(though in the time they do not all agree), the snakes meet in companies, and that by joining heads together and hissing, a kind of bubble is formed, which the rest, by continual hissing, blow on till it passes quite through the body, when it immediately hardens, and resembles a glass ring, which whoever finds shall prosper in all his undertakings. The rings thus generated are called Gleinu-nadroeth, or snake-stones. They are small glass amulets, commonly about half as wide as our fingerrings, but much thicker, of a green colour usually, though sometimes blue, and waved with red and white." Carew says, that "the country people in Cornwall have a persuasion that the snakes breathing upon a hazel wand produce a stone ring of blue colour, in which there appears the yellow figure of a snake, and that beasts bit and envenomed, being given some water to drink wherein this stone has been infused, will perfectly recover of the poison *."

From the animal the Druids passed to the vegetable world; and there also displayed their powers, whilst by the charms of the misletoe, the selago, and the samolus, they prevented or repelled disease, and every species of misfortune. They made all nature, indeed, subservient to their magical art, and rendered even the rivers and the rocks prophetic. From the undulation or bubbling of water stirred by an oak branch, or magic wand, they foretold events that were to come. This superstition of the Druids is even now retained in the western counties. To this day the Cornish have been accustomed to consult their famous well at Madern, or rather the spirit of the well, respecting their future destiny. "Hither," says Borlase, "come the uneasy, impatient, and superstitious, and by dropping pins + or pebbles into the water, and by shaking the ground round the spring, so as to raise bubbles from the bottom, at a certain time of the year, moon, and day, endeavour to remove their uneasiness: yet the supposed responses serve equally to encrease the gloom of the melancholy, the suspicions of the jealous, and the passion of the enamoured. The Castalian fountain, and many others among the Grecians, were supposed to be of a prophetic nature. By dipping a fair mirror into a well, the Patræans of Greece received, as they supposed, some notice of ensuing sickness or health from the various figures pourtrayed upon the surface. The people of Laconia cast into a pool sacred to Juno cakes of bread-corn : if the cakes sunk, good was portended; if they swam something dreadful was to ensue. Sometimes the superstitious threw three stones into the water, and formed their conclusions from the several turns they made in sinking." The Druids were likewise able to communicate, by consecration, the most portentous virtues to rocks and stones, which could determine the succession of princes or the fate of empires. To the Rocking, or Logan Stone ‡, in particular, they had recourse to confirm

་

* See Carew's Survey of Cornwall, p. 22. Mr. Carew had a stone-ring of this kind in his possession, and the person who gave it him avowed, that he himself saw a part of the stick sticking in it, but " penes authorem sit fides," says Mr. Carew. The same superstition prevails still in various parts of Devonshire. W. ✨ Of these Logan-stones we have several yet remaining in Devonshire,

their authority, either as prophets or judges, pretending that its motion was miraculous.

In what consecrated places or temples these religious rites were célebrated, seems to be the next enquiry; and it appears that they were, for the most part, celebrated in the midst of groves. The mysterious silence of an ancient wood diffuses even a shade of horror over minds, that are yet superior to superstitious credulity. The majestic gloom, therefore, of their consecrated oaks, must have impressed the less informed multitude with every sensation of awe that might be necessary to the support of their religion and the dignity of the priesthood. The religious wood was generally situated on the top of a hill or a mountain, where the Druids erected their fanes and their altars. The temple was seldom any other than a rude circle of rock perpendicularly raised. An artificial pile of large flat stone in general composed the altar; and the whole religious mountain was usually enclosed by a low mound, to prevent the intrusion of the profane. Among the primeval people of the east, altars were inclosed by groves of trees, and these groves consisted of plantations of oak. Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem-unto the oak of Moreh: and the Lord appeared unto Abram; and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him beside the oak of Moreh *. That particular places and temples in Danmonium were appropriated to particular deities is an unquestionable fact. Borlase tells us, that the old British appellation of the Cassiterides, or Scilly Islands, was Sulleh or Sylleh, which signifies rocks consecrated to the sun t. This answers to the temples of Iran, which were dedicated to the sun and the planets: and the sacred ceremonies of Iran are represented by sculptures in the ruined city of Jemschid ; and a number of places in Danmonium still preserve, in their names, the lasting memorials of the British deities. In Tresadarn we have the town or house of Saturn, in Nausadarn, the valley of Saturn; and many of the enormous rocks which rise with peculiar grandeur in those wild places, were undoubtedly appropriated to the fire-worship of the

sun.

In Babylon the oak was sacred to Baal.

Of these islands the British name was Sulleh, signifying flat rocks dedicated to the Thus St. Michael's Mount was originally called Dinsul, or the hill dedicated to the sun; and the vast flat rocks common in the Scilly Isles, particularly at Peninis, Karnleb, Penleb, Karn-wavel, but, above all, the enormous rock on Salakee Downs, formerly the floor of a great temple, are no improbable arguments that they might have had the same dedication, and so have given name to these islands. Nor is it an unprecedented thing to find an island in this climate dedicated to the sun. Diodorus Siculus, b. 3. speaking of a northern island over against the Celtæ, says, "It was dedicated to Apollo, who frequently conversed with the inhabitants; and they had a large grove and temple of a round form, to which the priests resorted to sing the praises of Apollo. And there can be no doubt but this was one of the British islands, and the priests Druids. See Borlase's Ancient and Present State of the Isles of Scilly, p. 59, 60. See also his Antiquities of Cornwall, b. 2. c. 17.

"Not

Cooke, in his Enquiry into the Patriarchal and Druidical Religion, says, to lay any greater stress than needs upon the evidence of the affinity of words with the Hebrew and Phenician, the multitude of altars and pillars, or temples, throughout England, Ireland, Scotland, and the Islands, form a conclusive argument that an oriental colony must have been very early introduced.”

god. We have also places in Danmonium which retain the names of Mars and of Mercury, as Tremer, the town of Mars,, and Gun Mar's and Kelli Mar'r, the Downs and the Grove of Mercury. It was in the Phenician age, the corrupted age of Druidism, that temples were erected to Belisama, or the queen of heaven, both in the metropolis of the island, and in the chief city of Danmonium t; that a temple was consecrated to Onca at Bath ‡, and that sacred buildings were probably frequented at the Start-point by the votaries of Astarte, and at the promontory of Hertland, by the worshippers of Hercules.

[To be concluded in our next.]

T

A VIEW

ΟΣ ΤΗΣ

PROGRESS OF NAVIGATION.

IN SEVERAL ESSAYS.

Continued from Page 296.

ESSAY VIII.

O avoid breaking the thread of our narrative, we have followed the Portuguese navigators in their extensive navigations beyond the Cape of Good Hope, and shall now turn back to the voyages of the Spaniards, whose bold expeditions to the westward have discovered to

us a new world.

Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, well skilled in navigation and other parts of the mathematics, convinced that so great a part of the world as was yet unknown could not all be sea, and firmly persuaded that, as the earth was round, a shorter way might be discovered to India than that which the Portuguese were in pursuit of, round the coast of Africa; he resolved to apply himself wholly to the discovery of those rich countries, which he positively concluded must extend from what was known of the East-Indies still to the eastward one way, and to be the easier met with by sailing round to the westward. Having been long fully possessed with this notion, and provided to answer all objections that might be started against it, he thought the undertaking too great for any less than a sovereign prince or state, and, therefore, not to be unjust to his country, he first proposed it to the state of Genoa, where it was rather ridiculed than any way encouraged,

The temple of Diana, where St. Paul's now stands.

At Exeter was found a few years since a lamp, which evidently belonged to a temple of Diana. Bath-onca, Badonica.

This repulse made him have recourse to King John the Second, of Portugal, who having caused the matter to be examined by those that had the direction of the discoveries along the coast of Africa, by their advice he held him in suspense till he had sent out a caravel with private orders to attempt this discovery. This caravel having wandered long in the wide ocean, and suffered much by storms, returned without finding any thing. Columbus, understanding what had been done, resented it so highly that, in hatred to Portugal, he resolved to go over to Castile, and offer his service there; but, for fear of any disappointment, at the same time he sent his brother, Bartholomew Columbus, into England, to make the same overture to King Henry the Seventh. His brother had the ill fortune to be taken at sea by pirates, which much retarded his coming to the court of England, where, when he at last came, being poor and destitute of friends, it was long before he could be heard, or at least be looked upon; so that, in fine, Columbus was sailed before he returned to Spain with his answer. Columbus, in the mean while, stole away out of Portugal, and coming to the court of Ferdinand and Isabel, king and queen of Castile and Arragon, he there spent eight years soliciting with little hopes, and many difficulties; till at last, when he had utterly despaired of success, he met with it, through the assistance of some few friends he had gained at court. At his earnest suit he had all the conditions he required granted, which were, that he should be admiral of all those seas he discovered, and viceroy and governor-general of all the lands; that he should have the tenth of all things whatsoever brought from those parts; and that he might at all times be an eighth part in all fleets sent thither, and to receive the eighth of all the returns. And this to him and his heirs for ever.

With these titles, and sufficient power from the queen, who espoused the undertaking, he repaired to the port of Palos de Moguer, on the coast of Andaluzia, where there was furnished for him a ship called the St. Mary, and two caravels, the one called La Pinta, commanded by Martin Alonzo Pinzon, and the other La Nina, by Vincent Yanez Pinzon. In these vessels he had ninety men, and provisions for a year; and thus equipped he sailed from Palos de Moguer.

Anno 1492. On the 23d of August, directing his course to the Canary Islands, where he made a new rudder to the caravel Pinta, which had hers broke off at sea, he took in fresh provisions, wood, and water, with all possible expedition; and on the 6th of September put to sea again, steering due west, and on the 7th lost sight of land. The 11th, at 150 leagues distance from the island of Ferro, they saw a great piece of a mast drove by the current, which set strong towards the north; and the 14th the admiral observed the variation of the needle to the westward about two points. On Sunday the 16th, the men were surprised to see green and yellow weeds scattered about in small parcels on the superficies of the water, as if it had been newly torn off from some island or rock; and the next day they saw much more, which made them conclude they were near land, and others supposing it to be only rocks or shoals, began to murmur. Every day they saw some birds flying near the ships, and abundance of weeds in the water, VOL. II.

X X

which still made them conceive hopes of land; but when these failed then they began again to murmur, so that the admiral was forced to use all his art to keep them quiet, sometimes with fair words, and sometimes with threats and severity; they imagining that since for the most part they sailed before the wind, it would be impossible for them ever to return. Thus their mutinous temper daily increased, and began to appear more openly, some being so bold as to advise throwing the admiral overboard. The first of October the pilot told the admiral, he found by his account they were 588 leagues west of the island of Ferro, which is the westernmost of the Canaries, who answered, his reckoning was 584, whereas in reality his computation was 707; and on the 3d, the pilot of the caravel Nina reckoned 650, he of the caravel Pinta, 634; but they were out, and Columbus made it less for fear of discouraging the men, who, nevertheless, continued very mutinous, but were somewhat appeased on the 4th, seeing above forty sparrows fly about the ships, besides other birds. The 11th of October there appeared manifest tokens of their being near land, for, from the admiral's ship they saw a green rush in the water, from the Pinta they saw a cane and a stick, and took up another that was artificially wrought, and a little board, besides abundance of weeds fresh pulled up; from the Pinta they beheld such like tokens, and a branch of a thorn-tree with the berries on it; besides, on sounding, they found bottom, and the wind grew variable. For these reasons the admiral ordered they fhould make but little sail at night, for fear of being aground in the dark; and about ten o'clock that night the admiral himself saw a light, and shewed it to others. About two in the morning the caravel Pinta, which was furthest ahead, gave the signal of land; and when day appeared they perceived it was an island, about 15 leagues in length, plain, well wooded and watered, and very populous; the natives standing on the shore, admiring what the ships were. The admiral and captains went ashore in their boats, and called that island St. Salvador, the natives calling it Guanahani, and is one of the Lucayos, in about 26 degrees of north latitude, 950 leagues west of the Canaries, and discovered the 33d day after they sailed from them. Columbus took possession for the king and queen of Spain, and all the Spaniards joyfully took an oath to him as their admiral and viceroy. He gave the Indians, who stood in admiration to see him and his men, some red caps, glass beads, and other trifles, which they valued at a high rate. The admiral returning aboard the natives followed, some swimming, others in their canoes, carrying with them bottoms of spun cotton, parrots, and javelins pointed with fifh-bones, to exchange for glass baubles and horse-bells. Both men and women were all naked, their hair short and tied with a cotton string, but well enough featured, of a middle stature, well shaped, and of an olive colour; some painted white, some black, and some red. They knew nothing of iron, and did all their work with sharp stones. No beasts or fowl were seen here, but only parrots. Being asked by signs whence they had the gold, whereof they wore little plates hanging at their noses, they pointed to the south. The admiral understanding there were other countries not far off, resolved