The Dutch were not slow in perceiving the weakness and decadence of

the Portuguese power in Asia. They felt with how much ease a clever

and prudent nation might in a short time become possessed of the

whole commerce of the extreme East. After a considerable number of

private expeditions and voyages of reconnaissance they had founded

in 1602 that celebrated Company of the Indies which was destined to

raise to so high a pitch the wealth and prosperity of the metropolis.

Equally in its strife with the Portuguese as in its dealing with the

natives, the Company pursued a very skilful policy of moderation.

Far from founding colonies, or repairing and occupying the

fortresses which they took from the Portuguese, the Dutch bore

themselves as simple traders, exclusively occupied with their

commerce. They avoided building any fortified factory, except at the

intersection of the great commercial roads. Thus they were able in a

short time to seize all the carrying trade between India, China,

Japan, and Oceania. The one fault committed by the all-powerful

Company was the concentrating in its own hands a monopoly of the

trade in spices. It drove away the foreigners who had settled in the

Moluccas or in the Islands of Sunda, or who came thither to obtain a

cargo of spices; it even went the length, in order to raise the

price of this valuable commodity, of proscribing the cultivation of

certain species in a large number of islands, and of forbidding,

under pain of death, the exportation and sale of seeds and cuttings

of the spice-producing trees. In a few years the Dutch were

established in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Moluccas, and at the Cape

of Good Hope, harbours the best placed for ships returning to Europe.

It was at this time that a rich merchant of Amsterdam, Jacob Lemaire,

in concert with a skilful mariner, named Wilhem Cornelis Schouten,

conceived a project for reaching the Indies by a new route. The

Dutch States-General had in fact forbidden any subject of the United

Provinces, not in the pay of the Company of the Indies, from going

to the Spice Islands by way of the Cape of Good Hope or of the

Strait of Magellan. Schouten, according to some, Lemaire, according

to others, had formed the idea of eluding this interdict by seeking

a passage to the south of Magellan's Strait. This much is certain,

that Lemaire bore one half of the expense of the expedition, while

Schouten, by the aid of several merchants whose names have been

handed down to us, and who filled the chief offices in the town of

Hoorn, provided the other half. They fitted out the _Concorde_, a

vessel of 360 tons, and a yacht, carrying together a crew of

sixty-five men, and twenty-nine cannon. This was certainly an

equipment but little in accordance with the magnitude of the

enterprise. But Schouten was a skilful mariner, the crew had been

carefully chosen, and the vessels were abundantly furnished with

provisions and spare rigging. Lemaire was commissioner, and Schouten

the captain of the ship. The destination was kept secret, and

officers and crew entered into an unlimited engagement to go

wherever they might be led. On the 25th June, 1615, eleven days

after quitting the Texel, and when there was no longer anything to

be feared from indiscretion, the crews were assembled to listen to

the reading of an order which ran as follows: "The two vessels would

seek another passage than that of Magellan, by which to enter the

South Sea, and to discover there certain southern countries, in the

hope of obtaining enormous profits from them, and if heaven should

not favour this design, they would repair by means of the same sea

to the East Indies." This declaration was received with enthusiasm

by the whole crew, who were animated, like all Dutchmen of that

period, with a love for great discoveries.

The route then usually pursued for reaching South America--as may

perhaps have been already observed--followed the African coasts as

far as below the equator. The _Concorde_ did not try to deviate from

it; she reached the shores of Brazil, Patagonia, and Port Desire, at

300 miles to the north of the Strait of Magellan, but was for

several days hindered by storms from entering the harbour. The yacht

even remained for the space of one whole tide, aground and lying on

her side, but high water set her afloat again; only for a short time

however, for whilst some repairs were being done to her keel, her

rigging took fire, and she was consumed in spite of the energetic

efforts of the two crews. On the 13th January, 1616, Lemaire and

Schouten arrived at the Sebaldine Islands, discovered by Sebald de

Weerdt, and followed the coast of Tierra del Fuego at a short

distance from land. The coast ran east-quarter-south-east, and was

skirted by high mountains covered with snow. On the 24th of January

at mid-day, they sighted its extreme point, but eastward stretched

some more land, which also appeared to be of great elevation. The

distance between these two islands, according to the general opinion,

appeared to be about twenty-four miles, and Schouten entered the

strait which divided them. It was so encumbered with whales that the

ship was obliged to tack more than once to avoid them. The island to

the east received the name of Staten Island, and that to the west

the name of Maurice of Nassau.

[Illustration: The sea was so encumbered with whales.]

Twenty-four hours after entering this strait, which received the

name of Lemaire, the ship emerged from it, and to an archipelago of

small islands situated to starboard was given the name of Barneveldt,

in honour of the Grand Pensionary of Holland. In 58 degrees Lemaire

doubled Cape Horn--so named in remembrance of the town where the

expedition had been fitted out--and entered the South Sea. Lemaire

afterwards went northwards as far as the parallel of the Juan

Fernandez Islands, where he judged it wise to stop, in order to

recruit his men who were suffering from scurvy. As Magellan had done,

Lemaire and Schouten passed without perceiving them amongst the

principal Polynesian archipelagos, and cast anchor on the 10th April,

at the Island of Dogs, where it was only possible to procure a

little fresh water and some herbs. They hoped to reach the Solomon

Islands, but in the north the Dangerous Archipelago was entered, in

which were discovered Waterland Island--so named on account of its

containing a great lake--and Fly Island, because a cloud of these

insects settled upon the vessel, and it was impossible to get rid of

them until at the end of four days there was a change of wind.

Afterwards Lemaire crossed the Friendly Archipelago, and entered

that of the Navigators, or of Samoa, of which four small islands

still retain the names which were then given to them: Goed Hoep,

Cocoa, Horn, and Traitors' Islands. The inhabitants of these parts

showed themselves extremely addicted to stealing; they tried to draw

out the bolts from the ship and to break the chains. Scurvy

continued to prevail among the crew, and it was therefore a great

boon to receive from the king a present of a black boar and some

fruits. The sovereign, who was named Latou, speedily arrived in a

large canoe with sails, in shape like the Dutch sledges (_trainaux_),

escorted by a flotilla of five and twenty boats. The king did not

venture himself to go on board the _Concorde_, but his son was of a

bolder spirit, and inquired the reason of everything he saw with the

most lively curiosity. The next day the number of canoes was greatly

augmented, and the Dutch perceived by certain indications that an

attack was impending. Accordingly, a shower of stones falls on a

sudden upon the ship, the canoes approach nearer, become annoying,

and the Dutch to free themselves from them are forced to resort to a

discharge of musketry. This island was rightly named Traitors'

Island.

It was now the 18th of May, and Lemaire ordered the course to be

changed, that the Moluccas might be reached by the north of New

Guinea. He probably passed within sight of the Solomon Archipelago,

the Admiralty Islands, and the Thousand Islands (Mille Iles),

coasting afterwards along New Guinea from 143 degrees to Geelwink

Bay. He frequently landed, and gave names to a number of points: the

twenty-five islands which form a part of the Admiralty Archipelago,

the High Corner, the High Mountain (Hoogberg)--which seems to

correspond to a portion of the neighbouring coast of Kornelis-Kinerz

Bay--Moa and Arimoa, two islands again seen later on by Tasman, the

island to which was given the name of Schouten, but which is now

called Mysore and which must not be confounded with some other

Schouten Islands situated upon the Coast of Guinea but much farther

to the west, and finally the Cape Goede-Hoep, which appears to be

Cape Saavedra at the western extremity of Mysore. After sighting the

country of Papua, Schouten and Lemaire reached Gilolo, one of the

Moluccas, where they received an eager welcome from their

compatriots.

When they were thoroughly rested from their fatigues and cured of

scurvy, the Dutch went to Batavia, arriving there on the 23rd

October, 1616, only thirteen months after quitting the Texel, and

having lost only thirteen men during the long voyage. But the

Company of the Indies did not at all understand their privileges

being infringed upon, and a possibility discovered of reaching the

colonies by a way not foreseen in the letters patent which had been

granted to the Company at the time of its establishment. The

Governor caused the _Concorde_ to be seized, and arrested her

officers and sailors, whom he sent off to Holland, there to be tried.

Poor Lemaire, who had expected a totally different recompense for

his toils and fatigues, and for the discoveries which he had made,

could not bear up under the blow which had fallen so unexpectedly

upon him; he fell ill of grief and died in the latitude of the

island of Mauritius. As for Schouten, he appears not to have been

molested upon his return to his own country, and to have made

several voyages to the Indies, which were not distinguished by any

fresh discovery. He was returning to Europe in 1625, when he was

forced by bad weather to enter Antongil Bay, upon the east coast of

Madagascar, where he died.

Such was the history of this important expedition, which by means of

Strait Lemaire opened up a shorter and less dangerous route than

that by Magellan's Strait, an expedition signalized by several

discoveries in Oceania, and by a more attentive exploration of

points already seen by Spanish or Portuguese navigators. But it is

often a matter of difficulty to settle with accuracy to which of

these nations the discovery of certain islands, countries, or

archipelagos in the neighbourhood of Australia, may be due.

Since we are speaking of the Dutch, we shall put the chronological

order of discoveries a little on one side, that we may relate as

well as those of Mendana and Quiros, the expeditions of Jan Abel

Tasman.

What was the early history of Tasman, by what concurrence of

circumstances did he embrace the profession of a sailor, by what

means did he acquire the nautical skill and science of which he gave

so many proofs, and which conducted him to his important

discoveries? From ignorance we cannot answer these questions, all we

know of his biography commences with his departure from Batavia on

2nd June, 1639. After passing the Philippines, he would seem during

this first voyage to have visited in company with Matthew Quast the

Bonin Islands, then known by the fantastic title of "the Gold and

Silver Islands."

In a second expedition, composed of two vessels of which he had the

chief command, and which sailed from Batavia on the 14th of August,

1642, he reached the Mauritius on the 5th September, and afterwards

sailed to the south-east, seeking for the Australian Continent. On

the 24th November in latitude 42 degrees 25 minutes south, he

discovered land, to which he gave the name of Van-Diemen, after the

Governor of the Sunda Islands, but which is now with much greater

justice called Tasmania. He anchored there in Fredrik Hendrik Bay,

and ascertained that the country was inhabited, although he could

not see a single native.

After following this coast for a certain time, he sailed eastwards,

with the intention of afterwards making once more for the north, to

reach the Solomon Archipelago. On the 13th December, in latitude 42

degrees 10 minutes, he came in sight of a mountainous country which

he followed towards the north, until the 18th December, when he cast

anchor in a bay; but even the boldest of the savages whom he met

with there, did not approach the ship within a stone's throw. Their

voices were rough, their stature tall, their colour brown inclining

to yellow, and their black hair, which was nearly as long as that of

the Japanese, was worn drawn up to the crown of the head. On the

morrow they summoned courage to go on board one of the vessels and

carry on traffic by means of barter. Tasman, upon seeing these

pacific dispositions, despatched a boat for the purpose of obtaining

a more accurate knowledge of the shore. Of the sailors who manned it,

three were killed without provocation by the natives, while the

others escaped by swimming, and were picked up by the ships' boats,

but by the time they were in readiness to fire upon the assailants,

these had disappeared. The spot where this sad event happened,

received the name of Assassins' (Moordenaars) Bay. Tasman, who felt

convinced that he could not carry on any intercourse with such

fierce people, weighed anchor and sailed up the coast as far as its

extreme point, which he named Cape Maria Van-Diemen, in honour of

his "lady," for a legend states that having had the audacity to

pretend to the hand of the daughter of the governor of the East

Indies, the latter had sent him to sea with two dilapidated ships,

the _Heemskerke_ and the _Zeechen_.

[Illustration: Three were killed by the natives without

provocation.]

The land thus discovered received the name of Staaten Land, soon

changed into that of New Zealand. On the 21st January, 1643, Tasman

discovered the islands of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, upon which he

found a great quantity of pigs, fowls, and fruit. On the 6th

February, the ships entered an archipelago, consisting of a score of

islands, which were called Prince William Islands, and after

sighting Anthong-Java, Tasman followed the coast of New Guinea from

Cape Santa Maria, passed by the various points previously discovered

by Lemaire and Schouten, and anchored off Batavia on the 15th June

following, after a ten months' voyage.

In a second expedition, Tasman, in obedience to his orders dated

1664, was to visit Van Diemen's Land, and to make a careful

examination of the western coast of New Guinea, as far as 17 degrees

south latitude, in order to ascertain whether that island belonged

to the Australian Continent. It does not appear that Tasman carried

out this programme, but the loss of his journals causes complete

uncertainty as to the route which he followed, and the discoveries

which he may have made. From this time there is no record of the

events which marked the close of his career, nor of the place and

date of his death.

From the period of the taking of Malacca by Albuquerque, the

Portuguese conceived that a new world extended to the south of Asia.

Their ideas were soon shared by the Spaniards, and henceforward a

series of voyages were made on the Pacific Ocean, to search for a

southern continent, of which the existence appeared geographically

necessary to counterbalance the immense extent of the lands already

known. Java the Great, designated later by the names of New Holland

and Australia, had been seen by the French perhaps, or as is more

probable by Saavedra, from 1530 to 1540, and it was sought for by a

crowd of navigators, amongst whom we may mention the Portuguese,

Serrao and Meneses, and the Spaniards, Saavedra, Hernando de

Grijalva, Alvarado, and Inigo Ortiz de Retes, who explored the

greater part of the islands to the north of New Guinea, as well as

that great island itself. Afterwards come Mendana, Torres, and

Quiros, upon whose deeds we shall pause a little, on account of the

importance and authenticity of the discoveries which we owe to them.

Alvaro Mendana de Neyra was nephew to the Governor of Lima, Don

Pedro de Castro, who warmly advocated with the home government his

nephew's project of searching for new countries in the Pacific Ocean.

Mendana was one-and-twenty when he took the command of two ships and

one hundred and twenty-five soldiers and sailors. He sailed from

Callao, the port of Lima, on the 19th November, 1567. After sighting

the small Island of Jesus, he discovered on the 7th February between

7 degrees and 8 degrees south latitude, the Island of Santa Isabella,

where the Spaniards built a brigantine, with which they explored the

archipelago of which this island was a part. "The inhabitants," says

the narrative of a companion of Mendana, "are anthropophagi, they

devour those whom they can make their prisoners in war, and even

without being in open hostility, those whom they can succeed in

taking by treachery." One of the chiefs in the island sent to

Mendana as a delicacy, a quarter of a child, but the Spanish

commander caused it to be buried in the presence of the natives, who

appeared much hurt by an act which they could not understand. The

Spaniards explored the Island las Palmas (Palm Island), los

Ramos--so named because it was discovered on Palm Sunday--Galley

Island, and Buena-Vista, of which the inhabitants, under the

appearance of friendship concealed hostile intentions, which were

not long in displaying themselves. The same reception awaited the

Spaniards at the Island San Dimas, at Sesarga, and at Guadalcanar,

upon which ginger was found for the first time. In the return voyage

to Santa Isabella, the Spaniards pursued a course which enabled them

to discover St. George Island, where they found bats as large as

kites. Scarcely had the crew of the brigantine cast anchor in the

harbour of Santa Isabella, than they were obliged again to weigh it,

for the place was so unhealthy that five soldiers died and a great

number of others were taken ill. Mendana stopped at the Island of

Guadalcanar, where out of ten men who had landed to fetch water, one

negro alone escaped from the attacks of the natives, who were

extremely angry at one of their fellows having been carried off by

the Spaniards. The punishment was terrible; twenty men were killed

and a number of houses burnt. Mendana afterwards visited several

islands of the Solomon archipelago, amongst others the Three Maries

and San Juan. Upon the latter island, whilst the ships were being

repaired and calked, several affrays with the natives occurred, in

which some prisoners were made. After this checkered rest, Mendana

again put to sea, and visited the islands of San Christoval, Santa

Catalina, and Santa Anna. But as by this time the number of invalids

was considerable, the provisions and ammunition nearly exhausted,

and the rigging become rotten, the flotilla now set out to return to

Peru. The separation of the flagship, the discovery of certain

islands which it is difficult to identify, and probably of the

Sandwich Islands; violent storms, during which the sails were

carried away; the sickness caused by the insufficiency and

putrefaction of the water and biscuit on board, were all incidents

signalizing this long and trying return voyage, which was ended by

the arrival of the ships at the port of Colima in California after

five months of navigation.

The narrative of Mendana excited no enthusiasm, in spite of the name

of Solomon which he gave to the archipelago discovered by him, to

make it believed that from thence came the treasures of the Jewish

King. Marvellous recitals had no longer any fascination for men

glutted with the riches of Peru. Proofs were what they demanded; the

smallest nugget of gold, or the least grain of silver would have

been more satisfactory to them.

Mendana had twenty-seven years to wait before he was able to

organize another expedition, but then his fleet was a large one, it

being proposed to found a colony in the island of San Christoval

which Alvaro de Mendana had seen during his first voyage. Thus four

ships carrying nearly four hundred people sailed from the port of

Lima on the 11th April, 1595. Amongst those on board may be named

Dona Isabella, wife of Mendana, the three brothers-in-law of the

general, and the pilot Pedro Fernandez Quiros, who later on

distinguished himself as commander-in-chief of another expedition.

The fleet did not finally leave the Peruvian coast, where its

equipment had been completed, until the 16th April. At the end of a

month's navigation, not distinguished by any remarkable incident, an

island was discovered, which according to custom received the name

of the saint whose day it was, and was called Magdalena. Immediately

the fleet was surrounded by a crowd of canoes bearing more than four

hundred Indians, of fine stature and nearly white, and who while

presenting cocoa-nuts and other fruits to the sailors, appeared to

entreat them to disembark. The natives no sooner came on board than

they began to pilfer, and it was necessary to fire a cannon to get

rid of them; a wound which one of the natives received in the fray

soon changed their disposition, and a discharge of musketry was the

reply to the shower of arrows which they let fly from their boats.

Not far from this island three others were discovered, San Pedro,

Dominica, and Santa Christina, and the name of _las Marquezas de

Mendoca_ was given to the group, in honour of the governor of Peru.

So friendly had been the intercourse at the beginning, that an

Indian woman upon seeing the beautiful fair hair of Dona Isabella de

Mendana had begged her by signs to give her a curl of it; but by the

fault of the Spaniards the mutual relations speedily became hostile,

and so continued until the day when the natives, becoming conscious

of the great inferiority of their arms, begged for peace.

On the 5th August the Spanish flotilla again put to sea and made

1200 miles west-north-west. On the 20th August were discovered the

St. Bernard, since called Dangerous Islands, and afterwards Queen

Charlotte's Islands, upon which notwithstanding the scarcity of

provisions, no landing was made. After Solitary Island--a name which

explains its situation--the Santa Cruz archipelago was reached. But

at this time, during a storm, the flagship became separated from the

fleet, and although search was made several times, no tidings of her

were obtained. Fifty canoes, carrying a crowd of natives of a tawny

complexion, or of a lustrous black, immediately approached the ships.

"All had frizzled hair, black, red, or some other colour (for it was

dyed); their teeth also were dyed red; the head was half shaven, the

body was naked, except a small veil of fine linen, the face and the

arms painted black, glittering and striped with various colours; the

neck and limbs loaded with several strings of small beads, of gold,

or of black wood, of fishes' teeth, or of a species of medals made

of mother of pearl, or of pearls." For arms they carried bows,

poisoned arrows with sharp points hardened in the fire, or tipped

with bone and steeped in the juice of a herb, great stones, heavy

wooden swords made of stiff wood, with three harpoon points, each

more than a handbreadth long. Slung over their shoulders they had

haversacks exceedingly well made out of palm leaves, and filled with

biscuits made from certain roots which serve them for food.

[Illustration: Dona Isabella consults the officers.]

At first Mendana thought he recognized in these natives the

inhabitants of the islands he was seeking, but he was quickly

undeceived. The vessels were received with a shower of arrows, which

was the more vexatious because Mendana, seeing that he could not

find the Solomon Islands, had determined to establish his colony in

this archipelago. At this juncture, discord reigned among the

Spaniards; a revolt fomented against the general was almost

immediately suppressed, and the guilty were executed. But these

sorrowful events and the fatigues of the voyage had so completely

undermined the health of the head of the expedition, that he died on

the 17th October, after having had time to indicate his wife as his

successor in the conduct of the enterprise. After the death of

Mendana the hostilities with the natives redoubled, and many of the

Spaniards were so exhausted by sickness and hardships, that a score

of thoroughly determined natives might easily have gained the

mastery over them. To persist in the intention of founding a

settlement under such conditions would have been folly; all agreed

in this, and the anchor was raised on the 18th November. Dona

Isabella de Mendana's project was to go to Manilla, and there to

obtain recruits from amongst the colonists, with whom she would

return to found a settlement. She consulted the officers, who all

gave their approval in writing; and she found in Quiros a devotion

and skill which were speedily to be put to a severe proof. They at

once steered away from New Guinea, in order to avoid being entangled

amongst the numerous archipelagos surrounding it, and also to enable

them sooner to reach the Philippines, which the dilapidated state of

the ships rendered necessary. After passing within sight of several

islands surrounded by reefs of madrepore, upon which the crews

wished to land, a permission which Quiros with great prudence always

refused, after having been separated from one of the ships of the

squadron, which could not or would not follow, the flotilla arrived

at the Ladrone--soon to be called the Marianne--Islands. The

Spaniards went on shore several times to buy some provisions; the

natives did not desire either their silver or gold, but set the

highest value upon iron and all tools made of that metal. The

narrative contains here some details upon the veneration shown by

the natives towards their ancestors, which are curious enough to

warrant our reproducing them verbatim: "They take out the bones from

the bodies of their relations, burn the flesh, and mixing the ashes

with _tuba_, a wine made from the cocoa palm, swallow them. They

weep for the dead every year for a whole week; there are a great

number of female mourners, who are to be hired for the purpose.

Besides that, all the neighbours come to weep in the house of the

deceased; the compliment being returned to them when the turn comes

for the feast to take place at their house. These anniversaries are

much frequented, all those assisting at them being liberally regaled.

They weep all day and drink to intoxication all night. They recite

in the midst of tears, the life and deeds of the dead, beginning

with the moment of his birth, and dealing with the whole course of

his life, recounting his strength, his height, his beauty, in a word,

all that can in any way do him honour. If some amusing action occur

in the recital, the company begin to laugh as if they would split

their sides; then on a sudden they drink and are again drowned in

tears. There are sometimes two hundred persons present at these

absurd anniversaries." When the Spanish crew arrived at the

Philippines, it was scarcely more than a company of skeletons,

emaciated and half dead with hunger. Dona Isabella landed at Manilla

on the 11th February, 1596, under a salute from the guns, and was

solemnly received in the midst of the troops drawn up under arms.

The rest of the crew, fifty having died since the departure from

Santa Cruz, were housed and fed at the public expense, and the women

all found husbands in Manilla, except four or five who embraced the

religious life. As for Dona Isabella, she was escorted back to Peru

some time afterwards by Quiros, who lost no time in submitting to

the viceroy a project for a fresh voyage. But Luis de Velasco, who

had succeeded Mendoza, referred the navigator to the King of Spain

and the Council of the Indies, under the pretext that such a

decision would overstep the limits of his authority. Quiros

therefore went to Spain and thence to Rome, where he received a

kindly welcome from the Pope, who recommended him warmly to Philip

III. At length in 1605, after numberless applications and

solicitations, he was empowered to fit out at Lima the two vessels

which he should judge the most suitable for the investigation of the

Australian continent and for continuing the discoveries of Mendana.

With two ships and one light vessel, Quiros set out from Callao on

the 21st December, 1605. At 3000 miles from Peru he had as yet

discovered no land. In latitude 25 degrees south he observed a group

of small islands belonging to the Dangerous archipelago. These were

the _Convercion de San Pablo_, the _Osnabrugh_ of Wallis, and

_Decena_, so named because it was the tenth island seen. Although

this island was defended by rocks, intercourse was carried on with

the natives, whose dwellings were scattered about amongst palm-trees

on the sea shore. The natives were strong and well proportioned, and

their chief wore on his head a kind of crown made of small black

feathers so fine and supple that they might have been taken for silk.

His fair hair, which descended to the waist, excited the wonder of

the Spaniards, who, not being able to understand how a man with so

tawny coloured a face could have such light yellow hair, "chose to

think that he was married, and that he wore his wife's hair." This

singular colour was only due to the habitual use of powdered lime,

which burns the hair and causes it to turn yellow.

This island to which Quiros gave the name of Sagittaria, is,

according to Fleurieu, Tahiti, one of the principal of the group of

Society Islands. On the succeeding days Quiros sighted several other

islands, upon which he did not land, and to which he gave names

taken from the Calendar, according to a practice which has changed

all the native nomenclature of Oceania into a veritable litany. One

island visited may be especially noticed; it was named the island of

_la Gente Hermosa_ on account of the beauty of its inhabitants, and

of the fair colour and coquetry of its women, who, as the Spaniards

declared, even bore away the palm for grace and attractiveness from

their own fellow-countrywomen of Lima, whose beauty is proverbial.

This island, according to Quiros, was situated upon the same

parallel as Santa Cruz, to which he intended to go. He therefore

sailed westward and reached an island called by the natives Taumaco,

in 10 degrees south latitude and 240 miles east of Santa Cruz. This

must have been one of the Duff Islands, and here Quiros was told

that if he directed his course southwards, he would discover a great

land, of which the inhabitants were whiter than those whom he had

hitherto seen. This information determined him to abandon his scheme

of going to Santa Cruz. He steered in a south-westerly direction,

and after having sighted several small islands, he arrived on the

1st May, 1606, in a bay more than twenty-four miles broad. He gave

to this island the name which it still bears, of Espiritu Santo. It

was one of the New Hebrides group. What events happened during the

stay of the ships here? The narrative is silent upon this subject,

but we know from other sources that the crew mutinied, made Quiros

prisoner, and abandoning the second ship and the brigantine, set out

on the 11th June to return to America, where they arrived on the 3rd

October, 1606, after a nine months' voyage. M. Ed. Charton throws no

light upon this incident. He is silent upon the mutiny of the crew,

and even throws all the blame of the separation upon the commander

of the second vessel, Luis Vaes de Torres, who abandoned his chief

in quitting Espiritu Santo. Now it is known by a letter from Torres

himself to the King of Spain--published by Lord Stanley at the end

of his English edition of Antoine de Morga's _History of the

Philippines_--that he remained "fifteen" days waiting for Quiros in

the Bay of Saint Philip and Saint James. The officers met in council,

resolved to weigh anchor on the 26th June, and to continue the

search for the Australian continent. Hindered by bad weather, which

prevents him from sailing round Espiritu Santo Island, assailed by

the demands of a crew over whom prevails a slight breath of mutiny,

Torres decides to steer to the north-east to reach the Spanish

Islands. In 11 degrees 30 minutes he discovers land, which he

imagines must be the commencement of New Guinea. "All this land is

part of New Guinea," says Torres, "it is peopled by Indians who are

not very white, and who go naked, although their middles are covered

with the bark of trees.... They fight with javelins, bucklers, and

certain clubs of stone, the whole adorned with beautiful feathers.

All along this land there are other inhabited islands. Upon the

whole of this coast there are numerous and vast harbours, with very

broad rivers and great plains. Outside these islands stretch reefs

and shallows; the islands are between these dangers and the mainland,

and a channel runs between. We took possession of these harbours in

your Majesty's name. Having pursued this coast for 900 miles, and

seen our latitude decrease from 2-1/2 degrees until we found

ourselves in 9 degrees, at this point commenced a shoal of from

three to nine fathoms deep, which stretched along the coast to 7-1/2

degrees. Not being able to proceed farther on account of the

numerous shallows and powerful currents which we encountered, we

decided to alter our course to the south-west, by the deep channel

which has been mentioned, as far as about 11 degrees. There is there,

from one end to the other, an archipelago of innumerable islands, by

which I passed. At the end of the eleventh degree the bottom became

deeper. There were some very large islands there, and there appeared

to be more of them towards the south; they were inhabited by a black

population, very robust and quite naked, bearing for arms, strong

and long spears, arrows, and stone clubs roughly fashioned."

Modern geographers are agreed in recognizing in the localities thus

described, that portion of the Australian Coast which ends in York

Peninsula, and the extremity of New Guinea recently visited by

Captain Moresby. It was known that Torres had entered the strait

which has been named after him, and which divides New Guinea from

Cape York; but the very recent exploration of the south-eastern

portion of New Guinea, of which the population has been discovered

to be of a comparatively light colour and differing much from the

Papous, has just furnished an unexpected confirmation of the

discoveries of Quiros. It is for this reason that we have dwelt at

some length upon them, referring for the purpose to a very learned

work of M. E. T. Hamy, which appeared in the _Bulletin de la Societe

de Geographie_.

It behoves us now to say a few words about some travellers who

explored some unfrequented countries, and furnished their

contemporaries with more exact knowledge of a world until then

almost unknown. The first of these travellers is Francois Pyrard, of

Laval. Having embarked in 1601 on board a St. Malo ship to go to the

Indies to trade, he was wrecked in the Maldive Archipelago. These

islets or atolls (detached coral reefs,) to the number of at least

12,000, descend into the Indian Ocean from Cape Comorin as far as

the equator. The worthy Pyrard relates his shipwreck, the flight of

a portion of his companions in captivity in the archipelago, and his

long sojourn of seven years upon the Maldive Islands, a stay

rendered almost agreeable by the pains which he took to acquire the

native language. He had plenty of time to learn the manners, customs,

religion, and industries of the inhabitants, as well as to study the

productions and climate of the country. Thus his narrative is filled

with details of all kinds, and had retained its attractions until

recent years, because travellers do not voluntarily frequent this

unhealthy archipelago, the isolated situation of which had kept away

foreigners and conquerors. Pyrard's narrative therefore, is still

instructive and agreeable reading.

In 1607, a fleet was sent to the Maldives by the King of Bengal, in

order to carry off the 100 or 120 cannon which the Maldive sovereign

owed to the wreck of numerous Portuguese vessels. Pyrard,

notwithstanding all the liberty allowed him, and that he had become

a landholder, was desirous to behold his beloved Brittany once more.

He therefore eagerly embraced this opportunity of quitting the

Archipelago with the three companions who out of the whole crew

alone remained with him. But the eventful travels of Pyrard were not

yet concluded. Taken first to Ceylon, he was carried afterwards to

Bengal, and endeavoured to reach Cochin. Before reaching this town

he was captured by the Portuguese and carried prisoner to Cochin; he

afterwards fell ill and was nursed in the Hospital of Goa which he

only quitted to serve for two years as a soldier, at the end of

which time he was again thrown into prison, and it was not until

1611, that he was able to revisit the good town of Laval. After so

many trials, Pyrard must doubtless have felt the need of repose, and

we are justified in imagining, from the silence of history as to the

close of his life, that he was privileged at length to find

happiness.

While the honest burgess Francois Pyrard, was, so to speak, in spite

of himself, and from having indulged the desire of making a fortune

too rapidly, launched into adventures in which he had to pass much

of his life, circumstances of a different and romantic kind caused

Pietro della Valle to determine upon travelling. Descendant of an

ancient and noble family, he is by turns a soldier of the Pope, and

a sailor chasing Barbary corsairs. Upon his return to Rome he finds

that a rival, profiting by his absence, has taken his place with a

young girl whom he was to have married. So great a misfortune

demands an heroic remedy, and Della Valle makes a vow of pilgrimage

to the Holy Sepulchre. But if, as saith the proverb, there is no

road which does not lead to Rome, so there is no circuit so long as

not to lead to Jerusalem, and of this Della Valle was to make proof.

He embarks at Venice in 1614, passes thirteen months at

Constantinople, reaches Alexandria by sea, afterwards Cairo, and

joins a caravan which at length brings him to Jerusalem. But while

en route, Delia Valle had no doubt imbibed a taste for a traveller's

life, for he visits in succession Baghdad, Damascus, Aleppo, and

even pushes on as far as the ruins of Babylon. We must believe that

Della Valle was marked out as an easy prey to love, for upon his

return he becomes enamoured of a young Christian woman of Mardin, of

wondrous beauty, whom he marries. One would imagine that here at

length is fixed the destiny of this indefatigable traveller. Nothing

of the kind. Della Valle contrives to accompany the Shah in his war

against the Turks, and to traverse during four consecutive years the

provinces of Iran. He quits Ispahan in 1621, loses his wife in the

month of December of the same year, causes her to be embalmed, and

has her coffin carried about in his train for four years longer,

which he devotes to exploring Ormuz, the western coasts of India,

the Persian Gulf, Aleppo, and Syria, landing at length at Naples in

1626.

The countries which this singular character visited, urged on as he

was by an extraordinary enthusiasm, are described by him in a shrewd,

gay, and natural style, and even with some degree of fidelity. But

he inaugurates the pleiad of amateur, curious, and commercial

travellers. He is the first of that prolific race of tourists who

each year encumber geographical literature with numerous volumes,

from which the savant finds nothing to glean beyond meagre details.

Tavernier is a specimen of insatiable curiosity. At two-and-twenty

he has traversed France, England, the Low Countries, Germany,

Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, and Italy. Then when Europe no longer

offers any food for his curiosity, he starts for Constantinople,

where he remains for a year, and then arrives in Persia, where the

opportunity and

Quelque diable, aussi, le poussant,

he sets to work to purchase carpets, stuffs, precious stones, and

those thousand trifles of which lovers of curiosities soon became

passionately fond, and for which they were ready to pay fabulous

sums. The profit which Tavernier realized from his cargo induced him

to resume his travels. But like a wise and prudent man, before

starting he learnt from a jeweller the art of knowing precious

stones. During four successive journeys from 1638 to 1663, he

travelled over Persia, the Mogul Empire, the Indies as far as the

frontier of China, and the Islands of Sunda. Dazzled by the immense

fortune which his traffic had obtained for him, Tavernier would play

the lord, and soon saw himself on the verge of ruin, which he hoped

to avert by sending one of his nephews to the east with a

considerable venture, but instead, his ruin was consummated by this

young man, who, judging it best to appropriate the goods which had

been confided to him, settled down at Ispahan. Tavernier, who was a

well-educated man, made a number of interesting observations upon

the history, manners and customs, of the countries which he visited.

His narrative certainly contributed to give his contemporaries a

much more correct idea of the countries of the east than they

previously possessed.

All travellers during the reign of Louis XIV. take the route to the

East Indies, whatever may be the end they have in view. Africa is

entirely deserted, and if America be the theatre of any real

exploration, it is carried out without aid from government.

Whilst Tavernier was accomplishing his last and distant excursions,

a distinguished archaeologist, Jean de Thevenot, nephew of

Melchisedec Thevenot--a learned man to whom we owe an interesting

series of travels--journeyed through Europe, and visited Malta,

Constantinople, Egypt, Tunis, and Italy. He brought back in 1661 an

important collection of medals and monumental inscriptions,

recognized nowadays as so important a help to the historian and the

philologist. In 1664, he set out anew for the Levant, and visited

Persia, Bassorah, Surat, and India, where he saw Masulipatam,

Burhampur, Aurungabad, and Golconda. But the fatigues which he had

experienced prevented his return to Europe, and he died in Armenia

in 1667. The success of his narratives was considerable, and was

well deserved by the care and exactitude of a traveller whose

scientific attainments in history, geography, and mathematics, far

surpassed the average level of his contemporaries.

We must now speak of the amiable Bernier, the "pretty philosopher,"

as he was entitled in his polite circle, in which were found Ninon

and La Fontaine, Madame de la Sabliere, St. Evremont, and Chapelle,

without reckoning many other good and gay spirits, refractories from

the stiff solemnity which then weighed upon the entourage of Louis

XIV. Bernier could not escape from the fashion of travelling. After

having taken a rapid survey of Syria and Egypt, he resided for

twelve years in India, where his good knowledge of medicine

conciliated the favour of Aurung-Zebe, and gave him the opportunity

of beholding in detail, and with profit, an empire then in the full

bloom of its prosperity.

To the south of Hindostan, Ceylon had more than one surprise in

reserve for its explorers. Robert Knox, taken prisoner by the

natives, owed to this sad circumstance his long residence in the

country and the collection of the first authentic documents relating

to the forests and the savage natives of Ceylon, the Dutch, with a

commercial jealousy which they were not singular in evincing, having

until now kept secret all the information which had come to light

concerning an island of which they were endeavouring to make a

colony.

[Illustration: Jean Chardin. _From an old print_.]

Another merchant, Jean Chardin, the son of a rich Parisian jeweller,

jealous of the successes of Tavernier, desired, like him, to make

his fortune by trading in diamonds. The countries which attract

these merchants are those of which the fame for wealth and

prosperity is become proverbial; these are Persia and India, where

rich costumes sparkle with jewels and gold, and where there are

mines of diamonds of a fabulous size. The moment is well chosen for

visiting these countries. Thanks to the Mogul Emperors, civilization

and art have been developed; mosques, palaces, temples have been

built, and towns have risen suddenly. Their taste--that curious

taste, so distinctly characterized, so different from our own,--is

displayed in the construction of gigantic edifices, quite as much as

in jewellery and goldsmith's work, and in the manufacture of those

costly trifles of which the east was beginning to be passionately

fond. Like a wise man, Chardin takes a partner, as good a

connoisseur as himself. At first Chardin only traversed Persia in

order to reach Ormuz and to embark for the Indies. The following

year he returns to Ispahan, and applies himself to learn the

language of the country, in order to be able to transact business

directly and without any intermediary agent. He has the good fortune

to please the Shah, Abbas II. From that time his fortune is made,

for it is at once genteel and also the part of a prudent courtier to

employ the same purveyor as his sovereign. But Chardin had another

merit besides that of making a fortune. He was able to collect so

considerable a mass of information concerning the government,

manners, creeds, customs, towns, and populations of Persia, that his

narrative has remained to our own days the _vade-mecum_ of the

traveller. This guide is so much the more precious because Chardin

took care to engage at Constantinople a clever draughtsman named

Grelot, by whom were reproduced the monuments, cities, scenes,

costumes, and ceremonies which so well portray what Chardin called,

"the every day of a people."

When Chardin returned to France in 1670, the Revocation of the Edict

of Nantes, with the barbarous persecutions which resulted from it,

had chased from their country great numbers of artisans, who, taking

refuge in foreign countries enriched them with our arts and

manufactures. Chardin, being a protestant, clearly perceived that

his religion would hinder him from attaining "to what are termed

honours and advancement." As, to use his own words, "one is not free

to believe what one will," he resolved to return to the Indies

"where, without being urged to a change of religion," he could not

fail of attaining an honourable position. Thus liberty of conscience

was at that period greater in Persia than in France. Such an

assertion on the part of a man who had made the comparison, is but

little flattering to the grandson of Henry IV.

This time, however, Chardin did not follow the same route as before.

He passed by Smyrna and Constantinople, and from thence, crossing

the Black Sea, he landed in the Crimea, in the garb of a religious.

Whilst passing through the region of the Caucasus he had the

opportunity of studying the Abkasians and Circassians. He afterwards

penetrated into Mingrelia, where he was robbed of his goods and

papers, and of a portion of the jewels which he was taking back to

Europe. He could not have escaped himself had it not been for the

devotion to him of the theatines, from whom he had received

hospitality, but he escaped only to fall into the hands of the Turks,

who, in their turn, accepted a ransom for him. After further

misadventures he arrived at Tiflis on the 17th of December, 1672,

and as Georgia was then governed by a prince who was a tributary of

the Shah of Persia, it was easy for Chardin to reach Erivan, Tauriz,

and finally Ispahan.

After a stay of four years in Persia, and a concluding journey to

India, during which he realized a considerable fortune, Chardin

returned to Europe and settled in England, his own country on

account of his religion, being forbidden ground to him.

The journal of his travels forms a large work, in which everything

that concerns Persia is especially developed. The long stay he made

in the country and his intimate acquaintance with the highest

personages of the state enabled him to collect numerous and

authentic documents. It may fairly be said that in this way Persia

was better known in the seventeenth century than it was 100 years

later.

The countries which Chardin had just explored were visited again

some years later by a Dutch painter, Cornelius de Bruyn, or Le Brun.

The great value of his work consists in the beauty and accuracy of

the drawings which illustrate it, for as far as the text is

concerned, it contains nothing which was not known before, except in

what relates to the Samoyedes, whom he was the first to visit.

[Illustration: Japanese Warrior. _From an old print_.]

We must now speak of the Westphalian, Kaempfer, almost a naturalized

Swede in consequence of his long sojourn in Scandinavian countries.

He refused the brilliant position which was there offered him in

order to accompany as secretary, an ambassador who was going to

Moscow. He was thus enabled to see the principal cities of Russia, a

country which at that period had scarcely entered upon the path of

western civilization; afterwards he went to Persia, where he quitted

the Ambassador Fabricius, in order to enter the service of the Dutch

Company of the Indies, and to continue his travels. He thus visited

in the first place Persepolis, Shiraz, Ormuz upon the Persian Gulf,

where he was extremely ill, and whence he embarked in 1688 for the

East Indies. Arabia Felix, India, the Malabar Coast, Ceylon, Java,

Sumatra, and Japan were afterwards all visited by him. The object of

these journeys was exclusively scientific. Kaempfer was a physician,

but was more especially devoted to the various branches of Natural

History, and collected, described, drew, or dried, a considerable

number of plants then unknown in Europe, gave new information upon

their use in medicine or manufactures, and collected an immense

herbarium, which is now preserved with the greater part of his

manuscripts in the British Museum in London. But the most

interesting portion of his narrative, now-a-days indeed quite

obsolete and very incomplete since the country has been opened up to

our scientific men,--was for a long time that relating to Japan. He

had contrived to procure books treating of the history, literature,

and learning of the country, when he had failed in obtaining from

certain personages to whom he had rendered himself very acceptable,

information which was not usually imparted to foreigners.

To conclude, if all the travellers of whom we have just spoken are

not strictly speaking discoverers, if they do not explore countries

unknown before, they all have, in various degrees and according to

their ability or their studies, the merit of having rendered the

countries which they visited better known. Besides they were able to

banish to the domain of fable, many of the tales which others less

learned had naively accepted, and which had for long become so

completely public property that nobody dreamed of disputing them.

Thanks to these travellers, something is known of the history of the

east, the migrations of nations began to be dimly suspected, and

accounts to be given of the changes in those great empires of which

the very existence had been long problematical.

CHAPTER VI.

I.

THE GREAT CORSAIR.

William Dampier; or a Sea-King of the Seventeenth Century.

William Dampier was born in 1612 at East Coker, and by the death of

his parents was from his childhood left to his own control. Not

possessing any great taste for study, he preferred running wild in

the woods, and fighting with his companions, to remaining in his

place on the school benches. While still young he was sent to sea as

cabin-boy on board merchant ships. After a voyage to Newfoundland

and a campaign in the East Indies, he took service in the Naval

Marine, and being wounded in a battle, returned to Greenwich to be

nursed. Free from any prejudices, Dampier forgot his engagement when

he left the Military Hospital, and started for Jamaica in the

position of manager of a plantation. It did not require a long trial

to discover that this occupation was not to his taste. So he

abandoned his negroes at the end of six months, and went on board a

ship bound for the Bay of Campeachy, where he worked for three years

at gathering in woods for dyeing.

At the end of that period he is again found in London, but the laws

and the officers charged with compelling their observance are too

strict for his comfort. He goes back to Jamaica, where he speedily

puts himself into communication with those famous buccaneers and

corsairs, who at that time did so much harm to the Spaniards.

These English or French adventurers, established in the Island of

Tortuga, off the coast of San Domingo, had sworn implacable hatred

to Spain. Their ravages were not confined to the Gulf of Mexico:

they crossed the Isthmus of Panama and devastated the coast of the

Pacific Ocean from the Strait of Magellan to California. Terror

exaggerated the exploits of these pirates, which however presented

something of the marvellous.

It was amongst these adventurers, then commanded by Harris, Sawkins,

and Shays, that Dampier enrolled himself. In 1680 we find him in

Darien, where he pillages Santa Maria, endeavours in vain to

surprise Panama, and with his companions, on board of some wretched

canoes stolen from the Indians, captures eight vessels well armed,

which were at anchor not far from the town. In this affair the

losses of the corsairs are so great in the fight, and the spoil is

so poor, that they separate from each other. Some go back to the

Gulf of Mexico, while others establish themselves upon the island of

Juan Fernandez, whence shortly after they attack Arica. But here

again they were so roughly handled that a new secession takes place,

and Dampier is sent to Virginia, where his captain hoped to make

some recruits. There Captain Cook was fitting out a vessel, with the

intention of reaching the Pacific by the Strait of Magellan, and

Dampier joins the expedition. It begins by privateering upon the

African coast, in the Cape de Verd Islands, at Sierra Leone, and in

the River Scherborough, for this is the route habitually taken by

the ships going to South America. In 36 degrees south latitude,

Dampier, who notes in his journal every interesting fact, remarks

that the sea is become white or rather pale, but of this he cannot

explain the reason, which he might easily have done had he made use

of the microscope. The Sebaldine Islands are passed without incident,

the Strait of Le Maire is traversed, Cape Horn is doubled on the 6th

February, 1684, and as soon as he can escape from the storms which

usually assail ships entering the Pacific, Captain Cook arrives at

the island of Juan Fernandez, where he hopes to revictual. Dampier

wondered if he would find a Nicaraguan Indian there, who had been

left behind in 1680 by Captain Sharp. "This Indian had remained

alone upon the island for more than three years. He had been in the

woods hunting goats when the English captain had ordered his men to

re-embark, and they had set sail without perceiving his absence. He

had only his gun and his knife, with a small horn of powder and a

little lead; when his powder and lead were exhausted he had

contrived to saw the barrel of his gun into small pieces with his

knife, and out of them to make harpoons, spears, fish hooks and a

long knife. With these instruments he obtained all the supplies

which the island afforded: goats and fish. At the distance of half a

mile from the sea, he had a small hut covered with goat skins. He

had no clothes left, but an animal's skin covered his loins." We

have dwelt at some length upon this involuntary hermit because he

served Daniel de Foe as the original of his "Robinson Crusoe," a

romance which has formed the delight of every child.

We shall not relate minutely all the expeditions in which Dampier

participated. Suffice it to mention that in this campaign he visited

the Gallapagos Islands. In 1686, Dampier was serving on board of

Captain Swan's ship, who, seeing that the greater part of his

enterprises failed, went to the East Indies, where the Spaniards

were less upon their guard, and where the corsairs reckoned upon

seizing the Manilla galleon. But when our adventurers arrived at

Guaham, they had only three days' provisions, and the sailors had

plotted if the voyage should be prolonged, to eat in turn all those

who had declared themselves in favour of the voyage, and to begin

with the captain who had proposed it. Dampier's turn would have come

next. "Thus it came to pass," says he very humourously, "that after

having cast anchor at Guaham, Swan embraced him and said: 'Ah

Dampier, you would have made them but a sorry meal.' He was right,"

he adds, "for I was as thin and lean, as he was fat and plump."

Mindanao, Manilla, certain parts of the Chinese coasts, the Moluccas,

New Holland, and the Nicobar Islands, were the places visited and

plundered by Dampier in this campaign. In the last-named archipelago

he became separated from his companions, and was discovered half

dead upon the coast of Sumatra.

[Illustration: "Ah! Dampier, you would have afforded them but a

sorry meal."]

During this voyage, Dampier had discovered several hitherto unknown

islands, and especially the Baschi group. Like the thorough

adventurer he was, immediately he recovered his health he travelled

over the south of Asia, Malacca, Tonkin, Madras, and Bencoolen,

where he enrolled himself as an artilleryman in the English service.

Five months afterwards he deserted and returned to London. The

narrative of his adventures and his privateering obtained for him a

certain amount of sympathy amongst the higher classes, and he was

presented to the Earl of Oxford, Lord High Admiral. He speedily

received the command of the ship _Roebuck_ to attempt a voyage of

discovery in the seas which he had already explored. He left England

on the 14th January, 1699, with the intention of passing through the

Strait of Magellan, or of making the tour of Tierra del Fuego, so as

to commence his discoveries on the coasts of the Pacific, which had

hitherto received the visits of a comparatively small number of

travellers. After crossing the line on the 10th March, he sailed for

Brazil, where the ship was revictualled. Far from being able again

to descend the coast of Patagonia, he beheld himself driven by the

wind to forty-eight miles south of the Cape of Good Hope, whence he

steered east-south-east towards New Holland, a long passage which

was not signalized by any adventure. On the 1st August, Dampier saw

land, and at once sought for a harbour in which to land. Five days

later he entered the Bay of Sea-Dogs upon the western coast of

Australia; but he only found there a sterile soil, and met with

neither water nor vegetation. Until the 31st August, he sailed along

this coast without discovering what he sought. Once when he landed,

he had a slight skirmish with some of the inhabitants, who seemed to

be very thinly scattered over the country. Their chief was a young

man of middle height, but quick and vigilant; his eyes were

surrounded by a single ring of white paint, while a stripe of the

same colour descended from the top of his forehead to the end of his

nose; his chest and arms were likewise striped with white. His

companions were black, fierce in aspect, their hair woolly, and in

shape they were tall and slender.

For five weeks Dampier hovered near land, and found neither water

nor provisions; however, he would not give in, and intended to

continue to ascend the coast northwards, but the shallows which he

incessantly encountered, and the monsoon from the north-west which

was soon due, obliged him to give up the enterprise, after having

discovered more than 900 miles of the Australian continent. He

afterwards steered towards Timor, where he intended to repose and

recruit his crew, exhausted by the long voyage. But he knew little

of these parts, and his charts were quite insufficient. He was

therefore obliged to make a reconnaissance of it, as if the Dutch

had not already been long settled there. Thus he discovered a

passage between Timor and Anamabao, in a locality in which his map

only indicated a bay. The arrival of Dampier in a port known only to

themselves, astonished and greatly displeased the Dutch. They

imagined that the English could only have reached it by means of

charts taken on board a ship of their own. However, in the end they

recovered from their fright and received the strangers with kindness.

Although the precursors of the monsoon were making themselves felt,

Dampier again put to sea, and steered towards the western coast of

New Guinea, where he arrived on the 4th February, 1700, near to Cape

Maho of the Dutch. Amongst the things which struck him, Dampier

notices the prodigious quantities of a species of pigeon, bats of

extraordinary size, and scallops, a kind of shell fish, of which the

empty shell weighed as much as 258 lbs. On the 7th of February he

approaches King William's Island and runs to the east, where he soon

sights the Cape of Good Hope of Schouten, and the island named after

that navigator. On the 24th the crew witnessed a curious spectacle:

"Two fish, which had accompanied the vessel for five or six days,

perceived a great sea serpent, and began to pursue it. They were

about the shape and size of mackerel, but yellow and green in colour.

The serpent, who fled from them with great swiftness, carried his

head out of the water, and one of them attempted to seize his tail.

As soon as he turned round, the first fish remained in the rear, and

the other took his place. They retained their wind for a long time,

always heedful to defend themselves by flight, until they were lost

to view."

On the 25th, Dampier gave the name of Saint Matthias to a

mountainous island, thirty miles long, situated above and to the

east of the Admiralty Islands. Further on at the distance of

twenty-one or twenty-four miles, he discovered another island, which

received the name of Squally Island, on account of violent

whirlwinds which prevented him from landing upon it. Dampier

believed himself to be on the coast of New Guinea, while he was in

reality sailing along that of New Ireland. He endeavoured to land

there, but he was surrounded by canoes carrying more than 200

natives, and the shore was covered by a large crowd. Seeing that it

would be imprudent to send a boat on shore, Dampier ordered the ship

to be put about. Scarcely was the order given, when the ship was

assailed by showers of stones, which the natives hurled from a

machine of which Dampier could not discover the shape, but which

caused the name of Slingers' Bay to be given to this locality. A

single discharge of cannon stupefied the natives, and put an end to

hostilities. A little further on, at some distance from the coast of

New Ireland, the English discover the Islands of Denis and St. John.

Dampier is the first to pass through the strait which separates New

Ireland from New Britain, and discovers Vulcan, Crown, G. Rook, Long

Reach and Burning Islands.

[Illustration: Battle in Slingers' Bay.]

After this long cruise, distinguished by important discoveries,

Dampier again steered towards the west, reached Missory Island, and

at length arrived at the Island of Ceram, one of the Moluccas, where

he made a somewhat long stay. He went afterwards to Borneo, passed

through the Strait of Macassar, and on the 23rd of June anchored at

Batavia, in the Island of Java. He remained there until the 17th of

October, when he set out for Europe. On arriving at the Island of

Ascension on the 23rd of February, 1701, his vessel had so

considerable a leak that it was impossible to stop it. It was

necessary to run the ship aground and to put the crew and cargo on

shore. Happily there was no want of water, turtles, goats, and

land-crabs, which prevented any fear of dying of hunger before some

ship should call at the island, and transport the shipwrecked

sailors to their country. For this they had not long to wait, for on

the 2nd of April an English vessel took them on board and carried

them to England. We shall have occasion again to speak of Dampier

with relation to the voyages of Wood Rodgers.

II.

THE POLE AND AMERICA.

Hudson and Baffin--Champlain and La Sale--The English upon the coast

of the Atlantic--The Spaniards in South America--Summary of the

information acquired at the close of the 17th century--The measure

of the terrestrial degree--Progress of cartography--Inauguration of

Mathematical Geography.

Although the attempts to find a passage by the north-west had been

abandoned by the English for twenty years, they had not, however,

given up the idea of seeking by that way, for a passage which was

only to be discovered in our own days, and of which the absolute

impracticability was then to be ascertained. A clever sailor, Henry

Hudson, of whom Ellis says, "that never did any one better

understand the seafaring profession, that his courage was equal to

any emergency, and that his application was indefatigable,"

concluded an agreement with a company of merchants to search for the

passage by the north-west. On the 1st of May, 1607, he sailed from

Gravesend in the _Hopewell_, a craft about the size of one of the

smallest of modern collier brigs, and having on board a crew of

twelve men; and on the 13th of June, reached the eastern coast of

Greenland at 73 degrees, and gave it a name answering to the hopes

he entertained, in calling it Cape Hold with Hope. The weather here

was finer and less cold than it had been ten degrees southwards. By

the 27th of June, Hudson had advanced 5 degrees more to the north,

but on the 2nd of July, by one of the sudden changes which so

frequently occur in those countries, the cold became severe. The sea,

however, remained free, the air was still, and drift wood floated

about in large quantity. On the 14th of the same month, in 33

degrees 23 minutes, the master's mate and the boatswain of the

vessel landed upon a shore which formed the northern part of

Spitzbergen. Traces of musk oxen, and foxes, great abundance of

aquatic birds, two streams of fresh water, one of them being warm,

proved to our navigators that it was possible to live in these

extreme latitudes at this period of the year. Hudson, who had

re-embarked without delay, found himself arrested at the height of

82 degrees, by thick pack ice, which he endeavoured in vain to

penetrate or sail round. He was compelled to return to England,

where he arrived on September 15th, after having discovered an

island, which is probably that of Jan Mayen. The route followed in

this first voyage having had no result towards the north, Hudson

would try another, and accordingly set sail on April 21st in the

following year, and advanced between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla;

but he could only follow for a certain distance the coast of that

vast land, without being able to attain as high an elevation as he

had wished. The failure of this second attempt was more complete

than that of the voyage of 1607. In consequence, the English Company,

which had defrayed the expenses of both attempts, declined to

proceed further. This was doubtless the reason which decided Hudson

to take service in Holland.

The Company of Amsterdam gave him, in 1609, the command of a vessel,

with which he set sail from the Texel at the beginning of the year.

Having doubled the North Cape, he advanced along the coasts of Nova

Zembla; but his crew, composed of English and Dutch, who had made

voyages to the East Indies, were soon disheartened by the cold and

ice. Hudson found himself forced to change his route, and to propose

to his sailors, who were in open mutiny, to seek for a passage,

either by Davis' Strait, or the coasts of Virginia, where, according

to the information of Captain Smith, who had frequently visited them,

an outlet must surely be found. The choice of this crew, little

accustomed to discipline, could not be doubtful. In order not to

render the outlay of the Company completely abortive, Hudson was

obliged to make for the Faroe Islands, to descend southward as low

as 44 degrees, and to search on the coast of America for the strait,

of the existence of which he had been assured. On July 18th, he

disembarked on the continent, in order to replace his foremast,

which had been broken in a storm; and he took the opportunity of

bartering furs with the natives. But his undisciplined sailors,

having by their exactions roused the indignation of the poor and

peaceable natives, compelled him again to set sail. He continued to

follow the coast until August 3rd, and then landed a second time. At

40 degrees 30 minutes, he discovered a great bay which he explored

in a canoe for more than 150 miles. In the meantime, his provisions

began to run short, and it was impossible to procure supplies on

land. The crew, which appears to have imposed its wishes on its

captain during this whole voyage, assembled; some proposed to winter

in Newfoundland, in order to resume the search for the passage in

the following year; others wished to make for Ireland. This latter

proposition was adopted; but when they approached the shores of

Great Britain, the land proved so attractive to his men, that Hudson

was obliged, on November 7th, to cast anchor at Dartmouth.

The following year, 1610, notwithstanding all the mortifications

which he had experienced, Hudson tried to renew his engagement with

the Dutch company. But the terms which they named as the price of

their concurrence compelled him to renounce the project, and induced

him to submit to the requirements of the English Company. This

company imposed on Hudson as a condition, that he should carry on

board, rather as an assistant than as a subordinate, a clever seaman,

named Coleburne, in whom they had full confidence. It is easy to

understand how mortifying this condition was to Hudson. Accordingly,

he took the earliest opportunity of ridding himself of the

superintendent who had been imposed upon him. He had not yet left

the Thames when he sent Coleburne back to shore with a letter for

the Company, in which he endeavoured to palliate and justify this

certainly very strange proceeding.

Towards the end of May, when the ship had cast anchor in one of the

ports of the island, the crew formed on the subject of Coleburne,

its first conspiracy, which was repressed without difficulty, and

when Hudson quitted the island on June 1st, he had re-established

his authority. After having passed Frobisher's Strait, he sighted

the land of Desolation of Davis, entered the strait which has

received his name, and speedily penetrated into a wide bay, the

entire western coast of which he examined until the beginning of

September. At this epoch, one of the inferior officers, continuing

to excite revolt against his chief, was superseded; but this act of

justice only exasperated the sailors. In the early part of November,

Hudson, having arrived at the extremity of the bay, sought for an

appropriate spot to winter in, and having soon found one, drew up

the ship on dry land. It is difficult to understand such a

resolution. On the one hand, Hudson had left England with provisions

for six months only, which had already been largely reduced, and he

could scarcely reckon, considering the barrenness of the country,

upon procuring a further supply of nourishment; on the other, the

crew had exhibited such numerous signs of mutiny, that he could

hardly rely upon its discipline and good will. Nevertheless,

although the English were often obliged to content themselves with

scanty rations, they did not, owing to the arrival of great numbers

of birds, pass a very distressing winter. But, on the return of

spring, as soon as the ship was prepared to resume her route to

England, Hudson found that his fate was decided. He made his

arrangements accordingly, distributed to each his share of biscuit,

paid the wages due, and awaited the course of events. He had not

long to wait. The conspirators seized their captain, his son, a

volunteer, the carpenter, and five sailors, put them on board a boat,

without arms, provisions, or instruments, and abandoned them to the

mercy of the ocean. The culprits reached England again, but not all;

two were killed in an encounter with the Indians, another died of

sickness, while the others were sorely tried by famine. Eventually,

no prosecution was commenced against them. Only, the Company, in

1674, procured employment, on board a vessel, for the son of Henry

Hudson, "lost in the discovery of the North-west," the son being

entirely destitute of resources.

[Illustration: Hudson abandoned by his crew.]

The expeditions of Hudson were followed by those of Button and of

Gibbons, to whom we owe, if not new discoveries, important

observations on the tides, the variation of the weather and the

temperature, and on a number of natural phenomena.

In 1615, the English Company entrusted to Byleth, who had taken part

in the last voyages, the command of a vessel of fifty tons. Her name,

the _Discovery_, was of good augury. She carried, as pilot, the

famous William Baffin, whose renown has eclipsed that of his captain.

Setting sail from England on April 13th, the English explorers

sighted Cape Farewell by the 6th of May, passed from the Island of

Desolation to the Savage Islands, where they met with a great number

of natives, and ascended north-westward as high as 64 degrees. On

July 10th, land appeared on the starboard, and the tide flowed from

the north; from which they conceived so much hope of the passage

sought for, that they gave to the cape, discovered on this spot, the

name of Comfort. It was probably Cape Walsingham, for they

ascertained, after doubling it, that the land inclined towards the

north-east, and the east. It was at the entry of Davis' Strait, that

their discoveries came to an end for this year. They returned to

Plymouth on September 9th, without having lost a single man.

So strong were the hopes entertained by Byleth and Baffin, that they

obtained permission to put to sea again in the same vessel the

following year. On May 14th, 1616, after a voyage in which nothing

worthy of remark occurred, the two captains penetrated into Davis'

Strait, sighted Cape Henderson's Hope, the extreme point formerly

reached by Davis, and ascended as high as 72 degrees 40 minutes to

the Women's Island, thus named after some Esquimaux females whom

they met with. On June 12th, Byleth and Baffin were forced by the

ice to enter a bay on the coast. Some Esquimaux brought them a great

quantity of horns, without doubt tusks of walruses, or horns of musk

oxen; from which they named the bay Horn Sound. After remaining some

days in this place, they were able to put to sea again. On setting

out from 75 degrees 40 minutes, they encountered a vast expanse of

water free from ice, and penetrated, without much danger, beyond the

78 degree of latitude, to the entrance of the strait, which

prolonged northwards the immense bay which they had just traversed,

and which received the name of Baffin. Then turning to the west, and

afterwards to the south-west, Byleth and Baffin discovered the Carey

Islands, Jones Strait, Coburg Island, and Lancaster Strait, and

afterwards they descended along the entire western shore of Baffin's

Bay as far as Cumberland Land. Despairing then of being able to

carry his discoveries further, Byleth, who had several men among his

crew afflicted with scurvy, found himself obliged to return to the

shores of England, where he disembarked at Dover, on August 30th.

If this expedition terminated again in failure, in the sense that

the north-west passage was not discovered, the results obtained were

nevertheless considerable. Byleth and Baffin had prodigiously

increased the knowledge of the seas and coasts in the quarters of

Greenland. The captain and the pilot, in writing to the Director of

the Company, assured him that the bay which they had visited was an

excellent spot for fishing, in which thousands of whales, seals, and

walruses, disported themselves. The event could not be long in amply

proving the correctness of this information.

Let us now descend again upon the coast of America, as far as Canada,

and see what had happened since the time of Jacques Cartier. This

latter, we may remember, had made an attempt at colonization, which

had not produced any important results. Nevertheless, some Frenchmen

had remained in the country, had married there, and founded families

of colonists. From time to time, they received reinforcements

brought by fishing vessels from Dieppe or St. Malo. But it was

difficult to establish a current of emigration. It was under these

circumstances that a gentleman, named Samuel de Champlain, a veteran

of the wars of Henry IV., and who, for two years and a half, had

frequented the East Indies, was engaged by the Commander of Chastes

with the Sieur de Pontgrave, to continue the discoveries of Jacques

Cartier, and to choose the situations most favourable for the

establishment of towns and centres of population. This is not the

place for us to consider the manner in which Champlain understood

the business of a colonizer, nor his great services, which might

well entitle him to be called the father of Canada. We will,

therefore, advisedly leave this aspect of his undertaking, not the

least brilliant, in order simply to occupy ourselves with the

discoveries which he effected in the interior of the continent.

Setting sail from Honfleur, on March 15th, 1603, the two chiefs of

the enterprise first ascended the St. Lawrence, as far as the

harbour of Tadoussac, 240 miles from its mouth. They were welcomed

by the populations, which had, however, "neither faith, nor law, and

lived without God, and without religion, like brute beasts." At this

place they quitted their ships, which could not have advanced

further without danger, and reached in a boat the Fall of St. Louis,

where Jacques Cartier had been stopped; they even penetrated a

little into the interior, and then returned to France, where

Champlain printed a narrative of the voyage for the king.

Henry IV. resolved to continue the enterprise. In the meantime M. de

Chastes having died, his privilege was transferred to M. de Monts,

with the title of Vice-admiral and Governor of Acadia. Champlain

accompanied M. de Monts to Canada, and passed three whole years,

whether in aiding by his counsels and his exertions the efforts of

colonization, or in exploring the coasts of Acadia, the bearings of

which he took beyond Cape Cod, or in making excursions into the

interior and visiting the savage tribes which it was important to

conciliate. In 1607, after a new voyage to France to recruit

colonists, Champlain returned again to New France, and founded, in

1608, a town which was to become Quebec. The following year was

devoted to again ascending the St. Lawrence, and ascertaining its

course. On board of a pirogue, with two companions only, Champlain

penetrated, with some Algonquins, to the Iroquois, and remained

conqueror in a great battle fought on the borders of a lake which

has received his name; he then descended the river Richelieu, as far

as the St. Lawrence. In 1610, he made a fresh incursion into the

territory of the Iroquois, at the head of his allies, the Algonquins,

whom he had the greatest possible difficulty in making observe the

European discipline. In this campaign he employed instruments of

warfare which greatly astonished the savages, and easily secured him

the victory. For the attack of a village, he constructed a cavalier

of wood, which 200 of the most powerful men "carried before this

village to within a pike's length, and displayed three arquebusiers

well protected from the arrows and stones which might be shot or

launched at them." A little later, we see him exploring the river

Ottawa, and advancing, in the north of the continent, to within 225

miles of Hudson's Bay. After having fortified Montreal, in 1615, he

twice ascended the Ottawa, explored Lake Huron, and arrived by land

at Lake Ontario, which he crossed.

[Illustration: Siege of a village by Champlain.]

It is very difficult to divide into two parts a life so occupied as

Champlain's. All his excursions, all his reconnaissances, had but

one object, the development of the work to which he had consecrated

his existence. Thus detached from what gives them their interest,

they appear to us unimportant; and yet if the colonial policy of

Louis XIV. and his successor had been different, we should possess

in America a colony which assuredly would not yield in prosperity to

the United States. Notwithstanding our abandonment, Canada has

preserved a fervent love for the mother country.

We must now leap over a period of forty years, to arrive at Robert

Cavelier de la Sale. During this time, the French establishments

have acquired some importance in Canada, and have extended

themselves over a great part of North America. Our hunters and

trappers scour the woods, and bring, every year, with their load of

furs, new information respecting the interior of the continent. In

this latter task they are powerfully seconded by the missionaries,

in the first rank of whom we must place Father Marquette, whom the

extent of his voyages on the great lakes and as far as the

Mississippi marks out for special acknowledgment. Two men, besides,

deserve to be mentioned for the encouragements and facilities which

they afforded to the explorers, viz., M. de Frontenac, Governor of

New France, and Talon, intendant of justice and police. In 1678,

there arrived in Canada, without any settled purpose, a young man

named Cavelier de la Sale. "He was born at Rouen," says Father

Charlevoix, "of a family in easy circumstances; but having passed

some years with the Jesuits, he had had no share in the inheritance

of his parents. He had a cultivated mind, he wished to distinguish

himself, and he felt within himself sufficient genius and courage to

ensure success. In reality, he was not deficient in resolution to

enter upon, nor in perseverance to follow up, an undertaking, nor in

firmness in contending against obstacles, nor in resource to repair

his losses; but he knew not how to make himself loved, nor how to

manage those of whom he stood in need, and when he had attained

authority, he exercised it with harshness and arrogance. With such

defects he could not be happy, and in fact he was not."

Father Charlevoix's portrait appears to us somewhat too black, and

he does not seem to estimate at its true value the great discovery

which we owe to Cavelier de la Sale; a discovery, which has nothing

like it, we do not say equal to it, except that of the river Amazon,

by Orellana, in the 16th century, and that of the Congo, by Stanley,

in the 19th. However this may be, no sooner had he arrived in the

country, than he set himself, with extraordinary application, to

study the native idioms, and to associate with the savages in order

to render himself familiar with their manners and habits. At the

same time he gathered from the trappers a mass of information on the

situation of the rivers and lakes. He communicated his projects of

exploration to M. de Frontenac, who encouraged him, and gave him the

command of a fort constructed at the outlet of the lake into the St.

Lawrence. In the meantime, one Jolyet arrived at Quebec. He brought

the news that in company with Father Marquette and four other

persons, he had reached a great river called the Mississippi,

flowing towards the south. Cavelier de la Sale very soon understood

what advantage might be derived from an artery of this importance,

especially if the Mississippi had, as he believed, its mouth in the

Gulf of Mexico. By the lakes and the Illinois, an affluent of the

Mississippi, it was easy to effect a communication between the St.

Lawrence, and the Sea of the Antilles. What marvellous profit would

France derive from this discovery! La Sale explained the project

which he had conceived to the Count of Frontenac, and obtained from

him very pressing letters of recommendation to the Minister of

Marine. On arriving in France, La Sale learned the death of Colbert;

but he remitted to his son, the Marquis of Seignelay, who had

succeeded him, the despatches of which he was the bearer. This

project, which appeared to rest upon solid foundations, could not

fail to please a young minister. Accordingly, Seignelay presented La

Sale to the king, who caused letters of nobility to be prepared for

him, granted him the Seignory of Catarocouy, and the government of

the fort which he had built, with the monopoly of commerce in the

countries which he might discover.

La Sale had also found means to procure the patronage of the Prince

de Conti, who asked him to take with him the Chevalier Tonti, son of

the inventor of the Tontine, in whom he felt an interest. He was for

La Sale a precious acquisition. Tonti, who had made a campaign in

Sicily, where his hand had been carried off by the explosion of a

grenade, was a brave and skilful officer, who always showed himself

extremely devoted.

La Sale and Tonti embarked at Rochelle, on July 14th, 1678, carrying

with them about thirty men, workmen and soldiers, and a Recollet

(monk), Father Hennepin, who accompanied them in all their voyages.

Then La Sale, being conscious that the execution of his project

required more considerable resources than those which were at his

disposal, constructed a boat upon the Lake Erie, and devoted a whole

year to scouring the country, visiting the Indians, and carrying on

an active trade in furs, which he stored in his fort of Niagara,

while Tonti pursued the same course in other directions. At length,

towards the middle of August, of the year 1679, his boat, the

_Griffon_, being prepared for sailing, he embarked on the Lake Erie,

with thirty men, and three Fathers, Recollets, for Machillimackinac.

In crossing the lakes St. Clair and Huron, he experienced a violent

storm, which caused the desertion of some of his people, whom,

however, Tonti brought back to him. La Sale arrived at

Machillimackinac, and very soon entered the Green Bay. But during

this time his creditors at Quebec had sold all that he possessed,

and the _Griffon_, which he had despatched, laden with furs, to the

fort of Niagara, was either lost or pillaged by the Indians; which

of these took place has never been precisely ascertained. For

himself, although the departure of the _Griffon_ had displeased his

companions, he continued his route, and reached the river St. Joseph,

where he found an encampment of Miamis, and where Tonti speedily

rejoined him. Their first care was to construct a fort on this spot.

Then they crossed the dividing line of the water between the basin

of the great lakes, and that of the Mississippi; they subsequently

reached the river of the Illinois, an affluent on the left of that

great river. With his small band of followers, upon whose fidelity

he could not entirely depend, the situation of La Sale was critical,

in the midst of an unknown country, and among a powerful nation, the

Illinois, who, at first allies of France, had been prejudiced and

excited against us by the Iroquois and the English, jealous of the

progress of the Canadian colony.

Nevertheless, it was necessary, at all cost, to attach to himself

these Indians, who from their situation, were able to hinder all

communication between La Sale and Canada. In order to strike their

imagination, Cavelier de la Sale proceeds to their encampment, where

more than 3000 men are assembled. He has but twenty men, but he

traverses their village haughtily, and stops at some distance. The

Illinois, who have not yet declared war, are surprised. They advance

towards him, and overwhelm him with pacific demonstrations. So

versatile is the spirit of the savages! Such an impression does

every mark of courage make upon them! Without delay, La Sale takes

advantage of their friendly dispositions, and erects upon the very

site of their camp, a small fort, which he calls Crevecoeur, in

allusion to the troubles which he has already experienced. There he

leaves Tonti with all his people, and he himself, anxious about the

fate of the _Griffon_, returns with three Frenchmen and one Indian,

to the fort of Catarocouy, separated by 500 leagues from Crevecoeur.

Before setting out, he had detached with Father Hennepin, one of his

companions named Dacan, on a mission to reascend the Mississippi

beyond the river of the Illinois, and if possible, to its source.

"These two travellers," says Father Charlevoix, "set out from the

fort of Crevecoeur, on February 28th, and having entered the

Mississippi, ascended it as far as 46 degrees of north latitude.

There they were stopped by a considerable waterfall, extending quite

across the river, to which Father Hennepin gave the name of St.

Anthony of Padua. Then they fell, I know not by what mischance, into

the hands of the Sioux, who kept them for a long time prisoners."

On his journey back to Catarocouy, La Sale, having discovered a new

site appropriate to the construction of a fort, summoned Tonti

thither, who immediately set to work, while La Sale continued his

route. This is Fort St. Louis. On his arrival at Catarocouy, La Sale

learned news which would have broken down a man of a less hardy

temperament. Not only had the _Griffon_, on board of which he had

furs of the value of 10,000 crowns, been lost, but a vessel which

was bringing him from France a cargo worth 880_l._ had been

shipwrecked, and his enemies had spread a report of his death.

Having no further business at Catarocouy, and having proved by his

presence that the reports of his disappearance were all false, he

arrived again at the fort of Crevecoeur, where he was much

astonished to find no one.

This is what had happened. While the Chevalier Tonti was employed in

the construction of Fort St. Louis, the garrison of Fort Crevecoeur

had mutinied, had pillaged the magazines, had done the same at Fort

Miami, and then fled to Machillimackinac. Tonti, almost alone in

face of the Illinois, who were roused against him by the

depredations of his men, and judging that he could not resist in his

fort of Crevecoeur, had left it on September 11th, 1680, with the

five Frenchmen who composed his garrison, and had retired as far as

the bay of the Lake Michigan. After having placed a garrison at

Crevecoeur and at Fort St. Louis, La Sale came to Machillimackinac,

where he rejoined Tonti, and together they set out again from thence

towards the end of August for Catarocouy, whence they embarked on

the Lake Erie with fifty-five persons, on August 28th, 1681. After a

journey of 240 miles along the frozen river of the Illinois, they

reached Fort Crevecoeur, where the water, free from ice, permitted

the use of their canoes. On February 6th, 1682, La Sale arrived at

the confluence of the Illinois and the Mississippi. He descended the

river, sighted the mouth of the Missouri, and that of the Ohio,

where he raised a fort, penetrated into the country of the Arkansas,

of which he took possession in the name of France, crossed the

country of the Natchez, with whom he made a treaty of friendship,

and finally passed out into the Gulf of Mexico on April 9th, after a

navigation of 1050 miles in a mere bark. The anticipations so

skilfully conceived by Cavelier de la Sale, were realized. He

immediately took formal possession of the country, to which he gave

the name of Louisiana, and called the immense river which he had

just discovered the St. Louis.

La Sale's return to Canada occupied not less than one year and a

half. There is no ground for astonishment, when all the obstacles

scattered in his path are considered. What energy, what strength of

mind were requisite in one of the greatest travellers of whom France

has reason to be proud, to succeed in such an enterprise!

Unhappily, a man, otherwise well intentioned, but who allowed

himself to be prejudiced against La Sale by his numerous enemies, M.

Lefevre de la Barre, who had succeeded M. de Frontenac as governor

of Canada, wrote to the Minister of Marine, that the discoveries of

La Sale were not to be regarded as of much importance. "This

traveller," he said "was actually, with about twenty French

vagabonds and savages, at the extremity of the bay, where he played

the part of sovereign, plundered and ransomed those of his own

nation, exposed the people to the incursions of the Iroquois, and

covered all these acts of violence with the pretext of the

permission, which he had from His Majesty, to carry on commerce

alone in the countries which he might be able to discover."

Cavelier de la Sale could not allow himself to remain exposed to

these calumnious imputations. On the one side, honour prompted him

to return to France to exculpate himself; on the other, he would not

leave others to reap the profit of his discoveries. He set out,

therefore, and received from Seignelay a kindly welcome. The

minister had not been much influenced by the letters of M. de la

Barre; he was aware that men could not accomplish great achievements

without wounding much self-love, nor without making numerous enemies.

La Sale took the opportunity to explain to him his project of

discovering the mouth of the Mississippi by sea, in order to open a

way for French vessels, and to found an establishment there. The

minister entered into these views, and gave him a commission which

placed Frenchmen and savages under his orders, from Fort St. Louis

to the sea. At the same time the commandant of the squadron which

was to transport him to America, was to be under his authority, and

to furnish him on his disembarkation with all the succours which he

might require, provided that nothing was done to the prejudice of

the king. Four vessels, one of them a frigate of forty guns,

commanded by M. de Beaujeu were to carry 280 persons, including the

crews, to the mouth of the Mississippi, to form the nucleus of the

new colony. Soldiers and artisans had been very badly chosen, as was

perceived when too late, and no one knew his business. Setting sail

from La Rochelle, on July 24th, 1684, the little squadron was almost

immediately obliged to return to port, the bowsprit of the frigate

having broken suddenly in the very finest weather. This inexplicable

accident was the commencement of misunderstanding between M. de

Beaujeu and M. de la Sale. The former could scarcely be pleased to

see himself subordinated to a private individual, and did not

forgive Cavelier this. Nothing however would have been more easy

than to decline the command. La Sale had not the gentleness of

manner and the politeness necessary to conciliate his companions.

The disagreement did but gather force during the voyage by reason of

the obstacles raised by M. de Beaujeu to the rapidity and secrecy of

the expedition. The annoyances of La Sale had indeed become so great

when he arrived at St. Domingo, that he fell seriously ill. He

recovered, however, and the expedition set sail again on November

25th. A month later, it was off Florida; but, as "La Sale had been

assured that in the Gulf of Mexico, all the currents bore eastwards,

he did not doubt that the mouth of the Mississippi must be far to

the west; an error which was the source of all his misfortunes."

La Sale then steered to the west, and passed by, without perceiving

it, without deigning even to attend to certain signs which he was

asked to observe, the mouth of the Mississippi. When he perceived

his mistake, and entreated M. de Beaujeu to turn back, the latter

would no longer consent. La Sale, seeing that he could make no

impression upon the contradictory mind of his companion, decided to

disembark his men and his provisions in the Bay of St. Bernard. Yet,

in this very last act, Beaujeu manifested an amount of culpable

ill-will, which did as little honour to his judgment as to his

patriotism. Not only was he unwilling to land all the provisions,

under the pretext that certain of them being at the bottom of the

hold, he had no time to change his stowage, but further he gave

shelter on board his own ship to the master and crew of the

transport, laden with the stores, utensils, and implements necessary

for a new establishment, people whom everything seems to convict of

having purposely cast their vessel upon shore. At the same time, a

number of savages took advantage of the disorder caused by the

shipwreck of the transport, to plunder everything on which they

could lay their hands. Nevertheless, La Sale, who had the talent of

never appearing depressed by misfortune, and who found in his own

genius resources adapted to the circumstances of the case, ordered

the works of the establishment to be begun. In order to give courage

to his companions, he more than once took part with his own hands in

the work; but very slow progress was made, in consequence of the

ignorance of the workmen. Struck with the resemblance of the

language and habits of the Indians of these parts to those of the

Mississippi, La Sale was very soon persuaded that he was not far

distant from that river, and made several excursions in order to

approach it. But, if he found a country beautiful and fertile, he

did not make progress towards what he was in search of. He returned

each time to the fort more gloomy and more harsh; and this was not

the way to restore calm to spirits embittered by sufferings and the

inutility of their efforts. Grain had been sown; but scarcely any

came up for want of rain, and what had sprung up was soon laid waste

by the savages and the deer. The hunters who wandered far from the

camp were massacred by the Indians, and sickness found an easy prey

in men overwhelmed with ennui, disappointment, and misery. In a

short time, the number of the colonists fell to thirty-seven. At

length, La Sale resolved to try a last effort to reach the

Mississippi, and in descending the river to seek help from the

nations with which he had made alliance. He set out on January 12th,

1687, with his brother, his two nephews, two missionaries, and

twelve colonists. He was approaching the country of the Shawnees,

when, in consequence of an altercation between one of his nephews

and three of his companions, these latter assassinated the young man

and his servant during their sleep, and resolved immediately to do

the same with the chief of the enterprise. De la Sale, uneasy at not

seeing his nephew return, set out to seek him on the morning of the

19th, with Father Anastase. The assassins, seeing him approach, lay

in ambush in a thicket, and one of them shot him in the head, and

stretched him on the ground stark dead. Thus perished Cavelier de la

Sale, "a man of a capacity," says Father Charlevoix, "of a largeness

of mind, of a courage and firmness of soul, which might have led him

to the achievement of something great, if with so many great

qualities, he had known how to master his gloomy and atrabilious

disposition, and to soften the severity or rather the harshness of

his nature...." Many calumnies had been spread abroad against him;

but it is necessary so much the more to be on our guard against all

these malevolent reports "as it is only too common to exaggerate the

defects of the unfortunate, to impute to them even some which they

had not, especially when they have given occasion for their

misfortune, and have not known how to make themselves beloved. What

is sadder for the memory of this celebrated man, is that he has been

regretted by few persons, and that the ill-success of his

undertakings--only of his last--has given him the air of an

adventurer, among those who judge only by appearances. Unhappily,

these are usually the most numerous, and in some degree the voice of

the public."

[Illustration: Assassination of La Sale.]

We have but little to add to these last wise words. La Sale knew not

how to obtain pardon for his first success. We have related

subsequently by what concurrence of circumstances his second

enterprise miscarried. He died, the victim it may be said, of the

jealousy and malevolence of the Chevalier de Beaujeu. It is to this

slight cause that we owe the failure to found in America a powerful

colony, which would very soon have been found in a condition to

compete with the English establishments.

We have narrated the beginning of the English colonies. The events

which took place in England were highly favourable to them. The

religious persecutions, the revolutions of 1648 and 1688, furnished

numerous recruits, who, animated by an excellent spirit, set

themselves to work, and transported to the other side of the

Atlantic the arts, the industry, and in a short time the prosperity,

of the mother country. Very soon, the immense forests which covered

Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Carolina, fell beneath the hatchet of

the "Squatter," and the soil became cleared, while the hunters of

the woods, driving back the Indians, made the interior of the

country better known, and prepared the work of civilization.

In Mexico, in the whole of Central America, in Peru, in Chili, and

on the shores of the Atlantic, a different state of things prevailed.

The Spaniards had extended their conquests; but, far from acting

like the English, they had reduced the Indians to slavery. Instead

of applying themselves to the cultivation appropriate to the variety

of the climates and of the countries of which they had made

themselves masters, they sought only in the produce of the mines the

resources and prosperity which they should have endeavoured to

obtain from the land. If a country can thus rapidly attain

prodigious wealth, yet this factitious system cannot last long. With

the mines a prosperity which does not renew itself, must ere long

become exhausted. The Spaniards could not fail to experience the sad

result.

Thus then, at the end of the seventeenth century, a great part of

the new world was known. In North America, Canada, the shores of the

Atlantic and of the Gulf of Mexico, the valley of the Mississippi,

the coasts of California and of New Mexico, were discovered or

colonized. All the central part of the continent, from Rio del Norte,

as far as Terra Firma, was subject, at least nominally, to the

Spaniards. In the south, the savannahs and the forests of Brazil,

the pampas of the Argentine, and the interior of Patagonia, escaped

the observation of the explorers, as they were destined to do for a

long time yet.

In Africa, the long line of coasts, which are washed by the Atlantic

and the Indian Oceans, had been patiently followed and observed by

navigators. At some points only, colonists and missionaries had

tried to penetrate the mystery of this vast continent. Senegal,

Congo, the valley of the Nile, and Abyssinia, were all that were

known with some degree of detail and of certainty.

If many of the countries of Asia, surveyed by the travellers of the

middle ages, had not been revisited since that epoch, we had

carefully explored the whole anterior part of that continent, India

had been revealed to us, we had even founded some establishments

there, China had been touched by our missionaries, and Japan, that

famous Cipango which had exercised so great an attraction for our

travellers of the preceding age, was at length known to us. Only

Siberia and the whole north-east angle of Asia had escaped our

investigations, and it was not yet known whether America was not

connected with Asia, a mystery which was before long to be cleared

up.

In Oceania, a number of archipelagos, of islands and separate islets,

remained still to be discovered, but the islands of Sunda were

colonized, the coasts of Australia and of New Zealand had been

partially revealed, and the existence of that great continent which,

according to Tasman, extended from Tierra del Fuego to New Zealand,

began to be doubted; but it still required the long and careful

researches of Cook to banish definitely into the domain of fable a

chimera so long cherished.

Geography was on the point of transforming itself. The great

discoveries made in astronomy were about to be applied to geography.

The labours of Fernel and above all of Picard, upon the measure of a

terrestrial degree between Paris and Amiens, had made it clear that

the globe is not a sphere, but a spheroid, that is to say, a ball

flattened at the poles and swollen at the equator, and thus were

found at one stroke the form and the dimensions of the world which

we inhabit. At length the labours of Picard, continued by La Hire

and Cassini, were completed at the commencement of the following

century. The astronomical observations, rendered possible by the

calculation of the satellites of Jupiter, enabled us to rectify our

maps. If this rectification had been already effected with regard to

certain places, it became indispensable when the number of points of

which the astronomical position had been observed, had been

considerably increased; and this was to be the work of the next

century. At the same time, historical geography was more studied; it

began to take for its foundation the study of inscriptions, and

archaeology was about to become one of the most useful instruments

of comparative geography.

In a word, the seventeenth century is an epoch of transition and of

progress; it seeks and it finds the powerful means which its

successor, the eighteenth century, was destined to put into

operation. The era of the sciences has already opened, and with it

the modern world commences.

END OF THE SECOND PART.

GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE, LONDON.

End of Project Gutenberg's Celebrated Travels and Travellers, by Jules Verne