A. D. 871-900. 263 



Ptolemy's knowlege ; and he obtained from Ohther and Wulfftan fuch 

 information of the Baltic fea with the adjacent countries, and of the ex- 

 treme northern regions of Europe, as far exceeded that ofprofefTed geo- 

 graphers, either before or after his time *, till the route of Ohther was 

 retraced in the year 1553 by the Englifh navigator Chancellor, who 

 was fuppofed the original difcoverer of the northern pafTage to Ruflia. 

 The royal author has himfelf preferved the account of the voyages per- 

 formed by thofe navigators. Ohther, a Norwegian, coafled along the 

 country of the Fins, now called Lapland, palled the North cape, and pe- 

 netrated into the great bay (Quen fe, or White fea) where Archangel 

 now iiands. From his relation we learn, that in that age the northern 

 people were accuftomed to catch whales and feals, of the fkins of which 

 they made ropes of all fizes, and alfo horfe-whales, the teeth of which 

 were valuable as well as their fkins, which were likeways ufed for mak- 

 ing ropes. Whales of forty-eight and fifty elns (72 and 75 feet) were 

 fo numerous on the coafl; of Norway, that Ohther with the help of five 

 men could kill fixty of them in two days. Ohther alfo made a voyage 

 up the Baltic. And Wulfftan likeways navigated the Baltic as far as 

 the country now called Pruflia. He remarked, that the people of that 

 country brewed no ale, becaufe they had fuch plenty of honey (noted 

 many centuries before by Pytheas) that mead was the common drink 

 of the meanell of the people, wliile the rich drank mare's milk, or per 

 haps rather a fpiritous liquor prepared from it. 



Perhaps the letters f of the patriarch of Jerufalem and his'prefents 

 may have fuggefted to Alfred the defign of fending reHef to the Chrif- 

 tians of St. Thomas in India, and attempting to ellablifh a commercial 

 intercourfe with that country. We are told by William of Malmf- 

 bury, that Sighelm bilhop of Shireburn was fent by the king with m.any 

 gifts to St. Thomas, that he accomplifhed his expedition profperoufly, 

 and, which was thought very wonderful, penetrated even to India, 

 from which he brought aromatic liquors, or oils, and fplendid jewels, 

 fome of which were ftill remaining in the treafury of the church, when 

 he wrote J. \GeJl. reg. Atiglf. ^\ ^-y Geji. pontif.f. i^\ 2..'] This import^ 



* Scbaflian Munfter [^Giographia -vetus et nova, Diccto, the only other relaters of it, are ftill more 

 Rafilidc 1540] makes Norway, Greenland, and barren of circumftances. It is much to be regret- 

 Newfoundland (or the land of cods), all one con- ted, that the king himfelf has not left us any ac- 

 tinent. Such was the retrograde progrefs of geo- count of Sigheim's travels by land and water, 

 graphical knowlege in Eutope, even in the lix- which, if he really reached India, were nnich more 

 teenth century. worthy of being recorded than the voyages of Oh- 



f It is a pity that AITer, who faw thofe letters, ther and Wulfltan, which he has related with a de- 

 has not favoured us with any extrafts from them, gree of minuttncfs. The filence of Alfred, of 

 They were probably much more interefling than Afler his contemporar)- biographer, and of moil of 

 the bulk of the unmeaning or incomprehenfible rub- t!ie other hiftorian?, has induced a fufpicion, that 

 bifh of letters of thofe ages, which have been tranf- the whole is fabulous. But the early writers, who 

 mitted to us. have Recorded it, had neither motive nor capacity 



X Such is the meagre account we have of fo f:.>r Inventing fuch a ftory, though it may perhaps 



important an event as an Englidi expedition to not be lliidly true in its fullell extent. Sighelm 



Lndia : and the Saxon chronicle, and Radulf de went from England to Rome in the year 8S3, and 



probably 



