PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY ON THE NORTHERN COASTS OF AMERICA.
Tins is one of the masterly compilations of the Edinburgh Cabi- net Library. Its subject is one of the most interesting chapters of discovery,—interesting not only because the adventurers were mainly English, and the result the propagation of the British name and race, and the extension of British power, but because the hardships encountered and the difficulties overcome by the courage and perseverance of the navigators and voyagers, render their story as captivating to the imagination as their conduct is honourable to their country, and even their kind.
The tale is taken up from the first discovery of CABOT: it is carried through the enterprises of Portugal and Spain, jealous of his success : then we have the Russian exploits of BEHRING, fol- lowed up by those of COOKE and CLERKE. The adventures of the persons connected with the Fur Companies present an important episode : nay, HEARNE'S Three Journies form one of the most simple and affecting narratives in the language, and the expedi- tions of Sir JOHN MACKENZIE are equally important. Then come the deeply interesting narrative of FRANKLIN, and the contempo- raneous voyage of BEECHEY. Of all the adventures that have sprung out of the exploration of these Arctic regions, there are none which excite the sympathies in a more powerful man- ner than the tale of the sufferings and privations of Sir JOHN FRANKLIN and his brave companions ; among whom, the courage, generosity, and fortitude of Dr. RICHARDSON, stand nobly conspi- cuous. Such are the materials of Mr. TYTLER 'S work. His name alone would give us assurance at least of respectable execution ; but he has done full justice to the character of his undertaking.
One feature of the work partakes of the nature of a critical and geographical controversy : to this subject an Appendix is devoted, and a portion of the text. Our readers are aware, that a Memoir of SEBASTIAN CABOT lately appeared, from the pen of Mr. BIDDLE, an American writer; who displayed a remarkable degree of re- search, and no less ingenuity, in investigating a very intricate question. Mr. BIDDLE, on looking into the authorities on which the common narrative of the discovery of North America rests, found reason to distrust the accounts usually received, and took up the idea that the agency in this most important event had been attributed to the wrong person—to the father, instead of the son. The Memoir, in fact, was a vindication of the claims of SEBASTIAN Cum, and an exposure of numerous modern authorities, who took it for granted, that as JOHN his father was the patentee of the discovery, therefore he was the agent. Mr. BIDDLE at least showed, that the tether and son were often confounded; that the exploits of the latter were constantly attributed to the former; and in fact, that there was nothing more known of the old CABOT than that he was a merchant from Venice, settled in England, and that he was the father of SEBASTIAN. This view of the subject was reasoned by Mr. BIDDLE with extraordinary plausibility ; the objections were got over with much dexterity ; and in the course of the inquiry, a great deal of very curious information, drawn from recondite sources, was brought to bear upon different branches of the investigation. And whatever may be the extent of the conviction established by the writer as to the insignificance of JOHN CABOT in this matter, and the sole agency of his son, it is at least certain, that so much light was never previously thrown upon the very obscure history of these important transactions. The present author, Mr. TYTLER, even while he controverts the statements of the American writer, makes a very large use of them; and ought, we think, to have made a more generous ac- knowledgment of the value of Mr. BIDDLE 'S Memoir. Certain we are, though we think highly of Mr. TYTLER'S industry and acquire- ments, that his first chapter would have been comparatively meagre, and in some instances erroneous, had he not been pre- ceded by the very able work in question. With Mr. BIDDLE, on the main point of his treatise, Mr. TYTLER is directly at issue. He denies the honour of discovery to the son, and reclaims it for the father. In an Appendix, he goes minutely into the arguments ad- duced by Mr. BIDDLE; and certainly presents the evidence in fa- vour of JOHN in a far more striking point of view than did Mr. BIDDLE, whose object was to overthrow it. The strength of the argument in favour of the father lies in a nutshell,—it is Join; the father, who is commissioned to make the first voyage, and there is no evidence to prove that he did not make it; moreover, his son, at the time, was only twenty years of age. In answer to this, it may be said, that the commission may only mean an au- thority to fit out, and does not imply that the person therein named as moving the expedition was actually to command it. As to the matter of age, if SEBASTIAN was only twenty at the time of the first voyage, he was only twenty-one the year after the epoch of the second voyage, which all are agreed was conducted by SE- BASTIAN alone. The question is, however, one of extreme diffi- culty ; and in spite of Mr. TYTLER having now the last word with us, we are still inclined to side with Mr. BIDDLE.
The defence of HAKLUYT is certainly successful. Mr. BIDDLE, in his zeal for his favourite theory, undoubtedly carried his charges against the motives of that industrious compiler, to whom we are on many accounts so greatly indebted, too far. We ought not to conclude this notice without referring to the satisfaction with which we have perused Mr. W ILSON'S " Descrip- tive Sketches" of the Zoology of the North American regions.. There is an excellent map, besides many smaller illustrations.
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