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BOOK his example, vifited most of the countries in the eaft which he had defcribed, and, like him, published an account of them'. The narrations of thofe early travellers abound with many wild incoherent tales, concerning giants, enchanters, and monsters. But they were not, from that circumftance, lefs acceptable to an ignorant age, which delighted in what was marvellous. The wonders which they told, mostly on hearfay, filled the multitude with admiration. The facts which they related from their own obfervation attracted the attention of the more dif cerning. The former, which may be confidered as the popular traditions and fables of the countries through which they had paffed, were gradually difregarded as Europe advanced in knowledge. The latter, however incredible fome of them may have appeared in their own time, have been confirmed by the observations of modern travellers. By means of both, however, the curiofity of mankind was excited with respect to the remote parts of the earth, their ideas were enlarged, and they were not only infenfibly difpofed to attempt new difcoveries, but received fuch information as directed to that particular courfe in which thefe were afterwards carried on.

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Voyages and Travels, by Sir John Mandeville.

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WHILE this fpirit was gradually forming in BOOK Europe, a fortunate difcovery was made, which contributed more than all the efforts and inge- invention of nuity of preceding ages, to improve and to extend navigation. That wonderful property of the magnet, by which it communicates fuch virtue to a needle or flender rod of iron, as to point towards the poles of the earth, was obferved. The ufe which might be made of this in directing navigation was immediately perceived. That valuable, but now familiar inftrument, the mariners compafs, was conftructed. When, by means of it, navigators found that, at all feafons, and in every place, they could discover the north and fouth with fo much eafe and accuracy, it became no longer neceffary to depend merely on the light of the ftars and the obfervation of the fea coaft. They gradually abandoned their ancient timid and lingering course along the fhore, ventured boldly into the ocean, and relying on this new guide, could fteer in the darkest night, and under the most cloudy sky, with a fecurity and precifion hitherto unknown. The compafs may be faid to have opened to man the dominion of the fea, and to have put him in full poffeffion of the earth, by enabling him to vifit every part of it. Flavio Gioia, a citizen of Amalfi, a town of confiderable trade in the kingdom of Naples, was the

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BOOK author of this great difcovery, about the year one thousand three hundred and two. It hath been often the fate of those illuftrious benefactors of mankind, who have enriched science and improved the arts by their inventions, to derive more reputation than benefit from the happy efforts of their genius. But the lot of Gioia has been still more cruel; through the inattention or ignorance of contemporary hiftorians, he has been defrauded even of the fame to which he had such a just title. We receive from them no information, with refpect to his profeffion, his character, the precife time when he made this important difcovery, or the accidents and inquiries which led to it. The knowledge of this event, though productive of greater effects than any recorded in the annals of the human race, is tranfmitted to us without any of those circumstances, which can gratify the curiofity that it naturally awakens. But though the use of the compass might enable the Italians to perform the fhort voyages to which they were accustomed, with greater fecurity and expedi tion, its influence was not fo fudden or extenfive, as immediately to render navigation adventurous, and to excite a fpirit of discovery. Many causes combined in preventing this bene

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Collinas & Trombellus de Acus nautica Inventore.
Inftit. Acad. Bonon. tom. ii. part iii.
P. 372.

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ficial invention from producing its full effect BOOK instantaneously. Men relinquish ancient habits. flowly, and with reluctance. They are averfe to new experiments, and venture upon them with timidity. The commercial jealousy of the Italians, it is probable, laboured to conceal the happy discovery of their countryman from other nations. The art of fteering by the compass with fuch skill and accuracy as to inspire a full confidence in its direction, was acquired gradually. Sailors, unaccustomed to quit fight of land, durft not launch out at once and commit themselves to unknown feas. Accordingly, near half a century elapfed from the time of Gioia's discovery, before navigators ventured into any feas which they had not been accustomed to frequent,

THE first appearance of a bolder spirit may be dated from the voyages of the Spaniards to the Canary or Fortunate Iflands. By what accident they were led to the discovery of thofe fmall ifles, which lie near five hundred miles from the Spanish coaft, and above a hundred and fifty miles from the coast of Africa, contemporary writers have not explained. But, about the middle of the fourteenth century, the people of all the different kingdoms into which Spain was then divided, were accustomed to make pira

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BOOK tical excurfions thither, in order to plunder the inhabitants, or to carry them off as flaves. Clement VI. in virtue of the right claimed by the holy fee, to dispose of all countries poffeffed by infidels, erected thofe ifles into a kingdom, in the year one thousand three hundred and forty-four, and conferred it on Lewis de la Cerda, defcended from the royal family of Caftile. But that unfortunate prince, deftitute of power to affert his nominal title, having never vifited the Canaries, John de Bethencourt, a Norman baron, obtained a grant of them from Henry III. of Caftile. Bethencourt, with the valour and good fortune which diftinguished the adventurers of his country, attempted and effected the conqueft, and the poffeffion of the Canaries remained for fome time in his family, as a fief held of the crown of Caftile. Previous to this expedition of Bethencourt, his countrymen fettled in Normandy are faid to have visited the coaft of Africa, and to have proceeded far to the south of the Canary islands. But their voyages thither feem not to have been undertaken in confequence of any public or regular plan for extending navigation and attempting new discoveries. They were either excursions fuggefted by that roving piratical fpirit, which

1365.

Viera y Clavijo Notic. de la Hiftor. de Canaria, I. 268, &c. Glas Hift. c. 1.

defcended

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