em, and to give no quarter;
orders which were strictly obeyed, and which for the time were most
efficacious in clearing the coast of pirates. In consequence of the
ease with which the ships were moved through the water, and from their
being always able to keep the weather-gauge, as likewise from the
strange appearance which they presented to their enemies, Alfred's
commanders were not afraid of attacking twice or thrice their own number
of the enemy, and invariably came off victorious. Indeed they had
nearly the same advantage over the Danes which a steamer at the present
day has over a fleet of Chinese junks. Alfred, it is said, caused
surveys to be made of the coasts of Norway and Lapland, and sent out
ships to the polar regions in search of whales.

I have met with an old writer, who describes a far more remarkable
achievement than any of these. He was a monk, of course, and his
knowledge of geography we may suspect was rather limited, when he tells
us that in the reign of Alfred a voyage was performed to the Indies by
the way of the north-east--that is to say, round the north of Asia--
under the command of a certain monk, Swithelm, who, as his reward, was
made Bishop of Sherburn. The mission was undertaken to aid the
Christians of a place called Saint Thomas, on the continent of India,
and we are assured that the curiosities which were brought back, and are
fully described, are exactly like the productions found in India, when
it became more fully known. The expedition, if it ever took place, must
have proceeded down the African coast and round the Cape of Good Hope.
If so, the seamen of Britain, with a monk as their commander, succeeded
in an enterprise which, having been totally forgotten, immortalised
Bartholomew Diaz as the discoverer of the Stormy Cape full six centuries
afterwards. We must not place more faith in the narrative than it
deserves, but one thing is certain, that if any long or perilous voyages
were performed, the prints of ships pretending to be those of the days
of King Alfred found on tapestries, old illustrated histories and other
works are not slightly incorrect. When a boy, I used very strongly to
suspect that if a ship had ever been built after the model of the prints
exhibited in the History of England, she would either, as sailors say,
have turned the turtle directly she was launched, or have gone boxing
about the compass beyond the control of those on board her; but as to
standing