men came alongside of his bark, intending to make a prize of her. But one of Jenkinson's companions, a Mahometan saint, by prayers and oaths dissuaded them from their purpose. They assured him that they came only to see whether there were any Russians or other unbelievers in the vessel; and as he swore lustily that there were none, they departed. In three weeks they arrived at the port of Manguslave, on the south-eastern side of the Caspian. They were no sooner landed, than they experienced to the fullest extent the dishonest and rapacious tempers of the persons with whom they came to deal.

Our merchants departed with a caravan of a thousand camels; and in five days came to the dominions of Timour Sultan, whose officers proceeded very unceremoniously to levy a large and arbitrary duty on the merchandise. Jenkinson, in consequence, hastened to the sultan himself, who received him kindly, and regaled him with the flesh of a wild horse and mare's milk. If he had not thus thrown himself on the hospitality of this Tatar prince, who was a noted robber, he would in all probability have been his victim. The sultan lived in the fields, without a town or castle. Jenkinson found him sitting in a small round house, built of reeds, covered with felt, and hung with carpets. The merchants, proceeding on their journey, travelled twenty days through the desert without seeing a house or habitation. Their provisions failing, they were forced to feed on their cattle. Jenkinson himself was obliged to kill a camel and a horse. There were no rivers; and the wells were few in number, deep, and scantily supplied with brackish water. In the city of Urjenz they remained a month; and here again we are informed that the trade which is carried on by merchants from Persia and Bokhara "is not worth speaking of." The manners and civilisation of the country which he had passed through are thus summarily described by our author:-"All the country from the Caspian sea hither is called the Land of Turkman. The people dwell in tents, roving in great companies with

their camels, horses, and sheep; which last are large, and have tails weighing sixty or eighty pounds. Many of the sheep as well as horses are wild, and are taken by means of hawks, who worry them till they are no longer able to run. The khan and his five brothers rule the whole country. Each is king in his own territory, and seeks to destroy the rest, as they are born of different mothers, and are commonly the children of slaves. When these brothers are at war, which is commonly the case, he who is vanquished flies to the desert, and there robs travellers and caravans till he can gather strength to take the field again."

had just paid for.

Leaving Urjenz, our merchants travelled a hundred miles along the banks of the Oxus, and then entered another great desert, where they were attacked by a formidable band of robbers, sent against them, as they suspected, by the very prince whose protection they Here Jenkinson witnessed the Tatar mode of divination, which is still in vogue on the shores of the Black Sea. An old pilgrim killed a sheep; and burning the blade-bone, mixed the ashes with the blood, and then wrote certain mystic characters, from which he pretended to discover that they should be attacked by robbers and should vanquish them. This prediction proved true, and justified the sagacity of the pilgrim,

The city of Bokhara, our author informs us, is of great extent, inclosed with a great wall of earth. But of its trade and riches he seems to have formed a very low estimation. Bad government and religious warfare were the causes of its poverty. The Tatars and the Persians were continually at variance about certain articles of faith, and particularly because the latter obstinately refused to shave the upper lip.

While Jenkinson was in Bokhara, caravans arrived there from India, Persia, Balkh, and Russia. But he again observes, "that the merchants are so poor, and bring so few wares, that there is no hope of any trade worth following." The trade with Cathay had been obstructed for three years by the wars of Tashkend and

Cashgar. Similar impediments existed on the side of Persia, and prevented our author from executing his purpose of examining into the trade of that country; "although,” he says, "he had learned enough at Astracan and Bokhara to perceive that it is not much better than among the Tatars."

In March, 1559, the English left Bokhara, to return home in company with a caravan of 600 camels; and in ten days after, the city was besieged by the king of Samarcand. On their arrival at the Caspian, they found that their ship had been stripped of all her rigging by the roving Tatars. Jenkinson, however, contrived to refit her, and to proceed on his voyage. Of the Caspian he remarks," that the fewness of the ships, the want of towns and harbours, the poverty of the people, and the ice, rendered the trade good for nothing." He arrived at Moscow on the 2d of September; and shortly after appearing before the emperor, kissed his hand, presented him a white cow's tail of Cathay and a Tatarian drum. He also introduced the Tatar ambassador who had accompanied him, and the Russian slaves whom he had redeemed. He was allowed to dine in the presence of the emperor, who honoured him so far as to send him meat from his own table by a duke. Jenkinson's narrative contributed much to the improvement of geography, as he observed the latitudes of the chief places through which he passed; and his description of the Caspian reduced considerably the excessive breadth from east to west assigned to that sea by Ptolemy and his followers. The English who had accompanied him had also collected itineraries of the route to Cathay, which they learned to be a nine months' journey, together with many particulars concerning the internal trade of Asia.

The result of Jenkinson's journey was extremely unfavourable to the hope of establishing a lucrative commerce in the East through the channels laid open by the friendly disposition of the czar of Muscovy. England was still chiefly supplied with Indian produce by the Venetians, who still carried on the trade by the Red

Sea and Alexandria, as they had been used to do, with greater profit, before the passage by the Cape of Good Hope was discovered. It is probable that the competition of the Portuguese diminished their profits even in this country and the negotiations entered into by Elizabeth with the grand seignor put an end to their carrying trade altogether. The last of the Venetian argosies that visited this country, a great vessel of 1100 tons, was wrecked on the Needles at the Isle of Wight, in 1587, and all the crew and passengers perished except seven persons. After this the English themselves took an active share in the Levant trade; enjoying in the ports of Turkey the same privileges which had before been exclusively held by the Venetians. This step towards a trade with the East was accompanied by other measures calculated to improve our acquaintance with the eastern

marts.

Mr. Ralph Fitch, Mr. John Newbery, and two others, were despatched, in 1583, by some merchants of London, in order that they might extend the trade which the English merchants had recently acquired in the Levant; and proceeding by Aleppo, Bagdad, and Bussorah, to Ormuz and Goa, they might procure the commodities of India as nearly as possible at first hand. In the prospect of their being able to penetrate into India, and even into China, Newbery was furnished with letters of credence or recommendation from queen Elizabeth to Zelabdim Echebar (Saladin Akbar or Akbar Shah, emperor of the Mogul conquerors of Hindostan), who is styled king of Cambaia, and also to the emperor of China. These travellers are said to have visited Ceylon, Malacca, Pegu, and Siam, along with Hindostan. But though there is no doubt that they proceeded to India, there is much reason to call in question the authenticity of the narrative ascribed to them. The expedition failed in its intention chiefly through the jealousy of the Portuguese, by whom our travellers were thrown into prison at Ormuz. Newbery, in one of his letters, remarks, “Although we be Englishmen, I know no reason why we

may not as well trade from place to place as the natives of other countrys; for all nations may and do come freely to Ormuz, as Frenchmen, Flemings, Germans, Hungarians, Italians, Greeks, Armenians, Nazarenes, Turks, Moors, Jews, and Gentiles, Persians, and Muscovites. In short, there is no nation they seek to trouble but only ours." The cause of the antipathy which the Portuguese manifested to the English is explained in the same letter, by the alarm which, our author tells us, the appearance of sir Francis Drake had created in the Indian seas.

The first attempt of the English to reach the Indies was made, as we have already seen, in the year 1527, when a ship was despatched to seek a direct passage to Cathay by the north pole. The English at that time did not feel themselves competent to cope with the naval strength of Portugal; and were desirous, in consequence, of finding some passage by which they could reach the East without encountering the fleets of their jealous rivals. But all the attempts to find a passage by the north proved unsuccessful; and, on the other hand, the voyages of Drake and Candish showed how little the English had to fear from the maritime superiority of any nation. They may be truly said to have opened the route to the East. The English nation, rapidly increasing in resources, and taught by recent political events to know its strength, resolved to share in the profits of that trade to which its enemies arrogantly pretended an exclusive right. In 1591 three ships were fitted out for a voyage to the Indies by the Cape of Good Hope-the first which the English had as yet attempted by that route. The object of the expeditio. was not to carry on trade, but to cruise on the Portuguese. Its issue, however, was in the highest degree unfortunate. One of the ships was obliged to return from the Cape of Good Hope with the sick men of the fleet, who were very numerous: another was lost, with all her crew, about sixty leagues beyond the Cape: the third, commanded by captain James Lancaster, reached