Part 24 (1/2)

Archibald Lampman

For manners are not idle, but the fruit Of loyal nature and of noble mind

Tennyson

AN ELIZABETHAN SEAMAN

So the le of land which runs out into the river at the head of one of its most beautiful reaches, there has stood for some centuries the Manor House of Greenaway The water runs deep all the way to it froest vessels may ride with safety within a stone's throw of the s In the latter half of the sixteenth century there must have met, in the hall of this mansion, a party as reland Humfrey and Adrian Gilbert, with their half-brother, Walter Raleigh, here, when little boys, played at sailors in the reaches of Long Strea doith the tide to the port, and wondering at the quaint figure-heads and carved prows of the shi+ps which thronged it; or cli, to the mariners' tales of the new earth beyond the sunset And here in later life, matured men, whose boyish dreaain to meet in the intervals of quiet, and the rock is shown underneath the house where Raleigh smoked the first tobacco Another remarkable s A sailor-boy of Sandwich, the adjoining parish, John Davis, showed early a genius which could not have escaped the eye of such neighbours, and in the atmosphere of Greenaway he learned to be as noble as the Gilberts, and as tender and delicate as Raleigh

In 1585 John Davis left Darte into the Polar Seas; and twice subsequently he went again, venturing in small, ill-equipped vessels of thirty or forty tons into the es were as re hich they were accomplished, and Davis' epitaph is written on the map of the world, where his name still remains to couished by a peculiar and exquisite sweetness of nature, which, from many little facts of his life, seems to have affected every one horee We findtheir firesides to sail with him, without other hope or motion; we find silver bullets cast to shoot hi awed by soe which was not like that of a common es hiinative beauty in it, and a rich delicacy of expression, which is called out in his and people

We have only space to tell soe north In latitude sixty-three degrees, he fell in with a barrier of ice, which he coasted for thirteen days without finding an opening The very sight of an iceberg was new to all his crew; and the ropes and shrouds, though it wascoan to fall sick and faint-hearted--whereupon, very orderly, and with good discretion, they entreated ard the safety of mine own life, as well as the preservation of theirs; and that I should not, through over-boldness, leave their s and fatherless children to givecounsel of God, it pleased His Divine Majesty to lory and to the contentation of every Christian mind”

He had two vessels--one of some burden, the other a pinnace of thirty tons The result of the counsel which he had sought was, that he e vessel to such as wished to return, and hi it better to die with honour than to return with infamy,” went on with such volunteers as would follow him, in a poor leaky cutter, up the sea now in commemoration of that adventure called Davis' Strait He ascended four degrees north of the furthest known point, ahts alone saved hi the American shore, he discovered Hudson Strait, supposed then to be the long desired entrance into the Pacific This exploit drew the attention of Walsinghah, ”as also pleased to show hiement” If either these stateser, his naer space in history than a small corner of the map of the world; but, if he was employed at all in the last years of the century, no _vates sacer_ has been found to celebrate his work, and no clew is left to guide us He disappears; a cloud falls over hi vessels in the Eastern seas, and to have returned five times from India But the details are all lost, and accident has only parted the clouds for ahich he, too, went down upon the sea

In taking out Sir Edward Michellthorne to India, in 1604, he fell in with a crew of japanese, whose shi+p had been burnt, drifting at sea, without provisions, in a leaky junk He supposed them to be pirates, but he did not choose to leave them to so wretched a death, and took the their opportunity, they murdered him

As the fool dieth, so dieth the wise, and there is no difference; it was the chance of the sea, and the ill reward of a humane action--a melancholy end for such aEpaminondas-like on the field of victory, but cut off in some poor brawl or ambuscade But so it ith all these men They were cut off in the flower of their days, and few of them laid their bones in the sepulchres of their fathers They knew the service which they had chosen, and they did not ask the wages for which they had not laboured Life with them was no summer holiday, but a holy sacrifice offered up to duty, and what their Master sent elco lorious summer In the old man, Nature has fulfilled her work; she loads his; she fills him with the fruits of a well-spent life; and, surrounded by his children and his children's children, she rocks hirave, to which he is folloith blessings God forbid we should not call it beautiful It is beautiful, but not the h, and thorny, trodden with bleeding feet and aching brow; the life of which the cross is the syrave; which the grave gapes to finish, before the victory is won; and--strange that it should be so--this is the highest life of reat names of history; there is none whose life has been other than this They to whohest work in this earth--whoever they are, Jew or Gentile, Pagan or Christian, warriors, legislators, philosophers, priests, poets, kings, slaves--one and all, their fate has been the saiven theland in the sixteenth century Their life was a long battle, either with the eleh for them to fulfil their work, and to pass away in the hour when God had nothing more to bid them do

Froude: ”Short Studies on Great Subjects”

THE SEA-KING'S BURIAL

”My strength is failing fast,”

Said the sea-king to his ain

But while yet a drop remains Of the life-blood in my veins, Raise, O raise ood sword in my hand, And so lead me to the strand, Where my shi+p at anchor rides Steadily; If I cannot end my life In the crimsoned battle-strife, Let me die as I have lived, On the sea”

They have raised King Balder up, Put his crown upon his head; They have sheathed his lireeting rude Of a gathering y of yore Fro forth-- Old sea-lion of the north-- As he looked upon his shi+p Riding free, And on his forehead pale Felt the cold, refreshi+ng gale, And heard the welcome sound Of the sea

They have borne him to the shi+p With a slow and solemn tread; They have placed him on the deck With his crown upon his head, Where he sat as on a throne; And have left hihed And his snowy sails displayed To the favouring wind, oncefreshly fro, ”_King of ain, In Valhalla, with the monarchs Of the sea_”

Underneath hihted brand; And the fire was burning slow As the vessel fro-hound from the slips, Darted forth from out the shi+ps

There was ale, And a dashi+ng at her prow As it cleft the waves below, And the good shi+p sped along, Scudding free; As on le and to conquer On the sea

And the king, with sudden strength, Started up and paced the deck, With his good sword for his staff And his robe around his neck: Once alone, he raised his hand To the people on the land; And with shout and joyous cry Once again theycheer Sounded faintly on his ear; For the gale was o'er hi Fresh and free; And ere yet an hour had passed, He was driven before the blast, And a storm was on his path On the sea