 CHAPTER 34 DRAKE'S FAMOUS VOYEGE ROUND THE WORLD Call him on the deep sea, call him up the sound, call him when ye sail to meet the foe, where the old dreads flying and the old work flying, they shall find him there and waking, as they found him long ago. Henry Newbilt Drake's famous voyage, as it is known to history, 1577-1580, was indeed famous, for although Magellant's ship had sailed round the world 15 years before. Drake was the first Englishman to do so, and further he discovered for us land to the south of Magellant's strait, round which washed the waters of Atlantic and Pacific oceans, showing that the mysterious land, marked on contemporary maps as Terra Australis, and joined to South America, was a separate land altogether. He also explored the coast of America, as far north as Vancouver Island, and disclosed to England the secret of the Spice Islands. The very name of Drake calls up a vision of thrilling adventure on the high seas. He had been at sea since he was a boy of 15, when he had been apprenticed to the master of a small ship, trading between England and the Netherlands, and many a time he had sailed on the grey North Sea. But the narrow seas were a prison for so large a spirit born for greater undertakings, and in 1577 be find Drake sailing force on board the Judith, in an expedition over to the Spanish settlement in America, under his kinsman, John Hawkins. Having crossed the Atlantic, and filled his ship with Spanish treasure from the Spanish main, and having narrowly escaped death from the hands of the Spaniards, Drake had hurried home to tell of the riches of this new country, still close to all other nations. Two years later, Drake was off again, this time in command himself of two ships with crews of 73 young men, their modest aim being nothing less than to seize one of the Spanish ports and empty into their holds the treasure house of the world. What if this act of reckless daring was unsuccessful? The undertaking was crowned with a higher success than that of riches, for Drake was the first Englishman to seize the waters of the Pacific Ocean. His expedition was not unlike that of Balboa some 60 years before, as with 18 men chosen companions, he climbed the forest clad spurs of the ridge dividing the two great oceans. Arrived on the top, he climbed up a giant tree, on the golden sea of which he had so often heard, the Pacific Ocean of Magellan, the waters washing the golden shores of Mexico and Peru, all lay below him. Descending from the heights, he sank upon his knees and humbly besought almighty God of his goodness, to give him life and leave to sail once in an English ship in that sea. Jealousy had the Spanish guarded this beautiful southern sea, now her secrets were laid there, for an Englishman had gazed upon it, and he was not likely to remain satisfied with this alone. In 1573 Drake came home with his wonderful news, and it was not long before he was eagerly talking over with the queen a project for a raid into this very golden sea, guarded by the Spaniards. Elizabeth promised help on condition that the object of the expedition should remain a secret. Ships were bought for a voyage to Egypt, there was a pelican of one hundred tons, the marigold of thirty tons, and a provision ship of fifty tons. A fine new ship of eighty tons named the Elizabeth, mysteriously added itself to the little fleet, and the cruise numbered in all some one hundred and fifty men. No expense was spared in the equipment of the ships. Musicians were engaged for the voyage, their arms and ammunition were of the latest pattern. The flagship was lavishly furnished, there were silver bulbs and mugs and dishes richly gilt and engraved with the family arms, while the commander's cabin was full of sweet-smelling perfumes, presented by the queen herself. Thus, complete at last, Drake led his gay little squadron out of Plymouth, harbour on 15th November 1577, bound for Alexandria, so the cruise sought. Little did Drake know what was before him, as, dressed in his seamen's shirt, his scarlet cap with its gold band on his head, he waved far well to England. Who could foresee the terrible beginning with treachery and mutiny at work, or the glorious ending when the young Englishman sailed triumphantly home, after his three-year voyage, the world encompassed? Having reached the Cape de Verde Islands in safety, the object of the expedition could no longer remain a secret, and Drake led his squadron boldly across the Atlantic Ocean. On 5th April the coast of Brazil appeared, but fogs and heavy weather scattered the ships, and they had to run into the mouth of the La Plata for shelter. Then for six weary weeks, the ships struggled southward, battered by gales and squalls, during which nothing but the daring seamen ship of the English navigators saved the little vessels from destruction. It was not till 20th June that they reached Fort St. Julian of Magdalene fame, on the desolate shores of Patagonia. As they entered the harbour, a grim sight met their eyes. On that wine-swept shore was the skeleton of the man, hung by Magdalene years before. History was to repeat itself, and the same fate was now to befall an unhappy Englishman, guilty of the same conduct. Drake had long had reasoned to suspect the second incommahend, Doty, though he was his dear friend. He had been guilty of wars than disobedience, and the very success of the voyage was threatened. So Drake called a council together, and Doty was tried according to English law. After two days' trial he was found guilty, and hanged down to die. One of the most touching scenes in the history of exploration now took place. One sees the little English crews far away on the desolate shore, the ships laying at anchor in the harbour, the block prepared, the altar raised beside it, the two old friends, Drake and Doty, kneeling side by side, then the flush of the sword, and Drake holding up the head of his friend with the words, Lo, this is the end of traitors. It was now mid-winter, and for six weeks they remained in harbour till August came, and with three ships they emerged to continue their way to the straits of Magdalene. At last it was found, and boldly they entered. From the towering mountains that guarded the entry, tempests of wind and snow swept down upon the daring intruders. As they made their way through the rough and winding waters, they imagined with all the other geographers of their time that the unknown land to the south was one great continent, leading beyond the boundaries of the world. Fires lit by the natives on the southern coast added terror to the wild sea. But at the end of sixteen days they found themselves once more in the open sea. They were at last on the Pacific Ocean. But it was anything but Pacific. A terrible tempest arose, followed by other storms no less violent, and the ships were driven helplessly southward and westward far beyond Cape Horn. When they once more reached the coast, they found in the place of the great southern continent, an indented wind swept shore, washed by waves terrific in their hate and strength. In the careless gale the merry gold foundered with all hands and was never heard of again. A week later the captain of the Elizabeth turned home, leaving the pelican, now called the Golden Hen, to struggle on alone. After nearly two months of storm, break anchored among the island southward of anything, yet known as geographers, where Atlantic and Pacific rolled together in one boisterous flood. Walking alone to the farthest end of the island, Drake is said to have laid himself down, and with his arms embraced, the southernmost point of the known world. He showed that Tierra del Fuego, instead of being part of a great continent, the Terra Australis, was a group of islands with open sea to east, south and west. This discovery was first shown on the Dutch Silver Medallion, struck in Holland about 1581, known as the Silver Map of the World, and may be seen today in the British Museum. Remarking that the ocean he was now entering would have been better called Mare Furiossum than Mare Pacificum, Drake now directed his course along the western coast of South America. He found the coast of Chile, but not as the general maps had described it, therefore it appears that this part of Chile has not been truly hitherto discovered, remarked one on board the Golden Hen. Breastling with guns, the little English ship sailed along the unknown coast till they reached Valparaiso. Here they found the great Spanish ship laden with treasure from peril. Quickly boarding her, the English sailors bound the Spaniards, stowed them under the hatches, and hastily transferred the cargo onto the Golden Hen. They sailed on northwards to Lima and Panama, chasing the ships of Spain, plundering as they went, though they were deeply laden with stolen Spanish treasure, and knew that they had made it impossible to return home by that coast. So Drake resolved to go on northward and discover, if possible, a way home by the north. He had probably heard of Prophrobishers Strait, and hoped to find a western entrance. As they approached the Arctic regions, the weather grew bitterly cold, and while thick stinking fogs determined them to sail southward. They had reached a point near what we now know Awankover Island, when contrary winds drove them back, and they put in at a harbour, now known as San Francisco, to repair the ship for the great voyage across the Pacific, and home by the Cape of Good Hope. Drake had sailed past 700 miles of new coastline in 12 days, and he now turned to explore the new country, to which he gave the name of New Albion. The Indians soon began to gather in large quantities on the shore, and the king himself, tall and comely, advanced in a friendly manner. Indeed, he took off his crown and set it on the head of Drake, and hanging chains about his neck. The Indians made him understand that the land was now his, and that they were his vessels. Little did King Drake dream, as he named his country New Albion, that Californian gold was so near. His subjects were loving and peaceable, evidently, regarding the English as gods, and reverencing them as such. The chronicle is eloquent in his detailed description of all the royal doings. Before we left, he says, our general caused to be set up a monument of our being there, as also of Her Majesty's right and title to that kingdom, namely, a plate of brass fast nailed a great and firm post, whereon is engraved her grace's name, and the day of year of our arrival here, and of the free giving up of the province, both by the people and king, into Her Majesty's hands, together with her highness' picture, and arms in a piece of his sixpence, current money. The Spanish never so much as said food in this country, the utmost of their discoveries reaching, only to many degrees southward of this place. And now, as the time of our departure was perceived by the people, so did the serrows and miseries seem to increase upon them. Not only did they lose on a sudden old mirth, joy, glad countenance, pleasant speeches, agility of body, but with signs and sorrowings, with heavy hearts and grieved minds, they poured out woeful complaints and moans, with bitter tears and wringing of their hands, tormenting themselves. And as men refusing all comfort, they only accounted themselves as those whom the gods were about to forsake. Indeed, the poor Indians looked on these Englishmen as gods, and when the day came for them to leave, they ran to the top of the hills to keep the little ship inside as long as possible, after which they burned fires and made sacrifices at their departure. Drake left New Albion on 23 July 1579 to follow the lead of Magellan and to pass home by the southern seas and the Atlantic Ocean. After sixty-eight days of quick and straight sailing, with no sight of land, they fell in with the Philippine islands, and on 3 November with the famous Spice Islands. Here they were well received by the king, a magnificent person attired in clothes of gold, with bare legs and shoes of cordova skins, rings of gold in his hair, and the chain of perfect gold about his neck. The Englishmen were glad enough to get fresh food after their long crossing, and ferret sumptuously on rice, hens, imperfect in liquid sugar, sugar canes, and the fruit, they called Figo, with plenty of clothes. On the little island near Celebes, the golden hind was thoroughly repaired for her long voyage home. But the little treasure-laden ship was nearly wrecked before she got away from the dangerous shoals and currents of these islands. Upon the 9th of January, we ran suddenly upon a rock where we stuck fast from eight o'clock at night, till four o'clock in the afternoon the next day, being indeed out of all hope to escape the danger. But our general, as he had always hitherto showed himself courageous, some now he and we, did our best endeavors to save ourselves, which it pleased God so to bless, that in the end we cleared ourselves most happily of the danger. Then they ran across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope in calm weather, abusing the Portuguese for calling it the most dangerous cape in the world, for intolerable storms. For this cape, said the English, is the most stately thing and the finest cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth. And so they came home. After nearly three years' absence, Drake triumphantly sailed his little golden hind into Plymouth's harbour, where he had long ago been given up as lost. Shouts of applause rang through the land at the news that an Englishman had circumnavigated the world. The queen sent for Drake to tell his wonderful story, to which she listened spellbound. A great banquette was held on board the little ship, at which Elizabeth was present and knighted Drake, while she ordered that the golden hind should be preserved as a worthy rival of Magdalene's Victoria, and as a monument to all posterity of that famous and worthy exploit of Sir Francis Drake. It was afterwards taken to pieces, and the best parts of wood were made into a chair at Oxford, commemorated by Covley's lines. To this great ship, which round the world has run, and matched in race the chariot of the sun, Drake and his ship could never have wished for fate. A happier station or more blessed estate. Below, a seat of endless rest is given, to her in Oxford and to him in heaven. Sir Francis Drake died at sea in 1596. The waves became his winding sheet, the waters were his tomb, but for his fame the ocean sea was not sufficient room. End of Chapter 34 But even while Drake was sailing round the world, and Throbisher's search for a northwest passage had been diverted into a quest for gold, men's minds were still bent on the achievement of reaching Cassie by some northern root. A discourse by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, to prove the existence of a passage by the northwest to Cassie and the East Indies, in ten chapters, was much discussed, and the Elizabethan semen were still bent on its discovery. When I gave myself to the study of geography, said Sir Humphrey, and came to the fourth part of the world, commonly called America, which by all descriptions I found to be an island, environed brown by sea, having on the south side of it the Strait of Magellan, on the west side the sea of the south, which sea ran as towards the north, separating in from the east part of Asia, and on the north side the sea that severed it from Greenland, through which northern seas the passage lies, which I take now in hand to discover. The arguments of Sir Humphrey seemed conclusive, and in 1585 they chose John Davis, a man well grounded in the principles of the art of navigation, to search for the northwest passage to China. They gave him two little ships, the sunshine of 50 tons, with a crew of 17 semen, four musicians and a boy, and the moonshine of 35 tons. It was a daring venture, but the expedition was ill-equipped to battle with the icebound seas of the frozen north. The ships left Darthmos of 7th June, and by July they were well out on the Atlantic, with porpoises and whales playing around them. Then came a time of fog and mist, with a mighty great roaring of the sea. On 20th July they sailed out of the fog, and beheld the snow-covered mountains of Greenland, beyond the wide stream of pack-eyes, so gloomy, so waste and void of any creatures, so bleak and inhospitable, that the Englishman named it the land of desolation, and passed on to the north. Rounding the point, after rights-named by Davis Cape Farewell, and sailing by the western coast of Greenland, they hoped to find the passage to Kassi. Landing amidst the fjords and the green and pleasant aisles about the coast, they anchored a while to refresh, and named their bay Jobbert Sound, after Sir Humphrey and Davis' own little boy, Jobbert, left at home. The people of the country, Sir Davis, having aspired our ships, came down unto us in their canoes, holding up their right hand towards the sun. We doings alike, the people came aboard our ships, men of good stature, unbearded, small-eyed, and of tractable conditions. We bowed the clothes from their backs, which were all made of seal-skins and bird-skins, their booskins, their hoes, their gloves, all being commonly suit and well-dressed. These simple Greenlanders who worshipped the sun gave Davis to understand that there was a great and open sea to the northwest, and full of hope he sailed on. But he soon abandoned the search, for the season was advancing, and crossing the open sea he entered the broad channel, named after him Davis Strait, crossed the arctic circle, and anchored under a promontory. The cliffs were of their orient as gold, naming it Mount Raleigh. Here they found four white bears, of a monstrous bigness, which they took to be goats or wolves, till on nearer aquine tents they were discovered to be great polar bears. There were no signs of human life, no wood, no grass, no earth, nothing but rock, so they coasted southward, and to their joy they found an open strait to the west free from ice. Eagerly they sailed the little moonshine and sunshine on the opening, which they called Cumberland Sound, till thick fogs and adverse winds drove them back. Winter was now advancing, the six months provisions were ended, and satisfied with having found an open passage westward, Davis sailed home in triumph, to fit out another expedition as soon as spring came round. His news was received with delight. The northwest passage is a matter of nothing doubtful, he affirmed, but at any time almost to be passed, the sea navigable void of ice, the air tolerable, and the waters very deep. With this certainty of success, the merchants readily fitted out another expedition, and Davis sailed early in May 1586, with four ships. The little moonshine and sunshine were included in the new fleet, but Davis himself commanded the mermaid of one hundred and twenty tons. The middle of June found him on the west coast of Greenland, battling his way with great blocks of ice to his old quarters at Gilbert Sound. What a warm welcome they received from their old Eskimo friends. They rode to the boat and took hold on the oars and hang about, with such comfortable joy as would require a long discourse to be uttered. Followed by a wandering crowd of natives eager to help him up and down the rocks, Davis made his way inland to find an inviting country, with earth and grass, such as our mooring and waste grounds of England are. He found two mosses and wildflowers in the sheltered places. But his business lay in the icy waters, and he boldly pushed forward. But ice and snow and fog made further progress impossible. Shrouds, ropes and sails were turned into frozen mass, and the crew was filled with despair. Our men began to crew sick and feeble and hopeless of good success, and they advised me that in conscience I ought to regard the safety of mine own life with the preservation of theirs, and that I should not droop, my over baldness leaves our widows and fatherless children to give me bitter curses. So Davis rearranged his crews and provisions, and with the moonshine and the selection of his best men, he determined to voyage on as God should direct him, while the mermaid should carry the sick and feeble and find heart at home. Davis then crossed over the strait, called by his name, and explored the coast about Cumberland's sound. Again he tried her to discover the long-sought passage, but the brief summer season was almost past, and he had to contend himself with exploring the shores of Labrador, unconsciously following the track made by John Cabot eighty-nine years before. But on his return home the merchants of London were disappointed. Davis had indeed explored an immense extent of coastline, and he had brought back a cargo of codfish and five hundred seal skins, but Cassie steamed as far off as ever. When merchant Prince Sunderson, by name, was still very keen, and he helped Davis to fit out yet another expedition. With three ships, the Sunshine, the Elizabeth, and the Helen, the Undaunted Arctic Explorer, now found himself for the third summer in succession at his old halting place, Jupiter's Sound, on the west coast of Greenland. Leaving his somewhat discontented cruise to go fishing off the coast of Labrador, he took the little twenty-tonne pinnace with a small party of brave spirits like his own, and made his way northwards in a free and open sea. The weather was hot, land was visible on both sides, and the English mariners were under the impression that they were sailing up a gulf. But the passage grew wider and wider, till Davis found himself with the sea all open to the west and north. He had crossed the Arctic Circle and reached the most northerly point ever yet reached by an explorer. Seeing on his right a lofty cliff, he named it Sunderson his hope, for it seemed to give hope of the long-sought passage to Cassie. It was a memorable day in the annals of discovery, 13th June 1587, when Davis reached this famous point on the coast of Greenland. A bright blue sea extended to the horizon on the north and west, obstructed by no ice, but here and there a few majestic icebergs with big snowy shooting up into the sky. To the eastward were the granite mountains of Greenland, and beyond them the white line of the mightiest glacier in the world, rising immediately above the tiny vessel was the beatling wall of Hope Sunderson, with its summit 850 feet above sea level. At its base the sea was a sheet of foam and spray. It must have been a scene like Fairyland, for, as Davis remarked, there was no ice towards the north, but the great sea, free, large, very salt and blue, and of an unsearchable depth. But again disappointment awaited him. That night a wind from the north barred further advance as a mighty bank of ice, some eight feet thick, came drifting down towards the Atlantic. Again and again he attempted to get on, but it was impossible, and reluctantly enough he turned the little ship southwards. This Davis has been three times employed. Why has he not found the passage said the folk at home, when he returned and reported his doings? How little they realized the difficulties of the way. The commander of the 20-ton Ellen had done more than any man had done before him in the way of Arctic exploration. He had discovered 732 miles of coast from Cape Farwell to Sunderson's Hope. He had examined the whole coast of Labrador. He had converted the Arctic regions from a confused myth into a defined area. He lighted Bethan into his bay. He lighted Hudson into his strait. He lighted Hans Ejid to the scene of his Greenland labor. And more than this says his enthusiastic biographer. His true hearted devotion to the cause of Arctic discovery, his patient's scientific research, his loyalty to his employers, his doubtless gallantry and enthusiasm form an example, which will be a beacon light to merit him explorers for all time to come. And Davis three times forth for the northwest Maine, still striving by that course trend-rich the English trade. And as he well deserved to his eternal fame, there by a mighty sea immortalized his name. Or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A book of discovery by M. B. Sing, Chapter 36, Barron's Sales to Spitzbergen. With the third failure of John Davis to find the northwest passage, the English search for Cathy came to an end for the present. But the merchants of Amsterdam took up the search and in 1594 they fitted out an expedition under William Barron's, a burger of Amsterdam and a practical seaman of much experience. The three voyages of Barron's form some of the most romantic reading in the history of geographical discovery. And the preface to the old book, compiled for the Dutch after the death of Barron's, sums up in Pasetic language the tragic story of the three voyages, so strange and wonderful, that the like has never been heard of before. They were done and performed three years, says the old preface, one after the other by the ships of Holland, on the north sides of Norway, Moscow and Tartary, towards the kingdoms of Cathy and China, showing discoveries of the country lying under 80 degrees, which is so to be Greenland, where never any man had been before, with the cruel beers and other monsters of the sea, and the unsupportable and extreme cold that is found to be in these places. And how that in the last voyage the ship was enclosed by the ice, that it was left there, whereby the men were forced to build a house in the cold, and desert country of Nova Zemla, wherein they continued ten months together and never saw nor heard of any man, in most great cold and extreme misery, and have after that, to save their lives, they were constrained to sail about one thousand miles in little open boats, along and over the main seas in most great danger, and with extreme labour and speakable troubles and great hunger. Surely no more graphic summary of disaster has ever appeared than these words penned three hundred and fourteen years ago, which cry to us down the long intervening ages of privation and suffering endured in the cause of science. In the year 1594 then, four ships were sent forth from Amsterdam, with orders to the wise and skillful pilot, William Varends, that he was to sail into the North Seas and discover the kingdoms of Cathy and China. In the months of July, the Dutch pilot found himself off the South Coast of Nova Zemla, whence he sailed as the wind pleased to take him, ever making for the North and hugging the coast as close as possible. On 9th July they found a creek, very far North, to which they gave the name of Bear Creek, because here they suddenly discovered their first polar bear. To which they gave the name of Bear Creek, because here they suddenly discovered their first polar bear. It tried to get into their boat, so they shot it with a musket, but the bear showed most wonderful strength, for notwithstanding that she was shot into the body, yet she leapt up and swam in the water. The men that were in the boat rowing after her cast a rope about her neck and drew her at the stern of the boat, for not having seen the like bear before, they sought to have carried her alive in the ship, and to have showed her for a strange wonder in Holland, but she used such force that they were glad they were rid of her, and contended themselves with her skin only. This they brought back to Amsterdam in great triumph, their first white polar bear. But they went farther North than this, until they came to a plain field of ice, and encountered very misty weather. Still they kept sailing on, as best they might, round about the ice, till they found the land of Nova Zemblje, which was covered with snow. From ice point they made their way to islands, which they named Orange Islands, after the Dutch Prince. Here they found 200 walrus, or seahorses, lying on the shore and basking in the sun. The seahorse is a wonderful, strong monster of the sea. They brought back word, much bigger than an ox, having a skin like a seal, with very short hair, mouth like a lion. It has four feet, but no ears. The little party of Dutchmen advanced boldly with hatchets and pikes to kill a few of these monsters to take home, but it was harder work than they thought. The wind suddenly rose, too, and ran the ice into great pieces, so they had to contend themselves by getting a few of their avarities, which they reported to be half-and-a-long. With these on other treasures, Berends was no force to return from these high latitudes, and he sailed safely into the Texel after three-and-a-half months' absence. His reports of Nova Zemblje encouraged the merchants of Amsterdam to persevere in their search for the kingdoms of Cassie and China by the northeast, and the second expedition was fitted out under Berends the following year. But it started too late to accomplish much, and he must turn to the third expedition, for the discovery which has forever made famous the name of William Berends. It was yet early in the May of 1596 when he sailed from Amsterdam with two ships for the third and last time, bound once more for the frozen northern seas. By first of June he had reached a region where there was no night, and a few days later a strange sight startled the whole crew. For on each side of the sun there was another sun and two rainbows more, the one compassing round about the suns, and the other right through the great circle, and they found they were under seventy-one degrees of the height of the pole. Sighting the northscape of Lapland, they hailed on the north-westerly course, till on 9th June they came upon a little island which they named Bear Island. Here they nearly met their end, for having ascended a steep snow mountain on the island to look around them, they found it too slippery to descend. We thought we should all have broken our necks, it was so slippery, but we set up on the snow and slid down, which was very dangerous for us, and break both our arms and legs for that at the foot of the hill there were many rocks. Barnes himself seems to have sat in the boat and watched them with intense anxiety. They were once more amid ice and polar bears. In hazy weather they made their way north, till on the 19th they saw land, and the land was very great. They thought it was Greenland, but it was really Spitsbergen, of which he was thus the discoverer. Many things astonished the navigators here. Although they were in such high latitudes, they saw grass and leafy trees and such animals as bugs and hearts, while several decreased to the south, their growth neither leaves nor grass, nor any beasts that eat grass or leaves, but only such beasts as eat flesh, as bears and foxes. By first July he had explored the western shore and the sailing south to Bear Island. He never landed on the coast of Spitsbergen, so we have no further account of this Arctic discovery. Sailing across to wide northern sea, now known as Barnes Sea, he made land again in the north of Nova Zemlya, and hugging the western shore came to Ice Point. Here they were sorely harassed by polar bears and floating ice and bitter gales of wind. Still they coasted on till they had rounded the northern end of Nova Zemlya, and unexpectedly sailed into a good harbor where they could anchor. The wind now blew with a doubled vigor, the ice came mightily driving in, until the little ship was nearly surrounded, and with all the wind began more and more to rise, and the ice still draped harder and harder, so that our boat was broken in pieces between the ship and the ice, and it seemed as if the ship would be crushed in pieces too. As the august days passed on, they tried to get out of their prison, but it was impossible, and there was nothing for it but to winter, in great cold, poverty, misery and grief, in this bleak and barren spot. The successful pilot was to explore no more, but the rest of the tragic tale must be shortly told. With the ice heeping high, as the salt hills there are in Spain, and the ship in danger of going to pieces, they collected trees and roots driven onto the desolate shores from Tartary, whereas as if God had purposely sent them unto us, we were much comforted. Through the September days they drew wood across the ice and snow to build a house for the winter. Only sixteen men could work, and they were none too strong and well. Throughout October and November they were snowed up in the winter hut, with full stormy weather outside. The wind blowing ceaselessly out of the north and snow lying deep around. They trapped a few foxes from day to day to eat, making warm caps out of their fur. They heated stones and took them into their cabin beds, but their sheets froze as they washed them, and at last their clock froze too. They looked pitifully upon one another, being in great fear, that if the extremity of the cold grew to be more and more, we should all die there with the cold. Christmas came and went, and they comforted one another by remembering that the sun was as low as it could go, and that it must begin to come to them again. But as the day lengthens, so the cold strengthens, and the snow now lay deeper until it covered the roof of their house. The new year found them still in prison with great cold, danger and disease. January, February, March, April, fast, and still the little ship was stuck fast in the ice. But as the sun began to gain power, hope revived, and they began to repair their boats to make new sails and repair tackle. They were too weak and ill to do much work, but by the middle of June the boats were fairly ready, and they could cut away through the ice to the open sea. This was their only hope of escape, to leave the ship behind and embark in two little open boats for the open sea. Then William Barons wrote a letter, which he put into a musket's charge and hanged it up in the chimney, showing how we came out of Holland to sail to the Kingdom of China, and how we had been forced in our extremity to make that house, and had dwelt ten months therein, and how we were forced to put to sea in two small open birds, for that the ship lay fast in the ice. Barons himself was now too ill to walk, so they carried him to one of the little birds, and on 14th June 1597 the little party put off from their winter quarters and sailed round to Ice Point. But the pilot was dying. Are we about Ice Point? he asked feebly. If we be, then I pray you lift me up, for I must view it once again. Then suddenly the wind began to rise, driving the ice so fast upon them, that it made our hair stand upright upon our heads. It was so fearful to behold, so that they thought verily that it was a foreshadowing of our last end. They drew the boats up onto the ice, and lifted the sick commander out, and laid him on the icy ground, where a few days later he died. Our chief guide, and only pilot on whom we reposed, ourselves, next under God. The rest of the story is soon told. On 1st November 1597 some twelf, gound, and haggard man, still wearing caps of white fox and coats of bearskin, having guided their little open boats, all the way from Nova Zemlia, arrived at Amsterdam, and told the story of their exploration to the astonished merchants, who had long since given them up as dead. It was not till 1871 that Barren's old winter quarters on Nova Zemlia were discovered. There stood the cooking pans over the fireplace, the odd clocks against the wall, the arms, the tools, the drinking vessels, the instruments and the books, that had beguiled the weary hours of that long night, 278 years ago. Among the relics were a pair of small shoes, and a flute, which had belonged to a little cabin boy, who had died during the winter. End of Chapter 36 Chapter 37 of A Book of Discovery This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Book of Discovery by M. B. Singh, Chapter 37. Hudson Finds His Bay Henry Hudson was another victim to perish in the hopeless search for a passage to China by the North. John Davis had been dead two years, but not till after he had piloted the first expedition undertaken by the newly formed East India Company for commerce with India and the East. It was no more important than ever to find a short way to these countries, other than rounds by the Cape of Good Hope. So Henry Hudson was employed by the Muscovy Company to discover a shorter route to Cathay by sailing over the North Pole. He knew the hardships of the way. He must have realized the fate of Willoughby, the failure of Robesher, the sufferings of Barons and his men, the difficulties of Davis. Indeed, it is more than probable that he had listened to Davis speaking on the subject of Arctic exploration to the merchants of London at his uncle's house at Mort Lake. Never did men start on a bolder or more perilous enterprise than did this man, when he started for the North Pole in a little boat of eighty tons, with his little son Jack, two mates and a crew of eight men. Led by Hudson, with the fire of a great face in his eyes, the men solemnly marched to St. Etelburger Church of Bishop's Gate Street, London to partake of Holy Communion and ask God's aid. Back to the muddy waterfront, opposite the tower, a hurdy God's speed from the gentlemen of the Muscovy Company pompous in self-importance and lace ruffles, and the little crew steps into a clumsy riverboat with brick-red sails. After a six-week stumble over a waste of waters, Hudson arrived over the coast of Greenland, the decks of little Hopewell coated with ice, her rigging and sails hard as boards, and a northeast gale of wind and snow against her. A barrier of ice forbade further advance, but sailing along the edge of this barrier, the first navigator to do so, he made for the coast of Spitzbergen, already roughly charted by Barrens. Taking up the west coast by the north, Hudson now explored further the fjords, islands and harbours, naming some of them, notably Whale Bay and Hucklute Headland, which may be seen on our maps of today. By a certain July he had reached his farthest north, farther than any explorer had been before him, farther than any to be reached again for over one hundred and fifty years. It was a land of vorus, seal and polar bear, but as usual ice shut off all further attempts to penetrate the mysteries of the pole, thick fog hung around the little ship, and with a fair wind Hudson turned southward. It pleased God to give us a gale and away we steered, says the old ship log. Hudson would feign have steered Greenland way, and had another try for the north, but his men wanted to go home and hope them they went, through slubby weather. But the voice of the north was still calling Hudson, and he persuaded the Muscovy company to let him go off again. This he did in the following year. Only three of his former crew volunteered for service, and one of these was his son, but this expedition was devoid of result. The ICCs about Nova Zemda gave no hope of a passage in this direction, and being void of hope, the winds stormy and against us, much ice driving, we wade and sent sail westward. Hudson's voyages for the Muscovy Company had already come under the notice of the Dutch, who were wying with the English for the discovery of this short route to the east. Hudson was now invited to undertake an expedition for the Dutch East India Company, and he sailed from Amsterdam in the early spring of 1809, in a Dutch ship called the Half Moon, with a mixed crew of Dutch and English, including once more his own son. Summer found the enthusiastic explorer of the coast of Newfoundland, where some cod fishing refreshed the cruise before they sailed on south, partly seeking an opening to the west, partly looking for the colony of Virginia, and their Hudson's friend Captain John Smith. In hot, misty weather, they cruised along the coast. They passed what is now Massachusetts, an Indian country of great hills, a very sweet land. On 7th August, Hudson was near the modern town of New York, so long known as New Amsterdam. But Smith hid the low-lying hills and the Half Moon drifted on to James River, then driven back by a heat hurricane. He made for the inlet on the old charts, which might lead yet east. It was 2nd September, when he came to the great mouth of the river, that now bears his name. He had been beating about all day in Gales and Fox. When the sun arose, and we saw the land all like broken islands. From the land which we had first sight of, we came to a large lake of water, like drowned land, which made it rise like islands. The mouth has many shores, and the sea brackets on them. This is a very good land to fall in with, and a pleasant land to see. At three o'clock in the afternoon, we came to three great rivers. We found a very good harbor, and went in with our ship. Then we took our nets to fish, and caught ten great mullets of a foot, and a half long each, and a ray as great as four men could haul into the ship. The people of the country came aboard of us, seeming very glad of our coming, and brought green tobacco. They go in deer skins, well dressed. They desire clothes, and are very civil. They have great store of maize, whereof they make good bread. The country is full of great and tall oaks. To this he adds that the women had red copper tobacco pipes, many of them being dressed in mantles of feathers, or furs, but the natives proved treacherous. Sailing up the river, Hudson found it a mile broad, with high land of both sides. By the night of 19th September the little half-moon had reached the spot where the river widens near the modern town of Albany. She had sailed for the first time the distance covered today by magnificent steamers, which ply daily between Albany and New York City. Hudson now went ashore with an old chief of the country. Two men were dispatched in quest of game, saw records Hudson's manuscript, who brought in a pair of pigeons. They likewise killed a fat dog, and skinned it with great haste with shells. The land is the finest for cultivation, that ever I in my life set foot upon. Hudson had not found a way to China, but he had found the great and important river that now bears his name. Yet he was to do greater things than these, and to lose his life in the doing. The following year, 1610, found him once more bound for the north, continuing the endless search for a north-west passage, this time for the English and not for the Dutch. On board the little discovery of fifty-five tons, with his young son Jack, still his faithful companion, was a treacherous old man as a mate, who had accompanied him before, with a good-for-nothing young spin-thrift. Taken at the last moment, because he wrote a good hand, and a mixed crew, Hudson crossed the wide Atlantic for the last time. He sailed by way of Iceland, their fresh fish and dainty fowl, batteries, curly plower, teal and goose, much refreshed, the already discontented crews, and the hot baths of Iceland delighted them. The man wanted to return to the pleasant land, discovered in the last expedition, but the mysteries of the frozen north still called the old explorer, and he steered for Greenland. He was soon battling with ice upon the southern end of desolation, once he crossed the snowy shores of Labrador, sailing into the great straits that bear his name today. For three months he sailed aimlessly about that labyrinth without end, as it was called by Abercook Brickett, who wrote the account of this force and last voyage of Henry Hudson. But they could find no opening to the west, no way of escape. Winter was coming on, the nights were long and cold, and the earth was covered with snow. There were several hundred miles south of the straits, and no way had been found to the Pacific. They had followed the south shore to the westernmost bay of all, James Bay, but lo, there was no south sea. Hudson recognized the fact that he was land bound and winter bound in a desolate region with a discontented crew, and that the discontent was amounting to mutiny. On first of November they hauled up the ship and selected a wintering place. Ten days later they were frozen in, and snow was falling continuously every day. We were ritualed for six months, and of that which was good runs the record. For the first three months they shot partridges as white as milk, but these left with the advent of spring, and hunger ceased on the handful of Englishmen wintering in this unknown land. Then we went into the woods, hills and volleys, and the moss and the frog were not spared. Not till the month of May did the ice begin to melt, and the men could fish. The first days this was possible they caught five hundred fish, as big as good herrings and some trout, which revived their hopes and their health. Hudson made a last despairing effort to find a westward passage, but now the men rose in mutiny. We would rather be hanged at home than starved abroad, they cried miserably. So Hudson fitted all things for his return, and first delivered all the bread out of the bread room, which came to a pound apiece for every man's share, and he wept when he gave it unto them. It was barely sufficient for fourteen days, and even with the forescore small fish they had caught, it was a poor relief for so many hungry bellies. With a fair wind in the months of June the little discovery was headed for home. A few days later she was stopped by ice. Mutiny now burst forth. The master and his men had lost confidence in each other. Their paraffians on board rendered almost wild by hunger and privation. There is nothing more tragic in the history of exploration than the desertion of Henry Hudson and his boy in their newly discovered bay. Every detail of the conspiracy is given by Prickett. We know how the rumor spread, how the crew resolved to turn the master and the sick men adrift, and to share the remaining provisions among themselves. And how in the early morning Hudson was seized, and his arms bound behind him. What does this mean, he cried. You will know soon enough when you are in the shallot, they replied. The boat was lowered and into it Hudson was put with his son, while the poor, sick and lame men were called upon to get them out of their cabins into the shallot. Then the mutineers lowered some powder and shot, some pikes and iron pot, and some meal into her. And the little boat was soon adrift with her living threat of suffering starving men. Adrift in that ice-bound sea. Far from home and friends no human help. At the last moment the carpenter sprang into the drifting boat, resolved to die with the captain sooner than to desert him. Then the discovery flew away with all sail up as from an enemy. And the master perished, how and when we knew not. Fortunately the mutineers took home Hudson's journals and charts. Ships were sent out to search for the lost explorer, but the silence has never been broken since that summer's day three hundred years ago, when he was deserted in the waters of his own bay. End of Chapter 37 Chapter 38 of a Book of Discovery This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Book of Discovery by M. B. Singh, Chapter 38. Buffin finds his bay. Two years only after the tragedy of Henry Hudson, another Arctic explorer appears upon the scene. William Buffin was already an experienced seaman in the prime of life. He had made four voyages to the icy North, when he was called on by the new Company of Merchants of London, discoverers of the Northwest Passage, formed in 1612, to prepare for another voyage of discovery. Distressed beyond measure at the desertion of Henry Hudson, the Muscovy Company had dispatched Sir Thomas Button with our old friend, Abba Cook-Prikad, to show him the way. Button had reached the western side of Hudson's Bay, and after wintering there, returned fully convinced that a northwest passage existed in this direction. Buffin returned from an expedition to Greenland the same year. The fjords and islets of West Greenland, the ice floes and glaciers of Spitzbergen, the tidal phenomena of Hudson's Strait, and the geographical secrets of the far northern bay were all familiar to him. He was therefore chosen as mate and associate to Bylot, one of the men who had deserted Hudson, but who had sailed three times with him previously and knew well the western seas. So in the good ship, called the Discovery, of 55 tons, with a crew of 14 men and two boys, William Buffin sailed for the northern seas. May found the expedition on the coast of Greenland, with a gale of wind and great islands of ice. However, Buffin crossed Davis Strait, and after a struggle with ice at the entrance to Hudson's Strait, he sailed along the northern side till he reached a group of islands which he named Savage Islands. For here were Eskimos again, very shy and fearful of the white strangers. And momos or tents, relates Buffin, all covered with seal skins, were running up and down about 40 dogs, most of them muzzled, about the bigness of our mongrel mustaves, being a brindled black color, looking almost like wolves. These dogs they used instead of horses, or rather as the laps do their deer, to draw their sledges from place to place over the ice. There are sledges being shot or lined with bones of great fishes, to keep them from veering out, and the dogs have furniture and colors very fitting. The explorers went on bravely till they were stopped by masses of ice. They thought they must be at the mouth of a large bay, and seeing no prospect of a passage to the west, they turned back. When two hundred years later, Perry sailed in Buffin's track, he named this place Buffinland, out of respect to the memory of that able and enterprising navigator. The discovery arrived in Plymouth Sound by September, without the loss of one man, a great achievement in these days of salt junk and scurvy. And now it may be, adds Buffin, that some expect I should give my opinion concerning the passage. To these my answer must be that, doubtless there is a passage, but within this strait, which is called Hudson's strait, I am doubtful, supposing to the contrary. Buffin further suggested, that if there was a passage, it must now be sought by Davis strait. Accordingly, another expedition was fitted out, and Buffin had his instructions. For your course you must make all possible haste to Cape Desolation, and from Henshew William Buffin, a pilot, keep along the coast of Greenland and up Davis strait, until you come towards the height of 80 degrees, if the land will give you leave. Then shape your course west and thotherly, so far as you shall think it convenient, till you come to the latitude of 60 degrees. Then direct your course to fall in with the land of Yetzo, leaving your first sailing southward, to your own discretion. Although our desires be, if your voyage proves so prosperous, that you may have the year before you, that you go far south, as that you may touch the north part of Japan, from whence we would have you bring home one of the men of the country, and so, God blessing you, with all expedition to make your return home again. The discovery had proved a good little ship for exploration, so she was again selected by Buffin, for this new attempt in the far north. Upon 26th March 1616, he sailed from Gravesend, arriving off the coast of Greenland in the neighborhood of Jupiter Sound, about the middle of May. Working against terrible winds, they applied to the northward, the old ship making but slow progress, till at last they sighted Sanderson his hope, the farthest point of Master Davis. Once more English voices broke the silence of thirty years. The people who appeared on the shore were wretchedly poor, they lived on seals' flesh, which they ate raw, and clothed themselves in the skins. Still northward they sailed, cruising along the western coast. Though the ice was beginning to disappear, the weather kept bitterly cold, and on Midsummer Day the sails and ropes were frozen too hard to be handled. Stormy weather now forced them into a sound, which they named Whale Sound, from the number of whales they discovered here. It was declared by Buffin to be the greatest and largest bay in these parts. But beyond this they could not go, so they sailed across the end of what we now know as Buffins Bay, and explored the opposite coast of America, naming one of the greater openings Lancaster Sound, after Sir James Lancaster of East India Company fame. Here, says Buffin pitifully, our hope of passage began to grow less every day. It was the old story of ice, advancing season and hasty conclusions. There is no hope of passage to the north of Davis Straits, the explorer further asserts, but he asserts wrongly, for Lancaster Sound was to prove an open channel to the west. So he returned home. He had not found the passage, but he had discovered the great northern sea, that now bears his name. The size of it was for long plunged in obscurity, and the wildest ideas centered around the extent of this northern sea. A map of 1706 gives it an indefinite amount of space, adding vaguely. Some will have Buffins Bay to run as far as this faint shadow. While a map of 1818 marks the bay, but adds that it is not now believed. For the next 200 years, the icebound regions of the north were practically left free from invasion, silent, inhospitable, unapproachable. But while these arctic explorers were busy battling with the northern seas to find a passage, which should lead them to the wealth of the east, others were exploring the new world and endeavouring by land and river to attain the same end. Chapter 39 LibriVox.org A Book of Discovery by M.B. Singh Chapter 39 Sir Walter Raleigh Searches for Eldorado It is pleasant to turn from the icy regions of North America to the sunny south, and to follow the fortunes of that fine Elizabethan gentleman Sir Walter Raleigh to the large, rich and beautiful empire of Guyana and the great and golden city of Manawa, which the Spaniards call Eldorado. Even since the conquest of Peru 60 years before, they had floated about rumours of a great kingdom abounding in gold. The king of this golden land was sprinkled daily with gold dust till he shone as the sun, while Manoa was full of golden houses and golden temples with golden furniture. The kingdom was wealthier than Peru, it was richer than Mexico. Expedition after expedition had left Spain in search of this Eldorado, but the region was still plunged in romantic mists. Raleigh had just failed to establish an English colony in Virginia. To gain a rich kingdom for his queen, to extend her power and to enrich her treasury, was now his greatest object in life. What about Eldorado? Oh, and varied feet, traveling you know not wither. Soon, soon it seems to you, you must come forth, on some conspicuous hilltop, and but a little way further, against the setting sun, to cry the spires of Eldorado. February 1595 found him ready and leaving England with five ships, and after a good passage of 46 days, landing on the island of Trinidad, and thence making his way to the mouth of the Orinoco. Here Raleigh soon found that it was impossible to enter the Orinoco with his English ships. But nothing doubted, he took a hundred men and provisions for a month, in three little open boats, and started forward to navigate this most difficult labyrinth of channels, out of which they were guided by an old Indian pilot named Ferdinando. They had much to observe, the natives living along the river banks, and built in houses all the summer, but in the winter months they constructed small huts, to which they ascended by means of ladders. These folk were cannibals, but cannibals of a refined sort, who beat the bones of their lords into powder, and mixed the powder with their drinks. The stream was very strong and rapid, and the men rode against it in great discomfort, the weather being extreme hot, the river bordered with very high trees that kept away the air, and the current against us every day stronger than the other, until they became, as Raleigh tells us, wearied and scorched and doubtful. The heat increased as they advanced, and the crews grew weaker as the river ran more violently against them. But Raleigh refused to return yet, lest the world would love us to scorn. Fortunately, delicious fruits hung over the banks of the Orinoco, and having no bread and for water only the sick and troubled water of the river, they refreshed themselves gladly. So they rode on up the great river, through province after province of the Indians, but no Eldorado appeared. Suddenly the scene changed as if by magic, the high banks giving way to low-lying plains, green grass glued close to the water's edge, and deer came down to feed. I never saw a more beautiful country, says Raleigh, nor more lively prospects, hills raised here and there over the valleys, the river winding into different branches, plains without bush or stubble, all bare green grass, deer crossing our path, the birds towards evening singing on every tree with a thousand several tunes, herons of bite, crimson and carnation, perching on the riverside, the air fresh with a gentle wind, and every stone we stooped to pick up, promised either gold or silver. His account of the great cataract at the junction of the tributary Caroni is very graphic. They had already heard the roar, so they ran to the tops of some neighboring hills, discovering the wonderful breach of waters, which ran down Caroni, and from that mountain sees the river, how it ran in three parts, about twenty miles off, and deer appeared some ten or twelve overfalls inside. Everyone as high over the other as a church tower, which fell with that fury, that the rebound of waters made it seem, as if it had been all covered over with the great shower of rain, and in some places we took it at the first first smoke, that had risen over some great town. The country was the province of Guiana, but it was not El Dorado, the object to their quest, and though it was very beautiful, it was inhabited by cannibals. Moreover, winter was advancing, and they were already some four hundred miles from their ships, in little open birds, and in the heart of a strange country. Suddenly too, the river began to rise, to rage and overflow very fearfully. Rain came down in torrents, accompanied by great gusts of wind, and the cruise with no change of clothes got wet through, sometimes ten times a day. Whosoever had seen the fury of that river after it began to rise, would per chance have turned his back somewhat sooner than we did if all the mountains had been gold or precious stones, remarked Raleigh, who indeed was no covered. So they turned the boats for home, and at a tremendous rate they spun down the stream, sometimes doing as much as one hundred miles a day, till after sundry adventures they safely reached their ships at anchor of Trinidad. Raleigh had not reached the golden city of Manoa, but he gave a very glowing account of this country to his queen. Guiana, he tells her, is a country that has yet her maidenhood. The face of the earth has not been torn, the graves have not been opened for gold. It has never been entered by any army of strengths, and never conquered by any Christian prince. Men shall find here more rich and beautiful cities, more temples adorned with gold than either Cortes found in Mexico or Pizarro and Perú, and the shining glory of this conquest will eclipse all those of the Spanish nation. But Raleigh had brought back no gold, and his schemes were a conquest of Guiana, where received coldly by the queen. She could not share his enthusiasm for the land. Where Orinoco in his pride rose to the main no tribute tied, but gains broad ocean wages for a rival sea of roaring war, while in ten thousand eighties driven the billows rang their foam to heaven, and the pale pilot seeks in vain, where rolls the river were the main. But besides the Orinoco in South America, there was the St. Lawrence in North America, still very imperfectly known. St. Jacques Cartier had penetrated the hitherto undisturbed regions, lying about the river of Canada. Little had been explored farther west, till Samuel Champlain, one of the most remarkable men of his day, comes upon the scene, and was still discovering land to the west when Raleigh was making his second expedition to Guiana in the year 1617. Chapter 40 of a Book of Discovery. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Book of Discovery by M.B. Singh, Chapter 40. Champlain discovers Lake Ontario. To discover a passage westward was still the main object of those who made their way up the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This, too, was the object of Samuel Champlain, known as the father of New France, when he arrived with orders from France to establish an industrial colony, which should hold for that country the gateway of the Golden East. He had already ascended the River Saguenay, a tributary of the St. Lawrence, till stopped by rapids and rocks, and the natives had told him of a great salt sea to the north, which was Hudson's Bay, discovered some seven years later in 1610. He now made his way to a spot called by the natives Quebec, a word meaning the Strait or Narrows, this being their narrowest place in the whole magnificent waterway. He had long been searching for a suitable site for settlement, but I could find none more convenient, he says, or better situated, than the point of Quebec, so called by the savages, which was covered with nut trees. Accordingly here, close to the present Champlain Market, arose the nucleus of the city of Quebec, the great warehouse of New France. Having passed the winter of 1608 at Quebec, the passion of exploration still on him, in a little too musted boat, piloted by Indians, he went up the St. Lawrence, towards Cartier's Mont Royale. Throughout the sick forest land that lined its banks, Indians discovered the steel-clad strangers and gazed at them from the river banks in speechless wonder. The river soon became alive with Indian canoes, but the Frenchmen made their way to the mouth of the Richelieu River, where they encamped for a couple of days hunting and fishing. Then Champlain sailed on, his little too musted boat outstripping the native canoes, till the unwelcome sound of rapids fell on the silent air, and through the dark foliage of the islet of St. John, he could see the gleam of snowy foam and the flush of herring waters. The Indians had assured him that his boat could pass and obstructed through the whole journey. It afflicted me and troubled me exceedingly, he tell us, to be obliged to return thought having seen so great a lake, fell of fair islands and bordered with the fine countries which they had described to me. He could not bear to give up the exploration into the heart of the land and visited by white men. So, sending back his party, accompanied only by two Frenchmen as brave as himself, he stepped into an Indian canoe to be carried round the rapids, and so continued his perilous journey, perilous indeed, for bands of hostile natives lurked in the primeval forests that closed the river banks in dense messes. As they advanced the river widened out, the Indian canoes carried them safely over the broad stream shimmering in the summer sun, till they came to a great silent lake over 100 miles long, his or two unexplored. The beauty of the new country is described with enthusiasm by the delighted explorer, but they were now in the Mohawk country and progress was fraught with danger. They traveled only by night and lay hidden by day in the depths of the forest. Till they had reached the far end of the lake, named Lake Champlain after the discoverer. They were near the rocky promontory where Fort Ticonderoga was afterwards built. When they met a party of irkies, war cries peeled across the waters of the lake, and by daybreak battle could be no longer averted. Champlain and his two companions, in doublet and hose, buckled on their breastplates, cooces of steel and plumed helmets, and with sword and archer boots advanced. Their far arms won the day, but their hope of further advance was at an end, and Champlain returned to Quebec with his great story of new lands to the south. It was not till the spring of 1611 that he was again free to start on another exploring expedition into the heart of Canada. His journey to the rapids of the St. Louis has been well described. Like specks on the bright bosom of the waters, two pygmy vessels hailed their course up the lonely St. Lawrence. They passed Abandoned Tadoussac, the channel for liens, the tenantless rock of Quebec, the wide lake of St. Peter, whose its crowded archipelago, and the forest plain of Montreal, all was solitude, who her lago had vanished, and of the savage population that Cartier had found 68 years before, no trace remained. In a skiff with a few Indians, Champlain tried to pass the rapids of St. Louis, but oars, paddles, and bells alike proved vain against the foaming surges, and he was forced to return, but not till the Indians had drawn for him rude plan of the river above with its chain of rapids and its lakes and its cataracts. They were quite impossible, said the natives, though indeed, to these wide strangers everything seemed possible. These white men must have fallen from the clouds, they said. How else could they have reached us through the woods and rapids, which even we find it hard to pass? Champlain wanted to get to the upper waters of the Ottawa River, to the land of the cannibal Nipissings, who dealt on the lake that bears their name, but they were enemies, and the natives refused to advance into their country. Two years later he accomplished his desire, and found himself at last in the land of the Nipissings. He crossed their lake and steered his canoes down the French River. Days passed, and no signs of human life appeared amid the rocky desolation. Till suddenly three hundred savages, tattooed, painted, and armed, rushed out on them. Fortunately, they were friendly, and it was from them that Champlain learned the good news that the great fresh water lake of the Hurons was closed at hand. What if the friar lecaron, one of Champlain's party, had preceded him by a few days? Champlain was the first white man to give an account of it, if not the first to sail on its beautiful waters. For over one hundred miles he made his way along its eastern shores, and till he reached a broad opening with fields of maize and bright patches of sunflower, from the seeds of which the Indians made their hair oil. After staying a few days at the little Huron village, where he was feasted by friendly natives, Champlain pushed on by Indian trails, passing village after village, till he reached the narrow end of Lake Simcoe. A shrill clamor of rejoicing and the screaming flight of terrified children hailed his approach. The little fleet of canoes pursued their course along the lake, and then down the chain of lakes leading to the river Trent. The inhabited country of the Hurons had now given place to a desolate region, with no sign of human life. Till from the mount of the Trent, like a flock of ventures and wild foal, they found themselves floating on the waters of Lake Ontario, across which they made their way safely. It was a great day in the life of Champlain, when he found himself in the very heart of a hostile land, having discovered the chain of inland lakes, of which he had heard so much. But they were now in the land of the Iroquies, deadly foes of the Hurons. There was nothing for it but to fight, and a great battle now took place between the rival tribes, every warrior yelling at the top of his voice. Champlain himself was wounded in the fray, and all further exploration had to be abandoned. He was packed up in the basket, and carried away on the back of a curon barrier. Bundled in a heap, wrote the explorer, doubled and strapped together after such a fashion, that one could move no more than an infant in swabbling clothes. I never was in such torment in my life, for the pain of the wound was nothing, to that of being bound and pinioned on the back of one of our savages. As soon as I could bear my weight, I got out of this prison. How Champlain ventured with the Hurons, who would not allow him to return to Quebec, how he got lost while hunting in one of the graced forests, in his eagerness to shoot a strange looking bird, how the lakes and streams froze, and how his courage and endurance were sorely tried over the toilsome marches to lakes him go. But how finally he reached Montreal, by way of Nipissing and the Ottawa River, must be read elsewhere. Champlain's work as an explorer was done. Truly has he been called the father of new friends. He had founded Quebec and Montreal. He had explored Canada, as no man had ever done before or since. Faithful to the passion of his life, he died in 1635 at Quebec, the city he had founded and loved. End of Chapter 40 Chapter 41 of a Book of Discovery This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Book of Discovery by M. B. Singh Chapter 41 Early Discoverers of Australia While the French and English were feverishly seeking a way to the east, either by the north pole or by way to America, the Dutch were busy discovering a new land in the southern seas. And as we have seen America emerging from the midst of ages in the 16th century, so now in the 17th we have the great island continent of Australia, mysteriously appearing bit by bit out of the yet little known sea of the south. There is little doubt that both Portuguese and Spanish had touched on the western coast early in the 16th century, but gave no information about it, beyond sketching certain rough and undefined patches of land and calling it Terra Australis in their early maps. No one seems to have thought this mysterious land of much importance. The maritime nations of that period carefully concealed their knowledge from one another. The proud Spaniard hated his Portuguese neighbour as a formidable rival in the race of wealth and fame, and the Dutchman, who now comes on the scene, was regarded by both as a natural enemy by land or sea. Magillan in 1520 discovered that the Terra Australis was not joined to South America as the old maps had laid down, and they found Frobisher remarking in 1578 that Terra Australis seems to be a great firm land lying under and about the South Pole, not thoroughly discovered. It is known at the south side of the Strait of Magillan, and is called Terra del Fuego. It is thought the South land about the pole and tactic is far bigger than the North land about the pole Arctic. But whether it be so or not, we have no certain knowledge, for we have no particular description thereof, as we have of the land about the North Pole. And even 100 years later the mystery was not cleared up. This land about the Straits is not perfectly discovered, whether it be continent or islands. Some take it for continent, esteeming the Terra Australis or the Southern continent, may for the largest thereof take a first place in the division of the whole world. The Spaniards were still masters of the sea, when one, late known Torres, first sailed through the strait dividing Australia from New Guinea, already discovered in 1527. As second in command he had sailed from America under a Spaniard, the Keros in 1605, and in the Pacific they had come across several island groups. Among others they sighted the island group now known as the New Hebrides. Keros supposed that this was the continent for which he was searching, and gave it the name of Terra Australis del Espirito Santo. And then a curious thing happened. At one hour past midnight relates Torres in his account of the voyage, the Capitana, Keros ship, departed without any notice given us and without making any signal. After waiting for many days, Torres at least set sail, and having discovered that the supposed land was only an island, he made his way along the dangerous coast of New Guinea to Manila, thus passing through the straits that were afterwards named after him, and unconsciously passing almost within sight of the very continent for which he was searching. This was the end of Spanish enterprise for the present. The rivals of sea power in the 17th century were inland and Holland. Both had recently started East India companies. Both were already keen to take a large part in East Indian trade and to command the sea. For a time the Dutch had it all their own way, so they devoted themselves to founding settlements in the East Indies, ever hoping to discover new islands in the South Seas as possible trade centers. Scientific discovery held little interest for them. As early as 1606 a Dutch ship, the little sun, had been dispatched from the Maluccas to discover more about the land called by the Spaniards New Guinea because of its resemblance to the West African coast of Guinea. But the crews were greeted with a shower of arrows as they attempted a landing, and with nine of their party killed, the return disheartened. A more ambitious expedition was fitted out in 1617 by private adventurers, and two ships, the Unity and the Horn, sailed from the Texel under the command of a rich Amsterdam merchant named Isaac Lemaire and a clever navigator, Cornelius Shorten of Horn. Having been provided with an English gunner in Carpenter, the ships were steered boldly across the Atlantic. His or two the object of the expedition had been kept a secret, but on crossing the line the crews were informed that they were bound for the Terra Australis del Espirito Santo of Cuiros. The men had never heard of the country before, and we are told they wrote the name in their caps in order to remember it. By midwinter they had reached the eastern entrance of the Straits of Magellan, through which many a ship had passed since the days of Magellan some hundred years before this. Unfortunately, while undergoing some necessary repairs here, the little horn caught fire and was burned out, the crews all having to crowd on the Unity. Instead of going through the strait they sailed south and discovered Statenland, which they thought might be a part of the southern continent for which they were seeking. We now know it to be an island whose heights are covered with perpetual snow. It was named by Shorten after the Staten or States general of Holland. Passing through the strait which divided the newly discovered land from the Terra del Fuego, called later the Straits of La Mer after its discoverer. The Dutchman found a great sea full of whales and monsters innumerable. Seamuse, larger than swans, was weighing stretching six feet across, fled screaming round the ship. The wind was against them, but after endless stacking they reached the southern extremity of land, which Shorten named after his native town, and the Little Burned Ship, Horn, and the Escape Horn it is known today. But the explorers never reached the Terra Australis. Their little ship could do no more and they sailed to Java to repair. Many a name on the Australian map today testifies to Dutch Enterprise about this time. In 1616 Captain Derrick Hartog of Amsterdam discovered the island that bears his name of the coast of western Australia. A few years later the captain of a Dutch ship, called the Levin, or Lioness, touched the southwest extremity of the continent, calling that point Cape Levin. Again a few years and we find Captain Newts giving his name to a part of the southern coast, though the discovery seems to have been accidental. In 1628 Carpentaria received its name from Carpenter, a governor of the East India Company. Now one day a ship from Carpenter's land returned laden with gold and spice, and though certain men had their suspicions that these riches had been fished out of some large ship, wrecked upon the inhospitable coast, yet a little fleet of eleven ships was at once dispatched to reconnoiter further. Captain Pelsart commanded the Batavia, which in a great storm was separated from the other ships, and driven alone on to the shores, marked as the Abrolos, a Portuguese word meaning open your eyes, implying a sharp lookout for dangerous reefs, on the west coast of Australia. It was night when the ship struck, and Captain Pelsart was sick in bed. He ran hastily onto the deck, the moon shone bright, the sails were up, the sea appeared to be covered with white foam. Captain Pelsart charged the master with the loss of the ship, and asked him, in what part of the world he saw they were. God only knows that, replied the master, adding that the ship was passed on a bank, his or two undiscovered. Suddenly a dreadful storm of wind and rain arose, and being surrounded with rocks and shoals, the ship was constantly striking. The women, children, and sick people were out of their wits for fear, so they decided to land, sees on an island, for their cries and noise served only to disturb them. The landing was extremely difficult, owing to the rocky coast, where the waves were dashing high. When the weather had moderated a bit, Captain Pelsart took the ship, and went in search of water, thereby exploring a good deal of coast, which he remarked, resembled the country near Doher. But his exploration amounted to little, and the account of his adventures is mostly taken up, with an account of the disasters that befell the miserable party left on the rock-bound islands of Abrolos, conspercies, mutinies, and lots. His was only one of many adventures on this unknown and inhospitable coast, which about this time, 1644, began to take the name of New Holland. End of Chapter 41 Chapter 42 of A Book of Discovery This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Book of Discovery by M. B. Singh, Chapter 42, Tasman finds Tasmania At this time Antoni van Diemen was governor at Batavia, and one of his most trusted commanders was Abel Tasman. In 1642 Tasman was given command of two ships for making discoveries of the unknown Southland, and hoisting his flag on board the seahen, he sailed south from Batavia, without sighting the coast of Australia. Despite foggy weather, hard gales, and rolling sea, he made his way steadily south. It was three months before land was sighted, and high mountains were seen to the southeast. The ship stood in to shore, as the land has not been known before to any European. We called it Antoni van Diemen's land, in honor of our governor-general, who sent us out to make discoveries. I anchored in a bay and heard the sound of people upon the shore, but I saw nobody. I perceived in the sand the marks of wild beasts feet, resembling those of a tiger. Setting up a post with the Dutch East India Company's mark, and leaving the Dutch flag flying, Tasman left van Diemen's land, which was not to be visited again for over one hundred years, when it was cold after its first discoverer. He had no idea that he was on an island. Tasman now sailed east, and after about a week at sea he discovered a high mountainous country, which he named Statenland. We found here abundance of inhabitants. They had very hoarse voices, and were very large-made people. They were of color between brown and yellow. Their hair long and thick, combed up and fixed on the top of their heads with a quill, in the very same manner the Japanese fasten their hair behind their heads. Tasman anchored on the north coast of the South Island of New Zealand, but canoes of warlike moories surrounded the ships. A conflict took place in which several Dutch seamen were killed. The buzzer grew stormy, and Tasman sailed away from the bay he named Murderous Bay, rediscovered by Captain Cook about a hundred years later. This is the second country discovered by us, says Tasman. We named it Statenland in honor of the state general. It is possible that it may join the other Statenland of Shoten and Limer to the south of Terrado Fuego, but it is uncertain. It is a very fine country, and we hope it is part of the unknown south continent. Is it necessary to add that the Statenland was really New Zealand, and the bay where the ships anchored is now known as Tasman Bay? When the news of Tasman's discoveries was noise abroad, all the geographers, explorers and discoverers at once jumped to the conclusion that this was the same land on whose coast Pelsart had been wrecked. It's most evident, they said, that New Guinea, Carpentaria, New Holland and Demons land make one all continent, from which New Zealand seems to be separated by a strait, and perhaps this part of another continent, answering to Africa, as this plainly does to America, making indeed a very large country. After ten months' cruise Tasman returned to Batavia. He had found one Demons land in New Zealand, without citing Australia. A second expedition was now fitted out. The instructions of the Commodore, Captain Abel Chance and Tasman make interesting reading. The orders are detailed and clear. He will start the end of January 1644, and we shall expect you in July, following, attended with good success. Of all the lands, countries, islands, capes, inlets, bays, rivers, shoals, reefs, sands, cliffs and rocks, which you pass in this discovery, you are to make accurate maps, be particularly careful about longitude and latitude, but be circumspect and prudent in landing with small craft, because at several times New Guinea has been found to be inhabited by cruel wild savages. When you converse with any of these savages, behave well and friendly to them, and try by all means to engage their affection to you, you are to show the samples of the goods which you carry along with you, and inquire what materials and goods they possess. To prevent any other European nation from reaping the fruits of our labour in these discoveries, you are everywhere to take possession in the name of the Dutch East India Company. To put up some sign, erect a stone or post, and carve on them the arms of the Netherlands. The Yachtar man was 111 persons, and for eight months plentifully victualed. Manage everything well and orderly. Take notice, you see the ordinary portion of two meat and two pork days, and a quarter of vinegar and a half quarter of sweet oil per week. He was to coast along New Guinea to the farthest known spot, and to follow the coast despite adverse winds, in order that the Dutch might be sure whether this land is not divided from the Great Node South Continent or not. What he accomplished on this voyage is best seen in the complete map of the southern continent, surveyed by Captain Abel Tasman, which was inlaid on the floor of the large hall in the Stead House of Amsterdam. The Great South Land was henceforth known as New Holland. End of Chapter 42 Chapter 43 of a Book of Discovery This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Book of Discovery by M. B. Singh, Chapter 43. Dumpier discovers his straight. It was not long before the Great Stretch of Coastline, carefully charted by Tasman, became known to the English, and while the Dutch were yet busy exploring farther, Dumpier, the first Englishman to visit the country, had already set foot on its shores. We lie entirely at the mercy of the Dutch East India Company's geography for the outline of this part of the coast of New Holland, for it does not appear that the ships of any other nation have even approached it, says an old history of the period. Some such information as this became known in South America, in which country the English had long been harassing the Spaniards. It reached the ears of one William Dumpier. A somerset shire man, who had lived a life of romance and adventure with the bookeners, pillaging and plundering foreign ships in these remote regions of the earth. He had run across the Southern Pacific, carrying his life in his hand. He had marched across the Isthmus of Panama, 110 miles in 23 days, through deep and swiftly flowing rivers, dense growth of the tropical vegetation full of snakes, his only food being the flesh of monkeys. Such was the man who now took part in a privateering cruise under Captain Swan, bound for the East Indies. On 1st March 1686, Swan and Dumpier sailed away from the coast of Mexico, on the voyage that led to Dumpier's circumnavigation of the globe. For fifty days they sailed without sighting land, and when at last they found themselves off the island of Guam, they had only three days' food left, and the crews were busy plotting to kill Captain Swan and eat him, the other commanders sharing the same fate in turn. Ah, Dumpier, said Captain Swan, when he and all the men had refreshed themselves with food, you would have made but a poor meal. For Dumpier was as lean as the Captain was, fat and fleshy. Soon, however, fresh trouble arose among the men. Captain Swan lost his life, and Dumpier on board the little Kignet sailed hurriedly for the Spice Islands. He was now on the Australian parallels, and the shadow of a world lying dark upon the face of the ocean. It was January 1688 when Dumpier sighted the coast of New Holland, and anchored in a bay, which they named Kignet Bay after their ship, somewhere off the northern coast of eastern Australia. Here, while the ship was undergoing repairs, Dumpier makes his observations. New Holland, he tells us, is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined whether it is an island or a main continent, but I am certain that it joins neither to Africa, Asia or America. The inhabitants of this country, he tells us, are the miserableest people in the world. They have no houses, but lie in the open air without any covering, the earth being their bed, and the heavens their canopy. Their food is a small sort of fish, which they catch at low tide, while the old people that are not able to stir abroad for by reason of their age, and the tender infants wait their return. And what providence has bestowed on them, they presently boil on the coals, and eat it in a common. They are tall and thin, and of a very unpleasant aspect, their hair is black, short and curled, like that of the negroes of Guinea. This Englishman's first description of the Australian natives cannot fail to be interesting. After we had been here a little while, we closed some of the men, designing to have some service from them for it, but we found some wells of water here, and intended to carry two or three barrels of it aboard. But it being somewhat troublesome to carry to the canoes, we sought to have made these men to have carried it for us, and therefore we gave them some clothes, to one an old pair of breeches, to another a ragged shirt, to assert a jacket that was cursed worth opening. We put them on, thinking that this finery would have brought them to work hurtily for us, and our water being filled in small, long barrels about six gallons in each, we brought these our new servants to the wells, and put a barrel on each of their shoulders. But they stood like statues without motion, but grinned like so many monkeys, staring one upon another, so we were forced to carry the water ourselves. They had soon had enough of the new country, where it anchored and steered away to the north. Dumpier returned to England, even a poorer man, than he had left it twelve years before. After countless adventures, and higher-brass escapes, after having sailed entirely round the world, he brought back with him nothing but one unhappy black man, Prince Jolly, whom he had bought for sixty dollars. He had hoped to recoup himself by showing the poor native with his rings and bracelets and painted skin, but he was in such need of money on lending, that he gladly sold the poor black man on his arrival in the Thames. But Dumpier had made himself a name as a successful traveler, and in 1699 he was appointed by the King William III to command the row-book, two hundred and ninety tons with a crew of fifty men, and provisions for twenty months. Leaving England in the middle of January 1699, he sighted the west coast of New Holland towards the end of July, and anchored in a bay they called Sharks Bay, not far from the rocks, where the Batavia was wrecked with Captain Pelsart in 1629. He gives us a graphic picture of this place, with its sweet scented trees, its shrubs, gay as the rainbow with blossoms and berries, its many-colored vegetation, its fragrant air and delicious soil. The men called Sharks and devoured them with relish, which speaks of scarce provisions. Inside one of the Sharks, eleven feet long, they found the hippopotamus. The flesh of it was divided among my men, says the captain, and I took care that no waste should be made of it, but thought it, as things stood, good entertainment. As it had been with Pelsart, so now with Dampier, fresh water was the difficulty, and they sailed northeast in search of it. They fell in with a group of small rocky islands, still known as Dampier's archipelago, one island of which they named Rosemary Island, because there grew here two or three sorts of shrubs, one just like Rosemary. Once again he comes across natives, very much the same blinking creatures, also abundance of the same kind of flesh flies teasing them, with the same black skins and hair freeze. Indeed, he writes as though the whole country of New Holland was as savage and worthless land inhabited by dreadful monsters. If it were not, he writes, for that sort of pleasure, which results from the discovery, even of the barrenest spot upon the globe, this coast of New Holland would not have charmed me much. His first sight of the kangaroo, now the emblem of Australia, is interesting. He describes it as a sort of raccoon, different from that of the West Indies, chiefly as to the legs. For these have very short forelegs, but co-jumping upon them as the others do, and like them are very good meat. This must have been the small kangaroo, for the large kind was not found till later by Captain Cook in New South Wales. But Dampier and his mates could not find fresh water, and soon varied off the coast of New Holland. An outbreak of scurry, too, decided them to sail away in search of fresh foods. Dampier had spent five weeks cruising off the coast. He had sailed along some 900 miles of the Australian shore, without making any startling discoveries. A few months later the rowboat stood off the coast of New Guinea, a high and mountainous country, green and beautiful with tropical vegetation, and dark with forests and groves of tall and stately trees. Innumerable dusky-faced natives peeped at the ship from behind the rocks, but they were not friendly, and this they showed by climbing the coconut trees, and throwing down coconuts and the English, with passionate signs to them to depart. But with plenty of fresh water, this was unlikely, and the crews rode ashore, killed and salted a good load of wild hogs, while the savages still peeped at them from afar. Thus then they sailed on, thinking they were still coasting New Guinea, so doing they arrived at the straits which still bears the name of the explorer, and discovered a little island which he called New Britain. He had now been over fifteen months at sea, and the rowboat was only provisioned for twenty months, so Dampier, who never had the true spirit of the explorer and him, left his discoveries and turned homewards. The ship was rotten, and it took three months to repair her at Batavia, before proceeding farther. With pumps going night and day, they made their way to the Cape of Good Hope, but off the island of Ascension the rowboat went down, carrying with her many of Dampier's books and papers. But though many of the papers were lost, the learned and faithful Dampier, as he is called, the Prince of Voyagers, has left as accounts of his adventures, and equaled in those sternous ocean-going days for their picturesque and graphic details. End of Chapter 43