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language over into our country, and therein were our laws written for a long time. Our children, also, were, by an especial decree, taught first to speak the same, and thereunto enforced to learn their constructions in the French, whensoever they were set to the grammar-school. In like sort, few bishops, abbots, or other clergymen, were admitted unto any ecclesiastical function here among us, but such as came out of religious houses from beyond the seas, to the end they should not use the English tongue in their sermons to the people. In the court, also, it grew into such contempt, that most men thought it no small dishonour to speak any English there; which bravery took his hold at the last likewise in the country with every ploughman, that even the very carters began to wax weary of their mother-tongue, and laboured to speak French, which as then was counted no small token of gentility. And no marvel; for every French rascal, when he came once hither, was taken for a gentleman, only because he was proud, and could use his own language. And all this (I say) to exile the English and British speeches quite out of the country. But in vain; for in the time of king Edward I., to wit, toward the latter end of his reign, the French itself ceased to be spoken generally, but most of all and by law in the midst of Edward III., and then began the English to recover and grow in more estimation than before; notwithstanding that, among our artificers, the most part of their implements, tools, and words of art, retain still their French denominations even

in miné opinion, they are both but a corrupted kind of British, albeit so far degenerating in these days from the old, that if either of them do meet with a Welshman, they are not able at the first to understand one another, except here and there in some odd words, without the help of interpreters. And no marvel, in mine opinion, that the British of Cornwall is thus corrupted, since the Welsh tongue that is spoken in the north and south part of Wales doth differ so much in itself, as the English used in Scotland doth from that which is spoken among us here in this side of the island, as I have said already.

The Scottish-English hath been much broader and less pleasant in utterance than ours, because that nation hath not, till of late, endeavoured to bring the same to any perfect order, and yet it was such in manner as Englishmen themselves did speak for the most part beyond the Trent, whither any great amendment of our language had not, as then, extended itself. Howbeit, in our time the Scottish language endeavoureth to come near, if not altogether to match, our tongue in fineness of phrase and copiousness of words, and this may in part appear by a history of the Apocrypha translated into Scottish verse by Hudson, dedicated to the king of that country, and containing six books, except my memory do fail me.

RICHARD HAKLUYT.

RICHARD HAKLUYT is another of the laborious com

to these our days, as the language itself is used like-pilers of this period, to whom the world is indebted wise in sundry courts, books of record, and matters of for the preservation, in an accessible form, of narralaw; whereof here is no place to make any particular tives which would otherwise, in all probability, have rehearsal. Afterward, also, by diligent travail of Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower, in the time of fallen into oblivion. The department of history which Richard II., and after them of John Scogan and John he chose was that descriptive of the naval advenLydgate, monk of Bury, our said tongue was brought tures and discoveries of his countrymen. Hakluyt was born in London about the year 1553, and received to an excellent pass, notwithstanding that it never came unto the type of perfection until the time of his elementary education at Westminster school. He Queen Elizabeth, wherein John Jewel, bishop of Sarum, afterwards studied at Oxford, where he engaged in John Fox, and sundry learned and excellent writers, an extensive course of reading in various languages, have fully accomplished the ornature of the same, to on geographical and maritime subjects, for which their great praise and immortal commendation; al- he had early displayed a strong liking. So much though not a few other do greatly seek to stain the reputation did his knowledge in those departments same, by fond affectation of foreign and strange words, acquire for him, that he was appointed to lecture presuming that to be the best English which is most at Oxford on cosmography and the collateral sciences, corrupted with external terms of eloquence and sound and carried on a correspondence with those celeof many syllables. But as this excellency of the brated continental geographers, Ortelius and MerEnglish tongue is found in one, and the south part cator. At a subsequent period, he resided for five of this island, so in Wales the greatest number (as years in Paris as chaplain to the English ambasI said) retain still their own ancient language, that sador, during which time he cultivated the acquaintof the north part of the said country being less corance of persons eminent for their knowledge of On his return rupted than the other, and therefore reputed for the geography and maritime history. better in their own estimation and judgment. This, from France in 1588, Sir Walter Raleigh appointed also, is proper to us Englishmen, that since ours is a him one of the society of counsellors, assistants, and middle or intermediate language, and neither too adventurers, to whom he assigned his patent for rough nor too smooth in utterance, we may with much the prosecution of discoveries in America. facility learn any other language, beside Hebrew, viously to this, he had published, in 1582 and 1587, Greek, and Latin, and speak it naturally, as if we two small collections of voyages to America; but were home-born in those countries; and yet on the these are included in a much larger work in three other side it falleth out, I wot not by what other volumes, which he published in 1598, 1599, and 1600, means, that few foreign nations can rightly pronounce entitled The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traf ours, without some and that great note of imperfection, fiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, made by especially the Frenchmen, who also seldom write any-Sea or Over Land, to the Remote and Farthest Distant thing that savoureth of English truly. But this of all the rest doth breed most admiration with me, that if any stranger do hit upon some likely pronunciation of our tongue, yet in age he swerveth so much from the same, that he is worse therein than ever he was, and thereto, peradventure, halteth not a little also in his own, as I have seen by experience in Reginald Wolfe, and others, whereof I have justly marvelled.

The Cornish and Devonshire men, whose country the Britons call Cerniw, have a speech in like sort of their own, and such as hath indeed more affinity with the Armorican tongue than I can well discuss of. Yet

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Quarters of the Earth, within the Compass of these 1500 years. In the first volume are contained voyages to the north and north-east; the true state of Iceland; the defeat of the Spanish Armada; the expedition under the Earl of Essex to Cadiz, &c. In the second, he relates voyages to the south and southeast; and in the third, expeditions to North America, the West Indies, and round the world. Narratives are given of nearly two hundred and twenty voyages, besides many relative documents, such as patents, instructions, and letters. To this collection all the subsequent compilers in this department have

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been largely indebted. In the explanatory catalogue prefixed to Churchill's Collection of Voyages,' and of which Locke has been said to be the author, Hakluyt's collection is spoken of as valuable for the good there to be picked out: but it might be wished the author had been less voluminous, delivering what was really authentic and useful, and not stuffing his work with so many stories taken upon trust, so many trading voyages that have nothing new in them, so many warlike exploits not at all pertinent to his undertaking, and such a multitude of articles, charters, privileges, letters, relations, and other things little to the purpose of travels and discoveries."* The work having become very scarce, a new edition, in five volumes quarto, was published in 1809. Hakluyt was the author, also, of translations of two foreign works on Florida; and, when at Paris, published an enlarged edition of a history in the Latin language, entitled De Rebus Oceanicis et Orbe Novo, by Martyr, an Italian author; this was afterwards translated into English by a person of the name of Lok, under the title of The History of the West Indies, containing the Acts and Adventures of the Spaniards, which have Conquered and Peopled those Countries; enriched with Variety of Pleasant Relation of Manners, Ceremonies, Laws, Governments, and Wars, of the Indians. In 1601 Hakluyt published the Discoveries of the World, from the First Original to the Year of our Lord 1555, translated, with additions, from the Portuguese of Antonio Galvano, governor of Ternate, in the East Indies. At his death, in 1616, his papers, which were numerous, came into the hands of

1625;

SAMUEL PURCHAS,

another English clergyman, who made use of them in compiling a history of voyages, in four volumes, entitled Purchas his Pilgrims. This appeared in but the author had already published, in 1613, before Hakluyt's death, a volume called Purchas his Pilgrimage; or, Relations of the World, and the Religions Observed in all Ages and Places Discovered from the Creation unto this Present. These two works (a new edition of the latter of which was published in 1626) form a continuation of Hakluyt's collection, but on a more extended plan. The publication of this voluminous work involved the author in debt: it was, however, well received, and has been of much utility to later compilers. The writer of the catalogue in Churchill's collection says of Purchas, that he has imitated Hakluyt too much, swelling his work into five volumes in folio;' yet, he adds, the whole collection is very valuable, as having preserved many considerable voyages that might otherwise have perished. But, like Hakluyt, he has thrown in all that came to hand, to fill up so many volumes, and is excessive full of his own notions, and of mean quibbling and playing upon words; yet for such as can make choice of the best, the collection is very valuable.'‡ Among his peculiarities is

*Churchill's Collection, vol. i., p. xvii.

The contents of the different volumes are as follow:Vol. I. of the Pilgrims' contains Voyages and Travels of Ancient Kings, Patriarchs, Apostles, and Philosophers; Voyages of Circumnavigators of the Globe; and Voyages along the coasts of Africa to the East Indies, Japan, China, the Philippine Islands,

and the Persian and Arabian Gulfs. Vol. II. contains Voyages and Relations of Africa, Ethiopia, Palestine, Arabia, Persia, and other parts of Asia. Vol. III. contains Tartary, China, Russia, North-West America, and the Polar Regions. Vol. IV. contains America and the West Indies. Vol. V. contains the Pilgrimage, a Theological and Geographical History of Asia,

Africa, and America.

Vol. i., p. xvii.

that of interlarding theological reflections and discussions with his narratives. Purchas died about 1628, at the age of fifty-one. His other works are, Microcosmus, or the History of Man (1619); the King's Tower and Triumphant Arch of London (1623); and a Funeral Sermon (1619). His quaint eulogy of the sea is here extracted from the 'Pilgrimage:'

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[The Sea.]

As God hath combined the sea and land into one globe, so their joint combination and mutual assistance is necessary to secular happiness and glory. The sea covereth one-half of this patrimony of man, whereof God set him in possession when he said, 'Replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.' Thus should man at once lose half his inheritance, if the art of navigation did not enable him to manage this untamed beast, and with the bridle of the winds and saddle of his shipping to make him serviceable. Now for the services of the sea, they are innumerable: it is the great purveyor of the world's commodities to our use; conveyer of the excess of rivers; uniter, by traffick, of all nations: it presents the eye with diversified colours and motions, and is, as it were, with rich brooches, adorned with various islands. It is an open field for merchandise in peace; a pitched field for the most dreadful fights of war; yields diversity of fish and fowl for diet; materials for wealth, medicine for health, simples for medicines, pearls, and other jewels for ornament; amber and ambergrise for delight; the wonders of the Lord in the deep' for instruction, variety of creatures for use, multiplicity of natures for contemplation, diversity of accidents bodies healthful evacuation, to the thirsty earth fertile for admiration, compendiousness to the way, to full moisture, to distant friends pleasant meeting, to weary minds a map of knowledge, mystery of temperance, persons delightful refreshing, to studious and religious exercise of continence; school of prayer, meditation, devotion, and sobriety; refuge to the distressed, portage to the merchant, passage to the traveller, customs to the prince, springs, lakes, rivers, to the earth; it hath on it tempests and calms to chastise the sins, to exercise the faith, of seamen ; manifold affections in itself, to affect and stupify the subtlest philosopher; sustaineth moveable fortresses for the soldier; maintaineth (as in our island) a wall of defence and watery garrison to guard the state; entertains the sun with vapours, the moon with obsequiousness, the stars also with a natural looking-glass, the sky with clouds, the air with temperateness, the soil with suppleness, the rivers with tides, the hills with moisture, the valleys with fertility; containeth most diversified matter for meteors, most multiform shapes, most various, numerous kinds, most immense, difformed, deformed, unformed monsters; once (for why should I longer detain you ?) the sea yields action to the body, meditation to the mind, the world to the world, all parts thereof to each part, by this art of arts, navigation.

JOHN DAVIS.

Among the intrepid navigators of Queen Elizabeth's reign, whose adventures are recorded by Hakluyt, one of the most distinguished is JOHN DAVIS, following years, made three voyages in search of a a native of Devonshire, who, in 1585, and the two north-west passage to China, and discovered the well-known straits to which his name has ever since been applied. In 1595 he himself published a small and now exceedingly rare volume, entitled The World's Hydrographical Description, wherein,' as we are told in the title-page, is proued not onely

by aucthoritie of writers, but also by late experience Dartmouth. And acquainting master Secretory with of trauellers, and reasons of substantiall probabilitie, that the worlde in all his zones, clymats, and places, is habitable and inhabited, and the seas likewise universally nauigable, without any naturall anoyance to hinder the same; whereby appeares that from England there is a short and speedie passage into the South Seas to China, Malucca, Phillipina, and India, by northerly navigation, to the renowne, honour, and benefit of her maiesties state and communalty. In corroboration of these positions, he gives a short narrative of his voyages, which, notwithstanding the unsuccessful termination of them all, he considers to afford arguments in favour of the north-west passage. This narrative, with its original spelling, is here inserted as an interesting specimen of the style of such relations in the age of Elizabeth.

[Daris's Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage.]

the rest of the honorable and worshipfull adventurers of all our procedinges, I was appointed againe the seconde yeere to search the bottome of this straight, because by all likelihood it was the place and passage by us laboured for. In this second attempt the merchants of Exeter and other places of the West became adventurers in the action, so that, being sufficiently furnished for sixe monthes, and having direction to search this straighte, untill we found the same to fall into an other sea upon the West side of this part of America, we should agayne retourne, for then it was not to be doubted but shiping with trade might safely bee conueied to China and the parts of Asia. We departed from Dartmouth, and ariving unto the south part of the cost of Desolation costed the same upon his west shore to the lat. of 66. degres, and there ancored among the ylls bordering upon the same, where wee refreshed our selues. The people of this place came likewise vnto vs, by whome I vnderstood through their signes that towardes the North the sea was large. In my first voyage, not experienced of the nature At this place the chiefe shipe whereupon I trusted, of those clymattes, and having no direction either by called the Mermayd of Dartmouth, found many occaChart, Globe, or other certayne relation in what alti-sions of discontentment, and being unwilling to protude that passage was to bee searched, I shaped a ceede she there forsooke me. Then considering howe Northerly course and so sought the same towards the I had giuen my fayth and most constant promise to South, and in that my Northerly course I fell upon my worshipfull good friend master William Sanderthe shore which in ancient time was called Groynland, son, who of all men was the greatest aduenturer in fiue hundred leagues distant from the durseys West that action, and tooke such care for the perfourmance Nor West Northerly, the land being very high and theerof that hee hath to my knowledge at one time full of mightie mountaines all couered with snow, no disbursed as much money as any fiue others whatsoviewe of wood, grasse, or earth to be seene, and the euver out of his owne purse, when some of the comshore two leages of into the sea so full of yse as that pany haue bin slacke in giuing in their aduenture. no shipping cold by any meanes come neere the same. And also knowing that I should lose the fauour of The lothsome vewe of the shore, and irksome noyse of master Secretory, if I should shrinke from his direction, the yse was such, as that it bred strange conceipts among in one small barke of thirty tonnes, whereof master us, so that we supposed the place to be wast and voyd Sanderson was owner, alone without farther comfort or of any sencible or vegitable creatures, wherupon I company I proceeded on my voyage, and ariuing unto called the same Desolation; so coasting this shore this straights followed the same eightie leages, vntill towardes the South in the latitude of sixtie degrees, I came among many ylandes, where the water did eb found it to trend towardes the west. I still followed and flowe sixe fadome vpright, and where there had the leading thereof in the same height, and after fiftie beene great trade of people to make trayne. But by or sixtie leages, it fayled and lay directly north, which such thinges as there we found, wee knewe that they I still followed, and in thirtie leages sayling upon the were not Xtians of Europe that vsed that trade; in West side of this coast by me named Desolation, we fine, by seaching with our boate, wee founde small were past all the yse and found many greene and hope to passe any farther that way, and therefore plesant Ills bordering upon the shore, but the moun- retourning againe recouered the sea and so coasted tains of the maine were still covered with great quan- the shore towardes the South, and in so doing (for it tities of snowe. I brought my shippe among those ylls was to late to search towardes the North) wee founde and there mored to refreshe our selves in our wearie an other great inlett neere fortie leages broade where travell, in the latitude of sixtie foure degrees or there the water entred in with violent swiftnes. This we about. The people of the country, having espyed our likewise thought might be a passage, for no doubt but shipps, came down unto us in their canoes, holding up the North partes of America are all ylands, by ought their right hand to the Sunne and crying Yliaout, that I could perceiue therein; but because I was alone would stricke their brestes; we doing the like the in a small barke of thirtie tonnes, and the yeere people came aborde our shippes, men of good stature, spent I entered not into the same, for it was now the unbearded, small eyed and of tractable conditions; by seuenth of September, but coasting the shore towardes whom, as signes would permit, we understoode that the South we saw an incredible number of birdes. towardes the North and West there was a great sea, Hauing diuers fishermen aborde our barke, they all and using the people with kindnesse in geuing them concluded that there was a great scull of fish. Wee nayles and knifes which of all things they most de- beeing vnprouided of fishing furniture, with a long sired, we departed, and finding the sea free from yse, spike nayle mayde a hoke, and fastening the same to supposing our selves to be past all daunger, we shaped one of our sounding lynes. Before the bayte was our course West Nor West, thinking thereby to passe changed wee tooke more than fortie great cods, the for China, but in the latitude of sixtie sixe degrees, fishe swimming so aboundantly thicke about our wee fell with an other shore, and there founde an barke as is incredible to be reported of, which with a other passage of 20 leages broade directly West into small portion of salte that we had, wee preserued the same, which we supposed to bee our hoped strayght. some thirtie couple, or there aboutes, and so returned We intered into the same thirty or fortie leages, finding for England. And hauing reported to master Secreit neither to wyden nor straighten; then, considering that tory the whole successe of this attempt, hee comthe yeere was spent, for this was in the fyne of August, manded mee to present unto the most honorable and not knowing the length of this straight and dan- Lorde high thresurer of England some parte of that gers thereof, we tooke it our best course to retourne fish, which when his Lordship saw and hearde at large with notice of our good successe for this small time the relation of this seconde attempt, I receiued fauorof search. And so retourning in a sharpe fret of able countenance from his honour, aduising mee to Westerly windes, the 29 of September we arrived at prosecute the action, of which his Lordship conceiued

a very good opinion. The next yeere, although diuers of the aduenturers fel from the action, as al the western merchantes and most of those in London, yet some of the aduenturers both honorable and worshipfull continued their willing fauour and charge, so that by this meanes the next yeere 2. shippes were appointed for the fishing and one pynace for the discouery.

Departing from Dartmouth, through Gods merciful fauour I ariued to the place of fishing and there according to my direction I left the 2 shipps to follow that busines, taking their faithful promise not to depart vntill my returne vnto them, which shoulde bee in the fine of August, and so in the barke I proceeded for the discouery, but after my departure in sixteene dayes the shippes had finished their voyage, and so presently departed for England, without regard of their promise. My selfe, not distrusting any such hard measure, proceeded in the discouerie and followed my course in the free and open sea, betweene North and Nor west, to the latitude of sixtie seuen degrees, and there I might see America west from me, and Desolation east; then when I saw the land of both sides, I began to distrust that it would prooue but a gulfe. Notwithstanding, desirous to knowe the full certaintye, I proceeded, and in sixtie eight degrees the passage enlarged, so that I could not see the westerne shore; thus I continued to the latitude of seuentie fiue degrees, in a great sea, free from yse, coasting the westerne shore of Desolation. The people came continually rowing out vnto me in their Canoas, twenty, forty, and one hundred at a time, and would giue me fishe dried, Samon, Samon peale, cod, Caplin, Lumpe, stone base, and such like, besides diuers kindes of birdes, as Partrig, Fesant, Gulls, sea birdes, and other kindes of fleshe. I still laboured by signes to knowe from them what they knew of any sea towards the North. They still made signes of a great sea as we vnderstood them; then I departed from that coast, thinking to discouer the North parts of America, and after I had sayled towardes the west neere fortie leages I fell upon a great bancke of yse; the wind being North and blewe much, I was constrained to coast the same towardes the South, not seeing any shore West from me, neither was there any yse towards the North, but a great sea, free, large, very salt and blue and of an unsearcheable depth. So coasting towardes the South I came to the place wher I left the shippes to fishe, but found them not. Then being forsaken and left in this distresse referring my selfe to the mercifull prouidence of God, shaped my course for England and vnhoped for of any, God alone releuing me, I ariued at Dartmouth. By this last discouerie it seemed most manifest that the passage was free and without impediment towards the North, but by reason of the spanish fleete and unfortunate time of master Secretoryes death, the voyage was omitted and neuer sithens attempted.

Davis made five voyages as a pilot to the East Indies, where he was killed in 1605 in a contention with some Japanese off the coast of Malacca.

GEORGE SANDYS.

accomplished gentleman, well prepared, by previous study, for his travels, which are distinguished by erudition, sagacity, and a love of truth, and are written in a pleasant style." He devoted particular attention to the allusions of the ancient poets to the various localities through which he passed. In his dedication to Prince Charles, he thus refers to the

[Modern State of Ancient Countries.]

The parts I speak of are the most renowned countries and kingdoms: once the seats of most glorious and triumphant empires; the theatres of valour and heroical actions; the soils enriched with all earthly felicities; the places where Nature hath produced her wonderful works; where arts and sciences have been invented and perfected; where wisdom, virtue, policy, and civility, have been planted, have flourished; and, lastly, where God himself did place his own commonwealth, gave laws and oracles, inspired his prophets, sent angels to converse with men'; above all, where the Son of God descended to become man; where he honoured the earth with his beautiful steps, wrought the works of our redemption, triumphed over death, and ascended into glory which countries, once so glorious and famous for their happy estate, are now, through vice and ingratitude, become the most deplored spectacles of extreme misery; the wild beasts of mankind having broken in upon them, and rooted out all civility, and the pride of a stern and barbarous tyrant possessing the thrones of ancient and just dominion. Who, aiming only at the height of greatness and sensuality, hath in tract of time reduced so great and goodly a part of the world to that lamentable distress and servitude, under which (to the astonishment of the understanding beholders) it now faints and groaneth. Those rich lands at this present remain waste and overgrown with bushes, receptacles of wild beasts, of thieves and murderers; large territories dispeopled, or thinly inhabited; goodly cities made desolate; sumptuous buildings become ruins; glorious temples either subverted, or prostituted to impiety; true religion discountenanced and oppressed; all nobility extinguished; no light of learning permitted, nor virtue cherished: violence and rapine insulting over all, and leaving no security except to an abject mind, and unlooked-on poverty; which calamities of theirs, so great and deserved, are to the rest of the world as threatening instructions. For assistance wherein, I have not only related what I saw of their present condition, but, so far as convenience might permit, presented a brief view of the former estates and first antiquities of those peoples and countries: thence to draw a right image of the frailty of man, the mutability of whatsoever is worldly, and assurance that, as there is nothing unchangeable saving God, so nothing stable but by his grace and protection.

The death of Sandys, which took place in 1643, was somewhat preceded by that of a contemporary traveller,

WILLIAM LITHGOW,

Five years after that event, GEORGE SANDYS, a son a Scotsman, who traversed on foot many Euroof the Archbishop of York, and author of a well-pean, Asiatic, and African countries. This indiviknown metrical translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses,' set out upon a journey, of which he published an account in 1615, entitled A Relation of a Journey begun Anno Domini 1610. Four Books, containing a Description of the Turkish Empire of Egypt, of the Holy Land, of the Remote Parts of Italy, and Islands adjoining. This work was so popular as to reach a seventh edition in 1673-a distinction not undeserved, since, as Mr Kerr has remarked, in his Catalogue of Voyages and Travels, Sandys was an

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dual was one of those tourists, now so abundant, who travel from a love of adventure and locomotion, without having any scientific or literary object in view. According to his own statement, he walked more than thirty-six thousand miles; and so decidedly did he give the preference to that mode of travelling, that, even when the use of a carriage was offered to him, he steadfastly declined to avail himself of the accommodation. His narrative was published in *Kerr's Collection of Voyages, vol. xviii. p. 558.

London in 1640, with a long title, commencing thus-lish vessel which had been seized in Sardinia on a The Total Discourse of the Rare Adventures and Pain- charge of smuggling; but all hopes of obtaining reful Peregrinations of Long Nineteen Years' Travels dress being destroyed by the breaking off of Prince from Scotland to the most famous Kingdoms in Europe, Charles's proposed marriage with the infanta, he Asia, and Africa. Perfited by Three Dear-bought Voy- returned to England in 1624. His next office was ages in Surveying Forty-Eight Kingdoms, Ancient and that of secretary to Lord Scrope, as president of the Modern; Twenty-One Reipublics, Ten Absolute Prin- north; and in 1627 he was chosen by the corporacipalities, with Two Hundred Islands. One of his prin- tion of Richmond to be one of their representatives cipal and least agreeable adventures occurred at in parliament. Three years afterwards he visited Malaga in Spain, where he was arrested as an Eng- Copenhagen as secretary to the English ambassador. lish spy, and committed to prison. The details which Having complimented Charles I. in two small poems, he gives of his sufferings while in confinement, and he obtained, in 1640, the clerkship of the council, an the tortures applied to him with the view of extract- appointment which lasted but a short time, as, three ing a confession, are such as to make humanity years afterwards, he was imprisoned in the Fleet by sicken. Having been at length relieved by some order of a committee of parliament. Here he reEnglish residents in Malaga, to whom his situation mained till after the king's death, supporting himaccidentally became known, he was sent to London self by translating and composing a variety of by sea, and afterwards forwarded, at the expense of works. At the Restoration he became historiograKing James, to Bath, where he remained upwards pher-royal, being the first who ever enjoyed that of six months, recruiting his shattered frame. He title; and continued his literary avocations till his died in 1640, after having attempted, apparently death, in 1666. Of upwards of forty publications of without success, to obtain redress by bringing his this lively and sensible writer, none is now genecase before the Upper House. rally read except his Epistola Ho-Eliana, or Familiar Letters, first printed in 1645, and considered to be the earliest specimen of epistolary literature in the language. The letters are dated from various places at home and abroad; and though some of them are supposed to have been compiled from memory while the author was in the Fleet prison, the greater number seem to bear sufficient internal evidence of having been written at the times and places indicated. His remarks on the leading events and characters of the time, as well as the animated accounts given of what he saw in foreign countries, and the sound reflections with which his letters abound, contribute to render the work one of permanent interest and value.

JAMES HOWELL.

JAMES HOWELL was one of the most intelligent travellers and pleasing miscellaneous writers in the early part of the seventeenth century. Born in Carmarthenshire about 1596, he received his education at Hereford and Oxford, and repaired to London in quest of employment. He was there appointed steward to a patent-glass manufactory, in which

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James Howell.

capacity he went abroad in 1619, to procure materials and engage workmen. In the course of his travels, which lasted till 1621, he visited many commercial towns in Holland, Flanders, France, Spain, and Italy; and, being possessed of an acute and inquiring mind, laid up a great store of useful observations on men and manners, besides acquiring an extensive knowledge of modern languages. His connexion with the glass company soon after ceased, and he again visited France as the travelling companion of a young gentleman. After this he was sent to Spain, as agent for the recovery of an Eng

To Dr Francis Mansell.

These wishes come to you from Venice, a place where there is nothing wanting that heart can wish; renowned Venice, the admired'st city in the world, a city that all Europe is bound unto, for she is her greatest rampart against that huge eastern tyrant, the Turk, by sea; else, I believe, he had overrun all Christendom by this time. Against him this city hath performed notable exploits, and not only against him, but divers others; she hath restored emperors to their thrones, and popes to their chairs, and with her galleys often preserved St Peter's bark from sinking: for which, by way of reward, one of his successors espoused her to the sea, which marriage is solemnly renewed every year in solemn procession by the Doge and all the Clarissimos, and a gold ring cast into the sea out of the great Galeasse, called the Bucentoro, wherein the first ceremony was performed by the pope himself, above three hundred years since, and they say it is the self-same vessel still, though often put upon careen, and trimmed. This made me think, nay, I fell upon an abstracted notion in philosophy, and a speculation touching the body of man, which, being in perpetual flux, and a kind of succession of decays, and consequently requiring, ever and anon, a restoration of what it loseth of the virtue of the former aliment, and what was converted after the third concoction into a blood and fleshly substance, which, as in all other sublunary bodies that have internal principles of heat, useth to transpire, breathe out, and waste away through invisible pores, by exercise, motion, and sleep, to make room still for a supply of new nurriture: I fell, I say, to consider whether our bodies may be said to be of like condition with this Bucentoro, which, though it be reputed still the same vessel, yet, I believe there's not a foot of that timber remaining which it had upon the first dock, having been, as they tell me,

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