 Celebrated Travelers Before the Christian Era, by Jules Verne, translated by Dora Lee. From Celebrated Travels and Travelers Part 1 The Exploration of the World. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Hanno, 505. Herodotus, 484. Pithias, 340. Nearchus, 326. Eudoxus, 146. Caesar, 100. Stravo, 50. Hanno, the Carthaginian. Herodotus visits Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, Phoenicia, Arabia, Babylon, Persia, India, Medea, Colchis, the Caspian Sea, Scythia, Thrace, and Greece. Pithias explores the coasts of Iberia and Gaul, the English Channel, the Isle of Albion, the Orkney Islands, and the Land of Tule. Nearchus visits the Asiatic coast from the Indus to the Persian Gulf. Eudoxus reconnoiters the west coast of Africa. Caesar conquers Gaul and Great Britain. Stravo travels over the interior of Asia and Egypt, Greece and Italy. The first traveler of whom we have any account in history is Hanno, who was sent by the Carthaginian Senate to colonize some parts of the western coast of Africa. The account of this expedition was written in the Carthaginian language and afterwards translated into Greek. It is known to us now by the name of the Periplus of Hanno. At what period this explorer lived, historians are not agreed, but the most probable account assigns the date B.C. 505 to his exploration of the African coast. Hanno left Carthage with a fleet of 60 vessels of 50 oars each, carrying 30,000 persons and provisions for a long voyage. These emigrants, for so we may call them, were destined to people the new towns that the Carthaginians hoped to found on the west coast of Libya, or, as we now call it, Africa. The fleet successfully passed the Pillars of Hercules, the Rocks of Gibraltar and Tselta, which command the strait, and ventured on the Atlantic taking a southerly course. Two days after passing the straits, Hanno anchored on the coast and laid the foundations of the town of Thumiaterion. Then he put to sea again, and doubling the Cape of Soloise made fresh discoveries and advanced to the mouth of a large African river, where he found a tribe of wandering shepherds camping on the banks. He only waited to conclude a treaty of alliance with them before continuing his voyage southward. He next reached the island of Serne, situated in a bay and measuring five stadia in circumference, or, as we should say, at the present day, nearly 925 yards. According to Hanno's own account, this island should be placed with regard to the Pillars of Hercules at an equal distance to that which separates these Pillars from Carthage. They set sail again, and Hanno reached the mouth of the river Cretus, which forms a sort of natural harbor. But as they endeavored to explore this river, they were assailed with showers of stones from the native Negro race, inhabiting the surrounding country, and driven back, and after this inhospitable reception they returned to Serne. We must not omit to add that Hanno mentions finding large numbers of crocodiles and hippopotamia in this river. Twelve days after this unsuccessful expedition, the fleet reached a mountainous region, where fragrant trees and shrubs abounded, and it then entered a vast gulf which terminated in a plain. This region appeared quite calm during the day, but after nightfall it was illuminated by tongs of flame, which might have proceeded from fire slighted by the natives, or from the natural ignition of the dry grass, when the rainy season was over. In five days Hanno doubled the Cape, known as the Hesperacheras, there, according to his own account, quote, he heard the sounds of fives, symbols, and tambourines, and the clamor of a multitude of people, end quote. The sub-sayers, who accompanied the party of Carthaginian explorers, concealed flight from this land of terrors, and in obedience to their advice they set sail again, still taking a southerly course. They arrived at a Cape, which, stretching southwards, formed a gulf, called Notuceras, and according to Messier Davesac, this gulf must have been the mouth of the river Oro, which falls into the Atlantic almost within the Tropic of Cancer. At the lower end of this gulf they found an island inhabited by a vast number of gorillas, which the Carthaginians mistook for hairy savages. They contrived to get possession of three female gorillas, but were obliged to kill them on account of their great ferocity. This Notuceras must have been the extreme limit reached by the Carthaginian explorers, and though some historians inclined to the believe that they only went to Bohador, which is two degrees north of the tropics, it is more probable that the former account is the true one, and that Hanno, finding himself short of provisions, returned northwards to Carthage, where he had the account of his voyage engraved in the temple of Balmolog. After Hanno the most illustrious of ancient travelers was Herodotus, who has been called the father of history, and who was the nephew of the poet Paniacis, whose poems ranked with those of Homer and Hesiot. It will serve our purpose better if we only speak of Herodotus as a traveler, not as historian, as we wish to follow him as far as possible through the countries that he traversed. Herodotus was born at Halicarnassus, a town in Asia Minor, in the year BC 484. His family were rich, and having large commercial transactions they were able to encourage the taste for explorations which he showed. At this time there were many different opinions as to the shape of the earth, the Pythagorean school having even then began to teach that it must be round. But Herodotus took no part in this discussion, which was of the deepest interest to learn it man of that time, and, still young, he left home with a view of exploring with great care all the then known world, and especially those parts of it, of which there were but few and uncertain data. He left Halicarnassus in 484, being then twenty years of age, and probably directed his steps first to Egypt, visiting Memphis, Heliopolis and Thebes. He seems to have specially turned his attention to the overflow of the banks of the Nile, and he gives an account of the different opinions held as to the source of this river, which the Egyptians worshipped as one of their deities. Quote, when the Nile overflows its banks, he says, you can see nothing but the towns rising out of the water, and they appear like the islands in the Aegean Sea. Quote, he tells of the religious ceremonies among the Egyptians, their sacrifices, their ardor in celebrating the feasts of honor of their goddess Isis, which took place principally at Bussiri's, whose ruins may still be seen near Bushir, and of the veneration paid to both wild and tame animals, which were looked upon almost as sacred, and to whom they even rendered funeral honors at their death. He depicts in the most faithful colors the Nile crocodile, its form, habits and the way in which it is caught, and the Hippopotamus, the Mormons, the phoenix, the Ibis, and the serpents that were consecrated to the god Jupiter. Nothing can be more lifelike than his accounts of the Egyptian customs and the notices of their habits, their games, and their way of embalming the dead in which the chemists of that period seemed to have excelled. Then we have the history of the country, from Menes, its first king, downward to Herodotus' time, and he describes the building of the pyramids under Kyops, the labyrinth that was built a little above the lake Moeris, of which the remains were discovered in AD 1799, lake Moeris itself, whose origin he ascribes to the hand of man, and the two pyramids which are situated a little above the lake. He seems to have admired many of the Egyptian temples, and especially that of Minerva at Sais, and of Vulcan and Isis at Memphis, and the colossal monolith that was three years in course of transportation from the Elephantine to Sais, though 2,000 men were employed on this gigantic work. After having carefully inspected everything of interest in Egypt, Herodotus went into Libya, little thinking that the continent he was exploring extended thence to the tropic of cancer. He made special inquiries in Libya as to the number of its inhabitants, who were as simple nomadic race principally living near the sea coast, and he speaks of the Ammonians, who possessed the celebrated temple of Jupiter Ammon, the remains of which have been discovered on the northeast side of the Libyan desert, about 300 miles from Cairo. Herodotus furnishes us with some very valuable information on Libyan customs. He describes their habits, speaks of the animals that infest the country, serpents of a prodigious size, lions, elephants, bears, asps, horned asses, probably the rhinoceros of the present day, and sinusifale, quote, animals with no heads and whose eyes are placed on their chest, end quote. To use his own expression, foxes, hyenas, porcupines, wild zarus, panthers, etc. He winds up his description by saying that the only two aboriginal nations that inhabit this region are the Libyans and Ethiopians. According to Herodotus, the Ethiopians were at that time to be found above Elephantina, but commentators are induced to doubt if this learned explorer ever really visited Ethiopia, and if he did not, he may easily have learned from the Egyptians the details that he gives of its capital, Meroe, of the worship of Jupiter and Bakus, and of the longevity of the natives. There can be no doubt, however, that he set sail for Tyre in Phoenicia and that he was much struck with the beauty of the two magnificent temples of Hercules. He next visited Tarsus and took advantage of the information gathered on the spot to write a short history of Phoenicia, Syria and Palestine. We next find that he went southward to Arabia, and he calls it the Ethiopia of Asia, for he thought the southern parts of Arabia were the limits of human habitation. He tells us of the remarkable way in which the Arabs kept any vow that they might have made, that their two deities were Uranus and Bakus, and of the abundant growth of mirth, cinnamon and other spices, and he gives a very interesting account of their culture and preparation. We cannot be quite sure which country he next visited, as he calls it both Assyria and Babylonia, but he gives a most minute account of the splendid city of Babylon, which was the home of the monarchs of that country after the destruction of Nineveh, and whose ruins are now only in scattered heaps on either side of the Euphrates, which float a broad, deep, rapid river dividing the city into two parts. On one side of the river, the fortified palace of the king stood, and on the other, the temple of Jupiter Bellus, which may have been built on the side of the Tower of Babel. Herodotus next speaks of the two queens, Semiramis and Nicotris, telling us of all the means taken by the latter to increase the prosperity and safety of her capital, and passing on to speak of the natural products of the country, the wheat, the barley, millet, sesame, the wine, fig tree and palm tree. He winds up with a description of the costume of the Babylonians and their customs, especially that of celebrating their marriages by the public crier. After exploring Babylonia he went to Persia, and as the express purpose of his travels was to collect all the information he could relating to the lengthy wars that had taken place between the Persians and the Grecians, he was most anxious to visit the spots where the battles had been fought. He sets out by remarking upon the custom prevalent in Persia of not clothing their deities in any human form, nor erecting temples nor altars where they might be worshipped, but contenting themselves with adoring them on the tops of the mountains. He knows their domestic habits, their disdain of animal food, their taste for delicacies, their passion for wine and their custom of transacting business of the utmost importance when they had been drinking to excess. Their curiosity as to the habits of other nations, their love of pleasure, their war-like qualities, their anxiety for the education of their children, their respect for the lives of all their fellow creatures, even of their slaves, their horror both of death and lying, and their repugnance to the disease of leprosy which they thought proved that the sufferer quote-unquote had sinned in some way against the sun. The India of Herodotus, according to Monsieur Vivain de Saint-Martin, only consisted of that part of the country that is watered by the five rivers of the Punjab adjoining Afghanistan, and this was the region where the young traveller turned his steps on leaving Persia. He thought that the population of India was larger than that of any other country and he divided it into two classes, the first having settled habitations, the second leading a nomadic life. Those who lived in the eastern part of the country killed their sick and aged people and ate them, while those in the north who were a finer, braver and more industrious race employed themselves in collecting the oriferous suns. India was then the most easterly extremity of the inhabited land, as he thought, and he observes, quote, that the two extremities of the world seem to have shared nature's best gifts, as Greece enjoyed the most agreeable temperature possible, end quote, and that was his idea of the western limits of the world. Medea is the next country visited by this indefatigable traveller and he gives the history of the Medes, the nation which was the first to shake off the Assyrian yoke. They founded the great city of Egbatana and surrounded it with seven concentric walls. They became a separate nation in the reign of Deosis. After crossing the mountains that separate Medea from Colchis, the Greek traveller entered the country, made famous by the valour of Jason, and studied its manners and customs with the care and attention that were among his most striking characteristics. Herodotus seems to have been well acquainted with the geography of the Caspian Sea, for he speaks of it as a sea, quote, unquote, quite by itself, and having no communication with any other. He considered that it was bounded on the west by the Caucasian mountains and on the east by a great plain inhabited by the Masagete, who both Arian and Diodorus Siculus think may have been Scythians. This Masagete worshipped the sun as their only deity and sacrificed horses in its honour. He speaks here of two large rivers, one of which, the Alexus, would be the Volga, and the other, that he called the Ista, must be the Danube. The traveller then went into Scythia, and he thought that the Scythians were the different tribes inhabiting the country that lay between the Danube and the Don, in fact a considerable portion of European Russia. He found the barbarous custom of putting out the eyes of their prisoners was practised among them, and he noticed that they only wandered from place to place, without caring to cultivate their land. Herodotus relates many of the fables that make the origin of the Scythian nation so obscure, and in which Hercules plays a prominent part. He adds a list of the different tribes that composed the Scythian nation, but he does not seem to have visited the country lying to the north of the Yuxin or Black Sea. He gives a minute description of the habits of these people, and expresses his admiration for the Pontus Yuxinus. The dimensions that he gives of the Black Sea, the Bosphorus and the Propontis, the Palus Mayotes and of the Aegean Sea are almost exactly the same as those given by geographers of the present day. He also names the large rivers that flow into these seas. The Easter, or Danube, the Boris Tennis, or Dnieper, the Tamais or Don, and he finishes by relating how the Alliance and afterwards the Union between the Scythians and Amazons took place, which explains the reason why the young women of that country are not allowed to marry before they have killed an enemy and established their character for valor. After a short stay in Thrace, during which he was convinced that the Gete were the bravest portion of this race, Herodotus arrived in Greece, which was to be the termination of his travels to the country where he hoped to collect the only documents still wanting to complete his history, and he visited all the spots that had become illustrious by the great battles fought between the Greeks and Persians. He gives a minute description of the pass of Thermopylae and of his visit to the Plain of Marathon, the battlefield of Platea, and his return to Asia Minor, whence he passed along the coast on which the Greeks had established several colonies. Herodotus can only have been 28 years of age when he returned to Halikarnasus in Caria, for it was in BC 456 that he read the history of his travels at the Olympic Games. His country was at that time oppressed by Ligdamis, and he was exiled to Samos, but though he soon after rose in arms to overthrow the tyrant, the ingratitude of his fellow citizens obliged him to return into exile. In 444 he took part in the Games at Dipantion, and there he read his completed work, which was received with enthusiasm, and towards the end of his life he retired to Thorium in Italy, where he died, BC 406, leaving behind him the reputation of being the greatest traveler and the most celebrated historian of antiquity. After Herodotus we must pass over a century and a half, and only note in passing the Physician Ctesias, a contemporary of Xenophon, who published the account of a voyage to India that he really never made, and we shall come in chronological order to Pythias, who was at once a traveler, geographer and historian, one of the most celebrated men of his time. It was about the year BC 340 that Pythias set out from the columns of Hercules with a single vessel, but instead of taking a southerly course like his Carthaginian predecessors, he went northwards, passing by the coast of Iberia and Gaul to the furthest points, which now form the Cape of Finisterre, and then he entered the English Channel and came upon the English coast, the British Isles, of which he was to be the first explorer. He disembarked at various points on the coast and made friends with the simple, honest, sober, industrious inhabitants who traded largely in tin. Pythias ventured still further north and went beyond the Orcates islands to the furthest point of Scotland, and he must have reached a very high latitude for during the summer the night only lasted two hours. After six days further sailing he came to lands which he calls Tule, probably the Jutland or Norway of the present day, beyond which he could not pass, for he says, quote, there was neither land, sea nor air there, end quote. He retraced his course and changing it slightly he came to the mouth of the Rhine, the country of the Ostians and further inland to Germany. Thence he visited the mouth of the Talais, that is supposed to be the Elbe or the Odor, and he returned to Marseille just a year after leaving his native town. Pythias, besides being such a brave sailor, was a remarkably scientific man. He was the first to discover the influence that the moon exercises on the tides and to notice that the Polar Star is not situated at the exact spot at which the axis of the globe is supposed to be. Some years after the time of Pythias, about B.C. 326, a Greek traveller made his name famous. This was Nearchus, a native of Crete, one of Alexander's admirals, and he was charged to visit all the coasts of Asia from the mouth of the Indus to that of the Euphrates. Then Alexander first resolved that this expedition should take place, which had for its object the opening up of a communication between India and Egypt. He was at the upper part of the Indus. He furnished Nearchus with a fleet of 33 galleys, of some vessels with two decks, and a great number of transport ships and 2,000 men. Nearchus came down the Indus in about four months, escorted on either bank of the river by Alexander's armies, and after spending seven months in exploring the delta, he set sail and followed the west line of what we call Belochistan in the present day. He put to sea on the 2nd of October, a month before the winter storms had taken a direction that was favourable to his purpose, so that the commencement of his voyage was disastrous, and in 40 days he had scarcely made 80 miles in a westerly direction. He touched first at Stura and at Corestis, which do not seem to answer to any of the now existing villages on the coast, then at the island of Crocala, which forms the Bay of Quarantia. Beaten back by contrary winds, after doubling the Cape of Monza, the fleet took refuge in a natural harbor, that its commander thought that he could fortify as a defense against the attacks of the barbarous natives, who even at the present day keep up their character as pirates. After spending 24 days in this harbor, Narcus put to sea again on the 3rd of November. Severe gales often obliged him to keep very near the coast, and when this was the case, he was obliged to take all possible precautions to defend himself from the attacks of the ferocious Beluchis, who are described by Eastern historians, quote, as a barbarous nation with long disheveled hair and long flowing beards, who are more like bears or satyrs than human beings, end quote. Up to this time, however, no serious disaster had happened to the fleet, but on the 10th of November in a heavy gale two galleys and a ship sank. Narcus then anchored at Crocala, and there he was met by a ship laden with corn that Alexander had sent out to him, and he was able to supply each vessel with provisions for 10 days. After many disasters and a skirmish with some of the natives, Narcus reached the extreme point of the island of the Oraites, which is marked in modern geography by Cape Morant. Here, he states in his narrative that the rays of the sun at midday are vertical, and therefore there are no shadows of any kind. But this is surely a mistake, for at this time in the southern hemisphere the sun is in the Tropic of Capricorn, and beyond this his vessels were always some degrees distant from the Tropic of Cancer. Therefore even in the height of summer this phenomenon could not have taken place, and we know that his voyage was in winter. Circumstances seemed now rather more in his favor, for the time of the Eastern Monsoon was over when he sailed along the coast which is inhabited by a tribe called Ichtyofagi, who subsist solely on fish, and from the failure of all vegetation are obliged to feed even their sheep upon the same food. The fleet was now becoming very short of provisions, so after doubling Cape Posmy, Narcus took a pilot from those shores on board his own vessel, and with the wind in their favor they made rapid progress, finding the country less bare as they advanced, a few scattered trees and shrubs being visible from the shore. They reached a little town of the name of which we have no record, and as they were almost without food, Narcus surprised and took possession of it, the inhabitants making but little resistance. Canacida, or Ctubar as we call it, was their next resting place, and at the present day the ruins of a town are still visible in the bay, but their corn was now entirely exhausted, and though they tried successively at Canate, Trois, and Degasira for further supplies, it was all in vain, these miserable little towns not being able to furnish more than enough for their own consumption. The fleet had neither corn nor meat, and they could not make up their minds to feed upon the tortoise that abound in this part of the coast. Just as they entered the Persian Gulf, they encountered an immense number of whales, and the sailors were so terrified by their size and number that they wished to fly. It was not without much difficulty that Narcus at last prevailed upon them to advance boldly, and they soon scattered their formidable enemies. Having changed their westerly course for a northeasterly one, they soon came upon fertile shores, and their eyes were refreshed by the sight of corn fields and pasture lands interspersed with all kinds of fruit trees except the olive. They put into bodies or jasques, and after leaving it and passing Maseta or Mosendon, they came inside of the Persian Gulf, to which Narcus, following the geography of the Arabs, gave them a nomer of the Red Sea. They sailed up the Gulf, and after one halt reached Hormozia, which has since given its name to the little island of Hormoz. There he learned that Alexander's army was only five days' march from him, and he disembarked at once, and hastened to meet it. No news of the fleet having reached the army for twenty-one weeks, they had given up all hope of seeing it again, and great was Alexander's joy when Narcus appeared before him, though the hardships he had endured had altered him almost beyond recognition. Alexander ordered games to be celebrated and sacrifices offered up to the gods. Then Narcus returned to Hormozia, as he wished to go as far as Sousa with the fleet, and set sail again, having invoked Jupiter the Deliverer. He touched at some of the neighboring islands, probably those of Arek and Kismis, and soon afterwards the vessels ran aground. But the advancing tide floated them again, and after passing Bestion, they arrived at the island of Kaish, that is sacred to Mercury and Venus. This was the boundary line between Carmania and Persia. As they advanced along the Persian coast, they visited different places, Gilam, Indorabia, Chevo, etc. and at last named was found a quantity of wheat which Alexander had sent for the use of the explorers. Some days after this, they came to the mouth of the river Araxes, that separates Persia from Susiana, and thence they reached a large lake, situated in the country now called Dorgestan, and finally anchored near the village of Degela, at the source of the Euphrates, having accomplished their project of visiting all the coasts lying between the Euphrates and Indus. Narcus returned a second time to Alexander, who rewarded him magnificently and placed him in command of his fleet. Alexander's wish that the whole of the Arabian coasts should be explored as far as the Red Sea was never fulfilled, as he died before the expedition was arranged. It is said that Narcus became governor of Lycia and Pamphylia, but in his leisure time he wrote an account of his travels, which has unfortunately perished, though not before Arian had made a complete analysis of it in its Historia Indica. It seems probable that Narcus fell in the battle of Ipsu, leaving behind him the reputation of being a very able commander. His voyage may be looked upon as an event of no small importance in the history of navigation. We must not omit to mention a most hazardous attempt made in B.C. 146 by Eudoxus of Cisicus, a geographer living at the court of Eurgytis II to sail round Africa. He had visited Egypt and the coast of India when this, far greater, project occurred to him, one which was only accomplished 1600 years later by Vasco da Gama. Eudoxus fitted out a large vessel and two smaller ones and set sail upon the unknown waters of the Atlantic. How far he took these vessels we do not know, but after having had communication with some natives, whom he thought were Ethiopians, he returned to Mauritania. Thence he went to Tiberia and made preparations for another attempt to circumnavigate Africa. But whether he ever set out upon this voyage is not known. In fact, some learned men are even inclined to consider Eudoxus an imposter. We have still to mention two names of illustrious travelers living before the Christian era, those of Caesar and Strabo. Caesar, born B.C. 100, was preeminently a conqueror, not an explorer, but we must remember that in the year B.C. 58 he undertook the conquest of Gaul and during the ten years that were occupied in this vast enterprise he led his victorious legions to the shores of Great Britain, where the inhabitants were of German extraction. As to Strabo, who was born in Cappadocia, B.C. 50, he distinguished himself more as a geographer than a traveler, but he traveled through the interior of Asia and visited Egypt, Greece and Italy, living many years in Rome and dying there in the latter part of the reign of Tiberias. Strabo wrote a geography in 17 books, of which the greater part has come down to us. And this work, with that of Ptolemy, are the two most valuable legacies of ancient to modern geographers. And of celebrated travelers before the Christian era by Jules Verne. The trial of Captain John Kimber for the murder of two female Negro slaves on board the recovery African slave ship, tried at the Admiralty Sessions, held at the Old Bailey, the 7th of June 1792, before Sir James Marriott, etc. Taken in shorthand by a student of the Temple, to which are added observations on the above trial. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Introduction On a business which has so long agitated the public mind as the slave trade, everything that can be said must in some manner be interesting. The atrocity of that unnatural and abominable custom could not in any instance have been more abundantly manifested than in the late decision of a large majority in the House of Commons. Perhaps the procrastination of the same important question in a superior House may be productive of greater good than the people of England are aware of. Perhaps it may, upon the next discussion, lead to an immediate and total abolition of a cruel and inhuman traffic. It cannot but be lamented that a personage of the first rank who could have no other motive except that of love for uncontrollable tyranny should become so strenuous an advocate for slavery. He has more than once expressed his sentiments in public, and on the present occasion seemed to have comported himself with an extraordinary degree of zeal, which whether it became the dignity of a pedash in such a cause we shall not take on us to determine. But leave it to the world to judge of the propriety of such conduct. Whatever the public opinion may be relative to the prosecution carried on against Captain Kimber, who has been, we suppose, fairly acquitted by an English jury, it was evidently a necessary and a useful measure. It may afford a salutary lesson to those captains of slave ships and masters of slaves who should hereafter attempt to commit such horrid outrages as he has been charged with. And it may, from the circumstances here related, for such barbarities have doubtless been often practiced, fill the minds of men universally with horror against the present system. Until tyranny shall at length give way to public opinion and liberty and happiness be restored to human beings. This trial came on at the Admiralty Sessions held at the Old Bailey on Thursday the 7th of June 1792, before Sir James Marriott, Judge Advocate of the Admiralty, Mr. Justice Ashhurst and Mr. Baron Hotham. The prisoner was indicted for having feloniously wickedly and with malice aforethought beaten and tortured a female slave so as to cause her death. And he was again indicted for having caused the death of another female slave. Mr. Broderick, on the side of the prosecution, first opened the cause. Sir William Scott next stated that the prisoner, Captain Kimber, had commanded the ship recovery which traded in slaves from the coast of Africa to the West Indies, that in 1791 he arrived in the river of Calabar, whence he had, in some time after, departed with a cargo of slaves, among whom was that negro girl for whose murder the prisoner now stood indicted. She had been, for a considerable time, afflicted with a lonesome distemper and a lethargic complaint which prevented her from eating or mixing in any of those exercises which the other slaves on board were accustomed to practice. The prisoner had her punished for this supposed obstinacy, flogged her, and had her raised up by pulleys from the deck so that the tortures she endured caused her to languish for a few days until she died. I shall not, said the learned counsel, enter into a detail of circumstances for that must appear by the evidence which is to be laid before you, gentlemen of the jury. Nor is it necessary that I should make any observations on the heinousness of this offense, as that is the province of the court. And no doubt your verdict will be given with that discretion and impartiality which has always been shunned on similar occasions. Mr. Thomas Dowling was first called and examined by Mr. Attorney General. He had been a surgeon on board the recovery, the ship which the prisoner commanded. In the beginning of June he had arrived in the river of Calabar on the coast of Africa where in the end of August they had completed their cargo of slaves. About the time of sailing he had under his care a female slave aged about fourteen or fifteen years who had been afflicted with a virulent gonorrhea and lethargy or drowsy complaint of which latter ailment he could never learn the real cause. She was not then in a convalescent state, her diseases were stationary and bore every probable appearance of recovery. In this situation she could not eat, as the other slaves did, nor join in any of their amusements at which the captain was so irritated that he used to flog her himself with a whip, the handle of which was one foot long and the lash two. Three weeks after they had sailed he beat her in this manner with uncommon severity. And on the twenty-second of December, perceiving her not to dance with the other Negro women, he ordered a boy to bring a teacole, one end of which was fastened to the mizzen stay and the other to one of her hands, and by this she was lifted up from the deck and remained suspended for about five minutes. And during that time she was bounced up and down or in other words lifted up and let fall again by the way who had a hold of the teacole. She was then taken down and suspended in the same manner by the other arm. She was next lifted up by one leg and afterwards by the other, until at last she was taken up for the fifth time by both hands and underwent the fifth excruciating suspension. The whole time from the first to the last suspension this witness said might have been half an hour. While she continued hung up by both hands the prisoner lashed her inhumanly with his whip and when she was let down he forced her to walk without any assistance down the hatchway. This she was unable to do having got but two or three steps when she slipped all the rest of the way. When this witness next saw her she was welted in several parts of the body, her hands were swelled in consequence of the hanging and her legs disfigured in a shocking manner. After this the witness saw her in convulsions, had her brought on deck and rubbed her with volatile spirits but every remedy was ineffectual. She languished away in this miserable state for three days and on the third expired. All this happened in the middle passage about 200 leagues from Granada whether the recovery with her cargo was bound and the witness was positive that the death of the slave was occasioned by the ill treatment she had received. The witness was cross-examined by Mr. Pigot leading counsel for the prisoner. Question, has it been your undeviating opinion that the girl died in consequence of the punishment said to have been inflicted on her? Answer, it has. Question, was her death the subject of no conversation at that time among the ship's crew? Answer, it was between me and Mr. Devereux and I heard the two boys Pearson and Cruz speak of it. Question, how many men did the whole crew consist of? Answer, about six and twenty. Question, at what time of the day did the fact happen which you have related? Answer, sometime in the forenoon. Question, you heard no conversation about it except that between the two boys? Answer, no. Question, are these boys now absent? Answer, I heard so but cannot say. Question, how many of the mariners do you think are now in this country? Answer, I do not know. I mean to relate every fact which may go as well to subvert my own evidence as make against the prisoner. Question, what time did you arrive at Granada? Answer, on the twenty-eighth of October. Question, did you disclose the death of this girl to any person at Granada? Answer, no. Question, how long were you there? Answer, about a month. Question, did you go to the custom house while you were there? Answer, I did. Question, did you keep a journal while you were on the middle passage? Answer, yes of whites but not of blacks. Question, did you deliver in your journal? Answer, yes. Question, and swore to it? Answer, the form of an oath was read to me by a person sitting at a desk. I took the book and returned it without swearing. Question, did you sign the journal as sworn to it? Answer, yes I did. Here Mr. Pigot read his oath which declared that his journal was a just and true one. And the attested copy being handed to the witness he declared he did not recollect whether he had signed it or not. Question, is not that your name to the oath and is it false or true? Answer, I do not recollect that I signed it. Question, is your bond discharged? Answer, yes I produced this copy at Bristol to have it discharged. Question, why did not the cause of the death of the negro girl appear in your journal? Answer, the apprehensions I had for my own safety while I sailed with the prisoner prevented me from relating it. Question, is it from disclosing a barbarous murder? Answer, yes because the prisoner and I had often quarreled and I might have been judged an improper evidence against him. Question, at what place did you quarrel? Answer, at the river of Calabar. Question, did you not mutiny? Answer, never. Question, did you not strike the prisoner? Answer, I did after he had abused and struck me on board his ship. Question, you collared and held him? Answer, yes at the cabin door when the first and second mate came and seized me and by the prisoner's orders I was put into irons where I continued 24 hours and I was afterwards excluded from the cabin and obliged to mess with the common man. Question, did you not tell a Mr. Jacks that you would be revenged on Captain Kimber? Answer, no I never said so. Question, did you not say you would work his ruin? Answer, never there is not such baseness in my nature. I never made a declaration of the kind to any person but I said I would advertise him for his treatment of me. After my arrival in Bristol about Christmas last I applied to Mr. Jacks who was part owner of the recovery for my wages. He only paid me a part of them. I then complained to him of Captain Kimber's treatment but did not disclose the murder. Question, did you not tell a Mr. Riddle that you would ruin Captain Kimber? Answer, no but I said I would commence a suit against him for his severe treatment of me and that I would put myself under the protection of the first king's ship I met with. This conversation took place before we sailed from Calabar. Question, did you never say anything to the prisoner's servant? Answer, no. Question, did you ever administer any mercury to the girl who died? Answer, no it was improper for her complaint. Question, can you pretend to say that the suspension of this girl was intended as a punishment? Answer, I shall not say that but it was obvious that it was a punishment. Question, might not the captain have had reason to conclude that this suspension was necessary? Answer, he might have had a motive but I did not know it. He never consulted any person in what he used to do and he has often interrupted me in the discharge of my duty. Question, in what part of the ship did the suspension take place? Answer, on the awning deck. Question, and when it happened in so open and conspicuous a situation as that it was impossible it must not have been seen by the ship's company. Why was it not a more general subject of conversation? Answer, I suppose it was but I had not an opportunity of hearing it except between Pearson and Cruz. Question, what was the cause of your having at length disclosed this murder with which you now charge the prisoner? Answer, I was solicited by Mr. Lloyd, a banker at Birmingham, to give an account of the firing on the town of Calabar. And from that relation this account followed as a casual circumstance. I told it to Mr. Wilberforce the day before he made his speech in the House of Commons but I never intended to prosecute or appear in evidence against Captain Kimber. Question, so then this murder remained a secret until the day before Mr. Wilberforce made his speech in the House of Commons? Answer, no I told it to persons in private. Question, how often had you sailed as a surgeon before this time? Answer, that was my first voyage and it shall be my last. The witness was reexamined by Mr. Attorney General in order to account for some of those circumstances which came out on his cross examination and might go to invalidate his testimony. He said that he and the two boys were on the awning deck when the girl was suspended. That between this deck and the other part of the ship there was a barricade about nine feet high which prevented those persons in the four part from seeing what was done abaffed. By this means many of the ship's crew who were on deck might have remained without seeing or knowing what was done to the girl. And this might have been the cause why the circumstance had not been generally spoken of on board. When I gave in my journal said the witness at Grenada, I wish to omit every mention of the negro girl from the apprehensions I was under for my safety, not knowing what the prisoner might have done. I therefore wished to evade the oath which is made on those occasions and accordingly when the officer tendered it to me I took the book from him and returned it without kissing it. He was sitting at a desk and did not see me. The witness requested that the court would examine the log book where they should see that this death which he omitted in his journal did really happen. And the prisoner he said had told him that a journal was a mere matter of form. He said also that when Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Wilberforce had examined him relative to the firing upon the town of Calabar, the latter gentleman questioned him as to the treatment of the slaves on board the ships. And it was upon that occasion he told him the circumstance of the murder for which the prisoner was now indicted, without having had the remotest intention of prosecuting him. And he moreover observed that outrages of that nature were so common on board the slave ships that they were looked upon with as much indifference as any trifling occurrence. Their frequency had rendered them familiar. Stephen Devereux, the next witness on the side of the prosecution, was examined by Mr. Solicitor General. He deposed that he had sailed to the coast of Guinea in the wasp. From whence after he arrived there he changed as third mate into the recovery which sailed from Africa on the 1st of September. He remembered the deceased Negro girl very well. After he had been ten days on board he saw Captain Kimber endeavoring to straighten her knees which were bent and contracted and afterwards flogging her with a whip. While I was standing, said the witness, on the starboard side of the quarter deck, I saw the girl running up by the gun tackle which was fastened by a block to the mizzen's day. She was suspended by one of her arms and continued raised above the deck for four or five minutes. She was let down and lifted up again by the other arm and Pearson, the boy who held the tackle, jerked the fall. In this situation the boys were endeavoring to make her legs straight. She was taken up the third time by one leg and the fourth time by the other after which she was suffered to remain on the deck for some time. In this situation with her head drooping between her knees, Captain Kimber, who was present during the whole of her torture, lifted her up, gave her a slap on the face, and said the bitch is sulky, and then again endeavored to straighten the contraction in the knees with the intention of inflicting punishment on her. The fifth and last time she was lifted up by both hands, but her feet touched the deck, and in this posture the prisoner flogged her severely. When she was about going down the hatchway, he would not suffer anybody to assist her, but said the bitch is sulky, she must find her own way. After she had got down two or three steps with great struggling and difficulty, she slipped along the rest of the ladder. All this happened in the morning. I saw her the next day and helped her up on deck. She was in a very filthy and shocking condition, quite weak and feeble. Her body was covered with whales and bruises. She was not put down along with the other women, but was suffered to languish until she died on the third day after the suspension. Question. What other persons belonging to the ship's company were in sight of this business besides the Captain the Surgeon and yourself? Answer. The man at the wheel and one or two more. He was cross-examined by Mr. Sylvester. Question. Was you not dancing with the women at the time this business was going forward? Answer. I was looking at the women dancing, but when the girl was suffering the punishment they attended more to it than to anything else. Question. Were there any and what other persons with you at the time? Answer. I don't know. Question. Could you attempt to say that it was by way of punishment that the prisoner endeavored to straighten the girl's knees? Answer. I know of no other motive he could have. Question. Why did you not mention this business at Granada on your arrival there? Answer. I did not wish to concern myself about it, particularly as Captain Kimber had behaved to me as a friend. Besides, every seaman on board must have heard of or known it, and the Surgeon and I have often talked of it since. Question. Did you ever give any information of this affair till you were sent for to London? Answer. No. Question. And when you appeared before the magistrate in London, did you not say that you were ignorant of the cause of the girl's death? Answer. I did, for the reason I already mentioned, being delicate of doing anything that might endanger the prisoner's life. But I am now certain that if she had not been punished in the manner she was, she would have lived and been fit for market. Here, Mr. Sylvester read the deposition of this witness, which was taken before Sir. Samson Wright, at Bow Street, about two months ago, when the prisoner at the bar was brought before him, charged with the murder for which he was now tried. In this deposition, the present witness, Devereaux, had stated that he did not believe the girl died in consequence of the punishment inflicted on her. A contrary testimony to which he now gave to the court. Question. Did you venture to take any of your ship's crew along with you to give evidence of this business you now swear to? Answer. No, they were all taken up at Bristol and sent away. Question. Are there not some of them now in London? Answer. I do not know. Question. Were you not dismissed your ship as first mate for mutiny while on the coast of Africa? Answer. No, I did not mutiny. Question. Were you not charged with having mutinyed and tried before six captains? Answer. The charge against me was giving the lie to the captain. Here Mr. Sylvester read the charges against him wherein he was stated to be a pernicious, dangerous, and troublesome fellow, and accordingly was turned away from the ship, but there was no specific offence mentioned. On his re-examination by Mr. Solicitor General he said that he had mentioned the murder of the slave to several persons before he came to give evidence of the firing upon the town of Calabar and to a gentleman at Bristol after Kimber had been brought up to town. He did not know where the rest of the crew had been. Captain Kimber, he said, was one of those who formed the court that tried him on the coast of Africa, and that he afterwards took him into his ship and treated him in a friendly manner. These two were the only witnesses who appeared on the side of the prosecution. Mr. Walter Jax was first called on behalf of the prisoner and examined by Mr. Pigott. He said he was a merchant in Bristol and had a share in the recovery which the prisoner commanded. He knew the prisoner six years, for three or four of which he had been in his service, and he was always satisfied with his conduct, for he was good to the ship's company. Mr. Dowling, who had been surgeon to the ship, attended this witness at Bristol to demand the balance of his wages which had been due to him. At that time he complained that Captain Kimber had engaged to allow him to privilege slaves and that afterwards he would give him but one. The witness told him it was impossible he could have double privilege, as one slave was all that was ever given to the surgeon of that ship. But in paying him his wages he gave him sterling money instead of currency, as a small compensation for the hardships he said he sustained. On the tenth of last January after Dowling had received his wages and thanked the witness, he told him that Captain Kimber was a rascal and a cheat, and that he would ruin him if it was in his power. And immediately after the prisoner had been taken into custody these words occurred to the witness. Thomas Larr lived at Birmingham. He had frequent conversations with Dowling about the slave trade, who said he had frequent quarrels with Captain Kimber, in one of which he struck him, and was afterwards put in irons, turned out of the cabin, and obliged to eat salt provisions with the four masked men. The Captain allowed him but one privileged slave and had behaved very ill towards him, for which he was determined to be revenged. These words he often used. Benjamin Riddle was examined by Mr. Morgan. He said he had been surgeon on board the Thomas, which was on the coast of Africa, at the same time with the recovery. There he heard Dowling say that he had been maltreated by Captain Kimber, and that he would ruin him if possible, that he had a memorandum in his possession, which he could produce against him when he came home. The witness asked to see the paper, but Dowling would not shoe it. This was a sober, deliberate conversation, and Dowling thought he was speaking to a friend. After this, the witness heard Captain Kimber say that Dowling's conduct was so bad he could not keep him. He used to bleed when it was evidently dangerous and commit other improprieties in his professional line. The witness also knew Devereaux to have been dismissed from the wasp for mutiny. Mr. Dowling was again called and asked whether it was true that he had told Mr. Jax, Lar, and Riddle, that he would be revenged of and ruin Captain Kimber if he could. He persisted in his former assertion and declared that he had never said any such thing. He told the court that if they would indulge him with a hearing, he should clear every matter to their satisfaction, but having proceeded in a desultery manner, he was prevented from speaking. Captain Thomas Phillips was examined by Mr. Knowles. He deposed that he was on the coast of Africa when the prisoner was there. Devereaux had been turned out of the wasp for mutiny and had acknowledged the charges against him to be true, and the witness knew him to be a bad man. There were, he said, on board Captain Kimber's ship great quantities of oranges, which Dowling used to give to the slaves. The witness told him often that fruits were bad for them, that they would cause the flux, which disease it appeared the deceased girl was afflicted with. And he knew for twenty years he had been in that climate, such diseases carry off persons in the space of two days. The witness knew the prisoner since he was at school, and he never heard anything injurious to his character until the present charge was preferred against him. He was always humane and good-natured. Thomas Lancaster was a mate belonging to the wasp. He said that Devereaux had admitted the charges made against him, and all the ship's company looked on him as a dangerous fellow. After he had been turned out of the ship, he remained on shore for two months, and if Captain Kimber had not taken him under his protection, it would be impossible to tell what should become of him. Devereaux was again called and questioned as to the truth of what had been said against him, and he declared it was as false as that one was two. He was proceeding to make a defense when the jury said they were all satisfied from what had appeared to them, that there was no credit to be given to the two witnesses on the side of the prosecution, and therefore found the prisoner not guilty. It still remains for us to make a few observations on the above extraordinary trial. Nothing that may now be said can in any manner affect Captain Kimber as he has been acquitted and cannot be tried a second time for the same offense. We shall not declare what impressions we lie under as to the guilt or innocence of Captain Kimber, but lay before the public a few points from which they may draw such conclusions as their feelings and reason shall dictate. And first we shall ask why was there not such a defense set up by Captain Kimber as could in the minds of the people have acquitted him of the horrid act which was sworn against him. Did he bring forward a single witness to contradict the charges of his accusers? What became of all the seamen and servants on board his ship who were in England at the time he was apprehended and who might have been brought into court to declare at once that the prisoner did not commit murder? Without having recourse to the miserable shift of proving perjury against Mr. Dowling and Devereux in points that had nothing to do with the prosecution? Were none of the recovery's crew to be found or was Captain Kimber afraid that they would have all conspired against his life? One of the witnesses on the side of the prosecution said that all the crew were taken up at Bristol and sent out of the way. The event has given us no reason to doubt the truth of this assertion. As to Mr. Dowling's not having disclosed the murder when he came on shore, nor keeping a complete journal, these are circumstances which those persons who know anything of ships in general or the African slave trade will pay no attention to. Journals which are considered mere matters of form are generally imperfect, and the barbarous treatment of slaves on board the ships is so frequent as to be looked upon within difference. Perhaps Mr. Dowling, perhaps the whole crew, might have conceived that the killing of a slave on board a ship was an offense not punishable by law. As there was no other evidence to support the second indictment than what supported the first, the jury also acquitted the prisoner on it. The trial lasted near five hours. His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence was present the whole time and appeared from his looks and gestures to be particularly interested in favour of the man who was accused of having murdered a slave. End of the trial of Captain John Kimber for the murder of two female Negro slaves on board the recovery African slave ship. Some tortured undergrowth of my adolescence, like high women making me his slave, my mental life at that period was so completely and smoothly veneered with surface insincerity, obviously necessary to me at that time, to support and tack my personal integrity that I cannot tell to this day exactly to what depth he stirred me, just how deeply the footprints of his passage are left in my mind. It seems to me now that I found him nothing but a flexible vessel into which I might put my own vague emotional shapes without breaking them. It was years later that I found in him much more than bright and bitter sound, more than a satisfying tins of blood and death and gold and the inevitable sea. True, I dipped into Shelling and Keats, who doesn't at that age, but they do not move me. I do not think it was assurance so much merely complacence and a youthful morbidity which counteracted them and left me cold. I was not interested in verse for verse's sake, then. I read an employed verse, firstly for the purpose of furthering various philanderings in which I was engaged. Secondly, to complete a youthful gesture I was then making of being different in a small town. Later my concubescence waning I turned inevitably to verse, finding therein an emotional counterpart far more satisfactory for two reasons. One, no partner was required. Two, it was so much simpler just to close a book and take a walk. I do not mean by this I ever found anything sexual in Swinburne. There is no sex in Swinburne. The mathematician surely. And eroticism, just as there is eroticism in form and color and movement, were ever found, but not that tortured sex in, say, D. H. Lawrence. It is a time-honored custom to read Omar to one's mistress as an accompaniment to consummation, a sort of stringed obligato among the size. I found that verse could be employed not only to temporarily blind the spirits of the ungraceful posturings of the flesh, but also to speed onward the whole affair. Ah, woman with their hungry, snatching little souls. With a man it is, quite often, art for art's sake. With a woman it is always art for the artist's sake. Whatever it was that I found in Swinburne, it completely satisfied me and filled my inner life. I cannot understand now how I could have regarded the others with such dull complacency. Surely if one be moved at all by Swinburne, he must inevitably find in Swinburne's forerunners some kinship. Perhaps it is that Swinburne, having taken his heritage and elaborated it to the despair of any would-be poet, has coarsened it to tickle the dullest of pallets as well as the most discriminating, as used water can be drunk by both hogs and gods. Therefore I believe I came as near as possible to approaching poetry with an unprejudiced mind. I was subject to the usual prosolighting of an older person, but the strings were pulled so casually as scarcely to influence my point of view. I had no opinions at that time. The opinions I later formed were all factitious and were discarded. I approached poetry unawed as if to say, now let's see what you have. Having used verse, I would now allow verse to use me if it could. When the coordinated chaos of the war was replaced by the uncoordinated chaos of peace, I took seriously to reading verse. With no background whatever I joined the pack belling loudly after contemporary poets. I could not always tell what it was all about. But this is the stuff I told myself, believing like so many, that if one cried loudly enough to be heard above the din, and so convinced others that one was in the know, one would be automatically accoladed. I joined an emotional B-P-O-B. The beauty, spiritual and physical of the South lies in the fact that God has done so much for it in man so little. I have this for which to thank whatever God's may be. That having fixed my roots in the soil, all contact saving by the printed word with contemporary poets is impossible. That page is closed to me forever. I read Robinson and Frost with pleasure, and Alvington, Conrad Akin's minor music still echoes in my heart. But beyond these that period might have never been. I no longer try to read the others at all. It was the Shropshire Lad which closed the period. I found a paper-bound copy in a bookshop, and when I opened it, I discovered there the secret after which the moderns course howling like currs on a cold trail in a dark wood. Giving off it is true an occasional note clear with beauty, but currs just the same. Here was reason for being born into a fantastic world. Discovering the splendor of fortitude, the beauty of being of the soil like a tree about which fools might howl, in which winds of dissolution and death and despair might strip, leaving it bleak, without bitterness. Beautiful in sadness. From this point the road is obvious. Shakespeare I read, and Spencer and the Elizabethans, and Shelley and Keats. I read thou still unraveished bride of quietness, and found a still water with all strong and potent, quiet with its own strength and satisfying as bread. That beautiful awareness so sure of its own power that it is not necessary to create the illusion of force by frenzy and motion. Take the odes to a nightingale, to a Grecian urn, music to hear, etc. Here is the spiritual beauty which the moderns drive vainly for with trickery, and yet beneath it one knows our entrails, masculinity. Occasionally I see modern verse in magazines. In four years I have found but one cause of interest, a tendency among them to revert to formal rhymes in conventional forms again. Have they too seen the writing on the wall? Can one still hope? Or is this age, this decade impossible for the creation of poetry? Is there nowhere among us a Keats in embryo, someone who will tune his lute to the beauty of the world? Life is not different from what it was when Shelley drove like a swallow southward from the unbearable English winter. Living may be different, but not life. Time changes us, but time self does not change. Here is the same air, the same sunlight in which Shelley dreamed of golden men and women and mortal. In a silver world in which young John Keats wrote indignant, trying to gain enough silver to marry Fanny Braun and set up an apothecary shop. Is not there among us someone who can write something beautiful and passionate and sad, instead of saddening? And A Verse Old and Nation with Pilgrimage by William Faulkner Wild in America, from The True Republican, Sycamore, DeKalb County, Illinois, 24th of April, 1895. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Rob Marland Wild in America The ex-apostle of aestheticism, as he appeared to us. Stories of his experiences while on his tour, caricatured by DeMaurier and satirized by Gilbert. Some account of his plays. Oscar Wilde first achieved notoriety as a prostrate apostle and then as the leader of the then infantile aesthetic craze. He carried his aesthetic peculiarities so far that he became the subject of DeMaurier's caricaturing pencil and Gilbert's satirizing fun. That may have been what he was trying for. Neither the caricaturist nor the satirist diminished the ardour with which Wilde pursued what was vaguely called aestheticism. The bunthorns of patience made up in exact imitation of Wilde and he posed in the lobbies of the same theatres and composed phrases which outdid in lily-like langa the phrases Gilbert had thought to be satires. One of the songs of patience, which seems to contain a more or less pointed allusion to Wilde, runs Then a sentimental passion of a vegetable fashion should excite your languid spleen, an attachment, à la plateau, for a bashful young potato or a not-too-french French bean. Though the Philistines made jostle, he will rank as an apostle in the sentimental band, if you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your medieval hand. And everyone will say, as you walk your mystic way, if he is content with a vegetable love that would certainly not suit me, why, what a most particularly pure young man this pure young man must be. The more limp de Mariette drew his caricature, the limper was Oscar when he confronted the next assemblage. The longer de Mariette made his people's hair, the longer Wilde stayed away from the barbers. Up to that time, fifteen years ago, Wilde had done little else to attract attention to himself. He was known to be the son of exceptionally clever parents and winner of the nudigate at Oxford. But besides cleverly advertising himself and writing a few verses, he had done no clever original work and was not seriously considered. His reputation as lecturer, man of fashion, wit, poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, has been made in most particulars in the last half dozen years, all since his lecturing tour in this country. He came here about twelve years ago, frankly advertised as a freak lecturing on aestheticism. He wore knee-britches, silk hoes, lace cuffs, and was otherwise variously freakish in his dress. At Boston a half-hundred Harvard boys marched into his lecture hall dressed as he was, each carrying a lily. Wilde's noted imperturbability did not desert him. He merely list how tenderly drill, and went on with his lecture. In a western city he was the guest of a club among whose members were a number of stout drinkers. They undertook to tank up the east seat, as they expressed it. The process was long. As the sun was breaking into the club windows, Wilde looked about over a room strewn with falling braves, and said to the one man still able to comprehend speech. We've had a charmingly quiet little evening. Don't you feel like a bit of a run about town before breakfast? But those who met him under normal conditions found Mr Wilde a witty, engaging talker, unusually well informed on a wide range of literary and art subjects, and quite able to care for himself in any mental encounter. The public at large, not knowing this of him, refused to accept him or his cult seriously, and Wilde returned to England richer only in experiences, and a few hundred pounds. He had apologists, not of his class, for his lily-like eccentricities. About three years ago his play, Lady Windermere's Fan, was produced in London and later here, and that at once made him one of the most talked about playwrights living. There was not much seriously objectionable in the sentiments expressed in this play, not to theatre-goers who had become accustomed to divorce-en and its kind, and this did not seem to satisfy Mr Wilde. He wrote Salome, wrote it in French, and arranged with Sarah Bernhardt to produce it in London, but the Lord Chamberlain refused to authorise its production, or to put it the familiar way, prohibited it, and Wilde threatened to go to France to live, which the Marquess of Queensbury expressed a longing for him to do, but he did not. A year and a half ago Mr Wilde managed to contrive, and have ventilated in the Palmal budget, a quarrel with T. P. O'Connor, in which he expressed his opinion of the ordinary journalist, in a manner intended to increase the scope of the quarrel, but it did not. In spite of the harsh things which have been written lately about the moral quality of his later literary work, a recent London critic wrote of him, Mr Oscar Wilde has a very wholesome influence upon contemporary thought, though there are people who think otherwise. It is not that he is original, or even absurd. He is never entirely, either. But he sticks his pen into the somewhat torpid consciousness of the average Englishman, and digs up the clods of truth, which have caked and hardened therein. He turns upside down the proverbial wisdom which most of us regard as eternal verity, and shows us that it looks as well one way as the other.