Fathers Paez and Lobo.
Father Paez left Goa in 1588 to preach Christianity upon the eastern
coast of North Africa. After long and sad mishaps, he landed at
Massowah in Abyssinia, traversed the country, and in 1618 pushed on
as far as the sources of the Blue Nile,--a discovery the
authenticity of which Bruce was hereafter to dispute, but of which
the narrative differs only in some unimportant particulars from that
of the Scotch traveller. In 1604, Paez, arrived at the court of the
king Za Denghel, had preached with such success that he had
converted the king and all his court. He had even soon acquired so
great an influence over the Abyssinian monarch, that the latter, in
writing to the Pope and to the King of Spain to offer them his
friendship, asked them to send him men fitted to teach his people.
Father Geronimo Lobo landed in Abyssinia with Alfonzo Meneses,
patriarch of Ethiopia, in 1625. But times were greatly changed. The
king converted by Paez had been murdered, and his successor, who had
summoned the Portuguese missionaries, died after a short time. A
violent revulsion of feeling ensued against the Christians, and the
missionaries were driven away, imprisoned, or given up to the Turks.
Lobo was charged with the mission of obtaining the sum necessary for
the ransom of his companions. After many wanderings, which led him
to Brazil, Carthagena, Cadiz, and Seville, to Lisbon and to Rome,
where he gave the Pope and the King of Spain numerous and accurate
details upon the Church of Ethiopia and the manners of the
inhabitants, he made a last journey in India, and returned to Lisbon
to die, in 1678.
Christianity had been introduced into Congo, upon the Atlantic coast,
in 1489, the year of its discovery by the Portuguese. At first
Dominicans were sent; but as they made scarce any progress, the Pope,
with the consent of the King of Portugal, despatched thither some
Italian Capuchins. These were Carli de Placenza in 1667, Giovanni
Antonio Cavazzi, from 1654 to 1668, afterwards Antonio Zucchelli and
Gradisca, from 1696 to 1704. We shall mention these missionaries
only, because they have published accounts of their journeys.
Cavazzi explored in succession Angola, the country of Matumba, and
the islands of Coanza and Loana. In the ardour of his apostolic zeal,
he could devise no better means of converting the blacks than by
burning their idols, rebuking the kings for the time-honoured custom
of polygamy, and subjecting to torture, or to being torn with whips,
those who relapsed into idolatry. Notwithstanding all this, he
gained considerable ascendancy over the natives, which, if it had
been well directed, might have produced very useful results in the
development of civilization and the progress of religion. The same
reproach is due also to Father Zucchelli and to the other
Missionaries in Congo. The narrative of Cavazzi, published at Rome
in 1687, asserted that Portuguese influence extended from 200 to 300
miles from the coast, and that in the interior there existed a very
important town, known by the name of San Salvador, which possessed
twelve churches, a Jesuit college, and a population of 50,000 souls.
At the close of the fourteenth century Pigafetta published the
account of the journey of Duarte Lopez, ambassador from the King of
Congo to the Courts of Rome and Lisbon. A map which accompanies this
narrative presents to us a Lake Zambré, in the very place occupied
by Lake Tanganyika, and more to the west, Lake Acque Lunda, from
whence issued the Congo River; south of the equator two lakes are
indicated, one the Lake of the Nile, the other, more to the east,
bears the name of Colué; they appear to be the Albert and the
Victoria Nyanza. This most curious information was rejected by the
geographers of the nineteenth century, who left blank the whole
interior of Africa.
Upon the West Coast of Africa at the mouth of the Senegal, the
French had established settlements which, under the skilful
administration of Andrew Brue, speedily received considerable
extension. Brue, -Commandant for the King and Director-general of
the Royal French Company upon the Senegal Coast and in other parts
of Africa---so ran his official title--although he may be little
known, and the article which treats of him may be one of the most
curtailed in the great collections of biography, deserves to occupy
one of the most prominent positions among colonizers and explorers.
Not content with extending the colony as far as its present limits,
he explored countries which have been only lately revisited by
Lieutenant Mage, or which have not been visited at all since Brue's
time. He carried the French outposts eastwards above the junction of
the Senegal and the Faleme, northwards as far as Arguin, which we
have since abandoned, although reserving our rights, and southwards
as far as the island of Bissao. He explored in the interior Galam
and Bambouk, so rich in gold, and collected the earliest documents
concerning the Pouls, Peuls or Fouls, the Yoloffs and the Mussulmen,
who coming from the north, attempted the religious conquest of all
the black nations of the country. The information thus collected by
Brue about the history and migrations of these various people, is of
the greatest value, affording clear light, even in the present day,
to the geographer and the historian. Not only has Brue left us the
narrative of deeds of which he was witness and the description of
the places which he visited, but we also owe to him much information
about the productions of the countries, the plants, the animals, and
all the objects which would give occasion for commercial or
industrial enterprise. These most curious documents, put together
very maladroitly it must be confessed, by Father Labat, formed the
subject, a few years ago, of a very interesting work by M. Berlioux.
To the south-east of Africa, during the first half of the
seventeenth century, the French founded some commercial settlements
in Madagascar, an island long known under the name of St. Lawrence.
They build Fort Dauphin under the administration of M. de Flacourt;
several unknown districts of the island are explored as well as the
neighbouring islands upon the coast; the Mascarene Islands are
occupied in 1649. Although firm and moderate towards his countrymen,
De Flacourt did not use the same self-control towards the natives;
he even brought about a general revolt, as a consequence of which he
was recalled. Expeditions into the interior of Madagascar were
henceforth very rare, and it is not until the present day that we
find a thorough exploration carried out.
Of Indo-China and Thibet the only information which reached Europe
during the whole of the seventeenth century was due to the
missionaries. Such names as Father Alexandre de Rhodes, Ant.
d'Andrada, Avril, Benedict Goes, may not be passed over in silence.
In their -Annual Letters- is to be found a quantity of information,
which even in the present day retains a real interest, as concerning
regions so long closed against Europeans. In Cochin China and Tonkin,
Father Tachard devoted himself to astronomical observations, of
which the result was to prove by the most conclusive evidence the
great errors in the longitudes given by Ptolemy. This called the
attention of the learned world to the necessity of a reform in the
graphic representation of the countries of the extreme east, and for
attaining this end, to the absolute need of close observations made
by specially qualified scientific men, or by navigators familiar
with astronomical calculations. The country which especially
attracted the missionaries was China, that enormous and populous
empire, which ever since the arrival of Europeans in India, had
persevered with the greatest strictness in the absurd policy of
abstention from any intercourse whatsoever with foreigners. It was
not until the close of the sixteenth century that the missionaries
obtained the permission, so often demanded before in vain, to
penetrate into the Middle Empire. Their knowledge of mathematics and
astronomy facilitated their settlement and enabled them to gather,
as well from the ancient annals of the country, as during their
journies, a prodigious quantity of most valuable information
concerning the history, ethnography, and geography of the Celestial
Empire. Fathers Mendoza, Ricci, Trigault, Visdelou, Lecomte,
Verbiest, Navarrete, Schall, and Martini, deserve especial mention
for having carried to China the arts and sciences of Europe, while
they diffused in the west the first accurate and precise information
upon the unprogressive civilization of the Flowery Land.
II.
MISSIONARIES AND SETTLERS. MERCHANTS AND TOURISTS.
The Dutch in the Spice Islands--Lemaire and Schouten--Tasman--
Mendana--Queiros and Torrès--Pyrard de Laval--Pietro della Valle--
Tavernier--Thévenot--Bernier--Robert Knox--Chardin--De Bruyn--
Kæmpfer.
The Dutch were not slow in perceiving the weakness and decadence of
the Portuguese power in Asia. They felt with how much ease a clever
and prudent nation might in a short time become possessed of the
whole commerce of the extreme East. After a considerable number of
private expeditions and voyages of reconnaissance they had founded
in 1602 that celebrated Company of the Indies which was destined to
raise to so high a pitch the wealth and prosperity of the metropolis.
Equally in its strife with the Portuguese as in its dealing with the
natives, the Company pursued a very skilful policy of moderation.
Far from founding colonies, or repairing and occupying the
fortresses which they took from the Portuguese, the Dutch bore
themselves as simple traders, exclusively occupied with their
commerce. They avoided building any fortified factory, except at the
intersection of the great commercial roads. Thus they were able in a
short time to seize all the carrying trade between India, China,
Japan, and Oceania. The one fault committed by the all-powerful
Company was the concentrating in its own hands a monopoly of the
trade in spices. It drove away the foreigners who had settled in the
Moluccas or in the Islands of Sunda, or who came thither to obtain a
cargo of spices; it even went the length, in order to raise the
price of this valuable commodity, of proscribing the cultivation of
certain species in a large number of islands, and of forbidding,
under pain of death, the exportation and sale of seeds and cuttings
of the spice-producing trees. In a few years the Dutch were
established in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Moluccas, and at the Cape
of Good Hope, harbours the best placed for ships returning to Europe.
It was at this time that a rich merchant of Amsterdam, Jacob Lemaire,
in concert with a skilful mariner, named Wilhem Cornelis Schouten,
conceived a project for reaching the Indies by a new route. The
Dutch States-General had in fact forbidden any subject of the United
Provinces, not in the pay of the Company of the Indies, from going
to the Spice Islands by way of the Cape of Good Hope or of the
Strait of Magellan. Schouten, according to some, Lemaire, according
to others, had formed the idea of eluding this interdict by seeking
a passage to the south of Magellan's Strait. This much is certain,
that Lemaire bore one half of the expense of the expedition, while
Schouten, by the aid of several merchants whose names have been
handed down to us, and who filled the chief offices in the town of
Hoorn, provided the other half. They fitted out the -Concorde-, a
vessel of 360 tons, and a yacht, carrying together a crew of
sixty-five men, and twenty-nine cannon. This was certainly an
equipment but little in accordance with the magnitude of the
enterprise. But Schouten was a skilful mariner, the crew had been
carefully chosen, and the vessels were abundantly furnished with
provisions and spare rigging. Lemaire was commissioner, and Schouten
the captain of the ship. The destination was kept secret, and
officers and crew entered into an unlimited engagement to go
wherever they might be led. On the 25th June, 1615, eleven days
after quitting the Texel, and when there was no longer anything to
be feared from indiscretion, the crews were assembled to listen to
the reading of an order which ran as follows: "The two vessels would
seek another passage than that of Magellan, by which to enter the
South Sea, and to discover there certain southern countries, in the
hope of obtaining enormous profits from them, and if heaven should
not favour this design, they would repair by means of the same sea
to the East Indies." This declaration was received with enthusiasm
by the whole crew, who were animated, like all Dutchmen of that
period, with a love for great discoveries.
The route then usually pursued for reaching South America--as may
perhaps have been already observed--followed the African coasts as
far as below the equator. The -Concorde- did not try to deviate from
it; she reached the shores of Brazil, Patagonia, and Port Desire, at
300 miles to the north of the Strait of Magellan, but was for
several days hindered by storms from entering the harbour. The yacht
even remained for the space of one whole tide, aground and lying on
her side, but high water set her afloat again; only for a short time
however, for whilst some repairs were being done to her keel, her
rigging took fire, and she was consumed in spite of the energetic
efforts of the two crews. On the 13th January, 1616, Lemaire and
Schouten arrived at the Sebaldine Islands, discovered by Sebald de
Weerdt, and followed the coast of Tierra del Fuego at a short
distance from land. The coast ran east-quarter-south-east, and was
skirted by high mountains covered with snow. On the 24th of January
at mid-day, they sighted its extreme point, but eastward stretched
some more land, which also appeared to be of great elevation. The
distance between these two islands, according to the general opinion,
appeared to be about twenty-four miles, and Schouten entered the
strait which divided them. It was so encumbered with whales that the
ship was obliged to tack more than once to avoid them. The island to
the east received the name of Staten Island, and that to the west
the name of Maurice of Nassau.
[Illustration: The sea was so encumbered with whales.]
Twenty-four hours after entering this strait, which received the
name of Lemaire, the ship emerged from it, and to an archipelago of
small islands situated to starboard was given the name of Barneveldt,
in honour of the Grand Pensionary of Holland. In 58 degrees Lemaire
doubled Cape Horn--so named in remembrance of the town where the
expedition had been fitted out--and entered the South Sea. Lemaire
afterwards went northwards as far as the parallel of the Juan
Fernandez Islands, where he judged it wise to stop, in order to
recruit his men who were suffering from scurvy. As Magellan had done,
Lemaire and Schouten passed without perceiving them amongst the
principal Polynesian archipelagos, and cast anchor on the 10th April,
at the Island of Dogs, where it was only possible to procure a
little fresh water and some herbs. They hoped to reach the Solomon
Islands, but in the north the Dangerous Archipelago was entered, in
which were discovered Waterland Island--so named on account of its
containing a great lake--and Fly Island, because a cloud of these
insects settled upon the vessel, and it was impossible to get rid of
them until at the end of four days there was a change of wind.
Afterwards Lemaire crossed the Friendly Archipelago, and entered
that of the Navigators, or of Samoa, of which four small islands
still retain the names which were then given to them: Goed Hoep,
Cocoa, Horn, and Traitors' Islands. The inhabitants of these parts
showed themselves extremely addicted to stealing; they tried to draw
out the bolts from the ship and to break the chains. Scurvy
continued to prevail among the crew, and it was therefore a great
boon to receive from the king a present of a black boar and some
fruits. The sovereign, who was named Latou, speedily arrived in a
large canoe with sails, in shape like the Dutch sledges (-trainaux-),
escorted by a flotilla of five and twenty boats. The king did not
venture himself to go on board the -Concorde-, but his son was of a
bolder spirit, and inquired the reason of everything he saw with the
most lively curiosity. The next day the number of canoes was greatly
augmented, and the Dutch perceived by certain indications that an
attack was impending. Accordingly, a shower of stones falls on a
sudden upon the ship, the canoes approach nearer, become annoying,
and the Dutch to free themselves from them are forced to resort to a
discharge of musketry. This island was rightly named Traitors'
Island.
It was now the 18th of May, and Lemaire ordered the course to be
changed, that the Moluccas might be reached by the north of New
Guinea. He probably passed within sight of the Solomon Archipelago,
the Admiralty Islands, and the Thousand Islands (Mille Iles),
coasting afterwards along New Guinea from 143 degrees to Geelwink
Bay. He frequently landed, and gave names to a number of points: the
twenty-five islands which form a part of the Admiralty Archipelago,
the High Corner, the High Mountain (Hoogberg)--which seems to
correspond to a portion of the neighbouring coast of Kornelis-Kinerz
Bay--Moa and Arimoa, two islands again seen later on by Tasman, the
island to which was given the name of Schouten, but which is now
called Mysore and which must not be confounded with some other
Schouten Islands situated upon the Coast of Guinea but much farther
to the west, and finally the Cape Goede-Hoep, which appears to be
Cape Saavedra at the western extremity of Mysore. After sighting the
country of Papua, Schouten and Lemaire reached Gilolo, one of the
Moluccas, where they received an eager welcome from their
compatriots.
When they were thoroughly rested from their fatigues and cured of
scurvy, the Dutch went to Batavia, arriving there on the 23rd
October, 1616, only thirteen months after quitting the Texel, and
having lost only thirteen men during the long voyage. But the
Company of the Indies did not at all understand their privileges
being infringed upon, and a possibility discovered of reaching the
colonies by a way not foreseen in the letters patent which had been
granted to the Company at the time of its establishment. The
Governor caused the -Concorde- to be seized, and arrested her
officers and sailors, whom he sent off to Holland, there to be tried.
Poor Lemaire, who had expected a totally different recompense for
his toils and fatigues, and for the discoveries which he had made,
could not bear up under the blow which had fallen so unexpectedly
upon him; he fell ill of grief and died in the latitude of the
island of Mauritius. As for Schouten, he appears not to have been
molested upon his return to his own country, and to have made
several voyages to the Indies, which were not distinguished by any
fresh discovery. He was returning to Europe in 1625, when he was
forced by bad weather to enter Antongil Bay, upon the east coast of
Madagascar, where he died.
Such was the history of this important expedition, which by means of
Strait Lemaire opened up a shorter and less dangerous route than
that by Magellan's Strait, an expedition signalized by several
discoveries in Oceania, and by a more attentive exploration of
points already seen by Spanish or Portuguese navigators. But it is
often a matter of difficulty to settle with accuracy to which of
these nations the discovery of certain islands, countries, or
archipelagos in the neighbourhood of Australia, may be due.
Since we are speaking of the Dutch, we shall put the chronological
order of discoveries a little on one side, that we may relate as
well as those of Mendana and Quiros, the expeditions of Jan Abel
Tasman.
What was the early history of Tasman, by what concurrence of
circumstances did he embrace the profession of a sailor, by what
means did he acquire the nautical skill and science of which he gave
so many proofs, and which conducted him to his important
discoveries? From ignorance we cannot answer these questions, all we
know of his biography commences with his departure from Batavia on
2nd June, 1639. After passing the Philippines, he would seem during
this first voyage to have visited in company with Matthew Quast the
Bonin Islands, then known by the fantastic title of "the Gold and
Silver Islands."
In a second expedition, composed of two vessels of which he had the
chief command, and which sailed from Batavia on the 14th of August,
1642, he reached the Mauritius on the 5th September, and afterwards
sailed to the south-east, seeking for the Australian Continent. On
the 24th November in latitude 42 degrees 25 minutes south, he
discovered land, to which he gave the name of Van-Diemen, after the
Governor of the Sunda Islands, but which is now with much greater
justice called Tasmania. He anchored there in Fredrik Hendrik Bay,
and ascertained that the country was inhabited, although he could
not see a single native.
After following this coast for a certain time, he sailed eastwards,
with the intention of afterwards making once more for the north, to
reach the Solomon Archipelago. On the 13th December, in latitude 42
degrees 10 minutes, he came in sight of a mountainous country which
he followed towards the north, until the 18th December, when he cast
anchor in a bay; but even the boldest of the savages whom he met
with there, did not approach the ship within a stone's throw. Their
voices were rough, their stature tall, their colour brown inclining
to yellow, and their black hair, which was nearly as long as that of
the Japanese, was worn drawn up to the crown of the head. On the
morrow they summoned courage to go on board one of the vessels and
carry on traffic by means of barter. Tasman, upon seeing these
pacific dispositions, despatched a boat for the purpose of obtaining
a more accurate knowledge of the shore. Of the sailors who manned it,
three were killed without provocation by the natives, while the
others escaped by swimming, and were picked up by the ships' boats,
but by the time they were in readiness to fire upon the assailants,
these had disappeared. The spot where this sad event happened,
received the name of Assassins' (Moordenaars) Bay. Tasman, who felt
convinced that he could not carry on any intercourse with such
fierce people, weighed anchor and sailed up the coast as far as its
extreme point, which he named Cape Maria Van-Diemen, in honour of
his "lady," for a legend states that having had the audacity to
pretend to the hand of the daughter of the governor of the East
Indies, the latter had sent him to sea with two dilapidated ships,
the -Heemskerke- and the -Zeechen-.
[Illustration: Three were killed by the natives without
provocation.]
The land thus discovered received the name of Staaten Land, soon
changed into that of New Zealand. On the 21st January, 1643, Tasman
discovered the islands of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, upon which he
found a great quantity of pigs, fowls, and fruit. On the 6th
February, the ships entered an archipelago, consisting of a score of
islands, which were called Prince William Islands, and after
sighting Anthong-Java, Tasman followed the coast of New Guinea from
Cape Santa Maria, passed by the various points previously discovered
by Lemaire and Schouten, and anchored off Batavia on the 15th June
following, after a ten months' voyage.
In a second expedition, Tasman, in obedience to his orders dated
1664, was to visit Van Diemen's Land, and to make a careful
examination of the western coast of New Guinea, as far as 17 degrees
south latitude, in order to ascertain whether that island belonged
to the Australian Continent. It does not appear that Tasman carried
out this programme, but the loss of his journals causes complete
uncertainty as to the route which he followed, and the discoveries
which he may have made. From this time there is no record of the
events which marked the close of his career, nor of the place and
date of his death.
From the period of the taking of Malacca by Albuquerque, the
Portuguese conceived that a new world extended to the south of Asia.
Their ideas were soon shared by the Spaniards, and henceforward a
series of voyages were made on the Pacific Ocean, to search for a
southern continent, of which the existence appeared geographically
necessary to counterbalance the immense extent of the lands already
known. Java the Great, designated later by the names of New Holland
and Australia, had been seen by the French perhaps, or as is more
probable by Saavedra, from 1530 to 1540, and it was sought for by a
crowd of navigators, amongst whom we may mention the Portuguese,
Serrao and Meneses, and the Spaniards, Saavedra, Hernando de
Grijalva, Alvarado, and Inigo Ortiz de Retes, who explored the
greater part of the islands to the north of New Guinea, as well as
that great island itself. Afterwards come Mendana, Torrès, and
Quiros, upon whose deeds we shall pause a little, on account of the
importance and authenticity of the discoveries which we owe to them.
Alvaro Mendana de Neyra was nephew to the Governor of Lima, Don
Pedro de Castro, who warmly advocated with the home government his
nephew's project of searching for new countries in the Pacific Ocean.
Mendana was one-and-twenty when he took the command of two ships and
one hundred and twenty-five soldiers and sailors. He sailed from
Callao, the port of Lima, on the 19th November, 1567. After sighting
the small Island of Jesus, he discovered on the 7th February between
7 degrees and 8 degrees south latitude, the Island of Santa Isabella,
where the Spaniards built a brigantine, with which they explored the
archipelago of which this island was a part. "The inhabitants," says
the narrative of a companion of Mendana, "are anthropophagi, they
devour those whom they can make their prisoners in war, and even
without being in open hostility, those whom they can succeed in
taking by treachery." One of the chiefs in the island sent to
Mendana as a delicacy, a quarter of a child, but the Spanish
commander caused it to be buried in the presence of the natives, who
appeared much hurt by an act which they could not understand. The
Spaniards explored the Island las Palmas (Palm Island), los
Ramos--so named because it was discovered on Palm Sunday--Galley
Island, and Buena-Vista, of which the inhabitants, under the
appearance of friendship concealed hostile intentions, which were
not long in displaying themselves. The same reception awaited the
Spaniards at the Island San Dimas, at Sesarga, and at Guadalcanar,
upon which ginger was found for the first time. In the return voyage
to Santa Isabella, the Spaniards pursued a course which enabled them
to discover St. George Island, where they found bats as large as
kites. Scarcely had the crew of the brigantine cast anchor in the
harbour of Santa Isabella, than they were obliged again to weigh it,
for the place was so unhealthy that five soldiers died and a great
number of others were taken ill. Mendana stopped at the Island of
Guadalcanar, where out of ten men who had landed to fetch water, one
negro alone escaped from the attacks of the natives, who were
extremely angry at one of their fellows having been carried off by
the Spaniards. The punishment was terrible; twenty men were killed
and a number of houses burnt. Mendana afterwards visited several
islands of the Solomon archipelago, amongst others the Three Maries
and San Juan. Upon the latter island, whilst the ships were being
repaired and calked, several affrays with the natives occurred, in
which some prisoners were made. After this checkered rest, Mendana
again put to sea, and visited the islands of San Christoval, Santa
Catalina, and Santa Anna. But as by this time the number of invalids
was considerable, the provisions and ammunition nearly exhausted,
and the rigging become rotten, the flotilla now set out to return to
Peru. The separation of the flagship, the discovery of certain
islands which it is difficult to identify, and probably of the
Sandwich Islands; violent storms, during which the sails were
carried away; the sickness caused by the insufficiency and
putrefaction of the water and biscuit on board, were all incidents
signalizing this long and trying return voyage, which was ended by
the arrival of the ships at the port of Colima in California after
five months of navigation.
The narrative of Mendana excited no enthusiasm, in spite of the name
of Solomon which he gave to the archipelago discovered by him, to
make it believed that from thence came the treasures of the Jewish
King. Marvellous recitals had no longer any fascination for men
glutted with the riches of Peru. Proofs were what they demanded; the
smallest nugget of gold, or the least grain of silver would have
been more satisfactory to them.
Mendana had twenty-seven years to wait before he was able to
organize another expedition, but then his fleet was a large one, it
being proposed to found a colony in the island of San Christoval
which Alvaro de Mendana had seen during his first voyage. Thus four
ships carrying nearly four hundred people sailed from the port of
Lima on the 11th April, 1595. Amongst those on board may be named
Doña Isabella, wife of Mendana, the three brothers-in-law of the
general, and the pilot Pedro Fernandez Quiros, who later on
distinguished himself as commander-in-chief of another expedition.
The fleet did not finally leave the Peruvian coast, where its
equipment had been completed, until the 16th April. At the end of a
month's navigation, not distinguished by any remarkable incident, an
island was discovered, which according to custom received the name
of the saint whose day it was, and was called Magdalena. Immediately
the fleet was surrounded by a crowd of canoes bearing more than four
hundred Indians, of fine stature and nearly white, and who while
presenting cocoa-nuts and other fruits to the sailors, appeared to
entreat them to disembark. The natives no sooner came on board than
they began to pilfer, and it was necessary to fire a cannon to get
rid of them; a wound which one of the natives received in the fray
soon changed their disposition, and a discharge of musketry was the
reply to the shower of arrows which they let fly from their boats.
Not far from this island three others were discovered, San Pedro,
Dominica, and Santa Christina, and the name of -las Marquezas de
Mendoça- was given to the group, in honour of the governor of Peru.
So friendly had been the intercourse at the beginning, that an
Indian woman upon seeing the beautiful fair hair of Doña Isabella de
Mendana had begged her by signs to give her a curl of it; but by the
fault of the Spaniards the mutual relations speedily became hostile,
and so continued until the day when the natives, becoming conscious
of the great inferiority of their arms, begged for peace.
On the 5th August the Spanish flotilla again put to sea and made
1200 miles west-north-west. On the 20th August were discovered the
St. Bernard, since called Dangerous Islands, and afterwards Queen
Charlotte's Islands, upon which notwithstanding the scarcity of
provisions, no landing was made. After Solitary Island--a name which
explains its situation--the Santa Cruz archipelago was reached. But
at this time, during a storm, the flagship became separated from the
fleet, and although search was made several times, no tidings of her
were obtained. Fifty canoes, carrying a crowd of natives of a tawny
complexion, or of a lustrous black, immediately approached the ships.
"All had frizzled hair, black, red, or some other colour (for it was
dyed); their teeth also were dyed red; the head was half shaven, the
body was naked, except a small veil of fine linen, the face and the
arms painted black, glittering and striped with various colours; the
neck and limbs loaded with several strings of small beads, of gold,
or of black wood, of fishes' teeth, or of a species of medals made
of mother of pearl, or of pearls." For arms they carried bows,
poisoned arrows with sharp points hardened in the fire, or tipped
with bone and steeped in the juice of a herb, great stones, heavy
wooden swords made of stiff wood, with three harpoon points, each
more than a handbreadth long. Slung over their shoulders they had
haversacks exceedingly well made out of palm leaves, and filled with
biscuits made from certain roots which serve them for food.
[Illustration: Doña Isabella consults the officers.]
At first Mendana thought he recognized in these natives the
inhabitants of the islands he was seeking, but he was quickly
undeceived. The vessels were received with a shower of arrows, which
was the more vexatious because Mendana, seeing that he could not
find the Solomon Islands, had determined to establish his colony in
this archipelago. At this juncture, discord reigned among the
Spaniards; a revolt fomented against the general was almost
immediately suppressed, and the guilty were executed. But these
sorrowful events and the fatigues of the voyage had so completely
undermined the health of the head of the expedition, that he died on
the 17th October, after having had time to indicate his wife as his
successor in the conduct of the enterprise. After the death of
Mendana the hostilities with the natives redoubled, and many of the
Spaniards were so exhausted by sickness and hardships, that a score
of thoroughly determined natives might easily have gained the
mastery over them. To persist in the intention of founding a
settlement under such conditions would have been folly; all agreed
in this, and the anchor was raised on the 18th November. Doña
Isabella de Mendana's project was to go to Manilla, and there to
obtain recruits from amongst the colonists, with whom she would
return to found a settlement. She consulted the officers, who all
gave their approval in writing; and she found in Quiros a devotion
and skill which were speedily to be put to a severe proof. They at
once steered away from New Guinea, in order to avoid being entangled
amongst the numerous archipelagos surrounding it, and also to enable
them sooner to reach the Philippines, which the dilapidated state of
the ships rendered necessary. After passing within sight of several
islands surrounded by reefs of madrepore, upon which the crews
wished to land, a permission which Quiros with great prudence always
refused, after having been separated from one of the ships of the
squadron, which could not or would not follow, the flotilla arrived
at the Ladrone--soon to be called the Marianne--Islands. The
Spaniards went on shore several times to buy some provisions; the
natives did not desire either their silver or gold, but set the
highest value upon iron and all tools made of that metal. The
narrative contains here some details upon the veneration shown by
the natives towards their ancestors, which are curious enough to
warrant our reproducing them verbatim: "They take out the bones from
the bodies of their relations, burn the flesh, and mixing the ashes
with -tuba-, a wine made from the cocoa palm, swallow them. They
weep for the dead every year for a whole week; there are a great
number of female mourners, who are to be hired for the purpose.
Besides that, all the neighbours come to weep in the house of the
deceased; the compliment being returned to them when the turn comes
for the feast to take place at their house. These anniversaries are
much frequented, all those assisting at them being liberally regaled.
They weep all day and drink to intoxication all night. They recite
in the midst of tears, the life and deeds of the dead, beginning
with the moment of his birth, and dealing with the whole course of
his life, recounting his strength, his height, his beauty, in a word,
all that can in any way do him honour. If some amusing action occur
in the recital, the company begin to laugh as if they would split
their sides; then on a sudden they drink and are again drowned in
tears. There are sometimes two hundred persons present at these
absurd anniversaries." When the Spanish crew arrived at the
Philippines, it was scarcely more than a company of skeletons,
emaciated and half dead with hunger. Doña Isabella landed at Manilla
on the 11th February, 1596, under a salute from the guns, and was
solemnly received in the midst of the troops drawn up under arms.
The rest of the crew, fifty having died since the departure from
Santa Cruz, were housed and fed at the public expense, and the women
all found husbands in Manilla, except four or five who embraced the
religious life. As for Doña Isabella, she was escorted back to Peru
some time afterwards by Quiros, who lost no time in submitting to
the viceroy a project for a fresh voyage. But Luis de Velasco, who
had succeeded Mendoza, referred the navigator to the King of Spain
and the Council of the Indies, under the pretext that such a
decision would overstep the limits of his authority. Quiros
therefore went to Spain and thence to Rome, where he received a
kindly welcome from the Pope, who recommended him warmly to Philip
III. At length in 1605, after numberless applications and
solicitations, he was empowered to fit out at Lima the two vessels
which he should judge the most suitable for the investigation of the
Australian continent and for continuing the discoveries of Mendana.
With two ships and one light vessel, Quiros set out from Callao on
the 21st December, 1605. At 3000 miles from Peru he had as yet
discovered no land. In latitude 25 degrees south he observed a group
of small islands belonging to the Dangerous archipelago. These were
the -Convercion de San Pablo-, the -Osnabrugh- of Wallis, and
-Decena-, so named because it was the tenth island seen. Although
this island was defended by rocks, intercourse was carried on with
the natives, whose dwellings were scattered about amongst palm-trees
on the sea shore. The natives were strong and well proportioned, and
their chief wore on his head a kind of crown made of small black
feathers so fine and supple that they might have been taken for silk.
His fair hair, which descended to the waist, excited the wonder of
the Spaniards, who, not being able to understand how a man with so
tawny coloured a face could have such light yellow hair, "chose to
think that he was married, and that he wore his wife's hair." This
singular colour was only due to the habitual use of powdered lime,
which burns the hair and causes it to turn yellow.
This island to which Quiros gave the name of Sagittaria, is,
according to Fleurieu, Tahiti, one of the principal of the group of
Society Islands. On the succeeding days Quiros sighted several other
islands, upon which he did not land, and to which he gave names
taken from the Calendar, according to a practice which has changed
all the native nomenclature of Oceania into a veritable litany. One
island visited may be especially noticed; it was named the island of
-la Gente Hermosa- on account of the beauty of its inhabitants, and
of the fair colour and coquetry of its women, who, as the Spaniards
declared, even bore away the palm for grace and attractiveness from
their own fellow-countrywomen of Lima, whose beauty is proverbial.
This island, according to Quiros, was situated upon the same
parallel as Santa Cruz, to which he intended to go. He therefore
sailed westward and reached an island called by the natives Taumaco,
in 10 degrees south latitude and 240 miles east of Santa Cruz. This
must have been one of the Duff Islands, and here Quiros was told
that if he directed his course southwards, he would discover a great
land, of which the inhabitants were whiter than those whom he had
hitherto seen. This information determined him to abandon his scheme
of going to Santa Cruz. He steered in a south-westerly direction,
and after having sighted several small islands, he arrived on the
1st May, 1606, in a bay more than twenty-four miles broad. He gave
to this island the name which it still bears, of Espiritu Santo. It
was one of the New Hebrides group. What events happened during the
stay of the ships here? The narrative is silent upon this subject,
but we know from other sources that the crew mutinied, made Quiros
prisoner, and abandoning the second ship and the brigantine, set out
on the 11th June to return to America, where they arrived on the 3rd
October, 1606, after a nine months' voyage. M. Ed. Charton throws no
light upon this incident. He is silent upon the mutiny of the crew,
and even throws all the blame of the separation upon the commander
of the second vessel, Luis Vaes de Torrès, who abandoned his chief
in quitting Espiritu Santo. Now it is known by a letter from Torrès
himself to the King of Spain--published by Lord Stanley at the end
of his English edition of Antoine de Morga's -History of the
Philippines---that he remained "fifteen" days waiting for Quiros in
the Bay of Saint Philip and Saint James. The officers met in council,
resolved to weigh anchor on the 26th June, and to continue the
search for the Australian continent. Hindered by bad weather, which
prevents him from sailing round Espiritu Santo Island, assailed by
the demands of a crew over whom prevails a slight breath of mutiny,
Torrès decides to steer to the north-east to reach the Spanish
Islands. In 11 degrees 30 minutes he discovers land, which he
imagines must be the commencement of New Guinea. "All this land is
part of New Guinea," says Torrès, "it is peopled by Indians who are
not very white, and who go naked, although their middles are covered
with the bark of trees.... They fight with javelins, bucklers, and
certain clubs of stone, the whole adorned with beautiful feathers.
All along this land there are other inhabited islands. Upon the
whole of this coast there are numerous and vast harbours, with very
broad rivers and great plains. Outside these islands stretch reefs
and shallows; the islands are between these dangers and the mainland,
and a channel runs between. We took possession of these harbours in
your Majesty's name. Having pursued this coast for 900 miles, and
seen our latitude decrease from 2-1/2 degrees until we found
ourselves in 9 degrees, at this point commenced a shoal of from
three to nine fathoms deep, which stretched along the coast to 7-1/2
degrees. Not being able to proceed farther on account of the
numerous shallows and powerful currents which we encountered, we
decided to alter our course to the south-west, by the deep channel
which has been mentioned, as far as about 11 degrees. There is there,
from one end to the other, an archipelago of innumerable islands, by
which I passed. At the end of the eleventh degree the bottom became
deeper. There were some very large islands there, and there appeared
to be more of them towards the south; they were inhabited by a black
population, very robust and quite naked, bearing for arms, strong
and long spears, arrows, and stone clubs roughly fashioned."
Modern geographers are agreed in recognizing in the localities thus
described, that portion of the Australian Coast which ends in York
Peninsula, and the extremity of New Guinea recently visited by
Captain Moresby. It was known that Torrès had entered the strait
which has been named after him, and which divides New Guinea from
Cape York; but the very recent exploration of the south-eastern
portion of New Guinea, of which the population has been discovered
to be of a comparatively light colour and differing much from the
Papous, has just furnished an unexpected confirmation of the
discoveries of Quiros. It is for this reason that we have dwelt at
some length upon them, referring for the purpose to a very learned
work of M. E. T. Hamy, which appeared in the -Bulletin de la Société
de Géographie-.
It behoves us now to say a few words about some travellers who
explored some unfrequented countries, and furnished their
contemporaries with more exact knowledge of a world until then
almost unknown. The first of these travellers is François Pyrard, of
Laval. Having embarked in 1601 on board a St. Malo ship to go to the
Indies to trade, he was wrecked in the Maldive Archipelago. These
islets or atolls (detached coral reefs,) to the number of at least
12,000, descend into the Indian Ocean from Cape Comorin as far as
the equator. The worthy Pyrard relates his shipwreck, the flight of
a portion of his companions in captivity in the archipelago, and his
long sojourn of seven years upon the Maldive Islands, a stay
rendered almost agreeable by the pains which he took to acquire the
native language. He had plenty of time to learn the manners, customs,
religion, and industries of the inhabitants, as well as to study the
productions and climate of the country. Thus his narrative is filled
with details of all kinds, and had retained its attractions until
recent years, because travellers do not voluntarily frequent this
unhealthy archipelago, the isolated situation of which had kept away
foreigners and conquerors. Pyrard's narrative therefore, is still
instructive and agreeable reading.
In 1607, a fleet was sent to the Maldives by the King of Bengal, in
order to carry off the 100 or 120 cannon which the Maldive sovereign
owed to the wreck of numerous Portuguese vessels. Pyrard,
notwithstanding all the liberty allowed him, and that he had become
a landholder, was desirous to behold his beloved Brittany once more.
He therefore eagerly embraced this opportunity of quitting the
Archipelago with the three companions who out of the whole crew
alone remained with him. But the eventful travels of Pyrard were not
yet concluded. Taken first to Ceylon, he was carried afterwards to
Bengal, and endeavoured to reach Cochin. Before reaching this town
he was captured by the Portuguese and carried prisoner to Cochin; he
afterwards fell ill and was nursed in the Hospital of Goa which he
only quitted to serve for two years as a soldier, at the end of
which time he was again thrown into prison, and it was not until
1611, that he was able to revisit the good town of Laval. After so
many trials, Pyrard must doubtless have felt the need of repose, and
we are justified in imagining, from the silence of history as to the
close of his life, that he was privileged at length to find
happiness.
While the honest burgess François Pyrard, was, so to speak, in spite
of himself, and from having indulged the desire of making a fortune
too rapidly, launched into adventures in which he had to pass much
of his life, circumstances of a different and romantic kind caused
Pietro della Valle to determine upon travelling. Descendant of an
ancient and noble family, he is by turns a soldier of the Pope, and
a sailor chasing Barbary corsairs. Upon his return to Rome he finds
that a rival, profiting by his absence, has taken his place with a
young girl whom he was to have married. So great a misfortune
demands an heroic remedy, and Della Valle makes a vow of pilgrimage
to the Holy Sepulchre. But if, as saith the proverb, there is no
road which does not lead to Rome, so there is no circuit so long as
not to lead to Jerusalem, and of this Della Valle was to make proof.
He embarks at Venice in 1614, passes thirteen months at
Constantinople, reaches Alexandria by sea, afterwards Cairo, and
joins a caravan which at length brings him to Jerusalem. But while
en route, Delia Valle had no doubt imbibed a taste for a traveller's
life, for he visits in succession Baghdad, Damascus, Aleppo, and
even pushes on as far as the ruins of Babylon. We must believe that
Della Valle was marked out as an easy prey to love, for upon his
return he becomes enamoured of a young Christian woman of Mardin, of
wondrous beauty, whom he marries. One would imagine that here at
length is fixed the destiny of this indefatigable traveller. Nothing
of the kind. Della Valle contrives to accompany the Shah in his war
against the Turks, and to traverse during four consecutive years the
provinces of Iran. He quits Ispahan in 1621, loses his wife in the
month of December of the same year, causes her to be embalmed, and
has her coffin carried about in his train for four years longer,
which he devotes to exploring Ormuz, the western coasts of India,
the Persian Gulf, Aleppo, and Syria, landing at length at Naples in
1626.
The countries which this singular character visited, urged on as he
was by an extraordinary enthusiasm, are described by him in a shrewd,
gay, and natural style, and even with some degree of fidelity. But
he inaugurates the pleiad of amateur, curious, and commercial
travellers. He is the first of that prolific race of tourists who
each year encumber geographical literature with numerous volumes,
from which the savant finds nothing to glean beyond meagre details.
Tavernier is a specimen of insatiable curiosity. At two-and-twenty
he has traversed France, England, the Low Countries, Germany,
Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, and Italy. Then when Europe no longer
offers any food for his curiosity, he starts for Constantinople,
where he remains for a year, and then arrives in Persia, where the
opportunity and
Quelque diable, aussi, le poussant,
he sets to work to purchase carpets, stuffs, precious stones, and
those thousand trifles of which lovers of curiosities soon became
passionately fond, and for which they were ready to pay fabulous
sums. The profit which Tavernier realized from his cargo induced him
to resume his travels. But like a wise and prudent man, before
starting he learnt from a jeweller the art of knowing precious
stones. During four successive journeys from 1638 to 1663, he
travelled over Persia, the Mogul Empire, the Indies as far as the
frontier of China, and the Islands of Sunda. Dazzled by the immense
fortune which his traffic had obtained for him, Tavernier would play
the lord, and soon saw himself on the verge of ruin, which he hoped
to avert by sending one of his nephews to the east with a
considerable venture, but instead, his ruin was consummated by this
young man, who, judging it best to appropriate the goods which had
been confided to him, settled down at Ispahan. Tavernier, who was a
well-educated man, made a number of interesting observations upon
the history, manners and customs, of the countries which he visited.
His narrative certainly contributed to give his contemporaries a
much more correct idea of the countries of the east than they
previously possessed.
All travellers during the reign of Louis XIV. take the route to the
East Indies, whatever may be the end they have in view. Africa is
entirely deserted, and if America be the theatre of any real
exploration, it is carried out without aid from government.
Whilst Tavernier was accomplishing his last and distant excursions,
a distinguished archæologist, Jean de Thévenot, nephew of
Melchisedec Thévenot--a learned man to whom we owe an interesting
series of travels--journeyed through Europe, and visited Malta,
Constantinople, Egypt, Tunis, and Italy. He brought back in 1661 an
important collection of medals and monumental inscriptions,
recognized nowadays as so important a help to the historian and the
philologist. In 1664, he set out anew for the Levant, and visited
Persia, Bassorah, Surat, and India, where he saw Masulipatam,
Burhampur, Aurungabad, and Golconda. But the fatigues which he had
experienced prevented his return to Europe, and he died in Armenia
in 1667. The success of his narratives was considerable, and was
well deserved by the care and exactitude of a traveller whose
scientific attainments in history, geography, and mathematics, far
surpassed the average level of his contemporaries.
We must now speak of the amiable Bernier, the "pretty philosopher,"
as he was entitled in his polite circle, in which were found Ninon
and La Fontaine, Madame de la Sablière, St. Evremont, and Chapelle,
without reckoning many other good and gay spirits, refractories from
the stiff solemnity which then weighed upon the entourage of Louis
XIV. Bernier could not escape from the fashion of travelling. After
having taken a rapid survey of Syria and Egypt, he resided for
twelve years in India, where his good knowledge of medicine
conciliated the favour of Aurung-Zebe, and gave him the opportunity
of beholding in detail, and with profit, an empire then in the full
bloom of its prosperity.
To the south of Hindostan, Ceylon had more than one surprise in
reserve for its explorers. Robert Knox, taken prisoner by the
natives, owed to this sad circumstance his long residence in the
country and the collection of the first authentic documents relating
to the forests and the savage natives of Ceylon, the Dutch, with a
commercial jealousy which they were not singular in evincing, having
until now kept secret all the information which had come to light
concerning an island of which they were endeavouring to make a
colony.
[Illustration: Jean Chardin. -From an old print-.]
Another merchant, Jean Chardin, the son of a rich Parisian jeweller,
jealous of the successes of Tavernier, desired, like him, to make
his fortune by trading in diamonds. The countries which attract
these merchants are those of which the fame for wealth and
prosperity is become proverbial; these are Persia and India, where
rich costumes sparkle with jewels and gold, and where there are
mines of diamonds of a fabulous size. The moment is well chosen for
visiting these countries. Thanks to the Mogul Emperors, civilization
and art have been developed; mosques, palaces, temples have been
built, and towns have risen suddenly. Their taste--that curious
taste, so distinctly characterized, so different from our own,--is
displayed in the construction of gigantic edifices, quite as much as
in jewellery and goldsmith's work, and in the manufacture of those
costly trifles of which the east was beginning to be passionately
fond. Like a wise man, Chardin takes a partner, as good a
connoisseur as himself. At first Chardin only traversed Persia in
order to reach Ormuz and to embark for the Indies. The following
year he returns to Ispahan, and applies himself to learn the
language of the country, in order to be able to transact business
directly and without any intermediary agent. He has the good fortune
to please the Shah, Abbas II. From that time his fortune is made,
for it is at once genteel and also the part of a prudent courtier to
employ the same purveyor as his sovereign. But Chardin had another
merit besides that of making a fortune. He was able to collect so
considerable a mass of information concerning the government,
manners, creeds, customs, towns, and populations of Persia, that his
narrative has remained to our own days the -vade-mecum- of the
traveller. This guide is so much the more precious because Chardin
took care to engage at Constantinople a clever draughtsman named
Grelot, by whom were reproduced the monuments, cities, scenes,
costumes, and ceremonies which so well portray what Chardin called,
"the every day of a people."
When Chardin returned to France in 1670, the Revocation of the Edict
of Nantes, with the barbarous persecutions which resulted from it,
had chased from their country great numbers of artisans, who, taking
refuge in foreign countries enriched them with our arts and
manufactures. Chardin, being a protestant, clearly perceived that
his religion would hinder him from attaining "to what are termed
honours and advancement." As, to use his own words, "one is not free
to believe what one will," he resolved to return to the Indies
"where, without being urged to a change of religion," he could not
fail of attaining an honourable position. Thus liberty of conscience
was at that period greater in Persia than in France. Such an
assertion on the part of a man who had made the comparison, is but
little flattering to the grandson of Henry IV.
This time, however, Chardin did not follow the same route as before.
He passed by Smyrna and Constantinople, and from thence, crossing
the Black Sea, he landed in the Crimea, in the garb of a religious.
Whilst passing through the region of the Caucasus he had the
opportunity of studying the Abkasians and Circassians. He afterwards
penetrated into Mingrelia, where he was robbed of his goods and
papers, and of a portion of the jewels which he was taking back to
Europe. He could not have escaped himself had it not been for the
devotion to him of the theatines, from whom he had received
hospitality, but he escaped only to fall into the hands of the Turks,
who, in their turn, accepted a ransom for him. After further
misadventures he arrived at Tiflis on the 17th of December, 1672,
and as Georgia was then governed by a prince who was a tributary of
the Shah of Persia, it was easy for Chardin to reach Erivan, Tauriz,
and finally Ispahan.
After a stay of four years in Persia, and a concluding journey to
India, during which he realized a considerable fortune, Chardin
returned to Europe and settled in England, his own country on
account of his religion, being forbidden ground to him.
The journal of his travels forms a large work, in which everything
that concerns Persia is especially developed. The long stay he made
in the country and his intimate acquaintance with the highest
personages of the state enabled him to collect numerous and
authentic documents. It may fairly be said that in this way Persia
was better known in the seventeenth century than it was 100 years
later.
The countries which Chardin had just explored were visited again
some years later by a Dutch painter, Cornelius de Bruyn, or Le Brun.
The great value of his work consists in the beauty and accuracy of
the drawings which illustrate it, for as far as the text is
concerned, it contains nothing which was not known before, except in
what relates to the Samoyedes, whom he was the first to visit.
[Illustration: Japanese Warrior. -From an old print-.]
We must now speak of the Westphalian, Kæmpfer, almost a naturalized
Swede in consequence of his long sojourn in Scandinavian countries.
He refused the brilliant position which was there offered him in
order to accompany as secretary, an ambassador who was going to
Moscow. He was thus enabled to see the principal cities of Russia, a
country which at that period had scarcely entered upon the path of
western civilization; afterwards he went to Persia, where he quitted
the Ambassador Fabricius, in order to enter the service of the Dutch
Company of the Indies, and to continue his travels. He thus visited
in the first place Persepolis, Shiraz, Ormuz upon the Persian Gulf,
where he was extremely ill, and whence he embarked in 1688 for the
East Indies. Arabia Felix, India, the Malabar Coast, Ceylon, Java,
Sumatra, and Japan were afterwards all visited by him. The object of
these journeys was exclusively scientific. Kæmpfer was a physician,
but was more especially devoted to the various branches of Natural
History, and collected, described, drew, or dried, a considerable
number of plants then unknown in Europe, gave new information upon
their use in medicine or manufactures, and collected an immense
herbarium, which is now preserved with the greater part of his
manuscripts in the British Museum in London. But the most
interesting portion of his narrative, now-a-days indeed quite
obsolete and very incomplete since the country has been opened up to
our scientific men,--was for a long time that relating to Japan. He
had contrived to procure books treating of the history, literature,
and learning of the country, when he had failed in obtaining from
certain personages to whom he had rendered himself very acceptable,
information which was not usually imparted to foreigners.
To conclude, if all the travellers of whom we have just spoken are
not strictly speaking discoverers, if they do not explore countries
unknown before, they all have, in various degrees and according to
their ability or their studies, the merit of having rendered the
countries which they visited better known. Besides they were able to
banish to the domain of fable, many of the tales which others less
learned had naïvely accepted, and which had for long become so
completely public property that nobody dreamed of disputing them.
Thanks to these travellers, something is known of the history of the
east, the migrations of nations began to be dimly suspected, and
accounts to be given of the changes in those great empires of which
the very existence had been long problematical.
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