HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY AND COMMERCE, FROM THE
MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
The improvement of mankind in knowledge and civilization evidently depends
on the union of three circumstances,--enlarged and increased desires,
obstacles in the way of obtaining the objects of these desires, and
practicable means of overcoming or removing these obstacles. The history of
mankind in all ages and countries justifies and illustrates the truth of
this remark; for though it is, especially in the early periods of it, very
imperfect and obscure, and even in the later periods almost entirely
confined to war and politics, still there are in it sufficient traces of
the operation of all those three causes towards their improvement in
knowledge and civilization.
That they operated in extending the progress of discovery and commerce is
evident. We have already remarked that from the earliest periods, the
commodities of the east attracted the desires of the western nations: the
Arabians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans of the ancient world; the
Italian and Hanseatic states of the middle ages, all endeavoured to enrich
themselves by trading in commodities so eagerly and universally desired. As
industry and skill increased, and as the means as well as the desire of
purchase and enjoyment spread, by the rise of a middle class in Europe, the
demand for these commodities extended. The productions and manufactures of
the north, as well as of the south of Europe, having been increased and
improved, enabled the inhabitants of these countries to participate in
those articles from India, which, among the ancients, had been confined
exclusively to the rich and powerful.
On the other hand, even at the very time that this enlarged demand for
Indian commodities was taking place in Europe, and was accompanied by
enlarged means as well as extended skill and expedience in discovery and
commerce,--at this very time obstacles arose which threatened the almost
entire exclusion of Europeans from the luxuries of Asia. It may well be
doubted, whether, if the enemies of the Christian faith had not gained
entire possession of all the routes to India, and moreover, if these routes
had been rendered more easy of access and passage, they could have long
supplied the increased demands of improving Europe. But that Europe should,
on the one hand, improve and feel enlarged desires as well as means of
purchasing the luxuries of the east, while on the other hand, the
practicability of acquiring these luxuries should diminish, formed a
coincidence of circumstances, which was sure to produce important results.
As access to India by land, or even by the Arabian Gulf by sea, was
rendered extremely difficult and hazardous by the enmity of the Mahometans,
or productive of little commercial benefit by their exactions, the
attention and hopes of European navigators were directed to a passage to
India along the western coast of Africa. As, however, the length and
difficulties of such a voyage were extremely formidable, it would probably
have been either not attempted at all, or have required much longer time to
accomplish than it actually did, if, in addition and aid of increased
desires and an enlarged commercial spirit, the means of navigating distant,
extensive, and unknown seas, had not likewise been, about this period,
greatly improved.
We allude, principally, to the discovery of the mariners' compass. The
first clear notice of it appears in a Provençal poet of the end of the
twelfth century. In the thirteenth century it was used by the Norwegians in
their voyages to and from Iceland, who made it the device of an order of
knighthood of the highest rank; and from a passage in Barber's Bruce, it
must have been known in Scotland, if not used there in 1375, the period
when he wrote. It is said to have been used in the Mediterranean voyages at
the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century.
With respect to the nations of the east, it is doubted whether they derived
their knowledge of it from the Europeans, or the Europeans from them. When
we reflect on the long and perilous voyages of the Arabians, early in the
Christian era, we might be led to think that they could not be performed
without the assistance of the compass; but no mention of it, or allusion to
it, occurs in the account of any of their voyages; and we are expressly
informed by Nicolo di Conti, who sailed on board a native vessel in the
Indian seas, about the year 1420, that the Arabians had no compass, but
sailed by the stars of the southern pole; and that they knew how to measure
their elevation, as well as to keep their reckoning, by day and night, with
their distance from place to place. With respect to the Chinese, the point
in dispute is not so easily determined: it is generally imagined, that they
derived their knowledge of the compass from Europeans: but Lord Macartney,
certainly a competent judge, has assigned his reasons for believing that
the Chinese compass is original, and not borrowed, in a dissertation
annexed to Dr. Vincent's Periplus of the Erythrean Sea. At what period it
was first known among them, cannot be ascertained; they pretend that it was
known before the age of Confucius. That it was not brought from China to
Europe by Marco Polo, as some writers assert, is evident from the
circumstance that this traveller never mentions or alludes to it. The first
scientific account of the properties of the magnet, as applicable to the
mariner's compass, appears in a letter written by Peter Adsiger, in the
year 1269. This letter is preserved among the manuscripts of the university
of Leyden; extracts from it are given by Cavallo, in the second edition of
his Treatise on Magnetism. From these extracts it is evident that he was
acquainted with the attraction, repulsion, and polarity of the magnet, the
art of communicating those properties to iron, the variation of the
magnetic needle; and there are even some indications that he was acquainted
with the construction of the azimuth compass.
Next in importance and utility to the mariners' compass, in preparing the
way for the great discoveries by which the fifteenth century is
distinguished, maps and charts may be placed. For though, in general, they
were constructed on very imperfect and erroneous notions of the form of the
world, and the relative size and situation of different countries, yet
occasionally there appeared maps which corrected some long established
error, or supplied some new information; and even the errors of the maps,
in some cases, not improbably held out inducements or hopes, which would
not otherwise have been entertained and realized, as we have already
remarked, after D'Anville, that the greatest of Ptolemy's errors proved
eventually the efficient cause which led to the greatest discovery of the
moderns.
Malte Brun divides the maps of the middle ages into two classes: those in
which the notions of Ptolemy and other ancient geographers are implicitly
copied, and those in which new countries are inserted, which had been
either discovered, or were supposed to exist.
In most of the maps of the first description, Europe, Asia, and Africa are
laid down as forming one immense island, and Africa is not carried so far
as the equator. One of the most celebrated of these maps was drawn up by
Marin Sanuto, and inserted in his memorial presented to the pope and the
principal sovereigns of Europe, for the purpose of persuading and shewing
them, that if they would oblige their merchants to trade only through the
dominions of the Caliphs of Bagdat, they would be better supplied and at a
cheaper rate, and would have no longer to fear the Soldans of Egypt. This
memorial with its maps was inserted in the Gesta Dei per Francos, as we are
assured by the editor, from one of the original copies presented by Sanuto
to some one of the princes. Hence, as Dr. Vincent remarks, it probably
contains the oldest map of the world at this day extant, except the
Peutingerian tables. Sanuto, as we have already noticed, in giving an
abstract of the commercial information contained in his memorial, lived in
1324.
In the monastery of St. Michael di Murano, there is a planisphere, said to
be drawn up in 1459, by Fra Mauro, which contains a report of a ship from
India having passed the extreme point south, 2000 miles towards the west
and southwest in 1420.
Ramusio describes a map, supposed to be this, which he states to have been
drawn up for the elucidation of Marco Polo's travels.
On this map, so far as it relates to the circumnavigation of Africa, Dr.
Vincent has given a dissertation, having procured a _fac-simile_ copy
from Venice, which is deposited in the British Museum; the substance of
this dissertation we shall here compress. He divides his dissertation into
three parts. First, whether this was the map noticed by Ramusio, and by him
supposed to be drawn up to elucidate the travels of Marco Polo. On this
point he concludes that it was the map referred to by Ramusio, but that his
information respecting it is not correct. The second point to be determined
is, whether the map procured from Venice was really executed by Mauro, and
whether it existed previous to the Portuguese discoveries on the west coast
of Africa. Manro lived in the reign of Alphonso the Fifth, that is between
1438 and 1480; the whole of this map, therefore, is prior to Diaz and Gama,
two celebrated Portuguese navigators. Consequently, if it can be proved
that the map obtained by Dr. Vincent is genuine, it must have existed
previous to the Portuguese discoveries. The proof of the genuineness of the
map is derived from the date on the planisphere, 1459; the internal
evidence on the work itself; and the fact that Alphonso, or Prince Henry of
Portugal, who died in 1463, received a copy of this map from Venice, and
deposited it in the monastery of Alcobaca, where it is still kept. The sum
paid for this copy, and the account of expenditure, are detailed in a MS.
account in the monastery of St. Michael.
The third, and by far the most important part of Dr. Vincent's
dissertation, examines what the map contains respecting the termination cf
Africa to the south. On the first inspection of the map it is evident, that
the author has not implicitly followed Ptolemy, as he professes to do. The
centre of the habitable world is fixed at Bagdat. Asia and Europe he
defines rationally, and Africa so far as regards its Mediterranean coast.
He assigns two sources to the Nile, both in Abyssinia. On the east coast of
Africa, he carries an arm of the sea between an island which he represents
as of immense size, and the continent, obliquely as far nearly as the
latitude and longitude of the Cape of Good Hope. This island he calls Diab,
and the termination on the south, which he makes the extreme point of
Africa, Cape Diab.
The great object of Mauro, in drawing up this map, was to encourage the
Portuguese in the prosecution of their voyages to the south of Africa. This
is known to be the fact from other sources, and the construction of the
map, as well as some of the notices and remarks, which are inserted in its
margin, form additional evidence that this was the case. Two passages, as
Dr. Vincent observes, will set this in the clearest light. The first is
inserted at Cape Diab; "here," says the author, about the year 1420, "an
Indian vessel, on her passage across the Indian ocean was caught by a
storm, and carried 2000 miles beyond this Cape to the west and south-west;
she was seventy days in returning to the Cape." This the author regards as
a full proof that Africa was circumnavigable on the south.
In the second passage, inserted on the margin, after observing that the
Portuguese had been round the continent of Africa, more than 2000 miles to
the south-west beyond the Straits of Gibraltar; that they found the
navigation easy and safe, and had made charts of their discoveries; he
adds, that he had talked with a person worthy of credit, who assured him he
had been carried by bad weather, in an Indian ship, out of the Indian
Ocean, for forty days, beyond Cape Sofala and the Green Islands, towards
the west and south-west, and that in the opinion of the astronomer on
board, (such as all Indian ships carry,) they had been hurried away 2000
miles. He concludes by expressing his firm belief that the sea surrounding
the southern and south-eastern part of the world is navigable; and that the
Indian Sea is ocean, and not a lake. We may observe, by the bye, that in
another passage inserted in the margin, he expressly declares that the
Indian ships had no compass, but were directed by an astronomer on board,
who was continually making his observations.
It is evident that the two accounts are at variance, as the first asserts
that the passage was round Cape Diab, at the termination of Africa, and the
second that it was round Cape Sofala, fifteen degrees to the north of the
extremity of this quarter of the world: but without attempting to reconcile
this contradiction, it is abundantly evident that Mauro, by noticing the
Portuguese navigators, as having reached 2000 miles to the south of
Gibraltar, and adding that 2000 miles more of the coast of Africa had been
explored by an Indian ship, meant to encourage the further enterprises of
the Portuguese, by the natural inference that a very small space of
unsailed sea must lie between the two lines, which were the limits of the
navigation of the Portuguese and Indian vessel. The unexplored space was
indeed much greater than Mauro estimated and represented it in his map to
be; but, as Dr. Vincent remarks, his error in this respect manifestly
contributed to the prosecution of the Portuguese designs, as the error of
the ancient geographers, in approximating China to Europe, produced the
discovery of America by Columbus.
We have dwelt thus long on the map of Mauro, as being by far the most
important of the maps of the second description, or those in which were
inserted real or supposed discoveries. The rest of this description require
little notice.
A map of the date of 1346, in Castilian, represents Cape Bojada in Africa
as known, and having been doubled at that period. A manuscript, preserved
at Genoa, mentions that a ship had sailed from Majorca to a river called
Vedamel, or Rui Jaura (probably Rio-do-Ouro,) but her fate was not known.
The Genoese historians relate that two of their countrymen in 1291,
attempted to reach India by the west; the fate of this enterprize is also
unknown. The Canary Islands, the first discovery of which is supposed to
have taken place before the Christian era, and which were never afterwards
completely lost sight of, being described by the Arabian geographers,
appear in a Castilian map of 1346. Teneriffe is called in this map Inferno,
in conformity with the popular notion of the ancients, that these islands
were the seat of the blessed. In a map of 1384, there is an island called
Isola-di-legname, or the Isle of Wood, which, from this appellation, and
its situation, is supposed by some geographers to be the island of Madeira.
It would seem that some notions respecting the Azores were obscurely
entertained towards the end of the fourteenth century, as islands nearly in
their position are laid down in the maps of 1380.
In the library of St. Marc, at Venice, there is a map drawn by Bianco, in
1436. In it the ancient world is represented as forming one great
continent, divided into two unequal parts by the Mediterranean, and by the
Indian Ocean, which is carried from east to west, and comprises a great
number of islands. Africa stretches from west to east parallel to Europe
and Asia, but it terminates to the north of the equator. The peninsula of
India and the Gulf of Bengal scarcely appear. The eastern part of Asia
consists of two great peninsulas, divided by an immense gulf. Then appear
Cathai, Samarcand, and some other places, the names of which are
unintelligible. All the kingdoms of Europe are laid down except Poland and
Hungary. To the west of the Canaries, a large tract of country is laid down
under the appellation of Antitia; some geographers have maintained that by
this America was indicated, but there does not appear any ground for this
belief.
Having offered these preliminary and preparatory observations, we shall now
proceed to the discoveries of the Portuguese. From the slight sketch which
has already been given of the progress of geography and commerce, between
the time of Ptolemy and the fifteenth century, it appears that the
Portuguese had distinguished themselves less, perhaps, than any other
European nation, in these pursuits; but, long before the beginning of the
fifteenth century, circumstances had occurred, connected with their
history, which were preparing the way for their maritime enterprizes. So
early as the year 1250, the Portuguese had succeeded in driving the Moors
out of their country; and, in order to prevent them from again disturbing
them, they in their turn invaded Fez and Morocco, and having conquered
Ceuta in 1415, fortified it, and several harbours near it, on the shores of
the Atlantic. So zealous were the Portuguese in their enterprizes against
the Moors, that the ladies of Lisbon partook in the general enthusiasm, and
refused to bestow their hand on any man who had not signalized his courage
on the coast of Africa, The spirit of the nation was largely participated
by Prince Henry, the fifth son of John I., king of Portugal, who took up
his residence near Cape St. Vincent, in the year 1406. The sole passion and
object of his mind was to further the advancement of his country in
navigation and discovery: his regard for religion led him to endeavour to
destroy or diminish the power of the Mahometans; and his patriotism to
acquire for Portugal that Indian commerce, which had enriched the maritime
states of Italy. He sought every means and opportunity by which he could
increase or render more accurate his information respecting the western
coast, and the interior of Africa: and it is probable that the relations of
certain Jews and Arabs, respecting the gold mines of Guinea, weighed
strongly with him in the enterprizes which he planned, encouraged, and
accomplished.
It is not true, however, that he was the inventor of the astrolobe and the
compass, or the first that put these instruments into the hands of
navigators, though he undoubtedly was an excellent mathematician, and
procured the best charts and instruments of the age: the use and
application of these, he taught in the best manner to those he selected to
command his ships.
With respect to the compass, we have already stated all that is certainly
known respecting its earliest application to the purposes of navigation.
The sea astrolobe, which is an instrument for taking the altitude of the
sun, stars, &c., is described by Chaucer, in 1391, in a treatise on it,
addressed to his little son, Louis; and Purchas informs us, that it was
formerly applied only to astronomical purposes, but was accommodated to the
use of seamen by Martin Behaim, at the command of John II., king of
Portugal, about the year 1487.
About the year 1418, when Prince Henry first began his plan of discovery,
Cape Nun, in latitude 28° 40', was the limit of European knowledge on the
coast of Africa. With this part of the coast, the Portuguese had become
acquainted in consequence of their wars with the Moors of Barbary. In 1418,
two of Henry's commanders reached Cape Boyada in latitute 26° 30'; but the
Cape was not actually doubled till 1434. The Canary islands were visited
during the same voyage that the Cape was discovered: Madeira was likewise
visited or discovered; it was first called St. Laurence, after the saint of
the day on which it was seen, and afterwards Madeira, on account of its
woods. In 1420, the Portuguese set fire to these woods, and afterwards
planted the sugar cane, which they brought from Sicily, and the vines which
they brought from Cyprus. Saw mills were likewise erected on it.
About the year 1432, Gonzalos was sent with two small vessels to the coast
of Africa on new discoveries. In 1434, Cape Boyada was doubled: in 1442,
the Portuguese had advanced as far as Rio-do-Ouro, under the tropic of
Cancer. On the return of the ships from this voyage, the inhabitants of
Lisbon first saw, with astonishment, negroes of a jet black complexion, and
woolly hair, quite different from the slaves which had been hitherto
brought from Africa; for, before this time, they had seized, and sold as
slaves, the tawny Moors, which they met with on the coast of Africa. In the
year 1442, however, some of these had been redeemed by their friends, in
exchange for negroes and gold dust. This last article stimulated the
avarice of the Portuguese to greater exertions, than Prince Henry had been
able to excite, and an African company was immediately formed to obtain it,
slaves, &c.; but their commerce was exclusively confined to the coast of
Africa, to the south of Sierra Leone. Dr. Vincent justly remarks, that
Henry had stood alone for almost forty years, and had he fallen before
these few ounces of gold reached his country, the spirit of discovery might
have perished with him, and his designs might have been condemned as the
dreams of a visionary. The importation of this gold, and the establishment
of the African company in Portugal, to continue the remark of the same
author, is the primary date, to which we may refer that turn for adventure
which sprung up in Europe, 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.
In 1445, the Portuguese reached Senegal, where they first saw Pagan
negroes: in 1448 and 1449, their discoveries extended to Cape Verd. The
islands of that name were discovered in 1456. The exact extent of their
discoveries from this time till 1463, when Prince Henry died, is not
certainly known. According to some, Cape Verd, or Rio Grande, was the
limit; according to others, one navigator reached as far as the coast of
Guinea, and Cape Mesanado: some extend the limit even as far south as the
equator. Assuming, however, Rio Grande as the limit of the discoveries made
in Prince Henry's time, Rio Grande is in latitude 11 north, and the straits
of Gibraltar in latitude 36 north; the Portuguese had therefore advanced 25
degrees to the south; that is 1500 geographical, or 1750 British miles,
which, with the circuit of the coast, may be estimated at 2000 miles.
For nearly 20 years after the death of Prince Henry, little progress was
made by the Portuguese in advancing to the south. At the time of the death
of Alonzo, in 1481, they had passed the equator, and reached Cape St.
Catherine; in latitude S. 2° 30'. The island of St. Thomas under the line,
which was discovered in 1471, was immediately planted with sugar cane; and
a fort, which was built the same year on the gold coast, enabled them to
extend their knowledge of this part of Africa to a little distance inland.
Portugal now began to reap the fruits of her discoveries: bees' wax,
ostrich feathers, negro slaves, and particularly gold, were imported, on
all of which the profits were so great, that John II., who succeeded
Alonzo, immediately on his accession, sent out 12 ships to Guinea; and in
1483, two other vessels were sent, which in the following year reached
Congo, and penetrated to 22° south. The river Zaire in this part of Africa
was discovered, and many of the inhabitants of the country through which it
flows embarked voluntarily for Portugal. Benin was discovered about the
same time; here they found a species of spice, which was imported in great
quantities into Europe, and sold as pepper: it was, however, nothing else
but grains of paradise. The inhabitants of Benin must have had considerable
traffic far into the interior of Africa, for from them the Portuguese first
received accounts of Abyssinia. By the discovery and conquest of Benin and
Congo, the Portuguese traffic in slaves was much extended, but at the same
time it took another character for a short time; for the love of gold being
stronger than the hope of gain they might derive from the sale of negroes,
(for which, indeed, till the discovery of the West Indies there was little
demand,) the Portuguese used to exchange the natives they captured for gold
with the Moors, till John II. put an end to this traffic, under the
pretence that by means of it, the opportunity of converting the negroes was
lost, as they were thus delivered into the hands of Infidels. About eighty
years after Prince Henry began his discoveries, John I. sent out Diaz with
three ships: this was in 1486, and in the following year Covilham was sent
by the same monarch in search of India, by the route of Egypt and the Red
Sea.
The king displayed great judgment in the selection of both these persons.
Diaz was of a family, several members of which had already signalized
themselves by the discoveries on the coast of Africa. His mode of
conducting the enterprize on which he was sent, proved at once his
confidence in himself, his courage, and his skill; after reaching 24° south
latitude, 120 leagues beyond any former navigator, he stood right out to
sea, and never came within sight of the coast again, till he had reached 40
degrees to the eastward of the Cape, which, however, he was much too far
out at sea to discover. He persevered in stretching still farther east,
after he made land, till at length he reached the river Del Infante, six
degrees to the eastward of the most southern point of Africa, and almost a
degree beyond the Cape of Good Hope. He then resolved to return, for what
reason is not known; and on his return, he saw the Cape of Good Hope, to
which, on account of the storms he encountered on his passage round it, he
gave the appellation of Cabo Tormentoso. John II., however, augured so well
from the doubling of the extremity of Africa having been accomplished, that
he changed its name into that of the Cape of Good Hope.
As soon as John II. ascended the throne, he sent two friars and a layman to
Jerusalem, with instructions to gain whatever information they could
respecting India and Prester John from the pilgrims who resorted to that
city, and, if necessary, to proceed further to the east. As, however, none
of this party understood Arabic, they were of little use, and in fact did
not go beyond Jerusalem. In 1487, the king sent Covilham and Paayva on the
same mission: the former had served in Africa as a soldier, and was
intimately acquainted with Arabic. In order to facilitate this enterprise,
Covilham was entrusted with a map, drawn up by two Jews, which most
probably was a copy of the map of Mauro, of which we have already spoken.
On this map, a passage round the south of Africa was laid down as having
been actually accomplished, and Covilham was directed to reach Abyssinia,
if possible; and ascertain there or elsewhere, whether such a passage did
really exist. Covilham went from Naples to Alexandria, and thence to Cairo.
At this city he formed an acquaintance with some merchants of Fez and
Barbary, and in their company went to Aden. Here he embarked and visited
Goa, Calicut, and other commercial cities of India, where he saw pepper and
ginger, and heard of cloves and cinnamon. From India he returned to the
east coast of Africa, down which he went as low as Sofala, "the last
residence of the Arabs, and the limit of their knowledge in that age, as it
had been in the age of the Periplus." He visited the gold mines in the
vicinity of this place: and here he also learnt all the Arabs knew
respecting the southern part of Africa, viz. that the sea was navigable to
the south-west (and this indeed their countrymen believed, when the author
of the Periplus visited them); but they knew not where the sea terminated.
At Sofala also Covilham gained some information respecting the island of
the Moon, or Madagascar. He returned to Cairo, by Zeila, Aden, and Tor. At
Cairo, he sent an account of the intelligence to the king, and in the
letter which contained it, he added, "that the ships which sailed down the
coast of Guinea, might be sure of reaching the termination of the
continent, by persisting in a course to the south, and that when they
should arrive in the eastern ocean, their best direction must be to enquire
for Sofala and the island of the Moon."
"It is this letter," observes Dr. Vincent, "above all other information,
which, with equal justice and equal honour, assigns the theoretical
discovery to Covilham, as the practical to Diaz and Gama; for Diaz returned
without hearing any thing of India, though he had passed the Cape, and Gama
did not sail till after the intelligence of Covilham had ratified the
discovery of Diaz." One part of the instructions given to Covilham required
him to visit Abyssinia: in order to accomplish this object, he returned to
Aden, and there took the first opportunity of entering Abyssinia. The
sovereign of his country received and treated him with kindness, giving him
a wife and land. He entered Abyssinia in 1488, and in 1521, that is, 33
years afterwards, the almoner to the embassy of John de Lima found him.
Covilham, notwithstanding he was as much beloved by the inhabitants as by
their sovereign, was anxious to return to Portugal, and John de Lima, at
his request, solicited the king to grant him permission to that effect, but
he did not succeed. "I dwell," observes Dr. Vincent, "with a melancholy
pleasure on the history of this man,--whom Alvarez, the almoner, describes
still as a brave soldier and a devout Christian;--when I reflect upon what
must have been his sentiments on hearing the success of his countrymen, in
consequence of the discovery to which he so essentially contributed.
_They_ were sovereigns of the ocean from the Cape of Good Hope to the
straits of Malacca: _he_ was still a prisoner in a country of
barbarians."
It might have been supposed, that after it had been ascertained by Diaz
that the southern promontory of Africa could be doubled, and by Covilham,
that this was the only difficulty to a passage by sea to India, the court
of Portugal would have lost no time in prosecuting their discoveries, and
completing the grand object they had had in view for nearly a century:
this, however, was not the case. Ten years, and another reign, and great
debates in the council of Portugal were requisite before it was resolved
that the attempt to prosecute the discovery of Diaz to its completion was
expedient, or could be of any advantage to the nation at large. At last,
when Emanuel, who was their sovereign, had determined on prosecuting the
discovery of India, his choice of a person to conduct the enterprise fell
on Gama. As he had armorial bearings, we may justly suppose that he was of
a good family; and in all respects he appears to have been well qualified
for the grand enterprise to which he was called, and to have resolved, from
a sense of religion and loyalty, to have devoted himself to death, if he
should not succeed. Diaz was appointed to a command under him, but he had
not the satisfaction of witnessing the results of his own discovery; for he
returned when the fleet had reached St. Jago, was employed in a secondary
command under Cabral, in the expedition in which Brazil was discovered, and
in his passage from that country to the Cape, four ships, one of which he
commanded, perished with all on board.
As soon as the fleet which Gama was to take with him was ready for sea, the
king, attended by all his court, and a great body of the people, formed a
solemn procession to the shore, where they were to embark, and Gama assumed
the command, under the auspices of the most imposing religious ceremonies.
Nearly all who witnessed his embarkation regarded him and those who
accompanied him "rather as devoted to destruction, than as sent to the
acquisition of renown."
The fleet which was destined to accomplish one of the objects (the
discovery of America is the other)--which, as Dr. Robertson remarks,
"finally established those commercial ideas and arrangements which
constitute the chief distinction between the manners and policy of ancient
and modern times,"--consisted only of three small ships, and a victualler,
manned with no more than 160 souls: the principal officers were Vasco de
Gama, and Paul his brother: Diaz and Diego Diaz, his brother, who acted as
purser: and Pedro Alanquer, who had been pilot to Diaz. Diaz was to
accompany them only to a certain latitude.
They sailed from Lisbon on the 18th of July, 1497: in the bay of St.
Helena, which they reached on the 4th of November, they found natives, who
were not understood by any of the negro interpreters they had on board.
From the description of the peculiarity in their mode of utterance, which
the journal of the voyage calls sighing, and from the circumstance that the
same people were found in the bay of St. Blas, 60 leagues beyond the Cape,
there can be no doubt that they were Hottentots. In consequence of the
ignorance or the obstinacy of the pilot, and of tempestuous weather, the
voyage to the Cape was long and dangerous: this promontory, however, was
doubled on the 20th of November. After this the wind and weather proving
favourable, the voyage was more prosperous and rapid. On the 11th of
January, 1498, they reached that part of the coast where the natives were
no longer Hottentots, but Caffres, who at that period displayed the same
marks of superior civilization by which they are distinguished from the
Hottentots at present.
From the bay of St. Helena till they passed Cape Corrientes, there had been
no trace of navigation,--no symptom that the natives used the sea at all.
But after they passed this cape, they were visited by the natives in boats,
the sails of which seem to have been made of the fibres of the cocoa-palm.
A much more encouraging circumstance, however, occurred: some of the
natives that came off in these boats were clothed in cotton, silk, and
sattin,--evident proofs that intercourse, either direct or indirect, was
practicable, and had in fact been held between this country and India. The
language of these people was not understood; but from their signs it was
inferred that they had seen ships as large as the Portuguese, and that they
had come from the north.
This part of Africa lies between latitudes 19° and 18° south; and as Gama
had the corrected chart of Covilham on board, in which Sofala was marked as
the limit of his progress, and Sofala was two degrees to the south of where
he then was, he must have known that he had now passed the barrier, and
that the discovery was ascertained, his circumnavigation being now
connected with the route of Covilham. This point of Gama's progress is also
interesting and important in another respect, for we are here approaching a
junction with the discoveries of the Arabians, the Egyptians, the Greeks,
and the Romans.
At this place Gama remained till the 24th of February, repairing his ships
and recruiting his men. On the 1st of March, he arrived off Mozambique;
here evidences of a circumnavigation with India were strong and numerous.
The sovereign of Mozambique ruled over all the country from Sofala to
Melinda. The vessels, which were fitted out entirely for coasting voyages,
were large, undecked, the seams fastened with cords made of the cocoa
fibres, and the timbers in the same manner. Gama, in going on board some of
the largest of those, found that they were equipped with charts and
compasses, and what are called æst harlab, probably the sea astrolabe,
already discovered. At the town of Mozambique, the Moorish merchants from
the Red Sea and India, met and exchanged the gold of Sofala for their
commodities, and in its warehouses, which, though meanly built, were
numerous, pepper, ginger, cottons, silver, pearls, rubies, velvet, and
other Indian articles were exposed to sale. At Mombaça, the next place to
which Gama sailed, all the commodities of India were found, and likewise
the citron, lemon, and orange; the houses were built of stone, and the
inhabitants, chiefly Mahomedans, seemed to have acquired wealth by
commerce, as they lived in great splendour and luxury.
On the 17th of March, 1498, Gama reached Melinda, and was consequently
completely within the boundary of the Greek and Roman discovery and
commerce in this part of the world. This city is represented as well built,
and displaying in almost every respect, proofs of the extensive trade the
inhabitants carried on with India, and of the wealth they derived from it.
Here Gama saw, for the first time, Banians, or Indian merchants: from them
he received much important information respecting the commercial cities of
the west coast of India: and at Melinda he took on board pilots, who
conducted his fleet across the Indian Ocean to Calicut on the coast of
Malabar, where he landed on the 22d of May, 1498, ten months and two days
after his departure from Lisbon. He returned to Lisbon in 1499, and again
received the command of a squadron in 1502; he died at Cochin in 1525,
after having lived to witness his country sovereign of the Indian seas from
Malacca to the Cape of Good Hope. "The consequence of his discovery was the
subversion of the Turkish power, which at that time kept all Europe in
alarm. The East no longer paid tribute for her precious commodities, which
passed through the Turkish provinces; the revenues of that empire were
diminished; the Othmans ceased to be a terror to the western world, and
Europe has risen to a power, which the three other continents may in vain
endeavour to oppose."
The successful enterprize of Gama, and the return of his ships laden not
only with the commodities peculiar to the coast of Malabar, but with many
of the richer and rarer productions of the eastern parts of India,
stimulated the Portuguese to enter on this new career with avidity and
ardour, both military and commercial. It fortunately happened that Emanuel,
who was king of Portugal at this period, was a man of great intelligence
and grasp of mind, capable of forming plans with prudence and judgment, and
of executing them with method and perseverance; and it was equally
fortunate that such a monarch was enabled to select men to command in
India, who from their enterprize, military skill, sagacity, integrity, and
patriotism, were peculiarly qualified to carry into full and successful
execution all his views and plans.
The consequences were such as must always result from the steady operation
of such causes: twenty-four years after the voyage of Gama, and before the
termination of Emanuel's reign, the Portuguese had reached, and made
themselves masters of Malacca. This place was the great staple of the
commerce carried on between the east of Asia, including China, and the
islands and the western parts of India. To it the merchants of China,
Japan, the Moluccas, &c. came from the east, and those of Malabar, Ceylon,
Coromandel and Bengal, from the west; and its situation, nearly at an equal
distance from the eastern and western parts of India, rendered it
peculiarly favorable for this trade, while by possessing the command of the
straits through which all ships must pass from the one extremity of Asia to
the other, it had the monopoly of the most extensive and lucrative commerce
completely within its power.
From Malacca the Portuguese sailed for the conquest of the Moluccas; and by
achieving this, secured the monopoly of spices. Their attempt to open a
communication and trade with China, which was made about the same time, was
not then successful: but by perseverance they succeeded in their object,
and before the middle of the sixteenth century, exchanged, at the island of
Sancian, the spices of the Moluccas, and the precious stones and ivory of
Ceylon, for the silks, porcelain, drugs, and tea of China. Soon afterwards
the emperor of China allowed them to occupy the island of Macao. In 1542
they succeeded in forming a commercial intercourse with Japan, trading with
it for gold, silver and copper; this trade, however, was never extensive,
and it ceased altogether in 1638, when they were driven from the Japanese
territories.
As the commodities of India could not be purchased except with large
quantities of gold, the Portuguese, in order to obtain it, as well as for
other commercial advantages, prosecuted their discoveries on the east of
Africa, at the same time that they were extending their power and commerce
in India. On the east of Africa, between Sofala and the Red Sea, Arabian
colonies had been settled for many centuries: these the Portuguese
navigators visited, and gradually reduced to tribute; and the remains of
the empire they established at this period, may still be traced in the few
and feeble settlements they possess between Sofala and Melinda. In 1506
they visited and explored the island of Madagascar; in 1513, by the
expulsion of the Arabs from Aden, the Red Sea was opened to their ships;
and they quickly examined its shores and harbours, and made themselves
acquainted with its tedious and dangerous navigation. In 1520 they visited
the ports of Abyssinia, but their ambition and the security of their
commerce were not yet completely attained; the Persian Gulf, as well as the
Red Sea, was explored; stations were formed on the coasts of both: and thus
they were enabled to obstruct the ancient commercial intercourse between
Egypt and India, and to command the entrance of those rivers, by which
Indian goods were conveyed not only through the interior of Asia, but also
to Constantinople. By the conquest of Ormus, the Portuguese monopolised
that extensive trade to the East, which had been in the hands of the
Persians for several centuries. "In the hands of the Portuguese this island
soon became the great mart from which the Persian empire, and all the
provinces of Asia to the west of it, were supplied with the productions of
India: and a city which they built on that barren island, destitute of
water, was rendered one of the chief seats of opulence, splendour, and
luxury in the eastern world."
The Venetians, who foresaw the ruin of their oriental commerce in the
success of the Portuguese, in vain endeavoured to stop the progress of
their rivals in the middle of the sixteenth century: the latter, masters of
the east coast of Africa, of the coasts of Arabia and Persia, of the two
peninsulas of India, of the Molucca islands, and of the trade to China and
Japan, supplied every part of Europe with the productions of the east, by
the Cape of Good Hope; nor was their power and commerce subverted, till
Portugal became a province of Spain.
We have purposely omitted, in this rapid sketch of the establishment and
progress of the Portuguese commerce in the East, any notice of the smaller
discoveries which they made at the same time. These, however, it will be
proper to advert to before we proceed to another subject.
In the year 1512, a Portuguese navigator was shipwrecked on the Maldives:
he found them already in the occasional possession of the Arabians, who
came thither for the cocoa fibres, of which they formed their cordage, and
the cowries, which circulated as money from Bengal to Siam. The Portuguese
derived from them immense quantities of these cowries, with which they
traded to Guinea, Congo, and Benin. On their conquest, they obliged the
sovereigns of this island to pay them tribute in cinnamon, pearls, precious
stones, and elephants. The discovery and conquest of the Malaccas has
already been noticed, and its importance in rendering them masters of the
trade of both parts of India, which had been previously carried on
principally by the merchants of Arabia, Persia from the West, and of China
from the East. In Siam, gum lac, porcelain, and aromatics enriched the
Portuguese, who were the first Europeans who arrived in this and the
adjacent parts of this peninsula.
In the year 1511 the Portuguese navigators began to explore the eastern
archipelago of India, and to make a more complete and accurate examination
of some islands, which they had previously barely discovered. Sumatra was
examined with great care, and from it they exported tin, pepper, sandal,
camphire, &c. In 1513, they arrived at Borneo: of it, however, they saw and
learned little, except that it also produced camphire. In the same year
they had made themselves well acquainted with Java: here they obtained
rice, pepper, and other valuable articles. It is worthy of remark, that
Barros, the Portuguese historian of their discoveries and conquests in the
East, who died towards the close of the sixteenth century, already foresaw
that the immense number of islands, some of them very large, which were
scattered in the south-east of Asia, would justly entitle this part, at
some future period, to the appellation of the fifth division of the world.
Couto, his continuator, comprehends all these islands under five different
groups. To the first belong the Moluccas. The second archipelago comprises
Gilolo, Moratai, Celebes, or Macassar, &c. The third group contains the
great isle of Mindinao, Soloo, and most of the southern Philippines. The
fourth archipelago was formed of the Banda isle, Amboyna, &c.; the largest
of these were discovered by the Portuguese in the year 1511: from Amboyna
they drew their supplies of cloves.
The Portuguese knew little of the fifth archipelago, because the
inhabitants were ignorant of commerce, and totally savage and uncultivated.
From the description given of them by the early Portuguese writers, as
totally unacquainted with any metal, making use of the teeth of fish in its
stead, and as being as black as the Caffres of Africa, while among them
there were some of an unhealthy white colour, whose eyes were so weak that
they could not bear the light of the sun;--from these particulars there can
be no doubt that the Portuguese had discovered New Guinea, and the adjacent
isles, to whose inhabitants this description exactly applies. These islands
were the limit of the Portuguese discoveries to the East: they suspected,
however, that there were other islands beyond them, and that these ranged
along a great southern continent, which stretched as far as the straits of
Magellan. It is the opinion of some geographers, and particularly of Malte
Brun, that the Portuguese had visited the coasts of New Holland before the
year 1540; but that they regarded it as part of the great southern
continent, the existence of which Ptolemy had first imagined.
We have already alluded to the obstacles which opposed and retarded the
commercial intercourse of the Portuguese with China. Notwithstanding these,
they prosecuted their discoveries in the Chinese seas. In the year 1518,
they arrived at the isles of Liqueou, where they found gold in abundance:
the inhabitants traded as far as the Moluccas. Their intercourse with Japan
has already been noticed.
From these results of the grand project formed by Prince Henry, and carried
on by men animated by his spirit, (results so important to geography and
commerce, and which mainly contributed to raise Europe to its present high
rank in knowledge, civilization, wealth, and power,) we must now turn to
the discovery of America, the second grand cause in the production of the
same effects.
For the discovery of the new world we are indebted to Columbus. This
celebrated person was extremely well qualified for enterprizes that
required a combination of foresight, comprehension, decision, perseverance,
and skill. From his earliest youth he had been accustomed to regard the sea
as his peculiar and hereditary element; for the family, from which he was
descended, had been navigators for many ages. And though, from all that is
known respecting them, this line of life had not been attended with much
success or emolument, yet Columbus's zeal was not thereby damped; and his
parents, still anxious that their son should pursue the same line which his
ancestors had done, strained every nerve to give him a suitable education.
He was accordingly taught geometry, astronomy, geography, and drawing. As
soon as his time of life and his education qualified him for the business
he had chosen, he went to sea; he was then fourteen years old. His first
voyages were from Genoa, of which city he was a native, to different ports
in the Mediterranean, with which this republic traded. His ambition,
however, was not long to be confined to seas so well known. Scarcely had he
attained the age of twenty, when he sailed into the Atlantic; and steering
to the north, ran along the coast of Iceland, and, according, to his own
journal, penetrated within the arctic circle. In another voyage he sailed
as far south as the Portuguese fort of St. George del Mina, under the
equator, on the coast of Africa. On his return from this voyage, he seems
to have engaged in a piratical warfare with the Venetians and Turks, who,
at this period, disputed with the Genoese the sovereignty and commerce of
the Mediterranean; and in this warfare he was greatly distinguished for
enterprize, as well as for cool and undaunted courage.
At this period he was attracted to Lisbon by the fame which Prince Henry
had acquired, on account of the encouragement he afforded to maritime
discovery. In this city he married the daughter of a person who had been
employed in the earlier navigations of the prince; and from his
father-in-law he is said to have obtained possession of a number of
journals, sea charts, and other valuable papers. As he had ascertained that
the object of the Portuguese was to reach India by the southern part of
Africa, he concluded, that, unless he could devise or suggest some other
route, little attention would be paid to him. He, therefore, turned his
thoughts to the practicability of reaching India by sailing to the west. At
this time the rotundity of the earth was generally admitted. The ancients,
whose opinions on the extent and direction of the countries which formed
the terrestrial globe, still retained their hold on the minds even of
scientific men, had believed that the ocean encompassed the whole earth;
the natural and unavoidable conclusion was, that by sailing to the west,
India would be reached. An error of Ptolemy's, to which we have already
adverted, contributed to the belief that this voyage could not be very
long; for, according to that geographer, (and his authority was implicitly
acceded to,) the space to be sailed over was sixty degrees less than it
actually proved to be,--a space equal to three-fourths, of the Pacific
Ocean. From considering Marco Polo's account of his travels in the east of
Asia, Columbus also derived great encouragement; for, according to him,
Cathay and Zepango stretched out to a great extent in an easterly
direction; of course they must approach so much the more towards the west
of Europe. It is probable, also, that Columbus flattered himself, that if
he did not reach India by a western course, he would, perhaps, discover the
Atlantis, which was placed by Plato and Aristotle in the ocean, to the west
of Europe.
Columbus, however, did not trust entirely to his own practical knowledge of
navigation, or to the arguments he drew from a scientific acquaintance with
cosmography: he heard the reports of skilful and experienced pilots, and
corresponded with several men of science. He is said, in a particular
manner to have been confirmed in his belief that India might be reached by
sailing to the west, by the communications which he had with Paul, a
physician of Florence, a man well known at this period for his acquaintance
with geometry and cosmography, and who had paid particular attention to the
discoveries of the Portuguese. He stated several facts, and offered several
ingenious conjectures, and moreover, sent a chart to Columbus, on which he
pointed out the course which he thought would lead to the desired object.
As Columbus was at the court of Lisbon, when he had resolved to undertake
his great enterprise, and, in fact, regarded himself as in some degree a
Portuguese subject, he naturally applied in the first instance to John II.,
requesting that monarch to let him have some ships to carry him to Marco
Polo's island of Zepango or Japan. The king referred him to the Bishop of
Ceuta and his two physicians; but they having no faith in the existence of
this island, rejected the services of Columbus. For seven years afterwards
he solicited the court of Spain to send him out, while, during the same
period, his brother, Bartholomew, was soliciting the court of England: the
latter was unsuccessful, but Columbus himself at length persuaded Isabella
to grant 40,000 crowns for the service of the expedition. He accordingly
sailed from Palos, in Andalusia, on the 3d of August, 1492; and in
thirty-three days landed on one of the Bahamas. He had already sailed nine
hundred and fifty leagues west from the Canaries: after touching at the
Bahamas, he continued his course to the west, and at length discovered the
island of Cuba. He went no farther on this voyage; but on his return home,
he discovered Hispaniola. The variation of the compass was first observed
in this voyage. In a second voyage, in 1492, Columbus discovered Jamaica,
and in a third, in 1494, he visited Trinidad and the continent of America,
near the mouth of the Orinoco. In 1502, he made a fourth and last voyage,
in which he explored some part of the shores of the Gulph of Mexico. The
ungrateful return he met with from his country is well known: worn out with
fatigue, disappointment, and sorrow, he died at Valladolid, on the 20th of
May, 1506, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.
In the mean time, the completion of the discovery of America was rapidly
advancing. In 1499, Ogeda, one of Columbus's companions, sailed for the new
world: he was accompanied by Amerigo Vespucci: little was discovered on the
voyage, except some part of the coast of Guana and Terra Firma. But
Amerigo, having, on his return to Spain, published the first account of the
New World, the whole of this extensive quarter of the globe was called
after him. Some authors, however, contend that Amerigo visited the coasts
of Guiana and Terra Firma before Columbus; the more probable account is,
that he examined them more carefully two years after their discovery by
Columbus. Amerigo was treated by the court of Spain with as little
attention and gratitude as Columbus had been: he therefore offered his
services to Portugal, and in two voyages, between 1500 and 1504, he
examined the coasts of that part of South America which was afterwards
called Brazil. This country had been discovered by Cabral, who commanded
the second expedition of the Portuguese to India: on his voyage thither, a
tempest drove him so far to the west, that he reached the shores of
America. He called it the Land of the Holy Cross; but it was afterwards
called Brazil, from the quantity of red wood of that name found on it.
For some time after the discovery of America it was supposed to be part of
India: and hence, the name of the West Indies, still retained by the
islands in the Gulph of Mexico, was given to all those countries. There
were, however, circumstances which soon led the discoverers to doubt of the
truth of the first conceived opinion. The Portuguese had visited no part of
Asia, either continent or island, from the coast of Malabar to China, on
which they had not found natives highly civilized, who had made
considerable progress in the elegant as well as the useful arts of life,
and who were evidently accustomed to intercourse with strangers, and
acquainted with commerce. In all these respects, the New World formed a
striking contrast: the islands were inhabited by savages, naked,
unacquainted with the rudest arts of life, and indebted for their
sustenance to the spontaneous productions of a fertile soil and a fine
climate. The continent, for the most part, presented immense forests, and
with the exception of Mexico and Peru, was thinly inhabited by savages as
ignorant and low in the scale of human nature as those who dwelt on the
islands.
The natural productions and the animals differed also most essentially from
those, not only of India, but also of Europe. There were no lemons,
oranges, pomegranates, quinces, figs, olives, melons, vines, nor sugar
canes: neither apples, pears, plumbs, cherries, currants, gooseberries,
rice, nor any other corn but maize. There was no poultry (except turkeys),
oxen, sheep, goats, swine, horses, asses, camels, elephants, cats, nor
dogs, except an animal resembling a dog, but which did not bark. Even the
inhabitants of Mexico and Peru were unacquainted with iron and the other
useful metals, and destitute of the address requisite for acquiring such
command of the inferior animals, as to derive any considerable aid from
their labour.
In addition to these most marked and decided points of difference between
India and the newly discovered quarter of the globe, it was naturally
inferred that a coast extending, as America was soon ascertained to do,
many hundred miles to the northward and to the southward of the equator,
could not possibly be that of the Indies. At last, in the year 1513, a view
of the Grand Ocean having been attained from the mountains of Darien, the
supposition that the New World formed part of India was abandoned. To this
ocean the name of the South Sea was given.
In the mean time, the Portuguese had visited all the islands of the Malay
Archipelago, as far as the Moluccas. Portugal had received from the Pope a
grant of all the countries she might discover: the Spaniards, after the
third voyage of Columbus, obtained a similar grant. As, however, it was
necessary to draw a line between those grants, the Pope fixed on 27-1/2°
west of the meridian of the island of Ferro. The sovereigns, for their
mutual benefit, allowed it to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verd islands:
all the countries to the east of this line were to belong to Portugal, and
all those to the west of it to Spain. According to this line of
demarcation, supposing the globe to be equally divided between the two
powers, it is plain that the Moluccas were situated within the hemisphere
which belonged to Spain. Portugal, however, would not yield them up,
contending that she was entitled to the sovereignty of all the countries
she could discover by sailing eastward. This dispute gave rise to the first
circumnavigation of the globe, and the first practical proof that India
could be reached by sailing westward from Europe, as well as to other
results of the greatest importance to geography and commerce.
During the discussions which this unexpected and embarrassing difficulty
produced, Francis Magellan came to the court of Spain, to offer his
services as a navigator, suggesting a mode by which he maintained that
court would be able to decide the question in its own favour. Magellan had
served under Albuquerque, and had visited the Moluccas: and he proposed, if
the Spanish monarch would give him ships, to sail to these islands by a
westerly course, which would, even according to the Portuguese, establish
the Spanish right to their possession. The emperor Charles, who was at this
period king of Spain, joyfully embraced the proposal, although a short time
previous, Solis, who had sailed in quest of a westerly passage to India,
had, after discovering the Rio de la Plata, perished in the attempt.
It is maintained by some authors that Magellan's confidence in the success
of his own plan arose from the information he received from a chart drawn
up by Martin Behaim, in which the straits that were afterwards explored by
Magellan, and named after him, were laid down; and that he carried the
information he derived from it to Spain, and by means of it obtained the
protection of Cardinal Ximenes, and the command of the fleet, with which he
was the first to circumnavigate the world.
As this is a point which has been a good deal discussed, and as it is of
importance, not only to the fame of Magellan, but to a right understanding
of the actual state of geographical knowledge, with respect to the New
World, at this era, it may be proper briefly to consider it.
The claim of Behaim rests entirely on a passage in Pigafetta's journal of
the voyage of Magellan, in which it is stated that Magellan, as skilful as
he was courageous, knew that he was to seek for a passage through an
obscure strait: this strait he had seen laid down in a chart of Martin
Behaim, a most excellent cosmographer, which was in the possession of the
king of Portugal. In describing the nature of the maps and charts which,
during the whole of the middle ages, were drawn up, we observed that it was
very usual to insert countries, &c. which were merely supposed to exist.
The question, therefore, is--allowing that a strait was laid down in a
chart drawn up by Behaim, whether it was a conjectural strait or one laid
down from good authority? That Behaim himself did not discover such a
strait will be evident from the following circumstances: in the Nuremberg
globe, formed by Behaim, it does not appear: there is nothing between the
Azores and Japan, except the fabulous islands of Aulitia and St. Brandon;
no mention of it is made in the archives of that city or in his numerous
letters, which are still preserved. The date of the Nuremberg globe is
1492, the very year in which Columbus first reached the West Indies: Behaim
therefore cannot be supposed to have contributed to this discovery. It is
said, however, that he made a long voyage in 1483 and 1484: but this voyage
was in an easterly direction, for it is expressly stated to have been to
Ethiopia; probably to Congo, and the cargo he brought home, which consisted
of an inferior kind of pepper, proves that he had not visited America.
Besides, if he had visited any part of America in 1483 or 1484, he would
have laid it down in his globe in 1492, whereas, as we have remarked, no
country appears on it to the west of St. Brandon. We may, therefore, safely
conclude that he did not himself discover any passage round the south point
of America.
But all the other great discoveries of the Portuguese and Spaniards (except
that of Diaz in 1486) were made between 1492, the date of the Nuremberg
Globe, and 1506, the date of the death of Behaim, and between these
periods, he constantly resided at Fayal. It is much more probable that he
inserted this strait in his chart on supposition, thinking it probable
that, as Africa terminated in a cape, so America would. That Magellan did
not himself believe the strait was laid down in Behaim's chart from any
authority is evident, from a circumstance mentioned by Pigafetta, who
expressly informs us, that Magellan was resolved to prosecute his search
after it to latitude 75°, had he not found it in latitude 52°. Now, as
Behaim undoubtedly was the greatest cosmographer of the age, and had been
employed to fit the astrolobe as a sea instrument, it is not to be supposed
that, if he had good authority for the existence of a passage round South
America, he would have left it in any chart he drew, with an uncertainty of
23 degrees.
Magellan sailed from Spain in 1519, with five ships: he explored the river
Plate a considerable way, thinking at first it was the sea, and would lead
him to the west. He then continued his voyage to the south, and reached the
entrance of the straits which afterwards received his name, on the 21st
October, 1520, but, in consequence of storms, and the scarcity of
provisions, he did not clear them till the 28th of November. He now
directed his course to the north-west: for three months and twenty days he
saw no land. In 15 south, he discovered a small island; and another in 9
south. Continuing his course still in the same direction, he arrived at the
Ladrones, and soon afterwards at the Phillippines, where he lost his life
in a skirmish. His companions continued their voyage; and, on the
twenty-seventh month after their departure from Spain, arrived at one of
the Molucca islands. Here the Spaniards found plenty of spices, which they
obtained in exchange for the cloth, glass, beads, &c., which they had
brought with them for that purpose. From the Moluccas they returned home
round the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Seville in September, 1552. Only
one ship returned, and she was drawn up in Seville, and long preserved as a
monument of the first circumnavigation of the globe. The Spaniards were
surprised, on their return to their native country, to find that they had
gained a day in their reckoning--a proof of the scanty knowledge at that
time possessed, respecting one of the plainest and most obvious results of
the diurnal motion of the earth.
The voyage of Magellan occupied 1124 days: Sir Francis Drake, who sailed
round the world about half a century afterwards, accomplished the passage
in 1051 days: the next circumnavigator sailed round the globe in 769 days;
and the first navigators who passed to the south of Terra del Fuego,
accomplished the voyage in 749 days. In the middle of the eighteenth
century, a Scotch privateer sailed round the world in 240 days.
In the meantime, several voyages had been performed to the east coast of
North America. The first voyages to this part of the new world were
undertaken by the English: there is some doubt and uncertainty respecting
the period when these were performed. The following seems the most probable
account.
At the time when Columbus discovered America, there lived in London a
Venetian merchant, John Cabot, who had three sons. The father was a man of
science, and had paid particular attention to the doctrine of the spheres:
his studies, as well as his business as a merchant, induced him to feel
much interest in the discoveries which were at that period making. He seems
to have applied to Henry VII.; who accordingly empowered him to sail from
England under the royal flag, to make discoveries in the east, the west,
and the north, and to take possession of countries inhabited by Pagans, and
not previously discovered by other European nations. The king gave him two
ships, and the merchants of Bristol three or four small vessels, loaded
with coarse cloth, caps, and other small goods. The doubt respecting the
precise date of this voyage seems to receive the most satisfactory solution
from the following contemporary testimony of Alderman Fabian, who says, in
his _Chronicle of England and France_, that Cabot sailed in the
beginning of May, in the mayoralty of John Tate, that is, in 1497, and
returned in the subsequent mayoralty of William Purchase, bringing with him
three _sauvages_ from Newfoundland. This fixes the date of this
voyage: the course he steered, and the limits of his voyage, are however
liable to uncertainty. He himself informs us, that he reached only 56°
north latitude, and that the coast of America, at that part, winded to the
east: but there is no coast of North America that answers to this
description. According to other accounts, he reached 67-1/2° north
latitude; but this is the coast of Greenland, and not the coast of
Labrador, as these accounts call it. It is most probable that he did not
reach farther than Newfoundland, which he certainly discovered. To this
island he at first gave the names of Prima Vista and Baccaloas; and it is
worthy of notice, that a cape of Newfoundland still retains the name of
Bona Vista, and there is a small island still called Bacalao, not far from
hence.
From this land he sailed to the south-west till he reached the latitude of
Gibraltar, and the longitude of Cuba; if these circumstances be correct, he
must have sailed nearly as far as Chesapeak Bay: want of provisions now
obliged him to return to England.
Portugal, jealous of the discoveries which Spain had made in the new world,
resolved to undertake similar enterprizes, with the double hope of
discovering some new part of America, and a new route to India. Influenced
by these motives, Certireal, a man of birth and family, sailed from Lisbon
in 1500 or 1501: he arrived at Conception Bay, in Newfoundland, explored
the east coast of that island, and afterwards discovered the river St.
Lawrence. To the next country which he discovered, he gave the name of
Labrador, because, from its latitude and appearance, it seemed to him
better fitted for culture than his other discoveries in this part of
America. This country he coasted till he came to a strait, which he called
the Strait of Anian. Through this strait he imagined a passage would be
found to India, but not being able to explore it himself, he returned to
Portugal, to communicate the important and interesting information. He soon
afterwards went out on a second voyage, to prosecute his discoveries in
this strait; but in this he perished. The same voyage was undertaken by
another brother, but he also perished. As the situation of the Strait of
Anian was very imperfectly described, it was long sought for in vain on
both sides of America; it is now generally supposed to have been Hudson's
Strait, at the entrance of Hudson's Bay.
The Spaniards were naturally most alarmed at the prospect of the Portuguese
finding a passage by this strait to India. Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico,
undertook himself an expedition for this purpose; but he returned without
accomplishing any thing. After him the viceroy, Mendoza, sent people, both
by sea and land, to explore the coast as far as 53° north latitude; but
neither party reached farther than 36 degrees. The Spanish court itself now
undertook the enterprize; and in the year 1542, Cabrillo, a Portuguese in
the service of that court, sailed from Spain. He went no farther than to 44
degrees north latitude, where he found it very cold. He coasted the
countries which at present are called New California, as far as Cape
Blanco: he discovered, likewise, Cape Mendocino; and ascertained, that from
this place to the harbour De la Nadividad, the land continued without the
intervention of any strait. In 1582, Gualle was directed by the king of
Spain to examine if there was a passage to the east and north-east of
Japan, that connected the sea of Asia with the South Sea. He accordingly
steered from Japan to the E.N.E. about 300 leagues: here he found the
current setting from the north and north-west, till he had sailed above 700
leagues, when he reckoned he was only 200 leagues from the coast of
California. In this voyage he discovered those parts of the north-west
coast of America which are called New Georgia and New Cornwall. At the
beginning of the seventeenth century, the Spaniards, alarmed at the
achievements of Sir Francis Drake on this part of America, and still
anxious to discover, if possible, the Straits of Anian, sent out Sebastian
Viscaino from Acapulco: he examined the coasts as far as Cape Mendocino,
and discovered the harbour of Montery. One of his ships reached the
latitude of 43 degrees, where the mouth of a strait, or a large river, was
said to have been discovered.
The expedition of Sir Francis Drake, though expressly undertaken for the
purpose of distressing the Spaniards in their new settlements, must be
noticed here, on account of its having contributed also, in some degree, to
the geographical knowledge of the north-west coast of America. He sailed
from Plymouth on the 15th November, 1577, with five vessels, (the largest
only 100 tons, and the smallest 15,) and 164 men. On the 20th of August,
1578, he entered the Strait of Magellan, which he cleared on the 6th of
September: "a most extraordinary short passage," observes Captain Tuckey,
"for no navigator since, though aided by the immense improvements in
navigation, has been able to accomplish it in less than 36 days." After
coasting the whole of South America to the extremity of Mexico, he resolved
to seek a northern passage into the Atlantic. With this intention, he
sailed along the coast, to which, from its white cliffs, he gave the name
of New Albion. When he arrived, however, at Cape Blanco, the cold was so
intense, that he abandoned his intention of searching for a passage into
the Atlantic, and crossed the Pacific to the Molucca islands. In this long
passage he discovered only a few islands in 20° north latitude: after an
absence of 1501 days, he arrived at Plymouth. The discoveries made by this
circumnavigator, will, however, be deemed much more important, if the
opinion of Fleurien, in his remarks on the austral lands of Drake, inserted
in the Voyage of Marchand, in which opinion he is followed by Malte Brun,
be correct; viz. that Drake discovered, under the name of the Isles of
Elizabeth, the western part of the archipelago of Terra del Fuego; and that
he reached even the southern extremity of America, which afterwards
received, from the Dutch navigators, the name of Cape Horn. These are all
the well authenticated discoveries made in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, on the north-west coast of America. Cape Mendocino, in about
40-1/2 degrees north latitude, is the extreme limit of the certain
knowledge possessed at this period respecting this coast: the information
possessed respecting New Georgia and New Cornwall was very vague and
obscure.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the coasts of the east side of
North America, particularly those of Florida, Virginia, Acadia and Canada,
were examined by navigators of different countries. Florida was discovered
in the year 1512, by the Spanish navigator, Ponce de Leon; but as it did
not present any appearance of containing the precious metals, the Spaniards
entirely neglected it. In 1524, the French seem to have engaged in their
first voyage of discovery to America. Francis I. sent out a Florentine with
four ships: three of these were left at Madeira; with the fourth he reached
Florida. From this country he is said to have coasted till he arrived in
fifty degrees of north latitude. To this part he gave the name of New
France; but he returned home without having formed any colony. Towards the
end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, the
English began to form settlements in these parts of North America. Virginia
was examined by the famous Sir Walter Raleigh: this name was given to all
the coast on which the English formed settlements. That part of it now
called Carolina, seems to have been first discovered by Raleigh.
The beginning of the seventeenth century was particularly distinguished by
the voyage of La Maire and Schouten. The States General of Holland, who had
formed an East India Company, in order to secure to it the monopoly of the
Indian trade, prohibited all individuals from navigating to the Indian
Ocean, either round the Cape of Good Hope or through the Straits of
Magellan. It was therefore an object of great importance to discover, if
practicable, any passage to India, which would enable the Dutch, without
incurring the penalties of the law, to reach India. This idea was first
suggested by La Maire, a merchant of Amsterdam, and William Schouten, a
merchant of Horn. They had also another object in view: in all the maps of
the world of the sixteenth century, a great southern continent is laid
down. In 1606, Quiros, a Spanish navigator, had searched in vain for this
continent; and La Maire and Schouten, in their voyage, resolved to look for
it, as well as for a new passage to India. In 1615 they sailed from Holland
with two ships: they coasted Patagonia, discovered the strait which bears
the name of La Maire, and Staten Island, which joins it on the east. On the
31st of January next year, they doubled the southern point of America,
having sailed almost into the sixtieth degree of south latitude; this point
they named Cape Horn, after the town of which Schouten was a native. From
this cape they steered right across the great southern ocean to the
northwest. In their course they discovered several small islands; but
finding no trace of a continent, they gave up the search for it, and
steering to the south, passed to the east of the Papua Archipelago. They
then changed their course to the west; discovered the east coast of the
island, afterwards called New Zealand, as well as the north side of New
Guinea. They afterwards reached Batavia, where they were seized by the
president of the Dutch East India Company. This voyage was important, as it
completed the navigation of the coast of South America from the Strait of
Magellan to Cape Horn, and ascertained that the two great oceans, the
Pacific and the Atlantic, joined each other to the south of America, by a
great austral sea. This voyage added also considerably to maritime
geography, "though many of the islands in the Pacific thus discovered have,
from the errors in their estimated longitudes, been claimed as new
discoveries by more recent navigators." In the year 1623, the Dutch found a
shorter passage into the Pacific, by the Straits of Nassau, north-west of
La Maire's Strait; and another still shorter, by Brewer's Straits, in the
year 1643.
The success of the Portuguese and Spaniards in their discoveries of a
passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, and of America, induced, as we
have seen, the other maritime nations to turn their attention to navigation
and commerce. As, however, the riches derived from the East India commerce
were certain, and the commodities which supplied them had long been in
regular demand in Europe, the attempts to discover new routes to India
raised greater energies than those which were made to complete the
discovery of America. In fact, as we have seen, the east coast, both of
South and North America, in all probability would not have been visited so
frequently, or so soon and carefully examined, had it not been with the
hope of finding some passage to India in that direction. But it was also
supposed, that a passage to India might be made by sailing round the north
of Europe to the east. Hence arose the frequent attempts to find out what
are called the north-west and north-east passages; the most important of
which, that were made during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we
shall now proceed to notice.
We have already mentioned the earliest attempts to find out the Straits of
Anian; the idea that they existed on the northwest coast of America seems
to have been abandoned for some time, unless we suppose, that a voyage
undertaken by the French in 1535 had for its object the discovery of these
straits: it is undoubted, that one of the objects of this voyage was to
find a passage to India. In this voyage, the river St. Lawrence was
examined as far as Montreal. In 1536, the English in vain endeavoured to
find a north-west passage to India. The result of this voyage was, however,
important in one respect; as it gave vise to the very beneficial fishery of
the English on the banks of Newfoundland. The French had already engaged in
this fishery.
In 1576, the idea of a north-west passage having been revived in England,
Frobisher was sent in search of it, with two barks of twenty-five tons
each, and one pinnace of ten tons. He entered the strait, leading into what
was afterwards called Hudson's Bay: this strait he named after himself. He
discovered the southern coast of Greenland; and picking up there some stone
or ore which resembled gold, he returned to England. The London goldsmiths
having examined this, they reported that it contained a large proportion of
gold. This induced the Russian Company to send him out a second time, in
1577; but during this voyage, and a third in 1578, no discoveries of
consequence were made. In the years 1585, 86, and 87, Captain Davis, who
was in the service of an English company of adventurers, made three voyages
in search of a north-west passage. In the first he proceded as far north as
sixty-six degrees forty minutes, visited the southwest coast of Greenland,
and gave his own name to the straits that separate it from America. At this
time the use of a kind of harpoon was known, by which they were enabled to
kill porpoises; but though they saw many whales, they knew not the right
manner of killing them. In his second voyage an unsuccessful attempt was
made to penetrate between Iceland and Greenland, but the ships were unable
to penetrate beyond sixty-seven degrees north latitude. The west coast of
Greenland was examined; but not being able to sail along its north coast,
he stretched across to America, which he examined to latitude fifty-four.
In his last voyage, Davis reached the west coast of Greenland, as far as
latitude seventy-two. All his endeavours, however, to find a north-west
passage were ineffectual.
In 1607, Hudson, an experienced seaman of great knowledge and intrepidity,
sailed in search of this passage. He directed his course straight north,
and reached the eighty-second degree of latitude, and the seventy-third
degree of west longitude. During this voyage more of the eastern coast of
Greenland was discovered than had been previously known. In his second
voyage, which was undertaken in 1608, he endeavoured to sail between Nova
Zembla and Spitzbergen, but unsuccessfully: of this and his first voyage we
have very imperfect accounts. His third voyage was undertaken for the
Dutch: in this he discovered the river in America which bears his name. His
fourth and last voyage, in which he perished, and to which he owes his
principal fame as a navigator, was in the service of the Russia Company of
England. In this voyage he reached the strait which bears his name: his
crew mutinied at this place, and setting him on shore, returned to England.
As soon as the Russia Company learned the fate of Hudson, they sent one
Captain Button in search of him, and also to explore the straits which he
had discovered: in this voyage Hudson's Bay was discovered. Button's
journal was never published: it is said, however, to have contained some
important observations on the tides, and other objects of natural
philosophy.
The existence of such a bay as Hudson's was described to be, induced the
merchants of England to believe that they had at length found out the
entrance to a passage which would lead them to the East Indies: many
voyages were therefore undertaken, in a very short time after this bay had
been discovered. The most important was that of Bylot and Baffin: they
advanced through Davis's Straits into an extensive sea, which they called
Baffin's Bay: they proceeded, according to their account, as far north as
the latitude 78°. The nature and extent of this discovery was very much
doubted at the time, and subsequently, till the discoveries of Captains
Ross and Parry, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, proved that
Baffin was substantially accurate and faithful.
Baffin's voyage took place in the year 1616: after this there was no voyage
undertaken with the same object, till the year 1631, when Captain Fox
sailed from Deptford. He had been used to the sea from his youth, and had
employed his leisure time in collecting all the information he could
possibly obtain, respecting voyages, to the north. He was besides well
acquainted with some celebrated mathematicians and cosmographers,
particularly Thomas Herne, who had carefully collected all the journals and
charts of the former voyages, with a view to his business, which was that
of a maker of globes. When Fox was presented to Charles I, his majesty gave
him a map, containing all the discoveries which had been made in the north
seas. He discovered several islands during the voyage, but not the passage
he sought for; though he is of opinion, that if a passage is to be found,
it must be in Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome,--a bay he discovered near an island
of that name, in north latitude 64° 10', not far from the main land, on the
west side of Hudson's Bay. He published a small treatise on the voyage,
called The North-west Fox, which contains many important facts and
judicious observations on the ice, the tides, compass, northern lights, &c.
Captain James sailed on the same enterprise nearly at the same time that
Fox did. His account was printed by King Charles's command, in 1633: it
contains some remarkable physical observations respecting the intenseness
of the cold, and the accumulation of ice, in northern latitudes; but no
discovery of moment. He was of opinion, that no north-west passage existed.
The last voyage in the seventeenth century, in search of this passage, was
undertaken in consequence of the representations of a Frenchman to Charles
II. From the same cause proceeded the establishment of the Hudson's Bay
Company by that monarch.
Canada was at this time colonized by the French; and a French settler
there, De Gronsseliers, an enterprising and speculative man, after
travelling in various directions, reached a country, where he received
information respecting Hudson's Bay: he therefore resolved to attempt to
reach this bay by sea. In the course of this undertaking he met with a few
English, who had settled themselves near Port Nelson River: these he
attacked, and by their defeat became master of the country. He afterwards
explored the whole district, and returned to Quebec with a large quantity
of valuable furs and English merchandize; but meeting with ill-treatment in
Quebec, and afterwards at the court of France, he came to England, where he
was introduced to the Count Palatine Rupert. The prince patronized all
laudable and useful enterprises; and persuaded the king to send out Captain
Gillam, and the Frenchman with him. The ship was loaded with goods to
traffic for furs. They passed through Hudson's Straits to Baffin's Bay, as
far as 75 degrees north latitude: they afterwards sailed as far to the
south as 51 degrees, where, near the banks of a river, called after Prince
Rupert, they built Charles Fort. This was the first attempt to carry on
commerce in this part of America.
We must now return to the period of the first attempt to find out a
north-east passage to India. A society of merchants had been formed in
London for this purpose. Sebastian Cabot, either the son or the grandson of
John Cabot, and who held the situation of grand pilot of England under
Edward VI., was chosen governor of this society. Three vessels were fitted
out: one of them is particularly noticed in the contemporary accounts, as
having been sheathed with thin plates of lead. Sir Hew Willoughby had the
chief command: Captain Richard Chanceller and Captain Durfovill commanded
the other two vessels under him. Willoughby, having reached 72 degrees of
north latitude, was obliged by the severity of the season to run his ship
into a small harbour, where he and his crew were frozen to death. Captain
Durfovill returned to England. Chanceller was more fortunate; for he
reached the White Sea, and wintered in the Dwina, near the site of
Archangel. While his ship lay up frozen, Chanceller proceeded to Moscow,
where he obtained from the Czar privileges for the English merchants, and
letters to King Edward: as the Czar was at this period engaged in the
Livonian war, which greatly interrupted and embarrassed the trade of the
Baltic, he was the more disposed to encourage the English to trade to the
White Sea. We have already remarked, in giving an account of the voyage of
Ohter, in King Alfred's time, that he had penetrated as far as the White
Sea. This part of Europe, however, seems afterwards to have been entirely
lost sight of, till the voyage of Chanceller; for in a map of the most
northern parts of Europe, given in Munster's Geographia, which was printed
in 1540, Greenland is laid down as joined to the north part of Lapland;
and, consequently, the northern ocean appears merely as a great bay,
enclosed by these countries. Three years afterwards, the English reached
the coasts of Nova Zembla, and heard of, if they did not arrive at, the
Straits of Waygats. The next attempts were made by the Dutch, who were
desirous of reaching India by a route, in the course of which they would
not be liable to meet with the Spaniards or Portuguese. They accordingly
made four attempts between 1594 and 1596, but unsuccessfully. In the last
voyage they reached Spitzbergen; but after striving in vain to penetrate to
the north-east, they were obliged to winter on the north coast of Nova
Zembla, in 76° latitude. Here they built a smaller vessel out of the
remains of the one they had brought from Holland, and arrived the following
summer at Kola, in Lapland.
In 1653, Frederic III, king of Denmark, sent three vessels to discover a
north-east passage: it is said that they actually passed through Waygats'
Straits; but that in the bay beyond these straits they found insurmountable
obstacles from the ice and cold, and consequently were obliged to return.
The last attempt made in the seventeenth century, was by the English: it
was proposed and undertaken by John Wood, an experienced seaman, who had
paid particular attention to the voyages that had been made to the north.
His arguments in favour of a north-east passage were, that whales had been
found near Japan, with English and Dutch harpoons in them; and that the
Dutch had found temperate weather near the Pole, and had sailed 300 leagues
to the east of Nova Zembla. The first argument only proved, that there was
sea between Nova Zembla and Japan; but not that it was navigable, though
passable for whales: the other two positions were unfounded. Wood, however,
persuaded the Duke of York to send him out in 1676. He doubled the North
Cape, and reached 76 degrees of north latitude. One of the ships was
wrecked off the coast of Nova Zembla, and Wood returned in the other, with
an opinion that a north-east passage is impracticable, and that Nova Zembla
is a part of the continent of Greenland.
But we must turn from these attempts to discover a northwest or north-east
passage to India, which, from the accounts given of them, it will be
evident, contributed very little to the progress of geographical knowledge,
though they necessarily increased the skill, confidence, and experience of
navigators.
While these unprofitable voyages were undertaken in the north, discoveries
of consequence were making in the southern ocean. These may be divided into
two classes; viz., such as relate to what is now called Australasia; and
those which relate to the islands which are scattered in the southern
ocean.
We have already stated that there is reason to believe some part of New
Holland was first discovered by the Portuguese: two ancient maps in the
British Museum are supposed to confirm this opinion; but the date of one is
uncertain; the other is dated 1542, and certainly contains a country,
which, in form and position, resembles New Holland, as it was laid down
prior to the voyage of Tasman. But allowing this to be New Holland, it only
proves, that at the date of this map it was known, not that it had been
discovered by the Portuguese.
The Dutch, however, certainly made several voyages to it between 1616 and
1644: the western extremity was explored in 1616. The same year Van
Dieman's Land was discovered. In the course of the ten following years, the
western and northern coasts were visited. The southern coast was first
discovered in 1627, but we have no particulars respecting the voyage in
which it was discovered. In 1642, Tasman, a celebrated Dutch navigator,
sailed from Batavia, and discovered the southern part of Van Dieman's Land
and New Zealand. From this time to the beginning of the eighteenth century,
little progress was made in exploring the coast of New Holland. Dampier,
however, a man of wonderful talents, considering his education and mode of
life, collected, during his voyage, some important details respecting the
west coast. And among the numerous voyages undertaken by the Dutch East
India Company towards the close of the seventeenth and beginning of the
eighteenth century, to examine this vast country, which the Dutch regarded
as belonging to them, there was one by Van Vlaming deserving of notice:
this navigator examined with great care and attention many bays and
harbours on the west side; and he is the first who mentions the black swans
of this country.
Papua, or New Guinea, another part of Australasia, was discovered by the
Portuguese in 1528. The passage that divides this country from New Britain
was discovered by Dampier, who was also the first that explored and named
the latter country in 1683. The discovery of Solomon Islands by the
Spaniards took place in 1575: Mendana, a Spanish captain, sailed from Lima,
to the westward, and in steering across the Pacific, he fell in with these
islands. On a second voyage he extended his discoveries, and he sailed a
third time to conquer and convert the natives. His death, which took place
in one of these islands, put an end to these projects. They are supposed to
be the easternmost of the Papua Archipelago, afterwards visited by
Carteret, Bougainville, and other navigators. Mendana, during his last
voyage, discovered a group of islands to which he gave the name of
Marquesas de Mendoza.
This group properly belongs to Polynesia: of the other islands in this
quarter of the globe, which were discovered prior to the eighteenth
century, Otaheite is supposed to have been discovered by Quiros in 1606.
His object was to discover the imagined austral continent; but his
discoveries were confined to Otaheite, which he named Sagittaria, and an
island which he named Terra del Esperitu Sancto, which is supposed to be
the principal of the New Hebrides. The Ladrones were discovered by Magellan
in 1521. The New Philippines, or Carolinas, were first made known by the
accidental arrival of a family of their natives at the Philippines in 1686.
Easter island, a detached and remote country, which, however, is inhabited
by the Polynesian race, was discovered by Roggewein in 1686.
Having thus exhibited a brief and general sketch of the progress of
discovery, from the period when the Portuguese first passed the Cape of
Good Hope to the beginning of the eighteenth century, we shall next, before
we give an account of the state and progress of commerce during the same
period, direct our attention to the state of geographical science in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
We have already stated that the astrolobe, which had been previously
applied only to astronomical purposes, was accommodated to the use of
mariners by Martin Behaim, towards the end of the fifteenth century. He was
a scholar of Muller, of Koningsberg, better known under the name of
Regiomontanus, who published the Almagest of Ptolemy. The Germans were at
this time the best mathematicians of Europe. Walther, who was of that
nation, and the friend and disciple of Regiomontanus, was the first who
made use of clocks in his astronomical observations. He was succeeded by
Werner, of Nuremberg, who published a translation of Ptolemy's Geography,
with a commentary, in which he explains the method of finding the longitude
at sea by the distance of a fixed star from the moon. The astronomical
instruments hitherto used were, with the exception of the astrolobe, those
which had been employed by Ptolemy and the Arabians. The quadrant of
Ptolemy resembled the mural quadrant of later times; which, however, was
improved by the Arabians, who, at the end of the tenth century, employed a
quadrant twenty-one feet and eight inches radius, and a sextant fifty-seven
feet nine inches radius, and divided into seconds. The use of the sextant
seems to have been forgotten after this time; for Tycho Brahe is said to
have re-invented it, and to have employed it for measuring the distances of
the planets from the stars. The quadrant was about the same time improved
by a method of subdividing its limbs by the diagonal scale, and by the
Vernier. The telescope was invented in the year 1609, and telescopic sights
were added to the quadrant in the year 1668. Picard, who was one of the
first astronomers who applied telescopes to quadrants, determined the
earth's diameter in 1669, by measuring a degree of the meridian in France.
The observation made at Cayenne, that a pendulum which beat seconds there,
must be shorter than one which beat seconds at Paris, was explained by
Huygens, to arise from the diminution of gravity at the equator, and from
this fact he inferred the spheroidal form of the earth. The application of
the pendulum to clocks, one of the most beautiful and useful acquisitions
which astronomy, and consequently navigation and geography have made, was
owing to the ingenuity of Huygens. These are the principal discoveries and
inventions, relating to astronomy, which were made prior to the eighteenth
century, so far as they are connected with the advancement of the art of
navigation and the science of geography.
The discoveries of Columbus and Gama necessarily overturned the systems of
Ptolemy, Strabo, and the other geographers of antiquity. The opinion that
the earth was a globe, which had been conjectured or inferred prior to the
voyage of Magellan, was placed beyond a doubt by that voyage. The heavenly
bodies were subjected to the calculations of man by the labours of
Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Galileo. Under these circumstances it was
necessary, and it was easy, to make great improvements in the construction
of maps, in laying down the real form of the earth, and the relative
situations of the countries of which it is formed, together with their
latitudes and longitudes. The first maps which displayed the new world were
those of the brothers Appian, and of Ribeiro: soon afterwards a more
complete and accurate one was published by Gemma Frisius. Among the
geographers of the sixteenth century, who are most distinguished for their
science, may be reckoned Sebastian Munster; for though, as we have already
mentioned, he joins Greenland to the north of Lapland in his map, yet his
research, labour, and accuracy were such, that he is compared by his
contemporaries to Strabo. Ortelius directed his studies and his learning to
the elucidation of ancient geography; and according to Malte Bran, no
incompetent judge, he may yet be consulted on this subject with advantage.
But modern geography may most probably be dated from the time of Mercator:
he published an edition of Ptolemy, in which he pointed out the
imperfection of the system of the ancients. The great object at this time,
was to contrive such a chart in plano, with short lines, that all places
might be truly laid down according to their respective longitudes and
latitudes. A method of this kind had been obscurely pointed at by Ptolemy;
but the first map on this plan was made by Mercator, about the year 1550.
The principles, however, on which it was constructed, were not demonstrated
till the year 1559, when Wright, an Englishman, pointed them out, as well
as a ready and easy way of making such a map. This was a great help to
navigators; since by enlarging, the meridian line, as Wright suggested and
explained, so that all the degrees of longitude might be proportional to
those of latitude, a chart on Mercator's projection shews the course and
distance from place to place, in all cases of sailing; and is therefore in
several respects more convenient to navigators than the globe itself.
Mercator, in his maps and charts, chose Corvo, one of the Azores, for his
first meridian, because at that time it was the line of no variation of the
compass.
We have already alluded to Regiomontanus, as a celebrated mathematician,
and as having published the Almagest of Ptolemy. He seems, likewise, to
have written notes on Ptolemy's Geography. In 1525, a later translation of
Ptolemy was published, which contained these annotations. To Ptolemy's
maps, tables, &c., are added a new set of maps on wooden plates, according
to the new discoveries: from these we find, that in consequence of the
voyages of the Portuguese, the charts of the coasts of Arabia, Africa,
Persia, and India, are laid down with tolerable accuracy. Nothing is
noticed regarding China, except that it may be reached by sea from India.
America is called Terra Nova inventa per Christ. Columbus: this seems to be
all the editor knew of it. That part of the work which relates to the north
of Europe, is most grossly erroneous: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the
Baltic, seem to have been little known. A great bay is laid down between
Greenland and Lapland, which bay is bounded on the north by a ridge of
mountains, thus retaining the error of Ptolemy with respect to this part of
Europe. There are two maps of England and Scotland: in one they are
represented as one island; in the other as different islands. These maps
and charts must have been the work of the editor or translator, as
Regiomontanus, whose annotations are subjoined, died before the discovery
of America.
We have been thus particular in describing the principal maps of this work,
as they prove how imperfect geography was, prior to the time of Mercator,
and with how much justice it may be said that he is the father of modern
geography. There were, however, some maps of particular countries, drawn up
in the sixteenth century with tolerable accuracy, considering the
imperfection of those sciences and instruments, by which alone perfect
accuracy can be attained. George Lilly, son of William, the famous
grammarian, published, according to Nicholson, (English Historical
Library,) "the first exact map that ever was, till then, drawn of this
island." This praise must, however, be taken with great qualification; for
even so late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, the distance from
the South Foreland to the Lands-end was laid down, in all the maps of
England, half a degree more than it actually is. We may here remark, that
Nicholson represents Thomas Sulmo, a Guernsey man, who died in 1545, as our
oldest general geographer.
In some of the MSS. of Harding's Chronicle, written in the reign of Edward
IV., there is a rude map of Scotland. In 1539, Alexander Lindsey, an
excellent navigator and hydrographer, published a chart of Scotland and its
isles, drawn up from his own observations, which were made when he
accompanied James V. in 1539, on his voyage to the highlands and islands.
This chart is very accurate for the age; and is much superior to that
published by Bishop Lesley, with his history, in 1578.
The first map of Russia, known to the other nations of Europe, was
published in 1558 by Mr. Anthony Jenkinson, agent to the English Russia
Company, from the result of his enquiries and observations during his long
residence in that kingdom.
These are the most important maps, either general or of particular
countries, with which the sixteenth century supplies us.
The seventeenth century continued the impulse which was given to the
science of geography by Mercator. As new discoveries were constantly in
progress, errors in maps were corrected, vacant spaces filled up, more
accurate positions assigned, and greater attention paid to the actual and
relative sizes of different countries. Malte Brun justly reckons Cluverius,
Riccioli, and Varenius, as amongst the most celebrated geographers of this
century. Cluverius was a man of extensive and accurate erudition, which he
applied to the illustration of ancient geography. Riccioli, an Italian
Jesuit, devoted his abilities and leisure to the study of mathematics, and
the sciences dependent upon it, particularly astronomy; and was thus
enabled to render important service to the higher parts of geography.
Varenius is a still more celebrated name in geographical science: he
excelled in mathematical geography; and such was his fame and merit in the
higher branches of physics, and his ingenuity in applying them to
geography, that a system of universal geography, which he published in
Latin, was deemed worthy by Newton, to be republished and commented upon.
Cellarius bestowed much pains on ancient geography. That branch of the
science which pays more especial regard to the distances of places, was
much advanced by Sanson, in France; Blew, in Holland; and Buraeus, in
Sweden.
We must now turn to the progress of commerce during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.
The discovery of a passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, gave
immediately a great impulse to commerce; whereas, it was a long time after
the discovery of America before commerce was benefited by that event. This
arose from the different state and circumstances of the two countries. The
Portuguese found in India, and the other parts of the East, a race of
people acquainted with commerce, and accustomed to it; fully aware of those
natural productions of their country which were in demand, and who had long
been in the habit of increasing the exportable commodities by various kinds
of manufactures. Most of these native productions and manufactures had been
in high estimation and value in Europe for centuries prior to the discovery
of the Cape. The monarchs of the East, as well as their subjects, were
desirous of extending their trade. There was, therefore, no difficulty, as
soon as the Portuguese arrived at any part of the East; they found spices,
precious stones, pearls, &c., or silk and cotton stuffs, porcelaine, &c.,
and merchants willing to sell them. Their only business was to settle a few
skilful agents, to select and purchase proper cargoes for their ships. Even
before they reached the remote countries of the East, which they afterwards
did, they found depôts of the goods of those parts, in intermediate and
convenient situations, between them and the middle and western parts of
Asia and Europe.
It was very different in America: the natives here, ignorant and savage,
had no commerce. "Even the natural productions of the soil, when not
cherished and multiplied by the fostering and active hand of man, were of
little account." Above half a century elapsed before the Spaniards reaped
any benefit from their conquests, except some small quantities of gold,
chiefly obtained from plundering the persons, the houses, and temples of
the Mexicans and Peruvians. In 1545, the mines of Potosi were discovered;
these, and the principal Mexican mine, discovered soon afterwards, first
brought a permanent and valuable revenue to Spain. But it was long after
this before the Spaniards, or the other nations of Europe, could be
convinced that America contained other treasures besides those of gold and
silver, or induced to apply that time, labour, and capital, which were
requisite to unfold all the additions to the comforts, the luxuries, and
the health of man, which the New World was capable of bestowing. When,
however, European skill and labour were expended on the soil of America,
the real and best wealth of this quarter of the world was displayed in all
its importance and extent. In addition to the native productions of
tobacco, indigo, cochineal, cotton, ginger, cocoa, pimento, drugs, woods
for dying, the Europeans cultivated the sugar cane, and several other
productions of the Old World. The only articles of commerce supplied by the
natives, were furs and skins; every thing else imported from the New World
consists at present, and has always consisted of the produce, of the
industry of Europeans settled there.
But though it was long before Europe derived much direct benefit from the
discovery of America, yet in one important respect this discovery gave a
great stimulus to East India commerce. Gold and silver, especially the
latter, have always been in great demand in the East, and consequently the
most advantageous articles to export from Europe in exchange for Indian
commodities. It was therefore absolutely necessary for the continuance of a
commerce so much extended as this to India was, in consequence of the
Portuguese discoveries, that increased means of purchasing Indian
commodities should be given; and these were supplied by the gold and silver
mines of America.
If these mines had not been discovered about the time when trade to India
was more easy, expeditious, and frequent, it could not long have been in
the power of Europe to have availed herself of the advantages of the
Portuguese discoveries; gold and silver would have become, from their
extreme scarcity, more valuable in Europe than in India, and consequently
would no longer have been exported. But the supply of the precious metals
and of Indian commodities increasing at the same time, Europe, by means of
America, was enabled to reap all possible advantage from the Portuguese
discoveries. The gold and silver of Mexico and Peru traversed the world, in
spite of all obstacles, and reached that part of it where it was most
wanted, and purchased the productions of China and Hindostan.
Yet, notwithstanding the effectual demand for East India commodities was
necessarily increased by the increased supply of the precious metals, yet
the supply of these commodities being increased in a much greater
proportion, their price was much lowered. This lowering of price naturally
arose from two circumstances: after the passage to India by the Cape, the
productions and manufactures of the East were purchased immediately from
the natives; and they were brought to Europe directly, and all the way, by
sea. Whereas, before the discovery of the Cape, they were purchased and
repurchased frequently; consequently, repeated additions were made to their
original price; and these additions were made, in almost every instance, by
persons who had the monopoly of them. Their conveyance to Europe was long,
tedious, and mostly by land carriage, and consequently very expensive.
There are no data by which it can be ascertained in what proportion the
Portuguese lowered the price of Indian commodities; but Dr. Robertson's
supposition appears well founded,--that they might afford to reduce the
commodities of the East, in every part of Europe, one half. This
supposition is founded on a table of prices of goods in India, the same
sold at Aleppo, and what they might be sold for in England,--drawn up,
towards the end of the seventeenth century, by Mr. Munn: from this it
appears, that the price at Aleppo was three times that in India, and that
the goods might be sold in England at half the Aleppo price. But as the
expense of conveying goods to Aleppo from India, may, as Dr. Robertson
observes, be reckoned nearly the same as that which was incurred by
bringing them to Alexandria, he draws the inference already stated,--that
the discovery of the Cape reduced the price of Indian commodities one half.
The obvious and necessary result would follow, that they would be in
greater demand, and more common use. The principal eastern commodities used
by the Romans were spices and aromatics,--precious stones and pearls; and
in the later periods of their power, silk; these, however, were almost
exclusively confined to rare and solemn occasions, or to the use of the
most wealthy and magnificent of the conquerors of the world. On the
subversion of the Roman empire, the commodities of the East were for a
short time in little request among the barbarians who subverted it: as
soon, however, as they advanced from their ignorance and rudeness, these
commodities seem strongly to have attracted their notice, and they were
especially fond of spices and aromatics. These were used very profusely in
their cookery, and formed the principal ingredients in their medicines. As,
however, the price of all Indian commodities was necessarily high, so long
as they were obliged to be brought to Europe by a circuitous route, and
loaded with accumulated profits, it was impossible that they could be
purchased, except by the more wealthy classes. The Portuguese, enabled to
sell them in greater abundance, and at a much cheaper rate, introduced them
into much more general use; and, as they every year extended their
knowledge of the East, and their commerce with it, the number of ships
fitted out at Lisbon every year, for India, became necessarily more
numerous, in order to supply the increased demand.
Commerce in this case, as in every other, while it is acted upon by an
extension of geographical knowledge, in its turn has an obvious tendency to
extend that knowledge; this was the case with respect to India. The
ancients had indeed made but small advances in their acquaintance with this
country, notwithstanding they were stimulated by the large profits they
derived from their eastern commerce; but this was owing to their
comparative ignorance of navigation and the sciences on which it depends.
As soon as the moderns had improved this art, especially by the use of the
compass, and the Cape of Good Hope was discovered, commerce gave the
stimulus, which in a very few years led the Portuguese from Calicut to the
furthest extremity of Asia.
It is remarkable that the Portuguese were allowed to monopolize Indian
commerce for so long a time as they did; this, however, as Dr. Robertson
observes, may be accounted for, "from the political circumstances in the
state of all those nations in Europe, whose intrusion as rivals the
Portuguese had any reason to dread. From the accession of Charles V. to the
throne, Spain was either so much occupied in a multiplicity of operations
in which it was engaged by the ambition of that monarch, and of his son
Philip II., or so intent on prosecuting its own discoveries and conquests
in the New World, that although by the successful enterprize of Magellan,
its fleets were unexpectedly conducted by a new course to that remote
region of Asia, which was the seat of the most gainful and alluring branch
of trade carried on by the Portuguese, it could make no considerable effect
to avail itself of the commercial advantages which it might have derived
from that event. By the acquisition of the crown of Portugal, in the year
1580, the kings of Spain, instead of the rivals, became the protectors of
the Portuguese trade, and the guardians of all its exclusive rights.
Throughout the sixteenth century, the strength and resources of France were
so much wasted by the fruitless expeditions of their monarchs to Italy; by
their unequal contest with the power and policy of Charles V., and by the
calamities of the civil wars which desolated the kingdom upwards of forty
years, that it could neither bestow much attention on commerce, nor engage
in any scheme of distant enterprize. The Venetians, how sensibly soever
they might feel the mortifying reverse of being excluded almost entirely
from the Indian trade, of which their capital had been formerly the chief
seat, were so debilitated and humbled by the league of Cambray, that they
were no longer capable of engaging in any undertaking of magnitude.
England, weakened by the long contests between the houses of York and
Lancaster, and just beginning to recover its proper vigour, was restrained
from active exertions during one part of the sixteenth century, by the
cautious maxims of Henry VII., and wasted its strength, during another part
of it, by engaging inconsiderately in the wars between the princes on the
continent. The nation, though destined to acquire territories in India more
extensive and valuable than were ever possessed by any European power, had
no such presentiment of its future eminence there, as to take an early part
in the commerce or transactions of that country, and a great part of the
century elapsed before it began to turn its attention to the East.
"While the most considerable nations in Europe found it necessary, from the
circumstances which I have mentioned, to remain inactive spectators of what
passed in the East, the seven United Provinces of the Low Countries,
recently formed into a small state, still struggling for political
existence, and yet in the infancy of its power, ventured to appear in the
Indian Ocean as the rivals of the Portuguese; and, despising their
pretensions to an exclusive right of commerce with the extensive countries
to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, invaded that monopoly which they
had hitherto guarded with such jealous attention. The English soon followed
the example of the Dutch, and both nations, at first by the enterprizing
industry of private adventurers, and afterwards by the more powerful
efforts of trading companies, under the protection of public authority,
advanced with astonishing ardour and success in this new career opened to
them. The vast fabric of power which the Portuguese had opened in the East,
(a superstructure much too large for the basis on which it had to rest) was
almost entirely overturned in as short time, and with as much facility, as
it had been raised. England and Holland, by driving them from their most
valuable settlements, and seizing the most lucrative branches of their
trade, have attained to that pre-eminence of naval power and commercial
opulence by which they are distinguished among the nations of Europe."
(Robertson's India, pp. 177-9. 8vo. edition.)
Before, however, we advert to the commerce of the Dutch in India, it will
be proper to notice those circumstances which gave a commercial direction
to the people of the Netherlands, both before their struggle with Spain,
and while the result of that struggle was uncertain. The early celebrity of
Bruges as a commercial city has already been noticed; its regular fairs in
the middle of the tenth century; its being made the entrepôt of the Hanse
Association towards the end of the thirteenth. It naturally partook of the
wealth and commercial improvement which Flanders derived from her woollen
manufactures, and was in fact made the emporium of that country at the
beginning of the fourteenth century; and within 100 years afterwards, the
staple for English and Scotch goods. When the increased industry of the
north of Europe induced and enabled its inhabitants to exchange the produce
of their soil, fisheries, and manufactures, for the produce of the south of
Europe, and of India, Bruges was made the great entrepôt of the trade of
Europe. In the beginning of the sixteenth century its commercial importance
began to decline, but the trade which left it, did not pass beyond the
limits of the Netherlands; it settled in a great measure at Antwerp, which,
as being accessible by sea, was more convenient for commerce than Bruges.
This city, however, would not have fallen so easily or rapidly before its
rival, had it not been distracted by civil commotions. From it the commerce
of the Netherlands, and with it of the north of Europe, and the interchange
of its commodities with those of the south of Europe and of Asia, gradually
passed to Antwerp; and about the year 1516, most of the trade of Bruges was
fixed here, the Portuguese making it their entrepôt for the supply of the
northern kingdoms.
Even before this time the ships of the Netherlands seem to have been the
carriers of the north of Europe; for in 1503, two Zealand ships arrived at
Campveer, laden with sugars, the produce of the Canary Islands. Antwerp,
however, continued till it was taken by the Spaniards, and its port
destroyed by the blocking up of the Scheldt, to be most distinguished for
its commerce, and its consequent wealth:--its situation, its easy access by
sea, joined to the circumstance of its being made the Portuguese entrepôt
for spices, drugs, and other rich productions of India, mainly contributed
to its commerce. Merchants from every part of the north of Europe settled
here, and even many of the merchants of Bruges removed to it, after the
decline of their own city. Its free fairs for commerce, two of which lasted
each time six weeks, attracted merchants from all parts, as they could
bring their merchandize into it duty free, and were here certain of finding
a market for it. In it also bills of exchange on all parts of Europe could
be easily and safely negotiated. We have already mentioned the most wealthy
merchants of England and France, in the fifteenth century: there existed at
Antwerp, in the sixteenth, a firm of the name of Fugger, whose wealth was
very great, and indicates the extent of their commercial dealings. From
this firm the Emperor Charles V. had borrowed a very large sum, in order to
carry on an expedition against Tunis. In the year 1534, Charles, being at
Antwerp, Fugger invited him to an entertainment at his house, made a fire
in his hall with cinnamon, and threw all the emperor's bonds into that
fire. About eleven years afterwards, the same merchant gave an acquittance
to Henry VIII. of England, for the sum of 152,180_l_. Flemish, which
the king had borrowed of him. The Fuggers had a licence from the king of
Portugal to trade to India; and they used to send their own factor in every
ship that sailed thither, and were the owners of part of every cargo of
pepper imported.
In the year 1541, it contained 100,000 inhabitants: soon afterwards the
persecutions on account of religion in Germany, England, and France, drove
many people thither, and of course increased both its population and
wealth. If we may believe Huet, in his History of Dutch Commerce, it was,
at this time, not uncommon to see 2500 ships at once lying in the Scheldt.
The picture, however, which Guicciardini draws of Antwerp in 1560, when it
had reached the zenith of its prosperity and wealth,--being that of a
contemporary author, and entering into detail,--is at once much more
curious and interesting, and may be depended on as authentic. It is also
valuable, as exhibiting the state of the manufactures, commerce, &c. of
most of the nations of Europe at this period.
"Besides the natives and the French, who are here very numerous, there are
six principal foreign nations, who reside at Antwerp, both in war and
peace, making above 1000 merchants, including factors and servants, viz.
Germans, Danes, and Easterlings--that is, people from the ports in the
south shores of the Baltic, from Denmark to Livonia--Italians, Spaniards,
English, and Portuguese of these six nations; the Spaniards are the most
numerous. One of those foreign merchants, Fugger, of Augsburg, died worth
above six millions of crowns; there are many natives there with from
200,000 to 400,000 crowns."
"They meet twice a day, in the mornings and evenings, one hour each time,
at the English bourse, where, by their interpreters and brokers, they buy
and sell all kinds of merchandize. Thence they go to the new bourse, or
principal exchange, where, for another hour each time, they transact all
matters relating to bills of exchange, with the above six nations, and with
France; and also to deposit at interest, which is usually twelve per cent.
per annum."
"They send to Rome a great variety of woollen drapery, linen, tapestry,
&c.: the returns are in bills of exchange. To Ancona, English and Flemish
cloths, stuffs, linen, tapestry, cochineal; and bring in return such spices
and drugs as the merchants of Ancona procure in the Levant, and likewise
silks, cotton, Turkey carpets, and leather. To Bologne they export serges,
and other stuffs, tapestry, linen, merceries, &c. and bring in return for
it, wrought silks, cloth of gold and silver, crapes, caps, &c. To Venice
they send jewels and pearls, English cloth and wool, Flemish drapery,
cochineal, &c. and a little sugar and pepper: thus, with respect to these
two latter articles, sending to Venice what they formerly obtained from
her. For, prior to the Portuguese discovery of the Cape, the merchants of
Antwerp brought from Venice all sorts of India spices and drugs: and even
so late as the year 1518, there arrived in the Scheldt, five Venetian
ships, laden with spices and drugs, for the fair at Antwerp. In 1560,
however, the imports from Venice consisted of the finest and choicest
silks, carpets, cotton, &c. and colours for dyers and painters."
"To Naples they export great quantities of Flemish and English cloths and
stuffs, tapestry, linens, small wares of metal, and other materials: and
bring back raw, thrown and wrought silk, fine furs and skins, saffron and
manna. The exports to Sicily are similar to those of the other parts of
Italy: the imports from it are galls in great quantity, cinnamon, oranges,
cotton, silk, and sometimes wine. To Milan, Antwerp exports pepper, sugar,
jewels, musk, and other perfumes, English and Flemish woollen manufactures,
English and Spanish woollinens, and cochineal. The imports are gold and
silver, thread, silks, gold stuffs, dimities, rich and curious draperies,
rice, muskets and other arms, high priced toys and small goods; and
Parmesian cheese. The exports to Florence are nearly the same as to the
other parts of Italy, but in addition, fans are specified. Besides the
usual imports of silks and gold stuffs, there are also fine furs. Household
furniture is exported to Genoa, besides the usual articles: velvets, which
were then the best in the world; satins, the best coral, mithridate, and
treacle, are the principal or the peculiar imports. Genoa, is the port
through which Antwerp trades with Mantua, Verona, Modena, Lucca, &c."
"Besides all these articles, Antwerp imports from Italy by sea, alum, oil,
gums, leaf senna, sulphur, &c. and exported to it by sea, tin, lead,
madder, Brazil wood, wax, leather, flax, tallow, salt fish, timber, and
sometimes corn. The imports from Italy, including only silks, gold and
silver, stuffs, and thread camblets and other stuffs, amount to three
millions of crowns, or 600,000_l_. yearly.
"Antwerp exports to Germany precious stones and pearls, spices, drugs,
saffron, sugars, English cloths, as a rare and curious article, bearing a
high price: Flemish cloth, more common and not so valuable as English,
serges, tapestry, a very large quantity of linen and mercery, or small
wares of all sorts: from Germany, Antwerp receives by land carriage,
silver, bullion, quicksilver, immense quantities of copper, Hessian wool,
very fine, glass, fustians of a high price, to the value of above 600,000
crowns annually; woad, madder, and other dye stuffs; saltpetre, great
quantities of mercery, and household goods, very fine, and of excellent
quality: metals of all sorts, to a great amount; arms; Rhenish wine, of
which Guicciardini speaks in the highest terms, as good for the health, and
not affecting either the head or the stomach, though drunk in very large
quantities:--of this wine 40,000 tuns were brought to Antwerp annually,
which, at thirty-six crowns per tun, amounted to 1,444,000 crowns."
"To Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Eastland, Livonia, and Poland, Antwerp exports
vast quantities of spices, drugs, saffron, sugar, salt, English and Flemish
cloths, fustians, linens, wrought silks, gold stuffs, tapestries, precious
stones, Spanish and other wines, alum, Brazil wood, merceries, and
household goods. From these countries, particularly from Eastland and
Poland, that is, the countries on the south shore of the Baltic, Antwerp
receives wheat and rye to a large amount; iron, copper, brass, saltpetre,
dye-woods, vitriol, flax, honey, wax, pitch, tar, sulphur, pot-ashes, skins
and furs, leather, timber for ship building, and other purposes; beer, in
high repute; salt meat; salted, dryed, and smoked fish; amber in great
quantities, &c."
"To France, Antwerp sends precious stones, quicksilver, silver bullion,
copper and brass, wrought and unwrought, lead, tin, vermillion; azure,
blue, and crimson colours, sulphur; saltpetre, vitriol, camblets, and
Turkey grograms, English and Flemish cloths, great quantities of fine
linen, tapestry, leather, peltry, wax, madder, cotton, dried fish, salt
fish, &c. Antwerp receives her returns from France, partly by land and
partly by sea. By sea, salt to the annual value of 180,000 crowns; fine
woad of Thoulouse, to the value annually of 300,000 crowns; immense
quantities of canvass and strong linen, from Bretagne and Normandy; about
40,000 tuns of excellent red and white wines, at about twenty-five crowns
per tun; saffron; syrup, or sugar, or perhaps capillaire; turpentine,
pitch, paper of all kinds in great quantities, prunes, Brazil wood, &c. &c.
By land, Antwerp receives many curious and valuable gilt and gold articles,
and trinkets; very fine cloth, the manufacture of Rouen, Peris, Tours,
Champagne, &c.; the threads of Lyons, in high repute; excellent verdigrise
from Montpelier, merceries, &c."
"To England, Antwerp exports jewels and precious stones, silver bullion,
quicksilver, wrought silks, cloth of gold and silver, gold and silver
thread, camblets, grograms, spices, drugs, sugar, cotton, cinnamon, galls,
linens, serges, tapestry, madder, hops in great quantities, glass, salt
fish, small wares made of metal and wood, arms, ammunition, and household
furniture. From England, Antwerp imports immense quantities of fine and
coarse woollen goods; the finest wool; excellent saffron, but in small
quantities; a great quantity of lead and tin; sheep and rabbit skins, and
other kinds of fine peltry and leather; beer, cheese, and other sorts of
provisions, in great quantities; also Malmsey wines, which the English
import from Candia."
Guicciardini observes, that Antwerp exported but little to Scotland, as
that country was principally supplied from England and France: some
spiceries, sugars, madder, wrought silks, camblets, serges, linen, and
merceries, are exported. In return, Antwerp received from Scotland vast
quantities of peltry of various kinds, leather, wool, cloth of coarse
quality, fine large pearls, but not of quite so good a water as the
oriental pearls.
The exports to Ireland were nearly the same as to Scotland: the returns
were skins and leather, some low-priced cloths, and other coarse and common
articles of little value.
The exports to Spain consisted chiefly of copper, brass, and latten,
wrought and unwrought; tin, lead; much woollen cloth, both Flemish and
English; serges, tapestry, linens, flax-thread, wax, pitch, madder, tallow,
sulphur, wheat, rye, salted meat and fish, butter, cheese, merceries,
silver bullion and wrought, arms, ammunition, furniture, tools; and every
thing also, he adds, produced by human industry and labour, to which the
lower classes in Spain have an utter aversion. From Spain, Antwerp received
jewels, pearls, gold and silver in great quantities; cochineal,
sarsaparilla, guiacum, saffron; silk, raw and thrown; silk stuffs, velvets,
taffeties, salt, alum, orchil, fine wool, iron, cordovan leather, wines,
oils, vinegar, honey, molasses, Arabian gums, soap; fruits, both moist and
dried, in vast quantities, and sugar from the Canaries.
The exports to Portugal were silver bullion, quicksilver, vermilion,
copper, brass, and latten; lead, tin, arms, artillery and ammunition; gold
and silver thread, and most of the other articles sent to Spain. From
Portugal, Antwerp received pearls and precious stones, gold, spices, to the
value of above a million of crowns annually; drugs, amber, musk, civet,
great quantities of ivory, aloes, rhubarb, cotton, China root, (then and
even lately much used in medicine,) and many other rare and valuable Indian
commodities, with which the greatest part of Europe is supplied from
Antwerp; also, sugars from St. Thomas, under the line, and the other
islands belonging to the Portuguese on the African coast; Brazil wood,
Guinea grains, and other drugs from the west coast of Africa; Madeira sugar
and wines. Of the produce of Portugal itself, Antwerp imported salt, wines,
oils, woad, seeds, orchil, fruits, &c. &c.
To Barbary, Antwerp exported woollen goods, linen, merceries, metals, &c.;
and received from it sugar, azure or anil, gums, coloquintida, leather,
peltry, and fine feathers.
From this sketch of the commerce of Antwerp, when it was at its height, we
see, that it embraced the whole commerce of the world: and that in it
centered all the commodities supplied by Asia, America, Africa, and the
south of Europe on the one hand, and England, the Baltic countries,
Germany, and France on the other. The account given by Guicciardini is
confirmed by Wheeler, who wrote in 1601. He observes, that a little before
the troubles in the Low Countries, the people of Antwerp were the greatest
traders to Italy in English and other foreign merchandize; and also to
Alexandria, Cyprus, and Tripoli in Syria; "beating the Italians, English,
and Germans, almost entirely out of that trade, as they also soon did the
Germans in the fairs of their own country." He adds, that the Antwerp
merchants, being men of immense wealth, and consequently able to supply
Spain for the Indies at long credit, set their own prices on their
merchandize. Antwerp also supplied Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Eastland
with the wares, which France was wont to supply them. He adds, "It is not
past eighty years ago, (that would be about 1520,) since there were not, in
London, above twelve or sixteen Low Country merchants, who imported only
stone pots, brushes, toys for children, and other pedlar's wares; but in
less than forty years after, there were, in London, at least one hundred
Netherland merchants, who brought thither all the commodities which the
merchants of Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and Eastland, (of all which
nations there were, before that time, divers famous and notable rich
merchants and companies,) used to bring into England out of their own
country directly, to the great damage of the said strangers, and of the
natural born English merchants."
Guicciardini informs us, that in his time the port of Armuyden, in the
island of Walcheren, was the place of rendezvous for the shipping of
Antwerp: in it have often been seen 500 large ships lying at one time,
bound to, or returning from distant parts of the world. He adds, that it
was no uncommon thing for 500 ships to come and go in one day; that 10,000
carts were constantly employed in carrying merchandize to and from the
neighbouring countries, besides hundreds of waggons daily coming and going
with passengers; and 500 coaches used by people of distinction. In his
enumeration of the principal trades, it is curious that there were
ninety-two fishmongers, and only seventy-eight butchers; there were 124
goldsmiths, who, it must be recollected, at that time acted as bankers, or
rather exchangers of money. The number of houses was 13,500. With respect
to the shipping, which, according to this author, were so numerous at the
port of Antwerp, comparatively few of them belonged to this city, as most
of its commerce was carried on by ships of foreign nations.
This circumstance, of its having but few ships of its own, may be regarded
as one cause why, when it was taken and plundered by the Spaniards in the
year 1585, it could not recover its former commerce, as the shipping
removed with the nations they belonged to. The forts which the Dutch built
in the Scheldt were, however, another and a very powerful cause. The trade
of Holland rose on the fall of Antwerp, and settled principally at
Amsterdam; this city had indeed become considerable after the decline of
the Hanseatic confederacy; but was not renowned for its commerce till the
destruction of Antwerp. The commerce of Holland was extended and supported
by its fisheries, and the manufactures of Flanders and the adjoining
provinces, which in their turn received support from its commerce.
Guicciardini informs us, that there were in the Netherlands, in time of
peace, 700 busses and boats employed in the herring fishery: each made
three voyages in the season, and on an average during that period, caught
seventy lasts of herring, each last containing twelve barrels of 9OO or
1000 herrings each barrel; the price of a last was usually about 6£.
sterling: the total amount of one year's fishery, was about 294,000£.
sterling. About sixty years after this time, according to Sir Walter
Raleigh, the cod and ling fishery of Friesland, Holland, Zealand, and
Flanders, (the provinces included by Guicciardini in the maritime
Netherlands) brought in 100,000£. annually: and the salmon-fishing of
Holland and Zealand nearly half that sum.