only a mystery of trade, but a fecret of state. Extraordinary facts are recorded concerning their folicitude to prevent other nations from penetrating into what they wifhed fhould remain undivulged 1). Many of their discoveries feem, accordingly, to have been fcarcely known beyond the precincts of their own ftates. The navigation round Africa, in particular, is recorded by the Greek and Roman writers, rather as a ftrange amufing tale, which they either did not comprehend, or did not believe, than as a real transaction, which enlarged their knowledge and influenced their opinion m). As neither the progrefs of the Phenician and Carthaginian difcoveries, the extent of their navigation, were communicated to the rest of mankind, all memorials of their extraordinary skill in naval affairs feem, in a great measure, to have perifhed, when the maritime power of the former was annihilated by Alexander's conqueft of Tyre, and the empire of the latter was overturned by the Roman arms.

Of the Greeks.

Leaving, then, the obfcure and pompous accounts of the Phenician and Carthaginian voyages, to the curiofity and conjectures of antiquaries, history muft reft satisfied with relating

1) Strab. Geogr. lib. iii. p. 265. lib, xviii. p. 1154. m) See NOTE III.

the progress of navigation and difcovery among the Greeks and Romans, which, though lefs fplendid, is better afcertained. It is evident that the Phenicians, who inftructed the Greeks in other ufeful fciences and arts, did not communicate to them that extenfive knowledge of navigation which they themselves poffeffed; nor did the Romans imbibe that commercial spirit and ardour for discovery, which diftinguished the Carthaginians. Though Greece be almoft encompaffed by the fea, which formed many fpacious bays and commodious harbours, though it be furrounded by a vaft number of fertile iflands, yèt, notwithftanding fuch a favourable fituation, which feemed to invite that ingenious people to apply themfelves to navigation, it was long before this art attained any degree of perfection among them. Their early voyages, the object of which was piracy rather than commerce, were fo inconfiderable, that the expedition of the Argonauts from the coaft of Theffaly to the Euxine Sea, appeared fuch an amazing effort of fkill and courage, as entitled the conductors of it to be ranked among the demigods, and exalted the vessel in which they failed to a place among the heavenly conftellations. Even at a later period, when the Greeks engaged in their famous enterprise against Troy, their knowledge in naval affairs feems not to have been much improved. According to the account of Homer, the only poet to whom history ventures to appeal, and who, by his fcrupulous accuracy in defcribing the manners and

arts of early ages, merits this diftinction, the fcience of navigation, at that time, had hardly advanced beyond its rudeft ftate. The Greeks in the heroic age were unacquainted with the ufe of iron, the moft ferviceable of all the metals, without which no confiderable progress was ever made in the mechanical arts. Their veffels were of inconfiderable burthen, and moftly without decks. These hat only one maft, which they erected or took down at pleasure. They were ftrangers to the use of anchors. All their operations in failing were clumfy and unfkilful. They turned their obfervation towards ftars, which were improper for regulating their course, and their mode of obferving them was inaccurate and fallacious. When they had finished a voyage they drew their paltry barks afhore, as favages to their canoes, and thefe remained on dry land until the season of returning to fea approached. It is not then in the early or heroic ages of Greece, that we can expect to obferve the science of navigation, and the spirit of discovery, making any confiderable progress. During that period of disorder and ignorance, a thousand caufes concurred in reftraining curiofity and enterprize within very narrow bounds.

But the Greeks advanced with rapidity to a state of greater civilization and refinement. Government, in its moft liberal and perfect form, began to be established in the communities of Greece; equal laws

and regular police were gradually introduced; the fciences and arts which are useful ornamental in life were carried to a high pitch of improvement, and feveral of the Grecian common-wealths applied to commerce with fuch ardour and fuccefs, that they were confidered, in the ancient world, as maritime powers of the firft rank. Even then, howewer, the naval victories of the Greecks must be adfcribed rather to the native spirit of the people; and to. that courage which the enjoyment of liberty inspires, than to any extraordinary progress in the fcience of navigation. In the Perfian war, thofe exploits which the eloquence of the Greek hiftorians has rendered fo famous, were performed by fleets, compofed chiefly of small veffels without deecks n); the crews of which rushed forward with impetuous valour, but little art, to board thofe of the ennemy, In the war of Peloponefus their fhips fe em ftill to have been of inconfiderable burthen and force. The extent of their trade was in proportion to this low condition of their marine. The maritime states of Greece hardly carried on any commerce beyond the limits of the Mediterranean fea, Their chief intercourfe was with the colonies of their countrymen, planted in the Leffer Afia, in Italy and Sicily. They fometimes vifited the ports of Egypt, of Gaul, and of Thrace, or paffing through the Hellefpont, they traded with

the countries fituated around the Euxine fea. Amazing inftances occur of their ignorance, even of those countries, which lay within the narrow precincts to which their navigation was confined. When the Greecks had affembled their combined fleet againft Xerxes at Egina, they thought it unadvisable to fail to Samos, because they believed the distance between that ifland and Egina to be as great as the distance between Egina and the Pillars of Hercules o). They were either utterly unacquainted with all the parts of the globe beyond the Mediterranean fea, or what knowledge they had of them was founded on conjecture, or received from the information of a few perfons, whomcuriofity and the love of science had prompted to travel by land into the Upper Afia, or by sea into Egypt, the ancient feats of wisdom and arts, After all that the Greecks learned from them, they appear to have been ignorant of the most important facts, on which an accurate and fcientific knowledge of the globe is founded.

The expedition of Alexander the Great into the eaft, confiderably enlarged the sphere of navigation and of geographical knowledge among the Greeks. The extraordinary man, nothwithstanding the violent paffions, which incited him, at fome times, to the wildeft actions and the moft extravagant enterprises, poffeffed talents which fitted him not only to conquer, but to go⚫) Herodot. lib. viii, 6. 132.