No More Learning

What riches they acquired is not particularly related; but it is not
to be doubted, that the plunder of so many vessels, together with the
silver which they seized at Nombre de Dios, must amount to a very
large sum, though the part that was allotted to Drake was not
sufficient to lull him in effeminacy, or to repress his natural
inclination to adventures.

They arrived at Plymouth on the 9th of August, 1573, on Sunday, in the
afternoon; and so much were the people delighted with the news of
their arrival, that they left the preacher, and ran in crowds to the
quay, with shouts and congratulations.

Drake having, in his former expedition, had a view of the south sea,
and formed a resolution to sail upon it, did not suffer himself to be
diverted from his design by the prospect of any difficulties that
might obstruct the attempt, nor any dangers that might attend the
execution; obstacles which brave men often find it much more easy to
overcome, than secret envy and domestick treachery.

Drake's reputation was now sufficiently advanced to incite detraction
and opposition; and it is easy to imagine, that a man by nature
superiour to mean artifices, and bred, from his earliest years, to the
labour and hardships of a sea-life, was very little acquainted with
policy and intrigue, very little versed in the methods of application
to the powerful and great, and unable to obviate the practices of
those whom his merit had made his enemies.

Nor are such the only opponents of great enterprises: there are some
men, of narrow views and grovelling conceptions, who, without the
instigation of personal malice, treat every new attempt, as wild and
chimerical, and look upon every endeavour to depart from the beaten
track, as the rash effort of a warm imagination, or the glittering
speculation of an exalted mind, that may please and dazzle for a time,
but can produce no real or lasting advantage.

These men value themselves upon a perpetual skepticism, upon believing
nothing but their own senses, upon calling for demonstration where it
cannot possibly be obtained, and, sometimes, upon holding out against
it, when it is laid before them; upon inventing arguments against the
success of any new undertaking, and, where arguments cannot be found,
upon treating it with contempt and ridicule.

Such have been the most formidable enemies of the great benefactors to
mankind, and to these we can hardly doubt, but that much of the
opposition which Drake met with, is to be attributed; for their
notions and discourse are so agreeable to the lazy, the envious, and
the timorous, that they seldom fail of becoming popular, and directing
the opinions of mankind.

Whatsoever were his obstacles, and whatsoever the motives that
produced them, it was not till the year 1577, that he was able to
assemble a force proportioned to his design, and to obtain a
commission from the queen, by which he was constituted captain-general
of a fleet, consisting of five vessels, of which the Pelican, admiral,
of a hundred tons, was commanded by himself; the Elizabeth,
viceadmiral, of eighty tons, by John Winter; the Marigold, of thirty
tons, by John Thomas; the Swan, fifty tons, by John Chester; the
Christopher, of fifteen tons, by Thomas Moche, the same, as it seems,
who was carpenter in the former voyage, and destroyed one of the ships
by Drake's direction.

These ships, equipped partly by himself, and partly by other private
adventurers, he manned with one hundred and sixty-four stout sailors,
and furnished with such provisions as he judged necessary for the long
voyage in which he was engaged. Nor did he confine his concern to
naval stores, or military preparations; but carried with him whatever
he thought might contribute to raise in those nations, with which he
should have any intercourse, the highest ideas of the politeness and
magnificence of his native country. He, therefore, not only procured a
complete service of silver, for his own table, and furnished the
cook-room with many vessels of the same metal, but engaged several
musicians to accompany him; rightly judging, that nothing would more
excite the admiration of any savage and uncivilized people.

Having been driven back by a tempest in their first attempt, and
obliged to return to Plymouth, to repair the damages which they had
suffered, they set sail again from thence on the 13th of December,
1577, and, on the 25th, had sight of cape Cantin, in Barbary, from
whence they coasted on southward to the island of Mogador, which Drake
had appointed for the first place of rendezvous, and on the 27th,
brought the whole fleet to anchor, in a harbour on the mainland.

They were, soon after their arrival, discovered by the Moors that
inhabited those coasts, who sent two of the principal men amongst them
on board Drake's ship, receiving, at the same time, two of his company
as hostages. These men he not only treated in the most splendid
manner, but presented with such things as they appeared most to
admire; it being with him an established maxim, to endeavour to
secure, in every country, a kind reception to such Englishmen as might
come after him, by treating the inhabitants with kindness and
generosity; a conduct, at once just and politick, to the neglect of
which may be attributed many of the injuries suffered by our sailors
in distant countries, which are generally ascribed, rather to the
effects of wickedness and folly of our own commanders, than the
barbarity of the natives, who seldom fall upon any, unless they have
been first plundered or insulted; and, in revenging the ravages of one
crew upon another of the same nation, are guilty of nothing but what
is countenanced by the example of the Europeans themselves.

But this friendly intercourse was, in appearance, soon broken; for, on
the next day, observing the Moors making signals from the land, they
sent out their boat, as before, to fetch them to the ship, and one
John Fry leaped ashore, intending to become a hostage, as on the
former day, when immediately he was seized by the Moors; and the crew,
observing great numbers to start up from behind the rock, with weapons
in their hands, found it madness to attempt his rescue, and,
therefore, provided for their own security by returning to the ship.

Fry was immediately carried to the king, who, being then in continual
expectation of an invasion from Portugal, suspected that these ships
were sent only to observe the coast, and discover a proper harbour for
the main fleet; but being informed who they were, and whither they
were bound, not only dismissed his captive, but made large offers of
friendship and assistance, which Drake, however, did not stay to
receive, but, being disgusted at this breach of the laws of commerce,
and afraid of further violence, after having spent some days in
searching for his man, in which he met with no resistance, left the
coast on December 31, some time before Fry's return, who, being
obliged by this accident to somewhat a longer residence among the
Moors, was afterwards sent home in a merchant's ship.

On January 16, they arrived at cape Blanc, having in their passage
taken several Spanish vessels. Here, while Drake was employing his men
in catching fish, of which this coast affords great plenty, and
various kinds, the inhabitants came down to the seaside with their
alisorges, or leather bottles, to traffick for water, which they were
willing to purchase with ambergris and other gums. But Drake,
compassionating the misery of their condition, gave them water,
whenever they asked for it, and left them their commodities to
traffick with, when they should be again reduced to the same distress,
without finding the same generosity to relieve them.

Here, having discharged some Spanish ships, which they had taken, they
set sail towards the isles of cape Verd, and, on January 28, came to
anchor before Mayo, hoping to furnish themselves with fresh water; but
having landed, they found the town by the waterside entirely deserted,
and, marching further up the country, saw the valleys extremely
fruitful, and abounding with ripe figs, cocoas, and plantains, but
could by no means prevail upon the inhabitants to converse or traffick
with them; however, they were suffered by them to range the country
without molestation, but found no water, except at such a distance
from the sea, that the labour of conveying it to the ships was greater
than it was, at that time, necessary for them to undergo. Salt, had
they wanted it, might have been obtained with less trouble, being left
by the sea upon the sand, and hardened by the sun during the ebb, in
such quantities, that the chief traffick of their island is carried on
with it.

January 31, they passed by St. Jago an island at that time divided
between the natives and the Portuguese, who, first entering these
islands under the show of traffick, by degrees established
themselves;--claimed a superiority over the original inhabitants; and
harassed them with such cruelty, that they obliged them either to fly
to the woods and mountains, and perish with hunger, or to take up arms
against their oppressors, and, under the insuperable disadvantages
with which they contended, to die, almost without a battle, in defence
of their natural rights and ancient possessions.

Such treatment had the natives of St. Jago received, which had driven
them into the rocky parts of the island, from whence they made
incursions into the plantations of the Portuguese, sometimes with
loss, but generally with that success which desperation naturally
procures; so that the Portuguese were in continual alarms, and, lived,
with the natural consequences of guilt, terrour, and anxiety. They
were wealthy, but not happy, and possessed the island, but not enjoyed
it.

They then sailed on within sight of Fuego, an island so called from a
mountain, about the middle of it, continually burning, and, like the
rest, inhabited by the Portuguese; two leagues to the south of which
lies Brava, which has received its name from its fertility, abounding,
though uninhabited, with all kinds of fruits, and watered with great
numbers of springs and brooks, which would easily invite the
possessours of the adjacent islands to settle in it, but that it
affords neither harbour nor anchorage. Drake, after having sent out
his boats with plummets, was not able to find any ground about it; and
it is reported, that many experiments have been made with the same
success; however, he took in water sufficient, and, on the 2nd of
February, set sail for the straits of Magellan.

On February 17, they passed the equator, and continued their voyage,
with sometimes calms, and sometimes contrary winds, but without any
memorable accident, to March 28, when one of their vessels, with
twenty-eight men, and the greatest part of their fresh water on board,
was, to their great discouragement, separated from them; but their
perplexity lasted not long, for on the next day they discovered and
rejoined their associates.

In their long course, which gave them opportunities of observing
several animals, both in the air and water, at that time very little
known, nothing entertained or surprised them more than the flying
fish, which is near of the same size with a herring, and has fins of
the length of his whole body, by the help of which, when he is pursued
by the bonito or great mackerel, as soon as he finds himself upon the
point of being taken, he springs up into the air, and flies forward,
as long as his wings continue wet, moisture being, as it seems,
necessary to make them pliant and moveable; and when they become dry
and stiff, he falls down into the water, unless some bark or ship
intercept him, and dips them again for a second flight. This unhappy
animal is not only pursued by fishes in his natural element, but
attacked in the air, where he hopes for security, by the don, or
sparkite, a great bird that preys upon fish; and their species must
surely be destroyed, were not their increase so great, that the young
fry, in one part of the year, covers the sea.

There is another fish, named the cuttle, of which whole shoals will
sometimes rise at once out of the water, and of which a great
multitude fell into their ship.

At length, having sailed without sight of land for sixty-three days,
they arrived, April 5, at the coast of Brasil, where, on the 7th, the
Christopher was separated again from them by a storm; after which they
sailed near the land to the southward, and, on the 14th, anchored
under a cape, which they afterwards called cape Joy, because in two
days the vessel which they had lost returned to them.

Having spent a fortnight in the river of Plata, to refresh his men,
after their long voyage, and then standing out to sea, he was again
surprised by a sudden storm, in which they lost sight of the Swan.
This accident determined Drake to contract the number of his fleet,
that he might not only avoid the inconvenience of such frequent
separations, but ease the labour of his men, by having more hands in
each vessel.

For this purpose he sailed along the coast, in quest of a commodious
harbour, and, on May 13, discovered a bay, which seemed not improper
for their purpose, but which they durst not enter, till it was
examined; an employment in which Drake never trusted any, whatever
might be his confidence in his followers on other occasions. He well
knew how fatal one moment's inattention might be, and how easily
almost every man suffers himself to be surprised by indolence and
security. He knew the same credulity, that might prevail upon him to
trust another, might induce another to commit the same office to a
third; and it must be, at length, that some of them would be deceived.
He, therefore, as at other times, ordered the boat to be hoisted out,
and, taking the line into his hand, went on sounding the passage, till
he was three leagues from his ship; when, on a sudden, the weather
changed, the skies blackened, the winds whistled, and all the usual
forerunners of a storm began to threaten them; nothing was now desired
but to return to the ship, but the thickness of the fog intercepting
it from their sight, made the attempt little other than desperate. By
so many unforeseen accidents is prudence itself liable to be
embarrassed! So difficult is it, sometimes, for the quickest sagacity,
and most enlightened experience, to judge what measures ought to be
taken! To trust another to sound an unknown coast, appeared to Drake
folly and presumption; to be absent from his fleet, though but for an
hour, proved nothing less than to hazard the success of all their
labours, hardships, and dangers.

In this perplexity, which Drake was not more sensible of than those
whom he had left in the ships, nothing was to be omitted, however
dangerous, that might contribute to extricate them from it, as they
could venture nothing of equal value with the life of their general.
Captain Thomas, therefore, having the lightest vessel, steered boldly
into the bay, and taking the general aboard, dropped anchor, and lay
out of danger, while the rest, that were in the open sea, suffered
much from the tempest, and the Mary, a Portuguese prize, was driven
away before the wind; the others, as soon as the tempest was over,
discovering, by the fires which were made on shore, where Drake was,
repaired to him.

Here, going on shore, they met with no inhabitants, though there were
several houses or huts standing, in which they found a good quantity
of dried fowls, and among them a great number of ostriches, of which
the thighs were as large as those of a sheep. These birds are too
heavy and unwieldy to rise from the ground, but with the help of their
wings run so swiftly, that the English could never come near enough to
shoot at them. The Indians, commonly, by holding a large plume of
feathers before them, and walking gently forward, drive the ostriches
into some narrow neck, or point of land, then, spreading a strong net
from one side to the other, to hinder them from returning back to the
open fields, set their dogs upon them, thus confined between the net
and the water, and when they are thrown on their backs, rush in and
take them.

Not finding this harbour convenient, or well stored with wood and
water, they left it on the 15th of May, and, on the 18th, entered
another much safer, and more commodious, which they no sooner arrived
at, than Drake, whose restless application never remitted, sent Winter
to the southward, in quest of those ships which were absent, and
immediately after sailed himself to the northward, and, happily
meeting with the Swan, conducted it to the rest of the fleet; after
which, in pursuance of his former resolution, he ordered it to be
broken up, reserving the iron-work for a future supply. The other
vessel, which they lost in the late storm, could not be discovered.

While they were thus employed upon an island about a mile from the
mainland, to which, at low water, there was a passage on foot, they
were discovered by the natives, who appeared upon a hill at a
distance, dancing and holding up their hands, as beckoning the English
to them; which Drake observing, sent out a boat, with knives, bells,
and bugles, and such things as, by their usefulness or novelty, he
imagined would be agreeable. As soon as the English landed, they
observed two men running towards them, as deputed by the company, who
came within a little distance, and then standing still could not be
prevailed upon to come nearer. The English, therefore, tied their
presents to a pole, which they fixed in the ground, and then retiring,
saw the Indians advance, who, taking what they found upon the pole,
left in return such feathers as they wear upon their heads, with a
small bone about six inches in length, carved round the top, and
burnished.

Drake, observing their inclination to friendship and traffick,
advanced, with some of his company, towards the hill, upon sight of
whom the Indians ranged themselves in a line from east to west, and
one of them running from one end of the rank to the other, backwards
and forwards, bowed himself towards the rising and setting of the sun,
holding his hands over his head, and frequently stopping in the middle
of the rank, leaping up towards the moon, which then shone directly
over their heads; thus calling the sun and moon, the deities they
worship, to witness the sincerity of their professions of peace and
friendship. While this ceremony was performed, Drake and his company
ascended the hill, to the apparent terrour of the Indians, whose
apprehensions, when the English perceived, they peaceably retired,
which gave the natives so much encouragement, that they came forward
immediately, and exchanged their arrows, feathers, and bones, for such
trifles as were offered them.

Thus they traded for some time; but, by frequent intercourse, finding
that no violence was intended, they became familiar, and mingled with
the English without the least distrust.

They go quite naked, except a skin of some animal, which they throw
over their shoulders when they lie in the open air. They knit up their
hair, which is very long, with a roll of ostrich feathers, and usually
carry their arrows wrapped up brit, that they may not encumber them,
they being made with reeds, headed with flint, and, therefore, not
heavy. Their bows are about an ell long.

Their chief ornament is paint, which they use of several kinds,
delineating generally upon their bodies, the figures of the sun and
moon, in honour of their deities.

It is observable, that most nations, amongst whom the use of clothes
is unknown, paint their bodies. Such was the practice of the first
inhabitants of our own country. From this custom did our earliest
enemies, the Picts, owe their denomination. As it is not probable that
caprice or fancy should be uniform, there must be, doubtless, some
reason for a practice so general and prevailing in distant parts of
the world, which have no communication with each other. The original
end of painting their bodies was, probably, to exclude the cold; an
end which, if we believe some relations, is so effectually produced by
it, that the men thus painted never shiver at the most piercing
blasts. But, doubtless, any people, so hardened by continual
severities, would, even without paint, be less sensible of the cold
than the civilized inhabitants of the same climate. However, this
practice may contribute, in some degree, to defend them from the
injuries of winter; and, in those climates where little evaporates by
the pores, may be used with no great inconvenience; but in hot
countries, where perspiration in greater degree is necessary, the
natives only use unction to preserve them from the other extreme of
weather: so well do either reason or experience supply the place of
science in savage countries.

They had no canoes, like the other Indians, nor any method of crossing
the water, which was, probably, the reason why the birds, in the
adjacent islands, were so tame that they might be taken with the hand,
having never been before frighted or molested. The great plenty of
fowls and seals, which crowded the shallows in such numbers that they
killed, at their first arrival, two hundred of them in an hour,
contributed much to the refreshment of the English, who named the
place Seal bay, from that animal.

These seals seem to be the chief food of the natives, for the English
often found raw pieces of their flesh half eaten, and left, as they
supposed, after a full meal, by the Indians, whom they never knew to
make use of fire, or any art, in dressing or preparing their victuals.

Nor were their other customs less wild or uncouth than their way of
feeding; one of them having received a cap off the general's head, and
being extremely pleased, as well with the honour as the gift, to
express his gratitude, and confirm the alliance between them, retired
to a little distance, and thrusting an arrow into his leg, let the
blood run upon the ground, testifying, as it is probable, that he
valued Drake's friendship above life.

Having stayed fifteen days among these friendly savages, in 47 deg. 30
min. s. lat. on June 3 they set sail towards the south sea, and, six
days afterwards, stopped at another little bay, to break up the
Christopher. Then passing on, they cast anchor in another bay, not
more than twenty leagues distant from the straits of Magellan.

It was now time seriously to deliberate in what manner they should act
with regard to the Portuguese prize, which, having been separated from
them by the storm, had not yet rejoined them. To return in search of
it, was sufficiently mortifying; to proceed without it, was not only
to deprive themselves of a considerable part of their force, but to
expose their friends and companions, whom common hardships and dangers
had endeared to them, to certain death or captivity. This
consideration prevailed; and, therefore, on the 18th, after prayers to
God, with which Drake never forgot to begin an enterprise, he put to
sea, and, the next day, near port Julian, discovered their associates,
whose ship was now grown leaky, having suffered much, both in the
first storm, by which they were dispersed, and, afterwards, in
fruitless attempts to regain the fleet.

Drake, therefore, being desirous to relieve their fatigues, entered
port Julian, and, as it was his custom always to attend in person,
when any important business was in hand, went ashore, with some of the
chief of his company, to seek for water, where he was immediately
accosted by two natives, of whom Magellan left a very terrible
account, having described them, as a nation of giants and monsters;
nor is his narrative entirely without foundation, for they are of the
largest size, though not taller than some Englishmen; their strength
is proportioned to their bulk, and their voice loud, boisterous, and
terrible. What were their manners before the arrival of the Spaniards,
it is not possible to discover; but the slaughter made of their
countrymen, perhaps without provocation, by these cruel intruders, and
the general massacre with which that part of the world had been
depopulated, might have raised in them a suspicion of all strangers,
and, by consequence, made them inhospitable, treacherous, and bloody.

The two who associated themselves with the English appeared much
pleased with their new guests, received willingly what was given them,
and very exactly observed every thing that passed, seeming more
particularly delighted with seeing Oliver, the master-gunner, shoot an
English arrow. They shot themselves, likewise, in emulation, but their
arrows always fell to the ground far short of his.

Soon after this friendly contest came another, who, observing the
familiarity of his countrymen with the strangers, appeared much
displeased, and, as the Englishmen perceived, endeavoured to dissuade
them from such an intercourse. What effect his arguments had was soon
after apparent, for another of Drake's companions, being desirous to
show the third Indian a specimen of the English valour and dexterity,
attempted, likewise, to shoot an arrow, but drawing it with his full
force, burst the bowstring; upon which the Indians, who were
unacquainted with their other weapons, imagined him disarmed, followed
the company, as they were walking negligently down towards their boat,
and let fly their arrows, aiming particularly at Winter, who had the
bow in his hand. He, finding himself wounded in the shoulder,
endeavoured to refit his bow, and, turning about, was pierced with a
second arrow in the breast. Oliver, the gunner, immediately presented
his piece at the insidious assailants, which failing to take fire,
gave them time to level another flight of arrows by which he was
killed; nor, perhaps, had any of them escaped, surprised and perplexed
as they were, had not Drake, with his usual presence of mind, animated
their courage, and directed their motions, ordering them, by
perpetually changing their places, to elude, as much as they could,
the aim of their enemies, and to defend their bodies with their
targets; and instructing them, by his own example, to pick up, and
break the arrows as they fell; which they did with so much diligence,
that the Indians were soon in danger of being disarmed. Then Drake
himself taking the gun, which Oliver had so unsuccessfully attempted
to make use of, discharged it at the Indian that first began the fray
and had killed the gunner, aiming it so happily, that the hailshot,
with which it was loaded, tore open his belly, and forced him to such
terrible outcries, that the Indians, though their numbers increased,
and many of their countrymen showed themselves from different parts of
the adjoining wood, were too much terrified to renew the assault, and
suffered Drake, without molestation, to withdraw his wounded friend,
who, being hurt in his lungs, languished two days, and then dying, was
interred with his companion, with the usual ceremony of a military
funeral.

They stayed here two months afterwards, without receiving any other
injuries from the natives, who, finding the danger to which they
exposed themselves by open hostilities, and, not being able any more
to surprise the vigilance of Drake, preferred their safety to revenge.

But Drake had other enemies to conquer or escape far more formidable
than these barbarians, and insidious practices to obviate, more artful
and dangerous than the ambushes of the Indians; for in this place was
laid open a design formed by one of the gentlemen of the fleet, not
only to defeat the voyage, but to murder the general.

This transaction is related in so obscure and confused a manner, that
it is difficult to form any judgment upon it. The writer who gives the
largest account of it, has suppressed the name of the criminal, which
we learn, from a more succinct narrative, published in a collection of
travels near that time, to have been Thomas Doughtie. What were his
inducements to attempt the destruction of his leader, and the ruin of
the expedition, or what were his views, if his design had succeeded,
what measures he had hitherto taken, whom he had endeavoured to
corjupt, with what arts, or what success, we are nowhere told.

The plot, as the narrative assures us, was laid before their departure
from England, and discovered, in its whole extent, to Drake himself,
in his garden at Plymouth, who, nevertheless, not only entertained the
person so accused, as one of his company, but this writer very
particularly relates, treated him with remarkable kindness and regard,
setting him always at his own table, and lodged him in the same cabin
with himself. Nor did ever he discover the least suspicion of his
intentions, till they arrived at this place, but appeared, by the
authority with which he invested him, to consider him, as one to whom,
in his absence, he could most securely intrust the direction of his
affairs. At length, in this remote corner of the world, he found out a
design formed against his life, called together all his officers, laid
before them the evidence on which he grounded the accusation, and
summoned the criminal, who, full of all the horrours of guilt, and
confounded at so clear a detection of his whole scheme, immediately
confessed his crimes, and acknowledged himself unworthy of longer
life; upon which the whole assembly, consisting of thirty persons,
after having considered the affair with the attention which it
required, and heard all that could be urged in extenuation of his
offence, unanimously signed the sentence by which he was condemned to
suffer death. Drake, however, unwilling, as it seemed, to proceed to
extreme severities, offered him his choice, either of being executed
on the island, or set ashore on the mainland, or being sent to England
to be tried before the council; of which, after a day's consideration,
he chose the first, alleging the improbability of persuading any to
leave the expedition, for the sake of transporting a criminal to
England, and the danger of his future state among savages and
infidels. His choice, I believe, few will approve: to be set ashore on
the mainland, was, indeed, only to be executed in a different manner;
for what mercy could be expected from the natives so incensed, but the
most cruel and lingering death! But why he should not rather have
requested to be sent to England, it is not so easy to conceive. In so
long a voyage he might have found a thousand opportunities of
escaping, perhaps with the connivance of his keepers, whose resentment
must probably in time have given way to compassion, or, at least, by
their negligence, as it is easy to believe they would, in times of
ease and refreshment, have remitted their vigilance; at least he would
have gained longer life; and, to make death desirable, seems not one
of the effects of guilt. However, he was, as it is related,
obstinately deaf to all persuasions, and, adhering to his first
choice, after having received the communion, and dined cheerfully with
the general, was executed in the afternoon, with many proofs of
remorse, but none of fear.

How far it is probable that Drake, after having been acquainted with
this man's designs, should admit him into his fleet, and afterwards
caress, respect, and trust him; or that Doughtie, who is represented
as a man of eminent abilities, should engage in so long and hazardous
a voyage, with no other view than that of defeating it; is left to the
determination of the reader. What designs he could have formed, with
any hope of success, or to what actions, worthy of death, he could
have proceeded without accomplices, for none are mentioned, is equally
difficult to imagine. Nor, on the other hand, though the obscurity of
the account, and the remote place chosen for the discovery of this
wicked project, seem to give some reason for suspicion, does there
appear any temptation, from either hope, fear, or interest, that might
induce Drake, or any commander in his state, to put to death an
innocent man upon false pretences.

After the execution of this man, the whole company, either convinced
of the justice of the proceeding, or awed by the severity, applied
themselves, without any murmurs, or appearance of discontent, to the
prosecution of the voyage; and, having broken up another vessel, and
reduced the number of their ships to three, they left the port, and,
on August the 20th, entered the straits of Magellan, in which they
struggled with contrary winds, and the various dangers to which the
intricacy of that winding passage exposed them, till night, and then
entered a more open sea, in which they discovered an island with a
burning mountain. On the 24th they fell in with three more islands, to
which Drake gave names, and, landing to take possession of them in the
name of his sovereign, found in the largest so prodigious a number of
birds, that they killed three thousand of them in one day. This bird,
of which they knew not the name, was somewhat less than a wild goose,
without feathers, and covered with a kind of down, unable to fly or
rise from the ground, but capable of running and swimming with amazing
celerity; they feed on the sea, and come to land only to rest at
night, or lay their eggs, which they deposit in holes like those of
conies.

From these islands to the south sea, the strait becomes very crooked
and narrow, so that sometimes, by the interposition of headlands, the
passage seems shut up, and the voyage entirely stopped. To double
these capes is very difficult, on account of the frequent alterations
to be made in the course. There are, indeed, as Magellan observes,
many harbours, but in most of them no bottom is to be found.

The land, on both sides, rises into innumerable mountains; the tops of
them are encircled with clouds and vapours, which, being congealed,
fall down in snow, and increase their height by hardening into ice,
which is never dissolved; but the valleys are, nevertheless, green,
fruitful, and pleasant.

Here Drake, finding the strait, in appearance, shut up, went in his
boat to make further discoveries; and having found a passage towards
the north, was returning to his ships; but curiosity soon prevailed
upon him to stop, for the sake of observing a canoe or boat, with
several natives of the country in it. He could not, at a distance,
forbear admiring the form of this little vessel, which seemed
inclining to a semicircle, the stern and prow standing up, and the
body sinking inward; but much greater was his wonder, when, upon a
nearer inspection, he found it made only of the barks of trees, sewed
together with thongs of sealskin, so artificially, that scarcely any
water entered the seams. The people were well shaped and painted, like
those which have been already described. On the land they had a hut
built with poles, and covered with skins, in which they had
water-vessels, and other utensils, made likewise of the barks of
trees.

Among these people they had an opportunity of remarking, what is
frequently observable in savage countries, how natural sagacity and
unwearied industry may supply the want of such manufactures or natural
productions, as appear to us absolutely necessary for the support of
life. The inhabitants of these islands are wholly strangers to iron
and its use, but, instead of it, make use of the shell of a muscle of
prodigious size, found upon their coasts; this they grind upon a stone
to an edge, which is so firm and solid, that neither wood nor stone is
able to resist it.

September 6, they entered the great south sea, on which no English
vessel had ever been navigated before, and proposed to have directed
their course towards the line, that their men, who had suffered by the
severity of the climate, might recover their strength in a warmer
latitude. But their designs were scarce formed, before they were
frustrated; for, on Sept. 7, after an eclipse of the moon, a storm
arose, so violent, that it left them little hopes of surviving it; nor
was its fury so dreadful as its continuance; for it lasted, with
little intermission, till October 28, fifty-two days, during which
time they were tossed incessantly from one part of the ocean to
another, without any power of spreading their sails, or lying upon
their anchors, amidst shelving shores, scattered rocks, and unknown
islands, the tempest continually roaring, and the waves dashing over
them.

In this storm, on the 30th of September, the Marigold, commanded by
captain Thomas, was separated from them. On the 7th of October, having
entered a harbour, where they hoped for some intermission of their
fatigues, they were, in a few hours, forced out to sea by a violent
gust, which broke the cable, at which time they lost sight of the
Elizabeth, the viceadmiral, whose crew, as was afterwards discovered,
wearied with labour, and discouraged by the prospect of future
dangers, recovered the straits on the next day, and, returning by the
same passage through which they came, sailed along the coast of
Brasil, and on the 2nd of June, in the year following, arrived at
England.

From this bay they were driven southward to fifty-five degrees, where,
among some islands, they stayed two days, to the great refreshment of
the crew; but, being again forced into the main sea, they were tossed
about with perpetual expectation of perishing, till, soon after, they
again came to anchor near the same place, where they found the
natives, whom the continuance of the storm had probably reduced to
equal distress, rowing from one island to another, and providing the
necessaries of life.

It is, perhaps, a just observation, that, with regard to outward
circumstances, happiness and misery are equally diffused through all
states of human life. In civilized countries, where regular policies
have secured the necessaries of life, ambition, avarice, and luxury,
find the mind at leisure for their reception, and soon engage it in
new pursuits; pursuits that are to be carried on by incessant labour,
and, whether vain or successful, produce anxiety and contention. Among
savage nations, imaginary wants find, indeed, no place; but their
strength is exhausted by necessary toils, and their passions agitated
not by contests about superiority, affluence, or precedence, but by
perpetual care for the present day, and by fear of perishing for want
of food.

But for such reflections as these they had no time; for, having spent
three days in supplying themselves with wood and water, they were, by
a new storm, driven to the latitude of fifty-six degrees, where they
beheld the extremities of the American coast, and the confluence of
the Atlantick and southern ocean.

Here they arrived on the 28th of October, and, at last, were blessed
with the sight of a calm sea, having, for almost two months, endured
such a storm as no traveller has given an account of, and such as, in
that part of the world, though accustomed to hurricanes, they were
before unacquainted with.

On the 30th of October, they steered away towards the place appointed
for the rendezvous of the fleet, which was in thirty degrees; and, on
the next day, discovered two islands, so well stocked with fowls, that
they victualled their ships with them, and then sailed forward along
the coast of Peru, till they came to thirty-seven degrees, where,
finding neither of their ships, nor any convenient port, they came to
anchor, November the 25th, at Mucho, an island inhabited by such
Indians, as the cruelty of the Spanish conquerors had driven from the
continent, to whom they applied for water and provisions, offering
them, in return, such things as they imagined most likely to please
them. The Indians seemed willing to traffick, and having presented
them with fruits, and two fat sheep, would have showed them a place
whither they should come for water.

The next morning, according to agreement, the English landed with
their water-vessels, and sent two men forward towards the place
appointed, who, about the middle of the way, were suddenly attacked by
the Indians, and immediately slain. Nor were the rest of the company
out of danger; for behind the rocks was lodged an ambush of five
hundred men, who, starting up from their retreat, discharged their
arrows into the boat with such dexterity, that every one of the crew
was wounded by them, the sea being then high, and hindering them from
either retiring or making use of their weapons. Drake himself received
an arrow under his eye, which pierced him almost to the brain, and
another in his head. The danger of these wounds was much increased by
the absence of their surgeon, who was in the viceadmiral, so that they
had none to assist them but a boy, whose age did not admit of much
experience or skill; yet so much were they favoured by providence,
that they all recovered.

No reason could be assigned for which the Indians should attack them
with so furious a spirit of malignity, but that they mistook them for
Spaniards, whose cruelties might very reasonably incite them to
revenge, whom they had driven by incessant persecution from their
country, wasting immense tracts of land by massacre and devastation.

On the afternoon of the same day, they set sail, and, on the 30th of
November, dropped anchor in Philips bay, where their boat, having been
sent out to discover the country, returned with an Indian in his
canoe, whom they had intercepted. He was of a graceful stature,
dressed in a white coat or gown, reaching almost to his knees, very
mild, humble, and docile, such as, perhaps, were all the Indians, till
the Spaniards taught them revenge, treachery, and cruelty.

This Indian, having been kindly treated, was dismissed with presents,
and informed, as far as the English could make him understand, what
they chiefly wanted, and what they were willing to give in return,
Drake ordering his boat to attend him in his canoe, and to set him
safe on the land.

When he was ashore, he directed them to wait till his return, and
meeting some of his countrymen, gave them such an account of his
reception, that, within a few hours, several of them repaired with him
to the boat with fowls, eggs, and a hog, and with them one of their
captains, who willingly came into the boat, and desired to be conveyed
by the English to the ship.

By this man Drake was informed, that no supplies were to be expected
here, but that southward, in a place to which he offered to be his
pilot, there was great plenty. This proposal was accepted, and, on
the 5th of December, under the direction of the good-natured Indian,
they came to anchor in the harbour called, by the Spaniards,
Valparaiso, near the town of St. James of Chiuli, where they met not
only with sufficient stores of provision, and with storehouses full of
the wines of Chili, but with a ship called the Captain of Morial,
richly laden, having, together with large quantities of the same
wines, some of the fine gold of Baldivia, and a great cross of gold
set with emeralds.

Having spent three days in storing their ships with all kinds of
provision in the utmost plenty, they departed, and landed their Indian
pilot where they first received him, after having rewarded him much
above his expectations or desires.

They had now little other anxiety than for their friends who had been
separated from them, and whom they now determined to seek; but
considering that, by entering every creek and harbour with their ship,
they exposed themselves to unnecessary dangers, and that their boat
would not contain such a number as might defend themselves against,
the Spaniards, they determined to station their ship at some place,
where they might commodiously build a pinnace, which, being of light
burden, might easily sail where the ship was in danger of being
stranded, and, at the same time, might carry a sufficient force to
resist the enemy, and afford better accommodation than could be
expected in the boat.

To this end, on the 19th of December, they entered a bay near Cippo, a
town inhabited by Spaniards, who, discovering them, immediately issued
out, to the number of a hundred horsemen, with about two hundred naked
Indians running by their sides. The English, observing their approach,
retired to their boat, without any loss, except of one man, whom no
persuasions or entreaties could move to retire with the rest, and who,
therefore, was shot by the Spaniards, who, exulting at the victory,
commanded the Indians to draw the dead carcass from the rock on which
he fell, and, in the sight of the English, beheaded it, then cut off
the right hand, and tore out the heart, which they carried away,
having first commanded the Indians to shoot their arrows all over the
body. The arrows of the Indians were made of green wood, for the
immediate service of the day; the Spaniards, with the fear that always
harasses oppressors, forbidding them to have any weapons, when they do
not want their present assistance.

Leaving this place, they soon found a harbour more secure and
convenient, where they built their pinnace, in which Drake went to
seek his companions; but, finding the wind contrary, he was obliged to
return in two days.

Leaving this place soon after, they sailed along the coast in search
of fresh water, and landing at Turapaca, they found a Spaniard asleep,
with silver bars lying by him, to the value of three thousand ducats:
not all the insults which they had received from his countrymen could
provoke them to offer any violence to his person, and, therefore, they
carried away his treasure, without doing him any further harm.

Landing in another place, they found a Spaniard driving eight Peruvian
sheep, which are the beasts of burden in that country, each laden with
a hundred pounds weight of silver, which they seized, likewise, and
drove to their boats.

Further along the coast lay some Indian towns, from which the
inhabitants repaired to the ship, on floats made of sealskins, blown
full of wind, two of which they fasten together, and, sitting between
them, row with great swiftness, and carry considerable burdens. They
very readily traded for glass and such trifles, with which the old and
the young seemed equally delighted.

Arriving at Mormorena, on the 26th of January, Drake invited the
Spaniards to traffick with him, which they agreed to, and supplied him
with necessaries, selling to him, among other provisions, some of
those sheep which have been mentioned, whose bulk is equal to that of
a cow, and whose strength is such, that one of them can carry three
tall men upon his back; their necks are like a camel's, and their
heads like those of our sheep. They are the most useful animals of
this country, not only affording excellent fleeces and wholesome
flesh, but serving as carriages over rocks and mountains, where no
other beast can travel, for their foot is of a peculiar form, which
enables them to tread firm in the most steep and slippery places.

On all this coast, the whole soil is so impregnated with silver, that
five ounces may be separated from a hundred pound weight of common
earth.

Still coasting, in hopes of meeting their friends, they anchored, on
the 7th of February, before Aria, where they took two barks, with
about eight hundred pound weight of silver, and, pursuing their
course, seized another vessel, laden with linens.

On the 15th of February, 1578, they arrived at Lima, and entered the
harbour without resistance, though thirty ships were stationed there,
of which seventeen were equipped for their voyage, and many of them
are represented in the narrative as vessels of considerable force; so
that their security seems to have consisted, not in their strength,
but in their reputation, which had so intimidated the Spaniards, that
the sight of their own superiority could not rouse them to opposition.
Instances of such panick terrours are to be met with in other
relations; but as they are, for the most part, quickly dissipated by
reason and reflection, a wise commander will rarely found his hopes of
success on them; and, perhaps, on this occasion, the Spaniards
scarcely deserve a severer censure for their cowardice, than Drake for
his temerity.

In one of these ships they found fifteen hundred bars of silver; in
another a chest of money; and very rich lading in many of the rest, of
which the Spaniards tamely suffered them to carry the most valuable
part away, and would have permitted them no less peaceably to burn
their ships; but Drake never made war with a spirit of cruelty or
revenge, or carried hostilities further than was necessary for his own
advantage or defence.

They set sail the next morning towards Panama, in quest of the Caca
Fuego, a very rich ship, which had sailed fourteen days before, bound
thither from Lima, which they overtook, on the 1st of March, near cape
Francisco, and, boarding it, found not only a quantity of jewels, and
twelve chests of ryals of plate, but eighty pounds weight of gold, and
twenty-six tons of uncoined silver, with pieces of wrought plate to a
great value. In unlading this prize they spent six days, and then,
dismissing the Spaniards, Stood off to sea.

Being now sufficiently enriched, and having lost all hopes of finding
their associates, and, perhaps, beginning to be infected with that
desire of ease and pleasure, which is the natural consequence of
wealth obtained by dangers and fatigues, they began to consult about
their return home, and, in pursuance of Drake's advice, resolved first
to find out some convenient harbour, where they might supply
themselves with wood and water, and then endeavour to discover a
passage from the south sea into the Atlantick ocean; a discovery,
which would not only enable them to return home with less danger, and
in a shorter time, but would much facilitate the navigation in those
parts of the world.

For this purpose they had recourse to a port in the island of Caines,
where they met with fish, wood, and fresh water; and, in their course,
took a ship, laden with silk and linen, which was the last that they
met with on the coast of America.

But being desirous of storing themselves for a long course, they
touched, April the 15th, at Guatulco, a Spanish island, where they
supplied themselves with provisions, and seized a bushel of ryals of
silver.

From Guatulco, which lies in 15 deg. 40 min. they stood out to sea,
and, without approaching any land, sailed forward, till, on the night
following, the 3rd of June, being then in the latitude of thirty-eight
degrees, they were suddenly benumbed with such cold blasts, that they
were scarcely able to handle the ropes. This cold increased upon them,
as they proceeded, to such a degree, that the sailors were discouraged
from mounting upon the deck; nor were the effects of the climate to be
imputed to the warmth of the regions to which they had been lately
accustomed, for the ropes were stiff with frost, and the meat could
scarcely be conveyed warm to the table.

On June 17th, they came to anchor in 38 deg. 30 min. when they saw the
land naked, and the trees without leaves, and in a short time had
opportunities of observing, that the natives of that country were not
less sensible of the cold than themselves; for the next day came a man
rowing in his canoe towards the ship, and at a distance from it made a
long oration, with very extraordinary gesticulations, and great
appearance of vehemence, and, a little time afterwards, made a second
visit, in the same manner, and then returning a third time, he
presented them, after his harangue was finished, with a kind of crown
of black feathers, such as their kings wear upon their heads, and a
basket of rushes, filled with a particular herb, both which he
fastened to a short stick, and threw into the boat; nor could he be
prevailed upon to receive any thing in return, though pushed towards
him upon a board; only he took up a hat, which was flung into the
water.

Three days afterwards, their ship, having received some damage at sea,
was brought nearer to land, that the lading might be taken out. In
order to which, the English, who had now learned not too negligently
to commit their lives to the mercy of savage nations, raised a kind of
fortification with stones, and built their tents within it. All this
was not beheld by the inhabitants without the utmost astonishment,
which incited them to come down in crowds to the coast, with no other
view, as it appeared, than to worship the new divinities that had
condescended to touch upon their country.

Drake was far from countenancing their errours, or taking advantage of
their weakness, to injure or molest them; and, therefore, having
directed them to lay aside their bows and arrows, he presented them
with linen, and other necessaries, of which he showed them the use.
They then returned to their habitations, about three quarters of a
mile from the English camp, where they made such loud and violent
outcries, that they were heard by the English, who found that they
still persisted in their first notions, and were paying them their
kind of melancholy adoration.

Two days afterwards they perceived the approach of a far more numerous
company, who stopped at the top of a hill, which overlooked the
English settlement, while one of them made a long oration, at the end
of which all the assembly bowed their bodies, and pronounced the
syllable _oh_, with a solemn tone, as by way of confirmation of
what had been said by the orator. Then the men, laying down their
bows, and leaving the women and children on the top of the hill, came
down towards the tents, and seemed transported, in the highest degree,
at the kindness of the general, who received their gifts, and admitted
them to his presence. The women at a distance appeared seized with a
kind of phrensy, such as that of old among the pagans in some of their
religious ceremonies, and in honour, as it seemed, of their guests,
tore their cheeks and bosoms with their nails, and threw themselves
upon the stones with their naked bodies, till they were covered with
blood.

These cruel rites, and mistaken honours, were by no means agreeable to
Drake, whose predominant sentiments were notions of piety, and,
therefore, not to make that criminal in himself by his concurrence,
which, perhaps, ignorance might make guiltless in them, he ordered his
whole company to fall upon their knees, and, with their eyes lifted up
to heaven, that the savages might observe that their worship was
addressed to a being residing there, they all joined in praying that
this harmless and deluded people might be brought to the knowledge of
the true religion, and the doctrines of our blessed Saviour; after
which they sung psalms, a performance so pleasing to their wild
audience, that, in all their visits, they generally first accosted
them with a request that they would sing. They then returned all the
presents which they had received, and retired.

Three days after this, on June 25, 1579, our general received two
ambassadours from the hioh, or king of the country, who, intending to
visit the camp, required that some token might be sent him of
friendship and peace; this request was readily complied with, and soon
after came the king, attended by a guard of about a hundred tall men,
and preceded by an officer of state, who carried a sceptre made of
black wood, adorned with chains of a kind of bone or horn, which are
marks of the highest honour among them, and having two crowns, made as
before, with feathers fastened to it, with a bag of the same herb,
which was presented to Drake at his first arrival.

Behind him was the king himself, dressed in a coat of cony-skins, with
a caul, woven with feathers, upon his head, an ornament so much in
estimation there, that none but the domesticks of the king are allowed
to wear it; his attendants followed him, adorned nearly in the same
manner; and after them came the common people, with baskets plaited so
artificially that they held water, in which, by way of sacrifice, they
brought roots and fish.

Drake, not lulled into security, ranged his men in order of battle,
and waited their approach, who, coming nearer, stood still, while the
sceptre-bearer made an oration, at the conclusion of which they again
came forward to the foot of the hill, and then the sceptre-bearer
began a song, which he accompanied with a dance, in both which the men
joined, but the women danced without singing.

Drake now, distrusting them no longer, admitted them into his
fortification, where they continued their song and dance a short time;
and then both the king, and some others of the company, made long
harangues, in which it appeared, by the rest of their behaviour, that
they entreated him to accept of their country, and to take the
government of it into his own hands; for the king, with the apparent
concurrence of the rest, placed the crown upon his head, graced him
with the chains and other signs of authority, and saluted him with the
title of hioh.

The kingdom thus offered, though of no further value to him than as it
furnished him with present necessaries, Drake thought it not prudent
to refuse; and, therefore, took possession of it in the name of queen
Elizabeth, not without ardent wishes, that this acquisition might have
been of use to his native country, and that so mild and innocent a
people might have been united to the church of Christ.

The kingdom being thus consigned, and the grand affair at an end, the
common people left their king and his domesticks with Drake, and
dispersed themselves over the camp; and when they saw any one that
pleased them by his appearance more than the rest, they tore their
flesh, and vented their outcries as before, in token of reverence and
admiration.

They then proceeded to show them their wounds and diseases, in hopes
of a miraculous and instantaneous cure; to which the English, to
benefit and undeceive them at the same time, applied such remedies as
they used on the like occasions.

They were now grown confident and familiar, and came down to the camp
every day, repeating their ceremonies and sacrifices, till they were
more fully informed how disagreeable they were to those whose favour
they were so studious of obtaining: they then visited them without
adoration, indeed, but with a curiosity so ardent, that it left them
no leisure to provide the necessaries of life, with which the English
were, therefore, obliged to supply them.

They had then sufficient opportunity to remark the customs and
dispositions of these new allies, whom they found tractable and
benevolent, strong of body, far beyond the English, yet unfurnished
with weapons, either for assault or defence, their bows being too weak
for any thing but sport. Their dexterity in taking fish was such,
that, if they saw them so near the shore that they could come to them
without swimming, they never missed them.

The same curiosity that had brought them in such crowds to the shore,
now induced Drake, and some of his company, to travel up into the
country, which they found, at some distance from the coast, very
fruitful, filled with large deer, and abounding with a peculiar kind
of conies, smaller than ours, with tails like that of a rat, and paws
such as those of a mole; they have bags under their chin, in which
they carry provisions to their young.

The houses of the inhabitants are round holes dug in the ground, from
the brink of which they raise rafters, or piles, shelving towards the
middle, where they all meet, and are crammed together; they lie upon
rushes, with the fire in the midst, and let the smoke fly out at the
door.

The men are generally naked; but the women make a kind of petticoat of
bulrushes, which they comb like hemp, and throw the skin of a deer
over their shoulders. They are very modest, tractable, and obedient to
their husbands.

Such is the condition of this people; and not very different is,
perhaps, the state of the greatest part of mankind. Whether more
enlightened nations ought to look upon them with pity, as less happy
than themselves, some skepticks have made, very unnecessarily, a
difficulty of determining. More, they say, is lost by the perplexities
than gained by the instruction of science; we enlarge our vices with
our knowledge, and multiply our wants with our attainments, and the
happiness of life is better secured by the ignorance of vice, than by
the knowledge of virtue.

The fallacy by which such reasoners have imposed upon themselves,
seems to arise from the comparison which they make, not between two
men equally inclined to apply the means of happiness in their power to
the end for which providence conferred them, but furnished in unequal
proportions with the means of happiness, which is the true state of
savage and polished nations; but between two men, of which he to whom
providence has been most bountiful, destroys the blessings by
negligence or obstinate misuse; while the other, steady, diligent, and
virtuous, employs his abilities and conveniences to their proper end.
The question is not, whether a good Indian or bad Englishman be most
happy; but, which state is most desirable, supposing virtue and reason
the same in both.
Nor is this the only mistake which is generally admitted in this
controversy, for these reasoners frequently confound innocence with
the mere incapacity of guilt. He that never saw, or heard, or thought
of strong liquors, cannot be proposed as a pattern of sobriety.

This land was named, by Drake, Albion, from its white cliffs, in which
it bore some resemblance to his native country; and the whole history
of the resignation of it to the English was engraven on a piece of
brass, then nailed on a post, and fixed up before their departure,
which being now discovered by the people to be near at hand, they
could not forbear perpetual lamentations. When the English, on the
23rd of July, weighed anchor, they saw them climbing to the tops of
hills, that they might keep them in sight, and observed fires lighted
up in many parts of the country, on which, as they supposed,
sacrifices were offered.

Near this harbour they touched at some islands, where they found great
numbers of seals; and, despairing now to find any passage through the
northern parts, he, after a general consultation, determined to steer
away to the Moluccas, and setting sail July 25th, he sailed for
sixty-eight days without sight of land; and, on September 30th,
arrived within view of some islands, situate about eight degrees
northward from the line, from whence the inhabitants resorted to them
in canoes, hollowed out of the solid trunk of a tree, and raised at
both ends so high above the water, that they seemed almost a
semicircle; they were burnished in such a manner that they shone like
ebony, and were kept steady by a piece of timber, fixed on each side
of them, with strong canes, that were fastened at one end to the boat,
and at the other to the end of the timber.

The first company that came brought fruits, potatoes, and other things
of no great value, with an appearance of traffick, and exchanged their
lading for other commodities, with great show of honesty and
friendship; but having, as they imagined, laid all suspicion asleep,
they soon sent another fleet of canoes, of which the crews behaved
with all the insolence of tyrants, and all the rapacity of thieves;
for, whatever was suffered to come into their hands, they seemed to
consider as their own, and would neither pay for it, nor restore it;
and, at length, finding the English resolved to admit them no longer,
they discharged a shower of stones from their boats, which insult
Drake prudently and generously returned, by ordering a piece of
ordnance to be fired without hurting them, at which they were so
terrified, that they leaped into the water, and hid themselves under
the canoes.

Having, for some time, but little wind, they did not arrive at the
Moluccas till the 3rd of November, and then, designing to touch at
Tidore, they were visited, as they sailed by a little island belonging
to the king of Ternate, by the viceroy of the place, who informed
them, that it would be more advantageous for them to have recourse to
his master, for supplies and assistance, than to the king of Ternate,
who was, in some degree, dependent on the Portuguese, and that he
would himself carry the news of their arrival, and prepare for their
reception.

Drake was, by the arguments of the viceroy, prevailed upon to alter
his resolution, and, on November 5, cast anchor before Ternate; and
scarce was he arrived, before the viceroy, with others of the chief
nobles, came out in three large boats, rowed by forty men on each
side, to conduct the ship into a safe harbour; and soon after the king
himself, having received a velvet cloak by a messenger from Drake, as
a token of peace, came with such a retinue and dignity of appearance,
as was not expected in those remote parts of the world. He was
received with discharges of cannons and every kind of musick, with
which he was so much delighted, that, desiring the musicians to come
down into the boat, he was towed along in it at the stern of the ship.

The king was of a graceful stature, and regal carriage, of a mild
aspect, and low voice; his attendants were dressed in white cotton or
calico, of whom some, whose age gave them a venerable appearance,
seemed his counsellors, and the rest officers or nobles; his guards
were not ignorant of firearms, but had not many among them, being
equipped, for the most part, with bows and darts.

The king, having spent some time in admiring the multitude of new
objects that presented themselves, retired as soon as the ship was
brought to anchor, and promised to return on the day following; and,
in the mean time, the inhabitants, having leave to traffick, brought
down provisions in great abundance.

At the time when the king was expected, his brother came on board, to
request of Drake that he would come to the castle, proposing to stay
himself as a hostage for his return. Drake refused to go, but sent
some gentlemen, detaining the king's brother in the mean time.

These gentlemen were received by another of the king's brothers, who
conducted them to the council-house, near the castle, in which they
were directed to walk: there they found threescore old men, privy
counsellors to the king, and on each side of the door without stood
four old men of foreign countries, who served as interpreters in
commerce.

In a short time the king came from the castle, dressed in cloth of
gold, with his hair woven into gold rings, a chain of gold upon his
neck, and on his hands rings very artificially set with diamonds and
jewels of great value; over his head was borne a rich canopy; and by
his chair of state, on which he sat down when he had entered the
house, stood a page with a fan set with sapphires, to moderate the
excess of the heat. Here he received the compliments of the English,
and then honourably dismissed them.

The castle, which they had some opportunity of observing, seemed of no
great force; it was built by the Portuguese, who, attempting to reduce
this kingdom into an absolute subjection, murdered the king, and
intended to pursue their scheme by the destruction of all his sons;
but the general abhorrence which cruelty and perfidy naturally excite,
armed all the nation against them, and procured their total expulsion
from all the dominions of Ternate, which, from that time, increasing
in power, continued to make new conquests, and to deprive them of
other acquisitions.

While they lay before Ternate, a gentleman came on board, attended by
his interpreter. He was dressed somewhat in the European manner, and
soon distinguished himself from the natives of Ternate, or any other
country that they had seen, by his civility and apprehension. Such a
visitant may easily be imagined to excite their curiosity, which he
gratified by informing them, that he was a native of China, of the
family of the king then reigning; and that being accused of a capital
crime, of which, though he was innocent, he had not evidence to clear
himself, he had petitioned the king that he might not be exposed to a
trial, but that his cause might be referred to divine providence, and
that he might be allowed to leave his country, with a prohibition
against returning, unless heaven, in attestation of his innocence,
should enable him to bring back to the king some intelligence that
might be to the honour and advantage of the empire of China. In search
of such information he had now spent three years, and had left Tidore
for the sake of conversing with the English general, from whom he
hoped to receive such accounts as would enable him to return with
honour and safety.

Drake willingly recounted all his adventures and observations, to
which the Chinese exile listened with the utmost attention and
delight, and, having fixed them in his mind, thanked God for the
knowledge he had gained. He then proposed to the English general to
conduct him to China, recounting, by way of invitation, the wealth,
extent, and felicity of that empire; but Drake could not be induced to
prolong his voyage.

He, therefore, set sail on the 9th of November, in quest of some
convenient harbour, in a desert island, to refit his ship, not being
willing, as it seems, to trust to the generosity of the king of
Ternate. Five days afterwards he found a very commodious harbour, in
an island overgrown with wood, where he repaired his vessel and
refreshed his men, without danger or interruption.

Leaving this place the 12th of December, they sailed towards the
Celebes; but, having a wind not very favourable, they were detained
among a multitude of islands, mingled with dangerous shallows, till
January 9, 1580. When they thought themselves clear, and were sailing
forward with a strong gale, they were, at the beginning of the night,
surprised in their course by a sudden shock, of which the cause was
easily discovered, for they were thrown upon a shoal, and, by the
speed of their course, fixed too fast for any hope of escaping. Here
even the intrepidity of Drake was shaken, and his dexterity baffled;
but his piety, however, remained still the same, and what he could not
now promise himself from his own ability, he hoped from the assistance
of providence. The pump was plied, and the ship found free from new
leaks.

The next attempt was to discover towards the sea some place where they
might fix their boat, and from thence drag the ship into deep water;
but, upon examination, it appeared that the rock, on which they had
struck, rose perpendicularly from the water, and that there was no
anchorage, nor any bottom to be found a boat's length from the ship.
But this discovery, with its consequences, was, by Drake, wisely
concealed from the common sailors, lest they should abandon themselves
to despair, for which there was indeed cause; there being no prospect
left, but that they must there sink with the ship, which must,
undoubtedly, be soon dashed to pieces, or perish in attempting to
reach the shore in their boat, or be cut in pieces by barbarians, if
they should arrive at land.

In the midst of this perplexity and distress, Drake directed that the
sacrament should be administered, and his men fortified with all the
consolation which religion affords; then persuaded them to lighten the
vessel, by throwing into the sea part of their lading, which was
cheerfully complied with, but without effect. At length, when their
hopes had forsaken them, and no new struggles could be made, they were
on a sudden relieved by a remission of the wind, which, having
hitherto blown strongly against the side of the ship which lay towards
the sea, held it upright against the rock; but when the blast
slackened, being then low water, the ship lying higher with that part
which rested on the rock than with the other, and being borne up no
longer by the wind, reeled into the deep water, to the surprise and
joy of Drake and his companions.

This was the greatest and most inextricable distress which they had
ever suffered, and made such an impression upon their minds, that, for
some time afterwards, they durst not adventure to spread their sails,
but went slowly forward with the utmost circumspection.

They thus continued their course without any observable occurrence,
till, on the 11th of March, they came to an anchor, before the island
of Java, and sending to the king a present of cloth and silks,
received from him, in return, a large quantity of provisions; and, the
day following, Drake went himself on shore, and entertained the king
with his musick, and obtained leave to store his ship with provisions.

The island is governed by a great number of petty kings, or raias,
subordinate to one chief; of these princes three came on board
together, a few days after their arrival; and having, upon their
return, recounted the wonders which they had seen, and the civility
with which they had been treated, incited others to satisfy their
curiosity in the same manner; and raia Donan, the chief king, came
himself to view the ship, with the warlike armaments and instruments
of navigation.

This intercourse of civilities somewhat retarded the business for
which they came; but, at length, they not only victualled their ship,
but cleansed the bottom, which, in the long course, was overgrown with
a kind of shellfish that impeded her passage.

Leaving Java, on March 26 they sailed homewards by the cape of Good
Hope, which they saw on June the 5th; on the 15th of August passed the
tropick; and on the 26th of September arrived at Plymouth, where they
found that, by passing through so many different climates, they had
lost a day in their account of time, it being Sunday by their journal,
but Monday by the general computation.

In this hazardous voyage they had spent two years, ten months, and
some odd days; but were recompensed for their toils by great riches,
and the universal applause of their countrymen. Drake afterwards
brought his ship up to Deptford, where queen Elizabeth visited him on
board his ship, and conferred the honour of knighthood upon him; an
honour, in that illustrious reign, not made cheap by prostitution, nor
even bestowed without uncommon merit.

It is not necessary to give an account, equally particular, of the
remaining part of his life, as he was no longer a private man, but
engaged in publick affairs, and associated in his expeditions with
other generals, whose attempts, and the success of them, are related
in the histories of those times.

In 1585, on the 12th of September, sir Francis Drake set sail from
Plymouth with a fleet of five-and-twenty ships and pinnaces, of which
himself was admiral, captain Martiu Forbisher, viceadmiral, and
captain Francis Knollis, rearadmiral; they were fitted out to cruise
upon the Spaniards; and having touched at the isle of Bayonne, and
plundered Vigo, put to sea again, and on the 16th of November arrived
before St. Jago, which they entered without resistance, and rested
there fourteen days, visiting, in the mean time, San Domingo, a town
within the land, which they found likewise deserted; and, carrying off
what they pleased of the produce of the island, they, at their
departure, destroyed the town and villages, in revenge of the murder
of one of their boys, whose body they found mangled in a most inhuman
manner.

From this island they pursued their voyage to the West Indies,
determining to attack St. Domingo in Hispaniola, as the richest place
in that part of the world; they, therefore, landed a thousand men, and
with small loss entered the town, of which they kept possession for a
month without interruption or alarm; during which time a remarkable
accident happened, which deserves to be related.

Drake, having some intention of treating with the Spaniards, sent to
them a negro boy with a flag of truce, which one of the Spaniards so
little regarded, that he stabbed him through the body with a lance.
The boy, notwithstanding his wound, came back to the general, related
the treatment which he had found, and died in his sight. Drake was so
incensed at this outrage, that he ordered two friars, then his
prisoners, to be conveyed with a guard to the place where the crime
was committed, and hanged up in the sight of the Spaniards, declaring
that two Spanish prisoners should undergo the same death every day,
till the offender should be delivered up by them: they were too well
acquainted with the character of Drake not to bring him on the day
following, when, to impress the shame of such actions more effectually
upon them, he compelled them to execute him with their own hands. Of
this town, at their departure, they demolished part, and admitted the
rest to be ransomed for five and twenty thousand ducats.

From thence they sailed to Carthagena, where the enemy having received
intelligence of the fate of St. Domingo, had strengthened their
fortifications, and prepared to defend themselves with great
obstinacy; but the English, landing in the night, came upon them by a
way which they did not suspect, and being better armed, partly by
surprise, and partly by superiority of order and valour, became
masters of the place, where they stayed without fear or danger six
weeks, and, at their departure, received a hundred and ten thousand
ducats, for the ransome of the town.

They afterwards took St. Augustin, and, touching at Virginia, took on
board the governour, Mr. Lane, with the English that had been left
there, the year before, by sir Walter Raleigh, and arrived at
Portsmouth on July 28, 1586, having lost in the voyage seven hundred
and fifty men. The gain of this expedition amounted to sixty thousand
pounds, of which forty were the share of the adventurers who fitted
out the ships, and the rest, distributed among the several crews,
amounted to six pounds each man. So cheaply is life sometimes
hazarded.

The transactions against the armada, 1588, are, in themselves, far
more memorable, but less necessary to be recited in this succinct
narrative; only let it be remembered, that the post of viceadmiral of
England, to which sir Francis Drake was then raised, is a sufficient
proof, that no obscurity of birth, or meanness of fortune, is
unsurmountable to bravery and diligence.

In 1595, sir Francis Drake and sir John Hawkins were sent with a fleet
to the West Indies, which expedition was only memorable for the
destruction of Nombre de Dios, and the death of the two commanders, of
whom sir Francis Drake died January 9, 1597, and was thrown into the
sea in a leaden coffin, with all the pomp of naval obsequies. It is
reported by some, that the ill success of this voyage hastened his
death. Upon what this conjecture is grounded does not appear; and we
may be allowed to hope, for the honour of so great a man, that it is
without foundation; and that he, whom no series of success could ever
betray to vanity or negligence, could have supported a change of
fortune without impatience or dejection.




BARRETIER [45].


Having not been able to procure materials for a complete life of Mr.
Barretier, and being, nevertheless, willing to gratify the curiosity
justly raised in the publick by his uncommon attainments, we think the
following extracts of letters written by his father, proper to be
inserted in our collection, as they contain many remarkable passages,
and exhibit a general view of his genius and learning.

John Philip Barretier was born at Schwabach, January 19, 1720-21. His
father was a calvinist minister of that place, who took upon himself
the care of his education. What arts of instruction he used, or by
what method he regulated the studies of his son, we are not able to
inform the publick; but take this opportunity of intreating those, who
have received more complete intelligence, not to deny mankind so great
a benefit as the improvement of education. If Mr. le Fêvre thought the
method in which he taught his children, worthy to be communicated to
the learned world, how justly may Mr. Barretier claim the universal
attention of mankind to a scheme of education that has produced such a
stupendous progress! The authors, who have endeavoured to teach
certain and unfailing rules for obtaining a long life, however they
have failed in their attempts, are universally confessed to have, at
least, the merit of a great and noble design, and to have deserved
gratitude and honour. How much more then is due to Mr. Barretier, who
has succeeded in what they have only attempted? for to prolong life,
and improve it, are nearly the same. If to have all that riches can
purchase, is to be rich; if to do all that can be done in a long time,
is to live long; he is equally a benefactor to mankind, who teaches
them to protract the duration, or shorten the business of life.

That there are few things more worthy our curiosity than this method,
by which the father assisted the genius of the son, every man will be
convinced, that considers the early proficiency at which it enabled
him to arrive; such a proficiency as no one has yet reached at the
same age, and to which it is, therefore, probable, that every
advantageous circumstance concurred.

_At the age of nine years he not only was master of five
languages_, an attainment in itself almost incredible, but
understood, says his father, the holy writers, better in their
original tongues, than in his own. If he means, by this assertion,
that he knew the sense of many passages in the original, which were
obscure in the translation, the account, however wonderful, may be
admitted; but if he intends to tell his correspondent, that his son
was better acquainted with the two languages of the Bible than with
his own, he must be allowed to speak hyperbolically, or to admit, that
his son had somewhat neglected the study of his native language; or we
must own, that the fondness of a parent has transported him into some
natural exaggerations.

Part of this letter I am tempted to suppress, being unwilling to
demand the belief of others to that which appears incredible to
myself; but as my incredulity may, perhaps, be the product rather of
prejudice than reason, as envy may beget a disinclination to admit so
immense a superiority, and as an account is not to be immediately
censured as false, merely because it is wonderful, I shall proceed to
give the rest of his father's relation, from his letter of the 3rd of
March, 1729-30. He speaks, continues he, German, Latin, and French,
equally well. He can, by laying before him a translation, read any of
the books of the Old or New Testament, in its original language,
without hesitation or perplexity. _He is no stranger to biblical
criticism_ or philosophy, nor unacquainted with ancient and modern
geography, and is qualified to support a conversation with learned
men, who frequently visit and correspond with him.

In his eleventh year, he not only published a learned letter in Latin,
but translated the travels of rabbi Benjamin from the Hebrew into
French, which he illustrated with notes, and accompanied with
dissertations; a work in which his father, as he himself declares,
could give him little assistance, as he did not understand the
rabbinical dialect.

The reason for which his father engaged him in this work, was only to
prevail upon him to write a fairer hand than he had hitherto
accustomed himself to do, by giving him hopes, that, if he should
translate some little author, and offer a fair copy of his version to
some bookseller, he might, in return for it, have other books which he
wanted and could not afford to purchase.

Incited by this expectation, he fixed upon the travels of rabbi
Benjamin, as most proper for his purpose, being a book neither bulky
nor common, and in one month completed his translation, applying only
one or two hours a day to that particular task. In another month, he
drew up the principal notes; and, in the third, wrote some
dissertations upon particular passages which seemed to require a
larger examination.

These notes contain so many curious remarks and inquiries, out of the
common road of learning, and afford so many instances of penetration,
judgment, and accuracy, that the reader finds, in every page, some
reason to persuade him that they cannot possibly be the work of a
child, but of a man long accustomed to these studies, enlightened by
reflection, and dextrous, by long practice, in the use of books. Yet,
that it is the performance of a boy thus young, is not only proved by
the testimony of his father, but by the concurrent evidence of Mr. le
Maître, his associate in the church of Schwabach, who not only asserts
his claim to this work, but affirms, that he heard him, at six years
of age, explain the Hebrew text, as if it had been his native
language; so that the fact is not to be doubted without, a degree of
incredulity, which it will not be very easy to defend.

This copy was, however, far from being written with the neatness which
his father desired; nor did the booksellers, to whom it was offered,
make proposals very agreeable to the expectations of the young
translator; but, after having examined the performance in their
manner, and determined to print it upon conditions not very
advantageous, returned it to be transcribed, that the printers might
not be embarrassed with a copy so difficult to read.

Barretier was now advanced to the latter end of his twelfth year, and
had made great advances in his studies, notwithstanding an obstinate
tumour in his left hand, which gave him great pain, and obliged him to
a tedious and troublesome method of cure; and reading over his
performance, was so far from contenting himself with barely
transcribing it, that he altered the greatest part of the notes,
new-modelled the dissertations, and augmented the book to twice its
former bulk.

The few touches which his father bestowed upon the revisal of the
book, though they are minutely set down by him in the preface, are so
inconsiderable, that it is not necessary to mention them; and it may
be much more agreeable, as well as useful, to exhibit the short
account which he there gives of the method by which he enabled his son
to show, so early, how easy an attainment is the knowledge of the
languages, a knowledge which some men spend their lives in
cultivating, to the neglect of more valuable studies, and which they
seem to regard as the highest perfection of human nature.

What applauses are due to an old age, wasted in a scrupulous attention
to particular accents and etymologies, may appear, says his father, by
seeing how little time is required to arrive at such an eminence in
these studies as many, even of these venerable doctors, have not
attained, for want of rational methods and regular application.

This censure is, doubtless, just, upon those who spend too much of
their lives upon useless niceties, or who appear to labour without
making any progress; but, as the knowledge of language is necessary,
and a minute accuracy sometimes requisite, they are by no means to be
blamed, who, in compliance with the particular bent of their own
minds, make the difficulties of dead languages their chief study, and
arrive at excellence proportionate to their application, since it was
to the labour of such men that his son was indebted for his own
learning.

The first languages which Barretier learned were the French, German,
and Latin, which he was taught, not in the common way, by a multitude
of definitions, rules, and exceptions, which fatigue the attention and
burden the memory, without any use proportionate to the time which
they require, and the disgust which they create. The method by which
he was instructed was easy and expeditious, and, therefore, pleasing.
He learned them all in the same manner, and almost at the same time,
by conversing in them indifferently with his father.

The other languages, of which he was master, he learned by a method
yet more uncommon. The only book which he made use of was the Bible,
which his father laid before him in the language that he then proposed
to learn, accompanied with a translation, being taught, by degrees,
the inflections of nouns and verbs. This method, says his father, made
the Latin more familiar to him, in his fourth year, than any other
language.

When he was near the end of his sixth year, he entered upon the study
of the Old Testament, in its original language, beginning with the
book of Genesis, to which his father confined him for six months;
after which he read cursorily over the rest of the historical books,
in which he found very little difficulty, and then applied himself to
the study of the poetical writers, and the prophets, which he read
over so often, with so close an attention, and so happy a memory, that
he could not only translate them, without a moment's hesitation, into
Latin or French, but turn, with the same facility, the translations
into the original language in his tenth year.

Growing, at length, weary of being confined to a book which he could
almost entirely repeat, he deviated, by stealth, into other studies,
and, as his translation of Benjamin is a sufficient evidence, he read
a multitude of writers, of various kinds. _In his twelfth year he
applied more particularly to the study of the fathers_, and
councils of the six first centuries, and began to make a regular
collection of their canons. He read every author in the original,
having discovered so much negligence or ignorance in most
translations, that he paid no regard to their authority.

Thus he continued his studies, neither drawn aside by pleasures nor
discouraged by difficulties. The greatest obstacle to his improvement
was want of books, with which his narrow fortune could not liberally
supply him; so that he was obliged to borrow the greatest part of
those which his studies required, and to return them when he had read
them, without being able to consult them occasionally, or to recur to
them when his memory should fail him.

It is observable, that neither his diligence, unintermitted as it was,
nor his want of books, a want of which he was, in the highest degree,
sensible, ever produced in him that asperity, which a long and recluse
life, without any circumstance of disquiet, frequently creates. He was
always gay, lively, and facetious; a temper which contributed much to
recommend his learning, and which some students, much superiour in
age, would consult their ease, their reputation, and their interest,
by copying from him.

In the year 1735 he published Anti-Artemonius; sive, initium evangelii
S. Joannis adversus Artemonium vindicatum; and attained such a degree
of reputation, that not only the publick, but _princes, who are
commonly the last_ by whom merit is distinguished, began to
interest themselves in his success; for, the same year, the king of
Prussia, who had heard of his early advances in literature, on account
of a scheme for discovering the longitude, which had been sent to the
Royal society of Berlin, and which was transmitted afterwards by him
to Paris and London, engaged to take care of his fortune, having
received further proofs of his abilities at his own court.

Mr. Barretier, being promoted to the cure of the church of Stetin, was
obliged to travel with his son thither, from Schwabach, through
Leipsic and Berlin, a journey very agreeable to his son, as it would
furnish him with new opportunities of improving his knowledge, and
extending his acquaintance among men of letters. For this purpose they
stayed some time at Leipsic, and then travelled to Halle, where young
Barretier so distinguished himself in his conversation with the
professors of the university, that they offered him his degree of
doctor in philosophy, a dignity correspondent to that of master of
arts among us. Barretier drew up, that night, some positions in
philosophy, and the mathematicks, which he sent immediately to the
press, and defended, the next day, in a crowded auditory, with so much
wit, spirit, presence of thought, and strength of reason, that the
whole university was delighted and amazed; he was then admitted to his
degree, and attended by the whole concourse to his lodgings, with
compliments and acclamations.

His theses, or philosophical positions, which he printed in compliance
with the practice of that university, ran through several editions in
a few weeks, and no testimony of regard was wanting, that could
contribute to animate him in his progress.

When they arrived at Berlin, the king ordered him to be brought into
his presence, and was so much pleased with his conversation, that he
sent for him almost every day during his stay at Berlin; and diverted
himself with engaging him in conversations upon a multitude of
subjects, and in disputes with learned men; on all which occasions he
acquitted himself so happily, that the king formed the highest ideas
of his capacity, and future eminence. And thinking, perhaps with
reason, that active life was the noblest sphere of a great genius, he
recommended to him the study of modern history, the customs of
nations, and those parts of learning, that are of use in publick
transactions and civil employments, declaring, that such abilities,
properly cultivated, might exalt him, in ten years, to be the greatest
minister of state in Europe.

Barretier, whether we attribute it to his moderation or inexperience,
was not dazzled by the prospect of such high promotion, but answered,
that _he was too much pleased with science and quiet_, to leave
them for such inextricable studies, or such harassing fatigues. A
resolution so unpleasing to the king, that his father attributes to it
the delay of those favours which they had hopes of receiving, the king
having, as he observes, determined to employ him in the ministry.

It is not impossible that paternal affection might suggest to Mr.
Barretier some false conceptions of the king's design; for he infers,
from the introduction of his son to the young princes, and the
caresses which he received from them, that the king intended him for
their preceptor; a scheme, says he, which some other resolution
happily destroyed.

Whatever was originally intended, and by whatever means these
intentions were frustrated, Barretier, after having been treated with
the highest regard by the whole royal family, was dismissed with a
present of two hundred crowns; and his father, instead of being fixed
at Stetin, was made pastor of the French church at Halle; a place more
commodious for study, to which they retired; Barretier being first
admitted into the Royal society at Berlin, and recommended, by the
king, to the university at Halle.

_At Halle he continued his studies_ with his usual application
and success, and, either by his own reflections, or the persuasions of
his father, was prevailed upon to give up his own inclinations to
those of the king, and direct his inquiries to those subjects that had
been recommended by him.

He continued to add new acquisitions to his learning, and to increase
his reputation by new performances, till, in the beginning of his
nineteenth year, his health began to decline, and his indisposition,
which, being not alarming or violent, was, perhaps, not at first
sufficiently regarded, increased by slow degrees for eighteen months,
during which he spent days among his books, and neither neglected his
studies, nor left his gaiety, till his distemper, ten days before his
death, deprived him of the use of his limbs: he then prepared himself
for his end, without fear or emotion, and, on the 5th of October,
1740, resigned his soul into the hands of his saviour, with
_confidence and tranquillity_.




In the Magazine for 1742 appeared the following

ADDITIONAL ACCOUNT of the LIFE OF JOHN PHILIP BARRETIER [46].


"As the nature of our collections requires that our accounts of
remarkable persons and transactions should be early, our readers must
necessarily pardon us, if they are often not complete, and allow us to
be sufficiently studious of their satisfaction, if we correct our
errours, and supply our defects from subsequent intelligence, where
the importance of the subject merits an extraordinary attention, or
when we have any peculiar opportunities of procuring information. The
particulars here inserted we thought proper to annex, by way of note,
to the following passages, quoted from the magazine for December,
1740, and for February, 1741. "

P. 377. _At the age of nine years he not only was master of five
languages. _

French, which was the native language of his mother, was that which he
learned first, mixed, by living in Germany, with some words of the
language of the country. After some time, his father took care to
introduce, in his conversation with him, some words of Latin, in such
a manner that he might discover the meaning of them by the connexion
of the sentence, or the occasion on which they were used, without
discovering that he had any intention of instructing him, or that any
new attainment was proposed.

By this method of conversation, in which new words were every day
introduced, his ear had been somewhat accustomed to the inflections
and variations of the Latin tongue, he began to attempt to speak like
his father, and was in a short time drawn on, by imperceptible
degrees, to speak Latin, intermixed with other languages.

Thus, when he was but four years old, he spoke every day French to his
mother, Latin to his father, and high Dutch to the maid, without any
perplexity to himself, or any confusion of one language with another.

P. 377. _He is no stranger to biblical criticism. _

Having now gained such a degree of skill in the Hebrew language, as to
be able to compose in it, both in prose and verse, he was extremely
desirous of reading the rabbins; and having borrowed of the
neighbouring clergy, and the jews of Schwabach, all the books which
they could supply him, he prevailed on his father to buy him the great
rabbinical Bible, published at Amsterdam, in four tomes, folio, 1728,
and read it with that accuracy and attention which appears, by the
account of it written by him to his favourite M. le Maitre, inserted
in the beginning of the twenty-sixth volume of the Bibliothéque
germanique.

These writers were read by him, as other young persons peruse romances
or novels, only from a puerile desire of amusement; for he had so
little veneration for them, even while he studied them with most
eagerness, that he often diverted his parents with recounting their
fables and chimeras.

P. 381. _In his twelfth year he applied more particularly to the
study of the fathers. _

His father being somewhat uneasy to observe so much time spent by him
on rabbinical trifles, thought it necessary now to recall him to the
study of the Greek language, which he had of late neglected, but to
which he returned with so much ardour, that, in a short time, he was
able to read Greek with the same facility as French or Latin.

He then engaged in the perusal of the Greek fathers, and councils of
the first three or four centuries; and undertook, at his father's
desire, to confute a treatise of Samuel Crellius, in which, under the
name of Artemonius, he has endeavoured to substitute, in the beginning
of St. John's gospel, a reading different from that which is at
present received, and less favourable to the orthodox doctrine of the
divinity of our Saviour.

This task was undertaken by Barretier with great ardour, and
prosecuted by him with suitable application, for he not only drew up a
formal confutation of Artemonius, but made large collections from the
earliest writers, relating to the history of heresies, which he
proposed at first to have published as preliminaries to his book, but,
finding the introduction grew at last to a greater bulk than the book
itself, he determined to publish it apart.

While he was engrossed by these inquiries, accident threw a pair of
globes into his hands, in October, 1734, by which his curiosity was so
much exalted, that he laid aside his Artemonius, and applied himself
to geography and astronomy. In ten days he was able to solve all the
problems in the doctrine of the globes, and had attained ideas so
clear and strong of all the systems, as well ancient as modern, that
he began to think of making new discoveries; and for that purpose,
laying aside, for a time, all searches into antiquity, he employed his
utmost interest to procure books of astronomy and of mathematicks, and
made such a progress in three or four months, that he seemed to have
spent his whole life upon that study; for he not only made an
astrolabe, and drew up astronomical tables, but invented new methods
of calculation, or such at least as appeared new to him, because they
were not mentioned in the books which he had then an opportunity of
reading; and it is a sufficient proof, both of the rapidity of his
progress, and the extent of his views, that in three months after his
first sight of a pair of globes, he formed schemes for finding the
longitude, which he sent, in January, 1735, to the Royal society at
London.

His scheme, being recommended to the society by the queen, was
considered by them with a degree of attention which, perhaps, would
not have been bestowed upon the attempt of a mathematician so young,
had he not been dignified with so illustrious a patronage. But it was
soon found, that, for want of books, he had imagined himself the
inventor of methods already in common use, and that he proposed no
means of discovering the longitude, but such as had been already tried
and found insufficient. Such will be very frequently the fate of
those, whose fortune either condemns them to study without the
necessary assistance from libraries, or who, in too much haste,
publish their discoveries.

This attempt exhibited, however, such a specimen of his capacity for
mathematical learning, and such a proof of an early proficiency, that
the Royal society of Berlin admitted him as one of their members in
1735.

P. 381. _Princes, who are commonly the last_.

Barretier, had been distinguished much more early by the margravin of
Anspach, who, in 1726, sent for his father and mother to the court,
where their son, whom they carried with them, presented her with a
letter in French, and addressed another in Latin to the young prince;
who afterwards, in 1734, granted him the privilege of borrowing books
from the libraries of Anspach, together with an annual pension of
fifty florins, which he enjoyed for four years.

In this place it may not be improper to recount some honours conferred
upon him, which, if distinctions are to be rated by the knowledge of
those who bestow them, may be considered as more valuable than those
which he received from princes.

In June, 1731, he was initiated in the university of Altdorft, and at
the end of the year 1732, the synod of the reformed churches, held at
Christian Erlang, admitted him to be present at their consultations,
and to preserve the memory of so extraordinary a transaction, as the
reception of a boy of eleven years into an ecclesiastical council,
recorded it in a particular article of the acts of the synod.

P. 383. _He was too much pleased with science and quiet_.

Astronomy was always Barretier's favourite study, and so much
engrossed his thoughts, that he did not willingly converse on any
other subject; nor was he so well pleased with the civilities of the
greatest persons, as with the conversation of the mathematicians. An
astronomical observation was sufficient to withhold him from court, or
to call him away abruptly from the most illustrious assemblies; nor
was there any hope of enjoying his company, without inviting some
professor to keep him in temper, and engage him in discourse; nor was
it possible, without this expedient, to prevail upon him to sit for
his picture.

Ibid. _At Halle he continued his studies. _

Mr. Barretier returned, on the 28th of April, 1735, to Halle, where he
continued the remaining part of his life, of which it may not be
improper to give a more particular account.

At his settlement in the university, he determined to exert his
privileges as master of arts, and to read publick lectures to the
students; a design from which his father could not dissuade him,
though he did not approve it; so certainly do honours or preferments,
too soon conferred, infatuate the greatest capacities. He published an
invitation to three lectures; one critical on the book of Job, another
on astronomy, and a third upon ancient ecclesiastical history. But of
this employment he was soon made weary by the petulance of his
auditors, the fatigue which it occasioned, and the interruption of his
studies which it produced, and, therefore, in a fortnight, he desisted
wholly from his lectures, and never afterwards resumed them.

He then applied himself to the study of the law, almost against his
own inclination, which, however, he conquered so far as to become a
regular attendant on the lectures on that science, but spent all his
other time upon different studies.

The first year of his residence at Halle was spent upon natural
philosophy and mathematicks; and scarcely any author, ancient or
modern, that has treated on those parts of learning was neglected by
him, nor was he satisfied with the knowledge of what had been
discovered by others, but made new observations, and drew up immense
calculations for his own use.

He then returned to ecclesiastical history, and began to retouch his
Account of Heresies, which he had begun at Schwabach: on this occasion
he read the primitive writers with great accuracy, and formed a
project of regulating the chronology of those ages; which produced a
Chrono-logical Dissertation on the succession of the Bishops of Rome,
from St. Peter to Victor, printed in Latin at Utrecht, 1740.

He afterwards was wholly absorbed in application to polite literature,
and read not only a multitude of writers in the Greek and Latin, but
in the German, Dutch, French, Italian, English, and Arabick languages,
and, in the last year of his life, he was engrossed by the study of
inscriptions, medals, and antiquities of all nations.

In 1737 he resumed his design of finding a certain method of
discovering the longitude, which he imagined himself to have attained
by exact observations of the declination and inclination of the
needle, and sent to the academy of sciences, and to the Royal society
of London, at the same time, an account of his schemes; to which it
was first answered by the Royal society, that it appeared the same
with one which Mr. Whiston had laid before them; and afterwards by the
academy of sciences, that his method was but very little different
from one that had been proposed by M. de la Croix, and which was
ingenious, but ineffectual.

Mr. Barretier, finding his invention already in the possession of two
men eminent for mathematical knowledge, desisted from all inquiries
after the longitude, and engaged in an examination of the Egyptian
antiquities, which he proposed to free from their present obscurity,
by deciphering the hieroglyphicks, and explaining their astronomy; but
this design was interrupted by his death.

P. 384. _Confidence and tranquillity_.

Thus died Barretier, in the 20th year of his age, having given a proof
how much may be performed in so short a time by indefatigable
diligence. He was not only master of many languages, but skilled
almost in every science, and capable of distinguishing himself in
every profession, except that of physick, from which he had been
discouraged by remarking the diversity of opinions among those who had
been consulted concerning his own disorders.

His learning, however vast, had not depressed or overburdened his
natural faculties, for his genius always appeared predominant; and
when he inquired into the various opinions of the writers of all ages,
he reasoned and determined for himself, having a mind at once
comprehensive and delicate, active and attentive. He was able to
reason with the metaphysicians on the most abstruse questions, or to
enliven the most unpleasing subjects by the gaiety of his fancy. He
wrote with great elegance and dignity of style, and had the peculiar
felicity of readiness and facility in every thing that he undertook,
being able, without premeditation, to translate one language into
another. He was no imitator, but struck out new tracks, and formed
original systems. He had a quickness of apprehension, and firmness of
memory, which enabled him to read with incredible rapidity, and, at
the same time, to retain what he read, so as to be able to recollect
and apply it. He turned over volumes in an instant, and selected what
was useful for his purpose. He seldom made extracts, except of books
which he could not procure when he might want them a second time,
being always able to find in any author, with great expedition, what
he had once read. He read over, in one winter, twenty vast folios; and
the catalogue of books which he had borrowed, comprised forty-one
pages in quarto, the writing close, and the titles abridged. He was a
constant reader of literary journals.

With regard to common life he had some peculiarities. He could not
bear musick, and if he was ever engaged at play could not attend to
it. He neither loved wine nor entertainments, nor dancing, nor the
sports of the field, nor relieved his studies with any other diversion
than that of walking and conversation. He eat little flesh, and lived
almost wholly upon milk, tea, bread, fruits, and sweetmeats.

He had great vivacity in his imagination, and ardour in his desires,
which the easy method of his education had never repressed; he,
therefore, conversed among those who had gained his confidence with
great freedom, but his favourites were not numerous, and to others he
was always reserved and silent, without the least inclination to
discover his sentiments, or display his learning. He never fixed his
choice upon any employment, nor confined his views to any profession,
being desirous of nothing but knowledge, and entirely untainted with
avarice or ambition. He preserved himself always independent, and was
never known to be guilty of a lie.