Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/197

Rh sixrnnxrii cr..:rUnv.] enabled the Christians of Abyssiiiia to regain their power, and a Jesuit mission remained in the country. While Abyssiiiia was thus opened to the enterprise of the Portu- guese on the east side of Africa, they also established a close connexion with the kingdom of Congo on the west side, and obtained imicli inforination respecting the interior of the continent. Duarte Lopes, a Portuguese settled in the country, was sent on a mission to Rome by the king of Congo, and Pope Sixtus V. caused him to recount to his c.hainberlaiii, Felipe Pigafetta, all'he had learned during the nine years he had been in Africa, from 1548 to 1581. This narrative, under the title of Desc7'i'1»tf'o)L of tire Ii'1'7zg- (loin of Congo, was published at Rome by Pigafetta in 1591. A_niap_ was attached on which the two equatorial lakes, Xictoria and Albert N yanza, and Lake Tanganyika are shown, and the empire of Moiionioezi or Uiiiaimiezi is laid down. The most valuable work on Africa during the 16th century is, however, that written by Leo Africanus. This famous traveller‘ was born at Granada, and retired into Africa when his native town was captured by the Spaniards. IIc travelled extensively in the north and west of Africa, and was eventually taken by pirates and sold to a master who presented him to Pope Leo X. At the pope’s desire he translated his work on Africa into Italian and died in about the year 1526. , ii-tu-_ In the East Indies the Portuguese acquired predominating mt inﬂuence at sea, establishing factories on the Malabar coast, ' as ' 111 the Persian Gulf, at Malacca, and in the Spice Islands, and extending their commercial enterprises from the Red Sea to China. Their missionaries were received at the court of Akbar, and Renedict Goes, a native of the Azores, was despatched on a Journey overland from Agra to China. He started in 1603, and, after traversing the least known parts of Central Asia, he reached the conﬁnes of China. He appears to have ascended from Cabul to the plateau of the Painir, and thence onwards by Yarkand, Khotan, and Aksu. He died at a place called Socieu in March 1607; and thus, as one of the brethren pronounced his epitaph, “seeking Cathay he found heaven.” The activity and love of adventure, which became a passion for two or three generations in Spain and Portugal, S]_)l£]6:=:a(%:tO]Otl&e[‘I§O1lf1ltI‘g.9S. dItFwas the spiift of tgie age ; an *ng an, 0 ant, an rance soon egan 0 en er lglish upon the same glorious career. English enterprise was 5591'‘ ﬁrst aroused by John and Sebastian Cabot, father and son, "59’ who came from Venice and settled at Bristol in the time of '.'.e Henry VII. The Cabots received a patent, dated March ‘l>0t5- 5, 1496, empowering them to seek unknown lands; and John Cabot discovered Newfoundland and part of the coast Sf Aiiielaplica. Sebastian afterwards made a voyage to Rio e a ata in the service of Spain but he returned to Eiigland _in 1548, and received a pension from Edward VI. “ in consideration of the good and acceptable services done and to be done.” He was placed at the head of the Society of Merchant Adventurers, and, by his knowledge and ex- perience, he was the means of keeping alive the spirit of enterprisexinh England, and of extending her foreign coin- inerce. 1 t is sumrestion a voyarre was undertaken for the discovery of a norct,lD1—east passage Io Cathay, with Sir Hugh V11ough- Villoughby as captain-general of the ﬂeet, and Richard 1" Chancellor as pilotrmajor. They sailed in May 1553, but Villoughby and all his crew perished in a harbour on the (ancel- Lapland coast. Chancellor, however, was more fortunate. He reached the White Sea, performed the journey overland to Moscow, where he was well received, and may be said to have been the founder of the trade between Russia and iingland. He returned to Archangel and brought.his ship ack in safety to England. On a second voyage, in 1906, Chancellor was drowned; and three subsequent voyages, led by Stephen Burrough, Pet, and J ackinan, effected GEOGRAPHY 183 an examination of the straits which lead into the Sea of Kara. The French followed closely on the track of John Cabot, French and the hardy Norman and Breton seamen frequented the enter- banks of Newfoundland at the commencement of the 16th 1“'is°' century. In 1524 Francis I. sent Giovanni da Verazzano of Florence on an expedition of discovery to the coast of North America; and the details of his voyage were em- bodied in a letter addressed by him to the king of France from Dieppe, in July 1524. On April 20, 1534, Jacques Cartier sailed from St Malo with two vessels of 60 tons Cartier.‘ each, for the purpose of continuing the discoveries of Verazzano, and he visited Newfoundland and the Gulf of St Lawrence. In the following year he made another voyage, discovered the island of Aiiticosti, and ascended the St Lawrence to a place called Hochelaga, now Montreal. He returned, after passing two winters in Canada; and on another occasion he also failed to establish a colony. Admiral de Coligny made several unsuccessful endeavours to form a colony in Florida under Jean Ribault of Dieppe, René de Laudonniere, and others, but the settlers were furiously assailed by the Spaniards and the attempt was abandoned. The reign of Elizabeth is famous for the gallant enter- Age of prises that were undertaken by sea and land to discover and Elizabeth. bring to light the unknown parts of the earth. The great promoter and father of English geographical discovery was Richard Hakluyt, who was born near London in 1553. He Hakluyt. was at Vestininster School, and when quite a boy he im- bibed a love for cosmography and maritime discovery. At Oxford he read all the narratives of voyages and travels that came within his reach, and delivered lectures on carto- graphy. In 1585 he was at Paris, as chaplain to the English enibassy, and in 1605 he became a prebendary of Vestminster. He was the chief promoter in the formation of the two companies for colonizing Virginia in 1606 ; and he devoted his life to the encouragement of similar under- takings, and to their record. Hakluyt died in 1616, and was buried in Vestniinster Abbey. He was incessantly employed in the collection, examination, and translation of accounts of voyages and travels, and of charters, letters, and other documents bearing on the subject, and in correspondence with men eager either to impart or receive information. Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Francis Valsinghani, Lord Thomas Howard, and Sir Francis Drake were among those who supported and encouraged him, and Ortelius and Mercator were his correspondents. His first work was the Divers Voyages touching the D1'scover2'e qf Arnerica ; and the second was brought out while he was in Paris in 1586, entitled A Notable Ilistorie co21taim'7zg Fou-re 1" o_'z/ages made by French C'apta_7/nes mzto F lorida. In 1587 he published at Paris a. revised edition of the De Orbe 'ovo of Peter Martyr Anghiera. His I’-rin.cz'pal .iVaz-z'_qat-ions was published in folio in 1589, and dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham ; and the new edition, in three volumes, appeared in 1598. Hakluyt also get translations made of Leo Africanus, of Mendoza’s II islory of C’/Lina, and of Galvaiio’s Discoveries of the World, which were_'published. His last publication was a translation of Hernando de Soto’s discoveries in Florida. He left many valuable papers at his death, most of which, together with a vast number of other narratives, were pub- lislied in 1622 in the great work of the Rev. Samuel Purchas. Purchas, entitled “Hakluytus Postliumus, or Purchas his ' Pilgrimes.” It is from the rich treasure-liouse of Hakluyt and Purchas that our "knowledge of the gallant deeds of the English and other explorers of the Elizabethan age is mainly derived. The great collections of voyages and travels of De I_3ry and Hulsius served a similar useful purpose on the continent of Europe. One important object of English maritiine adven-