far greater revolution was about to take place
in the whole system of navigation, by the introduction of the mariner's
compass. I have before stated that if not discovered it was at all
events improved by Flavio Gioja, of Amain, in the kingdom of Naples,
about A.D. 1300. It was soon discovered that the needle does not point,
in all places, truly to the North Pole, but that it varies considerably
in different degrees of longitude, and this is called the variation of
the needle. It has also another variation, called the declination, or
dip. The cause of these phenomena is still utterly unknown. The means
of steering with almost perfect accuracy across the pathless ocean, gave
a confidence to mariners, when they lost sight of land, which they had
never before possessed, and in time induced them to launch forth in
search of new territories in hitherto unexplored regions. The English
were, however, too much occupied with foreign wars or domestic broils to
attend much to navigation. We hear of a certain Nicholas of Lynn, a
friar of Oxford, who, A.D. 1360, just sixty years after the use of the
compass became known, sailed in charge of certain ships to visit and
explore all the islands to the north of Europe. He, it is said,
returned and laid before King Edward the Third an account of his
discoveries in those northern regions, but what they were or what
benefit resulted from them, history does not tell us. Father Nicholas's
knowledge of navigation was probably somewhat limited and not very
practical, and it is just probable that his voyage was not so extensive
as it was intended to be; but that, having the pen of a ready writer, he
drew on his imagination for a description of the countries he was
supposed to have surveyed. At all events, we hear of no voyage
undertaken at the sovereign's instigation till nearly two centuries
later.

In the reign of Edward the Third, the Island of Madeira is said to have
been discovered by a certain Lionel Machin, a citizen of London. The
young citizen had been paying court to a lady, Arabella Darcy, whose
father indignantly refused his suit; and not without reason, if we may
judge of his character by his subsequent conduct. He collected a band
of rovers and pursued the fair Arabella, who had gone to live in the
neighbourhood of Bristol. He had fixed his eyes on a ship ready
prepared for sea, the crew of which were on shore. Securing the lady,
he carried her on board the ship, cut