with a prize they had taken, at the island of Lobos de la Mar. While here a conspiracy among the crew was discovered and punished.

On he 1st of November, sailed for the Bay of Conception; and in the passage took a ship, laden with tobacco, sugar and cloth They made the Bay on the 6th in the afternoon, where they saw three men-of-war lying, with their topsails loose, who no sooner discovered them than they cut their cables, and stood in chase. At this time captain Clipperton had one prize with him, which, as well as the Success, hauled close upon a wind; on which the best sailer among the Spanish men-of-war, gave chase to the prize, which she soon came up with and took. The other ships crowded all the sail they could for sometime, till the largest, having her mizen-top-mast carried away, fired a gun, tacked, and stood in for the shore; which gave the Success an opportunity of making her escape. In the Spanish prize, Clipperton lost his third lieutenant and twelve of his men.

They continued cruising to the northward, and on the 4th of December found themselves very near the Gallapagos. On the 17th saw the island of Cocos, and most of the crew went on shore. On the 19th of January, 1721, sailed from this place, and on the 25th arrived on the coast of Mexico, where, discovering a sail, they sent their pinnace to give chase, to whom he struck. On the return of the pinnace they had the surprising account, that this was a Spanish ship, called the Jesu Maria, now commanded by captain Shelvock, who had lost his ship and most of his men, and taken this prize. These ships again parted, and on the 31th of May, Clipperton anchored in the road of Guam. On the 5th of July entered the port of Amoy, where the crew demanded that the prize-money should be shared. Clipperton not complying they applied to the chief mandarin of the place, requesting that he would do them justice against the captain. Clipperton was therefore summoned before him; and on the mandarin's demanding a reason why he refused to comply with the desires of the crew, he produced the articles, by which it appeared that the prize-money was not to be shared till their return to London. The mandarin decided that the shares should be settled, and this distribution was accordingly made on the 16th of September; 7,0001. sterling being set aside as belonging to the owners. This sum was immediately put on board a Portuguese East India man, which ship was afterwards burnt and the greater part of the money lost.

Chipperton afterwards took passage for England in a Dutch ship, and arrived there a bankrupt in health and fortune, after a !ong and disastrous voyage.

FEROCITY OF THE POLAR BEAR.

The annals of the north are filled with accounts of the most perilous and fatal conflicts with the Polar Bear The first and one of the most tragical, was sustained by Bareutz and Heemskerke, in 1596, during their voyage for the discovery of the north-east passage. Having anchored at an island near the strait of Waygatz, two of the sailors landed and were walking on shore, when one of them felt himself closely hugged from behind. Thinking this a frolic of one of his companions, he called out in a corresponding tone, "Who's there? pray stand off." His comrade looked, and screamed out, "A bear! A bear!" then running to the ship, alarmed the crew with loud cries. The sailors ran to the spot armed with spikes and muskets. On their approach the bear very cooly quitted the mangled corpse, sprang upon another sailor, carried him off, and plunging his teeth into his body, began drinking his blood at long draughts. Hereupon the whole of that stout crew, struck with terror, turned their backs, and fled precipitately to the ship. On arriving there they began to look at each other, unable to feel much satisfaction with their own prowess. Three then stood forth, and undertook to avenge the fate of their countrymen, and to secure for them the rights of burial. They advanced, and fired at first from so respectful a distance that they all missed. The purser then courageously proceeded in front of his companions, and taking closer aim, pierced the monster's skull immediately below the eye. The bear, however, merely lifted up his head, and advanced upon them, holding still in his mouth the victim whom he was devouring; but seeing him soon stagger, the three rushed on with sabre and bayonet, and soon despatched him. They collected and bestowed decent sepulture on the mangled limbs of their comrades, while the skin of the animal, thirteen feet long, became the prize of the sailor who had fired the successful shot.

The history of the whale-fishers records a number of remarkable escapes from the bear. A Dutch captain, Jonge Kees, in 1668, undertook with two canoes to attack one, and with a lance gave him so dreadful a wound in the belly, that his immediate death seemed inevitable. Anxious, therefore, not to injure the skin, Kees merely followed the animal close, till he should drop down dead. The bear, however, having climbed a little rock, made spring from the distance of twenty-four feet upon the captain, who, taken completely by surprise, lost hold of the lance, and fell beneath the assailant, who, placing both paws on his breast, opened two rows of tremendous teeth, and paused for a moment, as if to snow him all the horrors of his situation. At this critical instant, a sailor rushed forward. and with only a scoor succeeded in alarming

the monster, who made off, leaving the captain without the slightest injury.

In 1788, Captain Cook of the Archangel, when near the coast of Spitzbergen, found himself suddenly between the paws of a bear. He instantly called on the surgeon, who accompanied him, to fire, which the latter did with such admirable promptitude and precision, that he shot the beast through the head, and delivered the captain. Mr. Hawkins of Everthorpe, in July 1818, having pursued and twice struck a large bear, had raised his lance for a third blow, when the animal sprang forward, seized him by the thigh, and threw him over its head into the water. Fortunately, it used this advantage only to effect its own escape.-Captain Scoresby mentions a boat's crew which attacked a bear in the Spitzbergen sea; but the animal having succeeded in climbing the sides of the boat, all the sailors threw themselves for safety, into the water, where they hung by the gunwale. The victor entered triumphantly, and took possession of the barge, where it sat quietly till it was shot by another party. The same writer mentions the ingenious contrivance of a sailor, who being pursued by one of these creatures, threw down successively his hat, jacket, handkerchief, and every other article in his possesion, when the brute pausing at each, gave the sailor always a certain advantage, and enabled him finally to regain the vessel.

Though the voracity of the bear is such, that he has been known to feed on his own species, yet maternal tenderness is as conspicuous in the female as in any other inhabitants of the frozen regions. There is no exertion which she will not make for the supply of her progeny. A she bear, with her two cubs, being pursued by some sailors across a field of ice, and finding that, neither by example, nor by a peculiar voice and action, she could urge them to the requisite speed, applied her paws and pitched them alternately forward. The little creatures themselves came up, threw themselves before her to receive the impas thus both she and they effected their escape.

4*

she nd

LE MAIRE AND SCHOUTEN.

FIRST VOYAGE ROUND CAPE HORN.

A belief that to the south of the strait of Magellan there wou'' De found an open sea, or some other passage leading to the South Sea, had many years been gaining ground, when a company of Dutch merchants determined to make the experiment, which, if successful, would open to them, as they believed, the trade to India, by a new, instead of an interdicted passage, which the strait of Magellan then was.

Jacob le Maire was appointed principal merchant, and presi dent of the ships; and Wilhelm Schouten, an able seaman, received the charge of patron or master mariner. The vessels fitted out were the Eendracht, a ship of three hundred and sixty tons, nineteen guns, and sixty five men, and a galliot, named the Horne, of one hundred and ten tons, eight guns and twenty two The president, Le Maire, and Patron Schouten, sailed in the former; the latter was commanded by Jan Schouten, brother to the patron, with Adrian Claesz as merchant.

men.

June the 4th, 1615, they quitted the Texel, and in three days anchored in the Downs, where an English gunner was hired. On the 30th of August, dropped anchor in the road of Sierra Leone, where a stock of twenty five thousand lemous was purchased fron the natives, for a few beads. On the 5th of October, were in latitude four degrees seventeen minutes N. when a great noise was heard on board the Eendracht, and immediately after the sea around it became red with blood. Afterwards a piece of the horn of some sea animal was found sticking in the bottom of the ship, seven feet below the water line, having penetrated through the planking, and into one of the ribs: about the same length remained without; it was similar in shape and size to the end of an elephant's tooth.

Having passed the line, they struck soundings in seventy-five fathoms depth, on the 4th of December, and two days after saw the American coast. On the 8th, anchored in Port Desire. where they took a large supply of birds, &c. On the 19th, the Horne caught fire, and was totally consumed. On the 13th of January, 1616, the Eendracht quitted Port Desire, and on the 20th, passed the latitude of the entrance of the straits of Magellan On the 24th saw Terra del Fuego to the right, not more than a league off, and on the 29th passed to the north of some rocky islets: Terra del Fuego appeared to the W. N. W. and W., all hilly land covered with snow, with a sharp point which they called Cape Horne, in honour of the vessel which they had lost. On

30th, having passed to the south of the Cape, steered west

encountering great waves with a current to the westward; and afterwards steered north. The ship continued to advance northward, and on the 1st of March, made the island of Juan Fernandez and caught two tons of fish, but could find no anchorage. Steering for the East Indies they visited a number of small islands, and on the 5th of August came to the Isle of Goley, subject to the King of Tidore. Sailed again next day; and, after being much delayed by calms, met, September the 7th, with a ship of their own country anchoring the same day at the Island of Ternate. They were kindly received by the people in power: the Eendracht had

not lost one of her crew in her long cruisings, and they had discovered a new passage to the South Sea; yet these merits did not avail them, for on the arrival of the ship at Batavia, she was seized and condemned, on a supposed infringement of the rights of the Dutch East India Company, the officers and crew being put on board other ships to be conveyed to Europe

On the 31st of December, during the passage home, died the president, Jacob Le Maire, a victim to the unworthy treatmen. he had received-a worthy man and a skilful navigator; and on the 1st of July 1617, his companions arrived in Holland, by the way of Good Hope, having been al ent two years and seventeen days