Heritage History | Book of Discovery by M. B. Synge (2024)

No story is complete unless it begins at the very beginning. But where is the beginning? Where is the dawn ofgeography—the knowledge of our earth? What was it like before the first explorers made their way intodistant lands? Every day that passes we are gaining fresh knowledge of the dim and silent past.

Every day men are patiently digging in the old heaps that were once the sites of busy cities, and, as a resultof their unwearying toil, they are revealing to us the life-stories of those who dwelt therein; they aredisclosing secrets writ on weather-worn stones and tablets, bricks and cylinders, never before even guessedat.

Thus we read the wondrous story of ancient days, and breathlessly wonder what marvelous discovery will thrillus next.

For the earliest account of the old world—a world made up apparently of a little land and a littlewater—we turn to an old papyrus, the oldest in existence, which tells us in familiar words, unsurpassedfor their exquisite poetry and wondrous simplicity, of that great dateless time so full of mystery and awe.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was waste and void; and darknesswas upon the face of the deep: and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. . . . And God said,Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God . .. divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. . . . AndGod said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. . . . AndGod called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas."

Thus beautifully did the children of men express their earliest idea of the world's distribution of land andwater.

And where, on our modern maps, was this little earth, and what was it like? Did trees and flowers cover theland? Did rivers flow into the sea? Listen again to the old tradition that still rings down the ages—

"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden . . and a river went out of Eden to water the garden; andfrom thence it was parted, and became four heads. The name of the first is Pison . . and the name of thesecond river is Gihon; the name of the third river is Hiddekel (Tigris). And the fourth river is Euphrates."

Now look at a modern map of Asia. Between Arabia and Persia there is a long valley watered by the Tigris andEuphrates, rivers which rise in Armenia and flow into the Persian Gulf. This region was the traditional"cradle of the human race." Around and beyond was a great world, a world with great surging seas, with landsof trees and flowers, a world with continents and lakesand bays and capes, with islands and mountains and rivers.

There were vast deserts of sand rolling away to right and to left there were mountains up which no man hadclimbed; there were stormy seas over which no ship had ever sailed. But these men of old had never exploredfar. They believed that their world was just a very little world, with no other occupants than themselves.They believed it to be flat, with mountains at either end on which rested a solid metal dome known as the"firmament."

In this shining circle were windows, in and out of which the sun would creep by day and the moon and stars bynight. And the whole of this world was, they thought, balanced on the waters. There was water above, the"waters that be above the firmament," and water below, and water all around. Long ages pass away. Let us lookagain at the green valley of the Euphrates and Tigris. It has been called the "nursery of nations"—nameshave been given to various regions round about, and cities have arisen on the banks of the rivers. Babylonia,Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Assyria—all these long names belonged to this region, and around each centressome of the most interesting history and legend in the world.

Rafts on the river and caravans on the land carriedmerchandise far and wide—men made their way to the "Sea of the Rising Sun," as they called the PersianGulf, and to the "Sea of the Setting Sun," as they called the Mediterranean. They settled on the shores of theCaspian Sea, on the shores of the Black Sea, on the shores of the Red Sea. They carried on magnificenttrade—cedar, pine, and cypress were brought from Lebanon to Chaldea, limestone and marble from Syria,copper and lead from the shores of the Black Sea.

And these dwellers about Babylonia built up a wonderful civilisation. They had temples and brick-built houses,libraries of tablets revealing knowledge of astronomy and astrology; they had a literature of their own.Suddenly from out the city of Ur (Kerbela), near the ancient mouth of the Euphrates, appears a traveller. Therehad doubtless been many before, but records are scanty and hard to piece together, and a detailed account of atraveller with a name is very interesting.

"Abram went . . . forth to go into the land of Canaan. . . . And Abram journeyed, going on still toward theSouth. And there was a famine in the land. And Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there." He would havetravelled by the chief caravan routes of Syria into Egypt. Here about the fertile mouth of the Nile he wouldhave found an ancient civilisation as wonderful as that to which he was accustomed in Babylonia. It was a grain-growing country, and when there was famine in other lands, there was always "corn inEgypt"—thanks to the mighty life-giving Nile.

But we must not linger over the old civilisation, over the wonderful Empire governed by the Pharaohs or kings,first from Memphis (Cairo) and then from the hundred-gated Thebes; must not linger over these old pyramidbuilders, the temple, sphinxes, and statues of ancient Egypt. Before even Abram came into their country wefind the Egyptians famous for their shipping and navigation. Old pictures and tombs recently discovered tellus this.

On the coast of the Red Sea they built their long, narrow ships, which were rowed by some twenty paddlers oneither side, and steered by three men standing in the stern. With one mast and a large sail, they flew beforethe wind. They had to go far afield for their wood; we find an Egyptian being sent "to cut down four forestsin the South in order to build three large vessels . . . out of acacia wood."

Petrie tells us of an Egyptian sailor who was sent to Punt or Somaliland "to fetch for Pharaoh sweet-smellingspices." He was shipwrecked on the way, and this is the account of his adventures—

"'I was going,' he relates, 'to the mines of Pharaoh and I went down on the sea on a ship with a hundred andfifty sailors of the best of Egypt, whose hearts were stronger than lions. They had said that the wind wouldbe contrary, or that there would be none. But as we approached the land the wind rose and threw up high waves.As for me, I seized a piece of wood; but those who were in the vessel perished, without one remaining. A wavethrew me on an island; after that I had been three days alone without a companion beside my own heart, I laidme in a thicket, and the shadow covered me. Ifound figs and grapes, all manner of good herbs, berries and grain, melons of all kinds, fishes and birds. Ilighted a fire and I made a burnt-offering unto the gods. Suddenly I heard a noise as of thunder, which Ithought to be that of a wave of the sea. The trees shook and the earth was moved. I uncovered my eyes and Isaw that a serpent drew near; his body was as if overlaid with gold, and his colour as that of true lazuli.'

"'What has brought thee here, little one, to this isle, which is in the sea and of which the shores are in themidst of the waves?' asked the serpent.

"The sailor told his story kneeling on his knees, with his face bowed to the ground.

"'Fear not, little one, and make not thy face sad,' continued the serpent, 'for it is God who has brought theeto this isle of the blest, where nothing is lacking and which is filled with all good things. Thou shalt befour months in this isle. Then a ship shall come from thy land with sailors, and thou shalt go to thy country.As for me, I am a prince of the land of Punt. I am here with my brethren and children around me; we areseventy-five serpents, children and kindred.'

"Then the grateful sailor promised to bring all the treasures of Egypt back to Punt, and 'I shall tell of thypresence unto Pharaoh; I shall make him to know of thy greatness,' said the Egyptian stranger.

"But the strange prince of Punt only smiled.

"'Thou shalt never more see this isle,' he said; 'it shall be changed into waves.'"

Everything came to pass as the serpent said. The ship came, gifts were lavished on the sailor from Egypt,perfumes of cassia, of sweet woods, of cypress, incense, ivory tusks, baboons, and apes, and thus laden hesailed home to his own people.

Long centuries after this we get another glimpse atthe land of Punt. This time it is in the reign of Queen Hatshepsu, who sent a great trading expedition intothis famous country. Five ships started from Thebes, sailing down the river Nile and probably reaching the RedSea by means of a canal. Navigation in the Red Sea was difficult; the coast was steep and inhospitable; norivers ran into it. Only a few fishing villages lay along the coasts used by Egyptian merchants as markets formother-of-pearl, emeralds, gold, and sweet-smelling perfumes.

Thence the ships continued their way, the whole voyage taking about two months. Arrived at Punt, the Egyptiancommander pitched his tents upon the shore, to the great astonishment of the inhabitants.

"Why have ye come hither unto this land, which the people of Egypt know not?" asked the Chief of Punt. "Have yecome through the sky? Did ye sail upon the waters or upon the sea?"

Presents from the Queen of Egypt were at once laid before the Chief of Punt, and soon the seashore was alivewith people. The ships were drawn up, gang-planks were very heavily laden with "marvels of the country ofPunt." There were heaps of myrrh, resin, of fresh myrrh trees, ebony and pure ivory, cinnamon wood, incense,baboons, monkeys, dogs, natives, and children. "Never was the like brought to any king of Egypt since the worldstands." And the ships voyaged safely back to Thebes with all their booty and with pleasant recollections ofthe people of Somaliland.

In spite of these little expeditions the Egyptian world seemed still very small. The Egyptians thought of theearth with its land and sea as a long, oblong sort of box, the centre of which was Egypt. The sky stretchedover it like an iron ceiling, the part toward the earth being sprinkled with lamps hung from strong cableslighted by night and extinguished by day. Four forked trunks of trees upheld the sky roof. But lest some stormshould overthrow these tree trunks there were four lofty peaks connected by chains of mountains. The southernpeak was known as the "Horn of the Earth," the eastern, the "Mountain of Birth," the western, the "Region ofLife," the southern was invisible. And why? Because theythought the Great Sea, the "Very Green," the Mediterranean, lay between it and Egypt. Beyond these mountainpeaks, supporting the world, rolled a great river, an ocean stream, and the sun was as a ball of fire placedon a boat and carried round the ramparts of the world by the all-encircling water.

So we realise that the people living in Babylonia about the river Euphrates, and those living in Egypt aboutthe river Nile, had very strange ideas about the little old world around them.

The law of the universe is progress and expansion, and this little old world was soon discovered to be larger thanmen thought.

Now in Syria the highway between Babylonia and Egypt—dwelt a tribe of dusky people known as Phœnicians.Some have thought that they were related to our old friends in Somaliland, and that long years ago they hadmigrated north to the seacoast of that part of Syria known as Canaan.

Living on the seashore, washed by the tideless Mediterranean, they soon became skilful sailors. They builtships and ventured forth on the deep; they made their way to the islands of Cyprus and Crete and thence to theislands of Greece, bringing back goods from other countries to barter with their less daring neighbours. Theyreached Greece itself and cruised along the northern coast of the Great Sea to Italy, along the coast of Spainto the Rock of Gibraltar, and out into the open Atlantic.

How their little sailing boats lived through the storms of that great ocean none may know, for Phœnicianrecords are lost, but we have every reason to believe that they reached the northern coast of France andbrought back tin from the islands known to them as the Tin Islands. In their home markets were found allmanner of strange things from foreign unknown lands, discovered by these master mariners—the admiration of theancient world.

"The ships of Tarshish," said the old poet, "did sing of thee in thy market, and thou wast replenished andmade very glorious in the midst of the seas; thy rowers have brought thee into great waters; the east windhath broken thee in the midst of the seas."

All the world knew of the Phœnician seaports, Tyre and Sidon. They were as famous as Memphis and Thebes on theNile, as magnificent as Nineveh on the Tigris and Babylon on the Euphrates. Men spoke of the "renowned city ofTyre," whose merchants were as princes, whose "traffickers" were among the honourable of the earth. "O thouthat art situate at the entry of the sea," cries the poet again, when the greatness of Tyre was passing away,"which art a merchant of the people from many isles. . . . Thy borders are in the midst of the seas; thybuilders have perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy ship-boards of fir trees . . . they have takencedars of Lebanon to make masts for thee. Of the oaks of Basan have they made thy oars. . . . Fine linen withbroidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail. . . . The inhabitants of Sidon .. . were thy mariners; thy wise men were thy pilots.

As time goes on, early groups round the Euphrates and the Nile continue, but new nations form and grow, newcities arise; new names appear. Centuries of men live and die, ignorant of the great world that lies aboutthem—"Lords of the eastern world that knew no west."

England was yet unknown, America undreamt of, Australia still a desolate island in an unknown sea. The burningeastern sun shone down on to vast stretches of desert-land uninhabited by man, great rivers flowed throughdreary swamps unrealised, tempestuous waves beat against their shores, and melancholy winds swept over theface of endless ocean solitudes.

And still, according to their untutored minds, the world is flat, the world is very small and it is surroundedby ever-flowing waters, beyond which all is dark and mysterious.

Around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, revealed by the boundless energy and daring skill of thePhœnicians, there were colonies along the coasts of Africa and Europe, though they were not yet called bytheir names. They have discovered and explored, but they have kept their information to themselves, and theyhave specially refused to divulge their voyages to the Greeks.

A story is told at a later date than this of a Phœnician shipmaster who was bound for the Tin Islands, when hesuddenly discovered that he was being followed by a strange ship evidently bent on finding out where theseunknown islands lay. The Phœnician purposely ran his ship on to a shoal in order to keep the secret of thediscovery. When he returned home his conduct was upheld by the State!

But though the Phœnicians have left us no record of their travels and voyages, they had been the carriers ofknowledge, and it was from them that the Greeks learnt of "the extreme regions of the world" and of the dim"far west." Indeed, it is highly probable that from the Phœnicians they got material for their famous legendof the Argonauts and their adventures in the Black Sea. Though the story is but legendary, and it has beenadded to with the growing knowledge of the world, yet it gives an idea of the perils that beset the sailors ofthose remote ages and of their limitations.

And again we must remind ourselves that both the Phœnicians and early Greeks had, like the Egyptians andBabylonians, childish ideas as to the form of the earth. To them it was a circular plane, encircled by theocean, which they believed to be a broad, deep-running river flowing round and round the world. Into thisocean stream ran all the rivers and seas known to them. Over the earth was raised a solid firmament of bronzein which the stars were set, and this was supported on tall pillars "which kept the heaven and the earthasunder."

The whole delightful story of the Argonauts can be read in Kingsley's "Heroes." It is the story of brave menwho sailed in the ship Argo, named after the great shipbuilder Argos, to bring back the Golden Fleece fromColchis in the Black Sea.

Nowhere in all the history of exploration have we a more poetical account of the launching of a ship fordistant lands: "Then they have stored her well with food and water, and pulled the ladder up on board, andsettled themselves each man to his oar and kept time to Orpheus' harp; and away across the bay they rowedsouthward, while the people lined the cliffs; and the women wept while the men shouted at the starting of thatgallant crew." They chose a captain, and the choice fell on Jason, "because he was the wisest of them all";and they rowed on "over the long swell of the sea, past Olympus, past the wooded bays of Athos and the sacredisle; and they came past Lemnos to the Hellespont. and so on into the Propontis,which we call Marmora now." So they came to the Bosphorus, the "land then as now of bitter blasts, the land ofcold and misery," and a great battle of the winds took place.

Then the Argonauts came out into the open sea—the Black Sea. No Greek had ever crossed it, and even theheroes, for all their courage, feared "that dreadful sea and its rocks and shoals and fogs and bitter freezingstorms," and they trembled as they saw it "stretching out before them without a shore, as far as the eye couldsee."

Wearily they sailed on past the coast of Asia; they passed Sinope and the cities of the Amazons, the warlikewomen of the east, until at last they saw the "white snow peaks hanging glittering sharp and bright above theclouds. And they knew that they were come to Caucasus at the end of all the earth—Caucasus, the highestof all mountains, the father of the rivers of the East. And they rowed three days to the eastward, while theCaucasus rose higher hour by hour, till they saw the dark stream of Phasis rushing headlong to the sea and,shining above the treetops, the golden roofs of the Child of the Sun."

How they reached home no man knows. Some say they sailed up the Danube River and so came to the Adriatic,dragging their ship over the snowclad Alps. Others say they sailed south to the Red Sea and dragged their shipover the burning desert of North Africa. More than once they gave themselves up for lost, "heart-broken withtoil and hunger," until the brave helmsman cried to them, "Raise up the mast and set the sail and face whatcomes like men."

After days and weeks on the "wide wild western sea" they sailed by the coast of Spain and came to Sicily, the"three-cornered island," and after numerous adventures they reached home once more. And they limped ashoreweary and worn, with long, ragged beards and sunburnt cheeks and garments torn and weather-stained. Nostrength had they left to haul the ship up the beach. They just crawled out and sat down and wept, till theycould weep no more. For the houses and trees were all altered, and all the faces which they saw were strange;and their joy was swallowed up in sorrow while they thought of their youth and all their labour, and thegallant comrades they had lost. And the people crowded round and asked them, "Who are you that sit weepinghere?"

"We are the sons of your princes, who sailed away many a year ago. We went to fetch the Golden Fleece and wehave brought it back." Then there was shouting andlaughing and weeping, and all the kings came to the shore, and they led the heroes away to their homes andbewailed the valiant dead. Old and charming as is the story of the Argonauts, it is made up of travellers'tales, probably told to the Greeks by the Phœnicians of their adventures on unknown seas.

The wanderings of Ulysses by the old Greek poet Homer shows us that, though they seldom ventured beyond theMediterranean Sea, yet the Greeks were dimly conscious of an outer world beyond the recognised limits. Theystill dreamt that the earth was flat, and that the ocean stream flowed for ever round and round it. There wereno maps or charts to guide the intrepid mariners who embarked on unknown waters.

The siege of Troy, famous in legend, was over, and the heroes were anxious to make their way home. Ulysses wasone of the heroes, and he sailed forth from Asia Minor into the Ægean Sea. But contrary winds drove him as farsouth as Cape Malea.

"Now the gatherer of the clouds," he says, in telling his story, "aroused the North Wind against our shipswith a terrible tempest, and covered land and sea alike with clouds, and down sped night from heaven. Thus theships were driven headlong, and their sails were torn to shreds by the might of the wind. So we lowered thesails into the hold in fear of death, and rowed the ships landward apace."

Throughout all ages Cape Malea has been renowned for sudden and violent storms, dreaded by early mariners aswell as those of later times.

"Thence for nine whole days was I borne by ruinous winds over the teeming deep; but on the tenth day we setfoot on the land of the lotus-eaters who eat a flowery food."

Now ten days' sail to the south would have broughtUlysses to the coast of North Africa, and here we imagine the lotus-eaters dwelt. But their stay was short.For as soon as the mariners tasted the "honey-sweet fruit of the lotus" they forgot their homes, forgot theirown land, and only wanted to stay with the "mild-eyed melancholy lotus-eaters."

"Therefore," said Ulysses, "I led them back to the ships, weeping and sore against their will, and draggedthem beneath the benches. Soon they embarked and, sitting orderly, they smote the grey sea water with theiroars. Thence we sailed onward, stricken at heart. And we came to the land of the Cyclops."

No one knows exactly where the land of the Cyclops is. Some think it may be Sicily and the slopes of MountEtna facing the sea.

The famous rock of Scylla and whirlpool of Charybdis, known to the ancients as two sea-monsters, near theStraits of Messina, next claimed his attention. Let us see how Ulysses passed them.

"We began to sail up the narrow strait," he says, lamenting. "For on the one side lay Scylla and on the othermighty Charybdis sucking down the salt sea water. Like a cauldron on a great fire she would seethe up throughall her troubled deeps, and overhead the spray fell on the top of either cliff—the rock around roaredhorribly, and pale fear gat hold on my men. Toward her, then, welooked, fearing destruction; but Scylla meanwhile caught from out my hollow ships six of my company. Theycried aloud in their agony, and there she devoured them shrieking at her gates, they stretching forth theirhands to me in their death struggles. And the most pitiful thing was this, that mine eyes have seen of all mytravail in searching out the paths of the sea."

Some have thought that the terrifying stories of Scylla, Charybdis, and the Cyclops were stories invented bythe Phœnicians to frighten travellers of other nations away from the sea that they wished to keep forthemselves for purposes of trade.

It would take too long to tell of the great storm that destroyed the ships and drowned the men, leavingUlysses to make a raft on which he drifted about for nine days, blown back to Scylla and Charybdis and fromthence to the island of Ogygia, "in the centre of the sea." Finally he reached his home in Ithaca so changed,so aged and weather-worn, that only his dog Argus recognised him.

This, very briefly, is Homer's world-picture of a bygone age, when those who were seized with a thirst fortravel sailed about the Mediterranean in their primitive ships, landing on unnamed coasts, cruising aboutunknown islands, meeting strange people, encountering strange adventures.

It all reads like an old fairy tale to us to-day, for we have our maps and charts and know the whereabouts ofevery country and island about the tideless Mediterranean.

Still, although the men of ancient time were learning fast about the land and sea, they were woefully ignorant.Hesiod, a Greek poet; who lived seven hundred and fifty years before the Christian era, declared that theworld was flat, and the ocean stream or the "perfect river," as he called it, flowed round and round,encompassing all things.

Still, there was something beyond the water—something dim, mysterious, unknowable. It might be the"Islands of the Blest"; it might be the "sacred isle." One thing he asserted firmly: "Atlas upholds the broadHeaven . . . standing on earth's verge with head and unwearied hands," while the clear-voiced Hesperidesguarded their beautiful golden apples "beyond the waters of Ocean."

But who thinks now of the weary Titan doomed for ever to support the ancient world on his head and hands, whenthe atlas of to-day is brought forth for a lesson in geography?

About this time comes a story—it may be fact or it may be fiction—that the Phœnicians had sailedright round Africa. The voyage was arranged by Neco, an enterprising Egyptian king, who built his ships in theRed Sea in the year 613 B.C. The story is told by Herodotus, the Greek traveller, many years afterwards.

"Libya," he says, "is known to be washed on all sides by the sea, except where it is attached to Asia. Thisdiscovery was first made by Neco, the Egyptian king, who sent a number of ships manned by Phœnicians withorders to make for the Pillars of Hercules (now known as the Straits of Gibraltar), and return to Egyptthrough them and by the Mediterranean Sea. The Phœnicians took their departure from Egypt by way of theErythræan Sea, and so sailed into the Southern Ocean. When autumn came (it is supposed they left the Red Seain August) they went ashore, wherever that might happen to be, and, having sown a tract of land with corn,waited until the grain was fit to cut. Having reaped it, they set sail, and thus it came to pass that twowhole years went by, and it was not till the third year that they doubled the Pillars of Hercules and madegood their voyage home. On their return they declared (I, for my part, says Herodotus, do not believe them,but perhaps others may) that in sailing round Libya they had the sun upon their right hand. In this way wasthe extent of Libya first discovered."

To modern students, who have learnt more of Phœnician enterprise, the story does not seem so incredible as itdid to Herodotus; and a modern poet, Edwin Arnold, has dreamed into verse a delightful account of what thisvoyage may have been like.

Ithobal of Tyre, Chief Captain of the seas, standingbefore Neco, Pharaoh and King, Ruler of Nile and its lands, relates the story of his two years' voyage, of thestrange things he saw, of the hardships he endured, of the triumphant end. He tells how, with the help ofmechanics from Tarshish, Tyre, and Sidon, he built three goodly ships, "Ocean's children," in a "windlesscreek" on the Red Sea, how he loaded them with cloth and beads, "the wares wild people love," food-flour forthe ship, cakes, honey, oil, pulse, meal, dried fish and rice, and salted goods. Then the start was made downthe Red Sea, until at last "the great ocean opened" east and south to the unknown world and into the greatnameless sea, by the coast of that "Large Land whence none hath come" they sailed.

Ithobal had undertaken no light task; contrary winds, mutiny on board, want of fresh water, all the hardshipsthat confront the mariner who pilots his crews in search of the unknown. Strange tribes met them on the coastand asked them whither they went.

South and ever south they sailed, "day after day and night succeeding night, close clinging to the shore."New stars appeared, lower and lower sank the sun, moons rose and waned, and still the coast stretchedsouthwards till they reached a "Cape of Storms" and found the coast was turning north. And now occurred thatstrange phenomenon mentioned by Herodotus, that while sailing westwards the sun was on their right hand. "Noman had seen that thing in Syria or in Egypt."

A year and a half had now passed away since theyleft home, but onward to the north they now made their way, past the mouth of the golden waters (OrangeRiver), past the Congo, past the Niger, past the island of Gorillas described by Hanno, who explored the westcoast under Neco either before or after this time, until at last the little Phœnician ships sailed peacefullyinto the Mediterranean Sea.

It will ever remain one of the many disputed points in early geography whether or not Africa wascircumnavigated at this early date. If the Phœnicians did accomplish such a feat they kept their experiencesa secret as usual, and the early maps gave a very wrong idea of South Africa. On the other hand, we know theyhad good seaworthy ships in advance of their neighbours.

"I remember," says Xenophon, "I once went aboard a Phœnician ship, where I observed the best example of goodorder that I ever met with; and especially it was surprising to observe the vast numbers of implements whichwere necessary for the management of such a small vessel. What numbers of oars, stretchers, ship-hooks,and spikes were there for bringing the ship in and out of the harbour! What numbers of shrouds, cables; ropes;and other tackling for the ship! What a vast quantity of provisions were there for the sustenance and supportof the sailors!" Captain and sailors knew where everything was stowed away on board, and "while the captainstood upon the deck, he was considering with himself what things might be wanting in his voyage, what thingswanted repair, and what length of time his provisions would last; for, as he observed to me, it is no propertime, when the storm comes upon us, to have the necessary implements to seek, or to be out of repair, or towant them on board; for the gods are never favourable to those who are negligent or lazy; and it is theirgoodness that they do not destroy us when we are diligent."

There is an old story which says that one day the Greeks captured a Phœnician ship and copied it. However thismay be, the Greeks soon became great colonisers themselves, and we have to thank a Greek philosopher living inMiletus, on the coast of Asia Minor, for making the first map of the ancient world. Of course, the Babyloniansand Egyptians had made maps thousands of years before this, but this Greek Anaximander introduced theidea of map-making to the astonished world about the year 580 B.C. What was the map like? It was "a bronzetablet, whereupon the whole circuit of the Earth was engraved with all its seas and rivers."

This is all we know. But this map-making Greek was famous for another idea in advance of his time. He used tostudy the heavens and the earth, and after much study he made up his mind that the earth was round and notflat. He taught that the world hung free in the midst of the universe, or rather in the midst of the waters.The centre of the earth was at Delphi. In the world of legend there was a reason for this. Two eagles had beenlet loose, one from the eastern extremity of the world, the other from the west, and they met atDelphi—hence it was assumed that Delphi was at the centre of the world. And Delphi at this time was sucha wonderful city. On the slopes of Mount Parnassus it stood high on a rock—on the heights stood thetemple of Apollo with its immense riches, its golden statue of the great god, and its ever-smoking fire ofwood.

In the same way, in those days of imperfect geography, as we hear of Delphi being the centre of the Greekworld, so we hear of Jerusalem being considered the central point of the world.

"This is Jerusalem," says Ezekiel, "in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her."In the Mappa Mundi (thirteenth century) in Hereford Cathedral, Jerusalem is still the centre of the earth.

Following close on these ideas came another. It, too, came from Miletus, now famous for its school of thoughtand its searchers after truth.

A Tour of the World is the grand-sounding title of the work of Hecatæus, who wrote it about 500years B.C. It contains an account of the coast and islands of the Mediterranean Sea and an outline of all thelands the Greeks thought they knew. In the fragments that have come down to us, the famous old geographerdivides both his work and the world into two parts. One part he calls Europe, the other Asia, in which heincludes Africa bounded by the river Nile. He held that these two parts were equal. They were divided from oneanother by the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea, while round the whole flat world stillflowed the everlasting ocean stream.

The greatest traveller of olden times now comes upon the scene—Herodotus, the Greek, the "Father ofHistory."

He is a traveller as well as a writer. He has journeyed as one eager for knowledge, with a "hungry heart" anda keen, observant eye. He tells us what he has seen with his eyes, what he has heard with his ears. He insiststhat the world is flat, he acknowledges that it is divided into two parts—Europe and Asia; but he canafford to laugh at those who draw maps of the world "without any sense to guide them," in which they make thewhole world round as if drawn with a pair of compasses, with the ocean stream running round it, making Europeand Asia of equal size.

His first journey is to Egypt.

"I speak at length about Egypt," he says, "because it contains more marvellous things than any othercountry—things too strange for words. Not only is the climate different from that of the rest of theworld and the rivers unlike any other rivers, but the people also, in most of their manners and customs,reverse the common practice of mankind. The women are employed in trade and business, while the men stay athome to spin and weave. Other nations in weaving throw the woof up the warp, but an Egyptian throws it down.In other countries, sons are constrained to make provision for their parents; in Egypt it is not only thesons, but the daughters. In othercountries the priests have long hair; in Egypt their heads are shaven. Other nations fasten their ropes andhooks to the outside of their sails, but the Egyptians to the inside. The Greeks write and read from left toright, but the Egyptians from right to left."

After sailing for some seven hundred miles up the river Nile from the coast, past Heliopolis, the once famouscity of Ancient Egypt, past Memphis, the old capital, past Thebes, with its hundred gates, to. Elephantine,the "ivory island," opposite to what is now Assuan, he is more than ever puzzled about its course and thereason of its periodical floods.

"Concerning the nature of the river, I was not able to gain any information from the priests. I wasparticularly anxious to learn from them why the Nile, at the commencement of the summer solstice, begins torise and continues to increase for a hundred days—and why, as soon as that number is past, it forthwithretires and contracts its stream, continuing low during the whole of the winter until the summer solsticecomes round again. On none of these points could I obtain any explanation from the inhabitants, though I madeevery inquiry."

The sources of the Nile entirely baffled Herodotus as they baffled many another later explorer long yearsafter he had passed away. "Of the sources of the Nile no one can give any account, since the country throughwhich it passes is desert and without inhabitants," he explains, his thirst for knowledge unsatisfied. Somepriest volunteers this explanation. On the frontiers of Egypt are two high mountain-peaks called Crophi andMophi; in an unfathomable abyss between the two rose the Nile. But Herodotus does not believe in Crophi andMophi; he inclines to the idea that the Nile rises away in the west and flows eastward right across Libya.

He travelled a little about Libya himself, little realisingthe size of the great continent of Africa through which he passed. Many a strange tale of these unknown partsdid he relate to his people at home. He had seen the tallest and handsomest race of men in the world, wholived to the age of one hundred and twenty years—gold was so abundant that it was used even for theprisoners' chains—he had seen folks who lived on meat and milk only, never having seen bread or wine.

Some thirty days' journey from the land of the lotus-eaters he had found tribes who hunted with four-horsechariots and whose oxen walked backwards as they grazed, because their horns curve outwards in front of theirheads, and if they moved forwards these horns would stick in the ground.

Right across the desolate sandy desert of the north, Herodotus seems to have made his way. The "region of thewild beasts" must have been truly perilous, "for this is the tract," he says, "in which huge serpents arefound, and the lions, the elephants, the bears, and the horned asses."

He also tells us of antelopes, gazelles, asses, foxes, wild sheep, jackals, and panthers. There is no end tothe quaint sights he records. Here is a tribe whose wives drive the chariots to battle, here another who paintthemselves red and eat honey and monkeys, another who grow their hair long on the right side of their headsand shave it close on the left. Back through Egypt to Syria went our observant traveller, visiting the famousseaport of Tyre on the way. "I visited the temple of Hercules at that place and found two pillars, one of puregold, the other of emerald, shining with great brilliancy at night.'' That temple was already two thousandthree hundred years old.

Herodotus makes some astounding statements about various parts of the world. He asserts that a good walkercould walk across Asia Minor, from north to south, in five days, a distance we know now to be three hundredmiles! He tells us that the Danube rises in the Pyrenees Mountains and flows right through Europe till itempties its waters into the Black Sea, giving us a long and detailed account of a country he calls Scythia(Russia) with many rivers flowing into this same Black Sea.

But here we must leave the old traveller and picture him reading aloud to his delighted hearers his account ofhis discoveries and explorations, discussing with the learned Greeks of the day the size and wonders of theworld as they imagined it.

News travelled slowly in these bygone days, and we know the Phœnicians were very fond of keeping theirdiscoveries secret, but it seems strange to think that Herodotus never seems to have heard the story of Hannothe Carthaginian, who coasted along the west of North Africa, being the first explorer to reach the place weknow as "Sierra Leone."

Hanno's "Periplus," or the "Coasting Survey of Hanno," is one of the few Phœnician documents thathas lived through the long ages. In it the commander of the expedition himself tells his own story. With anidea of colonising, he left Carthage—the most famous of the Phœnician colonies—with sixty shipscontaining an enormous number of men and women.

"When we had set sail," says Hanno shortly, "and passed the pillars (of Hercules) after two days' voyage, wefounded the first city. Below this city lay a great plain. Sailing thence westward we came to a promontory ofLibya thickly covered with trees. Here we built a temple to the Sea-god and proceeded thence half a day'sjourney eastward, till we reached a lake lying not far from the sea and filled with abundance of great reeds.Here were feeding elephants and a great number of other wild animals. After we had gone a day's sail beyondthe lakes we founded cities near to the sea."

Making friends with the tribes along the coast, they reached the Senegal River. Here they fell in with "savagemen clothed with the skins of beasts," who pelted them with stones so that they could not land. Past CapeVerde they reached the mouth of the Gambia, "great and broad and full of crocodiles and river-horses," andthence coasted twelve days to the south and again five days to the south, which brought them to Sierra Leonethe Lion Mountain as it was called long years after by the Portuguese.

Here Hanno and his party landed, but as night approached they saw flames issuing from the island and heard thesound of flutes and cymbals and drums and the noise of confused shouts.

"Great fear then came upon us; we sailed therefore quickly thence much terrified, and passing on for fourdays found at night a country full of fire. In the middle was a lofty fire, greater than all the rest, so thatit seemed to touch the stars. When day came on we found that this was a great mountain which they called thechariot of thegods." They had a last adventure before they turned homewards at what they called the Isle of Gorillas. Herethey found a "savage people" (Gorillas) whom they pursued, but were unable to catch. At last they managed tocatch three. "But when these, biting and tearing those that led them, would not follow us, we slew them and,flaying off their skins, carried them to Carthage."

Then abruptly this quaint account of the only Phœnician voyage on record stops. "Further," says the commander,"we did not sail, for our food failed us."

Further knowledge of the world was now supplied by the Greeks, who were rapidly asserting themselves andsettling round the coast of the Mediterranean as the Phœnicians had done before them. As in more ancient daysBabylonians and Egyptians had dominated the little world, so now the power was shifting to the Greeks andPersians. The rise of Persia does not rightly belong to this story, which is not one of conquest andannexation, but of discovery, so we must content ourselves by stating the fact that Persia had become a veryimportant country with no less than fifty-six subject States paying tribute to her, including the land ofEgypt. Efforts to include Greece had failed.

In the year 401 B.C. one Artaxerxes sat on the throne of Persia, the mighty Empire which extended eastwardsbeyond the knowledge of Greeks or Phœnicians, even to the unknown regions of the Indus. He had reigned formany years, when Cyrus, his brother, a dashing young prince, attempted to seize the throne. Collecting a hugearmy, including the famous Ten Thousand Greeks, he led them by way of Phrygia, Cilicia, and along the banks ofthe Euphrates to within fifty miles of the gates of Babylon. The journey took nearly five months, a distanceof one thousand seven hundred miles through recognised tracks. Here a battle was fought and Cyrus was slain.

It was midwinter when the Ten Thousand Greeks who had followed their leader so loyally through the plains ofAsia Minor found themselves friendless and in great danger in the very heart of the enemy's country.

How Xenophon—a mere Greek volunteer, who had accompanied the army from the shores of AsiaMinor—rose up and offered to lead his countrymen back to Greece is a matter of history. It would taketoo long to tell in detail how they marched northward through the Assyrian plains, past the neighbourhood ofNineveh, till they reached the mountain regions which were known to be inhabited by fierce fighters,unconquered even by the powerful Persians.

Up to this time their line of retreat had followed the "royal road" of merchants and caravans. Their onlychance of safety lay in striking north into the mountains inhabited by this warlike tribe who had held outamid their wild and rugged country against the Persians themselves. They now opposed the Greeks with all theirmight, and it took seven days of continuous fighting to reach the valley which lay between them and the hightableland of Armenia. They crossed the Tigris near its source, and a little farther on they also crossed theEuphrates not far from its source, so they were informed by the Armenians. They now found themselves somefive or six thousand feet above sea-level and in the midst of a bitter Armenian winter. Snow fell heavily,covering all tracks, and day after day a cold north-east wind, "whose bitter blast was torture," increasedtheir sufferings as they ploughed their way on and on through such depths of snow as they had never seenbefore.

Many died of cold and hunger, many fell grievously sick, and others suffered from snow-blindness andfrostbite.

But Xenophon led his army on, making his notes ofthe country through which they were toiling, measuring distances by the day's march, and at last one day whenthe soldiers were climbing a steep mountain, a cry, growing louder and more joyous every moment, rent theair—

"Thalassa! Thalassa! The sea! The sea!"

True enough, on the distant horizon, glittering in the sunlight, was a narrow silver streak of sea—theBlack Sea—the goal of all their hopes. The long struggle of five months was over; they could sail homenow along the shores of the Black Sea. They had reached the coast near the spot Colchis, where the Argonautslanded to win the Golden Fleece long centuries before.

In a work known as the Anabasis, Xenophon wrote the adventures of the Ten Thousand Greeks, and no geographicalexplorer ever recorded his travels through unknown countries more faithfully than did the Greek leader oftwenty-three hundred years ago.

Still greater light was shed on the size of the world by Alexander the Great on his famous expedition to India, bywhich he almost doubled the area of the world known to the people of his time. It was just sixty years afterXenophon had made his way right across Asia to the shoes of the Black Sea when Alexander resolved to break, ifpossible, the power of the Persians.

The great Persian Empire extended from the shores of the Mediterranean right away to the east, far beyond theknowledge of the Greeks. Indeed, their knowledge of the interior of Asia was very imperfect, and Alexander'sexpedition was rather that of an explorer than of a conqueror. How he overthrew the Persians and subdued anarea as large as Europe in the space of twelve years reads like a romance rather than fact, and it is not forus to tell the story in detail. Rather let us take up the story after Alexander has fought and conquered thePersians twice, besieged Tyre, taken the Phœnician fleet, occupied Egypt, marched across the desert andcrossed the Euphrates, passed over the plain and followed the Tigris to near Nineveh, where he crossed thatriver too, fought another famous battle over the Persians, which decided the fate of King and Monarchy andopened to him the capitals of Babylon and Susa, wherein the immense treasures of the Persian Empire werestored. King of all Asia, he sat on the throne of the Persian kings under a golden canopy in the palace ofPersepolis.

So far the whole expedition was over country known, if imperfectly, to the Greeks. Now we have to follow theconquering hero more closely as he leads us into an unknown land away to the east, known as "the farthestregion of the inhabited world towards the east, beyond which lies the endless sandy desert void ofinhabitants." And all the while the great land of India lay beyond, and beyond again was China, and away farover the ocean sea lay America—and they knew it not.

Alexander was a young man yet, only twenty-six. It was four years since he had left Europe, and in that shorttime he had done wonders. He had conquered the whole eastern half of the Persian Empire. Now he resolutelyturned his face to the unknown east and started forth on an expedition of exploration.

Following the main highway from Media, which to-day leads from Teheran, capital of modern Persia, into theland of the Turkomans and the borders of Russia, he found himself between the great salt desert and themountains, which to-day mark the frontier of Persia. Suddenly, to his great surprise, the Caspian Sea cameinto sight. It seemed about the same size as the Black Sea, and he concluded it was connected with the Sea ofAzof; though the men of his day were certain enough that it was the most northern of four great gulfsconnected with the outer ocean which flowed round the world.

Onwards towards the east he marched with his great army. To conciliate the tribes through which he passed, headopted Persian dress. This annoyed his Greek countrymen, but, "as they admired his other virtues, theythought he might be suffered to please himself a little and enjoy his vanity."

Arrived at the modern boundary between Persia, Afghanistan, and Russia, he and his men pushed on acrossAfghanistan, by the caravan route that had long existedfrom the shores of the Caspian, by modern Herat, Kandahar,which still bears the conqueror's name, and Kabul to India. Their way lay through deep snow, deeper than theyhad ever seen before; and by the time they had reached the mountains of Kabul it was midwinter.

Between Alexander and India still lay the lofty range of the Hindu Koosh or Indian Caucasus. But before goingsouth toward India, he turned northwards to explore the unknown country which lay about the river Oxus. Theyfound the Oxus, a mighty stream, swollen with melting snows. There were no boats and no wood to build them, soAlexander pioneered his men across in "life-preservers" made out of their leather tent coverings and stuffedwith straw. This river impressed the Greeks even more than the Euphrates and Tigris, as it impressed many anexplorer and poet since these early days. Let us recall Matthew Arnold's famous description of the Oxus, nowseen for the first time by the Greeks.

Here in this valley the Greeks met more determined opposition than they had yet encountered since enteringAsia, and over two years were occupied in reducing this single district (now Bokhara and Turkestan) tosubmission, though it was only some three hundred and fifty miles square, and in one single year Alexander hadconquered a kingdom over one thousand miles in width.

It was not till the spring of 827 B.C. that he was ready to cross the Hindu Koosh and begin the greatexpedition into India. The night before the start Alexander discovered that his troops were now so heavilyladen with spoils that they were quite unfit for the long march. So in the early morning, when they were allready to start, he suddenly set fire to his own baggage, and, giving orders that all his men were to do thesame, the army started for the passes of the lofty mountain range. And—

The banks of the river of Kabul were reached at last. Sending part of the army by the now famous Kyber Passtoward the Indus, Alexander himself undertook to subdue the mountain tribes and get control of the Chitralpasses. The shepherds of this region opposed him vigorously, but swiftly and pitilessly the King of Asiasacked their peaceful homes, and city after city fell to him as he advanced towards the boundaries of Kashmir.

At last the valley of the Indus was reached. A bridge of boats was hastily thrown over, and Alexander and hisarmy passed to the other side.

Porus, the ruler of the country between the Indusand the river Hydaspes (Jehlam), sent presents of welcome to the invader, including three thousand animals forsacrifice, ten thousand sheep, thirty elephants, two hundred talents of silver, and seven hundred horsem*n.The new king was also greeted with presents of ivory and precious stones. Even from far Kashmir came greetingsto Alexander, whose fame was spreading rapidly. He now entered the Punjab, the "Land of the Five Rivers." Buton the other side of the river Hydaspes a different reception awaited him.

There the king (Porus) had assembled a sturdy, well-disciplined troop to dispute the passage of the river,which separated the new King of Asia from his territory. But under cover of a mighty thunderstorm Alexandercontrived to cross, though the river was rushing down yellow and fierce after the rains. Secretly the Greeksput together their thirty-oared galleys hidden in a wood, and utterly surprised Porus by landing on the otherside. In their strange wanderings the Greeks had fought under varying conditions, but they had never facedelephants before. Nevertheless, they brilliantly repulsed an onslaught of these animals, who slowly retreated,"facing the foe, like ships backing water, and merely uttering a shrill, piping sound." Despite the elephantsthe old story was repeated, civilised arms triumphed over barbarians, and the army of Porus was annihilated,his chariots shattered, and thirty-three thousand men slain.

The kingdom beyond the Hydaspes was now Alexander's. Ordering a great fleet of rafts and boats to be built forhis proposed voyage to the mouth of the Indus, he pushed on to complete the conquest of the Five Stream Land,or the Punjab—the last province of the great Persian Empire. This was India—all that was known atthis time. The India of the Ganges valley was beyond the knowledge of the Western world—the Gangesitselfunknown to the Persians. And Alexander saw no reason to change his mind.

"The great sea surrounds the whole earth," he stoutly maintained.

But when he reached the eastern limit of the Punjab and heard, that beyond lay a fertile land "where theinhabitants were skilled in agriculture, where there were elephants in yet greater abundance and men weresuperior in stature and courage," the world stretched out before him in an unexpected direction, and he longedto explore farther, to conquer new and utterly unknown worlds!

But at last his men struck. They were weary, some were wounded, some were ill; seventy days of incessant rainhad taken the heart out of them.

"I am not ignorant, soldiers," said Alexander to the hesitating troops, that during the last few days thenatives of this country have been spreading all sorts of rumours to work upon your fears. The Persians in thisway sought to terrify you with the gates of Cilicia, with the plains of Mesopotamia, with the Tigris andEuphrates, and yet this river you crossed by a ford and that by means of a bridge. By my troth, we had longago fled from Asia could fables have been able to scare us. We are not standing on the threshold of ourenterprise, but at the very close. We have already reached the sunrise and the ocean, and unless your slothand cowardice prevent, we shall thence return in triumph to our native land, having conquered the earth to itsremotest bounds. I beseech you that ye desert not your king just at the very moment when he is approaching thelimits of the inhabited world."

But the soldiers, "with their heads bent earthwards," stood in silence. It was not that theywould not follow him beyond the sunset; they could not. Their tears began to flow,sobs reached the ears of Alexander, his anger turned to pity, and he wept with his men.

"Oh, sir," at last cried one of. his men, "we have done and suffered up to the full measure of the capacity ofmortal nature. We have traversed seas and lands, and know them better than do the inhabitants themselves. Weare standing now almost on the earth's utmost verge, and yet you are preparing to go in quest of an Indiaunknown even to the Indians themselves. You would fain root out, from their hidden recesses and dens, a raceof men that herd with snakes and wild beasts, so that you may traverse as a conqueror more regions than thesun surveys. But while your courage will be ever growing, our vigour is fast waning to its end. See howbloodless be our bodies, pierced with how many wounds and gashed with how many scars! Our weapons are blunt,our armour worn out! We have been driven to assume the Persian dress! Which of us has a horse? We haveconquered all the world, but are ourselves destitute of all things."

The conqueror was at last conquered. The order to turn back was reluctantly given by the disappointed king andleader. It was received with shouts of joy from the mixed multitudes of his followers, and the expeditionfaced for home. Back they marched through the new lands where no less than two thousand cities had owned hissway, till they came to the banks of the river where the ships were building. Two thousand boats were ready,including eighty thirty-oared galleys.

It was now September 326 B.C.

Nearchus from Crete was made Admiral of the new fleet, which at dawn one October morning pushed out upon theriver Hydaspes and set sail downstream towards the unknown sea, Alexander standing proudly on the prow of theroyal galley. The trumpets rang out, the oars moved, and the strange argosy, "such as had never been seenbefore in these parts," made its way down the unknown river to the unknown sea. Natives swarmed to the banksof the river to wonder at the strange sight, marvelling specially to see horses as passengers on board! Thegreater part of the army followed the ships on land, marching along the shores. At last the waters of theHydaspes mingled with those of the Indus, and onwards down this great river floated the Persian fleet.Alexander had no pilots, no local knowledge of the country, but with his "unquenchable ambition to see theocean and reach the boundaries of the world," he sailed on, "ignorant of everything on the way they had topass." In vain they asked the natives assembled on the banks how far distant was the sea; they had never heardof the sea! At last they found a tide mixing its salt waters with the fresh. Soon a flood-tide burst uponthem, forcing back the current of the river, and scattering the fleet. The sailors of the Mediterranean knewnothing of the rise and fall of tides. They were in a state of panic and consternation. Some tried to push offtheir ships with long poles, others tried to row against the incoming tide; prows were dashed against poops,oars were broken, sterns were bumped, until at last the sea had flowed over all the level land near the rivermouth.

Suddenly a new danger appeared! The tide turned and the sea began to recede. Further misfortunes now befellthe ships. Many were left high and dry; most of them were damaged in some way or another. Alexander senthorsem*n to the seashore with instructions to watch for the return of the tide and to ride back in haste sothat the fleet might be prepared.

Thus they got safely out to sea on the next high tide.

Alexander's explorations were now at an end. Leaving Nearchus to explore the seacoast at the mouth of theIndus, he left the spot near where the town of Hyderabad now stands, and turned his face toward the home hewas never to reach. We must not linger over his terriblecoast journey through the scorching desert of Beluchistan: the billows of sand, the glare of the barren sea,the awful thirst, the long hungry marches of forty miles a day under the burning Eastern sun.

Our story is one of discovery, and we must turn to Nearchus, Admiral of the fleet, left behind at the mouth ofthe Indus to explore the coast to the Persian Gulf, where he was to meet Alexander if possible. Shortly afterthe fleet had emerged from the mouth of the Indus a violent south-west monsoon began to blow and Nearchus wasobliged to seek shelter in a harbour, which he called the port of Alexander, but which to-day is known asKarachi, the most western seaport of India. The waters of the Indian Ocean were quite unknown to the Greeks,and they could only coast along in sight of land, anchoring at different points for the men to land and getwater andfood. Past the wild barren shores of Beluchistan they made their way; the natives subsisted on fish entirelyeven as they do to-day—even their huts being made of fish bones and their bread of pounded fish.

They had but one adventure in their five months' cruise to the Persian Gulf, but we have a graphic account ofhow the terrified Greeks met a shoal of whales and how they frightened the whales away. Here is the story. Oneday towards daybreak they suddenly saw water spouting up from the sea, as if being violently carried upwardsby whirlwinds. The sailors, feeling very frightened, asked their native guides what it meant. The nativesreplied that it was caused by whales blowing the water up into the air. At this explanation the Greek sailorswere panic-stricken and dropped the oars from their hands. Nearchus saw that something must be done at once:So he bade the men draw up their ships in line as if for battle and row forward side by side towards thewhales, shouting and splashing with their oars. At a given signal they duly advanced, and when they came nearthe sea-monsters they shouted with all their might and blew their trumpets and made all possible noise withtheir oars. On hearing which, says the old story, "the whales took fright and plunged into the depths, but notlong after came to the surface again close to the sterns of the vessels and once more spouted great jets ofwater. Then the sailors shouted aloud at their happy and unlooked-for escape," and Nearchus was cheered as thesaviour of the fleet. It is not uncommon to-day for steamers bound from Aden to Bombay to encounter what iscalled a "school of whales" similar to those which alarmed the fleet of Nearchus in the year 323 B.C.

The expedition was completely successful and Nearchus pioneered his fleet to the mouth of the Euphrates.

But the death of Alexander the Great and the confusionthat followed set back the advance of geographical discovery in this direction for some time.

Alexandria—one of the many towns founded by Alexander—had become the world centre of the learned fromEurope, Asia, and Africa. Its position was unrivalled. Situated at the mouth of the Nile, it commanded theMediterranean Sea, while by means of the Red Sea it held easy communication with India and Arabia.When Egypt had come under the sway of Alexander, he had made one of his generals ruler over that country, andmen of intellect collected there to study and to write. A library was started, and a Greek, Eratosthenes, heldthe post of librarian at Alexandria for forty years, namely, from 240&endash;190 B.C. During this period he made acollection of all the travels and books of earth description—the first the world had everknown—and stored themin the Great Library of which he must have felt so justly proud. But Eratosthenes did more than this. He wasthe originator of Scientific Geography. He realised that no maps could be properly laid down till somethingwas known of the size and shape of the earth.

By this time all men of science had ceased to believe that the world was flat; they thought of it as a perfectround, but fixed at the centre in space. Many had guessed at the size of the earth. Some said it was fortythousand miles round, but Eratosthenes was not content with guessing. He studied the length of the shadowthrown by the sun at Alexandria and compared it with that thrown by the sun at Syene, near the first cataractof the Nile, some five hundred miles distant, and, as he thought, in the same longitude. The differences inthe length of these two shadows he calculated would represent one-fiftieth of the circumference of the earth,which would accordingly be twenty-thousand miles. There was no one to tell him whether he had calculated rightor wrong, but we know to-day that he was wonderfully right. But he must know more. He must find out how muchof this earth was habitable. To the north and south of the known countries men declared it was too hot or toocold to live. So he decided that from north to south, that is, from the land of Thule to the land of Punt(Somaliland), the habitable earth stretched for some three thousand eight hundred miles, while from east towest—that is, from the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) to India—would be some eightthousand miles. All the rest was ocean. Ignoring the division of the world into three continents, he dividedit into two, north and south, divided by the Mediterranean and by a long range of mountains intersecting thewhole of Asia.

Then the famous librarian drew a map of the world for his library at Alexandria, but it has perished with allthe rest of the valuable treasure collected in this once celebrated city. We know that he must have made agreat many mistakes in drawing a map of his little island world which measured eight thousand miles by threethousand eight hundred miles. It must have been quaintly arranged. The Caspian Sea was connected with aNorthern Ocean, the Danube sent a tributary to the Adriatic, there was no Bay of Biscay, the British Isles layin the wrong direction, Africa was not half its right size, the Ganges flowed into the Eastern Ocean, Ceylonwas a huge island stretching east and west, while across the whole of Asia a mountain chain stretched in onelong unbroken line. And yet, with all his errors, he was nearer the truth than men three centuries later.

For some centuries past men had been pushing eastward, and to west, vast lands lay unexplored, undreamt of,amongst them a little far-off island "set in a silver sea." Pytheas was the first explorer to bring the worldnews of the British Isles.

About the time that Alexander was making his way eastward through Persia, Pytheas was leaving the Greek colonyof Marseilles for the west and north. The Phœnicians, with their headquarters at Carthage, had completecommand of the mineral trade of Spain—the Mexico of the ancient world. They knew where to find the goldand silver from the rivers—indeed, they said that the coast, from the Tagus to the Pyrenees, was"stuffed with mines of gold and silver and tin." The Greeks were now determined to see forthemselves—the men of Carthage should no longer have it all their own way. Where were these tin islands,kept so secret by the master-mariners of the ancient world?

A committee of merchants met at Marseilles and engaged the services of Pytheas, a great mathematician, and onewho made a study of the effect of the moon on the tides. All sorts of vague rumours had reached the ears ofPytheas about the northern regions he was about to visit. He would discover the homes of the tin and ambermerchants, he would find the people who lived "at the back of the north wind," he would reach a land ofperpetual sunshine, where swans sang like nightingales and life was one unending banquet.

So Pytheas, the mathematician of Marseilles, started off on his northern trip. Unfortunately, his diary andbook called The Circuit of the Earth have perished, and our story of geographical discovery isthe poorer. But these facts have survived.

The ships first touched at Cadiz, the "Tyre of the West," a famous port in those days, where Phœnicianmerchants lived, "careless and secure" and rich. This was the limit of Greek geographical knowledge; here werethe Pillars of Hercules, beyond which all was dim and mysterious and interesting. Five days' sail, that is tosay, some three hundred miles along the coast of Spain, brought Pytheas to Cape St. Vincent.

He thought he was navigating the swift ocean river flowing around the world. He was, therefore, surprised tofind as he rounded the Cape that the current had ceased, or, in his own words, the "ebb came to an end." Threedays more and they were at the mouth of the Tagus. Near this part of the coast lay the Tin Islands, accordingto Greek ideas, though even to-day their exact locality is uncertain. Pytheas must have heard the oldtradition that the Cassiterides were ten in number and lay near each other in the ocean, that they wereinhabited by people who wore black cloaks and long tunics reaching to the feet, that they walked with longstaves and subsisted by their cattle. They led a wandering life; they bartered hides, tin, and lead with themerchants in exchange for pottery, salt, and implements of bronze.

That these islands had already been visited by Himilco the Carthaginian seems fairly certain. He had startedfrom Cadiz for the north when Hanno started for the south. From the Tin Islands his fleet had ventured forthinto the open sea. Thick fogs had hidden the sun andthe ships were driven south before a north wind till they reached, though they did not know it, the SargassoSea, famous for its vast plains of seaweed, through which it was difficult to push the ships.

"Sea animals," he tells us, "crept upon the tangled weed." It has been thought that with a little good fortuneHimilco might have discovered America two thousand years before the birth of Columbus. But Himilco returnedhome by the Azores or Fortunate Islands, as they were called.

Leaving the Tin Islands, Pytheas voyaged on to Cape Finisterre, landing on the island of Ushant, where hefound a temple served by women priests who kept up a perpetual fire in honour of their god. Thence Pytheassailed prosperously on up the English Channel till he struck the coast of Kent. Britain, he announced, wasseveral days' journey from Ushant, and about one hundred and seventy miles to the north. He sailed round partof the coast, making notes of distances, but these are curiously exaggerated. This was not unnatural, for theonly method of determining distance was roughly based on the number of miles that a ship could go in an houralong the shore. Measuring in this primitive fashion, Pytheas assures us that Britain is a continent ofenormous size, and that he has discovered a "new world." It is, he says, three cornered in shape, somethinglike the head of a battleaxe. The south side, lying opposite the coast of France, is eight hundred andthirty-five miles in length, the eastern coast is sixteen hundred and sixty-five miles, the western twothousand two hundred and twenty-two—indeed, the whole country was thought to be over four thousand milesin circumference. These calculations must have been very upsetting to the old geographers of that age, becauseup to this time they had decided that the whole world was only three thousand fourhundred miles long and six thousand eight hundred broad.

He tells us that he made journeys into the interior of Britain, that the inhabitants drink mead, and thatthere is an abundance of wheat in the fields.

"The natives," he says, "collect the sheaves in great barns and thrash out the corn there, because they haveso little sunshine that an open thrashing-place would be of little use in that land of clouds and rain." Heseems to have voyaged north as far as the Shetland Islands, but he never saw Ireland.

Having returned from the north of the Thames, Pytheas crossed the North Sea to the mouth of the Rhine, apassage which took about two and a half days. He gives a pitiable account of the people living on the Dutchcoast and their perpetual struggle with the sea. The natives had not learnt the art of making dykes andembankments. A high tide with a wind setting toward the shore would sweep over the low-lying country and swamptheir homes. A mounted horseman could barely gallop from the rush and force of these strong North Sea tides.

But the Greek geographers would not believe this; they only knew the tideless Mediterranean, and they thoughtPytheas was lying when he told of the fierce northern sea. Pytheas sailed past the mouth of the Elbe, notingthe amber cast upon the shore by the high spring tides. But all these interesting discoveries paled before thefamous land of Thule, six days' voyage north of Britain, in the neighbourhood of the frozen ocean. Grandexcitement reigned among geographers when they heard of Thule, and a very sea of romance rose up around thename. Had Pytheas indeed found the end of the world? Was it an island? Was it mainland? In the childhood ofthe world, when so little was known and so much imagined, men's minds caught at the name of Thule—Ultima Thule—far-away Thule, and weaved round it many and beautiful legends. But to-day we ask: Was itIceland? Was it Lapland? Was it one of the Shetland Isles?

"Pytheas said that the farthest parts of the world are those which lie about Thule, the northernmost of theBritannic Isles, but he never said whether Thule was an island or whether the world was habitable by man asfar as that point. I should think myself"—the speaker is Strabo, a famous Greek traveller who wroteseventeen books of geography—"I should think myself that the northern limit of habitude lies muchfarther to the south, for the writers of our age say nothing of any place beyond Ireland, which is situate infront of the northern parts of Britain." Pytheas said that Thule was six days' sail north of Britain. "But whoin his senses would believe this?" cries Strabo again. "For Pytheas, who described Thule, has been shown to bethe falsest of men. A traveller, starting from the middle of Britain and goingfive hundred miles to the north, would come to a country somewhere about Ireland, where living would be barelypossible."

The first account of the Arctic regions likewise reads like pure romance to the ignorant and untravelled."After one day's journey to the north of Thule," says Pytheas, "men come to a sluggish sea, where there is noseparation of sea, land, and air, but a mixture of these elements like the substance of jelly-fish, throughwhich one can neither walk nor sail." Here the nights were very short, sometimes only two hours, after whichthe sun rose again. This, in fact, was the "Sleeping Palace of the Sun."

With all this wealth of discovery, Pytheas returned home by the Bay of Biscay to the mouth of the Gironde;thence sailed up the Garonne, and from the modern town of Bordeaux he reached Marseilles by an overlandjourney.

Our next explorer is Julius Cæsar. As Alexander the Great had combined the conqueror with the explorer, so nowhistory repeats itself, and we find the Roman Cæsar not only conquering, but exploring. It was Cæsar who firstdispelled the mist that lay over the country about the French Seine, the German Rhine, the EnglishThames—Cæsar who gives us the first graphic account of crossing the English Channel from France toEngland. Pytheas had hinted at the fog-bound lands of the north—Cæsar brought them into the light ofday.

Since the days of Alexander the centre of Empire had shifted from Greece to Rome, and Rome was now conqueringand annexing land, as Persia had done in the olden days. Hence it was that Julius Cæsar was in the year 58B.C. appointed Governor of a new province recently brought under Roman sway, stretching from the Alps to theGaronne and northward to the Lake of Geneva, which at this time marked the frontier of the Roman Empire. Cæsarmade no secret of his intentions to subdue the tribes to the north of his province and bring all Gaul underthe dominion of Rome. His appointment carried with it the command of four legions, including some twentythousand soldiers. His chance soon came, and we find Cæsar, with all the ability of a great commander, pushingforward with his army into the very heart of France one hundred and fifty miles beyond the Roman frontier.

On the banks of the river Saône he defeated a large body of Celtic people who were migrating from Switzerlandto make their homes in the warmer and roomier plains at the foot of the Pyrenees.

While the defeated Celts returned to their chilly homes among the mountains, victorious Cæsar resolved to pushon at the head of his army toward the Rhine, where some German tribes under a "ferocious headstrong savage"threatened to overrun the country. After marching through utterly unknown country for three days, he heardthat fresh swarms of invaders had crossed the Rhine, intending to occupy the more fertile tracts on the Frenchside. They were making for the town we now call Besançon—then, as now, strongly fortified, and nearlysurrounded by the river Doubs. By forced marches night and day, Cæsar hastened to the town and took it beforethe arrival of the invaders.

Accounts of the German tribes even now approaching were brought in by native traders and Gaulish chiefs, untilthe Roman soldiers were seized with alarm. Yes, said the traders, these Germans were "men of huge stature,incredible valour, and practised skill in wars; many a time they had themselves come across them, and had notbeen able to look them in the face or meet the glare of their piercing eyes."

The Romans felt they were in an unknown land, about to fight against an unknown foe. Violent panic seizedthem, "completely paralysing every one's judgment, and nerve." Some could not restrain their tears; others shutthemselves up in their tents and bemoaned their fate. "All over the camp men were making their wills," untilCæsar spoke, and the panic ceased. Seven days' march brought them to the plain of Alsace, some fifty milesfrom the Rhine. A battle was fought with the German tribes, and "the enemy all turned tail and did not ceasetheir flight until they reached the Rhine." Some swam across, some found boats, many were killed by the Romansin hot pursuit.

For the first time Romans beheld the German Rhine—that great river that was to form a barrier for solong between them and the tribes beyond. But Cæsar's exploration was not to end here. The following year foundhim advancing against the Belgæ—tribes living between the Rhine and the Seine. In one brilliant campaignhe subdued the whole of north-eastern Gaul from the Seine to the Rhine. Leaving Roman soldiers in the newlyconquered country, he returned to his province, and was some eight hundred miles away when he heard that ageneral rebellion was breaking out in that part we now know as Brittany. He at once ordered ships to be builton the Loire, "which flows into the ocean," oarsmen to be trained, seamen and pilots assembled.

The spring of 56 B.C. found Cæsar at the seat of war. His ships were ready on the Loire. But the navy of theVeneti was strong. They were a sea-going folk, who knew their own low rocky coast, intersected by shallowinlets of the sea; they knew their tides and their winds. Their flat-bottomed boats were suitable to shallowsand ebbing tides. Bows and stern stood high out of the water to resist heavy seas and severe gales; the hullswere built of oak. Leather was used for sails to withstand the violent ocean storms. The long Roman galleyswere no match for these, and things would have gone badly had not Cæsar devised a plan for cutting the enemy'srigging with hooks "sharpened at the end and fixed to long poles. With these, the Romans cut the rigging ofthe enemy's ships forming the fleet of Brittany; the sails fell and the ships were rendered useless. One afteranother they were easily captured, and at sunset the victory lay with the Romans.

The whole of Gaul, from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, seemed now subdued. Cæsar had conquered as he explored, andthe skill of his well-disciplined army triumphed everywhere over the untrained courage of the barbariantribes.

Still, the German tribes were giving trouble about the country of the Rhine, and in the words of the famousCommentaries, "Cæsar was determined to cross the Rhine, but he hardly thought it safe to cross inboats. Therefore, although the construction of a bridge presented great difficulties on account of thebreadth, swiftness; and depth of the stream, he nevertheless thought it best to make the attempt or else notcross at all." Indeed, he wanted to impress the wild German people on the other side with a sense of the vastpower of the Roman Empire. The barbarian tribes beyond must, indeed, have been impressed with the skill of theRoman soldier. For in ten days the bridge was completed: timber had been hewn from the forest, brought to thebanks of the Rhine, worked into shape, piles driven into the bed of the river, beams laid across. And Cæsarled his army in triumph to the other side. They stood for the first time in the land of the Germans, near themodern town of Coblenz, and after eighteen days on the farther side, they returned to Gaul, destroying thebridge behind them.

Cæsar had now a fresh adventure in view. He was going to make his way to Britain. The summer of 55 B.C. waspassing, and "in these parts, the whole of Gaul having a northerly trend, winter sets in early," wrote Cæsarafterwards. There would be no time to conquer, but he could visit the island, find out for himself what thepeople were like, learn about harbours and landing-places, "for of all this the Greeks knew practicallynothing. No one, indeed, readily undertakes the voyage to Britain excepttraders, and even they know nothing of it except the coast."

Cæsar summoned all the traders he could collect and inquired the size of the island, what tribes dwelt there,their names, their customs, and the shortest sea passage. Then he sent for the ships which had vanquished thefleet of Brittany the previous year; he also assembled some eighty merchant ships on the northern coast ofGaul, probably not very far from Calais.

It was near the end of August, when soon after midnight the wind served and he set sail. A vision of the greatRoman—determined, resolute—rises before us as, standing on the deck of the galley, he looks out onto the dark waters of the unknown sea bound for the coast of England. After a slow passage the little fleetarrived under the steep white cliffs of the southern coast about nine o'clock next morning. Armed forces ofbarbarians stood on the heights above Dover, and, finding it impossible to land, Cæsar gave orders to sailsome seven miles farther along the coast, where they ran the ships aground not far from Deal.

But the visit of the Romans to Britain on this occasion lasted but three days, for a violent storm scatteredthe ships with the horses on board.

"The same night," says Cæsar, "it happened to be full moon, which generally causes very high tides in theocean, a fact of which our men were not aware."

Indeed, we may well believe that a night of full moon and an unusually high tide would be a mystery to thosechildren of the Mediterranean. Their ships had been beached and were lying high and dry when the rapidlyrising tide overwhelmed them. Cables were broken, anchors lost, panic ensued.

But Cæsar's glory lay in overcoming obstacles, and it is well known how he got his troops and ships safelybackacross the Channel, and how preparations were hurried on in Gaul for a second invasion of Britain. This is notthe place for the story of his campaign. He was the first to raise the curtain on the mysterious islandsdiscovered by Pytheas.

Cæsar's remarks on this newfound land are interesting for us to-day. He tells us of "a river called theThames, about eight miles from the sea." "The interior of Britain," he says, "is inhabited by a people who,according to tradition, are aboriginal. The population is immense; homesteads closely resembling those of theGauls are met with at every turn, and cattle are very numerous. Gold coins are in use, or iron bars of fixedweight. Hares, fowls, and geese they think it wrong to taste; but they keep them for pastime or amusem*nt. Theclimate is more equable than in Gaul, the cold being less severe. The island is triangular in shape, one sidebeing opposite Gaul. One corner of this side, by Kent—the landing-place for almost all ships fromGaul—has an easterly, and the lower one a westerly, aspect. The extent of this side is about fivehundred miles. The second trends off towards Spain. Off the coast here is Ireland, which is considered onlyhalf as large as Britain. Half-way across is an island called 'Man,' and several smaller islands also arebelieved to be situated opposite this coast, in which there is continuous night for thirty days. The length ofthis side is eight hundred miles. Thus the whole island is two thousand miles in circumference. The people ofthe interior do not, for the most part, cultivate grain, but live on milk and flesh-meat, and clothethemselves with skins. All Britons, without exception,stain themselves with woad, which produces a bluish tint. They wear their hair long."

Cæsar crossed the Thames. "The river can only be forded at one spot," he tells us, "and there withdifficulty." Farther he did not go. And so this is all that was known of Britain for many a long year to come.

Strabo wrote his famous geography near the beginning of the Christian era, but he knew nothing of the north ofEngland, Scotland, or Wales. He insisted on placing Ireland to the north, and scoffed at Pytheas' account ofThule.

And yet he boasted a wider range than any other writer on geography, "for that those who had penetratedfarther towards the West had not gone so far to the East, and those on the contrary who had seen more of theEast had seen less of the West."

Like Herodotus, Strabo had travelled himself from Armenia and western Italy, from the Black Sea to Egypt andup the Nile to Philæ. But his seventeen volumes—vastly important to his contemporaries—read like aromance to us to-day, and a glance at the map laid down according to his descriptions is like a vague anddistorted caricature of the real thing. And yet, according to the men of his times, he "surpasses all thegeographical writings of antiquity, both in grandeur of plan and in abundance and variety of its materials."

Strabo has summed up for us the knowledge of the ancient world as it was in the days of the Emperor CæsarAugustus of the great Roman Empire, as it was when in far-off Syria the Christ was born and the greater partof the known earth was under the sway of Rome.

A wall-map had already been designed by order of Augustus to hang in a public place in Rome—the heartof the Empire—so that the young Romans might realise the size of their inheritance, while a list of thechief places on the roads, which, radiating from Rome, formed a network over the Empire, was inscribed on theGolden Milestone in the Forum.

We may well imagine with what keen interest the schoolmen of Alexandria would watch the extension of the RomanEmpire. Here Strabo had studied, here or at Rome he probably wrote his great work toward the close of a longlife. He has read his Homer and inclines to take every word he says as true. Herodotus he will have none of.

"Herodotus and other writers trifle very much," he asserts, "when they introduce into their histories themarvellous like an interlude of some melody."

In like manner he disbelieves poor Pytheas and his accounts of the land of Ultima Thule and his marvellouswalks through Britain, while he clings to the writings of Eratosthenes.

But in common with them all Strabo believes the world to be one vast island, surrounded on all sides by oceaninto which the rivers flow, and the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf are but inlets. So is also the Mediterraneanor "Our Sea," as he prefers to call it. This earth-island reaches north to south, from Ireland, "barelyhabitable on account of the cold," to the cinnamon country (Somaliland), "the most southerly point of thehabitable earth." From west to east it stretches from the Pillars of Hercules right "through the middle of OurSea" to the shores of Asia Minor, then across Asia by an imaginary chain of mountains to an imaginary spotwhere the Ganges, lately discovered, emptied its waters into the world-surrounding ocean stream.

The breadth of the habitable earth is three thousand miles, the length about seven thousand—a littleworld, indeed, with the greater world lying all around it, still undreamt of by the old student of geographyand the traveller after truth.

He begins his book with a detailed account of southern Spain. He tells of her two hundred towns. "Those bestknown are situated on the rivers, estuaries, and seas ; but the two which have acquired the greatest name andimportance are Cordova and Cadiz. After these Seville is the most noted. . . . A vast number of people dwellalong the Guadalquivir, and you may sail up it almost a hundred and twenty miles from the sea to Cordova andthe places a little higher up. The banks and little inlets of this river are cultivated with the greatestdiligence. The eye is also delighted with groves and gardens, which in this district are met with in thehighest perfection. For fifty miles the river is navigable for ships of considerable size, but for the citieshigher up smaller vessels are employed, and thence to Cordova river-boats. These are now constructed of planksjoined together, but they were formerly made out of a single trunk. A chain of mountains, rich in metal, runsparallel to the Guadalquivir, approaching the river, sometimes more, sometimes less, toward the north."

He grows enthusiastic over the richness of this part of southern Spain, famous from ancient days under thename of Tartessus for its wealth. "Large quantities of corn and wine are exported, besides much oil, which isof the first quality, also wax, honey, and pitch . . . the country furnishes the timber for theirshipbuilding. They have likewise mineral salt and not a few salt streams. A considerable quantity of saltedfish is exported, not only from hence, but also from the remainder of the coast beyond the Pillars. Formerlythey exported large quantities of garments, but they now send the unmanufactured wool remarkable for itsbeauty. The stuffs manufactured are of incomparable texture. There is a superabundance of cattle and a greatvariety of game, while on the other hand there are certain little hares which burrow in the ground (rabbits).These creatures destroy both seeds and trees by gnawing their roots. They are met withthroughout almost the whole of Spain. It is said that formerly the inhabitants of Majorca and Minorca sent adeputation to the Romans requesting that a new land might be given them, as they were quite driven out oftheir country by these animals, being no longer able to stand against their vast multitudes." The seacoast onthe Atlantic side abounds in fish, says Strabo. " The congers are quite monstrous, far surpassing in sizethose of Our Sea. Shoals of rich fat tunny fish are driven hither from the seacoast beyond. They feed on thefruit of stunted oak, which grows at the bottom of the sea and produces very large acorns. So great is thequantity of fruit, that at the season when they are ripe the whole coast on either side of the Pillars iscovered with acorns thrown up by the tides. The tunny fish become gradually thinner, owingto the failure of their food as they approach the Pillars from the outer sea."

He describes, too, the metals of this wondrous land—gold, silver, copper, and iron; It is astonishing tothink that in the days of Strabo the silver mines employed forty thousand workmen, and produced something like£900 a day in our modern money!

But we cannot follow Strabo over the world in all his detail. He tells us of a people living north of theTagus, who slept on the ground, fed on acorn-bread, and wore black cloaks by day and night. He does not thinkBritain is worth conquering—Ireland lies to the north, not west, of Britain; it is a barren land full ofcannibals and wrapped in eternal snows—the Pyrenees run parallel to the Rhine—the Danube risesnear the Alps—even Italy herself runs east and west instead of north and south. His remarks on India areinteresting.

"The reader," he says, "must receive the accounts of this country with indulgence. Few persons of our nationhave seen it; the greater part of what they relate is from report. Very few of the merchants who now sail fromEgypt by the Nile and the Arabian Gulf to India have proceeded as far as the Ganges."

He is determined not to be led astray by the fables of the great size of India. Some had told him it was athird of the whole habitable world, some that it took four months to walk through the plain only. "Ceylon issaid to be an island lying out at sea seven days' sail from the most southerly parts of India. Its length isabout eight hundred miles. It produces elephants."

Strabo died about the year 21 A.D., and half a century passed before Pliny wrote An Account of Countries,Nations, Seas, Towns, Havens, Mountains, Rivers, Distances, and Peoples who now Exist or Formerly Existed. Strange to say, he never refers in the most distant way to his famous predecessor Strabo. He has but little toadd to the earth-knowledge of Strabo. But he gives us a fuller account of Great Britain, based on the freshdiscoveries of Roman generals.

In the year 48 A.D. the Emperor Claudius resolved to send an expedition to the British coast, lying amid themists and fog of the Northern Ocean.

A gigantic army landed near the spot where Cæsar had landed just a hundred years before. The discovery andconquest of Britain now began in real earnest. The Isle of Wight was overrun by Romans; the south coast wasexplored. Roman soldiers lost their lives in the bogs and swamps of Gloucestershire. The eastern counties,after fierce opposition, submitted at the last. The spirit of Caractacus and Boadicea spread from tribe totribe and the Romans were constantly assailed. But gradually they swept the island. They reached the banks ofthe river Tyne; they crossed the Tweed and explored as far as the Firths of Clyde and Forth. From the coast ofGalloway the Romans beheld for the first time the dim outline of the Irish coast. In the year 88 A.D.Agricola, a new Roman commander, made his way beyond the Firth of Forth.

"Now is the time to penetrate into the heart of Caledonia and to discover the utmost limits of Britain," criedthe Romans, as they began their advance to the Highlands of Scotland. While a Roman fleet surveyed the coastsand harbours, Agricola led his men up the valley of the Tay to the edge of the Highlands, but he could notfollow the savage Caledonians into their ruggedand inaccessible mountains. To the north of Scotland they never penetrated, and no part of Ireland ever cameunder Roman sway, in that air "the Roman eagle never fluttered." The Roman account of Britain at this time isinteresting. "Britain," says Tacitus, "the largest of all the islands which have come within the knowledge ofthe Romans, stretches on the east towards Germany, on the west towards Spain, and on the south it is evenwithin sight of France. . . . The Roman fleet, at this period first sailing round this remotest coast, gavecertain proof that Britain was an island, and at the same time discovered and subdued the Orkney Islands, tillthen unknown. Thule was also distinctly seen, which winter and eternal snow had hitherto concealed. . . . Thesky in this country is deformed by clouds and frequent rains; but the cold is never extremely rigorous. Theearth yields gold and silver and other metals—the ocean produces pearls."

The account of Ireland is only from hearsay. "This island," continues Tacitus, "is less than Britain, butlarger than those of Our Sea. Situated between Britain and Spain and lying commodiously to the Bay of Biscay,it would have formed a very beneficial connection between the most powerful parts of the Empire. Its soil,climate, and the manners and dispositions of its inhabitants are little different from those of Britain. Itsports and harbors are better known from the concourse of merchants for purposes of commerce."

Not only the British Isles, but a good deal of the wild North Sea and the low-lying coast on the opposite sidewere explored by Roman ships and Roman soldiers. Cæsar had crossed the Rhine; he had heard of a great forestwhich took a man four months to cross, and in 16 A.D. a Roman general, Drusus, penetrated into the interior ofGermany. Drusus crossed the Rhine near thecoast, made his way across the river Weser, and reached the banks of the Elbe. But the fame of Drusus restsmainly on his navigation of the German Ocean or North Sea in a Roman fleet. Near the mouth of the Rhine athousand ships were quickly built by expert Romans. Some were short, with narrow stern and prow and broad inthe middle, the easier to endure the shock of the waves; some had flat bottoms that without damage they mightrun aground; many were fitted for carrying horses and provisions, convenient for sails and swift with oars."

The Roman troops were in high spirits as they launched their splendid fleet on the Northern Ocean and sailedprosperously to the mouth of the Elbe, startling the Frisians into submission. But no friendliness greetedthem on the farther side of the river. The Germans were ready to defend their land, and further advance wasimpossible. Returning along the northern coast, the Romans got a taste of the storms of this northern ocean,of which they were in such complete ignorance.

"The sea, at first calm," says Tacitus, "resounded with the oars of a thousand ships; but presently a showerof hail poured down from a black mass of clouds, at the same time storms raging on all sides in every variety,the billows rolling now here, now there, obstructed the view and made it impossible to manage the ships. Thewhole expanse of air and sea was swept by a south-west wind, which, deriving strength from the mountainousregions of Germany, its deep rivers and boundless tract of clouded atmosphere, and rendered still harsher bythe rigour of the neighbouring north, tore away the ships, scattered and drove them into the open ocean orupon islands dangerous from precipitous rocks or hidden sandbanks. Having got a little clear of these, butwith great difficulty, the tide turning and flowing in the same direction as that in which the wind blew, theywere unable to ride at anchoror bale out the water that broke in upon them; horses, beasts of burthen, baggage, even arms were thrownoverboard to lighten the holds of the ships, which took in water at their sides, and from the waves, too,running over them. Around were either shores inhabited by enemies, or a sea so vast and unfathomable as to besupposed the limit of the world and unbounded by lands. Part of the fleet was swallowed up; many were drivenupon remote islands, where the men perished through famine. The galley of Drusus or, as he was hereaftercalled, Germanicus, alone reached the mouth of the Weser. Both day and night, amid the rocks and prominencesof the shore, he reproached himself as the author of such overwhelming destruction, and was hardly restrainedby his friends from destroying himself in the same sea. At last, with the returning tide and a favouring gale,the shattered ships returned, almost all destitute or with garments spread for sails."

The wreck of the Roman fleet in the North Sea made a deep impression on the Roman capital, and many a garbledstory of the "extreme parts of the world" was circulated throughout the Empire.

Here was new land outside the boundaries of the Empire—country great with possibilities. Pliny, writer of theNatural History, now arises and endeavours to clear the minds of his countrymen by some account ofthese northern regions. Strabo had been dead some fiftyyears, and the Empire had grown since his days. But Pliny has news of land beyond the Elbe. He can tell us ofScandinavia, "an island of unknown extent," of Norway, another island, "the inhabitants of which sailed as faras Thule," of the Seamen or Swedes who lived in the "northern half of the world."

"It is madness to harass the mind with attempts to measure the world," he asserts, but he proceeds to tell usthe size of the world as accepted by him. "Our part of the earth, floating as it were in the ocean, whichsurrounds it, stretching out to the greatest extent from India to the Pillars at Cadiz, is eight thousand fivehundred and sixty-eight miles . . . the breadth from south to north is commonly supposed to be half itslength."

But how little was known of the north of Europe at this time is shown by a startling statement that "certainIndians sailing from India for the purposes of commerce had been driven by tempests into Germany."

"Thus it appears," concludes Pliny, "that the seas flow completely round the globe and divide it into twoparts."

How Balbus discovered and claimed for the Empire some of the African desert is related by Pliny. He tells us,too, how another Roman general left the west coast of Africa, marched for ten days, reached Mt. Atlas, and "ina desert of dark-coloured sand met a river which he supposed to be the Niger."

The home of the Ethiopians in Africa likewise interested Pliny.

"There can be no doubt that the Ethiopians are scorched by their vicinity to the sun's heat, and that they areborn like persons who have been burned, with beard and hair frizzled, while in the opposite and frozen partsof the earth there are nations with white skins and long light hair."

Pliny's geography was the basis of much mediæval writing, and his knowledge of the course of the Nigerremained unchallenged, till Mungo Park rediscovered it many centuries after.

And so we reach the days of Ptolemy the last geographer of the Pagan World. This famous Greek was born in Egypt,and the great Roman Empire was already showing signs of decay, while Ptolemy was searching the greatAlexandrian library for materials for his book Alexandria was now the first commercial city of the world,second only to Rome. She supplied the great population in the heart of the Empire with Egyptian corn. Shipssailed from Alexandria to every part of the known world. It was, therefore, a suitable place for Ptolemy tolisten to the yarns of the merchants, to read the works of Homer, Herodotus, Eratosthenes, Strabo, Pliny, andothers, to study and observe, and finally to write.

He begins his great geography with the north-west extremities of the world—the British Isles, Iverna,and Albion as he calls Ireland and England. But he places Ireland much too far north, and the shape ofScotland has little resemblance to the original.He realised that there were lands to the south of Africa, to the east of Africa, and to the north of Europe,all stretching far away beyond his ken. He agrees with Pliny about the four islands in the neighbourhood ofScandinavia, and draws the Volga correctly. He realises, too, that the Caspian is an inland sea, andunconnected with the surrounding ocean.

Perhaps the most remarkable part of Ptolemy's geography is that which tells us of the lands beyond theGanges. He knows something of the "Golden Chersonese" or Malay Peninsula, something of China, where far awaytowards the north, and bordering on the eastern ocean, there is a land containing a great city from which silkis exported, both raw and spun and woven into textures."

The wonder is that Ptolemy did not know more of China, for that land had one of the oldest civilisations inthe world, as wondrous as those of Assyria and Egypt. But China had had little or no direct intercourse withthe West till after the death of Ptolemy. Merchants had passed between China and India for long centuries, andthe Indians had made journeys in the golden deserts in troops of one or two thousand, and it is said that theydo not return from these journeys till the third or fourth year." This was the Desert of Gobi, called goldenbecause it opened the way to wealth.

But perhaps the most interesting part of this great geography, which was to inform the world for centuries yetto come, was the construction of a series of twenty-six maps and a general map of the known world.

This was one of the most important maps ever constructed, and forms our frontispiece from mediæval copies ofthe original. The twelve heads blowing sundry winds on to the world's surface are characteristic of the age.The twenty-six maps are in sections. They are the first maps to be drawn with lines of latitude and longitude.The measurements are very vague. The lines are never ruled; they are drawn uncertainly in red; they areneither straight nor regular, though the spaces between the lines indicate degrees of fifty miles. The mapsare crowded with towns, each carefully walled in by little red squares and drawn by hand. The water is allcoloured a sombre, greeny blue, and the land is washed in a rich yellow brown. A copy can be seen at theBritish Museum.

It is only by looking back that we can realise the progress made in earth-knowledge. Ptolemy wrote just athousand years after Homer, when the little world round the Mediterranean had become a great Empire stretchingfrom the British Isles to China.

Already the barbaric hordes which haunted the frontiers of the Roman Empire were breaking across theill-defended boundaries, desolating streams were bursting over the civilised world, until at last the stormbroke, the unity of the Empire was ended, commerce broken up, and the darkness of ignorance spread over theearth.

During this time little in the way of progress was made, and for the next few centuries our only interest liesin filling up some of the shadowy places of the earth, without extending its known bounds.

Meanwhile a new inspiration had been given to the world, which affected travelling to no small extent.

In far-off Roman province of Syria, the Christ had lived, the Christ had died. And His words were ringingthrough the land: "Go ye and make disciples of all the nations, preach the gospel to every creature." Here atonce was a new incentive to travel, a definite reason for men to venture forth into the unknown, to bravedangers, to endure hardship. They must carry their Master's words "unto the ends of the world." The RomanEmpire had brought men under one rule; they must now be brought to serve one God. So men passed out of Syria;they landed on the islands in the Mediterranean, they made their way to Asia Minor and across to Greece, untilin the year 60 A.D. we get the graphic account of Paul the traveller, one of the first and most famous of themissionaries of the first century.

Jerusalem now became, indeed, the world centre. A very stream of pilgrim travellers tramped to the Holy Cityfrom far-away lands to see for themselves the land where the Christ had lived and died.

The pilgrim age begins with the journey of a woman—the beautiful and learned daughter of the King ofBritain, Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine. She was a student of divinity and a devoted Christian. Inthe year 326 she undertook the difficult journey to Jerusalem,where she is reported to have discovered the "true cross," which had been buried, with Pilate's inscription in"Hebrew and Greek and Latin." When the news of her discovery was noised abroad a very rush of pilgrims tookplace from every part of the world. Indeed, one pilgrim—his name is unknown—thought it worth whileto write a guide-book for the benefit of his fellow-travellers. His Itinerary from Bordeaux to Jerusalem isvery interesting, being the first Christian guide-book and one of the earliest travel-documents ever writtenfor the use of travellers. This ancient "Bradshaw" has been translated into English and throws light onfourth-century travelling. Enthusiastic indeed must these early pilgrims have been to undertake the long andtoilsome journey.

The guide-book takes them, save for crossing the Bosphorus, entirely by land. It leads them from the "city ofBordeaux, where is the river Garonne in which the ocean ebbs and flows for one hundred leagues more or less,"to Arles, with thirty changes and eleven halts inthree hundred and seventy-two miles. There were milestones along the Roman roads to guide them, and housesat regular intervals where horses were kept for posting. From Arles the pilgrim goes north to Avignon, crossesthe Alps, and halts at the Italian frontier. Skirting the north of Italy by Turin, Milan, and Padua, hereaches the Danube at Belgrade, passes through Servia and Bulgaria and so reaches Constantinople—thegreat new city of Constantine. "Grand total from Bordeaux to Constantinople, two thousand two hundred andtwenty-one miles, with two hundred and thirty changes and one hundred and twelve halts."

"From Constantinople," continues the guide-book, "you cross the strait and walk on through Asia Minor,passing the spot where lies King Hannibal, once King of the Africans." Thus onward through the long drearymiles to Tarsus, where "was born the Apostle Paul," till Syria is reached at last.

Then the "Bradshaw" becomes a "Baedeker." Long and detailed accounts are given of the country through which thepilgrim has to pass. From Cæsarea he is led to Jezreel by the spot "where David slew Goliath," by "Job'scountry house" to Sichem, "where Joseph is laid," and thence to Jerusalem. Full accounts follow of the HolyCity and Mount Sion, "the little hill of Golgotha where the Lord was crucified," the Mount of Olives, Jericho,Jordan, Bethlehem, and Hebron. "Here is a monument of square form built of stone of wondrous beauty," in whichlie Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sara, Rebecca, and Leah.

"From Constantinople to Jerusalem is one thousand one hundred and fifty-nine miles, with sixty-nine changesand fifty-eight halts."

Here the guide-book ends abruptly with a brief summary of distances. Thither then flocked the pilgrims, somebyland and some by sea, men and women from all parts of the world.

"Even the Briton, separated from our world, leaves the setting sun and seeks a place known to him only by fameand the narrative of the Scriptures."

One of the earliest was Paula of Rome—a weak, fragile woman accustomed to a life of luxury and ease,but, fired with the enthusiasm of her religion, she resolved to brave the dangers and hardships of a journeyto the East. Her travels were written by St. Jerome.

"When the winter was spent and the sea was open," he writes, "she longed and prayed to sail. . . . She wentdown to the harbour, accompanied by her brother, her relatives, her connections and, more than these, by herchildren, who strove to surpass the affection of the kindest of mothers. Soon the sails were swelling in thebreeze, and the ship, guided by the oars, gained the open sea. Little Lexotinus piteously stretched forth hishands from the shore. Rufina, a grown-up girl, by her tears silently besought her mother to stay until she wasmarried. Yet she herself, without a tear, turned her eyes heavenward, overcoming her love for her children byher love for God. . . . Meanwhile the ship was ploughing the sea—the winds were sluggish and all speedslow." But the ship passed between Scylla and Charybdis and reached Antioch in safety. From this spot shefollowed the guide-book directions until she arrived at Jerusalem. How Paula and one of her young daughterswalked over the rough ground, endured the hardships of desert-life, and finally lived twenty years atBethlehem, would take too long to tell. And she was but one of many.

Sylvia of Aquitaine, travelling at the same time, wrote a strangely interesting account of her travels. Theearly part of her manuscript is lost, and we find her first in Arabia. All was new and strange.

"Meanwhile as we walked we arrived at a certain place, where the mountains between which we were passingopened themselves out and formed a great valley, very flat and extremely beautiful; and beyond the valleyappeared Sinai, the holy mount of God. . . This is the same great and flat valley in which the children ofIsrael waited during the days when holy Moses went up into the Mount of God. . . . It was late on the Sabbathwhen we came to the mountain, and, arriving at a certain monastery, the kindly monks who lived thereentertained us, showing us all kindliness." Sylvia had to ascend the mountain on foot "because the ascentcould not be made in a chair," but the view over "Egypt and Palestine and the Red Sea and the Mediterraneanwhich leads to Alexandria,also the boundless territory of the Saracens, we saw below us, hard though it is to believe, all of whichthings these holy men pointed out to us."

But we must not follow her to Jerusalem, onto Mesopotamia, where she saw "the great river Euphrates, rushingdown in a torrent like the Rhine, but greater." She reached Constantinople by the guide-book route, havingspent four years in travel, and walked two thousand miles to the very limit of the Roman Empire." Herboundless energy is not exhausted yet. "Ladies, my beloved ones," she writes, "whilst I prepare this accountfor your pious zeal, it is already my purpose to go to Asia."

But we must turn away for a moment from the stream of pilgrim travellers wending their weary way from Britain,France, Spain, and the east to Jerusalem, to follow the travels of St. Patrick through the wilds of Ireland.

Patrick had been a pilgrim to Rome from the banks of the Clyde, where he lived, and, having seen the Pope, he hadreturned to Ireland by sea, landing on the Wicklow coast in the year 482. Hungry and tired after the longvoyage, he tried to get some fish from the fishermen, but they replied by throwing stones at him, and he putout to sea again and headed north, Past Bray Head, past the Bay of Malahide he sailed, but he could getneither fish nor food till he reached a spot between the Liffey and the Boyne, where he built, his firstChristian church.

Now in the fifth century, when light first breaks over Ireland, it breaks over, a land torn by perpetualtribal strife, a land in the chaos of wild heathendom. It was reserved for St. Patrick to save her fromincreasing gloom.

Patrick and his companions now sailed on past Louth, by the low-lying shore with long stretches of sandyflats, on under the shadow of great peaks frowning over the sea. He landed near Downpatrick, founded anotherchurch, and spent the winter in these parts, for the autumn was far advanced. Spring found him sailing back tothe Boyne and attacking the fierce heathen king at Tara, the capital of Ireland. From Tara five great roadsled to different parts of the island. St. Patrick now made his way through Meath to the very heart ofthe country, building churches as he went. Thence he crossed the Shannon, entered the great plain ofRoscommon, passed by Mayo, and at length reached the western sea. He had now been eight years in Ireland,eight laborious years, climbing hills, wading through waters, camping out by night, building, organising,preaching. He loved the land on the western sea, little known as yet.

St. Patrick climbed the great peak, afterwards called Croaghpatrick, and on the summit, exposed to wind andrain, he spent the forty days of Lent. From here he could look down on to one of the most beautiful bays inIreland, down on to the hundred little islands in the glancing waters below, while away to the north and southstretched the rugged coast-line. And he tells us how the great white birds came and sang to him there. Itwould take too long to tell how he returned to Tara and started again with a train of thirteen chariots by thegreat north-western road to the spot afterwards known as Downpatrick Head; he passed along the broken coast tothe extreme north where the great ocean surf breaks on the rugged shore, returning again to the Irish capital.He travelled over a great part of Ireland, founded three hundred and fifty churches, converted heathen tribesto Christianity and civilisation, and finally died at Armagh in 493. His work was carried on by St. Columba, anative of Ireland, who, "deciding to go abroad for Christ," sailed away with twelve disciples to a low rockyisland off the west coast of Scotland, where he founded the famous monastery of Iona, about 563. Thence hejourneyed away to the Highlands,making his way through rugged and mountainous country that had stayed the warlike Romans long years before. Heeven sailed across the stormy northern sea to the Orkney Islands.

Let us picture the Scotland of the sixth century in order to realise those long lonely tramps of St. Columbaand his disciples across the rough mountains, through the dense forests, across bleak moors and wet bogs, tillafter dreary wanderings they reached the coast, and in frail ships boldly faced the wild seas that raged roundthe northern islands.

"We can see Columba and his disciples journeying on foot, as poor and as barely provided as were Christ andHis disciples, with neither silver nor gold nor brass in their purses, and over a wilder country and among awilder people."

These pilgrims tramped to and fro clad in simple tunics over a monkish dress of undyed wool, bound round thewaist by a strong cord, all their worldly goods on their backs and a staff in their hands. The hermit instinctwas growing, and men were sailing away to lonely islands where God might be better served apart from thehaunts of men. Perhaps it was this instinct that inspired St. Brandon to sail away across the trackless oceanin search of the Island of Saints reported in the western seas. His voyage suggests the old expedition ofUlysses. A good deal of it is mythical, some is added at a later date, but it is interesting as being anattempt to cross the wide Atlantic Ocean across which no man had yet sailed. For seven years St. Brandonsailed on the unknown sea, discovering unknown islands, until he reached the Island of Saints—the goalof his desires.And the fact remains that for ten centuries after this an island, known as Brandon's Isle, was marked on mapssomewhere to the west of Ireland, though to the end it remained as mysterious as the island of Thule.

Here is the old story. Brandon, abbot of a large Irish monastery containing one thousand monks, sailed off inan "osier boat covered with tanned hides and carefully greased," provisioned for seven years. After fortydays at sea they reached an island with steep sides, where they took in fresh supplies. Thence the windscarried the ship to another island, where they found sheep—"every sheep was as great as an ox."

"This is the island of sheep, and here it is ever summer," they were informed by an old islander.

This may have been Madeira. They found other islands in the neighbourhood, one of which was full ofsinging-birds, and the passing years found them still tossing to and fro on the unknown sea, until at last theend came. "And St. Brandon sailed forty days south in full great tempest," and another forty days brought theship right into a bank of fog. But when the fog lifted "they saw the fairest country eastward that any manmight see, it was so clear and bright that it was a heavenly sight to behold; and all the trees were chargedwith ripe fruit." And they walked about the island for forty days and could not find the end. And there was nonight there, and the climate was neither hot nor cold.

"Be ye joyful now," said a voice, "for this is the land ye have sought, and our Lord wills that you laden yourship with the fruit of this land and hie you hence, for ye may no longer abide here, but thou shalt sail againinto thine own country."

So the monks took all the fruit they could carry, and, weeping that they might stay no longer in this happyland, they sailed back to Ireland. Hazy, indeed, was thegeography of the Atlantic in the sixth century. Nor can we leave St. Brandon's story without quoting a modernpoet, who believed that the voyage was to the Arctic regions and not in the Atlantic.

So once more we turn back to the East. Jerusalem is still the centre of the earth. But a change has passed overthe world, which influenced not a little the progress of geography. Mohammed in the seventh century lived anddied in Arabia. "There is but one God, and Mohammed is His prophet," proclaimed his followers, the Arabs orSaracens as they were called. And just as men had travelled abroad to preach Christianity to those who knew itnot, so now the Mohammedans set forth to teach the faith of their Lord and Master. But whereas Christianitywas taught by peaceful means, Mohammedanism was carried by the sword. The Roman provinces of Syria and Egypthad been conquered by the Arabs, and the famous cities of Jerusalem and Alexandria were filled with teachersof the new faith. The Mohammedans had conquered Spain and were pressing by Persia towards India.

What deep root their preaching took in these parts is still evident. Still the weary fight between the tworeligions continues.

The first traveller of note through this distracted Europe was a Frenchman named Arculf, a Christian bishop.When he had visited the Holy Land and Egypt his ship was caught in a violent storm and driven on to the westcoast of Scotland. After many adventures Arculf found himself at the famous convent of Iona,made welcome by an Irish monk Adamnan, who was deeply interested in Arculf's account of his wanderings, andwrote them down at his dictation, first on waxed tablets, copied later on to parchment. How tenderly the twomonks dwell on all the glories of Jerusalem. "But in that beautiful place where once the Temple had been, theSaracens now frequent a four-sided house of prayer, which they have built, rudely constructing it by raisingboards and great beams on some remains of ruins, which house can hold three thousand men at once." And Arculfdraws on the waxed tablet the picture of some church or tomb to make his narrative clearer to his friendAdamnan.

Perhaps the most interesting part of all the travels is the account of the lofty column that Arculf describesin the midst of Jerusalem.

"This column," he says, "as it stands in the centreof the heaven, shining straight down from above, proves that the city of Jerusalem is situated in the middleof the earth."

Arculf's journey aroused great interest among the newly converted Christians of the north, and Willibald, ahigh-born Englishman, started off in 721 to explore farther. But the road through Europe was now full ofdanger. The followers of Mohammed were strong, and it required true courage to face the perils of the longjourney. Willibald was undaunted, and with his father and two brothers he sailed from Southampton, crossed toFrance, sailed up the Seine to Rouen, and reached Italy. Here the old father died. Willibald and his brotherstravelled on through "the vast lands of Italy, through the depths of the valleys, over the steep brows of themountains, over the levels of the plains, climbing on foot the difficult passes of the Alps, over the iceboundand snow-capped summits," till they arrived at Rome. Thence they made their way to Syria, where they were atonce thrown in prison by Mohammedan conquerors. They were brought before the ruler of the Mohammedan world, orKhalif, whose seat was at Damascus. He asked whence they came.

"These men come from the western shore, where the sun sets: and we know not of any land beyond them, but wateronly," was the answer.

Such was Britain to the Mohammedans. They never got a footing in that country: their Empire lay to the east,and their capital was even now shifting to Bagdad.

But before turning to their geographical discoveries we must see how Cosmas, the Egyptian merchant-monk, setthe clock back by his quaint theories of the world in the sixth century. Cosmas hailed from "Alexander's greatcity." His calling carried him into seas and countries remote from home. He knew the Mediterranean Sea,the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea. He had narrowly escaped shipwreck in the Indian Ocean, which in those dayswas regarded with terror on account of its violent currents and dense fogs. As the ship carrying the merchantapproached this dread region, a storm gathered overhead, and flocks of albatross, like birds of ill-omen,hovered about the masts.

"We were all in alarm," relates Cosmas, "for all the men of experience on board, whether passengers orsailors, began to say that we were near the ocean and called out to the pilot: 'Steer the ship to port andmake for the gulf, or we shall be swept along by the currents and carried into the ocean and lost.' For theocean rushing into the gulf was swelling with billows of portentous size, while the currents from the gulfwere driving the ship into the ocean, and the outlook was altogether so dismal that we were kept in a state ofgreat alarm."

That he eventually reached India is clear, for he relates strange things concerning Ceylon. "There is a largeoceanic island lying in the Indian Sea," he tells us. "It has a length of nine hundred miles and it is of thelike extent in breadth. There are two kings in the island, and theyare at feud the one with the other. The island, being as it is in a central position, is much frequented byships from all parts of India, and from Persia and Ethiopia, and from the remotest countries, it receivessilk, aloes, cloves, and other products . . . farther away is the clove country, then Tzinista (China), whichproduces silk. Beyond this there is no other country, for the ocean surrounds it on the east."

Cosmas was the first to realise that China was bounded on the east by the ocean. He tells us a good storyabout the "Lord of India," who always went to war with two thousand elephants. "Once upon a time this kingwould lay siege to an island city of the Indians, which was on every side protected by water. A long while hesat down before it, until, what with his elephants, his horses, and his soldiers, all the water had been drunkup. He then crossed over to the city dryshod and took it."

But, strange as are the travels and information of Cosmas, still stranger is his Christian Topography.His commercial travelling done he retired, became a devout Christian monk, and devoted his leisure time intrying to reconcile all the progress of geographical knowledge with old Biblical ideas.

He assures us that the world is flat and not round, and that it is surrounded by an immense wall supportingthe firmament. Indeed, if we compare the maps of Cosmas in the sixth century with those of the Babyloniansthousands of years before, there is mighty little difference. With amazing courage he refutes all the oldtheories and draws the most astounding maps, which, nevertheless, are the oldest Christian maps which survive.

A more interesting force than the pilgrim travellers now claims our attention, and we turn to the frozen north, tothe wild region at the back of the north wind, for new activity and discovery. Out of this land of fable andmyth, legend and poetry, the fierce inhabitants of Scandinavia begin to take shape. Tacitus speaks of them as"mighty in fame," Ptolemy as "savage and clothed in the skins of wild beasts."

From time to time we have glimpses of these folk sailing about in the Baltic Sea. They were known to the Finnsof the north as "sea-rovers." "The sea is their school of war and the storm their friend; they are sea-wolvesthat live on the pillage of the world," sang an old Roman long years ago. The daring spirit of their race hadalready attracted the attention of Britons across the seas. The careless glee with which they seized eithersword or oar and waged war with the stormy seas for a scanty livelihood, raiding all the neighbouring coasts,had earned them the name of Vikings or creek men. Their black-sailed ships stood high out of the water, prowand stern ending in the head and tail of some strange animal, while their long beards, their loose shirts, andbattleaxe made them conspicuous. "From the fury of the Northmen save us, Lord," prayed those who had come incontact with these Vikings.

In the ninth century they spring into fame as explorers by the discovery of Iceland. It was in this wise. The chief of a band of pirates, one Naddod, during avoyage to the Faroe Islands was driven by a storm upon the eastern coast of an unknown land. Not a soul was tobe seen. He climbed a high mountain covered with snow and took a look round, but though he could see far andwide, not a human being could he detect. So he named it Snow-land and sailed home to relate his adventures.

A few years later another Viking, Gardar, bound for the west coast of Scotland, was likewise blown by a stormon to the coast of Snow-land. He sailed right round and found it to be an island. Considering that it wasunsafe to navigate the icy northern seas in winter; he built himself a hut on the island, lived there till thespring, and returned home. His account of the island fired the enthusiasm of an old Viking called Floki, whosailed away, meaning to take possession of the newly discovered country. At the Faroe Islands he let fly threeravens. The first returned, the second came back to the ship, the third guided the navigator to the islandwhich he sought. He met a quantity of drift ice about the northern part of the island and called it Ice-land,the name it has borne ever since. But amid the Arctic ice he spent a desolate winter; the island seemed fullof lofty mountains covered with eternal snow. His companions, however, were delighted with the climate and thesoil.

"Milk drops from every plant and butter from every twig," they said; "this was a land where men might livefree from the tyranny of kings." Free, indeed, for the island was totally uninhabited.

Iceland soon became a refuge for pirates and other lawless characters. Among these was a young Viking calledErik the Red. He was too lawless even for Iceland,and, being banished for three years, he sailed away in 985 in search of new lands. At the end of his threeyears he returned and reported that he had discovered land with rich meadows, fine woods, and good fishing,which he had named Green-land. So glowing was his description that soon a party of men and women, withhousehold goods and cattle, started forth in twenty-five ships to colonise the new land. Still the passion fordiscovery continued, and Erik's son Lief fitted out a vessel to carry thirty-five men in quest of land alreadysighted to the west.

It was in the year 1000 that they reached the coast of North America. It was a barren and rocky shore to whichLief gave the name of Rock-land. Sailing farther, they found a low coast wooded to its edge, to which theygave the simple name of Woody-land. Two days later an island appeared, and on the mainland they discovered ariver up which they sailed. On low bushes by thebanks of the river they found sweet berries or wild grapes from which a sort of wine was made, so Lief calledthe land Vin-land. It is now supposed that Vinland and Woodyland are really Newfoundland and Labrador on theshores of North America. After this, shipload followed shipload from Iceland to colonise Vinland. But withoutsuccess.

So the Viking discoveries in these cold and inhospitable regions were but transitory. The clouds lifted butfor a moment to settle down again over America, till it was rediscovered some five hundred years later.

Before leaving these northern explorers let us remind ourselves of the old saga so graphic in its descriptionof their ocean lives

Now, while these fierce old Vikings were navigating unknown seas, Alfred the Great was reigning over England.Among his many and varied interests he was deeply thrilled in the geography of the world. He was always readyto listen to those who had been on voyages of discovery, and in his account of the geography of Europe hetells us of a famous old sea captain called Othere, who had navigated the unknown seas to the north of Europe.

"Othere told his lord, King Alfred, that he dwelt northmost of all Northmen, on the land by the western sea.He said that the land is very long thence to thenorth; but it is all waste save that in a few places here and there Finns reside. He said that he wished tofind out how far the land lay right north, or whether any man dwelt to the north of the waste. Then he wentright north near the land, and he left all the way the waste land on the right and the wide sea on the leftfor three days. There was he as far north as the whale-hunters ever go. He then went yet right north, as faras he could sail in the next three days. After sailing for another nine days he came to a great river; theyturned up into the river, but they durst not sail beyond it on account of hostility, for the land was allinhabited on the other side. He had not before met with any inhabited land since he came from his own home,for the land was uninhabited all the way on his right save by fishermen, hunters, and fowlers, and they wereall Finns, and there was always a wide sea on his left."

And as a trophy of distant lands and a proof of his having reached farthest north, Othere presented the Kingwith a "snow-white walrus tooth."

But King Alfred wanted his subjects to know more of the world around them, and even in the midst of his busylife he managed to write a book in Anglo-Saxon, which sums up for us the world's knowledge some nine hundredyears after Ptolemy—nine hundred barren years as far as much geographical progress was concerned. Alfreddoes not even allude to Iceland, Greenland, or Vinland. The news of these discoveries had evidently notreached him. He repeats the old legend of Thule to the north-west of Ireland, "which is known to few, onaccount of its very great distance."

So ends the brief but thrilling discoveries of the Northmen, who knew not fear, and we turn again to landsmenand the east.

And now we leave the fierce energy of the Northmen westwards and turn to another energy, which was leading mentoward the east, to the lands beyond the Euphrates, to India, across central Asia, even into far Cathay.

These early travellers to the east were for the most part Arabs. Mohammed had bidden his followers to spreadhis teaching far and wide; this teaching had always appealed more to the eastern than to the western mind. Sofarther and farther to the east travelled the Arabs, converting the uncivilised tribes that Christianity hadnot reached.

What a contrast are these Arabs to the explorers of the vigorous north. They always travelled by land and notby that sea which was life to the Viking folk. To the Arabs the encircling ocean was a very "Sea of Darkness";indeed, the unknown ocean beyond China was called the "Sea of Pitchy Darkness." Their creed taught that theocean was boundless, so that ships dared not venture out of sight of land, for there was no inhabited countrybeyond, and mariners would assuredly be lost in mists and fogs. So, while the Vikings tossed fearlessly aboutthe wild northern seas, the Arab wayfarers rode eastward by well-known caravan tracks, trading and teachingthe ways of Mohammed. Arabic enterprise had pushed on far beyond Ptolemy's world. The Arab centre lay in thecity of Bagdad, the headquarters ofthe ruler or Khalif of the Mohammedan world. They had already opened up a considerable trade with the rapidlyrising Mongol Empire, which no European had yet reached.

But as this country was to play a large part in the travels of the near future, it will be interesting to hearthe account given by two Mohammedan friends who journeyed thither in the year 881, just four hundred yearsbefore Marco Polo's famous account. The early part of their story is missing, and we raise the curtain whenthey have arrived in the land of China itself, then a very small empire compared with what it is now.

"The Emperor of China reckons himself next after the King of the Arabs, who they all allow to be the first andbeyond all dispute the most powerful of kings, because he is the head of a great religion. In this greatkingdom of China they tell us there are over two hundred cities; each city has four gates, at each of whichare five trumpets, which the Chinese sound at certain hours of the day and of the night. There are also withineach city ten drums, which they beat at the same time as a public token of their obedience to the Emperor, asalso to signify the hour of the day and of the night, to which end they also have dials and clocks withweights.

"China is a pleasant and fruitful country; the air is much better than the Indian provinces: much rain fallsin both these countries. In India are many desert tracts, but China is inhabited and peopled throughout itswholeextent. The Chinese are handsomer than the Indians, and come nearer the Arabs, not only in countenance, but indress, in their way of riding, in their manners, and in their ceremonies. They wear long garments and girdlesin form of belts. The Chinese are dressed in silk both winter and summer, and this kind of dress is common tothe prince and the peasant. Their food is rice, which they often eat with a broth which they pour upon therice. They have several sorts of fruits, apples, lemons, quinces, figs, grapes, cucumbers, walnuts, almonds,plums, apricots, and cocoanuts."

Here, too, we get the first mention of tea, which was not introduced into Europe for another seven hundredyears, but which formed a Chinese drink in the ninth century. This Chinese drink "is a herb or shrub, morebushy than the pomegranate tree and of a more pleasant scent, but somewhat bitter to the taste. The Chineseboil water and pour it in scalding hot upon this leaf, and this infusion keeps them from all distempers."

Here, too, we get the first mention of china ware. "They have an excellent kind of earth, wherewith they makea ware of equal fineness with glass and equally transparent."

There is no time here to tell of all the curious manners and customs related by these two Mohammedans. Onething struck them as indeed it must strike us to-day."The Chinese, poor and rich, great and small, learn to read and write. There are schools in every town forteaching the poor children, and the masters are maintained at public charge . . . . The Chinese have a stoneten cubits high erected in the public squares of their cities, and on this stone are engraved the names of allthe medicines, with the exact price of each; and when the poor stand in need of physic they go to thetreasury where they receive the price each medicine is rated at."

It was out of such travels as these that the famous romance of "Sindbad the Sailor" took shape—a truestory of Arab adventures of the ninth and tenth centuries in a romantic setting. As in the case of Ulysses,the adventures of many voyages are ascribed to one man and related in a collection of tales which bears thetitle of The Arabian Nights.

Of course, Sindbad was a native of Bagdad, the Arab centre of everything at this time, and of course hejourneyed eastwards as did most Mohammedans.

"It occurred to my mind," says Sindbad, "to travel to the countries of other people; then I arose andcollected what I had of effects and apparel and sold them, after which I sold my buildings and all that myhand possessed and amassed three thousand pieces of silver. So I embarked in a ship, and with a company ofmerchants we traversed the sea for many days and nights. We had passed by island after island and from sea tosea and land to land, and in every place we sold and bought and exchanged merchandise. We continued our voyageuntil we arrived at an island like one of the gardens of Paradise."

Here they anchored and lit fires, when suddenly the master of the ship cried aloud in great distress: "Oh, yepassengers, come up quickly into the ship, leave your merchandise and flee for your lives, for this apparentisland, upon which ye are, is not really an island; but it is a great fish that hath become stationary in themidst of the sea, and the sand hath accumulated upon it and trees have grown upon it, and when ye lighted afire it felt the heat, and now it will descend with you into the sea and ye will all be drowned." As he spokethe island moved and "descended to the bottom of the sea with all that were upon it, and the roaring sea,agitated with waves, closed over it."

Let Sindbad continue his own story: "I sank in the sea with the rest. But God delivered me and saved me fromdrowning and supplied me with a great wooden bowl, and I laid hold upon it and gat into it and beat the waterwith my feet as with oars, while the waves sported with me. I remained so a day and a night, until the bowlcame to a stoppage under a high island whereupon were trees overhanging the sea. So I laid hold upon thebranch of a lofty tree and clung to it until I landed on the island. Then I threw myself upon the island likeone dead."

After wandering about he found servants of the King of Borneo, and all sailed together to an island beyond theMalay Peninsula. And the King of Borneo sent for Sindbad and heaped him with honours. He gave him costly dressand made him superintendent of the seaport and adviser of affairs of state. And Sindbad saw many wonders inthis far-distant sea. At last "one day I stood upon the shore of the sea, with a staff in my hand, as was mycustom, and lo! a great vessel approached wherein were many merchants." They unloaded their wares, tellingSindbad that the owner of their goods, a man from Bagdad, had been drowned and they were selling his things.

"What was the name of the owner of the goods?" asked Sindbad.

"His name was Sindbad of the Sea."

Then Sindbad cried "Oh, master, know that I am the owner of the goods and I am Sindbad of the Sea."

Then there was great rejoicing and Sindbad took leave of this King of Borneo and set sail for Bagdad—theAbode of Peace.

But the spirit of unrest was upon him and soon he was off again. Indeed, he made seven voyages in all, butthere is only room here to note a few of the most important points in each. This time he sailed to the coastof Zanzibar, East Africa, and, anchoring on the beautiful island of Madagascar, amid sweet-smelling flowers,pure rivers, and warbling birds, Sindbad fell asleep. He awoke to find the ship had sailed away, leaving himwithout food or drink, and not a human being was to be seen on the island.

"Then I climbed up into a lofty tree and began to look from it to the right and left, but saw nothing save skyand water and trees and birds and islands and sands."

At last he found an enormous bird. Unwinding his turban, he twisted it into a rope and, tying one end roundhis wrist, tied the other to one of the bird's great feet. Up flew the giant bird high into the sky andSindbad with it, descending somewhere in India in the Valley of Diamonds. This bird was afterwards identifiedas an enormous eagle.

"And I arose and walked in that valley," says Sindbad, "and I beheld its ground to be composed of diamonds,with which they perforate minerals and jewels, porcelain, and the onyx, and it is a stone so hard that neitheriron nor rock have any effect upon it. All that valley was likewise occupied by serpents and venomous snakes."

Here Sindbad found the camphor trees, "under each of which trees a hundred men might shade themselves." Fromthese trees flowed liquid camphor. "In this island, too, is a kind of wild beast, called rhinoceros—itis a huge beast with a single horn, thick, in the middle of its head, and it lifteth the great elephant uponits horn."

Thus, after collecting heaps of diamonds, Sindbad returned to Bagdad—a rich man.

Again his soul yearns for travel. This time he starts for China, but his ship is driven out of its course andcast on the Island of Apes, probably Sumatra. These apes, "the most hideous of beasts, covered with hair likeblack felt," surrounded the ship. They climbed up the cables and severed them with their teeth to Sindbad'sgreat alarm. He escaped to the neighbouring islands known as the Clove Islands, and again reached Bagdadsafely. Again and yet again he starts forth on fresh adventures. Now he is sailing on the seas beyondCeylon, now his ship is being pursued by a giant roe whose young have been killed and eaten by Sindbad.Sindbad as usual escapes upon a plank, and sails to an island, where he meets the "Old Man of the Sea,"probably a huge ape from Borneo. On he passed to the "Island of Apes," where, every night, the people whor*side in it go forth from the doors of the city that open upon the sea in their fear of the apes lest theyshould come down upon them in the night from the mountains. After this we find Sindbad trading in pepper onthe Coromandel coast of modern India and discovering a wealth of pearls by the seashore of Ceylon. But at lasthe grew tired of seafaring, which was never congenial to Arabs.

So he leaves private adventuring alone and is appointed by the Khalif of Bagdad to convey a letter and presentto the Indian prince of Ceylon—an expedition that lasts him twenty-seven years. The presents weremagnificent. They included a horse worth ten thousand pieces of gold, with its saddle adorned with gold setwith jewels, a book, a splendid dress, and some beautiful white Egyptian cloth, Greek carpets, and a crystalcup. Having duly delivered these gifts, he took his leave, meaning to return to his own country. But the usualadventures befellhim. This time his ship was surrounded by a number of boats on board of which were men like little devils withswords and daggers. These attacked the ship, captured Sindbad, and sold him to a rich man as a slave. He sethim to shoot elephants from a tree with bows and arrows. At last, after many other adventures and having madeseven long voyages, poor Sindbad reached his home.

The romance of "Sindbad the Sailor" is reallly a true story of Arab adventures at sea during the ninth and tenth centuries, put into a romantic setting and ascribed to one man. In the above map, which is a portionof the map of the world made by the famous Arab geographer, Edrisi, in 1154 A.D., many of the places to whichSindbad's story relates have been identified. Their modern names are as follows:—

Kotroba is probably Socotra.
Koulam Meli is Coulan, near Cape Comorin.
Hind is India.
Serendib is Ceylon.
Murphili (or Monsul) the "Valley of Diamonds," is Masulipatam.
Roibahat, the "Clove Islands," are the Maldive Islands.
Rami, the "Island of Apes," is Sumatra.
Maid Dzaba, the "island with the volcano," is Banca.
Senf is Tsiampa, S. Conchin-China.
Mudza (or Mehrage) is Borneo.
Kamrun is Java.
Maid, the Camphor Island, is Formosa.

Edrisi's names ar ethose which are used in the Arabian Nights

But if the Sindbad saga is based on the stories of Mohammedan travellers and sum up Arab adventure by sea in thetenth century, we must turn to another Arab—Massoudy by name—for land travel of the same period.Massoudy left his home at Bagdad very young and seems to have penetrated into every Mohammedan country fromSpain to farther India. In his famous Meadows of Gold, with its one hundred and thirty-two chapters,dedicated to "the most illustrious Kings," he describes the various lands through which he has travelled,giving us at the same time a good deal of incorrect information about lands he has never seen.

One cannot but look with admiration on the energetic Arab traveller, when one remembers the labour of traveleven in the tenth century. There were the long, hot rides through central Asia, under a burning sun, theascent of unknown mountains, the crossing of unbridged rivers. From his lengthy work we will only extract afew details. Though he had "gone so far toward the setting sun," his knowledge of the West was very limited,and while Vikings tossed on the Atlantic westwards, Massoudytells us that it is "impossible to navigate beyond the Pillars of Hercules, for no vessel sails on that sea;it is without cultivation or inhabitant, and its end, like its depth, is unknown." Such was the "Green Sea ofDarkness" as it was called by the Arabs. Massoudy is more at home when he journeys towards the rising sun tothe East, but his descriptions of China, the "Flowery Land," the "Celestial Country," were to be excelled byothers.

We must pass over Edrisi, who in 1153 wrote on "The going abroad of a curious Man to explore all the Wondersof the World," which wonders he explored very imperfectly, though he has left us a map of the world, which maybe seen to-day at the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

But we cannot pass over Benjamin of Tudela in so few words. "Our Benjamin" he is called by Pinkerton, who inthe eighteenth century made a wonderful collection of voyages and travels of all ages. "Our Benjamin" was aJew hailing from Tudela in Spain, and he started forth on his travels with a view to ascertaining thecondition and numbers of Jews living in the midst of the great Mohammedan Empire. Benjamin made his way in theyear 1160 to the "exceeding great city" of Constantinople, which "hath none to compare with it exceptBagdad—the mighty city of the Arabs." With the great temple of St. Sophia and its pillars of gold andsilver, he was immensely struck. In wrapt admiration he gazed at the Emperor's palace with its walls of beatengold, its hanging crown suspended over the Imperial throne, blazing with precious stones, so splendid that thehall needed no other light. No less striking were the crimson embroidered garments worn by the Greeks, whorode to and from the city like princes on horseback. Benjamin turns sadly to the Jewish quarter. No Jew mightride on horseback here. All were treated as objects of contempt; they were herded together, often beaten inthe streets.

From the wealth and luxury of Constantinople Benjamin makes his way to Syria. At Jerusalem he finds some twohundred Jews commanding the dyeing trade. And here we must remind ourselves that the second crusade was overand the third had not yet taken place, that Jerusalem, the City of Peace, had been in the hands of theMohammedans or Saracens till 1099, when it fell into the hands of the Crusaders. From Jerusalem, by way ofDamascus, Benjamin entered Persia, and he gives us an interesting account of Bagdad and its Khalifs. TheKhalif was the head of the Mohammedans in the same way that the Pope was the head of the Christians. "He was,"says "Our Benjamin," "a very dignified personage, friendly towards the Jews, a kind-hearted man, but never tobe seen." Pilgrims from distant lands, passing through Bagdad on their way to Mecca, prayed to be allowed tosee "the brightness of his face," but they were only allowed to kiss one end of his garment. Now, althoughBenjamin describes the journey from Bagdad to China, it is very doubtful if he ever got to China himself, sowe will leave him delighting in the glories of Bagdad, with its palm trees, its gardens and orchards,rejoicing inthe statistics of Jews, and turn to the adventures of one, Carpini, who really did reach Tartary.

This Carpini, or Friar John, was a Franciscan who was chosen by the Pope to go to the Great Khan of the MongolEmpire, which was threatening to overrun Christendom. On 16th April 1245, Friar John left the cloister for theunknown tract of country by which he had to pass into China. By way of Bohemia he passed into Russia, and,having annexed Brother Benedict in Poland and Brother Stephen in Bohemia, together with a guide, Carpini madehis way eastwards. It was mid-winter; the travellers had to ride on Tartar horses, "for they alone could findgrass under the snow, or live, as animals must in Tartary, without hay or straw. Sometimes Friar John fell soill that he had to be placed in a cart and carried through the deep snow.

It was Easter 1246, just a year after their start, that Friar John and his companions began the last sectionof their journey beyond the Volga, and "most tearfully we set out," not knowing whether it was for life or fordeath. So thin had they all become that not one of them could ride. Still they toiled on, till one July daythey entered Mongolia and found the headquarters of the Great Khan about half a day's journey from Karakorum.They arrived in time to witness the enthronement of the new Khan in August. Here were crowds of ambassadorsfrom Russia and Persia as well as from outlying parts of the growing Mongol Empire. These were laden withgifts—indeed, there were no less than five hundred crates full of silks, satins, brocades, fur, gold embroidery. Friar John and his companions had no gifts to offer save the letter from thePope.

Impressive, indeed, in the eyes of the once cloistered friar must have been this first sight of Easternsplendour. High on a neighbouring hill stood the Khan's tent, resting on pillars. plated with gold, top andsides covered with silk brocades, while the great ceremony took place. But the men of the West were notwelcomed by the new Emperor of the East. It was supposed that he intended shortly to unfurl his Standardagainst the whole of the Western world, and in November Friar John and his companions found themselvesformally dismissed with a missive from the Great Khan to the Pope, signed and sealed by the Khan himself.

The return journey was even more trying; winter was coming on, and for nearly seven months the Pope's faithfulenvoys struggled on across the endless open plains of Asia towards Russia, resting their eyes on vastexpanses of snow. At last they reached home, and Friar John wrote his Book of the Tartars, in which heinforms us that Mongolia is in the east part of the world and that Cathay is a country in the east of Asia."To the south-west of Mongolia he heard of a vast desert, where lived certain wild men unable to speak and withno joints in their legs. These occupy themselves in making felt out of camel's hair for garments to protectthem from the weather.

Again Carpini tells us about that mythical character figuring in the travel books of this time—PresterJohn. "The Mongol army," he says, "marched against theChristians dwelling in the greater India, and the king of that country, known by the name of Prester John,came forth with his army to meet them. This Prester John caused a number of hollow copper figures to be made,resembling men, which were stuffed with combustibles and set upon horses, each having a man behind on thehorse, with a pair of bellows to stir up the fire. At the first onset of the battle these mounted figures weresent forward to the charge; the men who rode behind them set fire to the combustibles and then strongly blewwith the bellows; immediately the Mongol horses and men were burnt with wild-fire and the air was darkenedwith smoke."

We shall hear of Prester John again. For within a few years of the return of Friar John, another Franciscanfriar, William de Rubruquis, was sent forth, this time by the French king, Louis, to carry letters to theGreat Khan begging him to embrace Christianity and acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope. William and hischosen companions had a painful and difficult journey of some months before they reached the camps on theVolga of one of the great Mongol lords. Indeed, "if it had not been for the grace of God and the biscuit whichwe brought with us, we had surely perished," remarks the pious friar in the history of his adventures. Neveronce did they enjoy the shelter of a house or tent, but passed the nights in the open air in a cart. At lastthey were ordered to appear at the Court of the great ruler with all their books and vestments.

"We were commanded to array ourselves in our sacred vestments to appear before the prince. Putting on,therefore, our most precious ornaments, I took a cushion in my arms, together with the Bible I had from theKing of France and the beautiful Psalter which the Queen bestowed upon me: my companion at thesame time carried the missal and a crucifix; and the clerk, clothed in his surplice, bore a censer in hishand. In this order we presented ourselves . . . singing the Salve Regina." It is a strange picturethis—the European friars, in all the vestments of their religion, standing before the Eastern prince ofthis far-off country. They would fain have carried home news of his conversion, but they were told in angrytones that the prince was "not a Christian, but a Mongol."

They were dismissed with orders to visit the Great Khan at Karakorum. Resuming their journey early in August,the messengers did not arrive at the Court of the Great Khan till the day after Christmas. They were miserablyhoused in a tiny hut with scarcely room for their beds and baggage. The cold was intense. The bare feet ofthe friars caused great astonishment to the crowds of onlookers, who stared at the strange figures as thoughthey had been monsters. However, they could not keep their feet bare long, for very soon Rubruquis found thathis toes were frozen.

Chanting in Latin the hymn of the Nativity, the visitors were at last admitted to the Imperial tent, hungabout with cloth of gold, where they found the Khan. He was seated on a couch—a "little man of moderateheight, aged about forty-five, and dressed in a skin spotted and glossy like a seal." The Mongol Emperor askednumerous questions about the kingdom of France and the possibility of conquering it, to the righteous indignation of the friars. They stayed in the country till the end of May, when they were dismissed, having failed intheir mission, but having gained a good deal of information about the great Mongol Empire and its somewhatmysterious ruler.

But while the kingdoms in Europe trembled before the growing expansion of the Mongol Empire and the dangers ofTartar hordes, the merchants of Venice rejoiced in the new markets which were opening for them in the East.

Now Venice at this time was full of enterprising merchants—merchants such as we hear of in Shakespeare'sMerchant of Venice. Among these were two Venetians, the brothers Polo. Rumours had reached them of thewealth of the mysterious land of Cathay, of the Great Khan, of Europeans making their way, as we have seen,through barren wildernesses, across burning deserts in the face of hardships indescribable, to open up ahighway to the Far East.

So off started Maffio and Niccolo Polo on a trading enterprise, and, having crossed the Mediterranean, came"with a fair wind and the blessing of God" to Constantinople, where they disposed of a large quantity of theirmerchandise. Having made some money, they directed their way to Bokhara, where they fell in with a Tartarnobleman, who persuaded them to accompany him to the Court of the Great Khan himself. Ready for adventure,they agreed, and he led them in north-easterly direction; now they were delayed by heavy snows, now by theswelling of unbridged rivers, so that it was a year before they reached Pekin, which they considered was theextremity of the East. They were courteously received by the Great Khan, who questioned them closely abouttheir own land, to which they replied in the Tartar language which they had learnt on the way.

Now since the days of Friar John there was a new Khan named Kublai, who wished to send messengers tothe Pope to beg him to send a hundred wise men to teach the Chinese Christianity. He chose the Polo brothersas his envoys to the Pope, and accordingly they started off to fulfil his behests. After an absence of fifteenyears they again reached Venice. The very year they had left home Niccolo's wife had died, and his boy,afterwards tobecome the famous traveller, Marco Polo, had been born. The boy was now fifteen.

The stories told by his father and uncle of the Far East and the Court of the greatest Emperor on earth filledthe boy with enthusiasm, and when in 1271 the brothers Polo set out for their second journey to China, notonly were they accompanied by the young Marco, but also by two preaching friars to teach the Christian faithto Kublai Khan.

Their journey lay through Armenia, through the old city of Nineveh to Bagdad, where the last Khalif had beenbutchered by the Tartars. Entering Persia as traders, the Polo family passed on to Ormuz, hoping to take shipfrom here to China. But, for some unknown reason, this was impossible, and the travellers made their waynorth-eastwards to the country about the sources of the river Oxus. Here young Marco fell sick of a low fever,and for a whole year could not proceed. Resumingtheir journey at last "in high spirits," they crossed the great highlands of the Pamirs, known as the "roof ofthe world," and, descending on Khotan, found themselves face to face with the great Gobi Desert. For thirtydays they journeyed over the sandy wastes of the silent wilderness, till they came to a city in the provinceof Tangut, where they were met by messengers from the Khan, who had heard of their approach. But it was nottill May 1275 that they actually reached the Court of Kublai Khan after their tremendous journey of "onethousand days." The preaching friars had long since turned homewards, alarmed at the dangers of the way, soonly the three stout-hearted Polos were left to deliver the Pope's message to the ruler of the Mongol Empire.

"The lord of all the earth," as he was called by his people, received them very warmly. He inquired at oncewho was the young man with them.

"My lord," replied Niccolo, "he is my son and your servant."

"Then," said the Khan, "he is welcome. I am much pleased with him."

So the three Venetians abode at the Court of Kublai Khan. His summer palace was at Shang-tu, called Xanadu bythe poet Coleridge—

So the three Venetians abode at the Court of theChinese Emperor for no less than seventeen years. Young Marco displayed so great intelligence that he was senton a mission for the Khan some six months' journey distant; and so well did he describe the things he had seenand the lands through which he had passed, that the Khan heaped on him honours and riches. Let us hear whatMarco says of his lord and master.

"The Great Khan, lord of lords, named Kublai, is of middle stature, neither too full nor too short: he has abeautiful fresh complexion, his colour is fair, his eyes dark."

The capital of the Empire, Pekin, two days' journey from the sea, and the residence of the Court during themonths of December, January, and February, called out the unbounded enthusiasm of the Polos. The city, twodays' journey from the ocean, in the extreme north-east of Cathay, had been newly rebuilt in a regular square,six miles on each side, surrounded by walls of earth and having twelve gates.

"The streets are so broad and so straight," says Marco, "that from one gate another is visible. It containsmany beautiful houses and palaces, and a very large one in the midst, containing a steeple with a large bellwhich at night sounds three times, after which no man must leave the city. At each gate a thousand men keepguard, not from dread of any enemy, but in reverence of the monarch who dwells within it, and to preventinjury by robbers."

This square form of Pekin, the great breadth of the straight streets, the closing of the gates by sound of abell—the largest in the world—is noted by all travellers to this far-eastern city of Cathay.

But greater even than Pekin was the city of Kin-sai (Hang-tcheou-fou), the City of Heaven, in the south ofChina. It had but lately fallen into the hands of Kublai Khan.

"And now I will tell you all its nobleness," says Marco, "for without doubt it is the largest city in theworld. The city is one hundred miles in circumference and has twelve thousand stone bridges, and beneath thegreater part of these a large ship might pass. And you need not wonder there are so many bridges, because thecity is wholly on the water and surrounded by it like Venice. The merchants are so numerous and so rich thattheir wealth can neither be told nor believed. They and their ladies do nothing with their own hands, but liveas delicately as if they were kings. These females also are of most angelic beauty, and live in the mostelegant manner. The people are idolaters, subject to the Great Khan, and use paper money. They eat the fleshof dogs and other beasts, such as no Christian would touch for the world. In this city, too, are four thousandbaths, in which the citizens, both men and women, take great delight and frequently resort thither, becausethey keep their persons very cleanly. They are the largest and most beautiful baths in the world, insomuchthat one hundred of either sex may bathe in them at once. Twenty-five miles from thence is the ocean, andthere is a city (Ning-po) which has a very fine port, with large ships and much merchandise of immense valuefrom India and other quarters."

But though Marco revels in the description of wonderful cities, he is continually leading us back to the GreatKhan himself. His festivals were splendid. The tables werearranged so that the Emperor sat higher than all the others, always with his face to the south. His sons anddaughters were placed so that their heads were on a level with his feet. Some forty thousand people feast onthese occasions, but the Khan himself is served only by his great barons, their mouths wrapped in rich towelsembroidered in gold and silver, that their breath might not blow upon the plates. His presents were on acolossal scale; it was no rare occurrence for him to receive five thousand camels, one hundred thousandbeautiful horses, and five thousand elephants covered with cloth of gold and silver.

"And now I will relate a wonderful thing," says Marco. "A large lion is led into his presence, which, as soonas it sees him, drops down and makes a sign of deep humility, owning him its lord and moving about without anychain."

His kingdom was ruled by twelve barons all living at Pekin. His provinces numbered thirty-four, hence theirmethod of communication was very complete.

"Messengers are sent to divers provinces," says Marco, "and on all the roads they find at every twenty-fivemiles a post, where the messengers are received. At each is a large edifice containing a bed covered withsilk and everything useful and convenient for a traveller . . . here, too, they find full four hundred horses,whom the prince has ordered to be always in waiting to convey them along the principal roads. . . . Thus theygo through the provinces, finding everywhere inns and horses for their reception. Moreover, in the intervalsbetween these stations, at every three miles are erected villages of about forty houses inhabited byfoot-runners also employed on these dispatches. They wear large girdles set round with bells, which are heardat a great distance. Receiving a letter or packet, one runs full speed to the next village, when his approachbeing announced by bells, another isready to start and proceed to the next, and so on. By these pedestrian messengers the Khan receives news inone day and night from places ten days' journey distant; in two days from those twenty off, and in ten fromthose a hundred days' journey distant. Thus he sends his messengers through all his kingdoms and provinces toknow if any of his subjects have had their crops injured through bad weather; and, if any such injury hashappened, he does not exact from them any tribute for that season—nay, he gives them corn out of his ownstores to subsist on."

This first European account of China is all so delightful that it is difficult to know where to stop. Themention of coal is interesting. "Throughout the whole province of Cathay," says Marco, "are a kind of blackstones cut from the mountains in veins, which burn like logs. They maintain the fire better than wood. If youput them on in the evening they will preserve it the whole night, and it will be found burning in the morning.Throughout the whole of Cathay this fuel is used. They have also wood, but the stones are much lessexpensive."

Neither can we pass over Marco's account of the wonderful stone bridge with its twenty-four arches of puremarble across the broad river, "the most magnificent object in the whole world," across which ten horsem*ncould ride abreast, or the Yellow River (Hoang-ho), "so large and broad that it cannot be crossed by a bridge,and flows on even to the ocean," or the wealth of mulberry trees throughout the land, on which lived thesilkworms that have made China so famous for her silk.

Then there are the people famous for their manufacture of fine porcelain ware. "Great quantities of porcelainearth were here collected into heaps and in this way exposed to the action of the atmosphere for some fortyyears, during which time it was never disturbed. By thisprocess it became refined and fitted for manufacture." Such is Marco's only allusion to china ware. Withregard to tea he is entirely silent.

But he is the first European to tell us about the islands of Japan, fifteen hundred miles from the coast ofChina, now first discovered to the geographers of the West.

"Zipangu," says Marco, "is an island situated at a distance from the mainland. The people are fair andcivilised in their manners—they possess precious metals in extraordinary abundance. The people arewhite, of gentle manners, idolaters in religion under a king of their own. These folk were attacked by thefleet of Kublai Khan in 1264 for their gold, for the King's house, windows, and floors were covered with it,but the King allowed no exportation of it."

Thus Marco Polo records in dim outline the existence of land beyond that ever dreamed of byEuropeans—indeed, denied by Ptolemy and other geographers of the West. In the course of his serviceunder Kublai Khan he opened up the eight provinces of Tibet, the whole of south-east Asia from Canton toBengal, and the archipelago of farther India. He tells us, too, of Tibet, that wide country "vanquished andwasted by the Khan for the space of twenty days' journey"—a great wilderness wanting people, but overrunby wild beasts. Here were great Tibetan dogs as large as asses. Still on duty forKublai Khan, Marco reached Bengal, "which borders upon India." But he was glad enough to return to his adoptedChinese home, "the richest and most famous country of all the East."

At last the Polo family wearied of Court honours, and they were anxious to return to their own people atVenice. However, the Khan was very unwilling to let them go. One day their chance came. The Persian ruler wasanxious to marry a princess of the house of Kublai Khan, and it was decided to send the lady by sea under theprotection of the trusted Polos, rather than to allow her to undergo the hardships of an overland journey fromChina to Persia.

So in the year 1292 they bade farewell to the great Kublai Khan, and with the little princess of seventeen andher suite they set sail with an escort of fourteen ships for India. Passing many islands "with gold and muchtrade," after three months at sea they reached Java, at this time supposed to be the greatest island in theworld, above three thousand miles round. At Sumatra they were detained five months by stress of weather, tillat last they reached the Bay of Bengal. Sailing on a thousand miles westwards, they reached Ceylon—"thefinest island in the world," remarks Marco. It was not till two years after their start and the loss of sixhundred sailors that they arrived at their destination, only to find that the ruler of Persia was dead.However, they gave the little bride to his son and passed on by Constantinople to Venice, where they arrivedin 1295.

And now follows a strange sequel to the story. After their long absence, and in their travel-stained garments,their friends and relations could not recognise them, and in vain did they declare that they were indeed thePolos—father, son, and uncle—who had left Venice twenty-four long years ago. It was no use; no onebelieved theirstory. So this is what they did. They arranged for a great banquet to be held, to which they invited all theirrelations and friends. This they attended in robes of crimson satin. Then suddenly Marco rose from the tableand, going out of the room, returned with the three coarse, travel-stained garments. They ripped open seams,tore out the lining, and a quantity of precious stones, rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and emeralds pouredforth. The company were filled with wonder, and when the story spread all the people of Venice came forth todo honour to their famous fellow-countrymen.

Marco was surnamed Marco of the Millions, and never tired of telling the wonderful stories of Kublai Khan, thegreat Emperor who combined the "rude magnificence of the desert with the pomp and elegance of the mostcivilised empire in the Old World."

The two names of Ibn Batuta and Sir John Mandeville now conclude our mediæval period of travel to the Eastward.Both the Arab and the Englishman date their travels between the years 1325 and 1355; but while Ibn Batuta, thetraveller from Tangiers, adds very valuable information to our geographical knowledge, we have to lay thetravel volumes of Sir John Mandeville aside and acknowledge sadly that his book is made up of borrowedexperiences, that he has wantonly added fiction to fact, and distorted even the travel stories told by othertravellers. And yet, strange to say, while the work of Ibn Batuta remains entirely disregarded, the delightfulwork of the Englishman is still read vigorously to-day and translated into nearly every European language. Init we read strange stories of Prester John, "the great Emperor of India, who is served by seven kings,seventy-two dukes, and three hundred and sixty earls"; he speaks of the "isle of Cathay": he repeats thelegend of the island near Java on which Adam and Eve wept for one hundred years after they had been drivenfrom Paradise; he speaks of giants thirty feet high, and of Pigmies who came dancing to see him.

We turn to the Arab traveller for a solid document, which rings more true, and we cannot doubt his accounts ofshipwreck and hardships encountered by the way. Ibn Batuta left Tangiers in the year 1324 at the earlyage of twenty-one on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He made his way across the north of Africa to Alexandria. Herehistory relates he met a learned and pious man named Imam.

"I perceive," said Imam, "that you are fond of visiting distant countries?"

"That is so," answered Ibn Batuta.

"Then you must visit my brother in India, my brother in Persia, and my brother in China, and when you see thempresent my compliments to them."

Ibn Batuta left Alexandria with a resolve to visit these three persons, and indeed, wonderful to say, he foundthem all three and presented to them their brother's compliments.

He reached Mecca and remained there for three years, after which he voyaged down the Red Sea to Aden, a portof much trade. Coasting along the east coast of Africa, he reached Mombasa, from which port, so soon to fallinto the hands of the Portuguese, he sailed to Ormuz, a "city on the seashore," at the entrance to the PersianGulf. Here he tells us of the head of a fish "that might be compared to a hill: its eyes were like two doors,so that people could go in at one eye and out at the other." Crossing central Arabia and the Black Sea, hefound himself for the first time in a Christiancity, and was much dismayed at all the bells ringing. He was anxious to go north through Russia to the Land ofDarkness, of which he had heard such wonderful tales. It was a land where there were neither trees, norstones, nor houses, where dogs with nails in their feet drew little sledges across the ice. Instead he went toConstantinople, arriving at sunset when the bells were ringing so loud "that the very horizon shook with thenoise." Ibn was presented to the Emperor as a remarkable traveller, and a letter of safe conduct was given tohim.

He then made his way through Bokhara and Herat, Kandahar and Kabul, over the Hindu Koosh and across the Industo Delhi, "the greatest city in the world." But at this time it was a howling wilderness, as the inhabitantshad fled from the cruelty of the Turkish Emperor. Into his presence our traveller was now called andgraciously received.

"The lord of the world appoints you to the office of judge in Delhi," said the Emperor; "he gives you a dressof honour with a saddled horse and a large yearly salary."

Ibn held this office for eight years, till one day the Emperor called him and said: "I wish to send you asambassador to the Emperor of China, for I know you are fond of travelling in foreign countries."

The Emperor of China had sent presents of great value to the Emperor of India, who was now anxious to returnthe compliment. Quaint, indeed, were the gifts from India to China. There were one hundred high-bred horses,one hundred dancing girls, one hundred pieces of cotton stuff, also silk and wool, some black, some white,blue-green or blue. There were swords of state and golden candle-sticks, silver basins, brocade dresses, andgloves embroidered with pearls. But so many adventures did Ibn Batuta have on his way to China that it iscertain that none ofthese things ever reached that country, for eighty miles from Delhi the cavalcade was attacked and Ibn wasrobbed of all he had. For days he wandered alone in a forest, living on leaves, till he was rescued more deadthan alive, and carried back to Delhi. The second start was also unfortunate. By a circuitous route he madehis way to Calicut on the Malabar coast, where he made a stay of three months till the monsoons should permithim to take ship for China. The harbour of Calicut was full of great Chinese ships called junks. These junksstruck him as unlike anything he had seen before. "The sails are made of cane reed woven together like a mat,which, when they put into port, they leave standing in the wind. In some of these vessels there will be athousand men, sailors and soldiers. Built in the ports of China only, they are rowed with large oars, whichmay be compared to great masts. On board are wooden houses in which the higher officials reside with theirwives."

The time of the voyage came; thirteen huge junks were taken, and the imperial presents were embarked. All wasready for a start on the morrow. Ibn stayed on shore praying in the mosque till starting-time. That night aviolent hurricane arose and most of the ships in the harbour were destroyed. Treasure, crew, and officers allperished, and Ibn was left alone and almost penniless. He feared to return to Delhi, so he took ship, whichlanded him on one of a group of a thousand islands, which Ibn calls "one of the wonders of the world." Thechiefisland was governed by a woman. Here he was made a judge, and soon became a great personage. But after a timehe grew restless and set sail for Sumatra. Here at the court of the king, who was a zealous disciple ofMohammed, Ibn met with a kind reception, and after a fortnight, provided with provisions, the "restlessMohammedan" again voyaged northwards into the "Calm Sea," or the Pacific as we call it now. It was so still,"disturbed by neither wind nor waves," that the ship had to be towed by a smaller ship till they reachedChina.

"This is a vast country," writes Ibn, "and it abounds in all sorts of good things—fruit, corn, gold, andsilver. It is traversed by a great river—the Waters of Life—which runs through the heart of Chinafor a distance of six months' journey. It is bordered with villages, cultivated plains, orchards, and markets,just like the Nile in Egypt."

Ibn gives an amusing account of the Chinese poultry. "The co*cks and hens are bigger than our geese. I one daybought a hen," he says, "which I wanted to boil, but one pot would not hold it and I was obliged to take two.As for the co*cks in China, they are as big as ostriches."

"'Pooh,' cried an owner of Chinese fowls, 'there are co*cks in China much bigger than that,' and I found he hadsaid no more than the truth."

"Silk is very plentiful, for the worms which produce it require little attention. They have silk in suchabundance that it is used for clothing even by poor monks and beggars. The people of China do not use gold andsilver coin in their commercial dealings. Their buying and selling is carried on by means of pieces of paperabout the size of the palm of the hand, carrying the seal of the Emperor." The Arab traveller has much to sayabout the superb painting of China. They study and paint every stranger that visits their country, and theportrait thus taken is exposed on the city wall. Thus, should astranger do anything to make flight necessary, his portrait would be sent out into every province and he wouldsoon be discovered.

"China is the safest as well as the pleasantest of all the regions on the earth for a traveller. You maytravel the whole nine months' journey to which the Empire extends without the slightest cause to fear, even ifyou have treasure in your charge. But it afforded me no pleasure. On the contrary, my spirit was sorelytroubled within me to see how Paganism had the upper hand."

Troubles now broke out among the Khan's family, which led to civil wars and the death of the Great Khan. Hewas buried with great pomp. A deep chamber was dug in the earth, into which a beautiful couch was placed, onwhich was laid the dead Khan with his arms and all his rich apparel, the earth over him being heaped to theheight of a large hill.

Batuta now hurried from the country, took a junk to Sumatra, thence to Calicut and by Ormuz home to Tangier,where he arrived in 1348. He had done what he set forth to do. He had visited the three brothers of Imam inPersia, India, and China. In addition he had travelledfor twenty-four years and accomplished in all about seventy-five thousand miles.

With him the history of mediæval exploration would seem to end, for within eighty years of his death themodern epoch opens with the energies and enthusiasm of Prince Henry of Portugal.

For the last few centuries we have found all travel undertaken more or less as a religious crusade.

So far during the last centuries, travel had been for the most part by land. Few discoveries had been made bysea. Voyages were too difficult and dangerous. The Phœnicians had ventured far with intrepid courage. TheVikings had tossed fearlessly over their stormy northern seas to the yet unknown land of America, but this waslong ago. Throughout the Middle Ages hardly a sail was to be seen on the vast Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, noships ventured on what was held to be the Sea of Darkness, no man was emboldened to risk life and money on theunknown waters beyond his own safe home.

We cannot pass from the subject of mediæval exploration without a word on the really delightful, if ignorant,maps of the period, for they illustrate better than any description the state of geography at this time. ThePtolemy map, summing up all the Greek and Roman learning, with its longitudes and latitudes, with its shapedcontinents and its many towns and rivers, "indicates the high-water mark of a tide that was soon to ebb."

With the decline of the Roman Empire and the coming of Christianity we get a new spirit inspiring ourmediæval maps, in which Jerusalem, hitherto totally obscure, dominates the whole situation.

The Christian Topography of Cosmas in the sixth century sets a new model. Figures blowingtrumpets representing the winds still blow on to the world, as they did in the days of Ptolemy, but the earthis once more flat and it is again surrounded by the ocean stream. Round this ocean stream, according toCosmas, is an outer earth, the seat of Paradise, "the earth beyond the ocean where men dwelt before theFlood."

Although these maps of Cosmas were but the expression of one man's ideas, they served as a model for others.

There is, at Turin, a delightful map of the eighth century with the four winds and the ocean stream as usual.The world is divided into three—Asia, Africa,and Europe. Adam and Eve stand at the top; to the right of Adam lies Armenia and the Caucasus; to the left ofEve are Mount Lebanon, the river Jordan, Sidon, and Mesopotamia. At their feet lie Mount Cannel, Jerusalem,and Babylon.

In Europe we find a few names such as Constantinople, Italy, France, Britannia and Scotland are islands in theencircling sea. Africa is suitably represented by the Nile.

Of much the same date is another map known as the Albi, preserved in the library at Albi in Languedoc.The world is square, with rounded corners; Britain is an island off the coast of Spain, and a beautiful greensea flows round the whole.

An example of tenth-century map-making, known as the Cottoniana or Anglo-Saxon map, is in the British Museum.Here is a mixture of Biblical and classical knowledge. Jerusalem and Bethlehem are in their place and thePillars of Hercules stand at the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea. The British Isles are still distorted, andquantities oflittle unnamed islands lie about the north of Scotland. In the extreme east lies an enormous Ceylon; in thenorth-east corner of Asia is drawn a magnificent lion with mane and curling tail, with the words around him:"Here lions abound." Africa as usual is made up of the Nile, Alexandria at its mouth, and its source in alake.

There is another form of these early maps. They are quite small and round. They are known as T-maps, beingdivided into three parts—Europe, Asia, and Africa. Jerusalem is always in the centre, and the oceanstream flows round.

After the manner of these, only on a very large scale, is the famous Mappa Mondi, by Richard ofHaldingham, on the walls of the Hereford Cathedral of the thirteenth century. Jerusalem is in the centre, andthe Crucifixionis there depicted. At the top is the Last Judgment, with the good and bad folk divided on either side. Adamand Eve are there, so are the Pillars of Hercules, Scylla and Charybdis, the Red Sea coloured red, the Nileand the Mountains of the Moon, strange beasts and stranger men.

With the Hereford map came in that pictorial geography that makes the maps of the later Middle Ages sodelightful.

"This is indeed the true way to make a map," says a modern writer. "If these old maps erred in the course oftheir rivers and the lines of their mountains and space, they are not so misleading as your modern atlas withits too accurate measurements. For even your most primitive map, with Paradise in the east—a giganticJerusalem in the centre—gives a less distorted impression than that which we obtain from the mostscientific chart on Mercator's projection."

But now a new era was about to begin—a new age was dawning—and we open a wonderful chapter in thehistory of discovery, perhaps the most wonderful in all the world. In Portugal a man had arisen who was toawaken the slumbering world of travel and direct it to the high seas.

And the name of this man was Henry, a son of King John of Portugal. His mother was an Englishwoman, daughterof "John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster." The Prince was, therefore, a nephew of Henry IV. andgreat-grandson of Edward of England. But if English blood flowed in his veins he, too, was the son of the"greatest King that ever sat on the throne of Portugal," and at the age of twenty he had already learnedsomething of the sea that lay between his father's kingdom and the northern coast of Africa. Thus, when in theyear 1415 King John planned a great expedition across the narrow seas to Ceuta, an important Moorish city inNorth Africa, it fell to Prince Henry himself to equip seven triremes, six biremes, twenty-six ships ofburden, and a number of small craft. These he had ready at Lisbon when news reached him that the Queen, hismother, was stricken ill. The King and three sons were soon at her bedside. It was evident that she was dying.

"What wind blows so strongly against the side of the house?" she asked suddenly.

"The wind blows from the north," replied her sons.

"It is the wind most favourable for your departure," replied Philippa. And with these words the English Queendied.

This is not the place to tell how the expedition started at once as the dead Queen had wished, how Ceuta wastriumphantly taken, and how Prince Henry distinguished himself till all Europe rang with his fame. Henry V. ofEngland begged him to come over and take command of his forces. The Emperor of Germany sent the same request.But he had other schemes for his life. He would not fight the foes of England or of Germany, rather would hefight the great ocean whose waves dashed high against the coast of Portugal. He had learned something ofinland Africa, of the distant coast of Guinea, and he was fired with the idea of exploring along this westcoast of Africa and possibly reaching India by sea.

Let us recall what was known of the Atlantic only six centuries ago. "It was," says an old writer, "a vast andboundless ocean, on which ships dared not venture out of sight of land. For even if the sailors knew thedirection of the winds they would not know whither those winds would carry them, and, as there is no inhabitedcountry beyond, they would run great risk of being lost in mist and vapour. The limit of the West is theAtlantic Ocean."

The ocean was a new and formidable foe, hitherto unconquered and unexplored. At last one had arisen to attemptit* conquest. As men had lifted the veil from the unknown land of China, so now the mists were to be clearedfrom the Sea of Darkness.

On the inhospitable shores of southern Portugal, amid the "sadness of a waste of shifting sand, in aneighbourhood so barren that only a few stunted trees struggled for existence, on one of the coldest,dreariest spots of sunny Portugal," Prince Henry built his naval arsenal.In this secluded spot, far from the gaieties of Court life, with the vast Atlantic rolling measureless andmysterious before him, Prince Henry took up the study of astronomy and mathematics. Here he gathered round himmen of science; he built ships and trained Portuguese sailors in the art of navigation, so far as it was knownin those days.

Then he urged them seawards. In 1418 two gentlemen of his household, Zarco and Vaz, volunteered to sail toCape Bojador towards the south. They started off and as usual hugged the coast for some way, but a violentstorm arose and soon they were driven out to sea. They had lost sight of land and given themselves up for lostwhen, at break of day, they saw an island not far off. Delighted at their escape, they named it Porto Santoand, overjoyed at their discovery, hastened back to Portugal to relate their adventures to Prince Henry. Theydescribed the fertile soil and delicious climate of the newly found island, the simplicity of its inhabitants,and they requested leave to return and make a Portuguese settlement there. To reward them, Prince Henry gavethem three ships and everything to ensure success in their new enterprise. But unfortunately he added a rabbitand her family. These were turned out and multiplied with such astonishing rapidity that in two years' timethey were numerous enough to destroy all the vegetation of the island.

So Porto Santo was colonised by the Portuguese, and one Perestrello was made Governor of the island; and itis interesting to note that his daughter became the wife of Christopher Columbus. But the original founders,Zarco and Vaz, had observed from time to time a dark spot on the horizon which aroused their curiosity.Sailing towards it, they found an island of considerable size, uninhabited and very attractive, but so coveredwith woods that they named it Madeira, the Island of Woods.

But although these two islands belong to Portugalto-day, and although Portugal claimed their discovery, it has been proved that already an Englishman and hiswife had been there, and the names of the islands appear on an Italian map of 1851.

The story of this first discovery is very romantic. In the reign of Edward a young man named Robert Machinsailed away from Bristol with a very wealthy lady. A north-east wind carried them out of their course, andafter thirteen days' driving before a storm they were cast on to an island. It was uninhabited and well woodedand watered. But the sufferings and privations proved too much for the poor English lady, who died after threedays, and Machin died a few days later of grief and exposure. The crew of the ship sailed away to the coast ofAfrica, there to be imprisoned by the Moors. Upon their escape in 1416 they made known their discovery.

So Zarco and Vaz divided the island of Madeira, calling half of it Funchal (the Portuguese for fennel, whichgrew here in great quantities) and the other half Machico after the poor English discoverer Machin. The firsttwo Portuguese children born in the island of Madeira were called Adam and Eve.

Year after year Prince Henry launched his little ships on the yet unknown, uncharted seas, urging hiscaptains to venture farther and ever farther. He longed for them to reach Cape Bojador, and bitter was hisdisappointment when one of his squires, dismayed by travellers' tales, turned back from the Canary Islands.

"Go out again," urged the enthusiastic Prince, "and give no heed to their opinions, for, by the grace of God,you cannot fail to derive from your voyage both honour and profit."

And the squire went forth from the commanding presence of the Prince resolved to double the Cape, which hesuccessfully accomplished in 1434. Seven years passed away, till in 1441 two men—Gonsalves, master ofthe wardrobe (a strange qualification for difficult navigation), and Nuno Tristam, a youngknight—started forth on the Prince's service, with orders to pass Cape Bojador where a dangerous surf,breaking on the shore, had terrified other navigators. There was a story, too, that any man who passed CapeBojador would be changed from white into black, that there were sea-monsters, sheets of burning flame, andboiling waters beyond. The young knight Tristam discovered the white headland beyond Cape Bojador, named itCape Blanco, and took home some Moors of high rank to the Prince. A large sum was offered for their ransom, soGonsalves conveyed them backto Cape Blanco and coasted along to the south, discovering the island of Arguin of the Cape Verde group andreaching the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, reached by Hanno many centuries before this.

Here he received some gold dust, and with this and some thirty negroes he returned to Lisbon, where thestrange black negroes "caused the most lively astonishment among the people." The small quantity of gold dustcreated a sensation among the Portuguese explorers, and the spirit of adventure grew. No longer had the Princeto urge his navigators forth to new lands and new seas; they were ready and willing to go, for the reward wasnow obvious. The news was soon noised abroad, and Italians, then reckoned among the most skilful seamen of thetime, flocked to Portugal, anxious to take service under the Prince.

"Love of gain was the magic wand that drew them on and on, into unknown leagues of waters, into wildadventures and desperate affrays."

The "Navigator" himself looked beyond these things. He would find a way to India; he would teach the heathento be Christians. He was always ready to welcome those with superior knowledge of navigation; so in 1454 hesent an Italian, known to history as Cadamosto, to sail the African seas. The young Venetian was buttwenty-one, and he tells his story simply.

"Now I—Luigi Ca da Mosto—had sailed nearly all the Mediterranean coasts, but, being caught by astorm off Cape St. Vincent, had to take refuge in the Prince's town, and was there told of the glorious andboundless conquests of the Prince, the which did exceedingly stir my soul—eager as it was for gain aboveall things else. My age, my vigour, my skill are equal to any toil; above all, my passionate desire to see theworld and explore the unknown set me all on fire with eagerness."

In 1455 Cadamosto sailed from Portugal for Madeira, now "thickly peopled with Portuguese." From Madeira to theCanaries, from the Canaries to Cape Blanco, "natives black as moles were dressed in white flowing robes withturbans wound round their heads." Here was a great market of Arab traders from the interior, here were camelsladen with brass, silver, and gold, as well as slaves innumerable.

But Cadamosto pushed on for some four hundred miles by the low, sandy shore to the Senegal River. ThePortuguese had already sailed by this part of the coast, and the negroes had thought their ships to be greatbirds from afar cleaving the air with their white wings. When the crews furled their sails and drew into shorethe natives changed their minds and thought they were fishes, and all stood on the shore gazing stupidly atthis new wonder.

Cadamosto landed and pushed some two hundred and fifty miles up the Senegal River, where he set up a market,exchanging cotton and cloth for gold, while "the negroes came stupidly crowding round me, wondering at ourwhite colour, which they tried to wash off, our dress, our garments of black silk and robes of blue cloth."

Joined by two other ships from Portugal, the Italian explorer now sailed on to Cape Verde, so called from itsgreen grass.

"The land here," he tells us, "is all low and full of fine, large trees, which are continually green. Thetrees never wither like those in Europe; they grow so near the shore that they seem to drink, as it were, thewater of the sea. The coast is most beautiful. Many countries have I been in, to East and West, but never didI see a prettier sight."

But the negroes here—big, comely men—were lawless and impossible to approach, shooting at thePortuguese explorers with poisoned arrows. They discovered thatthe capital of the country was called Gambra, where lived a king, but the negroes of the Gambra wereunfriendly; there was little gold to be had; his crews fell sick and ill, and Cadamosto turned home again. Buthe had reached a point beyond all other explorers of the time, a point where "only once did we see the NorthStar, which was so low that it seemed almost to touch the sea." We know that he must have been to withineleven degrees of the Equator, and it is disappointing to find thepromising young Italian disappearing from the pages of history.

And now we come to the last voyage planned by Prince Henry, that of Diego Gomez, his own faithful servant. Itfollowed close on Cadamosto's return.

No long tine after, the Prince equipped a ship called the Wren and set over it Diego Gomez, withtwo other ships, of which he was commander-in-chief. Their orders were to go as far as they could. Gomez wrotehis own travels, and his adventures are best told in his own words. We take up his story from the far side ofCape Blanco.

"After passing a great river beyond Rio Grande we met such strong currents in the sea that no anchor couldhold. The other captains and their men were much alarmed, thinking we were at the end of the ocean, and beggedme to put back. In the mid-current the sea was very clear, and the natives came off from the shore and broughtus their merchandise. As the current grew even stronger we put back and came to a land, where were groves ofpalms near the shore, with their branches broken. There we found a plain covered with hay and more than fivethousand animals like stags, but larger, who showed no fear of us. Five elephants with two young ones came outof a small river that was fringed by trees. We went back to the ships, and next day made our way from CapeVerde and saw the broad mouth of a great river, which we entered and guessed to be the Gambia. We went up theriver as far as Cantor (some five hundred miles). Farther than this the ships could not go, because of thethick growth of trees and underwood. When the news spread through the country that the Christians were inCantor, they came from Timbuktu in the north, from Mount Gelu in the south. Here I was told there is gold inplenty, and caravans of camels cross over there with goods from Carthage, Tunis, Fez, Cairo, and all the landof the Saracens. I asked the natives of Cantor about the road to the gold country. They told me the King livedin Kukia and was lord of all the mines on the right side of the river of Cantor, and that he had before thedoor of this palace a mass of gold just as it was taken from the earth, so large that twenty men could hardlymove it, and that the King always fastened his horse to it. While I was thus trafficking with these negroes,my men became worn out with the heat, and so we returned towards the ocean."

But Diego Gomez had succeeded in making friends with the hostile natives of this part. He left behind him abetter idea of Christian men than some of the other explorers had done. His own account of the conversion ofthe Mohammedan King who lived near the mouth of the river Gambia, which was visited on the return voyage, ismost interesting.

"Now the houses here are made of seaweed, covered with straw, and while I stayed here (at the river mouth)three days, I learned all the mischief that had been done to the Christians by a certain King. So I took painsto make peace with him and sent him many presents by his own men in his own canoes. Now the King was in greatfear of the Christians, lest they should take vengeance upon him. When the King heard that I always treatedthe natives kindly he came to the river-side with a great force, and, sitting down on the bank, sent for me.And so I went and paid him all respect. There was a Bishop there of his own faith, who asked me about the Godof the Christians, and I answered him as God had given me to know. At last the King was so pleased with what Isaid that he sprang to his feet and ordered the Mohammedan Bishop to leave his country within three days."

So when the Portuguese returned home, Prince Henry sent a priest and a young man of his own household to theblack King at the mouth of the Gambia. This was in 1458.

"In the year of our Lord 1460, Prince Henry fell ill in his town on Cape St. Vincent," says his faithfulexplorer and servant, Diego Gomez, "and of that sickness he died."

Such was the end of the man who has been called the "originator of modern discovery." What had he done? He hadinspired and financed the Portuguese navigators to sail for some two thousand miles down the West Africancoast. "From his wave-washed home he inspired the courage of his men and planned their voyages, and by thepurity of his actions and the devotion of his life really lived up to his inspiring motto, 'Talent de bienfaire.'" And more than this. For each successive discovery had been carefully noted at the famous Sagressettlement, and these had been worked up by an Italian monk named Fra Mauro into an enormous wall-map over sixfeet across, crammed with detail—the work of three years' incessant labour.

But though Prince Henry was dead, the enthusiasm he had aroused among Portuguese navigators was not dead, andPortuguese ships still stole forth by twos and threes to search for treasure down the West African coast. In1462 they reached Sierra Leone, the farthest point attained by Hanno of olden days. Each new headland was nowtaken in the name of Portugal: wooden crosses already marked each successive discovery, and many a tree nearthe coast bore the motto of Prince Henry carved roughly on its bark. Portugal had officially claimed this"Kingdom of the Seas" as it was called, and henceforth stone crosses some six feet high, inscribed with thearms of Portugal, the name of the navigator, and the date of discovery, marked each newly found spot.

It was not until 1471 that the navigators unconsciously crossed the Equator, "into a new heaven and a newearth." They saw stars unknown in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Northern Pole star sank nearly out ofsight. Another thirteen years and Diego Cam, a knight of the King's household, found the mouth of the Congoand erected a great Portuguese pillar on the famous spot. It was in the year 1484 that Diego Cam was orderedto go "as far to the south as he could." He crossed the Equator, which for past years had been the limit ofknowledge, and, continuing southwards he reached the mouth of the mighty river Congo,now known as the second of all the African rivers for size. The explorer ascended the river, falling in withpeacefully inclined natives. But they could not make themselves understood, so Cam took back four of them toPortugal, where they learned enough Portuguese to talk a little. They were much struck with Portugal and thekind treatment they received from the King, who sent them back to their country laden with presents for theirblack King at home. So with Diego Cam they all sailed back to the Congo River. They were received by the Kingin royal state. Seated on a throne of ivory raised on a lofty wooden platform, he could be seen from allsides, his "black and glittering skin" shining out above a piece of damask given to him to wear by thePortuguese explorer. From his shoulder hung a dressed horse's tail, a symbol of royalty; on his head was a capof palm leaves.

It was here in this Congo district that the first negro was baptized in the presence of some twenty-fivethousand heathen comrades. The ceremony was performed by Portuguese priests, and the negro King ordered allidols to be destroyed throughout his dominions. Here, too, a little Christian church was built, and the Kingand Queen became such earnest Christians that they sent their children to Portugal to be taught.

But even the discoveries of Diego Cam pale before the great achievement of Bartholomew Diaz, who was now toaccomplish the great task which Prince Henry the Navigator had yearned to see fulfilled—the rounding ofthe Cape of Storms.

The expedition set sail for the south in August 1486. Passing the spot where Diego Cam had erected hisfarthest pillar, Diaz reached a headland, now known as Diaz Point, where he, too, placed a Portuguese pillar,that remained unbroken till about a hundred years ago. Still to the south he sailed, struggling with wind andweather, to Cape Voltas, close to the mouth of the Orange River. Then for another fortnight the little shipswere driven before the wind, south and ever south, with half-reefed sails and no land in sight. Long days andlonger nights passed to find them still drifting in an unknown sea, knowing not what an hour might bringforth. At last the great wind ceased to blow and it became icy cold. They had sailed to the south of SouthAfrica. Steering north, Diaz now fell in with land—land with cattle near the shore and cowherds tendingthem, but the black cowherds were so alarmed at the sight of the Portuguese that they fled away inland.

We know now, what neither Diaz nor his crew even suspected, that he had actually rounded, without seeing, theCape of Good Hope. The coast now turned eastward till a small island was reached in a bay we now call AlgoaBay. Here Bartholomew Diaz set up another pillar with its cross and inscription, naming the rock Santa Cruz.This was the first land beyond the Cape ever trodden by European feet. Unfortunately thenatives—Kafirs—threw stones at them, and it was impossible to make friends and to land. The crews,too, began to complain. They were worn out with continual work, weary for fresh food, terrified at the heavyseas that broke on these southern shores. With one voice they protested against proceeding any farther. Butthe explorer could not bear to turn back; he must sail onwards now, just three days more, and then if theyfound nothing he would turn back. They sailed on and came to themouth of a large river—the Great Fish River. Again the keen explorer would sail on and add to hisalready momentous discoveries. But the crews again began their complaints and, deeply disappointed, Diaz hadto turn. "When he reached the little island of Santa Cruz and bade farewell to the cross which he had thereerected, it was with grief as intense as if he were leaving his child in the wilderness with no hope of everseeing him again." To him it seemed as though he had endured all his hardships in vain. He knew not what hehad really accomplished as yet. But his eyes were soon to be opened. Sailing westward, Diaz at last came insight of "that remarkable Cape which had been hidden from the eyes of man for so many centuries."

Remembering their perils past, he called it "the Stormy Cape "and hastened home to the King of Portugal withhis great news. The King was overjoyed, but he refused to name it the Cape of Storms. Would not such a namedeter the seamen of the future?Was not this the long-sought passage to India? Rather it should be called the Cape of Good Hope, the namewhich it has held throughout the centuries. In the course of one voyage, Diaz had accomplished the great taskwhich for the past seventy years Prince Henry had set before his people. He had lifted for the first time inthe history of the world the veil that had hung over the mysterious extremity of the great African continent.The Phœnicians may have discovered it some seventeen hundred years before Diaz, but the record of traditionalone exists.

Now with the new art of printing, which was transforming the whole aspect of life, the brilliant achievementof Bartholomew Diaz was made known far and wide.

It was shortly to be followed by a yet more brilliant feat by a yet more brilliant navigator, "the mostillustrious that the world has seen." The very name of Christopher Columbus calls up the vision of a resoluteman beating right out into the westward unknown seas and finding as his great reward a whole newcontinent—a New World of whose existence mankind had hardly dreamt.

Every event in the eventful life of Christopher Columbus is of supreme interest. We linger over all that leads up tothe momentous start westwards: we recall his birth and early life at Genoa towards the middle of the fifteenthcentury, his apprenticeship to his father as a weaver of cloth, his devotion to the sea, his love of thelittle sailing ships that passed in and out of the busy Genoese harbour from all parts of the known world. Atthe age of fourteen the little Christoforo went to sea—a red-haired, sunburnt boy with bright blue eyes.He learnt the art of navigation, he saw foreign countries, he learnt to chart the seas, to draw maps, andpossibly worked with some of the noted Italian draughtsmen. At the age of twenty-eight, in 1474, he left Genoafor Portugal, famous throughout the world for her recent discoveries, though as yet the Stormy Cape lay veiledin mystery. Columbus wanted to learn all he could about these discoveries; he made voyages to Guinea, Madeira,and Porto Santo. He also went to England and "sailed a hundred leagues to the island of Thule in 1477."

He was now a recognised seaman of distinction, with courteous manners and fine appearance. He set himself tostudy maps and charts at Lisbon, giving special attention to instruments for making observations at sea. Formany long years he had been revolving a scheme for reaching India by sailing westward instead of the routeby Africa. The more he studied these things the more convinced he became that he was right.

It was not till the year 1480 that Columbus proposed to the King of Portugal his idea of sailing westwards. Heexplained his reasons: how there were grounds for thinking there was an unknown land to the west, howartistically sculptured pieces of wood had been driven across the ocean by the west wind, suggesting islandsnot yet discovered, how once the corpses of two men with broad faces, unlike Europeans, had been washedashore, how on the west coast of Ireland seeds of tropical plants had been discovered.

The King listened and was inclined to believe Columbus. But his councillors persuaded him to get from theGenoese navigator his plans, and while they kept Columbus waiting for the King's answer they sent off someships privately to investigate the whole matter. The ships started westward, encountered a great storm, andreturned to Lisbon, scoffing at the scheme of the stranger. When this news reached his ears, Columbus was veryangry. He would have nothing more to do with Portugal, but left that country at once for Spain to appeal tothe King and Queen of that land.

Ferdinand and Isabella were busy with affairs of state and could not give audience to the man who was todiscover a New World. It was not till 1491 that he was summoned before the King and Queen. Once more his wildscheme was laughed at, and he was dismissed bythe Court. Not only was he again indignant, but his friends wereindignant too. They believed in him, and would not rest till they had persuaded the Queen to take up hiscause. He demanded a good deal. He must be made Admiral and Viceroy of all the new seas and lands hemight discover, as well as receiving a large portion of his gains. The Queen was prevailed on to provide meansfor the expedition, and she became so enthusiastic over it that she declared she would sell her own jewels toprovide the necessary supplies. Columbus was created Admiral of the Ocean in all the islands and continents hemight discover; two little ships were made ready, and it seemed as though the dream of his life might befulfilled. The explorer was now forty-six; his red hair had become grey with waiting and watching for thepossibility of realising his great scheme.

At last the preparations were complete. The Santa Maria was to lead the way with the Admiral onboard; she was but one hundred tons' burden, with a high poop and a forecastle. It had been difficult enoughto find a crew; men were shy about venturing with this stranger from Genoa on unknown seas, and it was amotley party that finally took service under Columbus. The second ship, the Pinta, was but half thesize of the flagship; she had a crew of eighteen and was the fastest sailer of the little squadron, while thethird, the Nina of forty tons, also carried eighteen men.

On 3rd August 1492 the little fleet sailed forth from Spain on a quest more perilous perhaps than any yet onrecord. No longer could they sail along with a coast always in sight; day after day and night after night theymust sail on an unknown sea in search of an unknownland. No one ever expected to see them again. It has well been said that, "looking back at all that has grownout of it in the four centuries that have elapsed, we now know that the sailing of those three little boatsover the bar was, since the Fall of Rome, the most momentous event in the world's history." The ships steeredfor the Canary Islands, and it was not till 9th September that the last land faded from the eyes of thatdaring little company.

Something of a panic among the sailors ensued when they realised their helpless position; some even burst intotears, begging to be taken home. The days passed on. By the 16th they had come within the influence of thetrade winds.

"The weather was like April," says Columbus in his journal. Still westward they sailed, eagerly looking forsigns of land. Now they see two pelicans, "an indication that land was near," now a large dark cloud to thenorth, another "sign that land is near."

As the days pass on, their hopes die away and "the temper of the crews was getting uglier and uglier as thethree little vessels forged westward through the blue weed-strewn waters." On 9th October hope revives; allnight they hear birds passing through the still air.

On the evening of the 11th a light was seen glimmering in the distance; from the high stern deck of theSanta Maria it could be plainly seen, and when the sun rose on that memorable morning the lowshores of land a few miles distant could be plainly seen. "Seabirds are wheeling overhead heedless of theintruders, but on the shore human beings are assembling to watch the strange birds which now spread theirwings and sail towards the island.

"The Pinta leads and her crew are raising the 'Te Deum.' The crews of the SantaMaria and the Ninajoin in the solemn chant and many rough men brush away tears. Columbus, the two Pinzons, and some of the menstep into the cutter and row to the shore." Columbus, fully armed under his scarlet cloak, sprang ashore, theunclothed natives fleeing away at sight of the first white man who had ever stepped on their shores. Then,unfurling the royal standard of Spain and setting up a large cross, the great navigator fell on his knees andgave thanks to God for this triumphant ending to his perilous voyage. He named the island San Salvador andformally took possession of it for Spain. It was one of the Bahama group, and is now known as Watling Island(British).

"Thus was the mighty enterprise achieved, mighty in its conception, still more important in its results."

But Columbus thought he had discovered the Indies, a new route to the east and the Cathay of Marco Polo. Hehad done more than this; he had discovered another continent. He had sailed over three thousand miles withoutseeing land, a feat unparalleled in the former history of discovery.

He made friends with the natives, who resembled those of the Canary Islands. "I believe they would easilybecome Christians," wrote Columbus, "If it please our Lord at the time of my departure, I will take six fromhere that they may learn to speak." He also notes that they will make good slaves.

From island to island he now made his way, guided by natives. He hoped to find gold; he hoped to find Cathay,for he had a letter from Ferdinand and Isabella to deliver to the Great Khan. The charm and beauty of theseenchanted islands were a source of joy to the explorer: "The singing of the little birds is such that itappears a man would wish never to leave here, and the flocks of parrots obscure the sun." The island of Cuba"seemed like heaven itself," but Columbus could not forget that he was searching for gold, for Orientalspices, for the land of Marco Polo, as he hastened from point to point, from island to island. Already thePinta under Martin Pinzon had gone off independently in search of a vague land of gold, to thevexation of the Admiral. A worse disaster was now to befall him. On Christmas Day, off the island of Hayti,the Santa Maria struck upon a reef and went over. Columbus and his crew escaped on board thelittle Nina. But she was too small to carry home the double crew, and Columbus made a little fortresson the island where the native King was friendly, and left there a little colony of Spaniards.

He now prepared for the homeward voyage, and one January day in 1493 he left the newly discovered islands andset his face for home in company with the Pinta, which by this time had returned to him. For some weeksthey got on fairly well. Then the wind rose. A violent storm came on; the sea was terrible, the waves breakingright over the little homeward-bound ships, which tossed about helplessly for long days and nights. Suddenlythe Pinta disappeared. The wind and sea increased. The little forty-ton Nina was inextreme peril, and the crew gave themselves up for lost; their provisions were nearly finished. Columbus wasagonised lest he should perishand the news of his great discovery should never reach Spain. Taking a piece of parchment, he noted down asbest he could amid the tossing of the ship a brief account of his work, and, wrapping it in a waxed cloth, heput it into an empty cask and threw it overboard. Then, while the mountainous seas threatened momentarydestruction, he waited and prayed.

Slowly the storm abated, and on 18th February they reached the Azores. A few days for refreshment and on hesailed again, feverishly anxious to reach Spain and proclaim his great news. But on 3rd March the wind againrose to a hurricane and death stared the crew in the face. Still, "under bare poles and in a heavy cross-sea,"they scudded on, until they reached the mouth of the Tagus. The news of his arrival soon spread, and excitedcrowds hurried to see the little ship that had crossed the fierce Atlantic. Bartholomew Diaz came aboard theNina, and for a short time the two greatest explorers of their century were together. An enthusiasticwelcome awaited him in Spain. Was he not the "Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy of the Western Indies," theonly man who had crossed the unknown for the sake of a cherished dream?

"Seven months had passed since Columbus had sailed from Spain in the dim light of that summer morning. Now hewas back. Through tempestuous seas and raging winter gales he had guided his ship well, and Spain knew how todo him honour. His journey from the coast to the Court was like a royal progress. The roads were lined withexcited people; the air was rent with shouts of joy."

On Palm Sunday, 1493, he passed through the streets of Seville. A procession preceded him in which walked thesix natives, or Indians as they were called, brought home by Columbus; parrots and other birds with strangeand radiant colouring were also borne before the triumphant explorer, who himself rode on horseback among themounted chivalry of Spain. From windows and roofs a dense throng watched Christopher Columbus as he rodethrough the streets of Seville. From here he passed on to Barcelona, to be received by the King and Queen.

It is curious to think what a strange mistake caused all their rejoicing. Not only Spain, but the wholecivilised world firmly believed that Columbus had discovered some islands off the coast of Asia, not far fromthe land of the Great Khan, in the Indian seas. Hence the islands were called the West Indies, which name theyhave kept to this day.

The departure of Columbus six months later on his second voyage was a great contrast to the uncertain start of ayear ago. The new fleet was ready by September 1493. The three largest ships were some four hundred tons'burden, with fourteen smaller craft and crews of fifteen thousand men. There was no dearth of volunteers thistime. High-born Spaniards, thirsting for the wealth of the Indies, offered their services, while Columbus tookhis brother James and a Benedictine monk chosen by the Pope. They took orange and lemon seeds for planting inthe new islands, horses, pigs, bulls, cows, sheep, and goats, besides fruit and vegetables.

So, full of hope and joyful expectation, they set sail; and so well had Columbus calculated his distance anddirection with but imperfect instruments at his disposal, that he arrived at the islands again on 3rdNovember. It was another new island, which he named Domenica, as the day was Sunday. Making for the island ofHayti, where he had left his little Spanish colony, he passed many islands, naming Guadeloupe, San Martin,Santa Cruz, and others. Porto Rico was also found, but they arrived at Hayti to find no trace of Spaniards.Disaster had overtaken the colony, and the deserted men had been killed by the natives who had apparently beenso friendly. Another spot was selected by Columbus, and a town was soon built to which he gave the name ofIsabella.

This is not the place to tell of the miserable disputes and squabbles that befell the little Spanish colony.We are here concerned with the fuller exploration of the West Indies by Columbus. Taking three shipsprovisioned for six months, with a crew of fifty-two, he set out for the coast of Cathay. Instead of this, hefound the island of Jamaica, with its low, hazy, blue coast of extreme beauty. Still convinced that he wasnear the territory of the Great Khan, he explored the coast of Cuba, not realising that it was an island. Hesailed about among the islands, till he became very ill, fever seized him, and at last his men carried himashore at Isabella, thinking that he must die. He recovered to find a discontented colony, members of whichhad already sent back stories to Spain of the misdeeds of their founder. Columbus made up his mind to returnto Spain to carry a true report of the difficulties of colonisation in the Indies.

"It was June 1496 before he found himself again in the harbour of Cadiz. People had crowded down to greet thegreat discoverer, but instead of a joyous crew, flushed with new success and rich with the spoils of thegolden Indies, a feeble train of wretched men crawled on shore—thin, miserable, and ill. Columbushimself was dressed as a monk, in a long gown girded with a cord. His beard was long and unshaven. The wholeman was utterly broken down with all he had been through.

But after a stay of two years in Spain, Columbus again started off on his third voyage. With six ships he nowtook a more southerly direction, hoping to find land to the south of the West Indies. And this he did, but henever lived to know that it was the great continent of South America. Through scorching heat, which melted thetar of their rigging, they sailed onwards till they were rewarded by the sight of land at last. Columbus hadpromised to dedicate the first land he saw to the Holy Trinity. What, then, was his surprise when landappeared from which arose three distinct peaks, which he at once named La Trinidad. The luxuriance of theisland pleased the Spaniards, and as they made their way slowly along the shore their eyes rested for thefirst time, and unconsciously, on the mainland of South America. It appeared to the explorer as a large islandwhich he called Isla Santa. Here oysters abounded and "very large fish, and parrots as large as hens." Betweenthe island and the mainland lay a narrow channel through which flowed a mighty current. While the ships wereanchoring here a great flood of fresh water came down with a great, roar, nearly destroying the little Spanishships and greatly alarming both Columbus and his men. It was one of the mouths of the river Orinoco, to whichthey gave the name of the Dragon's Mouth. The danger over, they sailed on, charmed with the beautiful shores,the sight of the distant mountains, and the sweetness of the air.

Columbus decided that this must be the centre of the earth's surface, and with its mighty rivers surely it wasnone other than the earthly Paradise with the rivers of the Garden of Eden, that "some of the Fathers haddeclared to be situated in the extreme east of the Old World, and in a region so high that the flood had notoverwhelmed it." The world then, said Columbus, could not be a perfect round, but pear-shaped. With theseconclusions he hastened across to Hayti where his brother was ruling over the little colony in his absence.But treachery and mutiny had been at work. Matters had gone ill with the colony, and Columbus did not improvethe situation by his presence. He was a brilliant navigator, but no statesman. Complaints reached Spain, and aSpaniard was sent out to replace Columbus. This high-handed official at once put the poor navigator in chainsand placed him on board a ship bound for Spain. Queen Isabella was overwhelmed with grief when thesnowy-haired explorer once again stood before her, his face lined with suffering. He was restored to royalfavour and provided with ships to sail forth on his fourth and last voyage. But his hardships and perils hadtold upon him, and he was not really fit to undertake the long voyage to the Indies. However, he arrivedsafely off the coast of Honduras and searched for the straits that he felt sure existed, but which were not tobe found till some eighteen years later by Magellan. The natives brought him cocoanuts, which the Spaniardsnow tasted for the first time; they also brought merchandise from a far land denoting some high civilisation.Columbus believed that he had reached the golden east, whence the gold had been obtained for Solomon's temple.

Had Columbus only sailed west he might have discovered Mexico with all its wealth, and "a succession ofsplendid discoveries would have shed fresh glory on his declining age, instead of his sinking amidst gloom,neglect, and disappointment." At the isthmus of Darien, Columbus gave up the search. He was weary of the badweather. Incessant downpours of rain, storms of thunder and lightning with terrific seas—thesediscouraged him. Disaster followed disaster. The food was nearly finished;the biscuit "was so full of maggots that the people could only eat it in the dark, when they were notvisible." Columbus himself seemed to be at the point of death. "Never," he wrote, "was the sea seen so high,so terrific, so covered with foam; the waters from heaven never ceased—it was like a repetition of thedeluge."

He reached Spain in 1504 to be carried ashore on a litter, and to learn that the Queen of Spain was dead. Hewas friendless, penniless, and sick unto death.

"After twenty years of toil and peril," he says pitifully, "I do not own a roof in Spain."

And so the brilliant navigator, Christopher Columbus, passed away, all unconscious of the great New World hehad reached. Four centuries have passed away, but

It has been well said, "injustice was not buried with Columbus," and soon after his death an attempt was made,and made successfully, to name the New World after another—a Florentine pilot, Amerigo Vespucci.

It was but natural that when the first discoveries by Columbus of land to westward had been made known, thatothers should follow in the track of the great navigator. Among these was a handsome young Spaniard—oneHojeda—who had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage. Soon after, he fitted out an expedition, 1499, reaching the mainland of the yet unknown continent near the Trinidad of Columbus. With him wasAmerigo Vespucci. Here they found a native village with houses built on tree trunks and connected by bridges.It was so like a bit of old Venice that the explorers named it Little Venice or Venezuela, which name it bearsto-day.

Nothing was publicly known of this voyage till a year after the death of Columbus, when men had coastedfarther to the south of Venezuela and discovered that this land was neither Asia nor Africa, that it was notthe land of Marco Polo, but a new continent indeed.

"It is proper to call it a New World," says Amerigo Vespucci. "Men of old said over and over again that therewas no land south of the Equator. But this last voyage of mine has proved them wrong, since in southernregions I have found a country more thickly inhabited by people and animals than our Europe or Asia orAfrica."

These words among others, and an account of his voyages published in Paris, 1507, created a deep impression. Aletter from Columbus announcing his discoveries had been published in 1498, but he said nothing, because heknew nothing, of a New World. Men therefore said that Amerigo Vespucci had discovered a new continent,"wherefore the new continent ought to be called America from its discoverer Amerigo, a man of rare ability,inasmuch as Europe and Asia derived their names from women."

Thus the name of America was gradually adopted for the New World, though the honour and glory of its firstdiscovery must always belong to Christopher Columbus.

But while all this wonderful development westwards was thrilling the minds of men, other great discoverieswere being made to the East, whither the eyes of the Portuguese were still straining. Portugal had lostColumbus; she could lay no claim to the shores of America discovered by Spaniards, but the sea-route to Indiaby the East was yet to be found by one of her explorers, Vasco da Gama. His achievement stands out brilliantlyat this time; for, within a few years of the discovery of the New World, he had been able to tell the worldthat India and the East could be reached by the Cape of Good Hope!

The dream of Prince Henry the Navigator was fulfilled!

How Vasco da Gama was chosen for the great command has been graphically described by a Portuguese historian,whose words are received with caution by modern authorities. The King of Portugal—Dom Manuel having sethis kingdom in order, "being inspired by the Lord, took the resolution to inform himself about the affairs ofIndia." He knew that the province of India was very far away, inhabited by dark people who had great richesand merchandise, and there was much risk in crossingthe wide seas and land to reach it. But he felt it a sacred duty to try and reach it. He ordered ships to bebuilt according to a design of Bartholomew Diaz, the Hero of the Cape, "low amidships, with high castlestowering fore and aft; they rode the water like ducks." The ships ready, the King prayed the Lord "to show himthe man whom it would please Him to send upon this voyage. Days passed. One day the King was sitting in hishall with his officers when he raised his eyes and saw a gentleman of his household crossing the hall. Itsuddenly occurred to the King that this was the man for his command, and, calling Vasco da Gama, he offeredhim the command at once. He was courageous, resolute, and firm of purpose. On his knees he accepted the greathonour. A silken banner blazing with the Cross of the Order of Christ was bestowed upon him; he chose theS. Gabriel for his flagship, appointed his brother to the S. Raphael, and prepared for hisdeparture. Books and charts were supplied, Ptolemy's geography was on board, as well as the Book of MarcoPolo. All being ready, Vasco da Gama and his captains spent the night in the little chapel by the sea atBelem, built for the mariners of Henry the Navigator.

Next morning—it was July—they walked in solemn procession to the shore, lighted candles in theirhands, priests chanting a solemn litany as they walked. The beach was crowded with people. Under the blazingsummer sun they knelt once more before taking leave of the weeping multitudes. Listen to the Portuguese poet,Camoens, who makes Vasco da Gama the hero of his "Lusiad"—

So the Portuguese embarked, weighed anchor, and unfurled the sails that bore the red cross of the Order ofChrist. The four little ships started on what was to be the longest and most momentous voyage on record, whilecrowds stood on the shore straining their eyes till the fleet, under full sail, vanished from their sight.

After passing Cape Verde, in order to escape the currents of the Gulf of Guinea, Vasco da Gama steeredsouth-west into an unknown part of the South Atlantic. He did not know that at one time he was within sixhundred miles of the coast of South America. Day after day, week after week passed in dreary monotony as theysailed the wide ocean that surrounds St. Helena, "a lonely, dreary waste of seas and boundless sky."Everything ends at last, and, having spent ninety-six days out of sight of land and sailed some four thousandfive hundred miles, they drifted on to the south-west coast of Africa. It was a record voyage, for evenColumbus had only been two thousand six hundred miles without seeing land. November found them in a broad bay,"and," says the old log of the voyage, "we named it St. Helena," which name it still retains. After a skirmishwith some tawny-coloured Hottentots the explorers sailed on, putting "their trust in the Lord to double theCape."

But the sea was all broken with storm, high rolled the waves, and so short were the days that darknessprevailed. The crews grew sick with fear and hardship, and all clamoured to put back to Portugal.

With angry words Vasco da Gama bade them be silent, though "he well saw how much reason they had at everymoment to despair of their lives"; the ships were now letting in much water, and cold rains soaked them all tothe skin.

"All cried out to God for mercy upon their souls, for now they no longer took heed of their lives." At lastthe storm ceased, the seas grew calm, and they knew that, without seeing it, they had doubled the dreadedCape, "on which great joy fell upon them and they gave great praise to the Lord."

But their troubles were not yet over. The sea was still very rough, "for the winter of that country wassetting in," and even the pilot suggested turning back to take refuge for a time. When Vasco da Gama heard ofturning backward he cried that they should not speak such words, because as he was going out of the bar ofLisbon he had promised God in his heart not to turn back a single span's breadth of the way, and he wouldthrow into the sea whosoever spoke such things. None could withstand such an iron will, and they struggled onto Mossel Bay, already discovered by Diaz. Here they landed "and bought a fat ox for three bracelets. This oxwe dined off on Sunday; we found him very fat, and his meat nearly as toothsome as the beef ofPortugal"—a pleasant meal, indeed, after three months of salted food. Here, too, they found "penguins aslarge as ducks, which had no feathers on their wings and which bray like asses."

But there was no time to linger here. They sailed onwards till they had passed and left behind the lastpillar erected by Diaz, near the mouth of the Great Fish River. All was new now. No European had sailed theseseas, no European had passed this part of the African coast. On Christmas Day they found land to which, incommemoration of Christ's Nativity, they gave the name of Natal. Passing Delagoa Bay and Sofala withoutsighting them, Vasco da Gama at last reached the mouth of a broad river, now known as Quilimane River, butcalled by the weary mariners the River of Mercy or Good Tokens. Here they spent a month cleaning andrepairing,and here for the first time in the history of discovery the fell disease of scurvy broke out. The hands andfeet of the men swelled, their gums grew over their teeth, which fell out so that they could not eat. Thisproved to be one of the scourges of early navigation—the result of too much salted food on the highseas, and no cure was found till the days of Captain Cook. Arrived at Mozambique—a low-lying coralisland—they found no less than four ocean-going ships belonging to Arab traders laden with gold, silver,cloves, pepper, ginger, rubies, and pearls from the East.

There were rumours, too, of a land belonging to Prester John where precious stones and spices were soplentiful that they could be collected in baskets. His land could only be reached by camels. "This informationrendered us so happy that we cried with joy, and prayed God to grant us health that we might behold what we sodesired," relates the faithful journal. But difficulties and delays prevented their reaching the ever-mythicalland of Prester John. Their next landing-place was Mombasa. Here they were nearly killed by some treacherousMohammedans, who hated these "dogs of Christians" as they called them. And the Portuguese were glad to sail onto Melindi, where the tall, white-washed houses standing round the bay, with their coco-palms, maize fields,and hop gardens, reminded them of one of their own cities on the Tagus. Here all was friendly. The King ofMelindi sent three sheep and free leave for the strangers to enter the port. Vasco, in return, sent the King acassock, two strings of coral, three washhand basins, a hat, and some bells. Whereupon the King, splendidlydressed in a damask robe with green satin and an embroidered turban, allowed himself to be rowed out to theflagship. He was protected from the sun by a crimson satin umbrella.

Nine days were pleasantly passed in the port at Melindi, and then, with a Christian pilot provided by theKing, the most thrilling part of the voyage began with a start across the Arabian Gulf to the west coast ofIndia. For twenty-three days the ships sailed to the north-east, with no land visible. Suddenly the dimoutline of land was sighted and the whole crew rushed on deck to catch the first glimpse of the unknown coastof India. They had just discerned the outline of lofty mountains, when a thunderstorm burst over the land anda downpour of heavy rain blotted out the view.

At last on 21st May—nearly eleven months after the start from Portugal—the little Portuguese shipsanchored off Calicut.

"What has brought you hither?" cried the natives, probably surprised at their foreign dress; "and what seek yeso far from home?"

"We are in search of Christians and spice," was the ready answer.

"A lucky venture. Plenty of emeralds. You owe great thanks to God for having brought you to a country holdingsuch riches," was the Mohammedan answer.

"The city of Calicut," runs the diary, "is inhabited by Christians. They are of a tawny complexion. Some ofthem have big beards and long hair, whilst others clip their hair short as a sign that they are Christians.They also wear moustaches."

Within the town, merchants lived in wooden houses thatched with palm leaves. It must have been a quaint sightto see Vasco da Gama, accompanied by thirteen of his Portuguese, waving the flag of their country, carriedshoulder high through the densely crowded streets of Calicut on his way to the chief temple and on to thepalace of the King. Roofs and windows were thronged with eager spectators anxious to see these Europeans fromso far a country. Many a scuffle took place outside the palace gates; knives were brandished, and men wereinjured before the successful explorer reached the King of Calicut. The royal audience took place just beforesunset on 28th May 1498. The King lay on a couch covered with green velvet under a gilt canopy, while Vasco daGama related an account of Portugal and his King, the "lord of many countries and the possessor of greatwealth exceeding that of any King of these parts, adding that for sixty years the Portuguese had been tryingto find the sea-route to India. The King gave leave for the foreigners to barter their goods, but the Indiansscoffed at their offer of hats, scarlet hoods, coral, sugar, and oil."That which I ask of you is gold, silver, corals, and scarlet cloth," said the King, "for my country is richin cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper, and precious stones."

Vasco da Gama left India with a scant supply of Christians and spices, but with his great news he now hurriedback to Portugal. What if he had lost his brother Paul and over one hundred of his men after his two years'absence, he had discovered the ocean-route to India—a discovery more far-reaching than he had any ideaof at this time.

"And the King," relates the old historian, "overjoyed at his coming, sent a Nobleman and several Gentlemen tobring him to Court; where, being arrived through Crowds of Spectators, he was received with extraordinaryhonour. For this Glorious Price of Service, the Privilege of being called Don was annexed to his Family: Tohis Arms was added Part of the King's. He had a Pension of three thousand Ducats yearly, and he was afterwardspresented to greater Honours for his Services in the Indies, where he will soon appear again."

It was but natural that the Portuguese, flushed with victory, should at once dispatch another expedition toIndia.

Was there some vexation in the heart of the "Admiral of India" when the command of the new fleet was given toPedro Cabral? History is silent. Anyhow, in the March of 1500 we find this "Gentleman of Great Merit" startingoff with thirteen powerfully armed ships and some fifteen hundred men, among them the veteran explorerBartholomew Diaz, a party of eight Franciscan friars to convert the Mohammedans, eight chaplains, skilledgunners, and merchants to buy and sell in the King's name at Calicut. The King himself accompanied Cabral tothe waterside. He had already adopted the magnificent title, "King, by the Grace of God, of Portugal, and ofthe Algarves, both on this side the sea and beyond it in Africa, Lord of Guinea and of the Conquest,Navigation, and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India."

Then Cabral, flying a banner with the royal arms of Portugal, started on a voyage which was to secure forPortugal "an empire destined to be richer and greater than all her dominions in Asia." Sailing far to thewest, he fell in with the South American continent and was carried to a new land. The men went on shore andbrought word that "it was a fruitful country, full of treesand well inhabited. The people were swarthy and used bows and arrows." That night a storm arose and they ranalong the coast to seek a port. Here Mass was said and parrots exchanged for paper and cloth. Then Cabralerected a cross (which was still shown when Lindley visited Brazil three hundred years later) and named thecountry the "Land of the Holy Cross." This name was, however, discarded later when the new-found land wasidentified with Brazil already sighted by Pinzon in one of the ships of Christopher Columbus.

Meanwhile, unconscious of the importance of this discovery, Cabral sailed on towards the Cape of Good Hope.There is no time to tell of the great comet that appeared, heralding a terrific storm that suddenly burst uponthe little fleet. In the darkness and tempest four ships went down with all hands—amongst them oldBartholomew Diaz, the discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, who thus perished in the waters he had been thefirst to navigate.

September found Cabral at last at anchor off Calicut. He found the King yet more resplendent than Vasco daGama the year before. The old historians revel in their descriptions of him. "On his Head was a Cap of Clothof Gold, at his Ears hung Jewels, composed of Diamonds, Sapphires, and Pearls, two of which were larger thanWalnuts. His Arms, from the Elbow to the Wrist and from the knees downwards, were loaded with bracelets setwith infinite Precious Stones of great Value. His Fingers and Toes were covered with Rings. In that on hisgreat Toe was a large Rubie of a surprising Lustre. Among the rest there was a Diamond bigger than a largeBean. But all this was nothing, in comparison to the Richness of his Girdle, made with precious stones set in Gold, which cast a Lustre that dazzled every Body's Eyes."

He allowed Cabral to establish a depot at Calicut for European goods, so a house was selected by thewaterside and a flag bearing the arms of Portugal erected on the top. For a time all went well, but theMohammedans proved to be difficult customers, and disputes soon arose. A riot took place; the infuriatednative traders stormed the depot and killed the Portuguese within. Cabral in revenge bombarded the city, and,leaving the wooden houses in flames, he sailed away to Cochin and Cananor on the coast of Malabar. Soon afterthis he returned home with only six out of the thirteen ships, and from this time he disappears from the pagesof history.

Just before his return, the King of Portugal, thinking trade was well established between India and his owncountry, dispatched a "valiant gentleman" in command of four ships to carry merchandise to the newlydiscovered country. But his voyage and adventures are only important inasmuch as he discovered the island ofAscension when outward bound and the island of St. Helena on the way home. So favourable was the account ofthis island that all Portugal admirals were ordered for the future to touch there for refreshments.

The news of Cabral's adventures at Calicut inspired a yet larger expedition to the East, and Vasco da Gama,now Admiral of the Eastern seas, was given command of some fifteen ships which sailed from the Tagus inFebruary 1502. The expedition, though avowedly Christian, was characterised by injustice and cruelty. Near thecoast of Malabar the Portuguese fleet met with a large ship full of Mohammedan pilgrims from Mecca. The wealthon board was known to be enormous, and Don Vasco commanded the owners to yield up their riches to the King ofPortugal. This they somewhat naturally refused to do. Whereupon the Portuguese fired, standing calmly to watchthe blazing ships with their humanfreight of men, women, and children. True, one historian declares that all the children were removed to thePortuguese ship to be converted into good little Catholics. Another is more nearly concerned with the money."We took a Mecca ship on board of which were three hundred and eighty men and many women and children, and wetook from it fully twelve thousand ducats, with goods worth at least another ten thousand. And we burned theship and all the people on board with gunpowder on the first day of October."

Their instructions to banish every Mohammedan in Calicut was faithfully obeyed. Don Vasco seized and hanged anumber of helpless merchants quietly trading in the harbour. Cutting off their heads, hands, and feet, he hadthem flung into a boat, which was allowed to drift ashore, with a cruel suggestion that the severed limbswould make an Indian curry. Once more Calicut was bombarded and Don Vasco sailed on to other ports on theMalabar coast, where he loaded his ships with spices taken from poor folk who dared not refuse. He then sailedhome again, reaching Portugal "safe and sound, Deo gratias," but leaving behind him hatred and terrorand a very quaint idea of these Christians who felt it their duty to exterminate all followers of Mohammed.

Conquest usually succeeds discovery, and the Portuguese, having discovered the entire coast of West, South,and a good deal of East Africa and western coast of India, now proceeded to conquer it for their own. It was afar cry from Portugal to India in these days, and the isolated depots on the coast of Malabar were obviouslyin danger, when the foreign ships laden with spoil left their shores. True, Vasco da Gama had left six littleships this time under Sodrez to cruise about the Indian seas, but Sodrez wanted treasure, so he cruisednorthwards and found the southern coasts of Arabia as well as the island of Socotra. He had been warned of thetempestuous seas that raged about these parts at certain seasons, but, heeding not the warning, he perishedwith all his knowledge and treasure.

Expedition after expedition now left Portugal for the east coast of Africa and India. There were the twocousins Albuquerque, who built a strong fort of wood and mud at Cochin, leaving a garrison of one hundred andfifty trained soldiers under the command of one Pacheco, who saved the fort and kept things going under greatdifficulties.

On the return of Albuquerque, the hero of Cochin, the King decided to appoint a Viceroy of India. He wouldfain have appointed Tristan d'Acunha,—the discoverer of the island that still bears his name,—buthe was suddenly struck with blindness, and in his stead Dom Francisco Almeida, "a nobleman of courage andexperience," sailed off with the title of Viceroy. Not only was he to conquer, but to command, not only tosustain the sea-power of Portugal, but to form a government.

There is a story told of the ignorance of the men sent to man the ships under Almeida. So raw were they thatthey hardly knew their right hand from their left, still less the difference between starboard and larboard,till their captain hit on the happy notion of tying a bundle of garlic over one side of the ship and a handfulof onions over the other, so the pilot gave orders to the helmsman thus: "Onion your helm!" or "Garlic yourhelm!"

On the way out, Almeida built a strong fortress near Zanzibar, organised a regular Portuguese Indian pilotservice, and established his seat of government at Cochin. Then he sent his son, a daring youth of eighteen,to bombard the city of Quilon, whose people were constantly intriguing against the Portuguese. Having carriedout his orders, young Lorenzo, ordered to explore the Maldive Islands, was driven by a storm to an "islandoppositeCape Comorin, called Ceylon, and separated from thence by a narrow sea," where he was warmly received by thenative King, whose dress sparkled with diamonds. Lorenzo erected here a marble pillar with the arms ofPortugal carved thereon and took possession of the island. He also sent back to Portugal the first elephantever sent thither.

Ceylon was now the farthest point which flew the flag of Portugal toward the east. Doubtless young Lorenzowould have carried it farther, but he was killed at the early age of twenty-one, his legs being shattered by acannon-ball during a sea-fight. He sat by the mainmast and continued to direct the fighting till a second shotended his short but brilliant career. The Viceroy, "whose whole being was centred in his devotion to his onlyson, received the tidings with outward stoicism." "Regrets," he merely remarked, "regrets are for women."

Nevertheless he revenged the death of his son by winning a victory over the opposing fleet and bidding hiscaptains rejoice over "the good vengeance our Lord has been pleased, of His mercy, to grant us."

But the days of Almeida were numbered. He had subdued the Indian coast, he had extended Portuguese possessionsin various directions, his term of office was over, and he was succeeded by the famous Albuquerque, who hadalready distinguished himself in the service of Portugal by his efforts to obtain Ormuz for the Portuguese.Now Viceroy of India, he found full scope for his boundless energy and vast ambition. He first attackedCalicut and reduced it to ashes. Then he turned his attention to Goa, which he conquered, and which became thecommercial capital of the Portuguese in India for the next hundred years. Not only this, but it was soon thewealthiest city on the face of the earth and theseat of the government. Albuquerque's next exploit was yet more brilliant and yet more important.

In 1509 he had sent a Portuguese explorer Sequira with a small squadron to make discoveries in the East. Hewas to cross the Bay of Bengal and explore the coast of Malacca. Sequira reached the coast and found it acentre for trade from east and west, "most rich and populous." But he had reason to suspect the demonstrationsof friendship by the king of these parts, and refused to attend a festival prepared in his honour. This wasfortunate, for some of his companions who landed for trade were killed. He sailed about the island of Sumatra,"the first land in which we knew of men's flesh being eaten by certain people in the mountains who gild theirteeth. In their opinion the flesh of the blacks is sweeter than that of whites." Many were the strange talesbrought back to Cochin by Sequira from the new lands—rivers of oil—hens with flesh as black as ink—people with tails like sheep.

Anyhow, Albuquerque resolved that Malacca should belong to the Portuguese, and with nineteen ships andfourteen hundred fighting men he arrived off the coast of Sumatra, spreading terror and dismay among themultitudes that covered the shore. The work of destruction was short, though the King of Pahang and KingMahomet came out in person on huge elephants to help in the defence of their city. At last every inhabitant ofthe city was driven out or slain, and the Portuguese plundered the city to their hearts' content. The oldhistorian waxes eloquent on the wealth of the city, and the laden ships started back, leaving a fort and achurch under the care of Portuguese conquerors. The amount of booty mattered little, as a violent storm offthe coast of Sumatra disposed of several ships and a good deal of treasure.

The fall of Malacca was one of vast importance to the Portuguese. Was it not the key to the Eastern gate ofthe Indian Ocean—the "gate through which the whole commerce of the Spice Islands, the Philippines,Japan, and far Cathay passed on its road to the Mediterranean? Was it not one of the largest trade markets inAsia, where rode the strange ships of many a distant shore? The fame of Albuquerque spread throughout theEastern world. But he was not content with Malacca. The Spice Islands lay beyond—the Spice Islands withall their cloves and nutmegs and their countless riches must yet be won for Portugal.

Up to this year, 1511, they had not been reached by the Portuguese. But now Francisco Serrano was sent offfrom Malacca to explore farther. Skirting the north of Java, he found island after island rich in cloves andnutmeg. So struck was he with his new discoveries that he wrote to his friend Magellan: "I have discovered yet another new world larger and richer than that found by Vasco da Gama."

It is curious to remember how vastly important was this little group of islands—now part of the MalayArchipelago and belonging to the Dutch—to the explorers of the sixteenth century. Strange tales as usualreached Portugal about these newly found lands. Here lived men with "spurs on their ankles like co*cks," hogswith horns, hens that laid their eggs nine feet under ground, rivers with living fish, yet so hot that theytook the skin off any man that bathed in their waters, poisonous crabs, oysters with shells so large that theyserved as fonts for baptizing children.

Truly these mysterious Spice Islands held more attractions for the Portuguese explorers than did the New Worldof Columbus and Vespucci. Their possession meant riches and wealth and—this was not the end. Was therenot land beyond? Indeed, before the Spice Islands were conquered by Portugal, trade had already been opened upwith China and, before the century was half over, three Portuguese seamen had visited Japan.

It is said that Ferdinand Magellan, the hero of all geographical discovery, with his circumnavigation of thewhole round world, had cruised about the Spice Islands, but what he really knew of them from personalexperience no one knows. He had served under Almeida, and with Albuquerque had helped in the conquest ofMalacca. After seven years of a "vivid life of adventure by sea and land, a life of siege and shipwreck, ofwar and wandering," inaction became impossible. He busied himself with charts and the art of navigation. Hedreamt of reaching the Spice Islands by sailing west, and after a time he laid his schemes before the King ofPortugal. Whether he was laughed at as a dreamer or a fool we know not. His plans were received with coldrefusal. History repeats itself. Like Christopher Columbus twenty years before, Magellan now said good-bye toPortugal and made his way to Spain.

Since the first discovery of the New World by Spain, that country had been busy sending out explorer afterexplorer to discover and annex new portions of America. Bold navigators, Pinzon, Mendoza, Bastidas, Juan de laCosa, and Solis—these and others had almost completed the discovery of the east coast, indeed, Solismight have been the first to see the great Pacific Ocean had he not been killed and eaten at the mouth of theriver La Plata. This great discovery was left to Vasco Nunezde Balboa, who first saw beyond the strange New World from the Peak of Darien. Now his discovery threw a luridlight on to the limitation of land that made up the new country and illuminated the scheme of Magellan.

Balboa was "a gentleman of good family, great parts, liberal education, of a fine person, and in the flower ofhis age." He had emigrated to the new Spanish colony of Hayti, where he had got into debt. No debtor wasallowed to leave the island, but Balboa, the gentleman of good family, yearned for further exploration; he"yearned beyond the sky-line where the strange roads go down." And one day the yearning grew so great that heconcealed himself in a bread cask on board a ship leaving the shores of Hayti. For some days he remainedhidden. When the ship was well out to sea he made his appearance. Angry, indeed, was the captain—soangry that he threatened to land the stowaway on a desert island. He was, however, touched by the entreatiesof the crew, and Balboa was allowed to sail on in the ship. It was a fortunate decision, for when, soon after,the ship ran heavily upon a rock, it was the Spanish stowaway Balboa who saved the party from destruction. Heled the shipwrecked crew to a river of which he knew, named Darien by the Indians. He did not know that theystood on the narrow neck of land—the isthmus of Panama—which connects North and South America. Theaccount of the Spanish intrusion is typical: "After having performed their devotions, the Spaniards fellresolutely on the Indians, whom they soon routed, and then went to the town, which they found full ofprovisions to their wish. Next day they marched up the country among the neighbouring mountains, where theyfound houses replenished with a great deal of cotton, both spun and unspun, plates of gold in all to the valueof ten thousand pieces of fine gold."

A trade in gold was set up by Balboa, who became governor of the new colony formed by the Spaniards; but thegreed of these foreigners quite disgusted the native prince of these parts.

"What is this, Christians? Is it for such a little thing that you quarrel? If you have such a love of gold, Iwill show you a country where you may fulfil your desires. You will have to fight your way with great kingswhose country is distant from our country six suns."

So saying, he pointed away to the south, where he said lay a great sea. Balboa resolved to find this greatsea. It might be the ocean sought by Columbus in vain, beyond which was the land of great riches where peopledrank out of golden cups. So he collected some two hundred men and started forth on an expedition full ofdoubt and danger. He had to lead his troops, worn with fatigue and disease, through deep marshes renderedimpassable with heavy rains, over mountains covered with trackless forest, and through defiles from which theIndians showered down poisoned arrows.

At last, led by native guides, Balboa and his men struggled up the side of a high mountain. When near the tophe bade his men stop. He alone must be the first to see the great sight that no European had yet beheld. With"transports of delight" he gained the top and, "silent upon a peak in Darien," he looked down on the boundlessocean, bathed in tropical sunshine. Falling on his knees, he thanked God for his discovery of the SouthernSea. Then he called up his men. "You see here, gentlemen and children mine, the end of our labours."

The notes of the "Te Deum" then rang out on the still summer air, and, having made a cross of stones, thelittle party hurried to the shore. Finding two canoes, they sprang in, crying aloud joyously that they werethe firstEuropeans to sail on the new sea, whilst Balboa himself plunged in, sword in hand, and claimed possession ofthe Southern Ocean for the King of Spain. The natives told him that the land to the south was withoutend, and that it was possessed by powerful nations who had abundance of gold. And Balboa thought thisreferred to the Indies, knowing nothing as yet of the riches of Peru.

It is melancholy to learn that the man who made this really great discovery was publicly hanged four yearslater in Darien. But his news had reached Magellan. There was then a great Southern Ocean beyond the NewWorld. He was more certain than ever now that by this sea he could reach the Spice Islands. Moreover, hepersuaded the young King of Spain that his country had a right to these valuable islands, and promised that hewould conduct a fleet round the south of the great new continent westward to these islands. His proposal wasaccepted by Charles V., and the youthful Spanish monarch provided Spanish ships for the great enterprise. Thevoyage was not popular, the pay was low, the way unknown, and in the streets of Seville the public criercalled for volunteers. Hence it was a motley crew of some two hundred and eighty men, composed of Spaniards,Portuguese, Genoese, French, Germans, Greeks, Malays, and one Englishman only. There were five ships. "Theyare very old and patched," says a letter addressed to the King of Portugal, "and I would be sorry to sail evenfor the Canaries in them, for their ribs are soft as butter."

Magellan hoisted his flag on board the Trinidad of one hundred and ten tons' burden. The largestship, S. Antonio, was captained by a Spaniard—Cartagena; the Conception, ninety tons, byGaspar Quesada; the Victoria of eighty-five tons, who alone bore home the news of thecircumnavigation of the world, was at first commanded by the traitor Mendoza; and the little Santiago,seventy-five tons, under the brother of Magellan's old friend Serrano.

What if the commander himself left a young wife and a son of six months old? The fever of discovery was uponhim, and, flying the Spanish flag for the first time in his life, Magellan, on board the Trinidad, ledhis little fleet away from the shores of Spain. He never saw wife or child again. Before three years hadpassed all three were dead.

Carrying a torch or fa*ggot of burning wood on the poop, so that the ships should never lose sight of it, theTrinidad sailed onwards.

"Follow the flagship and ask no questions.''

Such were his instructions to his not too loyal captains.

They had left Seville on 20th September 1519. A week later they were at the Canaries. Then past Cape Verde, andland faded from their sight as they made for the south-west. For some time they had a good run in fineweather. Then "the upper air burst into life and a month of heavy gales followed. The Italian count, whoaccompanied the fleet, writes long accounts of the sufferings of the crew during these terrific Atlanticstorms.

"During these storms," he says, "the body of St. Anselm appeared to us several times; one night that it wasvery dark on account of the bad weather the saint appeared in the form of a fire lighted at the summit of themainmast and remained there near two hours and half, which comforted us greatly, for we were in tears onlyexpecting the hour of perishing; and, when that holy light was going away from us, it gave out so great abrilliancy in the eyes of each, that we were like people blinded and calling out for mercy. For without anydoubt nobody hoped to escape from that storm."

Two months of incessant rain and diminished rations added to their miseries. The spirit of mutiny now began toshow itself. Already the Spanish captains had murmured against the Portuguese commander.

"Be they false men or true, I will fear them not; I will do my appointed work," said the commander firmly.

It was not till November that they made the coast of Brazil in South America, already sighted by Cabral andexplored by Pinzon. But the disloyal captains were not satisfied, and one day the captain of the S.Antonio boarded the flagship and openly insulted Magellan. He must have been a little astonishedwhen the Portuguese commander seized him by the collar, exclaiming: "You are my prisoner!" giving him intocustody and appointing another in his place.

Food was now procurable, and a quantity of sweet pine-apples must have had a soothing effect on thediscontented crews. The natives traded on easy terms. For a knife they produced four or five fowls; for acomb, fish for ten men; for a little bell, a basket full of sweet potatoes. A long drought had precededMagellan's visit to these parts, but rain now began with the advent of the strangers, and the natives madesure that they had brought it with them. Such an impression once made there was little difficulty inconverting them to the Christian faith. The natives joined in prayer with the Spaniards, "remaining on theirknees with their hands joined in great reverence so that it was a pleasure to see them," writes one of theparty.

The day after Christmas again found them sailing south by the coast, and early in the New Year they anchoredat the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, where Solis had lost his life at the hands of the cannibals some fiveyears before. He had succeeded Vespucci in the service of Spain, and was exploring the coast when a body ofIndians, "with a terrible cry and most horrible aspect," suddenly rushed out upon them, killed, roasted, anddevoured them.

Through February and March, Magellan led his ships along the shores of bleak Patagonia seeking for an outletfor the Spice Islands. Winter was coming on and nostraits had yet been found. Storm after storm now burst over the little ships, often accompanied by thunderand lightning; poops and forecastles were carried away, and all expected destruction, when "the holy body ofSt. Anselm appeared and immediately the storm ceased."

It was quite impossible to proceed farther to the unknown south, so, finding a safe and roomy harbour,Magellan decided to winter there. Port St. Julian he named it, and he knew full well that there they mustremain some four or five months. He put the crew on diminished rations for fear the food should run shortbefore they achieved their goal. This was the last straw. Mutiny had long been smouldering. The hardships ofthe voyage, the terrific Atlantic storms, the prospect of a long Antarctic winter of inaction on that wildPatagonian coast—these alone caused officers and men to grumble and to demand an immediate return toSpain.

But the "stout heart of Magellan" was undaunted.

On Easter Day the mutiny began. Two of the Spanish captains boarded the S. Antonio, seized thePortuguese captain thereof, and put him in chains. Then stores were broken open, bread and wine generouslyhanded round,and a plot hatched to capture the flagship, kill Magellan, seize his faithful Serrano, and sail home to Spain.

The news reached Magellan's ears. He at once sent a messenger with five men bearing hidden arms to summon thetraitor captain on board the flagship. Of course he stoutly refused. As he did so, the messenger sprang uponhim and stabbed him dead. As the rebellious captain fell dead on the deck of his ship, the dazed crew at oncesurrendered. Thus Magellan by his prompt measures quelled a mutiny that might have lost him the wholeexpedition. No man ever tried to mutiny again while he lived and commanded.

The fleet had been two whole months in the Port S. Julian without seeing a single native.

"However, one day, without any one expecting it, we saw a giant, who was on the shore of the sea, dancing andleaping and singing. He was so tall that the tallest of us only came up to his waist; he was well built; hehad a large face, painted red all round, and his eyes also were painted yellow around them, and he had twohearts painted on his cheeks; he had but little hair on his head and it was painted white."

The great Patagonian giant pointed to the sky to know whether these Spaniards had descended from above. He wassoon joined by others evidently greatly surprised to see such large ships and such little men. Indeed, theheads of the Spaniards hardly reached the giants' waists, and they must have been greatly astonished when twoof them ate a large basketful of biscuits and rats without skinning them and drank half a bucket of water ateach sitting.

With the return of spring weather in October 1520, Magellan led the little fleet upon its way. He was rewardeda few days later by finding the straits for which he and others had been so long searching.

"It was the straight," says the historian simply, "now called the straight of Magellans."

A struggle was before them. For more than five weeks the Spanish mariners fought their way through the windingchannels of the unknown straits. On one side rose high mountains covered with snow. The weather was bad, theway unknown. Do we wonder to read that "one of the ships stole away privily and returned into Spain," and theremaining men begged piteously to be taken home? Magellan spoke "in measured and quiet tones": "If I have toeat the leather of the ships' yards, yet will I go on and do my work." His words came truer than he knew. Onthe southern side of the strait constant fires were seen, which led Magellan to give the land the name itbears to-day—Tierra del Fuego. It was not visited again for a hundred years.

At last the ships fought their way to the open sea—Balboa's Southern Ocean—and "when the CaptainMagellan was past the strait and saw the way open to the other main sea he was so glad thereof that for joythe tears fell from his eyes."

The expanse of calm waters seemed so pleasant after the heavy tiring storms that he called the still watersbefore him the Pacific Ocean. Before following him across the unknown waters, let us recall the quaint linesof Camoens—

Three little ships had now emerged, battered and worn, manned by crews gaunt and thin and shivering. Magellantook a northerly course to avoid the intense cold, before turning to cross the strange obscure ocean, which noEuropean had yet realised. Just before Christmas the course was altered and the ships were turned to thenorth-west, in which direction they expected soon to find the Spice Islands. No one had any idea of thevastness of the Pacific Ocean.

"Well was it named the Pacific," remarks the historian, "for during three months and twenty days we met withno storm."

Two months passed away, and still they sailed peacefully on, day after day, week after week, across a waste ofdesolate waters.

At last one January day they sighted a small wooded island, but it was uninhabited; they named it S. Paul'sIsland and passed on their way. They had expected to find the shores of Asia close by those of America. Thesize of the world was astounding. Another island was passed. Again no people, no consolation, only manysharks. There was bitter disappointment on board. They had little food left. "We ate biscuit, but in truth itwas biscuit no longer, but a powder full of worms. So great was the want of food that we were forced to eatthe hides with which the main yard was covered to prevent the chafing against the rigging. These hides weexposed to the sun first to soften them by putting them overboard for four or five days, after which we putthem on the embers and ate them thus. We had also to make use of sawdust for food, and rats became a greatdelicacy." No wonder scurvy broke out in its worst form—nineteen died and thirteen lay too ill to work.

For ninety-eight days they sailed across the unknown sea, "a sea so vast that the human mind can scarcelygrasp it," till at last they came on a little group of islandspeopled with savages of the lowest type—such expert thieves that Magellan called the new islands theLadrones or isle of robbers. Still, there was fresh food here, and the crews were greatly refreshed beforethey sailed away. The food came just too late to save the one Englishman of the party—Master Andrew ofBristol—who died just as they moved away. Then they found the group afterwards known as the Philippines(after Philip II. of Spain). Here were merchants from China, who assured Magellan that the famous SpiceIslands were not far off. Now Magellan had practically accomplished that he set out to do, but he was notdestined to reap the fruits of his victory.

With a good supply of fresh food the sailors grew better, and Magellan preferred cruising about the islands,making friends of the natives and converting them to Christianity, to pushing on for the Spice Islands. Herewas gold, too, and he busied himself making the native rulers pay tribute to Spain. Easter was drawing near,and the Easter services were performed on one of the islands. A cross and a crown of thorns was set upon thetop of the highest mountain that all might see it and worship. Thus April passed away and Magellan was stillbusy with Christians and gold. But his enthusiasm carried him too far. A quarrel arose with one of the nativekings. Magellan landed with armed men, only to be met by thousands of defiant natives. A desperate fightensued. Again and again the explorer was wounded, till "at last the Indians threw themselves upon him withiron-pointed bamboo spears and every weapon they had and ran him through—our mirror, our light, ourcomforter, our true guide—until they killed him."

Such was the tragic fate of Ferdinand Magellan, "the greatest of ancient and modern navigators,"tragic because, after dauntless resolution and unwearied courage, he died in a miserable skirmish at the laston the very eve of victory.

With grief and despair in their hearts, the remaining members of the crew, now only one hundred and fifteen,crowded on to the Trinidad and Victoria for the homeward voyage. It was September1522 when they reached the Spice Islands—the goal of all their hopes. Here they took on board someprecious cloves and birds of Paradise, spent some pleasant months, and, laden with spices, resumed theirjourney. But the Trinidad was too overladen with cloves and too rotten to undertake so long avoyage till she had undergone repair, so the little Victoria alone sailedfor Spain with sixty men aboard to carry home their great and wonderful news. Who shall describe the terrorsof that homeward voyage, the suffering, starvation, and misery of the weary crew? Man after man drooped anddied, till by the time they reached the Cape Verde Islands there were but eighteen left.

When the welcome shores of Spain at length appeared, eighteen gaunt, famine-stricken survivors, with theircaptain, staggered ashore to tell their proud story of the first circumnavigation of the world by their lostcommander, Ferdinand Magellan.

We miss the triumphal return of the conqueror, the audience with the King of Spain, the heaped honours, thecrowded streets, the titles, and the riches. The proudest crest ever granted by a sovereign—the world,with the words: "Thou hast encompassed me"—fell to the lot of Del Cano, the captain who brought home thelittle Victoria. For Magellan's son was dead, and his wife Beatrix, "grievously sorrowing," had passedaway on hearing the news of her husband's tragic end.

One would have thought that the revelation of this immense sheet of water on the far side of America would havedrawn other explorers to follow, but news was slowly assimilated in those days, and it was not tillfifty-three years later that the Pacific was crossed a second time by Sir Francis Drake.

In the maps of the day, Newfoundland and Florida were both placed in Asia, while Mexico was identified withthe Quinsay of Marco Polo. For even while Magellan was fighting the gales of the Atlantic enroute for his long-sought strait, another strange and wonderful country was being unveiled and itsunsurpassed wealth laid at the feet of Spain. The starting-place for further Spanish exploration had been,from the days of Columbus, the West Indies. From this centre, the coast of Florida had been discovered in1513; from here, the same year, Balboa had discovered the Pacific Ocean; from here in 1517 a little fleet wasfitted out under Francisco Hernando de Cordova, "a man very prudent and courageous and strongly disposed tokill and kidnap Indians." As pilot he had been with Columbus on his fourth voyage some fourteen years before.He suggested that his master had heard rumours of land to the West, and sure enough, after sailing past thepeninsula of Yucatan, they found signs of the Eastern civilisation so long sought in vain.

"Strange-looking towers or pyramids, ascended by stone steps, greeted their eyes, and the people who came outin canoes to watch the ships were clad in quilted cotton doublets and wore cloaks and brilliant plumes."

They had heard of the Spaniards. Indeed, only one hundred miles of sea divided Yucatan from Cuba, and theywere anything but pleased to see these strangers off their coast.

"Couez cotoche" (Come to my house), they cried, for which reason Cordova called the place Cape Catoche, as itis marked in our maps to-day. Along the coast sailed the Spaniards to a place called by the Indians Quimpeche,now known as Campechy Bay. They were astonished to find how civilised were these natives, and how unlike anyothers they had met in these parts. But the inhabitants resented the landing of Cordova and his men, and witharrows and stones and darts they killed or wounded a great number of Spaniards, including the commanderhimself, who sent an account of his voyage to the Governor of Cuba and died a few days later.

His information was interesting and inspiring, and soon young Juan Grijalva was on his way to the same land,accompanied by "two hundred and fifty stout soldiers" and the old pilot, Alvarado, who had led both Columbusand Cordova. Grijalva explored for the first time the coast of this great new country.

"Mexico, Mexico," repeated the Indians with whom they conversed. Gold, too, was produced, gold ornaments, goldworkmanship, until the young and handsome Grijalva was fitted out completely with a complete suit of goldarmour. He returned enthusiastic over the new land where lived a powerful ruler over many cities. Surely thiswas none other than the Great Khan of Marco Polo fame, with the riches and magnificence of an Easternpotentate—a land worthy of further exploration.

The conqueror of Mexico now comes upon the scene—young, bold, devout, unscrupulous, "a respectablegentleman of good birth"—Hernando Cortes. Great was the enthusiasm in Cuba to join the new expedition tothe long-lost lands of the Great Khan; men sold their lands to buy horses and arms, pork was salted, armourwas made, and at last Cortes, a plume of feathers and a gold medal in his cap, erected on board his ship avelvet flag with the royal arms embroidered in gold and the words: "Brothers, follow the cross in faith, forunder its guidance we shall conquer."

His address to his men called forth their devotion: "I hold out to you a glorious prize, but it is to be wonby incessant toil. Great things are achieved only by great exertions, and glory was never the reward of sloth.If I have laboured hard and staked my all on this undertaking, it is for the love of that renown, which is thenoblest recompense of man.

But if any among you covet riches more, be but true to me, as I will make you masters of such as ourcountrymen have never dreamed of. You are few in number, but strong in resolution; doubt not but that theAlmighty, who has never deserted the Spaniard in his contest with the infidel, will shield you, for your causeisa just cause, and you are to fight under the banner of the cross.

In this spirit of enthusiasm the fleet sailed from the shores of Cuba on 18th February 1519, and was soon onits way to the land of Mexico. The pilot Alvarado was with this expedition also. Rounding Cape Catoche andcoasting along the southern shores of Campechy Bay, with a pleasant breeze blowing off the shore, Corteslanded with all his force—some five hundred soldiers—on the very spot where now stands the city ofVera Cruz. "Little did the conqueror imagine that the desolate beach on which he first planted his foot wasone day to be covered by a flourishing city, the great mart of European and Oriental trade—thecommercial capital of New Spain."

On a wide, level plain Cortes encamped, his soldiers driving in stakes and covering them with boughs toprotect themselves from the scorching rays of the fierce, tropical sun. Natives came down to the shore,bringing their beautiful featherwork cloaks and golden ornaments. Cortes had brought presents for the greatKing—the Khan as he thought—and these he sent with a message that he had come from the King ofSpain and greatly desired an audience with the Great Khan. The Indians were greatly surprised to hear thatthere was another King in the world as powerful as their Montezuma, who was more god than king, who ate fromdishes of gold, on whose face none dared look, in whose presence none dared speak without leave.

To impress the messengers of the King, Cortes ordered his soldiers to go through some of their militaryexercises on the wet sands. The bold and rapid movement of the troops, the glancing of the weapons, and theshrill cry of the trumpet filled the spectators with astonishment; but when they heard the thunder of thecannon and witnessed the volumes of smoke and flame issuing fromthese terrible engines, the rushing of the balls as they hissed through the trees of the neighbouring forestshivering their branches, they were filled with consternation.

To the intense surprise of the Spaniards, these messengers sketched the whole scene on canvas with theirpencils, not forgetting the Spanish ships or "water-houses" as they called them, with their dark hulls andsnow-white sails reflected in the water as they swung lazily at anchor.

Then they returned to the King and related the strange doings of the white strangers who had landed on theirshores; they showed him their picture-writing, and Montezuma, king of the great Mexican empire which stretchedfrom sea to sea, was "sore troubled." He refused to see the Spaniards—the distance of his capital wastoo great, since the journey was beset with difficulties. But the presents he sent were so gorgeous, sowonderful, that Cortes resolved to see for himself the city which produced such wealth, whatever its rulermight decree. Here was a plate of gold as large as a coach wheel representing the sun, one in silver evenlarger, representing the moon; there were numbers of golden toys representing dogs, lions, tigers, apes,ducks, and wonderful plumes of green feathers.

The man who had sailed across two thousand leagues of ocean held lightly the idea of a short land journey,however difficult, and Cortes began his preparations for the march to Mexico. He built the little settlementat Vera Cruz, "The Rich Town of the True Cross," on the seashore as a basis for operations. Although thewealth allured them, there were many who viewed with dismay the idea of the long and dangerous march into theheart of a hostile land. After all they were but a handful of men pitted against a powerful nation. Murmursarose whichreached the ears of Cortes. He was equal to the occasion and resolutely burnt all the ships in the harboursave one. Then panic ensued. Mutiny threatened.

"I have chosen my part!" cried Cortes. "I will remain here while there is one to bear me company. If there beany so craven as to shrink from sharing the dangers of our glorious enterprise, let them go home. There isstill one vessel left. Let them take that and return to Cuba. They can tell there how they have deserted theircommander and their comrades, and patiently wait till we return loaded with the spoils of Mexico."

He touched the right chord. Visions of future wealth and glory rose again before them, confidence in theirleader revived, and, shouting bravely, "To Mexico! to Mexico!" the party started off on their perilous march.It was 16th August 1519 when the little army, "buoyant with high hopes and lofty plans of conquest," setforth. The first part of the way lay through beautiful country rich in cochineal and vanilla, with groves ofmany-coloured birds and "insects whose enamelled wings glistened like diamonds in the blazing sun of thetropics."

Then came the long and tedious ascent of the Cordilleras leading to the tableland of Mexico. Higher and highergrew the mountains. Heavy falls of sleet and hail, icy winds, and driving rain drenched the little Spanishparty as they made their way bravely upwards, till at last they reached the level of seven thousand feet tofind the great tableland rolling out along the crest of the Cordilleras.

Hitherto they had met with no opposition among the natives they had met. Indeed, as the little army advanced,it was often found that the inhabitants of the country fled awestruck from before them. Now the reason wasthis. The Mexicans believed in a god called the Bird-Serpent, around whom many a legend had grown up. Templeshad been built in his honour and horrible humansacrifices offered to appease him, for was he not the Ruler of the Winds, the Lord of the Lightning, theGatherer of the Clouds? But the bright god had sailed away one day, saying he would return with fair-skinnedmen to possess the land in the fulness of time. Surely, then, the time had come and their god had come again.Here were the fair-skinned men in shining armour marching back to their own again, and Cortes at theirhead—was he not the god himself? The cross, too, was a Mexican symbol, so Cortes was allowed to put itup in the heathen temples without opposition.

The inhabitants of Tlascala—fierce republicans who refused to own the sway of Montezuma—aloneoffered resistance, and how Cortes fought and defeated them with his handful of men is truly a marvel.

It was three months before they reached the goal of all their hopes—even the golden city of Mexico. Thehardships and horrors of the march had been unsurpassed, but as the beautiful valley of Mexico unfolded itselfbefore them in the early light of a July morning, the Spaniards shouted with joy: "It is the promised land!Mexico! Mexico!"

"Many of us were disposed to doubt the reality of the scene before us and to suspect we were in a dream," saysone of the party. "I thought we had been transported by magic to the terrestrial paradise."

Water, cultivated plains, shining cities with shadowy hills beyond lay like some gorgeous fairyland before andbelow them. At every step some new beauty appeared in sight, and the wonderful City of the Waters with itstowers and shining palaces arose out of the surrounding mists.

The city was approached by three solid causeways some five miles long. It was crowded with spectators "eagerto behold such men and animals as had never been seen in that part of the world."

At any moment the little army of four hundred and fifty Spaniards might have been destroyed, surrounded asthey were by overwhelming numbers of hostile Indian foes. It was a great day in the history of Europeandiscovery, when the Spaniard first set foot in the capital of the Western world. Everywhere was evidence of acrowded and thriving population and a high civilisation. At the walls of the city they were met by Montezumahimself. Amid a crowd of Indian nobles, preceded by officers of state bearing golden wands, was the royalpalanquin blazing with burnished gold. It was borne on the shoulders of the nobles, who, barefooted, walkedslowly with eyes cast to the ground. Descending from his litter, Montezuma then advanced under a canopy ofgaudy featherwork powdered with jewels and fringed with silver. His cloak and sandals were studded with pearlsand precious stones among which emeralds were conspicuous. Cortes dismounted, greeted the King, and spoke ofhis mission to the heathen and of his master, the mighty ruler of Spain. Everywhere Cortes and his men werereceived with friendship and reverence, for was he not the long-lost Child of the Sun? The Spanish explorerbegged Montezuma to give up his idols and to stop his terrible human sacrifices. The King somewhat naturallyrefused. Cortes grew angry. He was also very anxious. He felt the weakness of his position, the little handfulof men in this great populous city, which he had sworn to win for Spain. The King must go. "Why do we wastetime on this barbarian? Let us seize him and, if he resists, plunge our swords into his body!" cried theexasperated commander.

This is no place for the pathetic story of Montezuma's downfall. Prescott's Conquest of Mexico iswithin the reach of all. It tells of the Spanish treachery, of the refusal of the Mexican ruler to accept thenew faith, of his final appealto his subjects, of chains, degradation, and death. It tells of the three great heaps of gold, pearls, andprecious stones taken by Cortes, of the final siege and conquest.

The news of this immense Mexican Empire, discovered and conquered for Spain, brought honours from the King,Charles V., to the triumphant conqueror.

Nor did Cortes stop even after this achievement. As Governor and Captain-General of Mexico, he sent off shipsto explore the neighboring coasts. Hearing that Honduras possessed rich mines and that a strait into thePacific Ocean might be found, Cortes led an expedition by land. Arrived at Tabasco, he was provided with anIndian map of cotton cloth, whereon were painted all the towns, rivers, mountains, as far as Nicaragua. Withthis map and the mariner's compass, he led his army through gloomy woods so thick that no sun ever penetrated,and after a march of one thousand miles reached the sea-coast of Honduras, took over the country for Spain tobe governed with Mexico by himself.

This enormous tract of country was known to the world as "New Spain."

The success of Cortes and his brilliant conquest of Mexico gave a new impulse to discovery in the New World. Thespirit of exploration dominated every adventurous young Spaniard, and among those living in the West Indiesthere were many ready to give up all for the golden countries in the West, rumours of which were alwaysreaching their ears.

No sooner had these rich lands been realised than the news of Magellan's great voyage revealed the breadth ofthe ocean between America and Asia, and destroyed for ever the idea that the Spice Islands were near. Spanishenterprise, therefore, lay in the same direction as heretofore, and we must relate the story of how Pizarrodiscovered Peru for the King of Spain. He had accompanied Balboa to Darien, and had with him gazed out on tothe unknown waters of the Pacific Ocean below. With Balboa after crossing the isthmus of Darien he had reachedPanama on the South Sea, where he heard of a great nation far to the south.. Like Mexico, it was spoken of ashighly civilised and rich in mines of gold and silver. Many an explorer would have started off straightway forthis new country, but there was a vast tract of dark forest and tangled underwood between Panama and Peru,which had damped the ardour of even the most ardent of Spanish explorers.

But Pizarro was a man of courage and dauntless resolution, and he was ready to do and dare the impossible.He made a bad start. A single ship with some hundred men aboard left Panama under the command of Pizarro in1526. He was ignorant of southern navigation, the Indians along the shore were hostile, his men died one byone, the rich land of Peru was more distant than they had thought, and, having at length reached the island ofGallo near the Equator, they awaited reinforcements from Panama. Great, then, was the disappointment ofPizarro when only one ship arrived and no soldiers. News of hardships and privations had spread throughPanama, and none would volunteer to explore Peru. By this time the handful of wretched men who had remainedwith Pizarro, living on crabs picked up on the shore, begged to be taken home—they could endure nolonger. Then came one of those tremendous moments that lifts the born leader of men above his fellows. Drawinghis sword, Pizarro traced a line on the sand from east to west. "Friends," he cried, turning to the south, "onthat side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, desertion, and death, and on this side ease andpleasure. There lies Peru with its riches, here Panama and its poverty. For my part, I go south."

So saying, he stepped across the line. Twelve stout-hearted men followed him. The rest turned wearilyhomewards. The reduced but resolute little party then sailed south, and a voyage of two days brought themwithin sight of the long-sought land of Peru. Communication with the natives assured them that here was wealthand fortune to be made, and they hurried back to Panama, whence Pizarro sailed for Spain, for permission toconquer the empire of Peru. It is interesting to find Cortes contributing some of his immense wealth fromMexico towards this new quest.

In February 1531 three small ships with one hundred and eighty soldiers and thirty-six horses sailed southunderPizarro. It was not till the autumn of 1532 that he was ready to start on the great march to the interior. Acity called Cuzco was the capital—the Holy City with its great Temple of the Sun, the most magnificentbuilding in the New World, had never yet been seen by Europeans. But the residence of the King was atCaxamalea, and this was the goal of the Spaniards for the present.

Already the news was spreading through the land that "white and bearded strangers were coming up from the sea,clad in shining panoply, riding upon unearthly monsters, and wielding deadly thunderbolts."

Pizarro's march to the heart of Peru with a mere handful of men was not unlike that of Cortes' expedition toMexico. Both coveted the rich empire of unknown monarchs and dared all—to possess. Between Pizarro andhis goal lay the stupendous mountain range of the Andes or South American Cordilleras, rock piled upon rock,their crests of everlasting snow glittering high in the heavens. Across these and over narrow mountain passesthe troops had now to pass. So steep were the sides that the horsem*n had to dismount and scramble up, leadingtheir horses as best they might. Frightful chasms yawned below them, terrific peaks rose above, and at anymoment they might be utterly destroyed by bodies of Peruvians in overwhelming numbers. It was bitterly cold asthey mounted higher and higher up the dreary heights, till at last they reached the crest. Thenbegan the descent—precipitous and dangerous—until after seven days of this the valley of Caxamaleaunrolled before their delighted eyes, and the little ancient city with its white houses lay glittering in thesun. But dismay filled the stoutest heart when, spread out below for the space of several miles, tents asthick as snowflakes covered the ground. It was the Peruvian army. And it was too late to turn back. "So, withas bold a countenance as we could, we prepared for our entrance into Caxamalea."

The Peruvians must already have seen the cavalcade of Spaniards, as with banners streaming and armourglistening in the rays of the evening sun Pizarro led them towards the city. As they drew near, the King,Atahualpa, covered with plumes of feathers and ornaments of gold and silver blazing in the sun, was carriedforth on a throne followed by thirty thousand men to meet the strangers. It seemed to the Spanish leader thatonly one course was open. He must seize the person of this great ruler at once. He waved his white scarf.Immediately the cavalry charged and a terrible fight took place around the person of the ruler of Peru untilhe was captured and taken prisoner. Atahualpa tried to regain his liberty by the offer of gold, for he haddiscovered—amid all their outward show of religious zeal—a greed for wealth among these strangewhite men from over the stormy seas. He suggested that he should fill with gold the room in which he wasconfined as high as he could reach. Standing on tiptoe, he marked the wall with his hand. Pizarro accepted theoffer, and the Spaniards greedily watched the arrival of their treasure from the roofs of palace and temple.They gained a sum of something like three million sterling and then put the King to death. Pizarro was theconqueror of Peru, and he had no difficulty in controlling the awestruck Peruvians, who regarded therelentlessSpaniards as supernatural—the Children of the Sun indeed.

A year later these Children of the Sun entered the old town of Cuzco—the capital of this richempire—where they found a city of treasure surpassing all expectation. Meanwhile Almagro, one of themost prominent among the Spanish explorers, had been granted a couple of hundred miles along the coast ofChili, which country he now penetrated; but the cold was so intense that men and horses were frozen to death,while the Chilians, clad in skins, were difficult to subdue. Almagro decided that Cuzco belonged to him, andmiserable disputes followed between him and Pizarro, ending in the tragic end of the veteran explorer,Almagro.

As the shiploads of gold reached the shores of Spain, more and more adventurers flocked over to the New World.They swarmed into "Golden Castile," about the city of Panama, and journeyed into the interior of the yet newand unknown world. There are terrible stories of their greed and cruelty to the native Indians. One story saysthat the Indians caught some of these Spaniards, tied their hands and feet together, threw them on the ground,and poured liquid gold into their mouths, crying, "Eat, eat gold, Christian!"

Amongst other adventurers into South America at this time was Orellana, who crossed the continent from oceanto ocean. He had accompanied one of Pizarro's brothers into the land of the cinnamon forests, and with him hadcrossed the Andes in search of another golden kingdom beyond Quito. The expedition under Pizarro, consistingof some three hundred and fifty Spaniards, half of whom were horsem*n, and four thousand Indians, set forwardin the year 1540 to penetrate to the remote regions in the Hinterland, on the far side of the Andes. Theirsufferings were intense. Violentthunderstorms and earthquakes terrified man and beast; the earth opened and swallowed up five hundred houses;rain fell in such torrents as to flood the land and cut off all communication between the explorers andcultivated regions; while crossing the lofty ridge of the Andes the cold was so intense that numbers of theparty were literally frozen to death. At length they reached the land of the cinnamon trees, and, stillpushing on, came to a river which must be crossed to reach the land of gold. They had finished theirprovisions, and had nothing to subsist on now save the wild fruit of the country. After following the courseof the river for some way, Pizarro decided to build a little vessel to search for food along the river. Allset to work, Pizarro and Orellana, one of his chief captains, working as hard as the men. They set up a forgefor making nails, and burnt charcoal with endless trouble owing to the heavy rains which prevented the tinderfrom taking fire. They made nails from the shoes of the horses which had been killed to feed the sick. For tarthey used the resin from the trees, for oakum they used blankets and old shirts. Then they launched the littlehome-made boat, thinking their troubles would be at an end. For some four hundred miles they followed thecourse of the river, but the supply of roots and berries grew scarcer and men perished daily from starvation.So Pizarro ordered Orellana to go quickly down the river with fifty men to some inhabited land of which theyhad heard, to fill the boat with provisions, and return.

Off started Orellana down the river, but no villages or cultivated lands appeared; nothing was to be seen saveflooded plains and gloomy, impenetrable forests. The river turned out to be a tributary of a much largerriver. It was, indeed, the great river Amazon. Orellana now decided to go on down this great river and todesertPizarro. True, his men were utterly weary, the current was too strong for them to row against, and they had nofood to bring to their unhappy companions. There was likewise the possibility of reaching the kingdom of goldfor which they were searching. There were some among his party who objected strongly to the course proposed byOrellana, to whom he responded by landing them on the edge of the dense forest and there leaving them toperish of hunger.

It was the last day of 1540 that, having eaten their shoes and saddles boiled with a few wild herbs, they setout to reach the kingdom of gold. It was truly one of the greatest adventures of the age, and historic, forhere we get the word El Dorado, used for the first time in the history of discovery—the legendary land of goldwhich was never found, but which attracted all the Elizabethan sailors to this romantic country. It would taketoo long to tell how they had to fight Indian tribes in their progress down the fast-flowing river, how theyhad to build a new boat, making bellows of their leather buskins and manufacturing two thousand nails intwenty days, how they found women on the banks of the river fighting as valiantly as men, and named the newcountry the Amazon land, and how at long last, after incredible hardship, they reached the sea in August 1541.They had navigated some two thousand miles. They now made their rigging and ropes of grass and sails ofblankets, and so sailed out into the open sea, reaching one of the West India islands a few days later.

And the deserted Pizarro? Tired of waiting for Orellana, he made his way sorrowfully home, arriving after twoyears' absence in Peru, with eighty men left out of four thousand three hundred and fifty, all the rest havingperished in the disastrous expedition. Andso we must leave the Spanish conquerors for the present, exploring, still conquering, in these parts, everadding glory and riches to Spain. Indeed, Spain and Portugal, as we have seen, entirely monopolise the horizonof geographical discovery till the middle of the sixteenth century, when other nations enter the arena.

It was no longer possible for the Old World to keep secret the wealth of the New World. English eyes were alreadystraining across the seas, English hands were ready to grasp the treasure that had been Spain's for the lastfifty years. While Spain was sending Christopher Columbus to and fro across the Atlantic to the West Indies,while Portugal was rejoicing in the success of Vasco da Gama, John Cabot, in the service of England, wasmaking his way from Bristol to the New World. News of the first voyage of Columbus had been received by theCabots—John and his son Sebastian—with infinite admiration. They believed with the rest of theworld that the coast of China had been reached by sailing westward. Bristol was at this time the chief seaportin England, and the centre of trade for the Iceland fisheries. The merchants of the city had already venturedfar on to the Atlantic, and various little expeditions had been fitted out by the merchants for possiblediscovery westward, but one after another failed, including the "most scientific mariner in all England," whostarted forth to find the island of Brazil to the west of Ireland, but, after nine miserable weeks at sea, wasdriven back to Ireland again by foul weather.

Now Columbus had crossed the Atlantic, Cabot got leave from the English King, Henry VII., to sail to the east,west, or north, with five ships carrying the Englishflag, to seek and discover all the islands, countries, regions, or provinces of pagans in whatever part of theworld."

Further, the King was to have one-fifth of the profits, and at all risks any conflict with Spain must beavoided. Nothing daunted, Cabot started off to fulfil his lord's commands in a tiny ship with eighteen men. Wehave the barest outlines of his proceedings. Practically all is contained in this one paragraph. "In the year1497 John Cabot, a Venetian, and his son Sebastian discovered on the 24th of June, about five in the morning,that landto which no person had before ventured to sail, which they named Prima Vista or first seen, because, as Ibelieve, it was the first part seen by them from the sea. The inhabitants use the skins and furs of wildbeasts for garments, which they hold in as high estimation as we do our finest clothes. The soil yields nouseful production, but it abounds in white bears and deer much larger than ours. Its coasts produce vastquantities of large fish—great seals, salmons, soles above a yard in length, and prodigious quantitiesof cod."

So much for the contemporary account of this historic voyage. A letter from England to Italy describes theeffect of the voyage on England. "The Venetian, our countryman, who went with a ship from Bristol in quest ofnew islands, is returned and says that seven hundred leagues hence he discovered land, the territory of theGreat Khan. He coasted for three hundred leagues and landed; he saw no human beings, but he has brought hitherto the King certain snares which had been set to catch game and a needle for making nets. He also found somefelled trees. Wherefore he supposed there were inhabitants, and returned to his ships in alarm. He was therethree months on the voyage, and on his return he saw two islands to starboard, but would not land, time beingprecious, as he was short of provisions. He says the tides are slack and do not flow as they do here. The Kingof England is much pleased with this intelligence. The King has promised that in the spring our countrymanshall have ten ships to his order, and at his request has conceded to him all the prisoners to man his fleet.The King has also given him money wherewith to amuse himself till then, and he is now at Bristol with his wifeand sons. His name is Cabot, and he is styled the great Admiral. Vast honour is paid to him he dresses insilk, and the English run after him like mad people."

Yet another letter of the time tells how "Master John Cabot has won a part of Asia without a stroke of thesword." This Master John, too, "has the description of the world in a chart and also in a solid globe which hehas made, and he shows where he landed. And they say that it is a good and temperate country, and they thinkthat Brazil wood and silks grow there, and they affirm that that sea is covered with fishes."

But "Master John" had set his heart on something greater. Constantly hugging the shore of America, he expectedto find the island of Cipango (Japan) in the equinoctial region, where he should find all the spices of theworld and any amount of precious stones.

But after all this great promise Master John disappears from the pages of history and his son Sebastiancontinues to sail across the Atlantic, not always in the service of England, though in 1502 we find himbringing to the King of England three men taken in the Newfoundland, clothed in beasts' skins and eating rawflesh, and speaking a language which no man could understand. They must have been kindly dealt with by theKing, for two years later the poor savages are "clothed like Englishmen."

Though England claimed the discovery of this Newfoundland, the Portuguese declared that one of theircountrymen, Cortereal—a gentleman of the royal household—had already discovered the "land of thecod-fish" in 1463. But then had not the Vikings already discovered this country five hundred years before?

All the nations of Europe were now straining westward for new lands to conquer. French sailors had fished in theseas washing the western coast of North America; Verazzano, a Florentine, in the service of France, hadexplored the coast of the United States, and a good deal was known when Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, stepsupon the scene and wins for his country a large tract of land about the river St. Lawrence. His object was tofind a way across America to Cathay. With two little ships of sixty tons and sixty-one "chosen men," Cartierleft St. Malo on 20th April 1584. With prosperous weather he tells us he made the coast of Newfoundland inthree weeks, which would mean sailing over one hundred miles a day. He was a little too early in the season,for the easterly winds which had helped him on his way had blocked the east coast of the island with Arcticice. Having named the point at which he first touched land Cape Bona Vista, he cruised about till, the icehaving melted, he could sail down the straits of Belle Isle between the mainland of Labrador and Newfoundland,already discovered by Breton fishermen. Then he explored the now familiar Gulf of St. Lawrence—the firstEuropean to report on it. All through June the little French ships sailed about the Gulf, darting across fromisland to island and cape to cape. Prince Edward Island appealed to him strongly. "It is very pleasant tobehold," he tellsus. "We found sweet-smelling trees as cedars, yews, pines, ash, willow. Where the ground was bare of trees itseemed very fertile and was full of wild corn, red and white gooseberries, strawberries, and blackberries, asif it had been cultivated on purpose." It now grew hotter, and Cartier must have been glad of a little heat.He sighted Nova Scotia and sailed by the coast of New Brunswick, without naming or surveying them. Hedescribes accurately the bay still called Chaleur Bay: "We named this the Warm Bay, for the country is warmereven than Spain and exceedingly pleasant." They sailed up as far as they could, filled with hope that thismight be the long-sought passage to the Pacific Ocean. Hope Cape they named the southern point, but they weredisappointed by finding only a deep bay, and to-day, by a strange coincidence, the point opposite the northernshore is known as Cape Despair—the Cap d'Espoir of the early French mariners. Sailing on to the northamid strong currents and a heavy sea, Cartier at last put into a shelter (Gaspé Bay). Here, "on the 24th ofJuly, we made a great cross thirty feet high, on which we hung up a shield with three fleurs-de-lis, andinscribed the cross with this motto: 'Vive le roi de France.' When this was finished, in presence of all thenatives, we all knelt down before the cross, holding up our hands to heaven and praising God."

Storms and strong tides now decided Cartier to return to France. He knew nothing of the Cabot Strait betweenNewfoundland and the land afterwards called Nova Scotia, so he guided his little ships right through theStraits of Belle Isle, and after being "much tossed by a heavy tempest from the east, which we weathered bythe blessing of God," he arrived safely home on 5th September, after his six months' adventure. He was sooncommissioned to continue the navigation of these new lands, and in May 1535 he safely led three ships slightlylarger than the last across the stormy Atlantic. Contrary winds, heavy gales, and thick fogs turned the voyageof three weeks into five—the ships losing one another not to meet again till the coast of Labrador wasreached. Coasting along the southern coast, Cartier now entered a "very fine and large bay, full of islands,and with channels of entrance and exit in all winds." Cartier named it "Baye Saint Laurens," because heentered it on 10th August—the feast of St. Lawrence.

Do any of the English men and women who steam up the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the great ocean steamers to-day,on their way to Canada, ever give a thought to the little pioneer French ships that four hundred years agothought they were sailing toward Cathay?

"Savages," as Cartier calls the Indians, told him that he was near the mouth of the great river Hochelaga (nowthe St. Lawrence), which became narrower "as we approach towards Canada, where the water is fresh."

"On the first day of September," says Cartier, "we set sail from the said harbour for Canada." Canada was justa native word for a town or village. It seems strange to read of the "lord of Canada" coming down the riverwith twelve canoes and many people to greet the first white men he had ever seen; strange, too, to findCartier arriving at "the place called Hochelaga—twenty-fiveleagues above Canada," where the river becomes very narrow, with a rapid current and very dangerous on accountof rocks. For another week the French explorers sailed on up the unknown river. The country was pleasant,well-wooded, with "vines as full of grapes as they would hang." On 2nd October, Cartier arrived at the nativetown of Hochelaga. He was welcomed by hundreds of natives,—men, women, and children,—who gave thetravellers as "friendly a welcome as if we had been of their own nation come home after a long and perilousabsence." The women carried their children to him to touch them, for they evidently thought that somesupernatural being had come up from the sea. All night they danced to the light of fires lit upon the shore.

The next morning Cartier, "having dressed himself splendidly," went ashore with some of his men. All were wellarmed, though the natives seemed peacefully disposed. They marched along a well-beaten track to the Indiancity, which stood in the midst of cultivated fields of Indian corn and maize. Again the inhabitants met themwith signs of joy and gladness, and the Kingwas carried shoulder high, seated on a large deer-skin with a red wreath round his head made of the skins ofhedgehogs instead of a crown.

A curious scene then took place. The King placed his crown on the head of the French explorer, before whom hehumbled himself as before a god. Thus evidently did the people regard him, for they brought to him theirblind, their lame, and their diseased folk that he might cure them. Touched with pity at the groundlessconfidence of these poor people, Cartier signed them with the sign of the cross. "He then opened a servicebook and read the passion of Christ in an audible voice, during which all the natives kept a profound silence,looking up to heaven and imitating all our gestures. He then caused our trumpets and other musical instrumentsto be sounded, which made the natives very merry."

Cartier and his men then went to the top of the neighbouring mountain. The extensive view from the top createda deep impression on the French explorer; he grew enthusiastic over the beauty of the level valley below andcalled the place Mont Royal—a name communicated to the busy city of Montreal that lies below.

Winter was now coming on, and Cartier decided against attempting the homeward voyage so late in the year; butto winter in the country he chose a spot between Montreal and Quebec, little thinking what the long wintermonths would bring forth. The little handful of Frenchmen had no idea of the severity of the Canadian climate;they little dreamt of the interminable months of ice and snow when no navigation was possible. BeforeChristmas had come round the men were down with scurvy; by the middle of February, "out of one hundred and tenpersons composing the companies of our three ships, there were not ten in perfect health. Eight were deadalready. The sickness increasedto such a pitch that there were not above three sound men in the whole company; we were obliged to bury suchas died under the snow, as the ground was frozen quite hard, and we were all reduced to extreme weakness, andwe lost all hope of ever returning to France." From

November to March four feet of snow lay upon the decks of their little ships. And yet, shut up as they werein the heart of a strange and unknown land, with their ships icebound and nought but savages around, there isno sound of murmur or complaint. "It mustbe allowed that the winter that year was uncommonly long" is all we hear.

May found them free once more and making for home with the great news that, though they had not found the wayto Cathay, they had discovered and taken a great new country for France.

A new map of the world in 1586 marks Canada and Labrador, and gives the river St. Lawrence just beyondMontreal. A map of 1550 goes further, and calls the sea that washes the shores of Newfoundland and Labradorthe "Sea of France," while to the south it is avowedly the "Sea of Spain."

England was now awaking from her sleep—too late to possess the Spice Islands—too late for India and theCape of Good Hope—too late, it would seem, for the New World. The Portuguese held the eastern route, theSpaniards the western route to the Spice Islands. But what if there were a northern route? All ways apparentlyled to Cathay. Why should England not find a way to that glorious land by taking a northern course?

"If the seas toward the north be navigable we may go to these Spice Islands by a shorter way than Spain andPortugal," said Master Thorne of Bristol—a friend of the Cabots.

"But the northern seas are blocked with ice and the northern lands are too cold for man to dwell in," objectedsome.

"There is no land uninhabitable, nor sea unnavigable," was the heroic reply.

"It was in this belief, and in this heroic temper, that England set herself to take possession of herheritage, the north. But it was not till the reign of Edward VI. that a Company of Merchant Adventurers wasformed for the discovery of Regions, Dominions, Islands, and places unknown," with old Sebastian Cabot as itsfirst governor, and not till the year 1553 that three little ships under Sir Hugh Willoughby and RichardChancellorwere fitted out for a northern cruise. They carried letters of introduction from the boy-king of England to"all Kings, Princes, Rulers, Judges, and Governors of the Earth in all places under the universal heaven,"including those "inhabiting the north-east parts of the world toward the mighty Empire of Cathay."

Sir Hugh Willoughby, "a most valiant gentleman," hoisted the English flag on the Bona Esperanza, a goodlittle ship of one hundred and twenty tons. The next in command was Richard Chancellor, "a man of greatestimation for many good parts of wit in him," who sailed the Edward Bonadventure, which though not sofast as the flagship, was slightly larger. So certain were the promoters that the ships would reach the hotclimates beyond Cathay that they had them sheathed with lead to protect them from worms which had proved sodestructive in the tropics before.

The account of the start of these first English Arctic explorers is too quaint to be passed in silence. "Itwas thought best that, by the 20th of May the Captains and Mariners should take shipping and depart if itpleased God. They, having saluted their acquaintance, one his wife, another his children, another hiskinsfolk, and another his friends dearer than his kinsfolk, were ready at the day appointed. The greater shipsare towed down with boats and oars, and the mariners, being all apparelled in sky-coloured cloth, made waywith diligence. And being come near to Greenwich (where the Court then lay), the Courtiers came running outand the common people flocked together, standing very thick upon the shore: the Privy Council, they looked outof the windows of the Court, and the rest ran up to the tops of the towers, and the mariners shouted in suchsort that the sky rang again with the noise thereof. But, alas! the good KingEdward—he only by reason of his sickness was absent from this show."

The ships dropped down to Woolwich with the tide and coasted along the east coast of England till "at the lastwith a good wind they hoisted up sail and committed themselves to the sea, giving their last adieu to theirnative country—many of them could not refrain from tears." Richard Chancellor himself had left behindtwo little sons, and his poor mind was tormented with sorrow and care.

By the middle of July the North Sea had been crossed, and the three small ships were off the shores of Norway,coasting among the islands and fiords that line that indented kingdom. Coasting still northward, Willoughbyled his ships to the Lofoten Islands, "plentifully inhabited by very gentle people" under the King of Denmark.They sailed on—

till they had passed the North Cape, already discovered by Othere, the old sea-captain who dwelt in Helgoland.

A terrible storm now arose, and "the sea was so outrageous that the ships could not keep their intendedcourse, but some were driven one way and some another way to their great peril and hazard." Then Sir HughWilloughby shouted across the roaring seas to Richard Chancellor, begging him not to go far from him. But thelittle ships got separated and never met again. Willoughby was blown across the sea to Nova Zembla.

The weather grew more and more Arctic, and he made his way over to a haven in Lapland where he decided towinter. He sent men to explore the country, but no signs of mankind could be found; there were bears and foxesand all manner of strange beasts, but never a human being. It must have been desperately dreary as the winteradvanced, with ice and snow and freezing winds from the north. What this little handful of Englishmen did, howthey endured the bitter winter on the desolate shores of Lapland, no man knows. Willoughby was alive inJanuary 1554—then all is silent.

And what of Richard Chancellor on board the Bonadventure? "Pensive, heavy, and sorrowful," butresolute to carry out his orders, "Master Chancellor held on his course towards that unknown part of theworld, and sailed so far that he came at last to the place where he found no night at all, but a continuallight and brightness of the Sun, shining clearly upon the huge and mighty Sea." After a time he found andentered a large bay where he anchored, making friends with the fisher folk on the shores of the White Sea tothe north of Russia. So frightened were the natives at the greatness of the English ships that at first theyran away, half-dead with fear. Soon, however, they regained confidence and, throwing themselves down, theybegan to kiss the explorer's feet, "but he (according to his great and singular courtesy) looked pleasantlyupon them." By signs and gestures he comforted them until they brought food to the "new-come guests," and wentto tell their king of the arrival of "a strange nation of singular gentleness and courtesy."

Then the King of Russia or Muscovie—Ivan Vasiliwich—sent for Master Chancellor to go to Moscow.The journey had to be made in sledges over the ice and snow. A long and weary journey it must have been, forhis guide lostthe way, and they travelled nearly one thousand fivehundred miles before Master Chancellor came at last to Moscow, the chief city of the kingdom, "as great as thecity of London with all its suburbs," remarks Chancellor. Arrived at the King's palace, Master Chancellor wasreceived by one hundred Russian courtiers dressed in cloth of gold to the very ankles. The King sat aloft on ahigh throne, with a crown of gold on his head, holding in his hand a glittering sceptre studded with preciousstones. The Englishman and his companions saluted the King, who received them graciously and read the letterfrom Edward VI. with interest. They did not know that the boy-king was dead, and that his sister Mary was onthe throne of England. The King was much interested in the long beards grown by the Englishmen. That of one ofthe company was five foot two inches in length, "thick, broad, and yellow coloured."This is God's gift,"said the Russians.

To Edward VI. of England the King sent a letter by the hands of Richard Chancellor, giving leave readily forEngland to trade with Russia.

Master Chancellor seems to have arrived home again safely with his account of Russia, which encouraged theMerchant Adventurers to send forth more ships to developtrade with this great new country of which they knew so little.

To this end Anthony Jenkinson, "a resolute and intelligent gentleman," was selected, and "with four tall,well-appointed ships he sailed on 12th May 1557 toward the land of Russia." He reached Cape North on 2nd July,and a few days later he passed the spot where Sir Hugh Willoughby and all his company had perished. Anchoringin the Bay of St. Nicholas, he took a sledge for Moscow, where he delivered his letters safely to the King. Soicebound was the country that it was April 1558 before he was able to leave Moscow for the south, toaccomplish, if possible, the orders of the Merchant Adventurers to find an overland route to Cathay. Withletters of Introduction from the Russian King to the princes and kings through whose dominions he was to pass,Master Jenkinson made his way to the Volga, whence he continued his voyage with a Russian captain who wastravelling south in great style to take up a command at Astrakan with five hundred boats laden with soldiers,stores, food, and merchandise.

After three months' travelling, and having passed over some one thousand two hundred miles, the Englishmanreached the south. The city of Astrakan offered no attractions and no hope of trade, so Jenkinson boldly tookupon himself to navigate the mouth of the Volga and to reach the Caspian Sea. He was the first Englishman tocross Russia from the White Sea to the Caspian. Never before on the Caspian had the red cross of St. Georgebeen seen flying from the masthead of a ship sailed by Englishmen. After three weeks' buffeting by contrarywinds, they found themselves on the eastern shores, and, getting together a caravan of one thousand camels,they went forward. No sooner had they landed than they found themselves in a land of thieves and robbers.Jenkinson hastened tothe Sultan of these parts, a noted robber himself, to be kindly received by the Tartar Prince, who set beforehim the flesh of a wild horse and some mare's milk. Then the little English party travelled on for three weeksthrough desolate land with no rivers, no houses, no inhabitants, till they reached the banks of the Oxus. Herewe refreshed ourselves," says the explorer, "having been three days without water and drink, and tarried thereall the next day making merry, with our slain horses and camels." For a hundred miles they followed the courseof this great river until they reached another desert, where they were again attacked by bands of thieves androbbers.

It was Christmas Eve when they at last reached Bokhara, only to find that the merchants were so poor thatthere was no hope of any trade worth following, though the city was full of caravans from India and the FarEast. And here they heard that the way to Cathay was barred by reason of grievous wars which were going on.Winter was coming on; so Jenkinson remained for a couple of months before starting on his long journey home.With a caravan of six hundred camels he made his way back to the Caspian, and on 2nd September he had reachedMoscow safely with presents of "a white cow's tail of Cathay and a drum of Tartary" for the King, which seemedto give that monarch the greatest pleasure. He evidently stayed for a time in Russia, for it is not till theyear 1560 that we find him writing to the Merchant Adventurers that "at the next shipping I embark myself forEngland."

While Jenkinson was endeavouring to reach the Far East by land, a Portuguese named Pinto had succeeded inreaching it by sea. The discovery of Japan is claimed by three people. Antonio de Mota had been thrown by astorm on to the island of Nison, called by the Chinese Jepwen—Japan—in the year 1542. Pinto claimsto havediscovered it the same year. It seems that the Japanese were expecting the return of a god, and as the whitemen hove in sight they exclaimed: "These are certainly the Chinchi cogies spoken of in our records, who,flying over the waters, shall come to be lords of the lands where God has placed the greatest riches of theworld. It will be fortunate for us if they come as friends."

Now men of the time refused to believe in the travels of Mendex Pinto. "He should be called Mendax Pinto,"said one, "whose book is one continued chain of monstrous fiction which deserves no credit," while a hundredand fifty years later Congreve wrote—

So far the expeditions of Willoughby, Chancellor, and Jenkinson had all failed to reach the Far East. The Spanishhad a way thither by Magellan's Strait, the Portuguese by the Cape of Good Hope. England in the middle of thesixteenth century had no way. What about a North-West Passage leading round Labrador from the Atlantic to thePacific? England was waking up to possibilities of future exploration. She was also ready and anxious to annoySpain for having monopolised the riches and wealth of the New World. And so it was that Queen Elizabeth turnedwith interest to the suggestions of one of her subjects—Martin Frobisher—"a mariner of greatexperience and ability," when he enthusiastically consulted her on the navigation of the North-West Passage.For the last fifteen years he had been trying to collect ships and men for the enterprise. "It is the onlything in the world left undone whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate," he affirmed.

But it was not till the year 1576 that he got a chance of fitting out two small ships—two very smallships—the Gabriel of twenty tons, the Michael of twenty-five tons, to explorethe icy regions of the north. A wave of the Queen's hand gladdened his heart as he sailed past the palace ofGreenwich, where the Court resided, and he was soon sailing northward harassed and battered by many storms.His little ten-ton pinnace was lost, and the same storm that overtook the little fleet to the north ofScotland so terrified the captain of the Michael that he deserted and turned home with the newsthat Frobisher had perished with all hands.

Meanwhile Frobisher, resolute in his undertaking, was nearing the coast of Greenland—alone in the littleGabriel with a mere handful of men all inexperienced in the art of navigating the Polar seas.

as Frobisher sailed his storm-beaten ship across the wintry seas. But "I will sacrifice mylife to God rather than return home without discovering a north-west passage to Cathay," he told his eighteenmen with sublime courage. Passing Cape Farewell, he sailed north-west with the Greenland current, whichbrought him to the icebound shores near Hudson's Bay. He did not see the straits afterwards discovered byHudson, but, finding an inlet farther north, he sailed some hundred miles, in the firm belief that this wasthe passage for which he was searching, that America lay on his left and Asia on his right. Magellan haddiscovered straits in the extreme south; Frobisher made sure that he had found corresponding straits to theextreme north, and Frobisher's Straits they were accordingly named, and as such they appeared on the maps ofthe day till they had to be renamed Lumley's Inlet. The snow and ice made further navigation impossible forthis year, and full of their great news they returned home accompanied by an Eskimo. These natives had beentaken for porpoises by our English explorers, but later they were reported to be "strange infidels whose likewas never seen, read, or heard of before."

Martin Frobisher was received with enthusiasm and "highly commended of all men for his great and notableattempt, but specially famous for the great hope he brought of the passage to Cathay." Besides the Eskimo theexplorers carried home a black stone, which, when thrown on the fire by one of the sailor's wives, glitteredlike gold. The gold refiners of London were hastily called in, and they reported that it contained a quantityof gold.

A new incentive was now given to Polar exploration. The Queen herself contributed a tall ship of some twohundred tons to the new expedition that was eagerly fitted out, and the High Admiral of all seas and waters,countries, lands, and isles, as Frobisher was now called, sailed away again for the icy north, more to searchfor gold than to discover the North-West Passage. He added nothingmore to the knowledge of the world, and though he sailed through the strait afterwards known as Hudson's henever realised his discovery. His work was hampered by the quest for gold, for which England was eagerlyclamouring, and he disappears from our history of discovery.

The triumphant return of Francis Drake in 1580 laden with treasure from the Spice Islands put into the shadeall schemes for a north-west passage for the moment.

Nevertheless, this voyage of Martin Frobisher is important in the history of exploration. It was the firstattempt of an Englishman to make search amid the ice of the Arctic regions—a search in which so manywere yet to lay down their lives.

Drake's famous voyage, as it is known to history (1577-1580), was indeed famous, for although Magellan's ship hadsailed round the world fifty years before, Drake was the first Englishman to do so, and, further, hediscovered for us land to the south of Magellan's Strait round which washed the waters of Atlantic and PacificOceans, showing that the mysterious land marked on contemporary maps as Terra Australis and joined to SouthAmerica was a separate land altogether. He also explored the coast of America as far north as VancouverIsland, and disclosed to England the secret ofthe Spice Islands. The very name of Drake calls up a vision of thrilling adventure on the high seas. He hadbeen at sea since he was a boy of fifteen, when he had been apprenticed to the master of a small ship tradingbetween England and the Netherlands, and many a time he had sailed on the grey North Sea. "But the narrow seaswere a prison for so large a spirit born for greater undertakings," and in 1567 we find Drake sailing forth onboard the Judith in an expedition over to the Spanish settlements in America under his kinsman,John Hawkins. Having crossed the Atlantic and filled his ships with Spanish treasure from "the Spanish Main,"and having narrowly escaped death from the hands of the Spaniards, Drake had hurried home to tell of theriches of this new country still closed to all other nations. Two years later Drake was off again, this timein command himself of two ships with crews of seventy-three young men, their modest aim being nothing lessthan to seize one of the Spanish ports and empty into their holds the "Treasure House of the World." What ifthis act of reckless daring was unsuccessful? The undertaking was crowned with a higher success than that ofriches, for Drake was the first Englishman to see the waters of the Pacific Ocean. His expedition was notunlike that of Balboa some sixty years before, as with eighteen chosen companions he climbed the forest-cladspurs of the ridge dividing the two great oceans. Arrived at the top, he climbed up a giant tree, and theGolden Sea of which he had so often heard—the Pacific Ocean of Magellan, the waters washing the goldenshores of Mexico and Peru—all lay below him. Descending from the heights, he sank upon his knees and"humbly besought Almighty God of His goodness to give him life and leave to sail once in an English ship inthat sea."

Jealously had the Spanish guarded this beautiful Southern Sea, now her secrets were laid bare, for anEnglishman had gazed upon it and he was not likely to remain satisfied with this alone.

In 1573 Drake came home with his wonderful news, and it was not long before he was eagerly talking over withthe Queen a project for a raid into this very Golden Sea guarded by the Spaniards. Elizabeth promised help oncondition that the object of the expedition should remain a secret. Ships were bought for "a voyage to Egypt";there was the Pelican of one hundred tons, the Marygold of thirty tons, and aprovision ship of fifty tons. A fine new ship of eighty tons, named the Elizabeth, mysteriously addeditself to the little fleet, and the crews numbered in all some one hundred and fifty men. No expense wasspared in the equipment of the ships. Musicians were engaged for the voyage, the arms and ammunition were ofthe latest pattern. The flagship was lavishly furnished: there were silver bowls and mugs and dishes richlygilt and engraved with the family arms, while the commander's cabin was full of sweet-smelling perfumespresented by the Queen herself. Thus, complete at last, Drake led his gay little squadron out of Plymouthharbour on 15th November 1577, bound for Alexandria—so the crews thought.

Little did Drake know what was before him, as, dressed in his seaman's shirt, his scarlet cap with its goldband on his head, he waved farewell to England. Who could foresee the terrible beginning, with treachery andmutiny at work, or the glorious ending when the young Englishman sailed triumphantly home after his threeyears' voyage—the world encompassed?

Having reached the Cape de Verde Islands in safety, the object of the expedition could no longer remain asecret, and Drake led his squadron boldly across the Atlantic Ocean.

On 5th April the coast of Brazil appeared, but fogs and heavy weather scattered the ships and they had to runinto the mouth of the La Plata for shelter. Then for six weary weeks the ships struggled southward, batteredby gales and squalls during which nothing but the daring seamanship of the English navigators saved the littlevessels from destruction. It was not till 20th June that they reached Port St. Julian of Magellan fame, on thedesolate shores of Patagonia. As they entered the harbour, a grim sight met their eyes. On that windsweptshore was the skeleton ofthe man hung by Magellan years before.

History was to repeat itself, and the same fate was now to befall an unhappy Englishman guilty of the sameconduct.

Drake had long had reason to suspect the second in command, Doughty, though he was his dear friend. He hadbeen guilty of worse than disobedience, and the very success of the voyage was threatened. So Drake called acouncil together and Doughty was tried according to English law. After two days' trial he was found guilty andcondemned to die. One of the most touching scenes in the history of exploration now took place. One sees thelittle English crews far away on that desolate shore, the ships lying at anchor in the harbour, the blockprepared, the altar raised beside it, the two old friends, Drake and Doughty, kneeling side by side, then theflash of the sword and Drake holding up the head of his friend with the words, "Lo, this is the end oftraitors."

It was now midwinter, and for six weeks they remained in harbour till August came, and with three ships theyemerged to continue their way to the Straits of Magellan. At last it was found and boldly they entered. Fromthe towering mountains that guarded the entry, tempests of wind and snow swept down upon the "daringintruders." As they made their way through the rough and winding waters, they imagined with all the othergeographers of their time that the unknown land to the south was one great continent leading beyond theboundaries of the world. Fires lit by the natives on this southern coast added terror to the wild scene. Butat the end of sixteen days they found themselves once more in the open sea. They were at last on the PacificOcean.

But it was anything but pacific. A terrible tempest arose, followed by other storms no less violent, and theships were driven helplessly southward and westward far beyond Cape Horn. When they once more reached thecoast they found in the place of the great southern continent an indented wind-swept shore washed by wavesterrific in their height and strength. In the ceaseless gale the Marygold foundered with allhands and was never heard of again. A week later the captain of the Elizabeth turned home,leaving the Pelican, now called the Golden Hind, to struggle on alone. After nearly two monthsof storm, Drake anchoredamong the islands southward of anything yet known to the geographers, where Atlantic and Pacific rolledtogether in one boisterous flood. Walking alone to the farthest end of the island, Drake is said to have laidhimself down and with his arms embraced the southernmost point of the known world.

He showed that the Tierra del Fuego, instead of being part of a great continent—the TerraAustralis—was a group of islands with open sea to east, south, and west. This discovery was first shownon a Dutch silver medallion struck in Holland about 1581, known as The Silver Map of the world, and may beseen to-day in the British Museum.

Remarking that the ocean he was now entering would have been better called "Mare Furiosum" than "MarePacificum," Drake now directed his course along the western coast of South America. He found the coast ofChili, but not as the general maps had described it, "wherefore it appeareth that this part of Chili hath notbeen truly hitherto discovered," remarked one on board the Golden Hind. Bristling with guns, the littleEnglish ship sailed along the unknown coast, till they reached Valparaiso. Here they found a great Spanishship laden with treasure from Peru. Quickly boarding her, the English sailors bound the Spaniards, stowed themunder the hatches, and hastily transferred the cargo on to the Golden Hind. They sailed on northwardsto Lima and Panama, chasing the ships of Spain, plundering as they went, till they were deeply laden withstolen Spanish treasure and knew that they had made it impossible to return home by that coast. So Drakeresolved to go on northward and discover, if possible, a way home by the north. He had probably heard ofFrobisher's Strait, and hoped to find a western entrance.

As they approached the Arctic regions the weather grewbitterly cold, and "vile, thick, stinking fogs" determined them to sail southward. They had reached a pointnear what we now know as Vancouver Island when contrary winds drove them back and they put in at a harbour,now known as San Francisco, to repair the ship for the great voyage across the Pacific and home by the Capeof Good Hope. Drake had sailed past seven hundred miles of new coast-line in twelve days, and he now turned toexplore the new country, to which he gave the name of New Albion. The Indians soon began to gather in largequantities on the shore, and the King himself, tall and comely, advanced in a friendly manner. Indeed, he tookoff his crown and set it on the head of Drake and, hanging chains about his neck, the Indians made himunderstand that the land was now his and that they were his vassals.

Little did King Drake dream, as he named his country New Albion, that Californian gold was so near. Hissubjects were loving and peaceable, evidently, regarding the English as gods and reverencing them as such. Thechronicler is eloquent in his detailed description of all the royal doings.

"Before we left," he says, "our General caused to be set up a monument of our being there, as also of HerMajesty's right and title to that kingdom, namely, a plate of brass, fast nailed to a great and firm post,whereon is engraved Her Grace's name and the day and year of our arrival here, and of the free giving up ofthe province, both by the people and king, into Her Majesty's hands, together with Her Highness' picture andarms in a piece ofsixpence current money. The Spanish never so much as set foot in this country the utmost of their discoveriesreaching only to many degrees southward of this place.

"And now, as the time of our departure was perceived by the people, so did the sorrows and miseries seem toincrease upon them not only did they lose on a sudden all mirth, joy, glad countenance, pleasant speeches,agility of body, but with signs and sorrowings, with heavy hearts and grieved minds, they poured out woefulcomplaints and moans, with bitter tears and wringing of their hands, tormenting themselves. And, as menrefusing all comfort, they only accounted themselves as those whom the gods were about to forsake."

Indeed, the poor Indians looked on these Englishmen as gods, and, when the day came for them to leave, theyran to the top of the hills to keep the little ship in sight as long as possible, after which they burnt firesand made sacrifices at their departure.

Drake left New Albion on 23rd July 1579, to follow the lead of Magellan and to pass home by the southern seasand the Atlantic Ocean. After sixty-eight days of quick and straight sailing, with no sight of land, they fellin with the Philippine Islands, and on 3rd November with the famous Spice Islands. Here they were wellreceived by the King—a magnificent person attired in cloth of gold, with bare legs and shoes of Cordovaskins, rings of gold in his hair, and a chain "of perfect gold" about his neck. The Englishmen were gladenough to get fresh food after their long crossing, and fared sumptuously on rice, hens, "imperfect and liquidsugar," sugar-canes, and a fruit they call figo, with plenty of cloves. On a little island near Celebes theGolden Hind was thoroughly repaired for her long voyage home. But the little treasure-laden shipwas nearly wreckedbefore she got away from the dangerous shoals and currents of these islands.

"Upon the 9th of January we ran suddenly upon a rock, where we stuck fast from eight of the clock at nighttill four of the clock in the afternoon the next day, being, indeed, out of all hope to escape the danger; butour General, as he had always hitherto showed himself courageous, so now he and we did our best endeavours tosave ourselves, which it pleased God so to bless, that in the end we cleared ourselves most happily of thedanger."

Then they ran across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope in calm weather, abusing the Portuguesefor calling it the most dangerous Cape in the world for intolerable storms, for "This Cape," said the English,"is a most stately thing and the finest Cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth."

And so they came home. After nearly three years' absence Drake triumphantly sailed his little GoldenHind into Plymouth harbour, where he had long ago been given up as lost. Shouts of applause rangthrough the land at the news that an Englishman had circumnavigated the world. The Queen sent for Drake totell his wonderful story, to which she listened spellbound. A great banquet was held on board the little ship,at which Elizabeth was present and knighted Drake, while she ordered that the Golden Hind shouldbe preserved "as a worthy rival of Magellan's Victoria" and as "a monument to all posterity ofthat famous and worthy exploit of Sir FrancisDrake." It was afterwards taken to pieces, and the best parts of wood were made into a chair at Oxford,commemorated by Cowley's lines—

Sir Francis Drake died at sea in 1596.

But even while Drake was sailing round the world, and Frobisher's search for a north-west passage had beendiverted into a quest for gold, men's minds were still bent on the achievement of reaching Cathay by somenorthern route. A discourse by Sir Humphrey Gilbert to prove the existence of a passage by the north-west toCathay and the East Indies, in ten chapters, was much discussed, and the Elizabethan seamen were still bent onits discovery.

"When I gave myself to the study of geography," said Sir Humphrey, "and came to the fourth part of the world,commonly called America, which by all descriptions I found to be an island environed round by sea, having onthe south side of it the Strait of Magellan, on the west side the Sea of the South, which sea runneth towardthe north, separating it from the east parts of Asia, and on the north side the sea that severeth it fromGreenland, through which Northern Seas the Passage lieth which I take now in hand to discover."

The arguments of Sir Humphrey seemed conclusive, and in 1585 they chose John Davis, "a man well grounded inthe principles of the art of navigation," to search for the North-West Passage to China. They gave him twolittle ships, the Sunshine of fifty tons, with a crew of seventeen seamen, four musicians, and aboy, and the Moonshine of thirty-five tons. It was a daring venture, but the expedition wasill-equipped to battle with the iceboundseas of the frozen north. The ships left Dartmouth on 7th June, and by July they were well out on the Atlanticwith porpoises and whales playing round them. Then came a time of fog and mist, "with a mighty great roaringof the sea." On 20th July they sailed out of the fog and beheld the snow-covered mountains of Greenland,beyond a wide stream of pack-ice—so gloomy, so "waste, and void of any creatures," so bleak andinhospitable that the Englishmen named it the Land of Desolation and passed on to the north. Rounding thepoint, afterwards named by Davis Cape Farewell, and sailing by the western coast of Greenland, they hoped tofind the passage to Cathay. Landing amid the fiords and the "green and pleasant isles" about the coast, theyanchored a while to refresh, and named their bay Gilbert Sound, after Sir Humphrey and Davis' own little boy,Gilbert, left at home.

"The people of the country," says Davis, "having espied our ships, came down unto us in their canoes, holdingup their right hand toward the sun. We doing the like, the people came aboard our ships, men of good stature,unbearded, small-eyed, and of tractable conditions. We bought the clothes from their backs, which were allmade of seals' skins and birds' skins, their buskins, their hose, their gloves, all being commonly sewed andwell dressed."

These simple Greenlanders who worshipped the sun gave Davis to understand that there was a great and open seato the north-west, and full of hope he sailed on. But he soon abandoned the search, for the season wasadvancing, and, crossing the open sea, he entered the broad channel named after him Davis Strait, crossed theArctic Circle, and anchored under a promontory, "the cliffs whereof were orient as gold," naming it MountRaleigh. Here they found four white bears of "a monstrous bigness," which they took to be goats or wolves,till on neareracquaintance they were discovered to be great Polar bears. There were no signs of human life, no wood, nograss, no earth, nothing but rock, so they coasted southwards, and to their joy they found an open strait tothe west free from ice. Eagerly they sailed the little Moonshine and Sunshine up theopening, which they called Cumberland Sound, till thick fogs, and adverse winds drove them back. Winter wasnow advancing, the six months' provisions were ended, and, satisfied with having found an open passagewestward, Davis sailed home in triumph to fit out another expedition as soon as spring came round. His newswas received with delight. "The North-West Passage is a matter nothing doubtful," he affirmed, "but at anytime almost to be passed, the sea navigable, void of ice, the air tolerable, and the waters very deep."

With this certainty of success the merchants readily fitted out another expedition, and Davis sailed early inMay 1586 with four ships.

The little Moonshine and Sunshine were included in the new fleet, but Davis himselfcommanded the Mermaid of one hundred and twenty tons. The middle of June found him on the westcoast of Greenland, battling his way with great blocks of ice to his old quarters at Gilbert Sound. What awarm welcome they receivedfrom their old Eskimo friends; "they rowed to the boat and took hold on the oars and hung about with suchcomfortable joy as would require a long discourse to be uttered." Followed by a wondering crowd of nativeseager to help him up and down the rocks, Davis made his way inland to find an inviting country, "with earthand grass such as our moory and waste grounds of England are"; he found, too, mosses and wild flowers in thesheltered places. But his business lay in the icy waters, and he boldly pushed forward. But ice and snow andfog made further progress impossible; shrouds, ropes, and sails were turned into a frozen mass, and the crewwas filled with despair. "Our men began to grow sick and feeble and hopeless of good success, and they advisedme that in conscience I ought to regard the safety of mine own life with the preservation of theirs, and thatI should not through my over-boldness leave their widows and fatherless children to give me bitter curses."

So Davis rearranged his crews and provisions, and with the Moonshine and a selection of his bestmen he determined to voyage on "as God should direct him," while the Mermaid should carry thesick and feeble and faint-hearted home. Davis then crossed over the strait called by his name and explored thecoast about Cumberland Sound. Again he tried here to discover the long-sought passage, but the brief summerseason was almost past and he had to content himself with exploring the shores of Labrador, unconsciouslyfollowing the track made by John Cabot eighty-nine years before.

But on his return home the merchants of London were disappointed. Davis had indeed explored an immense extentof coast-line, and he had brought back a cargo of cod-fish and five hundred seal skins, but Cathay seemed asfar off as ever. One merchant prince, Sanderson by name, was still very keen, and he helped Davis to fit outyetanother expedition. With three ships, the Sunshine, the Elizabeth, and the Helen, theundaunted Arctic explorer now found himself for the third summer in succession at his old halting-place,Gilbert's Sound, on the west coast of Greenland.

Leaving his somewhat discontented crews to go fishing off the coast of Labrador, he took the little twenty-tonpinnace, with a small party of brave spirits like his own, and made his way northwards in a free and open sea.The weather was hot, land was visible on both sides, and the English mariners were under the impression thatthey were sailing up a gulf. But the passage grew wider and wider, till Davis found himself with the sea allopen to west and north. He had crossed the Arctic Circle and reached the most northerly point ever yet reachedby an explorer. Seeing on his right a lofty cliff, he named it "Sanderson his Hope," for it seemed to givehope of the long-sought passage to Cathay.

It was a memorable day in the annals of discovery, 30th June 1587, when Davis reached this famous point on thecoast of Greenland. "A bright blue sea extended to the horizon on the north and west, obstructed by no ice,but here and there a few majestic icebergs with peaks snowy shooting up into the sky. To the eastward were thegranite mountains of Greenland, and beyond them the white line of the mightiest glacier in the world. Risingimmediately above the tiny vessel was the beetling wall of Hope Sanderson, with its summit eight hundred andfifty feet above sea-level. At its base the sea was a sheet of foam and spray. It must have been a scene likefairyland, for, as Davis remarked, there was "no ice towards the north, but a great sea, free, large, verysalt and blue, and of an unsearchable depth."

But again disappointment awaited him. That night a wind from the north barred further advance as a mightybank of ice some eight feet thick came drifting down toward the Atlantic. Again and again he attempted to geton, but it was impossible, and reluctantly enough he turned the little ship southwards.

"This Davis hath been three times employed; why hath he not found the passage?" said the folk at home when hereturned and reported his doings. How little they realised the difficulties of the way. The commander of thetwenty-ton Ellen had done more than any man had done before him in the way of Arctic exploration.He had discovered seven hundred and thirty-two miles of coast from Cape Farewell to Sanderson's Hope; he hadexamined the whole coast of Labrador; he had "converted the Arctic regions from a confused myth into a definedarea." "He lighted Baffin into his bay. He lighted Hudson into his strait. He lighted Hans Egede to the sceneof his Greenland labour." And more than this, says his enthusiastic biographer: "His true-hearted devotion tothe cause of Arctic discovery, his patient scientific research, his loyalty to his employers, his dauntlessgallantry and enthusiasm form an example which will be a beacon-light to maritime explorers for all time tocome."

With the third failure of John Davis to find the North-West Passage the English search for Cathay came to an endfor the present. But the merchants of Amsterdam took up the search, and in 1594 they fitted out an expeditionunder William Barents, a burgher of Amsterdam and a practical seaman of much experience. The three voyages ofBarents form some of the most romantic reading in the history of geographical discovery, and the preface tothe old book compiled for the Dutch after the death of Barents sums up in pathetic language the tragic storyof the "three Voyages, so strange and wonderful that the like hath never been heard of before." They were"done and performed three years," says the old preface, "one after the other, by the ships of Holland, on theNorth sides of Norway, Muscovy, and Tartary, towards the kingdoms of Cathay and China, showing discoveries ofthe Country lying under 80 degrees: which is thought to be Greenland; where never any man had been before,with the cruel Bears and other Monsters of the sea and the unsupportable and extreme cold that is found to bein these places. And how that in the last Voyage the Ship was enclosed by the Ice, that it was left there,whereby the men were forced to build a house in the cold and desert country of Nova Zembla, wherein theycontinued ten months together and never saw nor heard of any man, in most great cold and extreme misery; andhow after that, to save their lives, they were constrained to sail about one thousand miles in little openboats, along and over the main Seas in most great danger and with extreme labour, unspeakable troubles, andgreat hunger."

Surely no more graphic summary of disaster has ever appeared than these words penned three hundred andfourteen years ago, which cry to us down the long, intervening ages of privation and suffering endured in thecause of science.

In the year 1594, then, four ships were sent forth from Amsterdam with orders to the wise and skilful pilot,William Barents, that he was to sail into the North Seas and "discover the kingdoms of Cathay and China." Inthe month of July the Dutch pilot found himself off the south coast of Nova Zembla, whence he sailed as thewind pleased to take him, ever making for the north and hugging the coast as close as possible. On 9th Julythey found a creek very far north to which they gave the name of Bear Creek, because here they suddenlydiscovered their first Polar bear. It tried to get into their boat, so they shot it with a musket, "but thebear showed most wonderful strength, for, notwithstanding that she was shot into the body, yet she leapt upand swam in the water; the men that were in the boat, rowing after her, cast a rope about her neck and drewher at the stern of the boat, for, not having seen the like bear before, they thought to have carried heralive in the ship and to have showed her for astrange wonder in Holland; but she used such force that they were glad they were rid of her, and contentedthemselves with her skin only." This they brought back to Amsterdam in great triumph—their first whitePolar bear. But they went farther north than this, until they came to a plain field of ice and encounteredvery misty weather. Still they kept sailing on, as best they might, round about the ice till they found theland of Nova Zembla was covered with snow. From "Ice Point" they made their way to islands which they namedOrange Islands after the Dutch Prince. Here they found two hundred walrus or sea-horses lying on the shore andbasking in the sun.

"The sea-horse is a wonderful strong monster of the sea," they brought back word, "much bigger than an ox,having a skin like a seal, with very short hair, mouthed like a lion; it hath four feet, but no ears." Thelittle party of Dutchmen advanced boldly with hatchets and pikes to kill a few of these monsters to take home,but it was harder work than they thought. The wind suddenly rose, too, and rent the ice into great pieces, sothey had to content themselves by getting a few of their ivory teeth, which they reported to be half an elllong. With these and other treasures Barents was now forced to return from these high latitudes, and he sailedsafely into the Texel after three and a half months' absence.

His reports of Nova Zembla encouraged the merchants of Amsterdam to persevere in their search for the kingdomsof Cathay and China by the north-east, and a second expedition was fitted out under Barents the followingyear; but it started too late to accomplish much, and we must turn to the third expedition for the discoverywhich has for ever made famous the name of William Barents. It was yet early in the May of 1596 when he sailedfrom Amsterdam with two ships for the third and last time, bound once more for the frozen northern seas. By1st June he had reached a region where there was no night, and a few days later a strange sight startled thewhole crew, "for on each side of the sun there was another sun and two rainbows more, the one compassing roundabout the suns and the other right through the great circle," and they found they were "under 71 degrees ofthe height of the Pole."

Sighting the North Cape of Lapland, they held on a north-westerly course till on 9th June they came upon alittle island which they named Bear Island. Here they nearly met their end, for, having ascended a steep snowmountain on the island to look around them, they found it too slippery to descend. "We thought we should allhave broken our necks, it was so slippery, but we sat upon the snow and slid down, which was very dangerous for us, and break both our arms and legs for that at thefoot of the hill there were many rocks." Barents himself seems to have sat in the boat and watched them withintense anxiety. They were once more amid ice and Polar bears. In hazy weather they made their way north tillon the 19th they saw land, and the "land was very great." They thought it was Greenland, but it was reallySpitzbergen, of which he was thus the discoverer.

Many things astonished the navigators here. Although they were in such high latitudes, they saw grass andleafy trees and such animals as bucks and harts, while several degrees to the south "there groweth neitherleaves nor grass nor any beasts that eat grass or leaves, but only such beasts as eat flesh, as bears andfoxes."

By 1st July he had explored the western shore and was sailing south to Bear Island. He never landed on thecoast of Spitzbergen: so we have no further account of this Arctic discovery. Sailing across the wide northernsea now known as Barents Sea, he made land again in the north of Nova Zembla, and, hugging the western shore,came to Ice Point. Here they were sorely harassed by Polar bears and floating ice and bitter gales of wind.Still they coasted on till they had rounded the northern end of Nova Zembla and unexpectedly sailed into agood harbour where they could anchor. The wind now blew with redoubled vigour, the "ice came mightily drivingin" until the little ship was nearly surrounded, "and withal the wind began more and more to rise and the icestill drave harder and harder, so that our boat was broken in pieces between the ship and the ice, and itseemed as if the ship would be crushed in pieces too."

As the August days passed on, they tried to get out of their prison, but it was impossible, and there wasnothing for it but to winter "in great cold, poverty, misery, and grief" in this bleak and barren spot. Thesuccessful pilot was to explore no more, but the rest of the tragic tale must be shortly told. With the iceheaping high, "as the salt hills that are in Spain," and the ship in danger of going to pieces, they collectedtrees and roots driven on to the desolate shores from Tartary, "wherewith as if God had purposely sent themunto us we were much comforted." Through the September days they drew wood across the ice and snow to build ahouse for the winter. Only sixteen men could work and they were none too strong and well.

Throughout October and November they were snowed up in their winter hut, with "foul stormie weather" outside,the wind blowing ceaselessly out of the north and snow lying deep around. They trapped a few foxes fromday to day to eat, making warm caps out of their fur; they heated stones and took them into their cabin beds,but their sheets froze as they washed them and at last their clock froze too.

"They looked pitifully upon one another, being in great fear that if the extremity of the cold grew to be moreand more we should all die there with the cold." Christmas came and went and they comforted one another byremembering that the sun was as low as it could go, and that it must begin to come to them again; but "as theday lengthens, so the cold strengthens," and the snow now lay deeper until it covered the roof of their house.

The New Year found them still imprisoned, "with great cold, danger, and disease." January, February, March,April passed and still the little ship was stuck fast in the ice. But as the sun began to gain power, hoperevived, and they began to repair their boats, to make new sails, and repair tackle. They were too weak andill to do much work, but by the middle of June the boats were fairly ready and they could cut a way throughthe ice to the open sea. This was their only hope of escape, to leave the ship behind and embark in two littleopen boats for the open sea.

"Then William Barents wrote a letter, which he put into a musket's charge and hanged it up in the chimney,showing how we came out of Holland to sail to the kingdom of China, and how we had been forced in ourextremity to make that house and had dwelt ten months therein, and how we were forced to put to sea in twosmall open boats, for that the ship lay fast in the ice."

Barents himself was now too ill to walk, so they carried him to one of the little boats, and on 14th June 1597the little party put off from their winter quarters and sailed round to Ice Point. But the pilot was dying."Are we about Ice Point?" he asked feebly. "If we be, then I pray you lift me up, for I must view it onceagain."

Then suddenly the wind began to rise, driving the ice so fast upon them "that it made our hair stand uprightsupon our heads, it was so fearful to behold, so that we thought verily that it was a foreshadowing of ourlast end."

They drew the boats up on to the ice and lifted the sick commander out and laid him on the icy ground, where afew days later he died—"our chief guide and only pilot on whom we reposed ourselves next under God." Therest of the story is soon told.

On 1st November 1597 some twelve gaunt and haggard men, still wearing caps of white fox and coats ofbear-skin, having guided their little open boats all the way from Nova Zembla, arrived at Amsterdam and toldthe story of their exploration to the astonished merchants, who had long since given them up as dead.

It was not till 1871 that Barents' old winter quarters on Nova Zembla were discovered. "There stood thecooking-pans over the fireplace, the old clocks against the wall, the arms, the tools, the drinking vessels,the instruments and the books that had beguiled the weary hours of that long night, two hundred andseventy-eight years ago." Among the relics were a pair of small shoes and a flute which had belonged to alittle cabin-boy who had died during the winter.

Henry hudson was another victim to perish in the hopeless search for a passage to China by the north. John Davis had beendead two years, but not till after he had piloted the first expedition undertaken by the newly formed EastIndia Company for commerce with India and the East. It was now more important than ever to find a short way tothese countries other than round by the Cape of Good Hope. So Henry Hudson was employed by the Muscovy Company"to discover a shorter route to Cathay by sailing over the North Pole." He knew the hardships ofthe way; he must have realised the fate of Willoughby, the failure of Frobisher, the sufferings of Barents andhis men, the difficulties of Davis—indeed, it is more than probable that he had listened to Davisspeaking on the subject of Arctic exploration to the merchants of London at his uncle's house at Mortlake.

Never did man start on a bolder or more perilous enterprise than did this man, when he started for the NorthPole in a little boat of eighty tons, with his little son Jack, two mates, and a crew of eight men.

"Led by Hudson with the fire of a great faith in his eyes, the men solemnly marched to St. Ethelburga Church,off Bishopsgate Street, London, to partake of Holy Communion and ask God's aid. Back to the muddy waterfront, opposite the Tower, a hearty God-speed from the gentlemen of the Muscovy Company, pompous inself-importance and lace ruffles—and the little crew steps into a clumsy river-boat with brick-redsails."

After a six weeks' tumble over a waste of waters, Hudson arrived off the coast of Greenland, the decks of thelittle Hopewell coated with ice, her rigging and sails hard as boards, and a north-east gale ofwind and snow against her. A barrier of ice forbade further advance; but, sailing along the edge of thisbarrier—the first navigator to do so—he made for the coast of Spitzbergen, already roughly chartedby Barents. Tacking up the west coast to the north, Hudson now explored further the fiords, islands, andharbours, naming some of them—notably Whale Bay and Hakluyt Headland, which may be seen on our maps ofto-day. By 13th July he had reached his Farthest North, farther than any explorer had been before him, fartherthan any to be reached again for over one hundred and fifty years. It was a land of walrus, seal, and Polarbear; but, as usual, ice shut off all further attempts to penetrate the mysteries of the Pole, thick fog hungaround the little ship, and with a fair wind Hudson turned southward. "It pleased God to give us a gale andaway we steered," says the old ship log. Hudson would fain have steered Greenland way and had another try forthe north. But his men wanted to go home, and home they went, through "slabbie" weather.

But the voice of the North was still calling Hudson, and he persuaded the Muscovy Company to let him go offa*gain. This he did in the following year. Only three of his former crew volunteered for service, and one ofthese was his son. But this expedition was devoid of result. The icy seas about Nova Zembla gave no hope of apassage in this direction, and, "being void of hope,the wind stormy and against us, much ice driving, we weighed and set sail westward."

Hudson's voyages for the Muscovy Company had already come under the notice of the Dutch, who were vying withthe English for the discovery of this short route to the East. Hudson was now invited to undertake anexpedition for the Dutch East India Company, and he sailed from Amsterdam in the early spring of 1809 in aDutch ship called the Half-Moon, with a mixed crew of Dutch and English, including once more his ownson. Summer found the enthusiastic explorer off the coast of Newfoundland, where some cod-fishing refreshedthe crews before they sailed on south, partly seeking an opening to the west, partly looking for the colony ofVirginia, under Hudson's friend, Captain John Smith. In hot, misty weather they cruised along the coast. Theypassed what is now Massachusetts, "an Indian country of great hills—a very sweet land." On 7th August,Hudson was near the modern town of New York, so long known as New Amsterdam, but mist hid the low-lying hillsand the Half-Moon drifted on to James River; then, driven back by a heat hurricane, he made forthe inlet on the old charts, which might lead yet east.

It was 2nd September when he came to the great mouth of the river that now bears his name. He had been beatingabout all day in gales and fogs, when "the sun arose and we saw the land all like broken islands. From theland which we had first sight of, we came to a large lake of water, like drowned land, which made it to riselike islands. The mouth hath many shores and the sea breaketh on them. This is a very good land to fall inwith, and a pleasant land to see. At three of the clock in the afternoon we came to three great rivers. Wefound a very good harbour and went in with our ship. Then we took our nets to fish and caught ten greatmullets of a foot and a half long each, and a ray as great as four men could haul into the ship. The people ofthe country came aboard of us, seeming very glad of our coming, and brought green tobacco—they go indeer skins, well-dressed, they desire clothes and are very civil they have great store of maize, whereof theymake good bread. The country is full of great and tall oaks." To this he adds that the women had red coppertobacco pipes, many of them being dressed in mantles of feathers or furs, but the natives proved treacherous.Sailing up the river, Hudson found it a mile broad, with high land on both sides. By the night of 19thSeptember the little Half-Moon had reached the spot where the river widens near the modern townof Albany. He had sailed for the first time the distance covered to-day by magnificent steamers which plydaily between Albany and New York city. Hudson now went ashore with an old chief of the country. "Two men weredispatched in quest of game," so records Hudson's manuscript, "who brought in a pair of pigeons. They likewisekilled a fat dog and skinned it with great haste with shells. The land is the finest for cultivation that everI in my life set foot upon."

Hudson had not found a way to China, but he hadfound the great and important river that now bears his name. Yet he was to do greater things than these, andto lose his life in the doing. The following year, 1610, found him once more bound for the north, continuingthe endless search for a north-west passage—this time for the English, and not for the Dutch. On boardthe little Discovery of fifty-five tons, with his young son, Jack, still his faithful companion,with a treacherous old man as mate, who had accompanied him before, with a good-for-nothing young spendthrifttaken at the last moment "because he wrote a good hand," and a mixed crew, Hudson crossed the wide Atlanticfor the last time. He sailed by way of Iceland, where "fresh fish and dainty fowl, partridges, curlew, plover,teale, and goose" much refreshed the already discontented crews, and the hot baths of Iceland delighted them.The men wanted to return to the pleasant land discovered in the last expedition, but the mysteries of thefrozen North still called the old explorer, and he steered for Greenland. He was soon battling with ice uponthe southern end of "Desolation," whence he crossed to the snowy shores of Labrador, sailing into the greatstraits that bear his name to-day. For three months they sailed aimlessly about that "labyrinth without end"as it was called by Abacuk Prickett who wrote the account of this fourth and last voyage of Henry Hudson. Butthey could find no opening to the west, no way of escape.

Winter was coming on, "the nights were long and cold, and the earth was covered with snow." They were severalhundred miles south of the straits, and no way had been found to the Pacific; they had followed the southshore "to the westernmost bay of all," James Bay, but lo! there was no South Sea. Hudson recognised the factthat he was land-bound and winter-bound in a desolate region, with a discontented crew, and that thediscontent was amounting to mutiny. On 1st November they hauled up the ship and selected a wintering place.Ten days later they were frozen in, and snow was falling continuously every day. "We were victualled for sixmonths, and of that which was good," runs the record. For the first three months they shot "partridges aswhite as milk," but these left with the advent of spring, and hunger seized on the handful of Englishmenwintering in this unknown land. "Then we went into the woods, hills, and valleys—and the moss and thefrog were not spared." Not till the month of May did the ice begin to melt and the men could fish. The firstday this was possible they caught "five hundred fish as big as good herrings and some trout," which revivedtheir hopes and their health. Hudson made a last despairing effort to find a westward passage. But now the menrose in mutiny. "We would rather be hanged at home than starved abroad!" they cried miserably.

So Hudson "fitted all things for his return, and first delivered all the bread out of the bread room (whichcame to a pound apiece for every man's share), and he wept when he gave it unto them." It was barelysufficient for fourteen days, and even with the fourscore small fish they had caught it was "a poor relief forso many hungry bellies."

With a fair wind in the month of June, the little Discovery was headed for home. A few days latershewas stopped by ice. Mutiny now burst forth. The "master" and his men had lost confidence in each other. Therewere ruffians on board, rendered almost wild by hunger and privation. There is nothing more tragic in thehistory of exploration than the desertion of Henry Hudson and his boy in their newly discovered bay. Everydetail of the conspiracy is given by Prickett. We know how the rumour spread, how the crew resolved to turnthe "master" and the sick men adrift and to share the remaining provisions among themselves. And how in theearly morning Hudson was seized and his arms bound behind him.

"What does this mean?" he cried.

"You will know soon enough when you are in the shallop," they replied.

The boat was lowered and into it Hudson was put with his son, while the "poor, sick, and lame men were calledupon to get them out of their cabins into the shallop." Then the mutineers lowered some powder and shot, somepikes, an iron pot, and some meal into her, and the little boat was soon adrift with her living freight ofsuffering, starving men—adrift in that icebound sea, far from home and friends and all human help. Atthe last moment the carpenter sprang into the drifting boat, resolved to die with the captain sooner thandesert him. Then the Discovery flew away with all sail up as from an enemy.

And "the master" perished—how and when we know not.

Fortunately the mutineers took home Hudson's journals and charts. Ships were sent out to search for the lostexplorer, but the silence has never been broken since that summer's day three hundred years ago, when he wasdeserted in the waters of his own bay.

Two years only after the tragedy of Henry Hudson, another Arctic explorer appears upon the scene. William Baffinwas already an experienced seaman in the prime of life; he had made four voyages to the icy north, when he wascalled on by the new Company of Merchants of London—"discoverers of the North-West Passage"—formedin 1612, to prepare for another voyage of discovery. Distressed beyond measure at the desertion of HenryHudson, the Muscovy Company had dispatched Sir Thomas Button with our old friend Abacuk Prickett to show himthe way. Button had reached the western side of Hudson's Bay, and after wintering there returned fullyconvinced that a north-west passage existed in this direction. Baffin returned from an expedition to Greenlandthe same year. The fiords and islets of west Greenland, the ice-floes and glaciers of Spitzbergen, the tidalphenomena of Hudson's Strait, and the geographical secrets of the far-northern bay were all familiar to him."He was, therefore, chosen as mate and associate "to Bylot, one of the men who had deserted Hudson, but whohad sailed three times with him previously and knew well the western seas. So in "the good ship called theDiscovery," of fifty-five tons, with a crew of fourteen men and two boys, William Baffin sailed for thenorthern seas. May found the expedition on the coast of Greenland, with a gale of wind and great islands ofice. However, Baffin crossedDavis Strait, and after a struggle with ice at the entrance to Hudson's Strait he sailed along the northernside till he reached a group of islands which he named Savage Islands. For here were Eskimos again—veryshy and fearful of the white strangers. "Among their tents," relates Baffin, "all covered with seal skins,were running up and down about forty dogs, most of them muzzled, about the bigness of our mongrel mastiffs,being a brindled black colour, looking almost like wolves. These dogs they used instead of horses, or ratheras the Lapps do their deer, to draw their sledges from place to place over the ice, their sledges being shodor lined with bones of great fishes to keep them from wearing out, and the dogs have furniture and collarsvery fitting."

The explorers went on bravely till they were stopped by masses of ice. They thought they must be at the mouthof a large bay, and, seeing no prospect of a passage to the west, they turned back. When, two hundred yearslater, Parry sailed in Baffin's track he named this place Baffin Land "out of respect to the memory of thatable and enterprising navigator."

The Discovery arrived in Plymouth Sound by September, without the loss of one man—agreat achievement in these days of salt junk and scurvy.

"And now it may be," adds Baffin, "that some expect I should give my opinion concerning the Passage. To thesemy answer must be that doubtless there is a Passage. But within this Strait, which is called Hudson Strait, Iam doubtful, supposing to the contrary."

Baffin further suggested that if there was a Passage it must now be sought by Davis Strait.

Accordingly another expedition was fitted out and Baffin had his instructions: "For your course, you must makeall possible haste to Cape Desolation; and from hence you, William Baffin, as pilot, keep along the coast ofGreenland and up Davis Strait, until you come toward the height of 80 degrees, if the land will give youleave. Then shape your course west and southerly, so far as you shall think it convenient, till you come tothe latitude of 60 degrees, then direct your course to fall in with the land of Yedzo, leaving yourfurther sailing southward to your own discretion: although our desires be if your voyage prove so prosperousthat you may have the year before you that you go far south as that you may touch the north part of Japan fromwhence we would have you bring home one of the men of the country and so, God blessing you, with allexpedition to make your return home again."

The Discovery had proved a good little ship for exploration, so she was again selected by Baffinfor this new attempt in the far north. Upon 26th March 1616 she sailed from Gravesend, arriving off the coastof Greenland in the neighbourhood of Gilbert Sound about the middle of May. Working against terrible winds,they plied to the northward, the old ship making but slow progress, till at last they sighted "Sanderson hisHope," the farthest point of Master Davis. Once more English voices broke the silence of thirty years. Thepeople who appeared on the shore were wretchedly poor. They lived on seals' flesh, which they ate raw, andclothed themselves in the skins. Still northwards they sailed, cruising along the western coast. Though theice was beginning to disappear the weather kept bitterly cold, and on Midsummer Day the sails and ropes werefrozen too hard to be handled. Stormy weather now forced them into a sound which they named Whale Sound fromthe number of whales they discovered here. It was declared by Baffin to be the "greatest and largest bay inthese parts."

But beyond this they could not go; so they sailed across the end of what we now know as Baffin's Bay andexplored the opposite coast of America, naming one ofthe greater openings Lancaster Sound, after Sir James Lancaster of East India Company fame.

"Here," says Baffin pitifully, "our hope of Passage began to grow less every day."

It was the old story of ice, advancing season, and hasty conclusions.

"There is no hope of Passage to the north of Davis' Straits," the explorer further asserts; but he assertswrongly, for Lancaster Sound was to prove an open channel to the West.

So he returned home. He had not found the Passage, but he had discovered the great northern sea that now bearshis name. The size of it was for long plunged in obscurity, and the wildest ideas centred round the extent ofthis northern sea. A map of 1706 gives it an indefinite amount of space, adding vaguely: "Some will haveBaffin's Bay to run as far as this faint Shadow," while a map of 1818 marks the bay, but adds that "it is notnow believed."

For the next two hundred years the icebound regionsof the north were practically left free from invasion, silent, inhospitable, unapproachable.

But while these Arctic explorers were busy battling with the northern seas to find a passage which should leadthem to the wealth of the East, others were exploring the New World and endeavouring by land and river toattain the same end.

It is pleasant to turn from the icy regions of North America to the sunny South, and to follow the fortunes ofthat fine Elizabethan gentleman, Sir Walter Raleigh, to "the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana andthe Great and Golden City of Manoa (which the Spaniards call El Dorado)." Ever since the conquest of Peru,sixty years before, there had floated about rumours of a great kingdom abounding in gold. The King of thisGolden Land was sprinkled daily with gold dust, till he shone as the sun, while Manoa was full of goldenhouses and golden temples with golden furniture. The kingdom was wealthier than Peru; it was richer thanMexico. Expedition after expedition had left Spain in search of this El Dorado, but the region was stillplunged in romantic mists. Raleigh had just failed to establish an English colony in Virginia. To gain a richkingdom for his Queen, to extend her power and enrich her treasury was now his greatest object in life. Whatabout El Dorado?

"Oh, unwearied feet, travelling ye know not whither! Soon, soon, it seems to you, you must come forth on someconspicuous hilltop, and but a little way further, against the setting sun, descry the spires of El Dorado."

February 1595 found him ready and leaving England with five ships and, after a good passage of forty-six days,landing on the island of Trinidad, and thence making his way to the mouth of the Orinoco. Here Raleigh soonfoundthat it was impossible to enter the Orinoco with his English ships, but, nothing daunted, he took a hundredmen and provisions for a month in three little open boats, and started forward to navigate this most difficultlabyrinth of channels, out of which they were guided by an old Indian pilot named Ferdinando. They had much toobserve. The natives, living along the river-banks, dwelt in houses all the summer, but in the winter monthsthey constructed small huts to which they ascended by means of ladders.

These folk were cannibals, but cannibals of a refined sort, who "beat the bones of their lords into powder"and mixed the powder with their drinks. The stream was very strong and rapid, and the men rowed against it ingreat discomfort, "the weather being extreme hot, the river bordered with very high trees that kept away theair, and the current against us every day stronger than the other," until they became, as Raleigh tells us,"wearied and scorched and doubtful."

The heat increased as they advanced, and the crews grew weaker as the river "ran more violently against them."But Raleigh refused to return yet, lest "the world would laugh us to scorn."

Fortunately delicious fruits hung over the banks of the Orinoco, and, having no bread and for water only thethick and troubled water of the river, they refreshed themselves gladly. So they rowed on up the great river,through province after province of the Indians, but no El Dorado appeared. Suddenly the scene changed as if bymagic, the high banks giving way to low-lying plains; green grass grew close to the water's edge, and deercame down to feed.

"I never saw a more beautiful country," says Raleigh, "nor more lively prospects, hills raised here and thereover the valleys, the river winding into different branches,plains without bush or stubble, all fair green grass, deer crossing our path, the birds towards eveningsinging on every tree with a thousand several tunes, herons of white, crimson, and carnation perching on theriverside, the air fresh with a gentle wind, and every stone we stooped to pick up promised either gold orsilver." His account of the great cataract at the junction of the tributary Caroni is very graphic. They hadalready heard the roar, so they ran to the tops of some neighbouring hills, discovering the wonderful "breachof waters" which ran down Caroli, and from that "mountain see the river how it ran in three parts, abouttwenty miles off, and there appeared some ten or twelve overfalls in sight, every one as high over the otheras a church tower, which fell with that fury that the rebound of waters made it seem as if it had been allcovered over with a great shower of rain; and in some places we took it at the first for a smoke that hadrisen over some great town."

The country was the province of Guiana, but it was not El Dorado, the object of their quest. And though it wasvery beautiful, it was inhabited by cannibals; moreover, winter was advancing, and they were already some fourhundred miles from their ships in little open boats and in the heart of a strange country.

Suddenly, too, the river began to rise, to "rage and overflow very fearfully," rain came down in torrents accompanied by great gusts of wind, and the crews with nochange of clothes got wet through, sometimes ten times a day. "Whosoever had seen the fury of that river afterit began to rise would perchance have turned his back somewhat sooner than we did if all the mountains hadbeen gold or precious stones," remarked Raleigh, who indeed was no coward. So they turned the boats for home,and at a tremendous rate they spun down the stream, sometimes doing as much as one hundred miles a day, tillafter sundry adventures they safely reached their ships at anchor off Trinidad. Raleigh had not reached thegolden city of Manoa, but he gave a very glowing account of this country to his Queen.

"Guiana," he tells her, "is a country that hath yet her maidenhood. The face of the earth hath not been torn,the graves have not been opened for gold. It hath never been entered by any army of strength, and neverconquered by any Christian prince. Men shall find here more rich and beautiful cities, more temples adornedwith gold, than either Cortes found in Mexico or Pizarro in Peru, and the shining glory of this conquest willeclipse all those of the Spanish nation."

But Raleigh had brought back no gold, and his schemes for a conquest of Guiana were received coldly by theQueen. She could not share his enthusiasm for the land—

But, besides the Orinoco in South America, there wasthe St. Lawrence in North America, still very imperfectly known. Since Jacques Cartier had penetrated thehitherto undisturbed regions lying about the "river of Canada," little had been explored farther west, tillSamuel Champlain, one of the most remarkable men of his day, comes upon the scene, and was still discoveringland to the west when Raleigh was making his second expedition to Guiana in the year 1617.

To discover a passage westward was still the main object of those who made their way up the Gulf of the St.Lawrence. This, too, was the object of Samuel Champlain, known as "the Father of New France," when he arrivedwith orders from France to establish an industrial colony "which should hold for that country the gateway ofthe Golden East." He had already ascended the river Saguenay, a tributary of the St. Lawrence, till stopped byrapids and rocks, and the natives had told him of a great salt sea to the north, which was Hudson's Bay,discovered some seven years later, in 1610. He now made his way to a spot called by the natives Quebec, a wordmeaning the strait or narrows, this being the narrowest place in the whole magnificent waterway. He had longbeen searching for a suitable site for a settlement, but "I could find none more convenient," he says, "orbetter situated than the point of Quebec, so called by the savages, which was covered with nut trees."Accordingly here, close to the present Champlain market, arose the nucleus of the city of Quebec—thegreat warehouse of New France.

Having passed the winter of 1608 at Quebec, the passion of exploration still on him, in a little two-mastedboat piloted by Indians, he went up the St. Lawrence, towards Cartier's Mont Royal. From out the thick forestland that lined its banks, Indians discovered the steel-clad strangers and gazed at them from the river-banksinspeechless wonder. The river soon became alive with Indian canoes, but the Frenchmen made their way to themouth of the Richelieu River, where they encamped for a couple of days' hunting and fishing. Then Champlainsailed on, his little two-masted boat outstripping the native canoes, till the unwelcome sound of rapids fellon the silent air, and through the dark foliage of the islet of St. John he could see "the gleam of snowy foamand the flash of hurrying waters." The Indians had assured him that his boat could pass unobstructed throughthe whole journey. "It afflicted me and troubled me exceedingly," he tells us, "to be obliged to returnwithout having seen so great a lake, full of fair islands and bordered with the fine countries which they haddescribed to me."

He could not bear to give up the exploration into the heart of a land unvisited by white men. So, sending backhis party, accompanied only by two Frenchmen as brave as himself, he stepped into an Indian canoe to becarried round the rapids and so continue his perilous journey—perilous, indeed, for bands of hostilenatives lurked in the primeval forests that clothed the river-banks in dense masses.

As they advanced the river widened out; the Indian canoes carried them safely over the broad stream shimmering in the summer sun till they came to a great silent lake over one hundred miles long, hitherto unexplored.The beauty of the new country is described with enthusiasm by the delighted explorer, but they were now in theMohawk country and progress was fraught with danger. They travelled only by night and lay hidden by day in thedepth of the forest, till they had reached the far end of the lake, named Lake Champlain after its discoverer.They were near the rocky promontory where Fort Ticonderoga was afterwards built, when they met a party ofIroquois; war-cries pealed across the waters of the lake, and by daybreak battle could no longer be averted.Champlain and his two companions, in doublet and hose, buckled on their breastplates, cuisses of steel andplumed helmets, and with sword and arquebus advanced. Their firearms won the day, but all hope of furtheradvance was at an end, and Champlain returned to Quebec with his great story of new lands to the south. It wasnot till the spring of 1611 that he was again free to start on another exploring expedition into the heart ofCanada.

His journey to the rapids of the St. Louis has been well described: "Like specks on the broad bosom of thewaters, two pigmy vessels held their course up the lonely St. Lawrence. They passed abandoned Tadoussac, thechannel of Orleans, the tenantless rock of Quebec, the wide Lake of St. Peter with its crowded archipelago,and the forest plain of Montreal. All was solitude. Hochelaga had vanished, and of the savage population thatCartier had found sixty-eight years before, no trace remained."

In a skiff with a few Indians, Champlain tried to pass the rapids of St. Louis; but oars, paddles, and polesalike proved vain against the foaming surges, and he was forced to return, but not till the Indians had drawnfor him rude plans of the river above, with its chain of rapids and its lakes and its cataracts. They werequite impassable,said the natives, though, indeed, to these white strangers everything seemed possible.

"These white men must have fallen from the clouds," they said. "How else could they have reached us throughthe woods and rapids which even we find it hard to pass?" Champlain wanted to get to the upper waters of theOttawa River, to the land of the cannibal Nipissings, who dwelt on the lake that bears their name; but theywere enemies, and the natives refused to advance into their country.

Two years later he accomplished his desire, and found himself at last in the land of the Nipissings. Hecrossed their lake and steered his canoes down the French river. Days passed and no signs of human lifeappeared amid the rocky desolation, till suddenly three hundred savages,tattooed, painted, and armed, rushed out on them. Fortunately they were friendly, and it was from them thatChamplain learned the good news that the great fresh-water lake of the Hurons was close at hand.

What if the Friar Le Caron, one of Champlain's party, had preceded him by a few days, Champlain was the firstwhite man to give an account of it, if not the first to sail on its beautiful waters. For over one hundredmiles he made his way along its eastern shores, until he reached a broad opening with fields of maize andbright patches of sunflower, from the seeds of which the Indians made their hair-oil. After staying a few daysat a little Huron village where he was feasted by friendly natives, Champlain pushed on by Indian trails,passing village after village till he reached the narrow end of Lake Simcoe. A "shrill clamour of rejoicingand the screaming flight of terrified children" hailed his approach. The little fleet of canoes pursued theircourse along the lake and then down the chain of lakes leading to the river Trent. The inhabited country ofthe Hurons had now given place to a desolate region with no sign of human life, till from the mouth of theTrent, "like a flock of venturous wild fowl," they found themselves floating on the waters of Lake Ontario,across which they made their way safely.

It was a great day in the life of Champlain when he found himself in the very heart of a hostile land, havingdiscovered the chain of inland lakes of which he had heard so much. But they were now in the land of theIroquois—deadly foes of the Hurons. There was nothing for it but to fight, and a great battle now tookplace between the rival tribes, every warrior yelling at the top of his voice. Champlain himself was woundedin the fray, and all further exploration had to be abandoned. He was packed up in a basket and carried away onthe back of a Huronwarrior. "Bundled in a heap," wrote the explorer, "doubled and strapped together after such a fashion that onecould move no more than an infant in swaddling clothes, I never was in such torment in my life, for the painof the wound was nothing to that of being bound and pinioned on the back of one of our savages. As soon as Icould bear my weight, I got out of this prison." How Champlain wintered with the Hurons, who would not allowhim to return to Quebec, how he got lost while hunting in one of the great forests in his eagerness to shoot astrange-looking bird, how the lakes and streams froze, and how his courage and endurance were sorely triedover the toilsome marches to Lake Simcoe, but how finally he reached Montreal by way of Nipissing and theOttawa River, must be read elsewhere. Champlain's work as an explorer was done. Truly has he been called theFather of New France. He had founded Quebec and Montreal; he had explored Canada as no man has ever donebefore or since. Faithful to the passion of his life, he died in 1635 at Quebec—the city he had foundedand loved.

While the French and English were feverishly seeking a way to the East, either by the North Pole or by way ofAmerica, the Dutch were busy discovering a new land in the Southern Seas.

And as we have seen America emerging from the mist of ages in the sixteenth century, so now in the seventeenthwe have the great Island Continent of Australia mysteriously appearing bit by bit out of the yet little-knownSea of the South. There is little doubt that both Portuguese and Spanish had touched on the western coastearly in the sixteenth century, but gave no information about it beyond sketching certain rough and undefinedpatches of land and calling it Terra Australis in their early maps; no one seems to have thought thismysterious land of much importance. The maritime nations of that period carefully concealed their knowledgefrom one another. The proud Spaniard hated his Portuguese neighbour as a formidable rival in the race forwealth and fame, and the Dutchman, who now comes on the scene, was regarded by both as a natural enemy by landor sea.

Magellan in 1520 discovered that the Terra Australis was not joined to South America, as the old maps had laiddown; and we find Frobisher remarking in 1578 that "Terra Australis seemeth to be a great, firm land, lyingunder and about the South Pole, not thoroughly discovered. It is known at the south side of the Strait ofMagellan and is called Terra del Fuego. It is thought this south land about the pole Antarctic is far biggerthan the north land about the pole Arctic; but whether it be so or not, we have no certain knowledge, for we have no particular description thereof, as we have of the land about the North Pole."

And even one hundred years later the mystery was not cleared up. "This land about the straits is not perfectlydiscovered whether it be continent or islands.Some take it for continent, esteeming that Terra Australis or the Southern Continent may for the largenessthereof take a first place in the division of the whole world."

The Spaniards were still masters of the sea, when one Lieutenant Torres first sailed through the straitdividing Australia from New Guinea, already discovered in 1527. As second in command, he had sailed fromAmerica under a Spaniard, De Quiros, in 1605, and in the Pacific they had come across several island groups.Among others they sighted the island group now known as the New Hebrides. Quiros supposed that this was thecontinent for which he was searching, and gave it the name of "Terra Australis del Espirito Santo." And then acurious thing happened. "At one hour past midnight," relates Torres in his account of the voyage, "theCapitana (Quiros' ship) departed without any notice given us and without making any signal."

After waiting for many days, Torres at last set sail, and, having discovered that the supposed land was onlyan island, he made his way along the dangerous coast of New Guinea to Manila, thus passing through the straitsthat were afterwards named after him, and unconsciously passing almost within sight of the very continent forwhich he was searching.

This was the end of Spanish enterprise for the present. The rivals for sea-power in the seventeenth centurywere England and Holland. Both had recently started East India Companies, both were keen to take a large partin East Indian trade and to command the sea. For a time the Dutch had it all their own way; they devotedthemselves to founding settlements in the East Indies, ever hoping to discover new islands in the South Seasas possible trade centres. Scientific discovery held little interest for them.

As early as 1606 a Dutch ship—the little Sun—hadbeen dispatched from the Moluccas to discover more about the land called by the Spaniards New Guinea, becauseof its resemblance to the West African coast of Guinea. But the crews were greeted with a shower of arrows asthey attempted a landing, and with nine of their party killed, they returned disheartened.

A more ambitious expedition was fitted out in 1617 by private adventurers, and two ships—theUnity and the Horn—sailed from the Texel under the command of a rich Amsterdammerchant named Isaac Le Maire and a clever navigator, Cornelius Schouten of Horn. Having been provided with anEnglish gunner and carpenter, the ships were steered boldly across the Atlantic. Hitherto the object of theexpedition had been kept a secret, but on crossing the line the crews were informed that they were bound forthe Terra Australis del Espirito Santo of Quiros. The men had never heard of the country before, and we aretold they wrote the name in their caps in order to remember it. By midwinter they had reached the easternentrance of the Straits of Magellan, through which many a ship had passed since the days of Magellan, somehundred years before this. Unfortunately, while undergoing some necessary repairs here, the littleHorn caught fire and was burnt out, the crews all having to crowd on to the Unity. Insteadof going through the strait they sailed south and discovered Staaten Land, which they thought might be a partof the southern continent for which they were seeking. We now know it to be an island, whose heights arecovered with perpetual snow. It was named by Schouten after the Staaten or States-General of Holland. Passingthrough the strait which divided the newly discovered land from the Terra del Fuego (called later the Straitsof Le Maire after its discoverer), the Dutchmen found a great sea full of whales and monsters innumerable.Sea-mewslarger than swans, with wings stretching six feet across, fled screaming round the ship. The wind was againstthem, but after endless tacking they reached the southern extremity of land, which Schouten named after hisnative town and the little burnt ship—Horn—and as Cape Horn it is known to-day.

But the explorers never reached the Terra Australis. Their little ship could do no more, and they sailed toJava to repair.

Many a name on the Australian map to-day testifies to Dutch enterprise about this time. In 1616, Captain DirckHartog of Amsterdam discovered the island that bears his name off the coast of Western Australia. A few yearslater the captain of a Dutch ship called the Lewin or Lioness touched the south-west extremity ofthe continent, calling that point Cape Lewin. Again a few years and we find Captain Nuyts giving his name to apart of the southern coast, though the discovery seems to have been accidental. In 1628, Carpentaria receivedits name from Carpenter, a governor of the East India Company. Now, one day a ship from Carpenter's Landreturned laden with gold and spice; and though certain men had their suspicions that these riches had beenfished out of some large ship wrecked upon the inhospitable coast, yet a little fleet of eleven ships was atonce dispatched to reconnoitre further. Captain Pelsart commanded the Batavia, which in a great stormwas separated from the other ships and driven alone on to the shoals marked as the Abrolhos (a Portuguese wordmeaning "Open your eyes," implying a sharp lookout for dangerous reefs) on the west coast of Australia. It wasnight when the ship struck, and Captain Pelsart was sick in bed. He ran hastily on to the deck. The moon shonebright. The sails were up. The sea appeared to be covered with white foam. Captain Pelsartcharged the master with the loss of the ship, and asked him "in what part of the world he thought they were."

"God only knows that," replied the master, adding that the ship was fast on a bank hitherto undiscovered.Suddenly a dreadful storm of wind and rain arose, and, being surrounded with rocks and shoals, the ship wasconstantly striking. "The women, children, and sick people were out of their wits with fear," so they decidedto land these on an island for "their cries and noise served only to disturb them." The landing was extremelydifficult owing to the rocky coast, where the waves were dashing high. When the weather had moderated a bit,Captain Pelsart took the ship and went in search of water, thereby exploring a good deal of coast, which, heremarked, "resembled the country near Dover." But his exploration amounted to little, and the account of hisadventures is mostly taken up with an account of the disasters that befell the miserable party left on therock-bound islands of Abrolhos—conspiracies, mutinies, and plots. His was only one of many adventures onthis unknown and inhospitable coast, which about this time, 1644, began to take the name of New Holland.

At this time Anthony Van Diemen was governor at Batavia, and one of his most trusted commanders was Abel Tasman.In 1642, Tasman was given command of two ships "for making discoveries of the Unknown South Land," and,hoisting his flag on board the Sea-Hen, he sailed south from Batavia without sighting the coast ofAustralia. Despite foggy weather, "hard gales, and a rolling sea," he made his way steadily south. It wasthree months before land was sighted, and high mountains were seen to the south-east. The ship stood in toshore. "As the land has not been known before to any European, we called it Anthony Van Diemen's Land inhonour of our Governor-General, who sent us out to make discoveries. I anchored in a bay and heard the soundof people upon the shore, but I saw nobody. I perceived in the sand the marks of wild beasts' feet, resemblingthose of a tiger."

Setting up a post with the Dutch East India Company's mark, and leaving the Dutch flag flying, Tasman left VanDiemen's Land, which was not to be visited again for over one hundred years, when it was called after itsfirst discoverer. He had no idea that he was on an island. Tasman now sailed east, and after about a week atsea he discovered a high mountainous country, which he named "Staaten Land." "We found here abundance ofinhabitants: they had very hoarse voices and were very large-made people; they were of a colourbetween brown and yellow, their hair long and thick, combed up and fixed on the top of their heads with aquill in the very same manner that Japanese fastened their hair behind their heads."

Tasman anchored on the north coast of the south island of New Zealand, but canoes of warlike Maoris surroundedthe ships, a conflict took place in which several Dutch seamen were killed, the weather grew stormy, andTasman sailed away from the bay he named Murderer's Bay—rediscovered by Captain Cook about a hundredyears later.

"This is the second country discovered by us," says Tasman. "We named it Staaten Land in honour of theStates-General. It is possible that it may join the other Staaten Land (of Schouten and Le Maire to the southof Terra del Fuego), but it is uncertain; it is a very fine country, and we hope it is part of the unknownsouth continent." Is it necessary to add that this Staaten Land was really New Zealand, and the bay where theships anchored is now known as Tasman Bay? When the news of Tasman's discoveries was noised abroad, all thegeographers, explorers, and discoverers at once jumped to the conclusion that this was the same land on whosecoast Pelsart had been wrecked. "It is most evident," they said, "that New Guinea, Carpentaria, New Holland,Van Diemen's Land make all one continent, from which New Zealand seems to be separated by a strait, andperhaps is part of another continent answering to Africa as this plainly does to America, making indeed a verylarge country."

After a ten months' cruise Tasman returned to Batavia. He had found Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand, withoutsighting Australia.

A second expedition was now fitted out. The instructions for the commodore, Captain Abel Jansen Tasman, makeinteresting reading. The orders are detailed andclear. He will start the end of January 1644, and "we shall expect you in July following attended with goodsuccess."

"Of all the lands, countries, islands, capes, inlets, bays, rivers, shoals, reefs, sands, cliffs, and rockswhich you pass in this discovery you are to make accurate maps—be particularly careful about longitudeand latitude. But be circ*mspect and prudent in landing with small craft, because at several times New Guineahas been found to be inhabited by cruel, wild savages. When you converse with any of these savages behave welland friendly to them, and try by all means to engage their affection to you. You are to show the samples ofthe goods which you carry along with you, and inquire what materials and goods they possess. To prevent anyother European nation from reaping the fruits of our labour in these discoveries, you are everywhere to takepossession in the name of the Dutch East India Company, to put up some sign, erect a stone or post, and carveon them the arms of the Netherlands. The yachts are manned with one hundred and eleven persons, and for eightmonths plentifully victualled. Manage everything well and orderly, take notice you see the ordinary portion oftwo meat and two pork days, and a quarter of vinegar and a half-quarter of sweet oil per week."

He was to coast along New Guinea to the farthest-known spot, and to follow the coast despite adversewinds, in order that the Dutch might be sure "whether this land is not divided from the great known SouthContinent or not."

What he accomplished on this voyage is best seen in "The complete map of the Southern Continent surveyed byCaptain Abel Tasman," which was inlaid on the floor of the large hall in the Stadthouse at Amsterdam. TheGreat South Land was henceforth known as New Holland.

It was not long before the great stretch of coast-line carefully charted by Tasman became known to the English,and while the Dutch were yet busy exploring farther, Dampier—the first Englishman to visit thecountry—had already set foot on its shores.

"We lie entirely at the mercy of the Dutch East India Company's geography for the outline of this part of thecoast of New Holland: for it does not appear that the ships of any other nation have ever approached it," saysan old history of the period.

Some such information as this became known in South America, in which country the English had long beenharassing the Spaniards. It reached the ears of one William Dampier, a Somersetshire man, who had lived a lifeof romance and adventure with the buccaneers, pillaging and plundering foreign ships in these remote regionsof the earth. He had run across the Southern Pacific carrying his life in his hand. He had marched across theisthmus of Panama—one hundred and ten miles in twenty-three days—through deep and swiftly flowingrivers, dense growths of tropical vegetation full of snakes, his only food being the flesh of monkeys. Suchwas the man who now took part in a privateering cruise under Captain Swan, bound for the East Indies.

On 1st March 1686, Swan and Dampier sailed away from the coast of Mexico on the voyage that led to Dampier'scircumnavigation of the globe. For fifty days they sailed without sighting land, and when at last they foundthemselves off the island of Guam, they had only three days' food left, and the crews were busy plotting tokill Captain Swan and eat him, the other commanders sharing the same fate in turn.

"Ah, Dampier," said Captain Swan, when he and all the men had refreshed themselves with food, "you would havemade but a poor meal," for Dampier was as lean as the Captain was "fat and fleshy." Soon, however, freshtrouble arose among the men. Captain Swan lost his life, and Dampier on board the little Cygnet sailedhurriedly for the Spice Islands.

He was now on the Australian parallels, "in the shadow of a world lying dark upon the face of the ocean." Itwas January 1688 when Dampier sighted the coast of New Holland and anchored in a bay, which they named CygnetBay after their ship, somewhere off the northern coast of eastern Australia. Here, while the ship wasundergoing repairs, Dampier makes his observations.

"New Holland," he tells us, "is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined whether it is an islandor a main continent, but I am certain that it joins neither to Africa, Asia, or America."

"The inhabitants of this country," he tells us, "are the miserablest people in the world. They have no houses,but lie in the open air without any covering, the earth being their bed and the heaven their canopy. Theirfood is a small sort of fish, which they catch at low tide, while the old people that are not able to stirabroad by reason of their age and the tender infants wait their return, and what Providence has bestowed onthem they presently broil on the coals and eat it in common. They are tall and thin, and of a very unpleasingaspect; their hair is black, short, and curled, like that of the negroes of Guinea."

This Englishman's first description of the Australian natives cannot fail to be interesting. "After we hadbeen here a little while, we clothed some of the men, designing to have some service from them for it; for wefound some wells of water here, and intended to carry two or three barrels of it aboard. But it being somewhattroublesome to carry to the canoes, we thought to have made these men to have carry'd it for us, and thereforewe gave them some clothes; to one an old pair of breeches, to another a ragged shirt, to a third a jacket thatwas scarce worth owning. We put them on, thinking that this finery would have brought them to work heartilyfor us; and our water being filled in small, long barrels, about six gallons in each, we brought these our newservants to the wells and put a barrel on each of their shoulders. But they stood like statues, withoutmotion, but grinn'd like so many monkeys staring one upon another. So we were forced to carry the waterourselves."

They had soon had enough of the new country, weighed anchor, and steered away to the north. Dampier returnedto England even a poorer man than he had left it twelve years before. After countless adventures andhairbreadth escapes, after having sailed entirely round the world, he brought back with him nothing but oneunhappy black man, "Prince Jeoly," whom he had bought for sixty dollars. He had hoped to recoup himself byshowing the poor native with his rings and bracelets and painted skin, but he was in such need of money onlanding that he gladly sold the poor black man on his arrival in the Thames.

But Dampier had made himself a name as a successful traveller, and in 1699 he was appointed by the King,William III., to command the Roebuck, two hundred and ninety tons, with a crew of fifty men andprovisions for twenty months. Leaving England in the middle of January1699, he sighted the west coast of New Holland toward the end of July, and anchored in a bay they calledSharks Bay, not far from the rocks where the Batavia was wrecked with Captain Pelsart in 1629. Hegives us a graphic picture of this place, with its sweet-scented trees, its shrubs gay as the rainbow withblossoms and berries, its many-coloured vegetation, its fragrant air and delicious soil. The men caught sharksand devoured them with relish, which speaks of scarce provisions. Inside one of the sharks (eleven feet long)they found a hippopotamus. "The flesh of it was divided among my men," says the Captain, "and they took carethat no waste should be made of it, but thought it, as things stood, good entertainment."

As it had been with Pelsart, so now with Dampier, fresh water was the difficulty, and they sailed north-eastin search of it. They fell in with a group of small rocky islands still known as Dampier's Archipelago, oneisland of which they named Rosemary Island, because "there grow here two or three sorts of shrubs, one justlike rosemary." Once again he comes across natives—"very much the same blinking creatures, alsoabundance of the same kind of flesh-flies teasing them, with the same black skins and hair frizzled." Indeed,he writes as though the whole country of New Holland was a savage and worthless land inhabited by dreadfulmonsters.

"If it were not," he writes, "for that sort of pleasure which results from the discovery even of the barrenestspot upon the globe, this coast of New Holland would not have charmed me much." His first sight of thekangaroo—now the emblem of Australia—is interesting. He describes it as "a sort of raccoon,different from that of the West Indies, chiefly as to the legs, for these have very short fore-legs, but gojumping upon them as the others do, and like them are very good meat." This must have been the small kangaroo,for the large kind was not found till later by Captain Cook in New South Wales.

But Dampier and his mates could not find fresh water, and soon wearied of the coast of New Holland; anoutbreak of scurvy, too, decided them to sail away in search of fresh foods. Dampier had spent five weekscruising off the coast; he had sailed along some nine hundred miles of the Australian shore without making anystartling discoveries. A few months later the Roebuck stood off the coast of New Guinea, "a highand mountainous country, green and beautiful with tropical vegetation, and dark with forests and groves oftall and stately trees." Innumerable dusky-faced natives peeped at the ship from behind the rocks, but theywere not friendly, and this they showed by climbing the cocoanut trees and throwing down cocoanuts at theEnglish, with passionate signs to them to depart. But with plenty of fresh water, this was unlikely, and thecrews rowed ashore, killed and salted a good load of wild hogs, while the savages still peeped at them fromafar.

Thus then they sailed on, thinking they were still coasting New Guinea. So doing, they arrived at the straitswhich still bear the name of the explorer, and discovered a little island which he called New Britain. He hadnow been over fifteen months at sea and the Roebuck was only provisioned for twenty months, soDampier, who never had the true spirit of the explorer in him, left his discoveries and turned homewards. Theship was rotten, and it took three months to repair her at Batavia before proceeding farther. With pumps goingnight and day, theymade their way to the Cape of Good Hope; but off the island of Ascension the Roebuck wentdown, carrying with her many of Dampier's books and papers. But though many of the papers were lost, the"Learned and Faithful Dampier" as he is called, the "Prince of Voyagers," has left us accounts of hisadventures unequalled in those strenuous ocean-going days for their picturesque and graphic details.

In the great work of Arctic exploration during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it is to England andRussia that we owe our knowledge at the present day. It is well known how Peter the Great of Russia journeyedto Amsterdam to learn shipbuilding under the Dutch, and to England to learn the same art under the English,and how the Russian fleet grew in his reign. Among the Danish shipbuilders at Petersburg was one VitusBehring, already a bold and able commander on the high seas.

The life of the great Russian Czar was drawing to its close—he was already within a few weeks of theend—when he planned an expedition under this same Vitus Behring, for which he wrote the instructionswith his own hands.

"(1) At Kamtchatka two decked boats are to be built. (2) With these you are to sail northward along the coastand, as the end of the coast is not known, this land is undoubtedly America. (3) For this reason you are toinquire where the American coast begins, and go to some European colony and, when European ships are seen, youare to ask what the coast is called, note it down, make a landing, and after having charted the coast return."

Were Asia and America joined together, or was there a strait between the two? The question was yet undecidedin 1725. Indeed, the east coast of Asia was only known as far as the island of Yezo, while the Pacific coastof America had been explored no farther than New Albion.

Peter the Great died on 28th January 1725. A week later Behring started for Kamtchatka. Right acrosssnow-covered Russia to the boundary of Siberia he led his expedition. March found him at Tobolsk. With raftsand boats they then made their way by the Siberian rivers till they reached Yakutsk, where they spent theirfirst winter. Not till the middle of June 1726 did Behring reach the capital of East Siberia. The rest of thejourney was through utterly unknown land. It was some six hundred and eighty-five miles eastwards to Okhotskthrough a rough and mountainous country, cut up by deep and bridgeless streams; the path lay over dangerousswamps and through dense forest.

The party now divided. Behring, with two hundred horses, travelled triumphantly, if painfully, to Okhotsk inforty-five days. The town consisted of eleven huts containing Russian families who lived by fishing. Snow laydeep on the frozen ground, and the horses died one by one for lack of food, but the undaunted explorer hadsoon got huts ready for the winter, which was to be spent in felling trees and pushing forward the building ofhis ship, the Fortuna, for the coming voyage of discovery. Behring himself had made a successfuljourney to the coast, but some of the party encountered terrible hardships, and it was midsummer 1727 beforethey arrived, while others were overtaken by winter in the very heart of Siberia and had to make their way forthe last three hundred miles on foot through snow in places six feet deep. Their food was finished, faminebecame a companion to cold, and they were obliged to gnaw their shoes and straps and leathern bags. Indeed,they must have perished had they not stumbled on Behring's route, where they found his dead horses. Butat last all was ready and the little ship Fortuna was sailing bravely across the Sea of Okhotsk some sixhundred and fifty miles to the coast of Kamtchatka. This she did in sixteen days. The country of Kamtchatkahad now to be crossed, and with boats and sledges this took the whole winter. It was a laborious undertakingfollowing the course of the Kamtchatka River; the expedition had to camp in the snow, and few natives wereforthcoming for the transport of heavy goods.

It was not till March 1728 that Behring reached his goal, Ostrog, a village near the sea, inhabited by ahandful of Cossacks. From this point, on the bleak shores of the Arctic sea, the exploring party were orderedto start. It had taken over three years to reach this starting-point, and even now a seemingly hopeless tasklay before them.

After hard months of shipbuilding, the stout little Gabriel was launched, her timber had beenhauled to Ostrog by dogs, while the rigging, cable, and anchors had been dragged nearly two thousand milesthrough one of the most desolate regions of the earth. As to the food on which the explorers lived: "Fish oilwas their butter and dried fish their beef and pork. Salt they were obliged to get from the sea." Thussupplied with a year's provisions, Behring started on his voyage of discovery along an unknown coast and overan unknown sea. On 18th July 1728 the sails of the Gabriel were triumphantly hoisted, andBehring, with a crew of forty-four, started on the great voyage. His course lay close along the coastnorthwards. The sea was alive with whales, seals, sea-lions, and dolphins as the little party made their waynorth, past the mouth of the Anadir River. The little Gabriel was now in the strait between Asiaand America, though Behring knew it not. They had been at sea some three weeks, when eight men came rowingtowards them in a leathern boat. They were theChukches—a warlike race living on the north-east coast of Siberia, unsubdued and fierce. They pointedout a small island in the north, which Behring named the Isle of St. Lawrence in honour of the day. Then heturned back. He felt he had accomplished his task and obeyed his orders. Moreover, with adverse winds theymight never return to Kamtchatka, and to winter among the Chukches was to court disaster. After a cruise ofthree months they reached their starting-point again. Had he only known that the coast of America was butthirty-nine miles off, the results of his voyage would have been greater. As it was, he ascertained that"there really does exist a north-east passage, and that from the Lena River it is possible, provided one isnot prevented by Polar ice, to sail to Kamtchatka and thence to Japan, China, and the East Indies."

The final discovery was left for Captain Cook. As he approached the straits which he called after Behring, thesun broke suddenly through the clouds, and the continents of Asia and America were visible at a glance.

There was dissatisfaction in Russia with the result of Behring's voyage, and though five years of untoldhardship in the "extremest corner of the world" had told on the Russian explorer, he was willing and anxiousto start off again. He proposed to make Kamtchatka again his headquarters, to explore the western coast ofAmerica, and to chart the long Arctic coast of Siberia—a colossal task indeed.

So the Great Northern Expedition was formed, with Behring in command, accompanied by two well-known explorersto help, Spangberg and Chirikoff, and with five hundred and seventy men under him. It would take too long tofollow the various expeditions that now left Russia in five different directions to explore the unknown coastsof the Old World. "The world has never witnessed a more heroic geographical enterprise than these Arctic expeditions." Amid obstacles indescribable thenorth line of Siberia, hitherto charted as a straight line, was explored and surveyed. Never was greatercourage and endurance displayed. If the ships got frozen in, they were hauled on shore, the men spent the longwinter in miserable huts and started off again with the spring, until the northern coast assumed shape andform.

One branch of the Great Northern Expedition under Behring was composed of professors to make a scientificinvestigation of Kamtchatka! These thirty learned Russians were luxuriously equipped. They carried a librarywith several hundred books, including Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels, seventy reams of writing-paper,and artists' materials. They had nine wagon-loads of instruments, carrying telescopes fifteen feet long. Asurgeon, two landscape painters, one instrument maker, five surveyors accompanied them, and "the convoy grewlike an avalanche as it worked its way into Siberia." Behring seems to have moved this "cumbersome machine"safely to Yakutsk, though it took the best part of two years. Having left Russia in 1733, it was 1741 whenBehring himself was ready to start from the harbour of Okhotsk for the coast of America with two ships andprovisions for some months. He was now nearly sixty, his health was undermined with vexation and worry, andthe climate of Okhotsk had nearly killed him.

On 18th July—just six weeks after the start—Behring discovered the continent of North America. Thecoast was jagged, the land covered with snow, mountains extended inland, and above all rose a peak toweringinto the clouds—a peak higher than anything they knew in Siberia or Kamtchatka, which Behring namedMount St. Elias, after the patron saint of the day. He made his way with difficulty through the string ofislands that skirtthe great peninsula of Alaska. Through the months of August and September they cruised about the coast in dampand foggy weather, which now gave way to violent storms, and Behring's ship was driven along at the mercy ofthe wind. He himself was ill, and the greater part of his crew were disabled by scurvy. At last one day, in ahigh-running sea, the ship struck upon a rock and they

found themselves stranded on an unknown island off the coast of Kamtchatka. Only two men were fit to land;they found a dead whale on which they fed their sick. Later on sea-otters, blue and white foxes, and sea-cowsprovided food, but the island was desolate and solitary—not a human being was to be seen.

Here, however, the little party was forced to winter. With difficulty they built five underground huts on thesandy shore of the island now known as Behring Island. And each day amid the raging snowstorms and piercingwinds one man went forth to hunt for animal food.

Man after man died, and by December, Behring's own condition had become hopeless. Hunger and grief had addedto his misery, and in his sand-hut he died. He was almost buried alive, for the sand rolled down from the pitin which he lay and covered his feet. He would not have it removed, for it kept him warm. Thirty more of thelittle expedition died during that bitter winter on the island; the survivors, some forty-five persons, builta ship from the timbers of the wreck, and in August 1742 they returned to Kamtchatka to tell the story ofBehring's discoveries and of Behring's death.

But while the names of Torres, Carpenter, Tasman, and Dampier are still to be found on our modern maps ofAustralia, it is the name of Captain Cook that we must always connect most closely with the discovery of thegreat island continent—the Great South Land which only became known to Europe one hundred and fiftyyears ago.

Dampier had returned to England in 1701 from his voyage to New Holland, but nearly seventy years passed beforethe English were prepared to send another expedition to investigate further the mysterious land in the south.

James Cook had shown himself worthy of the great command that was given to him in 1768, although explorationwas not the main object of the expedition. Spending his boyhood in the neighbourhood of Whitby, he wasfamiliar with the North Sea fishermen, with the colliers, even with the smugglers that frequented this easterncoast. In 1755 he entered the Royal Navy, volunteering for service and entering H.M.S. Eagle asmaster's mate. Four years later we find him taking his share on board H.M.S. Pembroke in theattack on Quebec by Wolfe, and later transferred to H.M.S. Northumberland, selected to survey the riverand Gulf of St. Lawrence. So satisfactory was his work that a few years later he was instructed to survey andchart the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. While engaged on this work, he observed an eclipse of the sun, which led to the appointmentthat necessitated a voyage to the Pacific Ocean. It had been calculated that a Transit of Venus would occur inJune 1769. A petition to the King set forth: "That, the British nation being justly celebrated in the learnedworld for their knowledge of astronomy, in which they are inferior to no nation upon earth, ancient or modern,it would cast dishonour upon them should they neglect to have correct observations made of this importantphenomenon." The King agreed, and the Royal Society selected James Cook as a fit man for the appointment. Astout, strongly built collier of three hundred and seventy tons was chosen at Whitby, manned with seventy men,and victualled for twelve months. With instructions to observe the Transit of Venus at the island ofGeorgeland (Otaheite), to make further discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean and to explore New Zealand ifpossible, Cook hoisted his flag on H.M.S. Endeavour and started in May 1768.

It was an interesting party on board, joined at the last moment by Mr. Joseph Banks, a very rich member of theRoyal Society and a student of Natural History. He had requested leave to sail in "the ship that carries theEnglish astronomers to the new-discovered country in the South Sea." "No people ever went to sea better fittedout for the purpose of Natural History, nor more elegantly," says a contemporary writer. "They have a finelibrary, they have all sorts of machines for catching and preserving insects, they have two painters anddraughtsmen—in short, this expedition will cost Mr. Banks £10,000." Their astronomical instruments wereof the best, including a portable observatory constructed for sixteen guineas. But most important of all wasthe careful assortment of provisions, to allay, if possible, that scourgeof all navigators, the scurvy. A quantity of malt was shipped to be made into wort, mustard, vinegar, wheat,orange and lemon juice and portable soup was put on board, and Cook received special orders to keep his menwith plenty of fresh food whenever this was possible. He carried out these orders strenuously, and at Madeirawe find him punishing one of his own seamen with twelve lashes for refusing to eat fresh beef. Hence they leftRio de Janeiro "in as good a condition for prosecuting the voyage as on the day they left England."

Christmas Day was passed near the mouth of the river Plate, and, early in the New Year of 1769, theEndeavour sailed through the Strait of Le Maire. The wealthy Mr. Banks landed on Staaten Islandand hastily added a hundred new plants to his collection. Then they sailed on to St. George's Island. It hadbeen visited by Captain Wallis in the Dolphin the previous year; indeed, some ofCook's sailors had served on board the Dolphin and knew the native chiefs of the island. All wasfriendly, tents were soon pitched, a fort built with mounted guns at either side, the precious instrumentslanded, and on 3rd June, with a cloudless sky and in intolerable heat, they observed the whole passage of theplanet Venus over the sun's disk.

After a stay of three months they left the island, taking Tupia, a native, with them. Among otheraccomplishments this Tupia roasted dogs to perfection, and Cook declares that dogs' flesh is "next only toEnglish lamb."

They visited other islands in the group—now known as the Society Islands and belonging toFrance—and took possession of all in the name of His Britannic Majesty, George III.

All through the month of September they sailed south, till on 7th October land was sighted. It proved to bethe North Island of New Zealand, never before approached by Europeans from the east. It was one hundred andtwenty-seven years since Tasman had discovered the west coast and called it Staaten Land, but no European hadever set foot on its soil. Indeed, it was still held to be part of the Terra Australis Incognita.

The first to sight land was a boy named Nicholas Young, hence the point was called "Young Nick's Head," whichmay be seen on our maps to-day, covering Poverty Bay. The natives here were unfriendly, and Cook was obligedto use firearms to prevent an attack. The Maoris had never seen a great ship before, and at first thought itwas a very large bird, being struck by the size and beauty of its wings (sails). When a small boat was letdown from the ship's side they thought it must be a young unfledged bird, but when the white men in theirbright-coloured clothes rowed off in the boat they concluded these were gods.

Cook found the low sandy coast backed by well-wooded hills rising to mountains on which patches of snow werevisible, while smoke could be seen through the trees, speaking of native dwellings. The natives were tootreacherous to make it safe landing for the white men, so they sailed out of Poverty Bay and proceeded south.Angry Maoris shook their spears at the Englishmen as they coasted south along the east coast of the NorthIsland. But the face of the country was unpromising, and Cook altered his course for the north at a point henamed Cape Turnagain. Unfortunately he missed the only safe port on the east coast between Auckland andWellington, but he found good anchorage in what is now known as Cook's Bay. Here they got plenty of good fish,wild fowl, and oysters, "as good as ever came out ofColchester." Taking possession of the land they passed in the name of King George, Cook continued hisnortherly course, passing many a river which seemed to resemble the Thames at home. A heavy December gale blewthem off the northernmost point of land, which they named North Cape, and Christmas was celebrated offTasman's islands, with goose-pie.

The New Year of 1770 found Cook off Cape Maria van Diemen, sailing south along the western coast of the NorthIsland, till the Endeavour was anchored in Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte's Sound, only about seventy miles fromthe spot where Tasman first sighted land.

Here the English explorer landed. The country was thickly wooded, but he climbed a hill, and away to theeastward he saw that the seas washing both east and west coasts of the northern island were united. He hadsolved one problem. Tasman's Staaten Land was not part of a great southern continent. He now resolved to pushthrough his newly discovered straits between the two islands, and, having done this, he sailed north till hereached Cape Turnagain. And so he proved beyond a doubt that this was an island. The men thought they had doneenough. But Cook, with the true instinct of an explorer, turned a deaf ear to the murmurings of his crew forroast beef and Old England, and directed his course again south. From the natives he had learned of theexistence of two islands, and he must needs sail round the southern as he had sailed round the northern isle.Storms and gales harassed the navigators through the month of February as they made their way slowlysouthwards. Indeed, they had a very narrow escape from death towards the end of the month, when in a two days'gale, with heavy squalls of rain, their foresail was split to pieces and they lost sight of land for sevendays, nearly running on to submerged rocks which Cook named The Traps.

It was nearly dark on 14th March when they entered a bay which they suitably christened Dusky Bay, from whichthey sailed to Cascade Point, named from the four streams that fell over its face.

"No country upon earth," remarks Cook, "can appear with a more rugged and barren aspect than this does fromthe sea, for, as far inland as the eye can reach, nothing is to be seen but the summit of these rockymountains." At last on 24th March they rounded the north point of the South Island. Before them lay thefamiliar waters of Massacre Bay, Tasman Bay, and Queen Charlotte Sound.

"As we have now circumnavigated the whole of this country, it is time for me to think of quitting it," Cookremarks simply enough.

Running into Admiralty Bay, the Endeavour was repaired for her coming voyage home. Her sails,"ill-provided from the first," says Banks, "were now worn and damaged by the rough work they had gone through,particularly on the coast of New Zealand, and they gave no little trouble to get into order again."

While Banks searched for insects and plants, Cook sat writing up his Journal of the circumnavigation. Heloyally gives Tasman the honour of the first discovery, but clearly shows his error in supposing it to be partof the great southern land.

The natives he describes as "a strong, raw-boned, well-made, active people rather above the common size, of adark brown colour, with black hair, thin black beards, and white teeth. Both men and women paint their facesand bodies with red ochre mixed with fish oil. They wear ornaments of stone, bone, and shells at their earsand about their necks, and the men generally wear long white feathers stuck upright in their hair. They cameoff in canoes which will carry a hundred people; when withina stone's throw of the ship, the chief of the party would brandish a battleaxe, calling out: 'Come ashore withus and we will kill you.' They would certainly have eaten them too, for they were cannibals."

The ship was now ready and, naming the last point of land Cape Farewell, they sailed away to the west, "tillwe fall in with the east coast of New Holland." They had spent six and a half months sailing about in NewZealand waters, and had coasted some two thousand four hundred miles.

Nineteen days' sail brought them to the eagerly sought coast, and on 28th April, Cook anchored for the firsttime in the bay known afterwards to history as Botany Bay, so named from the quantity of plants found in theneighbourhood by Mr. Banks. Cutting an inscription on one of the trees, with the date and name of the ship,Cook sailed north early in May, surveying the coast as he passed and giving names to the various bays andcapes. Thus Port Jackson, at the entrance of Sydney harbour, undiscovered by Cook, was so named after one ofthe Secretaries of the Admiralty—Smoky Cape from smoke arising from native dwellings—Point Dangerby reason of a narrow escape on some shoals—while Moreton Bay, on which Brisbane, the capital ofQueensland, now stands, was named after the President of the Royal Society. As they advanced, the coast becamesteep, rocky, and unpromising.

"Hitherto," reports Cook, "we had safely navigated this dangerous coast, where the sea in all parts concealsshores that project suddenly from the shore and rocks that rise abruptly like a pyramid from the bottom morethan one thousand three hundred miles. But here we became acquainted with misfortune, and we therefore calledthe point which we had just seen farthest to the northward, Cape Tribulation."

It was the 10th of May. The gentlemen had left thedeck "in great tranquillity" and gone to bed, when suddenly the ship struck and remained immovable except forthe heaving of the surge that beat her against the crags of the rock upon which she lay. Every one rushed tothe deck "with countenances which sufficiently expressed the horrors of our situation." Immediately they tookin all sails, lowered the boats, and found they were on a reef of coral rocks. Two days of sickening anxietyfollowed, the ship sprang a leak, and they were threatened with total destruction. To their intense relief,however, the ship floated off into deep water with a high tide. Repairs were now more than ever necessary, andthe poor battered collier was taken into the "Endeavour" river. Tupia and others were alsoshowing signs of scurvy; so a hospital tent was erected on shore, and with a supply of fresh fish, pigeons,wild plantains, and turtles they began to improve. Here stands to-daythe seaport of Cooktown, where a monument of Captain Cook looks out over the waters that he discovered.

The prospect of further exploration was not encouraging. "In whatever direction we looked, the sea was coveredwith shoals as far as the eye could see." As they sailed out of their little river, they could see the surfbreaking on the "Great Barrier Reef." Navigation now became very difficult, and, more than once, even Cookhimself almost gave up hope. Great, then, was their joy when they found themselves at the northern promontoryof the land which "I have named York Cape in honour of His late Royal Highness the Duke of York. We were ingreat hopes that we had at last found out a passage into the Indian Seas." And he adds an important paragraph:"As I was now about to quit the eastern coast of New Holland, which I am confident no European had ever seenbefore, I once more hoisted the English colours, and I now took possession of the whole eastern coast in rightof His Majesty King George III., by the name of New South Wales, with all the bays, harbours, rivers, andislands situated upon it."

This part of the new land was called by the name of New South Wales.

So the Endeavour sailed through the straits that Torres had accidentally passed one hundred andsixty-four years before, and, just sighting New Guinea, Cook made his way to Java, for his crew were sicklyand "pretty far gone with longing for home." The ship, too, was in bad condition; she had to be pumped nightand day to keep her free from water, and her sails would hardly stand the least puff of wind. They reachedBatavia in safety and were kindly received by the Dutch there.

Since leaving Plymouth two years before, Cook had only lost seven men altogether—three by drowning, twofrozen, one from consumption, one from poisoning—nonefrom scurvy—a record without equal in the history of Navigation. But the climate of Batavia now wroughthavoc among the men. One after another died, Tupia among others, and so many were weakened with fever thatonly twenty officers and men were left on duty at one time.

Glad, indeed, they were to leave at Christmas time, and gladder still to anchor in the Downs and to reachLondon after their three years' absence. The news of his arrival and great discoveries seems to have beentaken very quietly by those at home. "Lieutenant Cook of the Navy," says the Annual Register for1771, "who sailed round the globe, was introduced to His Majesty at St. James's, and presented to His Majestyhis Journal of his voyage, with some curious maps and charts of different places that he haddrawn during the voyage; he was presented with a captain's commission."

Although the importance of his discoveries was not realised at this time, Cook was given command of two new ships, theResolution and Adventure, provisioned for a year for "a voyage to remote parts," a fewmonths later. And the old Endeavour went back to her collier work in the North Sea.

Perhaps a letter written by Cook to a friend at Whitby on his return from the second voyage is sufficient toserve our purpose here; for, though the voyage was important enough, yet little new was discovered. And afterspending many months in high latitudes, Cook decided that there was no great southern continent to the southof New Holland and New Zealand.

DEAR SIR—he writes from London in September 1775—"I now sit down to fulfil thepromise I made you to give you some account of my last voyage. I left the Cape of Good Hope on 22nd November1772 and proceeded to the south, till I met with a vast field of ice and much foggy weather and large isletsor floating mountains of ice without number. After some trouble and not a little danger, I got to the south ofthe field of ice; and after beating about for some time for land, in a sea strewed with ice, I crossed theAntarctic circle and the same evening (17th January 1773) found it unsafe, or rather impossible, to standfarther to the south for ice.

"Seeing no signs of meeting with land in these high latitudes, I stood away to the northward, and, withoutseeing any signs of land, I thought proper to steer for New Zealand, where I anchored in Dusky Bay on 26thMarch and then sailed for Queen Charlotte's Sound. Again I put to sea and stood to the south, where I met withnothing but ice and excessive cold, bad weather. Here I spent near four months beating about in highlatitudes. Once I got as high as seventy-one degrees, and farther it was not possible to go for ice which layas firm as land. Here we saw ice mountains, whose summits were lost in clouds. I was now fully satisfied thatthere was no Southern Continent. I nevertheless resolved to spend some time longer in these seas, and withthis resolution I stood away to the north."

In this second voyage Cook proved that there was no great land to the south of Terra Australis or SouthAmerica, except the land of ice lying about the South Pole.

But he did a greater piece of work than this. He fought, and fought successfully, the great curse of scurvy,which had hitherto carried off scores of sailors and prevented ships on voyages of discovery, or indeed shipsof war, from staying long on the high seas without constantly landing for supplies of fresh food. It was nouncommon occurrence for a sea captain to return after even a few months' cruise with half his men sufferingfrom scurvy. Captain Palliser on H.M.S. Eagle in 1756 landed in Plymouth Sound with one hundredand thirty sick men out of four hundred, twenty-two having died in a month. Cook had resolved to fight thisdreaded scourge, and we have already seen that during his three years' cruise of the Endeavour hehad only to report five cases of scurvy, so close a watch did he keep on his crews. In his second voyage hewas even more particular, with the result thatin the course of three years he did not lose a single man from scurvy. He enforced cold bathing, andencouraged it by example. The allowance of salt beef and pork was cut down, and the habit of mixing salt beeffat with the flour was strictly forbidden. Salt butter and cheese were stopped, and raisins were substitutedfor salt suet; wild celery was collected in Terra del Fuego and breakfast made from this with ground wheat andportable soup. The cleanliness of the men was insisted on. Cook never allowed any one to appear dirty beforehim. He inspected the men once a week at least, and saw with his own eyes that they changed their clothing;equal care was taken to keep the ship clean and dry between decks, and she was constantly "cured with fires"or "smoked with gun-powder mixed with vinegar."

For a paper on this subject read before the Royal Society in 1776, James Cook was awarded a gold medal (now inthe British Museum).

But although the explorer was now forty-eight, he was as eager for active adventure as a youth of twenty. Hehad settled the question of a southern continent. Now when the question of the North-West Passage came upagain, he offered his services to Lord Sandwich, first Lord of the Admiralty, and was at once accepted. It wasmore than two hundred years since Frobisher had attempted to solve the mystery, which even Cook—thefirst navigator of his day—with improved ships and better-fed men, did not succeed in solving. He nowreceived his secret instructions, and, choosing the old Resolution again, he set sail in companywith Captain Clerke on board the Discovery in the year 1776 for that voyage from which there wasto be no return. He was to touch at New Albion (discovered by Drake) and explore any rivers or inlets thatmight lead to Hudson's or Baffin's Bay.

After once more visiting Tasmania and New Zealand, hemade a prolonged stay among the Pacific Islands, turning north in December 1777. Soon after they had crossedthe line, and a few days before Christmas, a low island was seen on which Cook at once landed, hoping to get afresh supply of turtle. In this he was not disappointed. Some three hundred, "all of the green kind andperhaps as good as any in the world," were obtained; the island was named Christmas Island, and theResolution and Discovery sailed upon their way.

A few days later they came upon a group of islands hitherto unknown. These they named after the Earl ofSandwich, the group forming the kingdom of Hawaii—the chief island. Natives came off in canoes bringingpigs and potatoes, and ready to exchange fish for nails. Some were tempted on board, "the wildness of theirlooks expressing their astonishment." Anchorage being found, Cook landed, and as he set foot on shore a largecrowd of natives pressed forward and, throwing themselves on their faces, remained thus till Cook signed tothem to rise.

With a goodly supply of fresh provisions, Cook sailed away from the Sandwich Islands, and after some fiveweeks' sail to the north the "longed-for coast of New Albion was seen." The natives of the country were cladin fur, which they offered for sale. They exacted payment for everything, even for the wood and water that thestrangerstook from their shores. The weather was cold and stormy, and the progress of the little English ships wasslow. By 22nd March they had passed Cape Flattery; a week later they named Hope Bay, "in which we hoped tofind a good harbour, and the event proved we were not mistaken." All this part of the coast was called by CookKing George's Sound, but the native name of Nootka has since prevailed. We have an amusing account of thesenatives. At first they were supposed to be dark coloured, "till after much cleaning they were found to haveskins like our people in England." Expert thieves they were. No piece of iron was safe from them. "Before weleft the place," says Cook, "hardly a bit of brass was left in the ship. Whole suits of clothes were strippedof every button, copper kettles, tin canisters, candlesticks, all went to wreck, so that these people got agreater variety of things from us than any other people we had visited."

It was not till 26th April that Cook at last managed to start forward again, but a two days' hard gale drovehim from the coast and onwards to a wide inlet to which he gave the name of Prince William's Sound. Here thenatives were just like the Eskimos in Hudson's Bay. The ships now sailed westward, doubling the promontory ofAlaska, and on 9th August they reached the westernmost point of North America, which they named Cape Prince ofWales. They were now in the sea discovered by Behring, 1741, to which they gave his name. Hampered by fog andice, the ships made their way slowly on to a point named Cape North. Cook decided that the eastern point ofAsia was but thirteen leagues from the western point of America. They named the Sound on the American sideNorton Sound after the Speaker of the House of Commons. Having passed the Arctic Circle and penetrated intothe Northern Seas, which were never free from ice, they met Russian traders who professed to have knownBehring.Then having discovered four thousand miles of new coast, and refreshed themselves with walrus or sea-horse,the expedition turned joyfully back to the Sandwich Islands.

On the last day of November, Cook discovered the island of Owhyhee (Hawaii), which he carefully surveyed, tillhe came to anchor in Karakakooa Bay.

The tragic death of Captain Cook at the hands of these natives is well known to every child. The reason forhis murder is not entirely understood to-day, but the natives, who had hitherto proved friendly, suddenlyattacked the English explorer and slew him, and "he fell into the water and spoke no more."

Such was the melancholy end of England's first great navigator—James Cook—the foremost sailor ofhis time, the man who had circumnavigated New Zealand, who had explored the coast of New South Wales, namedvarious unknown islands in the Pacific Ocean, and discovered the Sandwich Islands. He died on 14th February1779. It was not till 11th January 1780 that the news of his death reached London, to be recorded in thequaint language of the day by the London Gazette.

"It is with the utmost concern," runs the announcement, "that we inform the Public, that the celebratedCircumnavigator, Captain Cook, was killed by the inhabitants of a new-discover'd island in the South Seas. TheCaptain and crew were first treated as deities, but, upon their revisiting that Island, hostilities ensued andthe above melancholy scene was the Consequence. This account is come from Kamtchatka by Letters from CaptainClerke and others. But the crews of the Ships were in a very good state of health, and all in the mostdesirable condition. His successful attempts to preserve the Healths of his Crews are well known, and hisDiscoveries will be an everlasting Honour to his Country."

Cook's First Voyages were published in 1773, and were widely read, but his account of the newcountry did not at once attract Europeans to its shores. We hear of "barren sandy shores and wild rocky coastinhabited by naked black people, malicious and cruel," on the one hand, "and low shores all white with sandfringed with foaming surf," with hostile natives on the other.

It was not till eighteen years after Cook's death that Banks—his old friend—appealed to theBritish Government of the day to make some use of these discoveries. At last the loss of the American coloniesin 1776 induced men to turn their eyes toward the new land in the South Pacific. Banks remembered well hisvisit to Botany Bay with Captain Cook in 1770, and he now urged the dispatch of convicts, hitherto transportedto America, to this newly found bay in New South Wales.

So in 1787 a fleet of eleven ships with one thousand people on board left the shores of England under thecommand of Captain Phillip. After a tedious voyage of thirty-six weeks, they reached Botany Bay in January1788.

Captain Phillip had been appointed Governor of all New South Wales, that is from Cape York to Van Diemen'sLand, still supposed to be part of the mainland. But Phillip at once recognised that Botany Bay was not asuitable place for a settlement. No white man had described these shores since the days of Captain Cook. Thegreen meadows of which Banks spoke were barren swamps and bleak sands, while the bay itself was exposed to thefull sweep of violent winds, with a heavy sea breaking with tremendous surf against the shore.

"Warra, warra!" (begone, begone), shouted the natives, brandishing spears at the water's edge as they had doneeighteen years before. In an open boat—for it was midsummer in these parts—Phillip surveyed thecoast; anopening marked Port Jackson on Cook's chart attracted his notice and, sailing between two rocky headlands, theexplorer found himself crossing smooth, clear water with a beautiful harbour in front and soft green foliagereaching down to the water's edge. Struck with the loveliness of the scene, and finding both wood and waterhere, he chose the spot for his new colony, giving it the name of Sydney, after Lord Sydney, who as HomeSecretary had appointed him to his command.

"We got into Port Jackson," he wrote to Lord Sydney, "early in the afternoon, and had the satisfaction offinding the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in perfect security."

"To us," wrote one of his captains, "it was a great and important day, and I hope will mark the foundation ofan empire."

But, interesting as it is, we cannot follow the fortunes of this first little English colony in the SouthPacific Ocean.

The English had not arrived a day too soon. A fewdays later the French explorer, La Perouse, guided hither by Cook's chart, suddenly made his appearance on theshores of Botany Bay. The arrival of two French men-of-war caused the greatest excitement among the whitestrangers and the black natives.

La Perouse had left France in 1785 in command of two ships with orders to search for the North-West Passagefrom the Pacific side—a feat attempted by Captain Cook only nine years before—to explore the Chinaseas, the Solomon Islands, and the Terra Australis. He had reached the coast of Alaska in June 1786, but aftersix weeks of bad weather he had crossed to Asia in the early part of the following year.

Thence he had made his way by the Philippine Islands to the coasts of Japan, Korea, and "Chinese Tartary."Touching at Quelpart, he reached a bay near our modern Vladivostock, and on 2nd August 1787 he discovered thestrait that bears his name to-day, between Saghalien and the North Island of Japan. Fortunately, fromKamtchatka, where he had landed, he had sent home his journals, notes, plans, and maps by Lesseps—uncleof the famous Ferdinand de Lesseps of Suez Canal fame.

On 26th January 1788 he landed at Botany Bay. From here he wrote his last letter to the French Government.After leaving this port he was never seen again. Many years later, in 1826, the wreck of his two ships wasfound on the reefs of an island near the New Hebrides.

Perhaps one of the strangest facts in the whole history of exploration is that Africa was almost an unknown land ahundred years ago, and stranger still, that there remains to-day nearly one-eleventh of the whole area stillunexplored. And yet it is one of the three old continents that appear on every old chart of the world inancient days, with its many-mouthed Nile rising in weird spots and flowing in sundry impossible directions.Sometimes it joins the mysterious Niger, and together they flow through country labeled "Unknown" or "Desert"or "Negroland," or an enterprising cartographer fills up vacant spaces with wild animals stalking through theland.

The coast tells a different tale. The west shores are studded with trading forts belonging to English, Danes,Dutch, and Portuguese, where slaves from the interior awaited shipment to the various countries that requirednegro labour. The slave trade was the great, in fact the only, attraction to Africa at the beginning of theeighteenth century. In pursuit of this, men would penetrate quite a long way into the interior, but throughthe long centuries few explorers had travelled to the Dark Continent.

Towards the end of the century we suddenly get one man—a young Scottish giant, named James Bruce,thirsting for exploration for its own sake. He cared not for slaves or gold or ivory. He just wanted todiscoverthe source of the Nile, over which a great mystery had hung since the days of Herodotus. The Mountains of theMoon figure largely on the Old World maps, but Bruce decided to rediscover these for himself. Herodotus hadsaid the Nile turned west and became the Niger, others said it turned east and somehow joined the Tigris andEuphrates. Indeed, such was the uncertainty regarding its source that to discover the source of the Nileseemed equivalent to performing the impossible.

James Bruce, athletic, daring, standing six feet four, seemed at the age of twenty-four made for a life oftravel and adventure. His business took him to Spain and Portugal. He studied Arabic and the ancient languageof Abyssinia. He came under the notice of Pitt, and was made consul of Algiers. The idea of the undiscoveredsources of the Nile took strong hold of Bruce's imagination.

"It was at this moment," he says, "that I resolved that this great discovery should either be achieved by meor remain—as it has done for three thousand years—a defiance to all travellers."

A violent dispute with the old bey of Algiers ended Bruce's consulate, and in 1765, the spirit of adventurestrong upon him, he sailed along the North African coast, landed at Tunis, and made his way to Tripoli. On thefrontier he found a tribe of Arabs set apart to destroy the lions which beset the neighbourhood. These peoplenot only killed but ate the lions, and they prevailed on Bruce to share their repast. But one meal was enoughfor the young explorer.

In burning heat across the desert sands he passed on. Once a great caravan arrived, journeying from Fez toMecca, consisting of three thousand men with camels laden with merchandise. But this religious pilgrimage wasplundered in the desert soon after. Arrived at Bengazi, Bruce found a terrible famine raging, so heembarked on a little Greek ship bound for Crete. It was crowded with Arabs; the captain was ignorant; aviolent storm arose and, close to Bengazi, the ship struck upon a rock. Lowering a boat, Bruce and a number ofArabs sprang in and tried to row ashore. But wave after wave broke over them, and at last they had to swim fortheir lives. The surf was breaking on the shore, and Bruce was washed up breathless and exhausted. Arabsflocking down to plunder the wreck, found Bruce, and with blows and kicks stripped him of all his clothes andleft him naked on the barren shore. At last an old Arab came along, threw a dirty rag over him, and led him toa tent, whence he reached Bengazi once more, and soon after crossed to Crete.

It was not till July 1768 that the explorer at last reached Cairo en route for Abyssinia, andfive months later embarked on board a Nile boat, or canja. His cabin had close latticed windows made not onlyto admit fresh air, but to be a defence against a set of robbers on the Nile, who were wont to swim underwater in the dark or on goatskins to pilfer any passing boats. Then, unfurling her vast sails, the canja boreBruce on the first stage of his great journey. The explorer spent some time in trying to find the lost site ofold Memphis, but this was difficult. "A man's heart fails him in looking to the south," he says;"he is lost in the immense expanse of desert, which he sees full of pyramids before him. Struck with terrorfrom the unusual scene of vastness opened all at once upon leaving the palm trees, he becomes dispirited fromthe effect of the sultry climate."

For some days the canja, with a fair wind, stemmed the strong current of the Nile. "With great velocity" sheraced past various villages through the narrow green valley of cultivation, till the scene changed and largeplantations of sugar-canes and dates began. "The wind had now become so strong that the canja could scarcelycarry her sails; the current was rapid and the velocity with which she dashed against the water was terrible."Still she flew on day after day, till early in January they reached the spot "where spreading Nile partshundred-gated Thebes." Solitude and silence reigned over the magnificent old sepulchres; the hundred gateswere gone, robbers swarmed, and the traveller hastened away. So on to Luxor and Karnac to a great encampmentof Arabs, who held sway over the desert which Bruce had now to cross. The old sheikh, whose protection wasnecessary, known as the Tiger from his ferocious disposition, was very ill in his tent. Bruce gave him somelime water, which eased his pain, and, rising from the ground, the old Arab stood upright and cried: "Cursedbe those of my people that ever shall lift up their hand against you in the desert."

He strongly advised Bruce to return to Kenne and cross the desert from there instead of going on by the Nile.Reluctantly Bruce turned back, and on 16th February 1769 he joined a caravan setting out to cross the desertto the shores of the Red Sea.

"Our road," he says, "was all the way in an open plain bounded by hillocks of sand and finegravel—perfectly hard, but without trees, shrubs, or herbs. Thereare not even the traces of any living creature, neither serpent, lizard, antelope, nor ostrich—the usualinhabitants of the most dreary deserts. There is no sort of water—even the birds seem to avoid the placeas pestilential—the sun was burning hot." In a few days the scene changed, and Bruce is noting that infour days he passes more granite, porphyry, marble, and jasper than would build Rome, Athens, Corinth,Memphis, Alexandria, and half a dozen more. At last after a week's travel they reached Cossier, the littlemud-walled village on the shores of the Red Sea. Here Bruce embarked in a small boat, the planks of which weresewn together instead of nailed, with a "sort of straw mattress as a sail," for the emerald mines described byPliny, but he was driven back by a tremendous storm. Determined to survey the Red Sea, he sailed to the north,and after landing at Tor at the foot of Mount Sinai, he sailed down the bleak coast of Arabia to Jidda, theport of Mecca.

By this time he was shaking with ague and fever, scorched by the burning sun, and weather-beaten by wind andstorm—moreover, he was still dressed as a Turkish soldier. He was glad enough to find kindly English atJidda, and after two months' rest he sailed on to the Straits of Babelmandeb. Being now on English ground, hedrank the King's health and sailed across to Masuah,the main port of Abyssinia. Although he had letters of introduction from Jidda he had some difficulty with thechief of Masuah, but at last, dressed in long white Moorish robes, he broke away, and in November 1769 startedforth for Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia.

It was nearly one hundred and fifty years since any European of note had visited the country, and it was hardto get any information.

His way led across mountainous country—rugged and steep. "Far above the top of all towers thatstupendous mass, the mountain of Taranta, probably one of the highest in the world, the point of which isburied in the clouds and very rarely seen but in the clearest weather; at other times abandoned to perpetualmist and darkness, the seat of lightning, thunder, and of storm." Violent storms added to the terrors of theway, trees were torn up by the roots, and swollen streams rushed along in torrents.

Bruce had started with his quadrant carried by four men, but the task of getting his cumbersome instruments upthe steep sides of Taranta was intense. However, they reached the top at last to find a huge plain, "perhapsone of the highest in the world," and herds of beautiful cattle feeding. "The cows were completely white, withlarge dewlaps hanging down to their knees, white horns, and long silky hair." After ninety-five days' journey,on 14th February Bruce reached Gondar, the capital, on the flat summit of a high hill.

Here lived the King of Abyssinia, a supposed descendant of King Solomon; but at the present time the countrywas in a lawless and unsettled condition. Moreover, small-pox was raging at the palace, and the royal childrenwere smitten with it. Bruce's knowledge of medicine now stood him again in good stead. He opened all the doorsand windows of the palace, washed his little patients with vinegar and warm water, sent away those not alreadyinfected, and all recovered. Bruce had sprung into court favour. The ferocious chieftain, Ras Michael, who hadkilled one king, poisoned another, and was now ruling in the name of a third, sent for him. The old chief wasdressed in a coarse, dirty garment wrapped round him like a blanket, his long white hair hung down over hisshoulders, while behind him stood soldiers, their lances ornamented with shreds of scarlet cloth, one forevery man slain in battle.

Bruce was appointed "Master of the King's horse," a high office and richly paid.

But "I told him this was no kindness," said the explorer. "My only wish was to see the country and find thesources of the Nile."

But time passed on and they would not let him go, until, at last, he persuaded the authorities to make himruler over the province where the Blue Nile was supposed to rise. Amid great opposition he at last left thepalace of Gondar on 28th October 1770, and was soon on his way to the south "to see a river and a bog, no partof which he could take away"—an expedition wholly incomprehensible to the royal folk at Gondar. Twodays' march brought him to the shores of the great Lake Tsana, into which, despite the fact that he wastremendously hot and that crocodiles abounded there, the hardy young explorer plunged for a swim. And thusrefreshed he proceeded on his way. He had now to encounter a new chieftain named Fasil, who at first refusedto give him leave to pass on his way. It was not until Bruce had shown himself an able horseman and exhibitedfeats of strength and prowess that leave was at last granted. Fasil tested him in this wise. Twelve horseswere brought to Bruce, saddled and bridled, to know which he would like to ride. Selecting an apparently quietbeast, the young traveller mounted.

"For the first two minutes," he says, "I do not know whether I was most in the earth or in the air; he kickedbehind, reared before, leaped like a deer all four legs off the ground—he then attempted to gallop,taking the bridle in his teeth; he continued to gallop and ran away as hard as he could, flinging out behindevery ten yards, till he had no longer breath or strength and I began to think he would scarce carry me to thecamp."

On his return Bruce mounted his own horse, and, taking his double-barreled gun, he rode about, twisting andturning his horse in every direction, to the admiration of these wild Abyssinian folk. Not only did Fasil nowlet him go, but he dressed him in a fine, loose muslin garment which reached to his feet, gave him guides anda handsome grey horse.

"Take this horse," he said, "as a present from me. Do not mount it yourself; drive it before you, saddled andbridled as it is; no man will touch you when he sees that horse." Bruce obeyed his orders, and the horse wasdriven in front of him. The horse was magic; the people gave it handfuls of barley and paid more respect to itthan to Bruce himself, though in many cases the people seemed scared by the appearance of the horse and fledaway.

On 2nd November the Nile came into sight. It was only two hundred and sixty feet broad; but it was deeplyrevered by the people who lived on its banks. They refused to allow Bruce to ride across, but insisted on histaking off his shoes and walking through the shallow stream. It now became difficult to get food as theycrossed the scorching hot plains. But Bruce was nearing his goal, and at last he stood at the top of the greatAbyssinian tableland. "Immediately below us appeared the Nile itself, strangely diminished in size, now only abrook that had scarcely water to turn a mill."Throwing off his shoes, trampling down the flowers that grew on the mountain-side, falling twice in hisexcitement, Bruce ran down in breathless haste till he reached the "hillock of green sod" which has made hisname so famous.

"It is easier to guess than to describe the situation of my mind at that moment, standing in that spot whichhad baffled the genius, industry, and inquiry of both ancients and moderns for the course of near threethousand years. Kings had attempted this discovery at the heads of their armies—fame, riches, and honourhad been held out for a series of ages without having produced one man capable of wiping off this stain uponthe enterprise and abilities of mankind or adding this desideratum for the encouragement of geography. Thougha mere private Briton, I triumphed here over kings and their armies. I was but a few minutes arrived at thesource of the Nile, through numberless dangers and sufferings, the least of which would have overwhelmed mebut for the continual goodness and protection of Providence. I was, however, but then half through my journey,and all those dangers which I had already passed awaited me again on my return. I found a despondency gainingground fast upon me and blasting the crown of laurels I had too rashly woven for myself."

Bruce then filled a large cocoa-nut shell, which he had brought from Arabia, full of the Nile water, and drankto the health of His Majesty King George III.

Bruce died in the spring of 1794. Just a year later another Scotsman, Mungo Park, from Selkirk, started off toexplore the great river Niger—whose course was as mysterious as that of the Nile. Most of the earlygeographers knew something of a great river running through Negroland. Indeed, Herodotus tells of five youngmen, the Nasamones, who set out to explore the very heart of Africa. Arrived at the edge of the great sandydesert, they collected provisions and supplied themselves with water and plunged courageously into theunknown. For weary days they made their way across to the south, till they were rewarded by finding themselvesin a fertile land well watered by lakes and marshes, with fruit trees and a little race of men and women whomthey called pigmies.

And a large river was flowing from west to east—probably the Niger. But the days of Herodotus are longsince past. It was centuries later when the Arabs, fiery with the faith of Mohammed, swept over the unexploredlands. "With a fiery enthusiasm that nothing could withstand, and inspired by a hope of heaven which nothingcould shake, they swept from district to district, from tribe to tribe," everywhere proclaiming to rovingmultitudes the faith of their master. In this spirit they had faced the terrors of the Sahara Desert, and inthe tenth century reached the land of the negroes, found theNiger, and established schools and mosques westward of Timbuktu.

Portugal had then begun to play her part, and the fifteenth century is full of the wonderful voyages inspiredby Prince Henry of Portugal, which culminated in the triumph of Vasco da Gama's great voyage to India by theCape of Good Hope.

Then the slave trade drew the Elizabethan Englishmen to the shores of West Africa, and the coast was studdedwith forts and stations in connection with it. Yet in the eighteenth century the Niger and Timbuktu were stilla mystery.

In 1778 the African Association was founded, with our old friend Sir Joseph Banks as an active memberinquiring for a suitable man to follow up the work of the explorer Houghton, who had just perished in thedesert on his way to Timbuktu.

The opportunity produced the man. Mungo Park, a young Scotsman, bitten with the fever of unrest, had justreturned from a voyage to the East on board an East India Company's ship. He heard of this new venture, andapplied for it. The African Association instantly accepted his services, and on 22nd May 1795, Mungo Park leftEngland on board the Endeavour, and after a pleasant voyage of thirty days landed at the mouth of theriver Gambia. The river is navigable for four hundred miles from its mouth, and Park sailed up to a nativetown, where the Endeavour was anchored, while he set out on horseback for a little village,Pisania, where a few British subjects traded in slaves, ivory, and gold. Here he stayed a while, to learn thelanguage of the country. Fever delayed him till the end of November, when the rains were over, the nativecrops had been reaped, and food was cheap and plentiful. On 3rd December he made a start, his sole attendantsbeing a negro servant, Johnson,and a slave boy. Mungo Park was mounted on a strong, spirited little horse, his attendants on donkeys. He hadprovisions for two days, beads, amber, and tobacco for buying fresh food, an umbrella, a compass, athermometer and pocket sextant, some pistols and firearms, and "thus attended, thus provided, thus armed,Mungo Park started for the heart of Africa."

Three days' travelling brought him to Medina, where he found the old king sitting on a bullock's hide, warminghimself before a large fire. He begged the English explorer to turn back and not to travel into the interior,for the people there had never seen a white man and would most certainly destroy him. Mungo Park was not soeasily deterred, and taking farewell of the good old king, he took a guide and proceeded on his way.

A day's journey brought him to a village where a curious custom prevailed. Hanging on a tree, he found a sortof masquerading dress made out of bark. He discovered that it belonged to a strange bugbear known to all thenatives of the neighbourhood as Mumbo Jumbo. The natives or Kafirs of this part had many wives, with theresult that family quarrels often took place. If a husband was offended by his wife he disappeared into thewoods, disguised himself in the dress of Mumbo Jumbo, and, armed with the rod of authority, announced hisadvent by loud and dismal screams near the town. All hurried to the accepted meeting-place, for none daredisobey. The meeting opened with song and dance till midnight, when Mumbo Jumbo announced the offending wife.The unlucky victim was then seized, stripped, tied to a post, and beaten with Mumbo's rod amid the shouts ofthe assembled company.

A few days before Christmas, Park entered Fatticonda—the place where Major Houghton had been robbed andbadly used. He therefore took some amber, tobacco, and anumbrella as gifts to the king, taking care to put on his best blue coat, lest it should be stolen. The kingwas delighted with his gifts; he furled and unfurled his umbrella to the great admiration of his attendants."The king then praised my blue coat," says Park, "of which the yellow buttons seemed particularly to catch hisfancy, and entreated me to give it to him, assuring me that he would wear it on all public occasions. As itwas against my interests to offend him by a refusal, I very quietly took off my coat—the only good onein my possession—and laid it at his feet." Then without his coat and umbrella, but in peace, Parktravelled onward to the dangerous district which was so invested with robbers that the little party had totravel by night. The howling of wild beasts alone broke the awful silence as they crept forth by moonlight ontheir way. But the news that a white man was travelling through their land spread, and he was surrounded by aparty of horsem*n, who robbed him of nearly all his possessions. His attendant Johnson urged him to return,for certain death awaited him. But Park was not the man to turn back, and he was soon rewarded by finding theking's nephew, who conducted him in safety to the banks of the Senegal River.

Then he travelled on to the next king, who rejoiced in the name of Daisy Korrabarri. Here Mungo learnt to hisdismay that war was going on in the province that lay between him and the Niger, and the king could offer noprotection. Still nothing deterred the resolute explorer, who took another route and continued his journey.Again he had to travel by night, for robbers haunted his path, which now lay among Mohammedans. He passed thevery spot where Houghton had been left to die of starvation in the desert. As he advanced through theseinhospitable regions, new difficulties met him. His attendants firmly refused to move farther. Mungo Park wasnow alonein the great desert Negroland, between the Senegal and the Niger, as with magnificent resolution he continuedhis way. Suddenly a clear halloo rang out on the night air. It was his black boy, who had followed him toshare his fate. Onward they went together, hoping to get safely through the land where Mohammedans ruled overlow-caste negroes. Suddenly a party of Moors surrounded him, bidding him come to Ali, the chief, who wished tosee a white man and a Christian. Park now found himself the centre of an admiring crowd. Men, women, andchildren crowded round him, pulling at his clothes and examining his waist-coat buttons till he could hardlymove. Arrived at Ali's tent, Mungo found an old man with a long white beard. "The surrounding attendants, andespecially the ladies, were most inquisitive; they asked a thousand questions, inspected every part of myclothes, searched my pockets, and obliged me to unbutton my waistcoat and display the whiteness of myskin—they even counted my toes and fingers, as if they doubted whether I was in truth a human being." Hewas lodged in a hut made of corn stalks, and a wild hog was tied to a stake as a suitable companion for thehated Christian. He was brutally ill-treated, closely watched, and insulted by "the rudest savages on earth."The desert winds scorched him, the sand choked him, the heavens above were like brass, the earth beneath asthe floor of an oven. Fear came on him, and he dreaded death with his work yet unfinished. At last he escapedfrom this awful captivity amid the wilds of Africa. Early one morning at sunrise, he stepped over the sleepingnegroes, seized his bundle, jumped on to his horse, and rode away as hard as he could. Looking back, he sawthree Moors in hot pursuit, whooping and brandishing their double-barreled guns. But he was beyond reach, andhe breathed again. Now starvation stared him in the face. To the pangs of hunger were added the agony ofthirst. The sun beat down pitilessly, and at last Mungo fell on the sand. "Here," he thought—"here aftera short but ineffectual struggle I must end all my hopes of being useful in my day and generation; here mustthe short span of my life come to an end."

But happily a great storm came and Mungo spread out his clothes to collect the drops of rain, and quenched histhirst by wringing them out and sucking them. After this refreshment he led his tired horse, directing his wayby the compass, lit up at intervals by vivid flashes of lightning. It was not till the third week of hisflight that his reward came. "I was told I should see the Niger early next day," he wrote on 20th July 1796."We were riding through some marshy ground, when some one called out 'See the water!' and, looking forwards, Isaw with infinite pleasure the great object of my mission—the long-sought-for majestic Niger glitteringto the morning sun, as broad as the Thames at Westminster,and flowing slowly to the eastward. I hastened to the brink and, having drunk of the water, lifted up myfervent thanks in prayer to the Great Ruler of all things, for having thus far crowned my endeavours withsuccess. The circ*mstance of the Niger's flowing towards the east did not excite my surprise, for although Ihad left Europe in great hesitation on this subject, I had received from the negroes clear assurances that itsgeneral course was towards the rising sun."

He was now near Sego—the capital of Bambarra—on the Niger, a city of some thirty thousandinhabitants. "The view of this extensive city, the numerous canoes upon the river, the crowded population, andthe cultivated state of the surrounding country, formed altogether a prospect of civilisation and magnificencewhich I little expected to find in the bosom of Africa." The natives looked at the poor, thin, white strangerwith astonishment and fear, and refused to allow him to cross the river. All day he sat without food under theshade of a tree, and was proposing to climb the tree and rest among its branches to find shelter from a comingstorm, when a poor negro woman took pity on his deplorable condition. She took him to her hut, lit a lamp,spread a mat upon the floor, broiled him a fish, and allowed him to sleep. While he rested she spun cottonwith other women and sang: "The winds roared and the rains fell. The poor white man, faint and weary, came andsat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him milk, no wife to grind his corn"; and all joined in thechorus: "Let us pity the white man, no mother has he."

Mungo Park left in the morning after presenting his landlady with two of his last four brass buttons. Butthough he made another gallant effort to reach Timbuktu and the Niger, which, he was told, "ran to the world'send," lions and mosquitoes made life impossible. Hishorse was too weak to carry him any farther, and on 29th July 1796 he sadly turned back. "Worn down bysickness, exhausted by hunger and fatigue, half-naked, and without any article of value by which I might getprovisions, clothes, or lodging, I felt I should sacrifice my life to no purpose, for my discoveries wouldperish with me." Joining a caravan of slaves, he reached the coast after some nineteen hundred miles, andafter an absence of two years and nine months he found a suit of English clothes, "disrobed his chin ofvenerable encumbrance," and sailed for home. He published an account of the journey in 1799, after which hemarried and settled in Scotland as a doctor. But his heart was in Africa, and a few years later he started offa*gain to reach Timbuktu. He arrived at the Gambia early in April 1805. "Ifall goes well," he wrote gaily, "this day six weeks I expect to drink all your healths in the water of theNiger." He started this time with forty-four Europeans, each with donkeys to carry baggage and food, but itwas a deplorable little party that reached the great river on 19th August. Thirty men had died on the march,the donkeys had been stolen, the baggage lost. And the joy experienced by the explorer in reaching the watersof the Niger, "rolling its immense stream along the plain," was marred by the reduction of his little party toseven. Leave to pass down the river to Timbuktu was obtained by the gift of two double-barreled guns to theKing, and in their old canoes patched together under the magnificent name of "His Majesty's schooner theJoliba" (great water), Mungo Park wrote his last letter home.

"I am far from desponding. I have changed a large canoe into a tolerably good schooner, on board of which Ishall set sail to the east with a fixed resolution to discover the termination of the Niger or perish in theattempt; and though all the Europeans who are with me should die, and though I myself were half-dead, I wouldstill persevere; and if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at least die on the Niger."

It was in this spirit that the commander of the Joliba and a crew of nine set forth to glide down a greatriver toward the heart of savage Africa, into the darkness of the unexplored.

The rest is silence.

While Mungo Park was attempting to find the course of the Niger, the English were busy opening up the greatfur-trading country in North America. Although Captain Cook had taken possession of Nootka Sound, thinking itwas part of the coast of New Albion, men from other nations had been there to establish with the natives atrade in furs. The Spaniards were specially vigorous in opening up communications on this bleak bit of westerncoast. Great Britain became alarmed, and decided to send Captain Vancouver with an English ship to enforce herrights to this valuable port.

Vancouver had already sailed with Cook on his second southern voyage; he had accompanied him on theDiscovery during his last voyage. He therefore knew something of the coast of North-West America."On the 15th of December 1790, I had the honour of receiving my commission as commander of His Majesty's sloopthe Discovery, then lying at Deptford, where I joined her," says Vancouver. "Lieutenant Broughtonhaving been selected as a proper officer to command the Chatham, he was accordingly appointed. At daydawn on Friday the 1st of April we took a long farewell of our native shores. Having no particular route tothe Pacific Ocean pointed out in my instructions, I did not hesitate to prefer the passage by way of the Capeof Good Hope."

In boisterous weather Vancouver rounded the Cape,made some discoveries on the southern coast of New Holland, surveyed part of the New Zealand coast, discoveredChatham Island, and on 17th April 1792 he fell in with the coast of New Albion. It was blowing and raininghard when the coast, soon after to be part of the United States of America, was sighted by the captains andcrews of the Discovery and Chatham. Amid gales of wind and torrents of rain they coastedalong the rocky and precipitous shores on which the surf broke with a dull roar. It was dangerous enough workcoasting along this unsurveyed coast, full of sunken rocks on which the sea broke with great violence. Soonthey were at Cape Blanco (discovered by Martin D'Aguilar), and a few days later at Cape Foulweather of Cookfame, close to the so-called straits discovered by the Greek pilot John da Fuca in 1592. Suddenly, relatesVancouver, "a sail was discovered to the westward. This was a very great novelty, not having seen any vesselduring the last eight months. She soon hoisted American colours, and proved to be the ship Columbia,commanded by Captain Grey, belonging to Boston. He had penetrated about fifty miles into the disputed strait.He spoke of the mouth of a river that was inaccessible owing to breakers." (This was afterwards explored byVancouver and named the Columbia River on which Washington now stands.)

Having examined two hundred and fifteen miles of coast, Vancouver and his two ships now entered theinlet—Da Fuca Straits—now the boundary between the United States and British Columbia. All daythey made their way up the strait, till night came, and Vancouver relates with pride that "we had now advancedfarther up this inlet than Mr. Grey or any other person from the civilised world."

"We are on the point of examining an entirely new region," he adds, "and in the most delightfully pleasantweather." Snowy ranges of hills, stately forest trees,vast spaces, and the tracks of deer reminded the explorers of "Old England." The crews were given holiday, andgreat joy prevailed. Natives soon brought them fish and venison for sale, and were keen to sell their childrenin exchange for knives, trinkets, and copper. As they advanced through the inlet, the fresh beauty of thecountry appealed to the English captain: "To describe the beauties of this region will be a very grateful taskto the pen of a skilful panegyrist—the serenity of the climate, the pleasing landscapes, and the abundantfertility that unassisted nature puts forth, require only to be enriched by the industry of man with villages,mansions, and cottages to render it the most lovely country that can be imagined."

A fortnight was spent among the islands of this inlet, which "I have distinguished by the name of AdmiraltyInlet," and on 4th June 1792 they drank the health of the King, George III., in a double allowance of grog,and on his fifty-fourth birthday took formal possession of the country, naming the wider part of the straitthe Gulf of Georgia and the mainland New Georgia. The two ships then made their way through the narrow andintricate channels separating the island of Vancouver from the mainland of British Columbia, till at last,early in August, they emerged into an open channel discovered by an Englishman four years before and namedQueen Charlotte's Sound. Numerous rocky islets made navigation very difficult, and one day in foggy weatherthe Discovery suddenly grounded on a bed of sunken rocks. The Chatham was near at hand, and atthe signal of distress lowered her boats for assistance. For some hours, says Vancouver, "immediate andinevitable destruction presented itself." She grounded at four in the p.m. Till two next morning all handswere working at throwing ballast overboard to lighten her, till, "to our inexpressible joy," the return of thetide floated her once more. Havingnow satisfied himself that this was an island lying close to the mainland, Vancouver made for Nootka Sound,where he arrived at the end of August.

At the entrance of the Sound he was visited by a Spanish officer with a pilot to lead them to a safe anchoragein Friendly Cove, where the Spanish ship, under one Quadra, was riding at anchor. Civilities were interchanged"with much harmony and festivity. As many officers as could be spared from the vessel and myself dined withSenor Quadra, and were gratified with a repast we had lately been little accustomed to. A dinner of fivecourses, consisting of a superfluity of the best provisions, was served with great elegance; a royal salutewas fired on drinking health to the sovereigns of England and Spain, and a salute of seventeen guns to thesuccess of the service in which the Discovery and Chatham were engaged." But whenthe true nature of Vancouver's mission was disclosed, therewas some little difficulty, for the Spaniards had fortified Nootka, built houses, laid out gardens, andevidently intended to stay. Vancouver sent Captain Broughton home to report the conduct of the Spaniards, andspent his time surveying the coast to the south. Finally all was arranged satisfactorily, and Vancouver sailedoff to the Sandwich Islands. When he returned home in the autumn of 1794 he had completed the gigantic task ofsurveying nine thousand miles of unknown coast chiefly in open boats, with only the loss of two men in bothcrews—a feat that almost rivaled that of Captain Cook.

It has been said that Vancouver "may proudly take his place with Drake, Cook, Baffin, Parry, and other Britishnavigators to whom England looks with pride and geographers with gratitude."

Even while Vancouver was making discoveries on the western coast of North America, Alexander Mackenzie, anenthusiastic young Scotsman, was making discoveries on behalf of the North-Western Company, which was rivalingthe old Hudson Bay Company in its work of expansion. His journey right across America from sea to sea isworthy of note, and it has well been said that "by opening intercourse between Atlantic and Pacific Oceans andforming regular establishments through the interior and at both extremes, as well as along the coasts andislands, the entire command of the fur trade of North America might be obtained. To this may be added thefishing in both seas and the markets of the four quarters of the globe."

Mackenzie had already explored the great river flowing through North America to the Arctic seas in 1789. Hehad brought back news of its great size, its width, its volume of water, only to be mistrusted, till manyyears later it was found that every word was true, and tributes were paid not only to his general accuracy,but to his general intelligence as an explorer.

In 1792 he started off again, and this time he discovered the immense country that lay hidden behind the RockyMountains, known to-day as British Columbia. He ascended the Peace River, which flows from the RockyMountains, and in the spring of 1793, having made his waywith much difficulty across this rugged chain, he embarked on a river running to the south-west. Through wildmountainous country on either side he paddled on; the cold was still intense and the strong mountain currentsnearly dashed the canoes to pieces. His Indian guides were obstinate, ignorant, and timid. Mackenzie relatessome of his difficulties in graphic language: "Throughout the whole of this day the men had been in a state ofextreme ill-humour, and as they did not choose to vent it openly upon me, they disputed and quarrelled amongthemselves. About sunset the canoe struck upon the stump of a tree, which broke a large hole in her bottom, acirc*mstance that gave them an opportunity to let loose their discontents without reserve. I left them as soonas we had landed and ascended an elevated bank. It now remained for us to fix on a proper place for buildinganother canoe, as the old one was become a complete wreck. At a very early hour of the morning every man wasemployed in making preparations for building another canoe, and different parties went in search of wood andgum." While the boat was building, Mackenzie gave his crew a good lecture on their conduct. "I assured them itwas my fixed unalterable determination to proceed in spite of every difficulty and danger."

The result was highly satisfactory. "The conversation dropped and the work went on."

In five days the canoe was ready and they were soon paddling happily onwards towards the sea, where theIndians told him he would find white men building houses. They reached the coast some three weeks later. TheSalmon River, as it is called, flows through British Columbia and reaches the sea just north of VancouverIsland, which had been discovered by Vancouver the year before.

Alexander Mackenzie had been successful. Let us hear the end of his tale: "I now mixed up some vermilionin melted grease, and inscribed in large characters, on the south-east face of the rock on which we had sleptlast night, this brief memorial—'Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July,one thousand seven hundred and ninety three.'"

The efforts of Arctic explorers of past years, Frobisher, Davis, Baffin, Behring, and Cook, had all been more orless frustrated by the impenetrable barrier of ice, which seemed to stretch across the Polar regions like awall, putting an end to all further advance.

Now, early in the nineteenth century, this impenetrable bar of ice had apparently moved and broken up intodetached masses and icebergs. The news of a distinct change in the Polar ice was brought home by varioustraders in the Greenland waters, and soon gave rise to a revival of these voyages for the discovery of theNorth Pole and a passage round the northern coast of America to the Pacific Ocean. For this coast was totallyunknown at this time. Information was collected from casual travellers, whale-fishers, and others, with theresult that England equipped two ships for a voyage of discovery to the disputed regions. These were theIsabella (885 tons) and the Alexander (252 tons), Commander Ross being appointed toone and Lieutenant Parry to the other.

Parry had served on the coast of North America, and had written a little treatise on the stars in the NorthernHemisphere. He was thinking of offering his services for African discovery when he caught sight of a paragraphin a paper about an expedition for the discovery of the North-West Passage. He wrote at once that "he wasready for hot or for cold—Africa or the Polar regions."And he was at once appointed to the latter. The object of the voyage was clearly set forth. The youngexplorers were to discover a passage from Davis Strait along the northern coast of America and through theBehring Strait into the Pacific Ocean. Besides this, charts and pictures were to be brought back, and aspecial artist was to accompany the expedition. Ross himself was an artist, and he has delightfullyillustrated his own journals of the expedition. The ships were well supplied with books, and we find thejournals of Mackenzie, Hearne, Vancouver, Cook, and other old travelling friends taken forreference—thirty Bibles and sixty Testaments were distributed among the crews. For making friends withthe natives, we find a supply of twenty-four brass kettles, one hundred and fifty butchers' knives, threehundred and fifty yards of coloured flannel, one hundred pounds of snuff, one hundred and fifty pounds ofsoap, forty umbrellas, and much gin and brandy. The expedition left on 18th April 1818, and "I believe," saysRoss, "there was not a man who did not indulge after the fashion of a sailor in feeling that its issue wasplaced in His hands whose power is most visible in the Great Deep."

Before June had set in, the two ships were ploughing their way up the west coast of Greenland in heavysnowstorms. They sailed through Davis Strait, past the island of Disco into Baffin's undefined bay. Icebergsstood high out of the water on all sides, and navigation was very dangerous. Towards the end of July a bay towhich Ross gave the name of Melville Bay, after the first Lord of the Admiralty, was passed. "Very highmountains of land and ice were seen to the north side of Melville's Bay, forming an impassable barrier, theprecipices next the sea being from one thousand to two thousand feet high."

The ships were sailing slowly past the desolate shoresamid these high icebergs when suddenly several natives appeared on the ice. Now Ross had brought an Eskimowith him named Sacheuse.

"Come on!" cried Sacheuse to the astonished natives.

"No—no—go away!" they cried. "Go away; we can kill you!"

"What great creatures are these?" they asked, pointing to the ships. "Do they come from the sun or the moon?Do they give us light by night or by day?"

Pointing southwards, Sacheuse told them that the strangers had come from a distant country.

"That cannot be; there is nothing but ice there," was the answer.

Soon the Englishmen made friends with these people, whom they called Arctic Highlanders, giving the name ofthe Arctic Highlands to all the land in the north-east corner of Baffin's Bay. Passing Cape York, theyfollowed the almost perpendicular coast, even as Baffin had done. They passed Wolstenholme Sound and WhaleSound; they saw Smith's Sound, and named the capes on either side Isabella and Alexander after their twoships. And then Ross gave up all further discovery for the time being in this direction. "Even if it beimagined that some narrow strait may exist through these mountains, it is evident that it must for ever beunnavigable," he says decidedly. "Being thus satisfied that there could be no further inducement to continuelonger in this place, I shaped my course for the next opening which appeared in view to the westward." Thiswas the Sound which was afterwards called "Jones Sound."

"We ran nine miles among very heavy ice, until noon, when, a very thick fog coming on, we were obliged to takeshelter under a large iceberg. Sailing south, but some way from land, a wide opening appeared which answeredexactly to the Lancaster Sound of Baffin. LieutenantParry and many of his officers felt sure that this was a strait communicating with the open sea to westward,and were both astonished and dismayed when Ross, declaring that he was "perfectly satisfied that there was nopassage in this direction," turned back. He brought his expedition back to England after a seven months' trip.But, though he was certain enough on the subject, his officers did not agree with him entirely, and thesubject of the North-West Passage was still discussed in geographical circles.

When young Lieutenant Parry, who had commanded the Alexander in Ross' expedition, was consulted,he pressed for further exploration of the far north. And two expeditions were soon fitted out, one under Parryand one under Franklin, who had already served with Flinders in Australian exploration. Parry started offfirst with instructions to explore Lancaster's Sound; failing to find a passage, to explore Alderman JonesSound, failing this again, Sir Thomas Smith's Sound. If he succeeded in getting through to the Behring Strait,he was to go to Kamtchatka and on to the Sandwich Islands. "You are to understand," ran the instructions,"that the finding of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific is the main object of this expedition."

On board the Hecla, a ship of three hundred and seventy-five tons, with a hundred-and-eighty-ton brig,the Griper, accompanying, Parry sailed away early in May 1819. The first week in July found himcrossing the Arctic Circle amid immense icebergs against which a heavy southerly swell was violently agitated,"dashing the loose ice with tremendous force, sometimes raising a white spray over them to the height of morethan a hundred feet, accompanied with a loud noise exactly resembling the roar of distant thunder."

The entrance to Lancaster Sound was reached on 31stJuly, and, says Parry: "It is more easy to imagine than to describe the almost breathless anxiety which wasnow visible in every countenance, while, as the breeze increased to a fresh gale, we ran quickly up theSound." Officers and men crowded to the masthead as the ships ran on and on till they reached Barrow's Strait,so named by them after the Secretary of the Admiralty.

"We now began to flatter ourselves that we had fairly entered the Polar Sea, and some of the most sanguineamong us had even calculated the bearing and distance of Icy Cape as a matter of no very difficultaccomplishment."

Sailing westward, they found a large island, which they named Melville Island after the first Lord of theAdmiralty, and a bay which still bears the name of Hecla and Griper Bay. "Here," says Parry, "the ensigns andpendants were hoisted, and it created in us no ordinary feelings of pleasure to see the British flag waving,for the first time, in thoseregions which had hitherto been considered beyond the limits of the habitable world."

Winter was now quickly advancing, and it was with some difficulty that the ships were forced through the newlyformed ice at the head of the Bay of the Hecla and Griper. Over two miles of ice, seven inches thick, had tobe sawn through to make a canal for the ships. As soon as they were moored in "Winter Harbour" the men gavethree loud and hearty cheers as a preparation for eight or nine months of long and dreary winter. By the endof September all was ready; plenty of grouse and deer remained as food through October, after which there werefoxes and wolves. To amuse his men, Parry and his officers got up a play; Miss in her Teens wasperformed on 5th November, the last day of sun for ninety-six days to come. He also started a paper, TheNorth Georgian Gazette and Winter Chronicle, which was printed in England on their return. The New Year,1819, found the winter growing gloomier. Scurvy had made its appearance, and Parry was using every device inhis power to arrest it. Amongst other things he grew mustard and cress in boxes of earth near the stove pipeof his cabin to make fresh vegetable food for the afflicted men. Though the sun was beginning to appear again,February was the coldest part of the year, and no one could be long out in the open without being frostbitten.It was not till the middle of April that a slight thaw began, and the thermometer rose to freezing point. On1st August the ships were able to sail out of Winter Harbour and to struggle westward again. But they couldnot get beyond Melville Island for the ice, and after the ships had been knocked about by it, Parry decided toreturn to Lancaster Sound once more. Hugging the western shores of Baffin's Bay, the two ships were turnedhomewards, arriving in the Thames early in November 1820."And," says Parry, "I had the happiness of seeing every officer and man on board both ships—ninety-threepersons—return to their native country in as robust health as when they left it, after an absence ofnearly eighteen months."

Parry had done more than this. He not only showed the possibility of wintering in these icy regions in goodhealth and good spirits, but he had certainly discovered straits communicating with the Polar sea.

Meanwhile Franklin and Parry started on another expedition in the same month and year. While Parry's orders were toproceed from east to west, Franklin was to go from west to east, with a chance—if remote—that theymight meet. He was to go by Hudson's Bay to the mouth of the Copper Mine River and then make his way by seaeastward along the coast. Franklin had made himself a name by work done in the Spitzbergen waters; he was tosucceed in the end where others had failed in finding the North-West Passage. The party selected for this workconsisted of Captain Franklin, Dr. Richardson, a naval surgeon, two midshipmen, Back and Hood, one of whom wasafterwards knighted, and an English sailor named John Hepburn.

Just a fortnight after Parry's start these five English explorers sailed on board a ship belonging to theHudson Bay Company, but it was the end of August before they arrived at the headquarters of the Company. Theywere cordially received by the Governor, and provided with a large boat well stored with food and arms. Amid asalute of many guns and much cheering the little party, with some Canadian rowers, started off for CumberlandHouse, one of the forts belonging to the Hudson Bay Company. Six weeks' hard travelling by rivers and lakes,now dragging the boats round rapids, now sleeping in "buffalo-robes" on the hard ground, brought the party tothefirst stage of their journey. Snow was now beginning to fall, and ice was thick on the river, when Franklinresolved to push on to Lake Athabasca that he might have more time to prepare for the coming voyage in thesummer. Leaving Richardson and Hood at the fort, he started off with Back and the faithful Hepburn on 18thJanuary 1820, in the very heart of the Arctic winter. Friends at the fort had provided him with Indiansnow-shoes turned up at the toes like the prow of a boat—with dog sledges, furs, leather trousers,drivers, and food for a fortnight. The snow was very deep, and the dogs found great difficulty in draggingtheir heavy burdens through the snow. But the record was good. A distance of eight hundred and fifty-sevenmiles was accomplished in sixty-eight days, with the thermometer at fifty degrees below zero. The hardshipsendured are very briefly recorded: "Provisions becoming scarce; dogs without food, except a little burntleather; night miserably cold; tea froze in the tin pots before we could drink it."

Lake Athabasca was reached on the 26th of March and preparations for the voyage were pushed forward. Fourmonths later they were joined by Richardson and Hood. "This morning Mr. Back and I had the sinceregratification of welcoming our long-separated friends, Dr. Richardson and Mr. Hood, who arrived in perfecthealth with two canoes." This is the simple entry in Franklin's journal.

Everything was now ready. Spring in these northern climates was enchanting. "The trees quickly put on theirleaves after the long, hard winter months, and the whole vegetable world comes forth with a luxuriance no lessastonishing than agreeable." At the same time clouds of mosquitoes and stinging sand-flies made the nightshorrible. On 18th July the little party in high glee set forward in canoes rowed by Canadian boatmen, hopingto reachthe Copper Mine River before winter set in. But the difficulties of the way were great, provisions werescarce, the boatmen grew discontented, ice appeared early, and Franklin had to satisfy himself with winteringat a point five hundred and fifty miles from Lake Athabasca, which he called Fort Enterprise. Here there wasprospect of plenty, for large herds of reindeer were grazing along the shores of the lake, and from theirflesh "pemmican" was made; but the winter was long and cheerless, and Franklin soon realised that there wasnot enough food to last through it. So he dispatched the midshipman Back to Lake Athabasca for help. Back'sjourney was truly splendid, and we cannot omit his simple summary: "On the 17th of March," he says, "at anearly hour we arrived at Fort Enterprise, having travelled about eighteen miles a day. I had the pleasure ofmeeting my friends all in good health, after an absence of nearly five months, during which time I hadtravelled one thousand one hundred and four miles on snow-shoes and had no other covering at night than ablanket and deer skin, with the thermometer frequently at forty degrees below zero, and sometimes two or threedays without tasting food." By his courage and endurance he saved the whole party at Fort Enterprise. By Junethe spring was sufficiently advanced to set out for the Copper Mine River, and on July they reached the mouthafter a tedious journey of three hundred and thirty-four miles.

The real work of exploration was now to begin, and the party embarked in two canoes to sail along the southerncoast of the Polar sea, with the possibility always of meeting the Parry expedition. But the poor Canadianboatmen were terrified at the sight of the sea on which they had never yet sailed, and they were withdifficulty persuaded to embark. Indeed, of the two crews, only the five Englishmen had ever been on the sea,and it has been wellsaid that this voyage along the shores of the rock-bound coast of the Arctic sea must always take rank as oneof the most daring and hazardous exploits that have ever been accomplished in the interest of geographicalresearch. "The two canoes hugged the icy coast as they made their way eastward, and Franklin named the bays,headlands, and islands for a distance of five hundred and fifty-five miles, where a point he called CapeTurnagain marks his farthest limit east. Here is George IV. Coronation Gulf studded with islands, Hood'sRiver, Back's River, Bathurst's Inlet, named after the Secretary of State, and Parry Bay after "my friend,Captain Parry, now employed in the interesting research for a North-West Passage."

The short season for exploration was now over; rough weather and want of food turned them home, only halfsatisfied with their work. The worst part of their journey was yet to come. Perhaps never, even in the tragichistory of Arctic exploration, had greater hardships been enduredthan Franklin and his handful of men were to endure on their homeward way. On 22nd August the party left PointTurnagain, hoping by means of their newly discovered Hood River to reach Fort Enterprise. The ground wasalready covered with snow, and their food was reduced to one meal a day when they left the shores of theArctic sea for their long inland tramp. Needless to say, the journey had to be performed on foot, and the waywas stony and barren. For the first few days nothing was to be found save lichen to eat, and the temperaturewas far below freezing-point. An uncooked cow after six days of lichen "infused spirit into our starvingparty," relates Franklin. But things grew no better, and as they proceeded sadly on their way, starvationstared them in the face. One day we hear of the pangs of hunger being stilled by "pieces of singed hide mixedwith lichen"; another time the horns and bones of a dead deer were fried with some old shoes and the "putridcarcase of a deer that had died the previous spring was demolished by the starving men."

At last things grew so bad that Franklin and the most vigorous of his party pushed on to Fort Enterprise toget and send back food if possible to Richardson and Hood, who were now almost too weak and ill to get alongat all. Bitter disappointment awaited them.

"At length," says Franklin, "we reached Fort Enterprise, and to our infinite disappointment and grief found ita perfectly desolate habitation. There were no provisions—no Indians. It would be impossible for me todescribe our sensations after entering this miserable abode and discovering how we had been neglected; thewhole party shed tears, not so much for our own fate as for that of our friends in the rear, whose livesdepended entirely on our sending immediate relief from this place." A few old bones and skins of reindeer werecollected for supperand the worn-out explorers sat round a fire made by pulling up the flooring of the rooms. It is hardly amatter of surprise to find the following entry in Franklin's journal: "When I arose the following morning mybody and limbs were so swollen that I was unable to walk more than a few yards."

Before November arrived another tragedy happened. Hood was murdered by one of the party almost mad with hungerand misery. One after another now dropped down and died, and death seemed to be claiming Franklin, Richardson,Back, and Hepburn when three Indians made their appearance with some dried deer and a few tongues. It was nota moment too soon. The Indians soon got game and fish for the starving men, until they were sufficientlyrestored to leave Fort Enterprise and make their way to Moose Deer Island, where, with the Hudson Bayofficers, they spent the winter recovering their health and strength and spirits.

When they returned to England in the summer of 1822 they had accomplished five thousand five hundred and fiftymiles. They had also endured hardships unsurpassed in the history of exploration. When Parry returned toEngland the following summer and heard of Franklin's sufferings he cried like a child. He must have realisedbetter than any one else what those sufferings really were, though he himself had fared better.

While Franklin had been making his way to the Copper Mine River, Parry on board the Fury, accompaniedby the Hecla, started for Hudson's Strait, by which he was to penetrate to the Pacific, if possible.Owing to bad weather, the expedition did not arrive amid the icebergs till the middle of June. Towering twohundred feet high, the explorers counted fifty-four at one time before they arrived at Resolution Island atthe mouth of Hudson Strait. There were already plenty of well-known landmarks in the region of Hudson's Bay,and Parry soon made his way to Southampton Island and Frozen Strait (over which an angry discussion had takenplace some hundred years before). He was rewarded by discovering "a magnificent bay," to which he gave thename of the "Duke of York's Bay." The discovery, however, was one of little importance as there was nopassage. The winter was fast advancing, the navigable season was nearly over, and the explorers seemed to beonly at the beginning of their work. The voyage had been dangerous, harassing, unproductive.

They had advanced towards the Behring Strait; they had discovered two hundred leagues of North American coast,and they now prepared to spend the winter in these icebound regions. As usual Parry arranged both for thehealth and amusem*nt of his men during the long Arctic months—even producing a "joint of English roastbeef" for Christmas dinner, preserved "by rubbing theoutside with salt and hanging it on deck covered with canvas." There were also Eskimos in the neighbourhood,who proved a never-ceasing source of interest.

One day in April—snow had been falling all night, news spread that the Eskimos "had killed something onthe ice." "If the women," says Parry, "were cheerful before, they were now absolutely frantic. A general shoutof joy re-echoed through the village; they ran into each others' huts to communicate the welcome intelligence,and actually hugged one another in an ecstasy of delight. When the first burst of joy had at last subsided thewomen crept one by one into the apartment where the sea-horses had been conveyed. Here they obtained blubberenough to set all their lamps alight, besides a few scraps of meat for their children and themselves. Freshcargoes were continually arriving, the principal part being brought in by the dogs and the rest by the men,who tied a thong round their waist and dragged in a portion. Every lamp was now swimming with oil, the hutsexhibited a blazeof light, and never was there a scene of more joyous festivity than while the cutting up of the walrusescontinued." For three solid hours the Eskimos appeared to be eating walrus flesh. "Indeed, the quantity theycontinued to get rid of is almost beyond belief."

It was not till early in July that the ship could be moved out of their winter's dock to renew their effortstowards a passage. They were not a little helped by Eskimo charts, but old ice blocked the way, and it was themiddle of August before Parry discovered the Strait he called after his two ships, "the Strait of the Fury andHecla," between Melville Peninsula and co*ckburn Island. Confident that the narrow channel led to the Polarseas, Parry pushed on till "our progress was once more opposed by a barrier of the same impenetrable andhopeless ice as before." He organised land expeditions, and reports, "The opening of the Strait into the Polarsea was now so decided that I considered the principal object of my journey accomplished."

September had come, and once more the ships were established in their winter quarters. A second month in amongthe ice must have been a severe trial to this little band of English explorers, but cheerfully enough theybuilt a wall of snow twelve feet high round the Fury to keep out snowdrifts. The season was longand severe, and it was August before they could get free of ice. The prospect of a third winter in the icecould not be safely faced, and Parry resolved to get home. October found them at the Shetlands, all the bellsof Lerwick being set ringing and the town illuminated with joy at the arrival of men who had been away fromall civilisation for twenty-seven months. On 14th November 1828 the expedition arrived home in England.

Still the restless explorer was longing to be off again; he was still fascinated by the mysteries of theArcticregions, but on his third voyage we need not follow him, for the results were of no great importance. TheFury was wrecked amid the ice in Prince Regent's Inlet, and the whole party had to return onboard the Hecla in 1825.

The northern shores of North America were not yet explored, and Franklin proposed another expedition to the mouthof the Mackenzie River, where the party was to divide, half of them going to the east and half to the west.Nothing daunted by his recent sufferings, Franklin accepted the supreme command, and amid the foremostvolunteers for service were his old friends, Back and Richardson. The officers of the expedition left Englandin February 1825, and, travelling by way of New York and Canada, they reached Fort Cumberland the followingJune; a month later they were at Fort Chipewyan on the shores of Lake Athabasca, and soon they had made theirway to the banks of the Great Bear Lake River, which flows out of that lake into the Mackenzie River, downwhich they were to descend to the sea. They decided to winter on the shores of the Bear Lake; but Franklincould never bear inaction, so he resolved to push on to the mouth of the Great River with a small party inorder to prospect for the coming expedition.

So correct had been Mackenzie's survey of this Great River, as it was called, that Franklin, "in justice tohis memory," named it the Mackenzie River after its "eminent discoverer," which name it has borne ever since.In a little English boat, with a fair wind and a swift current, Franklin accomplished three hundred and twelvemiles in about sixty hours. The saltness of the water, thesight of a boundless horizon, and the appearance of porpoises and whales were encouraging signs. They hadreached the Polar sea at last—the "sea in all its majesty, entirely free from ice and without anyvisible obstruction to its navigation."

On reaching the coast a silken Union Jack worked by Franklin's dying wife was unfurled. She had died a fewdays after he left England, but she had insisted on her husband's departure in the service of his country,only begging him not to unfurl her flag till he arrived at the Polar shores. As it fluttered in the breeze ofthese desolate shores, the little band of Englishmen cheered and drank to the health of the King.

"You can imagine," says Franklin, "with what heartfelt emotion I first saw it unfurled; but in a short time Iderived great pleasure in looking at it."

It was too late to attempt navigation for this year, although the weather in August was "inconveniently warm,"so on 5th September, Franklin returned to winterquarters on the Great Bear Lake. During his absence a comfortable little settlement had grown up toaccommodate some fifty persons, including Canadian and Indian hunters with their wives and children. In honourof the commander it had been called Fort Franklin, and here the party of explorers settled down for the longmonths of winter.

"As the days shortened," says Franklin, "it was necessary to find employment during the long evenings forthose resident at the house, and a school was established from seven to nine for their instruction in reading,writing, and arithmetic, attended by most of the British party. Sunday was a day of rest, and the whole partyattended Divine Service morning and evening. If on other evenings the men felt the time tedious, the hall wasat their service to play any game they might choose, at which they were joined by the officers. Thus the menbecame more attached to us, and the hearts and feelings of the whole party were united in one common desire tomake the time pass as agreeably as possible to each other, until the return of spring should enable us toresume the great object of the expedition."

April brought warmer weather, though the ground was still covered with snow, and much boat-building went on.In May swans had appeared on the lake, then came geese, then ducks, then gulls and singing birds. By June theboats were afloat, and on the 24th the whole party embarked for the Mackenzie River and were soon making theirway to the mouth. Here the party divided. Franklin on board the Lion, with a crew of six, accompaniedby Back on board the Reliance, started westwards, while Richardson's party was to go eastwards andsurvey the coast between the mouth of the Mackenzie River and the Copper Mine. On 7th July, Franklin reachedthe sea, and, with flags flying, the Lion and the Reliance sailed forthon the unknown seas, only to ground a mile from shore. Suddenly some three hundred canoes full of Eskimoscrowded towards them. These people had never seen a white man before, but when it was explained to them thatthe English had come to find a channel for large ships to come and trade with them, they "raised the mostdeafening shout of applause." They still crowded round the little English boats, till at last, like others oftheir race, they began to steal things from the boats. When detected they grew furious and brandished knives,they tore the buttons off the men's coats, and for a time matters looked serious till the English showed theirfirearms, when the canoes paddled away and the Eskimos hid themselves.

With a fair wind the boats now sailed along the coast westward, till stopped by ice, which drove them from theshore. Dense fogs, stormy winds, and heavy rain made this Polar navigation very dangerous; but the explorerspushed on till, on 27th July, they reached the mouth of a broad river which, "being the most westerly river inthe British dominions on this coast and near the line of demarcation between Great Britain and Russia, I nameditthe Clarence," says Franklin, "in honour of His Royal Highness the Lord High Admiral." A box containing aroyal medal was deposited here, and the Union Jack was hoisted amid hearty cheers.

Still fogs and storms continued; the farther west they advanced, the denser grew the fog, till by the middleof August, winter seemed to have set in. The men had suffered much from the hard work of pulling and draggingthe heavy boats; they also endured torments from countless swarms of mosquitoes. They were now some threehundred and seventy-four miles from the mouth of the Mackenzie River and only half-way to Icy Cape; butFranklin, with all his courage and with all his enthusiasm, dared not risk the lives of his men farther."Return Reef" marks his farthest point west, and it was not till long after that he learnt that CaptainBeechey, who had been sent in the Blossom by way of Behring Strait, had doubled Icy Cape and was waiting forFranklin one hundred and sixty miles away.

On 21st September, Fort Franklin was reached after three months' absence. Dr. Richardson had already returnedafter a successful coast voyage of some eight hundred miles.

When he had left Franklin he had, on board the Dolphin, accompanied by the Union, sailed alongthe unknown coast eastward. Like Franklin's party, his expedition had also suffered from fogs, gales, andmosquitoes, but they had made their way on, naming inlets, capes, and islands as they passed. Thus we findRussell Inlet, Point Bathurst, Franklin's Bay, Cape Parry, the Union and Dolphin Straits, named after the twolittle ships, where the Dolphin was nearly wrecked between two masses of ice. They had reachedFort Franklin in safety just before Franklin's party, and, being too late to think of getting home this year,they were all doomed to anotherwinter at the Fort. They reached England on 26th September 1827, after an absence of two years and a half.

Franklin had failed to find the North-West Passage, but he and Richardson had discovered a thousand miles ofNorth American coast, for which he was knighted and received the Paris Geographical Society's medal for "themost important acquisition to geographical knowledge" made during the year. It was a curious coincidence thatthe two Arctic explorers, Franklin and Parry, both arrived in England the same month from their variousexpeditions, and appeared at the Admiralty within ten minutes of one another.

Parry had left England the preceding April in an attempt to reach the North Pole by means of sledges over the ice.To this end he had sailed to Spitzbergen in his old ship the Hecla, many of his old shipmates sailingwith him. They arrived off the coast of Spitzbergen about the middle of May 1827. Two boats had been speciallybuilt in England, covered with waterproof canvas and lined with felt. The Enterprise andEndeavour had bamboo masts and paddles, and were constructed to go on sledges, drawn by reindeer,over the ice.

"Nothing," says Parry, "can be more beautiful than the training of the Lapland reindeer. With a simple collarof skin round his neck, a single trace of the same material attached to the sledge and passing between hislegs, and one rein fastened like a halter round his neck, this intelligent and docile animal is perfectlyunder the command of an experienced driver, and performs astonishing journeys over the softest snow. Shakingthe rein over his back is the only whip that is required."

Leaving the Hecla in safe harbour on the Spitzbergen coast, Parry and James Ross, a nephew ofJohn Ross, the explorer, with food for two months, started off in their two boat-sledges for the north. Theymade a good start; the weather was calm and clear, the sea smooth as a mirror—walruses lay in herds onthe ice, and, steering due north, they made good progress.

Next day, however, they were stopped by ice. Insteadof finding a smooth, level plain over which the reindeer could draw their sledges with ease, they foundbroken, rugged, uneven ice, which nothing but the keen enthusiasm of the explorer could have faced. Thereindeer were useless, and they had to be relinquished; it is always supposed that they were eaten, buthistory is silent on this point. The little party had to drag their own boats over the rough ice. Theytravelled by night to save snow-blindness, also that they could enjoy greater warmth during the hours of sleepby day.

Parry describes the laborious journey: "Being 'rigged' for travelling," he says, "we breakfasted upon warmcocoa and biscuit, and after stowing the things in the boats we set off on our day's journey, and usuallytravelled about five and a half hours, then stopped an hour to dine, and again travelled five or six hours.After this we halted for the night as we called it, though it was usually early in the morning, selecting thelargest surface of ice we happened to be near for hauling the boats on. The boats were placed close alongsideeach other, and the sails supported by bamboo masts placed over them asawnings. Every man then put on dry socks and fur boots and went to supper. Most of the officers and men thensmoked their pipes, which served to dry the awnings. We then concluded our day with prayers and, having put onour fur dresses, lay down to sleep," alone in the great ice desert. Progress was slow and very tedious. Oneday it took them four hours to cover half a mile. On 1st July they were still labouring forward; a foot ofsoft snow on the ground made travelling very exhausting. Some of the hummocks of ice were as much astwenty-five feet above sea-level; nothing was to be seen but ice and sky, both often hidden by dense fog.Still the explorers pushed on, Parry and Ross leading the way and the men dragging the boat-sledges after.July 12th was a brilliant day, with clear sky overhead—"an absolute luxury." For another fortnight theypersevered, and on 23rd July they reached their farthest point north. It was a warm, pleasant day, with thethermometer at thirty-six in the shade; they were a hundred and seventy-two miles from Spitzbergen, where theHecla lay at anchor.

"Our ensigns and pendants were displayed during the day, and severely as we regretted not having been able tohoist the British flag in the highest latitude to which we had aspired, we shall perhaps be excused in havingfelt some little pride in being the bearers of it to a parallel considerably beyond that mentioned in anyother well-authenticated record." On 27th July they reluctantly turned to the south, and on 21st August theyarrived on board the Hecla after an absence of sixty-one days, every one of the party being ingood health. Soon after they sailed for England, and by a strange coincidence arrived in London at the sametime as Franklin.

Many an attempt was yet to be made to reach the North Pole, till at last it was discovered by Peary, anAmerican, in 1909.

It is a relief to turn from the icy north to the tropical climate of Central Africa, where Mungo Park haddisappeared in 1805. The mystery of Timbuktu and the Niger remained unsolved, though more than one expeditionhad left the coast of Africa for the "mystic city" lying "deep in that lion-haunted inland." Notwithstandingdisaster, death, and defeat, a new expedition set forth from Tripoli to cross the great Sahara Desert. It wasunder Major Denham, Lieutenant Clapperton, and Dr. Oudney. They left Tripoli in March 1822. "We were the firstEnglish travellers," says Denham, "who had determined to travel in our real character as Britons andChristians, and to wear our English dress: the buttons on our waistcoats and our watches caused the greatestastonishment." It was the end of November before they were ready to leave the frontier on their great desertjourney. The long enforced stay in this unhealthy border town had undermined their health; fever had reducedDenham, Dr. Oudney was suffering from cough and pains in his chest, Clapperton was shivering with ague—astate of health "ill-calculated for undertaking a long and tedious journey." A long escort of men and camelsaccompanied them into the merciless desert, with its burning heat and drifting sands—"the Sea of Sahara"as the old cartographer calls it. December found them still slowly advancing over the billowy sand, deeplyimpressed andhorrified at the number of slave skeletons that lay about the wind-swept desert. The new year brought littlerelief. "No wood, no water," occurs constantly in Denham's journal. "Desert as yesterday; high sandhills."Still they persevered, until, on 4th February 1823, they were rewarded by seeing a sheet of water, "the greatLake Tchad, glowing with the golden rays of the sun in its strength." Was this, after all, the source of theNiger? Its low shores were surrounded with reedy marshes and clumps of white water-lilies, there were flocksof wild ducks and geese, birds with beautiful plumage were feeding on the margin of the lake, pelicans,cranes, immense white spoonbills, yellow-legged plover—all were dwelling undisturbed in this peacefulspot. And this most remarkable lake lay eight hundred feet above the Atlantic, between the watersheds of Nile,Niger, and Congo.

But Lake Tchad was not their goal; they must push on over new country where no European had been before. Afortnight later they reached Kukawa, the capital of Bornu, once a great Mohammedan empire. "We were about tobecome acquainted with a people who had never seen or scarcely heard of a European," says Denham, "and totread on ground, the knowledge and true situation of which had hitherto been wholly unknown. We advancedtowards the town of Kuka in a most interesting state of uncertainty, whether we should find its chief at thehead of thousands, or be received by him under a tree, surrounded by a few naked slaves."

Their doubts were soon set at rest by the sight of several thousand cavalry, drawn up in line. They werereceived by an Arab general, "a negro of noble aspect, dressed in a figured silk robe and mounted on abeautiful horse." They had passed from the region of hidden huts to one of great walled cities, from the nakedpagan to the cultivated follower of Mohammed, from superstitionTo mosques and schools, from ignorance to knowledge. The Sheikh, who received the travellers in a small roomwith armed negroes on either side, asked the reason oftheir long and painful journey across the desert. "To see the country," answered the Englishmen, "and to givean account of its inhabitants, produce, and appearance, as our sultan was desirous of knowing every part ofthe globe."

The Sheikh's hospitality was overwhelming; he had huts built for them, "which," says Denham, "were so crowdedwith visitors that we had not a moment's peace, and the heat was insufferable." He sent presents of bullocks,camel-loads of wheat and rice, leather skins of butter, jars, and honey. The market of Kuka was famous. It wasattended by some fifteen thousand persons from all parts, and the produce sold there was astonishing. HereClapperton and Dr. Oudney stayed all through the summer months, for both were ill, and Oudney was growingrapidly worse. Denham meanwhile went off on exploring expeditions in the neighbourhood.

On 14th December, Clapperton and Oudney left the friendly Sheikh and made their way to Kano. But the roughtravelling proved too much for Oudney; each day found him weaker, but he valiantly journeyed on. On 12thJanuary he ordered the camels to be loaded as usual, and he was dressed by Clapperton, but he was too ill tobe lifted on to his camel, and a few hours later he died.

Clapperton was now alone "amid a strange people" in a land "hitherto never trodden by European foot," and veryill himself. But he reached Kano, the famous trading centre of the Haussas, containing some forty thousandinhabitants. Here again the market impressed him deeply, so full was it of cosmopolitan articles fromfar-distant lands. After a month's stay at Kano, now the capital of the northern province of Nigeria of thatname, he set out for Sokoto, though very ill and weak at the time. He was assured of kind treatment by theSultan. He arrived on 16th March, and "to impress them with myofficial importance I arrayed myself in my lieutenant's coat trimmed with gold lace, white trousers, and silkstockings, and, to complete my finery, I wore Turkish slippers and a turban." Crowds collected on his arrival,and he was conducted to the Sultan, who questioned him closely about Europe. "I laid before him a present inthe name of His Majesty the King of England, consisting of two new blunderbusses, an embroidered jacket, somescarlet breeches, cloves and cinnamon, gunpowder, razors, looking-glasses, snuff-boxes, and compasses."

"Everything is wonderful!" exclaimed the Sultan; "but you are the greatest curiosity of all! What can I givethat is acceptable to the King of England?"

"Co-operate with His Majesty in putting a stop to the slave trade," was Clapperton's answer.

"What, have you no slaves in England?" The Englishman replied, "No!" to which the Sultan answered: "God isgreat; you are a beautiful people." But when Clapperton asked for leave in order to solve the mystery of theNiger, the Sultan refused, and he was obliged to return to Kuka, where he arrived on 8th July. A week later hewas joined by Denham. "It was nearly eight months since we had separated," says Denham, "and I wentimmediately to the hut where he was lodged; but so satisfied was I that the sunburnt, sickly person that layextended on the floor, rolled in a dark-blue shirt, was not my companion, that I was about to leave the place,when he convinced me of my error by calling me by my name. Our meeting was a melancholy one, for he had buriedhis companion. Notwithstanding the state of weakness in which I found Captain Clapperton, he yet spoke ofreturning to Sudan after the rains." But this was not to be, and a month later we find the two explorersturning homewards to Tripoli, where they arrived at the end of January.

But, with all his long travelling in Africa, Clappertonhad not seen the Niger, and, although the effects of his fever had not worn away, he spent but two months inEngland before he was off again. This time he sailed to the Gulf of Guinea, and from a place on the coast nearthe modern Lagos he started by a new and untried route to reach the interior of the great Dark Continent. Itwas September 1825 when he left the coast with his companions. Before the month was over, the other Europeanshad died from the pestilential climate of Nigeria, and Clapperton, alone with his faithful servant, RichardLander, pushed on. At last he saw the great Niger near the spot where Mungo Park and his companions hadperished. At Bussa they made out the tragic story of his end. They had descended the river from Timbuktu toBussa, when the boat struck upon some rocks. Natives from the banks shot at them with arrows; the white menthen, seeing all was lost, jumped into the river and were drowned. The Niger claimed its explorer in the end,and the words of Mungo Park must have occurred to Clapperton as he stood and watched: "Though I myself werehalf-dead, I would still persevere; and if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at leastdie on the Niger."

From Bussa, Clapperton made his way to Kano and Sokoto; but on 13th April 1827, broken down by fever, he diedin the arms of his faithful servant. With his master's papers and journal, Lander made his way home, thusestablishing for the first time a direct connection between Benin and Tripoli, the west coast and the north.

Still the mouth of the Niger had not been found. This discovery was reserved for this very Richard Lander andhis brother John.

Just a year after the death of Clapperton a young Frenchman, Réné Cainé, tempted by the offer of ten thousandfrancs offered by the French GeographicalSociety for the first traveller who should reach that mysterious city, entered Timbuktu 20th April 1829, aftera year's journey from Sierra Leone. And from his pen we get the first direct account of the once importantcity. "At length," he says, "we arrived safely at Timbuktu, just as the sun was touching the horizon. I nowsaw this capital of the Sudan, to reach which had so long been the object of my wishes. To God alone did Iconfide my joy. I looked around and found that the sight before me did not answer my expectations. I hadformed a totally different idea of the grandeur and wealth of it. The city presented nothing but a mass ofill-looking houses, built of earth. Nothing was to be seen in all directions but immense plains of quicksandof a yellowish white colour. The sky was a pale red as far as the horizon, all nature wore a dreary aspect,and the most profound silence prevailed: not even the warbling of a bird was to be heard. The heat wasoppressive; not a breath of air freshened the atmosphere. This mysterious city, which has been the object ofcuriosity for many ages, and of whose civilisation, population, and trade with the Sudan such exaggerated notions have prevailed, is situated in an immense plain of white sand, having no vegetation but stuntedtrees and shrubs, and has no other resources save its trade in salt."

It is curious to note what a burst of interest was aroused in England at this time with regard to Timbuktu.Thackeray wrote in 1829—

while the same year Tennyson's poem on Timbuktu won for him the prize at Cambridge University for the bestpoem of the year.

Lander, the "faithful attendant of the late Captain Clapperton," as he is called in his instructions, was burning tobe off again to explore further the mysterious Niger. No pecuniary reward was to be his; he was a poor man,and just for the love of exploring the unknown he started off. He had inspired his brother with a desire tosolve the great mystery; so on 22nd February 1830 the two brothers arrived at Cape Coast Castle and made theirway to Bussa, which place they entered on 18th June. Sitting on a rock overlooking the spot where Mungo Parkhad perished, the brothers resolved to "set at rest for ever the great question of the course and terminationof the great Niger."

It was 20th September before preparations were completed for the eventful voyage from Bussa to the mouth ofthe Niger. For provisions they took three large bags of corn and one of beans, a couple of fowls, and twosheep to last a month, while the king added rice, honey, onions, and one hundred pounds of vegetable butter.Then in two native canoes the Landers embarked on the great river, the "Dark Water" as it was more oftencalled, while the crowds who came down to the riverside to bid them farewell knelt with uplifted hands,imploring for the explorers the protection of Allah and their prophet. It was indeed a perilous undertaking;sunken reefs were an ever-present danger, while the swift current ran themdangerously near many jagged rocks. For nearly a month they paddled onward with their native guides in anxietyand suspense, never knowing what an hour might bring forth. On 7th October a curious scene took place when theKing of the Dark Water came forth in all his pomp and glory to see the white strangers who were paddling downthe great river. Waiting under the shade of a tree, for the morning was very hot, the Landers observed a largecanoe paddled by twenty young black men singing as they rowed. In the centre of the boat a mat awning waserected: in the bows sat four little boys "clad with neatness and propriety," while in the stern sat musicianswith drums and trumpets. Presently the king stepped forth. He was coal black, dressed in an Arab cloak, Haussatrousers, and a cap of red cloth, while two pretty little boys about ten years of age, acting as pages,followed him, each bearing a cow's tail in his hand to brush away flies and other insects. Six wives, jetblack girls in neat country caps edged with red silk, accompanied him. To make some impression on this pompousking, Lander hoisted the "Union flag." "When unfurled and waving in the wind, it looked extremely pretty, andit made our hearts glow with pride and enthusiasm as we looked at the solitary little banner. I put on an oldnaval uniform coat, and my brother dressed himself in as grotesque and gaudy a manner as our resources wouldafford; our eight attendants also put on new white Mohammedan robes." Other canoes joined the royal processionand the little flotilla moved down the river. "Never did the British flag lead so extraordinary a squadron,"remarks Lander. As the King of the Dark Water stepped on shore the Englishmen fired a salute, which frightenedhim not a little till the honour was explained. Having now exchanged their two canoes for one of a largersize, they continued their journey down the river.

On 25th October they found the waters of the Niger were joined by another large river known to-day as theBenue, the Mother of Waters, flowing in from the east. After this the banks of the river seemed to grow hilly,and villages were few and far between. "Our canoe passed smoothly along the Niger, and everything was silentand solitary; no sound could be distinguished save our own voices and the plashing of the paddles with theirechoes; the song of birds was not heard, nor could any animal whatever be seen; the banks seemed to beentirely deserted, and the magnificent Niger to be slumbering in its own grandeur."

"One can imagine the feelings," says a modern writer, "in such circ*mstances of the brothers, drifting theyknewnot whither, in intolerable silence and loneliness on the bosom of a river which had caused the death of somany men who had endeavoured to wrest from it its secret." Two days later a large village appeared, andsuddenly a cry rang through the air: "Holloa, you Englishmen! You come here!" It came from a "little squintingfellow" dressed in an English soldier's jacket, a messenger from the Chief of Bonney on the coast, buyingslaves for his master. He had picked up a smattering of English from the Liverpool trading ships which came toBonney for palm-oil from the river. There was no longer any doubt that the mouth of the Niger was not far off,and that the many-mouthed delta was well known to Europeans under the name of the "Oil Rivers" flowing intothe Bight of Benin.

Lander pushed on till he had paddled down the Brass River, as one of the many branches was called, when heheard "the welcome sound of the surf on the beach."

The mystery of the Niger, after a lapse of two thousand five hundred years since its existence had beenrecorded by Herodotus, was solved at last.

The first attempt to discover the North-West Passage by means of steam instead of sail was made by Captain Ross,who, since his expedition in 1819, had been burning to set off again for the Arctic regions. The reward of£20,000 held out to the discoverer of a north-west passage had been repealed, but an old friend, Felix Booth,decided to finance Ross, the Government having refused. "After examining various steamships advertised forsale," says Ross, "I purchased the Victory, which had been once employed as a packet." With food andfuel for one thousand days, and accompanied by his nephew, James Ross, who had been with Parry on his recentPolar voyage, he left England the end of May 1829, not to return for many a long year. Disasters soon began.The Victory began to leak, her engines were defective, and there was nothing for it but to heaveup her paddles and trust to sail. Sailing to the northward, they found the sea smooth and the weather so warmthat they could dine without a fire and with the skylights off. Entering Lancaster Sound, they sailed upPrince Regent's Inlet. They soon discovered the spot where the Fury had been wrecked four yearsbefore and abandoned by Captain Parry with whom was James Ross, who now found the stores which had been safelyhidden on that occasion. As they made their way up the inlet, strong currents and vast masses of ice hardand solid as granite more than once threatened them with destruction.

"Imagine," says Captain Ross, "these mountains hurled through a narrow strait by a rapid tide, meeting withthe noise of thunder, breaking from each other's precipices huge fragments, till, losing their formerequilibrium, they fall over headlong, lifting the sea around in breakers and whirling it in eddies."

Escaping these perils, Ross entered a fine harbour. Here he landed, hoisted the colours, and took possessionof the new land he had found, and, drinking the King's health, called the land Boothia, after his patron. Forthe next two months, August and September, he carefully explored the coast of this newly discovered Boothiafor some three hundred miles, naming points and capes and islands after friends at home and on board. Heavysqualls of snow and ever-thickening ice pointed out the necessity of winter quarters, and 1st October foundthe Victory imprisoned by thick immovable ice. "The prison door was shut upon us for the firsttime," says Ross sadly. "Nothing was to be seen but one dazzling, monotonous extent of snow. It was indeed adull prospect. Amid all its brilliancy, this land of ice and snow has ever been, and ever will be, a dull,dreary, heart-sinking, monotonous waste, under the influence of which the very mind is paralysed. Nothingmoves and nothing changes, but all is for ever the same—cheerless, cold, and still."

The explorers little thought that this was to be their home for the next three years. They spent a fairlycheerful Christmas with mince pies and "iced cherry brandy" taken from the stores of the Fury, andearly in 1830 the monotony was broken by the appearance of Eskimos. These were tremendously dressed up infurs, a shapeless mass, and Ross describes one as resembling "the figure of a globe standing on two pins."They soonbecame friendly, taking the Englishmen to see their snow huts, drawing them charts of Boothia Gulf beyondFelix Harbour, while in exchange the explorers taught English to the little Eskimo children and ministered totheir ailments, the ship's carpenter even making a wooden leg for one of the natives.

So the long winter passed away. A few land journeys with sledges only ended in disappointment, but at last thevessel was free of ice and joyfully they hoisted her sails. But worse disappointment was in store. She hadsailed for three miles when they met a ridge of ice, and a solid sea forbade any further advance. In vain didthey try to saw through the ice. November found the poor Victory hopelessly icebound and her crew doomed toanother winter in the same region.

It was not till May that a journey across the land of Boothia to the west coast was possible. Ross and hisnephew had been calculating the position of the North Magnetic Pole all the long winter, and with signs ofspring they set forth.

"Our journey had a very new appearance. The mother of two Eskimos led the way with a staff in her hand, mysledge following with the dogs and one of the children, guided by one of the wives with a child on her back.After a native sledge came that of Commander Ross, followed by more Eskimos. Many halts were made, as ourburdens were heavy, the snow deep, and the ice rough."

After a fortnight's travelling past the chain of great lakes—the woman still guiding them—theRosses, uncle and nephew, separated. James Ross now made for the spot where the Magnetic Pole was supposed tobe. His own account shows with what enthusiasm he found it. "We were now within fourteen miles of thecalculated position of the Magnetic Pole and now commenced a rapid march, and, persevering with all our might,we reached thecalculated place at eight in the morning of the 1st of June. I must leave it to others to imagine the elationof mind with which we found ourselves now at length arrived at this great object of our ambition. It almostseemed as if we had accomplished everything that we had come so far to see and to do; as if our voyage and allits labours were at an end, and that nothing remained for us but to return home and be happy for the rest ofour days. Amid mutual congratulation we fixed the British flag on the spot and took possession of the NorthMagnetic Pole and its adjoining territory in the name of Great Britain and King William IV. We had plenty ofmaterials for building, and we therefore erected a cairn of some magnitude under which we buried a canistercontaining a record of the interesting fact." Another fortnight found the successful explorers staggering backto the Victory with their great news, after an absence of twenty-eight days.

Science has shown that the Magnetic Pole revolves, and that Ross's cairn will not again mark its exactposition for many a long year to come.

By the end of August the ice had broken and the Victory was once more in full sail, but gales ofwind drove her into harbour, which she never left again. Despite their colossal efforts, it soon becameapparent that yet another winter would have to be passed in the frozen seas. The entries in Ross's journalbecome shorter and more despondent day by day. "The sight of ice to us is a plague, a vexation, a torment, anevil, a matter of despair. Could we have skated, it would not have been an amusem*nt; we had exercise enoughand, worst of all, the ice which surrounds us obstructed us, imprisoned us, annoyed us in every possiblemanner, had become odious to our sight." By October there was no open water to be seen; "the hopeful did nothope more, and the despondent continued to despair."

This was their third winter in the ice—food was growing scarce, the meat was so hard frozen that it hadto be cut with a saw or thawed in warm cocoa. Snow-blindness afflicted many of the men badly. At last came thesummer of 1833, but the Victory was still fast in her winter quarters, and all attempts torelease her had failed. They now decided to abandon her and to drag their boats over the ice to the wreck ofthe Fury, replenishing their stores and trusting to some whaler to take them home. We get a patheticpicture. "The colours were hoisted," says Ross, "and nailed to the mast, we drank a parting glass to our poorold ship, and, having seen every man out, I took my own adieu of the Victory in the evening. Shehad deserved a better fate. It was like parting with an old friend."

On 23rd April the weary explorers began dragging their boats and the last month's provisions over the ice inthe face of wind and snow. The journey was painful and distressing. They found Barrow's Strait full ofimpenetrable ice, and resolved to pass the winter on Fury beach, which seemed almost like home to thehalf-starved men. Erecting a house which they called "Somerset House," they prepared for a fourth winter. Forseverity it was unequalled, the crew developed scurvy, and all were suffering sorely when, in the followingAugust, the unfortunate party was rescued by the whaler, "Isabella of Hull, once commanded by CaptainRoss." It was the ship in which Ross had made his first Arctic exploration. At first the mate refused tobelieve the story of these "bear-like" men. The explorers and Ross had been lost these two years. But, almostfrantic with delight, the explorers climbed on board the Isabella to be received with theheartiest of cheers when their identity was disclosed. "That we were a repulsive-looking people, none coulddoubt," says poor Ross, "unshaven since I know not when, dirty, dressed in rags of wild beasts, and starved tothe very bones, our gaunt and grim looks, when contrasted with those of the well-dressed and well-fed menaround us, made us all feel what we really were, as well as what we seemed to others." Then followed a wildscene of "washing, dressing, shaving, eating, all intermingled," while in the midst of all there werequestions to be asked and the news from England to be heard. Long accustomed to a cold bed on the hard snow orthe bare rock, few of them could sleep that night in the comfort of the new accommodation.

They were soon safely back in England, large crowds collecting to get a glimpse of Captain Ross. His own wordsbest end the account of his travels. "On my arrival in London," he says, "on the 20th of October 1833, itbecamemy first duty to repair to the royal palace at Windsor, with an account of my voyage, and to lay at the feetof His Majesty the British flag which had been hoisted on the Magnetic Pole."

We must now return to Australia, as yet so imperfectly explored, and take up the story of the young colony atSydney.

For seven years it thrived under the careful management of Governor Phillips, who was then replaced by oneHunter. With the new governor from England arrived two young men destined to distinguish themselves in theexploration of New South Wales. They were midshipman Matthew Flinders and surgeon George Bass. The reading ofRobinson Crusoe had created in young Flinders a passion for sea-adventure, and no sooner had theReliance anchored in Sydney harbour than the two young friends resolved on an exploringexpedition to the south. For there were rumours afloat that Van Diemen's Land did not join the main continentof New South Wales. Little enough help was forthcoming for the expedition, and the friends had to contentthemselves with a little boat eight feet long—the Tom Thumb—and only a boy to help them.But with all the eager enthusiasm of youth they sailed from Port Jackson on 25th March 1796. It is impossibleto follow all their adventures as they attempted the survey of the coast. A storm on the 29th nearly swallowedup the little Tom Thumb and her plucky sailors.

"At ten o'clock," says Flinders, "the wind, which had been unsettled and driving electric clouds in alldirections, burst out in a gale. In a few minutes the waves began tobreak, and the extreme danger to which this exposed our little bark was increased by the darkness of the nightand the uncertainty of finding any place of shelter. Mr. Bass kept the sheet of the sail in his hand, drawingin a few inches occasionally, when he saw a particularly heavy sea following. I was steering with an oar. Asingle wrong movement or a moment's inattention would have sent us to the bottom. After running near an hourin this critical manner, some huge breakers were distinguished ahead; it was necessary to determine what wasto be done at once, for our bark could not live ten minutes longer. On coming to what appeared to be theextremity of the breakers, the boat's head was brought to the wind, the mast and sail taken down, and the oarstaken out. Pulling then towards the reef during the intervals of the heaviest seas, in three minutes we werein smooth water—a nearer approach showed us the beach of a well-sheltered cove in which we anchored forthe rest of the night. We thought Providential Cove a well-adapted name for the place."

Important local discoveries were made by the young explorers, and their skill and courage earned for them abetter equipment for further exploration. A whale-boat provisioned for six weeks, and a crew of six, wereplaced at the disposal of Bass in order that he might discover whether Van Diemen's Land was joined to themainland or whether there was a strait between. Cook had declaredthat there was no strait. Flinders now tells the story of his friend's triumphant success in finding thestraits that now bear his name. He tells how Bass found the coast turning westward exposed to the billows of agreat ocean, of the low sandy shore, of the spacious harbour which "from its relative position to the hithertoknown parts of the coasts was called Port Western." His provisions were now at an end and, though he was keento make a survey of his new discovery, he was obliged to return. This voyage of six hundred miles in an openboat on dangerous and unknown shores is one of the most remarkable on record. It added another three hundredmiles of known coast-line, and showed that the shores of New Holland were divided from Van Diemen's Land. Sohighly did the colonists appreciate this voyage of discovery that the whale-boat in which Bass sailed was longpreserved as a curiosity.

A small boat of twenty-five tons, provisioned for twelve weeks, was now put at the disposal of the twofriends, Flinders and Bass, to complete the survey of Van Diemen's Land, and in October 1798 they sailed forthe south. With gales and strong winds blowing across the channel now known as Bass Strait, they made theirway along the coast—the northern shores of Van Diemen's Land—till they found a wide inlet. Herethey found a quantity of black swans, which they ate with joy, and also kangaroos, mussels, and oysters. Thisinlet they called Port Dalrymple, after the late hydrographer to the Admiralty in England. On 9th December,still coasting onward, they passed Three-Hummock Island and then a whole cluster of islands, to which, "inhonour of His Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, I gave the title of Hunter's Isles." And now a longswell was noticed from the south-west. "It broke heavily upon a small reef and upon all the western shores,but, although it was likelyto prove troublesome and perhaps dangerous, Mr. Bass and myself hailed it with joy and mutual congratulation,as announcing the completion of our long-wished-for discovery of a passage into the southern Indian Ocean."

Calling the point where the island coast turned Cape Grime, they sailed along the western shores, their littleboat exposed to the swell of the southern ocean. Sailing joyfully from point to point and naming them at will,the two explorers reached the extreme west, which they called South-West Cape. This had been already sightedby one of Cook's party in 1773. South Cape and Tasman's Head had been likewise charted as points at theextreme south of New South Wales. So the explorers sailed right round the island on which Tasman had landedone hundred and fifty-six years before, and after an absence of five months they reached Sydney with theirimportant news. Bass now disappears from the annals of exploration, but his friend Flinders went off toEngland and found in our old friend Banks a powerful friend. He was given a stout north-country ship, H.M.S.Investigator of three hundred and thirty-four tons, with orders to return to New Holland and makea complete survey of the coast, and was off again in July 1801 with young John Franklin, his nephew, aboard.

The Investigator arrived at Cape Leuwin in December and anchored in King George's Sound,discovered by Vancouver some ten years before. By the New Year he was ready to begin his great voyage roundthe Terra Australis, as the new country was still called. Indeed, it was Flinders who suggested the name ofAustralia for the tract of land hitherto called New Holland. His voyage can easily be traced on our mapsto-day. Voyaging westward through the Recherches group of islands, Flinders passed the low, sandy shore to acape he named Cape Pasley, after his late Admiral; high, bleak cliffsnow rose to the height of some five hundred feet for a distance of four hundred and fifty miles—thegreat Australian Bight. Young Franklin's name was given to one island, Investigator to another, CapeCatastrophe commemorated a melancholy accident and the drowning of several of the crew. Kangaroo Island speaksfor itself. Here they killed thirty-one dark-brown kangaroos. "The whole ship's company was employed thisafternoon skinning and cleaning the kangaroos, and a delightful regale they afforded after four months'privation from almost any fresh provisions. Half a hundredweight of heads, forequarters, and tails were steweddown into soup for dinner, and as much steaks given to both officers and men as they could consume by day andnight."

In April 1802 a strange encounter took place, when suddenly there appeared a "heavy-looking ship without anytop-gallant masts up," showing a French ensign. Flinders cleared his decks for action in case of attack, butthe strangers turned out to be the French ship Le Géographe, which, in company with LeNaturaliste, had left France, 1800, for exploration of the Australian coasts.

Now it was well known that Napoleon had cast longing eyes upon the Terra Australis—indeed, it is saidthat he took with him to Egypt a copy of Cook's Voyages. Flinders, too, knew of this French expedition,but he was not specially pleased to find French explorers engaged on the same work as himself. The commandersmet as friends, and Baudin, the French explorer, told how he had landed also near Cape Leuwin in May 1801, howhe had given the names of his two ships to Cape Naturaliste and Géographe Bay, and was now making his wayround the coast. Flinders little guessed at this time that the French were going to claim the south of NewSouth Wales as French territory under the name of Terra Napoleon,though it was common knowledge that this discovery was made by Englishmen.

"Ah, captain," said one of the French crew to Flinders, "if we had not been kept so long picking up shells andcatching butterflies at Van Diemen's Land you would not have discovered this coast before us."

When Baudin put in at Port Jackson a couple of months later, he inquired of the Governor the extent of Britishclaims in the Pacific.

"The whole of Tasmania and Australia are British territory," was the firm answer.

After this encounter Flinders discovered and named Port Phillip, at the head of which stands the famous cityof Melbourne to-day, and then made his way on to Port Jackson. He had managed his crews so well that theinhabitants of Port Jackson declared they were reminded of England by the fresh colour of the men amongst theInvestigator ship's company. The Frenchmen had not fared so well. One hundred and fifty out ofone hundred and seventy were down with scurvy and had to be taken to the hospital at Sydney.

Before the end of July, Flinders was off again, sailing northwards along the eastern coast of New South Wales.October found him passing the Great Barrier reefs, and on the 21st he had reached the northernmost point, CapeYork. Three days of anxious steering took the Investigator through Torres Strait, and Flinderswas soon sailing into the great Gulf of Carpentaria. Still hugging the coast, he discovered a group of islandsto the south of the gulf, which he named the Wellesley Islands, after General Wellesley, afterwards Duke ofWellington. Here he found a wealth of vegetation; cabbage palm was abundant, nutmegs plentiful, and a sort ofsandal-wood was growing freely. He spent one hundred and five days exploring the gulf; then he continued hisvoyage round the west coast and back to Port Jackson by the south. He returned after a year's absence with asickly crew and a rotten ship. Indeed, the Investigator was incapable of further service, andFlinders decided to go back to England for another ship. As passenger on board the Porpoise, early inAugust 1802, he sailed from Sydney for the Torres Strait accompanied by two returning transports. All wentwell for the first four days, and they had reached a spot on the coast of Queensland, when a cry of "Breakersahead!" fell on the evening air. In another moment the ship was carried amongst the breakers and struck upon acoral reef. So sudden was the disaster that there was no time to warn the other ships closely following. Asthe Porpoise rolled over on her beam ends, huge seas swept over her and the white foam leapthigh. Then the mast snapped, water rushed in, and soon the Porpoise was a hopeless wreck. A fewminutes later, one of the transports struck the coral reef: she fell on her side, her deck facing the sweepingrollers, and was completely wrecked. The other transport escaped, sailed right away from the scene ofdisaster, and was never seen again by the crew of the Porpoise. The dawn of day showed the shipwreckedcrew a sandbank, to which some ninety-four menmade their way and soon set sailcloth tents on the barren shore. They had saved enough food for three months.Flinders as usual was the moving spirit. A fortnight later in one of the ship's boats, with twelve rowers andfood for three weeks, he left Wreck Reef amid ringing cheers to get help from Sydney for the eighty men lefton the sandbank.

"The reader," says the hero of this adventure, "has perhaps never gone two hundred and fifty leagues at sea inan open boat or along a strange coast inhabited by savages; but, if he recollect the eighty officers and menupon Wreck Reef, and how important was our arrival to their safety and to the saving of the charts, journals,and papers of the Investigator's voyage, he may have some idea of the pleasure we felt,particularly myself, at entering our destined port."

Half-starved, unshaven, deplorable indeed were the men when they staggered into Sydney, and "an involuntarytear started from the eye of friendship and compassion" when the Governor learnt how nearly Flinders and hisfriends had lost their lives.

A few days later Flinders left Sydney for the last time, in a little home-built ship of twenty-nine tons, theCumberland. It was the first ship ever built in the colony, and the colonists were glad it should be ofuse to the man who had done so much for their country. With all his papers and his beloved journals, Flindersput to sea accompanied by a ship to rescue the men left on Wreck Reef. Three months later, owing to the leakycondition of the ship, he landed at Mauritius. Here he was taken prisoner and all his papers and journals wereseized by the French. During his imprisonment a French Voyage of Discovery was issued, Napoleonhimself paying a sum of money to hasten publication. All the places discovered by Flinders, or "MonsieurFlinedore" as the French called him, werecalled by French names. Fortunately before reaching Mauritius, Flinders had sent duplicate copies of hischarts home, and the whole fraud was exposed. Flinders did not reach home till 1810. A last tragedy awaitedhim. For he died in 1814, on the very day that his great book, The Voyage to Terra Australis, waspublished. Flinders was a true explorer, and as he lay dying he cried, "I know that in future days ofexploration my spirit will rise from the dead and follow the exploring ship!"

Since the days of Flinders, much discovery had been done in the great new island-continent of Australia. The BlueMountains had been crossed, and the river Macquarie discovered and named after the governor of that name. ButSturt's famous discovery of the river Darling and his descent of the Murray River rank among the mostnoteworthy of a bewildering number of lesser expeditions.

Captain Sturt landed with his regiment, the 39th, at Sydney in the year 1827, "to guard the convicts." Hisfirst impressions of Sydney are interesting. "Cornfield and orchard," he says, "have supplanted wild grass andbrush; on the ruins of the forest stands a flourishing town; and the stillness of that once desert shore isnow broken by the bugle and by the busy hum of commerce. It is not unusual to see from thirty to forty vesselsfrom every quarter of the globe riding at anchor at one time."

Sir Ralph Darling, Governor of New South Wales, soon formed a high opinion of Sturt's ability, and when anexpedition was proposed into the interior for further exploration, he appointed him leader.

There was a universal opinion in the colony that in the middle of the unknown continent lay a large inlandsea. Oxley had made his way to a shallow ocean of reeds where the river Macquarie disappeared; natives spokeof "large waters" containing "great fish." To open up thecountry and to ascertain the truth of these rumours were the objects of this new expedition which left Sydneyin November 1828. It consisted of Hamilton Hume, the first Australian-born explorer, two soldiers, eightconvicts, fifteen horses, ten bullocks, and a small boat on a wheeled carriage. Across the roadless BlueMountains they started, followed the traces of Oxley, who had died just a week before they started, and aboutChristmas time they passed his last camp and began to break new ground. Through thickets of reeds and marshyswamps they pushed on; the river Macquarie had entirely disappeared, but on 2nd February they suddenly found alarge river some eighty yards broad enclosing an unbroken sheet of deep water. "Our surprise and delight,"says Sturt, "are better imagined than described. Our difficulties seemed at an end. The banks were too steepto allow of watering the cattle, but the men eagerly descended to quench a thirst increased by the powerfulsun. Never shall I forget their cry of amazement, nor the terror and disappointment with which they called outthat the water was too salt to drink! Leaving his party, Sturt pushed on, but no fresh water was to be found,so he named the river the Darling, after the Governor, and returned, but not till he had discovered brinesprings in the bed of the river, which accounted for its saltness. Sturt had found no inland sea, but in theDarling he had discovered a main channel of the western watershed.

He now proposed to follow the line of the Murrumbidgee, "a river of considerable size and impetuous current,"and to trace it if possible into the interior. Several of his old party again joined him, and once more herode out of Sydney on this new quest.

The journey to the banks of the Murrumbidgee lay through wild and romantic country, but as they journeyedfarther, broad reed belts appeared by the river, which wassoon lost in a vast expanse of reeds. For a moment or two Sturt was as one stunned; he could neither sleep norrest till he had regained the river again. When at last he did so he found the water was deep, the currentrapid, and the banks high. But he turned on all hands to build the whale-boat which he had designed at Sydneyfor the purpose. Early in January he writes home: "I was checked in my advance by high reeds spreading as faras the eye can reach. The Murrumbidgee is a magnificent stream. I do not yet know its fate, but I have takento the boats. Where I shall wander to God only knows. I have little doubt, however, that I shall ultimatelymake the coast."

By 6th January the boat was ready and Sturt started on his memorable voyage. After passing the junction of theLachlan, the channel gradually narrowed; great trees had been swept down by the floods and navigation renderedvery dangerous. Still narrower grew the stream, stronger the current. "On a sudden, the river took a generalsouthern direction. We were carried at a fearful rate down its gloomy banks, and at such a moment ofexcitement had little time to pay attention to the country through which we were passing. At last we found wewere approaching a junction, and within less than a minute we were hurried into a broad and noble river. It isimpossible to describe the effect upon us of so instantaneous a change. We gazed in silent wonder on the largechannel we had entered."

The Murrumbidgee had joined the great Murray River as Sturt now called it, after Sir George Murray of theColonial Department.

To add to the unknown dangers of the way, numbers of natives now appeared in force on the banks of the river,threatening the white men with "dreadful yells and with the beating of spears and shields."Firearms alone saved the little crew, and the rage of the natives was turned to admiration as they watched thewhite men paddling on their great river while some seventy black men swam off to the boat like "a parcel ofseals."

The explorers now found a new and beautiful stream flowing into the Murray from the north, up which the boatwas now turned, natives anxiously following along the grassy banks, till suddenly a net stretched across thestream checked their course. Sturt instinctively felt he was on the river Darling again. "I directed that theUnion Jack should be hoisted, and we all stood up in the boat and gave three distinct cheers. The eye of everynative was fixed upon that beautiful flag as it waved over us in the heart of a desert."

While they were still watching, Sturt turned the head of the boat and pursued his way down the great MurrayRiver. Stormy weather at the end of January set in; though they were yet one hundred and fifteen miles fromthe coast, the river increased in breadth, cliffs towered above them, and the water dashed like sea-waves attheir base.

On the 5th of February they were cheered by the appearance of sea-gulls and a heavy swell up the river, whichthey knew must be nearing the sea. On the twenty-third day of their voyage they entered a great lake. Crossingto the southern shore, they found to their bitter grief that shoals and sandbanks made it impossible for themto reach the sea. They found that the Murray flowed into Encounter Bay, but thither they could not pass. Thethunder of the surf upon the shore brought no hope to the tired explorers. They had no alternative but to turnback and retrace their way. Terrible was the task that lay before them. On half-rations and with hostilenatives to encounter they must fight their way against wind andstream. And they did it. They reached the camp on the Murrumbidgee just seventy-seven days after leaving it,but to their dismay it was deserted. The river, too, had risen in flood and "poured its turbid waters withgreat violence."

"For seventeen days," says Sturt, "we pulled against stream with determined perseverance, but in our shortdaily journeys we made but trifling way against it."

The effects of severe toil were painfully evident. The men lost the muscular jerk with the oars. Their armswere nerveless, their faces haggard, their persons emaciated, their spirits wholly spent. From sheer wearinessthey fell asleep at the oar. No murmur, however, escaped them.

"I must tell the captain to-morrow," said one, thinking that Sturt was asleep, "that I can pull no more." Butwhen the morrow came he said no word, but pulled on with his remaining strength. One man went mad. The lastounce of flour was consumed when relief arrived, and the weary explorers at last reached Sydney with theirgreat news.

The result of this discovery was soon seen. In 1886 a shipload of English emigrants arrived off KangarooIsland, and soon a flourishing colony was established at the mouth of the Murray River, the site of the newcapital being called Adelaide, after the wife of William IV.

After this Sturt tried to cross Australia from south to north; but though he opened up a good deal of newcountry, he failed to reach the coast. He was rewarded by the President of the Royal Geographical Society, whodescribed him as "one of the most distinguished explorers and geographers of our age."

The feat of crossing Australia from south to north, from shore to shore, was reserved for an Irishman calledBurke in the year 1861. The story of his expedition, though it was successful, is one of the saddest in thehistory of discovery. The party left Melbourne in the highest spirits. No expense had been spared to give thema good outfit; camels had been imported from India, with native drivers, and food was provided for a year. Themen of Melbourne turned out in their hundreds to see the start of Burke with his four companions, his camels,and his horses. Starting in August 1860, the expedition arrived at Cooper's Creek in November with half theirjourney done. But it was not till December that the party divided, and Burke with his companions, Wills, King,and Gray, six camels, and two horses, with food for three months, started off for the coast, leaving the restat Cooper's Creek to await their return in about three months. After hard going they reached a channel withtidal waters flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria on28th March, but they could not get a view of the open ocean because of boggy ground.

They accomplished their task, but the return journey was disastrous. Short rations soon began to tell, forthey had taken longer than they had calculated, and no food was to be found by the way. Gray was the first tofail and to die. Heavy rains made the ground impossibly heavy, and the camels sank to the ground exhausted.Finally they had to be killed and eaten. Then the horses went. At long last the three weary men and twoutterly worn-out camels dragged themselves to Cooper's Creek, hoping to find their companions and the foodthey had left there four months ago. It was 21st April. Not a soul was to be seen!

"King," cried Wills, in utter despair, "they are gone!

As the awful truth flashed on them, Burke—their leader—threw himself on to the ground, realisingtheir terrible situation. They looked round. On a tree they saw the word "Dig." In a bottle they found aletter: "We leave the camp to-day, 21st April 1861. We have left you some food. We take camels and horses."

Only a few hours ago the party had left Cooper's Creek! And the explorers were too weak and tired to follow!They ate a welcome supper of oatmeal porridge and then, after resting a couple of days, they struggled ontheir way, three exhausted men and two tired camels. Their food was soon finished, and they had to subsist ona black seed like the natives called "nardoo." But they grew weaker and weaker, and the way was long. Thecamels died first. Then Wills grew too ill to walk, and there was nothing for it but to leave him and push onfor help. The natives were kind to him, but he was too far gone, and he died before help could arrive. Burkeand King sadly pushed on without him, but a few days later Burke died, and in the heart of Australia the onewhite man, King,was left alone. It was not till the following September that he was found "sitting in a hut that the blackshad made for him. He presented a melancholy appearance, wasted to a shadow and hardly to be distinguished as acivilised being except by the remnants of clothes on him."

So out of that gay party of explorers who left Melbourne in the summer of 1860 only one man returned to tellthe story of success and the sadder story of suffering and disaster.

Now, while explorers were busy opening up Australian inland, Ross was leaving the Australian waters for his voyageto the south. Four years after the return of the Ross polar expedition, Sir John Franklin had been madeGovernor of Van Diemen's Land, where he was visited by the ships sent out from England on the first Antarcticexpedition under the command of Sir James Ross, who had returned to find himself famous for his discovery ofthe North Magnetic Pole.

An expedition had been fitted out, consisting of the Erebus and the Terror—shipswhich later on made history, for did they not carry Sir John Franklin to his doom in the Arctic regions someyears later? The ships sailed in the autumn of 1839 by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and excited greatinterest at Hobart Town, where the commanders, Ross and Crozier, were warmly received by the Governor. In abay, afterwards called Ross Cove, the ships were repaired after the long voyage, while an observatory wasbuilt by the convicts under the personal supervision of Sir John Franklin. Interesting news awaited theexplorers, too, at Hobart Town. Exploration had taken place in the southern regions by a French expeditionunder D'Urville and an American, Lieutenant Wilkes—both of which had made considerable discoveries. Rosswas somewhat surprised at this, for, as he said, "England had ever led the way of discovery in thesouthern as well as in the northern regions," but he decided to take a more easterly course, and, if possible,to reach the South Magnetic Pole.

On 5th November 1840 the ships were off again, shaping their course for Auckland Island, nine hundred milesfrom Hobart Town. The island had been discovered in 1806 by Captain Bristow. He had left some pigs, whoserapid increase filled the explorers with surprise. Christmas Day found them still sailing south, with stronggales, snow, and rain. The first iceberg was seen a few days later, and land on 11th January.

"It was a beautifully clear evening," says Ross, "and we had a most enchanting view of the two magnificentranges of mountains whose lofty peaks, perfectly covered with eternal snow, rose to elevations of ten thousandfeet above the level of the ocean." These icy shores were inhospitable enough, and the heavy surf breakingalong its edge forbade any landing. Indeed, a strong tide carried the ships rapidly and dangerously along thecoast among huge masses of ice. "The ceremony of taking possession of these newly discovered lands in the nameof our Most Gracious Sovereign Queen Victoria was proceeded with, and on planting the flag of our country amidthe hearty cheers of our party, we drank to the health, long life, and happiness of Her Majesty and His RoyalHighness Prince Albert."

The end of the month found them farther south than any explorer had sailed before. Everything was new, andthey were suddenly startled to find two volcanoes, one of which was active; steam and smoke rising to a heightof two thousand feet above the crater and descending as mist and snow. Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, Rosscalled them, in memory of his two ships. They sailed on, but soon were stopped by a huge barrier of solid icelike a great white wall, one thousand feet thickand one hundred and eighty feet above sea-level. They knew now they could get no farther thisseason—they had reached a point one hundred and sixty miles from the Pole. Could they but have winteredhere "in sight of the brilliant burning mountain and at so short a distance from the Magnetic Pole," theymight easily have reached it the following spring,—so they thought,—but reluctantly Ross had toturn. "Few can understand the deep feelings of regret with which I felt myself compelled to abandon theperhaps too ambitious hope I had so long cherished of being permitted to plant the flag of my country on bothMagnetic Poles of our globe."

The whole of the great southern land they had discovered received the name of Queen Victoria, which name itkeeps to-day. They had been south of the Antarctic Circle for sixty-three days, when they recrossed it on 4thMarch. A few days later they narrowly escaped shipwreck. An easterly wind drove them among some hundreds oficebergs. "For eight hours," says Ross, "we had been gradually drifting towards what to human eyes appearedinevitable destruction; the high waves and deep rolling of our ships rendered towing with boats impossible,and our situation was the more painful from our inability to make any effort to avoid the dreadful calamitythat seemed to await us. The roar of the surf, which extended each way as far as we could see, and the dashingof the ice fell upon the ear with painful distinctness as we contemplated the awful destruction thatthreatened in one short hour to close the world and all its hopes and joys and sorrows upon us for ever. Inthis deep distress we called upon the Lord . . . and our cry came before Him. A gentler air of wind filled oursails; hope again revived, and before dark we found ourselves far removed from every danger."

April found them back again in Van Diemen's land, and though Ross sailed again the following autumn intosouthern latitudes, he only reached a point some few miles farther than before being again stopped by a greatwall barrier of thick ice. After this he took his ship home by way of Cape Horn, and "the shores of OldEngland came into view on the 2nd of September 1843." After an absence of four years Ross was welcomed home,and honours were showered on him, including the award of the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society ofParis.

The whole coast-line of North America had now been charted, but the famous North-West Passage, for which so manylives had been laid down, had yet to be found. Sir John Barrow, "the father of modern Arctic discovery,"Secretary to the Admiralty, now decided to dispatch another expedition to forge this last link and to connect,if possible, the chain of all former discoveries.

Many were the volunteers who came forward to serve in the new Arctic expedition. But Sir John Franklin claimedthe command as his special right.

"No service," he declared, "is nearer to my heart."

He was reminded that rumour put his age at sixty, and that after a long life of hard work he had earned somerest.

"No, no!" cried the explorer; "I am only fifty-nine!"

This decided the point, and Franklin was appointed to the Erebus and Terror, recentlyreturned from the Antarctic expedition of Sir James Ross. The ships were provisioned for three years, and witha crew of one hundred and twenty-nine men and several officers, Sir John Franklin left England for the lasttime on 19th May 1845. He was never seen again!

All were in the highest spirits, determined to solve the mystery of the North-West Passage once and for all!So certain were they of success that one of the officers wrote to a friend: "Write to Panama and the SandwichIslands every six months."

On 4th July the ships anchored near the island of Disco on the west coast of Greenland. After which all issilence. The rest of the story, "one of the saddest ever told in connection with Arctic exploration," isdovetailed together from the various scraps of information that have been collected by those who sailed insearch of the lost expedition year by year.

In 1848, Sir James Ross had sailed off in search of his missing friend, and had reached a spot within threehundred miles of the Erebus and Terror four months after they had been abandoned,but he returned with no news of Franklin.

Then Sir John Richardson started off, but found no trace. Others followed. The Government offered £20,000, towhich Lady Franklin added £3000, to any one who should bring news of Franklin. By the autumn of 1850 therewere fifteen ships engaged in the search. A few traces were found. It was discovered that Sir John Franklinhad spent his first winter (1845–46) at Beechey Island. Carlin M'Clure sailed along the north coast of Americaand made his way from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean—thus showing the existence of a north-westpassage, for which he and his men were highly rewarded, for at this time no one knew that Franklin had alreadyfound a passage though he had not lived to tell the story of triumph and success. But it was not till afteryears of silence that the story of the missing expedition was cleared up. Lady Franklin purchased and fittedout a little steam yacht, the Fox, of one hundred and seventy-seven tons. The command was given toCaptain M'Clintock, known to be an able and enthusiastic Arctic navigator. He was to rescue any "possiblesurvivor of the Erebus and Terror, and to try and recover any records of the lostexpedition."

The 12th August found the little Fox in Melville Bay made fast to an iceberg, and a few dayslater she was frozenfirmly into an ice-pack. For two hundred and forty-two days she was beset, drifting all through the long,bitter winter with the ice, till on 25th April 1858, after having been carried over a thousand miles, she wasreleased. M'Clintock, undaunted by danger, turned northwards, and by May he had reached Melville Bay. Thenceup Lancaster Sound, he reached Beechey Island in August and found there three lonely graves of three sailorsfrom the Erebus and Terror. Here the English commander erected a tablet sent out by LadyFranklin.

On the morning of 16th August, M'Clintock sailed from Beechey Island, but the short summer was passing quicklyand they had no fresh news of the Franklin expedition. Half-way through Bellot Strait the Fox wasagain ice-bound, and another long winter had to be faced. By themiddle of February 1859 there was light enough to start some sledging along the west coast of Boothia Felix.Days passed and M'Clintock struggled on to the south, but no Eskimos appeared and no traces of the lostexplorers were to be found. Suddenly they discovered four men walking after them.

A naval button on one of the Eskimos attracted their attention.

"It came," said the Eskimo, "from some white people who were starved upon an island where there are salmon,but none of them had seen the white men."

Here was news at last—M`Clintock travelled on some ten miles to Cape Victoria, where the Eskimos builthim a "commodious snow-hut in half an hour." Next morning the entire village of Eskimos arrived—someforty-five people—bringing relics of the white men. There were silver spoons, part of a gold chain,buttons, knives made ofthe iron and wood of the wrecked ships. But none of these people had seen the white men—one man said hehad seen their bones upon the island where they died, but some were buried. They said a ship "having threemasts had been crushed by the ice out in the sea to the west of King William's Island." One old man made arough sketch of the coast-line with his spear upon the snow; he said it was eight journeys to where the shipsank.

M'Clintock hastened back to the ship with his news—he had by his sleigh-journey added one hundred andtwenty miles to the old charts and "completed the discovery of the coast-line of Continental America."

On 2nd April more sledge-parties started out to reach King William's Island—the cold was still intense,the glare of the sun painful to their eyes. The faces and lips of the men were blistered and cracked; theirfingers were constantly frostbitten. After nearly three weeks' travelling they found snow-huts and Eskimos atCape Victoria. Here they found more traces of Franklin's party—preserved meat tins, brass knives, amahogany board. In answer to their inquiries, they heard that two ships had been seen by the natives of KingWilliam's Island; one had been seen to sink in deep water, the other was forced on shore and broken up. "Itwas in the fall of the year (August or September)," they said, when the ships were destroyed, that all thewhite people went away to the large river, taking a boat with them, and that in the following winter theirbones were found there.

M'Clintock now made his way to the opposite coast of King William's Island. Here he found Eskimos with piecesof silver-plate bearing the crest and initials of Sir John Franklin and some of his officers. They said it wasfive days' journey to the wreck, of which little now remained. There had been many books, said the Eskimos,but they had been destroyed by the weather. One woman volunteereda statement. "Many of the white men," she said, "dropped by the way as they went to the Great River. Some wereburied and some were not. Their bodies were discovered during the winter following." Moving onwards,M'Clintock reached the Great Fish River on the morning of 12th May. A furious gale was raging and the air washeavy with snow, but they encamped there to search for relics. With pickaxes and shovels they searched invain. No Eskimos were to be found, and at last in despair the little party of explorers faced homewards.M'Clintock was slowly walking near the beach, when he suddenly came upon a human skeleton, lying facedownwards, half buried in the snow. It wore a blue jacket with slashed sleeves and braided edging and agreatcoat of pilot-cloth.

The old woman was right. "They fell down and died as they walked along." And now the reward of the explorerswas at hand. On the north-west coast of King William's Island was found a cairn and a blue ship's paper,weather-worn and ragged, relating in simple language, written by one of the ship's officers, the fate of theFranklin expedition. The first entry was cheerful enough. In 1846 all was well. His Majesty's ships,Erebus and Terror, wintered in the ice—at Beechey Island, after having ascendedWellington Channel and returned to the west side of Cornwallis Island. Sir John Franklin was commanding theexpedition. The results of their first year's labour was encouraging. In 1846 they had been within twelvemiles of King William's Island, when winter stopped them. But a later entry, written in April 1848, statesthat the ships were deserted on 22nd April, having been beset in ice since September 1846—that Sir JohnFranklin had died on 11th June 1847, and that Captain Crozier was in command.

Then came the last words, "And start to-morrow twenty-sixth for Back's Fish River." That was all.

After a diligent search in the neighbourhood for journals or relics, M'Clintock led his party along the coast,till on 30th May they found another relic in the shape of a large boat, with a quantity of tattered clothinglying in her. She had been evidently equipped for the ascent of the Great Fish River. She had been built atWoolwich Dockyard; near her lay two human skeletons, a pair of worker slippers, some watches, guns, a Vicarof Wakefield, a small Bible, New Testament, and Prayer Book, seven or eight pairs of boots, some silkhandkerchiefs, towels, soap, sponge, combs, twine, nails, shot, and cartridges, needle and thread cases, sometea and chocolate, and a little tobacco.

Everything was carefully collected and brought back to the ship, which was reached on 19th June. Two monthslater the little Fox was free from ice and M'Clintock reached London towards the end ofSeptember, to make known his great discovery.

The rest of the story is well known. Most of us know the interesting collection of Franklin relics in theUnited Service Institution in London, and the monument in Waterloo Place to "the great navigator and his bravecompanions who sacrificed their lives in completing the discovery of the North-West Passage."

It was acknowledged "that to Sir John Franklin is due the priority of discovery of the North-WestPassage—that last link to forge which he sacrificed his life."

And on the marble monument in Westminster Abbey, Tennyson, a nephew of Sir John Franklin, wrote his well-knownlines—

"I shall open up a path to the interior or perish."

Such were the words of one of the greatest explorers of Africa in the nineteenth century. Determination wasthe keynote of his character even as a young boy. At the age of ten he was at work in a cotton factory inScotland: with his first week's wages he bought a Latin grammar. Fourteen hours of daily work left little timefor reading, but he educated himself, till at nineteen he was resolved to be a medical missionary.

"In the glow of love which Christianity inspires, I resolved to devote my life to the alleviation of humanmisery." He was accepted for service by the London Missionary Society, and in the year 1840 he sailed forSouth Africa. After a voyage of three months he arrived at Cape Town and made his way in a slow ox-waggonseven hundred miles to Kuruman, a small mission station in the heart of Bechuanaland where Dr. Moffat hadlaboured for twenty years. He did well, and two years later he was sent north to form another mission stationat Mabotsa (Transvaal). Having married Moffat's daughter Mary, he worked in these parts till June 1849, when,with his wife and three children, he started with oxen and waggon for a journey northwards. Across the greatKalahari Desert moved the exploring family, till they cameto the river called Zouga, which, said the natives, led to a large lake named Lake Ngami. In native canoes,Livingstone and his little family ascended this beautifully wooded river, "resembling the river Clyde aboveGlasgow," till on 1st August 1849, Lake Ngami appeared, "and for the first time," says Livingstone, "this finesheet of water was beheld by Europeans." The lake was two thousand eight hundred feet above the sea, but theclimate was terribly unhealthy. The children grew feverish, and mosquitoes made life a misery to them, whilethe tsetse fly made further exploration for the moment impossible. So the family journeyed back toheadquarters for a time. But Livingstone was unsatisfied, and once more in 1851 we find him starting againwith wife and children to seek the great river Zambesi, known to exist in central Africa, though thePortuguese maps represented it as rising far to the east of Livingstone's discovery.

"It was the end of June 1851," he tells us, "that we were rewarded by the discovery of the Zambesi in thecentre of the continent. This was an important point, for that river was not previously known to exist thereat all. As we were the very first white men the inhabitants had ever seen, we were visited by prodigiousnumbers of Makololo in garments of blue, green, and red baize." Livingstone wanted to know more of thisunknown river, but he now decided that exploring with a wife and family was not only perilous, but difficult,so he returned to the coast, put them on a homeward-bound ship for England, and returned to central Africa tocontinue his work of exploration alone.

It was 11th November 1858 when Livingstone left the town of Linyanti in the very heart of central Africa forhis great journey to the west coast to trace the course of the Zambesi.

So ran an old canoe-song of the natives.

With twenty-seven faithful black Makololos, with "only a few biscuits, a little tea and sugar, twenty poundsof coffee and three books," with a horse rug and sheepskin for bedding and a small gipsy tent and a tincanister, fifteen inches square, filled with a spare shirt, trousers, and shoes for civilised life, and a fewscientific instruments, the English explorer started for a six months' journey. Soon his black guides hadembarked in their canoes and were making their way up the Zambesi. "No rain has fallen here," he writes on30th November, "so it is excessively hot. The atmosphere is oppressive both in cloud and sunshine."Livingstone suffered badly from fever during the entire journey. But the blacks took fatherly care of him. "Assoon as we land," he says, "the men cut a little grass for my bed, while the poles of my little tent areplanted. The bed is made and boxes ranged on each side of it, and then the tent pitched over all. TwoMakololos occupy my right and left both in eating and sleeping as long as the journey lasts, but my headboatman makes his bed at the door of the tent as soon as I retire."

As they advanced up the Barotse valley, rains had fallen and the woods had put on their gayest hue. Flowers ofgreat beauty grew everywhere. "The ground begins to swarm with insect life, and in the cool, pleasant morningsthe place rings with the singing of birds."

On 6th January 1854 they left the river and rode oxen through the dense parts of the country through whichthey had now to pass. Through heavy rains and with very little food, they toiled on westward through miles andmiles of swamp intersected by streams flowing southward to the Zambesi basin. One day Livingstone's ox,Sindbad, threw him, and he had to struggle wearily forward on foot. His strength was failing. His meagre fare varied by boiled zebra and dried elephant, frequentwettings and constant fever, were reducing him to a mere skeleton. At last on 26th March he arrived at theedge of the high land over which he had so long been travelling. "It is so steep," he tells us, "that I wasobliged to dismount, and I was so weak that I had to be led by my companions to prevent my toppling over inwalking down. Below us lay the valley of the Kwango in glorious sunlight." Another fortnight and they were inPortuguese territory. The sight of white men once more and a collection of traders' huts was a welcome sightto the weary traveller. The commandant at once took pity on Livingstone, but after a refreshing stay of tendays the English explorer started off westward to the coast. For another month he pursued his way. It was 31stMay 1854. As the party neared the town of Loanda, the black Makololos began to grow nervous. "We have stood byeach other hitherto and will do so to the last," Livingstone assured them, as they all staggered into the cityby the seashore. Here they found one Englishman sent out for the suppression of the slave trade, who at oncegave up his bed to the stricken and emaciated explorer. "Never shall I forget," he says, "the luxury I enjoyedin feeling myself again on a good English bed after six months' sleeping on the ground."

Nor were the Makololos forgotten. They were entertained on board an English man-of-war lying off the coast.Livingstone was offered a passage home, but he tells us: "I declined the tempting offers of my friends, andresolved to take back my Makololo companions to their Chief, with a view of making a path from here to theeast coast by means of the great river Zambesi."

With this object in view, he turned his back on home and comfort, and on 20th September 1854 he left Loandaand "the white man's sea," as the black guides called the Atlantic Ocean that washes the shores of WestAfrica. Their way lay through the Angola country, rich in wild coffee and cotton plantations. The weather wasas usual still and oppressive, but slowly Livingstone made his way eastward. He suffered badly from fever ashe had done on the outward journey. It had taken him six months to reach Loanda from central Africa; it took ayear to complete the return journey, and it was September 1855 before Linyanti was again reached. Waggons andgoods left there eighteen months before were safe, together with many welcome letters from home. The return ofthe travellers after so long an absence was a cause of great rejoicing. All the wonderful things the Makololoshad seen and heard were rehearsed many times before appreciative audiences. Livingstone was more than ever ahero in their eyes, and his kindness to his men was not forgotten. He had no difficulty in getting recruitsfor the journey down the Zambesi to the sea, for which he was now making preparations.

On 3rd November he was ready to resume his long march across Africa. He was much better equipped on thisoccasion; he rode a horse instead of an ox, and his guide, Sekwebu, knew the river well. The first night outthey were unfortunately caught in a terrific thunderstorm accompanied by sheet-lightning, which lit up thewhole country and flooded it with torrents of tropical rain.

A few days' travelling brought the party to the famous Zambesi Falls, called by the natives "where smokesounds," but renamed by Livingstone after the Queen of England, Victoria. The first account of these nowfamous Falls is very vivid. "Five columns of vapour, appropriately named smoke, bending in the direction ofthe wind, appeared to mingle with the clouds. The whole scene was extremely beautiful. It had never been seenbeforeby European eyes. When about half a mile from the Falls, I left the canoe and embarked in a lighter one withmen well acquainted with the rapids, who brought me to an island in the middle of the river and on the edge ofthe lip over which the water rolls. Creeping with care to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which hadbeen made from bank to bank of the broad Zambesi. In looking down into the fissure one sees nothing but adense white cloud; from this cloud rushed up a great jet of vapour exactly like steam, and it mounted two orthree hundred feet high."

Livingstone now continued his perilous journey with his hundred men along the Zambesi, the country oncedensely populated, now desolate and still. The Bakota tribes, "the colour of coffee and milk," were friendly,and "great numbers came from all the surrounding villages and expressed great joy at the appearance of a whiteman and harbinger of peace." They brought in large supplies of food, and expressed great delight whenLivingstone doctored their children, who were suffering from whooping-cough. As they neared the coast, theybecame aware of hostile forces. This was explained when they were met by a Portuguese half-caste "with jacketand hat on," who informed them that for the last two years they had been fighting the natives. Plunging thusunconsciously into the midst of a Kafir war rendered travelling unpleasant and dangerous. In addition, theparty of explorers found their animals woefully bitten by the tsetse fly, rhinoceroses and elephants were tooplentiful to be interesting, and the great white ant made itself tiresome.

It was 3rd March before Livingstone reached Tete, two hundred and sixty miles from the coast. The last stagesof the journey had been very beautiful. Many of the hills were of pure white marble, and pink marble formedthebed of more than one of the streams. Through this country the Zambesi rolled down toward the coast at the rateof four miles an hour, while flocks of water-fowl swarmed upon its banks or flew over its waters. Tete was thefarthest outpost of the Portuguese. Livingstone was most kindly received by the governor, but fever again laidhim low, and he had to remain here for three weeks before he was strong enough to start for the last stage ofhis journey to the coast. He left his Makololos here, promising to return some day to take them home again.They believed in him implicitly, and remained there three years, when he returned according to his word.Leaving Tete, he now embarked on the waters of the Zambesi, high with a fourth annual rise, which bore him toSena in five days. So swift is the current at times that twenty-four hours is enough to take a boat from Teteto Sena, whereas the return journey may take twenty days.

"I thought the state of Tete quite lamentable," says Livingstone, but that of Sena was ten times worse. "It isimpossible to describe the miserable state of decay into which the Portuguese possessions here have sunk."

Though suffering badly from fever, Livingstone pushed on; he passed the important tributary of the Zambesi,the Shire, which he afterwards explored, and finally reached Quilimane on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Itwas now 20th May 1856, just four years after he had left Cape Town on his great journey from west to east,since when he had travelled eleven thousand miles. After waiting six weeks on the "great mud bank, surroundedby extensive swamps and rice grounds," which form the site of Quilimane, Livingstone embarked on board agun-boat, the Frolic, for England. He had one Makololo with him—the faithful Sekwebu. The poorblack man begged to be allowed to follow his master on the seas.

"But," said Livingstone, "you will die if you go to such a cold country as mine."

"Let me die at your feet," pleaded the black man.

He had not been to Loanda, so he had never seen the sea before. Waves were breaking over the bar at Quilimaneand dashing over the boat that carried Sekwebu out to the brig. He was terribly alarmed, but he lived to reachMauritius, where he became insane, hurled himself into the sea, and was drowned!

On 12th December 1856, Livingstone landed in England after an absence of sixteen years. He had left home as anobscure missionary; he returned to find himself famous. The Royal Geographical Society awarded him its goldmedal; France and Scotland hastened to do him honour. Banquets and receptions were given for him, and finallythis "plain, single-minded man, somewhat attenuated by years of toil, and with his face tinged by the sun ofAfrica," was received by the Queen at Windsor. The enthusiasm aroused by this longest expedition in thehistory of African travel was unrivalled, and the name of Livingstone was on every lip. But meanwhile otherswere at work in central Africa, and we must turn from the discoveries of Livingstone for the moment.

Livingstone had just left Loanda and was making his way across Africa from west to east, when an English expedition setforth to find the Great Lakes still lying solitary and undiscovered, although they were known to exist. If weturn to the oldest maps of Africa, we find, rudely drawn and incorrectly placed, large inland waters, that maynevertheless be recognised as these lakes just about to be revealed to a wondering world. Ptolemy knew ofthem, the Arabs spoke of them, Portuguese traders had passed them, and a German missionary had caught sight ofthe Mountains of the Moon and brought back strange stories of a great inland lake.

The work of rediscovering the lakes was entrusted to a remarkable man named Richard Burton, a man whose loveof adventure was well known. He had already shown his metal by entering Mecca disguised as a Persian, anddisguised as an Arab he had entered Harar, a den of slave traders, the "Timbuktu of Eastern Africa." On hisreturn he was attacked by the Somalis; one of his companions was killed, another, Speke, escaped with terriblespear-wounds, and he himself was badly wounded.

Such were the men who in 1856 were dispatched by the Royal Geographical Society for the exploration of themysterious lakes in the heart of central Africa. Speke gives us an idea of the ignorance prevailing on thissubject only fifty-six years ago: "On the walls of the Society'srooms there hung a large diagram constructed by two missionaries carrying on their duties at Zanzibar. In thissection map, swallowing up about half of the whole area of the ground included in it, there figured a lake ofsuch portentous size and such unseemly shape, representing a gigantic slug, that everybody who looked at itincredulously laughed and shook his head—a single sheet of sweet water, upwards of eight hundred mileslong by three hundred broad, equal in size to the great salt Caspian."

It was April 1857 before Burton and Speke had collected an escort and guides at Zanzibar, the great slavemarket of East Africa, and were ready to start for the interior. "We could obtain no useful information fromthe European merchants of Zanzibar, who are mostly ignorant of everything beyond the island," Burke wrote homeon 22nd April.

At last on 27th June, with thirty-six men and thirty donkeys, the party set out for the great malariouscoast-belt which had to be crossed before Kaze, some five hundred miles distant, could be reached. After threemonths' arduous travelling—both Burton and Speke were badly stricken with fever—they reached Kaze.Speke now spread open the map of the missionaries and inquired of the natives where the enormous lake was tobe found. To their intense surprise they found the missionaries had run three lakes into one, and the threelakes were Lake Nyassa, Tanganyika, and Victoria Nyanza. They stayed over a month at Kaze, till Burton seemedat the point of death, and Speke had him carried out of the unhealthy town. It was January before they made astart and continued their journey westward to Ugyi.

"It is a wonderful thing," says Drummond, "to start from the civilisation of Europe, pass up these mightyrivers, and work your way alone and on foot, mile after mile, month after month, among strange birds andbeasts and plants and insects, meeting tribes which have no name, speaking tongues which no man can interpret,till you have reached its sacred heart and stood where white man has never trod before."

As the two men tramped on, the streams began to drain to the west and the land grew more fertile, till onehundred and fifty miles from Kaze they began to ascend the slope of mountains overhanging the northern half ofLake Tanganyika. "This mountain mass," says Speke, "I consider to be the True Mountains of the Moon." From thetop of the mountains the lovely Tanganyika Lake could be seen in all its glory by Burton. But to Speke it wasa mere mist. The glare of the sun and oft-repeated fever had begun to tell on him, and a kind of inflammationhad produced almost total blindness. But they had reached the lake and they felt sure they had found thesource of the Nile. It was a great day when Speke crossed the lake in a long canoe hollowed out of the trunkof a tree and manned by twenty native savages under the command of a captain in a "goatskin uniform." On thefar side they encamped on the opposite shore, Speke being the first white man to cross the lake.

Having retired to his hut for the night, Speke proceeded to light a candle and arrange his baggage, when tohis horror he found the whole interior swarming with black beetles. Tired of trying to brush them away, he putout his light and, though they crawled up his sleeves and down his back, he fell asleep. Suddenly he woke tofind one crawling into his ear, and in spite of his frantic efforts it crept in farther and farther till itreached the drum, which caused the tired explorer intense agony. Inflammation ensued, his face became drawn,he could with difficulty swallow a little broth, and he was quite deaf. He returned across the lake to findhis companion, Burton, still very ill and unfit for further exploration.

So Speke, although still suffering from his ear, started off again, leaving Burton behind, to find the greatnorthern lake spoken of as the sea of Ukerewe, where the Arabs traded largely in ivory. There was a greatempire beyond the lake, they told him, called Uganda.

But it was July 1858 when the caravan was ready to start from Kaze. Speke himself carried Burton's largeelephant gun. "I commenced the journey," he says, "at 6 p.m., as soon as the two donkeys I took with me toride were caught and saddled. It was a dreary beginning. The escort who accompanied me were sullen in theirmanner and walked with heavy gait and downcast countenance. The nature of the track increased the generalgloom.

"For several weeks the caravan moved forward, till on 3rd August it began to wind up a long but graduallyinclined hill, until it reached its summit, when the vast expanse of the pale blue waters of the Nyanza burstsuddenly upon my eyes! It was early morning. The distant sea-line of the north horizon was defined in the calmatmosphere, but I could get no idea of the breadth of the lake, as an archipelago of islands, each consistingof a single hill rising to a height of two or three hundred feet above the water, intersected the line ofvision to the left. A sheet of water extended far away to the eastward. The view was one which even in awell-known country would have arrested the traveller by its peaceful beauty. But the pleasure of the mere viewvanished in the presence of those more intense emotions called up by the geographical importance of the scenebefore me. I no longer felt any doubt that the lake at my feet gave birth to that interesting river (Nile),the source of which has been the subject of so much speculation and the object of so many explorers. This is afar more extensive lake than Tanganyika; it is so broad that you could not see across it, and so long thatnobody knew its length. This magnificent sheet of water I have ventured to name Victoria after our gracioussovereign."

Speke returned to Kaze after his six weeks' eventful journey, having tramped no less than four hundred andfifty-two miles. He received a warm welcome from Burton, who had been very uneasy about his safety, forrumours of civil war had reached him. "I laughed over the matter," says Speke, "but expressed my regret thathe did not accompany me, as I felt quite certain in my mind I had discovered the source of the Nile."

Together the two explorers now made their way to the coast and crossed to Aden, where Burton, still weak andill, decided to remain for a little, while Speke took passage in a passing ship for home.

When he showed his map of Tanganyika and Victoria Nyanza to the President of the Royal Geographical Society inLondon, Sir Roderick Murchison was delighted.

"Speke, we must send you there again," he said enthusiastically.

And the expedition was regarded as "one of the most notable discoveries in the annals of African discovery."

Burton and Speke had not yet returned from central Africa, when Livingstone left England on another expedition intothe interior, with orders "to extend the knowledge already attained of the geography of eastern and centralAfrica and to encourage trade." Leaving England on 10th March 1858, he reached the east coast the followingMay as British Consul of Quilimane, the region which lies about the mouth of the Zambesi. Livingstone hadbrought out with him a small steam-launch called by the natives the Ma-Robert after Mrs.Livingstone, the mother of Robert, their eldest child. In this little steam-launch he made his way up theShire River, which flows into the Zambesi quite near its mouth. "The delight of threading out the meanderingsof upwards of two hundred miles of a hitherto unexplored river must be felt to be appreciated," saysLivingstone in his diary. At the end of this two hundred miles further progress became impossible because ofrapids which no boat could pass. "These magnificent cataracts we called the Murchison Cataracts, after onewhose name has already a world-wide fame," says Livingstone. Leaving their boat here, they started on foot forthe Great Lake described by the natives. It took them a month of hard travelling to reach their goal. Theirway lay over the native tracks which run as a network over this part of the world. "They are veritablefootpaths, never over a foot in breadth,beaten as hard as adamant by centuries of native traffic. Like the roads of the old Romans, they run straighton over everything, ridge and mountain and valley."

On 18th April, Lake Shirwa came into sight, "a considerable body of bitter water, containing leeches, fish,crocodiles, and hippopotami. The country around is very beautiful," adds Livingstone, "and clothed with richvegetation, and the waves breaking and foaming over a rock, added to the beauty of the picture. Exceedinglylofty mountains stand near the eastern shore."

No white man had gazed at the lake before. Though one of the smaller African lakes, Shirwa is probably largerthan all the lakes of Great Britain put together. Returning to Tete, the explorer now prepared for his journeyto the farther Lake Nyassa. This was to be no new discovery. The Portuguese knew the locality of Lake Shirwa,and at the beginning of the seventeenth century Nyassa was familiar to them under another name. Landing at thesame spot on the Shire banks as before,Livingstone, with thirty-six Makololo porters and two native guides, ascended the beautiful Shire Highlands,some twelve hundred feet above sea-level, and crossed the range on which Zomba, the residence of the BritishCommissioner for Nyassaland, now stands. When within a day's march of their goal they were told that no lakehad ever been heard of in the neighbourhood, but, said the natives, the river Shire stretched on, and it wouldtake two months to reach the end, which came out of perpendicular rocks which towered almost to the skies.

"Let us go back to the ship," said the followers; "it is no use trying to find the lake."

But Livingstone persevered, and he was soon rewarded by finding a sheet of water, which was indeed thebeginning of Lake Nyassa. It was 16th September 1856.

"How far is it to the end of the lake?" he asked.

"The other end of the lake? Who ever heard of such a thing? Why, if one started when a mere boy to walk to theother end of the lake, he would be an old grey-headed man before he got there," declared one of the natives.Livingstone knew that he had opened up a great waterway to the interior of Africa, but the slave trade inthese parts was terrible, gangs being employed in carrying the ivory from countries to the north down to theeast coast. The English explorer saw that if he could establish a steamer upon this Lake Nyassa and buy ivoryfrom the natives with European goods he would at once strike a deadly blow at the slave trade. His lettershome stirred several missionaries to come out and establish a settlement on the banks of the Shire River.Bishop Mackenzie and a little band of helpers arrived on the river Shire two years later, and in 1862 Mrs.Livingstone joined them, bringing out with her a little new steamer to launch on the Lake Nyassa. But theunhealthy season was at its height and "the surrounding low land, rank withvegetation and reeking from the late rainy season, exhaled the malarious poison in enormous quantities." Mrs.Livingstone fell ill, and in a week she was dead. She was buried under a large baobab tree at Shapunga, whereher grave is visited by many a traveller passing through this once solitary region first penetrated by herhusband.

The blow was a crushing one for Livingstone, and for a time he was quite bewildered. But when his old energyreturned he superintended the launching of the little steamer, the Lady Nyassa. But disappointment andfailure awaited him, and at last, just two years after the death of his wife, he took the LadyNyassa to Zanzibar by the Rovuma River and set forth to reach Bombay, where he hoped to sell her,for his funds were low.

On the last day of April 1864 he started on his perilous journey. Though warned that the monsoon would shortlybreak, he would not be deterred. And after sailing two thousand five hundred miles in the little boat builtonly for river and lake, "a forest of masts one day loomed through the haze in Bombay harbour," and he wassafe. After a brief stay here, Livingstone left his little launch and made his way to England on amail-packet.

But no one realised at this time the importance of his new discoveries. No one foresaw the value of"Nyassaland" now under British protectorate. Livingstone had brought to light a lake fifteen hundred andseventy feet above the sea, three hundred and fifty miles long and forty broad, up and down which Britishsteamers make their way to-day, while the long range of mountains lining the eastern bank, known as theLivingstone range, testify to the fact that he had done much, even if he might have done more.

While Livingstone was discovering Lake Nyassa, Speke was busy preparing for a new expedition to find out more aboutthe great sheet of water he had named Victoria Nyanza and to solve the vexed question: Was this the source ofthe Nile?

In April 1860, accompanied by Captain Grant, an old friend and brother sportsman, he left England, and by wayof the Cape reached Zanzibar some five months later. The two explorers started for their great inland journeyearly in October, with some hundred followers, bound for the great lake. But it was January 1861 before theyhad covered the five hundred miles between the coast and Kaze, the old halting-station of Burton and Speke.Through the agricultural plains known as Uzarana, the country of Rana, where many negro porters deserted,because they believed the white men were cannibals and intended to eat them when safe away from the haunts ofmen; through Usagara, the country of Gara, where Captain Grant was seized with fever; through Ugogo's greatwilderness, where buffalo and rhinoceros abounded, where the country was flooded with tropical rains, on tothe land of the Moon, three thousand feet above sea-level, till the slowly moving caravan reached Kaze. Hereterrible accounts of famine and war reached them, and, instead of following Speke's route of 1858, they turnednorth-west and entered theUzinza country, governed by two chieftains of Abyssinian descent. Here Speke was taken desperately ill. Hiscough gave him no rest day or night; his legs were "reduced to the appearance of pipe-sticks." But, emaciatedas he was, he made his way onwards, till the explorers were rewarded by finding a "beautiful sheet of waterlying snugly within the folds of the hills," which they named the Little Windermere, because they thought itwas so like "our own English lake of that name. To do royal honours to the king of this charming land, Iordered my men," says Speke, "to put down their loads and fire a volley."

The king, whom they next visited, was a fine-looking man, who, with his brother, sat cross-legged on theground, with huge pipes of black clay by their sides, while behind them, "squatting quiet as mice," were theking's sons, six or seven lads, with little dream-charms under their chins! The king shook hands in trueEnglish fashion and was full of inquiries. Speke described the world, the proportions of land and water, andthe large ships on the sea, and begged to be allowed to pass through his kingdom to Uganda. The explorerslearnt much about the surrounding country, and spent Christmas Day with a good feast of roast beef. The startfor Uganda was delayed by the serious illness of Grant, until at last Speke reluctantly decided to leave himwith the friendly king, while he made his way alone to Uganda and the Lake Victoria Nyanza. It was the end ofJanuary 1861 when the English explorer entered the unknown kingdom of Uganda. Messengers from the king,M'tesa, came to him. "Now," they said, "you have really entered the kingdom of Uganda, for the future you mustbuy no more food. At every place that you stop for the day, the officer in charge will bring you plantains."

The king's palace was ten days' march; the way lay along the western coast of the Lake Victoria Nyanza, theroads were "as broad as our coach roads cut through the long grass straight over the hills and down throughthe woods. The temperature was perfect. The whole land was a picture of quiescent beauty, with a boundless seain the background."

On 13th February, Speke found a large volume of water going to the north. "I took off my clothes," he says,"and jumped into the stream, which I found was twelve yards broad and deeper than my height. I was delightedbeyond measure, for I had, to all appearance, found one of the branches of the Nile's exit from the Nyanza."

But he had not reached the Nile yet. It was not till the end of July that he reached his goal.

"Here at last," he says, "I stood on the brink of the Nile, most beautiful was the scene, nothing couldsurpass it—a magnificent stream from six hundred to seven hundred yards wide, dotted with islets androcks, the former occupied by fishermen's huts, the latter by crocodiles basking in the sun. I told my menthey ought to bathe in the holy river, the cradle of Moses."

Marching onwards, they found the waterfall, whichSpeke named the Ripon Falls, "by far the most interesting sight I had seen in Africa." The arm of the waterfrom which the Nile issued he named "Napoleon Channel," out of respect to the French Geographical Society forthe honour they had done him just before leaving England in presenting their gold medal for the discovery ofVictoria Nyanza.

The English explorers had now spent six months in Uganda. The civilisation in this country of M'tesa's haspassed into history. Every one was clothed, and even little boys held their skin-cloaks tightly round themlest their bare legs might by accident be seen! Everything was clean and orderly under the all-powerful rulerM'tesa. Grant, who arrived in the end of May, carried in a litter, found Speke had not yet obtained leave fromthe king to "open the country to the north, that an uninterrupted line of commerce might exist between Englandand Uganda by means of the Nile." But at last on 3rd July he writes with joy: "Themoment of triumph has come at last and suddenly the road is granted."

The explorers bid farewell to M'tesa. "We rose with an English bow, placing the hand on the heart, whilstsaying adieu; and whatever we did M'tesa in an instant mimicked with the instinct of a monkey."

In five boats of five planks each tied together and caulked with rags, Speke started with a small escort andcrew to reach the palace of the neighbouring king, Kamrasi, "father of all the kings," in the province ofUnyoro. After some fierce opposition they entered the palace of the king, a poor creature. Rumours had reachedhim that these two white men were cannibals and sorcerers. His palace was indeed a contrast to that of M'tesa.It was merely a dirty hut approached by a lane ankle-deep in mud and cow-manure. The king's sisters were notallowed to marry; their only occupation was to drink milk from morning to night, with the result that theygrew so fat it took eight men to lift one of them, when walking became impossible. Superstition was rife, andthe explorers were not sorry to leave Unyoro en route for Cairo. Speke and Grant now believed that, except fora few cataracts, the waterway to England was unbroken. The Karuma Falls broke the monotony of the way, andhere the party halted a while before plunging into the Kidi wilderness across which they intended to march tosave a great bend of the river. Their path lay through swampy jungles and high grass, while great grassyplains, where buffaloes were seen and the roar of lions was heard, stretched away on every side.

Suddenly they reached a huge rock covered with huts, in front of which groups of black men were perched likemonkeys, evidently awaiting the arrival of the white men. They were painted in the most brilliant colours,though without clothes, for the civilisation of Uganda had been left far behind. Pushing on, they reached theMadi country, where again civilisation awaited them in the shape of Turks. It was on 3rd December that theysaw to their great surprise three large red flags carried in front of a military procession which marched outof camp with drums and fifes playing.

"A very black man named Mohammed, in full Egyptian regimentals, with a curved sword, ordered his regiment tohalt, and threw himself into my arms endeavouring to kiss me," says Speke. "Having reached his huts, he gaveus two beds to sit upon, and ordered his wives to advance on their knees and give us coffee."

"I have directions to take you to Gondokoro as soon as you come," said Mohammed.

Yet they were detained till 11th January, when in sheer desperation they started off, and in two days reachedthe Nile. Having no boats, they continued their march overland till 15th February, when the masts of Nileboats came in sight, and soon after the two explorers walked into Gondokoro. Then a strange thing happened. Wesaw hurrying on towards us the form of an Englishman, and the next moment my old friend Baker, famed for hissports in Ceylon, seized me by thehand. What joy this was I can hardly tell. We could not talk fast enough, so overwhelmed were we both to meetagain. Of course we were his guests, and soon learned everything that could be told. I now first heard of thedeath of the Prince Consort. Baker said he had come up with three vessels fully equipped with armedmen, camels, horses, donkeys; and everything necessary for a long journey, expressly to look after us. ThreeDutch ladies also; with a view to assist us (God bless them!); had come here in a steamer, but were drivenback to Khartum by sickness. Nobody had dreamt for a moment it was possible we could come through."

Leaving Baker to continue his way to central Africa, Speke and Grant made their way home to England, wherethey arrived in safety after an absence of three years and fifty-one days, with their great news of thediscovery of Uganda and their further exploration of Victoria Nyanza. When Speke reached Alexandria he hadtelegraphed home: "The Nile is settled." But he was wrong. The Nile was not settled, and many an expeditionwas yet to make its way to the great lakes before the problem was to be solved.

Baker had not been long at Gondokoro when the two English explorers arrived from the south.

"In March 1861," he tells us, "I commenced an expedition to discover the sources of the Nile, with the hope ofmeeting the East African expedition of Captains Speke and Grant that had been sent by the English Governmentfrom the south via Zanzibar for that object. From my youth I had been innured to hardship and endurance intropical climates, and when I gazed upon the map of Africa I had a wild hope that I might by perseverancereach the heart of Africa."

These are the opening lines of the published travels of Samuel Baker, famous as an elephant-hunter in Ceylonand engineer of the first railway laid down in Turkey. Like Livingstone, in his early explorations, Baker tookhis wife with him. "It was in vain that I implored her to remain, and that I painted the difficulties andperils still blacker than I supposed they really would be; she was resolved to share all dangers and to followme through each rough footstep of the wild life before me."

On 15th April 1861, Baker and his wife left Cairo to make their way southward to join the quest for the sourceof the Nile. They reached Korosko in twenty-six days, and crossed the Nubian desert on camels, a "verywilderness of scorching sand, the simoon in full force and the thermometer in the shade standing at 114°Fahr." ByAbu Hamed and Berber they reached Atbara. It now occurred to Baker that without some knowledge of Arabic hecould do little in the way of exploration, so for a whole year he stayed in northern Abyssinia, the countryexplored by Bruce nearly ninety years before.

It was therefore 18th December 1862 before he and Mrs. Baker left Khartum for their journey up the Nilethrough the slave-driven Sudan. It was a fifty days' voyage to Gondokoro. In the hope of finding Speke andGrant, he took an extra load of corn as well as twenty-two donkeys, four camels, and four horses. Gondokorowas reached just a fortnight before the two explorers returned from the south.

Baker's account of the historical meeting between the white men in the heart of Africa is very interesting:"Heard guns firing in the distance—report that two white men had come from the sea. Could they be Spekeand Grant? Off I ran and soon met them; hurrah for Old England. They had come from the Victoria Nyanza fromwhich the Nile springs. The mystery of ages solved! With a heart beating with joy I took off my cap and gave awelcome hurrah as I ran towards them! For the moment they did not recognise me; ten years' growth of beard andmoustache had worked a change, and my sudden appearance in the centre of Africa appeared to them incredible.As a good ship arrives in harbour battered and torn by a long and stormy voyage, so both these gallanttravellers arrived in Gondokoro. Speke appeared to me the more worn of the two. He was excessively lean; hehad walked the whole way from Zanzibar, never having ridden once during that wearying march. Grant was inrags, his bare knees projecting through the remnants of trousers."

Baker was now inclined to think that his work was done, the source of the Nile discovered, but after lookingat the map of their route, he saw that an important partof the Nile still remained undiscovered, and though there were dangers ahead he determined to go on his wayinto central Africa.

"We took neither guide nor interpreter," he continues. "We commenced our desperate journey in darkness aboutan hour after sunset. I led the way, Mrs. Baker riding by my side and the British flag following close behindus as a guide for the caravan of heavily laden camels and donkeys. And thus we started on our march in centralAfrica on the 26th of March 1863."

It would take too long to tell of their manifold misfortunes and difficulties before they reached the lakethey were in search of on 16th March 1864. How they passed through the uncivilised country so lately traversedby Speke and Grant, how in the Obbo country all their porters deserted just a few days before they reached theKaruma Falls, how Baker from this point tried to follow the Nile to the yet unknown lake, how fever seizedboth the explorer and his wife and they had tolive on the common food of the natives and a little water, how suddenly Mrs. Baker fell down with a sunstrokeand was carried for seven days quite unconscious through swamp and jungle, the rain descending in torrents allthe time, till Baker, "weak as a reed," worn out with anxiety, lay on the ground as one dead.

It seemed as if both must die, when better times dawned and they recovered to find that they were close to thelake.

Baker's diary is eloquent: "The day broke beautifully clear, and, having crossed a deep valley between thehills, we toiled up the opposite slope. I hurried to the summit. The glory of our prize burst suddenly uponme! There, like a sea of quicksilver, lay far beneath us the grand expanse of water, a boundless sea-horizonon the south and south-west, glittering in the noonday sun, while at sixty miles' distance, blue mountainsrose from the lake to a height of about seven thousand feet above its level. It is impossible to describe thetriumph of that moment; here was the reward for all our labour! England had won the sources of the Nile! Ilooked from the steep granite cliff upon those welcome waters, upon that vast reservoir which nourished Egypt,upon that great source so long hidden from mankind, and I determined to honour it with a great name. As animperishable memorial of one loved and mourned by our gracious Queen, I called this great lake 'the AlbertNyanza.' The Victoria and the Albert Lakes are the two sources of the Nile."

Weak and spent with fever, the Bakers descended tottering to the water's edge. "The waves were rolling upon awhite pebbly beach. I rushed into the lake and, thirsty with heat and fatigue, I drank deeply from the sourcesof the Nile. My wife, who had followed me so devotedly, stood by my side pale and exhausted—a wreckupon the shores of the great Albert Lake that we had long striven to reach. No European foot had ever trodupon its sand, nor had the eyes of a white man ever scanned its vast expanse of water."

After some long delay, the Bakers procured canoes, "merely single trees neatly hollowed out," and paddledalong the shores of the newly found lake. The water was calm, the views most lovely. Hippopotami sported inthe water; crocodiles were numerous. Day after day they paddled north, sometimes using a large Scotch plaid assail. It was dangerous work. Once a great storm nearly swamped them. The little canoe shipped heavy seas;terrific bursts of thunder and vivid lightning broke over the lake, hiding everything from view. Then downcame the rain in torrents, swept along by a terrific wind. They reached the shore in safety, but thediscomforts of thevoyage were great, and poor Mrs. Baker suffered severely. On the thirteenth day they found themselves at theend of the lake voyage, and carefully examined the exit of the Nile from the lake. They now followed the riverin their canoe for some eighteen miles, when they suddenly heard a roar of water, and, rounding a corner, "amagnificent sight suddenly burst upon us. On either side of the river were beautifully wooded cliffs risingabruptly to a height of three hundred feet and rushing through a gap that cleft the rock. The river pent up ina narrow gorge roared furiously through the rock-bound pass, till it plunged in one leap of about one hundredand twenty feet into a dark abyss below. This was the greatest waterfall of the Nile, and in honour of thedistinguished President of the Royal Geographical Society I named it the Murchison Falls." Further navigationwas impossible, and with oxen and porters they proceeded by land. Mrs. Baker was still carried in a litter,while Baker walked by her side. Both were soon attacked again with fever, and when night came they threwthemselves down in a wretched hut. A violent thunderstorm broke over them, and they lay there utterlyhelpless, and worn out till sunrise. Worse was to come. The natives now deserted them, and they were alone andhelpless, with a wilderness of rank grass hemming them in on every side. Their meals consisted of a mess ofblack porridge of bitter mouldy flour "that no English pig would notice" and a dish of spinach. For nearly twomonths they existed here, until they became perfect skeletons.

"We had given up all hope of Gondokoro," says Baker, "and I had told my headman to deliver my map and papersto the English Consul at Khartum."

But they were not to die here. The king, Kamrasi, having heard of their wretched condition, sent for them,treated them kindly, and enabled them to reach Gondokoro,which they did on 23rd March 1865, after an absence of two years. They had long since been given up as lost,and it was an immense joy to reach Cairo at last and to find that, in the words of Baker, "the RoyalGeographical Society had awarded me the Victoria Gold Medal at a time when they were unaware whether I wasalive or dead and when the success of my expedition was unknown."

In the year 1865 "the greatest of all African travellers" started on his last journey to central Africa.

"I hope," he said, "to ascend the Rovuma, and shall strive, by passing along the northern end of Lake Nyassaand round the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, to ascertain the watershed of that part of Africa."

Arrived at Zanzibar in January 1866, he reached the mouth of the Rovuma River some two months later, and,passing through dense thickets of trees, he started on his march along the northern bank. The expeditionconsisted of thirteen sepoys from Bombay, nine negroes from one of the missions, two men from the Zambesi,Susi, Amoda, and others originally slaves freed by Livingstone. As beasts of burden, they had six camels,three Indian buffaloes, two mules, four donkeys, while a poodle took charge of the whole line of march,running to see the first man in the line and then back to the last, and barking to hasten him up.

"Now that I am on the point of starting on another trip into Africa," wrote Livingstone from Rovuma Bay, "Ifeel quite exhilarated. The mere animal pleasure of travelling in a wild, unexplored country is very great.Brisk exercise imparts elasticity to the muscles, fresh and healthy blood circulates through the brain, themind works well, the eye is clear, the step firm, and a day'sexertion makes the evening's repose thoroughly enjoyable."

But misfortunes soon began. As they marched along the banks of the Rovuma the buffaloes and camels were badlybitten by the tsetse fly, and one after another died. The cruelty of the followers to the animals wasterrible. Indeed, they were thoroughly unsatisfactory.

One day a party of them lagged behind, killed the last young buffalo, and ate it. They told Livingstone thatit had died and tigers had come and devoured it.

"Did you see the stripes of the tiger?" asked Livingstone.

Yes; all declared that they had seen them distinctly—an obvious lie, as there are no striped tigers inAfrica.

On 11th August, Livingstone once more reached Lake Nyassa. "It was as if I had come back to an old home Inever expected again to see, and pleasant it was to bathe in the delicious waters again. I feel quiteexhilarated."

Having sent word to the Arab chief of Kota-Kota on the opposite coast, and having received no reply to hisrequest to be ferried across the lake, he started off and marched by land round the southern end, crossing theShire River at its entrance. He continued his journey round the south-western gulf of Lake Nyassa, tillrumours of Zulu raids frightened his men. They refused to go any farther, but just threw down their loads andwalked away. He was now left with Susi and Chuma and a few boys with whom he crossed the end of a long rangeof mountains over four thousand feet in height, and, pursuing a zigzag track, reached the Loangwa River on16th December 1866, while his unfaithful followers returned to the coast to spread the story that Livingstonehad been killed by the Zulus!

Meanwhile the explorer was plodding on towards Lake Tanganyika. The beauty of the way strikes the lonelyexplorer. The rainy season had come on in all its force,and the land was wonderful in its early green. "Many gay flowers peep out. Here and there the scarlet lily,red, yellow, and pure white orchids, and pale lobelias. As we ascended higher on the plateau, grasses whichhave pink and reddish brown seed-vessels were grateful to the eye."

Two disasters clouded this month of travel. His poor poodle was drowned in a marsh and his medicine-chest wasstolen. The land was famine-bound too; the people were living on mushrooms and leaves. "We get some elephants'meat, but it is very bitter, and the appetite in this country is always very keen and makes hunger worse tobear, the want of salt probably making the gnawing sensation worse."

On 28th January, Livingstone crossed the Tshambezi, "which may almost be regarded as the upper waters of theCongo," says Johnstone, though the explorer of 1867 knew it not.

"Northwards," says Livingstone, "through almost trackless forest and across oozing bogs"; and then he adds thesignificant words, "I am frightened at my own emaciation." March finds him worse. "I have been ill of fever;every step I take jars in my chest, and I am very weak; I can scarcely keep up the march." At last, on 1stApril, "blue water loomed through the trees." It was Lake Tanganyika lying some two thousand feet below them.Its "surpassing loveliness" struck Livingstone. "It lies in a deep basin," he says, "whose sides are nearlyperpendicular, but covered well with trees, at present all green; down some of these rocks come beautifulcascades, while buffaloes, elephants, and antelopes wander and graze on the more level spots, and lions roarby night. In the morning and evening huge crocodiles may be observed quietly making their way to theirfeeding-grounds, and hippopotami snort by night."

Going westwards, Livingstone met a party of Arabsamongst whom he remained for over three months, till he could make his way on to Lake Meoro, reported to beonly three days' journey. It took him sixteen days to reach it. "Lake Meoro seems of goodly size," he says,"and is flanked by ranges of mountains on the east and west. Its banks are of coarse sand and slope graduallydown to the water. We slept in a fisherman's cottage on the north shore."

After a stay of six weeks in the neighbourhood, Livingstone returned to the Arabs, until the spring of 1868,when he decided to explore the Lake Bangweolo. In spite of opposition and the desertion of more men, hestarted with five attendants and reached this—one of the largest of the central African lakes—inJuly. Modestly enough he asserts the fact. "On the 18th I saw the shores of the lake for the first time. Thename Bangweolo is applied to the great mass of water, though I fear that our English folks will bogle at it orcall it Bungyhollow. The water is of a deep sea-green colour. It was bitterly cold from the amount of moisturein the air."

This moisture converted the surrounding country into one huge bog or sponge, twenty-nine of which Livingstonehad to cross in thirty miles, each taking about half an hour to cross.

The explorer was still greatly occupied on the problem of the Nile. "The discovery of the sources of theNile," he says, "is somewhat akin in importance to the discovery of the North-West Passage." It seemed to himnot impossible that the great river he found flowing through these two great lakes to the west of Tanganyikamight prove to be the Upper Nile.

It was December before he started for Tanganyika. The new year of 1868 opened badly. Half-way, he became veryill. He was constantly wet through; he persistently crossed brooks and rivers, wading through cold water upto his waist. "Very ill all over," he enters in his diary; "cannot walk. Pneumonia of right lung, and I coughall day and all night. I am carried several hours a day on a frame. The sun is vertical, blistering any partof the skin exposed, and I try to shelter my face and head as well as I can with a bunch of leaves."

On 14th February 1869 he arrived on the western shores of the lake, and after the usual delay he was put intoa canoe for Ujiji. Though better, he was still very ill, and we get the pathetic entry, "Hope to hold out toUjiji."

At last he reached the Arab settlement on the eastern shores, where he found the goods sent to him overlandfrom Zanzibar, and though much had been stolen, yet warm clothes, tea, and coffee soon revived him. After astay of three months he grew better, and turned westwards for the land of the Manyuema and the great riversreported to be flowing there.

He was guided by Arabs whose trade-route extended to the great Lualaba River in the very heart of Africa somethousand miles west of Zanzibar. It was an unknown land, unvisited by Europeans when Livingstone arrived withhis Arab escort at Bambarra in September 1869.

"Being now well rested," he enters in his diary, "I resolved to go west to Lualaba and buy a canoe for itsexploration. The Manyuema country is all surpassingly beautiful. Palms crown the highest heights of themountains, and the forests about five miles broad are indescribable. Climbers of cable size in great numbersare hung among the gigantic trees, many unknown wild fruits abound, some the size of a child's head, andstrange birds and monkeys are everywhere."

With the Arab caravan he travelled almost incessantly zigzagging through the wonderful Manyuema country until,after a year's wandering, he finally reached the banks of the Lualaba (Congo) on 31st March 1871.

It was a red-letter day in his life. "I went down," he says, "to take a good look at the Lualaba here. It is amighty river at least three thousand yards broad and always deep. The banks are steep; the current is abouttwo miles an hour away to the north." Livingstone was gazing at the second-largest river in theworld—the Congo. But he thought it was the Nile, and confidently relates how it overflows all its banksannually as the Nile does.

At Nyangwe, a Manyuema village, Livingstone stayed for four months. The natives were dreadful cannibals. Hesaw one day a man with ten human jaw-bones hung by a string over his shoulder, the owners of which he hadkilled and eaten. Another day a terrible massacre took place, arising from a squabble over a fowl, in whichsome four hundred perished. The Arabs too disgusted him with their slave-raiding, and he decided that he couldno longer travel under their protection. So on 20th July 1871 he started back for Ujiji, and after a journeyof seven hundred miles, accomplished in three months, he arrived, reduced to a skeleton, only to find that therascal who had charge of his stores had stolen the whole and made away.

But when health and spirit were failing, help was at hand. The meeting of Stanley and Livingstone on theshores of the Lake Tanganyika is one of the most thrilling episodes in the annals of discovery. Let them telltheir own story: "When my spirits were at their lowest ebb," says Livingstone, "one morning Susi came runningat the top of his speed and gasped out, 'An Englishman! I see him!' and off he darted to meet him. TheAmerican flag at the head of a caravan told of the nationality of the stranger. Bales of goods, baths of tin,huge kettles, and cooking-pots made me think, "This must be a luxurious traveller and not one at his wits'end, like me."

It was Henry Morton Stanley, the travelling correspondent of the New York Herald, sent at an expense of more than £4000 to obtain accurate informationabout Dr. Livingstone if living, and if dead to bring home his bones.

And now Stanley takes up the story. He has entered Ujiji and heard from the faithful Susi that the exploreryet lives. Pushing back the crowds of natives, Stanley advanced down "a living avenue of people" till he cameto where "the white man with the long grey beard was standing."

"As I advanced slowly towards him," says Stanley, "I noticed he was pale, looked worried, wore a bluish capwith a faded gold band round it, had on a red-sleeved waistcoat and a pair of grey tweed trousers. I walkeddeliberately to him, took off my hat, and said, 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?'

"'Yes,' said he, with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly.

"Then we both grasp hands and I say aloud, 'I thank God, Doctor, I have been permitted to see you.'

"'You have brought me new life—new life,' murmured the tired explorer," and for the next few days it wasenough for the two Englishmen to sit on the mud verandah of Livingstone's house, talking. Livingstone soongrew better, and November found the two explorers surveying the river flowing from the north of Tanganyika anddeciding that it was not the Nile.

Stanley now did his best to persuade Livingstone to return home with him to recruit his shattered healthbefore finishing his work of exploration. But the explorer, tired and out of health though he was, utterlyrefused. He must complete the exploration of the sources of the Nile before he sought that peace and comfortat home for which he must have yearned.

So the two men parted—Stanley to carry Livingstone's news of the discovery of the Congo back to Europe,Livingstone to end his days on the lonely shores of Lake Bangweolo, leaving the long-sought mystery of theNile sources yet unsolved.

On 25th August 1872 he started on his last journey. He had a well-equipped expedition sent up by Stanley fromthe coast, including sixty men, donkeys, and cows. He embarked on his fresh journey with all his old eagernessand enthusiasm, but a few days' travel showed him how utterly unfit he was for any more hardships. He sufferedfrom intense and growing weakness, which increased day by day. He managed somehow to ride his donkey, but inNovember his donkey died and he struggled along on foot. Descending into marshy regions north of LakeBangweolo, the journey became really terrible. The rainy season was at its height, the land was an endlessswamp, and starvation threatened the expedition. To add to the misery of the party, there were swarms ofmosquitoes, poisonous spiders, and stinging ants by the way. Still, amid all the misery and suffering, theexplorer made his way on through the dreary autumn months. Christmas came and went; the new year of 1873dawned. He could not stop. April found him only just alive, carried by his faithful servants. Then comes thelast entry in his diary, 27th April: "Knocked up quite. We are on the banks of R. Molilamo."

They laid him at last in a native hut, and here one night he died alone. They found him in the early morning,just kneeling by the side of the rough bed, his body stretched forward, his head buried in his hands upon thepillow. The negroes buried his heart on the spot where he died in the village of Ilala on the shores of LakeBangweolo under the shadow of a great tree in the still forest. Then they wrapped his body in a cylinder ofbark wound round in a piece of old sailcloth, lashed it to a pole, and a little band of negroes, includingSusi and Chuma, set out to carry their dead master to the coast. For hundredsof miles they tramped with their precious burden, till they reached the sea and could give it safely to hisfellow-countrymen, who conveyed it to England to be laid with other great men in Westminster Abbey.

The death of Livingstone, the faithfulness of his native servants in carrying his body and journals acrosshundreds of miles of wild country to the coast, his discovery of the great river in the heart of Africa, andthe great service in Westminster Abbey roused public interest in the Dark Continent and the unfinished work ofthe great explorer. "Never had such an outburst of missionary zeal been known, never did the cause ofgeographical exploration receive such an impetus."

The dramatic meeting between Livingstone and Stanley on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in 1871 had impressedthe public in England and America, and an expedition was now planned by the proprietors of two greatnewspapers, the London Daily Telegraph and the New York Herald. Stanley was chosen tocommand it. And perhaps there is hardly a better-known book of modern travels than Through the DarkContinent, in which he has related all his adventures and discoveries with regard to the Congo. LeavingEngland in August 1874 with three Englishmen and a large boat in eight sections, the Lady Alice, forthe navigation of lake and river, the little exploring party reached Zanzibar a few weeks later and started ontheir great inland journey. The way to Victoria Nyanza lay through what is now known as German East Africa.They reached Ugogo safely and turned to the north-west, entering an immense and silentbush-field, where no food was obtainable. On the eighth day five people died of starvation and the rest of theexpedition was only saved by the purchase of some grain from a distant village. But four more died andtwenty-eight miles under a hot sun prostrated one of the white men, who died a few days later. Thus theyentered Ituru, "a land of naked people, whose hills drained into a marsh, whence issue the southernmost watersof the Nile."

Here they were surrounded by angry savages on whom they had to fire, and from whose country they were glad toescape.

On 27th February 1875, after tramping for one hundred and three days, they arrived at their destination. Oneof the white men who was striding forward suddenly waved his hat, and with a beaming face shouted out, "I haveseen the lake, sir; it is grand."

Here, indeed, was the Victoria Nyanza, "which a dazzling sun transformed into silver," discovered by Spekesixteen years before, and supposed to be the source of the Nile. The men struck up a song of triumph—

"I thought," says Stanley, "there could be no better way of settling, once and for ever, the vexed question,than by circumnavigating the lake."

So the Lady Alice was launched, and from the shores of Speke Gulf, as he named the southern end,the explorer set forth, leaving the two remaining Englishmen in charge of the camp.

"The sky is gloomy," writes Stanley, "the rocks are bare and rugged, the land silent and lonely. The rowing ofthe people is that of men who think they are bound to certain death; their hearts are full of misgivings asslowly we move through the dull dead waters." The waters were not dead for long. A gale rose up and the lakebecame wild beyond description. "The waves hissed as we tore along, the crew collapsed and crouched into thebottom of the boat, expecting the end of the wild venture, but the Lady Alice bounded forwardlike a wild courser and we floated into a bay, still as a pond."

So they coasted along the shores of the lake. Their guide told them it would take years to sail round theirsea, that on the shores dwelt people with long tails, who preferred to feed on human beings rather than cattleor goats. But, undaunted, the explorer sailed on, across the Napoleon Channel, through which flowed thesuperfluous waters of the lake rushing northward as the Victoria Nile. "On the western side of the Channel isUganda, dominated by an Emperor who is supreme over about three millions of people. He soon heard of mypresence on the lake and dispatched a flotilla to meet me. His mother had dreamed the night before that shehad seen a boat sailing, sailing like a fish-eagle over the Nyanza. In the stern of the boat was a white mangazing wistfully towards Uganda."

On reaching the port a crowd of soldiers, "arrayed in crimson and black and snowy white," were drawn up toreceive him. "As we neared the beach, volleys of musketry burst out from the long lines. Numerous kettles andbrass drums sounded a noisy welcome, flags and banners waved, and the people gave a great shout."

Such was Stanley's welcome to M'tesa's wonderful kingdom of Uganda, described by Speke sixteen years before.The twelve days spent at the court of thismonarch impressed Stanley deeply. Specially was the king interested in Christianity, and the English explorertold the story of the Creation and the birth of the Messiah to this intelligent pagan and his courtiers. "Tendays after we left the genial court, I came upon the scene of a tragedy. We were coasting the eastern side ofa large island, having been thirty-six hours without food, looking for a port where we could put in andpurchase provisions. Natives followed our movements, poising their spears, stringing their bows, picking outthe best rocks for their slings. We were thirteen souls, they between three and four hundred. Seeing the boatadvance, they smiled, entered the water, and held out inviting hands. The crew shot the boat towards thenatives; their hands closed on her firmly, they ran with her to the shore and dragged her high and dry abouttwenty yards from the lake. Then ensued a scene of rampant wildness and hideous ferocity of action beyonddescription. The boat was surrounded by a forest of spears and two hundred demons contended for the firstblow. I sprang up to kill and be killed, a revolver in each hand, but as I rose to my feet the utterhopelessness of our situation was revealed to me."

To make a long story short, the natives seized the oars, and, thinking the boat was now in their power, theyretired to make their plans. Meanwhile Stanley commanded his crew to tear the bottom boards up for paddles,and, pushing the boat hastily into the water, they paddled away, their commander firing the while with hiselephant rifle and explosive bullets. They were saved.

On 6th May the circumnavigation was finished and the Lady Alice was being dragged ashore in SpekeGulf with shouts of welcome and the waving of many flags. But sad news awaited him. He could see but one ofhis white companions.

"Where is Barker?" he asked Frank Poco*ck.

"He died twelve days ago," was the melancholy answer.

Stanley now took his whole expedition to Uganda, and after spending some months with the King he passed on toLake Tanganyika, crossing to Ujiji, where he arrived in May 1876. Here five years before he had foundLivingstone.

"We launched our boat on the lake and, circumnavigating it, discovered that there was only a periodical outletto it. Thus, by the circumnavigation of the two lakes, two of the geographical problems I had undertaken tosolve were settled. The Victoria Nyanza had no connection with the Tanganyika. There now remained the grandesttask of all. Is the Lualaba, which Livingstone had traced along a course of nearly thirteen hundred miles, theNile, the Niger, or the Congo? I crossed Lake Tanganyika with my expedition, lifted once more my gallant boaton our shoulders, and after a march of nearly two hundred and twenty miles arrived at the superb river. WhereI first sighted it, the Lualaba was fourteen hundred yards wide, pale grey in colour, winding slowly fromsouth and by east. We hailed its appearance with shouts of joy, and rested on the spot to enjoy the view. Ilikened it to the Mississippi as it appears before the impetuous, full-volumed Missouri pours its rusty brownwater into it. A secret rapture filled my soul as I gazed upon the majestic stream. The great mystery that forall these centuries Nature had kept hidden away from the world of science was waiting to be solved. For twohundred and twenty miles I had followed the sources of the Livingstone River to the confluence, and now beforeme lay the superb river itself. My task was to follow it to the ocean."

Pressing on along the river, they reached the Arabcity of Nyangwe, having accomplished three hundred and thirty-eight miles in forty-three days. And now thefamous Arab Tippu-Tib comes on the scene, a chief with whom Stanley was to be closely connected hereafter. Hewas a tall, black-bearded man with an intelligent face and gleaming white teeth. He wore clothe, of spotlesswhite, his fez was smart and new, his dagger resplendent with silver filigree. He had escorted Cameron acrossthe river to the south, and he now confirmed Stanley in his idea that the greatest problem of Africangeography, "the discovery of the course of the Congo," was still untouched.

"This was momentous and all-important news to the expedition. We had arrived at the critical point in ourtravels," remarks Stanley. "What kind of a country is it to the north along the river?" he asked.

"Monstrous bad," was the reply. "There are large boa-constrictors in the forest suspended by their tails,waiting to gobble up travellers. You cannot travel without being covered by ants, and they sting like wasps.There are leopards in countless numbers. Gorillas haunt the woods. The people are man-eaters. A party of threehundred guns started for the forest and only sixty returned."

Stanley and his last remaining white companion, Frank Poco*ck, discussed the somewhat alarming situationtogether. Should they go on and face the dwarfs who shot with poisoned arrows, the cannibals who regarded thestranger as so much meat, the cataracts and rocks—should they follow the "great river which flowednorthward for ever and knew no end"?

"This great river which Livingstone first saw, and which broke his heart to turn away from, is a noble field,"argued Stanley. "After buying or building canoes and floating down the river day by day, either to the Nile orto some vast lake in the far north or to the Congo and the Atlantic Ocean."

"Let us follow the river," replied the white man.

So, accompanied by Tippu-Tib, with a hundred and forty guns and seventy spearmen, they started along the banksof the river which Stanley now named the Livingstone River.

"On the 5th of November 1876," says Stanley, "a force of about seven hundred people, consisting of Tippu-Tib'sslaves and my expedition departed from the town of Nyangwe and entered the dismal forest-land north. Astraight line from this point to the Atlantic Ocean would measure one thousand and seventy miles; another tothe Indian Ocean would measure only nine hundred and twenty miles; we had not reached the centre of thecontinent by seventy-five miles.

"Outside the woods blazed a blinding sunshine; underneath that immense roof-foliage was a solemn twilight. Thetrees shed continual showers of tropic dew. As we struggled on through the mud, the perspiration exuded fromevery pore; our clothes were soon wet and heavy. Every man had to crawl and scramble as he best could.Sometimes prostrate forest-giants barred the road with a mountain of twigs and branches. For ten days weendured it; then the Arabs declared they could go no farther. I promised them five hundred pounds if theywould escort us twenty marches only. On our way to the river we came to a village whose sole street wasadorned with one hundred and eighty-six human skulls.

Seventeen days from Nyangwe we saw again the great river and, viewing the stately breadth of the mightystream, I resolved to launch my boat for the last time. Placing thirty-six of the people in the boat, wefloated down the river close to the bank along which the land-party marched. Day after day passed on and wefoundthe natives increasing in wild rancour and unreasoning hate of strangers. At every curve and bend they'telephoned' along the river warning signals; their huge wooden drums sounded the muster for fierceresistance; reed arrows tipped with poison were shot at us from the jungle as we glided by. On the 18th ofDecember our miseries culminated in a grand effort of the savages to annihilate us. The cannibals had mannedthe topmost branches of the trees above the village of Vinya Njara to shoot at us."

A camp was hastily constructed by Stanley in defence, and for several days there was desperate fighting, atthe end of which peace was made. But Tippu-Tib and his escort refused to go a step farther to what they feltwas certain destruction. Stanley alone was determined to proceed. He bought thirty-three native canoes and,leading with the Lady Alice, he set his face towards the unknown country. His men were all sobbing.They leant forward, bowed with grief and heavy hearts at the prospect before them. Dense woods covered bothbanks and islands. Savages with gaily feathered heads and painted faces dashed out of the woods armed withshields and spears, shouting, "Meat! meat! Ha! Ha! We shall have plenty of meat!"

"Armies of parrots screamed overhead as they flew across the river; legions of monkeys and howling baboonsalarmed the solitudes; crocodiles haunted the sandy points; hippopotami grunted at our approach; elephantsstood by the margin of the river; there was unceasing vibration from millions of insects throughout thelivelong day. The sun shone large and warm; the river was calm and broad and brown."

By January 1877 the expedition reached the first cataract of what is now known as the Stanley Falls. From thispoint for some sixty miles the great volume ofthe Livingstone River rushed through narrow and lofty banks in a series of rapids. For twenty-two days hetoiled along the banks, through jungle and forest, over cliffs and rocks exposed all the while to murderousattacks by cannibal savages, till the seventh cataract was passed and the boats were safely below the falls."We hastened away down river in a hurry, to escape the noise of the cataracts which for many days and nightshad almost stunned us with their deafening sound. We were once more afloat on a magnificent stream, nearly amile wide, curving north-west. 'Ha! Is it the Niger or Congo?' I said."

But day after day as they dropped down stream new enemies appeared, until at last, at the junction of theAruwimi, a tributary as large as the main stream, a determined attack was made on them by some two thousandwarriors in large canoes. A monster canoe ledthe way, with two rows of forty paddlers each, their bodies swaying to a barbarous chorus. In the bow were tenprime young warriors, their heads gay with the feathers of the parrot, crimson and grey: at the stern eightmen with long paddles decorated with ivory balls guided the boat, while ten chiefs danced up and down fromstem to stern. The crashing of large drums, a hundred blasts from ivory horns, and a song from two thousandvoices did not tend to assure the little fleet under Stanley. The Englishman coolly anchored his boats inmid-stream and received the enemy with such well-directed volleys that the savages were utterly paralysed, andwith great energy they retreated, pursued hotly by Stanley's party.

"Leaving them wondering and lamenting, I sought the mid-channel again and wandered on with the current. In thevoiceless depths of the watery wilderness we encountered neither treachery nor guile, and we floated down,down, hundreds of miles. The river curved westward, then south-westward. Ah, straight for the mouth of the Congo. It widened daily. The channels becamenumerous."

Through the country of the Bangala they now fought their way. These people were armed with guns brought upfrom the coast by native traders. It was indeed an anxious moment when, with war-drums beating, sixty-three"beautiful but cruel canoes" came skimming towards Stanley with some three hundred guns to his forty-four. Fornearly five hours the two fleets fought until the victory rested with the American. "This," remarks Stanley,"was our thirty-first fight on the terrible river, and certainly the most determined conflict we had endured."

They rowed on till the 11th of March; the river had grown narrower and steep, wooded hills rose on either sideabove them. Suddenly the river expanded, and the voyagers entered a wide basin or pool over thirty squareyards. "Sandy islands rose in front of us like a seabeach, and on the right towered a long row of cliffs whiteand glistening, like the cliffs of Dover."

"Why not call it Stanley Pool and those cliffs Dover Cliffs?" suggested Frank Poco*ck. And these names may beseen on our maps to-day. Passing out of the Pool, the roar of a great cataract burst upon their ears. It wasthe first of a long series of falls and rapids which continued for a distance of one hundred and fifty-fivemiles. To this great stretch of cataracts and rapids Stanley gave the name of the "Livingstone Falls." At thefifth cataract Stanley lost his favourite little native page-boy, Kalulu. The canoe in which he was rowingshot suddenly over the rapids, and in the furious whirl of rushing waters poor little Kalulu was drowned. Hehad been born a prince and given to Stanley on his first expedition into Africa. Stanley had taken him toEurope and America, and the boy had repaid his kindness by faithful and tender devotion till that fatal day,when he went to his death over the wild Livingstone Falls. Stanley named the rapid after him, Kalulu Falls.

But a yet more heart-rending loss was in store for him. Progress was now very slow, for none of the cataractsor rapids could be navigated; canoes as well as stores had to be dragged over land from point to point. FrankPoco*ck had fallen lame and could not walk with the rest. Although accidents with the canoes were of dailyoccurrence, although he might have taken warning by the death of Kalulu, he insisted that his crew should tryto shoot the great Massassa Falls instead of going round by land. Too late he realised his danger. The canoewas caught by the rushing tide, flung over the Falls, tossed from wave to wave, and finally dragged into theswirling whirlpool below. The "little master" as he was called was never seen again! Stanley's last whitecompanion was gone! Gloom settled down on the now painfully reduced party.

"We are all unnerved with the terrible accident of yesterday," says Stanley. "As I looked at the dejectedwoe-stricken servants, a choking sensation of unutterable grief filled me. This four months had we livedtogether, and true had been his service. The servant had long ago merged into the companion; the companion hadbecome the friend."

Still Stanley persevered in his desperate task, and in spite of danger from cataracts and danger from famine,on 31st July he reached the Isangila cataract. Thus far in 1816 two explorers had made their way from theocean, and Stanley knew now for certain that he was on the mighty Congo. He saw no reason to follow itfarther, or to toil through the last four cataracts. "I therefore announced to the gallant but weariedfollowersthat we should abandon the river and strike overland for Boma, the nearest European settlement, some sixtymiles across country."

At sunset on 31st July they carried the Lady Alice to the summit of some rocks above the IsangilaFalls and abandoned her to her fate.

"Farewell, brave boat1" cried Stanley; "seven thousand miles up and down broad Africa thou hast accompaniedme. For over five thousand miles thou hast been my home. Lift her up tenderly, boys—sotenderly—and let her rest."

Then, wayworn and feeble, half starved, diseased, and suffering, the little caravan of one hundred and fifteenmen, women, and children started on their overland march to the coast.

"Staggering, we arrived at Boma on 9th August 1877; a gathering of European merchants met me and, smiling awarm welcome, told me kindly that I had done right well. Three days later I gazed upon the Atlantic Ocean andsaw the powerful river flowing into the bosom of that boundless, endless sea. But grateful as I felt to Himwho had enabled me to pierce the Dark Continent from east to west, my heart was charged with grief and my eyeswith tears at the thought of the many comrades and friends I had lost."

The price paid had indeed been great; he had lost his three English companions and one hundred and seventynatives besides. But for years and years to come, in many a home at Zanzibar, whither Stanley now took hisparty by sea, the story of this great journey was told, and all the men were heroes and the refrain of thenatives was chanted again and again—

Stanley had solved the problem of the Congo River at last.

The North-West Passage, for the accomplishment of which so many brave lives had been laid down, had beendiscovered. It now remained for some explorer to sail round the North-East Passage, which was known to exist,but which, up to this time, no man had done.

Nordenskiöld the Swede was to have this honour. Born in 1832 in Finland, he had taken part in an Arcticexpedition in 1861, which attempted to reach the North Pole by means of dog-sledges from the north coast ofSpitzbergen. Three years later he was appointed to lead an expedition to Spitzbergen, which succeeded inreaching the highest northern latitude which any ship had yet attained. In 1870 his famous journey toGreenland took place, and two years later he left Sweden on another Polar expedition; but misfortunes besetthe expedition, and finally the ships were wrecked. The following year he commanded a reconnoitringexpedition. He passed Nova Zembla and reached the mouth of the Yenisei. This was the first time that a shiphad accomplished the voyage from the Atlantic Ocean. Thus Nordenskiöld had gained considerable knowledge ofthe Northern Seas, and he was now in a position to lay a plan of his schemes before King Oscar, who had alwaysinterested himself in Arctic discovery. His suggestions to the King are of singular interest.

"It is my intention," he says, "to leave Sweden in July 1878 in a steamer specially built for navigation amongice, which will be provisioned for two years at most. The course will be shaped for Nova Zembla, where afavourable opportunity will be awaited for the passage of the Kara Sea. The voyage will be continued to themouth of the Yenisei, which I hope to reach in the first half of August. As soon as circ*mstances permit, theexpedition will continue its voyage along the coast to Cape Chelyuskin, where the expedition will reach theonly part of the proposed route which has not been traversed by some small vessel, and is rightly consideredas that which it will be most difficult for a vessel to double during the whole North-East Passage; but ourvessel, equipped with all modern appliances, ought not to find insuperable difficulties in doubling thispoint, and if that can be accomplished, we will probably have pretty open water towards Behring's Straits,which ought to be reached before the end of September. From Behring Strait the course will be shaped for someAsiatic port and then onwards round Asia to Suez."

King Oscar and others offered to pay the expenses of the expedition, and preparations were urged forward. TheVega of 800 tons, formerly used in walrus-hunting in northern waters, was purchased, and furtherstrengthened to withstand ice. On 22nd June all was ready, and with the Swedish flag with a crowned O in themiddle, the little Vega, which was to accomplish such great things, was "peacefully rocking on theswell of the Baltic as if impatient to begin her struggle against waves and ice." She carried food for thirtypeople for two years, which included over three thousand pounds of bacon, nine thousand pounds of coffee, ninethousand pounds of biscuits. There were pemmican from England, potatoesfrom the Mediterranean, cranberry juice from Finland. Fresh bread was made during the whole expedition. A fewdays later the Vega reached Copenhagen and steamed north in the finest weather.

"Where are you bound for?" signalled a passing ship.

"To Behring Sea," was the return signal, and the Swedish crew waved their caps, shouting their joyful news.

At Gothenburg they took on eight sledges, tents, and cooking utensils, also two Scotch sheep dogs and a littlecoal-black kitten, which lived in the captain's berth till it grew accustomed to the sea, when it slept in theforecastle by day and ran about stealing the food of the sleeping sailors by night.

On 16th July they crossed the Polar Circle. "All on board feel they are entering upon a momentous period oftheir life," says the explorer. "Were we to be the fortunate ones to reach this goal, which navigators forcenturies had striven to reach?"

The south-west coast of Nova Zembla was reached on 28th July, but the weather being calm and the seacompletely free of ice, Nordenskiöld sailed onwards through the Kara Strait or Iron Gates, which during thewinter was usually one sheet of ice, until they anchored outside the village of Khabarova. The "village"consisted of a few huts and tents of Russian and Samoyedes pasturing their reindeer on the Vaygets Island. Onthe bleak northern shores stood a little wooden church, which the explorers visited with much interest. Itseemed strange to find here brass bas-reliefs representing the Christ, St. Nicholas, Elijah, St. George andthe Dragon, and the Resurrection; in front of each hung a little oil lamp. The people were dressed entirely inreindeer skin from head to foot, and they had a great collection of walrus tusks and skins such as Othere hadbrought centuries before to King Alfred.

Nordenskiöld's account of a short drive in a reindeer sledge is amusing. "Four reindeer were put side by sideto each sledge," he says. "Ivan, my driver, requested me to hold tight; he held the reins of all four reindeerin one hand, and away we went over the plain! His request to keep myself tight to the sledge was notunnecessary; at one moment the sledge jumped over a big tussock, the next it went down into a pit. It wasanything but a comfortable drive, for the pace at which we went was very great."

On 1st August the Vega was off again, and soon she had entered the Kara Sea, known in the days ofthe Dutch explorers as the "ice-cellar." Then past White Island and the estuary of the great Obi River, pastthe mouth of the Yenisei to Dickson Island, lately discovered, she sailed. Here in this "best-known haven onthe whole north coast of Asia they anchored and spent time in bear and reindeer hunting." "In consequence ofthe successful sport we lived very extravagantly during these days; our table groaned with joints of venisonand bear-hams."

They now sailed north close bound in fog, till on 20th August "we reached the great goal, which for centurieshad been the object of unsuccessful struggles. For the first time a vessel lay at anchor off the northernmostcape of the Old World. With colours flying on every mast and saluting the venerable north point of the OldWorld with the Swedish salute of five guns, we came to an anchor!"

The fog lifting for a moment, they saw a white Polar bear standing "regarding the unexpected guests withsurprise."

When afterwards a member of the expedition was asked which moment was the proudest of the whole voyage, heanswered, without hesitation: "Undoubtedly the moment when we anchored off Cape Chelyuskin."

It had been named thus by the "Great Northern Expedition" in 1742 after Lieutenant Chelyuskin, one of theRussian explorers under Laptieff, who had reached this northern point by a land journey which had entailedterrible hardships and suffering.

"Next morning," relates Nordenskiöld, "we erected a cairn on the shore, and in the middle of it laid a tin boxwith the following document written in Swedish: 'The Swedish Arctic Expedition arrived here yesterday, the19th of August, and proceeds in a few hours eastward. The sea has been tolerably free from ice. Sufficientsupply of coals. All well on board.

"'A. E. NORDENSKIöLD.'

And below in English and Russian were the words, 'Please forward this document as soon as possible to HisMajesty the King of Sweden.'"

Nordenskiöld now attempted to steam eastwards towards the New Siberian Islands, but the fog was thick, andthey fell in with large ice-floes which soon gave place to ice-fields. Violent snowstorms soon set in and"aloft everything was covered with a crust of ice, and the position in the crow's nest was anything butpleasant." They reached Khatanga Bay, however, and on 27th August the Vega was at the mouth ofthe Lena.

"We were now in hopes that we should be in Japan in a couple of months; we had accomplished two-thirds of ourway through the Polar sea, and the remaining third had been often navigated at different distances."

So the Vega sailed on eastwards with an ice-free sea to the New Siberian Islands, where lieembedded "enormous masses of the bones and tusks of the mammoth mixed with the horns and skulls of some kindof ox and with the horns of rhinoceros."

All was still clear of snow, and the New Siberian Islands lying long and low in the Polar seas were safelypassed. It was not till 1st September that the first snows fell; the decks of the Vega were whitewith snow when the Bear Islands were reached. Fog now hindered the expedition once more, and ice was sighted.

"Ice right ahead!" suddenly shouted the watch on the forecastle, and only by a hair's-breadth was theVega saved. On 3rd September a thick snowstorm came on, the Bear Islands were covered with newlyfallen snow, and though the ice was growing more closely packed than any yet encountered they could still maketheir way along a narrow ice-free channel near the coast. Snowstorms, fog, and drifting ice compelled carefulnavigation, but a pleasant change occurred early in September by a visit from the natives. We have alreadyheard of the Chukches from Behring—the Chukches whom no man had yet vanquished, for when Siberia wasconquered by a Kossackchief in 1579, the Chukches in this outlying north-eastern corner of the Old World, savage, courageous,resolute, kept the conquerors at bay. For the last six weeks the explorers had not seen a human being on thatwild and desolate stretch of coast, so they were glad enough to see the little Chukches with their coal-blackhair and eyes, their large mouths and flat noses. "Although it was only five o'clock in the morning, we alljumped out of our berths and hurried on deck to see these people of whom so little was known. The boats wereof skin, fully laden with laughing and chattering natives, men, women, and children, who indicated by criesand gesticulations that they wished to come on board. The engine was stopped, the boats lay to, and a largenumber of skin-clad, bare-headed beings climbed up over the gunwale and a lively talk began. Great gladnessprevailed when tobacco and Dutch clay pipes were distributed among them. None of them could speak a word ofRussian; they had come in closer contact with American whalers than with Russian traders." The Chukches wereall very short and dressed in reindeer skins with tight-fitting trousers of seal-skin, shoes of reindeer-skinwith seal-skin boots and walrus-skin soles. In very cold weather they wore hoods of wolf fur with the head ofthe wolf at the back. But Nordenskiöld could not wait long. Amid snow and ice and fog he pushed on, hopingagainst hope to get through to the Pacific before the sea was completely frozen over. But the ice wasbeginning to close. Largeblocks were constantly hurled against the ship with great violence, and she had many a narrow escape ofdestruction.

At last, it was 28th September, the little Vega was finally and hopelessly frozen into the ice,and they made her fast to a large ice-block. Sadly we find the entry: "Only one hundred and twenty milesdistant from our goal, which we had been approaching during the last two months, and after having accomplishedtwo thousand four hundred miles. It took some time before we could accustom ourselves to the thought that wewere so near and yet so far from our destination."

Fortunately they were near the shore and the little settlement of Pitlekai, where in eight tents dwelt a partyof Chukches. These little people helped them to pass the long monotonous winter, and many an expedition inlandwas made in Chukche sledges drawn by eight or ten wolf-like dogs. Snowstorms soon burst upon the little partyof Swedish explorers who had made the Vega their winter home. "During November we have scarcelyhad any daylight," writes Nordenskiöld; "the storm was generally howling in our rigging, which was nowenshrouded in a thick coat of snow, the deck was full of large snowdrifts, and snow penetrated into everycorner of the ship where it was possible for the wind to find an opening. If we put our heads outside the doorwe were blinded by the drifting snow."

Christmas came and was celebrated by a Christmas tree made of willows tied to a flagstaff, and the traditionalrice porridge.

By April large flocks of geese, eider-ducks, gulls, and little song-birds began to arrive, the latter perchingon the rigging of the Vega, but May and June found her still ice-bound in her winter quarters.

It was not till 18th July 1879 that "the hour of deliverance came at last, and we cast loose from our faithfulice-block, which for two hundred and ninety-four days had protected us so well against the pressure of the iceand stood westwards in the open channel, now about a mile wide. On the shore stood our old friends, probablyon the point of crying, which they had often told us they would do when the ship left them."

For long the Chukches stood on the shore—men, women, and children—watching till the "fire-dog," asthey called the Vega, was out of sight, carrying their white friends for ever away from their bleak,inhospitable shores.

"Passing through closely packed ice, the Vega now rounded the East Cape, of which we now and thencaught a glimpse through the fog. As soon as we came out of theice south of the East Cape, we noticed the heavy swell of the Pacific Ocean. The completion of the North-EastPassage was celebrated the same day with a grand dinner, and the Vega greeted the Old and NewWorlds by a display of flags and the firing of a Swedish salute. Now for the first time after the lapse ofthree hundred and thirty-six years was the North-East Passage at last achieved."

Sailing through the Behring Strait, they anchored near Behring Island on 14th August. As they came to anchor,a boat shot alongside and a voice cried out in Swedish, "Is it Nordenskiöld?" A Finland carpenter soon stoodin their midst, and they eagerly questioned him about the news from the civilised world!

There is no time to tell how the Vega sailed on to Japan, where Nordenskiöld was presented to theMikado, and an Imperial medal was struck commemorating the voyage of the Vega, how she sailed rightround Asia, through the Suez Canal, and reached Sweden in safety. It was on 24th April 1880 that the littleweather-beaten Vega, accompanied by flag-decked steamers literally laden with friends, sailed into theStockholm harbour while the hiss of fireworks and the roar of cannon mingled with the shouts of thousands. TheRoyal Palace was ablaze with light when King Oscar received and honoured the successful explorer Nordenskiöld.

Perhaps no land in the world has in modern times exercised a greater influence over the imagination of men than themysterious country of Tibet. From the days of Herodotus to those of Younghusband, travellers of all times andnations have tried to explore this unknown country, so jealously guarded from Europeans. Surrounded by a"great wilderness of stony and inhospitable altitudes" lay the capital, Lhasa, the seat of the gods, the homeof the Grand Lama, founded in 639 A.D., mysterious, secluded, sacred. Kublai Khan, of Marco Polo fame, hadannexed Tibet to his vast Empire, and in 1720 the mysterious land was finally conquered by the Chinese. Thehistory of the exploration of Tibet and the adjoining country, and of the various attempts to penetrate toLhasa, is one of the most thrilling in the annals of discovery.

We remember that Benjamin of Tudela in the twelfth century, Carpini and William de Rubruquis in thethirteenth, all assert that they passed through Tibet, but we have no certain records till several ItalianCapuchin friars succeeded in reaching Lhasa. There they lived and taught for some thirty-eight years, whenthey were withdrawn. And the little "Tibetan Mission," as it was called, came to an end.

It was yet early in the eighteenth century. England was taking up her great position in India, and WarrenHastings was anxious to open up friendly relations with Tibet beyond the great Himalaya ranges. To this end hesent an Englishman, George Bogle, with these instructions: "I desire you will proceed to Lhasa. The design ofyour mission is to open a mutual and equal communication of trade between the inhabitants of Tibet and Bengal.You will take with you samples, for a trial of such articles of commerce as may be sent from this country. Andyou will diligently inform yourself of the manufactures, productions, and goods which are to be procured inTibet. The following will also be proper subjects for your inquiry, the nature of the roads between theborders of Bengal and Lhasa and the neighbouring countries. I wish you to remain a sufficient time to obtain acomplete knowledge of the country. The period of your stay must be left to your discretion."

Bogle was young; he knew nothing of the country, but in May 1774 his little expedition set off from Calcuttato do the bidding of Warren Hastings. By way of Bhutan, planting potatoes at intervals according to hisorders, Bogle proceeded across the eastern Himalayas toward the Tibetan frontier, reaching Phari, the firsttown in Tibet, at the end of October. Thence they reached Gyangtse, a great trade centre now open toforeigners, crossed the Brahmaputra, which they found was "about the size of the Thames at Putney," andreached the residence of the Tashi Lama, the second great potentate of Tibet. This great dignitary and theyoung Englishman made great friends.

"On a carved and gilt throne amid cushions sat the Lama, cross-legged. He was dressed in a mitre-shaped cap ofyellow broadcloth with long bars lined with red satin, a yellow cloth jacket without sleeves, and a satinmantle of the same colour thrown over his shoulders. On one side of him stood his physician with a bundle ofperfumedsandal-wood rods burning in his hand; on the other stood his cup-bearer."

Such was this remarkable man as first seen by the English, "venerated as God's vice-regent through all theeastern countries of Asia." He had heard much of the power of the "Firinghis," as he called the English. "Asmy business is to pray to God," he said to Bogle, "I was afraid to admit any Firinghis into the country. But Ihave since learned that they are a fair and just people."

Bogle would have proceeded to Lhasa, the home of the Grand Lama, but this permission was refused, and he hadto return to India with the information he had collected.

The next Englishman to enter Tibet was Thomas Manning, the first to reach the sacred city of Lhasa. He was aprivate adventurer, who had lived in China and learnt the language. Attended by a Chinese servant, and wearinga flowing beard of singular length, he left Calcutta, crossed into Bhutan, and arrived at the Tibetanborder in October 1811. Then he crossed the Brahma putra in a large ferry-boat, and arrived within seven milesof Lhasa. On 9th December the first European entered the sacred city since the expulsion of the Capuchinfriars. The view of the famous Potala, the lofty towering palace, filled him with admiration, but the city ofwhich Europe, knowing nothing, had exalted into a magnificent place, was very disappointing.

"We passed under a large gateway," says Manning, "whose gilded ornaments were so ill-fixed that some leanedone way and some another. The road as it winds round the palace is royally broad; it swarmed with monks, andbeggars were basking in the sun. There is nothing striking in its appearance; the habitations are begrimedwith smut and dirt. The avenues are full of dogs—in short, everything seems mean and gloomy. Havingprovided himself with a proper hat, Manning went to the Potala to salute the Grand Lama, taking with him apair of brass candlesticks with two wax candles, some 'genuine Smith's lavender water, and a good store ofNankin tea, which is a rare delicacy at Lhasa. Ushered into the presence of the Grand Lama, a child of seven,he touched his head three times on the floor, after the custom of the country, and, taking off his hat, kneltto be blessed by the little monarch.' He had the simple and unaffected manners of a well-educated princelychild. His face was affectingly beautiful—his beautiful mouth was perpetually unbending into a gracefulsmile, which illuminated his whole countenance."

Here Manning spent four months, at the end of which time he was recalled from Pekin, and reluctantly he wasobliged to return the way he came.

The next man to reach the forbidden city was a Jesuit missionary, the Abbé Huc, who reached Lhasa in 1846 fromChina. He had adopted the dress of the TibetanLama—the yellow cap and gown—and he piloted his little caravan across the wide steppes onhorseback, while his fellow-missionary, Gabet, rode a camel and their one Tartar retainer rode a black mule.It took them a year and a half to reach the sacred city of Lhasa, for many and great were the difficulties ofthe way. Their first difficulty lay in crossing the Yellow River, which was in flood.

"It is quite impossible to cross the Yellow River," they were told. "Eight days ago the river overflowed itsbanks and the plains are completely flooded."

"The Tartars only told us the truth," remarked Huc sadly. "The Yellow River had become a vast sea, the limitsof which were scarcely visible: houses and villages looked as though they were floating upon the waves. Whatwere we to do? To turn back was out of the question. We had vowed that, God willing, we would go to Lhasawhatever obstacles impeded."

And so they did. The camels were soon up to their knees in a thick slimy compost of mud and water, over whichthe poor animals slid on their painful way. Their courage was rewarded, native ferry-boats came to theirrescue, and they reached the other side in safety. They were now on the main caravan route to the Tibetanfrontier and the Koko-Nor. Immense caravans were met, with strings of camels extending for miles in length.Three times between the Yellow River and the Koko-Nor Lake did they pass the Great Wall built in 214 A.D.After over four months of travel Huc arrived at the monastery of Kunkum on the borderland of Tibet. This wasthe home of four thousand Lamas all clothed in red dresses and yellow mitres, and thither resorted theworshippers of Buddha from all parts of Tartary and Tibet.

"The site is one of enchanting beauty," says Huc. "Imagine in a mountain-side a deep, broad ravine adornedwith fine trees and alive with the cawing of rooks and yellow-beaked crows and the amusing chatter of magpies.On the two sides of the ravine and on the slopes of the mountain rise the white dwellings of the Lamas. Amidthe dazzling whiteness of these modest habitations rise numerous Buddhist temples with gilt roofs, sparklingwith a thousand brilliant colours. Here the travellers stayed for three months, after which they made theirway on to the Koko-Nor Lake.

"As we advanced," says Huc, "the country became more fertile, until we reached the vast and magnificentpasturage of Koko-Nor. Here vegetation is so vigorous that the grass rose up to the stomachs of our camels.Soon we discovered far before us what seemed a broad silver riband. Our leader informed us that this was theBlue Sea. We urged on our animals, and the sun had not set when we planted our tent within a hundred paces ofthe waters of the great Blue Lake. This immense reservoir of water seems to merit the title of sea rather thanmerely that of lake. To say nothing of its vast extent, its waters are bitter and salt, like those of theocean."

After a month spent on the shores of the Blue Lake, an opportunity offered for the advance. Towards the end ofOctober they found that an embassy from Lhasa to Pekin was returning in great force. This would afford Huc andhis companion safe travelling from the hordes of brigands that infested the route through Tibet. The caravanwas immense. There were fifteen hundred oxen, twelve hundred horses, and as many camels, and about twothousand men. The ambassador was carried in a litter. Such was the multitude which now started for thethousand miles across Tibet to Lhasa.

After crossing the great Burkhan Buddha range, the caravan came to the Shuga Pass, about seventeen thousandfeet high, and here their troubles began.

"When the huge caravan first set itself in motion," says Huc, "the sky was clear, and a brilliant moon lit upthe great carpet of snow with which the whole country was covered. We were able to attain the summit bysunrise. Then the sky became thickly overcast with clouds and the wind began to blow with a violence whichbecame more and more intense."

Snow fell heavily and several animals perished. They marched in the teeth of an icy wind which almost chokedthem, whirlwinds of snow blinded them, and when they reached the foot of the mountain at last, M. Gabet foundthat his nose and ears were frostbitten. As they proceeded, the cold became more intense. "The demons of snow,wind, and cold were set loose on the caravan with a fury which seemed to increase from day to day."

"One cannot imagine a more terrible country," says poor Huc.

Not only were the animals dying from cold and exposure, but men were beginning to drop out and die. Forty ofthe party died before the plateau of Tangla had been crossed, a proceeding which lasted twelve days. Thetrack, some sixteen thousand feet above the sea, was bordered by the skeletons of mules and camels, andmonstrous eagles followed the caravan. The scenery was magnificent, line upon line of snow-white pinnaclesstretched southward and westward under a bright sun. The descent was "long, brusque, and rapid, like thedescent of a gigantic ladder." At the lower altitude snow and ice disappeared. It was the end of January 1846,when at last our two travellers found themselves approaching the longed-for city of Lhasa.

"The sun was nearly setting," says Huc, "when we found ourselves in a vast plain and saw on our right Lhasa,the famous metropolis of the Buddhist world. After eighteen months' struggle with sufferings andobstacles of infinite number and variety, we were at length arrived at the termination of our journey, thoughnot at the close of our miseries."

Huc's account of the city agrees well with that of Manning: "The palace of the Dalai Lama," he says, "meritsthe celebrity which it enjoys throughout the world. Upon a rugged mountain, the mountain of Buddha, theadorers of the Lama have raised the magnificent palace wherein their Living Divinity resides in the flesh.This place is made up of various temples; that which occupies the centre is four stories high; it terminatesin a dome entirely covered with plates of gold. It is here the Dalai Lama has set up his abode. From thesummit of his lofty sanctuary he can contemplate his innumerable adorers prostrate at the foot of the divinemountain. But in the town all was different—all are engaged in the grand business of buying and selling,all is noise, pushing, excitement, confusion."

Here Huc and his companion resided for two and a half months, opening an oratory in their house and evenmaking a few Christian converts. But soon they were ordered to leave, and reluctantly they travelled back toChina, though by a somewhat different route.

After this the Tibetans guarded their capital more zealously than before. Przhevalsky, "that grand explorer ofRussian nationality," spent years in exploring Tibet, but when within a hundred and sixty miles of Lhasa hewas stopped, and never reached the forbidden city.

Others followed. Prince Henri of Orleans got to within one hundred miles of Lhasa, Littledale and his wife towithin fifty miles. Sven Hedin, the "Prince of Swedish explorers," who had made so many famous journeys aroundand about Tibet, was making a dash for the capital disguised as a Mongolian pilgrim when he, too, was stopped.

"A long black line of Tibetan horsem*n rode towards us at full gallop," he relates. "It was not raining justat that moment, so there was nothing to prevent us from witnessing what was in truth a very magnificentspectacle. It was as though a living avalanche were sweeping down upon us. A moment more and we should beannihilated! We held our weapons ready. On came the Tibetans in one long line stretching across the plain. Wecounted close upon seventy in all. In the middle rode the chief on a big handsome mule, his staff of officersall dressed in their finest holiday attire. The wings consisted of soldiers armed to the teeth with gun,sword, and lance. The great man, Kamba Bombo, pulled up in front of our tent. After removing a red Spanishcloak and hood he "stood forth arrayed in a suit of yellow silk with wide arms and a little blue Chineseskull-cap. His feet were encased in Mongolian boots of green velvet. He was magnificent."

"You will not go another step towards Lhasa," he said. "If you do you will lose your heads. It doesn't theleast matter who you are or where you come from. You must go back to your headquarters."

So an escort was provided and sorrowfully Sven Hedin turned his back on the jealously guarded town he hadstriven so hard to reach.

The expedition, or rather mission, under Colonel Younghusband in 1904 brings to an end our history of theexploration of Tibet. He made his way to Lhasa from India; he stood in the sacred city, and "except for thePotala" he found it a "sorry affair." He succeeded in getting a trade Treaty signed, and he rode hastily backto India and travelled thence to England. The importance of the mission was accentuated by the fact that theflag, a Union Jack bearing the motto, "Heaven's Light our Guide," carried by the expedition and placed on thetable when the Treaty was signed in Lhasa, hangs to-day in the Central Hall at Windsor over the statue ofQueen Victoria.

The veil so long drawn over the capital of Tibet had been at last torn aside, and the naked city had beenrevealed in all its "weird barbarity." Plans of the "scattered and ill-regulated" city are now familiar, thePotala has been photographed, the Grand Lama has been drawn, and if, with the departure of Younghusband, thegates of Lhasa were once more closed, voices from beyond the snowy Himalayas must be heard again ere long.

No names are better known in the history of Arctic exploration than those of Nansen and the Fram, andalthough others have done work just as fine, the name of Nansen cannot be omitted from our Book of Discovery.

Sven Hedin had not long returned from his great travels through eastern Turkestan and Tibet when Nansen waspreparing for his great journey northwards.

He had already crossed Greenland from east to west, a brilliant achievement only excelled by Peary, who a fewyears later, crossed it at a higher latitude and proved it to be an island.

Now the movement of ice drift in the Arctic seas was occupying the attention of explorers at this time. Aship, the Jeannette, had been wrecked in 1881 off the coast of Siberia, and three years later thedebris from the wreck had been washed up on the south-west coast of Greenland. So it occurred to Nansen that acurrent must flow across the North Pole from Behring Sea on one side to the Atlantic Ocean on the other. Hisidea was therefore to build a ship as strong as possible to enable it to withstand the pressure of the ice, toallow it to become frozen in, and then to drift as the articles from the Jeannette had drifted.He reckoned that it would take three years for the drift of ice to carry him to the North Pole.

Foolhardy and impossible as the scheme seemed to some, King Oscar came forward with £1000 towardexpenses. The Fram was then designed. The whole success of the expedition lay in her strength towithstand the pressure of the ice. At last she was ready, even fitted with electric light. A library,scientifically prepared food, and instruments of the most modern type were on board. The members of theexpedition numbered thirteen, and on Midsummer Day, 1893, "in calm summer weather, while the setting sun shedhis beams over the land, the Fram stood out towards the blue sea to get its first roll in thelong, heaving swell." Along the coast of Norway, past Bergen, past Trondhjem, past Tromso, they steamed, untilin a north-westerly gale and driving snow they lost sight of land. It was 25th July when they sighted NovaZembla plunged in a world of fog. They landed at Khabarova and visited the little old church seen fifteenyears before by Nordenskiöld, anxiously inquiring about the state of the ice in the Kara Sea. Here, amid thegreatest noise and confusion, some thirty-four dogs were brought on board for the sledges. On 5th August theexplorer successfully passed through the Yugor Strait into the Kara Sea, which was fairly free from ice, andfive weeks later sailed past Cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost point of the Old World.

"The land was low and desolate," says Nansen. "The sun had long since gone down behind the sea; only one starwas to be seen. It stood straight above Cape Chelyuskin, shining clearly and sadly in the pale sky. Exactly atfour o'clock our flags were hoisted and our last three cartridges sent out a thundering salute over the sea."

The Fram was then turned north to the west of the New Siberian Islands. "It was a strange thingto be sailing away north," says Nansen, "to unknown lands, over an open rolling sea where no ship had beenbefore. On to the north, steadily north with a good wind, asfast as steam and sail can take us through unknown regions."

They had almost reached 78 degrees north when they saw ice shining through the fog, and a few days later theFram was frozen in. "Autumn was well advanced, the long night of winter was approaching, therewas nothing to be done except prepare ourselves for it, and we converted our ship as well as we could intocomfortable winter quarters."

By October the ice was pressing round the Fram with a noise like thunder. "It is piling itself upinto long walls and heaps high enough to reach a good way up the Fram's rigging: in fact, it istrying its very utmost to grind the Fram into powder."

Christmas came and went. The New Year of 1894 dawned with the thermometer 36 degrees below zero. By Februarythe Fram had drifted to the 80th degree of latitude. "High festival in honour of the 80thdegree," writes Nansen. "Hurrah! Well sailed! The wind is whistling among the hummocks, the snow fliesrustling through the air, ice and sky are melted into one, but we are going north at full speed, and are inthe wildest of gay spirits. If we go on at this rate we shall be at the Pole in fifty months."

On 17th May the 81st degree of latitude was reached. Five months passed away. By 31st October they had driftedto the 82nd. "A grand banquet to-day," says Nansen, "to celebrate the 82nd degree of latitude. We areprogressing merrily towards our goal; we are already half-way between the New Siberian Islands and Franz JosefLand, and there is not a soul on board who doubts that we shall accomplish what we came out to do; so longlive merriment."

Now Nansen planned the great sledge journey, which has been called "the most daring ever undertaken."The winter was passed in peaceful preparation for a start in the spring. When the New Year of 1895 dawned theFram had been firmly frozen in for fifteen months. A few days later, the ship was nearly crushedby a fresh ice pressure and all prepared to abandon her if necessary, but after an anxious day of ice roaringand crackling—"an ice pressure with a vengeance, as if Doomsday had come," remarked Nansen—itquieted down. They had now beaten all records, for they had reached 83 degrees latitude.

And now preparations for the great sledge journey were complete. They had built kayaks or light boats to sailin open water, and these were placed on the sledges and drawn by dogs. Nansen decided only to take onecompanion, Johansen, and to leave the others with the Fram.

"At last the great day has arrived. The chief aim of the expedition is to push through the unknown Polar seafrom the region around the New Siberian Islands, north of Franz Josef Land and onward to the Atlantic Oceannear Spitzbergen or Greenland." Farewells were said, and then the two men bravely started off over the unknowndesert sea with their sledges and twenty-eight dogs. For the first week they travelled well and soon reached85 degrees latitude. "The only disagreeable thing to face now is the cold," says Nansen. "Our clothes aretransformed more and more into complete suits of ice armour. The sleeve of my coat actually rubbed deep soresin my wrists, one of which got frostbitten; the wound grew deeper and deeper and nearly reached the bone. Atnight we packed ourselves into our sleeping-bags and lay with our teeth chattering for an hour before webecame aware of a little warmth in our bodies."

Steadily, with faces to the north, they pressed onover the blocks of rough ice, stretching as far as the horizon, till on 8th April further progress becameimpossible. Nansen strode on ahead and mounted one of the highest hummocks to look around. He saw "a veritablechaos of ice-blocks, ridge after ridge, and nothing but rubble to travel over." He therefore determined toturn and make for Franz Josef Land some four hundred and fifty miles distant. They had already reached 86degrees of latitude, farther north than any expedition had reached before.

As they travelled south, they rejoiced in the warmth of the sun, but their food was growing scarce, and theyhad to kill a dog every other day to feed the others, till by May they had only thirteen dogs left. June foundthem having experienced tremendous snowstorms with only seven dogs left. Although they were in the latitude ofFranz Josef Land, no welcome shores appeared. It was now three months since they had left the Fram; thefood for the dogs was quite finished and the poor creatures were beginning to eat their harness of sailcloth.Mercifully before the month ended they managed to shoot a seal which provided them with food for a month. "Itis a pleasing change," says Nansen, "to be able to eat as much and as often as we like. Blubber is excellent,both raw and fried. For dinner I fried a highly successfulsteak, for supper I made blood-pancakes fried in blubber with sugar, unsurpassed in flavour. And here we lieup in the far north, two grim, black, soot-stained barbarians, stirring a mess of soup in a kettle, surroundedon all sides by ice—ice covered with impassable snow."

A bear and two cubs were shot and the explorers stayed on at "Longing Camp" as they named this dreary spot,unable to go on, but amply fed.

On 24th July we get the first cheerful entry for many a long day: "Land! land! after nearly two years we againsee something rising above that never-ending white line on the horizon yonder—a new life is beginningfor us!"

Only two dogs were now left to drag the sledges, so the two explorers were obliged to help with the dragging.For thirteen days they proceeded in the direction of land, dragging and pushing their burdens over the ridgesof ice with thawing snow. At last on 7th August they stood at the edge of the ice. Behind lay their troubles;before was the waterway home. Then they launched their little kayaks, which danced over the open waters, thelittle waves splashing against their sides. When the mist cleared they found themselves on the west coast ofFranz Josef Land, discovered by an Austro-Hungarian expedition in 1874.

They were full of hope, when a cruel disappointment damped their joy. They had landed and were camping on theshore, when a great storm arose and the wind blew the drift ice down till it lay packed along the coast. Thelittle ships were frozen in, and there was no hope of reaching home that winter. Here they were doomed tostay. Fortunately there were bears and walrus, so they could not starve, and with magnificent pluck they setto work to prepare for the winter. For many a long day they toiled at the necessary task of skinning andcutting up walrus till they were saturated with theblood, but soon they had two great heaps of blubber and meat on shore well covered over with walrus hides.

September was occupied in building a hut amid the frost and snow with walrus hides and tusks, warmed insidewith train-oil lamps. Here under bear skins they slept and passed the long months of winter. In October thesun disappeared, the days grew darker. Life grew very monotonous, for it was the third Polar winter theexplorers had been called on to spend. They celebrated Christmas Day, Nansen by washing himself in a "quarterof a cup of warm water," Johansen by turning his shirt. The weather outside was stormy and almost took theirbreathaway with its icy coldness. They longed for a book, but they wiled away the hours by trying to calculate howfar the Fram could have drifted and when she was likely to reach home. They were distressed atthe dirt of their clothes, and longed to be able to throw away the heavy oily rags that seemed glued to theirbodies. They had no soap, and water had no effect on the horrible grease. It was May before the weatherallowed them to leave the hut at last. Hopefully they dragged their kayaks over the snow, the sledge runnersfastened on to their feet, and so made their way southwards down Franz Josef Land.

Once Nansen was very nearly drowned. The explorers had reached the south of the Islands, and, having mooredtheir little boats together, they ascended a hummock close by, when to their horror they saw the kayaks wereadrift. Nansen rushed down, threw off some clothes, and sprang into the water after them. He was none toosoon, for already the boats were drifting rapidly away. The water was icy cold, but it was a case of life ordeath. Without the boats they were lost men. "All we possessed was on board," says Nansen, "so I exertedmyself to the utmost. I redoubled my exertions though I felt my limbs gradually stiffening; at last I was ableto stretch out my hand to the edge of the kayak. I tried to pull myself up, but the whole of my body was stiffwith cold. After a time I managed to swing one leg up on to the edge and to tumble up. Nor was it easy topaddle in the double vessel; the gusts of wind seemed to go right through me as I stood there in my wetwoollen shirt. I shivered, my teeth chattered, and I was numb all over. At last I managed to reach the edge ofthe ice. I shook and trembled all over, while Johansen pulled off the wet things and packed me into thesleeping-bag. The critical situation was saved."

And now came one of those rare historic days in the history of exploration. It was 17th June 1896. Nansen wassurveying the lonely line of coast, when suddenly the barking of a dog fell on his ear, and soon in front hesaw the fresh tracks of some animal. "It was with a strange mixture of feelings," he says, "that I made my wayamong the numerous hummocks towards land. Suddenly I thought I heard a human voice—the first for threeyears. How my heart beat and the blood rushed to my brain as I halloed with all the strength of my lungs. SoonI heard another shout and saw a dark form moving among the hummocks. It was a man. We approached one anotherquickly. I waved my hat; he did the same. As I drew nearer I thought I recognised Mr. Jackson, whom Iremembered once to have seen. I raised my hat; we extended a hand to one another with a hearty 'How do youdo?' Above us a roof of mist, beneath our feet the rugged packed drift ice."

"Ar'n't you Nansen?" he said.

"Yes, I am," was the answer.

And, seizing the grimy hand of the Arctic explorer, he shook it warmly, congratulating him on his successfultrip. Jackson and his companions had wintered at Cape Flora, the southern point of Franz Josef Land, and theywere expecting a ship, the Windward, to take them home. On 26th July the Windward steamedslowly in, and by 13th August she reached Norway, and the news of Nansen's safe arrival was made known to thewhole world. A week later the little Fram, "strong and broad and weather-beaten," also returned insafety. And on 9th September 1896, Nansen and his brave companions on board the Fram sailed upChristiania Fjiord in triumph.

He had reached a point farthest North, and been nearer to the North Pole than had any explorer before.

The 6th April 1909 is a marked day in the annals of exploration, for on that day Peary succeeded in reaching theNorth Pole, which for centuries had defied the efforts of man; on that day he attained the goal for which thegreatest nations of the world had struggled for over four hundred years. Indeed, he had spent twenty-threeyears of his own life labouring toward this end.

He was mainly inspired by reading Nordenskiöld's Exploration of Greenland, when a lieutenant in the UnitedStates Navy. In 1886 he got leave to join an expedition to Greenland, and returned with the Arctic fever inhis veins and a scheme for crossing that continent as far north as possible. This after many hardships heaccomplished, being the first explorer to discover that Greenland was an island. Peary was now stamped as asuccessful Arctic explorer. The idea of reaching the North Pole began to take shape, and in order to raisefunds the enthusiastic explorer delivered no less than one hundred and sixty-eight lectures in ninety-sixdays. With the proceeds he chartered the Falcon and left the shores of Philadelphia in June 1893for Greenland. His wife, who accompanied him before, accompanied him again, and with sledges and dogs on boardthey made their way up the western coast of Greenland. Arrived at Melville Bay, Peary built a little hut; herea little daughter was born who was soon "bundled in soft warmArctic furs and wrapped in the Stars and Stripes." No European child had ever been born so far north as this;the Eskimos travelled from long distances to satisfy themselves she was not made of snow, and for the firstsix months of her life the baby lived in continuous lamplight.

But we cannot follow Peary through his many Polar expeditions; his toes had been frozen off in one, his legbroken in another, but he was enthusiastic enough when all preparations were complete for the last andgreatest expedition of all.

The Roosevelt, named after the President of the United States, had carried him safely to the north ofGreenland in his last expedition, so she was again chosen, and in July 1908, Peary hoisted the Stars andStripes and steamed from New York.

"As the ship backed out into the river, a cheer went up from the thousands who had gathered on the piers tosee us off. It was an interesting coincidence that the day on which we started for the coldest spot on earthwas about the hottest which New York had known for years. As we steamed up the river, the din grew louder andlouder; we passed President Roosevelt's naval yacht, the Mayflower, and her small gun roared out aparting salute—surely no ship ever started for the ends of the earth with more heart-stirringfarewells."

President Roosevelt had himself inspected the ship and shaken hands with each member of the expedition.

"I believe in you, Peary," he had said, "and I believe in your success, if it is within the possibility ofman." So the little Rooseveltsteamed away; on 26th July the Arctic Circle was crossed by Peary for thetwentieth time, and on 1st August, Cape York, the most northerly home of human beings in the world, wasreached. This was the dividing line between the civilised world onone hand and the Arctic world on the other. Picking up several Eskimo families and about two hundred and fiftydogs, they steamed on northwards.

"Imagine," says Peary—"imagine about three hundred and fifty miles of almost solid ice, ice of allshapes and sizes, mountainous ice, flat ice, ragged and tortured ice; then imagine a little black ship, solid,sturdy, compact, strong, and resistant, and on this little ship are sixty-nine human beings, who have gone outinto the crazy, ice-tortured channel between Baffin Bay and the Polar sea—gone out to prove the realityof a dream in the pursuit of which men have frozen and starved and died."

The usual course was taken, across Smith's Sound and past the desolate wind-swept rocks of Cape Sabine, where,in 1884, Greely's ill-fated party slowly starved to death, only seven surviving out of twenty-four.

Fog and ice now beset the ship, and on 5th September they were compelled to seek winter quarters, for whichthey chose Cape Sheridan, where Peary had wintered before in 1905. Here they unloaded the Roosevelt,and two hundred and forty-six Eskimo dogs were at once let loose to run about in the snow. A little villagesoon grew up, and the Eskimos, both men and women, went hunting as of yore. Peary had decided to start asbefore from Cape Columbia, some ninety miles away, the most northerly point of Grant Land, for his dash to thePole.

On 12th October the sun disappeared and they entered cheerfully into the "Great Dark."

"Imagine us in our winter home," says Peary, "four hundred and fifty miles from the North Pole, the ship heldtight in her icy berth one hundred and fifty yards from the shore, ship and the surrounding world covered withsnow, the wind creaking in the rigging, whistling and shrieking around the corners of the deck houses, thetemperature ranging from zero to sixty below, the ice-pack in the channel outside us groaning and complaining with the movement of the tides."

Christmas passed with its usual festivities. There were races for the Eskimos, one for the children, one forthe men, and one for the Eskimo mothers, who carried babies in their fur hoods. These last, looking like"animated walruses," took their race at a walking pace.

At last, on 15th February 1909, the first sledge-party left the ship for Cape Columbia, and a week later Pearyhimself left the Roosevelt with the last loads. The party assembled at Cape Columbia for the great journeynorth, which consisted of seven men of Peary's party, fifty-nine Eskimos, one hundred and forty dogs, andtwenty-eight sledges. Each sledge was complete in itself; each had its cooking utensils, its four men, itsdogs and provisions for fifty or sixty days. The weather was "clear, calm, and cold."

On 1st March the cavalcade started off from Cape Columbia in a freezing east wind, and soon men and dogsbecame invisible amid drifting snow. Day by day they went forward, undaunted by the difficulties and hardshipsof the way, now sending back small parties to the depot at Cape Columbia, now dispatching to the home campsome reluctant explorer with a frostbitten heel or foot, now delayed by open water, but on, on, till they hadbroken all records, passed all tracks even of the Polar bear, passed the 87th parallel into the region ofperpetual daylight for half the year. It was here, apparently within reach of his goal, that Peary had to turnback three years before for want of food.

Thus they marched for a month; party after party had been sent back, till the last supporting party had goneand Peary was left with his black servant, Henson, and four Eskimos. He had five sledges, forty picked dogs,and supplies for forty days when he started off alone todash the last hundred and thirty-three miles to the Pole itself. Every event in the next week is of thrillinginterest. After a few hours of sleep the little party started off shortly after midnight on 2nd April 1909.Peary was leading.

"I felt the keenest exhilaration as I climbed over the ridge and breasted the keen air sweeping over themighty ice, pure and straight from the Pole itself."

They might yet be stopped by open water from reaching the goal. On they went, twenty-five miles in ten hours,then a little sleep, and so on again, then a few hours' rest and another twenty miles till they had reachedlatitude 89 degrees.

Still breathlessly they hurried forward, till on the 5th they were but thirty-five miles from the Pole.

"The sky overhead was a colourless pall, gradually deepening to almost black at the horizon, and the ice was aghastly and chalky white."

On 6th April the Pole was reached.

"The Pole at last!" writes Peary in his diary. "The prize of three centuries! My dream and goal for twentyyears. Mine at last! I cannot bring myself to realise it. It all seems so simple and commonplace."

Flags were at once hoisted on ice lances, and the successful explorer watched them proudly waving in thebright Arctic sunlight at the Pole. Through all his perilous expeditions to the Arctic regions, Peary had worna silken flag, worked by his wife, wrapped round his body. He now flew it on this historic spot, "which knowsno North, nor West, nor East."Not a vestige of land was to be seen; nothing but ice lay all around. They could not stay long, for provisionswould run short, and the ice might melt before their return journey was accomplished.

So after a brief rest they started off for Cape Columbia,which they reached after a wild rush of sixteen days. It had taken them thirty-seven days to cover the fourhundred and seventy-five miles from Cape Columbia to the Pole, from which they had returned at the rate ofthirty miles a day.

The whole party then started for the Roosevelt, and on 18th July she was taken from her winter quartersand turned towards home. Then came the day when wireless telegraphy flashed the news through the whole of thecivilised world: "Stars and Stripes nailed to the North Pole."

The record of four hundred years of splendid self-sacrifice and heroism unrivalled in the history ofexploration had been crowned at last.

An American had placed the Stars and Stripes on the North Pole in 1909. It was a Norwegian who succeeded inreaching the South Pole in 1911. But the spade-work which contributed so largely to the final success had beendone so enthusiastically by two Englishmen that the expeditions of Scott and Shackleton must find a place herebefore we conclude this Book of Discovery with Amundsen's final and brilliant dash.

The crossing of the Antarctic Circle by the famous Challenger expedition in 1874 revived interestin the far South. The practical outcome of much discussion was the design of the Discovery, a shipbuilt expressly for scientific exploration, and the appointment of Captain Scott to command an Antarcticexpedition.

In August 1901, Scott left the shores of England, and by way of New Zealand crossed the Antarctic Circle on3rd January 1902. Three weeks later he reached the Great Ice Barrier which had stopped Ross in 1840. For aweek Scott steamed along the Barrier. Mounts Erebus and Terror were plainly visible, and though he couldnowhere discover Parry Mountains, yet he found distant land rising high above the sea, which he named KingEdward VII.'s Land. Scott had brought with him a captive balloon in which he now rose to a height of eighthundred feet, from which he saw an unbroken glacier stream of vast extent stretching to the south. Itwas now time to seek for winter quarters, and Scott, returning to M'Murdo Bay named by Ross, found that it wasnot a bay at all, but a strait leading southward. Here they landed their stores, set up their hut, and spentthe winter, till on 2nd November 1902 all was ready for a sledge-journey to the south. For fifty-nine daysScott led his little land-party of three, with four sledges and nineteen dogs, south. But the heavy snow wastoo much for the dogs, and one by one died, until not one was left and the men had to drag and push thesledges themselves. Failing provisions at last compelled them to stop. Great mountain summits were seen beyondthe farthest point reached.

"We have decided at last we have found something which is fitting to bear the name of him whom we most delightto honour," says Scott, "and Mount Markham it shall be called in memory of the father of the expedition."

It was 30th December when a tremendous blizzard stayed their last advance. "Chill and hungry," they lay allday in their sleeping-bags, miserable at the thought of turning back, too weak and ill to go on. With onlyprovisions for a fortnight, they at last reluctantly turned home, staggering as far as their depot in thirteendays. Shackleton was smitten with scurvy; he was growing worse every day, and it was a relief when on 2ndFebruary they all reached the ship alive, "as near spent as three persons can well be." But they had donewell: they had made the first long land journey ever made in the Antarctic; they had reached a point which wasfarthest south; they had tested new methods of travel; they had covered nine hundred and sixty miles inninety-three days. Shackleton was now invalided home, but it was not till 1904 that the Discoveryescaped from the frozen harbour to make her way home.

Shackleton had returned to England in 1903, but themysterious South Pole amid its wastes of ice and snow still called him back, and in command of theNimrod he started forth in August 1907 on the next British Antarctic expedition, carrying a UnionJack, presented by the Queen, to plant on the spot farthest south. He actually placed it within ninety-sevenmiles of the Pole itself!

With a petrol motor-car on board, Eskimo dogs, and Manchurian ponies, he left New Zealand on 1st January 1908,watched and cheered by some thirty thousand of his fellow-countrymen. Three weeks later they were in sight ofthe Great Ice Barrier, and a few days later the huge mountains of Erebus and Terror came into sight.Shackleton had hoped to reach King Edward VII.'s Land for winter quarters, but a formidable ice-pack preventedthis, and they selected a place some twenty miles north of the Discovery's old winter quarters.Getting the wild little Manchurian ponies ashore was no light job; the poor little creatures were stiff aftera month's constant buffeting, for the Nimrod's passage had been stormy. One after another theywere now led out of their stalls into a horse-box and slung over the ice. Once on terra firma they seemed moreat home, for they immediately began pawing the snow as they were wont to do in their far-away Manchurian home.

The spacious hut, brought out by Shackleton, was soon erected. Never was such a luxurious house set up on thebleak shores of the Polar seas. There was a dark room for developing, acetylene gas for lighting, a good stovefor warming, and comfortable cubicles decorated with pictures. The dark room was excellent, and never was abook of travels more beautifully illustrated than Shackleton's Heart of the Antarctic.

True, during some of the winter storms and blizzards the hut shook and trembled so that every moment itsoccupants thought it would be carried bodily away, but it stood its ground all right. The long winter wasspent as usual in preparing for the spring expedition to the south, but it was 29th October 1908 before theweather made it possible to make a start. The party consisted of Shackleton, Adams, Marshall, and Wild, eachleading a pony which dragged a sledge with food for ninety-one days.

"A glorious day for our start," wrote Shackleton in his diary, "brilliant sunshine and a cloudless sky. As weleft the hut where we had spent so many months in comfort we had a feeling of real regret that never againwould we all be together there. A clasp of the hands means more than many words, and as we turned toacknowledge the men's cheer, and saw them standing on the ice by the familiar cliffs, I felt we must try to dowell for the sake of every one concerned in the expedition."

New land in the shape of ice-clad mountains greeted the explorers on 22nd November. "It is a wonderful placewe are in, all new to the world," says Shackleton; "there is an impression of limitless solitude about it thatmakes us feel so small as we trudge along, a few dark specks on the snowy plain."

They now had to quit the Barrier in order to travel south. Fortunately they found a gap, called the SouthernGateway, which afforded a direct line to the Pole. But their ponies had suffered badly during the march; theyhad already been obliged to shoot three of them, and on 7th December the last pony fell down a crevasse andwas killed. They had now reached a great plateau some seven thousand feet above the sea; it rose steadilytoward the south, and Christmas Day found them "lying in a little tent, isolated high on the roof of theworld, far from the ways trodden by man." With forty-eight degrees of frost, drifting snow, and a biting wind,theyspent the next few days hauling their sledges up a steep incline. They had now only a month's food left.Pressing on with reduced rations, in the face of freezing winds, they reached a height of ten thousand andfifty feet.

It was the 6th of January, and they were in latitude 88 degrees, when a "blinding, shrieking blizzard" madeall further advance impossible. For sixty hours the four hungry explorers lay in their sleeping-bags, nearlyperished with cold. "The most trying day we have yet spent," writes Shackleton, "our fingers and faces beingcontinually frostbitten. To-morrow we will rush south with the flag. It is our last outward march."

The gale breaking, they marched on till 9th January, when they stopped within ninety-seven miles of the Pole,where they hoisted the Union Jack, and took possession of the great plateau in the King's name.

"We could see nothing but the dead-white snow plain. There was no break in the plateau as it extended towardsthe Pole. I am confident that the Pole lies on the great plateau we have discovered miles and miles from anyoutstanding land."

And so the four men turned homewards. "Whatever our regret may be, we have done our best," said the leadersomewhat sadly. Blinding blizzards followed them as they made their way slowly back. On 28th January theyreached the Great Ice Barrier. Their food was well-nigh spent; their daily rations consisted of six biscuitsand some horse-meat in the shape of the Manchurian ponies they had shot and left the November before. But itdisagreed with most of them, and it was four very weak and ailing men who staggered back to theNimrod toward the end of February 1909.

Shackleton reached England in the autumn of 1909 to find that another Antarctic expedition was to leave ourshores in the following summer under the commandof Scott, in the Terra Nova. It was one of the best-equipped expeditions that ever started;motor-sledges had been specially constructed to go over the deep snow, which was fatal to the motor-carcarried by Shackleton. There were fifteen ponies and thirty dogs. Leaving England in July 1910, Scott wasestablished in winter quarters in M'Murdo Sound by 26th January 1911. It was November before he could start onthe southern expedition.

"We left Hut Point on the evening of 2nd November. For sixty miles we followed the track of the motors (senton five days before). The ponies are going very steadily. We found the motor party awaiting us in latitude 80½ degrees south. The motors had proved entirely satisfactory, and the machines dragged heavy loads over theworst part of the Barrier surface, crossing several crevasses. The sole cause of abandonment was theoverheating of the air-cooled engines. We are building snow cairns at intervals of four miles to guidehomeward parties and leaving a week's provisions at every degree of latitude. As we proceeded the weather grewworse, and snowstorms were frequent. The sky was continually overcast, and the land was rarely visible. Theponies, however, continued to pull splendidly."

As they proceeded south they encountered terrific storms of wind and snow, out of which they had constantly todig the ponies. Christmas passed and the New Year of 1912 dawned. On 3rd January when one hundred and fiftymiles from the Pole, "I am going forward," says Scott, "with a party of five men with a month's provisions,and the prospect of success seems good, provided that the weather holds and no unforeseen obstacles arise."

Scott and his companions successfully attained the object of their journey. They reached the South Pole on17th January only to find that they had been forestalledby others! And it is remarkable to note that so correct were their observations, the two parties located thePole within half a mile of one another.

Scott's return journey ended disastrously. Blinding blizzards prevented rapid progress; food and fuel ranshort; still the weakened men struggled bravely forward till, within a few miles of a depot of supplies, deathovertook them.

Scott's last message can never be forgotten. "I do not regret this journey which has shown that Englishmen canendure hardship, help one another, and meet death with as great fortitude as ever in the past. . . . Had welived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which wouldhave stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale; butsurely, surely, a great, rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent upon us are properlyprovided for."

It was on 14th December 1911 that Captain Amundsen had reached the Pole. A Norwegian, fired by the example ofhis fellow-countryman, Nansen, Amundsen had long been interested in both Arctic and Antarctic exploration. Ina ship of only forty-eight tons, he had, with six others, made a survey of the North Magnetic Pole, sailedthrough the Behring Strait, and accomplished the North-West Passage, for which he was awarded the Royal Medalof the Royal Geographical Society. On his return he planned an expedition to the North Pole. He had made knownhis scheme, and, duly equipped for North Polar expedition in Nansen's little Fram, Amundsen started.Suddenly the world rang with the news that Peary had discovered the North Pole, and that Amundsen had turnedhis prow southwards and was determined to make a dash for the South Pole. Landing in Whales Bay some fourhundred miles to the east of Scott's winter quarters, his first visitorswere the Englishmen on board the Terra Nova, who were taking their ship to New Zealand for the winter.

Making a hut on the shore, Amundsen had actually started on his journey to the Pole before Scott heard of hisarrival.

"I am fully alive to the complication in the situation arising out of Amundsen's presence in the Antarctic,"wrote the English explorer, "but as any attempt at a race might have been fatal to our chance of getting tothe Pole at all, I decided to do exactly as I should have done had not Amundsen been here. If he gets to thePole he will be bound to do it rapidly with dogs, and one foresees that success will justify him."

Although the Norwegian explorer left his winter quarters on 8th September for his dash to the Pole, he startedtoo early; three of his party had their feet frostbitten, and the dogs suffered severely, so he turned back,and it was not till 20th October, just a week before Scott's start, that he began in real earnest his historicjourney. He was well off for food, for whales were plentiful on the shores of the Bay, and seals, penguins,and gulls abounded. The expedition was well equipped, with eight explorers, four sledges, and thirteen dogsattached to each.

"Amundsen is a splendid leader, supreme in organisation, and the essential in Antarctic travel is to think outthe difficulties before they arise." So said those who worked with him on his most successful journey.

Through dense fog and blinding blizzards the Norwegians now made their way south, their Norwegian skis andsledges proving a substantial help. The crevasses in the ice were very bad; one dog dropped in and had to beabandoned; another day the dogs got across, but the sledge fell in, and it was necessary to climb down thecrevasse, unpack the sledge, and pull up piece bypiece till it was possible to raise the empty sledge. So intense was the cold that the very brandy froze inthe bottle and was served out in lumps.

"It did not taste much like brandy then," said the men, "but it burnt our throats as we sucked it."

The dogs travelled well. Each man was responsible for his own team; he fed them and made them fond of him.Thus all through November the Norwegians travelled south, till they reached the vast plateau described byShackleton. One tremendous peak, fifteen thousand feet high, they named "Frithjof Nansen."

On 14th December they reached their goal; the weather was beautiful, the ground perfect for sledging.

"At 3 p.m. we made halt," says Amundsen. "According to our reckoning, we had reached our destination. All ofus gathered round the colours—a beautiful silken flag; all hands took hold of it, and, planting it onthe spot, we gave the vast plateau on which the Pole is situate the name of 'The King Haakon VII.' It was a vast plain, alike in all directions, mile after mile."

Here in brilliant sunshine the little party camped, taking observations till 17th December, when, fastening tothe ground a little tent with the Norwegian flag and the Fram pennant, they gave it the name"Polheim" and started for home.

So the North and South Poles yielded up their well-hoarded secrets after centuries of waiting, within two anda half years of one another.

They had claimed more lives than any exploration had done before, or is ever likely to do again.

And so ends the last of these great earth-stories—stories which have made the world what it isto-day—and we may well say with one of the most successful explorers of our times, "The future may giveus thrilling stories of the conquest of the air, but the spirit of man has mastered the earth."