EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS 



IN THE SOUTH SEAS. 

 CHAPTER I. 



(I.) Maritime Discovery and Adventure. — (2.) Act of Congress. Organization 

 and departure of the Exploring Expedition. — (3.) Instructions. — (4.) The 

 Gulf Stream. — (5.) Incidents of the Voyage. The Western Islands. — (6.) Isl- 

 and of Madeira. Population and Products. Wine-Making. — (7.) Cape de 

 Verdes. Porto Praya. — (8.) Passage to Rio Janeiro. 



(1.) When the Genoese navigator and philosopher sailed 

 with his little fleet, from the harbor of Palos, — on the 3d of 

 August, 1492, — and directed his course over the fathomless 

 waste of waters outside the pillars of Hercules, in search of 

 the bright realms of Zipango and Cathay, he marked a new 

 era in maritime discovery and adventure. The voyages of 

 the Phoenicians, like those of the Scandinavian navigators at 

 a later day, do not seem to have been productive of much 

 benefit to the world at large ; or to have stimulated any ex- 

 traordinary spirit of enterprise, unless among those immedi- 

 ately interested in their results, — but the discoveries of 

 Christopher Columbus aroused the whole Continent of Eu- 

 rope, and adventurers pushed out from every port and haven, 

 in quest of the fair land of promise beyond the dark bosom 

 of the Atlantic. 



Expeditions were fitted out in England, France, Spain, 

 and Portugal, — all having the same object, and prompted by 

 the same motives. A new world was found in the far-off 

 West, presenting a 



" Sweet interchange 

 Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains ;" 



