A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xviii Part 19

The beginning of the seventeenth century was particularly distinguished by the voyage of La Maire and Schouten. The States General of Holland, who had formed an East India Company, in order to secure to it the monopoly of the Indian trade, prohibited all individuals from navigating to the Indian Ocean, either round the Cape of Good Hope or through the Straits of Magellan. It was therefore an object of great importance to discover, if practicable, any pa.s.sage to India, which would enable the Dutch, without incurring the penalties of the law, to reach India. This idea was first suggested by La Maire, a merchant of Amsterdam, and William Schouten, a merchant of Horn. They had also another object in view: in all the maps of the world of the sixteenth century, a great southern continent is laid down. In 1606, Quiros, a Spanish navigator, had searched in vain for this continent; and La Maire and Schouten, in their voyage, resolved to look for it, as well as for a new pa.s.sage to India. In 1615 they sailed from Holland with two s.h.i.+ps: they coasted Patagonia, discovered the strait which bears the name of La Maire, and Staten Island, which joins it on the east. On the 31st of January next year, they doubled the southern point of America, having sailed almost into the sixtieth degree of south lat.i.tude; this point they named Cape Horn, after the town of which Schouten was a native. From this cape they steered right across the great southern ocean to the northwest. In their course they discovered several small islands; but finding no trace of a continent, they gave up the search for it, and steering to the south, pa.s.sed to the east of the Papua Archipelago. They then changed their course to the west; discovered the east coast of the island, afterwards called New Zealand, as well as the north side of New Guinea. They afterwards reached Batavia, where they were seized by the president of the Dutch East India Company. This voyage was important, as it completed the navigation of the coast of South America from the Strait of Magellan to Cape Horn, and ascertained that the two great oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic, joined each other to the south of America, by a great austral sea. This voyage added also considerably to maritime geography, "though many of the islands in the Pacific thus discovered have, from the errors in their estimated longitudes, been claimed as new discoveries by more recent navigators." In the year 1623, the Dutch found a shorter pa.s.sage into the Pacific, by the Straits of Na.s.sau, north-west of La Maire's Strait; and another still shorter, by Brewer's Straits, in the year 1643.

The success of the Portuguese and Spaniards in their discoveries of a pa.s.sage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, and of America, induced, as we have seen, the other maritime nations to turn their attention to navigation and commerce. As, however, the riches derived from the East India commerce were certain, and the commodities which supplied them had long been in regular demand in Europe, the attempts to discover new routes to India raised greater energies than those which were made to complete the discovery of America. In fact, as we have seen, the east coast, both of South and North America, in all probability would not have been visited so frequently, or so soon and carefully examined, had it not been with the hope of finding some pa.s.sage to India in that direction. But it was also supposed, that a pa.s.sage to India might be made by sailing round the north of Europe to the east. Hence arose the frequent attempts to find out what are called the north-west and north-east pa.s.sages; the most important of which, that were made during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we shall now proceed to notice.

We have already mentioned the earliest attempts to find out the Straits of Anian; the idea that they existed on the northwest coast of America seems to have been abandoned for some time, unless we suppose, that a voyage undertaken by the French in 1535 had for its object the discovery of these straits: it is undoubted, that one of the objects of this voyage was to find a pa.s.sage to India. In this voyage, the river St. Lawrence was examined as far as Montreal. In 1536, the English in vain endeavoured to find a north-west pa.s.sage to India. The result of this voyage was, however, important in one respect; as it gave vise to the very beneficial fishery of the English on the banks of Newfoundland. The French had already engaged in this fishery.

In 1576, the idea of a north-west pa.s.sage having been revived in England, Frobisher was sent in search of it, with two barks of twenty-five tons each, and one pinnace of ten tons. He entered the strait, leading into what was afterwards called Hudson's Bay: this strait he named after himself. He discovered the southern coast of Greenland; and picking up there some stone or ore which resembled gold, he returned to England. The London goldsmiths having examined this, they reported that it contained a large proportion of gold. This induced the Russian Company to send him out a second time, in 1577; but during this voyage, and a third in 1578, no discoveries of consequence were made. In the years 1585, 86, and 87, Captain Davis, who was in the service of an English company of adventurers, made three voyages in search of a north-west pa.s.sage. In the first he proceded as far north as sixty-six degrees forty minutes, visited the southwest coast of Greenland, and gave his own name to the straits that separate it from America. At this time the use of a kind of harpoon was known, by which they were enabled to kill porpoises; but though they saw many whales, they knew not the right manner of killing them. In his second voyage an unsuccessful attempt was made to penetrate between Iceland and Greenland, but the s.h.i.+ps were unable to penetrate beyond sixty-seven degrees north lat.i.tude. The west coast of Greenland was examined; but not being able to sail along its north coast, he stretched across to America, which he examined to lat.i.tude fifty-four.

In his last voyage, Davis reached the west coast of Greenland, as far as lat.i.tude seventy-two. All his endeavours, however, to find a north-west pa.s.sage were ineffectual.

In 1607, Hudson, an experienced seaman of great knowledge and intrepidity, sailed in search of this pa.s.sage. He directed his course straight north, and reached the eighty-second degree of lat.i.tude, and the seventy-third degree of west longitude. During this voyage more of the eastern coast of Greenland was discovered than had been previously known. In his second voyage, which was undertaken in 1608, he endeavoured to sail between Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen, but unsuccessfully: of this and his first voyage we have very imperfect accounts. His third voyage was undertaken for the Dutch: in this he discovered the river in America which bears his name. His fourth and last voyage, in which he perished, and to which he owes his princ.i.p.al fame as a navigator, was in the service of the Russia Company of England. In this voyage he reached the strait which bears his name: his crew mutinied at this place, and setting him on sh.o.r.e, returned to England.

As soon as the Russia Company learned the fate of Hudson, they sent one Captain b.u.t.ton in search of him, and also to explore the straits which he had discovered: in this voyage Hudson's Bay was discovered. b.u.t.ton's journal was never published: it is said, however, to have contained some important observations on the tides, and other objects of natural philosophy.

The existence of such a bay as Hudson's was described to be, induced the merchants of England to believe that they had at length found out the entrance to a pa.s.sage which would lead them to the East Indies: many voyages were therefore undertaken, in a very short time after this bay had been discovered. The most important was that of Bylot and Baffin: they advanced through Davis's Straits into an extensive sea, which they called Baffin's Bay: they proceeded, according to their account, as far north as the lat.i.tude 78. The nature and extent of this discovery was very much doubted at the time, and subsequently, till the discoveries of Captains Ross and Parry, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, proved that Baffin was substantially accurate and faithful.

Baffin's voyage took place in the year 1616: after this there was no voyage undertaken with the same object, till the year 1631, when Captain Fox sailed from Deptford. He had been used to the sea from his youth, and had employed his leisure time in collecting all the information he could possibly obtain, respecting voyages, to the north. He was besides well acquainted with some celebrated mathematicians and cosmographers, particularly Thomas Herne, who had carefully collected all the journals and charts of the former voyages, with a view to his business, which was that of a maker of globes. When Fox was presented to Charles I, his majesty gave him a map, containing all the discoveries which had been made in the north seas. He discovered several islands during the voyage, but not the pa.s.sage he sought for; though he is of opinion, that if a pa.s.sage is to be found, it must be in Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome,--a bay he discovered near an island of that name, in north lat.i.tude 64 10', not far from the main land, on the west side of Hudson's Bay. He published a small treatise on the voyage, called The North-west Fox, which contains many important facts and judicious observations on the ice, the tides, compa.s.s, northern lights, &c.

Captain James sailed on the same enterprise nearly at the same time that Fox did. His account was printed by King Charles's command, in 1633: it contains some remarkable physical observations respecting the intenseness of the cold, and the acc.u.mulation of ice, in northern lat.i.tudes; but no discovery of moment. He was of opinion, that no north-west pa.s.sage existed.

The last voyage in the seventeenth century, in search of this pa.s.sage, was undertaken in consequence of the representations of a Frenchman to Charles II. From the same cause proceeded the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company by that monarch.

Canada was at this time colonized by the French; and a French settler there, De Gronsseliers, an enterprising and speculative man, after travelling in various directions, reached a country, where he received information respecting Hudson's Bay: he therefore resolved to attempt to reach this bay by sea. In the course of this undertaking he met with a few English, who had settled themselves near Port Nelson River: these he attacked, and by their defeat became master of the country. He afterwards explored the whole district, and returned to Quebec with a large quant.i.ty of valuable furs and English merchandize; but meeting with ill-treatment in Quebec, and afterwards at the court of France, he came to England, where he was introduced to the Count Palatine Rupert. The prince patronized all laudable and useful enterprises; and persuaded the king to send out Captain Gillam, and the Frenchman with him. The s.h.i.+p was loaded with goods to traffic for furs. They pa.s.sed through Hudson's Straits to Baffin's Bay, as far as 75 degrees north lat.i.tude: they afterwards sailed as far to the south as 51 degrees, where, near the banks of a river, called after Prince Rupert, they built Charles Fort. This was the first attempt to carry on commerce in this part of America.

We must now return to the period of the first attempt to find out a north-east pa.s.sage to India. A society of merchants had been formed in London for this purpose. Sebastian Cabot, either the son or the grandson of John Cabot, and who held the situation of grand pilot of England under Edward VI., was chosen governor of this society. Three vessels were fitted out: one of them is particularly noticed in the contemporary accounts, as having been sheathed with thin plates of lead. Sir Hew Willoughby had the chief command: Captain Richard Chanceller and Captain Durfovill commanded the other two vessels under him. Willoughby, having reached 72 degrees of north lat.i.tude, was obliged by the severity of the season to run his s.h.i.+p into a small harbour, where he and his crew were frozen to death. Captain Durfovill returned to England. Chanceller was more fortunate; for he reached the White Sea, and wintered in the Dwina, near the site of Archangel. While his s.h.i.+p lay up frozen, Chanceller proceeded to Moscow, where he obtained from the Czar privileges for the English merchants, and letters to King Edward: as the Czar was at this period engaged in the Livonian war, which greatly interrupted and embarra.s.sed the trade of the Baltic, he was the more disposed to encourage the English to trade to the White Sea. We have already remarked, in giving an account of the voyage of Ohter, in King Alfred's time, that he had penetrated as far as the White Sea. This part of Europe, however, seems afterwards to have been entirely lost sight of, till the voyage of Chanceller; for in a map of the most northern parts of Europe, given in Munster's Geographia, which was printed in 1540, Greenland is laid down as joined to the north part of Lapland; and, consequently, the northern ocean appears merely as a great bay, enclosed by these countries. Three years afterwards, the English reached the coasts of Nova Zembla, and heard of, if they did not arrive at, the Straits of Waygats. The next attempts were made by the Dutch, who were desirous of reaching India by a route, in the course of which they would not be liable to meet with the Spaniards or Portuguese. They accordingly made four attempts between 1594 and 1596, but unsuccessfully. In the last voyage they reached Spitzbergen; but after striving in vain to penetrate to the north-east, they were obliged to winter on the north coast of Nova Zembla, in 76 lat.i.tude. Here they built a smaller vessel out of the remains of the one they had brought from Holland, and arrived the following summer at Kola, in Lapland.

In 1653, Frederic III, king of Denmark, sent three vessels to discover a north-east pa.s.sage: it is said that they actually pa.s.sed through Waygats'

Straits; but that in the bay beyond these straits they found insurmountable obstacles from the ice and cold, and consequently were obliged to return.

The last attempt made in the seventeenth century, was by the English: it was proposed and undertaken by John Wood, an experienced seaman, who had paid particular attention to the voyages that had been made to the north.

His arguments in favour of a north-east pa.s.sage were, that whales had been found near j.a.pan, with English and Dutch harpoons in them; and that the Dutch had found temperate weather near the Pole, and had sailed 300 leagues to the east of Nova Zembla. The first argument only proved, that there was sea between Nova Zembla and j.a.pan; but not that it was navigable, though pa.s.sable for whales: the other two positions were unfounded. Wood, however, persuaded the Duke of York to send him out in 1676. He doubled the North Cape, and reached 76 degrees of north lat.i.tude. One of the s.h.i.+ps was wrecked off the coast of Nova Zembla, and Wood returned in the other, with an opinion that a north-east pa.s.sage is impracticable, and that Nova Zembla is a part of the continent of Greenland.

But we must turn from these attempts to discover a northwest or north-east pa.s.sage to India, which, from the accounts given of them, it will be evident, contributed very little to the progress of geographical knowledge, though they necessarily increased the skill, confidence, and experience of navigators.

While these unprofitable voyages were undertaken in the north, discoveries of consequence were making in the southern ocean. These may be divided into two cla.s.ses; viz., such as relate to what is now called Australasia; and those which relate to the islands which are scattered in the southern ocean.

We have already stated that there is reason to believe some part of New Holland was first discovered by the Portuguese: two ancient maps in the British Museum are supposed to confirm this opinion; but the date of one is uncertain; the other is dated 1542, and certainly contains a country, which, in form and position, resembles New Holland, as it was laid down prior to the voyage of Tasman. But allowing this to be New Holland, it only proves, that at the date of this map it was known, not that it had been discovered by the Portuguese.

The Dutch, however, certainly made several voyages to it between 1616 and 1644: the western extremity was explored in 1616. The same year Van Dieman's Land was discovered. In the course of the ten following years, the western and northern coasts were visited. The southern coast was first discovered in 1627, but we have no particulars respecting the voyage in which it was discovered. In 1642, Tasman, a celebrated Dutch navigator, sailed from Batavia, and discovered the southern part of Van Dieman's Land and New Zealand. From this time to the beginning of the eighteenth century, little progress was made in exploring the coast of New Holland. Dampier, however, a man of wonderful talents, considering his education and mode of life, collected, during his voyage, some important details respecting the west coast. And among the numerous voyages undertaken by the Dutch East India Company towards the close of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, to examine this vast country, which the Dutch regarded as belonging to them, there was one by Van Vlaming deserving of notice: this navigator examined with great care and attention many bays and harbours on the west side; and he is the first who mentions the black swans of this country.

Papua, or New Guinea, another part of Australasia, was discovered by the Portuguese in 1528. The pa.s.sage that divides this country from New Britain was discovered by Dampier, who was also the first that explored and named the latter country in 1683. The discovery of Solomon Islands by the Spaniards took place in 1575: Mendana, a Spanish captain, sailed from Lima, to the westward, and in steering across the Pacific, he fell in with these islands. On a second voyage he extended his discoveries, and he sailed a third time to conquer and convert the natives. His death, which took place in one of these islands, put an end to these projects. They are supposed to be the easternmost of the Papua Archipelago, afterwards visited by Carteret, Bougainville, and other navigators. Mendana, during his last voyage, discovered a group of islands to which he gave the name of Marquesas de Mendoza.

This group properly belongs to Polynesia: of the other islands in this quarter of the globe, which were discovered prior to the eighteenth century, Otaheite is supposed to have been discovered by Quiros in 1606.

His object was to discover the imagined austral continent; but his discoveries were confined to Otaheite, which he named Sagittaria, and an island which he named Terra del Esperitu Sancto, which is supposed to be the princ.i.p.al of the New Hebrides. The Ladrones were discovered by Magellan in 1521. The New Philippines, or Carolinas, were first made known by the accidental arrival of a family of their natives at the Philippines in 1686.

Easter island, a detached and remote country, which, however, is inhabited by the Polynesian race, was discovered by Roggewein in 1686.

Having thus exhibited a brief and general sketch of the progress of discovery, from the period when the Portuguese first pa.s.sed the Cape of Good Hope to the beginning of the eighteenth century, we shall next, before we give an account of the state and progress of commerce during the same period, direct our attention to the state of geographical science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

We have already stated that the astrolobe, which had been previously applied only to astronomical purposes, was accommodated to the use of mariners by Martin Behaim, towards the end of the fifteenth century. He was a scholar of Muller, of Koningsberg, better known under the name of Regiomonta.n.u.s, who published the Almagest of Ptolemy. The Germans were at this time the best mathematicians of Europe. Walther, who was of that nation, and the friend and disciple of Regiomonta.n.u.s, was the first who made use of clocks in his astronomical observations. He was succeeded by Werner, of Nuremberg, who published a translation of Ptolemy's Geography, with a commentary, in which he explains the method of finding the longitude at sea by the distance of a fixed star from the moon. The astronomical instruments. .h.i.therto used were, with the exception of the astrolobe, those which had been employed by Ptolemy and the Arabians. The quadrant of Ptolemy resembled the mural quadrant of later times; which, however, was improved by the Arabians, who, at the end of the tenth century, employed a quadrant twenty-one feet and eight inches radius, and a s.e.xtant fifty-seven feet nine inches radius, and divided into seconds. The use of the s.e.xtant seems to have been forgotten after this time; for Tycho Brahe is said to have re-invented it, and to have employed it for measuring the distances of the planets from the stars. The quadrant was about the same time improved by a method of subdividing its limbs by the diagonal scale, and by the Vernier. The telescope was invented in the year 1609, and telescopic sights were added to the quadrant in the year 1668. Picard, who was one of the first astronomers who applied telescopes to quadrants, determined the earth's diameter in 1669, by measuring a degree of the meridian in France.

The observation made at Cayenne, that a pendulum which beat seconds there, must be shorter than one which beat seconds at Paris, was explained by Huygens, to arise from the diminution of gravity at the equator, and from this fact he inferred the spheroidal form of the earth. The application of the pendulum to clocks, one of the most beautiful and useful acquisitions which astronomy, and consequently navigation and geography have made, was owing to the ingenuity of Huygens. These are the princ.i.p.al discoveries and inventions, relating to astronomy, which were made prior to the eighteenth century, so far as they are connected with the advancement of the art of navigation and the science of geography.

The discoveries of Columbus and Gama necessarily overturned the systems of Ptolemy, Strabo, and the other geographers of antiquity. The opinion that the earth was a globe, which had been conjectured or inferred prior to the voyage of Magellan, was placed beyond a doubt by that voyage. The heavenly bodies were subjected to the calculations of man by the labours of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Galileo. Under these circ.u.mstances it was necessary, and it was easy, to make great improvements in the construction of maps, in laying down the real form of the earth, and the relative situations of the countries of which it is formed, together with their lat.i.tudes and longitudes. The first maps which displayed the new world were those of the brothers Appian, and of Ribeiro: soon afterwards a more complete and accurate one was published by Gemma Frisius. Among the geographers of the sixteenth century, who are most distinguished for their science, may be reckoned Sebastian Munster; for though, as we have already mentioned, he joins Greenland to the north of Lapland in his map, yet his research, labour, and accuracy were such, that he is compared by his contemporaries to Strabo. Ortelius directed his studies and his learning to the elucidation of ancient geography; and according to Malte Bran, no incompetent judge, he may yet be consulted on this subject with advantage.

But modern geography may most probably be dated from the time of Mercator: he published an edition of Ptolemy, in which he pointed out the imperfection of the system of the ancients. The great object at this time, was to contrive such a chart in plano, with short lines, that all places might be truly laid down according to their respective longitudes and lat.i.tudes. A method of this kind had been obscurely pointed at by Ptolemy; but the first map on this plan was made by Mercator, about the year 1550.

The principles, however, on which it was constructed, were not demonstrated till the year 1559, when Wright, an Englishman, pointed them out, as well as a ready and easy way of making such a map. This was a great help to navigators; since by enlarging, the meridian line, as Wright suggested and explained, so that all the degrees of longitude might be proportional to those of lat.i.tude, a chart on Mercator's projection shews the course and distance from place to place, in all cases of sailing; and is therefore in several respects more convenient to navigators than the globe itself.

Mercator, in his maps and charts, chose Corvo, one of the Azores, for his first meridian, because at that time it was the line of no variation of the compa.s.s.

We have already alluded to Regiomonta.n.u.s, as a celebrated mathematician, and as having published the Almagest of Ptolemy. He seems, likewise, to have written notes on Ptolemy's Geography. In 1525, a later translation of Ptolemy was published, which contained these annotations. To Ptolemy's maps, tables, &c., are added a new set of maps on wooden plates, according to the new discoveries: from these we find, that in consequence of the voyages of the Portuguese, the charts of the coasts of Arabia, Africa, Persia, and India, are laid down with tolerable accuracy. Nothing is noticed regarding China, except that it may be reached by sea from India.

America is called Terra Nova inventa per Christ. Columbus: this seems to be all the editor knew of it. That part of the work which relates to the north of Europe, is most grossly erroneous: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the Baltic, seem to have been little known. A great bay is laid down between Greenland and Lapland, which bay is bounded on the north by a ridge of mountains, thus retaining the error of Ptolemy with respect to this part of Europe. There are two maps of England and Scotland: in one they are represented as one island; in the other as different islands. These maps and charts must have been the work of the editor or translator, as Regiomonta.n.u.s, whose annotations are subjoined, died before the discovery of America.

We have been thus particular in describing the princ.i.p.al maps of this work, as they prove how imperfect geography was, prior to the time of Mercator, and with how much justice it may be said that he is the father of modern geography. There were, however, some maps of particular countries, drawn up in the sixteenth century with tolerable accuracy, considering the imperfection of those sciences and instruments, by which alone perfect accuracy can be attained. George Lilly, son of William, the famous grammarian, published, according to Nicholson, (English Historical Library,) "the first exact map that ever was, till then, drawn of this island." This praise must, however, be taken with great qualification; for even so late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, the distance from the South Foreland to the Lands-end was laid down, in all the maps of England, half a degree more than it actually is. We may here remark, that Nicholson represents Thomas Sulmo, a Guernsey man, who died in 1545, as our oldest general geographer.

In some of the MSS. of Harding's Chronicle, written in the reign of Edward IV., there is a rude map of Scotland. In 1539, Alexander Lindsey, an excellent navigator and hydrographer, published a chart of Scotland and its isles, drawn up from his own observations, which were made when he accompanied James V. in 1539, on his voyage to the highlands and islands.

This chart is very accurate for the age; and is much superior to that published by Bishop Lesley, with his history, in 1578.

The first map of Russia, known to the other nations of Europe, was published in 1558 by Mr. Anthony Jenkinson, agent to the English Russia Company, from the result of his enquiries and observations during his long residence in that kingdom.

These are the most important maps, either general or of particular countries, with which the sixteenth century supplies us.

The seventeenth century continued the impulse which was given to the science of geography by Mercator. As new discoveries were constantly in progress, errors in maps were corrected, vacant s.p.a.ces filled up, more accurate positions a.s.signed, and greater attention paid to the actual and relative sizes of different countries. Malte Brun justly reckons Cluverius, Riccioli, and Varenius, as amongst the most celebrated geographers of this century. Cluverius was a man of extensive and accurate erudition, which he applied to the ill.u.s.tration of ancient geography. Riccioli, an Italian Jesuit, devoted his abilities and leisure to the study of mathematics, and the sciences dependent upon it, particularly astronomy; and was thus enabled to render important service to the higher parts of geography.

Varenius is a still more celebrated name in geographical science: he excelled in mathematical geography; and such was his fame and merit in the higher branches of physics, and his ingenuity in applying them to geography, that a system of universal geography, which he published in Latin, was deemed worthy by Newton, to be republished and commented upon.

Cellarius bestowed much pains on ancient geography. That branch of the science which pays more especial regard to the distances of places, was much advanced by Sanson, in France; Blew, in Holland; and Buraeus, in Sweden.

We must now turn to the progress of commerce during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The discovery of a pa.s.sage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, gave immediately a great impulse to commerce; whereas, it was a long time after the discovery of America before commerce was benefited by that event. This arose from the different state and circ.u.mstances of the two countries. The Portuguese found in India, and the other parts of the East, a race of people acquainted with commerce, and accustomed to it; fully aware of those natural productions of their country which were in demand, and who had long been in the habit of increasing the exportable commodities by various kinds of manufactures. Most of these native productions and manufactures had been in high estimation and value in Europe for centuries prior to the discovery of the Cape. The monarchs of the East, as well as their subjects, were desirous of extending their trade. There was, therefore, no difficulty, as soon as the Portuguese arrived at any part of the East; they found spices, precious stones, pearls, &c., or silk and cotton stuffs, porcelaine, &c., and merchants willing to sell them. Their only business was to settle a few skilful agents, to select and purchase proper cargoes for their s.h.i.+ps. Even before they reached the remote countries of the East, which they afterwards did, they found depots of the goods of those parts, in intermediate and convenient situations, between them and the middle and western parts of Asia and Europe.

It was very different in America: the natives here, ignorant and savage, had no commerce. "Even the natural productions of the soil, when not cherished and multiplied by the fostering and active hand of man, were of little account." Above half a century elapsed before the Spaniards reaped any benefit from their conquests, except some small quant.i.ties of gold, chiefly obtained from plundering the persons, the houses, and temples of the Mexicans and Peruvians. In 1545, the mines of Potosi were discovered; these, and the princ.i.p.al Mexican mine, discovered soon afterwards, first brought a permanent and valuable revenue to Spain. But it was long after this before the Spaniards, or the other nations of Europe, could be convinced that America contained other treasures besides those of gold and silver, or induced to apply that time, labour, and capital, which were requisite to unfold all the additions to the comforts, the luxuries, and the health of man, which the New World was capable of bestowing. When, however, European skill and labour were expended on the soil of America, the real and best wealth of this quarter of the world was displayed in all its importance and extent. In addition to the native productions of tobacco, indigo, cochineal, cotton, ginger, cocoa, pimento, drugs, woods for dying, the Europeans cultivated the sugar cane, and several other productions of the Old World. The only articles of commerce supplied by the natives, were furs and skins; every thing else imported from the New World consists at present, and has always consisted of the produce, of the industry of Europeans settled there.

But though it was long before Europe derived much direct benefit from the discovery of America, yet in one important respect this discovery gave a great stimulus to East India commerce. Gold and silver, especially the latter, have always been in great demand in the East, and consequently the most advantageous articles to export from Europe in exchange for Indian commodities. It was therefore absolutely necessary for the continuance of a commerce so much extended as this to India was, in consequence of the Portuguese discoveries, that increased means of purchasing Indian commodities should be given; and these were supplied by the gold and silver mines of America.

If these mines had not been discovered about the time when trade to India was more easy, expeditious, and frequent, it could not long have been in the power of Europe to have availed herself of the advantages of the Portuguese discoveries; gold and silver would have become, from their extreme scarcity, more valuable in Europe than in India, and consequently would no longer have been exported. But the supply of the precious metals and of Indian commodities increasing at the same time, Europe, by means of America, was enabled to reap all possible advantage from the Portuguese discoveries. The gold and silver of Mexico and Peru traversed the world, in spite of all obstacles, and reached that part of it where it was most wanted, and purchased the productions of China and Hindostan.

Yet, notwithstanding the effectual demand for East India commodities was necessarily increased by the increased supply of the precious metals, yet the supply of these commodities being increased in a much greater proportion, their price was much lowered. This lowering of price naturally arose from two circ.u.mstances: after the pa.s.sage to India by the Cape, the productions and manufactures of the East were purchased immediately from the natives; and they were brought to Europe directly, and all the way, by sea. Whereas, before the discovery of the Cape, they were purchased and repurchased frequently; consequently, repeated additions were made to their original price; and these additions were made, in almost every instance, by persons who had the monopoly of them. Their conveyance to Europe was long, tedious, and mostly by land carriage, and consequently very expensive.

There are no data by which it can be ascertained in what proportion the Portuguese lowered the price of Indian commodities; but Dr. Robertson's supposition appears well founded,--that they might afford to reduce the commodities of the East, in every part of Europe, one half. This supposition is founded on a table of prices of goods in India, the same sold at Aleppo, and what they might be sold for in England,--drawn up, towards the end of the seventeenth century, by Mr. Munn: from this it appears, that the price at Aleppo was three times that in India, and that the goods might be sold in England at half the Aleppo price. But as the expense of conveying goods to Aleppo from India, may, as Dr. Robertson observes, be reckoned nearly the same as that which was incurred by bringing them to Alexandria, he draws the inference already stated,--that the discovery of the Cape reduced the price of Indian commodities one half.

The obvious and necessary result would follow, that they would be in greater demand, and more common use. The princ.i.p.al eastern commodities used by the Romans were spices and aromatics,--precious stones and pearls; and in the later periods of their power, silk; these, however, were almost exclusively confined to rare and solemn occasions, or to the use of the most wealthy and magnificent of the conquerors of the world. On the subversion of the Roman empire, the commodities of the East were for a short time in little request among the barbarians who subverted it: as soon, however, as they advanced from their ignorance and rudeness, these commodities seem strongly to have attracted their notice, and they were especially fond of spices and aromatics. These were used very profusely in their cookery, and formed the princ.i.p.al ingredients in their medicines. As, however, the price of all Indian commodities was necessarily high, so long as they were obliged to be brought to Europe by a circuitous route, and loaded with acc.u.mulated profits, it was impossible that they could be purchased, except by the more wealthy cla.s.ses. The Portuguese, enabled to sell them in greater abundance, and at a much cheaper rate, introduced them into much more general use; and, as they every year extended their knowledge of the East, and their commerce with it, the number of s.h.i.+ps fitted out at Lisbon every year, for India, became necessarily more numerous, in order to supply the increased demand.

Commerce in this case, as in every other, while it is acted upon by an extension of geographical knowledge, in its turn has an obvious tendency to extend that knowledge; this was the case with respect to India. The ancients had indeed made but small advances in their acquaintance with this country, notwithstanding they were stimulated by the large profits they derived from their eastern commerce; but this was owing to their comparative ignorance of navigation and the sciences on which it depends.

As soon as the moderns had improved this art, especially by the use of the compa.s.s, and the Cape of Good Hope was discovered, commerce gave the stimulus, which in a very few years led the Portuguese from Calicut to the furthest extremity of Asia.

It is remarkable that the Portuguese were allowed to monopolize Indian commerce for so long a time as they did; this, however, as Dr. Robertson observes, may be accounted for, "from the political circ.u.mstances in the state of all those nations in Europe, whose intrusion as rivals the Portuguese had any reason to dread. From the accession of Charles V. to the throne, Spain was either so much occupied in a multiplicity of operations in which it was engaged by the ambition of that monarch, and of his son Philip II., or so intent on prosecuting its own discoveries and conquests in the New World, that although by the successful enterprize of Magellan, its fleets were unexpectedly conducted by a new course to that remote region of Asia, which was the seat of the most gainful and alluring branch of trade carried on by the Portuguese, it could make no considerable effect to avail itself of the commercial advantages which it might have derived from that event. By the acquisition of the crown of Portugal, in the year 1580, the kings of Spain, instead of the rivals, became the protectors of the Portuguese trade, and the guardians of all its exclusive rights.

Throughout the sixteenth century, the strength and resources of France were so much wasted by the fruitless expeditions of their monarchs to Italy; by their unequal contest with the power and policy of Charles V., and by the calamities of the civil wars which desolated the kingdom upwards of forty years, that it could neither bestow much attention on commerce, nor engage in any scheme of distant enterprize. The Venetians, how sensibly soever they might feel the mortifying reverse of being excluded almost entirely from the Indian trade, of which their capital had been formerly the chief seat, were so debilitated and humbled by the league of Cambray, that they were no longer capable of engaging in any undertaking of magnitude.

England, weakened by the long contests between the houses of York and Lancaster, and just beginning to recover its proper vigour, was restrained from active exertions during one part of the sixteenth century, by the cautious maxims of Henry VII., and wasted its strength, during another part of it, by engaging inconsiderately in the wars between the princes on the continent. The nation, though destined to acquire territories in India more extensive and valuable than were ever possessed by any European power, had no such presentiment of its future eminence there, as to take an early part in the commerce or transactions of that country, and a great part of the century elapsed before it began to turn its attention to the East.

"While the most considerable nations in Europe found it necessary, from the circ.u.mstances which I have mentioned, to remain inactive spectators of what pa.s.sed in the East, the seven United Provinces of the Low Countries, recently formed into a small state, still struggling for political existence, and yet in the infancy of its power, ventured to appear in the Indian Ocean as the rivals of the Portuguese; and, despising their pretensions to an exclusive right of commerce with the extensive countries to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, invaded that monopoly which they had hitherto guarded with such jealous attention. The English soon followed the example of the Dutch, and both nations, at first by the enterprizing industry of private adventurers, and afterwards by the more powerful efforts of trading companies, under the protection of public authority, advanced with astonis.h.i.+ng ardour and success in this new career opened to them. The vast fabric of power which the Portuguese had opened in the East, (a superstructure much too large for the basis on which it had to rest) was almost entirely overturned in as short time, and with as much facility, as it had been raised. England and Holland, by driving them from their most valuable settlements, and seizing the most lucrative branches of their trade, have attained to that pre-eminence of naval power and commercial opulence by which they are distinguished among the nations of Europe."

(Robertson's India, pp. 177-9. 8vo. edition.)

Before, however, we advert to the commerce of the Dutch in India, it will be proper to notice those circ.u.mstances which gave a commercial direction to the people of the Netherlands, both before their struggle with Spain, and while the result of that struggle was uncertain. The early celebrity of Bruges as a commercial city has already been noticed; its regular fairs in the middle of the tenth century; its being made the entrepot of the Hanse a.s.sociation towards the end of the thirteenth. It naturally partook of the wealth and commercial improvement which Flanders derived from her woollen manufactures, and was in fact made the emporium of that country at the beginning of the fourteenth century; and within 100 years afterwards, the staple for English and Scotch goods. When the increased industry of the north of Europe induced and enabled its inhabitants to exchange the produce of their soil, fisheries, and manufactures, for the produce of the south of Europe, and of India, Bruges was made the great entrepot of the trade of Europe. In the beginning of the sixteenth century its commercial importance began to decline, but the trade which left it, did not pa.s.s beyond the limits of the Netherlands; it settled in a great measure at Antwerp, which, as being accessible by sea, was more convenient for commerce than Bruges.

This city, however, would not have fallen so easily or rapidly before its rival, had it not been distracted by civil commotions. From it the commerce of the Netherlands, and with it of the north of Europe, and the interchange of its commodities with those of the south of Europe and of Asia, gradually pa.s.sed to Antwerp; and about the year 1516, most of the trade of Bruges was fixed here, the Portuguese making it their entrepot for the supply of the northern kingdoms.

Even before this time the s.h.i.+ps of the Netherlands seem to have been the carriers of the north of Europe; for in 1503, two Zealand s.h.i.+ps arrived at Campveer, laden with sugars, the produce of the Canary Islands. Antwerp, however, continued till it was taken by the Spaniards, and its port destroyed by the blocking up of the Scheldt, to be most distinguished for its commerce, and its consequent wealth:--its situation, its easy access by sea, joined to the circ.u.mstance of its being made the Portuguese entrepot for spices, drugs, and other rich productions of India, mainly contributed to its commerce. Merchants from every part of the north of Europe settled here, and even many of the merchants of Bruges removed to it, after the decline of their own city. Its free fairs for commerce, two of which lasted each time six weeks, attracted merchants from all parts, as they could bring their merchandize into it duty free, and were here certain of finding a market for it. In it also bills of exchange on all parts of Europe could be easily and safely negotiated. We have already mentioned the most wealthy merchants of England and France, in the fifteenth century: there existed at Antwerp, in the sixteenth, a firm of the name of Fugger, whose wealth was very great, and indicates the extent of their commercial dealings. From this firm the Emperor Charles V. had borrowed a very large sum, in order to carry on an expedition against Tunis. In the year 1534, Charles, being at Antwerp, Fugger invited him to an entertainment at his house, made a fire in his hall with cinnamon, and threw all the emperor's bonds into that fire. About eleven years afterwards, the same merchant gave an acquittance to Henry VIII. of England, for the sum of 152,180_l_. Flemish, which the king had borrowed of him. The Fuggers had a licence from the king of Portugal to trade to India; and they used to send their own factor in every s.h.i.+p that sailed thither, and were the owners of part of every cargo of pepper imported.