7.-The Vigil of Faith, and other Poems. By C. F. HOFFMAN, author of Greyslaer, &c. 1 vol. 12mo. New York: S. Coleman.

We could hardly believe it possible that any thing so beautiful as this, in dress and form, actually belonged to New York. We challenge the world to surpass it in general effect. A few errors of the most venial kind excepted, errors perhaps of the author's pen, nothing more chaste and tasteful could be imagined. The Indian tale is quite pretty. The tale of one who doomed the murderer of his bride to perpetual slavery, and, instead of dispatching him to the shades, there to persecute his victim with an hateful love, confined him to the most degrading dependence, is gracefully told through some 800 octo-syllabic lines. The other poems, too, are quite graceful, and no doubt must have given exceeding pleasure to the circle of the author's friends. But Mr. H. is not born to shine as a poet. Descriptive prose appears to us his forte; and the community will better appreciate and reward his other works than the one now before us, which no mechanical execution can long save from oblivion.

8.-Poems, Narrative and Lyrical. By WILLIAM MOTHERWELL. Boston: William D. Ticknor.

It is truly refreshing, in this day of small things in the poetical way, to take up a volume of genuine, heart-stirring poetry. Motherwell is no mere versifyer. His poetry is the vivid expression of beautiful thought and deep feelings. His strains have also one merit which is exceedingly rare in the present day, and that is variety of expression and tone, as well as of versification. He has no mannerism-nothing which, in all his pieces, indicates a common parentage. His feelings are the natural result of the nature and characteristics of his subject, and not of some one peculiarity of his own temperament. The touching pathos of Jenny Morrison has no marks of a common origin with the stern wooing of Jarl Ergill. The volume is justly styled a literary treasure, and as such will no doubt find high favor in the eyes of our poetry-making (if not poetical) public.

9.-A Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art: Comprising the History, Description, and Scientific Principles of every Branch of Human Knowledge: with the Derivation and Definition of all the terms in General Use. Illustrated by engravings on wood. Edited by W. T. BRANDE, F. R. S. L. and E., of Her Majesty's Mint, &c., assisted by JOSEPH CAUVIN, Esq.

The publishers state in their prospectus that the proposed work" will contain the definition, derivation, and explanation, of the various terms in science, art, and literature, that occur in reading or in conversation. Great pains have been taken to make these definitions and explanations correct, clear, and precise. Short abstracts are also given of the principles of the most popular and important departments of Science, Literature, and Art, with notices of their rise, progress, and present state. No statement is ever made as to any unusual or doubtful matter, without referring to the authority on which it rests; and when subjects of general interest and importance are noticed, the reader is referred to the works relating to them, which embody the best and most authentic information. Not only, therefore, will those who consult this work have a guarantee for its authenticity, but they will learn the sources to which they may resort with the greatest advantage, should they wish to make farther inquiries."

10.-A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing a clear exposition of their principles and practice. By ANDREW URE, M. D., F. R. S. London, &c. 8vo. New York: Le Roy Sunderland. 1842.

This valuable work is now in the course of republication in this country in semi-monthly parts, twenty-one of which will form a volume of about 1400 octavo pages. We have examined the whole work, and consider it a most valuable addition to our adopted literature. The intimate connection of the arts, manufactures, and mineral productions with the commerce of a country, render it hardly less valuable to the merchant than to the manufacturer, or man of science. The English edition costs $11, the American will be afforded at $5, without alteration or abridgment.

11.-The New World. JAMES ALDRICH, Esq. has become associated with Park Benjamin, Esq., in the editorial management of the New World. The well-known abilities and taste of Mr. Aldrich cannot fail to make this arrangement highly satisfactory to the readers of that popular journal.

HUNT'S

MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE.

MAY, 1842.

ART. I.-COMMERCIAL VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES.—No. I.

INTRODUCTION.

WE hardly realize, in the present day, the immense debt that civilization owes to the spirit of commercial enterprise. While we acknowledge the high claims of commerce to the consideration of mankind, we look upon her rather as the offspring and attendant of progressive humanity than, as she is, the parent of much of our refinement; the chief aid of religion, the instructor of man in the arts of life, and the sole means by which he has attained a knowledge of the world which he inhabits. To arrive at a proper estimate of the influence which the spirit of commerce has had in moulding the fortunes of the world to their present condition, we must look back a few hundred years to what may be considered comparatively the infancy of refinement and science. Now almost every department of human knowledge has attained a degree of strength which renders it independent of any adventitious support. Truth is eagerly pursued through every branch of physical or moral science for its own sake, and the pursuit would be continued though many of the most important interests of society were totally destroyed. But a few centuries since the case was very different. Then society lay bound in the chains of bigotry and prejudice. Custom, that foe to all improvement, reigned supreme, restraining curiosity, cramping men's energies, and bowing their minds in willing submission to the social and political, as well as religious, superstitions of what are justly called the dark ages. It needed some power to arouse society from this mental lethargy, or rather to divert into new and wider channels the intelligence which was frittering itself away in the circles of imperious routine. This power was found in the desire of gain, developing itself in the form of commercial enterprise. It came with irresistible force, scattering before it the prejudices of the age, piercing, as with the beams of the morning, the thick darkness of ignorance, dazzling men's minds with its brilliant discoveries, and stirring up from their profoundest depths the moral and intellectual energies of our nature. Expansion of intellect was the natural result of the expansion of commerce. The barriers of knowledge were broken down, and a stimulus given to thought, which made the fifteenth century as well the era of the regeneration of the old

world as of the discovery of the new. The Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, the Cape de Verd Islands, the coast of Guinea, the West Indies, and last, but not least, the passage to the East Indies round the Cape of Good Hope, successively broke upon the dazzled imaginations of Europe with a force that no prejudice, no ignorance, no superstition could withstand.

And all this was accomplished by the single spirit of commercial enterprise. In those days there were no exclusively exploring squadrons, no scientific missions, no voyages purely for the purpose of discovery. Trade was the grand object. The merchant went ahead and pointed out the path to the soldier and the priest. Without his guidance it is possible that until the present day the sword of the one had not waved, or the cross of the other had not been planted, in one half of the now christianized world. The voyage of Columbus is no exception. He himself was no mere merchant: he had other and nobler objects, better befitting the enthusiastic aspirations of his lofty genius; but the expedition which he conducted to such a glorious issue had for its foundation the desire to rival the Venetians in the trade of that mysterious Cathay from whence vast floods of wealth were flowing into the city of the isles.

In addition to the importance attached to many trading voyages, from the magnificent results of which they were directly or indirectly productive, they are frequently intensely interesting from the circumstances under which they were prosecuted, the characters of the voyagers, and the adventures through which they passed. Unfortunately, they have multiplied to such an extent, and fill such voluminous collections, that very few have time or opportunity to become, in the slightest degree, acquainted with them. A vast number too, it must be confessed, are so meager in their details, or incorrect and mendacious in their narratives, or prosy and stupid in their style, that they would not repay the general reader the labor of perusal. There are enough, however, if they were properly selected and condensed, to make several most entertaining and instructive volumes; and in the absence of such a work, we have thought that it would not prove uninteresting to the readers of this magazine to have offered to them such brief abstracts of the principal voyages as our limits will permit. In doing so, we shall of course condense the narratives as much as possible; and shall, where it is convenient or useful, accompany the remarks of the voyager with geographical, historical, and commercial observations, illustrative of the present condition of the countries described. It is fortunate for our purpose that several voluminous collections of the earlier voyages and travels were formerly made, by which many manuscripts were pub lished, which would otherwise never have seen the light, and from which many translations of curious foreign narratives were made. Almost every language of Europe has these collections; as for instance, Ramusio in Italian, Thevenot in French. But no nation is richer in this particular than the English. The principal and best known are Hackluyt's collection, in three volumes, folio, the second edition of which was published in 1599; Purchas, in four volumes folio, exclusive of his Pilgrimage, published in 1625; Harris, in two volumes, 1705; Churchill's six large folios, and Astley's four large quartos, published in 1745. Numerous other collections, both large and small, exist, but we are not aware of any very comprehensive one of a later date. In fact, within the last hundred years, the number of such works has increased to such an extent as to render the publication of them in any saleable sized work perfectly impossible. They issue

from the press in one continuous stream, pass for a moment under the public eye, and then are forgotten. The travels of yesterday, if not antiquated in the taste of the public, are at least pushed from the reading world by their rivals of to-day; and their resurrection in the good old folio and quarto dresses is a process that none of our modern publishers would be very likely to assist.

CHAPTER I.

First attempt of Don Henry to reach the coast of Guinea.-Discovery of Madeira by Gonsalvo Zarco.-Passage of the famous Cape Bojadors by Gilienas.-Progress of the Portuguese trade and discovery along the coasts of Guinea to the Cape of Good Hope. We shall commence our proposed digest with a brief summary of the early voyages of the Portuguese to the coast of Africa, which began in the first part of the fifteenth century, and were prosecuted with much perseverance for several years without having attracted the attention or excited the emulation of neighboring nations; but which at length resulted in the brilliant discovery of the passage to India round the Cape of Good Hope. Of the state and course of trade with the east, which was almost exclusively in the hands of the Venetians and Genoese previous to this event, it is needless here to speak, as the subject has been fully treated in an able and interesting article in the last number of this magazine, entitled, "Mediterranean Commerce with India;" suffice it to say, that the discoveries of the Portuguese created an entire revolution in commerce, and may be justly regarded as equal to, at least in their immediate effects, the more famous exploits of their Spanish rivals.

Full accounts of the early voyages of the Portuguese are to be found in a number of voluminous writers. The principal of these are, Juan de Barros, an abridgment of whose large work was made by Maffi, Fernan Lopez de Castanneda and Manoel de Faria y Sousa. The "History of the Discovery and Conquest of the East Indies" of Castanneda, published in 1555, has reached a number of editions in Portugal, and has been translated into French and English. The Asia Portugueza of Sousa, first published in three large folios in 1666, at Lisbon, has also been frequently republished, and has been translated into Italian, French, and English. It is to these that all collectors of voyages are chiefly indebted for their materials for the Portuguese matter of their works; and it is abstracts from them that we shall follow in the following summary of the Portuguese efforts previous to the passage of the Cape.

The chief originator and encourager of voyages to the Atlantic coast of Africa was the gallant Infant Don Henry, son of John I. In the year 1415 he accompanied his father in an expedition against the Moors of Morocco. The Portuguese force consisted of thirty-three ships of war, and one hundred and twenty transports, carrying fifty thousand men. Leaving Largos bay they directed their course for the straits, and arrived on the 21st of August before Ceuta, a town (now belonging to Spain) situated directly opposite to Gibraltar, and at the foot of one of the celebrated Pillars of Hercules, in ancient days named Mount Abyla, now better known by the vulgar title of Apes' Hill. The greatest preparations had been made by the Moorish governor, Sala Bensala, for a vigorous defence, but the attack was made with such fury and gallantry by the young prince, that the Moors were compelled to give way and retire to the castle.

The king ordered the castle to be assaulted, and Bensala finding it untenable, retired at night and left it to the Portuguese. Thus, after much bloodshed, the town was taken, which, well fortified towards the land side, has ever since resisted the repeated attempts of the kings of Morocco and Fas. The Infant Don Henry, who at this time was but twenty-one years of age, was of an enthusiastic and inquiring spirit. His imagination soon became thoroughly excited by the glowing Moorish accounts of the countries beyond the great desert, and of the rich trade that was carried on between the cities of Morocco and the great mart of Negroland-the famous Timbuctoo. It is also probable that he acquired something of a definite idea of the shape of the African coast and of the islands which lie near it, as it is asserted that he consulted with many Moors who had crossed the desert and visited the Assenhaji, the Jalofs, and other nations of Guinea.

Returning to Portugal, the Infant resolved to put on foot an expedition that should solve the geographical questions that interested him, and perhaps open a new and lucrative trade with the inhabitants of those myste. rious regions. Fixing his residence at the town of Ternacable, upon the sea coast, in the province of Algarve, he gave orders for fitting out two ships. The first attempts did not, however, amount to much. They reached only as far as Cape Bojador, a point which may be considered the southern extremity of the coast of Suse, a province of Morocco, on the northern commencement of the Saharah proper. The Spaniards had already reached this Cape, but beyond it navigation was supposed to be impossible. Alarmed by the current which sets with considerable force round this celebrated point, the first Portuguese adventurers, like the Spaniards, gave up the attempt in despair; but the prince, far from being discouraged by the ill success of his efforts, in 1418 sent Juan Gonzales Zarco and Tristan Vaz Tiexiera, with orders to stand well out to sea, beyond the reach of the formidable current, and to boldly dare the imaginary dangers of this ne plus ultra of Atlantic navigation.

Before reaching the coast of Barbary, they encountered a severe storm, which drove them in a westerly and southerly direction until they made the little island of Puerto Santo, or Holy Haven, lying but a short distance from Madeira. Upon their return to Portugal, the prince was not a little pleased with the discovery, and immediately despatched Gonzales and Tristan back again to the island, accompanied by Bartholomew Perestrello, with three ships loaded with seeds and live-stock.

In another voyage, in the year 1419, Gonzales discovered, or rather re-discovered the island of Madeira, which, as the story goes, was first visited by an Englishman of the name of Machin. Francesco Alcaforado, who accompanied Gonzales, in his history of the voyage, an abstract of which is published in Astley's collection, gives the following romantic, but probably true, account of the Englishman's adventure.

In the reign of King Edward the Third of England, one Robert Machin, a young gentleman of genius and courage, falling in love with a young lady of a noble family, called Ann d'Arfet, and, making his addresses to her, soon won her affections from all his rivals. This, her parents observing, and not brooking the thoughts of any inferior alliance, in order to ef fectually prevent it, procured a warrant from the king, and kept Robert in custody until they got the young lady married to a certain nobleman, (whose name Machin would never discover,) who, as soon as the ceremony was over, took the young bride with him down to his seat at Bristol.