thirty were gentlemen of the inns of court and chancery; whence it may be concluded that the pursuit of science and gratification of a laudable curiosity were the object of this voyage, rather than mercantile speculations. But this enterprise had a calamitous termination, unworthy the disinterested motives that gave birth to it. On their arrival in Newfoundland, they suffered so much from famine that they were driven to the horrible expedient of cannibalism. While gathering roots in the woods for their subsistence, some were treacherously murdered and devoured by their companions. The captain, on hearing the circumstance, endeavoured to bring back the crew to a sense of their duty, and to teach them resignation, by keeping alive their hopes. But the famine increased, and they were driven to the necessity of casting lots who should perish. The same night a French ship arrived on the coast; and the English, by a stratagem with which we are not made acquainted, contrived to make themselves masters of the vessel, and returned home. The Frenchmen were afterwards liberally indemnified by Henry VIII., who pardoned the violence to which necessity had impelled the English adventurers.

In the following reign, ingenious and enterprising men began to revive the question of a north-west passage round America to Cathay and the East Indies. Many sound observations, and not a few questionable, or even fabulous, relations, were adduced to countenance the opinion of the possibility of such a passage. Martin Frobisher, a mariner of great experience and ability, had persuaded himself that the voyage was not only feasible, but of easy execution; and "as it was the only thing of the world that was left yet undone whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate," he persisted, for fifteen years, in endeavouring to procure the equipment of the expedition which was the constant object of his hopes and specu

lations.

At length, in 1576, by the patronage of Dudley, Earl of Warwick, he was enabled to fit out two small vessels, one of thirty-five and the other of thirty tons. As our adven. turers passed Greenwich, where the court then resided, Queen Elizabeth gave them an encouraging farewell, by waving her hand to them from the window. On the 11th of July, Frobisher discovered land, which he supposed to be the Friezeland of Zeno: but the land which he believed to be an island, is evidently the southern part of Greenland. He was compelled by the floating ice to direct his course to the south-west, till he reached Labrador. Sailing to the northward along this coast, he entered a strait in latitude 63° 8', which was afterwards named Lumley's Inlet. The Esquimaux in their boats or kajaks were mistaken by our voyagers for

porpoises, or some kind of strange fish. With one of these "strange infiddeles, whose like was never seen, read, or heard of before," Frobisher set sail for England, where he arrived on the 2nd of October, "highly commended of all men for his great and notable attempt, but specially famous for the great hope he brought of the passage to Cathaia." One of his seamen chanced to bring home with him a stone, as a memorial of his voyage to those distant countries; but his wife throwing it into the fire, it "glistered with a bright marquesset of gold." This accident was soon noised abroad; and the gold-finers of London, being called upon to assay the stone, reported that it contained a considerable quantity of gold. Thus the hope of finding gold again became the incentive to distant voyages and geographical researches. The queen now openly favoured the enterprise; and Frobisher again departed, in May, 1577, with three ships, one of which was equiped by her majesty. He sagaciously observed, that the ice which encumbers the northern seas must be formed in the sounds, or inland near the pole, and that the main sea never freezes. He steered for the strait where his preceding voyage had terminated, and sought the spot where the supposed gold ore had been picked up, but could not find on the whole island "a piece so big as a walnut." On the neighhouring islands, however, the ore was found in large quantities. In their examination of Frobisher's Strait, they were unable to establish a pacific intercourse with the natives. Two women were seized; of whom one, being old and ugly, was thought to be a devil or a witch, and was consequently dismissed. As gold, and not discovery, was the avowed object of this voyage, our adventurers occupied themselves in providing a cargo, and actually got on board almost 200 tons of the glittering mineral which they believed to be ore. When the lading was completed, they set sail homewards; and though the ships were dispersed by violent storms, they all arrived safely in different parts of England.

The queen and the persons engaged in this adventure were delighted to find " that the matter of the gold ore had appearance and made show of great riches and profit, and that the hope of the passage to Cathaia by this last voyage greatly increased." The queen gave the name of Meta Incognita to the newly discovered country, on which it was resolved to establish a colony. For this purpose a fleet of fifteen ships was got ready, and 100 persons appointed to form the settlement, and remain there the whole year, keeping with them three of the ships: the other twelve were to bring back cargoes of gold ore. Frobisher was appointed admiral in general of the expedition, and on taking leave received from the queen a gold chain as a mark of

her approbation of his past conduct. The 'fleet sailed on the 31st of May, 1578, and in three weeks discovered Friezeland, of which possession was formally taken, and then held its course direct to Frobisher's Straits. The voyage hitherto had been prosperous, but distresses and vexations of every kind thwarted the attempt to fix a colony. Violent storms dispersed the fleet; drift-ice choked up the strait; one small bark, on board of which was the wooden house intended for the settlers, was crushed by the icebergs and instantly went down; thick fogs, heavy snow, with tides and currents of extraordinary violence, bewildered the mariners, and involved them in endless distresses. At length, after enduring extreme hardships, it was resolved to return, and postpone to the ensuing year the attempt to make a settlement in the country. The storms which had frustrated the object of the expedition pursued the fleet in its passage homeward: the ships were scattered, but arrived at the various ports of England before the commencement of October.*

The Busse of Bridgewater, in her homeward passage, fell in with a large island to the south-east of Friezeland, in latitude 57°, which had never before been discovered; and sailed three days along the coast, the land appearing to be fertile, full of wood, and a fine champagne country. On this authority the island was laid down in our charts, but was never afterwards seen, and certainly does not exist; though a bank has recently been sounded upon, which has revived the opinion that the Friezeland of Zeno and the land seen by the Busse of Bridgewater were one and the same island, which has been since swallowed up by an earthquake.†

Success seems to have deserted Frobisher after his first voyage, which alone indeed had discovery for its object. When the sanguine expectations to which he had given birth were disappointed, his voyages were looked upon as a total failure; and he appears himself, for a time, to have fallen into neglect. But in 1585, he served with Sir Francis Drake in the West Indies; three years later he commanded one of the largest ships of the fleet which defeated the Spanish armada; and his gallant conduct on that trying occa sion procured him the honour of knighthood. [By aid of an esteemed Correspondent James Silvester, we quote the following particulars of Frobisher's outfit from a document preserved in the British Museum, containing her majesty's directions to Sir Martin Frobisher, entitled "Instructions to our loving friend Martin Farbusher, Gent., for orders to be observed in the viag now recommended to him for the North West parts and Cataia."

It appears that he had three vessels under his charge, namely the Aid, the Gabriel, and the Michael.

* Hakluyt, vol. iii, + Barrow's Chron. Hist. p. 94.

The expedition consisted of 120 persons, 30 of whom were miners, finers, and merchants.

They were victualled for seven months.

Elizabeth adopted a curious method of exploring new lands, and by a very ingenious method made criminals useful to the state, as will appear by the following order contained in the instructions to Sir Martin Farbusher:

"Item, in your waie outward you shall (yf it be noe hindrance to your viage) set on lande upon the coast of Freezland, vi of the condemned persons which you carry with you, with weapons and victualls such as you may convenientlie spare-and if it cannot be done outward, you shall doe your endevor to accomplish the same in your returne,—to which persons you shall give instructions howe they maye, by their good behaviour, wynne the good wyll of the people of that land and countrie, and also to learn the state of the same: and yf you set them aland in your going outwards, then doe your best to speake with them in your returne."

The above instructions are well worthy of notice-showing the reckless manner in which the condemned persons in those days were treated, and making transportation a severe penalty instead of a premium for vice.

The expedition, after clearing the northern parts of Ireland and Scotland, is to steer to the "Island, called Hall's Island, being in the entrance of the supposed straight which we named Farbusher's straight discovered by yourself this last yeare."

The next article contains orders that the vessels be safely moored, and that the miners, finers, and merchants, be conveyed in boats, &c. to the place where the mineral ore abounded, in order that they commence collecting it.

While the miners, &c. are at work, Sir Martin is to proceed in his survey of the coast, and also to search for mines.

He is to conciliate the natives and to be careful not to give the least cause of offence.

"Item. We doe not thinke yt good you should bring hither above the number of three or fower, at the most, of the people of that country, whereof some to be old and the other yonge, whom we shall minde not to return again thither; and therefore you shall have great care how you do take them for avoiding of offence towardes them and the countrie."

This grand expedition ended in the miners, finers, and merchants, bringing home a quantity of pyrites, and the South Sea bubble had a prototype in the North Sea gold mines.]

Frobisher's zeal in the pursuit of northwestern discoveries is supposed to have been fostered by the writings of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a gentleman of brilliant talents and romantic temper. When we contemplate the early discoveries of the Spaniards and Portu

guese, we see needy adventurers, and men of desperate character and fortune, pursuing gain or licentiousness with violence and bloodshed. But the English navigators, who, in the reign of Elizabeth, sought to extend our knowledge of the globe, were men of a different stamp, and driven forward by motives of a more honourable nature. They undertook the most difficult navigations through seas perpetually agitated by storms and encumbered with ice, in vessels of the most frail construction and of small burden; they encountered all the difficulties and distresses of a rigorous climate, and, in most cases, with a very distant or with no prospect of ultimate pecuniary advantage. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was one of those gallant spirits who engaged in the career of discovery chiefly from the love of fame and thirst of achievement. In 1578, he obtained a patent, authorizing him to undertake western discoveries, and to possess lands unsettled by Christian princes or their subjects. The grant in the patent was made perpetual, but was at the same time declared void unless acted upon within six years. In compliance with this condition, Sir Humphrey prepared, in 1583, to take possession of the northern parts of America and Newfoundland. In the same year Queen Elizabeth confered on his younger brother, Adrian Gilbert, the privilege of making discoveries of a passage to China and the Moluccas, by the north-westward, north-eastward, or northward; directing the company, of which he was the head, to be incorporated by the name of "The colleagues of the fellowship for the discovery of the north-west passage."

The fleet of Sir Humphrey consisted of five ships, of different burthens, from 10 to 200 tons, in which were embarked about 260 men, including shipwrights, masons, smiths, and carpenters, besides "mineral men and refiners;" and for the amusement of the crew, " and allurement of the savages, they were provided of music in good variety, not omitting the least toyes, as morrice dancers, hobby horses, and Maylike conceits, to delight the savage people, whom they intended to win by all fair means possible." This little fleet reached Newfoundland on the 30th of July. It is noticed, that at this early period, "the Portugals and French chiefly have a notable trade of fishing on the Newfoundland bank, where there are sometimes more than a hundred sail of ships."

On entering St. John's, possession was taken in the queen's name of the harbour and 200 leagues every way; parcels of land were granted out; but the attention of the general was chiefly directed to the discovery of the precious metals.

The colony being thus apparently established, Sir Humphrey Gilbert embarked in his small frigate, the Squirrel, which was, in

fact, a miserable bark of ten tons; and, taking with him two other ships, proceeded on a voyage of discovery to the southward. One of these vessels, the Delight, was soon after wrecked among the shoals near Sable Island; and of above 100 men on board, only twelve escaped. Among those who perished were the historian and the mineralogist of the expedition; a circumstance which preyed upon the mind of Sir Humphrey, whose ardent temper fondly cherished the hope of fame and of inestimable riches. He now determined to return to England; but as his little frigate, as she is called, appeared wholly unfit to proceed on such a voyage, he was entreated not to venture in her, but to take his passage in the Golden Hinde. Το these solicitations the gallant knight replied, "I will not forsake my little company going homeward, with whom I have passed so many storms and perils." When the two vessels had passed the Azores, Sir Humphrey's frigate was observed to be nearly overwhelmed by a great sea: she recovered, however, the stroke of the waves; and immediately afterwards the general was observed, by those in the Hinde, sitting abaft with a book in his hand, and calling out, "Courage, my lads! we are as near heaven by sea as by land." The same night this little bark, and all within her, were swallowed up in the sea, and never more heard of. Such was the unfortunate end of the brave Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who may be regarded as the father of the western colonization, and who was one of the chief ornaments of the most chivalrous age of English history.*

PASSAGE OF THE GREAT ST. BERNARD.

The

THE passage of the great St. Bernard, though so long known by its ancient and hospitable convent, the most elevated habitation in Europe, and in these later times so famous for the passage of a conquering army, is but a secondary alpine pass, considered in reference to the grandeur of its scenery. ascent, so inartificial even to this hour, is long and comparatively without danger, and in general it is sufficiently direct, there being no very precipitous rise like those of the Gemmi, the Grimsel, and various other passes in Switzerland and Italy, except at the very neck, or col, of the mountain, where the rock is to be literally climbed on the rude and broad steps that so frequently occur among the paths of the Alps and the Apennines. The fatigue of this passage comes, therefore, rather from its length, and the necessity of unremitted diligence, than from any excessive and the labour demanded by the ascent; reputation acquired by the great captain of our age, in leading an army across its summit, has been obtained more by the military com* Hakluyt, vol. iii,

binations of which it formed the principal feature, the boldness of the conception, and the secrecy and promptitude with which so extensive an operation was effected, than by the physical difficulties that were overcome. In the latter particular, the passage of St. Bernard, as this celebrated coup-de-main is usually called, has frequently been outdone in our own wilds; for armies have often traversed regions of broad streams, broken mountains, and uninterrupted forests, for weeks at a time, in which the mere bodily labour of any given number of days would be found to be greater than that endured on this occasion by the followers of Napoleon. The estimate we attach to every exploit is so dependent on the magnitude of its results, that men rarely come to a perfectly impartial judgment on its merits; the victory or defeat, however simple or bloodless, that shall shake or assure the interests of civilized society, being always esteemed by the world an event of greater importance, than the happiest combinations of thought and valour that affect only the welfare of some remote and unknown people. By the just consideration of this truth, we come to understand the value of a nation's possessing confidence in itself, extensive power, and a unity commensurate to its means; since small and divided states waste their strength in acts too insignificant for general interest, frittering away their mental riches, no less than their treasure and blood, in supporting interests that fail to enlist the sympathies of any beyond the pale of their own borders. The nation which, by the adverse circumstances of numerical inferiority, poverty of means, failure of enterprise, or want of opinion, cannot sustain its own citizens in the acquisition of a just renown, is deficient in one of the first and most indispensable elements of greatness; glory, like riches, feeding itself, and being most apt to be found where its fruits have already accumulated. We see, in this fact, among other conclusions, the importance of an acquisition of such habits of manliness of thought, as will enable us to decide on the merits and demerits of what is done among ourselves, and of shaking off that dependence on others

which it is too much the custom of some

among us to dignify with the pretending title of deference to knowledge and taste, but which, in truth, possesses some such share of true modesty and diffidence, as the footman is apt to exhibit when exulting in the renown of his master.-The Headsman, by Cooper.

Spirit of Discovery.

MUSICAL BAROMETER.

A GENTLEMAN, of the name of Ventain, at Burkil, not far from Basle, in Switzerland,

invented, some years ago, a sort of musical barometer, which has been called in German wetter harfe (weather harp), or riesen harfe (giant harp), and possesses the singular property of indicating changes of the weather by musical tones. This gentleman was in the habit of shooting at a mark from his window; and that he might not be obliged to go after the mark at every shot, he fixed a piece of iron wire to it, so as to be able to draw it to him at pleasure. He frequently remarked that this wire gave musical tones, sounding exactly an octave; and he found that any iron wire, extending in a direction parallel to the meridian, gave this tone every time the weather changed; a piece of brass wire gave no sound, nor did an iron wire extended east and west. In consequence of these observations, he constructed a musical barometer, in 1787. Captain Basle, of Hans, also made one in the following manner :-Thirteen pieces of iron wire, each three hundred and twenty feet long, were extended from his summer-house to the outer court, crossing a garden. They were placed about two inches apart; the largest were two lines* in diameter, the smallest only one, and the others were about one and a half. They were on the side of the house, and made an angle of twenty or thirty degrees with the horizon. They were stretched and kept tight by wheels for the purpose. Every time the weather changed, these wires made so much noise, that it was impossible to continue concerts in the parlour; and the sound sometimes resembled that of a tea-urn when boiling; sometimes that of an harmonica, a distant bell, or an organ. In the opinion of the celebrated chemist, M. Dobereiner, as stated in the Bulletin Technologique, this is an electro magnetical phenomenon. W. G. C.

HOT SPRINGS.

Ir is related by M. Saussure, in his Voyage dans les Alps, that he has frequently examined the temperature of the hot springs of Aise, in Savoy, at different seasons, and always found it very nearly alike: namely from 35 in that of Souffre, and from 36.5 to 36.7 in that of St. Paul. Notwithstanding the heat of these waters, living animals are found in the basins which receive them. He saw in them eels, rotifera, and infusoria, in 1790; and at the same time discovered in them two new species of tremelles, possessing spontaneous motion. M. Sonnerat states, that in the island of Lugon, one of the Manillas, there is a hot spring, the temperature of which was so high as to raise Reaumur's thermometer to the degree of 60, equal to 187.25 of Fahrenheit. According to his ac count, the water was too hot to put the hand * A line is the tenth part of an inch.

The Gatherer.

Algerine Museum.-A curious museum is now exhibiting at Paris: it consists of a complete collection of the instruments of punishment in use at Algiers. There are ropes used by the police to punish female slaves guilty of slight transgressions. Adultery is punished with death to both parties; the female is tied in a sack, and cast into the water to perish, and the accomplice strangled with these police cords. The Bisgris, or police officers, are armed with batons, with which they inflict frequently summary punishment: they also bear them, like the Roman fasces in processions before the Dey. Thieves have their right hands cut off by a surgeon, and it is customary, whether in order to increase the pain or to stop the bleeding, for him to plunge the culprit's maimed hand into boiling pitch immediately after the mutilation. The yataghan is used to decapitate criminals ordered to be so punished by the Dey or Cadis: the victim is placed on his knees, and a single blow, so well tempered are the blades, suffices; and the number of executions is marked on the instrument. Different modes of punishment are adopted for the same crime; the noble Turk is strangled, the Moor hung, and any guilty of sacrilege impaled. Specimens of all these

are in the collection exhibited.-Times.

Princess Amelia Sophia.-George IV., when Prince of Wales, in order to illustrate an observation which he had made, that men frequently obtain credit for good deeds which they had never even thought of performing, related, that one day he was accompanied, in a drive to Bagshot, by Lord Clermont; who, as it was rather cold, wore a white great coat and a kind of flannel hood, to protect his ears and neck; and that, thus arrayed, several persons on the road, mistaking his lordship for the Princess Amelia, exclaimed, "What a good young man the Prince is, thus to be the companion of his father's deaf old aunt, during her morning drives!"

Charles Cotton, the burlesque poet, could not restrain his humour on any consideration. It appears that in consequence of a single couplet in his Virgil Travesti, in which he has made mention of a particular kind of ruff worn by a grandmother of his who lived in the Peak, he lost an estate of 4007. per

the liberty he had taken with her; and having her fortune wholly at her own disposal, although she had previously made him her sole heir, she altered her will, and gave away the whole estate to an absolute stranger.-Encyclopædia Britannica. (This must have ruffled poor Cotton's humour.)

Pitt's Conviviality.-In his social circle, Pitt was urbane, generous, sportive, and convivial to a fault. His only private vice was a propensity to the bottle, and he once nearly lost his life in what may fairly be termed a drunken frolic. One night, a gate-keeper, on the road between Croydon and Wimble don, was roused from his slumbers, by the rapid approach of three horsemen, who gallopped on, the gate being open, without waiting to pay toll. Numerous robberies having recently been committed in the neighbourhood, the honest gate-keeper, judging from their extraordinary haste that they were highwaymen, discharged his blunderbuss at them, but without effect. The suspicious triumvirate, who had thus cheated the tolltaker, consisted of Pitt, Thurlow, and Dundas, the first lord of the treasury, the lord chancellor, and the treasurer of the navy, who were on their return to Wimbledon, from Mr. Jenkinson's, at Croydon, where they had been dining.-Georgian Era..

Henry Erskine met his acquaintance, James Balfour, a barrister, who dealt greatly in hard words and circumlocutory sentences. Perceiving that his ancle was tied up in a silk handkerchief, the former asked the cause. "Why, my dear Sir," replied the wordy lawyer, "I was taking a rural, romantic ramble in my brother's grounds, when, coming to a gate, I had to climb over it, by which I came in contact with the first bar, and have grazed the epidermis of my skin, attended with a slight extravasation of blood." "You may thank your lucky stars," replied Mr. Erskine, "that your brother's gate was not so lofty as your style, or you would have broken your neck." W. G. C.

Caerlaveroc Castle.-Our thanks are due to Mr. substance of which states "the learned English Nichols for his note respecting Caerlaveroc; the antiquary" (mentioned by Mr. Skene, in our account of the Castle, in No. 629,) to be Sir Harris Nicolas, who, in 1828, edited the poem of the Siege of Caerlaveroc, which "is particularly valuable to the herald as being one of the earliest authentic records of armorial bearings; and is no less curious to the

antiquary as a vivid description of the pomp and circumstance of war in the reign of Edward 1,, from the pen of a contemporary."

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