194 



THE POPULAE EDUCATOR. 



Diemen's Land, the exploration of the southern and eastern 

 coasts of New Holland, and the determination of numerous 

 points in Torres Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria. The ex- 

 pedition to the same coasts under the French captain, Baudin, 

 was productive of,, little utility in a geographical point of view, 

 after the labour s/of Flinders. 



The voyage of Vancouver preceded the French erpedition 

 above mentioned, and added to the knowledge of the Australian 

 continent. He discovered the harbour of King George in the south- 

 western extremity of New Holland, and completed the labours 

 of Cook at New Zealand. To the east of the latter, Captain 

 Broughton, commander of the tender, discovered Chatham Island, 

 'and the expedition proceeded to Tahiti to prepare for exploring 

 the north-western coast of America. Vancouver, in company 

 with a Spanish expedition, which he met, under the command 

 of Captain Quadra, discovered the island which for some time 

 was called Vancouver and Quadra Island, in commemoration of 

 its discoverers, and which is now known only as Vancouver 

 Island, and .is the most important of our colonies on the west 

 coast of North America. He then explored the river Columbia 

 as far as the expedition could ascend its streams. A rest at 

 the Sandwich Islands, and new expeditions on the American 

 coasts detained Vancouver till the winter of 1794, when he re- 

 turned to the same archipelago. Having, in a new hydro- 

 graphical expedition, explored another part of the coast of the 

 New World, including Cook's Inlet, Vancouver returned to Eng- 

 land, laden with geographical information, and signalised"by not 

 a few discoveries. These regions were scarcely re-visited until 

 the voyage of Kotzebue, which took place in 1815-1818. This 

 Kussian navigator discovered to the north of Behring Strait, 

 between latitudes 67 and 68 N., and in longitude 163 37' W., 

 a great bay or sound to which he gave his name. His object 

 was to find a passage to the Atlantic, and to ascertain first 

 whether Icy Cape was an island; but illness prevented him 

 from carrying his designs into execution. He discovered several 

 unimportant islands in the Pacific, particularly the eastern part 

 of the Caroline group. 



As to the northern passage between the Atlantic and the 

 Pacific, it seemed to elude all the skill and vigilance of navi- 

 gators. Captain Phipps, in 1773, had reached latitude 80 37' N. 

 from the Atlantic side ; Captain Cook, as we have seen, attempted 

 it from the Pacific side ; Pickersgill and Young succeeded no 

 better by sailing through Baffin's Bay ; and Lowenorn, Egedo, 

 and Eothe, in 1786-1787, attempted, but without success, to 

 explore the eastern shore of Greenland, which is said to be 

 unapproachable in consequence of the accumulation of ice since 

 the early part of the fifteenth century. At the beginning of 

 the present century, northern expeditions were revived ; and 

 they have been pursued with more or less ardour till the present 

 day. In 1818 two expeditions were fitted out for the north. 

 The one was placed under the command of Captain Boss, who 

 sailed from England towards the end of April of that year, 

 accompanied by Lieutenant Parry, who commanded under his 

 direction the ship Alexander. Between latitudes 76 and 77 

 40' N. they discovered land which they called the Arctic High- 

 lands. This country occupied a space of 120 miles in the north- 

 east comer of Baffin's Bay. On the 30th of August they reached 

 the entrance of Lancaster Sound, and as it was fifty miles broad 

 from north to south, and as the soundings were 750 fathoms, 

 they fancied they had discovered the north-west passage; but 

 they soon perceived their mistake by observing land in their 

 course at a distance of thirty miles from the entrance of the 

 sound. Having reached latitude 70 N., the expedition returned 

 and explored the coasts as far as Cape Walsingham, in Cum- 

 berland Island, whence it sailed for England. The other expe- 

 dition to the north was undertaken by Captain Buchan and 

 Lieutenant Franklin ; but it was productive of no new discovery, 

 as they were compelled to return when they had reached Spitz- 

 bergen. glad to escape the alarming dangers of sailing in the 

 midst of floating icebergs. Captain Parry continued the ex- 

 ploration begun by Captain Eoss. In a new expedition, he 

 discovered a passage called Prince Regent Inlet, south of Lan- 

 caster Sound, Wellington Inlet, farther north in the same sound, 

 and the islands of Cornwallis, Griffith, Bathurst, Byam Martin, 

 Melville, and others, all included under the name of the North 

 Georgian Islands. He also discovered Banks Land, south of 

 Melville Island, and North Somerset, which forms the north- 

 \rest point of PiHnca Eegent Inlet, and wintered, in 1819-1820, 



in Melville Bay, where, during the long months from the 4th 

 of November till the 3rd of February following, they lived in 

 continued darkness, and in an atmosphere whose temperature 

 was below the freezing point. In a second voyage executed in 

 1821-1822, Captain Parry discovered Melville Peninsula, north 

 of Southampton Island, in the northern part of Hudson Bay. 

 He passed through the strait which he named after his two 

 vessels, the Fury and Hecla, and which separates Melville Penin- 

 sula from Cockburn Island, on the north. Captain Scoresby, 

 at the same period, explored a part of the east coast of Green- 

 land. Parry made a third voyage, in 1823, to the same regions 

 he had formerly visited ; but the Fury was shipwrecked, and 

 the expedition failed. During the period from 1823 to 1826, 

 Lieutenant Beechy sought for the passage between the two 

 oceans by Behring Strait, and reached latitude 71 23' N., and 

 longitude 154 3' W. The indefatigable Parry attempted a 

 fourth expedition to the north in search of the same passage ; 

 but it entirely failed, because he disregarded the experience of 

 former navigators, as well as his own in preceding voyages. 



The illustration that accompanies this lesson affords an excel- 

 lent and accurate representation of the entrance to Port Jackson, 

 a magnificent harbour about nine, miles to the north of Botany 

 Bay, on the coast of New South Wales, where the ill-fated La 

 Perouse stayed for about three weeks with the vessels under his 

 command before he sailed on the expedition which terminated in 

 his death, and on the shore of which there was erected, in 1825, 

 a column to the memory of this unfortunate French navigator. 

 Botany Bay, it will be remembered, was so called by Captain 

 Cook from the number of plants and herbs that were found on 

 its coast, when he first visited it in 1770. In January, 1778, 

 just before La Perouse reached this spot, the first batch of con- 

 victs sent from England to Australia had arrived there, under 

 Captain Arthur Phillip, the first governor of the colony of New 

 South Wales. Botany Bay, however, was not found to be a 

 suitable spot for the settlement (which was subsequently trans- 

 ferred to Port Jackson), and is now known as Sydney, the metro- 

 polis of Australia. 



LESSONS IN ENGLISH. VII. 



DERIVATION. PBEFIXES. 



THE Saxon may be called the native English stock. The Latin 

 portion of our language is of foreign growth, it is an exotic. As 

 being of foreign growth its elements are not easily understood, 

 and must therefore receive the greater attention. In entering 

 on the necessary course of instruction, I am met by a distinction 

 already spoken of, namely, the distinction of simple and com- 

 pound words. Compound words are made up of parts. Those 

 parts are either simple words or particles, that is, fragments of 

 simple words. Country-house is a compound term consisting of 

 two simple words, namely, country and house. Departure is a 

 compound word which comprises these three particles, namely, 

 de-part-ure that is 



de part (pars) ure. 



from, part ffl termination. 



Of these three particles, part is the most important, inasmuch 

 as it determines the specific meaning ; as you may learn by 

 comparing with debenture, a word exactly the same in the first 

 and third particle : 



de 

 de 



part 



bent 



ure. 

 ure. 



In the second word the substitution of bent for part has 

 entirely changed the meaning. The reason is that part and leni 

 are the roots of the two words. Every word has a root. Some- 

 times tne word, especially in Saxon terms, is its own root, at 

 least in the actual state of the language, as heart, think, ivise. 

 The root is not always the middle portion as it is in departure 

 and debenture. In contradict, the root (dictum) is at the end, 

 and in mental the root is at the beginning. It is, however, 

 clear that in compound words three things have to be con- 

 sidered namely, 1, the root; 2, that which is put before the 

 root ; 3, that which comes after the root. That which is put 

 before the root is in grammar called a prefix (from the Latin 

 pree, before ; and figo, I fix), and that which is put after the root 

 is called a suffix (from the Latin sub, under; and figo, I fix). 

 Here, then, are three subjects to be considered namely, roots, 



