beymnbr] the death OF SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT 39 



The courage of these old voyagers can scarcely be understood in oui- 

 days of swift steam navigation. They searched the unknown seas for 

 yet undiscovered lands, with small, ill-furnished vessels, with the rudest 

 appliances for ascertaining their position, with crews largely made up of 

 the sweepings of prisons. It was they who laid the foundation of the 

 enormous commerce of the present day and of the great communities 

 that have grown up on lands which but a comparatively short time ago 

 were uninhabited or populated only by uncivilized tribes, the homes of 

 wild animals, covered with trackless forests, instead of the iron tracks 

 carrying the " resonant steam eagle" to the most remote recesses, now 

 covered with cities and towns supplied with every luxury. Truly we in 

 these latter days owe those daring adventurers a deathless debt of 

 gratitude which we are too apt to forget. There were many of these 

 men, some remembered dimly by their names given to places they dis- 

 oovered, who are equally worthy of remembrance with Gilbert, whose 

 romantic death and noble utterance have kept his memory green. 



