THE

than in Travels, especially those that describe remote countries, and give the writer an opportunity of shewing his parts without incurring any danger of being examined or contradicted. Among all the authors of this kind, our renowned countryman, Sir John Mandeville, has distinguished himself by the copiousness of his invention, and greatness of his genius. The second to Sir John I take to have been Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, a person of infinite adventure, and unbounded imagination. One reads the voyages of these two great wits with as much astonishment as the Travels of Ulysses in Homer, or of the

Red-Cross

Red-Cross Knight in Spenser. All is enchanted ground and fairy land.

I have got into my hand, by great chance, several manuscripts of these two eminent authors, which are filled with greater wonders than any of those they have communicated to the public; and indeed, were they not so well attested, would appear altogether improbable. I am apt to think the ingenious authors did not publish them with the rest of their works, lest they should pass for fictions and fables: a caution not unnecessary, when the reputation of their veracity was not yet established in the world. But as this reason has now no further weight, I shall make the public a present of these curious pieces at such times as I shall find myself unprovided with other subjects.

The present paper I intend to fill with an extract of Sir John's Journal, in which that learned and worthy knight gives an account of the freezing and thawing of several short speeches, which he made in the territories of Nova Zembla. I need not inform my reader, that the author of Hudibras alludes to this strange quality in that cold climate, when, speaking of abstracted notions clothed in a visible shape, he adds that apt simile—

Like words congeal'd in northern air.

Not

Not to keep my reader any longer in suspense, the relation, put into modern language, is as follows:

'We were separated by a storm in the latitude of

73°, insomuch that only the ship which I was in, with

a Dutch and French vessel, got safe into a creek of Nova Zembla. We landed, in order to refit our ' vessels, and store ourselves with provisions. The 'crew of each vessel made themselves a cabin of turf ' and wood, at some distance from each other, to 'fence themselves against the inclemencies of the weather, which was severe beyond imagination. 'We soon observed, that in talking to one another ' we lost several of our words, and could not hear

one another at above two yards' distance, and that 'too when we sat very near the fire. After much perplexity, I found that our words froze in the air, before they could reach the ears of the persons to 'whom they were spoken. I was soon confirmed in 'the conjecture, when, upon the increase of the cold, 'the whole company grew dumb, or rather deaf; for 'every man was sensible, as we afterwards found, that he spoke as well as ever; but the sounds no sooner took air, than they were condensed and lost. 'It was now a miserable spectacle to see us nodding and gaping at one another, every man talking, and

'no

no man heard. One might observe a seaman, that 'could hail a ship at a league's distance, beckoning ' with his hands, straining his lungs, and tearing his 'throat; but all in vain.

Nec vox, nec verba, sequuntur.

'We continued here three weeks in this dismal 'plight. At length, upon a turn of wind, the air

about us began to thaw. Our cabin was immedi'ately filled with a dry clattering sound, which I 'afterwards found to be the crackling of consonants 'that broke above our heads, and were often mixed 'with a gentle hissing, which I imputed to the letter S, 'that occurs so frequently in the English tongue. I soon after felt a breeze of whispers rushing by my ear; ⚫ for those being of a soft and gentle substance, immediately liquefied in the warm wind that blew across 6 our cabin. These were soon followed by syllables ' and short words, and at length by entire sentences, 'that melted sooner or later as they were more or less

congealed; so that we now heard every thing that ' had been spoken during the whole three weeks that

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Iwe had been silent, if I may use that expression.

'It was now very early in the morning, and yet to

my surprise, I heard somebody say-" Sir John, it

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"is

• " is midnight, and time for the ship's crew to go to "bed." This I knew to be the pilot's voice, and 'upon recollecting myself, I concluded that he had 'spoken these words to me some days before, though

I could not hear them until the present thaw. 'My reader will easily imagine how the whole crew 'was amazed to hear every man talking, and see no 'man open his mouth. In the midst of this great 'surprise we were all in, we heard a volley of oaths ' and curses, lasting for a long while, and uttered in a very hoarse voice, which I knew belonged to 'the boatswain, who was a very choleric fellow, and had taken his opportunity of cursing and swearing at 'me when he thought I could not hear him; for I had several times given him the strappado on that account, as I did not fail to repeat it for these his 'pious soliloquies, when I got him on shipboard.

'I must not omit the names of several beauties in 'Wapping, which were heard every now and then, in the midst of a long sigh that accompanied them; as "Dear Kate!" "Pretty Mrs. Peggy!" "When "shall I see my Sue again?” This betrayed

'several amours which had been concealed until

that time, and furnished us with a great deal of 'mirth in our return to England.

. When