitted to the Royal Society an obser- vation of the eclipse of the sun at New- foundland, with the longitude deduced from it, from which our navigator app ears to have already acquired the character of an able mathematician. But a new and more interesting scene opens upon us in the prosecution of these memoirs. Soon after the peace of 1763, two voyages round the world were under- taken by Captains Byron, Wallis, and Ca- teret, to whom we are indebted for several discoveries which served to extend the knowledge of geography and navigation; but before the return of the two last of these commanders, another voyage was projected, on a more extensive scale than either of the former. The transit of Venus in 1769, which was likely to be observed with the greatest advantage in some of the islands of the South Sea, afforded a peculiar inducement to this expedition ; and after a variety of preliminary consultations and debates, Mr. Cook, who was strongly re- commended by Mr. Stephens, secretary to the admiralty, and by Sir Hugh Palliser, who had long known his abilities and character, was appointed to the command of it, with the rank of a lieutenant in the royal navy, to which he was promoted on the zsthh of May, 1763. A vessel of 370 tons, called the Zndeavour, was prepared for this purpose ; but before the necessary arrangements were completed, Captain Wallis returned, and on being consulted, he recommended Port Royal Harbour in George’s Island, now known by the name of Otaheite, as the most proper place for the proposed observation of the CAPTAIN COOK. 269 transit. Lieutenant Cook was accompanied by Mr. Charles Green, who had been assistant to Dr. Bradley at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, and also by Joseph Banks, Esq. (now Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., and president of the Royal Society), and Dr. Solander, gentlemen whose zeal for the promotion of science has been uniform and ardent. Lieutenant Cook had further views in this voyage than the mere observation of the transit, and accordingly, when that business was accomplished, he was directed to pursue further discoveries in the great Southern Ocean. The com- plement of Cook’s ship consisted of eighty- four persons, besides the commander ; she was victualled for eighteen months, and furnished with ten carriage and twelve swivel guns, together with an ample store of ammunition and other necessaries. CAPTAIN COOK. On the 26th of August our navigators set sail from Plymouth Sound; and on the 13th of September anchored in Funchiale road, in the Island of Madeira. Here they were hospitably entertained; and having laid in a fresh stock of beef, water, and wine, they left the island in the night of the 18th of September. In their way to Rio de Janeiro, they had an opportunity of accounting for that luminous appearance of the sea which had been often noticed by navigators and ascribed to various causes. They determined, by experiment, that the flashes which they had observed proceeded from some luminous animal. Their reception at Rio de Janeiro was very different from that which they had met with at Madeira; and it was through mere necessity that they were detained there from the 13th of November to the 7th of the following month, when they proceeded on their voyage. On the 14th of January, S 270 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. 1769, Lieutenant Cook entered the strait of Le Maire, and having contended for some time with a violent tide, he anchored on the next day, first before a small cove, which was understood to be Port Maurice, and afterwards in the bay of Good Success. During the continuance of the Endeavour in this station, Dr. Banks, Dr. Solander, Mr. Monkhouse the surgeon, and Mr. Green the astronomer, with their attendants and servants, and two seamen, ascended the mountains in search of plants. This excursion has been often related, and the effect of the cold of the climate is well known. It has been a question among former navigators which is the best passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean; and the doubling of Cape Horn has been so much dreaded, that it has been thought more eligible to pass through the strait of Magalhaens or Magellan. Lieutenant Cook has settled this point; for he was no more than 33 days in coming round the land of Terra del Fuego, from the east entrance of the strait of Le Maire till he had ad- vanced about 12 degrees to the westward and 31 to the northward of the straits of Magalhaens, and during this time the ship received scarcely any damage; whereas it would have required three months to reach the Pacific Ocean through the strait, and in passing it his people would have been much fatigued, and the anchors, cables, sails, and rigging of the vessel would have been much injured. In short, Lieutenant Cook, by setting the example of doubling Cape Horn, and by accurately ascertaining the latitude and longitude of different places, as well as by his instructions to future voyagers, has performed the most essential service to this part of navigation. In the prosecution of the voyage from Cape Horn to Otaheite, several islands were discovered, most of which were inhabited; and the verdure, or groves of palm-trees, which were visible in some of them, gave them the appearance of a terrestrial paradise to persons who had so lately witnessed the dreary coasts of Terra del Fuego. On the 13th of April the Endeavour anchored in Port Royal bay, called by the natives ‘ Matavia,” in the island of Otaheite. Having fixed upon a place proper for ac- complishing the grand object of their com- mission, they erected an observatory, S. lat. 17 deg. 29 min. 15 sec, W. long. 149 deg. 32 min. 30 sec, and carried their astro- nomical quadrant and some other instru- ments on shore. On the following day, very much to their surprise and grief, the quadrant was not to be found. By the judicious and spirited exertions of Mr. Banks, the instrument was restored. The transit was observed with great advantage. Previously on their setting sail, Tupia, one of the natives, the prime minister of Oberea, when she was in the height of her power, and chief priest of the country, who had been a constant companion of the English during their abode on the island, came on board the ship, with a boy thirteen years of age, and intreated that they might be permitted to proceed with them on their voyage. Lieutenant Cook gladly accepted the proposal. On the 13th of July the English weighed anchor, and whilst they were proceeding on their voyage, Tupia informed Lieutenant Cook that at four of the neighbouring islands, which he distin- guished by the names of Huaheine, Ulietea, Otaha, and Bolabola, they might procure hogs, fowls, and other refreshments in great abundance. Accordingly, having passed Tethuroa, they approached the N.W. part of Huaheine on the 16th of July, and in the afternoon anchored in a small but ex- cellent harbour on the west side of the islands called Owharre; and having pro- cured a variety of necessary articles of refreshment, they sailed on the 1gth for Ulietea, in a good harbour of which the ship anchored on the next day. The lieutenant hoisted an English Jack on this island, and, in the name of his Britannic Majesty, took possession of this and the three neighbouring islands, Hua- heine, Otaha, and Bolabola, all of which were in sight. The harbour or bay in NEW ZEALAND. 271 which the Zndeavour had anchored was called by the natives Oopoa, and extends almost the whole length of the east side of the island. In its greatest extent it is capable of accommodating any number of ships. After having surveyed the northern and southern parts of this island, they set sail on the 24th; but after encountering considerable danger, and discovering several small islands, they returned to Ulietea, and cast anchor on the 1st of August in a har- bour on the west side of the island. Tupia had previously apprised them of the for- midable character of the inhabitants of Bolabola, but on intercourse with them, and particularly with Opoony, they found there was no foundation for the terrors which Tupia had endeavoured to excite. Having finished their necessary repairs, and obtained a fresh stock of provisions, they prepared for leaving the island. Our voyagers pursued their course, Lieut. Cook having determined to stand southward in search of a continent. On the 6th of October they discovered an extensive tract of land, which they at first conceived to be the “ Terra Australis incognita,” but which proved, in the event, to be a part of New Zealand ; and having anchored, on the 8th, in a bay at the entrance of a small river, the lieutenant went on shore, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, and attended with a party of men, in order to have some intercourse with the natives. They assumed a very hostile appearance, and made attempts for running away with the pinnace, which had been left at the entrance of the river. On the next day they exhibited the same formidable aspect, brandishing their pikes and lances. Tupia addressed them in a language which was a dialect of their own, and which they understood, informing them that our voyagers only wanted provisions and water in exchange for iron, the properties of which he explained as far as he was able. Their intentions, however, appeared to be unfriendly ; and on the iron and beads which were presented to them they seemed to set little value. Tupia told them at length, that if they proceeded to any further violence, some of them must fall victims to the just retaliation of the English. This salutary counsel, however, produced no effect; and some were killed and several wounded in the conflict that ensued. The severity exercised on this occasion was very different from the conduct which Mr. Cook’s prudence and humanity suggested in other cases; and, on a calm review, it was not approved by himself; but he pleaded the nature of the service in which he was employed, and the necessity of obtaining a knowledge of the country, which he had previously attempted to acquire by kind treatment, and with a view to which he was at length obliged to recur to hostile and fatal measures. The lieu- tenant finding all his efforts to establish an intercourse with the natives unavailing, determined to re-embark, and on the 11th of the month he left this inhospitable place, which, as it supplied him with no article except wood, he denominated Poverty Bay, called by the natives Taoneroa, or Long Sand, and situated in S. lat. 38 deg. and 42 min., and W. long. 181 deg. 36 min. In this course Lieutenant Cook spent nearly six months, and made large additions to the knowledge of geography and naviga- tion. By making the whole circuit of New Zealand, he ascertained it to consist of two islands. While the ship was hauling to the south end of a small island, called Teah- cwary by the natives, and by the lieutenant Portland Island, it suddenly fell into shoal water and broken ground. The in- habitants, perceiving its distress, put off in five canoes, and assumed a very formidable and menacing aspect, and seemed to be prepared for action; and it was to little purpose that guns were fired in order to intimidate them. Whilst some kind of traffic was carrying on with one of the canoes, Tupia’s boy, who was standing on the side of the ship, was seized by one of “the New Zealanders, and carried off. Upon this atrocious act the marines were ordered 273 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEZ to fire; and during the confusion that ensued, the boy made his escape and swam to the ship, though he was pursued by the largest of the canoes. To the cape where this unhappy transaction occurred Mr. Cook gave the name of Cape Kidnap- pers; it lies in S. lat. 39 deg. 43 min, W. long. 182 deg. 24 min. On the 28th, some gentlemen of the Zndeavour went on shore on an island which lies to the left hand of the entrance of Tolaga Bay, and there saw the largest canoe which they had yet observed, her length being 68% feet, her breadth 5 feet, and her height three feet six inches. While the ship was in Hick’s Bay, the inhabitants of the adjoining coast were found to be very hostile. Early on the 1st of November, they counted forty- five canoes coming from the shore towards the Zndeavour, and several others following them from another place. Some of the Indians traded fairly ; others added derision and insolence to fraud ; and though several small shots were fired at them, the canoes merely dropped astern, and set up their song of defiance as they departed from the ship. In standing westward from a small island called Mowtohova, the Endeavour encountered some danger amidst the adjacent rocks, but at length she escaped without injury near an island called by the lieutenant the Mayor. The inhabitants of the neighbouring coast displayed in many instances their hostility, and, in their traffic with our navigators, committed various acts of fraud and robbery. On the 15th they sailed out of Mercury Bay, so called in consequence of the observed transit of Mercury over the sun, and lying in S. lat. 36 deg. 47 min., W. long. 184 deg. 4 min. Another river lies at the head of the bay, which is the best or safest place for a ship that wants to stay for any length of time. This the lieutenant, observing a number of Mangroves about it, called Mangrove River. Before the Endeavour left the bay, Mr. Cook, having displayed the English colours, took formal possession of the place in the name of his Britannic Majesty | King George III. In the range from Mercury Bay several canoes appeared apparently for hostile purposes; but their occupiers were instantly dispersed by a musket ball, fired through one of their boats; although Tupia’s oratory had proved ineffectual. While Mr. Cook remained in the Bay of Islands, he took occasion to examine the interior part of the country and its produce. Some circumstances occurred which produced disagreement between the navigators and the inhabitants, and it required singular exertions of prudence, as well as of humanity, on the part of Mr. Cook, to bring them to a termination. The number of inhabitants in the Bay of Islands was found to be much greater than in any other part of New Zealand which the com- mander had hitherto visited; and though their towns were fortified, they seemed to live together in perfect amity. The Zu- deavour, on the 9th of December, lying becalmed in Doubtless Bay, an oppor- tunity offered for making inquiries among the natives concerning their country; and Tupia enabled the lieutenant to learn that at some distance, at a place called Moore- whennua, the land would take a short turn to the southward, and thence extend no more to the west. This place the English gentlemen concluded to be the land dis- covered by Tasman, and which he had named “Cape Maria Van Dieman.” The inhabitants, who seemed to be intelligent, further informed them that there was a country of great extent to the N.W. by N. or N.N.W,, called Ulimaroa, where it was understood that the people eat hogs. During Mr. Cook’s long and minute examination of the coast of New Zealand, he gave names to the bays, capes, pro- montories, islands, and rivers, and other places which he saw or visited, excepting in instances where their original appellations were learned from the natives. After hav- ing ascertained New Zealand to be an island, Mr. Cook wished to extend his ac- quaintance with the country. He com- pleted his circumnavigation by ranging from NEW SOUTH WALES, 273 Cape Turnagain, southward along the eastern coast of Poenammoo, round Cape South, and back to the western entrance of the strait which he had passed, and which has been very properly called Cook’s Strait. In this range an island, lying about five leagues from the coast of Tovy-Poenammoo, was discovered, and it was named Bank’s Island. Lieutenant Cook, pursuing his course to the southward, wished to ascertain whether Poenammoo was an island or a continent. In the prosecution of this ob- ject he had passed some dangerous rocks on the gth of March, and on the same day reached a point of land called South Cape, in S. Lat. 47 deg. 19 min. W. long. 192 deg. 12 min., which proved to be the southern extremity of the country. On the 14th the Endeavour passed a small narrow opening in the island, where was a safe and convenient harbour, formed by an island, which lay eastward in the middle of the opening. On the land behind this opening are mountains, the summits of which were covered with snow that had recently fallen. The land on each side of the entrance of the opening rises almost perpendicularly from the sea to a stupendous height ; and, on this account, Lieutenant Cook did not choose to take the ship into the harbour. Before the 27th of March the commanders had circumnavigated the whole country of Tovy-Poenammoo, and arrived within sight of the island before mentioned, lying nine leagues from the entrance into Queen Charlotte’s Sound. With a view of obtain- STAITHS, NEAR WHITBY, WHERE COOK WAS APPRENTICED. ing a supply of water, he hauled round the island, and entered a bay, situated between that and Queen Charlotte’s Sound, to which was given the name of Admiralty Bay. Lieutenant Cook now directed his views towards Europe, and it was determined to return by the East Indies. In pursuance of this resolution, it was proposed that they should steer eastward till they should fall in with the east coast of New Holland, and then follow the direction of that coast to- wards the north, till they should arrive at its northern extremity. On the 31st of March our commander sailed from Cape Farewell, in New Zea- land, and pursued his voyage towards the west. On the 19th of April, New Holland (or, as it is now called, New South Wales) came in sight; and on the 28th the ship anchored in Botany Bay. During Mr. Cook’s stay at this place, he caused the English colours to be displayed every day on shore, and took care that the ship's name, and the date of the year, should be inscribed on one of the trees near the watering-place. On the 6th of May our navigators sailed from this bay ; and in their further progress Lieutenant Cook gave the names marked upon the map to the bays, capes, points, and remarkable hills that ap- peared successively in sight. In navigating the coast of New South Wales, for an extent of 22 degrees of latitude, or more than 1300 miles, he had conducted his vessel in safety ; but on the 1oth of June, as he was pursuing his course from a bay which he 274 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. had called Trinity Bay, the Zndeavour fell into a situation peculiarly critical and dangerous, having been lifted over a ledge of rock and lying in a hollow within it. Her sheathing boards were observed by the light of the moon to be floating away from her, and at last her false keel, so that every moment it was expected the whole company would be swallowed up by the rushing in of the sea. The ship was expe- ditiously lightened as much as possible, and every exertion was made without murmur, and with the greatest alacrity, to escape the imminent peril to which their lives were exposed. So sensible were the sailors of the awfulness of their situation, that not an oath was heard among them. When morn- ing dawned upon them, they had a clearer view of their danger. Providentially, how- ever, it became a dead calm, and high water came on at eleven in the morning ; but it was necessary still further to lighten the ship, and two pumps were instantly worked to discharge the water that rushed in. For the tide at midnight they waited with anxious and awful expectation ; in the meanwhile the leak increased to a very alarming degree; and though the ship righted, it was expected that she must go to the bottom as soon as she ceased to be supported by the rock. The floating of the ship, which in other circumstances would have been the means of their salvation, was in their situation a ground of serious alarm, because it might precipitate their destruc- tion. Their possibility of escape was pre- carious if the ship sank, and the coast on which they were to be thrown, if any of them escaped, was inhabited by naked savages, from whose compassion they might derive no relief. The decisive moment at length arrived, and the ship was heaved into deep water, without admitting more water than when she lay upon the rock. The men had experienced long anxiety, and were sinking with fatigue ; and in an exhausted state they threw themselves upon the deck, and, after short intervals and pauses of rest, renewed their laborious and almost fruitless exertion, for the leak gained upon the pumps. In this state of anxiety and labour, an accident occurred, which had almost terminated at once all their efforts. The planking which lines the ship’s bottom is called the ceiling, between which and the outside planking there is a space of about eighteen inches. From the ceiling only, the man who had attended the well had taken the depth of the water, and had given the measure accordingly. But the person who relieved him measured the depth to the outside planking, which had the appearance of the leak’s having gained upon the pumps eighteen inches in a few minutes. The mistake, however, was soon detected, and this accident, at first so alarming, became, in the event, highly ad- vantageous. New hopes, from a discovery that their situation was not so dangerous as they apprehended, inspired new vigour, and before eight in the morning the pumps gained considerably on the leak. At eleven o'clock the Endeavour was once more under sail, and stood for the land. They wished, however, to stop the leak, and Mr. Monk- house, one of the midshipmen, proposed to the commander an expedient which had preserved a merchant ship which had sprung a leak that admitted more than four feet of water in an hour. This was called fothering the ship. The expedient succeeded; and it was owing partly to a fragment of rock which had filled up one of the holes of the ship that she did not sink and invglve her whole company in inevitable destruction. In con. sequence of the distress experienced by the whole crew on this occasion, Lieutenant Cook called a point in sight, which lay to the northward—Cape Tribulation. On the 14th a small harbour was discovered, excellently adapted for repairing the damage which the ship had sustained. Another alarming circumstance which occurred at this time was the access of the scurvy, that began to make its appearance among the ship’s company, and that rendered it still more necessary to get on shore. On the NEW GUINEA. 275 17th the ship put in for the harbour, the entrance of which was a narrow channel. Tents were erected for the accommodation of the sick; and all of them, except Mr. Green, manifested symptoms of recovery. On the 29th of June an emersion of Jupiter’s first satellite was observed, from which they obtained the longitude of the place 214 deg. 42 min. 30 sec. W., its lati- tude being 15 deg. 26 min. S. A plan of the harbour was taken; and Mr. Cook ascended a hill, from which he observed, | to his great concern, innumerable sand- banks and shoals lying in every direction of the coast. After many difficulties and unsuccessful attempts to clear the shoal, it was resolved to quit the coast entirely, till they could approach it with less danger; and in pursuance of the resolution, the Endeavour, on the 13th July, got under sail, and successfully passed through one of the channels or openings in the outer reef, which Mr. Cook had previously observed. The situation of our navigators was now happily changed ; and after three months’ anxiety and suspense, they found themselves in an open sea, with deep water. New dangers, which created alarm and required fresh exertions, occurred; but every man did his duty with as much calmness and regularity as if no danger had been near. It was indeed the high and magnanimous spirit of the commander which inspired his people with such resolution and vigour. On the coast of a new and unknown country he braved all perils, and deter- mined to ascertain whether this country did, or did not, join to New Guinea—a question which he had fixed upon solving from the first moment that he had come within sight of land. In the prosecution of the voyage the navigators, on the 19th, were encompassed on every side with rocks and shoals; but they were little moved, as perils had been familiar to them. On the 21st, as no land could be seen, they conceived hopes of having at last found a passage into the Indian sea; but to determine this matter with greater certainty, Lieutenant Cook resolved to land upon an island which lies upon the south-east point of the passage. Accordingly he, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, ascended a high hill, from which no land could be seen between the south-west and west-south-west; so that Mr. Cook had not the least doubt of finding a channel through which he might pass to New Guinea. As he was now about to quit the coast of New Holland, which he had traced from latitude 38 deg. to this place, and where he was certain no Euro- pean had ever been before, he once more hoisted English celours, taking possession of the whole eastern coast, with all the bays, harbours, rivers, and islands situated upon it, from lat. 58 deg. to lat. 10% deg. S. in right of his Majesty King George III. and by the name of New South Wales. Having performed this ceremony upon the island, hence called Possession Island, they re-embarked in their boat ; and on the 23rd Mr. Cook was confirmed by several circumstances in his opinion that he had arrived to the northern extremity of New Holland, and that to the westward he had an open sea. These circumstances afforded him peculiar satisfaction, not only because the dangers and fatigues of the voyage were drawing to a conclusion, but because it could no longer be doubted whether New Helland and New Guinea were two separate islands. From the coast of New South Wales the lieutenant steered, on the 23rd of August, for the coast of New Guinea, but in the prosecution of his voyage he fell upon a dangerous shoal, which exposed him to great danger; but he fortunately escaped, and on the 3rd of September arrived within sight of New Guinea, and brought to within three or four miles of land. Some of the ship’s company went on shore, but they were suddenly attacked by the natives, who had for some time concealed themselves in the woods. Our voyagers leaving this coast, hastened to the westward, and pursuing their course, passed the islands of Timor, Timor-lavet, Rotle, 276 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP and Seman. When they were near these two latter islands, they observed a phe- nomenon in the heavens in some respects resembling, but in others differing from, the Aurora Borealis. Having passed all the islands between Timor and Java, Lieutenant Cook did not expect to meet any other; but on the 17th he observed an island bearing W.S.W., which he thought to be a new discovery. When they came to the north side of it, they saw houses and cocoanut trees, and numerous flocks of sheep. Here they landed, the commander thinking he might thus supply the necessities of the ship’s company, and remove both the sickness and the discontent which had spread among them. This proved to be the island of Savu. On the 21st of Septem- ber our navigators left Savu, and on the 1st of October came within sight of the island of Java; and on the gth they stood in for Batavia road, where the Endeavour was secured from a stroke of lightning by the chain that was attached to it. The injurious effects of this climate were felt PASSEMA ISLAND, NEW SOUTH WALES, OCCUPIED BY CAPTAIN COOK. by our voyagers within nine days after their arrival ; and Mr. Monkhouse, the surgeon of the ship, fell, upon the 5th of November, the first sacrifice to this fatal country. Tayeto, Tupia’s boy, died the oth, and Tupia survived him only a few days. The repair of the Endeavour, which had been very much damaged, and which appeared to be in a very alarming state, was an object to which Mr. Cook, though himself affected by the climate, directed his particu- lar attention, and it was performed much to his satisfaction. When the business was accomplished, on the 27th of December, the ship stood out to sea; and on the sth of January, 1771, came to an anchor under the S.E. side of Prince’s Island, where the gentlemen of the ship, after having paid their respects to the king, commenced a traffic with the natives for turtles, fowls, fish, monkies, small deer, and vegetables. On the 15th the commander weighed, and stood out to sea. In the prosecution of the voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, the seeds of disease, which had been received at Batavia, appeared with very SAFE AT HOME. 277 threatening symptoms, and reduced the navigators to a very melancholy situation. The ship was a mere hospital ; the water taken in at Prince’s Island was purified with lime; and in order further to guard against infection, the commander ordered all the parts of the vessel between the decks to be washed with vinegar. So fatal, notwithstanding every precaution, was the disease, that almost every night a dead body was committed to the sea. The loss amounted in all to twenty-three persons, besides the seven who died at Batavia. Among these were Mr. Green, the astrono- mer, Mr. Parkinson, natural history painter, Mr. Monkhouse, the midshipman, another midshipman, etc., etc. These calamitous events contributed most probably to turn the attention of Mr. Cook to those methods of preserving the health of seamen, which he afterwards pursued with such remark- able success. On the 15th of March the Endeavour arrived off the Cape of Good Hope, and a proper place was provided on shore for the accommodation and recovery of the sick. Lieutenant Cook, having stayed there whilst the sick of his crew were recovered, necessary stores were procured, and the vessel refitted, on the 14th of April stood out of the bay, and proceeded on his voyage homeward. In the morning of the 29th he crossed his first meridian, having circumnavigated the globe in the direction from east to west —the consequence of which was that he had lost a day, an allowance for which had been made at Batavia. On the 1st of May he arrived at St. Helena, and on the 4th he departed from this island, and pursued his course in safety. On the roth of June, land, which proved to be the Lizard, was discovered; on the 11th the ship ran up the Channel ; next morning he passed Beachy Head, and in the after- noon of the same day anchored in the Downs, and went on shore at Deal. Thus ended Mr. Cook’s first voyage round the world, in which he had gone through so many dangers, explored so many countries, and exhibited the strongest proofs of his possessing an eminently sagacious and active mind—a mind that was equal to every perilous enterprise, and to the boldest and most successful efforts of navi- gation and discovery in every part of the world. 278 ZHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. LapTaAIN Look. (Continued.) FURTHER YovacEs AND PISCOVERIES— |NTERCOURSE WITH LR. COOK, having thus recommend- ed himself to the protection of Go- vernment and the favour of his sove- reign, was pro- moted, in the pro- gressive order of the naval service, to be a commander in his Majesty’s navy, August 0) 29th, 1771, an officer inferior in rank only, but equal in advantage, to that of post-captain. On the 21st of May, 1772, Captain Cook communicated to the Royal Society, by a letter to Dr. Maskelyne, “ An Account of the Flowing of the Tides in the South Sea,” etc. The curiosity of the public was much excited by the reports of Lieutenant Cook’s voyage ; and it was amply gratified by Dr. Hawkesworth’s ac- count, in 3 vols. 4to. Extensive and in- teresting was the knowledge obtained in consequence of this voyage ; but the ques- tion concerning a southern continent re- mained still undecided. The reign of George III. had been favourable to every kind of scientific and literary inquiry ; and the Earl of Sandwich, who, at the period to which we now refer, was at the head of the admiralty, was eminently capable of comprehending, and disposed also to encourage the most en- larged views and schemes with regard to navigation and discovery. By his parti- ticular recommendation, it was resolved to appoint a commission for determining the THE SOUTH SEA [SLANDERS. long-disputed question relating to the exist- ence of a southern continent, and Captain Cook was immediately fixed upon as the person best qualified for conducting an enterprise which was to give the utmost possible extent to the geography of the globe and the knowledge of navigation. Two ships, similar in construction to the Endeavour, were provided for this purpose. The largest of the two, which consisted of 462 tons burthen, was named the Reso/u- tion; and to the other, consisting of 336 tons burthen, was given the name of the Adventure. On the 28th of November, 1771, Captain Cook was appointed to the command of the former; and, about the same time, Mr. Tobias Furneaux was pro- moted to the command of the latter. The complement of the Resolution, in officers and men, was fixed at 112 persons, and that of the Adventure at 81. In the equip- ment of these ships, attention was directed to every circumstance that could contribute to the comfort and success of the voyage. Lord Sandwich was singularly attentive on the occasion; and both the navy and victualling boards took care to procure for the ships the best stores and provisions, together with an ample supply of antiscor- butic articles, such as malt, sour krout, salted cabbage, portable broth, soup, mus- tard, marmalade of carrots, and inspissated juice of wort and beer. Scientific objects were also duly regarded. Mr. William Hodges, an excellent landscape painter; Mr. Eeinhold Forster and his son, well informed in natural history; and Mr. AMONG THE ICEBERGS. 279 William Wailes and Mr. William Bayley, skilful astronomers, were appointed to ac- company the expedition. They were fur- nished with the best instruments for ob- servation, and particularly with four time- pieces, three of Mr. Arnold’s construction, and one of Mr. Kendal’s, upon the prin- ciples of Mr. Harrison. Captain Cook, on board the Resolution, joined the Adventure in Plymouth Sound on the 3rd of July, 1772, and there received his instructions, which comprehended, with- out entering into a minute detail, the most enlarged plan of discovery that is known in the history of navigation. On the 17th of July Captain Cook sailed from Plymouth, and on the 29th anchored in Funchiale road, in the island of Madeira. Having supplied himself with water, wine, and other necessaries, he left the island August 1st, and sailed to the southward. On the 1oth of December, in S. lat. 50 deg. 40 min. and long. 2 deg. E. of the Cape of Good Hope, they began to meet with islands of ice, one of which was judged by Captain Cook to be about fifty feet high, and half a mile in circuit. The weather was hazy, and danger was imminent. On the 18th they happily got clear of the field of ice. They were now in S. lat. 55 deg. 8 min. and long. 24 deg. 3 min. An opinion had been entertained that such ice had been formed in bays and rivers; and hence our voyagers were led to con- clude that land was not far distant. But they proceeded without finding it. The whole crew began to complain much of cold, and therefore the captain directed the sleeves of their jackets to be lengthened with baize, and ordered a cap to be made for each, strengthened with canvas. This season, it should be recollected, was with them the middle of summer. As some of the crew appeared to have symptoms of the scurvy, fresh wort was given them every day. By the 29th, the commander was satisfied that the field of ice along which the ships had sailed did not join to any land. Determining to run as far west as the meridian of Cape Circumcision, a gale sprang up on the 31st, which brought with it such a swell of sea as rendered a con- tinuance among the ice perilous; our navigators, therefore, hauled to the south. On the 1st of January, 1773, the gale abated, and the people had a sight of the moon, which they had observed but once, such was the state of the weather, since they had left the Cape of Good Hope. They were now in S. lat. 58 deg. 53 min. 30 sec. and E. long. 9 deg. 34 min. 30 sec. In this situation, land, if it had existed, might have been at the distance of fourteen or fifteen leagues ; but as it was not visible, Captain Cook concluded it to be very pro- bable, that Bouvet had mistaken mountains of ice for land. Upon the whole, there was reason to believe that no land was to be met with under this meridian, between the latitude of 55 and 59 degrees, as some had supposed. From the ice, however, Captain Cook derived the advantage of procuring a supply of fresh water, which was sweet and well tasted. On the fields of ice they observed penguins, albatrosses, and other birds; but the prevalent opinion that such birds never go far from land was now found to be erroneous. On the 17th of January, Captain Cook, having reached the latitude of 67 deg. 15 min. S., could advance no farther ; and as the ice towards the south exhibited no appearance of any opening, he thought it prudent not to per- severe in sailing farther southward, more especially as the summer was already half spent, and there was no prospect of being able to get round the ice. He therefore determined to search for the land which had lately been discovered by the French, and separated the ships at an interval of four miles, the weather being occasionally clear, as the best method of investigation. On the 1st of February our voyagers were in S. lat. 41 deg. 30. min. and E. long. 58 deg. 7 min., nearly in the meridian of the island of St. Mauritius. From the perpetual high sea which had been lately met with, Captain Cook inferred that there could be no great 280 THE WONDERS OF THE DELP. extent of land to the west. But whilst he was steering eastward, in S. lat. 49 deg. 13 min., Captain Furneaux suggested that the land was to the N.W. of them, as he had observed the sea to be smooth when the wind blew in that direction. Captain Cook, in deference to this opinion, pursued the search ; and the result was a conviction that if any land was near, it could be only an island of inconsiderable extent. A separation now took place between the two ships, and the Resolution was under a necessity of pursuing its voyage alone. Further evidence occurred to our com- mander as he advanced in his course, that he had left no land behind him in the direction of W.S.W., and that no land lay to the S. on this side of 6o degrees of latitude. On the 17th he therefore deter- mined to quit the high southern latitudes, being now in S. lat. 59 deg. 7 min. and E. long. 156 deg. 53 min., and to proceed to New Zealand, in search of the Adventure, and for the refreshment of his people. He had also a desire of visiting the east coast of Van Diemen’s Land, in order to gain satisfaction whether it joined the coast of New South Wales. But the wind prevent- ing his accomplishing this object, he shaped his course for New Zealand, and came to anchor on the 26th in Dusky Bay. He had now been 117 days at sea, in which time he had sailed 3,660 leagues, without once coming within sight of land. So salutary had been the effects of sweet wort and several articles of provision, and especially of the frequent airing and sweetening of the ship, that there was only one man on board who could be said to be afflicted with the scurvy ; and his disorder was occasioned by a bad habit of body and a complication of other diseases. On the 27th the ship entered Pickersgill Harbour, so called from the name of the gentleman by whom it had been first discovered, and situated in S. lat. 45 deg. 47 min. 26} sec. S. and E. long. 166 deg. 18 min. On the 11th of May, Captain Cook left Dusky Bay and directed his course for | Queen Charlotte’s Sound, where he ex- pected to find the Adventure ; but on the 17th the wind flattened to a calm, the sky became suddenly obscured by dark, dense clouds, and there was every prognostication of a tempest. Soon after six water-spouts were seen, four of which rose and spent themselves between the ship and the land ; but they all spent themselves without doing any injury. On the next day the Resolution came within sight of Queen Charlotte’s Sound, where she had the satisfaction of finding the Adventure, after a separation of fourteen weeks. Captain Furneaux had an opportunity of examining Van Dieman’s Land; and it was his opinion that there are no straits between this land and New Holland, but a very deep bay. He met likewise with further proofs that the New Zealanders are eaters of human flesh. On the morning after Captain Cook’s arrival in Queen Charlotte’s Sound, he went on shore and returned with a boatload of scurvy- grass, celery, and other vegetables ; and he gave orders that they should be boiled, with wheat and portable broth, every day for breakfast, and with pease and broth for dinner. Experience had taught him that these vegetables, thus dressed, are very beneficial to seamen in removing various scorbutic complaints. The intercourse with the natives of the country was of a friendly nature, and proved advantageous in a variety of respects, particularly in supplying a quantity of fish. On the 2nd of June, when the ships were almost ready to put to sea, Captain Cook sent on shore a male and female goat; and Captain Furneaux left at Cannibal Cove two breeding sows and a boar. On the 7th of June Captain Cook put to sea from Queen Charlotte’s Sound, to- gether with the Adventure, and anchored on the 17th in Qaitipiha Bay, near the S.E. end of Otaheite; and they were imme- diately crowded with the inhabitants of the country, who brought with them cocoa- nuts, plantains, bananas, apples, yams, and other roots, which were exchanged for nails INTERCOURSE WITH THE NATIVES. 281 and beads. On the 24th the ships put to sea, and arrived the next evening in Matavia Bay; but before they could come to anchor, the decks were crowded by the natives, many of whom were known to Captain Cook, or by most of whom he was well remembered. At Oparree the tents and astronomers’ observatories remained on the same spot from which the transit of Venus had been observed in 1769. As soon as the sick were recovered, the water completed, and the necessary repairs of the ships finished, Captain Cook determined to put to sea, and on the 1st of September he ordered the vessels to be unmoored. In the meanwhile Lieutenant Pickersgill returned from Attahourou, where he had been to procure hogs; and in this expe- dition he had seen Oberea in a very humble situation compared with that which he had formerly occupied. In the evening of this day, a favourable wind having sprung up, the commander put to sea; on which occasion he dismissed his Otaheite friends sooner than they wished to depart, but well satisfied with his kind and liberal treatment. From Matavia Captain Cook directed his course for the island Hua- heine; this he reached the next day, and on the 3rd of September anchored in the harbour of Owharre. Both the captains landed upon the island, and being cordially received by the natives, commenced a trade with them. Everything was conducted with mutual confidence and harmony till the 6th, when several circumstances oc- curred on the part of the natives which interrupted the friendly intercourse. Cap- tain Cook at length complained to Oreo, the king, of their insolence and frauds, who was much concerned on the occasion, and exerted himself to obtain redress and to punish the delinquents. It was from the island Huaheine that Captain Furneaux re- ceived into his ship a young man named Omai, a native of Ulietea, of whom so much hath since been known and written. This choice was at first disapproved by Captain Cook, who thought that this youth was not a proper sample of the inhabitants of the Society Islands, being inferior to many of them in birth and acquired rank, and not having any peculiar advantage with respect to shape, figure, or complexion. The captain afterwards found reason to be better satisfied with Omai’s having accom- panied our navigators to England. At Huaheine the vessels, though their stay was short, obtained very plentiful supplies of provisions. Not less than 300 hogs, besides fowls and fruit, were procured. Our commander, by his second visit to the Society Islands, gained a further know- ledge of their general state and of the customs of the inhabitants. Captain Cook wished to satisfy himself whether human sacrifices constituted a part of the religious customs of these people. From Omai he afterwards learned that the inhabitants of the Society Islands offer human sacrifices to the Supreme Being. The knowledge he was able to obtain concerning their religion was very defective. On the 17th of Sep- tember Captain Cook sailed from Ulietea, directing his course to the west, with an inclination to the south, and on the 1st of October he reached the island of Middle- burg. From Middleburg the ship sailed to Amsterdam, the natives of which island were no less disposed than those of the former to maintain a friendly intercourse with the English. A few old rags at this island were sufficient for the purchase of a pig or a fowl. : On the 7th of October Captain Cook proceeded on his voyage, and on the 21st he made the land of New Zealand, at the distance of eight or ten leagues from Table Cape. To a chief who came off in a canoe he gave two boars, two. sows, four hens, and two cocks, and a quantity of seeds of wheat, French and kidney beans, pease, cabbage, turnips, onions, carrots, parsnips, and yams. On the 3rd of Novem- ber the Resolution was brought into Ship Cove, in Queen Charlotte’s Sound. After his arrival the first object of the captain was to provide for the repair of his ship, 282 THE WONDERS OF 2 HE DEEP. and the next to examine into the state of his bread, much of which had become unfit for use. To the inhabitants who resided at the Cove he gave a boar, a young sow, two cocks, and two hens, which he had brought from the Society Islands; and at the bottom of the west bay he ordered to be landed three sows and a boar, together with two cocks and two hens, and as much food as would last them ten or twelve days. In the second visit of our navigator to New Zealand, they met with indubitable evi- dence that the inhabitants were eaters of human flesh ; but it was Captain Cook’s firm opinion that the only flesh that was eaten by these people was that of their enemies who had been slain in battle. Our commander did not leave New Zealand without making such remarks on the coast between Cape Teerawhitte and Cape Pal- liser as might be of use to future navigators. As the Adventure had been separated from the Resolution, and was thought to be no- where upon the island, Captain Cook gave up all hopes of seeing her any more. On the 26th of November, the captain sailed from New Zealand in search of a continent, and steered to the south, in- clining to the east. Some days afterwards our navigators reckoned themselves to be antipodes to their friends in London, and consequently at as great a distance from them as possible. The first ice island which they saw was on the 12th of December, in S. lat. 62 deg. ro min., W. long. 172 deg. In the process of the voy- age such islands continually occurred, and the navigation became daily more diffi- cult and dangerous. In S. lat. 67 deg. 5 min. our voyagers all at once got within such a cluster of these islands, and of loose pieces, that they found it almost impossible to escape. However, being released, the Resolution, on the 22nd of the month, was in the highest latitude she had yet reached, viz., 67 deg. 31 min., W. long. 142 deg 54 min. ; and circumstances became so un- favourable, that Captain Cook determined to return towards the north. Here was no probability of finding land, or a possibility of getting farther south. As our navigators advanced to the N.E. on the 24th, the ice- islands increased very much upon them; and in the midst of about one hundred they spent Christmas Day. As Captain Cook, agreeably to his late resolution, had traversed a large extent of ocean without seeing land, he again directed his course towards the south; and by the 3oth of January, 1774, after encountering innumer- able obstructions, he reached to S. lat. 71 deg. 10 min.,, W. long. 106 deg. 54 min. Farther it would have been extreme folly to have proceeded. The captain was of opinion, in which most of the gentlemen on board concurred, that the ice now in sight extended quite to the pole, or might join to some land, to which it might have been fixed from the earliest time. Compelled at last by inevitable necessity to tack and to stand towards the north, Captain Cook formed a resolution of spending the ensuing winter within the tropic. In pursuing his course to the north Captain Cook became well assured that the discovery of Juan Fernandez, if any such was ever made, could be nothing more than a small island. Our captain was at this time confined to his bed by a bilious colic; by the attention of Mr. Pat- ten, the surgeon, he was relieved, and at length the disorder subsided; but his stomach was so weak that he could taste nothing but the broth and flesh of a favourite dog belonging to Mr. Forster. Our navigators in their course discovered a number of low islets and four islands, which Captain Cook called Pallister Isles On the 22nd of April he anchored in Matavia Bay at Otaheite, and on the 15th of May our captain anchored in Owharre harbour, in the island of Huaheine, where he procured bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, and other vege- tables in abundance; but there was a scarcity of hogs. When they were leaving the island the good old chief, Oreo, was the last man who left the vessel. At parting. Captain Cook told him that they should OREO THE CHIEF. 283 meet each other no more. Oreo wept, and said, “Let your sons come; we will treat them well.” At Ulietea nothing particular occurred. It was the last request of Oreo, the chief, to Captain Cook, that he would return ; and when he could not obtain a promise to that effect, he asked the name of his burying-place. Oreo’s anguish at parting was very great: he looked up at the ship, burst into tears, and then sank down into the canoe. Our adventurous voyagers, in pursuing their course, dis- covered a great number of islands. After examining the group to which Captain Cook gave the name of New Hebrides, he pro- posed to return towards the south; but he improved the intervening time in exploring any land which he might yet meet with between the New Hebrides and New Zea- land, at which place it was his intention to CAPTAIN COOK VISITING BOTANY ISLE. refresh his people, and to renew his stock of wood and water for another southern course. Sailing with this view September the 1st, he discovered land on the 4th, and the Resolution anchored next day in a harbour belonging to it. The inhabitants behaved to him in a very civil and friendly manner, and he returned their kindness with presents to their chief. Captain Cook gave this island the name of New Cale- donia. On one of , the small adjoining islands the captain found a species of spruce-pine, of which spars and very good masts might be made, and called it the Isle of Pines. To another, which, af- forded ample employment to the botanists, he gave the name of Botany Isle. The captain, before he left this island, was en- abled so far to survey it as to ascertain that, excepting New Zealand, it is probably the largest island in the South Pacific Ocean. Another island was observed of good 284 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. height and five leagues in circuit, to which was given the name of Norfolk Isle. Having sailed in different latitudes, ex- tending from 43 deg. to 55 deg. 48 min. S. till the 27th, the ship being in W. long. 138 deg. 56 min., he gave up all hopes of finding any more land in this ocean. He therefore resolved to steer directly for the west entrance of the Straits of Magalhaens, with a view of coasting the south side of Terra del Fuego, round Cape Horn to the strait Le Maire. In the prosecution of this voyage, on the 17th of December he reached the west coast of Terra del Fuego, and on the =2oth anchored in a place to which he gave the name of Christmas Sound. The whole coast and country were desolate and uninteresting. Near every harbour, however, fresh water and wood for fuel were obtained. The country also abounds with wild fowl, and particularly geese. On the 28th Captain Cook left Christmas Sound and proceeded round Cape Horn, through Strait Le Maire, to Staten Land. = Having passed this famous cape on the next day, he en- tered the Southern Atlantic Ocean. On Staten Island he found a port on the 1st of January, which, from this circumstance, was denominated New Year's Harbour. In the small islands adjacent to Staten Land, and called New Year's Isles, Captain Cook perceived a harmony between the - different animals of the place, which he thought deserving of being recorded. On the 4th of January Captain Cook sailed from Staten Island, in order to reconnoitre that extensive coast laid down by Mr. Dalrymple in his chart, in which is the Gulf of St. Sebastian. As he had some doubt of the existence of such a coast, he determined to make the western point of the gulf; but when he came to the different points of it, he could discover neither land nor any unequivocal signs of it. Captain Cook having accomplished the great object of his navigation round the globe, began to direct his views towards England. Many circumstances relating to the state of his provisions and the health of his crew contributed to hasten his return. In his course to the Cape of Good Hope he searched for the isles of Denia and Marseveen, laid down in Halley’s variation chart in S. lat. 41 deg. 30 min. and about 4 degrees of longitude E. of the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope; but after sailing from February 25th to March 13th, no such islands could be discovered. On the 22nd of March he anchored in Table Bay, having sailed, from the time of leaving the Cape of Good Hope to his return thither, no lessthan twenty thousand leagues, which was an extent of voyage nearly equal to three times the equatorial circumference of the earth. It could not therefore be surprising that the rigging and sails of the Resolution should be essentially damaged and even worn out; and yet in the whole of this run, made in every latitude between 9 and 71 deg. she did not spring either low-mast, top-mast, lower or top-sail yard ; not did she somuch as break a lower or top-mast shroud. These happy circum- stances were owing to the good properties of the vessel, and the singular care and abilities of her officers. Captain Cook having completed the necessary repairs, and supplied himself with requisite stores and provisions, left the Cape on the 27th of April, and reached the island of St. Helena on the 15th of May; on the 28th he anchored on the island of Ascension, and arrived at the island of Fernando de Noronha on the gth of June. In the pro- gress of the voyage he made an experiment upon the still for procuring fresh water, the result of which was that the"invention is useful upon the whole, but that it would by no means be advisable to trust to it entirely, more especially as Captain Cook was con- vinced that nothing contributes more to the health of seamen than a plentiful supply of water. On the 16th of July the captain anchored in the Bay of Fayal, one of the Azores islands, and on the 1oth proceeded with all expedition ' for England. On the 30th he anchored at Spithead, and HONOURS BESTOWED ON CAPTAIN COOK 283 landed at Portsmouth, having been absent | of climate, he had lost but four men, and from Great Britain three years and eighteen days, during which time, and all changes only one of them by sickness. This was considered very satisfactory. Laptain Look. (Continued) ExPEDITION TO THE JARCTIC Peean—fruise IN THE Paciric ~ . HE able manner in J which Captain Cook had conducted this voyage, and the dis- coveries he had made, could not fail to recommend him to the protection and encou- ragement of those who had patronized the undertaking. The noble lord who had taken a lead in the plans of navigation and dis- covery was still at the head of the admiralty board ; and, recommended by him to his Majesty, our navigator was raised on the oth of August to the rank of a post-captain, and three days after appointed a captain in Greenwich Hospital—a situation which was intended to afford him a pleasing and honourable reward for his illustrious labours and services. Moreover, so important were his discoveries to science in general, that on the 29th of February, 1776, he was unani- mously chosen a member of the Royal Society ; and on the evening of the 7th of March, when he was admitted, a paper was read containing an account of the method he had taken to preserve the health of the seamen. Another paper was communicated, at the request of the president, Sir John Pringle, on the 18th of April, relative to the tides in the South Sea, viz, those in the —REMARKABLE ADVENTURES. Endeavour River, on. the east coast of New Holland. It was also resolved by the president and council to bestow on Captain Cook, Sir Godfrey Copley’s gold medal. The president, according to his custom, delivered an elaborate discourse on the subject of the paper, which was thus dis- tinguished. The particulars of this voyage were re- lated by Captain Cook himself, in a manner that redounds to his reputation as a writer. His style is natural, clear, and manly, being well adapted to the subject and to his own character. The superintendence of the publication was undertaken by his learned and valued friend, Dr. Douglas, who after- wards died in the see of Salisbury, and whose promotion afforded pleasure to per- sons of literature of every denomination. The history of the voyage was recommended to the public by the accuracy and excel- lence of its charts, and by a great variety of engravings from the curious and beautiful drawings of Mr. Hodges. It was followed by the publication of the original astro- nomical observations which had been made by Mr. Wailes in the Resolution, and Mr. Bayley in the Adventure. The illusion of a “Terra Australis in- cognita” to any purposes of commerce, colonization, and utility, having been dis- pelled, another geographical question of T 286 THE WONDERS OF 7/3F DEEF, very general interest remained to be deter- mined, and that was the practicability of a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Many persons had conceived that there was a shorter, a more commodious, and a more profitable course of sailing to Japan and China, and, indeed, to the East Indies - in general, than by the tedious circuit of the Cape of Good Hope. To find a western passage round North America had been attempted by several bold adventurers from Frobisher’s first voyage, in 1576, to those of James and of Fox, in 1631. By these expeditions a considerable accession was made to the knowledge of the northern extent of America, and Hudson’s and Baffin’s Bays were discovered. But the wished-for passage, on that side, into the Pacific Ocean, was still unattained. Nor were the various attempts of our country- men, and of the Dutch, to find such a pas- sage by sailing round the north of Asia in an eastern direction, attended with better success. Wood's failure in 1676 seems to have terminated the long list of unfortunate expeditions in that century. The discovery had ceased for many years to be an object of pursuit. However, the question was revived in the last century. Accordingly, Captain Middleton was sent out by Govern- ment in 1741, and Captains Smith and Moore in 1746. But, though an Act of Parliament had been passed, ensuring a reward of £20,000 to the discovery of a passage, the accomplishment of their fa- vourite object still remained to be effected. Previously to the full execution of this de- sign, Lord Mulgrave sailed with two ships, in order to determine how far navigation was practicable towards the North Pole. In this expedition his lordship encountered many difficulties. Nevertheless, the ex- pectation of opening a communication be- tween the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, by a northerly course, was not abandoned ; and it was resolved that a voyage should be undertaken for that purpose. Captain Cook was instantly and unanimously thought to be, in every respect, the most proper per- son to accomplish this difficult and hazard- ous, but very important and interesting object. He had, however, done so much, and undergone so many trials, that his most zealous friends, and those who were most ardently devoted to the object, could not think of asking him to engage in fresh perils; the undertaking, however, became a subject of conversation at the table of Lord Sandwich, when Captain Cook was present. The object, with all the interests connected with it, excited the ardour of the captain’s mind, and he offered to undertake the direction of the enterprise. The Earl of Sandwich lost no time ; the matter was laid before the king, and Captain Cook was appointed to the command of the expedi- tion, February 10, 1776. At the same time it was agreed that on his return to England he should be restored to his situation at Greenwich ; and, if no vacancy occurred during the interval, the officer who suc- ceeded him was to resign in his favour. All former navigators round the globe had returned to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope; but Captain Cook undertook to accomplish the arduous task by reaching the high northern latitudes between Asia and America; and it is thought that the captain’s own reflections on the subject suggested this plan. Instead, therefore, of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, one from the latter into the former was to be tried. Two vessels were fixed upon by Govern- ment for the intended service—the Resolu- tion and the Discovery—the former com- manded by Captain Cook, and the latter by Captain Clerke. To the Resolution was assigned the same number of officers and men which she had during her former voyage ; and the only difference in the establishment of the Discovery from that of Adventure was that she had no marine officer on board. Both ships were equipped in the most complete manner, and furnished with such an establishment and apparatus, etc., as might most effectually conduce to the improvement of astronomy and navi- HUMAN SACRIFICES. 287 gation. As the ships were to touch at Otaheite and the Society Islands, it was determined to carry Omai back to his native country, who returned with deep impres- sions of gratitude and respect for the liberal treatment which he had received during his ~ absence, and whilst he continued in Eng- land. Captain Cook sailed from the Nore to the Downs on the 25th of June, and on the goth anchored in Plymouth Sound, where the Discovery was already arrived. On the 8th of July he received his instruc- tions, with orders to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope. * On the 12th he stood off Plymouth Sound, and proceeding in his course, touched at Teneriffe, anchoring on the 1st of August in the road of Santa Cruz, Having procured the necessary articles of refreshment, he sailed from Teneriffe on the 4th, and on the 13th arrived before Port Praya in the island of St. Jago, and then, not finding the Discovery there, stood out to the southward. After visiting Prince Edward’s Islands, and examining Kerguelen’s Land, he came on February the 12th to his old station in Queen Charlotte’s Sound, in New Zealand. Here he found that ten men who had separated from Captain Furneaux’s crew in the former voyage had been murdered by the natives, and that their flesh had been consumed as food. The fear of revenge rendered them very averse from approach- ing the English vessels. On the 27th Captain Cook got clear of New Zealand; and having by various adverse circum- stances been so much retarded in his pro- gress that nothing could be done this year in the high latitudes of the northern hemi- sphere, he determined to bear away for the Friendly Islands, where he was sure of be- ing abundantly provided. Accordingly he reached Palmerston Island in his course, where he obtained some refreshment ; and after leaving this island, he steered to the west, with a view of making the best of his way to Annamooka. On the 28th of April he touched at the island of Koman- go, and on the 1st of May arrived at Annamooka. The only interruption of the harmony that subsisted between our voya- gers and the natives of this island arose from the thievish disposition of many of them. In order to correct and counteract this propensity, a mode of treatment was invented which produced some effect—the putting of the thieves into the hands of the barber, who completely shaved their head. They thus became objects of ridicule to their countrymen, and their rogueries were restrained. Captain Cook sailed next to the Friendly Islands, where he remained between two and three months. On the 12th of August he steered for Oheisepeha Bay, designing to anchor there before he went down to Matavia. Omai’s reception among his countrymen was not entirely of a flattering nature. Nothing that was peculiarly strik- ing occurred at their first meeting. His interview with his sister, however, was agreeable to the feelings of nature ; and his aunt threw herself at his feet, and bedewed them with tears of joy. On the 24th the captain resumed his old station in Matavia Bay. On this visit he was fully satisfied that human sacrifices formed a part of the religious institution of Otaheite ; for he was witness to a solemnity of this kind, which he has particularly described with the just sentiments of indignation and abhorrence. Here the captain was cured of a rheumatic complaint, extending from the hip to the foot, in an extraordinary manner. The mother of Otoo, a chief of the island, his three sisters, and eight other women, under- took the cure. Being desired to lay himself down amongst them, as many as could get round him began to squeeze him with both hands, from head to foot, but more par- ticularly in the part where the pain was lodged, till they made his bones crack, and his flesh became a perfect mummy. After undergoing this discipline about a quarter of an hour, he was glad to be released from his female friends. The operation, however, gave him immediate relief, so that he was | encouraged to submit to another rubbing 288 THE WONDERS CF THE DEEP. down before he went to bed; the conse- quence of which was, that he was tolerably easy the whole succeeding night. His female physicians repeated their prescription the next morning, and again in the evening; after which his pains were entirely removed, and the cure was perfected. This operation, which is called “Romee,” is universally prac- tised among these islanders, being some- times performed by the men, but generally by the women. During this visit of -our voyagers to Otaheite, such a cordial friend- ship and confidence subsisted between them and the natives, as never once to be inter- rupted by any untoward accident. From Otaheite our voyagers sailed on the 3oth to Eimeo, where they anchored. The trans- actions on this island were, upon the whole, unpleasant. On the 11th of October the ship left it, and next day arrived at Owharre harbour, on the west side of Huaheine. Here they settled Omai to mutual satisfac- tion, having procured for him a portion of land and built a house. After parting with Omai in an affectionate manner, and leaving him comfortably settled among several of his relatives, Captain Cook arrived at Bolabola, the last of the Society Islands, which he visited on the 8th of De- cember. Upon the whole, it has been observed that the future felicity of the inhabitants of Otaheite and the Society Islands will not a little depend on occa- sional visits from Europe, for it would have been better for these poor people, as Captain Cook says, never to have known our superiority in the accommodations and arts which render life comfortable, than, after once knowing it, to again be aban- doned to their original incapacity of im- provement. On the 8th of December our commanders sailed from Bolabola, and after touching at several new islands, they, on the 7th of March, discovered the coast of New Albion, the ships being then in N. lat. 44 deg. 33 min, E. long. 235 deg. 20 min. In ranging on the west side of America Captain Cook gave names to several capes and head-lands which appeared in sight. At length, on the 29th, he anchored in an inlet, where the country appeared full of mountains, with snow covering their sum- mits, interspersed with valleys which pro- duced high, straight trees, exhibiting a beautiful prospect, as of one vast forest. The ships were now in N. lat. 49 deg. 26 min., E. long. 232 deg. 29 min. The in- habitants on the coast appeared to be dis- posed to maintain a friendly intercourse with strangers; and a trade immediately commenced, the articles of which were the skins of various animals, such as bears, wolves, foxes, deer, racoons, pole-cats, and martins, and particularly sea-otters. Gar- ments made of these were also offered for sale. The most extraordinary articles, how- ever, were human skulls, and hands not quite stripped of their flesh, some of which exhibited marks of having been upon the fire. In exchange the natives took knives, chisels, pieces of iron and tin, nails, look- ing-glasses, buttons, or any kind of metal. Although commerce was, in general, carried on with mutual honesty, some of these people were no less inclined to theft than the islanders in the Southern ocean. Of all the uncivilized tribes which our com- mander met with in his various navigations, he never found any who had such strict notions of their right to the exclusive property of everything which their country produced as the inhabitants of the Sound where he was now stationed. With Captain Cook—very much to the honour of his character and of his country—it was a sacred rule never to take any part of the property of the people whom he visited, without an ample compensation. Whilst the ships were under repair for the prose- cution of the expedition, our captain im- proved every opportunity that occurred for extending his knowledge of the manners and customs of the inhabitants, who, in general, treated him with great civility. The natives were much addicted to singing; and, in some instances, the whole body joined, some in a slow, and others in a quicker time, accompanying their notes CAFE PRINCE OF WALES 289 with the most regular motions of their hands, or with beating in concert with their paddles on the sides of the canoes, to which were added other very expressive gestures. At the end of each song they continued silent for a few moments, and then began again, sometimes pronouncing the word Hooee / forcibly as a chorus. At our captain’s first arrival in this inlet, he denominated it King George’s Sound; but he afterwards was informed that the natives called it Nootka. On the 26th, the repairs of the ships being completed, everything was ready for the captain’s departure. In the prosecution of the voyage to the north, and back again to the Sandwich Islands, the incidents that occurred were chiefly of a nautical kind. The first place at which Captain Cook landed, after his departure from Nootka Sound, was an island which he called" Kaye's Island, situated at its S.W. point in N. lat. 59 deg. 49 min., E. long. 216 deg. 58 min. To an inlet in which the ships anchored on the 12th, he gave the appel- lation of Prince William’s Sound. Some days after leaving this Sound, our navigators came to an inlet, which they hoped would be found to communicate with the sea to the north, or with Baffin’s or Hudson's Bay to the east; and therefore they determined particularly to examine it. In consequence of a complete investigation of this inlet, it was discovered to be a river, which was afterwards called Cook’s River. On the 6th of June they got clear of this river, and pursuing their voyage, they sailed on the oth, amidst the group of islands which had been called by Behring, Schumagin’s Islands. On the 21st, among some hills, on the main-land, that towered above the clouds to a most amazing height, one was discovered to have a volcano, which con- tinually threw up vast columns of smoke. It does not stand far from the coast, and is situated in N. lat. 54 deg. 48 min. and E. long. 195 deg. 45 min. The mountain is of a completely conical figure, and the volcano “1s at its very summit. A canoe from an island in the neighbourhood approached the ship, and the single person on board bowed as he came near. From such tokens of politeness, our captain reasonably in- ferred that the Russians must have some communications and traffic with these people. On the 27th our voyagers reached an island, known by the name of Oonal- ashka, the inhabitants of which behaved with a degree of politeness uncommon to savage tribes. The harbour of Samaga- mooda, on the north side of the island, in which Captain Cook came to an anchor, is situated in N. lat. 53 deg. 53 min. E. long. 193 deg. 30 min. On the 2nd of July our voyagers left Oonalashka, and on the 16th were within sight of a promontory, on which Lieutenant Williamson landed; but he found that the land, as far as his view extended, produced neither tree nor shrub, though the lower grounds were not desti- tute of grass, and of some other plants. On the 2nd of August, Captain Cook anchored under a point of land, to which he gave the name of Cape Prince of Wales, situated in N. lat. 65 deg. 46 min., E. long. 191 deg. 45 min., and remarkable for being the most western extremity of America hitherto explored. This extremity is distant from the eastern cape of Siberia only thirteen leagues; and there our com- mander had the glory of ascertaining the vicinity of the two continents, which had only been conjectured from the reports of the neighbouring Asiatic inhabitants and the imperfect observations of the Russian navigators. Resuming his course on the roth, Captain Cook anchored in a bay, the land of which was at first supposed to be a part of the island Alaschka; but from the figure of the coast, from the situation of the opposite shore of America, and from the longitude, the captain thought to be more probably the country of the Tschut- ski, on the eastern extremity of Asia, which had been explored by Behring in 1728, and this was found to be the fact. From the bay of St. Laurence, belonging to the country of the Tschutski, our navigators 290 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. steered, on the 11th, to the east, in order to get nearer to the coast of America. Afterwards, proceeding to the north, they reached, on the. 17th, the latitude of 70 deg. 33 min. in longitude 197 deg. 41 min. On this day a brightness was per- ceived in the northern horizon, resem- bling that which is reflected from ice, and which is commonly called the 4/izk. In about an hour’s time the sight of a large field of ice removed all doubt in Captain Cook’s mind with respect to the cause of the brightness of the horizon. The ships were soon close to the edge of the ice, in lat. 70 deg. 41 min., and unable to proceed any farther. On the 18th, in lat. 70 deg. 44 min., the ice near them was as compact as a wall, and judged to be at least ten or twelve feet high. Farther to the north it appeared much higher. A prodigious num- ber of sea-horses lay upon the ice, and some of them were procured for food, in order to supply the want of fresh provisions. Our voyagers lived on the seahorses as long as they lasted ; and they were generally preferred to salt provisions. Captain Cook continued, until the 29th, to traverse the icy sea beyond Behring’s Strait in various directions and through numberless obstruc- tions and difficulties. The season, indeed, was now so far advanced, that it would have been highly imprudent to have made any further attempts, till the next summer, at finding a passage into the Atlantic. On the 2nd of October our voyagers came within sight of the island of Oona- lashka, and anchored again in Samganood- ha Harbour. Here, whilst the ships were re- pairing, the seamen collected berries, with which the island abounds, and which, in con- junction with the spruce-beer, contributed effectually to eradicate every seed of the scurvy that might exist in either of the vessels. They also procured an ample supply of fish. Captain Cook, on the 8th, received a very singular present, which was a rye-loaf, or rather a pie, in the form of a loaf, for it enclosed some salmon, highly seasoned with pepper. Captain Clerke received also the same kind of present. These presents, it was reasonably supposed, came by the hands of an Oonalashkan, from some Russians in the neighbourhood. On the roth, Corporal Lediard, of the marines, returned from his researches with three Russian seamen, or furriers, who, with several others, resided at Engooehshar, where they had a dwelling-house, some store- houses, and a sloop of about thirty tons burthen. From these persons Captain Cook derived every possible degree of informa- tion. Afterwards, another Russian was in- troduced to our captain, whose name was Erasim Gregorioff Sin Ismyloff, and who was the principal person among his country- men in this and the neighbouring islands. From him he obtained two charts, which he was permitted to copy. - The first in- cluded the Penshinkian Sea; the coast of Tartary, down to the latitude of 41 deg. ; the Kuril islands; and the peninsula of Kamtschatka. The second chart, which was the most interesting, comprehended all the discoveries made by the Russians to the eastward of Kamtschatka, towards America; which, however, exclusively of the voyages of Behring and Tcherikoff, amounted to little or nothing. Indeed, Captain Cook was assured that no Russians had ever seen any part of the continent of America to the northward, excepting that which lies opposite to the country of the Tschutkis. THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 291 SCENE IN SANDWICH ISLANDS, VISITED BY CAPTAIN COOK, 202 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. LarTann Look. (Continued.) ADVENTURES IN THE SANDWICH Jsranps—[ AsT VOYAGE. CU" N Oct. 26th, all things being ready for Captain ~~ Cook’s ~. departure, he put BY . L to sea, and sailed for the Sandwich Islands; it being his intention to spend a few months there, and then to direct his course to Kamtschatka, so as to en- deavour to reach that country by the middle of May, in the ensuing summer. On the 26th of Novem- ber, when the ships had proceeded south- ward to the latitude of 20 deg. 55 min., land was discovered, which proved to be the island of Mowe, one of the group of the Sandwich Islands, with the inhabitants of which a friendly intercourse was maintained. Another island was discovered on the 3oth, called by the natives “ Owhyhee.” Among the articles procured from the natives was a quantity of sugar-cane, a strong decoction of which was found, upon trial, to be a very palatable beer ; more especially when improved with a few hops. On the 16th of January, 1799, canoes in great numbers came out from all parts of the island, so that the two ships were surrounded with no fewer than a thousand, crowded with people, and laden with hogs and other productions of the island. Some of them, however, manifested a thievish disposition, and Cap- tain Cook, in order to check it, ordered two or three muskets and as many four- pounders to be fired over one of the canoes which had carried away a rudder. Into PeaTtH AND [fHARACTER. a bay affording good anchorage and fresh water, Captain Cook resolved to take the ships in order to refit, and to obtain every refreshment which the place could afford. The bay in which the ships anchored on the 17th was called by the inhabitants Kara- kakooa. The vessels were soon surrounded with a multitude of canoes, and the whole shore of the bay was covered with specta- tors, whilst many hundreds were swimming round the ship like shoals of fish. Our navi- gators were much impressed by the singular. ity of the scene ; and few of them lamented their unsuccessful endeavours of getting homeward, the last summer, by a northern passage. The reception which the captain met with from the natives, on his proceeding to anchor in Karakakooa Bay, was in a very high degree encouraging. The natives expressed their joy by singing and shouting, and by exhibiting a variety of wild and extravagant gestures. During the long cruise of our navigators off the island of Owhyhee, the inhabitants had conducted themselves in their dealings, almost uni- versally, with fairness and honesty; but after the arrival of the ships in the bay, they altered their conduct. The immense crowds of islanders that encompassed the ships afforded frequent opportunities of pilfering without the risk of detection, and held out, especially as their number was much superior to that of the English, the prospect of escaping with impunity. Another circumstance to which the altera- | tion in the conduct of the natives may be ISLAND OF OWHAYHEE. 293 ascribed, arose from the presence and en- couragement of their chiefs, into whose possession the booty might be traced, and who were probably the instigators of the depredations that were committed. Soon after the Resolution had gotten into her station, three chiefs, one of whom, named Koah, who was a priest, and in his youth had been a distinguished warrior, visited the ship; and in the evening, Captain Cook, accompanied by Mr. Bayley and Mr. King, attended him on shore. The captain was received with great civility, and a respect, on the part of the natives, approaching to adoration. The captain was particularly desirous of procuring from the island some salted hogs for sea-store; and, with this view, of renewing former attempts in the operation for this purpose. The event answered his most sanguine expectations. On the 26th Captain Cook had his first interview with Terreeoboo, the king of the island, which was conducted with a variety of ceremonies, among which the custom of exchanging names, which among the island- ers of the Pacific Ocean is the strongest pledge of friendship, was observed. The king, attended by several chiefs, was con- ducted in a pinnace on board the Reso- lution, where they were received, apparently much to their satisfaction, with peculiar attention and respect. In the progress of the intercourse which was carried on be- tween our voyagers and the natives, the quiet and inoffensive behaviour of the latter took away every apprehension of danger, and inspired an unsuspecting confidence in the English. A society of priests in par- ticular displayed a generosity and munifi- cence of which there are few ‘examples ; for they furnished a constant supply of hogs and vegetables to our navigators, without ever demanding, or even suggesting a return. Indeed, the conduct of the warrior chiefs, or Frees, was always less satisfactory than that of the priests. Although the kind and liberal behaviour of the natives con- tinued without remission, Terreeoboo and his chiefs began at length to be very inquisitive about the time of the departure of the English; but this is not surprising when we consider the enormous consump- tion of hogs and vegetables which had taken place during their abode of six- teen days in the bay. When the king was: informed that they were to leave the island in a day or two, a proclamation was made through the island, requiring the people te bring their hogs and vegetables, that they might be presented by the king to Orona, the title of respect given to Captain Cook, on his quitting the country. Accordingly, on the 3rd of February, being the day pre- ceding that which was fixed for leaving the island, Terreeoboo invited Captain Cook and Mr. King to attend him to the place where Kaoo resided. On their arrival, they found the adjoining ground covered with parcels of cloth, and at a little distance an immense quantity of vegetables; and near them was a large herd of hogs. At the close of the visit a great part of the cloth, and all the vegetables and hogs, were given by Terreeoboo to Captain Cook and Mr. King, who were astonished at the value of the present. Such was the attachment of the inhabitants of Owhyhee to Mr. King, that Terreeoboo and Kaoo waited upon Captain Cook, whose son they supposed him to be, to solicit his residence in their country. Early on the 4th the ships sailed out of Karakakooa Bay, being followed by a large number of canoes. It was the captain’s design, before he visited the other islands, to make a complete survey of Owhyhee, in hopes of finding a better sheltered bay than that which he had left; and upon failure of success, to take a view of the south-east part of Mowee, where, as he was informed, he might find an excellent harbour. After sailing about the island of Owhyhee for several days, the weather being stormy, and the fore-mast of the ZKesolution being damaged, our navigators returned on the rrth to Karakakooa Bay; but in coming to an anchor, they found their reception to be very different from what it had been on 294 THE WONDERS OF TAE DEEP. their first arrival. Their anxiety, however, was in some measure relieved by the re- turn of a boat which had been sent on shore, and which brought information that Terreeoboo was absent, and had left the bay under the Zwloo. The behaviour of the natives, however, appeared mysterious, and excited suspicion; the interdiction of intercourse, on pretence of the king's absence, afforded reason for apprehending that he only wished to gain time for con- sulting with his chiefs. On the next morn- ing Terreeoboo arrived, and immediately visited Captain Cook; this circumstance, and the return of the natives to their usual friendly intercourse, were considered as strong proofs that they neither meant nor apprehended any change of conduct. Some other incidents confirmed this opinion. To- wards the evening of the 13th, information was received that several chiefs assembled at the well near the beach, and drove away the natives who had been hired to assist the sailors in rolling down the casks to the shore. It was afterwards found that the islanders had armed themselves with stones, and were very tumultuous. Not to mention some instances of theft and subsequent dissensions which occurred, one of a very serious and unpleasant nature happened, which it may not be improper to specify on account of the consequences that ensued. A canoe belonging to Pareea was seized, and he, protesting his innocence with re- gard to the theft that had been committed, claimed his property. A scuffle took place between him and the English officer with some of his companions, in which Pareea was knocked down by a violent blow on the head with an oar. The natives, who had been peaceable spectators, immediately attacked the English seamen with a shower of stones which obliged them precipitately to retreat, and to swim off to a rock at some distance from the shore. The pinnace, which was waiting for Captain Cook’s re- turn, was immediately ransacked by the islanders, and if it had not been for the seasonable interposition of Pareea, would have been entirely demolished. Pareea interfered further in restoring the pinnace, and being assured that he would be kindly received by the Orono, joined noses (accord- ing to their customs) with the officers, in token of friendship, and paddled over to the village of Kowrowa. Captain Cook, on being informed of this occurrence, expressed much uneasiness. “I am afraid,” says he, “that these people will oblige me to use some violent measures, for,” he added, “ they must not be left to imagine that they have gained an advantage over us.” The confidence of our navigators and the natives gradually abated, and they thought it necessary to be very much upon their guard. At this time the cutter belonging to the Discovery was stolen, and Captain Cook made the necessary preparations for the recovery of it. On occasions of a similar kind, it had been his practice to get the king or some of the principal Zrees on board, and to detain them as hostages till the article that had been lost was restored. This method he meant now to pursue, and he also gave orders to stop all the canoes that should attempt to leave the bay, with an intention of seizing and destroying them, if by peaceable means he could not recover the cutter. Captain Cook and Mr. King, together with Mr. Philips and nine marines, left the ship, and when they landed, the captain instructed Mr. King to quiet the minds of the natives by assuring them they should not be hurt, to keep his people to- gether, and to be on his guard. Whilst Mr. King was employed in executing his com- mission, Captain Cook proceeded to Kow- rowa, where the king resided, and landed with the lieutenant and nine marines. The people received him with the usual tokens of respect, prostrating themselves before him, and bringing their customary offerings of small hogs. Having gained an interview with Terreeoboo, he invited him to return in the boat, and spend the day on board the Resolution. To this proposal the old king assented, and immediately accom- panied him. One of the king's favourite DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK 295 wives, however, besought him, with many tears and intreaties, not to go on board ; and two chiefs, who accompanied her, forced him to sit down. The natives, who were collecting in great numbers on the shore, and who had been alarmed by the hostilities that had previously occurred in the bay, thronged round Captain Cook and their king. The lieutenant of marines, perceiving that they were much pressed, and. thus ren- dered incapable of using their arms if occa- sion should require it, proposed to the captain to draw them up along the rocks, close to the water’s edge ; and accordingly they formed a line at the distance of about thirty yards from the place where the king was sitting. The old king appeared to be much alarmed, and when the captain urged him to proceed, the chiefs interposed, at first by prayers and entreaties, and after- wards by force and violence, insisted on his staying where he was. The captain at length desisted, observing to Mr. Philips that it would be impossible to compel him to go on board without the risk of killing a great number of the inhabitants. Captain ‘Cook’s person had hitherto appeared to be in no danger; but a circumstance acci- dentally occurred which gave a fatal turn to ‘his situation. The boats which had been stationed across the bay to prevent the escape of the canoes fired at some of them that were endeavouring to go off, and unfortunately killed a chief of the first rank. The news of his death arrived at the village where Captain Cook was, just as he had left the king and was walking slowly toward the shore. Upon this the women and children were immediately sent off, and the men put on their war-mats and armed them- selves with spears and stones. One of the natives, having in his hands a stone and a long iron spike (called a pa/ooa), advanced to the captain, flourishing his weapon in defiance, and threatening to throw the stone. The captain, after having ineffectually de- sired him to desist, fired a load of small shot, which, as the man had on his war-mat, served only to irritate and encourage the enraged people. Several stones were thrown at the marines, and one of the Zrees at- tempted to stab Mr. Philips with his pa/ooa, but failed in the attempt. Captain Cook now fired his second barrel, loaded with ball, and killed one of the foremost of the natives. A general attack with stones imme- diately followed, which was returned by a discharge of musketry from the marines and the people in the boats. The islanders, contrary to expectation, stood the fire with great firmness, and before the marines had time to reload, broke in upon them with dreadful shouts and yells. Four marines were cut off among the rocks in their retreat; three more were danger- ously wounded, and the lieutenant, who had received a stab between the shoulders with a pakooa, having fortunately reserved his * fire, shot the man who had wounded him just as he was going to repeat his blow. The unfortunate commander, the last time in which he was distinctly seen, was stand- ing at the water’s edge, and calling out to the boats to cease firing and to pull in. If it be true, as some of those who were present imagined, that the mariners and boatmen had fired without his orders, and that he was desirous of preventing any further bloodshed, it is not improbable that his humanity, on this occasion, proved fatal to him; for it was remarked that whilst he faced the natives, none of them had offered him any violence, but that, having turned about to give his orders to the boats, he was stabbed in the back, and fell with his face into the water. On seeing him fall, the islanders set up a great shout, and his body was immediately dragged on shore, and surrounded by the enemy, who, snatch- ing the dagger out of each other's hands, showed a savage eagerness to have a share in his destruction. ¢ Thus fell,” says Cap- tain King, “our great and excellent com- mander !” In consequence of the savage disposition of the natives, the whole remains of Captain Cook could not be recovered. Although various means, soothing and menacing, 296 ZHE WONDERS OF THE DELL were employed for this purpose, little more than the principal part of the bones could be procured. By the possession of these, our navigators were enabled to perform the "last offices to their eminent and unfortunate . commander. The bones having been put into a coffin and the service being read over them, were committed to the deep, on the 21st, with the usual military honours. What were the feelings of the companies of both the ships on this occasion, the world must be left to conceive ; for those who were present know that it is not in the power of any pen to describe them. Such was the high estimation in which the character and enterprises of Captain Cook were held by neighbouring nations, that when war was declared between France and England, a letter was issued, on the 15th of March, 1779, by Monsieur Sartine, secretary of the marine department at Paris, and sent to all the commanders of the French ships, which, after doing honour to the importance and utility of his discover- ies, ordered that the ship of Captain Cook should be treated with respect at sea. The adoption of this measure was suggested by Monsieur Turgot, who also composed a memorial, in which he proved that honour, reason, and even interest, dictated this act of respect for humanity ; and it was in con- sequence of this memorial, as we learn from M. Condorcet (in his “Life of M. Turgot”), that an order was given not to treat as an enemy the common benefactor of every European nation. The first thought of such a plan of conduct was very probably sug- gested by Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who, when he was ambassador at Paris from the United States of America, preceded the court of France in issuing a similar requisition. We shall close this article, as far as it respects the discoveries of Captain Cook, with merely mentioning that the Sandwich Islands were further explored; that Kam- tschatka was visited, and a very friendly intercourse maintained with the Russian officers of that country ; that our navigators experienced the most generous and hospi- ‘of his talents and services table treatment from Major Behm, in par- ticular, the commander of the garrison at - Bolcharetsk ; that they proceeded to the north, in pursuit of the grand object of the expedition ; that, having passed through Behring’s Strait, and attained to somewhat more than 69} degrees of northern latitude, they found it absolutely impossible to pene- trate through the ice, either in the side of America or on the side of Asia; that every hope being precluded of accomplishing, in this way, a passage into the Atlantic Ocean, Captain Clerke was obliged to come to the determination of sailing back to the south- ward ; that on the 22nd of April, 1779, the captain died of a consumption ; that Captain Gore succeeded to the command of the Resolution, and Lieutenant King to that of the Discovery ; that a second visit was paid to Kamtschatka, which ex- tended our acquaintance with that part of the world ; that no small accession of in- formation was acquired with respect to geographical science in general; that our voyagers pursued their course by the coasts of Japan and China ; that they made some stay at Canton ; that thence they proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope ; that they came to an anchor at Stromness on the 22nd of May, 1780; that both ships arrived at the Nore on the 4th of October, after an absence of four years, two months, and twenty-two days ; that, during the whole of the expedition, the Resolution lost only five men by sickness, three of whom were in a precarious state of health at their departure from England, while the Discovery did not lose a single man ; and that the history of the voyage, from the time in which Captain Cook’s journal ends, was written with great ability by Mr. King. By the decease of Captain King, who died at Nice, in Italy, in 1784, this country sustained another loss of an able and scientific commander and navigator, who had left a memorial which has honourably united his name with that of the immortal Cook. In sketching the talents and character o CAPTAIN COOK. 207 Captain Cook, strikingly illustrated in the actions and enterprises of his life, we shall avail ourselves of the assistance that is afforded us by his professed or incidental biographers. Captain Cook possessed, in an eminent degree, an inventive mind, which, by its native vigour, suggested noble objects of pursuit, and the most effec- tual methods of prosecuting and attain- ing them. This faculty he exemplified in a great variety of critical and difficult situa- tions. To this kind of genius he added unwearied application. By his genius and unremitting assiduity he acquired an exten- sive acquaintance, not only with navigation, but with many other sciences. He was so well informed with regard to different branches of the mathematics, and parti- cularly in astronomy, that he was able to take the lead in various observations of an astronomical kind, in the course of his voyages. In general literature, and even the art of composition, he was so great a proficient, that he acquired reputation, not DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK. “ THUS FELL OUR GREAT AND EXCELLENT COMMANDER. merely as the performer, but as the narra- tor, of his various interesting enterprises. Perseverance and steadiness in the prose- cution of the objects to which his life was devoted were distinguishing features of his character; and such was the invincible fortitude of his spirit, that no difficulties or dangers intimidated him, or deterred him from accomplishing any purpose which he formed, or which the hazardous services assigned him required. His fortitude was of course accompanied with complete self- ’ possession. This latter quality was emi- nently useful to him in many critical and trying circumstances. Accordingly, it is observed that the calmness and composure of his mind were such, that, after having given necessary directions, he could take his rest, and sleep during the hours which he allotted to himself with perfect sound- ness. To the great qualities possessed by Captain Cook, he added the most amiable and conciliatory virtues. His humanity is illustrated in the whole course of his con- 298 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. duct during his successive voyages, with regard to the inhabitants of the countries which he visited, and with respect to the accommodation, health, and comfort of his own seamen. In the private relations of life he maintained an excellent and exem- plary character as a husband and father, and as a sincere and steady friend ; and his sobriety and virtue gave stability and security to every other moral qualification. He was also distinguished by the simplicity of his manners. In conversation be was unaffected and unassuming; and yet, on necessary occasions, obliging and communi- cative. To this general account of his talents and virtues we shall subjoin some deline- ations of his character by one who was intimately acquainted with him, and who had an opportunity of marking his temper and conduct in the various trying circum- stances that occurred in the course of his life. Captain King, the continuator of the journal of his last voyage, has given us the following sketch of his character :—* The constitution of his body was robust, inured to labour, and capable of undergoing the severest hardships. His stomach bore, without difficulty, the coarsest and most ungrateful food. Indeed, temperance in him was scarcely a virtue, so great was the in- difference with which he submitted to every kind of self-denial. The qualities of his mind were of the same hardy, vigorous kind with those of his body. His under- standing was strong and perspicacious ; his judgment, in whatever related to the services he was engaged in, quick and sure. His designs were bold and manly ; and both in the conception and in the mode of execu- tion bore evident marks of a great original genius. His courage was cool and deter- mined, and accompanied with an admirable presence of mind in the moment of danger. His manners were plain and unaffected. His temper might perhaps have been justly blamed, as subject to hastiness and passion, had not these been disarmed by a disposition the most benevolent and humane. Such were the outlines of Captain Cook’s char- acter; but its most distinguishing feature was that unremitting perseverance in the pursuit of his object, which was not only superior to the opposition of dangers and the pressure of hardships, but even exempt from the want of ordinary relaxation. During the long and tedious voyages in which he was engaged, his eagerness and activity were never in the least abated. No incidental temptation could detain him for a moment ; even those intervals of re- creation which sometimes unavoidably oc- curred, and were looked for by us with a longing that persons who have experienced the fatigues of service will readily excuse, were submitted to by him with a certain im- patience whenever they could not be em- ployed in making further provision for the more effectual prosecution of his designs.” Traveller! contemplate, admire, revere, and emulate this great master in his profes- sion, whose skill and labours have enlarged natural philosophy, have extended nautical science, and have disclosed the long un- sealed and admirable arrangement of the Almighty in the formation of this globe, and, at the same time, the arrogance of mortals in presuming to account, by their speculations, for the laws by which He was pleased to create it. It is now discovered, beyond all doubt, that the same great Being who created the universe by His fiaf, by the same ordained our earth to keep a just poise, without a corresponding southern continent, and it was so! “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing” (Job xxxvi. 7). If the arduous but exact researches of this extraordinary man have not discovered a new world, they have discovered seas unnavigated and unknown before. They have made us acquainted with islands, people, and pro- ductions of which we had no conception. And if he has not been so fortunate as Americus to give his name to a continent, his pretensions to such a distinction remain unrivalled ; and he will be revered, while there remains a page of his own modest SHETLAND FISHERMEN. 299 account of his voyage, and as long as mariners and geographers shall be in- structed, by his new map of the southern hemisphere, to trace the various courses and discoveries he has made. If public ser- vices merit public acknowledgments ; if the man who adorned and raised the fame of his country is deserving of honour, then Captain Cook deserves to have a monument raised to his memory by a generous and grateful nation. The Royal Society testified their respect for the memory of their illustrious member by medals, struck on this occasion, some of gold, others or silver, and others of bronze, the expense of which was defrayed by sub- scription. On one side is the head of Captain Cook in profile, and round it JAc. COOK OCEANI INVESTIGATOR ACERRIMUS ; and on the exergue, REG. Soc. LoND. Socic suo. On the reverse is a representation of Britannia holding a globe; round her is inscribed NIL, INTENTATUM NOSTRI LIQUERE ; and on the exergue, AUSPICIIS Georcit III. Thus was he honoured by his countrymen. SHETLAND FISHERMEN. Shh d is the princi- pal employment of the natives of Shet- land, and was formerly that upon which the gentry chiefly depended for their in- come, and the poor for their ) subsistence. The fishing season A is therefore, like the harvest of an agricultural country, the busiest ond most important, as well as the most animating period of the year. The fishermen of each district assemble at particular stations, with their boats and crews, and erect upon the shore small huts, composed of shingle and covered with turf, for their temporary lodging, and skeos, or drying-houses, for the fish; so that the lonely beach at once assumes the appear- ance of an Indian town. The banks to which they repair for the Haaf fishing are often many miles distant from the station where the fish is dried, so that they are always twenty or thirty hours absent, Bt <0 ID » TY IN 4 oy at 8 AN fro Norse PEA- SONG— A MonsTER OF THE gi frequently longer, and under unfavourable circumstances of wind and tide, they remain at sea, with a very small stock of provisions, and in a boat of a construction which seems extremely slender, for two or three days, and are sometimes heard of no more. The departure of the fishers, therefore, on this occupation, has in it a character of danger and of suffering which renders it dignified, and the anxiety of the females who remain on the beach, watching the departure of the lessening boat, or anxiously looking out for its return, gives pathos to the scene. We here (following Scott) describe one of these scenes, in which the various crews of -about thirty boats, amounting each to from three to five or six men, were taking leave of their wives and female relatives, and jumping on board their long Norway skiffs, where their lines and tackle lay ready stowed. The chief fisherman was not an idle spectator of the scene; he went from one place to another, inquiring into the state of their provisions for the voyage, and their preparations for the fishing—now and 300 THE WONDERS OF 7HE DEEF. then, with a rough Dutch or Norse oath, abusing them for blockheads, for going to sea with their boats indifferently found, but always ending by ordering from his own stores a gallon of gin, a lispund of meal, or some similar essential addition to their sea- stores. The hardy sailors, on receiving such favours, expressed their thanks in the brief gruff manner which their landlord best approved ; but the women were more clamorous in their gratitude, which he was often obliged to silence by cursing all female tongues from Eve’s downwards. At length all were on board and ready, the sails were hoisted, the signal for de- parture given, the rowers began to pull, and all started from the shore, in strong emula- tion to get first to the fishing ground, and to have their lines set before the rest,—an exploit to which no little consequence was attached by the boat’s crew who should be happy enough to perform it. While they were yet within hearing of the shore, they chanted an ancient Norse ditty, appropriate to the occasion, of which the following is a literal translation :— ¢¢ Farewell, merry maidens, to song and to laugh, For the brave lads of Westra are bound to the Haaf ; And we must have labour, and hunger, and pain, Ere we dance with the maids of Dunrossness again. For now, in our trim boats of Noroway deal, We must dance on the waves, with the porpoise and seal ; The breeze it shall pipe, so it pipe not too high, And the gull be our songstress whene’er she flits by. Sing on, my brave bird, while we follow, like thee, By bank, shoal, and quicksand, the swarms of the sea ; And when twenty-score fishes are straining our line, Sing louder, brave bird, for their spoils shall be thine. We'll sing while we bait, and we'll sing when we haul, For the deeps of the Haaf have enough for us all; There is torsk for the gentle, and skate for the carle, And there’s wealth for bold Magnus, the son of the earl. Huzza! my brave comrades, give way for the aaf, We shall sooner come back to the dance and the laugh ; For life without mirth is a lamp without oil ; Then, mirth and long life to the bold Magnus Troil.” The rude words of the song were soon drowned in the ripple of the waves, but the tune continued long to mingle with the sound of wind and sea, and the boats were like so many black specks on the surface of the ocean, diminishing by degrees as they bore far and farther seaward ; while the ear could distinguish touches of the human voice, almost drowned amid that of the elements. The fishermen’s wives looked their last after the parting sails, and were now depart- ing slowly, with downcast and anxious looks, towards the huts in which they were to make arrangements for preparing and dry- ing the fish with which they hoped to see their husbands and friends return deeply laden. Here and there an old sibyl dis- played the superior importance of her experience by predicting, from the appear- ance of the atmosphere, that the wind would be fair or foul, while others recom- mended a vow to the Kirk of St. Ninians, for the safety of their men and boats (an ancient Catholic superstition, not yet wholly abolished). Sometimes a company of sea-lions, or a whale, or it may be a school of whales, ap- proaches near the land, and the monotony of life of the fishermen is agreeably diversi- fied. Here is an account of one of these occurrences. “Most of the guests were using their toothpicks, some were beginning to talk of what was to be done next, when, with haste in the step, fire in his eye, and a harpoon in his hand, Eric Scambester came to announce to the company that there was a whale on shore, or nearly so, at the throat of the voe. Then you might have seen such a joycus, boisterous, and universal bustle, as only the love of sport, so deeply implanted in our nature, can possibly in PREPARING FOR THE CONTEST. 301 spire. A set of country squires, about to beat for the first woodcocks of the season, were a comparison as petty, in respect to the glee, as in regard to the importance of the object. The battue, upon a strong cover in Ettrick Forest, for the destruction of the foxes ; the insurrection of the sportsmen of the Lennox, when one of the Duke’s deer gets out from Inch-Mirran ; nay, the joyous rally of the fox-chase itself, with all its blithe SEA LIONS. accompaniments of hound and horn, fall infinitely short of the animation with which the gallant sons of Thule set off to en- counter the monster whom the sea had sent for their amusement at so opportune a conjuncture. The multifarious stores of Burgh-Westra were rummaged hastily for all sorts of arms which could be used on such an occasion. Harpoons, swords, pikes, and halberds, fell to the lot of some ; others contented them- selves with hay-forks, spits, and whatever , U 302 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. else could be found, that was at once long and sharp. Thus hastily equipped, one division hastened to man the boats which lay in the little haven, while the rest of the party hurried by land to the scene of action. The situation in which the enemy’s ill- fate had placed him was particularly favour- able to the enterprise of the islanders. A tide of unusual height had carried the animal over a large bar of sand, into the voe or creek in which he was now lying. So soon as he found the water ebbing, he became sensible of his danger, and had made desperate efforts to get over the shallow water, where the waves broke on the bar ; but hitherto he had rather injured than mended his condition, having got him- self partly aground, and lying therefore par- ticularly exposed to the meditated attack. At this moment the enemy came down upon him. The front ranks consisted of the young and hardy, armed in the miscel- laneous manner. we have described ; while, to witness and animate their efforts, the young women and the elderly persons of both sexes took their place among the rocks which overhung the scene of action. As the boats had to double a little head- land ere they opened the mouth of the voe, those who came by land to the shores of the inlet had time to make the necessary reconnoissances upon the force and situa- tion of the enemy, on whom they were about to commence a simultaneous attack by land and sea. : This duty the stouted-hearted and ex- perienced general—for so the Udaller might be termed—would intrust to no eyes but his own ; and indeed, his external appearance and his sage conduct rendered him alike qualified for the command which he en- joyed. His gold-laced hat was exchanged for a bearskin cap, his suit of blue broad- cloth, with its scarlet lining, and loops, and frogs of bullion, had given place to a red flannel jacket, with buttons of black horn, over which he wore a sealskin shirt curi- ously seamed and plaited on the bosom, such as are used by the Esquimaux, and sometimes by the Greenland whale-fishers. Sea-boots of a formidable size completed his dress, and in his hand he held a large whaling-knife, which he brandished, as if impatient to employ it in the operation of Sinching the huge animal which lay before them,—that is, the act of separating its flesh from its bones. Upon closer exam- ination, however, he was obliged to confess that the sport to which he had conducted his friends, however much it corresponded with the magnificent scale of his hospitality, was likely to be attended with its own pecu- liar dangers and difficulties. The animal, upwards of sixty feet in length, was lying perfectly still, in a deep part of the voe into which it had weltered, and where it seemed to await the return of tide, of which it was probably assured by instinct. A council of experienced har- pooners was instantly called, and it was agreed that an effort should be made to noose the tail of this torpid leviathan, by casting a cable around it, to be made fast by anchors to the shore, and thus to secure against his escape, in case the tide should make before they were able to despatch him. Three boats were destined to this delicate piece of service, one of which the Udaller himself proposed to command, while Cleveland and Mertoun were to direct the two others. This being de- cided, they sat down on the strand, wait- ing with impatience until the naval part of the force should arrive in the voe. It was during this interval that Triptolemus VYel- lowley, after measuring with his eyes the extraordinary size of the whale, observed, that in his poor mind, ‘A wain with six owsen, or with sixty owsen either, if they were the owsen of the country, could not drag siccan a huge creature from the water where it was now lying to the sea-beach.’ The three boats destined for this perilous service now approached the dark mass, which lay like an islet in the deepest part of the voe, and suffered them to approach without showing any sign of animation. A MONSTER OF. THE DEEP. 303 Silently, and with such precaution as the extreme delicacy of the operation required, the intrepid adventurers, after the failure of their first attempt, and the expenditure of considerable time, succeeded in casting a cable around the body of the torpid mon- ster, and in carrying the ends of it ashore, when an hundred hands were instantly employed in securing them. But ere this was accomplished, the tide began to make fast, and the Udaller informed his assistants that either the fish must be killed, or at least greatly wounded, ere the depth of water on the bar was sufficient to float him, or that he was not unlikely to escape from their joint prowess. ¢ Wherefore,” said he, ‘we must set to work, and the factor shall have the honour to make the first throw.’ The valiant Triptolemus caught the word; and it is necessary to say that the patience of the whale, in suffering himself to be noosed without resistance, had abated his terrors, and very much lowered the creature in his opinion. He protested the fish had no more wit, and scarcely more activity, than a black snail ; and, influenced by this undue contempt of the adversary, he waited neither for a farther signal, nor a better weapon, nor a more suitable position, but, rising in his energy, hurled his graip with all his force against the unfortunate monster. The boats had not yet retreated from him to the distance necessary to ensure safety, when this injudicious com- mencement of the war took place. Magnus Troil, who had only jested with the factor, and had reserved the lanching the first spear against the whale to some much more skilful hand, had just time to exclaim, ‘Mind yourselves, lads, or we are all swamped!’ when the monster, roused ‘at once from inactivity by the blow of the factor’s missile, blew, with a noise resem- bling the explosion of a steam-engine, a huge shower of water into the air, and at the same time began to lash the waves with its tail in every direction. which Magnus presided received the shower The boat in- of brine which the animal spouted aloft; and the adventurous Triptolemus, who had a full share of the immersion, was so much astonished and terrified by the conse- quences of his own valorous deed, that he tumbled backwards amongst the feet of the people, who, too busy to attend to him, were actively engaged in getting the boat into shoal water, out of the whale’s reach. Here he lay for some minutes, trampled on by the feet of the boatmen, until they lay on their oars to bale, when the Udaller ordered them to pull to shore, and land this spare hand, who had commenced the fishing so inauspiciously. While this was done, the other boats had also pulled off to safer distance, and now from these as well as from the shore, the unfortunate native of the deep was over- whelmed by all kinds of missiles. Harpoons and spears flew against him on all sides, guns were fired, and each various means of annoyance plied which could excite him to exhaust his strength in useless rage. When the animal found that he was locked in by shallows on all sides, and became sensible, . at the same time, of the strain of. the cable on his body, the convulsive efforts which he made to escape, accompanied with sounds resembling deep and loud groans, would have moved the compassion of all but a practised whale-fisher. The repeated showers which he spouted into the air began now to be mingled with blood, and the waves which surrounded him assumed the same crimson appearance. Meantime the attempts of the assailants were re- doubled ; but Mordaunt Mertoun and Cleveland, in particular, exerted them- selves to the uttermost, contending who should display most courage in approach- ing the monster, so tremendous in its agonies, and should inflict the most deep and deadly wounds upon its huge bulk. The contest seemed at last pretty well over ; for although the animal continued from time to time to make frantic exer- tions for liberty, yet its strength appeared so much exhausted, that, even with the —- 304 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. assistance of the tide, which had now risen considerably, it was thought it could scarcely extricate itself. Magnus gave the signal to venture nearer to the whale, calling out at the same time, “Close In, lads, she is not half so’ mad now ; the factor may look for a winter’s oil for the two lamps at Harfra. Pull close in, lads.’ Ere his orders could be obeyed, the other two boats had anticipated his pur- pose; and Mordaunt Mertoun, eager to distinguish himself above Cleveland, had, with the whole strength he possessed, plunged a half-pike into the body of the animal. But the leviathan, like a nation whose resources appear totally exhausted by previous losses and calamities, collected ‘A SHIPWRECK y AW L HIS is the story > (after Scott) of a Shetland shipwreck, as witnessed by a gentleman named Mertoun and his son, from a height to which, during a storm, they had repaired. : The face of the lofty cape was composed of the soft and crumbling stone called sand- flag, which gradually becomes decomposed, and yields to the action of the atmosphere, and is split into large masses, that hang loose upon the verge of the precipice, and, detached from it by the fury ofthe tempests, often descends with great fury into the vexed abyss which lashes the foot of the rock. Numbers of these huge fragments lie strewed beneath the rocks from which Tue SURVIVOR his whole remaining force for an effort which proved at once desperate and suc- cessful. The wound last received had probably reached through his external de- fences of blubber, and attained some very sensitive part of the system ; for he roared aloud, as he sent to the sky a mingled * sheet of brine and blood, and snapping the strong cable like a twig, overset Mertoun’s boat with a blow of his tail, shot himself, by a mighty effort, over the bar, upon which the tide had now risen considerably, and made out to sea, carrying with him a whole grove of the implements which had been planted in his body, and leaving behind him, on the waters, a dark red trace of his course. Thus was the monster victor in the prolonged contest.” IN DHETLAND. OF THE Prsaster. they have fallen, and amongst these the tide foams and rages with a fury peculiar to these latitudes. At the period when Mertoun and his son | looked from the verge of the precipice, the wide sea still heaved and swelled with the agitation of yesterday’s storm, which had been far too violent in its effects on the ocean to subside speedily. The tide there- fore poured on the headland with a fury deafening to the ear and dizzying to the eye, threatening instant destruction to what- ever might be at the time involved in its current. The sight of Nature in her magnificence, or in her beauty, or in her terrors, has at all times an overpowering interest, which even habit cannot greatly weaken ; and both father and son sat them- selves down on the cliff to look out upon that unbounded war of waters which rolled in their wrath at the foot of the precipice. “ONWARD SHE CAME 305 At once Mordaunt, whose eyes were sharper, and probably his attention more alert than that of his father, started up, and exclaimed, “God in heaven! there is a vessel in the Roost.” Mertoun looked to the north-westward, and an object was visible amid the rolling tide. “She shows no sail,” he observed; and immediately added, after looking at the object through his spyglass, ¢ She is dismasted, and lies a sheer hulk upon the water.” “Andis drifting on the Sumburgh Head,” exclaimed Mordaunt, struck with horror, “without the slightest means of weathering the cape !” “She makes no effort,” answered his father ; “she is probably deserted by her crew.” “And in such a day as yesterday,” re- plied Mordaunt, “ when no open boat could live, were she manned with the best men ever handled an oar—all must have perished.” i “It is most probable,” said his father, with stern composure; “and one day, sooner or later, all must have perished. What signifies whether the Fowler, whom nothing escapes, caught them up at one swoop from yonder shattered deck, or whether he clutched them individually, as chance gave them to his grasp? What signifies it >—the deck, the battle-field, are scarce more fatal to us than our table and our bed ; and we are saved from the one, merely to drag out a heartless and weari- some existence, till we perish at the other. Would the hour were come—that hour which reason would teach us to wish for, were it not that nature has implanted the fear of it so strongly within us! You wonder at such a reflection, because life is yet new to you. Ere you have attained my age, it will be the familiar companion of your thoughts.” The hulk, for it was little better, was now in the very midst of the current, and drifting at a great rate towards the foot of ~ the precipice, upon whose verge they were placed. Yet it was a long while ere they had a distinct view of the object which they had at first seen as a black speck amongst the waters, and then, at a nearer distance, like a whale, which now scarce shows its back-fin above the waves, now throws to view its large black side. Now, however, they could more distinctly observe the ap- pearance of the ship, for the huge swelling waves which bore her forward to the shore heaved her alternately high upon the sur- face, and then plunged her into the trough or furrow of the sea. She seemed a vessel of two or three hundred tons, fitted up for defence, for they could see her port-holes. She had been dismasted probably in the gale of the preceding day, and lay water- logged on the waves, a prey to their violence. It appeared certain that the crew, finding themselvesunable either to direct the vessel's course, or to relieve her by pumping, had taken to their boats, and left her to her fate. All apprehensions were therefore un- necessary, so far as the immediate loss of human lives was concerned ; and yet it was not without a feeling of breathless awe that Mordaunt and his father beheld the vessel —that rare masterpiece by which human genius aspires to surmount the waves, and contend with the winds, upon the point of falling a prey to them. Onward she came, the large black hulk seeming larger at every fathom’s length. She came nearer until she bestrode the summit of one tremendous billow, which rolled on with her unbroken till the wave and its burden were precipitated against the rock, and then the triumph of the elements over the work of human hands was at once, completed. One wave, we have said, made the wrecked vessel completely manifest in her whole bulk, as it raised her, and bore her onward against the face of the precipice. But when that wave receded from the foot of the rock, the ship had ceased to exist; and the retiring billow only bore back a quantity of beams, planks, casks, and similar objects, which swept out to the offing, to be brought in again by the next 306 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. wave, and again precipitated upon the face of the rock. It was at this moment that Mordaunt conceived he saw a man floating on a plank or water-cask, which, drifting away from the main current, seemed about to go ashore on a small spot of sand, where the water was shallow, and the waves broke more smoothly. To see the danger, and to ex- claim, “ He lives, and may yet be saved!” was the first impulse of the fearless Mor- daunt. The next was, after one rapid glance at the front of the cliff, to precipitate himself-—such seemed the rapidity of his movement—from the verge, and to com- mence, by means of slight fissures, projec- tions, and crevices in the rock, a descent which, to a spectator, appeared little else than an act of absolute insanity. “ Stop, I command you, rash boy!” said his father; “the attempt is death. Stop, and take the safer path to the left.” But Mordaunt was already completely engaged in his perilous enterprise. “ Why should I prevent him?” said his father, checking his anxiety with the stern and unfeeling philosophy whose principles he had adopted. “Should he die now, full of generous and high feeling, eager in the ' cause of humanity, happy in the exertion of his own conscious activity and youthful strength—should he die now, will he not escape misanthropy, and remorse, and age, and the consciousness of decaying powers, both of body and mind? I will not look upon it, however—will not—I can- not behold his young light so suddenly quenched.” He turned from the precipice accordingly, and hastening to the left for more than a~ quarter of a mile, he proceeded towards a rtva, or cleft in the rock, containing a path, called Erick’s Steps, neither safe, indeed, nor easy, but the only one by which the in- habitants of Jarlshof were wont, for any purpose, to seek access to the foot of the precipice. ai But long ere Mertoun had reached even the upper end of the pass, his adventurous ~ desperate enterprise. and active son had accomplished his more He had been in vain turned aside from the direct line of descent, by the intervention of difficulties which he had not seen from above—his route became only more circuitous, but could not be interrupted. More than once, large fragments to which he was about to entrust his weight, gave way before him, and thundered down into the tormented ocean ; and in one or two instances, such detached pieces of rock rushed after him, as if to bear him headlong in their course. A courageous heart, a steady eye, a tena- cious hand, and a firm foot, carried him through his desperate attempt; and in the space of seven minutes he stood .at the bottom of the cliff from the verge of which he had achieved his brave though perilous descent. The place which he now occupied was the small projecting spot of stones, sand, and gravel that extended a little way into the sea, which on the right hand lashed the very bottom of the precipice, and on the left was scarce divided from it by a small wave-worn portion of beach that extended as far as the foot of the rent in the rocks called Erick’s Steps, by which Mordaunt’s father proposed to descend. When the vessel split and went to pieces, all was swallowed up in the ocean, which had, after the first shock, been seen to float upon the waves, excepting only a few pieces of wreck, casks, chests, and the like, which a strong eddy, formed by the reflux of the waves, had landed, or at least grounded, upon the shallow where Mordaunt now stood. Amongst these his eager eye dis- covered the object that had at first engaged his attention, and which now, seen at nigher distance, proved to be in truth a man, and in a most precarious state. His arms were still wrapt with a close and convulsive grasp round the plank to which he had clung in the moment of the shock, but sense and the power of motion were fled; and from the situation in which the plank lay, partly grounded upon the beach, partly THE SHIPWRECKED SAILOR. 307 floating in the sea, there was every chance that it might be again washed off shore, in which case death was inevitable. Just as he had made himself aware of these circum- stances, Mordaunt beheld a huge wave advancing, and hastened to interpose his aid ere it burst, aware that the reflux might probably sweep away the sufferer. He rushed into the surf, and fastened on the body with the same tenacity, though under a different impulse, with that where- with the hound seizes his prey. The strength of the retiring wave proved even stronger than he had expected, and it was not with- out a struggle for his own life, as well as for that of the stranger, that Mordaunt resisted being swept off with the receding billow, when, though an adroit swimmer, the strength of the tide must either have dashed him against the rocks, or hurried him out to sea. He stood his ground, however, and ere another such billow had returned, he drew up upon the small slip of dry sand, both the body of the stranger and the plank to which he continued firmly attached. But how to save and to recall the means of ebbing life and strength, and how to re- move into a place of greater safety the sufferer, who was incapable of giving any assistance towards his own preservation, were questions which Mordaunt asked him- self eagerly but in vain. He looked to the summit of the cliff on which he had left his father, and shouted to him for his assistance ; but his eye could not distinguish his form, and his voice was only answered .by the scream of the sea- birds. He gazed again on the sufferer. He still breathed, but so feebly, that his respiration was almost imperceptible, and life seemed to keep such slight hold of his frame, that there was every reason to fear it would become altogether extinguished, unless it were speedily reinforced. Help fortunately soon arrived, and the shipwrecked sailor was carried to a place of safety. We conclude this terrible tale with one remark. If, in comparatively modern times, the dangers of the sea were so great, what must they have been little more than a hundred years earlier, when men navigated the ocean in the quaintly constructed vessels of which we give an illustration. nl Ie a iL oN Tr To ord Vou] Hy | AN EXTINCT TYPE OF SHIP. 308 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. {HURCH. ON THE PHETLAND SHORE. STRANGE SUPERSTITIONS fronnECTED WITH IT. / SCOTT tells us the ruinous church of Saint Ninian, in its time, enjoyed great celebrity ; for that mighty system of Roman superstition which spread its roots over all Europe had not failed to ex- tend them even to this re- mote archipelago, and Shetland had, in the Catholic times, her saints, her shrines, and her relics, which, though little known elsewhere, at- tracted the homage and commanded the observance of the simple inhabitants of Thule. Their devotion to this church of Saint Ninian,—or, as he was provincially termed, Saint Ringan,—situated, as the edifice was, close to the sea-beach, and serving, In many points, as a landmark to their boats, was particularly obstinate, and was connected with so much superstitious ceremonial and credulity, that the reformed clergy thought it best, by an order of the Church Courts, to prohibit all spiritual service within its walls, as tending to foster the rooted faith of the simple and rude people around in saint worship and other erroneous doctrines of the Romish Church. After the church of Saint Ninian had been thus denounced as a seat of idolatry, and desecrated of course, the public worship was transferred to another church; and the roof, with its lead and its rafters, having been stripped from the little rude old Gothic building, it was left in the wilderness to the mercy of the elements. The fury of the uncontrolled winds which howled along an exposed space, resembling that which we have described at Jarlshof, very soon choked up nave and aisle, and, on the north-west side, which was chiefly exposed to the wind, hid the outside walls more than half-way up with mounds of drifted sand, over which the gable-ends of the building, with the little belfry, which was built above its eastern angle, arose in ragged and shattered nakedness of ruin. Yet, deserted as it was, the Kirk of Saint Ringan still retained some semblance of the ancient homage formerly rendered there. The rude and ignorant fishermen of Dun- rossness observed a practice, of which they themselves .had well-nigh forgotten the origin, and from which the Protestant Clergy in vain endeavoured to deter them. When their boats were in extreme peril, it was common amongst them to propose to VOW an awmous, as they termed it, that is, an alms, to Saint Ringan; and when the danger was over, they never failed to ab- solve themselves of their vow by coming singly and secretly to the old church, and, putting off their shoes and stockings at the entrance of the churchyard, walking thrice around the ruins, observing that they did so in the course of the sun. When the circuit was accomplished for the third time, the votary dropped his offering, usually a small silver coin, through the mullions of a lanceolated window, which opened into a side aisle, and then retired, avoiding care- fully to look behind him till he was beyond the precincts which had once been hallowed ground; for it was believed that the skeleton of the saint received the offering in his bony hand, and showed his ghastly CEURCH OF ST. RINGAN. 309 death’s head at the window into which it was thrown. : : Indeed, the scene was rendered more appalling to weak and ignorant ‘minds, because the same stormy and eddying winds which on the one side of the church threatened to bury the ruins with sand, and had, in fact, heaped it up in huge quantities, so as almost to hide the side-wall with its buttresses, seemed in other places bent on uncovering the graves of those who had been laid to their long rest on the south-eastern quarter; and after an unusually hard gale, the coffins, and sometimes the very corpses, of those who, had been interred without the usual cerements were discovered in a ghastly manner, to the eyes of the living. It was to this desolated place of worship that a gentleman once proceeded, though without any of those religious or super- stitious purposes with which the church of THE NORTHERN LIGHTS. St. Ringan was usually approached. He was totally without the superstitious fears of the country,—nay, from the sequestered and sullen manner in which he lived, with- drawing himself from human society even when assembled for worship, it was the general opinion that he erred on the more fatal side, and believed rather too little than too much of that which the Church receives and enjoins to Christians. As he entered the little bay on the shore and almost on the beach of which the ruins are situated, he could not help pausing for an instant, and becoming sensible that the scene, as calculated to operate on. human feelings, had been selected with much judgment as the site of a religious house. In front lay the sea, into which two headlands, which formed . the extremities of the bay, projected their gigantic causeways of dark and sable rocks, on the ledges of which the gulls, scouries, 310 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. and other sea-fowl appeared like flakes of snow ; while, upon the lower ranges of the cliff stood whole lines of cormorants, drawn up alongside of each other, like soldiers in their battle array ; and other living thing was there none to see. The sea, although not in a tempestuous state, was disturbed enough to rush on these capes with a sound like distant thunder, and the billows which rose in sheets of foam half-way up these sable rocks formed a contrast of colouring equally striking and awful. Betwixt the extremities or capes of these projecting headlands there rolled, on the day when he visited the scene, a deep and dense aggregation of clouds, through which no human eye could penetrate, and which, bounding the vision, and excluding all view of the distant ocean, rendered it no unapt representation of the sea in the Vision of Mirza, whose extent was concealed by vapours, and clouds, and storms. The ground rising steeply from the sea-beach, permitting no view into the interior of the country, appeared a scene of irretrievable ~ barrenness, where scrubby and stunted heath, intermixed with the long bent or coarse grass which first covers sandy soils, were the only vegetables that could be seen. Upon a natural elevation which rose above the beach in the very bottom of the bay, and receded a little from the sea, - so as to be without reach of the waves, arose the half-buried ruin which we have already described, surrounded by a wasted, half-ruinous, and mouldering wall, which, breached in several places, served still to divide the precincts of the cemetery. The mariners who were driven by accident into this solitary bay pretended that the church was occasionally observed to be full of lights, and from that circumstance were used to prophesy shipwrecks and deaths by sea. As he approached near to the chapel he adopted, insensibly, and perhaps without much premeditation, measures to avoid being himself seen, until he came close under the walls of the burial-ground, which he approached, as it chanced, on that side where the sand was blowing from the graves, in the manner we have described. Here, looking through one of the gaps in the wall which time had made, he be- held a person occupied in a manner which assorted well with the ideas popularly entertained of the place. She was employed beside a rude monu- meat, on one side of which was represented the rough outline of a cavalier, or knight, on horseback, while, on the other, appeared a shield, with the armorial bearings so defaced as not to be intelligible; which escutcheon was suspended by one angle, contrary to the modern custom, which usually places them straight and upright. At the foot of this pillar was believed to repose the bones of Ribolt Troil, a man renowned for deeds of valorous emprise in the fifteenth century. From the grave of this warrior the woman seemed busied in shovelling the sand, an easy task where it was so light and loose ; so that it seemed plain that she would shortly complete what the rude winds had begun, and make bare the bones which lay there interred. - As she laboured she muttered her magic song ; for without the Runic rhyme, no form of northern superstition was ever performed. We have perhaps preserved too many examples of these incantations; but we cannot help attempting to translate that which follows :— ¢¢ Champion, famed for warlike toil, Art thou silent, Ribolt Troil? Sand, and dust, and pebbly stones, Are leaving bare thy giant bones. Who dared touch the wild-bear’s skin Ye slumber’d on while life was in ?— A woman now, or babe, may come And cast the covering from thy tomb. Yet be not wrathful, Chief, nor blight Mine eyes or ears with sound or sight ! I come not, with unhallow’d tread, To wake the slumbers of the dead, Or lay thy giant relics bare ; But what I seek thou well canst spare. Be it to my hand allow’d ; To sheer a merk’s weight from thy shroud ; EARLY YEARS OF NELSON. Yet leave thee sheeted lead enough To shield thy bones from weather rough. See, I draw my magic knife— Never while thou wert in life Laid’st thou still for sloth or fear, ‘When point and edge were glittering near ; See, the cerements now I sever— ‘Waken now, or sleep for ever ! Thou wilt not wake ? the deed is done !— The prize I sought is fairly won. Thanks, Ribolt, thanks,—for this the sea Shall smooth its ruffled crest for thee,— And while afar its billows foam, Subside to peace near Ribolt’s tomb. Thanks, Ribolt, thanks,—for this the might Of wild winds raging at their height, When to thy place of slumber nigh, Shall soften to a lullaby. She, the dame of doubt and dread, Norna of the Fitful head, Mighty in her own despite— Miserable in her might ; In despair and frenzy great, In her greatness desolate, Wisest, wickedest who lives, Well can keep the word she gives ! ” While she chanted the first part of this rhyme, she completed the task of laying bare a part of the leaden coffin of the ancient warrior, and severed from it, with much caution and apparent awe, a portion of the metal. She then reverentially threw back the sand upon the coffin ; and by the time she had finished her song, no trace remained that the secrets of the sepulchre had been violated for the purpose of ob- taining relics believed by the superstitious to be of great efficacy. NELSON. Fis EarLY YEARS —NORTHWARD Ho bs “F Y A é& O work on the sea and sailors would be 2. complete without d some detailed ac- count of the exploits of Nelson. We there- fore (following Southey’s ex- cellent biography) here give in succession the most vivid p passages of his life; and first, as to his early years. Horatio, son of Edmund and Catherine Nelson, was born September 29th, 1758, in the parsonage house of Burnham Thorpe, a village in the county of Norfolk, of which his father was rector. The maiden name of his mother was Suckling: her grand- mother was an elder sister of Sir Robert Walpole, and this child was named after his godfather, the first Lord Walpole. Mrs. Nelson died in 1767, leaving eight out .of eleven children. Her brother, Captain Mome Acar Maurice Suckling, of the navy, visited the widower upon this event, and promised to take care of one of the boys. Three years afterwards, when Horatio was only twelve years of age, being at home during the Christmas holidays, he read in the county newspaper that his uncle was appointed to the Raisonnable, of sixty-four guns. ¢ Do, William,” said he to a brother who was a year and a half older than himself, ¢ write to my father, and tell him that I should like to go to sea with Uncle Maurice.” Mr. Nelson was then at Bath, whither he had gone for the recovery of his health. His circumstances were straitened, and he had no prospect of ever seeing them bet- tered. He knew that it was the wish of providing for himself by which Horatio was chiefly actuated, and did not oppose his resolution; he understood also the boy’s character, and had always said that in whatever station he might be placed, he 312 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. would climb, if possible, to the very top of the tree. Accordingly, Captain Suckling was written “to. “What,” said he in his answer, ‘has poor Horatio done, who is so weak, that he above all the rest should be sent to rough it out at sea? But let him come, and the first time we go into action, a cannon-ball may knock off his head, and provide for him at once.” It is manifest from these words that Horatio was not the boy whom his uncle I would have chosen to bring up in his own profession. He was never of a strong body, and the ague, which at that time was one of the most common diseases in England, had greatly reduced his strength ; yet he had already given proofs of that resolute heart and nobleness of mind which during his whole career of labour and of glory so eminently distinguished him. When a mere child, he strayed a- bird’s-nesting from his grandmother’s house in company with a cow-boy. The dinner hour elapsed; he was absent, and could not be found, and the alarm of the family became very great, for they apprehended that he might have been carried off by gipsies. At length, after search had been made for him in various directions, he was discovered, alone, sitting composedly by the side of a brook which he could not get over. “I wonder, child,” said the old lady when she saw him, that hunger and fear did not drive you home.” ¢ Fear! grand- mamma,” replied the future hero, “I never saw fear; what is it?” Once, after the winter holidays, when he and his brother William had set off on horseback to return to school, they came back because there had been a fall of snow ; and William, who did not much like the journey, said it was too deep for them to venture on. ‘If that be the case,” said the father, “you certainly shall not go; but make another attempt, and I will leave it to your honour. If the road is dangerous, you may return; but remember, boys, I leave it to your honour.” The snow was deep enough to have afforded them a reasonable excuse; but Horatio was not to be prevailed upon to turn back. “We must go on,” said he: “remember, brother, it was left to our honour !” There were some fine pears growing in the school- master’s garden, which the boys regarded as lawful booty, and in the highest degree tempting ; but the boldest among them were afraid to venture for the prize. Ho- ratio volunteered upon this service : he was lowered down at night from the bedroom window by some sheets, plundered the tree, was drawn up with the pears, and then distributed them among his schoolfellows without reserving any for himself. “He only took them,” he said, “because every other boy was afraid.” Early on a cold and dark spring morning Mr. Nelson’s servant arrived at this school, at North Walsham, with the expected sum- mons for Horatio to join his ship. The parting from his brother William, who had been for so many years his playmate and bedfellow, was a painful effort, and was the beginning of those privations which are the sailor’s lot through life. He accompanied his father to London. The Raisonnable. was lying in the Medway. He was put into the Chatham stage, and on its arrival was set down with the rest of the passen- gers, and left to find his way on board as he could. After wandering about in the cold without being able to reach the ship, an officer observed the forlorn appearance of the boy, questioned him, and happening to be acquainted with his uncle, took him home and gave him some refreshments. When he got on board, Captain Suckling was not in the ship, nor had any person been apprised of the boy’s coming. He paced the deck the whole remainder of the day, without being noticed by any one; and it was not till the second day that somebody, as he expressed it, “took com- passion on him.” The pain which is felt when we are first transplanted from our native soil, when the living branch is cut from the parent tree, is one of the most poignant which we have to endure through life. There are after-griefs which - NORTHWARD HO! 313 wound more deeply, which leave behind them scars never to be effaced, which bruise the spirit and sometimes break the heart; but never do we feel so keenly the want of love, the necessity of being loved, and the sense of utter desertion, as when we first leave the haven of home, and are, as it were, pushed off upon the stream of life. Added to these feelings, the sea-boy has to endure physical hardships and the privation of every comfort, even of sleep. Nelson had a feeble body and an affection- ate heart, and he remembered through life Tl his first days of wretchedness in the ser- vice. Nelson had not been long in the service when his love of enterprise was excited by hearing that two ships were fitting out for a voyage of discovery towards the North Pole. In consequence of the difficulties which were expected on such a service, these vessels were to take out effective men instead of the usual number of boys. This, however, did not deter him from soliciting to be received ; and by his uncle’s interest he was admitted as coxswain under Cap- : ZINN PARSONAGE HOUSE, BURNHAM THORPE. tain Lutwidge, second in command. The voyage was undertaken in compliance with an application from the Royal Society. The Hon. Captain Constantine John Phipps, eldest son of Lord Mulgrave, volunteered his services. The Racehorse and Carcass bombs were selected, as the strongest ships,.and therefore best adapted for such a voyage; and they were taken into dock and strengthened, to render them as secure as possible against the ice. Two masters of Greenlandmen were employed ,as pilots for each ship. No expedition was ever more carefully fitted out; and the first Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich, with a laudable solicitude, went on board himself before their departure, to see that everything had been completed to the wish of the officers. The ships were pro- vided with a ‘simple and excellent ap- paratus for distilling fresh from salt water, the invention of Dr. Irving, who accom- panied the expedition. It consisted merely of fitting a tube to the ship’s kettle, and applying a wet mop to the surface, as the vapour was passing. By these means, from 314 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. thirty-four to forty.gallons were produced every day. They sailed from the Nore on the 4th of June ; on the 6th of the following month they were in latitude 79° 56’ 39", longitude 9° 43’ 30" E. The next day, about the place where most of the old discoverers had been stopped, the Racehorse was beset with ice, but they hove her through with ice-anchors. Captain Phipps continued ranging along the ice, northward and westward, till the 24th; he then tried to the eastward. On the 3oth he was in latitude 80° 13/, longi- tude 18° 48’ E., among the islands and in the ice, with no appearance of an opening for the ships. The weather was exceedingly fine, mild, and unusually clear. Here they were becalmed in a large bay, with three apparent openings between the islands . which formed it, but everywhere, as far as they could see, surrounded with ice. There was not a breath of. air, the water was per- fectly smooth, the ice covered with snow, low and even, except a few broken pieces near the edge, and the pools of water in the middle of the ice-fields just crusted over with young ice. On the next day the ice closed upon them, and no opening was to be seen anywhere, except in a hole or lake, as it might be called, of about a mile and a half in circumference, where the ships lay fast to the ice with their ice-anchors. They filled their casks with water from these ice-fields, which was very pure and soft. The men were playing on the ice all day; but the Greenland pilots, who were farther than they had ever been before, and con- sidered that the season was far advancing, were alarmed at being thus beset. The next day there was not the smallest opening ; the ships were within less than two lengths of each other, separated by ice, and neither having room to turn. The ice, which the day before had been flat and al- most level with the water's edge, was now in many places forced higher than the main- yard, by the pieces squeezing together. A day of thick fog followed ; it was succeeded by clear weather, but the passage by which | the ships had entered from the westward was closed, and no open water was in sight, either in that or any other quarter. By the pilot’s advice the men were set to cut a passage, and warp through the small open- ings to the westward. They sawed through pieces of ice twelve feet thick; and this labour continued the whole day, during which their utmost efforts did not move the ships above three hundred yards, while they were driven, together with the ice, far to the N.E. and E. by the current. Some- times a field of several acres square would be lifted up between two larger islands, and incorporated with them ; and thus these larger pieces continued to grow by aggrega- tion. Another day passed, and there seemed no probability of getting the ships out, with- out a strong E. or N.E. wind. The season was far advanced, and every hour lessened the chance of extricating themselves. Young as he was, Nelson was appointed to command one of the boats which were sent out to explore a passage into the open water. It was the means of saving a boat belonging to the Race/orse from a singular but imminent danger. = Some of the officers had fired at and wounded a walrus. As no other animal has so human-like an expres- sion in its countenance, so also is there none that seems to possess more of the pas- sions of humanity. The wounded animal dived immediately, and brought up a num- ber of its companions, and they all joined in an attack upon the boat. They wrested an oar from one of the men, and it was with the utmost difficulty that the crew could prevent them from staving or upset- ting her, till the Carcass’s boat came up; and the walruses, finding their enemies thus reinforced, dispersed. Young Nelson ex- posed himself in a more daring manner. One night, during the mid-watch, he stole from the ship with one of his comrades, taking advantage of a rising fog, and set out over the ice in pursuit of a bear. It was not long before they were missed. The fog thickened, and Captain Lutwidge and his officers became exceedingly alarmed for NELSON AND THE BEAR. 315 their safety. Between three and four in the morning the weather cleared, and the two adventurers were seen, at a consider- able distance from the ship, attacking a huge bear, which, with one of its offspring, lay crouched beside a mass of ice. The signal for them to return was immediately made. Nelson’s comrade called upon him to obey it, but in vain; his musket had flashed in the pan ; their ammunition was expended, and a chasm in the ice, which divided him from the bear, probably pre- served his life. “Never mind,” he cried ; “do but let me get a blow at this devil with the butt-end of my musket, and we shall have him.” Captain Lutwidge, how- ever, seeing his danger, fired a gun, which had the desired effect of frightening the beast, and the boy then returned, somewhat afraid of the consequences of his trespass. The captain reprimanded him sternly for conduct so unworthy of the office which he filled, and desired to know what motive he could have for hunting a bear. * Sir,” said. he, pouting his lip, as he was wont to do when agitated, “I wished to kill the bear that I might carry the skin to my father.” For some little time they were forced to encamp on the ice. Here they built a small house. Just on completion, they were attacked by a storm which they had much ado to weather. ‘“ A HUGE BEAR.” On the 7th of August they began to haul the boats over the ice, Nelson haying com- mand of the four-oared cutter. About noon, the ice appeared rather more open near the vessels; and as the wind was easterly, though there was but little of it, the sails were set, and they got about a mile to the westward. They moved very slowly, and they were not now nearly so far to the westward as when they were first beset. However, all sail was kept upon them, to force them through ‘whenever the ice slacked the least. What- ever exertions were made, it could not be possible to get the boats to the water's edge before the 14th; and if the situation of the ships should not alter by that time, gained. it would not be justifiable to stay longer by them. The commander therefore resolved to carry on both attempts ‘together, moving the boats constantly, and taking every op- portunity of getting the ships through. A party was sent out next day to the west ward, to examine the state of the ice; they returned with tidings that it was very heavy and close, consisting chiefly of large fields. The ships, however, moved something, and the ice itself was drifting westward. There was a thick fog, so that it was impossible to’ ascertain what advantage had been It continued on the gth, but the ships were moved a little through some very small openings; the mist cleared off 3106 JHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. in the afternoon, and it was then perceived that they had driven much more than could have been expected to the westward, and that the ice itself had driven still farther. In the course of the day they got past the boats, and took them on board again. On the morrow the wind sprang up to the - N.N.E. All sail was set, and the ships forced their way through a great deal of very heavy ice. They frequently struck, and with such force that one stroke broke the shank of the Racehorses best bower anchor ; but the vessels made way, and by noon they had cleared the ice and were out at sea. The next day they anchored in Smeerenberg harbour, close to that island of which the westernmost point is called Hakluyt’s Headland, in honour of the great promoter and compiler of our English voyages of discovery. Here they remained for a few days, that the men might rest after their fatigue. Then the voyage was resumed, and soon after they arrived in England. N ELSON Lorne] % BATTLE OFF fare ST. YINCENT—BOARDING OF THE A ~ E here give an ac- sg count of the battle off Cape St. Vincent in 1797, in which Nelson occupied a prominent position, Aiough not the very first place Nelson having sailed from Porto Ferrajo with a convoy for Gibraltar, and having reached that place, proceeded to the westward. Off the mouth of the Straits he fell in with the Spanish fleet, and on the 13th of February, 1797, reaching the station off Cape St. Vincent, communicated this intelligence to Sir John Jervis. He was now directed to shift his broad pendant on board the Captain (seventy-four, Captain R. W. Miller), and before sunset the signal was made to prepare for action, and to keep during the night in close order. At day- break the enemy were in sight. The British force consisted of two ships of one hundred guns, two of ninety-eight, two of ninety, eight of seventy-four, and one sixty-four— fifteen of the line in all, with four frigates, a sloop, and a cutter. The Spaniards had one four-decker of one hundred and thirty- six guns, six three-deckers of one hundred SAN Nicoras. and twelve, two eighty-fours, eighteen seventy-fours—in all, twenty-seven ships of the line, with ten frigates and a brig. Their admiral, Don Joseph de Cordova, had learnt from an American on the sth that the English had only nine ships, which was indeed the case when his informer had seen them, for a reinforcement of five ships from England, under Admiral Parker, had not then joined, and the Culloden had parted company. Upon this information the Spanish commander, instead of going into Cadiz, as was his intention when he sailed from Cartagena, determined to seek an enemy so inferior in force, and relying with fatal confidence upon the American account, he suffered his ships to remain too far dis- persed and in some disorder. When the morning of the 14th broke and discovered the English fleet, a fog for some time con- cealed their number. The look-out ship of the Spaniards, fancying that her signal was disregarded because so little notice seemed to be taken of it, made another signal that the English force consisted of forty sail of the line. The captain afterwards said he did this to rouse the admiral. It had the effect of perplexing him and alarming the whole fleet. The absurdity of such an act REGIONS, © = 0 om < fl iY = Z “TERROR?” » AND S “EREBU THE CAPTAIN PHIPPS’ EXPEDITION ATTACKED BY A STORM. NOSTIN 40 F477 11% 318 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. shows what was the state of the Spanish navy under that miserable government by which Spain was so long oppressed and de- graded, and finally betrayed. In reality, the general incapacity of the naval officers was so well known, that in a pasquinade which about this time appeared at Madrid, wherein the different orders of the State were advertised for sale, the greater part of the sea officers, with all their equipments, were offered as a gift, and it was added that any person who would please to take them should receive a handsome gratuity. Before the enemy could form a regular order of battle, Sir John Jervis, by carrying a press of sail, came up with them, passed through their fleet, then tacked, and thus cut off nine of their ships from the main body. These ships attempted to form on the larboard tack, either with a design of passing through the British line, or to lee- ward of it, and thus rejoining their friends. Only one of them succeeded in this attempt, and that only because she was so covered with smoke that her intention was not dis- covered till she had reached the rear. The others were so warmly received that they put about, took to flight, and did not appear again in the action till its close. The ad- miral was now able to direct his attention to the enemy’s main body, which was still superior in number to his whole fleet, and more so in weight of metal. He made sig- nal to tack in succession. Nelson, whose station was in the rear of the British line, perceived that the Spaniards were bearing up before the wind, with an intention of forming their line, going large, and joining their separated ships, or else of getting off without an engagement. To prevent either of these schemes, he disobeyed the signa] without a moment’s hesitation, and ordered his ship to be wore. This at once brought him into action with the Santissima Trini- dad (one hundred and thirty-six), the Sax Joseph (onehundred and twelve), the Salvador del Mundo (one hundred and twelve), the San Nicolas (eighty), the San Isidro (seventy- four), another seventy-four, and another first- rate. Trowbridge, in the Cwlloden, im- mediately joined and most nobly supported | him, and for nearly an hour did the Culloden | and Captain maintain what Nelson called “this apparently but not really unequal contest ”—such was the advantage of skill and discipline, and the confidence which brave men derive from them. The Blenieim then passing between them and the enemy, gave them a respite, and poured in her fire upon the Spaniards. The Salvador del Mundo and San Isidro dropped astern, and were fired into In a masterly style by the Excellent, Captain Collingwood. The Saz Isidro struck, and Nelson thought that the Salvador struck also. ¢ But Collingwood,” says he, “disdaining the parade of taking possession of beaten enemies, most gallantly pushed up, with every sail set, to save his old friend and messmate, who was to every appearance in a critical situation,” for the Captain was at this time actually fired upon by three first-rates, by the San Nicolas, and by a seventy-four, within about pistol-shot of that vessel. The ABlen/eim was ahead, the Culloden crippled and astern. Colling- wood ranged up, and hauling up his main- sail just astern, passed within ten feet of the San Nicolas, giving her a most tremendous fire, then passed on for the Santissima Trinidad. The San Nicolas luffing up, the San Joseph fell on board of her, and Nelson resumed his station abreast of them, and close alongside. The Caplain was now incapable of further service either in the line or in chase. She had lost her foretop- mast ; not a sail, shroud, or rope was left, and her wheel was shot away. Nelson therefore directed Captain Miller to put the helm a-starboard, and calling for the boarders, ordered them to board. Captain Berry, who had lately been Nelson’s first lieutenant, was the first man who leaped into the enemy’s mizen-chains. Miller, when in the very act of going, was ordered by Nelson to remain. Berry was supported from the spritsail-yard, which locked in the San NVicolas's main rigging. A soldier of the 69th broke the upper END OF THE ACTION. 319 quarter-gallery window and jumped in, fol- lowed by the commodore himself, and by others as fast as possible. The cabin doors were fastened, and the Spanish officers fired their pistols at them through the window ; the doors were soon forced, and the Spanish brigadier fell while retreating to the quarter- deck. Nelson pushed on, and found Berry in possession of the poop, and the Spanish ensign hauling down. He passed on to the forecastle, where he met two or three Spanish officers, and received their swords. The English were now in full possession of every part of the ship, and a fire of pistols and musketry opened upon them from the admiral’s stern gallery of the San Joseph. Nelson, having placed sentinels at the different ladders, and ordered Captain Miller to send more men into the prize, gave orders for boarding that ship from the San Nicolas. It was done in an instant, he himself leading the way, and exclaiming— ‘“‘Westminster Abbey, or victory!” Berry assisted him into the main-chains, and at that very moment a Spanish officer looked over the quarter-deck rail and said they surrendered. It was not long before he was on the quarter-deck, where the Spanish captain presented to him his sword, and told him the admiral was below, dying of his wounds. There, on the quarter-deck of an enemy’s first-rate, he received the swords of the officers, giving them as they were delivered, one by one, to William Fearney, one of his old “Agamemnons,” who with the utmost coolness put them under his arm. One of his sailors came up, and with an Englishman’s * feeling took him by the hand, saying he might not soon have such another place to do it in, and he was heartily glad to see him there. Twenty-four of the Captain's men were killed and fifty-six wounded ; a fourth part of the loss sus- tained by the whole squadron falling upon this ship. Nelson received only a few bruises. The Spaniards had still eighteen or nine- teen ships which had suffered little or no injury ; that part of the fleet which had been separated from the main body in the morning was now coming up, and Sir John Jervis made signal to bring-to. His ships could not have formed without abandoning those which they had captured, and running to leeward ; the Captain was lying a perfect wreck near her two prizes, and many of the other vessels were so shattered in their masts and rigging as to be wholly. un- manageable. The Spanish admiral mean- time, according to his official account, being altogether undecided in his own opinion respecting the state of the fleet, inquired of his captains whether it was proper to renew the action. Nine of them answered explicitly that it was not; others replied that it was expedient to delay the business. The Fe- layo and the Principe Conquistador were the only ships that were for fighting. As soon as the action was discontinued, Nelson went on board the admiral’s ship. Sir John Jervis received him on the quarter- deck, took him in his arms, and said he could not sufficiently thank him. For this victory the commander-in-chief was rewarded with the title Earl St. Vincent. Nelson, who before the action was known in Eng- land had been advanced to the rank of rear-admiral, had the Order of the Bath given him. The sword of the Spanish rear- admiral, which Sir John Jervis insisted upon his keeping, he presented to the mayor and corporation of Norwich, saying that he knew no place where it could give him or his family more pleasure to have it kept than in the capital city of the county where he was born. The freedom of that city was voted him on this occasion. But of all - the numerous congratulations which he re- ceived, none could have affected him more deeply than that which came from his ven- erable father. “I thank my God,” said that excellent man, “with all the power of a ‘grateful soul, for the mercies He has most graciously bestowed on me in preserving you. Not only my few acquaintance here, but the people in general, met me at every corner with such handsome words that I was obliged to retire from the public eye. THE WONDERS 320 OF THE DEEP. The height of glory to which your pro- fessional judgment, united with a proper degree of bravery, guarded by Providence, has raised you, few sons, my dear child, attain to, and fewer fathers live to see. Tears of joy have involuntarily trickled down my furrowed cheeks. Who could stand the force of such general congratu- lation? The name and services of Nelson have sounded throughout this city of Bath, from the common ballad-singer to the pub- lic theatre.” The good old man concluded by telling him that the field of glory, in which he had so long been conspicuous, was still open, and by giving bim his paternal blessing. N ELSON (continued). ATTACK ON SANTA fruz—NEeLsON LOSES X//. HE story of the 3 great victory of the Nile has been often told, so that we shall here ven- ture to pass it over.* We give the less known but highly interesting narra- tive of the attack on Santa Cruz. Nelson met his captains at supper on board the SeaZorse, ‘Captain Freemantle, whose wife, whom he ‘had lately married in the Mediterranean, presided at table. At eleven o'clock, the boats, containing between 6oo and 7oo men, with 180 on board the Fox cutter, and from 70 to 8o in a boat which had been taken the day before, proceeded in six divisions toward the town, conducted by all the captains of the squadron, except Freemantle and Bowen, who attended with Nelson to regulate and lead the way to the attack. They were to land on a mole, and thence hasten as fast as possible into the great square, then form and proceed as * For a full account of this great victory, see the chapter entitled ‘‘ The Nile’s Proud Fight,” in the ‘¢ English in Egypt,” issued by the publishers of this volume. AN ARM. should be found expedient. They were not discovered till about half-past one o'clock, when, being within half-gunshot of the landing-place, Nelson directed the boats to cast off from each other, give a huzza, and push for the shore. But the Spaniards were excellently well prepared : the alarm bells answered the huzza, and a fire of thirty or forty pieces of cannon, with musketry from one end of the town to the other, opened upon the invaders. Nothing, however, could check the intre- pidity with which they advanced. The night was exceedingly dark ; most of the boats missed the mole, and went on shore through a raging surf, which stove all to the left of it. The Admiral, Freemantle, Thompson, Bowen, and four or five other boats, found the mole; they stormed it instantly, and carried it, though it was defended, as they imagined, by four or five hundred men. Its guns, which were six-and-twenty pounders, were spiked ; but such a heavy fire of musketry and grape was kept up from the citadel and the houses at the head of the mole, that the assailants could not advance, and nearly all of them were killed or wounded. In the act of stepping out of the boat, Nelson received a shot through the right elbow, and fell; but as he fell, he caught NELSON IS WOUNDED. 321 the sword which he had just drawn in his left hand, determined never to part with it while he lived, for it had belonged to his uncle, Captain Suckling, and he valued it like a relic. Nisbet, who was close to him, placed him at the bottom of the boat, and laid his hat over the shattered arm, lest the sight of the blood, which gushed out in great abundance, should increase his faint- ness. He then examined the wound, and taking some silk handkerchiefs from his neck, bound them tightly above the lacer- ated vessels. Had it not been for this presence of mind in his son-in-law, Nelson must have perished. One of his bargemen, by name Lovel, tore his shirt into shreds, and made a sling with them for the broken limb. They then collected five other sea- men, by whose assistance they succeeded at length in getting the boat afloat, for it had grounded with the falling tide. Nisbet took one of the oars, and ordered the steers- man to go close under the guns of the battery, that they might be safe from its tre- mendous fire. Hearing his voice, Nelson roused himself, and desired to be lifted up in the boat that he might look about him. Nisbet raised him up, but nothing could be seen except the firing of the guns on shote, and what could be discerned by their flashes upon the stormy sea. In a few minutes a general shriek was heard from the crew of the /vx, which had received a shot under water, and went down. Ninety- ~ seven men were lost in her; eighty-three were saved, many by Nelson himself, whose exertions on this occasion greatly increased the pain and danger of his wound. The first ship which the boat could reach happened to be the Sea/orse ; but nothing’ could induce him to go on board, though he was assured that if they attempted to row to another ship, it might be at the risk of his life. “I had rather suffer death,” he replied, “than alarm Mrs. Freemantle by letting her see me in this state, when I can give her no tidings whatever of her husband.” They pushed on for the Z%eseus. When they came alongside, he peremp- | wetted. torily refused all assistance in getting on board, so impatient was he that the boat should return, in hopes that it might save a few more from the Fox. He desired only to have a single rope thrown over the side, which he twisted round his left hand, saying, “Tet me alone; I have yet my legs left and one arm. Tell the surgeon to make haste and get his instruments. I know I must lose my right arm ; so the sooner it is off, the better.” The spirit which he dis- played in jumping up the ship’s side astonished everybody. ; Freemantle had been severely wounded in the right arm soon after the Admiral. He was fortunate enough to find a boat at the beach, and got instantly to his ship. Thompson was wounded, Bowen killed, to the great regret of Nelson, as was also one of his own officers, Lieutenant Weather- head, who had followed him from the Agamemnon, and whom he greatly and deservedly esteemed. Trowbridge mean- time, fortunately for his party, missed the mole in the darkness, but pushed on shore under the batteries, close to the south end of the citadel. Captain Waller, of the Emerald, and two or three other boats, landed at the same time. The surf was so high that many others put back. The boats were instantly filled with water and stove against the rocks, and most of the ammunition in the men’s pouches was Having collected a few men, they pushed on to the great square, hoping there to find the Admiral and the rest of the force. The ladders were all lost, so that they could make no immediate attempt on the citadel; but they sent a sergeant with two of the townspeople to summon it. This messenger never returned, and Trow- bridge, having waited about an hour in painful expectation of his friends, marched to join Captains Hood and Miller, who had effected their landing to the south-west. They then endeavoured to procure some intelligence of the Admiral and the rest of the officers, but without success. By day- break they had gathered together about 322 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. eighty marines, eighty pikemen, and one hundred and eighty small-arm seamen—all the survivors of those who had made good their landing. They obtained some ammu- nition from the prisoners whom they had taken, and marched on to try what could be done at the citadel without ladders. They found all the streets commanded by field-pieces, and several thousand Spani- ards, with about 4 hundred French, under arms, approaching by every avenue. Find- ing himself without provisions, the powder wet, and no possibility of obtaining either stores or reinforcements from the ships, the boats being lost, Trowbridge, with great presence of mind, sent Captain Samuel Hood with a flag of truce to the governor, to say he was prepared to burn the town, and would instantly set fire to it if the Spaniards approached one inch nearer. This, however, if he were compelled to do it, he should do with regret, for he had no wish to injure the inhabitants ; and he was ready to treat upon these terms—that the British troops should re-embark with all their arms of every kind, and take their own boats, if they were saved, or be provided with such others as might be wanting ; they on their part engaging that the squadron should not molest the town nor any of the Canary Islands; all prisoners on both sides to be given up. When these terms were proposed, the governor made answer that the English ought to surrender as prisoners - of war ; but Captain Hood replied he was instructed to say that if the terms were not accepted in five minutes, Captain Trow- bridge would set the town on fire and attack the Spaniards at the point of the bayonet. Satisfied with his success, which was indeed sufficiently complete, and re- specting, like a brave and honourable man, the gallantry of his enemy, the Spani- ard acceded to the proposal. ‘And here,” says Nelson in his journal, “it is right we should notice the noble and generous conduct of Don Juan Antonio Gutierrez, the Spanish governor. The ‘moment the terms were agreed to, he directed our wounded men to be received into the hospitals, and all our people to be supplied with the best provisions that could be pro- cured, and made it known that the ships were at liberty to send on shore and pur- chase whatever refreshments they were in want of during the time they might be off the island.” A youth, by name Don Ber- nardo Collagon, stripped himself of his shirt to make bandages for one of those Englishmen against whom, not an hour before, he had been engaged in battle. Nelson wrote to thank the governor for the humanity which he had displayed. Pre- sents were interchanged between them. Sir Horatio offered to take charge of his despatches for the Spanish Government, and thus actually became the first mes- senger to Spain of his own defeat. The total loss of the English in killed, wounded, and drowned amounted to 2350. Nelson made no mention of his own wound in his official despatches, but in a private letter to Lord St. Vincent—the first which he wrote with his left hand—he shows him- self to have been deeply affected by the failure of this enterprise. “I am become,” he said, “a burthen to my friends and use- less to my country ; but by my last letter you will perceive my anxiety for the pro- motion of my son-in-law, Josiah Nisbet. When I leave your command, I become dead to the world : ‘I go hence and am no more seen.” If from poor Bowen’s loss you think it proper to oblige me, I rest confident you will do it. The boy is under obliga- tions to me, but he repaid me by bringing me from the mole of Santa Cruz. I hope you will be able to give me a frigate to con- vey the remains of my carcase to England.” —« A lefthanded admiral,” he said in a subsequent letter, “ will never again be con- sidered as useful ; therefore the sooner I go to a very humble cottage the better, and make room for a sounder man to serve the State.” His first letter to Lady Nelson was written under the same opinion, but in a more cheerful strain. “It was the chance of war,” said he, “and I have great reason to PIETY OF NELSON. 323 be thankful ; and I know it will add much to your pleasure to find that Josiah, under God’s providence, was principally instru- mental in saving my life. I shall not be surprised if I am neglected and forgotten ; probably I shall no longer be considered as useful. However, I shall feel rich if I con- tinue to enjoy your affection. I beg neither you nor my father will think much of this mishap ; my mind has long been made up to such an event.” His son-in-law, according to his wish, was immediately promoted, and honours enough to heal his wounded spirit awaited him in England. Letters were addressed to him by the First Lord of the Admiralty, and by his steady friend the Duke of Clarence, to congratulate him on his return, covered as he was with glory. He assured the Duke in his reply that not a scrap of that ardour with which he had hitherto ~ served his king had been shot away. The freedom of the cities of Bristol and London was transmitted to him ; he was invested with the Order of the Bath, and received a pension of £1,000 a year. The memorial which, as a matter of form, he was called upon to present on this occasion, exhibited an extraordinary catalogue of services per- formed during the war. It stated that he had been in four actions with the fleets of the enemy, and in three actions with boats employed in cutting out of harbour, in des- troying vessels, and in taking three towns , he had served on shore with the army four months, and commanded the batteries at the sieges of Bastia and Calvi; he had assisted at the capture of seven sail of the line, six frigates, four corvettes, and eleven privateers ; taken and destroyed nearly fifty sail of merchant vessels ; and actually been engaged against the enemy upwards of one hundred and twenty times, in which service he had lost his right eye and right arm, and been severely wounded and bruised in his body. His sufferings from the lost limb were long and painful. A nerve had been taken up in one of the ligatures at the time of the operation, and the ligature, according to the practice of the French surgeons, was of silk, instead of waxed thread. This pro- duced a constant irritation and discharge, and the ends of the ligature being pulled every day, in hopes of bringing it away, occasioned great agony. He had scarcely any intermission of pain day or night for three months after his return to England. Lady Nelson, at his earnest request, attended the dressing of his arm till she had acquired sufficient resolution and skill to dress it herself. One night during this state of suffering, after a day of constant pain, Nelson retired early to bed in hope of enjoying some respite by means of lauda- num. He was at that time lodging in Bond Street, and the family were soon dis- turbed by a mob knocking loudly and violently at the door. The news of Dun- can’s victory had been made public, and the house was not illuminated. But when the mob were told that Admiral Nelson lay there in bed, badly wounded, the foremost of them made answer, “You shall hear no more from us to-night;” and in fact the feeling of respect and sympathy was com- municated from one to another with such effect that under the confusion of such a night the house was not molested again. About the end of November, after a night of sound sleep, he found the arm nearly free from pain; the surgeon was immediately sent for to examine it, and the ligature came away with the slightest touch. From that time it began to heal. As soon as he thought his health established, he sent the following form of thanksgiving to the minister of St. George’s, Hanover Square : —“An officer desires to return thanks to Almighty God for his perfect recovery from a severe wound, and also for the many mercies bestowed on him.” Not having been in England till now since he lost his eye, he went to receive a year’s pay as smart-money, but could not obtain payment because he had neglected to bring a certificate from a surgeon that the sight was actually destroyed. A little 324 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. irritated that this form should be insisted upon, because, though the fact was not apparent, he thought it was sufficiently notorious, he procured a certificate at the same time for the loss of his arm, saying they might just as well doubt one as the other. This put him in good humour with himself and with the clerk who had offended him. On his return to the office. the clerk, finding it was only the annual pay of a captain, observed he thought it had been more. “Oh!” replied Nelson, “this is only for an eye. In a few days I shall come for an arm, and in a little time longer, God knows, most probably for a leg.” Ac- cordingly, he soon afterwards went, and with perfect good humour exhibited the certificate of the loss of his arm." Ne LSON (continued). Tue MigHT OF > N 1802, a fleet under Sir Hyde Parker and Nelson was sent against the Danes to force them to break with the Neutrality ” which then threatened us. We give a somewhat de- tailed account .of this engage- ment, beginning with a description of the scenery. “Great actions, whether military or naval, have generally given celebrity to the scenes from whence they are denominated, and thus petty villages and capes and bays, known only to the coasting trader, become associated with mighty deeds, and their names are made conspicuous in the history of the world. Here, however, the scene was every way worthy of the drama. The political importance of the Sound is such that grand objects are not needed there to Impress the imagination, yet is the channel full of grand and interesting objects, both of art and nature. This passage, which Denmark had so long considered as the key of the Baltic, is in its narrowest part about three miles wide, and here the city of Elsinore is situated, except Copen- PENMARK'S frowN—BaTTLE OF frorPEN HAGEN. hagen, the most flourishing of the Danish towns. Every vessel which passes lowers her top-gallant sails and pays toll at Elsin- ore, a toll which is believed to have had its origin in the consent of the traders to that sea, Denmark taking upon itself the charge of constructing lighthouses and erecting signals to mark the shoals and rocks from the Cattegat to the Baltic; and they on their part agreeing that all ships should pass this way, in order that all might pay their shares ; none from that time using the passage of the Belt, because it was not fitting that they who enjoyed the benefit of the beacons in dark and stormy weather should evade contributing to them in fair seasons and summer nights. Of late years, about ten thousand vessels had annually paid this contribution in time of peace. Adjoining Elsinore, and at the edge of the peninsular promontory, upon the nearest point of land to the Swedish coast, stands Cronenburg Castle, built after Tycho Brahe’s design, a magnificent pile—at once a palace and fortress and state prison, with its spires and towers, and battlements and batteries. On the left of the strait is the old Swedish city of Helsinburg, at the foot and on the side of a hill. To the north of Helsinburg the shores are steep and rocky ; BALTIC SCENERY. 325 they lower to the south, and the distant spires of Landscrona, Lund, and Malmoe are seenin the flat country. The Danish shores consist partly of ridges of sand, but more frequently their slopes are covered with rich wood, and villages and villas, denoting the vicinity of a great capital. The isles of Huen, Satholm, and Amak appear in the widening channel ; and at the distance of twenty miles from Elsinore stands Copen- hagen, in full view—the best city of the North, and one of the finest capitals of Europe, visible, with its stately spires, far off. Amid these magnificent objects there are some which possess a peculiar interest for the recollections which they call forth. The isle of Huen, a lovely domain, about six miles in circumference, had been the munificent gift of Frederic the Second to Tycho Brahe. Here most of his discover- ies were made, and here the ruins are to be seen of his observatory, and of the mansion where he was visited by princes, and where, with a princely spirit, he received and entertained all comers from all parts, and promoted science by his liberality as well as = = = BOAT OF HELSINBURG SCUDDING IN A BALTIC GALE. by his labours. Elsinore is a name familiar to English ears, being inseparably associated with Hamlet, and one of the noblest works of human genius. Cronenburg had been the scene of deeper tragedy: here Queen Matilda was confined, the victim of a foul and murderous Court intrigue. Here, amid heart-breaking griefs, she found con- solation in nursing her infant. Here she took her everlasting leave of that infant, when, by the interference of England, her own deliverance was obtained, and as the ship bore her away from a country where the venial indiscretions of youth and unsus- picious gaiety had been so cruelly punished. Upon these towers she fixed her eyes, and stood upon the deck, obstinately gazing toward them till the last speck had disap- peared. The Sound being the only frequented entrance to the Baltic, the great Mediter- ranean of the North, few parts of the sea display so frequent a navigation. In the height of the season not fewer than a hundred vessels pass every four-and-twenty hours for many weeks in succession ; but 326 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. never had so busy or so splendid a scene been exhibited there as on this day, when the British fleet prepared to force that passage where till now all ships had vailed their top-sails to the flag of Denmark. The whole force consisted of fifty-one sail of various descriptions, of which sixteen were of the line. The greater part of the bomb and gun vessels took their stations off Cronenburg Castle, to cover the fleet; while others, on the larboard, were ready to engage the Swedish shore. The Danes having improved every moment which ill- timed negotiation and baffling weather gave them, had lined their shores with batteries ; and as soon as the Monarch, which was the leading ship, came abreast of them, a fire was opened from about a hundred pieces of cannon and mortars. Our light vessels immediately, in return, opened their fire upon the castle. Here were all the pompous circumstance and exciting reality of war without its effects ; for this ostenta- tious display was but a bloodless prelude to " the wide and sweeping destruction which was soon to follow. The enemy’s shot fell near enough to splash the water on board our ships. Not relying upon any forbear- ance of the Swedes, they meant to have kept the mid channel ; but when they per- ceived that not a shot was fired from Helsinburg, and that no batteries were to be seen on the Swedish shore, they inclined to that side, so as completely to get out of reach of the Danish guns. The uninter- rupted blaze which was kept up from them till the fleet had passed served only to exhilarate our sailors, and afford them matter for jest, as the shot fell in showers a full cable’s length short of its destined aim. A few rounds were returned from some of our leading ships, till they perceived its inutility : this, however, occasioned the only bloodshed of the day,. some of our men being killed and wounded by the bursting of a gun. As soon as the main body had passed, the gun-vessels followed, desisting from their bombardment, which had been as innocent as that of the enemy ; and about midday the whole fleet anchored between the island of Huen and Copen- hagen. Sir Hyde, with Nelson, Admiral Graves, some of the senior captains, and the commanding officers of the artillery and the troops, then proceeded in a lugger to reconnoitre the enemy’s means of defence — a formidable line of ships, radeaus, pontoons, galleys, fire-ships, and gunboats, flanked and supported by extensive batter- ies, and occupying, from one extreme point to the other, an extent of. nearly four miles. A council of war was held in the after- noon. It was apparent that the Danes could not be attacked without great diffi- culty and risk; and some of the members of the council spoke of the number of the Swedes and the Russians whom they should afterwards have to engage as a con- sideration which ought to be borne in mind. Nelson, who kept pacing the cabin, impatient as he ever was of anything which savoured of irresolution, repeatedly said, “The more numerous, the better; I wish they were twice as many; the easier the victory, depend on it.” The plan upon which he had determined, if ever it should be his fortune to bring a Baltic fleet to action, was to attack the head of their line and confuse their movements. “Close with a Frenchman,” he used to say, “but out-manceuvre a Russian.” He offered his services for the attack, requiring ten sail of the line and the whole of the smaller craft. Sir Hyde gave him two more line-of-battle ships than he asked, and left everything to his judgment. The enemy’s force was not the only nor the greatest obstacle with which the British fleet had to contend; there was another to be overcome before they could come in con- tact with it. The channel was little known and extremely intricate ; all the buoys had been removed, and the Danes considered this difficulty as almost insuperable, think- ing the channel impracticable for so large a fleet. Nelson himself saw the soundings made and the buoys laid down, boating it “AN AWFUL NIGHT FOR COPENHAGEN. 327 upon this exhausting service, day and night, till it was effected. When this was done, he thanked God for having enabled him to get through this difficult part of his duty. “Tt had worn him down,” he said, “and was infinitely more grievous to him than any resistance which he could experience from the enémy.” The Danes meantime had not been idle. No sooner did the guns of Cronenburg make it known to the whole city that all negotiation was at an end, that the British fleet was passing the Sound, and that the dipute between the two crowns must now be decided by arms, than a spirit dis- played itself most honourable to the Danish character. All ranks offered themselves to the service of their country ; the university furnished acorps of twelve hundred youths, the flower of Denmark. It was one of those emergencies in which little drilling or discipline is necessary to render courage available ; they had nothing to learn but how to manage the guns, and were em- ployed day and night in practising them. When the movements of Nelson’s squadron were perceived, it was known when and where the attack was to be expected, and the line of defence was manned indis- criminately by soldiers, sailors, and citizens. Had not the whole attention of the Danes been directed to strengthen their own means of defence, they might most materi- . ally have annoyed the invading squadron, and perhaps frustrated the impending at- tack, for the British ships were crowded in an anchoring ground of little extent; it was calm, so that mortar-boats might have acted against them to the utmost advan- tage, and they were within range of shells from Amak Island. A few fell among them, but the enemy soon ceased to fire. It was learnt afterwards that, fortunately for the fleet, the bed of the mortar had given way, and the Danes either could not get it re- placed, or in the darkness lost the direction. This was an awful night for Copenhagen —far more so than for the British fleet, where the men were accustomed to battle and victory, and had none of those ob- jects before their eyes which render death terrible. Nelson sat down to table with a large party of his officers; he was, as he was ever wont to be when on the eve of action, in high spirits, and drank to a lead- ing wind and to the success of the morrow. After supper they returned to their respec- tive ships, except Riou, who remained to -arrange the order of battle with Nelson and Foley, and to draw up instructions ; Hardy, meantime, went in a small boat to examine the channel between them and the enemy, approaching so near that he sounded round their leading ship with a pole, lest the noise of throwing the lead should dis- cover him. The incessant fatigue of body as well as mind which Nelson had under- gone during the last three days had so exhausted him that he was earnestly urged to go to his cot, and his old servant, Allen, using that kind of authority which long and affectionate services entitled and enabled him to assume on such occasions, insisted upon his complying. The cot was placed on the floor, and he continued to dictate from it. About eleven, Hardy returned, and reported the practicability of the chan- nel, and the depth of water up to the enemy’s line. About one the orders were completed, and half a dozen clerks in the foremost cabin proceeded to transcribe them, Nelson frequently calling out to them from his cot to hasten their work, for the wind was becoming fair. Instead of at- tempting to get a few hours of sleep, he was constantly receiving reports on this important point. At daybreak it was an- nounced as becoming perfectly fair. The clerks finished their work about six. Nel- son, who was already up, breakfasted, and made signal for all captains. The land forces and five hundred seamen, under Captain Freemantle and the Honourable Colonel Stewart, were to storm the Crown Battery as soon as its fire should be silenced ; and Riou—whom Nelson had never seen till this expedition, but whose worth he had instantly perceived, and ap- 328 THE WONDERS OF THE DEZP. preciated as it deserved—had the Blanche and Alemene frigates, the Dart and Arrow sloops, and the Zepyr and Otter fire-ships, given him, with a special command to act as circumstances might require. Every other ship had its station appointed. Between eight and nine the pilots and The signal for action had been made, the wind was fair—not a moment to be lost. Nelson urged them to be steady, to be resolute, and to decide ; but they wanted the only ground for steadiness and decision in such cases, and Nelson had reason to regret that he had not trusted to Hardy's single report. This was one of the most SUMMER SCENE IN DENMARK. masters were ordered on board the Ad- miral’s ship. The pilots were mostly men who had been mates in Baltic traders, and their hesitation about the bearing of the east end of the shoal and the exact line of deep water gave ominous warning of how little their knowledge was to be trusted. \ = painful moments of his life, and he always spoke of it with bitterness. “I experienced in the Sound,” said he, “the misery of having the honour of our country entrusted to a set of pilots who have no other thought than to keep the ships clear of danger, and their own silly heads clear of shot. Every- body knows what I must have suffered, and “17 WAS TEN OF APRIL MORN BY THE CHIME) 329 if any merit attaches itself to me, it was for combating the dangers of the shallows in defiance of them.” At length Mr. Bryerly, the master of the Bellona, declared that he was prepared to lead the fleet; his judg- ment was acceded to by the rest; they returned to their ships, and at half-past nine the signal was made to weigh in suc- cession. Each ship, as she arrived nearly opposite to her appointed station, let her anchor go by the stern, and presented her broadside to the Danes. The distance between each was about half a cable. The action was fought nearly at the distance of a cable’s length from the enemy. This, which ren- dered its continuance so long, was owing to the ignorance and consequent indecision of the pilots, which is often a great hin- drance to an expedition. N ELSON (continued) ; BEGINNING OF THE JACTION— SIGNAL TO Pests p T five minutes after ten " the . action - began. first half of our fleet was engaged in about half an hour, and by half - past eleven the #> battle became general. The plan of the attack had been complete ; but seldom has any plan been more disconcerted by untoward accidents. Of twelve ships of the line, one was entirely useless, and two others in a situation where they could not render half the service which was required of them. Of the squadron of gun-brigs, only one could get into action; the rest were prevented by baffling currents from weathering the eastern end of the shoal; and only two of the bomb-vessels could reach their station on the Middle Ground, and open their mortars on the arsenal, firing over both fleets. Riou took the vacant station against the Crown Battery with his frigates, attempting with that unequal force a service in which three sail of the line had been directed to assist. : Nelson's agitation had been extreme when he saw himself, before the action began, PISREGARDED: deprived of a fourth part of his ships of the line ; but no sooner was he in battle, where his squadron was received with the fire of more than a thousand guns, than, as if that artillery, like music, had driven away all care and painful thoughts, his countenance brightened, and, as a bystander describes him, his conversation became joyous, ani- mated, elevated, and delightful. The com- mander-in-chief, meantime, near enough to the scene of action to know the unfavourable accidents which had so materially weakened Nelson, and yet too distant to know the real state of the contending parties, suffered the most’ dreadful anxiety. To get to his assistance was impossible; both wind and current were against him. Fear for the event in such circumstances would naturally pre- ponderate in the bravest mind ; and at one o'clock, perceiving that after three hours’ endurance the enemy’s fire was unslack- ened, he began to despair of success. “I will make the signal of recall,” said he to his captain, “for Nelson’s sake... I he is in a condition to continue the action suc- cessfully, he will disregard it; if he is not, it will be an excuse for his retreat, and no blame can be imputed to him.” Captain 330 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. Domett urged him at least to delay the signal till he could communicate with Nelson, but in Sir Hyde's opinion the danger was too pressing for delay. The fire,” he said, “was too ‘hot for Nelson to oppose; a retreat he thought must be made. He was aware of the consequences to his own personal reputation, but it would be cowardly in him to leave Nelson to bear the whole shame of the failure, if shame it should be deemed.” Under a mistaken judgment,® therefore, but with this disin- terested and generous feeling, he made the signal for retreat. Nelson was at this time, in all the excite- ment of action, pacing the quarter-deck. A shot through the main-mast knocked the splinters about, and he observed to one of his officers with a smile, “It is warm work, and this day may be the last to any of us at a moment ; ” and then, stopping short at the gangway, added with emotion—* But, mark you, I would not be elsewhere for thousands.” About this time the signal lieutenant called out that No. 39 (the sig- nal for discontinuing the action) was thrown out by the commander-in-chief. He con- tinued to walk the deck, and appeared to take no notice of it. The signal officer met him at the next turn, and asked him if he should repeat it. “No,” he replied; “acknowledge it.” Presently he called after him to know if the signal for close action was still hoisted, and being answered in the affirmative, said, “ Mind you keep it so.” He now paced the deck, moving the stump of his lost arm in a manner which always indicated great emotion. “Do you know,” said he to Mr. Ferguson, “what is shown on board the commander-in-chief? No. 39!” Mr. Ferguson asked what that meant. “Why, to leave off action!” Then, shrugging up his shoulders, he re- peated the words—“ Leave off action? Now, hang me if I do! You know, * We have great pleasure in rendering this justice to Sir Hyde Parker’s reasoning. The fact is here stated upon the highest and most unquestionable authority. Foley,” turning to the captain, “I have only one eye; I have a right to be blind sometimes.” And then, putting the glass to his blind eye in that mood of mind which sports with bitterness, he exclaimed, “I really do not see the signal!” Pre- sently he exclaimed, “Confound the signal ! Keep mine for closer battle flying! That's the way I answer such signals! Nail mine to the mast!” Admiral Graves, who was so situated that he could not discern what was done on board the Z/¢plant, disobeyed Sir Hyde's signal in like manner ; whether by fortunate mistake, or by a like brave intention, has not been made known. The other ships of the line, looking only to Nel- son, continued the action. The signal, however, saved Riou’s little squadron, but did not save its heroic leader. This squad- ron, which was nearest the commander-in- chief, obeyed, and hauled off. It had suffered severely in its most unequal con- test. For a long time the Amazon had been firing, enveloped in smoke, when Riou desired his men to stand fast, and let the smoke clear off, that they might see - what they were about. A fatal order, for the Danes then got clear sight of her from the batteries, and pointed their guns with such tremendous effect that nothing but the signal for retreat saved this frigate from destruction. “What will Nelson think of us?” was Riou’s mournful exclamation when he unwillingly drew off. He had been wounded in the head by a splinter, and was sitting on a gun, encouraging his men, when, just as the Amazon showed her stern to the Trekroner Battery, his clerk was killed by his side, and another shot swept away several marines who were hauling in the main-brace. “Come, then, my boys!” cried Riou, “let us die all together !” The words had scarcely been uttered before a raking shot cut him in two. Except it had been Nelson himself, the British navy could not have suffered a severer loss. The action continued along the line with unabated vigour on our side, and with the CANNON SHOT AS MESS WAITERS! 331 most determined resolution on the part of the Danes. They fought to great advan- tage, because most of the vessels in their line of defence were without masts; the few which had any standing had their top- masts struck, and the hulls could only be seen at intervals. The Zszs must have been destroyed by the. superior weight of her enemy’s fire, if Captain Inman, in the Desirée frigate, had not judiciously taken a situation which enabled him to rake the Dane, and if the Polyplhemus had not also relieved her. Both in the Bellona and the /sis many men were lost by the bursting of their guns. The former ship was about forty years old, and these guns were believed to be the same which she had first taken to sea ; they were probably originally faulty, for the fragments were full of little air- holes. The Bellona lost 75 men; the Zsis, 110; the Monarch, 210. She was, more than any other line-of-battle ship, exposed to the great battery ; and supporting at the same time the united fire of the Holstein and the Zealand, her loss this day exceeded that of any single ship during the whole war. Amid the tremendous carnage in this vessel some of the men displayed a singu- lar instance of coolness. The pork and peas happened to be in the kettle ; a shot knocked its contents about; they picked up the pieces, and ate and fought at the same time. The Prince Royal had taken his station upon one of the batteries, from whence he beheld the action and issued his orders. Denmark had never been engaged in so arduous a contest, and never did the Danes more nobly display their national courage —a courage not more unhappily than im- politically exerted in subserviency to the interest of France. Captain Thura, of the Indfoedsretten, fell early in the action, and all his officers, except one lieutenant and one marine officer, were either killed or wounded. In the confusion the colours were either struck or shot away ; but she was moored athwart one of the batteries in such a situation that the British made no attempt to board her, and a boat was despatched to the prince to inform him of her situation. He turned to those about him, and said, “ Gentlemen, Thura is killed ; which of you will take the command ?” Schroedersee, a captain who had lately resigned on account of extreme ill-health, answered in a feeble voice, “I will!” and hastened on board. ‘The crew, perceiving a new commander coming alongside, hoisted their colours again, and fired a broadside. Schroeder- see, when he came on deck, found himself surrounded by the dead and wounded, and called to those in the boat to get quickly on board; a ball struck him at that moment. A lieutenant who had accom- panied him then took the command, and continued to fight the ship. A youth ‘of seventeen, by name Villemoes, particularly distinguished himself on this memorable day. He had volunteered to take the com- mand of a floating battery, which was a raft, consisting merely of a number of beams nailed together with a flooring to support the guns; it was square, with a breastwork full of port-holes, and without masts—carrying twenty-four guns and 1zo men. With this he got under the stern of the Elephant, below the reach of the stern- chasers, and under a heavy fire of small arms from the marines, fouglit his raft till the truce was announced, with such skill, as well as courage, as to excite Nelson’s warmest admiration. Between one and two the fire of the Danes slackened; about two it ceased from the greater part of their line, and some of their lighter ships were adrift. It was, however, difficult to take possession of those which struck, because the batteries on Amak Island protected them, and because an irregular fire was kept up from the ships themselves as the boats ap- proached. This arose from the nature of the action. The crews were continually reinforced from the shore, and fresh men coming on board did not inquire whether the flag had been struck, or perhaps did not heed it ; many or most of them never 2 332 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. having been engaged in war before, knowing nothing, therefore, of its laws, and thinking only of defending their country to the last extremity. The Danbrog fired upon the Llephant's boats in this manner, though her commodore had removed her pendant and deserted her, though she had struck, and though she was in flames. After she had been abandoned by the commodore, Braun fought her till he lost his right hand, and then Captain Lem- had been stove in; every gun, except a single one, was dismounted ; and her deck was covered with shattered limbs and dead bodies. By half-past two the action had ceased along that part of the line which was astern of the Zlphant, but not with the ships ahead and the Crown Batteries. Nelson, seeing the manner in which his boats were fired upon when they went to take posses- sion of the prizes, be- ming took the command. This unexpected re- newal of her fire made the Elephant and Glat- fon renew theirs, till she was not only silenced, but nearly every man in the praams ahead and astern of her was killed. When the smoke of their guns died away, she was seen drifting in flames before the wind, those C) f (Le Sd 3 \V¢ { SY ZAASNA h b TINY irs = lial BE came angry, and said he must either send on shore to have this irregular proceeding stopped, or send a fire- ship and burn them. Half the shot from the Trekroner and from the batteries at Amak at this time struck the sur- rendered ships, four of which had got close to- gether, and the fire of Qf of of her crew who re- the English in return mained alive and able to exert themselves throwing themselves out at her port-holes. Captain Rothe com- manded the Nyeborg praam, and perceiving that she could not much longer be kept afloat, made for the inner road. As he passed the line, he found the A ggershuus 4 THE VICTORY, NELSON'S FLAGSHIP, was equally or even more destructive to these poor devoted Danes. Nelson, who was as humane as he was brave, was shocked at this massacre—for such he called it—and, with a presence of mind peculiar to himself, and never more signally dis- played than now, he praam in a more miser- able condition than his own ; her masts had all gone by the board, and she was on the point of sinking. Rothe made fast a cable to her stern and towed her off, but he could get her no farther than a shoal called Stub- ben, when she sank, and soon after he had worked the Nyeborg up to the landing-place, that vessel also sank to her gunwale. Never did any vessel come out of action in a more dreadful plight. The stump of her fore- mast was the only stick standing; her cabin retired into the stern galley, and wrote thus to the Crown Prince : “ Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson has been com- manded to spare Denmark when she no longer resists. The line of defence which covered her shores has struck to the British flag; but if the firing is continued on the part of Denmark, he must set on fire all the prizes that he has taken, without having the power of saving the men who have so nobly defended them. The brave Danes are the brothers, and should never be the enemies TWIN GLORIES OF THE ENGLISH NATION. 333 of the English.” A wafer was given him, but he ordered a candle to be brought from the cockpit, and sealed the letter with wax, affixing a larger seal than he ordinarily used. “This,” said he, “is no time to appear hurried and informal.” Captain Sir Frederick Thesiger, who acted as his aide- de-camp, carried this letter with a flag of truce. Meantime the fire of the ships ahead, and the approach of the ZRamilies and Defence from Sir agitated from one end to the other. The legions of the emperor were poured forth on the whole of the continent, France her- self was subsequently trampled under the hoof of the invader, and who will deny that this was a well deserved-retribution? But in England, although the strain put upon her resources was terrible, still the func- tions of active life were never disturbed for a single moment. Laws were still made at Westminster, justice Hyde’s division, which had now worked near enough to alarm the enemy, though not to injure them, silenced . the remainder of the Danish line to the east- ward of the Trekroner. That battery, however, continued its fire. This formidable work, owing to the want of the ships which had been destined to attack it, and the in- adequate force of Riou’s little squadron, was com- paratively uninjured. Towards the close of the action it had been manned with nearly fif- teen hundred men, and the intention of storm- ing it, for which every preparation had been made, was abandoned as impracticable. WESTMINSTER HALL. was still dispensed in Westminster Hall, com- mercial dealings were day by day carried on quietly and without fear in the city. This was due to the enterprise and energy of the brave men who defended us so well, and especially to our sailors, who ren- dered ineffectual the efforts of Napoleon to cross the “silver streak” which divides us from the continent. Thus the thoughtful reader will perceive a deep meaning in the pictures with which we here pre- sent him. The one is of that famous hall so great in English history, and which seems to gather up in itself all the peaceable traditions of Here, in the midst of this terrible action, let us pause for a little to reflect upon the courage and endurance of our soldiers and sailors, and what it is that we owe to them. The struggle with Napoleon, of which this was an incident, is probably the most terrible struggle in which England was ever engaged. During the time it was going on, Europe was English life; the other is of that famous ship, the Victory, in which at last our hero’s career, as we shall soon relate, was brought to a close; that ship which is still preserved at Portsmouth with pious care; that ship which so well repre- sents the warlike traditions of English life. What a contrast, and yet what a unity! But let us on with our narrative. Y ThE WONDERS OF THE DEEP Ne LSON (continued). PROGRESS OF THE fricaT—YICTORY OF THE PRITISH— 2URING Thesiger’s absence Nelson sent for Freemantle from the Ganges, and con- sulted with him and Foley, whether it was IM advisable to advance with those i R ships which had sustained least ; damage against the yet uninjured part of the Danish line. They were decidedly of opinion that the best thing which could be done was, while the wind continued fair, to remove the fleet out of the intricate channel from which it had to retreat. In somewhat more than half-an- hour after Thesiger had been despatched, the Danish adjutant-general, Lindholm, came, bearing a flag of truce ; upon which the Trekroner ceased to fire, and the action closed, after four hours’ continuance. He brought an inquiry from the prince: What was the object of Nelson’s note? The British Admiral wrote in reply: ¢ Lord Nelson’s object in sending the flag of truce was humanity ; he therefore consents that hostilities shall cease, and that the wounded Danes may be taken on shore. And Lord Nelson will take his prisoners out of the vessels, and burn or carry off his prizes as he shall think fitt Lord Nelson, with humble duty to his Royal Highness the Prince, will consider this the greatest vic- tory he has ever gained if it may be the cause of a happy reconciliation and union between his own most gracious sovereign and his Majesty the King of Denmark.” Sir Frederick Thesiger was despatched a second time with the reply, and the Danish TERMS OF PEACE. adjutant-general was referred to the com- mander-in-chief for a conference upon this overture. Lindholm, assenting to this, pro- ceeded to the London, which was riding at anchor full four miles off; and Nelson, losing not one of the critical moments which he had thus gained, made signal for his leading ships to weigh in succession— they had the shoal to clear, they were much crippled, and their course was immediately under the guns of the Trekroner. The Monarch led the way. This ship had received six-and-twenty shot between wind and water. She had not a shroud standing ; there was a double-headed shot in the heart of her foremast; and the slightest wind would have sent every mast over her side. The imminent danger from which Nelson had extricated himself soon became apparent; the Monarch touched immediately upon a shoal, over which she was pushed by the Ganges taking her amid- ships; the Gatton went clear; but the other two, the Defiance and the Elephant, grounded about a mile from the Trekroner, and there remained fixed for many hours, in spite of all the exertions of their wearied crews. The Desirée frigate also, at the other end of the line, having gone toward the close of the action to assist the Bellona, became fast on the same shoal. Nelson left the Elephant, soon after she took the ground, to follow Lindholm. The heat of action was over, and that kind of feeling which the surrounding scene of havoc was so well fitted to produce pressed heavily upon his exhausted spirits. The sky had suddenly become overcast ; white flags were “JOLY STRIKE THE SHAITERED SAIL) 335 waving from the mastheads of so many shattered ships ; the slaughter had ceased ; but the grief was to come, for the account of the dead was not yet made up, and no man could tell for what friends he would have to mourn. The very silence which follows the cessation of such a battle be- comes a weight upon the heart at first, rather than a relief ; and though the work of mutual destruction was at an end, the Danbrog was at this time drifting about in flames. Presently she blew up, while our boats, which had put off in all directions to assist her, were endeavouring to pick up her devoted crew, few of whom could be saved. The fate of these men, after the gallantry which they had displayed, particu- larly affected Nelson ; for there was nothing in this action of that indignation against the enemy, and that impression of retributive justice, which at the Nile had given a sterner temper to his mind, and a sense of austere delight in beholding the vengeance of which he was the appointed minister. The Danes were an honourable foe; they were of English mould as well as English blood ; and now that the battle had ceased, he regarded them rather as brethren than as enemies. There was another reflection also, which mingled with these melancholy thoughts, and predisposed him to receive them. He was not here master of his own movements, as at Egypt; he had won the day by disobeying his orders ; and in so far as he had been successful, had convicted the commander-in-chief of an error in judg- ment. “Well,” said he as he left the Liephant, “1 have fought contrary to orders, and I shall perhaps be hanged! Never mind, let them !” This was the language of a man who, while he is giving utterance to an uneasy thought, clothes it half in jest because he half repents that it has been . disclosed. His services had been too eminent on that day, his judgment too conspicuous, his success too signal, for any commander, how- cver jealous of his own authority, or envious of another’s merits, to express anything but satisfaction and gratitude, which Sir Hyde heartily felt and sincerely expressed. It was speedily agreed that there should be a suspension of hostilities for four-and-twenty hours ; that all the prizes should be sur- rendered, and the wounded Danes carried on shore. There was a pressing necessity for this, for the Danes, either from teo much confidence in the strength of their position and the difficulty of the channel; or supposing that the wounded might be carried on. shore during the action, which was found totally impracticable ; or perhaps from the confusion which the attack excited, had provided no surgeons; so that when our men boarded the captured ships, they found many of the mangled and mutilated Danes bleeding to death for want of proper assistance—a scene of all others the most shocking to a brave man’s feelings. The boats of Sir Hyde’s division were actively employed all night in bringing out the prizes, and in getting afloat the ships which were on shore. At daybreak Nel- son, who had slept in his own ship, the .S% George, rowed to the Elephant, and his de- light at finding her afloat seemed to give him new life. There he took a hasty break- fast, praising the men for their exertions, and then pushed off to the prizes, which had not yet been removed. The Zealand (seventy-four), the last which struck, had drifted on the shoal under the Trekroner, and relying, as it seems, upon the protec- tion which that battery might have afforded, refused to acknowledge herself captured, saying that, though it was true her flag was not to be seen, her pendant was still flying. Nelson ordered one of our brigs and three long-boats to approach her, and rowed up himself to one of the enemy’s ships to communicate with the commodore. This officer proved to be an old acquaintance whom he had known in the West Indies; so he invited himself on board, and with that urbanity as well as decision which always characterized him, urged his claim to the Zealand so well that it was admitted. The men from the boats lashed a cable 336 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. round her bowsprit, and the gun-vessel towed her away. Itis affirmed, and pro- bably with truth, that the Danes felt more pain at beholding this than at all their mis- fortunes on the preceding day ; and one of the officers, Commodore Steen Bille, went . to the Trekroner Battery, and asked the commander why he had not sunk the Zea- land, rather than suffer her thus to be carried off by the.enemy. This was indeed a mournful day for Copenhagen! It was Good Friday; but the general agitation and the mourning which was in every house made all distinc- tion of days be forgotten. There were at that hour thousands in that city who felt, and more perhaps who needed, the con. solations of Christianity, but few or none who could be calm enough to think of its observances. The English were actively employed in refitting their own ships, securing the prizes, and distributing the prisoners ; the Danes, in carrying on shore and disposing of the wounded and the dead. It had been a murderous action. Our loss in killed and wounded was nine hundred and fifty-three. Part of this slaughter might have been spared. The command- ing officer of the troops on board one of our ships asked where his men should be stationed? He was told that they could be of no use ; that they were not near enough for musketry, and were not wanted at the guns ; they had therefore better go below. This, he said, was impossible ; it would be a disgrace that could never be wiped away. They were therefore drawn up upon the gangway, to satisfy this cruel point of honour; and there, without the possibility of annoying the enemy, they were mowed down! The loss of the Danes, including prisoners, amounted to about six thousand. The negotiations meantime went on, and it was agreed that Nelson should have an interview with the prince the following day. Hardy and Freemantle landed with him. This was a thing as unexampled as the other circumstances of the battle. A strong guard was appointed to escort him to the palace, as much for the purpose of security as of honour. The populace, according to the British account, showed a mixture of admiration, curiosity, and displeasure at beholding that man in the midst of them who had inflicted such wounds upon Den- mark. But there was neither acclamations nor murmurs. “The people,” says a Dane, “did not degrade themselves with the former, nor disgrace themselves with the latter. The Admiral was received as one brave enemy ever ought to receive another ; he was received with respect.” The pre- Jliminaries of the negotiation were adjusted at this interview. During the repast which followed, Nelson, with all the sincerity of his character, bore willing testimony to the valour of his foes. He told the prince that he had been in a hundred and five engage- ments, but that this was the most tremen- dous of all. “The French?” he said, “fought bravely ; but they could not have stood for one hour the fight which the Danes had supported for four.” He re- quested that Villemoes might be introduced to him ; and shaking hands with the youth, told the prince that he ought to be made an admiral. The prince replied: “If, my lord, I am to make all my brave officers admirals, I should have no captains or lieutenants in my service.” The sympathy of the Danes for their countrymen who had bled in their defence was not weakened by distance of time or place in this instance. Things needful for the service or the comfort of the wounded were sent in profusion to the hospitals, till the superintendents gave public notice that they could receive no more. On the third day after he action, the dead were buried in the naval churchyard. The ceremony was made as public and as solemn as the occasion required ; such a procession had never before been seen in that or perhaps in any other city. A public monument was erected upon the spot where the slain were gathered together. A subscription was opened on the day of the funeral for the relief of the sufferers, and collections in aid ITWAS IN TEAFALCAR BAY.” 337 of it made throughout all the churches in the kingdom. This appeal to the feelings of the people was made with circumstances which gave it full effect. A monument was raised in the midst of the church, sur- mounted by the Danish colours: young maidens, dressed in white, stood round it, with either one who had been wounded in ‘the battle, or the widow and orphans of some one who had fallen ; a suitable oration was delivered from the pulpit, and patriotic hymns and songs were afterwards performed. Medals were distributed to all the officers, and to the men who had distinguished themselves. Poets and painters vied with each other in celebrating a battle which, disastrous as it was, had yet been honour- able to their country; some, with pardon- able sophistry, represented the advantage of the day as on their own side. One writer discovered a more curious but less disputable ground of satisfaction in the re- flection that Nelson, as may be inferred from his name, was of Danish descent, and his actions therefore, the Dane argued, were attributable to Danish valour. The negotiation was continued during the five following days, and finally brought to a satisfactory conclusion, the Danes practically agreeing to the British demands. Ne 13 0 N (continued). Farms OF JRAFALGAR— (GLORIOUS PeaTH OF ENGLAND'S story of the battle of Trafalgar 1s well known, yet we cannot pass it by when giving these brief selec tions from Nelson’s The battle was fought and won on 21st October, 1805; and, as well known, Nelson met his death in the moment of victory. We take up the narrative at the point where he re- ceived his death wound. It had been part of Nelson’s prayer that the British fleet might be distinguished by humanity in the victory he expected. Setting an example himself, he twice gave orders to cease firing upon the LKedoubtable, supposing that she had struck, because her great guns were silent; for, as she carried no flag, there was no means of instantly ascertaining the fact. From this ship, which he had thus twice spared, he re- ceived his death. A ball fired from her mizen-top, which in the then situation of Bb life history. i [FREATEST Navar Founanpen, the two vessels was not more than fifteen yards from that part of the deck where he was standing, struck the epaulette on his left shoulder, about a quarter after one, just In the heat of action. He fell upon his face, on the spot which was covered with his poor secretary's blood. Hardy, who was a few steps from him, turning round, saw three men raising him up. - “They have done for me at last, Hardy!” said he. “1 hope not!” ‘ctied Hardy. Yes,” he replied, “my back-bone is shot through !” Yet even now, not for a moment losing his presence of mind, he observed as they were carrying him down the ladder that the tiller-ropes, which had been shot away, were not yet replaced, and ordered that new ones should be rove imme- diately. Then, that he might not be seen by the crew, he took out his handkerchief and covered his face, and his stars. Had he but concealed these badges of honour from the enemy, England perhaps would not have had cause to receive with sorrow the news of the battle of Trafalgar. The cockpit was crowded with wounded and 338 THE WONDERS dying men, over whose bodies he was with some difficulty conveyed, and laid upon a pallet in the midshipman’s berth. It was soon perceived, upon examination, that the wound was mortal. This, however, was concealed from all except Captain Hardy, the chaplain, and the medical attendants. He himself being certain, from the sensa- tion in his back and the gush of blood he felt momently within his breast, that no human care could avail him, insisted that the surgeon should leave him, and attend to those to whom he might be useful; ¢ for,” said he, “ you can do nothing for me.” All that could be done was to fan him with paper, and frequently give him lemonade to alleviate his intense thirst. He was in great pain, and expressed much anxiety for the event of the action, which now began to declare itself. As often as a ship struck, the crew of the Victory hurrahed, and at every hurrah a visible expression of joy ° gleamed in the eyes and marked the countenance of the dying hero. But he became impatient to see Captain Hardy, and as that officer, though often sent for, could not leave the deck, Nelson feared that some fatal cause prevented him, and repeatedly cried: ““ Will no one bring Hardy tome? He must be killed! He is surely dead!” An hour and ten minutes elapsed from the time when Nelson received his wound before Hardy could come to him. They shook hands in silence; Hardy in vain struggling to express the feelings of that most painful and yet sublimest moment. “Well, Hardy,” said Nelson, “how goes the day with us?”—*“Very well,” replied Hardy ; “ten ships have struck, but five of the van have tacked, and show an intention to bear down upon the Viclory. 1 have called two or three of our fresh ships around, and have no doubt of giving them a drubbing.”—¢I hope,” said Nelson, “none of our ships have struck ? ” Hardy answered, “ There was no fear of that.” Then, and not till then, Nelson spoke of himself. “I am a dead man, Hardy,” he said. “I am going fast ; it will be all over with me soon. Come nearer to OF THE DILEP. me. Let my dear Lady Hamilton have my hair and all other things belonging to me.” Hardy observed that he hoped Mr. Beatty could yet hold out some prospect of life. ““Oh,no!” he replied, “it is impos- sible : my back is shot through. Beatty will tell you so.” Captain Hardy then once more shook hands with him, and with a heart almost bursting, hastened upon deck. By this time all feeling below the breast was gone ; and Nelson, having made the surgeon ascertain this, said to him: “You know I am gone. I know it. I feel some- thing rising in my breast” —putting his hand on his left side—* which tells me so.” And upon Beatty’s inquiring whether his pain was very great, he replied : “So great that he wished he was dead. Yet,” said he in a lower voice, “one would like to live a little longer too !” And after a few minutes, in the same under-tone, he added : “What would become of poor Lady Hamilton if she knew my situation?” Next to his country she occupied his thoughts. Captain Hardy, some fifty minutes after he had left the cockpit, returned, and again taking the hand of his dying friend and commander, congratulated him on having gained a complete victory. How many of the enemy were taken he did not know, as it was impossible to perceive them distinctly ; but fourteen or fifteen at least. ¢ That's well ! ” cried Nelson ; “but I bargained for twenty.” And then in a stronger voice he said: “Anchor, Hardy, anchor.” Hardy upon this hinted that Admiral Collingwood would take upon himself the direction of affairs. “Not while I live, Hardy,” said the dying Nelson, ineffectually endeavouring to raise himself from the bed; “do you anchor.” His previous order for preparing to anchor had shown how clearly he fore- saw the necessity of this. Presently, calling Hardy back, he said to him in a low voice : “ Don’t throw me overboard;” and he desired that he might be buried by his parents, unless it should please the king to order otherwise. Then reverting to private feelings: “Take care of my dear Lady “LAST SCENE OF ALL. y 330 Hamilton, Hardy ; take care of poor Lady Hamilton. Kiss me, Hardy,” said he. Hardy knelt down and kissed his cheek, and Nelson said: “Now I am satisfied. Thank God, I have done my duty !” Hardy stood over him in silence for a moment or head. ‘Who is that?” said Nelson ; and being informed, he replied: ¢ God bless you, Hardy.” And Hardy then left him for ever. Nelson now desired to be turned upon his right side, and said : “I wish I had not two, then knelt again and kissed his fore- | left the deck, for I shall soon be gone.” Death was indeed rapidly approaching. He said to the chaplain: “ Doctor, I have not been a great sinner.” And after a short pause: “Remember that I leave Lady Hamilton and my daughter Horatio as a legacy to my country.” His articulation now became difficult, but he was distinctly heard tosay: “Thank God, I have done my duty!” men fell by the enemy’s musketry. These words he repeatedly pronounced, and they were the last words which he uttered. He expired at thirty minutes after four, three hours and a quarter after he had received his wound. Within a quarter of an hour after Nelson was wounded, about fifty of the FVictory's They, 340 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. however, on their part were not idle, and it was not long before there were only two Frenchmen left alive in the mizen-top of the Redoubtable. One of them was the man who had given the fatal wound—he did not live to boast of what he had done. An old quartermaster had seen him fire, and easily recognised him, because he wore a glazed cocked-hat and a white frock. This quartermaster and two midshipmen, Mr. Collingwood and Mr. Pollard, were the only persons left in the Vietory’s poop; the two midshipmen kept firing at the top, and he supplied them with cartridges. One of the Frenchmen, attempting to make his escape down the rigging, was shot by Mr. Pollard, and fell on the poop. But the old quartermaster, as he cried oat, © That's he, that's he!” and pointed at the other, who was coming forward to fire again, received a shot in his mouth and fell dead. Both the midship- men then fired at the same time, and the fellow dropped in the top. When they took possession of the prize, they went into the mizen-top and found him dead, with one ball through his head and another through his breast. A di First EXPERIENCES. nn" UR readers will be glad to renew ac- quaintance with so , old a friend as Mu. > Midshipman Easy. A Here we are told of his adventures just after he comes on board. “When Jack arrived on 3 board, it was dark, and he did not know what to do with himself. The captain was received by the officers on deck, who took off their hats to salute him. The captain returned the salute, and so did Jack very politely, after which the captain en- ~ tered into conversation with the first lieu- tenant, and for a while Jack was left to himself. It was too dark to distinguish faces, and to one who had never been on board of a ship, too dark to move, so Jack stood where he was, which was not far from the main bitts; but he did not stay long. The boat had been hooked on to the quar- ter davits, and the boatswain had called out—* Set taut, my lads !’ And then, with the shrill whistle and RoucHING IT ON BOARD A Man- —OF-JYAR. ¢ Away with her!’ forward came galloping and bounding along the men with the tackles ; and in the dark Jack was upset, and half a dozen marines fell upon him. The men, who had no idea that an officer was floored among the others, were pleased at the joke, and continued to dance over those who were down, until they rolled themselves out of the way. Jack, who did not understand this, fared badly, and it was not till the calls piped belay that he could recover his legs, after having been trampled upon by half the starboard watch, and the breath completely jammed out of his body. Jack reeled to a carronade slide, when the officers, who had been laughing at the lark as well as the men, perceived his situation —among others, Mr. Sawbridge, the first lieutenant. ¢ Are you hurt, Mr. Easy ?’ said he. ‘A little, replied Jack, catching his breath. ‘You've had but a rough welcome,’ re- plied the first lieutenant, ‘but at certain times, on board ship, it is every man for himself, and God for us all. Harpur,’ con- MR. JOLLIFFE APPEARS. 341 tinued the first lieutenant to the doctor, ‘take Mr. Easy down in the gun-room with you, and I will be down myself as soon as I can. Where is Mr. Jolliffe ?’ ‘Here, sir,” replied Mr. Jolliffe, a master’s mate, coming aft from the booms. “There is a youngster come on board with the captain. Order one of the quarter- masters to get a hammock slung.’ In the meantime Jack went down into the gun-room, where a glass of wine some- what recovered him. He did not stay there long, nor did he venture to talk much. = As soon as his hammock was ready, Jack was glad to go to bed, and as he was much bruised, he was not disturbed the next morning till past nine o'clock. He then dressed himself, went on deck, found that the sloop was just clear of the Needles, that he felt very queer, then very sick, and was conducted by a marine down below, put into his hammock, where he remained during a gale of wind of three days, bewildered, confused, puzzled, and every minute knock- ing his head against the beams with the pitching and tossing of the sloop. ¢ And this is going to sea,” thought Jack ; ‘no wonder that no one interferes with another here, or talks about a trespass ; for I'm sure any one is welcome to my share of the ocean: and if I once get on shore again, the devil may have my portion if he chooses.’ ; Captain Wilson and Mr. Sawbridge had both allowed Jack more leisure than most midshipmen during his illness. By the time that the gale was over, the sloop was off , Cape Finisterre. The next morning the sea was nearly down, and there was but a slight breeze on the waters. The com- parative quiet of the night before had very much recovered our hero, and when the hammocks were piped up he was accosted by Mr. Jolliffe, the master’s mate, who asked ‘ whether he, intended to rouse and bit, or whether he intended to sail to Gibraltar between his blankets.’ Jack, who felt himself quite another per- son, turned out of his hammock and dressed himself. A marine had, by the captain’s orders, attended Jack during his illness, and this man came to his assistance, opened his chest, and brought him all he required, or Jack would have been in a sad dilemma. Jack then inquired where he was to go, for he had not been in the midshipmen’s berth, although five days on board. The marine pointed it out to him, and Jack, who felt excessively hungry, crawled over and between chests, until he found himself fairly in a hole infinitely inferior to the dog-kennels which received his father’s pointers. ¢I’d not only give up the ocean,’ thought Jack, ¢ and my share of it, but also my share of the Harpy, unto any one who fancies it Equality enough here! for every one ap- pears equally miserably off.’ As he thus gave vent to his thoughts, he perceived that there was another person in the berth—MTr. Jolliffe, the master’s mate, who had fixed his eye upon Jack, and to whom Jack returned the compliment. The first thing that Jack observed was that Mr. Jolliffe was very deeply pockmarked, and that he had but one eye, and that was a piercer ; it appeared like a little ball of fire, and as if it reflected more light from the solitary candle than the candle gave. ‘I don’t like your looks,” thought Jack ; ‘we shall never be friends.’ But here Jack fell into the common error of judging by appearances, as will be proved hereafter. ‘I'm glad to see you up again, youngster,’ said Jolliffe ; ‘you’ve been on your beam ends longer than usual, but those who are strongest suffer most—you made your mind up but late to come to sea. However, they say, ¢ Better late than never.” ‘I feel very much inclined to argue the truth of that saying,’ replied Jack ; ‘but it’s no use just now. I'm terribly hungry— when shall I get some breakfast?’ ¢ To-morrow morning at half-past eight,’ replied Mr. Jolliffe. © Breakfast for to-day has been over these two hours.’ ¢ But must I then go without?’ 342 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. ‘No, I do not say that, as we must make allowances for your illness; but it will not be breakfast.’ ‘Call it what you please,” replied Jack, ‘only pray desire the servants to give me something to eat. Dry toast or muffins— anything will do, but I should prefer coffee.’ ‘You forget that you are off Finisterre, in a midshipman’s berth : coffee we have none —nmuffins we never see—dry toast cannot be made, as we have no soft bread ; but a cup of tea and ship’s biscuit and butter I can desire the steward to get ready for you.’ ‘Well, then,’ replied Jack, ‘I will thank you to procure me that.’ ¢ Marine,’ cried Jolliffe, ¢ call Mesty.’ ‘Pass the word for Mesty,” called the marine—and the two syllables were handed forward until lost in the fore part of the vessel. ; The person so named must be introduced to the reader. He was a curious anomaly —a black man who had been brought to America as a slave, and there sold. He was a very tall, spare-built, yet mus- cular form, and had a face by no means common with his race. His head was long and narrow, high-cheek bones, from whence his face descended down to almost a point at the chin; his nose was very small, but it was straight and almost Roman; his mouth also was unusually small; and his lips thin for an African; his teeth very white, and filed to sharp points. He claimed the rank of prince in his own country, with what truth could not of course be substantiated. His master had settled at New York, and there Mesty had learned English, if it could be so called: the fact is, that all the emigrant labourers at New York being Irishmen, he had learned English with the strong brogue and peculiar phraseology of the sister kingdom dashed with a little Yankeeism. Having been told that there was no slavery in England, Mesty had concealed himself on board an English merchant ves- sel, and escaped. On his arrival in England, he had entered on board of a man-of-war. Having no name, it was necessary to chris- ten him on the ship’s books, and the first lieutenant, who had entered him, struck with his remarkable expression of counte nance, and being a German scholar, had named him Mephistopheles Faust, from whence his christian name had been razéed to Mesty. Mesty in other points was an eccentric character ; at one moment, when he remembered his lineage, he was proud to excess—at others he was grave and almost sullen ; but when nothing either in daily occurrences or in his mind ran contrary, he exhibited the drollery so often found in his nation, with a spice of Irish humour, as if he had caught up the latter with his Irish brogue. 7 Mesty was soon seen coming aft, but almost double as he crouched under the beams, and taking large strides with his naked feet. ‘By the powers, Massa Yolliffe, but it is not seasonable at all to send for me just now, anyhow, seeing how the praters are in the copper, and so many blackguard ’pal- peens all ready to change net for net, and better themselves by the same mistake, dam um.’ ¢ Mesty, you know I never send for you myself, or allow others to do so, unless it is necessary,” replied Joliffe; ‘but this poor lad has eaten nothing since he has been on board, and is very hungry. You must get him a little tea.’ ‘Is it tay you mane, sir? I guess, to make tay, in the first place I must ab water, and in the next must ab room in the galley to put the kettle on—and ’pose you wanted to burn the tip of your little finger just now, it’s not in the galley that you find a berth for it—and den the water before seven bells. I’ve a notion it’s just impassible.’ ¢ But he must have something, Mesty.’ ‘ Never mind the tea, then,’ replied Jack ; ¢ I'll take some milk.’ ‘Is it milk massa manes, and the bum- boat woman on the oder side of the bay?’ ¢ We have no milk, Mr. Easy ; you forget that we are on blue water,” replied Jolliffe, THE SHIP'S COMPANY ENJOY THEMSELVES 343 ‘and I really am afraid that you'll have to wait till dinner-time. Mesty tells the truth.’ ‘I tell you what, Master Yolliffe, it just seven bells, and if the young gentleman would, instead of tay, try a little out of the coppar, it might keep him asy. It but a little difference, tay soup and pay soup. Now a bowl of that, with some nuts and a flourish of pepper, will do him good, any- how.’ ‘ Perhaps the best thing he can take, Mesty ; get it as fast as you can.’ In a few minutes the black brought down a bowl of soup and whole peas swimming in it, put before our hero a tin bread-basket full of small biscuit, called midshipmen’s nuts, and the pepper-castor. Jack's visions of tea, coffee, muffins, dry toast, and milk, vanished as he perceived the mess; but he was very hungry, and he found it much better than he expected; and he moreover found himself much the better after he had swallowed it. It struck seven bells, and he accompanied Mr. Jolliffe on deck.” ‘ADVENTURES OF A Prize SHIP. 4 "ERE is an account & of another adven- ture of Mr. Mid- shipman Easy, who, after taking a prize, got separated from his own ship. After an account of these proceedings, the nar- rative goes on to say that as soon as the ship had been hauled to the wind, Jack’s ship’s company seemed to think that there was nothing to do except to make merry ; so they brought out some earthen jars full of wine, and emptied them so fast that they were soon sound asleep on the deck, with the exception of the man at the helm, who, instead of thirty-two, could clearly make out sixty-four points in the compass, and of course was able to steer to a much greater nicety. Fortunately, the weather was fine; for when the man at the helm had steered till he could see no more, and requested to be released, he found that his shipmates were so overpowered with fatigue that it was impossible to wake them. He ALL fIANDS ASLEEP! — AN [sLAND JANCHORAGE. kicked them one by one most unmercifully in the ribs, but it was of no use; under these circumstances, he did as they did, that is, lay down with them, and in ten minutes it would have taken as much kick- ing to awake him as he gave his ship-. mates. In the meantime the ship had it all her own way, and not knowing where she was to go, she went round and round the compass during the best part of the night. Mesty had arranged the watches, Jack had made a speech, and the men had promised everything ; but the wine had got into their heads, and memory had taken that oppor- tunity to take a stroll. Mesty had been down with Jack, examining the cabin, and in the captain's stateroom they had found fourteen thousand dollars in bags. Of this they determined not to tell the men, but locked up the money and everything else of value, and took out the key. They then sat down at the cabin table, and, after some conversation, it was no matter of surprise, after having been up all the night before, that Jack laid his head on the table and fell fast asleep. ~ Mesty kept his eyes open 344 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. for some time, but at last his head sank - down upon his chest, and he also slumbered. Thus, about one o’clock in the morning, there was not a very good watch kept on board of the Nostra Senora del Carmen. About four o'clock in the morning, Mesty tumbled forward, and he hit his head against the table, which roused him up. “By Jupiter, I tink I almost fall asleep,” cried he, and he went to the cabin window, which had been left open, and found that there was a strong breeze blowing in. “By de wonder, de wind ab come more aft,” said Mesty, “ why they not tell me?” So say- ing, he went on deck, where he found no one at the helm, every one drunk, and the ship with her yards braced up running before the wind, just by way of a change. Mesty growled, but there was no time to lose ; the topsails only were set,—these he lowered down, and then put the helm a-lee, and lashed it, while he went down to call our hero to his assistance. Jack roused up, and went on deck. “This nebber do, Massa Easy; we all go to ruin together—together—the drunken dogs—I freshen um up anyhow.” So Mesty drew some buckets of water, with which he soused the ship’s company, who then appeared to be recovering their senses. “By heavens!” says Jack, “but this is contrary to the articles of war; I shall read them to them to-morrow morning.” “T tell what better ting, Massa Easy : we go lock up all de wine, and sarve out so much, and no more. I go do it at once, fore they wake up.” Mesty went down, leaving Jack on deck to his meditations. “I am not sure,” thought Jack, “that I have done a very wise thing. with a parcel of fellows who have no respect for the articles of war. ' I have a large ship, but I have very few hands ; and if it comes on bad weather, what shall I do?—for I know very little—hardly how to take in a sail. Then—as for where to steer or how to steer, I know not—nor do any of my men ; but, however, as it was very narrow Here I am when we came into the Mediterranean through the straits, it is hardly possible to get out of them without perceiving it: besides, I should know the rock of Gib- raltar again if I saw it. I must talk to Mesty.” Mesty soon returned with the keys of the provision-room tied to his bandana. “Now,” says he, © dep not get drunk again in a hurry.” A few more buckets of water soon brought the men to their senses; they again stood on their legs, and gradually recovered themselves. Daylight broke, and they found that the vessel had made an attempt for the Spanish coast, being within a mile of the beach, and facing a very large battery ; fortunately they had time to square the yards, and steer the ship along shore under the topsails, before they were perceived. Had they been seen at daylight in the position that they were in during the night, the suspicions of the Spaniards would have been awakened ; and had a boat been sent off, while they were “all drunk, they must have been re-cap- tured. The men, who perceived what danger they had been in, listened very penitently to Jack’s remonstrances ; and our hero, to impress them more strongly on their minds, took out the articles of war, read that on drunkenness from beginning to end; but the men had heard it read so often at the gangway, that it did not make a due im- pression. As Mesty said, his plan was better, and so it proved; for as soon as Jack had done, the men went down to get another jug of wine, and found, to their disappointment, that it was all under lock and key. In the meantime, Jack called Mesty aft, and asked him if he knew the way to Toulon. Mesty declared that he knew nothing about it. : “ Then, Mesty, it appears to me that we have a better chance of finding our way back to Gibraltar ; for you know the land was on our left side all the way coming up END OF THE CRUISE. 345 the Mediterranean ; and if we keep it, as it is now, on our right, we shall get back again along the coast.” Mesty agreed with Jack that this was the ne plus ultra of navigation. So they shook a reef out of the topsails, set top-gallant- sails, and ran directly down the coast from point to point, keeping about five miles distant. The men prepared a good dinner; Mesty gave them their allowance of wine, . which was just double what they had on board the arpy—so they soon appeared to be content. One man, indeed, talked very big and very mutinously, swearing that if the others would join him they would soon have liquor enough ; but Mesty gave him his look, opened his knife, and swore that he would settle him, and Jack knocked him down with a handspike ; so that, what with the punishment received, and that which was promised, the fellow thought he might as well say no more about it. The fact is, that had it not been from fear of Mesty, the whole of the men would, in all probability, have behaved equally as bad ; nevertheless, they were a little staggered, it must be owned, at seeing Jack play so good a stick with the handspike. After this night, Jack and Mesty kept watch, and watch and everything went on very well until they were nearly abreast of ~Carthagena, when a gale came on from the northward, and drove them out of sight of land. Sail after sail was reduced with difficulty from their having so few hands, and the gale blew for three days with great fury. The men were tired out and dis- contented. It was Jack’s misfortune that he had but one good man with him ; even the coxswain of the boat, although a fine- looking man, was worth nothing. Mesty was Jack’s sheet-anchor. The fourth day the gale moderated, but they had no idea where they were ; they knew that they had been blown off, but how far they could not tell, and Jack now began to discover that a cruise at sea without knowledge of navi- gation was a more nervous thing than he had contemplated. However, there was no help for it. At night they wore the ship and stood on the other tack, and at daylight they perceived that they were close to some small islands, and much closer to some large rocks, against which the sea beat high, although the wind had subsided. Again was the helm put up, and they narrowly escaped. As soon as the sails were trimmed, the men came aft and pro- posed that if they could find anchorage they should run into it, for they were quite tired out. This was true, and Jack con- sulted with Mesty, who thought it advisable to agree to the proposal. ‘That the islands were not inhabited was very evident. The only point to ascertain was, if there were good anchorage. The coxswain offered to go in the boat and examine ; and, with four men, he set off, and in about an hour re- turned, stating that there was plenty of water, and that it was as smooth as a mill- pond, being land-locked on every side. As they could not weigh the bower-anchor, they bent the kedge, and running in without accident, came to in a small bay, between the islands, in seven fathoms of water. The sails were furled, and everything put in order by the seamen, who then took the boat and pulled on shore, and so the beginning of the cruise ended in this ex- tremely quiet way. 3 se 346 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. ‘A Narrow EscAPE. HE good ship Ariel was sailing off a rock-bound coast, under the command of Cap- ‘tain Munson, with Lieutenant Griffith under him. On board was also Mr. Gray, an eminent pilot. The weather seemed at first calm, but yet the crew might soon have been seen working with desperate energy. The extraordinary activity of the crew was produced by a sudden alteration in the weather. In place of the well-defined streak along the horizon that had been long descried, an immense body of misty light appeared to be coming in with rapidity from the ocean, while a distinct but distant roaring announced the sure approach of the tempest that had so long troubled the waters. Even Griffith, while thundering his orders through the trumpet, and urging the men by his cries to expedition, would pause for instants to cast anxious glances in the direction of the coming storm; and the faces of the sailors who lay on the yards were turned, instinctively, towards the same quarter of the heavens, while they knotted the reef-points, or passed the gaskets that were to confine the unruly canvas to the prescribed limits. The pilot alone, in that confused and busy throng, where voice rose above voice, and cry echoed cry in quick succession, appeared as if he held no interest in the important stake. With his eyes steadily fixed on the approaching mist, and his How THE Firor SAVED THE SHIP. arms folded together in composure, he stood calmly waiting the result. The ship had fallen off, with her broad- side to the sea, and was become unmanage- able, and the sails were already brought into the folds necessary to her security, when the quick and heavy fluttering of canvas was thrown across the water, with all the gloomy and chilling sensations that such sounds produce where darkness and danger unite to appal the seaman. “The schooner has it!” cried Griffith; “ Barnstable has held on, like himself, to the last moment—God send that the squall leave him cloth enough to keep him from the shore ! ” “ His sails are easily handled,” the com- mander observed, ‘and she must be over the principal danger. We are falling off before it, Mr. Gray ; shall we try a cast of the lead ? ” The pilot turned from his contemplative posture, and moved slowly across the deck before he returned any reply to this ques- tion—like a man who not only felt that everything depended on himself, but that he was equal to the emergency. “'Tis unnecessary,” he at length said; “’twould be certain destruction to be taken aback, and it is difficult to say within several points how the wind may strike us.” «Tis difficult no longer,” cried Griffith ; “for here it comes, and in right earnest!” The rushing sounds of the wind were now, indeed, heard at hand ; and the words were hardly past the lips of the young lieutenant before the vessel bowed down heavily to one side, and then, as she began to move through the water, rose again majestically 4 ROCK-BOUND SHORE. 347 to her upright position, as if saluting, like a courteous champion, the powerful anta- gonist with which she had to contend. Not another minute elapsed before the ship was throwing the waters aside with a lively progress, and, obedient to her helm, was brought as near to the desired course as the direction of the wind would allow. The hurry and bustle of the yards gradually subsided, and the men slowly descended to the deck, all straining their eyes to pierce the gloom in which they were enveloped, and some shaking their heads in melancholy doubt, afraid to express the apprehensions they really entertained. All on board anxiously waited for the fury of the gale ; for there were none so ignorant or inexperienced in that gallant frigate, as not to know that as yet they only felt the infant efforts of the wind. Each moment, however, it increased in power, though so gradual was the alteration, that the relieved mariners began to believe that all their gloomy forebodings were not to be real- ized. During this short interval of un- certainty, no other sounds were heard than the whistling of the breeze, as it passed quickly through the mass of rigging that belonged to the vessel, and the dashing of the spray, that began to fly from her bows like the foam of a cataract. “It blows fresh,” cried Griffith, who was the first to speak in that moment of doubt and anxiety ; “but it is no more than a capful of wind, after all. Give us elbow- room and the right canvas, Mr. Pilot, and I'll handle the ship like a gentleman’s yacht in this breeze.” “Will she stay, think ye, under this sail?” said the low voice of the stranger. “She will do all that man in reason can ask of wood and iron,” returned the lieu- tenant ; “but the vessel don’t float the ocean that will tack under the double- reefed topsails alone, against a heavy sea. Help her with the courses, pilot, and you shall see her come round like a dancing- master.” “Let .us feel the strength of the gale first,” returned the man who was called Mr. Gray, moving from the side of Griffith to the weather gangway of the vessel, where he stood in silence, looking ahead of the ship, with an air of singular coolness and abstraction. All the lanterns had been extinguished on the deck of the frigate, when her anchor was secured, and as the first mist of the gale had passed over, it was succeeded by a faint light that was a good deal aided by the glittering foam of the waters, which now broke in white curls around the vessel in every direction. The land could be faintly discerned, rising like a heavy bank of black fog, above the margin of the waters, and was only distinguishable from the heavens by its deeper gloom and obscurity. The last rope was coiled, and deposited in its proper place by the seamen, and for several minutes the stillness of death pervaded the crowded decks. It was evident to every one that their ship was dashing at a prodigious rate through the waves ; and as she was approaching, with such velocity, the quarter of the bay where the shoals and dangers were known to be situated, nothing but the habits of the most exact discipline could suppress the uneasi- ness of the officers and men within their own bosoms. At length the voice of Cap- tain Munson was heard calling to the pilot. “Shall I send a hand into the chains, Mr. Gray,” he said, “and try our water?” Although this question was asked aloud, and the interest it excited drew many of the officers and men around him, in eager im- patience for his answer, it was unheeded by the man to whom it was addressed. His head rested on his hand, as he leaned over the hammock-cloths of the vessel, and his whole air was that of one whose thoughts wandered from the pressing necessity of their situation. Griffith was among those who had approached the pilot, and after waiting a moment, from respect, to hear the answer to his commander’s question, he presumed on his own rank, and leaving the circle that stood at a little distance, 348 THE WONDERS OF THL DEEP. stepped to the side of the mysterious guardian of their lives. “Captain Munson desires to know whether you wish a cast of the lead?” said the young officer, with a little im- patience of manner. No immediate an- swer was made to this repetition of the question, and Griffith laid his hand uncere- moniously on the shoulder of the other, with an intent to rouse him, before he made another application for a reply ; but the convulsive start of the pilot held him silent in amazement, “Fall back there!” said the lieutenant, sternly, to the men, who were closing around them in a compact circle. “Away with you to your stations, and see all clear for stays!” - solved, at this order, like the water of one of the waves commingling with the ocean, and the lieutenant and his companion were left by themselves. “This is not a time for musing, Mr. Gray,” continued Griffith. “ Remember our compact, and look to your charge—is it not time to put the vessel in stays? Of what are you dreaming? ” The pilot laid his hand on the extended arm of the lieutenant, and grasped it with a convulsive pressure, as he answered—* Tis a dream of reality. You are young, Mr. Griffith, nor am 1 past the noon of life ; but should you live fifty years longer, you never can see and experience what I have en- countered in my little period of three-and- thirty years !” A good deal astonished at this burst of feeling, so singular at such a moment, the young ‘sailor was at a loss for a reply; but as his duty was uppermost in his thoughts, he still dwelt on the theme that most in- terested him. “I hope much of your experience has been on this coast, for the ship travels lively,” he said, “and the daylight showed us so much to dread that we do not feel over-valiant in the dark. How much “longer shall we stand on upon this tack?” The dense mass of heads dis- The pilot turned slowly from the side of the vessel, and walked towards the com- mander of the frigate, as he replied, in a tone that seemed deeply agitated by his melancholy reflections—‘ You have your wish, then : much, very much of my early life was passed on this dreaded coast. What to you is all darkness and gloom, to me is as light as if a noon-day sun shone upon it. But tack your ship, sir, tack your ship; I would see how she works before we reach the point where she must behave well, or we perish.” Griffith gazed after him in wonder, while the pilot slowly paced the quarter-deck, and then rousing from his trance, gave forth the cheering order that called each man to his station, to perform the desired evolution. The confident assurances which the young officer had given to the pilot re- specting the qualities of his vessel, and his own ability to manage her, were fully realized by the result. The helm was no sooner put a-lee, than the huge ship bore up gallantly against the wind, and dashing directly through the waves, threw the foam high into the air, as she looked boldly into the very eye of the wind, and then, yielding gracefully to its power, she fell off on the other tack, with her head pointed from those dangerous shoals that she had so recently approached with such terrifying velocity. The heavy yards swung round, as if they had been vanes to indicate the currents of the air, and in a few moments the frigate again moved, with stately pro- gress, through the water, leaving the rocks and shoals behind her on one side of the bay, but advancing towards those that offered equal danger on the other. During this time the sea was becoming more rdiin. ted, and the violence of the wind was gra- dually increasing. The latter no longer whistled amid the cordage of the vessel, but it seemed to howl, surlily, as it passed the complicated machinery that the frigate obtruded on its path. An endless succes- sion of white surges rose above the heavy billows, and the very air was glittering with CALMNESS OF THE PILOT. "349 the light that was disengaged from the ocean. The ship yielded, each moment, more and more before the storm ; and in less than half an hour from the time that she had lifted her anchor, she was driven along with tremendous fury by the full power of a gale of wind. Still, the hardy and experienced mariners who directed her movements held her to the course that was necessary to their preservation; and still Griffith gave forth, when directed by their unknown pilot, those orders that turned N her in the narrow channel where safety was alone to be found. So far, the performance of his duty ap- peared easy to the stranger, and he gave ' the required directions in those still, calm tones that formed so remarkable a contrast to the responsibility of his situation. But when the land was becoming dim, in dis- tance as well as darkness, and the agitated sea alone was to be discovered as it swept by them in foam, he broke in upon the monotonous roaring of the tempest with the | DANGERS OF THE BAY. sounds of his voice, seeming to shake off his apathy, and rouse himself to the occa- sion. “ Now is the time to watch her closely, Mr. Griffith,” he cried; “here we get the true tide and the real danger. Place the best quarter-master of your ship in those chains, and let an officer stand by him, and see that he gives us the right water.” “I'll take that office on myself,” said the captain. “Pass a light into the weather main-chains.” “Stand by your braces !” exclaimed the pilot, with startling quickness. “ Heave away that lead !” These preparations taught the crew to expect the crisis, and every officer and man stood in fearful silence at his assigned station, awaiting the issue of the trial. Even the quarter-master at the gun gave out his orders to the man at the wheel in deeper and hoarser tones than usual, as if anxious not to disturb the quiet and order of the vessel. While this deep expectation pervaded the frigate, the piercing cry of the leadsman,as he called, by the mark seven,” z ~ 350 THE WONDERS OF THE DELP rose above the tempest, crossed over the | decks, and appeared to pass away to lee- | ward, borne on the blast like the warnings of some water-spirit. “’Tis well,” returned the pilot, calmly; “try it again.” The short pause was suc- ceeded by another cry, “and a half five.” “She shoals! she shoals!” exclaimed Griffith ; “keep her a good full.” “Ay! you must hold the vessel in com- | mand now,” said the pilot, with those cool | tones that are most appalling in critical moments, because they seem to denote most preparation and care, The third call of “by the deep four!” | was followed by a prompt direction from the stranger to tack. | “Peace, Mr. Griffith,” interrupted the captain, bending from the rigging, his grey locks blowing about in the wind, and add- ing a look of wildness to the haggard care that he exhibited by the light of his lantern. “Yield the trumpet to Mr. Gray; he alone can save us.” Griffith threw his speaking trumpet on the deck, and as he walked proudly away, muttered, in bitterness of feeling—“ Then all is lost, indeed, and among the rest, the foolish hopes with which I visited this coast.” There was, however, no time for reply ; the ship had been rapidly running into the wind, and as the efforts of the crew were - paralyzed by the contradictory orders they Griffith seemed to emulate the coolness | of the pilot in issuing the necessary order | to execute this manceuvre. The vessel rose slowly from the inclined position into which she had been forced by the tempest, and the sails were shaking vio- lently, as if to release themselves from their confinement, while the ship stemmed the billows, when the well-known voice of the sailing-master was heard shouting from the forecastle,— “ Breakers! breakers, dead ahead!” This appalling sound seemed yet to be lingering about the ship, when a second voice cried—* Breakers on our lee bow !” “We are in a bite of the shoals, Mr. Gray,” cried the commander. ‘She loses her way ; perhaps an anchor might hold her” “Clear away that best bower,” shouted Griffith, through his trumpet. “Hold on!” cried the pilot, in a voice that reached the very hearts of all who heard him ; “hold on everything.” The young man turned fiercely to the daring stranger, who thus defied the dis- cipline of his vessel, and at once de- manded,— “Who is it that dares to countermand my orders? is it not enough that you run the ship into danger, but you must interfere to keep her there? If another word —” had heard, she gradually lost her way, and in a few seconds all her sails were taken aback. Before the crew understood their situation, the pilot had applied the trumpet to his mouth, and in a voice that rose above the tempest he thundered forth his orders. Each command was given distinctly, and with a precision that showed him to be master of his profession. The helm was kept fast, the head yards swung up heavily against the wind, and the vessel was soon whirling round on her heel, with a retro- grade movement. Griffith was too much of a seaman not to perceive that the pilot had seized, with a perception almost intuitive, the only method that promised to extricate the vessel from her situation. He was young, impetuous, and proud—but he was also generous. Forgetting his resentment and his morti- fication, he rushed forward among the men, and, by his presence and example, added certainty to the experiment. The ship fell off slowly before the gale, and bowed her yards nearly to the water, as she felt the blast pouring its fury on her broadside, while the surly waves beat violently against her stern, as if in reproach at her departing from her usual manner of moving. The voice of the pilot, however, was still heard, steady and calm, and yet so clear ‘and high as to reach every ear; and the THE SHIP AMONGST SHOALS. 335% obedient seamen whirled the yards at his bidding, in despite of the tempest, as if they handled the toys of their childhood. When the ship had fallen off dead before the wind, her head sails were shaken, her after yards trimmed, and her helm shifted, before she had time to run upon the danger that had threatened, as well to leeward as to wind- “ward. The beautiful fabric, obedient to her government, threw her bows up grace- fully towards the wind again, and as her sails were trimmed, moved out from amongst the dangerous shoals in which she had been embayed, as steadily and as swiftly as she had approached them. A moment of breathless astonishment succeeded the accomplishment of this nice manceuvre, but there was no time for the usual expressions of surprise. The stranger still held the trumpet, and continued to lift his voice amid the howlings of the blast, whenever prudence or skill directed any change in the management of the ship. For an hour longer there was a fearful struggle for their preservation, the channel becoming at each step more complicated, and the shoals thickening around the mariners on every side. cast rapidly, and the quick eye of the pilot seemed to pierce the darkness with a keen- ness of vision that exceeded human power. It was apparent to all in the vessel that they were under the guidance of one who understood the navigation thoroughly, and their exertions kept pace with their reviving confidence. Again and again the frigate appeared to be rushing blindly on shoals where the sea was covered with foam, and where destruction would have been as sudden as it was certain, when the clear voice of the stranger was heard warning them of the danger, and inciting them to their duty. The vessel was implicitly yielded to his government, and during those anxious moments when she was dashing the water aside, throwing the spray over her enormous yards, each ear would listen eagerly for those sounds that had obtained a command over the crew, that can only at times in the ocean. The lead was | be acquired, under such circumstances, by great steadiness and consummate skill. The ship was recovering from the inaction of changing her course, in one of those critical tacks that she had made so often, when the pilot, for the first time, addressed the com- mander of the frigate, who still continued to superintend the all-important duty of the leadsman. “Now is the pinch,” he said, “and if the ship behaves well, we are safe ; but if other- wise, all we have yet dong will be useless.” The veteran seaman whom he addressed left the chains at this portentous moment, and calling to the first lieutenant, required of the stranger an explanation of his warn- ing. “See you yon light on the southern headland ? ” returned the pilot; you may know it from the star near it—Dby its sinking Now observe the hommoc, a little north of it, looking like a shadow in the horizon—tis a hill far inland. If we keep the light open from the hill, we shall do well ; but if not, we surely go to pieces.” “Let us tack again!” exclaimed the lieutenant. The pilot shook his head as he replied— “There 1s no more tacking or box-hauling to be done to-night. We have barely room to pass out of the shoals on this course, and if we can weather the ‘Devil's Grip, we clear their uppermost point ; but if not, as I said before, there is but an alternative.” “If we had beaten out the way we entered,” exclaimed Griffith, “we should have done well.” “Say also, if the tide would have let us do so,” returned the pilot, calmly. “ Gen- tlemen, we must be prompt; we have but a mile to go, and the ship appears to fly. The topsail is not enough to keep her up to the wind ; we want both jib and main- sail.” “Tis a perilous thing to loosen canvas in such a tempest !” observed the doubtful captain. “It must be done,” returned the collected 352 ZHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. stranger ; “ we perish without it! See! the light already touches the edge of the hom- moc ; the sea casts us to leeward !” “It shall be done !” cried Griffith, seizing the trumpet from the hand of the pilot. The orders of the lieutenant were executed almost as soon as issued, and everything being ready, the enormous folds of the mainsail were trusted loose to the blast. There was an instant when the result was doubtful, the tremendous threshing of the heavy sail seeming to bid defiance to all restraint, shaking the ship to her centre; but art and strength prevailed, and gradually the canvas was distended, and bellying as it filled, was drawn down to its usual place by the power of a hundred men. The vessel yielded to this immense addition of force, and bowed before it like a reed bend- Ing to a breeze. But the success of the measure was announced by a joyful cry from the stranger, that seemed to burst from his inward soul. “She feels it! she springs her luff! Ob- serve,” he said, “the light opens from the hommoc already ; if she will only bear her canvas, we shall go clear.” A report like that of a cannon interrupted his exclamation, and something resembling a white cloud was seen drifting before the wind from the head of the ship, till it was driven into the gloom far to leeward. “’Tis the jib blown from the bolt-ropes,” said the commander of the frigate. “ This 1s no time to spread white duck ; but the mainsail may stand it yet.” “The sail would laugh at a tornado,” returned the lieutenant; “but the mast springs like a piece of steel.” “Silence all |” cried the pilot. “ Now, gentlemen, we shall soon knéw our fate. Let her luff—luff you can!” This warning effectually closed all dis- course, and the hardy mariners, knowing that they had already done all in the power of man to insure their safety, stood in breathless anxiety awaiting the result. At a short distance ahead of them the whole ocean was white with foam, and the waves, instead of rolling on in regular succession, appeared to be tossing about in mad gam- bols. A single streak of dark billows, not half a cable’s length in width, could be discerned running into this chaos of water; but it was soon lost to the eye amid the confusion of the disturbed element. Along this narrow path the vessel moved more heavily than before, being brought so near the wind as to keep her sails touching. The pilot silently proceeded to the wheel, and with his own hands he undertook the steer- age of the ship. No noise proceeded from the frigate to interrupt the horrid tumult of the ocean, and she entered the channel among the breakers with the silence of a desperate calmness. Twenty times, as the foam rolled away to leeward, the crew were on the eve of uttering their joy, as they supposed the vessel past the danger; but breaker after breaker would still heave up before them, following each other into the general mass, to check their exultation. Occasionally the fluttering of the sails would be heard ; and when the looks of the star- tled seamen were turned to the wheel, they beheld the stranger grasping its spokes, with his quick eye glancing from the water to the canvas. At length the ship reached a point where she appeared to be rushing directly into the jaws of destruction, when suddenly her course was changed, and her head receded rapidly from the wind. At the same instant the voice of the pilot was heard, shouting—* Square away the yards! in mainsail!” A general burst from the crew echoed, “Square away the yards!” and quick as thought the frigate was seen gliding along the channel before the wind. The eye had hardly time to dwell on the foam, which seemed like clouds driving in the heavens, and directly the gallant vessel issued from her perils, and rose and fell on the heavy waves of the open sea. COMBAT WITH A RUSSIAN FRIGATE. 353 Comsat with A Russian Frigate. L HE following vivid 5 narrative of a con- test between an English and a Russian vessel will, we are sure, be perused with great interest by our readers. It was on the eighteenth day after they had quitted Malta, that a large vessel was‘ seen ahead about eighteen miles off. The nen were then at breakfast. “A frigate, Captain Wilson, I'm sure of it,” said Mr. Hawkins, the chaplain, whose anxiety ‘induced him to go to the mast- head. “How is she steering?” “The same way as we are.” The Aurora was under all possible sail, and when the hands were piped to dinner, it was thought that they had neared the chase about two miles. “This will be a long chase—a stern chase always 1s,” observed Martin to Gas- coigne. “Yes, I'm afraid so—but I'm more afraid of her escaping.” “ That's not unlikely either,” replied the mate. , “You are one of Job's comforters, Martin,” replied Gascoigne. “Then I'm not so often disappointed,” replied the mate. “There are two points to be ascertained : the first is, whether we shall come up with the vessel, or lose her ; the next is, if we do come up with her, whether she is the vessel we are looking for.” : “You seem very indifferent about it.” BOARDING THE ENEMY. “Indeed, I am not: I am the oldest passed midshipman in the ship, and the taking of the frigate will, if I live, give me my promotion ; and if I'm killed, I shan’t want it. But I've been so often dis- appointed, that I now make sure of nothing until I have it.” “Well, for your sake, Martin, I will still hope that the vessel is the one we seek, that we shall not be killed, and that you will gain your promotion.” “I thank you, Easy. I wish I was one that dared hope as you do.” Poor Martin ! he had long felt how bitter it was to meet disappointment upon dis- appointment ! How true it is that hope deferred maketh the heart sick! and his anticipations of early days, the buoyant calculations of youth, had been one by one crushed ; and now, baving served his time nearly three times over, the reaction had become too painful, and, as he truly said, he dared not hope: still, his temper was not soured, but chastened. “She has hauled her wind, sir,” hailed the second lieutenant from the topmast cross-trees. “What think you of that, Martin?” ob- served Jack. “ Either that she is an English frigate, or that she is a vessel commanded by a very brave fellow, and well manned.” It was sunset before the Aurora had ar- rived within two miles of the vessel; the private signal had been thrown out, but had not been answered, either because it was too dark to make out the colours of the flags, or that these were unknown to an enemy. The stranger had hoisted the English colours, but that was no satisfactory 354 THE WONDERS OF THE DIEZEPF proof of her being a friend ; and just before dark she had put her head towards the Aurora, who had now come stem down to her. The ship’s company of the Awrora were all at their quarters, as a few minutes would now decide whether they had to deal with a friend or foe. : There is no situation, perhaps, more diffi- cult, and demanding so much caution, as the occasional meeting with a doubtful ship: on the one hand, it being necessary to be fully prepared, and not allow the enemy the advantage which may be derived from your inaction ; and on the other, the necessity of prudence, that you may not assault your friends and countrymen. Cap- tain Wilson had hoisted the private night- signal ; but here again it was difficult, from his sails intervening, for the other ship to make it out. Before the two frigates were within three cables’ lengths of each other, Captain Wilson, determined that there should be no mistake from any want of precaution on his part, hauled up his courses and brailed up his driver that the night-signal might be clearly seen. Lights were seen abaft on the quarter- deck of the other vessel, as if they were about to answer, but she continued to keep the Aurora to leeward at about half a cable’s length, and as the foremost guns of each vessel were abreast of each, hailed in English,— “Ship ahoy! what ship’s that?” “His Majesty’s ship Aurora,” replied Captain Wilson, who stood on the ham- mocks. “What ship’s that?” By this time the other frigate had passed half her length clear of the beam of the Aurora, and at the same time that a pre- tended reply of “ His Majesty’s ship 2 was heard, a broadside from her guns, which had been trained aft on purpose, was poured into the Aurora, and, at so short a distance, doing considerable execution. The crew of the Aurora, hearing the hailing in Eng- lish, and the vessel passing them apparently without firing, had imagined that she had been one of their own cruisers. The cap- tains of the guns had dropped their lanyards in disappointment, and the silence which had been maintained as the two vessels met was just breaking up in various ways of lamentation at their bad luck, when the broadside was poured in, thundering in their ears, and the ripping and tearing of the beams and planks astonished their senses. Many were carried down below ; but it was difficult to say whether indignation at the enemy’s ruse, or satisfaction at discovering that they were not called to quarters in vain, most predominated. At all events, it was answered by three voluntary cheers, which drowned the cries of those who were being assisted to the cockpit. “Man the larboard guns and about ship!” cried Captain Wilson, leaping off the hammocks. “Look out, my lads, and rake her in stays! We'll pay him off for that foul play before we’ve done with him. Look out, my lads, and take good aim as she pays round.” The Aurora was put about, and her broad- side poured into the stern of the Russian frigate—for such she was. It was almost dark ; but the enemy, who appeared as anxious as the Aurora to come to action, hauled up her courses to await her coming up. In five minutes the two vessels were alongside, exchanging murderous broadsides at little more than pistol-shot, running “ slowly in for the land, then not more than five miles distant. The skin-clad moun- taineers of Corsica were aroused by the furious cannonading, watching the incessant flashes of the guns, and listening to their reverberating roar. After half an hour's fierce combat, during which the fire of both vessels was kept up with undiminished vigour, Captain Wilson went down on the main-deck, and himself . separately pointed each gun after it was loaded : those amidships being direct for the main channels of the enemy’s ship, while those abaft the beam were gradually trained more and more forward, and those before the beam more and more aft, so as to throw all their shot nearly into one focus, BOARDING THE ENEMY. 335 giving directions that they were all to be fired at once at the word of command. The enemy, not aware of the cause of the delay, “imagined that the fire of the Aurora had slackened, and loudly cheered. At the word given, the broadside was poured in, and, dark as it was, the effects from it were evi- dent. Two of the midship ports of the antagonist were blown into one, and her mainmast was seen to totter, and then to fall over the side. The Aurora then set her courses, which -had been hauled up, and, shooting ahead, took up a raking position, while the Russian was still hampered with her wreck, and poured in grape and cannister from her upper-deck carronades to impede their labours on deck, while she continued her destructive fire upon the hull of the enemy from the main-deck battery. The moon now burst out from a low bank of clouds, and enabled them to ac- complish their work with more precision. In a quarter of an hour the Russian was totally dismasted, and Captain Wilson ordered half of his remaining ship’s com- pany to repair the damages, which had been most severe, whilst the larboard men at quarters continued the fire from the main- deck. The enemy continued to return the fire from four guns, two on each of her decks, which she could still make bear upon the Aurora ; but after some time even these ceased, either from the men having deserted them, or from their being dis- mounted. Observing that the fire from her antagonist had ceased, the Aurora also discontinued, and the jolly-boat astern being still uninjured, the second lieutenant was deputed to pull alongside of the frigate to ascertain if she had struck. The beams of the bright moon silvered the rippling water as the boat shoved off; and Captain Wilson and his officers who were still unhurt, leant over the shattered sides of the Aurora, waiting for a reply. Suddenly the silence of the night was broken upon by a loud splash from the bows of the Russian frigate. “What could that be?” cried Captain Wilson. ¢ Her anchor’s down. Mr. Jones, a lead over the side, and see what water we have.” Mr. Jones had long been carried down below, severed in two with a round shot; but a man leaped into the chains, and, lowering down the lead, sounded in seven fathoms. : “Then I suspect he will give us more trouble yet,” observed Captain Wilson ; and so indeed it proved, for the Russian captain, in reply to the second lieutenant, had told him in English, that he would answer that question with his broadside,” and before the boat was dropped astern, he had warped round with the springs on his cable, and had recommenced his fire upon the Aurora. Captain Wilson made sail upon his ship, and sailed round and round the anchored vessel, so as to give her two broadsides to her one, and, from the slowness with which she worked at her springs upon her cables, it was evident that she must be now very weak-handed. Still the pertinacity and de- cided courage of the Russian captain con- vinced Captain Wilson that, in all probability, he would sink at his anchor before he would haul down his colours ; and not only would he lose more of the Aurora’s men, but also the Russian vessel, without he took a more decided step. Captain Wilson, therefore, resolved to try her by the board. Having poured in a raking fire, he stood off for a few moments, during which he called the officers and men on deck, and stated his intention. He then went about, and him- self conning the Aurora, ran her on board the Russian, pouring in his reserved broad- side as the vessels came into collision, and heading his men as they leaped on the enemy’s decks. Although, as Captain Wilson had im- agined, the Russian frigate had not many men to oppose to the Aurora's, the deck was obstinately defended ; the voice and the arm of the Russian captain were to be heard and seen everywhere, and his men, encou- 356 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. raged by him, were cut down by numbers where they stood. Our hero, who had the good fortune to be still unhurt, was for a little while close to Captain Wilson when he boarded, and was about to oppose his unequal force against that of the Russian captain, when he was pulled back by the collar by Mr. Hawkins, the chaplain, who rushed in advance with a sabre in hand. The opponents were well matched, and it may be said that, with little interruption, a hand-to-hand conflict ensued, for the moon lighted up the scene of car- nage, and they were well able to distinguish each other’s faces. At last the chaplain’s sword broke ; he rushed in, drove the hilt into his antagonist’s face, closed with him, and they both fell down the hatchway to- gether. After this, the deck was gained, or rather cleared, by the crew of the Aurora, for few could be said to have resisted, and in a minute or two the frigate was in their possession. The chaplain and the Russian captain were hoisted up, still clinging to each other, both senseless from the fall, but neither of them dead, although bleeding from several wounds. As soon as the main-deck had been cleared, Captain Wilson ordered the hatches to be put on, and left a party on board while he hastened to attend to the con- dition of his own ship and ship’s company. It was daylight before anything like order had been restored to the decks of the Aurora. The water was still smooth, and, instead of letting go her own anchor, she had hung on with a hawser to the prize ; but her sails had been furled, her decks cleared, guns secured, and the buckets were dashing away the blood from her planks and the carriages of the guns, when the sun rose and shone upon them. The numerous wounded had, by this time, been put into their hammocks, although there were still one or two cases of amputation to be per- formed. : The carpenter had repaired all shot-holes under or too near to the water-line, and then had proceeded to sound the well of the prize ; but although her upper works had been dreadfully shattered, there was no reason to suppose that she had received any serious injury below, and therefore the hatches still remained on, although a few hands were put to the pumps to try if she made any water. It was not until the Aurora presented a more cheerful appear- ance that Captain Wilson went over to the other ship, whose deck, now that the light of heaven enabled them to witness all the horrors even to minuteness, presented a shocking spectacle of blood and carnage. Body after body was thrown over; the wounded were supplied with water and such assistance as could be rendered until the surgeons could attend them. The hatches were then taken off, and the re- mainder of her crew ordered on deck; about two hundred obeyed the summons, but the lower deck was as crowded with killed and wounded as was the upper. For the present the prisoners were handed over down into the fore-hold of the Aurora, which had been prepared for their recep- tion, and the work of separation of the dead from the living then underwent After this, such repairs as were immediately necessary were made, and a portion of the Aurora’s crew, under the orders of the second lieutenant, were sent on board to take charge of her. It was not till the evening of the day after this night conflict that the Aurora was In a situation to make sail. All hands were then sent on board of the Z7ident, for such was the name of the Russian frigate, to fit her out as soon as possible. Before morning, all was com- pleted, and the two frigates, although in a shattered condition, were prepared to meet any common conflict with the elements. The Aurora made sail with the Z7ident in tow, and the watch below permitted to repose. In this murderous conflict the Zvident had more than two hundred men killed and wounded. The Aurora's loss had not been so great, but still it was severe, having lost sixty-five men and officers. THE SHORES OF THE SOLWAY. 357 ‘n THE SHORES ERE is an account of an adventure on the Solway in the last century. The reader no doubt has heard how rapid is the advance of its tide. Darsie Latimer, * Alan Fairford, his narrow escape from being swallowed up by its waters :— “1 mentioned in my last that, having abandoned my fishing-rod as an unprofit- able implement, I crossed over the open downs which divided me from the margin of the Solway. When I reached the banks of the great estuary, which are here very bare and exposed, the waters had receded from the large and level space of sand, through which a stream, now feeble and fordable, found its way to the ocean. The whole was illuminated by the beams of the low and setting sun, who showed his ruddy front, like a warrior prepared for defence, over a huge battlemented and turreted wall of crimson and black clouds, which ap- peared like an immense Gothic fortress, into which the Lord of day was descending. His setting rays glimmered bright upon the wet surface of the sands and the number- less pools of water by which it was covered, where the inequality of the ground had oc- casioned their being left by the tide. The scene was animated by the exertions of a number of horsemen, who were actually employed in hunting salmon. Ay, Alan, lift up your hands and eyes as you will, I can give their mode of fishing no name so OF THE POLWAY. appropriate ; for they chased the fish at full gallop, and struck them with their barbed spears, as you see hunters spearing boars in the old tapestry. The salmon, to be sure, take the thing more quietly than the boars; but they are so swift in their own element, that to pursue and strike them is the task of a good horseman, with a quick eye, a determined hand, and full command both of his horse and weapon. The shouts off the fellows as they galloped up and down in the animating exercise— their loud bursts of laughter when any of their number caught a fall—and still louder acclamations when any of the party made a capital stroke with his lance—gave so much animation to the whole scene, that I caught the enthusiasm of the sport, and ventured forward a considerable space on the sands. The feats of one horseman, in particular, called forth so repeatedly the clamorous applause of his companions, that the very banks rang again with their shouts. He was a tall man, well mounted on a strong black horse, which he caused to turn and wind like a bird in the air, carried a longer spear than the others, and wore a sort of fur cap or bonnet, with a short feather in it, which gave him on the whole rather a superior appearance to the other fishermen. He seemed to hold some sort of authority among them, and occasionally directed their motions both by voice and hand ; at which times I thought his ges- tures were striking, and his voice uncom- monly sonorous and commanding. The riders began to make for the shore, and the interest of the scene was almost 358 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. over, while I lingered on the sands, with my looks turned to the shores of England, still gilded by the sun’s last rays, and, as it seemed, scarce distant a mile from me. The anxious thoughts which haunt me began to muster in my bosom, and my feet slowly and insensibly approached the river which divided me from the forbidden pre- cincts, though without any formed inten- tion, when my steps were arrested by the sound of a horse galloping; and as I turned, the rider (the same fisherman whom I had formerly distinguished) called out to me, in an abrupt manner, ‘Soho, brother! you are too late for Bowness to-night—the tide will make presently.’ I turned my head and looked at him without answering; for, to my thinking, his sudden appearance (or rather, I should say, his unexpected approach) had, amidst the gathering shadows and lingering light, something in it which was wild and omin- ous. : ‘ Are you deaf?’ he added—* or are you mad ?—or have you a mind for the next world ?’ ‘I am a stranger,’ I answered, ‘and had no other purpose than looking on at the fishing. I am about to return to the side I came from.’ ‘Best make haste then,” said he. ‘He that dreams on the bed of the Solway may wake in the next world. The sky threatens a blast that will bring in the waves three feet abreast.’ So saying he turned his horse and rode off, while I began to walk back towards the Scottish shore, a little alarmed at what I had heard; for the tide advances with such rapidity upon these fatal sands, that well-mounted horsemen lay aside hopes of safety, if they see its white surge advancing while they are yet at a distance from the bank. These recollections grew more agitating, and, instead of walking deliberately, I began a race as fast as I could, feeling, or thinking I felt, each pool of salt water through which I splashed, grow deeper and deeper. At length the surface of the sand did seem considerably more intersected with pools and channels full of water— either that the tide was really beginning to influence the bed of the estuary, or, as I must own is equally probable, that I had, in the hurry and confusion of my retreat, involved myself in difficulties which I had avoided in my more deliberate advance. Either way, it was rather an unpromising state of affairs, for the sands at the same time turned softer, and my footsteps, so soon as I had passed, were instantly filled with water. I began to have old recol- lections concerning the snugness of your father’s parlour and the secure footing afforded by the pavement of Brown’s Square and Scot’s Close, when my better genius, the tall fisherman, appeared once more close to my side, he and his sable horse looming gigantic in the now darkening twilight. ‘Are you mad, he said, in the same deep tone which had before thrilled on my ear, ‘or are you weary of your life? You will be presently amongst the quicksands.’ I professed my ignorance of the way, to which he only replied; ‘There is no time for prating ; get up behind me.’ He probably expected me to spring from the ground with the activity which these Borderers have, by constant practice ac- quired in everything relating to horseman- ship ; but as I stood irresolute, he extended his hand, and grasping mine, bid me place my foot on the toe of his boot, and thus raised me in a trice to the croupe of his horse. I was scarcely securely seated, ere he shook the reins of his horse, who in- stantly sprung forward ; but annoyed, doubt- less, by the unusual burden, treated us to two or three bounds, accompanied by as many flourishes of his hind heels.. The rider sat like a tower, notwithstanding that the unexpected plunging of the animal threw me forward upon him. The horse was soon compelled to submit to the dis- cipline of the spur and bridle, and went off at a steady hand gallop ; thus shortening STEERING THROUGH QUICKSANDS. 359 the devious, for it was by no means a direct path, by which the rider, avoiding the loose quicksands, made for the northern bank. My friend,—perhaps I may call him my preserver, for to a stranger, my situation was fraught with real danger—continued to press on at the same speedy pace, but in perfect silence, and I was under too much anxiety of mind to disturb him with any questions. At length we arrived at a part of the shore with which I was utterly un- acquainted, when I alighted and began to return, in the best fashion I could, my thanks for the important service which he had just rendered me. ~The stranger only replied by an im- ON TIE SHORES OF THE SOLWAY. patient ¢ pshaw !” and was about to ride off, and leave me to my own resources, when I implored him to complete his work of kindness, by directing me to Shepherd’s Bush, which was, as I informed him, my home for the present. ‘To Shepherd’s Bush?’ he said; ‘it is but three miles, but if you know not the land better than the sand, you may break your neck before you get there ; for it is no road for a moping boy in a dark night; and, besides, there are the brook and the fens to cross.’ I was a little dismayed at this communi- cation of such difficulties as my habits had not called on me to contend with. Once 360 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. more the idea of thy father’s fireside came across me; and I could have been well contented to have swopped the romance of my situation, together with the glorious independence of control which I possessed at the moment, for the comforts of the chimney-corner, though I were obliged to keep my eyes chained to Erskine’s Larger Institutes. I asked my new friend whether he could not direct me to any house of public en- tertainment for the night; and supposing it probable he was himself a poor man, 1 added with the conscious dignity of a well- filled pocket-book, that I could make it worth any man’s while to oblige me. The fisherman making no answer, I turned away from him with as gallant an appearance of indifference as I could command, and began to take, as I thought, the path which he had pointed out to me, and which ultimately led me to my place of abode.” ‘A HaRPOONING YARN. HIS is the account <2 of an adventure with a whale, told of the crew of a boat which, sent out for another purpose, suddenly came across a monster of the deep. The boat had been suffered to ride in the edge of the surf since the appearance of the sun, and the eyes of her crew were kept anxiously fixed on the cliffs, though in vain, to discover the signal that was to call them to the place of landing. After looking at his watch for the twentieth time, and as often casting glances of uneasy dissatisfaction towards the shore, the lieu- tenant exclaimed : “A charming prospect, this, Master Coffin, but rather too much poetry in it for your taste; I believe you relish no land that is of a harder consist- ency than mud.” “I was born on the waters, sir,” returned the coxswain, from his snug abode, where AN Exciting ffONTEST—« JN HIS fLURRY.” he was disposed with his usual economy of room, “and it is according to all things for a man to love his native soil. I'll not - deny, Captain Barnstable, but I would rather drop my anchor on a bottom that won't broom. a keel, though, at the same time, I harbour no great malice against dry land.” “I shall never forgive it, myself, if any accident has befallen Griffith, in this excur- sion,” rejoined the lieutenant: ‘his pilot may be a better man on the water than on terra firma, Long Tom.” The coxswain turned his solemn visage, with an extraordinary meaning, towards his commander, before he replied: “For as long a time as I have followed the waters, sir, and that has been ever since I’ve drawn my rations, seeing that I was born while the boat was crossing Nantuckit shoal, I've never known a pilot come off in greater need than the one we fell in with, when we made that stretch or two on the land in the dog-watch of yesterday.” “Ay! the fellow has played his part like a man; the occasion was great, and it “4 STROKE OF A HARPOON? 361 seems that he was quite equal to his work.” “The frigate’s people tell me, sir, that he handled the ship like a top,” continued the coxswain; “but she is a ship that is a nateral inimy of the bottom!” “Can you say as much for this boat,’ ~ Master Coffin ?” cried Barnstable. ‘Keep her out of the surf, or you'll have us rolling in upon the beach, presently, like an empty water-cask ; you must remember that we cannot all wade, like yourself, in two-fathom water.” The coxswain cast a cool glance at the crests of foam that were breaking over the tops of the billows, within a few yards of where their boat was riding, and called aloud to his men,— “Pull a stroke or two; away with her into dark water.” ; The drop of the oars resembled the movements of a nice machine, and the light boat skimmed along the water like a duck, that approaches to the very brink of some imminent danger, and then avoids it, at the most critical moment, apparently without an effort. While this necessary movement was making, Barnstable arose and surveyed the cliffs with keen eyes, and then turning once more in disappointment from his search, he said, “Pull more from the land, and let her run down, at an easy stroke, to the schooner. Keep a look-out at the cliffs, boys ; it is possible that they are stowed in some of the holes in the rocks, for it’s no daylight business they are on The order was promptly obeyed, and ‘they had glided along for near a mile in this manner, in the most profound silence, when suddenly the stillness was broken by a heavy rush of air and a dash of the water, seemingly at no great distance from them. “By heaven, Tom,” cried Barnstable, starting, “there is the blow of a whale !” “Ay, ay, sir,” returned the coxswain, with undisturbed composure ; “here is his spout, not half a mile to seaward; the easterly gale has driven the creater to lee- ward, and he begins to find himself in shoal water. He's been sleeping while he should have been working to windward!” “ The fellow takes it coolly, too! he’s in no hurry to get an offing!” “1 rather conclude, sir,” said the cox- swain, rolling over his tobacco in his mouth very composedly, while his little sunken eyes began to twinkle with pleasure at the sight, “the gentleman has lost his reckon- ing, and don’t know which way to head, or take himself back into blue water.” “Tis a fin-back!” exclaimed the lieu- tenant ; “he will soon make head-way, and be oft” ; “No, sir, ’tis a right whale,” answered Tom; “1 saw his spout; he threw up a pair of as pretty rainbows as a Christian would wish to look at. He’s a raal oil- butt, that fellow !” Barnstable laughed, turned himself away from the tempting sight, and tried to look - at the cliffs, and then unconsciously bent his longing eyes again on the sluggish animal, who was throwing his huge carcass, at times, for many feet from the water, in idle gambols. The temptation for sport and the recollection of his early habits at length prevailed over his anxiety in behalf of his friends, and the young officer inquired of his coxswain: “Is there any whale-line in the boat to make fast to that harpoon which you bear about with you in fair weather or foul?” “I never trust the boat from the schooner without part of a shot, sir,” returned the coxswain; “there is something nateral in the sight of a tub to my old eyes.” Barnstable looked at his watch, and again at the cliffs, when he exclaimed, in joyous tones, “Give strong way, my hearties! There seems nothing better to be done; let us have a stroke of a harpoon at that impudent rascal.” The men shouted spontaneously, and the old coxswain suffered his solemn visage to relax into a small laugh, while the whale- boat sprang forward like a courser for the goal. During the few minutes they were © A 5} THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. pulling towards their game, Long Tom. arose from his crouching attitude in the stern-sheets, and transferred his huge form to the bows of the boat, where he made such preparations to strike the whale as the occasion required. The tub, containing about half of a whale line, was placed at the feet of Barnstable, who had been pre- paring an oar to steer with, in place of the rudder, which was unshipped, in order that, if necessary, the boat might be whirled round, when not advancing. Their approach was utterly unnoticed by the monster of the deep, who continued to amuse himself with throwing the water, in two circular spouts, high into the air, occa- sionally flourishing the broad flukes of his tail with a graceful but terrific force, until the hardy seamen were within a few hundred feet of him, when he suddenly cast his head downward, and, without an apparent effort, reared his immense body for many feet above the water, waving his tail violently, and produced a whizzing noise, that sounded like the rushing of winds. The coxswain stood erect, poising his harpoon, ready for the blow ; but when he beheld the creature assume this formidable attitude, he waved his hand to his com- ‘mander, who instantly signed to his men to cease rowing. In this situation the sports- men rested a few moments, while the whale struck several blows on the water in rapid succession, the noise of which re-echoed along the cliffs, like the hollow reports of so many cannon. After this wanton exhi- bition of his terrible strength the monster sunk again into his native element, and slowly disappeared from the eyes of his pursuers. “Which way did he head, Tom?” cried Barnstable, the moment the whale was out of sight. “Pretty much up and down, sir,” returned the coxswain, whose eye was gradually brightening with the excitement of the sport; “he’ll soon run his nose against the bottom if he stands long on that course, and will be glad to get another snuff of pure air; send her a few fathoms to star- board, sir, and I promise we shall not be out of his track.” The conjecture of the experienced old seaman proved true, for in a few minutes the water broke near them, and another spout was cast into the air, when the huge animal rushed for half his length in the same direction, and fell on the sea with a turbulence and foam equal to that which 1s produced by the launching of a vessel for the first time into its proper element. After this evolution the whale rolled heavily, and seemed to rest from further efforts. His slightest movements were closely watched by Barnstable and his coxswain, and when he was in a state of comparative rest, the former gave a signal to his crew to ply their oars once more. A few long and vigorous strokes sent the boat directly up to the broadside of the whale, with its bows point- ing towards one of the fins, which was at times, as the animal yielded sluggishly to the action of the waves, exposed to view. The coxswain poised his harpoon with much precision, and then darted it from him with a violence that buried the iron in the blubber of their foe. The instant the blow was made, Long Tom shouted with singular earnestness—* Starn all!” “Stern all!” echoed Barnstable; when the obedient seamen, by united efforts, forced the boat in a backward direction, be- yond the reach of any blow from their for- midable antagonist. The alarmed animal, however, meditated no such resistance; ignorant of his own power and of the insignificance of his enemies, he sought refuge in flight. One moment of stupid sur- prise succeeded the entrance of the iron, when he cast his huge tail into the air with a violence that threw the sea around him into increased commotion, and then dis- appeared with the quickness of lightning, amid a cloud of foam. “Snub him!” shouted Barnstable; “hold on, Tom ; he rises already.” “Ay, ay, sir,” replied the composed cox- swain, seizing the line, which was running “THE CREAIERS IN HIS FLURRY. 363 out of the boat with a velocity that rendered such a manceuvre rather hazardous, and causing it to yield more gradually round the large loggerhead that was placed in the bows of the boat for that purpose. Presently the line stretched forward, and, rising to the surface with tremendous vibra- tions, it indicated the direction in which the animal might be expected to re-appear. Barnstable had cast the bows of the boat towards that point before the terrified and wounded victim rose once more to the surface, whose time was, however, no longer wasted in his sports, but who cast the waters aside as he forced his way with prodigious velocity along their surface. The boat was dragged violently in his wake, and cut through the billows with a terrific rapidity, that at moments appeared to bury the slight fabric in the ocean. When Long Tom beheld his victim throwing his spouts on high again, he pointed with exultation to the jetting fluid, which was streaked with the deep red of blood, and cried— “Ay! I've touched the fellow’s life! It must be more than two foot of blubber that stops my iron from reaching the life of any whale that ever sculled the ocean!” “I believe you have saved yourself the trouble of using the bayonet you have rigged for a lance,” said his commander, who entered into the sport with all the ardour of one whose youth had been chiefly passed in such pursuits ; “feel your line, Master Coffin; can we haul alongside of our enemy? I like not the course he is steering, as he tows us from the schooner.” “'Tis the creater’s way, sir,” said the coxswain ; “you know they need the air in their nostrils when they run, the same as a man; but lay hold, boys, and let us haul up to him.” The seamen now seized the whale-line, and slowly drew their boat to within a few feet of the tail of the fish, whose progress became sensibly less rapid, as he grew weak with the loss of blood. In afew minutes he stopped running, and appeared to roll uneasily on the water, as if suffering the agony of death. “Shall we pull in ae finish him, Tom ?” cried Barnstable ; fa few sets fon your bayonet would do it.’ The coxswain stood examining his game with cool discretion, and replied to this interrogatory—* No, sir, no—he’s going into his flurry; there’s no occasion for disgracing ourselves by using a soldier's weapon in taking a whale. Starn off] sir, starn off! the creater’s in his flurry !” The warning of the prudent coxswain was promptly obeyed, and the boat cau- tiously drew off to a distance, leaving to the animal a clear space while under its dying agonies. From a state of perfect rest the terrible monster threw its tail on high, as when in sport ; but its blows were trebled in rapidity and violence till all was hid from view by a pyramid of foam that was deeply dyed with blood. The roarings of the fish were like the bellowings of a herd of bulls, and to one who was ignorant of the fact it would have appeared as if a thousand monsters were engaged in deadly combat behind the bloody mist that ob- structed the view. Gradually these effects subsided, and when the discoloured water again settled down to the long and regular swell of the ocean, the fish was seen, exhausted, and yielding passively to his fate. As life departed, the enormous black mass rolled to one side; and when the white and glistening skin of the belly be- came apparent, the seamen well knew that their victory was achieved, and that the monster was dead. 304 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP Tue Logs of THE SHIP ‘ARIEL. SA TERRIBLE fosiTioN—BRAVE Men AND UR illustration re- presents a strange case of a woman and child saved from the wreck of » the ship Elizabeth, of Loweston. By <> a mistake the boat was lowered and cut away before the crew had entered. All on board perished save the woman and child. We here give a vivid account from Cooper of another wreck—that of the A7zel. She was an American ship near the English coast during the War of Indepen- dence, and thus threatened with many dangers. A part of her mainmast was carried away by a shot from the shore, and a gale | came on during the night. The Ariel, however, continued to struggle against the winds and ocean till the day broke on the tempestuous scene, and the anxious mariners were enabled to form a more accurate estimate of their real danger. As the violence of the gale increased, the canvas of the schooner had been gradually reduced, until she was unable to show more than was absolutely necessary to prevent her driving helplessly on the land. Barnstable watched the appearance of the weather, as the light slowly opened upon them, with an intense anxiety, which denoted that the presenti ments of the cockswain were no longer deemed idle. On looking to windward, he beheld the green masses of water that were rolling in towards the land, with a violence fowaRDS. that seemed irresistible, crowned with ridges of foam ; and there were moments when the air appeared filled with spark- ling gems, as the rays of the rising sun fell upon the spray that was swept from wave to wave. Towards the land the view was still more appalling. The cliffs, but a short halfleague under the lee of the schooner, were, at times, nearly hid from the eye by the pyramids of water, which the furious element, so suddenly restrained in its violence, cast high into the air, as if seeking to overleap the boundaries that nature had affixed to its dominion. The whole coast, from the distant headland at the south to the well-known shoals that stretched far beyond their course in the opposite direction, displayed a broad belt of foam, into which it would have been certain destruction for the proudest ship that swam to have entered. Still the Azze/ floated on the billows, lightly and in safety, though yielding to the impulses of the waters, and, at times, appearing to be en- gulphed in the yawning chasms, which ap- parently opened beneath her to receive the little fabric. The low rumour of acknow- ledged danger had found its way through the schooner ; and the seamen, after fasten- ing their hopeless looks on the small spot of canvas that they were still able to show to the tempest, would turn to view the dreary line of coast, that seemed to offer so gloomy an alternative. Even Dillon, to whom the report of their danger had found its way, crept from his place of concealment in the cabin and moved about the decks, listening to the opinions of the sullen mariners. CALMNESS IN DANGER. 365 At this moment of appalling apprehen- sion, the cockswain exhibited the calmest resignation. He knew all had been done that lay in the power of man to urge their little vessel from the land, and it was now too evident, to his experienced eyes, that it had been done in vain; but considering ‘himself as a sort of fixture in the schooner, he was quite prepared to abide her fate, be it for better or for worse. The settled look of gloom that gathered around the frank brow of Barnstable, was in no degree con- nected with any considerations of himself, but proceeded from that sort of parental responsibility from which the sea-com- waves, which, at short intervals, swept across the low decks of the Ariel, were repaired, with the same precision and order as if she yet lay embayed in the haven from which she had just been driven. In this manner the arm of authority was kept extended over the silent crew, not with the vain desire to preserve a lingering though useless exercise of power, but with a view to maintain that unity of action that now could alone afford them even a ray of hope. “She can make no head against this sea, under that rag of canvas,” said Barnstable, gloomily, - addressing the cockswain, who, mander is never ex- empt. The discipline of the crew, however, still continued per- fect and unyielding. There had, it is true, been a slight move- ment made by one or two of the older sea- men, which indicated an intention to drown the apprehensions of death in drink ; but Barnstable had called for his pistols in a _ tone that checked the procedure instantly ; and although the fatal THE ONLY SURVIVORS, with folded arms, and an air of cool resig- nation, was balancing his body on the verge of the quarter-deck, while the schooner was plunging madly into waves that nearly buried her ini:their bosom; “the. poor little thing trembles like a : frightened child, as she meets the water.” Tom sighed heavily, and shook his head before he answered, —“ If we could have weapons were, un- touched by him, left to lie exposed on the ervston, where they had been placed by his servant, not another symptom of insubordination appearedamong’ * the devoted crew. There was even what to a landsman might seem an appalling affectation of attention to the most trifling duties of the vessel; and the men, who, it should seem, ought to be devoting the brief- moments of their existence to the mighty business of the hour, were constantly called to attend to the most trivial details of their profession. Ropes were coiled, and ‘the slightest damages occasioned by the kept the head of the main-mast an hour longer, we might have got an offing, and fetched to windward of the shoals ; but as it is, sir, mortal man can’t drive a craft to windward. She sets bodily into land, and will be in the breakers in less than an hour, unless God wills that the wind shall cease to blow.” ‘We have no hope La us but to schon; 3 our ground tackle may yet bring her up.” Tom turned tohis commander, and replied solemnly, and with that assurance of manner that long experience only can give a man in moments of great danger,—* If our sheet~ AA 366 7HE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. cable was bent to our heaviest anchor, this sea would bring it home, though nothing but her launch was riding by it. A north- easter in the German Ocean must and will blow itself out; nor shall we get the crown of the gale until the sun falls over the land. Then, indeed, it may lull ; for the winds do often seem to reverence the glory of the Heavens too much to blow their might in its very face.” “We must do our duty to ourselves and the country,” returned Barnstable. “ Go, get the two bowers spliced, and have a kedge bent to a hawser ; we'll back our two anchors together, and veer to the better end of two hundred and forty fathoms : it may yet bring her up. See all clear there for anchoring and cutting away the mast! we'll leave the wind nothing but a naked hull to whistle over.” “Ay, if there was nothing but the wind, we might yet live to see the sun sink behind them hills,” said the cockswain; “ but what hemp can stand the strain of a craft that is buried half the time to her foremast in the water? ” The order was, however, executed by the crew with a sort of desperate submission to the will of their commander; and when preparations were completed, the anchors and kedge were dropped to the bottom, and the instant that the A477 tended to the wind, the axe was applied to the little that was left of her long, raking masts. The crash of the falling spars, as they came in succession across the decks of the vessel, appeared to produce no sensation amid that scene of complicated danger, but the sea- men proceeded in silence to their hopeless duty of clearing the wrecks. Every eye followed the floating timbers as the waves swept them away from the vessel, with a sort, of feverish curiosity, to witness the effect produced by their collision with those rocks that lay so fearfully near them ; but long before the spars entered the wide border of foam, they were hid from view by the furious element in which they floated. It was now felt by the whole crew of the Ariel that their last means of safety had been adopted, and at each desperate and headlong plunge the vessel took into the bosom of the seas that rolled upon her forecastle, the anxious seamen thought they could perceive the yielding of the iron that yet clung to the bottom, or could hear the violent surge of the parting strands of the cable that still held them to their anchors. While the minds of the sailors were agitated with the faint hopes that had been excited by the movements of their schooner, Dillon had been permitted to wander about the vessel unnoticed: his rolling eyes, hard breathing, clenched hands excited no observation among the men, whose thoughts were yet dwelling on the means of safety. But now, when with a sort of frenzied desperation he would follow the retiring waters along the decks, and venture his person nigh the group that had collected around and on the gun of the cockswain, glances of fierce or of sullen vengeance were cast at him, that conveyed threats of a nature that he was too much agitated to understand. “If ye are tired of this world, though your time, like my own, is probably but short in it,” said Tom to him, as he passed the cockswain in one of his turns, “you can go forward among the men ; but if ye have need of the moments to foot up the reck’™ ning of your doings among men, afore yere brought to face your Maker, and hear the log-book of heaven, I would advise you to keep as nigh as possible to Captain Barnstable or myself.” “Will you promise to save me if the vessel is wrecked?” exclaimed Dillon, catching at the first sounds of friendly interest that had reached his ears since he had been re-captured. “Oh! if you will, I can secure you future ease; yes, wealth for the remainder of your days!” “Your promises have been too ill kept afore this for the peace of your soul,” returned the cockswain; “but it is not in me to strike even a whale that is already spouting blood.” THE SHIP ON THE ROCKS. 307 The intercessions of Dillon were inter- rupted by a dreadful cry that arose among the men forward, and which sounded with increased horror amid the roaring of the tempest. The schooner rose on the breast of a wave at the same instant, and falling off with her broadside to the sea, she drove in towards the cliffs, like a bubble on the rapids of a cataract. “Our ground tackle has parted,” said Tom, with his resigned patience of manner undisturbed. “She shall die as easy as man can make her!” While he yet spoke, he seized the tiller, and gave to the vessel such a direction as would be most likely to cause her to strike the rocks with her bows foremost. There was, for one moment, an expression of exquisite anguish betrayed in the dark countenance of Barnstable; but at the next it passed away, and he spoke cheerfully to his men. ¢ Be steady, my lads, be calm ; there is yet a hope of life for you ; our light draught will let us run in close to the cliffs, and it is still fall- ing water. See your boats clear, and be steady.” : The crew of the whale-boat, aroused by this speech from a sort of stupor, sprang into their light vessel, which was quickly lowered into the sea, and kept riding on the foam, free from the sides of the schooner, by the powerful exertions of the men. The cry for the cockswain was earnest and repeated, but Tom shook his head, without replying, still grasping the tiller, and keep- ing his eyes steadily bent on the chaos of waters into which they were driving. The launch, the largest boat of the two, was cut loose from the “gripes,” and the bustle and exertion of the moment rendered the crew insensible to the horror of the scene that surrounded them. But the loud, hoarse call of the cockswain, to “look out—secure yourselves ! ” suspended even their efforts, “and at that instant the A7ée/ settled on a wave that melted from under her, heavily on the rocks. The shock was so violent as to throw all who disregarded the warn- ing cry from their feet, and the universal quiver that pervaded the vessel was like the last shudder of animated nature. For a time long enough to breathe, the least experienced among the men supposed the danger to be past; but a wave of great height followed the one that had deserted them, and raising the vessel again, threw her roughly still further on the bed of rocks, .and at the same time its crest broke over her quarter, sweeping the length of her decks with a futy that was almost resistless. The shuddering seamen beheld their loosened boat driven from their grasp, and dashed against the base of the cliffs, where no fragment of her wreck could be traced at the receding of the waters. But the passing billow had thrown the vessel into a position which, in some measure, pro- tected her decks from the violence of those that succeeded it. “Go, my boys, go,” said Barnstable, as the moment of dreadful uncertainty passed ; “you have still the whale-boat, and she, at least, will take you nigh the shore. Go into her, my boys. God bless you, God bless you all! You have been faithful and honest fellows, and I believe He will not yet desert you ; go, my friends, while there isalull” The seamen threw themselves in a mass into the light vessel, which nearly sink under the unusual burthen ; but when they looked around them, Barnstable and Merry, Dillon and the cockswain, were yet to be seen on the decks of the Ariel. The former was pacing, in deep and perhaps bitter melancholy, the wet planks of the schooner, while the boy hung unheeded on his arm, uttering disregarded petitions to his com- mander to desert the wreck. Dillon ap-- proached the side where the boat lay, again and again, but the threatening coun- tenances of the seamen as often drove him back in despair. Tom had seated himself on the heel of the bowsprit, where he continued, in an attitude of quiet resig- nation, returning no other answers to the loud and repeated calls of his shipmates, than by waving his hand toward the shore. 368 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. “ Now hear me,” said the boy, urging his request to tears ; “if not for my sake, or for your own sake, Mr. Barnstable, or for the hopes of God’s mercy, go into the boat for the love of my cousin Katherine.” The young lieutenant paused in his troubled walk, and for a moment he cast a glance of hesitation at the cliffs ; but at the next instant his eyes fell on the ruin of his vessel, and he answered, “ Never, boy, never ; if my hour has come, I will not shrink from my fate.” “Listen to the men, dear sir; the boat will be swamped alongside the wreck, and their cry is, that without you they will not let her go.” Barnstable motioned to the boat to bid the boy enter it, and turned away In silence. “Well,” said Merry, with firmness, “if it be right that a lieutenant shall stay by" the wreck, it must also be right for a midship- man. Shove off ; neither Mr. Barnstable nor myself will quit the vessel.” “ Boy, your life has been entrusted to my keeping, and at my hands will it be required,” said his commander, lifting the struggling youth and tossing him into the arms of the seamen. “ Away with ye, and God be with you ; there is more weight in you now than can go safe to land.” Still the seamen hesitated, for they per- ceived the cockswain moving, with a steady tread, along the deck, and they hoped he had relented, and would yet persuade the lieutenant to join his crew. But Tom, imitating the example of his commander, seized the latter suddenly in his powerful grasp, and threw him over the bulwarks with an irresistible force. At the same moment he cast the fast of the boat from the pin that held it, and lifting his broad hands high into the air, his voice was heard in the tempest. “God's will be done with me,” he cried; “I saw the first timber of the Arie/ laid, and shall live just long enough to see it torn out of her bottom— after which I wish to live no longer.” But his shipmates were swept far beyond ‘the sounds of his voice before half these words were uttered. All command of the boat was rendered impossible by the numbers it contained, as well as the raging of the surf; and as it rose on the white crest of a wave, Tom saw his beloved little craft for the last time... lt fell into .a trough of the sea, and in a few moments more its fragments were ground into splin- ters on the adjacent rocks. The cockswain still remained where he had cast off the rope, and beheld the numerous heads and ‘arms that appeared rising at short inter- vals on the waves—some making powerful and well-directed efforts to gain the sands, that were becoming visible as the tide fell, and others wildly tossed in the frantic movements of helpless despair. The honest old seaman gave a cry of joy as he saw Barnstable issue from the surf, bearing the form of Merry in safety to the sands, where, one by one, several seamen soon appeared also, dripping and exhausted. Many others of the crew were carried in a similar manner to places of safety ; though, as Tom returned to his seat on the bow- sprit, he could not conceal from his reluc- tant eyes the lifeless forms that were, in other spots, driven against the rocks with a fury that soon left them but few of the out- ward vestiges of humanity. Dillon and the cockswain were now the sole occupants of their dreadful station. The former stood in a kind of stupid despair, a witness of the scene we have related; but as his curdled blood began again to flow more warmly through his heart, he crept close to the side of Tom, with that sort of selfish feeling that makes even hopeless misery more tolerable when endured in participation with another. “When the tide falls,” he said in a voice that betrayed the agony of fear, though his words expressed the renewal of hope, “we shall be able to walk to land.” “There was One, and only One, to whose feet the waters were the same as a dry deck,” returned the cockswain; “and none but such as have His power will ever be able to walk from these rocks to the sands.” ZHE THUNDER OF THE WIND. 369 The old seaman paused, and turning his eyes, which exhibited a mingled expression of disgust and compassion, on his com- panion, he added, with reverence: “Had you thought more of Him in fair weather, your case would be less to be pitied in this tempest.” “Do you still think there is much danger?” asked Dillon. “To them that have reason to fear death. Listen! do you hear that hollow noise beneath ye?” “’Tis the wind, driving by the vessel ! ” “"Tis the poor thing herself,” said the affected cockswain, “giving her last groans. The water is breaking up her decks, and in a few minutes more the handsomest model that ever cut a wave will be like the chips that fell from her timbers in framing.” “ Why, then, do you remain here?” cried Dillon, wildly. “To die in my coffin, if it should be the will of God,” returned Tom. “These waves to me are what the land is to you; I was born on them, and I have always meant that they should be my grave.” “But I—1,” shrieked Dillon, “I am not ready to die !—I cannot die !—I will not diet” ¢ Poor wretch !” muttered his companion; “you must go, like the rest of us ; when the death watch is called, none can skulk from the muster.” “I can swim,” Dillon continued, rushing with frantic eagerness to the side of the wreck. “Is there no billet of wood, no rope that I can take with me?” “None ; everything has been cut away, or carried off by the sea. If ye are about to strive for your life, take with ye a stout heart and a clean conscience, and trust the rest to God.” “God!” echoed Dillon, in the madness of his frenzy; “I know no God; there is no God that knows me !” : “Peace !” said the deep tones of the cockswain, in a voice that seemed to speak in the elements; “ blasphemer, peace!” The heavy groaning produced by the water in the timbers of the A7z/ at that moment added its impulse to the raging feelings of Dillon, and he cast himself headlong into the sea. The water, thrown by the rolling of the surf on the beach, was necessarily returned to the ocean in eddies in different places favourable to such an action of the element. Into the edge of one of these counter-currents that was produced by the very rocks on which the schooner lay, and which the watermen call the ¢ under-tow,” Dillon had, unknowingly, thrown his person, and when the waves had driven him a short distance from the wreck, he was met by a stream that his most desperate efforts could not overcome. He was a light and power- ful swimmer, and the struggle was hard and protracted. With the shore immediately before his eyes, and at no great distance, he was led, as bya false phantom, to con- tinue his efforts, although they did not advance him a foot. The old seaman, who at first had watched his motions with care- less indifference, understood the danger of his situation at a glance, and forgetful of his own fate, he shouted aloud, in a voice that was driven over the struggling victim to the ears of his shipmates on the sands— “Sheer to port, and clear the undertow! sheer to the southward!” Dillon heard the sounds, but his faculties were too much obscured by terror to dis- tinguish their object; he, however, blindly yielded to the call, and gradually changed his direction, until his face was once more turned towards the vessel. The current swept him diagonally by the rocks, and he was forced into an eddy, where he had nothing to contend against but the waves, whose violence was much broken by the wreck. In this state he continued still to struggle, but with a force that was too much weakened to overcome the resistance he met. Tom looked around him for a rope, but all had gone over with the spars, or been swept away by the.waves. At this moment of disappointment his eyes met those of the desperate Dillon. Calm and inured to horrors as was the veteran sea- 370 THE WONDERS OF JHE DEEP. man, he involuntarily passed his hand before his brow, to exclude the look of despair he encountered ; and when, a moment afterwards, he removed the rigid member, he beheld the sinking form of the victim, as it gradually settled in the ocean, still struggling with regular but impotent strokes of the arms and feet, to gain the wreck, and to preserve an existence that had been so much abused in its beneficently extended hour of allotted probation. ““ He will soon know his God, and learn that his God knows him !” murmured the cockswain to himself. As he yet spoke, the wreck of the Ariel yielded to an over- whelming sea, and after a universal shud- der, her timbers and planks gave way, and were swept towards the cliffs, bearing the body of the simple-hearted cockswain among the ruins. Such was the end of the good ship 47s, and of the brave cockswain. Pav Jones. Mis pram AND Poe ADVENTURES-—Ji1s ExpLoITS IN THE X/L HE father of Paul \} Jones was a native of Dunbar, in Scot- land, by profession a gardener, and it appears had lived in that capacity with several families of dis- tinction in various parts of Scotland, and, among the rest, with the Earl of Selkirk. The subject of this memoir was born about the month of June, 1748, near Dumfries. At the age of fourteen, Paul was appren- ticed to Captain Johnson, of Whitehaven, who was then in the coal trade ; and from his father’s faithful services to the Earl of Selkirk, there cannot be a doubt of the earl’s goodness being extended to his son, had his behaviour corresponded with the hopes and wishes of his relations. But, thus early in life, Paul evinced the most determined resolution ; and during his ap- prenticeship, gave no inconsiderable share of trouble and anxiety to his master by his obstinacy and perverseness. Having completed his servitude, he immediately signed articles with Captain Baines, who Jinshan was den in the Guinea trade; and here his disposition was evinced by his attempting to sink and destroy the ship and cargo, in consequence of a reprimand from the cap- tain. For this offence he was brought home in irons; but owing to some defect in the evidence on his trial, he was acquitted of the charge. This voyage seemed to have altered his opinion in favour of a seafaring life, for he now resolved to try his fortune on land, and returned directly to Scotland. In this part of the history we have no record to make of his pursuits. After committing an infinite number of excesses in the neighbourhood of his resi- dence, he proposed marriage to three young women, of some respectability ; two of whom soon after became troublesome. It was no sooner found by Paul that the young women were troublesome, than he endeavoured, by his artifices and insinua- tions, to prevail upon each of them to form an acquaintance with a wealthy farmer, for the sole purpose of making him take his old sweethearts off his hands! And it is a fact generally credited, that he com- pletely succeeded in this design. Shortly after, he quitted his residence, PAUL 4S 4 SMUGGLER. 371 and wandered about the country, till he fell in with a large party of smugglers, who first engaged him in the capacity of a servant; but finding in him so much of all that is requisite to form, in the cant phrase, “a good smug,” they proposed a partnership to Paul, and he immediately acquiesced. But his wish for absolute sway grew disgusting to his comrades, and they shortly after scouted him. In this dilemma it is said that he went on the highway; and after commit- ting several robberies, was at length appre- hended, and tried at Lancaster, where he was acquitted in consequence of a defect in the principal evidence. Immediately after, Paul entered on board a Sunderland brig, as a man before the mast; and in this em- ploy became not only an expert and able seaman, but particularly well acquainted with the whole northern coast. From this brig he was pressed to serve on board a man-of-war ; but this also was of very short duration, as he seized the first opportunity to make his escape, and again commenced smuggler. Paul's better fortune, it seems, at this time smiled upon him, for after a short and unsuccessful cruise, he left his companions, and took up his residence at Brighton. Here he soon formed an inti- macy with the daughter of a respectable farmer; and after a courtship of three weeks, obtained her father’s consent, and led his fair prize to the hymeneal altar with a fortune of three hundred pounds! Al though he had thus easily acquired a property, and an amiable woman for his wife, he could not reconcile himself to the cares and comforts of a domestic life ; but falling in with several of his old companions, it was agreed to purchase a vessel, which Paul commanded, and placed such officers on board that he had the most dependence upon. In the course of their cruising along the coast they were of the utmost injury to the commerce of this country. There were numerous instances of their falling in with, and capturing our merchantmen, both foreign and coastwise, till at length they took a valuable prize, and steered for a port in France; and after most tempestuous weather (during which Paul actually threw a man overboard for a trifling disobedience of orders) arrived at Boulogne, where the cargo was disposed of, to a great disadvan- tage, from the damage it sustained in the late storm. Mr. Jones at this time paid his addresses to a widow, the mistress of the hotel where he tooklodgingsduring his stay at Boulogne. After using every kind of stratagem for three months successively, without being able to prevail upon the fair hostess to accompany him to the altar of Hymen, he deposited £200 in her hands, as a proof of the sincerity of his intentions to return and render her completely happy, and then took an affectionate leave. Paul pursued once more the calling of a smuggler, and rightly judging that Dover was an eligible situation, he hired a capital house there, and figured as a first-rate merchant. Having a confi- dential superintendent, he had many op- portunities of visiting the whole coast ; and in one of his excursions, falling in with a number of his associates, they formed the resolution of boarding an armed vessel in the Downs, which had been fitted out by our merchants to act against the Barbary cruisers. Enterprising and audacious as this undertaking was, from the numerous revenue cutters usually stationed in the Downs, they completely succeeded. Two men and a boy were the only persons on board, and from their never having been heard of, the owners supposed the vessel had been driven out to sea and that all on board perished. Paul’s crew, flushed with repeated suc- cesses, soon increased in numbers; and various were the stratagems they had recourse to for enriching themselves. Their first expedition was to the coast of Ireland, on different parts of which they landed, and plundered several gentlemen’s houses of - cash, plate, jewels, and other valuable effects. They now steered towards the Sussex coast, and while they were attempt- ing to effect a landing, they observed two of 372 ZHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP the king’s armed cutters within a league of shore. By taking advantage of a thick fog that rose about the close of the day, they proceeded further along the coast, and disembarked with some of their most valu- able effects; soon after which they were surprised by a party of custom-house officers, and a desperate contest ensued, which lasted nearly two hours, when the victory declared in favour of the smugglers, although one of Paul’s men was desperately wounded in the conflict. They now put to sea with all possible expedition, and shaped their course for the Isle of Man, where they procured a supply of ammunition and pro- visions, and then sailed again with a view of plundering some merchant ships bound for England, on board of which were gold and silver to a considerable amount. They met with only one of these ships, and that not one of the richest; but Paul finding himself entitled to a share amounting to upwards of five hundred pounds, determined to pursue his amour at Boulogne. When on the point of disembarking at Port I'Orient, he resigned all claim to the vessel and her appurtenances to his com- panions ; swearing them, that they should deal with him only in such articles as were proper for sale at Boulogne and the Isle of Man. Paul slept that night on shore ; and in the morning, after sending his comrades a present of twelve dozen of wine, and a liberal supply of provisions, set out for Boulogne. On his arrival he was heartily welcomed by the widow, with whom he had held a correspondence by letter during the several months of his absence. In about five days they were married ; and having assumed the character of landlord, he gave the customers of the house an elegant entertainment. For several weeks his be- haviour was so affable and condescending, and the articles in which he dealt so good of their respective kinds, and so moderate in price, that the custom of the house greatly increased. But nature had not formed him to keep within the bounds of moderation. The idea of being possessed | of property sufficient to render him indepen- dent of business, and the prospect of great riches, swelled his pride to that pitch, that he was no longer able to act under the mask of humility that had for some time distin- guished his natural turbulence. Disgusted at his conduct, his customers sought other places of entertainment, where they could be treated with civility and respect. The decay of business inflamed him to a degree of the utmost extravagance; and in all probability his wife would have fallen a sacrifice to the impetuosity of his temper, had not the amiableness of her disposition been capable of some degree of moderation to his violent, restless, and impatient spirit. About this period he learned that the Earl of Derby was about to sell the Isle of Man, to be annexed to the crown of Great Britain ; and, judging it necessary to put his affairs on a good footing before the proposed regulation could take place, he repaired thither, leaving his wife to conduct the business of the hotel. A few hours after he had embarked, the vessel was accosted by the gang of smugglers with whom he had parted at Port I'Orient ; but, upon his appearing upon deck, and waving his hand, they immediately altered their course. As soon as he arrived, he made the first entry of licensed goods transported from England into the Isle of Man, and his name stands first in the custom-house books at Douglas. He then returned to Boulogne, and for some time carried on an extensive trade with different smugglers. Upon the decease of his wife he again went to the Isle of Man, and transacted business in the legal way, the better to elude the suspicion of his being engaged in contraband deal ings. Paul was not yet an absolute pirate, but a desperate smuggler; and his crew con- sisted of some of the boldest and bravest fellows he could pick up, or who sought refuge from their crimes under his colours. Blacks, Swedes, Americans, Irish and Liverpool men, were particularly welcome to him; and in the north of England he ADVENTURES IN LONDON. 373 was called the English Corsair. Paul having amassed upwards of three thcusand pounds by the most iniquitous practices, as his avaricious turn of mind had led him to take great advantages of several of the smugglers with whom he dealt, some of whom he apprehended might, at length, be provoked to lodge an information against him on account of the illegal traffic he had so long pursued ; he therefore determined to sell off what effects he had in the Isle of Man, and repair to London. But before he put this scheme in execution, he borrowed several sums of money, and obtained goods of different people to a considerable amount, after which he secretly decamped. Fearing if he came immediately to England, his place of residence would be discovered, and measures pursued to punish him for his fraudulent practices, he went to Dunkirk, and there opened a coffee-house for the entertainment of English travellers. Here he renewed his practice of dealing in contraband goods; but in a few months he experienced a reverse of fortune. Several capital seizures being made of goods that he had sent to England for sale, he was driven nearly to a state of distraction, and vowed destruction to the party with whom he had entrusted so considerable a part of his property ; as through his want of pre- caution the goods had fallen into the hands of the king’s officers. Paul now shut up his house at Dunkirk, and prepared to embark for England, having previously remitted a small sum to each of the persons he had defrauded in the Isle of Man; and as they accepted of payment in part, they destroyed every idea of felony, and con- stituted their respective claims into mere matters of debt; he was therefore no longer under apprehension of prosecutions from the criminal law. Paul, on his arrival in this country, went to Rochester, in Kent, in order to solicit payment for some smuggled goods which a tradesman of that town had bought of him about nine months before. Having suc- ceeded in that business, he came to London, the port of Cadiz. and hired a lodging in Long-acre, where he engaged in criminal enterprises of all sorts in and near the neighbourhood of Covent Garden. Here is an example. He lodged with a respectable widow of good position. The woman being seized with a fit of apoplexy, she expired while he was exam- ining some accounts in a parlour adjoining her bedroom. He no sooner discovered her situation, than he searched her pockets, and taking her keys, secreted all her ready money, and some other valuable effects, amounting to about £300, and then ab- sconded with his booty. About this time he made a conspicuous appearance in the city of London, where he lodged in Paternoster Row. He then con- ceived a violent attachment to gambling ; but being by no means a proficient in this science, he, in about six months, found that his whole stock of wealth amounted to no more than £108. Still he continued to frequent billiard tables and other places of gaming ; but his unfair practices involved him in frequent contentions and incessant quarrels. His money being nearly ex- hausted, he then found means to procure the command of a small smuggling vessel ; and after some heavy depredations com- mitted on the trading ships of these kingdoms, he went to the coast of Spain, and made capture of a rich vessel bound to Paul intended to carry this prize to Genoa, but two or three days “after her capture, she struck on a rock and sunk with all her cargo. Five of the men were drowned, and the rest were picked up by a Swedish vessel. Soon after this disaster, he took up his old trade of annoying the coasting vessels in our northern parts. . In a short time he engaged the John and Amy, near Berwick, which, after a short. resistance, . he. drove upon a rock just off the harbour, where she was bilged, and he again lost his prize. The crew were saved, except the wounded, who went down with the vessel. On leaving the wreck, he fell in with his old master, in his own ship, the Anne. After 374 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. fiing a salute, Paul gave chase, and had nearly got alongside, when two of the king’s sloops appeared; he tacked about and made clear off. By this time, however, the merchants were more on their guard, and the vessels kept in shore. Upon his return to Whitehaven, he seized a young woman while she was standing on the wharf, and placed her in the hold ; and the following day he enticed a publican on board, and immediately got under weigh. The man returned several years after, but the woman has never been heard of since. About this time the American revolution began ; and Paul refitted and victualled for a foreign voyage at Havre, and then set sail for America. This was in the year 1774, when he, perceiving what- was likely to ensue, wrote to Silas Deane, and several others, who were afterwards leaders of Congress. To these he made several impor- tant communications respecting this coun- try, and in return received several sums of money. It was then agreed that he should go to Europe, for particular information, and he again set sail, and arrived in this country as Captain jones of New York. Government not being aware of the char- acter that had arrived, he was at liberty to go about the capital, and dwelt for a short time in Wapping, buying maps, charts, soundings, and other articles relating to the home navigation. At his return, he was strictly examined by several persons, respect- ing the coasts and harbours of England, Ireland, and Scotland ; the result of which was, a very flattering distinction paid to him by the leaders of the American opposition, and he was soon appointed to the command of one of the privateers, fitted out against this country. His success greatly contri- buted to raise him in the opinion of the great men in America, who in a short time were so thoroughly satisfied with his spirited con- duct, that they imposed no sort of command on him, but left him to act consistently with his own ideas on all occasions. He proved a far greater annoyance to our numerous traders in those parts, than any other com- mander in the service of America. Paul was now employed to fit out the small squadron which Congress had placed under Commodore Hopkins, who had the command of all the armed vessels then belonging to America; and it is a well- known fact, that he hoisted with his own hands the first American flag ever displayed, on board the Alfred. The conduct then pursued by Lord Dunmore, in Virginia, determined Congress to detach the squad- ron against him ; but the commodore, who never entered into the spirit of the cause, displayed neither talents nor inclination for the enterprise, hesitating and making various excuses, till the squadron was entirely frozen up in the Delaware, and the expedition frustrated. The frost con- tinued two months ; and after this delay the vessels were disengaged, and set sail for New Providence, the principal of the Bahama Islands, where they found a very large quantity of artillery and military stores, of which the American army then stood greatly in need. Here he had the good fortune to recommend himself to the par- ticular notice of the commodore, by his tactical knowledge and diligence on all occasions, and in particular for his services in mooring the squadron off New Provi- dence in a seaman-like manner. It cannot be denied, indeed, that he was a very ex- cellent seaman ; and if he had only applied himself with zeal and diligence to the pro- per and regular practice of his profession, his name might have been honoured as that of a great admiral. FIGHT WITH THE *UERBERUS® FRIGATE. 375 Paur Jones (continued). NavaL SERVICE WITH THE AMERICANS — DARING ffonsT ETURNING from this expedition, they captured two mer- chantmen ; and soon V after the squadron entered the port of New London, in Con- necticut. Here ' the com- WHE modore receiving intelligence WN that the English frigates had been driven from Newport, and were out at sea, took ad- ie of the darkness of the night to repair to Rhode Island. =A council of war having dismissed the captain of the Zrv- vidence, one of the ships of the squadron, the commodore gave Paul orders, in writing, to take the command of her, and to escort some troops that were proceeding from Rhode Island to New York, and who were destined to join General Washington's camp. He then received instructions to escort a convoy of artillery and ammuni- tion from Rhode Island to New York, for the defence of which it was destined. During the passage he had two different engagements with the Cerberus frigate ; the first for the protection of the vessels under his command, and the second for the pre- servation. of a vessel from St. Domingo, laden with naval stores for the Congress. In the course of this service he had many actions with ships of war under the com- mand of Lord Howe ; but on these, as on former occasions, he was enabled to pre- serve his convoy; and at length arrived safe in the Delaware, August, 1st, 1776. On the 8th of August the president of the JXPEDITIONS. Congress presented Paul Jones in person with the commission of Captain in the Marine of the United States. This was the first granted by Congress after the declara- tion of independence. The orders of Congress had been given for the construc- tion of thirteen frigates; but as none of them were yet ready, he proceeded to sea alone on board the Providence, a vessel of small force, as she carried no more than seventy men and twelve small cannon. When in. the neighbourhood of the Ber- mudas, they fell in with the Solebay, and her convoy, from Charlestown ; she was a thirty-two gun frigate, and formed part of the squadron under Admiral Parker. Captain Jones was of course desirous of avoiding an engagement with such superior force, but as his officers and men insisted that it was the Jamaica fleet, and as it was necessary to command by means of per- suasion at this epoch of the war, the result was a serious engagement during six hours, which, towards the close, was carried on within pistol shot. A desperate manoeuvre was the sole resource left him. He at- tempted, succeeded, and was fortunate enough to disengage himself. A short time after this he took several prizes, and sailed towards the coast of Nova Scotia, to destroy the whale and cod fisheries in that neighbourhood. Near Sable Island they fell in with the Milford frigate, of thirty- two guns, with which it was impossible to avoid an engagement. A cannonade ac- cordingly took place, from ten o'clock in the morning until sun-set; but the en- gagement was neither so close nor so hot as 376 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. that with the Solebay, and Paul at length escaped, by passing through the flats, and entering a little harbour next day, where he destroyed the fishery and vessels. After this he set sail for Isle Madame, where he made two descents, at the same time de- stroying the fisheries, and burning all the vessels he could not carry with him. Having accomplished this service, he re- turned to Rhode Island, after an absence of seven weeks from the Delaware ; during which interval he took sixteen prizes, without including those destroyed. The Americans had agreed on destroying the British fisheries at Isle Royal, and restor- ing to liberty more than 300 American prisoners detained there in the coal mines. Three vessels were destined for this service, the Alfred, the Hampden, and the Provi- dence, but the Hampden, commanded by Arnold, having received considerable da- mage in consequence of running on a rock, could not accompany him. He, however, embarked on board the A/fred, and taking the Providence by way of consort, he set sail on the 2nd of November, 1776. The first prize he made was a vessel from Liver- pool, and soon after, the Mellish, a large armed vessel, having two British naval officers on board, and a captain belonging to the land service, with a company of soldiers. = This ship was carrying ten thousand complete suits of uniform to Canada, for the army posted under the orders of Generals Carleton and Burgoyne. Nothing could be more seasonable or wel- come to the American service than this capture ; and they were so sensible of it, that the Congress ordered their secretary to transmit the public thanks of the country to him, his officers, and the men serving under his command. : The Providence having left the Alfred during the night, without the least pretext whatever, he remained alone, and that, too, during the stormy season, on the enemy’s coast ; but, notwithstanding this, and that he was also ' greatly embarrassed with numerous prisoners, he resolved not to | renounce his project. He accordingly effected a descent, destroyed a transport of great size, and also burned the magazines and buildings destined for the whale and cod fishery. In addition to this, he took three transports, and a vessel laden with ling and furs, near Isle Royale. These prizes were escorted by the Fra frigate, which happened to be at a short distance, but was concealed from him by a fog. Having taken a privateer from Liverpool, mount- ing sixteen guns, in the course of the next day, he instantly returned with his prizes towards the United States; but, when in the latitude of Boston, fell in with the Milford frigate, which he unwillingly en- gaged. Towards night, however, he placed the Alfred between the enemy and his prizes, and having given the necessary instructions to the latter, to make for the nearest port, he changed his course, set up lights, and by this stratagem saved the vessels he had captured, as the frigate con- tinued in chase of him. Next day he was fortunate enough to escape, after a serious action, which was not terminated until dark, and even then in consequence of a hard gale of wind. Having returned to Boston, December 1st, 1776, the intelligence of the uniforms he had taken on board the AMe/lisi re- animated the courage of the army under General Washington, which at that period happened to be destitute of clothing. Besides, this unexpected succour contri- buted not a little to the affair at Trenton, against the Hessians, which took place immediately after his arrival. He now paid out of his own purse the wages due to the crews of the Alfred and Providence,” and lent the rest of his money to the Congress. That assembly transmitted him orders from Philadelphia on the sth of February, the design of which was to lay the Island of St. * Christopher ‘and the north side of America under ‘contribution, after which they were to attack Pensacola. This pro- ject was first conceived by Jones, and then communicated to Mr. Morris, afterwards CRUISING OFF DOVER. 377 Minister of Finance; but such was the jealousy of Hopkins, the commander-in- chief, that it was never carried into execu- tion. The season being too far advanced for ‘the execution of the scheme in the West Indies, Paul Jones received orders to take the command of the Amplhytrite,a French vessel, destined to sail from Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, to France; whence they were to pass into Holland, and take possession of the Zndienne, a large frigate constructing there for the Congress. Some difficulties, however, ensued, and he was ordered to prepare the Ranger, a vessel mounting eighteen guns. When General Burgoyne and his army were obliged to surrender at Saratoga, it was Paul Jones who was the first to carry this interesting intelligence to Nantes, whither he arrived on the 2nd of December, 1777. In the course of his voyage he took two prizes, forming part of a convoy from the Mediterranean, under the protection of the /Jnwvincible, a 74-gun ship, under the guns of which one of them was taken. He also cruised in the Channel off Dover for some time, and caused con- siderable alarm among the English fisher- men. In the month of January, 1778, he repaired to Paris, to make the necessary arrangements with the American ministers, relative to the equipment of the Zndienne ; but as the capture of Burgoyne had deter- DOVER CLIFFS. mined the court of France to recognise the independence of America by means of a treaty of alliance, and as the English am- bassador at the. Hague found that the Indienne was the property of Congress, he acquiesced in the opinion of the American ministers ; and determined to cede the pro- perty to his most Christian Majesty, this being the most likely method of preserving the ship and stores. He then returned on board the Ranger,and, as he had received in- 378 THE WONDERS formation from America, relative to the force and stations of the English fleet in that quar- ter, he immediately transmitted a letter to Mr. Deane, one of the American ministers at Paris, communicating the plan of an ex- pedition with a squadron of ten sail of the line, a few frigates, and a body of land forces, with a view to completely destroying the naval power of the British acting against the United States. This scheme was not adopted until it was too late, and then of course became impracticable. In the meantime he took several American vessels under his convoy, from Nantes to the Bay of Quiberon, where M. La Motte Piquet was lying at anchor with six sail of the line, a few frigates, and several mer- chantmen, which he took under his pro- tection to the westward of Cape Finisterre. M. de la Fayette was on board this fleet, which was provided with clothing, ammuni- tion, and military stores for America. Paul reached the bay February 13th, 1778, and sent to demand of the admiral if he would return his salute ; and this compli- ment was immediately agreed to by that brave officer, although neither he nor Jones knew at that period that a treaty of alliance had been signed between France and America seven days before. This was the first salute received by the American flag from ‘any power, and occasioned much debate in the English Parliament. He now set sail from the Bay of Quiberon to Brest, but did not enter the road ; on the contrary, he anchored at Cammeret, where he was detained by contrary winds until the French ambassador at the court of St. James’s had announced the treaty lately concluded between his most Christian Ma- jesty and the United States. On this, he immediately sailed into Brest water, and saluted the Count D’Orvilliers, who re- turned the salute, and received him with all the honours due to the admiral, on board his flag-ship Za Bretagne. In the month of February, 1776, the parliament of England had authorized the king to treat all the Americans taken at sea ’ OF THE DEEP. with arms in their hands as traitors, pirates, and felons. This, more than any other cir- cumstance, rendered Paul the declared enemy of Great Britain. From the very commencement of the war, an exchange of prisoners had taken place between General Washington and the commanders of the enemy’s army; and Great Britain was obliged to submit to this arrangement, and consider the American soldiers as prisoners of war. Indignant at the treatment ex- perienced by the Americans, Paul deter- mined to make a grand effort in their behalf, with a view to stopping the pro- ceedings of the English in Europe, as well as on the Western Continent. He ac- cordingly determined, by way of retaliation, to effect a descent on some part of Eng- land, with a view of destroying the shipping. It was also his intention to make some person of distinction prisoner, whom he re- solved to detain as a hostage for the secu- rity of, and in order to exchange with, the American prisoners in England. Admiral D’Orvilliers, to whom he communicated this project, offered to procure for him a captain’s commission in the French marine, that, in case he met with any disaster, he might claim the protection of his most Christian Majesty ; but, however, advan- tageous this was, he determined to decline the acceptance, because, in the first place, he was not authorized by Congress to change his flag; and in the second, such a conduct might have rendered his attach- ment to America suspected. He accordingly sailed from Brest, and advanced towards Ireland, neglecting the capture of a number of vessels within his reach, as he did not wish to diminish the strength of his crew. Near to the entrance into Carrickfergus, he, however, seized a fishing-boat, manned with six persons who proved to be pilots. The Drake, a twenty- gun ship, happened to be then in the road, and he immediately gave orders for making the necessary preparations; but the mate, who had drunk too much brandy, did not let go the anchor according to orders, which DARING DEEDS ON THE COAST. 379 prevented the Ranger from running foul of the Drake, according to his intentions. As he had reason to believe that his appear- ance had not hitherto given any alarm, he deemed it prudent to cut his cable, and return into St. George’s Channel. Here he remained buffeted about by the winds during three days, until, the weather having become more favourable, he determined a ~ second time to attempt a descent. This project, however, greatly alarmed his lieu- tenants. They were poor, they observed, and of course wished to undertake some scheme that held out better prospects of enriching themselves—whether honourably or not was only a secondary consideration— and accordingly excited a disobedience of orders among the whole ship’s company, by insinuating that they had a right to determine whether the measures adopted by the commodore were well concerted or not. He was at this period a few leagues off Whitehaven, Cumberland, at the entrance of the Firth of Solway. This harbour was at that time a very considerable one, and has since greatly increased, containing nearly 4oo sail, many of them of large burthen, and Paul had determined to take advantage of the ebb tide, when the vessels were high and dry, to destroy them. To effect this, it was necessary to.land aboutmid- night with a party of determined men, and to seize on a fort and strong battery which commanded the port. His two lieutenants being averse to the enterprise altogether, but ashamed of avowing their real motives, feigned illness, and kept their beds. On this he determined to take the command in person, and with great difficulty prevailed on about thirty volunteers to accompany him. With this handful of men and two small boats he quitted the Ranger at mid- night, and rowed towards the harbour; being much farther than they imagined, and the tide against them, day broke before a landing could be effected. He sent the smallest of the boats towards the northern side of the harbour to set fire to the vessels, while himself advanced to the south, to take possession of the fort and battery, arrived at which, Jones was the first to mount the walls, and carried the fort by assault. When they had nailed up thirty- eight cannon mounted on the batteries, they advanced northerly, thinking to assist the other boat's crew in destroying the vessels, when, to his great surprise, the boat was returning, without having accom- plished anything. Chagrined at this mis- carriage, he thought it advisable to unite his forces, with a view of effecting some further mischief; and rowing together till they got near the vessels, they separated, and each party commenced their plan. In a few minutes they were burning in several places ; and being broad daylight, the port and harbour were soon alarmed. Paul now deemed it prudent to secure his retreat, which he effected in very good order. On his returning on board the Ranger, the wind blowing fresh, he set sail for the place of his birth, and then his father’s residence, the coast of Scotland. It was his intention to take the Earl of Selkirk prisoner (the same nobleman who had been so great a friend to him and his family), and detain his lordship as a hostage, in conformity to the project before mentioned. With this view he landed with two officers and a few picked men. In the course of their progress they fell in with several of his lordship’s tenants, who, not suspecting they were enemies, informed them that Lord Selkirk was in London, but that her ladyship and several female friends were then at the castle. Paul immediately pro- posed returning, but such mild conduct was not conformable to the wishes of his ship- mates, who were then inclined to burn, pillage, and destroy everything before them. Thus circumstanced, he perceived it necessary to conciliate his people at all events, and it immediately appeared to him to be the best mode to give orders to the two officers to repair to the castle, station the men under arms without, and enter by themselves. They were accordingly in- 380 THE WONDERS OF THE DEFZPZ structed to demand the family plate, in the politest manner, accept what was given, without asking any questions, and then to return. In this order he was punctually obeyed ; the plate was delivered, and Lady Selkirk observed to the officers that she was extremely sensible of their modera- tion. Next day, 23rd April, 1778, he prepared to return to Carrickfergus, to attack the Drake in open day; but the lieutenants were averse to this enterprise also, and by their example, most of the crew became so mutinous, that it. was their intention to have stood out to sea, and left him ashore at Whitehaven. In the meanwhile the cap- tain of the Drake, receiving information of the descent upon Whitehaven, prepared to attack him. While everything was getting ready, he sent a lieutenant and boat’s crew to reconnoitre the Ranger. Paul immediately masked all his guns, kept his men out of sight, and. disguised the vessel in such a way as: to resemble a merchantman; in consequence of which the boat’s crew were deceived and taken prisoners, and the . Ranger's people were so elated at this success, that they unanimously agreed to give her battle at all events. The Drake having fired a gun to recall her boat, weighed anchor and came out. The Ranger lay-to till she came within pistol-shot, when the action commenced with much gallantry on both sides. After a hard-fought battle of sixty-eight minutes, during which the captain and first lieu- tenant of the Drake nobly fell, fighting for their country, the English flag was lowered, and Paul then took possession of his prize. The Drake was greatly damaged in her masts, hull, and rigging, and lost forty-two men, either killed or wounded, during the action. He had before also taken several other prizes; but, as his complement of men had only amounted to 123, he retained no more than two of them, which arrived in safety at Brest, where he himself anchored with the Ranger and Drake on the 7th of May, after an absence of twenty-eight days, | [ | during which he had taken upwards of 200 prisoners. This expedition was of great detriment to Great Britain, as she was not only obliged to strengthen her forts, but also to permit the arming of the Irish volunteers. At the time he had been obliged to permit his people to take Lady Selkirk’s plate, he determined to redeem it out of his own funds the moment it should be sold, and restore it to the family. Accord- ingly, on his arrival at Brest, he instantly despatched a pathetic letter to her lady- ship, in which he detailed the motives of his expedition, and the cruel necessity he was under, in consequence of the conduct of the English in America, to inflict the punishment of retaliation. This was sent open to the postmaster-general, that it might be shown to the Government of England and its ministers; and the court of St. James's was at length obliged to exchange those very Americans whom they called traitors, pirates, and felons, against the prisoners of war whom Paul had taken and carried into France. During the course of the war, he found it impossible to restore the plate belonging to the Selkirk family; he, however, pur- chased it at a high price, and at length found means to send it by land from I'Orient to Calais, by means of M. de Callonne, who transmitted him a very flattering letter on the occasion; in short, he at length received a letter of the same description from the Earl of Selkirk, ac- knowledging the receipt of the plate. He had no sooner arrived at Brest, than Admiral the Count D’Orvilliers transmitted an account of his expedition to the Minister of the Marine, in consequence of which it was intimated to Dr. Franklin that his Majesty was desirous he should repair to Versailles, as he was resolved to employ him on a secret expedition, for which pur- pose he would give him the Z/zndienne and some other frigates, with troops, etc., for the purpose of effecting a descent. He was instantly informed of this by the am- A QUAINT NAME FOR A SHID. 331 bassador, who observed to him that this must be considered as a profound secret, it being of so important a nature, that it had been deemed proper to withhold a com- munication of it even from his colleagues. Paul immediately repaired to Paris, where . M. de Sartine received him with the most distinguished politeness, making him, at the same time, the most flattering promises ; and the Prince de Nassau was sent into Holland to give instructions for the necessary arrangements for arming and equipping the frigate intended for him. But, in a short time after this, hostilities took place between France and England, in Hudson’s Bay ; of annihilating their fisheries in Newfoundland ; intercepting their East and West India, Lisbon, and above all, the Baltic fleet, which was escorted by a single frigate, as he had learned by certain in- formation from England. The minister adopted the last of these plans, and he accordingly repaired to Brest, to take the command of one of the frigates at that port, with two others, and a cutter, etc., then in St. Malo, but found on his arrival that a French officer had been previously appointed to the vessel in question ; and as there was not a single moment to be lost, the senior officer of consequence of the action with La Belle Poule. This not a little embarrassed the Minister of the Marine, and the difficulty was not diminished by the intelligence brought by the prince, who asserted that the Dutch would not permit the Zndienne to be equipped. As M. de Sartine had written to the three American ministers, and obtained their consent for the commodore remaining in Europe, he offered to serve on board the grand fleet ; he also communicated several plans for crippling the power of England,— such as destroying their trade and settle- ments on the coast of Africa and in — —_— Ss FIGHT BETWEEN THE ‘‘ DRAKE ” AND THE ‘‘ RANGER,” the frigates at St. Malo was despatched against the Baltic fleet, which he missed, by not steering sufficiently near the coast of England to intercept it. Being greatly disgusted with a series of delays that ensued during nine months, he at length repaired to Versailles, with an intention of returning to America if he should not immediately obtain a command. But he recollected the saying of Old Richard, “If you wish that your affairs should be prosperous, superintend them in person.” This induced him to promise that if the minister should at length comply with his request, he should call his own ship O/ Richard. Accord- BB 382 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. ingly, on obtaining Ze Duras until a better vessel could be procured, he called her Le Bon Homme Richard. She was a very small, old, and infirm vessel, that had made four voyages to the East Indies. As proper guns and stores could not be procured at I'Orient, he repaired first to Bordeaux and then to Angouleme, where he made a contract for such articles as he wanted. On his return, he found that the Marquis de la Fayette, who had returned from America, was desirous to join him in the expedition, it being intended that he should ~ command a body of land forces, he having obtained the king's commission for that purpose. While the necessary arrange- ments were making at court, a naval com- missary purchased at Nantes a merchant- man, called Ze Pallas, of thirty-two eight- pounders, and a brig named Le Vengeance, of twelve three-pounders; but neither of them were calculated for war, being very crank, and ‘their timbers in many places decayed. To these was added Ze Cerf, a very fine cutter belonging to the royal navy, carrying eighteen nine-pounders, with the Alliance, a new frigate, belonging to the United States; but as guns had not as yet arrived from an old battery of twelve- pounders, and as the expedition was in- tended against the British ports, Paul mounted six old eighteen-pounders in the gun-room, so that she might, in some measure, be called a forty-gun ship. As it was found impossible to procure a sufficient number of American sailors, he determined to supply the deficiency by enrolling English ones, who happened to be prisoners of war in France; and in addition to these, a certain number of peasants were levied, so that they might be said to have had as bad a crew as were ever shipped on board a vessel. Paul was given to understand, however, that the chosen body of troops, under the command of the Marquis de la Fayette, would serve as a guarantee for their conduct; but no sooner was the squadron ready, than he received a letter from the marquis, intimating that the object of the expedition having been divulged at Paris, the king had issued orders to prevent the embarkation of the troops, in conse- quence of which he had joined his regi- ment. Thus the project, which was no less than that of putting Liverpool, the second town in England, under contribution, failed, in consequence of having been indiscreetly communicated to a tattling character. It ought to be remembered that, according to the first arrangement, his squadron was to have been joined by a fire-ship and 500 men of Walsh’s Irish regiment; but the minister did not keep his word, for he neither procured for him the fire-ship nor the soldiers, so that it became impossible for him to fulfil the plan he had concerted, although it was more important than that of seizing on Liverpool. : JONES TAKES PRIZES. 383 Paur JonEs (continued). JURTHER JADVENTURES—[ AST YEARS AND Ny PeaTh. 5. ER) = 73 ¢;, HE little squadron I ; iS at length set sail SOR © from the road of KTUNS=F Groays on the No ¥ 14th of August, CPE 1779; but they had NE no sooner pro- Vi 3 ceeded to the north of the 3 mouth of the Channel, than Le Monsieur and Le Cerf RN, separated from them. He N was then extremely anxious to cruise for a fortnight in the latitude of Limerick ; but the captain of the Alliance also left him during the night, and as he had with him only the Palas and the Vengeance, he was obliged to renounce his original intention. He then took two prizes on the coast of Ireland; and, within sight of Scotland, came up with and seized two privateers of 22 guns each, which, with a brigantine, he sent to Bergen, in Norway, according to the orders he had received from Dr. Franklin, These prizes, however, were restored to the English by the King of Denmark. When he entered the North Sea, he captured several vessels, and learned by his prisoners, as well as by the newspapers, that the capital of Scot- land and the port of Leith were left totally defenceless. As there were only a 2o0-gun ship and two cutters in Leith Roads, Paul deemed it practicable to lay these two places under contribution. He had indeed no other force to execute this project than the Richard, the Pallas, and the Vengeance; but he well knew that, in order to perform a brilliant action, it is not always necessary to possess great means, and he therefore held out the prospect of great booty to the captains under his command, which had the desired effect. He now distributed red clothes to his men, and put some of them on board the prizes, so as to give them the appearance of transports full of troops. All the necessary arrangements were also taken to carry the enterprise into execution ; but, about a quarter of an hour before the descent was to have been made, a sudden tempest arose, and drove them out of the Forth, or Edinburgh Firth ; and so violent was the storm, that one of his prizes was lost. On the morning of the 23rd of Septem- ber, while he was cruising in the latitude of Flamborough Head, where he hoped to be rejoined by the Alliance and Le Cerf, ‘and also to fall in with the Baltic fleet, this convoy accordingly appeared, at a time when he had been abandoned by several of his transports ; had lost two boats with their crews, who had run away on the coast of Ireland; and when a third, with eighteen men on board, was in chase of a merchantman to windward, leaving with him only a scanty crew and a single lieu- tenant, with snme inferior officers on board. It was about two o’clock in the afternoon that the Baltic fleet appeared in view. He then happened to have the wind of it, and was about. two leagues distant from the coast of England. He learnt from his prisoners that the convoy was escorted by the Serapis, a new vessel, then carrying 44 guns, the lower battery carrying 18-pounders; and the Countess of Scarborough, a new zo- gun ship. On the Friday six sail were dis- covered about two leagues from shore, in a most shattered condition. They were no sooner descried than the armed vessels stood out to sea, while the trade took refuge under the cannon of Scarborough castle. As there was but little wind, he: could not come up with them before night. 384 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP The moon did not rise till eight, and at the close of the day, the Serapis and. Countess of Scarborough tacked and stood in for the fortress. Paul was lucky enough to discover this manceuvre by means of his night-glass, and immediately altered his course six points, with a view of cutting off the British armed vessels; which was no sooner perceived by the Pallas, than it was supposed his crew had mutinied, which induced her captain to haul his wind, and stand out to sea, while the AZiance lay-to to windward at a considerable distance; and, thus deserted, he was obliged to run all risks, and enter into action with the Richard only, to prevent their escape. He accordingly began the engagement at seven o'clock at night, within pistol-shot of the Serapis, and sustained the brunt of it for nearly a whole hour at that distance, ex- posed not only to her fire, but also to that of the Countess of Scarborough. In this unfortunate extremity, the Rickard being in imminent danger of going to the bottom, and her guns being no longer in a condition to return the fire of the British ships, he had recourse to a dangerous expedient to grapple with the Serapis. This manceuvre succeeded admirably; he fastened her with his own hands to the Richard, and the captain of the Countess of Scarborough from that moment ceased to fire on him. That vessel being to wind- ward at the time Paul had grappled, in- stantly dropped her anchor, hoping by this to disengage herself from him ; but this did not answer his expectations. The British ships still possessed the advantage of the two batteries, besides the guns on their forecastle and quarter-deck, while Paul's cannon were either burst or abandoned, except four pieces on the forecastle, which were also relinquished during some minutes. At that period, having no greater object to occupy his attention, Paul himself took his post ; a few sailors came to his assistance, and served the two guns next to the British with surprising courage and address. A short time after this he received sufficient help to be able to remove one of the fore- castle guns from the opposite side, so that they could only bring three to bear upon the British during the remainder of the action. It happened at this period that the mainmast of the Serapis, which was painted yellow, appeared extremely distinct, so as to for man excellent mark. On this, he pointed one of his guns at it, taking care to ram home the shot. In the mean- time the two other pieces were admirably served against the Serapss, and swept its forecastle by way of an oblique fire. The tops also seconded them bravely by means of musketry and swivels, and threw a mul- titude of grenades so as greatly to annoy the English. By these means they were driven from their quarters, notwithstanding their superiority in point of men and artil- lery. The captain of the .Serapss resolved to strike, but an unlucky accident which occurred on board the Rickard prevented this. A bullet having destroyed one of the pumps, the carpenter was in a panic, and told the gunner and another petty officer that the Rickard was sinking. Some one observed at the same time that both the commodore and the lieutenant were killed, in consequence of which the gunner, con- sidering himself as commanding officer, ran instantly to the quarter-deck, in order to haul down the American colours ; but he soon found his mistake on seeing Paul commanding at the guns. The captain of the Serapis, on hearing the gunner of the Rickard express his wishes to surrender, instantly addressed himself to Jones, and exclaimed, “Do you ask for quarter? do you ask for quarter?” Paul was so occupied at this period, that he remained totally ignorant of what oc- curred upon deck. He repeated, however, | “I do not dream of surrendering, but am determined to make you strike” On turning round, Paul perceived Lieutenant- Grubb in the act of striking the colours, and, seizing a pistol, instantly shot him dead! This is a fact well known, although Paul has passed it over in silence in his THE S$ SERAPIS” AND THE ~ « RICHARD.” 385 writings. It has been observed that when Paul commenced the action, the Pallas was at a great distance to windward, while the Alliance lay-to in the same position. When the captain of the former perceived that the engagement took place, he spoke to his consort, but lost a great deal of time, and it was not until now that they came within gun-shot of the Countess of Scar- borough, when a kind of running fight took place between the latter and the Pallas. The Alliance followed them, and, on passing the commodore, fired a broadside, which did more harm to them than to the com- modore. The battle continued with un- common ardour between the Rickard and the Serapis, whose rigging burned, and her mainmast was cut away ; while the heavier metal of the English drove in one of the sides of the Riciard, and met with very little resistance. In short, their helm was rendered useless ; and the poop was only supported by an old and shattered piece of timber, which alone prevented it from giving way. After a short engagement, the Countess of Scarborough surrendered to the Pallas. It was then that the captain of the latter asked the commander of the Alliance, * Whether he would take charge of the prize, or sail and give succour to the commodore?” On this, the Alliance began to: stand backwards and forwards under her topsails, and having got to the windward, she came down and discharged a second broadside against the forepart of the Serapis and the stern of the Rickard. On this the commodore begged for God's sake that they would cease firing, and send a few men on board of them ; but he dis- obeyed, and fired. another broadside as he passed along; after which he kept at a respectful distance, and took great care not to expose himself during the remainder of the action, without receiving a single shot, or having a man wounded during the whole of the engagement. The idea that the Richard was sinking had taken such possession of the gunner and the carpenter’s mind, that they absolutely opened the scuttles, and made all the prisoners, to the number of a hundred, sally forth, in opposition to the commander’s reiterated orders. This event might have proved fatal, had he not taken advantage of their affright to station them at the pumps, where they displayed surprising zeal, appearing actually to forget their captivity, for there was nothing to prevent them going on board the Serapis; or it was in their power to put an end to the engagement in an instant, by either killing Jones, or throwing him into the sea. As the Rikard’s three quarter-deck guns continued to play on the Serapis, they raked her stern, and damaged her mast in such a manner, that it was only supported from falling by the yards of their own ship, while ‘the tops poured in a continual discharge. The force of the Eng- lish began to deaden in such a manner as to bereave them of all hope of ultimate success. A circumstance, however, oc- curred, that contributed not a little to the victory of the Richard : this was the extra- ordinary intrepidity and presence of mind of a Scotch sailor posted on the main-top. This brave fellow of his own accord seized a lighted match and a basket of hand- grenades, with which he advanced along the main-yard, until he had arrived exactly above the Serapis’s deck. As the flames of their parapets and shrouds, added to the light of the moon, enabled him to distin- guish objects, the moment he saw two or three persons assembled together, he in- stantly discharged a hand-grenade among them. At length the captain of the Serapis came upon the quarter-deck, lowered his flag, and asked for quarter at the very moment his mainmast had fallen into the sea. He then came on board with his officers, and presented the commodore his sword. While this was transacting, eight or ten men belonging to the Richard seized upon the Serapis’s shallop, which had been at anchor during the engagement, and made off. It was eleven o’clock when the battle ended, having lasted more than four hours. During the last three hours of the engage- 386 « THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. ment both the vessels were on fire. By throwing water on the flames, it was some- times supposed that they were quenched, but they always broke forth anew ; and at the close of the action were not wholly ex- tinguished. Next morning the weather was hazy, and not a single sail to be seen. They examined the Richard, to see if it were possible to carry her into any port; but this proving wholly impracticable, all the boats were employed in carrying the wounded on board the other vessels. This occupied much of their time, and on the succeeding day the vessel sank. On this occasion the ‘commodore could only save the signal flags ; and he lost all his property, amount- ing to upwards of 25,000 livres. The com- modore now assumed the command of the Serapis, in which he erected jury-masts; but the sea was so tempestuous, that it was ten days before they reached the Texel. No sooner was his arrival known than forty-two vessels, forming different squad- rons of frigates, were fitted out from the various ports of Great Britain against him, and two of these were stationed during three months at the mouths of the Texel and the Fly. At length, the wind be- coming favourable, on the 27th of February, 1772, the Alliance, to which ship Paul had shifted his flag, set sail, after having lost all his anchors, only one excepted. He, however, had the good fortune to escape, although he passed the Straits of Dover within sight of the English squadron in the Downs. After getting clear of the Chan- nel, he soon reached the latitude of Cape Finisterre, and entered the port of Corunna. On his return to France he found that the French commissary had made a private sale of his prize to the king without con- sulting him. On this he repaired to Ver- sailles, along with Dr. Franklin, but was received with great coolness by the Minister of the Marine, on which account he de- clined asking him to present him to his Majesty. This honour was, however, con- ferred on him next day by the Prince de Beauveau, Captain of the Guards. The public received him at the opera, and all public places where he appeared, with the most lively enthusiasm. This, added to the favourable reception he received from his Majesty, afforded him singular satis- faction ; and the Minister of the Marine from that moment paid him the most marked attention. The Minister of the Marine, a short time after this, sent him the Ariel, a king's ship, carrying twenty guns, with which he sailed for America. The wind was at first favourable; but he was soon after in danger of foundering on the Penmarks, and escaped only by cutting away his main and mizen-masts. As soon as the storm abated, he erected jury-masts, and returned to refit; and in about two months he sailed for Philadelphia. During the voyage he fell in with a 2o-gun ship, called the Z#umph, and partly by hard fighting, forced her to strike her flag; but while they were about to take possession of her, the captain, taking advantage of her superior sailing, made off, and escaped. On his arrival in America, the Congress, on the representaticn of the Chevalier de la Louzerne, passed a law to endble him to accept the Military Order of France. The French minister, on this occasion, gave an entertainment, to which all the members of the Congress and the principal inhabitants of Philadelphia were invited ; after which he was invested, in their presence, with the decorations of the Order. The Congress now passed an act, dated April 14th, 1781, in which he was thanked in the most flat- tering manner “for the zeal, the prudence, and the intrepidity with which he had sus-, tained the honour of the American flag; for his bold and successful enterprises, with a view to redeem from captivity the citizens of America, who had fallen into the power of the English ; and for the eminent services by which he had added lustre to his own character and the arms of America.” A committee of Congress was of opinion “that he deserved a gold medal in remem- brance of his services.” On the 21st of DEATH OF PAUL JONES. 387 June, 1481, Paul was appointed, by an unanimous vote of Congress, to the com- mand of the America, a 24-gun ship, then building ; and, on, the birth of the Dauphin, Paul, at his own expense, celebrated that happy event by royal salutes during the day and a brilliant illumination in the evening, accompanied by fireworks. An unfortunate accident soon after this deprived him of the command of that fine vessel ; for the Magnifique, of 74 guns, belonging to the Marquis de Vandreuil’s fleet, happened to be lost at Boston. The Congress seized on this occasion to testify its gratitude to his most Christian Majesty by presenting him with the America to replace her. In the meantime it was resolved to place a French frigate, /’Indienne, with two or three armed vessels, under Paul’s command, in order to seize on Bermudas ; but, as this was never put into execution, he applied to the Con- gress for leave to serve on board the fleet of the Count d’Estaing, then destined for an expedition against Jamaica. The Marquis de Vandreuil received him with great distinction on board his own ship, the Z7riumphant, where he occupied the same cabin as the Baron de Viomenil, who commanded the land forces. When they were in sight of Porto Rico, intelligence was received that Admirals Pigot and Hood were preparing to intercept them ; and Don Solano, with the Spanish fleet, did not meet them at Porto Solano, according to his promise. Many of the officers becoming disgusted with the enterprise, fell sick, and Paul himself was in a dangerous state ; but they were relieved from their disagreeable situation by intelligence from Europe that a general peacé had taken place. This cir- cumstance afforded him great pleasure, as he now learned that Great Britain, after a long and bloody contest, had recognised the sovereignty and independence of the United States of America. On this they repaired to St. Domingo, where he received every possible mark of esteem from M. de Bellecombe, the governor. After a short stay he embarked for Philadelphia, im- pressed with gratitude for the various marks of esteem he had received from all the French officers during the five months he had been on board his Majesty’s squadron. Paul then demanded permission to return to Europe on purpose to recover the prize- money due to himself, officers, and sailors, which was granted him by an act of Con- gress, dated at Prince Town, November 1st, 1783. He embarked at Philadelphia on board a packet-boat destined for Havre de Grace; but, being forced into Plymouth by contrary wind, she took post-horses for London, and then set out for Paris, where he was received with great cordiality by the minister. Having at length received from the court of France the amount of the prizes, he returned to America on board a French packet-boat. Some time after this Paul Jones returned to Europe, and offered his services to the Empress Catherine of Russia, by whom he was graciously received, and invested with a command in the Russian fleet, which was appointed to act against the Turks in the Black Sea. Here he obtained great honour for the skill and courage he displayed on a variety of trying occasions. Being invited to Petersburg, he was favourably received by the Empress, who preferred him to a command in the Baltic fleet ; but the British officers in the service of Russia, still con- sidering Paul as a private, refused to serve with him, and, proceeding to court in a body, gave up their commissions. Catherine, who knew the value of Jones, was much grieved at this circumstance. She was, however, obliged to submit to the demand of her British officers, and to discharge him from her service. He then returned to America, and purchased a small estate at Kentucky, where, after living in great splen- dour for some time, he died in the summer of 1801, aged fifty-two years and eight months. Thus ended the life of a man who stood true to the cause he had es- poused, and thereby rendered as important services to America as the most illustrious of her commanders. 338 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. JOHN SMEATON, LIGHTHOUSE ENGINEER. T:IFEBOATS, HARBOURS, & JuIGHTHOUSES. = E collect together at &x this part of our work some of the appli- ances by which hu- man life is preserved Or saved > ‘at sea. Most impressive of all is perhaps the lifeboat, which we note is being rapidly drawn to the desired place for setting out by strong horses, aided by a willing crew. Then we have an example of the famous harbours of refuge on the Norway coast, where vessels may lie by when the blast blows fiercely on those terrible headlands—those cruel rocks which gore the sides of vessels “like the horns of an angry bull.” Finally, we have a set of illustrations giving views of lighthouses and things fire IN A FieurHoUSE. connected therewith. Here is the pictur- esquely situated lighthouse on the Forallan Island. Then, again, we have people at work lighthouse-building in the Mediter- ranean. We see the diver toiling away below the water, whilst the men in the boat keep him well supplied with air. Poor fellow! Let us hope the pipes will not break or get out of order. If they do, we would not give much for his chance of life. Above, we give an authentic portrait of John Smeaton, the famous lighthouse en- gineer, who (to follow Dr. Lempriere) was born 1724, at Austhorpe, near Leeds. His father, an attorney, wished to bring him up to his own business, but the law had no charms for him. Following his genius, he, in 1750, commenced as mathematical in- strument maker, in Turnstile, Holborn, and gained so much applause by his machine to LIFEBOATS, HARBOURS, AND LIGHTHOUSES. 389 ee i iit l i i | | i | THE LIFEBOAT. _ measure a ship’s way at sea, and by his compass, that .in ‘1753 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1759 he received the gold medal for his paper on the experimental in- quiries concerning the power of wind and water to turn mills, etc. When theEddystonelighthouse was destroyed, In 1752, Smeaton was regarded as the fittest person to repair the damage ; and of this astonishing work, completed in 1759, he published a veryinterest- ing account in 1791, In a folio volume. In 1764. he was elected one of the receivers of the Der- wentwater Estate, which he highly improved. He was employed in the great canal of Scotland, in better supplying Greenwich and Dept- ford with water, in 1m- proving and repairing Ramsgate harbour, and in other public works. He also made improve- ments in the air-pump, ‘in mills, in the pyro- meter, the hydrometer, the steam engine, etc. He assisted in the con- struction of lighthouses in various places. On the 16th September, 1792, he was attacked by a paralytic stroke, at Austhorpe, of which he died 28th October fol- lowing. In order that our readers may have a 390 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. the account of a correspondent of a visit paid by him to Fidra, an island in the notion of the life of a lighthouse-keeper, and the duties that fall to his lot, we give 4 i \ A 5 \\ \ \ \ E ON THE NORWAY COAST. HARBOURS OF REFUG Frith of Forth. He tells us that the day | down by the ‘half-gale’ with vehemence of this excursion “has broken dull and | on the golfer’s head, have cleared the Links cloudy and several smart showers, blown | of North Berwick in double-quick time. LIFE IN A LIGHTHOUSE. 391 Early this forenoon, the gentlemen in red coats were flattening their noses against the windows of their club-house in anxious expectation of a general clearing-up and a return to the everlasting and dearly beloved golf. Fortune favoured them. The sun broke through the clouds, and, save for a high wind, the matches proceeded apace, and the yell of the golfer was heard (as usual) in the land. Out in the Frith the white horses are showing themselves this afternoon, and the billows are dashing on Craigleith, the rocky islet which faces us, a mile or so from the shore. Out at the Bass the waves will be kissing the basalt with resounding salutation, and the solan geese will have hard work, methinks, to ply their pinions against the wind. It is, however, but a capful of breeze, after all, and the day looks promising enough for an expedition to Fidra, the island with the lighthouse you can see lying up the Frith . some three or four miles yonder, in the blaze of the sun. Three islands dot the sea before us—Fidra, the Lamb, and Craig- leith. The firstnamed rock might well hail from the Skye quarter of Scotland, in so far as its name is concerned. Indeed, I fancy there actually does exist another Fidra somewhere among the rocky islets of the West; but our island here sits placidly enough on the bosom of the Frith, between Fife and Fast Lothian, far re- moved from crofters’ grievances, and serv- _ ing as a lighthouse station under the juris- diction of the Commissioners of Northern Lights. To-day the medical officer of the district is to pay a visit to Fidra, and we are to accompany him. Fidra is everywhere within sight of land. It is very near the shore at low water; but when the winds blow and the waves roll in the easterly gales of these parts, it might well be widely enough removed from contact with the mainland, as far as communication with the coast is concerned. Twice a month or s0, and on each alternate Sunday for church- going purposes, a fishing-boat leaves North Berwick for Fidra. waiting us at a rocky jetty in front of the East Links. Medicus has put up a plenti- ful supply of literature for the lighthouse folks. The ZZustrated London News, the Graphic, and Zruth, and quite a bundle of newspapers, are to afford food for reflection and amusement to the keepers of the rocky Pharos for days to come. Our boat is the fishing craft, broad of beam and fitted with the brown lug-sail, you see everywhere on this coast. Somewhere or other I have seen a recommendation to folks who, though fond of yachting, were unprovided with the long purse which that sport demands. It was to the effect that those who cared for the sea in a sailor’s sense might do worse things than invest in a half-decked craft of the build of that waiting for us at the rocks. With a lug-sailed boat you can go nearer the wind than with any other craft; and if one can put up with hardy fare and scant accommodation, there are many bigger ships with infinitely less power of giving true nautical pastime than the boats you see used by the East Coast fishermen from Ber- wick to Cromarty. Our skipper is a canny fellow, light-haired and blue-eyed, of the type one sees in every fishing village in these parts. At Newhaven, near Edin- burgh, famous for its fish dinners, and more famous still, perhaps, as the scene of Charles Reade’s ‘Christie Johnstone ’— by the way, it should have been ‘Kirsty,’ for Scotch folks never call a lassie ‘Christie’—one meets with the same Norse-like complexion in the men and women. Relics these, doubtless—¢ sur- vivals’ shall I call them ?—of old Viking blood which settled down all along the Scottish coast after some sea foray, and found the land pleasant wherein to sojourn. Our skipper to-day is like a true Norseman, and so indeed are his crew of two neigh- bours. Hardy, quiet men these, who go a-fishing in storm and calm, and in their lives on the boisterous sea realize emphati- cally the line in ‘Caller Herrin’ which tells us that the fish are really ‘lives o To-day the boat is | men’ ; 392 THE WONDERS OF THE DELP. The wind is against us for Fidra, and now that we are under weigh, we shall have to tack some half-dozen times or so ere we can stand safe and sound under the light- nouse lamp. It is an exhilarating sensation, this ploughing the waves in an open boat. Away above your head rises the great brown sail. You plunge and dance and careen over the waves, and the salt spray dashes every now and then in your face. The cool wind fans your cheeks, and the motion of the boat is swift and pleasant, as she lies over and cuts her way across to Craigleith. Then comes tacking. The big sail has to be hauled down, and the boom shifted to the other side of the mast, and then, with a ‘Yo, heave yo!’ up it goes again, and now we are scudding across, towards the shore. In ten minutes we tack again, and, by a series of zigzags, we arrive at Fidra, after a voyage of an hour and a half; whereas, with a fair wind, we might have done the distance in less than half an hour. We run into a natural harbour, which Father Ocean, assisted by Father Time, has cut out in the rocks. It is a square- shaped cove this, with the water so green and clear that you can see the rock-cod darting in and out of the crannies as if in a natural aquarium. The lighthouse men have been on the outlook for us; and in a few moments, after a climb up the iron ladder leading from the quay to the upper landing, we stand on this island home. A first look at Fidra carries you, in your mind’s eye, away to Portrush and the Giant’s Causeway. The basalt here, as there, is cut into pillar-like masses, which, shorn down by the sea or weathered by the air and wind, look like pillars which have been overthrown at their bases. A wild, austere place this Fidra must have looked before the lighthouse reared its head above the cliff. A steep ascent leads us to the light. up the hill, and the stores for the light- house landed from the supply-boats which the steamer Pharos periodically sends off | to the island, are drawn up this inclined A concrete tramway has been laid | ' doing its work as well and faithfully to-day | as when it was first set a-going in a light- plane by rope and windlass worked from above. Halfway up the ascent are the ruins of a building, which, Medicus tells us, represent all that remains of an old lazar- house, wherein the lepers of old once were bidden to live and die. They were always famous in Scotland for their treatment of lepers. Old burgh records I have seen detail with faithful accuracy the ‘merks’ which were paid for these establishments. The modern principle of isolating infectious diseases goes back a long way in medicine. Here on Fidra the old lepers doubtless pined away their existence, separated from kith and kin, on the lonely rock, and looked at the adjoining coast as at a Canaan, from the comforts of which they were for ever debarred. The view from the top of the concrete railway is really grand. Aberlady Bay and Point we can see, while North Berwick seems to have shrunk into the dimensions of a small hamlet, and the coast of Fife to-day appears to have faded almost from view. We are standing under the shadow of a solid brick house, at the eastern side of which the lighthouse rises. Here dwell the two lighthouse-keepers, the chief anc his assistant—the former, wife, and bairns all securely and comfortably lodged in a commodious domicile; the latter is un- married. The wife is motherly, quiet, happy, and contented in family and home. ‘Habit,’ she says, ‘is second nature. Light- house folks take ill to the shore after they have got used to the surroundings.” Soon we ascend the tower. There is not a grain of dust to be seen anywhere. It reminds you of a man-ofwar in all its spotless cleanliness. We pass the basement of the tower. An iron ladder and a trap-door bring us to the first flat. Here are kept spare glasses. Then another climb, and we reach the next flat. Here is the old clock, dating pretty far back in the century, but house. A dial in front of the clock shows the revolutions, which are bound to corre- LIFE IN A LIGHTHOUSE. 393 spond with the hours marked by the timepiece on the wall. Another flight upwards, and we are inside the lamp. Here you are in a veritable glass case. All round you is the sea. A narrow ledge on which you stand separates you from the lamp, and the wind whistles cold outside. There are six lamps, which burn paraffin oil. Eachlamp is set in a reflector — catoptrics is, I believe, the technical name of the reflectors—which gleams like silver. The lights show once in fifteen seconds as they rotate, and differ in this way from the Isle of May light beyond, which is a ‘flasher.’ Our guide tells us he has never had a broken pane of glass as yet at Fidra. In some lighthouses the storm-beaten birds are driven through the glass, but the only LIGHTHOUSE, FORALLAN ISLAND. accident here has been the smashing of a thermometer by a poor sparrow or some such wanderer thrown against the outside of the lamp. On the wall is a chart of the sunsets and sunrises for the year. The keeper takes this as his guide for the exact periods when he is to light and to extinguish his lamps. Everything here goes by routine as rigid and exact as are the movements of the clockwork below. Life of this kind may be monotonous, but it clearly possesses its own advantages. Four hours on and four hours off night by night, to be whistled out of bed for duty in the winter's chill, may not be a highly inviting prospect. But there is fresh air, a healthy existence, and a freedom from many a care and worry beset- ting dwellers on mainlands, which must be set off against seclusion from civilization and crowds. The Lighthouse Commis- Tm 394 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP sioners see also that the minds of their employés are duly provided for as well as their more material wants. There is a very nice library at Fidra, and among the bound volumes I saw in the keeper's parlour were those of Good Words, Scribner, Once a Weck, The Leisure Hour, and Chambers’ Journal, while Syargeon’s Sword and Trowel repre- sented the religious depart-ment of the lighthouse bookstore. There are fowls to be attended to outside, and fish to be caught, rabbits to be fed, and the garden plot to be tilled ; so that, all things considered, the spirit of contentment may not be so difficult of cultivation on such aplace as Fidra. Medicus summons us from the lamp; for time is precious, and patients may be wait- ing for him on shore. We stroll back to the jetty, ruminating, as busy men will, that next to a voyage across the Atlantic, life in a lighthouse is the beau-ideal of perfect rest. There neither postman nor telegraph messenger may trouble you much, and printers’ proofs could reach you only at CONSTRUCTING A LIGHTHOUSE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. easy and lucid intervals. A sanatorium or hydropathic on an island is not a bad idea for philanthropic effort. How many weary editors would fly to such a haven of rest, we may well imagine. Our skipper of the blue eyes is ready. The lighthouse folks wave us a kindly parting. The big brown sail is noisted, the boat scuds merrily before the wind, the outlines of Fidra become dull and dim as we speed homewards, and the rock resumes its old familiar aspect as we reach our haven,” tired, but well pleased with the trip, than which none more enjoy- able or more healthful could be found. Why do we range so far from one country to another, when scenery like this is to be found within the compass of our shores? Surely, better to see it first, at all events. THE PIRATE CREW. 395 Friar op: 5 Pirate CREW. SCENES IN THE frourT flouse— A jusT 4 7 =\ oh give here an ac- 2 _ count of a pirate > tried at Kingston, ZN Jamaica, in the early SH. years of the century. The narrator is “ Tom Cringle,” no doubt an old ac- quaintance of our readers. “The regular court-house of the city being under repair, the Admiralty Sessions were held in a large room occupied temporarily for the purpose. At one end, raised two steps above the level of the floor, was the bench, on which was seated the Judge of the Admiralty Court, supported by two post- captains in full uniform, who are ex-officio judges of this court in the colonies—one on each side. On the right the jury, composed of merchants of the place and respectable planters of the neighbourhood, were en- closed in a sort of box, with a common white pine railing separating it from the rest of the court. There was a long table in front of the bench, at which a lot of black- robed devil's limbs of lawyers were ranged ; but both amongst them and on the bench, the want of the cauliflower wigs was sorely felt by me, as well as by the seamen, who considered it little less than murder that men in crops—black, shock-pated fellows —should sit in judgment on their fellow- creatures, where life and death were in the scales. On the left hand of the bench the motley public—white, black, and of every inter- mediate shade—were grouped; as also in front of the dock, which was large. It might have been made with a view to the possibility of fifteen unfortunates or so being PENTENCE. arraigned at one time ; but now there were no fewer than forty-three jammed and pegged together into it—Ilike sheep in a Smithfield pen the evening before market- day. These were the forty thicves—the pirates. They were all, without exception, clean, well-shaven, and decently rigged in white trousers, linen or check shirts, and held their broad Panama sombreros in their hands. Most of them wore the red silk sash round the waist. They had generally large bushy whiskers, and not a few had earrings of massive gold (why call wearing earrings puppyism? Shakspeare wore earrings, or the Chandos portrait lies), and chains of the same metal round their necks, supporting, as I concluded, a crucifix, hid in the bosom of the shirt. A Spaniard can’t murder a man comfortably if he has not his crucifix about him. They were, collectively, the most daring, intrepid, Salvator Rosa-looking men I had ever seen. Most of them were above the middle size, and the spread of their shoul- ders, the grace with which their arms were hung, and finely-developed muscles of the chest and neck (the latter exposed com- pletely by the folding back of their shirt- collars, cut large and square, after the Spanish fashion), beat the finest boat’s crew we could muster all to nothing. Some of them were of mixed blood ; that is, the cross between the European Spaniard and the aboriginal Indian of Cuba—a race long since sacrificed on the altar of Mammon, the white man’s god. Their hair, generally speaking, was long, and curled over the forehead black and glossy, or hung down to their shoulders in 396 THE WONDERS OF THE DELL ringlets that a dandy of the second Charles’s time would have given his little finger for. The forehead in most was high and broad, and of a clear olive, the nose straight, springing boldly from the brow, the cheeks oval, and the mouth—every Spaniard has a beautiful mouth, until he spoils it with the beastly cigar, as far as his well-formed, firm lips can be spoiled ; but his teeth he gene- rally does destroy early in life. Take the whole, however, and deduct for the teeth, I had never seen so handsome a set of men ; and I am sure no woman, had she been there, would have gainsaid me. They stood up and looked forth upon their judges and the jury like brave men, desperadoes though they were. They were, without exception, calm and collected, as if aware that they had small chance of escape, but still deter- mined not to give that chance away. One young man especially attracted my attention, from the bold, cool self-possession of his bearing. He was in the very front of the dock, and dressed in no way different from the rest, so far as his under-garments were concerned, unless it were that they were of a finer quality. He wore a short green velvet jacket, profusely studded with knobs and chains, like small chain-shot, of solid gold, similar to the shifting button lately introduced by our dandies in their waist- coats. It was not put on, but hung on one shoulder, being fastened across his breast by the two empty sleeves tied together in a knot. He also wore the red silk sash, through which a broad gold cord ran twin- ing like the strand of a rope. He had no earrings, but his hair was the most beautiful I had ever seen in a male—long and black —jet-black and glossy. It was turned up and fastened in a club on the crown of his head with a large pin (I should rather say skewer) of silver ; but the outlandishness of the fashion was not offensive, when I came to take into the account the beauty of: the plaiting, and of the long raven lovelocks that hung down behind each of his small transparent ears, and the short Hyperion- like curls that clustered thick and richly on his high, pale, broad forehead. His eyes were large, black, and swimming—like a woman’s ; his nose straight and thin; and such a mouth, such an under-lip, full and melting ; and teeth regular and white, and utterly free from the pollution of tobacco ; and a beautifully-moulded small chin, round- ing oft and merging in his round, massive, muscular neck. I had never seen so fine a face, such per- fection of features, and such a clear, dark, smooth skin. It was a finer face than Lord Byron’s, whom I had seen more than once, and wanted that hellish curl of the lip; and, as to figure, he could, to look at him, at any time have eaten up his lordship stoop and roop to his breakfast. It was the countenance, in a word, of a most beautiful youth, melancholy, indeed, and anxious—evidently anxious; for the large pearls that coursed each other down his forehead and cheek, and the slight quivering of the under-lip every now and then, evinced the powerful struggle that was going on within. His figure was, if possible, superior to his face. It was not quite filled up, set, as we call it, but the arch of his chest was magnificent, his shoulders square, arms well put on; but his neck—* Have you seen the Apollo, neighbour ?’—*¢No, but the cast of it at Somerset-House.— ‘Well, that will do—so you know the sort of neck he had.’ His waist was fine, hips beautifully moulded ; and although his under limbs were shrouded in his wide trousers, they were evidently of a piece with what was seen and developed; and this was vouched for by the turn of his ankle and well-shaped foot, on which he wore a small Spanish grass slipper, fitted with great nicety. He was at least six feet two in height, and such as I have described him. There he stood, with his hands grasping the rail before him, and looking intently at a wig- less lawyer who was opening the accusation, while he had one ear turned a little towards the sworn interpreter of the court, whose province it was, at every pause, to explain to the prisoners what the learned gentleman CAPE OMMAN, NORTHERN SIBERIA. A STRANGE APPLICATION. 397 was stating. From time to time he said a word or two to a square-built, dark, ferocious- looking man, standing next him, apparently about forty years of age, who, as well as his fellow-prisoners, appeared to pay him great respect ; and I could notice the expression of their countenances change as his rose or fell. The indictment had been read before I came in, and, as already mentioned, the lawyer was proceeding with his accusatory speech, and as it appeared to me, the young Spaniard had some difficulty in understand- ing the interpreter’s explanation. When he saw me, he exclaimed in Spanish, ‘I beg pardon, Mr. Cringle,’—with the ease and grace of a nobleman—‘but I believe the interpreter to be incapable, and I am certain that what I say is not fittingly explained to the judges; neither do I believe he can NEAR KINGSTON, JAMAICA. give me a sound notion of what the advo- cate is alleging against us. May I entreat you to solicit the bench for permission to take his place? I know you will expect no apology for the trouble from a man in my situation. This unexpected address in open court took me fairly aback, and I stopped short while in the act of passing the open space in the front of the dock, which was kept clear by six marines in white jackets, whose muskets, fixed bayonets, and uniform caps, seemed out of place to my mind in a criminal court. The lawyer suddenly sus- pended his harangue, while the judges fixed their eyes on me, and so did the audience, confound them! To be the focus of so many eyes was trying to my modesty ; for, although I had mixed a little in the world, and was not altogether unacquainted with cc 398 ZHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. bettermost society, still, below any little manner that I had acquired, there was, and always will be, an under stratum of bashful- ness, or sheepishness, of mauvaise honte, call it which you will ; and the torture, the breaking on the wheel, with which a man of that temperament perceives the eyes of a whole court-house, for instance, attracted to him, none but a bashful man can under- stand. At length I summoned courage to speak. ¢ May it please your honours, this poor fellow, on his own behalf, and on the part of his fellow-prisoners, complains of the incapacity of the sworn interpreter, and requests that I may be made the channel of communication in his stead.’ This was a tremendous effort, and once more the whole blood of my body rushed to my cheeks and forehead, and I ‘sweat extremely.” The judges, he of the black robe and those of the epaulet, communed together. ¢ Have you any objection to be sworn, Mr. Cringle?’ ‘None in the least, provided the court considers me competent, and the accused are willing to trust me.’ ‘Si, si!’ exclaimed the young Spaniard, as if comprehending what was going on— ‘Somos contentos—todos, todos!’ and he looked round, like a prince, on his fellow- culprits. A low murmuring, ‘Si, si—con- tento, contento !’ passed amongst the group. ‘The accused, please your honours, are willing to trust to my correctness.’ ¢ Pray, Mr. Cringle, don’t make yourself the advocate of these men, mind that,” said the lawyer sans wig. : ‘I don’t intend it, sir,” I said, slightly stung ; ¢ but if yox had suffered what I have done at their hands, peradventure such a caution to yox would have been unnecessary.’ The sarcasm told, I was glad to see; but remembering where I was, I hauled out of action with the man of words, simply giving the last shot,—‘I am sure no English gentleman would willingly throw any diffi- | made aware of what is given in evidence against them, bad as they may be. He was about rejoining, for a lawyer would as soon let you have the last word as a sweep or a baker the wall, when the officer of court approached and swore me in, and the trial proceeded. The whole party were proved by fifty witnesses to have been taken in arms on board of the schooners in the cove; and farther, it was proved that no commission or authority to cruise whatsoever was found on board any of them, a strong proof that they were pirates. ‘Que dice, que dice?’ inquired the young Spaniard already mentioned. I said that the court seemed to infer, and were pressing it on the jury, that the ab- sence of any commission or letter of marque from a superior officer, or from any of the Spanish authorities, was strong evidence that they were marauders—in fact, pirates. ¢ Ah!’ he exclaimed ; ‘gracias, gracias !’ Then, with an agitated hand, he drew forth from his bosom a parchment, folded like the manifest of a merchant ship, and at the .same moment the gruff, fierce-looking elderly man did the same, with another similar instrument from his own breast. ‘Here, here are the commissions—here are authorities from the Captain-General of Cuba. Read them.’ I looked over them ; they were regular to all appearance—at least, as there were no autographs in court of the Spanish Viceroy, or any of his officers, whose sig- natures, either real or forged, were affixed to the instruments, with which to compare them, there was a great chance, I conjec- tured, so far as I saw, that they would be acquitted. And in this case ze, his Majesty’s officers, would have been converted into the transgressing party ; for if it were estab- lished that the vessels taken were bona fide Guarda Costas, we should be placed in an awkward predicament, in having captured them by force of arms, not to take into account the having violated the sanctity of culty in the way of the poor fellows being | a friendly port. JOB RUMBLETITHUMP. 399 But I could see that this unexpected pro- duction of regular papers by their officers had surprised the pirates themselves, as much as it had done me. Whether it was a heinous offence of mine or not to conceal this impression from the court (there is some dispute about the matter to this hour between me and my conscience), I cannot tell ; but I was determined to stick scrupu- lously to the temporary duties of my office, without stating what I suspected, or even translating some sudden expressions over- heard by me, that would have shaken the credibility of the documents. ¢ Commissiones, commissiones !’ for in- stance, was murmured by a weather-beaten Spaniard, with a fine bald head, from which two small tufts of grey hair stood out above his ears, and with a superb Moorish face. The court was apparently nonplussed— not so the wigless man of law. His pea- green visage assumed a more ghastly hue, and the expression of his eyes became ab- solutely blasting. He looked altogether like a cat sure of her mouse, but willing to let it play in fancied joy of escaping as he said softly to the Jew crier, who was perched on a high chair above the heads of the people, like an ugly corde in its dirty nest, —¢ Crier, call Job Rumbletithump, mate of the Porpoise. ¢ Job Rumbletithump, come into court!’ * Here, quoth Job, asin stout, bluff honest-looking sailor rolled into the wit- ness-box. ‘Now, clerk of the crown, please to swear in the mate of the Forpoise’ It was done. ‘Now, my man, you were taken going through the Caicos Passage in the Porpoise by pirates in August last—were you not?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘Turn your face to the jury, and speak up, sir. Do you see any of the /Zonest men who made free with you in that dock, sir? Look at them, sir.’ The mate walked up to the dock, stopped, and fixed his eyes intently on the young Spaniard. I stared breathlessly at him also. He grows pale as death—his lip quivers— the large drops of sweat once more burst from his brow. I grew sick, sick. ‘Yes, your honour,” said the mate. ¢Yes—ah !’ said the devil's limb, chuck- ling—*‘ we are getting on the trail at last. Can you swear to more than one?’ ‘Yes, your honour.’ ‘Yes!’ again responded the sans wig. ‘How many ?’ The man counted them off. ‘Fifteen, sir. That young fellow there is the man who cut Captain Spurtel’s throat.’ ¢God forgive me, is it possible?’ gasped Thomas Cringle. ¢ There’s a monster in human form for you, gentlemen !’ continued devil's limb. ‘Go on, Mr. Rumbletithump.’ ¢ That other man next him hung me up by the heels, and seared me all over.’ ‘Silence !’ quoth the crier, at this instant drowning the mate’s voice, so that I could not catch the words he used. ¢ And there you have it, sir. jail if you like, sir. The murmur was bursting out into a guffaw, when the judge interfered. But there was no longer any attempt at ill-timed jesting on the part of the bar, which was but bad taste at the best on so solemn an occasion. Job continued, ‘I was burnt into the very muscle until I told where the gold was stowed away.’ ¢Aha!’ screamed the lawyer, forgetting his recent discomfiture in the gladness of his success. ‘And all the rest were abet- ting, eh?” ¢ The rest of the fifteen were, sir.’ But the prosecutor, a glutton in his way, had thought he had bagged the whole forty- three. And so he ultimately did before the evening closed in, as most of the others were identified by other witnesses; and when they could not actually be sworn to, Put me in | the piracies were brought home to them by circumstantial evidence ; such, for instance, as having been captured on board of the craft we had taken, which again were identi- fied as the very vessels which had plundered 400 THE WONDERS OF THE DEZP the merchantmen and murdered several of their crews ; so that by six o'clock the jury had returned a verdict of Guilty—and I believe there never was a juster—against the whole of them. The finding and sen- tence of death following thereupon seemed not to create any strong effect upon the prisoners. ‘They had all seen how the trial was going ; and, long before this, the bitter- ness of death seemed to be passed. I could hear one of our boat’s crew, who was standing behind me, say to his neigh- bour, ‘Why, Jem, surely he is in joke! Why, he don’t mean to condemn them to be hanged seriously, without his wig, eh?’ Immediately, after the judgment was pro- nounced, which, both as to import and literally, I had translated to them, Captain Transom, who was sitting on the bench beside his brother officers, nodded to me : ‘I say, Mr. Cringle, tell the coxswain to call Pearl, if you please.’ I passed the word to one of the ZFire- brand's marines, who was on duty, who again repeated the order to a seaman who was standing at the door. ‘I say, Moses, call the clergyman.’ Now, this Pearl was no other than the seaman who pulled the stroke-oar in the gig; avery handsome negro, and the man who afterwards forked Whiffle out of the water—tall, powerful, and muscular, and altogether one of the best men in the ship. The rest of the boat’s crew, from his com- plexion, had fastened the sobriquet of the clergyman on him. ¢ Call the clergyman.’ The superseded interpreter, who was standing near, seeing I took no notice, immediately #raduced this literally to the unhappy men. A murmur rose amongst them. They had thought that the clergyman having been sent for, the sentence was im- mediately to be executed, but I undeceived them ; and in ten minutes after they were condemned they were marched off under a strong escort of foot to the jail. I must make a long story short. Two days afterwards I was ordered with the launch to Kingston, early in the morning, to receive twenty-five of the pirates who had been ordered for execution that morning at Gallows Point. It was little past four in the morning when we arrived at the Wherry wharf, where they were already clustered, with their hands pinioned behind their backs, silent and sad, but all of them calm, and evincing no unmanly fear of death. I don’t know if other people have noticed it, but this was one of several instances where I have seen foreigners—Frenchmen, Italians, and Spaniards, for instance—meet death, inevitable death, with greater firmness than British soldiers or sailors. Let me explain. In the field, or grappling in mor- tal combat on the blood-slippery quarter- deck of an enemy’s vessel, a British soldier or sailor is the bravest of the brave. No soldier or sailor of any other country, saving and excepting those damned Yankees, can stand against them ; they would be utterly overpowered ; their hearts would fail them; - they would either be cut down, thrust through, or they would turn and flee. Yet those same men who have turned and fled will meet death,—but it must be, as I said, inevitable, unavoidable deats,—not only more firmly than their conquerors would do in their circumstances, but with an intrepidity —obh, do not call it indifference !—altogether astonishing. Be it their religion, or their physical conformation, or what it may, all I have to do with is the fact, which I record as undeniable. Out of five-and-twenty in- dividuals, in the present instance, not a sigh was heard, nor a moan, nor a querulous word. They stepped lightly into the boats, and seated themselves in silence. When told by the seamen to make room, or to shift so as not to be in the way of the oars, they did so with alacrity, and almost with an air of civility, although they knew that within half an hour their earthly career must close for ever. The young Spaniard who had stood for- ward so conspicuously on the trial was in END OF THE PIRATES 401 my boat. In stepping in, he accidentally trod on my foot in passing forward; he turned and apologised with much natural politeness—* he hoped he had not hurt me ?’ I answered kindly, I presume—who could have done so harshly? This emboldened him apparently, for he stopped, and asked leave to sit by me. I consented, while an incomprehensible feeling crept over me ; and when once I had time to recollect myself, I shrunk from him as a blood- stained brute, with whom, even in his ex- tremity, 1 was unfitting for me to hold any intercourse. When he noticed my repug- nance to remain near him, he addressed me hastily, as if afraid that I would destroy the opportunity he seemed to desire. “God did not always leave me the slave of my passions,” he said, in a low, deep, most musical voice. ‘The day has been when I would have shrunk as you do—but time presses. You have a mother?’ said he. 1 assented. ‘And an only sister?’ As it happened, he was right here too. ¢ And—and—" here he hesitated, and his voice shook and trembled with the most intense and heart-crushing emotion—*¢y una mas cara que ambos ?’—DMary, you can tell whether in this he did not also speak truth. I acknowledged there was another being more dear to me than either. ‘Then,’ said he, ‘take this chain from my neck, and the crucifix, and a small miniature from my bosom ; but not yet—not till I leave the boat. You will find an address affixed to the string of the latter. Your course of service may lead you to St. Jago—if not, a inaudible ; his hot, scalding tears dropped fast on my hand, and the ravisher, the murderer, the pirate, wept as an innocent and helpless infant. ‘You will deliver it. Promise a dying man—promise a great sinner.” But it was momentary ; he quelled the passion with a fierce and savage energy as he said sternly, ‘ Promise, promise!’ I did so, and I fulfilled it. Va The day broke. I took the jewels and miniature from his neck as he led the way with the firm step of a hero in ascending the long gibbet. The halters were adjusted, when he stepped towards the side I was on, as far as the rope would let him. ‘Dexa me verla—dexa me verla, una vez mas!’ I held up the miniature. He looked—he glared intensely at it. ¢ Adios, Maria, seas feliz miquerida—feliz—feliz—Maria—adios —adios—Maria—Mar 2 The rope severed thy name from his lips, sweet girl ; but not until it also severed his soul from his body, and sent him to his tremendous account—young in years, but old in wickedness—to answer at that tri- bunal where we must all appear to the God who made him, and whose gifts he had so fearfully abused, for thy broken heart and early death, amongst the other scarlet atrocities of his short but ill-spent life. The signal had been given, the lumbering flap of the long drop was heard, and five- and-twenty human beings were wavering in the sea-breeze in the agonies of death! The other eighteen suffered on the same spot the week following ; and for long after this fearful and bloody example struck terror into the Cuba fishermen.” brother officer may——' His voice became \ in Wh ) Q 0 0 RD Ac g NH 3 ~ 402 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. THE BURNING SHIP. EE were both born in the same village, and drew our nour- ishment from the same source in in- fancy. Yes, we have lain encircledineach other’s arms in the same cradle, and fond affection grew with our growth. But ah! how different were our conditions in life !—she the offspring of one who could boast of rank and wealth, whilst I was brought forth in comparative obscurity and poverty. Agnes was the daughter of a baronet, to whom my father was head-gardener; her mother resigned her existence in giving birth to her child, and the first tears of the infant were shed upon the cold, inanimate bosom of that being to whom she was indebted for her life. My maternal parent, having been con- fined about the same time, was selected as a wet-nurse on account of her excellent health and gentleness of disposition, and the little Agnes was removed to our cottage, which was surrounded by a shrubbery tastefully laid out, and situated in the most delightful and romantic part of the ground. Sir Edward Melville was generous and even condescending to his inferiors as long as they preserved an unqualified respect for his dignified rank ; but if any one aimed at superior station, or failed in due reverence to himself, he became vindictive and revenge- ful. His principles were of so aristocratic a nature, that he considered it an ordina- tion of Divine authority for riches and titles to rule, and for humble obscurity to be con- tent with tacit submission. A STRANGE Tare OF THE SEA. “Soon after the decease of his lady, he was appointed envoy to a foreign court, and a maiden aunt officiated as mistress at the castle during his absence; but the pride and malice of her heart rendered her hated and feared by all around her, and it was only at the cottage of her nurse in which Agnes always found an affectionate bosom a depository for her griefs, and where the soothings of tenderness were ever ready to calm the perturbation of her mind. It is impossible to define the feelings of childhood, for as we grow more advanced in years, the softer sympathies become deadened by intercourse with the world and witnessing the scenes of misery which everywhere present themselves. Solomon hath said, ‘Childhood and youth are vanity ;” yet what would I not give to possess the same innocence of heart, the same purity of thought which I enjoyed in my early years. In our amusements Agnes and myself were inseparable ; and when removed from the haughty control of her aunt, we indulged in those little endearments which innocence inspires. Although my father’s condition in life was humble, he nevertheless possessed a cultivated taste, and was well acquainted with the works of the best writers of the day, —his leisure hours being occupied in read- ing (for through the kindness of the stewart he had free access to Sir Edward’s library, and could obtain the loan of any book he wanted), and imparting instruction to myself. At the age of six I could read tolerably well and understand what I read; but no book delighted me so much as the affect- ing tale of Paul and Virginia, which was my favourite volume; and often has the AN EARLY LOVE. 403 sweet Agnes mingled her tears with mine while perusing its pages. Agnes had an elder brother, but he seldom associated with us, for his aunt had centred all her regards in him, and instilled into his mind every notion of high birth and exalted parentage. Yet he was not happy; for when he did deign to share our childhoods sports, I can well re- member the bursts of passion which agitated him if I did not immediately comply with his wishes and submit to his caprice. But the last two years before Sir Edward’s return, he had been under the management of a tutor, whose kindness I shall never for- get. This worthy and excellent man was also a constant visitor at the cottage whenever his duties would permit, and to his instruc- tions am I indebted for whatever portion of knowledge I possess. When I had attained my eighth year, in- telligence arrived of Sir Edward’s return to England, and his intention of visiting the castle ; yet much as I desired to see the father of Agnes, still I can remember a dejection came upon my spirits, young as 1 was, and I seemed to dread it as something which foreboded evil. At length he came, and received me with great kindness as the foster-brother of Agnes ; but never shall I forget his terrible lcok when, with the playful familiarity of childhood, the dear girl put her little white arms round my neck. It was the first time I had ever witnessed such a display of rage, and it left an impression on my mind which time can never efface. I was removed from the castle, and nothing but the per- suasions of a nobleman who accompanied him would have prevented the dismissal of my father from his situation. In a few days afterwards the baronet with his sister and children went to the metropolis, and four years elapsed be- fore we met again; but though nothing is sooner erased from the memory of a child than past events, yet the remembrance of the companion who shared our infantine amusements seldom quits us through life ; and so I found it with Agnes. : Since we had parted, I devoted myself assiduously to learning, and had made great proficiency in writing and drawing, to the latter of which accomplishments I was particularly attached. Nor was I deficient in athletic exercises, for nothing gave me greater delight than skimming through the liquid element, climbing the lofty moun- tain, or breaking through the thick mazes of the forest. The scenery in Paul and Virginia raised a desire in my mind to imi- tate the former, and often have I ascended the highest tree, sitting for hours on its top- most branches, and gazing towards the road where I had last seen the equipage of Sir Edward disappear. We were now in our twelfth year. The baronet was gone abroad, taking his son with him, and Agnes with her aunt, who had married a gouty old colonel, took up their abode at the castle. The colonel was an “Honourable,” but the very reverse of his lady or her brother ; he was destitute of their pride, and I was frequently permitted to pass whole days at the castle in reading to and amusing him. In these pursuits Agnes was generally at my side when the absence of her aunt allowed it, and I numbered some of those hours as the happiest of my life. Her instructress was a mild and amiable woman, of Christian meekness and piety; she had drunk deep from the cup of sorrow, and there was a pensive melancholy imprinted on her countenance which powerfully interested the best feelings of the heart. Thus passed two happy years, during which I felt my soul more strongly linked with everything that concerned the gentle Agnes. Iwas as yet unacquainted with the cause of these feelings, and the first time that the truth opened to my heart was on my fifteenth birthday. My father, whom I had occasionally assisted in his labours, gave a little féte in remembrance of it. It was 404 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. the height of summer, and the most respect- able youths and lasses in the village were assembled to a dance in the park. The colonel was wheeled to the spot in his garden_ chair, and, her aunt being absent on a visit, Agnes graced the festival. It was a happy and a lovely group beneath the widespreading branches of the trees, and when the dance commenced, Agnes became my partner. Oh, then I felt how precious she was to my happiness, as her light, airy form was pressed in my arms! but when I contrasted the coarseness of my apparel with the delicate texture of her dress, a pang of deep humiliation stung me to the quick. At this moment a young man in a travelling dress advanced towards us ; it was Sir Edward’s son. His face was flushed with anger. He seized the arm of his sister with a wild impetuosity that caused her to cry out, and I immediately interfered; he raised his riding-whip and struck me—yes, struck me to the earth. I sprang upon my feet, but was instantly held fast and forced to the cottage, whilst Agnes was hurried away to the castle. Ah! then I felt what it was to love, and despair took possession of my mind ; all other considera- tions seemed swallowed up, and I deter- mined to fly from the place. Parents, kindred, all but Agnes, were forgotten, and ere the dawn broke upon the cottage or the castle, I was far on my way from home. In the early part of the morning I was accosted by a gentlemanly man, who offered me a seat in a post-chaise. This I gladly accepted, and found he was a naval officer about to join his ship at Plymouth, and he proposed my serving my country. The world was all before me, and to my roman- tic mind there was a magic in the expres- sion, and before another day had elapsed I was entered on the books of the Awmphion frigate as a volunteer. There was no time for reflection. I was wearied with my journey, sleep overpowered my faculties, and before the dawn arose, the ship was out at sea. Never shall I forget my sensations when I first beheld the expanse of ocean, without a single speck to break its monotonous appearance. Blue waters all around and the clear heaven above, while the tall ship, reflecting her image on the waves, passed majestically through the briny element. I was ignorant of etiquette, and with- out ceremony respectfully addressed my friend, the lieutenant; but he repulsed my familiarity with coldness, and directed a lad to take me to his cabin, where he immediately joined me. Here he explained the nature of the service, and the distance which it was deemed necessary to keep up between the officers and crew. He then made inquiry as to my clothes, and genereusly supplied me with some linen from his own stock. The ship’s tailor altered one of his jackets, and in a short time I was equipped as a sailor. But ah, how many hours of bitter mortifi- cation and anguish did I undergo! I had everything to learn, was often ill-used, and every day increased the distance from all I loved, without being able to inform them of my situation, as the frigate was bound to the East Indies. Remorse preyed upon my mind. I had not contemplated leaving England, much more leaving it without letting them know where I was; but now their affectionate hearts were wrung with my indiscretion. Agues, too !—but the remembrance of the sweet girl was ever accompanied by the recollection of the blow I had received from her brother, and I determined to persevere in the profession in which I had engaged. The lieutenant was my sincere friend; he took every opportunity to promote my interests, and I endeavoured by all the means in my power to profit by his kind- ness, and to testify my gratitude. At first I was much persecuted by the seamen and the other boys; but when they found me desirous of learning and attentive to my duty, every one conspired to render me SAVED FROM DROWNING. 4053 assistance, and I soon became a favourite with both officers and men. On one occasion, whilst the ship was lying nearly becalmed, one of the junior midshipmen, as he was playing about the rigging, fell overboard. I instantly dashed into the sea, and supported him from sink- ing till a boat was lowered down and took us up. This act, for which I claim no merit, brought me under the immediate notice of the captain, who witnessed it, and I was removed to the quarter-deck to do duty as a midshipman. Every one expressed satisfaction at my promotion, and my new A SIIIP ON FIRE, messmates vied with each other in manifest- ing their generous feelings. After a passage of four months, we arrived at Madras, and I lost no time in acquaint- ing my parents with my destination ; but unfortunately the letter never reached their hands, as the ship which conveyed it was wrecked off the Cape of Good Hope, and every soul perished. Scarcely had we time to refit and victual when orders were received to proceed to the China seas, as two French frigates had been seen cruising among the islands. Thither we hastened, and continued our search after them for six months, but without success, and at the expiration of 406 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. that time we returned to Madras. It would be useless for me to enumerate the many places we visited during our stay in India, which occupied upwards of three years. Despatches were prepared for us, and we sailed for England. Throughout the whole period of my absence, I had never heard from home; but still the fond remembrance of early enjoyments in that sweet spot clung to my soul, and Agnes in all her loveliness was ever present to my imagination, prompting me to many an honourable, action, and restraining me from everything which could bring discredit on my affection ; indeed, I may truly say that to her I was indebted for the respect and esteem I enjoyed from every one on board. Often did I rejoice in my heart at the prospect of once more embracing those who were so dear to me, and as often did the sickening sensations of distracting doubt agitate my troubled breast. One lovely evening the sky was beautifully serene ; the ocean, like a clear mirror, re- flected the golden rays of the setting sun, and the light breeze just lulled the spreading sails to sleep, propelling the ship almost imperceptibly along at the rate of three knots an hour, or as near that as I am able to calculate. It was one of those evenings that baffled the painter's art, and only the poet can portray. The first watch was drawing to a close; it had struck seven bells; the seamen on the look-out had proclaimed “all's well,” and everything was again hushed to solemn stillness. I was standing on the gangway full of pen- sive musings, watching a bright star just kindling on the verge of the horizon. It beamed like a ray of hope, irradiating the gloom which hung heavy upon my heart. Suddenly it expanded like the glowing meteor, and the ocean was illuminated with a red and gory tinge. I was struck with astonishment, but at the same moment an exclamation resounded fore-and-aft, “ A ship on fire! a ship on fire!” and the horrid conviction was, alas ! too evident. In afew minutes the flames were distinctly visible, and the ship was pronounced to be about five miles distant. Never before did I witness such alacrity among our crew as in that hour of peril. The captain and every officer and man were on deck immediately; and as it was impossible for the frigate to approach in sufficient time to rescue the sufferers before ten minutes had elapsed from the period of first noticing the fire, every boat was in motion towards the scene of danger. It fell to my lot to command the captain’s gig, a swift-pulling boat with seven men, who bent to their oars with all the might of brave and generous spirits. As we drew near, the destructive element raged with increasing fury, and the shrieks of the wretched creatures came mingling with the crackling of the flames and the crash of falling masts. The frigate had fired guns and hoisted lights to show them succour was at hand, and the boats’ crews occasionally cheered to announce that they were aproaching to their rescue. The shouts were returned from the burning ship, but so wild, so fearful, that they sounded like the yell of expiring agony that still clung to hope and life. I would have dashed instantly alongside, but the old coxswain respectfully warned me of the danger of such a measure. We were now within a short distance of the vessel, and oh, what a sight of horror was presented! The ports were all open, and the flames, pouring from them as from so many mouths, seemed eager for their prey. Numbers of poor creatures were swimming towards us, whilst others held pieces of shattered spars with a strong convulsive grasp. The fore-part of the ship was nearly consumed, and the upper part abaft was rapidly falling in. Those who could swim we left for other boats to take up, and pulling under the stern, we lay unobserved by the gun-room ports, while the fiery frag- ments came tumbling thick about us. Trusting to my skill in swimming, should it be deemed requisite to jump overboard, I instantly entered the port-hole, and the SAVING THE VICTIMS. 407 ship having fallen off before the wind, what little air there was drove the greatest part of the smoke forward ; yet there was an almost insupportable heat, and the suffo- cating vapours bade defiance to my efforts to penetrate further. A feeling I could not account for, an indescribable feeling, urged me on, and I reached the gun-room ladder, at the bottom of which lay a human being whose sufferings apparently were over. I passed my hand quickly to the heart to feel if any palpitation yet remained, and dis- covered that the individual was a female. She was yet living, and in a few minutes was safely in the boat. Again I returned with three of my crew, and soon had the satisfaction of rescuing eight poor wretches, who lay in a state of insensibility, and must soon have perished. Stimulated by success, we penetrated to the burning deck above, and never shall I forget the horror of the spectacle. Here all was brilliancy and light; and the de- vouring element, rolling its huge volumes over many a devoted victim, roared in its fierceness, as if to stifle the thrilling scream of the last death-pang. Several half-burnt and mangled bodies could be distinguished in the flames, and many others lay in a senseless state, unaware of the awful doom awaiting them. Near the transom abaft sat a woman with an infant her arms, seeming uncon- scious of any object moving near her. She saw not our approach, but her eyeballs wildly glared upon the red hue of the burn- ing fabric. I spoke to her, shook her arm, but her eyes still continued fixed; alas! the film of death was on them. She heeded me not, but clasped her infant closer to her bosom, gave one wild, one dismal shriek, and mortal agony was over. The moments became exceedingly pre- cious, and the smiling infant—for it smiled amid the horrors of the appalling scene—was. secured, and several poor wretches were dragged to the gun-room scuttle, where they were thrown down, risking their limbs to save their lives, and the boat was completely filled, almost to sinking. Yet numbers were still left behind, and, roused from their stupor by the increasing heat, came rushing to the port, and plunged headlong into the sea. It was but changing their mode of death, for the watery element, equally fatal with that from which they strove to escape, engulfed them in its dark abyss, at once their destruc- tion and their grave. Such were the hor- rors of a ship on fire at sea during the not very remote period of which we are speak- ing. It must be confessed that, notwith- standing all that modern science has done for the advancement of navigation and .for the general ease and security of man’s life at sea, that in one respect we are worse oft than before. Consider the added dangers. of fire in the case of steam vessels; con- sider that even if the fire is quenched, the engines are usually wrecked, and that the steamer is much more helpless that a sailing vessel would be in the same case. This proves the truth of our statement. 408 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP THE BURNING OHIP (continued). put some of my res- cued party in the launch, and then pulled briskly for the frigate. The female I had thus saved was still insensible; but yet, as she lay extended in the stern sheets of the boat, with her head resting on my knees, I could feel the tremulous palpitation of her heart, and Hope whispered that she might yet recover. She appeared to be young, but her dark hair hung in thick flakes down her face, so as to conceal her features. The worthy coxswain had wrapped the infant in his jacket, and it was now sweetly sleeping in the box by his side. Several of the sufferers, restored to fresh air, speedily" re- covered ; but it was only to lament some one whom they supposed had perished. In the bows of the boat an elderly man raised his white head, and with incoherent language inquired where he was. The bow- man soothed him, and tried to explain his situation ; “But my son! my daughter!” he exclaimed, “where are they?” Then turning to the burning ship, he continued, “ Wretched—wretched man, they are lost— lost for ever—and I yet live!” He struggled to throw himself into the sea, but, overcome with weakness, fell backward. “At this moment another voice faintly uttered, “ My father ! my father!” A cry of «ecstacy burst from the old man’s lips—it was his son. The youth lay near him, and the exclamation drew my attention towards him ; he started up like one awaking from a frightful dream, and glared wildly around. But, oh God! in what language can I por- tray the various feelings which alternately took possession of my soul, when, fixing his look on me, I saw the countenance of Sir Edward's son! A sick shuddering came upon me. The old man had called upon his daughter, and in an instant the inanimate body of the young female was raised in my arms. I parted the dark tresses that ob- scured her face, and as the red glare of light shone upon it, recognised my Agnes. Yes, it was she : my arm had encircled her neck ; my hand had been pressed upon her heart; but then I knew her not, and now to find her thus! Sobs of anguish and tumultuous bursts of joy followed in rapid succession. : “You have saved her, sir,” said the coxswain, and a glow of pleasure filled my heart. Sir Edward and his son had relapsed into stupor, and shortly afterwards we reached the frigate. I sprang upon the deck to inform the captain who it was that I had brought, and then returned to the boat to see my ‘only, my richest treasure safely conducted up the side. In my arms I carried the dear girl to the captain’s cabin, and stole one kiss from those lips which I had pressed with such delight in early infancy—clasped her to my heart, and then hastened back to my duty. Once more I reached the ship; but all approach was now impossible, and we could only pick up those who were enabled THE SHIP BLOWS UL 409 to swim, and occasionally by great hazard run so close as to receive some poor sufferer from the wreck. Yet there were many who still remained, and, dreading to trust them- selves to the sea, hung tremblingly between two deaths. My boat was once more filled, as were also all the rest, and we made for the frigate, which had arrived within a short distance. Suddenly an awful explosion shook the whole atmosphere ; the glare of light was for a moment increased, and the next suc- ceeding minute a shower of blazing timbers fell in every direction around, and the pale moon alone shed her silvery effulgence on the transparent wave. No shouts, no shrieks were to be heard ; the bitterness of death was passed, and all was as tranquil as the grave. Happily the burning ruin had struck none of the boats, and we soon afterwards put the sufferers on board the frigate, where they were cared for, whilst the boats again repaired to the place; but, except the shattered remnants of the wreck, no trace was left. The swelling billow rolled smoothly on, and that gallant ship, with many a stout heart, was buried beneath its deceitful surface. Still we passed across and across in every direction, and long after the sun had kindled up the day, our search was continued ; but nothing met our view except mutilated fragments of human bodies and pieces of blackened timber. All hands repaired on board, the boats were hoisted in, and the frigate pur- sued her course for England. On getting aboard, I hastened to the surgeon and inquired the state of Agnes and her friends. They had all recovered, and were composed in slumber. Etiquette for- bade my entering the precincts of the cabin uninvited, yet I lingered near the door, and the steward gave me all the informa- tion I could obtain, which was not much. Duty compelled me to attend in another part of the ship, after which I hastened to my berth and equipped myself in uniform for the forenoon watch. The master’s mate had been promoted to a lieutenancy, and I had been appointed to fill the vacant station, and never was I more studious in adjusting my dress, whilst a feeling of pride animated me under the reflection that I had endeavoured to earn my present dis- tinction solely by my own efforts. We had saved ninety-seven people, in- cluding passengers, out of one hundred and forty-three. The ship was an East India- man on her passage out, and Sir Edward was going to Bombay to fill a high official station. No one could tell how the fire had originated, but it was supposed to have been occasioned by the communication of some combustible matter with the fodder stowed in the orlop deck for the live stock. But so amazingly rapid had been its spread, that the boats were rendered useless before they could be got out, excepting one small jolly-boat, which sank soon after it was lowered down, and was seen no more. Notwithstanding my attention to dress, it would be impossible to describe the tumult of agitation under which I laboured. Parents—home—Agnes, all, rushed upon my heart, and the cruel blow which had occasioned my departure mingled with the rest, and filled me with terrible pain. When relieving the watch, I found my friend, the lieutenant, upon deck, and to him I briefly related my situation. He had heard parts of my story before ; but when I told him all, he advised me to suffer things to take their course, to manifest a becoming spirit, and by no means to show resentment. He said the captain had spoken very highly of me for my exertions and humanity, and was greatly pleased with my conduct. Praise is sweet from those who despise unmeaning flattery, and this came like a reviving cordial to my drooping mind. Soon after ten o’clock Sir Edward awoke, considerably refreshed, and with his children returned thanks to Heaven for safety. They afterwards came on deck, and as the young man ascended, a feeling of indignation filled my breast; but it was momentary, and I walked forward to conceal my agitation, 410 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. which became almost insupportable, par- ticularly when I heard the captain’s voice hailing me, and guessed the purport of his call. Mustering all my resolution, I approached them as they stood abaft, but who can paint the different looks of father, son, and daughter as the captain presented me to their notice. The recognition was imme- diate, and each seemed to have a conflict of terrific and harrowing passions in the breast. Sir Edward took my hand with coldness, and then pressed it ardently; his son walked away, giving me a glance that betrayed humble pride, whilst the sweet countenance of Agnes spoke volumes to my soul, and told me I had been treasured in her memory with fond affection. I would have inquired for my parents; but while the question hung upon my lips, a well-remembered face displayed itself,—it was the old butler of the family. As soon as it was possible, I took the old man aside, and from him learned every particular. My father had been dismissed from his situation, and had struggled with many difficulties; but a relation of my mother had left them a handsome com- petency at his death, and their only un- happiness proceeded from ignorance of my fate. They had mourned my loss as for ~ one who would never return. I briefly ran over my adventures to him, and only on one subject was I silent; but this was unnecessary, as he told me of many circum- stances which gladdened my heart. As I was the officer of the forenoon watch, it was my turn to dine with the captain. This I would gladly have declined, but it was im- possible without a breach of regulations ; and at the appointed hour, after putting on my full dress, I entered the cabin, and at the captain’s request, took my seat by the side of Agnes. Sir Edward looked dis- pleased and bit his lips ; his son arose from the table and muttered something about “plebeian rank ;” whilst the sweet girl was almost fainting with alarm. The captain had noticed a strange pecu- liarity at the first interview, and, as I understood afterwards, had answered many inquiries respecting me. My friend, the lieutenant, had also given him some hints, but he was not the man to see honest humility abused ; for he himself had risen from an obscure origin, and through his own merits had climbed every gradation to his present command. Beloved by his crew and universally respected in the ser- vice, he despised the proud aspirings of those who considered high birth as the greatest recommendation. Without dis- composing himself, he directed the steward remove the young gentleman’s plate to to another table, which was done. Sir Edward keenly felt this, and rising up, demanded whether his present condition had so far reduced him in the captain’s estimation as to render him the object of insult? “Sir Edward,” replied the captain calmly, “when you have explained your meaning, I shall be better able to answer you. At present I am involved in mystery.” “Look there !” said the baronet, pointing towards me, “the son of my gardener! Look there !” continued he, turning to his son, “the heir to the richest baronetage in Great Britain; and that”—pointing to Agnes,—“ to my shame be it spoken, is my daughter.” I offered to withdraw. “Sit still, Mr. ,” said the captain, rising at the same time himself with all the dignity that marked his character. “Sir Edward,” he coolly answered, “it is not in my nature to taunt any one with obliga- tions. I view mankind as united to me by the strongest ties, and whether it was a beggar or a duke, should. consider I had only done my duty in snatching a fellow- creature from destruction. But where, let me ask, would your baronetage have been, had not this young officer stepped between you and the grave? Where would your ungrateful son have been, but for his timely aid? And where would this sweet girl, of whom any father ought to be proud,— LOVE AND PRIDZ. 411 where, I say, would she have been, but for the youth whom you despise?” He grew warm. “By Heaven! Sir Edward, you would have found the sharks no respecters of rank or riches ; they revel in the glorious spoils of death without troubling themselves whether their prey is of noble or ignoble birth, and you long ere now might have satiated their ravenous appetites.” The baronet shuddered. ‘As for this young officer, he has been upwards of three years under my command ; I have watched him silently and secretly ; he is a noble fellow, and shall never want a friend while these old timbers hold together! If he has injured you or your daughter, prove it, and I instantly discard him!” “He has! he has!” exclaimed Bod Sir Edward and his son. I felt myself almost inspired with elo. quence, and briefly told my tale. “If,” said I, “to love Miss Agnes is a crime, it is one that has to me produced the most happy results, and never, never will I resign it. To that love I am indebted for my present situation ; it has been the pole-star of my heart, but never till this moment did my lips publicly avow it. This then, sir, is the injury I have committed, and it now remains with you to drive me from your patronage, or still to cherish the obscure individual whom you have been pleased to raise.” “Drive you away, my boy!” replied the captain; “no, no! I should indeed con- sider you unworthy of my notice, could you associate with so lovely a lass, and remain insensible to her amiable disposition and beauty. But what says the fair lady? Does she, too, despise the poor but honest: sailor ? A faint smile passed across her pallid cheek as she distinctly uttered,—* He has preserved my father’s life.” At that moment, thrown off my guard, I caught her hand and pressed it to my lips. Both her father and her brother saw it, but they neither spoke nor moved. “Come, come,” said the captain, as he turned round to hide the gathering tear; “let us sit down to dinner, and we'll discuss the matter afterwards. At present, thank God, you are safe ; the young folks have yet many years to pass over their heads, and a thousand things may happen. Thus much, however, I will say : if ever he dis- graces his cloth, I will be the first to oppose his designs; but if, on the contrary, he continues in the same honourable course he has begun, I will support him with hand and heart. So, Sir Edward, you will have two opponents instead of one.” Sir Edward resumed his seat, his son returned to the table, but it was evidently with great mortification, and the dinner passed off tolerably well,—at least so it seemed. The infant I had taken from its’ dying mother was the son of a female passenger going to join her husband, an officer in the army who had preceded her about twelve months, at a time when it was impossible she could accompany him. The little innocent did not want for nurses in the frigate, as a great many women had been saved, and every seaman was anxious to caress and fondle the child. It was afterwards restored to its father ; and both their names were returned amongst the killed on the plains of Waterloo,—the former a colonel, the latter a captain in his father’s regiment. But to proceed. After touching at the. island of Flores for a supply of water and fresh provisions, we pursued our course for home; and though from my junior station I could not join the company of Sir Edward and his family, nor even approach the captain without his sanction, unless on duty, yet Agnes took frequent opportunities for con- versing with me. mention my ardent attachment, or request a return of her esteem; yet 1 had the satisfaction of knowing that we regarded each other with feelings of affection, founded upon the purest desire of pro- moting each other’s happiness. None but those who have witnessed can form an idea of the beauties of a fine, clear I did not venture to 412 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. summer evening passed upon the smooth surface of the ocean. It is the season when the officers assemble on the quarter- deck, and as they pace fore-and-aft, en- joy the social and unrestrained converse which is precious to the heart. The fal- ling shades of twilight conceal the anxious look as busy Memory conjures up scenes of past joys, and Hope portrays the com- ing future. It was at these hours that Agnes gener- ally came on deck, and I had the inexpress- ible pleasure of enjoying her society ; for Sir Edward had relaxed in his haughtiness, tough his son remained impenetrably stubborn, like the man he was. At length we arrived in England, and the baronet repaired to London; but previously to his departure I received the most solemn assur- ances of the attachment of Agnes. To my friend, the lieutenant, I was indebted for this last interview; and in his pres- ence our vows of fidelity were pledged with the utmost solemnity. A few weeks afterwards the baronet, with his son and daughter, once more embarked for Bom- bay. Agnes wrote me a farewell letter, and every energy of my soul was aroused to fresh exertions in my profession, under the hope of one day calling her mine, as I hoped I should be able to do. As soon as duty would admit, I visited my parents, whose joy at seeing me again exceeded all bounds. They were very comfortably settled, and it was not amongst the least of their gratifications to behold their only child arrayed in the naval uni- form of his country. It would be a useless, though perhaps not altogether an uninteresting task, for me to detail the events of the seven succeeding years, during which I frequently endea- voured to get on the East India station, and at last succeeded in obtaining my desire. At this time I was first-lieutenant of a frigate (as, through the interest of the cap- tain, I received a commission almost im- mediately after passing my examination), and had amassed a very handsome property in prize-money ; but I knew it would be necessary for me to gain higher promotion before Sir Edward would listen to my pro- posals. Nevertheless, the prospect of seeing Agnes afforded me the most lively emotions of pleasure. To this moment I can re- member the delight which swelled my soul when we anchored at Bombay, par- ticularly as we had captured an enemy’s ship that had long beena great annoyance to commerce in the Indian seas, as it seemed to promise me another step. As soon as duty would permit, I went on shore and eagerly hastened to the residence of Sir Edward, where almost the first in- dividual that met my sight was the old butler. From him I learned that the baronet had been consigned to the tomb about nine months,—that young Sir Edward retained an important and lucrative office, —and that the gentle Agnes, harassed by ° the zmportunities (1 afterwards heard cruel- ties) of her brother to become the wife of an extremely wealthy but depraved dotard, had sunk broken-hearted to the grave ; and the old man, with many tears, placed in my hands her last letter addressed to me, with a small box containing her miniature and several other mementoes of an affectionate heart, which I still retain as the most pre- cious treasures I possess. AN ADVENIURE IN CORK. 413 ‘AN ADVENTURE IN {ORK A MipsHIPMAN'S ADVENTURE— A STRANGE HMibiNG- T was blowing hard as we stood in for the old head of Kin- sale — pilot boat & breasting the foam- gull—““Carrol Cove” “in her tiny mainsail— pilot jumped into the main channel —bottle of rum swung by the lead-line into the boat—all very clever. Ran in, and anchored under Spike Island. A line-of-battle ship, three frigates, and a number of merchantmen at anchor—men- of-war lovely craft—bands playing—a good deal of the pomp and circumstance of war. Next forenoon, Mr. Treenail, the second lieutenant, sent for me. “Mr. Jones,” said he, “you have an uncle in Cork, I believe?” I said I had. “I am going there on duty to-night. I daresay if you asked the captain to let you accompany me, he would do so.” This was too good an offer not to be taken ad- vantage of. I plucked up courage, made my bow, asked leave, and got it; and the evening found my friend, the lieutenant, and myself, after a ride of three hours, during which I, for one, had my bottom sheathing grievously rubbed, and a con- siderable botheration at crossing the Ferry at Passage, safe in our inn at Cork. I soon found out that the object of my superior officer was to gain information amongst the crimp shops, where ten men who had run from one of the West Indiamen, waiting at Cove for convoy, were stowed away, but I was not let further into the secret; so I set PLACE. out to pay my visit, and after passing a pleasant evening with my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Job Jones, the lieutenant dropped in upon us about nine o'clock. He was heartily welcomed, and under plea of our being obliged to return to the ship early next morning, we soon took leave, and re- turned to the inn. As I was turning into the public room, the door was open, and I could see it full of blowsy-faced monsters, glimmering and jabbering, through the mist of hot brandy, grog, and gin twist ; with poodle Benjamins and great-coats and cloaks of all sorts and sizes steaming on their pegs, with Barcelonas and com- forters and damp travelling caps of seal- skin and blue cloth and tartan arranged above the same. Nevertheless, such a society, in my juvenile estimation, during my short escapade from the middy’s berth, had its charms, and I was rolling in with a tolerable swagger, when Mr. Treenail pinched my arm. ‘“ Mr. Jones, come here, into my room.” From the way in which he spoke, I imagined, in my innocence, that his room was at my elbow ; but no such thing—we had to ascend a long and not over-clean staircase to the fourth floor, before we were shown into a miserable little double- bedded room. So soon as we had entered, the lieutenant shut the door. “Tom,” said he, “I have taken a fancy to you, and therefore I applied for leave to bring you with me; but I must expose you to some danger, and, I will allow, in not a very creditable way either. You must enact the spy for a short space.” I did not like the notion, certainly, but I had little time for consideration. D D 414 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. “ Here,” he continued — “here is a bundle.” He threw it on the floor. “You must rig in the clothes it contains, and make your way into the celebrated crimp shop in the neighbourhood, and pick up all the information you can regarding the haunts of the pressable men at Cove, especially with regard to the ten seamen who have run from the West Indiaman we left below. You know the Admiral has forbidden pressing in Cork, so you must contrive to frighten the bluejackets down to Cove, by representing yourself as an apprentice of one of the merchant vessels, who had run from his indentures, and that you had narrowly escaped from a press- | gang this very night /Zere.” I made no scruples, but forthwith arrayed myself in the slops contained in the bundle —in a pair of shag trousers, red flannel shirt, coarse blue cloth jacket, and no waistcoat. “ Now,” said Mr. Treenalil, “stick a quid of tobacco in your cheek, and take the cockade out of your hat; or stop, leave it, and ship this striped woollen night-cap—so —and come along with me.” We left the house, and walked half a mile down the Quay. Presently we arrived .before a kind of low grog-shop—a bright lamp was flaring in the breeze at the door, one of the panes of the glass of it being broken. Before I entered, Mr. Treenail took me on one side. = “Jones, you must go into this crimp shop ; pass yourself off for an apprentice of the Guava, bound for Trini- dad, the ship that arrived just as we started, and pick up all the knowledge you can re- garding the whereabouts of the men, for we are, as you know, cruelly ill-manned, and must replenish as best we may.” I entered the house, after having agreed to rejoin my superior officer so soon as I considered I had obtained my object. I rapped at the inner door, in which there was a small un- glazed aperture cut about four inches square; and I now for the first time perceived that a strong glare of light was cast into the lobby where I stood by a large argand with a brilliant reflector, that, like a magazine lantern, had been mortised into the bulkhead at a height of about two feet above the door in which the spy-hole was cut. My first signal was not attended to; I rapped again, and looking round I noticed Mr. Treenail flitting backwards and forwards across the doorway in the rain, with his pale face and sharp nose, with the sparkling drop at the end on’t, glancing in the light of the lamp. I heard a step within, and a very pretty face appeared at the wicket. “Who are you saking here, an’ please yep” “No one in particular, my dear; but if you don’t let me in, I shall be lodged in jail before five minutes be over.” “I can’t help that, young man,” said she; “ but where are ye from, darling?” “ Hush !—I am run from the Guava, now lying at the Cove.” “Oh,” said my beauty, “ come in ;” and she opened the door, but still kept it on the chain in such a way, that although, by bobbing, I crept and slid in beneath it, yet a common-sized man could not possibly have squeezed himself through. The in- stant I entered, the door was once more banged to, and the next moment I was ushered into the kitchen, a room about four- teen feet square, with a well-sanded floor, a huge dresser on one side, and over against it a respectable show of pewter dishes in racks against the wall. There was a long stripe of a deal table in the middle of the room—but no tablecloth—at the bottom of which sat a large, bloated, brandy, or rather whisky-faced savage, dressed in a shabby great coat of the hodden grey worn by the Irish peasantry, dirty swandown vest, and greasy corduroy breeches, worsted stockings, and well-patched shoes ; he was smoking a long pipe. Around the table sat about a dozen seamen, from whose wet jackets and trousers the heat of the blazing fire, that roared up the chimney, sent up a smoky steam that cast a halo round the lamp that depended from the roof, and hung down » \ A QUEER SITUATION. 415 within two feet of the table, stinking | men, and the greater proportion half or abominably of coarse whale oil. They were, | more than half drunk. When I entered, 1 generally speaking, hardy, weather-beaten | walked up to the landlord. FALLS OF THE INN, AUSTRIA. “Yo, ho, my young un! whence and | said I, “seeing I have wherewithal in the whither bound, my hearty ? ” locker to pay my shot; and as to the “The first don’t signify much to you,” | second, of that hereafter ; so, old boy, let's 416 THE WONDERS OF TAFE DELP. have some grog, and then say if you can ship me with one of them colliers that are laying alongside the quay?” “ My eye, what a lot of brass that small chap has!” grumbled mine host. Why, my lad, we shall see to-morrow morning ; but you gammons so bad about the rhino, that we must prove you a bit; so, Kate, my dear,”—to the pretty girl who had let me in—*score a pint of rum against—Why, what is your name ?” ““ What's that to you? ” rejoined I; “lets have the drink, and don’t doubt but the shiners shall be forthcoming.” “ Hurrah !” shouted the party, most of them now very tipsy. So the rum was pro- duced forthwith, and as I lighted a pipe and filled a glass of swizzle, I struck in, “Messmates, I hope you have all shipped?” “ No, we ha’n’t,” said one of them. “Nor shall we be in any hurry, boy,” said others of the men. “Do as you please, but I shall as soon as I can, I know; and I recommend all of you making yourselves scarce to-night, and keeping a bright look-out.” “Why, boy, why, what’s the matter?” “Simply because I have just escaped a press-gang, by bracing sharp up at the corner of the street, and shoving into this dark alley here.” This called forth another volley of oaths and unsavoury exclamations, and all was ‘bustle and confusion, and packing up of bundles, and settling of reckonings. “Where,” said one of the seamen,— “where do you go to, my lad?” “Why, if I can’t get shipped to-night, I shall trundle down to Cove immediately, so as to cross at Passage before daylight, and take my chance of shipping with some of the outward-bound that are to sail, if the wind holds, the day after to-morrow. There is to be no pressing when blue Peter flies at the fore,—and that was hoisted this afternoon, I know, and the foretopsail will be loose to-morrow.” “Dash my wig, but the small chap is right !” roared one. “I've a very great mind to go down with him,” stuttered another, after several unavailing attempts to weigh from the bench, where he had brought himself to anchor. “Hurrah!” yelled a third, as he hugged me, and nearly suffocated me with his maudlin caresses, “I trundles wid you, too, my darling, by the piper!” “ Have with you, boy—have wid you,” shouted half a dozen other voices, while each stuck his oaken twig through the handkerchief that held his bundle, and shouldered it, clapping his straw or tar- paulin hat, with a slap on the crown, on one side of his head, and staggering and swaying about under the influence of the poteen, and slapping his thigh, as he bent double, laughing like to split himself, till the water ran over his cheeks from his drunken, half-shut eyes, while jets of tobacco juice were squirting in all direc- tions right and left. I paid the reckoning, urging the party to proceed all the while, and indicating Pat Doolan’s at the Cove as a good rendezvous ; and promising to overtake them before they reached Passage, I parted company at the corner of the street, and rejoined the lieutenant. Next morning we spent in looking about the town. Cork is a fine town—contains seventy thousand inhabitants, more or less —safe in that—and three hundred thousand pigs, driven by herdsmen, with coarse grey great-coats. The pigs are not so handsome as those in England, where the legs are short, and tails curly; here the legs are long, the flank sharp and thin, and tails long and straight. All classes speak with a terrible brogue, and worship graven images. * Arrived at Cove to a late dinner; and here follows a great deal of nonsense of the same kind. By the time it was half past ten o'clock, I was preparing to turn in, when the master-at-arms called down to me,— “Mr. Jones, you are wanted in the gun- room.” 4d NIGHT SURPRISE. 417 I put on my jacket again, and immedi- ately proceeded thither, and on my way I noticed a group of seamen, standing on the starboard gangway, dressed in pea-jackets, under which, by the light of a lantern, carried by one of them, I could see they were all armed with pistol and cutlass. They appeared in great glee, and as they made way for me, I could hear one fellow whisper, ‘There goes the little beagle.” When I entered the gun-room, the first lieutenant, master and purser, were sitting smoking and enjoying themselves over a glass of cold grog—the gunner taking the watch on deck—the doctor was piping any- thing but mellifluously on the double flageolet, while the Spanish priest and the aide-de-camp to the general were playing at chess, and wrangling in bad French. I could hear Mr. Treenail rumbling and stumbling in his state-room as he accoutred himself in a jacket similar to those of the armed boat’s crew whom I had passed, and presently he stepped into the gun-room, armed also with cutlass and pistol. “Mr. Jones, get ready to go in the boat with me, and bring your arms with you.” I now knew whereabouts I was, and that my Cork friends were the quarry at which we aimed. I did as I was ordered, and we immediately pulled on shore, where, leaving two strong fellows in charge of the boat, with instructions to fire their pistols and shove off a couple of boat-lengths should any suspicious circumstance indicating an attack take place, we separated, like a pulk of Cossacks coming to the charge, but without the Zowurak, with orders to meet before Pat Doolan’s door as speedily as our legs could carry us. We had landed about a cable’s length to the right of the high, precipitous bank—up which westole in straggling parties—on which that abomin- able congregation of the most filthy huts ever pig grunted in is situated, called the Holy Ground. Pat Doolan’s domicile was in a dirty little lane about the middle of the village. Presently ten strapping fellows, including the lieutenant, were before the door, each man with his stretcher in his hand. It was a very tempestuous, although moonlight night, occasionally clear, with the moonbeams at one moment sparkling brightly in the small ripples on the filthy puddles before the door, and on the gem- like water-drops that hung from the eaves of the thatched roof, and lighting up the dark, statue-like figures of the men, and casting their long shadows strongly against the mud wall of the house; at another, a black cloud, as it flew across her disc, cast everything into deep shade, while the only noise we heard was the hoarse dashing of the distant surf, rising and falling on the fitful gusts of the breeze. We tried the door ; it was fast. “ Surround the house, men,” said the lieu- tenant in a whisper. He rapped loudly. “Pat Doolan, my man, open the door, will ye?” No answer. “If you don’t, we shall make free to break it open, Patrick, dear.” All this while the light of a fire, or of candles, streamed through the joints of the door. The threat at length appeared to have the desired effect. A poor decrepit old man undid the bolt and let us in. “Qhon a vee! Ohon a ree! What make you all this boder for—come you to help us to wake poor ould Kate there, and bring you the whisky wid you?” “Old man, where is Pat Doolan?” said the lieutenant. “ Gone to borrow whisky, to wake ould Kate there ;—the howling will begin when- ever Mother Doncannon and Misthress Conolly come over from Middleton, and I look for dem every minute.” There was no vestige of any living thing in the miserable hovel except the old fel- low. On two low trestles in the middle of the floor lay a coffin with the lid on, on the top of which was stretched the dead body of an old emaciated woman in her grave-clothes, the quality of which was much finer than one could have expected to have seen in the midst of the surround- ing squalidness. The face of the corpse was uncovered, the hands were crossed on 418 7HE WONDERS OF THE DEEP the breast, and there was a plate of salt on the stomach, as is the custom, I believe. An‘iron cresset, charged with coarse rancid oil, hung from the roof, the dull, smoky red light flickering on the dead corpse as the breeze streamed in through the door and numberless chinks in the walls, making the cold, rigid, sharp features appear to move and glimmer and gibber as it were from the changing shades. Close to the head there was a small door opening into an apartment of some kind, but the coffin was placed so near it that one could not pass between the body and the door. “My good man,” said Treenail, to the solitary mourner, “I mast beg leave to remove the body a bit, and have the good- ness to open that door.” “Door, yer honour! It’s no door 0 mine—and it’s not opening that same that old Phil Carrol shall busy himself wid.” . ‘“Carline,” said Mr. Treenail, quick and sharp, “remove the body.” It was done. “Cruel heavy the old dame is, sir, for all her wasted appearance,” said one of the ~men to the lieutenant who now exactly ranged the press-gang against the wall fronting the door, and stepping into the middle of the room, drew his pistol and cocked it. “Messmates,” he sang out, as if addressing the skulkers in the other room, “I know you are here—the house is surrounded—and unless you open that door now, by the powers, but I'll fire slap into you.” There was a bustle, and a rumbling, tumbling noise within. “My lads, we are now sure of our game,” sung out Treenail, with great animation. “Sling that clumsy bench there.” He pointed to an oaken form about eight feet long and nearly three inches thick. To produce a two-inch rope, and junk it into three lengths, and rig the batteringram, was the work of an instant. “One, two, three,”— and bang the door flew open, and there were our men stowed away, each sitting on the top of his bag as snug as could be, although looking very much like condemned thieves. We bound eight of them, and thrusting a stretcher across their backs, under their arms, and lashing the fins to the same by good stout lanyards, we were proceeding to stump our prisoners off to the boat, when, with the innate devilry that I have inherited, I know not how, but the original sin of which has more than once nearly cost me my life, I said, without addressing my superior officer, or any one else, directly, —“1I should like now to scale my pistol through that coffin. If I miss, I can’t hurt the old woman ; and an eyelet hole in the coffin itself will only be an act of civility to the worms.” : I looked towards my superior officer, who answered me with a knowing shake of the head. I advanced, while all was silent as death—the sharp click of the pistol-lock now struck acutely on my own ear. I presented, when—crash !—the lid of the coffin, old woman and all, was dashed off in an instant, the corpse flying up in the air and then falling heavily on the floor, rolling over and over, while a tall, hand- some fellow, in his striped flannel shirt and blue trousers, with the sweat pouring down over his face in streams, sat up in the shell and looked about him in despair. “All right,” said Mr. Treenail—* help him out of his berth.” He was pinioned like the rest, and forth- with we walked them all off to the beach. By this time there was an unusual bustle in the Holy Ground, and we could hear many an anathema, curses, not loud, but deep, - ejaculated from many a half-opened door as we passed along. We reached the boat, and time it was we did so, for a number of stout fellows, who had followed us in a gradually increasing crowd, until they amounted to forty at the fewest, now nearly surrounded us, and kept closing in. As the last of us jumped into the boat, they made a rush, so that if we had not shoved off at once, I think we should have been overpowered. However, we reached the ship in safety, and the day following we stood out to sea with our convoy. CAREER OF A ROCKET. 419 ‘An DcEAN WANDERER, How MasTeR PENJAMIN WENT TO Sea—HMis JIRsT the son of an Irish- woman ; educated in Scotland, the country of my father, an an- cient mariner, who, as master and super- cargo, had sailed his own ship for many years in the Virginia trade; removed to England at the age of seventeen, in consequence of his death ; I had, by the time I arrived at majority, passed four years of my mercantile apprenticeship in my paternal uncle’s counting-house, an extensive mer- chant in that modern Tyre, the enterprising town of Liverpool ; during which period, young as I was, I had already made four voyages in different vessels of his to foreign parts—to the West Indies, the Brazils, the Costa Firme, and the United States of America. I had also travelled a great deal in Europe, dwelt a whole summer by the Falls of the Inn, and explored the Pyre- nees from the Cascades of Garenil to the plains of Spain. On the occasion of a rejoicing for one of our great victories, being hand-and-glove with all the skippers and mates of the vessels belonging to the concern, I smug- gled up to our house on Everton Terrace, unknown to my uncle, two boat-guns, six- pounder carronades, and a lot of fireworks, by bribing the brewer's man to carry them for me in his cart. Having achieved this part of my plan, with the aid of two young tars I contrived to mount the guns in the summer-house, immediately beneath the ADVENTURES. dining-room window; and having loaded them, I set fire to slow matches fitted to the touch-holes, just as the dinner-bell rang, and then calmly took my place at table facing mine uncle. The old gentleman was rather a quiet- going codger, and during meals seldom annoyed bis neighbours with too much conversation. In the present case he had eaten his soup, his bit of fish, and was just raising his first glass of wine to his lips, when dang went one of my carronades, and smash fell the glass, the madeira flowing all down his lap. He had not recovered his equanimity, when dang went gun No. 2, and up shot a whole constellation of rockets and Roman candles from the gar- den, whereat he fairly sprang off his chair, as if the explosion had taken place in the cushion of it, or he had been hoisted out of his socket by some sort of catamaran or other stage affair. His first impulse was to run to the open window. Whiz! a /Zve rocket, or large squib, flew in over his shoulder, and nearly popped down the throat of the old serving-man, who stood like a statue open-mouthed before the side- board, petrified with astonishment; as it was, it scorched the powdered curl over his left ear, missing his head by a mere hair’s- breadth. The guns I could account for, but the erratic course of this missile surprised me exceedingly. At one fell swoop, it had cleared the sideboard of glasses, decanters, silver waiters, and the sinumbra lamp ; driven my revered uncle to the top of the table for refuge; and then, as if still un- satisfied with all this mischief, it began to 420 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. jump about under it, blazing and hissing like a fiery serpent, first in this corner, then under that chair ; while old Peregrine, the waiting-man (whose ice had at length " thawed) and I were dancing after it; knocking our heads together, and breaking our shins against chairs and the edges of the table, making glasses and decanters ring again, in a vain endeavour to seize hold of the stick. The row soon brought up the other servants, groom, cook, housemaid, etc., etc., etc, towards whom, as if pos- sessed with some spirit of mischief, it fizzed through the door in its transit, nearly taking one of the female domestics in reverse, whereat they all began to scream as if they had been murdered; then upstairs it rattled, as if desirous of visiting the draw- ing-room floor, poking its snout into every cranny, hissing and wriggling its tail, and putting the entire array to flight with its vagaries. It was too absurd to see a whole household of grown people thus chasing a live sky-rocket like so many children—* up- stairs, downstairs, and in my lady’s cham- ber "—so presently we were all, excepting | the rocket itself, brought to a standstill by fits of laughter from everybody. Although it was clear the heroic firework was not to be captured alive, yet, at length, like the vapouring of a passionate man, it spluttered itself out, and was captured, stick and all, by the old cook, whose propriety it had invaded ; and I returned to the dining- room to converse with uncle, who had by this time reseated himself at the table, looking as black as thunder, with old Pere- grine planted once more behind his chair, as stiff as if he had literally swallowed the rocket-stick. I sat down, feeling not a little awkward, the dead silence becoming every moment more and more irksome. The old gentleman seemed to suffer under this as well as myself, and to have come to the conclusion that it would be more sociable even to break out into a regular scold, than hold his tongue any longer. “So, Master Benjamin, a new piece of practical wit of yours, I presume.” “Indeed, my dear sir, I am very sorry— the guns I plead guilty to ; but who can have fired the rockets?” “ Ah—as if you did not know !” quoth Uncle Peter. “Indeed, uncle, I do not; unless the fusees have caught from the wadding of these cursed guns ;” which, in fact, was the case. “I am sure I wish they had been at the bottom of the Mersey since they have made you angry, uncle.” There was another awful pause, during which in came a message from Mr. Pigwell, one of the neighbours, to ask if any acci- dent had occurred. “ No, no,” said Uncle Peter testily ; “no accident—only a small mistake.” Another dead lull. Presently the old servant, who had gone to the lobby to de- liver the message, returned into the room, and as he placed a fresh bottle of wine on the table, he said: “The man says Mrs. Pigwell has got a sad fright, sir.” There, Master Benjamin! ZZere/ I am sure I wish you had gone to the coast of Africa before this had happened. I was an old soft-hearted fool to stand in the way!” “Well, my dear uncle, it is not too late yet,” said I, a good deal piqued. Not a word from him. “I am sorry to see you have taken such offence where none was meant. It was a piece of folly, I admit, and I am sincerely sorry for it.” Still silent. “Jennings is still at anchor down below; I can easily be ready to-morrow, and there is no appearance of the wind changing—so, pray, do let me go.” “You may go to the mischief, sir, for “me!” and off he started, fizzing, worse than the rocket itself, with rage, to his dress- ing-room, where he often used to pass an hour or two in the evenings alone. I sat still, guzzling my wine in great wrath. Enter Peregrine again. I was always a favourite with the old fellow, although he had been seriously angry at first, when he saw that my absurd prank had put his old master so cruelly out. Soren A COLLECTION OF MIS-ADVENTURES. 42% Now, however, I perceived he was anxious to make up for it. “Oh, Master Benjamin! your uncle is in such a taking you never seed ! Why, do you know, the first thing he did when he went to his dressing-room was to hang his wig on the lighted candle, instead of the pillar of the looking-glass; and then we were all. in darkness, you see. So, in groping my way out, I popped my foot into the hot water in the foot-pail that he had ordered up, and this scalded me so CASCADES OF GAVARNIL-PYRENEES. that, forgetting where I was, I could not help speaking a bit, Master Benjamin; on which he opened the door, and thrust me out neck and crop, calling me a wicked old villain, although we know he is not slack at a good rousing reproof him- self when his bristles are up. But to call me an old villain !—me/ who have served him faithfully for thirty years, in various parts of the world—an old villain, indeed !” I saw no more of my uncle that night, JHE WONDERS 422 OF THE DEEP. and when we met next morning at break- fast, I was rejoiced to find the gale had blown itself out. When I sat down, he looked across the table at me, as.if expecting me to speak ; but, as I held my peace, the good old man opened the conference himself. “Why, Benjie, my boy, I have been laughing over our fright yesterday; but have done with your jokes, master, if you please, and no more about that terrible coast of: P ‘ Mr. Pigwell has just called, sir,” quoth old Peregrine, entering at this moment, “and desires me to say that Mrs. Pigwell 1s well, sir, notwithstanding the fright.” We walked down to the counting-house together as lovingly as ever, but my star was now in the ascendant, for there we found Captain Jennings, who informed my uncle that he had been obliged that morn- ing to land Mr. Williamson, the clerk, who was about proceeding in charge of the ex- pedition, in consequence of his having been taken alarmingly ill of a fever. This was most unfortunate, as the wind appeared on the eve of coming fair. “We shall have a breeze before next flood that will take us right round the Head. I hope you won’t detain us in the river, sir,” quoth Jennings. My uncle was puzzled what to do, as it so happened that none of the other young- sters at the moment in’the employ had ever been away in such a capacity before; so I availed myself of the opportunity to push my request home, and it was finally fixed that forenoon that I should take Mr. Williamson’s place in the vessel. A very old friend of my deceased father’s, Sir Oliver Oakplank, was at this time the senior officer on the African coast, and as the time was approaching when, according to the usual routine of that service, he would be departing on the round voyage for Jamaica and Havanna, before proceeding to England to refit, it was determined, if I could arrange the lading of our ships in time, that I should take a passage with him, for the two-fold object of seeing an uncle, by my mother’s side, who was settled in Jamaica, and from whom I had expecta- tions ; and making certain speculations in colonial produce at Havanna. . As TI had the credit of being a sharpish sort of a shaver, and by no means indis- creet, although fond of fun, I had much greater license allowed me in my written instructions than my uncle was in the habit of conceding to any of my fellow quill- drivers, who had been previously despatched on similar missions. I had, in fact, a roving commission as to my operations generally. The very evening on which I got leave to go, the ship rounded the Rock Perch, and nothing particular occurred until we arrived at the scene of our trading. I very soon found that neither the dangers nor difficul- ties of the expedition had been exaggerated; on the contrary, the reality of both very far exceeded what I had made up my mind to expect. First of all, I lost more than a half of both crews in the course of two months, and the master of one of the ships amongst ‘them ; secondly, I was plundered and ill- used by a villainous Spanish slaving polacre, who attacked us without rhyme or reason ‘while lying quietly at anchor pursuing our trade in the Bonny River. Not dreaming of any danger of this kind, except from the natives, we allowed the Dons to come on board before we offered any resistance, and then it was too late to do so effectually; however, at the eleventh hour, we did show some fight, whereby I got my left cheek pierced with a boarding pike or boathook, which I repaid by a slashing blow with a cutlass, that considerably damaged the out- ward man of the Don who had wounded me. I verily believe we should have all been put to death in consequence, had it not been for the Spanish captain himself, who, reminding the villains that it was not fighting but plunder they had come for, made them knock off from cracking our crowns, and betake themselves to searching for dollars, and boxing us all up in the round-house until they had loaded them- CAPTURE OF A SPANISH FELUCCA. 423 selves with everything they chose to take away. However, notwithstanding this mis- hap, I finally brought my part of the opera- tion to a successful issue, by completing the ‘loading of the ships, and seeing them fairly off for England within the time originally contemplated. I then joined the com- modore at Cape Coast, where I met with a most cordial reception from him, and also from my cousin, Dick Lanyard, one of his lieutenants. Through the kind offices of this young- ster, I soon became as good as one of the Gazelles ; indeed, notwithstanding I was the commodore’s guest, I was more in the gun-room than anywhere else ; and although not quite seo les régles, I contrived, during the time the frigate remained on the coast after I joined her, to get away now and then in the boats, my two months’ experi- ence in the rivers having rendered me an accomplished pilot ; and being in no way afraid of the climate, I thus contrived to make one in any spree where there was likely to be fun going, even more fre- quently than my turn of duty would have entitled me to, had I been really an officer of the ship, which of course I was not. Unless there be something uncongenial or positively repulsive about one, a person in my situation, with a jovial, hearty turn, and a little money in his pockets to add a streak of comfort to a mess now and then, becomes to a certainty a mighty favourite with all the warrant and petty officers, boat- swain’s mates, old quartermasters, ef Joc genus omne - and I flatter myself that had I gone overboard, or been killed in any of the skirmishes that, with the recklessness of boyhood, I had shoved my nose into, there would have been as general a moan made for me along the tween decks, as for the untimely demise of poor Dicky Phantom, the monkey. My friend, the aforesaid Dick, had been for six months fourth lieutenant of H.M.S. Gazelle, on board of which, as already men- tioned, Sir Oliver Oakplank had his broad pennant hoisted. The last time they had touched at Cape Coast, they took in a Spanish felucca that had been previously cut out of the Bonny River, with part of her cargo of slaves on board, to whom they gave freedom. She had cost them a hard tussle, and several of the people had fallen by the sword in the attack, but more afterwards from dys- entery and marsh fever, the seeds of which had doubtless been sown in the pestilential estuary at the time of the attack; although there is no disputing that they were much more virulently developed afterwards than they would otherwise have been, by a week’s exposure in open boats to the dele- terious changes of the atmosphere. The excellent commodore, therefore, the father of his crew, seeing the undeniable neces- sity of lessening the exposure of the men in such a villainous climate, instantly wrote home to the Admiralty, requesting that half a dozen small vessels might be sent to him, of an easy draught of water, so that they might take charge of the boats, and afford a comfortable shelter to their crews ; at the same time, that they should be able to get over the bars, without damage, of ‘the various African rivers, where the con- traband Guineamen were in the habit of lurking. To evince that he practised what he preached, he instantly fitted out the captured felucca on his own responsibility, manned her with five-and-twenty men, and gave the command of her to the third lieutenant. She had been despatched about a fort- night before in the direction of Fernando Po, and we had stood in on the morning of the day on which my narrative commences, to make Cape Formosa, which was the ren- dezvous fixed on between us. About three o'clock p.m., when we were within ten miles of the cape, without any appearance of the tender, we fell in with a Liverpool trader, bound to the Brass River to load palm-oil and sandalwood. She reported that the night before they had come across a Spaniard, who fired into them when they sheered-to with an intent to speak him. 424 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. The master said that, when first seen, the strange sail was standing right in for the river ahead of us ; and, from the noises he heard, he was sure he had negroes on board. It was therefore conjectured that she was one of the vessels who had taken in part of her cargo of slaves at the Bonny River, and was now bound for the Nun or Brass River to complete it. They were, if anything, more confirmed in this by the circumstance of his keeping away and standing to the south-west the moment he found they were hauling in for the land, as if anxious to mislead them by inducing a belief that he was off for the West Indies or Brazil. This was the essence of the information received from the Liverpool man; but from the de- scription of the Don, taking also into account the whereabouts he was fallen in with, I had no doubt in my own mind of his being the very identical villain who had plundered me. The same afternoon we fell in with an American, who rejoiced our hearts by saying that he had been chased by a vessel in the forenoon answering the description of the felucca. Immediately after we hove about, and stood out to sea again, making sail in the direction indi- cated, but we were not successful in over- taking her. SEA YARNS. hE PEA YARNS. x ge PHARKS—THE PBUurNING SHIP—A YALUABLE fiop. ARQ) HAT very entertain- ing writer who de- scribes in the pa- pers his interviews and talks under the nom - de- plume . of “ Seafarer,” thus tells the story of some things he has heard :(— “There were five men in the room when I entered, and they were arguing on politics in deep sea tones, and many clinching nods, with a perfect storm of such sen- tences as, ‘ And so I tell ye, mate ;’ ‘Don’t you go and make no mistake about that;’ - “Tain’t no use calling him a man, for he ain’t ;’ and so forth. They gave up after a while, and wandered into marine channels, which presently brought them to the sea, owing to one of them making some refer- ence to a man who had been brought ashore from a brig in consequence of hav- ing badly injured himself by falling from aloft. One word led to another, and pre- sently we found that the brig and the injured man had carried us to the subject of sharks. One fellow said, ‘That there notion of sailors reckoning that, because a shark follows a ship steadily for days, some- thing desperate’s going to happen, is more to be found in books, I think, than in ships. There’s no end of loose fancies being chucked into fo'c’s’'les by people; but I dun’no that you ever hear of nautical men picking of them up. I remember, when I was first going to sea, being aboard a brig bound to one of the West India Islands. A shark came under our counter in the tropics, and stayed there for sixteen days. It became a kind of habit in us men, as we went aft to relieve the wheel, to look over the starn for that shark; yet I don’t NA remember any uneasiness. There was no sickness—nothing went wrong; but recol- lecting that the crew never got talking about any fancies connected with that shark, I don’t suppose anything could have hap- pened to us which we should have dreamt of putting down to his hanging in our wake for all them days’ ‘Oh, but there are superstitions about sharks,” said I. ‘Sailors are not the ignorant set of men the public on shore have been made to believe ; but some superstitions they have certainly, and one unquestionably is that a shark stead- fastly following a ship for several days bodes ill-luck.’ ‘Well, he said, ‘I know that that’s the idea, but I've followed the sea, man and boy, for eight-and-twenty years, and never remember a shipmate showing any uneasiness because a shark followed—I’'m speaking about the thing superstitiously.’ ‘I've known good luck to be brought by a shark,’ said one of the men. ‘When I was an ordinary seaman, lying in a har- bour down Porto Rico way, the chief mate, who was a bully, told me one day I shouldn’t go ashore. Out of spite, and being a passionate rascal, hated by all hands, he hung about to see that I didn’t give him the slip. I was determined to ‘go ashore, and so threw off my shoes and jacket, and took a header off the fo'c’s’le rail, and struck out. The mate outs with a revolver and lets fly at me. There was a moon, and the water was full of fire, and he could see me plain enough. Finding he’d missed, and that I was still swimming, he whips off half his clothes, as I was afterwards told, and jumped in after me. I allow his notion was to have drowned me, could he have come up with me. Some of the hands looked on, and they told me what happened. I hadn’t heard the mate 426 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. jump, and didn’t therefore know he was following of me; but I thought he might lower a boat, and I swam hard to get ashore first, resolving to desert that vessel if so be I could get foot upon dry land. Well, it wasn’t two minutes after the mate had made his plunge, when I heard a fright- ful scream behind me. All it did was to frighten me, though the sound of it nearly froze my blood, and I went on sawing through it, arm over arm, till the water was in a blaze all about me. I got ashore, and stood looking towards the vessel, and seeing that no chase was being made, I went leisurely into the town and had a night of it. Next morning a man asked me if 1 was the young chap that had jumped over- board to swim ashore. I said “Yes.” “Well then,” says he, “the mate followed ye, and saved your life” “How dye mean?” says 1. “Why he says, “a minute after you were in the water, a shark rose to you. The men on the forecastle saw his figure plain. Before they could sing out, the mate jumped. The splash he made seemed to frighten the fish for a second, for the fiery line of him vanished. The mate swam right for him; some of your chaps roared out. I suppose the poor fellow thought they was deriding of him, The next thing seen was his body hove up to the waist -out of water, and a lashing of white shining water about him; then he just gave one shriek.” “Ha!” said I, shudderin’, “I heard that shriek.” So you see, sir,’ said the speaker, addressing me, ‘that sharks can bring luck to a vessel’ ‘But what sort of luck does your story illustrate ?’ said I, staring at him. ¢Why,’ he answered, ‘wasn’t it a first-class stroke of luck for a crew to get rid of a bullyin’ mate, without having to lift a finger against COMING BACK WITH THE ANCHOR. him? If it hadn’t been for that there shark, I should have lost my chest and clothes, for I didn’t mean to return, and, of course, they would have been sacrificed. Stead of which, when I heard that the mate was dead, I returned to the vessel, and the cap- tain was too glad to get me again to say a word to me about what I'd done.’ ‘That don’t equal your shark story, Joe,’ said another of the men; ‘it’s neat, but it ain’t got the gaudiness that yours has’ ¢ What's the yarn?’ I asked. Well,” said the man called Joe, putting down his pipe, ‘it happened in this way. It's twenty SEA YARNS—SHIP ON FIRE. 427 year since,—ay, twenty year and a matter of three months since. I was aboard a little ship bound from Hull to Serry Leone. We got into roasting weather, and the ship took fire. We did all we knew to put the fire out, but the cargo was coal, and twenty- four hours after we’d smelt the fire an explo- sion of gas blew up the deck, abreast of the think the nearest point of the African coast was about one hundred miles off; but the mate shook his head when we asked him about the land there. He said if we got ashore, one of two things was bound to happen. Either we should be stripped by the natives, perhaps killed or carried into captivity, or we should die of hunger gangway, and killed two men. This made an opening too big to smother. The fire and smoke rolled up; and as the ship was doomed, we turned to and got the boats over. The captain and six men went in one boat; the chief mate and six men in another. I was with the chief, and we lost sight of the captain’s boat that night. I and thirst. Our only chance, he says, was to head the boat for some African port he named (I can’t recall it offhand); and this we agreed to, always keeping a bright look-out for ships. Our stock of water and provisions was small. It was broiling work. For two days we had a light breeze that forced us to ratch. It 428 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEFL. then came on very quiet weather, with baffling airs, and sometimes calms, so dead that you'd look for dying and decaying fish on the surface of the stuff that was like oil. This went on ; we scarcely made any pro- gress; and what with the wet of the dew and the chill of it at night, and the glaring of the sun by day coming off the water with the sting of a furnace in its bite, our suffer- ings became dreadful. It was one morning after we had been seven or eight days adrift in this fashion. Twenty-four hours before, we had finished the last drop of our fresh water, and it was now three days since any- thing solid had been swallowed by us. It was another dead calm; and when the sun rose, I stood up with my arm around the mast to support myself, and took a look round. The sun made it all white dazzle out in the east, and I brought my eyes away from that quarter with the tears tricklin’ down my cheeks. As I slowly stared round into the west, I saw something moving, not more than half a mile off. It looked to me to be a spar, about fifteen or twenty foot long, and I knew it was moving by observing the ripples which broke around it and the shadow it made upon the water. I called the chief mate’s attention to it. He was so ill that he scarcely had the heart to lift his head, but the sight of that there spar moving along, as it seemed, all by itself, put a kind of life into him. * Indeed, it was an exciting thing to watch. The wrinkles breaking from it proved that it wasn’t a current that was making it go. It was coming our way ; but as it would pass ahead, we made shift to chuck an oar over. It was about a cable’s distance from us when it came to a dead stand. Our boat had a little way upon her, and, as she approached, the chief mate, who had crawled into the bows, cried out in a faint voice, “ Gracious thunder ; here’s a sight!” And what d’ye think it was? Well, I'll tell ye. It wasan old spar of the length I have named, made fast to a great shark. You could see the big fish sunk to about twice the depth of his dorsal fin below the surface. He seemed tired of dragging this here coach, and was taking a rest. I couldn’t explain to you how the towing gear was made fast to him. I think I heard the chief mate say that there was a sort of grummet or rope-collar over his head, secured by a chain through his mouth, and that he towed the spar by lines made fast to this collar. We all stood looking a moment, for the shark, that seemed as big as a grampus, was plain enough past the spar, when a man, named Harry Kemp, cried out, “It ’ud be a blooming good idea to make him tow us. No more calms to bother us then, and he ought to drag us in sight of something anyhow.” No sooner said than done. The boat's painter was whipped round the spar and secured to where its guys were hitched. But only just in time, for we were scarcely fast when old sharkee floats up to the surface, bringing his wet black fin clear of the water. Then with a fierce sweep of his tail he shoots ahead, dragging the spar and our boat after him. Perhaps the extra weight put him into a passion, or maybe he didn’t find the spar so hard to tow now that it was kept end on by our boat's steering of it; but be this as it may, the shark went through it in fine style, heading a straight course. It was like a screw-tug snorting ahead of a train of barges. Our spirits revived with the motion. All day long he towed us, sometimes slacken- ing down, at other times falling mad, and sweating through it like a comet. We had a compass in the boat, and the mate said that his heading varied from between south and west-nor-west. Anyways, two hours afore sundown that same evening we sighted a sail right over sharkee’s head. There was then a light air, and she was standing about nor-east. The shark bowled us along as though he guessed his towing job would be over if he could bring us to the vessel. And,’ said the man, speaking with emphasis, ‘I’m blessed if we didn’t think he meant to tow us alongside, for he steered as true as a hair for the ship until she was within a quarter of a mile, when he suddenly grew perverse, put his helm up, and wanted to SEA YARNS—THE MERMAID. 429 drag us due east. But we cut the painter and let him go. The ship backed her fore- topsail and picked us up. I reckon they looked upon us as if our boat was bewitched, for they had seen her coming along without oars or sail; and the shark never showing himself, and nothing being visible but the spar in front of our boat, kept them puzzling till they couldn’t have been more alarmed if we’d been a boat-load of hobgoblins.’ ¢A curious yarn that, sir,” said one of the men to me. ¢Very,’ said I. “The sea is full of wonders,” said the man. ¢Itis, I exclaimed. ‘I was one day out a-fishing, he said, ‘in about three fathom of water. It was a cold October day, the water very quiet. There was codlins, whitings, pout- ings, and the like of such fish, to catch in plenty, and I rowed out to see if I could airn a shillin’.. Well, when I came to the place where I reckoned the fish was, I threw in my oars, picked up the boat’s anchor, and chucked it overboard. Guess my sur- prise and annoyance when I found that some one had- been and gone and cut the cable close to where it was made fast in the boat. It was the doing of some boys, I suppose ; but, anyways, the anchor took the cable, and away went the whole consarn. It was a new rope, and I had no notion of losing it, and my little anchor as well ; so I took a fishing line, put some extra weights upon it, and securéd the other end to a little cork fender, with which I buoyed the spot, and then rowed home again for the loan of a creep. A creep, I may tell ye, is a contrivance for sweeping the bottom of the water with, to bring up anything ye may have lost. Well, I got the loan of one, and called to Jimmy Dadds, a chap of about eighteen years old, to come out and give me a hand, promising him half a pint. We rowed out, came to the place, and he began to row quietly, whilst I chucked the creep over. It hadnt been down two minutes when it came across something that felt soft. It wasn’t to be pulled up easy. The hold of it anchored the boat. “What the blazes have we hooked here !” says I to Jimmy, feeling whatever it was wobbling, as it might be, upon the creep, and yet refusing to come up. ‘‘ Come and len’s a hand.” He got up, laid hold of the line, and hauled with me. What was coming we couldn’t imagine. The feel, I tell ye, was quite sing’lar. It wasn’t like a piece of wreck; it wasn’t like a fish; it wasn’t like being foul of a rock. There was a kind of swaying and softness about it, as if the object was alive, and was holding on to prevent being drawed up. “Haul!” says I. We bent our backs, and started the object out of its moorings below ; and what d’ye think came up? Why, sir, there popped half out of water the beautifullest female as ever ye set eyes on! She looked right at us, and I never see such a smile as she had. She seemed to be covered with jewels, and her black hair was all wreathed about with seaweed. She had one arm raised out of water, and this was stretched “out to us as if she entreated us to leave her alone. Jim, who was the most ignorant fool of a lad that ever I met, at sight of her gives a screech and tumbles right back- wards in the bottom of the boat. His fall- ing threw the line out of my hand. The woman disappeared, and when I hauled up the creep for her again, the irons came up naked. I own I was a bit scared myself, but not so alarmed but that I wasn’t anxious to go on creeping for her again. But Jimmy refused to have anything more to do with it. He said no; he'd come out to sweep for an anchor, he didn’t want no dealings with apparitions. As to the half-pint, 1 might drink it myself. What he required was to be put ashore. However, I wasn’t going to leave without my anchor, so I gets the boat into position again, and at the first throw of the creep I brings up the cable. I then rowed Jimmy ashore, where, meeting a couple of men, I tells them -of the appari- tion that came up, and invites them to come out to try if another sight could be got of her. Well, they consented ; but though I could have swore we swept over the place twenty times, we never hooked on to the 430 THE WONDERS. OF THE DEEP object. It got talked about, and others tried, but to no purpose. Jimmy's yarn made people believe it was a mermaid. Fact is, he was in such a state of funk, he saw a good deal more than I did, or that any other man that hadnt lost his head would. He said she motioned with her hand, as though to drive us away, and that her eyes sparkled. I couldn’t deny myself that she looked as if her dress was coated with jewels and pearls—at least, as much of her dress as I could see; and there’s no denying, also, that her hair was a beautiful black, and as she rose to the surface, looked to be floating and filling under the seaweed that hung about her head so gracefully you might ha’ swore it was her sweethearts doing.’ ‘But it wasn’t a mermaid, of course,’ said I. ‘Well, I dunno, I'm sure,’ he answered. ‘The newspapers said,” ex- claimed another man, ‘that it must ha’ been a ship’s figure-head.” ‘Ay,’ said the other, with some little show of resentment, as though refuting an argument that annoyed PUSHING OFF THE LIFEBOAT. him, ‘it’s all very fine saying it might have been a figure-head ; but why was it never come across again? How was it that me and the score of others who tried for it never could hook it? I'm not going for to say that she was alive, for I ain’t such a fool as Jimmy ; but neither are ye going to get me to believe that the smiling, beautiful figure as rose up glittering with jewels was a carvin’ out of wood, and so I tells ye. What it was I dunno, but I do know what it warn’t/’ and, looking very gravely at me, he filled his pipe afresh, and sat smoking thoughtfully. ‘I'll give ye a stranger story than that,’ said a shaggy, ringletted man, who might have passed for Robinson Crusoe in undress. ‘I had sold a boat for £45; the money was paid me down in notes. Call it four o'clock when this here money was paid. It was too late to put it in the bank; so when I gets home, I turns to and rolls the notes up in a piece of thick brown paper, and seals up the ends. I made a parcel like a couple 0’ ounces 0’ baccy rolled up tight, and I puts the package into the side pocket of my jacket for safety. Well, that nightit SEA YARNS. 431 came on to blow hard. Me and my brother lived in a little cottage just at the back of Fish Alley. He was one of the lifeboat’s crew. At about two o’clock in the mornin’, when it was snowin’ and blowin’ at the top of its fury, there came a call to my brother, and out he ran, with half his clothes in his hands, putting of ’em on as he went, as the custom mostly is. I had some nets to over- haul in the morning, and when I got up, it being dark, I felt for my coat to put on, and RETURN OF THE LIFEBOAT. own crew drownded. And who was he? Why, Bill, and no other. Hed been knocked overboard by a sea, and instant- ly lost sight of. With him had gone my forty-five pound, and, spite of Bill and me havin’ bin’ very good friends, I felt as if I should never be able to forgive him for taking my coat instead of his’n. Well, I went to the expense of gettin’ some small bills printed, offering a reward for the dis- covery of his body, though a chap named Tommy Hall says to me that I was only found it a-missing. I struck a light, and saw that Bill—that was my brother—had, I sup- pose, in the hurry, taken my coat by mistake. Well you may reckon, this gave mea start, for I naturally thought of my forty-five pound. I went down, dropping all thoughts of my nets, to hear if there was any news of the life- boat. Well there was no news, and nothing was heard of her till nine o’clock that night, when she arrived with the survivors of the crew of a Norwegian brig, and one of her a-spendin’ of my money to no purpose, since whoever found the body was pretty sure to overhaul it first and take the notes. Time passed, and I made up my mind that the money was gone for good and all, and re- solved to give up troubling myself about it. One day, about three months arterwards, Tommy Hall comes to me and says, “I was down at old Glass’s last night, and young Joe Miller stated in my hearing that there was a piece in a London paper speaking of a cod that had been brought ashore at 432 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEF. Plymouth which, when opened, was found with a roll > Bank 0’ England notes in his guts.. I wonder,” says Tommy, “if them there notes could be yourn?” I got the paper, read the piece, and took it round to old Mr. Sheepskin, the lawyer. He says to me, ¢ Have ye got the numbers of them notes?” 1 says, “No.” “Who paid em ye?” says he. I up and told him. “See if he’s got ’em,” says he. I found he had, and I comes back with ’em to Mr. Sheepskin, and left the job in his hands. Well, just as I expected, they turned out to be my notes ; but old Sheepskin took care that I shouldn’t get their value, for he made out such a bill for time, travellin’ expenses, hagencies, and the likes of such things as them, that all the money I got was twenty pound. However, I was glad enough to get that, for I had reckoned the whole bloomin’ sum lost.” ” And so ended this most remarkable “yam.” ‘A’ CourT-MARTIAL Op BoarD SHIP. PIFFERENT [HARACTERS OF ENGLISH AND FRENCH SAILORS— 2 \ 2h g give some pass- & . ages from the diary of a midshipman, with an account of a court-martial. Tt is at one of the periods during the French war, when our fleet was cruising off Toulon. “We joined the fleet off Toulon, closed the admiral’s ship, and the captain went on When he re- rt board to pay his respects. turned, we found out, through the first lieutenant, that we were to remain with the fleet until the arrival of another frigate, expected in about a fortnight, and then the Admiral had promised that we should have a cruise. The second day after we had joined, we were ordered to form part of the in-shore squadron, consisting of two line-of battle ships and four frigates. The French fleet used to come out and manceuvre with- in range of their batteries; or, if they pro- ceeded further from the shore, they took od EFFECTS OF TERROR ON THE Mino. good care that they had a leading wind to return again into port. We had been in shore about a week, every day running close in, and counting the French fleet in the harbour, to see that they were all safe, and reporting it to the admiral by signal, when one fine morning the whole of the French vessels were perceived to hoist their top-sails, and in less than an hour they were under weigh, and came out of the harbour. We were always prepared for action, night and day, and, indeed, often exchanged a shot or two with the batteries when we recon- noitred ; the in-shore squadron could not, of course, cope with the whole French fleet, and our own was about twelve miles in the offing, but the captain of the line-of-battle ship, who commanded us, hove-to as if in defiance, hoping to entice them further out. This was not very easy to do, as the French knew that a shift of wind might put it out of their power to refuse an action, which was what they would avoid, and what we were so anxious to bring about. I say we, speaking of the English, not of myself, for, THE SIGNAL OF RECALL NEGLECTED. 433 to tell the truth, I was not so very anxious. I was not exactly afraid, but I had an unpleasant sensation at the noise of a cannon’ ball, which I had not as yet got over. However, four of the French frigates made sail towards us and hove-to when within four miles, three or four line of- battle ships following them, as if to support them. Our captain made a signal for permission to close the enemy, which was granted, with our pennants and those of another frigate. We immediately made all sail, beat to quarters, put out the fires, and opened the magazines. The French line- of-battle ships, perceiving that only two of our frigates were sent against their four, hove-to at about the same distance from their frigates, as our line-of-battle ships and other frigates were from us. In the mean- time our main fleet continued to work in shore under a press of sail, and the French main fleet also gradually approached the detached ships. The whole scene reminded me of the tournaments I had read of; it was a challenge in the lists, only that the enemy were two to one; a fair acknowledg- ment on their parts of our superiority. In an hour we closed so near that the French frigates made sail and commenced firing. We reserved our fire until within a quarter of a mile, when we poured our broadside into the headmost frigate, ex- changing with her on opposite tacks. The Seahorse, who followed, also gave her a broadside. In this way we exchanged broadsides with the whole four, and we had the best of it, for they could not load so fast as we could. We were both ready again for the frigates as they passed us, but they were not ready with their broadside for the Seaforse, who followed us very closely, so that they had two broadsides each, and we had only four in the Diomede, the Sea/orse not having one. Our rigging was cut up a great deal, and we had six or seven men wounded, but none killed. The French frigates suffered more, and their admiral, perceiving that they were cut up a good deal, made a signal of recall. In the | meantime we had both tacked, and were ranging up on the weather quarter of the sternmost frigate: the line-of-battle ships perceiving this, ran down with the wind, two points free, to support their frigates, and our in-shore squadron made all sail to support us, nearly laying up for where we were. But the wind was what is called at sea a soldier's wind—that is, blowing so that the ships could lie either way, so as to run out or into the harbour, and the French frigates, in obedience to their orders, made sail for the fleet in shore, the line-of-battle ships coming out to support them. But our captain would not give it up, although we all continued to near the French line-of- battle ships every minute; we ran in with the frigates, exchanging broadsides with them as fast as we could. One of them lost her fore-topmast, and dropped astern, and we hoped to cut her off, but the others shortened sail to support her. This continued for about twenty minutes, when the French line-of-battle ships were not more than a mile from us, and our commodore had made the signal of recall, for he thought that we should be over- powered. But the Sea/orse, who saw the recall up, did not repeat it, and our captain was determined not to see it, and ordered the signal-man not to look that way. The action continued, two of the French frigates were cut to pieces, and complete wrecks, when the French line-of-battle ships com- menced firing. It was then high time to wear off. We each of us poured in another broadside, and then wore round for our own squadron, which was about four miles off, and rather to leeward, standing in to our assistance. As we wore round, our main- top-mast, which had been badly wounded, fell over the side, and the French perceiv- ing this, made all sail, with the hope of capturing us; but the SeaZorse remained with us, and we threw up in the wind, and raked them until they were within two cables’ lengths of us. Then we stood on for our own ships. At last one of the line- of-battle ships, which sailed as well as the 434 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP frigates, came abreast of us, and poured in a broadside which brought everything about our ears, and I thought we must be taken; but on the contrary, although we lost several men, the captain said to the first lieutenant, ‘Now, if they only wait a little longer, they are nabbed, as sure as fate.’ Just at this moment, our own line-of-battle ships opened their fire, and then the tables were turned. The French tacked, and stood in as fast as they could, followed by the in-shore squadron, with the exception of our ship, which was too much crippled to chase them. One of their frigates had taken in tow the other, who had lost her top-mast, and our squadron came up with her very fast. The English fleet were also within three miles, standing in, and the French fleet standing out, to the assistance of the other ships which had been engaged. I thought that there would be a general action, but we were disappointed; the frigate which towed the other, finding that she could not escape, left her to her fate, which was to haul down her colours to the commodore of the in-shore squadron. The chase was continued until the whole of the French vessels were close under their batteries, and then our fleet returned to its station with the prize, which proved to be the NVarcisse, of thirty-six guns, Captain Le Pelletoon. Our captain obtained a great deal of credit for his gallant behaviour. We had three men killed, and Robinson, the midshipman, and ten men wounded, some of them severely. I think this action cured me of my fear of a cannon-ball, for during the few days we remained with the fleet, we often were fired at when we recon- noitred, but I did not care anything for them. About the time she was expected, the frigate joined, and we had permission to part company. Before I proceed with the history of our cruise, I shall mention the circumstances attending a court-martial, which took place at this time, our captain having been re- called from the in-shore squadron to sit as one of the members. I was the mid- shipman appointed to the captain’s gig, and remained on board of the admiral’s ship during the whole of the time that the court was sitting. Two seamen, one an Englishman and the other a Frenchman, were tried for desertion from one of our frigates. They had left their ship about three months, when the frigate captured a French privateer, and found them on board as part of her crew. For the Englishman, of course, there was no defence ; he merited the punishment of death, to which he was immediately sentenced. There may be some excuse for desertion when we consider that the seamen are taken into the service by force, but there could be none for fight- ing against his country. But the case of the Frenchman was different. He was born and bred in France, had been one of the crew of the French gunboats at Cadiz, where he had been made a prisoner by the Spaniards, and expecting his throat to be cut every day, had contrived to escape on board of the frigate lying in the harbour, and entered into our service, I really believe to save his life. He was nearly two years in the frigate before he could find an oppor- tunity of deserting from her, and returning to France, when he joined the French privateer. During the time that he was in the frigate, he bore an excellent character. The greatest point against him was, that on his arrival at Gibraltar he had been offered and had received the bounty. When the Englishman was asked what he had to say in his defence, he replied that he had been pressed out of an American ship, that he was an American born, and that he had never taken the bounty. But this was not true. The defence of the Frenchman was con- sidered so very good for a person in his station of life, that I obtained a copy of it, which ran as follows :— ‘Mr. President, and Officers of the ° Honourable Court :—1It is with the greatest humility that I venture to address you. I shall be very brief, nor shall I attempt to disprove the charges which have been made against me, but confine myself to a SPEECH OF THE FRISONER. 435 few facts, the consideration of which will, I trust, operate upon your feelings in mitiga- tion of the punishment to which I may be sentenced for my fault—a fault which pro- ceeded, not from any evil motive, but from an ardent love for my country. I am by birth a Frenchman ; my life has been spent in the service of France, until a few months after the revolution of Spain, when I, to- gether with those who composed the French squadron at Cadiz, was made a prisoner. The hardships and cruel usage which I endured became insupportable. I effected my escape, and after wandering about the town for two or three days, in hourly expectation of being assassinated—the fate of too many of my unfortunate country- men—desperate from famine, and perceiv- ing no other chance of escaping from the town, I was reduced to the necessity of offering myself as a volunteer on board of an English frigate. I dared not, as I ought to have done, acknowledge myself to have been a prisoner, from the dread of being delivered up to the Spaniards. During the period that I served on board of your frigate, I confidently rely upon the captain and the officers for my character. The love of our country, although dormant for a time, will ultimately be roused, and peculiar circumstances occurred which rendered the feeling irresistible. I returned to my duty, and for having so done, am I again to be debarred from returning to that country so dear to me— from again beholding my aged parents, who bless me in my absence—from again embrac- ing my brothers and sisters—to end my days upon the scaffold ; not for the crime which I did commit for entering into your service, but for an act of duty and repent- ance—that of returning to my own? Allow me to observe that the charge against me is not for entering your service, but for having deserted from it. For the former, not even my misery can be brought for- ward but in extenuation ; for the latter, I have a proud consciousness, which will, trust, be my support in my extremity. Gentlemen, I earnestly entreat you to consider my situation, and I am sure that your generous hearts will pity me. Let that love of your country which now ani- mates your breasts, and induces you to risk your lives and your all, now plead for me. Already has British humanity saved thou- sands of my countrymen from the rage of the Spaniards: let that same humanity be extended now, and induce my judges to add one more to the list of those who, although our nations are at war, if they are endowed with feeling, can have but one sentiment towards their generous enemy—a sentiment overpowering all other, that of a deep-felt gratitude.’ Whatever may have been the effect of the address upon the court individually, it ap- peared at the time to have none upon them as a body. Both the men were condemned to death, and the day after the morrow was fixed for their execution. I watched the two prisoners as they went down the side to be conducted on board of their own ship. The Englishman threw himself down in the stern sheets of the boat, every minor consideration apparently swallowed up in the thought of his approaching end ; but the Frenchman, before he sat down, observ- ing that the seat was a little dirty, took out his silk handkerchief, and spread it on the seat, that he might not soil his nankeen trousers. I was ordered to attend the punishment on the day appointed. The sun shone so brightly, and the sky was so clear, and the wind so gentle and mild, that it appeared hardly possible that it was to be a day of such awe and misery to the two poor men, or of such melancholy to the fleet in gene- ral. I pulled up my boat, with the others belonging to the ships of the fleet, in obedi- ence to the orders of the officer superin- tending, close to the fore-chains of the ship. In about half an hour afterwards the prisoners made their appearance on the scaffold, the caps were pulled over their eyes, and the gun fired underneath them. When the smoke rolled away, the English- 436 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. man was swinging at the yard-arm, but the Frenchmen was not; he had made a spring when the gun fired, hoping to break his neck at once, and put an end to his misery; but he fell on the edge of the scaffold, where he lay. We thought that his rope had given way, and it ap- peared that he did the same, for he made an inquiry, but they returned him no answer. He was kept on the scaffold during the whole hour that the Englishman “remained suspended ; his cap had been removed, and he looked occasionally at his fellow-sufferer. When the body was lowered down, he considered that his time was come, and attempted to leap overboard. He was restrained and led aft, where his reprieve was read to him and his arms were unbound. But the effect of the shock was too great for his mind ; he fell down in a swoon, and when he recovered, his senses had left him, and I heard that he never recovered them, but was sent home to be confined as a maniac. I thought, and the result proved, that it was carried too far. It is not the custom when a man is reprieved to tell him so until after he is on the scaffold, with the intention that his awful situation at the time may make a lasting impression upon him during the remainder of his life ; but, as a foreigner, he was not aware of our customs, and the hour of intense feeling which he underwent was too much for his reason. I must say that this circumstance was always a source of deep regret in the whole fleet, and that his being a Frenchman instead of an Englishman increased the feeling of commiseration, highly honourable to the sailors, who are a very generous set of men.” il ~ WRECK OF THE Rovan HARTER.” A MoTuER'S flEROISM—PRDINARY JNCIDENTS OF a SAILOR'S 2 N our introduction > we remarked on some of the darker Ns sides of the story of 2% thesea. Two illus- trations with which we here present our readers bring this prominently before the mind. One 1s that of the ever- memorable wreck of the Royal Charter—that vessel which was lost almost within sight of port, when at the end of its voyage, and when its numerous pas- sengers were looking forward to a speedy landing. How applicable to such a cata- strophe are Byron’s lines :— fire AT SEA. ¢¢ Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell— Then shrieked the timid and stood still the brave— Then some leaped overboard with dreadful yell, As eager to anticipate their grave ; And the sea yawn’d around her like a hell, And down she suck’d with her the whirling wave, Like one who grapples with his enemy, And strives to strangle him before he die. And first one universal shriek there rush’d Louder than the loud ocean, like a crash Of echoing thunder ; and then all was hush’d, Save the wild wind and the remorseless dash Of billows ; but at intervals there gush’d, Accompanied with a convulsive splash, A solitary shriek, the bubbling cry Of some strong swimmer in his agony.” Our other illustration also tells a tale of suffering ; but in this case it is of individual suffering; and it is brightened by the record WRECK OF THE “ROYAL CHARTER.” 437 of an act of striking heroism. The picture well-nigh tells its own story. A mother, half mad with despair, throws herself from a sinking ship with her child in her arms. She carries overboard with her a piece of spar, which for a while supports her, but oH NN DIN We is at length torn from her grasp by the sudden assault of a wave. Then she feels that all is lost. But con- stant in her last agony to the powerful love that sways a mother’s heart, we see her making one last despairing effort, as she WRECK OF THE ‘‘ROYAL CHARTER.” holds up her child towards a rescue boat i from a passing vessel, which she has de- scried on the horizon, whilst she resigns herself to death. Her last effort was suc- cessful, but she lost her life in the effort. The child was saved, but the mother had already passed beyond the possibility of rescue (see P. 440). Let us, however, as a change from these scenes of horror, take some incidents as describing the more ordinary episodes of a sailor’s life, These will show us that if the waves are sometimes master of man, man is usually master of the waves. The occur- rences are a part of the narrative in which the story of “Two Years before the Mast” 438 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. is described. Dana, in his account, tells us on one occasion, “after sundown, it looked black at the southward and east- ward, and we were told to keep a bright look-out. Expecting to be called up, we turned in early. Waking up about mid- night, I found a man who had just come down from his watch, striking a light. He said that it was beginning to puff up from the south-east, and that the sea was rolling in, and he had called the captain; and as he threw himself down on his chest with all his clothes on, I knew that he expected to be called. I felt the vessel pitching at her anchor, and the chain surging and snap- ping, and lay awake, expecting an instant summons. In a few minutes it came— three knocks on the scuttle, and ¢ All hands ahoy! bear a hand up and make sail.” We sprang up for our clothes, and were about half-way dressed, when the mate called out, down the scuttle, ¢ Tumble up here, men! tumble up! before she drags her anchor.’ We were on deck in an instant. ‘Lay aloft and loose the topsail!’ shouted the captain, as soon as the first man showed himself. Springing into the rigging, I saw that the Ayacucho’s topsails were loosed, and heard her crew singing out at the sheets as they were hauling them home. This had probably started our captain—as ‘old Wilson’ (the captain of the Ayacucho) had been many years on the coast, and knew the signs of the weather. We soon had the topsails loosed ; and one hand re- maining, as usual, in each top to overhaul the rigging and light the sail out, the rest of us laid down to man the sheets. While sheeting home, we saw the Ayacucho stand- ing athwart our bows, sharp upon the wind, cutting through the head sea like a knife, with her raking masts and sharp bows running up like the head of a greyhound. It was a beautiful sight. She was like a bird which had been frightened, and had spread her wings in flight. After the top- sails had been sheeted home, the head yards braced aback, the fore-topmast-stay- sail hoisted, and the buoys streamed, and all ready forward for slipping, we went aft and manned the sliprope, which came through the stern port with a turn round the timber-heads. ‘All ready forward?’ asked the captain. ‘Ay, ay, sir; all ready,” answered the mate. ‘Let go!’ ¢ All gone, sir ;’ and the iron cable grated over the windlass and through the hawse- hole, and the little vessel's head, swinging off from the wind under the force of her backed head sails, brought the strain upon the sliprope. ‘Let go aft!’ Instantly all was gone, and we were under weigh. As soon as she was well off from the wind, we filled away the head yards, braced all up sharp, set the foresail and trysail, and left our anchorage well astern, giving the point a good berth. ‘Nye’s off, too,” said the captain to the mate ; and, looking astern, we could just see the little brig under sail standing after us. It now began to blow fresh; the rain fell fast, and it grew very black; but the cap- tain would not take in sail until we were well clear of the point. As soon as we left this on our quarter and were standing out to sea, the order was given, and we sprang aloft, double-reefed each topsail, furled the foresail, and double-reefed the trysail, and were soon under easy sail. In these cases of slipping for south-easters, there is nothing to be done, after you have got clear of the coast, but to lie-to under easy sail and wait for the gale to be over, which seldom lasts more than two days, and is often over in twelve hours; but the wind never comes back to the southward until a good deal of rain has fallen. ‘Go below the watch,’ said the mate; but here was a dispute which watch it should be, which the mate soon, however, settled by sending his watch below, saying that we should have our turn the next time we got under weigh. We re- mained on deck till the expiration of the watch, the wind blowing very fresh, amd the rain coming down in torrents. When the watch came up, we wore ship, and stood on the other tack, in towards land. When we came up again, which was at four in the CALM WEATFER, 439 morning, it was very dark, and there was not much wind; but it was raining as I thought I had never seen it rain before. We had on oil-cloth suits and south-wester caps, and had nothing to do but to stand bolt upright and let it pour down upon us. There are no umbrellas and no sheds to go under at sea. While we were standing about on deck, we saw the little brig drifting by us, hove- to under her fore-topsail doublereefed ; and she glided by like a phantom. Not a word was spoken, and we saw no one on deck but the man at the wheel. Toward morning the captain put his head out of the companion-way and told the second mate, who commanded our watch, to look out for a change of wind, which usually followed a calm and heavy rain ; and it was well that he did ; for in a few minutes it fell dead calm, the vessel lost her steerage- way, and the rain ceased. We hauled up the trysail and courses, squared the after- yards, and waited for the change, which came in a few minutes, with a vengeance, from the north-west, the opposite point of the compass. Owing to our precautions, we were not taken aback, but ran before the wind with square yards. The captain coming on deck, we braced up a little, and stood back for our anchorage. With the change of wind came a change of weather, and in two hours the wind moderated into the light, steady breeze which blows down the coast the greater part of the year, and, from its regularity, might be called a trade- wind. The sun came out bright, and we set royals, sky-sails, and studding-sails, and were under fair way for Santa Barbara. The little Zoriotte was astern of us, nearly out of sight; but we saw nothing of the Ayacucho. In a short time she appeared, standing out from Santa Rosa Island, under the lee of which she had been hove-to all night. * Our captain was anxious to get in before her, for it would be a great credit to us, on the coast, to beat the Ayacucho, which had been called the best sailer in the North Pacific, in which she had been known as a trader for six years or more. We had an advantage over her in light winds, from our royals and sky-sails, which we carried both at the fore and main, and also in our studding-sails; for Captain Wilson carried nothing above top-gallant- sails, and always unbent his studding-sails when on the coast. As the wind was light and fair, we held our own for some time, when we were both obliged to brace up and come upon a taut bowline, after round- ing the point; and here he had us on fair ground, and walked away from us, as you would haul in a line. He afterwards said that we sailed well enough with the wind free, but that, give him a taut bowline, and he would beat us, if we had all the canvas of the Royal George. The Ayacucho got to the anchoring ground about half an hour before us, and was furling her sails when we came up to it. This picking up your cables is a very nice piece of work. It requires some sea- manship to do it, and come-to at your former moorings, without letting go another anchor. Captain Wilson was remarkable, among the sailors on the coast, for his skill in doing this ; and our captain never let go a second anchor during all the time I was with him. Coming a little to windward of our buoy, we clewed up the light sails, backed our main-topsail, and lowered a boat, which pulled off, and made fast a spare hawser to the buoy on the end of the lip-rope. We brought the other end to the capstan, and hove in upon it until we came to the slip-rope, which we took to the wind- lass, and walked her up to her chain, the captain helping her by backing and filling the sails. The chain is then passed through the hawse-hole and round the windlass, and bitted, the slip-rope taken round outside and brought into the stern port, and she is safe in her old berth. After we had got through, the mate told us that this was a small touch of California, the like of which we must expect to have through the winter. After we had furled the sails and got dinner, we saw the Zoriotte nearing, and 440 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEZ. she had her anchor before night. At sun- down we went ashore again, and found the + Loriotte’s boat waiting on the beach. In a few minutes Captain T , with two gentlemen and one female, came down, and deal of baggage, which we put into the bows of the boat, and then two of us took the senora in our arms, and waded with her through the water, and put her down safely in the stern. She appeared much we got ready to go off. They had a good | amused by the transaction, and her hus- A MOTHER'S DEVOTION. band was perfectly satisfied, thinking any arrangement good which saved his wetting his feet. I pulled the after-oar, so that I heard the conversation, and learned that one of the men, who, as well as I could see in the darkness, was a young-looking man,.in the European dress, and covered up in a large cloak, was the agent to the firm to which our vessel belonged; and the other, who was dressed in the Spanish dress of the country, was a brother of our captain, who had been many years a trader on the coast, and had married the lady who was in the boat. She was a delicate, SHORTENING SAIL. 441 dark-complexioned young woman, and of one of the best families in California. I also found that we were to sail the same night. As soon as we got on board, the boats were hoisted up, the sails loosed, the windlass manned, the slip-ropes and gear cast off ; and after about twenty minutes’ heaving at the windlass, making sail, and bracing yards, we were well under weigh, and going with a fair wind up the coast to Monterey. The ZLoriotte got under weigh at the same time, and was also bound up to Monterey ; but as she took a different course from us, keeping the land aboard, while we kept well out to sea, we soon lost sight of her. We had a fair wind, which is something unusual when going up, as the prevailing wind is the north, which blows directly down the coast; whence the northern are called the windward, and the southern the leeward ports. We got clear of the islands before sun- rise the next morning, and by twelve o’clock were out of the canal, and off Point Con- ception, the place were we first made the land upon our arrival. This is the largest point on the coast, and is an uninhabited headland, stretching out into the Pacific, and has the reputation of being very windy, Any vessel does well which gets by it with- out a gale, especially in the winter season. We were going along with studding-sails set on both sides, when, as we came round the point, we had to haul our wind, and took in the lee studding-sails. ‘As the brig came more upon the wind, she felt it more, and we doused the sky-sails, but kept the weather studding-sails on her, bracing the yards forward so that the swinging-boom nearly touched the sprit-sail yard. She now lay over to it, the wind was freshening, and the captain was evidently ‘dragging on to her” His brother, looking a little squally, said something to him, but he only an- swered that he knew the vessel and what she would carry. He was evidently show- ing off his vessel, and letting them know how he could carry sail. He stood up to windward, holding on by the back-stays, and looking up at the sticks, to see how much they would bear, when a puff came which settled the ‘matter. Then it was, ‘haul down,” and ‘clew up,” royals, flying- jib, and studding-sails, all at once. There was what the sailors call a ‘mess ’—every- thing let go, nothing hauled in, and every- thing flying. The poor Spanish woman came to the companion-way, looking as pale as a ghost, and nearly frightened to death. The mate and some men forward were try- ing to haul in the lower studding-sail, which had blown over the sprit-sail yard-arm, and round the guys, while the topmast-studding- sail boom, after buckling up, and springing out again like a piece of whalebone, broke off at the boom-iron. I sprang aloft to take in the main top-gallant studding-sail, but before I got into the top, the tack parted, and away went the sail, swinging forward of the top-gallant sail, and tearing and slatting itself to pieces. The halyards were at this moment let go by the run; and such a piece of work I never had be- fore in taking in a sail. After great exer- tions I got it, or the remains of it, into the top, and was making it fast, when the captain, looking up, called out to me, ‘Lay aloft there, and furl that main royal’ Leaving the studding-sail, I went up to the cross-trees ; and here it looked rather squally. The foot of the top-gallant mast was working between the cross and trussel- trees, and the royal-mast lay over at a fearful angle with the mast below, while every- thing was working and cracking, strained to the utmost. : There’s nothing for Jack to do but to obey orders, and I went up upon the yard ; and there was a worse ‘mess,’ if possible, than I had left below. The braces had been let go, and the yard was swinging about like a turnpike-gate, and the whole sail having blown. over to leeward, the leeleach was over the yard-arm, and the sky-sail was all adrift, and flying over my head. I looked down, but it was in vain to attempt to make myself heard, for every one was busy below, and the wind roared, and sails were flapping 442 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. in every direction. Fortunately, it was noon, and broad daylight, and the man at the wheel, who had his eyes aloft, soon saw my difficulty, and after numberless signs and gestures, got some one to haul the necessary ropes taut. During this interval I took a look below. Everything was in confusion on deck; the little vessel was tearing through the water as if she were mad, the seas flying over her, and the masts leaning over at an angle of forty-five degrees from the ver- tical. At the other royal-masthead was a man working away at the sail, which was blowing from him as fast as he could gather it in. The top-gallant sail below me was soon clewed up, which relieved the mast, and in a short time I got my sail furled, and went below; but I lost overboard a new tarpaulin hat, which troubled me more than anything else. We worked for about half an hour with might and main, and in an hour from the time the squall struck us, from having all our flying kites aboard, we came down to double-reefed topsails and the storm-sails. The wind had hauled ahead during the squall, and we were standing directly in for the point. So, as soon as we had got all snug, we wore round and stood off again, and had the pleasant prospect of beating up to Monterey, a distance of a hundred miles, against a violent head-wind. Before night it began to rain; and we had five days of rainy, stormy weather, under close sail all the time, and were blown several hundred miles off the coast. In the midst of this, we discovered that our fore-topmast was sprung (which no doubt happened in the squall), and were obliged to send down the fore-top-gallant mast and carry as little sail as possible forward. Our four passengers were dreadfully sick, so that we saw little or nothing of them during the five days. On the sixth it cleared off, and the sun came out bright, but the wind and sea were still very high. It was quite like being at sea again : no land for hundreds of miles, and the captain taking the sun every day at noon. Our passengers now made their appearance, and I had for the first time the opportunity of seeing what a miserable and forlorn crea- ture a sea-sick passenger is. Since I had got over my own sickness, the first two days from Boston, I had seen nothing but hale, hearty men, with their sea legs on, and able to go anywhere (for we had no passengers); and I will own there was a pleasant feeling of superiority in being able to walk the deck, and eat, and go about, and compar- ing one’s self with two poor, miserable pale creatures, staggering and shuffling about decks, or holding on and looking up with giddy heads, to see us climbing to the mast- heads, or sitting quietly at work on the ends of the lofty yards. A well man at sea has little sympathy with one who is sea-sick; he is too apt to be conscious of a comparison favourable to his own manhood. After a few dayswemade the landat Point Pinos (pines), which is the headland at the entrance of the bay of Monterey. As we drew in, and ran down the shore, we could distinguish well the face of the country, and found it better wooded than that to the southward of Point Conception. In fact, as I afterwards discovered, Point Concep- tion may be made the dividing line between two different faces of the country. As you go to the northward of the point, the coun- try becomes more wooded, has a richer appearance, and is better supplied with water. This is the case with Monterey, and still more so with San Francisco; while to the southward of the point, as at Santa Bar- bara, San Pedro, and particularly San Diego, there is very little wood, and the country has a naked, level appearance, though it is still very fertile. The bay of Monterey is very wide at the entrance, being about twenty-four miles be- tween the two points, Ano Nuevo at the north, and Pinos at the south, but narrows gradually as’ you approach the town, which is situated in a bend, or large cove, at the south-eastern extremity, and about eighteen miles from the points, which makes the whole depth of the bay. The shores are extremely well wooded (the pine abounding LANDING AT MONTEREY. upon them), and as it was now the rainy season, everything was as green as nature could make it—the grass, the leaves, and all ; the birds were singing in the woods, and great numbers of wild-fowl were flying over our heads. Here we could lie safe from the south-easters. We came to anchor within two cable lengths of the shore, and 443 the town lay directly before us, making a very pretty appearance ; its houses being plastered, which gives a much better effect than those of Santa Barbara, which are of a mud colour. The red tiles, too, on the roofs, contrasted well with the white plas- tered sides, and with the extreme greenness of the lawn upon which the houses—about a hundred in number—were dotted about here and there, irregularly. There are in this place, and in every other town which I saw in California, no streets or fences (except here and there a small patch was fenced in for a garden), so that the houses are placed at random upon the green, which, as they are of one storey and of the cottage DANA ON DUTY IN THE NIGHT WATCH. form, gives them a pretty effect when seen from a little distance. It was a fine Saturday afternoon when we came to anchor, the sun about an hour high, and everything looking pleasantly. The Mexican flag was flying from the little square Presidio, and the drums and trumpets of the soldiers, who were out on parade, sounded 444 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. over the water, and gave great life to the . scene. Every one was delighted with the appearance of things. We felt as though we had got into a Christian (which, in the sailor’s vocabulary, means civilized) coun- try. The first impression which California had made upon us was very disagreeable : the open roadstead of Santa Barbara; anchoring three miles from the shore; running out to sea before every south- easter ; landing in a high surf, with a little dark-looking town, a mile from the beach, and not a sound to be heard, or any- thing to be seen but Sandwich Islanders, hides, and tallow-bags. Add to this the gale off Point Conception, and no one can be at a loss to account for our agreeable disappointment in Monterey. Beside all this, we soon learned, which was of no small importance to us, that there was little or no surf here, and this afternoon the beach was as smooth as a duck-pond. We landed the agent and passengers, and found several persons waiting for them on the beach, among whom were some who, though dressed in the costume of the country, spoke English ; and who, we after- wards learned, were English and Ameri- cans who had married and settled in the country. I also connected with our arrival here another circumstance, which more nearly concerns myself ; viz., my first act of what the sailors will allow to be seamanship— sending down a royal yard. I had seen it done once or twice at sea, and an old sailor, whose favour I had taken some pains to gain, had taught me carefully everything which was necessary to be done, and in its proper order, and advised me to take the first opportunity when we were in port, and try it. I told the second mate, with whom I had been pretty #4zck when he was before the mast, that I would do it, and got him to ask the mate to send me up the first time they were struck. Accordingly I was called upon, and went up, repeating the opera- tions over in my mind, taking care to get everything in its order, for the slightest mistake spoils the whole. Fortunately, I got through without any word from the officer, and heard the ‘well done’ of the mate, when the yard reached the deck, with as much satisfaction as I ever felt at Cam- bridge on seeing a ‘dene’ at the foot of a Latin exercise.” And no doubt our readers will think that Dana had well deserved the praise accorded to him by his superior officer the mate. It is wonderful, indeed, how cheering are words of encouragement and praise, spoken by those in authority to men who are under them. Were this generally known and felt, it is probable that more would be done in this way than is the case now, and that words of cheer, rather than oaths and curses, would be in the mouths of sea-going men. CHUSIC ON THE WATERS” 445 Missionary Fork. IT Music ON THE YaTERS "— MORAVIANS Jounp FOR *N .one occasion,” related the old sailor, “we had a strange meeting with some very worthy people. It was night. The breeze was very light—suffi- cient to keep the sails sleep- ing, and no more. Dennis Donovan and I were standing together, leaning our arms on the drum of the capstan, and looking out to windward, endeavouring to detect any indication in the dark sky as to the sort of weather we might expect. I was solacing my- self with my cheroot,and Donovan waschew- ing his cud—quid I mean,—when I thought I heard something in the air. ‘Hush! do you hear nothing?’ He suspended his mastication, and I took my cigar out of my mouth, and listened all ear—Dennis all mouth—for I could see, dark as it was, that he gaped, as if he expected to catch the sound by the tail in his teeth. ‘Again —there !’ A faint, distant strain of solemn music seemed now to float overhead on the gentle night wind, in a low, melancholy, liquid cadence—increasing like the swell of an Zolian harp, and gradually dying away again, until nothing but the small rushing of the felucca through the water was heard. Startled as I was, still ‘It came o’er my soul like the sweet south Soft breathing o’er a bed of violets.’ ¢ Benjamin Brail !” quoth the Irishman. ¢ Dennis Donovan!’ said I. And there we stood staring at each other as if we had seen a ghost. ‘right. THE faPE. ‘Pray, Mr. Peak,’ said old Dogvane, the quartermaster (in the small vessel it was a difficult thing to avoid being an eaves- dropper sometimes), ‘what do you think of that?’ The midshipman laughed. ‘Ay, you may laugh, Mr. Peak—you may laugh—but I don’t like them kind of sounds thereaway ; and mark my words, Master Peak, we shall either have a gale of wind within eight and forty hours——’ ¢ Or no, rejoined Joey. ‘I say, Donovan, that can’t be the band on board the frigate,” said Lanyard, who now joined us. His senior laughed out- ‘Band — band—why, they might give you a regular rumpti tumpti, Dick— but such a piece of sacred music as that was is altogether out of their line ; besides it was vocal, man—it was vocal.’ The weather astern of us was as yet per- fectly clear, but gradually the thickest of the pitchy curtain ZifZed from the horizon on our weather beam, suddenly disclosing the cold, blue, star-light sky—which, gradu- ally brightening, with a greenish radiance, gave token that the moon was not far below the horizon, against which the tossings of the dark waves were seen distinctly. ‘Hillo! who have we here?’ said I, as the black sails and lofty spars of a large vessel, diminished by distance into a child’s toy, were hove up out of the darkness into the clear, in strong relief against the in- creasing light of the lovely background, rolling slowly on the bosom of the dark swell, and then disappearing, as if she had slid down the watery mountain into the abyss whereout she had emerged. Pie FF 446 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEF sently the object appeared again ; and this time, by the aid of my glass, I made out a stately vessel, gracefully rising and falling on the ever-heaving waters. Anon, the bright planet, the halo round whose forehead had already lit up the clear- ing east, emerged, all pure and fresh, from the dark sea, and floated on the horizon like a crystal globe, shedding a long stream of trembling light on the sparkling and tum- bling waves. Mr. Peak at this instant called out from forward,— ¢ The commodore is showing lights, sir.’ ‘Very well—what are they?’ It was the night signal for a strange sail in the north-east. ¢ Answer it ; but mind you keep the lan- terns under the lee of the sail, so that our friend to windward may not see them.’ It was done, and I again looked in the direction where we had seen the stranger, but she had suddenly become invisible— the dazzling of the dancing moonbeams on the water preventing our seeing her. ‘She must be right in the wake of the moon, sir,” quoth Mr. Marline ; ‘I cannot make her out now at all.’ ‘Very well,’ said Lanyard again, ‘but the shine that makes her invisible to us will indicate our whereabouts surely enough to her, for it is glancing directly on our white sails.’ I had in my time learned a buccaneering trick or two. ‘ How thought you she was standing when you saw her last—when you was busy with the commodore’s lights?’ said IL. ¢ Right down for us, sir.’ ¢ Then, Dick, my beauty, if you will take my advice, you will lower away the yard and haul down the jib.’ The suggestion was taken, and we were soon rocking on the dark billows, with our solitary mast naked as a blasted pine. As I expected, to any one looking at us from windward, we must have become invisible, against the heavy bank of black clouds down to leeward ; and, in corrobora- tion of this, the strange vessel gradually emerged from out the silvery dazzle, and glided majestically down the glorious flow of bright moonlight, standing right for us, evidently unaware of our vicinity. She was not steered so steadily but that I could perceive she was a ship, sailing dead before it with all sail set to woo the faint breeze ; royals, skysails, and studding- sails aloft and alow. Presently it freshened a bit, and she took in her light and steering sails. She was now about two miles from us. The sight was beautiful ; and while some of the people were keeping a bright look- out for the commodore down to leeward, the rest of the crew were gazing out to wind- ward at the approaching vessel. I had at no time from the first thought she was a man-of-war, her sails and yards being by no means square enough; but if I had hesitated at all in the matter, the slow and awkward way in which she shortened sail must have left no doubt of the fact on my mind. ¢ There—there again—what caz that be ?’ said I involuntarily. ‘Hillo!’ sung out several of the crew forward, ‘hear you that, messmate?’ A low, still, most heavenly melody again floated down to us, but louder than before, and died meltingly away as the breeze fell, until it once more became inaudible. Since we had discarded the frigate from our thoughts, the ship to windward was now of course the only quarter from whence the sounds could proceed. I listened again, but all was still. Presently the dark out- lines of the sails of the approaching vessel became clearer. There was now a long pause, and you might have heard a pin drop on deck, when the solemn strain once more gushed forth high into the pure heavens. We all listened with the most intense attention. It was the hundredth Psalm, and I could now distinguish the blending of male and female voices in the choir. Presently the sound sank again, and gradually died away altogether. ‘The strange sail is keeping away, sir, A TALK ABOUT MINISTERS 447 and will go ahead of us if we don't bear up,’ sang out Mr. Marline from forward. She was now within a mile of us, or less, rolling heavily on the long black swell. It was once more almost calm. ‘Hoist away the sail again,” said Lan- yard, ‘and let us overhaul her. As the white canvas spread out high into the night air, on the long elastic yard, the clear moon shone brightly on it. We be- came instantly visible to those in the ship ; for we could see there was a bustle on board, and heard the sound of pulling and hauling, and the rattling of the cordage ; the blocks and gear squeaking, and the yards cheeping against the masts, as they were being braced round. They were making more sail, as if desirous of eschew- ing our company. We stood on, and presently fired a gun across her bows, as a hint to heave to ; but, in place of its being taken, it was promptly returned, the shot whistling over our masthead. ‘ Hey-day, Mr. Wadding, you had better open the magazine, if this is to be the way of it said Mr. Lanyard; ‘and beat to quarters, Mr. Marline, if you please.’ ‘Surely a craft manned by parsons, or singing men and women, don’t mean to fight ?’ said little Joe Peak to Mr. Marline. ¢ Hush, Joe, will ye?’ quoth his senior; ‘don’t you see the captain is on deck? But, entre nous, my lad, if this psalm-singing don’t stir up a gale of wind by four-and- twenty hours from this, I shall be exceed- ingly surprised.’ ¢ Pooh, pooh ; you have been taking a leaf out of Dogvane’s book,” quoth Joey. All seamen, it is well known, have a great repugnance to sail with a parson on board—that is, if he be a tortoise, or stray land parson. As for the regular chaplain —Lord love you, he is altogether another kind of affair—being his Majesty’s officer, in one sense. When we had again made sail, our friend Peter said to Lennox once more, ‘ You are above them things, I knows, Lennox ; but I thinks along with. Mr. Peak there, that these psalm-singing folks will bring us bad weather, as sure as a gun.’ “Hoot, nonsense; mony a skart has skirled, and naething followed. Peter, ye're a superstitious fule now ; why should a clergyman being on board prove a bad omen? Why should a storm arise because a minister is on board ?’ Oh!’ persisted Peter, ‘it depends on the kind of character he may have. If he is only called a parson, why, I don’t care if we shipped a dozen on ’em; but a real ordained clergyman is a very dangerous subject to the ship and all on board, take Peter Quid’s word for it.’ ‘Ay, indeed, said Lennox, ‘and the greater rogue, the greater safety : the more excellent his character, the greater danger!’ ¢ Just so,” quoth Callaghan, the Irishman whose tobacco had so plagued him when he was wounded, and who now came on deck, with his head tied up, to see the fun, and lest he ‘should miss any fighting,’ as he said; ‘and Tll give you a sufficing reason why it should be so. You sees, good people are scarce, and danger always seems to strike them soonest and most severely, but fate cares no more than a frosted potato for such poor wretches, such sure bargains as Jack Lennox and me, Now ‘Speak for yourself, friend Callaghan,’ rejoined the corporal. : “And so 1. do, to be sure; and you being a friend, I am willing to spake for ye too, ye spalpeen; so be asy—as I was saying, it can have bushelsful such as we wheneyer it chooses, as regular as we gets our own grog and grub. We are its every- day meals; but when a more valuable existence is at stake, then that is a very different matter indeed, and very different things result therefrom; and so, you see, we shall have a regular storm before to- morrow night.’ : ¢ Silence there!’ sang out Lanyard, not quite satisfied apparently with having so long played the eavesdropper. - ¢Silence, and go to stations, will ye?’ 4438 v i THE WONDERS OF THE DEEPF. Everything again relapsed into its former calm ; the vessel approached, and to pre- vent her crossing our forefoot, as she came down within pistol-shot, we edged away, and finally bore up almost alongside of her. ¢ Ho—the ship, a-hoy I” * Hillo !’ ‘What ship is that?’ This was answered Scotch fashion— ¢ What felucca is that?’ Lanyard did not choose to stand on |. ceremony ; so, to save bother, he replied, ¢ The tender to his Britannic Majesty’s ship Gazelle. So heave-to, and I will send a boat on board of you.’ The strange sail, however, kept all fast, and stood steadily on his course. ¢If you don’t shorten sail, and round-to, I will fire into you.’ Another long pause. Dick’s patience was fast evaporating ; and, ¢ All ready with the gun, there ?’ was already on his tongue, when the stranger again hailed. ¢What ship is that down to leeward, there ?’ ‘The Gazelle, was the answer. The skipper now saw that, whether we were honest or not, he had no chance of escape, especially as he perceived that the Midge sailed nearly two feet for his one; so he immediately shortened sail and hove- to, and the next minute saw Senor Ricardo and my beautiful self, all by way of a lark, alongside. When we got on deck, we found the ship in a regular bustle. Three carronades had been cast loose, round which the scanty crew, mustering some thirty hands, were clustered ; but oh, the labyrinth of slack ropes, and the confusion altogether, and the ill-trimmed sails, and the danger to the shins from misplaced wadding tubs, stray sponges, and rammers, not to forget the vagaries of three or four twelve-pound shot, that had fetched way, and were pursuing their devious courses, across and athwart. ~ Two young fellows with cutlasses had stationed themselves at each side of the gangway. ¢ Why didn’t you heave-to, sir, at once?’ ‘Because, sir,’ said the master of the vessel, whom Lanyard had addressed, ‘I had serious suspicions as to who and what you were. I now see I was mistaken ; and as a sure proof that I was so, you appear not to have taken offence at my incredulity in the first instance.’ ‘Well, well,” said the lieutenant, ship is this?’ “The Hermes, pind for the Cape of Good Hope, with an assorted cargo. Will you please step below, and look at my papers, sir?’ We descended, and on finding myself in the cabin, I was somewhat startled to perceive that the two men who had done us the honour to receive us with naked weapons at the side had followed us below. The eldest and tallest of the two was about thirty, as near as I could judge; a dark, sunburnt, very powerful man, with ‘what _a determined but not unpleasing expres- sion. The other was nearly as tall, but slighter, and of a very pale complexion. Both were dressed in white trousers and check shirts, without any other garment whatever. Who they were I could not divine. They were not seamen, I at once made out. ¢Oh, passengers, I suppose.’ I was much struck with the very hand- some figure of the master of the vessel, who sat down directly opposite me. There was a lamp burning brightly over- head, that hung down between us over the table, which cast a strong light on his face and figure. He might have been fifty years of age; very bald, but what little hair he had curled short and crisp over his ears, as black as jet, as were his eyebrows and whiskers, without the blemish of one single grey hair. He was dressed in white trousers, a check shirt, and blue jacket. His features were remarkably fine, teeth good, eyes dark and sparkling, and a forehead high and broad. The cabin appeared to be exceedingly comfortable, without being gaudily fur- IN TAFE CALIN WIiZH THE MISSIONARIES. 449 nished ; and there were several shawls, and sundry miscellaneous gloves and bonnets lying about the lockers, indicating that there must be lady-passengers on board. We found all the papers right, so far as the cargo went, and then glanced at the list of the passengers. This we found all right also. The names were usually marked with the preface ¢ Reverend,’ thus showing their sacred calling. ‘I see you are busy with the list of my passengers ; but won’t you take a little wine and water, sir?’ I bowed, and the steward immediately placed wine and glasses, and some biscuit, on the table. ‘They are missionaries, sir, for the back settlements at the Cape. Moravians, I believe you call the sect they belong to; but I care little for the denomination which their peculiar tenets have acquired for them, so long as I can say this, that a more amiable set of people I have never come across, sir ; and, man and boy, I have been to sea in passenger-carrying merchant craft for six-and-thirty years.’ : The lieutenant now, at his request, gave the correct latitude; when, finding himself farther to the eastward than he expected, he asked leave to keep company with us RN) Ld for a couple of days, as a protection against the visits of the contraband traders. = Hav- ing got the course we were steering, which, he said, would suit, although a little too westerly for him, we rose to depart, and wished the skipper good-night. ¢It is dead calm now, sir,” said he ; ¢ pos- sibly you will do me the favour to allow me to introduce you to my family, as I call my Moravian friends. They are all at tea, I believe, in the round-house, on deck.’ As I stepped off the ladder, I saw that he was right—that it was, in fact, quite calm ; and there was the little A/7dge close to, with her long taper yard wallopping about, and the sail giving a floundering flap every now and then, as she rolled about on the heave of the sea. ‘Mr. Marline’ (we were so near that there was no use for a speaking-trumpet), keep close to, if you please; I will be on board presently.’ ¢ Ay, ay, sir,” was the reply. Lanyard then turned to mine host, and followed him towards the round-house, which was built on deck, with a gangway all round it, along which the tiller ropes led, the wheel being situated under the small projecting canopy facing the quarter- deck.” 450 THE WONDERS OF 7RBE DEEr. On Boaro A Missionary VESSEL. AN MEROIC PARTY —EFFECT OF THE LABOURS LL had been dark when we came on deck— the only light being the one in the bin- fons was very hand- JO " somely lit up by two lamps hung D from the roof, which shone bril- liantly through the open door and the two windows that looked towards the quarter-deck. The wheel, with the sailor who was steering standing by it, was right in the wake of the stream of light from the door. It was striking to see his athletic figure, leaning on the rim of the wheel, his right hand grasping one of the lower spokes, while the left clutched the uppermost, on which his cheek rested; the jerk of the rudder in the calm twitch- ing his head first on this side, then on t'other. But the scene within, I shall never for- get it. The round-house was a room, as near as might be, sixteen feet long, and about fourteen feet broad at the end next the quarter-deck, narrowing to ten feet wide at the aftermost part. On each side there were two sofas, and between each of the sofas two doors, that appeared to open into state-rooms j—two shorter sofas ran across the after-part, fronting you as you entered, and placed between these two after-most sofas there was a neat brass cabin grate, now tastefully filled with a bouquet of arti- ficial flowers. In the centre of the cabin there was a long table, on which stood a tea equipage, the grateful vapour whirling up from a massive tea-pot. A venerable-looking old man, dressed in OF MissioNARIES. a large gray frieze night-gown, with a large velvet cap on his head, from beneath which long white locks escaped and spread over his shoulders, sat directly fronting the door on one of the sofas that ran athwart ships. He had been reading apparently in a large Bible that now lay close before him, with one of his elbows resting upon it, and on which his spectacles lay. I had never seen a more benign eye, and his serene, high features, whose healthy hue betokened a green old age, were lit up into the most bland and beneficent expression, as, with lips apart, disclosing a regular set of teeth, he smiled on a darling little half-naked cherub of a child about two years and a half old, that sat on the table beside him, playing with his white hairs. He was a lovely little chubby fellow—a most beautiful fair-skinned and fair-haired boy, with no clothing on but a short cam- bric shift, bound at the waist with a small pink silk handkerchief. His round, fat little arms and little stumpy legs were entirely naked; even shoes he had none, “and in his tumblifications he seemed utterly to have forgotten himself, so did he knock about. But the glorious little fellow’s head ! —his glossy, short, curling, fair hair, that frizzled out all round his head as if it had been a golden halo floating over his sunny features—his noble, wide, spreading fore- head, his dark-blue, laughing eyes, his red ripe cheeks and beautiful mouth, with the glancing ivory within !—Oh, I should weary all hands were I to dilate on the darling little fellow’s appearance ; for, next to a horse or a Newfoundland dog, I dote on a beantiful child. ‘Shall I ever have such a magnificent little chap?’ burst from my lips against my will. ‘I hope you may, sir,’ said a calm, low-pitched female voice, close to me. I then noticed two ladies there. ¢Is that your child, madam?’ said I to the eldest female. It was—and the patri- Il | hr i LIVINGSTONE’S STEAM-LAUNCH, THE ‘‘ MA-ROBERT.” archal old man, with true natural good breeding, at once broke the ice. ‘The eldest of these ladies, sir, is my daughter—the youngest is my niece and daughter-in-law.’ I made my respective bows. ¢This gentleman is my son-in-law and nephew, and this is my son.’ He here turned to the two young men, who were by this time rigged in the same kind of coarse woollen frocks that their ancient wore. They had followed us into the round-house ; but quiet and sober as they now seemed, I could not dismiss from my recollection the demonstration they had made when we first came on board. Z7en TFSSTA AYPNOISSTHW THI 1S 452 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. they seemed pugnacious enough, and by no means such men as would, when smitten on one cheek, have calmly turned the other to the smiter. They appeared sensible, strong-minded persons from their conver- sation ; not very polished, but apparently very sincere. Dick and the skipper being by this time knee-deep in nauticals, the old man addressed me. ‘You see, sir, since it has pleased the Almighty that we should be outcasts from the homes of our fathers, still, like the patriarchs of old, we have not gone solitarily forth. But tea is ready, I see; will you be seated, sir? Captain Purvis, can you pre- vail on him to be seated ?’ . The meal went on pretty much as usual. The contrast to me, between my present position and late mode of life, was very great. To find myself thus unexpectedly in a family circle, after more than six months of continual turmoil and excitement, be- wildered me, and at the same time softened my heart ; and the ancient feelings of my boyhood—the thousand old kindly remini- scences of my own house and home, began to bud like flowers in a hot-bed. When I looked on the calm, contented, virtuous group around me, and reflected that one short half-hour was to separate us for ever, I could have wept; a womanly melting of the heart came over me, so that I could scarcely speak. ‘The night is calm,’ continued the old man, ‘and Captain Purves says your vessel 1s close to us; will you not sit down, and give us the pleasure of your company a little longer? We are so recently from England, that we may be able to give you some news that may be gratifying” We did so, and the captain ordered wine and water in. By this time the little boy, who had been playing with the handle of my sword—for I must needs be rigged border- fashion—and looking up and prattling in my face, fell fast asleep on my knee, when his mother placed him on the sofa. The conversation went round, the young men opened, and soon convinced me that they were exceedingly well informed, and quite up with the enlightenment of the age; while both the ladies, in their calm quiet way, es- pecially the young matronly female, evinced a fixedness of purpose, and a determination to persevere in their desolate pilgrimage, with a perfect knowledge of its privations— indeed, I may write dangers—that I could not have believed possible in tender women. I have seldom spent a couple of hours more pleasantly, the conversation turning chiefly on recent occurrences in England. At length the old man said,—*‘ You have been already informed by the captain that we are missionaries bound for the Cape. My son-in-law and my daughter have been backwards and forwards twice, and know from personal experience the extent of the sacrifice they make in devoting themselves to the good work. My son there, and my niece, to whom he has lately been married, have never been to the station before, but they are fully aware of all that they may be called on to suffer. As for me, I am now going back to my tent in the wilderness— to utter banishment from all the elegances and comforts of civilized life, and with small prospect of ever revisiting the land of my fathers again. But I shall be buried beside my wife, under the same orange-tree, where she rests from her labours, after hav- ing been my helpmate, and, under God, my greatest earthly comfort, during my minis- try amongst the heathen, for fifteen long years. Yes, Heaven knows my cup of sorrow when she fell asleep was full to overflowing. For upwards of six months all was quiet in the settlement; upwards of fifty families had domiciled themselves within our enclosure ; and having mastered the native dialects, we had great hopes of making rapid progress, in not only enlight- ening the poor creatures by whom we were surrounded as to the things concerning their everlasting welfare, but in inducing them to adopt many of our civilized customs; for the care they had seen us bestow on the cultivation of the soil, and the success that had crowned our labours, seemed to have THE AIMS OF MISSIONARIES. 453 made a deep impression. I had left every- thing quiet and peaceable one afternoon, to look at some springes that I had set for wild fowl, when I was alarmed by a loud shouting in the direction of the station. I ran back, and found the very savages who had, as we thought, become attached to us, and had dwelt for so long amongst us, in the act of rifling our barn and carrying off the grain. My nephew and three other young missionaries were doing all they could to prevent it. On being joined by me, we were compelled to have recourse to our firearms, and eventually, after wound- ing one or two of our deluded assailants, succeeded in clearing the enclosure of them. But my poor wife’s nerves—she had been ailing for many months—had received so severe a shock, that she never held her head up afterwards. She died within the week.’ ‘And after all that you have suffered, do you still persist in returning?’ said IL ‘What a sacrifice! I can scarcely conceive any case where so great a one is called for.’ He cut me short— ‘Young man, notwithstanding all I have told you, which yet falls short of the reality, I go on my way rejoicing. I may be called an enthusiast, and I may Je an enthusiast, but I have made my election ; and although I am but as the voice of one crying in the wilderness—although as yet our ministry: amongst the poor benighted beings with whom our lot is cast, has been but as water spilt upon the barren sand, still, with the entire consciousness of the value of what I forego, I cheerfully sacrifice all the usual objects of man’s ambition, and obey what I know to be the call of the Almighty (for it is borne in on my heart), and go forth, me and mine, come what may, to preach glad tidings of great joy to those who dwell in darkness, in the perfect conviction that, if we miss our reward here, we shall assuredly find it hereafter.’ I know that missionaries of all classes have had their sincerity called in question, and there may be hypocrites amongst them as well as other men ; but I would ask this simple question—What stronger attestation, speaking of them in the general, can they give to the purity of their intentions, than by thus devoting themselves, mind, body, and estate, to the service of their Great Master, in the fearless way in which they do? As to hypocrisy—all hypocrites aim at the attainment of some worldly advantage, because they know they cannot deceive God ; but I would ask their fiercest defamers, what temporal blessing blossoms around the missionaries’ dry and sandy path, or within the whole scope of their dreary horizon, that they could not have compassed in tenfold exubérance at home, even as respectable tradespeople? And as to their being enthusiasts, that is easily settled ; no man can thrust himself permanently forth from the surface of society, for good or for evil, without being an enthusiast of some kind or another. ‘Madam,’ said I to the youngest female, ‘you have never been to those countries— to the station, as your father calls it? I know yox have never yet been exposed to its privations.” I noticed her husband smile and nod to her, as much as to say, Tell him,’ ‘No,’ said she; ‘it cannot, however, be - worse than I have painted it to myself, from his description ’—-looking across at the old gentlemen with an affectionate smile; but I hope I shall be strengthened, as my cousin has been, to endure my privations, and whatever may befall, as becomes a Christian, and the wife of a sincere one.’ I was told by the captain that the greater part of his cargo consisted of implements of . husbandry, and that to their heavenly call- ing they had added that of a competent knowledge of all the useful arts of agricul- ture ; so that, wherever such a virtuous family was planted, the savages who sur- rounded them would not only have their mental darkness dispelled, but their tem- poral condition improved, and their wants more amply supplied. We had now no further apology for remaining. I rose ; the 454 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. clash of my cutlass against the chair awoke | hands towards me—I stooped down over the sleeping child. He opened his blue | the blessed infant, and kissed his forehead. eyes where he lay on the sofa, and looked ‘Good-night,” he said; ‘good-night, and up; presently he stretched forth his little | be good boy like me.” A tear stood in my S EN 8 ~~ y N \ J Ny LPP NATIVE GIRLS POUNDING MILLET ON BOARD A MISSIONARY VESSEL. eye; for the soul of me, I could not have | the other members of this most interesting helped it. family, he placed his hands on my head. I again shook hands with the old man. ‘Young man, we thank you for your And as I was turning to take my leave of | visit and your urbanity. Our meeting has MODERN MISSIONARIES. 455 been like an oasis in the desert, like a green spot in a dry, parched land ; and we shall pray for thee to Him “ whose way is in the sea, and whose path is in the waters, and whose footsteps are not known.””’ I had no heart to speak, so, after a long pause,— “My sons,’ said the patriarch, ‘we are about concluding our Sunday evening’s service ; stay a few minutes longer.’ See- ing I hesitated, and looked towards Lan- yard, he addressed himself to him. ‘It is no great boon to concede this to us, whom in all human probability you shall never meet again.’ We bowed, and immediately the whole party stepped forth into the air, and formed a circle on the quarterdeck round the cap- stan. Everything was silent. Presently the old man said a low murmuring prayer of thanksgiving. There was another solemn pause, when all at once they chanted the following magnificent lines of Psalm cvii., so beautifully fitted to our situation :— ‘ They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, These see the works of the Lord, and His won- ders in the deep. For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths : their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and He bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the Lord for His good- ness.’ I once more wished them a good voyage. Lanyard was by this seated in the boat, and stepping to the gangway, I turned in act to descend the ship’s side, with a hold of the manrope in one hand. ~ I found the whole group had followed me, and stood round in a semicircle; even my glorious little fellow was there, sound asleep in his mother’s arms ; and as the lantern cast its dim light on their mild countenances, and lit up their figures, and the clear, pale moon shed a flood of silver light over all, I de- scended into the boat, and standing up in * the stern sheets, again wished them a pros- perous voyage. We now shoved off, as for myself, with a softened heart, and fitter to have died, I hope, than I was when the sun set. Presently the lights on board were extin- guished, and I could no longer see the figures of my friends ; but still the low mur- mur of their voices was borne towards me on the gentle breeze, until a loud ¢ Yo, heave oh,” echoed amongst the sails, and drowned them ; while a rattling and cheeping of the gear, and the hollow thumping of the men’s feet on the deck, and the groaning of the mainyard against the mast, as it was being braced round, indicated that the tall ship had once more bore up on her moonlight course.” Missionaries in our own time have per- haps not quite so many difficulties to con- tend with. Our illustration of Livingstone’s steam launch, the Ma-Robert, shows that modern science has been made to serve higher as well as lower purposes ; and our illustration of native girls pounding millet on board a missionary vessel, shows that the old native distrust has well-nigh died away before repeated acts of kindness. 456 HE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. TRIALS OF Young “FFIcERS. A WELL-DESERVYED J UNISHMENT— A SHORE JADVENTURE. 3 0 #e ''T was on a Saturday EN that I returned to my duty, and Sun- AN day being a fine RF LES12, day, we all went on OWE A i y shore to church, NG ~' with Mr. Falcon, = \ the first lieutenant. We liked going to church very much— not, I am sorry to say, from religious feelings, but for the following reason :—the first lieutenant sat in a pew below, and we were placed in the gallery above, where he could not see us, nor indeed could we see him. We all re- mained very quiet, and I may say very devout, during the time of the service ; but the clergyman who delivered the sermon was so tedious, and had such a bad voice, that we generally slipped out as soon as he went up into the pulpit, and adjourned to a pastrycook’s opposite, to eat cakes and tarts, and drink cherry-brandy, which we infinitely preferred to hearing a sermon. Somehow or other the first lieutenant had scent of our proceedings ; we believed that the marine officer informed against us, and this Sunday he served us a pretty trick. We had been at the pastrycook’s as usual, and as soon as we perceived the people coming out of church, we put all our tarts and sweetmeats into our hats, which we then slipped on our heads, and took our station at the church door, as if we had just come down from the gallery, and had been wait- ing for him. Instead, however, of appear- ing at the church door, he walked up the street, and desired us to follow him to the boat. The fact was, he had been RAN in the back room at the pastrycook’s watching our motions through the green blinds. We had no suspicion, but thought that he had come out of church a little sooner than usual. When we arrived on board and followed him up the side, he said to us as we came on deck,—¢ Walk aft, young gentlemen.’ We did ; and he desired us to ‘toe a line,” which means to stand in a row. ‘Now, Mr. Dixon,’ said he ‘ what was the text to day?’ As he very often asked us that question, we always left one in the church until the text was given out, who brought it to us in the pastrycook’s shop, when we all marked it in our Bibles, to be ready if he asked us. Dixon immediately pulled out his Bible where he had marked down the leaf and read it. ‘Oh! that was it,” said Mr. Falcon; ‘you must have remarkably good ears, Mr. Dixon, to have heard the clergyman from the pastrycook’s shop. Now, gentlemen, hats off, if you please.” We all slided off our hats, which, as he expected, were full of pastry. _¢ Really, gentlemen,’ said he, feeling the different papers of pastry and sweet- meats, ‘I am quite delighted to perceive that you have not been to church for no- thing. Few come away with so many good things pressed upon their seat of memory. Master-at-arms, send all the ship’s boys aft.’ The boys all came tumbling up the lad- ders, and the first lieutenant desired each of them to take a seat upon the carronade slides. When they were all stationed, he ordered us to go round with our hats, and request of each his acceptance of a tart, which we were obliged to do, handing first THE MIDSHIPMEN AND THE PASTRY. 457 to one and then to another until the hats were all empty. What annoyed me more than all was the grinning of the boys at their being served by us like footmen, as well as the ridicule and laughter of the whole ship’s company, who had assembled at the gangways. When all the pastry was devoured, the first lieutenant said,— ‘There, gentlemen, now that you have had your lesson for the day, you may go below.” We could not help laughing our- selves when we went down into the berth, Mr. Falcon always punished so good- humouredly, and in some way or other, his punishments were severally connected with the description of the offence. He always had a remedy for everything that he disapproved of, and the ship’s com- pany used to call him ‘ Remedy Jack.’ I ought to observe that some of my mess- mates were very severe upon the ship’s boys after that circumstance, always giving them a kick or a cuff on the head when- ever they could, telling them at the same time, ‘There’s another tart for you, you whelp.” I believe, if the boys had known what was in reserve for them, they would much rather have left the pastry alone. I must now relate what occurred to me a few days before the ship sailed, which will prove that it is not necessary to encounter the winds and waves, or the cannon of the enemy, to be in danger, when you have entered his Majesty’s service. On the con- trary, I have been in action since, and I declare, without hesitation, that I did not feel so much alarmed on that occasion as: I did on the one of which I am about to give the history. We were reported ready for sea, and the Admiralty was anxious that we should proceed. The only obstacle to our sailing was, that we had not yet completed our complement of men. The captain applied to the port-admiral, and obtained permission to send parties on shore to impress seamen. The second and third lieutenants, and the oldest midshipman, were despatched on shore every night with some of the most trust- worthy men, and generally brought on board in the morning about half a dozen men whom they had picked up in the different alehouses, or grog-shops, as the sailors call them. Some of them were re- tained, but most of them sent on shore as unserviceable ; for it is the custom, when a man either enters or is impressed, to send him down to the surgeon in the cockpit, ” where he is stripped and examined all over, to see if he be sound and fit for his Majesty’s service; and if not, he is sent on shore again. Impressing appeared to be rather serious work, as far as I could judge from the ac- counts which I heard, and from the way in which our sailors, who were employed on the service, were occasionally beaten and wounded ; the seamen who were impressed appearing to fight as hard, not to be forced into the service, as they did for the honour of the country, after they were fairly em- barked in it. I had a great wish to be one of the party before the ship sailed, and asked O’Brien, who was very kind to me in general, and allowed nobody to thrash me but himself, if he would take me with him, . which he did on the night after I had made the request. I put on my dirk, that they might know I was an officer, as well as for my protection. About dusk we rowed on shore, and landed on the Gosport side. The men were all armed with cutlasses, and wore pea-jackets, which are very short great-coats made of what they call Flushing. We did not stop to look at any of the grog-shops in the town, as it was too early; but walked out about three miles in the suburbs, and went to a house, the door of which was locked, but we forced it open in a minute, and hastened to enter the passage, where we found the landlady standing to defend the entrance. . The passage was long and narrow, and she was a very tall, corpulent woman, so that her body nearly filled it up, and in her hands she held a long spit pointed at us, with which she kept us at bay. The officers, who were the foremost, did not like to attack a woman, and she 458 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP made such drives at them with her spit, that, had they not retreated, some of them would soon have been ready for roasting. The sailors laughed and stood outside, leaving the officers to settle the business how they could. At last the landlady called out to her husband, ‘Be they all out, Jem ?’ ‘Yes,’ replied her husband, ‘they be all safe gone.” ‘Well, then,’ replied she, I'll soon have all these gone too;’ and with these words she made such a rush forward upon us with her spit, that had we not fallen back, and tumbled one over another, she certainly would have run it through the second lieutenant, who commanded the party. The passage was cleared in an in- stant, and as soon as we were all in the street, she bolted us out ; so there we were, three officers and fifteen armed men, fairly beat off by a fat old woman, the sailors who had been drinking in the house having made their escape to some other place. But I do not well see how it could be otherwise ; either we must have killed, or wounded the woman, or she would have run us through, she was so resolute. Had her husband been in the passage, he would have been settled in a very short time ; but what can you do with a woman who fights like a devil, and yet claims all the rights and immunities of the softer sex ? We all walked away looking very foolish; and O’Brien observed that the next time he called at that house he would weather the old cat, for he would take her ladyship in the rear. We then called at other houses, where we picked up one or two men, but most of them escaped by getting out at the win- dows or the back doors as we entered the front. Now there was a grog-shop which was a very favourite rendezvous of the sea- men belonging to the merchant vessels, and to which they were accustomed to retreat when they heard that the pressgangs were out. Our officers were aware of this, and were therefore indifferent as to the escape of the men, as they knew that they would all go to that place, and confide in their numbers for beating us off. As it was then one o'clock, they thought it time to go there ; we proceeded without any noise, but they had people on the look-out, and as soon as we turned the corner of the lane, the alarm was given. I was afraid that they would all run away, and we should lose them ; but, on the contrary, they mus- tered very strong on that night, and had resolved to ‘give fight.” The men remained in the house, but an advanced guard of about thirty of their wives saluted us with a shower of stones and mud. Some of our sailors were hurt, but they did not appear to mind what the women did. They rushed on, and then they were attacked by the women with their fists and nails. Notwith- standing this, the sailors only laughed, pushing the women on one side, although the blood trickled down many of their faces, Thus we attempted to force our way through them, but I had a narrow escape even in this instance. A woman seized me by the arm, and pulled me towards her. Had it not been for one of the quartermasters, I should have been separated from my party; but just as they dragged me away, he caught hold of me by the leg, and stopped them. ‘Clap on here, Peg!’ cried the woman to another, ‘and let’s have this little midship- mite ; I wants a baby to dry-nurse.” Two more women came to her assistance, catch- ing hold of my other arm, and they would have dragged me out of the grasp of the quartermaster, had he not called out for" more help on his side; upon which two of the seamen laid hold of my other leg, and - there was such a tussle (all at my expense), such pulling and hauling ; sometimes the women gained an inch or two of me, then the sailors got it back again. At one moment I thought it was all over with me, and in the next I was with my own men. At last the women laughed so much that they could not hold on, so I was dragged into the middle of our own sailors, where I took care to remain; and, after a little more squeezing and fighting, was car- ried by the crowd into the house. The A DESFERATE RESISTANCE. 459 seamen of the merchant ships had armed themselves with bludgeons and other wea- pons, and had taken a position on the tables. They were more than two to one against us, and there was a dreadful fight, as their resistance was very desperate. Our sailors were obliged to use their cutlasses, and for a few minutes I was quite be- wildered with the shouting, pushing and scuffling, collaring and fighting, together with the dust raised up, which not only blinded but nearly choked me. By the time that my breath was nearly squeezed out of my body, our sailors got the best of it, which the landlady and women of the house perceiving, they put out all the lights, so that I could not tell where I was ; but our sailors had every one seized ENTERING THE DOCKS. his man, and contrived to haul him out of the street door, where they were col- lected together and secured. Now again I was in great difficulty. I had been knocked down and trod upon, and when I did contrive to get up again, I did not know the direction in which the door lay. I felt about by the wall, and at last came to a door, for the room was at that time nearly empty, the women having followed the men out of the house. I opened it, and found that it was not the right one, but led into a little side parlour, where there was a fire, but no lights. I had just discovered my mistake, and was about to retreat, when I was shoved in from be- hind, and the key turned upon me. There I was, all alone, and, I must acknowledge, 460 THE WONDERS OF. . THE DEEP. very much frightened, as I thought that the vengeance of the women would be wreaked upon me. I considered that my death was certain, and that, like the man Orpheus I had read of in my books, I should be torn to pieces by these Bacchanals. However, I reflected that I was an officer in His Majesty’s service, and that it was my duty, if necessary, to sacrifice my life for my king and country. I thought of my poor mother ; but as it made me unhappy, I tried to forget her, and to call to my memory all I had read of the fortitude and courage of various brave men when death stared them in the face. I peeped through the keyhole, and perceived that the candles were re-lighted, and that there were only women in the room, who were talking all at once, and not thinking about me. But in a minute or two a woman came in from the street. As the door opened I drew my dirk, resolving to die like an officer, and as they advanced I retreated to a corner, brandishing my dirk, without saying a word. ‘Vell,’ cried the woman who had made me a prisoner, ‘I do declare, I likes to see a puddle in a storm—only look at the little biscuit-nibbler showing fight! Come, you belongs to me.’ ‘Never!’ exclaimed I with indignation. ¢ Keep off, or I shall do you mischief!’ and I raised my dirk in advance. ‘I am an officer and a gentleman.’ ‘No, no,’ replied another rather good- looking young woman; ‘leave him to me— don’t hurt him—he really is a very nice little man. What's your name, my dear ?’ ‘ Peter Simple is my name,’ replied I; ‘and I am a king’s officer, so be careful what you are about.” ‘Don’t be afraid, Peter,—nobody shall hurt you ; but you must not draw your dirk before ladies—that’s not like an officer and a gentleman ; so put up your dirk, that’s a good boy.’ ‘I will not, replied I, ‘unless you promise me that I shall go away un- molested.’ ‘I do promise you that you shall, upon my word, Peter—upon my honour. Will that content you?’ ‘Yes,’ replied I, ‘if every one else will ° promise the same.’ ‘Upon our honours,” they all cried to- gether ; upon which I was satisfied, and, putting my dirk into its sheath, was about to quit the room. : ¢ Stop, Peter,’ said the young woman who had taken my part; ‘I must have a kiss before you go.” ‘And so must I; and so must we all,’ cried the women. I was very much shocked, and attempted to draw my dirk again, but they had closed in with me, and prevented me. ‘But you promised that I should go away quietly,’ said I, appealing to them. ‘Well, and so you shall. But recollect, Peter, that you are an officer and a gentle- man. You surely would not be so shabby as to go away without treating us. What money have you got in your pocket?’ and, without giving me time to answer, she felt in my pocket and pulled out my purse, which she opened. ‘Why, Peter, you are as rich as a Jew,’ said she, as they counted thirty shillings on the table. I said, ¢ Take my money, but pray let me go!” But they wouldn’t listen to me. The door of the room was on the same side as the fireplace, and I perceived that the poker was between the bars, and red-hot. I com- plained that I was cold, although I was in a burning fever, and they allowed me to get up to warm my hands. As soon as I reached the fireplace I snatched out the red-hot poker, and, brandishing it over my head, made for the door. They all jumped up to detain me, but I made a poke at the foremost, which made her run back with a shriek. (I do believe that I burnt her nose.) I seized my opportunity, and escaped into the street, whirling the poker round my head, while all the women followed, hoot- ing and shouting after me. I never stopped running and whirling my poker until I was reeking with perspiration, and the poker was quite cold. Then I looked back, and found that I was alone. It was very dark; VARIOUS KINDS OF SHIPS. 461 every house was shut up, and not a light to be seen anywhere. I stopped at the cor- ner, not knowing where I was or what I was to do. I felt very miserable indeed, and was reflecting on my wisest plan, when who should turn the corner but one of the quartermasters, who had been left on shore by accident. I knew him by his pea-jacket and straw hat to be one of our men, and I was delighted to see him. I told him what had happened, and he replied that he was going to a house where the people knew him, and would let him in. When we ar- rived there, the people of the house were “very civil; the landlady ‘made us some purl, which the quartermaster ordered, and which I thought very good indeed. After we had finished the purl, we retired, and next day saw us safe on board again.” Inordertocombineinstruction with amuse- ment we accompany this narrative with some pictures of English ships past and present. Referring to page 89 we have an old English war ship, of the middle ages, then there is a sailing ship, of about the time of which we write. It is past its best days evidently, or has come from a long voyage, and sadly needs fitting up. It is entering the docks to be laid by for a time. .Our third picture (p. 465) is a trim yacht, and is a fair specimen of modern English shipbuilding. THE PirpTE AND ITs Victim, A Pevice TO SAIL Srow— A BoLp f’roNT TO PANGER. hs > N the night of the fourth day after leaving Havanna, I had come on deck. It was nearly calm, and the sails were beginning to flap against the masts. There was no moon, but the stars shone brightly. Several large fish were playing about, and I was watch- ing one of them, whose long sparkling wake pointed out his position, when the master of the brig, who had followed me, and now stood beside me at the gangway, remarked that there was an uncommon appearance in the north-west quarter. I looked, and fancied I saw a glare, as from a fire on shore, but so faint, that I could not be certain. I therefore resumed my walk on deck, along with the captain. The dew now began to fall in showers at every shake of the wet sails. ‘Why, we shall get soaked here, skipper, if the breeze don’t freshen !’ ‘Indeed, sir, I wish it would, with all my heart. I have no fancy for knocking about in this neighbourhood one minute longer than I can help, I assure you. There are some hookers cruising .in the channel here that might prove unpleasant acquaint- ances if they overhauled us. I say, steward, hand me up my night-glass. The glare on our starboard bow, down to leeward there, increases, sir.’ I looked, and saw he was right. Some clouds had risen in that direction over the land, which reflected the light of a large fire beneath in bright red masses. ¢ Are you sure that fire is on the land?’ said I, after having taken a look at it through the night-glass. GG 462 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. ‘No, I am not,” said he; ‘on the con- trary, I have my suspicions it is at sea ; how- ever, we shall soon ascertain, for here comes the breeze at last.’ We bowled along for an hour, when it again fell nearly calm; but we had ap- proached so close as to be able distinctly to make out that the light we had seen did in very truth proceed from a vessel on fire. It was now near three o’clock in the morning, and I proposed to the skipper to keep away towards the fire, in order to lend any assistance in our power to the crew of the burning vessel, if need were. ‘No, no, sir; no fear of the crew, if the vessel has taken fire accidentally, because they are well in with the land, and they could, even with this light air, run her ashore on the Florida reefs, or take to their boats ; but I fear the unfortunate craft has been set fire to by one of those marauding villains I alluded to. However, be that as it may, I will stand on our course until daylight, at any rate, when we shall be able to see about us. In the meantime, keep a bright look-out forward there—do - you hear ?’ * Ay, ay, sir.’ I was too much interested by this inci- dent to think of going below; so I re- mained on deck, as did the master, until the day dawned. As the approach of sunrise drew near, the bright yellow flame faded into a glow- ing red. Gradually the crimson colour of the clouds overhead faded and vanished. The morning lightened, the fire disappeared altogether, and we could only make out a dense column of smoke rising up slowly into the calm, grey morning sky. The object on fire was now about four miles on the starboard beam, as near as we could judge. ‘Now,’ said I, ‘there is the breeze steady at last, as it came down strong, with a hoarse rushing noise, heard long before it reached us, and roughening the blue water to windward, just as the sun rose. It was preceded by the pride of the morning, a smart shower, which pelted on our decks, and the next moment our light sails aloft filled. The topsail sheets then felt the strain of the canvas under the freshening blast—the brig lay over—the green wave curled outwards, roaring from the cutwater —the strength of the breeze struck her— and away she flew like a sea-bird before it. ‘There it is—strong and steady to be sure,” cried the captain, rubbing his hands joyously ; ¢and with such a capful of wind, I don’t fear anything here smaller than a frigate ; so haul out the boom mainsail, and set the square one ; run up the flying jib. Come, Mr. Brail, we shall keep her away, and see what is going on yonder now, since we have the old barky under command.’ ’ We rapidly approached the burning vessel, which was still becalmed, and lying motionless on the silver swell, veiled from our sight by the pillar of cloud that brooded over it, which continued to ascend straight up into the clear heaven, the top of it spreading and feathering out like the drooping leaves of some noble palm ; but the moment that the breeze which we brought along with us struck the column, it blew off like the tree I have likened it to, levelled before the blast, and streamed away down to leeward in a long whirling trail, disclosing to our view the black hull and lower masts of a large vessel, with the bright red flames gushing out from her hatchways, and flickering up the masts and spars. As the veil of smoke thinned, we sud- denly got a glimpse of a felucca, hitherto concealed by it, and to leeward of the vessel. When we first saw her she was edging away from the wreck, with the boat towing astern, rather an unusual thing at sea. Presently, she hoisted it up, and kept by the wind after us, as if she had taken time to reconnoitre, and had at length made up her mind to overhaul us. As the wreck was by this time burned to the water's edge, it was clear we could render no assistance ; we therefore made all the sail Ad QUEER WAY OF SAILING. 463 we could, and stood once more on our course. Just as we had hauled by the wind, the afterpart of the quarterdeck of the burning vessel lifted, as it were, but by no means suddenly, although the stump of the mizzen-mast flew up into the sky like a javelin launched from the hands of a giant, and clouds of white smoke burst from the hull, in the midst of which a sud- den spout of red flame shot up ; but there was scarcely any report—at least, what sound we heard was more a deadened ud than a sharp explosion. The unfortunate hooker immediately fell over on her side, and vanished suddenly below the green waves in a cloud of white steam. ‘There’s a gallant craft come to an un- timely end,’ said the captain. ‘You may say that, I rejoined; ‘and that roguish-looking little fellow to leeward has had some hand in her destruction, or I am mistaken. See if the villain has not hauled his wind, and made all the sail he can pack on her after us. Had you not better keep by the wind, Mr. Hause, and try if you can’t shake him off on a bowline.’ The hint was taken. We made all sail on the larboard tack, steadying the leeches well out ; and although the felucca did the same, it was clear we were drooping her fast. “Give me the glass’ said 1. ‘1 had strong suspicions that I knew that chap before. Let me see—ay, it is her, true enough. I know the new cloth in the afterleech of the mainsail there—there, about half-way up; but heyday, that sail was as good as new, notwithstanding, when I last saw it, but it seems strangely patched now. This must be meant as a mast.’ ¢ Pray, sir,’ said the skipper, ‘do you know that vessel 2’ ‘To be sure I do—it is the AMidge—my old friend the Midge, as I am a sailor, and no other—she that was tender to the Gazelle the other day. The little felucca sold out of the service at Havanna before we sailed. I cannot be deceived. All the Spanish passengers were by this time on deck, peering out through their telescopes at the little vessel. ‘What can keep her astern in that manner ?’ continued I; ‘she seems under all sail, yet you are leaving her hand-over- hand, and that is more than you should do, fast as you say you are, were she properly handled. ‘Why,’ said the master, joyously, ‘you don’t know the qualifications of this craft, SII ’ ¢ Probably not,’ said I. ‘We are creeping away beautifully,” con- tinued he. ‘I always knew the Ballaioo had a clever pair of heels, if there was any wind at all. Pooh, the Midge at her best could not have touched us, take my word for it, Mr. Brail. Keep her full and by, my lad” To the man at the helm—*‘Let her walk through it—do you hear? We shall show that felucca that she has no chance with us.’ I handed the glass to the skipper again. ‘ Don’t you see something towing astern yonder, as she falls off, and comes up to the wind again ?’ ‘Faith, I do,’ said he, in a hurried ana somewhat disconcerted tone, a sudden light seeming to flash on him. ‘I see a long dark object in her wake as she rises on the swell. What can it be?’ ‘What say you to its being the span- ker-boom, or a spare topmast of the vessel we saw on fire, for instance?’ said I. ‘At all events, you see it is a spar of some sort or another, and it can only be there for one purpose, to keep her astern, while she desires to appear to be carrying. all sail, and going ahead as fast as she can; it is a common trick amongst these piratical craft, I know.’ The man, with a melancholy shake of his head, coincided with me. ‘Now,’ said I, ‘listen to me. I know: that felucca well; and here I told him how and what time I had been on board of her. ‘If she casts off that drag, she will be alongside of you in a crack. In 464 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP light winds and a smooth sea, she is the fastest thing I ever saw. You have no chance if you trust to your heels; so, take my advice, and shorten sail boldly at once, get all your passengers on deck, with their trabuccos, clear away your guns, and double shot them, and see all ready for action. If you appear prepared, she will not bother you. It is not her cue to fight, unless she cannot help.it. At any rate, if you don’t frighten her off, I see she will stick by you all day, and be alongside, whether you will or no, when the night falls ; so the sooner you give him a glimpse of your charms, the better—take my word for it’ My advice was so palpably prudent, that it was instantly followed. ‘Valga me Dios !’ exclaimed one of our Spanish passengers, ‘que gente hay abordo —gracias a Dios, que este felucha no puede andar, porque hombre honesto no lo es.’ (‘ Heaven help me, what a number of people there are on board—we should be thankful that that felucca can’t sail, as she 1s not honest, that’s clear.’) Another shouted out—* Tanto gemte— tanto gente !’—(‘ Lord, what a number of people—what a number of people !’) ‘People!’ exclaimed the skipper, laugh- ing, as he slammed the joints of the glass mto each other; why, it is a deck-load of cattle, or I am a Dutchman. Oh, dear—oh, dear—why, gentlemen, your courage has all been thrown away—she is some Montego Bay trader with a cargo of dyewood, and ‘“‘ganado,” as you call them—ha, ha, ha!’ ¢And so it is,” said I, much amused, and not a little rejoiced. ‘Come, gentlemen, your warlike demonstrations have indeed been thrown away, and I suppose our friend the skipper there may secure his guns when he likes, and keep away on his course again.’ . This was done, and everything subsided into its usual quietness, except the jaw of the Dons, as to the astonishing feats #zey never would have performed; for they were all silent enough and Bob-Acreish enough so long as we had any suspicions of the felucca, but every man among them wai braver than another the moment they sax that their fears had been groundless. They now all began singing and shouting and swaggering about the decks, bristling with pistols and knives, like so many porcupines, while I was taking a careless, and, what I considered, a parting squint at the vessel. When I put my head over the high bul- wark, I naturally looked out astern, as we had by this time kept away and were going along free, in expectation of seeing him still close by the wind, but, to my great surprise, no such thing—the youth, although no nearer than before, in place of being by this time in our wake, had kept away also, ahd was now on our lee-quarter, sailing two knots for one he had been going before, and as if desirous of cutting us off. ‘I say, skipper, I don’t like this manceuvring on the part of the felucca—-she is off the wind again.’ ¢ And so she is,’ said the man. The Spaniards gathered from our coun- tenances, I suppose, that doubts had again sprung up in our minds as to the character of the vessel, notwithstanding the improba- bility of a pirate carrying a deck-load of cattle ; so they stopped their exclamations in mid volley, breaking off their patriotic songs with laughable quickness, and began to bustle with their glasses again. My original suggestion was once more the order of the day, and after seeing all clear for the second time, the skipper man- fully handed his top-gallant sails, hauled up his courses, and took a reef in his top- sails. The felucca had now no alternative but to come alongside; so she gradually drew up on our lee-quarter, so that, as the breeze laid her over, we might see as little of her deck as possible. We could now perceive that she had cast off the spar she had been towing astern. Ticklish as our situation had become, my nautical enthusi- asm fairly got the better of me, as the little beauty ranged alongside. : ¢ Look, captain-—look, man—how blandly . THE “MOSQUITO’ ~~ OR THE “MIDGE.” 465 she bends before the breeze, as if she would melt into the water like a snowflake, yet she never careens over an inch beyond that mark on her goldbright copper; and how gracefully she always rights again, See what an entry she has—not the smallest surge, or a curl of a wave at her bows. Her sharp stem cuts into it as clean as a knife, while there is not one single drop of dead water under the counter. Mortal man never saw a cleaner run—how mildly He came on deck, grimacing like an ape, and although I could perceive that he was carefully noting our strength and prepara- tions with the corner of his eye, he seemed all blandness and civility. ‘What vessel is that?’ said the captain. “The Mosquito, was the answer. Here the little fellow looked very hard at me. “Ah !’ said the skipper, ‘she is the Eng- lish tender that was sold the other day in Havanna. she skims along, and yet how fast—the very gushes from the rudder sw:»/ and meander away astern mellifluously. Oh, murder, if the sweet little thing does not slide along as smoothly as if the sea were oil I’ When she came within hail, she hauled | the foresheet to windward, and sent a small punt of a boat, pulled by two men, on board, with a curious sallow-complexioned | little monkey of a Spaniard in the stern. ‘The same,” said the baboon, evidently put out by the recognition, but not ven- turing to deny the fact; ‘she was called de Midge den—dat is Anglis for Mosquito.’ ‘Come, there is honesty in that confession at all events,” thought I, but I presently was convinced that the fellow knew me, and, what was more, saw that I had recog- nised his vessel, so his game, if he wished to throw snuff in our eyes, was clearly to take credit for candour. However, I was as yet by no means satisfied of his quality. 466 ZHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP, For instance, he gave a blundering account of the reason why they had clapped patches of old canvas on a new sail, and he posi- tively denied having had a spar towing astern to deaden her way—thus telling a deliberate lie. As to the vessel we had seen on fire, he said they knew nothing of her, that they had fallen in with her acci- dentally as we had done, and that, so far as they knew, her crew had previously taken to their boats, for there was no one on board of her, when they passed her, that they could perceive. He finished the ‘parley by saying that he was bound to Falmouth to dispose of his cargo of Nicara- gua wood and cattle, and that he had come on board for some water, as they had run short and had little left. He got a small cask filled, and then, with a repetition of his grimaces, walked over the side. Immediately on his getting on board, the felucca hauled by the wind until she got dead in our wake, where she hung for some time; but I could see they had the greatest difficulty in keeping her astern, by luffing up in the wind one moment— then letting her fall broad off, and sheering her about every way but the right one. At length he took his departure. ‘Had you not cut such a formidable appearance, Mr. Hause, you would have been treated very unceremoniously by that gentleman, take my word for it,’ said I. ‘You may say that, sir,’ said the skipper ; ‘but I hope we are now finally quit of him’? FURTHER ‘ADVENTURES WITH PIRATES. ing, about ten o’clock, I was sit- ting in the cabin with the master of the vessel The cabin had two state-rooms, as they are called in merchant- men, opening off it, one on each side of the door, and four open berths aft, shut in with green baize curtains that ran on brass rods. Each of the beds was tenanted by a Spanish passenger, while the master and I slept in cots slung in the main cabin. The Dons, tired with the exploits of the day, had by this time all bestowed themselves in their nests, and so far as we could judge by the nasal chorus going on, were sound asleep. On a sudden we heard the mate, who ap- peared to be standing aft beside the man at the wheel, hail some one forward. ‘Who is that standing on the rail at the gangway there?’ Some one answered, but we could not make out what was said. The mate again spoke—‘Whereabouts do you see it?’ ‘ There, sir—right to windward there.’ We then heard a bustle in the companion, as if some one was groping for the glass; and in a minute the mate came down to the cabin with it in his hand. ‘There is a strange sail to windward of us, sir.’ ‘What does she look like?’ said the skipper; ‘not that felucca again?’ ‘No, sir,’ said the man; ‘I think she is ALARM IN THE BRIG. 467 a large schooner; but it is so thick and dark that I cannot be certain.’ ‘Ill bet a thousand,” said I, ‘that old Dogvane was right after all, and that this little Midge, that has been buzzing round us all day, will have enacted the jackal to the lion, and brought this big fellow upon us.’ We rose and went on deck, and saw the object to windward clearly enough. She appeared to be dodging us; and when we kept away, or luffed up in the wind, she instantly manceuvred in the same fashion so soon as she perceived that we were al- tering our position from her. ‘Come, zat fellow is watching us, at any rate,’ said the captain, ‘whatever the felucca may have done. I wish we were fairly round Cape Antonio. I fear there is some concert between the two. Mr. Crosjack,’ to his mate, ‘keep a bright look-out—keep your eye on him until I take a look at the chart below : he seems determined to jam us on the Florida shore. Surely the cur- rent is stronger than I have allowed for, or we should have made more of it by this time than we have done.’ Curiosity led me to accompany the skip- per below, and we were both poring over the chart, when the mate called down— ‘The schooner has bore up for us, sir, and is coming down like an arrow on our weather quarter.’ ‘Indeed she is!’ said the skipper, dashing down his compasses and parallel- ruler with such vehemence that the former were driven through the chart, and stuck quivering in the table on one leg, like an opera-dancer ; then slamming on his hat, he jumped up the ladder. This startled the Dons. The curtains in front of the side-berths were drawn aside with a jarring rasp of the brass rings along the rods, and four Spaniards sat up, while the inmates of the two state-rooms stretched their necks to look into the cabin. ¢ Que—que—buque a barlovento?’— (‘What is it?—what—a vessel to wind- ward ?’) ‘Yes,’ said I; ‘there is a strange sail after us, and dodging us rather suspiciously.’ ¢Sospechoso ! sospechoso !—buque sos- pechoso —Ave Maria!’ and forthwith the whole lot of warriors jumped out of bed, and great was the confusion that arose while busy decorating themselves. One poor fellow, half-asleep, turned his trousers the wrong way, as if he were going to sail stern foremost, like a Dutch schuyet. Another stuck a leg into his own galligas- kins right enough; while his neighbour, half asleep, had appropriated the other branch of the subject, whereby they both lost their balance, and fell down in this Irish manacle on their noses on the cabin floor, ¢carrajoing,” and spurring each other in great wrath. The alarm in the brig had now become general, and half a dozen more of our passengers came tumbling down the com- panion ladder, having left their quarters in the steerage, as if their chance of safety had been greater in the cabin; and such a jumble of shouting and cursing and pray- ing I never heard before; some of them calling to the steward to open the hatch in the cabin floor, in order to stow away their treasure in the run, others bustling with their trabucos; some fixing flints, others ramming down the bullets before the cart- ridges, when—crack—one of their pieces went off in the confusion and filled the cabin with smoke, through which I could see several of my allies prostrate on the floor, having fallen down in a panic of fear. Finding that the danger from one’s friends below was, if not greater than what threat- ened on deck, yet sufficiently startling, I left them to shoot each other at their leisure. By this time there was neither moon nor stars to be seen, and the haze that hung on the water, although there was a fine breeze, and we were going along about seven knots, made everything so indistinct, that it was some time before I could catch the object again. At length I saw her; but as she was stem on, edging down on 468 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. us, I could not make out more than that she was a large fore-and-aft rigged vessel, decidedly not the Midge. When she had crept up within hail, she brailed up her foresail, and, under her mainsail and jib, appeared to have no difficulty in maintain- ing her position on our weather quarter, although we had set every inch of canvas that would draw. There was no light on board, and it was too dark to distinguish any one on her decks. Our master was evidently puzzled what to do; at length, seizing the trumpet, he hailed the strange sail. “What schooner is that?’ ¢ The Julia of Baltimore,” was the prompt answer. ‘ Where are you bound for?’ “Vera Cruz) A long pause, during which she was gradually edging nearer and nearer. ¢ Don’t come any closer, or I will fire into you,’ sung out our skipper; and then to me, ‘He'll be on board of us, sir, if we do not mind.’ ‘No, no,” was the laconic reply, as our persecutor luffed up in the wind, but he soon kept away again until he was right astern, and there he stuck, to our great dis- comfort, the whole blessed night, yawing about in our wake as if just to keep out of hail. We passed, as may well be imagined, a very anxious night of it. At length day dawned, and we could see about us; but, as if to baulk us, as the light increased, the schooner shertened sail still more, and steered more steadily, so that we were pre- vented from seeing what was going on upon deck. At length, at eight o'clock a.m., he set his foresail, and in ten minutes was again in his old position to windward of us. We were all at quarters once more; even the Dons, finding that there was no alternative, had determined to fight, and as he gradu- ally edged down, I asked the skipper what he thought of it. ‘I really don’t know ; I see no one on deck but the man steering, and that fellow sitting on the lee bulwark there, apparently watching us.’ ‘She does not seem to have any guns,’ said I. By this time the schooner—a long, low vessel, painted black, with a white streak—had kept up so close on our weather quarter, that by keeping away a couple of points, he could in half a minute have run his jib-boom over our taffrail. ‘If you don’t haul off; sung out the captain, ‘I will fire into you’ At this, there was a rush of men from below up the schooner’s hatchways, and her decks were in a trice covered with them. The next moment she kept by the wind, as if de- termined to bring us dead to leeward. There was now no doubt of her real character, so the captain seized the helm and luffed up across his bows so suddenly, that I thought he had carried away his jib- boom ; but he was as quick as we were, and by keeping away, cleared us, just shaving our stern, but not before he got our broadside of cannon and musketry plump into his bows. So great was his confusion, that he lost his opportunity of raking us in passing to leeward. As the brig came to the wind, the schooner shot ahead, when, by a dexterous management of the yards, the former was backed astern. ¢ Give him the other broadside, and blaze away, you Spanish villains,” shouted the skipper. He thus got t'other dose right into his stern, and we could see his recep- tion had been far more surprising than plea- sant, for our fire was only returned by an ill-directed volley of musketry, that injured no one. The few English sailors we had on board continued to ply the carronades, as he again drew ahead, and the Dons their trabucos, the latter always cowering below the brig’s bulwarks while loading, then popping up their heads and letting drive, sometimes at the enemy, at other times into the air, as if they had been shooting sea-gulls. At length, one of them was hit by a chance shot from the schooner, which was the signal for the whole lot to run below. Our friend having shot ahead out of gun-shot by this time, now hauled by the ~ wind, and once more shortened sail ; pre- “ROB ROY” MACGREGOR. 469 sently, as if he had gathered fresh courage, he came down again,—this time, from his preparations, with an evident intention of boarding us ; and since the evaporation of our Spanish allies, there is not the least doubt but he would have carried us, when, ‘a sail right ahead,” sung out by one of the crew at this most critical juncture, revived our spirits again. As if the schooner had seen her at the same moment, she instantly sheered off, hauled her wind, and made all sail on a bowline. We continued on our course under every stitch we could crowd, and in half an hour had the pleasure to see the vessel, which was standing towards us, hoist a British ensign and pennant. Presently she hailed us, when we found she was the Spider schooner, belonging to the Jamaica station, who, on being made acquainted with the nature of the attack, and the character of the vessel on our weather beam, immedi- ately made all sail in chase; but, unfortu- nately, she had no chance, and in the afternoon we had the discomfort of seeing her bear up and come down to us, the other vessel being out of sight dead to windward.” With reference to the various narratives we have given of loss of ships by fire, it may not be inappropriate here to introduce an account of a well-known individual who, early in life, had a narrow escape from death on a burning ship. This was John Macgregor, Esq., celebrated for his voyages in the Rob Roy canoe. His father, Colonel Macgregor, was on board the Kens Indiaman when that ship was destroyed by fire. He threw his son, afterwards the famous voyager, then a little child, into the boats. The father anticipated certain death, and wrote an affecting epistle with that prospect. Of this epistle we give a facsimile. He was, however, spared to see his son grow up to strong and well-regulated manhood. ON SummeER SEAs. FiSEING FOR SHARKS — A PaNGEROUS PREDICAMENT. . HE sun shone down 3 with true tropical intensity ; the heav- ing swell was like a. sea of molten silver, and every now and then a dolphin would leap close to us, while, as from the side of a watery hill, a shower of flying- fish would spring out and shoot across a liquid valley, until they dropped like a discharge of grape into the next billow. Nothing spoils one’s beauty so much as the reflection of the sun from the glass-like surface of the calm sea within the tropics, His direct rays are in some measure warded off by your hat-brim ; but were you even to turn up your ugly phiz at him, and stare him in the face, they would have compara- tively no effect to the fierceness of their heat second-hand in this way. Ob, the sickening effect of the afternoon’s glare, thus reflected, and flashed up into your face, under the snout of your chapeau, which here, like a battery taken in reverse, proves 470 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. no defence, until your eyes are blinded, | leaving the underskin so tender, that break- and your cheeks rouged and roasted, and | ing on the wheel is comfort to blowing your your neh peeled, like an ill-scraped radish, | nose. : FACSIMILE OF COL. MACGREGOR’S LETTER. I have before said, we were not, where | ing Dicky to a little water, to wash down we sat, much above four feet out of the | the soaked biscuit that, through Lennox’s water, and several flying-fish had come on | kindness, he had been feeding on, dash— board that morning ; so just as I was help- | a very large one flew right against Dennis 4 SHARK UNDER THE STERN. 471 Donovan’s cheek, and dropped walloping | honest man, did not recover his equanimity and floundering into his plate. during the whole meal. ‘Dear me, what is that?’ and Dennis, Immediately after breakfast, as he was ROB ROY (JOHN MACGREGOR) AND HIS CANOE. preparing to go on board the Gazelle, and | a low tone, as if afraid the fish should to part company regularly, one of the men, | hear, ¢A shark, sir, close under the stern.’ who was looking out astern, sung out in | We gently hauled the frigate’s boat along- 472 ZHE WONDERS OF THE DEEP side, to be out of the way, and on look- ing over the rail, there was the monster, sure enough, about three feet below the surface of the clear green water, eyeing us with the greatest composure. As if no-ways daunted, but rather deter- mined to have a nearer and better view of us, he gradually floated up, until his dorsal fin was a foot out of the water, and his head but just covered by it. We instantly got a hook baited, and let down. The fish was about twelve feet long; and, as I leant over the low stern of the vessel, when she sank on the fall of the swell, I could have touched the monster's head with a hand- spike. There was something very exciting in being on terms of such intimacy with a creature who would have thought it capital sport to have nipped you in two. He eyed the bait and the hook, and then drew back about a yard from it, and ogled me again, as much as to say,—‘Not to be had so clumsily, Master Brail ; but if you would oblige me with one of your legs, now, or even an arm, I would vastly prefer it to the piece of rancid salt-pork you offer me on that rusty piece of crooked iron there’ Here again he reconnoitred the bait, and walloped about all round it, as if laughing at us, and saying to himself,—¢No go, my boys.” He then looked up with a languish- ing eye at little Dicky Phantom, whom Lennox was now holding on the rail. Ah,’ again said sharkee to himself, I make no question, ‘ah, #Za?s the thing I want. What a morsel #az would be!’ and he made several rushes hither and thither, as one has seen a dog do, before settling down steadily on end, to look up at the morsel an urchin is tantalizing him with. At length, seeing I was so unaccommo- - dating and inexorable as not even to oblige him with a limb, and that Dicky Phantom was altogether forbidden fruit, he made an angry dart, and vanished below the counter. ‘Pooh, confound him, he can’t be hungry,’ quoth Mr. Weevil, the purser, as he hauled in the line, hand-over-hand, until the bait was close under foot; when, just as it was rising out of the water, the shark, finding that it must be either salt junk or no fare, made a sudden grab at the bait, gorged it—dashed off with 7 and, alack-a-daisy, with the purser also. Dreaming no harm, he had for a moment taken a turn of the line round his left arm as he hauled in, which, by the sudden jerk, 7az ; and if Len- nox and old Drainings had not caught him by the heels, he would have been fairly overboard. The fun now grew fast and furious, for there was the hideous fish, wal- loping and floundering, and surging about within a fathom of the purser, who was hanging over the stern, like a side of beef laid in, at sailing, for sea-stock ; his head dip-dipping into the water every now and then as the vessel rose and fell, while he struggled and spluttered and twisted in a vain attempt to get his arm loose; the shark all the time back-backing like a restive horse, and dragging and jerking about until I thought the purser’s fin would absolutely have been torn from his shoulder. All this time the crew were like to explode with laughter, while poor Weevil roared lustily,—¢Haul me in, for Heaven’s sake, my good men, or he will swallow me—haul ’ Here his head would sink into the water, and the sentence end in a great coughing and spluttering, until, just as he was on the point of being suffo- cated, out his nob would be dragged again by the pitching of the vessel, so as to en- able him to renew his shouts for succour. At length the shark, being a good deal ex- hausted, was brought close under the stern, when I sent two bullets from my double- barrelled Manton through his head, right between his eyes. ¢ Ah,” quoth old Drainings, the cook, ‘that has settled him, I’m sure of that; so lend a hand, Lennox,’—(the marine had hold of one of the purser’s legs, and the artiste the other)—‘so lend a hand, Lennox, and, during the lull, let us pull in Mr. Weevil. Ho, yo, yo, yo, oh!’ THE SHARK AGAINST THE CRE. 473 The wounded shark had borne the loss of his brains with great composure, but the instant he felt the renewed drag at the pork in his maw, as if he had been only stunned, he started of at a tangent as strong as ever ; and before you could say Jack Robinson, the purser’s starboard leg was whipped out of Jack Lennox’s clutches ; but the one to port being in old Drainings’ iron claws, was held very firmly, for he was a great ally of Weevil’s. : ‘Don’t for Heaven's sake let me go, Mr. Drainings,” roared Weevil, as if cookey had been his last hope; ¢don’t’—splutter, splutter,—¢ oh,’—cough, cough. The little vessel at this moment rolled heavily, giving a strange sort of swinging lurch or wallop, as if shaking her sides with laughter, and again dipped his head a foot under water. As the unfortunate piscator rose this time with a jerk to the surface, the shark, having had momentary scope to sink, kept his own so resolutely, that ¢/zp, as a climax to the fun, the old cook himself was torn from his hold, and away /Z¢ went next, still clinging to the purser’s leg, however, so that if his own had not been seized by Lennox and myself, he would have been overboard also. I was now like to die with laughter. I could scarcely keep my hold ; as for speaking, it was out of the question, for the shark and purser and cook, like a string of Brobdingnag sausages, were floundering in the calm water, close under our counter, all linked together, not quite ‘ladies’ chain,” by the way, although, from the half-suffocated exclamations of two of the links, it might not inaptly have been called a ‘queer chain,’ as it was. However, the matter was now getting serious. ¢ Mr. Peak, that boathook there—quick, bring the boathook.” Little Joe was no admirer of Weevil’s, and, as he made believe to hook him by the waistband of the breeches, as he struggled in the water, he contrived to dig the sharp point of the instrument into his flesh more than once; and at length, when he did catch him, it was by nothing that would hold, but by one of the pockets of his coat, which instantly gaze, and out flew into the water his snuff-box, pocket-handkerchief, and a nondescript pouch of seal-skin, rolled up. ¢ Dear me! dinna drown the spleuchan,’ exclaimed Lennox, as it dropped into the sea. ‘ Hook him again,” shouted Lanyard. ‘Oh, Lord! Captain, haul me in, haul me in, or I must let go Mr. Weevil’s leg,’ sung out cookey. ‘Don’t for goodness sake do that thing. my dear Mr. Drainings,” roared the purser. Here Joey caught him again with the boat- hook by the cape of his coat; and with the assistance of two men, he had got him a foot or two out of the water, when screed,—the cloth, which was of no kindred to that which composed Bailie Jarvie’s skirts,—gave way, and down he plumped again souse, and the splashing and strug- gling, and cursing and ‘coughing,’ and blow- ing of fish and men, were renewed with twofold extravagance, until by a fortunate dig the iron hook was finally passed through the head-band of his garments, and the canvas fortunately holding, we hauled him in, with Drainings still sticking to him like pitch or a big sucker-fish. It was a pity that such a delightful party should be separated, so, by slipping down a bowling knot over the shark’s head, and under his gills, we hoisted him also in on deck, which he soon had all to himself entirely ; I really expected he would have stove it in with the lashing of its tail. We hammered him on the head until we had crushed it to mummy ; but, like many other strange fish, he appeared to get on as well without brains as with. In fine, he would have taken the ship from us out and out, had not old Shavings watched his oppor- tunity, and nicked him on the tail with his hatchet, thereby severing his spine, when a complete paralysis instantly took place, and he lay still ; but even an hour after he was disembowelled, he writhed about the deck like an eel.” 474 TAFE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. THE MysTERY OF THE STORMY PeTREL. fA STRANGE DISCOVERY-— ASTONISHMENT OF JONATHAN, Cape Tiburoon, to take our chance of - have Eeetarted to make he passage to Port-au-Prince by the southward of St. Domin- go. It might have been five in the afternoon,—I was a little ; middy then, and had dined with the captain that day; a fine fresh forenoon we had had of it,—but not a thing was there in sight, not even a small white speck of a sail slipping along shore, apparently sailing in the white surf, and standing off full and boldly, as the painters say, from the dark background of bushes fringing the white beach. “ But why take the pains to describe so well what was not there, Dennis?” “Never you mind, but let me get along ; you can pocket the description, Benjie, and keep it for your own use.” I had just swallowed what I had sense enough to know was considered as my last glass of wine, and had come on deck, when looking out to leeward, where the setting sun was casting a blinding wake on the blue waters that blazed up in our faces, roasting our skin into the colour of scarlet, I thought I saw a dark object on the very verge of the horizon. From the afternoon having come on thick, this had not been noticed before ; but just as I had made the discovery, the look-out man at the mast- head hailed, “a strange sail abeam of us to leeward.” “Thank you for nothing,” responded the crusty lieutenant; ‘you blind beetle you, is it zow you see it? Why, we can see under her topsails from the deck here.” : ““ May be, sir,” answered the man, “but the weather has been thick as buttermilk down to leeward until this moment.” “All hands make sail,” instantly fol- lowed, and in five minutes we ran off the wind, with every rag set that we could spread. A stern chase is proverbially a long chase, and although our friend ahead set nothing, as we neared him, that he had not abroad before, the next morning broke, and we were still three miles astern of him, Jamaica being in sight to leeward. As the sun rose, the breeze freshened, and before noon we had to hand the royals, and stand by the studding-sail haulyards. The fiery sea-breeze that struck us presently quelled the courage of the chase, for he had to take in his kites also, with the loss of his fore- topmast-studding-sail ; and as we carried the breeze down with us, we were presently alongside, and I was sent on board in the boat. I touched my hat to the master. “ What brig, if you please?” “The Stormy Petrel, of and from St. John’s, New Brunswick.” “Whither bound ? ” “To Kingston, Jamaica, with a cargo of flour and notions, consigned to Macaa, Walker & Co.” All very pat, thought I—no hesitation here. “I will look at your papers, if you please,” and I unceremoniously stepped down the companion ladder, and entered the cabin. The master of the brig fol- WTHERE BE MY PAPERS, SIR,” 475 lowed me, entering with a good deal of swagger in his bearing, and slammed him- self down on the locker with his hat on. I was a little nettled at this, and again took a steady look at my gentleman ; but to make evident the cause why my sus- picions were excited, be it known that at the time I speak of the old navigation laws were in full operation; and no American or other foreign vessel was allowed to trade with our colonies, every- thing imported having to be carried in British bottoms ; so that numberless tricks were frequently put in practice by neutrals when the colonial markets were favourable, to cloak the real character of their vessels, . —amongst others, that of simulating Eng- ~ lish papers was very frequent. To return, I Ipoked at our friend. again. He was tall, sallow, and Yankee-looking in hull, spars, and rig, and his accent smelt of peach brandy—strong of the Chesapeake. He was dressed in faded nankeen trousers, rusty black coat and waistcoat, all very threadbare, the coat-sleeves scarcely reach- ing below the elbows. He wore a broad- brimmed white hat, with a rumpled and spray-washed black or rather brown crape twisted round it, but no neckcloth, his shirt collar, which was cut very high, being open in front, disclosing his long scraggy red neck, with a lump in his throat as if he had swallowed a grapeshot that had stuck half-way down. His large ill-washed frill was also open, showing his sunburnt chest, covered with a fell of shaggy red hair, as thick as a fox-cover, and his face was burned red by exposure to the sun, the skin peeling off in small pieces like the film of an egg here and there. His features were very strongly marked and coarse, one side of his mouth drooping more than the other, from which he kept swabbing the stream of tobacco juice with the back of his hand. He had little fierce grey eyes, the white being much bloodshot, and his nose was long and sharp, as near as might be of the shape and colour of a crab’s claw, with a blue peeled point. But the most curious part of the animal was the upperworks—the forehead being very broad immediately above his eyes, which were shaded by enormous shaggy, sandy- white eyebrows, like pig’s bristles; it then tapered away into a cone at the crown of his head, like the hat in vogue amongst the Roundheads in old Noll’s time. His red whiskers grew in two tufts low down on his jowls and all under his chin, and he kept spitting most abominably, and twitching the right cheek, and quivering the right eyelid, while he looked at you, in a nervous, and to me exceedingly disagreeable, manner. He had, in fine, nothing of the sailor whatever in his appearance—being more like a half-pay Methodist parson. “There be my papers, sir,” said this enticing person, tossing down a parcel of by no means dirty manuscripts. The register especially, as well as the manifest, seemed surprisingly clean, and the former, instead of being carefully enclosed in a tin box, as customary in merchant vessels, was wrapped up in brown paper. I opened the manifest, and glanced at a bundle of copies of bills of lading, called ship's blanks. The cargo answered his descrip- tion, and the bills of lading seemed to correspond with the manifest. I then lifted the register, and by it perceived that the vessel purported to be two years old, yet the document, in place of being torn and chafed at the foldings, and dirty, greasy, and defaced, was quite sound. When I opened it, after unfolding the brown paper in which it was wrapped, and threw it on the table, it absolutely and truly opened of itself, and lay flat on the table, as if unused to the rumples and creases — to the no small surprise of Jonathan himself I could perceive—thus seeming to say, “Take a look at me, Master Donovan; I am worth the perusal, perhaps.”—‘ Ha, ha,” thought I, “my fine fellow, the creases in that register are very fresh, I guess—it has not been quite two years folded, or I never saw the Liffey ;” 476 7HE WONDERS OF THE DEEP but I said never a word aloud, to the apparent great comfort of the skipper, who, "I could see, sat on thorns, while I was overhauling the papers ; for, thinks I, if he sees into me, he will haul his wind, and not come to an entry at Kingston at all, and on the high seas I cannot touch him; but then, again, as the devil would have it, were we even to decoy him into port, another man-of-war may nab him before us. My game, said I to myself, is to lull his suspicions as well as I can; and having done so, I returned to the frigate, and we ran down to Port Royal very lovingly together. . They had caught a shark during my absence, and found a tin case, loaded with a dozen musket balls, with a ship’s iH Hi ON SUMMER SEAS, manifest and register in it, in his maw. I lost no time in repairing to the cabin, and communicating to the captain my suspicions that the brig was an American, sailing under false papers; recommending that the frigate should stick close and seize him whenever he had passed the Rubicon by reporting at the fort at Port Royal. He agreed to all my suggestions ; and after determining that I was to board and seize the vessel before others could have an opportunity of doing so, ordered in dinner, and laughing, threw the bright white iron case to me that had been cut out of the maw of the shark. I opened it, and, to my surprise, found that, according to the best of my recollec- tion, the manuscript copy of the manifest answered word for word, nail for nail, with the one I had seen—the measurement of FLORIDA 5 Z, x nL n x [ > A 0 7HE “STORMY PETREL” OR THE “ALCONDA”? 477 the Yankee brig A/conda being identically the same, out and out, with that of the “ Stormy Petrel of St. John’s, New Bruns- wick.” Having communicated the coincidence to the captain, he desired me to keep my own council, which I did. The vessel was seized and libelled in the Vice-Admiralty Court, to the great apparent surprise of although the suspicion was strong against the Stormy Petrel, still she was on the point of flying away and weathering us all, when the lawyer, retained by the merchant- man, said sneeringly across the table to our advocate, “Sorry must go for damages against your client; I hope you have your recognisances and bail-bond ready.” “You are very obliging, brother Grab,” said our friend, calmly—then to the bench, NEAR PORT ROYAL. Captain Shad of the Stormy Petrel, 1 guess. The day of trial arrived; we were all in court, and so were the crew and captain of the detained vessel. Our counsel, learned in the law, made his speech, and produced his witnesses. He of the adverse faction replied, and produced his, and cross-questioned ours, and pretty con- siderable perjuries were flying about; and “May it please your honour, I am now in a position to save you further trouble, by proving, on the most undeniable evidence, by a most disinterested witness, that the vessel in court, purporting to be ‘the Stormy Petrel of St. John’s, New Bruns- wick ’” — here Jonathan’s jaw fell — “is neither more nor less ”—the Yankee’s eyes seemed like to start from their sockets— “than the American brig dloonda.” HH 478 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. “Who has peached?” screamed the Yankee, looking round fiercely among his own men, and utterly shoved off his balance. “Silence,” sang out the crier. “The, hand of Heaven is in this iniquitous matter, please your honour.” Here he produced the tin box, and took out the Alonda’s manifest and register, and confronting them with the forged papers belonging to the Stormy Petrel, the trick was instantly proved, and the vessel condemned —Jonathan, as he swung out of court, exclaiming, amidst showers of tobacco juice, “Pretty considerably done for, I reckon, and all by a wretched shark- fish. If this ben’t the most active and unnatural piece of cruelty, may I be phy- sicked all my natural days with hot oil and fish-hooks !” - So far, so true; but Dennis, honest man, superadded a few flourishes of his own, one of which was, that the spine of the shark was extracted, and preserved in the captain’s cabin, hung up to the roof; and that one of the quartermasters, “a most knowing character,” could notice certain vibrations and twistings of the vertebrae whenever any vessel with false papers was in the vicinity—even when she could not be seen from the masthead by a man with telescope ! : Exmout's AtTack ON ‘ALGIERS. V® FTER the conclusion of the great Napoleon struggle by the bat- tle of Waterloo, an attack by the English, under Sir Edward Pel- lew, afterwards Lord Exmouth, with the help of a small Dutch force, was made on the Algerian pirates. It was com- pletely successful, and 1083 Christian slaves were set free. The following is the account by one who took part in the fight :— “We were not long in harbour. Directly it was known that we were going out to fight, and not to be stuck in Malta or Gib- raltar, eating figs and exchanging biscuit for sausages, plenty of the right sort—men who had been half their lives working guns— SAILING OF THE JLEET—BEFORE THE frGHT. volunteered ; and before the 25th of July, on which day we left Portsmouth, five sail of the line (in which were the Queen Char- lotte and the Zmpregnable), three frigates of the large sort, and two of the small ones, five gunbrigs, and four bomb-vessels, were manned and ready for sea. There was no necessity for the press-gang ; only let your real tar know that he is not going to sea to do nothing, but that the old work is to be done over again, and you may catch as many of them as would man all the ships in the navy. I never saw men come on board more determined to have prize- money. Some of them, to be sure, had already been in action on shore, and mus- tered the first Sunday with a dark dab about both eyes; but they left their pay and their prize-money behind them. I'm told that half the captains and lieutenants in the JOE MILLER HITS IT. 479 navy volunteered, and that you might have manned a frigate with officers. They couldn’t go in only five large ships, unless they wentas captains of the guns. On the 28th we started from Plymouth and stood down the Channel; and from that time, when we fished the anchor, until we anchored at Algiers, we had not many hours to look after our clothes-bags. There we were, directly we had swallowed our cocoa, hard at practice with the guns. There was a twelve-pounder cast adrift on the quarter-deck, and a large target stuck from the fore-topmast studding boom, and we had to blaze away at that. Of course, when the ship rolled, the target rolled; and for a week I would have bet my half allow- ance of grog against a marine’s powder-belt that the target was as safe asa man in irons. Atlast Joe Miller hit it. I think he shut his eyes when he fired ; but he was patted on the back, and they gave him a glass of grog : and when the other first and second captains of the guns saw that if they made a hole in the rope yarns, it let rum out of the bottle, they began to be more cautious, and before we got to Gibraltar, I wouldn’t have swung in the target for all the prize- money of the galleons. I’ve seen fourteen bottles broke in the course of the morning’s exercise—and the bottle was the bull’s eye. It was as much as to say, ¢ Smash me, and the liquor will run out.” Besides this regu- lar noise, we had two days in the week to blaze away powder ; and I’m sure that the Dey of Algiers, as they call the great Turk there, must have known exactly how far off we were, from the difference of the sound. Well, Ben, after making as much sail as the ships could carry, and after blazing away as much powder as ‘would have served for the battle of St. Vincent, we came in sight of the rock, and dropped our anchors. Lots of rock scorpions were alongside in a moment, and we had a blow out of grapes for a piastre, enough for twelve in a mess. But we were not to eat and do nothing ; we had to complete the water and provisions, and we made up our powder—for stone walls take a deal of battering, and we had seen the batteries before, and knew that it would be hot work and no favour. There | were five frigates aud a corvette, all Dutch- men, under an Admiral Mynheer Capellan, who joined our squadron ; and those lads talked of nothing but schnaps and Turks from the time we anchored until we sailed. On the 14th we sailed, Dutchmen in co, and in right good order they were. They did not look quite so light aloft as we did, and when we came to reef topsails, ours were generally at the mast-head before they had got the weather earring out or a point tied ; but they stuck close to us, and from the exercise they were at, you would have thought old Van Tromp had jumped up again, and was going to work after his old fashion. On the 16th the Prometheus joined the fleet. She was come straight from Algiers, and although it was not often in men-of- war’s boats that any of the men came on board an admiral’s ship, yet the midship- man who came with Captain Dashwood just jumped up for a minute and then jumped down into the cockpit, and then up. jumps the stroke oar’s man, and we began to pick his brains for knowledge and his memory for news. ‘Sharp work, lads, we shall have of it,’ says he. ‘Every blessed morning, noon, and night, are the donkeys and the slaves carrying sand to make batteries, and they walk guns about as easily as we used to carry a coil of rope in Portsmouth dock- | yard, when the officer of the party and Whistle, the boatswain, did not like it to be rolled. They know we are coming ; they march the men into the batteries every morning, and there you see rammers and sponges turning about like a chap with two swords for a dog-vane. For the last twenty- four hours we never met a Turk who was not loading his pistols or looking into the barrels ; and the other day, when we tried to get off the Consul’s family, having clapped a midshipman’s rigging over their mast ‘heads, notwithstanding they were rather 480 TI[E WONDERS OF THE DEEZ. bluff about the bows—at least the wife and the grown daughter—yet those Turks were so hard at work getting ready for action, that they let them pass the gate, and did not know a woman from a man. I'm blessed if I didn’t think that if any born creature ought to know a man from a woman, a Turk was the fellow! and yet they looked in their faces and let them pass.’ ¢ Prometheus’ boat |” said the mid of the deck ; but it was only to get ready, so on went the coxswain with his story. ‘Our doctor was on shore to rig them out, and it was managed right well ; all the corkscrew locks were shoved under the hat, and they looked so like officers, that nobody had got the chair ready to hoist them in. Well, when the surgeon had got the mother and daughter in breeches, he gives the child, quite an infant, something to set it to sleep, and he claps it into a basket like you would a pig, and covers it up carefully, leaving the poor creature as much air as could come through the grating-work of the basket ; and taking hold of it, he clapped some fruit over all, and walks down towards the boat, whistling, “ Ob, the roast beef of Old England,” and swinging the basket about like you would a cock to set it tosleep. You know, lads, the streets of Algiers are so narrow, that when a donkey with a cargo of sand comes sailing along, you must screw up against the house and make your- self as flat as a pancake, or you might lose your storeroom altogether ; and if seven or eight of them come along like a flock of wild geese one after the other, the stopping of the first one at the gate to see what he is laden with brings all the rest in a heap, and Turk or Christian couldn’t get by. Well, it so happened that, what between a heap of donkeys, and the beating them, and the slaves who were endeavouring to pass, the doctor got jammed against the wall by a jackass. He did not care a straw about himself, because he knew he could set his victualling department right when he got on board ; but the basket was another affair, and he kept it down under the donkey’s beily, swinging it about as much as he could, and whistling the Roast Beef in sharp notes whenever the animal gave him a jam and sent the wind out of him. The Turks were laughing at the doctor, and spitting at him for a Christian ; but he did not care much about that, and when they found he took it so quietly, they thought they would jam him more tightly against the wall, and make him stick there for a full due. So what does one of the Turks do, but out sword and give the donkey a touch in the stern that would have made even a pig forge “ahead. Down went neddy’s head, and up went his tail, and he began pitching about like a ten-gun brig in a head sea, working the doctor into the wall; when smack came a stick upon his crupper. He forged ahead fast enough then, and his hind legs gave the basket such a jog that the baby awoke, and set up a cry that might have been heard at the palace. They seized the doctor and child in- stantly, and I had just time to get down to the boat and shove off with the mother and daughter. Ay, they might have found out then that they were women, for they piped their eyes and swabbed their faces, and called out for the boy and the basket; but not a word did they say about either the fruit or the doctor, who by this time, I should think, is about getting back to his own shape again. Well, lads, what do you think the Dey does? He sends for the child, and it was a toss up if he roasted and ate it, or pitched it into the harbour ; however, something went right at that time, and he sent the child on board ; but he has kept the doctor, the consul, and everybody else he could find ashore. And, Lord have mercy upon them all! I wouldn’t be in their clothes for all the shag tobacco in Virginia! You couldn’t give a chap a drop of water, could you? or perhaps your grog has been served out.’ I took the hint, Ben; but before I could wet his throat, down came the captain, the boat was off, and we under sail. - THE ADMIRAL WON'T STAND SHILLY-SHALLYING. 81 EY On the 26th we made the land, and then | admiral had made up his mind not to stand we began to look about us in earnest. The | shilly-shallying, and sending messages and ATTACK ON ALGERINE PIRATES. getting no answers ; for Turks are never in | write an answer, they take care to have a hurry to talk, and when they have to | time enough to mend their pens. As there 482 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. was no secret in the matter, we all knew what we were going about just as well as the admiral. At daylight on the morning of the 27th, when I came to relieve the quartermaster of the middle watch, there was the place in sight, and looking for all the world like a large main-topsail spread out to dry on the side of a hill; narrow towards the head and broad at the foot; the reef-points standing for streets; whilst the walls, which we could see as plainly as we could see the lighthouse, looked like the leach-ropes: It appeared nothing else, Ben, but fortifications and big guns! bat- teries south of the town, batteries north of the town, batteries over the town, and batteries under it. And then comes the pier and Mole-head, which must have taken all the donkeys between Tetuan and Tunis to have carried the stone-work alone to have built them. We lay almost becalmed, with our heads towards the place; and as we looked through the haze of the morning, the town appeared larger, and the batteries bigger, than perhaps they really were ; but when I looked round at the squadron going . to attack it, I thought that we must be blown out of the water, and that if any of us came down again with our arms and limbs, we should be jammed into our right shapes again by a donkey in the gateway. I had been on shore often before at Algiers, and I knew the place as well as if I had carried the stones to build it ; for when I was there in'the Boyne getting water, I got leave from the midshipman, after the hose was fixed and the water running, just to step through the gate and see what it was like. Well, there I saw houses jammed to- gether, built of stone, with walls so thick that I thought one could make a defence for the other, and that nothing could hurt the second street after the first one was knocked down. Then I got into the fish- market, and there was a battery, if well managed, strong enough to sink a three- decker ; and when I walked round the Mole, I said to myself, ‘I should like to see all the ships in the world come alongside of ‘the soldier, I have been spared. this, and let me have only three hundred blue-jackets, and the guns fitted with tackles’ (for I don’t understand that hand- spiking them out, when one good haul, and out it would run to the wall). Many’s the time I looked into the coffee-shop and saw these chaps sitting cross-legged like tailors, with more pistols and swords than ever were used to cut out the Hermione; and then I used to imagine that these Turks thought of nothing but smoking and fighting. They were a fine, stout set of fellows, and did not care for death any more than they did for their law against drinking grog. I've seen them turn it down by quarts, and well they may. Did any man yet have a thing denied him and not wish for it? When there’s no. liberty to go on shore, don’t we all wish to go directly ? whereas, had the word been passed ¢ for those who wanted liberty to go on shore to go aft on the quarter-deck and put their names down,” not thirty would have gone ; and I heard the parson say one morning, when somebody had eaten /%zs hot roll, that ‘like Adam with an apple, the roll never would have been touched if it had not been the property of another.’ But this is all human nature, Ben. Fancy how we boys longed for soft-tack when the first lieutenant would not let the bum-boat come alongside ; stop a man’s grog, and he’ll get drunk if he can. The time was near at hand when. many a brave fellow who was then asleep in his hammock would be lashed up in it before the morrow, or launched overboard without it; and yet how quietly they slept!—ay, many of them dreaming of home and their wives and their babies, and such-like en- cumbrance, which, by the blessed aid of It was a beautiful morning, and there was a stillness about us like the calm before the hurricane. There was the Jmpregnable, as steady as if she had been built out of the sea ; her sails were hanging dead down from the yards, not a breath of wind blew even the jib out for a second ; onboard of her all seemed as quiet below as the wind aloft, yet before WAITING FOR AN ANSWER TO THE LETTER. 483 night two hundred of her crew were either dead or wounded. Now and then one or two gulls would come screaming up towards ‘the ship to pick up what had been thrown overboard ; and then one might hear a pipe on board of one of the ships, just to break the silence. Somehow I felt quite happy when we began to slush the water about the decks, and I never liked the nose of a holy- stone so much as I did on that morning, The admiral was up early, and he sent away a boat with a flag of truce ; but he knew well enough he would get a Turk’s answer, which means, Ben, that the Great Turk would #iink about it; and that’s as much as to say, ‘ Don’t bother us : we want coffee and pipes.” Well, I watched the ad- miral—for I have seen many of them when going into action. I had a good look at Collingwood at Trafalgar, as he walked the deck as quietly as a marine officer on a Sunday morning when he is full tog for muster. I saw Nelson at St. Vincent: he was not an admiral then, but his arms worked about just as much as the stump did afterwards ; and I saw Exmouth, before and during the battle of Algiers. He seemed more thoughtful than any of them. And well he might be, for there was he with those five ships—(I’ll run over their names in a minute)—which were likely to be riddled before they anchored, or which might be so disabled as not to get to the stations which had long been chalked out for them. And even if we did get all right, anchor down and sails stopped aloft, who on these things afterwards, Ben; could look at those stone walls, and know how thick they were, and yet feel confident of success? And he who commanded us all, and who gave the word to fire, how could he look on at the double row of iron teeth peeping out bravely from the port- holes of the batteries, and not think that, close as we were to be, not one of them could be fired without carrying some execu- tion along with it? He was thoughtful; and as he stood upon the poop overhauling the town through his glass, I thought to myself, ¢ ’'m blessed if I would not sooner be “Tom Toprail, and have only to look after No. 1, than be Lord Exmouth with all the fleet upon his mind!’ One dwells but certain it was, he thought, when he first volunteered for the business, that many a hat would be without a head, and for that reason he would not take one of his own family. They came crowding all sail to get a chance of being shot—for there’s not a finer, braver set of men in the service than belong to that name. He was right. ‘No! no!’ said he; ‘I have quite enough upon my hands and head, without having the anxiety of a son with me.’ The Severn had got a slight cat’s-paw of wind, and she towed the flag of truce some distance ; but the wind deserting her, the boat shoved off, and a long, hot pull they had of it. We watched her as she came to a grapnel outside of the Mole, and waited for an answer to the letter, which a Turkish officer had carried on shore.” 484 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP Exwouth's ATTACK © ON ‘ALGIERS. (Continued.) “ THE BarTLE Races oun AND [one "— |NCIDENTS OF > 0) N down about two WV bells in the fore- 5 5 noon watch, and &2 “sy by the time we & had got our pork, and pea-soup stowed away, we were close to the land, and hove-to near enough to see the heads of the Turks’ pipes. There they were by thousands, Ben, sitting crossed-legs, with a lap full of arms and a mouth full of smoke, looking at us just as quietly as if we were some show got up by the Dey for the amusement of his subjects. But we soon altered the show. ‘Well,’ thinks I to myself, although I said it out loud to Tom Simpson the signal- man, ‘this is a pretty go! This is what it is to be a Turk! If they are killed, why, its all right! if they escape, it was all arranged it was to be so! And certain they feel that, if it’s their time to answer muster to the general roll, although we may be bunglers enough to miss them, yet that some tile would tumble upon their skulls, or some powder blow up; or some catamaran capsize, for, somehow or other, they were to go, and go they would! I wish I could think so,” I continued to Simp- son, “for my legs itch very much.’ ¢ What !” said Simpson, ‘not to run away, Tom?’ ‘No, no!’ said I. ‘Did Tom Toprail ever bob his head to a two-and-thirty pounder yet? Handle your purser’s pump THE fiGHT. /L HE breeze came | and look out, for here’s the boat coming back.’ It was a little after four bells p.m., as they write it on the log-board—and which means, Ben, I believe, ‘provisions munched,’ as it begins after dinner—that we saw the boat returning, and, as the admiral thought beforehand, without any answer. Up goes the signal, ¢ Are you ready?’ and it was a hard matter to say what ship answered first. The stops seemed to break all at the same moment, excepting on board the Superb, and the signal-man there was deter- mined not to be last, so he sent the flag aloft without any stop at all. The sails were trimmed, and each ship steered for her station. I was at the weather-wheel ; and although I did think a bit, yet I never took my eye off the light- house, which Mr. Gaze told me to keep in a line with a flagstaff. ‘Yes,’ said I to myself, ‘here we go, right before the wind on a lee-shore, to see which is hardest, iron or stone, into a place not large enough to swing a decent-sized bum-boat; and if we are to get out again, we must haul her over the Mole-head ; for the breadth across was not more than three hundred and fifty feet, and how the devil were we to work a three- decker out of that horse-pond ?’ ‘Starboard a little, Toprail!’ said the master. ‘Starboard it is, sir,” said I. The wind was light, and we slipped along gently through the water. All hands were at quarters: the sail-trimmers stood ready to shorten sail, whilst the men on the “READY 70 LIGHT THE TURKS PIPES” 4853 lower deck were to attend to the cables. Well, Ben, as we got closer and closer, I expected a Turkish salute, for now the Mole-head seemed coming on board of us. But no, there they were, sitting as I told you before, and not a blessed one of them was afraid of the flying jib-boom shoving them off the battery ! ¢ Shorten sail, Brisbane!’ said the ad- miral ; and everything was clewed up, and went gently to our station. ‘Let go the anchor, Gaze!’ said his lordship. ‘Hold on for a moment!’ said the master with a louder voice. ‘My lord, we must go a /zttle farther in ; now I think we GRACE DARLING. are about right to rake the Mole-head!’ Down went the anchor’ from the stern, a *_ hawser was run out to a brig, and the jolly old Queen Charlotte lay like a duck on the water, with her starboard broadside ready to light the Turks’ pipes. I lashed the wheel, and jumped upon the poop to assist Simpson if any signals were to be made. ¢ And,’ says I, ‘if those Turks understand English, they must think it odd that we come poking in here, right under their guns, and calling out the soundings as if we were going into one of our own har- bours.” Well, by way of letting them believe their ears if they doubted their eyes, we waited until we were all stoppered and 486 78 WONDERS OF THE 'DEEP. snug, and then we gave them three such - cheers as made the whole batch of them take their pipes out of their mouths, and they sent the smoke after the mouth-piece as coolly as I should have done at the Jolly Sailors. The admiral seemed to know what answer we should get to the cheer; and as he did not want to hurt the smokers, he waved his hat, for he was on the poop, to the Turks, and kept saying, ‘Get out of the way, will you? DI'm going to fire!’ But they looked at him with as much com- posure as a boatswain’s mate looks at a man lashed to the gratings. ‘Stupid fellows !’ said the admiral ; “w/ you get out of the way?’ And he kept waving his hat with as large a sweep as a chap makes when he is mowing the governor’s grass. Just at this time, when the Zeander was the only ship which had taken up her position besides ourselves, the silence was disturbed by a shot from the lighthouse battery, which came smack in amongst us. ‘Stand by !’ said the admiral. Two or three more followed the first; and as the fight was fairly begun by the Turks, he called out, after again waving to the people, who were close to the muzzles of the guns, ¢ Fire!’ The whole broadside was blazed at the word. Close as we were, I could see distinctly the effect of our shot. The top of the Mole-head seemed almost smashed ; but the smoke (for all the batteries opened their fire) soon clapped a stopper upon. all observations in that quarter. The Superb was the next ship to us, and she got all snug without much damage. The Minden was next to her ; then came the Albion, and last of all the Zmpregnable. These four line-of-battle ships were with their broadsides to the broadside of the Mole battery ; whilst the Severn and the Glasgow were on our larboard quarter, astern of the Zeander. The whole con- tents of the inner part of the harbour seemed determined to have a crack at the admiral ; and once or twice I wished he had walked a little farther away from me. Every now and then we heard the bomb- vessels blazing away, and we saw the shells “fall into the town and batteries, as exactly as a boy pitches a stone in a hat which is lying near him.” ExpoutH's ‘ATTACK ON ‘ALGIERS. (Continued.) froncrusion OF THE BATTLE DESTRUCTION OF THE PIRATE N the middle of all this smokeand noise, there was Mpynheer _ Capellan coming in- ¥ _® frigates, and ranging up to his station, to the southward of the town, in a style which made the admiral « say, ‘Well done, Capellan! Ah! that’s a brave nation, and right well do STRONGHOLD. they uphold the character of their country!’ The Turks blazed away at them, for now they found out what asses they had been to let us anchor without annoyance; but Mynheer and his crew took it all in good part until they anchored, and then they set to work to clear off the score; and never yet did they stand to their guns better and act more coolly than they did at Algiers. The Dutch admiral brought up astern of the Glasgow, and his squadron anchored DESPERATE EFFORT OF THE TURKS. 487 astern of him. But, Ben, of all the gallant sights that ever I saw, I never did see any- thing to beat the courage and the coolness of Wise in the Granicus. The Hebrus and she were left to fill up any opening which might be made by some ship being unable, from the lightness of the wind, to reach her situation; and there he remained out of fire, until he saw all the horses in their proper stables, and now he was to do just , as he liked. Well, he never looked any- where else, but smack in the hottest of the fire. He was not going to tail an end with the Dutchman, or get half out of range by boxing about the bomb-vessels, so he drops his courses, sets his top-gallant sails, and steers smack for the admirals flag, which he saw above the smoke; for he knew we were the closest in, and had got the warmest berth. He shortened sail all at once, ranges up between the Queen Charlotte and the Superb, and sets to work to make himself equal to a line-of-battle ship by blazing away faster than any ship in the fleet. It has been the fashion ever since that business of the Seakorse and the Turkish frigates, to say, ‘Oh! they are only Turks! what can they do?’ But I'll tell you, Ben, what they tried to do. I’m blessed if they didn’t try in a parcel of crazy boats to board us in the smoke, and set fire to the Leander! Now that business of Hamilton’s and the Hermione, which is painted up in the Hall, was a great thing ; but what think you of a parcel of Turks—fellows in large trousers and turbans, and who hardly know an oar from a neckcloth—pulling up, catch- ing crabs every moment, to board a three- decker? Why, I suppose such impertinence was never known! We could have thrashed them with wet swabs, or left them to tumble overboard, by shutting the lower deck ports, and handing them some greasy ropes over the side.” But to think even of such a thing! Well, poor fellows! they had not long to think what was coming next, for the Leander sent one broadside of round and grape in among them ; and then if any man had wanted to fish, he would have hooked a Turk. They would have bit, poor fellows, at any bait; and if I could have saved some of them, it’s not Tom Toprail who would have seen such gallant fellows made food for fishes. We soon finished the Mole-head battery, and sprang the ship round to touch up the Lighthouse battery. Those gentlemen had got it all their own way ; for unless some stray shot from the /mpregnable, or a shell or two from the bomb, gave them some- thing to think of, they were amusing them- selves with pelting away at us, as if we had been stuck in a pillory. We paid them off, and set them dancing about like a set of fellows at Portsdown fair. They never saw heads unshipped as we unshipped them. In half an hour the bottle-hitting had come into use, and they had not a gun left to blaze away at us. Although from this time our share of the shot was but sparingly served out to us, yet the other ships were upon whole allowance, and the /Jmpregnable got more than she wanted. She was, from her station, the last of the line-of-battle ships which came into action, and she took up her station in ‘as pretty a fire as ever whistled round any ship. I’ve heard say, that by some accident she was exposed to a raking fire, and that her loss was the greatest during the time she endeavoured to get her broadside to the battery. But well she repaid the Turks when the opportunity offered. However, it was requisite, if possible, to get some other ship to take a little of the fire from her, and the Glasgow tried to stand her friend ; but the wind had lulled altogether, and she could not reach the Zmpregnable. There we all were, becalmed, close under the batteries, the powder growing short, and the men getting tired; whilst the Turks—for they had forty thousand soldiers in the place—had always a fresh supply of hands, who, although they were driven into the batteries, fought like devils when they were there ; for they had no chance of escape but through their own exertions. 488 THE WONDERS OF 7HE DEEP. The shot was like hail occasionally; yet in the Queen Charlotle we had very few killed or wounded. We had knocked the batteries to atoms ; and now the admiral was for burning the fleet, or rather one or two ships which belonged to the Dey ; and which he, as he did not know the difference from a fleet or a squadron—and how should he ?—called by the name of a feet. They were burnt by Mr. Richards from our barge, and we only lost two men in so doing. glad there was no occasion for her going back. The whole batch of the Turks were burning, and one drifted out so near us that I thought my whiskers were a-fire. Well, I need scarcely tell you that the business was settled to a certainty; the ships were destroyed, the batteries beaten in, and the town shaken; but when night closed in, there we remained without a breath of wind to blow us clear of the harbour. If the calm had continued, why, Ben, between you and me, considering the But a Mr. Pocock from the Hebrus, a gentleman who had been under Sir Peter Parker in the Menelaus in Awerica, and who was a regular devil-may-care man as far as shot and shell were concerned, pushed alongside in a rocket-boat ; the Turks made a desperate attack upon him, and he and nine of his crew were killed in a minute. The boat came out with only three men left in it, and these three were half in- clined to try it again; but we were devilish TAKING OFF THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN. | magazines on board the different ships were getting so empty that the pursers’ stewards might have turned them into candle-boxes without any fear of their blowing up, I'm thinking that we might have carried sand, as well as the donkeys, to repair our own work! Ay, when the sun went down and it began to be dark, I can’t say that I felt so easy as I could have wished. I thought I should have been a slave, for I could not shut my eyes to the danger and say, ‘ Never mind, Tom; many’s the day you have WOUNDED BY 4 CHANCE SHOT. 489 weathered, and the same little cherub which sits up aloft to look after you will get you out of this scrape !’ The admiral had been wounded and had gone below, and he must have felt quite satisfied with his crew, by the cheers they gave when they heard it was nothing serious. We had already swung the ship’s head round to seaward ; but the dickens a flaw of wind by two bells had come towards us. The flag at the mast-head was hanging upright and downright like a jackass’s fore- leg; and although I kept my eyes aloft all the time, yet I could not see it move. We ran out hawsers and got boats to tow ; and about four bells a light air came from off the land; we dropped our canvas and were standing out. Well then, Ben, I felt as a man should feel who had been in such a business—blazing away from four bells in the afternoon to four bells in the first watch. I had left the poop and got to the wheel, cast off the twiddling-lines, and clapped my hands on the spokes, having given it a bit an 7 i if — =r ANI VLE NTT 7 sear ng VY Yom Mp” i: hd —— OUR COAST DEFENCES. of a twist to find out if all was right astern of us. : Although we had given up firing, the Turks had not. The batteries along the Mole could only find work for the stone- masons ; but ore or two forts over the town, and which if we had blazed at until now we never could have struck, continued to play upon us. The hawsers were cut and the tow-ropes smashed ; but as we had just steerage-way from the breeze, it did not much signify. We were creeping out, and the rest of the fleet were getting under weigh as fast as they could. The master called out, ‘Port a litle, Topraill’ 1 heard it, Ben, but I couldn’t answer. A shot had come through the quarter-deck port from that battery I told you of, and both my pins were shot off below the knee. Mr. Gaze not hearing the answer, stepped to the wheel, and I should have been dead enough if he had not called a couple of stout hands and sent me below. I saw no more of the action; but I heard the thunder roll over our heads, for it came on to rain and thunder and lightning. I heard the / 490 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. cables as they ran through the hawse-holes, and before eight bells had struck and the watch were relieved, I was in my hammock, short of both legs, and had gone through all the business of docking, without once singing out to the doctor ‘to hold his hand.’ Well, Ben, you know the rest. The Dey had had quite enough of that day; and, although he might have known that powder could not last for ever unless they could get the saltpetre out of the salt-water—and you know going to sea they hoist the blue peter—yet he was such an ass as to come to the terms we sent in by the flag of truce; whereas, had he sent back his compliments to know if he could assist the admiral in repairing his ships for him to sail back again, not all the Exmouths, or Colling- woods, or Nelsons that ever commanded fleet could have forced him to beg pardon for his impudence. We couldn’t have re- turned to the fight. I tell you, Ben, some of the ships had already taken the powder out of the brigs ; and the batteries on the hill, which had never heard the whiz of a shot or the burst of a shell, might have fired away at us until another fleet came from Spithead. : EATON It was a great action, Ben, a noble , action! a daring action! but it was a lucky action ; and as they say fortune favours the brave, so it favoured the admiral.” The illustrations with which we accom- pany the articles on Exmouth require a little notice. One is an incident of the bombardment. An officer falls overboard, and, unheeded by his late companions, and surrounded by shot and shell, he strives manfully to regain his ship. The object of this expedition was to free the slaves. We give two illustrations of still nobler efforts to free the shipwrecked. One represents the heroic efforts of Grace Darling, daughter of the lighthouse keeper, whose exploits in this direction made her so famous. The other is a lifeboat-crew engaged in similar efforts. Finally, after . describing how Algiers was defended, we show the simple and yet much better way in which our coasts are defended,—a way in which we rely more on things like the natural con- figuration of the coast, and the strength of turf ramparts, aided by a few martello towers, than on mere walls of stone and lime, which the artillery in use at the present day would smash up in no time. pi) THE CAPTAIN AND THE MATES. 491 THE MERCANTILE {MARINE. Yarious Ranks ON BoARD—THE Jor OF THE SAILOR. aE here describe the 17 duties, regulations, / and customs of an American mer- ~%» chantman. The captain, in the first place, is lord paramount. He stands no watch, comes and goes when he pleases, and is ac- countable to no one, and must _j~~» be obeyed in everything, with- out a question, even from his chief officer. He has the power to turn his officers off duty, and even to break them and make them do duty as sailors in the forecastle. Where ‘there are no passengers and no supercargo, as in our vessel, he has no companion but his own dignity, and no pleasures, unless he differs from most of his kind, but the consciousness of possessing supreme power, and occasionally the exer- cise of it. EA : ) The prime minister, the official organ, | and the active and superintending officer, is the chief mate. He is first lieutenant, boatswain, sailing-master, and quarter- master. The captain tells him what he wishes to have done, and leaves to him the care of overseeing or allotting the work, and also the responsibility of its being well done. 77%¢ mate (as he is always called, par excellence) also keeps the log-book, for which he is responsible to the owners and insurers, and has the charge of the stowage, safe keeping, and delivery of the cargo. He is also, ex-officio, the wit of the crew: for the captain does not condescend to joke with the men, and the second mate no one cares for; so that when ‘the mate” thinks fit to entertain “the people” with a coarse joke or a little practical wit, every one feels bound to laugh. The second mate’s is proverbially a dog’s berth. He is neither officer nor man. The men do not respect him as an officer, and he is obliged to go aloft to reef or furl the topsails, and to put his hands into the tar and slush with the rest. The crew call him the ¢ sailors’ waiter,” as he has to fur- nish them with spun-yarn, marline, and all other stuffs that they need in their work, and has charge of the boatswain’s locker, which includes serving-boards, marline-spikes, etc., etc. He is expected by the captain to maintain his dignity and to enforce obedi- ence, and still is kept at a great distance from the mate, and obliged to work with the crew. He is one to whom little is given, and of whom much is required. His wages are usually double those of a common sailor, and he eats and sleeps in the cabin ; but he is obliged to be on deck nearly all his time, and eats at the second table,—that is, makes a meal out of what the captain and chief mate leave. The steward is the captain’s servant, and has charge of the pantry, from which every one, even the mate himself, is excluded. These distinctions usually find him an enemy in the mate, who does not like to have any one on board who is not entirely under his control ; the crew do not con- sider him as one of their number, so he is left to the mercy of the captain. The cook is the patron of the crew, and 492 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP those who are in his favour can get their wet mittens and stockings dried, or light their pipes at the galley in the night-watch. These two worthies, together with the car- penter and sailmaker, if there be one, stand no watch, but, being employed all day, are allowed to “sleep m” at night, unless all hands are called. The crew are divided into two divisions, as equally as may be, called the watches. Of these the chief mate commands the lar- board, and the second mate the starboard. They divide the time between them, being on and off duty, or, as it is called, on deck and below, every other four hours. If, for instance, the chief mate with the larboard watch have the first night-watch, from eight to twelve, at the end of the four hours the starboard watch is called, and the second mate takes the deck, while the larboard watch and the first mate go below until four in the morning, when they come on | deck again and remain until eight, having what is called the morning watch. As they will have been on ‘deck eight hours out of the twelve, while those who had the middle watch, from twelve to four, will only have been up four hours, they have what is called a “forenoon watch below,”—that is, from eight a.m. till twelve. In a man-of- war, and in some merchantmen, this alter- nation of watches is kept up throughout twenty-four hours ; but our ship, like most merchantmen, had “all hands” from twelve o'clock till dark, except in bad weather, when we had “watch and watch.” An explanation of the * dog-watches” may, perhaps, be of use to one who has never been at sea. They are to shift the watches each night, so that the same watch need not be on deck at the same hours. In order to effect this, the watch from four to eight p.m. is divided into two half, or dog-watches, one from four to six, and the other from six to eight. By this means they divide the twenty-four hours into seven watches instead of six, and thus shift the hours every night. As the dog-watches come during twilight, after the day’s work is done, and before the night-watch is set, they are the watches in which everybody is on deck. The captain is up, walking on the weather side of the quarter-deck, the chief mate on the lee side, and the second mate about the weather gangway. The steward has finished his work in the cabin, and has come up to smoke his pipe with the cook in the galley. The crew are sit- ting on the windlass or lying on the fore- castle, smoking, singing, or telling long yarns. At eight o'clock eight bells are struck, the log is. hove, the watch set, the wheel relieved, the galley shut up, and the other watch goes below. The morning commences with the 0 on deck “turning to” at daybreak and washing down, scrubbing, and swabbing the decks. This, together with filling the “scuttled butt” with fresh water, and coil- ing up the rigging, usually occupies the time until seven bells (half after seven), when all hands get breakfast. At eight the day's work begins, and lasts until sundown, with the exception of an hour for dinner. Before we end our explanation, it may be well to define a day’s work, and to cor- rect a mistake prevalent among landsmen about a sailor’s life. Nothing is more com- mon than to hear people say, “Are not sailors very idle at sea? What can they find to do?” This is a very natural mistake, and being very frequently made, it is one which every sailor feels interested in having corrected. In the first place, then, the discipline of the ship requires every man to be at work upon something when he is on deck, except at night and on Sundays. Except at these times, you will never see a man on board a well-ordered vessel stand- ing idle on deck, sitting down, or leaning over the side. It is the officer's duty to keep every one at work, even if there is nothing to be done but to scrape the rust from the chain cables. In no state prison are the convicts more regularly set to work and more closely watched. No conversa- tion is allowed among the crew at their | duty, and though they frequently do talk ENDLESS WORK OF THE SAILOR 493 when aloft or when near one another, yet they always stop when an officer is 1igh. With regard to the work upon which the men are put, it is a matter which probably would not be understood by one who has not been at sea. When we first left port, and found that we were kept regularly em- ployed for a week or two, we supposed that we were getting the vessel into sea trim, and that it would soon be over, and we should have nothing to do but to sail the ship; but we found that it continued so for two vears, and at the end of the two years there was as much to be done as ever. As aii SHIPWRECKED SAILORS ON RAFT. has often been said, a ship is like a lady’s watch, always out of repair. When first leaving port, studding-sail gear is to be rove, all the running rigging to be exa- mined, that which is unfit for use to be got down, and new rigging rove in its place; then the standing rigging is to be over- hauled, replaced, and repaired, in a thou- sand different ways; and wherever any of the numberless ropes or the yards are chafing or wearing upon it, there “chafing gear,” as it is called, must be put on. This chafing gear consists of worming, parcelling, roundings, battens, and service of all kinds, both rope-yarns, spun-yarn, marline, and seizing-stuffs. Taking off, putting on, and 11 494 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEPF. mending the chafing gear alone, upon a vessel, would find constant employment for two or three men, during working hours, for a whole voyage. The next point to be considered is, that all the “small stuffs” which are used on board a ship—such as spun-yarn, marline, seizing-stuff, etc., etc.—are made on board. The owners of a vessel buy up incredible quantities of “old junk,” which the sailors unlay, after drawing out the yarns, knot them together, and roll them up in balls. These “ rope-yarns ” are constantly used for various purposes, but the greater part is manufactured into spun-yarn. For this purpose every vessel is furnished with a “ spun-yarn winch,” which is very simple, consisting of a wheel and spindle. This may be heard constantly going on deck in pleasant weather; and we had employ. ment, during a great part of the time, for three hands in drawing and knotting yarns and making spun-yarn. Another mead of employing the crew s “setting up ” rigging. Whenever any of ae standing rigging becomes slack (which is continually happening), the seizings and coverings must be taken off, tackles got up, and after the rigging is bowsed well taut, the seizings and coverings replaced, which is a very nice piece of work. There is also such a connection between different parts of a vessel, that one rope can seldom be touched without altering another. You cannot stay a mast aft by the back-stays without slacking up the head-stays, etc. etc. If we add to this all the tarring, greasing, oiling, varnishing, painting, scrap- ing, and scrubbing which are required in the course of a long voyage, and also remember this is all to be done in addition to watching at night, steering, reefing, furling, bracing, making and setting sail, and pulling, hauling, and climbing in every direction, one will hardly ask, “What can a sailor find to do at sea?” If, after all this labour—after exposing the lives and limbs in storms, wet, and cold, ¢¢ Wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch, The lion and the belly-pinched wolf Keep their furs dry the merchants and captains think that they have not earned their twelve dollars a month (out of which they clothe them- selves), and their salt beef and hard bread, they keep them picking oakum—ad infini- tum. This is the usual resource upon a rainy day, for then it will not do to work upon the rigging; and when it is pouring down in floods, instead of letting the sailors stand about in sheltered places, and talk, and keep themselves comfortable, they are separated to different parts of the ship, and kept at work picking oakum. I have seen oakum stuff placed about in different parts of the ship, so that the sailors might not be idle in the snatches between the frequent squalls upon crossing the equator. Some officers have been so driven to find work for the crew in a ship ready for sea, that they have set them to pounding the anchors (often done) and scraping the chain cables. The “Phila- delphia catechism ” is, ¢¢ Six days shalt thou labour and do all thou art able, And on the seventh holystone the decks and sepe the cable.” This kind of work, of course, is not kept up off Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope, and in extreme north and south latitudes ; but I have seen the decks washed down and scrubbed when the water would have frozen if it had been fresh, and all hands kept at work upon the rigging, when we had on our pea-jackets, and our hands so numb that we could hardly hold our mar- line-spikes. Before leaving this description, however, we would state, in order to show landsmen how little they know of the nature of a ship, that a ship-carpenter is constantly employed during good weather on board vessels which are in what is called perfect sea order. The Americans have a great statue of Liberty at the entrance to New York har- bour. It is a gift from France to America, and “is both ornamental and useful, as it “4d DECIDED NEGATIVE © 4953 forms a lighthouse for the illumination of New York harbour entrance. It stands on Bedloes Island, and from a torch, three hundred and five feet above low-water level, throws a powerful beam of light, which is visible at sea a hundred miles away. The statue bears the inscription, ‘ Liberty En- lightening the World.” It is illuminated by electric light, and has thirteen lamps in the arc, while fourteen incandescent burners form the rays of the diadem. The torch has five lamps, which project their illumi- nators to the sky.” SIR JoHN SAE here present our readers with an authentic portrait of Sir John Franklin, that noble-minded and heroic English- man who made 50 ) tempts to dispel the mystery which hangs over the frozen North. He penetrated to regions whois man had rarely, if ever, been before. “In the day-time,” says the record, ‘““the presence of our expedition was not disregarded. The birds shunned us in their flight, and every noise which was occasionally made, sounding strange to the place, sent to a greater distance the sea- gulls that were fishing among the rocks, and kept on the alert whole herds of animals, many of which would otherwise have been lost in sleep; causing them to raise their heads when anything fell upon our deck, and to cast a searching look over This is all very well for an exhibition; but what we want to point out is, that when it comes to the sea-voyage, liberty has usually, as explained in our article, to give way to a despotism more or less bene- volent. It must be so. Consider for a’ moment the perils of a sailor's life, as ex- emplified by our illustration of shipwrecked sailors on a raft,—a situation to which want of discipline may very likely bring them,— and then say if we dare relax the bonds of discipline. The answer will be, we think, a decided negative. FRANKLIN. SUFFERINGS OF HIS EXPEDITION—]TS TERRIBLE FATE. the bay, as if to inquire whence so unusual a disturbance proceeded. When we first rowed into this bay, it was in quiet pos- session of herds of walruses, who were so unaccustomed to the sight of a boat that they assembled about her apparently highly incensed at the intrusion, and swam to- wards her as though they would have torn the planks asunder with their tusks. The wounds that were inflicted only served to increase their rage, and I frankly admit that when I considered how many miles we were from our vessel, and what might be the result of this onset, I wished we had the support of a second boat. We continued, however, to keep them off with our fire- arms, and fortunately came off without any accident. When we afterwards came to anchor, we went better provided, and suc- ceeded in killing several of these animals upon the ice at the head of the bay.” Alas! after all Franklin's daring ex- ploits, the Arctic regions proved too strong for him. He and his brave companions 496 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. in their ships, the Zrebus and Zerror, disappeared, and none could ever tell their doom. Afterwards Dr. Rae came upon the traces of a lost expedition, and he tells the following terrible story :(— “The Eskimo,” he says, ¢“ would give us no information on which any reliance could be placed, and none of them would con- sent to accompany us for a day or two, although I promised to reward them liber- ally. Apparently there was a great objec- tion to our travelling across the country in a westerly direction.¥ Finding it was their object to puzzle the interpreter and mislead us, I declined purchasing more than a piece of seal from them, and sent them away.” On the 21st the party started westward across the peninsula. They had not pro- ceeded far, when they were met by a very intelligent Eskimo driving a dog-sledge laden with musk-ox beef. This man readily consented to accompany Rae two days’ journey. He explained that the road by which he had come would be the best for the party. Shortly after this the party was joined by another Eskimo, who had heard of white men being in the neighbour- hood, and was curious to see them. Here we must quote somewhat freely from Rae’s brief narrative : “This man (the new-comer) was very communicative ; and on putting to him the usual questions as to his having seen ‘white men’ before, or any ships or boats, he replied in the negative, but said that @ party of ¢ Kabloonans’ (whites) lad died of starvation a long distance to the west of where we then were, and beyond a large river. He stated that he did not know the exact place, that he never had been there, and that he could not accompany us so far. The substance of the information then and subsequently obtained from various sources,” continues Dr. Rae, “was to the following effect :— * “I found that it was their favourite hunting ground for musk-oxen, deer, etc., and that the natives had cackes of provisions in that direction.” —DR. J. RAE, “In the spring, four winters past (1850), whilst some Eskimo families were killing seals near the north shore of a large island, named in Arrowsmith’s charts, King William Land, forty white men were seen travelling in company southward over the ice, and dragging a boat and sledges with them. They were passing along the shore of the above-named island. None of the party could speak the Eskimo language so well as to be understood; but by signs the natives were led to believe #%e skip or ships had been crushed by ice, and that they were then going to where they expected to find deer to shoot. From the appearance of the men (all of whom, with the exception of one officer, were hauling on the drag-ropes of the sledges, and were looking thin), they were then supposed to be getting short of provisions, and they purchased a small seal, or piece of seal, from the natives. The officer was described as being a tall, stout, middle-aged man. When their day’s journey terminated, they pitched tents to rest in. At a later date the same season, but previous to the disruption of the ice, the corpses of some thirty persons and some graves were discovered on the continent, and five dead bodies on an island near it, about a long day’s journey to the north-west of the mouth of a large stream, which can be no other than Back’s Great Fish River, as its description and that of the low shore in the neighbourhood of Point Ogle and Montreal Island agree exactly with that of Sir George Back. Some of the bodies were in a tent or tents, others were under the boat, which had been turned over to form a shelter, and some lay scattered about in different directions. Of those seen on the island, it was supposed that one was that of an officer (chief), as he had a telescope strapped over his shoulders, and his double- barrelled gun lay underneath him. From the mutilated state of many of the bodies, and the contents of the kettles, it is evident that our wretched countrymen had been given to the last dread alternative—cannibalism —as a means of sustaining life. A few of “S/R JOHN FRANKLIN, K.CB.” 497 the unfortunate men must have survived until the arrival of the wild-fowl (say until the end of May), as shots were heard, and fresh bones and feathers of geese were noticed near the scene of the sad event. There appears to have been an abun- dant store of ammunition, as the gun- powder was emptied by the natives in a heap on the ground, out of the kegs or cases containing it, and a quantity of shot and ball was found below high-water mark, having probably been left on the ice close to the beach, before the spring thaw com- menced. There must have been a number of telescopes, guns (some of them double- barrelled), watches, compasses, etc., all of which seem to have been broken up, as I saw pieces of these different articles with the natives ; and I purchased as many as possible, Zogether with some silver spoons and Jorks, an order of merit in the form of a star, and a small plate engraved ‘Sir John Franklin, K.C.B.)” Although in time more was learned, yet there .was doubt as to the exact fate of Franklin till Captain McClintock, in his 498 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. northward expedition in the Fox, found manuscript records expressly stating that H.M. ships Erebus and Zerror were de- serted on 22nd April, 1848, and that Sir John Franklin died rith June, 1847; so the sad mystery was solved at last. Arctic Expepition oF Sir George NaREs. MONGST the many ‘a attempts to reach the 6 & North Pole, that of the great English Expedition of 1875—1876 will be for ever memorable. It was “the last polar expedi- tion from this country, and left Portsmouth under the command of George Nares, amid the deafening cheers of thousands of spectators who crowded the steamers and yachts and Southsea beach; and if ardent and patriotic wishes could have accomplished it, the aim of the enter- prise would certainly have been fulfilled. The daring of the explorers was ‘to attain the highest northern latitude, and, if pos- sible, to reach the North Pole.’ The two screw-steamers, the Alert and Discovery, carried ample provisions for three years, in the form of many tons of bread, beef, pork, bacon, coffee, sugar, flour, and preserved meats; they procured Esquimaux dogs, and two Esquimaux men on the Green- land coast; and all went smoothly and pleasantly on the whole, until the vessels reached the portals of Smith Sound. Hitherto the crew had little above ordinary seamen’s troubles, and they had leisure to admire the novel glories of the glacial scenery that lay in white calm in the light of a never.setting sun, and to wonder at the fantastic forms of the icebergs past JHE PALZOCRYSTIC SEA—BRAVE HEARTS IN THE frorp 23 NorTH. which they steamed securely ; but now the ice presented to them a barrier that looked as solid as the gates of Gaza, to all appear- ance utterly impenetrable. Their hopes rose and fell with the openness or density of the pack through which they passed ; sometimes they ‘bowled along at full speed in streams of open water,” at other times they were hopelessly blocked, or struggling amid floes of ice twenty feet in thickness, at a fearful expenditure of manual toil, daring, and gunpowder. On the 26th of August, the Discovery was left in winter- quarters in Lady Franklin Sound in a land- locked bay (81° 44’ N.), this spot being selected because the land around, though hemmed in by grand precipitous cliffs, was covered with a fair amount of vegeta- tion—sorrel, willows, saxifrages, and grasses —while there were abundant traces of musk- oxen, hares, foxes, and ptarmigan; and flocks of the cheery snow-buntings, whose notes are the harbingers and tokens of summer, chirped about and tried to extract a little water from the frozen streams. The Alert attempted to proceed north on her own account, as far as possible. But progress up Robeson Channel was beset with immense difficulty and ever- growing danger ; tantalizing fogs enveloped her, and Sir George Nares having observed that the floes, instead of being only some eight or ten feet thick, as at the entrance to CLOSE OF 7HE “ ALERTS” NORTHWARD VOYAGE. 499 Smith Sound, had now attained a density of eighty feet, believed that the Alert was indeed approaching ‘the same sea which gave birth to the heavy ice which sealed up the Znvestigator for ever in the Bay of Mercy ; the same ice that conquered Parry in 1820 ; that beset and never let free the Erebus and Zerror of Franklin and Crozier ; and which streamed along the east coast of Greenland and destroyed the Hansa’ Suddenly and unexpectedly she came to a block ; the vessel was fortunately run close up to the end of the water-channel and se- cured to a floe which rested on the shore of Cape Sheridan (82° 26’ N.), with no further protection than the mighty masses of ice, from twenty to sixty feet high, which had grounded at a little distance from the shore. This day, the 1st of September, marks the close of the A/er#’s northward voyage, but her commander could at least take credit for having reached a higher point than any previous ship had done. Fortu- nately their breakwater remained secure during the whole winter, although there was considerable danger lest some heavy floe should sweep down on the pack, smash it up and shiver their vessel into atoms like a child’s sawdust toy. There were, in fact, on the borders of the Sea of Ancient Ice— the Paleocrystic Sea—which the sledge ex- pedition of the following spring proved to be almost impassable, at least so hummocky, besnowed, and crevassed, that on his return homewards during the following year Sir ‘George Nares briefly telegraphed to Eng- land :—* POLE IMPRACTICABLE : no land to northward.’ ] We shall not describe the manner in which the men of the A/es# passed the long «ark night of months at this spot, only 453 miles from the pole, where before mid- winter the new ice was already more than forty inches thick, where the thermometer registered—7 4° Fahrenheit below zero, that is to say, 106° of frost! Of course Guy Fawkes was burned on the summit of a floe-burg to the tune of the ‘Rogue’s March’; a snow-house was erected as a lecture-room ; yea, and the music of the piano sounded over the dark white wastes of the Frozen Ocean ! In the spring, Commander Markham, with another officer and fifteen men, started with their sledges and two boats (taken in case of the polar pack breaking up before their return), to push as far as possible straight ahead into the Sea of Ancient Ice. ¢All hands assembled for prayers on the ice alongside of the laden sledges, which were drawn up in a line, their silk banners lightly fluttering in the breeze, , .». It was a most impressive scene; each heart being inspired with enthusiasm and with a feeling of confidence that the labours, pri- vations, and hardships that the travellers were about to undergo would be manfully battled with.’ The difficulties to be encountered in these excursions over hummocks and through snow-drifts are utterly beyond the concep- tion of any sane man who has not himself endured this romance of agony. Tumbling into deep crevasses ; climbing and dragging the sledges, and stumbling over these huge and rugged ice-moulds called hummocks ; constructing roads through the snow-drifts with pick-axes and shovels; getting the whole cargo along only by travelling back- wards and forwards five or six times; no wonder that the rate of progress, even with twelve hours’ toil, rarely exceeded two miles, and sometimes was no more than three-quarters of a mile a day! After forty days of such labour as that we have indi- cated, Markham and his men—five now disabled by the loathsome disease of scurvy —reached the highest latitude (83° 20’ N.) . ever attained in Arctic exploration, and triumphantly erected their tents as in our picture, at a distance of 399% miles from the ‘impracticable’ pole. Flags and ban- ners were unfurled and floated in the breeze of the Paleocrystic Sea for a whole day; ¢ God save the Queen’ and other patriotic songs were sung. On the 13th of May the faces of the sledgers were set southwards 500 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP for the winter-quarters of the Alert, which were only reached after one poor fellow had been laid in his cold icy grave through that terrible sickness we have referred to, and all the others, except two officers and two men, had been utterly enfeebled. The Alert and Discovery arrived at Ports mouth on the 2nd of November. ‘The end of this mysterious thoroughfare,’ says Dr. Rink, ‘has been reached, and it was found to lead to an ocean, without any land visible, and covered with ice apparently moving only at intervals of many years, and without the least probability of being navi- gable, while, on the other hand, the extreme ruggedness of the ice defies the sledge.’ In spite of this there are many people with sufficient imagination and enthusiasm to believe that, although the dream of an open polar sea must be abandoned, human footsteps will yet be planted on the north- ern summit of Old Mother Earth.’ Bat reasonable people can scarcely share in this belief.” We give an extract from the journals of Nares. Here is an account of sledging parties :— “ Each sledge,” Nares tells us, “carried extra tea in lieu of the usual midday allow- ance of spirits. Both men and officers were unanimous in favour of the change, and willingly put up with the misery of standing still in the cold, with cold feet, during the long halt needed for the purpose of boiling the water ; and all agreed that they worked better after the tea lunch than during the forenoon. On the 16th, Lieutenant Lewis, A. Beaumont, and Dr. Richard W. Coppinger, arrived from the Discovery, having been ten days performing a travelling distance of seventy-six miles with light sledges, so broken up and diffi- cult was the nature of the ice in Robeson Channel. They brought news that the ice was continuous, and afforded fair travel- ling across Hall Basin, and that the depot of provisions at Polaris Bay was in good condition and fit for use. These circum- stances enabled me to arrange for Lieu- tenant Beaumont to proceed with lightly- laden sledges along the Greenland coast to the eastward, and after completing his journey, to fall back on the Polaris depot before June 15th, by which time two boats would be carried across the straits from the Discovery, ready for his retreat, should the ice have broken up. On April zoth, Lieutenant Beaumont, accompanied by Lieutenant Rawson and Dr. Coppinger, started for his Greenland exploration, the few days’ rest having materially benefited his men, who may be said to have started from the Discovery unexperinced in Arctic sledging, that ship having had no autumn travelling in consequence of the ice re- maining in motion until a very late period of the season. On April 23rd, Captain Stephenson and Mr. Thomas Mitchell, assistant paymaster in charge, arrived from the Discovery, and I had the advantage of consulting with the former unreservedly concerning the prospects of our numerous travellers then scattered over the neigh- bouring shores, the two ships remaining tenanted only by officers and a few invalids. Arrangements were made for the explora- tion of Petermann’s Fiord, and should the season prove favourable, for the examina- tion of the ice-cap south of Bessels Bay. On April 30th, Captain Stephenson re- turned to the Discovery. On May 3rd, Lieutenant Giffard returned with news from Lieutenant Pelham Aldrich, up to the 25th April, his twenty-second day out from the ship. He reported that all his crew were well and cheerful ; but that the soft snow was causing very heavy and slow travelling. Up to this time all had gone well with the expedition. The two ships had ad- vanced as far north as was possible ; they were admirably placed for exploration and other purposes; and the sledge crews, formed of men in full health and strength, had obtained a fair start on their journeys under as favourable circumstances as pos- sible. On May 3rd, Dr. Thomas Colan reported that five men had scorbutic symp- THE MEN OF THE ‘ALERT ” IN THE EXTREME NORTH, MAY, 1876. PAS NF7094 THI NO S102 108 502 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. toms ; however, as each case had some predisposing cause, I was not alarmed until on the 8th the three ice-quartermasters and two able seamen returning from sledge service were attacked, and by June 8th, fourteen of the crew of the A/erZ, and three men belonging to the Discovery, who hap- pened to be on board, forming the majority of the number of men then present, had been or were under the doctor’s care for the same wasting disorder. Captain Ste- phenson also reported that four more of his crew had been attacked. Although many of the sledge crews formerly employed on Arctic research had been attacked by this disease, some had totally escaped ; therefore, considering the ample equipment and carefully prepared provisions with which the Alert and Discovery were provided, its outbreak was most inexplicable and un- looked for. It was, however, most encou- raging to learn from the report of former expeditions how transient the attacks had “usually proved, and how readily the patients recovered with rest, the advance of sum- mer, and a change to a more generous diet. : On May gth, by the return of Lieutenant May and Mr. Egerton from Greenland, whither they had carried supplies, and who had succeeded in discovering a practicable overland route immediately east of Cape Brevort, fit for the use of the returning sledges, should the ice break up, I received news of Lieutenant Beaumont’s party up to May 4th, when he was within two miles of Cape Stanton. From their place of crossing the straits they found that the coast-line for nearly the entire distance to ‘Cape Stanton was formed either by pre- cipitous cliffs or very steep snow-slopes, the bases of which receive the direct and unchecked pressure of the northern pack as it drifts from the north-westward, and strikes against that part of the coast nearly at right angles. The floe-bergs, at their maximum sizes, were pressed high up one over the other against the steep shore ; the chaos outside was something indescribable, and the travelling the worst that can possibly be imagined, seven days being occupied in moving forward only twenty miles. Being quite uncertain when such a road might be- come impassable by the ice breaking up in May, as it did in 1872, a dep6t of pro- visions, sufficient for a return journey by land, was wisely left. On the 24th of May, Lieutenant Giffard returned on board, after depositing Lieu- tenant Pelham Aldrich’s last depdt of pro- visions, he and his crew having performed their important work well and expeditiously ; but I am sorry to add that he brought Dr. Colan two more invalids. The attack occurred on his outward journey, but as it was of vital importance that he should push on, Lieutenant Giffard was neces- sarily obliged to leave them in a snow-hut for five days, one man taking care of the other as best he could until the party returned. Lieutenant Giffard acted with great judgment, decision, and considera- tion on this occasion, and the two invalids recovered before the ship broke out of winter quarters. On the 1st of June, Mr. Crawford Conybeare arrived with news from the Discovery up to the 22nd of May. Lieutenant Archer had completed his ex- amination of the opening in the land west of Lady Franklin Sound, proving it to be a deep fiord terminating in mountainous land with glacier-covered valleys in the interior. Lieutenant Reginald B. Fulford, with the men returned from Lieutenant Archer's party, then transported two boats across Hall Basin to assist Lieutenant Beaumont in his return later in the season. Captain Stephenson, accompanied by Mr. Henry C. Hart, naturalist, overtook his party on the 12th, at Polaris Bay. On the following day, the American flag being hoisted, a brass tablet prepared in England was erected at the foot of Captain Hall’s grave.” Here we close the record. “SR THREE YEARS OF ARCTIC SERVICE.” 503 GREELY'S [EXPEDITION TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS —fiUMAN ffourace AND ENDURANCE. EN of 1886, Lieutenant Greely’s book, “Three : large and beautifully illus- trated volumes. Perhaps no work of polar research has ever given so clear an account of the hardships endured, or so just a description of the scenery in the extreme North. The photographer of the expe- dition, and the engravers on wood, have combined to enable us to behold the melancholy mixture of black and white and grey which make up that dismal land, where we wish we could say that “ no man comes, nor hath come since the making of the world.” On the other hand, too many of the strongest and bravest of Englishmen and Americans have gone thither, and there have left their bones, to no very practical purpose, beyond showing how much civi- lized races can brave and endure. Apart from Lieutenant Greely’s geographical dis- coveries and scientific observations (which were made when his party was actually dying of hunger), the true interest of his book is found in the description of his sufferings. Of those we have heard abun- dantly from the outside, from the members of the expedition of rescue. But now we have Lieutenant Greely’s own diaries, made, like those of the gallant and ill-fated De Long, in the very last extremes of hopeless famine. De Long perished with his men on the Lena Delta. Their story might make the least sentimental feel an unwonted dis- position to tears. Lieutenant Greely, as every one knows, was rescued in the very nick of time,—just when, with generosity like Sir Philip Sidney’s, he had refused the last spoonful of whisky, that it might be given to a companion whose need was greater than his own. It was strange enough for London to meet the man who has seen death so near, in the eternally empty wilderness of polar snow, and to remember how, two years ago, he and his were within a few hours of the fate of Franklin and De Long. Save the desert march on Khartoum, there has never been so close a race with death as in the ad- vance of the American rescue expedition. But their efforts were more fortunate than ours. Lieutenant Greely’s later diaries have something of the terrible interest of Gor- don’s journals, and Greely too, had he known all, might have blamed the dilatory and blundering attempts for his deliverance. It is not possible here to do justice to all the varied interest, scientific and popular, in these two goodly volumes. The book becomes naturally most moving with the chapter headed ¢ Our Besetment,” and in- creases in painful intensity of interest to the close. Few works give a clearer idea of the apparently insuperable difficulties of an Arctic retreat. Every retreat in war is full of labour, danger, and renunciation, but none are so perilous as the return over shifting and splitting floes of ice, the return attempted by men heavily laden, weakened with the cold, and blinded by the Arctic night. Lieutenant Greely does not by any means mince matters with regard to some of the peculiar difficulties of his own expedition. Arctic enterprise, if it is to be undertaken at all, should be the work of sailors. But the United States have em- 504 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. ployed soldiers and mixed bodies of men ; hence the trouble in maintaining discipline. The retreat from the impregnable fortress of the Pole was only beginning, and un- usual hardships had scarcely yet been felt, when Lieutenant Greely heard Lieutenant Kislingbury criticising his conduct un- favourably in conversation with some of the enlisted men. Nothing could be more threatening and ominous than this sub- version of discipline. Implicit obedience, not criticism, however intelligent, is needed when men are on the threshold of such dangers. They were already coming, in September, to be glad to eat seal, and a number of the men drank the creatures blood whenever they could get it. Im- prisoned on an uncertain pack of ice, drifting at the will of unknown tides and currents, the men showed still “a happy faculty of making the best of things.” Good-natured chaff and snatches of song were common, and proved that “a merry heart goes all the day.” The object was to reach shore from the drifting and dangerously splitting pack. The attempt was rendered yet more laborious by the pale, ineffectual light, in which no shadows gather, and the forms of things are in- visible. “The most careful observation fails to advise you as to whether the next step is to be on a level, up an incline, or over a precipice.” However arduous the trials of a desert march, there, at least, in the words of the prayer of Ajax, men perish “in the light.” A few bad falls, it is said, and it can be easily believed by any skater, “quite demoralize a man, and make him more than ever doubtful of his senses.” Meanwhile the pack may have changed its course, and all the labour and trouble may have been undertaken in vain. Birthdays at this period of the expedition used to be celebrated with rations of coffee, and with a meal on “our last cranberries.” These luxuries did not last long, and, on the drifting pack, the men were drenched in their sleeping bags with spray which presently froze again. “As nothing could be done, we passed the day in our bags, listening to the roar of the waves and | howling winds, and reflecting on our help- less condition.” Afloat on the pack they were, indeed, as helpless as the woman who lately drifted from Shetland to Norway in a masterless vessel, at the mercy of tide and storm. The dangers were increased when the floes began to split, and it was by the narrowest escape that the party avoided this peril. One man nearly dropped through as the ice-pack, which had been compressed, opened again. Finally they landed at Eskimo Point on September 29th, 1883, and went into winter quarters. Already one man, Henry, had been detected in thefts of rum and bacon. ¢ There was much suppressed talk of proceeding to violence, but I simply re- marked. that it was a military command, and that I would take extreme measures when needful.” Almost at the end of the long siege, in which famine and frost were the beleaguering powers, extreme measures did become needful. Lieutenant Greely gave orders that Henry should be shot. “As to other matters,” he says, * which have engaged an undue share of public attention, while having no official know- ledge of the facts of the case,” he yet main- tains that he “knows of no law, human or Divine, which was broken at Sabine,” and Lieutenant Greely makes no further re- marks “on such a painful topic.” Every one will wish that others had preserved the same reticence. From the day when the last of the rations was served out, the camp at Sabine endured miseries into which it is scarcely human to pry. Despite all adverse conditions (and they were numerous) something of military discipline endured, and there were many examples of extreme fortitude. Lieutenant Greely mentions, with regret, one or two occurrences in which he lost his temper. But a saint could not have preserved an unruffled demeanour in such tortures of cold, disease, and famine. The men ate | their boots, they ate dead saxifrage. Their THE FATE OF THE DOCTOR. 505% FALL OF A DOG-SLEDGE OVER THE CLIFFS. in considerable quantities. Occasionally a dovekie was shot, or a raven, and then the best meals were of shrimps, which Brainard, aman of amazing strength and pluck, caught 506 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP. hunters of the party were allotted the better part of the meat. Once a mutiny seemed imminent. The doctor, a man of a “ Bo- hemian ” past, and of no great strength of character, is said to have stolen medicines, in the absence of food, and dosed himself with drugs. Were the circumstances less terrible, we might be reminded of what was the strongest beverage in the workhouse experience of Noah Claypole. Lieutenant Greely says, that could he have got hold of Long’s gun, he would have shot Private Bender for mutiny with his own hand. The doctor was one of the many members of the expedition who died before the steam whistle of the rescuing party echoed from the rocks about the bay. The barometer was "accidentally broken—*“a great misfortune,” writes Greely, “as I had hoped to continue the observations until thelast man died.” The devotion of the Roman sentinel at Pompeii seems less marvellous than this, especially as there is reason to think that many Pom- peians were stifled by some mephitic vapour before they became aware of their danger. One man died in a bag, which he shared with his commanding officer; and Lieutenant Greely was ““ driven out, chilled through by contact with the dead.” The manner of death was thus: a man would become de- lirious, and would not know that he was doomed ; but those who heard his wan- dering words knew, and had to watch him pass away. The pluck of Brainard, whom Lieutenant Greely presents as the hero of the expedition, the strongest man, and the most unselfishly laborious, 1s pleasantly proved by one incident. After many men had died—after sealskin straps were the chief diet, and even shrimps could not be taken—Brainard was made happy by find- ing some Eskimo relics. The anthropolo- gist survived the distresses of the man, and the ruling passion, as his friends told him, was strong in death. Lieutenant Greely’s diary closes on June 21st. On midnight of the 22nd he heard the steam whistle of the TVetis, and Brainard and Long crawled out, on the last and happiest of their many desperate little expeditions. They were saved. “No man of the party has received promotion. The widows of the dead are generally as yet unrecognised. Sergeant Brainard has not been given a commission.” Our illustrations show the camp of some brave explorers suddenly attacked bya snow- storm, and also a still more dangerous state of affairs, caused by the uncertain light and treacherous footing of which Lieute- nant Greely speaks. A dog-sledge plunging forward has gone headlong over a preci- pice ! Fortunately it has been arrested on a narrow ledge of rock, a rope has been attached, and an attempt is about to be made to pull the fallen unfortunates up again. Let us hope it will be crowned with success, that all will soon be right again, and that the journey will be able to proceed as if nothing at all unusual or out of the way had happened. THE FATE OF FRANKLIN. THE ROMANTIC INTEREST OF THE SZ4. 507 ‘A SAILOR's REFLECTIONS AT THE JND oF HIS VOYAGE. YircuERY AND |JNTEREST OF THE PEA— ® FAREWELL. 5 HTS article is ¥ written after the lapse of a con- siderable time since the end of my voyage, and after a return to ® my former pursuits; and in “it I design to offer those i views of what may be done for seamen, and of what is already doing, which I have deduced from my experiences, and from the attention I have since gladly given to the subject. The romantic interest which many take in the sea, and in those who live upon it, may be of use in exciting their attention to this subject, though I cannot but feel sure that all who have followed me in my narra- tive must be convinced that the sailor has no romance in his every-day life to sustain him, but that it is very much the same plain, matter-of-fact drudgery and hardship which would be experienced on shore. If I have not produced this conviction, I have failed in doing what my own experience has most fully impressed upon myself. There is a witchery in the sea, its songs and stories, and in the mere sight of a ship, and the sailors dress, especially to a young mind, which has done more to man navies, and fill merchantmen, than all the press- gangs in Europe. I have known a young man with such a passion for the sea, that the very creaking of a block stirred up his imagination so that he could hardly keep his feet on dry ground ; and many are the boys, in every seaport, who are drawn away, as by an almost irresistible attraction, from their work and schools, and hang about the decks and yards of vessels with a fondness which, it is plain, will have its way. No sooner, however, has the young sailor begun his new life in earnest, than all this fine drapery falls off, and he learns that it is but work and hardship after all. This is the true light in which a sailor’s life is to be viewed ; and if in our books and anni- versary speeches we would leave out much that is said about ‘blue water,’ ‘blue jackets,” ‘open hearts,” ¢ seeing God’s hand on the deep,” and so forth, and take this up like any other practical subject, * am quite sure we should do fully as much for those we wish to benefit. The question is, what can be done for sailors, as they are,—men to be fed, and clothed, and lodged, for whom laws must be made and executed, and who are to be instructed in useful knowledge, and above all, to be brought under religious influence and restraint? It is upon these topics that I wish to make a few observations. In the first place, I have no fancies about equality on board ship. It is a thing out of the question, and certainly, in the pre- sent state of mankind, not to be desired. I never knew a sailor who found fault with the orders and ranks of the service ; and if I expected to pass the rest of my life before the mast, I would not wish to have the power of the captain diminished an iota. It is absolutely necessary that there should be one head and one voice to control everything, and be responsible for every- thing. There are emergencies which re- quire the instant exercise of extreme power. These emergencies do not allow of con- sultation; and they who would be the captains constituted advisers might be the 508 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEPF. very men over whom he would be called upon to exert his authority. It has been found necessary to vest in every govern- ment, even the most democratic, some extraordinary and, at first sight, alarming powers ; trusting in public opinion, and subsequent accountability, to modify the exercise of them. These are provided to meet exigencies which all hope may never occur, but which yet by possibility may occur ; and if they should, and there were no power to meet them instantly, there would be an end put to the government at once. So it is with the authority of the shipmaster. It will not answer to say that he shall never do this and that thing, be- cause it does not seem always necessary and advisable that it should be done. He has great cares and responsibilities, is answerable for everything, and is subject to emergencies which perhaps no other man exercising authority among civilized people is subject to. Let him, then, have powers commensurate with his utmost possible need ; only let him be held strictly re- sponsible for the exercise of them. Any other course would be injustice, as well as bad policy. Equally injudicious would be any inter- ference with the economy of the ship. The lodging, food, hours of sleep, etc., are all matters which, though capable of many changes for the better, must yet be left to regulate themselves. And I am confident that there will be, and that there is now, a gradual improvement in all such particulars. The forecastles of most of our ships are small black and wet holes, which few lands- men would believe held a crew of ten or twelve men on a voyage of months or years ; and often, and indeed in most cases, the provisions are not good enough to make a meal anything more than a necessary part of a day’s duty ; and on the score of sleep, I fully believe that the lives of merchant seamen are shortened by the want of it. I do not refer to those occasions when it is necessarily broken in upon; but, for months, during fine weather, in many merchantmen, all hands are kept through- out the day, and then there are eight hours on deck for one watch each night. Thus it is usually the case that at the end of a voyage, where there has been the finest weather, and no disaster, the crew have a wearied and worn-out appearance. They never sleep longer than four hours at a time, and are seldom called without being really in need of more rest. There is no one thing that a sailor thinks more of as a luxury of life on shore, than a whole night's sleep. Still, all these things must be left to be gradually modified by circumstances. When- ever hard cases occur, they should be made known, and masters and owners should be held answerable, and will, no doubt, in time, be influenced in their arrangements and discipline by the increased considera- tion in which sailors are held by the public. It is perfectly proper that the men should live in a different part of the vessel from the officers ; and if the forecastle is made large and comfortable, there is no reason why the crew should not live there as well as in any other part. In fact, sailors prefer the fore- castle. It is their accustomed place, and in it they are out of the sight and hearing of their officers. As to their food and sleep, there are laws, with heavy penalties, requiring a cer- tain amount of stores to be on board, and safely stowed ; and for depriving the crew unnecessarily of food or sleep, the captain is liable at common law, as well as under the statute before referred to. Further than this it would not be safe to go. The cap- tain must be the judge when it is necessary to keep his crew from their sleep; and sometimes a retrenching, not of the neces- saries, but of some of the little niceties, of their meals—as, for instance, duff on Sunday—may be a mode of punishment, though I think generally an injudicious one. I could not do justice to this subject without noticing one part of the discipline of a ship, which has been very much dis- cussed of late, and has brought out strong THE QUESTION OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. 509 expressions of indignation from many—I mean the infliction of corporal punishment. Those who have followed me in my narra- tive will remember that I was witness to an act of great cruelty inflicted upon my own shipmates ; and indeed I can sincerely say that the simple mention of the word flogging brings up to me feelings which I can hardly control. Yet when the proposi- tion is made to abolish it entirely and at once—to prohibit the captain from ever, under any circumstances, inflicting corporal punishment—I am obliged to pause, and, I must say, to doubt exceedingly the expe- diency of making any positive enactment which shall have that effect. If the design of those who are writing on this subject is merely to draw public attention to it, and to discourage the practice of flogging, and bring it into disrepute, it is well; and, indeed, whatever may be the end they have in view, the mere agitation of the question will have that effect, and, so far, must do good. Yet I should not wish to take the command of a ship to-morrow, running my chance of a crew, as most masters must, and know, and have my crew know, that I could not, under any circumstances, inflict even moderate chastisement. I should trust that I might never have to resort to it; and, indeed, I.scarcely know what risk I would not run, and to what inconvenience I would not subject myself, rather than do so. Yet not to have the power of holding it up in Zerrovem, and so of protecting my- self, and all under my charge, by it, if some extreme case should arise, would be a situation I should not wish to be placed in myself, or to take the responsibility of placing another in. As things now are, many masters are obliged to sail without knowing anything of their crews until they get out to sea. There may be pirates or mutineers among them: and one bad man will often infect all the rest; and it is almost certain that some of them will be ignorant foreigners, hardly understanding a word of our language, accustomed all their lives to no that of the marline-spike. influence but force, and perhaps nearly as familiar with the use of the knife as with No prudent master, however peaceably inclined, would go to sea without his pistols and handcuffs. Even with such a crew as I have supposed, kindness and moderation would be the best policy, and the duty of every conscientious man ; and the administration of corporal punishment might be dangerous, and of doubtful use. But the question is not what a captain ought generally to do, but whether it shall be put out of the power of every captain, under any circumstances, to make use of even moderate chastisement. As the law now stands, a parent may correct moderately his child, and the master his apprentice ; and the case of the shipmaster has been placed upon the same principle. The statutes and the common law as expounded in the decisions of courts and in the books of commentators, are express and unanimous to this point, that the captain may inflict moderate cor- poral chastisement for a reasonable cause. If the punishment is excessive, or the cause not sufficient to justify it, he is answerable, and the jury have to determine, by their verdict in each case, whether, under all the circumstances, the punishment was moder- ate, and for a justifiable cause. This seems to be as good a position as the whole subject can be left in. I mean | to say, that no positive enactment, going beyond this, is needed, or would be a bene- fit either to masters or men, in the present state of things. This, again, would seem to be a case which should be left to the gradual working of its own cure. As sea- men improve, punishment will become less necessary ; and as the character of officers is raised, they will be less ready to inflict it ; and still more, the infliction of it upon intelligent and respectable men will be an enormity, which will not be tolerated by public opinion,.and by juries, who are the pulse of the body politic. No one can have a greater abhorrence of the infliction of such punishment than I have, a stronger KE 510 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP conviction that severity is a bad policy with a crew; yet I would ask every reasonable man, whether he had not better trust to the practice becoming unnecessary and disre- putable ; to the measure of moderate chastisement, and a justifiable cause being better understood, and thus the act becom- ing dangerous, and in time regarded as an unheard-of barbarity—than to take the responsibility of prohibiting it at once, in all cases, and in whatever degree, by posi- tive enactment.” Here we must paren- thetically remark that all modern experi ence tends to show that no corporal punishment should be inflicted on sailors, and so our old salt’s reflections are such as we cannot join in. “There are many particulars connected with the manning of vessels, the provisions given to crews, and the treatment of them Lo a Zo. 7) i 7 7277 THE BOY SIMPSON GETTING HIS BIBLE TO LEND TO CROMER. while at sea, upon which there might be a good deal said ; but as I have, for the most part, remarked upon them as they came up in the course of my narrative, I will offer nothing further now, except on the single point of the manner of shipping men. This, it is well known, is usually left entirely to shipping masters, and is a cause of a great deal of difficulty, which might be re- medied by the captain or owner, if he has any knowledge of seamen, attending to it personally. In this way he almost always gets healthy, serviceable, and respectable men ; for any one who has seen much of sailors can tell pretty well at first sight, by a man’s dress, countenance, and deportment, what he would be on board ship. One gentleman ‘was always in the habit of seeing the crew together, and speaking to them previously to their sailing. On the THE GOOD CAUSE AMONG SAILORS. 51% day before our ship sailed, while the crew were getting their chests and clothes on board, he went down into the forecastle, and spoke to them about the voyage, the clothing they would need, the provision he had made for them, and saw that they had a lamp and a few other conveniences. If owners or masters would more generally ‘take the same pains, they would often save their crews a good deal of inconvenience, beside creating a sense of satisfaction and gratitude, which makes a voyage begin under good auspices, and goes far toward keeping up a better state of fe¢ling through- out its continuance. It only remains for me now to speak of the associated public efforts which have been making of late years for the good of seamen—a far more agreeable task than that of finding fault, even where fault there is. The exertions of the general association, called the American Seaman’s "Friend Society, and of the other smaller societies throughout the Union, have been a true blessing to the seaman, and bid fair, in course of time, to change the whole nature of the circumstances in which he is placed, and give him a new name as well as a new character. These associations have taken hold in the right way, and aimed both at making the sailor’s life more comfortable and creditable, and at giving him spiritual instruction. Connected with these efforts, the spread of temperance among seamen by means of societies called, in their own nautical language, Windward Arichor Societies, and the distribution of books; the establishment of Sailors’ Homes, where they can be comfortably and cheaply boarded, live quietly and decently, and be in the way of religious services, reading, and conversation ; also the institution of Savings Banks for seamen ; the distribution of tracts and Bibles—are all means which are silently doing a great work for this class of men. These societies make the religious instruction of seamen their prominent ob- ject. If this is gained, there is no fear but that all other things necessary will be added unto them. A sailor never becomes inter- ested in religion without immediately learn- ing to read, if he did not know how before ; and regular habits, forehandedness (if I may use the word) in worldly affairs, and hours reclaimed from indolence and vice, which follow in the wake of the converted man, make it sure that he will instruct himself in the knowledge necessary and suitable to his calling. The religious change is the great object. If this is secured, there is no fear but that knowledge of things of the world will come in fast enough. With the sailor, as with all other men, in fact, the cultivation of the intellect, and the spread of what is commonly called useful knowledge, while religious instruction is neglected, is little else than changing an ignorant sinner into an intelligent and powerful one. That sailor upon whom, of all others, the preach- ing of the Cross is least likely to have effect, is the one whose understanding has been cultivated, while his heart has been left to its own devices. I fully believe that those efforts which have their end in the intel- lectual cultivation of the sailor; in giving him scientific knowledge ; putting it in his power to read everything, without securing, first of all, a right heart which shall guide him in judgment; in giving him political information, and interesting him in news- papers ; an end in the furtherance of which he is exhibited at ladies’ fairs and public meetings, and complimented for his gallantry and generosity ; are all doing a harm which the labours of many faithful men cannot undo. ; The establishment of Bethels in most of our own seaports, and in many foreign parts frequented by our vessels, where the gospel is regularly preached ; and the opening of ¢Sailors’ Homes,” which I have before men- tioned, where there are usually religious services and other good influences, are doing a vast deal in this cause. But itis to be remembered that the sailor's home is on the deep. Nearly all his life must be spent on board ship; and to secure a religious influence there should be the great object. 512 THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP the distribution of Bibles and tracts into cabins and forecastles will do much toward this. There is nothing which will gain a sailor’s attention sooner, and interest him more deeply, than a tract, especially one which contains a story. It is difficult to engage their attention in mere essays and arguments, but the simplest and shortest story, in which home is spoken of, kind friends, a praying mother or sister, a sudden death, and the like, often touches the hearts of the roughest and most abandoned. The Bible is to the sailor a sacred book. It may lie in the bottom of his chest voyage after voyage, but he never treats it with positive disrespect. I never knew but one sailor who doubted its being the inspired word of God, and he was one who had received an uncommonly good education, except that he had been brought up without any early religious influence. Cromer, the most aban- doned man of our crew, one Sunday morning asked one of the boys, Noel Simpson, to lend him his Bible. The boy said he would, but he was afraid he would make sport of it. ¢No!’ said the man; ‘I don’t make sport of God Almighty.” This is a feeling gene- ral among sailors, and is a good foundation for religious influence.” So far our old salt. We must here bid farewell to him ; and so must we also to our reader, for our voyage is at an end. So let us say again in the unheard words of the lady in our illustration, whose sailor lover is only beginning his voyage—* Farewell.” ~ ; I Se — Gs ——t ee SSS -— ¢¢ THE LASS THAT LOVED A SAILOR ’—FAREWELL. == \/4 © L ) N LOY A Compendium of Interesting and Useful Knowledge. < PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED. 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Over the prose and verse 5 is shed the charm of Pictorial Illustration. On every page is a picture. The additional Full-page . Illustrations complete the attractiveness of SUNDAY HALF-HOURS as a Pleasant Companion for the < Day of Sacred Rest. < \ JAMES SANGSTER & CO., 31, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. ( A ~ ~ ~ A ~ A ~ ~ WV wv Vv >’ vr > v wv > 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH LOAN DEPT. | This book is due on the last date stamped below, orf on the date to which renewed. diate recall. BORROWED | Renewed books are subject to imme i 9Sep60TD RECEIVED | VED Alt ; 913 ved JUNIO 19/8) LUG 25 2005 FNVI DFS > 2007 EEG, GIR, 20 APR 09 2010 AUG 3 0|1984 LD 21A-50m-4,'60 ‘General Library (A9562510)476B Univershy of California ) RKELEY LIBRARIES Le 21091939 HE RR ARR ARR oR NR ET A a AA. oR X RRR a rr. BERN EER RRS. RRR