Paris, and adapt the Signora's costume will go;" and, "but let me choose you to the fashions of the place. But the another dress a dark-green velvet Signora having predetermined on a trimmed with blonde-blonde becomes Greek jacket, and knowing by instinct you so well." that Isaura would be disposed to thwart that splendid predilection, had artfully suggested that it would be better to go to the couturière with Madame Savarin, as being a more experienced adviser, and the coupé only held two.

"No, no I hate green velvet; anybody can wear that. Piccola, I am not clever like thee; I cannot amuse myself like thee with books. I am in a foreign land. I have a poor head, but I have a big heart" (another burst of tears); "and that big heart is set on my beautiful Greek jacket."

As Madame Savarin was about the same age as the Signora, and dressed as became her years, and in excellent taste, "Dearest Madre," said Isaura, half Isaura thought this an admirable sugges-weeping too, "forgive me; you are right. tion; and pressing into her chaperon's The Greek jacket is splendid; I shall be hand a billet de banque sufficient to re- so pleased to see you wear it. Poor equip her cap-à-pie, dismissed the subject Madre so pleased to think that in the from her mind. But the Signora was foreign land you are not without somemuch too cunning to submit her passion thing that pleases you." for the Greek jacket to the discouraging comments of Madame Savarin. Monopolizing the coupé, she became absolute mistress of the situation. She went to no fashionable couturière's. She went to a magasin that she had seen advertised THE FIRST ARCTIC EXPEDITION TO THE in the Petites Affiches as supplying superb costumes for fancy-balls and amateur performers in private theatricals. She returned home triumphant with a jacket still more dazzling to the eye than that of the English lady.

When Isaura first beheld it, she drew back in a sort of superstitious terror, as of a comet or other blazing portent.

From The Contemporary Review.

NORTH-WEST.

THE search for the North-West Passage, which Martin Frobisher opened in the days of Elizabeth, ranks among the most heroic exploits of the English race. It is our Iliad, if we have one - this siege of the Arctic ice and night! The siege has not ended yet, but wise men think that the end is near. There is a little "Cosa stupenda!"-stupendous thing!) band of sailors and scholars of the old She might well be dismayed when the heroic temper, who are bent on making Signora proposed to appear thus attired one vigorous and final assault on the Poin M. Louvier's salon. What might be lar citadel. And there can be little quesadmired as coquetry of dress in a young tion, we imagine, that it is in the heart of beauty of rank so great that even a vul- the English people to help them to make garity in her would be called distingué, the attempt, and soon. It seems to be was certainly an audacious challenge of thought in high places that we are too ridicule in the elderly ci-devant music-poor to send out in one year the Challenteacher.

ger with a commission to rove through the world, and an Arctic Expedition thoroughly equipped for the solution, if solution be possible, of the mystery of the open Polar Sea. But the ground on which the immediate equipment of an expedition is refused, seems almost to pledge the nation to undertake the enterprise at a more convenient season. Are we too sanguine in believing that there is so much resolute purpose in the eminent naval and scientific men who urge the expedition, and so much earnest sympathy with it in the public mind, that the Government will be induced by the moral pressure to take the "adventure "in hand at an early period, probably next year?

The Expedition when it sails will go forth with the most admirable equipment,

with the most perfect instruments, and of Beowulf, ought to be familiar to every with the advantage of the charts and ob- Englishman whose heart beats at the tale servations of three hundred years of skil- of the naval enterprises and achievements ful and daring toil. But Frobisher and of his countrymen. It runs thus: his brave comrades went forth with a gal- "At his appointed time then Scyld delant hardihood into absolutely unknown parted, very decrepid, to go into the peace regions, with ships hardly stouter than of the Lord. They then, his dear comfishing smacks; sailing out like the daunt-rades, bore him out to the shore of the less Norse rovers of a still earlier time sea, as he himself requested, the while with steadfast courage into the Arctic that he, the friend of the Scyldings, the storm and ice. The comparison between beloved chieftain, had power with his Martin Frobisher's "two small barkes words; long he owned it! There upon twentie and fyve and twentie tunne the beach stood the ring-prowed ship, the apeece," and the splendidly equipped ex- vehicle of the noble, shining like ice, and pedition which it is hoped will before long ready to set out. They then laid down leave our shores, marks the difference not, the dear prince, the distributor of rings, let us thank God, in skill, courage, and in the bosom of the ship, the mighty oar self-devotion, but in furniture and appli- beside the mast; there was much of treasances, between the marine of Elizabeth ure, of ornaments, brought from afar. and that of our own day. Arctic matters Never heard I of a comelier ship having are likely to occupy some thought, and been adorned with battle-weapons and perhaps to occasion some debate, during war-weeds, with bills and mailed coats. the present session. It is well worth our Upon his bosom lay a multitude of treaswhile to study the history of the first ex-ures, which were to depart afar with him, peditions which sailed on this daring quest from our harbours. It can hardly fail to enlarge our apprehension of the lusty vigour of the young giant which has grown into the "naval supremacy of England." Nor will the impression be weakened, if the men are suffered, as far as possible, to tell their own tale.

These were the true successors of the Norse Vikings, the most adventurous seamen known to history. Battling with those wild Northern seas, which filled even the steadfast Roman with a vague terror, these Scandinavian rovers found a high and joyful excitement in the conflict, and owned no master even in the fiercest tempests which beat upon their rockbound coasts. None who have read the Northern Sagas or Beowulf will find anything exaggerated in my language. That people found in the storms of the German Ocean an enemy with which they felt themselves fairly matched; and there our early forefathers learned a contempt of minor perils, and a joy in hardy adventure, which has infused its noblest tincture into the blood of the most sober, sensible, industrious, and law-abiding, but, when pressed, the most daring and terrible nation of the earth.

into the possession of the flood. They
furnished him not less with offerings, with
mighty wealth, than those had done who
in the beginning sent him forth in his
over the waves.
wretchedness, alone
Moreover, they set up for him a golden
ensign, high over head; they let the deep
sea bear him; they gave him to the ocean.
Sad was their spirit, mournful their mood.
Men know not, in sooth to say (men wise
of counsel, or any men under the heav-
Beó-
ens), who received the freight.”.
wulf. Kemble's translation, p. 2.

The people must have had a splendid imagination, the root of all high daring, who could bury their heaven-sent chief like this. Thus our ancestors took possession of these Northern seas as their field of conflict and adventure; much as the patriarchs took possession of their Canaan, by making it the burial-place of their dead.

We get some amusing glimpses of the gossip at Rome when the news of Cæsar's expedition reached the capital. The elements always appeared to the Romans their most formidable enemies in the North-West. Even down to the time of Constantius, when they were more used to our rough seas and tides, the terror The same gallant spirit breathes in Be- was still upon them. Roman courage was ówulf, which, however in its present shape as cool and steadfast as any that the world may show traces of a Christian hand, has ever known; but the gallant spirit contains perhaps the very earliest revela- which loves danger for its own sake, and tion which we possess of the native spirit clasps it as a bride, belongs to another of our race. The passage with which the type of character, which is found in its full grand old epic opens, the sublime picture form among the peoples who are settled of the burial of the hero, Scyld the father | along these stormy coasts. Is this the rea

son why the English in danger are mostly | op that fruitful intercourse of nations, stern and silent, while Southern people which means, in other terms, the civilizagesticulate and shout? Men, and the tion and progress of the human race. dangers which arise from men, may be influenced by gestures, but it is of no use to storm at Atlantic waves and walls of rock. At any rate, we may believe that our changeful climate, the constant storms, the long winter nights, and the dangerous coasts of these Northern regions, have nursed that skill, that hardihood, and that pure love of adventure, which found play at last, when the field was ready, in the long and splendid series of Arctic enterprises, the first of which was led by Frobisher; and which won for us, almost by a stroke, in one reign, the naval supremacy of the world.

There is no power, alas, however benign, which the devil does not sometimes wield as the instrument of the torture and degradation of mankind. The church herself has been the mother of the most awful cruelties which have ever tormented, as well as of the purest benedictions which have ever enriched, the world. It has not fared otherwise with commerce, which has relations with Christianity closer than at first sight appears. It is, in truth, the flesh which clothes the great Christian idea - the brotherhood of our race. The root of it lies in the need which men have of each other's ministries-in the unity of the limbs and organs of humanity in the true body of Christ, the great human world. Commerce, blindly for the most part, but still really, maintains those ministries, and binds the scattered limbs together, despite prudens Deus, Oceanus dissociabilis, and all the weary deserts of the earth.

In the 15th century there was a strong outward pressure on the bounds of Europe, like that which in the century before Christ pressed on the boundaries of the old classical homes of men, on the shores of the Mediterranean. Those bounds were no longer continent of the mass and the force of the Roman people; Cæsar but obeyed the necessities of things in lead- Commerce, if it has not led, has susing the way to a newer and wider sphere. tained the march of the greatest revoluThus in the 16th century Europe was tions in human history; it has opened the fairly possessed by her population. Her track of the grandest discoveries. It has most cultivated and enterprising peoples | exercised and still does exercise the manwere settled along her Western sea- liest energies, and some of the noblest, boards; and as man knows not finality, the most self-denying efforts of mankind. whenever he fairly possesses his limits It secures in the end to truth, freedom, he begins to strain after a wider world. and energy the preponderating influence Towards the close of the century Euro- among the nations. Perhaps it is its bepean enterprise was breaking out in every nignest function that it settles the weight direction, stimulated chiefly by the grow- of authority with the peoples most distining commercial activity of the West. The guished by soberness, industry, hardihood political settlement of the Western king- and truth. The position which our comdoms opened a new era. Society was merce holds and enables us to hold, is the prepared for a grand expansion; and, as fruit of all the qualities which constitute always happens at such crises, the expan- our characteristics, pluck, patience, insion was heralded by a great increase of dustry, and inventive and administrative wealth, a fresh influx of gold. This time skill. Most decisively were these qualithe gold lay not in the East, but beyond ties called forth by the Elizabethan comthe Atlantic. The hunger for gold which merce. The history of its growth — and at such times seizes on nations, looked at it grew mightily during her reign - is the in the light of all that flows from it, is far history of the rise of our people to that from a base appetite; it is the condition leadership which in this and other spheres of that expansion of area and of activity they have since continued to enjoy. for which society has become prepared. There is a curious account of the bearing Commerce and gold-hunting were really of a little knot of Englishmen in Java at the root of most of the adventures and about the year 1600; how a handful of heroic enterprises of those times; and, them held their own against the rabble of unlovely as much of our commerce and Bantam, compelled the Javans to respect many of its fruits look to us in these their property, and were not afraid to days, we are bound to recognize some-give them a sound beating whenever they thing divine in that form of human activity which moves men forth on distant and perilous enterprises, to increase the sum of the world's commodities, and to devel

found it advisable. But they take special pride in the fact that "we never offered any wrong to the meanest in the Towne, and also we were generally beloved of all

the better sort; they would say it was not so with the Flemings nor with no other nation." (Purchas his Pilgrims, i. 178.) The whole narrative is worth reading. It will give some fair notion of the terrible cruelty which, when wreaked on criminals, was quite a matter of course in those days. Nor is the spirit of selfglorification wanting. But it was hardly vain-glory. The English had contracted the habit of comparing themselves with the Spanish and other adventurous nations, who had filled the world with tales of barbarity and lust. And this was not altogether an evil; it made them pride themselves on abstinence from the vices and wrongs which stained so shamefully the Spanish name.* But the commerce must have been hardy, manly work, which nursed such men as the early records of our trade reveal to us. There seems to be something unworthy of Milton's great name in the well-known passage of his Muscovite history. "The discovery of Russia by the Northern Ocean, made first of any nation, as far as we know, by the English, might have seemed an enterprise almost heroic, if any higher end than excessive love of gain and traffic had animated the design." Altogether more noble, more worthy are the words of "Master Henry Sidney, a noble young gen-lific realms. tleman and very much beloved of King It may seem to some of our readers Edward," who, when the expedition of the gallant but ill-fated Sir Hugh Willoughby was on the eve of sailing, in 1553, came down to the "place where the merchants were gathered together, and began a very eloquent speech or oration, after this manner following:- 'My very worshipful friends, I cannot but greatly commend your present godly and virtuous intention, in the serious enterprising (for the singular love you beare to your country) a matter which I hope will prove profitable for this nation and honourable to this our land. Which intention of yours we also or the nobilitie are ready to "Forasmuch as the great and Almightie God hath our power to helpe and further; nor doe given unto mankinde, above all other living creatures, such an heart and desire, that every man desireth to we hold anything so deare and precious joine friendship with other, to love and be loved, also to unto us, which we will not willingly fore- give and receive mutual benefites, it is, therefore, the goe, and lay out in so commendable a and increase this desire in every man, with well deserv duety of all men, according to their power, to maintaine cause. . . . . And you are to remembering to all men, and especially to shew this good affection into howe many perils for your sakes and to such as, being moved with this desire, come unto them from farre countries. . . . Furthermore, the exhis country's love, he - that is, Chancel- amples of our fathers and predecessors doe invite us lor is nowe to brave; whereof it is hereunto, forasmuch as they have ever gently and lovrequisite that we be not unmindefull, if it them, as well from countries neare hand, as farre remote, ingly entreated such as of friendly mind came unto please God to send him good successe. commending themselves to their protection.... For the God of heaven and earth, greatly providing for mankinde, would not that all things should be found in one region, to the ende that one should have neede of another, that by this meanes friendship might be estab lished among all men, and every one seeke to gratifie all, &c." -Hakluyt, i. 257.

We commit a little money to the chaunce and hazard of fortune: He commits his life (a thing to a man of all things most deare) to the raging sea and the uncertainties of many dangers. We shall here live and rest at home quietly with our friends, and acquaintance; but he in the mean time labouring to keepe the ignorant and unruly mariners in good order and obedience. With howe many cares shall he trouble and vexe himselfe? With howe many troubles shall he breake himselfe ? howe many disquietings shall he be forced to sustaine? We shall keepe our own coastes and countrey; he shall seeke strange and unknowen kingdomes. He shall commit his safetie to barbarous and cruell people, and shall hazard his life among the monstrous and terrible beastes of the sea. Wherefore in respect to the greatnesse of the danger, and the excellence of the charge, you are to favour and love the man thus departing from us : And if it fall so happily out that hee returne againe, it is your part and dutie also liberally to reward him.'" Hakluyt, i. 271, 4to. Ed. 1810.

The aim of this expedition was to force a passage round the Northern Coast of Asia to Cathay and India, and to open for the English a direct trade with those pro

Raleigh's narrative of the Expedition to Guiana, and Drake's Voyage round the World, give some very poble instances of the aim and the conduct of the English in these matters.

that this introduction about commerce is a strange proem to the history of daring battle with Polar storm and ice. And yet, strange as it may seem, it was commerce and nothing else which led men forth into those gloomy and perilous regions; that is, commerce, with those Christian blessings to barbarous and pagan peoples which it was then understood were bound to travel in its train. But to understand this we must look south

King Edward the Sixth's missive with Willoughby's Expedition, takes a large and noble view of commercial enterprise.

wards. The reason of these North-West- | obtained from Pope Martin V. a bull ern expeditions lay about the Cape of granting to the Portuguese Crown all that Good Hope and Cape Horn. The fif- it should conquer from Cape Bojador to teenth century was the age in which, as the Indies. The Bull of the Pope shut we have seen, the Western European out Spain from any share of the Indian peoples were pushing their boundaries commerce by way of Africa; and Columoutwards in every direction. The man bus - with far deeper and larger thoughts whose life, more than that of any other, than commerce, gold, or conquest; * he was the guide and index of the move- dreamed the last great dream of the crument, was Prince Henry of Portugal. sade - stood boldly over the Atlantic on Born in 1394, he dedicated a long life to the most heroic quest ever undertaken maritime discovery, with rare singleness by man. On Friday, August 3rd, 1492, of purpose; and to him, its strenuous, three little ships, with one hundred men, persevering, and sanguine champion stood out to sea from Palos; on Friday, against the ignorance of peoples, the in- October 12th, Columbus, clad in comdolence of rulers, and the lies of sailors, plete armour and bearing the royal banwith their long yarns of horrible perils, ner of Spain, landed on Guanahani, and, the glory of the result is mainly due. It as was nobly expressed in his epitaph, would be interesting to trace the outline gave a new world to Spain. of his achievements, but our space forbids. The knowledge is easily accessible in the earlier chapters of Mr. Helps's masterly history of Spanish Conquest in America.

When Prince Henry settled himself on the Bay of Sagres, in the S.W. of Spain, Cape Bojador was the southernmost limit of maritime discovery. When he died, in 1463, it had reached down the African Coast as far as Sierra Leone. Very noble is the account which he himself gives us of the reason of his devotion to the work. "He considered that neither mariner nor merchant would be likely to adopt an enterprise in which there was no clear hope of profit. It belonged, therefore, to great men and princes; and amongst such he knew of no one but himself who was inclined to it." He was a true leader of men, consumed, like Columbus, nay, like a greater than Columbus, by an inward fire. For us he has not the less interest in that he was grandson of John of Gaunt, nephew, therefore, of our Henry IV., and cousin to Henry V., another adventurous, heroic man, who, had he lived, might have given a new shape to European history. He was half Englishman, who opened the chapter of maritime discovery in the records of the modern world.

After his death the work went on, but less nobly; it missed his royal head and hand. Still he had broken the neck of the difficulty. In 1487 Cape Tormentoso (the Cape of Good Hope was) doubled, in 1497 Vasco de Gama sailed for India, completed the effort and realized the hope of centuries, and brought Europe into maritime contact with the lands of gems, spices, and gold. Meanwhile a greater and more original mind was at work on the problem. Prince Henry had, in 1441,

|

A CASTILLA Y A LEON
NUEVO MUNDO DIO COLON.

There are few things in the history of maritime discovery more wonderful than the incident-accident we refuse to call it-by which the career of Columbus was directed to the tropical regions of America. On October 7th he was, as he reckoned, 216 miles beyond the point where he expected to find Japan. He was standing on a course which would have landed him in Florida, whence he might easily have been borne up to Virginia. Perplexed and anxious, he yielded to the advice of Pinzon and bore up for the S.W. Pinzon said to him, "It seems to me like an inspiration, that my heart dictates to me that we ought to steer in a different direction." Pinzon, it seems, had seen a flight of parrots heading S.W., and thither Columbus steered. It was this which determined the stream of Spanish colonization to Central America, and left the North free for the English. Birds played many an important part in ancient history, but never a part so distinguished as this. These parrots decided, as Humboldt says, "the first colonization of the new continent, and the original distribution of the Roman and German races of men." It is remarkable, too, that Raleigh's passionate endeavours to drive a wedge of English oak into the heart of Spain's Colonial Empire failed

* I am persuaded that this grand crusading passion of Columbus, which was strong even in death, is not suff ciently considered in the estimate of his character and conduct. It seems to me to furnish the only key, and a noble one, to the almost imperial terms which he dic tated, and from which nothing could drive him, as to the profit which he was to reap from his enterprise. This is a subject of much interest, but there is no space for its consideration here.