-tvs 
suits, had totally subsided. In the fif¬ 
teenth century, however, men awakened 
from their lethargy, and the voyages ;df 
Columbus and Vasco de Gama , constitute 
erne of the most important epochs in the 
history of the human race. The spirit 
of adventure was aroused, and voyagers 
'boldly ventured into hitherto unexplored 
seas. The English and Dutch naviga¬ 
tors of the sixteenth century, envying 
the glory and wealth acquired by the 
Portuguese in their voyages to India by 
the Cape of Good Hope, were seized with 
’the same spirit of adventure, and were 
fired with the hopes of opening a new 
rout to those regions, by sailing round 
the north of Europe and Asia. Though 
these expectations were disappointed, 
yet to this stimulus the great discoveries 
made in the North are to be principally 
ascribed. 
The honour of the discovery of Spitz- 
bergen ’has long been contested between 
