Arctic Expeditions from British and foreign shores from the earliest to the Expedition of 1875 (76) ... Numerous coloured illustrations, maps

Part I. Chaptee

I. THE NORSE SEA-KINGS — EARLY NORSE NAVIGATORS — DISCOVERY OF ICELAND — DISCOVERY OF GREENLAND THE GATE TO THE POLAR REGIONS, ..... 5 CHAPTEE II. THE EAST ITS WEALTH AND THE DESIRABILITY OF OBTAINING A SEA-ROUTE TO INDIA AND CHINA PORTUGUESE ROUTE TO INDIA ROUND CAPE OF GOOD HOPE SPANISH ROUTE ROUND CAPE HORN — ENGLAND WITHOUT A ROUTE TO THE EAST, ... 8 CHAPTEE III. A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE TO INDIA FOR ENGLAND SUGGESTED EXPEDITIONS IN SEARCH OF IT SEBASTIAN CABOT THORNE's EXPEDITION " TRINITIE " AND " MINION " ■ — SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY AND RICHARD CHANCELLOR STEPHEN BURROUGH MARTIN FROBISHER'S VOYAGES JOHN DAVIS HALL AND KNIGHT HENRY HUDSON WILLIAM BAFFIN — ■ " NORTH-WEST FOX " ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY HEARNE's JOURNEY, . . . . . . . . .11 CHAPTEE IV. SUMMER CRUISE BY SPITZBERGEN ROUTE HORATIO NELSON ACTS AS CAPTAIN'S COCKSWAIN IN THE " CARCASS " NELSON'S ADVENTURES IN THE SPITZBERGEN SEAS CAPTAIN COOK IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS CONCLUDING POLAR EXPEDITIONS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CEN- TURY, ........... 31 CHAPTEE V. OUTBREAK OF AMERICAN WAR — THE FRENCH REVOLUTION — PROCLAMATION OF PEACE — ARCTIC EXPLORATION RESUMED GROUP OF FAMOUS EXPLORERS FRANKLIN'S FIRST ARCTIC VOYAGE THE "DOROTHEA" AND " TRENT " SENT TO EXPLORE A PASSAGE ACROSS THE POLE — EARLY LIFE AND CAREER OF FRANKLIN, . . . .39 PAGE 45 63 79 89 102 110 116 CONTENTS.

VI CHAPTEE VI. franklin's first arctic cruise — objects of the expedition of the "dorothea" and "trent" — hard weather within the arctic circle — the first ice — the sun at midnight — spitzbergen— first view of the pack or main body of the ice the ice - blink — arctic scenery — first encounter with the walrus — a bad night among the ice — the first bear — desperate adventure with bear — cunning of bears habits of the walrus narrow escape from a walrus herd the changing conditions of the ice coral brought up from the sea-bottom —charging the pack vessels rendered useless for main objects of the expedition conclusion of voyage, ....... CHAPTEE VII. SPITZBERGEN — DISCOVERY OF THE ISLAND BY BARENTZ FATE OF THE DISCOVERER — THE " DOROTHEA " AND " TRENT " IN SOUTH GAT OFF THE WEST COAST — DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND— =-ITS SURVEY, AND THE ADVENTURES OF THE SURVEYORS EARLY ATTEMPTS AT COLONISATION CONCLUSION OF THE VOYAGE OF " DOROTHEA " AND " TRENT,"

Part II. Chaptee

I. captain j. ross's first arctic voyage ross and parry in the " alexander " and "Isabella" — early life of ross — early life of parry — john sackheuse, an eskimo, joins the expedition as interpreter expedition starts first natives seen eskimo belles at a ball on deck tracking discovery of melville bay — a whaling adventure nipped in the ice-floe a narrow escape, CHAPTEE II. INTERCOURSE WITH AN UNKNOWN TRIBE OF ESKIMOS THE ARCTIC HIGHLANDS CAPTAIN ROSS'S GREAT DELUSION — CONCLUSION AND RESULTS OF ROSS AND PARRY'S VOYAGE, .

Part III. Chaptee

I. IN SEARCH OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE — PARRY'S FIRST EXPEDITION, '1819 — ENTERS LAN- CASTER SOUND — DISCOVERY OF PRINCE REGENT'S INLET — STEERING WESTWARD, CHAPTEE II. CORNWALLIS AND BATHURST ISLANDS DISCOVERED — DISCOVERY OF MELVILLE ISLAND, CHAPTEE III. LAST ATTEMPTS TO PUSH WESTWARD — LOST IN THE SNOW — RESOLVE TO SEEK A STATION FOR THE WINTER — ENTER WINTER HARBOUR — LIFE ON SHIPBOARD IN WINTER — SHORT- EST DAY — CHRISTMAS, . . ... CONTENTS. CHATTEE IV. PAGE THE NEW YEAR — FIRST APPEARANCE OF SCURVY — EXTREME COLD — ESCAPE FROM WINTER HARBOUR — CONCLUSION OF VOYAGE, AND RETURN TO ENGLAND, . . .130

Part IV. Chaptee

I. FRANKLIN'S GREAT JOURNEY, 1819-22 ARRIVAL AT YORK FACTORY — SCENERY OF STEEL RIVER — SLEDGE JOURNEY TO ATHABASCA LAKE — DEPART FOR GREAT SLAVE LAKE, . 140 CHAPTEE II. WINTER SETTLEMENT AT FORT ENTERPRISE — EXCURSIONS TO COPPERMINE RIVER — WANT OF AMMUNITION, . . . . . . . ... .152 CHAPTEE III. DEPARTURE FROM FORT ENTERPRISE FOR THE POLAR SEA DOWN THE COPPERMINE RIVER REACH THE SEA DEPARTURE OF INDIANS THE ARCTIC VOYAGE POINT TURNAGAIN THE RETURN VOYAGE THE LAND JOURNEY ON THE BARREN GROUNDS DESTITUTION, 101 CHAPTEE IV. ON THE BARREN GROUNDS — A CANOE LOST SIX DAYS WITHOUT FOOD GENEROUS SELF- DENIAL OF PERRAULT THE LAST CANOE LOST CROSSING THE COPPERMINE THE BE- GINNING OF THE END, . . - . . . . . . .170 CHAPTEE V. dr Richardson's narrative — michel, the iroquois — murder of mr hood — shooting the assassin — the march to the fort — arrival, . . . . .187 CHAPTEE VI.

TWO CANADIANS STARVED TO DEATH — ARRIVAL OF RELIEVING PARTY — FRANKLIN AGAIN DE- SERTED RESCUE AT LAST ARRIVAL AT GREAT SLAVE LAKE MR BACK'S NARRATIVE CONCLUSION OF VOYAGE, . . . . . . . .195

Part V. Expeditions Of Parry And Franklin

1821-27. CHAPTEE I. PARRY'S SECOND EXPEDITION, 1821-23 — THE OFFICERS AND CREWS — REPULSE BAY EXPLORED, 206 CHAPTEE II. WINTER QUARTERS FOUND — WINTER ARRANGEMENTS — THE CAPTAINS' CONCERTS — THE ESKIMO NEIGHBOURS — CAPTAIN LYON'S NARROW ESCAPE, . . . . .211 CONTENTS. VIII CHAPTEE III. PAGE THE SHIPS RELEASED — DISCOVERY OF BARROW RIVER AND FALLS AMONG THE WALRUSES, . 223 CHAPTEE IV DISCOVERY OF "FURY AND HECLA STRAIT " WINTER AT IGLOOLIK, 1822-23 OUTBREAK OF SCURVY — CONCLUSION OF VOYAGE, . . . . . . .227 CHAPTEE V PARRY'S THIRD VOYAGE, 1824-25 WINTER AT PORT BOWEN CAUGHT IN THE ICE THE " FURY " ABANDONED CONCLUSION OF VOYAGE — RESULTS OF PARRY'S THREE VOYAGES, 230 CHAPTEE VI FRANKLIN'S SECOND LAND EXPEDITION, 1825-27 THROUGH THE CANADIAN LAKES OLD FRIENDS PRELIMINARY VOYAGE DOWN MACKENZIE RIVER THE PLANTING OF THE UNION JACK ON THE POLAR SHORE RETURN TO WINTER QUARTERS, . . .241 CHAPTEE VII.

BUILDING FORT FRANKLIN CHRISTMAS AT FORT FRANKLIN — THE SUMMER VOYAGE COM- MENCED HOSTILE ESKIMOS STOPPED FOR WANT OF SLEDGES CONCLUSION OF VOYAGE, 247 CHAPTEE VIII. DR RICHARDSON'S NARRATIVE OF EXPLORATION EASTWARD FROM MACKENZIE RIVER, . 259 CHAPTEE IX. SUBSIDIARY VOYAGES OF CAPTAIN LYON AND CAPTAIN BEECHEY » LYON'S VOYAGE TO REPULSE BAY, 264 CHAPTEE X. CAPTAIN BEECHEY'S VOYAGE IN THE "BLOSSOM," 1825-28, ..... 270

Part VI. Expeditions Of Parry And Ross

1827-33. CHAPTEE I. PARRY'S LAST ARCTIC VOYAGE — THE HIGHEST LATITUDE EVER REACHED BY ANY EXPLORER, EXPLORATION, DISCOVERY, AND ADVENTURE IN THE POLAR SEAS.

Introduction

. " rTHE Sea is England's Glory ! " sings a minstrel of our own clay, and ■*■ the truth of his song comes home to the heart of the whole British nation. The sea and all its associations have ever been dear to Englishmen. The sight of a Jack Tar on shore — whether steering a donkey through a country fair, walking through fashionable streets on a summer day smoking a long pipe and protecting his complexion under an open umbrella, or otherwise poking harmless fun at Madame Decorum — is ahvays pleasant and mirth-provoking. When we have a holiday, it is to the sea we fly to enjoy it. The songs that are sung in England Avith equal approbation in hamlet and in hall, are the songs of the ocean. No reported calamity stirs the national sympathy more deeply than a story of gallant rescue, of selfsacrifice, or of " hair-breadth 'scape," at sea.

In our schooldays, it Avas in making ships that we tested the metal of the first pocket knife we ever possessed ; and, clown to his latest year, it is the music of the sea that is the spell and inspiration under which the " roAdng Englishman " passes restless from land to land — from the dark north to " far Cathay " and the broad shining waters of Indian seas. Through every valley of our isle, as through the holloAvs of an ocean shell, the irresistible voice of the Avaves passes inland, murmurs in the ears of lads in remote parsonages and in country schoolrooms — draws them as with the song of the syren, and Avooes them to the shore. And not in the ears of youth alone is the tone of the eversounding sea alluring. To many a noble and ambitious spirit, fretting at the sameness and tameness, the conventionalities and restrictions of modern life, the sea brings welcome emancipation, and comforts Avith the stormy but unflattering solace of its winds and waves. 1 A EXPLORATION, DLSCOVERY, AND ADVENTURE Once more upon the waters !

Yet once more ! And the waves bound beneath me as a steed That knows its rider ! Welcome to their roar ! Swift be their guidance, wheresoe'er it lead ! Though the strained mast should quiver as a reed, And the rent canvas, fluttering, strew the gale, Still must Ion!" The spirit of our old sea-king fathers is strong in England still; and the nation glows and thrills to-day over stories of ocean adventure — of devotion among messmates, of discipline stronger than death, of perils courageously braved, of scenes of wonder and mystery discovered — with a sympathy as full, and an admiration as hearty and as high, as filled our fathers' spirits Avhen they read the stories of Cook's voyages in the wondrous southern seas, of the splendid battles of the Baltic or the Nile, or the crowning sea-fight that " was in Trafalgar's Bay."

The peculiar elements of uncertainty and constant danger which sur round the ventures of those who " go down to the sea in ships, and do business upon the great waters," and the close neighbourhood and familiar intercourse in which they daily and nightly dwell with the great forces of nature — nothing but a board between them and the merciless ocean, the Avinds of heaven for their companions, no roof above them but that eternal ceiling " fretted with golden fire " — impart to the employments of the mariner a character of romance and poetry unknown in the ordinary occupations of landsmen, and to Avhich the continual succession of new scenes, strange incidents, and everchanging phases of danger from tempest, collision, fire, and exposure to the last extremity of hunger and thirst, add a perpetual, a fearful, and a fascinating variety.

Enter a fishing village, and you may see in the distant and wistful expression of the eyes of the fisher folk — an expression as of men accustomed to search and dwell upon the far horizon of lonely seas — an index of the romantic element in the calling they pursue. The Merchant Service, also, is not without its character of romance, and the loyalty of captains to their OAvners when a valuable freight has been in clanger, has shown itself in deeds of heroism and self-sacrifice unsurpassed in any other department of naval life. All honour to him who is "the last man to leave his ship," and who so often, rather than that his character for courage and faithfulness should in the last dreadful moment be doubted, has refused to leave his vessel, and chosen rather to go clown with her when — " Rose from sea to sky the wild farewell ;" thus carrying his sailing certificate into the next world undishonoured !

But if there is much to be said in praise of our fishermen and merchant IN THE POLAR SEAS. 3 seamen, and of the hardihood, heroism, and romance of their lives, what shall we say of our men-of-Avar — of them who tread the deck " where Blake and mighty Nelson fell . " It is difficult to name the Royal Navy Avithout getting into heroics on the subject ; and this is very far from the purpose at present in hand. It is to the quality of the romance and the adventurous character of naval life in its different departments, that an inquiry is at present instituted. And though our modern ironclad looks more like a floating gasometer than a craft fitted to " walk the waters like a thing of life ;" though " boarding " and " cutting out " are now pretty much among the lost arts of naval warfare, and though victory in the sea-fights of the future will be due as much to science and engineering skill as to personal intrepidity and resource, yet it is certain that the romance of the navy did not pass away with the three-decker and the trim frigate.

That romance has not vanished — it has only altered its character, and courage and naval genius have as full play in the new, as in the old condition of naval affairs. But of all departments of naval enterprise, that of Arctic Discovery has been, and remains, the most fascinating, Avhether regarded from the point of Aaew of the possible results to be gained, or the exceptional, even Avonderful, conditions under which these results are often sought. The ambition of the Arctic explorer is not the gain desired by the merchantman, nor the glory of conquest which allures the naval commander. Discovery is his aim, and the passion for adventure in the remotest, most singular, and most dangerous of all the earth's seas, warms him in the pursuit of that object. The rarest and best of the qualities brought into play in naval life, are required in the highest perfection for the successful prosecution of his enterprise.

The most indomitable courage, the most watchful foresight, the most skilful management of resources and of men, are required on the commander's part; while his officers and crew are called upon to observe the most perfect discipline, the most complete self-denial, and to undergo perhaps the hardest and most con tinuous exertion required of men under any conditions, and in any region of the globe. Yet the labours of Arctic voyagers are not wholly unrelieved by enjoyment. They have new lands to discover, new seas to penetrate ; and, in their progress towards these ends, above and around them extends the most weird and wonderful scenery of the world. Blue ice-mountains that take the rosy hues of the dawn and the sunset, float around them ; in the summer, the unsetting sun rolls round the heaven above them, from which the colours of the sunrise are seldom absent ; and the sky shows them the strangest pictures of mirage, of double suns enclosed within circle and cross — the geometry of the polar heavens — of ghostly moon-haloes.

The aurora, Avith its waving spears of many-coloured light, streams from horizon to zenith ; the corona raises its luminous pyramid above the west long after sunset ; the constellations shine with a jewelled lustre unknown in more EXPLORATION, DISCOVERY, AND ADVENTURE. familiar skies. Then the very trials and hardships of the unearthly cruise draw officers and men together in close fellowship and friendship, and the best traits of character are brought strongly out under enterprises and sufferings in which the safety of each depends upon the faithfulness of all.

Such, faintly shadoAved forth, are some of the chief conditions under Avhich Arctic exploration is prosecuted ; and, as we think of them, we recall the quaint but eloquent words in Avhich old Samuel Purchas — parson of St Martin's, by Ludgate, London, and compiler of a most curious and valuable collection of voyages — speaks of the character and the labours of Polar explorers : " How shall I," says this old writer, with simple but kindly and eloquent feeling — " How shall I admire your heroicke courage, ye marine worthies, beyond all names of worthinesse ! that neyther dread so long eyther presence or absence of the sunne ; nor those foggy mysts, tempestuous winds, cold blasts, snowes and hayle in the ayre ; nor the unequal seas, Avhich might amaze the hearer, and amate the beholder, where the Tritons and Neptune's seise would quake with chilling feare, to behold such mon strous icie ilands rending themselves with terrour of their own massiness, and disdayning otherwise both the sea's sovereigntie, and the sunne's hottest violence, mustering themselves in those watery plaines where they hold a continual civill warre, and, rushing one upon another, make windes and waves give backe ; seeming to rend the ears of others while they rend them selves with crashing and splitting their congealed armours."

It is a little singular that no department of naval achievement and adventure is at once so fascinating, so romantic in itself, and yet so unfamiliar to the million readers of England, as the department of Explora tion, Adventure, and Discovery in the Polar Seas. This anomaly it is now proposed to do aAvay with. It is to trace the history of every famous Arctic expedition that has left British or foreign shores, from the earliest times to our own; to note the gradual progress of the successive discoveries in the Polar seas, where yet much remains to be discovered ; and to record the stirring adventures, disastrous reverses, triumphant successes, and deeds of heroic courage and perseverance, in the very face of death under a hundred forms at once, for which the annals of Arctic discovery are illustrious — that is the purpose of the present work. PARTI

Chapter I. The Norse Sea-kings

— EARLY NORSE NAVIGATORS — DISCOVERY OF ICELAND — - DISCOVERY OF GREENLAND — THE GATE TO THE POLAR REGIONS. The navigators of Britain and America may be said, generally, to trace their descent from the Norsemen (North-men), who inhabited ScandinaAda, an illdefined region on the north-west shores of Europe, and including the regions now known as Denmark, and the southern coasts of Norway and Sweden. So rapidly did this robust race multiply and increase in their native provinces, that at a very early period their country became over-populated, and it became necessary for those of them who were not sufficiently provided for at home, to put forth in the vessels which necessity had early taught them to construct, and to roam the seas in search of a means of subsistence. This they generally succeeded in finding in the shape of booty, on the shores of some richer and less warlike country than their own.

For centuries these ocean freebooters were the scourge and the terror of Western Europe. Brave, daring, brilliant in the rapidity with which they planned, and the skill Avith which they executed their piratical expeditions, the Norsemen — known later, some of them, as the Normans — soon enriched themselves with the spoils of every maritime country in Northern Europe. During the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, the seas swarmed with their terrible war-ships, and from one end of Europe to the other, they made the coasts of those countries, now the most powerful, a prey to their depredations. During the space of two hundred years, they almost incessantly ravaged England, and frequently subdued it. They invaded Scotland and Ireland, and made incursions on the coasts of Livonia, Courland, and Pomerania.

They spread like a devouring flame over Lower Saxony, Friesland, Holland, Flanders, and the banks of the Rhine, as far as Mainz. They penetrated into the heart of France, having long before ravaged the coasts ; they found their way inland, up the Somme, the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, and the Rhone. Within the space of thirty years, they frequently pillaged and burned Paris, DISCOVERY OF LCELAND. Amiens, Orleans, Poitiers, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Saintes, Angouleme, Nantes, and Tours. In due time Rollo, a Danish chieftain, landed with a swarm of these Normans on the shores of France ; captured a maritime province of that country, called it Normandy, after the name of its new proprietors — Neustria had been its name previously, — and commenced to consolidate his forces there, and prepare to take advantage of any other opening that might present itself.

To the brave there are always opportunities, and accordingly in 1066, hearing there was an opening in England, these terrible Normans, under Duke William, swarmed over in a thousand war-ships to the British shores, defeated the English at the battle of Hastings, and seized the country — which they have held ever since to this day. Such were the stirring people who sent forth the earliest voyagers to the Northern Seas. But as the earliest voyages Avere not productive in any special degree of results, with which our purpose is concerned, we shall have only a very few words to say about these early navigators. It cannot be said that the earliest of these Norse voyagers were gentle men of any very eminent social status. Among the first of them was Naddod the Viking, who, in sailing to the Faroe Isles, was driven away westward by an easterly gale, until he discovered (in 861) a great island covered with snow, and to which he therefore gave the name Snowland.

Another adventurer, named Gardar, visited the island three years after, found it a tolerable, even a pleasant region, wintered upon it, gave it his own name (Gardar 's-holm), and returning to his native Sweden, spread abroad such a glowing account of its fair woods and fertile soil, that he inflamed the mind of one of his countrymen, one Floki, to set out and find the new island. Floki found it, Avintered upon it, observed that its bays and fiords seemed to be always full of ice, and consequently gave it a new name — Iceland, which name it still retains. And with the discovery towards the close of the ninth century of that lonely island, " Placed far amid the melancholy main," we have made the first step towards the discovery of lands that lie still farther to the north — the first step towards the discovery of the North-West Passage — of the North Pole itself.

About a hundred years later, another Norseman, named Thorwald, having qualified himself for adventure on sea by previously committing murder on land, set sail for Iceland. He was followed shortly afterwards by his son Eric, who it appears had also been guilty of murder and of many irregularities, and who, sailing westward, landed, in 982, on a strange shore, and wintered on an inlet on the coast, which was named after him, Eric's Sound. Finding the country a pleasant one, its coasts abounding in fish, its valleys rich in meadowland, and its hills covered Avith verdure, he DISCOVERY OF GREENLAND AND AMERICA. named the unknown shore Greenland, and in time he induced a colony of Icelanders to settle Avith him there. And thus we achieve the second step in our advance towards the North. A regular and thriving trade had at the close of the tenth century sprung up between Iceland and Nonvay.

In 1001, two Norsemen engaged in this trade — one of them named Lief, being the son of that Eric, who had landed upon and given name to Greenland — sailed far to the westward, having heard of land in that direction, and made wonderful discoveries. They struck a land unvisited by Norse voyagers before, and to different parts of its coast they gave different names. They ascended a river, the banks of which were covered with shrubs, bearing delicious fruits. The temperature of the air seemed soft and mild to Lief, son of Eric the Greenlander, the soil appeared to be fertile, and the river abounded with fish, especially salmon. The land they discovered is supposed to have been either Newfoundland or the shore of Canada, near the mouth of the St LaAvrence ; and thus the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492, was anticipated by the Greenland colonists, though in the latter case the discovery was barren, no permanent colony having been founded on the great continent.

We have thus in recording the discovery successively of Iceland, Green land, and the eastern coast of North America, gradually led our readers, as the early explorers were gradually led, to the very entrance of the arena of Polar Discovery — to the mouth of that spacious inlet of the North Atlantic Ocean, between Greenland on the east, and the coasts of North America on the west, which afterwards came to be known as Davis' Strait, and through which so many exploring expeditions have passed nortlnvard in search of the North-West Passage, and to what is now considered to be the goal of all Arctic research — the supposed open Polar Sea. Hitherto the discoveries achieved upon the northern fringe of the Atlantic have been, so to speak, the results of chance. We now enter upon an era when northern discovery had become a definite aim, and Avhen special expeditions fitted out as completely as the ATery imperfect knowledge of the time permitted, were despatched to the north to realise an idea Avhich the maritime nations of Northern Europe have not ceased to cherish for nearly four centuries, and towards the realisation of which each successive expedition has contributed in a greater or less degree. THE EAST.

Chapter II. The East

— ITS WEALTH AND THE DESIRARILITY OF OBTAINING A SEA-ROUTE TO INDIA AND CHINA — PORTUGUESE ROUTE TO INDIA ROUND CAPE OF GOOD HOPE SPANISH ROUTE ROUND CAPE HORN — ENGLAND AVITHOUT A ROUTE TO THE EAST. The East, the immemorial region of " barbaric pearl and gold," has in all ages been esteemed the land of unimagined riches, and " the wealth of the Indies" has passed into the language of proverb. In the western world, the earliest knowledge of the teeming riches of the East was obtained from the Bible. The building of the Temple of Solomon shows an accumulation of gold, obtained from Ophir — a name which is believed by many high authorities to have been applied to the great Asiatic peninsulas, Hindostan and China, — which created the impression among the nations of the west, that the wealth of the eastern Avorld was beyond the glory of dreams.

"And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, Avhich is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon." Now as the talent weighed rather more than 113^ pounds, by an easy computation we discover that this merely occasional and temporary draw upon Ophir, realised about £2,500,000 of our money. But the western estimate of the wealth of Ophir or the East, Avas not formed alone from the narratives of Scripture. After the aspiring spirit of Mahomet had raised his country from insignificance to imperial greatness, Arabian caravans traded to India and China, and the veritable gold of Ophir, which had covered the Temple of Solomon without and within, was brought in lavish abundance by Arab merchants, to enrich the palaces of the Califs of Damascus, and was carried to Western Europe by that branch of the dynasty of the Ommiades which, founding an independent califate in Cordova, laid the foundations of the Moorish Empire in Spain.

From this it will readily appear that access to the East — the land whose soil was gold, whose rocks were precious stones — has been an eminently desirable object in all ages. The great Alexander of Macedon was dazzled by the glitter of the distant Ophir, and marched his conquering legions east- SEA- ROUT ES TO INDIA. 9 ward, to be stopped, however, by the Indus, on the western frontier of India. In later days, the Mahometans brought the spices, the gold, the jewels of the far East to Syria, Avhence the Crusaders, witnessing all this magnificence, carried back to Western Europe a knowledge of Eastern luxury. This know ledge begot desire, and gradually among European nations a love of luxury and a passion for the products of far climes sprang up. To satisfy this desire, the most eastern maritime nations of Europe — the republics of Venice and Genoa — cultivated a trade Avith the East, in order to supply the markets of the West, and rose to greatness and splendour upon the profits of that trade.

" In the middle of the thirteenth century Marco Polo, the famous navigator, brought back to Western Europe such glowing accounts of the East, as verified all the traditionary tales of Cipango and Cathay." About that time men's minds were awaking from the torpidity of the Middle Ages. The age of chivalry died with the last crusade. Trade and manufactures were calling into existence all over Western Europe a race of practical men, Avhose minds had shuffled off the coil of worn-out, exploded ideas. The last news from the East aroused cupidity and awakened enterprise ; and there was a spirit in the very air, of vague and blind desire to reach the wonders and the wealth of the mysterious East. When such a spirit is abroad, the Unknown is sure to reveal itself sooner or later, and become the Known.

At that period there was much mercantile activity in Portugal ; her navigators were accustomed to coast along the western shores of Africa. Enterprise in this direction Avas encouraged by the Portuguese king, until coasting farther and still farther south, his navigators reached the southern extremity of the African continent, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and — stood away eastward for the El Dorado of the Indies. Thus one nation solved for itself the problem of how to reach the land of diamonds. Another nation had already solved for itself the same problem, but in a very different way. When Columbus set sail upon his marvellous voyage it was to seek that for which all the maritime powers of Europe were dreaming and languishing — a sea-route to the East. When he sailed, he sailed for India ; when he discovered the shore of the New World, he believed he had touched the eastern coasts of the Indies.

The error, of course, was discovered in due time ; but in the meanwhile the Spaniards were not slow to take full advantage of the glorious discovery that placed them in the van of European nations. Soon the eastern coasts of America, or rather of South America, were explored, until at length the Spanish captains rounding the southern extremity of the American continent by the Straits of Magellan, found themselves in the Pacific, and Avith a clear way westward to the goal of their desires. Two routes had now been found to the Avished-for Indies — the Portu guese route round Africa and eastward, and the Spanish route round South 1 B A SEA-ROUTE TO THE EAST FOR ENGLAND. 10 America and westward — although this latter Avas not prosecuted to any great extent as a commercial higliAvay. It must be carefully noted that each of these nations monopolised its OAvn route, and treated as pirates any naviga tors not belonging to their respective nations, Avho attempted to pass by either route for the purpose of discovery or trade.