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quired, was concealed from the rest of mankind BOOK with a mercantile jealoufy. Every thing relative to the courfe of their navigation was not. 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 wished should remain undivulged'. Many of their discoveries feem, accordingly, to have been scarcely known beyond the precincts of their own states. The navigation round Africa, in particular, is recorded by the Greek and Roman writers, rather as a strange amufing tale, which they did not comprehend, or did not believe, than as a real tranfaction, which enlarged their knowledge and influenced their opinions ". As neither the progrefs of the Phenician or Carthaginian difcoveries, nor 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 perished, when the maritime power of the former was annihilated by Alexander's conquest of Tyre, and the empire of the latter was overturned by the Roman arms.

Strab. Geogr. lib. iii. p. 265. lib. xviii. p. 1154.
See NOTE III.

Of the
Greeks.

BOOK LEAVING, then, the obfcure and pompous accounts of the Phenician and Carthaginian voyages to the curiofity and conjectures of antiquaries, hiftory must rest satisfied with relat ing the progrefs of navigation and discovery among the Greeks and Romans, which, though lefs fplendid, is better afcertained. It is evident that the Phenicians, who inftructed the Greeks in many other useful fciences and arts, did not communicate to them that extenfive knowledge of navigation which they themfelves poffeffed; nor did the Romans imbibe that commercial spirit and ardour for discovery which diftinguished their rivals the Carthaginians. Though Greece be almost encompaffed by the fea, which formed many fpacious bays and commodious harbours; though it be furrounded by a great number of fertile iflands, yet, notwithstanding such a favourable fituation, which feemed to invite that ingenious people to apply themselves 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 fea, appeared fuch an amazing effort of skill and courage, as entitled the conductors of it to be ranked among the demigods, and

exalted

exalted the veffel in which they failed to a place among the heavenly conftellations. Even at a later period, when the Greeks engaged in their famous enterprize 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 feem to have been unacquainted with the use of iron, the most serviceable 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. They had only one maft, which was erected or taken 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 courfe, and their mode of obferving them was inaccurate and fallacious. When they had finished a voyage they drew their paltry barks afhore, as favages do their canoes, and these remained on dry land until the season of returning to fea approached. It

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BOOK is not then in the early or heroic ages of

I.

Greece, that we can expect to obferve the fcience of navigation, and the fpirit of difcovery, making any confiderable progrefs. During that period of diforder and ignorance, a thoufand caufes concurred in reftraining curiofity and enterprize within very narrow bounds.

BUT the Greeks advanced with rapidity to a ftate of greater civilization and refinement. Government, in its moft liberal and perfect form, began to be established in their different communities; equal laws and regular police were gradually introduced; the fciences and arts which are ufeful or ornamental in life were carried to a high pitch of improvement, and feveral of the Grecian commonwealths 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, however, the naval victories of the Greeks must be afcribed rather to the native fpirit of the people, and to that courage which the enjoyment of liberty infpires, than to any extraordinary progrefs in the fcince of navigation. In the Perfian war, thofe exploits which the genius of the Greek hiftorians has rendered fo famous, were performed by fleets, compofed chiefly of fmall veffels with

out

but decks"; the crews of which rufhed forward with impetuous valour, but little art, to board those of the enemy. In the war of Peloponnefus, their fhips feem ftill to have been of inconfiderable burthen and force. The extent of their trade, how highly foever it may have been estimated in ancient times, was in proportion to this low condition of their marine. The maritime ftates of Greece hardly carried on any commerce beyond the limits of the Mediterranean fea. Their chief intercourse was with the colonies of their countrymen, planted in the Leffer Afia, in Italy and Sicily. They fometimes vifited the ports of Egypt, of the fouthern provinces 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 thofe countries, which lay within the narrow precincts to which their navigation was confined. When the Greeks had affembled their combined fleet against Xerxes at Egina, they thought it unadvisable to fail to Samos, because they believed the distance between that island and Egina to be as great as the distance between Egina and the Pillars of Hercules. They were either utterly

n

Thucyd. lib. i. c. 14.

• Herodot. lib. viii. c. 132.

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