[Illustration: Death of Magellan.]

Duarte Barbosa, Magellan's brother-in-law, and Juan Serrano were

elected commanders by the Spaniards, who were destined to meet with

further catastrophes. The slave who had acted as interpreter up to

this time had been slightly wounded during the battle. From the time

of his master's death he had kept aloof, not rendering any further

service to the Spaniards, and remaining extended upon his mat. After

some rather sharp reproofs from Barbosa, who told him that his

master's death did not make him a free man, he disappeared all at

once. He was gone to the newly-baptized king, to whom he declared

that if he could allure the Spaniards into some trap and then kill

them, he would make himself master of all their provisions and

merchandise. Serrano, Barbosa, and twenty-seven Spaniards were

accordingly invited to a solemn assembly to receive the presents

destined by the king of Zebu for the Emperor; during the banquet

they were attacked unexpectedly, and were all massacred except

Serrano, who was led bound to the sea-shore, where he besought his

companions to ransom him, for if they did not he would be murdered.

But Juan de Carvalho and the others, fearing that the insurrection

would become general, and that they might be attacked during the

negotiations by a numerous fleet which they would not be able to

resist, turned a deaf ear to the unfortunate Serrano's supplications.

The ships set sail and reached the Island of Bohol, which was not

far distant.

When there, thinking that their numbers were too much reduced to

navigate three vessels, they burnt the _Concepcion_, after having

transshipped all that was most precious on board the other vessels.

Then, after having coasted along the Island of Panilongon they

stopped at Butuan, which forms part of Mindanao, a magnificent

island, with numerous ports, and rivers abounding in fish, to the

north-west of which lies the Island of Luzon, the most considerable

of the Archipelago. The ships touched also at Paloan, where they

found pigs, goats, fowls, different kinds of bananas, cocoa-nuts,

sugar-canes, and rice, with which they provisioned the ships. This

was for them, as Pigafetta expresses it, "a promised land." Among

the things which he thought worthy of notice, the Italian traveller

mentions the cocks kept by the natives for fighting; a passion which

after so many years is still deeply-rooted amongst the population of

the whole Philippine Archipelago. From Paloan, the Spaniards next

went to the Island of Borneo, the centre of Malay civilization. From

that time they had no longer to deal with poverty-stricken people,

but with a rich population, who received them with magnificence.

Their reception by the rajah is sufficiently curious to warrant a

few words being devoted to it. At the landing-place they found two

elephants with silk trappings, who bore the strangers to the house

of the governor of the town, while twelve men carried the presents

which were to be offered to the rajah. From the governor's house

where they slept, to the palace of the king, the streets were kept

by armed men. Upon descending from their elephants the Spaniards

were admitted to a room filled with courtiers. At the end of this

room opened another smaller room, hung with cloth of gold, in which

were 300 men of the king's guard armed with poniards. Through a door

they could then see the rajah, sitting by a table with a little

child, chewing betel-nut. Behind him there were only some women.

Etiquette required that the petition to be made must pass in

succession through the mouths of three nobles, each of higher rank

than the last, before being transmitted, by means of a hollow cane

placed in a hole in the wall, to one of the principal officers, who

submitted it to the king. Then there was an exchange of presents,

after which the Spanish Ambassadors were conducted back to their

vessels with the same ceremony as on their arrival. The capital is

built on piles in the sea; so that when the tide rises, the women

who sell provisions go about the town in boats. On the 29th of July

more than 100 canoes surrounded the two vessels, whilst at the same

time some junks weighed anchor to approach them more nearly. The

Spaniards, fearing to be treacherously attacked, took the initiative

and fired off their artillery, which killed a number of people in

the canoes, upon which the king excused himself, saying that his

fleet had not been directed against them, but against the Gentiles

with whom the Mussulmen had daily combats. This island produces

arrack (the alcohol of rice), camphor, cinnamon, ginger, oranges,

citrons, sugar-canes, melons, radishes, onions, &c. The articles of

exchange are copper, quicksilver, cinnabar, glass, woollen cloths,

and canvas, and above all iron and spectacles, without mentioning

porcelain, and diamonds, some of which were of extraordinary size

and value. The _fauna_ comprises elephants, horses, buffaloes, pigs,

goats, and domestic poultry. The money in use is of bronze, it is

called _sapeque_ and consists of small coins which are perforated

with holes, that they may be strung together.

On leaving Borneo the travellers sought for a suitable spot in which

to repair their vessels, which were in such great need of it that

the men were not less than forty-two days over the work. "The oddest

things which I have found in this island," says Pigafetta, "are the

trees of which all the leaves are animated. These leaves resemble

those of the mulberry, but are not so long; the stalk is short and

pointed, and near the stalk on both sides there are two feet. If you

touch the leaves, they escape; but when crushed no blood comes from

them. I have kept one of them in a box for nine days; when I opened

the box, the leaf was walking about in it; I believe they must live

upon air." These very curious animals are well known at the present

day, and are commonly called leaf-flies (_mouches-feuille_); they

are of a grey-brown, which makes them more easily mistaken for dead

leaves, which they exactly resemble in appearance.

It was while in these parts that the Spanish expedition, which,

during Magellan's life had preserved its scientific character, began

perceptibly to become piratical. Thus, on several occasions, junks

were seized upon, and their crews forced by their Spanish captors to

pay large ransoms.

The ships next passed by the Archipelago of the Sooloo Islands, the

haunt of Malay pirates, who have even now only lately submitted to

the Spanish arms; then by Mindanao, which had been already visited,

for it was known that the eagerly sought-for Moluccas must be in its

neighbourhood, whether more or less remote. At last, after having

seen a number of islands, of which the names would not convey much

idea to us, on Wednesday, the 6th of November the Spaniards

discovered the Archipelago, about which the Portuguese had related

such terrifying fables, and two days later they landed at Tidor.

Thus the object of the voyage was attained.

The king came to meet the Spaniards, and invited them to go on board

his canoe. "He was seated under a silk parasol which covered him

entirely. In front of him were placed one of his sons who carried

the royal sceptre, two men who had each a golden vase full of water

for washing the king's hands, and two others holding small gilt

boxes filled with betel." Then the Spaniards made the king come on

board the vessels, where they showed him much respect, at the same

time loading him and those who accompanied him with presents, which

seemed to them very precious. "This king is a Moor, that is to say,

an Arab," Pigafetta affirms; "he is nearly forty-five years of age,

tolerably well made, and with a fine physiognomy. His clothing

consisted of a very fine shirt, the cuffs of which were embroidered

in gold; drapery descended from his waist to his feet; a silk veil

(no doubt a turban) covered his head, and upon this veil there was a

garland of flowers. His name is Rajah-sultan Manzor."

The next day, in a long interview which he had with the Spaniards,

Manzor declared his intention of placing himself with the Islands of

Ternate and Tidor under the protection of the king of Spain.

[Illustration: The Sultan Manzor.]

This is the place to give some details about the Archipelago of the

Moluccas, drawn from Pigafetta's narrative, which we are following

step by step in the version that M. Ed. Charton has given, and to

which he has added such valuable notes.

This Archipelago properly speaking, comprises the Islands of Gilolo,

Ternate, Tidor, Mornay, Batchian, and Misal; but the Banda and

Amboyna groups are also often comprehended under the general name of

Molucca. Formerly convulsed by repeated volcanic commotions, this

Archipelago contains a great number of craters almost all extinct,

or in repose during a long succession of years. The air there is

burning, and would be almost unfit to breathe, if frequent rains did

not fall and refresh the atmosphere. The natural productions are

extremely valuable. In the first rank must be placed the sago-tree,

of which the pith called sago takes, with yams, the place of cereals

throughout Malacca. As soon as the tree is cut down, the pith is

extracted, which is then grated, passed through a sieve, and

afterwards cut up in the form of small rolls, which are dried in the

shade. There are also the mulberry, the clove, the nutmeg, the

camphor, and pepper-trees; in fact all the spice-trees and all the

tropical fruits. The forests contain some valuable kinds of wood,

ebony, iron-wood, teak, famous for its strength and employed from

the most ancient times in costly buildings, and the Calilaban laurel,

which yields an aromatic essential oil that is highly prized. At

this period domestic animals were not numerous in the Moluccas, but

among the wild animals the most curious were the _babiroussa_, an

enormous wild boar with long tusks bent backwards; the opossum, a

kind of didelphis a little larger than our squirrel; the phalanger,

a marsupial which lives in thick, dark forests, where it feeds upon

leaves and fruit; and the tarsier, a kind of jerboa, a very harmless,

inoffensive little animal with reddish-coloured hair, about the size

of a rat, but whose body bears some resemblance to that of an ape.

Among the birds, the most remarkable were the parroquets and

cockatoos, the birds of Paradise of which so many fabulous accounts

were given, and which until then had been believed to be without

legs, the king-fishers, and the cassowaries, great wading-birds

almost as large as ostriches.

A Portuguese named Lorosa had been long settled in the Moluccas, and

to him the Spaniards forwarded a letter, in the hope that he would

betray his country and attach himself to Spain. They obtained the

most curious information from him with regard to the expeditions

which the king of Portugal had despatched to the Cape of Good Hope,

to the Rio de la Plata and to the Moluccas; but from various

circumstances these latter expeditions had not been able to take

place. He himself had been sixteen years in this Archipelago; the

Portuguese had been installed there for ten years, but upon this

fact they preserved the most complete silence. When Lorosa saw the

Spaniards making their preparations for departure, he came on board

with his wife and his goods to return to Europe. On the 12th of

November all the merchandise destined for barter was landed, it

being chiefly derived from the four junks which had been seized in

Borneo. Certainly the Spaniards traded to great advantage, but

nevertheless not to so great an extent as they might have done, for

they were in haste to return to Spain. Some vessels from Gilolo and

Batchian came also to trade with them, and a few days later they

received a considerable stock of cloves from the king of Tidor. This

king invited them to a great banquet which he said it was his custom

to give when a vessel or junk was loaded with the first cloves. But

the Spaniards, remembering what had happened to them in the

Philippines, refused the invitation while presenting compliments and

excuses to the king. When their cargo was completed, they set sail.

Scarcely had the _Trinidad_ put to sea before it was perceived that

she had a serious leak, and the return to Tidor as fast as possible

was unavoidable. The skilful divers whom the king placed at the

disposal of the Spaniards, were unable to discover the hole, and it

became necessary to partly unload the ship to make the necessary

repairs. The sailors who were on board the _Victoria_ would not wait

for their companions, and the ship's officers seeing clearly that

the _Trinidad_ would not be fit for the voyage to Spain, decided

that she should go to Darien, where her valuable cargo would be

discharged and transported across the Isthmus to the Atlantic, where

a vessel would be sent to fetch it. But neither the unfortunate

vessel nor her crew was destined ever to return to Spain.

The _Trinidad_, commanded by the alguazil Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa,

who had Juan de Carvalho as pilot, was in so bad a state that after

leaving Tidor, she was obliged to anchor at Ternate, in the port of

Talangomi, where her crew consisting of seventeen men was

immediately imprisoned by the Portuguese. The only reply given to

Espinosa's remonstrances was a threat to hang him to the yard of a

vessel; and the unfortunate alguazil, after having been transferred

to Cochin, was sent to Lisbon, where for seven months he remained

shut up in the prison of the Limoeiro with two Spaniards, the sole

survivors of the crew of the _Trinidad_.

As to the _Victoria_, she left Tidor richly laden under the command

of Juan Sebastian del Cano, who, after having been simply a pilot on

board one of Magellan's ships, had taken the command of the

_Concepcion_ on the 27th of April, 1521, and who succeeded to Juan

Lopez de Carvalho, when the latter was superseded in his command for

incapacity. The crew of the _Victoria_ was composed of only

fifty-three Europeans and thirteen Indians. Fifty-four Europeans

remained at Tidor on board the _Trinidad_.

After passing amidst the islands of Caioan, Laigoma, Sico, Giofi,

Cafi, Laboan, Toliman, Batchian, Mata, and Batu, the _Victoria_ left

this latter island to the west, and steering west-south-west,

stopped during the night at the island of Xulla or Zulla. At thirty

miles from thence the Spaniards anchored at Booro, (the Boero of

Bougainville), where the ship was revictualled. They stopped 105

miles further on, at Banda, where mace and nutmegs are found, then

at Solor, where a great trade in white sandal-wood is carried on.

They spent a fortnight there to repair their ship, which had

suffered much, and there they laid in an ample provision of wax and

pepper; then they anchored at Timor, where they could only obtain

provisions by retaining by stratagem the chief of the village and

his son, who had come on board the ship. This island was frequented

by junks from Luzon, and by the "praos," from Malacca and Java,

which traded largely there in sandal-wood and pepper. A little

further on the Spaniards touched at Java, where, as it appears,

_suttee_ was practised at this time, as it has been in India until

quite recently.

Among the stories which Pigafetta relates, without entirely

believing them, is one which is most curious. It concerns a gigantic

bird the Epyornis, of which the bones and the enormous eggs were

discovered in Madagascar about the year 1850. It is an instance

proving the caution needed before rejecting as fictitious many

apparently fabulous legends, but which on examination may prove to

possess a substratum of truth. "To the north of Greater Java," says

Pigafetta, "in the gulf of China, there is a very large tree called

_campanganghi_ inhabited by certain birds called _garula_, which are

so large and strong that they can bear away a buffalo and even an

elephant, and carry it as they fly to the place where the tree

_puzathaer_ is." This legend has been current ever since the ninth

century, among the Persians and Arabs, and this bird plays a

wonderful part in Arabian tales under the name of the _roc_. It is

not surprising, therefore, that Pigafetta found an analogous

tradition among the Malays.

After leaving greater Java, the _Victoria_ rounded the peninsula of

Malacca, which had been subjugated to Portugal by the great

Albuquerque ten years before. In the immediate neighbourhood are

Siam and Cambodia, and Tchiampa, where rhubarb grows. This substance

is discovered in the following manner. "A company of from twenty to

five-and-twenty men go into the wood, where they pass the night in

the trees, to protect themselves from lions (note here, that there

are no lions in this country), and other ferocious beasts, and also

that they may better perceive the odour of the rhubarb, which the

wind wafts towards them. In the morning they go towards the place

whence came the odour, and search there for the rhubarb until they

find it. Rhubarb is the putrefied wood of a great tree, and acquires

its odour even from its putrefaction, the best part of the tree is

the root, nevertheless the trunk, which they call _calama_, has the

same medicinal virtue."

Decidedly it is not from Pigafetta that we should seek to acquire

botanical knowledge; we should run a great risk of deceiving

ourselves if we took in earnest the nonsense that the Moor told him

from whom he drew his information. The Lombard traveller gives us

also fantastic details about China with the greatest seriousness,

and falls into the grave errors, which his contemporary Duarte

Barbosa had avoided. It is to the latter we owe the information that

the trade in _anfiam_ or opium has existed from this period. When

once the _Victoria_ had left the shores of Malacca, Sebastian del

Cano took great care to avoid the coast of Zanguebar, where the

Portuguese had been established since the beginning of the century.

He kept to the open sea as far as 42 degrees south latitude, and for

nine weeks he was obliged to keep the sails furled, on account of

the constant west and north-west winds, which ended in a fearful

storm. To keep to this course required great perseverance on the

part of the captain, with a settled desire on his part to carry his

enterprise to a successful issue. The vessel had several leaks, and

a number of the sailors demanded an anchorage at Mozambique, for the

provisions which were not salted having become bad, the crew had

only rice and water for food and drink. At last on the 6th of May,

the Cape of Tempests was doubled and a favourable issue to the

voyage might be hoped for. Nevertheless, many vexatious accidents

still awaited the navigator. In two months, twenty-one men,

Europeans and Indians, died from privations, and if on the 9th July

they had not landed at Santiago, one of the Cape de Verd Islands,

the whole crew would have died of hunger. As this archipelago

belonged to Portugal, the sailors took care to say that they came

from America, and carefully concealed the route which they had

discovered. But one of the sailors having had the imprudence to say

that the _Victoria_ was the only vessel of Magellan's squadron which

had returned to Europe, the Portuguese immediately seized the crew

of a long-boat, and prepared to attack the Spanish vessel. However,

Del Cano on board his vessel was watching all the movements of the

Portuguese, and suspecting, by the preparations which he saw, that

there was an intention of seizing the _Victoria_, he set sail,

leaving thirteen men of his crew in the hands of the Portuguese.

Maximilian Transylvain assigns a different motive from the one given

by Pigafetta, for the anchorage at the Cape de Verd Islands. He

asserts that the fatigued state of the crew, who were reduced by

privations, and who in spite of everything had not ceased to work

the pumps, had decided the captain to stop and buy some slaves to

aid them in this work. Having no money the Spaniards would have paid

with some of their spices, which would have opened the eyes of the

Portuguese.

"To see if our journals were correctly kept," says Pigafetta, "we

inquired on shore what day of the week it was. They replied that it

was Thursday, which surprised us, because according to our journals

it was as yet only Wednesday. We could not be persuaded that we had

made the mistake of a day; I was more astonished myself than the

others were, because having always been sufficiently well to keep my

journal, I had uninterruptedly marked the days of the week, and the

course of the months. We learnt afterwards, that there was no error

in our calculation, for having always travelled towards the west,

following the course of the sun, and having returned to the same

point, we must have gained twenty-four hours upon those who had

remained stationary; one has only need of reflection to be convinced

of this fact."

Sebastian del Cano rapidly made the coast of Africa, and on the 6th

of September entered the Bay of San Lucar de Barrameda, with a crew

of seventeen men, almost all of whom were ill. Two days later he

anchored before the mole at Seville, after having accomplished a

complete circuit of the world.

As soon as he arrived, Sebastian del Cano went to Valladolid, where

the court was, and received from Charles V. the welcome which was

merited after so many difficulties had been courageously overcome.

The bold mariner received permission to take as his armorial

bearings, a globe with this motto, _Primus circumdedisti me_, and he

also received a pension of 500 ducats.

The rich freight of the _Victoria_, decided the Emperor to send a

second fleet to the Moluccas. The supreme command of it was not,

however, given to Sebastian del Cano; it was reserved for the

commander Garcia de Loaisa, whose only claim to it was his grand

name. However, after the death of the chief of the expedition, which

happened as soon as the fleet had passed the Strait of Magellan, Del

Cano found himself invested with the command, but he did not hold it

long, for he died six days afterwards. As for the ship _Victoria_,

she was long preserved in the port of Seville, but in spite of all

the care that was taken of her, she at length fell to pieces from

old age.

CHAPTER III.

THE POLAR EXPEDITIONS AND THE SEARCH FOR THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.

I.

The Northmen--Eric the Red--The Zenos--John Cabot--Cortereal--

Sebastian Cabot--Willoughby--Chancellor.

Pytheas had opened up the road to the north to the Scandinavians by

discovering Iceland (the famous Thule) and the _Cronian_ Ocean, of

which the mud, the shallow-water, and the ice render the navigation

dangerous, and where the nights are as light as twilight. The

traditions of the voyages undertaken by the ancients to the Orkneys,

the Faroe Islands, and even to Iceland, were treasured up among the

Irish monks, who were learned men, and themselves bold mariners, as

their successive establishments in these archipelagos clearly prove.

They were also the pilots of the Northmen, a name given generally to

the Scandinavian pirates, both Danish and Norwegian, who rendered

themselves so formidable to the whole of Europe during the Middle

Ages. But if all the information that we owe to the ancients, both

Greeks and Romans, with regard to these hyperborean countries be

extremely vague and so to speak fabulous, it is not so with that

which concerns the adventurous enterprises of the "Men of the

North." The Sagas, as the Icelandic and Danish songs are called, are

extremely precise, and the numerous data which we owe to them are

daily confirmed by the archaeological discoveries made in America,

Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Denmark. This is a source of

valuable information which was long unknown and unexplored, and of

which we owe the revelation to the learned Dane, C. C. Rafn, who has

furnished us with authentic facts of the greatest interest bearing

on the pre-Columbian discovery of America.

Norway was poor and encumbered with population. Hence arose the

necessity for a permanent emigration, which should allow a

considerable portion of the inhabitants to seek in more favoured

regions the nourishment which a frozen soil denied them. When they

had found some country rich enough to yield them an abundant spoil,

they then returned to their own land, and set out the following

spring accompanied by all those who could be enticed either by the

love of lucre, the desire for an easy life, or by the thirst for

strife. Intrepid hunters and fishermen, accustomed to a dangerous

navigation between the continent and the mass of islands which

border it and appear to defend it against the assaults of the ocean,

and across the narrow, deep _fiords_, which seem as though they were

cut into the soil itself by some gigantic sword, they set out in

those oak vessels, the sight of which made the people tremble who

lived on the shores of the North Sea and British Channel. Sometimes

decked, these vessels, long or short, large or small, were usually

terminated in front by a spur of enormous size, above which the prow

sometimes rose to a great height, taking the form of an _S_. The

_hallristningar_, for so they call the graphic representations so

often met with on the rocks of Sweden and Norway, enable us to

picture to ourselves these swift vessels, which could carry a

considerable crew. Such was the _Long-serpent_ of Olaf Tryggvason,

which had thirty-two benches of rowers and held ninety men, Canute's

vessel, which carried sixty, and the two vessels of Olaf the Saint,

which carried sometimes 200 men. The Sea-kings, as they often called

these adventurers, lived on the ocean, never settling on shore,

passing from the pillage of a castle to the burning of an abbey,

devastating the coasts of France, ascending rivers, especially the

Seine, as far as Paris, sailing over the Mediterranean as far as

Constantinople, establishing themselves later in Sicily, and leaving

traces of their incursions or their sojourn in all the regions of

the known world.

[Illustration: Norman Ships.]

Piracy, far from being, as at the present day, an act falling under

the ban of the law, was not only encouraged in that barbarous or

half-civilized society, but was celebrated in the songs of the

_Skalds_, who reserved their most enthusiastic eulogies for

celebrating chivalrous struggles, adventurous privateering, and all

exhibitions of strength. From the eighth century, these formidable

sea-rovers frequented the groups of the Orkney, the Hebrides, the

Shetland, and Faroe Islands, where they met with the Irish monks,

who had settled themselves there nearly a century earlier, to

instruct the idolatrous population.

In 861 a Norwegian pirate, named Naddod, was carried by a storm

towards an island covered with snow, which he named Snoland (land of

snow), a name changed later to that of Iceland (land of ice). There

again the Northmen found the Irish monks under the name of Papis, in

the cantons of Papeya and Papili.

Ingolf installed himself some years afterwards in the country, and

founded Reijkiavik. In 885 the triumph of Harold Haarfager, who had

just subjugated the whole of Norway by force of arms, brought a

considerable number of malcontents to Iceland. They established

there the republican form of government, which had just been

overthrown in their own country, and which subsisted till 1261, the

epoch when Iceland passed under the dominion of the kings of Norway.

When established in Iceland, these bold fellows, lovers of adventure

and of long hunts in pursuit of seals and walrus, retained their

wandering habits and pursued their bold plans in the west, where

only three years after the arrival of Ingolf, Guunbjorn discovered

the snowy peaks of the mountains of Greenland. Five years later,

Eric the Red, banished from Iceland for murder, rediscovered the

land in latitude 64 degrees north, of which Guunbjorn had caught a

glimpse. The sterility of this ice-bound coast made him decide to

seek a milder climate with a more open country, and one producing

more game, in the south. So he rounded Cape Farewell at the

extremity of Greenland, established himself on the west coast, and

built some vast dwellings for himself and his companions, of which M.

Jorgensen has discovered the ruins. This country was worthy at that

period of the name of Green-Land (Groenland) which the Northmen gave

to it, but the annual and great increase of the glaciers, has

rendered it since that epoch a land of desolation.

Eric returned to Iceland to seek his friends, and in the same year

that he returned to Brattahalida (for so he called his settlement),

fourteen vessels laden with emigrants came to join him. It was a

veritable exodus. These events took place in the year 1000. As

quickly as the resources of the country allowed of it, the

population of Greenland increased, and in 1121, Gardar, the capital

of the country, became the seat of a bishopric, which existed until

after the discovery of the Antilles by Christopher Columbus.

In 986 Bjarn Heriulfson, who had come from Norway to Iceland to

spend the winter with his father, learnt that the latter had joined

Eric the Red in Greenland. Without hesitation, the young man again

put to sea, seeking at haphazard for a country of which he did not

even know the exact situation, and was cast by currents on coasts

which we think must have been those of New Scotland, Newfoundland,

and Maine. He ended, however, by reaching Greenland, where Eric, the

powerful Norwegian _jarl_, reproached him for not having examined

with more care countries of which he owed his knowledge to a happy

accident of the sea.

Eric had sent his son Leif to the Norwegian court, so close at this

time was the connexion between the metropolis and the colonies. The

king, who had been converted to Christianity, had just despatched a

mission to Iceland charged to overthrow the worship of Odin. He

committed to Leif's care some priests who were to instruct the

Greenlanders; but scarcely had the young adventurer returned to his

own country, when he left the holy men to work out the

accomplishment of their difficult task and hearing of the discovery

made by Bjarn, he fitted out his vessels and went to seek for the

lands which had been only imperfectly seen. He landed first on a

desolate and stony plain, to which he gave the name of _Helluland_,

and which we have no hesitation in recognizing as Newfoundland, and

afterwards on a flat sandy shore behind which rose an immense screen

of dark forests, cheered by the songs of innumerable birds. A third

time he put to sea and steering towards the south he arrived at the

Bay of Rhode Island, where the mild climate and the river teeming

with salmon induced him to settle, and where he constructed vast

buildings of planks, which he called _Leifsbudir_ (Leif's house).

Then he sent some of his companions to explore the country, and they

returned with the good news that the wild vine grows in the country,

to which it owes the name of _Vinland_. In the spring of the year

1001, Leif, having laded his ship with skins, grapes, wood, and

other productions of the country, set out for Greenland; he had made

the valuable observation that the shortest day in _Vinland_ lasted

nine hours, which places the site of Leifsbudir at 41 degrees 24

minutes 10 seconds. This fortunate voyage and the salvage of a

Norwegian vessel carrying fifteen men, gained for Leif the surname

of the Fortunate.

This expedition made a great stir, and the account of the wonders of

the country in which Leif had settled, induced his brother Thorvald,

to set out with thirty men. After passing the winter at Leifsbudir,

Thorvald explored the coasts to the south, returning in the autumn

to Vinland, and in the following year 1004, he sailed along the

coast to the north of Leifsbudir. During this return voyage, the

Northmen met with the Esquimaux for the first time, and without any

provocation, slaughtered them without mercy. The following night

they found themselves all at once surrounded by a numerous flotilla

of _Kayacs_, from which came a cloud of arrows. Thorvald alone, the

chief of the expedition, was mortally wounded; he was buried by his

companions on a promontory, to which they gave the name of the

promontory of the Cross.

Now, in the Gulf of Boston in the eighteenth century, a tomb of

masonry was discovered, in which, with the bones, was found a

sword-hilt of iron. The Indians not being acquainted with this metal,

it could not be one of their skeletons; it was not either, the

remains of one of the Europeans who had landed after the fifteenth

century, for their swords had not this very characteristic form.

This tomb has been thought to be that of a Scandinavian, and we

venture to say, that of Thorvald, son of Eric the Red.

In the spring of 1007, three vessels carrying 160 men and some

cattle, left Eriksfjord; the object in view was the foundation of a

permanent colony. The emigrants after sighting Helluland, Markland,

and Vinland, landed in an island, upon which they constructed some

barracks and began the work of cultivation. But they must either

have laid their plans badly, or have been wanting in foresight, for

the winter found them without provisions, and they suffered cruelly

from hunger. They had, however, the good sense to regain the

continent, where in comparative ease, they could await the end of

the winter.

At the beginning of 1008, they set out to seek for Leifsbudir, and

settled themselves at Mount-Hope Bay, on the opposite shore to the

old settlement of Leif. There, for the first time, some intercourse

was held with the natives, called _Skrellings_ in the sagas, and

whom, from the manner in which they are portrayed, it is easy to

recognize as Esquimaux. The first meeting was peaceable, and barter

was carried on with them until the day when the desire of the

Esquimaux to acquire iron hatchets, always prudently refused them by

the Northmen, drove them to acts of aggression, which decided the

new-comers, after three years of residence, to return to their own

country, which they did without leaving behind them any lasting

trace of their stay in the country.

It will be easily understood that we cannot give any detailed

account of all the expeditions, which set out from Greenland, and

succeeded each other on the coasts of Labrador and the United States.

Those of our readers who wish for circumstantial details, should

refer to M. Gabriel Gravier's interesting publication, the most

complete work on the subject, and from which we have borrowed all

that relates to the Norman expeditions.

The same year as Erik the Red landed in Greenland (983), a certain

Hari Marson, being driven out of the ordinary course by storms, was

cast upon the shores of a country known by the name of "White man's

land," which extended according to Rafn from Chesapeake Bay to

Florida.

What is the meaning of this name "White man's land"? Had some

compatriots of Marson's already settled there? There is some reason

to suppose so even from the words used in the chronicle. We can

understand how interesting it would be, to be able to determine the

nationality of these first colonists. However, the Sagas have not as

yet revealed all their secrets. There are probably, some of them

still unknown, and as those which have been successively discovered,

have confirmed facts already admitted, there is every reason to hope

that our knowledge of Icelandic navigation may become more precise.

Another legend, of which great part is mere romance, but which

nevertheless, contains a foundation of truth, relates that a certain

Bjorn, who was obliged to quit Iceland in consequence of an

unfortunate passion, took refuge in the countries beyond Vinland,

where in 1027, he was found by some of his countrymen.

In 1051, during another expedition, an Icelandic woman was killed by

some _Skrellings_, and in 1867, a tomb was exhumed, bearing a

_runic_ inscription, and containing bones, and some articles of the

toilet, which are now preserved in the museum at Washington. This

discovery was made at the exact spot indicated in the Saga which

related these events, and which was not itself discovered until 1863.

But the Northmen, established in Iceland and Greenland, were not the

only people who frequented the coast of America about the year 1000,

which is proved by the name of "Great Ireland," which was given to

White man's land. As the history of Madoc-op-Owen proves, the Irish

and Welsh founded colonies there, regarding which we have but little

information, but vague and uncertain as it is, MM. d'Avezac and

Gaffarel agree in recognizing its probability.

Having now said a few words upon the travels and settlements of the

Northmen in Labrador, Vinland, and the more southern countries, we

must return to the north. The colonies first founded in the

neighbourhood of Cape Farewell, had not been slow in stretching

along the western coast, which at this period was infinitely less

desolate than it is at the present day, as far as northern latitudes,

which were not again reached until our own day. Thus at this time

they caught seals, walrus, and whales in the bay of Disco; there

were 190 towns counted then in Westerbygd and eighty-six in

Esterbygd, while at the present day, there are far fewer Danish

settlements on these icy shores. These towns were probably only

inconsiderable groups of those houses in stone and wood, of which so

many ruins have been found from Cape Farewell, as far as Upernavik

in about 72 degrees 50 minutes. At the same time numerous runic

inscriptions, which have now been deciphered, have given a degree of

absolute certainty to facts so long unknown. But how many of these

vestiges of the past still remain to be discovered! how many of

these valuable evidences of the bravery and spirit of enterprise of

the Scandinavian race are for ever buried under the glaciers!

[Illustration: The Glaciers of Greenland.]

We have also obtained evidence that Christianity had been brought

into America, and especially into Greenland. To this country,

according to the instructions of Pope Gregory IV., there were

pastoral visits made to strengthen the newly-converted Northmen in

the faith, and to evangelize the Esquimaux and the Indian tribes.

Besides this, M. Riant in 1865, has proved incontrovertibly that the

Crusades were preached in Greenland in the bishopric of Gardar, as

well as in the _islands and neighbouring lands_, and that up to 1418,

Greenland paid to the Holy See tithes and St. Peter's pence, which

for that year consisted of 2600 lbs. of walrus tusks.

The Norwegian colonies owe their downfall and ruin to various

causes: to the very rapid extension of the glaciers,--Hayes has

proved that the glacier of Friar John moves at the rate of about

thirty-three yards annually;--to the bad policy of the mother

country, which prevented the recruiting of the colonies; to the

black plague, which decimated the population of Greenland from 1347

to 1351; lastly, to the depredations of the pirates, who ravaged

these already enfeebled countries in 1418, and in whom some have

thought they recognized certain inhabitants of the Orkney and Faroe

Islands, of which we are now about to speak.

One of the companions of William the Conqueror, named Saint-Clair or

Sinclair, not thinking that the portion of the conquered country

allotted to him was proportioned to his merits, went to try his luck

in Scotland, where he was not long in rising to fortune and honours.

In the latter half of the fourteenth century, the Orkney Islands

passed into the hands of his descendants.

About 1390, a certain Nicolo Zeno, a member of one of the most

ancient and noble Venetian families, who had fitted out a vessel at

his own expense, to visit England and Flanders as a matter of

curiosity, was wrecked in the archipelago of the Orkneys whither he

had been driven by a storm. He was about to be massacred by the

inhabitants, when the Earl, Henry Sinclair took him under his

protection. The history of this wreck, and the adventures and

discoveries which followed it, published in the collection of

Ramusio had been written by Antonio Zeno, says Clements Markham, the

learned geographer, in his "Threshold of the Unknown Region."

Unfortunately one of his descendants named Nicolo Zeno, born in 1515,

when a boy, not knowing the value of these papers, tore them up,

"but some of the letters surviving, he was able from them

subsequently to compile the narrative as we now have it, and which

was printed in Venice in 1558. There was also found in the palace an

old map, rotten with age, illustrative of his voyages. Of this he

made a copy, unluckily supplying from his own reading of the

narrative what he thought was requisite for its illustration. By

doing this in a blundering way, unaided by the geographical

knowledge which enables us to see where he goes astray, he threw the

whole of the geography which he derived from the narrative into the

most lamentable confusion, while those parts of the map which are

not thus sophisticated, and which are consequently original, present

an accuracy far in advance by many generations of the geography even

of Nicolo Zeno's time, and confirm in a notable manner the site of

the old Greenland colony. In these facts we have not only the

solution of all the discussions which have arisen on the subject,

but the most indisputable proof of the authenticity of the

narrative; for it is clear that Nicolo Zeno, junior, could not

himself have been the ingenious concocter of a story the

straightforward truth of which he could thus ignorantly distort upon

the face of the map."

The name of Zichmni, in which writers of the present day, and chief

among them Mr. H. Major, who has rescued these facts from the domain

of fable, recognize the name of Sinclair--appears to be in fact only

applicable to this earl of the Orkneys.

At this time the seas of the north of Europe were infected by

Scandinavian pirates. Sinclair, who had recognized in Zeno a clever

mariner, attached him to himself, and with him conquered the country

of Frisland, the haunt of pirates, who ravaged all the north of

Scotland. In the maps at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of

the sixteenth century this name is applied to the archipelago of the

Faroe Islands, a reasonable indication, for Buache has recognized in

the present names of the harbours and islands of this archipelago a

considerable number of those given by Zeno; finally the facts which

we owe to the Venetian navigator about the waters,--abounding in

fish and dangerous from shallows,--which divide this archipelago,

are still true at the present day.

Satisfied with his position, Zeno wrote to his brother Antonio to

come and join him. While Sinclair was conquering the Faroe Islands,

the Norwegian pirates desolated the Shetland Islands, then called

Eastland. Nicolo set sail to give them battle, but was himself

obliged to fly before their fleet, much more numerous than his own,

and to take refuge on a small island on the coast of Iceland.

After wintering in this place Zeno must have landed the following

year on the eastern coast of Greenland at 69 degrees north latitude,

in a place "where was a monastery of the order of preaching friars,

and a church dedicated to St. Thomas. The cells were warmed by a

natural spring of hot water, which the monks used to prepare their

food and to bake their bread. The monks had also gardens covered

over in the winter season, and warmed by the same means, so that

they were able to produce flowers, fruits, and herbs as well as if

they had lived in a mild climate." There would seem to be some

confirmation of these narratives in the fact that between the years

1828-1830 a captain of the Danish navy met with a population of 600

individuals at 69 degrees north latitude, of a purely European type.

But these adventurous travels in countries of which the climate was

so different from that of Venice, proved fatal to Zeno, who died a

short time after his return to Frisland.

An old sailor, who had returned with the Venetian, and who said he

had been for many long years a prisoner in the countries of the

extreme west, gave to Sinclair such precise and tempting details of

the fertility and extent of these regions, that the latter resolved

to attempt their conquest with Antonio Zeno who had rejoined his

brother. But the inhabitants showed themselves everywhere so hostile,

and opposed such resistance to the strangers landing, that Sinclair

after a long and dangerous voyage was obliged to return to Frisland.

These are all the details that have been left to us, and they make

us deeply regret the loss of those that Antonio should have

furnished in his letters to his father Carlo, on the subject of the

countries which Forster and Malto-Brun have thought may be

identified with Newfoundland.

Who knows, if in his voyage to England and during his wanderings as

far as Thule, Christopher Columbus may not have heard mentioned the

ancient expeditions of the Northmen and the Zeni, and if this

information may not have appeared to him a strange confirmation of

the theories which he held, and of the ideas for whose realization

he came to claim the protection of the King of England?

From the collection of facts which have been here briefly given, it

follows that America was known to Europeans and had been colonized

before the time of Columbus. But in consequence of various

circumstances, and foremost among these must be placed the rarity of

communication between the people in the north of Europe and those in

the south, the discoveries made by the Northmen were only vaguely

known in Spain and Portugal. Judging by appearances, we of the

present day know much more on this subject than did the

fellow-countrymen and contemporaries of Columbus. If the Genoese

mariner had been informed of the existence of some rumours, he

classed them with the information he had collected in the Cape de

Verd Islands and with his classical recollections of the famous

Island of Antilia and the Atlantides of Plato. From this information,

which came from so many different sides, the certainty awoke within

him that the east could be reached by the western route. However it

may be, his glory remains whole and entire; he is really the

discoverer of America, and not those who were carried thither in

spite of themselves by chances of wind and storm, without their

having any intention of reaching the shores of Asia, which

Christopher Columbus would have done, had not the way been barred by

America.

The information that we are about to give on the family of Cortereal,

although it may be much more complete than that which can be met

with in biographical Dictionaries, is still extremely vague.

Nevertheless we must content ourselves with it, for up to this time

history has not collected further details concerning this race of

intrepid navigators.

Joao Vaz Cortereal was the natural son of a gentleman named Vasco

Annes da Costa, who had received the soubriquet of Cortereal from

the King of Portugal, on account of the magnificence of his house

and followers. Devoted like so many other gentlemen of this period

to sea-faring adventure, Joao Vaz had carried off in Gallicia a

young girl named Maria de Abarca, who became his wife. After having

been gentleman-usher to the Infante don Fernando, he was sent by the

king to the North Atlantic, with Alvaro Martins Homem. The two

navigators saw an island known from this time by the name of _Terra

dos Bacalhaos_--the land of cod-fish--which must really have been

Newfoundland. The date of this discovery is approximately fixed by

the fact that on their return, they landed at Terceira and finding

the captainship vacant by the death of Jacome de Bruges, they went

to ask for it from the Infanta Dona Brites, the widow of the Infante

Don Fernando; she bestowed it upon them on condition that they would

divide it between them, a fact which is confirmed by a deed of gift

dated from Evora the 2nd of April, 1464. Though one cannot guarantee

the authenticity of this discovery of America, it is nevertheless an

ascertained fact that Cortereal's voyage must have been signalized

by some extraordinary event; donations of such importance as this

were only made to those who had rendered some great service to the

crown.

When Vaz Cortereal was settled at Terceira from 1490 to 1497, he

caused a fine palace to be built in the town of Angra, where he

lived with his three children. His third son, Gaspard, after having

been in the service of King Emmanuel, when the latter was only Duke

de Beja had felt himself attracted while still young to the

enterprises of discovery which had rendered his father illustrious.

By an act dated from Cintra the 12th of March, 1500, King Emmanuel

made a gift to Gaspard Cortereal of any islands or _terra firma_

which he might discover, and the king added this valuable

information, that "already and at other times he had sought for them

on his own account and at his own expense."

For Gaspard Cortereal this was not his first essay. Probably, his

researches may have been directed to the parts where his father had

discovered the Island of Cod. At his own expense, although with the

assistance of the king, Gaspard Cortereal fitted out two vessels at

the commencement of the summer of 1500, and after having touched at

Terceira, he sailed towards the north-west. His first discovery was

of a land of which the fertile and verdant aspect seems to have

charmed him. This was Canada. He saw there a great river bearing ice

along with it on its course--the St. Lawrence--which some of his

companions mistook for an arm of the sea, and to which he gave the

name of _Rio Nevado_. "Its volume is so considerable that it is not

probable that this country is an island, besides, it must be

completely covered with a very thick coating of snow to produce such

a stream of water."

The houses in this country were of wood and covered with skins and

furs. The inhabitants were unacquainted with iron, but used swords

made of sharpened stones, and their arrows were tipped with

fish-bones or stones. Tall and well-made, their faces and bodies

were painted in different colours according to taste, they wore

golden and copper bracelets, and dressed themselves in garments of

fur. Cortereal pursued his voyage and arrived at the Cape of

_Bacalhaos_, "fishes which are found in such great quantities upon

this coast that they hinder the advance of the caravels." Then he

followed the shore for a stretch of 600 miles, from 56 degrees to 60

degrees, or even more, naming the islands, the rivers, and the gulfs

that he met with, as is proved by _Terra do Labrador, Bahia de

Conceicao_, &c., and landing and holding intercourse with the

natives. Severe cold, and a veritable river of gigantic blocks of

ice prevented the expedition from going farther north, and it

returned to Portugal bringing back with it fifty-seven natives. The

very year of his return, on the 15th of May, 1501, Gaspard Cortereal,

in pursuance of an order of the 15th of April, received provisions,

and left Lisbon in the hope of extending the field of his

discoveries. But from this time he is never again mentioned. Michael

Cortereal, his brother, who was the first gentleman-usher to the

king, then requested and obtained permission to go and seek his

brother, and to pursue his enterprise. By an act of the 15th of

January, 1502, a deed of gift conveyed to him the half of the terra

firma and islands which his brother might have discovered. Setting

out on the 10th of May of this year with three vessels, Michael

Cortereal reached Newfoundland, where he divided his little squadron,

so that each of the vessels might explore the coasts separately,

while he fixed the place of rendezvous. But at the time fixed, he

did not reappear, and the two other vessels, after waiting for him

till the 20th of August, set out on their return to Portugal.

In 1503, the king sent two caravels to try to obtain news of the two

brothers, but the search was in vain, and they returned without

having acquired any information. When Vasco Annes, the last of the

brothers Cortereal, who was captain and governor of the Islands of

St. George and Terceira, and alcaide mor of the town of Tavilla,

became acquainted with these sad events, he resolved to fit out a

vessel at his own cost, and to go and search for his brothers. The

king, however, would not allow him to go, fearing to lose the last

of this race of good servants.

Upon the maps of this period, Canada is often indicated by the name

of Terra dos Cortereales, a name which is sometimes extended much

further south, embracing a great part of North America.

* * * * *

All that concerns John and Sebastian Cabot has been until recently

shrouded by a mist which is not even now completely dissipated,

notwithstanding the conscientious labours of Biddle the American in

1831, and of our compatriot M. d'Avezac; as also those of Mr.

Nicholls the Englishman, who taking advantage of the discoveries

made among the English, Spanish, and Venetian archives, has built up

an imposing monument, of which some parts, however, are open to

discussion. It is from the two last-named works that we shall draw

the materials for this rapid sketch, but principally from Mr.

Nicholls' book, which has this advantage over the smaller volume of

M. d'Avezac, that it relates the whole life of Sebastian Cabot.

[Illustration: Sebastian Cabot. _From an old print_.]

It has been found impossible to determine with certainty either the

name or the nationality of John Cabot, and still less to settle the

period of his birth. John Cabota, Caboto or Cabot must have been

born, if not in Genoa itself, as M. d'Avezac asserts, at least in

the neighbourhood of that town, possibly at Castiglione, about the

first quarter of the fifteenth century. Some historians have

considered that he was an Englishman, and perhaps Mr. Nicholls from

national considerations is inclined to adopt this opinion; at least

this seems to be the meaning of the expressions used by him. What we

do know without room for doubt, is that John Cabot came to London to

occupy himself with commerce, and that he soon settled at Bristol,

then the second town in the kingdom, in one of the suburbs which had

received the name of Cathay, probably from the number of Venetians

who resided there, and the trade carried on by them with the

countries of the extreme East. It was at Bristol that Cabot's two

youngest children were born, Sebastian and Sancho, if we may rely

upon the following account given by the old chronicler Eden.

"Sebastian Cabot told me that he was born at Bristol, and that at

four years of age he went with his father to Venice, returning with

him to England some years later; this made people imagine that he

was born at Venice." In 1476, John Cabot was at Venice, and there on

the 29th of March, he received letters of naturalization, which

prove that he was not a native of this city, and that he must have

merited the honour by some service rendered to the Republic. M.

d'Avezac is inclined to think that he devoted himself to the study

of cosmography and navigation, perhaps even in company with the

celebrated Florentine, Paul Toscanelli, with whose theories upon the

distribution of land and sea on the surface of the globe, he would

certainly be acquainted at this time. He may also have heard mention

made of the islands situated in the Atlantic, and known by the names

of Antilia, the Land of the Seven Cities, or Brazil. What seems more

certain is, that his business affairs took him to the Levant, and,

it is said, to Mecca, and that while there he would learn from what

country came the spices, which then constituted the most important

branch of Venetian commerce.

Whatever value we may attach to these speculative theories, it is at

least certain that John Cabot founded an important mercantile house

at Bristol. His son Sebastian, who in these first voyages had

acquired an inclination for the sea, studied navigation, as far as

it was then known, and made some excursions on the sea, to render

himself as familiar with the practice of this art, as he already was

with its theory. "For seven years past," says the Spanish Ambassador

in a despatch of the 25th of July, 1498, speaking of an expedition

commanded by Cabot, "the people of Bristol have fitted out two,

three, or four caravels every year, to go in search of the Island of

Brazil, and of the Seven Cities, according to the ideas of the

Genoese." At this time the whole of Europe resounded with the fame

of the discoveries of Columbus. "It awoke in me," says Sebastian

Cabot, in a narrative preserved by Ramusio, "a great desire and a

kind of ardour in my heart to do myself also something famous, and

knowing by examining the globe, that if I sailed by the west wind I

should reach India more rapidly, I at once made my project known to

His Majesty, who was much satisfied with it." The king to whom Cabot

addressed himself was the same Henry VII. who some years before had

refused all support to Christopher Columbus. It is evident that he

received with favour the project which John and Sebastian Cabot had

just submitted to him; and though Sebastian, in the fragment which

we have just quoted, attributes to himself alone all the honour of

the project, it is not less true that his father was the promoter of

the enterprise, as the following charter shows, which we translate

in an abridged form.

"We Henry ... permit our well-beloved Jehan Cabot, citizen of Venice,

and Louis, Sebastian, and Sancho, his sons, under our flag and with

five vessels of the tonnage and crew which they shall judge suitable,

to discover at their own expense and charge ... we grant to them as

well as to their heirs and assigns, licence to occupy, possess ...

at the charge of, by them, upon the profits, benefits, and

advantages, accruing from this navigation, to pay us in merchandise

or in money the fifth part of the profit thus obtained, for each of

their voyages, every time that they shall return to the port of

Bristol (at which port they shall be compelled to land).... We

promise and guarantee to them, their heirs and assigns, that they

shall be exempt from all custom-house duties on the merchandise

which they shall bring from the countries thus discovered.... We

command and direct all our subjects, as well on land as on the sea,

to render assistance to the said Jehan, and to his sons.... Given

at ... the 5th day of March, 1495."

Such was the charter that was granted to John Cabot and his sons

upon their return from the American continent, and not as certain

authors have pretended, anterior to this voyage. From the time that

the news of the discovery made by Columbus had reached England, that

is to say, probably in 1493, John and Sebastian Cabot prepared the

expedition at their own expense, and set out at the beginning of the

year 1494, with the idea of reaching Cathay, and finally the Indies.

There can be no doubt upon this point, for in the Bibliotheque

Nationale in Paris is preserved an unique copy of the map engraved

in 1544, that is to say, in the lifetime of Sebastian Cabot, which

mentions this voyage, and the precise and exact date of the

discovery of Cape Breton.

It is probable that we must attribute to the intrigues of the

Spanish Ambassador, the delay which occurred in Cabot's expedition,

for the whole of the year 1496 passed without the voyage being

accomplished.

The following year he set out at the beginning of summer. After

having again sighted the _Terra Bona-vista_, he followed the coast,

and was not long in perceiving to his great disappointment that it

trended towards the north. "Then, sailing along it to make sure if I

could not find some passage, I could not perceive any, and having

advanced as far as 56 degrees, and seeing that at this point the

land turned towards the east, I despaired of finding any passage,

and I put about to examine the coast in this direction towards the

equinoctial line, always with the same object of finding a passage

to the Indies, and in the end, I reached the country now called

Florida, where as provisions were beginning to run short, I resolved

to return to England." This narrative, of which we have given the

commencement above, was related by Cabot to Fracastor, forty or

fifty years after the event. Also, is it not astonishing that Cabot

mixes up in it two perfectly distinct voyages, that of 1494, and

that of 1497? Let us add some reflections on this narrative. The

first land seen was, without doubt, the North Cape, the northern

extremity of the island of Cape Breton, and the island which is

opposite to it is that of Prince Edward, long known by the name of

St. John's Island. Cabot, probably penetrated into the estuary of

the St. Lawrence, which he took for an arm of the sea, near to the

place where Quebec now stands, and coasted along the northern shore

of the gulf, so that he did not see the coast of Labrador stretching

away in the east. He took Newfoundland for an archipelago, and

continued his course to the south, not doubtless, as far as Florida

as he states himself, the time occupied by the voyage making it

impossible that he can have descended so low, but as far as

Chesapeake Bay. These were the countries which the Spaniards

afterwards called "Terra de Estevam Gomez."

On the 3rd of February, 1498, King Henry VII. signed at Westminster

some new letters patent. He empowered John Cabot or his

representative,--being duly authorized--to take in English ports six

vessels of 200 tons' burden, and to procure all that should be

required for their equipment, at the same price as if it were for

the crown. He was allowed to take on board such master-mariners,

pages, and other subjects as might of their own accord wish to go,

and pass with him to the recently discovered land and islands. John

Cabot bore the expense of the equipment of two vessels, and three

others were fitted out at the cost of the merchants of Bristol.

In all probability it was death--a sudden and unexpected

death--which prevented John Cabot from taking the command of this

expedition. His son Sebastian then assumed the direction of the

fleet, which carried 300 men and provisions for a year. After having

sighted land at 45 degrees, Sebastian Cabot followed the coast as

far as 58 degrees, perhaps even higher, but then it became so cold,

and although it was the month of July, there was so much floating

ice about, that, it would have been impossible to go further

northwards. The days were very long, and the nights excessively

light, an interesting detail by which to fix the latitude reached,

for we know that below the 60th parallel of latitude the longest

days are eighteen hours. These various reasons made Sebastian Cabot

decide to put about, and he touched at the Bacalhaos Islands, of

which the inhabitants, who were clothed in the skins of animals,

were armed with bow and arrows, lance, javelin, and wooden sword.

The navigators here caught a great number of cod-fish; they were

even so numerous, says an old narrative, that they hindered ships

from advancing. After having sailed along the coast of America as

far as 38 degrees, Cabot set out for England, where he arrived at

the beginning of autumn. This voyage had indeed a threefold object,

that of discovery, commerce, and colonization, as is shown by the

number of vessels which took part in it and the strength of the

crews. Nevertheless it does not appear that Cabot landed any one, or

that he made any attempts at forming a settlement, either in

Labrador, or in Hudson's Bay--which he was destined to explore more

completely in 1517, in the reign of Henry VIII.--or even to the

south of the Bacalhaos, known by the general name of Newfoundland.

At the close of this expedition, which was almost entirely

unproductive, we lose sight of Sebastian Cabot, if not completely,

at least so as to be insufficiently informed about his deeds and

voyages until 1517. The traveller Hojeda, whose various enterprises

we have related above, had left Spain in the month of May, 1499. We

know that in this voyage he met with an Englishman at Caquibaco, on

the coast of America. Can this have been Cabot? Nothing has come to

light to enable us to settle this point; but we may believe that

Cabot did not remain idle, and that he would be likely to undertake

some fresh expedition: what we do know is, that in spite of the

solemn engagements that he had made with Cabot, the King of England

granted certain privileges of trading in the countries which he had

discovered, to the Portuguese and to the merchants of Bristol. This

ungenerous manner of recognizing his services wounded the navigator,

and decided him to accept the offers which had been made to him on

different occasions, to enter the Spanish service. From the death of

Vespucius, which happened in 1512, Cabot was the navigator held in

most renown. To attach him to himself, Ferdinand wrote on the 13th

of September, 1512, to Lord Willoughby, commander in chief of the

troops which had been transported to Italy, to treat with the

Venetian navigator.

[Illustration: Discoveries of John and Sebastian Cabot.]

As soon as he arrived in Castille, Cabot received the rank of

captain, by an edict dated the 20th of October, 1512, with a salary

of 5000 maravedis. Seville was fixed upon for his residence, until

an opportunity might arise of turning his talents and experience to

account. There was a plan on foot for his taking the command of a

very important expedition, when Ferdinand the Catholic died, on the

23rd of January, 1516. Cabot returned at once to England, having

probably obtained leave of absence. Eden tells us that the following

year Cabot was appointed with Sir Thomas Pert to the command of a

fleet which was to reach China by the north-west. On the 11th of

June, he was in Hudson's Bay at 67-1/2 degrees of latitude; the sea

free from ice spread itself out before him so far that he reckoned

upon success in his enterprise, when the faintheartedness of his

companion, together with the cowardice and mutinous spirit of the

crews, who refused to go any further, obliged him to return to

England. In his _Theatrum orbis terrarum_, Ortelius traces the shape

of Hudson's Bay as it really is; he even indicates at its northern

extremity a strait leading northwards. How can the geographer have

attained to such exactness? "Who," says Mr. Nicholls, "can have

given him the information set forth in his map, if not Cabot?"

On his return to England, Cabot found the country ravaged by a

horrible plague, which put a stop even to commercial transactions.

Soon, either because the time of his leave had expired, or that he

wished to escape from the pestilence, or that he was recalled to

Spain, the Venetian navigator returned to that country. In 1518, on

the 5th of February, Cabot was made pilot-major, with a salary which,

added to that which he already had, made a total of 125,000

maravedis, say, 300 ducats. He did not actually exercise the

functions of his office till Charles V. returned from England. His

principal duty consisted in examining pilots, who were not allowed

to go to the Indies until after having passed this examination.

This epoch was by no means favourable to great maritime expeditions.

The struggle between France and Spain absorbed all the resources

both in men and money, of these two countries--Cabot too, who seems

to have adopted science for his fatherland, much more than any

particular country, made some overtures to Contarini, the Ambassador

of Venice, to take service on board the fleets of the Republic; but

when the favourable answer of the Council of Ten arrived, he had

other projects in his head, and did not carry his attempt any

further.

[Illustration: Cabot presides over a Conference of Cosmographers.]

In the month of April, 1524, Cabot presided at a conference of

mariners and cosmographers, which met at Badajoz, to discuss the

question whether the Moluccas belonged, according to the celebrated

treaty of Tordesillas, to Spain or Portugal. On the 31st of May, it

was decided that the Moluccas were within the Spanish waters, by 20

degrees. Perhaps this resolution of the junta of which Cabot was

president, and which again placed in the hands of Spain a great part

of the spice trade, was not without its influence upon the

resolutions of the council of the Indies. However this may be, in

the month of September of the same year Cabot was authorized to take

the command of three vessels of 100 tons, and a small caravel,

carrying together 150 men, with the title of captain-general.

The declared aim of this voyage was to pass through the Strait of

Magellan, carefully to explore the western coast of America, and to

reach the Moluccas, where they would take in on their return a cargo

of spices. The month of August, 1525, had been fixed upon as the

date of departure, but the intrigues of Portugal succeeded in

delaying it until April, 1526.

Different circumstances seem from this moment to have augured ill

for the voyage. Cabot had only a nominal authority, and the

association of merchants who had defrayed the expenses of the

equipment not accepting him willingly as chief, had found means to

oppose all the plans of the Venetian sailor. Thus it was that in

place of the man whom he had appointed as second in command, another

was imposed upon him, and that instructions destined to be unsealed

when at sea were delivered to each captain. They contained this

absurd arrangement, that in case of the death of the captain-general,

eleven individuals were to succeed him each in his turn. Was not

this an encouragement given to assassination?

Scarcely was the fleet out of sight of land, when discontent

appeared. The rumour spread that the captain-general was not equal

to his task; then as they saw that these calumnies did not affect

him, they pretended that the flotilla was already short of

provisions. The mutiny broke out as soon as land was reached, but

Cabot was not the man to allow himself to be annihilated by it; he

had suffered too much from Sir Thomas Pert's cowardice to bear such

an insult. In order to nip the evil in the bud, he had the mutinous

captains seized, and notwithstanding their reputation and the

brilliancy of their past services, he made them get into a boat, and

abandoned them on the shore. Four months afterwards they had the

good luck to be picked up by a Portuguese expedition, which seems to

have had orders to thwart the plans of Cabot.

The Venetian navigator then penetrated into the Rio de la Plata, the

exploration of which had been commenced by his predecessor the

Pilot-major de Solis. The expedition was not then composed of more

than two vessels, one having been lost during the voyage. Cabot

sailed up the Argent River, and discovered an island which he called

Francis Gabriel, and upon which he built the fort of San Salvador,

entrusting the command of it to Antonio de Grajeda. Cabot had the

keel removed from one of his caravels, and with it, being towed by

his small boats, entered the Parana, built a new fort at the

confluence of the Carcarama and Terceiro, and after having thus

secured his line of retreat he pursued the course of these rivers

farther into the interior. Arriving at the confluence of the Parana

and Paraguay, he followed the second, the direction of which agreed

best with his project of reaching the region of the west where

silver was to be obtained. But it was not long before the aspect of

the country changed, and the attitude of the inhabitants altered

also. Until now, they had collected in crowds, astonished at the

sight of the vessels; but upon the cultivated shores of the Paraguay

they courageously opposed the strangers' landing, and three

Spaniards having tried to knock down the fruit from a palm-tree, a

struggle took place, in which 300 natives lost their lives. This

victory had disabled twenty-five Spaniards. It was too much for

Cabot, who rapidly removed his wounded to the fort San Spirito and

retired, still presenting a bold front to the enemy.

Cabot had already sent two of his companions to the Emperor, to

acquaint him with the attempt at revolt of the captains, to explain

to him the motives which obliged him to modify the course marked out

for his voyage, and to request aid from him, both in men and

provisions. The answer arrived at last. The Emperor approved of what

Cabot had done, and ordered him to colonize the country in which he

had just made a settlement, but did not send him either one man or a

single maravedi. Cabot tried to procure the resources which he

needed in the country, and caused some attempts at cultivation to be

commenced. At the same time, to keep his troops in exercise, he

reduced the neighbouring nations to obedience, had some forts built,

and again sailing up the Paraguay he reached Potosi, and the

water-courses of the Andes which feed the basin of the Atlantic. At

last he prepared to enter Peru, from whence came the gold and silver

which he had seen in the possession of the natives; but it needed

more troops than he could muster, to attempt the conquest of this

vast region. The Emperor, however, was quite unable to send him any.

His European wars absorbed all his resources, the Cortez refused to

vote new subsidies and the Moluccas had just been pledged to

Portugal. In this state of affairs, after having occupied the

country for five years, and waited all this time for the assistance

which never came, Cabot decided to evacuate a part of his

settlements, and he returned with some of his people to Spain. The

rest, amounting to 120, men who were left to guard the fort of San

Spirito, after many vicissitudes which cannot be related here,

perished by the hands of the Indians, or were obliged to take refuge

in the Portuguese settlements on the coast of Brazil. It is to the

horses imported by Cabot that is due the wonderful race of wild

horses which may be seen in large troops on the pampas of La Plata

at the present day; this was the only result of the expedition.

Some time after his return to Spain, Cabot resigned his office, and

went to Bristol, where he settled about 1548, that is to say at the

beginning of the reign of Edward VI. What were the motives of this

fresh change? Was Cabot discontented at having been left to his own

resources during his expedition? Was he hurt at the manner in which

his services were recompensed? It is impossible to say. But Charles

V. took advantage of Cabot's departure to deprive him of his pension,

which Edward VI. hastened to replace, causing him to receive 250

marks annually, about 116_l._ and a fraction, which was a

considerable sum for that period.

The post which Cabot occupied in England seems to be best expressed

by the name of Intendant of the Navy; under the authority of the

king and council, he appears to have superintended all maritime

affairs. He issues licences, he examines pilots, he frames

instructions, he draws maps, a varied and complicated function for

which he possessed the rare gift of both practical and theoretical

knowledge. At the same time he instructed the young king in

cosmography, explained to him the variation of the compass, and was

successful in interesting him in nautical matters, and in the glory

resulting from maritime discoveries. It was a high and almost unique

situation. Cabot used it to put into execution a project which he

had long cherished.

At this period, we may almost say there was no trade in England. All

commerce was in the hands of the Hanseatic towns, Antwerp, Hamburg,

Bremen, &c. These companies of merchants had, on various occasions,

obtained considerable reductions in import duties, and had ended by

monopolizing the English trade. Cabot held that Englishmen possessed

as good qualifications as these merchants for becoming manufacturers,

and that the already powerful navy which England possessed might

assist marvellously in the export of the products of the soil and of

the manufactures. What was the use of having recourse to strangers

when people could do their own business? If they had been unable up

to this time to reach Cathay and India by the north-west, might they

not endeavour to reach it by the north-east. And if they did not

succeed, would they not find in this direction more commercial, and

more civilized people than the miserable Esquimaux on the coast of

Labrador and Newfoundland?

Cabot assembled some leading London merchants, laid his projects

before them, and formed them into an association, of which on the

14th of December, 1551, he was named president for life. At the same

time he exerted himself most vigorously with the king, and having

made him understand the wrong which the monopoly enjoyed by

strangers did to his own subjects, he obtained its abolition on the

23rd of February, 1551, and inaugurated the practice of free trade.

The Association of English Merchants, under the name of "Merchant

Adventurers," hastened to have some vessels built, adapted to the

difficulties to be encountered in the navigation of the Arctic

regions. The first improvement which the English marine owed to

Cabot was the sheathing of the keels, which he had seen done in

Spain, but which had not hitherto been practised in England.

A flotilla of three vessels was assembled at Deptford. They were the

_Buona-Speranza_, of which the command was given to Sir Hugh

Willoughby, a brave gentleman who had earned a high reputation in

war; the _Buona-Confidencia_, Captain Cornil Durforth; and the

_Bonaventure_, Captain Richard Chancellor, a clever sailor, and a

particular friend of Cabot's; he received the title of pilot-major.

The sailing-master of the _Bonaventure_ was Stephen Burrough, an

accomplished mariner, who was destined to make numerous voyages in

the North seas, and later to become pilot in chief for England.

Although age and his important duties prevented Cabot from placing

himself at the head of the expedition, he wished at least, to

preside over all the details of the equipment. He himself wrote out

the instructions, which have been preserved, and which prove the

prudence and skill of this distinguished navigator. He there

recommends the use of the log-line, an instrument intended to

measure the speed of the vessel, and he desires that the journal of

the events happening at sea may be kept with regularity, and that

all information as to the character, manners, habits, and resources

of the people visited, and the productions of the country, may be

recorded in writing. The sailors were to offer no violence to the

natives, but to act towards them with courtesy. All blasphemy and

swearing was to be punished with severity, and also drunkenness. The

religious exercises are prescribed, prayers are to be said morning

and evening, and the Holy Scriptures are to be read once in the day.

Cabot ends by recommending union and concord above all, and reminds

the captains of the greatness of their enterprise, and the honour

which they might hope to gain; finally he promises them to add his

prayers to theirs for the success of their common work.

The squadron set sail on the 20th of May, 1558, in presence of the

court assembled at Greenwich, amid an immense concourse of people,

after fetes and rejoicings, at which the king, who was ill, could

not be present. Near the Loffoden Islands, on the coast of Norway at

the bearing of Wardhous, the squadron was separated from the

_Bonaventure_. Carried away by the storm, Willoughby's two vessels

touched, without doubt, at Nova Zembla, and were forced by the ice

to return southwards. On the 18th of September, they entered the

port formed by the mouth of the River Arzina in East Lapland. Some

time afterwards, the _Buona-Confidencia_, separated from Willoughby

by a fresh tempest, returned to England. As to the latter, some

Russian fishermen found his vessel the following year, in the midst

of the ice. The whole crew had died of cold. This, at least, is what

we are led to suppose from the journal kept by the unfortunate

Willoughby up to the month of January, 1554.

Chancellor, after having waited in vain for his two consorts at the

rendezvous which had been agreed upon in case of separation, thought

they must have outsailed him, and rounding the North Cape, he

entered a vast gulf which was none other than the White Sea; he then

landed at the mouth of the Dwina, near the monastery of St. Nicholas,

on the spot upon which the town of Archangel was soon to stand. The

inhabitants of these desolate places told him that the country was

under the dominion of the Grand Duke of Russia. Chancellor resolved

at once to go to Moscow, in spite of the enormous distance which

separated him from it. The Czar then on the throne was Ivan IV.

Wassiliewitch, called the Terrible. For some time before this, the

Russians had shaken off the Tartar yoke, and Ivan had united all the

petty rival principalities in one body politic, of which the power

was already becoming considerable. The situation of Russia,

exclusively continental, far from any frequented sea, isolated from

the rest of Europe, of which it did not yet form part, so much were

its habits and manners still Asiatic, promised success to Chancellor.

[Illustration: Chancellor received by the Czar.]

The Czar, who up to this time, had not been able to procure European

merchandise, except by way of Poland, and who wished to gain access

to the German seas, saw with pleasure the attempts of the English to

establish a trade which would be beneficial to both parties. He not

only received Chancellor courteously, but he made him most

advantageous offers, granted him great privileges and encouraged him,

by the kindness of his reception, to repeat his voyage. Chancellor

sold his merchandise to great advantage, and after taking on board

another cargo of furs, of seal and whale oils, copper, and other

products, returned to England, carrying a letter from the Czar. The

advantages which the Company of Merchant Adventurers had derived

from this first voyage, encouraged them to attempt a second. So

Chancellor the following year, made a fresh voyage to Archangel, and

took two of the Company's agents to Russia, who concluded an

advantageous treaty with the Czar. Then he set out again for England

with an ambassador and his suite, sent by Ivan to Great Britain. Of

the four vessels which composed the flotilla, one was lost on the

coast of Norway, another as it left Drontheim, and the _Bonaventure_,

on board of which were Chancellor and the ambassador, foundered in

the Bay of Pitsligo, on the east coast of Scotland on the 10th of

November, 1556. Chancellor was drowned in the wreck, being less

fortunate than the Muscovite ambassador, who had the good luck to

escape; but the presents and merchandise which he was carrying to

England were lost.

[Illustration: Wreck of the _Bonaventure_.]

Such was the commencement of the Anglo-Russian Company. A goodly

number of expeditions succeeded each other in those parts, but it

would be beside our purpose to give an account of them. Let us now

return to Cabot.

It was in 1554 that Queen Mary of England was married to Philip II.,

King of Spain. When the latter came to England he showed himself

very ill-disposed towards Cabot, who had abandoned the service of

Spain, and who, at this very moment was procuring for England a

commerce which would soon immensely increase the maritime power of

an already formidable country. Thus we are not surprised to learn

that eight days after the landing of the King of Spain, Cabot was

forced to resign his office and his pension, both of which had been

bestowed upon him for life by Edward VI. Worthington was nominated

in his place. Mr. Nicholls thinks that this dishonourable man, who

had had some quarrels with the law, had a secret mission to seize

among Cabot's plans, maps, instructions, and projects, those which

could be of use to Spain. The fact is that all these documents are

now lost, at least unless they may yet be discovered among the

archives of Simancas.

At the end of this period, history completely loses sight of the old

mariner. The same mystery which hangs over his birth, also envelopes

the place and date of his death. His immense discoveries, his

cosmographical works, his study of the variations of the magnetic

needle, his wisdom, his humane disposition, and his honourable

conduct, place Sebastian Cabot in the foremost rank among

discoverers. A figure lost in the shadow and vagueness of legends

until our own day, Cabot owes it to his biographers, to Biddle,

D'Avezac, and Nicholls, that he is now better known, more highly

appreciated, and for the first time really placed in the light.

II.

POLAR EXPEDITIONS.

John Verrazzano--Jacques Cartier and his three voyages to Canada--

The town of Hochelaga--Tobacco--The scurvy--Voyage of Roberval--

Martin Frobisher and his voyages--John Davis--Barentz and

Heemskerke--Spitzbergen--Winter season at Nova Zembla--Return to

Europe--Relics of the Expedition.

From 1492 to 1524, France had stood aloof, officially at least, from

enterprises of discovery and colonization. But Francis I. could not

look on quietly while the power of his rival Charles V. received a

large addition by the conquest of Mexico. He therefore ordered John

Verrazzano, a Venetian who was in his service, to make a voyage of

exploration. We will pause here for a short time, although the

various places may have already been visited on several occasions,

because for the first time the banner of France floats over the

shores of the New World. This exploration besides, was to prepare

the way for those of Jacques Cartier and of Champlain in Canada, as

well as for the unlucky experiments in colonization of Jean Ribaut,

and of Laudonniere, the sanguinary voyage of reprisals of Gourgues,

and Villegagnon's attempt at a settlement in Brazil.

We possess no biographical details with regard to Verrazzano. Under

what circumstances did he enter the service of France? What was his

title to the command of such an expedition? Nothing is known of the

Venetian traveller, for all we possess of his writings is the

Italian translation of his report to Francis I. published in the

collection of Ramusio. The French translation of this Italian

translation exists in an abridged form in Lescarbot's work on New

France and in the _Histoire des Voyages_. For our very rapid epitome

we shall make use of the Italian text of Ramusio, except in some

passages where Lescarbot's translation has appeared to give an idea

of the rich, original, and marvellously modulated language of the

sixteenth century.

[Illustration: Map of Newfoundland and of the Mouth of the St.

Lawrence.]

Having set out with four vessels to make discoveries in the ocean,

says Verrazzano in a letter written from Dieppe to Francis I. on the

8th July, 1524, he was forced by a storm to take refuge in Brittany

with two of his vessels, the _Dauphine_ and the _Normande_, there to

repair damages. Thence he set sail for the coast of Spain, where he

seems to have given chase to some Spanish vessels. We see him leave

with the _Dauphine_ alone on the 17th of January, 1524, a small

inhabited island in the neighbourhood of Madeira, and launch himself

upon the ocean with a crew of fifty men, well furnished with

provisions and ammunition for an eight months' voyage.

Twenty-five days later he has made 1500 miles to the west, when he

is assailed by a fearful storm; and twenty-five days afterwards,

that is to say on the 8th or 9th of March, having made about 1200

miles, he discovers land at 30 degrees north latitude, which he

thought had never been previously explored. "When we arrived, it

seemed to us to be very low, but on approaching within a quarter of

a league we saw by the great fires which were lighted along the

harbours and borders of the sea, that it was inhabited, and in

taking trouble to find a harbour in which to land and make

acquaintance with the country, we sailed more than 150 miles in vain,

so that seeing the coast trended ever southwards, we decided to turn

back again." The Frenchmen finding a favourable landing-place,

perceived a number of natives who came towards them, but who fled

away when they saw them land. Soon recalled by the friendly signs

and demonstrations of the French, they showed great surprise at

their clothes, their faces, and the whiteness of their skin. The

natives were entirely naked, except that the middle of the body was

covered with sable-skins, hung from a narrow girdle of prettily

woven grasses, and ornamented with tails of other animals, which

fell to their knees. Some wore crowns of birds' feathers. "They have

brown skins," says the narrative, "and are exactly like the

Saracens; their hair is black, not very long, and tied at the back

of the head in the form of a small tail. Their limbs are well

proportioned, they are of middle height, although a little taller

than ourselves, and have no other defect beyond their faces being

rather broad; they are not strong, but they are agile, and some of

the greatest and quickest runners in the world." It was impossible

for Verrazzano to collect any details about the manners and mode of

life of these people, on account of the short time that he remained

among them. The shore at this place was composed of fine sand

interspersed here and there with little sandy hillocks, behind which

were scattered "groves and very thick forests which were wonderfully

pleasant to look upon." There were in this country, as far as we

could judge, abundance of stags, fallow deer and hares, numerous

lakes, and streams of sparkling water, as well as a quantity of

birds.

This land lies at 34 degrees. It is therefore the part of the United

States which now goes by the name of Carolina. The air there is pure

and salubrious, the climate temperate, the sea is entirely without

rocks, and in spite of the want of harbours it is not unfavourable

for navigators.

During the whole month of March the French sailed along the coast,

which seemed to them to be inhabited by a numerous population. The

want of water forced them to land several times, and they perceived

that the savages were most pleased with mirrors, bells, knives, and

sheets of paper. One day they sent a long-boat ashore with

twenty-five men in it. A young sailor jumped into the water "because

he could not land on account of the waves and currents, in order to

give some small articles to these people, and having thrown them to

them from a distance because he was distrustful of the natives, he

was cast violently on shore by the waves. The Indians seeing him in

this condition, take him and carry him far away from the sea, to the

great dismay of the poor sailor, who expected they were about to

sacrifice him. Having placed him at the foot of a little hill, in

the full blaze of the sun, they stripped him quite naked and

wondered at the whiteness of his skin; then lighting a large fire

they made him come to it and recover his strength, and it was then

that the poor young man as well as those who were in the boat,

thought that the Indians were about to massacre and immolate him,

roasting his flesh in this large brazier and then eating their

victim, as do the cannibals. But it happened quite differently; for

having shown a desire to return to the boat they reconducted him to

the edge of the sea, and having kissed him very lovingly, they

retired to a hill to see him re-enter the boat."

Continuing to follow the shore northwards for more than 150 miles,

the Frenchmen reached a land which seemed to them more beautiful,

being covered with thick woods. Into these forests, twenty men

penetrated for more than six miles and only returned to the shore

from the fear of losing themselves. In this walk, having met two

women, one young and the other old, with some children, they seized

one of the latter who might be about eight years old, with the idea

of taking him away to France; but they could not do the same with

the young woman, who began to cry with all her might, calling for

aid from her compatriots, who were hidden in the wood. In this place

the savages were whiter than any of those hitherto met with; they

snared birds and used a bow of very hard wood, and arrows tipped

with fish-bones. Their canoes, twenty feet long and four feet wide,

were hollowed by fire out of a trunk of a tree. Wild vines abounded

and climbed over the trees in long festoons as they do in Lombardy.

With a little cultivation they would no doubt produce excellent

wine--"for the fruit is sweet and pleasant like ours, and we thought

that the natives were not insensible to it, for in all directions

where these vines grew, they had taken care to cut away the branches

of the surrounding trees so that the fruit might ripen." Wild roses,

lilies, violets, and all kinds of odoriferous plants and flowers,

new to the Europeans, carpeted the ground everywhere, and filled the

air with sweet perfumes.

[Illustration: Canadian Landscape.]

After remaining for three days in this enchanting place, the

Frenchmen continued to follow the coast northwards, sailing by day

and casting anchor at night. As the land trended towards the east,

they went 150 miles further in that direction, and discovered an

island of triangular shape about thirty miles distant from the

continent, similar in size to the Island of Rhodes, and upon which

they bestowed the name of the mother of Francis I., Louisa of Savoy.

Then they reached another island forty-five miles off, which

possessed a magnificent harbour and of which the inhabitants came in

crowds to visit the strange vessels. Two kings, especially, were of

fine stature and great beauty. They were dressed in deer-skins, with

the head bare, the hair carried back and tied in a tuft, and they

wore on the neck a large chain ornamented with coloured stones. This

was the most remarkable nation which they had until now met with.

"The women are graceful," says the narrative published by Ramusio.

"Some wore the skins of the lynx on their arms; their head was

ornamented with their plaited hair and long plaits hung down on both

sides of the chest; others had headdresses which recalled those of

the Egyptian and Syrian women; only the elderly women, and those who

were married, wore pendants in their ears of worked copper." This

land is situated on the same parallel as Rome, in 41 degrees 40

minutes, but its climate is much colder.

[Illustration: Two Canadian Kings.]

On the 5th of May, Verrazzano left this port and sailed along the

sea-shore for 450 miles. At last he reached a country of which the

inhabitants resembled but little any of those whom he had hitherto

met with. They were so wild that it was impossible to carry on any

trade with them, or any sustained intercourse. What they appeared to

esteem above everything else were fish-hooks, knives, and all

articles in metal, attaching no value to all the trifling baubles

which up to this time had served for barter. Twenty-five armed men

landed and advanced from four to six miles into the interior of the

country. They were received by the natives with flights of arrows,

after which the latter retired into the immense forests which

appeared to cover the whole country.

One hundred and fifty miles further on spreads out a vast

archipelago composed of thirty-two islands, all near the land,

separated by narrow canals, which reminded the Venetian navigator of

the archipelagos which in the Adriatic border the coasts of

Sclavonia and Dalmatia. At length, 450 miles further on, in latitude

50 degrees, the French came to lands which had been previously

discovered by the Bretons. Finding themselves then short of

provisions, and having reconnoitred the coast of America for a

distance of 2100 miles, they returned to France, and disembarked

safely at Dieppe in the month of July, 1524.

Some historians relate that Verrazzano was made prisoner by the

savages who inhabit the coast of Labrador, and was eaten by them. A

fact which is simply impossible, since he addressed from Dieppe to

Francis I. the account of his voyage which we have just abridged.

Besides, the Indians of these regions were not anthropophagi.

Certain authors, but we have not been able to discover on the

authority of what documents, nor under what circumstances this

happened, relate that Verrazzano having fallen into the power of the

Spaniards, had been taken to Spain and there hanged. It is wiser to

admit that we know nothing certain about Verrazzano, and that we are

totally ignorant what rewards his long voyage procured for him.

Perhaps when some learned man shall have looked through our archives

(of which the abstract and inventory are far from being finished),

he may recover some new documents; but for the present we must

confine ourselves to the narrative of Ramusio.

[Illustration: Jacques Cartier. _From an old print_.]

Ten years later a captain of St. Malo, named Jacques Cartier, born

on the 21st of December, 1484, conceived the project of establishing

a colony in the northern part of America. Being favourably received

by Admiral Philippe de Chabot, and by Francis I., who asked to see

the clause in Adam's will which disinherited him of the New World in

favour of the kings of Spain and Portugal, Cartier left St. Malo

with two vessels on the 20th of April, 1534. The vessel which

carried him weighed only sixty tons and carried a crew of sixty-one

men. At the end of only twenty days, so favourable was the voyage,

Cartier discovered Newfoundland at Cape Bonavista. He then went

northwards as far as Bird Island, which he found surrounded by ice,

all broken up and melting, but on which he was able, nevertheless,

to lay in a stock of five or six tons of guillemots, puffins, and

penguins, without reckoning those which were eaten fresh. He then

explored all the coast of the island, which at this time bore a

number of Breton names, thus proving the assiduous manner in which

the French frequented these shores. Then penetrating into the Strait

of Belle-Isle, which separates the continent from the Island of

Newfoundland, Cartier arrived at the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Along the

whole of this coast the harbours are excellent: "If the land only

corresponded to the goodness of the harbours," says the St. Malo

sailor, "it would be a great blessing; but one ought not to call it

_land_; it is rather pebbles and savage rocks and places fit for

wild beasts: as for all the land towards the north, I never saw as

much earth there as would fill a tumbrel." After having coasted

along the continent, Cartier was cast by a tempest upon the west

coast of Newfoundland, where he explored Cape Royal and Cape Milk,

the Columba Islands, Cape St. John, the Magdalen Islands, and the

Bay of Miramichi on the continent. In this place he had some

intercourse with the savages, who showed "a great and marvellous

eagerness in the acquisition of iron tools and other things, always

dancing and performing various ceremonies, among others throwing

sea-water on their heads with their hands; so well did they receive

us that they gave us all that they had, keeping back nothing." The

next day the number of the savages was even greater, and our French

sailors made an ample harvest of furs and skins of animals.

After having explored the Bay of Chaleurs, Cartier arrived at the

entrance of the estuary of the St. Lawrence, where he saw some

natives, who possessed neither the appearance nor the language of

the first. "The latter may truly be called savages, for no poorer

people can be found in the world, and I think that all put together,

excepting their boats and their nets, they could not have had the

value of two pence half-penny. They have the head entirely shaved,

with the exception of a lock of hair on the very top, which they

allow to grow as long as a horse's tail, and which they fasten upon

the head with some small copper needles. Their only dwelling is

underneath their boats, which they overturn and then stretch

themselves on the ground beneath them without any covering."

After having planted a large cross in this place, Jacques Cartier

obtained the chief's permission to take away with him two of his

children, whom he was to bring back again on his next voyage. Then

he set out again for France, and landed at St. Malo on the 5th of

September, 1534.

The following year, on the 19th of May, Cartier left St. Malo at the

head of a fleet composed of three vessels called the _Grande_ and

the _Petite Hermine_ and the _Emerillon_ on board of which some

gentlemen of high rank had taken passages, among whom may be named

Charles de la Pommeraye, and Claude de Pont-Briant, son of the Sieur

de Moncevelles and cup-bearer to the Dauphin.

Very soon the squadron was dispersed by the storm, and could not be

brought together again until it reached Newfoundland. After having

landed at Bird Island, in Whitesand harbour, which is in Castle Bay,

Cartier penetrated into the Bay of St. Lawrence. He discovered there

the Island of Natiscotec which we call Anticosti, and entered a

great river called Hochelaga, which leads to Canada. On the banks of

this river lies the country called Saguenay, whence comes the red

copper, to which the two savages whom he had taken on his first

voyage gave the name of _caquetdaze_. But before entering the St.

Lawrence, Cartier wished to explore the whole gulf, to see if no

passage existed to the north. He afterwards returned to the Bay of

the Seven Islands, went up the river, and soon reached the river

Saguenay, which falls into the St. Lawrence on its northern bank. A

little further on, after passing by fourteen islands, he entered the

Canadian territories, which no traveller before him had ever visited.

"The next day the lord of Canada, called Donnacona, with twelve

boats and accompanied by sixteen men, approached the ships. When

abreast of the smallest of our vessels he began to make a palaver or

preachment in their fashion, while moving his body and limbs in a

marvellous manner, which is a sign of joy and confidence, and when

he arrived at the flag-ship where were the two Indians who had been

brought back from France, the said chief spoke to them and they to

him. And they began to relate to him what they had seen in France

and the good treatment which they had received, at which the said

chief was very joyful, and begged the captain to give him his arms

that he might kiss and embrace them, which is their mode of welcome

in this country. The country of Stadacone, or St. Charles, is

fertile and full of very fine trees of the same nature and kind as

in France, such as oaks, elms, plum-trees, yews, cedars, vines,

hawthorns--which bear fruit as large as damsons--and other trees;

beneath them grows hemp as good as that of France." Cartier

succeeded afterwards in reaching with his boats and his galleon a

place which is the Richelieu of the present day, next, a great lake

formed by the river--St. Peter's Lake--and at last he arrived at

Hochelaga or Montreal, which is 630 miles from the mouth of the St.

Lawrence. In this place are "ploughed lands and large and beautiful

plains full of the corn of the country, which is like the millet of

Brazil, as large or larger than peas, on which they live as we do on

wheat. And among these plains is placed and seated the said town of

Hochelaga near to and joining on to some high ground which is around

the town; and which is well cultivated and quite small; from the top

of it one can see very far. We named this mountain the _Mount

Royal_."