[Illustration: GIGANTIC CUTTLE FISH. _See page 649._]
OCEAN'S STORY;
OR,
Triumphs of Thirty Centuries;
A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF
MARITIME ADVENTURES,
ACHIEVEMENTS, EXPLORATIONS, DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS:
AND OF THE
RISE AND PROGRESS OF SHIP-BUILDING AND OCEAN NAVIGATION
FROM
THE ARK TO THE IRON STEAMSHIPS,
BY
FRANK B. GOODRICH, Esq.
AUTHOR OF "LETTERS OF DICK TINTO," "THE COURT OF NAPOLEON," &C.
_WITH AN ACCOUNT OF ADVENTURES BENEATH THE SEA; DIVING,
DREDGING, DEEP SEA SOUNDING, LATEST SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS,
&c., &c., PREPARED WITH GREAT CARE_
BY
EDWARD HOWLAND, Esq.
AUTHOR OF MANY POPULAR WORKS.
OVER 200 SPIRITED ILLUSTRATIONS.
SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION.
HUBBARD BROS., PHILADELPHIA, BOSTON, AND CINCINNATI;
VALLEY PUBLISHING CO., ST. LOUIS AND CHICAGO; A. L. BANCROFT & CO.,
SAN FRANCISCO; FRANK W. OLIVER, DAVENPORT, IOWA; H. A. W.
BLACKBURN, DETROIT, MICH.; G. L. BENJAMIN, FOND DU LAC,
WIS.; SCHUYLER SMITH & CO., LONDON, ONTARIO;
W. E. ERSKINE & CO., ST. JOHN'S, N. B.; JNO.
KILLAM, SR., YARMOUTH, NOVA SCOTIA;
M. M. BURNHAM, SYRACUSE, N.Y.
1875.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878.
BY HUBBARD BROS.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
CONTENTS.
SECTION I.
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.--The Purpose of this Work--The Ocean in the Scriptural
Period--The Marvels of the Sea--The Classic Legends--The Fantastic
Notions entertained of the North and the Equator--The Giant of the
Canaries--The Sea of Sea-Weed--The Spectre of the Cape--The Gradual
Surrender of the Secrets of the Sea--It becomes the Highway of
Nations--Its Present Aspect--Its Poetical Significance--Its Moral
Lessons 19
CHAPTER II.--The Origin of Navigation--The Nautilus--The Split Reed
and Beetle--The Beaver floating upon a Log--The Hollow Tree--The First
Canoe--The Floating Nutshell--The Oar--The Rudder--The Sail--The
Tradition of the First Sail-Boat 31
CHAPTER III.--The Flood and the Building of the Ark--The Arguments of
Infidelity against a Universal Deluge--The Material of which the Ark
was built--Its Capacity, Dimensions, and Form--Its Proportions copied
in Modern Ocean-Steamers 36
CHAPTER IV.--The Ships, Commerce, and Navigation of the
Phoenicians--Their Trade with Ophir--Sidon and Tyre--Their Voyage
round Africa--New Tyre--A Patriotic Phoenician Captain--The Egyptians
as a Maritime People--Their Ships and Commerce--The Jews--Their
Geography--Ideas upon the Shape of the Earth--The World as known to
the Hebrews 46
CHAPTER V.--The Early Maritime History of the Greeks--The Expedition
of the Argonauts--The Vessels used in the Trojan War--Ship-Building in
the Time of Homer--The Poetic Geography of the Greeks--The Palace of
the Sun--The Marvels of a Voyage out of Sight of Land--The Geography
of Hesiod--Of Anaximander--Of Thales, Herodotus, Socrates, and
Eratosthenes--The Great Ocean is named the Atlantic 54
CHAPTER VI.--Construction of Greek Vessels--The Prow, Poop,
Rudder, Oars, Masts, Sails, Cordage, Bulwarks, Anchors--Biremes,
Triremes, Quadriremes, Quinqueremes--The Grand Galley of Ptolemy
Philopator--Roman Vessels--Their Navy--Mimic Sea-Fights--The Five
Voyages of Antiquity 65
CHAPTER VII.--The Voyage of Hanno the Carthaginian--He sees
Crocodiles, Apes, and Volcanoes--The Voyage of Himilcon to
Al-Bion--The Voyage and Ignominious Fate of Sataspes the
Persian--The Voyage of Pytheas the Phocian--The Sacred Promontory--A
New Atmosphere--Amber--Return Home--The Veracity of Pytheas'
Narrative--The Expedition of Nearchus the Macedonian--Strange
Phenomena in the Heavens--The Icthyophagi--Houses built of the
Bones of Whales--Fish Flour--A Battle with Whales--An Unexpected
Meeting--The Distance traversed by Nearchus--The Voyage of Eudoxus
along the African Coast--State of Navigation at the Opening of the
Christian Era 75
SECTION II.
FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE APPLICATION OF THE
MAGNETIC NEEDLE TO EUROPEAN NAVIGATION, A.D. 1300.
CHAPTER VIII.--Navigation during the Roman Empire--The Rise of Venice
and Genoa--The Crusades--Their Effect upon Commerce--Wedding of the
Adriatic--Creation of the French Navy--Introduction of Eastern Art
into Europe--Maps of the Middle Ages--Remote Effect of the Crusades
upon Geographical Science 92
CHAPTER IX.--The Scandinavian Sailors--Their Piracies and
Commerce--The Anglo-Saxons--Alfred the Great a Ship-Builder--The
Voyage of Beowulf--Discovery of Iceland by the Danes--Discovery
of Greenland--The Voyage of Bjarni and Leif to the American
Continent--Their Discovery of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Nantucket,
and Massachusetts--Adventures of Thorwald and Thorfinn--Comparison of
the Discoveries of the Northmen with those of Columbus 99
CHAPTER X.--The Travels of Marco Polo--The First Mention of
Japan in History--Kublai Khan--Marco Polo's Voyage from Amoy to
Ormuz--Malacca--Sumatra--Pygmies--Singular Stories of Diamonds--The
Roc--Polo not recognised upon his Return--His Imprisonment--The
Publication of his Narrative--The Interest awakened in China, Japan,
and the Islands of Spices 108
CHAPTER XI.--The First Mention of the Loadstone in History--Its Early
Names--The First Mention of its Directive Power--A Poem upon the
Compass Six Hundred Years Old--Friar Bacon's Magnet--The Loadstone
in Arabia--An Eye-Witness of its Efficiency in the Syrian Waters in
the Year 1240--The Magnet in China--Early Mention of it in Chinese
Works--The Variation noticed in the Twelfth Century--Other Discoveries
made by the Chinese--Modern Errors--Flavio Gioia--The Arms of
Amalfi--All Records lost of the First Voyage made with the Compass by
a European Ship 113
SECTION III.
FROM THE APPLICATION OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE TO EUROPEAN NAVIGATION TO
THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD UNDER MAGELLAN: 1300-1519.
CHAPTER XII.--The Portuguese on the Coast of Africa--The Spaniards and
the Canary Isles--Don Henry of Portugal--The Terrible Cape, now Cape
Bojador--The Sacred Promontory--Discovery of the Madeiras--A Dreadful
Phenomenon--A Prolific Rabbit and a Wonderful Conflagration--Hostility
of the Portuguese to further Maritime Adventure--The Bay of
Horses--The First Gold-Dust seen in Europe--Discovery of Cape Verd
and the Azores--The Europeans approach the Equator--Journey of
Cada-Mosto--Death of Don Henry--Progress of Navigation under the
Auspices of this Prince 122
CHAPTER XIII.--The Portuguese cross the Equator from Guinea to
Congo--John II. conceives the idea of a Route by Sea to the
Indies--His Artifices to prevent the Interference of other
Nations--The Overland Journey of Covillam to India--The Voyage of
Bartholomew Diaz--The Doubling of the Tremendous Cape--Its Baptism by
the King--Injurious Effects of Success upon Portuguese Ambition 133
CHAPTER XIV.--Birth of Christopher Columbus--His Early Life
and Education--His First Voyage--His Marriage--His Maritime
Contemplations--He makes Proposals to the Senate of Genoa, the
Court of Venice, and the King of Portugal--The Duplicity of the
latter--Columbus visits Spain--Juan de Marchena--Columbus repairs
to Cordova--His Second Marriage--His Letter to the King--The Junto
of Salamanca--Columbus resolves to shake the dust of Spain from his
feet--Marchena's Letter to Isabella--The Queen gives Audience to
Columbus--The Conditions stipulated by the latter--Isabella accepts
the Enterprise, while Ferdinand remains aloof 137
CHAPTER XV.--The Port of Palos--The Superstition of its Mariners--The
Hand of Satan--A Bird which lifted Vessels to the Clouds--The Pinta
and the Nina--The Santa Maria--Capacity of a Spanish Caravel--The
three Pinzons--The Departure--Columbus' Journal--The Helm of the Pinta
unshipped--The Variation of the Needle--The Appearance of the Tropical
Atlantic--Floating Vegetation--The Sargasso Sea--Alarm and threatened
Mutiny of the Sailors--Perplexities of Columbus--Land! Land! a False
Alarm--Indications of the Vicinity of Land--Murmurs of the Crews--Open
Revolt quelled by Columbus--Floating Reeds and Tufts of Grass--Land at
last--The Vessels anchor over-night 147
CHAPTER XVI.--Discovery of Guanahani--Ceremonies of taking
Possession--Exploration of the Neighboring Islands--Search
for Gold--Cuba supposed by Columbus to be Japan--The
Cannibals--Haiti--Return Homewards--A Storm--An Appeal to the
Virgin--Arrival at the Azores--Conduct of the Portuguese--Columbus at
Lisbon--At Palos--At Barcelona--Columbus' Second Voyage--Discovery
of Guadeloupe, Antigoa, Santa Cruz, Jamaica--Illness of
Columbus--Terrible Battle between the Spaniards and the
Savages--Columbus returns to Spain--His Reception by the Queen--His
Third Voyage--The Region of Calms--Discovery of Trinidad and of the
Main Land--Assumpcion and Margarita--Columbus in Chains 158
CHAPTER XVII.--The Failing Health of Columbus--His Fourth
Voyage--Martinique, Porto Rico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama--His
Search for a Channel across the Isthmus--He predicts an Eclipse of
the Moon at Jamaica--His Return--The Death of Isabella--Columbus
Penniless at Valladolid--His Death--His Four Burials--The Injustice of
the World towards Columbus--Christopher Pigeon--Amerigo Vespucci--The
New World named America--Errors of Modern Historians--The District
of Columbia--John Cabot in Labrador--Sebastian Cabot in Hudson's
Bay--Vincent Yanez Pinzon at the Mouths of the Amazon 168
CHAPTER XVIII.--Portuguese Navigation under Emmanuel--Popular
Prejudices--The Lusind of Camoens--Vasco da Gama--Maps of Africa
of the Period--Preparations for an Indian Voyage--Religious
Ceremonies--The Departure--Rendezvous at the Cape Verds--Landing
upon the Coast--The Natives--An Invitation to Dinner, and its
Consequences--A Storm--Mutiny--The Spectre of the Cape 179
CHAPTER XIX.--Da Gama and the Negroes--The Hottentots and
Caffres--Adventure with an Albatross--The River of Good
Promise--Mozambique--Treachery of the Natives--Mombassa--Melinda, and
its Amiable King--Festivities--The Malabar Coast--Calicut--The Route
to the Indies discovered 189
CHAPTER XX.--The Moors in Hindostan--Condition of the Country upon
the Arrival of Da Gama--Hostility of the Moors--They prejudice the
King of Calicut against the Portuguese--Consequent Hostilities--Da
Gama sets out upon his Return--Wild Cinnamon-A Moorish Pirate
disguised as an Italian Christian--A Tempestuous Voyage--Wreck
of the San Rafael--Honors and Titles bestowed upon Da Gama--An
Expedition fitted out under Alvarez Cabral--Accidental Discovery
of Brazil--Comets and Water-Spouts--Loss of Four Vessels--A Bazaar
established at Calicut--Attack by the Moors--Cabral withdraws to
Cochin--Visits Cananor and takes in a Load of Cinnamon--Is received
with Coldness upon his Return--Vasco da Gama recalled into the Service
by the King--His Achievements at Sofala, Cananor, and Calicut--He
hangs Fifty Indians at the Yard-Arm--Protects Cochin and threatens
Calicut--Withdraws to Private Life 197
CHAPTER XXI.--Spread of the Portuguese East Indian Empire--Alphonzo
d'Albuquerque--Immense Sacrifice of Life--Ancient Route of
the Spice-Trade with Europe--Commerce by Caravans--Revolution
produced by opening the New Route--Francesco Almeida--Discovery
of Ceylon--Tristan d'Acunha--The Portuguese Mars--His Views of
Empire--An Arsenal established at Goa--Reduction of Malacca--Siam and
Sumatra send Embassies to Albuquerque--The Island of Ormuz--Death of
Albuquerque--Extent of the Portuguese Dominion--Ormuz becomes the
great Emporium of the East--Fall of the Portuguese Empire 207
CHAPTER XXII.--Ponce de Leon--The Fountain of Youth--Discovery of
Florida--The Martyrs and the Tortugas--The Bahama Channel--Vasco
Nuñez de Balboa--He goes to Sea in a Barrel--Marries a Lady of the
Isthmus--His Search for Gold--Hears of a Mighty Ocean--Undertakes
to reach it--Preparations for the Expedition--Leoncico the
Bloodhound--Battle with a Cacique--Ascent of the Mountains--Balboa
mounts to the Summit alone--The First Sight of the Pacific--Ceremonies
of taking Possession--Balboa up to his Knees in the Ocean--Every
one tastes the Water--A Voyage upon the Pacific, and a Narrow
Escape--Ignominious Fate of Balboa--Juan Diaz de Solis--Discovers the
Rio de la Plata--His Horrible Death by Cannibals 213
CHAPTER XXIII.--Remarkable Foresight of the Court of Rome--A Papal
Bull--Ferdinand Magellan--He offers his Services to Spain--His
Plans--His Fleet--Pigafetta the Historian--An Inauspicious
Start--Teneriffe and its Legends--St. Elmo's Fire--The Crew make
Famous Bargains with the Cannibals--Heavy Price paid for the King of
Spades--Patagonian Giants--Pigafetta's Exaggerations--The Healing Art
in Patagonia--The Tragedy of Port Julian--Discovery of a Strait--The
Open Sea--Cape Deseado--The Ocean named Pacific--Ravages of the
Scurvy--A Patagonian Paul--The Needle becomes Lethargic--Discovery of
the Ladrones--The First Cocoanut--A Catholic Ceremony upon a Pagan
Island 225
CHAPTER XXIV.--Discovery of the Philippines--The King of Zubu
wishes the King of Spain to pay Tribute--He finally abandons the
idea--A whole Island converted to Christianity--Magellan performs
a Miracle--A Dumb Man recovers his Speech--Magellan invades a
Refractory Island--His Death--Attempts to recover his Body--The
Christian Island returns to Idolatry--The Ships arrive at Borneo--The
Sailors drink too freely of Arrack--Festivities and Treachery--Vivid
Imagination of Pigafetta--The Fleet arrives at the Moluccas--The
King of Tidore--A Brisk Trade in Cloves--The Spice-Tariff--The
Vittoria sails Homeward--Pigafetta is again imaginative--Arrival at
the Cape Verds--Loss of One Day--Completion of the First Voyage of
Circumnavigation--Pigafetta's Romance becomes Veritable History 236
SECTION IV.
FROM THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD TO THE DISCOVERY OF CAPE HORN:
1519-1616.
CHAPTER XXV.--Voyage of Jacques Cartier--Maritime Projects
of Francis I. of France--Gulf of St Lawrence--A Quick
Trip Home--Second Voyage--Canada, Quebec, Montreal--A
Captive King--Voyage of Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard
Chancellor--Discovery of Nova Zembla--Disastrous Winter--Fate of the
Expedition--Martin Frobisher--His Voyage in Quest of a Northwest
Passage--Greenland--Labrador--Frobisher's Straits--Exchange of
Captives--Supposed Discovery of Gold--Second Voyage--A Cargo of
Precious Earth taken on Board--Meta Incognita--Third Voyage--A
Mortifying Conclusion 245
CHAPTER XXVI.--Origin of English Piracy--Sir John Hawkins--Francis
Drake--His First Voyage to the Spanish Main--Commission granted by
Queen Elizabeth--Expedition against the Spanish Possessions--Exploits
at Mogador and Santiago--Crossing the Line--Arrival in
Patagonia--Trial and Execution of Doughty--Passage through
Magellan's Strait--Adventures of William Pitcher and Seven Men--Cape
Horn--Arrival at Valparaiso--Rifling of a Catholic Church 256
CHAPTER XXVII.--Drake's Exploit with a Sleeping Spaniard--His
Achievements at Callao--Battle with a Treasure-Ship--Drake gives
a Receipt for her Cargo--Indites a Touching Epistle--His Plans
for Returning Home--Fresh Captures--Performances at Guatulco and
Acapulco--Drake dismisses his Pilot--Exceeding Cold Weather--Drake
regarded as a God by the Californians--Sails for the Moluccas--Visits
Ternate and Celebes--The Pelican upon a Reef--The Return
Voyage--Protest of the Spanish Ambassador--He styles Drake the
Master-Thief of the Unknown World--Queen Elizabeth on board the
Pelican--Drake's Use of his Fortune--His Death--The Voyage of John
Davis to the Northwest 267
CHAPTER XXVIII.--Policy of Queen Elizabeth--Thomas Cavendish--His
First Voyage--Exploits upon the African and Brazilian Coasts--Port
Desire--Port Famine--Battles with the Araucanians--Capture of
Paita--Robbery of a Church--Repeated Acts of Brigandage--Capture
of the Santa Anna--The Return Voyage--Cavendish's Account of the
Expedition--The Spanish Armada--Preparations in England--The
Conflict--Total Rout of the Invincibles--Procession in Commemoration
of the Event 276
CHAPTER XXIX.--The Fiction of El Dorado--Manoa--Description of its
Fabled Splendors--Attempts of the Spaniards to Discover it--Sir
Walter Raleigh--His Voyage to Guiana--His Account of the Orinoco--His
Description of the Scenery--His Return--His Second Voyage--Expedition
to Newfoundland--His Death--Modern Interpretation of the Legend of El
Dorado 285
CHAPTER XXX.--Discovery of the Solomon Islands by Mendana--He seeks
for them again Thirty Years later--Quiros--The Marquesas Islands--The
Women compared with those of Lima--Strange Fruits--Conversions to
Christianity--Arduous Voyage--Santa Cruz--Mendana exchanges Names with
Malopé--Hostilities--War, and its Results--Death of Mendana--Quiros
conducts the Ships to Manilla 291
CHAPTER XXXI.--Attempts of the Dutch to discover a Northeast
Passage--Voyage of Wilhelm Barentz--Arrival at Nova Zembla--Winter
Quarters--Building a House--Fights with Bears--The Sun Disappears--The
Clock Stops, and the Beer Freezes--The House is Snowed up--The
Hot-Ache--Fox-Traps--Twelfth Night--Return of the Sun--The Ships
prove Unseaworthy--Preparations to Depart in the Boats--Death of
Barentz--Arrival at Amsterdam--Results of the Voyage 297
CHAPTER XXXII.--The Five Ships of Rotterdam--Battle at the Island of
Brava--Sebald de Weert--Disasters in the Strait of Magellan--The Crew
eat Uncooked Food--The Fleet is scattered to the Winds--Adventures of
De Weert--A Wretched Object--Return to Holland--Voyage of Oliver Van
Noort--Barbarous Punishment--The Emblem of Hope becomes a Cause of
Despair--Fight with the Patagonians--Arrest of the Vice-Admiral--His
Punishment--Description of a Chilian Beverage--Capture of a Spanish
Treasure-Ship--A Pilot thrown Overboard--Sea-Fight off Manilla--Return
Home, after the First Dutch Voyage of Circumnavigation 304
CHAPTER XXXIII.--Quiros' Theory of a Southern Continent--His Arguments
and Memorials--His First Voyage--Discoveries--Encarnaçion--Sagittaria,
or Tahiti--Description of these Islands--Manicolo--Espiritu Santo--Its
Productions and Inhabitants--Quiros before the King of Spain--His
Belief in his Discovery of a Continent--His Disappointment--Renewed
Solicitations--Death of Quiros--Discoveries of Torrès--The Muscovy
Company of London--Henry Hudson--His Voyages to Spitzbergen and Nova
Zembla--His Voyage to America--Casts Anchor at Sandy Hook--Ascends the
Hudson River as far as the Site of Albany--His Voyage to Iceland and
Hudson's Bay--Disastrous Winter--Mutiny--Hudson set adrift--His
Death 316
CHAPTER XXXIV.--The Fleet of Joris Spilbergen--Arrival in
Brazil--Adventures in the Strait of Magellan--Trade at Mocha
Island--Treachery at Santa Maria--Terrible Battle between the Dutch
and Spanish Fleets--Ravages of the Coast--Skirmishes Upon the
Land--Spilbergen sails for Manilla--Arrival at Ternate--His Return
Home--The Voyage of Schouten and Lemaire--Lemonade at Sierra Leone--A
Collision at Sea--Discovery of Staten Land--Cape Horn--Lemaire's
Strait--Arrival at Batavia--Confiscation of the Ships--General Results
of the Voyage--The Voyage of William Baffin--Arctic Researches during
the Seventeenth Century 326
SECTION V.
FROM THE DISCOVERY OF CAPE HORN TO THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO
NAVIGATION: 1616-1807.
CHAPTER XXXV.--A Famous Vessel--The Mayflower--Her
Appearance--The Speedwell--Departure of the Two Ships--Alleged
Unseaworthiness of the Speedwell--The Mayflower sails alone--The
Equinoctial--Consultations--A Remedy applied--First View of the
Land--Subsequent History and Fate of the Mayflower 339
CHAPTER XXXVI.--Discovery of New Holland--Tasman ordered to survey the
Island--Discovery of Van Diemen's Land--Of New Zealand--Murderers'
Bay--The Friendly Islands--The Feejees--New Britain--An Earthquake at
Sea--A Copious Language--Circumnavigation of New Holland--Return to
Batavia--Results of the Voyage--Dutch Opinions of Tasman's Merit 346
CHAPTER XXXVII.--Piracy--Origin of the Buccaneers--Their
Manner of Life--Dress--Occupation-The Island of Tortuga their
Head-Quarters--Their Religious Scruples--Manner of dividing
Spoils--The Exterminator--The Observance of the Sabbath--Exploits
of Henry Morgan--Impotence of the Spaniards--Career of William
Dampier--His First Piratical Cruise--Adventures by Land and
Sea--Description of the Plantain-Tree--Lingering Deaths by
Poison--Reproaches of Conscience--The New-Hollanders--Dampier's
Dangerous Voyage in an Open Boat--Piracy upon the American
Coast--William Kidd sent against the Pirates--He turns Pirate
himself--His Exploits, Detection, and Execution--His Buried
Treasures--Wreck of the Whidah Pirate-Ship 351
CHAPTER XXXVIII.--The Voyage of Woodes Rogers-Desertion checked by a
Novel Circumstance--A Light seen upon the Island of Juan Fernandez--A
Boat sent to Reconnoitre--Alexander Selkirk discovered--His History
and Adventures--His Dress, Food, and Occupations--He ships with
Rogers as Second Mate--Turtles and Tortoises--Fight with a Spanish
Treasure-Ship--Profits of the Voyage--The South Sea Bubble--Its
Inflation and Collapse--Measures of Relief 373
CHAPTER XXXIX.--The Dutch West India Company--Renewed Search for
the Terra Australis Incognita--Jacob Roggewein--His Voyage of
Discovery--Brush with Pirates--Arrival at Juan Fernandez--Easter
Island--Its Inhabitants--Entertainment of one on board the Ship--A
Misunderstanding--Pernicious and Recreation Islands--Glimpse
of the Society Islands--A Famine in the Fleet--Arrival at New
Britain--Confiscation of the Ship at Batavia--Decision of the
States-General--Vitus Behring--Behring's Strait--Description of the
Scene--Death of Behring--Subsequent Survey of the Strait 383
CHAPTER XL.--Piratical Voyage under George Anson--Unparalleled
Mortality--Arrival and Sojourn at Juan Fernandez--A
Prize--Capture of Paita--Preparations to attack the Manilla
Galleon--Disappointment--Fortunate Arrival at Tinian--Romantic Account
of the Island--A Storm--Anson's Ship driven out to Sea--The Abandoned
Crew set about building a Boat--Return of the Centurion--Battle with
the Manilla Galleon--Anson's Arrival in England--The Proceeds of the
Cruise 393
CHAPTER XLI.--The First Scientific Voyage of Circumnavigation--The
Dolphin and Tamar--Byron in Patagonia--Falkland Islands--Islands of
Disappointment--Arrival at Tinian--Byron versus Anson--The Voyage
Home--Wallis and Carteret--Their Observations in Patagonia--Wallis
at Tahiti--A Desperate Battle--Nails lose their Value--A Tahitian
Romance--Pitcairn's Island--Queen Charlotte's Islands--New
Britain--The Voyage Home--A Man-of-War Destroyed by Fire 410
CHAPTER XLII.--Colonization of the Falkland Islands--Antoine
de Bougainville--His Voyage around the World--Adventure
at Montevideo--The Patagonians--Taking Possession of
Tahiti--French Gallantry--Ceremonies of Reception--Sojourn at
the Island--Aotourou--The First Female Circumnavigator--Famine
on Board--Remarkable Cascade--Arrival at the Moluccas--Incidents
there--Return Home 426
CHAPTER XLIII.--Expedition despatched at the Instance of the Royal
Society--Lieutenant James Cook--Incidents of the Voyages--A Night on
Shore in Terra del Fuego--Arrival at Tahiti--The Natives pick their
Pockets--The Observatory--A Native chews a Quid of Tobacco--The
Transit of Venus--Two of the Marines take unto themselves Wives--New
Zealand--Adventures there--Remarkable War-Canoe--Cannibalism
demonstrated--Theory of a Southern Continent subverted--New
Holland--Botany Bay--The Endeavor on the Rocks--Expedient to stop
the Leak--A Conflagration--Passage through a Reef--Arrival at
Batavia--Mortality on the Voyage Home--Cook promoted to the Rank of
Commander 435
CHAPTER XLIV.--Cook's Second Voyage--A Storm--Separation of the
Ships--Aurora Australis--New Zealand--Six Water-Spouts at once--Tahiti
again--Petty Thefts of the Natives--Cook visits the Tahitian
Theatre--Omai--Arrival at the Friendly Islands--The Fleet witness
a Feast of Human Flesh--The New Hebrides--New Caledonia--Return
Home--Honors bestowed upon Cook 451
CHAPTER XLV.--Cook's Third Voyage--The Northwest Passage--Omai--His
Reception at Home--The Crew forego their Grog--Discovery of the
Sandwich Islands--Nootka Sound--The Natives--Cape Prince of Wales--Two
Continents in Sight--Icy Cape--Return to the Sandwich Islands--Cook
is deified--Interview with Tereoboo--Subsequent Difficulties--A
Skirmish--Pitched Battle and Death of Cook--Recovery of a Portion of
his Remains--Funeral Ceremonies--Life and Services of Cook 461
CHAPTER XLVI.--Louis XVI. and the Science of Navigation--Voyage
of Lapérouse--Arrival at Easter Island--Address of the
Natives--Owhyhee--Trade at Mowee--Survey of the American
Coast--A Remarkable Inlet--Distressing Calamity--Sojourn at
Monterey--Run across the Pacific--The Japanese Waters--Arrival at
Petropaulowski--Affray at Navigators' Isles--Lapérouse arrives at
Botany Bay, and is never seen again, alive or dead--Voyages made
in Search of him--D'Entrecasteaux--Dillon--D'Urville--Discovery of
numerous Relics of the Ships at Manicolo--Theory of the Fate of
Lapérouse--Erection of a Monument to his Memory 480
CHAPTER XLVII.--The Transplantation of the Bread-Fruit Tree--The
Voyage of the Bounty--A Mutiny--Bligh, the Captain, with Eighteen Men,
cast adrift in the Launch--Incidents of the Voyage from Tahiti to
Timor--Terrible Sufferings and a Marvellous Escape--Arrival of the
Mutineers at Tahiti--Their Removal to Pitcairn's Island--Subsequent
History--Voyage of Vancouver--Algerine Piracy--Burning of the
Philadelphia--Proud Position of the United States 492
CHAPTER XLVIII.--Application of Steam to Navigation--Robert
Fulton--Chancellor Livingston--Launch of the Clermont--She crosses the
Hudson River--Her Voyage to Albany--Description of the Scene--Fulton's
own Account--Legislative Protection granted to Fulton--The
Pendulum-Engine--Construction of other Steamboats--The Steam-Frigate
Fulton the First--The First Ocean-Steamer, the Savannah--Account of
her Voyage--Misapprehensions upon the Subject 508
SECTION VI.
FROM THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO NAVIGATION TO THE LAYING OF THE
ATLANTIC CABLE: 1807-1858.
CHAPTER XLIX.--Arctic Explorations--Russian Researches under
Krusenstern and Kotzebue--Freycinet--Ross--The Crimson
Cliffs--Lancaster Sound--Buchan and Franklin--Parry--The Polar
Sea--Winter Quarters--Return Home--Duperrey--Episodes in the
Whale-Fishery--Parry's Polar Voyage--Boat-Sledges--Method of
Travel--Disheartening Discovery--82° 43' North 519
CHAPTER L.--Ross's Second Voyage--The North Magnetic
Pole--D'Urville--Enderby's Land--Back's Voyage in the Terror--The
Great Western and Sirius--United States' Exploring Expedition--The
Antarctic Continent--Sir John Franklin's Last Voyage in the Erebus
and Terror--Efforts made to relieve him--Discovery of the Scene of
his First Winter Quarters--The Grinnell Expedition--The Advance and
Rescue--Lieutenant de Haven--Dr. Kane--Return of the Expedition 535
CHAPTER LI.--Kennedy's Expedition--Sir Edward
Belcher--McClure--Discovery of the Northwest Passage--Junction of
McClure and Kellett--Episode of the Resolute--Commodore Perry's
Expedition--Decisive Traces of the Fate of Sir John Franklin--The
Leviathan 553
CHAPTER LII.--The Second Grinnell Expedition--The Advance in
Winter Quarters--Total Darkness--Sledge-Parties--Adventures--The
First Death--Tennyson's Monument--Humboldt Glacier--The Open
Polar Sea--Second Winter--Abandonment of the Brig--The Water
again--Upernavik--Rescue by Captain Hartstene--Death and Services of
Dr. Kane--Attempt to lay the Atlantic Cable 561
CHAPTER LIII.--Second and Third Attempts to lay the Atlantic
Cable--The Failure in the Month of June--Description of the
Cable--The Voyage of the Niagara--The Continuity--All Right
again--Change from one Coil to Another--The Knights of the Black
Hand--Unfavorable Symptoms--The Insulation broken--The Third of
August--An Anxious Moment--Land discovered--Trinity Bay--Mr. Field
visits the Telegraph Station--The Operators taken by Surprise--Landing
of the Cable--Impressive Ceremony--Captain Hudson returns Thanks
to Heaven--The Voyage of the Agamemnon--The Queen's Message--The
Sixteenth of August--Deep-Sea Telegraphing--The Equator and the
Cable 576
CHAPTER LIV.--Diving--The first diving-bell--Fixed apparatus supplied
with compressed air--The submarine hydrostat--Operations at Hell
Gate--Diving apparatus--Submarine explosions--Improved diving
dresses--Their use--Work of various kinds done with them--Instances
of this--Seeking the treasure of the Hussar--Sunken ships in
Sebastopol--Operations in Mobile--The Dry Dock at Pensacola Bay--The
beauties of the submarine world--Habits of the fish--Possible depth of
descent 594
CHAPTER LV.--Fishing--The ocean as a field--The crops it yields--The
sponge--Transplanting sponges--Coral fisheries--The coral an
animal--The discovery of this--Oyster fishery--The oyster a social
animal--The young oyster--Oyster culture--Dredging for oysters--The
American oyster fishery--Pearl oysters--The value of the pearl
fishery--Shark fishing--Cuttle fish 627
CHAPTER LVI.--Dredging in modern times--What it has taught
us--Deep sea soundings--First attempts--Implements used for
it--The chance for inventors--The temperature of the sea--Deep
sea temperature--Self-regulating thermometers--Serial temperature
soundings--Animal life of the sea--Deep sea dredging--The dredging
apparatus of the Porcupine 652
CHAPTER LVII.--The development of ship building--New models
for ships--Steam ship navigation--Monitors--Iron-plated
frigates--Tin-clads--Rams--Torpedo boats--Their use in the
Confederacy--Life Rafts--Yacht building--Ocean yacht race--The cost of
a yacht 673
CHAPTER LVIII.--Our knowledge of the earth and sea--How it has
increased--The earth the daughter of the ocean--The opinion of
science--The mean depth of the ocean--The extent of the ocean--Its
volume--Specific gravity of sea-water--Constitution of salt-water--The
silver in the sea--The waves of the sea--The currents of the
ocean--The tides--The aquarium--The commerce of modern times--The
spread of peace 696
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
No. Page
1. Gigantic Cuttle Fish _Frontispiece._
2. Asiatic Deluge 18
3. Hand of Satan 19
4. Stormy Petrel 30
5. The First Navigator 31
6. Modern Row Boat 33
7. The Deluge and the Ark 35
8. Noctulius Miliaris 45
9. Supposed form of the ship _Argo_ 54
10. The World, according to Homer 61
11. The Earth, according to Anaximander 62
12. The Great Penguin 64
13. Greek Vessel of the 6th Century 65
14. The Ptolemy Philopator 72
15. Common Penguin 74
16. The Sacred Promontory 78
17. Plan of Pythias' Voyage 79
18. Plan of the Voyage of Nearchus 83
19. Supposed form of the ships of Nearchus 91
20. Venetian Galley of the 10th Century 92
21. Wedding the Adriatic 95
22. Danish vessel of the 10th Century 99
23. The Northmen of America 104
24. Fishing for Herrings 107
25. Ancient Chinese Compass 113
26. Chinese Junk 119
27. Ship of the 14th Century 121
28. Teneriffe 122
29. Cape Bojador 124
30. Cape Verd 130
31. Sea Swallow 132
32. Christopher Columbus 137
33. Violet Asteria 145
34. The Fleet of Columbus 146
35. Head of the Merganser 147
36. The _Nina_ homeward bound 157
37. Columbus taking possession of Guanchani 158
38. Reception of Columbus by Ferdinand, etc. 162
39. Columbus in chains at Cadiz 168
40. Water Spout 170
41. The Phaeton 178
42. Vasco de Gama 179
43. Map of Africa, drawn 1497 182
44. Spectre of the Cape 187
45. Phosphorescence 188
46. The Man overboard, and the Albatross 189
47. Calicut in the 16th Century 196
48. Wreck of the _San Raphael_ 197
49. De Gama's Flag Ship 204
50. Vessels employed in the Spice Trade in the 16th Century 207
51. Ponce de Leon and the Fountain of Youth 213
52. Balboa and the Indian 217
53. Balboa discovering the Pacific Ocean 219
54. Balboa taking possession of the Pacific Ocean 221
55. Fate of De Solis and his companions 224
56. Ferdinand Magellan 225
57. Cape Virgin, east end Magellan's Strait 231
58. Laminaria 235
59. Natives of Borneo prepare to attack Magellan 236
60. Tidore 242
61. Scene on the Canadian Coast 246
62. Henry VIII. Embarking at Dover 255
63. Francis Drake 256
64. Drake and his Raft 260
65. Drake and the Patagonians 261
66. Drake condemning Doughty 262
67. Sea Anemones 266
68. Drake interrupting Justin at Acopulco 270
69. Queen Elizabeth knighting Drake 274
70. British Ship of War. 1578 276
71. Cavendish in Brazil 277
72. Port Famine 278
73. Hull of a vessel of the Armada 282
74. Procession in honor of the defeat of the Armada 284
75. Sir Walter Raleigh 285
76. Native of the Solomon Islands 291
77. Islanders before a Breeze 296
78. The Dutch at Walrus Island 297
79. The Dutch in Winter quarters 299
80. The female Otter and her young 303
81. Funeral of Mahu at Brava Island 304
82. Affray between the Dutch and Patagonians 310
83. The Two Admirals at close quarters 314
84. A Dutch Pic-Nic in the Mauritius 315
85. Turtles Head 315
86. Woman and Child of Espiritu Santu 316
87. Scene at Tahiti 318
88. Hudson's vessel, _The Half Moon_, off Sandy Hook 323
89. Dutch vessel trading at the Ladrones 326
90. Conflict between the Dutch and Spanish Fleets 330
91. The Dutch surprised by the Spaniards 331
92. Cape Horn 335
93. The _Concord_ at Fly Island 336
94. Arctic Gull 338
95. _Speedwell_ and _Mayflower_ 339
96. Cod Fish 345
97. Tasman's vessel, _The Zeehaan_ 346
98. Murderer's Bay 349
99. Natives of Murderer's Bay 349
100. A Buccaneer 351
101. Boats used in the Philippian Islands 360
102. Surf Bathing by Natives 362
103. Polynesian Canoe with its Outrigger 364
104. Dampier's Boat in a Storm 365
105. Wreck of the Pirate Ship, _Whidah_ 372
106. Home of Alexander Selkirk 373
107. Selkirk and his Family 376
108. Catching Turtles 378
109. The Hammer-headed Shark 382
110. The Eagle and the Pirate 383
111. Mirage at Behring's Straits 391
112. Lord Anson 393
113. Bombardment of Paita 397
114. Anson's Encampment at Firman 401
115. The Centurion and the Treasure Ship 407
116. Byron at King George's Island 410
117. Parting of Wallis and Oberea 418
118. Burning of the _Le Prince_ 423
119. Chain of Phosphorescent Salpas 425
120. Bougainville 426
121. A Ferry Boat at Buenos Ayres 428
122. Bougainville at Magellan's Straits 429
123. Cascade at Port Praslin 433
124. Capt. James Cook 435
125. A New Zealand Canoe 443
126. Cape Pigeon 450
127. Cook's ship beset by Water Spouts 451
128. King Otoo's sister dancing 455
129. Reception of Cook at the Friendly Islands 456
130. Canoes of the Friendly Islands 458
131. New Caledonian double Canoe 460
132. Sandwich Island King to visit Cook 461
133. Omai 465
134. Habitations in Nootka Sound 467
135. Man of the Sandwich Islands 469
136. Woman of Sandwich Islands 470
137. Fight with the Natives 472
138. Death of Capt. Cook 474
139. Lapérouse 480
140. Lapérouse's Disaster at Frenchport 485
141. Remnants of the wreck 490
142. Consecration of the Cenotaph 491
143. Scene in Terra del Fuego 492
144. Colonists of Pitcairn's Island 498
145. A Deserted Village 501
146. The _Discovery_ on a Rock 502
147. Burning of the _Philadelphia_ 506
148. The _Clermont_, the first steamboat 508
149. The _Savannah_, the first ocean steamer 517
150. Head of a White Bear 519
151. Reception of Otzebue at Otdia 520
152. Sea Lions upon the Ice 523
153. Attacked by Walruses 524
154. White Bears 526
155. Cutting In 529
156. Cutting Out 529
157. The Whale of Capt. de Blois 531
158. The Navigators frozen in 535
159. The _Victory_ in a Gale 536
160. Dr. Kane 547
161. Dr. Kane passing through Devil's Nip 548
162. The Seal 552
163. Japanese Vessel 558
164. The Leviathan 559
165. Cape Alexander, the Arctic Gibraltar 561
166. Chaos 563
167. Wild Dog Team 565
168. Open Polar Sea 566
169. Seeking Eider Down 570
170. The Telegraphic Fleet 571
171. Hauling the Cable ashore 573
172. Landing the Cable 574
173. A hollow Wave 575
174. The Cable in the bed of the Ocean 576
175. Sections of Atlantic Cable 577
176. The Telegraphic Plateau 584
177. The _Agamemnon_ in a Gale 590
178. The Seal 594
179. Diving Bell 595
180. Fixed Apparatus supplied with Compressed Air 596
181. Payerne's Submarine Hydrostat 598
182. Mushroom Drill 601
183. Ready to go down 603
184. Putting in the Charges 605
185. Grappling Machine 606
186. Divers dressed in their Apparatus 607
187. Divers finding a Box of Gold 608
188. Arming the Diver 611
189. Casting off the Diver 612
190. Diver down 613
191. Cannon, bell, and bones, brought up from the Wreck 615
192. Salvage of Russian Ships 616
193. Caulking a Vessel 617
194. The Northern Diver 625
195. Star Fish 627
196. Sponge fishing 628
197. Coral fishing off coast of Sicily 631
198. Faggots suspended to receive Oyster Spat 636
199. Dredging for Oysters 639
200. A Shell containing Chinese Pearls 640
201. Pearl Fisher in danger 642
202. Shark fishing 646
203. Cuttle fish making his Cloud 648
204. Ideal Scene 650
205. Red Coral 651
206. Dredging 652
207. Brook's Deep Sea Sounding Apparatus 657
208. Bull Dog Sounding Machine 659
209. Massey's Sounding Machine 660
210. The stern of the _Porcupine_ 668
211. Sail boat in a Gale 673
212. _Pennsylvania_ and _Ohio_ on the Stocks 675
213. Monitors 678
214. Plans of the Monitors 679
215. St. Louis 680
216. Double Ender 681
217. _Minnehaha_, or Tin Clad 683
218. The Ram Ironsides 685
219. Torpedo Explosion 687
220. Life Raft 691
221. Ocean Yacht Race, _Henrietta_, _Vesta_ and _Fleetwing_ 694
222. Fancy Sail Race 695
223. Appearance of Ice at the Poles 710
224. Light Ship 711
225. A Coral Island 712
[Illustration: ASIATIC DELUGE.]
[Illustration: THE HAND OF SATAN UPON THE SEA OF DARKNESS.]
Section I.
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
CHAPTER I.
THE PURPOSE OF THIS WORK--THE OCEAN IN THE SCRIPTURAL PERIOD--THE
MARVELS OF THE SEA--THE CLASSIC LEGENDS--THE FANTASTIC NOTIONS
ENTERTAINED OF THE NORTH AND THE EQUATOR--THE GIANT OF THE
CANARIES--THE SEA OF SEA-WEED--THE SPECTRE OF THE CAPE--THE GRADUAL
SURRENDER OF THE SECRETS OF THE SEA--IT BECOMES THE HIGHWAY OF
NATIONS--ITS PRESENT ASPECT--ITS POETICAL SIGNIFICANCE--ITS MORAL
LESSONS.
A history of the ocean from the Flood to the Atlantic Telegraph, with
a parallel sketch of ship-building from the Ark to the Iron Clad; a
narrative of the rise of commerce, from the days when Solomon's ships
traded with Ophir, to the time when the steam whistle is heard on every
open sea; a consecutive chronicle of the progress of navigation, from
the day when the timid mariner hugged the coast by day and prudently
cast anchor by night, to the time when the steamship, apparently
endowed with reason, or at least guided by instinct, seems almost to
dispense with the aid of man,--such a theme seems to offer topics of
interest which it would be difficult to find in any other subject. The
reader will readily perceive its scope when we have briefly rehearsed
what the sea once was to man, and what it now is,--the purpose of the
work being to narrate how from the one it has become the other.
In early times, in the scriptural and classic periods, the great
oceans were unknown. Mankind--at least that portion whose history has
descended to us--dwelt upon the borders of an inland, mediterranean
sea. They had never heard of such an expanse of water as the Atlantic,
and certainly had never seen it. The land-locked sheet which lay spread
out at their feet was at all times full of mystery, and often even of
dread and secret misgiving. Those who ventured forth upon its bosom
came home and told marvellous tales of the sights they had seen and the
perils they had endured. Homer's heroes returned to Ithaca with the
music of the sirens in their ears and the cruelties of the giants upon
their lips. The Argonauts saw whirling rocks implanted in the sea, to
warn and repel the approaching navigator; and, as if the mystery of the
waters had tinged with fable even the dry land beyond it, they filled
the Caucasus with wild stories of enchantresses, of bulls that breathed
fire, and of a race of men that sprang, like a ripened harvest, from
the prolific soil. If the ancients were ignorant of the shape of the
earth, it was for the very reason that they were ignorant of the ocean.
Their geographers and philosophers, whose observations were confined
to fragments of Europe, Asia, and Africa, alternately made the world a
cylinder, a flat surface begirt by water, a drum, a boat, a disk. The
legends that sprang from these confused and contradictory notions made
the land a scene of marvels and the water an abode of terrors.
At a later period, when, with the progress of time, the love of
adventure or the needs of commerce had drawn the navigator from the
Mediterranean through the Pillars of Hercules into the Atlantic, and
when some conception of the immensity of the waters had forced itself
upon minds dwarfed by the contracted limits of the inland sea, then
the ocean became in good earnest a receptacle of gloomy and appalling
horrors, and the marvels narrated by those fortunate enough to return
told how deeply the imagination had been stirred by the new scenes
opened to their vision. Pytheas, who coasted from Marseilles to the
Shetland Isles, and who there obtained a glance at the bleak and
wintry desolation of the North Sea, declared, on reaching home, that
his further progress was barred by an immense black mollusk, which
hung suspended in the air, and in which a ship would be inextricably
involved, and where no man could breathe. The menaces of the South were
even more appalling than the perils of the North; for he who should
venture, it was said, across the equator into the regions of the Sun,
would be changed into a negro for his rashness: besides, in the popular
belief, the waters there were not navigable. Upon the quaint charts
of the Middle Ages, a giant located upon the Canary Islands forbade
all farther venture westward, by brandishing his formidable club in
the path of all vessels coming from the east. Upon these singular maps
the concealed and treacherous horrors of the deep were displayed in
the grotesque shapes of sea-monsters and distorted water-unicorns,
which were represented as careering through space and waylaying the
navigator. Even in the time of Columbus, and when the introduction
of the compass into European ships should have somewhat diminished
the fantastic terrors of the sea, we find that the Arabians, the best
geographers of the time, represented the bony and gnarled hand of Satan
as rising from the waves of the Sea of Darkness,--as the Atlantic was
then called,--ready to seize and engulf the presumptuous mariner. The
sailors of Columbus, on reaching the Sargasso Sea, where the collected
weeds offered an impediment to their progress, thought they had arrived
at the limit of navigation and the end of the world. Five years later,
the crew of da Gama, on doubling the Cape of Good Hope, imagined they
saw, in the threatening clouds that gathered about Table Rock, the form
of a spectre waving off their vessel and crying woe to all who should
thus invade his dread dominion. The Neptune of the classics, in short,
who disported himself in the narrow waters of the Mediterranean, and of
whose wrath we have read the famous mythologic accounts, was a deity
altogether bland and debonnaire compared to the gloomy and revengeful
monopolist of the seas, such as the historians and geographers of the
Middle Ages painted him.
And now Columbus had discovered the Western Continent, da Gama had
found an ocean route to the Indies, and Magellan, sailing around the
world, had proved its sphericity and approached the Spice Islands from
the east. For centuries, now, the two great oceans were the scenes of
grand and useful maritime expeditions. The tropical islands of the
Pacific arose, one by one, from the bosom of the sea, to reward the
navigator or relieve the outcast. The Spanish, by dint of cruelty
and rapacity, filled their famous Manilla galleons and Acapulco
treasure-ships with the spoils of warfare and the legitimate fruits of
trade. The English, seeking to annoy a nation with whom, though not
at war, they were certainly not at peace, sent against their golden
fleets the piratical squadrons of Anson, Drake, and Hawkins. For years
property was not safe upon the sea, and trading-ships went armed,
while the armed vessels of nations turned buccaneers. The Portuguese
and Dutch colonized the coasts and islands of India, Spain sent Cortez
and Pizarro to Mexico and Peru, and England drove the Puritans across
a stormy sea to Plymouth. Commerce was spread over the world, and
Civilization and Christianity were introduced into the desert and the
wilderness. Two centuries more, and steam made the Atlantic Ocean
a ferry-transit, and the electric telegraph has now made its three
thousand miles of salt water but as one link in that girdle which
Shakspeare foresaw and which Puck promised to perform. The cable is
complete and in working-order from New Orleans to Sebastopol.
Having thus rapidly described what the ocean once was in man's
estimation, and having cursorily traced the steps by which it has taken
its place in the world's economy, it remains for us to say what the
ocean now is, and what place it now holds. It is the peaceful Highway
of Nations,--a highway without tax or toll. Were the noble idea of
the late Secretary Marcy adopted by all nations, private property
upon the sea would be sacred even in time of war. If the distances
be considered, the sea is the safest and most commodious route from
spot to spot, whether for merchandise or man. It has given up its
secrets, with perhaps the single exception of its depth, and, like the
lightning and the thunderbolt, has submitted to the yoke. Though still
sublime in its immensity and its power, it has lost those features
of character which once made it mysterious and fantastic, and has
become the sober and humdrum pathway of traffic. Mail-routes are as
distinctly marked upon its surface as the equator, or the meridian of
Greenwich: steamships leave their docks punctually at the stroke of
noon. The monsters that plough its waters have been hunted by man till
the race is well nigh exhausted; for the leviathan which frightened
the ancients is the whale which has illuminated the moderns. The chant
of the sirens is hushed, and in its place are heard the clatter of
rushing paddle-wheels, the fog-whistle on the banks, the song of the
forecastle, the yo-ho of sailors toiling at the ropes, the salute in
mid-ocean,--sometimes--alas!--the minute-gun at sea. The romance and
fable that once had here their chosen home, have fled to the caves and
taken refuge amid the grottos; and the legends that were lately told of
the ocean would now be out of place even in a graveyard or a haunted
house.
The sailor, to whom once the route was trackless and untrodden, now
consults a volume of charts which he has obtained from the National
Observatory, and finds his course laid out upon data derived from
analogy and oft-repeated experience. He takes this or that direction in
accordance with known facts of the prevalence of winds or the motion of
currents. He keeps a record of his own experience, that in its turn it
may be useful to others. He has plans and surveys which give him the
bearings of every port, the indentations of every coast, the soundings
of every pass. Beacons warn him of reefs and sunken rocks, and buoys
mark out his course through the shallows of sounds and straits. A
modern light-house costs a million dollars, and a breakwater involves
the finances of a state. If a new light-house is erected, or is the
warning lamp for any reason discontinued, upon any coast, the fact is
made known to the commerce of all nations by a "Notice to Mariners,"
inserted in the marine department of the newspapers most likely to
meet their eye. A vessel at sea is safer from spoliation than is the
traveller upon the high road or the sojourner in a city; for there
are robbers and depredators everywhere upon the land, while there is
not a pirate on the ocean. There are well-laden treasure-ships in the
Panama and California waters, as in the times of Drake and Anson; but
the world is much older than it was, and buccaneers and flibustiers now
only infest the land.
In short, the ocean, once a formidable and repellant element, now
furnishes Christian food and healthful employment to millions. Instead
of serving to affright and appall the dwellers upon the continents
which it surrounds, it renders their atmosphere more respirable,
it affords them safe conveyance, and raises for them a school of
heroes. The ocean, then, has a history: it has a past worth narrating,
adventures worth telling, and it has played a part in the advancement
of science, in the extension of geographical knowledge, in the spread
of civilization and the progress of discovery, which it is eminently
worth our while to ponder and digest. Its gradual submission to
invasion from the land, its successive surrender of the islands in
the tropics and the ice-mountains at the poles, its slow but certain
release of its secrets, its final abandonment of its exclusiveness,
form--with a multitude of attendant incidents, accidents, battles,
disasters, shipwrecks, famines, robberies, mutinies, piracies--the
theme and purpose of these pages.
Although the ocean has lost its terrors and has given up its dominion
of dread over the mind of man, it is still poetic, and has been often
made to assume a profound moral significance and furnish apt religious
illustrations. In this connection, we cannot do better than to quote,
from Dr. Greenwood's "Poetry and Mystery of the Sea," a passage which
strongly and beautifully enforces this view:--
"'The sea is his, and He made it,' cries the Psalmist of Israel, in one
of those bursts of enthusiasm in which he so often expresses the whole
of a vast subject by a few simple words. Whose else, indeed, could it
be, and by whom else could it have been made? Who else can heave its
tides and appoint its bounds? Who else can urge its mighty waves to
madness with the breath and wings of the tempest, and then speak to it
again in a master's accents and bid it be still? Who else could have
peopled it with its countless inhabitants, and caused it to bring forth
its various productions, and filled it from its deepest bed to its
expanded surface, filled it from its centre to its remotest shores,
filled it to the brim with beauty and mystery and power? Majestic
Ocean! Glorious Sea! No created being rules thee or made thee.
"What is there more sublime than the trackless, desert,
all-surrounding, unfathomable sea? What is there more peacefully
sublime than the calm, gently-heaving, silent sea? What is there
more terribly sublime than the angry, dashing, foaming sea?
Power--resistless, overwhelming power--is its attribute and its
expression, whether in the careless, conscious grandeur of its deep
rest, or the wild tumult of its excited wrath. It is awful when its
crested waves rise up to make a compact with the black clouds and the
howling winds, and the thunder and the thunderbolt, and they sweep
on, in the joy of their dread alliance, to do the Almighty's bidding.
And it is awful, too, when it stretches its broad level out to meet
in quiet union the bended sky, and show in the line of meeting the
vast rotundity of the world. There is majesty in its wide expanse,
separating and enclosing the great continents of the earth, occupying
two-thirds of the whole surface of the globe, penetrating the land
with its bays and secondary seas, and receiving the constantly-pouring
tribute of every river, of every shore. There is majesty in its
fulness, never diminishing and never increasing. There is majesty in
its integrity,--for its whole vast substance is uniform in its local
unity, for there is but one ocean, and the inhabitants of any one
maritime spot may visit the inhabitants of any other in the wide world.
Its depth is sublime: who can sound it? Its strength is sublime: what
fabric of man can resist it? Its voice is sublime, whether in the
prolonged song of its ripple or the stern music of its roar,--whether
it utters its hollow and melancholy tones within a labyrinth of
wave-worn caves, or thunders at the base of some huge promontory, or
beats against a toiling vessel's sides, lulling the voyager to rest
with the strains of its wild monotony, or dies away, with the calm and
fading twilight, in gentle murmurs on some sheltered shore.
"The sea possesses beauty, in richness, of its own; it borrows it
from earth, and air, and heaven. The clouds lend it the various dyes
of their wardrobe, and throw down upon it the broad masses of their
shadows as they go sailing and sweeping by. The rainbow laves in it
its many-colored feet. The sun loves to visit it, and the moon and
the glittering brotherhood of planets and stars, for they delight
themselves in its beauty. The sunbeams return from it in showers of
diamonds and glances of fire; the moonbeams find in it a pathway of
silver, where they dance to and fro, with the breezes and the waves,
through the livelong night. It has a light, too, of its own,--a soft
and sparkling light, rivaling the stars; and often does the ship
which cuts its surface leave streaming behind a Milky Way of dim and
uncertain lustre, like that which is shining dimly above. It harmonizes
in its forms and sounds both with the night and the day. It cheerfully
reflects the light, and it unites solemnly with the darkness. It
imparts sweetness to the music of men, and grandeur to the thunder
of heaven. What landscape is so beautiful as one upon the borders of
the sea? The spirit of its loveliness is from the waters where it
dwells and rests, singing its spells and scattering its charms on all
the coasts. What rocks and cliffs are so glorious as those which are
washed by the chafing sea? What groves and fields and dwellings are so
enchanting as those which stand by the reflecting sea?
"If we could see the great ocean as it can be seen by no mortal eye,
beholding at one view what we are now obliged to visit in detail
and spot by spot,--if we could, from a flight far higher than the
eagle's, view the immense surface of the deep all spread out beneath
us like a universal chart,--what an infinite variety such a scene
would display! Here a storm would be raging, the thunder bursting, the
waters boiling, and rain and foam and fire all mingling together; and
here, next to this scene of magnificent confusion, we should see the
bright blue waves glittering in the sun and clapping their hands for
very gladness. Here we should see a cluster of green islands set like
jewels in the bosom of the sea; and there we should see broad shoals
and gray rocks, fretting the billows and threatening the mariner. Here
we should discern a ship propelled by the steady wind of the tropics,
and inhaling the almost visible odors which diffuse themselves around
the Spice Islands of the East; there we should behold a vessel piercing
the cold barrier of the North, struggling among hills and fields of
ice, and contending with Winter in his own everlasting dominion. Nor
are the ships of man the only travellers we shall perceive upon this
mighty map of the ocean. Flocks of sea-birds are passing and repassing,
diving for their food or for pastime, migrating from shore to shore
with unwearied wing and undeviating instinct, or wheeling and swarming
around the rocks which they make alive and vocal by their numbers and
their clanging cries.
"We shall behold new wonders and riches when we investigate the
sea-shore. We shall find both beauty for the eye and food for the body,
in the varieties of shell-fish which adhere in myriads to the rocks
or form their close dark burrows in the sands. In some parts of the
world we shall see those houses of stone which the little coral-insect
rears up with patient industry from the bottom of the waters, till they
grow into formidable rocks and broad forests whose branches never wave
and whose leaves never fall. In other parts we shall see those pale,
glistening pearls which adorn the crowns of princes and are woven in
the hair of beauty, extorted by the relentless grasp of man from the
hidden stores of ocean. And spread round every coast there are beds of
flowers and thickets of plants, which the dew does not nourish, and
which man has not sown, nor cultivated, nor reaped, but which seem to
belong to the floods alone and the denizens of the floods, until they
are thrown up by the surges, and we discover that even the dead spoils
of the fields of ocean may fertilize and enrich the fields of earth.
They have a life, and a nourishment, and an economy of their own; and
we know little of them, except that they are there, in their briny
nurseries, reared up into luxuriance by what would kill, like a mortal
poison, the vegetation of the land.
"There is mystery in the sea. There is mystery in its depths. It is
unfathomed, and, perhaps, unfathomable. Who can tell, who shall know,
how near its pits run down to the central core of the world? Who can
tell what wells, what fountains, are there, to which the fountains of
the earth are but drops? Who shall say whence the ocean derives those
inexhaustible supplies of salt which so impregnate its waters that all
the rivers of the earth, pouring into it from the time of the creation,
have not been able to freshen them? What undescribed monsters, what
unimaginable shapes, may be roving in the profoundest places of the
sea, never seeking--and perhaps, from their nature, never able to
seek--the upper waters and expose themselves to the gaze of man! What
glittering riches, what heaps of gold, what stores of gems, there must
be scattered in lavish profusion in the ocean's lowest bed! What spoils
from all climates, what works of art from all lands, have been engulfed
by the insatiable and reckless waves! Who shall go down to examine and
reclaim this uncounted and idle wealth? Who bears the keys of the deep?
"And oh! yet more affecting to the heart and mysterious to the mind,
what companies of human beings are locked up in that wide, weltering,
unsearchable grave of the sea! Where are the bodies of those lost ones
over whom the melancholy waves alone have been chanting requiem? What
shrouds were wrapped round the limbs of beauty, and of manhood, and of
placid infancy, when they were laid on the dark floor of that secret
tomb? Where are the bones, the relics, of the brave and the timid, the
good and the bad, the parent, the child, the wife, the husband, the
brother, the sister, the lover, which have been tossed and scattered
and buried by the washing, wasting, wandering sea? The journeying winds
may sigh as year after year they pass over their beds. The solitary
rain-cloud may weep in darkness over the mingled remains which lie
strewed in that unwonted cemetery. But who shall tell the bereaved to
what spot their affections may cling? And where shall human tears be
shed throughout that solemn sepulchre? It is mystery all. When shall
it be resolved? Who shall find it out? Who but He to whom the wildest
waves listen reverently, and to whom all nature bows; He who shall
one day speak, and be heard in ocean's profoundest caves; to whom the
deep, even the lowest deep, shall give up its dead, when the sun shall
sicken, and the earth and the isles shall languish, and the heavens be
rolled together like a scroll, and there shall be NO MORE SEA!"
It now remains for us to investigate the origin of navigation, as
preliminary to our subject, and then to commence the task before us
with the history of Noah, the first seaman, and the Ark, the vessel he
commanded.
[Illustration: THE STORMY PETREL.]
[Illustration: THE FIRST NAVIGATOR.]
CHAPTER II.
THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION--THE NAUTILUS--THE SPLIT REED AND BEETLE--THE
BEAVER FLOATING UPON A LOG--THE HOLLOW TREE--THE FIRST CANOE--THE
FLOATING NUTSHELL--THE OAR--THE RUDDER--THE SAIL--THE TRADITION OF THE
FIRST SAIL-BOAT.
The origin of navigation is unknown. It has baffled the research of
antiquaries, for the simple reason that men sailed upon the sea before
they committed the records of their history to paper, or that such
records, if any existed, were swept away and lost in the periods of
anarchy which succeeded. Imagination has suggested that the nautilus,
or Portuguese man-of-war, raising its tiny sail and floating off before
the breeze, first pointed out to man the use which might be made of the
wind as a propelling force; that a split reed, following the current of
some tranquil stream and transporting a beetle over its glassy surface,
was the first canoe, while the beetle was the first sailor. Mythology
represents Hercules as sailing in a boat formed of the hide of a lion,
and translates ships to the skies, where they still figure among the
constellations. Fable makes Atlas claim the invention of the oar, and
gives to Tiphys, the pilot of the Argo, the invention of the rudder.
The attributing of these discoveries and improvements to particular
individuals doubtless afforded pastime to poets in ages when poetry
was more popular than history. Instead of trusting to these fanciful
authorities, we may form a very rational theory upon the matter in the
following manner:--
Whether it was an insect that floated on a leaf across a rivulet and
was stranded on the bank, or a beaver carried down a river upon a log,
or a bear borne away upon an iceberg, that first awakened man to the
conception of trusting himself fearlessly upon the water, it is highly
probable that he learned from animals, whose natural element it is, the
manner of supporting his body upon it and of forcing his way through
it. A frog darting away from the rim of a pond and striking out with
his fore-legs may have suggested swimming, and the beaver floating on a
log may have suggested following his example. The log may not have been
sufficiently buoyant, and the adventurer may have added to its buoyancy
by using his arms and legs. Even to this day the Indians of our own
country cross a rapid stream by clasping the trunk of a tree with the
left leg and arm and propelling themselves with the right. Thus the
first step was taken; and the second was either to place several logs
together, thus forming a raft, and raising its sides, or to make use
of a tree hollowed out by nature. Many trees grow hollow naturally,
such as oaks, limes, beeches, and willows; and it would not require a
degree of adaptation beyond the capacity of a savage, to fit them to
float and move upon the water. The next step was probably to hollow out
by art a sound log, thus imitating the trunk which had been eroded by
time and decay. And, in making this step from the sound to the hollow
log, the primitive mariners may have been assisted by observing how an
empty nut-shell or an inverted tortoise-shell floated upon the water,
preserving their inner surface dry and protecting such objects as their
size enabled them to carry. It has been aptly remarked that this first
step was the greatest of all,--"for the transition from the hollow tree
to the ship-of-the-line is not so difficult as the transition from
nonentity to the hollow tree."
The first object for obtaining motion upon the water must evidently
have been to enable the navigator to cross a river,--not to ascend or
descend it; as it is apparent he would not seek the means of following
or stemming its current while the same purpose could be more easily
served by walking along the shore. It is not difficult to suppose that
the oar was suggested by the legs of a frog or the fins of a fish. The
early navigator, seated in his hollow tree, might at first seek to
propel himself with his hands, and might then artificially lengthen
them by a piece of wood fashioned in imitation of the hand and arm,--a
long pole terminating in a thin flat blade. Here was the origin of the
modern row-boat, one of the most graceful inventions of man.
[Illustration]
From the oar to the rudder the transition was easy, for the oar is in
itself a rudder, and was for a long time used as one. It must have
been observed at an early day that a canoe in motion was diverted from
its direct course by plunging an oar into the water and suffering it
to remain there. It must have been observed, too, that an oar in or
towards the stern was more effective in giving a new direction to the
canoe than an oar in any other place. It was a natural suggestion of
prudence, then, to assign this duty to one particular oarsman, and to
place him altogether at the stern.
The sail is not so easily accounted for. An ancient tradition relates
that a fisherman and his sweetheart, allured from the shore in the
hope of discovering an island, and surprised by a tempest, were in
imminent danger of destruction. Their only oar was wrenched from the
grasp of the fisherman, and the frail bark was thus left to the mercy
of the waves. The maiden raised her white veil to protect herself and
her lover from the storm; the wind, inflating this fragile garment,
impelled them slowly but surely towards the coast. Their aged sire,
the tradition continues, suddenly seized with prophetic inspiration,
exclaimed, "The future is unfolded to my view! Art is advancing
to perfection! My children, you have discovered a powerful agent
in navigation. All nations will cover the ocean with their fleets
and wander to distant regions. Men, differing in their manners and
separated by seas, will disembark upon peaceful shores, and import
thence foreign science, superfluities, and art. Then shall the mariner
fearlessly cruise over the immense abyss and discover new lands and
unknown seas!" Though we may admire the foresight of this patriarch,
we cannot applaud him for choosing a moment so inopportune for
exercising his peculiar gift: it would certainly have been more natural
to afford some comfort to his weather-beaten children. The legend
even goes on to state that he at once fixed a pole in the middle of
the canoe, and, attaching to it a piece of cloth, invented the first
sail-boat. Mythology assigns a different, though similar, origin to the
invention:--Iris, seeking her son in a bark which she impelled by oars,
perceived that the wind inflated her garments and gently forced her in
the direction in which she was going.
No research would bring the investigator to conclusions more
satisfactory than these. The fact would still remain, that the first
mention in profane history of constructions moving upon the water, is
many centuries subsequent to the period in which the idea of building
such constructions must be presumed to have been first conceived. It
would consequently be idle to devote more space to this subject; and we
proceed at once, therefore, to the first of recorded ventures upon the
sea.
[Illustration: THE DELUGE AND THE ARK.]
CHAPTER III.
THE FLOOD AND THE BUILDING OF THE ARK--THE ARGUMENTS OF INFIDELITY
AGAINST A UNIVERSAL DELUGE--THE MATERIAL OF WHICH THE ARK WAS
BUILT--ITS CAPACITY, DIMENSIONS, AND FORM--ITS PROPORTIONS COPIED IN
MODERN OCEAN STEAMERS.
The earliest mention of the sea made in history occurs in the first
chapter of Genesis. During the period of chaos, and before the creation
of light, darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters. Upon the third day the waters under
the heavens were gathered together in one place and were called Seas;
the dry land appeared and was called Earth. The waters were commanded
to bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life; and, upon
the creation of man in the image of God, dominion was given him over
the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth.
In the year of the world 1556--according to the generally accepted
computation--God determined to destroy man and all creeping things
and the fowls of the air, for He said, "It repenteth me that I have
made them." Noah alone found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and was
instructed to build him an ark of gopher-wood three hundred cubits in
length, fifty in breadth, and thirty in height. It was to consist of
three stories, divided into rooms, to contain one door and one window,
and was to be smeared within and without with pitch. Noah was engaged
one hundred years in constructing the ark,--from the age of five
hundred to that of six hundred years,--and when it was fully completed
he gathered his family into it, with pairs of all living creatures.
Then were the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of
heaven opened. The rains descended during forty days and forty nights.
The waters arose and lifted up the ark from the earth. The mountains
were covered to a depth of twenty-two feet, and all flesh died that
moved upon the earth: Noah alone remained alive, and they that were
with him in the ark.
The flood commenced in the second month of Noah's six hundredth year.
During five months the waters prevailed; in the seventh the ark rested
upon the summit of Mount Ararat. In the tenth month the tops of the
mountains were seen; in the eleventh Noah sent forth a dove, which
speedily returned, having found no rest for the sole of her foot; on
the seventeenth day he again sent forth the dove, which returned,
bringing an olive-leaf in her bill, and, being again sent forth,
returned no more. On the first day of the first month of his six
hundred and first year, Noah removed the covering of the ark and saw
that the face of the ground was dry. Toward the close of the second
month the earth was dried, and Noah went forth with his sons, his wife,
and his sons' wives. He built an altar and offered burnt-offerings of
every beast and fowl to the Lord. God then made a promise to Noah that
he would no more destroy the earth by flood, and stretched the rainbow
in the clouds in token of this solemn covenant between himself and the
children of men.
Such is the scriptural history of the Deluge,--the first great
chronological event in the annals of the world after the Creation.
The investigations of philosophy and of infidelity into the accuracy
of the Mosaic account have resulted in furnishing confirmation of the
most direct and positive kind. The principal objections of cavillers
turn upon three points: 1st, the absence of any concurrent testimony
by the profane writers of antiquity; 2d, the apparent impossibility of
accounting for the quantity of water necessary to overflow the whole
earth to the depth stated; and, 3d, the needlessness of a universal
deluge, as the same purpose might have been answered by a partial one.
These objections may be briefly considered here.
1. The absence of positive testimony from profane historians. However
true it may be that there is no consecutive account of the Deluge
except that given in the Bible, it is certain that records relating
to the ark had been preserved, among the early nations of the world
and in the general system of Gentile mythology. Plutarch mentions the
dove that was sent forth from the ark. The Greek fable of Deucalion
and Pyrrha is absolutely the same as the scriptural narrative of Noah
and his wife. The Egyptians carried their deity, upon occasions of
solemnity, in an ark or boat, and this ark was called "Baris," from
the name of a mountain upon which, doubtless, in their own legend, the
Egyptian ark had rested, as did the scriptural ark upon Mount Ararat.
The Temple of Sesostris was fashioned after the model of the ark, and
was consecrated to Osiris at Theba. This name of Theba given to a city
is an important point, for Theba was the appellation of the ark itself.
The same name was borne by numerous cities in Boeotia, Attica, Ionia,
Syria, and Italy; and the city of Apamea, in Phrygia, was originally
called Kibotos, or Ark, in memory of the Deluge. This fact shows that
the tradition of the Deluge was preserved in Asia Minor from a very
remote antiquity. In India, ancient mythological books have been shown
to contain fragmentary accounts of some great overflow corresponding
in a remarkable degree with that given by Moses. The Africans, the
Chinese, and the American Indians even, have traditions of a flood in
the early annals of the world, and of the preservation of the human
race and of animated nature by means of an ark. It is impossible to
account for the universality of this legend, unless the fact of the
Deluge be admitted.
2. The apparent material impossibility of producing water in sufficient
quantity to overflow the earth. The means by which the flood was
produced are stated in the Mosaic narrative: the fountains of the
great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened;
that is, the water rushed out from the bowels of the earth, where
it had been confined, and the clouds poured forth their rains. This
would seem to be a sufficient explanation, if any explanation of an
event clearly miraculous and supernatural be necessary at all. It has
been discovered, however, that the Deluge might have been caused, and
might at any time be repeated, by a very simple process. It has been
demonstrated that the various seas and oceans which invest the two
principal hemispheres, contain water enough to overflow the land and
cover the highest mountains to the depth of twenty-two feet, were their
temperature merely raised to a degree equal to that of the shallow
tropical seas! Were the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans suddenly warmed to
a point perfectly compatible with the maintenance of animal life, they
would expand sufficiently to overflow the Cordilleras and the Alps.
3. The needlessness of a universal deluge, as a partial one would have
answered all purposes. That the Deluge was universal is distinctly
stated by Scripture. Had not God intended it to be so, he would hardly
have instructed Noah to spend a hundred years in the construction of
an ark: a spot of the earth yet uninhabited by man might have been
designated, where Noah could have gathered his family; there would
have been no necessity for shutting up pairs of all animals in the
ark with which to re-stock the earth, for they could have been easily
brought from the parts of the earth not overflowed into those that
were. Then we are told that the water ascended twenty-two feet above
the highest mountains,--a distinct physical proof that the whole earth
was inundated, for water then, as now, would seek its level, and must,
by the laws of gravity, spread itself over the rest of the earth,
unless, indeed, it were retained there by a miracle; and in this case
Moses would certainly have mentioned it, as he did the suspension of
the laws of nature in the case of the waters of the Red Sea. Then,
again, had the Deluge been partial and confined to the neighborhood of
the Euphrates and Tigris, it would be impossible to account for the
fact that in remote countries--in Italy, France, Germany, England, the
United States--there have been found, in places far from the sea, and
upon the tops of high mountains, the teeth and bones of animals, fishes
in an entire condition, sea-shells, ears of corn, &c., petrified. The
explanation of this has always been derived from the circumstance of a
universal deluge. The fact, too, already mentioned, that the Chinese,
the Greeks, and the Indians have traditions of a deluge, seems to be
conclusive evidence that that terrible dispensation was not confined to
the district which was at that period scriptural ground, but visited
alike Palestine and Peru, Canaan and Connecticut.
We now return to the ark, the period of whose completion we have
already given,--the year of the world 1656, or the year before Christ
2348. Three points are now to be considered:--the material of which it
was built, its capacity and dimensions, and its form.
1. _The Material of which it was built._ The Mosaic account says
expressly that it was built of gopher-wood; but it has never been
satisfactorily determined what wood is meant by the term "gopher."
Numerous interpretations have been placed upon it: by one authority it
is rendered "timber squared by the workman;" by another, "timber made
from trees which shoot out quadrangular branches in the same horizontal
line," such as cedar and fir; by another, "smoothed or planed timber;"
by another, "wood that does not readily decay," such as boxwood or
cedar; by another, "the wood of such trees as abound with resinous,
inflammable juices," as the cedar, fir, cypress, pine, &c. That the ark
was built of cedar would seem to be probable, from the fact that this
wood corresponds more than any other with the numerous significations
given to the term "gopher," as it is quadrangular in its branches,
durable, almost incorruptible, resinous, and highly inflammable; from
the fact, too, that it is abundant in Asia, and known to have been
employed by the Assyrians and Egyptians in the construction of ships.
One or two authorities, however, maintain that the ark was made of
the wood of the cypress, their grounds being that the cypress was
considered by the ancients the most durable wood against rot and worms;
that it abounded in Assyria, where the ark was probably built; and that
it was frequently employed in the construction of ships, especially
by Alexander, who built a whole fleet from the cypress groves in the
neighborhood of Babylon.
2. _Its Capacity and Dimensions._ The proportions of the ark, as given
in the sacred volume, have been examined and compared with the greatest
precision by the most learned and accurate calculators; and, assuming
the cubit to have been of the value of eighteen inches of the present
day, it follows that the ark was four hundred and fifty feet long, by
seventy-five wide, by forty-five high. From these data its burden has
been deduced, and is now understood to have been forty-two thousand
four hundred and thirteen tons. Such a construction would have allowed
ample room for the eight persons who were to inhabit it,--Noah and
his wife, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives,--about two hundred
and fifty pair of four-footed beasts, the fowls of the air, such
reptiles and insects as could not live under water, together with the
food necessary for their subsistence for a twelvemonth. It has been
doubted whether Noah took with him into the ark specimens of all living
creatures. It is reasonable to suppose that, as the world was nearly
seventeen centuries old, the animal creation had spread itself over a
large portion of the antediluvian earth, and that certain species had
consequently become indigenous in certain climates. It is therefore
probable that many species were not to be found in the country where
Noah dwelt and where he built the ark. We are not told in the Bible
that any kind of animals were brought from a distance,--a fact which
renders it probable that Noah only saved pairs of the species which had
become natives of the territory which he inhabited. This would be to
suppose that many species perished in the flood and were consequently
never renewed,--a supposition which derives strong support from the
numerous discoveries made in modern times of the exuviæ of animals
which no longer exist, and whose destruction is attributed to the
Deluge. A list of such extinct species was drawn up by Cuvier.
The presumptive evidence which may be adduced in support of the
scriptural history of the preparation of the ark is very strong; it is,
indeed, the only solution of an otherwise insuperable difficulty. The
early records of the whole Gentile world, as has been stated, concur in
declaring the fact of a universal deluge; and yet the human race and
all the more useful and important species of animals survived it. Now,
the people of those times had no ships and were totally unacquainted
with navigation: it is evident, therefore, that they were not saved by
vessels in ordinary use. Even though we were to suppose them possessed
of shipping, it is impossible to believe that they would or could have
provisioned them for a year's cruise, unless we suppose them to have
been forewarned precisely as Moses relates; and it is certainly as
easy to believe the whole of the Bible narrative as a portion. Such a
structure as the ark, for the preservation and sustenance of the human
race and of the animal kingdom, seems, then, to have been absolutely
indispensable.
3. _Its Form._ From the dimensions given in the sixth chapter of
Genesis, it is evident that the ark had the shape of an oblong square,
with a sloping roof and a flat bottom; that it was furnished with
neither helm, mast, nor oars; that it was intended to lie upon the
water without rolling, and formed to float rather than to sail. Its
proportions, it has been remarked, nearly agree with those of the human
figure,--three hundred cubits in length being six times its breadth,
fifty cubits, and the average length of the human frame being to its
width as six is to one. Now, the body of a man lying in the water flat
on his back will float with little or no exertion. It would appear,
therefore, that similar proportions would suit a vessel whose purpose
was floating only. It is not necessary to suppose that the ark had to
contend with either storm or wind. The waves of water lying to the
depth of a few fathoms upon a submerged continent could not, at any
rate, be compared in violence to those of the ocean. The gathering
of the flood lasted but forty days, and although the ark floated for
a year, nearly eleven months were occupied in the subsidence of the
water. It is probable that the ark was gradually and slowly surrounded
by the advancing tide, was quietly lifted up upon its surface, that
it hovered about the spot where it was constructed, and finally, upon
the disappearance of the water, settled as quietly back upon its broad
basis and projecting supports.
It is a curious fact that many minds which have refused to accept the
evidences of a communication between God and man in the instances
of Moses and of our Savior, admit the strong probability of a
communication having passed from God to Noah. The chain of argument
is indeed exceedingly strong. Mr. Taylor thus seeks to establish
the fact that the Deity did, in the case of Noah, condescend to
make known his intentions to man. "Was the Deluge," he asks, "a
real occurrence? All mankind acknowledge it. Wherever tradition has
been maintained, wherever written records are preserved, wherever
commemorative rites have been instituted, what has been their subject?
The Deluge:--deliverance from destruction by a flood. The savage and
the sage agree in this: North and South, East and West, relate the
danger of their great ancestor from overwhelming waters. But he was
saved: and how? By personal exertion? By long-continued swimming? By
concealment in the highest mountains? No: but by enclosure in a large
floating edifice of his own construction. But this labor was long:
it was not the work of a day: he must have foreseen so astonishing an
event a considerable time previous to its actual occurrence. Whence
did he receive this foreknowledge? Did the earth inform him that at
twenty, thirty, forty years' distance it would disgorge a flood? Surely
not. Did the stars announce that they would dissolve the terrestrial
atmosphere in terrific rains? Surely not. Whence, then, had Noah his
foreknowledge? Did he begin to build when the first showers descended?
It was too late. Had he been accustomed to rains, formerly? Why think
them now of importance? Had he never seen rain? What could induce him
to provide against it? Why this year more than last year? Why last
year more than the year before? These inquiries are direct: we cannot
flinch from the fact. Erase it from the Mosaic records, still it is
recorded in Greece, in Egypt, in India, in Britain; it is registered in
the very _sacra_ of the pagan world. Go, infidel, take your choice of
difficulties: either disparage all mankind as fools, as willing dupes
to superstitious commemoration, or allow that this fact, this one fact,
is established by testimony abundantly sufficient; but remember that if
it be established, it implies a _communication from God to man_. Who
could inform Noah? Why did not that great patriarch provide against
fire? against earthquakes? against explosions? Why against water? why
against a deluge? Away with subterfuge! confess frankly it was the
dictation of Deity. Say that He only who made the world could predict
the time and causes of this devastation, that He only could excite the
hope of restoration, or suggest a method of deliverance."
It is a remarkable fact, and one which goes far to support the argument
often urged to combat the opinions of atheists, that the ark could
not have been built by man, unassisted by the divine intelligence, at
that age of the world,--that the ark, the first and largest ship ever
built, had precisely the same proportions as the ocean steamers of our
own day. Its dimensions were, as we have said, three hundred cubits,
by fifty, by thirty. Those of several of the fleetest Atlantic mail
steamers are three hundred feet in length, fifty feet in breadth of
beam, and twenty-eight and a half in depth. They have, like the ark,
upper, lower, and middle stories. It is, to say the least, singular,
that the ship-builders of the present day, neglecting the experience
acquired by man from forty-two centuries spent more or less upon the
sea, should so directly and unreservedly return to the model of the
vessel constructed to outride the Flood. It was therefore with obvious
propriety that, at one of the late convivial meetings in England during
the preparations for laying the telegraphic cable, after due honor had
been paid to the celebrities of the occasion and the moment, after
the health of the Queen and the memory of Columbus had been pledged
and drunk, a toast was offered to our great ancestor Noah. Though the
proposition was received with hilarity and the idea seemed to savor
somewhat of a jest, yet the patriarch's claims, as the first admiral
on record, to being the father of seamen and the great originator of
navigation, were willingly and vociferously acknowledged. After this
recognition--which must, from the circumstances, be regarded as in
some measure official and conclusive--we could not consistently have
ventured to withhold from him the first place in this record of the
triumphs of thirty centuries.
[Illustration: NOCTILUCA VILIARIS.]
CHAPTER IV.
THE SHIPS, COMMERCE, AND NAVIGATION OF THE PHOENICIANS--THEIR
TRADE WITH OPHIR--SIDON AND TYRE--THEIR VOYAGE ROUND AFRICA--NEW
TYRE--A PATRIOTIC PHOENICIAN CAPTAIN--THE EGYPTIANS AS A MARITIME
PEOPLE--THEIR SHIPS AND COMMERCE--THE JEWS--THEIR GEOGRAPHY--IDEAS
UPON THE SHAPE OF THE EARTH--THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE HEBREWS.
It is upon the shores of the Mediterranean, alike the sea of the
Bible and of mythology, of Mount Ararat and Mount Olympus,--among
the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and the Hebrews,--that we must look
for the earliest traces of navigation and commerce. The most cursory
inspection of a map of Palestine, Phoenicia, and Egypt will show how
admirably these countries were situated for trade both by land and sea.
The Phoenicians, though confined to the narrow slip of land between
Mount Lebanon and the Mediterranean, possessed a safe coast and the
admirable harbor of Sidon, while their mountains furnished them an
abundant supply of the best woods for ship-building. The confined
limits of their own territory prevented them from being themselves
producers or manufacturers,--a circumstance which naturally led them to
be the carriers of producing and manufacturing nations whose maritime
advantages were inferior to their own. The fact, also, that the Jews
were prevented by their government, laws, and religion from engaging
extensively in commerce, and that the Egyptians were characteristically
averse to the sea, augmented the commercial supremacy of the
Phoenicians,--a supremacy recognised both in the sacred writings and in
profane records.
It is now generally conceded that the date of the maritime enterprises
which rendered the Phoenicians famous in antiquity must be fixed
between the years 1700 and 1100 before Christ. The renowned city of
Sidon was the centre from which their expeditions were sent forth. What
was the specific object of these excursions, or in what order of time
they took place, is but imperfectly known: it would appear, however,
that their adventurers traded at first with Cyprus and Rhodes, then
with Greece, Sardinia, Sicily, Gaul, and the coast of Spain upon the
Mediterranean. About 1250 B.B., their ships ventured cautiously beyond
the Straits of Gibraltar, and founded Cadiz upon a coast washed by the
Atlantic. A little later they founded establishments upon the western
coast of Africa. Homer asserts that at the Trojan War, 1194 BC., the
Phoenicians furnished the belligerents with many articles of luxury and
convenience; and we are told by Scripture that their ships brought gold
to Solomon from Ophir, in 1000 B.C. Tyre seems now to have superseded
Sidon, though at what period is not known. It had become a flourishing
mart before 600 B.C. who lived at that time, has left a glowing and
picturesque description of its wealth, which must have proceeded from
a long-established commerce. He enumerates, among the articles used
in building the Tyrian ships, the fir-trees of Senir, the cedars of
Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the ivory of the Indies, the linen of
Egypt, and the purple of the Isles of Elishah. He mentions, as brought
to the great emporium from Syria, Damascus, Greece, and Arabia, silver,
tin, lead, and vessels of brass; slaves, horses, mules; carpets, ebony,
ivory, pearls, and silk; wheat, balm, honey, oil, and gum; wine, wool,
and iron.
It is about this period--600 B.C.--that the Phoenicians, though
under Egyptian commanders, appear to have performed a voyage which,
if authentic, may justly be regarded as the most important in their
annals,--a circumnavigation of Africa. The extent of this unknown
region, and the peculiar aspects of man and nature there, had
already drawn toward it in a particular degree the attention of the
ancient world. The manner in which its coasts converged, south of the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea, suggested the idea of a peninsula,
the circumnavigation of which might be effected even by the limited
resources of the early naval powers. The first attempt in this
direction originated in a quarter which had been accustomed, from
its agricultural avocations, to hold itself aloof from every species
of maritime enterprise. It was undertaken by order of Necho, king
of Egypt,--the Pharaoh Necho of the Scriptures,--and is recorded by
Herodotus as follows:
"When Necho had desisted from his attempts to join the Red Sea with the
Mediterranean by means of a canal at the Isthmus of Suez, he despatched
some vessels, under the guidance of Phoenician pilots, with orders to
sail down the Red Sea and follow the coast of Africa: they were to
return to Egypt by the Pillars of Hercules and the Mediterranean. The
Phoenicians, therefore, taking their course by way of the Red Sea,
sailed onward to the Southern Ocean. Upon the approach of autumn they
landed in Libya and planted corn in the place where they first went
ashore. When this was ripe they cut it down and set sail again. Having
in this manner consumed two years, in the third they passed the Pillars
of Hercules and returned to Egypt. This story may be believed by
others, but to me it appears incredible, for they affirm that when they
sailed round Libya they had the sun on their right hand."
In the time of Herodotus, the Greeks were unacquainted with the
phenomenon of a shadow falling to the south,--one which the Phoenicians
would naturally have witnessed had they actually passed the Cape of
Good Hope, for the sun would have been on their right hand, or in the
north, and would thus have projected shadows to the south. As this
story was not one likely to have been invented in the time of Necho,
it is the strongest proof that could be adduced of the reality of the
voyage. Doubts have been raised in modern times upon the accuracy
of the narrative; but the objections are considered as having been
refuted by Rennell and Heeren. Bartholomew Diaz has the credit of
having discovered and having been the first to double the Cape of Good
Hope, in 1486: it is clear that, if the claims of the Phoenician pilots
are to be regarded, Diaz was preceded in this path at least twenty
centuries.
Soon after the date of this voyage, Tyre was besieged and destroyed
by Nebuchadnezzar. The inhabitants succeeded in escaping with their
property to an island near the shore, where they founded New Tyre,
which soon surpassed, both in commerce and shipping, the city they
had abandoned. The Phoenicians seem now to have advanced with their
system of colonization farther to the south upon the coast of Africa,
and farther to the north upon the coast of Spain. They discovered the
Cassiterides--now the Scilly Islands--upon the coast of Cornwall,
and retained the monopoly of the trade in the tin which they found
there. They carried spices and perfumes, obtained from Arabia, to
Greece, where they were employed for sacrifice and incense. They
also sold there the manufactures, purple, and jewels of Tyre and
Sidon. From Spain they obtained silver, corn, wine, oil, wax, wool,
and fruits. They procured amber in some place which they visited in
the North,--doubtless the shores of the Baltic. As the value of this
article was equal to that of gold, they desired to retain the monopoly
of the trade and to keep all knowledge of the regions yielding it from
their commercial rivals. Hence the secret was most carefully hoarded.
A remarkable circumstance connected with the maritime history of the
Phoenicians was their jealousy of the influence of foreigners. When
a strange ship was observed to keep them company at sea, they would
either outsail her, or at night change their course and disappear. On
one occasion a Phoenician captain, finding himself pursued by a Roman
vessel, ran his ship aground and wrecked her, rather than lose the
secret which a capture would have revealed. This act was deemed so
patriotic that the government rewarded him, and compensated him for the
loss of his vessel. New Tyre was destroyed by Alexander the Great, 324
B.C. The inhabitants were either put to death or sold as slaves, and
thus the maritime glory of the Phoenicians came to an untimely end.
Little is known of the construction and equipment of Phoenician
ships. All that can be said with certainty is, that there were
two kinds,--those employed in commerce and those used for war,--a
distinction, indeed, which all nations, both ancient and modern, have
found it convenient to make. The hulls of the trading-vessels were
round, that they might carry more goods, while the fighting-ships
were longer and sharp at the bottom. In other respects they probably
resembled the vessels of Greece and Rome, for which they undoubtedly
furnished models. Of these fuller details have reached us, and we
shall speak of them in their place. The Phoenicians were better
astronomers than the unskilful navigators who had preceded them; for,
while these attempted to guide their course by the imperfect aid of
the constellation known as the Great Bear,--some of whose stars are
forty degrees from the pole,--the Phoenicians were the first to apply
to maritime purposes the Lesser Bear,--the group which has furnished to
more modern navigation the North or Polar Star. It is not probable that
they fixed upon this particular star, for at that period--1250 years
B.C.--it was eighteen degrees from the pole, too distant to serve any
positive astronomical purpose.
We come now to the Egyptians as a maritime people in the earliest
historical periods, of whom we have incidentally said that they were
characteristically disinclined to enter with spirit into any maritime
enterprises, whether for commerce or war. This may have been owing to
the want of proper timber, to the insalubrity of the sea-coasts, and
to the absence of good harbors; while the advantages presented by
the Nile for intercourse and traffic with the interior precluded the
necessity of resorting to commerce by sea. Sesostris, who lived about
1650 years before Christ, is supposed to have been the first king who
overcame the dislike of the Egyptians to the water. Herodotus assigns
him a large fleet in the Red Sea, and other historians attribute to him
fleets upon the Mediterranean. Upon his death, his subjects relapsed
into their former aversion for commerce. Bocchoris, 700 B.C., imitated
and revived his legislation upon the subject; and during the reign of
Psammeticus the ports of Egypt were first opened to foreign ships,
and intercourse with the Greeks was for the first time encouraged. It
was Necho, the successor of Psammeticus, who employed, 600 B.C., the
Phoenicians in the voyage around Africa of which we have spoken; and
this enterprise bespeaks a monarch bent on maritime discovery. Apries,
the grandson of Necho, took the city of Sidon by storm and defeated
the Phoenicians in a sea-fight. It is probable that the Egyptians,
had they continued independent, would have become distinguished as a
commercial people; but seventy years afterwards they were conquered by
the Persians, and became successively subject to the Macedonians and
Romans.
We possess but little knowledge of the construction and equipment of
the Egyptian ships. According to Herodotus, they were built of planks
of the thorn-tree, fastened together, like tiles, with a great number
of wooden pins, and were entirely without ribs. On the inside papyrus
was used for stopping the crevices. The sails were made of the papyrus,
or of twisted rushes. These vessels were always towed up the Nile,
while they descended the stream in the following manner. The current
not acting with sufficient force upon their flat bottoms, the sailors
hung a bundle of tamarisk over the prow and let it down under the keel
by a rope: the stream, bearing upon this bundle, carried the boat along
with great celerity.
The Jews, whose country was ill situated for commerce by sea, were
even more averse than the Egyptians to intercourse with foreigners
and to maritime occupations. Joppa was the only seaport of Judea and
Jerusalem, and into it many of the articles used by Solomon in the
construction of the Temple were imported. During Solomon's reign, he
employed the ships of his ally, Hiram, King of Tyre, in commercial
avocations, for which his own people were not fitted. It is among the
Jews, whose history is given in the Scripture with so much detail,
that we should naturally look for the earliest geographical records.
The sacred writers, however, seem to have entertained no idea of any
system of geography, having been occupied with the affairs of the world
to come, to the total exclusion of the concerns of the mundane earth.
They do not even allude to any such branch of learning as being then
in existence. It is clear that the Hebrews never attempted to form any
theory upon the structure and shape of the globe. Their ideas with
regard to the boundaries of the known world may be vaguely inferred
from the tenth chapter of Genesis, from the chapters treating of the
commerce of Tyre, and from various detached allusions in the prophets.
The idea, common to all uninstructed people, that the earth is a flat
surface and the heaven a firmament or curtain spread over it, prevails
throughout the Bible. The abode of darkness and of the shadow of death
was conceived to be a deep pit beneath it. One sacred writer speaks of
the earth as being "hung upon nothing;" another speaks of the "pillars
of the earth," and another of the "pillars of heaven." These allusions
show sufficiently that, though the writers of those days were impressed
by the external view of the grand scenes of nature, they did not
endeavor to group them into any regular system.
The localities always alluded to as being at the farthest bounds of
their geographical knowledge are Tarshish, Ophir, the Isles, Sheba,
Dedan, The River, Gog, Magog, and the North. The first has given rise
to infinite discussion. The best theory makes it the name of Carthage,
and gives it, by extension, to the whole continent of Africa. Ophir is
probably Sofala, on the eastern coast of Africa. The Isles are thought
to have been the southern coasts and promontories of Europe, Greece,
Italy, &c., which were supposed at that period to be insular. Sheba was
Sabæa, or Arabia Felix. Dedan is supposed to have been a port in the
Persian Gulf. The River was the Euphrates, beyond which were tracts
indefinitely known as Elam and Media, and still beyond a region known
as "The Ends of the Earth." Gog, Magog, and the North have been usually
supposed to refer to the inhabitants of Scythia and Sarmatia, and the
hyperborean nations in general, though a later and more natural theory
makes them refer to the migratory shepherds and warriors of Cappadocia,
Phrygia, and Galatia. It thus appears that the primitive Israelites
knew little beyond the limits of their own country, Egypt, and the
regions lying between the Mediterranean, or the Sea, and the Euphrates.
A knowledge of the water, we have already remarked, is essential to
the formation of any correct and adequate idea of the shape and extent
of the land. The Jews had never ventured forth upon the sea for the
discovery of new regions, and were, in consequence, ignorant even of
that in which they dwelt. We shall find that the Greeks and Romans,
whose maritime history we shall now briefly narrate, approached the
truth in regard to the form and extent of the world, precisely as their
commerce expanded and their ambition for conquest and colonization
augmented.
[Illustration: SUPPOSED FORM OF THE SHIP ARGO, (FROM AN ANCIENT
BAS-RELIEF.)]
CHAPTER V.
THE EARLY MARITIME HISTORY OF THE GREEKS--THE EXPEDITION OF THE
ARGONAUTS--THE VESSELS USED IN THE TROJAN WAR--SHIP-BUILDING IN THE
TIME OF HOMER--THE POETIC GEOGRAPHY OF THE GREEKS--THE PALACE OF THE
SUN--THE MARVELS OF A VOYAGE OUT OF SIGHT OF LAND--THE GEOGRAPHY
OF HESIOD--OF ANAXIMANDER--OF THALES, HERODOTUS, SOCRATES, AND
ERATOSTHENES--THE GREAT OCEAN IS NAMED THE ATLANTIC.
At what period the Greeks began to build vessels and to venture
upon the waters washing their coasts and girding their numerous
archipelagoes, is not known: it is certain, at any rate, that the
commencement of navigation with them, as with all other nations, must
be referred to a time much anterior to the ages of which we have any
record. Long voyages are mentioned as having taken place at periods
so early that they must be considered mythical. The first maritime
adventure which lays any claim to authenticity, and the most celebrated
in ancient times, is the expedition of the Argonauts to Colchis.
Though this enterprise is by many learned authorities deemed fabulous,
we shall nevertheless consider three points connected with it,--the
probable era of the voyage, its supposed object, and the various routes
by which the adventurers are said to have returned.
The date of the expedition, if it took place at all, may be safely
fixed at the year 1250 B.C. A theory propounded by Sir Isaac Newton
would connect it with the year 937; but this is regarded with less
favor than the earlier date. Its alleged object was the Golden Fleece;
but what this was can only be conjectured. It is hardly likely that
the people of that age would have been tempted by the prospect of
commercial advantages by opening a trade with the Euxine Sea. It is
quite as unlikely that they would have undertaken so dangerous a voyage
for the purpose of plunder, better opportunities for which existed much
nearer home. The supposition that the Golden Fleece was a parchment
containing the secret of transmuting the baser metals into gold, and
the opinion that the Argonauts went in quest of skins and rich furs,
hardly require discussion. There seems, indeed, no adequate motive
but a desire to obtain the precious metals, which were believed to be
furnished in abundance by the mines near the Black Sea. Why these mines
were symbolized under the appellation of a golden fleece it is not easy
to say, and no satisfactory reason has ever been suggested. The most
probable is that the gold dust was supposed to be washed down the sides
of the Caucasus Mountains by torrents, and caught by fleeces of wool
placed among the rocks by the inhabitants.
Jason, the son of the King of Thessaly, being deprived of his
inheritance, and having resolved to seek his fortune by some remote and
hazardous expedition, was induced to go in quest of the Golden Fleece
in Colchis. He enlisted fifty men, and employed a person named Argus to
build him a ship, which from him was called Argo, the adventurers being
named Argonauts. The Argo is described as a pentecontoros,--that is, a
vessel with fifty oars. The number of the Argonauts is usually stated
at fifty, though one authority asserts that they numbered one hundred.
They started from Iolcos in Thessaly, and with a south wind sailed
east by north. The narrative of the expedition is full of wonders.
They landed at the island of Lemnos, where they found that the women
had just murdered their husbands and fathers. The Argonauts supplied
the place of the assassinated relatives, and Jason had two sons by
one of the bereaved Lemnians. When the vessel arrived at the entrance
to the Euxine,--the narrow strait now called the Bosphorus,--they
built a temple, and implored the protection of the gods against the
Symplegades, or Whirling Rocks, which guarded the passage. A seer named
Phineas was consulted upon the probability of their sailing through
unharmed. The rocks were imagined to float upon the waves, and, when
any thing attempted to pass through, to seize and crush it. According
to Homer,--
"No bird of air, no dove of swiftest wing,
That bears ambrosia to th' ethereal king,
Shuns the dire rocks: in vain she cuts the skies:
The dire rocks meet, and crush her as she flies."
Phineas advised them to loose a dove, to mark its flight, and to judge
from its fate of the destiny reserved for them. They did so, determined
to push boldly on if the bird got through in safety. The pigeon escaped
with the loss of some of its tail-feathers. The Argo dashed onward,
and cleared the formidable rocks with the loss of a few of its stern
ornaments. From this time forward, the legend adds, the Symplegades
remained fixed, and were no longer a terror to navigators.
The Argonauts, after entering the Black Sea, sailed due east, to the
mouth of the river Phasis, now the Rione. Æetes, the king, promised to
give Jason the fleece upon certain conditions. These he was enabled to
fulfil by the aid of Medea, a sorceress, and daughter of Æetes. They
then fled together to Greece. The route followed by the Argonauts upon
their return is differently given by the various poets who have told
the story and the commentators who have illustrated it. By one they
are represented as sailing up some river across the continent to the
Baltic, and thence homeward along the coasts of France and Spain, and
through the Straits of Gibraltar. It is needless to say that there is
no river which flows between the Euxine and the Baltic. Other tracks
laid down are equally preposterous in the eyes of modern geography.
Herodotus adopts the tradition that they returned by the same way they
went,--the only way, indeed, they could have returned,--by water. The
reader, in view of the romantic embellishments with which this story
is loaded, and of the strong doubts resting upon it as an historical
event, must choose, from among the various theories, we have given, the
one he deems the most satisfactory.
One generation after the date we have assigned to this expedition
occurred the Trojan War. In the year 1194 B.C., all the Greek states,
with Agamemnon at their head, united to revenge the insult offered
to Menelaus, King of Sparta, by the Trojan prince Paris, who had
carried off the king's wife Helen. During the interval the Greeks,
if the Homeric account is to be believed, had made great advances in
the arts of ship-building and navigation; for in a very short time
eleven hundred and fifty ships were collected at Aulis, the general
rendezvous. The Boeotians furnished fifty, and the other states
contributed in proportion. Each of them contained one hundred and
twenty warriors; they must therefore have been vessels of considerable
magnitude. All the ships are described as having masts which could
be taken down as occasion required. The sail could only be used when
the wind was directly astern. The delicate art of sailing in the
wind's eye, or of making to the north with a north wind, was not yet
understood. The principal propelling power lay in the oars, which
turned in leathern thongs as a key in its hole. Homer represents the
ships to have been black, from the color of the pitch with which they
were smeared. The sides near the prow were often painted red, whence
vessels are sometimes called by the poets red-cheeked. On their arrival
upon the Trojan coast, the Greeks drew their fleet up on the land and
anchored them by means of large stones. They then surrounded them with
fortifications, to protect them from the enemy.
Homer, who lived two centuries later,--1000 B.C.,--has left us a
tolerably full account of the ship-building, navigation, and geography
of his time. The following passage from the Odyssey, as rendered into
English by Cowper, is regarded by antiquaries as important, showing, as
it does, the point at which the art of ship-building had now arrived.
Ulysses, having been wrecked upon an island, is enabled to build a ship
by the aid of the nymph Calypso.
"She gave him, fitted to the grasp, an axe
Of iron, ponderous, double-edged, with haft
Of olive-wood inserted firm, and wrought
With curious art. Then, placing in his hand
A polish'd adze, she led herself the way
To her isle's utmost verge, where loftiest stood
The alder, poplar, and cloud-piercing fir,
Though sapless, sound, and fitted for his use
As buoyant most. To that once verdant grove
His steps the beauteous nymph Calypso led,
And sought her home again. Then slept not he,
But, swinging with both hands the axe, his task
Soon finish'd: trees full twenty to the ground
He cast, which dextrous with his adze he smoothed,
The knotted surface chipping by a line.
Meantime the lovely goddess to his aid
Sharp augers brought, with which he bored the beams,
Then placed them side by side, adapting each
To other, and the seams with wadding closed.
Broad as an artist skill'd in naval works
The bottom of a ship of burthen spreads,
Such breadth Ulysses to his raft assign'd.
He decked her over with long planks, upborne
On massy beams: he made the mast, to which
He added, suitable, the yard: he framed
Rudder and helm to regulate her course:
With wickerwork he border'd all the length
For safety, and much ballast stow'd within.
Meantime Calypso brought him, for a sail,
Fittest materials, which he also shaped,
And to it all due furniture annex'd
Of cordage strong, foot-ropes, and ropes aloft;
Then heaved her down with levers to the deep."
Besides the facts contained in this passage, it is worth remarking
that Homer seems to regard ship-builders with no little consideration,
inasmuch as he calls them "artists."
The Greeks, like the Hebrews, were ignorant of the real figure of
the earth. It is in Homer that we find the first written trace of
the widely prevalent idea that the earth is a flat surface begirt on
every side by the ocean. This was a natural belief in a region almost
insular, like Greece, where the visible horizon and an enveloping sea
suggested the idea of a flat circle. Homer took the lead among the
poetic geographers of Greece, and his authority gave to the subject a
fanciful cast, the traces of which are not yet obliterated. Beneath the
earth he placed the fabled regions of Elysium and Tartarus: above the
whole rose the grand arch of the heavens, which were supposed to rest
on the summits of the highest mountains. The sun, moon, and stars were
believed to rise from the waves of the sea, and to sink again beneath
them on their return from the skies.
Homer's distribution of the land was even more fantastic. Beyond the
limits of Greece and the western coasts of Asia Minor his knowledge
was uncertain and obscure. He had heard vaguely of Thebes, the mighty
capital of Egypt, and in his verse sang of its hundred gates and of
the countless hosts it sent forth to battle. The Ethiopians, who lived
beyond, were deemed to be the most remote dwellers upon the habitable
earth. Towards the centre of Africa were the stupendous ridges of the
Atlas Mountains: Homer deified the highest peak, and made it a giant
supporting upon his shoulders the outspreading canopy of the heavens.
The narrow passage leading from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic,
and now known as the Straits of Gibraltar, was believed to have been
discovered by Hercules, and the mountains on either side--Gibraltar and
Ceuta--were, from him, called the Pillars of Hercules.
Colchos, upon the Black Sea, was believed to be an ocean-city; and
here Greek fancy located the Palace of the Sun. It was here that the
charioteer of the skies gave rest to his coursers during the night,
and from whence in the morning he drove them forth again. Colchos,
therefore, was Homer's eastern confine of the globe. On the north,
Rhodope, or the Riphean Mountains, were supposed to enclose the
hyperborean limits of the world. Beyond them dwelt a fabled race,
seated in the recesses of their valleys and sheltered from the contests
of the elements. They were represented as exempt from all ills,
physical and moral, from sickness, the changes of the seasons, and even
from death. A race directly the converse of the ideal hyperboreans
were the Cimmerians, located at the mouth of the Sea of Azof, who are
described by Homer as dwelling in perpetual darkness and never visited
by the sun. He imagined the existence of numerous other nations, who
long continued to hold a place in ancient geography. The Cyclops, who
had but one eye, were placed in Sicily; the Arimaspians, similarly
afflicted, inhabited the frontiers of India; the Pigmies, or Dwarfs,
who fought pitched battles with the cranes, were supposed to dwell in
Africa, in India, and, in fact, to occupy the whole southern border of
the Earth.
In the time of Homer, all voyages in which the mariner lost sight of
land were considered as fraught with the extremest peril. No navigator
ever visited Africa or Sicily from choice, but only when driven there
by tempest and typhoon, and then his woes usually terminated in
shipwreck: a return was not merely a marvel, but a miracle. Homer made
Sicily the principal scene of the lamentable adventures of Ulysses, and
sufficient traces are furnished by the Odyssey of the distorted and
exaggerated notions entertained in the poet's time of the character
of places reached by a voyage at sea. The existence of monsters of
frightful form and size, such as Polyphemus, who watched for the
destruction of the mariner and even roasted and devoured his quivering
limbs; of treacherous enchantresses, such as Circe, who lured but to
ensnare; of amiable goddesses, like Calypso, who offered immortality
in exchange for love,--was doubtless believed by Homer, though we must
make some allowance for poetical license. At any rate, the invention of
these fables is not to be attributed to Homer, who, at the most, gave
a highly-colored repetition of the terrific reports brought back from
those formidable coasts by the few who had been fortunate enough to
return. It was thus that an ideal and poetic character was communicated
to the science of geography by the fables with which Homer tinged his
narrative. In the early ages of the world, science and poetry were twin
sisters: every poet was a savant, and every savant was a poet.
[Illustration: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HOMER.]
As far as his ideas can be reduced to a system, the earth was a flat
disk, around which flowed the river Ocean. The accompanying plan
will enable the reader to form an adequate conception of the Homeric
geography. The radius of the territories described by Homer with any
degree of precision was hardly three hundred miles in length.
Hesiod, who lived a century after Homer, thus states the scientific
attainments of his time:--"The space between the heavens and the earth
is exactly the same as that between the earth and Tartarus beneath it.
A brazen anvil, if tossed from heaven, would fall during nine days and
nine nights, and would reach the earth upon the tenth day. Were it to
continue its course towards the abode of darkness, it would be nine
days and nine nights more in accomplishing the distance." It is worth
while remarking that this statement is at variance with that of Homer,
who makes Vulcan, when precipitated from heaven by Jupiter, land at
Lemnos in a single day: he had travelled, therefore, nearly twenty
times faster than one of his own anvils. Hesiod intended to convey, by
this illustrations, an imposing idea of the loftiness of the heavens.
In the eyes of modern astronomy, nothing can be more paltry. The time
that an anvil thrown from Halcyon, the brightest star of the Pleiades,
towards our globe, would require to reach it, may perhaps be imagined
from the fact that the rays of light emitted by Halcyon travel five
centuries before they strike the earth! It is thus that the positive
revelations of modern science surpass in marvels the most daring
inventions of ancient fable.
[Illustration: THE EARTH ACCORDING TO ANAXIMANDER.]
Anaximander, four hundred years after Homer, held that the earth,
instead of being flat, was in the form of a cylinder, convex upon its
upper surface. Its diameter was three times greater than its height;
and its form was round, as if it had been shaped by a turner's lathe.
The Oracle of Delphi was the centre of his system.
Somewhat later, Thales, one of the Seven Sages, declared his belief
that the earth was spherical, and remained suspended in mid air without
support of any kind. This frightful doctrine made few proselytes: it
was not likely, indeed, that any one but a sage would adopt a theory
which made him the inhabitant of a globe abandoned and isolated in the
midst of space.
In the fifth century before Christ, Herodotus, the most celebrated
traveller of antiquity, and consequently capable of forming rational
ideas upon the subject of geography, rectified many errors which had
crept into the popular belief, though Homer was still considered
infallible by the masses of the people. "I know of no such river as
the ocean," he says, ironically: "this denomination seems to be a pure
invention of Homer and the old poets. I cannot help laughing when
I hear of the river Ocean, and of the spherical form of the earth,
as if it were the work of a turner." He displaced the centre of the
inhabited surface, which the Greeks had at first made Mount Olympus
and afterwards Delphi, making Rhodes the fortunate possessor of the
privilege. Socrates, a century later, (400 B.C.,) asserted that the
earth was in the form of a globe, sustained in the middle of the
heavens by its own equilibrium.
About the year 230 B.C., Eratosthenes, a Greek of Cyrene, succeeded in
reducing geography to a system, under the patronage of the Ptolemies of
Egypt, which gave him access to the immense mass of materials gathered
by Alexander and his successors and accumulated at the Alexandrian
Library. The spherical form of the earth was now quite generally
considered by scientific men to be the correct theory, though it could
never be substantiated till some navigator, sailing to the east, should
return by the west. Eratosthenes, proceeding upon this principle, made
it his study to adjust to it all the known features of the globe. The
great ocean of Homer and Herodotus, surrounding the world, still
remained in his system. He compared, however, the magnitude of the
regions known in his time with what he conceived to be the whole
circumference, and became convinced that only a third part of the space
was filled up. He conjectured that the remaining space might consist of
one great ocean, which he called the Atlantic, from Mount Atlas, which
was fancifully believed to support the globe. He supposed, too, that
lands and islands might be discovered in it by sailing towards the west.
We shall now proceed to give such a description of the vessels used by
the Greeks after the time of Homer, as the confused and incomplete data
which have reached us will enable us to furnish.
[Illustration: THE GREAT PENGUIN.]
[Illustration: A GREEK VESSEL OF THE SIXTH CENTURY B.C.]
CHAPTER VI.
CONSTRUCTION OF GREEK VESSELS--THE PROW, POOP, RUDDER, OARS, MASTS,
SAILS, CORDAGE, BULWARKS, ANCHORS--BIREMES, TRIREMES, QUADRIREMES,
QUINQUEREMES--THE GRAND GALLEY OF PTOLEMY PHILOPATOR--ROMAN
VESSELS--THEIR NAVY--MIMIC SEA-FIGHTS--THE FIVE VOYAGES OF ANTIQUITY.
The prow or foredeck of Greek vessels was ornamented on both sides by
figures in mosaic or painted. An eye on each side of the cutwater, as
is represented above, was a very common embellishment. A projection
from the head of the prow, pointed or covered with brass, and intended
to damage an enemy upon collision, was often in the shape of a wild
beast, or helmet, or even the neck of a swan. Below this was the
rostrum or beak, which consisted of a beam armed with sharp and solid
irons. They were at first above the water; but their efficiency was
afterwards increased by putting them below the water-line and rendering
them invisible. The commanding officer of the prow was next in rank
to the helmsman, and had charge of the rigging and the control of the
rowers.
The deck proper, or middle deck, appears to have been raised above the
bulwark, or at least upon a line with its upper edge, thus enabling the
soldiers to see far around them and hurl their darts at the enemy from
a commanding position.
The POOP, or stern, was usually higher than the rest of the vessel, and
upon it the helmsman had his elevated seat. It was rounder than the
prow, though its extremity was likewise sharp. It was embellished in
various ways, but especially with the figure of the tutelary goddess
or deity of the vessel. Over the helmsman was a roof, and above that
an elegant ornament, rising from the stern and bending gracefully over
him. In consequence of its conspicuous place and beautiful form, this
ornament, named an aplustre, was considered emblematic of the sea, and
was carried off by the victor in a naval engagement, as a standard or a
scalp in more modern times.
The RUDDER was a singular contrivance. The origin of this very useful
invention is attributed by Pliny, as we have said, to Tiphys, of the
Argo,--a doubtful pilot of a doubtful vessel. Previous to this, vessels
must have been guided by the same oars which propelled them. The
Grecian rudder was a long oar with a very broad blade, inserted, not
at the extremity of the stern, but at either side where it begins to
curve; and a ship usually had two, both being managed by the same man.
In large ships they were connected by a pole which kept them parallel
and gave to both the position in which either was turned. The rudder
seems to have been considered an emblem, as it frequently occurs on
gems, coins, and cameos. Thus a Triton is found represented as blowing
a shell and holding a rudder over his shoulder. A tiller and cornucopia
are frequently seen in juxtaposition. A cameo, still preserved, shows
a Venus Anadyomene leaning with her left arm upon a rudder the same
height as herself, and thereby indicating, as is supposed, her own
maritime origin.
The OARS, bearing a name which at first signified only the blade, but
was afterwards applied to all oars except the rudder, varied in size
as they were used by a higher or lower rank of rowers. A trireme may
be said to have had one hundred and seventy oars, a quinquereme three
hundred, and even four hundred. The lower part of the holes through
which the oars passed appears to have been covered with leather, which
also extended a little way outside the hole. In vessels mounting five
ranks of oars, the upper ones were of course much larger than the lower
ones, and we therefore find it stated by Greek authors that the lower
rank of rowers, having the shortest oars and consequently the easiest
work, received the smallest salary, while those who had the largest
oars and the heaviest work received the largest salary. They sat upon
benches attached to the ribs of the vessel, each oar being managed by
one man.
The MASTS of Grecian vessels, of which there were one, two, and three,
were usually made of the fir-tree. A vessel with thirty rowers had two
masts, the smaller being near the prow. In three-masted vessels the
largest mast was nearest the stern. The part of the mast immediately
above the yard formed a structure similar to a drinking-cup, and the
sailors ascended into it in order to manage the sails, to obtain a
wider view, and to discharge missiles. In large ships these were
made of bronze and would hold three men: they were furnished with
pulleys for hoisting stones and projectiles from below. The portion
of the mast above the cup, or _carchesium_, was called the distaff,
and corresponded to the modern topmast. The sail was hoisted, as at
present, by means of pulleys and a hoop sliding up and down the mast.
The SAILS were usually square. It was not common to furnish more than
one sail to one ship, and it was then attached with the yard to the
great mast. Sometimes each of the two masts of a trireme had two sails,
which were spread the one over the other, those of the foremast being
used only on occasions when great speed was required. It does not
appear that the triangular or lateen sail, so prevalent afterwards
among the Romans, was ever used by the Greeks. In Homer's time, sails
were of linen. Subsequently, sail-cloth was made of hemp, rushes, and
leather. Originally white, the sails of the ancients were afterwards
dyed of various colors. Those of Alexander's Indus fleet, of which we
shall hereafter speak more particularly, were blue, white, and yellow.
Those of pirates were sea-green, and those of Cleopatra, at the battle
of Actium, were purple.
The CORDAGE used was of various sizes and strength. In the first
place, thick and broad ropes ran in a horizontal direction around the
ship from stem to stern, for the purpose of binding the whole fabric
strongly together. They ran around in several circles and at fixed
distances from each other. Their number varied according to the size
of the ship, a trireme usually requiring four, and six in case they
were intended for very boisterous weather. These ropes were always
held in readiness in the Attic arsenals. A second-sized rope was used
for the anchors, while those attached to the masts, sails, and yards
were altogether lighter and made with greater care. One of these ran
from the top of the mainmast to the prow, corresponding to the modern
mainstay.
The BULWARKS were artificially elevated beyond the height intended by
the builder of the frame by means of a wickerwork covered with skins.
These served as a protection from high waves, and also as a breastwork
against the enemy. They appear to have been fixed upon the upper edge
of the wooden bulwark, and to have been removed when not wanted. Each
galley had four, two of which were "white," and two "made of hair."
What these distinctions were is quite unknown.
The ANCHORS of Greek vessels, in the earlier periods, were stones or
crates of sand, but soon came to be made of iron, and to be formed with
teeth or flukes. The Greeks used the several expressions of lowering,
casting, and weighing anchor precisely as we do, and the elliptical
phrase "to weigh" meant then, as now, to "set sail." Each ship had
several anchors: we learn, from the twenty-seventh chapter of Acts,
that the vessel of St. Paul had four. The last and heaviest anchor
was considered "sacred," in the same way as it is now regarded as "a
last hope." The sailors, in casting it, recommended themselves to the
protection of the gods; and it was rather a pretext for resorting to
prayer than an instrument reliable from its strength and weight. "In
our day," says an eminent writer upon the art of ship-building, "when
every thing is calculated and weighed, and, even in this most poetic of
professions, tends to the driest and most prosaic materialism, instead
of the sacred anchor, cast in the midst of prayer and sacrifice, we
have the anchor of eight thousand pounds." With all proper deference
to the religious spirit of this learned commentator, we may remark,
without irreverence, that even the most "poetic" of mariners would
prefer a single modern best bower to a dozen of the sacred anchors of
the Greeks; and it can hardly be doubted that, if the latter themselves
had been acquainted with the "anchor of eight thousand pounds," they
would have dispensed with both prayer and sacrifice. Heaven helps those
who help themselves.
Every Greek vessel had a distinctive name, which was usually of the
feminine gender, and often that of some popular heroine. In many cases,
the name of the builder was added.
After the Trojan War, the establishment of Greek colonies upon foreign
coasts, the commercial intercourse with these colonies, and the very
prevalent practice of piracy, contributed largely to the improvement
of ships and of navigation. For many years no innovation was made upon
the custom of employing ships with one rank of rowers on each side. The
Erythræan Greeks are supposed to have invented the biremes, with two
ranks, and the Corinthians the triremes, with three. Themistocles, in
the fifth century B.C., persuaded the Athenians to build two hundred
triremes, for the purpose of attacking Ægina. Even at this period,
vessels were not provided with complete decks, some having partial
decks, and some none at all, the only protection for the men consisting
in the bulwark. The invention of decked ships is ascribed to the
Thasians. After Alexander the Great, the Rhodians became the greatest
maritime power in Greece. The Colossus of Rhodes, a brazen statue of
Apollo, one hundred feet high, seems to have been erected in assertion
of their commercial supremacy, for the legend is that it stood across
the mouth of the harbor, and that vessels passed between its legs.
Navigation still remained what it had been before, the Greeks seldom
venturing into the open sea, and considering it necessary to remain in
sight of the coast by day and to observe the rising and setting of the
stars by night, in order to replace the landmarks no longer visible in
the darkness. In winter, navigation was suspended altogether. Rather
than double a cape, they would drag their vessel across a neck of land
from one sea to another, by machines contrived for the purpose. This
was frequently done across the Isthmus of Corinth. The ordinary size
of a war-galley or trireme may be inferred from the fact that its
complement of men was two hundred and thirty; and its speed in smooth
water and with a favorable wind may be stated as very nearly that of a
modern steamboat.
Dionysius of Syracuse (405 B.C.) is said to have built the first
quadrireme and quinquereme in Greece,--inventions which he probably
obtained from the Carthaginians and Salaminians. Alexander the Great
built ships with twelve and thirty ranks of oars. Ptolemy Philopator,
of Egypt, is said to have constructed one of forty, after a Greek
model. Callixenus has left a description of this vessel; and this,
having been transcribed by Plutarch and Athenæus, was, until very
lately, thus supported by competent authority, regarded as quite
authentic. Late investigations have shown conclusively that the vessel,
with the proportions given, never could have existed. She was said to
have had forty tiers of oars, one above the other. It is clear that the
uppermost tiers must have been of enormous length to reach the water,
and we find their length stated, in consequence, at seventy feet.
Sixty feet of this length must naturally have been without the vessel,
leaving ten feet of handle within. As the strength of no one man would
be sufficient to manage an oar thus unequally poised, the fabulists
assert that the handles were made of lead, that the equilibrium might
be restored. What the story thus gains in weight, however, it certainly
loses in credibility. Oars of seventy feet were out of the question,
even in the heroic ages. Their number was equally extraordinary, for
they counted no less than four thousand, and were managed by four
thousand men. Besides these, there were two thousand eight hundred and
fifty combatants collected in castles and behind her bulwarks. She
had four rudders, each forty-five feet long, and a double prow. This
last feature would have been an impediment instead of an advantage,
as the re-entering angles of the two prows would have presented a
very violent resistance to the water, which, in its turn, would have
exerted a great power to separate them. Her stern was said to have
been decorated with resplendent paintings of terrible and fantastic
animals, her oars to have protruded through masses of foliage, and,
as if she was not already overladen, her hold was declared to have
contained huge quantities of grain. A critical comparison has shown
that this famous galley could not have turned her head from west to
east without describing an enormous orbit and occupying a full hour in
the manoeuvre. Indeed, had the Egyptians been foolish enough to build
such a ship, they would not have been fortunate enough to navigate her.
Nevertheless, as it is quite clear that Ptolemy did construct a galley
of unusual size and capacity, modern commentators have earnestly sought
to explain away the glaring exaggerations and impossibilities of the
description given by Callixenus. The chief difficulty lay in the forty
tiers of oars and in the four thousand oarsmen. The engraving upon
the opposite page gives a representation of the Ptolemy, as she may
reasonably be supposed to have appeared. Instead of forty _tiers_,
she has, when thus restored, forty _groups_ of oars: with this
substitution, and a liberal diminution in the aggregate number, it is
not improbable that she may have existed, and floated even. It is not,
however, pretended by Callixenus that she was ever useful in war: she
seems to have been regarded as a curiosity and a spectacle. She was,
in fact, the Leviathan of antiquity,--the original "Triton among the
minnows."
[Illustration: THE PTOLEMY PHILOPATOR.]
The Romans obtained the models of their vessels from the Greeks, though
they remained almost entirely unacquainted with the sea till the third
century before Christ. They then had no fleet, and few or no ships
for any peaceful or commercial use. Livy mentions the appointment of
naval decemvirs about the year 300 B.C. But it was not till 260 B.C.
that Rome became a maritime power. It was now seen that she could
not maintain herself against Carthage without a navy, and the senate
ordered the immediate construction of a fleet. Triremes would have
been of little avail against the high-bulwarked quinqueremes of the
Carthaginians. It so happened, very fortunately for them, that a
vessel of the largest class, belonging to Carthage, was wrecked upon
the coast of Bruttium, and thus furnished them a model. They built,
after this design, over one hundred vessels, the greater part of
them quinqueremes, the whole being completed in sixty days after the
trees were cut down. Thus built of green timber, they were unsound
and clumsy. Still, to their own astonishment, they achieved a naval
victory, capturing fifty of the enemy's vessels. Seventeen of their
own were taken and destroyed by the Carthaginians off Messina. It was
not long before the Romans completely crippled the maritime power of
their African foe. From this time forward they continued to maintain a
powerful navy, and built vessels with six and even ten ranks of oars.
The construction of their vessels differed little from that of the
Greeks, with the exception of the destructive engines of war and the
towers and platforms with which they furnished them.
During the Imperial period, the Romans took great delight in witnessing
representations of fights at sea, and their emperors were equally fond
of exhibiting them. The first spectacle of this kind, or _naumachia_,
was given by Julius Cæsar upon a lake dug for the purpose in the Campus
Martius. Augustus caused a lake or "stagnum" to be made for a similar
use. This remained as the permanent scene of such exhibitions. The
combatants in these fights were usually captives or criminals condemned
to death, who fought as in gladiatorial combats, until one side was
exterminated or spared by imperial clemency. In a naumachia given by
Nero, there were sea-monsters swimming about in the artificial lake.
Claudius ordered a naval battle upon Lake Fucinus, in which one hundred
ships and nineteen thousand combatants were engaged. Troops of nereids
were seen swimming about, and the signal for attack was given by a
silver Triton, who was made, by means of machinery, to blow the alarum
upon a trumpet.
We now proceed to narrate, in chronological order, the very few voyages
of discovery made previous to the Christian era. These were those of
Hanno to Sierra Leone, of Sataspes to Sahara, of Nearchus from the
Indus to the Tigris, of Pytheas from Massilia to Shetland, and of
Eudoxus from Cadiz to the Equator.
[Illustration: THE COMMON PENGUIN.]
CHAPTER VII.
THE VOYAGE OF HANNO THE CARTHAGINIAN--HE SEES CROCODILES, APES,
AND VOLCANOES--THE VOYAGE OF HIMILCON TO AL-BION--THE VOYAGE AND
IGNOMINIOUS FATE OF SATASPES THE PERSIAN--THE VOYAGE OF PYTHEAS THE
PHOCIAN--THE SACRED PROMONTORY--A NEW ATMOSPHERE--AMBER--RETURN
HOME--THE VERACITY OF PYTHEAS' NARRATIVE--THE EXPEDITION OF
NEARCHUS THE MACEDONIAN--STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE HEAVENS--THE
ICTHYOPHAGI--HOUSES BUILT OF THE BONES OF WHALES--FISH FLOUR--A
BATTLE WITH WHALES--AN UNEXPECTED MEETING--THE DISTANCE TRAVERSED BY
NEARCHUS--THE VOYAGE OF EUDOXUS ALONG THE AFRICAN COAST--STATE OF
NAVIGATION AT THE OPENING OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
At a period which it is no longer possible to settle with precision,
but certainly anterior to the fifth century B.C., the Carthaginians,
then in the height of their maritime and commercial prosperity, ordered
a navigator by the name of Hanno to make a voyage beyond the Pillars
of Hercules, and to found cities along the western shore of Africa. He
set sail with a fleet of sixty vessels, each of which was impelled by
fifty oars. He carried with him thirty thousand men and women, with
abundant supplies and provisions. Within a week after passing the
straits, they founded a city and erected a temple to Neptune; they also
established five trading stations along the coast. They saw a race
of people called Lixitæ, with whom they formed ties of friendship,
and by whom they were furnished with interpreters. Continuing their
course, they found another race dressed in the skins of wild beasts,
who repelled them from the shore with stones and other missiles. They
next came to the mouth of a river which was filled with crocodiles and
hippopotami. They soon arrived at a coast edged with high mountains
covered with trees, the wood of which was odoriferous and variously
tinted. Beyond was an immense opening of the sea, bordered by plains
on which they saw many blazing fires. Then they came to a large bay,
in which was an island enclosing a salt-water lake, in which, again,
was another island. Entering this lake in the night, they saw huge
fires burning and heard the sounds of musical instruments and the cries
of innumerable human beings. They next reached the fiery region of
Thymiamata, whence torrents of flame poured down into the sea. Here the
heat of the earth was such that the foot could not rest upon it. After
four days' farther sail, they again found the land at night enveloped
in flames. In the midst of these fires appeared one much more lofty
than the rest: this, when seen by daylight, proved to be a very tall
mountain, called the Chariot of the Gods. They soon met with a rude
description of people, who had rough skins, and among whom the females
were much more numerous than the males: the interpreters called them
_Gorillæ_. They endeavored to catch some of them, but only succeeded in
capturing three females, who made so violent a resistance, that they
were obliged to kill them and strip off their skins, which they carried
back to Carthage. Being out of provisions at this point, they were
unable to pursue their voyage, and returned home.
This narrative, as given by Hanno himself, hardly fills two octavo
pages: volumes of commentaries have been written upon it by geographers
and antiquaries. The most probable of the various hypotheses formed
upon it, is, that Hanno's voyage extended to Sherbro Sound, a little
south of Sierra Leone. The features of man and nature, as described by
Hanno, are to be found in Tropical Africa only: Ethiopians or negroes;
Gorillæ, who are clearly apes, or orang-outangs; rivers so large as to
contain crocodiles and river-horses. The great conflagrations of the
grass, too, and the music and dancing prolonged through the night, are
phenomena which have been observed only in the negro territories. But
this hypothesis is not accepted by all geographers, one of whom gives
to Hanno's course an extent of three thousand miles, while another
limits it to less than seven hundred.
While Hanno was thus exploring the western coast of Africa, another
Carthaginian, named Himilcon, was sent by his countrymen to the North
of Europe. From a very vague description of his voyage given in a Latin
poem entitled _Ora Maritima_, it is plain that he crossed the Bay of
Biscay, and found, upon islands, as is asserted, but probably upon the
mainland, a race of athletic people who went fearlessly to sea in barks
made of skins sewed together. They crossed, in the space of two days,
to a place called the Sacred Island, (Ireland,) which was not far from
another island, named Al-Bion, (England.) No further details of this
expedition have been preserved.
Upon the establishment of the Persian sway over the eastern coasts
of the Mediterranean, towards the close of the fifth century B.C.,
the exploration of Africa became the peculiar province of the Persian
monarchs. But this nation labored under an unconquerable aversion for
the sea, and the only maritime effort of theirs on record was entirely
casual in its origin, and futile in its results. It was as follows, as
recorded by Herodotus:
Sataspes, a Persian nobleman, having committed a crime punishable
with death, was condemned by Xerxes to be crucified. One of his
friends persuaded the monarch to commute the sentence into a voyage
around Africa, which, he said, was much more severe, and might result
advantageously to the nation. Sataspes obtained a vessel and recruited
a crew in Egypt, and, sailing through the Pillars of Hercules, bent
his course southward. He is represented as having beat about for many
weeks, and probably reached the shores of the Great Saharan Desert. The
aspect of this formidable and tempest-lashed coast might well appall
an amateur navigator accustomed to the luxurious indolence of a Persian
court. He seems to have preferred crucifixion to circumnavigation,
for he at once measured back his course to the Straits. He gave an
incoherent account of his adventures to Xerxes, attributing his failure
to the interference of an insurmountable obstacle, the nature of
which he was unable to explain. Xerxes would listen to no excuse, and
ordered the original sentence to be executed forthwith. Authorities
differ as to the fate of Sataspes,--one asserting that he suffered the
ignominious death to which he was condemned, and another alleging that
he made his escape to the island of Samos.
[Illustration: THE SACRED PROMONTORY.]
A colony which had been established at Massilia--now Marseilles--about
six hundred years before Christ, by the Phocians, was, in the year 340
B.C., at the height of its commercial prosperity. The citizens, being
desirous of extending their maritime relations, sent, at this period,
upon an expedition to the North of Europe, through the Pillars of
Hercules, a learned geographer and astronomer by the name of Pytheas.
He started with a single ship, the finances of the city not permitting
a larger outlay of means.
He passed the Pillars on the sixteenth day from Massilia; and on the
twentieth he arrived at the Sacred Promontory, the extreme western
point of Iberia or Spain. A temple to Hercules had been erected at this
spot. The inhabitants of the promontory declared, during the time of
Pytheas, and, indeed, for two hundred years afterwards, that as the sun
plunged at evening into the sea, they heard a hissing like that of a
red-hot body suddenly dropped into water.
[Illustration: PLAN OF PYTHEAS' VOYAGE.]
Following the coasts of Iberia and of Celtica, he came to the point of
land now known as Finisterre, in France, and the promontory Calbium.
Turning to the east, he was surprised to find himself in a wide gulf,
with Celtica on his right, and an immense island on his left. The gulf
was the British Channel, and the island the Al-Bion that Himilcon had
vaguely discerned some centuries before. It was at this point that
Pytheas may be said to have begun his career; and the discovery of
Great Britain may safely be attributed to him.
He described the island as having the form of an isosceles triangle,
as may be seen upon the foregoing plan. Three promontories formed the
three angles,--Belerium being now Land's End, Cantium Cape Pepperness,
and Orcas Duncansby Head. He found the inhabitants of the southern
coast industrious and sociable, peaceable, honest, and sober. They
raised wheat and worked rich mines of tin. As he sailed northward,
along the eastern coast, he noticed that the days grew sensibly
longer; and at Point Orcas, nineteen hours elapsed between the rising
and the setting of the sun. He sailed still northward, and six days
after leaving Orcas he came to an island, or a continent--he knew not
which,--which he called Thule. As he found he could go no farther to
the north, he spoke of this spot as _Ultima Thule_, an expression which
has passed into the figurative language of all modern nations as one
denoting any remote point. Thule is generally considered to have been
Shetland, although theories have been ardently advocated making it
respectively Iceland, Sweden, and Jutland.
The narrative of Pytheas, which has been thus far clear and reliable,
assumes at this point a very fabulous aspect. He declares that north
of Thule there was neither earth, nor sea, nor air. A sort of dense
concretion of all the elements occupied space and enveloped the world.
He compared it to the thick, viscid animal substance called _pulmo
marinus_, a sort of mollusk or medusa. He said that this substance was
the basis of the universe, and that in it earth, air, and sky hung,
as it were, suspended. This illusion has been explained by the dreary
spectacle of fogs, mists, rains, and tempests which at this point of
his voyage must have met the gaze of the daring navigator. It would
have been difficult for any mind, in those early ages, to have been
on its guard against the sinister impressions likely to result from
the contemplation of a scene so appalling. It must be remembered that
Pytheas was accustomed to the pure and transparent atmosphere, the
dazzling sky, and the phosphorescent waters of the Mediterranean. It
would have been astonishing if a man educated among the splendors of
an almost tropical climate had not been oppressed by influences so
gloomy. It was the belief of all early navigators that a point would
be found somewhere without the Pillars of Hercules beyond which it
would be impossible to penetrate. While timid adventurers declared they
had arrived at this point hardly a week's sail from the Straits, and
declared that an atmosphere of mist, darkness, and gigantic sea-weed
barred their passage, Pytheas did not allow his imagination to be
affected or his courage to be shaken till he found himself in presence
of the sombre and formidable scenery of what, with true geographical
propriety, he denominated "Thule and her utmost isles."
Leaving his animal atmosphere behind him, Pytheas returned to Orcas and
from thence to Cantium. Instead of following his former track through
the British Channel homeward, he turned to the eastward, and arrived,
in a few days' sail, at the mouth of the Rhine. He found the country
here inhabited by a race of fierce barbarians. Upon the shores of a
vast gulf, beyond, dwelt the Teutons and the Guttones. In this gulf
was an island named Abalcia, upon whose shores the waves deposited,
in spring, immense quantities of yellow amber, which the inhabitants
burned instead of wood, or sold for fuel to their neighbors the
Teutons. Pytheas pursued his voyage as far as a river named Tanais, now
supposed to be either the Elbe or the Oder. He considered this stream
to be the eastern boundary of Celtica, in which he included Germania.
He now turned his face homeward, and, coasting along the shores of
Celtica and Iberia, arrived without accident or adventure at Massilia.
He had sailed one hundred and eighty-six thousand stadia, or eleven
thousand miles: the duration of the expedition was less than a year.
Geographers subsequent to Pytheas strove zealously to discredit his
assertions. One denied the voyage altogether; another questioned the
veracity of the narrative. Strabo was particularly hostile to Pytheas,
whom he said he would prove "a liar of the first magnitude." He was
thus led to make long quotations from his descriptions for the purpose
of refuting them. As the original account given by Pytheas is not
extant, the world is indebted to the skepticism of Strabo for all that
it knows of one of the most interesting and daring maritime enterprises
of antiquity.
In the year 326 before Christ, Alexander of Macedon, having
accomplished the conquest of Persia, and having invaded Hindostan by
the north, found himself compelled, by a mutiny of his troops, to
arrest his course upon the eastern bank of the river Indus. He was here
seized with a desire to explore the lower course of that river, and
afterwards the southern shores of Asia, a tract of coast with which the
Greeks were entirely unacquainted. The object of the expedition was
partly exploration, and partly to convey a portion of the army back
to Babylon upon the river Euphrates. The dangers of the enterprise
and the improbability of success deterred the greater part of the
naval officers from attempting it, as neither the Arabian Sea nor the
Persian Gulf had ever been traversed before. Nearchus, the admiral
of the fleet, proposed several candidates for the perilous honor,
who variously excused themselves. Nearchus at last proffered his own
services, which, after some hesitation, were accepted. This selection
of a commander tranquillized the soldiers and sailors intended for
the expedition; for they felt that Alexander would not have sent his
intimate friend upon a voyage from which he would not be likely to
return. The splendor of the preparations, the beauty of the vessels,
the confidence of the officers, also went far towards dissipating their
fears. At the word of Alexander, says a modern poet,--
"The pines descend; the thronging masts aspire;
The novel sails swell beauteous o'er the curves
Of Indus: to the moderator's song
The oars keep time, while bold Nearchus guides
Aloft the gallies. On the foremost prow
The monarch from his golden goblet pours
A full libation to the gods, and calls
By name the mighty rivers through whose course
He seeks the sea."
Alexander accompanied his fleet to the delta of the Indus, from whence
he obtained a view of the gulf. He then returned to lead his men across
Gedrosia, Caramania, and Persis to Babylon. Nearchus then set sail,
after offering sacrifices to Neptune and Jupiter Salvator, and ordering
a series of games and gymnastic exercises. The voyage thus undertaken
was an event of real importance in the history of navigation: it opened
a route between Europe and the extremities of Asia. It was the source
of the discoveries made in later times by the Portuguese, and the
primary, though remote, cause of the successful establishment of the
British in India.
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE VOYAGE OF NEARCHUS.]
At the very mouth of the river they met a formidable obstacle,--a
rocky bar over which the waves broke with extreme violence. Through
this bar, in its softest parts, they cut a canal one-third of a mile
in length, and at high tide passed through it with the fleet. They
had hardly reached the open ocean before a heavy gale drove them into
an indentation of land protected by an island: to this natural harbor
Nearchus gave the name of Alexander. Here he caused a camp to be laid
out and entrenched, and remained for twenty-four days, the soldiers
subsisting chiefly on shell-fish. When the gale abated they again
embarked, meeting with constant adventures and difficulties upon their
way. One day they would pass through huge menacing rocks, so near
that they touched them with their oars on either side. On another
they would be compelled, on landing for water, to ascend for miles
into the interior before finding fresh-water sources. A storm caused
two galleys and a vessel to founder, the crews of which, however,
succeeded in swimming to shore. Nearchus caused his whole army to land
at this point, for they needed repose, and his shattered fleet required
repairs. He met with Leonatus, whom Alexander had detached from the
main body of the army to follow the coasts and keep up a communication
with Nearchus. Wheat was also sent to this spot by Alexander for the
fleet, and each vessel took a supply sufficient for ten days. Nearchus
exchanged such sailors and soldiers as had proved inefficient, for
fresh men selected from the division of Leonatus.
At this point the narrative becomes strongly tinged with the usual
exaggerations of the early navigators. Nearchus asserts that he
observed strange phenomena in the heavens. When the sun was in the
meridian, he says, no shadow was projected, and the stars which they
were accustomed to see above them were now crouching close to the
horizon; others, that had never before disappeared from the sky, now
rose and set at intervals. The assertion in regard to shadows at noon
is evidently a fabrication. Enough was known of astronomy and the
motions of the heavenly bodies, in the time of Nearchus, to convince
the learned that there must be a point where no shadow would be cast by
a body directly beneath the sun at the summer solstice; and Nearchus,
with a vanity quite usual in the conquerors and adventurers of those
times, chose to assert, and he perhaps believed, that he had seen this
singular phenomenon. Two circumstances will show the inaccuracy of his
statement. The alleged appearance took place in the middle of the month
of November, and twenty-five degrees north of the equator. Even had
Nearchus been at this spot in midsummer, he would have seen shadows of
very respectable length. Upon the coast of Gedrosia he found a people
called Icthyophagi, or Fish-eaters. The mutton here tasted of fish, and
Nearchus discovered that the sheep eat fish as well as the inhabitants,
for the land yielded no pasturage.
In one of the villages of the Fish-eaters Nearchus engaged a pilot who
undertook to guide him as far as Caramania. The aspect of the coast now
became less repulsive, and palm-trees, myrtles, and flowers grew wild
upon the hill-sides. Such was the delight of the Macedonians at this
sight, that they landed and wove garlands and wreaths of the foliage
for the wives and daughters of the natives. Farther on, at a spot where
the inhabitants made them presents of roasted tunny-fish--the first
cooked fish they had yet received from the Icthyophagi--and where they
noticed wheat-fields, they landed, and, after taking possession of the
village, demanded the surrender of all their wheat. The people made a
feeble resistance, and then gave up all the flour they possessed,--not
wheat flour, but fish flour,--flour made by reducing fish to powder, as
we make flour by pulverizing the kernels of wheat.
The coast again becoming almost desert, the crew were obliged to eat
the tender buds of palm-trees, and on one occasion were glad to devour
seven camels which they were fortunate enough to encounter. Besides
the dangers of famine, Nearchus had to contend with legions of whales,
many of them one hundred and fifty feet long,--a prodigious size for
inland seas like the Persian Gulf. One day he noticed a jet of water
of great height and violence, and soon the air was filled with spray
tossed up by a sportive herd of these monsters. The frightened sailors
let drop their oars: but Nearchus encouraged them and dissipated their
fears. He placed the vessels of the fleet abreast in a single line, and
ordered them to advance simultaneously at full speed, as in a naval
combat, and, upon approaching the whales, to terrify them by shouts
and the din of trumpets. At a given signal, the vessels started and
dashed forward upon the cetaceous army: the whales plunged into the
abysses of the water, and, reappearing at the sterns of the fleet, sent
up a shower of spurts in derision of their timorous enemy. Nearchus
found these fish so abundant that large numbers of them were stranded
in every storm: the inhabitants built houses of their bones, using the
larger bones for posts, planks, and doors; the jawbones furnished an
excellent thatch, or roofing material. He also saw huts constructed of
the back-bones of smaller fish.
The fleet now reached the coast of Caramania, after passing an island
supposed to be inhabited by an enchantress very much like the Circe
of the Greek fable, who was said to seduce navigators by the promise
of voluptuous pleasures and then change them into fish. Nearchus now
found his distresses nearly at an end, as the soil was productive of
grain and fruit, and as the streams yielded an abundance of water.
He soon came in view of a vast promontory on the Arabian side, (Cape
Mussendoun,) which seemed completely to close the entrance to the
Persian Gulf. The sailors, weary of their long voyage, earnestly
besought Nearchus to land here and to march across the country to
Babylon. Nearchus insisted that this would not be fulfilling the
intentions of Alexander, whose command it was to survey every portion
of the coast from the Indus to the Euphrates. They doubled the cape,
therefore, and entered the Persian Gulf. Keeping close to the northern
shore, they came at last to a tract of territory inhabited by friendly
races and yielding an abundance of every fruit except the olive. They
landed at the mouth of the Anamis,--the modern Minab,--and refreshed
themselves after their long hardships. They reposed under the shade
of palms, and conversed gayly of the dangers they had escaped and the
wonders they had seen. A party wandered from the coast towards the
interior, and, to their surprise and joy, met a man clothed in the
Greek chlamys and speaking the Greek language. They asked him who
he was and what country he was from. He replied that he belonged to
the army of Alexander, and that the camp was not far off. Transported
with delight, they took the stranger to Nearchus, whom he told that
Alexander was at five days' journey from the sea.
Nearchus, upon receiving this intelligence, caused his ships to be
drawn on shore, a rampart to be built round them, and repairs to be
commenced upon them, while he, Archius, a lieutenant, and six sailors
should set out to find the camp of the king. As they approached the
outposts, soldiers sent forward to meet them by Alexander, who had
been informed of their coming, did not recognise them, on account of
their changed dress and haggard aspect. Alexander received them with
kindness, but in deep sorrow, for he had conceived the idea that the
eight persons before him were all that had survived the perils of the
sea. "You two have returned," he said, "you and Archius, safe and
sound, and this alone renders the loss of my fleet endurable: tell
me in what manner perished my vessels and my army." Upon learning
the safety of the entire expedition, he is said to have burst into
a flood of tears, and to have sworn that he derived more pleasure
from this event than from the entire conquest of Asia. He offered
sacrifices to Jupiter, Hercules, Apollo, and Neptune. He then proposed
that Nearchus should repose from his trials, and that another should
conduct the fleet to Susa, the capital of Susiana. Nearchus thought it
unjust, however, that the glory of completing a task which he had so
successfully begun should be taken from him, and retained the command.
He was obliged to fight his way back to the sea through warlike and
hostile tribes.
The rest of the voyage, along the coasts of Caramania and Persis,--the
modern Fars,--was comparatively easy, orders having been given by
Alexander that Nearchus should find at intervals supplies of every
species of provisions. On the 24th of February, in the year 325 B.C.,
the fleet arrived at the mouth of the Euphrates. Nearchus learned
that Alexander had already reached Susa, which was situated some forty
miles towards the interior upon the borders of the Tigris. He therefore
ascended that river, and, at a bridge newly thrown over it for the
passage of Alexander's army, the junction of the long-separated naval
and land forces took place. Nearchus received a crown of gold for his
success in the expedition; the pilot was rewarded with a crown of
smaller size, and the debts of the army were discharged by Alexander.
The voyage had occupied nearly five months, and the distance sailed was
not far from fifteen hundred miles, if the sinuosities and indentations
of the coast are included, and twelve hundred in a straight line. Half
of this period of five months must be considered to have been spent
upon the land, in surveys of the coast, in repairs of the vessels, and
in forays in search of food and water. The same route is now usually
traversed by merchant vessels in the space of three weeks. Nothing can
give a better idea of the immense service Nearchus was thought to have
rendered the state, than the fact that it was in the convivialities of
a banquet in his honor, a year later, that Alexander abandoned himself
to the excesses which resulted in his death.
Eudoxus, the next navigator in chronological order, was a native of
Cyzicus, in Mysia, and was sent by its citizens, in the third century
B.C., upon a mission connected with the promotion of geographical
science, to Alexandria, then the seat of maritime enterprise. He became
strongly imbued with the spirit of exploration and investigation
which reigned there, and succeeded in inducing Ptolemy Euergetes, the
reigning king, to fit out a naval armament, and to send it under his
command upon an expedition down the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea. He appears
to have made a successful voyage, for he returned with a cargo of
aromatics and precious stones. It is supposed that he sailed down the
Red Sea, and, passing out by the Straits of Babelmandel, followed the
southern coast of Arabia as far as the Persian Gulf: it is altogether
unlikely that he reached the shores of India. Euergetes plundered him
of his wealth upon his return, but died soon after, leaving the throne
to his widow Cleopatra.
The queen took Eudoxus into favor, and sent him upon a fresh voyage.
He seems to have been driven by unfavorable winds upon the coast of
Abyssinia, where he made advantageous bargains with the inhabitants.
He rescued from the water a fragment of a wreck,--the prow of a vessel
which, from a sculpture representing the figure of a horse, seemed to
have come from the West. This prow was exhibited by Eudoxus in the
harbor of Alexandria, and was declared by some mariners from Cadiz to
be of the precise form peculiar to large vessels which went from that
port to fish upon the coast of Mauritania, or Morocco. It was evident,
therefore, to the ardent mind of Eudoxus, that this fragment of a
wrecked vessel, left to the mercy of the waves, had performed the grand
maritime problem of antiquity,--the circuit of Africa. He abandoned
himself with enthusiastic credulity to the enticing hope that he might
himself succeed in achieving this darling object of the ambition of
princes, kings, and states.
He determined to renounce the deceitful patronage of courts, and
to start with a new expedition from Cadiz. He went thither by way
of Massilia and other trading settlements, and urged all who were
animated by the spirit of progress to follow him. He thus succeeded in
equipping an armada, consisting of one ship and two large boats, on
board of which were not only goods and provisions and the necessary
crews, but artisans, scientific men, and musicians. The very ardor and
extravagance of their hopes, and perhaps, too, the undue gayety in
which they took their departure, unfitted them to encounter the dangers
and hardships of African discovery. The crew were frightened at the
swell of the open sea through which Eudoxus wished to make his way, and
insisted upon following the shore, according to the usual cautious
method of those days. The consequence was that the ship was stranded,
and the cargo was with difficulty saved. Eudoxus prosecuted the voyage
in a single ship of lighter construction, till he came to a race of
people who spoke, as he thought, the same language as those he had met
on the opposite side of the continent. Thinking this discovery enough
for the expedition in its now enfeebled state, he returned to Spain and
equipped another small fleet, better fitted to buffet the waves of the
open sea.
He again set forth; but the narrative, as handed down by Strabo, breaks
off at this point, and we are without information upon the results of
the enterprise. It is true that rumor and fable have supplied the place
of authentic facts, and that Eudoxus is described by one version as
having actually circumnavigated Africa; by another, as having come to
a race of people who were born dumb; and by another, as having fallen
in with a nation who had no mouths, but received their food through
an orifice in the nose. These exaggerations are unworthy of notice;
and they do not seem to have thrown discredit upon the account of the
earlier experience of Eudoxus, which ranks among the most esteemed
narratives of ancient maritime adventure.
We have thus given, in some detail, descriptions of all the noteworthy
experiments in navigation previous to the birth of Christ. Two
features, it will be at once remarked, characterized all these
efforts:--1st, The only reliable propelling force continued to lie in
the oars; and, 2d, no sailor ventured out of sight of land, unless,
as when crossing the Mediterranean, he knew that other lands lay
beyond the visible horizon. We close this division of the subject
with the general observation, that the opening of the Christian era
found the world almost entirely under Roman dominion,--one which
preferred extending its sway by land to prosecuting discovery by sea.
The Mediterranean was, thus far, the only seat of commerce and the
exclusive scene of navigation. Though Hanno and Eudoxus had indeed
passed the Pillars of Hercules, and had coasted along the African
shore as far as the negro territories, and though Pytheas, proceeding
to the north, had visited--still hugging the land--the Baltic and
the British Channel, their expeditions must be considered as at once
venturesome and futile, for the age was not able to repeat them, and
totally failed to make them useful either to geography or commerce. As
long as the centre of power, of luxury, of wealth, remains within the
Mediterranean, as long as Tyre, Sidon, Rome, Carthage, successively
control the destinies of the world, so long shall we find mankind
lacking both the motive and the means to seek new worlds, by sea,
beyond. Time, however, will furnish both the motive and the means:
we shall find the one, as we proceed, in the Spice Islands of the
East, the other in the Mariner's Compass. The next division of our
subject will narrate how the contests between the Crescent and the
Cross over the tomb of Christ brought Europe and Asia into contact
and acquaintanceship; and how the commerce and intercourse which were
the immediate consequences led to that general and absorbing interest
in the sea and ships which eventually produced Columbus and Magellan.
The influence of nutmeg and cinnamon upon the spread of the gospel and
the development of science is a theme which we shall show to be not
unworthy of earnest and philosophical inquiry.
[Illustration: SUPPOSED FORM OF THE SHIPS OF NEARCHUS.]
[Illustration: VENETIAN GALLEY OF THE TENTH CENTURY.]
Section II.
FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE APPLICATION OF THE
MAGNETIC NEEDLE TO EUROPEAN NAVIGATION, A.D. 1300.
CHAPTER VIII.
NAVIGATION DURING THE ROMAN EMPIRE--THE RISE OF VENICE AND
GENOA--THE CRUSADES--THEIR EFFECT UPON COMMERCE--WEDDING OF THE
ADRIATIC--CREATION OF THE FRENCH NAVY--INTRODUCTION OF EASTERN ART
INTO EUROPE--MAPS OF THE MIDDLE AGES--REMOTE EFFECT OF THE CRUSADES
UPON GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE.
We have taken the birth of Christ as a point of departure in the
history of navigation, merely because of the prominence of that event
in the annals of the world, not on account of any connection that it
has with the chronicles of the sea. So far from that, the first five
centuries of the Christian era are an absolute blank in all matters
which pertain to our subject. The Roman Empire rose and fell; and its
rise and fall concerned the Mediterranean only. Not even Julius Cæsar,
the greatest man in Roman history, has a place in maritime records;
unless, when crossing the Adriatic in a fishing-boat during a storm,
his memorable words of encouragement to the fisherman, "Fear nothing!
you carry Cæsar and his fortunes!" are sufficient to connect him with
the sea. Neither Pompey, nor Sylla, nor Augustus, nor Nero, nor Titus,
nor Constantine, nor Theodosius, nor Attila, can claim part or lot in
the dominion of man over the ocean. And so we glide rapidly over five
centuries.
Upon the invasion of Italy by the barbarians, A.D. 476, the Veneti, a
tribe dwelling upon the northeastern shores of the Adriatic, escaped
from their ravages by fleeing to the marshes and sandy inlets formed by
the deposits of the rivers which there fall into the gulf. Here they
were secure; for the water around them was too deep to allow of an
attack from the land, and too shallow to admit the approach of ships
from the sea. Their only resource was the water and the employments it
afforded. At first they caught fish; then they made salt, and finally
engaged in maritime traffic. Early in the seventh century their traders
were known at Constantinople, in the Levant, and at Alexandria. Their
city soon covered ninety islands, connected together by bridges.
They established mercantile factories at Rome, and extended their
authority into Istria and Dalmatia. In the eighth century they chased
the pirates, and in the ninth they fought the Saracens. At this period
Genoa, too, rose into notice, and the Genoese and the Venetians at once
became commercial rivals and the monopolists of the Mediterranean.
And now Peter the Hermit, barefooted and penniless, inveighing against
the atrocities of the Turks towards Christians at Jerusalem, exhorted
the warriors of the Cross to take up arms against the infidels. He
inspired all Europe with an enthusiasm like his own, and enlisted
a million followers in the cause. The passion of the age was for
war, peril, and adventure; and fighting for the Sepulchre was a more
agreeable method of doing penance than wearing sackcloth or mortifying
the flesh. The First Crusade, a motley array of knights, spendthrifts,
barons, beggars, women, and children, set out upon their wild career.
Then came the Second, the Third, and the Fourth. Crusading was the
amusement and occupation of two centuries. Two millions of Europeans
perished in the cause before it was abandoned. A few words concerning
its effect upon the civilization of Europe are necessary here, in
direct pursuance of our subject.
During their stay in Palestine the Crusaders learned, and in a measure
acquired, the habits of Eastern life. They brought back with them
a taste for the peculiar products of that region,--jewels, silks,
cutlery, perfumes, spices. A brisk commerce through the length and
breadth of the Mediterranean was the speedy consequence. Genoa, Pisa,
Florence, Venice, covered the waters of their inland sea with sails,
trafficking from the ports of Italy to those of Syria and Egypt. In
every maritime city conquered by the Crusaders, trading-stations
and bazaars were established. Marseilles obtained from the kings of
Jerusalem privileges and monopolies of trade upon their territory.
Venice surpassed all her rivals in the splendor and extent of her
commerce, and it was for this that the Pope, Alexander III., sent
the Doge the famous nuptial ring with which, in assertion of his
naval supremacy, "to wed the Adriatic." The ceremony was performed
from the deck of the Bucentaur, or state-galley, with every possible
accompaniment of pomp and parade. The vessel was crowned with flowers
like a bride, and amid the harmonies of music and the acclamations of
the spectators the ring was dropped into the sea. The Republic and the
Adriatic, long betrothed, were now indissolubly wedded. This ceremony
was repeated from year to year.
The Normans, the Danes, the Dutch, imitated the example of the
Italians, or, as they were then called, the Lombards, but were rather
occupied in conveying provisions to the armies than in trading for
their own account.
It was during the Crusades that the French navy was created. Philip
Augustus, who, on his way to Syria, and thence home again, could not
have remained insensible to the advantages of possessing a strong force
upon the ocean, formed, upon his return, the nucleus of a national
fleet, for the purpose of defending his coasts either against pirates
or foreign invasion.
[Illustration: THE DOGE OF VENICE WEDDING THE ADRIATIC.]
While the necessity of transporting articles from the East to supply
the demand thus created in the West gave a stimulus to commerce and
navigation, manufactures were encouraged and developed by the operation
of the same cause. The Italians learned from the Greeks the art of
weaving silk, which soon resulted in the weaving of cloth of gold and
silver. They learned to mould glass in a multitude of new and curious
forms. From the manufactories of Syria, where stuffs were made of
camels' hair, improvements were introduced into the manufactures of
Europe, where they were woven of no other material than lambs' wool.
Palestine also suggested to crusaders returning home the advantages of
windmills for grinding flour. Arabia furnished the art of tempering
arms and polishing steel, of chasing gold and silver, of mounting
stones in rich and massive settings. Constantinople furnished the
Christians with many splendid specimens of ancient art,--groups,
statues, and the Corinthian horses, and thus awakened European taste.
Nearly all the Gothic monuments of Europe which still excite the
admiration of the tourist owe their existence to this communication
with the Greeks by means of the Crusades, and to the wonder which
seized the Frank and Lombard at the sight of the churches and palaces
of Byzantium. The Europeans carried back with them the architecture
of the Saracens. Saint Mark's at Venice was built from the plans,
and under the direction, of an unbeliever. The Cathedral and Spire
of Strasburg, with their gigantic and yet delicate proportions, the
Minster of Amiens, the Sainte Chapelle of Paris, were constructed in
close imitation of the chef-d'oeuvres of Eastern art. Painting upon
glass was also brought from Constantinople, and the early painters of
Christendom were speedily employed in tracing in colors, upon the
windows of abbeys and cathedrals, the exploits of the Crusaders and the
triumphs of the Cross.
From the Arabs and the Greeks, too, the Europeans received their first
lessons in the natural and exact sciences. Imperfect and incomplete
as were the astronomy, the botany, the mathematics, and the geography
of the Arabians, they were far in advance of the same professions as
understood and practised in Europe. The languages were improved and
enriched by the association and exchange of ideas into which English,
Germans, Italians, and French were forced. The confusion of tongues,
which was as complete as at Babel, was somewhat corrected by the
harmony of interest and oneness of purpose which animated all, of
whatever name and lineage, who gathered around the Sepulchre.
It is obvious, therefore, that the effect of the Crusades, so far as
it is the object of a work like the present to trace and delineate
it, was to give the people of Europe a new motive for maintaining an
intercourse with the people of Asia. They had seen their superior
civilization, and sought to introduce it among themselves. They
had learned to appreciate their skill in the arts, and resolved to
acclimate those arts at home. They had accustomed themselves to many
articles of luxury, which had become articles of necessity, and which
it was now essential, therefore, to transport from the Levant, from the
Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, to the Bay of Venice and the Gulf of
Genoa. There was a demand, in short, in the West, for the products, the
manufactures, the arts, of the East. Here was the origin of the immense
Eastern commerce which now fell into the hands of the Genoese and
Venetians, and which, resulting from the Crusades, compelled us to the
digression we have made. It is not our purpose, however, to refer more
at length to this commerce, as it was carried on upon seas which had
been navigated for twenty centuries; and we must hasten forward to the
period when new paths were laid out over the immensity of the waters.
A map, published just anterior to the First Crusade, fully displays
the ignorance which then prevailed in geographical science. The sea,
as in the age of Homer, is made to surround the world as a river, the
land being divided into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Africa
and Asia are joined together in the South, and the Indian Ocean is an
inland sea. Asia is as large as the other two continents combined.
On the east there is a small spot indicated as the position of the
Garden of Eden by the words _Hic est Paradisus_. Europe and Africa
are separated from Asia by a long canal, which may be either the Nile
or the Hellespont. Africa is still considered the land of mystery and
fable: its northern part only is considered inhabitable, the south
being even unapproachable, on account of the torrents of flame poured
on it by the sun. The Frozen Ocean, the Baltic, the White Sea, and
the Caspian, are all united. The Northern regions are represented as
forming one single island. Scandinavia is made the birthplace and
residence of the Amazons, the famous women-warriors to whom antiquity
had given a home in the Caucasus.
We shall, in due order, proceed to show that the indirect and remote
effect of the Crusades, and of the intercourse produced by them
between two totally separated regions, was to induce the _Discovery of
America_, the _Doubling of the Cape of Good Hope_, and the _Passage
of the Straits_ at the southern extremity of Patagonia,--results due
to COLUMBUS, VASCO DA GAMA, and MAGELLAN, every one of whom were
seeking, in the voyages which have rendered them immortal, another
passage to the Indies than that held by the Italians--so far as they
could prosecute it in vessels upon the Mediterranean. But, before we
can proceed from the coasting enterprises of the Lombards upon the
land-locked waters of their inland sea, to the daring ventures of the
Portuguese and Spaniards upon the raging billows of the Tropical and
South Atlantic, we must turn for a moment to the North of Europe, and
inquire into the maritime achievements of the Anglo-Saxons and the
Northmen during the Dark and Middle Ages.
[Illustration: DANISH VESSEL OF THE TENTH CENTURY: FROM AN INSCRIPTION.]
CHAPTER IX.
THE SCANDINAVIAN SAILORS--THEIR PIRACIES AND COMMERCE--THE
ANGLO-SAXONS--ALFRED THE GREAT A SHIP-BUILDER--THE VOYAGE
OF BEOWULF--DISCOVERY OF ICELAND BY THE DANES--DISCOVERY OF
GREENLAND--THE VOYAGE OF BJARNI AND LEIF TO THE AMERICAN
CONTINENT--THEIR DISCOVERY OF NEWFOUNDLAND, NOVA SCOTIA, NANTUCKET,
AND MASSACHUSETTS--ADVENTURES OF THORWALD AND THORFINN--COMPARISON OF
THE DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTHMEN WITH THOSE OF COLUMBUS.
The nations inhabiting the borders of the Baltic and the coasts of
Norway, as well as those dwelling on the shores of the German Ocean,
were situated quite as favorably for maritime enterprise as those upon
the banks of the Mediterranean. Though their earliest expeditions by
sea were not stimulated by the same cause,--the desire for commercial
intercourse,--they arose from causes equally active. While the
Mediterranean countries possessed a fruitful soil and a balmy climate,
those of the North, under a sky comparatively ungenial, afforded their
inhabitants but a few of the articles which they needed: they were
led, therefore, to increase their power by sea, in order to establish
themselves in more favored climes, or at least to obtain from them by
plunder what their own country could not furnish. Thus they neglected
the arts of agriculture, and became inured to a life of piracy upon
the sea. They spent their lives in planning and executing maritime
expeditions. Fathers gave fleets to their sons, and bade them seek
their fortune on the ocean-highway. The ships, at first small,--being
mere barks propelled by twelve oars,--came at last to be capable of
carrying one hundred or one hundred and twenty men. They were supplied
with stones, arrows, ropes with which to overset small vessels, and
grappling-irons with which to come to close quarters.
It would be remote from our purpose to notice these piratical
excursions, were it not that they sometimes resulted in discovery or
commerce. Many of the marauders settled permanently in England in
the seventh century, and established there the Anglo-Saxon dominion.
Alfred, their most celebrated king, obliged to defend his territory
from the Danes, turned his attention zealously to every thing connected
with ships, commerce, discovery, and geography, and became the first
founder of that naval power which was at a later period to be the
world's dread and admiration. The idea of ship-building once conceived,
it was prosecuted with astonishing vigor. Alfred not only multiplied
their number, but introduced material improvements. Towards the latter
part of his reign, his fleet numbered one hundred sail: it was divided
into small squadrons and stationed at various places along the coast.
The oldest epic in any modern language, the Anglo-Saxon poem of
"Beowulf," the Sea-Goth, written in forty-three cantos, and containing
some six thousand lines, is occupied mainly in narrating the marvellous
exploits of its hero, his combats with a pestilential fire-drake, and
his slaying of "a grim giant named Grendel, a descendant of Cain." It
incidentally describes a voyage made by Beowulf previous to the ninth
century, and from this we may gather a few details, at best barren and
unsatisfactory, of the equipments of a vessel in those days. In the
extract which we give, the word "sea-nose" will readily be understood
as meaning headland, or promontory:
"When the king had awaited
The time he should stay,
Came many to fare
On the billows so free.
His ship they bore out
To the brim of the ocean,
And his comrades sat down
At their oars as he bade.
A word could control
His good fellows, the Shylds.
On the deck of the ship
He stood, by the mast.
Ne'er did I hear
Of a vessel appointed
Better for battle,
With weapons of war,
And waistcoats of wool,
And axes and swords.
* * * *
The ship was on the waves,
Boat under the cliffs.
The barons ready
To the prow mounted.
The chieftains bore
On the naked breast
Bright ornaments,
War-gear, Goth-like.
The men shoved off,
Men on their willing way,
The bounden wood.
Then went over the sea-waves,
Hurried by the wind,
The ship with foamy neck,
Most like a sea-fowl,
Till about one hour
Of the second day
The curved prow
Had passed onward.
So that the sailors
The land saw,
The shore-cliffs shining,
Mountains steep,
And broad sea-noses.
Then was the sea-sailing
Of the Earl at an end.
God thanked he
That to him the sea-journey
Easy had been."
In the year 863, a Dane of Swedish origin, named Gardar, adventurously
pushing off into the Northern Ocean, though upon an object which
history has not recorded, discovered the island-rock whose appropriate
name is Iceland. Eleven years later, a navigator named Ingolf colonized
the country, the colonists, many of whom belonged to the most esteemed
families in the North, establishing a flourishing republic. The
situation of these people, isolated in the midst of an Arctic ocean,
and their relation to the mother-country, compelled them to exert and
develop their hereditary maritime proclivities. In 877, a sailor named
Gunnbjörn saw a mountainous coast far to the west, supposed to be
now concealed or rendered inaccessible by the descent of Arctic ice.
Erik the Red, who had been banished from Norway for murder and had
settled in Iceland, was in his turn outlawed thence in 983: he sailed
to the west and discovered a land which he called Greenland, because,
as he said, "people will be attracted hither if the land has a good
name." He returned to Iceland, and, in the year 985, a large number of
ships--according to some authorities, thirty-five--followed him to the
new settlement and established themselves on its southwestern shore.
In 986, Bjarni Herjulfson-Bjarni, the son of Herjulf, in a voyage from
Iceland to Greenland, was driven a long distance from the accustomed
track. He at last saw land to the west, and took counsel with his men
as to what land it could be. Bjarni declared it his opinion that it was
not Greenland. They sailed close in shore, and noticed that there were
no mountains, but that the land was undulating and well wooded. They
left the land on their larboard side, and sailed away for two days,
when they saw land again. They asked Bjarni if he thought this was
Greenland; and he replied that "he thought it as little to be Greenland
as the other, as he saw no high ice-hills." The sailors wished to
wood and water there, but Bjarni would not consent. They sailed for
three days to the north, and saw a bold shore with high mountains and
ice-hills. Bjarni would not land, saying, "To me this land appears
little inviting." Sailing for four days more to the northeast, they
came to a country which Bjarni confidently pronounced to be Greenland,
where he landed and afterwards settled. Various data furnished by this
narrative, in the original Icelandic records, have enabled geographers
to determine the various coasts thus dimly seen by Bjarni, but upon
which he did not land. They are supposed to have been those of Long
Island, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.
In the year 994, Leif Erikson--Leif the son of Erik the Outlaw--bought
Bjarni's ship, and engaged thirty-five men to navigate it, as he
intended to sail upon a voyage of discovery. He asked his father
Erik to be the captain; but Erik declined, being, as he said, well
stricken in years. They sailed away into the sea, and discovered first
the land which Bjarni had discovered last. They went ashore, saw no
grass, but plenty of icebergs, and an abundance of flat stones. From
the latter circumstance they named the place _Helluland_, _hellu_
signifying a flat stone. There can be no doubt that the spot thus named
is the modern Newfoundland. They went on board again, and proceeded
on their way. They went ashore a second time, where the land was flat
and covered with wood and white sand. "This," said Leif, "shall be
named after its qualities, and called Markland," (woodland.) This is
undoubtedly Nova Scotia. They sailed again to the south for two days
and came to an island which lay to the eastward of the mainland. They
observed dew upon the grass, and this dew, upon being touched with the
finger and raised to the mouth, tasted exceedingly sweet. This appears
to have been Nantucket, where honey-dew is known to abound.
[Illustration: THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA.]
They proceeded on through a tract of shoal water, which corresponds
with the sound between Nantucket and Cape Cod, and appear to have run
across the mouth of Buzzard's Bay, and to have ascended the Pocasset
River as far as Mount Hope Bay, which they took for a lake. Here they
cast anchor, and, "bringing their skin cots from the ship, proceeded
to make booths." They remained during the winter, finding plenty of
salmon in the river and lake. "The nature of the country was, as they
thought, so good, that cattle would not require housefeeding in winter,
for there came no frost, and little did the grass wither there." Their
statement that on the shortest day the sun was above the horizon from
half-past seven till half-past four enables geographers to fix the
latitude of the place where they were at 41° 43' 10", which is very
nearly that of Mount Hope Bay.
One evening a man of the party was missing,--a German named Tyrker,
whom Leif regarded as his foster-father. He determined to seek for him,
and for this purpose chose twelve reliable men. Tyrker soon returned
and said that he had been a long distance into the interior, and had
found vines and grapes. "But is this true, my fosterer?" said Leif.
"Surely is it true," he returned; "for I was bred up in a land where
there is no want of either vines or grapes." The next morning Leif
said to his sailors, "We will now set about two things, in that the
one day we gather grapes, and the other cut vines and fell trees, so
from thence will be a loading for my ship." The record states that the
long-boat was filled with grapes. Leif gave the country the name of
Vinland, from its vines.
To the reader of the present day it may seem that the wild vines of
Massachusetts and Rhode Island can hardly have been so prominent a
feature of the native products as to have given a name to the whole
region. But it is certain that six centuries later the Puritans found
wild maize and grapes growing there in profusion, while the neighboring
island of Martha's Vineyard received its name from the English for a
precisely similar reason.
Upon the return of Leif to Greenland, his brother Thorwald thought that
"these new lands had been much too little explored." Leif gave him his
ship, and he put out to sea, with thirty men, in the year 1002. Nothing
is known of their voyage till they came to Leif's booths in Vinland.
They laid up their ship, caught fish for their support, and spent a
pleasant winter. They passed two years in exploring the interior, and
then returned by the north, where Thorwald was killed in a battle with
the Esquimaux.
But a more successful discoverer than any of these was Thorfinn
Karlsnefne,--that is, Thorfinn the Predestined Hero. He was a wealthy
merchant of Iceland, the heir of Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian
princes. He visited Greenland in 1006, where he married Gudrida, the
widow of an Icelandic adventurer, and in 1007 sailed, in three ships
and with one hundred and sixty men, upon a voyage to Vinland. His wife
went with him, and, in the autumn of the same year, bore him a son
named Snorri, who was, of course, the first of European blood born
in America. From him the celebrated Swedish sculptor Thorwaldsen was
lineally descended. Thorfinn remained here three years, and had many
communications with the aborigines. A singular result of this relation
may perhaps be traced in the names successively given to one spot. The
Northmen called one of their settlements Hóp, and the Puritans, six
centuries later, found that the Indians called it Haup. It would appear
that they had continued, in their own tongue, the appellation bestowed
upon the place in the Norse language. The Puritans anglicized it, and
called it Mount Hope.
We have no accounts of any further voyages made by the Northmen to
America. The records were preserved in the literature of the island,
but the memory of them gradually faded away from the popular mind.
Several writers claim for these early navigators a degree of merit
beyond that which they are willing to accord to Columbus. They reply to
the argument that Bjarni's discovery of the American coast was merely
accidental, as he had started in search of Greenland, that Columbus'
discovery of America was accidental also, as he started in search of
Asia, and as he believed the land to be Asia to the day of his death.
"Besides," they say, "how different were the circumstances under which
the two voyages were made! The Northmen, without compass or quadrant,
without any of the advantages of science, geographical knowledge,
personal experience, or previous discoveries, without the support of
either kings or governments,--which Columbus, however discouraged at
the outset, eventually obtained,--but guided by the stars, and upheld
by their own private resources and a spirit of adventure which no
dangers could repress, crossed the broad Northern ocean and explored
these distant lands."
This is all true; and doubtless our wonder at the success with which
these early voyages were prosecuted would be augmented tenfold, could
we obtain authentic information upon the character and capacity of
the ships in which they were made. Nothing reliable exists upon this
subject, except a few rude inscriptions; and from these, as reproduced
in the engravings we have given, it would actually appear that the
vessels used had no decks, and that they were partly propelled by oars.
However navigation may have improved since the days of the Northmen, it
is certain that no sailor would now attempt an Arctic voyage in an open
boat; and when we read of the perils and sufferings of our modern Polar
adventurers, it is impossible not to be amazed at the success with
which the Danes and Norwegians, with their slender appliances, endured
and outlived them.
[Illustration: FISHING FOR HERRING.]
CHAPTER X.
THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO--THE FIRST MENTION OF JAPAN IN
HISTORY--KUBLAI KHAN--MARCO POLO'S VOYAGE FROM AMOY TO
ORMUZ--MALACCA--SUMATRA--PYGMIES--SINGULAR STORIES OF DIAMONDS--THE
ROC--POLO NOT RECOGNISED UPON HIS RETURN--HIS IMPRISONMENT--THE
PUBLICATION OF HIS NARRATIVE--THE INTEREST AWAKENED IN CHINA, JAPAN,
AND THE ISLANDS OF SPICES.
The call to arms against the Moslems fixed, as we have said, the
attention of Europe upon the East. The travels of Carpini, Rubruquis,
and Ascelin, in Tartary and in China, revealed the existence of
numerous tribes in localities believed to be occupied by the ocean.
Hordes of savages, we are told, and whole nations of powerful and
warlike people, emerged from the imaginary waters of Eoüs, the fabulous
sea of antiquity and bed of Aurora. Marco Polo, whose celebrated
journey was performed during the twenty years closing the thirteenth
century, made known the centre and eastern extremity of Asia, Japan,
a portion of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, a part of the
continent of Africa, and, by hearsay, the large island of Madagascar.
We subjoin a brief account of that portion of his travels which was
prosecuted by sea.
He became a great favorite with Kublai Khan, whose winter capital
was Khanbalik or Pekin, and served him for many years as one of his
confidential officers. He was the first European who heard of the
island of Japan, of which he speaks thus:--"Zipangu, or Cipango, is
an island in the Eastern Ocean, situated about fifteen hundred miles
from the mainland. It is quite large. The inhabitants have fair
complexions, are civilized in their manners, though their religion is
idolatry. They have gold in the greatest abundance, but its exportation
is forbidden. The entire roof of the sovereign's palace is stated to
be covered with a plating of gold, as we cover churches and other
buildings with lead. So famous is the wealth of this island that Kublai
Khan was fired with the desire of annexing it to his dominions. He
sent out a numerous fleet and a powerful army; but a violent storm
dispersed and wrecked the ships, and thirty thousand men were thrown
upon a desert island a few miles from Cipango. They expected nothing
but death or captivity, as they could obtain no means of subsistence.
Being attacked from Cipango, they got in the rear of the enemy, took
possession of their fleet, and put off for the main island. They
kept the colors flying from the masts, and entered the chief city
unsuspected. All the inhabitants were gone except the women. They took
possession, but were closely besieged for six months, until, despairing
of relief, they surrendered, on condition of their lives being spared.
This took place in the year 1284." Such was the first intelligence of
the island of Japan which ever reached the ears of Europeans.
After a stay of seventeen years in China, Marco and his companions
resolved to make an attempt to return to their native land. Kublai
Khan, however, was unwilling to part with them; and they owed their
final release to a circumstance wholly unexpected. An embassy
from Persia had visited Pekin, and had selected one of Kublai's
grand-daughters for the wife of their prince. They set out with her on
their journey to Persia, but, after meeting with incredible obstacles,
were obliged to return to the Chinese capital. Marco had, at this
time, just returned from a voyage among the islands of the Indian Sea,
and had laid before the khan his observations upon the feasibility of
navigation in those waters. The ambassadors sought an interview with
Marco Polo, and found that they had all a common interest,--that of
getting away as speedily as possible. The khan was forced to facilitate
the departure of the envoys, though it deprived him of his friends
the Venetians. Preparations were made upon a grand scale for the
expedition. Fourteen four-masted ships, a part of them with crews of
two hundred and fifty men, were equipped and victualled for two years.
The khan bade the Polo party an affectionate adieu, making them his
ambassadors to the principal courts of Europe, and extorting from them
a promise to return to his service after a visit to their own country.
Thus honorably dismissed, they set sail from the port of Amoy, in
1291. They coasted along the shores of Cochin China, and came in sight
of the islands of Borneo and Java, though they did not land there.
At the island of Bintan, near the Straits of Malacca, they obtained
some knowledge of the kingdom of the Malays at the southern extremity
of the peninsula. They landed upon Sumatra, and visited many parts
of the island. Marco thus speaks of one branch of the trade of the
inhabitants:--"It should be known that what is reported respecting the
mummies of pygmies sent to Europe from India is only an idle tale,
these pretended human dwarfs being manufactured in this island in the
following manner. The country produces a large species of monkey having
a countenance resembling that of a man. The Sumatrans catch them, shave
off their hair, dry and preserve their bodies with camphor and other
drugs, and prepare them generally so as to give them the appearance
of little men. They then pack them in wooden boxes and sell them to
traders, by whom they are vended for pygmies in all parts of the world.
But there are no such things as pygmies in India or anywhere else. It
is mere monkey-trade."
From Sumatra, Marco and his companions sailed into the Bay of Bengal,
touched at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, arrived at Ceylon, and,
doubling the southern point of Hindostan, continued to the northward
along its western coast. The pearl-fishery here attracted their
attention; and Marco, in his description of the diamonds of a kingdom
named Murphili, narrates, as a fact, a story which was afterwards
incorporated in the Adventures of Sinbad the Sailor,--that of pieces
of meat being thrown by the jewel-hunters into inaccessible valleys,
whence they were brought back again by eagles and storks with
quantities of diamonds clinging to them. But the story occurs in the
writings of one of the Christian Fathers of the fourth century, and
Marco Polo only gives it as a legend which he heard. He also alludes to
the bird called the roc, which was so large that it lifted elephants
into the air; its feathers measured ninety spans. The locality
frequented by these monstrous ornithological specimens was the island
of Madagascar.
The voyage appears to have ended at Ormuz, at the mouth of the Persian
Gulf, after a navigation of a year and a half. Six hundred men of
the various crews had died upon the way. There is no mention made in
history of the return of the fleet to China, though Kublai Khan is
known to have died three years after the departure of the Venetians.
After various adventures, Marco Polo and his companions arrived in
Venice, in 1295. They had been absent twenty-one years, and their
nearest relatives did not know them. When they attempted to converse in
Italian, their use of foreign idioms and barbarous forms of expression
rendered their language hardly intelligible. Possession had been taken
of their houses by some of their kindred, and they found it difficult
to expel them. Their statements were disbelieved, till, by displaying
their immense wealth and their priceless collections of jewels and
precious stones, they forced their countrymen to give credit to
adventures which must clearly have been extraordinary, to have resulted
in such acquisitions of treasure. Marco's riches gave him the name of
Milione; and he is designated, in the records of the Venetian Republic,
and upon the title-page of his work,--still extant,--as Messer Marco
Milione.
He was induced to write an account of his adventures in the following
manner. A war between the Venetians and the Genoese resulted in the
capture of the galley of which he was commander. He was imprisoned
during four years at Genoa. His surprising history becoming known,
he was visited by all the principal inhabitants, who were anxious to
listen to his narrative. The frequent necessity of repeating the same
story became intolerably irksome to him, and he resolved to commit
it to writing. He thus gave the first impulse to the promotion of
geographical science. He procured from Venice the original notes he
had made in the course of his travels, and, with their assistance
and that of a Genoese amanuensis, the narrative was composed in his
cell. It is a work of great research and deep interest. Formerly
read for its marvels, it is now perused as the earliest authentic
account of a region which still remains a _terra incognita_, and whose
inhabitants repel curiosity and decline mingling with other nations
upon the usual reciprocal terms of fellowship and good-will. Marco
Polo is now justly considered the founder of the modern geography of
Asia. It was long before any new discoveries were added to those of
the illustrious Venetian, but his original statements were confirmed
in many quarters:--by Oderic, who visited India and China in 1320; by
Schiltberger, of Munich, who accompanied Tamerlane in his expeditions
through Central Asia; by Pegoletti, an Italian merchant who went to
Pekin, through the heart of Asia, in 1335; and by Clavijo, in 1403, who
was sent by Spain as ambassador to Samarcand.
Thus, a European had been to the regions of spices and had returned.
From this time forward the world was to know no rest till the route by
sea had been discovered.
[Illustration: ANCIENT CHINESE COMPASS.]
CHAPTER XI.
THE FIRST MENTION OF THE LOADSTONE IN HISTORY--ITS EARLY NAMES--THE
FIRST MENTION OF ITS DIRECTIVE POWER--A POEM UPON THE COMPASS SIX
HUNDRED YEARS OLD--FRIAR BACON'S MAGNET--THE LOADSTONE IN ARABIA--AN
EYE-WITNESS OF ITS EFFICIENCY IN THE SYRIAN WATERS IN THE YEAR
1240--THE MAGNET IN CHINA--EARLY MENTION OF IT IN CHINESE WORKS--THE
VARIATION NOTICED IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY--OTHER DISCOVERIES MADE BY
THE CHINESE--MODERN ERRORS--FLAVIO GIOIA--THE ARMS OF AMALFI--ALL
RECORDS LOST OF THE FIRST VOYAGE MADE WITH THE COMPASS BY A EUROPEAN
SHIP.
We have arrived at a momentous epoch in the history of the sea. It
was at this period that the mariner's compass was--we do not say
invented--but introduced into European navigation. That this admirable
instrument, which, in half a century, changed the face of the earth,
by leading to the discovery of America and thus proving the sphericity
of the world, should remain unclaimed by its author, and that we
are unable to point to him who thus blessed and benefited his race;
must always be a subject of regret. So far from being able to name
the individual to whom the invention is due, it has long been deemed
impossible to fix even upon the nation who first used the needle at
sea. We hope, however, by availing ourselves of recent researches
made in France, to arrive at a conclusion not only satisfactory, but
inevitable. In tracing the history of the compass, we must naturally
begin with the magnet.
The ancients were fully acquainted with the loadstone, and with its
power of attracting iron, though they were totally ignorant of its
polarity. That they were so, is evident from the fact that the classic
authors and ancient works upon navigation and kindred subjects do not
furnish one word upon the subject. Claudian has left, in one of his
idyls, a long description of the stone, and of its peculiar, indeed,
magical, affinity for iron. Had he entertained the most distant idea
that this stone could communicate to a steel needle the power of
indicating the north, it is not to be supposed for an instant that he
would have omitted mentioning it. The earliest name of the loadstone
was Hercules' Stone, which was soon changed to _magnes_, from the fact
that it was found in abundance in a region called Magnesia, in Lydia.
Hence our word magnet. It was not till the fourth century of our era
that the quality of repelling as well as of attracting iron seems to
have been discovered. Marcellus, the physician of Theodosius the Great,
is the first author who mentions this new quality.
The Romans, who acquired a knowledge of the magnet from the Greeks,
preserved the name, though several of their authors, and Pliny
among them, mention a tradition, that the magnet was so called from
a shepherd named Magnes, who was the first to discover a mine of
loadstone, by the nails in his shoes clinging to the metal.
The first mention in European history of the polarity of the magnetized
needle, and of its importance to mariners, occurs in a satirical French
poem written in 1190 by one Guyot de Provins. His object was to level,
by implication, an invective against the Court of Rome; and he did it
in the following neat manner. The translator has endeavored to preserve
the quaint style of the original:
"As for our Father the Pope,
I would he were like the star
Which moves not. Very well see it
The sailors who are on the watch.
By this star they go and come,
And hold their course and their way.
They call it the Polar Star.
It is fixed, very unchangeable:
All the others move,
And alter their places and turn,
But this star moves not.
They make a contrivance which cannot lie,
By the virtue of the magnet.
An ugly and brownish stone,
To which iron spontaneously joins itself,
They have: and they observe the right point,
After they have caused a needle to touch it,
And placed it in a rush:
They put it in the water, without any thing more,
And the rush keeps it on the surface;
Then it turns its point direct
Towards the star with such certainty,
That no man will ever have any doubt of it;
Nor will it ever for any thing go false.
When the sea is dark and hazy,
That they can neither see star nor moon,
Then they place a light by the needle,
And so they have no fear of going wrong:
Towards the star goes the point,
Whereby the mariners have the skill
To keep the right way.
It is an art which cannot fail."
It may be very properly inferred, from the fact that the poet does not
merely allude to the compass, but describes it and the polar star at
some length, that it was not generally known, and, in fact, had been
lately introduced into the Mediterranean. Whence it had been introduced
there, we shall learn as we proceed.
The second historical mention of the compass occurs in a description
of Palestine by Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, in the year 1218, in which
is the following passage:--"The loadstone is found in India, to which,
from some hidden cause, iron spontaneously attaches itself. The moment
an iron needle is touched by this stone, it at once points towards the
North Star, which, though the other stars revolve, is fixed as if it
were the axis of the firmament: from whence it has become necessary to
those who navigate the seas."
Brunetto Latini, a grammarian of Florence, and preceptor of Dante,
settled in Paris about the year 1260, and composed a work entitled
the "Treasure," in which he distinctly describes the process and the
consequence of magnetizing a needle. He also went to England, and, in
a letter of which fragments have been published, writes thus:--"Friar
Bacon showed me a magnet, an ugly and black stone, to which iron doth
willingly cling: you rub a needle upon it, the which needle, being
placed upon a point, remains suspended and turns against the Star, even
though the night be stormy and neither star nor moon be seen; and thus
the mariner is guided on his way."
The Italian Jesuit Riccioli, in his work upon Geography and
Hydrography, states, that before 1270, the French mariners used "a
magnetized needle, which they kept floating in a small vessel of water,
supported on two tubes, so as not to sink."
All these authors agree in fixing the period at which the use of the
needle was popularized in Europe, at the latter part of the twelfth
and the commencement of the thirteenth century. Not one of them
mentions the inventor by name, or even indicates his nation. This
circumstance leads to the conviction that it was unknown to them, and
that, consequently, the inventor was not a European. The theory that
the Europeans obtained it from the Arabians, and the Arabians from the
Chinese, is supported by the following facts:
A manuscript work, written by an Arabian named Bailak, a native of
Kibdjak, and entitled "The Merchant's Guide in the Purchase of Stones,"
thus speaks of the loadstone in the year 1242:--"Among the properties
of the magnet, it is to be noticed that the captains who sail in the
Syrian waters, when the night is dark, take a vessel of water, upon
which they place a needle buried in the pith of a reed, and which thus
floats upon the water. Then they take a loadstone as big as the palm
of the hand, or even smaller. They hold it near the surface of the
water, giving it a rotary motion until the needle turns upon the water:
they then withdraw the stone suddenly, when the needle, with its two
ends, points to the north and south. I saw this with my own eyes, on my
voyage from Tripoli, in Syria, to Alexandria, in the year 640. [640 of
the Hegira, 1240 A.D.]
"I heard it said that the captains in the Indian seas substitute for
the needle and reed a hollow iron fish, magnetized, so that, when
placed in the water, it points to the north with its head and to the
south with its tail. The reason that the fish swims, not sinks, is that
metallic bodies, even the heaviest, float when hollow, and when they
displace a quantity of water greater than their own weight."
It may fairly be inferred, from this passage, that, at the time spoken
of, (1240,) the practice was already of long standing in this quarter,
and that the needle and its polarity had been long known and employed
at sea. That is, the Arabs had become familiar with the loadstone in
1240, while Friar Bacon regarded it, in England, as a huge curiosity
in 1260,--twenty years afterwards. The priority of the invention would
seem to be thus incontestably proven for the Arabs. But we shall see
speedily that it derived its origin from a region situated still
farther to the east, and many centuries earlier.
A famous Chinese dictionary, terminated in the year 121 of our era,
thus defines the word magnet:--"The name of a stone which gives
direction to a needle." This is quoted in numerous modern dictionaries.
One published during the Tsin dynasty--that is, between 265 and
419--states that ships guided their course _to the south_ by means
of the magnet. The Chinese word for magnet--_Tchi nan_--signifies,
Indicator of the South. It was natural for the Chinese, when they first
saw a needle point both north and south, to take the Antarctic pole for
the principal point of attraction, for with them the south had always
been the first of the cardinal points,--the emperor's throne and all
the Government edifices invariably being built to face the south. A
Chinese work of authority, composed about the year 1000, contains this
passage:--"Fortune-tellers rub the point of a needle with a loadstone
to give it the power of indicating the south."
A medical natural history, published in China in 1112, speaks even of
the variation of the needle,--a phenomenon first noticed in Europe by
Christopher Columbus in 1492:--"When," it says, "a point of iron is
touched by a loadstone, it receives the power of indicating the south:
still, it declines towards the east, and does not point exactly to
the south." This observation, made at the beginning of the twelfth
century, was confirmed by magnetic experiments made at Pekin, in 1780,
by a Frenchman; only the latter, finding the variation to be from the
north, set it down as from 2° to 2° 30' to the west, while the Chinese,
persisting in calling it a variation from the south, set it down as
being from 2° to 2° 30' to the east.
Thus, the Chinese, who were acquainted with the polarity of a
magnetized needle as early as the year 121, and who noticed the
variation in 1112, may be safely supposed to have employed it at sea in
the long voyages which they made in the seventh and eighth centuries,
the route of which has come down to us. Their vessels sailed from
Canton, through the Straits of Malacca, to the Malabar coast, to the
mouths of the Indus and the Euphrates. It is difficult to believe that,
aware of the use to which the needle might be applied, they did not so
apply it.
While thus claiming for the Chinese the first knowledge and application
of the polarity of the needle, we may say, incidentally, that it is
now certain that they made numerous other discoveries of importance
long before the Europeans. They knew the attractive power of amber in
the first century of our era, and a Chinese author said, in 324, "The
magnet attracts iron, and amber attracts mustard-seed." They ascribed
the tides to the influence of the moon in the ninth century. Printing
was invented in the province of Chin about the year 920, and gunpowder
would seem to have been made there long before Berthold Schwartz mixed
it in 1330. Still, it is not necessary to resort to the argument
of analogy to support the claims of the Chinese to this admirable
invention: the direct evidence, as we have rehearsed it, is amply
sufficient.
[Illustration: CHINESE JUNK.]
A century ago, Flavio Gioia, a captain or pilot of Amalfi, in the
kingdom of Naples, was recognised throughout Europe as the true
inventor of the compass. He lived in the beginning of the fourteenth
century, and biographers have even fixed the date of the memorable
invention at the year 1303. The principal foundation for this assertion
was the following line from a poem by Antonio of Bologna, who lived
but a short time after Gioia:--
"Prima dedit nautis usam magnetis Amalphis."
Amalfi first gave to sailors the use of the magnet.
The tradition was subsequently confirmed by the statement made by
authors of repute, that the city of Amalfi, in order to commemorate
an invention of so much importance, assumed a compass for its coat
of arms. This was believed till the year 1810, when the coat of arms
of Amalfi was found in the library at Naples. It did not answer at
all to the description given of it: instead of the eight wings which
were said to represent the four cardinal points and their divisions,
it had but two, in which no resemblance to a compass could be traced.
Later investigations have, as we have said, completely demolished all
the arguments by which the compass was maintained to be of European
origin and of modern date. The curious reader will find the extracts
from Chinese works which substantiate the Chinese claim, in a volume
upon the subject published in 1834, at Paris, by M. J. Klaproth, and
composed at the request of Baron Humboldt.
In the sketch which we are now about to give of the Portuguese voyages
to the African coast, it will be remarked that the compass was already
introduced and acclimated. No mention whatever is extant of the first
venture made upon the Atlantic under the auspices of this mysterious
but unerring guide. Science and history must forever regret that the
first European navigator who employed it did not leave a record of
the experiment. What would be more interesting to-day than the log of
the earliest voyage thus accomplished in European waters? The modern
reader would surely give his sympathy, unreservedly, to a narrative
in which the navigator should describe his wonder, his terror, his
joy, when, throughout the voyage, he saw the tremulous index point
invariably north; when, upon the dispersion of the clouds which had
concealed the Star from view, it was found precisely where the needle
indicated: when, upon its being diverted from the line of direction
by some curious and perhaps incredulous experimenter, it slowly but
surely returned, remaining fixed and constant through storm and
calm, at midnight and at noon. What would be more interesting than
the speculations of such a captain upon the cause of the marvellous
dispensation? And what more amusing than the commentaries of the
forecastle, and the learned explanations of the veteran salts to the
raw recruits? But all this absorbing lore has hopelessly disappeared,
and the mariner's compass will forever remain mysterious in its
principle, mysterious in its origin, mysterious in its history. We
shall have occasion to return to the subject from another point of
view, when, in describing the Arctic voyages of the present century, we
shall find James Clarke Ross standing upon the North Magnetic Pole.
[Illustration: SHIP OF FOURTEENTH CENTURY.]
[Illustration: TENERIFFE.]
Section III.
FROM THE APPLICATION OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE TO EUROPEAN NAVIGATION TO
THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD UNDER MAGELLAN--1300--1519.
CHAPTER XII.
THE PORTUGUESE ON THE COAST OF AFRICA--THE SPANIARDS AND THE CANARY
ISLES--DON HENRY OF PORTUGAL--THE TERRIBLE CAPE, NOW CAPE BOJADOR--THE
SACRED PROMONTORY--DISCOVERY OF THE MADEIRAS--A DREADFUL PHENOMENON--A
PROLIFIC RABBIT AND A WONDERFUL CONFLAGRATION--HOSTILITY OF THE
PORTUGUESE TO FURTHER MARITIME ADVENTURE--THE BAY OF HORSES--THE FIRST
GOLD DUST SEEN IN EUROPE--DISCOVERY OF CAPE VERD AND THE AZORES--THE
EUROPEANS APPROACH THE EQUATOR--JOURNEY OF CADA-MOSTO--DEATH OF DON
HENRY--PROGRESS OF NAVIGATION UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THIS PRINCE.
We are now to consider at some length a series of voyages, tedious
and fruitless at first, successful in the end, undertaken by the
Portuguese, in their age of maritime heroism, to discover a passage
by sea to the famous commercial region of the Indies, some general
knowledge of which had been preserved since the Persian, Macedonian,
and Roman Empires. The achievements which we are about to narrate
were so surprising, so significant, and so complete, that, as has
been aptly remarked, they can never happen again in history, unless,
indeed, Providence were to create new and accessible worlds for
discovery and conquest, or to replunge mankind for ages into ignorance
and superstition. But, before proceeding with the discoveries of the
Portuguese, we must mention a previous discovery made by accident in
the same region by the French and Spanish.
About the year 1330, a French ship was driven among a number of islands
which lay off the coast of the Desert of Sahara. These had been known
to the ancients as the Fortunate Islands, and Juba of Mauritania, who
is quoted by Pliny, calls two of them by name,--Trivaria, or Snow
Island, and Canaria, or Island of Dogs. They had been lost to the
knowledge of the Europeans for a thousand years, and it was a storm
which revealed their existence, as we have said, to a vessel forced
by stress of weather to escape from the coast into the open sea. The
Spaniards profited by the vicinity of the group to make discoveries
and settlements among them. Trivaria became Teneriffe, and Canaria the
Grand Canary. It was here that superstition now placed the limits of
navigation, and expressed the idea upon maps, by representing a giant
armed with a formidable club, and dwelling in a tower, as threatening
ships with destruction if they ventured farther out to sea. It is in
this immediate neighborhood that we are now about to follow the flaring
and patient enterprises of the Portuguese.
[Illustration: CAPE BOJADOR.]
Don Henry, the fifth son of John I. of Portugal, was placed by his
father, in 1415, in command of the city of Ceuta, in Africa, which
he had just conquered from the Moors. During his stay here, the
young prince acquired much information relative to the seas and
coasts of Western Africa, and this first suggested in his mind a plan
for maritime discovery, which afterwards became his favorite and
almost exclusive pursuit. He sent a vessel upon the first voyage of
exploration undertaken by any nation in modern times. The commander was
instructed to follow the western coast of Africa, and, if possible, to
pass the cape called by the Portuguese Cape Non, Nun, or Noun. This
had hitherto been considered the utmost southern limit of navigation
by the Europeans, and had obtained its name from the negative term in
the Portuguese language--implying that there was _nothing_ beyond. A
current proverb expressed the idea thus:
Whoe'er would pass the Cape of Non
Shall turn again, or else begone.
The fate of this vessel has not been recorded; but Don Henry continued
for many years to send other vessels upon the same errand. Several
of them proceeded one hundred and eighty miles beyond Cape Non, to
another and more formidable promontory, to which they gave the name
of Bojador--from _bojar_, to double--on account of the circuit which
must be made to get around it, as it stretches more than one hundred
miles into the ocean. The tides and shoals here formed a current
twenty miles wide; and the spectacle of this swollen and beating
surge, which precluded all possibility of creeping along close to the
coast, filled these timid navigators with terror and amazement. They
dared not venture out of sight of land, and, seized with a sudden
remembrance of the fabulous horrors of the torrid zone, they regarded
the interposition of this terrific cape as a providential warning,
and sailed hastily back to Portugal. There, with that fancy for
embellishment peculiar to sailors of all ages, they narrated stories,
or, as would be said in the present day, yarns, calculated forever
to dissuade from further ventures in the latitudes of Capes Non and
Bojador.
Don Henry, who had returned from Ceuta, resolved, in spite of these
obstacles, to employ a portion of his revenue as Grand Master of
the Order of Christ, in further maritime experiments. He fixed his
residence upon the Sacrum Promontorium of the Romans, of which we have
given a representation in the chapter describing the voyage of Pytheas.
Here he indulged that passion for navigation and mathematics which he
had hitherto been compelled to neglect. In 1418, two naval officers of
his household volunteered their lives in an attempt to surmount the
perils of Bojador. Juan Gonzalez Vasco and Tristan Vax Texeira embarked
in a vessel called a _barcha_ and resembling a brig with topsails, and
steered for the tremendous cape.
Before reaching it, however, a violent storm drove them out to sea,
and the crew, on losing sight of their accustomed landmarks, gave
themselves up to despair. But, upon the abatement of the tempest,
they found themselves in sight of an island four hundred miles to the
west of the coast. Thus was discovered Porto Santo, the smallest of
the group of the Madeiras, and thus was the feasibility and advantage
of abandoning coasting voyages and venturing boldly out to sea made
manifest. The adventurers returned to Portugal, and gave glowing
accounts of the fertility of the soil, of the mildness of the climate,
and the character of the inhabitants. Vessels were fitted out to
colonize and cultivate the island; but a singular and most untoward
event rendered it useless as a place of refreshment for navigators. A
single rabbit littered during the voyage, and was let loose upon the
island with her progeny: these multiplied so rapidly that in two years
they eat every green thing which its soil produced. Porto Santo was
therefore, for a time, abandoned.
During their residence there, however, Gonzalez and Vax noticed with
wonder a strange and perpetual appearance in the horizon to the
southwest. A thick, impenetrable cloud hovered over the waves, and
thence extended to the skies. Some believed it to be a dreadful abyss,
and others a fabulous island, while superstition traced amid the gloom
Dante's inscription on the portal of the Inferno:
Abandon hope, all ye who enter here!
Gonzalez and Vax bore this state of suspense with the impatience of
seamen, while from dawn to sunset the meteor, or the portent, preserved
its uniform sullen aspect. At last they started in pursuit. It was
urged, by a Spaniard named Juan de Morales, that the shadows hanging in
the air could be accounted for by supposing that the soil of an island
in the vicinity, being shaded from the sun by thick and lofty trees,
exhaled dense and opaque vapors, which spread throughout the sky. As
the ship advanced, the towering spectre was observed to thicken and
to expand until it became horrible to view. The roaring of the sea
increased, and the crew called on Gonzalez to flee from the fearful
scene. But soon the weather became calm, and deeper shadows were
observed through the portentous gloom. Faint images of rocks seemed
to the excited crew the menacing figures of giants. The atmosphere
was now transparent; the hoarse echo of the waves abated; the clouds
dispersed, and the woodlands were unveiled. The seamen rested on their
oars, while Gonzalez admired the wild luxuriance of nature in a spot
which superstition had so long dreaded to approach. A rivulet, issuing
from a glen, whose paler verdure formed a striking contrast with the
deep green of venerable cedars, seemed to pour a stream of milk into a
spacious basin. They searched in vain for traces of either inhabitants
or cattle. The abundance of building-wood which the island furnished
suggested the name of Madeira; and a tract covered with fennel (funcha)
marked the site of the future town of Funchal.
A modern poet thus describes in verse the scene which we have narrated
in prose:
"Bojador's rocks
Arise at distance, frowning o'er the surf,
That boils for many a league without. Its course
The ship holds on, till, lo! the beauteous isle
That shielded late the sufferers from the storm
Springs o'er the wave again. Then they refresh
Their wasted strength, and lift their vows to Heaven.
But Heaven denies their further search; for ah!
What fearful apparition, pall'd in clouds,
Forever sits upon the western wave,
Like night, and, in its strange portentous gloom
Wrapping the lonely waters, seems the bounds
Of nature? Still it sits, day after day,
The same mysterious vision. Holy saints!
Is it the dread abyss where all things cease?
The favoring gales invite: the bowsprit bears
Right onward to the fearful shade: more black
The cloudy spectre towers: already fear
Shrinks at the view, aghast and breathless. Hark!
'Twas more than the deep murmur of the surge
That struck the ear; whilst through the lurid gloom
Gigantic phantoms seem to lift in air
Their misty arms. Yet, yet--bear boldly on:
The mist dissolves: seen through the parting haze,
Romantic rocks, like the depicted clouds,
Shine out: beneath, a blooming wilderness
Of varied wood is spread, that scents the air;
Where fruits of golden rind, thick interspersed
And pendent, through the mantling umbrage gleam
Inviting."
Gonzalez and Vax returned at once to Lisbon, where a public day of
audience was appointed by the king to give every celebrity to this
successful voyage. Madeira was at once colonized and cultivated; and
it is said that Gonzalez, in order to clear a space for his intended
city of Funchal, set the shrubs and bushes on fire, and that the
flames, being communicated to the forests, burned for seven years. The
sugarcane was planted, and its cultivation yielded immense sums until
sugar-plantations were established in Brazil and thus interfered with
the monopoly. The attention of the islanders was then transferred to
the grape, and from that time to this Madeira has supplied the world
with a favorite--nay, almost indispensable--brand of wine.
Don Henry had now, it would appear, surmounted the principal obstacles
opposed by ignorance or prejudice to the object of his laudable
ambition. But there were many interests threatened by a continuance
of discovery by sea. The military beheld with jealous dislike the
distinction obtained by, and now willingly accorded to, a profession
they held inferior to their own. The nobility dreaded the opening of a
source of wealth which would raise the mercantile character, and in an
equal degree lower the assumptions and pretensions of artificial social
rank. Political economists suggested that there were barren spots in
Portugal as capable of cultivation as any desert islands in the sea
or any sandy coasts within the tropics. It was urged, too, that any
Portuguese who should pass Cape Bojador would inevitably be changed
into a negro, and would forever retain this brand of his temerity.
While Henry was resisting the arguments of his detractors, his father
died, and was succeeded upon the throne by his son Edward. The latter
gave every encouragement to the maritime projects of his brother,
and, in 1433, one Gilianez, having incurred the displeasure of Henry,
determined to regain his favor by doubling Cape Bojador. Though we are
without details of the voyage, we know at least that it was successful,
and that the historians of the time represent the feat as more
remarkable than any of the labors of Hercules. Gilianez reported that
the sea beyond Bojador was quite as navigable as the Mediterranean,
and that the climate and soil of the coast were agreeable and fertile.
He was sent the next year, with Henry's cup-bearer, Baldoza, over
the same route, and they advanced ninety miles beyond the cape with
the conscious pride of being the first Europeans who had ventured so
far towards the fatal vicinity of the equator. Though they saw no
inhabitants, they noticed the tracks of caravans.
They were ordered, in 1435, to resume their discoveries, and to prolong
their voyage till they should meet with inhabitants. In latitude 24°
north, one hundred and thirty miles beyond Bojador, two horses were
landed, and two Portuguese youths, sixteen years of age, were directed
to mount them and advance into the interior. They returned the next
morning, saying that they had seen and attacked a band of nineteen
natives. A strong force was despatched to the cave in which they were
said to have taken shelter: their weapons only were found. This spot
was called _Angra dos Cavallos_, or Bay of Horses. The two vessels
continued on forty miles farther, to a place where they killed a large
number of seals and took their skins on board. Their provisions were
now nearly exhausted, and the expedition, having penetrated nearly two
hundred miles beyond the cape, returned to Lisbon.
[Illustration: CAPE VERD.]
The Portuguese war with Tangiers now absorbed the entire naval and
maritime resources of the country, and the plague of Lisbon stayed for
a time the patriotic enterprises of Don Henry. In 1440-42, expeditions
sent in the same direction resulted in the capture and transfer of
several Moors to Portugal, and in the payment to their captors, as
ransom, of the first GOLD DUST ever beheld by Europeans. A river, or
arm of the sea, near the spot where this gold was paid, received, from
that circumstance, the name of _Rio del Ouro_. This gold dust at once
operated as a sovereign panacea upon the obstinacy and irritation of
the public mind. It has been well remarked that "this is the primary
date to which we may refer that turn for adventure which sprang up in
Europe, and which pervaded all the ardent spirits in every country
for the two succeeding centuries, and which never ceased till it had
united the four quarters of the globe in commercial intercourse. Henry
had stood alone for almost forty years; and, had he fallen before
those few ounces of gold reached his country, the spirit of discovery
might have perished with him, and his designs have been condemned as
the dreams of a visionary." The sight of the precious metal placed
the discoveries and enterprises of Don Henry beyond the reach of
detraction or prejudice. Numerous expeditions were successively fitted
out:--that of Nuno Tristan, in 1443, who discovered the Arguin Islands,
thirty miles to the southeast of Cape Blanco; that of Juan Diaz and
others in 1444; that of Gonzalez da Cintra in 1445, who, with seven
others, was killed fifty miles south of the Rio del Ouro,--this being
the first loss of life on the part of the Portuguese since they had
undertaken their explorations. In 1446, a gentleman of Lisbon, by the
name of Fernandez, determined to proceed farther to the southward than
any other navigator, and accordingly fitted out a vessel under the
patronage of the prince. Passing the Senegal River, he stood boldly
on till he reached the most western promontory of Africa, to which,
from the number of green palms which he found there, he gave the name
of Cape Verd. Being alarmed by the breakers with which this shore
is lined, he returned to Portugal with the gratifying news of his
discovery. In 1447, Nuno Tristan sailed one hundred and eighty miles
beyond Cape Verd, and reached the mouth of a river, which he called
the Rio Grande, now the Gambia. He was attacked by the natives with
volleys of poisoned arrows, of the effects of which all his crew and
officers died but four; and the ship was at last brought home by these
four survivors, after wandering two months upon the Atlantic. The next
expedition, under Alvaro Fernando, carried out an antidote against the
poisoned shafts of the enemy, which successfully combated the venom, as
all who were wounded recovered.
The Açores, or Azores, were now discovered, about nine hundred miles to
the west of Portugal; but some doubts exist both as to the discoverer
and the date. They doubtless received their name from the number of
hawks which were seen there, Açor signifying hawk in Portuguese. Santa
Maria and San Miguel were named from the saints upon whose days they
were first seen. Terceira obtained its name from the circumstance
that it was the third that was discovered. Fayal was so called from
the beech-trees it produced; Graciosa, from its agreeable climate and
fertile soil; Flores, from its flowers; and Corvo, from its crows. The
various clusters of islands which thus arose in the Atlantic, from the
Azores to Cape Verd, now formed a succession of maritime colonies and
nurseries for seamen, and thus enabled navigators to avoid the coast,
where the outrages they endured from Moors and negroes threatened to
exhaust their patience. The ships of Don Henry had now penetrated
within ten degrees of the equator, and the outcry against venturing
into a region where the very air was fatal broke out afresh. In this
point of view, therefore, the settlement of the Azores was a matter of
no little importance. In 1449, King Alphonso gave his uncle, Don Henry,
permission to colonize these islands. In 1457, Henry obtained for them
several important privileges, the principal of which was the exemption
of their inhabitants from any duties upon their commerce in Portuguese
and Spanish ports.
In the years 1455-56-57, a Venetian, by the name of Cada-Mosto,
undertook, under the patronage of Don Henry, two voyages of discovery
along the African coast. The narrative of his adventures, being in the
first person, is the oldest nautical journal extant, with the single
exception of one of Alfred the Great, still in existence. But, as it
is principally occupied with descriptions of the manners and customs
of the Africans, and as he did not proceed beyond the Rio Grande, thus
adding little or nothing to maritime discovery, an account of his
voyage would be out of place here. Don Henry died shortly after the
return of Cada-Mosto from his second voyage, and for a season this
calamity palsied the naval enterprise of his countrymen. They had been
accustomed to derive from him, not only the encouragement necessary
for the prosecution of such attempts, but even sailing directions and
instructions upon all matters of detail. It can easily be conceived
that the demise of this illustrious prince should temporarily
dishearten navigators and paralyze discovery. Under his auspices
the Portuguese had pushed their discoveries from Cape Non to Sierra
Leone,--from the twenty-ninth to the eighth degree of north latitude.
He died at Sagres--the city, half ship-yard, half arsenal, which he had
founded upon the Sacrum Promontorium.
[Illustration: SEA SWALLOW.]
CHAPTER XIII.
THE PORTUGUESE CROSS THE EQUATOR FROM GUINEA TO CONGO--JOHN II.
CONCEIVES THE IDEA OF A ROUTE BY SEA TO THE INDIES--HIS ARTIFICES TO
PREVENT THE INTERFERENCE OF OTHER NATIONS--THE OVERLAND JOURNEY OF
COVILLAM TO INDIA--THE VOYAGE OF BARTHOLOMEW DIAZ--THE DOUBLING OF THE
TREMENDOUS CAPE--ITS BAPTISM BY THE KING--INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF SUCCESS
UPON PORTUGUESE AMBITION.
During the remainder of the reign of Alphonso V.--which terminated in
1481--the Portuguese advanced over the coast and Gulf of Guinea and
the adjacent islands to the northern boundary of the great kingdom of
Congo, and had therefore arrived within six hundred and fifty marine
leagues of the cape which forms the southern point of the African
continent. They had crossed the equator, and not a man had turned
black. They had entered into a brisk gold-trade with the savages
of Guinea. John II., the son and successor of Alphonso, determined
to fortify a point called Mina, from its abundant mines, and sent
out twelve vessels with building materials and six hundred men. The
negroes at first resisted, but finally yielded their consent. The fort
was constructed and named St. Jorge da Mina; the quarry from which
the first stone was taken being the favorite god of the tribe that
inhabited the coast.
John II. now added to his other titles that of Lord of Guinea. In
the hope of opening a passage by sea to the rich spice-countries of
India, he asked the support and countenance of the different states of
Christendom. But the established mercantile interest of these countries
was naturally hostile to a project which aimed at changing the route
of Eastern commerce. John next applied to the Pope for an increase of
power, and obtained from his holiness a grant of all the lands which
his navigators should discover in sailing _from west to east_. The
grand idea of sailing from east to west--one which implied a knowledge
of the sphericity of the globe--had not yet, to outward appearance,
penetrated the brain of either pope or layman. One Christopher
Columbus, however, was already brooding over it in secret and in
silence.
It had hitherto been customary for Portuguese navigators to erect
wooden crosses upon all lands discovered by them. John II. now
commanded them to employ stone pillars six feet high, and to inscribe
upon them, in the Latin and Portuguese languages, the date, the name
of the reigning monarch, and that of the discoverer. Diego Cam was the
first to comply with this command; he set up a column at the mouth of
the river Congo, at which he arrived in 1484. An ambassador was sent by
the chief of the territory to Portugal, where he embraced Christianity
and was baptized by the name of John. The anxiety of the king now
increased in reference to interference by other nations: he therefore
sent to King Edward, of England, an earnest request that he would
prevent the intended voyage to Guinea of two of his subjects, John
Tintam and William Fabian, with which request Edward saw fit to comply.
The Portuguese monarch now carefully concealed the progress of his
navigators upon the African coast, and on all occasions magnified the
perils of a Congo voyage. He declared that every quarter of the moon
produced a tempest; that the shores were girt with inhospitable rocks;
that the inhabitants were cannibals, and that the only vessels which
could live in the waters of the torrid zone were caravels of Portuguese
build. Suspecting that three sailors who had left Portugal for Spain
intended to sell the secret to the foreign king, he ordered them to
be pursued and taken. Two were killed, and the third was broken upon
the wheel. "Let every man abide in his element:" said John; "I am not
partial to travelling seamen."
We now approach an era of great achievements. John determined, in 1486,
to assist the attempts made on sea by journeys over land. Accordingly
a squadron was fitted out under Bartholomew Diaz, one of the officers
of the royal household, while Pedro de Covillam and Alphonso de Payra,
both well versed in Arabic, received the following order respecting a
land journey:--"To discover the country of Prester John, the King of
Abyssinia, to trace the Venetian commerce in drugs and spices to its
source, and to ascertain whether it were possible for ships to sail
round the extremity of Africa to India." They went by way of Naples,
the Island of Rhodes, Alexandria, and Cairo, to Aden in Arabia. Here
they separated, Covillam proceeding to Cananor and Goa, upon the
Malabar coast of Hindostan, and being the first Portuguese that ever
saw India. He went from there to Sofala, on the eastern coast of
Africa, and saw the Island of the Moon, now Madagascar. He penetrated
to the court of Prester John, the King of Abyssinia, and became so
necessary to the happiness of that potentate, that he was compelled
to live and die in his dominions. An embassy sent by Prester John to
Lisbon made the Portuguese acquainted with Covillam's adventures.
Long ere this, however, Bartholomew Diaz had sailed upon the voyage
which has immortalized his name. He received the command of a fleet,
consisting of two ships of fifty tons each, and of a tender to carry
provisions, and set sail towards the end of August, 1486, steering
directly to the south. It is much to be regretted that so few details
exist in reference to this memorable expedition. We know little more
than the fact that the first stone pillar which Diaz erected was placed
four hundred miles beyond that of any preceding navigator. Striking
out boldly here into the open sea, he resolved to make a wide circuit
before returning landward. He did so; and the first land he saw, on
again touching the continent, lay one hundred miles to the eastward
of the great southern cape, which he had passed without seeing it.
Ignorant of this, he still kept on, amazed that the land should now
trend to the east and finally to the north. Alarmed, and nearly
destitute of provisions, mortified at the failure of his enterprise,
Diaz unwillingly put back. What was his joy and surprise when the
tremendous and long-sought promontory--the object of the hopes and
desires of the Portuguese for seventy-five years, and which, either
from the distance or the haze, had before been concealed--now burst
upon his view!
Diaz returned to Portugal in December, 1487, and, in his narrative to
the king, stated that he had given to the formidable promontory he had
doubled the name of "Cape of Tempests." But the king, animated by the
conviction that Portugal would now reap the abundant harvest prepared
by this cheering event, thought he could suggest a more appropriate
appellation. The Portuguese poet, Camoens, thus alludes to this
circumstance:
"At Lisboa's court they told their dread escape,
And from her raging tempests named the Cape.
'Thou southmost point,' the joyful king exclaimed,
'CAPE OF GOOD HOPE be thou forever named!'"
Successful and triumphant as was this voyage of Diaz, it eventually
tended to injure the interests of Portugal, inasmuch as it withdrew
the regards of King John from other and important plans of discovery,
and rendered him inattentive to the efforts of rival powers upon the
ocean. It caused him, amid the intoxication of the moment, to refuse
the services and reject the science of one who now offered to conduct
the vessels of Portugal to the Indies by an untried route. It caused
him, as we shall soon have occasion to narrate, to turn a deaf ear to
the proposals of Columbus, who had humbly brought to Lisbon the mighty
scheme with which he had been contemptuously repulsed from Genoa. We
have arrived at the Great Era in Navigation,--the age of Columbus, da
Gama, and Magellan.
[Illustration: CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.]
CHAPTER XIV.
BIRTH OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS--HIS EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION--HIS
FIRST VOYAGE--HIS MARRIAGE--HIS MARITIME CONTEMPLATIONS--HE MAKES
PROPOSALS TO THE SENATE OF GENOA, THE COURT OF VENICE, AND THE KING
OF PORTUGAL--THE DUPLICITY OF THE LATTER--COLUMBUS VISITS SPAIN--JUAN
DE MARCHENA--COLUMBUS REPAIRS TO CORDOVA--HIS SECOND MARRIAGE--HIS
LETTER TO THE KING--THE JUNTO OF SALAMANCA--COLUMBUS RESOLVES TO SHAKE
THE DUST OF SPAIN FROM HIS FEET--MARCHENA'S LETTER TO ISABELLA--THE
QUEEN GIVES AUDIENCE TO COLUMBUS--THE CONDITIONS STIPULATED BY THE
LATTER--ISABELLA ACCEPTS THE ENTERPRISE, WHILE FERDINAND REMAINS ALOOF.
Cristofero Colombo (in Spanish Colon, in French Colomb, in Latin and
English Columbus) was born in Genoa, in the year 1435.[1] His father
was a wool-comber, and Christopher followed, for a time, the same
occupation. He was sent, however, at the age of ten years, to the
University of Pavia, where he seems to have studied, though with little
advantage, natural philosophy and astronomy, or, as it was then called,
astrology. Returning to his father's bench, he worked at wool-combing,
with his brother Bartholomew, till he was fourteen years of age. By
this time the natural influence of the situation, the atmosphere,
and the traditions of Genoa had awakened in him the tastes and the
ambition of a sailor. The sea had long been the home and the life of
the Genoese: it was the theatre of their glory, and their avenue to
wealth. Christopher's great-uncle, Colombo, commanded a fleet intrusted
to him by the king, and with which he carried on a predatory warfare
against the Venetians and Neapolitans. His nephew joined his ship, and
thus became acquainted with the whole extent of the Mediterranean,
which was at that period ploughed by the pirates of the Archipelago and
the corsairs of the Barbary States. As the vessel went armed to the
teeth, the young sailor not only learned the art of navigation, but
acquired those habits of discipline and subordination, of self-command
and presence of mind, which afterwards served him in so good stead.
This manner of life lasted for many years, till Columbus, at the age of
thirty, was wrecked off the coast of Portugal, and reached, with some
difficulty, the city of Lisbon. Here he found his brother Bartholomew
settled, and occupying himself in drawing plans, charts, and maps for
the use of navigators. Christopher joined him, and gained a sufficient
livelihood by copying manuscripts and black-letter books, and aiding
his brother in his avocations. He soon married an Italian lady named
Felippa di Perestrello, whose father, now dead, had been Governor of
the island of Porto Santo, one of the Madeiras. This union between the
humble son of a wool-comber and the daughter of an Italian gentleman
is deemed, by several of the biographers of Columbus, a strong proof
of the nobility of his ancestry. After his marriage, he left for Porto
Santo,--the sterile dowry of his wife,--where his first son, Diego, was
born.
We have already seen that the period was one of the greatest excitement
and expectancy in regard to maritime discovery. Columbus had long
reflected upon the existence of land in the west, upon the sphericity
of the earth, and upon the possibility of crossing the Atlantic. He had
already conceived the idea of reaching Asia by following the setting
sun across the immensity of the waters. His mind, too, was kindled to
religious enthusiasm by the allusions in the Bible to the universal
diffusion of the gospel, and, in his dreams of nautical discovery,
the belief that he was destined to be an apostle, sent to extend the
dominion of the cross, predominated over more worldly aspirations. For
years, while struggling with disappointment and harassed by poverty,
he pursued this idea with the pertinacity of a monomaniac. When forty
years old, and residing at Lisbon, he proposed to the Senate of Genoa
to leave the Mediterranean by the Straits of Gibraltar and to proceed
to the west, in the sea known as the Ocean, as far as the "lands
where spices bloom," and thus circumnavigate the earth. The Genoese,
whose maritime knowledge was confined to the Mediterranean, and who
had no fancy for adventures upon the ocean, declined listening to the
proposition, pretexting the penury of the treasury. It would also seem
that overtures made by Columbus to the Council of Venice were similarly
rejected. For a time, therefore, he abandoned all efforts to further
his desires. In 1477, he made a voyage to Iceland, in order to discover
whether it was inhabited, and even sailed one hundred leagues beyond
it,--where, to his astonishment, he found the sea not frozen.
Upon the accession of John II. to the throne of Portugal,--a sovereign
whom we have already shown to be deeply interested in the progress of
the art of navigation,--Columbus made known to him his opinions and his
plans, assigning the extension of the gospel as the avowed and final
object of the expedition. The subject was referred to a maritime junto
and to a high council, by both of whom it was rejected as visionary
and absurd. The king was induced, however, by one of his councillors,
to equip a caravel and send it on a voyage of discovery upon the
route traced out by Columbus, and thus obtain for himself the glory
of the expedition, if successful. Columbus was invited to hand in to
the Government his maps and charts, together with his written views
upon the whole subject. This he did, supposing, in his simplicity,
that another examination was to be made of the practicability of the
venture. The king despatched a caravel, under the command of one of
the ablest pilots of his marine, to follow the track indicated. The
vessel left, but soon returned, her crew having been appalled at sight
of the boundless horizon, and her captain having lost his courage in
a storm. Columbus, indignant at this duplicity, secretly left Lisbon
and returned home to Genoa. At this period he had the misfortune to
lose his wife Felippa, who had shared his confidence in the existence
of unknown lands, and whose encouragement had sustained him in his
disappointments. This was in the year 1484. He renewed his proposal to
the Senate of Genoa, which was again rejected. He now cast his eyes
upon the other European powers, among whom the two sovereigns of Spain,
Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, seemed to deserve the
preference.
Not far from Palos, upon the Spanish coast, and in sight of the ocean,
stood, upon a promontory half hidden by pine-trees, a monastery--known
as La Rabida--dedicated to the Virgin, and inhabited by Franciscan
friars. The Superior, Juan Perez de Marchena, offered an example of
fervent piety and of theological erudition, at the same time that he
was a skilful mathematician and an ardent practitioner of the exact
sciences. He was at once an astronomer, a devotee, and a poet. During
the hours of slumber, he often ascended to the summit of the abbey,
and, looking out upon the ocean,--known as the Sea of Darkness,--would
ask himself if beyond this expanse of waters there was no land yet
unclaimed by Christianity. He rejected as fabulous the current idea
that a vessel might sail three years to the west without reaching a
hospitable shore. The ocean, formidable to others and intelligible to
few, was to him the abode of secrets which man was invited to unfold.
One day a traveller rang at the gate and asked for refreshment for
himself and his son. Being interrogated as to the object of his
journey, he replied that he was on his way to the court of Spain
to communicate an important matter to the king and queen. The
traveller was Christopher Columbus. How he came to pass by this
obscure monastery--which lay altogether off his route--has never been
explained. A providential guidance had brought him into the presence
of the man the best calculated to comprehend his purpose, in a country
where he was totally without friends and with whose language he was
completely unacquainted. A common sympathy drew them together; and
Columbus, accepting for a period the hospitality of Marchena, made him
the confidant of his views. Thus, while the colleges and universities
of Christendom still held the childish theory that the earth was flat,
and that the sea was the path to utter and outer darkness, Columbus and
Marchena, filled with a spontaneous and implicit faith, intuitively
believed in the sphericity of the globe and the existence of a nameless
continent beyond the ocean. In theory they had solved the great
question whether the ship which should depart by the west would come
back by the east.
Marchena gave Columbus a letter of recommendation to the queen's
confessor, and, during his absence, promised to educate and maintain
his son Diego. Thus tranquillized in his affections, and aided in his
schemes, Columbus departed for Cordova. Here he was destined to undergo
another disappointment; for the queen's confessor, his expected patron,
treated him as a dreaming speculator and needy adventurer. He soon
became again isolated and forgotten. In the midst of his indigence,
however, a noble lady, Beatrix Enriquez, young and beautiful, though
not rich, noticed his manners and his language, so evidently above
his condition, and detained him at Cordova long after his hopes were
extinguished. He married her: she bore him a son, Fernando, who
afterwards became his father's biographer and historian.
Columbus now wrote to the king a brief and concise letter, setting
forth his desires. It was never answered. After a multitude of similar
deceptions and disappointments, Geraldini, the ambassador of the Pope,
presented him to Mendoza, the Grand Cardinal, through whose influence
Columbus obtained an audience of Ferdinand, who appointed a junto
of wise men to examine and report upon his scheme. This junto, made
up of theologians and not of navigators and geographers, and which
sat at Salamanca, opposed Columbus on biblical grounds, declared the
theory a dangerous if not heretical innovation, and finally reported
unfavorably. This decision was quite in harmony with public opinion in
Salamanca, where Columbus was spoken of as "a foreigner who asserted
that the world was round like an orange, and that there were places
where the people walked on their heads." Seven years were thus wasted
in solicitation, suspense, and disappointment. From time to time
Columbus had reason to hope that his proposals would be reconsidered;
but in 1490 the siege of Baza, the last stronghold of the Moors, and in
1491 the marriage of Isabella, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella,
with Don Alonzo of Portugal, absorbed the attention of their majesties
to the exclusion of all scientific pre-occupations. Finally, when the
matter was reopened, and the junto was reassembled, its president,
Fernando de Talavera, was instructed to say that the exhaustion of the
treasury necessitated the postponement of the whole subject until the
close of the war with Grenada. At last, Columbus, reflecting upon the
delays, refusals, affronts, and suspicions of which he had been the
object, the time he had wasted, and the antechambers in which he had
waited the condescension of the great, resolved to shake the dust of
Spain from his feet, and returned to the abbey of his friend Marchena.
He arrived there bearing upon his person the impress of poverty,
fatigue, and exhausted patience. Marchena was profoundly annoyed by
the reflection that the glory of the future discoveries of Columbus
would be thus taken from Spain and conferred upon some rival power.
Fearing, however, that he had too readily lent his ear to theories
which had been twice rejected as puerile by a competent junto, he sent
for an eminent mathematician of Palos, Garcia Hernandez, a physician
by profession. They then conferred together upon the subject and
pronounced the execution of the project feasible. The assertion that
the famous sailor Martin Alonzo Pinzon was a party to the conference
would appear to be an error. Pinzon was at this period at Rome, and did
not see Columbus for a year or more afterwards.
Marchena at once wrote an eloquent letter to Queen Isabella, and
intrusted it to a pilot whose relations with the court rendered him
a safe and reliable messenger. He gave the missive into the hands of
the queen, and returned to the monastery the bearer of an invitation
to Marchena to repair at once to Santa Fe, where the court then was,
engaged in investing Grenada. Columbus borrowed a mule for the friar,
who left secretly at midnight and arrived safely at Santa Fe. That
Isabella should, at such a moment, when engaged in war and harassed by
financial embarrassments, listen to a proposition which had been twice
condemned by a learned body of men, is a circumstance which entitles
her in the highest degree to a share in the glory which her protégé
Columbus was, through her, destined to obtain. She received Marchena
graciously, and instructed him to summon Columbus, to whom she sent
twenty thousand maravedis--seventy dollars, nearly--with which to
purchase a horse and a proper dress in which to appear before her.
Columbus arrived at Santa Fe just before the surrender of Grenada
and the termination of the struggle between the Crescent and the
Cross. He was present at the delivery of the keys of the city and the
abandonment of the Alhambra to Isabella by the Moorish king, Boabdil
el Chico. After the official rejoicings, the queen gave audience to
Columbus. As she already believed in the practicability of the scheme,
the only subjects to be discussed were the means of execution, and the
recompense to be awarded to Columbus in case of success. A committee
was appointed to consider this latter point. Columbus fixed his
conditions as follows:
He should receive the title of Grand Admiral of the Ocean:
He should be Viceroy and Governor-General of all islands and mainlands
he might discover:
He should levy a tax for his own benefit upon all productions--whether
spices, fruits, perfumes, gold, silver, pearls, or diamonds--discovered
in, or exported from, the lands under his authority:
And his titles should be transmissible in his family, forever, by the
laws of primogeniture.
These conditions, being such as would place the threadbare solicitor
above the noblest house in Spain, were treated with derision by the
committee, and Columbus was regarded as an insolent braggart. He would
not abate one tittle of his claims, though, after eighteen years of
fruitless effort, he now saw all his hopes at the point of being again
dashed to earth. He mounted his mule, and departed for Cordova before
quitting Spain forever.
Two friends of the queen now represented the departure of Columbus
as an immense and irreparable loss, and, by their supplications and
protestations, induced her once more to consider the vast importance
of the plans he proposed. Moved by their persuasions, she declared
that she accepted the enterprise, not jointly, as the wife of the King
of Spain, but independently, as Queen of Castile. As the treasury was
depleted by the drains of war, she offered to defray the expenses
with her own jewels. A messenger was despatched for Columbus, who was
overtaken a few miles from Grenada. He at first hesitated to return;
but, after reflecting upon the heroic determination of Isabella,
who thus took the initiative in a perilous undertaking, against the
report of the junto, the advice of her councillors, and in spite of
the indifference of the king, he obeyed with alacrity, and returned to
Santa Fe.
He was received with distinction by the court and with affectionate
consideration by the queen. Ferdinand remained a stranger to the
expedition. He applied his signature to the stipulations, but caused it
to be distinctly set down that the whole affair was undertaken by the
Queen of Castile, at her own risk and peril,--thus excluding himself
forever from lot or parcel in this transcendent enterprise.
[Illustration: VIOLET ASTERIA.]
[Illustration: THE FLEET OF COLUMBUS.]
[Illustration: HEAD OF MERGONSER.]
CHAPTER XV.
THE PORT OF PALOS--THE SUPERSTITION OF ITS MARINERS--THE HAND OF
SATAN--A BIRD WHICH LIFTED VESSELS TO THE CLOUDS--THE PINTA AND THE
NINA--THE SANTA MARIA--CAPACITY OF A SPANISH CARAVEL--THE THREE
PINZONS--THE DEPARTURE--COLUMBUS' JOURNAL--THE HELM OF THE PINTA
UNSHIPPED--THE VARIATION OF THE NEEDLE--THE APPEARANCE OF THE TROPICAL
ATLANTIC--FLOATING VEGETATION--THE SARGASSO SEA--ALARM, AND THREATENED
MUTINY, OF THE SAILORS--PERPLEXITIES OF COLUMBUS--LAND! LAND! A FALSE
ALARM--INDICATIONS OF THE VICINITY OF LAND--MURMURS OF THE CREWS--OPEN
REVOLT QUELLED BY COLUMBUS--FLOATING REEDS AND TUFTS OF GRASS--LAND AT
LAST--THE VESSELS ANCHOR OVER-NIGHT.
Columbus received his letters-patent, granting him all the privileges
and titles he had demanded, on the 30th of April, 1492. His son
Diego was made page to the prince-royal,--a favor only accorded to
children of noble families. The harbor of Palos was chosen as the
port of departure; and its inhabitants, whose annual taxes consisted
in furnishing two caravels, armed and manned, to the Government, were
instructed to place them, within ten days, at the orders of Columbus.
Persons awaiting trial or condemnation were to have the privilege of
escaping verdict and punishment by embarking upon this terrible and
perhaps fatal voyage.
The mariners of Palos received these tidings with dismay. Nothing
was certainly in those days more calculated to strike with terror
the cautious coaster than a voyage upon the boundless, endless MARE
TENEBROSUM, which, in the imagination not only of the ignorant, but
even of the educated, was the home of chaos, if not the seat of
Erebus. Upon the maps of the world designed at this period, the words
Mare Tenebrosum were surrounded with figures of imps and devils,
compared to which the Cyclops, griffins, and centaurs of mythology
were modest and benign creations. The Arabians, who were forbidden by
the Koran to depict the forms of animals, gave, as they thought, a
fitting character to the sea, by representing the hand of Satan upon
their charts, ready to clutch and drag beneath the waves all who should
be so rash as to brave the displeasure of Bahr-al-Talmet. Besides
Satan, besides the Leviathan and Behemoth, and other similar submarine
terrors, the adventurer upon the open sea would find adversaries in the
air; and, if he escaped the blast and the thunderbolt, it would be to
fall a victim to the roc, that gigantic bird which lifted ships into
the air and crunched them in the clouds. This roc, from terrifying the
companions of Columbus, has descended to amuse children in the nautical
romance of Sinbad the Sailor.
Time passed, and the authorities of Palos had yet furnished nothing
towards the voyage. Owners of vessels hid them in distant creeks,
and the port became gradually a desert. The court ordered stringent
measures, and at last a caravel named the Pinta was seized and laid
up for repairs. All the carpenters turned sick, and neither rope,
wood, nor tar were to be found. In vain did Marchena, the zealous
Franciscan of Palos, who was beloved by all its inhabitants, undertake
a crusade among the seafaring population in favor of the project: the
whole Andalusian coast considered it chimerical and a temptation of
Providence.
Martin Alonzo Pinzon, one of three brothers, all seamen, and who had
at this period lately returned from Rome, where the Pope's librarian
had shown him a map bearing the representation of land in the Atlantic
to the west, was introduced by Marchena to Columbus. The report soon
became current that the brothers, whose credit and influence at Palos
were very great, intended to risk the adventure on board of the
caravel Nina, belonging to the younger of the three. The mariners took
courage, and the city of Palos contributed its second caravel, the
Gallega, making three in all. This Gallega, though old and heavy and
unfit for the service, was stout and solid, and Columbus chose her
for his flag-ship, rebaptizing her, however, the Santa Maria. Towards
the end of July, the vessels were nearly ready for sea, and Columbus
retired for a period to the monastery, where he passed his days in
prayer and his nights in contemplation. On one occasion he left the
convent and appeared among the workmen: he surprised the sailors,
condemned by the city to accompany him to the west, engaged in putting
the rudder of the Pinta together in such a manner that the first storm
would unship it. Marchena redoubled his exhortations, and at last the
expedition was ready.
Popular belief has, in modern times, represented these vessels as much
smaller than they probably really were. The term _caravel_, of doubtful
etymology, affords no indication of their tonnage or capacity. Caravels
were used, however, to transport troops, provisions, and artillery,
and even to fight upon the high seas. They were sent by Portugal to
the coast of Africa. John II. had, as we have narrated, sent a vessel
to the west in order to anticipate Columbus; and this vessel was a
caravel. The smallest of the three--the Nina--subsequently, when at
sea, took on board fifty-six men, in addition to her own crew, a number
of cannon, and a portion of the rigging of the Santa Maria, without
lowering her water-line; and Columbus once threatened a Portuguese
officer to take one hundred of his men on board the Nina and carry them
to Castile. Neither she, nor the other two caravels, were the "light
barks" or "shallops" which historians have delighted to represent them.
The importance of the subject requires that we describe the three
vessels with all the minuteness which the late researches of which we
have spoken will authorize.
The Santa Maria measured about ninety feet at the keel. She had
four masts, two of them square-rigged, and two furnished with the
lateen-sails of the Mediterranean. She had a deck extending from
stem to stern, and a double deck at the poop, twenty-six feet
long,--one-third, nearly, of her entire length. The double deck was
pierced for cannon, the forward-deck being armed with smaller pieces,
used for throwing stones and grape. From the journal of Columbus we
know that he employed, in the manoeuvres, quite a complicated system of
ropes and pulleys. Eight anchors hung over her sides. She represented
in her general characteristics a modern vessel of twenty guns. She
was manned by sixty-six men, not one of whom was from Palos,--one of
them being an Englishman, and one an Irishman,--and was commanded by
Columbus.
The Pinta and the Nina were decked only forward and aft, the space in
the middle being entirely uncovered. Their armament was equal to that
of sloops of sixteen and ten guns respectively. Alonzo Pinzon commanded
the Pinta, whose total crew, including the officers, numbered thirty
men. The youngest of the three Pinzons, Vincent Yanez, commanded the
Nina, with twenty-three men. The provisions of the fleet consisted
of smoked beef, salt pork, rice, dried peas and other vegetables,
herrings, wine, oil, vinegar, &c., sufficient for a year.
As the day approached and the danger grew more imminent, the
apprehension increased, and the sailors expressed a desire to reconcile
themselves with Heaven and obtain absolution for their sins. They went
in procession to the monastery of La Rabida, with Columbus at their
head, and received the Eucharist from the hands of the Franciscan
Marchena. Columbus, while waiting for the land-breeze, retired for a
last time to the convent, to meditate upon the duties before him and
to peruse his favorite book, the Gospel of St. John. At three o'clock
in the morning of the 3d of August he was awakened by the murmuring of
the long wished for wind in the tops of the pine-trees which bordered
his cell. The coming day was Friday, a day inauspicious to sailors,
but to him a day of good omen. He arose, summoned Marchena, from whom
he received the communion, and then descended, on foot, the steep
declivity which leads to Palos.
The Santa Maria at once sent her boat to receive the admiral, and
at the sound of the preparations and the orders of the pilots, the
inhabitants awoke and opened wide their windows. Mothers, wives and
sisters, fathers and brothers, ran in confusion to the shore, to bid
a last farewell to those whom they might perhaps never see again.
The royal standard, representing the Crucifixion, was hoisted at the
main; and Columbus, standing upon the quarterdeck, gave the order to
spread the sails in the name of Jesus Christ. Thus commenced the most
memorable venture upon the ocean that man had then made or has made
since,--the record of whose shortest day is more stored with incident
than was the whole voyage of Jason, from the Whirling Rocks to the
Golden Fleece.
Columbus commenced his journal at once, and it is from the passages of
this narrative which are still extant, that we shall derive an account
of the voyage. He begins by declaring the object of the expedition to
be to extend the blessings of the gospel to nations supposed to be
without it. He adds, that he shall write at night the events of the
day, and each morning the occurrences of the night. He will mark the
lands he shall discover upon the chart, and will banish sleep from his
eyelids in order to watch the progress of his vessel.
All went well till Monday, when the helm of the Pinta fell to
pieces,--this accident having been a second time prepared by her
refractory owners. The fleet made the best of their way to the
Canaries, where the Pinta was repaired. They sailed again on the 6th
of September, narrowly escaping attack from three Portuguese caravels
that King John had sent against Columbus, indignant that he should have
transferred to another power the proposal he had once made to himself.
Thus far the route had lain over the beaten track between the continent
and the Canaries, along the coast of Africa. As they now launched into
the open sea, and as the Peak of Teneriffe sank under the horizon
behind them, the heart of Columbus beat high with joy, while the
courage of his officers and men died away within them. The Admiral kept
two logs, one for himself and one for the crew, the latter scoring a
distance less than that which they had really made, and thus keeping
them in ignorance of their actual distance from home. His course was
to the southwest. The sky, the stars, the horizon, the water, changed
visibly as they advanced. Familiar constellations disappeared, others
took their place. On the 13th of September, Columbus observed a
strange and fearful phenomenon. The needle, which till then had been
infallible, swerved from the Polar star, and tremblingly diverged to
the northwest. The next day, this variation was still more marked.
Columbus took every precaution to conceal a discovery so discouraging
from the fleet, and one which alarmed even him. The water now became
more limpid, the climate more bland, and the sky more transparent.
There was a delicate haze in the air, and a fragrance peculiar to the
sea in the fresh breeze. Aquatic plants, apparently newly detached from
the rocks or the bed of the ocean, floated upon the waves. For the
first time in the history of the world, the tranquil beauties and the
solemn splendors of the tropical Atlantic were passing before the gaze
of human beings. According to the journal of Columbus, "nothing was
wanting in the scene except the song of the nightingale to remind him
of Andalusia in April."
The proximity of land seemed often to be indicated by the odor with
which the winds were laden, by the abundance of marine plants, and
the presence of birds. Columbus would not alter his course, as he did
not wish to abate the confidence of his men in his own belief that
land was to be found by steering west. The floating vegetation now
became so abundant that it retarded the passage of the vessels. The
sailors became seriously alarmed. They thought themselves arrived
at the limit of the world, where an element, too unstable to tread
upon, too dense to sail through, admonished the rash stranger to take
warning and return. They feared that the caravels would be involved
beyond extrication, and that the monsters lying in wait beneath the
floating herbage would make an easy meal of their defenceless crews.
The trade-winds, then unknown, were another cause of anxiety; for,
if they always blew to the westward, as they appeared to do, how
could the ships ever return eastward to Europe? In the midst of the
apprehensions excited by these causes, which nearly drove the terrified
men to mutiny, a contrary wind sprang up, and the revolt was thus
providentially quelled. Columbus wrote in his journal, "this opposing
wind came very opportunely, for my crew was in great agitation,
imagining that no wind ever blew in these regions by which they could
return to Spain."
But the terrors of the ignorant men soon broke out afresh. Seaweed and
tropical marine plants reappeared in heavy masses, and seemed to shut
in the ships among their stagnant growth. The breeze no longer formed
billows upon the surface of the waters. The sailors declared that they
were in those dismal quarters of the world where the winds lose their
impulse and the waters their equilibrium, and that soon fierce aquatic
monsters would seize hold of the keels of the ships and keep them
prisoners amid the weeds. In the midst of the perplexities to which
Columbus was thus exposed, the sea became suddenly agitated, though
the wind did not increase. This revival of motion in the element they
thought relapsed into sullen inactivity, again cheered the crew into a
temporary tranquillity.[2]
At sunset on the 25th, Alonzo Pinzon, rushing excitedly upon the
quarterdeck of the Pinta, shouted, "Land! land! My lord, I was the
first to see it!" The sailors of the Nina clambered joyfully into the
tops, and Columbus fell upon his knees in thanksgiving. But the morn
dissipated the illusion, and the ocean stretched forth its illimitable
expanse as before. On the 1st of October, one of the lieutenants
declared with anguish that they were seventeen hundred miles from the
Canaries, intelligence which terribly alarmed the crew, though they had
really made a much greater distance, being actually twenty-one hundred
miles from Teneriffe, according to Columbus' private reckoning.
The indications of the vicinity of land had been so often deceitful,
that the crew no longer put faith in them, and fell from discouragement
into taciturnity, and from taciturnity into insubordination. The
discontent was general, and no efforts were made to conceal it. In
their mutinous conversations, they spoke contemptuously of Columbus
as "the Genoese," as a charlatan and a rogue. Was it just, they said,
that one hundred and twenty men should perish by the caprice and
obstinacy of one single man, and that man a foreigner and an impostor?
If he persisted in proceeding "towards his everlasting west, which
went on and on, and never came to an end," he ought to be thrown into
the sea and left there. On their return they could easily say that
he had fallen into the waves while gazing at the stars. A revolt was
agreed upon between the crews of the three ships, who were on several
occasions brought into communication by the sending of boats from the
one to the other. The captains of the Pinta and the Nina were aware
of what was transpiring, but for the time being maintained a cautious
neutrality. The sea continued calm as the Guadalquivir at Seville,
the air was laden with tropical fragrance, and in twenty-four hours
the fleet, apparently at rest, glided imperceptibly over one hundred
and eighty miles. This motionless rapidity, as it were, thoroughly
terrified the crew, and, breaking out into open mutiny, they refused,
on the 10th of October, to go any farther westward. The Nina and the
Pinta rejoined the Santa Maria; the brothers Pinzon, followed by their
men, leaped upon her deck, and commanded Columbus to put his ship about
and return to Palos.
At this most vital point of the narrative, our authorities are
contradictory, while the journal of Columbus himself is silent.
According to Oviedo,--a writer who obtained his information from an
enemy of Columbus,--the latter yielded to his men so far as to propose
a compromise, and to consent to return unless land was discovered in
three days' sail. To say the least, such a submission to the menaces
and behests of his infuriated subalterns was not an act compatible with
the character of Columbus, with his well known self-reliance, and his
openly expressed and constantly reiterated confidence in the Divine
protection. The Catholic biography, which we have quoted, attributes
the pacification of the revolt directly to the Divine interference,
asserting that no human philosophy can explain this sudden and complete
suspension of the prevailing exasperation and animosity. It is certain,
at any rate, that the demonstration, which began at nightfall, had
ceased long before the morning's dawn.
And now pigeons flew in abundance about the ships, and green canes and
reeds floated languidly by. A bush, its branches red with berries, was
recovered from the water by the Nina. A tuft of grass and a piece of
wood, which appeared to have been cut by some iron instrument, were
picked up by the Pinta. Such indications were sufficient to sustain
the most dejected. Still the sun sank to rest in a horizon whose pure
line was unbroken by land and unsullied by terrestrial vapor. The
caravels were called together, and, after the usual prayer to the
Virgin, Columbus announced to them that their trials were at an end,
and that the morrow's light would bring with it the realization of all
their hopes. The pilots were instructed to take in sail after midnight,
and a velvet pourpoint was promised to him who should first see land.
The crews which, two days before, considered Columbus as a trickster
and a cheat, now received his word as they would a gospel from on high.
The expectation and impatience which pervaded the three ships were
indescribable. No eye was closed that night. The Pinta, being the most
rapid sailer, was a long way in advance of the others. The Nina and the
Santa Maria followed slowly, for sail had now been shortened, in her
track. Suddenly a flash and a heavy report from the Pinta announced
the joyful tidings. A Spaniard of Palos, named Juan Rodriguez Bermejo,
had seen the land and won the velvet pourpoint. Columbus fell upon his
knees, and, raising his hands to heaven, sang the Te Deum Laudamus. The
sails were then furled and the fleet lay to. Arms and holiday dresses
were prepared, for they knew not what the day would bring forth,
whether the land would offer hospitality or challenge to combat. The
great mystery of the ocean was to be revealed on the morrow: in the
meantime, the night and the darkness had in their keeping the mighty
secret--whether the land was a savage desert or a spicy and blooming
garden.
[Illustration: THE NINA HOMEWARD BOUND.]
[Illustration: COLUMBUS TAKING POSSESSION OF GUANAHANI.]
CHAPTER XVI.
DISCOVERY OF GUANAHANI--CEREMONIES OF TAKING POSSESSION--EXPLORATION
OF THE NEIGHBORING ISLANDS--SEARCH FOR GOLD--CUBA SUPPOSED BY
COLUMBUS TO BE JAPAN--THE CANNIBALS--HAITI--RETURN HOMEWARDS--A
STORM--AN APPEAL TO THE VIRGIN--ARRIVAL AT THE AZORES--CONDUCT OF THE
PORTUGUESE--COLUMBUS AT LISBON--AT PALOS--AT BARCELONA--COLUMBUS'
SECOND VOYAGE--DISCOVERY OF GUADELOUPE, ANTIGOA, SANTA CRUZ,
JAMAICA--ILLNESS OF COLUMBUS--TERRIBLE BATTLE BETWEEN THE SPANIARDS
AND THE SAVAGES--COLUMBUS RETURNS TO SPAIN--HIS RECEPTION BY THE
QUEEN--HIS THIRD VOYAGE--THE REGION OF CALMS--DISCOVERY OF TRINIDAD
AND OF THE MAIN LAND--ASSUMPCION AND MARGARITA--COLUMBUS IN CHAINS.
On Friday, the 12th of October, 1492, the kindling dawn revealed to the
wondering eyes of our adventurers the bright colors and early-morning
beauties of an island clothed in verdure, and teeming with the fruits
and vegetation of mid-autumn in the tropics. Its surface undulated
gently, massive forests skirted the spots cleared for cultivation,
and the sparkling water of a fresh lake glittered amid the luxuriant
foliage which encircled it. An anchorage was easily found, and
Columbus, dressed in official costume, and bearing the royal standard
in his hand, landed upon the silent and deserted shore. He planted the
standard, and, prostrating himself before it, kissed the earth he
had discovered; he then uttered the since famous prayer, the opening
lines of which were, by order of the Spanish sovereigns, repeated
by subsequent discoverers upon all similar occasions. He drew his
sword, and, naming the land San Salvador, in memory of the Saviour,
took possession of it for the Crown of Castile. The crews recognised
Columbus as Admiral of the Ocean and Viceroy of the Indies. The most
mutinous and outrageous thronged closely about him, and crouched at the
feet of one who, in their eyes, had already wealth and honors in his
gift.
The island at which Columbus had landed was called by the natives
Guanahani, and is now one of the archipelago of the Bahamas. The
inhabitants had retreated to the woods at the arrival of the strangers;
but, being gradually reassured, suffered their confidence to be won,
and received from them fragments of glass and earthen-ware as presents
possessing a supernatural virtue. Columbus took seven of them on
board, being anxious to convey them to Spain and offer them to the
king, promising however to return them. Then he weighed anchor and
explored the wonderful region in which these lovely islands lie. New
lands were constantly, as it were, rising from the waves; the eye
could hardly number them, but the seven natives called over a hundred
of them by name. He landed successively at Concepçion, la Fernandine,
and Isabella; at all of which he was enchanted by the magnificence of
the vegetation, the superb plumage of the birds, and the delicious
fragrance with which the forests and the air were filled. He sought
everywhere for traces of gold in the soil, for he hoped thus to
interest Spain in a continuance of his explorations. Such was his
desire to obtain a sight of the precious metal, that he passed rapidly
from island to island, indifferent to every other subject. At last,
the natives spoke of a large and marvellous land, called Cuba, where
there were spices, gold, ships, and merchants. Supposing this to be the
wonderful Cipango, described by Marco Polo, he set sail at once. It was
now the 24th of October.
On the 28th, at dawn, Columbus discovered an island, which, in its
extent and in its general characteristics, reminded him strongly of
Sicily, in the Mediterranean. As he approached, his senses underwent a
species of confusion from the miraculous fertility and luxuriance of
the vegetation. In his journal, he does not attempt to describe his
emotions, but, preserving the silence of stupefaction, says simply that
"he never saw any thing so magnificent." He no longer doubted that this
beautiful spot was the real Cipango. He landed, gave to the island
the name of Juana, and commenced a search for gold, which resulted in
a complete disappointment. On leaving Cuba, he gave it a name which
he thought more appropriate than Juana, styling its eastern extremity
Alpha and Omega, being, as he thought, the region where the East Indies
finished and where the West Indies began. This error of Columbus was
the cause of the North American savages being called Indians--an error
which has been perpetuated in spite of the progress of geographical
discovery, and which will doubtless endure forever.
On the 6th of December, he discovered an island, named Haiti by
the natives, and which he called Hispaniola, as it reminded him
of the fairest tracts of Spain. He found that the inhabitants had
the reputation with their neighbors of devouring human flesh; they
were called _Caniba_ people, an epithet which, after the necessary
modifications, has passed into all European languages. The Caribs were
the nation meant. At this point, the captain of the Pinta deserted the
fleet, in order to make discoveries on his own account. Soon after, the
Santa Maria was wrecked upon the coast of Haiti, and Columbus, thinking
that this accident was intended as an indication of the Divine will
that he should establish a colony there, built a fort of live timber,
in which he placed forty-two men. He weighed anchor in the Nina, on the
11th of January, 1493, and shortly after fell in with the Pinta. He
pretended to believe and accept the falsehoods and contradictions which
Pinzon alleged as the reasons for his abandonment of the fleet. The
two vessels now turned their heads east, Columbus hoping to discover a
cannibal island on his way, as he wished to carry a professor of the
disgusting practice to Spain.
No event of moment happened until the 12th of February, a month
afterwards, when a terrible storm burst over the hitherto tranquil
waters. Its violence increased to such a degree that nothing remained
but a desperate appeal to "Mary, the Mother of God." A quantity of
dried peas, equal in number to the number of men on board the Nina,
were placed in a sailor's woollen cap, one of them being marked with
a cross. He who should draw this pea, was to go on a pilgrimage to
the church of Saint Mary at Guadeloupe, bearing a candle weighing
five pounds, in case the ship were saved. Columbus was the first
to draw, and he drew the marked pea. Other vows of this sort were
made, and, finally, one to go in procession, and with bare feet, to
the nearest cathedral of whatever land they should first reach. The
admiral, fearing that his discovery would perish with him, withdrew to
his cabin, during the fiercest period of the tumult, and wrote upon
parchment two separate and concise narratives of his discoveries. He
enclosed them both in wax, and, placing one in an empty barrel, threw
it into the sea. The other, similarly enclosed, he attached to the
poop of the Nina, intending to cut it loose at the moment of going
down. Happily, the storm subsided; and, on the 17th, the shattered
vessels arrived at the southernmost island of the Azores, belonging
to the King of Portugal. Here half the crew went in procession to the
chapel, to discharge their vow; and, while Columbus was waiting to go
with the other half, the Portuguese made a sally, surrounded the first
portion, and made them prisoners. After a useless protest, Columbus
departed with the men that remained, having with him, in the Nina, but
three able-bodied seamen. Another storm now threw him upon the coast of
Portugal, at the mouth of the Tagus. Here he narrowly escaped shipwreck
a second time, but, with the assistance of the wonder-stricken
inhabitants, reached in safety the roads of Rostello. The king, though
jealous of the maritime renown he was acquiring for Spain, received him
with distinction and dismissed him with presents. Columbus arrived,
in the Nina, at Palos on Friday, the 15th of March, seven months and
twelve days after his departure. Alonzo Pinzon had already arrived in
the Pinta, and, believing Columbus to have perished in the storm, had
written to the court, narrating the discoveries made by the fleet, and
claiming for himself the merit and the recompense.
[Illustration: RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS BY FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.]
It is not our province to relate the history of the career of Columbus
upon land, nor have we space so to do. We can only briefly allude to
his discharge, by pilgrimages to holy shrines, of the vows, which,
three times out of four, had, by lot, devolved upon him: to the week he
spent with Marchena, and in the silence of the cloister, at la Rabida;
to the princely honors he received in his progress to Barcelona,
whither the court had gone; to his reception by the king and queen,
in which Ferdinand and Isabella rose as he approached, raised him as
he kneeled to kiss their hands, and ordered him to be seated in their
presence.
The Spanish sovereigns soon fitted out a new expedition; and, on the
25th of September, 1493, Columbus left the port of Cadiz with seventeen
vessels, five hundred sailors, soldiers, citizens and servants, and
one thousand colonists, three hundred of whom had smuggled themselves
on board. He sailed directly for the Carib or Cannibal Islands, and
on the 3d of November arrived in their midst. He named one of them
Maria-Galanta, from his flag-ship; another, Guadeloupe, from one of the
shrines of Spain where he had discharged a vow. He here found numerous
and disgusting evidences of the truth of the story that these people
lived on human flesh. The island which he named Montserrat, in honor of
the famous sanctuary of that name, had been depopulated by the Caribs.
He gave to the next land the name of Santa Maria l'Antigoa; it is
now known as Antigoa, simply. Another he called Santa Cruz, in honor
of the cross. Returning to Hispaniola, he found the fort destroyed
and the garrison massacred. Having founded the city of Isabella upon
another part of the island, he sent back twelve of his ships to Spain,
and with three of the remaining five, one of which was the famous
Nina, started upon a voyage of discovery in the surrounding waters. He
touched at Alpha and Omega, and inquired of the savages where he could
find gold. They pointed to the south. Two days afterwards, Columbus
descried lofty mountains, with blue summits, upon an island to which
he gave the name of Jamaica, in honor of St. James. Then returning
to Cuba, and following the southern coast a distance sufficient to
convince the three crews that it was a continent and not an island, he
took possession of it as such. He then wished to revisit the Caribbean
Islands and destroy the boats of the inhabitants, that they might no
longer prey upon their neighbors, but the direction of the winds would
not permit him to sail to the west. Returning to Isabella, he met his
brother Bartholomew, who had just arrived from Spain, bearing a letter
from the queen. He also found, to his extreme regret, that the officers
he had left in charge of the colony had transcended their authority
and had abandoned their duties. Margarit, the commander, and Boil, the
vicar, had departed in the ship that had brought Bartholomew. Overcome
by the toils and privations he had undergone, and sick at heart at the
sight of the disasters under which the colony was laboring, he fell
into a deep lethargy, and for a long time it was doubtful whether he
would ever awake again.
He did awake, however, but only to a poignant consciousness of the
miseries the Spanish invasion had brought upon the island. The
Spaniards and Indians had become, through the treachery of the former,
hostile during his absence, and battles, surprises, and murders were of
daily occurrence. Seeing the necessity of a vigorous effort in order
to maintain his authority over the natives, he led his two hundred
and twenty men against a furious throng of naked, painted savages,
whose numbers were declared by the Spaniards to be no less than one
hundred thousand. The Indians were defeated with great slaughter,
and were subjected to the payment of tribute and to the indignity of
taxation. At this period, an officer, named Juan Aguado, sent out by
Ferdinand and Isabella upon the malicious representations of Margarit
and Father Boil, to inquire into the state of the colony and the
conduct of Columbus, arrived in the island. Columbus determined to
return himself to Spain, to present in person a justification of his
course. A violent storm having destroyed all the vessels except the
Nina, Columbus took the command of her, Aguado building a caravel for
himself from the wrecks of the others. They both left Isabella on the
10th of March, 1496, taking with them the sick and disappointed, to the
number of two hundred and twenty-five, and thirty-two Indians, whom
they forced to accompany them. They touched at Guadeloupe for wood and
water, and, after repulsing an attack of Caribs, contrived to gain
their confidence, and to obtain the articles of which they stood in
need. They left again on the 20th of April. After a long and painful
voyage, in the course of which it was proposed to throw the Indians
overboard in order to lessen the consumption of food, they arrived,
without material damage, at the port of Cadiz. Columbus wrote to the
king and queen, and during the month that elapsed before their answer
was received, allowed his beard to grow, and, disgusted with the world,
assumed the garments and the badges of a Franciscan friar. He was soon
summoned to Burgos, then the residence of the court, where Isabella,
forgetting the calumnies of which he had been the object and the
accusations his enemies had heaped upon him, loaded him with favors and
kindness.
Numerous circumstances prevented Columbus from requesting the immediate
equipment of another expedition. It was not till the 30th of May,
1498, that he sailed again for his discoveries in the West. He left San
Lucar with six caravels, three laden with supplies and reinforcements
for the colony at Isabella, and three intended to accompany himself
upon a search for the mainland, which he believed to exist west of
Hispaniola, Cuba, and Jamaica. On the 15th of July, in the latitude
of Sierra Leone, they came into the region of calms, where the water
seemed like molten silver beneath a tropical sun. Not a breath of air
stirred, not a cloud intercepted the fiery rays which fell vertically
upon them from the skies. The provisions decayed in the hold, the pitch
and tar boiled upon the ropes. The barrels of wine and water opened in
wide seams, and scattered their precious contents to waste. The grains
of wheat were wrinkled and shrivelled as if roasting before the fire.
For eight days this incandescence lasted, till an east wind sprang up
and wafted them to a more temperate spot in the torrid zone.
On the 31st of July land was discovered in the west,--three mountain
peaks seeming to ascend from one and the same base. Columbus had made
a vow to give the name of the Trinity to the first land he should
discover, and this singular triune form of the land now before them
was noticed as a wonderful coincidence by all on board. It was named,
therefore, Trinidad; it lies off the northern coast of Venezuela, in
the Continent of South America. The innumerable islands, formed by
the forty mouths of the Orinoco, were next discovered, and shortly
afterwards the continent to the north, which Columbus judged to be the
mainland from the volume of water brought to the sea by the Orinoco.
Columbus was not the first to set foot upon the New World he had
discovered: being confined to his cabin by an attack of ophthalmia, he
sent Pedro de Terreros to take possession in his stead. This discovery
of the Southern portion of the Western Continent was, however, as we
shall soon have occasion to show, subsequent to that of the Northern
portion by John Cabot, who visited Labrador in 1497.
The fleet was unable to remain in these seductive regions, owing to the
scarcity of provisions and the increasing blindness of the admiral.
He would have been glad to stay in a spot which, in his letter to his
sovereigns, he describes as the Terrestrial Paradise, the Orinoco
being one of the four streams flowing from it, as described in the
Bible. The fact that this river throws from its forty issues fresh
water enough to overcome the saltness of the sea to a great distance
from the shore, was one of the circumstances which gave to this
portion of the world the somewhat marvellous and fantastic character
with which the imagination of Columbus invested it. He sailed at once
from the continent to Hispaniola, discovering and naming the islands
of Assumpcion and la Margarita. At Hispaniola he again found famine,
distress, rebellion, and panic on every side. Malversation and mutiny
had brought the colony to the very verge of ruin.
We have not space to detail the manoeuvres and machinations by
which the mind of Ferdinand was prejudiced towards Columbus, and,
in consequence of which, Francesco Bobadilla was sent by him in
July, 1500, to investigate the charges brought against the admiral.
Arrogant in his newly acquired honors, Bobadilla took the part of the
malcontents, and, placing Columbus in chains, sent him back to Spain.
He arrived at Cadiz on the 20th of November, after the most rapid
passage yet made across the ocean. The general burst of indignation
at the shocking spectacle of Columbus in fetters, compelled Ferdinand
to disclaim all knowledge of the transaction. Isabella accorded him
a private audience, in which she shed tears at the sufferings and
indignities he had undergone. The king kept him waiting nine months,
wasting his time in fruitless applications for redress, and finally
appointed Nicholas Ovando Governor of Hispaniola in his place.
[Illustration: COLUMBUS IN CHAINS AT CADIZ.]
CHAPTER XVII.
THE FAILING HEALTH OF COLUMBUS--HIS FOURTH VOYAGES--MARTINIQUE, PORTO
RICCO, NICARAGUA, COSTA RICCA, PANAMA--HIS SEARCH FOR A CHANNEL ACROSS
THE ISTHMUS--HE PREDICTS AN ECLIPSE OF THE MOON AT JAMAICA--HIS
RETURN--THE DEATH OF ISABELLA--COLUMBUS PENNILESS AT VALLADOLID--HIS
DEATH--HIS FOUR BURIALS--THE INJUSTICE OF THE WORLD TOWARDS
COLUMBUS--CHRISTOPHER PIGEON--AMERIGO VESPUCCI--THE NEW WORLD NAMED
AMERICA--ERRORS OF MODERN HISTORIANS--THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA--JOHN
CABOT IN LABRADOR--SEBASTIAN CABOT IN HUDSON'S BAY--VINCENT YANEZ
PINZON AT THE MOUTHS OF THE AMAZON.
Columbus was now advanced in years, and his sufferings and labors had
dimmed his eyesight and bowed his frame; but his mind was yet active,
and his enthusiasm in the cause of discovery irrepressible. He had
convinced himself, and now sought to convince the queen, that to the
westward of the regions he had visited the land converged, leaving
a narrow passage through which he hoped to pass, and proceed to the
Indies beyond. This convergence of the land did in reality exist,
but the strait of water he expected to find was, and is, a strait
of land--the Isthmus of Panama. However, the queen approved of the
plan, and gave him four ships, equipped and victualled for two years.
Columbus had conceived the immense idea of passing through the strait,
and returning by Asia and the Cape of Good Hope, thus circumnavigating
the globe and proving its spherical form. He departed from Cadiz on the
8th of May, 1502.
He touched at, and named, Martinique early in June, and afterwards
at St. Jean, now Porto Ricco. Ovando refused his request to land at
Isabella to repair his vessel and exchange one of them for a faster
sailer. Escaping a terrible storm, which wrecked and utterly destroyed
the splendid fleet in which the rapacious pillagers of the island
had embarked their ill-gotten wealth, he was driven by the winds to
Jamaica, and thence by the currents to Cuba. Here a strong north wind
enabled him to sail south southwest, towards the latitude where he
expected to find the strait. He touched the mainland of North America
at Truxillo, in Honduras, and coasted thence southward along the
Mosquito shore, Nicaragua, Costa Ricca, and Panama. Here he explored
every sinuosity and indentation of the shore, seeking at the very spot
where civilization and commerce now require a canal, a passage which
he considered as demanded by Nature and accorded by Providence. He
followed the isthmus as far as the Gulf of Darien, and then, driven by
a furious tropical tempest, returned as far as Veragua, in search of
rich gold mines of which he had heard. The storm lasted for eight days,
concluding with a terrible display of water-spouts, which Columbus is
said to have regarded as a work of the devil, and to have dispelled by
bringing forth the Bible and exorcising the demon.
One of the water-spouts passed between the ships without injuring them,
and spun away, muttering and terrible, to spend its fury elsewhere.
[Illustration: THE WATERSPOUT.]
On reaching Veragua, Columbus sent his brother up a river, which he
called Bethlehem, or by contraction Belem, to seek for gold. His
researches seeming to indicate the presence of the precious metal,
Columbus determined to establish a colony upon the river, an attempt
which was defeated by the hostility of the natives. Their fierce
resistance and the crazy state of his vessels forced Columbus, in
April, 1503, to make the best of his way to Hispaniola with two crowded
vessels, which, being totally unseaworthy, he was obliged to run
ashore at Jamaica. There Columbus awed the natives and subdued them to
obedience and submission, by predicting an eclipse of the moon.
Thus left without a single vessel, he had no resource but to send to
Hispaniola for assistance. After a period of fifteen months lost in
quelling mutinies and in opposing the cruelties and exactions of the
new masters of the island, he obtained a caravel, and again sailed
for Spain on the 12th of September, 1504. During the passage, he was
compelled, by a severe attack of rheumatism, to remain confined to
his cabin. His tempest-tossed and shattered bark at last cast anchor
in the harbor of San Lucar. He proceeded to Seville, where he heard,
with dismay, of the illness, and then of the death, of his patroness
Isabella. Sickness now detained him at Seville till the spring of 1505,
when he arrived, exhausted and paralytic, before the king. Here he
underwent another courtly denial of redress. He was now without shelter
and without hope. He was compelled to borrow money with which to pay
for a shabby room at a miserable inn. He lingered for a year in poverty
and neglect, and died at last in Valladolid, on the 20th of May, 1506.
The revolting ingratitude of Ferdinand of Spain thus caused the death,
in rags, in destitution, and in infirmity, of the greatest man that has
ever served the cause of progress or labored in the paths of science.
Had we written the life of Columbus, and not thus briefly sketched the
history of his voyages, we should have found it easy to assert and
maintain his claim to this commanding position.
The agitation of the life of Columbus followed his remains to the
grave,--for he was buried four successive times, and his dead body made
the passage of the Atlantic. It was first deposited in the vaults of
the Franciscan Convent of Valladolid, where it remained seven years.
In 1513, Ferdinand, now old and perhaps repentant, caused the coffin
to be brought from Valladolid to Seville, where a solemn service was
said over it in the grand cathedral. It was then placed in the chapel
belonging to the Chartreux. In 1536, the coffin was transported to the
city of St. Domingo, in the island of Hispaniola. Here it remained
for two hundred and sixty years. In 1795, Spain ceded the island to
France, stipulating that the ashes of Columbus should be transferred
to Spanish soil. In December of the same year, the vault was opened,
and the fragments which were found--those of a leaden coffin, mingled
with bones and dust returned to dust--were carefully collected. They
were carried on board the brigantine Discovery, which transported them
to the frigate San Lorenzo, by which they were taken to Havana, where,
in the presence of the Governor-General of Cuba and in the midst of
imposing ceremonies, they were consigned to their fourth and final
resting-place.
It will not be altogether out of place to group together here the
numerous and remarkable instances of the world's injustice and
ingratitude towards Columbus. We have said that he died in penury at
Valladolid. A publication, issued periodically in that city from 1333
to 1539, chronicling every event of local interest--births, marriages,
deaths, fires, executions, appointments, church ceremonies--did not
mention, or in any way allude to, the death of Columbus. Pierre Martyr,
a poet of Lombardy, once his intimate friend, and who had said, at
the time of his first voyage, that by singing of his discoveries he
would descend to immortality with him, seemed to think, later in
life, that he should peril his chances of immortality were he to sing
of his death, for his muse held her peace. In 1507, a collection of
voyages was published by Fracanzo de Montalbodo, in which no mention
was made of Columbus' fourth voyage, and in which Columbus himself was
alluded to as still alive. In 1508, a Latin translation of this work
was published, in the preface to which Columbus was mentioned as still
living in honor at the court of Spain. Another famous work of the time
attributes the discovery of the New World, not to the calculations and
science of a man, but to the accidental wanderings of a tempest-driven
caravel. Not ten years after the death of Columbus, the chaplain of
one of the kings of Italy, in a work upon "Memorable Events in Spain,"
stated that a New World had been discovered in the West by one PETER
COLUMBUS. And, in the same taste and spirit, a German doctor, in the
first German book which spoke of the New World, did not once mention
the name of Columbus, but, translating the proper name as if it were a
common noun, calls him Christoffel Dawber, which, being translated back
again, signifies CHRISTOPHER PIGEON.
We shall now speak of that signal instance of public ingratitude and
national forgetfulness which is universally regretted, yet will never
be repaired,--the giving to the New World the name of America and not
that of Columbia,--a substitution due to an obscure and ignorant French
publisher of St. Dié, in Lorraine.
Amerigo Vespucci, born at Florence fifteen years after Columbus, and
the third son of a notary, appears to have been led by mercantile
tastes to Spain in 1486, where he became a factor in a wealthy house
at Seville. He abandoned the counter, however, for navigation and
mathematics, and took to the sea for a livelihood. He was at first a
practical astronomer, and finally a pilot-major. He went four times on
expeditions to the New World, in 1499, 1500, 1501, 1502. During the
first, he coasted along the land at the mouths of the Orinoco, which
had been discovered by Columbus the preceding year. Even had he been
the first to discover the mainland,--which he was not,--there would
have been no merit in it, for he was merely a subordinate officer on
board a ship following in the track of Columbus, seven years after
the latter had traced it upon the ocean and the charts of the marine.
He published an account of his voyage. But it does not appear that he
ever claimed honor as the first discoverer, and the friendly relations
he maintained with the family of Columbus after the death of the
latter show that they did not consider him as attempting to obtain a
distinction which did not belong to him. The error flowed from another
and more distant source.
Columbus had died in 1506, and had been forgotten. In 1507, a Frenchman
of St. Dié republished Vespucci's narrative, substituting the date
of 1497 for that of 1499,--thus making it appear that Vespucci had
preceded, instead of followed, Columbus in his discovery of the
mainland. He did not once mention Columbus, and attributed the whole
merit of the western voyages to Vespucci. He added that he did not
see why from the name of Amerigo an appellation could not be derived
for the continent he had discovered, and proposed that of America, as
having a feminine termination like that of Europa, Asia, and Africa,
and as possessing a musical sound likely to catch the public ear.
This work was dedicated to the Emperor Maximilian, and passed rapidly
through editions in various languages.
Thus far no specific name had been given to the continent. Its
situation was sometimes indicated upon maps by a cross, and sometimes
by the words TERRA SANCTÆ CRUCIS, SIVE MUNDUS NOVUS, often printed in
red capitals. In 1522, for the first time, the name of America, under
its French form of _Amérique_, was printed upon a map at Lyons. Germany
followed, and the presses of Basle and Zurich aided the usurpation.
Florence was but too eager to accept a name which flattered her vanity;
and, as Genoa did not protest in the name of Columbus, Italy yielded
to the current, and did a large share in the labor of injustice. In
1570, the name of America was for the first time engraved upon a metal
globe, and from this time forward the spoliation may be regarded as
accomplished. Columbus had been twice buried and twice forgotten; and
now his very name was lost,--the continent he had found having been
baptized in honor of another, and his race in the male line being
extinct,--for Diego and Fernando had died without heirs.
In modern times, in our own day even, it has been a common practice to
depreciate the services of Columbus, and eminent writers have thought
it no disgrace to profess and testify ignorance of his history and
life. Raynal, a French philosopher of distinction, declared, about
the year 1760, that the passage of the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco da
Gama was a greater achievement than the crossing of the Atlantic by
Columbus. He offered a prize for disquisitions upon the question, "Has
the discovery of America been useful or prejudicial to the human race?"
Buffon seems, too, to have considered the discoveries of the Portuguese
in the East as more important than those of Columbus in the West.
Robertson, in his History of America, says that even without Columbus
some happy accident would have discovered the New World a few years
later. Fontenelle, and many others, attribute the first notice of the
variation of the compass to Cabot in 1497, though Columbus distinctly
mentions noticing it in his journal on the 13th of September, 1492. A
late Spanish historian writes:--"Columbus made nothing but discoveries
in these regions; conquest was reserved for Cortez and Pizarro."
Lamartine makes an error of fifteen years in stating the period of the
return of Columbus to Spain. Dumas asserts that Columbus passed "a
portion of his life in prison,"--an expression he would not probably
have used, knowingly, to designate a period of three months. Granier de
Cassagnac places the last voyage of Columbus in 1493, instead of 1502.
St. Hilaire makes the celebrated Las Casas cross the sea with Columbus
nine years too soon. These mis-statements, though not resulting in
distortion or misrepresentation of character, are the effects of that
indifference which for centuries history has manifested towards the
life, services, and death of Columbus.
Columbia is the poetic and symbolical name of America, occurring in
the National Anthem and in numerous effusions of patriotic verse. An
effort to avenge the memory of the discoverer was made by giving his
name, officially, to a tract borrowed from Virginia and Maryland,
and measuring one hundred miles square,--the seat of the American
Government. So far from this tardy acknowledgment being a reparation,
however, it is probable that the spirit of the departed benefactor,
if summoned to speak, would declare it the last, and by no means the
least, of the long line of insults that an ungrateful posterity had
heaped upon his memory.
It will be proper to add to this view of the voyages of Columbus a
brief account of those effected immediately afterwards by John and
Sebastian Cabot, and by Vincent Yanez Pinzon.
In the year 1496, Henry VII. of England, stimulated by the success of
Columbus, granted a patent to one Giovanni Gabotto, a Venetian dwelling
in Bristol, to go in search of unknown lands. Little is known of this
person, whose name has been Anglicized into John Cabot, except that he
was a wealthy and intelligent merchant and fond of maritime discovery.
He had three sons, one of whom, named Sebastian, was nineteen years
old at the time of the voyage, upon which, with his brothers, he
accompanied his father. They sailed in a ship named the Matthew,
and on the 24th of June, 1497, discovered the mainland of America,
eighteen months before Columbus set foot upon it at the mouths of the
Orinoco. For a long time it was supposed that Cabot had landed upon
Newfoundland, but it is now considered settled that Labrador was the
portion of the continent first discovered by a European. No account
of the further prosecution of the voyage has reached us, and the only
official record of Cabot's return is an entry in the privy-purse
expenses of Henry, 10th August, 1497:-"To hym that found the New Isle,
10_l._" Thus, fifty days had not elapsed between the discovery and its
recompense in England,--a fact which shows that Cabot returned home at
once. He is supposed to have died about the year 1499.
Sebastian Cabot, the second son, who is regarded as by far the most
scientific navigator of this family of seamen, appears to have lived
in complete obscurity during the following twelve years. Disgusted,
however, by the want of consideration of the English authorities
towards him, he accepted an invitation from King Ferdinand to visit
Spain in 1512. Here, for several years, he was employed in revising
maps and charts, and, with the title of Captain and a liberal salary,
held the honorable position of Member of the Council of the Indies. The
death of Ferdinand and the intrigues of the enemies of Columbus induced
him to return to England in 1517. He was employed by Henry VIII., in
connection with one Sir Thomas Perte, to make an attempt at a Northwest
passage. On this voyage he is said to have gained Hudson's Bay, and to
have given English names to sundry places there. So few details of the
expedition have been preserved, that the latitude reached (67 1/2 degrees)
is referred by different authorities both to the north and the south.
The malice or cowardice of Sir Thomas Perte compelled Cabot to return
without accomplishing any thing worthy of being recorded. It was often
said afterwards, that if the New World could not be called Columbia, it
would be better to name it Cabotiana than America.
Vincent Yanez Pinzon, the youngest of the three brothers who had
accompanied Columbus upon his first voyage, determined, upon hearing,
in 1499, that the continent was discovered, on trying his fortunes at
the head of an expedition, instead of in a subordinate position. He
found no difficulty in equipping four caravels, and in inducing several
of those who had seen the coast of Paria to embark with him as pilots.
He sailed from Palos in December, 1499, and proceeded directly to the
southwest. During a storm which obscured the heavens he crossed the
equator, and on the disappearance of the clouds no longer recognised
the constellations, changed as they were from those of the Northern to
those of the Southern hemisphere. Pinzon was thus the first European
who crossed the line in the Atlantic. The sailors, unacquainted with
the Southern sky, and dismayed at the absence of the polar star,
were for a time filled with superstitious terrors. Pinzon, however,
persisted, and, on the 20th of January, 1500, discovered land in eight
degrees of south latitude. He took possession for the Crown of Spain,
and named it Santa Maria de la Consolaçion. We shall soon have occasion
to mention why this name was superseded by that of Brazil.
Pinzon explored with amazement the huge mouths of the Amazon, whose
immense torrents, as they emptied into the sea, freshened its waters
for many leagues from the land. Sailing to the north, he followed the
coast for four hundred leagues, and then returned to Palos, carrying
with him three thousand pounds' weight of dye-woods and the first
opossum ever seen in Europe.
And now, having closed the fifteenth century with the achievements
of the Spanish in the West, we open the sixteenth with those of the
Portuguese in the East.
[Illustration: THE PHAETON OR TROPIC BIRD.]
[Illustration: VASCO DA GAMA.]
CHAPTER XVIII.
PORTUGUESE NAVIGATION UNDER EMMANUEL--POPULAR PREJUDICES--THE LUSIAD
OF CAMOENS--VASCO DA GAMA--MAPS OF AFRICA OF THE PERIOD--PREPARATIONS
FOR AN INDIAN VOYAGE--RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES--THE DEPARTURE--RENDEZVOUS
AT THE CAPE VERDS--LANDING UPON THE COAST--THE NATIVES--AN INVITATION
TO DINNER, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES--A STORM--MUTINY--THE SPECTRE OF THE
CAPE.
In the year 1495, John II. of Portugal was succeeded by his cousin,
Emmanuel, into whose mind he had a short time before his death
instilled a portion of his own zeal for maritime discovery and
commercial supremacy. He had especially dwelt upon the necessity of
continuing the progress of African research beyond the point which
Bartholomew Diaz had lately reached, into the regions where lay the
East Indies with their wealth and marvellous productions, and thus
substituting for the tedious land-route a more expeditious track by
sea. Upon his accession, Emmanuel found that a strong opposition
existed to the extension of Portuguese commerce and discovery.
Arguments were urged against it in his own councils, and had a marked
effect upon the public mind by heightening the danger of the intended
voyage.
In our narrative of the first East Indian expedition, we shall often
have occasion to quote from a poem written in commemoration of it,--the
Lusiad of Camoens, a semi-religious epic and the masterpiece of
Portuguese literature,--Lusiade being the poetic and symbolical name of
Portugal. Camoens describes at the outset the hostility of the nation
to further maritime adventure, and places in the mouth of a reverend
adviser of the king the following forcible appeal:
"Oh, frantic thirst of Honor and of Fame,
The crowd's blind tribute, a fallacious name;
What stings, what plagues, what secret scourges cursed,
Torment those bosoms where thy pride is nursed!
What dangers threaten and what deaths destroy
The hapless youth whom thy vain gleams decoy!
Thou dazzling meteor, vain as fleeting air,
What new dread horror dost thou now prepare?
Oh, madness of Ambition! thus to dare
Dangers so fruitless, so remote a war!
That Fame's vain flattery may thy name adorn,
And thy proud titles on her flag be borne:
Thee, Lord of Persia, thee of India lord,
O'er Ethiopia vast, and Araby adored!"
Never was any expedition, whether by land or water, so unpopular as
this of King Emmanuel. The murmurs of the cabinet were re-echoed by the
populace, who were wrought upon to such an extent that they believed
the natural consequence of an invasion of the Indian seas would be
the arrival in the Tagus of the wroth and avenging Sultan of Egypt.
But Emmanuel, who, we are told, "regarded Diffidence as the mark of a
low and grovelling mind, and Hope the quality of a noble and aspiring
soul," discerned prospects of national advantage in the scheme, and
determined to pursue it to a prosperous issue.
King John, before his death, and shortly after the return of Diaz,
had ordered timber to be purchased for the construction of ships
fit to cope with the storms of the redoubtable Cape. Emmanuel now
sought a capable commander, and, after much deliberation, fixed upon
a gentleman of his own household, Vasco da Gama by name, a native of
the seaport of Sines, and already favorably known for enterprise and
naval skill. We are told that "he was formed for the service to which
he was called,--violent indeed in his temper, terrible in anger, and
sudden in the execution of justice, but at the same time intrepid,
persevering, patient in difficulties, fertile in expedients, and
superior to all discouragement. He devoted himself to death if he
should not succeed, and this from a sense of religion and loyalty."
When the king acquainted him with the mission intrusted to his charge,
Vasco replied that he had long aspired to the honor of conducting such
an undertaking. Camoens makes da Gama thus describe his acceptance of
the honor:
"'Let skies on fire,
Let frozen seas, let horrid war, conspire:
I dare them all,' I cried, 'and but repine
That one poor life is all I can resign.'"
The most distinguished members of the Portuguese nobility were present
at this interview. The king gave da Gama, with his own hands, the flag
he was to bear,--a white cross enclosed within a red one,--the Cross of
the military Order of Christ. Upon this he took the oath of allegiance.
Emmanuel then delivered him the journal of Covillam, with such charts
as were then in existence, and letters to all the Indian potentates
who had become known to the Portuguese. Among these was of course one
addressed to the renowned Prester John.
[Illustration: MAP OF AFRICA DRAWN IN THE YEAR 1497.]
A map of Africa had been lately designed, in accordance with the
discoveries made by land, as we have mentioned, by Covillam. The
accompanying specimen is a fac-simile of one which belonged to Juan
de la Cosa--the pilot of Columbus. Upon it the principal cities are
indicated by a roughly sketched house or church; the government is
denoted by a picture of a king, closely resembling the royal gentry in
a pack of cards; while flags, planted at intervals, indicate boundary
lines and frontier posts. The winds are represented by fabulous
divinities sitting round the world upon leathern bottles, whose sides
they are pressing to force out the air. The celebrated statue of the
Canaries is often seen flourishing his club at the top of his tower.
Abyssinia figures with its Prester John, his head being adorned with a
brilliant mitre. Other kingdoms are marked out by portraits of their
kings in richly embroidered costumes. The inhabitants of Africa,
in maps of the world, are represented as giraffes, black men, and
elephants. Portuguese camps are denoted by colored tents, while groups
of light cavalry, splendidly caparisoned, dotting the territory at
numerous points, indicate that the Portuguese army is making the tour
of that mysterious continent. These quaint specimens of chartographical
art are, in short, the faithful expression of the geographical science
of the age.
The fleet equipped for da Gama's voyage consisted of three ships and a
caravel,--the San Gabriel, of one hundred and twenty tons, commanded
by da Gama, and piloted by Pero Dalemquer, who had been pilot to
Bartholomew Diaz; the San Rafael, of one hundred tons, commanded by
Paulo da Gama, the admiral's brother; a store-ship of two hundred
tons; and the caravel, of fifty tons, commanded by Nicolao Coelho.
Besides these, Diaz, who had already been over the route, was ordered
to accompany da Gama as far as the Mina. The crews numbered in all
one hundred and sixty men, among whom were ten malefactors condemned
to death, and who had consequently nothing to hope for in Portugal.
Their duty in the fleet was to go ashore upon savage coasts and attempt
to open intercourse with the natives. In case of rendering essential
service and escaping with their lives, their sentence was to be
remitted on their return home.
A small chapel stood upon the seaside about four miles from Lisbon.
Hither da Gama and his crew repaired upon the day preceding that
fixed for their departure. They spent the night in prayer and rites
of devotion, invoking the blessing and protection of Heaven. On the
morrow, the adventurers marched to their ships in the midst of the
whole population of Lisbon, who now thronged the shore of Belem. A long
procession of priests sang anthems and offered sacrifice. The vast
multitude, catching the fire of devotion and animated with the fervor
of religious zeal, joined aloud in the prayers for their safety. The
parents and relatives of the travellers shed tears, and da Gama himself
wept on bidding farewell to the friends who gathered round him.
Camoens thus describes the emotions of the adventurers as they gazed at
the receding shore:
"As from our dear-loved native shore we fly,
Our votive shouts, redoubled, rend the sky:
'Success! Success!' far echoes o'er the tide,
While our broad hulks the foaming waves divide.
When slowly gliding from our wistful eyes,
The Lusian mountains mingle with the skies;
Tago's loved stream and Cintra's mountains cold,
Dim fading now, we now no more behold;
And still with yearning hearts our eyes explore,
Till one dim speck of land appears no more."
The admiral had fixed upon the Cape Verd Islands as the first place
of rendezvous in case of separation by storm. They all arrived safely
in eight days at the Canaries, but were here driven widely apart by a
tempest at night. The three captains subsequently joined each other,
but could not find the admiral. They therefore made for the appointed
rendezvous, where, to their great satisfaction, they found da Gama
already arrived; "and, saluting him with many shots of ordnance, and
with sound of trumpets, they spake unto him, each of them heartily
rejoicing and thanking God for their safe meeting and good fortune in
this their first brunt of danger and of peril." Diaz here took leave of
them and returned to Portugal. Then, on the 3d of August, they set sail
finally for the Cape of Good Hope.
They continued without seeing land during the months of August,
September, and October, greatly distressed by foul weather, or, in the
quaint language of those days, "by torments of wind and rain." At last,
on the 7th of November, they touched the African coast, and anchored
in a capacious bay, which they called the Bay of St. Helena, and which
is not far to the north of the Cape. Here they perceived the natives
"to bee lyttle men, ill favored in the face, and of color blacke; and
when they did speake, it was in such manner as though they did alwayes
sigh." Camoens rhapsodizes at length over this approach to the land;
and it must be remembered that, having followed in da Gama's track as
early as the year 1553, his descriptions of scenery are those of an
eye-witness:
"Loud through the fleet the echoing shouts prevail:
We drop the anchor and restrain the sail;
And now, descending in a spacious bay,
Wide o'er the coast the venturous soldiers stray,
To spy the wonders of the savage shore
Where strangers' foot had never trod before.
I and my pilots, on the yellow sand,
Explore beneath what sky the shores expand.
Here we perceived our venturous keels had pass'd,
Unharmed, the Southern tropic's howling blast,
And now approached dread Neptune's secret reign:
Where the stern power, as o'er the Austral main
He rides, wide scatters from the Polar Star
Hail, ice, and snow, and all the wintry war."
Trade was now commenced between da Gama and the natives, and, by means
of signs and gestures, cloth, beads, bells, and glass were bartered for
articles of food and other necessaries. But this friendly intercourse
was soon interrupted by an act of imprudent folly on the part of a
young man of the squadron. Being invited to dine by a party of the
natives, he entered one of their huts to partake of the repast. Being
disgusted at the viands, which consisted of a sea-calf dressed after
the manner of the Hottentots, he fled in dismay. He was followed by his
perplexed entertainers, who were anxious to learn how they had offended
him. Taking their officious hospitality for impertinent aggression,
he shouted for help; and it was not long before mutual apprehension
brought on open hostilities. Da Gama and his officers were attacked,
while taking the altitude of the sun with an astrolabe, by a party of
concealed negroes armed with spears pointed with horn. The admiral was
wounded in the foot, and with some difficulty effected a retreat to the
ships. He left the Bay of St. Helena on the 16th of November.
He now met with a sudden and violent change of weather, and the
Portuguese historians have left animated descriptions of the storm
which ensued. During any momentary pause in the elemental warfare, the
sailors, worn out with fatigue and yielding to despair, surrounded da
Gama, begging that he would not devote himself and them to a fate so
dreadful. They declared that the gale could no longer be weathered,
and that every one must be buried in the waves if they continued to
proceed. The admiral's firmness remained unshaken, and a conspiracy was
soon formed against him. He was informed in time of this desperate plot
by his brother Paulo. He put the ringleaders and pilots in irons, and,
assisted by his brother and those who remained faithful to their duty,
stood night and day to the helm. At length, on Wednesday, the 20th of
November, the whole squadron doubled the tremendous promontory. The
mutineers were pardoned and released from their manacles.
The legend of the Spectre of the Cape is given by Camoens in full; and
it is so characteristic of the age, and, as an episode, is itself so
interesting, that we cannot refrain from quoting it entire. Da Gama is
supposed to be relating his experience in the first person:
"I spoke, when, rising through the darken'd air,
Appall'd, we saw a hideous phantom glare.
High and enormous o'er the flood he tower'd,
And thwart our way with sullen aspect lower'd;
An earthly paleness o'er his cheeks was spread,
Erect uprose his hairs of wither'd red;
Writhing to speak, his sable lips disclose,
Sharp and disjoin'd, his gnashing teeths' blue rows;
His haggard beard flow'd quivering in the wind;
Revenge and horror in his mien combined;
His clouded front, by withering lightnings sear'd,
The inward anguish of his soul declared.
Cold, gliding horrors fill'd each hero's breast;
Our bristling hair and tottering knees confess'd
Wild dread. The while, with visage ghastly wan,
His black lips trembling, thus the fiend began:
'Ye sons of Lusus, who, with eyes profane,
Have view'd the secrets of my awful reign,
Have pass'd the bounds which jealous nature drew
To veil her secret shrine from mortal view;
Hear from my lips what direful woes attend,
And, bursting soon, shall o'er your race descend:
With every bounding keel that dares my rage,
Eternal war my rocks and storms shall wage.
The next proud fleet that through my drear domain
With daring hand shall hoist the streaming vane,
That gallant navy, by my whirlwinds toss'd,
And raging seas, shall perish on my coast.
Then he who first my secret reign descried,
A naked corpse, wide floating o'er the tide,
Shall drive. Unless my heart's full raptures fail,
O Lusus, oft shalt thou thy children wail!
Each year thy shipwreck'd sons shalt thou deplore,
Each year thy sheeted masts shall strew my shore!'"
[Illustration: THE SPECTRE OF THE CAPE.]
The cut upon previous page--a copy from an antique original--represents
da Gama's ship and the Spectre of the Cape. The table-land of the
promontory is seen through the drift of the tempest, towards the east.
The ship is broached to, her sails close-furled, with the exception
of the foresail, which has broken loose and is flapping wildly in
the hurricane. Both the engraving and the description we have quoted
from Camoens are strikingly illustrative of those visionary horrors
which pervaded the minds of the navigators of the period, and are also
characteristic of that peculiar cloud whose sudden envelopment of the
Cape is the sure forerunner of a storm. The artist seems to have chosen
the moment when the spectre, having uttered his dreadful prophecy, is
vanishing into air.
[Illustration: PHOSPHORESCENCE.]
[Illustration: THE MAN OVERBOARD, AND THE ALBATROSS.]
CHAPTER XIX.
DA GAMA AND THE NEGROES--THE HOTTENTOTS AND CAFFRES--ADVENTURE WITH
AN ALBATROSS--THE RIVER OF GOOD PROMISE--MOZAMBIQUE--TREACHERY OF THE
NATIVES--MOMBASSA--MELINDA, AND ITS AMIABLE KING--FESTIVITIES--THE
MALABAR COAST--CALICUT--THE ROUTE TO THE INDIES DISCOVERED.
Da Gama landed some two hundred miles beyond the Cape, and, discharging
the victualling-ship of her stores, ordered her to be burned, as the
king had directed. He then entered into commercial relations with the
natives, and exchanged red nightcaps for ivory bracelets. "Then came
two hundred blacke men, some lyttle, some great, bringing with them
twelve oxen and four sheep, and as our men went upon shore they began
to play upon four flutes, according with four sundry voices, the music
whereof sounded very well. Which the generall hearing, commanded the
trumpets to sound, and so they danced with our men. In this pastime
and feasting, and in buying their oxen and sheep, the day passed
over." Da Gama had reason before long to suspect treachery, however,
and withdrew his men and re-embarked. It was in this place that a man
falling overboard, and swimming for a long time before the accident was
observed, was followed by an albatross, who hovered in the air just
above him, waiting the propitious moment when he could make a quiet
meal upon him. The man was subsequently rescued, and the albatross
disappointed.
Da Gama now passed the rock de la Cruz, where Diaz had erected his
last pillar, and by the aid of a brisk wind escaped the dangers of the
currents and shoals. Losing sight of land, he recovered it again on
Christmas-day, and in consequence named the spot Tierra da Natal,--a
name which it still preserves. From this point his course was nearly
north, along the eastern coast of the continent. Farther on he landed
two of his malefactors, with instructions to inform themselves of
the character and customs of the inhabitants, promising to call for
them on his return. On the 11th of January, 1498, he anchored off
a portion of the coast occupied by people who seemed peaceably and
honestly disposed. They were, in fact, Caffres,--the fleet having
passed the territory of the Hottentots. One of the sailors, Martin
Alonzo, understood their language,--a circumstance very remarkable,
yet perfectly authenticated. As he had not been lower than the Mina,
on the western coast, and of course never upon the eastern at all,
the inference seems inevitable that some of the negro tribes of
Africa extend much beyond the limits usually assigned them in modern
geography. After two days spent in the exchange of civilities of the
most courteous nature, the ships proceeded on their way,--da Gama
naming the country _Tierra da Boa Gete_,--Land of Good People.
He next found, at the mouth of a large river, a tribe of negroes
who seemed to have made greater progress in civilization than their
neighbors. They had barks with sails made of palm-leaves,--the only
indication of any knowledge of navigation the Portuguese had yet met
with upon the African coast. No one--not even Martin Alonzo--understood
their language: as far as could be gathered from their pantomime, they
had come from a distance where they had seen vessels as large as the
San Gabriel, whence da Gama conjectured that the Indies were not far
off. He gave to the river the name of _Rio dos bos Sinaes_, or River
of Good Promise. The crew suffered greatly here from the effects of
scurvy,--many of them dying of the disease and others succumbing under
the consequences of amputation. The ships were careened and repaired:
thirty-two days were spent in this labor. These incidents are thus
graphically described in the Lusiad:
"Far from the land, wide o'er the ocean driven,
Our helms resigning to the care of Heaven,
By hope and fear's keen passions toss'd, we roam;
When our glad eyes behold the surges foam
Against the beacons of a shelter'd bay,
Where sloops and barges cut the watery way.
The river's opening breast some upward plied,
And some came gliding down the sweepy tide.
Quick throbs of transport heaved in every heart,
To view this knowledge of the seaman's art;
For here we hoped our ardent wish to gain,
To hear of India's strand,--nor hoped in vain:
Though Ethiopia's sable hue they bore,
No look of wild surprise the natives wore;
Wide o'er their heads the cotton turban swell'd,
And cloth of blue the decent loins conceal'd.
Their speech, though rude and dissonant of sound,
Their speech a mixture of Arabian own'd.
Alonzo, skill'd in all the copious store
Of fair Arabia's speech and flowery lore,
In joyful converse heard the pleasing tale,
'That o'er these seas full oft the frequent sail,
And lordly vessels, tall as ours, appear'd,
Which to the regions of the morning steer'd:
Whose cheerful crews, resembling ours, display
The kindred face and color of the day.'
Elate with joy, we raise the glad acclaim,
And RIVER OF GOOD SIGNS the port we name.
"Our keels, that now had steer'd through many a clime,
By shell-fish roughen'd, and incased with slime,
Joyful we clean; while bleating from the field
The fleecy dams the smiling natives yield.
Alas! how vain the bloom of human joy!
How soon the blasts of woe that bloom destroy!
A dread disease its rankling horrors shed,
And death's dire ravage through mine army spread.
Never mine eyes such dreary sight beheld!
Ghastly the mouth and gums enormous swell'd;
And instant, putrid like a dead man's wound,
Poison'd with fetid steam the air around.
Long, long endear'd by fellowship in woe,
O'er the cold dust we give the tears to flow;
And in their hapless lot forebode our own,--
A foreign burial, and a grave unknown."
The fleet joyfully left the River of Good Promise on the 24th of
February, and not long after discovered two groups of islands. Near
the coast of one of these they were followed by eight canoes, manned
by persons of fine stature, less black than the Hottentots, and
dressed in cotton cloth of various colors. Upon their heads they
wore turbans wrought with silk and gold thread. They were armed with
swords and daggers like the Moors, and carried musical instruments
which they called sagbuts. They came on board as if they had known
the strangers before, and spoke in the Arabic tongue, repelling with
disdain the supposition that they were Moors. They said that their
island was called Mozambique; that they traded with the Moors of the
Indies in spices, pearls, rubies, silver, and linen, and offered to
take the ships into their harbor. The bar permitting their passage,
they anchored at two crossbow-shots from the town. This was built of
wood and thatch,--the mosques alone being constructed of stone. It was
occupied principally by Moors, the rest of the island being inhabited
by the natives, who were the same as those of the mainland opposite.
The Moors traded with the Indies and with the African Sofala in
ships without decks and built without the use of nails,--the planks
being bound together by cocoa fibres, and the sails being made of
palm-leaves. They had compasses and charts.
The Moorish governor of Mozambique and the other Moors supposed the
Portuguese to be Turks, on account of the whiteness of their skin.
They sent them provisions, in return for which da Gama sent the shah
a quantity of red caps, coral, copper vessels, and bells. The shah
set no value upon these articles, and inquired disdainfully why the
captain had not sent him scarlet cloth. He afterwards went on board
the flag-ship, where he was received with hospitality, though not
without secret preparations against treachery. The Portuguese learned
from him that he governed the island as the deputy of the King of
Quiloa; that Prester John lived and ruled a long distance towards the
interior of the mainland; that Calicut, whither da Gama was bound, was
two thousand miles to the northeast, but that he could not proceed
thither without the guidance of pilots familiar with the navigation. He
promised to furnish him with two. Discovering subsequently, however,
that the strangers were Christians, the shah contrived a plot for
their destruction. The vessels escaped, but with only one pilot, whose
treachery throughout the voyage was a source of constant annoyance and
peril. On departing, da Gama gave the traitors a broadside, which did
considerable damage to their village of thatch.
On the 1st of April, da Gama gave to an island which he discovered
the name of Açoutado, in commemoration of a sound flagellation which
was there administered to the pilot for telling him it formed part
of the continent,--upon which he confessed that his purpose in thus
misrepresenting the case was to wreck and destroy the ships. On the
7th, they came to the large island of Mombassa, where they found rice,
millet, poultry, and fat cattle, and sheep without tails. The orchards
were filled with fig, orange, and lemon trees. This island received
honey, ivory, and wax from a port upon the mainland. The houses were
built of stone and mortar, and the city was defended by a small fort
almost even with the water. "They have a king," says the chronicle,
"and the inhabitants are Moores, whereof some bee white. They goe
gallantly arrayed, especially the women, apparelled in gownes of silke
and bedecked with jewells of golde and precious stones. The men were
greatly comforted, as having confidence that in this place they might
cure such as were then sick,--as in truth were almost all; in number
but fewe, as the others were dead."
The King of Mombassa, however, was as great a rogue as the Shah of
Mozambique, from whom he had heard, by overland communication, of
what had happened in his island. During the night following a grand
interchange of civilities and of protestations, da Gama was informed
that a sea-monster was devouring the cable. It turned out that a number
of Moors were endeavoring to cut it, that the ship might be driven
ashore. Anxious to quit this inhospitable coast, the fleet profited by
the first wind to continue their course to the north. They captured
a zambuco, or pinnace, from which they took seventeen Moors and a
considerable quantity of silver and gold. On the same day they arrived
off the town of Melinda, situated three degrees only to the south of
the equator. The city resembled the cities of Europe, the streets
being wide, and the houses being of stone and several stories high.
"The generall," we are told, "being come over against this citie, did
rejoyce in his heart very much, that he now sawe a citie lyke unto
those of Portingale, and rendered most heartie and humble thanks to God
for their good and safe arrival." The chief of the captured zambuco
offered to procure da Gama a pilot to take the fleet to Calicut, if
he would permit him to go ashore. He was landed upon a beach opposite
the city. The chief performed his promise, and induced the King of
Melinda to treat the strangers with courtesy and respect. Camoens thus
describes the festivities upon the alliance:
"With that ennobling worth whose fond employ
Befriends the brave, the monarch owns his joy;
Entreats the leader and his weary band
To taste the dews of sweet repose on land,
And all the riches of his cultured fields
Obedient to the nod of Gama yields.
'What from the blustering winds and lengthening tide
Your ships have suffer'd, here shall be supplied;
Arms and provisions I myself will send,
And, great of skill, a pilot shall attend.'
So spoke the king; and now, with purpled ray,
Beneath the shining wave the god of day
Retiring, left the evening shades to spread,
When to the fleet the joyful herald sped.
To find such friends each breast with rapture glows:
The feast is kindled, and the goblet flows;
The trembling comet's irritating rays
Bound to the skies, and trail a sparkling blaze;
The vaulting bombs awake their sleeping fire,
And, like the Cyclops' bolt, to heaven aspire;
The trump and fife's shrill clarion far around
The glorious music of the night resound.
Nor less their joy Melinda's sons display:
The sulphur bursts in many an ardent ray,
And to the heavens ascends in whizzing gyres,
Whilst Ocean flames with artificial fires."
During the interview which followed, the king remarked that he had
never seen any men who pleased him so much as the Portuguese,--a
compliment which da Gama acknowledged by setting at liberty the sixteen
Moors of the captured pinnace. The king sent the promised pilot on his
return; he proved to be as deeply skilled in the art of navigation as
any of the pilots of Europe. He was acquainted with the astrolabe,
compass, and quadrant. The fleet set sail from Melinda on the 24th
of April. As they had now gone far enough towards the north, and as
India lay nearly east, they bade farewell to the coast, of which they
had hardly lost sight since leaving Lisbon, and struck into the open
sea, or rather a wide gulf of the Indian Ocean, seven hundred and
fifty leagues across. A few days after, having crossed the line, the
crew were delighted to behold again the stars and constellations of
the Northern hemisphere. The voyage was rapid and fortunate; for in
twenty-three days they arrived off the Malabar coast, and, after a day
or two of southing, discovered the lofty hills which overhang the city
of Calicut. Da Gama amply rewarded the pilot, released the malefactors
from their fetters, and summoned the crew to prayer. The anchor was
then thrown, and a feast was spread in honor of the day. The route by
sea had been discovered from the Tagus to the Ganges: da Gama had laid
out the way from Belem to Golconda.
[Illustration: CALICUT IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.]
[Illustration: WRECK OF THE SAN RAFAEL.]
CHAPTER XX.
THE MOORS IN HINDUSTAN--CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY UPON THE ARRIVAL OF
DA GAMA--HOSTILITY OF THE MOORS--THEY PREJUDICE THE KING OF CALICUT
AGAINST THE PORTUGUESE--CONSEQUENT HOSTILITIES--DA GAMA SETS OUT UPON
HIS RETURN--WILD CINNAMON--A MOORISH PIRATE DISGUISED AS AN ITALIAN
CHRISTIAN--A TEMPESTUOUS VOYAGE--WRECK OF THE SAN RAFAEL--HONORS AND
TITLES BESTOWED UPON DA GAMA--AN EXPEDITION FITTED OUT UNDER ALVAREZ
CABRAL--ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY OF BRAZIL--COMETS AND WATER-SPOUTS--LOSS
OF FOUR VESSELS--A BAZAAR ESTABLISHED AT CALICUT--ATTACK BY THE
MOORS--CABRAL WITHDRAWS TO COCHIN--VISITS CANANOR AND TAKES IN A LOAD
OF CINNAMON--IS RECEIVED WITH COLDNESS UPON HIS RETURN--VASCO DA GAMA
RECALLED INTO THE SERVICE BY THE KING--HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AT SOFALA,
CANANOR, AND CALICUT--HE HANGS FIFTY INDIANS AT THE YARD-ARM--PROTECTS
COCHIN AND THREATENS CALICUT--WITHDRAWS TO PRIVATE LIFE.
Some two hundred years before this time, the Malabar coast of Hindustan
was united under one single native prince--named Perimal--whose capital
was in the interior. It was at this period that the Arabians discovered
India. Perimal embraced the Mohammedan religion, and resolved to make
a pilgrimage to Mecca and to finish his days there. He intrusted the
government to other hands, and embarked for Arabia from the spot where
Calicut now stands. The Arabians were led by this circumstance to
regard Calicut with peculiar veneration, and by degrees abandoned the
former capital: it was thus that Calicut gradually became the great
spice and silk market of the East.
In the time of Vasco da Gama, India Proper, or Hindostan, was divided
into several independent kingdoms, such as Moultan, Delhi, Bengal,
Orissa, Guzarate or Cambaia, Deccan, Canara, Bisnagar, and Malabar.
The divisions of Farther India were Ava, Brama, Pegu, Siam, Cambodia,
Cochin-China, and Tonkin. The Portuguese fleet had arrived upon the
coast of Malabar, which is the edge of the southwestern promontory of
Hindostan. It was here, and upon the western coast generally, that
the Portuguese were now enabled to plant establishments and to form
treaties of alliance and commerce.
The Moors of Arabia had already, as we have said, a foothold in
the country, and were alarmed at seeing Europeans arrive by sea at
the scene of a trade of which they had hitherto held the exclusive
monopoly. They succeeded in throwing obstacles in the way of the
Portuguese admiral, and in poisoning the ear of the Indian zamorin, or
king, against him. They even laid a plot for the destruction of the
fleet and all on board, that no one might return to Europe to tell of
the new route to the Indies. The native monarch was induced by them to
testify dissatisfaction with the presents da Gama had brought, and to
ask for the golden statue of the Virgin that ornamented the admiral's
ship, as a more suitable offering to one of his rank. Da Gama replied
that it was not a golden Virgin, but a wooden one gilt; that it had
nevertheless preserved him from the perils of the sea, and that he
could not part with it. After many proofs of the hostility of the Moors
and the treachery of the natives, da Gama obtained from the zamorin
the following laconic epistle to his sovereign:--"Vasco da Gama, a
gentleman of thy house, has visited my country. His arrival has given
me pleasure. My land is full of cinnamon, cloves, pepper, and precious
stones. What I desire to obtain in return from yours is gold, silver,
coral, and scarlet." With this missive da Gama set sail upon his return
early in September. The zamorin sent sixty armed barks to attack him,
but a broadside or two and a favorable wind enabled him to make good
his escape. Upon a neighboring island some of the crew discovered a
large forest of wild cinnamon. Not far from here, da Gama discovered
the Angedive, or Five Islands, and in the vicinity had a brush with
Indian pirates. An elderly person, differing in appearance from the
natives, came on board and represented himself as an Italian Christian.
He had come from the Indians of the island of Goa, he said, to beg the
admiral to go thither and trade. This well-behaved old gentleman proved
to be a sort of Moorish buccaneer, and, upon being put to the torture,
confessed that he was a spy, and that he had been sent to reconnoitre
the fleet and count their numbers. Da Gama retained him as a trophy to
present to King Emmanuel. He finally left the Indian coast on the 15th
of October.
When they were fairly out at sea, the pirate-prisoner made a complete
confession, and his evident sincerity quite won da Gama's heart. He
gave him clothes and a supply of money. The Moor repented of his evil
ways and of his pagan faith, and forthwith embraced Christianity. He
was baptized by the name of Gaspardo da Gama.
The voyage back to Melinda, across the gulf, was disastrous in every
sense. The weather was tempestuous and hot. The scurvy carried off
thirty men in the first week, and consternation seized the officers
and crew. After four months' navigation, when hardly sixteen men able
to work were left on each vessel, they descried the African coast,
thirteen leagues above Melinda. Descending to the latter city, they
were received with joy by the king, who was anxiously awaiting their
return. They took on board an ambassador sent by him to King Emmanuel.
The San Rafael was lost upon this coast, and the fleet thus reduced to
two vessels. Da Gama discovered the island of Zanzibar, and received
offers of service from the sovereign. He doubled the Cape successfully
on the 20th of March, and anchored soon after at the Cape Verds. Here,
during the night, Nicolao Coelho, the captain of the caravel, slipped
away, and made all haste to Portugal, in order to be the first to carry
to Europe the intelligence of the grand discovery.
Da Gama now found that he could prosecute the voyage no further in his
disabled vessel, the San Gabriel, and chartered a caravel in which to
proceed to Lisbon. On the way his brother Paulo died, and was buried
at the island of Terceira. Vasco arrived at Belem in September, 1499,
two years and two months after his departure. The king, informed of his
approach by the previous arrival of Coelho, sent a magnificent cortège
to conduct him to court. He overwhelmed him with honors, wealth, and
distinctions. He himself took the title of Lord of the Conquest of
Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and the Indies. Coelho was ennobled, and a
pension of one thousand ducats secured to him. Of the one hundred and
sixty men who departed upon this voyage, only fifty-five had returned,
and all these were munificently rewarded for their share in the
brilliant achievements of their commander. The king ordered a series
of public festivities, which were preceded by a solemn service of
thanksgiving to Heaven for the glory vouchsafed to the Portuguese name
and nation.
Emmanuel allowed not a week to pass before he directed the necessary
preparations to be made for fitting out another and more powerful
fleet, to follow in da Gama's track and attempt to colonize the Indies.
He determined that da Gama should enjoy his dignities and renown
in peace, however, and intrusted the command to one Pedro Alvarez
Cabral, a gentleman of merit and distinction. The fleet numbered
thirteen vessels, manned by twelve hundred men, among whom were
eight Franciscans to convert the pagans, and some thirty condemned
malefactors to undertake communications with the savages. Cabral
carried a hat blessed by the Pope and deemed to possess miraculous
virtues. Among the captains were Bartholomew Diaz and his brother
Diego. The specific object of the expedition was to obtain permission
from the Zamorin of Calicut to establish a trading station there, the
Portuguese promising in return to furnish him the same articles which
the Moors furnished him, and on more advantageous terms.
The squadron set sail on the 9th of March, 1500. It will appear almost
incredible that, in order to avoid the calms known to prevail at that
season off the coast of Guinea, they proceeded so far to the west
that, late in April, they touched at the continent now known as South
America; where, however, Yanez Pinzon had been before them. Cabral gave
to it the name of Land of the Holy Cross; but this, as well as the name
given by Pinzon, was subsequently changed to that of Brazil, from a
species of dye-wood which grew in abundance there. The inhabitants were
friendly, and exchanged parrots of brilliant plumage for bits of paper
and cloth. Cabral put two of his criminals ashore and left them, with
instructions to inquire into the history of the country and the customs
of its inhabitants. He also sent one of his vessels back to Lisbon with
intelligence of the discovery.
The fleet left Brazil on the 2d of May, steering to the southeast,
in order to double the Cape. A terrible comet visible day and night,
a storm which lasted three weeks, a water-spout reaching to the
clouds,--this latter being a phenomenon which the Portuguese had never
before seen,--now menaced and harrassed them in quick succession. Four
vessels were lost, and among them that of Bartholomew Diaz, with all
on board. The rest were severely injured; but Cabral was rejoiced to
find that during the storm he had weathered the redoubtable promontory.
Encountering some Moorish vessels laden with gold, he seized them,
but not until the crews had thrown a portion of the precious metal
into the sea. At Mozambique he took a pilot for the island of Quiloa,
three hundred miles to the north, whose sovereign was enriched by his
gold-trade with the African port of Sofala. Here he attempted to enter
into a treaty of commerce; but the prejudices entertained against
Christians prevented any concessions on the part of the Moors. At
Melinda Cabral landed two criminals and the presents for the king sent
out by Emmanuel. Obtaining pilots for the Indian coast, he departed on
the 7th of August, and arrived at Calicut on the 13th of September.
From this point dates the first European establishment in the East
Indies. Stimulated by considerations of interest, the zamorin, after
many delays, granted the admiral an interview, in which the latter
stated the ardent desire of his master, the King of Portugal, to
furnish the zamorin's subjects with all articles of European production
or manufacture, taking in exchange the spices and jewels of the
East. A market or bazaar was at once opened, and the cargoes of the
ships, being transferred to it, were rapidly converted into cinnamon,
diamonds, and drugs.
The Moors now became seriously jealous of the activity, power, and
success of their rivals. They resorted to every means to excite the
hostility of the zamorin and his subjects against them. They attacked
and destroyed the Portuguese market, plundering it of goods to the
amount of four thousand ducats. The inconstant zamorin offering neither
apology nor restitution, Cabral determined on vengeance. He boarded two
large Moorish vessels, killed six hundred men, and salted down three
elephants for food. He then bombarded the town: palaces, temples, and
store-houses crumbled to dust beneath the thunders of the artillery.
The zamorin fled, and Cabral withdrew with his victorious fleet to
Cochin, a rich capital one hundred and fifty miles to the south of
Calicut, where pepper was abundant and the king was poor. Trimumpara,
the monarch, was informed of the summary vengeance wreaked by the
fleet upon his brother of Calicut, and at once offered the strangers
hospitality and protection. The admiral sent him a silver basin full
of saffron and a silver vial filled with rose-water. Trade and barter
rapidly loaded the ships with the fragrant commodities of the country.
A fleet of twenty-five sail now appeared in the offing, and Trimumpara
told Cabral that their object was to attack him, and that they were
sent by the zamorin of Calicut. Cabral, having been separated from
his most efficient ship, determined not to venture a combat, and
made for the north, casting anchor before Cananor, a town a little
above Calicut. Here he found a commodious roadstead, an independent
prince, and a soil abounding in ginger, cardamom-seeds, tamarinds,
and cinnamon. Of the latter article he took four hundred quintals.
The king, judging, from the insignificance of this purchase, that he
was short of money, offered him a further supply upon credit. Cabral
expressed his sense of appreciation of this generosity, but declined
the proposition. The fleet now sailed homewards: one of the vessels was
lost upon the African coast, and, taking fire, was destroyed with its
contents. The six ships remaining of the twelve which had left Brazil,
arrived at Lisbon on the 31st of July, 1501. Cabral was received with
coldness by the king, partly on account of the loss of ships and men
he had met with, and partly on account of his failure at Calicut, to
which place he,--the king,--relying on Cabral's success, had sent out,
three months previous to his return, a fleet of four vessels under Juan
de Nueva. This expedition was singularly happy in its results,--Nueva
lading his vessels to great advantage at Cananor, and discovering the
island of St. Helena upon his homeward voyage.
[Illustration: DA GAMA'S FLAG-SHIP.]
It was now evident to the Portuguese that without the employment of
force it would be impossible to obtain a permanent foothold in the
Indies. After listening to a deliberation as to whether it were not
best to abandon the attempt altogether, Emmanuel ordered the equipment
of a grand fleet of twenty vessels, to be placed under the command
of Vasco da Gama, who consented to resume active life. It was to be
divided into three portions: the first, consisting of ten sail, under
da Gama, was to undertake the subjugation of the refractory kings
of Malabar; the second, of five sail, under Vincent Sodrez, was to
guard the entrance of the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean, and thus
prevent the Turks and Moors from trading with the ports of Africa and
Hindostan; and the third, of five vessels, under Stefano da Gama, was
to be detailed upon any service the admiral might direct. They sailed
early in 1502, and formed a treaty of alliance and commerce with the
king of Sofala, without difficulty. Da Gama obtained from the king of
Quiloa an engagement to pay to the crown of Portugal an annual tribute
in gold fresh from the mine. Upon the Indian coast near Cananor,
he fell in with an Egyptian vessel of the largest size, laden with
costly merchandise and crowded with Moors of high rank on their way
to Mecca. He attacked, plundered, and burned her: three hundred men
and women perished in the flames, in the sea, or by the sword. Twenty
children were saved and conveyed to the ship of da Gama, who made a vow
to educate them as Christians, in atonement for the apostasy of one
Portuguese who had become a Mohammedan. After this sanguinary lesson,
da Gama found no obstacles to the establishment of a trading station
at Cananor, where his fleet landed a portion of their cargoes. He then
sailed to Calicut, determined to inflict summary vengeance upon the
faithless and treacherous zamorin.
Not far from the coast he seized a number of boats in which were fifty
Indians. He sent word to the zamorin that, unless satisfaction were
given for the late destruction of the Portuguese bazaar before noon,
he would attack the city with fire and sword, and would begin with his
fifty prisoners. The time having expired, the unfortunate captives were
hung simultaneously at the yard-arms of the various vessels. The town
was then reduced to ashes. A squadron was left to sweep the Moorish
vessels from the seas, and da Gama proceeded down the coast to Cochin,
the city of the friendly Trimumpara. Presents and compliments were
here exchanged,--the offerings of the King of Portugal being a golden
crown, vases of embossed silver, a rich tent, a piece of scarlet satin,
and a bit of sandal-wood, while those of his majesty of Cochin were a
Moorish turban of silver thread, two gold bracelets set with precious
stones, two large pieces of Bengal calico, and a stone said to be a
specific against poison, and taken from the head of an animal called
bulgodolph,--a fabulous creature, declared by some to be a serpent and
by others to be a quadruped.
An apology was now received from the zamorin, and da Gama returned
to Calicut with only one vessel. Seeing him thus single-handed, the
zamorin sent thirty-three armed canoes against him, and, without
the prompt assistance of Sodrez' cruising squadron, da Gama would
inevitably have perished. The zamorin now threatened Trimumpara with
his vengeance if he continued to harbor the Portuguese and to trade
with Christian infidels. Da Gama promised Trimumpara the assistance and
alliance of the King of Portugal, and set sail with well-laden vessels.
He met the zamorin's fleet of twenty-nine sail, and, having captured
two, put the rest to flight with great slaughter. In the two that were
taken he found an immense quantity of porcelain and Chinese stuffs,
together with an enormous golden idol, with emeralds for eyes, a robe
of beaten gold for a vestment, and rubies for buttons. Leaving Sodrez
and his fleet to defend Cochin against Calicut and to exterminate the
traders from Mecca, da Gama returned with thirteen vessels to Portugal.
The king conferred upon him the titles of Admiral of the Indian Ocean
and Count de Vidigueira. He again withdrew to privacy, and did not
a second time emerge into public life till the year 1524, when the
interests of the country under John III. again reclaimed his services
in the East.
[Illustration: VESSELS EMPLOYED IN THE SPICE-TRADE: SIXTEENTH CENTURY.]
CHAPTER XXI.
SPREAD OF THE PORTUGUESE EAST INDIAN EMPIRE--ALPHONZO
D'ALBUQUERQUE--IMMENSE SACRIFICE OF LIFE--ANCIENT ROUTE OF
THE SPICE-TRADE WITH EUROPE--COMMERCE BY CARAVANS--REVOLUTION
PRODUCED BY OPENING THE NEW ROUTE--FRANCESCO ALMEIDA--DISCOVERY
OF CEYLON--TRISTAN D'ACUNHA--THE PORTUGUESE MARS--HIS VIEWS OF
EMPIRE--AN ARSENAL ESTABLISHED AT GOA--REDUCTION OF MALACCA--SIAM AND
SUMATRA SEND EMBASSIES TO ALBUQUERQUE--THE ISLAND OF ORMUZ--DEATH OF
ALBUQUERQUE--EXTENT OF THE PORTUGUESE DOMINION--ORMUZ BECOMES THE
GREAT EMPORIUM OF THE EAST--FALL OF THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE.
Having narrated, in the preceding chapters, the incidents which led
to the circumnavigation of Africa, and having described the several
voyages which introduced the Europeans into the East, by the new route
of the Indian Ocean and the Cape of Tempests, we must briefly allude
to the sequel,--the spread of European commerce among the islands
and seaports of this highly favored region. Alphonzo and Francesco
d'Albuquerque, with a fleet of nine vessels, and Edoardo Pacheco,
with three vessels, carried terror and revenge to the Malabar coast:
forts were built to protect the Portuguese commerce, kings were forced
to pay tribute, fleets were swept from the seas; and, as a proverb
of the time expressed it, pepper began to cost blood. Again the King
of Portugal sent out a formidable squadron,--thirteen ships of the
line, the largest yet constructed, under Lopez Soarez. Sea-battles now
took place, in which the proportions of the slain were one thousand
infidels to seventy-five Portuguese,--in which a single European vessel
contended successfully with myriads of the native barks. The sacrifice
of life was truly awful; but gradually the whole eastern coast of
Africa, and, opposite to it, the whole western coast of India, fell
under Portuguese sway.
The entire commerce of this quarter of the world was of course
revolutionized by these discoveries and conquests. Before this period
the productions of the East had been carried to Europe in the following
manner. The city of Malacca, in the peninsula of the same name, was
the central market to which came the camphor of Borneo, the cloves of
the Moluccas, the nutmegs of Banda, the pepper of Sumatra, the gums,
drugs, and perfumes of China, Japan, and Siam. These products were
taken by water, either in the clumsy boats of the natives or the more
solid vessels of the Moors, to the ports of the Red Sea, were landed at
Tor or at Suez, whence they were transported by caravans to Cairo, and
thence by the Nile to Alexandria, where they were placed on board of
vessels bound to all the ports of Europe. Those intended for Armenia,
Trebizonde, Aleppo, Damascus, were taken by the Persian Gulf to
Bassorah, and thence distributed by caravans. The Venetians and Genoese
took their portion at Beyrout, in Syria. The East Indians preferred the
manufactures of Europe to gold and silver, and consequently the trade
was generally in the form of barter and exchange. In addition to the
products of Farther India which we have mentioned must be added those
of India Proper,--the fabrics of Bengal, the pearls of Orissa, the
diamonds of Golconda, the cinnamon of Ceylon, the pepper of Malabar.
Thus, not only thousands of laborers, sailors, conductors of caravans,
saw themselves suddenly deprived of their livelihood by this
diversion of the traffic into the hands of the Portuguese, but rich
cities lost their revenues and princes lost their tribute. While the
Venetians resolved to appeal to arms, the Sultan of Egypt addressed
a protestation to Rome. But the King of Portugal tranquillized the
Pope by declaring his intention of extending the jurisdiction of the
apostolic faith, and he prepared to resist violence by sending out,
in 1507, Don Francesco Almeida, with twenty-two ships and fifteen
hundred regular soldiers: he bestowed upon the new commander the title
of Viceroy of the Indies. Almeida deposed the King of Quiloa, and
crowned another of his own appointment; he built a fort in twenty days,
garrisoned it with one hundred and fifty men, and left a brigantine and
a caravel to scour and protect the coast. He bombarded Mombassa, killed
fifteen hundred men and lost five. He erected forts and established
trading stations at Onor, Cananor, Surat and Calicut, upon the Malabar
coast. To the important point of Sofala, upon the African coast,
Emmanuel sent a distinct expedition of six ships, under Pedro da Nayha
and Juan da Quiros, who compelled the king to admit their nation to a
share in the famous gold mines which constituted his kingdom and his
wealth. In 1508, Lorenzo, the son of Almeida, while chasing the flying
Moors with six men-of-war, discovered the island of Ceylon, to the
south of Hindustan. Here he found the Moors and natives loading vessels
with elephants and cinnamon.
Again King Emmanuel, drawing upon resources which seemed almost
inexhaustible, sent out thirteen vessels, with thirteen hundred
men, under Tristan d'Acunha. This fleet was driven to the coast of
Brazil, and upon the way thence to the Cape of Good Hope the commander
discovered the islands which now bear his name. He burned and pillaged
the town of Oja, near Melinda; he reduced a neighboring shah to the
payment of an annual tribute of six hundred golden ducats. His soldiers
would not give the captured women of Brava time to remove their
bracelets and ear-rings, but in their ruthless haste cut off their arms
and ears.
It was now evident to the King of Portugal that his rule in the East
could not be consolidated and extended by the same means which had
obtained him his first foothold upon the coast,--chance, intrepidity,
and unscrupulous violence. What was required was a carefully conceived
system of government, and a man capable of administering it. Emmanuel's
choice fell upon Alphonzo d'Albuquerque, whose services in the East
had already been meritorious, and to whom, in 1509, he gave the title
and power of viceroy. Albuquerque, whose courage obtained for him the
name of the Portuguese Mars, ranks, by his talents, his severe virtues,
and his disinterested zeal, among the greatest men whom the world
has produced. He at once formed the plan of founding an empire which
should extend from the Persian Gulf to the peninsula of Malacca; and,
determining to abandon Calicut, which had thus far been looked upon as
the best point for an arsenal, he selected the island of Goa, a little
to the north, captured it, and made its admirable harbor a Portuguese
roadstead and its town a Portuguese capital. He built bazaars and
citadels along the coast from north to south, and then turned his
eyes towards Malacca,--a magnificent country, ruled by a despot and
inhabited by slaves. As we have said, its principal seaport was the
central resort of the ships of China, Japan, Bengal, the Philippines
and the Moluccas, Coromandel, Persia, Arabia, and Malabar.
The Portuguese had first visited Malacca two years previously, Emmanuel
having sent one Siguiera to make a treaty with the king. He had been
perfidiously treated, and Albuquerque now, in 1511, appeared before
the city to call the monarch to account. A long and obstinate battle
resulted in the defeat of the natives and the unconditional surrender
of the peninsula. The Kings of Siam, Sumatra, and Pegu sent ambassadors
to Albuquerque, asking the honor of his friendship. He built a citadel
and returned to Cochin. But, as he left one spot to repair to another,
revolt was sure to follow; and, as the Venetians now joined the Moors
to repel the Portuguese, he saw that his dominion could not be complete
till he controlled the navigation of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
The city of Aden, in Arabia, was the key to the Red Sea, commanding, as
it did, the Straits of Babelmandel; and the island of Ormuz was the key
to the Persian Gulf. He failed to take Aden, but he succeeded easily
with Ormuz, whose king acknowledged himself the vassal of Emmanuel.
Albuquerque then formed a gigantic plan in reference to the Red Sea.
Unable to command it by the capture of Aden, he determined to ruin
Suez, at the other extremity of the sea, by forming an alliance with
the King of Ethiopia, and inducing that monarch to dig a new course
for the Nile and make it empty into the Red Sea instead of into the
Mediterranean, thus rendering Egypt uninhabitable and Suez desert. The
invasion of Egypt by the Turks, however, prevented the accomplishment
of this undertaking. Thus the people and kings of the East everywhere
gave way before the grand plans and deeds of Albuquerque, whom they
both feared for his energy and loved for his justice. When, in 1515, he
died at Goa, disgraced by his king and worn out by a thankless service,
the heathen monarchs wept over his grave, and for many years went in
pilgrimage to his tomb, asking his protection against the cruelty or
injustice of his successors.
The Portuguese, in little more than fifty years from the first
expedition of Vasco da Gama, had established an empire in these seas
of truly wonderful extent and power. They held exclusive possession of
the Malabar and Coromandel coasts of India Proper, were masters of the
Bay of Bengal, ruled the peninsula of Malacca, and held tributary the
islands of Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, and the Moluccas. To the westward,
towards Africa, their authority extended as far as the Persian
boundary, and over all the islands of the Persian Gulf. In Arabia,
even, they had tributaries and allies, and no Arabian prince dared
confess himself their enemy. They exercised an influence in the Red
Sea: and upon the eastern coast of Africa, they were the masters of
Quiloa, Sofala, Mozambique, and Melinda.
As Albuquerque had foreseen, Ormuz--from its fortunate situation, as
an emporium of trade, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf--became the
most important of the Portuguese conquests. The island was by nature
little more than a barren rock, and was entirely destitute of water.
Its wealth and splendor, however, during the period of its commercial
supremacy, gave the world an example of the power of trade which had
never yet been witnessed. The trading season lasted from January to
March and from August to November: during these months, the houses
fronting on the streets were opened like shops, and decorated with
piles of porcelain and Indian curiosities, and perfumed with fragrant
dwarf shrubs set in gilded vases. Camels laden with skins of water
stood at the corners of the streets. The richest wines of Persia and
the most costly odors of Asia were offered in profusion to those who
visited the city to trade. Thick awnings stretched from roof to roof
across the promenades, excluding the rays of the sun. The luxury
and magnificence of the place seemed to flow rather from the lavish
extravagance of an idle prince than from the legitimate pomp of a
stirring and active commercial population.
In 1580, Portugal was conquered and annexed to Spain, and the
Portuguese Empire in the East at once declined, and the Dutch Empire
sprang up upon its ruins. Ormuz was plundered by the Persians and
English united in 1662: the very stones of which its edifices were
built were carried away as ballast, and it speedily sank back into
its primitive state--a barren and desolate rock. Hardly a vestige of
the proud city now remains to vindicate history in its record that
here once stood one of the most famous emporiums of commerce and most
frequented resorts of man.
[Illustration: PONCE DE LEON AND THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.]
CHAPTER XXII.
PONCE DE LEON--THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH--DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA--THE
MARTYRS AND THE TORTUGAS--THE BAHAMA CHANNEL--VASCO NUÑEZ DE
BALBOA--HE GOES TO SEA IN A BARREL--MARRIES A LADY OF THE ISTHMUS--HIS
SEARCH FOR GOLD--HEARS OF A MIGHTY OCEAN--UNDERTAKES TO REACH
IT--PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION--LEONCICO THE BLOODHOUND--BATTLE
WITH A CACIQUE--ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAINS--BALBOA MOUNTS TO THE
SUMMIT ALONE--THE FIRST SIGHT OF THE PACIFIC--CEREMONIES OF TAKING
POSSESSION--BALBOA UP TO HIS KNEES IN THE OCEAN--EVERY ONE TASTES THE
WATER--A VOYAGE UPON THE PACIFIC, AND A NARROW ESCAPE--IGNOMINIOUS
FATE OF BALBOA--JUAN DIAZ DE SOLIS--DISCOVERS THE RIO DE LA PLATA--HIS
HORRIBLE DEATH BY CANNIBALS.
We now return, in due chronological progression, to the discoveries of
the Spaniards in the West. We have not space to describe, or even to
mention, all the successive expeditions made to various points of the
great American Continent: we select, therefore, only the more important
and interesting episodes among the Spanish maritime achievements. Three
heroes will occupy our attention from 1510 to 1514,--Ponce de Leon,
Juan Diaz de Solis, and Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.
Juan Ponce, surnamed de Leon from his native province, was one of
the Spanish captains who emigrated to Hispaniola shortly after its
discovery by Columbus. After an active and prosperous career, he found
himself, in 1510, by the withdrawal of the king's favor, without place
or occupation. He was, however, rich, and resolved to attempt to regain
his credit by means of discoveries. He was avaricious, too, and would
willingly have augmented his already large possessions. He had heard
from the Indians of Cuba of the existence, to the north of Hispaniola,
of an island named Bimini, where, they asserted, was a spring whose
waters had the virtue of restoring youth to the aged and vigor to
the decrepit. Ponce thought that if he could discover and seize this
fountain it would be an inexhaustible source of revenue to him, as he
could levy a tax upon all who derived benefit from its influence. He
determined to set out in search of it, and fitted out two stout ships
at his own expense. With these he left St. Genevieve, in Porto Rico,
on the 1st of March, 1512, and steered boldly through the intricate
group of the Lucayos. Wherever he stopped, he drank of all the running
streams and standing pools, whether their waters were fresh or
stagnant, that he might not miss the famous spring. He inquired of all
the natives he met where he could find the wondrous Fountain of Youth.
At last he discovered a land till then unknown to Europeans. Early in
April, and in Easter week, he touched what he supposed was an island,
but what in reality was a portion of the continent. As the landscape
was covered with flowers, he named the spot "Florida." He had several
severe fights with the Indians, one of whom he made prisoner, that he
might learn Spanish and give him information concerning the country.
He now sailed to the south and doubled Cape Florida on the 8th of May,
which, on account of the currents, he named Cabo de las Corrientes. On
the 15th, he sailed along a line of small islands as far as two white
ones, and called the whole group Los Martyros, or The Martyrs, from the
high rocks at a distance which had the appearance of men undergoing
crucifixion. The name was singularly applicable, for the large number
of seamen who have since been wrecked upon these islands has made them
in reality a place of martyrdom. He discovered another group to the
southwest, which he called the Tortugas, as his men took one hundred
and seventy tortoises upon one of them in a short time, and might have
had more if they would. Ponce de Leon continued ranging about here till
September, when he returned to Porto Rico, sending one of his ships to
Bimini--the smallest of the Bahamas--to see if he could discover the
spring. The vessel went and returned, the captain, Perez de Ortubia,
reporting that the island was pleasantly diversified with hills,
groves, and rivers, but that none of the latter possessed any unusual
charm.
One great advantage which resulted from the voyage of Ponce de Leon
was the discovery, by his second captain, Ortubia, of the passage now
known as the Bahama Channel, by which ships bound from Havana to Spain
pass out into the Atlantic Ocean. This new passage became the universal
track even during Ponce de Leon's life. Upon his return to court, he
was well rewarded for his discoveries both by land and sea, but his
gathering years caused him often to regret that he had missed the
Fountain of Youth.
We have now to relate the manner in which the Pacific Ocean, which had
rolled for centuries in its accustomed bed, unknown to Europeans, was
first seen by Continental eyes. The islands discovered by Columbus were
still under the exclusive dominion of the Spaniards; Hispaniola was the
central point of their operations of discovery and conquest. Settled
here, upon a farm, was a man, still in the prime of life, named Vasco
Nuñez de Balboa. He was a native of Xeres, in Spain, and had eagerly
enlisted in the late voyages of adventure. He was known to be a mere
soldier of fortune, and of loose, prodigal habits, and is described as
an "egregius digladiator," or adroit swordsman. His farm had involved
him in debt; and, to escape his embarrassments and elude his creditors,
he caused himself, in 1511, to be nailed up in a cask, to be labelled
"victuals for the voyage," and to be conveyed on board a ship starting
upon an expedition to the mainland. When the vessel was out of sight of
the shore, he emerged from the cask, and appeared before the surprised
captain, Hernandez de Enciso. Being tall and muscular, evidently
inured to hardships and of intrepid disposition, he found favor with
the captain, especially when he told him that a venerable priest had
asserted "that God reserved him for great things."
In the course of two years, Balboa had acquired authority over a tract
of the Isthmus of Darien, and had married the young and beautiful
daughter of the Cacique of Coyba. After a victory obtained over one of
the neighboring monarchs, from whom four thousand ounces of gold and a
quantity of golden utensils had been extorted, Balboa ordered one-fifth
to be set apart for himself and the rest to be shared among his
followers. While the Spaniards were dividing it by weight, a dispute
arose respecting the fairness of the award, when the Indian who had
given the gold spoke to the disputants as follows:
"Why should you quarrel for such a trifle? If gold is to you so
precious that you abandon your homes for it and invade the peaceful
lands of others, I will tell you of a region where you may gratify
your wishes to the utmost. Beyond those lofty mountains lies a mighty
sea, which from their summits may be easily discerned. It is navigated
by people who have vessels almost as large as yours, and, like them,
furnished with sails and oars. All the streams which flow from these
mountains into the sea abound in gold: the kings who reign upon its
borders eat and drink out of golden vessels. Gold, in fact, is as
common there as iron among you Spaniards."
[Illustration: BALBOA AND THE INDIAN.]
Fired by this discourse, Balboa inquired whether it would be difficult
to penetrate to this sea and its golden shores. "The task," the prince
replied, "is arduous and dangerous. Powerful caciques will oppose you
with their warriors; fierce cannibals will attack you, and devour
those whom they kill. To accomplish your enterprise, you will require
at least a thousand men, armed like those you have with you now." To
prove his sincerity, the prince offered to accompany Balboa upon the
expedition, at the head of his warriors. This was the first intimation
received by a European of the splendid expanse of water which was
so soon to receive the name of Pacific. It exerted an immediate and
radical change upon the character and conduct of Balboa. The soldier
of fortune became animated by an honorable and controlling ambition;
the restless and reckless desperado saw before him a glorious path to
immortality. He baptized the prince who had given him information so
priceless, and proceeded to Darien to obtain the means of accomplishing
his scheme.
For a long time he was baffled. A terrific tempest laid waste the
fields and devastated the harvests. He sent to Hispaniola for men and
provisions; but the emissary was wrecked upon the coast of Jamaica. He
wrote to Don Diego Columbus, who governed at San Domingo, informing
him of the existence of a new ocean, bordered with shores of gold, and
asking for a thousand men with whom to prosecute its discovery. He
forwarded the sum of fifteen thousand crowns in gold, to be transmitted
to the king as his royal fifths. Many of his followers, too, sent sums
intended for their creditors in Spain.
While waiting for a reply, Balboa learned indirectly that he had fallen
into disfavor with the king. One brilliant achievement might restore
him to consideration and forever fix him in the good graces of the
monarch. He chose one hundred and ninety of the most vigorous and
resolute of his men, and took with him a number of bloodhounds. His
own peculiar bodyguard was a dog named Leoncico,--one of the numerous
progeny sired by the famous warrior-dog of Juan Ponce de Leon. Leoncico
was covered with scars received in his innumerable fights with the
natives. Balboa often lent him to others, and received for his services
the same share of booty an able-bodied man would have claimed. Leoncico
had earned for his master in this way several thousands of dollars.
[Illustration: BALBOA DISCOVERING THE PACIFIC OCEAN.]
On the 1st of September, 1513, Balboa embarked with his followers
in a light brigantine and nine canoes, and ascended a stream which
was navigable as far as Coyba. Here he received accessions of men,
and, having sent back those who were ill or disabled, prepared to
penetrate the wilderness on foot. In a battle with a cacique named
Quaragua, he slew six hundred of the natives. Some were transfixed with
lances, others hewn down with swords, and others torn to pieces by the
bloodhounds. He advanced hardly seven miles a day, but at last reached
a village lying at the foot of the mountain that commanded the long
wished for prospect. Only sixty-seven men out of two hundred remained
to make this last grand effort. Balboa ordered them to retire early to
repose, that they might be ready at the cool hour of dawn. They set
forth at daybreak on the morning of the 26th of September. In a short
time they emerged from the forests, and arrived at the upper regions
of the mountain, leaving the bald summit still to be ascended. Balboa
ordered them to halt, that he might himself be alone to enjoy the scene
and the first to discover the ocean. He reached the peak, and there
the magnificent sight burst upon his view. The water was still at the
distance of two days' journey; but there it lay, beyond the intervening
space, grand, boundless, and serene. He fell upon his knees, and
returned thanks to God. He summoned his followers to ascend, and thus
addressed them:--"Behold, my friends," he said, "the glorious sight
which we have so ardently longed for. Let us pray to God that he will
aid and guide us to conquer the sea and land which we have discovered,
and in which no Christian has ever entered to preach the holy doctrine
of the Evangelists. By the favor of Christ you will thus become the
richest Spaniards that have ever come to the Indies." The priest
attached to the expedition chanted that impressive anthem, the Te Deum;
and the Spaniards, in whom religious fervor and the thirst for pillage
seemed to be mingled in equal proportions, joined in the chorus with
heart and voice.
Balboa now called upon all present to witness that he took possession
of the sea, its islands and surrounding lands, in the name of the
sovereigns of Castile; and the notary of the expedition made a record
to that effect, to which all present, to the number of sixty-seven men,
signed their names. Balboa then caused a tall tree to be cut down and
fashioned into the form of a cross: this he erected on the spot whence
he had first beheld the ocean. A mound of stone was likewise piled up
as a monument, and the names of Ferdinand and Juana were carved upon
the neighboring trees.
A scouting party under Alonzo Martin, sent by Balboa to discover the
best route to the sea, came after two days' journey to a beach, upon
which were two canoes, stranded as it were, and apparently out of the
reach of water. But the tide soon came rushing in, and floated them;
upon which Alonzo Martin stepped into one of them, and was thus the
first European who embarked upon the ocean which Balboa had discovered
and which Magellan was to name. Balboa soon arrived upon the coast: the
tide had ebbed, and the water was nearly two miles distant. But it soon
returned, invading the place where the Spaniards were seated. Upon this
Balboa arose, and, taking a banner representing the Virgin and Child
and bearing the arms of Castile and Leon, marched knee-deep into the
water, and, waving the flag, pronounced the following act of taking
possession:
"Long live the high and mighty monarchs Don Ferdinand and Donna
Juana, sovereigns of Castile, Leon, and Aragon, in whose name I take
real and actual and corporeal possession of these seas, and lands,
and coasts, and ports, and islands of the South, and all thereunto
annexed; and of the kingdoms and provinces which do or may appertain
to them in whatever manner or by whatever right or title, ancient or
modern, in times past, present, or to come, without any contradiction;
and if other prince or captain, Christian or infidel, or if any law,
condition, or sect whatsoever, shall pretend any right to these lands
and seas, I am ready to maintain and defend them in the name of the
Castilian sovereigns, whose is the empire and dominion over these
Indies, islands, and terra firma, Northern and Southern, with all their
seas, both at the Arctic and Antartic poles, on either side of the
equinoctial line, whether within or without the tropics of Cancer and
Capricorn, both now and in all time, as long as the world endure, and
until the final day of judgment of all mankind."
[Illustration: BALBOA TAKING POSSESSION OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.]
As may be supposed, no one appeared to dispute these formidable
pretensions, and no champion entered the lists in behalf of the
original owners of the seas, islands, and surrounding lands in
question; so that Balboa called upon his companions to bear witness
that he had duly and uninterruptedly taken possession. The notary drew
up the necessary legal document, which was signed by all present. Then
they all tasted the water, which, from its saltness, they felt assured
was the ocean. Balboa carved a cross on a tree whose roots were below
high-water mark, and, lopping off a branch with his sword, bore it away
as a trophy.
Balboa now wished to perform a voyage upon the bosom of the new-found
ocean. In spite of the advice of friendly Indians, who represented the
season as stormy, he embarked with sixty of his men in nine canoes. A
tempest compelled them to seek refuge upon an island. In the night the
tide completely submerged it, and rose to the girdles of the Spaniards.
Their canoes were broken to pieces, and at low tide they managed with
great difficulty to effect their escape to the mainland. After numerous
forays against the caciques ruling the neighboring tribes, Balboa
arrived at the Darien River, on the 19th of January, 1514, after having
accomplished one of the most remarkable feats on record, and after an
expedition which must ever be memorable among deeds of intrepidity and
adventure.
The king created him Adelantado of the South Sea, and Governor of
Panama and Coyba, but subject to Pedrarias, the Governor of Darien.
The latter regarded him as his rival, and, by a successful series
of treacherous arts, brought against him a well-contrived charge of
treason to the king. He was reluctantly found guilty by the alcalde,
and by Pedrarias condemned to be beheaded, as a traitor and usurper of
the territories of the crown. The execution took place in the public
square of a small town near Darien, and was witnessed by Pedrarias
from between the reeds of the wall of a house some twelve paces from
the scaffold. Balboa and four of his officers were beheaded in quick
succession during the brief twilight of a tropical evening. Pedrarias
confiscated Balboa's property, and ordered his head to be impaled upon
a pole and exposed upon the public square till decomposition should
ensue.
Thus perished, at the age of forty-two years,--the victim of the
meanest envy and the most odious treachery,--a man who will be ever
remembered as one of the most illustrious of the early discoverers.
Events transformed him from a rash and turbulent adventurer into a
discreet and patriotic captain; and, from the moment when he felt that
he had drawn the attention of the world upon him, his conduct was that
of a man born and predestined to greatness. He fell in the zenith of
his glory, a worthy contemporary? of Columbus, da Gama, and Magellan.
Juan Diaz de Solis, who, with Yanez Pinzon, Amerigo Vespucci, and Juan
de la Cosa, the pilot of Columbus, was a member of the Spanish council
appointed to deliberate upon discoveries yet to be made, sailed to
South America in 1514, and, doubling Capes St. Roque, St. Augustin, and
Frio, entered the bay upon which now stands the city of Rio Janeiro,
and was probably the first European to set foot upon the coast thus far
to the south. He supposed the bay to be the mouth of a passage through
to the South Sea so lately discovered by Balboa. He proceeded to the
south, ascertaining the position of every headland and indentation
with all the precision the instruments and science of the time would
permit. At last he found a great opening of the sea towards the west:
he took possession of the northern coast for the King of Spain, and
named the gulf Fresh-Water Sea. Subsequently, finding that it was a
river, and that silver-mines existed there, he named the stream Rio de
la Plata. The Indians called it Paraguaza. He found the country fertile
and attractive, and an abundance of the wood which had given to the
whole region the name of Brazil. He went on shore with a small party,
but soon fell into an ambuscade laid for them by the natives. Solis
and five of his companions were taken, killed, roasted, and devoured
by the horrible cannibals who inhabited the country. The Spaniards who
remained on board the ships witnessed the shocking catastrophe, which
so appalled and horrified them that they fled in dismay and sailed
hastily back to Spain.
[Illustration: FATE OF DE SOLIS AND HIS COMPANIONS.]
[Illustration: FERDINAND MAGELLAN.]
CHAPTER XXIII.
REMARKABLE FORESIGHT OF THE COURT OF ROME--A PAPAL BULL--FERDINAND
MAGELLAN--HE OFFERS HIS SERVICES TO SPAIN--HIS PLANS--HIS
FLEET--PIGAFETTA THE HISTORIAN--AN INAUSPICIOUS START--TENERIFFE AND
ITS LEGENDS--ST. ELMO'S FIRE--THE CREW MAKE FAMOUS BARGAINS WITH
THE CANNIBALS--HEAVY PRICE PAID FOR THE KING OF SPADES--PATAGONIAN
GIANTS--PIGAFETTA'S EXAGGERATIONS--THE HEALING ART IN PATAGONIA--THE
TRAGEDY OF PORT JULIAN--DISCOVERY OF A STRAIT--THE OPEN SEA--CAPE
DESEADO--THE OCEAN NAMED PACIFIC--RAVAGES OF THE SCURVY--A PATAGONIAN
PAUL--THE NEEDLE BECOMES LETHARGIC--DISCOVERY OF THE LADRONES--THE
FIRST COCOANUT--A CATHOLIC CEREMONY UPON A PAGAN ISLAND.
The Pope of Rome, whose authority was at this period supreme among the
princes who were in communion with the Church, now thought proper to
anticipate a possible collision between Spain and Portugal, the two
monopolists of commerce and discovery. He declared by a bull, or papal
decree, that all new countries which should be thereafter discovered
to the east of the Azores were to belong to the crown of Portugal,
while all that were discovered to the west should be the property of
Spain. Thus, a potentate who claimed to be infallible issued a decree
based upon the pontifical conviction that the world was flat, even
after the very solid arguments to the contrary of Columbus and da
Gama. His Holiness, in his wisdom, imagined that one nation might sail
to the right, the other to the left, and go on forever: he did not
foresee, what was now almost palpable to every eye but that of Roman
infallibility, that the Spaniards and the Portuguese would at last meet
at the antipodes. There, in time, they did meet, and the very pretty
dispute which arose in consequence we shall narrate in the sequel. But
a more immediate effect of the decree was this:--a Spaniard, if he felt
himself neglected or maltreated by his own sovereign, would offer his
services to the Portuguese king, confident of employment at his hands,
as the latter would thus weaken Spain and profit by discoveries made
by her subjects. A Portuguese, if similarly aggrieved, would in the
same way desert to the Spanish king and accept service from the Spanish
crown.
It so happened that one Fernâo Magalhaens, known in English as
Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese by birth, and who had served with
distinction in the East Indies under Albuquerque, addressed himself
to the court of Lisbon for the recompense which was his due. His
application was treated with disdain. He forthwith withdrew to Spain
with a learned man who had been similarly neglected, one Ruy Falero, an
astronomer, whom the Portuguese regarded as a conjurer and charlatan.
Magellan made overtures for new discoveries to Cardinal Ximenes, then
Prime Minister of Spain, and in reality its ruler during the absence of
Charles V. The Portuguese ambassador sought by every means in his power
to baffle his designs, and demanded of the court that he and Falero
should be given up as deserters. He even offered Magellan a reward
if he would desist from his purpose, or, at least, execute it in the
service of Portugal. But the cardinal listened with favor to the plan
presented by Magellan, which was briefly as follows:
Columbus, who started upon his voyage to the west in order to reach the
East Indies by a western route, had failed in his object, discovering
instead an intermediate continent. Magellan now proposed to seek the
Portuguese Moluccas, or Spice Islands, by sailing, if possible, from
the Atlantic Ocean into the South Sea, discovered by Balboa five years
before. His idea was to attempt to find a passage through the mainland
of South America by the Rio de la Plata, or some other channel opening
upon its eastern coast. Should this succeed, Spain would possess the
East Indies as well as the West, since, if the Moluccas were discovered
by way of the west, even though situated to the east, they would fall
expressly within the allotment made by the late papal bull. Magellan
thought the world was round, in defiance of the pontifical declaration
that it was flat.
In accordance with this proposal, the Spanish crown agreed to equip a
fleet of five vessels and to give the command of it to Magellan. It
was furthermore agreed that he should have a twentieth part of the
clear profit of the expedition, and that the government of any islands
he might discover should be vested in him and his heirs forever, with
the title of Adelantado. The five vessels were accordingly fitted
out at Seville, Magellan's flag-ship being named the Trinidada. They
were manned by two hundred and thirty-seven men, thirty of whom were
able-bodied Portuguese seamen, upon whom Magellan principally relied.
The astronomer Falero declined accompanying him, having, in his
astrological calculations, foreseen that the voyage would be fatal to
him. A certain San Martino, of Seville, who went in his stead, was,
as will be seen, assassinated in his place at the island of Zubu. An
Italian gentleman, named Pigafetta, was permitted by the cardinal to
form part of Magellan's suite. He afterwards became the historian of
the voyage.
The fleet set sail from Seville on the 10th of August, 1519, its
departure being announced by a discharge of artillery. Seville is
nearly one hundred miles from the sea, by the river Guadalquivir, the
seaport of which is San Lucar, whence they finally departed on the
20th of September. It would be difficult to imagine circumstances more
inauspicious than those under which Magellan left the shores of Europe.
The course he was to follow was unexplored: so rash was the attempt
considered, that he dared not communicate to his men the real object of
the expedition. The season was already advanced, and he would in all
probability arrive in high southern latitudes at the coldest period of
the year. To the perils naturally incident to such a voyage was to be
added the unfortunate fact that the commanders of the other four ships
were Spaniards, and consequently inimical to Magellan, who, though in
the service of Spain, was of Portuguese birth.
In six days the squadron reached Teneriffe; of this island Pigafetta
relates several curious legends current at that time. It never rained
there, he says, and there was neither river nor spring in the island.
The leaves of a tree, however, which was constantly surrounded by a
thick mist, distilled excellent water, which was collected in a pit at
its foot, whither the inhabitants and wild beasts repaired to quench
their thirst. Early in October the fleet passed between Cape Verd and
its islands, and coasted along the shores of Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Here they met with contrary winds, sharks, and dead calms. One dark
night, during a violent tempest, the St. Elmo fire blazed for two
hours upon their topmast. This, which is now known to be an effect of
electricity, which the ancient idolaters believed to be Castor and
Pollux, which Catholics in Magellan's time regarded as a saint, and
which English sailors call Davy Jones, was a great consolation to
the Portuguese during the storm. At the moment when it disappeared
it diffused a light so resplendent that Pigafetta was almost blinded
and gave himself up for lost; but, he adds, "the wind ceased
momentaneously."
Passing the equinoctial line and losing sight of the polar star,
Magellan steered south-southwest, and in the middle of December struck
the coast of Brazil. His men made excellent bargains with the natives.
For a small comb they obtained two geese; for a piece of glass, as much
fish as would feed ten men; for a ribbon, a basket of potatoes,--a root
then so little known that Pigafetta describes it as resembling a turnip
in appearance and a roasted chestnut in taste. A pack of playing-cards
was a fortune, for a sailor bought six fat chickens with the king of
spades. The fleet remained thirteen days at anchor, and then pursued
its way to the southward along the territory of the cannibals who had
lately devoured de Solis. Stopping at an island in the mouth of a river
sixty miles wide, they caught, in one hour, penguins sufficient for the
whole five ships. Magellan anchored for the winter in a harbor found in
south latitude 49° and called by him Port Julian. Two months elapsed
before the country was discovered to be inhabited. At last a man of
gigantic figure presented himself upon the shore, capering in the sands
in a state of utter nudity, and violently casting dust upon his head. A
sailor was sent ashore to make similar gestures, and the giant was thus
easily led to the spot where Magellan had landed. The latter gave him
cooked food to eat and presented him, incidentally, with a large steel
mirror. The savage now saw his likeness for the first time, and started
back in such fright that he knocked over four men. He and several of
his companions, both men and women, subsequently went on board the
ships, and constantly indicated by their gestures that they supposed
the strangers to have descended from heaven. One of the savages became
quite a favorite: he was taught to pronounce the name of Jesus and to
repeat the Lord's prayer, and was even baptized by the name of John by
the chaplain. This profession of Christianity did the poor pagan no
good, for he soon disappeared,--murdered, doubtless, by his people, in
consequence of his attachment to the foreigners.
The whole description given by Pigafetta of these savages, whom
Magellan called Patagonians,--from words indicating the resemblance
of their feet, when shod with the skin of the lama, to the feet of a
bear,--is now known to be much exaggerated. It is certain that they
were by no means so gigantic as he represented them. He adds that
they drank half a pail of water at a draught, fed upon raw meat, and
swallowed mice alive; that when they were sick and needed bleeding they
gave a good chop with some edged tool to the part affected; when they
wished to vomit they thrust an arrow half a yard down their throat. The
headache was cured by a gash in the forehead.
A fearful tragedy was enacted in Port Julian. The four Spanish
captains conspired to murder Magellan. The plot was discovered and
the ringleaders were brought to trial. Two were hung, another was
stabbed to the heart, while a number of their accomplices were left
among the Patagonians. Magellan quitted Port Julian in August, 1520,
having planted a cross on a neighboring mountain and taken solemn
possession of the country in the name of the King of Spain. On the 14th
of September, he discovered a fresh-water river, which he named Santa
Cruz, in honor of the anniversary of the exaltation of the cross. Here
the crew, by Magellan's order, made confession and received the holy
communion.
On the 21st of October, Magellan made the great discovery which has
immortalized his name. He reached a strait communicating between the
Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea: consulting the calendar for a name,
he called it in honor of the day, the Strait of the Eleven Thousand
Virgins. It is now Magellan's Strait. It was enclosed between lofty
mountains covered with snow; the water was so deep that it afforded
no anchorage. The crew were so fully persuaded that it possessed
no western outlet, that, had it not been for Magellan's confidence
and persistence, they would never have ventured to explore it. The
strait was found to vary in breadth from one mile to ten, and to be
four hundred and forty miles in length. During the first night spent
in the strait, the Santo Antonio, piloted by one Emmanuel Gomez, who
hated Magellan, found her way back into the Atlantic, and returned at
once to Spain. The pilot's object was principally to be the first to
tell the news of the discovery, and to carry to Europe a specimen of a
Patagonian giant, one of whom he had on board of his vessel. On his way
he stopped at Port Julian and took up two of the conspirators who had
been abandoned there. The Patagonian was unable to bear the change of
climate, and died of the heat on crossing the line.
[Illustration: CAPE VIRGIN--THE EAST ENTRANCE OF MAGELLAN'S STRAIT.]
One of Magellan's remaining four vessels was sent on in advance of the
others to reconnoitre a cape which seemed to terminate the channel.
The vessel returned, announcing that the strait indeed terminated
at this cape and that beyond lay the open sea. "We wept for joy,"
says Pigafetta: "the cape was denominated Cabo Deseado,--Wished-for
Cape,--for in good truth we had long wished to see it." The sight
gave Magellan the most unbounded joy, for he was now able practically
to demonstrate the truth of the theory he had advanced,--that it was
possible to sail to the East Indies by way of the west. He now named
the famous strait the Strait of the Patagonians, but a sense of justice
induced the Europeans to change its name and to call it the Strait of
Magellan. At every mile or two he found a safe harbor with excellent
water, cedar-wood, sardines, and shell-fish, together with an abundance
of sweet celery,--a specific against the scurvy.
On the 28th of November, the squadron, reduced to three ships by the
loss of the Santiago, left the strait and launched into the Great South
Sea, to which, from the steady and gentle winds that propelled them
over waters almost unruffled, Magellan gave the name of Pacific,--a
name which it has ever since retained. They sailed on and on during
the space of three months and twenty days, seeing no land, with the
exception of two sterile and deserted islands which they named the
Unfortunate. During all this time they tasted no fresh provisions.
Their biscuit was little better than dust and smelled intolerably,
being impregnated with the effluvia of mice. The water was putrid and
offensive. The crew were so far reduced that they were glad to eat
leather, which they were obliged to soak for four or five days in the
sea in order to render it sufficiently supple to be broiled, chewed,
and digested. Others lived on sawdust, while mice were sought after
with such avidity that they were sold for half a ducat apiece.
Scurvy now began to make its appearance, and nineteen of the sailors
died of it. The gums of many were swollen over their teeth, so that,
unable to masticate their leathern viands, they perished miserably of
starvation. Those who remained alive became weak, low-spirited, and
helpless. The Patagonian taken on board the Trinidada at Port Julian
was attacked by the disease. Pigafetta, seeing that he could not
recover, showed him the cross and reverently kissed it. The Patagonian
besought him by gestures to forbear, as the demon would certainly enter
his body and cause him to burst. When at death's door, however, he
called for the cross, which he kissed: he then begged to be baptized,
and was received into the bosom of the Church under the name of Paul.
The vessels kept on and on, seeing no fish but sharks, and finding no
bottom along the shores of the stunted islands which they passed. The
needle was so irregular in its motion that it required frequent passes
of the loadstone to revive its energy. No prominent star appeared to
serve as an Antarctic Polar guide. Two stars, however, were discovered,
which, from the smallness of the circle they described in their diurnal
course, seemed to be near the pole. "We traversed," says Pigafetta,
"a space of from sixty to seventy leagues a day; and, if God and His
Holy Mother had not granted us a fortunate voyage, we should all have
perished of hunger in so vast a sea. I do not think any one for the
future will venture upon a similar voyage." It was, indeed, nearly
sixty years before Drake, the second circumnavigator, entered the
Pacific Ocean.
Early in March, 1521, Magellan fell in with a cluster of islands, where
he and his men went ashore to refresh themselves after the fatigues
and privations of their voyage. The inhabitants, however, were great
thieves, penetrating into the cabins of the vessels and taking every
thing on which they could lay their hands. Magellan, exasperated at
length, landed with forty men, burned a village and killed seven of the
natives. The latter, when pierced with arrows through and through,--a
weapon they had never seen before,--would draw them out by either end
and stare at them till they died. Magellan gave the name of Ladrones to
these islands,--a name which they retain in modern geography, though,
in the time of Philip IV. of Spain, they were called the Marianne
Isles, in honor of Maria, his queen.
At another island the crew received from the inhabitants the first
present of cocoanuts made to a European of which any record exists.
Pigafetta describes this now world-famous fruit in a manner which shows
that he considered it a most wonderful novelty. We extract a portion of
his description:--"Cocoanuts," he says, "are the fruit of a species of
palm-tree, which furnishes the people with bread, wine, oil, vinegar,
and physic. To obtain wine, they make an incision in the top of the
tree, penetrating to the pith, from which drops a liquor resembling
white must, but which is rather tart. This liquor is caught in the
hollow of a reed the thickness of a man's leg, which is suspended to
the tree and is carefully emptied twice a day. The fruit is of the
size of a man's head, and sometimes larger. Its outward rind is green
and two fingers thick: it is composed of filaments of which they make
cordage for their boats. Beneath this is a shell harder and thicker
than that of the walnut. This they burn and pulverize, using the powder
as a remedy in several distempers. Within, the shell is lined with a
white kernel about as thick as a finger, which is eaten, instead of
bread, with meat and fish. In the centre of the nut, encircled by the
kernel, a sweet and limpid liquor is found, of a corroborative nature.
This liquor, poured into a glass and suffered to stand, assumes the
consistence of an apple. The kernel and liquor, if left to ferment
and afterwards boiled, yield an oil as thick as butter. To obtain
vinegar, the liquor itself is exposed to the sun, and the acid which
results from it resembles that vinegar we make from white wine. A
family of ten persons might be supported from two cocoanut-trees, by
alternately tapping each every week, and letting the other rest, that a
perpetual drainage of liquor may not kill the tree. We were told that a
cocoanut-tree lives a century."
At another island, Pigafetta asserts that, by sifting the earth he
found lumps of gold as large as walnuts and some as big as eggs even,
and that all the vessels used by the king at his table were of the same
precious metal. These are believed to have been gross falsehoods of
Pigafetta's invention, in a view to procure for himself the command of
a subsequent voyage of discovery. Magellan gratified two island-kings
with the spectacle of a grand Catholic ceremony. He sprinkled them
with sweet-scented water, and offered them the cross to kiss. On the
elevation of the host he caused them to adore the Eucharist with joined
hands. At this moment a discharge of artillery, arranged beforehand,
was fired from the ships. The entertainment concluded with a hornpipe
and sword-dance,--an exhibition which seemed to please the two kings
highly. A large cross was then brought, garnished with nails and a
crown of thorns. It was set up upon a high mountain, as a signal to all
Christian navigators that they would be well treated in the island. The
kings were also assured that if they prayed to it devoutly it would
defend them from lightning and tempests. They had evidently suffered
severely from the vagaries and violence of the electric fluid, and
were delighted to be thus easily protected against its pernicious and
destructive influence.
[Illustration: LAMONARIA.]
[Illustration: THE NATIVES OF BORNEO PREPARE TO ATTACK MAGELLAN.]
CHAPTER XXIV.
DISCOVERY OF THE PHILIPPINES--THE KING OF ZUBU WISHES THE KING OF
SPAIN TO PAY TRIBUTE--HE FINALLY ABANDONS THE IDEA--A WHOLE ISLAND
CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY--MAGELLAN PERFORMS A MIRACLE--A DUMB MAN
RECOVERS HIS SPEECH--MAGELLAN INVADES A REFRACTORY ISLAND--HIS
DEATH--ATTEMPTS TO RECOVER HIS BODY--THE CHRISTIAN ISLAND RETURNS TO
IDOLATRY--THE SHIPS ARRIVE AT BORNEO--THE SAILORS DRINK TOO FREELY OF
ARRACK--FESTIVITIES AND TREACHERY--VIVID IMAGINATION OF PIGAFETTA--THE
FLEET ARRIVES AT THE MOLUCCAS--THE KING OF TIDORE--A BRISK TRADE IN
CLOVES--THE SPICE-TARIFF--THE VITTORIA SAILS HOMEWARD--PIGAFETTA
IS AGAIN IMAGINATIVE--ARRIVAL AT THE CAPE VERDS--LOSS OF ONE
DAY--COMPLETION OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF CIRCUMNAVIGATION--PIGAFETTA'S
ROMANCE BECOMES VERITABLE HISTORY.
On the 7th of April the squadron entered the harbor of the island
of Zubu, one of a group which has since been named the Philippines.
Magellan sent a messenger to the king to ask an exchange of
commodities. The king observed that it was customary for all ships
entering his waters to pay tribute, to which the messenger replied that
the Spanish admiral was the servant of so powerful a sovereign that
he could pay tribute to no one. The king promised to give an answer
the next day, and, in the mean time, sent fruit and wine on board the
ships. Magellan had brought with him the king of Massana, a neighboring
island, and this monarch soon convinced the king of Zubu that, instead
of asking tribute, he would be wise to pay it. A treaty of peace and
perpetual amity was soon established between his majesty of Spain and
his royal brother of Zubu.
Pigafetta here introduces a ridiculous and incredible story of the
conversion of these islands to Christianity by Magellan. It is as
follows:--Magellan, being much displeased at learning that parents
attaining a certain age in this island were treated disrespectfully by
their children, told them that the Almighty, who created heaven and
earth, had strictly commanded children to honor their parents and had
threatened with eternal fire those who transgressed this commandment.
He added other observations from Holy Writ, which afforded the
islanders much pleasure, and inspired them with the desire of being
instructed in the true religion. Magellan assured them that before
departing he would baptize them all, if they could convince him that
they accepted the boon, not through any dread with which he might have
inspired them, or through any expectation of temporal advantage, but
from a spontaneous emotion, and of their own will. They convinced him
easily of the spontaneity of their feelings, whereupon Magellan wept
for joy and embraced them all. Sunday, the 16th of April, was fixed
upon for the ceremony. A scaffold was raised and covered with tapestry
and branches of palm. A general salute was fired by the squadron.
Magellan then told the king that one of the advantages which would
accrue to him from embracing Christianity would be that he would be
strengthened, and would more easily overcome his enemies. The king
replied that even without this consideration he felt disposed to
become a Christian. Eight hundred persons were then baptized, the
queen receiving the name of Jane, after the mother of the Emperor of
Spain. She begged an infant Jesus of Pigafetta, with which to replace
her idols. This remarkable story concludes with a statement that one
village of idolaters absolutely refused to be converted, and that
Magellan therefore burned their houses, erecting a cross upon the
ruins. Not content with this, Pigafetta next makes Magellan perform a
miracle. The king's brother was very sick, and had totally lost his
speech. The admiral said that if all the idols remaining in the island
were burned, and if the prince were baptized, he would pledge his head
that he would recover. Magellan then baptized the invalid, together
with his two wives and ten daughters. The captain "then asked him how
he found himself, and he answered, of a sudden recovering his speech,
that, thanks to the Lord, he found himself very well. We were all of us
ocular witnesses of this miracle. The captain then, with greater fervor
than the rest of us, returned praise to God." Idols were now committed
to the flames in vast numbers, and temples built upon the margin of the
sea were demolished. The new Christians went about the island crying,
at the top of their voice, "Viva la Castilla!" in honor of the King of
Spain.
On the 26th of April, Magellan learned that a neighboring chief, named
Cilapolapu, refused to acknowledge the authority of the King of Spain,
and remained in open profession of paganism in the midst of a Christian
community. He determined to lend his assistance to the converted chiefs
to reduce and subjugate this stubborn prince. At midnight, boats
left the ships, bearing sixty men armed with helmets and cuirasses.
The natives followed in twenty canoes. They reached the rebellious
island--Matan by name--three hours before daybreak. Cilapolapu was
notified that he must obey the Christian King of Zubu or feel the
strength of Christian lances. The islanders replied that they had
lances too. The invaders waited for daylight, and then, jumping into
the water up to their thighs, waded to shore. The enemy was fifteen
hundred in number, formed into three battalions: two of these attacked
them in the flank, the third in the front. The musketeers fired for
half an hour without making the least impression. Trusting to the
superiority of their numbers, the natives deluged the Christians with
showers of bamboo lances, staves hardened in the fire, stones, and even
dirt. A poisoned arrow at last struck Magellan, who at once ordered a
retreat in slow and regular order. The Indians now perceived that their
blows took effect when aimed at the nether limbs of their foe, and
profited by this observation with telling effect. Seeing that Magellan
was wounded, they twice struck his helmet from his head. He and his
small band of men continued fighting for more than an hour, standing in
the water up to their knees. Magellan was now evidently failing, and
the islanders, perceiving his weakness, pressed upon him in crowds. One
of them cut him violently across the left leg, and he fell on his face.
He was immediately surrounded and belabored with sticks and stones till
he died. His men, every one of whom was wounded, unable to afford him
succor or avenge his death, escaped to their boats upon his fall.
"Thus," says Pigafetta, "perished our guide, our light, and our
support. But his glory will survive him. He was adorned with every
virtue: in the midst of the greatest adversity, he constantly possessed
an immovable firmness. At sea he subjected himself to the same
privations as his men. Better skilled than any one in the knowledge of
nautical charts, he was a perfect master of navigation, as he proved
in making the tour of the world,--an attempt on which none before him
had ventured." Though Magellan only made half the circuit of the earth
on this occasion, yet it may be said with reason that he was the first
to circumnavigate the globe, from the fact that the way home from
the Philippines was perfectly well known to the Portuguese, and that
Magellan had already been at Malacca.
An attempt was made in the afternoon to recover the body of Magellan by
negotiation; but the islanders sent answer that no consideration could
induce them to part with the remains of a man like the admiral, which
they should preserve as a monument of their victory. Two governors were
elected in his stead, Odoard Barbosa and Juan Serrano. The latter,
together with San Martino, the astronomer, and a number of officers,
having been decoyed on shore by the converted king, were murdered by
him in cold blood. He had seen the inferiority of Christians to savages
in war, and, being doubtless disgusted with the boastful pretences of
Christianity, had, upon Magellan's death, renounced it and returned
again to idolatry. Juan Serrano was seen upon the shore, bound hand and
foot: he begged the people in the ships to treat for his release; and,
upon this being refused, he uttered deep imprecations, and appealed to
the Almighty to call to account on the great day of judgment those who
refused to succor him in his hour of need. They put to sea, leaving the
unfortunate Serrano to his miserable fate.
Odoard Barbosa, now sole commander, ordered the Concepçion, one of
the three ships, to be burned, transferring its men, ammunition, and
provisions to the other two. After landing at various islands, he
came to the rich settlement of Borneo, on the 9th of July. The king,
who was a Mohammedan and kept a magnificent court, sent out to them a
beautiful canoe, adorned with gold figures and peacocks' feathers. In
it were musicians playing upon the bagpipe and drum. Eight officers
of the island brought to the captain a vase full of betel areca to
chew, a quantity of orange-flowers and jessamine, some sugarcane, and
three goblets of a distilled liquor which they called arrack, and
upon which the sailors became intoxicated. Permission was granted the
visitors to wood and water on the island and to trade with the natives.
An interview with the king was likewise accorded, which took place
with every possible ceremony,--processions of elephants, presents of
cinnamon, and illuminations of wax flambeaux. Notwithstanding these
professions of friendship, the squadron was obliged to leave Borneo
very suddenly, in consequence of the appearance of one hundred armed
canoes, which they imagined to be bent upon a hostile expedition.
Among the wonders of Borneo, Pigafetta mentions two pearls as large
as hens' eggs, and so round that if placed upon a polished table they
never remained at rest, and cups of porcelain possessing the power to
denote the presence of poison, by breaking if any were put into them.
At a neighboring island where the fleet remained undergoing repairs
for six weeks, Pigafetta saw a sight which he thus describes:--"We
here found a tree whose leaves, as they fall, become animated and
walk about. They resemble the leaves of the mulberry-tree. Upon being
touched they make away, but when crushed they yield no blood. I kept
one in a box for nine days, and, on opening the box, found the leaf
still alive and walking round it. I am of opinion they live on air."
Pigafetta's mistake here was in stating that a leaf resembled an
insect: he should have spoken of the curiosity as an insect resembling
a leaf. It is now known to naturalists as a species of locust.
On the 6th of November, they espied a cluster of five islands, which
their pilots, obtained at their last station, declared to be the famous
Moluccas. They had therefore proved the world to be round, for vessels
sailing to the west from Spain had now met vessels sailing thence to
the east. They returned thanks to God, and fired a round from their
great guns. They had been at sea twenty-six months, and had at last,
after visiting an infinity of islands, reached those in quest of which
they had embarked in the expedition. On the 8th, three hours before
sunset, they entered the harbor of the island of Tidore. They came to
anchor in twenty fathoms' water, and discharged all their cannon. The
king, shaded by a parasol of silk, came the next day to visit them,
said he had dreamed of their approaching visit, had consulted the moon
in reference to this dream, and was now delighted to see it confirmed.
He added, that he was happy in the friendship of the King of Spain,
and was proud to be his vassal. This potentate, whose name was Rajah
Soultan Manzour, was a Mohammedan: he was "an eminent astrologer," and
had numerous wives and twenty-six children.
[Illustration: TIDORE.]
On the 12th, a shed was erected in the town of Tidore by the Spaniards,
whither they carried all the merchandise they intended to barter for
cloves. A tariff of exchange was then drawn up. Ten yards of red cloth
were to be worth four hundred pounds of cloves, as were also fifteen
yards of inferior cloth, fifteen axes, thirty-five glass tumblers,
twenty-six yards of linen, one hundred and fifty pairs of scissors,
three gongs, or a hundredweight of copper. As the stock of articles
brought by the strangers diminished, however, their Value naturally
rose, and a yard of ribbon would buy a quintal of cloves: in fact,
every thing with which the ships could dispense on their return voyage
was bartered for cloves. They were soon so deeply laden that they
hardly had room in which to stow their water. The Trinidada, becoming
leaky, was left behind, Juan Carvajo, her pilot, and fifty-three of
the crew, remaining with her. The Vittoria bade adieu to her consort
on the 21st of December, the two vessels exchanging a parting salute.
The number of Europeans on board of the Vittoria was now reduced to
forty-six; and the fleet, which formerly consisted of five sail, was
now reduced to one.
As the Vittoria made her way through the thick archipelagoes of islands
which dot the seas in these latitudes, her Molucca pilot told Pigafetta
amazing stories of their inhabitants. In Aracheto, he said, the men
and women were but a foot and a half high; their food was the pith of
a tree; their dwellings were caverns under ground; their ears were as
long as their bodies; so that when they lay down one ear served as a
mattress and the other as a blanket!
In order to double the Cape of Good Hope, the captain ascended as high
as the forty-second degree of south latitude: he remained wind-bound
for nine weeks opposite the Cape. The crew were now suffering from
sickness, hunger, and thirst. After doubling the Cape, they steered
northwest for two months, losing twenty-one men on the way. Pigafetta
noticed that, on throwing the dead into the sea, the Christians floated
with their faces turned towards heaven, while the Mohammedans they had
engaged turned their faces the other way! At last, on the 9th of July,
1522, the vessel made the Cape Verds. These were in the possession of
the Portuguese; and it was a very hazardous thing for the Spaniards to
put themselves in their power. However, they represented themselves
as coming from the west and not from the east, and made known their
necessities. Their long-boat was laden twice with rice in exchange
for various articles. On its third trip the crew was detained,--the
Portuguese having discovered that the Vittoria was one of Magellan's
fleet. She was compelled to abandon the men as prisoners, and sailed
away,--her whole equipment now numbering eighteen hands, all of them,
except Pigafetta, more or less disabled. The latter, to discover if his
journal had been regularly kept, had inquired at the islands what day
it was, and was told it was Thursday. This amazed him, as his reckoning
made it Wednesday. He was soon convinced there was no mistake in his
account; as, having sailed to the westward and followed the course of
the sun, it was evident that, in circumnavigating the globe, he had
seen it rise once less than those who had remained at home, and thus,
apparently, had lost a day.
On Saturday, the 6th of September, the Vittoria entered the Bay of
San Lucar, having been absent three years and twenty-seven days, and
having sailed upwards of fourteen thousand six hundred leagues. On
the 8th, having ascended the Guadalquivir, she anchored off the mole
of Seville and discharged all her artillery. On the 9th, the whole
crew repaired, in their shirts and barefooted, and carrying tapers
in their hands, to the Church of Our Lady of Victory, as in hours of
danger they had often vowed to do. The captain of the Vittoria, Juan
Sebastian Cano, was knighted by Charles V., who gave him for his coat
of arms the terrestrial globe, with a motto commemorating the voyage.
Pigafetta presented to Charles V. of Spain, to King John of Portugal,
to the Queen Regent of France, and to Philippe, Grand Master of Rhodes,
journals and narratives of the expedition. From the latter, the most
complete, we have extracted the foregoing account,--taking care,
however, to correct its errors, and to point out the numerous instances
in which its author was indebted to his imagination for his facts.
Section IV.
FROM THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD TO THE DISCOVERY OF CAPE HORN;
1519-1616.
CHAPTER XXV.
VOYAGE OF JACQUES CARTIER--MARITIME PROJECTS OF FRANCIS I.
OF FRANCE--GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE--A QUICK TRIP HOME--SECOND
VOYAGE--CANADA, QUEBEC, MONTREAL--A CAPTIVE KING--VOYAGE OF
SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY AND RICHARD CHANCELLOR--DISCOVERY OF NOVA
ZEMBLA--DISASTROUS WINTER--FATE OF THE EXPEDITION--MARTIN
FROBISHER--HIS VOYAGE IN QUEST OF A NORTHWEST
PASSAGE--GREENLAND--LABRADOR--FROBISHER'S STRAITS--EXCHANGE OF
CAPTIVES--SUPPOSED DISCOVERY OF GOLD--SECOND VOYAGE--A CARGO OF
PRECIOUS EARTH TAKEN ON BOARD--META INCOGNITA--THIRD VOYAGE--A
MORTIFYING CONCLUSION.
It would appear natural for the Spaniards to have sought to derive
immediate profit from their discovery of a western passage to the South
Sea. They did not do so, however; and a generation was destined to pass
away before a second European vessel should enter Magellan's Strait.
We must for a time, therefore, leave the Spanish and Portuguese in
quiet possession of their Indian and American commerce, and turn to the
several transatlantic and Arctic enterprises undertaken at this period
by the French and English.
[Illustration: SCENE ON THE CANADIAN COAST.]
Jacques Cartier, a native of St. Malo in France, had, in 1534, finished
his apprenticeship as a sailor. He conceived the idea of seeking a
passage to China and the Spice Islands to the north of the Western
Continent, and in the vicinity of the Pole. This was the origin of the
various efforts made in quest of the renowned Northwest Passage. He
also thought it incumbent upon France to assert her right to a share in
the explorations and discoveries which were making Portugal and Spain
both famous and rich. He caused his project to be laid before Francis
I., who had long viewed with jealousy the successful expeditions of
other powers, and who is said once to have exclaimed, "Where is the
will and testament of our father Adam, which disinherits me of my
share in these possessions in favor of Spain and Portugal?" He at once
approved the proposition; and, on the 20th of April, 1534, Cartier
left St. Malo with two ships of sixty tons each. No details of the
outward voyage have reached us. It was rapid and prosperous, however,
for the ships anchored in Bonavista Bay, upon the eastern coast of
Newfoundland, on the twentieth day.
Proceeding to the north, he discovered Belle Isle Straits, and through
them descended to the west into a gulf which he called St. Lawrence,
having Newfoundland on his left and Labrador on his right. He thus
assured himself of the insular character of Newfoundland. He discovered
many of the islands and headlands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and some
of them bear to this day the names he gave them. He had interviews with
several tribes of natives, and took possession of numerous lands in the
name of the King of France. In the middle of August east winds became
prevalent and violent, and it was impossible to ascend the St. Lawrence
River, at the mouth of which they now were. A council was held, and a
return unanimously decided upon. They arrived safely at St. Malo, after
a rapid and prosperous voyage.
Francis I. immediately caused three ships, respectively of one hundred
and twenty, sixty, and forty tons, to be equipped, and despatched
Cartier upon a second voyage of exploration, with the title of Royal
Pilot. He started in May, 1535, and after a stormy voyage of two months
arrived at his anchorage in Newfoundland. From thence he proceeded
to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, which, he calls by its Indian
name of Hochelaga. Here he was told by the savages that the river
led to a country called _Canada_. He ascended the stream in boats,
passed a village named Stadacone,--the site of the present city of
Quebec,--and arrived at the Indian city of Hochelaga, which, from a
high mountain in the vicinity, he named Mont Royal,--now Montreal. He
went no farther than the junction of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence,
and then returned. He remained at Stadacone through the winter, losing
twenty-five of his men by a contagious distemper then very little
known,--the scurvy.
Cartier returned to France in July, 1536, taking with him a Canadian
king, named Donnaconna, and nine other natives, who had been captured
and brought on board by compulsion. They were taken to Europe, where
Donnaconna died two years afterwards: three others were baptized in
1538, Cartier standing sponsor for one of them. They seem to have all
been dead in 1541, the date of Carrier's third voyage. The king ordered
five ships to be prepared, with which Cartier again started for the
scene of his discoveries. The narrative of this expedition is lost; but
it appears to have resulted in few or no incidents of interest. Cartier
was ennobled upon his return in 1542, and lived ten years to enjoy his
new dignity. His descriptions of the scenery, products, and Indians of
Canada are graphic and correct.
In the year 1553, "the Mystery and Company of English merchants
adventurers for the discovery of regions, dominions, islands, and
places unknown"--at the head of whom was Sebastian Cabot--fitted out
an expedition of three vessels, and gave the chief command to Sir
Hugh Willoughby, "by reason of his goodly personage, as also for his
singular skill in the services of war." King Edward VI. confirmed the
appointment in "a license to discover strange countries."
The fleet consisted of the Buona Speranza, of one hundred and seventy
tons, commanded by Sir Hugh, with thirty-eight men, the Edward
Buonaventura, of one hundred and sixty tons, commanded by Richard
Chancellor, pilot-major of the expedition, with fifty-four men, and the
Buona Confidentia, of ninety tons, with twenty-four men. The ships were
victualled for fifteen months. On board of them were eighteen merchants
interested in the discovery of a northeast passage to India,--a route,
therefore, attempted by the English previous to that by the northwest,
as the voyage of Sebastian Cabot can hardly be considered a serious
effort. A council of twelve, in whom was vested the general direction
of the voyage, was composed of the admiral, pilot-major, and other
officers.
The squadron sailed from Deptford on the 10th of May, 1553, and fell
in with the Norwegian coast on the 14th of July. On the 30th, while
near Wardhus, the most easterly station of the Danes in Finmark,
Chancellor's vessel was driven off in a storm, and was not seen again
by the two others. The latter appear to have been tossed about in the
North Sea for two months, in the course of which they landed at some
spot on the western coast of Nova Zembla, being the first Europeans to
visit that uninhabited waste. On the 18th of September they entered a
harbor in Lapland formed by the mouth of the river Arzina. Here they
remained a week, seeing seals, deer, bears, foxes, "with divers strange
beasts, such as ellans and others, which were to us unknown and also
wonderful." It was now the 1st of October, and the Arctic winter was
far advanced. They resolved to winter there, first sending out parties
in search of inhabitants. Three men went three days' journey to the
south-southwest, but returned without having seen a human being. Others
who went to the west and the southeast returned equally unsuccessful.
This is the last positive intelligence we have of the fate of these
hardy and unfortunate explorers. A will, however, alleged to have been
made by one Gabriel Willoughby, and signed by Sir Hugh, bearing the
date of January, 1554, shows, if authentic, that at least two of the
party were alive at that period. Purchas, one of the oldest authorities
upon navigation and travels extant, says that the Buona Speranza
was discovered in the following spring by a party of Russians, who
found all the crew frozen to death. In 1557, a Drontheim skipper told
an Englishman, at Kegor, that he had bought the sails of the Buona
Confidentia; but it is not known where she was lost, or what was the
fate of the crew. The will of which we have spoken, and a fragmentary
diary attributed to Sir Hugh, were found by the Russians, and were
restored to the kinsmen of the adventurers in England.
The Edward Buonaventura, commanded by Chancellor, and which was
separated from her consorts off Wardhus, reached Archangel, on
the White Sea, in Russia, in safety, and laid the foundation of a
commercial intercourse between Russia and England. On his return, his
ship was lost on the coast of Scotland, and he himself, with several of
his crew, drowned. Thus, of the three ships despatched, not one ever
reached home; and of the officers, merchants, and men, none survived to
revisit their country, except a few of the common seamen of the Edward
Buonaventura. The advantages acquired at such a cost of human life were
limited to the barren discovery of the ice-clad coast of Nova Zembla.
Nothing had been effected towards the accomplishment of a Northeast
Passage.
Martin Frobisher, a seaman of experience and enterprise, was the
first Englishman to cherish the project of attempting to penetrate
to Asia by the channel supposed to exist to the north of America.
He communicated his design to his friends, and spent fifteen years
in fruitless efforts to enlist capital and energy in the cause.
Sailors, financiers, merchants, statesmen,--all regarded the scheme as
visionary and hopeless. At last Lord Dudley, the favorite of Elizabeth,
interested himself in Frobisher's success, and from that moment he
experienced little difficulty in accomplishing his object. He formed
a company, amassed the requisite sums of money, and purchased three
small vessels,--two barks of twenty-five tons each, the Gabriel and
the Michael, and a pinnace of ten tons. This valiant little fleet
weighed anchor at Deptford on the 8th of June, 1576, and, passing the
court assembled at Greenwich, discharged their ordnance, and made as
imposing an appearance as their limited outfit would allow. Queen
Elizabeth waved her hand at the commander from a window, and, bidding
him farewell, wished him success and a happy return. On the 25th he
passed the southern point of Shetland,--known as Swinborn Head. He
anchored here to repair a leak and to take in fresh water. On the 10th
of July, he descried the coast of Greenland, "rising like pinnacles
of steeples, and all covered with snow." The crew made efforts to go
ashore, but could find no anchorage for the vessels, or landing-place
for the boats. On the 28th, Frobisher saw dimly, through the fog, what
he supposed to be the coast of Labrador, enveloped in ice. On the 31st
he saw land for the third time, and on the 11th of August entered a
strait to which he gave his name.
He ascended this strait a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. It
was not till the eighth day that he saw any inhabitants. He then found
that the country was sparsely settled by a race resembling Tartars.
He went ashore and established friendly relations with a colony of
nineteen persons, to each one of whom he gave a "threaden point,"--in
other words, a needle and thread. A few days afterwards, five of the
crew were taken by the natives and their boat destroyed. The inlet in
which this happened was called Five Men's Sound. The next morning the
vessels ran in-shore, shot off a fauconet and sounded a trumpet, but
heard nothing of the lost sailors. However, Frobisher caught one of the
natives in return, having decoyed him by the tinkling of a bell. When
he found himself in captivity, we are told that "from very choler and
disdain he bit his tongue in twain within his mouth: notwithstanding,
he died not thereof, but lived until he came to England, and then
he died of cold which he had taken at sea." On the 26th of August,
Frobisher weighed anchor and started to return to England, the snow
lying a foot deep upon the decks. He arrived at Yarmouth on the 1st of
October.
One of Frobisher's sailors had brought with him a bit of shining black
stone, which, upon examination, was found to yield an infinitesimal
quantity of gold. The Northwest Passage became now a matter of
secondary interest, the mines of Frobisher's Strait promising a more
speedy and abundant return. The society he had formed determined to
send him out anew, in vessels better equipped and provisioned for a
longer period. He left Blackwall on the 26th of May, 1577, in her
Majesty's ship Aide, of one hundred and eighty tons, followed by the
Gabriel and Michael, his ostensible object being to discover "America
to be an island environed with the sea, wherethrough our merchants
may have course and recourse with their merchandise, from these our
northernmost parts of Europe to those oriental coasts of Asia, to their
no little commodity and profit that do or shall frequent the same." The
fleet passed the Orkneys on the 8th of June.
For a month they sailed to the westward, the season of the year being
that when, in those latitudes, a bright twilight takes the place of the
light of day during the few hours that the sun is below the horizon; so
that the crew had "the fruition of their books and other pleasures,--a
thing of no small moment to such as wander in unknown seas and long
navigations, especially when both the winds and raging surges do pass
their common and wonted course." Throughout the voyage they met huge
fir-trees, which they supposed to have been uprooted by the winds,
driven into the sea by floods, and borne away by the currents.
On the 4th of July they made the coast of Greenland. The chronicler
of this voyage, who had doubtless lately visited tropical latitudes,
remarks that here, "in place of odoriferous and fragrant smells of
sweet gums and pleasant notes of musical birds, which other countries
in more temperate zones do yield, we tasted in July the most boisterous
boreal blasts." In the middle of the month they entered Frobisher's
Strait. On either side the land lay locked in the embrace of winter
beneath a midsummer sun. Frobisher would not believe that the cold
was sufficiently severe to congeal the sea-water, the tide rising and
falling a distance of twenty feet. Ten miles from the coast he had seen
fresh-water icebergs, and concluded that they had been formed upon the
land and by some accidental cause detached. He reconnoitred the coast
in a pinnace, and penetrated some distance into the interior, returning
with accounts of supposed riches which he had discovered in the bowels
of barren and frozen mountains. A cargo of two hundred tons of the
precious earth was taken on board of one of the vessels. On the 20th of
August, says the narrative, "it was high time to leave: the men were
well wearied, their shoes and clothes well worn; their basket-bottoms
were torn out and their tools broken. Some, with overstraining
themselves, had their bellies broken, and others their legs made lame.
About this time, too, the water began to congeal and freeze about our
ships' sides o' nights." The fleet, which had troubled itself very
little with the Northwest Passage, at once set sail to the southeast,
and arrived in England towards the end of September.
The specimens of ore were assayed and found satisfactory, and
Frobisher's report's upon the route to China were received with favor.
The queen gave the name of _Meta Incognita_, or Unknown Boundary, to
the region explored. The Government determined to build a fort in
Frobisher's Strait and send a garrison and a corps of laborers there.
In the mean time, Frobisher was despatched a third time with the same
three vessels, and with a convoy of twelve freight-ships which were
to return laden with Labrador ore. They set sail on the 31st of May,
1578, and made Greenland on the 20th of June. In July they entered the
strait, where they were in imminent danger from storms and ice. The
bark Denis, being pretty well bruised and battered, became "so leaky
that she would no longer tarry above the water, and sank; which sight
so abashed the whole fleet that we thought verily we should have tasted
the same sauce." Boats were, however, manned, and the drowning crew
were saved. The storm increased, and the ice pressed more and more upon
them, so that they took down their topmasts. They cut their cables to
hang overboard for fenders, "somewhat to ease the ships' sides from the
great and dreary strokes of the ice. Thus we continued all that dismal
and lamentable night, plunged in this perplexity, looking for instant
death; but our God, who never leaveth them destitute which faithfully
call upon him, although he often punisheth for amendment sake, in the
morning caused the wind to cease and the fog to clear. Thus, after
punishment, consolation; and we, joyful wights, being at liberty,
hoisted our sails and lay beating off and on."
At last, at the close of July, such of the vessels as had not been
separated from Frobisher's ship entered the Countess of Warwick's
Sound, and commenced the work of mining and lading. The miners were
from time to time molested by the natives, but lost no lives. They
put on board of their several ships five hundred tons of ore, and, on
the 1st of September, sailed with their precious freight to England,
where they arrived in thirty days. The ore turned out to be utterly
valueless,--a result so mortifying, that it disgusted the English for
many years with mining enterprises and with voyages of discovery. We
shall hear of Frobisher again, in connection with Francis Drake, and in
the conflict with the Spanish Armada.
The engraving upon the opposite page, which is copied from an original
of the period, represents a portion of the royal fleet of England in
the time of Henry VIII. The king is embarking at Dover previous to
meeting Francis of France at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. This
pageantry at sea was a fitting prelude to the festivities which
followed upon the land.
[Illustration: HENRY VIII. EMBARKING AT DOVER.]
[Illustration: FRANCIS DRAKE.]
CHAPTER XXVI.
ORIGIN OF ENGLISH PIRACY--SIR JOHN HAWKINS--FRANCIS DRAKE--HIS
FIRST VOYAGE TO THE SPANISH MAIN--COMMISSION GRANTED BY QUEEN
ELIZABETH--EXPEDITION AGAINST THE SPANISH POSSESSIONS--EXPLOITS
AT MOGADOR AND SANTIAGO--CROSSING THE LINE--ARRIVAL IN
PATAGONIA--TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF DOUGHTY--PASSAGE THROUGH
MAGELLAN'S STRAIT--ADVENTURES OF WILLIAM PITCHER AND SEVEN MEN--CAPE
HORN--ARRIVAL AT VALPARAISO--RIFLING OF A CATHOLIC CHURCH.
We have thus shown that, while the Spanish and Portuguese had
succeeded triumphantly in their maritime expeditions, the English had
disastrously failed in theirs. The tropics were held in exclusive
possession by the two former nations; and the only two known routes
by which ships could sail thither were also in their power. These
two nations were Catholic: England was Protestant, and disinherited
therefore, as it seemed, of her lawful share in the riches of the
world. She had thus far wasted her means and endangered the lives of
her citizens in fruitless attempts to find a route for herself, by the
northwest or the northeast, to the lands of gold and gums. Baffled
in these efforts, she permitted, if she did not encourage, a certain
class of her subjects to engage in a system of warfare against Spain
which can be characterized by no milder term than piracy. Still, those
who resorted to it adduced ready arguments to prove that, so far from
engaging in piratical practices, they were employed in open warfare and
an honest cause. Spain and England were in a state of manifest enmity,
they urged, more bitter on both sides than if they had been avowedly
at war. No English subject trading in the Spanish dominions was safe
unless he were a Roman Catholic, or unless, being a heretic, he
succumbed to the menaces or the tortures of the Holy Inquisition. These
outrages were resented by the English people before they were taken up
by the British Government; and the injured parties, calling to their
aid all persons of adventurous spirit or shattered fortunes, set out
upon the sea, if not with the commission, at least with the connivance,
of the crown, to avenge their wrongs themselves. They did not consider
themselves to be pirates, because of this tacit sanction given by the
Government, because of the fact that they carried on hostilities, not
against all who traversed the sea, but against the Spaniards only,
and because of the risk they ran,--for if taken by the enemy they had
no mercy to expect. It thus became the fashion in England for men of
desperate fortunes and damaged character to seek to retrieve the one
and redeem the other by cruising against the Spaniards.
Among the earlier adventurers of this stamp was one Sir John Hawkins.
His exploits were for a time brilliant and successful: at last,
however, they were disastrous, and one of his young kinsmen, Francis
Drake by name, was discreditably involved. The latter had embarked his
whole means in this adventure, and lost in it all his money and no
little reputation,--for he disobeyed orders and deserted his benefactor
and superior in the hour of need. He brought his vessel,--the Judith,
of fifty tons,--however, safely home.
Drake now resolved to engage permanently in the lawless but exciting
career of which he had lately witnessed several interesting episodes.
It was long before he could obtain the means of fitting out an
expedition under his own command. He at last bought and equipped
two vessels,--one of two hundred and fifty tons, the other of
seventy,--manned them with seventy-three men, and sailed for the
Spanish dominions in America. He attacked and took the town of Nombre
de Dios, on the Isthmus of Darien, but was soon obliged to retreat.
He afterwards took Venta Cruz, on the same isthmus, and had the good
fortune to fall in with three convoys of mules laden with gold and
silver, going from Panama to Nombre de Dios. He carried off the gold
and buried the silver. From the summit of a mountain he obtained
a sight of the Pacific Ocean or South Sea, which so kindled his
enthusiasm that he uttered a fervent prayer that he might be the first
Englishman who should sail upon it. He was already the first Englishman
who had beheld it.
On his return to England with his treasure, he entered for a time
the volunteer service against Ireland, while waiting an opportunity
to execute the grand project he had formed. At last, Sir Christopher
Hutton, Vice-Chamberlain and Counsellor of the Queen, presented him to
Elizabeth, to whom Drake imparted his scheme of ravaging the Spanish
possessions in the South Sea. The queen listened; but whether she gave
him a commission, or merely assured him of her favorable sentiments,
is a disputed point. It is alleged that she gave him a sword and
pronounced these singular words:--"We do account that he which striketh
at thee, Drake, striketh at us!" He fitted out an expedition, at his
own cost and with the help of friends and partners in the enterprise,
consisting of five ships,--the largest, the Pelican, his flag-ship,
of one hundred tons, and the smallest of fifteen. These vessels were
manned by one hundred and fifty-four men. They carried out the frames
of four pinnaces, to be put together as occasion required, and, after
the example of the Portuguese in their first Eastern voyages, took with
them specimens of the arts and civilization of their country, with
which to operate upon the minds of the people with whom they should
come in contact. They sailed in November, 1577, but were driven back by
a tempest. The expedition finally got to sea on the 13th of December.
At the island of Mogador, off the coast of Barbary, Drake attempted to
traffic with the Moors, and in an exchange of hostages lost a man, who
was taken by the natives: they then refused to trade, and Drake, after
a vain effort to recover the sailor, left the island, and followed the
African coast to the southward. Between Mogador and Cape Blanco he took
several Spanish barks called canters,--one of which, measuring forty
tons, he admitted into his fleet, sending his prisoners off in the
Christopher, the pinnace of fifteen tons and one of the original five
vessels. He landed on the island of Mayo, where the inhabitants salted
their wells, forsook their houses, and drove away their goats. Off
the island of Santiago he took a Portuguese vessel bound for Brazil,
carrying numerous passengers and laden with wine. He kept the pilot,
Nuno da Sylva, gave the passengers and crew a pinnace, and transferred
the wine to the Pelican. The prize he made one of the fleet, having
given her a crew of twenty-eight men.
At Cape Verd Drake left the African shore, and, steering steadily
to the southwest, was nine weeks without seeing land. When near the
equator, he prepared his men for the change of climate by bleeding
them all himself. He made the coast of Brazil on the 4th of April,
1578,--the savage inhabitants making large bonfires at their approach,
for the purpose, as he learned from Sylva, of inducing their devils to
wreck the ships upon their coast. On the 27th he entered the Rio de
la Plata, and, sailing up the stream till he found but three fathoms'
water, filled his casks by the ship's side. The same night, the
Portuguese prize, now named the Mary, and commanded by John Doughty,
parted company, as did two days afterwards the Spanish canter, which
had been named the Christopher, after the pinnace for which she had
been exchanged. Drake, believing them to have concealed themselves in
shoal water, built a raft and set sail in quest of them.
[Illustration: DRAKE AND HIS RAFT.]
Early in June, Drake landed on the coast of Patagonia, where he broke
up the Swan, of fifty tons, for firewood, having taken every thing
out of her which could be of any use,--his object being to lessen the
number of ships and the chances of separation, and to render his force
more compact. His men easily killed two hundred and fifty seals in an
hour, which furnished them with very tolerable eating. They entered
into very pleasant relations with the natives, delighting them with
the sound of their trumpets, intoxicating them with Canary wine, and
dancing with them in their own savage and extravagant manner. The
natives gave Drake a vexatious proof of their agility and address,
by stealing his hat from his head and baffling every effort made to
recover it. Shortly after sailing from this spot, named by Drake Seal
Bay, the fleet fell in with the Christopher again, which Drake ordered
to be unloaded and set adrift. He soon met the Portuguese Mary, and on
the 20th the whole squadron anchored in the harbor named Port Julian by
Magellan. Intercourse was attempted with the Indians, but was stopped
on account of a fray begun by the savages, in which two of the English
and one of their own party were killed. The natives made no further
attempt to molest the strangers during their two months' stay in the
harbor.
[Illustration: DRAKE AND THE PATAGONIANS.]
A very tragical event now followed. Magellan had in this place, as
we have stated, quelled a dangerous mutiny, by hanging several of a
disobedient and rebellious company. The gibbet was still standing,
and beneath it the bones of the executed were now bleaching. Drake
apprehended a similar peril, and was led to inquire into the actions
of John Doughty. He found, in his investigations, that Doughty had
embarked in the enterprise rather in the hope of rising to the chief
command than of remaining what he started,--a gentleman volunteer:
he had views, it seemed, of supplanting Drake by exciting a mutiny,
and of sailing off in one of the ships upon his own account. The
company were called together and made acquainted with the particulars;
Doughty was tried for attempting to foment a mutiny, found guilty, and
condemned to death by forty commissaries chosen from among the various
crews. Doughty partook of the communion with Drake and several of his
officers, dined at the same table with them, and, in the last glass
of wine he ever raised to his lips, drank their healths and wished
them farewell. He walked to the place of execution without displaying
unusual emotion, embraced the general, took leave of the company,
offered up a prayer for the queen and her realm, and was then beheaded
near Magellan's gibbet. Drake addressed the company, exhorting them to
unity and obedience, and ordered them to prepare to receive the holy
communion on the following Sabbath, the first Sunday in the month.
[Illustration: DRAKE CONDEMNING DOUGHTY.]
This tragedy has been embellished by many fanciful additions on the
part of Drake's apologists, and upon the part of his calumniators
by many false statements. It is said by the former that Drake,
after Doughty's condemnation, offered him the choice of three
alternatives,--either to be executed in Patagonia, to be set ashore
and left, or to be sent back to England, there to answer for his acts
before the Lords of her Majesty's Council; and that Doughty replied
that he would not endanger his soul by being left among savage
infidels; that, as for returning to England, if any one could be found
willing to accompany him on so disgraceful an errand, the shame of the
return would be more grievous than death; that he therefore preferred
ending his life where he was,--a choice from which no argument could
persuade him. These assertions can hardly be correct, as nothing of
the kind is set forth in the account of the voyage given by Fletcher,
the chaplain of the expedition. It is highly improbable that Doughty,
if conscious of innocence, would have rejected the offer of a trial in
England; while it is unlikely that the offer was ever made, as Drake
could ill spare a ship in which to send the prisoner home. Different
opinions are held in the matter by different writers. Admiral Burney
thought the statements too imperfect for forming, and the whole matter
too delicate to express, an opinion. Dr. Johnson wrote thus on the
subject:--"What designs Doughty could have formed with any hope of
success, or to what actions worthy of death he could have proceeded
without accomplices, it is difficult to imagine. Nor, on the other
hand, does there appear any temptation, from either hope, fear, or
interest, that might induce Drake, or any commander in his state, to
put to death an innocent man on false pretences." Southey, in his Lives
of the Admirals, is disposed to consider Drake as justified in making
a severe example. Harris is of opinion that the act was "the most rash
and blameworthy of the admiral's career." Sylva, Drake's Portuguese
pilot, once said that Doughty was punished for attempting to abandon
the expedition and return to England, and thus evidently thought that a
sufficient motive existed for his execution. And it is worth remarking
that the Spaniards, who never neglected an opportunity of loading Drake
with obloquy, extolled him in this case for his vigilance and decision.
Doughty was buried on an island in the harbor, together with the bodies
of the two men slain in the fray with the savages.
The Portuguese prize, being now found leaky and troublesome, was
broken up, the fleet being thus reduced to three. On the 21st of
August, Drake entered Magellan's Strait,--being the second commander
who ever performed the voyage through it. He cleared the channel in
sixteen days, and entered the South Sea on the 6th of September. Here
the Marygold was lost in a terrible storm, and the Elizabeth, being
separated from Drake's vessel, wandered about in search of him for
a time and then sailed for England, where her captain was disgraced
for having abandoned his commander. Drake was driven from the Bay of
Parting of Friends, as he named the spot in which he lost sight of the
Elizabeth, and was swept southward to the coast of Terra del Fuego,
where he was forced from his anchorage and obliged to abandon the
pinnace, with eight men in it and one day's provisions, to the mercy of
the winds.
The miseries endured by these eight men are hardly equalled in the
annals of maritime disaster. They gained the shore, salted and dried
penguins for food, and coasted on till they reached the Plata. Six
of them landed, and, of these six, four were taken prisoners by the
Indians. The other two were wounded in attempting to escape to the
boat, as were the two who were left in charge. These four succeeded
in reaching an island nine miles from the coast, where two of them
died of their wounds. The other two lived for two months upon crabs
and eels, and a fruit resembling an orange, which was the only means
they had of quenching their thirst. One night their boat was dashed to
pieces against the rocks. Unable longer to endure the want of water,
they attempted to paddle to land upon a plank ten feet long. This was
the laborious work of three days and two nights. They found a rivulet
of fresh water; and one of them, William Pitcher, unable to resist the
temptation of drinking to excess, died of its effects in half an hour.
His companion was held in captivity for nine years by the Indians, when
he was permitted to return to England.
Drake, after the loss of the pinnace, was driven again to the
southward, and, in the quaint language of the times, "fell in with
the uttermost part of the land towards the South Pole, where the
Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea meet in a large and free scope." He
saw the cape since called Cape Horn, and anchored there: he gave the
name of Elizabethides to all the islands lying in the neighborhood.
As he neither doubled nor named this cape, it remained for the daring
navigators Schouten and Lemaire to demonstrate its importance, by
passing around it from one ocean into the other, which Drake, it will
be observed, had not done. He went ashore, however, and, leaning over
a rock which extended the farthest into the sea, returned to the ship
and told the crew that he had been farther south than any man living.
He anchored at the island of Mocha on the 29th of November, having
coasted for four weeks to the northward along the South American shore.
He landed with ten men, and was attacked by the Indians, who took them
for Spaniards. Two of his men were killed, all of them disabled, and he
himself badly wounded with an arrow under the right eye. Not one of the
assailants was hurt. Drake made no attempt to take vengeance for this
unprovoked attack, as it was evident it was begun under the mistaken
idea that they were Spaniards, whose atrocities had made every native
of the country their enemy. He sailed for Peru on the same day.
Early in December he learned, from an Indian who was found fishing
in his canoe, that he had passed twenty miles beyond the port of
Valhario,--now Valparaiso; and that in this port lay a Spanish ship
well laden. Drake sailed for this place, where he found the ship riding
at anchor, with eight Spaniards and three negroes on board. These,
taking the new-comers for friends,--for the Spaniards had never yet
seen an enemy in this ocean,--welcomed them with drum and trumpet,
and opened a jar of Chili wine in which to drink their health. Thomas
Moore, the former captain of the Christopher pinnace, was the first to
board the unsuspecting craft. He laid lustily about him, upon which
the principal Spaniard crossed himself and jumped overboard. The rest
were easily secured under the hatches. The prize was rifled, and one
thousand seven hundred and seventy jars of Chili wine, sixty thousand
pieces of gold, and a number of strings of pearls, were taken from
her. The miserable town, consisting of nine families, who at once fled
to the interior, was next ransacked. A poor little church was robbed
of a silver chalice, two cruets, and a cloth with which the altar was
spread. A warehouse was forced to disgorge its store of Chili wine and
cedar planks. Thus did Drake, armed with the sanction of Elizabeth,
Queen of England, plunder a handful of inoffensive men securely
anchored in a peaceful roadstead, who saluted their coming with music
and with wine. Thus did Drake commit sacrilege in a Christian church,
and furnish the mess-room of his ship from the spoils of a Catholic
altar. Even Southey admits that, in this affair, Drake deserves no
other name than that of pirate. And we shall see that he deserved it
equally well throughout his stay upon the coast.
[Illustration: SEA ANEMONES.]
CHAPTER XXVII.
DRAKE'S EXPLOIT WITH A SLEEPING SPANIARD--HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AT
CALLAO--BATTLE WITH A TREASURE-SHIP--DRAKE GIVES A RECEIPT FOR
HER CARGO--INDITES A TOUCHING EPISTLE--HIS PLANS FOR RETURNING
HOME--FRESH CAPTURES--PERFORMANCES AT GUATULCO AND ACAPULCO--DRAKE
DISMISSES HIS PILOT--EXCEEDING COLD WEATHER--DRAKE REGARDED AS A
GOD BY THE CALIFORNIANS--SAILS FOR THE MOLUCCAS--VISITS TERNATE AND
CELEBES--THE PELICAN UPON A REEF--THE RETURN VOYAGE--PROTEST OF THE
SPANISH AMBASSADOR--HE STYLES DRAKE THE MASTER-THIEF OF THE UNKNOWN
WORLD--QUEEN ELIZABETH ON BOARD THE PELICAN--DRAKE'S USE OF HIS
FORTUNE--HIS DEATH--THE VOYAGE OF JOHN DAVIS TO THE NORTHWEST.
A fortnight after leaving Valparaiso, Drake anchored at the mouth of
the Coquimbo. The watering party sent ashore had barely time to escape
from a body of five hundred horse and foot. At another place, called
Tarapaca, the waterers found a Spaniard lying asleep, and took from him
thirteen bars of silver of the value of four thousand ducats. Southey
states, as if it were a trait of magnanimity, that no personal injury
was offered to the sleeping man. They next captured eight lamas, each
carrying a hundred pounds of silver. At Arica they found two ships at
anchor, a single negro being on board of each: from the one they took
forty bars of silver, and from the other two hundred jars of wine.
As the Pelican was more than a match for the two negroes, the latter
wisely offered no resistance. Drake arrived at Callao, the port of
Lima,--Lima being the capital of Peru,--before it was known that an
enemy's ship had entered the waters of the Pacific. He immediately
boarded a bark laden with silk, which he consented to leave unmolested
on condition that the owner would pilot him into Callao, which he
did. Here Drake found seventeen ships, twelve of which had sent their
sails ashore, so that they were as helpless as logs. He rifled them of
their silver, silk, and linen, and then cut their cables and let them
drift out to sea. Learning that a richly-laden treasure-ship, named
the Cacafuego, had lately sailed for Paita, he at once gave chase. He
stopped a vessel bound for Callao; and such was his thirst for gain,
that he took from it a small silver lamp, the only article of value
on board. In a ship bound to Panama he found forty bars of silver,
eighty pounds of gold, and a golden crucifix set with large emeralds.
Soon after crossing the line, the Cacafuego was discovered ten miles
to seaward, by Drake's brother John. The Pelican's sailing qualities
were now improved by what Sylva, the pilot, calls a "pretty device."
Empty jars were filled with water and hung with ropes over the stern,
in order to lighten her bow. The Spaniard, not dreaming of an enemy,
made towards her, whereupon Drake gave her three broadsides, shot her
mainmast overboard, and wounded her captain. She then surrendered.
Drake took possession, sailed with her two days and two nights from
the coast, and then lay to to rifle her. He took from her an immense
quantity of pearls and precious stones, eighty pounds of gold,
twenty-six tons of silver in ingots, a large portion of which belonged
to the king, and thirteen boxes of coined silver. The value of this
prize was not far from one million of dollars. Then, as if he had been
engaged in a legal commercial transaction, Drake asked the captain for
his register of the cargo, and wrote a receipt in the margin for the
whole amount!
The prize, thus lightened of her metallic cargo, was then allowed to
depart. Her captain received from Drake a letter of safe conduct in
case he should fall in with the Elizabeth or the Mary. This letter is
remarkable for its deep and touching piety. After recommending the
despoiled captain to the friendly notice of Winter and Thomas, Drake
concludes thus:--"I commit you all to the tuition of Him that with
his blood hath redeemed us, and am in good hope that we shall be in no
more trouble, but that he will help us in adversity; desiring you, for
the passion of Christ, if you fall into any danger, that you will not
despair of God's mercy, for he will defend you and preserve you from
all peril, and bring us to our desired haven: to whom be all honor, and
praise, and glory, forever and ever. Amen.
"Your sorrowful captain,
Whose heart is heavy for you,
FRANCIS DRAKE."
Drake now considered his object in these seas as accomplished: the
indignities offered by the Spaniards to his queen and country were
avenged, and their commerce was well-nigh annihilated. He next examined
the various plans of returning home with his booty. He thought it
impossible to go back by the way he had come: the whole coast of Chili
and Peru was in alarm, and ships had undoubtedly been despatched to
intercept him. Moreover, the season (for it was now February, 1579)
was unfavorable either for passing the Strait or for doubling the
Cape. He might have followed the course of Magellan, and thus have
circumnavigated the globe; but this seemed but a paltry imitation to
his daring and inventive mind. He conceived the idea of discovering
a Northwest Passage and returning to England by the North Polar Sea.
He therefore sailed towards the north, making the coast of Nicaragua
in the middle of March. Here he captured a small craft laden with
sarsaparilla, butter, and honey. A neighboring island supplied him with
wood and fish: alligators and monkeys also abounded there. A vessel
from Manilla, which he captured while her crew were asleep, contributed
to his stores large quantities of muslin, Chinese porcelain, and silks.
A negro taken from this vessel piloted him into the haven of Guatulco,
on the coast of Mexico, inhabited by seventeen Spaniards and a few
negroes. Drake ransacked this place, but boasts of no other booty
than a bushel of silver coins and a gold chain that Thomas Moon took
from the person of the escaping governor. At Acapulco he found a few
Spaniards engaged in trying and condemning a parcel of the unhappy
natives. He broke up the court, and sent both judges and prisoners on
board his vessel.
[Illustration: DRAKE INTERRUPTING THE COURSE OF JUSTICE AT ACAPULCO.]
Before leaving Acapulco, Drake put the pilot, Nuno da Sylva, whom he
had taken at the Cape Verds, on board a ship in the harbor, to find his
way back to Portugal as best he could. He then sailed four thousand
five hundred miles in various directions, till he found himself in a
piercingly cold climate, where the meat froze as soon as it was removed
from the fire. This was in latitude forty-eight north. So he sailed
back again ten degrees and anchored in an excellent harbor on the
California coast. This harbor is considered by numerous authorities as
the present Bay of San Francisco. The natives, who had been visited but
once by Europeans,--under the Portuguese Cabrillo, thirty-seven years
before,--had not learned to distrust them, and readily entered into
relations of commerce and amity with Drake's party. From the Indians
the latter obtained quantities of an herb which they called _tabak_,
and which was undoubtedly tobacco. The Californians soon came to regard
the strangers as gods, and did them religious honors. The king resigned
to Drake all title to the surrounding country, and offered to become
his subject. So he took possession of the crown and dignity of the
said territory in the name and for the use of her majesty the queen.
The Californians, we are told, accompanied this act of surrender with
a song and dance of triumph, "because they were not only visited of
gods, but the great and chief god was now become their god, their king
and patron, and themselves the only happy and blessed people in all
the world." Drake named the country New Albion, in honor of Old Albion
or England. He set up a monument of the queen's "right and title to
the same, namely, a plate nailed upon a fair great post, whereon was
engraved her majesty's name, with the day and year of arrival." After
remaining five weeks in the harbor, Drake weighed anchor, on the 23d of
July, resolved to abandon any further attempt in northern latitudes,
and to steer for the Moluccas, after the example of Magellan.
On the 13th of October he discovered several islands in latitude
eight degrees north, and was soon surrounded with canoes laden with
cocoanuts and fruit. These canoes were hollowed out of a single log
with wonderful art, and were as smooth as polished horn, and decorated
throughout with shells thickly set. The ears of the natives hung down
considerably from the weight of the ornaments worn in them. Their nails
were long and sharp, and were evidently used as a weapon. Their teeth
were black as jet,--an effect obtained by the use of the betel-root.
These people were friendly and commercially inclined. Drake visited
other groups, where the principal occupation of the natives was selling
cinnamon to the Portuguese. At Ternate, one of the Moluccas, the king
offered the sovereignty of the isles to Drake, and sent him presents
of "imperfect and liquid sugar,"--molasses, probably,--"rice, poultry,
cloves, and meal which they called sagu, or bread made of the tops of
certain trees, tasting in the mouth like sour curds, but melting like
sugar, whereof they made certain cakes which may be kept the space of
ten years, and yet then good to be eaten." Drake stayed here six days,
laid in a large stock of cloves, and sailed on the 9th of November. At
a small island near Celebes, where he set up his forge and caused the
ship to be carefully repaired, he and his men saw sights which they
have described in somewhat exaggerated terms:--"tall trees without
branches except a tuft at the very top, in which swarms of fiery worms,
flying in the air, made a show as if every twig had been a burning
candle; bats bigger than large hens,--a very ugly poultry; cray-fish,
or land-crabs, one of which was enough for four men, and which dug
huge caves under the roots of trees, or, for want of better refuge,
would climb trees and hide in the forks of the branches." This spot was
appropriately named Crab Island.
On the 9th of January, 1580, the ship ran upon a rocky shoal and stuck
fast. The crew were first summoned to prayers, and then ordered to
lighten the ship. Three tons of cloves were thrown over, eight guns,
and a quantity of meal and pulse. One authority says distinctly that no
gold or silver was thrown into the water, though it was the heaviest
part of the cargo; another authority asserts the contrary in the
following passage:--"Conceiving that the best way to lighten the ship
was to ease their consciences, they humbled themselves by fasting,
afterwards dining on Christ in the sacrament, expecting no other than
to sup with him in heaven. Then they cast out of their ship six great
pieces of ordnance, threw overboard as much wealth as would break the
heart of a miser to think of it, with much sugar and packs of spices,
making a caudle of the sea round about." The ship was at last freed,
and started again on her way. Her adventures from this point offer no
very salient features: she stopped at Java, the Cape of Good Hope, and
Sierra Leone. In the latter place Drake saw troops of elephants, and
oysters fastened on to the twigs of trees and hanging down into the
water in strings.
Drake arrived at Plymouth after a voyage of two years and ten
months. Like Magellan, he found he had lost a day in his reckoning.
He immediately repaired to court, where he was graciously received,
his treasure, however, being placed in sequestration, to answer
such demands as might be made, upon it. Drake was denounced in
many quarters as a pirate, while in others collections of songs and
epigrams were made, celebrating him and his ship in the highest terms.
The Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, who called him the
Master-Thief of the Unknown World, demanded that he should be punished
according to the laws of nations. Elizabeth firmly asserted her right
of navigating the ocean in all parts, and denied that the Pope's
grant of a monopoly in the Indies to the Spaniards and Portuguese
was of any binding effect upon her. She yielded, however, so far as
to restore, to the agent of several of the merchants whom Drake had
despoiled, large sums of money. Enough remained, however, to make the
expedition a remunerating one for the captors. The queen then, in a
pompous and solemn ceremony, gave to the entire affair an official and
governmental ratification. She ordered Drake's ship to be drawn up in
a little creek near Deptford, to be there preserved as a monument of
the most memorable voyage the English had ever yet performed. She went
on board of her, and partook of a banquet there with the commander,
who, kneeling at her feet, rose up Sir Francis Drake. The Westminster
students inscribed a Latin quatrain upon the mainmast, of which the
following lines are a translation:
"Sir Drake, whom well the world's end knows, which thou didst compass
round,
And whom both poles of heaven saw--which north and south do bound,--
The stars above will make thee known, if men here silent were:
The sun himself cannot forget his fellow-traveller."
The ship remained at Deptford till she decayed and fell to pieces: a
chair was made from one of her planks and presented to the University
of Oxford, where it is still to be seen.
[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH KNIGHTING DRAKE.]
Such was the first voyage around the world accomplished by an
Englishman. Drake's success awakened the spirit and genius of
navigation in the English people, and may be said to have contributed
in no slight degree to the naval supremacy they afterwards acquired.
If, in accordance with the manner of the times, he was quite as much
a pirate as a navigator, and mingled plunder and piety, prayer and
pillage, in pretty equal proportions, and is to be judged accordingly,
he at least made a noble use of the fortune he had acquired, in aiding
the queen in her wars with Spain, and in encouraging the construction
of public works. He built, with his own resources, an aqueduct twenty
miles in length, with which to supply Plymouth with water. He died at
sea, while commanding an expedition against the Spanish West India
Islands. He wrote no account of his adventures and discoveries.
A volume published by Nuno da Sylva, his Portuguese pilot, whose
statements were confirmed by the officers, has served as the basis of
the various narratives in existence.
We may briefly allude here to an attempt made in 1585, under the
auspices of the English Government, by John Davis, a seaman of
acknowledged ability, with two ships,--the Sunshine and Moonshine,--to
discover the Northwest Passage. After a voyage of six weeks, he saw,
in north latitude 60°, a mountainous and ice-bound promontory. It was
the southwestern point of Greenland, and he gave it the name of Cape
Desolation, which it still retains. He now sailed to the northwest,
discovered islands, coasts, and harbors, to which he gave appropriate
appellations. He thus was the first to enter the strait which bears
his name, and beyond which Baffin, thirty years later, was to discover
the vast bay which, in its turn, was to bear his name. Davis made two
subsequent voyages to these waters in search of a passage across the
continent, but, with the exception of the discovery of Davis' Strait,
effected nothing which needs to be chronicled here. This single
discovery, however, was one of the utmost importance, as it served to
stimulate research and to encourage further effort in this direction.
More than two centuries were nevertheless destined to elapse before
success was to be attained.
[Illustration: BRITISH SHIP OF WAR OF 1578 FROM TAPESTRY IN THE HOUSE
OF LORDS.]
CHAPTER XXVIII.
POLICY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH--THOMAS CAVENDISH--HIS FIRST
VOYAGE--EXPLOITS UPON THE AFRICAN AND BRAZILIAN COASTS--PORT
DESIRE--PORT FAMINE--BATTLES WITH THE ARAUCANIANS--CAPTURE OF
PAITA--ROBBERY OF A CHURCH--REPEATED ACTS OF BRIGANDAGE--CAPTURE
OF THE SANTA ANNA--THE RETURN VOYAGE--CAVENDISH'S ACCOUNT OF THE
EXPEDITION--THE SPANISH ARMADA--PREPARATIONS IN ENGLAND--THE
CONFLICT--TOTAL ROUT OF THE INVINCIBLES--PROCESSION IN COMMEMORATION
OF THE EVENT.
Queen Elizabeth had found it to her advantage to encourage displays
of public spirit in private individuals, and to excite the nobles and
persons of fortune who were ambitious of distinction, as well as the
indigent in search of employment, to hazard, the one their wealth, the
other their lives, in the national service. She thus derived benefit
from a class of people who had been of little use in any other reign.
Many gentlemen of rank and position devoted a portion of their means
to harassing the Spanish at sea, to prosecuting discovery in distant
quarters, and to planting colonies upon savage coasts. Among the most
distinguished of these was Thomas Cavendish, of Trimley, near Ipswich.
[Illustration: CAVENDISH IN BRAZIL.]
This gentleman was of an honorable family, and possessed a large
estate. He equipped, in 1586, three ships of the requisite burden,--the
largest, the Desire, being of one hundred and forty tons, the lesser,
the Content, being of sixty, and the least, the Hugh Gallant, a bark
of forty tons. He provisioned them for two years, and manned them
with one hundred and twenty-three officers and men, some of whom had
served under Sir Francis Drake. His patron, Lord Hunsdon, procured him
a commission from Queen Elizabeth, thus assimilating his vessels to
those of the navy, and rendering his contemplated piracies legitimate.
Cavendish sailed from Plymouth on the 21st of July, directing his
course to the south and touching upon the coasts of Guinea and Sierra
Leone. Here the crew destroyed a negro town, in revenge for the death
of one of their men, whom the inhabitants had killed with a poisoned
arrow. Their course across the Atlantic to the Brazilian shore offers
no remarkable features. They erected their forge upon an island, where
they healed their sick and built a pinnace. Anchoring in a harbor
on the Patagonian coast, Cavendish named it Port Desire, after his
flag-ship,--a name which it still retains. He seems to have considered
the savages to be giants, and asserts that he saw footprints eighteen
inches long. He entered the Strait at the commencement of January,
1587, and soon discovered a miserable and forlorn settlement of
Spaniards. These numbered twenty-three men, being all that remained of
four hundred who had been left there three years before, by Sarmiento,
to colonize the Strait. They had lived in destitution for the last
eighteen months, being able to procure no other food than a scanty
supply of shell-fish, except when they surprised a thirsty deer or
seized an unsuspecting swan. They had built a fortress, in order to
exclude all other nations but their own from the passage of the Strait,
but had been compelled to leave it, owing to the intolerable stench
proceeding from the carcasses of their unhappy companions who died of
want or disease. Cavendish took the survivors on board, and named the
spot upon which the fortress was built Port Famine.
[Illustration: PORT FAMINE.]
Cavendish entered the Pacific late in February, after a tempestuous
passage from the Atlantic side. Landing upon the Chilian coast, in
the country of the Araucanians, he received a warm reception from the
natives, who mistook his men for Spaniards, by whom the territory had
been repeatedly invaded in search of gold. He afterwards undeceived
them, and found them willing to satisfy his wants when convinced that
they did not belong to that avaricious and cruel people. In another
place, inhabited by a Spanish colony, he fought a pitched battle with
two hundred horsemen, driving those who were not slain back to the
mountains. At another spot farther north, the Indians brought him
wood and water on their backs. In May he captured two prizes, taking
out of them twenty thousand pounds' worth of sugar, molasses, calico,
marmalade, and hens, and then burning them to the water's edge. He
seized upon the town of Paita, which he ransacked and burned, carrying
off a large quantity of household goods and twenty-five pounds' weight
of pieces-of-eight, or Spanish dollars. Off the island of Puna he fell
in with a ship of two hundred and fifty tons; but, being disappointed
at finding her empty, he sank her out of sheer spite. The inhabitants
of Puna were Christians, having followed the example of their cacique,
who had married a Spanish woman and had thereupon made a profession
of her religion. They were rich and industrious. Cavendish pillaged
the island, burned the church, and carried off its five bells. Being
attacked by the Spaniards and natives combined, he fought a long and
bloody battle, after which he ravaged the fields and orchards, burned
four ships on the stocks, and left the town of three hundred houses a
heap of rubbish. He took a coasting-ship, rifled and scuttled her, and
compelled her captain to become his pilot. He continued this course of
brigandage and piracy all along the South American and Mexican coasts,
destroying towns, pillaging custom-houses, and burning vessels.
Early in November, Cavendish, who had been told by the pilot he had
taken that a vessel from the Philippines was expected, richly laden, at
Acapulco, lay in wait for her off the headland of California. She was
discovered on the 4th, bearing in for the Cape. She was the Santa Anna,
of seven hundred tons, belonging to the King of Spain, and commanded
by the Admiral of the South Sea. Cavendish gave chase, and, after a
broadside and a volley of small-arms, boarded her. He was repulsed,
but renewed the action with his guns and musketry. The Spaniard was
soon forced to surrender, and her officers, going on board the Desire,
gave an account of her contents,--which they stated at thirty thousand
dollars in gold, with immense quantities of damasks, silks, satins,
musk, and provisions. This glorious prize was divided by Cavendish,
a mutiny being very nearly the result: it was, however, prevented by
the generosity of the commander. The prisoners were set on shore with
sufficient means of defence against the Indians; the Santa Anna was
burned, together with five hundred tons of her goods; and Cavendish
then set sail for the Ladrone Islands, five thousand five hundred miles
distant.
He arrived at Guam, one of the group, in forty-five days, and from
thence prosecuted his homeward voyage, through the Philippine Islands
and the Moluccas, to Java. He passed the months of April and May, 1588,
in crossing the Indian Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope. He touched at
St. Helena early in June, and, when near the Azores, in September,
heard from a Flemish ship the news of the total defeat of the great
Spanish Armada. He lost nearly all his sails in a storm off Finisterre,
and replaced them by sails of silken grass, which he had taken from
his prizes in the South Sea. The voyage of Cavendish was the third
that had been performed round the world, and was the shortest of the
three,--being accomplished in eight months' less time than that of
Drake.
Cavendish at once wrote a letter to Lord Hunsdon, in which occurs the
following brief relation of his achievements:--"It hath pleased the
Almighty to suffer me to encompass all the whole globe of the world.
I navigated along the coasts of Chili, Peru, and New Spain, where I
made great spoils. I burned and sank nineteen sail of ships, great
and small. All the towns and cities that ever I landed at I burned
and spoiled, and, had I not been discovered upon the coast, I had
taken a great quantity of treasure.... All which services, together
with myself, I humbly prostrate at her majesty's feet, desiring the
Almighty long to continue her reign among us; for at this day she is
the most famous and victorious prince that liveth in the world. Thus,
humbly desiring pardon for my tediousness, I leave your lordship to the
tuition of the Almighty."
Cavendish spent his immense wealth in equipping vessels for a second
voyage, which ended disastrously, and in which, after being beaten by
the Portuguese off the coast of Brazil, he died of shame and grief. He
ranks as one of the most enterprising, diligent, and cautious of the
early English navigators, though, of course, he must be regarded as an
arrant buccaneer.
From what we have said of the piracies of the English, and of their
encroachments upon the domain of the Spanish, and of the ardent desire
of the latter to retain the monopoly of the trade with the natives of
America and to hold the exclusive right to rob and slay them at their
pleasure, the reader will be prepared for the imposing but bombastic
attempt made by Spain against England in 1588. Philip II. determined to
put forth his strength, and his fleet was named, before it sailed, "The
most Fortunate and Invincible Armada." It was described in official
accounts as consisting of one hundred and thirty ships, manned by
eight thousand four hundred and fifty sailors, and carrying nineteen
thousand soldiers, two thousand galley-slaves, and two thousand six
hundred pieces of brass. The vessels were named from Romish saints,
from the various appellations of the Trinity, from animals and
fabulous monsters,--the Santa Catilina, the Great Griffin, and the
Holy Ghost being profanely intermixed. In the fleet were one hundred
and twenty-four volunteers of noble family, and one hundred and eighty
almoners, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits. Instruments of torture
were placed on board in large quantities, for the purpose of assisting
in the great work of reconciling England to Romanism. The Spaniards
and the Pope had resolved that all who should defend the queen and
withstand the invasion should, with all their families, be rooted out,
and their places, their honors, their titles, their houses, and their
lands, be bestowed upon the conquerors.
Elizabeth and her councillors heard these ominous denunciations
undismayed, and adequate preparations were made to receive the
crusaders. London alone furnished ten thousand men, and held ten
thousand more in reserve: the whole land-force amounted to sixty-five
thousand. The fleet numbered one hundred and eighty-one vessels,--fifty
more in number than the Armada, but hardly half as powerful in tonnage.
Eighteen of these vessels were volunteers, and but one of the one
hundred and eighty-one was of the burden of eleven hundred tons. The
Lord High-Admiral of England, Charles, Lord Howard of Effingham,
commanded the fleet, with Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher in command of
the various divisions. A form of prayer was published, and the clergy
were enjoined to read it on Wednesdays and Fridays in their parish
churches. In this, Elizabeth was compared to Deborah, preparing to
combat the pride and might of Sisera-Philip. The country awaited the
arrival of the Spaniards in anxiety, and yet with confidence.
[Illustration: HULL OF A VESSEL OF THE ARMADA.]
The Armada sailed from the Tagus late in May, with the solemn blessing
of the Church, and patronized by every influential saint in the
calendar. A storm drove it back with loss, and it did not sail again
till the 12th of July. It was descried off Plymouth on the 20th, "with
lofty turrets like castles, in front like a half-moon; the wings
thereof spreading out about the length of seven miles, sailing very
slowly, though with full sails, the winds being as it were weary with
wafting them, and the ocean groaning under their weight." The English
suffered them to pass Plymouth, that they might attack them in the
rear. They commenced the fight the next day, with only forty ships.
The Spaniards, during this preliminary action, found their ships "very
useful to defend, but not to offend, and better fitted to stand than
to move." Drake, with his usual luck, captured a galleon in which
he found fifty-five thousand ducats in gold. This sum was divided
among his crew. Skirmishing and detached fights continued for several
days, the Spanish ships being found, from their height and thickness,
inaccessible by boarding or ball. They were compared to castles pitched
into the sea. The lord-admiral was consequently instructed to convert
eight of his least efficient vessels into fire-ships. The order arrived
as the enemy's fleet anchored off Calais, and thirty hours afterwards
the eight ships selected were discharged of all that was worth removal
and filled with combustibles. Their guns were heavily loaded, and their
sides smeared with rosin and wild-fire. At midnight they were sent,
with wind and tide, into the heart of the invincible Armada. A terrible
panic seized the affrighted crews: remembering the fire-ships which
had been used but lately in the Scheldt, they shouted, in agony, "The
fire of Antwerp! The fire of Antwerp!" Some cut their cables, others
slipped their hawsers, and all put to sea, "happiest they who could
first be gone, though few could tell what course to take." Some were
wrecked on the shallows of Flanders; some gained the ocean; while the
remainder were attacked and terribly handled by Drake. The discomfited
Spaniards resolved to return to Spain by a northern circuit around
England and Scotland. The English pursued, but the exhausted state
of their powder-magazines prevented another engagement. The luckless
Armada never returned to Spain. A terrific storm drove the vessels
upon the Irish coast and upon the inhospitable rocks of the Orkneys.
Thirty of them were stranded near Connaught: two had been cast away
upon the shores of Norway. In all, eighty-one ships were lost, and but
fifty-three reached home. Out of thirty thousand soldiers embarked,
fourteen thousand were missing. Philip received the calamity as a
dispensation of Providence, and ordered thanks to be given to God that
the disaster was no greater.
[Illustration: PROCESSION IN HONOR OF THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA.]
A day of thanksgiving was proclaimed in England, inasmuch as "the
boar had put back that sought to lay her vineyard waste." Some time
afterwards, the queen repaired in public procession to St. Paul's.
The streets were hung with blue cloth; the royal chariot was a throne
with four pillars and a canopy overhead, drawn by white horses.
Elizabeth knelt at the altar and audibly acknowledged the Almighty as
her deliverer from the rage of the enemy. The people were exhorted
to render thanks to the Most High, whose elements--fire, wind, and
storm--had wrought more destruction to the foe than the valor of their
navy or the strength of their wooden walls.
[Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH.]
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE FICTION OF EL DORADO--MANOA--DESCRIPTION OF ITS FABLED
SPLENDORS--ATTEMPTS OF THE SPANIARDS TO DISCOVER IT--SIR WALTER
RALEIGH--HIS VOYAGE TO GUIANA--HIS ACCOUNT OF THE ORINOCO--HIS
DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENERY--HIS RETURN--HIS SECOND VOYAGE--EXPEDITION
TO NEWFOUNDLAND--HIS DEATH--MODERN INTERPRETATION OF THE LEGEND OF EL
DORADO.
The mines of the precious metals which the Spaniards had discovered in
Peru, the wealth which they annually brought home in treasure-ships to
the mother-country, together with the exaggerated accounts given by
Spanish authors respecting the splendor and the civilization of the
empire of the Incas, had now begun to excite the cupidity and inflame
the imagination of every other people in Europe. It was known that, at
the time of the conquest of Peru by Pizarro, a large number of the
natives escaped into the interior; and rumor added that one of the sons
of the reigning Inca had withdrawn across the continent to a region
situated between the Amazon and the Orinoco and called by the general
name of Guiana. Here he had founded, it was added, an empire more
splendid than that of Peru: its capital city, Manoa, only one European
had seen. This was a Spaniard, a marine on board a man-of-war, who,
according to the legend, had allowed a powder-magazine to explode and
was condemned to death for his carelessness. This penalty was commuted,
however, and he was placed in a boat at the mouth of the Orinoco, with
orders to penetrate into the interior. He stayed seven months at Manoa,
and then escaped to Porto Rico. He gave the following account of the
city and kingdom, the latter being called, he said, El Dorado, or The
Gilded:
The columns of the emperor's palace were of porphyry and alabaster,
the galleries of ebony and cedar, and golden steps led to a throne
of ivory. The palace, which was built of white marble, stood upon
an island in a lake or inland sea. Two towers guarded the entrance:
between them was a pillar twenty-five feet in height, upon which was
a huge silver moon. Beyond was a quadrangle planted with trees, and
watered by a silver fountain which spouted through four golden pipes.
The gate of the palace was of copper. Within, four lamps burned day and
night before an altar of silver upon which was a burnished golden sun.
Three thousand workmen were employed in the Street of the Silversmiths.
The name of El Dorado, as applied to the kingdom of which Manoa was the
metropolis, may refer to its wealth and splendor, or it may be derived
from a habit attributed by some to the emperor, by others to the
high-priests, and even to the inhabitants generally when in a state of
intoxication. This custom was to cause themselves to be anointed with a
precious and fragrant gum, after which gold-dust was blown upon them
through tubes, till they were completely incrusted with gold. This
attire was naturally considered sumptuous, and, in connection with the
abundance of precious metals afforded by the country, may have given
rise to the title of El Dorado. The legend, in either case, is a worthy
companion to Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth.
No geographical fiction ever caused such an expenditure of blood and
treasure as this. The Spaniards alone lost, in their attempts to
discover the city of Manoa, more lives and money than in effecting
any of their permanent conquests. New adventurers were always ready
to start, upon the discomfiture or destruction of those who had gone
before; and no disappointment suffered by the latter could daunt the
hopes of those who believed the discovery reserved for them. The
Spanish priests regarded the mania as a device of the Evil One to lure
mankind to perdition.
The greater portion of these persons were adventurers, soldiers of
fortune, and Quixotic knights-errant. The most distinguished of the
converts to a belief in the existence of an El Dorado, however, it
would be unjust to class among them. Sir Walter Raleigh, an Englishman
of the highest talent and character, after having enjoyed the favor of
Queen Elizabeth for twenty years, lost it by an intrigue with a lady
of the palace. Though he repaired the injury by marrying the lady, he
found he could not expect to be restored to grace except by performing
some exploit which should add new lustre to his name. He had long been
filled with admiration at the courage and perseverance exhibited by the
Spaniards in the pursuit of their romantic and brilliant chimera. As he
himself firmly believed it to be a reality, he determined to make an
attempt himself. A part of his design was to colonize Guiana, and thus
to extend the sphere of the industrial and commercial arts of England.
He was familiar with the sea, as he had already sent out several
expeditions for the colonization of Virginia in America.
He sailed from Plymouth in February, 1595, with five vessels and a
hundred soldiers. In order to reach the capital city of Guiana, it was
necessary to ascend the Orinoco, the navigation of which was completely
unknown to the English. As the ships drew too much water, a hundred
men embarked with Raleigh in boats and proceeded up the stream. In
these they remained for a month, exposed to all the extremes of a
tropical climate,--sometimes to the heats of a burning sun, and again
to violent and torrential rains. Raleigh's account of their progress
through the labyrinth of islands and channels at the river's mouths,
of their precarious supplies of food and water, the appearance of the
country and the manners of the natives, and, finally, of their entrance
into the grand bed of the superb Orinoco, has been admired for its
descriptive beauty as well as ridiculed for its extravagant credulity.
Indeed, it is doubted by many whether Raleigh really believed the
stories which he put in circulation. We quote a passage:
"Those who are desirous to discover and to see many nations," he
writes, "may be satisfied within this river; which bringeth forth so
many arms and branches leading to several countries and provinces,
above two thousand miles east and west, and of these the most either
rich in gold, or in other merchandises. The common soldier shall here
fight for gold, and pay himself, instead of pence, with plates of
gold half a foot broad, whereas he breaketh his bones in other wars
for provant and penury. Those commanders and chieftains who shoot at
honor and abundance shall find here more rich and beautiful cities,
more temples adorned with golden images, more sepulchres filled
with treasure, than either Cortez found in Mexico or Pizarro in
Peru; and the shining glory of this conquest will eclipse all those
so-far-extended beams of the Spanish nation. There is no country which
yieldeth more pleasure to the inhabitants, for those common delights
of hunting, hawking, fishing, fowling, and the rest, than Guiana does.
I am resolved that, both for health, good air, pleasure, and riches,
it cannot be equalled by any region in the East or West. To conclude:
Guiana is a country that hath yet her maidenhead, never sacked, turned,
nor wrought. The face of the earth hath not been torn, nor the virtue
and salt of the soil spent; the graves have not been opened for gold,
the mines not broken with sledges, nor the images pulled down out of
their temples. It hath never been entered by any army of strength, nor
conquered by any Christian prince.... I trust that He who is Lord of
lords will put it into her heart who is Lady of ladies to possess it.
If not, I will judge those most worthy to be kings thereof that by her
grace and leave will undertake it of themselves."
Raleigh ascended the stream nearly two hundred miles, when the rapid
and terrific rise of its waters compelled him to return. He took formal
possession of the country, and made the caciques swear allegiance to
Queen Elizabeth. He returned to England during the summer, having been
but five months absent. It was then that he published the narrative
from which we have quoted.
His restoration to favor precluded any further prosecution of his
designs on Guiana during the reign of Elizabeth. He was imprisoned for
thirteen years during the reign of James, her successor, for the crime
of high-treason and supposed participation in the plot to place Lady
Arabella Stuart on the throne. In 1617, he equipped a fleet of thirteen
vessels in which to proceed to Guiana for the purpose of again seeking
El Dorado. The fleet arrived in safety, but Raleigh was too unwell to
ascend the Orinoco in person. Captain Keymis led the exploring party,
and, upon being compelled to return to the ship without success, and
with the news of the death in battle of Sir Walter's eldest son,
committed suicide. Raleigh sailed to Newfoundland to victual and refit;
but a mutiny of the crews forced him to return to England, where
he was beheaded for the crime already punished by thirteen years'
confinement.
Modern historians and travellers, and men of judgment and intelligence
who have inhabited the regions at the mouth of the Orinoco, have
not hesitated to avow their opinion that the story of El Dorado is
not without some sort of foundation in fact. Humboldt accounts for
it geologically, and holds the ardent imagination of the Indians
to be answerable for the fable. He conjectures that there may be
islands and rocks of micaslate and talc in and around Lake Parima,
which, reflecting from their surfaces and angles the glowing rays of
the sun, may have been transformed by the extravagant fancy of the
natives into the gorgeous temples and palaces of a gilded metropolis.
He attempted to penetrate to the spot, but was prevented by a tribe
of Indian dwarfs. No European has ever yet visited this celebrated
locality: its great distance from the sea, the trackless forests,
the wild beasts and barbarian inhabitants, have repelled both the
conqueror and the explorer, so that it is not known to this day what
degree or what kind of authority exists for the extraordinary story
in question. But, inasmuch as Cortez passed within ten miles of the
wonderful city of Copan without hearing of it, the supposition that
there may be aboriginal cities in the unexplored regions of South
America, affording, perhaps, basis sufficient for the tale of El Dorado
without its exaggerations, is neither impossible nor improbable. The
magnificent ruins lately discovered in Yucatan, where they were not
expected, seem to argue the existence of others in regions where
positive and persistent tradition has located them.
[Illustration: NATIVE OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.]
CHAPTER XXX.
DISCOVERY OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS BY MENDANA--HE SEEKS FOR THEM
AGAIN THIRTY YEARS LATER--QUIROS--THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS--THE
WOMEN COMPARED WITH THOSE OF LIMA--STRANGE FRUITS--CONVERSIONS TO
CHRISTIANITY--ARDUOUS VOYAGE--SANTA CRUZ--MENDANA EXCHANGES NAMES WITH
MALOPÉ--HOSTILITIES--WAR, AND ITS RESULTS--DEATH OF MENDANA--QUIROS
CONDUCTS THE SHIPS TO MANILLA.
The progress of discovery now recalls us to Spain. About the year
1567, one Alvaro Mendana de Neyra, who had thus far lived in complete
obscurity, followed his uncle Don Pedro de Castro to Lima, in Peru,
where he had been appointed governor. Mendana, disdaining commerce,
and feeling little inclination to lead a monotonous life on shore,
after the taste he had had during the passage of a roving existence
upon the water, resolved to undertake the discovery of new lands in the
name of the King of Spain. His uncle encouraged him in his design and
furnished him with the necessary funds. Mendana set sail from Callao
on the 11th of January, 1568. He proceeded fourteen hundred and fifty
leagues to the west, and discovered a group of islands in about 10°
south latitude. One of them, to which he gave the name of Isabella,
is distinguished as having been the scene of the first celebration
of a Catholic mass in the Pacific Ocean. He sailed round another of
the group, St. Christopher, and, after several disastrous encounters
with the natives, returned to Callao. This voyage, the most important
undertaken by the Spanish since the discovery of America, gave rise
to multitudes of fables, with which the historians and chroniclers of
Spain filled the minds of the people during the century which followed.
The islands discovered by Mendana were represented as enormously rich
in gold and the precious metals. The name of Solomon was given to the
group,--a name which was thought to be eminently suited to so luxurious
an archipelago, having formerly been that of a luxurious prince. As
in those days the art of scientific navigation was in its infancy,
and as latitude and longitude were not fixed with any great degree of
precision, the position of the Solomon Islands was very loosely marked
down by Mendana, and the question of their locality became, and for a
long time remained, one of the most puzzling questions in geography.
Mendana sent home to the Spanish Government brilliant accounts of his
discoveries, and solicited the means of prosecuting them still further.
War and other engagements prevented the ministry from attending to
his requests till the year 1595, when he obtained the command of an
expedition having for its object the colonization of St. Christopher.
He sailed from Callao in April with four ships carrying four hundred
men: his wife, Isabel de Barretos, and three of his brothers-in-law,
accompanied him. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, of whom we shall afterwards
speak more particularly, was the pilot of the fleet. They stopped at
Paita, where they watered and enlisted four hundred additional men, and
on the 16th of June finally started in quest of the long-lost islands.
A month afterwards, being in latitude 11° south, Mendana discovered a
group of three islands, to which he gave a collective name as well as
individual names. He called them Las Marquesas de Mendoça, in honor of
the Marquis of Mendoça, a Spaniard of distinction. They are still known
as the Marquesas Islands. The natives manifested a remarkably thievish
disposition, and received several rounds of grape for pilfering the
jars of the watering party who had gone ashore. Though the chronicler
draws a comparison in speaking of the women, he yet skilfully contrives
to compliment all parties mentioned. He says, "Very fine women were
seen here. Many thought them as beautiful as those of Lima, but whiter
and not so rosy; and yet there are very beautiful at Lima. They have
delicate hands, genteel body and waiste, exceeding much in perfection
the most perfect of Lima; and yet there are very beautiful at Lima. The
temperament, health, strength, and corpulency of these people tell what
is the climate they live in: clothes could well be borne with night
and day; the sun did not molest much; there fell some small showers of
rain. Our people never perceived lightning or dew, but great dryness,
so that, without hanging up, they found dry in the morning the things
which were left wet on the ground at night." A singular fruit was
noticed, which the men eat green, roasted, boiled, and ripe. It had
neither stone nor kernel, and the Spaniards called it blanc-mange. They
likewise admired another fruit "inclosed in prickles like chestnuts,
and which resembled chestnuts in taste, but was much bigger than six
chestnuts together." Mendana ordered a grand mass to be said, during
which the islanders remained on their knees with great silence and
attention.
Mendana took possession of the islands in the king's name, and sowed
maize in many spots which he thought favorable to its growth. The
chaplain taught one of the natives to bless himself and say Jesus
Maria. This being done, the shallop being refitted, three crosses
erected, and wood and water having been stored, the squadron set sail
again for the still-missing archipelago. The soldiers soon became
despondent, and the crews were placed upon short allowance. Fourteen
hundred leagues from Lima they saw a desert island, which they called
St. Bernardo; and at fifteen hundred and thirty-five leagues' distance
they named an island the Solitary, "as it was alone." Thus they
continued their course, "many people giving their sentiments, and
saying they knew not whither they were going nor what they were coming
to, and other such things, which could not fail of giving pain." At
last, when eighteen hundred leagues from Lima, they fell in with a
large island, one hundred miles in circuit, which Mendana named Santa
Cruz--since called Egmont Island by Carteret. Here was a volcano, "of a
very fine-shaped hill, from the top whereof issues much fire, and which
often makes a great thundering inside." Fifty small boats rigged with
sails came out to the ship. The men were black, with woolly hair, dyed
white, red, and blue. Their teeth were tinged red, and their faces and
bodies marked with streaks. Their arms were bound round with bracelets
of black rattan, while their necks were decorated with strings of beads
and fishes' teeth. Mendana at once took them for the people he sought.
He spoke to them in the language he had learned upon his first voyage;
but they neither understood him, nor he them. Without provocation, they
discharged a shower of arrows at the ship, which lodged in the sails
and the rigging,--without, however, doing any mischief. The soldiers
fired in return, killing one and wounding many more.
Friendly relations were soon restored, and a savage, apparently of high
rank, visited the admiral in his ship. He was lean and gray-headed, and
his skin was of the "color of wheat." He inquired who was the chief
of the new-comers. The admiral received him with cordiality, and gave
him to understand that he was. The Indian said his name was Malopé.
The admiral replied that his was Mendana. Malopé at once rejoined
that he would be Mendana, and that the admiral should be Malopé. He
manifested much gratification at this exchange, and, whenever he was
called Malopé, said, "No: Mendana;" and, pointing to the admiral, said
that was Malopé. This was probably the first instance of an exchange of
names--one of the most solemn acts of friendship with certain tribes of
the Pacific Islanders--being effected between a European and a savage.
The natives soon learned to shake hands, to embrace, to say "friend,"
to shave with razors, and to pare their nails with scissors. This state
of amity did not last long, however, and a trivial circumstance caused
suspicion, and finally hostility. The savages commenced with arrows,
and the Spaniards retaliated with fire and sword. In the evening,
Malopé came to the shore, and, in a loud voice, called the admiral by
the name of Malopé, and, smiting his breast, declared himself to be
Mendana. He said the attack had been begun by another tribe, not his,
and proposed they should all sally forth against them. To this Mendana
did not accede, but, landing his men, proceeded to found a colony.
At this point the details furnished by the several chroniclers of the
expedition become vague and unsatisfactory. It appears that Malopé was
killed in a skirmish; that the natives were not content with merely
lamenting his death, but withheld all supplies from the Spaniards;
that Mendana caused two mutineers to be beheaded and another to be
hung. A war of extermination now commenced, and a state of sedition,
misery, and want ensued, which brought Mendana rapidly to the grave.
He died of disappointment and regret, in October, 1595. His successor,
being wounded, died in November. The crew, worn out with fatigue and
sickness, and being reduced to such an extent that twenty resolute
Indians could have destroyed them, resolved to suspend the enterprise
and re-embark. They took in wood and water, and sailed on the 7th of
November. Quiros maintained discipline among a mutinous crew, and,
after almost superhuman efforts to navigate his crazy ships upon an
unknown sea, arrived with the remains of the expedition at Manilla.
From thence Quiros--whose adventures and discoveries we shall soon have
occasion to narrate--returned to Acapulco, in Mexico, and thence to
Lima, where he petitioned the viceroy for the means of continuing the
researches of Mendana. As he did not set sail till 1606, we must first
attend to the various enterprises undertaken in the interval.
[Illustration: THE ISLANDERS BEFORE A BREEZE.]
[Illustration: THE DUTCH AT WALRUS ISLAND.]
CHAPTER XXXI.
ATTEMPTS OF THE DUTCH TO DISCOVER A NORTHEAST PASSAGE--VOYAGE OF
WILHELM BARENTZ--ARRIVAL AT NOVA ZEMBLA--WINTER QUARTERS--BUILDING A
HOUSE--FIGHTS WITH BEARS--THE SUN DISAPPEARS--THE CLOCK STOPS, AND THE
BEER FREEZES--THE HOUSE IS SNOWED UP--THE HOT-ACHE--FOX-TRAPS--TWELFTH
NIGHT--RETURN OF THE SUN--THE SHIPS PROVE UNSEAWORTHY--PREPARATIONS TO
DEPART IN THE BOATS--DEATH OF BARENTZ--ARRIVAL AT AMSTERDAM--RESULTS
OF THE VOYAGE.
In the year 1514, the Dutch resolved to seek a northeast passage
by water to the Indies, across the Polar regions of Europe. Their
first two attempts were attended with so little success that the
States-General abandoned the undertaking, contenting themselves with
promising a reward to the navigator who should find a practicable
route. In 1596, the city of Amsterdam took up the matter where the
Government had left it, and equipped two vessels, the chief command of
which was given to Wilhelm Barentz. He started on the 10th of May, and
passed the islands of Shetland and Feroë on the 22d. Not long after,
the fleet saw with wonder one of the phenomena peculiar to the Arctic
regions,--three mock suns, with circular rainbows connecting them by
a luminous halo. On the 9th of June, they discovered two islands, to
which they gave the names of Bear and Walrus Islands. They kept on,
to the usual Arctic accompaniment of icebergs, seals, auroræ boreales,
whales, and white bears, till they came to a land which they named
Spitzbergen, or Land of Sharp-peaked Mountains.
On the 17th of July, they arrived at Nova Zembla,--discovered in 1553
by Willoughby,--and here the two ships were accidentally separated.
In August, the vessel of Barentz was embayed in drifting ice, and no
efforts could release her from her dangerous position. Winter was
coming on, and the crew, despairing of saving the ship, which was now
groaning and heaving under the pressure of the ice, resolved to build
a house upon the land, "with which to defend themselves from the colde
and wilde beasts." They were fortunate enough to find a large quantity
of drift-wood, which had evidently floated from a distance, as the icy
soil around them yielded neither tree nor herb. The work began and
continued in the midst of constant fights with bears and the arduous
labor of dragging stores from the ship upon hand-sleds. The cold was
so extreme that their skin peeled off upon touching any iron utensil.
Snow storms interrupted the progress of the house, for which they were
soon obliged to obtain materials by breaking up the ship. One of the
men, being pursued by a bear, was only saved by the latter's waiting to
contemplate the body of one of his fellow-bears, which the sailors had
killed and left to freeze stiff in an upright position.
On the 12th of October, half the crew slept in the house for the
first time: they suffered greatly from cold, as they had no fire,
and because, as the narrative quaintly remarks, "they were somewhat
deficient in blankets." The roof was thatched, by the end of October,
with sail-cloth and sea-weed. On the 2d of November, the sun raised but
half his disk above the horizon: the bears disappeared with the sun,
and foxes took their place. The clock having stopped, and refusing to
proceed, even with increased weights, day could not be distinguished
from night, except by the twelve-hour-glass. The beer, freezing in
the casks, became as tasteless as water. Half a pound of bread a day
was served out to each man: the provisions of dried fish and salt meat
remained still abundant. The chimney would not draw, and the apartment
was filled with a blinding smoke,--which the crew were obliged to
endure, however, or die of cold. The surgeon made a bathing-tub from a
wine-pipe, in which they bathed four at a time. They were several times
snowed up, and the house was absolutely buried. Though half a league
from the sea, they heard the horrible cracking and groaning of the ice
as the bergs settled down one upon the other, or as the huge mountains
burst asunder. On one occasion, unable to support the cold, they made a
fire in their house with coal brought from the ship. It was the first
moment of comfort they had enjoyed for months. They kept up the genial
heat until several of the least vigorous of the men were seized with
dizziness and with the peculiar pains known as the hot-ache. Gerard de
Veer, the chronicler of the expedition, caught in his arms the first
man that fell, and revived him by rubbing his face with vinegar. He
adds, "We had now learned that to avoid one evil we should not rush
into a worse one."
[Illustration: THE DUTCH IN WINTER QUARTERS.]
They set traps all around their cabin, with which they caught on an
average a fox a day. They eat the flesh, and with the skins made caps
and mittens. They had the good fortune to kill a bear nine feet
long, from which they obtained one hundred pounds of lard. This they
found useful, not as pomatum, but as the means of burning their lamp
constantly, day and night, as if it were an altar and they the vestal
virgins. On the 19th of December, they congratulated themselves that
the Arctic night was just one-half expired; "for," says the narrative,
"it was a terrible thing to be without the light of the sun, and
deprived of the most excellent creature of God, which enliveneth the
entire universe." On Christmas eve it snowed so violently that they
could not open the door. The next day there was a white frost in
the cabin. While seated at the fire and toasting their legs, their
backs were frozen stiff. They did not know by the feeling that they
were burning their shoes, and were only warned by the odor of the
shrivelling leather. They put a strip of linen into the air, to see
which way the wind was: in an instant the linen was frozen as hard as a
board, and became, of course, perfectly useless as a weathercock. Then
the men said to each other, "How excessively cold it must be out of
doors!"
The 5th of January was Twelfth Night, and the hut was buried under the
snow. In the midst of their misery, they asked the captain's leave
to celebrate the hallowed anniversary. With flour and oil they made
pancakes, washing them down with wine saved from the day before and
borrowed in advance from the morrow. They elected a king by lot, the
master gunner being indicated by chance as the Lord of Nova Zembla. On
the 8th, the twilight was observed to be slightly lengthening, and,
though the cold increased with the returning sun, they bore it with
cheerfulness. They noticed a tinge of red in the atmosphere, which
spoke of the revival of nature. They visited the ship, and found the
ice a foot high in the hold: they hardly expected ever to see her float
again. The difficulty of obtaining fuel was now such, that many of the
men thought it would be easier and shorter to lie down and die than
make such dreadful efforts to prolong life. To save wood during the
daytime, they played snow-ball, or ran, or wrestled, to keep up the
circulation.
On the 24th of January, Gerard de Veer declared he had seen the edge
of the sun: Barentz, who did not expect the return of the luminary for
fourteen days, was incredulous, and the cloudy state of the weather
during the succeeding three days prevented the bets which were made
upon the subject from being settled. On the 27th, they buried one of
their number in a snow grave seven feet deep, having dug it with some
difficulty, the diggers being constantly obliged to return to the
fire. One of the men remarking that, even were the house completely
blocked up fifteen feet deep, they could yet get out by the chimney,
the captain climbed up the chimney, and a sailor ran out to see if
he succeeded. He rushed back, saying he had seen the sun. Everybody
hastened forth and "saw him, in his entire roundness," just above the
horizon. It was then decided that de Veer had seen the edge on the
24th, and they "all rejoiced together, praising God loudly for the
mercy."
Another season of snow now set in, while, at the same time, the ice
that bound the ship began to break up, so that the men feared she would
escape and float away while they were blockaded in the house. They were
obliged to make themselves shoes of worn-out fox-skin caps, as the
leather was frozen as hard as horn. On the night of the 6th of April,
a bear ascended to the roof of the house by means of the embankments
of snow, and, attacking the chimney with great violence, was very near
demolishing it. On the 1st of May, they eat their last morsel of meat,
relying henceforth on what they might entrap or kill.
It was now decided that even if the ship should be disengaged she would
be unfit to continue the voyage. Their only hope lay in the shallop
and the long-boat, which they endeavored to prepare for the sea, in
the midst of interruptions from bears, who "were very obstinate to
know how Dutchmen tasted." As late as the 5th of June, it snowed
so violently that they could only work within-doors, where they got
ready the sails, oars, rudder, &c. On the 12th, they set to work with
axes and other tools to level a path from the ship to the water,--a
distance of five hundred paces. On the 13th, Barentz wrote a brief
account of their voyage and sojourn, placed it in a musket-barrel,
and attached it to the fireplace in the house, for the information of
future navigators. They then dragged, with infinite labor, the boats
to the water, together with barrels and boxes of such stores as their
now impoverished ship could yield. They bade adieu to their winter
quarters on the 14th, at early morning, "with a west wind and under
the protection of Heaven." Barentz, who had been a long time ill, died
on the 20th, while opposite Icy Cape, the northernmost point of Nova
Zembla. His loss was deeply regretted; but their "grief was assuaged by
the reflection that none can resist the will of God."
The men were often obliged to drag the boats across intervening fields
of ice; and sometimes, when the wind was contrary, they drew them up
on a floating bank, and, making tents of the sails, camped out, as
if on military service. The sentinels frequently challenged bears,
and, on one occasion, three coming together and one being killed, the
surviving two devoured their fallen companion. Through dangers and
difficulties then unparalleled in navigation, they struggled hopefully
on, descending the western coast of Nova Zembla towards the northern
shores of Russia and Lapland. On the 16th of August, they met a Russian
bark, which furnished them with such provisions as the captain could
spare. On the 20th, they touched the coast of Lapland upon the White
Sea, where they found thirteen Russians living in miserable huts upon
the fish which they caught. On the 2d of September, they arrived at
Kola, in Lapland, where they found three Dutch ships, one of which was
their consort, which had been separated from them ten months before.
Having no further use for their boats, they carried them with ceremony
to the "Merchants' House," or Town-Hall, where they dedicated them to
the memory of their long voyage of four hundred leagues over a tract
never traversed before, and which they had accomplished in open boats.
They started at once for home, and arrived on the 1st of November at
Amsterdam, twelve in number. The city was greatly excited by the news
of their return, for they had long since been given up for dead. The
chancellor and the "ambassador of the very illustrious King of Denmark,
Norway, the Goths and the Vandals" were at that moment at dinner. The
voyagers were summoned to narrate their adventures before them,--which
they did, "clad in white fox-skin caps."
No voyage had hitherto been so fruitful in incident, peril, and
displays of persevering courage and fortitude. Though it resulted
in no discovery except that of the western coast of Nova Zembla, it
served the useful purpose of demonstrating the difficulty, if not the
impossibility, of effecting a northeast passage.
[Illustration: FEMALE OTTER AND HER YOUNG.]
[Illustration: THE FUNERAL OF MAHU AT BRAVA ISLAND.]
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE FIVE SHIPS OF ROTTERDAM--BATTLE AT THE ISLAND OF BRAVA--SEBALD
DE WEERT--DISASTERS IN THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN--THE CREW EAT UNCOOKED
FOOD--THE FLEET IS SCATTERED TO THE WINDS--ADVENTURES OF DE
WEERT--A WRETCHED OBJECT--RETURN TO HOLLAND--VOYAGE OF OLIVER VAN
NOORT--BARBAROUS PUNISHMENT--THE EMBLEM OF HOPE BECOMES A CAUSE OF
DESPAIR--FIGHT WITH THE PATAGONIANS--ARREST OF THE VICE-ADMIRAL--HIS
PUNISHMENT--DESCRIPTION OF A CHILEAN BEVERAGE--CAPTURE OF A SPANISH
TREASURE-SHIP--A PILOT THROWN OVERBOARD--SEA-FIGHT OFF MANILLA--RETURN
HOME, AFTER THE FIRST DUTCH VOYAGE OF CIRCUMNAVIGATION.
The Dutch, who had now succeeded the Portuguese in the possession and
control of the East Indies, had, up to the year 1598, made all their
voyages thither by the Portuguese route,--the Cape of Good Hope. In
this year, two fleets fitted out by them were directed to proceed by
the Strait of Magellan and across the South Sea. The first of these
expeditions is known as that of the Five Ships of Rotterdam, one of the
five, however, becoming separated, and forming a distinct enterprise,
under Sebald de Weert: the second was the voyage of Oliver Van Noort.
We shall narrate them in order of time.
The Five Ships of Rotterdam were equipped at the charge of several
merchants called the Company of Peter Verhagen. The flag-ship,
commanded by Jacob Mahu, was named the Hope; another, commanded
by Sebald de Weert, was the Good News, or Glad Tidings, or Merry
Messenger,--all these names being given in the various translations.
They sailed from Goree, in Holland, on the 27th of June, 1598.
They were off the island of Brava--one of the Cape Verds,--on the 11th
of September, and sent boats ashore with empty casks in search of
water. The men were accosted by some Portuguese and negroes, who told
them that French and English ships were accustomed to water there,
but always remained under sail. Sebald de Weert noticed four or five
ruinous huts, and found them full of maize, which he at once proceeded
to appropriate,--an act which the Portuguese endeavored to resent; but
the Dutch flag-ship silenced their feeble resistance with her guns. The
death of Mahu now caused a transfer of captains, by which Sebald de
Weert left the Glad Tidings for the Good Faith. The fleet lost thirty
men by the scurvy during the passage across the Atlantic. They anchored
off the Rio de la Plata early in March, 1599, and observed the sea to
be as red as blood. The water was examined, and found to be full of
small worms, which jumped about like fleas, and which were supposed to
have been shaken off by whales in their gambols, as the lion shakes
dew-drops from his mane.
On the 6th of April, they entered the Strait of Magellan, and were
compelled to pass the Antarctic winter there,--that is, till late in
August. Gales of wind followed each other in quick succession; and the
anchors and cables were so much damaged that the crews were kept in
continual labor and anxiety. The scarcity of food was such that the
people were sent on shore every day at low water, frequently in rain,
snow, or frost, to seek for shell-fish or to gather roots for their
subsistence. These they devoured in the state in which they were found,
having no patience to wait to cook them. One hundred and twenty men
were buried during this disastrous winter.
On the evening of September the 3d, the whole fleet, including a
shallop of sixteen tons, named the Postillion, which had been put
together in the Strait, entered the South Sea. A storm soon separated
them, leaving the Fidelity and Faith as consorts, and scattering the
rest in every direction. The adventures of the Fidelity and Faith,
however, require that we should follow them in their fortunes around
the world. De Weert found his ship almost unseaworthy, without a
master, short of hands, and with two pilots quite too old to be
efficient. After weathering another storm, which nearly sent the
vessels to the bottom, both captains resolved to return to the Strait
and to wait there in some safe bay for a favorable wind. On the 27th,
they arrived at the mouth of the Strait, and were drifted by the
current some seven leagues inland.
As the Antarctic summer was now approaching, they were in hopes of
fair weather; yet during the two months of their stay they hardly
had a day in which to dry their sails. The seamen began to murmur,
alleging that there would not be sufficient biscuit for their return to
Holland if they remained here longer. Upon this de Weert went into the
bread-room, as if to examine the store, and, on coming out, declared,
with a cheerful countenance, that there was biscuit enough for eight
months, though in reality there was barely enough for four. On the
3d of December, they succeeded in leaving the Strait, but, by some
mismanagement, anchored a league apart, with a point of land between
them which intercepted the view. A gale of wind forced the Fidelity
from her anchors, and she was compelled to proceed upon the voyage
alone. On her arrival at the Moluccas she was attacked and captured by
the Portuguese.
Sebald de Weert was thus left without a consort and almost without
a crew. When leaving the Strait, and towing the only remaining boat
astern, the rope broke, and the boat went adrift and was not again
recovered. The next morning they saw a boat rowing towards them, which
proved to belong to another Dutch fleet, under Oliver Van Noort,
bound to the South Sea and the East Indies. De Weert endeavored to
sail in company with them; but the reduced condition of his crew--but
forty-eight men remaining out of one hundred and ten--rendered it
impossible. He finally abandoned all attempts to prosecute the voyage,
and, profiting by the west winds, returned through the Strait to the
Atlantic. He anchored at the Penguin Islands, where a large number
of birds were taken and salted. Some of the seamen who were on shore
discovered a Patagonian woman among the rocks, where she had endeavored
to conceal herself. The chronicle thus speaks of her:--"A state more
deeply calamitous than that to which this woman was reduced, the
goodness of God has not permitted to be the lot of many. The ships of
Van Noort had stopped at this island about seven weeks before, where
this woman was one of a numerous tribe of Patagonians; but they were
savagely slaughtered by Van Noort's men. She was wounded at the same
time, but lived to mourn the destruction of her race, the solitary
inhabitant of a rocky, desolate island." De Weert presented her with
a knife, but left her without any means of changing her situation,
though she made it understood that she wished to be transported to the
continent.
On the 21st of January, 1600, he left the Strait by the eastern
entrance, and bent his course homewards. Six months afterwards he
entered the channel of Goree, in Holland, having lost sixty-nine men
during the voyage. The ship had been absent two years and sixteen
days, the greater part of which had been misemployed. She had been
only twenty-four days in the South Sea, and had spent nine months in
the Strait of Magellan and the remainder in the passage out and back.
The Faith was, nevertheless, more fortunate than her companions; for
she was the only ship of the five which sailed under Jacob Mahu which
ever reached home again. The Charity was abandoned at sea; the Hope
was plundered by the Japanese at Bungo; the Glad Tidings was taken by
the Spaniards at Valparaiso; and, as we have said, the Fidelity fell
into the hands of the Portuguese at the Spice Islands. The Postillion
shallop, which had been launched in the Strait, was never heard of
after she entered the Pacific Ocean.
The plan of the South Sea Expedition under Oliver Van Noort was in all
respects similar to that of Mahu and de Weert, and the equipment was
made at the joint expense of a company of merchants. The vessels fitted
out were the Mauritius, whose tonnage is not mentioned,--in which
sailed, as admiral, Van Noort, who was a native of Utrecht, and an
experienced seaman,--the Hendrick Frederick, and two yachts, the whole
being manned by two hundred and forty-eight men. The instructions to
the admiral were to sail through Magellan's Strait to the South Sea, to
cruise off the coast of Chili and Peru, to cross over to the Moluccas
to trade, and then, returning home, to complete the circumnavigation of
the globe. He sailed on the 13th of September, three months after the
departure of the Five Ships of Rotterdam.
At Prince's Island, near the coast of Guinea,--a station held by
the Portuguese,--Van Noort's flag of truce was not respected by the
garrison, and two Hollanders were killed and sixteen wounded. Van Noort
revenged this outrage by burning all the sugar-mills which he dared
to approach. He set one of his pilots ashore upon Cape Gonçalves for
mutinous practices. He made the coast of Brazil early in February,
1519; but it was determined in council that, as the Southern winter
was so near at hand, they would hibernate at St. Helena. They sailed
eastward, and spent three months in searching for the island; but in
vain. At the end of May, they unexpectedly found themselves again upon
the coast of Brazil; but the Portuguese opposed their landing. On the
18th of June, the council of war sentenced two men, a constable and
a gunner, "to be abandoned in any strange country where they could
hereafter be of service," for mutiny; and another seaman was sentenced
to be fastened, by a knife through the hand, to the mast, there to
remain till he should release himself by slitting his hand through the
middle. This barbarous sentence was carried into execution.
After burning one of the yachts which proved unfit for service, the
fleet proceeded towards the Strait, and, on the 4th of November,
anchored off Cape Virgin. Here Van Noort's ship lost three anchors,
and the admiral wrote to the vice-admiral to furnish him one of his.
The latter refused, saying that he was as much master as Van Noort,--a
piece of impertinence which the admiral declared he would punish upon
the first convenient opportunity. The vessels entered the Strait four
times, and were as often forced back by the violence of the wind. On
the 27th, they arrived at the two Penguin Islands. It was here that the
transaction occurred to which we have alluded under Sebald de Weert. It
happened as follows:
On the smallest of the islands some natives were seen, who made
signs to the Dutch not to advance, and threw them some penguins from
the cliffs. Seeing that the strangers continued to approach, they
shot arrows at them, which the Dutch returned with bullets. The
savages fled for refuge to a cavern where they had secreted their
women and children. The Dutch pursued them, and used their fire-arms
with unrelenting ferocity, receiving little or no damage from the
feeble missiles of the natives. The latter continued to fight in
defence of their women and children with undiminished courage, and
not till the last man of them was killed did the Hollanders obtain
an entrance. Within they found a number of wretched mothers who had
formed barricades of their own bodies to protect their children. Of
these they killed several and wounded more. Seven weeks after, as has
been said, Sebald de Weert found the tribe exterminated and but one
woman surviving. Six children were taken by Van Noort on board of the
fleet. One of the boys afterwards learned to speak the Dutch language,
and from him were obtained several slender items of information
respecting the tribe to which he had belonged, but which were far from
compensating for the flagrant act of cruelty which had led to the
capture of his fellow-exiles and himself.
[Illustration: AFFRAY BETWEEN THE DUTCH AND PATAGONIANS.]
The men went ashore near Cape Froward, and some of them ate of an herb
which drove them "raging mad." During an anchorage here, the carpenters
built a boat thirty-seven feet long in the keel; the blacksmith set
up his forge, while the wooders made charcoal from trees which they
felled. A light wind springing up, the vice-admiral, without receiving
orders, fired a gun and got under way, and, though the admiral
remained stationary, continued sailing on and firing guns, as if he had
been commander-in-chief. Such, said Van Noort, is the effect, upon a
vice-admiral, of having a larger number of anchors than his superior.
He caused him to be arrested and to be tried upon the charge of
exciting mutiny by insubordinate conduct, and allowed him three weeks
to prepare his defence. At this period the number of deaths in the
fleet had amounted to ninety-seven persons.
When the three weeks expired, the vessels were still in the Strait, and
the council was assembled on board the admiral's vessel, to hear the
defence of the prisoner, which proved insufficient for his acquittal,
and he was condemned to be set on shore and abandoned in the Strait.
This sentence was publicly read on board the different ships, and, on
the 26th of January, 1600, Jacob Claesz was carried in a boat to the
shore, with a small stock of bread and wine. He was thus left to shift
for himself among the wild beasts and still more savage inhabitants.
Van Noort ordered a prayer and exhortation to be read in the fleet
during the execution of this terrible verdict.
Being still at anchor in the Strait in the middle of February, the
admiral announced his determination to persevere two months longer,
and, if it were still impossible to reach the Pacific by the west,
to turn eastward and reach it by the Cape of Good Hope. On the 29th,
the wind having veered, Van Noort, with two ships and a yacht, after
a tedious navigation of a year and a half, finally entered the Great
South Sea. A storm compelled the admiral to cast loose and abandon the
long-boat which had been built at Cape Froward, and forced the new
vice-admiral to part company. His ship was never seen again. During
an anchorage upon the coast of Chili, one of the sailors whom we have
already mentioned as sentenced to be abandoned upon any coast where
they could be of service, was sent ashore to open negotiations with
the natives. If he succeeded and returned in safety, his sentence was
to be remitted. He was favorably received, and a regular trade was
established. The official narrative of the voyage thus describes the
hospitality of the people:--"An elderly woman brought us an earthen
vessel full of a drink of a sharp taste, of which we drank heartily.
This drink is made of maize and water, and is brewed in the following
manner: old women who have lost their teeth chew the maize, which,
being thus mixed with their saliva, is put into a tub, and water is
added to it. They have a superstitious opinion that the older the women
are who chew the maize, by so much will the beverage be the better.
And with this drink the natives get intoxicated and celebrate their
festivals."
Soon after, Van Noort's ship gave chase to a Spaniard, which it was
important to take, lest she might spread the alarm along the coast. She
proved to be the Good Jesus, and to be stationed there expressly to
give early notice of the arrival of strange sails. She was taken, and
a prize-master placed on board to navigate her. One of the prisoners
stated afterwards, that ten thousand pounds' weight of gold had been
thrown overboard during her flight; and this was corroborated by the
pilot, who at first denied it, but, upon being put to the torture,
confessed. Van Noort now steered for the Philippines, by way of the
Ladrones. On the 30th of June, the pilot of the Good Jesus, who ate at
the admiral's table, was taken ill, and accused Van Noort of wishing to
poison him, and maintained the charge in presence of the officers. He
was sentenced to be cast head foremost into the sea,--the established
Dutch mode of punishing pirates. "We therefore threw him overboard,"
says the journal, "and left him to sink, to the end that he should not
ever again reproach us with any treachery." The Good Jesus now lost her
rudder, and, being very leaky, was abandoned in mid-ocean.
While Van Noort was thus making his way towards Manilla, preparations
were making at that place for defence. Cavite, the port, was fortified;
two galleons were ordered to be armed and equipped. The Dutch squadron
arrived off the entrance of the bay on the 24th of November, and Van
Noort determined to remain there till February, to intercept all
vessels bound in. He soon stopped a Japanese vessel, laden with iron
and hams. He allowed her to proceed, having first purchased a wooden
anchor. He remarks in the journal that he saw Japanese scimetars which
could cut through three men at a blow, and that slaves were kept for
the purpose of furnishing the necessary proof of their temper to
purchasers. He next took a Spanish vessel laden with cocoanut wine, and
a Chinese junk laden with rice. The cargoes were transferred and the
vessels sunk.
Early on the morning of the 14th of December, the two galleons
were seen bearing down upon the Dutch squadron, now reduced to two
sails,--the Mauritius, with fifty-five men, and the Concord, with
twenty-five. The Spanish ships are supposed to have had two hundred
men apiece. They steered directly for the enemy, but could not return
their fire, as the wind from the starboard compelled them to keep their
lee ports shut. The Spanish admiral ran his ship directly upon the
Dutch admiral, and his men at once overpowered the latter by the mere
force of numbers. The Dutch retreated from the deck, and harassed the
Spaniards from their close quarters. The colors of the Mauritius were
struck, upon which the captain of the Concord, thinking his superior
had surrendered, endeavored to escape, being closely pursued by the
Spanish vice-admiral.
The Dutch admiral, however, was not captured yet. The Spaniards having
remained masters of the open deck for six hours, Van Noort told his
men they must go up and expel the enemy, or he would fire the magazine
and blow up the ship. The Spanish account says that they were at this
moment themselves forced to disengage their ship and withdraw their
men, as the after-part of the Hollander had taken fire. At all events,
the two vessels were cleared and the engagement renewed with cannon.
The Spanish vessel took in water so fast that she went down not long
after. The Dutch rowed about in boats among the struggling Spaniards,
stabbing and knocking them on the head. In retaliation for this, the
officers and crew of the Concord, which was easily taken by the Spanish
vice-admiral, were conveyed to Manilla and executed as pirates and
rebels. In Van Noort's ship only five men were killed, twenty-six being
wounded more or less severely. He continued on his way with one vessel
only, touching at Borneo, Java, and Mauritius. At the latter place,
where he found other vessels at anchor, his men met with very pleasant
entertainment, and on one occasion ten of them dined in an inverted
tortoise-shell, the first inhabitant having withdrawn to furnish the
new occupants with both soup and sitting-room.
[Illustration: THE TWO ADMIRALS AT CLOSE QUARTERS.]
Van Noort arrived at Rotterdam on the 26th of August, 1601, where he
was received with the utmost joy, having been absent a fortnight short
of three years. His was the first Dutch vessel that circumnavigated the
globe, and the only one of the nine ships that sailed from Holland
in 1598 in that design which succeeded in fulfilling it. The voyage
contributed nothing to geography, but, in spite of the instances of
barbarity with which it abounded, added to the warlike and commercial
reputation of the country, and therefore met with favor from both
Government and people.
[Illustration: A DUTCH PICNIC IN THE MAURITIUS.]
[Illustration: HEAD OF A TURTLE.]
[Illustration: WOMAN AND CHILD OF ESPIRITU SANTO.]
CHAPTER XXXIII.
QUIROS' THEORY OF A SOUTHERN CONTINENT--HIS ARGUMENTS AND
MEMORIALS--HIS FIRST VOYAGE--DISCOVERIES--ENCARNAÇION--SAGITTARIA, OR
TAHITI--DESCRIPTION OF THESE ISLANDS--MANICOLO--ESPIRITU SANTO--ITS
PRODUCTIONS AND INHABITANTS--QUIROS BEFORE THE KING OF SPAIN--HIS
BELIEF IN HIS DISCOVERY OF A CONTINENT--HIS DISAPPOINTMENT--RENEWED
SOLICITATIONS--DEATH OF QUIROS--DISCOVERIES OF TORRÈS--THE MUSCOVY
COMPANY OF LONDON--HENRY HUDSON--HIS VOYAGES TO SPITZBERGEN AND NOVA
ZEMBLA--HIS VOYAGE TO AMERICA--CASTS ANCHOR AT SANDY HOOK--ASCENDS THE
HUDSON RIVER AS FAR AS THE SITE OF ALBANY--HIS VOYAGE TO ICELAND AND
HUDSON'S BAY--DISASTROUS WINTER--MUTINY--HUDSON SET ADRIFT--HIS DEATH.
We have said, in a preceding chapter, that Pedro Fernandez de Quiros
was the pilot of Mendana's second expedition. During the voyage he had
reflected deeply upon the probability of the existence of a Southern
continent: on his return to Peru, he asserted it, and devoted the
remainder of his life to the prosecution of a plan of discovery.
He was the first to bring forward scientific arguments in support
of the theory,--one which, by the way, was destined to agitate and
interest the world for two centuries, till its final overthrow by
Cook. He presented two memorials to Don Luis de Velasco, the viceroy,
praying for ships, men, and other necessaries, with which "to plough
up the waters of the unknown sea, and to seek out the undiscovered
lands around the Antarctic Pole, the centre of that horizon." His
arguments were many of them profound, and made a deep impression upon
the viceroy, who replied, however, that Quiros' desires exceeded the
limits of his authority. He nevertheless despatched him with strong
recommendations to the court of Spain. Philip III. gave favorable
attention to his projects, and ordered that Quiros should go in
person upon an expedition "among these hidden provinces and severed
regions,--an expedition destined to win souls to heaven and kingdoms
to the crown of Spain." Quiros returned to Lima "with the most
honorable schedules which had ever passed the Council of State." He
presented his papers to the viceroy, and, forgetting the obstacles and
discouragements he had met with during eleven years, entered on his new
and arduous labors. He built three ships, and embarked on the 20th of
December, 1605, holding his course west by south.
One thousand leagues from Peru, he discovered a small island which he
named Encarnaçion: to others, of little importance and uninhabited, he
gave the names of Santelmo, St. Miguel, and Archangel: the tenth he
called Dezena. On the 10th of February, 1606, land was seen from the
topmast-head, and, to the joy of all, columns of smoke--an unmistakable
sign that the land was inhabited--were perceived ascending at
numerous points. A boat advanced to the surf, through which it seemed
impossible to gain the shore. A young man, Francisco Ponce by name,
stripped off his clothes, saying that, if they should thus turn their
faces from the first danger which offered, there would be no hope of
eventual success. He threw himself into the sea, and, after a fierce
struggle with the receding waves, clambered up a rock to a spot where
one hundred Indians were awaiting him. They seemed pleased with his
resolution, and frequently kissed his forehead. Peace was made, and a
safe anchorage was pointed out. The island thus discovered subsequently
became, for many reasons, the most famous in the whole Pacific Ocean.
Quiros called it Sagittaria; but it is now known as Tahiti or Otaheite.
We shall have occasion hereafter to describe at length this lovely
oasis in the desert of the waters.
[Illustration: SCENE IN TAHITI.]
The fleet stayed here but two days, and then continued on its way.
Quiros discovered several islands which have not been seen again from
that time to this. To one of them he gave the name of Isla de la Gente
Hermosa,--Island of Handsome People. Convinced that the mainland must
be near, he kept on in search of what he called the "mother of so many
islands." At one named Taumaco he seized four natives to serve him
as guides and interpreters, and carried them away. He has been much
blamed for this act of treachery towards a people who treated him with
kindness and hospitality. Three of the four jumped overboard during
the two days following, and escaped to islands in the vicinity. The
chief of the island where he had taken them had informed him that, if
he would change his course from the west to the south, he would come to
a large tract, fertile and inhabited, named Manicolo. Following this
advice, he discovered the islands of Tucopia and Nuestra Señora de la
Luz. It is doubtful whether either of these has been seen by subsequent
navigators. On the 26th of April, he made a land which he took to be
the continent of which he was in search, and to which he gave the
name of Tierra Austral del Espiritu Santo. Bougainville and Cook,
who arrived here a century and a half afterwards, thought themselves
justified, by acquiring the certitude that it was a group of islands
and not a continent, in christening them anew,--Bougainville naming
them the Grandes Cyclades, and Cook the New Hebrides.
Quiros has left an admirable picture of this fertile and delightful
spot. "The rivers Jordan and Salvador," he says, "give no small beauty
to their shores, for they are full of odoriferous flowers and plants.
Pleasant and agreeable groves front the sea in every part: we mounted
to the tops of mountains and perceived fertile valleys and rivers
winding amongst green meadows. The whole is a country which, without
doubt, has the advantage over those of America, and the best of the
European will be well if it is equal. It is plenteous of various and
delicious fruits, potatoes, yams, plantains, oranges, limes, sweet
basil, nutmegs, and ebony, all of which, without the help of sickle,
plough, or other artifice, it yields in every season. There are
also cattle, birds of many kinds and of charming notes, honey-bees,
parrots, doves, and partridges. The houses wherein the Indians live
are thatched and low, and they of a black complexion. There are
earthquakes,--sign of a mainland." The Spaniards found it impossible to
make peace with the natives, and the few days which they spent there
were passed in wrangling and bloodshed.
The achievements and discoveries of Quiros properly end here. His ships
were separated, and his own crew disabled by the effects of poisonous
fish which they had eaten. He called a council of his officers, and
asked their opinion upon a choice of courses,--a prosecution of the
voyage to China, or a return to Mexico. The latter was decided upon.
Quiros arrived at Acapulco nine months after his departure from Callao.
He soon returned to Spain, where he presented a memorial to Philip III.
upon the results of his voyage, and the advantage of further efforts
in the same direction. His grand argument in favor of the theory that
he had discovered an Austral continent was drawn from the statements
of Pedro,--the only one of the four kidnapped savages of Taumaco who
had remained on board. A subsequent memorial shows the fate with which
all his representations to Philip met:--"I, Captain Pedro Fernandez
de Quiros, say that with this I have presented to your majesty eight
memorials touching the country of Australia Incognita, without to this
time any resolution being taken with me, nor any reply made me, nor
hope given to assure me that I shall be despatched,--having now been
fourteen months in this court, and having been fourteen years engaged
in this cause without pay or any other advantage in view but the
success of it alone; wherewith, and through infinite contradictions, I
have gone by land and sea twenty-two thousand leagues, spending all my
estate and incommoding my person, suffering so many and such terrible
things that even to myself they appear incredible: and all this has
come to pass, that this work of so much goodness and benevolence should
not be abandoned. In whose name, and all for the love of God, I beg
your majesty not to neglect these innumerable benefits, which shall
last as long as the world subsists, and then be eternal."
Quiros then enters into a detailed description of the islands and the
continent he had seen. Their extent, he said, was as much as that of
Europe, Asia Minor, England, and Ireland. They had no such turbulent
neighbors as the Turks or the Moors. The people were intelligent and
capable of civilization. Bread grew upon the trees. The palm yielded
spirits, vinegar, honey, whey, and toddy. The green cocoanut served
instead of artichoke; when ripe, for meat and cream; and, when old,
for oil, wax, and balsams. The shells furnished cups and bottles. The
fibres afforded oakum, cordage, and the best slow match. The leaves
furnished sails, matting, and thatch. The garden-stuffs of the country
were pumpkins, parsley, "with intimation of beans." The flesh was hogs,
fowls, capons, partridges, geese, turkeys, ringdoves, and goats, "with
intimation of cows and buffaloes." The riches were silver, pearls,
and gold. The spices were nutmegs, mace, pepper, and ginger, "with
intimation of cinnamon and cloves." There was ebony, and infinite
woods for ship-building. At daybreak the harmony of thousands of birds
trembled upon the air,--nightingales, blackbirds, larks, goldfinches,
and swallows,--besides the chirping of grasshoppers and crickets.
Every morning and evening the breeze was laden with fragrant scents
wafted from orange-flowers and sweet basil. This enthusiastic document
concludes thus:--"I can show this in a company of mathematicians, that
this land will presently accommodate and sustain two hundred thousand
Spaniards. None of our men fell sick from over-work, or sweating, or
getting wet. Fish and flesh kept sound two or more days. I saw neither
sandy ground, nor thistles, nor prickly trees, nor mangrovy swamps, nor
snow on the mountains, nor crocodiles in the rivers, nor ants in the
dust, nor mosquitos in the night.
"Acquire, sire, since you can with a little money, which will be
required but once,--acquire heaven, eternal fame, and that new world
with all its promises. Order the galleons to be ready, sire; for I have
many places to go to, and much to provide and to do. Let it be observed
that in all I shall be found very submissive to reason, and will give
satisfaction in every thing."
These stirring appeals were disregarded by the feeble successor of
Charles V.; and Quiros, who, though a Portuguese by birth, is often
styled the last of the Spanish heroes, died at Panama on his way back
to Lima.
We mentioned the dispersion of Quiros' fleet after leaving Espiritu
Santo. We must recur for a moment to this incident, in order to follow
the ship of Luis Vaez de Torrès, the second in command. He proceeded
on his voyage to the southwest, and saw enough of Espiritu Santo to
convince him that it was not a continent. He would have circumnavigated
it had the season permitted. Standing finally to the northward, he
fell in with numerous islands rich in pearls and spices, and "coasted
for eight hundred leagues along the southern shore of some land to him
unknown." This can have been no other shore than that of Papua or New
Guinea; and it is considered positive that he was the first European
to see this since famous and remarkable island. He found this whole
sea to be filled with groups of islands producing spices and the usual
tropical fruits. He made his way to the Philippines, where he rendered
an account of his adventures since his separation from Quiros.
While these distinguished navigators were thus searching the regions
lying about the equator, another adventurer, equally enterprising,
was endeavoring to reach the Pole. Henry Hudson, a seaman renowned
for his hardy and daring achievements, was appointed, in 1607, by
the Muscovy Company of London, to the command of a vessel intended
to penetrate to China by the Arctic seas to the north of Europe. His
crew consisted of ten men and a boy. He advanced as far as Greenland,
and returned by Spitzbergen,--being convinced that the ice formed an
insurmountable barrier against farther progress. He again set out in
1608, and, keeping more to the eastward, passed to the north of Norway,
Sweden, and Russia as far as Nova Zembla. The ice again stopped him,
and he returned,--persuaded that the northeastern passage did not
exist. The next year he was again sent upon the same errand; but, being
still unsuccessful, he crossed the Atlantic to America. He coasted
along the continent as far as Chesapeake Bay, and then returned to the
north, entering Delaware Bay and arriving in sight of the highlands
of Neversink on the 2d of September. This he pronounced a "good land
to fall in with, and a pleasant land to see." The next morning he
passed Sandy Hook, and came to anchor in what is now the Lower Bay of
New York. "What an event," says Everett, "in the history of American
population, enterprise, commerce, intelligence and power, was the
dropping of that anchor at Sandy Hook!"
[Illustration: HUDSON'S VESSEL, THE HALF-MOON, OFF SANDY HOOK.]
"Here he lingered a week," continues the same author, "in friendly
intercourse with the natives of New Jersey, while a boat's
company explored the waters up to Newark Bay. And now the great
question:--Shall he turn back, or ascend the stream? Hudson was of a
race not prone to turn back, by sea or land. On the 11th of September,
he raised the anchor of the Half-Moon, and passed through the Narrows,
beholding on both sides 'as beautiful a land as one could tread on;'
the ship floating cautiously and slowly up the noble stream,--the first
that ever rested on its bosom. He passed the Palisades, Nature's dark
basaltic Malakoff; forced the iron gateway of the Highlands; anchored
on the 14th near West Point; swept around and upwards the following
day, by grassy meadows and tangled slopes, hereafter to be covered with
smiling villages, by elevated banks and woody heights, the destined
sites of towns and cities,--of Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Catskill; on the
evening of the 15th arrived 'opposite the mountains which rise from the
river's side,' where he found 'a very loving people and very old men;'
and, the day following, sailed by the spot hereafter to be honored by
his own illustrious name. One more day wafts him up between Schodac
and Castleton; and here he landed and passed a day with the natives,
greeted with all sorts of barbarous hospitality,--the land 'the finest
for cultivation he ever set foot on.' On the following morning, with
the early flood-tide, the Half-Moon ran higher up, and came to anchor
in deep water, near the site of the present city of Albany. Happy if
he could have closed his gallant career on the banks of the stream
which so justly bears his name, and thus have escaped the sorrowful and
mysterious catastrophe which awaited him the next year."
He soon after returned to England; and, not being discouraged, nor
finding it difficult to obtain the means of continuing his maritime
adventures, he set sail, in 1610, in a vessel of fifty-five tons'
burden, manned by twenty-three men and victualled for six months. He
touched at the Orkneys and anchored at Iceland. Mount Hecla revealed
to him the magnificence of a volcano in travail, and the Hot Springs
obligingly cooked his food. He passed Greenland, where the sun set in
the north. In the course of June and July, he passed to the northward
of Labrador, and followed the strait which now bears his name. In spite
of ice and disturbances among his crew, which at times assumed the
character of a mutiny, he pushed on into the great inland sea known as
Hudson's Bay. For a long time he did not know that it was a bay, and
naturally was led to hope that he was on the point of attaining the
object of all his efforts,--a passage by the northwest to China. The
extent of its surface amply justified him in these expectations, for
it is the largest inland sea in the world, with the exception of the
Mediterranean.
On the 1st of November, after seeking winter quarters, his men found
a suitable spot for beaching their vessel. Ten days afterwards, they
were frozen in, with provisions hardly sufficient to last, upon the
most meagre allowance, till they could expect a release from the ice. A
reward was offered to those who added to the general stock by catching
either birds or fish, or animals serviceable for food. A house was
built; but the season was so far advanced that it could not be rendered
fit to dwell in. The winter was severe, and the men lived at first upon
partridges, then upon swans and teal, and finally upon moss and frogs.
They assuaged the pain of their frozen limbs by applying to them a hot
decoction made from buds containing a balsam-like substance resembling
turpentine. Towards spring, they obtained furs from the natives, in
exchange for hatchets, glass, and buttons.
When the ice broke up, they prepared to return,--the last ration of
bread being exhausted on the day of their departure. A report was
circulated among the crew that Hudson had concealed a quantity of bread
for his own use, and a mutiny, fomented by a man named Green, broke out
on the 21st of June. Hudson was seized and his hands bound. Together
with the sick, and those whom the frost had deprived of the use of
their limbs, he was put into the shallop and set adrift. Neither he,
nor the boat, nor any of its crew, were ever heard of again.
The wretched mutineers made the best of their way home in the ship they
had thus foully obtained. Not one of the ringleaders lived to reach the
land. The rest, after suffering the most awful extremities of famine,
finally gained the shore.
[Illustration: DUTCH VESSEL TRADING AT THE LADRONES.]
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE FLEET OF JORIS SPILBERGEN--ARRIVAL IN BRAZIL--ADVENTURES
IN THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN--TRADE AT MOCHA ISLAND--TREACHERY
AT SANTA MARIA--TERRIBLE BATTLE BETWEEN THE DUTCH AND SPANISH
FLEETS--RAVAGES OF THE COAST--SKIRMISHES UPON THE LAND--SPILBERGEN
SAILS FOR MANILLA--ARRIVAL AT TERNATE--HIS RETURN HOME--THE VOYAGE
OF SCHOUTEN AND LEMAIRE--LEMONADE AT SIERRA LEONE--A COLLISION AT
SEA--DISCOVERY OF STATEN LAND--CAPE HORN--LEMAIRE'S STRAIT--ARRIVAL AT
BATAVIA--CONFISCATION OF THE SHIPS--GENERAL RESULTS OF THE VOYAGE--THE
VOYAGE OF WILLIAM BAFFIN--ARCTIC RESEARCHES DURING THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY.
We have said, in a former chapter, that the Dutch succeeded the
Portuguese in the possession of the East Indies. During the struggle
between these two powers for supremacy over the Spice Islands, the
Dutch East India Company resolved to make a vigorous effort to reach
the Moluccas by the Strait of Magellan. They equipped a fleet of six
ships, for the purpose of exploring a new route. These vessels were
named the Great Sun, the Half-Moon, the Morning Star, the Huntsman,
and the Sea Mew, and were placed under the command of Joris Spilbergen
as admiral, who had already conducted a Dutch fleet to the Indies. He
received his commission from their Mightinesses the States-General. He
sailed from the Texel on the 8th of August, 1614.
While upon the South American coast, a mutiny broke out in the Sea Mew,
and the two ringleaders were condemned to be cast into the sea,--a
sentence which was rigorously executed. They entered the Strait of
Magellan on the 28th of February, 1615, but were forced out again by
adverse currents. They entered again on the 2d of April, and saw men
of gigantic stature upon the hills, dead bodies wrapped in the skins
of penguins, and shrubs producing sweet blackberries. The mountains
were covered with snow, yet the woods were filled with parrots.
Water-cresses, and a tree whose bark had a biting taste, induced them
to give to an inlet the name of Pepper Haven. The natives bartered
ornaments of mother-of-pearl for knives and wine. The vessels entered
the South Sea on the 6th of May, and on the 25th anchored off Mocha
Island, half a league from the coast of Chili.
The natives were delighted to learn that the strangers were the enemies
of the Spaniards their oppressors, and to see that their ships were so
large and well armed. The chief of the island visited the admiral's
ship and remained his guest all night. A hatchet was the price fixed
upon for two fat sheep; and a hundred were obtained at this rate. The
natives would not permit the Dutch to see their women, and at last,
when they had disposed of all the provisions and live stock they had
to spare, made signs for them to re-enter their ships and depart, with
which reasonable request Spilbergen at once complied.
On the 29th, the vessels anchored off the island of Santa Maria,
and, though there were Spaniards upon it, negotiations were opened.
The Dutch officers were invited by a Spaniard to dine on shore, and,
having accepted and assembled for the purpose, were either led to
suspect treachery, or were convinced that they were strong enough to
help themselves without negotiation. They summoned soldiers from the
ships, burned a number of houses, and carried off five hundred sheep.
The Spaniard who was to have been their host, but who was now their
prisoner, informed them that the Viceroy of Peru had been for some
months aware of their approach, and that a strong force was prepared
at Lima to attack them. Spilbergen determined to go in search of
the Spanish fleet: the gunners were ordered to have every thing in
readiness for battle, and military regulations were promulgated,--every
one, from the admiral to the swabs, being determined to do or die.
One of the orders was that "during the action the decks were to be
continually wetted, that accidents might not happen from ignited
powder."
At Concepçion, the Dutch landed and set fire to a number of houses; at
Valparaiso, the Spaniards burned one of their own vessels, that she
might not fall into the enemy's hands. At Arica--the seaport to which
the Potosi silver was brought to be shipped to Panama--they took a
small ship laden with treasure. On the evening of the 16th of July, the
Spanish fleet, of eight sail, appeared in sight. The Jesu Maria, the
flag-ship, had no less than four hundred and sixty men, and mounted
twenty-four guns; and the whole squadron were in the same proportion
better provided with men than artillery. Don Rodrigo de Mendoça was
the commander. He insisted upon an immediate attack by night, saying
that "any two of his ships could take all England, and much more
these hens of Holland, who must be spent and wasted by so long a
voyage." About ten at night, the Spanish admiral and the Dutch admiral
closed,--the Jesu Maria and the Great Sun. They hailed each other,
and some conversation passed before a shot was fired. The attack was
then commenced by the musketry, seconded by the great guns. The ships
of both fleets came up in succession and joined battle. The pomp and
circumstance of war were not neglected, for the braying of the cannon
was accompanied by the sounding of tambours and trumpets. The Spanish
San Francisco received a broadside which the Great Sun could spare
from the Jesu Maria, and soon after went to the bottom. The Sun sent
out one of her boats for a rescue; but it was mistaken by the Huntsman
for an enemy's boat, and was blown out of the water by a cannon-shot.
The night becoming very dark, the fleets were gradually separated.
The next morning five of the Spanish ships sent word to their admiral
that they were going to escape if they could. The Spanish admiral and
vice-admiral were lashed together for mutual support, and were, in this
condition, attacked by the Great Sun and the Half-Moon. The Spanish
seamen several times hung out a white flag in token of surrender, which
was as often cut down by their officers, who chose rather to die than
yield, especially as they had sworn to the Viceroy of Peru to bring him
all the Hollanders in chains. At nightfall, the Jesu Maria cut herself
loose and fled from pursuit; but her leaks and damages were so serious
that she went to the bottom before dawn. This decided the victory in
favor of the Dutch, who are accused of allowing many of the enemy to
drown who might easily have been saved.
The victorious fleet sailed directly for Callao; but the Spanish
shipping in the port was so well protected by batteries that it was
not thought prudent to attack them. Soon after, a vessel laden with
salt and sugar was captured and the cargo distributed. The town of
Paita was plundered and burned. No money or treasure is mentioned among
the booty. Keeping a sharp watch for the fleet of Panama, which the
Dutch did not care to meet or engage, they proceeded to the north,
and, on the 11th of October, entered the harbor of Acapulco, in Mexico
or New Spain. Negotiations were entered into and a treaty was made,
the Dutch agreeing to release all their prisoners, and the Spanish to
furnish them with oxen, sheep, poultry, fruit, water, and wood. Thus
the Spaniards saved their town at a small expense, and the Dutch found
refreshments which they could have obtained in no other way.
[Illustration: CONFLICT BETWEEN THE DUTCH AND SPANISH FLEETS.]
On the 10th of November, they anchored at the mouth of a river reported
by their prisoners to abound in fish, while its banks produced citron
and other fruit trees. Boats were sent to examine it. The Dutch noticed
that the footprints upon the shore were the prints of shoes, and not
of feet as Nature made them. Suspecting, therefore, the presence of
Spaniards, they did not disembark, but returned to the ship. The next
day the admiral landed with two hundred men, and was at once attacked
by a strong body of Spaniards concealed in the woods. The latter were
repulsed with loss, but Spilbergen withdrew his men to the ships, as
his ammunition was nearly exhausted.
[Illustration: THE DUTCH SURPRISED BY THE SPANIARDS.]
On the 2d of December, the fleet left the American coast and directed
their course west by south for the Ladrone Islands. The next
year--1616--was ushered in with distempers that proved fatal to many of
the seamen. On the 23d of January, they came in sight of the Ladrones,
where they stopped two days to traffic with the natives for flesh,
fish, fruit, and fowl. The savages were, as usual, treacherous and
given to thieving, and at times required the chastisement of powder
and ball. The fleet touched at the Philippines early in February, but
the Indians refused to trade with them, as they were enemies of the
Spaniards. They entered the Straits of Manilla, and anchored before
the island of Mirabelles, remarkable for two rocks which tower to a
vast height into the air. The Dutch took several barks laden with the
tribute of numerous adjacent places to the city of Manilla. They gained
intelligence of a fleet of twelve ships and four galleys, manned by
two thousand Spaniards, besides Indians and Chinese, sent to drive
their countrymen from the Moluccas and to reduce those islands to the
dominion of Spain. On this news, they discharged all their prisoners,
and made preparations to meet the Manilla fleet and to proceed to the
assistance of their friends. They arrived on the 29th of March at
Ternate, one of the principal islands of the group, where the Dutch
possessed a trading-station. They were received with joy by their
countrymen.
Spilbergen was now detained nine months in the Molucca and neighboring
islands, in the service of the East India Company. A narrative of his
transactions here would be foreign to the purpose of this work. He
left the ships in which he had hitherto sailed in India, and returned
to Holland in the Amsterdam. His voyage produced no new discoveries
in the South Sea; but the Directors of the Company bestowed upon him
the highest praise for his prudent management and timely energy. The
Company may be said to have dated their grandeur from the day of his
return, both as regards power and wealth,--the first resulting from
his successful circumnavigation of the globe, the latter from their
conquests in the Moluccas, in which he took a prominent part, and of
which he brought home the first intelligence.
The Dutch East India Company held from the Government the exclusive
privilege of trading in the Great South Sea,--all private citizens
being prohibited from entering those waters by the Cape of Good Hope
on the east or the Strait of Magellan on the west. This prohibition
stimulated rather than checked the commercial ardor of the country,
and it soon became the study of navigators and merchants to discover
some safe means of eluding the law, it being hard, they said, that
Government should close up the channels which Nature had left free.
Isaac Lemaire, a rich trader of Amsterdam, was the first to whom the
idea occurred of seeking another passage from the Atlantic to the
Pacific than the Strait of Magellan. He imparted his views to William
Cornelison Schouten, who had been three times to the East Indies in
the different capacities of supercargo, pilot, and master. He too was
convinced that to the south of Terra del Fuego lay another passage
from one ocean to the other. Could they find this passage, they might
legally trespass upon the monopoly held by the Company. They determined
to attempt the discovery, and Lemaire advanced half the necessary
funds, Schouten and his friends furnishing the other half. Two ships
were fitted out, the larger,--the Concord,--of three hundred and sixty
tons, being manned by sixty-five men, and pierced for twenty-nine guns
of small calibre; the Horn, of one hundred and ten tons, carrying
eight cannons, four swivels, and twenty-two men. Schouten was master
and pilot of the expedition, and James Lemaire, the son of Isaac,
supercargo. The object of the voyage was kept a profound secret, the
officers and men being bound by their articles to go wherever they
should be required, and, in compensation for this unusual condition,
receiving a considerable advance upon the ordinary wages. The little
fleet was equipped in the port of Horn, and left the Texel on the 14th
of June, 1615, proceeding towards the coast of Africa.
On the 30th of August, they cast anchor in the roads of Sierra Leone,
where they drove a brisk trade in lemons, easily purchasing a thousand
for a handful of worthless glass beads. Fresh water was obtained by
holding casks under a bountiful cascade, and thus easily were the
materials for lemonade procured in this favored spot. They then made
directly for the southwest. While in the middle of the Atlantic, the
crew of the Concord were startled by her receiving a violent blow
upon her bottom, although no rock was visible. The color of the sea
around them changed suddenly to red, as if a fountain of blood had been
discharged into it. A large horn, of a substance resembling ivory, and
solid, not hollow, was subsequently found in the ship's side, having
passed through three of her planks and entered the wood to the depth
of a foot, leaving at least a foot more upon the outside. The vessel
had evidently been in collision with a narwhal or sea-unicorn, and the
broken horn and the crimsoned water plainly showed which had suffered
most from the shock.
Late in October, the ships' companies were informed of the design of
the voyage, and readily consented to engage in a scheme which promised
both distinction and emolument. Early in December, they made the coast
of Patagonia, some three hundred miles to the north of Magellan's
Strait. Here the Horn, the smaller of the two vessels, caught fire
by accident and was destroyed. Her iron-work, guns, and anchors were
transferred to the Concord. On the 24th, the Concord passed the Strait
of Magellan, and was soon in the latitude where Schouten and Lemaire
hoped to make their grand discovery. While Terra del Fuego was still
in sight upon their right hand, they noticed a high, rugged island
upon their left, which they named Staten Land, or Land of the States.
The ship passed between the two, and soon after rounded the promontory
which advanced the farthest into the sea, to which, in honor of the
port from which the expedition had sailed, Schouten gave the name of
Cape Horn. He then launched into the South Sea, being the first who
passed completely round the South American continent. Lemaire claimed
the honor of giving his name to the strait which had brought them to
the Cape,--one which clearly belonged to Schouten, as the leader and
pilot of the expedition. The strait is still known by the name of the
supercargo, geographers having consecrated, by silence, this manifest
act of injustice.
[Illustration: CAPE HORN.]
Altering their course to the northward, they soon recognised the mouth
of Magellan's Strait,--which rendered their discovery complete. They
returned thanks to God for their success, and passed the wine cup three
times round the company. Schouten then made for the island of Juan
Fernandez, where he hoped to give rest and refreshment to his sickly
and wearied crew. The currents and the winds would not permit him to
land; and he was compelled to start across the Pacific in a crazy ship
and with a disabled company. Like Magellan, who traversed this ocean
without seeing any of the important islands which, just below the
line, extend from America to Asia, forming, as it were, a girdle from
shore to shore, Schouten discovered but a few insignificant rocks and
reefs, passing between and at a distance from the great archipelagoes
which dot the Pacific in this latitude. At one of these spots his men
met an enemy more numerous and formidable than any tribe of savages.
Innumerable myriads of flies followed them from the shore to the ship,
so that they came on board absolutely black with the winged and buzzing
infliction. The flies enveloped the vessel in a thick and melodious
cloud, from which the sailors were glad to escape with the first
favoring breeze. Schouten consulted geographical propriety by naming
the scene of this adventure Fly Island.
[Illustration: THE CONCORD AT FLY ISLAND.]
Early in July, 1616, they arrived at the Moluccas, and went ashore upon
the island of Gilolo, where they procured poultry, tortoises, rice, and
sago. They next touched at Ternate, where they were kindly entertained
by the Dutch authorities. They sold their two pinnaces, still upon
the deck of the Concord, together with what had been saved from the
Horn; they received in return thirteen hundred and fifty reals. With
this they purchased a large quantity of rice, a ton of vinegar, as
much Spanish wine, and three tons of biscuit. They then sailed for
Java, and cast anchor in the harbor of Jacatra--now Batavia--sixteen
months after quitting the Texel, having lost but three men upon the
voyage. The expedition properly terminates here; for Jan Petersen
Coen, President for the Dutch East India Company at Bantam, in Java,
confiscated their ship and cargo as forfeited for illegally sailing
within the boundaries of the Company's charter. He sent Schouten and
Lemaire to Holland, however, that they might plead their cause before a
competent court. Lemaire died on his way home, overcome with grief and
vexation at the disastrous end of a voyage which had been so successful
till the seizure of the ship. Schouten made several subsequent voyages
to the East Indies, and died, in 1625, in the island of Madagascar.
His name is little known, and his memory has almost passed away,
although to him clearly belongs the credit of improving upon Magellan's
discovery by furnishing a safer route to the commerce of the world and
substituting the doubling of Cape Horn for the threading of the Strait.
During this same year, the English made their last attempt for nearly
two centuries in the Arctic waters of America. William Baffin, who
had accompanied Hudson in one of his earlier voyages, embarked in the
capacity of pilot on board the Discovery,--a vessel bound for the
northwest and commanded by one Robert Bylot. The crew consisted of
fourteen men and two boys. Passing through Davis' Strait, they came to
the vast bay which now bears Baffin's name. They found it to be eight
hundred miles long and three hundred wide. They ascended to the north
as far as the seventy-eighth degree of latitude, where the bay seemed
to taper off in a strait or sound, which they called Thomas Smith's
Sound. Here Baffin observed the greatest variation of the needle known
at that time,--fifty-six degrees to the west. The charts of Baffin are
lost; but several of his journals are extant, and contain numerous
astronomical and hydrographic observations, which have since been fully
verified by the superior instruments of modern science. Baffin saw
the opening to the west which Ross, two centuries later, was to call
Lancaster Sound, and through which Parry was to penetrate to Melville
Island and to the Polar Sea. He was convinced that a northwest passage
existed, though he never made a second voyage in search of it. For
one hundred and sixty years, now, the Arctic waters of the American
continent were left undisturbed by adventurers from Europe. Their icy
coasts remained unvisited till the middle of the eighteenth century,
when the energies of English navigators were roused into activity by
the reward offered by Parliament,--twenty thousand pounds to him who
should sail to China by the northwest.
[Illustration: ARCTIC GULL IN PURSUIT.]
Section V.
FROM THE DISCOVERY OF CAPE HORN TO THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO
NAVIGATION; 1616-1807.