is about 156 miles. The Royal Canal also connects Dublin harbor with the river Shannon, and is 83 miles in length. The Limerick Navigation, River Barrow Navigation, River Boyne Navigation, Newry Navigation, and Lagan Navigation, are various improvements of rivers, by canals and slack-water navigation, all constructed at great expense.

A system of Railroads for Ireland has been proposed by government, but is not yet carried into effect. The only railroads in operation are a few short ones running from Dublin and Belfast to adjacent places.

Commerce. The principal commerce of Ireland is carried on with Great Britain. In 1825, the value of exports to all countries amounted to £9,101,956, of which only £697,667 were exported to foreign countries, £8,404,289 being sent to Great Britain. The following table shows the trade between Great Britain and Ireland during part of the last century, according to Lord Sheffield.

The same authority gives the following statement as the quantity of provisions exported from Ireland to America and the West Indies in 1776:

Parliamentary reports, since the union, give the value of produce and merchandise that have been the objects of trade between Great Britain and Ireland, in various years, as follows:

7,048,936

£3,537,725

4,288,167

4,588,305

5,410,326

5,696,613

7,117,452

8,531,355

No account of this trade can be given for any year subsequent to 1825,

the commercial intercourse between Great Britain and Ireland having at the end of that year been assimilated by law to the coasting traffic carried on between the different ports of England; and with the single exception of grain, we have now no official register of the quantity or value of goods or produce received from or sent to Ireland.

The following estimate however is from a parliamentary document, showing the total exports from Ireland to Great Britain and foreign countries, in 1835.

From 1799 to 1806, the quantity of wheat exported from Ireland to

Great Britain was 44,877 quarters, and 222,030 quarters of oats and oatmeal; while from 1806 to 1827, the annual average exports to the same were 382,533 quarters of wheat, and 1,087,314 quarters of oats and oatmeal. From 1800 to 1819, a period of 20 years, the exports of wheat from Ireland to Great Britain amounted to 2,096,768 quarters, while in the 6 years from 1820 to 1825, inclusive, the exports were greater than for the preceding 20 years, amounting to 2,589,945 quarters. Previous to 1806, Ireland had been treated as a colony, but in that year an act passed permitting the free interchange of grain between Great Britain and Ireland.

The exports of grain to Great Britain were as follows from 1837 to 1841:

Number of vessels registered in Ireland in 1840, 1,969-183,854 tons: employing 11,927 men and boys.

Vessels built in Ireland in 1840; 42-tons 3,115.

Customhouse duties collected at the principal ports in Ireland in 1836 and 1840:

Banking capital in Ireland in 1840, £4,926,511: circulation about 6

millions sterling. Dividends from 8 to 9 per cent.

ART. V.-COMMERCIAL VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES.

CHAPTER V.

EARLY VOYAGES OF THE ENGLISH-WINDHAM-CHARTERS GRANTED BY ELIZABETH—VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN LOK TO THE COAST OF GUINEA-VOYAGES OF WILLIAM TOUERSON, MERCHANT, OF LONDON-LIST OF GOODS USED IN THE GUINEA TRADE.

AMONG the earliest to follow in the footsteps of the adventurous Portuguese, were the English. As soon as it was known that the voyages to the coast of Africa were profitable, preparations were made to take a share in it. The first attempt was made by John Fentam and William Fabian in 1481, who commenced fitting out a fleet of vessels for the Guinea trade. Upon the representations, however, of the king of Portugal, who sent a special embassy to the English monarch, the expedition was prohibited from leaving the English ports, and the design was accordingly abandoned. It was supposed that the projected voyage was principally on Spanish account. The Duke Medina Sidonia was said to have been largely interested and to have taken this way of evading, through the help of the English, the exclusive grant made by the pope of the African coast to the Portuguese.

For some time after this, the English gave up all attempts at infringing what were represented to be Portuguese rights, and exerted themselves to discover some other passage to the east. They however extended their voyages to the south as far as the Canaries. In Hakluyt is preserved the contents of a letter written by Nicholas Thorne, merchant in Bristol, in 1526, apprising Thomas Mindal, his factor residing at St. Lucas in Spain, that the Christopher, of Cadiz, bound to the West Indies, had on board several packs of cloth, with packthread, soap, and other goods, which she was to land on the way at Teneriffe, to be exchanged for orchilla sugar and kid-skins. From this it would seem that a trade of the kind had been carried on for some time previous.

In 1551, Captain Thomas Windham made a voyage to Morocco, the only notice of which is in a letter written by James Alday preserved in Hakluyt's collection. The year after, Windham made a voyage to the same ports, Saffe and Santa Cruz. This excited the anger of the Portuguese, who were loud in their threats of violence if they caught the English again in that quarter. Notwithstanding which, Windham in the succeeding year conducted an expedition of three ships and a hundred and forty men to the coast of Guinea. The adventure was however very unfortunate, Windham and most of his men dying from the effects of the climate.

A profitable voyage was made in 1554, by John Lok, who succeeded in obtaining a quantity of gold, ivory, &c., which soon induced others to enter into the trade, which was conducted in defiance of the Portuguese authorities, with whom the adventurers were continually at strife.

In 1585, Queen Elizabeth issued a patent creating a company for the Barbary trade; in 1588, another for the Guinea; and in 1592, another charter was granted for the coast in the neighborhood of Sierra Leone. Under the influence of these charters, which ultimately gave rise to the Royal African Company, the trade with Guinea began to be flourishing and important. Voyages were made, regular narratives of a number of which have been preserved in Hakluyt and other collections. Our space

will enable us to abridge and condense only a few of the most interesting.

About the year 1572 was published a small volume by Richard Eden, containing an account of two voyages made to the coast of Africa; one of which was the unfortunate voyage of Windham, which we have mentioned, and which has been republished at length in Hukluyt, Astley, and others; the other was the voyage of Captain John Lok, made in 1554.

This expedition was fitted out at London, and consisted of the Trinity of 140 tons, the Bartholomew of 90, and the John Evangelist of 140. On the 11th of October, 1554, they set sail from the Thames, but did not quit the shores of England until the 1st of November. On the 17th they came within sight of Madeira, and on the 19th they saw the Canaries and were becalmed under the Peak of Teneriffe-a very usual thing at the present day. From the Canaries they steered for the coast of the continent, and descried it in the neighborhood of Cape Barbas. Running down the coast, touching and trading at several points, they remained until the 13th of February, when they started for home, where they safely arrived, with a cargo consisting of four hundred ounces of gold, more than twenty-two carats fine, thirty-six butts of grains, and two hundred and fifty elephant's teeth, some of which measured by Mr. Eden, astonished him by their size of nine spans in length, and weight of one hundred and twenty pounds apiece. In the account of the voyage are interspersed notices of natural phenomena, winds and currents, descriptions of places with their latitudes, which last, however, are very incorrectly given.

In 1555, William Touerson made his first voyage as captain (he had previously been several times in other capacities,) to Guinea, an account of which written by himself, is to be found in Hakluyt and others. His vessels were the Hart and the Hind of London, with John Ralph and William Carter sailing-masters. After a tedious passage in which they saw Porto Santo, Madeira, and the Canaries, the appearances of which are noticed at length, they arrived on the coast at a point now occupied by our colony of Liberia. Having overshot the river Sestos, the port that they wished to make, they came to anchor off the mouth of the St. Vincent, a few leagues to the east of the Sestos. In the morning they loaded their boat with basins and other goods, and went into the river, where they soon commenced a trade with the natives who came flocking around them. "They took that day one hogshead and one hundred weight of grains, and two elephant's teeth at a reasonable rate. They sold them both manillios and margarets, but they liked basins best. For each of which they had about thirty pounds weight of grains, or Guinea pepper, and for an elephant's tooth of thirty pounds weight, they gave six basins." The next morning the natives had increased so much in their prices, at the same time affecting to underrate the English goods, that no trade could be had with them.

Going on shore, the English were well received and treated. "Divers of the women, to divert their visitants, danced and sung after their manner, which was not very agreeable to the ear. There was Sakere, Sakere, ho! ho! Sakere, Sakere, ho! ho! Leaping and clapping their hands all the while." But all this, although gratifying to the curiosity, did not promote trade, and the natives continuing too exorbitant in their demands, they weighed anchor and stood along the coast. Occasionally having communication with the negroes, they doubled Cape Palmas, and coasted