THE NAVIGATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES. PART II.

THE VENETIANS.

FROM the period at which we have now arrived, which is about the year 1200-the naval force of the Eastern empire gradually sank into insignificance, and never afterwards shone in an important light. An attempt was made by the Emperor Manuel to gain possession of Italy; but the little, and comparatively insignificant, republic of Venice showed itself more powerful at sea than the once mighty empire. From the time of that event no maritime undertakings of the Greeks are worthy of notice.

About this period the Crusades acquired a prominence in the history of Europe, which made the naval, as well as the military, strength of nations subservient to their object. These remarkable expeditions, it scarcely need be said, were sent out for the purpose of relieving the Holy Land from the subjection in which it had been placed by the Saracens, or followers of Mohammed. The nations which professed Christianity were emphatically called by the collective name of Christendom; and every nation of Christendom was called upon to send its quota to the general armament fitted out for the liberation of the Holy Land. As the Holy Land could not be approached by land from Europe, except through the territory of the Eastern empire, and as the political relations of that empire with other countries did not always admit of its being made a military road from Europe to Palestine, it followed that the Mediterranean became the line of passage for the soldiers of the Cross; and thus a spur was given to the extension and improvement of naval operations.

In a former paragraph, we stated that the Normans, under Robert Guiscard, after having assisted the Sicilians, ingratiated themselves into their favour-and finally usurping all power among them, attacked the Eastern empire. The first attack was unsuccessful; but, subsequently, the empire was greatly harassed by the hardy Normans, who continually fitted out new armaments for the purpose of VOL. XIII.

FROM FROISSART.

waging war against the Greeks. These proceedings greatly augmented the number of war-galleys in the Mediterranean; for the Greeks mustered their whole naval force to repel the advance of the Normans, and called in the assistance of the Venetians and other powers. At one time, it is stated that fifteen hundred Greek galleys were floating on the Mediterranean. Various fluctuations of fortune attended the two contending powers, and for a long series of years continual conflicts were carried on, generally in favour of the Normans. At last, however, when two or three of the vigorous and talented monarchs of the Normans had died, and left behind them none who could wield the sceptre with the vigour which had marked the career of Robert Guiscard and his immediate descendants, the Norman power declined in the Mediterranean; and a marriage between the daughter of William of Normandy, and a prince of the house of Plantagenet, caused the annexation of the Norman dominions to the crown of France, and the Eastern or Greek empire became released from their harassing attacks.

No sooner were the bravest of the new nations of Europe settled in their respective provinces, as the Franks in Gaul, the Goths in Spain, and the Lombards in Italy, than navigation and commerce, and the proper methods of managing these pursuits, came to be properly attended to. These nations had never hitherto regarded shipping, excepting for the transport of their forces. Some think that the French had a great hand, among the first, in restoring navigation; others that the Italians were the early revivers of navigation, commerce, and all the attendant arts. The Venetians had already become a people deserving of note. Their origin was remarkable. Venetia was anciently a province on the Eastern coast of Italy, containing upwards of fifty cities; but, when the barbarians, under Alaric, king of the Goths, and afterwards under Attila, king of the Huns, overran Italy, the Venetians fared miserably, and were driven from their homes and their country. They retired to a cluster of small islands, seventy-two in number, situated in the Adriatic sea, and there gradually formed a community which, in process of time, almost ruled the sea;

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although for a long period they had no fence against the sea but hurdles,-no other food than fish,-no wealth besides their boats,-and no merchandise but salt. These islands were marshy, and separated only by narrow channels; but they were well screened, and almost inaccessible. They had been only the residence of fishermen, who had here supported themselves by trading in fish and salt. It appears that the Veneti (as they were called in Latin) or Venetians, did not think of making a permanent residence in these islands; so that they had not for a long time any body politic; but each one of the islands was for many years governed by its own chief, and formed a distinct state. When their commerce and foreign dealings had made them objects of jealousy to foreign states, they thought of combining for mutual safety and this union was first begun in the sixth century of the Christian era, and completed in the eighth. Their fleets then, in the course of time, visited all the ports of the Mediterranean and Egypt, and other places where the produce of the East was usually brought. When the Venetians, by enterprise and perseverance, became a commercial people, they sent out galleys to accompany and protect their merchant-ships. These galleys were often splendidly fitted up: the bows or forecastles were covered with a platform, on which the soldiers, who were always the flower of the army, could stand, as on dry land, and direct their arrows with certainty. No other fleets were found so capable of conveying the vast armies of the Cross to the Holy Land, as those of Venice, which, in consequence, were much benefited by the employment.

Venice being built in the middle of the sea, on these small islands, there is no room for the passage of horses and carriages. Their streets are, in fact, canals; and, the houses being built close to the water, passengers are conveyed from one part of the city to the other by means of gondolas, and the men who serve in the capacity of conducting these vessels, are called gondoliers. They are light built, and beautiful in form; highly ornamented, and having the ends rising to a considerable height. In the centre is a small room for the company, which is handsomely fitted up. These vessels are painted black. As there is not width enough for oars in these canal-streets, the men use paddles; one standing at each end with his paddle, and looking towards the part he is going to. The gondoliers accompany the strokes of their paddles with suitable melody, which has always been admired when heard there, and also when told of in other climes.

VENETIAN GONDOLA.

Under Vitalis Micheli, the thirty-third doge of Venice, a naval armament was fitted out from Venice for the service of the crusaders, which showed the power and wealth of that community. Two hundred galleys were prepared, which, after vanquishing the fleet of the neighbouring republic of Pisa, attacked Ascalon in Syria, and captured it, as well as other towns. Under the next two doges, Ordelapho Faliero, and Domenico Micheli, similar armaments were fitted out, and met with so much success on the Eastern shores of the Adriatic, on the coast of Africa, and in the Holy Land, that the envy of the Greek emperors was excited, and a series of fierce engagements took place between them.

An event occurred in the time of the next doge, about the year 1177, which led to the Venetian ceremony of the "Doge marrying the sea." Pope Alexander, being threatened with a hostile attack from Frederick Barbarossa, solicited the aid of the Venetians, which was afforded. Barbarossa sent a fleet of seventy-five very large galleys,

under his son Otho, to attack Venice itself; but the attempt utterly failed, and forty-eight of Otho's galleys were either sunk, captured, or destroyed. The pope, who had taken refuge at Venice, in order to signify his gratitude to the Venetians, presented the doge with a ring, and accompanied it with these words, "Take this ring, and present it to the sea, in token of your dominion over it. Enjoin your successors to perform annually the same ceremony, that succeeding ages may learn that your valour acquired this great prerogative, and has subjugated the ocean, even as a wife is subject to her husband."

This custom of the doge marrying the sea, was continued yearly for many centuries after this event. On Ascension-day in each year, the doge, the senators, the great lords and persons of quality, together with the foreign ambassadors, entered a splendid vessel, called the Bucentaur, which was fitted up with great elegance for the ceremony of marriage: it was gilt from the prow to the stern, and was covered over-head with a kind of tent, or awning, made of purple silk. When all the companions of the doge had sailed out into the open sea, in their gondolas, following the Bucentaur, the doge threw a gold ring into the waters, saying "We marry thee, O Sea, in token of that true and perpetual dominion, which. the republic has over thee." The naval greatness of Venice soon afterwards received a still greater augmentation. The Eastern emperor having been deposed, his son solicited the aid of the Venetians, and of Baldwin, earl of Flanders, to reinstate his father on his rightful throne. Venice fitted out a large armament, consisting of sixty galleys, twenty ships of war,-the distinctive character of which is not precisely known,-and several transports. The object of the alliance was so far attained, that the usurper was deposed; but just at that crisis the old monarch died, and his son was murdered, so that Earl Baldwin was chosen emperor. In gratitude for the service which the Venetians rendered him in the course of these events, he gave them great privileges in his empire, and what was of more importance,-he permitted them to wage war against, and to gain possession of, the Greek islands in the Archipelago. Not only did the state itself engage in this attack on the islands, but private individuals formed themselves into communities or companies for the same purpose. The terms on which they joined were, that every person whose property amounted to a certain sum, should furnish a ship of a given description and force; and so, by a proportionate scale, that those who were more or less wealthy should furnish a quota according to their means. As the expense thus became a general, though private, concern, the profits resulting from it were proportioned according to each one's contribution. The result of these expeditions was, that the whole of the Greek islands became subject to the Venetians.

Shortly after this period, a fresh succession of naval engagements sprang up between the Venetians and the Genoese, the latter of whom, influenced by envy of the successes of the Venetians, strove to equal or to eclipse their formidable rivals. After a series of conflicts, the Venetians, under Dandolo, and the Genoese, under Doria, had a severe engagement, which terminated in the destruction of the Genoese fleet, and the capture of its commander. War after war followed, in which the Genoese gradually acquired an equality in naval greatness with the Venetians. It is not necessary for us here to follow the details of the sanguinary conflicts which took place in the Mediterranean in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; for there does not appear to have been any great improvement in the construction of the vessels during this period.

The people of Venice and of Genoa, then, nave the glory of furthering the progress of navigation, and of giving it an impulse beyond what it had at any time previously acquired. For a long time, while the navy of England was in a very infantine condition, the English were supplied by the Venetians with articles of foreign produce. Soon after the Norman conquest, the Venetian vessels arrived regularly at Southampton, bringing Indian goods-silks, sugar, spices, aromatics, &c., which began now to be much used by men of rank. These were usually paid for in tin. In the course of time English ships traded to Lisbon; and were eventually fitted out for the Indian trade; that is, to meet the Arabian merchants, who brought the Indian commodities overland to the ports on the eastern parts of the Mediterranean sea. But Venetian pilots were long had in great request among the maritime nations of Europe.

On turning our attention again to Southern Europe, we meet with little but a succession of sanguinary wars

between the states which were on the decline, and new states, ambitious of rivalling their predecessors in power.

After the desperate struggles between the Venetians and the Genoese, a new power sprang up on the west of them. This was the kingdom of Arragon, which occupied a considerable part of Spain, Castile being the other part. The Arragonese soon acquired great influence in the Mediterranean; but it does not appear that either the form of their vessels, or their mode of navigation, presented any variation from those which had been observed by the Genoese, Venetians, &c.

It is a remarkable instance of the slow growth of naval power among military people, that the great Tamerlane, or Timour the Tartar, although he possessed all the country from the Irtish and the Volga on the north, to the Persian Gulf on the south, and from the Ganges on the east, to Damascus on the west, could not cross the Hellespont into Europe, on account of his not possessing a single galley; and as the Greeks of the eastern empire joined with the Turks of Asia Minor in preventing Timour from hiring any vessels, he was forced to abandon an intended attack on Constantinople.

Shortly after this event, the eastern empire became extinct, in consequence of the conquest of Constantinople by the sultan of the Turks, Mahomet II. In the course of the proceedings attendant on this memorable event, a remarkable stratagem was adopted by the Turks to bring their slender fleet near the walls of Constantinople, without encountering the superior fleet of the Greeks. Gibbon thus describes it:-"The genius of Mahomet conce ved and executed a plan of a bold and marvellous cast, of transporting by land his lighter vessels and military stores from the Bosphorus into the higher part of the harbour. The distance is about ten miles, the ground is uneven, and was overspread with thickets. A level way was covered with a broad platform of strong and solid planks, and to render them more slippery and smooth they were anointed with the fat of sheep and oxen. Fourscore light galleys and brigantines, of fifty and thirty oars, were disembarked on the Bosphorus shore, arranged successively on rollers. and drawn forwards by the power of men and pulleys. Two guides or pilots were stationed at the helm or prow of each vessel; the sails were unfurled to the wind; and the labour was cheered by song and acclamation. In the course of a single night this Turkish fleet painfully climbed the hill, steered over the plain, and was launched from the declivity into the shallow waters of the harbour, far above the molestation of the deeper vessels of the Greeks."

Shortly after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, the Venetians turned their war-ships into that quarter, and attempted to dispute the possession of the islands in the Mediterranean with them. The success of the attempt, however, was but small; and Venice did not again maintain the proud position which she once occupied among the Mediterranean states. Indeed there were but few events of a naval character which need occupy much of our attention, until the arrival of that most important era, when commerce began to take the place of war, and the progress of discovery opened a road to the introduction of Europeans to nations and countries before unknown.

During these ages, the missions undertaken to different parts of the world, by land and sea, in order to convert the natives to Christianity, conduced to the general improvement of the human race. The expeditions of travellers promoted the same beneficial end; and particularly the excursions of Marco Polo, the Venetian, who roamed over Asia for twenty-four years, and brought home wealth and varied information respecting the different countries of the East; which information, embracing, as it did, many things new and wonderful, was in a great measure disbelieved, and even burlesqued in the comedies of the times. Until the travels of succeeding visiters had confirmed the relations of Marco Polo respecting the countries of the East, his name furnished a nick-name for a bombastic character.

THE PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS. Henry, thy ardent mind first pierced the gloom Of dark disastrous ignorance, that sat Upon the southern wave, like the deep cloud That lowered upon the woody skirts, and veiled From mortal search, with umbrage ominous, Madeira's unknown isle. But, look! the morn Is kindled on the shadowy offing; streaks Of clear cold light on Sagres' battlements Are cast, where Henry watches, listening still To the unwearied surge; and turning still

We have often spoken of, and alluded to, the trade with India. This, from its lucrative nature, was always an object of desire with the several nations of Europe which had any means for putting shipping into use; which it was necessary to be prepared to do to a great and expensive extent, owing to the distance and difficulties to be encountered. After the Arabians of Asia, and the Venetians of Europe, the Portuguese early distinguished themselves by pushing out into unknown seas, improving thereby their commercial condition, and the geographical knowledge of the world.

It is supposed by many, that if ancient Carthage had not been so ruthlessly swept away from the earth by the Romans, the Portuguese would not have had the honour of opening to us the southern seas, nor the Spaniards of disclosing the varied features of the New World. But, from the time of the Carthaginians, until after the Crusades, there was no material improvement in the practice of navigation, nor in the art of ship-building. Soon after the Crusades the properties of the magnet were discovered, and above all, in course of time, its polarity; that is, its tendency to set itself with one of its ends pointing northward, and the other southward; so that it is said to be conformable with the magnetic meridian. The especial benefit derived from this instrument was, that the mariners could now leave sight of land; and would know, by inspection of the needle, what quarter of the horizon the ship was making for, whether by day or night, and under any condition of the weather: for, before this, if they left the land, the direction of the vessel could only be regulated by the heavenly bodies; and they were so bewildered in bad weather, that they often imagined they should be pitched off, in a storm, into the dark abodes of Erebus and Night.

It appears, by certain historical glimpses which we are enabled to obtain, that not only the magnet, but also the needle, which is only a magnet of a regular, slender, and easily-moveable shape, suspended on a pivot, for the sake of turning round the more easily to the various points of the horizon, was known to and used by the Chinese on land. They do not appear to have used it for marine purposes. The like may be observed respecting the Arabians. If they were in the habit of using the compass by land, they do not appear to have thought of applying it to their passage over the seas; and most of their voyaging was found to be merely coasting, even in the sixteenth century. The Portuguese, when they first visited the Indian seas, found that the Arabians, whose vessels chiefly traversed those waters, steered wholly by observation of the stars or of the land, and that they were quite ignorant of the compass. But it has, however, been supposed by many learned and acutely-thinking men that the germs of art and knowledge existed in the eastern regions of the world, while the western were a silent desert, or only in a state of barbarism; but that these germs of art and knowledge never in many cases received any practical value, and in others, any high degree of cultivation, until they fell under the notice of the exciting genius of the West.

In the early part of the fifteenth century, John the First, king of Portugal, had effected some very important conquests over the Moors; in which he had been very materially assisted by his son, Prince Henry*, who, being an able and active-minded cavalier, took delight rather in the more solid glories of learning and science, than in the fame of war, in which he had, however, of late so highly distinguished himself. Upon the cessation of hostilities he retired to the promontory of St. Vincent, and lived at the sea-port town of Sagres, which he had himself founded, where he cultivated the science of Astronomy, for the purpose of making it available to the mariner, in guiding him over the ocean, when he had quitted the servile tracking of the shore. He, in fact, established a naval college, and an observatory. He engaged to his assistance all the best-informed men of his time; and the point to which he especially directed his attention, was the practicability of sailing round Africa, and of thus reaching the East Indies. His ideas respecting the

The poet addresses this prince in the quotation that we have given in the preceding column. The writer takes this opportunity of acknowledging the respect and admiration which he feels towards the highly-gifted and venerable poet, in whose society he has passed some delightful hours.

accomplishment of this project had been awakened, or enlarged, by intercourse with some well-informed persons at Ceuta, a town on the coast of Africa, opposite to Gibraltar, whither his father's military proceedings against the Moors had carried him. Prince Henry did not live to see the whole of his views accomplished; but the many minor discoveries which were effected under his auspices, laid up a fund of knowledge and experience for succeeding navigators to profit by. Maps were formed under his superintendence; by which means all the geographical knowledge respecting the earth was brought together; the different parts were marked out; and the rocks, coasts, and quicksands to be avoided, were all noted down. Now also was first invented and brought into use the astrolabe *, the original of the quadrant

That sage device, whose wondrous use proclaims
Th' immortal honour of its authors' names,
The sun's height measur'd.-

It was an arch, to the extent of a quarter of a circle, such as A B; and the rim was divided into degrees and half-degrees. Its primeval use was to take the altitude of the North polar star, in order to determine the latitude of a place, which is its distance North or South from the Equator; for which purpose a plummet, C D, was suspended by a string from the centre of the instrument, c, and thus the angle of elevation of the heavenly body was marked. An eye at B, sees the star E through the sights aa'; to make which observa tion the whole instrument must be so raised upwards, that the plumb-line C D shall fall vertically upon the quadrantal arc A B. The arc included between A and a" is the angular elevation of the star E; or the angle E B F=51°

To a person situated at the equator, the polar star will appear in the northern horizon. In proportion as he advances northward, this star will gain in altitude; so that when he shall have arrived at the pole itself, the star will be vertical to him; the pole being 90° north of the equator: hence the latitude of the place corresponds (nearly) with the altitude of the polar star. These observations would of course only serve for places in the northern hemisphere; as, on the southern side of the equator, the polar star would be below the horizon. In the early stage of nautico-astronomical science, these considerations were sufficient for navigators; but now, to determine the latitude of a place accurately by an altitude of the polar star, corrections must be made for this star s not being precisely vertical to the pole, but describing a small circle round it, owing to the diurnal revolu

A word formed from the Greek, implying to take the height of the stars.

Two Jewish physicians, named Roderic and Joseph.

tion of the earth. Tables and other nautical instruments were also at this time constructed for the use of the sailor. The southernmost cape of Africa known in those days was Cape Non, which received this appellation from the idea that it was utterly impossible to get beyond this cape; but the officers of Henry having at length doubled it, found Cape Bojador in the distance, whose violent currents and raging breakers, running for miles out to sea, seemed a barrier which could not even be approached with safety by mariners, who were in the habit of coasting along the shore. Seamen now began to be more alarmed than ever at the idea of the torrid zone, and to propagate the notion, that he who should double Cape Bojador would never return. At length this awful cape was passed by; the region of the tropics was penetrated, and divested of its fancied terrors; the river Senegal was observed, the greater part of the African coast, from Cape Blanco to Cape de Verde, was explored, and the Cape de Verde and Azore Islands were discovered; the Madeiras and Canaries having been visited for the first time by the Spaniards some years before. This prince died in the year 1473; after having obtained a papal bull, investing the crown of Portugal with sovereign authority over all the lands it might discover in the Atlantic, to India inclusive.

Many of the inhabitants of the African coast felt the most curious sensations of astonishment and fear at the sight of the vessels, which probably for the first time had reached their shores. When they first saw the ships under sail, they took them for large birds with white wings, that had come from foreign countries; but when the sails were furled, they thought, from the great length of the vessels, and from their swimming on the water, that they must be great fishes. Others believed that they were spirits that wandered about by night; because they were seen at anchor in the evening at one place, and would be a hundred miles distant by the morning. Not being able to conceive how anything human could travel more in one night than they could in three days, they set down the European vessels for denizens of another world. "There is no man ignorant," says Sir Walter Raleigh, "that ships, without putting themselves out of breath, will easily outrun the soldiers that coast them." "A fleet of ships may be seen at sunset, and after it, at the Lizard; yet by the next morning they may recover Portland; whereas an army on foot shall not be able to march it in six days."

A spirit of discovery, and a hope of gain through commerce, was certainly the real and avowed object of the Portuguese in venturing into these unknown seas and regions of horror. But it seems that, in all the early pursuit of art and science, the romantic was always mingled with the actual and substantial, owing to partial knowledge; which taste for the romantic filled up the picture, when true knowledge was wanting. The adventurers in the expedition just alluded to, and in several subsequent ones, hoped to open an intercourse with a prince or personage, of whom they had often heard much, under the mysterious title of Prester John. This singular name, it is said, was first introduced by travellers from eastern Asia, where it had been applied to some one of the early Christian bishops, who held there a sort of sovereignty; and as soon as a rumour was heard of a Christian king of Abyssinia, he was concluded at once to be the real Prester John. The geographical relations of the African continent not being then well understood, it was supposed that ambassadors from the western coasts might very easily reach his capital. It is not known what was expected at meeting with this phantom of glory, which always seemed to recede as they approached it; but there seems to have been a decided impression on the minds of the Portuguese, as in the case of the Arabs, who sought for Gog and Magog, that their nation would be raised to an exceeding height of power and glory, if they could discover the abode of this potentate. Hence, instructions were given to all officers employed in the African service, to endeavour in every quarter, and by every means, to accomplish this grand discovery. They accordingly never failed to question all whom they met on the coasts about Prester John, whose name, they were told by the natives, had never been heard of. They then besought the people whom they saw on the coasts, to inquire up the country for Prester John; promising large rewards to any who should give information, which might lead to success.

A correspondence between the king of Benin, which is situated on the west of Africa, a little north of the equator, and the king of Portugal, John the Second, led the latter to suppose that the real Prester John had been at last dis

covered. The negro ambassador of the king of Benin informed the king of Portugal that about 600 or 700 mi es east of Benin, there was a mighty king, called Ogané, who was held, by the pagan chiefs of that country, in the same veneration that the Pope was held in by the sovereigns of Europe. They further stated that, at the death of the king of Benin, his successor had to send ambassadors to Ogané, with presents, desiring to be confirmed in his kingdom, as the lawful heir. The pontiff Ogané sent him, in return, a staff and a brazen helmet, for a sceptre and crown; and also a brass cross for the neck. If the king did not receive these ensigns of his dignity, he would not be regarded as king by the people. This Ogané was never seen; a silk curtain being always suspended before him; and, when the ambassador was about to retire, a foot was protruded from the curtain, to which foot they would do homage, as to a holy thing. The ambassadors were then, upon their departure, likewise presented with small crosses. Many other curious stories have been handed down to account for the origin of, and to show what was meant by, this John the Priest and his kingdom.

As a specimen of the exploits of this hero, we are told that, when the Mongol army marched against the Christians of the Greater India, which was governed by Prester John, he "caused a number of hollow copper figures to be made, resembling men, which were stuffed with combustibles and set upon horses, each having a man behind on the horse, with a pair of bellows to stir up the fire. At the first onset of the battle, these mounted figures were sent forward to the charge; the men who rode behind them set fire to the combustibles, and then blew strongly with the bellows; immediately the Mongol men and horses were burnt with wild-fire, and the air was darkened with smoke. Then the Indians fell upon the Mongols, who were thrown into confusion by this new mode of warfare, and routed them with great slaughter."

After several other voyages, in which more of Africa was explored than had hitherto been known, Bartholomew Diaz, having been appointed to the command of an expedition at the end of the fifteenth century, succeeded in doubling the most southern promontory of Africa, which, in consequence of the storms and tempests he had endured in sailing round about in those parts, he called the Stormy Cape, but which the king of Portugal, at his return, called the Cape of Good Hope, in order that future navigators might not be alarmed by the inauspicious title given by Diaz, and that the new appellation might seem to give tokens of the advantage to accrue to those who should follow up the endeavours of the sailors of the day.

Indian seas; and thus established a communication with India, which was kept up long after, and conduced alike to the increase of a knowledge of the world, the advantages of commerce, and an enlargement of the nautical art.

In this voyage the dreadful disease of the scurvy first manifested itself; or, at least, is first mentioned in connexion with sailors, which scourge seems to have followed them ever after. It results chiefly from mode of life and quality of diet, and is soothed or removed by attention to these particulars. It has been the chief object of solicitude to modern surgeons at sea, who have met the disease with considerable success. Captain Cook was the first who rightly treated this disease: he led the way to those numerous improvements in the health and comfort of the modern sailor, which place him in so vastly superior a situation, compared with that of the sailor previous to the time of this great captain.

The New World had at this time just been laid open to the enterprise of Europe; and thus the Peninsula, which comprises Spain and Portugal, was enriched and ennobled among the nations of the West. Vasco de Gama again doubled the Cape in the year 1499, and arrived again in Lisbon after having been absent about two years. He was received with the highest honour and magnificence, and cre ated Admiral of the Indies.

Columbus, in the mean while, who had been disappointed of countenance and assistance from the court of Portugal, having been at length patronised by the court of Spain, had visited the new hemisphere, and returned. He had hoped to reach the Indies by a western route, but was detained by the magnitude of his discoveries on the other side of the Atlantic; having, it is true, supposed at first that the islands he met with, were but the outskirts of the Indian continent, lying to the east of Asia, which he therefore called the West Indies.

EARLY ENGLISH VESSEL.