by aucthoritie of writers, but also by late experience of trauellers, and reasons of substantiall probabilitie, that the worlde in all his zones, clymats, and places, is habitable and inhabited, and the seas likewise universally nauigable, without any naturall anoyance to hinder the same; whereby appeares that from England there is a short and speedie passage into the South Seas to China, Malucca, Phillipina, and India, by northerly navigation, to the renowne, honour, and benefit of her maiesties state and communalty.' In corroboration of these positions, he gives a short narrative of his voyages, which, notwithstanding the unsuccessful termination of them all, he considers to afford arguments in favour of the north-west passage. This narrative, with its original spelling, is here inserted as an interesting specimen of the style of such relations in the age of

Elizabeth.

[Davis's Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage.]

Dartmouth. And acquainting master Secretory with the rest of the honorable and worshipfull adventurers of all our procedinges, I was appointed againe the seconde yeere to search the bottome of this straight, because by all likelihood it was the place and passage by us laboured for. In this second attempt the merchants of Exeter and other places of the West became adventurers in the action, so that, being sufficiently furnished for sixe monthes, and having direction to search this straighte, untill we found the same to fall into an other sea upon the West side of this part of America, we should agayne retourne, for then it was not to be doubted but shiping with trade might safely bee conueied to China and the parts of Asia. We departed from Dartmouth, and ariving unto the south part of the cost of Desolation costed the same upon his west shore to the lat. of 66. degres, and there ancored among the ylls bordering upon the same, where wee refreshed our selues. The people of this place came likewise vnto vs, by whome I vnderstood through their signes that towardes the North the sea was large. In my first voyage, not experienced of the nature At this place the chiefe shipe whereupon I trusted, of those clymattes, and having no direction either by called the Mermayd of Dartmouth, found many occaChart, Globe, or other certayne relation in what alti-sions of discontentment, and being unwilling to protude that passage was to bee searched, I shaped a ceede she there forsooke me. Then considering howe Northerly course and so sought the same towards the I had giuen my fayth and most constant promise to South, and in that my Northerly course I fell upon my worshipfull good friend master William Sanderthe shore which in ancient time was called Groynland, son, who of all men was the greatest aduenturer in fiue hundred leagues distant from the durseys West that action, and tooke such care for the perfourmance Nor West Northerly, the land being very high and theerof that hee hath to my knowledge at one time full of mightie mountaines all couered with snow, no disbursed as much money as any fiue others whatsoviewe of wood, grasse, or earth to be seene, and the euver out of his owne purse, when some of the comshore two leages of into the sea so full of yse as that pany haue bin slacke in giuing in their aduenture. no shipping cold by any meanes come neere the same. And also knowing that I should lose the fauour of The lothsome vewe of the shore, and irksome noyse of master Secretory, if I should shrinke from his direction, the yse was such, as that it bred strange conceipts among in one small barke of thirty tonnes, whereof master us, so that we supposed the place to be wast and voyd Sanderson was owner, alone without farther comfort or of any sencible or vegitable creatures, wherupon I company I proceeded on my voyage, and ariuing unto called the same Desolation; so coasting this shore this straights followed the same eightie leages, vntill towardes the South in the latitude of sixtie degrees, II came among many ylandes, where the water did eb found it to trend towardes the west. I still followed and flowe sixe fadome vpright, and where there had the leading thereof in the same height, and after fiftie beene great trade of people to make trayne. But by or sixtie leages, it fayled and lay directly north, which such thinges as there we found, wee knewe that they I still followed, and in thirtie leages sayling upon the were not Xtians of Europe that vsed that trade; in West side of this coast by me named Desolation, we fine, by seaching with our boate, wee founde small were past all the yse and found many greene and hope to passe any farther that way, and therefore plesant Ills bordering upon the shore, but the moun- retourning againe recouered the sea and so coasted tains of the maine were still covered with great quan- the shore towardes the South, and in so doing (for it tities of snowe. I brought my shippe among those ylls was to late to search towardes the North) wee founde and there mored to refreshe our selves in our wearie an other great inlett neere fortie leages broade where travell, in the latitude of sixtie foure degrees or there the water entred in with violent swiftnes. This we about. The people of the country, having espyed our likewise thought might be a passage, for no doubt but shipps, came down unto us in their canoes, holding up the North partes of America are all ylands, by ought their right hand to the Sunne and crying Yliaout, that I could perceiue therein; but because I was alone would stricke their brestes; we doing the like the in a small barke of thirtie tonnes, and the yeere people came aborde our shippes, men of good stature, spent I entered not into the same, for it was now the unbearded, small eyed and of tractable conditions; by seuenth of September, but coasting the shore towardes whom, as signes would permit, we understoode that the South we saw an incredible number of birdes. towardes the North and West there was a great sea, Hauing diuers fishermen aborde our barke, they all and using the people with kindnesse in geuing them concluded that there was a great scull of fish. Wee nayles and knifes which of all things they most de- beeing vnprouided of fishing furniture, with a long sired, we departed, and finding the sea free from yse, spike nayle mayde a hoke, and fastening the same to supposing our selves to be past all daunger, we shaped one of our sounding lynes. Before the bayte was our course West Nor West, thinking thereby to passe changed wee tooke more than fortie great cods, the for China, but in the latitude of sixtie sixe degrees, fishe swimming so aboundantly thicke about our wee fell with an other shore, and there founde an barke as is incredible to be reported of, which with a other passage of 20 leages broade directly West into small portion of salte that we had, wee preserued the same, which we supposed to bee our hoped strayght. some thirtie couple, or there aboutes, and so returned We intered into the same thirty or fortie leages, finding for England. And hauing reported to master Secreit neither to wyden nor straighten; then, considering that tory the whole successe of this attempt, hee comthe yeere was spent, for this was in the fyne of August, manded mee to present unto the most honorable and not knowing the length of this straight and dan- Lorde high thresurer of England some parte of that gers thereof, we tooke it our best course to retourne fish, which when his Lordship saw and hearde at large with notice of our good successe for this small time the relation of this seconde attempt, I receiued fauorof search. And so retourning in a sharpe fret of able countenance from his honour, aduising mee to Westerly windes, the 29 of September we arrived at prosecute the action, of which his Lordship conceived

a very good opinion. The next yeere, although diuers of the aduenturers fel from the action, as al the western merchantes and most of those in London, yet some of the aduenturers both honorable and worshipfull continued their willing fauour and charge, so that by this meanes the next yeere 2. shippes were appointed for the fishing and one pynace for the discouery.

accomplished gentleman, well prepared, by previous study, for his travels, which are distinguished by erudition, sagacity, and a love of truth, and are written in a pleasant style." He devoted particular attention to the allusions of the ancient poets to the various localities through which he passed. In his dedication to Prince Charles, he thus refers to the

[Modern State of Ancient Countries.]

Departing from Dartmouth, through God's merciful fauour I ariued to the place of fishing and there according to my direction I left the 2 shipps to follow that busines, taking their faithful promise not to depart The parts I speak of are the most renowned coun. vntill my returne vnto them, which shoulde bee in the tries and kingdoms: once the seats of most glorions fine of August, and so in the barke I proceeded for and triumphant empires; the theatres of valour and the discouery, but after my departure in sixteene heroical actions; the soils enriched with all earthly dayes the shippes had finished their voyage, and so felicities; the places where Nature hath produced her presently departed for England, without regard of wonderful works; where arts and sciences have been their promise. My selfe, not distrusting any such hard invented and perfected; where wisdom, virtue, policy, measure, proceeded in the discouerie and followed my and civility, have been planted, have flourished; and, course in the free and open sea, betweene North and lastly, where God himself did place his own commonNor west, to the latitude of sixtie seuen degrees, and wealth, gave laws and oracles, inspired his prophets, there I might see America west from me, and Desola- sent angels to converse with men; above all, where tion east; then when I saw the land of both sides, I the Son of God descended to become man; where he began to distrust that it would prooue but a gulfe. honoured the earth with his beautiful steps, wrought Notwithstanding, desirous to knowe the full certaintye, the works of our redemption, triumphed over death, I proceeded, and in sixtie eight degrees the passage and ascended into glory which countries, once so enlarged, so that I could not see the westerne shore; glorious and famous for their happy estate, are now, thus I continued to the latitude of seuentie fiue de- through vice and ingratitude, become the most degrees, in a great sea, free from yse, coasting the plored spectacles of extreme misery; the wild beasts westerne shore of Desolation. The people came conti- of mankind having broken in upon them, and rooted nually rowing out vnto me in their Canoas, twenty, out all civility, and the pride of a stern and barbarous forty, and one hundred at a time, and would giue me tyrant possessing the thrones of ancient and just do fishe dried, Samon, Samon peale, cod, Caplin, Lumpe, minion. Who, aiming only at the height of greatstone base, and such like, besides diuers kindes of ness and sensuality, hath in tract of time reduced so birdes, as Partrig, Fesant, Gulls, sea birdes, and other great and goodly a part of the world to that lamentkindes of fleshe. I still laboured by signes to knowe able distress and servitude, under which (to the astofrom them what they knew of any sea towards the nishment of the understanding beholders) it now North. They still made signes of a great sea as we vn- faints and groaneth. Those rich lands at this present derstood them; then I departed from that coast, think-remain waste and overgrown with bushes, receptacles ing to discouer the North parts of America, and after I had sayled towardes the west neere fortie leages I fell upon a great bancke of yse; the wind being North and blewe much, I was constrained to coast the same towardes the South, not seeing any shore West from me, neither was there any yse towards the North, but a great sea, free, large, very salt and blue and of an unsearcheable depth. So coasting towardes the South I came to the place wher I left the shippes to fishe, but found them not. Then being forsaken and left in this distresse referring my selfe to the mercifull prouidence of God, shaped my course for England and vnhoped for of any, God alone releuing me, I ariued at Dartmouth. By this last discouerie it seemed most manifest that the passage was free and without impediment towards the North, but by reason of the spanish fleete and unfortunate time of master Secretoryes death, the voyage was omitted and neuer sithens at-ance that, as there is nothing unchangeable saving tempted.

Davis made five voyages as a pilot to the East Indies, where he was killed in 1605 in a contention with some Japanese off the coast of Malacca.

GEORGE SANDYS.

of wild beasts, of thieves and murderers; large territories dispeopled, or thinly inhabited; goodly cities made desolate; sumptuous buildings become ruins; glorious temples either subverted, or prostituted to impiety; true religion discountenanced and oppressed; all nobility extinguished; no light of learning permitted, nor virtue cherished: violence and rapine in. sulting over all, and leaving no security except to an abject mind, and unlooked-on poverty; which calamities of theirs, so great and deserved, are to the rest of the world as threatening instructions. For assistance wherein, I have not only related what I saw of their present condition, but, so far as convenience might permit, presented a brief view of the former estates and first antiquities of those peoples and countries: thence to draw a right image of the frailty of man, the mutability of whatsoever is worldly, and assur

God, so nothing stable but by his grace and protection.

The death of Sandys, which took place in 1643, was somewhat preceded by that of a contemporary traveller,

WILLIAM LITHGOW,

Five years after that event, George Sandys, a son a Scotsman, who traversed on foot many Euroof the Archbishop of York, and author of a well-pean, Asiatic, and African countries. This indivi known metrical translation of Ovid's Metamor- dual was one of those tourists, now so abundant, who phoses,' set out upon a journey, of which he pub-travel from a love of adventure and locomotion, withlished an account in 1615, entitled A Relation of a out having any scientific or literary object in view Journey begun Anno Domini 1610. Four Books, con- According to his own statement, he walked more taining a Description of the Turkish Empire of Egypt, than thirty-six thousand miles; and so decidedly of the Holy Land, of the Remote Parts of Italy, and did he give the preference to that mode of travelling, Islands adjoining. This work was so popular as to that, even when the use of a carriage was offered to reach a seventh edition in 1673-a distinction not him, he steadfastly declined to avail himself of the undeserved, since, as Mr Kerr has remarked, in his accommodation. His narrative was published in Catalogue of Voyages and Travels, Sandys was an p. 5.58.

* Kerr's Collection of Voyages, vol. xviii.

London in 1640, with a long title, commencing thus-lish vessel which had been seized in Sardinia on a The Total Discourse of the Rare Adventures and Painful Peregrinations of Long Nineteen Years' Travels from Scotland to the most famous Kingdoms in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Perfited by Three Dear-bought Voyages in Surveying Forty-Eight Kingdoms, Ancient and Modern; Twenty-One Reipublics, Ten Absolute Principalities, with Two Hundred Islands. One of his principal and least agreeable adventures occurred at Malaga in Spain, where he was arrested as an English spy, and committed to prison. The details which he gives of his sufferings while in confinement, and the tortures applied to him with the view of extracting a confession, are such as to make humanity sicken. Having been at length relieved by some English residents in Malaga, to whom his situation accidentally became known, he was sent to London by sea, and afterwards forwarded, at the expense of King James, to Bath, where he remained upwards of six months, recruiting his shattered frame. He died in 1640, after having attempted, apparently without success, to obtain redress by bringing his case before the Upper House.

JAMES HOWELL.

JAMES HOWELL was one of the most intelligent travellers and pleasing miscellaneous writers in the early part of the seventeenth century. Born in Carmarthenshire about 1596, he received his education at Hereford and Oxford, and repaired to London in quest of employment. He was there appointed steward to a patent-glass manufactory, in which

James Howell.

capacity he went abroad in 1619, to procure materials and engage workmen. In the course of his travels, which lasted till 1621, he visited many commercial towns in Holland, Flanders, France, Spain, and Italy; and, being possessed of an acute and inquiring mind, laid up a great store of useful observations on men and manners, besides acquiring an extensive knowledge of modern languages. His connexion with the glass company soon after ceased, and he again visited France as the travelling companion of a young gentleman. After this he was sent to Spain, as agent for the recovery of an Eng

charge of smuggling; but all hopes of obtaining redress being destroyed by the breaking off of Prince Charles's proposed marriage with the infanta, he returned to England in 1624. His next office was that of secretary to Lord Scrope, as president of the north; and in 1627 he was chosen by the corporation of Richmond to be one of their representatives in parliament. Three years afterwards he visited Copenhagen as secretary to the English ambassador. Having complimented Charles I. in two small poems, he obtained, in 1640, the clerkship of the council, an appointment which lasted but a short time, as, three years afterwards, he was imprisoned in the Fleet by order of a committee of parliament. Here he remained till after the king's death, supporting himself by translating and composing a variety of works. At the Restoration he became historiographer-royal, being the first who ever enjoyed that title; and continued his literary avocations till his death, in 1666. Of upwards of forty publications of this lively and sensible writer, none is now generally read except his Epistola Ho-Eliana, or Familiar Letters, first printed in 1645, and considered to be the earliest specimen of epistolary literature in the language. The letters are dated from various places at home and abroad; and though some of them are supposed to have been compiled from memory while the author was in the Fleet prison, the greater number seem to bear sufficient internal evidence of having been written at the times and places indicated. His remarks on the leading events and characters of the time, as well as the animated accounts given of what he saw in foreign countries, and the sound reflections with which his letters abound, contribute to render the work one of permanent interest and value.

To Dr Francis Mansell.

* These wishes come to you from Venice, a place where there is nothing wanting that heart can wish; renowned Venice, the admired'st city in the world, a city that all Europe is bound unto, for she is her greatest rampart against that huge eastern tyrant, the Turk, by sea; else, I believe, he had overrun all Christendom by this time. Against him this city hath performed notable exploits, and not only against him, but divers others; she hath restored emperors to their thrones, and popes to their chairs, and with her galleys often preserved St Peter's bark from sinking: for which, by way of reward, one of his successors espoused her to the sea, which marriage is solemnly renewed every year in solemn procession by the Doge and all the Clarissimos, and a gold ring cast into the sea out of the great Galeasse, called the Bucentoro, wherein the first ceremony was performed by the pope himself, above three hundred years since, and they say it is the self-same vessel still, though often put upon careen, and trimmed. This made me think, nay, I fell upon an abstracted notion in philosophy, and a speculation touching the body of man, which, being in perpetual flux, and a kind of succession of decays, and consequently requiring, ever and anon, a restoration of what it loseth of the virtue of the former aliment, and what was converted after the third concoction into a blood and fleshly substance, which, as in all other sublunary bodies that have internal principles of heat, useth to transpire, breathe out, and waste away through invisible pores, by exercise, motion, and sleep, to make room still for a supply of new nurriture: I fell, I say, to consider whether our bodies may be said to be of like condition with this Bucentoro, which, though it be reputed still the same vessel, yet, I believe there's not a foot of that timber remaining which it had upon the first dock, having been, as they tell me,

For, what alterations soever happen in this micro-eight cardinals, whereof there are six cardinal bishops, cosm, in this little world, this small bulk and body of mine, you may be confident that nothing shall alter my affections, specially towards you, but that I will persevere still the same-the very same

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