but nothing could overcome the unwillingness of his crew to proceed farther, and he saw himself, at length, obliged to yield. Ordering the crews of both ships ashore, he set up, with imposing ceremonial, a wooden cross, rudely fashioned by a ship's carpenter, which bore also the royal arms of Portugal. Beneath this cross mass was said, and the communion administered. When these services were concluded, and Dias was about to return to his ship and sail for home, his heart was overcome with the bitterness of his regrets. The thought that he had come so far only to set up a cross, and that he was turning back just when complete success seemed within his grasp, shook his frame with emotion. It was long before he could tear himself from the spot. "You would have thought," said one of his comrades afterwards, "that he was taking leave of an only son exiled forever to that distant shore.” It was not till Dias had again doubled the cape, that he knew for a certainty that it was indeed the end of the continent. He named it the Cape of Storms. One strange and melancholy incident occurred on the voyage home. Dias had stationed a small store-ship in one of the bays on the coast of Guinea, which he left in charge of a purser and a small crew. During his long absence, disease had reduced the number of this little band, until none remained but the purser and two or three sick, despairing sailors. When, at last, the purser saw in the distance the well-known vessel of his commander, such was the shock of his joy that he fell dead upon the deck of his vessel. The return of the expedition was hailed with delight by king and people. John II., comprehending the importance of the discovery, and foreseeing all its probable consequences, would not permit the cape to retain the name given to it by Dias. He called it the Cape of Good Hope, which it has ever since retained. He meant by this appellation to express the feeling that now there was Good Hope of reaching India by sea; Good Hope of Portugal sharing in the commerce which had enriched Venice; Good Hope of making up for the small territory of Portugal by great possessions on another continent; and, not least, Good Hope of alding to the realm of the cross countless hosts of heathen. All these Good Hopes were abundantly realized ere many years had gone by. For some reason unknown, Dias did not receive either the honors or the rewards due to so eminent a service. He was never again in command of an expedition, though he lived long enough to see the results of his discovery. In the year 1500, a fleet of twelve Portuguese ships was voyaging toward India. Dias, who had never yet set foot on the land to which he had shown the way, was in command of one of those vessels. One clear, still afternoon in May, when the fleet was coursing gently along in close company, a hurricane suddenly struck them. The fleet was dispersed, and four of the vessels immediately filled and sunk. Not a man on board of them was rescued. One of the four ships thus engulfed was commanded by Bartholomew Dias. EARLY LIFE OF LORD BYRON. IT is difficult for an American citizen to realize what it is in England to be a lord. Common people can hardly stand upright or command their organs of speech in the presence of a man who has the legal right to place that little word, lord, before his name. One reason is, I suppose, that there are only four or five hundred lords in the whole British empire, so that many people never have a chance to see that a lord is, after all, only a man. Another reason is, that lords are almost always exceedingly rich, live in enormous castles or splendid mansions, and ride about in grand carriages. Then, too, most of them have names and titles which are met with in history, and in Shakespeare, and ignorant people suppose that when they see the Duke of Buckingham, they are looking upon a descendant of "my lord of Buckingham," whose head was cut off by Richard III. at Salisbury. In addition to all this, a lord sits in the House of Lords, and holds a rank in the commonwealth similar to that of senator in the United States. - Of course, the adulation which lords receive, even from their childhood, has an effect upon themselves, since they are but men, no better and no worse than others. It is apt to make them think that they are composed of a superior clay to that All the foolish part out of which common people are formed. of them fully believe that they differ from ordinary mortals as fine porcelain differs from the red material of flower-pots. Byron, with all his genius, was infatuated with this ridiculous notion, and the more because the title came to him suddenly, when he was just old enough to be spoiled by it. He was a school-boy, ten years old at the time, living in Scotland with his mother, who had an income of one hundred and thirty-five |