wished to take with him, and carefully destroying all confidential documents which might be of value if by chance they should happen to fall into the enemy's hands later on.

It was a terrible responsibility for him, and he felt the abandonment of his ship as only a seaman could. He perhaps alone realised the risks they were running, and foresaw the difficulties of the proposed journey. The crew as a whole were cheerful, and welcomed the change from inaotion and anxiety from which they had all been suffering during the past few days.

When the next day dawned the wind had shifted more to the northward, and dense snow was falling, with very rare intervals. The other ship was not in sight at all, and after waiting until nearly noon the Captain reluctantly decided to postpone starting till next day. This was most unfortunate, as all preparations had been made; it was difficult to avoid feeling that bad luck was dogging them, and a gloom was cast over all the ship's company.

The ice commenced packing badly during the evening, several large lumps were forced right on to the weather side of the deck, and the ship groaned and moved considerably under the pressure. Every one realised that the ship might be overwhelmed by the ice at any time, and there was no doubt that abandonment was the only possible course, and the sooner the

better.

The next day, the fourteenth out from Arkhangel, the weather was clear; and though there was still a good deal of wind and an unpleasant amount of movement in the ice, the abandonment was decided upon. All final preparations were completed, and 88 soon 88 it Was light the accommodation-ladder was lowered on to the ice, and the orew of over twenty men silently left the ship and started on their long trek. The Captain, in accordanee with the immemorial custom of the sea, was the last man to leave the ship, and in a long straggling line a course was shaped for the distant steamer.

If any of my readers have ever seen pack - ice, either in reality or even on the films, they will have gleaned some idea of what walking on it means even under favourable conditions. Add to the obvious difficulties a constantly moving surface due to pressure, a thick layer of snow "overall" concealing holes and cracks, a temperature of 50° of frost with a blinding wind, and remember that the men were totally unprepared for an Arotio trip on the ice and quite inadequately clad,

The outcome of this gallant effort at self-preservation was, alas! almost a foregone conolusion. It would be almost irreverent to the memories of these brave men to attempt to picture this tragedy on the ice which occurred within ten miles of Cape Danilov on that December day in 1915. Let

by this

Of the score and more gallant men who left the illfated Sappho, only four reached their destination; and when these four frost-bitten perished men managed by almost superhuman efforts to clamber on board, they found she was a deserted wreck lying hard and fast on shore on an outlying reef of rooks, and that she had been abandoned as a total loss some months before.

One can picture the little group of survivors getting smaller and smaller, as one after another succumbed to the cold; and one can imagine the hopes of the four as they got within hailing distance of their goal, and their bitter disappointment at receiving no answer to their shouts for help as they got close up to the ship. And one can share their feelings as they at last managed to climb on board to find everything a wilderness, with no food and no warmth, and hardly any shelter. Nothing but an indomitable British pluck can have saved them from absolute despair, but they never gave in. Coal and wood was found, a fire was lighted, and for a short time they stayed there; but here again we will stick to faots. Only two of these four men managed to make their

But the last aet in this tragedy was the most wonderful: that very day the two survivors were picked up by a group of Laplanders, who were making their way south to their winter quarters with their reindeer sleighs. The writer has credited British pluck with having enabled these men to survive the shock of finding their supposed goal of refuge nothing but a deserted wreck; he can only attribute this miraculous salvation to Providence. believes these Laps were the last group to go south that year; they were unusually late, and travelling by a different route to the one usually taken.

He

Without a moment's hesitation, with no thought of payment or reward, a party of these good Samaritans retraced their steps to the northward, and conveyed these two sole survivors in their sleighs for & distance of about 150 miles over one of the most desolate countries in the world, and handed them over to a British man-ofwar which was wintering in Yukanskie harbour. The Sappho was never seen again. H. A. LE F. H.

IT is said that there was once a Professor of History at Oxford who, when reminded that the Pilgrim Fathers had "landed on Plymouth Rook," expressed a wish that Plymouth Rook had "landed" on them. Far be it from us to defend the petulance of the professor, yet it may have been in part excusable. An excessive and indiscriminating hero-worship-the beatification in sermons and speeches of the Pilgrim Fathers as persecuted saints and champions of religious freedom-may have provoked the outburst which we have recorded; and as, during the present year, it is by no means improbable that similar causes may lead to similar outbursts, it may not be out of place to attempt a brief and impartial estimate of the men who played such an important part, though at the time it seemed but a humble one, in the history of the world three hundred years ago.

In the first place, however, it may be necessary to say a word on the term "Pilgrim Fathers." To whom is this title applied? That it is applied in the first place to those who made the famous voyage in the Mayflower will not be denied, and by some it is confined to them. But there are those who would include other emigrants who went out

a few years later and became the founders of the colony of Massachusetts, and there is so much in common to the two parties that we may feel justified in including both under the title of the "Pilgrim Fathers."

To begin, then, with the emigrants of the Mayflower, our great authority is the History of the Plymouth Settlers,' written by William Bradford, who was for many years the Governor of the colony. Bradford's book is one of deep interest. We have in him a man of sincere and fervent piety, with a profound sense of providential guidance, filled with unfailing faith and courage. At the same time he is equally conspicuous for narrow and violent prejudices. To him the Puritans, or more especially the "Separatists," are the true Church of God, and the party who "endeavoured to uphold the right worship of God and the discipline of Christ in the Church according to the simplicity of the Gospel, and without the mixture of men's inventions; while the other party, the episcopal, endeavoured to maintain the episcopal dignity after the popish manner, and tried with lordly and tyrannic power to persecute the poor servants of God." This is the description of the reformers at

Frankfort during the reign of Mary. But Bradford's book, in spite of his prejudices, remains an impressive and dignified record of the adventures and sufferings of the first pilgrims.

The original home of these pilgrims is to be found in certain villages of Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Notts. Here, in the reign of Elizabeth, there had gathered several "Separatist congregations. It is necessary, of course, to distinguish between the "Separatists" and the great mass of the Puritans. The Puritans desired to remain in the National Church, but to reform it after their own liking to purge it of superstitious ceremonies, &c.; but the Separatists regarded the Church as so completely tainted by the inclusion of evil men in its fold, or those whom they considered evil, that they decided to "separate" themselves altogether from its communion and to form themselves into select bodies of saints which they regarded as the true Church of God. Both Elizabeth and James looked upon these societies with great suspicion and tried to suppress them. That they were persecuted sometimes with great severity is undoubtedly true; but it is equally true that persecution was the fashion of the age, and that had the Separatists been in power they would have persecuted their opponents with no less relentless severity.

Among the Notts villages

there is one, Scrooby, where the Archbishops of York once had a country seat. At the beginning of the seventeenth century this house was occupied by William Brewster, formerly Secretary to Davison, a Secretary of State in Elizabeth's reign, but now postmaster of the village. He was a stern Puritan, and was in the habit of "sitting under" Richard Clifton, rector of Babrook, hard by Scrooby, when, after the Hampton Court Conference, it was determined by James and his advisers to enforce "conformity" far more strictly than before. Clifton resigned his living, and in 1606 became the pastor of a little flock that gathered together in Brewster's house at Scrooby. To them was soon added another minister, John Robinson, once of Norwich, a man of high intellectual and spiritual gifts, who was destined to play no small part in the proceedings of the "Pilgrim Fathers."

There was, however, no peace for the Scrooby congregation, and before long they had determined to seek in a foreign country the liberty which they could not find at home. Their eyes naturally turned towards Holland, and to Holland they resolved to go. But even this was not easy, for it was illegal to leave the country without a royal licence, and it was only after some thrilling adventures that they at length found themselves in Amsterdam. There was already in Amsterdam a