Indian began to inquire from whence I came? I replied, 'from Wales;' but he had never heard a word about such a place. I explained that Wales was a principality in a kingdom called England. He had heard of England and of the English, but never of such a place as Wales. "I asked him if there were any traditions among them from whence their ancestors had come. He said there were; and said that they had come from a far distant country, very far in the East, and from over the great waters. I conversed with him in Welsh and in English; he knew better English than I did, and I asked him to count in Welsh. He immediately counted to a hundred or more. He knew English very well, because he was in the habit of trading with the English Americans. Amongst other things, I asked him how they came to retain their language so well from mixing with the languages of other Indians. He answered, that they had a law, or an established custom in their country, forbidding any to teach their children another language until they had attained the age of twelve years, and after that age they were at liberty to learn any language they pleased. I asked him if he would like to go to England or Wales. He replied that he had not the least inclination to leave his native country, and that he would sooner live in a wigwam than in a palace. He had ornamented his arms with bracelets, and on his head were placed ostrich feathers. "I was astonished and greatly amazed when I saw and heard such a man, who had painted his face of a yellowish red, and of such an appearance, speaking the language as fluently as if he had been born and brought up in the vicinity of Snowdon. His hair was shaved, excepting round the crown of his head, and there it was very long and neatly plaited; and it was on the crown of the head he had placed the ostrich feathers which I mentioned before, to ornament himself." The foregoing description, though not strictly applying to the labours of the Arabs, has been introduced, a little in advance of its proper place; for a taste for Western discovery certainly was common at one time among the Arabs, and the sea-girt countries of Europe, about seven or eight hundred years ago. Two Arabian geographers, Ibn El Vardi and Al Edrisi, who is mentioned before, give a curious account of a voyage made on the Atlantic Ocean or Sea of Darkness, by the Almagrurim, or the Wanderers. It appears from the Arabian narratives that these persons determined to find the ends of the ocean, and the great western regions, which seems to have been, in the European parts of the world, the great and mystic goal of daring. This voyage took place about the middle of the twelfth century, and therefore just before Madoc's. They set out from Lisbon, and kept sailing straight on to the west, in a vast and deep sea, for twentythree days, when the wind took them southward to the Sheep-Island. The flesh of the sheep on this island was too bitter to be eaten. But having refreshed themselves at this place and taken in water they kept on to the south, and arrived among some red Indians, as it has been supposed, whose chief dissuaded them from pursuing any further the horrors of the gloomy sea, which lay to the west. Upon this they returned to Lisbon; not having, in fact, carried their voyage, as most people reasonably believe, beyond the Azores, and then southward, the Madeira and Canary Islands. They reported upon their return, that they had been visited with a storm, wherein they had lost SAIL-MAKER, FROM AN OLD FRENCH PRINT. the light of day,-that they had reached the gloomy extremities of the world, ..where bounds were set To darkness, such as bound the ocean-wave. Ibn Batuta, who set out on his travels at the beginning of the fourteenth century, has left an interesting account of his perambulations by land. But, as these do not come within the scope of our subject, we must omit them, and take up with those parts of his narrative, which appertain to maritime affairs. Having been despatched from Delhi as ambassador to China, he notices the Chinese junks at 1 Calicut, which is in the south-western part of Hindostan. The description, which he leaves of these vessels, is applicable to them, both in past and present times; and is held to be very accurate. "The sails of these vessels are made of cane reeds, woven together like a mat; which, when they put into port, they leave standing in the wind. In some of these vessels there will be a thousand men, six hundred of them sailors and the remainder soldiers. Each of the larger vessels is followed by three others of inferior sizes. These vessels are nowhere built except in the farthest ports of China. They are rowed with large oars, which may be compared to great masts, over some of which five and twenty men were stationed, who work standing. The commander of each vessel is a great emir. In the large ships, too, they sow garden-herbs and ginger, which they cultivate in cisterns ranged along the side. In these also are houses constructed of wood, in which the higher officers reside with their wives: every vessel is, therefore, like an independent city. Of such ships as these Chinese individuals will sometimes have large numbers, and, generally speaking, the Chinese are the richest people in the world." These junks are almost innumerable on all the rivers and canals of the Chinese empire. The cane, referred to by Ibn Batuta, was the bamboo, of which the masts and arms were formed. These vessels do not sink more than a foot or half a yard into the water. They, are, however so ill contrived for sea, that it is wonderful how they can complete a voyage. The head is square, the bottom flat, having no keel, nor bow-sprit. The sails are lowered by the men treading them down with their feet. This craft is highly ornamented with dragons' heads, ugly mouths, and staring eyes, and does not usually venture upon a voyage farther than the Molucca or Spice Islands, and Port Jackson. It is worthy of remark that the mountains of Lebanon, which had furnished timber for building the ships of Tyre and Sidon, in the infancy of navigation, were still the great nursery for ship-timbers, in the seventh and eighth centuries of the Christian era: vast stores of this timber being collected on the coast of Phoenicia by the Saracens, for building their fleets. Before we take leave of this general account of the nautical proceedings of the Arabians, we have to observe that, in addition to the pursuit after land lying at the extremity of Atlantic darkness, a still greater object of curiosity to the Saracens, or Arabs generally, was the seat of Gog and Magog. All that we can in fact learn about these objects from the early history of the Bible and from Scriptural aids, is, that they were terms, implying a mighty race of cannibals on the shores of the Euxine and Caspian seas. In the Guildhall of London they stand as awful giants,said to be twin-born, inseparable in name and estimation. These notions were derived from the fancies of the Orientals, who • See Saturday Magazine, Vol. X., p. 162. supposed that Gog and Magog had impregnable castles on the borders of Scythia. As the alchymist sought after the philosophers' stone, and the youth-restoring draught; as the astrologer computed the fates and fortunes of individuals and of states by the aspects of the heavenly bodies; and as the mechanician amused himself by seeking the perpetual motion, so also the Arabian navigators were anxious to explore the ideal abodes of these monstrous productions of antiquity. But, as the alchymist by his labours indirectly advanced the knowledge of chemistry-as the astrologer unwittingly furthered the progress of astronomy,-and as the seeker after perpetual motion increased the knowledge and practice of mechanics by his contrivances to attain perpetual motion-so the Arabian navigator enriched the knowledge of geography by his careful though futile search after mere creatures of the imagination. In fact, the search for Gog and Magog was at this time, about six or seven hundred years ago, part of the romance of navigation, which was indirectly beneficial to nautical science and a knowledge of the world: for, wherever the Arabs gave their attention to make observations, geographical knowledge was enlarged; and it is to be regretted that their religious bigotry deterred them from visiting and examining those nations, whose faith differed from their own. The prosecution of the search after Gog and Magog was at this time an object of the greatest care and anxiety to the government of Bagdad. They hoped at first to find the residence of these giants on the shores of the Caspian Sea; but having conquered this country without discovering any trace or vestige of the castles of these awful beings, they turned to the more southern countries, which when they had explored with the greatest care and attention, they were reduced to excessive perplexity. Another mission was sent out, (we are told by Al Edrisi,) with strict orders to spare no pains to discover the castle of Gog. The people of this mission proceeded along the shores of the Caspian, then over a vast desert, where they met with a stupendous range of mountains, supposed to be the Altaian. Here, according to their report, they actually found the castles of Gog and Magog. It has been supposed that they discovered some of the ancient monuments which have since been seen among these mountains, and that thus they readily jumped to the conclusion that these were at least the ruins of what they sought; incited also, perhaps, by a wish to come to the conclusion of a task so strange and dangerous. The account they gave of the fortress of the giants was such as to impose upon those to whom they had to relate it, and was decked with all the hyperbolical garnishing of eastern imaginations. The castle had walls of iron and was of an enormous magnitude. The iron was cemented with brass. The gates were ninety feet high, and fastened with bolts and bars of a tremendous size. Everything else was related after a similar proportion; and thus the Arabian authorities were satisfied having demanded wonder they received it; and their minds went to rest, when their fancies had been tickled. In all the maps of Asia for ages after, the castle of Gog and Magog appeared of an imposing aspect at the northern boundary. THE ENGLISH. NEXT in order, we must notice the history and general proceedings of our ancient countrymen in nautical affairs for a few hundreds of years, taking notice, in the course of our narrative, of the other distinguished nations of Europe, which, by their nautical skill and enterprise, as also by their commerce, increased the geographical knowledge of the world, and contributed to the comfort and well-being of the human race. The British ships, which vainly strove to oppose the progress of Julius Caesar, were made with bottoms flatter than the Mediterranean vessels, in order to accommodate themselves to a tide harbour and a shoal coast; and they were elevated both at the prow and the poop, which was deemed better adapted to resist a stormy sea. They were constructed wholly of oak; the anchors were secured by iron chains, instead of the cables which had been previously used; and the sails were made of skins and thin leather, probably from an opinion that a weaker material would not stand the force of the wind. The elevated poops of the British vessels gave them an advantage over the Roman galleys, by furnishing a higher standing-place, from which missiles could be directed at the Roman galleys. The oak construction of the British vessels also afforded a successful resistance to the collision of the beaks of the galleys against their sides, and the only way in which Cæsar was enabled to capture these vessels was the following:-the Roman soldiers fitted sharp bill-hooks at the end of long poles, and catching hold of the ropes which fastened the sails of the British vessels to the mast, cut them asunder, and thus rendered the sails useless. These were the British war-ships at the period of the Roman invasion, but the natives used to cross the English and Irish Channels in vessels constructed of wicker-work, and covered with skins. Boats called coracles, very much resembling them in form, and which we noticed in our first paper, are in use at the present day on the Severn, and some of the rivers in Wales; and they are so light that, when the fisherman lands, he takes his boat out of the water and carries it home on his back. Dr. Southey says, -"Several canoes have been dug up in Lincolnshire, all of oak, and remarkable for the free grain of the timber; so that the millwrights and carpenters who examined it, declared that, in their opinion, it was of foreign growth, and the produce of a warmer country. But that the canoes could not have been brought there from any warmer country seems certain: and if any inference can be drawn from the grain of the wood, as indicating its growth in a warmer climate, it would seem to be, that these canoes were made when the climate of the island was warm enough for elephants, hyænas, tigers, hippopotami, and other inhabitants of southern countries, whose remains have been brought to light here." In like manner, we are told, the Saxon pirates, who cruised in the German Ocean, and subsequently invaded Britain, had ships made with a wooden keel, the sides See Saturday Magazine, Vol. XII., p. 34. being of wicker, with an exterior of hides. The batswan, or boatswain, had a wand in his hand to direct the motion of the rowers. During the sanguinary conflicts in which the Britons were engaged, first with the Romans, then with the Picts and Scots, and afterwards with the Danes and Saxons, it does not appear that any great change was made in the form or management of their war-galleys. When Alfred the Great had routed some of the Danish invaders, they resolved to harass the coast of Wessex by sea, in revenge for the defeats they had met with by land. These predatory expeditions were made in vessels called æscs. The general boats of the Danes were broad-bottomed, but, unlike the early British boats, their keels were framed of light timber, and the sides and upper works were of wicker, covered with strong hides; they were, in fact, coracles of a larger size, and with wooden keels. The scs were superior to these, and indeed to Alfred's ships, for he ordered the latter to be made twice as long as the former, in order to be placed on an equality with them. Some of the æscs had upwards of sixty oars, and were swifter, higher, and steadier than the coracles. In The character of the fierce and ruthless Danes, who, for so long a period, harassed the unhappy inhabitants of Britain, forms a very remarkable instance of what different members of a family are obliged to do, when the eldest son assumes the power and wealth of the father. our own days, we know that it is customary, in eastern countries, for a sultan, as soon as he ascends his throne, to cause all his brothers to be put to death, in order that they should offer no opposition to his retention of the crown. This eruel and sanguinary line of conduct, although more directly wicked and censurable, was not, ultimately, more productive of evil than was the plan adopted among the early Danes. The shores of the Baltic Sea were parcelled out into a number of petty territories, each of which had its chief or sovereign. When a son of any one of these chiefs succeeded his father on the throne, his brothers had each a vessel given to them, in which they were to seek their fortunes: they became a sort of pirates, and, under the name of Vikingers, they became the terror of surrounding countries. So hardy and ferocious were they, that it was a proud boast of theirs, that they never slept under a roof, and never ate by a fireside. Their vessels used to scour the Baltic and the German Ocean, and bring devastation to all around. Thus we see that the first employment of the German Ocean, as a field for navigation, was to bear the rude vessels of lawless marauders, who were equally indifferent to the laws of God and of man. They have formed the heroes of many a Northern romance, under the general title of Sea-Kings. The Danes and Norwegians, generally, in the early accounts of nautical and predatory excursions, come under the denomination of Northmen. The piratical adventurers of the northern coasts of Europe doubtlessly advanced the maritime art somewhat in the first centuries of the Christian era, and in time lent their assistance to the different governments, who needed and sought the aid of those who were acquainted with the deep sea, and the means for traversing it. Offa, one of the Saxon kings, got together a very fair fleet, and made himself so formidable, that Charlemagne, king of France, who had been hostilely disposed towards him, now sought his friendship and alliance. His successors took no heed to keep up this fleet, and thus suffered the country to lie exposed to the piratical attempts of the Danes, who robbed and murdered the English, and settled where they pleased. The facility with which the Danes landed and effected their purposes of pillage and slaughter, shows that the English, up to the time of Alfred, in the ninth century, were very ignorant, or very regardless, of maritime affairs. King Alfred, seeing that the most effectual method of repressing the inroads of the Danes was to meet them on the seas, invited ship-builders from other countries, and made ships larger and more compact than those of the Danes. He also drew many of the mariners of the Rhine into the service of England, whereby the ships were more efficiently manned. In the year 873 we learn that Alfred's navy attacked and destroyed a Danish fleet of 120 ships. We are also told that he greatly encouraged commerce, as a method of practising his subjects in the art and difficulties of shipping. Before we speak of the Norman conquest of England, we may mention a law that was made by Athelstan, that "every merchant that made three voyages to the Mediter ranean on his own account, should be raised to the honour, and enjoy the privileges, of a gentleman." This law seems to imply, that a considerable improvement had taken place in the construction and management of English vessels, and that they were probably used for the more peaceful object of commerce, as well as for the more common, but destructive one, of war. King Edwy, who ascended the throne of England shortly afterwards, appears to have made a great increase in his naval force, for it is said that his navy amounted to 3000 vessels, which, however, some modern writers think ought to be interpreted 300. This fleet was divided into three sections, which were constantly circumnavigating the island, as a defence against hostile fleets. It is stated that, in the reign of Ethelred, whoever possessed a certain number of hides of land, should be charged with the building of one ship or galley, and owners of a portion of a hide, a proportionate part; the hide of land then alluded to, is believed to be as much ground as a man could turn up with one plough in a year. Edgar, in the year 959, equipped a fleet of as many, it is said, as 3000 vessels, in order to defend the kingdom against the Danes. By dividing and stationing this fleet in difierent parts, he awed the enemy and secured the kingdom from depredation; but, owing to these precautionary measures being gradually neglected, the Danes, with their king, Sweyn, in the year 1009, were able to land on the English coast, to drive Ethelred from his throne, and to place their own monarch thereon. The son and successor of this Danish monarch was Canute, who is distinguished in our history, particularly by his giving his courtiers a lesson of humility, by affecting to command the waves of the sea to obey his pleasure. Our nation must, in the long run, have been improved, as far at least as naval affairs were concerned, by intercourse with the Danes, though that intercourse produced cruelty and oppression on the part of the latter towards the former. The naval superiority of the Danes had made them generally successful in all their proceedings against the English, and about this time they enlarged their open barks of twelve oars, into regular vessels of considerable size and strength; many of them were capable of holding 100 men, and some even more. We are informed that the ships of Canute were beauti fully covered over with gold and silver. It appears that they had each but one mast, which was ornamented with a gilt metal vane under the figure of some bird, to let them know which way the wind blew. At the sterns were various figures, plated with gold and silver, such as of a man, a lion, a dragon, a fish, &c. There was, in all probability, a great deal of tinsel and ornament about the royal vessels; but the craft which held the inferior people was of a rougher and ruder sort. The ancient English chronicles afford but slender information of the progress of naval architecture and of naviga tion among the Anglo-Saxons; it is probable, indeed, that but little change was made from reign to reign. There appears, however, in the reign of Hardicanute a step towards luxury, which shows that the art of ship-building had been making silent progress. Earl Godwin, having murdered Prince Alfred, son of King Ethelred, to appease the anger of Hardicanute, the half-brother of the prince, presented to him a galley sumptuously gilt, and rowed by eighty men, each of whom wore on his arm a golden bracelet, weighing sixteen ounces. This description certainly implies a galley more splendid than was in use in the Mediterranean at the same period. Navigators, accustomed to depend on the almost infallible assistance of the compass and quadrant, and of arithmetical and astronomical tables, ready constructed by men of eminence in the various departments of science, will be aston shed when they reflect on the intrepid spirit of the Danes and Icelanders of the ninth century, who, assuredly destitute of the compass, for which they substituted the flight of birds, dared to commit their barks, for several days, perhaps often weeks, to a boundless expanse of ocean, and trust their lives to the chance of seeing the sun and the stars. Arngrim Jonas, an Icelandic historian, tells us the way in which the flight of birds was made to act as a guide to the mariner. He says that when Flok, a celebrated Norwegian navigator, was going to set out from Shetland to Iceland, he took on board some crows, because the mariner's compass was not yet in use. When he thought he had made a considerable part of his way, he threw up one of his crows, which, seeing land astern, flew to it; whence Flok, concluding that he was nearer to Shetland than to any other land, kept on his course for some time; and then sent out another crow, which, seeing no land at all, returned to the vessel. At last, having run the greatest part of his way, another crow was sent out by him, which, seeing land ahead, immediately flew for it; and Flok, following his guide, fell in with the east end of the island. Such was the simple mode of keeping their reckoning and steering their course, practised by these bold navigators of the stormy Northern Ocean. A people now appeared on the stage of history, who were destined to play an important part among the nations of Europe. These were the Normans, who, originally coming from Norway, gradually got a footing on the north-west coast of France, which hence obtained the name of Normandy. From this territory they made predatory excursions to any quarter where they thought advantage was to be gained; and being a hardy, robust, and courageous race, they met with great success. Shortly before the Normans invaded Britain, they showed themselves to be powerful rivals, in maritime affairs, to the Southern nations. This was brought about in a way very similar to the establishment of the Saxon rule in Britain, some centuries before. The Sicilians, being harassed by pirates, called in the assistance of the Normans, who afterwards settled among them, seemingly conforming to the habits of the people, and ultimately gained great ascendancy. They conquered a considerable part of Italy, and then directed their arms against the eastern empire. Thirteen hundred Norman knights, thirteen thousand soldiers, arms, wooden towers covered with hides, horses, &c., were transported across the Adriatic, to the eastern empire, under Robert Guiscard. The attempt was, however, ultimately unsuccessful. The Norman invasion of England affords evidence of the small dimensions of the vessels in which William the Conqueror brought over his army from Normandy to England. The number of vessels was said to amount to three thousand; and as his army amounted only to sixty thousand, it allowed, on an average, but twenty men to each vessel: as, however, the vessels were only used as transports, to convey the army across the channel, we may thus account for the defectiveness of the vessels, considered in the light of war-ships. The fleet which Harold opposed to the Norman progress, appears to have been of a superior class of vessels; but as William's plan was to carry on the contest by land, Harold's fleet was foiled of any opportunity of producing the desired advantage. Although the intercourse between England and France increased in these times, owing to the elevation of the Norman princes to sovereign rule in England, and although in consequence the maritime business of this country was promoted thereby, yet we find that the Norman vessels had likewise but one mast, and that the ropes came down from the top of the mast, some to the prow and others to the stern of the vessel. In the course of time these shrouds, or sail-ropes, were brought down to each side of the ship, which method, having been found by experience to be more convenient, is continued to the present time. There are accounts delivered down to us of the discovery of Ireland, the Orkneys, the Shetland, the Hebrides, and other islands, by the northern navigators; and the Icelandic histories of the present time give narratives of intercourse established in very early ages between Iceland and Ireland. This intercourse was carried on partly with a mercantile view, and partly under the romantic, but in those days widely extended, notion of being at some time enabled to navigate on to the west, and reach the regions of the dead, and the abodes of bliss; which, for ages upon ages, were supposed to lie in that direction of the horizon where the sun drops beneath our view. The Feroe Islands had been discovered about the latter end of the ninth century, by some Scandinavian pirates; and soon after this Iceland was colonised by Flok, the Norwegian, mentioned before. Iceland, it appears, had been discovered long before the Norwegians settled there; as many relics, in the nature of bells, books in the Irish language, and wooden crosses, were discovered by Flok, in different parts of the island: so that the Irish seem to have first set foot upon that isle. The Icelandic chronicles also relate that, about these times, the Northmen discovered a great country to the west of Ireland, which account has by many been deemed apocryphal; for, if true, they must be held to be some of the early discoverers of America; but it seems pretty clear that they made their way to Greenland in the end of the tenth century. The settlement effected in Greenland, though comprising but a small population, seems to have been very prosperous in these early times in mercantile affairs. They had bishops and priests from Europe; and paid the Pope, as an annual tribute, 2600 pounds weight of walrus-teeth, as tithe and Peter's pence. The voyage from Greenland to Iceland and Norway, and back again, consumed five years; and upon one occasion the government of Norway did not hear of the death of the bishop of Greenland, until six years after it had occurred; so that the art of navigation after all must have been in these times but at a very low pitch. We shall notice this subject more particularly at the conclusion of this paper. The description left of Greenland by the old navigators agrees with modern observations. It presents the same dreary appearance now as it did then; looking like a vast but irregular accumulation of rocks and glaciers. Enormous icebergs floated along the coast, and filled every inlet. The awful appearance of nature in these parts of the world, its remoteness, and the horrors of the stormy seas which intervened, soon made it, in the popular belief, a land of wonders. The surrounding sea was said to be inhabited by marine giants of both sexes; and the terrific icebergs, as they moved along, were reported to be guided by invi sible hands It was also said that a man, named Hollur Geit, walked from Norway to Greenland on the ice, conducted by a goat. The northern horrors, just alluded to, are well portrayed by the Poet of the Seasons: 111 fares the bark with trembling wretches charged, While night o'erwhelms the sea, and horror looks More horrible. Can human force endure Th' assembled mischiefs that besiege them round? Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness, The roar of winds and waves, the crush of ice. Now ceasing, now renewed with louder rage, And in dire echoes bellowing round the main. Greenland, of which we have spoken above, seems to have been called Viinland, or Finland, from the vines which were discerned by the early discoverers as abounding in this country; and, in fact, wild vines are found growing in all the northern districts of America. A German, one of the party who first went to these coasts, having observed the vines, and having shown his companions the use of this vegetable produce, they agreed to call the place Viinland, or land of wine. Some Normans landed there soon after, and saw there many of the natives, of diminutive stature, whom they called dwarfs, in canoes covered with leather. These persons appear to have been the Esquimaux, with whom they carried on a very lucrative trade in furs. This Viinland is, however, supposed by some persons to have been Newfoundland; and if so, America must in reality have been discovered as much as five centuries before Columbus sailed so far as the West Indies: and moreover, it has been supposed that the many traditions about the West, existing in the time of Columbus, first set him to prosecute the idea of discovering another world. The geographical knowledge of the people of Europe was very small at the time that we are writing of. What there was, was confined to the cloisters; and that was little. The abbot of Clugny, in Burgundy, thought that Paris was so remote, that he refused to comply with the request of the Count de Bourcard, who wished to establish a monastery of his order at St. Maur, in the neighbourhood of Paris. The knowledge of the monks did not oftentimes extend beyond the walls of their own residence; and they had, perhaps, never heard of places distinguished even in their own country. Hence it was that the papal dominion was so easily extended, so firmly rooted for many ages, that all the learning and genuine piety of the martyrs could, in some countries at least, but shake it; though in some But, notwithstanding all this, some distinguished persons, whose interest led them to explore in order to extend their power and dominion, endeavoured to obtain a well-arranged knowledge of the world. Charlemagne of France had a large table of silver, on whose surface was engraved a map of the world as then known. His grandson Lothaire, in the war which he carried on with the other Carlovingian princes, used this precious and expensive picture of the earth, not for the guidance and direction of his soldiers, but for their more immediate necessities; so that, as it has heen quaintly observed, "the silver world was soon melted down to supply the necessities of one of its kingdoms." We have thus passed over the first half of the middle ages, which we may assume to have terminated at the era of the Crusades, at which time, in a general point of view, the practice of navigation and the art of ship-building does not seem to have advanced beyond the state in which it was left by the Carthaginians, when their country was finally depopulated by the Romans. So that, in reverting to the countries and people with whom we set out, we may observe that about the year 800 maritime affairs had sunk to so low an ebb, that there was scarcely what could be with propriety called a navy, in the world, except the galleys of Venice, and of some of the northern nations, such as the Saxons, &c. The Constantinopolitan empire, the French empire under the emperor Charlemagne, the Saracens, and other nations, were now so busily occupied in military transactions, that they had neither time nor treasure to augment and maintain their fleets. It has been observed that had Mahomet been at all attached to naval affairs, he might have made a complete revolution in the mode of constructing and managing ships, from the enormous power which gradually accumulated in his hands. He chose, however, to propagate his creed by fire and sword; and, beginning from a small spot in Arabia as a centre, he extended his dominions by force of arms to the neighbouring countries of Syria, Persia, Asia Minor, Egypt, &c., which could be accomplished by land. Mr. Charnock, in his History of Marine Architecture, says"The collection of an army, more particularly considering the simple state in which military tactics then were, was the operation of a few days, or perhaps only of a few hours. Every peasant could be transformed on the instant into a soldier. He readily became acquainted with all the duties of his profession. The productions and plunder of the districts which he overran with religious zeal, and in the inspired hope of obtaining eternal sensual felicity after death, made him totally regardless of his life, and supplied him with food, as well as with raiment; so that his sword and his Koran became the only necessary articles of equipment for the field of ravage and of glory. A navy was not to be collected by such slender means. Its formation required a species of deliberation, that was incompatible with the views of Mahomet and his followers." We shall form some idea of the insignificant position which naval pursuits assumed in this age, by considering that in two centuries the creed of Mahomet had spread over nearly half of the then known world, without the necessity of any ships, but mere transports to convey soldiers; for the commerce with other countries was carried on almost entirely by caravans, which travelled by land. By degrees, however, new nations, or new assemblages of people, sprang into notice, and formed the germs from which powerful nations afterwards arose. Thus, a party of Andalusians, from the south of Spain, joined themselves into one predatory band, and then ravaged the coast of Italy, and began to excite an attention to naval affairs among those who had to defend themselves from these attacks. A new republic also-Genoa-gradually assumed an imposing position; and being so near Venice, which at that time ruled the Mediterranean, began to divide with her the maritime traffic of that important sea. Another band of adventurers showed themselves in Croatia, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Their vessels were made without decks, and were also without rostra, or beaks: they were in fact nothing more than boats, (although it is customary to apply the term galley to them); for a fleet of one hundred such vessels contained only three thousand men, including both sailors and soldiers. The information which the Mediterranean nations acquired concerning Northern countries increased, and, one by one, we find new countries appearing on the page of history. Thus about the ninth century, the Roxolani, or Russians, first became known to the Constantinopolitans; and by the tenth century, sufficient was known of them to indicate their mode of navigating the Baltic. Their canoes were formed of a single tree, and in them were brought slaves, furs of every description, the spoil of their bee-hives, and the hides of their cattle, from the north towards southern districts, by means of internal seas, lakes, and rivers. These articles of merchandize were conveyed, once a year, to Constantinople, by a fleet of canoes, which passed down the Borysthenes and other rivers leading from Russia towards the Euxine Sea; and in exchange for their cargoes, carried back corn, wine, oil, and other productions, to their own country. These yearly visits gave the Russians a thirst for the wealth and luxury which they witnessed at Constantinople; and in progress of time, they formed piratical parties for seizing by force that which they had previously fairly gained by barter. These piratical excursions were made in vessels which were thus formed: a canoe was scooped out of the stem of the beech or willow, and the edges were extended upwards by planks fastened side by side, until the length of the boat attained sixty feet and the height twelve feet. These boats were built without a deck, but with two rudders and a mast, so that they moved with sails and oars: each boat would contain seventy men with their arms, and sufficient provision, consisting of water and salt fish. Twelve hundred of these boats were, in some cases, joined in one combined fleet, which descended the Borysthenes and other rivers, and landed their men wherever spoliation could be effected. At the end of the twelfth century, the ancient semicir cular line of battle was still preserved, by arranging the strongest ships in the wings, with a view to enclose the enemy as in a net. The soldiers stationed on the upper deck, or on the raised platform or forecastle, made a close bulwark of their shields; and to give them free room to fight, the rowers sat below. When the hostile fleets approached, the sound of the trumpets and the shouts of the men gave the signal for the engagement, which commenced with a discharge of missiles on both sides. The beaks were forced against the enemies' sides; the oars were entangled; the vessels were grappled together; and the engineers endeavoured to burn the enemies' ships with the Greek fire, which was now used by Turks, Saracens, and Christians. Such was, very nearly, the mode of fighting used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, as described in our first paper". We shall continue the subject in our next paper, by turning our attention to the Crusades; which so greatly affected the state and condition of Europe, and which will open to us new scenes in nautical affairs, and new nations distinguished therein. See Saturday Magazine, Vol. XII., p. 38. |