James Lancaster's Sound; but the bad sailing of the Griper was a great obstacle to that speedy advancement, which the shortness of the navi gating season in those seas made most particularly desirable; and indeed, there can be but little doubt, that the time Captain Parry lost in waiting for her at different periods, would have enabled him to attain the full object of his inquiry if, in fact, it be attainable at all in the direction in which it has hitherto been sought. The sea to the westward at first presented a very flattering appearance, being more clear of ice than it had been a month later the preceding year, and presenting a fine navigable channel of two miles and a half in width, which appeared from the mast-head to continue as far as the eye could reach, along shore to the westward. But on rounding the point of Cape Hearne, the wind blowing against them, and a strong current setting towards the eastward, warned them to arm themselves with patience for a repetition of all the delays and difficulties which they had already experienced to these, great danger was soon added, from the drifting and pressure of the ice, which threatened the Griper, in particular, with total destruction, nado, faceret bed in ara vevodion 1.dio We have not room to detail these particulars, interesting as they are, but Captain Parry's account of them sufficiently shews how anxious he was not to abandon the final object of his expedition whilst a hope of attaining it could be cherished. They had experienced, indeed, during the first half of the navigable season, such a continued series of vexa tions, disappointments, and delays, accompanied by such a constant state of danger to the ships, that he felt it would no longer be deemed justifiable in him to persevere in a fruitless attempt to get to the weste ward... Accordingly, after having held a council respecting the eligibility of spending another winter in these dreary regions, and receiving an una nimous opinion as to the little chance, even at the expense of that sacrifice, and the risk of falling short of fuel and provisions, of being able to start from a more advanced station at a future season, Captain Parry determined to proceed to England without further delay; run ning back, along the edge of the ice to the eastward, in order to look out for an opening that might lead towards the American continent, and taking with them the consolatory reflection that they had proceeded farther in the Polar Sea, to the northward of that continent, than any preceding navigators had done. The charts and surveys taken on the homeward course sufficiently attest their unwearied zeal in the cause (of maritime science. The western side of Baffin's Bay, in particular, was most carefully explored; and here in latitude 710 02 42" they met with the vessels belonging to the whale fisheries, which had taken up their station on this coast, hitherto considered as inaccessible. Their next encounter with the "human face divine" was in the persons of a group of Esquimaux, in the inlet which was named the river CLYDE, in the Expedition of 1818. We regret that we have not room to dwell on the amiable deportment of these unsophisticated children of nature, who appeared to possess a degree of delicacy and principle far beyond any thing that the same description of people can boast of in North Greenland; but all our remaining space must be devoted to Captain Parry's remarks on the probable existence and accomplishment of a North-west Passage into the Pacific Ocean. Of the existence of the passage itself he entertains not a doubt; but from the difficulties presented by the increasing breadth and thickness of the ice towards the westward, after passing through Barrow's Strait, insomuch that it required five weeks to traverse from the entrance of Sir James Lancaster's Sound to the meridian of Winter Harbour, and only six days to sail back through the same distance, added to the shortness of the season, not exceeding seven weeks, in which the Polar Sea can be navigated in that part, he is inclined to think that an attempt to effect the North-west Passage might be made with a better chance of success from Behring's Strait than from this side of America. Still he acknowledges that there are circumstances which render this mode of proceeding altogether impracticable for British ships; foremost among which are the length of the voyage that must be performed before arriving at the point where the grand undertaking is to be commenced, the impossibility of taking out provisions and fuel in sufficient quantity to ensure the confidence necessary for an enterprize, of which the nature must be so precarious and uncertain,-and the severe trial to which the health of: the crews would be subjected by going at once from the heat of the torrid zone into the intense cold of a long winter, upon the northern shores of America. The middle course which he recommends between this choice of evils is, at once to attempt to penetrate from the eastern coast of America along its northern shore. The question," says he, "which naturally arises, in the next place, relates to the most likely means of getting to the coast of America, so as to sail along its shores. It would, in this respect, be desirable to find an outlet from the Atlantic into the Polar Sea, as nearly as possible in the parallel of latitude in which the northern coast of America may be supposed to lie; as, however, we do not know of any such outlet from Baffin's Bay, about the parallels of 69° to 70°, the attempt. is, perhaps, to be made with better chance of success in a still lower la titude, especially as there is a considerable portion of coast that may reasonably be supposed to offer the desired communication, which yet remains unexplored. Cumberland Strait, the passage called Sir Tho mas Rowe's Welcome, lying between Southampton Island and the coast of America, and Repulse Bay, appear to be the points most worthy of attention; and, considering the state of uncertainty in which the attempts of former navigators have left us, with regard to the extent and communication of these openings, one cannot but entertain a reasonable hope, that one, or perhaps each of them, may afford a practicable passage into the Polar Sea." Captain Parry, with a natural and even laudable complacency, points out the services which have at least accrued in a commercial point of view, from the discoveries already made in the course of the different expeditions with respect to the whale stations, by which it is probable that our fisheries will be considerably benefited. Certainly both Captain Parry, and the brave and able men who accompanied. c. him, are well entitled to the respect and admiration of their country for the zeal with which they have endeavoured to the utmost to extend her maritime renown. It is pleasing to contemplate the order, unani mity, and general good conduct which seem to have prevailed during the voyage, equally creditable to the officers, and to those under their command. We must not close our observations without expressing our approbation of the illustrative plates, most of them conveying to the mind of the reader the full effect which the scene had produced on* the eye of the artist, and particularly the plate which represents the ships laid up in Winter Harbour, in beholding which, the words of Aspatia, in the Maid's Tragedy, "Paint me a desolation," THE PROPHECY OF DANTE. BY LORD BYRON. IF ever poet deserved to be a prophet, it was Dante. Had he lived in ancient Jerusalem, instead of Florence, it is likely that Providence would have commissioned his intrepid and public-spirited genius to have stood pre-eminent among the mas ters of sacred oracle. Indeed, by the strength of his political sagacity he predicted future events in the history of Italy; and if he failed to communicate a portion of his own magnanimity to his country, he left writings calculated after the lapse of ages to revive a masculine tone of taste and sentiments in the breasts of posterity. Ever since a dawn of patriotism has shone during this and the last century upon Italy, the admirers of Dante have increased in number, whilst those of Petrarch have diminished. Dante applied his poetry to the vicissitudes of his own time, when liberty was making her dying struggle, and he descended to the tomb with the last heroes of the middle ages; whilst Petrarch lived among those who prepared the inglori ous heritage of servitude for the next fifteen generations.--"Pride," says Ugo Foscolo, in his excellent parallel between the two founders of Italian poetry, "was the prominent charac"teristic of Dante. The power of despising, which many boast, "which very few really possess, and with which Dante was uncommonly gifted by nature, afforded him the highest delight, "of which a noble mind is susceptible. He was one of those "rare individuals who are above the reach of ridicule, and whose "natural dignity is enhanced even by the blows of malignity. "In his friends he inspired less commiseration than awe, in "his enemies fear and hatred, but never contempt." 66 Every one knows the unfortunate outline of Dante's history. He was saved only by flight and exile from being burnt alive by a hostile faction of his countrymen. After an absence of many years from Florence, he received an offer of being re-admitted to his native state, on condition that he compounded with his calumniators, avowed himself guilty, and asked pardon of the Commonwealth. His letter in answer to this proposal has been recently discovered, and exhibits one of the noblest testi monies of his spirit. "No! father," he writes to a friendly ecclesiastic who had communicated the offer; "this is not the way that shall lead me back to my country. I shall return with hasty steps, if you or any other can open a way that shall not derogate from the honour of Dante. But if by no such way Florence can be entered, then Florence I shall never enter. What! shall I not every where enjoy the sight of the sun and stars, and may I not contemplate, in every corner of the earth under the canopy of Heaven, consoling and delightful truth, without first rendering myself inglorious, nay infamous to the people and republic of Florence? Bread, I hope, will not fail me." Yet Dante was destined to eat bread embittered by dependence; and whilst Petrarch closed his life with the reputation of a saint, and Venice made a law against purloining his bones, and selling them as sacred relics, Dante's memory was persecuted by his countrymen. He was excommunicated, after his death, by the Pope. His remains were ordered to be disinterred and burnt, and their ashes scattered to the wind. " Such is the character whom Lord Byron aptly conceives as a prophet-bard revealing the destinies of Italy. The poem, which he has constructed on this idea, is divided into four cantos, and is written in Dante's own terza rima. His lordship's attempt to engraft this measure on our language does not seem to us felicitous. Dante's triplets, generally including a full and succinct portion of sense, remind us of the three-forked thunderbolt; whilst the rhyme in the poem before us is scattered in the midst of sentences, and rather breaks than strengthens the harmony of versification. The poem has great intrinsic beauty, but the style of its egotism is too diffuse to be a just imitation of Dante, whether we suppose him to act the part of a prophet or a poet. The imaginary seer says more about himself than about any other subject in the vision of ages which he conjures up; and, whilst Columbus is dismissed with a line or two, Dante occupies a whole canto with his own complaints. We select from the second canto the lines most likely to interest public feeling on the subject of Italy... "Woe! woe! the veil of coming centuries A The storms yet sleep, the clouds still keep their station, But all things are disposing for thy doom; "Let there be darkness!" and thou grow'st a tomb Jon Thou, Italy! so fair that Paradise, Revived in thee, blooms forth to man restored: de todt vow dt of evAnd form'd the Eternal City's ornaments list 1 From spoils of kings whom freemen overthrew;i bar sigong Birthplace of heroes, sanctuary of saints, sucÚ Y 4091 Where earthly first, then heavenly glory made 6, sonsbroq 12111 Her home; thou, all which fondest fancy paints, es lo mont And finds her prior vision but portray'di na los bus round it be In feeble colours, when the eye from the Alpð beturɔ2219q Of horrid snow, and rock, and shaggy shaded, dusob and Of desert-loving pine, whose emerald scalp. vgd bur EanYSİ 28 29 Nods to the storm-dilates and dotes o'er thee, £26 And wistfully implores, as 'twere, for help To see thy sunny fields, my Italy, Tot of Nearer and nearer yet, and dearer still The Goth hath been,-the German, Frank, and Hun bsd-Are yet to come,and on the imperial hill b1911 Ruin, already proud of the deeds done anoto By the old barbarians, there awaits the new, Phim Throned on the Palatine, while lost and won Rome at her feet lies bleeding; and the hue Of human sacrifice and Roman slaughter Troubles the clotted air, of late so blue, And deepens into red the saffron water 10 91 # Of Tiber, thick with dead; the helpless priest, And still more helpless nor less holy daughter, Vow'd to their God, have shrieking fled, and ceased ******* Their ministry: the nations take their prey, Iberian, Almain, Lombard, and the beast And bird, wolf, vulture, more humane than they But those, the human savages, explore Nine moons shall rise o'er scenes like this and set; Hath left its leader's ashes at the gate; Thou hadst been spared, but his involved thy fate. |