dance himselfe, among the rest of the young and lusty company; which being ended, hee and his friends departed, most gently commending us to the governance of Almighty God." The most elaborate description could hardly present a more agreeable picture of hale, cheerful, and benevolent old age, than is suggested by this little incident, thus casually recorded. After the accession of Mary, this aged and useful servant of the crown spent the brief remainder of his days in neglect and obscurity. It mattered little to him, however, for his work was done. "On his death-bed, says an eye-witness, 'he spake flightily' of a certain divine revelation (which he might disclose to no man) for the infallible ascertainment of the longitude. With his last thoughts thus amused by visions so suited to his mind and his past life, the Discoverer of North America died calmly-it is supposed in the city of London; but the date of his death, and the place where his remains are laid, have long been lost even to tradition." CHAPTER II. THE "DOMINUS VOBISCUM:" FAILURE AND MISFORTUNE.- CONTEST WITH THE ESQUIMAUX. THE Voyage of Cabot, under Henry VIII., in 1517, in search of a North-west Passage, is the only one made by the English, in that direction, for ten years, of which any record has survived. In 1527, two ships, the "Dominus Vobiscum" ("the Lord be with you") and another were dispatched by the same sovereign to the northern coasts of America. "Divers cunning men," one being a canon of St. Paul's, went on this expedition, which, however, one of the vessels being wrecked, resulted in nothing of importance. The fact, indeed, that a letter, describing the voyage, was forwarded home |