be mentioned to persons high in position--it should be
noted that the Gipsies at this time were favourably received at certain
head-quarters amongst merchants and princes--for we find that within
fourteen years after the landing of the Indians upon our shores attempts
were made to reach India by the North-east and North-west passages, which
proved a disastrous affair. Then, again, in 1579 Sir F. Drake's
expedition set out for India. In 1589 the Levant Company made a land
expedition, and in all probability followed the track by which the
Gipsies travelled from India to the Holy Land in the fourteenth century,
by the Euphrates valley and Persian Gulf.

Towards the end of the year 1417, in the Hanseatic towns on the Baltic
coast and at the mouth of the Elbe, there appeared before the gates of
Luneburg, and later on at Hamburg, Lubeck, Wirmar, Rostock, and
Stralsuna, a herd of swarthy and strange specimens of humanity, uncouth
in form, hideous in complexion, and their whole exterior shadowed forth
the lowest depths of poverty and degradation. A cloak made of the
fragments of oriental finery was generally used to disguise the filth and
tattered garments of their slight remaining apparel. The women and young
children travelled in rude carts drawn by asses or mules; the men trudged
alongside, casting fierce and suspicious glances on those they met,
thief-like, from underneath their low, projecting foreheads and eyebrows;
the elder children, unkempt and half-clad, swarmed in every direction,
calling with shrill cries and monkey-like faces and grimaces to the
passers-by to their feats of jugglery, craft, and deception. Forsaking
the Baltic provinces the dusky band then sought a more friendly refuge in
central Germany--and it was quite time they had begun to make a move, for
their deeds of darkness had oozed out, and a number of them paid the
penalty upon the gallows, and the rest scampered off to Meissen, Leipsic,
and Herse. At these places they were not long in letting the inhabitants
know, by their depredations, witchcraft, devilry, and other abominations,
the class of people they had in their midst, and the result was their
speedy banishment from Germany; and in 1418, after wandering about for a
few months only, they turned their steps towards Switzerland, reaching
Zurich on August 1st, and encamped during six days before the town,
exciting much sympathy by their pious tale and sorrowful appearance. In
Switzerland the i