The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-06-18

|
direction down to the reign of Henr,
VII. the discovery of America by Co
| lumbus, and the daring exploration
made by that inspired Portuguese
Vasco de Cana, having quickened th,
pulse of every mariner in the ole
! world and sent abroad whSls feet o
sbl ps il all directions in Quest f new
lands and Unknown oceans. De Cana
| after accurately describing tie passage
| to India round the Cape of Good Hope
| met Sebastian Cabot or day in LisbaE
and taunted him with his inactivity anC
want Of enterprise. every well, re
piled Cabot, "your passage to the
northeast was long one, mine to the
northwest shall be short one, England
shall outdo Portugal.
Cabot was also a Venetian, whose
father resided in Bristol, and who seems
to have had the first clearly defined
| idea of an open sea about the pole.
| The plau of tie son was soon mattlred.
| It was to steer. to the north until an
ocean was found which could be sailed
across direct to the Gland of Cathay y
that mysterious country of vast and
unknown treasures. Understanding,
he said, in his petition to the king fol
help, that by reason of the sphere, il
| shall sail by the northwest, will, by
shorter track, come to India, and
| desire the king to be advertised of my
| device, because all men think it thing
| more divine than human to sail by the
west into the east. where spices do
grow"
The king promptly responded by Or
dering two caravels to be prepared with
all things necessary for so long voy
age, and in the summer of 1896, the ex-
pedition sailed. It found not the coast
that the elder Cabot had SO accurately
laid down In his CONVERSATIONS with his
son, anu after many hardships and
much serious stress of weather, it made
Newfoundland, where the crews landed,
committed many excesses, and finally
turned back towards the south, reaching
Florida and passing a winter there.
Four years later, or in the year 1900,
Casper Cortereal, sailor of high birth
Portugal, sailed from Lisbon. touched
at the Azores. pursued his course in q
northwesterly direction, and came at
last to the coast of Labrador, to which he
gave the name of Terre Verde. He did
not go further. resting content to ex-
plore the country and bring back with
him q large cargo of the natives, which
was sold into slavery soon after it's ar
rival. The next year be started again
to the north, penetrated into what is
now known as Hudson's Strait, en-
countered a terrible storm, and was
never heard of more.
In 1924. the year before the disastrous
battle of Pavia, France fitted out four
ships for an Arctic voyage, and gave the
command of the expedition to Floren-
tine named Giovanni Verazzano, who
was a navigator of great energy and
ability, and one in every way suited to
the trust. He coasted along thewhole of
what is now the United States, as was
also the larger part of British America
but when he returned and found Francis
I. prisoner, the French army destroy
ed, and his adopted country half ruined,
he quit the navy for the land, and was
killed in one of the many battles Of the
period.
It was ten years after this voyage be.
fore France interested herself in another
expedition. Jacques Cartier com
maDded this one, and he circumnavi-
gated Newfoundland, discovered the Isle
of Assumption, explored the gulf of
st. Lawrence and founded the present
city of Montreal. Afterwards he fell
into disgrace and was never trusted with
another ship.
Henry VII. was succeeded by Henry
VIII, and he set about at once to
renew the polar researches left IN
completed by Sebastian Cabot. Two
expeditions were organized. Robert
Thorne, a merchant of Bristol under
took one. and a Lordoper, named
Master Hore, the other. Thorne got
two ships from the king, reached New
foundland with one of them, and got
separated from the other, which was
never seen again, nor any of its crew.
Hore received a large ship, and a crew
of one hundred and thirty persons,
thirty of whom were gentlemen "who
belOLg ged to the Inns of Court" Reach
ing also Newfoundland, they got into
such fearful distress that they began to
kill and eat one another.
The record of their cannibalism was
frightful. Hore began it by knocking
out the brains of his first mate, then
cutting his throat and drinking his
warm blood from the still living body.
Between twenty and twenty-five were
devoured in this way when a French
ship arrived only to be seized by the
ravenous English. and plundered of
everything in the shape of provisions.
Complaining to Henry of their treat
ment, he paid them we'll for their losses
but refused to punish the cannibals for
their monstrous depravitY.
Sebastian Cabot, an old man now,
returned to England, as he said, to die.
They would not let him die, however.
He was made grand pilot of the realm,
and ordered to send out competent men
in search of the north pole. He Sc
lected Sir Hugh WilIoughby and Rich
ard Chancellor for the work, giving each
good stout ship and competent crew.
At the North Cape the two ships parted
company never to meet again. Will
loughby, after terrible suffering,
reached Nova Zembla, and pushed on
into the north despite every prayer or
protest his crew could offer Off the
coast of Russian Lapland the ice caught
his vessel and crushed it as an eggshell,
ably. Willoughby's body was found
fishermen, frozen as hard as iron, and
III p0IleCI StdtS VI pTtSGFNdUlOus
Chancellor was more fortunate, and
held resolutely on his way to the White
sea, where, instead of making land
ing at Archangel, as he was advised to
do, storm overlook him and he, to-
gether with his whole crew, went down
while the storm was at its worst. It
may be said that the first period of
artic explorations ended with the death
of Henry the Eighth. The second
period commenced with Queen Eliza
beth, and was inaugurated by a series
of brilliant exploits under the daring
and skillfuI leadership of the renowned
Sir Martin Frobisher.
Sheridan's Brides TrOsSeau.
The brides dress for the interesting