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From Chambers' Papers for the People. ANTARCTIC EXPLORATIONS.

FROM the earliest periods of geographical discovery down to the present century, a high degree of mystery has attached to the southern regions of the globe. Long after the seas of the northern hemisphere had been navigated and explored by enterprising adventurers, the ocean south of the equator was regarded with the exaggerated dread which ever attends a low state of knowledge. It was there that nature kept some of her profoundest secrets; and, during several generations, man shrank from the attempt to penetrate them. Not to mention the vague speculations of Ptolemy and others of the ancient philosophers, we may commence with the incident recorded by Arabian writers, that in 1147, about the time of the second Crusade, eight individuals sailed to discover the limits of the "Sea of Darkness," as the Atlantic was then called. They touched at an island on the way, from the natives of which they heard rumors of a "dense gloom" to the southward, and were so terrified at the prospect, that they abandoned the voyage. Two Genoese made a similar attempt in 1291, and were never afterwards heard of. In maps of this period Africa is made to terminate north of the equator; a curious one preserved in the library at Turin exhibits the outlines of the then known parts of the world, and an explanatory note, stating, "Beside these three parts of the world, there is beyond the ocean a fourth, which the extreme heat of the sun prohibits our being acquainted with, and on the confines of which is the country of the

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fabulous antipodes." In the maps by Picigano, about 1367, Africa is seen similarly defrauded of its fair proportions; but-and the fact is remarkable-these maps exhibit a western continent named Antilia, which is supposed to represent South America,; the same outlines also occur in Andrea Bianco's map of 1436.

The fifteenth century gave birth to a more inquiring and adventurous spirit. Encouraged by Don Henry, Portuguese navigators doubled Cape Bojador, in 1418, just after the battle of Agincourt, and crept timidly down towards the supposed unin-. habitable torrid zone. In 1433, the feat was repeated by Gilianez of Lagos; and, within the next twenty years, several expeditions had visited Guinea and the Gold Coast. At length, in 1486, while numbers in England were mourning the field of Bosworth and the last of the Plantagenets, Bartholemew Diaz, a knight of King John's household, sailed with two caravels, of fifty tons each, and a small storeship, to attempt further discoveries. He touched on the coast of Africa, and set up a stone pillar at a point beyond the limit of any former voyage, and then, sailing boldly across the ocean, saw land no more until he was forty leagues to the eastward of its southern extremity-a dense mist, peculiar to that latitude at certain seasons, had concealed it from his sight. He had reached what is now known as Algoa Bay. The crew were unwilling to proceed; but Diaz prevailed on them to sail twenty-five leagues further, where the coast was seen still trending to the eastward. On returning, he saw the end of the land—a view that gladdened and rewarded him for his labor and

possessed in astronomy and cosmography helped me to direct our course, and my success increased the crews' confidence in me, as a very extraordinary person." They coasted along, landing occasionally, and staying a month at anchor to refresh, and losing some of the crew, who were eaten by the natives, until, as recorded, "we had passed the tropic of Capricorn, and brought the north-pole star below the horizon. We then began to regu

anxieties, and set up a pillar on the shore to establish the Portuguese claim to the discovery. He had now found the route from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, then, however, regarded with terror, from the violent storms which almost constantly prevailed. It was from these that Diaz called the remote promontory "Il Cabo dos Tormentos," a designation which it was not long to retain, for, on the return of the adventurers to Lisbon in December, 1487, as related by Camoens-late our course by the stars of the southern hemi

At Lisboa's court they told their dread escape, And from her raging tempests, named the Cape. Thou southmost Point, the joyful king exclaimed, Cape of Good Hope be thou forever named.

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In October, 1492, Columbus led the way to tropical America; thus within a short period two great routes were opened to the mysterious southern regions. Vasco de Gama's voyage followed; with a small fleet he rounded the cape on which such hopes were built, and reached India. According to the accounts given, it was no easy task. "The waves," says the narrator, rose like mountains in height, his ships were heaved up to the clouds, and now appeared as precipitated by circling whirlpools to the bed of the ocean. The winds were piercing cold, and so boisterous that the pilot's voice could seldom be heard, whilst a dismal and almost continual darkness, which at that tempestuous season involves those seas, added greatly to the danger. Sometimes the gale drove them to the southward, at other times they were obliged to stand on the tack, and yield to its fury, preserving what they had gained with the greatest difficulty. During any gloomy interval of the storm, the sailors, wearied out with fatigue, and abandoned to despair, surrounded Gama, begging he would not devote himself and crew to so dreadful a death. They exclaimed that the gale could no longer be weathered; that every one must be buried in the waves if they continued to proceed. The firmness of the admiral could not be shaken, and a formidable conspiracy was immediately formed against him; but of this desperate proceeding he was informed by his brother Paulo. The conspirators and all the pilots were immediately put in irons; whilst Gama, assisted by his brother, and the few who remained steadfast in their duty, stood night and day to the helm. Providence rewarded his heroism, and at length, on Wednesday, the 20th of November, all the squadron doubled this tremendous promontory."

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Several of the companions of Columbus figure prominently in the history of coasting voyages along the American continent. Vincent Yanez Pinzon was the first to cross the line in the western seas; he discovered Brazil a few months before it was seen by Cabral. In the previous year, 1499, Hojeda had sailed to make discoveries with Amerigo Vespucci as pilot, and to the latter must perhaps be accorded the merit of the earliest antarctic explorations. He had made two voyages in the Spanish service; his third, undertaken in May, 1501, with the " daring project of advancing as near as possible to the antarctic pole," was under the auspices of Emmanuel, king of Portugal. The party were embarked in three small vessels, and after sixty-seven days' sailing, saw the coast of Brazil. This long run," says Vespucci, we made in great distress, continually beaten by rain and tempests, attended for six weeks with so thick a darkness, that we all gave ourselves for lost. Our pilots were at their wit's end, not knowing in what part of the world we were. But the skill I

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sphere, which we found larger and brighter than those of the northern ;" and Vespucci boasts that he was the first since Adam and Eve to view the constellation of the Southern Cross. In April, 1502, they had reached the latitude of 52 degrees south. Here," he continues, "the sea ran so high, that the whole crew expected to perish, it being now winter in those parts, and the nights more than fifteen hours long. On the first day of April I discovered a Terra Australis, which we coasted for twenty leagues. We found it all a bold shore, without seeing any port or inhabitants. Here we found it so cold, that none of us could endure it, and the fogs so thick, that we could not see from the one ship to the other. The captain, alarmed at the dangers the ships ran in those seas, resolved to return towards the equator; and lucky it was he did so, for on the two following days the storm was so violent, that, had we continued our intended course, in all probability the squadron had been lost in thick fogs during these long nights." In September of the same year Vespucci was again at Lisbon; when he turned back, he was probably somewhere between the Falkland Islands and the mainland; and, had he persevered towards the pole, the southern cape of the new, as well as of the old continent, would have been discovered by the Portuguese.

The next expedition was conducted by Juan Diaz de Solis, one of the most able navigators of that day; he sailed in 1514, and on coming to the great estuary of the Rio de la Plata, or mar dulce, as he named it, he thought he had reached the muchdesired passage to the western ocean. He ascended the river for some distance; but his voyage came to an unhappy termination; one day, while on shore, he was captured with five of his crew, and eaten by the natives. From his abilities, we may conclude that, had this catastrophe not occurred, he would have succeeded in the object of his search.

Balboa's discovery of the great South Sea from “a peak in Darien" in 1513, the same year that Flodden Field was fought, had excited the adventurous spirits of that adventurous age with eager desires to find a passage from the one ocean to the other hence the numerous but abortive coasting voyages in the Gulf of Mexico and to the southward. The expedition under Magellan, which sailed from San Lucar in September, 1519, when Luther was setting Germany in a blaze with the fire of the Reformation, had the same object; he was appointed commander of a fleet of five vessels, the largest not more than 120 tons burthen. On arriving in Port St. Julian, after the then usually tedious voyage across the Atlantic, a consultation was held as to their means and prospects; nearly every voice was raised against proceeding; some feared the length of the voyage, others dreaded being abandoned far from their native country. Magellan, however, determined to winter in the port, and gave orders for the provisions to be issued under allowance; "whereupon," according to Herrera, "the people, on account of the great cold, begged him

that since the country was found to extend itself towards the antarctic, without showing a hope of finding the cape of this land, nor any strait; and as the winter was setting in severe, and some men dead for want, that he would increase the allowance, or return back; alleging that it was not the king's intention that they should seek out what was impossible, and that it was enough to have got where none had ever been; adding, that, going further towards the pole, some furious wind might drive them where they should not get away, and all perish.

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Magalhaens, who was a ready man, and presently hit on a remedy for whatever incident occurred, said that he was very ready to die, or to fulfil what he had promised. He said that the king had ordered him the voyage which was to be performed; and that, at all events, he was to sail till he found the end of that land, or some strait, which they could not fail of doing; and though wintering seemed to be attended with difficulties, there could be none, when the spring set in, to proceed forward, discovering the coasts of the continent under the antarctic pole, being assured that they must come to a place where a day lasted three months; that he was astonished that men, and Spaniards, could have so much sluggishness." The brave leader ended by avowing his determination to die rather "than shamefully to return back ;" and, by the force of his example and encouraging words, succeeded in repressing the discontent for a time.

While lying here, several of the natives came down to the anchorage; their stature was such, that the Spaniards regarded them as giants, and, from their rude contrivances for shoes, named them Patagones, or clumsy-hoofed; an appellation which they still retain. Exploring parties were sent, out from time to time to examine the inlets along the coast; one of these parties lost their vessel, and, before they could regain the port, endured so great hardships from want of food and severity of the climate, as to be scarcely recognizable in their wretched and emaciated condition. Discontent again broke out; some of the ringleaders were condemned to be left on shore-a miserable fate; a mutinous captain was stabbed, and another condemned to be hanged with a youth of his crew; "and because they had no executioner, the boy, to save his own life, accepted of the office, and hung his master, and quartered him." Refractoriness on the part of the crews was one of the greatest obstacles which the leaders of early voyages had to contend against.

The fleet put to sea a second time in October, 1520, and shortly afterwards came to the mouth of a great strait, which ran so far into the land, as flattered all on board must be the wished-for passage. Considering the question as settled, the pilots demanded to return to Spain for larger and better-furnished vessels wherewith to enter on the unknown navigation; but Magellan replied, "that if even he thought they could be reduced to the necessity of eating the hides which were on the yards, he would go on to discover what he had promised the emperor; for he trusted God would assist them, and bring them to a good conclusion." One of the vessels was wrecked, the crew of another abandoned the enterprise, so that but three ships were left to explore the strait. Magellan, however, bore up against the difficulties of an intricate navigation. "While sailing along," says Herrera, "they observed the land here was very ragged and cold; and because they saw in the night many fires, it was named Terra del Fuego." At length, on the

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27th November, he sailed into the great South Sea, giving infinite thanks to God that he had permitted him to find what was so much desired, and that he was the first who had found the passage so much sought after. Whereby the memory of this excellent captain shall be eternally celebrated."

Although Magellan had been anticipated by Balboa in embarking on the waters of the ocean, to which he gave the name of Pacific, he was the first European to navigate it with ships. By a singular fatality, he chose a track on which, during more than 3000 miles, he saw no other land than two insignificant islets, while his crew were dispirited and half-starved:

Waste and wild

The view! On the same sunshine o'er the waves The murmuring mariners, with languid eye, E'en till the heart is sick, gaze day by day.

Their chief, as is well known, did not live to reap the fruit of his labors, having been killed in a battle with the natives of one of the Philippine Islands, and but one of his vessels returned to Europe. This voyage was the more remarkable, as being the first circumnavigation of the globe, and the first occasion of seamen finding the loss of a day in their reckoning; a fact which caused much surprise at that time, and baffled the learned in their attempts to account for it.

Pigafetta, a contemporary historian, says of this voyage, "These were mariners who surely merited an eternal memory, more justly than the Argonauts of old. The ship, too, undoubtedly deserved far better to be placed among the stars than their ship Argo: for this, our wonderful ship, taking her departure from the Straits of Gibraltar, and sailing southwards through the great ocean towards the Antarctic Pole, and then turning west, followed that course so long, that, passing round, she came into the east, and thence again into the west, not by sailing back, but proceeding constantly forward; so compassing about the globe of the world, until she marvellously regained her native country, Spain, and the port from which she departed, Seville."

Several other expeditions followed, undertaken by adventurers on their own account, or with the sanction of the governmental authorities. Loaysa was sent out with a fleet by Spain, in 1526, to lay claim to the Mollucas; and according to some accounts, Huces, one of his captains, was driven so far to the southward, that he saw the end of the land. But so much disaster, misery, and privation attended lengthened voyages at that early period, that no other important expedition sailed until the famous one under Drake in 1577. The time had come for Englishmen to exhibit their skill and hardihood in distant navigation, and the circumstances were such as to favor and stimulate their manifestation. Pope Alexander VI. had decided by a bull that a line drawn from the north pole to the south, 100 leagues west of the Azores, should be the dividing line between the possessions of the Spaniards and the Portuguese, to whom all the new discoveries were to belong; a decision which produced the remark from the king of France," Since the kings of Spain and Portugal divide the whole world between them, I wish that they would show me the will of our father Adam, that I might see in what terms he has constituted them sole heirs." Supported by such authority, the two powers often came into conflict; and the jealous and arrogant spirit displayed by Spain towards

other competitors, tended to provoke a formidable with snow, looking like Norway. It seemed to rivalry on the part of such a people as the English, extend to the Islands of Salomon." This mounanimated by an ardent spirit of enterprise. To tainous land is now supposed to be the South prevent others from following on their tracks the Shetlands, which were rediscovered some 200 Spaniards for a long time kept their maps and years after the event above recorded. The Holcharts studiously secret-a mean and selfish policy, landers were not slow in pushing their trade into in which they were afterwards imitated by the the new countries; the Dutch East India ComDutch with respect to their eastern possessions, pany despatched a fleet under Spilberg, and and also by the Hudson's Bay Company regarding claimed the monopoly of trade to India by the theirs in the north. Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan, Drake sailed from Plymouth in December, 1577, a restriction unfavorable to other merchants, by with a fleet of five vessels, the largest 100 tons whom it was complained of. The States-General, burthen. In August of the following year he to resolve the difficulty, and promote discovery, entered the Straits of Magellan, greatly to the declared that the discoverer of a new passage to surprise and disappointment of the Spaniards, India should be rewarded with the profit of the who, until then, had believed that no stranger first four voyages. The opportunity was not negwould venture on or succeed in so hazardous an lected: Le Maire, a sagacious and wealthy merenterprise. He effected the passage in seventeen chant of Amsterdam, who had studied the subject, days on reaching the western mouth, the fleet came to the conclusion that such a passage existed, was separated by a tempest, and Drake was left and took measures to verify his opinion. Two with only two vessels to prosecute his voyage. ships, the Unity and the Horn, were privately The foul weather, however, was the cause of an equipped, and sent out under command of Wilinteresting incident :-" I remember,' says Sir liam Schouten and Le Maire's son in 1615: in R. Hawkins in his narrative, "that Sir Francis November they anchored in Port Desire for refreshDrake told me, that having shot the Straits, a ment and repairs, and while here, the Horn was storme took him first at north-west, and after accidentally burnt. They resumed their voyage vered about to south-west, which continued with in January, 1616, the year in which Baffin's Bay him many dayes, with that extremitie, that he was discovered, and on "the 24th, in the forecould not open any sayle, and that at the end of noon, saw land a-starboard, about a league's disthe storme he found himselfe in fiftie degrees, tance, stretching out east and south, with very which was sufficient testimony and proof that he high hills, all covered with ice; and then other was beaten round about the Straits, for the least land bearing east from it, high and rugged as the height of the Straits is in fiftie-two degrees and former. They guessed the lands they had in these fiftie minutes, in which stand the two entrances or two prospects lay about eight leagues asunder, mouths. And moreover, he said, that standing and that there might be a good passage between about when the winde changed, he was not well them, because of a pretty brisk current that ran able to double the southermost iland, and so anch-southward along by them. They saw an incrediored under the lee of it; and, going ashore, car-ble number of penguins, and such large shoals of ried a compasse with him, and seeking out the whales, that they were forced to proceed with southermost part of the iland, cast himselfe downe great caution, for fear they should run their ship apon the uttermost point groveling, and so reached upon them. out his body over it. Presently he imbarked, and "The 25th, in the forenoon, they got close up then recounted unto his people that he had beene by the east land; this they called States Land, and upon the southermost knowne land in the world, to that which lay west they gave the name of and more further to the southwards upon it than Maurice Land. In the evening, having a southany of them, yea or any man as yet knowne." west wind, they steered southwards, meeting with Here the gallant captain saw "the Atlantic Ocean mighty waves, that came rolling along before the and the South Sea meet in a large and free scope:" wind, and the depth of the water to the leeward he was detained by the storm fifty-one days, and from them, which appeared by some very evident occupied himself in observing the manners of the signs, gave them a full assurance that the great natives, to whose islands he gave the name of South Sea was now before them, into which they Elizabethides. His further exploits do not fall had almost made their way by a passage of their within our purpose; suffice it, that he was the own discovering. The 29th they saw land again; first Englishman who sailed round the world, and this was the high hilly land, covered with snow, completed the voyage in two years and ten months. that lay southward from the Magellanic Straits, The first attempts of the English to sail round ending in a sharp point, which they called Cape the Cape of Good Hope were made in 1591, with Horn, and now they gathered full assurance that three vessels, one of which only, Sir James Lan- the way was open into the South Sea. The 12th caster's, reached India. Shortly afterwards, when of February they plainly discovered the Magellanic Philip of Spain invaded Holland, the Dutch re- Straits lying east of them; and therefore, now solved to attack the Spanish possessions in Amer-being secure of their happy new discovery, they ica, and in 1598 sent out Oliver Van Noort and an English pilot named Mellish with four vessels: they were the pioneers of that commercial nation in the southern regions. Another fleet of five ships sailed from Rotterdam in the same year one of the captains, Sebald de Weert, discovered a group of Islands which for a long time bore his name; they are now better known as the Falklands. Old Purchas relates that Theodore Gerards (Gerritz), one of that fleet, was carried by tempest, as they write, to 64 degrees south, in which height the country was mountainous, and covered

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rendered thanks to good fortune in a cup of wine, which went three times round the company." If the accounts concerning Huces and Drake are to be depended on, Cape Horn had been twice before discovered in the course of the preceding century.

Le Maire's name was given to the newly discovered strait, and thus the utmost southern point of the American continent was made known, and an open passage found from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. An enterprise so well considered, and successfully carried out, should have had a satisfactory termination. But on the arrival of the

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