A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, ARRANGED IN SYSTEMATIC ORDER:

FORMING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF NAVIGATION, DISCOVERY, AND COMMERCE, BY SEA AND LAND, FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THEPRESENT TIME. 

BY

ROBERT KERR, F. R. S. & F. A. S. EDIN. 

ILLUSTRATED BY MAPS AND CHARTS. 

VOL. XVIII. 

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH:

AND T. CADELL, LONDON. 

MDCCCXXIV. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY, NAVIGATION, AND COMMERCE, FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS TO THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

BY WILLIAM STEVENSON, ESQ. 

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH:

AND T. CADELL; LONDON. 

MDCCCXXIV. 

Printed by A. & B. Spottiswoode, New-Street-Square. 

[Transcriber's Note: The errata listed after the Table of Contents aremarked in the text thus: [has->have]]

PREFACE. 

The curiosity of that man must be very feeble and sluggish, and hisappetite for information very weak or depraved, who, when he compares themap of the world, as it was known to the ancients, with the map of theworld as it is at present known, does not feel himself powerfully excitedto inquire into the causes which have progressively brought almost everyspeck of its surface completely within our knowledge and access. To developand explain these causes is one of the objects of the present work; butthis object cannot be attained, without pointing out in what mannerGeography was at first fixed on the basis of science, and has subsequently, at various periods, been extended and improved, in proportion as thosebranches of physical knowledge which could lend it any assistance, haveadvanced towards perfection. We shall thus, we trust, be enabled to placebefore our readers a clear, but rapid view of the surface of the globe, gradually exhibiting a larger portion of known regions, and explored seas, till at last we introduce them to the full knowledge of the nineteenthcentury. In the course of this part of our work, decisive and instructiveillustrations will frequently occur of the truth of these most importantfacts, --that one branch of science can scarcely advance, without advancingsome other branches, which in their turn, repay the assistance they havereceived; and that, generally speaking, the progress of intellect andmorals is powerfully impelled by every impulse given to physical science, and can go on steadily and with full and permanent effect, only by theintercourse of civilised nations with those that are ignorant andbarbarous. 

But our work embraces another topic; the progress of commercial enterprisefrom the earliest period to the present time. That an extensive andinteresting field is thus opened to us will be evident, when we contrastthe state of the wants and habits of the people of Britain, as they aredepicted by Cæsar, with the wants and habits even of our lowest and poorestclasses. In Cæsar's time, a very few of the comforts of life, --scarcely oneof its meanest luxuries, --derived from the neighbouring shore of Gaul, wereoccasionally enjoyed by British Princes: in our time, the daily meal of thepauper who obtains his precarious and scanty pittance by begging, issupplied by a navigation of some thousand miles, from countries in oppositeparts of the globe; of whose existence Cæsar had not even the remotestidea. In the time of Cæsar, there was perhaps no country, the commerce ofwhich was so confined:--in our time, the commerce of Britain lays the wholeworld under contribution, and surpasses in extent and magnitude thecommerce of any other nation. 

The progress of discovery and of commercial intercourse are intimately andalmost necessarily connected; where commerce does not in the first instanceprompt man to discover new countries, it is sure, if these countries arenot totally worthless, to lead him thoroughly to explore them. Thearrangement of this work, in carrying on, at the same time, a view of theprogress of discovery, and of commercial enterprise, is, therefore, thatvery arrangement which the nature of the subject suggests. The mostimportant and permanent effects of the progress of discovery and commerce, on the wealth, the power, the political relations, the manners and habits, and the general interests and character of nations, will either appear onthe very surface of our work, or, where the facts themselves do not exposethem to view, they will be distinctly noticed. 

A larger proportion of the volume is devoted to the progress of discoveryand enterprise among the ancients, than among the moderns; or, --to expressourselves more accurately, --the period that terminates with the discoveryof America, and especially that which comprehends the commerce of thePhoeniceans, of the Egyptians under the Ptolemies, of the Greeks, and ofthe Romans, is illustrated with more ample and minute details, than theperiod which has elapsed since the new world was discovered. To mostreaders, the nations of antiquity are known by their wars alone; we wishedto exhibit them in their commercial character and relations. Besides, thematerials for the history of discovery within the modern period are neitherso scattered, nor so difficult of access, as those which relate to thefirst period. After the discovery of America, the grand outline of theterraqueous part of the globe may be said to have been traced; subsequentdiscoveries only giving it more boldness or accuracy, or filling up theintervening parts. The same observation may in some degree be applied, tothe corresponding periods of the history of commerce. Influenced by theseconsiderations, we have therefore exhibited the infancy and youth ofdiscovery and commerce, while they were struggling with their own ignoranceand inexperience, in the strongest and fullest light. 

At the conclusion of the work is given a select Catalogue of Voyages andTravels, which it is hoped will be found generally useful, not only indirecting reading and inquiry, but also in the formation of a library. 

This Historical Sketch has been drawn up with reference to, and in order tocomplete Kerr's Collection of Voyages and Travels, and was undertaken bythe present Editor in consequence of the death of Mr. Kerr. But thoughdrawn up with this object, it is strictly and entirely an independent andseparate work. 

Kerr's Collection contains a great variety of very curious and interestingearly Voyages and Travels, of rare occurrence, or only to be found inexpensive and voluminous Collections; and is, moreover, especiallydistinguished by a correct and full account of all Captain Cook's Voyages. 

To the end of this volume is appended a Tabular View of the Contents ofthis Collection; and it is believed that this Tabular View, when examinedand compared with the Catalogue, will enable those who wish to add to thisCollection such Voyages and Travels as it does not embrace, especiallythose of very recent date, all that are deserving of purchase and perusal. 

W. STEVENSON. 

March 30, 1824. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery and of CommercialEnterprise, from the earliest records to the time of Herodotus

CHAPTER II. 

From the age of Herodotus to the death of Alexander the Great

CHAPTER III. 

From the Death of Alexander the Great to the time of Ptolemy theGeographer; with a digression on the Inland Trade between India and theShores of the Mediterranean, through Arabia, from the earliest ages

CHAPTER IV. 

From the time of Ptolemy to the close of the Fifteenth Century

CHAPTER V. 

From the close of the Fifteenth to the beginning of the Nineteenth Century

CATALOGUE. 

Preliminary Observations on the Plan and Arrangement pursuedin drawing up the Catalogue

Instructions for Travellers

Collections and Histories of Voyages and Travels

Voyages and Travels round the World

Travels, comprizing different Quarters of the Globe

Voyages and Travels in the Arctic Seas and Countries

Europe

Africa

Asia

America

Polynesia

Australasia

INDEX to the Catalogue

---- ---- Historical Sketch

---- ---- XVII. Volumes of Voyages and Travels

CONTENTS of the XVII. Volumes

 * * * * *

ERRATA. 

Page 13. Line 2. For _has_ read _have_. 6. For _near_ read _nearly_ 28. 36. For _could sail_ read _could formerly sail_. 86. 6. For _Egypt_ read _India_. 87. 22. For _Leucke_ read _Leuke_. 102. 5. For _principal_ read _principle_. 213. 9. For _work_ read _worm_. 281. 28. For _Ebor_ read _Ebn_. 282. 20. For _Ebor_ read _Ebn_. 5O7. 22. For _as_ read _than_. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY, &c. &c. 

CHAPTER I. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY, AND OF COMMERCIALENTERPRISE, FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS, TO THE TIME OF HERODOTUS. B. C. 450. 

The earliest traces of navigation and commerce are necessarily involved inmuch obscurity, and are, besides, few and faint. It is impossible to assignto them any clear and definite chronology; and they are, with a fewexceptions, utterly uncircumstantial. Nevertheless, in a work like this, they ought not to be passed over without some notice; but the notice weshall bestow upon them will not be that either of the chronologist orantiquarian, but of a more popular, appropriate, and useful description. 

The intercourse of one nation with another first took place in that part ofthe world to which a knowledge of the original habitation of mankind, andof the advantages for sea and land commerce which that habitation enjoyed, would naturally lead us to assign it. On the shores of the Mediterranean, or at no great distance from that sea, among the Israelites, thePhoenicians, and the Egyptians, we must look for the earliest traces ofnavigation and commerce; and, in the only authentic history of the remotestperiod of the world, as well as amidst the scanty and fabulous materialssupplied by profane writers, these nations are uniformly represented as themost ancient navigators and traders. 

The slightest inspection of the map of this portion of the globe will teachus that Palestine, Phoenicia, and Egypt were admirably situated forcommerce both by sea and land. It is, indeed, true that the Phoenicians, bythe conquests of Joshua, were expelled from the greatest part of theirterritory, and obliged to confine themselves to a narrow slip of groundbetween Mount Lebanon and the Mediterranean; but even this confinedterritory presented opportunities and advantages for commerce of no meanimportance: they had a safe coast, --at least one good harbour; and thevicinity of Lebanon, and other mountains, enabled them to obtain, withlittle difficulty and expence, a large supply of excellent materials forshipbuilding. There are, moreover, circumstances which warrant thesupposition, that, like Holland in modern times, they were rather thecarriers of other nations, than extensively engaged in the commerce oftheir own productions or manufactures. On the north and east lay Syria, anextensive country, covered with a deep rich soil, producing an abundantvariety of valuable articles. With this country, and much beyond it, to theeast, the means and opportunities of communication and commerce were easy, by the employment of the camel; while, on the other hand, the caravans thatcarried on the commerce of Asia and Africa necessarily passed throughPhoenicia, or the adjacent parts of Palestine. 

Egypt, in some respects, was still more advantageously situated forcommerce than Phoenicia: the trade of the west of Asia, and of the shoresof the Mediterranean lay open to it by means of that sea, and by the Nileand the Red Sea a commercial intercourse with Arabia, Persia, and Indiaseemed almost to be forced upon their notice and adoption. It is certain, however, that in the earliest periods of their history, the Egyptians weredecidedly averse to the sea, and to maritime affairs, both warlike andcommercial. It would be vain and unprofitable to explain the fabulous causeassigned for this aversion: we may, however, briefly and, incidentallyremark that as Osiris particularly instructed his subjects in cultivatingthe ground; and as Typhon coincides exactly in orthography and meaning witha word still used in the East, to signify a sudden and violent storm, it isprobable that by Typhon murdering his brother Osiris, the Egyptians meantthe damage done to their cultivated lands by storms of wind causinginundations. 

As the situation of Palestine for commerce was equally favourable with thatof Phoenicia, it is unnecessary to dilate upon it. That the Jews did notengage more extensively in trade either by sea or land must be attributedto the peculiar nature of their government, laws, and religion. 

Having thus briefly pointed out the advantages enjoyed by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Jews for commercial intercourse, we shall now proceed tonotice the few particulars with which history supplies us regarding thenavigation and commerce of each, during the earliest periods. 

I. There is good reason to believe that most of the maritime adventures andenterprises which have rendered the Phoenicians so famous in antiquity, ought to be fixed between the death of Jacob, and the establishment ofmonarchy among the Israelites; that is, between the years 1700 and 1095before Christ; but even before this, there are authentic notices ofPhoenician commerce and navigation. In the days of Abraham they wereconsidered as a very powerful people: and express mention is made of theirmaritime trade in the last words of Jacob to his children. Moses informs usthat Tarshish (wherever it was situated) was visited by the Phoenicians. When this people were deprived of a great portion of their territory by theIsraelites under Joshua, they still retained the city of Sidon; and from ittheir maritime expeditions proceeded. The order of time in which they tookplace, as well as their object and result, are very imperfectly known; itseems certain, however, that they either regularly traded with, or formedcolonies or establishments for the purpose of trade at first in Cyprus andRhodes, and subsequently in Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, Gaul, and thesouthern part of Spain. About 1250 years before Christ, the Phoenicianships ventured beyond the Straits, entered the Atlantic, and founded Cadiz. It is probable, also, that nearly about the same period they formedestablishments on the western coast of Africa. We have the expressauthority of Homer, that at the Trojan war the Phoenicians furnished othernations with many articles that could contribute to luxury andmagnificence; and Scripture informs us, that the ships of Hyram, king ofTyre, brought gold to Solomon from Ophir. That they traded to Britain fortin at so early a period as that which we are now considering, will appearvery doubtful, if the metal mentioned by Moses, (Numbers, chap. Xxxi. Verse22. ) was really tin, and if Homer is accurate in his statement that thismetal was used at the siege of Troy; for, certainly, at neither of theseperiods had the Phoenicians ventured so far from their own country. 

Hitherto we have spoken of Sidon as the great mart of Phoenician commerce;at what period Tyre was built and superseded Sidon is not known. In thetime of Homer, Tyre is not even mentioned: but very soon afterwards it isrepresented by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the other prophets, as a cityof unrivalled trade and wealth. Ezekiel, who prophesied about the year 595B. C. Has given a most picturesque description of the wealth of Tyre, all ofwhich must have proceeded from her commerce, and consequently points outand proves its great extent and importance. The fir-trees of Senir, thecedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the ivory of the Indies, the finelinen of Egypt, and the hyacinth and purple of the isles of Elishah, areenumerated among the articles used for their ships. Silver, tin, lead, andvessels of brass; slaves, horses, and mules; carpets, ivory, and ebony;pearls and silk; wheat, balm, honey, oil and gums; wine, and wool, andiron, are enumerated as brought into the port of Tyre by sea, or to itsfairs by land, from Syria, Damascus, Greece, Arabia, and other places, theexact site of which is not known. [1] Within the short period of fifteen ortwenty years after this description was written, Tyre was besieged byNebuchadnezzar; and after an obstinate and very protracted resistance, itwas taken and destroyed. The inhabitants, however, were enabled to retireduring the siege, with the greatest part of their property, to an islandnear the shore, where they built New Tyre, which soon surpassed the oldcity both in commerce and shipping. 

A short time previous to the era generally assigned to the destruction ofold Tyre, the Phoenicians are said to have performed a voyage, which, ifauthentic, may justly be regarded as the most important that the annals ofthis people record: we allude to the circumnavigation of Africa. As thisvoyage has given rise to much discussion, we may be excused for deviatingfrom the cursory and condensed character of this part of our work, in orderto investigate its probable authenticity. All that we know regarding it isdelivered to us by Herodotus; according to this historian, soon afterNechos, king of Egypt, had finished the canal that united the Nile and theArabian Gulf, he sent some Phoenicians from the borders of the Red Sea, with orders to keep always along the coast of Africa, and to return by thepillars of Hercules into the northern ocean. Accordingly the Phoeniciansembarked on the Erythrean Sea, and navigated in the southern ocean. Whenautumn arrived, they landed on the part of Libya which they had reached, and sowed corn; here they remained till harvest, reaped the corn, and thenre-embarked. In this manner they sailed for two years; in the third theypassed the pillars of Hercules, and returned to Egypt. They related that insailing round Libya, the sun was on their right hand. This relation, continues Herodotus, seems incredible to me, but perhaps it will not appearso to others. Before proceeding to an enquiry into the authenticity of thismaritime enterprize, it may be proper to explain what is meant by the sunappearing on the right hand of the Phoenician navigators. The apparentmotion of the heavens being from east to west, the west was regarded by theancients as the foremost part of the world; the north, of course, wasdeemed the right, and the south the left of the world. 

The principal circumstance attending this narrative, which is supposed todestroy or greatly weaken its credibility, is the short period of time inwhich this navigation was accomplished: it is maintained, that even atpresent, it would certainly require eighteen months to coast Africa fromthe Red Sea to the straits of Gibraltar; and "allowing nine months for eachinterval on shore, between the sowing and reaping, the Phoenicians couldnot have been more than eighteen months at sea. "

To this objection it may be replied, in the first place, that between thetropics (within which space nearly the whole of the navigation wasperformed) nine months is much too long a time to allow for each intervalon shore, between the sowing and the reaping: and, secondly, that thoughthe period occupied by the whole voyage, and some of the circumstancesattending it, may be inaccurately stated, the voyage itself ought not to bewholly discredited on these accounts. 

The very circumstance which the historian rejects as incredible, is one ofthe strongest arguments possible in favour of the tradition; though thisalone is not decisive, for the Phoenicians might have sailed far enough tothe south to have observed the sun to the north, even if they had notaccomplished the navigation of Africa. The strongest argument, however, inour opinion, in support of the actual accomplishment of thiscircumnavigation, has been unaccountably overlooked, in all the variousdiscussion to which the subject has given rise. It is evident that in mostvoyages, false and exaggerated accounts may be given of the countriesvisited or seen, and of the circumstances attendant upon the voyage;whereas, with respect to this voyage, one most important and decisiveparticular lay within reach of the observation of those who witnessed thedeparture and arrival of the ships. If they sailed from the Red Sea, andreturned by the Mediterranean, they must have circumnavigated Africa. It isobvious that if such a voyage was not performed, the story must haveoriginated with Herodotus, with those from whom he received hisinformation, or with those who were engaged in the expedition, supposing itactually to have been engaged in, but not to have accomplished thecircumnavigation of Africa. The character of Herodotus secures him from theimputation; and by none is he charged with it:--Necho lived about sixhundred and sixteen years before Christ; consequently little more than twohundred years before Herodotus; moreover, the communication and commerce ofthe Greeks with Egypt, was begun in the time of Psammeticus, the immediatepredecessor of Necho, and was encouraged in a very particular manner byAmasis (who died in 525), who married a Greek, and was visited by Solon. From these circumstances, it is improbable that Herodotus, who wasevidently not disposed to believe the account of the appearance of the sun, should not have had it in his power to obtain good evidence, whether a shipthat had sailed from the Red Sea, had returned by the Mediterranean: ifsuch evidence were acquired, it is obvious, as has been already remarked, that the third source of fabrication is utterly destroyed. Dr. Vincent isstrongly opposed to the authenticity of this voyage, chiefly on the groundsthat such ships as the ancients had, were by no means sufficiently strong, nor their seamen sufficiently skilful and experienced, to have successfullyencountered a navigation, which the Portuguese did not accomplish withoutgreat danger and difficulty, and that the alleged circumnavigation producedno consequences. 

It may be incidentally remarked that the incredulity of Herodotus withregard to the appearance of the sun to the north of the zenith, is noteasily reconcileable with what we shall afterwards shew was the extent ofhis knowledge of the interior of Egypt. He certainly had visited, or hadreceived communications from those who had visited Ethiopia as far south aseleven degrees north latitude. Under this parallel the sun appears for aconsiderable part of the year to the north. How, then, it may be asked, could Herodotus be incredulous of this phenomenon having been observed bythe Phoenician circumnavigators. This difficulty can be solved by supposingeither that if he himself had visited this part of Africa, it was at aseason of the year when the sun was in that quarter of the heavens in whichhe was accustomed to see it; or, if he received his information from theinhabitants of this district, that they, not regarding the periodicalappearance of the sun to the north of the zenith as extraordinary, did notthink it necessary to mention it. It certainly cannot be supposed that ifHerodotus had either seen himself, or heard from others, that the sun inEthiopia sometimes appeared to the north of the zenith, he would havestated in such decided terms, when narrating the circumnavigation of thePhoenicians, that such a phenomenon appeared to him altogether incredible. 

Before we return to the immediate subject of this part of our work, we maybe allowed to deviate from strict chronological order, for the purpose ofmentioning two striking and important facts, which naturally led to thebelief of the practicability of circumnavigating Africa, long before thatenterprise was actually accomplished by the Portuguese. 

We are informed by Strabo, on the authority of Posidonius, that Eudoxus ofCyzicus, who lived about one hundred and fifty years before Christ, wasinduced to conceive the practicability of circumnavigating Africa, from thefollowing circumstance. As Eudoxus was returning from India to the Red Sea, he was driven by adverse winds on the coast of Ethiopia: there he saw thefigure of a horse sculptured on a piece of wood, which he knew to be a partof the prow of a ship. The natives informed him that it had belonged to avessel, which had arrived among them from the west. Eudoxus brought it withhim to Egypt, and subjected it to the inspection of several pilots: theypronounced it to be the prow of a small kind of vessel used by theinhabitants of Gadez, to fish on the coast of Mauritania, as far as theriver Lixius: some of the pilots recognised it as belonging to a particularvessel, which, with several others, had attempted to advance beyond theLixius, but had never afterwards been heard of. We are further informed onthe same authority, that Eudoxus, hence conceiving it practicable to sailround Africa, made the attempt, and actually sailed from Gadez to a part ofEthiopia, the inhabitants of which spoke the same language as those amongwhom he had formerly been. From some cause not assigned, he proceeded nofarther: subsequently, however, he made a second attempt, but how far headvanced, and what was the result, we are not informed. 

The second fact to which we allude is related in the Commentary of AbuSird, on the Travels of a Mahommedan in India and China, in the ninthcentury of the Christian era. The travels and commentary are already givenin the first volume of this work; but the importance of the fact will, wetrust, plead our excuse for repeating the passage which contains it. 

"In our times, discovery has been made of a thing quite new: nobodyimagined that the sea which extends from the Indies to China, had anycommunication with the sea of Syria, nor could any one take it into hishead. Now behold what has come to pass in our days, according to what wehave heard. In the Sea of Rum, or the Mediterranean, they found the wreckof an Arabian ship which had been shattered by tempest; for all her menperishing, and she being dashed to pieces by the waves, the remains of herwere driven by wind and weather into the Sea of Chozars, and from thence tothe canal of the Mediterranean sea, and at last were thrown on the Sea ofSyria. This evinces that the sea surrounds all the country of China, and ofSila, --the uttermost parts of Turkestan, and the country of the Chozars, and then it enters at the strait, till it washes the shore of Syria. Theproof of this is deduced from the built of the ship we are speaking of; fornone but the ships of Sarif are so put together, that the planks are notnailed, or bolted, but joined together in an extraordinary manner, as ifthey were sewn; whereas the planking of all the ships of the MediterraneanSea, and of the coast of Syria, is nailed and not joined together in thesame way. "

When we entered on this digression, we had brought the historical sketch ofthe discoveries and commerce of the Phoenicians down to the period of thedestruction of Old Tyre, or about six hundred years before Christ. We shallnow resume it, and add such particulars on these subjects as relate to theperiod that intervened between that event and the capture of New Tyre byAlexander the Great. These are few in number; for though New Tyre exceeded, according to all accounts, the old city in splendour, riches, andcommercial prosperity, yet antient authors have not left us any preciseaccounts of their discoveries, such as can justly be fixed within theperiod to which we have alluded. They seem to have advanced farther thanthey had previously done along the west coast of Africa, and further alongthe north coast of Spain: the discovery of the Cassiterides also, and theirtrade to these islands for tin, (which we have shewn could hardly havetaken place so early as is generally supposed, ) must also have occurred, either immediately before, or soon after, the building of New Tyre. It isgenerally believed, that the Cassiterides were the Scilly Islands, off thecoast of Cornwall. Strabo and Ptolemy indeed place them off the coast ofSpain; but Diodorus Siculus and Pliny give them a situation, which, considering the vague and erroneous ideas the antients possessed of thegeography of this part of the world, corresponds pretty nearly with thesouthern part of Britain. According to Strabo, the Phoenicians firstbrought tin from the Cassiterides, which they sold to the Greeks, but kept(as was usual with them) the trade entirely to themselves, and were utterlysilent respecting the place from which they brought it. The Greeks gavethese islands the name of Cassiterides, or the Tin Country; a plain proofof what we before advanced, that tin was known, and generally used, previous to the discovery of these islands by the Phoenicians. 

There is scarcely any circumstance connected with the maritime history ofthe Phoenicians, more remarkable than their jealousy of foreignersinterfering with their trade, to which we have just alluded. It seems tohave been a regular plan, if not a fixed law with them, if at any timetheir ships observed that a strange ship kept them company, or endeavouredto trace their track, to outsail her if practicable; or, where this couldnot be done, to depart during the night from their proper course. TheCarthaginians, a colony of the Phoenicians, adopted this, among othermaritime regulations of the parent state, and even carried it to a greaterextent. In proof of this, a striking fact may be mentioned: the master of aCarthaginian ship observing a Roman vessel following his course, purposelyran his vessel aground, and thus wrecked his own ship, as well as the onethat followed him. This act was deemed by the Carthaginian government sopatriotic, that he was amply rewarded for it, as well as recompensed forthe loss of his vessel. 

The circumstances attending the destruction of New Tyre by Alexander theGreat are well known. The Tyrians united with the Persians againstAlexander, for the purpose of preventing the invasion of Persia; thishaving incensed the conqueror, still further enraged by their refusal toadmit him within their walls, he resolved upon the destruction of thiscommercial city. For seven months, the natural strength of the place, andthe resources and bravery of the inhabitants, enabled them to hold out; butat length it was taken, burnt to the ground, and all the inhabitants, except such as had escaped by sea, were either put to death or sold asslaves. 

Little is known respecting the structure and equipment of the ships whichthe Phoenicians employed in their commercial navigation. According to theapocryphal authority of Sanconiatho, Ousous, one of the most ancient of thePhoenician heroes, took a tree which was half burnt, cut off its branches, and was the first who ventured to expose himself on the waters. Thistradition, however, probably owes its rise to the prevalent belief amongthe ancients, that to the Phoenicians was to be ascribed the invention ofevery thing that related to the rude navigation and commerce of theearliest ages of the world: under this idea, the art of casting accounts, keeping registers, and every thing, in short, that belongs to a factory, isattributed to their invention. [2] With respect to their vessels, --"Originally they had only rafts, or simple boats; they used oars to conductthese weak and light vessels. As navigation extended itself, and becamemore frequent, they perfected the construction of ships, and made them of amuch larger capacity. They were not long in discovering the use that mightbe drawn from the wind, to hasten and facilitate the course of a ship, andthey found out the art of aiding it by means of masts and sails. " Such isthe account given by Goguet; but it is evident that this is entirelyconjectural history: and we may remark, by the bye, that a work otherwisehighly distinguished by clear and philosophical views, and enriched byconsiderable learning and research, in many places descends to fancifulconjecture. 

All that we certainly know respecting the ships of the Phoenicians, is, that they had two kinds; one for the purposes of commerce, and the otherfor naval expeditions; and in this respect they were imitated by all theother nations of antiquity. Their merchant-ships were called Gauloi. According to Festus's definition of this term, the gauloi were nearlyround; but it is evident that this term must be taken with considerablerestriction; a vessel round, or nearly so, could not possibly be navigated. It is most probable that this description refers entirely to the shape ofthe bottom or hold of the vessel; and that merchant ships were built inthis manner, in order that they might carry more goods; whereas the shipsfor warfare were sharp in the bottom. Of other particulars respecting theconstruction and equipment of the ships of the Phoenicians, we areignorant: they probably resembled in most things those of Greece and Rome;and these, of which antient historians speak more fully, will be describedafterwards. 

The Phoenicians naturally paid attention to astronomy, so far at least asmight be serviceable to them in their navigation; and while other nationswere applying it merely to the purposes of agriculture and chronology, bymeans of it they were guided through the "trackless ocean, " in theirmaritime enterprises. The Great Bear seems to have been known and used as aguide by navigators, even before the Phoenicians were celebrated as asea-faring people; but this constellation affords a very imperfect anduncertain rule for the direction of a ship's course: the extreme stars thatcompose it are more than forty degrees distant from the pole, and even itscentre star is not sufficiently near it. The Phoenicians, experiencing theimperfection of this guide, seem first to have discovered, or at least tohave applied to maritime purposes, the constellation of the Lesser Bear. But it is probable, that at the period when they first applied thisconstellation, which is supposed to be about 1250 years before Christ, theydid not fix on the star at the extremity of the tail of Ursa Minor, whichis what we call the Pole Star; for by a Memoir of the Academy of Sciences(1733. P. 440. ) it is shewn, that it would at that period be too distant toserve the purpose of guiding their track. [3]

II. The gleanings in antient history respecting the maritime and commercialenterprises, and the discoveries and settlements of the Egyptians, duringthe very early ages, to which we are at present confining ourselves, arefew and unimportant compared with those of the Phoenicians, andconsequently will not detain us long. 

We have already noticed the advantageous situation of Egypt for navigationand commerce: in some respects it was preferable to that of Phoenicia; forbesides the immediate vicinity of the Mediterranean, a sea, the shores ofwhich were so near to each other that they almost prevented the possibilityof the ancients, rude and ignorant as they were of all that related tonavigation and the management of ships, deviating long or far from theirroute; besides the advantages of a climate equally free from the cloudedskies, long nights and tempestuous weather of more northern regions, andfrom the irresistible hurricanes of those within the tropics--besides thesefavourable circumstances, which, the Egyptians enjoyed in common with thePhoenicians, they had, running far into their territory, a river easilynavigable, and at no great distance from this river, and bounding theircountry, a sea almost equally favourable for navigation and commerce as theMediterranean. Their advantages for land journies were also numerous andgreat; though the vicinity of the deserts seemed at first sight to haveraised an effectual bar to those countries which they divided from Egypt, yet Providence had wisely and benevolently removed the difficulty arisingfrom this source, and had even rendered intercommunication, where desertsintervened, more expeditious, and not more difficult, than in those regionswhere they did not occur, by the creation of the camel, a most benevolentcompensation to the Egyptians for their vicinity to the extensive desertsof Africa. 

Notwithstanding the advantageous situation of the Egyptians for navigation, they were extremely averse, as we nave already remarked, during theearliest periods of their history, to engage in sea affairs, either for thepurposes of war or commerce; nor did they indeed, at any time, enter withspirit, or on a large scale, into maritime enterprises. 

The superstitious and fabulous reasons assigned for this antipathy of theEgyptians to the sea [has->have] been noticed before; perhaps some othercauses contributed to it, as well as the one alluded to. Egypt is nearlydestitute of timber proper for ship-building: its sea-coasts are unhealthy, and do not appear to have been inhabited [near->nearly] so early as thehigher country: its harbours are few, of intricate navigation, andfrequently changing their depth and direction; and lastly, the advantageswhich the Nile presents for intercourse and traffic precluded the necessityof applying to sea navigation and commerce. 

Some authors are of opinion that the ancient Egyptians did not engage innavigation and commerce till the era of the Ptolemies; but this isundoubtedly a mistake, since traces of their commercial intercommunicationwith other nations may be found at a very early period of history. It isprobable, however, that for a long time they themselves did not engage incommerce, but were merely visited by traders from foreign countries; for atthis era it was a maxim with them, never to leave their own country. Thelow opinion they entertained of commerce may be gathered from Herodotus, who mentions, that the men disdained to meddle with it, but left itentirely to the women. 

The earliest account we possess of traffic with Egypt, is to be found inthe Old Testament, where we are informed, that the Midianites andIsmaelites traded thither as early as the time of Jacob. 

Sesostris, who is generally supposed to have lived about 1650 years beforeChrist, is by most writers described as the king who first overcame thedislike of the Egyptians to the sea. That this monarch engaged in manyenterprises both by sea and land, not only for conquest, but also forpurposes of trade and colonization, there can be no doubt; though it isimpossible either to trace his various routes, or to estimate the extent ofhis conquests or discoveries. The concurrent testimony of Diodorus andHerodotus assign to him a large fleet in the Red Sea; and according toother historians, he had also a fleet in the Mediterranean. In order themore effectually to banish the prejudices of the Egyptians against the sea, he is said to have instituted a marine class among his subjects. By thesemeasures he seems to have acquired the sovereignty and the commerce of thegreater part of the shores of the Red Sea; along which his ships continuedtheir route, till, according to Herodotus, they were prevented fromadvancing by shoals and places difficult to navigate; a description whichaptly applies to the navigation of this sea. 

His expeditions and conquests in other parts of the globe do not fallwithin our object: one however must be noticed; we allude to the settlementof the Egyptians at Colchos. Herodotus is doubtful whether this was acolony planted by Sesostris, or whether part of his army remained behind onthe banks of the Phasis, when he invaded this part of Asia. We allude tothis colony, because with it were found, at the time of the Argonauticexpedition, proofs of the attention which Sesostris had paid to geography, and of the benefits which that science derived from him. "Tradition, "Gibbon observes, "has affirmed, with some colour of reason, that Egyptplanted on the Phasis a learned and polite colony, which manufacturedlinen, built navies, and invented geographical maps. " All the informationwe possess respecting these maps is derived from Apollonius Rhodius, andhis scholiast: the substance of it is as follows: according to thispoet, --Phineas, king of Colchos, predicted to the Argonauts the eventswhich would accompany their return. Argus, one of the Argonauts, explainedthat prediction to his companions, and told them, that the route which theymust keep was described on tables, or rather on columns, which an Egyptianconqueror had before left in the city of Oca, the capital of Colchis; onthese columns, the whole extent of the roads, and the limits of the landand sea were marked out. An ingenious, and by no means an improbableinference, has been drawn from this circumstance: that if Sesostris leftsuch columns in a part so remote from Egypt, it is to be supposed that theywere more numerous in Egypt itself. In short, though on a point like thisit is impossible to gain clear and undoubted testimony, we are, upon thewhole, strongly disposed to coincide in opinion with Gibbon, that traditionhas some colour of reason for affirming that the Egyptian colony at Phasispossessed geographical maps. 

After the death of Sesostris, the Egyptians seem to have relapsed intotheir former dislike to the sea: they indeed sent colonies into Greece, andother parts; but these colonists kept up no relation with the mothercountry. Their commerce was carried on, as it had been before the time ofSesostris, by foreigners. The Old Testament informs us, that in the time ofSolomon many horses were brought from Egypt: and, from the same authority, as well as from Herodotus and Homer, we learn that the Phoenicians carriedon a regular and lucrative traffic with this country; and, indeed, for along time, about this period, they were the only nation to whom the portsof Egypt were open. Of the navigation and commerce of the Red Sea they wereequally negligent; so that while none of their ships were seen on it, itwas covered with the fleets of the Syrians, Phoenicians, and other nations. 

Bocchoris, who lived about seven hundred years before Christ, isrepresented by historians as having imitated the maxims of Sesostris, withrespect to maritime affairs and commerce. Some of his laws on thesesubjects are still extant; and they display his knowledge of, and attentionto, the improvement of his kingdom. By some of his immediate successors theancient maxims of the Egyptians, which led them to avoid intercourse withstrangers, were gradually done away; but it is to Psammeticus, historiansascribe the most decisive measures for rooting out this antipathy. In hisreign the ports of Egypt were first opened to foreign ships generally. Heseems particularly to have encouraged commercial intercourse with theGreeks; though afterwards, either from some particular cause of jealousy ordislike to this nation, or from the still operating antipathy of theEgyptians to foreigners, the Greeks were not permitted to enter any portexcept Naucratis, which they had been suffered to build for the residenceof their merchants and convenience of their trade. This city lay on theCanopic branch of the Nile; and if a vessel entered any other mouth of thisriver, the master was obliged to return to the Canopic branch; or, if thewind did not permit this, to unlade his vessel, and send his merchandize toNaucratis by the country boats. 

From the time of Psammeticus, when the Greeks were allowed to settle inEgypt, frequent intercourse and correspondence was kept up between them andtheir countrymen in Greece; and from this circumstance the Egyptian historymay henceforth be more firmly depended upon. It has already been remarked, that as the alleged circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians tookplace during the reign of Necho, the successor of Psammeticus, the groundsfor its authenticity are much stronger than if it had occurred previouslyto the intercourse of the Greeks with Egypt. 

The employment of Phoenician mariners by Necho, to circumnavigate Africa, bespeaks a monarch bent on maritime and commercial enterprise; and thereare other transactions of his reign which confirm this character. It issaid that Sesostris attempted to unite by a canal the Mediterranean and theRed Sea, but that he did not succeed in his attempt: Necho also made theattempt with as little success. He next turned his thoughts to thenavigation and commerce of the Mediterranean and Red Sea, in each of whichhe had large fleets. 

The superstitious antipathy of the Egyptians having been thus brokenthrough, and the recurrence of this antipathy secured against, by theadvantages they derived from navigation and commerce, the Egyptian monarchsseem, as long as Egypt continued free, to have directed their attention andresources, with considerable zeal and success, to maritime affairs. Theirstrength by sea, as well as their experience, may be estimated by an eventduring the reign of Apries, the grandson of Necho: this monarch was engagedin war with the Sidonians, Tyrians and Cypriots; he took the city of Sidonby storm, and defeated both the Phoenicians and Cypriots in a sea fight. Infact, during his reign the Egyptians had the command of the MediterraneanSea. It is probable, that if they had continued long after this time anindependent state, they would have been still more celebrated andsuccessful in their maritime and commercial affairs; but in the year 525before Christ, about seventy years after the reign of Apries, Egypt wasconquered by the Persians. 

Notwithstanding, therefore, this temporary dereliction of their antipathyto the sea, and intercourse with foreigners, the Egyptians can scarcely beregarded as a nation distinguished for their maritime and commercialenterprises; and they certainly by no means, either by sea or land, tookadvantages of those favourable circumstances by which their country seemedto be marked out for the attainment of an extensive and lucrative commerce. It is well remarked by Dr. Vincent, that "while Egypt was under the powerof its native sovereigns Tyre, Sidon, Arabia, Cyprus, Greece, Sicily, andCarthage, were all enriched by the trade carried on in its ports, and thearticles of commerce which could be obtained there, and there only; theEgyptians themselves were hardly known in the Mediterranean as theexporters of their own commodities; they were the Chinese of the ancientworld, and the ships of all nations, except their own, laded in theirharbours. " As soon, however, as it passed from the power of its nativesovereigns, and became subject successively to the Persians, Macedonians, and Romans, it furnished large fleets, and, as we shall afterwards notice, under the Greeks, Alexandria became one of the principal commercial citiesin the world. The Greek inhabitants of Egypt were the carriers of theMediterranean, as well as the agents, factors, and importers of orientialproduce. The cities which had risen under the former system sank intoinsignificance; and so wise was the new policy, and so deeply had it takenroot, that the Romans, upon the subjection of Egypt, found it moreexpedient to leave Alexandria in possession of its privileges, than toalter the course of trade, or to occupy it themselves. 

We possess scarcely any notices respecting the construction and equipmentof the Egyptian ships. According to Herodotus, they were made of thornstwisted together, and their sails of rush mats: they were built in aparticular manner, quite different from those of other nations, and riggedalso in a singular manner; so that they seem to have been the mockery ofthe other maritime states in the Mediterranean. But this description canhardly apply to the Egyptian ships, after they had become powerful at sea, though the expressions of Herodotus seem to have reference to the Egyptianships of his age. There can be no doubt that the vessels that navigated theNile, were very rude and singular in their construction; and most probablythe description given by the historian ought to be regarded as exclusivelyconfined to them. They were built of the Egyptian thorn, which seems tohave been very extensively cultivated, especially in the vicinity ofAcanthus: planks of small dimensions were cut from this tree, which werefastened together, or rather laid over one another, like tiles, with agreat number of wooden pins: they used no ribs in the construction of theirvessels: on the inside, papyrus was employed for the purpose of stopping upthe crevices, or securing the joints. There was but one rudder; whereas theships of the Greeks and Romans had generally two; this passed quite throughthe keel. The mast was made of Egyptian thorn, and the sail of papyrus. Indeed, these two plants appear to have been the entire materials used inthe construction and rigging of their ships. They were towed up the Nile, as they were not fit to stem its stream, except when a strong favourablewind blew. Their mode of navigating these vessels down the river wassingular; they fastened a hurdle of tamarisk with a rope to the prow of thevessel; which hurdle they strengthened with bands of reeds, and let it downinto the water; they also hung a stone, pierced through the middle, and ofa considerable weight, by another rope, to the poop. By this means, thestream bearing on the hurdle, carried down the boat with great expedition;the stone at the same time balancing and keeping it steady. Of thesevessels they had great numbers on the river; some very large. 

III. The Jews were still more averse than the Egyptians to intercourse withforeigners, and maritime and commercial enterprises; indeed, their countrywas comparatively ill-situated for maritime commerce. Josephus is not, however, quite correct, in stating that Judea was not situated on the sea, and that the people of that country did not carry on any trade, but thattheir whole thoughts were turned to agriculture. The words of Jacob, on hisdeath-bed, are expressly against this opinion: in blessing his twelve sons, he says of Zebulon, "he shall dwell at the haven of the sea, and he shallbe for an haven of ships;" and we know that the tribe of Zebulon wasextended to the sea shore, and to the gates of Sidon. 

It is not likely, that being in the immediate vicinity of this commercialcity, the Jews would not be stimulated to follow its example, and endeavourto draw wealth from the same sources. Indeed, the Old Testament expresslyspeaks of Joppa as the port of Judea and Jerusalem, into which foreignarticles, and especially many of the materials used by Solomon in thebuilding of the temple, were imported. 

On the conquest of the Amalekites and Edomites by King David, the Jewsgained possession of some ports in the Red Sea; and during his reign, andthat of Solomon, the Jews certainly employed the ships of their ally, Hiramking of Tyre, extensively in foreign commerce. Indeed, the commerce of thePhoenicians from the Red Sea, appears to have been carried on principally, if not entirely, from the harbours in that sea belonging to the Jews, though there is no ground for believing that the Jews themselves had anyfleet on it, or were at all engaged in its commerce. These short noticesare all that history supplies us with, on the subject of the navigation andcommerce of the Jews. From the Old Testament we may, however, collectmaterials, by which we may estimate the progress they had made ingeography. About 500 years before Christ, they do not appear to haveextended their knowledge of the globe beyond Mount Caucasus to the north, the entrance of the Red Sea to the south, and the Mediterranean Archipelagoto the west, besides Egypt, Asia Minor, Armenia, Syria, Arabia, and perhapsa small part of Abyssinia. 

Having thus given a sketch of the progress of discovery, and of commercialenterprize by sea and land, among those nations who were the most early indirecting their attention to these points, we shall next proceed to anaccount of the navigation and commercial enterprizes of the Greeks andRomans; and as in this part of our work we shall follow a more strictlychronological arrangement, the navigation and commercial enterprizes of theCarthaginians will be incidentally noticed in the order of time to whichthey belong. Before, however, we proceed to this subject, it may be properto enter more particularly and fully than we have hitherto done, into adescription of the construction and equipment of the ancient ships, since, so far as relates to the ships of the Greeks and Romans, we possess muchmore ample materials for such a description, than history supplies us withrespecting the ships of the other nations of antiquity. 

The traditionary story of the Phoenicians, that one of their heroes was thefirst man who had the courage to expose himself upon the waters, in a halfburnt tree, stript of its branches, has already been noticed. It isprobable, however, that the first vessels had not even so much resemblanceto our present boats: indeed, conjecture, as well as history, warrant us inbelieving that rafts were the most ancient mode of conveyance on the water;and even in the time of Pliny they were extensively employed, especially inthe navigation of rivers. Boats formed of slender rods or hurdles, andcovered with skins, seem also to have preceded the canoe, or vessel mode ofa single piece of timber. It is probable that a considerable time wouldelapse before the means of constructing boats of planks were discovered, since the bending of the planks for that purpose is not a very obvious art. The Greeks ascribe this invention to a native of Lydia; but at what periodhe lived, is not known. Among some nations, leather was almost the onlymaterial used in the construction of ships; and even in the time of Caesar, the Veneti, a people of Brittany, distinguished as a maritime andcommercial tribe, made their sails of hides, and their tackle of thongs. Inearly ages, also, the Greeks used the common rushes of their country, andthe Carthaginians, the spartum, or broom of Spain. 

But it is to the ships of Greece and Rome, when they were constructed withmore skill, and better adapted to navigation, that we are to pay attention;and of those, only to such as were used for commercial purposes. The latterwere rounder and more capacious than ships used for war; they wereprincipally impelled by sails; whereas the ships of war, though not whollywithout sails, were chiefly rowed. Another difference between them was, that ships of war commonly had an helmet engraven on the top of theirmasts, and ships for trade had a basket suspended on the top of their mastas a sign. There seems to have been great variety in the construction ofthe latter, according to the particular trade in which they were to beengaged; and each ship of burden had its boat attached to it. The name ofthe ship, or rather of its tutelary deity, was inscribed on the stern:various forms of gods, animals, plants, &c. Were also painted on otherparts. The inhabitants of Phoeacia, or Corsica, are represented as thefirst who used pitch to fill up the seams, and preserve the timber;sometimes wax was used for this purpose, or rather it was mixed with thepaint, to prevent its being defaced by the sun, winds, or water. Theprincipal instruments used in navigation were the rudder, anchor, soundingline, cables, oars, sails, and masts. 

It is evident from ancient authors, that the ships of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and other people of antiquity, had frequently more than onerudder; but it is not easy to perceive in what way more than one could beapplied to the same end for which the rudder of modern ships is used. Smallvessels had only one. Homer in his Odyssey mentions only one, which wasfastened, and perhaps strengthened, so as to withstand the winds and waveson each side, with hurdles, made of sallow or osier; at the same period theships of the Phoenicians had two rudders. When there were two, one wasfixed at each end; this, however, seems to have been the case only where, as was not uncommon, the ships had two prows, so that either end could goforemost. With respect to vessels of four rudders, as two are described asbeing fixed to the sides, it is probable that these resembled in theirconstruction and object the pieces of wood attached to the sides of smallDutch vessels and barges on the Thames, and generally all vessels that areflat-bottomed, for the purpose of preventing them from making much _leeway_, when they are _working_ against the wind. 

The first anchors were not made of iron, but of stone, or even of wood;these were loaded with lead. According to Diodorus, the Phoenicians, intheir first voyages to Spain, having obtained more silver than their shipscould safely hold, employed some of it, instead of lead, for their anchors. Very anciently the anchor had only one fluke. Anacharsis is said to haveinvented an anchor with two. Sometimes baskets full of stones, and sacksfilled with sand, were employed as anchors. Every ship had two anchors, oneof which was never used, except in cases of great danger: it was largerthan the other, and was called the sacred anchor. At the period of theArgonautic expedition, it does not appear that anchors of any kind butstone were known; though the scholiast upon Apollonius Rhodius, quite atvariance with the testimony of this author, mentions anchors of iron withtwo flukes. It has been supposed that anchors were not used by the Grecianfleet at the siege of Troy, because "the Greek word which is used to meanan anchor, properly so called, is not used in any of the poems of Homer. "It is certain that iron anchors were not then known; but it is equallycertain that large stones were used as anchors. 

Homer is entirely silent respecting any implement that would serve thepurpose of a sounding line; but it is expressly mention by Herodotus ascommon in his time: it was commonly made of lead or brass, and attached, not to a cord, but an iron, chain. 

In very ancient times the cables were made of leather thongs, afterwards ofrushes, the osier, the Egyptian byblus, and other materials. The Venetiused iron cables; hence we see that what is generally deemed an inventionentirely modern, was known to a savage nation in Gaul, in the time ofCaesar. This nation was so celebrated for the building and equipment oftheir vessels, which were, from all accounts, better able to withstand thefury of the ocean than the ships even of the Greeks and Romans, that Caesargave orders for the building of vessels, on the Loire, similar to those ofthe Veneti, large, flat-bottomed, and high at the head and stern. Yet thesevessels, built on such an excellent model, and supplied with chain-cables, had no sails but what were made of leather; and these sails were neverfurled, but only bound to the mast. Besides cables, the ancients had otherropes to fasten ships in the harbours: the usual mode was to erect stonesfor this purpose, which were bored through. 

In the time of Homer, the ships of the ancients had only one bank of oars;afterwards two, three, four, five, and even nine and ten banks of oars aresaid not to have been uncommon: but it is not easy to understand in whatmanner so many oars could have been used: we shall not enter on thisquestion, which is still unresolved. The Romans had seldom any vessels withmore than five banks of oars. Such vessels as were intended for lightness, had only one bank of oars; this was particularly the case with the vesselsof the Liburnians, a piratical tribe on the Adriatic. 

The sails, in very ancient times, were made of leather; afterwards ofrushes. In the days of Agricola, the Roman sails were made of flax: towardsthe end of the first century, hemp was in common use among them for sails, ropes, and new for hunting. At first there was only one sail in a ship, butafterwards there appear to have been several: they were usually white, asthis colour was deemed fortunate; sometimes, however, they were coloured. 

At the time of the Trojan war, the Greek ships had only one mast, which waslowered upon the deck when the ship was in harbour: near the top of themast a ribband was fastened to point out the direction of the wind. Inlater times there seem to have been several masts, though this is denied bysome authors. 

It remains now to speak of the materials of which the ships were built, their size, and their crews. 

The species of wood principally employed in the construction of the Grecianships were alder, poplar, and fir: cedar, pine, and cypress, were alsoused. The Veneti, already mentioned as celebrated for their ships, builtthem of oak; but theirs are the only vessels of antiquity that seem to havebeen constructed of this kind of wood. The timber was so little seasoned, that a considerable number of ships are recorded as having been completelybuilt and equipped in thirty days, after the timber was cut down in theforest. In the time of the Trojan war, no iron was used in the building ofships; the planks were fastened to the ribs with cords. 

In the most ancient accounts of the Grecian ships, the only mode by whichwe can form a conjecture of their size, is from the number of men they werecapable of holding. At the siege of Troy, Homer describes the ships of theBeotians as the largest; and they carried, he says, one hundred and twentymen. As Thucydides informs us that at this period soldiers served asrowers, the number mentioned by Homer must comprehend all the ship couldconveniently accommodate. In general the Roman trading vessels were verysmall. Cicero represents those that could hold two thousand amphorae, orabout sixty tons, as very large; there were, however, occasionally enormousships built: one of the most remarkable for size was that of Ptolemy; itwas four hundred and twenty feet long, and if it were broad and deep inproportion, its burden must have been upwards of seven thousand tons, morethan three times the burden of one of our first rates; but it is probablethat it was both flat bottomed and narrow. Of the general smallness of theGreek and Roman ships, we need no other proof, than that they wereaccustomed to draw them on land when in port, and during the winter; andthat they were often conveyed for a considerable space over land. They weresometimes made in such a manner that they could easily and quickly be takento pieces, and put together again. Thucydides asserts that the ships whichcarried the Greeks to Troy were not covered; but in this he is contradictedby Homer. 

The principal officer in ships intended for trade was the pilot: he wasexpected to know the right management of the sails, rudder, &c. The wind, and celestial bodies, the harbours, rocks, quick-sands, and course to besteered. The Greeks were far behind the Phoenicians in many parts ofnautical knowledge: we have seen that the latter at an early period changedthe Greater for the Lesser Bear, for the direction of their course; whereasthe Greeks steered by the Greater Bear. In very early periods it was thepractice to steer all day by the course of the sun, and at night to anchornear the shore. Several stars were observed by the pilot for the purpose offoretelling the weather, the principal of which were Arcturus, the DogStar, Orion, Castor and Pollux, &c. In the time of Homer, the Greeks knewonly the four cardinal winds; they were a long time ignorant of the art ofsubdividing the intermediate parts of the horizon, and of determining anumber of rhombs sufficient to serve the purposes of a navigation of smallextent. Even so late as the date of the Periphes of the Erythræan Sea, which Dr. Vincent has fixed about the tenth year of Nero's reign, onlyeight points of the compass are mentioned; these are the same as are markedupon the temple of the winds at Athens. The utmost length to which theancients arrived in subdividing the compass, was by adding two intermediatewinds between each of the cardinal winds. We have noticed these particularsrelative to the winds and the constellations, in order to illustrate theduty which the pilot had to perform, and the difficulty and responsibilityof his office, at a period when navigators possessed such a small portionof experience and knowledge. 

Besides the chief pilot, there was a subordinate one, whose duty it was tokeep a look out at the prow, to manage and direct the sails and rowers, andto assist the principal pilot by his advice: the directions of thesubordinate pilot were conveyed to the rowers by another officer, who seemsto have answered to the boatswain of our men of war. The rowers wereenabled to pull all at once, or to keep time, by a person who sung andplayed to them while they were employed. During the night, or in difficultnavigations, the charge of the sounding lead, or of the long poles, whichwere used either for the same purpose, or to push the ship off, when shegot a-ground, was committed to a particular officer. There were, besides, men whose duty it was to serve out the victuals, to keep the ship'saccounts, &c. 

The usual day's sail of a ship of the ancients was five hundred stadia, orfifty miles; and the course run over, when they sailed night and day, double that space. 

We have confined ourselves, in this account of the ships of the ancients, principally to those particulars that are connected with the construction, equipment, &c. Of those employed for commercial purposes, and shall nowproceed to a historical sketch of the progress of discovery among theGreeks, from the earliest records to the era of Herodotus, the father ofgeographical knowledge. 

The first maritime expedition of the Greeks, of which we have a particularnarration, and certainly one of the most celebrated in ancient times, isthe Argonautic expedition. As we purpose to go into some length on thesubject of this expedition, it may be proper to defend ourselves from thecharge of occupying too much space, and giving too much attention to anenterprize generally deemed fabulous, and so obscured by fable anduncertainty, as to be little capable of illustration, and little conduciveto the improvement of geographical knowledge. This defence we shall borrowfrom a name deservedly high among those who have successfully illustratedancient geography, for the happy and successful mutual adaptation of greatlearning and sound judgment, and not less worthy of respect and imitationfor his candour and liberality: we allude to Dr. Vincent, the illustratorof the Voyage of Nearchus, and the Periplus of the Erythræan Sea. 

"The reality of the Argonautic expedition, (he observes in the PreliminaryDisquisition to the latter work), has been questioned; but if theprimordial history of every nation but one is tinctured with the fabulous, and if from among the rest a choice is necessary to be made, it must beallowed that the traditions of Greece are less inconsistent than those ofthe more distant regions of the earth. Oriental learning is now employed inunravelling the mythology of India, and recommending it as containing theseeds of primæval history; but hitherto we have seen nothing that shouldinduce us to relinquish the authority we have been used to respect, or tomake us prefer the fables of the Hindoos or Guebres, to the fables of theGreeks. Whatever difficulties may occur in the return of the Argonauts, their voyage to Colchis is consistent: it contains more real geography thanhas yet been discovered in any record of the Bramins or the Zendevesta, andis truth itself, both geographical and historical, when compared with theportentous expedition of Rám to Ceylon. "

In discussing the subject of the Argonautic expedition, we shallsuccessively consider its probable era--its supposed object--the voyage toColchis, and the various tracks by which the Argonauts are said to havereturned. 

I. Archbishop Usher fixes the era of this expedition at about 1280 yearsbefore Christ: Sir Isaac Newton, on the other hand, fixes it much later, about 937 years before Christ. His opinion is grounded principally on asupposition, that the Greek sphere was invented by two of the Argonauts, who delineated the expedition under the name of Argo, one of theconstellations. And as the equinoctial colure passed through the middle ofAries, when that sphere was constructed, he infers, by calculations oftheir retrograde motion from their place then till the year A. D. 1690, thatthe expedition took place in 937 before Christ. To this, however, thereseem to be insurmountable objections, which it is surprising did not occurto this great man. The chief star in Argo is only 37 degrees from the southpole; and the greatest part of the constellation is much nearer. The courseof the Argonauts from Greece to Colchis, necessarily lay between 39 and 45degrees of north latitude. It will be evident to any person acquainted withastronomy, that within these latitudes no star of the first magnitude, orsuch as would attract observation, especially in those times, could bevisible. But, what is still more decisive against the whole of Sir IsaacNewton's hypothesis, he takes for granted that the sphere was invented bythe Argonauts: if this indeed could be proved, it would be easy to fix theera of the Argonautic expedition; but till such proof is given, all thatcan be fairly inferred from an inspection of this sphere is, that it wasconstructed 937 years before Christ. We have dwelt upon this point, because, thinking that the Argonautic expedition was not nearly so late asNewton supposes, we hence regard it as, proportionally to its antiquity, more creditable to the Greeks, and a stronger proof of their advancement inmaritime skill and enterprize. 

II. Its alleged object was the Golden Fleece: what that actually was canonly be conjectured;--that no commercial advantages would tempt the peopleof that age is obvious, when we reflect on their habits and manners;--thatthe precious metals would be a powerful attraction, and would be regardedas cheaply acquired by the most hazardous enterprizes, is equally obvious. If Sir Walter Raleigh, sound as he was for his era in the science ofpolitical economy, was so far ignorant of the real wealth of nations, as tobe disappointed when he did not find El Dorado in America, though thatcountry contained much more certain and abundant sources of wealth, --can webe surprized if the Greeks, at the time of the Argonautic expedition, couldbe stimulated to such an enterprize, only by the hope of obtaining theprecious metals? It may, indeed, be contended that plunder was theirobject; but it does not seem likely that they would have ventured to such adistance from Greece, or on a navigation which they knew to be difficultand dangerous, as well as long, for the sake of plunder, when there weremeans and opportunities for it so much nearer home. We must equally rejectthe opinion of Suidas, that the Golden Fleece was a parchment book, made ofsheep-skin, which contained the whole secret of transmuting all metals intogold; and the opinion of Varro, that the Argonauts went to obtain skins andother rich furs, which Colchis furnished in abundance. And the remarkswhich we have made, also apply against the opinion of Eustathius, that thevoyage of the Argonauts was at once a commercial and maritime expedition, to open the commerce of the Euxine Sea, and to establish forts on itsshore. 

Having rendered it probable, from general considerations, that the objectwas the obtaining of the precious metals, we shall next proceed tostrengthen this opinion, by showing that they were the produce of thecountry near the Black Sea. The gold mines to the south of Trebizond, whichare still worked with sufficient profit, were a subject of national disputebetween Justinian and Chozroes; and, as Gibbon remarks, "it is notunreasonable to believe that a vein of precious metal may be equallydiffused through the circle of the hills. " On what account these mines wereshadowed out under the appellation of a Golden Fleece, it is not easy toexplain. Pliny, and some other writers, suppose that the rivers impregnatedwith particles of gold were carefully strained through sheeps-skins, orfleeces; but these are not the materials that would be used for such apurpose: it is more probable that, if fleeces were used, they were setacross some of the narrow parts of the streams, in order to stop andcollect the particles of gold. 

III. It is said that there was an ancient law in Greece, which forbad anyship to be navigated with more than fifty men, and that Jason was the firstwho offended against this law. There can be little doubt, from all theaccounts of the ancients, that Jason's ship was larger than the Greeks atthat period were accustomed to. Diodorus and Pliny represent it as thefirst ship of war which went out of the ports of Greece; that it wascomparatively large, well built and equipped, and well navigated in allrespects, must be inferred from its having accomplished such a voyage atthat era. 

In their course to the Euxine Sea, they visited Lemnos, Samothrace, Troas, Cyzicum, Bithynia, and Thrace; these wanderings must have been the resultof their ignorance of the navigation of those seas. From Thrace theydirected their course, without further wanderings, to the Euxine Sea. Atthe distance of four or five leagues from the entrance to the sea, are theCyanean rocks; the Argonauts passed between them not without difficulty anddanger; before this expedition, the passage was deemed impracticable, andmany fables were told regarding them: their true situation and form werefirst explored by the Argonauts. They now safely entered the Euxine Sea, where they seem to have been driven about for some time, till theydiscovered Mount Caucasus; this served as a land mark for their entranceinto the Phasis, when they anchored near OEa, the capital of Colchis. 

IV. The course of the Argonauts to Colchis is well ascertained; and theaccessions to the geographical knowledge of that age, which we derive fromthe accounts given of that course, are considerable. But with respect tothe route they followed on their return, there is much contradiction andfable. All authors agree that they did not return by the same route whichthey pursued in their outward voyage. According to Hesiod, they passed fromthe Euxine into the Eastern Ocean; but being prevented from returning bythe same route, in consequence of the fleet of Colchis blockading theBosphorus, they were obliged to sail round Ethiopia, and to cross Lybia byland, drawing their vessels after them. In this manner they arrived at theGulph of Syrtis, in the Mediterranean. Other ancient writers conduct theArgonauts back by the Nile, which they supposed to communicate with theEastern Ocean; while, by others, they are represented as having sailed upthe Danube to the Po or the Rhine. 

Amidst such obscure and evidently fictitious accounts, it may appearuseless to offer any conjecture; but there is one route by which theArgonauts are supposed to have returned, in favour of which someprobability may be urged. All writers agree in opinion that they did notreturn by the route they followed on going to the Euxine; if this be true, the least absurd and improbable mode of getting back into the Mediterraneanis to be preferred: of those routes already mentioned, all are eminentlyabsurd and impossible. Perhaps the one we are about to describe, may, inthe opinion of some, be deemed equally so; but to us it appears to havesome plausibility. The tradition to which we allude is, that the Argonautssailed up some sea or river from the Euxine, till they reached the BalticSea, and that they returned by the Northern Ocean through the straits ofHercules, into the Mediterranean. The existence of an ocean from the eastend of the Gulf of Finland to the Caspian or the Euxine Sea, was firmlybelieved by Pliny, and the same opinion prevailed in the eleventh century;for Adam of Bremen says, people [could sail->could formerly sail] from theBaltic down to Greece. Now the whole of that tract of country is flat andlevel, and from the sands near Koningsberg, through the calcareous loam ofPoland and the Ukraine, evidently alluvial and of comparatively recentformation. 

If the Trojan war happened, according to the Arundelian Marbles, 1209 yearsbefore Christ, this event must have been subsequent to the Argonauticexpedition only about fifty years: yet, in this short space of time, theGreeks had made great advances in the art of ship building, and innavigation. The equipment of the Argonautic expedition was regarded, at theperiod it took place, as something almost miraculous; yet the ships sentagainst Troy seem to have excited little astonishment, though, consideringthe state of Greece at that period, they were very numerous. 

It is foreign to our purpose to regard this expedition in any other lightthan as it is illustrative of the maritime skill and attainments of Greeceat this era, and so far connected with our present subject. The number ofships employed, according to Homer, amounted to 1186: Thucydides statesthem at 1200; and Euripides, Virgil, and some other authors, reduce theirnumber to 1000. The ships of the Boeotians were the largest; they carried120 men each; those of the Philoctetæ were the smallest, each carryingonly fifty men. Agamemnon had 160 ships; the Athenians fifty; Menelaus, king of Sparta, sixty; but some of his ships seem to have been furnished byhis allies; whereas all the Athenian vessels belonged to Athens alone. Wehave already mentioned that Thucydides is contradicted by Homer, in hisassertion that the Greek ships, at the siege of Troy, had no decks;perhaps, however, they were only half-decked, as it would appear, from thedescriptions of them, that the fore-part was open to the keel: they had amainsail, and were rowed by oars. Greece is so admirably situated formaritime and commercial enterprize, that it must have been very earlysensible of its advantages in these respects. The inhabitants of the isleof Egina are represented as the first people in Greece who weredistinguished for their intelligence and success in maritime traffic: soonafter the return of the Heraclidæ they possessed considerable commerce, andfor a long time they are said to have held the empire of the adjoining sea. Their naval power and commerce were not utterly annihilated till the timeof Pericles. 

The Corinthians, who are not mentioned by Homer as having engaged in theTrojan war, seem, however, not long afterwards, to have embarked with greatspirit and success in maritime commerce; their situation was particularlyfavourable for it, and equally well situated to be the transit of the landtrade of Greece. Corinth had two ports, one upon each sea. The Corinthiansare said to have first built vessels with three banks of oars, instead ofgalleys. 

Although the Athenians brought a considerable force against Troy, yet theydid not engage in maritime commerce till long after the period of which weare at present treating. 

Of the knowledge which the Greeks possessed at this time, on the subject ofgeography, we must draw our most accurate and fullest account from thewritings of Homer and Hesiod. The former represents the shield of Achillesas depicting the countries of the globe; on it the earth was figured as adisk surrounded by the ocean; the centre of Greece was represented as thecentre of the world; the disk included the Mediterranean Sea, muchcontracted on the west, and the Egean and part of the Euxine Seas. TheMediterranean was so much contracted on this side, that Ithaca, and theneighbouring continent, or at the farthest, the straits which separateSicily from Italy, were its limits. Sicily itself was just known only asthe land of wonders and fables, though the fable of the Cyclops, who livedin it, evidently must nave been derived from some obscure report of itsvolcano. The fables Homer relates respecting countries to the west ofSicily, cannot even be regarded as having any connection with, orresemblance to the truth. Beyond the Euxine also, in the other direction, all is fable. Colchis seems to have been known, though not so accurately asthe recent Argonautic expedition might have led us to suppose it would havebeen. The west coast of Asia Minor, the scene of his great poem, is ofcourse completely within his knowledge; the Phoenicians and Egyptians areparticularly described, the former for their purple stuffs, gold and silverworks, maritime science and commercial skill, and cunning; the latter fortheir river Egyptos, and their knowledge of medicine. To the west of Egypthe places Lybia, where he says the lambs are born with horns, and the sheepbring forth three times a year. 

In the Odyssey he conducts Neptune into Ethiopia; and the account he givesseems to warrant the belief, that by the Ethiopians he meant not merely theEthiopians of Africa, but the inhabitants of India: we know that theancients, even so late as the time of Strabo and Ptolemy, considered allthose nations as Ethiopians who lived upon the southern ocean from east towest; or, as Ptolemy expresses it, that under the zodiac, from east towest, inhabit the inhabitants black of colour. Homer represents these twonations as respectively the last of men, one of them on the east and theother on the west. From his description of the gardens of Alcinous, it mayeven be inferred that he had received some information respecting theclimate of the tropical regions; for this description appears to us ratherborrowed from report, than entirely the produce of imagination. 

 Close to the gates a spacious garden lies, From storms defended and inclement skies. Four acres was th' allotted space of ground, Fenc'd with a green enclosure all around, Tall thriving trees confess'd the fruitful mould; The red'ning apple ripens here to gold. Here the blue fig with luscious juice o'erflows, With deeper red the full pomegranate glows, The branch here bends beneath the weighty pear, And verdant olives flourish round the year. The balmy spirit of the western gale Eternal breathes on fruits untaught to fail: Each dropping pear a following pear supplies, On apples apples, figs on figs arise: The same mild season gives the blooms to blow, The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow; Here order'd vines in equal ranks appear, With all th' united labours of the year; Some to unload the fertile branches run, Some dry the black'ning clusters in the sun, Others to tread the liquid harvest join, The groaning presses foam with floods of wine. Here are the vines in early flow'r descry'd, Here grapes discolour'd on the sunny side, And there in autumn's richest purple dy'd. Beds of all various herbs, for ever green, In beauteous order terminate the scene. 

 _Odyssey, _ b. Vii. V. 142. 

This description perfectly applies to the luxuriant and uninterruptedvegetation of tropical climates. 

From the time of Homer to that of Herodotus, the Greeks spread themselvesover several parts of the countries lying on the Mediterranean sea. About600 years before Christ, a colony of Phocean Greeks from Ionia, foundedMassilia, the present Marseilles; and between the years 500 and 430, theGreeks had established themselves in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and even insome of the southern provinces of Spain. They were invited or compelled tothese emigrations by the prospect of commercial advantages, or by intestinewars; and they were enabled to accomplish their object by the geographicaland nautical charts, which they are said to have obtained from thePhoenicians, and by means of the sphere constructed by Anaximander theMilesian. The eastern parts of the Mediterranean, however, seem still tohave been unexplored. Homer tells us that none but pirates ventured at therisk of their lives to steer directly from Crete to Lybia; and when theIonian deputies arrived at Egina, where the naval forces of Greece wereassembled, with an earnest request that the fleet might sail to Ionia, todeliver their country from the dominion of Xerxes, who was at that timeattempting to subdue Greece, the request was refused, because the Greekswere ignorant of the course from Delos to Ionia, and because they believedit to be as far from Egina to Samos, as from Egina to the Pillars ofHercules. 

[1] Dr. Vincent, in the 2nd vol. Of his Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, has a very elaborate commentary on this chapter of Ezekiel, in which he satisfactorily makes out the nature of most of the articles mentioned in it, as well as the locality of the places from which they are said to have come. 

[2] One of the most celebrated gods of the Phoenicians was Melcartus. He is represented as a great navigator, and as the first that brought tin from the Cassiterides. His image was usually affixed to the stern of their vessels. 

[3] In the time of Solomon, about two hundred years after the period when it is supposed the Phoenicians began to direct their course by the Lesser Bear, --it was 17 1/2 degrees from the North Pole: in the time of Ptolemy, about one hundred and fifty years after Christ, its distance had decreased to 12 degrees. 

CHAPTER II. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY AND COMMERCIAL ENTERPRIZE, FROM THE AGE OF HERODOTUS TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, B. C. 324. 

From the scanty materials respecting the Phoenicians, with which we aresupplied by ancient history, it is evident that they founded severalcolonies, either for the purpose of commerce, or, induced by other motives, in different parts of Africa. Of these colonies, the most celebrated wasthat of Carthage: a state which maintained an arduous contest with Rome, during the period when the martial ardour and enterprize of that city wasmost strenuously supported by the stern purity of republican virtue, whichmore than once drove it to the brink of ruin, and which ultimately fell, rather through the vice of its own constitution and government, and thejealousies and quarrels of its own citizens, and through the operation ofextraneous circumstances, over which it could have no controul, than fromthe fair and unassisted power of its adversary. 

The era of the foundation of Carthage is unknown. According to somewriters, it was built so early as 1233 years before Christ; but the moregeneral, as well as more probable opinion, assigns it a much laterfoundation--about 818 years before the Christian era. If this opinion becorrect, Rome and Carthage were founded nearly about the same period. Thecircumstances which led to and accompanied the foundation of Carthage, though related with circumstantial fulness by the ancient poets, are by nomeans accurately know to authentic history. 

The situation of Carthage was peculiarly favourable to commerce andmaritime enterprize; in the centre of the Mediterranean; in reach of theeast as well as of the west; the most fertile, and most highly cultivatedand civilized part of Africa in her immediate vicinity. Carthage itself wasbuilt at the bottom of a gulph, on a peninsula, which was about forty-fivemiles in circumference; and its strength and security were further aided bythe isthmus which connected this peninsula to the main land, as it waslittle more than three miles broad; by a projection of land on the westside, which was only half a stadium in breadth; and by a lake or morasswhich lay on the opposite side: this projection, which ran out considerablyinto the sea, was naturally strong by the rocks with which it was covered, and was rendered still stronger by art. In one point only had thisprojection been neglected; this was an angle, which from the foundation ofthe city had been overlooked, advancing into the sea towards the westerncontinent, as far as the harbours, which lay on the same side of the city. There were two harbours, so placed and constructed as to communicate witheach other. They had one entrance, seventy feet in breadth, which was shutup and secured by strong chains stretched across it. One of these harbourswas exclusively set apart for merchant ships; and in its vicinity were tobe found every thing necessary for the accommodation of the seamen. In themiddle of the other harbour was an island called Cothon; though, accordingto some writers, this was the name of the harbour itself. The word Cothon, we are informed by Festus, (and his etymology is confirmed by Bochart andBuxtorf, ) signifies, in the oriental languages, a port not formed bynature, but the result of labour and art. The second harbour, as well asthe island in it, seems to have been intended principally, if notexclusively, for ships of war; and it was so capacious, that of these itwould contain 220. This harbour and island were lined with docks and sheds, which received the ships, when it was necessary to repair them, or protectthem from the effects of the weather. On the key were built extensiveranges of wharfs, magazines, and storehouses, filled with all the requisitematerials to fit out the ships of war. This harbour seems to have beendecorated with some taste, and at some expence; so that both it and theisland, viewed at a distance, appeared like two extensive and magnificentgalleries. The admiral's palace, which commanded a view of the mouth of theharbour and of the sea, was also a building of considerable taste. Eachharbour had its particular entrance into the city: a double wall separatedthem so effectually, that the merchant vessels, when they entered their ownharbour, could not see the ships of war; and though the admiral, from hispalace, could perceive whatever was doing at sea, it was impossible thatfrom the sea any thing in the inward harbour could be perceived. 

Nor were these advantages, though numerous and great, the only ones whichCarthage enjoyed as a maritime city; for its situation was so admirablychosen, and that situation so skilfully rendered subservient to the grandobject of the government and citizens, that even in case the accidents ofwar should destroy or dispossess them of one of their harbours, they had itin their power, in a great measure, to replace the loss. This wasexemplified in a striking and effective manner at the time when Scipioblocked up the old port; for the Carthaginians, in a very short time, builta new one, the traces and remains of which were plainly visible so late asthe period when Dr. Shaw visited this part of Africa. 

Carthage, at a comparatively early period of its history, possessed a verylarge extent of sea coast, though in it there were but few harbours fittedfor commerce. The boundaries of the Carthaginian dominions on the west werethe Philænorum Aræ, so called from two brothers of this name, who wereburied in the sand at this place, in consequence of a dispute between theCarthaginians and the Cyreneans, respecting the boundaries of theirrespective countries. On the other, or western side, the Carthaginiandominions extended as far as the Pillars of Hercules, a distance, accordingto Polybius, of 16, 000 stadia, or 2000 miles; but, according to the moreaccurate observations of Dr. Shaw, only 1420 geographical miles. 

Next to Carthage itself, the city of Utica was most celebrated as a placeof commerce: it lay a short distance to the west of Carthage, and on thesame bay. It had a large and convenient harbour; and after the destructionof Carthage, it became the metropolis of Africa Propria. Neapolis was alsoa place of considerable trade, especially with Sicily, from which thedistance was so short, that the voyage could be performed in two days and anight. Hippo was a frontier town on the side of Numidia; though Strabosays, there were two of the same name in Africa Propria. The CarthaginianHippo had a port, arsenal, storehouses, and citadel: it lay between a largelake and the sea. We have already noticed the etymological meaning of theword Cothon: that this meaning is accurate may be inferred from the wordbeing applied to several artificial harbours in the Carthaginian dominion, besides that of Cartilage itself: it was applied to the port of Adrumetum, a large city built on a promontory, --and to the port of Thapsus, a maritimetown, situated on a kind of isthmus, between the sea and a lake. Theartificial nature, of this latter harbour is placed beyond all doubt, asthere is still remaining a great part of it built on frames: the materialsare composed of mortar and small pebbles, so strongly and closely cemented, that they have the appearance, as well as durability, of solid rock. It issingular, that in the dominions of Carthage, extending, as we have seen, upwards of 1400 miles along the shores of the Mediterranean, there shouldbe no river of any magnitude or importance for commerce: the Bagrada andthe Catada alone are noticed by ancient historians, and both of these wereinsignificant streams. 

Having thus pointed out the natural advantages for commerce possessed bythe Carthaginians, we shall next proceed to notice such of their laws, andsuch parts of their political institutions, and features of theircharacter, as either indicated their bias for commerce, or tended tostrengthen it. The monarchical government of Carthage was not of longcontinuance; it afterwards became republican, though the exact form of therepublic is not certainly known. As late as the time of Aristotle, thereseems to have been such a complete and practical counterpoise of the powersin which the supreme authority was vested, that, according to him, therehad been no instance from the foundation of the city, of any popularcommotions sufficient to disturb its tranquillity; nor, on the other hand, of any tyrant, who had been able to destroy its liberty. This sagaciousphilosopher foresaw the circumstance which would destroy the constitutionof Carthage; for when there was a disagreement between the two branches ofthe legislature, the suffetes and the senate, the question in dispute wasreferred to the people, and their resolve became the law. Till the secondand third wars between Rome and Carthage, no fatal effects resulted fromthis principle of the constitution; but during these, the people werefrequently called upon to exercise their dangerous authority andprivileges; the senate yielded to them; cabals and factions took placeamong those who were anxious to please, for the purpose of guiding thepeople; rash measures were adopted, the councils and the power of Carthagebecame distracted and weak, and its ruin was precipitated and completed. 

But though to this defect in the constitution of Carthage its ruin maypartly be ascribed, there can be little doubt that commerce flourished bymeans of the popular form of its government. Commerce was the pursuit ofall ranks and classes, as well as the main concern and object of thegovernment The most eminent persons in the state for power, talents, birth, and riches, applied themselves to it with as much ardour and perseveranceas the meanest citizens; and this similarity and equality of pursuit, as itsprang in some measure from the republican equality of the constitution, soalso it tended to preserve it. 

The notices which we possess respecting the political institutions of theCarthaginians are very scanty, and are almost entirely derived fromAristotle: according to him they had a custom, which must at once haverelieved the state from those whom it could not well support, and havetended to enlarge the sphere of their commercial enterprize. They sent, asoccasion required, colonies to different parts, and these colonies, keepingup their connection with the mother country, not only drew off hersuperabundant trade, but also supplied her with many articles she could nototherwise have procured at so easy and cheap a rate. 

The fertility and high state of cultivation of those parts of Africa whichadjoined Carthage, has already been alluded to; and their exports consistedeither of the produce of those parts, or of their own manufactures. Of theformer there were all kinds of provisions; wax, oil, honey, skins, fruits, &c. ; their principal manufactures were cables, especially those fit forlarge vessels, made of the shrub _spartum_; all other kinds of navalstores; dressed leather; the particular dye or colour, called from thempunic, the preparation of which seems not to be known; toys, &c. &c. FromEgypt they imported flax, papyrus, &c. ; from the Red Sea, spices, drugs, perfumes, gold, pearls, &c. ; from the countries on the Levant, silk stuffs, scarlet and purple dyes, &c. ; and from the west of Europe their principalimports seem to have been iron, lead, tin, and the other useful metals. 

Such was the commerce by sea, as far as the imperfect notices on thissubject, by the ancient historians, instruct us: but they also carried on aconsiderable and lucrative commerce by land, especially with the Persiansand Ethiopians. The caravans of these nations generally resorted toCarthage; the rarest and most esteemed articles which they brought werecarbuncles, which, by means of this traffic, became so plenty in this city, that they were generally known by the appellation of Carthaginian gems. Themode of selling by auction seems to have been practised by this nation; atleast there are passages in the ancient authors, particularly one inPolybius, which would naturally lead to the conclusion, that in the sale oftheir merchandize, the Carthaginians employed a person to name and describetheir various kinds and qualities, and also a clerk to note down the priceat which they were sold. Their mode of trafficking with rude nations, unaccustomed to commerce, as described by Herodotus, strongly resemblesthat which has been often adopted by our navigators, when they arrive onthe coast of a savage people. According to this historian, theCarthaginians trafficked with the Lybians, who inhabited the western coastof Africa, in the following manner: having conducted their vessels intosome harbour or creek, they landed the merchandize which they meant toexchange or dispose of, and placed it in such a manner and situation, asexposed it to the view of the inhabitants, and at the same time indicatedthe purpose for which it was thus exposed. They afterwards lighted a fireof such materials as caused a great smoke; this attracted the Lybians tothe spot, who laid down such a quantity of gold as they deemed an adequateprice for the merchandize, and then retired. The Carthaginians nextapproached and examined the gold: if they deemed it sufficient, they tookit away, and left the merchandize; if they did not, they left both. In thelatter event, the Lybians again returned, and added to the quantity ofgold; and this, if necessary, was repeated, till the Carthaginians, bytaking it away, shewed that in their judgment it was an adequate price fortheir goods. During the whole of this transaction, no intercourse or wordspassed, nor did the Carthaginians even touch the gold, nor the Lybians themerchandize, till the former took away the gold. 

The earliest notice we possess of a commercial alliance formed by theCarthaginians, fixes it a very few years before the birth of Herodotus: itwas concluded between them and the Romans about the year 503 before Christ. The Carthaginians were the first nation the Romans were connected with outof Italy. Polybius informs us, that in his time (about 140 years beforeChrist) this treaty, written in the old language of Rome, then nearlyunintelligible, was extant on the base of a column, and he has given atranslation of it: the terms of peace between the Carthaginians and theirallies, and the Romans and their allies, were to the following purport. Thelatter agreed not to sail beyond the fair promontory, (which lay, accordingto our historian, a very short distance to the north of Carthage, ) unlessthey were driven beyond it by stress of weather, or by an enemy's vessel. In case they were obliged to land, or were shipwrecked, they were not totake or purchase any thing, except what they might need, to repair theirships, or for the purpose of sacrifice. And in no case, or under nopretext, were they to remain on shore above five days. The Roman merchantswere not to pay any higher, or other duty, than what was allowed by law tothe common crier and his clerk, already noticed, who, it appears from thistreaty, were bound to make a return to government of all the goods thatwere bought or sold in Africa and Sardinia. It was moreover provided, thatif the Romans should visit any places in Sicily, subject to theCarthaginians, they should be civilly treated, and have justice done themin every respect. On the other hand, the Carthaginians bound themselves notto interfere with any of the Italian allies, or subjects of the Romans; norbuild any fort in their territory. Such were the principal articles in thiscommercial treaty; from it, it appears, that so early as the year 503before Christ, the first year after the expulsion of the Tarquins, andtwenty-eight years before the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, theCarthaginians were in possession of Sardinia, and part of Sicily;--thatthey were also acquainted with, and had visited the coasts of Italy; andthere are expressions in the treaty, which render it highly probable thatthe Carthaginians had, before this period, attempted to establish, eitherfor commerce or conquest, colonies and forts in Italy: it is also evidentthat they were acquainted with the art of fortification. 

Though it will carry us rather out of chronological order, it may be properto notice in this place a second treaty of commerce between theCarthaginians and Romans, which was entered into about 333 years beforeChrist, during the consulship of Valerius Corvus, and Popilius Laenas. TheCarthaginians came to Rome for the purpose of concluding this treaty: itdiffered in some particulars from the former, and was to the followingeffect. The Romans and their allies were to possess the friendship of thepeople of Carthage, the Tyrians, and the inhabitants of Utica, providedthey carried on no hostilities against them, and did not trade beyond thefair promontory, Mastica and Tarseium. In case the Carthaginians shouldtake any town in Italy, not under the jurisdiction of the Romans, theymight plunder it, but after that they were to give it up to the Romans. Anycaptives taken in Italy, who in any Roman port should be challenged by theRomans as belonging to any state in amity with Rome, were to be immediatelyrestored. The Romans, in case they put into the harbours of theCarthaginians, or their allies, to take in water or other necessaries, werenot to be molested or injured; but they were not to carry on any commercein Africa or Sardinia; nor even land on those coasts, except to purchasenecessaries, and refit their ships: in such cases, only five days wereallowed them, at the expiration of which they were to depart. But, in thetowns of Sicily belonging to the Carthaginians, and even in the city ofCarthage itself, the Romans were permitted to trade, enjoying the samerights and privileges as the Carthaginians; and, on the other hand, theCarthaginians were to be allowed to traffic in Rome on terms equallyfavourable. 

It is not our intention, because it would be totally foreign to the objectand nature of this work, to give a history of Carthage; but only to noticesuch events and transactions, supplied by its history, as are illustrativeof the commercial enterprise of by far the most enterprising commercialnation of antiquity. In conformity to this plan, we shall briefly noticetheir first establishment in Spain, as it was from the mines of thiscountry that they drew great wealth, and thus were enabled, not only toequip formidable fleets and armies, but also to extend their traffic veryconsiderably. 

The city of Cadiz, was founded by the Phoenicians, as well as Carthage; andas there was a close connection between most of the Phoenician colonies, itis probable that some time before the Carthaginians established themselvesin Spain, they traded with the people of Cadiz: at any rate it is certain, that when the latter were hard pressed by the Spaniards, they applied tothe Carthaginians for assistance: this was readily given, and beingeffectual, the Carthaginians embraced the opportunity, and the pretext thusafforded for establishing themselves in the part of Spain adjoining Cadiz. It is singular, however, that though the Carthaginians were in possessionof Majorca and Minorca from so remote an antiquity, "that their firstarrival there is prior to every thing related of them by any historian nowextant, " yet they do not seem to have established themselves on the mainland of Spain till they assisted the people of Cadiz. With respect to theother foreign possessions of the Carthaginians, we have already seen that, at the period of their first treaty with the Romans, they occupied Sardiniaand part of Sicily; and there are several passages in the ancienthistorians, particularly in Herodotus, which render it highly probable thatthey had establishments in Corsica about the same time. Malta and itsdependent islands were first peopled by the Phoenicians, and seemafterwards to have fallen into the possession of the Carthaginians. 

Of the particular voyages undertaken by the Carthaginians, for the purposeeither of discovery or of commercial enterprise, we possess littleinformation; as, however, these topics are most particularly within thescope of our work, it will be indispensable to detail all the informationrelating to them which can be collected. The voyages of Hamilcar orHimilco, as he is called by some historians, and of Hanno, are the mostcelebrated, or, rather, to speak more accurately, the only voyages of theCarthaginians of which we possess any details, either with regard to theirobject or consequences. Himilco, who was on officer in the navy ofCarthage, was sent by the senate to explore the western coasts of Europe: ajournal of his voyage, and an account of his discoveries, were, accordingto the custom of the nation, inscribed in the Carthaginian annals. But theonly information respecting them which we now possess, is derived from thewritings of the Latin poet Rufus Festus Avienus. This poet flourished underTheodosius, A. D. 450, translated the Phænomena of Aratus, and Dionysius'sDescription of the World, and also wrote an original poem, on the seacoasts. In the last he mentions Himilco, and intimates that he saw theoriginal journal of his voyage in the Carthaginian annals. According to theaccount of Festus, the voyage of Himilco lasted four months, or rather hesailed for the space of four months, towards the north, and arrived at theisles Ostrymnides and the coast of Albion. In the extracts given by Avienusfrom the journal of Himilco, frequent mention is made of lead and tin, andof ships cased with leather (or, more probably, entirely made of thatmaterial, like the coracles still used by the Greenlanders, and even inWales, for crossing small rivers). In these parts, he adds, the East Rymnilived, with whom the people of Tartessus and Carthage traded: we have giventhis appellation to the inhabitants of the isles Ostrymnides, because inthe first part of the latter word, the Teutonic word, OEst, distinctlyappears. 

Hanno was sent by the senate to explore the western coast of Africa, and toestablish Carthaginian colonies wherever he might deem it expedient oradvantageous. He sailed from Carthage with a fleet of 60 vessels, eachrowed with 50 oars, and had besides, a convoy containing 30, 000 persons ofboth sexes. He wrote a relation of his voyage, a fragment of a Greekversion of which is still remaining, and has lately been illustrated by thelearning and ingenuity of Dr. Falconer of Bath: his voyage is also cited byAristotle, Pomponius Mela, and Pliny. The era at which it was performed, and the extent of the voyage, have given rise to much discussion. IsaacVossius fixes the date of it prior to the age of Homer: Vossius the father, subsequent to it: Wesseling doubts whether it was even prior to Herodotus. Campomanes fixes it about the 93d Olympiad: and Mr. Dodwell somewherebetween the 92d and the 129th Olympiad. According to Pliny, Hanno andHimilco were contemporaries; the latter author mentions the commentaries ofHanno, but in such a manner as if he had not seen, and did not believethem. 

With respect to the extent of his voyage along the western coast of Africa, some modern writers assert, without any authority, that he doubled the Capeof Good Hope: this assertion is made in direct unqualified terms by Micklethe translator of the Lusiad. Other writers limit the extent of hisnavigation to Cape Nun; while, according to other geographers, he sailed asfar as Cape Three Points, on the coast of Guinea. That there should be anydoubt on the subject appears surprising; for, as Dr. Vincent very justlyremarks, we have Hanno's own authority to prove that he never was within 40degrees of the Cape. 

That the Carthaginians, before the voyage of Hanno, had discovered theCanary Islands, is rendered highly probable, from the accounts of DiodorusSiculus, and Aristotle: the former mentions a large, beautiful, and fertileisland, to which the Carthaginians, in the event of any overwhelmingdisorder, had determined to remove their government; and Aristotle relatesthat they were attracted to a beautiful island in such numbers, that thesenate were obliged to forbid any further emigration to it on pain ofdeath. 

The voyages of the Carthaginians were, from the situation of theirterritory, and the imperfect state of geography and navigation at thatperiod, usually confined to the Mediterranean and to the western shores ofAfrica and Europe; but several years antecedent to the date usuallyassigned to the voyages of Himilco and Hanno, a voyage of discovery is saidto have been accomplished by the king of a nation little given to maritimeaffairs. We allude to the voyage of Scylax, undertaken at the command ofDarius the son of Hystaspes, about 550 years before Christ. There areseveral circumstances respecting this voyage which deserve attention orexamination; the person who performed it, is said by Herodotus, (from whomwe derive all our information on the subject), to have been a native ofCaryandria, or at least an inhabitant of Asia Minor: he was therefore mostprobably a Greek: he was a geographer and mathematician of some eminence, and by some writers is supposed to have first invented geographical tables. According to Herodotus, Darius, after his Scythian expedition, in order tofacilitate his design of conquest in the direction of India, resolved, inthe first place, to make a discovery of that part of the world. For thispurpose he built and fitted out a fleet at Cespatyrus, a city on the Indus, towards the upper part of the navigable course of that river. The ships, ofcourse, first sailed to the mouth of the Indus, and during their passagethe country on each side was explored. The directions given to Scylax were, after he entered the ocean, to steer to the westward, and thus return toPersia. Accordingly, he is said to have coasted from the mouth of the Industo the Straits of Babelmandel, where he entered the Red Sea; and on the30th month from his first embarking he landed at Egypt, at the same placefrom which Necho, king of that country, had despatched the Phoenicians tocircumnavigate Africa. From Egypt, Scylax returned to Susa, where he gaveDarius a full account of his expedition. 

The reality of this voyage, or at least the accuracy of some of theparticulars it records, has been doubted. Scylax describes the course ofthe Indus to the east; whereas it runs to the south-west. It is also worthyof remark, that as Darius, before the voyage of Scylax, was master of theAttock, Peukeli, and Multan, he needed no information respecting the routeto India, as every conqueror has followed this very obvious and easy route. Dr. Vincent also objects to the authority of this voyage, or rather to thetrack assigned to it: "I cannot believe, " he observes, "from the state ofnavigation in that age, that Scylax could perform a voyage round India, from which the bravest of Alexander's navigators shrunk, or that men whohad explored the desert coast of Gadrosia, should be less daring than anexperienced native of Caryandria. They returned with amazement from thesight of Mussenden and Ras-al-had, while Scylax succeeded without adifficulty upon record. But the obstacles to such a voyage are numerous;first, whether Pactzia be Peukeli, and Caspatyrus, Multan: secondly, ifDarius were master of Multan, whether he could send a ship or a fleet downthe sea, through tribes, where Alexander fought his way at every step:thirdly, whether Scylax had any knowledge of the Indian Ocean, the coast, or the monsoon: fourthly, if the coast of Gadrosia were friendly, which isdoubtful, whether he could proceed along the coast of Arabia, which must behostile from port to port: these and a variety of other difficulties whichNearchus experienced, from famine, from want of water, from theconstruction of his ships, and from the manners of the natives, must inducean incredulity in regard to the Persian account, whatever respect we mayhave to the fidelity of Herodotus. "

Such are the objections urged by Dr. Vincent to the authority of thisvoyage. In some of the particular objections there may be considerableforce; but with respect to the general ones, from the manners or hostilityof the natives inhabiting the coasts along which the voyage was performed, they apply equally to the voyages of the Carthaginians along the westerncoasts of Africa and Europe, and indeed to all the voyages of discovery, ordistant voyages of the ancients. It may be added, that according to Strabo, Posidonius disbelieved the whole history of Scylax. In the GeographiMinores of Hudson, a voyage ascribed to Scylax is published; but greatdoubts are justly entertained on the subject of its authenticity. Dodwellis decidedly against it. The Baron de Sainte Croix, in a dissertation readbefore the Academy of Inscriptions, defends the work which bears the nameof Scylax as genuine. Dr. Vincent states one strong objection to itsauthenticity: mention is made in it of Dardanus, Rhetium, and Illium, inthe Troad; whereas there is great doubt whether Rhetium was in existence inthe time of the real Scylax: besides, it is remarkable that nothing is saidrespecting India in the treatise now extant. That the original and genuinework described India is, however, undoubted, on the authority of Aristotle, who mentions that there was such a person as Scylax, that he had been inIndia, and that his account of that country was extant in his (Aristotle's)time. 

In fact, the work which we possess under the name of Scylax, is evidently acollection of the itineraries of ancient navigators: it may have been drawnup by the Scylax whom Darius employed, though, if that were the case, it isvery extraordinary he should not have included the journal of his ownvoyage; or his name, as that of a celebrated geographer may have been putto it; or there may have been another geographer of that name. Thecollection is evidently imperfect; what is extant contains the coasts ofthe Palus Maeotis, the Euxine, the Archipelago, the Adriatic, and all theMediterranean, with the west coast of Africa, as far as the isle of Cerne, which he asserts to be the limit of the Carthaginian navigation andcommerce in that direction. The sea, according to him, is not navigablefurther to the south than this island, on account of the thick weeds withwhich it was covered. The mention of this impediment is adduced byD'Anville to prove the reality of the Carthaginian voyages to the south: itis not, indeed, true, that the sea is impassable on account of these weedsto modern navigators, but it is easy to conceive that the timidity andinexperience of the ancients, as well as the imperfect construction oftheir vessels, would prevent them from proceeding further south, when theymet with such a singular obstacle. If a ship has not _much way_ through thewater, these weeds will impede her course. It has been very justlyremarked, that if the latitude where these weeds commence was accuratelydetermined, it would fix exactly the extent of the voyages of theCarthaginians in this direction. The weed alluded to is probably the fucusnatans, or gulf-weed. 

Hitherto the knowledge that the ancients possessed of the habitable world, had not been collected by any writer, and is to be gathered entirely fromshort, vague, and evidently imperfect narrations, scattered throughout agreat number of authors. Herodotus has been celebrated as the father ofhistory; he may with equal justice be styled the father of geographicalknowledge: he flourished about 474 years before Christ. In dwelling uponthe advances to geographical knowledge which have been derived from him, itwill be proper and satisfactory, before we explain the extent and nature ofthem, to give an account of the sources from which he derived hisinformation; those were his own travels, and the narrations or journals ofother travellers. A great portion of the vigour of his life seems to havebeen spent in travelling; the oppressive tyranny of Lygdamis overHalicarnassus, his native country, first induced or compelled him totravel; whether he had not also imbibed a portion of the commercialactivity and enterprize which distinguished his countrymen, is not known, but is highly probable. We are not informed whether his fortune were suchas to enable him, without entering into commercial speculations, to supportthe expences of his travels; it is evident, however, from the extent of histravels, as well as from the various, accurate, and, in many cases, mostimportant information, which he acquired, that these expences must havebeen very considerable. From his work it is certain that he was endowedwith that faculty of eliciting the truth from fabulous, imperfect, orcontradictory evidence, at all times so necessary to a traveller, andindispensably so at the period when he travelled, and in most of thecountries where his enquiries and his researches were carried on. His greatand characteristic merit consists in freeing his mind from the opinionswhich must have previously occupied it;--in trusting entirely either towhat e himself saw, or to what he learned from the best authority;--always, however, bringing the information acquired in this latter mode to the testof his own observation and good sense. It is from the united action andguidance of these two qualifications--individual observation and experiencegained by most patient and diligent research and enquiry on the spot, and ahigh degree of perspicacity, strength of intellect, and good sense, separating the truth from the fable of all he learnt from the observationand experience of others, that Herodotus has justly acquired so high degreeof reputation, and that in almost every instance modern travellers findthemselves anticipated by him, even on points in which such a coincidencewas the least likely. 

His travels embraced a variety of countries. The Greek colonies in theBlack Sea were visited by him: he measured the extent of that sea, from theBosphorus to the mouth of the river Phasis, at the eastern extremity. Allthat track of country which lies between the Borysthenes and the Hypanis, and the shores of the Palus Maeotis, he diligently explored. With respectto the Caspian, his information affords a striking proof of his accuracy, even when gained, as it was in this instance, from the accounts of others. He describes it expressly as a sea by itself, unconnected with any other:its length, he adds, is as much as a vessel with oars can navigate infifteen days: its greatest breadth as much as such a vessel can navigate ineight days. It may be added, as a curious proof and illustration of thedecline of geographical knowledge, or, at least, of the want of confidenceplaced in the authority of Herodotus by subsequent ancient geographers, that Strabo, Pomponius Mela, and Pliny, represent the Caspian Sea as a bay, communicating with the great Northern Ocean; and that even Arrian, who, inrespect to care and accuracy, bears no slight resemblance to Herodotus, andfor some time resided as governor of Cappadocia, asserts that there was acommunication between the Caspian Sea and the Eastern Ocean. 

But to return from this digression to the geographical knowledge ofHerodotus, as derived from his own travels, he visited Babylon and Susa, and while there, or perhaps in excursions from those places, made himselfwell acquainted with the Persian empire. The whole of Egypt was mostdiligently and thoroughly explored by him, as well as the Grecian coloniesplanted at Cyrene, in Lybia. He traced the course of the river Ister, fromits mouth nearly as far as its source. The extent of his travels in Greeceis not accurately known; but his description of the Straits of Thermopylaeis evidently the result of his own observation. All these countries, together with a portion of the south of Italy, were visited by him. Theinformation which his history conveys respecting other parts of the worldwas derived from others: in most cases, it would seem, from personalenquiries and conversation with them, so that he had an opportunity ofrendering the information thus acquired much more complete, as well assatisfactory, than it would have been if it had been derived from theirjournals. 

Herodotus trusted principally or entirely to the information he received, with respect to the interior of Africa and the north of Europe, and Asia tothe east of Persia. While he was in Egypt he seems to have beenparticularly inquisitive and interested respecting the caravans whichtravelled into the interior of Africa; and regarding their equipment, route, destination, and object, he has collected a deal of curious andinstructive information. On the authority of Etearchus, king of theAmmonians, he relates a journey into the interior of Africa, undertaken byfive inhabitants of the country near the Gulf of Libya; and, in thisjourney, there is good reason to believe that the river Niger is accuratelydescribed, at least as far as regards the direction of its course. 

It is evident from the introduction to his third book that the Greekmerchants of his time were eminently distinguished for their courage, industry, and abilities; that in pursuit of commercial advantages theyvisited very remote and barbarous countries in the north-eastern parts ofEurope, and the adjacent parts of Asia; and that the Scythians permittedthe Greek merchants of the Euxine to penetrate farther to the east andnorth "than we can trace their progress by the light of moderninformation. " To them Herodotus was much indebted for the geographicalknowledge which he displays of those parts of the world; and it is by nomeans improbable that the spirit of commercial enterprize which invited theGreek merchants on the Euxine to penetrate among the barbarous nations ofthe north-east, also led them far to the east and south-east; and that fromthem, as well as from his personal enquiries, while at Babylon and Susa, Herodotus derived much of the information with which he has favoured usrespecting the country on the Indus, and the borders of Cashmere andArabia. Having thus pointed out the sources from which Herodotus derivedhis geographical knowledge, we shall now sketch the limits of thatknowledge, as well as mention in what respects he yielded to the fabulousand absurd notions of his contemporaries. 

He fails most in endeavouring to give a general and combined idea of theearth; even where his separate sketches are clear and accurate, when unitedthey lose both their accuracy and clearness. He seems to doubt whether heshould divide the world into three parts; and at last, having admitted sucha division, he makes the rivers Phasis and Araxes, and the Caspian Sea, theboundaries between Europe and Asia; and to Europe he assigns an extentgreater than Asia and Libya taken together. His knowledge of the west ofEurope was very imperfect: in some part he fixes the Cassiterides, fromwhich the Phoenicians derived their tin. The Phoenician colony of Gadez wasknown to him. His geography extended to the greater part of Poland andEuropean Russia. Such appear to have been its limits with respect toEurope; and such the general notion he entertained of this quarter of theworld. As to Asia, he believed that a fleet sent by Darius hadcircumnavigated it from the Indus to the confines of Egypt; but though hisgeneral idea of it was thus erroneous, he possessed accurate informationrespecting it from the confines of Europe to the Indus. Of the countries tothe east of that river, as well as of the whole of the north and southernparts of it, he was completely ignorant. He particularly notices that theEastern Ethiopians, or Indians, differ from those of Africa by their longhair, as opposed to the woolly head of the African. In his account of Indiahe interweaves much that is fabulous; but in the same manner as moderndiscoveries in geography have confirmed many things in Herodotus which weredeemed errors in his geography, so it has been ascertained that even hisfables have, in most instances, a foundation in fact. With regard toAfrica, his knowledge of Egypt, and of the country to the north of it, seems to have been very accurate, and more minute and satisfactory than hisknowledge of any other part of the world. It is highly probable that he wasacquainted with the course of the western branch of the Nile, as far as the11th degree of latitude. He certainly knew the real course of the Niger. Onthe east coast of Africa he was well acquainted with the shores of theArabian Gulph; but though he sometimes mentions Carthage, and describes thetraffic carried on, without the intervention of language, between theCarthaginians and a nation beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which we navealready mentioned in treating of the commerce of the Carthaginians, yet heseems to have been unacquainted with any point between Carthage and thePillars of Hercules. 

In the history of Herodotus, there is an account of a map constructed byAristagoras, tyrant of Miletus, when he proposed to Cleomenes, king ofSparta, to attack Darius, king of Persia, at Susa; from this account, thevague, imperfect, and erroneous ideas entertained in his time of therelative situations and distances of places, as well as of the extremelyrude and feeble advances which had been made towards the construction ofmaps, may be inferred. Major Rennell, in his Illustrations of Herodotus, has endeavoured to ascertain from his history the parallel and meridian ofHalicarnassus, the birth-place of the historian. According to him, theyintersect at right angles over that town, cutting the 37th degree of northlatitude, and the 45-1/2 of east longitude, from the Fortunate Islands. 

For a considerable period after the time of Herodotus, the ancients seem tohave been nearly stationary in their knowledge of the world. About 368years before Christ, Eudoxus, of Cnidus, whose desire of studying astronomyinduced him to visit Egypt, Asia, and Italy, who first attempted to explainthe planetary motions, and who is said to have discovered the inclinationof the moon's orbit, and the retrograde motion of her nodes, is celebratedas having first applied geographical observations to astronomy; but he doesnot appear to have directed his researches or his conjectures towards thefigure or the circumference of the earth, or the distances or relativesituations of any places on its surface. 

Nearly about the same period that Eudoxus died Aristotle flourished. Thisgreat philosopher, collecting and combining into one system of geographicalknowledge the discoveries and observations of all who had preceded him, stamped on them a dignity and value they had not before possessed, as wellas rendered them less liable to be forgotten or misapplied: he inferred thesphericity of the earth from the observations of travellers, that the starsseen in Greece were not visible in Cyprus or Egypt; and thus establishedthe fundamental principle of all geography. But though this science, in itsmost important branch, derived much benefit from his powerful mind, yet itwas not advanced in its details. He supposed the coasts of Spain not verydistant from those of India; and he even embraced a modified notion ofHomer's Ocean River, which had been ridiculed and rejected by Herodotus;for he describes the habitable earth as a great oval island, surrounded bythe ocean, terminated on the west by the river Tartessius, (supposed to bethe Guadelquiver, ) on the east by the Indus, and on the north by Albion andIerne, of which islands his ideas were necessarily very vague andimperfect. In some other respects, however, his knowledge was moreaccurate: he coincides with Herodotus in his description of the CaspianSea, and expressly states that it ought to be called a great lake, not asea. A short period before Aristotle flourished, that branch of geographywhich relates to the temperature of different climates, and othercircumstances affecting health, was investigated with considerablediligence, ingenuity, and success, by the celebrated physician Hippocrates. In the course of his journeys, with this object in view, he seems to havefollowed the plan and the route of Herodotus, and sometimes to have evenpenetrated farther than he did. 

Pytheas, of Marseilles, lived a short time before Alexander the Great: heis celebrated for his knowledge in astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, andgeography, and for the ardour and perseverance with which either a strongdesire for information, or the characteristic commercial spirit of histownspeople, or both united, carried him forward in the path of maritimediscovery. The additions, however, which he made to geography as a science, or to the sciences intimately connected with it, are more palpable andundisputed, than the extent and discoveries of his voyages. 

He was the first who established a distinction of climate by the length ofdays and nights: and he is said to have discovered the dependence of thetides upon the position of the moon, affirming that the flood-tide dependedon the increase of the moon, and the ebb on its decrease. By means of agnomon he observed, at the summer solstice at Marseilles, that the lengthof the shadow was to the height of the gnomon as 120 to 41-1/5; or, inother words, that the obliquity of the ecliptic was 23:50. He relates, thatin the country which he reached in his voyage to the north, the sun, at thetime of the summer solstice, touched the northern part of the horizon: hepointed out three stars near the pole, with which the north star formed asquare; and within this square, he fixed the true place of the pole. According to Strabo, he considered the island of Thule as the most westernpart of the then known world, and reckoned his longitude from thence. 

With respect to the extent and discoveries of his voyage to the north, there is great difference of opinion. The veracity of Pytheas is utterlydenied by Strabo and Polybius, and is strongly suspected by Dr. Vincent: onthe other hand, it has found able supporters in D'Anville, Huet, Gessner, Murray of Goettingen, Gosselin, and Malte Brun; and in our opinion, thoughit may not be easy to ascertain what was really the country which bereached in his voyage, and though some of the particulars he mentions maybe fabulous, or irreconcileable with one another, yet it seems carryingscepticism too far to reject, on these accounts, his voyage as altogether afiction. 

The account is, that Pytheas departed from Marseilles, coasted Spain, France, and the east or north-east side of Britain, as far as its northernextremity. Taking his departure from this, he continued his voyage, as hesays, to the north, or perhaps to the north-east; and after six days'navigation, he arrived at a land called Thule, which he states to be 46, 300stadia from the equator. So far there is nothing improbable orinconsistent; but when he adds, that being there at the summer solstice, hesaw the sun touching the northern point of the horizon, and at the sametime asserts that the day and night were each of six months' continuance, there is a palpable contradiction: and when he adds, that millet wascultivated in the north of this country, and wheat in the south, and thathoney abounded, he mentions productions utterly incompatible with hisdescription of the climate and latitude. 

As, however, this voyage forms an important epoch in the history ofdiscovery, it may be proper to endeavour to ascertain what country theThule of Pytheas really was. We have already observed, that the day's sailof an ancient vessel was 500 stadia, or 50 miles; supposing the largeststadia of 666-2/3 equal to one degree of the equator, if the vessel sailedduring the night as well as day, the course run was, on an average, 1000stadia, or 100 miles. Now, as the voyage from the extremity of Britain toThule was of course not a coasting voyage, and as the nights in thatlatitude, at the season of the year when the voyage was made, were veryshort, (Pytheas says the night was reduced to two or three hours) we mustsuppose that he sailed night as well as day; and consequently, that in sixdays he had sailed 600 miles, either directly north or to east or west ofthe north, for his exact course cannot well be made out. 

What country lies 600 miles to the north or the north-east of the extremityof Britain? None exactly in this direction: if, however, we suppose thatPytheas could not fix exactly the point of the compass which he steered, (asupposition by no means improbable, considering the ignorance of theancients, ) and that his course tended to the west of the north, 600 mileswould bring him nearly to Greenland. There were, however, other stadiabesides those by which we computed the day's sail of the ancients; andthough the stadia we have taken are more generally alluded to by theancients, yet it may be proper to ascertain what results will be producedif the other stadia are supposed to have been used in this instance. Thestadia we have already founded our calculations upon will bring us to thelatitude of 69° 27': the latitude of the southernmost point of Greenland isvery nearly 70°. But the description given by Pytheas of the productions ofthe country by no means coincides with Greenland. At the same time, otherparts of his description agree with this country; particularly when hesays, that there the sea, the earth, and the air, seem to be confounded inone element. In the south of Greenland the longest day is two months whichdoes not coincide with Pytheas' account; though this, as we have alreadypointed out, is contradictory with itself. 

Let us now consider what will be the result if we suppose that a differentstadia were employed: the next in point of extent to that on which we havealready founded our conjectures, (there being 700 equal to one degree ofthe equator) will bring him to the latitude of 66° 8'; the latitude of thenorthernmost part of Iceland is 66° 30', coinciding with this result asnearly as possible. The description of the climate agrees with Pytheas'description; but not his account of the length of the day, nor of theproductions of the country. Of the third kind of stadia, 833-1/3 were equalto one degree of the equator; calculating that 1000 of these were sailedduring a day and night's voyage, Pytheas would arrive in the latitude of55° 34', at the end of six days. This, however, is absolutely at variancewith the fact, that he took his departure from the northernmost point ofBritain, and would in fact bring him back from it to the entrance of theFrith of Forth. It is supposed, however, that this is the real latitude;but that the west coast of Jutland is the country at which he arrived. Butthis obliges us to believe that his course from the northern extremity ofBritain, instead of being north or north-east, or indeed at all to thenorth, was in fact south-west; a supposition which cannot be admitted, unless we imagine that the ancients were totally ignorant of the coursewhich they steered. On the other hand, Pytheas' description of theproductions of Thule agrees with Jutland; the culture of millet in thenorth, and of wheat in the south, and the abundance of honey: there isalso, about a degree to the north of the latitude of 55° 34', a part of thecoast still denominated Thyland; and in the ancient language ofScandinavia, Thiuland. The account of Pytheas, that near Thule, the sea, air, and earth, seemed to be confounded in one element, is supposed byMalte Brun to allude to the sandy downs of Jutland, whose hills shift withthe wind; the marshes, covered with a crust of sand, concealing from thetraveller the gulf beneath, and the fogs of a peculiarly dense nature whichfrequently occur. We must confess, however, that the course having beennorth, or north-east, or north-west, for this latitude of course may beallowed in consideration of the ignorance or want of accuracy of theancients, never can have brought Pytheas to a country lying to thesouth-west of the extremity of Britain. 

We are not assisted in finding out the truth, if, instead of founding ourcalculations and conjectures on the distance sailed in the six days, wetake for their basis the distance which Pytheas states Thule to be from theequator. This distance, we have already mentioned, was 46, 300 stadia;which, according as the different kinds of stadia are calculated upon, willgive respectively the latitude of the south of Greenland, of the north ofIceland, or of the west coast of Jutland; or, in other words, the limit ofPytheas' voyage will be determined to be in the same latitude, whether weascertain it by the average length of the day and night's sail of thevessels of the ancients, or by the distance from the equator which heassigns to Thule. It may be proper to state, that there is a district onthe coast of Norway, between the latitudes of 60° and 62°, called Thele, orThelemarle. Ptolemy supposes this to have been the Thule of Pytheas, Plinyplaces it within three degrees of the pole, Eratosthenes under the polarcircle. The Thule discovered by Agricola, and described by Tacitus, isevidently either the Orkney or the Shetland Islands. 

It may appear presumptuous as well as useless, after this display of thedifficulties attending the question, to offer any new conjecture; and manyof our renders may deem it a point of very minor importance, and alreadydiscussed at too great length. It is obvious, from the detail into which wehave entered, that no country exists in the latitude which must be assignedto it, whether we fix that latitude by Pytheas' statement of the distanceof Thule from the equator, or by the space sailed over in six days, theproductions of which at all agree with those mentioned by Pytheas. On theother hand, we cannot suppose that his course was south-west, and not atall to the north, which must have been the case, if the country at which hearrived in sailing from the northern extremity of Britain, was Jutland. Theobject must, therefore, be to find out a country the productions of whichcorrespond with those mentioned by Pytheas; for, with regard to those, hecould not be mistaken: and a country certainly not the least to the southof the northern part of Britain. As it is impossible that he could havereached the pole, what he states respecting the day and night being eachsix months long must be rejected; and his other account of the length ofthe day, deduced from his own observation of the sun, at the time of thesummer solstice, touching the northern point of the horizon, must bereceived. If we suppose that this was the limit of the sun's course in thatdirection (which, from his statement, must be inferred), this will give usa length of day of about twenty hours, corresponding to about sixty-twodegrees of north latitude. The next point to be ascertained is the latitudeof his departure from the coast of Britain. There seems no good reason tobelieve, what all the hypothesis we have examined assume, that Pytheassailed along the whole of the east coast of Britain: on the other hand, itseems more likely, that having passed over from the coast of France to thecoast of Britain, he traced the latter to its most eastern point, that is, the coast of Norfolk near Yarmouth; from which place, the coast taking asudden and great bend to the west, it is probable that Pytheas, whoseobject evidently was to sail as far north as he could, would leave thecoast and stretch out into the open sea. Sailing on a north course, orrather with a little inclination to the east of the north, would bring himto the entrance of the Baltic. We have already conceived it probable thatthe country he describes lay in the latitude of about 62°, and six days'sail from the coast of Norfolk would bring him nearly into this latitude, supposing he entered the Baltic. The next point relates to the productionsof the country: millet, wheat, and honey, are much more the characteristicproductions of the countries lying on the Gulf of Finland, than they are ofJutland; and Pytheas' account of the climate also agrees better with theclimate of this part of the Baltic, than with that of Jutland. 

That Pythias visited the Baltic, though perhaps the Thule he mentions didnot lie in this sea, is evident from the following extract from hisjournal, given by Pliny:--"On the shores of a certain bay calledMentonomon, live a people called Guttoni: and at the distance of a day'svoyage from them, is the island Abalus (called by Timæus, Baltea). Uponthis the waves threw the amber, which is a coagulated matter cast up by thesea: they use it for firing, instead of wood, and also sell it to theneighbouring Teutones. " The inhabitants on the coast of the Baltic, nearthe Frish or Curish Sea (which is probably the bay Pytheas describes) arecalled in the Lithuanian language, Guddai: and so late as the period of theCrusades, the spot where amber is found was called Wittland, or Whiteland;in Lithuanian, Baltika. From these circumstances, as well as from the name_Baltea_ given by Timaeus to the island mentioned by Pytheas, as the placewhere amber is cast up by the waves, there appears no doubt that Pytheaswas in the Baltic Sea, though his island of Thule might not be there. Asamber was in great repute, even so early as the time of Homer, whodescribes it as being used to adorn the golden collars, it is highlyprobable that Pytheas was induced to enter the Baltic for the purpose ofobtaining it: in what manner, or through whose means, the Greeks obtainedit in Homer's time, is not known. 

After all, the question is involved in very great obscurity; and thecircumstance not the most probable, or reconcileable with a country evennot further north than Jutland is, that, in the age of Pytheas, theinhabitants should have been so far advanced in knowledge and civilization, as to have cultivated any species of grain. 

Till the age of Herodotus the light of history is comparatively feeble andbroken; and where it does shine with more steadiness and brilliancy, itsrays are directed almost exclusively on the warlike operations of mankind. Occasionally, indeed, we incidentally learn some new particulars respectingthe knowledge of the ancients in geography: but these particulars, as mustbe obvious from the preceding part of this volume, are ascertained onlyafter considerable difficulty; and when ascertained, are for the most partmeagre, if not obscure. In the history of Herodotus, we, for the firsttime, are able to trace the exact state and progress of geographicalknowledge; and from his time, our means of tracing it become moreaccessible, as well as productive of more satisfactory results. Within onehundred years after this historian flourished, geography derived greatadvantages and improvement from a circumstance which, at first view, wouldhave been deemed adverse to the extension of any branch of science: weallude to the conquests of Alexander the Great. This monarch seems to havebeen actuated by a desire to be honoured as the patron of science, nearlyas strong as the desire to be known to posterity as the conquerer of theworld: the facilities he afforded to Aristotle in drawing up his naturalhistory, by sending him all the uncommon animals with which his travels andhis conquests supplied him, is a striking proof of this. With respect tohis endeavours to extend geographical knowledge, --this was so intimatelyconnected with his plans of conquest, that it may appear to be ascribing tohim a more honourable motive than influenced him, if we consider theimprovement that geography received through his means as wholly unconnectedwith his character as a conquerer: that it was so, in some measure, howeveris certain; for along with him he took several geographers, who weredirected and enabled to make observations both on the coasts and theinterior of the countries through which they passed; and from theirobservations and discoveries, a new and improved geography of Asia wasframed. Besides, the books that till his time were shut up in the archivesof Babylon and Tyre were transferred to Alexandria; and thus theastronomical and hydrographical observations of the Phoenicians andChaldeans, becoming accessible to the Greek philosophers, supplied themwith the means of founding their geographical knowledge on the sure basisof mathematical science, of which it had hitherto been destitute. 

The grand maxim of Alexander in his conquests was, to regard them aspermanent, and as annexing to his empire provinces which were to form asessential parts of it as Macedonia itself. Influenced by this considerationand design, he did not lay waste the countries he conquered, as had beendone in the invasions of Persia, by Cimon the Athenian and theLacedemonians: on the contrary, the people, and their religion, manners, and laws were protected. The utmost order and regularity were observed; andit is a striking fact, "that his measures were taken with such prudence, that during eight years' absence at the extremity of the East, no revolt ofconsequence occurred; and his settlement of Egypt was so judicious, as toserve as a model to the Romans in the administration of that province atthe distance of three centuries. "

The voyage of Nearchus from Nicea on the Hydaspes, till he arrived in thevicinity of Susa (which we shall afterwards more particularly describe);the projected voyage, the object of which was to attempt thecircumnavigation of Arabia; the survey of the western side of the Gulf ofPersia, by Archias, Androsthenes, and Hiero, of which unfortunately we donot possess the details; the projected establishment of a direct commercialintercourse between India and Alexandria; and the foundation of this city, which gave a new turn and a strong impulse to commerce, as will be moreparticularly shown afterwards;--are but a few of the benefits geography andcommerce received from Alexander, or would have received, had not his plansbeen frustrated by his sudden and early death at the age of 33. 

We have the direct testimony of Patrocles, that Alexander was not contentwith vague and general information, nor relied on the testimony of otherswhere he could observe and judge for himself; and in all cases in which hederived his information from others, he was particularly careful to selectthose who knew the country best, and to make them commit their intelligenceto writing. By these means, united to the reports of those whom he employedto survey his conquests, "all the native commodities which to this day formthe staple of the East Indian commerce, were fully known to theMacedonians. " The principal castes in India, the principles of the Bramins, the devotion of widows to the flames, the description of the banyan-tree, and a great variety of other particulars, sufficiently prove that theMacedonians were actuated by a thirst after knowledge, as well as a spiritof conquest; and illustrate as well as justify the observation made toAlexander by the Bramin mandarin, "You are the only man whom I ever foundcurious in the investigation of philosophy at the head of an army. "

When Alexander invaded India, he found commerce flourishing greatly in manyparts of it, particularly in what are supposed to be the present Multan, Attock, and the Panjob. He every where took advantage of this commerce, notby plundering and thus destroying it for the purpose of filling hiscoffers, but by nourishing and increasing it, and thus at once benefittinghimself and the inhabitants who wore engaged in it. By means of thecommerce in which the natives of the Panjob were engaged on the Indus, Alexander procured the fleet with which he sailed down that river. Thisfleet is supposed to have consisted of eight hundred vessels, only thirtyof which were ships of war, the remainder being such as were usuallyemployed in the commerce of the Indus. Even before he reached this river, he had built vessels which he had sent down the Kophenes to Taxila. By thecompletion of his campaign at the sources of the Indus, and by his marchand voyage down the course of that river, he had traced and defined theeastern boundary of his conquests: the line of his march from theHellespont till the final defeat of Darius, and his pursuit of thatmonarch, had put him in possession of tolerably accurate knowledge of thenorthern and western boundaries; the southern provinces alone remained tobe explored: they had indeed submitted to his arms; but they were still, for all the purposes of government and commerce, unknown. 

"To obtain the information necessary for the objects they had in view, heordered Craterus, with the elephants and heavy baggage, to penetratethrough the centre of the empire, while he personally undertook the morearduous task of penetrating the desert of Gadrosia, and providing for thepreservation of the fleet. A glance over the map will show that the routeof the army eastward, and the double route by which it returned, intersectthe whole empire by three lines, almost from the Tigris to the Indus:Craterus joined the division under Alexander in the Karmania; and whenNearchus, after the completion of his voyage, came up the Posityris toSusa, the three routes through the different provinces, and the navigationalong the coast, might be said to complete the survey of the empire. "

The two divisions of his army were accompanied on their return to Susa byBeton and Diognetus, who seem to have united the character and duties ofsoldiers and men of science; or, perhaps, were like the quarter-masters-general of our armies. It appears from Strabo and Pliny, in whose time thesurveys drawn by Beton and Diognetus were extant, that they reduced theprovinces through which they passed, as well as the marches of the army, toactual measurement; and thus, the distances being accurately set down, andjournals faithfully kept, the principles of geographical science, next inimportance and utility to astronomical observations, were established. Thejournals of Beton and Diognetus, the voyage of Nearchus, and the works ofPtolemy, afterwards king of Egypt, and Aristobulus, who accompaniedAlexander in his expedition and wrote his life, all prove that theauthority or the example of the sovereign influenced the pursuits of hisofficers and attendants; and it is highly to the credit of their diligenceand accuracy, that every increase of geographical knowledge tends toconfirm what they relate respecting the general appearance and features ofthe countries they traversed, as well as the position of cities, rivers, and mountains. 

Alexander appears to have projected or anticipated an intercourse betweenIndia and the western provinces of his dominions in Egypt, not only by landbut by sea: for this latter purpose he founded two cities on the Hydaspesand one on the Axesimes, both navigable rivers, which fall into the Indus. And this also, most probably, was one reason for his careful survey of thenavigation of the Indus itself. When he returned to Susa, he surveyed thecourse of the Tigris and Euphrates. The navigation near the mouths of thoserivers was obstructed by cataracts, occasioned by walls built across themby the ancient monarchs of Persia, in order to prevent their subjects fromdefiling themselves by sailing on the ocean[4]: these obstructions he gavedirections to be removed. Had he lived, therefore, the commodites of Indiawould have been conveyed from the Persian Gulf into the interior provincesof his Asiatic dominions, and to Alexandria by the Arabian Gulf. 

To conclude in the words of Dr. Vincent: "The Macedonians obtained aknowledge both of the Indus and the Ganges: they heard that the seat ofempire was, where it always has been, on the Ganges or Indus: they acquiredintelligence of all the grand and leading features of Indian manners, policy, and religion [and he might have added, accurate informationrespecting the geography of the western parts of that country]: theydiscovered all this by penetrating through countries, where, possibly, noGreek had previously set his foot; and they explored the passage by seawhich first opened the commercial intercourse with India to the Greeks andRomans, through the medium of Egypt and the Red Sea, and finally to theEuropeans, by the Cape of Good Hope. " When we reflect on the character andstate of the Macedonians, prior to the reign of Alexander, and thecondition into which they sunk after his death, we shall, perhaps, nothesitate to acknowledge that Alexander infused his own soul into them; andthat history, ancient or modern, does not exhibit any similiar instance ofsuch powerful individual influence on the character and fate of a nation. Alexander himself has always been honoured by conquerors, and is known tomankind only, as the first of conquerors; but if military renown andachievements had not, unfortunately for mankind, been more prized than theydeserved, and, on this account, the records of them been carefullypreserved, while the records of peaceful transactions were neglected andlost, we should probably have received the full details of all thatAlexander did for geographical science and commerce; and in that case hischaracter would have been as highly prized by the philosopher and thefriend of humanity, civilization, and knowledge, as it is by the powerfuland ambitious. 

Fortunately the details of one of the geographical and commercialexpeditions undertaken by order of Alexander are still extant; we allude tothe voyage of Nearchus. Of this voyage we are now to speak; and as it iscurious and important, not merely on account of the geographical knowledgeit conveys, but also from the insight it gives us into the commercialtransactions of the countries which he visited, we shall give rather a fullabstract of it, availing ourselves of the light which has been thrown uponit by the learned and judicious researches of Dr. Vincent. 

It was on the banks of the Hyphasis, the modern Beyah, that Alexander'sarmy mutinied, and refused to proceed any farther eastward. In consequenceof this insurmountable obstacle to his plans, he resolved to return to theHydaspes, and carry into execution his design of sailing down it into theIndus, and thence by the ocean to the Persian Gulf. He had previously givenorders to his officers, when he had left the Hydaspes to collect, build, and equip a sufficient number of vessels for this enterprise; and they hadbeen so diligent and successful, that on his return he found a numerousfleet assembled. Nearchus was appointed to command the fleet: but Alexanderhimself resolved to accompany it to the mouth of the river. 

On the 23d of October, 327 years before Christ, the fleet sailed fromNicoea, on the Hydaspes, a city built by Alexander on the scite of thebattle in which he defeated Porus. The importance which he attached to thisexpedition, as well as his anxiety respecting its skilful conduct and finalissue, are strongly painted by Arrian, to whom we are indebted for thejournal of Nearchus. Alexander at first did not know whom to trust with themanagement of the expedition, or who would undertake it. When the length ofthe voyage, the difficulties and dangers of a barren and unknown coast, thewant of harbours, and the obstacles in the way of obtaining provisions, were considered. In this state of anxiety, doubt, and expectation, Alexander ordered Nearchus to attend him, and consulted him on the choiceof a commander. "One, " said he, "excuses himself, because he thinks thedanger insuperable; others are unfit for the service from timidity; othersthink of nothing but how to get home; and many I cannot approve for avariety of other reasons. " "Upon hearing this, " says Nearchus, "I offeredmyself for the command: and promised the king, that under the protection ofGod, I would conduct the fleet safe into the Gulf of Persia, if the seawere navigable, and the undertaking within the power of man to perform. "The only objection that Alexander made arose from his regard for Nearchus, whom he was unwilling to expose to the dangers of such a voyage; butNearchus persisting, and the king being convinced that the enterprise, ifpracticable, would be achieved by the skill, courage, and perseverance ofNearchus, at length yielded. The character of the commander, and the regardhis sovereign entertained for him, removed in a great degree theapprehension that the proposed expedition was desperate: a selection of thebest officers and most effective men was now soon made; and the fleet wasnot only supplied with every thing that was necessary, but equipped in amost splendid manner. Onesicritus was appointed pilot and master ofAlexander's own ship; and Evagoras was secretary of the fleet. Theofficers, including these and Nearchus, amounted to 33; but nearly thewhole of them, as well as the ships which they commanded, proceeded nofarther than the mouth of the Indus. The seamen were natives of Greece, orthe Grecian Islands, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Cyprians, Ionians, &c. Thefleet consisted of 800 ships of war and transports, and about 1200 gallies. On board of these, one-third of the army, which consisted of 120, 000 men, embarked; the remainder, marching in two divisions, one on the left, theother on the right of the river. 

"The voyage down the river is described rather as a triumphal procession, than a military progress. The size of the vessels, the conveyance of horsesaboard, the number, and splendour of the equipment, attracted the nativesto be spectators of the pomp. The sound of instruments, the clang of arms, the commands of the officers, the measured song of the modulators, theresponses of the mariners, the dashing of the oars, and these soundsfrequently reverberated from overhanging shores, are all scenery presentedto our imagination by the historians, and evidently bespeak the language ofthose who shared with pride in this scene of triumph and magnificence. "

No danger occurred to alarm them or impede their passage, till they arrivedat the junction of the Hydaspes with the Akesines. At this place, thechannel of the river became contracted, though the bulk of water was ofcourse greatly increased; and from this circumstance, and the rapidity withwhich the two rivers unite, there is a considerable current, as well asstrong eddies; and the noise of the rushing and confined waters, is heardat some distance. This noise astonished or alarmed the seamen so much, thatthe rowers ceased to row, and the modulators to direct and encourage themby their chant, till the commanders inspired them with confidence; and theyplied the oars with their utmost strength in order to stem the current, andkeep the vessels as steady and free from danger as possible. The eddy, however, caught the gallies, which from their length were more exposed toit than the ships of war: two of them sank, many more were damaged, whileAlexander's own ship was fortunate enough to find shelter near a projectingpoint of land. At the junction of the Akesines with the Indus, Alexanderfounded a city; of which, however, no traces at present remain. 

On the arrival of Alexander at Pattala, near the head of the Delta of theIndus, he seems to have projected the formation of a commercial city; andfor this purpose, ordered the adjoining country to be surveyed: his nextobject was to sail down the western branch of the river. With this view heleft Pattala with all his gallies, some of his half-decked vessels, and hisquickest sailing transports, ordering at the same time a small part of hisarmy to attend his fleet. Considerable difficulties arose, and some losswas sustained from his not being able to procure a native pilot, and fromthe swell in the river, occasioned by a violent wind blowing contrary tothe stream. He was at length compelled to seize some of the natives, andmake them act as pilots. When they arrived near the confluence of the Induswith the sea, another storm arose; and as this also blew up the river, while they were sailing down with the current and the tide, there wasconsiderable agitation in the water. The Macedonians were alarmed, and bythe advice of their pilots ran into one of the creeks of the river forshelter: at low tide, the vessels being left aground, the sharp-builtgallies were much injured. 

The astonishment of the Macedonians was greatly excited when they saw thewaters of the river and of the sea ebb and flow. It is well known, that inthe Mediterranean the tides are scarcely perceptible. The flux and refluxof the Euripus, a narrow strait which separates the island of Euboea fromthe coast of Beotia, could give them no idea of the regularity of thetides; for this flux and reflux continued for eighteen or nineteen days, and was uncommonly unsettled the rest of the month. Besides, the tides atthe mouth of the Indus, and on the adjacent coast, are very high, and flowin with very great force and rapidity; and are known in India, in the Bayof Fundy, and in most other places where this phenomenon occurs, by thename of the Bore; and at the mouth of the Severn, by the name of Hygre, orEagre. Herodotus indeed, mentions, that in the Red Sea there was a regularebb and flow of the sea every day; but as Dr. Robertson very justlyobserves, "among the ancients there occur instances of inattention tofacts, related by respectable authors, which appear surprising in moderntimes. " Even so late as the time of Caesar, a spring tide in Britain, whichoccasioned great damage to his fleet, created great surprize, and ismentioned as a phenomenon with which he and his soldiers were unacquainted. 

Soon after Alexander had repaired the damage that his fleet had sustained, he surveyed two islands lying at the west mouth of the Indus; andafterwards leaving the river entirely, entered the ocean, either for thepurpose of ascertaining himself whether it were actually navigable, or, asArrian conjectures, in order to gratify his vanity by having it recorded, that he had navigated the Indian Ocean. 

Having accomplished this object, he returned to Pattala, where he haddirected a naval arsenal to be formed, intending to station a fleet at thisplace. The eastern branch of the Indus was yet unexplored. In order, thatan accurate knowledge of it might be gained, Alexander resolved to exploreit himself: accordingly, he sailed from Pattala till he arrived at a largebay or lake, which probably, however, was only a number of the smallerbranches of the Indus, overflowing their banks. The passage from this placeto the ocean, he ascertained to be more open and convenient than that bythe western branch. He does not seem, however, to have advanced into theocean by it; but having landed, and proceeded along the coast, in thedirection of Guzerat and Malabar, three days' march, making observations onthe country, and directing wells to be sunk, he re-embarked, and returnedto the head of the bay. Here he again manifested his design of establishinga permanent station, by ordering a fort to be built, a naval yard and docksto be formed, and leaving a garrison and provisions for four months. 

Before the final departure of Alexander with his convoy from Pattala, hedirected Nearchus to assume the entire command of the fleet, and to sail assoon as the season would permit. Twelve months, within a few days, elapsedbetween the departure of the fleet from Nicaea, and the sailing of Nearchusfrom the Indus; the former having taken place, as we have already observed, on the 23d of October, in the year 327 before Christ, and the latter on the2d of October, in the year 326 B. C. Only about nine months, however, hadelapsed in the actual navigation of the Indus and its tributary streams;and even this period, which to us appears very long, was considerablyextended by the operations of the army of Alexander, as well as by the slowsailing of such a large fleet as he conducted. 

In consequence, it is supposed, of the prevalence of the north-eastmonsoon, Nearchus, after having reached the ocean (which, however, he couldnot effect till he had cut a passage for his fleet through a sand bank orbar at the mouth of the Indus), was obliged to lie in a harbour which hecalled Port Alexander, and near which he erected a fort on the 3d ofNovember; about which time we know that the monsoon changes. Nearchus againset sail. About the 8th of this month he reached the river Arabis, havingcoasted along among rocks and islands, the passage between which was narrowand difficult. The distance between this river and the Indus is nearlyeighty miles, and the fleet had occupied almost forty days in completingthe navigation of this space. During the greater part of this time, theywere very scantily supplied with provisions, and seem, indeed, to havedepended principally on the shell-fish found on the coast. Soon afterleaving the mouth of the Arabis, they were obliged, by the nature of theshore and the violence of the wind, to remain on board their ships for twonights; a very unusual as well as inconvenient and uncomfortablecircumstance for the ancients. We have already described their ships aseither having no deck, or only a kind of half-deck, below which the cableswere coiled. Under this deck there might be accommodation for part of thecrew; but in cases where all were obliged to remain on board at night, theconfinement must have been extremely irksome, as well as prejudicial totheir health. At the end of these two days, they were enabled to land andrefresh themselves; and here they were joined by Leonatus, one ofAlexander's generals, who had been despatched with some troops to watch andprotect their movements, as far on their course as was practicable. Hebrought a supply of provisions, which had become very necessary. On leavingthis place, their progress became much more rapid than it had been before, owing probably to the wind having become more regularly and permanentlyfavourable. 

As it is our intention, in giving this short abstract of the voyage ofNearchus, to select only such particulars as illustrate the mode ofnavigation practised among the ancients--the progress of discovery, or thestate of commerce, --we shall pass over every topic or fact not connectedwith these. We cannot, however, refrain from giving an account of thetransactions of the fleet at the river Tomerus, when it arrived on the 21stof November, fifty days after it left the Indus; as on reading it, ourreaders will be immediately struck with the truth of Dr. Vincent'sobservation, that it bears a very strong resemblance to the landing of aparty from the Endeavour, in New Zealand, under protection of the ship'sguns. We make use of Dr. Vincent's translation, or rather abstract:--

"At the Tomerus the inhabitants were found living on the low ground nearthe sea, in cabins which seemed calculated rather to suffocate theirinhabitants than to protect them from the weather; and yet these wretchedpeople were not without courage. Upon sight of the fleet approaching, theycollected in arms on the shore, and drew up in order to attack thestrangers on their landing. Their arms were spears, not headed with iron, but hardened in the fire, nine feet long; and their number about 600. Nearchus ordered his vessels to lay their heads towards the shore, withinthe distance of bow-shot; for the enemy had no missile weapons but theirspears. He likewise brought his engines to bear upon them, (for such itappears he had on board, ) and then directed his light-armed troops, withthose who were the most active and the best swimmers, to be ready forcommencing the attack. On a signal given, they were to plunge into the sea:the first man who touched ground was to be the point at which the line wasto be formed, and was not to advance till joined by the others, and thefile could be ranged three deep. These orders were exactly obeyed; the menthrew themselves out of the ships, swam forward, and formed themselves inthe water, under cover of the engines. As soon as they were in order, theyadvanced upon the enemy with a shout, which was repeated from the ships. Little opposition was experienced; for the natives, struck with the noveltyof the attack, and the glittering of the armour, fled without resistance. Some escaped to the mountains, a few were killed, and a considerable numbermade prisoners. They were a savage race, shaggy on the body as well as thehead, and with nails so long and of such strength, that they served them asinstruments to divide their food, (which consisted, indeed, almost whollyof fish, ) and to separate even wood of the softer kind. Whether thiscircumstance originated from design, or want of implements to pare theirnails, did not appear; but if there was occasion, to divide hardersubstances, they substituted stones sharpened, instead of iron, for ironthey had none. Their dress consisted of the skins of beasts, and some ofthe larger kinds of fish. "

Along the coast of the Icthyophagi, extending from Malan to Cape Jaser, adistance, by the course of the fleet, of nearly 625 miles, Nearchus was somuch favoured by the winds and by the straightness of the coast, that hisprogress was sometimes nearly 60 miles a day. In every other respect, however, this portion of the voyage was very unfortunate and calamitous. Alexander, aware that on this coast, which furnished nothing but fish, hisfleet would be in distress for provisions, and that this distress would begreatly augmented by the scarcity of water which also prevailed here, hadendeavoured to advance into this desolate tract, to survey the harbours, sink wells, and collect provisions. But the nature of the country renderedthis impracticable; and his army became so straightened for cornthemselves, that a supply of it, which he intended for the fleet, and onwhich he had affixed his own seal, was seized by the men whom he hadordered to protect and escort it to the coast. At last he was obliged togive up all attempts of relieving Nearchus; and after struggling 60 dayswith want of water, --during which period, if he himself had not, at thehead of a few horse, pushed on to the coast, and there obtained a supply, by opening the sands, his whole army must have perished, --he with greatdifficulty reached the capital of this desert country. Nearchus, thus leftto himself, was indebted to the natives for the means of discovering water, by opening the sands, as the king had done; but to the Greeks, who regardedthe want of bread as famine, even when its place was supplied by meat, thefish the natives offered them was no relief. 

We have already remarked, that the real character of Alexander will be muchelevated in the opinion of men of humanity and philosophers, if theparticulars we possess of his endeavours to improve the condition of thosehe conquered, and to advance the interests of science, scanty and imperfectas they are, were more attentively considered, and had not been neglectedand overlooked in the glare of his military achievements. His march throughthe deserts of Gadrosia has been ascribed solely to vanity; but thisimputation will be removed, and must give way to a more worthy impressionof his motives on this occasion, when it is stated, that it was part of thegreat design which he had formed of opening a communication between hisEuropean dominions and India by sea; and that as the accomplishment of thisdesign mainly depended on the success of the expedition committed toNearchus, it was a paramount object with him to assist the fleet, which hethrice attempted, even in the midst of his own distress in the deserts. 

On their arrival at the river Kalama, which is supposed to be the Churmut, 60 days after their departure from the Indus, they at length obtained fromthe natives some sheep; but the flesh of it, as well as the fowls whichthey obtained, had a very fishy taste--the sheep, fowls, and inhabitants, all feeding on fish, there being no herbage or trees of any kind, except afew palm-trees. On the next day, having doubled a cape, they anchored in aharbour called Mosarna, where they found a pilot, who undertook to conductthe fleet to the Gulf of Persia. It would appear from Arrian, that theintercourse between this place and the Gulf was frequent, the voyage lessdangerous, and the harbours on the coast better known. Owing to thesefavourable circumstances, the skill of the pilot, and the breeze which blewfrom the land during the night, their course was more rapid; and theysailed by night as well as day. The coast, however, still continued barren, and the inhabitants unable to supply them with any thing but fish till theyarrived at Barna on the 64th day: here the inhabitants were more civilized;they had gardens producing fruit-trees, flowers, myrtle, &c. , with whichthe Greek sailors formed garlands to adorn their hair. 

On the 69th day, December 9. , they arrived at a small town, the name ofwhich is not given; nor is it possible to fix its scite. What occurred herewe shall give in the words of Dr. Vincent:--

"When the fleet reached this place, it was totally without bread or grainof any kind; and Nearchus, from the appearance of stubble in theneighbourhood, conceived hopes of a supply, if he could find means ofobtaining it; but he perceived that he could not take the place by assault, and a siege the situation he was in rendered impracticable. He concertedmatters, therefore, with Archias, and ordered him to make a feint ofpreparing the fleet to sail; while he himself, with a single vessel, pretending to be left behind, approached the town in a friendly manner, andwas received hospitably by the inhabitants. They came out to receive himupon his landing, and presented him with baked fish, (the first instance ofcookery he had yet seen on the coast, ) accompanied with cakes and dates. These he accepted with proper acknowledgments, and informed them he wishedfor permission to see the town: this request was granted without suspicion;but no sooner had he entered, than he ordered two of his archers to takepost at the gate, and then mounting the wall contiguous, with two more andhis interpreter, he made the signal for Archias, who was now under weigh toadvance. The natives instantly ran to their arms; but Nearchus having takenan advantageous position, made a momentary defence till Archias was closeat the gate, ordering his interpreter to proclaim at the same time, that ifthey wished their city to be preserved from pillage, they must deliver uptheir corn, and all the provisions which the place afforded. These termswere not rejected, for the gate was open, and Archias ready to enter: hetook charge of this post immediately with the force which attended him; andNearchus sent proper officers to examine such stores as were in the place, promising the inhabitants that, if they acted ingenuously, they shouldsuffer no other injury. Their stores were immediately produced, consistingof a kind of meal, or paste made of fish, in great plenty, with a smallquantity of wheat and barley. This, however insufficient for his wants, Nearchus received: and abstaining from farther oppression, returned onboard with his supply. "

The provisions he obtained here, notwithstanding the consumption of themwas protracted by occasionally landing and cutting off the tender shoots ofthe head of the wild palm-tree, were so completely exhausted in the courseof a few days, that Nearchus was obliged to prevent his men from landing, under the apprehension, that though the coast was barren, their distress onboard would have induced them not to return. At length, on the 14th ofDecember, on the seventy-fourth day of their departure, they reached a morefertile and hospitable shore, and were enabled to procure a very smallsupply of provisions, consisting principally of corn, dried dates, and theflesh of seven camels. Nearchus mentions the latter evidently to point outthe extreme distress to which they were reduced. As it is evident that thissupply would be soon exhausted, we are not surprised that Nearchus, inorder to reach a better cultivated district, should urge on his course asrapidly as possible; and accordingly we find, that he sailed at a greaterrate in this part of his voyage than he ever had done before. Having sailedday and night without intermission, in which time he passed a distance ofnearly sixty-nine miles, he at length doubled the cape, which formed theboundary of the barren coast of the Icthyophagi, and arrived in thedistrict of Karmania. At Badis, the first town in this district, which theyreached on the 17th of December, after a voyage of 77 days, they weresupplied with corn, wine, and every kind of fruit, except olives, theinhabitants being not only able but willing to relieve their wants. 

The length of the coast of the Icthyophagi is about 462 miles; and, asNearchus was twenty-one days on this coast, the average rate of sailingmust have been twenty-one miles a day. The whole distance, from the Industo the cape which formed the boundary of Karmania, is about 625 miles: thisdistance Nearchus was above seventy days in sailing. It must berecollected, however, that when he first set out the monsoon was adverse, and that for twenty-four days he lay in harbour: making the properdeductions for these circumstances, he was not at sea more than forty dayswith a favourable wind; which gives rather more than fifteen miles a day. The Houghton East Indiaman made the same run in thirteen days; and, on herreturn, was only five days from Gomeroon to Scindy Bay. 

The manners of the wretched inhabitants have occasionally been alreadynoticed; but Nearchus dwells upon some further particulars, which, fromtheir conformity with modern information, are worthy of remark. Theirordinary support is fish, as the name of Icthyophagi, or fish-eaters, implies; but why they are for this reason specified as a separate tribefrom the Gadrosians, who live inland, does not appear. Ptolomy considersall this coast as Karmania, quite to Mosarna; and whether Gadrosia is apart of that province, or a province itself, is a matter of no importance;but the coast must have received the name Nearchus gives it from Nearchushimself; for it is Greek, and he is the first Greek who explored it. Itmay, perhaps, be a translation of a native name, and such translations theGreeks indulged in sometimes to the prejudice of geography. "But thesepeople, though they live on fish, are few of them fishermen, for theirbarks are few, and those few very mean and unfit for the service. The fishthey obtain they owe to the flux and reflux of the tide, for they extend anet upon the shore, supported by stakes of more than 200 yards in length, within which, at the tide of ebb, the fish are confined, and settle in thepits or in equalities of the sand, either made for this purpose oraccidental. The greater quantity consists of small fish; but many largeones are also caught, which they search for in the pits, and extract withnets. Their nets are composed of the bark or fibres of the palm, which theytwine into a cord, and form like the nets of other countries. The fish isgenerally eaten raw, just as it is taken out of the water, at least such asare small and penetrable; but the larger sort, and those of more solidtexture, they expose to the sun, and pound them to a paste for store: thisthey use instead of meal or bread, or form them into a sort of cakes orfrumenty. The very cattle live on dried fish, for there is neither grassnor pasture on the coast. Oysters, crabs, and shell-fish, are caught inplenty; and though this circumstance is specified twice only in the earlypart of the voyage, there is little doubt but these formed the principalsupport of the people during their navigation. Salt is here the productionof nature, by which we are to understand, that the power of the sun in thislatitude, is sufficient for exhalation and crystallization, without theadditional aid of fire; and from this salt they formed an extract whichthey used as the Greeks use oil. The country, for the most part, is sodesolate, that the natives have no addition to their fish but dates: insome few places a small quantity of grain is sown; and there bread is theirviand of luxury, and fish stands in the rank of bread. The generality ofthe people live in cabins, small and stifling: the better sort only havehouses constructed with the bones of whales, for whales are frequentlythrown upon the coast; and, when the flesh is rotted off, they take thebones, making planks and doors of such as are flat, and beams or rafters ofthe ribs or jaw-bones; and many of these monsters are found fifty yards inlength. " Strabo confirms the report of Arrian, and adds, that "thevertebræ, or socket bones, of the back, are formed into mortars, in whichthey pound their fish, and mix it up into a paste, with the addition of alittle meal. "--(Vincent's Nearchus, p. 265. )

Dr. Vincent, in this passage, does not seem to be aware that no whale wasever found nearly so long as fifty yards, and that half that length is themore common size of the largest whales, even in seas more suitable to theirnature and growth. That the animal which Nearchus himself saw was a whale, there can be little doubt: while he was off Kyiza, the seamen wereextremely surprised, and not a little alarmed, at perceiving the seaagitated and thrown up, as Arrian expresses it, as if it were forciblylifted up by a whirlwind. The pilot informed them that it was occasioned bythe whales blowing; this information, however, does not seem to havequieted their fears: they ceased rowing, the oars dropped from their hands, and Nearchus found himself under the necessity of exerting all his presenceof mind and authority to recall them to their duty. He gave directions tosteer towards the place where the sea was lifted up: in their advance thecrew shouted all together, dashed the water with their oars, and soundedtheir trumpets. The whales were intimidated, sunk on the near approach ofthe vessels, and, though they rose again astern, and renewed their blowing, they now excited no alarm. 

The Gulf of Persia, which Nearchus was now about to enter, comprehends thecoasts of Karmania, Persis, and Susiana. Nothing important occurred tillthe vessels arrived off Cape Mussenden in Karmania, where they anchored: atthis place Nearchus and Onesicritus differed in opinion relative to thefurther prosecution of the voyage; the latter wished to explore this cape, and extend the voyage to the Gulf of Arabia. The reason he assigned was, that they knew more of this gulf, than of the Gulf of Persia; and that, asAlexander was master of Egypt, in the former gulf they would meet with moreassistance than in the latter. Nearchus, on the contrary, insisted thatAlexander's plan in directing, this voyage should be exactly pursued: thisplan was, to obtain a knowledge of the coast, with such harbours, bays, andislands, as might occur in the course of the voyage; "to ascertain whetherthere were any towns bordering on the ocean, and whether the country washabitable or desert. " The opinion of Nearchus prevailed, and the voyage waspursued according to its original course and purpose. 

As Nearchus had reason to believe that the army of Alexander was at nogreat distance, he resolved to land, form a naval camp, and to advancehimself into the interior, that he might ascertain this point. Accordingly, on the 20th of December, the 80th day after his departure, he formed a campnear the river Anamis; and having secured his ships, proceeded in search ofAlexander. The first intelligence of their sovereign, however, seems tohave been obtained accidentally. The crew of Nearchus were strolling up thecountry, when some of them met with a man whose dress and languageinstantly discovered that he was a Greek: the joy of meeting with acountryman was greatly heightened when he informed them that the army whichhe had lately left, was encamped at no great distance, and that thegovernor of the province was on the spot. As soon as Nearchus learnt theexact situation of the army, he hastened towards it; but the governor, eager to communicate to Alexander intelligence of his fleet, anticipatedhim. Alexander was exceedingly pleased; but when several days elapsed, andNearchus did not arrive, he began to doubt the truth of what the governorhad told him, and at last ordered him to be imprisoned. 

[Illustration]

In the mean time Nearchus was prosecuting his journey along with Archiasand five or six others, when he fortunately fell in with a party from thearmy, which had been sent out with horses and carriages for hisaccommodation. The admiral and his attendants, from their appearance, mighthave passed unnoticed. Their hair long and neglected, their garmentsdecayed, their countenance pale and weather-worn, and their personsemaciated by famine and fatigue, scarcely raised the attention of thefriends they had encountered. They were Greeks, however; and if Greeks, itwas natural to inquire after the army, and where it was now encamped. Ananswer was given to their inquiry; but still they were neither recognizedby the party, nor was any question asked in return. Just as they wereseparating from each other, "Assuredly, " says Archias, "this must be aparty sent out for our relief, for on what other account can they bewandering about the desert? There is nothing strange in their passing uswithout notice, for our very appearance is a disguise. Let us address themonce more, and inform them who we are, and learn from them on what servicethey are at present employed. " Nearchus approved of this advice, andapproaching them again, inquired which way they were directing theircourse. "We are in search of Nearchus and his people, " replied the officer:"And I am Nearchus, " said the admiral; "and this is Archias. Take us underyour conduct, and we will ourselves report our history to the king. " Theywere accordingly placed in the carriages, and conducted towards the armywithout delay. While they were upon their progress, some of the horsemen, impatient to carry the news of this happy event, set off to the camp toinform the king, that Nearchus and Archias were arrived with five or six ofhis people; but of the rest they had no intelligence. This suggested toAlexander that perhaps these only were preserved, and that the rest of thepeople had perished, either by famine or shipwreck; nor did he feel so muchpleasure in the preservation of the few, as distress for the loss of theremainder. During this interval, Nearchus and his attendants arrived. Itwas not without difficulty that the king discovered who they were, underthe disguise of their appearance; and this circumstance contributed toconfirm him in his mistake, imagining that both their persons and theirdress bespoke ship wreck, and the destruction of the fleet. He held out hishand, however, to Nearchus, and led him aside from his guards andattendants without being able to utter a word. As soon as they were alone, he burst into tears, and continued weeping for a considerable time; till, at length recovering in some degree his composure, --"Nearchus, " says he, "Ifeel some satisfaction in finding that you and Archias have escaped; buttell me where and in what manner did my fleet and my people perish?" "Yourfleet, " replied Nearchus, "are all safe, --your people are safe; and we arecome to bring you the account of their preservation. " Tears, but from adifferent source, now fell much faster from his eyes. "Where then are myships?" says he. "At the Anamis, " replied Nearchus; "all safe on shore, andpreparing for the completion of their voyage. " "By the Lybian Ammon andJupiter of Greece, I swear to you, " rejoined the king, "I am more happy atreceiving this intelligence, than in being conqueror of all Asia; for Ishould have considered the loss of my fleet and the failure of thisexpedition, as a counterbalance to all the glory I have acquired. " Such wasthe reception of the admiral; while the governor, who was the first bearerof the glad tidings, was still in bonds: upon the sight of Nearchus, hefell at his feet, and implored his intercession. It may be well imaginedthat his pardon was as readily granted as it was asked. --(Vincent'sNearchus, p. 312. )

Sacrifices, games, and a festival ensued; and when these were ended, Alexander told Nearchus that he would expose him to no further hazard, butdespatch another to carry the fleet to Susa. "I am bound to obey you, "replied the admiral, "as my king, and I take a pleasure in my obedience;but if you, wish to gratify me in return, suffer me to retain my command, till I have completed the expedition. I shall feel it as an injustice, if, after having struggled through all the difficulties of the voyage, anothershall finish the remainder almost without an effort, and yet reap thehonour of completing what I have begun. " Alexander yielded to this justrequest, and about the end of the year Nearchus rejoined his fleet. 

By the 6th of January, B. C. 345, he reached the island of Kataia, whichforms the boundary between Karmania and Persis. The length of the formercoast is rather more than three hundred miles: the time occupied byNearchus in this part of his voyage was about twelve days. He arrived atBadis, the first station in Karmania, on the 7th of December; at Anamis onthe 10th; here he remained three days. His journey to the camp, stay there, return, and preparations for again sailing, may have occupied fifteen days. Three hundred miles in twelve days is at the rate of twenty-five miles aday. 

Hitherto the voyage of Nearchus has afforded no information respecting thecommerce of the ancients. The coasts along which he sailed were eitherbarren and thinly inhabited by a miserable and ignorant people, or if morefertile and better cultivated, Nearchus' attention and interest were tookeenly occupied about the safety of himself and his companions, to gathermuch information of a commercial nature. The remainder of his voyage, however, affords a few notices on this subject; and to these we shallattend. 

In the island of Schitwar, on the eastern side of the Gulf of Persia, Nearchus found the inhabitants engaged in a pearl fishery: at presentpearls are not taken on this side of the Gulf. At the Rohilla point a deadwhale attracted their attention; it is represented as fifty cubits long, with a hide a cubit in thickness, beset with shell-fish, probably barnaclesor limpets, and sea-weeds, and attended by dolphins, larger than Nearchushad been accustomed to see in the Mediterranean Sea. Their arrival at theBriganza river affords Dr. Vincent an opportunity of conjecturing theprobable draught of a Grecian vessel of fifty oars. At ebb-tide, Arrianinforms us, the vessels were left dry; whereas at high tide they were ableto surmount the breakers and shoals. Modern travellers state that theflood-tide rises in the upper part of the Gulf of Persia, nine or ten feet:hence it may be conjectured that the largest vessel in the fleet drew fromsix to eight feet water. The next day's sail brought them from the Briganzato the river Arosis, the boundary river between Persis and Susiana, thelargest of the rivers which Nearchus had met with in the Gulf of Persia. The province of Persis is described by Nearchus as naturally divided intothree parts. "That division which lies along the side of the Gulf is sandy, parched, and sterile, bearing little else but palm-trees. " To the north andnorth-east, across the range of mountains, the country improvesconsiderably in soil and climate; the herbage is abundant and nutritious;the meadows well watered; and the vine and every kind of fruit, except theolive, flourishes. This part of the province is adorned by the parks andgardens of the kings and nobles; the rivers flow from lakes of pure water, abounding in water-fowl of all descriptions; horses and cattle feed on therich pastures, while in the woods there is abundance of animals for thechace. To this the third division of Persis forms a striking contrast. Thislies farther north, a mountainous district, wild and rugged, inhabited bybarbarous tribes: the climate is so cold, that the tops of the mountainsare constantly covered with snow. 

The coast of Susiana, along which Nearchus was now about to sail, herepresents as difficult and dangerous, from the number of shoals with whichit was lined. As he was informed that it would not be easy to procure waterwhile he was crossing the mouths of the streams which divide the Delta, hetook in a supply for five days before he left the Arosis. On account of theshoals which stretch a considerable way out to sea, they could not approachthe coast, and were consequently obliged to anchor at night, and sleep onboard. In order to pass this dangerous coast with the least risk, theyformed a line by single ships, each following in order, through a channelmarked by stakes; in the same manner, Arrian remarks, as the passagebetween Leukas and Akarnania in Greece, except that at Leukas there is afirm sand, so that a ship takes no damage, if she runs ashore: whereas inthis passage there was deep mud on both sides, in which a vessel groundingstuck fast; and if her crew endeavoured to get her off by going overboard, they sunk above the middle in the mud. The extent of this difficult passagewas thirty-seven miles, at the end of which Nearchus came to an anchor at adistance from the coast. Their course next day was in deep water, whichcontinued till they arrived, after sailing a day and a half, at a villageat the mouth of the Euphrates: at this village there was a mart for theimportation of the incenses of Arabia. Here Nearchus learnt that Alexanderwas marching to Susa; this intelligence determined him to return back, tosail up the Pasi-Tigris, and join him near that city. At Aginis he enteredthe Pasi-Tigris, but he proceeded only about nine miles to a village whichhe describes as populous and flourishing; here he determined to wait, tillhe received further information respecting the exact route of the army. Hesoon learnt that Alexander with his troops was at a bridge which he hadconstructed over the Pasi-Tigris, at the distance of about one hundred andtwenty miles: at this place Nearchus joined him. Alexander embracedNearchus with the warmth of a friend; and his reception from all ranks wasequally gratifying and honourable. Whenever he appeared in the camp, he wassaluted with acclamations: sacrifices, games, and every other kind offestivity celebrated the success of his enterprize. Nearly five months hadbeen occupied in performing the voyage from the mouth of the Indus--avoyage which a modern vessel could perform in the course of three weeks. 

Immediately after the junction of the fleet and army, Alexander crossed thePasi-Tigris, and proceeded to Susa: here he distributed rewards and honoursamong his followers for their long, arduous, faithful, and triumphantservices. Those officers who had served as guards of Alexander's personreceived crowns of gold; and the same present was made to Nearchus asadmiral, and to Onesicritus as navigator of the fleet. 

We have already mentioned that Alexander projected the circumnavigation ofArabia to the Red Sea, in order to complete the communication between Indiaand Egypt, and through Egypt with Europe. Nearchus was selected for thisenterprize; its execution, however, was prevented by the death ofAlexander. That he was extremely anxious for its completion, is evidentfrom the personal trouble he took in the preparations for it, and in thenecessary preliminary measures. In order that he might himself take a viewof the Gulf of Persia, he embarked on board a division of his fleet, andsailed down the same stream which Nearchus had sailed up. At the head ofthe Delta, the vessels which had suffered most in Nearchus' voyages weredirected to proceed with the troops they had on board, through a canalwhich runs into the Tigris, Alexander himself proceeding with the lightestand best sailing vessels through the Delta to the sea. 

Soon after his return to Opis, where the mutiny of his troops took place, Alexander gave another proof of his attention to maritime affairs; for hedespatched Heraclides into Hyrcania, with orders to cut timber and preparea fleet for the purpose of exploring the Caspian Sea--an attempt which, like that of the projected voyage of Nearchus up the Arabian Gulf, wasprevented by Alexander's death. In the mean time Nearchus had beencollecting the vessels that were destined for his expedition; they wereassembled at Babylon: to this city also were brought from Phoeniciaforty-seven vessels which had been taken to pieces, and so conveyed overland to Thapsacus. Two of these were of five banks, three of four, twelveof three, and thirty rowed with fifteen oars on a side. Others likewisewere ordered to be built on the spot of cypress, the only wood whichBabyloni afforded; while mariners were collected from Phoenicia, and a dockwas directed to be cut capable of containing one thousand vessels, withbuildings and arsenals in proportion to the establishment. To accomplishthis extensive design, Alexander had sent one of his officers to Phoeniciawith 500 talents (about 106, 830_l_. ) to buy slaves fit for the oar, andhire mariners. These preparations were so extensive, that it seems highlyprobable that Alexander meant to conquer Arabia, as well as explore thenavigation of the Arabian Gulf; and indeed his plan and policy always wereto unite conquest with discovery. As soon as he had put these preparationsin a proper train, he again embarked, and sailed down the Euphrates as faras Pallacopas. The immediate object of this voyage is not exactly known. Asthe Euphrates flows over the adjacent country at certain seasons, thePersian monarchs had cut a canal at Pallacopas, which diverted itssuperfluous waters into a lake, where they were employed to flood the land. This and similar canals had been long neglected; but as Alexander seems tohave fixed on Babylon as the future capital of his empire, it was necessaryto restore the canals to their original utility, in order that the groundon both sides of the Euphrates might be drained or flooded at the properseason. This may have been the only object of Alexander's voyage, or it mayhave been connected with the projected voyage of Nearchus. It is certain, however, that by his directions the principal canal was much improved;indeed it was in reality cut in a more convenient and suitable place; forthe soil where it had been originally cut was soft and spongy, so that muchlabour and time were required to restore the waters to their course, andsecure its mouth in a safe and firm manner. A little lower down, the soilwas much more suitable, being strong and rocky; here then Alexander orderedthe opening of the canal to be made: he afterwards entered it with hisfleet, and surveyed the whole extent of the lake with which itcommunicated. On the Arabian side of the Gulf, he ordered a city to bebuilt: immediately afterwards he returned to Babylon, where he died. 

In the mean time, and while Nearchus was at Babylon, three vessels weresent down the Arabian side of the Gulf, to collect such information asmight be useful to him in his projected voyage. One was commanded byArchias, who proceeded as far as Tylos, or Bahrein, the centre of themodern pearl fishery. A short distance from the mouth of the Euphrates, Archias discovered two islands; on one of which a breed of goats and sheepwas preserved, which were never killed, except for the purpose ofsacrifice. The second vessel sailed a little way round the coast of Arabia. The third, which was commanded by Hiero of Soli, went much farther thaneither of the other two, for it doubled Cape Mussendoon, sailed down thecoast below Moscat, and came in sight of Cape Ras-el-hed: this cape he wasafraid to double. On his return he reported that Arabia was much moreextensive than had been imagined. None of these vessels proceeded so far asto be of much service to Nearchus, or to carry into effect the grand objectof Alexander: for his instructions to Hiero in particular were, tocircumnavigate Arabia; to go up the Red Sea; and reach the Bay ofHieropolis, on the coast of Egypt. All these vessels were small, havingonly fifty oars, and therefore not well calculated for such a long andhazardous navigation. 

At the time when Alexander was seized with the illness which occasioned hisdeath, Nearchus was ready to sail, and he himself, with the army, was toaccompany him as far as was practicable, in the same manner as he had donefrom the Indus to the Tigris: two days before the fever commenced, he gavea grand entertainment to Nearchus and his officers. 

Only a very few circumstances regarding Nearchus are known after the deathof Alexander: he was made governor of Lycia and Pamphylia, and seems tohave attached himself to the fortunes of Antigonus. Along with him, hecrossed the mountains of Loristan, when he marched out of Susiana, afterhis combat with Eumenes. In this retreat he commanded the light-armedtroops, and was ordered in advance, to drive the Cosseams from their passesin the mountains. When Antigonus deemed it necessary to march into LesserAsia, to oppose the progress of Cassander, he left his son Demetrius, withpart of his army, in Syria; and as that prince was not above 22 years old, he appointed him several advisers, of whom Nearchus was one. It is by nomeans improbable that the instructions or the advice of Nearchus may haveinduced Demetrius to survey with great care the lake of Asphaltes, and toform a computation of the profit of the bitumen which it afforded, and ofthe balm which grew in the adjacent country, and may have contributed tohis love for and skill in ship-building; for after he was declared king ofMacedonia, he built a fleet of five hundred gallies, several of which hadfourteen, fifteen, and sixteen benches of oars. We are informed that theywere all built by the particular contrivance of Demetrius himself, and thatthe ablest artizans, without his directions, were unable to construct suchvessels, which united the pomp and splendour of royal ships to the strengthand conveniences of ordinary ships of war. The period and circumstances ofthe death of Nearchus are not known. Dr. Vincent supposes that he may havelost his life at the battle of Ipsus, where Antigonus fell: or, after thebattle, by command of the four kings who obtained the victory. Previous tohis grand expedition, it appears that he was a native of Crete, andenrolled a citizen of Amphipolis, it is supposed, at the time when Philipintended to form there a mart for his conquests in Thrace. He soonafterwards came to the court of Philip, by whom he and some others werebanished, because he thought them too much attached to the interests ofAlexander in the family dissensions which arose on the secession ofOlympias, and some secret transactions of Alexander in regard to a marriagewith a daughter of a satrap of Caria. On the death of Philip, Nearchus wasrecalled, and rewarded for his sufferings by the favour of his sovereign. 

[4] The object of these dykes is supposed by Niebuhr to have been very different: be observes that they were constructed for the purpose of keeping up the waters to inundate the contiguous level: he found these dykes both in the Euphrates and Tigris. And Tavernier mentions one, 120 feet high, in the fall between Mosul and the great Zab. 

CHAPTER III. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY, AND COMMERCIAL ENTERPRIZE, FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, TO THE TIME OF PTOLEMY THEGEOGRAPHER, A. D. 150. --WITH A DIGRESSION ON THE INLAND TRADE BETWEEN INDIAAND THE SHORES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN, THROUGH ARABIA, FROM THE EARLIESTAGES. 

For several centuries after the death of Alexander, the impulse anddirection of discovery and commercial enterprize continued towards thecountries of the East. Of his successors, Seleucus Nicanor and some of thePtolemies of Egypt prosecuted his plans of commerce with this part of theworld with the most zeal and success. Seleucus, after the death ofAlexander, obtained possession of those provinces of his empire which werecomprized under the name of Upper Asia; he, therefore, naturally regardedthe conquered districts of India as belonging to him. In order to securethese, and at the same time to derive from them all the political andcommercial advantages which they were capable of bestowing, he marched intoIndia; and it is supposed that he carried his arms into districts that hadnot been visited by Alexander. The route assigned to his march is obscurelygiven; but it seems to point out the country from the Hyphasis to theHysudrus, from thence to Palibothra, at the junction of the Saone and theGanges, or, perhaps, where Patna now stands. There is no good reason tobelieve, with some authors, that he reached the mouth of the Ganges. Seleucus was stopt in his progress by the intelligence that Antigonus wasabout to invade his dominions; but before he retraced his steps towards theEuphrates, he formed a treaty with the Indian king Sandracottus, whoresided at Palibothra: and afterwards sent Megasthenes, who had someknowledge of the country, from having accompanied Alexander, as hisambassador to him. In this city, Megasthenes resided several years, and onhis return he published an account of that part of India; fragments of thisaccount are given by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Arrian; and though itcontains many false and fabulous stories, yet these are intermixed withmuch that is valuable and correct. He gives a faithful picture of theIndian character and manners; and his account of the geography anddimensions of India is curious and accurate. Some further insight intothese countries was derived from the embassy of Daimachus, to the son andsuccessor of Sandracottus; this terminated the connection of the Syrianmonarchs with India which was probably wrested from them soon after thedeath of Seleucus. At the time when this monarch was assassinated, Plinyinforms us, that he entertained a design of joining the Euxine and Caspianseas, by means of a canal; he was undoubtedly the most sagacious of theSyrian kings, and the only one who imitated Alexander in endeavouring tounite conquest with commerce. 

But it is to the Egyptian successors of Alexander that we must look for thesystematic extension of commerce; towards which they were in a mannerimpelled by the highly favourable situation of Alexandria. It has justlybeen observed by Harris, in his Collection of Voyages, that most of thecities founded by the Syrian kings existed little longer than theirfounders; and, perhaps, with the exception of Antioch, on the Orontes, andSeleucia, on the Tigris, none of them, from the situation in which theywere built, and the countries by which they were surrounded, could underany circumstances be of long duration. With respect to the cities foundedby Alexander it was quite otherwise. The Alexandria of Paropamisus maystill be traced in Candahar; and the Alexandria on the Iaxartes, in Cogend:and the Alexandria of Egypt, after surviving the revolutions of empires foreighteen ages, perished at last, (as a commercial city, ) only inconsequence of a discovery which changed the whole system of commercethrough the world. 

On the destruction of Tyre, Alexander sought for a situation on which hemight build a city that would rival it in the extent of its commerce; andhe quickly perceived the advantages that would be derived from the seat ofcommerce being established near one of the branches of the Nile. By meansof this river his projected city would command at once the commerce of theRed Sea and the Mediterranean. It was, however, necessary to select a spotnear the mouths of the Nile, which would secure these advantages in thehighest degree, and which would at the same time be of the highestimportance in a military point of view, and afford a harbour constantlyaccessible. The site of Alexandria combined all these advantages: on threesides it has the sea, or the lake Mareotis, which, according to Strabo, wasnearly 300 stadia long, and 150 broad; the country adjoining this lake wasfertile, and by means of it, and natural or artificial channels, there wasa communication with the Delta and Upper Egypt. Between this lake and theCanopic branch of the Nile, Alexander built his city: to less sagaciousminds this site would have appeared improper and injudicious in somerespects; for the sea-coast from Pelusium to Canopus is low land, notvisible at a distance; the navigation along this coast, and the approach toit, is dangerous, and the entrance into the mouths of the Nile, at someseasons, is extremely hazardous. But these disadvantages the genius ofAlexander turned to the benefit of his city, by the erection of the Pharos, and the plan of a double harbour, which was afterwards completed by thePtolemies; for he thus united in a single spot the means of defence andfacility of access. 

Denocrates, a Macedonian architect, who proposed to Alexander to cut MountAthos in the form of a statue holding a city in one hand, and in the othera bason, into which all the waters of the mountain should empty themselves, was employed by that monarch to build and beautify Alexandria. Its site wason a deep and secure bay, formed by the shore on the one side, and theisland of Pharos on the other; in this bay numerous fleets might lie inperfect safety, protected from the winds and waves. The form in which thecity was built was that of a Macedonian chlamys, or cloak; the two ports, one of which only was built by Alexander, though both (as has been alreadyobserved) were projected by him, were formed and divided from each other bya moat a mile long, which stretched from the isle of Pharos to thecontinent: that harbour which lay to the north was called the GreatHarbour, and the other, to the west, was called Eunostus, or the SafeReturn. In order to secure the vessels from the storms of theMediterranean, even more effectually than they could be by the naturaladvantages of these harbours, the piers on each side were bent like a bar, so that only a small space was left for the entrance of vessels. 

The successors of Alexander in the Egyptian empire followed his example, innourishing commerce and improving Alexandria. Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, assoon as he took possession of Egypt, established the seat of governmentthere, and succeeded, partly by harsh and despotic measures, and partly byoffering great advantages, and by his just and humane character, to drawthither a great number of inhabitants. He began, and his son completed, thefamous watch-tower in the island of Pharos; the causeway which united it tothe main land, already mentioned, was built by Dexiphanes. Sostratus, theson of this architect, was employed to erect the watch-tower: the design ofthis tower was to direct the vessels which entered the harbour, and it wasjustly reckoned one of the wonders of the world. It was a large and squarestructure of white marble, on the top of which fires were constantly keptburning for the direction of sailors. The building of this tower cost 800talents, which, if they were Attic talents, were equivalent to 165, 000_l_. Sterling, but if they were Alexandrian, to double that sum. This stupendousand most useful undertaking was completed in the fortieth year of the reignof Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, and in first year of the reign of PtolemyPhiladelphus; and at the same time that Sostratus finished it, his father, Dexiphanes, finished the mole, which united the island of Pharos to thecontinent. The inscription on the tower was, "King Ptolemy to the Gods, thesaviours, for the benefit of sailors;" but Sostratus put this inscriptionon the mortar, while underneath he cut, in the solid marble, the followinginscription, "Sostratus the Cnidian, son of Dexiphanes, to the Gods, thesaviours, for the benefit of sailors. " In process of time the mortar woreoff, the first inscription disappeared along with it, and the secondinscription became visible. 

The erection of the tower of Pharos was by no means the only service thefirst Ptolemy did to commerce; throughout all his reign he manifested greatattention to it and maritime affairs, as well as to those sciences by whichthey might be improved and advanced. As soon as he had made himself masterof Palestine, Syria, and Phoenicia, he turned his thoughts to the conquestof Cyprus: this island abounded in wood, of which Egypt was almostdestitute; and on this account, as well as on account of its situation, inthe bosom, as it were, of the Levant, it was of the utmost importance to amaritime power. He succeeded in obtaining possession of this valuableisland, and thus improved and enlarged the commercial advantages of Egypt. His next step, with this view, was to invite the sailors of Phoenicia tohis new capital. His increasing power, especially at sea, roused the envyof Antigonus, who, by extraordinary exertions, in the course of twelvemonths built and equipped a fleet, which was able to cope with the navalpower of Ptolemy. It is foreign to our purpose to notice the wars betweenthem, except in so far as they are connected with the commercial history ofAlexandria. This city was benefited by these wars, for Antigonus, in hisprogress, had driven many of the inhabitants of Syria, Palestine, andPhoenicia from their native lands: to these Ptolemy gave greatencouragement, and extraordinary privileges and immunities, which inducedthem to settle in Alexandria, where they followed their mercantile orcommercial pursuits. The report of these advantages granted to foreigners, led Jews, Greeks and Macedonians to flock to Egypt, by which means thepopulation and wealth of that country, and particularly of its capital, were greatly augmented. 

The foundation of the museum and library of Alexandria, both of whichcontributed so essentially to science and to the establishment of theAlexandrian school of philosophy, which, as we shall afterwards perceive, produced men that greatly advanced geographical knowledge, is another proofof the wise and comprehensive character of Ptolemy's mind. 

But Ptolemy rather prepared the way for the advancement of commerce andmaritime discovery, than contributed directly to them himself: fortunately, his son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, was a worthy successor, and emulous oftreading in his father's steps. About the beginning of his reign, Tyre, theancient station of the trade with India, again reared its head as acommercial city, and engaged extensively and successfully in this lucrativetraffic. It became necessary, therefore, in order to draw it from Tyre andto secure its centering in Alexandria, to extend the facilities andadvantages of this city for this traffic. With this view, Ptolemy senttravellers to penetrate into the interior of his dominions, bordering onthe Red Sea, by land, while his fleet was exploring the coast: he began tomake a canal, 100 cubits broad and 30 deep, between Arsinoe on the Red Sea, and the eastern branch of the Nile, in order to complete awater-communication between India and Alexandria. This canal, however, wasnever completed; probably on account of the tedious and difficultnavigation towards the northern extremity of the Red Sea. He thereforealtered his plan, and instead of Arsinoe fixed on Myos Hormos, as the portfrom which the navigation to India should commence. The same reason whichinduced him to form this port; led him afterwards to the establishment ofBerenice; he was farther led to this, as Berenice was lower down in the RedSea, and consequently ships sailing from it reached the ocean sooner andwith less difficulty. It appears, however, that till the Romans conqueredEgypt, the greatest portion of the trade between Alexandria and[Egypt->India] was carried on through Myos Hormos. The route in the time ofPtolemy and his successors was as follows: vessels passed up the Canopicbranch of the Nile to Memphis, and thence to Coptus; from Coptus the goodswere transported in caravans to Myos Hormos: from this port the vesselssailed for Africa, or Arabia in the month of September, and for India inJuly. As the country over which the caravans travelled was the desart ofThebais, which is almost destitute of water, Ptolemy ordered springs to besearched for, wells to be dug, and caravanseras to be erected. 

In order to protect his merchant ships in the Mediterranean and the RedSea, he fitted out two great fleets, one of which he constantly kept ineach sea. That in the Mediterranean was very numerous, and had severalships of an extraordinary size: two of them in particular had 30 oars on aside, one 20, four 14, two 12, fourteen 11, thirty 9, &c. , besides a greatnumber of vessels of four oars and three oars on a side. With these fleetshe protected the commerce of his subjects, and kept in subjection most ofthe maritime provinces of Asia Minor; viz. Cilicia, Pamphylia, Lycia andCaria. The names of some of the most celebrated geographers who werepatronized by this monarch, have been handed down to us: Pliny mentionsDalion, Bion, Boselis, and Aristocreon, as having visited Ethiopia, andcontributed to the geographical knowledge of that country; and Simonides ashaving resided five years at Meroe. Timosthenes lived in this reign: hepublished a description of the known sea-ports, and a work on the measureof the earth. He sailed down the coast of Africa, probably as far asMadagascar, certainly lower down than the Egyptians traded under thePtolemies, or even under the Romans. 

The reign of Ptolemy Euergetes was equally distinguished, with, those ofhis predecessors, by attention to commerce, and a desire to extend it. Asthe navigation of the Red Sea had now become a source of great wealth tohis subjects, he deemed it necessary to free it as much as possible fromthe pirates that infested it's coasts; for this purpose, as well as topreserve a communication between Egypt and the countries which extended toits mouth, he established governors from the isthmus of Suez, along theArabian and African coasts, as far as the straits of Babelmandeb; andplanted colonies of Greeks and Egyptians to carry on the commerce, andprotect the interests of his subjects. But the most extraordinary instanceof his enterprising spirit is to be found in his conquest (evidently forthe purpose of facilitating and securing the commerce of the Red Sea) ofpart of Abyssinia. The proof of this, indeed, rests entirely on aninscription found at Aduli, which there can be no doubt is the harbour andbay of Masuah; the only proper entrance, according to Bruce, intoAbyssinia. The inscription to which we have alluded was extant in the timeof Cosmas (A. D. 545), by whom it was seen. From it, Ptolemy appears to havepassed to the Tacazze, which he calls the Nile, and to have penetrated intoGojam, in which province the fountains of the Nile are found. He maderoads, opened a communication between this country and Egypt, and duringthis expedition obliged the Arabians to pay tribute, and to maintain theroads free from robbers and the sea from pirates; subduing the whole coastfrom [Leucke->Leuke] Come to Sabea. The inscription adds: "In theaccomplishment of this business I had no example to follow, either of theancient kings of Egypt, or of my own family; but was the first to conceivethe design, and to carry it into execution. Thus, having reduced the wholeworld to peace under my own authority, I came down to Aduli, and sacrificedto Jupiter, to Mars, and to Neptune, imploring his protection for all whonavigate these seas. "

Ptolemy Euergetes was particularly attentive to the interests of thelibrary at Alexandria. The first librarian appointed by Ptolemy thesuccessor of Alexander, was Zenodotus; on his death, Ptolemy Euergetesinvited from Athens Eratosthenes, a citizen of Cyrene, and entrusted to himthe care of the library: it has been supposed that he was the second ofthat name, or of an inferior rank in learning and science, because he issometimes called Beta; but by this appellation nothing else was meant, butthat he was the second librarian of the royal library at Alexandria. Hedied at the age of 81, A. C. 194. He has been called a second Plato, thecosmographer and the geometer of the world: he is rather an astronomer andmathematician than a geographer, though geography is indebted to him forsome improvements in its details, and more especially for helping to raiseit to the accuracy and dignity of a science. By means of instruments, whichPtolemy erected in the museum at Alexandria, he ascertained the obliquityof the ecliptic to be 23° 51' 20". He is, however, principally celebratedas the first astronomer who measured a degree of a great circle, and thusapproximated towards the real diameter of the earth. 

The importance of this discovery will justify us in entering on somedetails respecting the means which this philosopher employed, and theresult which he obtained. 

It is uncertain whether the well at Syene, in Upper Egypt, which he usedfor this purpose, was dug by his directions, or existed previously. Plinyseems to be of the former opinion; but there is reason to believe that ithad a much higher antiquity. The following observations on its structure byDr. Horsley, Bishop of Rochester, are ingenious and important. "The well, besides that it was sunk perpendicularly, with the greatest accuracy, was, I suppose, in shape an exact cylinder. Its breadth must have been moderate, so that a person, standing upon the brink, might safely stoop enough overit to bring his eye into the axis of the cylinder, where it would beperpendicularly over the centre of the circular surface of the water. Thewater must have stood at a moderate, height below the mouth of the well, far enough below the mouth to be sheltered from the action of the wind, that its surface might be perfectly smooth and motionless; and not so low, but that the whole of its circular surface might be distinctly seen by theobserver on the brink. A well formed in this manner would afford, as Iapprehend, the most certain observation of the sun's appulse to the zenith, that could be made with the naked eye; for when the sun's centre was uponthe zenith, his disc would be seen by reflection on the water, in the verymiddle of the well, --that is, as a circle perfectly concentric with thecircle of the water; and, I believe, there is nothing of which the nakedeye can judge with so much precision as the concentricity of two circles, provided the circles be neither very nearly equal, nor the inner circlevery small in proportion to the outer. "

Eratosthenes observed, that at the time of the summer solstice this wellwas completely illuminated by the sun, and hence he inferred that the sunwas, at that time, in the zenith of this place. His next object was toascertain the altitude of the sun, at the same solstice, and on the verysame day, at Alexandria. This he effected by a very simple contrivance: heemployed a concave hemisphere, with a vertical style, equal to the radiusof concavity; and by means of this he ascertained that the arch, intercepted between the bottom of the style and the extreme point of itsshadow, was 7° 12'. This, of course, indicated the distance of the sun fromthe zenith of Alexandria. But 7° 12' is equal to the fiftieth part of agreat circle; and this, therefore, was the measure of the celestial arccontained between the zeniths of Syene and Alexandria. The measureddistance between these cities being 5000 stadia, it followed, that 5000 X50 = 250, 000, was, according to the observations of Eratosthenes, theextent of the whole circumference of the earth. 

If we knew exactly the length of the stadium of the ancients, or, to speakmore accurately, what stadium is referred to in the accounts which havebeen transmitted to us of the result of the operations of Eratosthenes, (for the ancients employed different stadia, ) we should be able preciselyto ascertain the circumference which this philosopher ascribed to theearth, and also, whether a nearer approximation to the truth was made byany subsequent or prior ancient philosopher. The circumference of the earthwas conjectured, or ascertained, by Aristotle, Cleomedes, Posidonius, andPtolemy respectively, to be 400, 300, 240, and 180 thousand stadia. It isimmediately apparent that these various measures have some relation to eachother, and probably express the same extent; measured in different stadia;and this probability is greatly increased by comparing the real distancesof several places with the ancient itinerary distances. 

The observation of Eratosthenes respecting the obliquity of the ecliptic(though undoubtedly not so immediately or essentially connected with oursubject as his observation of the circumference of the earth) is tooimportant to be passed over entirely without notice. He found the distancebetween the tropics less than 53° 6', and greater than 52° 96', which givesa mean of 23° 51' for the obliquity of the ecliptic. The observations ofHipparchus (who flourished at Alexandria about 140 years before Christ, andwhom we shall have occasion to mention more particularly afterwards)coincided with those of Eratosthenes. Plutarch, however, who died A. D. 119, informs us, that, in his time, the gnomons at Syene were no longershadowless on the day of the summer solstice. As the interval betweenEratosthenes and Plutarch was only about 512 years, Bishop Morsley has verynaturally expressed his doubts of the accuracy of Plutarch's assertion. Hesays, that the change in the obliquity of the ecliptic in this interval wasonly 2' 36". "A gnomon, therefore, at Syene, of the length of twelveinches, if it cast no shadow on the day of the solstice in the time ofEratosthenes, should have cast a shadow in the time of Plutarch of thelength only of 9/1000th, or not quite 1/100th part of an inch. The shadowof a perpendicular column of the height of 100 feet would have been 9/10thsof an inch. " As, however, the ancients do not appear to have constructedgnomons of such a size, and as gnomons of inferior size would have given ashadow scarcely perceptible, it is probable that Plutarch is mistaken inhis assertion; or, at any rate, that the very small variation which didtake place between his time and that of Eratosthenes (if it were observedat all) was ascertained by means of the well itself, which would point itout much more distinctly and accurately than any gnomon the ancients can besupposed to have used. 

We are also indebted to Eratosthenes for the first regular parallel oflatitude, and also for tracing a meridian. His parallel of latitude beganat the Straits of Gibraltar, and passed eastward through Rhodes to themountains of India; the intermediate places being carefully set down. Hismeridian line passed through Rhodes and Alexandria, as far as Syene andMeroe. Meroe, on this account, became an object of the greatest interestand importance to all the succeeding ancient geographers and astronomers, and they have taken the utmost labour and care to ascertain its latitudeaccurately. Strabo informs us, that Eratosthenes constructed a map of theworld; but he does not give such particulars as will enable us to trace theextent of his geographical knowledge. At the extremity of the world to theeast, bounded by the ocean, Thina was placed in the map of Eratosthenes, inthe parallel of Rhodes; a parallel which passes through the empire ofChina, within the Great Wall. Eratosthenes, according to Strabo, (to whomwe are indebted for nearly all we know respecting this philosopher, )asserts that Thina had been, previously to the construction of his map, incorrectly placed in the more ancient maps. His information respectingMeroe or Abyssinia, is most probably derived from Dalion, Aristocreon, andBion, who had been sent by Ptolemy Philadelphus and his successors intothat country, or from Timosthenes, who sailed down the coast of Africa aslow as Cerne. His information on the subject of India (which, however, asfar as regards oriental commerce, is very confused) must have been derivedfrom the Macedonians. There is little doubt that the library of Alexandriaafforded him access to all the knowledge which then existed respecting thevarious countries of the globe; but the turn of his mind led him rather toastronomical than geographical studies; or rather, perhaps, he directed hislabours and his talents to the discovery of the figure and circumference ofthe earth, thinking, that till this was effected, the delineation of thehabitable world, and the relative position of different countries, must bevery inaccurate as well as incomplete. This opinion regarding Eratosthenes, that he was more of a geometrician than a geographer, seems to be confirmedby the testimony of Marcian of Heraclia, who informs us, that Eratosthenestook the whole work of Timosthenes, preface and all, as it stood, and inthe very same words. If this account be accurate, it is probable thatEratosthenes' knowledge of Thina, and his being able to correct theerroneous position of this country in more ancient maps, was derived fromTimosthenes, who had commanded the fleet of Ptolemy Philadelphus on theIndian Ocean. 

If we reflect on the rude and imperfect state of science at this period, the paucity and inadequacy of the instruments by means of which it might beimproved, and the superstitions and prejudices which opposed the removal oferror or the establishment of truth, we shall not be disposed to questionthe justice of the panegyric pronounced by Pliny on Eratosthenes. Thisauthor, after detailing all that was then known on the subject of thecircumference of the earth, and on the distances which had been ascertainedby actual admeasurement, or approximated by analogy or probable conjecture, between the most remarkable places on its surface, adds, that Eratosthenes, whose acuteness and application had advanced him far in every branch ofknowledge, but who had outstripped all his predecessors or contemporariesin that particular branch which was connected with the admeasurement of theearth, had fixed its circumference at 250, 000 stadia; a bold and almostpresumptuous enterprize, (_improbum ausum_, ) but which had been conductedwith so much judgment, and on such sound principles, that it commanded anddeserved our credit. Hipparchus, who was distinguished for his correctnessand diligence in every part of geometrical and astronomical science, andwho had specially exerted those qualities in his endeavours to correct theerrors of Eratosthenes, had been able to add only the comparatively smallextent of 25, 000 stadia to the computation of Eratosthenes. --_Plin. Nat. Hist. _ lib. Ii. C. 108. 

Eratosthenes seems, from the nature of his studies, not to have availedhimself so much as he might have done of the treasures contained in theAlexandrian library under his care, to correct or extend the geographicalknowledge of his contemporaries. The same observation will not apply toAgatharcides, who was president of the library after Eratosthenes. Theexact time at which he flourished is not known: according to Blair, he wascontemporary with Eratosthenes, though younger than him, and flourished 177A. C. , Eratosthenes having died at the age of eighty-one, in the year 194A. C. Dodwell, however, fixes him at a later period; viz. 104 A. C. ; but thisdate must be erroneous, because Artemidorus of Ephesus, who evidentlycopies Agatharcides, undoubtedly lived 104 A. C. Agatharcide's was born atCnidus in Caria: no particulars are known respecting him, except that hewas president of the Alexandrian library, in the reign of PtolemyPhilometor, if he flourished 177 A. C. ; and in the reign of PtolemyLathyrus, if, according to Dodwell, he did not flourish till 104 A. C. 

The only work of his which is preserved, is a Treatise on the ErythraeanSea; and this we possess only in the Bibliotheca of Photius, andincorporated in the history of Diodorus Siculus. The authority ofAgatharcides was very high among the ancients. Strabo, Pliny, and Diodorus, always mention him with the utmost respect, and place implicit confidencein his details. Diodorus expressly states that Agatharcides and Artemidorus(who, as we have already mentioned, was merely his copyist) are the onlyauthors who have written truth concerning Egypt and Ethiopia; and Strabofollows him in all that relates to the latter country, the countries lyingto the south of Egypt, and the western coast of Arabia. In fact, for nearly200 years, the ancient historians and geographers drew all the informationthey possessed respecting the portions of the world embraced in the work ofAgatharcides from that work. It has been well observed, "that when Plinyspeaks of the discoveries on the coast of Malabar in his own age, and adds, that the names he mentions are new, and not to be found in previouswriters, we ought to consider him as speaking of all those who had followedthe authority of the Macedonians, or the school of Alexandria; of which, inthis branch of science, Eratosthenes and Agatharcides were the leaders. "From the circumstance that Strabo appeals very frequently to the authorityof Eratosthenes, in conjunction with that of Agatharcides, it has beenconjectured, that the work of the latter contains all that the former knew, with the addition of his own information; and this conjecture is highlyprobable, considering that Agatharcides had access to the sources whenceEratosthenes drew his information; to the works of Eratosthenes themselves, which of course would be deposited in the Alexandrian library; and to allthe additional works which had enriched the library from the time ofEratosthenes, as well as the additional information which the extensivecommerce of Alexandria would supply. 

The work of Agatharcides, therefore, having been in such estimation by theancient historians and geographers, and the only source from which, during200 years, they drew their information, and having been compiled by aperson, who, it is probable, had better and fuller means of rendering itaccurate and complete than any of his contemporaries enjoyed; it will beproper to give a pretty full abstract of the most interesting and importantpart of its contents. 

The veracity of this author was questioned by Plutarch, from his narratinga circumstance, which, to us of the present day, is a strong confirmationof the truth and accuracy of his information. Agatharcides takes notice ofthe worm which is formed in the legs, and which insinuates itself there insuch a manner, that it is necessary to wind it out with the utmost caution. Plutarch ridicules and rejects this story, and says it never has happened, and never will. But that such a worm exists, and that when it insinuatesitself into the leg it must be drawn out with the utmost caution, lest thesmallest portion of it remain, and thus produce disease, is directly andfully attested by all the travellers, and particularly by Bruce, whocarried with him to the grave the marks and effects of the attack of thisspecies of worm. 

But the most curious and important portion of the work of Agatharcides onthe Red Sea, relates to Abyssinia; for in this work we meet with the firstgenuine characteristics of this nation. He specifies particularly the goldmines wrought by the kings of Egypt on the coast of the Red Sea;--theprocess which they followed to procure and separate this metal;--thesufferings which the miners underwent in their operations are painted invery strong language: "The multitude of bones still found in theseexcavations, he says, is incredible, of wretches crushed by the falling-inof the earth, as must naturally happen in a loose and crumbling soil. " Headds a circumstance, to which there are many parallel in our own country, in those mines which are supposed to have been wrought by the Romans; viz. The tools of copper found in these gold mines, supposed to have been usedby the native Egyptians, prior to the conquest of Egypt by the Persians. The next particular mentioned by Agatharcides, respecting the Abyssiniancoast of the Red Sea, is very conclusive, with respect to his accuracy andcredibility. In Meroe, or Abyssinia, he says, they hunt elephants andhamstring them, and afterwards cut the flesh out of the animal alive: headds, that the inhabitants are so extremely fond of the flesh of theelephant, thus procured, that when Ptolemy would have paid any price topurchase these animals alive, as he wanted them for his army, theAbyssinian hunters refused his offer, declaring that not all the wealth ofEgypt would tempt them to forego their favourite and delicious repast. Itis a remarkable fact, that the credit of Bruce on this topic should thus beconfirmed by a writer who lived nearly 2000 years before him, of whosewritings we possess only a very short treatise, and of whose life we knowscarcely a single particular. It may be added, that Strabo, in a passage, in which he is apparently copying Agatharcides, mentions [Greek:Kreophagoi] and as he would scarcely particularize the fact of a nativeeating the flesh of animals cooked, it is to be presumed, he means rawflesh. In the same place he mentions the _excisio feminarum_. 

Every reader of Brace's Travels in Abyssinia must remember the fly, calledTsalpsalza, an insect more formidable than the strongest or most savagewild beasts: "As soon as the buzzing of this insect is heard, the utmostalarm and trepidation prevails; the cattle forsake their food and runwildly about the plain, till at length they fall down, worn out withterror, hunger and fatigue; even the camel, elephant and rhinoceros, arenot safe from the attacks of this formidable insect. " This fly is describedby Agatharcides in the same manner as by Bruce. The ensete tree of Bruce, the leaves of which resemble the banana, with fruit like figs, but noteatable, with a trunk esculent till it reaches its perfect growth and isfull of leaves, resembles in some of its particulars a tree described byAgatharcides. This author also describes the locusts, as generally used forfood; the troglodytes; the rhinoceros; the cameleopard; what he callssphinxes, but which are represented as tame, and are supposed to be apes, distinguished from the common ape in the face being smooth and withouthair. He also mentions an animal he calls crocetta, which is described asbeing between a wolf and a dog, and as imitating the human voice; theseparticulars seem to point it out as the hyena, though some suppose it to bethe jackall. It deserves to be remarked, that the animals enumerated byAgatharcides as natives of Abyssinia, are all named in the same manner, aswell as depicted on the celebrated Palestrine Mosaic. 

In his description of the coast of the Red Sea he commences with Arsinoe, and goes down the western side as far as Ptolemais Theron; a place socalled, because elephants were there hunted and taken, and are still, according to Bruce. Agatharcides adds, that the usual navigation was tothis place for elephants. He notices Myos Hormos, but not Berenice; he haseven mentioned the islands at the straits of Babelmandeb, and the prodigieswhich in his time, and much later, were supposed to lie beyond them. Thereis, however, one part of his work, in which he seems to indicate thecurvature of the African coast to the east beyond the straits; but it isdoubtful whether in this place he is speaking of the coast within orwithout the straits. 

In his description of the coast between Myos Hormos and Ptolemais, hepoints out a bay, which, both from the identity of the name, and thecircumstances respecting it which he narrates, undoubtedly is the Foul Bayof the moderns. Strabo, who, as we have already stated, borrows freely andfrequently from Agatharcides, describes this bay as full of shoals andbreakers, and exposed to violent winds; and he adds, that Berenice lies atthe bottom of it. The accuracy of our author, even when he is opposed bythe testimony of Bruce, is fully proved in what he relates of the coastbelow Foul Bay: after mentioning two mountains, which he calls the Bulls, he particularly adverts to the dangerous shoals which often proved fatal tothe elephant ships on their passage to and from Ptolemais. Bruce says nosuch shoals exist; but, as is justly observed by Dr. Vincent; thecorrectness of the ancients respecting them, especially Eratosthenes, Agatharcides and Artemidorus, is fully borne out by the danger and loss towhich many English ships have been exposed by reason of these very shoals. 

The description of Agatharcides of this side of the coast of the Red Sea, reaches no lower down than Ptolemais; this circumstance is remarkable, since we have seen that, from the inscription found at Aduli there can beno doubt that Ptolemy Euergetes had conquered Abyssinia, and established acommerce considerably lower down than Ptolemais Theron. As, however, wehave not the original, and perhaps not the entire work of Agatharcides, wecannot infer any thing, either respecting his ignorance or inattention, from this omission. 

Agatharcides, having thus described this coast, returns from Ptolemais toMyos Hormos, and passing the Bay of Arsinoe, crosses to Phoenicum, in theElanitic Gulf, and describes the coast of Arabia as far as Sabea. Almostthe very first particular noticed by him in this part of his work, bearsevidence to his accuracy as a geographer. He states that, at the entranceof the Elanitic Gulph there are three islands, one of which is dedicated toIsis: he describes them as, "covering several harbours on the Arabianshore. To these islands succeeds the rocky coast of Thamudeni, where, formore than 1000 stadia, there is no harbour, no roadsted in which a vesselcould anchor, no bay into which she could run for shelter, no point of landwhich could protect her; so that those who sail alone this part of thecoast are exposed to certain destruction, if they should be overtaken by astorm. " Yet these islands lying in such a conspicuous situation, and ofsuch importance to the mariner, and this coast so dangerous to him, do notappear to have been noticed in any European chart or description, till, after the lapse of twenty centuries, they were restored to geography by Mr. Irwin. 

As one of our principal objects is to do justice to the accuracy of theancient geographers, by pointing out instances of the extreme care whichmany of them took to obtain correct information we shall adduce one otherproof of this accuracy and care in Agatharcides. This author particularlydescribes the sea as having a white appearance off the coast of Arabia; onthis point he was well informed though the circumstance is treated asfabulous by the ancients, and even by some of the moderns; but moreobservant modern travellers confirm this phenomenon. It is well observed byDr. Vincent, that we are every day lessening the bulk of the marvellousimputed to the ancients; and as our knowledge of the east increases, it ispossible that the imputation will be altogether removed. 

The account which Agatharcides gives of Sabæa is very curious andimportant; and, as we shall afterwards have occasion to make use of it, inendeavouring to prove that, in very early ages, the Arabians supplied thewestern world with the productions of the east, we shall extract here whathe says of Sabæa from the translation of Dr. Vincent. 

"Sabæa, (says Agatharcides, ) abounds with every production to make lifehappy in the extreme: its very air is so perfumed with odours, that thenatives are obliged to mitigate the fragrance by scents that have anopposite tendency, as if nature could not support even pleasure in theextreme. Myrrh, frankincense, balsam, cinnamon, and casia are hereproduced, from trees of extraordinary magnitude. The king, as he is, on theone hand, entitled to supreme honour, on the other, is obliged to submit toconfinement in his palace; but the people are robust, warlike, and ablemariners: they sail in very large vessels to the country where theodoriferous commodities are produced; they plant colonies there, and importfrom thence the larimna, an odour no where else to be found. In fact, thereis no nation on the earth so wealthy as the Gerrheans and Sabeans, as beingin the centre of all the commerce that passes between Asia and Europe. These are the nations which have enriched the kingdom of Ptolemy: these arethe nations that furnish the most profitable agencies to the industry ofthe Phoenicians, and a variety of advantages which are incalculable. Theypossess themselves every profusion of luxury, in articles of plate andsculpture, in furniture of beds, tripods, and other householdembellishments, far superior in degree to any thing that is seen in Europe:their expence of living rivals the magnificence of princes: their housesare decorated with pillars glistening with gold and silver: their doors arecrowned with vases and beset with jewels: the interior of their housescorresponds with the beauty of their outward appearance, and all the richesof other countries are here exhibited in a variety of profusion. Such anation, and so abounding in superfluity, owes its independence to itsdistance from Europe; for their luxurious manners would soon render them aprey to the European sovereigns, who have always troops on foot preparedfor any conquest; and who, if they could find the means of invasion, wouldsoon reduce the Sabeans to the condition of their agents and factors;whereas they are now obliged to deal with them as principals. "

The importance and the bearing of these curious facts, first brought to ournotice by Agatharcides, as well as the inferences which may be drawn fromthem regarding the mode in which the ancients obtained their commodities ofIndia, will call our particular attention afterwards: at present we shallmerely notice the characteristic and minute picture which Agatharcides hasdrawn of the Sabeans, and the just notions he had formed on the nature of acommerce, of which all the other writers of antiquity seemed to have beenutterly ignorant. 

Beyond Sabæa to the east, Agatharcides possessed no information, though, like all the ancients, he is desirous of supplying his want of it byindulging in the marvellous: it is, however, rather curious that, amongother particulars, undoubtedly unfounded, such as placing the Fortunateislands off the coast beyond Sabæa, and his describing the flocks and herdsas all white, and the females as polled;--he describes that whiteness ofthe sea, to which we have already alluded, as confirmed by moderntravellers. From these unfounded particulars, our author soon emerges againinto the truth; for he describes the appearance of the differentconstellations, and especially notices that to the south of Sabæa there isno twilight in the morning; but when he adds, that the sun, at rising, appears like a column--that it casts no shadow till it has been risen anhour, and that the evening twilight lasts three hours after it has set; itis obvious that the information of that age (of which we may justly supposethe library of Alexandria was the great depository) did not extend beyondSabæa. 

That Agatharcides had access to and made ample use of the journal ofNearchus (of which we have given such a complete abstract), is evident fromvarious parts of his work; but it is also evident, by comparing hisdescription of those countries and their inhabitants, which had beenvisited and described by Nearchus, that he had access to other sources ofintelligence, by means of which he added to the materials supplied by thelatter. 

It will be recollected that Nearchus describes in a particular manner, theIcthyophagi of Gadrosia: Agatharcides also describes Icthyophagi, though itis not clear whether he means to confine his description to those ofGadrosia, or to extend it to others on the coast of Arabia and Africa. Themode practised by the Icthyophagi, according to him, is exactly that whichwas practised by them in catching fish, according to Nearchus: he alsocoincides with that author in various other particulars respecting the useof the bones of whales, or other large fish, in the construction of theirhouses; their ignorance and barbarism, their dress and mode of life. Allthis he probably borrowed from Nearchus; but he adds one circumstance whichindubitably proves, that the knowledge of the eastern part of the world hadconsiderably advanced since the era of Alexander: he expressly states, thatbeyond the straits that separate Arabia from the opposite coast, there arean immense number of islands, scattered, very small, and scarcely raisedabove the surface of the ocean. If we may advert to the situation assignedto these islands, on the supposition that the straits which separate Arabiafrom the opposite coast, mean the entrance to the Gulph of Persia, we shallnot be able to ascertain what these islands are; but if in addition to thecircumstances of their being scattered, very small, and very low, we addwhat Agatharcides also notices, that the natives have no other means ofsupporting life but by the turtles which are found near them in immensenumbers, and of a very large size, we shall be disposed, with Dr. Vincent, to consider these as the Maldive Islands. It may be objected to thissupposition, that the Maldives are situated at a very great distance fromthe straits that separate Arabia from the opposite coast; but a cursoryacquaintance with the geographical descriptions of the ancients willconvince us, that their information respecting the situation of countrieswas frequently vague and erroneous, (as indeed it must have been, considering the imperfect means they possessed of measuring or even judgingof distances, especially by sea) while, at the same time, their informationrespecting the nature of the country, the productions of its soil, and themanners, &c. Of its inhabitants, was surprisingly full and accurate. Inidentifying places mentioned by the ancients, we should therefore be guidedmore by the descriptions they give, than by the locality they assign tothem. Agatharcides, it is true, adds that these islands extend along thesea, which washes Gadrosia and India; but he probably had very confusednotions of the extent and form of India; and, at any rate, giving thewidest latitude to the term, the same sea may be said to wash Gadrosia andthe Maldive Islands. If these are the islands actually meant byAgatharcides, it is the earliest notice of them extant. 

Our concern with Agatharcides relates only to the geographical knowledgewhich his writings display; and even of that we can only select such partsas are most important, and at the same time point out and prove theadvances of geographical knowledge, and of commercial enterprize; before, however, we leave him, we may add one fact, not immediately relating to ourpeculiar subject, which he records: after stating that the soil of Arabiawas, as it were, impregnated with gold, and that lumps of pure gold werefound there from the size of an olive to that of a nut, he adds, that ironwas twice, and silver ten times, the value of gold. If he is accurate inthe proportionate values which he respectively assigns to these metals, itproves the very great abundance of gold; since, in most of the nations ofantiquity, the values of gold and silver were the reverse of what they werein Arabia, gold being ten times the value of silver. The comparative highvalue of iron to gold is still more extraordinary, and seems to indicatenot only a great abundance of the latter metal, but also a great scarcityof the former, or a very great demand for it in consequence of the extendedand improved state of those arts and manufactures in which iron is anessential requisite, and which indicate an advanced degree of knowledge andcivilization. We are not aware of a similar fact, with respect to theproportionate value of iron and silver, being recorded of any other nationof antiquity. It is not to be supposed, however, that the cheapness ofgold, measured by iron and silver, could long continue in Arabia, unless webelieve that their intercourse with other nations was very limited; becausea regular and extensive intercourse would soon assimilate, in a greatdegree at least, the value of gold measured by iron and silver, as itexisted in Arabia, to its value, as measured by the same metals in thosecountries with which Arabia traded. 

But to return from this slight digression;--Artemidorus has been alreadymentioned as a geographer subsequent to Agatharcides, who copiedAgatharcides, and from whom Diodorus Siculus and Strabo in their turnscopied. There were two ancient writers of this name born at Ephesus; theone to whom we have alluded, is supposed to have lived in the reign ofPtolemy Lathyrus, A. C. 169; by others he is brought down to A. C. 104. Little is known respecting him; nor does he seem to have added much togeographical science or knowledge: he is said by Pliny to have firstapplied the terms of length and breadth, or latitude and longitude. Bycomparing those parts of Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, which they avowedlycopy from him, with the track of Agatharcides: in the Red Sea, we areenabled to discover only a few additions of importance to the geographicalknowledge supplied by the former: Agatharcides, it will be remembered, brings his account of the African side of the Red Sea no lower down thanPtolemais: he does not even mention the expedition of Ptolemy Euergetes toAduli; nor the passage of the straits, though Eratosthenes, as cited byStrabo, proves that it was open in his time. In the time of Artemidorus, however, the trade of Egypt on the coast of Africa had reached as low downas the Southern Horn; that this trade was still in its infancy, is apparentfrom a circumstance mentioned by Strabo, on the authority of Artemidorus;that at the straits the cargo was transferred from ships to boats; bastardcinnamon, perhaps casia lignea or hard cinnamon, is specified as one of theprincipal articles which the Egyptians obtained from the coast of Africa, when they passed the straits of Babelmandeb. 

The next person belonging to the Alexandrian school, to whom the scienceson which geography rest, as well as geography itself, is greatly indebted, was Hipparchus. Scarcely any particulars are known respecting him: even theexact period in which he flourished, is not accurately fixed; some placinghim 159 years, others 149, and others again bringing him down to 129 yearsbefore Christ. He was a native of Nice in Bithynia, but spent the greaterpart of his life at the court of one of the Ptolemies. It is supposed thathe quitted his native place in consequence of some ill treatment which hehad received from his fellow citizens: at least we are informed by AureliusVictor, that the emperor Marcus Aurelius obliged the inhabitants of Nice tosend yearly to Rome a certain quantity of corn, for having beaten one oftheir citizens, by name Hipparchus, a man of great learning andextraordinary accomplishments. They continued to pay this tribute to thetime of Constantine, by whom it was remitted. As history does not inform usof any other person of note of this name, a native of Nice in Bithynia, itis highly probable that this was the Hipparchus, the astronomer andgeographer. That it was not unusual for conquerors and sovereigns to rewardor punish the descendants of those who had behaved well or ill tocelebrated men who had flourished long previously, must be well known tothose conversant with ancient history. The respect paid to the memory ofPindar, by the Spartans, and by Alexander the Great, when they conqueredThebes, is a striking instance of the truth of this observation. 

Hipparchus possessed the true spirit of philosophy: having resolved todevote himself to the study of astronomy, his first general[principal->principle] was to take nothing for granted; but setting asideall that had been taught by former astronomers, to begin anew, and examineand judge for himself: he determined not to admit any results but such aswere grounded either in observations and experiments entirely new, made byhimself or on a new examination of former observations, conducted with theutmost care and caution. In short, he may justly be regarded as one of thefirst philosophers of antiquity who had a slight glimpse of the grandmaxim, which afterwards immortalized Bacon, and which has introduced modernphilosophers to a knowledge of the most secret and most sublime operationsof nature. 

One of his first endeavours was, to verify the obliquity of the ecliptic, as settled by Eratosthenes: he next fixed, as accurately as possible, thelatitude of Alexandria; but it would lead us far from the object of ourwork, if we were even briefly to mention his discoveries in the science ofpure astronomy. We must confine ourselves to those parts of his discoverieswhich benefitted geography, either directly or indirectly. After having, assuccessfully as his means and the state of the science would permit him todo, fixed the position of the stars, he transferred the method which he hademployed for this purpose to geography: he was the first who determined thesituation of places on the earth, by their latitudes and longitudes, withany thing like accuracy. The latitude, indeed, of many places had beenfixed before; and the means of doing it were sufficiently simple andobvious: but with respect to some general and safe mode of ascertaining thelongitudes, the ancient philosophers before Hipparchus, were ignorant ofit. He employed for this purpose the eclipses of the moon. After havingascertained the latitudes and longitudes of a great many places, heproposed to draw up a catalogue of terrestial latitudes and longitudes, butthis he was not able to accomplish: he had set the example, however and itwas followed by subsequent astronomers. He fixed on the Fortunate Islands, which are supposed to be the Canaries, for his first meridian. Hisprincipal works most probably were destroyed in the conflagration of theAlexandrian library. His catalogue of the stars is preserved in theAlmagest of Ptolemy; and his commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus is stillextant. 

Such is a brief sketch of the advantages which geography, as founded onastronomy, derived from the labours of Hipparchus. We possess littleinformation respecting his ideas of the form of the earth, or the relativeposition or extent of the different quarters and countries on the surfaceof the globe. He seems to have been the first who conceived the idea of asouthern continent, uniting Africa and India: he had evidently someinformation, though very vague and erroneous, of India, beyond the Ganges. On the east coast of Africa, his knowledge did not extend beyond CapeGuardaferi. On the whole, geography is more indebted to him for hisdiscoveries in astronomy, and, above all, for his setting the example ofcarefully ascertaining facts, and not indulging, so much as hispredecessors had done, in conjectures and hypotheses, than for any actualdiscoveries or advances he made in it. The eulogium which Pliny haspronounced on him is very eloquent, and fully deserved. "Hipparchus canscarcely receive too high praise: he has proved, more satisfactorily thanany other philosopher, that man is allied to heaven, and his soul derivedfrom on high. In his time, more than one new star was discovered, or ratherappeared for the first time; and this induced him to believe, that futureages might witness stars for the first time moving from the immense regionsof space, within the limits of our observation. But the grandeur andboldness of Hipparchus's mind rested not here: he attempted, and in somemeasure succeeded in doing, what seems above human knowledge and power: henumbered the stars, laid down rules by which their rising and setting mightbe ascertained beforehand; and, finally, he constructed an apparatus onwhich the position of each star was accurately given, and a miniaturepicture of the heavens, with the motions of the celestial bodies, theirrising and setting, increase and diminution. He thus may be said to haveleft the heavens as a legacy to that man, if any such were to be found, whocould rival him and follow his steps. "

From the time of Hipparchus to that of Ptolemy the geographer, theAlexandrian school, though rich in philosophers, who devoted their studiesand labour to other branches of physical and metaphysical science, did notproduce one, who improved geography, or the sciences on which it depends, with the exception of Posidonius. This philosopher, who belonged to thesect of the Stoics, was born at Apamea in Syria: he usually resided atRhodes, and was the friend of Pompey and Cicero. The former, on his returnfrom Syria, came thither to attend his lectures. Arriving at his house, heforbad his lictor to knock, as was usual, at the door; and paid homage tophilosophy, by lowering the fasces at the abode of Posidonius. Pompey, being informed that he was at that time ill of the gout, visited him in hisconfinement, and expressed himself very much disappointed that he could nothave the benefit of his lectures. Posidonius, thus honoured and flattered, in spite of his pain, delivered a lecture in the presence of his noblevisitor; the subject of which was to prove, that nothing is good which isnot honourable. Cicero informs us, that he also attended his lectures; andaccording to Suidas Marcellus, brought him to Rome in the year of the city702; in this, however, Suidas is not supported by other and contemporarywriters. 

We are indebted to Cleomedes for most of what we know of his opinions anddiscoveries; with such as relate to morals or to pure astronomy, we have noconcern. But he was of service also to geography. He measured an arc of theterrestrial meridian; but his operation, as far as we can judge by thedetails which have reached us, was far from exact, and of course his resultcould not be accurate; it would appear, however, that his object was ratherto verify the ancient measures of the earth, particularly that ofEratosthenes, and that he found them to agree nearly with his own. Heexplained the ebbing and flowing of the sea, from the motion of the moon, and seems to have been the first who observed the law of this phenomenon. In order to represent the appearance of the heavens, Cicero informs us thathe constructed a kind of planetarium, by means of which he exhibited theapparent motion of the sun, moon, and planets round the earth. It is on theauthority of Posidonius, that Strabo relates the voyage of Eudoxus ofCyzicum from the Persian Gulf round Africa to Cadiz, which we have alreadymentioned. 

Having thus exhibited a view of the discoveries in geography, the advancesin the sciences connected with it, and the commercial enterprises of theEgyptians, while under the dominion of the Ptolemies, it will be proper, before beginning an account of the geographical knowledge and commercialenterprises of the Romans (who, by their conquest of Egypt, may be said tohave absorbed all the geographical knowledge, as well as all the commerceof the world, at that period), to recapitulate the extent of the Egyptiangeography and commerce, especially towards the east We shall direct ourretrospect to this quarter, because the commodities of the east being mostprized, it was the grand object of the sovereigns and merchants of Egypt, to extend and facilitate the intercourse with that quarter of the globe asmuch as possible. And we are induced to undertake the retrospect, becausethe exact limit of the geographical knowledge and commercial enterprise ofthe Ptolemies is differently fixed by different authors: some maintainingthat the Egyptians had a regular and extensive trade directly with India, and of course, were well acquainted with the seas and coasts beyond the RedSea; while other authors maintain, that they never passed the straits ofBabelmandeb, and that even within the straits, their geographical knowledgeand commercial enterprises were very limited. 

It cannot be doubted that commerce and the spirit of discovery flourishedwith more vigour, and pushed themselves to a greater distance in the reignsof Ptolemy Philadelphus, and Ptolemy Euergetes, than in the reign of any oftheir successors. If, therefore, there are no proofs or traces of a directand regular trade with India in their time, we may safely conclude it didnot exist in Egypt, previously to the conquest of that country by theRomans. 

We are well aware, that there are great authorities opposed to the opinionwhich we hold; but these authorities are modern; they are not, we think, supported by the ancient writers, and in opposition to them, we can placethe authority of Dr. Vincent, a name of the very greatest weight inquestions of this nature. The authorities we alluded to in support of theopinion, that there was a direct trade with India under the Ptolemies, areHuet, in his History of the Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients; Dr. Robertson, in his Disquisition on India, and Harris, or perhaps, moreproperly speaking, Dr. Campbell, in his edition of Harris's Collection ofVoyages and Travels. Huet, as is justly remarked by Dr. Vincent, drops theprosecution of the question at the very point he ought to introduce it; andafterwards countenances, or seems to countenance, the opposite opinion. Dr. Robertson bestows much labour, ingenuity, and learning in support of theopinion, that under the Ptolemies, a direct trade was carried on withIndia; yet, after all, he concludes in this manner: "it is probable thattheir voyages were circumscribed within very narrow limits, and that underthe Ptolemies no considerable progress was made in the discovery of India:"and when he comes to the discovery of the Monsoon by Hippalus and theconsequent advantage taken of it to trade directly to India, by sailingfrom shore to shore, he acknowledges that all proofs of a more earlyexistence of such a trade are wanting. Dr. Campbell virtually gives up hissupport of the opinion, that a direct trade was carried on under thePtolemies, in the same manner. 

We have already remarked, that the strongest spirit of enterprize thatdistinguished Egypt existed in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus andPtolemy Euergetes; that these monarchs pushed their discoveries, andextended their commercial connections much farther than any of theirpredecessors; and that therefore, if a direct and regular communicationbetween Egypt and India did not take place in their reigns, we may beassured it was unknown to the Egyptians at the period of the Romanconquest. To their reigns, then, we shall principally direct our enquiries. 

That Ptolemy Philadelphus was extremely desirous to improve the navigationof the Red Sea, is evident from his having built Myos Hormos, or ratherimproved it, because it was more convenient than Arsinoe, on account of thedifficulty of navigating the western extremity of that sea: he afterwardsfixed on Berenice in preference to Myos Hormos, when the navigation andcommerce on this sea was extended and improved, since Berenice being lowerdown, the navigation towards the straits was shorter, as well as attendedwith fewer difficulties and dangers. But there is no evidence that hisfleets, which sailed from Berenice, were destined for India, or even passedthe Straits of Babelmandeb. It is, however, not meant to be asserted thatno vessels passed these straits in the time of this Ptolemy. On thecontrary, we know that his admiral, Timosthenes, passed the straits as lowas Cerne, which is generally supposed to be Madagascar; but commerce, whichin our times, directed by much superior skill and knowledge, as well asstimulated by a stronger spirit of enterprize and rivalship, and a moreabsorbing love of gain, immediately follows in the track of discovery, wasthen comparatively slow, languid, and timid as well as ignorant; so that itis not surprizing that it did not follow the track of Timosthenes. PtolemyPhiladelphus also pushed his discoveries by land as far as Meroc: he openedthe route between Coptus and Berenice, establishing ports and openingwells; and from these and other circumstances he seems to have beenactuated by a stronger wish to extend commerce, and to have formed moreplans for this purpose, than any of his successors. 

Ptolemy Euergetes directed his thoughts more to conquest than to commerce, though he rendered the former, in some degree, useful and subservient tothe latter. After having passed the Nile, and subdued the nations which layon the confines of Egypt, he compelled them to open a road of communicationbetween their country and Egypt. The frankincense country was the nextobject of his ambition: this he subdued; and having sent a fleet and armyacross the Red Sea into Arabia, he compelled the inhabitants of thedistrict to maintain the roads free from robbers, and the sea frompirates--a proof that these people had made some advances in seafaringmatters, and also of the attention paid by Euergetes to the navigation ofthe Red Sea, as well as to the protection of land commerce. Indeed thewhole of his progress to Aduli, which we have more particularly mentionedin another place, was marked as much by attention to commerce as by thelove of conquest; but though by this enterprize he rendered both the coastsof the Red Sea tributary, and thus better adapted to commerce, there is noproof that he passed the Straits of Babelmandeb. It is true, indeed, thathe visited Mosullon, which lies beyond the straits, but not by sea, havingmarched by land to that place, through the interior of Abyssinia and Adel. From the whole of this enterprize of Euergetes we may justly infer, thatthough he facilitated the intercourse by land between Egypt and those partsof Africa which lay immediately beyond the straits, yet his ships did notpass the straits, and that in his reign the discoveries of Timosthenes hadnot been followed up or improved for the purpose of trading by sea with thecoast of Africa. The navigation of the whole of the Red Sea, at least onthe Arabian side, from Leuake Kome to Sabaea, was undoubtedly known andfrequently used at this period; but this was its utmost limit. 

In the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, when Agatharcides lived, the commercialenterprizes of the Egyptians had begun rather to languish; on the Arabianside of the Red Sea, they did indeed extend to Sabaea, as in the time ofEuergetes; but there is evidence that on the opposite coast they did not goso low, as in the reign of the latter sovereign. Agatharcides makes nomention of Berenice; according to his account, Myos Hormos had again becomethe emporium, and the only trade from that part seems to have been forelephants to Ptolemais Theron. It may, indeed, be urged that Berenice wasnot, properly speaking, a harbour, but only an open bay, to which the shipsdid not come from Myos Hormos, till their cargoes were completely ready. But that Myos Hormos was the great point of communication with Coptus isevident from the account which Agatharcides gives of the caravan roadbetween these two places. Even so late as the time of Strabo, this road wasmuch more frequented than the road between Coptus and Berenice: of thelatter he merely observes, that Philadelphus opened it with his army, established ports, and sunk Wells; whereas he particularly describes theformer road, as being seven or eight days' journey, formerly performed oncamels in the night, by observation of the stars, and carrying water withthem. Latterly, he adds, deep wells had been sunk, and cisterns formed forholding water. Every detail of the road to Berenice is Roman, and relatesto periods considerably posterior to the conquest of Egypt by the Romans--aproof that the plan of Philadelphus, of substituting Berenice for MyosHormos, had not been regularly adopted by his successors, nor till theRomans had firmly and permanently fixed themselves in Egypt. 

In the extract we have already given from Agatharcides respecting Arabia, he expressly mentions that the Gerrheans and Sabeans are the centre of allthe commerce that passes between Asia and Europe, and that these are thenations which have enriched the Ptolemais: this statement, taken inconjunction with the fact that his description of the coast of the Red Seareaches no farther than Sabaea on the one side, and Ptolemais Theron on theother, seems decisive of the truth of the opinion, that in the time ofPhilometor the Egyptians did not trade directly to India. It may be properto add, that in the extracts from Agatharcides, given by Photius, it isexpressly mentioned that ships from India were met with by the Egyptianships in the ports of Sabaea. The particulars of this trade between Indiaand Egypt, by means of the Arabians, will be afterwards detailed, and itsgreat antiquity traced and proved; at present we have alluded to it merelyto bear us out in our position, that Indian ships, laden with Indiancommodities, frequenting the ports of Sabaea, and those ports beingdescribed by Agatharcides as the limits of his knowledge of this coast ofthe Red Sea, we are fully justified in concluding, that, in the reign ofPhilometor, there was not only no direct trade to India, but no inducementto such trade; and that 146 years after the death of Alexander, the Greeksovereigns of Egypt had done little to complete what that monarch hadprojected, and in part accomplished by the navigation of Nearchus--thecommunication by sea between Alexandria and India. 

Under the successors of Philometor, the trade in the Red Sea languishedrather than increased, and the full benefits of it were not reaped tillsome time after the Roman conquest. Even in the time of Strabo, the bulk ofthe trade still passed by Coptus to Myos Hormos. We are aware of a passagein this author, which, at first, sight seems to contradict the position wehave laid down, and to prove, that at least in his time, there was a directand not unfrequent navigation between the Red Sea and India. He expresslystates, that in the course of six or seven years, 120 ships had sailed fromMyos Hormos to India: but on this it may be observed, in the first place, that he begins his description of India, with requesting his readers toperuse what he relates concerning it with indulgence, as it was a countryvery remote, and few persons had visited it; and even with regard to ArabiaFelix, he says, that the knowledge of the Romans commenced with theexpedition of his friend Ælius Gallus into that country;--facts not veryconsistent with his statement that 120 ships had sailed in six or sevenyears to India: secondly, he expressly mentions, that formerly scarcelytwenty ships dared to navigate the Red Sea, so far as to shew themselvesbeyond the straits; but we can hardly suppose that skill, enterprize, andknowledge, had increased so rapidly as to extend within a very few yearsnavigation, not merely beyond the straits, but even to India; we say a fewyears, for certainly, at the time when the Romans conquered Egypt, thestraits were not usually passed: lastly, the name India was used so vaguelyby the ancients, even by Strabo occasionally, that it is not improbable hemeant by it, merely the coast of Arabia, beyond the straits. It is wellasked by Dr. Vincent, in reference to this account of Strabo, might notthat geographer, from knowing the ships brought home Indian commodities, have supposed that they sailed to India, when in reality they went nofarther than Hadramant, in Arabia, or Mosullon, on the coast of Africa, where they found the produce of India?

It is not, however, meant to be denied that a few vessels, in the time ofPtolemies, reached some part of India from the Red Sea, by coasting all theway. The author of the Periplus of the Red Sea, informs us that, before thediscovery of the monsoon, by Hippalus, small vessels had made a coastingvoyage from Cana, in Arabia, to the Indies. But these irregular andtrifling voyages are deserving of little consideration, and do not militateagainst the position we have laid down and endeavoured to prove, that inthe time of the Ptolemies the commerce of Egypt was confined within thelimits of the Red Sea, partly from the want of skill and enterprize, andfrom the dangers that were supposed to exist beyond the straits, butprincipally because the commodities of India could be procured in the portsof Sabæa. 

Many instances have already been given of the patronage which the Ptolemiesbestowed on commerce, of the facilities and advantages they afforded, andof the benefits which the science of geography derived from the library andobservatory of Alexandria: every instrument which could facilitate thestudy of astronomy was purchased by the Ptolemies and placed in thatobservatory, for they were fully aware of the dependency of a full andaccurate knowledge of geography, as a science, on a full and accurateknowledge of astronomy. With respect to commerce, the advancement of which, may fairly be supposed to have had some weight in their patronage of thesesciences, they encouraged it as much as possible to centre in Alexandria, and with citizens of Egypt, by making it a standing law of the country, that no goods should pass through the capital, either to India or Europe, without the intervention of an Alexandrian factor, and that even whenforeign merchants resided there, they should employ the same agency. Theroads and canals they formed, and the care they took to keep the Red Seafree from pirates, are further proofs of their regard for commerce. 

And justly was it held by the Ptolemies in high estimation, for from itthey derived their immense wealth. We are informed by Strabo, that therevenue of Alexandria, in the worst of times, was 12, 500 talents, equivalent to nearly two millions and a half sterling; and if this was therevenue under the last and most indolent of the Ptolemies, what must ithave been under Ptolemy Philadelphus, or Ptolemy Euergetes? But the accountgiven by Appian of the treasure of the Ptolemies is still moreextraordinary: the sum he mentions is 740, 000 talents, or £191, 166, 666, according to Dr. Arbuthnot's computation; we should be disposed to doubtthe accuracy of this statement, did we not know that Appian was a native ofAlexandria, and did he not moreover inform us, that he had extracted hisaccount from the public records of that city. When we consider that thisimmense sum was accumulated by only two of the Ptolemies, Ptolemy Soter andPtolemy Philadelphus, and that the latter maintained two great fleets, onein the Mediterranean, and the other in the Red Sea, besides an army of200, 000 foot, and 40, 000 horse; and that he had 300 elephants, 2000 armedchariots, and an armoury at Alexandria, stocked with 300, 000 complete suitsof armour, and all other necessary weapons and implements of war, --we shallform some idea of the extent and fruitfulness of Egyptian commerce, fromwhich the whole, or nearly the whole, of this immense wealth must have beenderived. 

Having thus brought our historical sketch of the progress of discovery andcommercial enterprize among the Egyptians down to the period of theconquest of Egypt by the Romans, we shall, in the next place, revert to theRomans themselves, in whom, at the date of their conquest of this country, the geographical knowledge and the commerce of the whole world may justlybe said to have centered. As, however, we have hitherto only adverted tothe Romans, in our account of the discoveries and commerce of theCarthaginians, it will be proper to notice them in a much more detailed andparticular manner. We shall, therefore, trace, their geographicalknowledge, their discoveries and their commerce, from the foundation ofRome, to the period of their conquest of Egypt; and in the course of thisinvestigation, we shall give a sketch of the commerce of those countrieswhich successively fell under their dominion--omitting such as we havealready noticed: by this plan, we shall be enabled to trace the commerce ofall the known world at that time, down to the period when Rome absorbed thewhole. 

The account which Polybius gives, that before the first Carthaginian warthe Romans were entirely ignorant of, and inattentive to sea affairs--if bythis statement he means to assert that they were unacquainted with maritimecommerce, as well as maritime warfare, is expressly contradicted by thetreaties between Rome and Carthage, which we have already given in ouraccount of the commerce of Carthage. The first of those treaties was made250 years before the first Punic war; and the second, about fifty yearsbefore it. Besides, it is not probable that the Romans should have beenentirely ignorant of, and inattentive to maritime commerce for so long aperiod; since several nations of Italy, with which they were at firstconnected, and which they afterwards conquered, were very conversant inthis commerce, and derived great consideration, power, and wealth from it. 

The Romans had conquered Etruria, and made themselves masters of the Tuscanpowers both by sea and land, before the commencement of the first Punicwar; and though at this period, the Tuscans were not so celebrated fortheir commerce as they had been, yet the shipping and commerce they didpossess, must have fallen into the power of the Romans; and we can scarcelysuppose that these, together with the facilities which the Tuscans enjoyedfor commerce, by means of their ports, and their skill and commercialhabits and connections, would be entirely neglected by their conquerors. Besides, there are several old Roman coins, by some supposed to have beenas old as the time of the kings, and certainly prior to the first Punicwar, on the reverses of which different parts of ships are visible. Now, asthe Roman historians are diffuse in the accounts they give of the wars ofthe Romans, but take no notice of their commercial transactions, we maysafely conclude, from their not mentioning any maritime wars, orexpeditions of a date so early as these coins, that the ships at thatperiod preserved by the Romans, and deemed of such consequence as to bestruck on their coins, were employed for the purposes of commerce. 

The Tuscans and the Grecian colonies in the south of Italy, certainly hadmade great progress in commerce at an early period; and as, --if theirexample did not stimulate the Romans to enterprises of the same kind, --theRomans, at least when they conquered them, became possessed of the commercewhich they then enjoyed, it will be proper to take a brief view of it. 

If we may credit the ancient historians, the Etrurians or Tyrrhenians, evenbefore the reign of Minos, had been for a long time masters of the greatestpart of the Mediterranean Sea, and had given their name to the TyrrhenianSea, upon which they were situate. Piracy, as well as commerce, wasfollowed by them; and they became at last so expert, successful, anddangerous, for their piracies, that they were attacked, and their maritimepower greatly abridged, by the Carthaginians and the Sicilians. Their mostfamous port was Luna, which was situated on the Macra, a river which, flowing from the Apennines, divided Liguria from Etruria, and fell into theTyrrhenian Sea. There seems good reason to believe that Luna was a place ofgreat trade before the Trojan war; it was extremely capacious, and in everyrespect worthy of the commercial enterprise and wealth of the Tuscans. Populonium, a city which was situate on a high promontory of the same name, that ran a considerable way into the sea, also possessed a very commodiousharbour, capable of receiving a great number of ships. It had an arsenalwell supplied with all kinds of naval stores, and a quay for shipping orlanding merchandize. One of the principal articles of export consisted incopper vessels, and in arms, machines, utensils, &c. Of iron: these metalswere at first supplied to the inhabitants from the island of Æthalia (nowElba); but the copper-mines there failing, iron alone, from the sameisland, was imported for the purpose of their various manufactures; thetrade in these flourished in very remote times, and continued in the daysof Aristotle and Strabo. 

But the most direct and unequivocal testimony to the power of the Tuscans, and that that power was principally, if not entirely, derived from theirmaritime skill and commerce, is to be found in Livy. This historian informsus, "that before the Roman empire, the Tuscan dominions extended very farboth by sea and land, even to the upper and lower sea, by which Italy issurrounded, in form of an island. Their very names are an argument for thevast power of this people; for the Italian natives call the one the TuscanSea, and the other the Adriatic, from Adria, a Tuscan colony. The Greekscall them the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas. This people, in twelve cities, inhabited the country extending to both seas; and by sending out coloniesequal in number to the mother cities, first on this side of the Apenninestowards the lower sea, and afterwards as many on the other side, possessedall the country beyond the Po, even to the Alps, except the cornerbelonging to the Venetians, who dwelt round a bay of the sea. " Homer, Heraclides, Aristides, and Diodorus Siculus, all concur in theirrepresentations of the maritime power and commercial opulence of theTuscans at a very early period. Diodorus Siculus expressly says, that theywere masters of the sea; and Aristides, that the Indians were the mostpowerful nation in the east, and the Tuscans in the west. 

Of the Grecian colonies in the south of Italy, that of Tarentum was themost celebrated for its commerce. Polybius expressly informs us, thatTarentum, their principal city, was very prosperous and rich, long beforeRome made any figure, and that its prosperity and riches were entirely thefruit of the extensive and lucrative trade they carried on, particularlywith Greece. The city of Tarentum stood on a peninsula, and the citadel, which was very strong, was built on the narrowest and extremest part of it;on the east was a small bay, on the west the main sea; the harbour isrepresented by ancient historians as extremely large, beautiful andcommodious. Its vicinity to Greece, Sicily, and Africa, afforded it greatopportunities and facilities for commerce. The inhabitants are representedby some authors as having been the inventors of a particular kind of ship, which retained in some degree the form of a raft or float. Theirgovernment, which at first was aristocratical, was afterwards changed to ademocracy; and it is to this popular form of government that theirprosperity and wealth are ascribed. The number of people in the whole stateamounted to 300, 000; Tarentum had twelve other cities under its dominion. Besides a considerable fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, they had constantlyon foot a very large army, principally of mercenaries. Eighteen yearsbefore the first Punic war, the Romans had entered into a maritime treatywith the Tarentines; according to this treaty, neither party were tonavigate beyond the Cape of Lacinia. Soon afterwards, however, the Romanfleet accidentally appearing near Tarentum, the inhabitants took the alarm, sunk four of the ships, killed or took prisoners the commander and someother officers, sold the seamen for slaves, and behaved with greatinsolence to the ambassador whom the Romans sent to remonstrate and demandsatisfaction. They were soon, however, obliged to submit to the superiorpower of the Romans. In the second Punic war, it was finally subdued, and aRoman colony planted there. 

The Spinetes, Liburnians, and Locrians, were also celebrated for theirskill in naval affairs, and for their commerce, before Rome manifested theslightest wish to distinguish herself in this manner. Indeed, the situationof Italy naturally turned the attention of its inhabitants (especially ofthose who were early civilized, as the Tuscans, or those who had emigratedfrom a civilized country, as the nations in the south of Italy, ) to navalaffairs and maritime commerce. Washed by three seas, the Adriatic on thenorth-east, the Tyrrhenian on the west, and the Ionian on the south, Italyenjoyed advantages possessed by few nations of antiquity. Of the first ofthese seas, the Spinetes became masters, of the second the Tuscans, and ofthe third the Tarentines. The Spinetes, were originally Pelasgi, who hademigrated and settled by chance rather than design, on the south banks ofthe Po. Spina, their capital, was situated on the north side of thesouthernmost mouth of that river. We do not possess any particular accountof their commerce, but that it rendered them powerful and rich we areassured; and their dominion over the Adriatic is a decisive proof of theformer, while their magnificent offerings to Delphos may as justly bedeemed a proof of the latter. Spina was strong both by nature and art, onthe sea side, but the reverse on the land side; so that at last it wasabandoned by its inhabitants not being able to withstand the attacks oftheir neighbours, who were either jealous of their prosperity, or attractedto the assault by the love of plunder. In the reign of Augustus it wasreduced to a small village; and the branch of the Po, on which it wassituated, had changed its course so much, that it was then upwards offifteen miles distant from the sea, on the shore of which it had beenbuilt. The gradual alteration in the course of the river, it is probable, contributed with the other cause already mentioned to reduce it tocomparative insignificance. 

Opposite to the Spinetes across the Adriatic, on the coast of Dalmatia, theLiburnians dwelt. In some respects their coast was preferable to that ofItaly for maritime affairs, as it is studded with islands, which affordedshelter to ships, and likewise possessed many excellent harbours; but theLiburnians, as well as most of the inhabitants of Illyria, were more eagerafter piracy than commerce; and, as we shall afterwards see, carried theirpiracies to such a daring and destructive extent, that the Romans werecompelled to attack them. Their devotedness to piracy explains what toMons. Huet appears unaccountable. He observes, that it is remarkable thatneither the Dalmatians, who were powerful at sea by means of their portSalona, which was their capital, nor the Liburnians themselves, accordingto all appearance, had the use of money among them. Commerce cannot becarried on to great extent, or in a regular and expeditious manner, bynatives ignorant of the use of money; but money seems to be not at allrequisite to the purposes of piracy. The Liburnian ships, or more properlyspeaking, those ships which were denominated Liburnian, from having beeninvented and first employed by this people, were of two kinds; one large, fit for war and long voyages, but at the same time built light and forquick sailing. After the victory of Actium, which Augustus gained in agreat measure by means of these ships, few were built by the Romans of anyother construction. The other Liburnian vessels were small, for fishing andshort voyages; some of these were made with osiers and covered with hides. But strength and lightness, and quick sailing, were the qualities by whichthe Liburnian ships were chiefly distinguished and characterised. 

At what precise period the Romans directed their attention to maritimeaffairs we are not accurately informed: that the opinion of Polybius onthis subject is not well founded, is evident from several circumstances. Hesays, that before the first Punic war the Romans had no thought of the sea;that Sicily was the first country, out of Italy, in which they ever landed;and that, when they went to that island to assist the Mamertines, thevessels which they employed in that expedition were hired, or borrowed fromthe Tarentines, the Locrians, &c. He is correct in his statement thatSicily was the first country in which the Romans had any footing; but thathe is inaccurate with respect to the period when the Romans first appliedthemselves to maritime affairs, will appear from the following facts. 

In the first place, the Romans (as we have already shown in our account ofthe Carthaginian commerce, ) had several treaties with the Carthaginians, which may properly be called commercial treaties, before the first Punicwar. The earliest treaty, according to Polybius himself, was dated about250 years before the war; and in this treaty the voyages undertaken by theRomans on account of trade to Africa, Sardinia, and that part of Sicily atthat time possessed by the Carthaginians, are expressly mentioned andregulated. The second treaty, about 100 years before the first Punic war, is not so specific respecting commerce. The third treaty, occasioned by theinvasion of Italy by Pyrrhus, points out a decline in the naval power ofthe Romans; for it stipulates, that the Carthaginians should furnish themwith ships, if required, either for trade or war. Secondly, seventy-fouryears before the first Punic war, the Romans having subdued the Antiates, and thus become masters of their fleet, among which were six armed withbeaks, the tribune was ornamented with these beaks, the ships to which theybelonged were burnt, and the others were brought to Rome and laid upon theplace allotted to the building and preservation of ships. Lastly, thecircumstances which gave rise to the war between the Romans and Tarentines, to which we have already adverted, plainly prove that Polybius is wrong inhis assertion. Valerius, who commanded the Roman fleet, which was attackedby the Tarentines, according to Livy, was one of the _duumviri navales_, officers who had been already appointed nearly thirty years (that is, nearly fifty years before the first Punic war), on the motion of DeciusMus, expressly for the purpose of equipping, repairing, and maintaining thefleets. 

From these circumstances, it appears that the Romans possessed ships bothfor war and commerce, previous to the commencement of their wars with theCarthaginians, though it is extremely probable that their commerce was verylimited, and for the most part carried on in vessels belonging to the othermaritime nations of Italy, and that their ships of war were very small andrude in their construction and equipment. 

It is foreign to the object of this work to enter into a detail of the warsbetween the Romans and the Carthaginians: but as the great efforts of theRomans to become powerful at sea were made during these wars; as theseefforts, being successful, laid the foundation of the future commerce ofRome; and as by the destruction of Carthage, in some measure caused by thenaval victories gained by the Romans, the most commercial nation ofantiquity was utterly ruined, and their commerce transferred to Rome, itwill be proper briefly to notice the naval contests between these rivalpowers during the three wars in which they were engaged. 

The first Punic war was occasioned by a desire on the part of theCarthaginians to enlarge and secure their acquisitions in Sicily, and topreserve their dominion of the sea, and by a determination on the part ofthe Romans to check the progress of the Carthaginians in that island, soimmediately adjoining the continent of Italy. An opportunity soon occurred, which seemed to promise to each the accomplishment of their respectiveobjects: the Mamertines, being hard pursued by Hiero king of Syracuse, andshut up in Messina, the only city which remained to them, were divided inopinion; some were for accepting the protection offered them by Hannibal, who at that time commanded the Carthaginian army in Sicily; others were forcalling in the aid of the Romans. Both these powers gladly accepted theproffered opportunity of extending their conquests, and checking theirrival. 

The consul Appius Claudius, was ordered by the senate to proceed to Sicily:previously to his departure, he despatched Caius Claudius, a legionarytribune, with a few vessels to Rhegium, principally, it would seem, toreconnoitre the naval force of the Carthaginians. The consul himself soonfollowed with a small fleet, hired principally from the Tarentines, Locrians, and Neapolitans. This fleet being attacked by the Carthaginianfleet, which was not only much more numerous, but better equipped andmanned, and a violent storm rising during the engagement, which dashed manyof the Roman vessels in pieces among the rocks, was completely worsted. TheCarthaginians, however, restored most of the vessels they captured, onlyexpostulating with the Romans on the infraction of the treaty at that timesubsisting between the two republics. This loss was in some measurecounterbalanced by Claudius capturing, on his voyage back to Rhegium, aCarthaginian quinquireme, the first which fell into the possession of theRomans, and which served them for a model. According to other historians, however, a Carthaginian galley, venturing too near the shore, was stranded, and taken by the Romans; and after the model of this galley, the Romansbuilt many of their vessels. 

Claudius was not in the least discouraged by his defeat, observing that hecould not expect to learn the art of navigation without paying dear for it;but having repaired his fleet, he sailed again for Sicily, and eluding thevigilance of the Carthaginian admiral, arrived safe in the port of Messina. 

After the alliance formed between the Romans and Hiero king of Syracuse, and the capture of Agrigentium, they resolved to use all their efforts forthe entire subjugation of Sicily. As, however, the Carthaginians wereextremely powerful by sea, they could not hope to accomplish this object, unless they were able to cope with them on that element. They resolved, therefore, no longer to trust in any degree to hired vessels, but to buildand equip a formidable fleet of their own. Powerfully actuated by thisresolution, they began the arduous undertaking with that ardour and spiritof perseverance, which so eminently distinguished them; they deemed itabsolutely necessary to have 120 ships. Trees were immediately cut down inthe forests, and the timber brought to the sea shore: and the whole fleet, according to Polybius, was not only built, but perfectly equipped and readyfor sea, in two months from the time the trees were felled. Of the 120vessels of which it was composed, 100 had five benches of rowers, and 20 ofthem had three benches. 

There was, however, another difficulty to be overcome. It was absolutelynecessary that the men, who were to navigate and fight these ships, shouldpossess some knowledge of their art; but it was in vain to expect that withthe Carthaginians, so powerful and watchful at sea, the Roman ships wouldbe permitted to cruise safely long enough to make them practised sailorsand fighters. To obviate this difficulty, they had recourse, according toPolybius, to a singular but tolerably effectual mode. "While some men wereemployed in building the galleys, others, assembling those who were toserve in the fleet, instructed them in the use of the oar after thefollowing manner: they contrived benches on the shore in the same fashionand order as they were to be in the galleys, and placing their seamen, withtheir oars, in like manner on the benches, an officer, by signs with hishand, instructed them how to dip their oars all at the same time, and howto recover them out of the water. By this means they became acquainted withthe management of the oar; and as soon as the vessels were built andequipped, they spent some time in practising on the water, what they hadlearnt ashore. "

The necessity of possessing a fleet adequate to cope with that of theCarthaginians became more and more apparent; for though the Romans hadobtained possession of all the inland cities in Sicily, the Carthaginianscompensated for this by having the ascendancy by sea, and in the cities onthe coast. The Roman fleet was commanded by Cornelius Scipio, who put tosea with seventeen ships, in order to secure at Messina reception andsecurity for the whole fleet; but his enterprise was unfortunate; for, being deceived by false information, he entered the port of Lipara, wherehe was blockaded by the enemy, and obliged to surrender. This partial loss, however, was soon counterbalanced by a naval victory; for the remainder ofthe Roman fleet, amounting to 103 sail, being encountered by a Carthaginianfleet under Hannibal, who despising the Romans, had advanced to the contestwith only fifty galleys, succeeded in capturing or destroying the whole ofthem. 

In the mean time, the senate had appointed Duilius commander of the fleet;and his first object was to survey it accurately, and, if possible, toimprove the construction or equipment of the vessels, if they appeareddefective, either for the purpose of sailing or fighting. It seemed to him, on examining them, that they could not be easily and quickly worked duringan engagement, being much heavier and more unwieldy than those of theCarthaginians. As this defect could not be removed, he tried whether itcould not be compensated; and an engineer in the fleet succeeded in thisimportant object, by inventing that machine which was afterwards called_corvus_. 

The immediate purpose which this machine was to serve is clearly explainedby all the ancient authors who mention it: its use was to stop the enemy'sships as soon as the Roman vessels came up with them, and thus to give theman opportunity of boarding them; but the construction and mode of operationof these machines it is not easy to ascertain from the descriptions ofancient authors. Polybius gives the following description of them: "Theyerected on the prow of their vessels a round piece of timber, about onefoot and a half in diameter, and about twelve feet long, on the top ofwhich a block or pully was fastened. Round this piece of timber a stage orplatform was constructed, four feet broad, and about eighteen feet long, which was strongly fastened with iron. The entrance was lengthways, and itcould be moved about the piece of timber, first described, as on a spindle, and could be hoisted within six feet of the top. Round this there was aparapet, knee high, which was defended with upright bars of iron, sharpenedat the end. Towards the top there was a ring, through which a rope wasfastened, by means of which they could raise and lower the engine atpleasure. With this machine they attacked the enemy's vessels, sometimes ontheir bow, and sometimes on their broadside. When they had grappled theenemy with these iron spikes, if the ships happened to swing broadside tobroadside, then the Romans boarded them from all parts; but when they wereobliged to grapple them on the bow, they entered two and two, by the helpof this engine, the foremost defending the forepart, and those who followedthe flanks, keeping the boss of their bucklers level with the top of theparapet. "

From this description of the corvus, it is evident that it had two distinctuses to serve: in the first place, to lay hold of and entangle the enemy'sships; and, secondly, after it had accomplished this object, it served as ameans of entering the enemy's vessels, and also as a protection while theboarding was taking place. With respect to the question, whether the_harpagones_ or manus ferrææ; were the same with the _corvi_, it appears tous that the former were of much older invention, as they certainly weremuch more simple in their construction; and that, probably, the engineerwho invented the corvi, borrowed his idea of them from the harpagones, andin fact incorporated the two machines in one engine. The harpagones wereundoubtedly grappling irons, but of such light construction that they couldbe thrown by manual force; but they were of no other service; whereas thecorvi were worked by machinery, and served, as we have shown, not only tograpple, but to assist and protect the boarders. We have been thusparticular in our account of the corvus, because it may fairly be regardedas having essentially contributed to the establishment of the Roman navalpower over that of the Carthaginians. 

After Duilius had made a trial of the efficacy of this machine, he sailedin quest of the enemy. The Carthaginians, despising the Romans as totallyinexperienced in naval affairs, did not even take the trouble or precautionto draw up their ships in line of battle, but trusting entirely to theirown superior skill, and to the greater lightness of their ships, they boredown on the Romans in disorder. They, however, were induced, for a shorttime, to slacken their advance at the sight of the corvi; but not givingthe Romans credit for any invention which could counterbalance their wantof skill, experience, and self-confidence, they again pushed forward andattacked the Romans. They soon suffered, however, the consequences of theirrashness: the Romans, by means of their corvi, grappled their ships soclosely and steadily, that the fight resembled much more a land than a seabattle; and thus feeling themselves, as it were, on their own element, while their enemies seemed to themselves no longer to be fighting in ships, the confidence of the former rose, while that of the latter fell, from thesame cause, and nearly in the same proportion. The result was, that theRomans gained a complete victory. The loss of the Carthaginians isvariously related by the Roman writers: this is extraordinary, since theymust have had access to the best possible authority; the inscription of theColumna Rostrata of Duilius, which is still preserved at Rome. According tothis inscription, Duilius fitted out a fleet in sixty days, defeated theCarthaginians, commanded by Hannibal, at sea, took from them thirty ships, with all their rigging, and the septireme which carried the admiralhimself; sunk thirty, and took several prisoners of distinction. WhenHannibal saw the Romans about to enter his septireme, he leaped into asmall boat and escaped. 

A circumstance occurred during this engagement which clearly manifested theardour and perseverance, by means of which the Romans had already becomeexpert, not only in the management of their ships, but also in the use oftheir corvi. It has already been noticed that the Carthaginians bore downon them in disorder, each ship endeavouring to reach them as soon aspossible, without waiting for the rest: among the foremost was Hannibal. After the defeat of this part of the fleet, the rest, amounting to 120, having come up, endeavoured to avoid the fate of their companions by rowingas quickly as possible round the Roman ships, so as not to allow them tomake use of the corvi. But the Romans proved themselves to be even moreexpert seamen than their enemies; for, though their vessels were muchheavier, they worked them with so much ease, celerity, and skill, that theypresented the machines to the enemy on whatever side they approached them. 

The vanquished Hannibal was disgraced by his country; whereas thevictorious Roman was honoured and rewarded by the senate, who were fullysensible of all the advantages derived by a naval victory over theCarthaginians. The high and distinguished honour of being attended, when hereturned from supper, with music and torches, which was granted for onceonly to those who triumphed, was continued to Duilius during life. Toperpetuate the memory of this victory, medals were struck, and the pillar, to which we have already alluded, was erected in the forum. This pillar, called Columna Rostrata, from the beaks of the ships which were fastened toit, was discovered in the year 1560, and placed in the capital. 

In the year after this splendid victory the Romans resolved to attempt thereduction of Corsica and Sardinia; for this purpose L. Cornelius Scipiosailed with a squadron under his command. He easily succeeded in reducingCorsica; but it appears, from an inscription on a stone which was dug up inthe year 1615, in Rome, that he encountered a violent storm off the coastof that island, in which his fleet was exposed to imminent danger. Thewords of the inscription are, "He took the city of Aleria and conqueredCorsica, and built a temple to the tempests, with very good reason. " Thisstorm is not mentioned in any of the ancient authors. Scipio was obliged tobe more cautious in his attempts on Sardinia, but afterwards the Romanssucceeded in gaining possession of this island. 

The Romans having thus acquired Corsica and Sardinia, and all the maritimetowns of Sicily, determined to invade, or at least to alarm, the Africandominions of Carthage. Accordingly Sulpicius, who commanded their fleet, circulated a report that he intended to sail for the coasts of Africa: thisinduced the Carthaginians to put to sea; but after the hostile fleets hadapproached each other, and were about to engage, a storm arose andseparated them, and obliged them both to take shelter in the ports ofSardinia. As soon as it abated, Sulpicius put to sea again, surprised theCarthaginians, and captured or destroyed most of their ships. 

Five years after the victory of Duilius, the Romans were able to put to seaa fleet of 330 covered gallies. Ten of these were sent to reconnoitre theenemy, but approaching too near, they were attacked and destroyed. Thisunfortunate event did not discourage the consul Attilius Regulus, whocommanded: on the contrary, he resolved to wipe off this disgrace bysignalizing his consulship in a remarkable manner. He was ordered by thesenate to cross the Mediterranean, and invade Carthage. The Roman fleet, which consisted of 330 galleys, on board of each of which were 120 soldiersand 300 rowers, was stationed at Messina: from this port they took theirdeparture, stretching along the coast of Sicily, till they doubled CapePachynum, after which they sailed directly to Ecnomos. The Carthaginianfleet consisted of 360 sail, and the seamen were more numerous, as well asmore skilful and experienced, than those of the Romans: it rendezvoused atHeraclea, not far from Ecnomos. Between these two places the hostile fleetsmet, and one of the most obstinate and decisive battles ensued that arerecorded in ancient history. As Polybius has given a very particularaccount of the manner in which the respective fleets were drawn up, and ofall the incidents of the battle, we shall transcribe it from him, becausethe issue of it may justly be regarded as having proved the Romansuperiority at sea, and because the details of this accurate historian willafford us a clear insight into the naval engagements of the ancients. 

As there were 330 ships, and each ship had on board 300 rowers, and 120soldiers, the total number of men in the fleet amounted 140, 000. The wholefleet was formed into four divisions: the first was called the firstlegion; the second, the second; and the third, the third legion. The fourthdivision had a different name; they were called triarians: the triarii whowere on board this division, being old soldiers of approved valour, who, inland battles, formed the third line of the legion, and hence obtained theirappellation. The first division was drawn up on the right, the second onthe left, and the third in the rear of the other two, in such a manner thatthese three divisions formed a triangle, the point of which was the twogallies, in which were the consuls, in front of their respective squadrons, parallel to the third legion, which formed the base of the triangle, and inthe rear of the whole fleet; the triarian division was drawn up, butextended in such a manner as to out-flank the extremes of the base. Betweenthe triarian division and the other part of the squadron, the transportswere drawn up, in order that they might be protected from the enemy, andtheir escape accelerated and covered in case of a defeat; on board of thetransports were the horses, and baggage of the army. 

According to Polybius, the seamen and troops on board the Carthaginianfleet amounted to 150, 000 men. Their admiral waited to see the dispositionof the Roman fleet before he formed his own in order of battle; he dividedit into four squadrons, drawn up in one line; one of these was drawn upvery near the shore, the others stretched far out to sea, apparently forthe purpose of out-flanking the Romans. The light vessels were on theright, under the command of Hanno; the squadron on the left, which wasformed of heavier vessels, was under the command of Hamilcar. 

It is evident from this description of the order of battle of theCarthaginians, that their line, being so much extended, could easily bebroken; the Romans perceiving this, bore down on the middle with theirfirst and second divisions. The Carthaginians did not wait the attack, butretired immediately with the intention of drawing the Romans after them, and thus by separating, weakening their fleet. The Romans, thinking thevictory was their own, pushed after the flying enemy, thus weakening theirthird division, and at the same time exposing themselves to an attack whilethey were scattered. The Carthaginians, perceiving that their manoeuvre hadso far succeeded, tacked about, and engaged with their pursuers. But theRomans, by means of their corvi, which they were now very skilful in using, grappled with the enemy, and as soon as they had thus rendered theengagement similar to a land battle, they overcame them. 

While these things were going on between Hamilcar with the left wing of theCarthaginian fleet, and the first and second divisions of the Romans, Hanno, with his light vessels, which formed the right wing, attacked thetriarians, and the ships which were drawn up near the shore, attacked thethird legion and the transports. These two attacks were conducted with somuch spirit and courage, that many of the triarians, transports, and thirdlegion were driven on shore, and their defeat would probably have beendecisive, had not the Roman first and second divisions, which had defeatedand chased to a considerable distance the Carthaginians opposed to them, returned most opportunely from the chace, and supported them. TheCarthaginians were no longer able to withstand their enemies, but sustaineda signal defeat; thirty of their vessels having been sunk, and sixty-threetaken. The immediate result of this victory was, that the Romans landed inAfrica without opposition. 

The next victory obtained by the Romans over the Carthaginians was achievedsoon after the defeat and captivity of Regulus, and was justly regarded bythem as an ample compensation for that disaster. It was a wise and politicmaxim of the Roman republic never to appear cast down by defeat, but, onthe contrary, to act in such a case with more than their usual confidenceand ardour. Acting on this maxim they equipped a fleet and sent it towardsAfrica, immediately after they learnt the defeat of Regulus. TheCarthaginians, who were endeavouring to take all possible advantage oftheir victory, by expelling the Romans from Africa, as soon as the newsarrived of the sailing of this fleet, abandoned the seige of Utica, beforewhich they had sat down, --refitted their old ships, built several new ones, and put to sea. The hostile fleets met near Cape Herme, the most northernpoint of Africa, a little to the north-east of Carthage. They were againunsuccessful on what they had formerly justly regarded as their ownelement. One hundred and four of their ships were captured, and 15, 000 men, soldiers, and rowers, were killed in the action. 

This victory, however, proved of little benefit to the Romans in theirgrand enterprise of establishing a firm and permanent footing, in Africa;for, in consequence of their inability to obtain a regular supply ofprovisions for their army, they were obliged soon afterwards to evacuateClupea and Utica, the principal places they held there, and to re-embarktheir troops for Italy. 

In order to make up for this hard necessity, they resolved to land inSicily on their return, and, if possible, reduce some cities which theCarthaginians still retained in that island. Such was the plan of theconsuls, but it was vehemently opposed by the pilots of the fleet, whorepresented to them, that as the season was far advanced, the most prudentmeasure would be to sail directly for Italy, and not go round the northerncoast of Sicily, as the consuls wished. The latter, however, persisted intheir resolution; the consequences were extremely fatal; a most violentstorm arose, during which the greater part of the fleet was destroyed orrendered completely useless, either foundering, or being driven on shore. All the sea coast from Camarina to Pachynum, was covered with dead bodiesof men and horses, as well as with the wrecks of the ships. The exactnumber of ships that were lost is differently represented by differentauthors, but according to the most accurate account, out of 370 whichcomposed the fleet, only eighty escaped. Besides the destruction of thesevessels, a numerous army was lost, with all the riches of Africa, which hadbeen amassed and deposited in Clupea, by Regulus, and which was in the actof being conveyed to Rome. 

The Carthaginians, animated by the news of this event, resolved to attemptthe subjugation of Sicily, Africa being now liberated from the enemy. Butthe Romans, by incredible efforts, fitted out a new fleet in the shortspace of three months, consisting of 120 ships; which, with the old vesselswhich had escaped, made up a fleet of 250 sail. With these, they passedover to Sicily, where they were successful in reducing the Carthaginiancapital in that island. 

The next year they sent to sea a fleet of 260 ships to attempt thereduction of Lilibæum, but this place being found too strong, the consulsdirected their course to the eastern coast of Africa, on which they carriedon a predatory warfare. Having filled their ships with the spoils, theywere returning to Italy, when they narrowly escaped shipwreck. On the coastof Africa, there were two sand-banks, called the Greater and Lesser Syrtes, which were very much dreaded by the ancients, on account of theirfrequently changing places; sometimes being easily visible, and at othertimes considerably below the water. On the Lesser Syrtes the Roman fleetgrounded; fortunately it was low water, and moderate weather at the time, so that on the return of flood tide, the vessels floated off, with littleor no damage, but the consuls were dreadfully alarmed. 

This, however, was only a prelude to real disaster: the fleet arrived safeat Panormus, where they remained a short time. On their departure forItaly, the wind and weather were favourable till they reached CapePalinurus; here a dreadful storm arose, in which 160 galleys, and aconsiderable number of transports, were lost. This second storm seems tohave so dispirited the Roman senate, that they resolved to confine theirefforts to land, and accordingly a decree was issued, that, as it seemedthe will of the gods that the Romans should not succeed against their enemyby sea, no more than fifty vessels should in future be equipped; and thatthese should be employed exclusively in protecting the coasts of Italy, andin transporting troops to Sicily. 

This decree, however, was not long acted upon; for the Carthaginians, perceiving that the Romans no longer dared to meet them at sea, made suchformidable preparations for invading Sicily, by equipping a fleet of 200sail, and raising an army of 30, 000 men, besides 140 elephants, that theRomans, being reduced to the alternative of either losing that valuableisland, or of again encountering their enemy at sea, resolved on the lattermeasure. Accordingly a new fleet was built, consisting of 240 galleys, andsixty smaller vessels, and Lilibæum was besieged by sea and land. This citywas deemed impregnable, and as it was the only place of retreat for theCarthaginian armies in Sicily, it was defended with the utmost obstinacy. 

During this siege, two bold and successful enterprises were undertaken forthe purpose of supplying the garrison with provisions. The Romans had shutup the port so closely, that the governor could have no communication withCarthage: nevertheless, Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar, resolved to enter itwith a supply of provisions. With this intention, he anchored with a fewvessels under an island near the coast, and as soon as a strong south windarose, he set all sail, and plied his oars with so much vigour andalacrity, that he passed safely through the midst of the Roman fleet, andlanded 10, 000 men and a considerable quantity of provisions. Havingsucceeded thus far, and being convinced that the Romans would be on thealert to prevent his sudden escape, he resolved to intimidate them, ifpossible, by the open boldness of the attempt; and in this also hesucceeded. 

Shortly afterwards the harbour was again so closely blockaded, that thesenate of Carthage were quite uninformed of the state and resources of thegarrison. In this emergency, a Rhodian, of the name of Hannibal, undertookto enter the harbour, and to come back to Carthage with the requisite anddesired intelligence. The Roman fleet lay at anchor, stretched across themouth of the harbour. Hannibal, following the example of his namesake, witha very light galley of his own, concealed himself near one of the islandswhich lie opposite to Lilibæum. Very early in the morning, before it waslight, with a favourable wind blowing rather strong, he succeeded ingetting through the Roman fleet, and entered the port. The consul, mortified at this second enterprise, ordered ten of his lightest vessels tolie as close as possible to each other, across the mouth of the harbour;and that they might not be taken by surprise and unprepared, he furtherdirected that the men should constantly have their oars in their hands, stretched out, so as to be ready to plunge them into the water at amoment's warning. The skill and experience of the Rhodian, however, and theextreme lightness and celerity of his vessel, rendered all theseprecautions unavailing; for, not content with securing his escape, hemocked the Romans, by often lying to till they came near him, and thenrowing round them. The Carthaginian senate were now able to have frequentcommunication with the garrison by means of this Rhodian: his success, andthe recompence which rewarded it, induced several Carthaginians to make thesame attempt. They were all successful except one, who, not knowing theforce and direction of the currents, was carried by them ashore, and fellinto the power of the Romans. The Rhodian still continued to pass betweenthe besieged and Carthage; but his good fortune was near an end. The Romanshad fitted out the Carthaginian galley which they had captured, and "waitedwith impatience for a fresh insult from the Rhodian: it was not long beforehe entered the port in the night time, according to custom, and waspreparing to sail out in broad day, not knowing that the Romans were nowmasters of a galley which was as good a sailer as his own. He weighedanchor with great confidence, and sailed out of the port in sight of theenemy's fleet, but was greatly surprized to see the Romans pursue himclose, and at length come up with him, notwithstanding the lightness of hisvessel. He had now no way left but to engage them, which he did with anundaunted bravery; but the Romans, who were all chosen men, soon put an endto the dispute. The Rhodian vessel was boarded and taken with all her crew. The Romans being now in possession of two light galleys, shut up the portso effectually, that no Carthaginian ever after attempted to enter it. "

The following year the Romans were obliged to convert the siege into ablockade, in consequence of the Carthaginians having succeeded indestroying all their works. One of the consuls was P. Claudius Pulcher, anobstinate and ambitious man, who, contrary to the advice of those who werebetter skilled in maritime affairs, and better acquainted with theCarthaginians than he was, determined to surprize Drepanon, where theCarthaginian admiral was posted. Claudius had under his command a fine andformidable fleet of 120 galleys; with these he sailed from before Lilibæumin the night time, having taken on board a great number of the best troopsemployed in the blockade of that place. At break of day, Asdrubal, theCarthaginian admiral, was surprized to perceive the hostile fleetapproaching Drepanon: he formed his plan immediately, preferring animmediate engagement to the certainty of being shut up in the harbour. Accordingly, with ninety ships, he sailed out, and drew them up behind somerocks which lay near the harbour. As the Romans had not perceived him comeout, they continued to sail on without forming themselves into line ofbattle, when as they were about to enter the harbour, the Carthaginiansattacked them, with such celerity and vigour, that, being taken quiteunprepared, they were thrown into confusion. Claudius might still havesaved his fleet by immediate flight, but this he absolutely refused to do, notwithstanding the strong and urgent remonstrances of his officers. Bygreat exertions the Roman fleet was formed into line of battle, on a leeshore, and close to rocks and shoals. It was on this occasion, that theRomans' veneration for auguries was so dreadfully shocked, by Claudiusexclaiming, when the sacred chickens refused to feed, "If they will notfeed, let them drink, " at the same time ordering them to be thrown into thesea. The bad omen, and the sacrilegious insult, added to the situation inwhich they were placed, and their want of confidence in Claudius, seemed tohave paralysed the efforts of the Romans: they fought feebly: the enemyboarded their ships without difficulty or resistance; so that ninetyvessels were either taken or driven ashore, 8, 000 of their seamen andsoldiers were killed, and 20, 000 taken prisoners. As soon as Claudiusperceived the probable result of the battle, he fled precipitately withthirty vessels. The Carthaginians did not lose a single ship or man on thisoccasion. This was the most signal and disastrous defeat which the Romanshad suffered at sea since the commencement of the war. According toPolybius, Claudius was tried, condemned, and very severely punished. 

The other consul, Lucius Pullus, was not more successful, though his wantof success did not, as in the case of Claudius, arise from ignorance andobstinacy. He was ordered to sail from Syracuse with a fleet of 120galleys, and 800 transports, the latter laden with provisions and storesfor the army before Lilibaeum. As the army was much pressed fornecessaries, and the consul himself was not ready to put to sea directly, he sent the quaestors before him with a small squadron. The Carthaginians, who were very watchful, and had the best intelligence of all the Romanswere doing, having learnt that the consul was at sea with a large fleet, sent 100 galleys to cruize off Heraclea. As soon as the squadron under thequaestors came in sight, the Carthaginian admiral, though he mistook it forthe consular fleet, yet resolved to engage it: but the quaestors, havingreceived orders not to hazard a battle if they could possibly avoid, tookrefuge behind some rocks, where they were attacked by the enemy. The Romansdefended themselves so well with balistae and other engines, which they haderected on the rocks, that the Carthaginian admiral, after having captureda few transports, was obliged to draw off his fleet. 

In the mean time, the light vessels, employed on the lookout, informed himthat the whole consular fleet were directing their course for Lilibaeum:his obvious plan was to engage this fleet before it could join that of thequæstors; he therefore steered his course to meet them. But the consul wasequally averse with the quaestors to hazard the supply of the army by abattle, and he, therefore, also took shelter near some rocks. TheCarthaginian admiral was afraid to attack him in this position, butresolved to watch him: while thus employed his pilots observed certainindications of an approaching storm, which induced him to take shelter onthe other side of Cape Pachynum. He had scarcely doubled the cape, when thestorm arose with such violence that the whole Roman fleet was destroyed. According to Polybius, not one vessel, not even a plank, was saved out of afleet which consisted of 120 galleys and 800 transports. 

Two such losses occurring during the same consulate, induced the Romansagain to resolve to desist from all naval enterprizes and preparations, sothat for some time no public fleet was equipped. This resolution, however, yielded to the conviction that they could not hope even to retain theirpossessions in Sicily, or even to secure their commerce on the coasts ofItaly, if they did not endeavour to cope with the Carthaginians by sea. Butas the senate thought it would appear derogatory to their dignity andconsistency to equip a public fleet, after they had a second time resolvedsolemnly and officially not to do so, they passed a decree, by which allthe Roman citizens who were able and so disposed, were permitted to build, equip, and arm vessels at their own expence; with these ships they weredirected to land on the coast of Africa, for the purpose of pillage, thefruit of which was to be their own private gain. The senate even wentfurther to evade, by a pitiful subterfuge their own decree, for they lentthe few ships which still remained to the republic, to private citizens, oncondition that they should keep them in repair, and make them good if theywere lost. By these measures a very considerable fleet was equipped, whichcommitted great depredations on the coast of Africa. Emboldened by theirpredatory warfare, they resolved to attempt a more arduous enterprize. Oneof the most celebrated of the Carthaginian harbours was that of Hippo;besides the port there was a citadel, and large arsenals for naval stores, &c. As the inhabitants were much engaged in commerce, there were in thetown always a considerable quantity of merchandize. This port the privateersquadron determined to enter. The inhabitants, aware of their design, stretched a very strong chain across the harbour mouth; but it did notavail; for the Roman ships broke through it, took possession of the townand ships, burnt most of them, and returned safe with an immense booty. This success was quickly followed by another, for as they were re-enteringPanormus, they fell in with a Carthaginian fleet loaded with provisions forHamilcar, who commanded in Sicily, and captured several of the transports. These advantages began to inspire the Romans with renewed confidence andhopes that their naval disasters were at an end, and that the gods had atlength permitted them to become masters of the sea, when the privateerfleet, after having gained a considerable victory over a Carthaginiansquadron, near the coast of Africa, was almost totally destroyed in astorm. 

For a few years afterwards, the Romans seem to have desisted entirely frommaritime enterprizes; but in the year of the city 516, they changed theirplan, as it was indeed evident that unless they were masters at sea, theymust be content to lose the island of Sicily. In order, however, that theRoman armies might not suffer by their losses at sea, it was decreed thatthe new fleet should be manned with hired troops. There was still anotherdifficulty to overcome; the protracted war with Carthage, and the heavy andrepeated losses which they had suffered during it, had nearly exhausted theRoman treasury; from it therefore could not possibly be drawn the sumsrequisite for the proper and effective equipment of such a fleet as wouldbe adequate to meet that of the enemy. This difficulty was removed by thepatriotism of all ranks and classes of the citizens. The senators set theexample; the most wealthy of whom built, each at his own cost, aquinquereme: those who were not so wealthy joined together, three or fourof them fitting out a single galley. By these means a fleet of 200 largevessels was made ready for any expedition, the state having boundthemselves to repay the individuals whenever her finances were adequate tosuch an expence. This fleet was not only very numerous and well equipped, but most of the vessels which composed it were built on an entirely newmodel, which combined an extraordinary degree of celerity with strength. The model was taken from that light Rhodian galley, which we have alreadymentioned, as having been employed by its owner, Hannibal, in conveyingintelligence between Carthage and Lilibæum, and which was afterwardscaptured by the Romans. The command of this fleet was given to the consulLutatius: and the great object to be accomplished was the reduction ofLilibæum, which still held out. The first step of the consul was to occupyall the sea-ports near this place: the town of Drepanon, however, resistinghis efforts, he resolved rather to decide its fate, and that of Sicily ingeneral, by a sea battle, than to undertake a regular siege. 

The Carthaginians soon gave him an opportunity of acting in this manner, for they sent to sea a fleet of 400 vessels, under the command of Hanno. Inthe building and equipment of this fleet, the senate of Carthage had nearlyexhausted all their means; but though their fleet was numerically muchgreater than that of Rome, in some essential respects it was inferior toit. Most of the seamen and troops on board it were inexperienced andundisciplined; and the ships themselves were not to be compared, withregard to the union of lightness and strength, with the Roman vessels, asthey were now built. Besides, the Romans trusted entirely to themselves--the Carthaginians, in some measure, to their allies or to hired seamen. TheRomans, though firm and determined, were not rashly confident; whereas theCarthaginians even yet regarded their adversaries with feelings ofcontempt. 

The hostile fleets met off Hiera, one of the Aeolian islands. TheCarthaginian admiral's first object was to reach Eryx, a city which hadlately been taken by Hamilcar, there to unload his vessels, and afterhaving taken on board Hamilcar and the best of his troops, to sail again inquest of the Roman fleet. But the consul prevented this design from beingcarried into execution, by coming up with the Carthaginians, as we havejust stated, off Hiera, while they were steering for Eryx. As the wind wasfavourable for the Romans, they were extremely anxious to commence theengagement immediately; but before they had formed into order of battle, itchanged, blew hard, and a heavy sea arose. The determination of the consulto engage was for a short time shaken by this circumstance, but hereflected that though the sea was rough, the enemy's ships were heavilyladen, and therefore would suffer more from it than his ships would; whileif, on the other hand, he delayed the engagement till the Carthaginiansreached Eryx, they would then have lighter vessels, as well as a greaternumber of experienced seamen and soldiers on board of them. Theseconsiderations determined him to fight immediately, and accordingly he gaveorders for the line of battle to be formed. The battle was of very shortduration, and terminated decidedly in favour of the Romans. The loss of theCarthaginians is variously stated, but, according to Polybius, who is thebest authority for every thing relating to the Punic wars, the Romans sunkfifty of their vessels, and captured seventy, with all their crews. Theremainder would probably have been either captured or destroyed, had notthe wind again changed, and enabled them to save themselves by flight. 

The consequences of this defeat, in the capitulation of Hamilcar, which, ina manner, determined the fate of Sicily, were so disheartening to theCarthaginians, that they were obliged to submit to a disadvantageous anddishonorable peace. Among other terms, it was stipulated that they shouldevacuate all the places they held in Sicily, and entirely quit that island;that they should also abandon all the small islands that lie between Italyand Sicily; and that they should not approach with their ships of war, either the coasts of Italy or any of the territories belonging to theRomans or their allies. 

Soon after the conclusion of the first Punic war, a circumstance occurredwhich nearly renewed the hostilities. The Carthaginians were engaged in abloody and arduous contest with their Mercenaries, and the Roman merchantssupplied the latter with military stores and provisions. While engaged inthis unlawful enterprize, several of them were captured by theCarthaginians, and their crews detained as prisoners of war. The senate ofCarthage, however, were not then in a condition to offend the Romans; theytherefore restored both the ships and their crews. During this war betweenthe Carthaginians and the Mercenaries, the latter having obtainedpossession of Sardinia, (which though formerly conquered by the Romans, hadbeen restored to the Carthaginians, ) offered to put the Romans inpossession of it. At first the senate refused to occupy it; but they soonchanged their mind, and accepted the offer, and moreover obliged theCarthaginians to pay the expence of the armament by which it was occupied, and the further sum of 1200 talents. 

Sicily, which immediately after the conclusion of the Punic war, was made aRoman province, and Sardinia, were the first territories which the Romanspossessed out of Italy. In conformity with our plan, we shall enquire intothe advantages they brought to the commerce of the Romans, before weproceed to the naval occurrences of the second Punic war. 

Sicily was anciently called Sicania, Trinâcria, and Triquetra; its threepromontories are particularly celebrated in the classic authors; viz. Lilibæum on the side of Africa; Pachynum on the side of Greece, and Pelorumtowards Italy. Its vicinity to the continent of Italy, and the resemblanceof their opposite shores, gave rise to an opinion among the ancients thatit was originally joined to Italy. Pliny particularly mentions theirseparation, as a circumstance beyond all doubt. The dangers which weresupposed to beset mariners in their passage through the narrow strait whichdivides it from Italy, on one side of which was Sylla, and on the otherCharybdis, sufficiently point out the ignorance and inexperience of theancients in the construction and management of their ships. 

The principal town on the eastern coast of Sicily, opposite Greece, wasMessana, now called Messina: it was the first which the Romans possessed inthe island: it was one of the most wealthy and powerful cities in ancientSicily. Taurominium stood near Mount Taurus, on the river Taurominius; thecoast in its vicinity was anciently called Coproea, because the sea wassupposed to throw up there the wrecks of such vessels as were swallowed upby Charybdis. The hills near this city were famous for the excellent grapesthey produced. On a gulph in the Ionian Sea, called Catana, stood a city ofthe same name; it was one of the richest and most powerful cities in theisland. 

But by far the most celebrated city in this island for its advantageoussituation, the magnificence of its buildings, its commerce, and the wealthof its inhabitants, was Syracuse. According to Thucydides, in his time itmight justly be compared to Athens, even when that city was at the heightof its glory; and Cicero describes it as the greatest and most wealthy ofall the cities possessed by the Greeks. Its walls were eighteen miles incircumference, and within them were in fact four cities united into one. Itseems also to have possessed three harbours: the great harbour was nearlyfive thousand yards in circumference, and the entrance to it five hundredyards across; it was formed on one side by a point of the island Ortygia, and on the other by another small island, on each of which were forts. Thesecond harbour was divided from the greater by an island of inconsiderableextent; both these were surrounded with warehouses, arsenals, and otherbuildings of great magnificence. The river Anapis emptied itself into thegreat harbour; at the mouth of this river was the castle of Olympia. Thethird harbour stood a little above the division of the city calledAcradina. The island of Ortygia, which formed one of the divisions, wasjoined to the others by a bridge. 

The other maritime towns of consequence were Agrigentum, Lilibaeum, andDrepanum; though the first stood at a short distance from the sea, yetbeing situated between and near two rivers, it conveniently imported allsorts of provisions and merchandize. Lilibaeum was famous for its port, which was deemed a safe retreat for ships, either in case of a storm, or toescape from an enemy. During the wars between the Romans and Carthaginians, the former repeatedly attempted to render it inaccessible and useless bythrowing large stones into it, but they were always washed away by theviolence of the sea, and the rapidity of the current. Drepanum, which hadan excellent harbour, was much resorted to by foreign ships, and possesseda very considerable commerce. 

The Greeks were the first who colonized Sicily; and they founded Syracuseand other towns. About the same period the Phoenicians settled on the coastfor the purposes of commerce; but they seem to have retired soon after theGreek colonies began to flourish and extend themselves. The Carthaginians, who generally pushed their commerce into all the countries with which theirparent state had traded, seem to have visited Italy as merchants orconquerors at a very early period; but when their first visit took place ineither character is not known. The treaty between them and the Romans, (towhich we have had occasion to refer more than once, ) which was formed inthe year after the expulsion of the Tarquins, expressly stipulated that theRomans, who should touch at Sardinia, or that part of Sicily which belongedto the Carthaginians, should be received there in the same manner as theCarthaginians themselves. They must, however, soon afterwards have beendriven out of the island; for at the time of the invasion of Greece byXerxes, (which happened about thirty years after the expulsion of theTarquins, ) Gelon, the king of Syracuse, expressly states that they nolonger possessed any territory there, in a speech which he made to theambassadors of Athens and Sparta, the Cathaginians having united withXerxes, and he having offered to ally himself with the Greeks. Thecircumstances and even the very nature of the victory which Gelon gainedover the Carthaginians, which ended in their expulsion from Sicily, cannotaccurately be ascertained: but from a comparison of the principalauthorities on this point, it would, appear that it was a naval victory; orat least that the Carthaginian fleet was defeated as well as their army. Their loss by sea was enormous, amounting to nearly the whole of theirships of war and transports, the former consisting of 2000 and the latterof 3000. 

Such is a short sketch of the island of Sicily, so far as its commercialfacilities and its history are concerned previously to its conquest by theRomans. It was peculiarly valuable to them on account of its extremefertility in corn; and by this circumstance it seems to have beendistinguished in very early times; for there can be no doubt that by itsbeing represented by the poets as the favourite residence of the goddessCeres, the fertility of the island in corn, as well as its knowledge ofagriculture, were intended to be represented. When Gelon offered to unitewith the Greeks in their war with Xerxes, one of his proposals was that hewould furnish the whole Greek army with corn, during all the time ofhostilities, if they would appoint him commander of their forces. In thelatter period of the Roman republic, it became their principal dependencefor a regular supply of corn. 

Sardinia seems to have been as little explored by and known to theancients, as it is to the moderns. The treaty between the Carthaginians andRomans, the year after the expulsion of the Tarquins, proves that theformer nation possessed it at that time. Calaris, the present Cagliari, wasthe principal town in it. From the epithet applied to it by Horace, in oneof his odes, _Opima_, it must have been much more fertile in former timesthan it is at present; and Varro expressly calls it one of the granaries ofRome. Its air, then, as at present, was in most parts very unwholsome; andit is a remarkable circumstance that the character of the Sardi, who, afterthe complete reduction of the island by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, werebrought to Rome in great numbers, and sold as slaves, and who wereproverbial for their worthlessness, is still to be traced in the presentinhabitants; for they are represented as extremely barbarous, and sotreacherous, and inhospitable, that they have been called the Malays of theMediterranean. The island of Corsica, which, indeed, generally followed thefate of Sardinia, was another of the fruits of the first Punic war whichthe Romans reaped, in some degree favourable to their commerce. Itpossessed a large and convenient harbour, called Syracusium. TheCarthaginians must have reduced it at an early period, since, according toHerodotus, the Cyrnians (the ancient name for the inhabitants), were one ofthe nations that composed the vast army, with which they invaded Sicily inthe time of Gelon. 

During the interval between the first and second Punic wars, the Romancommerce seems to have been gradually, but slowly extending itself, particularly in the Adriatic: we do not possess, however, any details onthe subject, except a decisive proof of the attention and protection whichthe republic bestowed upon it, in repressing and punishing the piracies ofthe Illyrians and Istrians. These people, who were very expert andundaunted seamen, enriched themselves and their country by seizing andplundering the merchant vessels which frequented the Adriatic and adjacentMediterranean sea; and their piracies were encouraged, rather thanrestrained by their sovereigns. At the period to which we allude, they weregoverned by a queen, named Teuta, who was a woman of a bold andenterprising spirit: the Roman merchants, who traded, in the Adriatic, hadfrequently been plundered and cruelly treated by her subjects; upon this, the Roman senate sent two ambassadors to her, to insist that she should puta stop to these measures. The Romans had also other grounds of complaintagainst her and her subjects; for the latter extended their piracies to theallies of Rome, as well as to the Romans themselves, and the former was atthat time besieging the island of Issa, in the Adriatic, which was underthe protection of the republic. The inhabitants of this island seem to havebeen rather extensively engaged in commerce, and were celebrated forbuilding a kind of light ships, thence called _Issaei lembi_. 

Teuta received and treated the Roman ambassadors with great scorn andhaughtiness; she promised, indeed, that she would no longer authorise thepiracies of her subjects; but, with regard to restraining them, she wouldnot do it, as they enjoyed a perfect and full right to benefit themselvesas much as possible, and in every way they could, by their skill andsuperiority in maritime affairs. On the ambassadors' replying in ratherthreatening language, she ordered one of them to be put to death. 

For a short time Teuta was alarmed at the probable consequences of herconduct, and endeavoured to avert them by submission; but, the Romans beingotherwise engaged, and she having experienced some successes over theAcheans, her haughtiness and confidence revived, and she sent a fleet toassist in the reduction of Issa. Upon this, the Romans resolved to act withimmediate vigour; and they had little difficulty in compelling Teuta to suefor peace. It was granted to her, on condition that not more than threeships of war should at any one time sail beyond Lyssus, on the frontier ofMacedonia, and that the islands of Corcyra, Issa, and Pharos, together withDyrrhachium should be given up to the Romans. 

It was not, however, to be supposed that the Illyrians and Istrians, whohad been so long accustomed to piracy, and who in fact derived nearly alltheir wealth from this source, would totally abstain from it. A few yearsafter this treaty of peace, they resumed their depredations, which theycarried on with so much audacity and disregard to the power of Rome, thatthey even seized the ships that were laden with corn for Rome. As thiscommerce was one of the greatest consequence to the Romans, in which theRoman government, as well as individuals, principally embarked, and on theregularity and safety of which the subsistence and tranquillity of the cityitself depended, the senate resolved to punish them more effectually; andthis resolution was strengthened by the Illyrians having broken the termsof the peace by sending no fewer than 50 vessels of war beyond theprescribed limits, as far as the Cyclades. The consequence of the new warwhich the Romans waged against them, was the reduction of Istria and ofIllyricum Proper. 

The destruction of Saguntum by the Carthaginians was the cause of thesecond Punic war. At what period the Carthaginians first establishedthemselves in Spain, is not known. Their principal object in colonizing andretaining it, undoubtedly may be found in the richness of its mines, andthe fertility of its soil. According to Diodorus Siculus, they wereprincipally enabled to equip and support their numerous, and frequentlyrenewed fleets, by the silver which they drew from these mines. And Straboexpressly informs us, that when the Carthaginians first colonized Spain, silver was in such abundance, and so easily obtained, that their mostcommon utensils, and even the mangers for their horses, were made of it. One mine of extreme richness is particularly described by Pliny: accordingto him, it yielded 300 pounds of silver in a day. There are othercircumstances which point out the extreme value of Spain to whoeverpossessed it, and lead us to the motives which induced the Romans to useall their efforts to wrest it from the Carthaginians. It cannot be doubtedthat the Carthaginians drew from it all the wealth, in various shapes, which it could possibly supply; and yet we know that in the short space ofnine years, 111, 542 pounds weight of silver, 4095 of gold, besides coin, were brought out of it by the Roman praetors, who governed it. Scipio, whenhe returned to Rome, brought from Spain 14, 342 pounds weight of silver, besides coin, arms, and corn, &c. To an immense amount. And Lentulusreturned from this country with 44, 000 pounds of silver, and 2550 of gold, besides the coin, &c. , which was divided among his soldiers. Manliusbrought with him 1200 pounds of silver, and about 30 of gold. CorneliusLentulus, who was praetor of Hither Spain for two years, brought with him1515 pounds of gold, and 2000 of silver, besides a large amount of coin, while the praetor of Farther Spain returned with 50, 000 pounds of silver. And these immense sums, as we have already stated, were brought away in thespace of nine years. 

Cornelius Scipio was sent into Spain at the commencement of the secondPunic war. Of the events of this war, however, we shall confine ourselvesexclusively to such as were maritime, and which trace the steps of theRoman superiority at sea, and, consequently, of the advancement andextension of their commerce. The exertions of the rival nations to contestthe empire of the sea were very great: the Romans equipped 220quinqueremes, and twenty other light vessels, beside 160 galleys, andtwenty light vessels, which were employed to transport troops to Africa. Their allies, the Syracusans, also, were active and alert in the equipmentof a fleet to assist their allies, the Romans; and Hiero, their king, hadthe good fortune to give an auspicious commencement to the war, bycapturing some Carthaginian ships, part of a fleet, whose object was toplunder the coasts of Italy, but which had been dispersed by a storm. TheCarthaginians were equally unfortunate in their second maritime enterpriseagainst Lilibaeum, for the Syracusans and Romans, having learnt theirintention, anchored before the mouth of the harbour. The Carthaginians, finding that they could not, as they expected, surprise the place, drew uptheir fleet in line of battle, a little way out at sea: the alliesimmediately got under weigh; a battle ensued, in which the Carthaginianswere defeated, with the loss of seven ships. These successes, however, weredreadfully counterbalanced by the advance of Hannibal into Italy, and thedecisive victories which he obtained in the very heart of the Romanterritories. Under these circumstances, maritime affairs were naturallydisregarded. 

Of the actual state of the Roman commerce about this time we know verylittle, but that it was lucrative, may fairly be inferred from thefollowing circumstance:--A little before the commencement of the secondPunic war, Caius Flaminnus was extremely desirous to obtain the support andgood will of the populace; with this object in view, he joined the tribunesof the people in passing a law, which is called the Flaminian, or Claudianlaw. By it, the senators, who had been accustomed to acquire considerablewealth by fitting out ships and trading, were expressly forbidden topossess or hire any vessel above the burden of 300 amphorae or eight tons, and not more than one vessel even of that small tonnage. This vessel wasallowed them, and was deemed sufficient to bring the produce of their farmsto Rome. By the same law, the scribes, and the clerks, and attendants ofthe quæstors, were prohibited from trading; and thus the liberty ofcommerce was exclusively confined to the plebeians. 

Whilst Hannibal threatened the Romans in the vicinity of Rome itself, theyhad neither leisure, inclination, or means, to cope with the Carthaginiansby sea; at length, however, Marcellus, having checked the enemy in Italy, maritime affairs were again attended to. Scipio, who had been successful inSpain, resolved to attempt the reduction of New Carthage: this place wassituated, like Old Carthage, on a peninsula betwixt a port and a lake: itsharbour was extremely commodious, and large enough to receive and shelterany fleet. As it was the capital of the Carthaginian dominions in Spain, here were deposited all their naval stores, machines used in war, besidesimmense treasures. It was on this account extremely well fortified, and toattempt to take it by a regular siege seemed to Scipio impracticable: he, therefore, formed a plan to take it by surprise, and this plan hecommunicated to C. Lælius, the commander of the fleet, who was his intimatefriend. The Roman fleet was to block up the port by sea, while Scipio wasto blockade it by land. The ignorance of the Romans with regard to one ofthe most common and natural phenomena of the sea, is strongly marked in thecourse of this enterprise. Scipio knew that when the tide ebbed, the portof New Carthage would become dry and accessible by land; but his soldiers, and even his officers, were ignorant of the nature of the tides, and theyfirmly believed that Neptune had wrought a miracle in their favour, when, according to Scipio's prediction, the tide retired, and the army was thusenabled to capture the town, the walls of which on that side were extremelylow, the Carthaginians having directed all their attention and efforts tothe opposite side. The capture of New Carthage depressed, in a greatdegree, the spirits, as well as weakened the strength of the Carthaginiansin Spain: eighteen galleys were captured in the port, besides 113 vesselsladen with naval stares; 40, 000 bushels of wheat, 260, 000 bushels ofbarley, a large number of warlike machines of all descriptions, 260 cups ofgold, most of which weighed a pound, 18, 300 pounds weight of silver, principally coin, besides brass money, were among the spoils. 

About the year of Rome 556, Scipio had succeeded in reducing all Spain. Itdoes not appear, however, that the Romans were thus enabled greatly toextend their commerce; indeed, at this period, we have no evidence that anyother town in Spain, except Gades, possessed any considerable trade. Thisisland and city were situated in a gulph of the same name, between thestraits of Gibraltar and the river Boetis; and, from the remotest period ofwhich we possess any records, was resorted to by foreigners for thepurposes of commerce. Gradually, however, the inhabitants of Spain, underthe Roman government, enriched themselves and their conquerors by theirindustry: large quantities of corn, wine, and oil were exported, besideswax, honey, pitch, vermilion, and wool. The oil and wool were deemed equal, if not superior, to those of any other part of the world: the excellentquality of the wool is a strong fact, against an opinion entertained bymany, that the fineness of the Spanish was originally derived from theexportation of some English sheep to Spain, since it appears to have beencelebrated even in the time of the Romans: how important and lucrative anobject it was considered, may be collected from the attention that was paidto the breed of sheep; a ram, according to Strabo, having been sold for atalent, or nearly 200_l_. Horace incidentally gives evidence of thecommercial wealth of Spain in his time, when he considers the master of aSpanish trading vessel and a person of great wealth as synonimous terms. 

As Hannibal still continued in Italy, the senate of Rome resolved to sendScipio into Italy, with a discretionary power to invade Africa from thatisland. He lost no time in equipping a fleet for these purposes, and hisefforts were so well seconded by the zeal and activity of the provinces andcities, many of which taxed themselves to supply iron, timber, cloth forsails, corn, &c. That, in forty days after the timber was felled, Scipiohad a fleet of thirty new galleys. 

Soon after he landed in Sicily, he resolved to invade Africa: for thispurpose his fleet was collected in the port of Lilibæum. Never wasembarkation made with more order and solemnity: the concourse of people whocame from all parts to see him set sail, and wish him a prosperous voyage, was prodigious. Just before he weighed anchor, he appeared on the poop ofhis galley, and, after an herald had proclaimed silence, addressed a solemnprayer to the gods. It is foreign to our purpose to give any account of thecampaign in Africa, which, it is well known, terminated in the utter defeatof the Carthaginians, who were obliged to sue for peace. This was grantedthem on very severe terms: all the cities and provinces which theypossessed in Africa previously to the war, they were indeed permitted toretain, but they were stripped of Spain, and of all the islands in theMediterranean; all their ships of war, except ten galleys, were to bedelivered up to the Romans; and, for the future, they were not to maintainabove that number at one time: even the size of their fishing boats and oftheir trading vessels was regulated. In the course of fifty years tenthousand talents were to be paid to the Romans. During a short truce whichpreceded the peace, the Carthaginians had seized and plundered a Romansquadron, which had been dispersed by a storm, and driven near Carthage; asa satisfaction for this, they were obliged to pay the Romans 25, 000 poundsweight of silver. The successful termination of the second Punic war gaveto the Romans complete dominion of the sea, on which they maintainedgenerally 100 galleys. Commerce flourished, particularly that mostimportant branch, the trade in corn, with which Rome, at this period, issaid to have been so plentifully furnished, that the merchants paid theirseamen with it. 

The power of the Romans at sea was now so well established, that no foreignpower could hope to attack, or resist them, unless they were expertnavigators, as well as furnished with a numerous fleet. Under thisimpression, Philip king of Macedon, who had long been jealous and afraid ofthem, applied himself sedulously to maritime affairs. As it was about thisperiod that the Romans began to turn their thoughts to the conquest ofGreece, it may be proper to take a retrospective view of the maritimeaffairs and commerce of that country. An inspection of the map of Greecewill point out the advantages which it possessed for navigation andcommerce. Lying nearly in the middle of the Mediterranean, with the seawashing three of its sides; possessed of almost innumerable inlets andbays, it was admirably adapted to ancient commerce. Its want of large andnavigable rivers, which will always limit its commerce in modern times, presented no obstacle to the small vessels in which the ancients carried ontheir trade; as they never navigated them during the winter, and from theirsmallness and lightness, they could easily drag them on shore. 

Athens, the most celebrated state in Greece for philosophy, literature, andarms, was also the most celebrated for commerce. The whole of the southernangle of Attica consisted of a district called Parali, or the divisionadjacent to the sea. In the other districts of Attica, the soldiers of therepublic were found: this furnished the sailors; fishing and navigationwere the chief employments of its inhabitants. About 46 miles distant fromthe Piraeus, stood Sunium, the most considerable town in this district: itpossessed a double harbour in the Mediterranean. 

The principal commerce of Attica, however, was carried on at Athens: thiscity had three harbours: the most ancient was that of Phalerum, distantfrom the city, according to some authors, 35 stadia; according to othersonly 20 stadia. It was nearer Athens than the other two, but smaller, andless commodious. Munichea was the name of the second harbour: it was formedin a promontory not far distant from the Pirasus, a little to the east ofAthens, and naturally a place of great strength; it was afterwards, at theinstance of Thrasybulus, rendered still stronger by art. But by far themost celebrated harbour of Athens was the Piraeus. The republic of Athens, in order to concentrate its military and mercantile fleets in this harbour, abandoned that of Phalerum, and bent all their efforts to render thePiraeus as strong and commodious as possible. This occurred in the time ofThemistocles; by whose advice both the town and the harbour were inclosedwith a wall, about seven miles and a half long, and sixty feet high. Themistocles' intention was to have made it eighty cubits high, but in thishe was opposed. Before this connecting wall was built, the Piraeus wasabout three miles distant from the city. As the strength of the wall was ofthe utmost importance, it was built of immense square stones, which werefastened together with iron or leaden cramps. It was so broad that twowaggons could have been driven along it. The Pireus contained three docks;the first called Cantharus, the second Aphrodisium, and the third Zea. There were likewise five porticos, and two forums. The Piraeus was socelebrated for its commerce, that it became a proverbial saying in Greece, "Famine does not come from the Piræus. " The extent and convenience of thePiræus may be judged of from this circumstance, that under the demagogueLycurgus, the whole naval force of the nation, amounting to 400 triremes, were safely and easily laid up in its three harbours. 

Before the time of Themistocles, Athens does not appear to have devoted herattention or resources to maritime affairs: but this celebrated general notonly rendered the Piræus stronger and more commodious, but also procured adecree, which enabled him to add twenty ships to the fleet annually. Thesums arising from the sale of the privileges of working the mines, or theeventual profits of the mines, which had formerly been distributed amongthe people, were, through his influence, set apart for the building ofships. Afterwards a law was passed, which taxed all the citizens whopossessed land, manufactories, or money in trade or with their bankers;these classes of the citizens were also obliged to keep up, and increase, if occasion required it, the naval force of the republic. When it wasnecessary to fit out an armament, as many talents as there were galleys tobe built and equipped, were raised in each of the ten tribes of Athens. Themoney thus collected was given to the captains of the galleys, to beexpended in the maintenance of the crew. The republic furnished the riggingand sailors: two captains were appointed to each galley, who served sixmonths each. 

Although the vessels employed by the Athenians both for war and commercewere small compared with those of modern days, and their merchant shipseven much smaller than those of the Phoenicians, if we may judge by thedescription given by Xenophon of a Phoenician merchant vessel in thePiræus, yet the expence attending their equipment was very great. We learnfrom Demosthenes, that the light vessels could not be kept in commission, even if the utmost attention was paid to economy, and no extraordinarydamage befel them, for a smaller sum than about 8000_l_. Annually; ofcourse, such vessels as from their size, strength, and manning, werecapable of standing the brunt of an engagement, must have cost more thandouble that sum. 

In the time of Demosthenes, the trade of Athens seems to have been carriedon with considerable spirit and activity; the greater part of the money ofthe Athenians having been employed in it. From one of his orations welearn, that in the contract executed when money was lent for this purpose, the period when the vessel was to sail, the nature and value of the goodswith which she was loaded, the port to which she was to carry them, themanner in which they were to be sold there, and the goods with which shewas to return to Athens, were all specifically and formally noticed. Inother particulars the contracts varied: the money, lent was either not tobe repaid till the return of the vessel, or it was to be repaid as soon asthe outward goods were sold at the place to which she was bound, either tothe agent of the lender, or to himself, he going there for that expresspurpose. The interest of money so lent varied: sometimes it rose as high as30 per cent: it seems to have depended principally on the risks of thevoyage. 

In another oration of Demosthenes we discover glimpses of what by many hasbeen deemed maritime insurance, or rather of the fraud at present calledbarratry, which is practised to defraud the insurer: but, as Park in hislearned Treatise on Marine Insurance has satisfactorily proved, theancients were certainly ignorant of maritime insurance; though there can beno doubt frauds similar to those practised at present were practised. According to Demosthenes, masters of vessels were in the habit of borrowingconsiderable sums, which they professed to invest in a cargo of value, butinstead of such a cargo, they took on board sand and stones, and when outat sea, sunk the vessel. As the money was lent on the security either ofthe cargo or ship, or both, of course the creditors were defrauded: but itdoes not appear how they could, without detection, substitute sand orstones for the cargo. 

The Athenians passed a number of laws respecting commerce, mostly of aprohibitory nature. Money could not be advanced or lent on any vessel, orthe cargo of any vessel, that did not return to Athens, and discharge itscargo there. The exportation of various articles, which were deemed of thefirst necessity, was expressly forbidden: such as timber for building, fir, cypress, plane, and other trees, which grew in the neighbourhood of thecity; the rosin collected on Mount Parnes, the wax of Mount Hymettus--whichtwo articles, incorporated together, or perhaps singly, were used fordaubing over, or caulking their ships. The exportation of corn, of whichAttica produced very little, was also forbidden; and what was brought fromabroad was not permitted to be sold any where except in Athens. By the lawsof Solon, they were allowed to exchange oil for foreign commodities. Therewere besides a great number of laws respecting captains of ships, merchants, duties, interest of money, and different kinds of contracts. Onelaw was specially favourable to merchants and all engaged in trade; by it aheavy fine, or, in some cases, imprisonment, was inflicted on whoeveraccused a merchant or trader of any crime he could not substantiate. Inorder still farther to protect commerce, and to prevent it from sufferingby litigation, all causes which respected it could be heard only during theperiod when vessels were in port. This period extended generally to sixmonths--from April to September inclusive--no ships being at sea during theother portion of the year. 

The taxes of the Athenians, so far as they affected commerce, consisted ofa fifth, levied on the corn and other merchandize imported, and also onseveral articles which were exported from Athens. These duties weregenerally farmed. In an oration of Andocides, we learn that he had farmedthe duty on foreign goods imported for a term of three years, at twelvetalents annually. In consequence of these duties, smuggling was notuncommon. The inhabitants of the district called Corydale were celebratedfor illicit traffic: there was a small bay in this district, a little tothe north of Piræus, called. Thieves' Harbour, in which an extensive andlucrative and contraband trade was carried on; ships of different nationswere engaged in it. Demosthenes informs us, that though this place waswithin the boundaries of Attica, yet the Athenians had not the legal powerto put a stop to traffic by which they were greatly injured, as theinhabitants of Corydale, as well as the inhabitants of every other state, however small, were sovereigns within their own territory. 

In an oration of Isocrates an operation is described which bears someresemblance to that performed by modern bills of exchange. A stranger whobrought grain to Athens, and who, we may suppose, wished to purchase goodsto a greater amount than the sale of his grain would produce, drew on aperson living in some town on the Euxine, to which the Athenians were inthe habit of trading. The Athenian merchant took this draft; but not till abanker in Athens had become responsible for its due payment. 

The Athenian merchants were obliged, from the nature of trade in thoseancient times, to be constantly travelling from one spot to another; eitherto visit celebrated fairs, or places where they hoped to carry on anadvantageous speculation. We shall afterwards notice more particularly theMacedonian merchant mentioned by Ptolemy the Geographer, who sent hisclerks to the very borders of China; and from other authorities we learnthat the Greek merchants were accurately informed respecting the interiorparts of Germany, and the course of most of the principal rivers in thatcountry. The trade in aromatics, paints, cosmetics, &c. , was chieflypossessed by the Athenians, who had large and numerous markets in Athensfor the sale of these articles. Even in the time of Hippocrates, some ofthe spices of India were common in the Peloponnesus and Attica; and thereis every reason to believe that most of these articles were introduced intoGreece in consequence of the journeys of their merchants to some places ofdepôt, to which they were brought from the East. 

We have already mentioned that the importation of corn into a country sounfertile as Attica, was a subject of the greatest moment, and to which thecare and laws of the republic were most particularly directed. There weremagistrates, whose sole business and duty it was to lay in corn for the useof the city; and other magistrates who regulated its price, and fixed alsothe assize of bread. In the Piræus there were officers, the chief part ofwhose duty it was to take care that two parts at least of all the cornbrought into the port should be carried to the city. Lysias, in his orationagainst the corn merchants, gives a curious account of the means employed, by them to raise its price, very similar to the rumours by which the sameeffect is often produced at present: an embargo, or prohibition ofexporting it, by foreigners, an approaching war, or the capture or loss ofthe vessels laden with it, seem to have been the most prevalent rumours. Sicily, Egypt, and the Crimea were the countries which principally suppliedAttica with this necessary article. As the voyage from Sicily was theshortest, as well as exposed to the least danger, the arrival of vesselswith corn from this island always reduced the price; but there does notappear to have been nearly such quantities brought either from it or Egypt, as from the Crimea. The Athenians, therefore, encouraged by every possiblemeans their commerce with the Cimmerian Bosphorus. One of the kings of thatcountry, Leucon II. , who reigned about the time of Demosthenes, favouredthem very much. As the harbours were unsafe and inconvenient, he formed anew one, called Theodosia, or, in the language of the country, Ardauda: helikewise exempted their vessels from paying the duty on corn, to which allother vessels were subject on exporting it--this duty amounted to athirtieth part, --and allowed their merchants a free trade to all parts ofhis kingdom. In return, the Athenians made him and his children citizens ofAthens, and granted to such of his subjects as traded in Attica the sameprivileges and exemptions which their citizens enjoyed in Bosphorus. It wasone of the charges against Demosthenes, by his rival, the orator Dinarchus, that the sons and successors of Leucon sent yearly to him a thousandbushels of wheat. Besides the new port of Theodosia, the Athenians tradedalso to Panticapæum for corn: the quantity they exported is stated byDemosthenes to have amounted to 400, 000 mediniri, or bushels, yearly, asappeared from the custom books; and this was by far the greatest quantityof corn they received from foreign countries. Lucian, indeed, informs usthat a ship, which, from his description, must have been about the size ofour third-rates, contained as much corn as maintained all Attica for atwelvemonth; but, in the time of this author, Athens was not nearly sopopulous as it had been: and besides, as is justly remarked by Hume, it isnot safe to trust to such loose rhetorical illustrations. 

From a passage in Thucydides we may learn that the Athenians derived partof their supply of corn from Euboea; this passage is also curious asexhibiting a surprising instance of the imperfection of ancient navigation. Among the inconveniences experienced by the Athenians, from the fortifyingof Dacelia by the Lacedemonians, this historian particularly mentions, asone of the most considerable, that they could not bring over their cornfrom Euboea by land, passing by Oropus, but were under the necessity ofembarking it, and sailing round Cape Sunium; and yet the water carriagecould not be more than double the land carriage. 

The articles imported by the Athenians from the Euxine Sea, besides corn, were timber for building, slaves, salt, honey, wax, wool, leather, andgoat-skins; from Byzantium and other ports of Thrace and Macedonia, saltfish and timber; from Phrygia and Miletus, carpets, coverlets for beds, andthe fine wool, of which their cloths were made; from the islands of EgeanSea, wine and different fruits; and from Thrace, Thessaly, Phrygia, &c. , agreat number of slaves. 

The traffic in slaves was, next to that in corn, of the greatestconsequence to the Athenians, for the citizens were not in sufficientnumbers, and, if they had been, were not by any means disposed, tocultivate the land, work the mines, and carry on the various trades andmanufactures. The number of slaves in Attica, during the most flourishingperiod of the republic, was estimated at 400, 000: of these the greater parthad been imported; the rest were natives of Greece, whom the fate of armshad thrown into the hands of a conqueror irritated by too obstinate aresistance. The slaves most esteemed, and which brought the highest price, were imported from Syria and Thrace, the male slaves of the former country, and the females of the latter: the slaves from Macedonia were the leastvalued. The price of a slave seems to have been extremely low, as Xenophonmentions that some were sold at Athens for half an Attic mina, or rathermore than thirty shillings: those, however, who had acquired a trade, orwere otherwise particularly useful, were valued at five minæ, or aboutfifteen pounds. 

Our idea of the commerce of Athens, and of Greece in general, would be veryimperfect and inadequate if we neglected to notice their fairs. It has beeningeniously supposed, that at the celebrated games of Greece, such as thoseof Olympia, &c. , trade was no subordinate object; and this idea iscertainly confirmed by various passages in ancient authors. Ciceroexpressly informs us, that even so early as the age of Pythagoras, a greatnumber of people attended the religious games for the express purpose oftrading. At Delphi, Nemæa, Delos, or the Isthmus of Corinth, a fair washeld almost every year. The amphyctionic fairs were held twice a year. Inthe time of Chrysostom, these lairs were infamously distinguished for atraffic in slaves, destined for public incontinence. The amphyctionicspring fair was held at Delphi, and at Thermopylæ in the autumn; in fact, at the same times that the deputies from the states of Greece formed theamphyctionic council;--another proof that wherever large assemblies ofpeople took place in Greece, for religious or political purposes, advantagewas taken of them to carry on traffic. At the fairs of Thermopylæ medicinalherbs and roots, especially hellebore, were sold in large quantities. Oneprincipal reason why the religious games or political assemblies of thestates were fixed upon to hold fairs was, that during them all hostilitieswere suspended; and every person might go with his merchandize in safety tothem, even through an enemy's country. The priests, so far from regardingthese fairs as a profanation of the religions ceremonies, encouraged them;and the priests of Jupiter, in particular, advanced large sums on interestto such merchants as had good credit, but had not sufficient money withthem. 

The island of Delos calls for our particular attention, as the grand martof the Athenians, as well as of the rest of Greece, and of the othercountries in the Mediterranean, which at this period were engaged incommerce. The peace of this island always remained undisturbed, from anopinion that it was under the special protection of Apollo and Diana; andwhen the fleets of enemies met there, out of respect to the sacredness ofthe place, they forbore all manner of hostilities. There were also othercircumstances which contributed to render it a place of great importance tocommerce: its commodious situation for the navigation from Europe intoAsia; its festivals, which brought immense crowds to it (and as we havejust observed, wherever a multitude of Greeks were collected, bysuperstitious rites or amusements, commerce was mingled with their dutiesand pursuits); and the bias which its original, or at least its very earlyinhabitants, had to commerce: all these combined to render it a place ofgreat importance to commerce. Its trade consisted chiefly in slaves:according to Strabo, in the time of Perseus, king of Macedonia, above10, 000 slaves came in and went out daily. The corn, wine, and othercommodities of the neighbouring islands; the scarlet linen tunics, manufactured in the island of Amorgos; the rich purple stuffs of Cos; thehighly esteemed alum of Melos, and the valuable copper, which the mines, ofDelos itself (that had been long worked, ) and the elegant vases, manufactured from this copper, --were the principal commodities exportedfrom Delos. In return and exchange, foreign merchants brought the produceand manufactures of their respective countries; so that the island became, as it were, the storehouse of the treasures of nations; and the scene, during this mixture of religious festivals and commercial enterprise, waspeculiarly gay and animated. The inhabitants were, by an express law, whichis noticed by Athenæus, obliged to furnish water to all the strangers whoresorted thither; to which, it would appear, they added, eithergratuitously, or for a small remuneration, cakes and other triflingeatables. 

The Athenians were so anxious to protect and extend the commerce carried onin Delos, that they gave encouragement to such strangers to settle there aswere conversant in commerce, as well as strictly guarded its neutrality andprivileges. On the destruction of Tyre, and afterwards of Carthage, eventswhich gave a new direction to the commerce of the Mediterranean, a greatnumber of merchants from these cities fled to Delos, where they were takenunder the protection of the Athenians; and it appears by an inscriptionfound in the 17th century, that the Tyrians formed a company of merchantsand navigators there. The Romans traded to it, even before their war withPhilip, king of Macedon. After the restoration of Corinth, the Atheniansused all their efforts to keep up the commerce of Delos; but the wars ofMithridates put an end to it; and in a very short period afterwards, itseems to have been entirely abandoned by the merchants of all nations, and, as a commercial place, to have fallen into utter neglect and decay. 

Corinth, next to Athens, demands our notice, as one of the most commercialcities of Greece. The Corinthian dominions were extremely small, theirextent from east to west being about half a degree, and from north to southabout half that space: according to the geographer Scylax, a vessel mightsail from one extremity to the other in a day. It had no rivers of anynote, and few rich plains, being in general uneven, and but moderatelyfertile. The situation of Corinth itself, however, amply compensated forall these disadvantages: it was built on the middle of the isthmus of thesame name, at the distance of about 60 stadia on either side from the sea;on one side was the Saronic Gulf, on the other the sea of Crissa. On theformer was the port of Lechæum, which was joined to the city by a doublewall, 12 stadia in length; on the latter sea, was the port of Cinchræa, distant from Corinth 70 stadia. There was, besides, the port and castle ofCromyon, about 120 stadia distant from the capital. Hence, it will appearthat Corinth commanded the trade of all the eastern part of theMediterranean by the port of Cinchræa; and of the Ionian sea, by that ofLechæum. But the Corinthians possessed other advantages; for their citadelwas almost impregnable, commanded from its situation both these seas, andstood exactly in the way of communication by land between one part ofGreece and the other. The other states, however, would not permit theCorinthians to interdict them the passage of the Isthmus; but they couldnot prevent them from taking advantage of their situation, by carrying onan extensive and lucrative commerce. The Isthmian games, which werecelebrated at Corinth, also contributed very much to its splendour andopulence, and drew additional crowds to it, who, as usual, mingled commercewith religion. According to Thucydides, Corinth had been a city of greattraffic, even when the Greeks confined their trade to land: at this period, the Corinthians imposed a transit duty on all commodities, which entered orleft the Peloponnessus by the Isthmus. But the extended knowledge andenterprise of the Greeks, and, above all, the destruction of the pirateswhich infested the narrow seas, led them to prefer sea carriage part of theway. The reason why they did not transport their goods the whole passage bysea, may be found in their ignorance and fears: their inexperiencedmariners and frail ships could not succeed in doubling Cape Malea inLaconia; off which, and between it and Crete, the sea was frequently veryboisterous. Hence, the merchants were under the necessity of transporting, by land carriage, their goods to the seas which formed the Isthmus. Such ascame from Italy, Sicily, and the countries to the west, were landed atLechæum; while the merchandize from Asia Minor, Phoenicia, and the islandsin the Egean Sea, were landed at the port of Cinchræa. The breadth of theIsthmus was so small that the goods were easily and quickly conveyed fromone harbour to the other; and afterwards the Corinthians succeeded intransporting the ships themselves. 

At first it would appear that the Corinthians contented themselves with thewealth derived from their city being the great mart of commerce, and fromthe duties which they imposed: but they soon began to engage veryextensively and with great spirit in trade themselves. Several kinds ofmanufactures were encouraged, which were highly valued by foreign nations, especially coverlets for beds, and brass and earthen-ware vessels. Buttheir most valuable manufacture consisted in a metal compounded of copperand a small quantity of gold and silver, which was extremely brilliant, andscarcely liable to rust or decay. From this metal they made helmets, &c. , little figures, cups, vessels, &c. , which were highly esteemed, not only onaccount of the metal of which they were formed, but still more on accountof the tasteful foliage and other ornaments with which they were covered. Their earthen-ware was ornamented in the same beautiful and tastefulmanner. 

All these were exported by the Corinthians in great quantities, and formedvery lucrative articles of trade. Paper and sailcloth from Egypt; ivoryfrom Lybia; leather from Cyrene; incense from Syria; dates from Phoenicia;carpets from Carthage; corn and cheese from Sicily; apples and pears fromEuboea;--filled the warehouses of Corinth. 

As soon as Corinth resolved to participate in maritime commerce, sheapplied herself to this object with great industry and success: she builtships of a novel form, and first produced galleys with three benches ofoars; and history assures us that the Greeks obtained their first maritimeexperience during the naval war between the Corinthians and the inhabitantsof Corfu; and by their instruction the Samians put to sea those powerfulfleets for which they were distinguished. 

Besides Athens and Corinth, there were no states in ancient Greece, theconsideration of whose maritime and commercial affairs will detain us long. Lacedæmonia was favourably situated in these respects; but either her laws, or the disposition and pursuits of her inhabitants, prevented her fromtaking advantage of her situation. All the south part of Laconia wasencompassed by the sea, and on the east and north-east was the Argelic Bay:on its coasts were a great number of capes, the most celebrated of whichwere those of Malea and Tanara; they were also furnished with a greatnumber of sea-port towns and commodious harbours. In consequence of thecapes extending far into the sea, and the deepness of some of the bays, theancients took three days to navigate the length of the coast in vesselswrought by oars, following, as they generally did, all the windings of theland. The little river Pameros, which divided Beotia from Laconia, formedone extremity, and the port of Prais, on the Gulf of Argelis, formed theother. The most difficult and dangerous part of this navigation consistedin doubling Cape Malea. 

The most convenient and frequented sea-ports in Laconia were Trinassus andAcria, situated on each side the mouth of the Eurotas; and Gythium, not farfrom Trinassus, at the mouth of a small river on the Laconic Gulf. Themouth of this river, which was navigable up to Sparta, was defended by acitadel, the ruins of which were remaining in the time of Pausanias. As theLacedæmonians regarded this town as their principal port, in which theirnaval forces, as well as the greater part of their merchant shipsassembled, they employed considerable labour and expence in rendering itcommodious and safe; for this purpose they dug a very spacious basin which, on one side was defended by motes, and on the other by numerousfortifications: the strength of these may be judged of from thecircumstance, that even after the armies of Sparta had been utterlydefeated by Epaminondas, and Philip, the son of Demetrius, neither of theseconquerors could capture this sea-port. In it were deposited all therequisites for their naval force, and from it sailed their merchant shipswith cargoes to Crete, Africa, and Egypt; to all of which countries, according to Thucydides, the Lacedæmonians carried on a lucrative andregular traffic. Another of their sea-ports was Epidaurus, situated on theGulf of Argos, in the eastern part of Laconia. The country round itcontained many vineyards, the wine of which was exported in considerablequantities, and supplied other parts of Greece. This district is stillcelebrated for its wine, called Malvasia, (or Malmsey, ) a corruption fromMaleates, the ancient name of this part of Laconia. 

We have already alluded to the supposed aversion of the Spartans tomaritime affairs, which, according to some authors, arose from Lycurgushaving prohibited them from building vessels, or employing sailors; butthis idea is unfounded, and seems to have arisen from the fact, that theirkings were prevented, by a positive law, from commanding the fleets. Thatthe Spartans engaged in commerce, we have, as has been just stated, theexpress testimony of Thucydides; and there is abundant evidence that theyhad always armed vessels during their wars; and even so early as the timeof Croesus, they sent some troops to Satnos, and plundered that island: andin later times, they used such efforts to equip vessels, in order to gainthe mastery of the seas, that, according to Xenophon, they entirelyneglected their cavalry. They were stimulated to this line of conduct byAlcibiades, who advised the kings, ephori, and the nation at large, toaugment their marine, to compel the ships of all other nations to lowertheir flag to theirs, and to proclaim themselves exclusive masters of theGrecian seas. Isocrates informs us, that, before Alcibiades came toLacedaemon, the Spartans, though they had a navy, expended little on it;but afterwards they increased it almost daily. The signal defeat theysustained at the battle of Cnidus, where Conon destroyed their whole fleet, not only blasted their hopes of becoming masters of the seas, but, according to Isocrates, led to their defeat at the battle of Leuctra. 

Off the coast of Laconia, and about forty stadia from Cape Malea, lies theisland of Cythera; the strait between it and the mainland was deemed by theancients extremely dangerous in stormy weather; and indeed its narrowness, and the rocks that lay off Cape Malea must, to such inexperiancednavigators, have been very alarming. The Phoenicians are supposed to havehad a settlement in this island: afterwards it became an object of greatconsequence to the Lacedaemonians, who fortified, at great expence, andwith much labour and skill, its two harbours, Cythera and Scandea. Theconvenience of these harbours to the Lacedaemonians compensated for thesterility of the island, which was so great that when the Atheniansconquered it, they could raise from it only four Attic talents annually. The chief employment and source of wealth to the inhabitants consisted incollecting a species of shell-fish, from which an inferior kind of Tyriandye was extracted. There were several fisheries on the mainland of Laconiafor the same purpose. 

Some of the other Greek islands require a short and general notice, onaccount of the attention they paid to maritime affairs. Corcyra wasinhabited by skilful mariners, who, in the time of Herodotus, possessed agreater number of ships than any other people in Greece, with the exceptionof the Athenians; and, according to Thucydides, at one period they weremasters of the Mediterranean Sea. On the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, theyfitted out a fleet of sixty ships, with which they promised to assist theircountrymen; but, instead of this, their ships anchored in a place wherethey could see the result of the battle of Salamis, and when theyascertained that the Greeks were victorious, they pretended that they hadbeen prevented from affording the promised succours by contrary winds, sothat they could not double Cape Malea. Of the commerce of this island wehave no particulars detailed by ancient writers. 

Egina, in the Saronic Gulf, acquired great wealth from the cultivation ofcommerce: in the time of the Persian war, they equipped a very powerful andwell-manned fleet for the defence of Greece; and at the battle of Salamisthey were adjudged to have deserved the prize of valour. According toElian, they were the first people who coined money. 

The island of Euboea possessed excellent harbours, from which, as it wasvery fertile, the Athenians exported large quantities of corn. This islandis divided from the mainland of Greece by the Euripus, which the ancientsrepresented to be so extremely narrow, that a galley could scarcely passthrough it: its frequent and irregular tides were, also the subject oftheir wonder, and the cause of them, of their fruitless researches andconjectures. It hits several promontories, the doubling of one of which, Cape Catharius, was reckoned by the ancients very dangerous, on account ofthe many rocks and whirlpools on the const. Of all the cities of Euboea, Chalcis was the most famous: its inhabitants applied themselves, at a veryearly period, to navigation, and sent numerous colonies to Thrace, Macedon, Italy, &c. In the vicinity of another of its towns, Carystus, there werequarries of very fine marble, the exportation of which seems to have been alucrative trade: in the same part of the island also was found theasbestos. Euboea possessed several rich copper and iron mines; and as theinhabitants were very skilful in working these metals, the exportation ofarmour, and various vessels made from them, was also one important branchof their commerce. 

Of the numerous colonies sent out by the Greeks, we shall notice only thosewhich were established for the purposes of commerce, or which, though notestablished for this express purpose, became afterwards celebrated for it. None of the Athenian colonies, which they established expressly for thepurpose of trading with the capital, was of such importance as Amphipolis. This place was situated at the mouth of the river Strymon, on the bordersof Macedonia. The country in its vicinity was very fertile in wood, andfrom it, for a considerable length of time, the Athenians principallyderived timber for building their fleets: they also levied on itsinhabitants a heavy tribute in silver coin. As this city was well situatedfor commerce, and the Athenians, wherever they went, or were settled, wereeager in pursuit of gain, their colonists in Amphipolis extended theirtrade, on one side into Thrace, and on the other into Macedonia. They wereenabled, in a great measure, to monopolize the commerce of both thesecountries, at least those parts of them which were contiguous, from thesituation of their city on the Strymon; of which river they held, as itwere, the key, so that nothing could depart from it without their consent. The ancients represent this river as frequently exhibiting immense logs ofwood floating down it, which had been felled either on Mount Rhodope, or inthe forests of Mount Hemus. The Athenians retained this important andvaluable colony till the time of Philip, the father of Alexander, by whomit was taken from them. 

The island of Samos may justly be regarded as a Grecian colony; having beenchiefly inhabited by the Iones, to whose confederacy it belonged. Itssituation between the mainland of Asia and the island of Icaria, from bothof which it is separated by very narrow straits, which were the usualcourse for the ancient vessels in their voyage from the Black Sea to Syriaand Egypt, rendered it the resort of pirates, as well as celebrated for itsships and commerce. The city of Samos, as described by the ancients, seemsto have been a place of great consequence. Herodotus mentions three thingsfor which it was remarkable in his time; one of which was a mole or pier, 120 feet long, which formed the harbour, and was carried two furlongs intothe sea. The principal design of this mole was to protect ships from thesouth wind, to which they would otherwise have been much exposed. Hence itwould appear, that even at this early period, they had made great advancesin commerce, otherwise they would neither have had the disposition orability to build such a mole. But we have the express testimony ofThucydides, that even at a much earlier period, --nearly 300 years beforethe Peloponnesian war, --the Samians gave great encouragement toshipbuilding, and employed Aminodes, the Corinthian, who was esteemed themost skilful ship-builder of his time; and Herodotus speaks of them astrading to Egypt, Spain, &c. , before any of the other Greeks, exceptSostrates, of Egina, were acquainted with those countries. The same authorinforms us, that the Samians had a settlement in Upper Egypt, and that oneof their merchant ships, on its passage thither, was driven by contrarywinds, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, to the island of Tartessus, whichtill then was unknown to the Greeks. This island abounded in gold; of thevalue of which, the inhabitants were so utterly ignorant, that they readilyallowed the Samians to carry home with them sixty talents, or about13, 500_l_. According to Pliny, they first built vessels fit to transportcavalry. We are not informed of what articles their exports and importsconsisted, except that their earthen-ware was in great repute among theancients, in their most splendid entertainments, and was exported in greatquantities for this purpose. The Samian earth, from which these vesselswere made, was itself also exported, on account of its medicinalproperties. It is well known that the victory obtained by the Greeks overthe Persians, at the sea-fight of Mycale, was chiefly owing to the Samians. 

The commerce of the Black Sea was of so much importance and value to theGreeks, that we cannot be surprised that they founded several colonies onits shores, and in the adjacent countries. Heraclea, in this sea, is saidto have been founded by the Beotians: the inhabitants availed themselves oftheir situation to engage very extensively in maritime affairs and incommerce, so that in a short time they were not inferior in wealth or powerto any of the Greek states in Asia. When Xenophon was obliged to retreatafter his expedition into Asia Minor, the Heracleans supplied him withships, to transport his army into Greece. Their maritime strength andskill, or their commercial pursuits, involved them in almost every maritimewar, their friendship and support being sought after by all the Asiaticprinces. When the war broke out between Ptolemy and Antigonus, they sent tothe assistance of the former a numerous fleet, all of which were wellequipped and manned. Some were of an extraordinary size, especially one, which had on each side 800 oars, besides 1200 fighting men. 

Trapezus was a Greek city, in Pontus, situated on a peninsula, in the BlackSea, where it begins to turn to the east: it had a large and convenientport, and carried on a considerable trade. But the most celebrated of theGrecian colonies in this part of the world, was Byzantium: it was ancientlyfounded by the Megareans, and successively rebuilt by the Milesians andother nations of Greece. Its harbour, which was in fact an arm of theBosphorus, obtained, at a very remote period, the appellation of the GoldenHorn; most of the recesses, which were compared to the horn of a stag, arenow filled up. The epithet "golden" was given to it as expressive of theriches, which (to use the language of Gibbon) every wind wafted from themost distant countries into its secure and capacious port. Never was therea happier or more majestic situation. The river Lycus, which was formed bythe junction of two small streams, pouring into the harbour, every tide, aregular supply of fresh water, cleansed the bottom; while the tides inthose seas being very trifling, the constant depth of the harbour allowedgoods to be landed on the quay without the assistance of boats: and in someparts, the depth near the shore was so considerable, that the prows of thevessels touched the houses, while they were fully afloat. The distance fromthe mouth of the river to that of the harbour, or the length of this arm ofthe Bosphorus is seven miles; the entrance, about 500 yards broad, wasdefended, when necessary, by a strong chain drawn across it. The city ofByzantium was situated on a promontory, nearly of a triangular form; on thepoint of the promontory stood the citadel. The walls of the city itselfwere very strong, but not so lofty towards the sea as towards the land, being on the former side defended by the waves, and in some places by therocks on which they were built, and which projected into the sea. 

Thus favoured by nature, and strengthened by art, and situated in aterritory abounding in grain and fruits, Byzantium was crowded withmerchants, and supported and enriched by an active and flourishingcommerce: its harbour, which was sheltered on every side from tempests, besides being easy of access and capacious, attracted to it ships from allthe states of Greece, while its situation at the head of the straitenabled, and seemed to authorize it to stop and subject to heavy duties, the foreign merchants who traded to the Euxine, or to reduce the nationswho depended on the countries bordering on this sea for their supplies ofcorn to great difficulties, and in some cases, even to famine. On theseaccounts the Athenians and Lacedaemonians were generally rivals for itsalliance and friendship. Besides the necessary article of grain andabundance of rich and valuable fruit, the Byzantines derived great wealthfrom their fisheries: these were carried on with great spirit, enterprize, and success. A surprising quantity of fish was caught in the harbouritself, in autumn, when they left the Euxine for the Archipelago; and inthe spring, on their return to Pontus. A great many people were employedboth in this fishery, and in the curing of the fish: great sums werederived from this source, as well as from the sale of salt provisions; forthe quality of which, Byzantium was in greater renown than evenPanticapeum. The only disadvantage under which the Byzantines laboured, tocounterbalance the excellence of their harbour, the fertility of theirsoil, the productiveness of their fisheries, and the extent of theircommerce, arose from the frequent excursions of the Thracians, whoinhabited the neighbouring villages. 

There were many other Grecian colonies on the Bosphorus and the adjacentseas. Panticapeum, built by the Milesians, according to Strabo, the capitalof the European Bosphorus, with which, as has been already mentioned, theAthenians carried on a considerable trade. Theodosia, also mentionedbefore, was likewise formed and colonized by the Milesians: its port couldcontain 100 ships. Tanais, on the Cimmerian Bosphorus; Olbia andBorysthenes, both situated near the mouth of the river from which thelatter took its name; Panagorea and Hermonassa on the Bosphorus, andseveral others. Besides these colonies in this part of the world, theGreeks founded others, for the express purposes of commerce; as Syracuse, in Sicily; Marseilles, in Gaul, the mother of several colonies establishedon the neighbouring coasts, and, as we shall afterwards notice, a place ofvery considerable wealth, consequence, and strength, derived entirely fromcommerce, as well as the seat of the arts and sciences; Cyrene, an opulentcity in Africa, and Naucratis, situated on one of the mouths of the Nile. They likewise formed settlements in Rhodes and Crete, in the islands of theEgean Sea, on the opposite coasts of Asia, &c. ; most of which were ofimportance to the mother country, from the facilities they offered to theextension of its commerce. 

The war between the Romans, and Philip king of Macedon, which intervenedbetween the second and third Punic war, first afforded the former anopportunity and an excuse for interfering in the affairs of Greece. Tillthe time of Philip, the father of Alexander, Macedonia does not appear tohave had any connexion with the rest of this celebrated portion of theancient world; the Greeks, indeed, regarded its inhabitants as savages; butfrom that period, Macedonia became the most important and influential statein Greece. Its boundaries varied at different periods of its history: itseems originally to have been bounded on the east by the Egean Sea; on thesouth by Thessaly and Epirus; on the west by the Ionian Sea; and on thenorth by the river Strymon, at the mouth of which, as has been alreadymentioned, the Athenians founded one of their most flourishing and usefulcolonies. The princes of Macedonia viewed with jealousy, but for a longtime were unable to prevent the states of Greece from forming colonies inthe immediate vicinity of their dominions: their union, however, with theking of Persia, when he first fixed his ambition on Greece, was rewarded bya great accession of territory, which enabled them to contest thepossession of the sea-coasts with the most powerful of the Greek republics. They then extended their territories to the Eastern Sea, but there weretill the reign of Philip, the father of Alexander, several nations betweenthem and the Adriatic, all of which were subdued by him; and thus this seabecame their western boundary. 

Some of the most celebrated cities of Macedonia were founded by foreignnations. Epidamnus, which was seated at the entrance of the Ionian Gulf, was a colony of the Corcyrians: it was the occasion of a fierce naval warbetween them and the Corinthians, generally called the Corinthian war. Apollonia, distant seven miles from the sea, on the river Laus, was aCorinthian colony: it was renowned for its excellent laws. On another partof the coast of the Adriatic were the sea-ports of Elyma and Bullis. Thedistrict of Paraxis, which was full of gulfs and inlets formed by the EgeanSea, had several ports, but none of any repute. From this description ofMacedonia and its principal sea coasts and ports, it is evident that itpossessed many advantages for commerce and naval affairs, which, however, were never embraced till the period when the Romans first turned theirthoughts to Greece. Had its sovereigns been disposed to engage in commerce, the Adriatic, with its extensive and safe haven of Epidamnus, in whichthere were several ports, would have opened the trade to Italy; the EgeanSea, still more advantageous, would have secured the trade of Greece andAsia, by means of its spacious bays, one of which, the Sinus Thermæus, wasat least sixty miles long. 

The produce of Macedonia also would have favoured its commerce; the soilwas every where fruitful, and, especially near the sea, abounding in corn, wine, and oil: its principal riches, however, consisted in its mines ofalmost all kinds of metals, but particularly of gold. In the district ofPieria, it is said, there were found large quantities of this metal in thesand, sometimes in lumps of considerable size: but by far the mostproductive and valuable mines of gold were in the mountain Pangæus, in adistrict which Philip, the father of Alexander, added to Macedonia. Thepeople who inhabited the country near the river Strymon derived greatwealth from these mines, and it was the knowledge of this, as much as thefacility of obtaining timber, which induced the Athenians to found theircolony near this river. The Thracians drove the Athenians from this part ofMacedonia, and Philip expelled them: he paid great attention to the workingof the mines; and by employing persons well skilled in this and in refiningthe ore, he rendered them so extremely valuable, that, according to ancientauthors, he obtained the empire of Greece principally by means of theimmense sums he drew from them, amounting annually, according to Diodorus, to 1000 talents of gold. When the Romans reduced Macedonia, they expresslyforbade the inhabitants from working the mines of gold or silver, orrefining either of those metals; permitting them, however, to manufactureany other metal. 

The princes of Macedonia previous to Philip, the father of Alexander, notwithstanding the great advantage for maritime affairs and commerceafforded by the sea-coasts, bays, harbours, &c. , neither practised norunderstood them: this arose in a great measure from their being continuallyengaged in wars, or having their ports occupied or blocked up by themaritime states of Greece. Philip was the first who freed his country fromthese evils and inconveniences; but his thoughts were too intently andconstantly fixed on other objects to allow him to turn his attention tomaritime affairs or commerce. Alexander, as we have already seen, bestowedmuch care on his fleet, while engaged in the conquest of Asia; and when hedied at Babylon, had formed the design of placing his fleets, in every portof his dominions, on a regular and extensive scale. But the advantages ofMacedonia for commerce were neglected in the midst of his vast planselsewhere, and the Macedonians, at the period of his death, were stillinattentive to maritime affairs. 

Philip, the antagonist of the Romans, of whose power and success he was notonly jealous but apprehensive, as soon as he resolved to engage inhostilities with them, applied himself to maritime affairs. Hisdetermination seems to have been fixed when he learnt that the Romans hadbeen defeated at the Lake of Thrasymenus: he instantly formed the plan ofinvading Illyrium, and then crossing over to Italy. But the latter stepcould not be taken, nor, indeed, could he expect to cope with the Romans, till he had formed a fleet, and trained his subjects to the management ofit. At this period the Macedonians seem to have had some merchant ships;for we are informed that a petty king of Illyria seized some of them in theport of Leucas, and also all that his squadron met with on the coast ofGreece, as far as Malea. This insult and attack afforded Philip anexcellent reason for declaring war against Illyricum: he began byexercising the Macedonians in the art of navigation; he built ships afterthe Illyrian manner, and he was the first king of Macedonia that put tosea 100 small vessels at one time. 

He was urged still more strongly to go on with his plan of invading Italy, when he learnt the result of the battle of Cannæ; he immediately formed analliance with Hannibal, and engaged to invade Italy with 200 sail of ships, and plunder its eastern coasts: in return for this service he was to retainall the islands in the Adriatic, lying near the coast of Macedonia, that hemight subdue. 

His first naval enterprize was the siege of Oricum on the coast of Epirus, and of Apollonia on the coast of Macedonia, both of which he carried on atthe same time, with 120 ships of two banks of oars. He was, however, successfully opposed by the Roman consul Laevinus, who obliged him to burngreat part of his fleet, and raise the siege of Doth the places. 

About twelve years afterwards, or about 200 years before Christ, Philipengaged in a maritime war with Attalus, king of Pergamus, and the Rhodians, near the isle of Chio: the fleet of Philip consisted of fifty-three deckedvessels and 150 gallies; besides these he had several ships called pristis, from the figure of a large fish which was affixed to, or engraved on theirbows, either to distinguish them, or as a mark of their swift sailing. Thefleet of his opponents consisted of sixty-five covered ships, besides thoseof their allies, the people of Byzantium. 

Notwithstanding, however, the exertions he made to acquire a naval forceequal to that of the Romans, and the experience which his subjectsgradually obtained in maritime affairs, he was not able to sustain theirattacks, either by land or sea, but was compelled in a very few years tosue for peace. This he obtained, on the condition, that he should deliverup to the Romans all his covered gallies, and reserve to himself only a fewsmaller vessels: he was permitted, however, to retain one galley of sixteenbanks of oars, a vessel rather for shew than use. 

The success of the Romans, the extent of their conquests, and the ambitiousviews, which seemed wider and wider in proportion to their successes, alarmed Antiochus, king of Syria, who, not intimidated by the fate ofPhilip, resolved to declare war against them. They were never averse toengage in hostilities. The fleet of Antiochus consisted of 100 ships; thatof the Romans was nearly equal in number; the ships of Antiochus, however, were inferior to those of his opponents in respect to strength and size, though surpassing them in swiftness. The hostile fleets met and engaged onthe coast of Ionia; that of Antiochus was defeated, and would have beenutterly captured or destroyed, had it not been for the swiftness of thevessels. In order to repair his loss, Antiochus sent for additional vesselsfrom Sicily and Phoenicia; but these were taken on their passage by theRhodians, who were at this time in alliance with the Romans. The Rhodians, however, in their turn were attacked and defeated by the fleet ofAntiochus, near Samos, whither they had gone to join a Roman squadron. 

In the meantime the Romans had collected a fleet of eighty ships, and withthese they fought one hundred ships of their opponent off the coast ofIonia; the victory of the former was decisive, all the ships of Antiochusbeing captured or destroyed. This disaster, in connection with a signaldefeat he sustained by land, compelled him to submit; and the Romans, always attentive to their maritime interests, which however they had nothitherto pushed nearly to the extent which they might have done, refused togrant him peace, except on the conditions, that he should cede all thatpart of Asia which lies between the sea and Mount Taurus; that he shouldgive up all his vessels except ten; and that these should not, on anyaccount, sail beyond the promontories of Cilicia. The Romans, extremelystrict, and even severe, in enforcing the conditions of peace, not onlydestroyed fifty covered galleys, but, the successor of Antiochus havingbuilt additional vessels to the ten he was by treaty allowed to keep, theycompelled him to burn them. 

The temporary success of the Carthaginians against the Romans inducedPhilip, king of Macedon, to engage in that war which proved his ruin. Theadvice of Hannibal, when an exile at the court of Antiochus, likewise ledto the disastrous war of that monarch with the same people; and by theadvice of Hannibal also, Prusias, king of Bythinia, was engaged inhostilities with them. This king seems to have paid considerable attentionto naval and commercial affairs, for both of which, indeed, his territorieswere admirably suited. In conjunction with the Rhodians, he made waragainst the inhabitants of Byzantium, and obliged them to remit the taxwhich they had been accustomed to levy on all vessels that sailed to orfrom the Euxine Sea, The maritime war between this sovereign and theRomans, who were at this time in alliance with Eumenes, king of Pergamus, offers nothing deserving our notice, except a stratagem executed byHannibal. In order to compensate for the inferiority of Prusias' fleet, Hannibal ordered a great many serpents to be collected; these were put intopots, which, during the engagement, were thrown into the enemy's ships. Thealarm and consternation occasioned by this novel and unexpected mode ofwarfare, threw his opponents into disorder, and compelled them to savethemselves by flight. 

The conquest of all the islands on the coast of Greece, from Epirus to CapeMalea, by the Romans, was the result of a naval war, in which they engagedwith the Etolians, a people who, at this time, were so powerful at sea, andso much addicted to piracy, as to have drawn upon themselves the jealousyand the vengeance of the Romans. This extension of their dominions wasfollowed by a successful war with the Istrians, which made them masters ofall the western parts of the Mediterranean Sea; and by an equallysuccessful war with Nabis, the tyrant of Sparta, who was compelled todeliver up his fleet to them, as well as all the sea-ports of consequenceon the coast of Sparta. 

The Rhodians hitherto had been generally in alliance with the Romans; butdifferences arose between them during the war between the latter andPerseus, king of Macedon. 

The island of Rhodes was remarkably well situated for maritime commerce;and its inhabitants did not fail to reap all the advantages in this respectwhich nature had so kindly bestowed on them. It appears from Homer, that inhis time there were three cities in the island; but during thePeloponnesian war, the greater part of the inhabitants, having formed theresolution to settle in one place, built the city of Rhodes, after thedesigns of the same Athenian architect, who built the Piræus. This city wassituated on the east coast of the island, at the foot of a hill, in theform of an amphitheatre: it possessed a very convenient and safe harbour, at the entrance of which there were two rocks; and on these, which werefifty feet asunder, the famous Colossus was placed. The arsenals of Rhodeswere filled with every thing requisite for the defence of the city, or theequipment of a large fleet: its walls, which were extremely high, weredefended by towers: its houses were built of stone: in short, the wholecity presented a striking picture of wealth, magnificence, and beauty, forwhich it was not less indebted to art and commerce than to nature. 

Before the era of the Olympiads, the Rhodians applied themselves tomaritime affairs: for many years they seem to have been masters of theMediterranean Sea; and their code of maritime laws became the standard withall the maritime nations of antiquity, by which all controversies regardingmaritime affairs were regulated. There is great doubt among the learned, whether what still exist as the fragments of these laws are genuine: weknow, however, that the Romans had a law which they called Lex Rhodia;according to some, this contained the regulations of the Rhodiansconcerning naval affairs; according to others, however, only one clause ofthe law, _de jactu_, about throwing goods overboard in a storm, wasborrowed from the Rhodians. 

Besides the commerce in which they themselves were engaged, the constantarrival of ships from Egypt to Greece, and from Greece to Egypt, the islandbeing situated exactly in the passage between these countries, contributedmuch to their wealth. As this encreased, they formed settlements andcolonies in many places; at Parthenope and Salapia, in Italy; Agrigentumand Geta, in Sicily; Rhodes, on the coast of Spain, near the foot of thePyrenees, &c. They were particularly celebrated for and attentive to theconstruction of their vessels; aiming principally at lightness and speed, the discipline observed on board of them, and the skill and ability oftheir captains and pilots. All these things were under the directmanagement and controul of magistrates, appointed for the express purpose, who were excessively attentive and even rigid in the execution of theirduty. Whoever entered certain places in the arsenals without permission, was punished with death. 

A few of the most remarkable events in the maritime history of Rhodes, prior to their dispute with the Romans, call for some general and cursorynotice. Till the foundation of the city of Rhodes, which, as we havealready stated, took place during the Peleponnesian war, there is scarcelyany thing to attract our attention: a short time before this, therepublican form of government was established, and the trade and navigationof the Rhodians seem to have acquired a fresh impulse and spirit. But theirenterprizes were soon checked by Artemisia, queen of Caria, gainingpossession of their city: this she effected by a stratagem. The Rhodiansinvaded Caria with a design of gaining possession of Halicarnassus: by thedirection of the queen, the inhabitants made a signal that theysurrendered; the Rhodians suspecting no treachery, and delighted with theirapparent success, left their fleet to take possession of the town; in themeantime, the queen brought her fleet from an adjoining creek, by means ofsome canal or other inland communication, to the port where the Rhodianvessels lay, and quietly took them. This disaster was the cause of another, still more calamitous to the Rhodians; for Artemisia sailed with theRhodian ships to Rhodes, and the inhabitants, under the belief that theirfleet was returning victorious, permitted the enemy to land and to seizethe city. To what cause the Rhodions were indebted for the restoration oftheir liberty and independence we are not informed; but it was owing, either to the interference of the Athenians, or the death of Artemisia. 

From the period of these events, which occurred about 350 years beforeChrist, till the reign of Alexander the Great, the Rhodians enjoyedprofound and uninterrupted tranquillity; their commerce extended, and theirwealth encreased. To this conqueror they offered no resistance, but oftheir own accord surrendered their cities and harbours; as soon, however, as they learnt that he was dead, they resumed their independence. Aboutthis time the greater part of their city was destroyed by a dreadfulinundation, which would have swept the whole of it away, if the wallbetween it and the sea had not been broken down by the force of the waters, and thus given them free passage. This misfortune seems only to haveencouraged the inhabitants to attend still more closely and diligently tocommerce, which they carried on with so much industry and skill, and insuch a profitable manner, that they soon rebuilt their city, and repairedall the losses they had sustained. Their alliance was courted by all theirneighbours; but they resolved to adhere to a strict neutrality, and thus, while war raged among other nations, they were enabled to profit by thatvery circumstance, and thus became one of the most opulent states of allAsia. Their commerce, as well as that of all the states on theMediterranean, being much molested and injured by the pirates, theyundertook, of their own accord, and at their own expence, to root them out;and in this they completely succeeded. 

But that commerce, on account of which they were so very anxious to keep atpeace, involved them in war. Their most lucrative trade was with Egypt. When hostilities began between Ptolemy and Antigonus, the latter insistedthat they should join him; this they refused to do; upon which his fleetblockaded Rhodes, to prevent their commerce with Egypt. The Rhodians werethus compelled to act against him in their own defence, in order to freetheir harbour. The raising of the blockade, and the defeat of his fleet, incensed Antiochus; and to the remonstrances and entreaties of the Rhodiansto be permitted to remain at peace, he replied, "that they must declare waragainst Ptolemy, admit his fleet into their harbour, and give hostages forthe performance of these articles. " War now was inevitable, and greatpreparations for it were made on both sides: the attack on the city wascommitted by Antigonus to his son Demetrius; for this purpose he collecteda fleet of 200 ships of war, 170 transports with 40, 000 men on board, and1000 vessels laden with provisions, stores, warlike engines, etc. Thisimmense armament was composed partly of pirates and mercenaries, who wereinduced to join Demetrius, by the hope of partaking in the plunder ofRhodes. It is foreign to our purpose to enter on the details of thismemorable siege: the Rhodians trusted principally to their own valour andresources; from Ptolemy, however, they received most ample and seasonablesupplies of provisions: at one time he sent them 300, 000 measures of corn;a few days afterwards Cassandra sent them 100, 000 bushels of barley, andLysimachus 400, 000 bushels of corn, and as many of barley: these supplies, the valour of the inhabitants, and the ill success of some new and immenseengines, on which Demetrius had mainly depended, at length induced him toraise the siege and make peace with the Rhodians. 

The Rhodians endeavoured to make up for the time they had lost, and themoney they had expended, during their war with Antiochus, by applyingthemselves entirely to navigation and commerce; so that, according toPolybius, they became masters of the sea, and the most opulent andflourishing state of those times. The next war in which they were engagedwas occasioned entirely by their attention and regard to their commercialinterests. We have already slightly noticed this war; but in this place itwill be proper to go more into detail respecting it. The people ofByzantium determined to lay a toll on all ships that traded to the Euxine, in order to defray an annual tribute which they were obliged to pay to theGreeks. As one of the most important and lucrative branches of the commerceof Rhodes was to the countries lying on this sea, they were much aggrievedby this toll, and endeavoured to persuade the Byzantines to take it off, but in vain. Under these circumstances, they, in conjunction with Prusias, king of Bythinia, declared war against the Byzantines; and while their allytook Hieron, which seems to have been a great mart of the Byzantines, andthe resort of most of the merchants trading to these parts, the Rhodians, with a powerful fleet, ravaged their coasts, and seized all their shipstrading to the Euxine. The war was at length terminated under the mediationof the king of the Thracian Gauls; the Byzantines agreeing to take off thetoll. 

Their success in this war was counterbalanced by a dreadful earthquake, which threw down the Colossus, destroyed the arsenal, and damaged part ofthe walls and city. As the Rhodians, however, were much esteemed by most oftheir neighbours, who found their prosperity intimately connected with theprosperity of Rhodes, they soon recovered from these calamities and losses. Hiero, king of Syracuse, gave them 100 talents, and exempted them from allduties and taxes. Ptolemy gave them also the like sum, besides one millionmeasures of wheat, and timber, etc. Requisite for building fifty ships. Antiochus exempted all their vessels, which traded to his ports, from everykind of tax and duty. They received from other princes presents orprivileges of equal importance and value; so that, in a very short time, they recovered their former opulence and trade, and rebuilt their walls, etc. 

Their alliance with Attalus, king of Pergamus, involved them in a war withPhilip king of Macedonia, and was the cause of their forming an alliancewith the Romans. In this war the Rhodian fleet, in conjunction with thefleets of their allies, gained several victories over the fleet of Philip. The latter was at length obliged to sue to the Romans for peace, and they, in fixing the terms, included the Rhodians, to whom were ceded Stratonice, and the greater part of Caria. In the meantime Antiochus and the Romans hadcommenced hostilities, and the Rhodians were again involved in them: almostat their very commencement, their fleet was surprized by a stratagem ofAntiochus's admiral, and of thirty ships of war of which it consisted, onlyseven escaped. 

They soon, however, repaired their losses, and fitted out another fleet, with which they put to sea, for the purpose of preventing the junction ofHannibal with Antiochus's ships: the former had thirty-seven large ships;the Rhodian fleet was nearly equal in numbers, but inferior in size. Thehostile fleets met off the coast of Pamphilia. The battle was obstinate: atfirst, by an oversight of the Rhodian admiral, some disorder occurred inpart of his fleet; but this was soon repaired, and a decisive victoryobtained. Part of Hannibal's fleet was captured, and the rest blocked up inthe harbours of Pamphilia. The defeat of Antiochus, both at sea and land, by the Romans, to which we have already adverted, obliged this monarch tosue for peace, in which the Rhodians were included. 

We have now arrived at that period of the history of Rhodes when the firstdifference arose between that city and the Romans: the latter suspectedthat the Rhodians favoured Perseus king of Macedon, with whom they were atwar, and were moreover displeased at their presuming to interfere with themin his favour. In order to watch their inclinations and motions, the senatesent three commissioners to Rhodes: these found a fleet of forty galleys, which there was reason to believe had been intended to act against theRomans; but which, by the advice of the chief magistrate, were, on thearrival of the commissioners, ordered to sea, to act in union with them. Scarce, however, were the commissioners departed, when the Rhodians becamelukewarm in the cause of the Romans; and although they sent a few of theirgalleys to join the Roman admiral, they kept the greatest number in port, waiting the issue of the war between them and the king of Macedonia. Assoon as they heard of the defeat of the former in Thessaly, they enteredinto negotiations with Perseus, and at the same time sent ambassadors toRome, who complained, that in consequence of the war between Perseus andthe Romans, the navigation and commerce of Rhodes was greatly injured, their island deprived of provisions and other necessaries, and the customsand duties which their maritime situation formerly afforded them kept back, from their no longer being able to sail with safety along the coasts ofAsia, where they used to levy the most important and productive of them. 

After the defeat of Perseus, they ceased to remonstrate, and becamesubmissive to the Romans. It is probable, however, that the Romans wouldhave seized this opportunity of attacking them, had not Cato spoken verystrongly in their favour: in consequence of his arguments and influence, and by the cession of Lycia and Caria, they were again admitted to analliance with the Romans. 

The advantages they derived from this alliance were so great, that theyresisted the promises and the threats of Mithridates, when he engaged inhostilities with the Romans. This monarch, therefore, resolved to employhis whole force by sea and land against them: they were not howeverdismayed, but placed a firm reliance on their skill in maritime affairs. They divided their fleet into three squadrons: one drawn up in a lineprotected the entrance of the harbour; and the other two, at a greaterdistance from the shore, were stationed to watch the approach of the enemy. Mithridates also divided his fleet, which was more numerous than that ofthe Rhodians, into three squadrons; one of these he himself commanded, onboard of a quinquereme, and directed to attack the squadron which wasprotecting the port. The Rhodians gradually retired before the enemy, tillthey came close to the mouth of the harbour: Mithridates in vainendeavoured to break their line, and force an entrance; in all his attemptshe was defeated with considerable loss; and his land forces, which he hadembarked in transports, being dispersed in a storm, he was obliged toretire from before the city. 

The Romans acknowledged the benefits they derived from the valour of theRhodians on this occasion; and they again experienced it, in the war whichPompey carried on against the Cilician pirates, though that commander tookall the merit to himself. In the civil war between him and Caesar, theyassisted the former with a numerous fleet, under the command of one oftheir best seamen, who distinguished himself above all Pompey's captains, and gained very considerable advantages over Caesar's fleet. On the deathof Pompey they joined Csesar: this exposed them to the hostility ofCassius; they endeavoured to pacify him by promising to recal the shipsthey had sent to the assistance of Caesar, but he demanded the delivery oftheir whole fleet, and that he should be put in possession of their harbourand city. To these terms they would not accede, but prepared for war, byequipping a fleet of thirty-three ships, and placing it under the commandof one of their best officers. A battle ensued which was fought on bothsides with great skill and bravery; but the Rhodians were obliged to yieldto the superior number of the Roman fleet, and to return to the harbour, having lost two of their ships, and the rest being very much damaged. It isremarked by the ancient historians who relate this battle, that it was thefirst time the Rhodians were fairly overcome in a sea-fight. 

Cassius followed up his success by bringing against Rhodes a fleet ofeighty ships of war, and 200 transports. Against this formidable armamentthe Rhodians again put to sea, and a second battle ensued, which was moreobstinately contested than the first: the Romans however were againvictorious, and the city of Rhodes was blocked up by sea and land. Its fatewas soon determined; for some of the inhabitants, dreading a famine, openedthe gates to the Romans. Cassius, besides other severe terms, obliged theRhodians to deliver up all their ships, and all their public treasures; thetemples were plundered, and 8000 talents extorted from private individuals, besides a fine of 500 levied on the city. 

From this time till the reign of Vespasian, when the island became a Romanprovince, it was sometimes oppressed, and sometimes favoured by the Romans;according, as Tacitus remarks, as they obliged them with their assistancein foreign wars, or provoked them with their seditions at home. 

In order to complete the maritime history of Rhodes, we have ratheradvanced beyond the period to which we had brought down our notices of theRoman navigation and commerce: these therefore we shall now resume at thewar between Perseus king of Macedonia and the Romans. Perseus harassed thecoasts of Italy, plundered and sunk all their ships, while they found itdifficult to oppose him by sea, or protect their coasts, for want of afleet. This induced them to prepare for service fifty vessels; but thoughtheir allies augmented this number, the Romans do not seem to haveperformed any thing of consequence by sea. This is attributed principallyto the circumstance, that the fleet, on examination, was discovered to bein bad condition, neither equipped sufficiently in stores or provisions, and the seamen who were to have navigated it were either dead or absent, while those who did appear were ill paid and worse clothed; these factssufficiently demonstrate the little care which the Romans, even at thisperiod, bestowed on maritime affairs. The defeat of Perseus at Pidna, andhis subsequent capture by the Romans in the island of Samothrace, renderedit unnecessary for them to supply the deficiences of their fleet. Theimmense ship, which, as we have already mentioned, Philip, Perseus'sfather, employed in his war against the Romans, was taken on this occasion;and Paulus Emilius, the consul, sailed up the Tiber in it: it had 16 banksof oars. Many other ships of large size were also captured; these werebrought to Rome, and drawn into the Campus Martius. 

One of the allies of the unfortunate Perseus was the king of Illyria, whowas powerful at sea, and ravaged the coasts of Italy opposite to hisdominions. While the consul was sent against Perseus, the management of thenaval war against the Illyrians was committed to the praetor: as he waswell aware of the maritime force of his opponent, he acted with greatcaution; his first success, in capturing some of their snips, induced himto land all his forces in Illyria, where, after an obstinate battle, hecompelled the king to surrender at discretion. Macedonia and Illyria werethus reduced to the state of Roman provinces; but the Romans regarded thesevictories as of importance, more on account of the accession they made totheir territories, than on account of the advantages which they mightthence derive to their commerce or their naval power: so little, indeed, did they regard them in the latter point of view, that they gave the 220ships which were surrendered to them by the king of Illyria, to theinhabitants of Cephalonia, of Apollonia, and Dyrrhachium, who at the timewere much celebrated for their trade and navigation. Although theirseacoasts had been repeatedly ravaged, we are informed by Polybius, that, from the time of Philip, king of Macedonia, till long after the defeat ofPerseus, they entirely neglected the coasts of Illyria, from which, tillthis country was subdued by them, their own coasts were generally invaded, and by means of the ports and produce of which, after it became a Romanprovince, they might greatly have augmented their navy and commerce. 

The Carthaginians had been gradually recovering from the losses which theyhad sustained during the second Punic war, and witnessed with satisfactiontheir enemies involved in constant hostilities, in the hope that the issueof these would prove fatal to them, or, at least, so far weaken them, as toenable them to oppose Rome with more success than they had hitherto done. While the war was carried on between the Romans and the Macedonians, theymade great, but secret, preparations to regain their former power; but theRomans, who always kept a watchful and jealous eye on the operations of alltheir rivals, were particularly nearsighted with regard to whatever wasdoing by the Carthaginians. They received information that at Carthagethere was deposited a large quantity of timber, and of other naval stores:on learning this, Cato, their inveterate enemy, who had been sent intoAfrica, to mediate between them and Masinissa, with whom they were at war, went to Carthage himself, where he examined every thing with a maliciouseye. On his return to Rome, he reported that Carthage was again becomeexcessively rich, --that her magazines were filled with all kinds of warlikestores, --that her ports were crowded with ships, and that by her war withMasinissa, she was only preparing to renew the war against Rome. Hisexhortations to his countrymen to anticipate the Carthaginians, byimmediately commencing hostilities, had no effect at first; but beingfrequently repeated, and intelligence being received, that preparationswere making at Carthage for an open declaration of war, and that theCarthaginians were fitting out a fleet, contrary to the terms of theirtreaty with the Romans; and this information being confirmed by the reportof deputies sent to Carthage; war was declared against Carthage in the yearof Rome 605. The Carthaginians endeavoured to pacify the Romans bysurrendering to them their cities, lands, rivers, &c. , in short, by acomplete surrender of whatever they possessed, as well as of themselves. Atfirst the Romans appeared disposed to abstain from war on these conditions;and the Carthaginians actually delivered up all their arms and warlikeengines, and witnessed the burning of their fleet; but the Romans, havingthus degraded them, and stript them in a great measure of the means ofdefence, now insisted that Carthage itself should be destroyed, and thatthe inhabitants should build a city at the distance of five leagues from, the sea. Indignant at these demands, they resolved to sustain a siege; and, in a very short time, they made immense preparations for defending theircity. At first they gained some success over the Romans; for their fleethaving come very near the shore, to transport the troops, who weresuffering from the vicinity of the marshes, to a healthier spot, theCarthaginians fitted out a great number of fire ships, filled with tar, sulphur, bitumen, &c. , and taking advantage of a favourable wind, they sentthem among the Roman fleet, great part of which was thus destroyed. 

But these and other successes did not ultimately avail them: Scipio who hadbeen chosen consul, arrived in Africa, and Carthage was immediatelystrictly blocked up by sea and land. His exertions were indeed astonishing;as the new port of Carthage was effectually shut up by the Roman fleet, sothat no assistance or provisions could enter by it; and as lines ofcircumvallation were formed on land, the consul's great object was to blockup the old port. The Romans were masters of the western neck of land, whichformed one side of its entrance; from this to the other side they built amole, ninety feet broad at bottom, and eighty at top; when this wascompleted, the old port was rendered quite inaccessible and useless. 

The Carthaginians on their part, imagined and executed works as surprisingas those of the Romans: deprived of both their ports, they dug, in a veryshort time, a new harbour, from which they cut a passage to the sea; andthey built and equipped a fleet of fifty ships, which put to sea throughthis new harbour. The Romans were astonished when they beheld a fleet, ofthe existence or possibility of which they had no conception, advancing outof a harbour, the formation of which equally astonished them, and thisfleet daring to hazard an engagement. The battle continued during the wholeday, with little advantage on either side; but, notwithstanding all theirefforts, and some partial and temporary successes, Carthage was at lengthcompelled to submit to Scipio, and was at first plundered, and afterwardsdestroyed. The Romans burnt the new fleet which the Carthaginians hadbuilt: indeed, in general, instead of augmenting their own naval force, when they subdued any of their maritime enemies, they either destroyedtheir ships or bestowed them on some of their allies; a certain proof, asHuet remarks, of the very little regard they paid to sea affairs. 

We are expressly informed, in the Life of Terence, generally ascribed toSuetonius, that before the destruction of Carthage, the Romans did nottrade to Africa: but though his words are express, they must not be takenliterally; for we have already proved, that in the treaties between Romeand Carthage at a very early period, the voyages undertaken by the Romans, on account of trade, to Sicily, Sardinia, and parts of Africa are expresslymentioned in diem, and the people of Utica are particularized as the alliesof the Romans, and a people with whom they traded. It is certain, however, that the author of the Life of Terence is correct, if he merely meant, thattill after the destruction of Carthage the Romans had no regular commercewith Africa. From the date of this event, it became of great importance, though confined chiefly to slaves, most of whom were brought from Africa, to the island of Delos: this, as has been already stated, was a great depôtfor them, as well as other kinds of merchandize. The capture of Carthageand of Corinth, which took place nearly at the same time, increasedconsiderably the number of slaves for sale. 

Still, however, though the Romans now began to be sensible of the value ofcommence, they did little to protect it; for soon after the termination ofthe third Punic war, the Mediterranean swarmed with pirates, who plunderedthe merchant ships of all nations. These pirates belonged principally tothe Balearic islands, to Cilicia and to Crete. In one of the Balearicislands, called Minor by the ancients, the present Minorca, there were twocities built near the mouths of convenient harbours; the inhabitants ofthese carried on a considerable commerce, and at the same time engaged inpiracy. They were uncommonly active and daring in this pursuit, attackingand robbing every ship they met with; they even had the courage, or therashness, to oppose the Roman fleet, under the command of the consulMetellus; but they were beaten, and for a time obliged to abstain fromtheir piratical proceedings. 

They were soon again, however, emboldened to resume them, by the assistanceand example of the inhabitants of Crete and Cilicia. This latter country, situated in Asia Minor, and possessing a sea-coast which extended along theMediterranean, from east to west, nearly 250 miles, was fertile beyond mostparts of Asia Minor; though on the coast, it was reckoned unhealthy. Theprincipal commercial town was Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great, between Issus and the straits that lead from Cilicia into Syria; itssituation being very favourable for carrying on trade to all the westernparts of the Mediterranean, as well as to Egypt, the Euxine, &c. It soonbecame one of the most flourishing cities in the world. But the Cilicianswere not content with lawful and regular trade: in the time of theMithridatic war, and even before it, they began to plunder the neighbouringcoasts; and being successful in these predatory expeditions, they extendedthem as far as the coasts of Greece and Italy, on which they landed, andcarried off a great number of the inhabitants, whom they sold as slaves. The Romans at length deemed it absolutely necessary to act with vigouragainst them. Publius Servilius, who was employed on this occasion, defeated them in a sea-battle, and took most of their strong-holds. For ashort time afterwards, they abstained from their predatory excursions; but, as we shall soon have occasion to notice, they resumed them whenever theyhad repaired their losses, and thought the Romans otherwise employed. 

The island of Crete was regarded by the ancients as difficult of access;most of its harbours were exposed to the wind; but as it was easy for shipsto sail out of them, when the wind was moderate and favourable, they wereconvenient for commerce to almost any part of the then commercial world. The ancients, according to Strabo, reckoned that ships which sailed fromthe eastern part of Crete would arrive in Egypt in three or four days; and, according to Diodorus Siculus, in ten days they would arrive at the PulusMæotis. The principal seaports were Bithynia, which had a very convenienthaven; and Heracles, the seaport of the Gnossians. To these, merchants fromall parts of the world resorted. There were, besides, a great many creeksand bays. This island would have been much more commercial and flourishingthan it actually was, considering its favourable situation, &c. , had it notbeen divided into a great number of independent states, who were jealous ofeach other's prosperity, and almost constantly at war amongst themselves. In very early times, when the whole island was subject to one sovereign, the Cretans were powerful at sea; they had subjected even before the Trojanwar, some of the islands in the Egean Sea, and formed colonies andcommercial establishments on the coasts of Asia Minor and Europe. At thebreaking out of the Trojan war, they sent eighty ships to the assistance ofthe Greeks. But as soon as the island was divided into independentrepublics, their navigation and commerce seem to have declined. Theirpiratical expeditions were conducted with so much boldness and success, especially at the time when the Romans were engaged in hostilities withMithridates, that they determined to curb them. Anthony, the father of MarcAnthony, was appointed to execute their vengeance; but, too confident ofsuccess, he was beaten by the Cretans in a sea-battle. This naturallyencouraged them to carry on their piracies on a greater scale, and withmore boldness; but their triumph was of short duration, for Metellus, theproconsul, having defeated their forces, united with those of the Cilicianpirates, landed on the island, and subdued the whole of it. 

In the meantime, Mithridates, who had been very instrumental in encouragingthe pirates to commit depredations on the Roman vessels and coasts, wasvigorously preparing for war with the republic. His naval force, formedpartly of his own ships, and partly from those of most of the maritimestates, all of whom were jealous and afraid of the Romans, and regardedMithridates as their protector and deliverer, insulted even the coasts ofItaly. We have already noticed his unsuccessful sea-fight with theRhodians, almost the only people who continued faithful to the Romans. Thelatter, at length, were fully sensible of the absolute necessity of formingsuch a fleet as would enable them successfully to oppose Mithridates, whowas master, not only of Asia, but of all Greece, and the adjacent islands, except Rhodes. Sylla was employed against him; but as he had very fewships, he sent Lucullus to Syria, Egypt, Lybia, and Cyprus, to collect afleet. From Ptolemy, who was afraid of the power of Mithridates, and, perhaps, jealous of the Romans, he received no vessels; but from the otherquarters he received considerable supplies of ships and experiencedmariners. It is probable, however, that by sea the Romans would not havebeen able to cope with Mithridates, had not that monarch been beaten byland, and had not his admiral, Archelaus, delivered up the fleet under hiscommand to Sylla. In the meantime, Mithridates was blocked up in Pitane, acity near Troy, from which he could not have escaped, if Lucullus hadbrought his fleet against it; this, however, out of jealousy to the Romangeneral Fimbria, he refused to do, contenting himself with navaloperations. In these he was successful, gaining two victories overMithridates's fleet, near the coast of Troy. These defeats, and thetreachery of Archelaus, nearly annihilated the maritime force ofMithridates. But this monarch was not easily dispirited; in a short time hecollected another fleet, and invaded Bithynia. It was therefore necessaryfor the Romans to send a fleet thither, which they did, under the commandof Cotta. This fleet, however, was far inferior to that of the king, whichconsisted of 400 ships of thirty oars, besides a great many smallervessels. On learning this, Lucullus, who had the chief command, orderedCotta to remain in the harbour of Chalcedon; but Mithridates, relying onhis strength, sailed into the very harbour, and burnt the Roman fleet. Theloss of the Romans consisted of sixty ships, and 8000 of their marinersslain, besides 4500 taken prisoners. As this success of Mithridatesencouraged the cities of Asia to revolt, Lucullus resolved, if possible, tocounterbalance it with still more decisive success on his part by land; heaccordingly besieged him in his camp. Being reduced to great straits, Mithridates was forced to escape by sea towards Byzantium; but on hisvoyage he was overtaken by a violent storm, in which sixty of his shipswere sunk; he himself must have perished, if he had not been rescued by apirate, who landed him safe in Pontus. Mithridates still had a small floatof fifty ships, on board of which were 10, 000 land forces. These were atsea; but with what object does not appear: they were met, however, nearLemnos, by a Roman squadron, and entirely defeated; thirty-two of thembeing captured, and the rest sunk. On receiving information of thisvictory, the Roman senate ordered Lucullus to be paid 3000 talents torepair and augment his fleet; but he refused them, answering, "that withthe succours he could get from their allies, he should be able to gain thedominion of the sea, and conquer Mithridates:" at the same time he sent toRome 110 galleys, armed with beaks. Mithridates, however, was stillformidable at sea, and continued so, till the Romans gained another victoryover him, near the island of Tenedos, in which they took and sunk sixtyships: after this, he was not able to fit out another fleet. As theremainder of the war between him and the Romans was entirely confined toland operations, we shall pass it by, and proceed to the other navalenterprizes of the Romans about this period. 

The war with Mithridates employed the attention and the resources of theRomans so completely, that the pirates again infested the Mediterraneanseas without control. Their numbers and force were greatly augmented by thedestruction of Carthage and Corinth; for the inhabitants of these cities, having neither a place of retreat, nor the means of subsistence, naturallyturned their thoughts to piracy, having been accustomed to sea affairs, andto commerce. In this they were encouraged by Mithridates, and assisted bysome persons of considerable rank and wealth. The inability of the Romansto attend to them, and the success and encouragement they obtained, inducedthem to conduct their piracies on a regular, systematic, and extensiveplan. Their ships were constantly at sea: all commerce was interrupted;with their 1000 galleys--for so numerous were they--they exercised acomplete sovereignty over all the coasts of the Mediterranean. They formedthemselves into a kind of commonwealth, selected magistrates and officers, who appointed each fleet its respective station and object, and builtwatch-towers, arsenals, and magazines. They depended chiefly on Cilicia forthe necessary supplies for their fleets. Emboldened by their success, andby the occupation afforded to the Romans by Mithridates, they ravaged thewhole line of the Italian coast; sacked the towns and temples, from whichthey expected a considerable booty; plundered the country seats on thesea-shore; carried off the inhabitants for slaves; blocked up all the portsof the republic; ventured as far as the entrance of the Tiber; sunk part ofthe Roman fleet at Ostia, and even threatened Rome itself, which they morethan once deprived of its ordinary and necessary subsistence. The scarcityof provisions was, indeed, not confined to Rome; but no vessel venturing tosea in the Mediterranean without being captured, it extended to those partsof Asia and Africa which lie on that sea. Their inveteracy, however, wasprincipally directed against the Roman commerce, and the Romans themselves. If any of their captives declared himself to be a Roman, they threwthemselves in derision at his feet, begging his pardon, and imploring hisprotection; but after they had insolently sported with their prisoner, theyoften dressed him in a toga, and then, casting out a ship's ladder, desiredhim to return home, and wished him a good journey. If he refused to leapinto the sea, they threw him overboard, saying, "that they would not by anymeans keep a free-born Roman in captivity!"

In order to root out this dreadful evil, Gabinius, the tribune of thepeople, proposed a law, to form, what he called, the proconsulate of theseas. This law, though vigorously opposed at first, eventually was carried. The person to whom this new office was to be entrusted, was to havemaritime power, without control or restriction, over all the seas, from thePillars of Hercules to the Thracian Bosphorus, and the countries lying onthese seas, for fifty miles inland: he was to be empowered to raise as manyseamen and troops as he deemed necessary, and to take, out of the publictreasury, money sufficient to pay the expence of paying them, equipping theships, and executing the objects of the law. The proconsulate of theseas was to be vested in the same person for three years. 

As Gabinius was the known friend of Pompey, all Pompey's enemiesstrenuously opposed this law, as evidently intended to confer authority onhim; but the people not only passed it, but granted Pompey, who was chosento fill the office, even more than Gabinius had desired, for they allowedhim to equip 500 ships, to raise 120, 000 foot, and to select out of thesenate twenty senators to act as his lieutenants. 

As soon as Pompey was vested with the authority conferred by this law, heput to sea; and, by his prudent and wise measures, not less than by hisactivity and vigour, within four months (instead of the three years whichwere allowed him) he freed the seas from pirates, having beaten their fleetin an engagement near the coast of Cilicia, and taken or sunk nearly 1000vessels, and made himself master of 120 places on the coast, which they hadfortified: in the whole of this expedition he did not lose a single ship. In order effectually to prevent the pirates from resuming theirdepredations, he sent them to people some deserted cities of Cilicia. 

It might have been supposed that as the Romans had suffered so much fromthe pirates, and as Rome itself was dependent for subsistence on foreignsupplies of corn, which could not be regularly obtained, while the pirateswere masters of the seas, they would have directed their attention morethan they did to maritime affairs and commerce, especially after theexperience they had had of the public calamities which might thus beaverted. This, however, was not the case, even after the war against thepirates, which was so successfully terminated by Pompey; for Pompey's son, who opposed the triumvirate, by leaguing with the pirates, (of what nationwe are not informed, ) repeatedly, during his warfare, reduced the city ofRome to great straits for want of corn. 

As the operations by sea which he carried on, in conjunction with thepirates, are the last recorded in history, by means of which Rome wasreduced to such straits, and as this repeated proof of the absolutenecessity of rendering her independent of any maritime power for suppliesof corn, seems to have been the chief inducement with Augustus to establishregular and powerful corn fleets, we shall notice them in this place, though rather posterior to the period of Roman history at which we havearrived. 

The younger Pompey, it would appear, was sensible that his father's fameand fortune had been first established by his success at sea: this inducedhim to apply himself to maritime affairs, and, when he resolved to opposethe triumvirate, to trust principally to his experience and force by sea, to oblige them to comply with his terms. Accordingly, he built severalships, some of which are said to have been covered with leather: heassociated himself with all the pirates he could meet with; and, whensufficiently powerful, he took possession of Sardinia, Sicily, and Corcyra, made himself master of the whole Mediterranean sea, and intercepted all theconvoys which were carrying provisions and other necessaries to Rome. Theoccupation of Sicily enabled him to prevent any corn from being shippedfrom that island, and to intercept all that came from the eastern ports ofthe Mediterranean. His possession of Sardinia and Corcyra enabled him tointercept all that came from the west, while he captured all that came fromAfrica by his squadrons, which were constantly cruising in that direction. 

It may easily be imagined, that when Rome was deprived of her supplies ofcorn from Sicily, Africa, and the Euxine, she could not long subsist, without being threatened with famine: this was actually the case, theinhabitants were near starving, and it became necessary for the triumvirateto relieve them, either by conquering Pompey, or coming to terms with him. But Rome alone did not suffer: the rest of Italy was also deprived, in agreat measure, of provisions, and its coasts insulted and plundered. Octavianus, one of the triumvirate, at first resolved, with the advice ofAnthony, to raise a naval force, and oppose Pompey; but when he attemptedto lay a tax on the inhabitants of Rome and the rest of Italy, though itwas to prevent them from starving, they resisted it with so much violenceand determination, that he was obliged to abandon the measure. 

As, however, the famine still continued, the triumvirate agreed to come toan accommodation with Pompey: the principal terms were, that the lattershould retain possession of Sicily, Sardinia, . &c. ; and that he shouldmoreover receive Peloponnesus; that he might endeavour to obtain theconsulate; that the dignity of Pontifex Maximus should be granted him; thathe should be paid 70, 000 great sesterces out of his father's confiscatedestate; and that such of his companions as chose should be allowed toreturn. On his part, he promised, that he would no longer interrupt theRoman trade and navigation; that he would no longer build ships, nor makedescents on the coasts of Italy, nor receive the slaves who fled to him;and that he would immediately send to Rome the corn he had detained, obligethe Sicilians to pay annually the tribute of corn due to Rome by thatisland, and clear the seas of all the pirates. 

From these terms it may be seen how dependent Rome, even at this period, was on foreign supplies of corn, and how weak she was at sea. Pompey andthe triumvirate seem neither to have been sincere in this treaty: theformer, who still retained the title of governor of the maritime coasts, had derived too great advantage from his superiority at sea, and hisconnection with the pirates, easily to relinquish either; while, on theother hand, the triumvirate could not regard themselves as masters of therepublic, so long as Pompey had it in his power to starve the city of Rome. They, therefore, soon quarrelled; upon which Pompey caused his old ships tobe refitted, and new ones to be built; and, when he had got a sufficientforce, he again blocked up the ports of Italy, and reduced the inhabitantsof the capital to the utmost distress for want of provisions. Octavianus, (Augustus Cæsar, ) to whom the protection of Italy was assigned, had neitherthe courage nor the means to oppose Pompey, who, probably, would speedilyhave forced the triumvirate, to grant him conditions still more favourablethan the former ones, had it not been for the defection of one of hisadmirals. As he was an officer of great valour and experience in maritimeaffairs, and carried over with him the numerous fleet which he commanded, Augustus was emboldened and rendered better able to cope with Pompey bysea. The latter, rather enraged than intimidated by this defection, sentanother of his admirals, who had always been jealous of the one who hadgone over to Augustus, with a numerous fleet, to ravage the coasts ofItaly. On his return, he fell in with a fleet of Augustus, on board ofwhich was his rival. An obstinate battle ensued: at first Pompey's fleetwas worsted; but in the issue it was victorious, and the greater number ofAugustus' ships were sunk, captured, or driven on shore. As soon asAugustus learnt the issue of this battle, he resolved to sail fromTarentum, where he then was, pass the straits of Messina, and reinforce theshattered remains of his squadron; but, while he was in the straits, hisships were attacked by Pompey himself, and most of them sunk or dashed topieces: with great difficulty he escaped. He was now in a dreadfulsituation; without ships or money; while the inhabitants of Rome were onthe point of rising against his authority, for want of corn. In thisextremity he applied to Anthony, who immediately came to his aid with 300sail of ships. As Anthony needed land-forces, which, under the presentcircumstances, were of no use to Augustus, they agreed to an interchange:Augustus gave Anthony two legions; and Anthony, on his part, left withAugustus 100 armed galleys. In addition to these, Octavia obtained from herhusband twenty small ships, as a reinforcement to her brother. 

Augustus, though now superior in naval force to Pompey, (for his ships weremore numerous, as well as larger and stronger, though not so light andexpeditious, nor so well manned, ) was not willing to expose himself anymore to the hazards of a sea-fight: he therefore appointed Agrippacommander-in-chief of his navy, with directions to cruise off Mylæ, a cityon the northern coast of Sicily, where Pompey had assembled all his navalforces. As the possession of this important island was absolutely necessaryto the reduction of Pompey's power, and the relief and supply of the cityof Rome, Augustus, Lepidus, and another general were to invade it in threedifferent places, while Agrippa was watching Pompey's fleet. The whole ofAugustus's expeditions sailed from different ports of Italy at the sametime; but they had scarcely put to sea, when a violent storm arose, inwhich a great number of his ships perished. On this occasion Augustusbehaved with great presence of mind and judgment: his first object and carewas to send Mæcenas to Rome, to prevent the disturbances which theintelligence of this disaster might occasion there: Mæcenas succeeded inhis mission completely. In the meantime Augustus went in person to theseveral ports, into which his ships had escaped from the storm, encouragedand rewarded the workmen, and soon got his fleet refitted and ready forsea. In his second attempt to invade Sicily, which he put in execution assoon as his fleet was repaired, he was more successful than in his first;and Agrippa considerably weakened Pompey's naval forces, by defeating oneof his admirals, from whom he captured thirty galleys. Pompey was still soformidable at sea, at least to the fears of Augustus, that, when heappeared unexpectedly on the coast of Sicily with his fleet, the latter wascompletely intimidated: apprehending that Pompey would land and attack hiscamp, he deserted it and went on board his fleet. Pompey, however, whoalways preferred naval enterprizes, attacked the fleet, put it to flight atthe first onset, captured most of the ships, and burnt and sunk theremainder. Augustus with difficulty escaped in a boat; but, instead ofreturning to his camp, in Sicily, he fled to Italy, attended only by onedomestic. 

As soon as he recovered from his alarm, he, in conjunction with Lepidus, determined to attack Messina, in which place Pompey had deposited all hisstores, provisions, and treasure. The city accordingly was closelyinvested, both by sea and land. Pompey, in this emergency, challengedAugustus to decide the war by a sea-fight, with 300 ships on each side. Augustus acceding to this proposal, both fleets were drawn up in line ofbattle, between Mylæ and Naulocus; the land forces having agreed to suspendhostilities, and wait the event of the engagement. Agrippa, who commandedAugustus's fleet, fought with great bravery, and was as bravely opposed byPompey; their respective officers and men emulated their example. For aconsiderable time, the event was doubtful; but, at last, Pompey's fleet wasdefeated: only seventeen of his vessels escaped, the rest were taken orburnt. This victory Agrippa obtained at an easy rate, not more than threeof his snips being sunk or destroyed. Augustus, who, according to allaccounts, behaved in a most cowardly manner during the battle, was so fullysensible of the obligations he was under to Agrippa, that he immediatelyhonoured him with a blue standard and a rostral crown, that is, a crown, the flower-work of which represented the beaks of galleys, and afterwards, when he became emperor, he raised him, by rank and honours, above all hisother subjects. According to Livy, and some other authors, the rostralcrown had never been given in any preceding wars, nor was it afterwardsbestowed; but Pliny is of a different opinion, he says that it was given toM. Varro, in the war against the pirates, by Pompey. 

After this signal and decisive defeat of his fleet, Pompey fled from Sicilyto Asia, where he attempted to raise disturbances; but he was defeated, taken prisoner, and put to death. 

We must now look back to the naval and commercial history of Rome, immediately after the defeat of the pirates by Pompey the Great. Theimmediate consequence of his success against them was the revival of tradeamong the people who inhabited the coasts of the Mediterranean; but theRomans, intent on their plans of conquest, or engaged in civil wars, hadlittle share in it The very nature and extent, however, of their conquests, by making them masters of countries which were either commercial, or whichafforded articles of luxury, gradually led them to become more commercial. Hitherto, their conquests and their alliances had been confined almostentirely to the nations on the Mediterranean, or within a short distance ofthat sea: but Julius Cæsar directed his ambition to another district of theworld; and Gaul was added to the Roman dominions. 

Transalpine Gaul comprehended Flanders, Holland, Switzerland, and part ofGermany, as well as France, Its situation, having the ocean to the northand west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south, was particularlyfavourable to commerce; and though, when Caesar conquered it, itsinhabitants in general were very ignorant and uncivilized, yet we have hisexpress authority, that the knowledge they possessed of foreign countries, and commodities from abroad, made them abound in all sorts of provisions. About 100 years before the Christian era, the Romans, under pretence ofassisting the people of Marseilles, carried their arms into Gaul, andconquered the district to the south of the Rhine. 

This part of Gaul, long before the Romans invaded it, was celebrated forits commerce, which was carried on very extensively at the port ofMarseilles. We have already mentioned, that this city was founded, or, atleast, greatly increased by the Greeks. As the colonists could not, fromthe narrow boundaries of their territory, and the barrenness of the soil, support themselves by their own industry on land, they applied themselvesto the sea: at first, as fishermen; then, as pirates; and afterwards, asmerchants. For forty years they are said to have been the most warlike, aswell as the most commercial people who frequented the Mediterranean, andwere celebrated for the excellent construction and equipment, both of theirmerchant ships, and their ships of war. Their maritime laws andinstitutions were nearly as much celebrated and respected as those of theRhodians. The wealth which the inhabitants of Marseilles had acquired bycommerce, and which was contained or displayed in their fleets, arsenals, and magazines, and in their public buildings, drew upon them the envy oftheir more savage and poorer neighbours; and it is probable they would havefallen a prey to their more warlike habits, had they not formed an alliancewith the Romans, who sent an army to their assistance. The commander ofthis army, after defeating their enemies, granted them all the harbours, and the whole sea-coast, between their city and the confines of Italy; andthus at once secured their safety and extended their territory. A shorttime afterwards, Marius conferred on them another benefit, not inferior inimportance and utility. While he was waiting for the Cimbri in TransalpineGaul, he was under great difficulty to procure provisions up the Rhone, inconsequence of the mouth of the river being obstructed with sand-banks. Toremedy this inconvenience, he undertook a great and laborious work, which, from him, was called Fossa Marina: this was a large canal, beginning at hiscamp, near Arles, and carried on to the sea, which was fed with water fromthe Rhone; through this canal, the largest transports could pass. After hisvictory over the Cimbrians, Marius gave this canal to the people ofMarseilles, in return for the support and supplies they had afforded him inhis war against them. As there was no passage into the interior of thispart of Gaul, except either through the Rhone or this canal, theMarseillians, who were now masters of both, enriched themselvesconsiderably, partly by the traffic they carried on, and partly by theduties they levied on all goods which were sent up the canal and the river. In the civil war between Pompey and Cæsar, they took part with the former, who, in return, gave them all the territory on the western bank of theRhone. Cæsar, exasperated at their hostility towards him, and at theiringratitude (for he, on the conquest of Gaul, had enlarged theirterritories, and augmented their revenues), blocked up their port by seaand land, and soon obliged them to surrender. He stripped their arsenals ofarms, and obliged them to deliver up all their ships, as well as deprivedthem of the colonies and towns that were under their dominion. 

The Marseillians, in the pursuit of commerce, made several voyages todistant, and, till then, unknown parts of the world: of these, the voyageof Pytheas, the extent, direction, and discoveries of which we have alreadyinvestigated, was the most remarkable and celebrated. Euthymenes, anotherMarseillian navigator, is said to have advanced to the south, beyond theline; but little credit seems due to the very imperfect accounts which wepossess of his voyage. The Marseillians also planted several colonies onthe coasts of Gaul, Italy, and Spain, viz. Nicæa, Antipolis (Antibes, ) TeloMartius (Toulon, ) &c. 

Arelas (Arles) was also a place of some trade, and celebrated for itsmanufactures, especially its embroidery, and its curious and rich works ingold and silver. It was at this place that Cæsar built, in the short periodof thirty days, the twelve galleys which he used in blocking up the port ofMarseilles; and he manned them with its inhabitants;--a proof, as Huetobserves, that they were well versed in maritime affairs at this time. 

Narbo Marcius (Narbonne) was founded by Marius: it soon became, accordingto Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, a place of very great trade. The Britishtin, besides other articles, was brought by land-carriage through thecentre of Gaul, and exported, either from it or Marseilles, to thedifferent countries on the Mediterranean. It derived great importance andwealth, from its being a convenient place of rest and refreshment for theRoman troops, as they passed from the Pyrennees to the Alps, or from theAlps to the Pyrennees. Its harbour was crowded with ships from Africa, Spain, Italy, &c. ; but, in the latter ages of the Roman Empire, it fellinto decay, principally in consequence of the course of the river beingchanged, so that it no longer ran through it. The Romans endeavoured tosupply this misfortune, by cutting a canal to the sea, the traces andremains of which are still visible. 

Lugdunum (Lyons), at the confluence of the Rhone and Arar, was founded byManucius Plancus, after the death of Julius Caesar. In the time ofAugustus, according to Strabo, it had increased so much, by means of itscommerce, that it was not inferior to any city in Gaul, except Narbonne. Indeed, not long after the entire conquest of Gaul by the Romans, theadvantages which that country might derive, with respect to foreigncommerce, and internal trade, by its rivers, seem to have been fully andclearly understood. The head of the Saone being near to that of the Moselleand the Seine, merchandize was easily conveyed by land from one of theserivers to the other. The Rhone also received many goods by means of therivers which joined it, which were conveyed, not only to the Saone, butalso to the Loire, in carriages. The Seine brought up goods almost as faras the Moselle, from which they were conveyed to the Rhine. In the fourthyear of Nero's reign, the commander of the Roman army in Gaul joined theSaone and the Moselle by a canal; and, though these canals were generallymade by the Romans, for purposes connected with the army, yet they weresoon applied to commerce. The merchandize of the Saone was brought by landcarriage to the Seine, and by it conveyed to the ocean, and thence toBritain. There seems to have been regular and established companies ofwatermen on these rivers, whose business it was to convey goods on them: anancient inscription at Lyons mentions Tauricius of Vannes, as the generaloverseer of the Gallic trade, the patron or head of the watermen on theSeine and Loire, and the regulator of weights, measures, and carriages; andother ancient inscriptions state, that the government of the watermen whonavigated the Rhone and the Saone, was often bestowed on Roman knights. 

Besides the ports on the Mediterranean, or on the rivers which flow intothat sea, the Gauls in Cæsar's time, or shortly afterwards, seem to havehad several, ports on the ocean. Cæsar reckons the present Nantz, though atsome distance from the sea, as inhabited by people who were skilled inmaritime affairs; and he expressly informs us, that he built his ships at aport at the mouth of the Seine, when he was preparing to invade Britain. Inhis wars against the Vanni he brought ships from the present provinces ofSaintoinge and Poitou, which we may thence conclude were inhabited bypeople skilled in maritime affairs. In later times, there was a marshfilled with sea-water, not far from Bourdeaux, which made that city aconvenient port, and a place of considerable commerce. Strabo mentions atown of some commerce, situated on the Loire, which he represents as equalin size to Narbonne and Marseilles; but what town that was has not beenascertained. 

The most powerful and commercial, however, of all the tribes of Gaul, thatinhabited the coasts near the ocean, in the time of Cæsar, were the Vanni. These people carried on an extensive and lucrative trade with Britain, which was interrupted by the success of Cæsar, (who obliged them, as wellas the other tribes of Gaul, to give him hostages, ) and which theyapprehended was likely to be still further injured by his threatenedinvasion of Britain; in order to prevent this, as well as to liberatethemselves, they revolted against the Romans. As Cæsar was sensible that itwould be imprudent and unsafe to attempt the invasion of Britain, so longas the Vanni were unsubdued and powerful at sea, he directed his thoughtsand his endeavours to build and equip such a fleet as would enable himsuccessfully to cope with them on their own element. In building his ships, he followed the model of those of his enemies, which were large, flat-bottomed, and high in the head and stern: they were strong-built, andhad leathern sails, and anchors with iron chains. They had a numeroussquadron of such vessels, which they employed chiefly in their trade withBritain: they seem also to have derived considerable revenue from thetribute which they levied on all who navigated the adjacent seas, and tohave possessed many ports on the coast. Besides their own fleet, theBritons, who were their allies, sent ships to their assistance; so thattheir united force amounted to 220 sail, well equipped, and manned by boldand expert seamen. 

To oppose this formidable fleet, Caesar ordered ships to be built on theLoire, and the rivers running into it, exactly, as we have just stated, after the model of the ships of the Vanni; for he was informed, or learntby experience, that the vessels which were used in the Mediterranean werenot fit for navigating and fighting on the ocean, but that such as wereemployed on the latter must be built, not only stronger, but flat-bottomed, and high at the head and stern, in order to withstand the fury of the wavesand winds, which was greater in the ocean than in the Mediterranean, and atthe same time to sail up the rivers, or in very shallow water, and to takethe ground, without injury or danger. Not being able, however, to build intime a sufficient number of ships in Gaul, after the model of those of theVanni, he was under the necessity of bringing some from the south coast ofGaul, and other parts of the Mediterranean Sea; he also collected all theexperienced pilots he could meet with, who were acquainted with the coasts, and with the management of such ships, and exercised a sufficient number ofmen at the oar, to navigate them. 

These preparations were all indispensably requisite; for in the battlewhich ensued, the Vanni and their allies fought their ships with a skilland a valour of which the Romans had not had any previous example; and theywould certainly have been beaten, if they had not, by means of sharpengines, cut the ropes and sails of the hostile fleet, and thus renderedtheir ships unmanageable: in this state they were easily and speedilycaptured. As the Vanni had on this occasion mustered all their forces, their defeat put an end to their resistance, and removed Caesar's principalobstacle to the invasion of Britain. 

The motives which induced Caesar to invade Britain can only be conjectured, if, indeed, any other motive operated on his mind besides ambition, and thelove of conquest and glory; stimulated by the hope of subduing a country, which seemed the limit of the world to the west, and which was in a greatmeasure unknown. He was, probably, also incited by his desire to punish theBritons for having assisted the Vanni; and Suetonius adds, that he wasdesirous of enriching himself with British pearls, which were at that timein high repute. 

Before he undertook this expedition, which, even to Caesar, appearedformidable, he resolved to learn all he could respecting Britain. For thispurpose, he collected the merchants who traded thither from all parts ofGaul; but they could afford him no satisfactory information. They hadvisited only the opposite coast of Britain; of the other parts of thecountry, of its extent, its inhabitants, &c. , they were utterly ignorant. Under these circumstances, therefore, he sent one of his officers in agalley, who, after being absent five days, during which however he had notventured to land, returned to Caesar, and acquainted him with the little hehad observed. 

Caesar resolved to invade Britain immediately: for this purpose, he orderedeighty transports to take on board two legions; and the cavalry to beembarked in eighteen more, at a port a few miles off. The enterprize wasattended with considerable difficulty, from the opposition of the Britons, and the large ships of the Romans not being able to approach very near theland. It was however successful, and the Britons sued for and obtainedpeace. 

This they were soon induced to break, in consequence of Caesar's fleetbeing greatly injured by a storm; and the violence of the wind raising thetide very high, the Roman sailors, unaccustomed to any tides except thevery trifling ones of the Mediterranean, were still more alarmed anddispirited. The Britons, after attacking one of the legions, ventured on astill bolder enterprize, for they endeavoured to force the Roman camp: inthis attempt they were defeated, and again obliged to sue for peace. Thiswas granted, and Caesar returned to Gaul. But the Britons not fulfillingthe conditions of the peace, Caesar again invaded their country with 600ships and twenty-eight galleys; he landed without opposition, and defeatedthe Britons. His fleet again encountered a storm, in which forty ships werelost, and the rest greatly damaged. In order to prevent a similar accident, he drew all his ships ashore, and enclosed them within the fortificationsof the camp. After this, he had no further naval operations with theBritons. 

It will now be proper to consider the state of Britain at the period of itsinvasion by the Romans, with respect to its navigation and commerce. It isthe generally received opinion, that the Britons, at the time of theinvasion of their island by Caesar, had no ships except those which he andother ancient authors, particularly Solinus and Lucan, describe. These weremade of light and pliant wood, their ribs seem to have been formed ofhurdles, and they were lined as well as covered (so far as they were at alldecked) with leather. They had, indeed, masts and sails; the latter and theropes were also made of leather; the sails could not be furled, but, whennecessary, were bound to the mast. They were generally, however, workedwith oars, the rowers singing to the stroke of their oars, sometimesaccompanied by musical instruments. These rude vessels seem not to havebeen the only ones the Britons possessed, but were employed solely for thepurpose of sailing to the opposite coasts of Gaul and of Ireland. Theywere, indeed, better able to withstand the violence of the winds and wavesthan might be supposed from the materials of which they were built. Plinyexpressly states that they made voyages of six days in them; and in thelife of St Columba, (in whose time they were still used, the sixthcentury, ) we are informed of a vessel lined with leather, which went withoars and sails, sailing for fourteen days in a violent storm in safety, andgaining her port. The passage therefore in these boats across the IrishChannel, could not be so very dangerous as it is represented by Solinus. 

But notwithstanding the authority of Caesar, Pliny, Solinus, and Lucan, whomention only these leathern vessels, and that the poet Avienus, who livedin the fourth century, expressly states, that even in his time the Britonshad no ships made of timber, but only boats covered with leather or hides;there are circumstances which must convince us that they did possesslarger, stronger, and more powerful ships. Caesar informs us, that theBritons often assisted the Gauls, both by land and sea; and we have seenthat they sent assistance to the Vanni, in their sea-fight against Caesar;but it is not to be supposed that their leathern boats, small and weak asthey were, could have been of any material advantage in an engagement withthe Roman ships. Besides, the Britons, who inhabited the coast opposite toGaul, carried on, as we have remarked, a considerable and regular tradewith the Vanni; it is, therefore, reasonable to presume, that they wouldlearn from this tribe, the art of building ships like theirs, which were sowell fitted for these seas, as well as for war, that Caesar built vesselsafter their model, when he formed the determination of opposing them bysea. 

The Britons, however, certainly did not themselves engage much in thetraffic with Gaul, and therefore could not require many vessels of eitherdescription for this purpose. From the earliest period, of which we haveany record, till long after the invasion by Caesar, the commodities ofBritain seem to have been exported by foreign ships, and the commoditiesgiven in exchange brought by these. 

In our account of the commerce of the Phoenicians, their trade to Britainfor tin has been described. Pliny, in his chapter on inventions anddiscoveries, states that this metal was first brought from the Cassiteridesby Midacritus, but at what period, or of what nation he was, he does notinform us. This trade was so lucrative, that a participation in it waseagerly sought by all the commercial nations of the Mediterranean, and evenby the Romans, who, as we have seen, were not at this period, much given tocommerce. This is evident, by the well known fact, of one of their vesselsendeavouring to follow the course of a Phoenician or Carthaginian vessel, in her voyage to Britain. The Greeks of Marseilles, according to Polybius, first followed, successfully, the course of the Phoenicians, and, about 200years before Christ, began to share with them in the tin trade. Whether, atthis period, they procured it exclusively by direct trade with Britain, isnot known; but afterwards, as we have already mentioned, Marseilles becameone of the principal depots for this metal, which was conveyed to itthrough Gaul, and exported thence by sea. 

If we may believe Strabo, the Romans had visited Britain before it wasinvaded by Caesar, as he expressly mentions that Publius Crassus made avoyage thither: if he means P. Crassus the younger, he was one of Caesar'slieutenants in Gaul; and, as he was stationed in the district of the Vanni, it is not improbable that he passed from thence into Britain; or he mayhave been sent by Caesar, at the same time that Volusenus was sent, and forthe same purpose. 

However this may be, there was no regular intercourse between Britain andRome till some time after Caesar's invasion; in the time of Tiberius, however, and probably earlier, the commerce of Britain was considerable. Strabo, who died at the beginning of that emperor's reign, informs us, thatcorn, cattle, gold, silver, tin, lead, hides, and dogs, were thecommodities furnished by the Britons. The tin and lead, he adds, came fromthe Cassiterides. According to Camden, 800 vessels, laden with corn, werefreighted annually to the continent; but this assertion rests on verydoubtful authority, and cannot be credited if it applies to Britain, evenvery long after the Roman conquest. Though Strabo expressly mentions goldand silver among the exports, yet Caesar takes notice of neither; andCicero, in his epistles, writing to his friend, respecting Britain, states, on the authority of his brother, who was there, that there were neither ofthese metals in the island. The dogs of Britain formed a very considerableand valuable article of export; they seem to have been known at Rome evenbefore Caesar's expedition: the Romans employed them in hunting, and theGauls in hunting and in their wars: they were of different species. Bearswere also exported for the amphitheatres; but their exportation was notfrequent till after the age of Augustus. Bridle ornaments, chains, amber, and glass ware, are enumerated by Strabo among the exports from Britain;but, according to other authors, they were imported into it. Baskets, toysmade of bone, and oysters, were certainly among the exports; and, accordingto Solinus, gagates, or jet, of which Britain supplied a great deal of thebest kind. Chalk was also, according to Martial, an article of export:there seems to have been British merchants whose sole employment was theexportation of this commodity, as appears by an ancient inscription foundin Zealand, and quoted by Whitaker, in his history of Manchester. Thisarticle was employed as a manure on the marshy land bordering on the Rhine. Pliny remarks that its effect on the land continued eighty years. Theprincipal articles imported into Britain were copper and brass, andutensils made of these metals, earthen ware, salt, &c. The traffic wascarried on partly by means of barter, and partly by pieces of brass andiron, unshaped, unstamped, and rated by weight. The duties paid in Gaul, onthe imports and exports of Britain, formed, according to Strabo, the onlytribute exacted from the latter country by the Romans in his time. 

Of that part of Europe which lies to the north of Gaul, the Romans, at theperiod of which we are treating, knew little or nothing, though someindirect traffic was carried on with Germany. The feathers of the Germangeese were preferred to all others at Rome; and amber formed a mostimportant article of traffic. This was found in great abundance on theBaltic shore of Germany: at first, it seems to have been carried the wholelength of the continent, to the Veneti, who forwarded it to Rome. Afterwards, in consequence of the great demand for it there, and its highprice, the Romans sent people expressly to purchase it in the north ofGermany: and their land journies, in search of this article, first madethem acquainted with the naval powers of the Baltic. The Estii, a Germantribe, who inhabited the amber country, gathered and sold it to the Romantraders, and were astonished at the price they received for it. In Nero'stime it was in such high request, that that emperor resolved to sendJulianus, a knight, to procure it for him in large quantities: accordingly, a kind of embassy was formed, at the head of which he was placed. He setout from Carnuntum, a fortress on the banks of the Danube, and aftertravelling, according to Pliny, 600 miles, arrived at the amber coast. There he bought, or received as a present, for the emperor, 13, 000 poundsweight, among which was one piece that weighed thirteen pounds. The wholeof this immense quantity served for the decoration of one day, on whichNero gave an entertainment of gladiators. In the time of Theodoric, king ofthe Goths, the Estii sent that monarch a large quantity of amber, as themost likely present by means of which they could obtain his alliance. Theyinformed the ambassadors, whom he sent with a letter acknowledging thispresent, that they were ignorant whence the amber came, but that it wasthrown upon their coast by the sea, a fact which exactly agrees with whatoccurs at present. 

Whether the Estii, with whom the Romans carried on this traffic, were amaritime nation, we are not informed; but there was another nation or tribeof Germans on the Baltic, of whose maritime character some notices aregiven. These were the Sitones, who, according to Tacitus, had powerfulfleets; their ships were built with two prows, so as to steer at both ends, and prevent the necessity of putting about; their oars were not fixed, likethose of the Mediterranean vessels, but loose, so that they could easilyand quickly be shifted: they used no sails. The people of Taprobane(Ceylon)--the Byzantines, and, on some occasions, the Romans also, employedvessels, like those of the Sitones, which could be steered at both ends. 

One of the most considerable revolutions in the maritime and commercialaffairs of Rome, was brought about by the battle of Actium. The fleet ofAnthony was composed chiefly of ships belonging to the Egyptians, Tyrians, and other nations of the east, and amounted, according to some accounts, to200 sail, whereas the fleet of Augustus consisted of 400 sail. Otherauthors estimate them differently; but all agree that the ships of Anthonywere much larger, stronger, and loftier, than those of Caesar: they wereconsequently more unwieldy. We have the express testimony of Plutarch, thatit was principally this victory which convinced Caesar of the advantagesand extraordinary use of the Liburnian ships; for though they had beenemployed before this time in the Roman fleet, yet they had never been soserviceable in any previous battle. Augustas, therefore, as well as most ofthe succeeding emperors of Rome, scarcely built any other ships but thoseaccording to the Liburnian model. 

One of the first objects of Augustus, after he had obtained the empire, wasto secure the command of the sea: he made use of the ships which he hadcaptured from Anthony to keep the people of Gaul in subjection; and hecleared the Mediterranean of the pirates which infested it and obstructedcommerce. He formed two fleets, one at Ravenna, and the other at Misenum;the former to command the eastern, the latter the western division of theMediterranean: each of these had its own proper commanders, and to each wasattached a body of several thousand mariners. Ravenna, situated on theAdriatic, about ten or twelve miles from the most southern of the sevenmouths of the Po, was not a place of much consequence till the age ofAugustus: that emperor, observing its advantages, formed at the distance ofabout three miles from the old town and nearer the sea, a capaciousharbour, capable of containing 250 ships of war. The establishment was on alarge and complete scale, consisting of arsenals, magazines, barracks, andhouses for the ship-carpenters, &c. : the principal canal, which was alsoformed by Augustus, and took its name from him, carried the waters of theriver through the middle of Ravenna to the entrance of the harbour. Thecity was rendered still stronger by art than nature had formed it. As earlyas the fifth or sixth centuries of the Christian era the port wasconverted, by the retreat of the sea, into dry ground, and a grove of pinesgrew where the Roman fleet had anchored. 

Besides the principal ports of Ravenna and Misenum, Augustus stationed avery considerable force at Frejus, on the coast of Provence, forty ships inthe Euxine, with 3000 soldiers; a fleet to preserve the communicationbetween Gaul and Britain, another near Alexandria, and a great number ofsmaller vessels on the Rhine and the Danube. As soon as the Romans hadconstant and regular fleets, instead of the legionary soldiers, who used tofight at sea as well as at land, a separate band of soldiers were raisedfor the sea service, who were called Classiarii; but this service wasreckoned less honourable than that of the legionary soldiers. 

The period at which we are arrived seems a proper one to take a generalview of the commerce of the Roman empire; though, in order to render thisview more complete, it will be necessary in many instances to anticipatethe transactions posterior to the reign of Augustus. We shall, therefore, in the first place, give a statement of the extent of the Roman empire whenit had reached its utmost limits; secondly, an account of its roads andcommunications by land; and, lastly, an abstract of the principal importsinto it, and the laws and finances, so far as they respect its commerce. 

1. The empire, at the death of Augustus, was bounded on the west by theAtlantic ocean, on the north by the Rhine and the Danube, on the east bythe Euphrates, and on the south by the deserts of Arabia and Africa. Theonly addition which it received during the first century was the provinceof Britain: with this addition it remained till the reign of Trajan. Thatemperor conquered Dacea, and added it to the empire: he also achievedseveral conquests in the east; but these were resigned by his successorAdrian. At this period, therefore, the Roman empire may be considered ashaving attained its utmost limits. It is impossible to ascertain the numberof people that were contained within these limits. In the time of Claudiusthe Roman citizens were numbered; they amounted to 6, 945, 000: if to thesebe added the usual proportion of women and children, the number will beencreased to about 20, 000, 000. If, therefore, we calculate, as we mayfairly do, that there were twice as many provincials as there were citizenswith their wives and children, and that the slaves were at least equal innumber to the provincials, the total population of the Roman empire willamount to 120, 000, 000. 

Our ideas of the vastness and wealth of the empire will be still fartherencreased, if we regard the cities which it contained, though it isimpossible to decide in most instances the extent and population of manyplaces which were honoured with the appellation of cities. Ancient Italy issaid to have contained 1197, Gaul 1200, of which many, such as Marseilles, Narbonne, Lyons, &c. Were large and flourishing; Spain 300, Africa 300, andAsia Proper 500, of which many were very populous. 

2. All these cities were connected with one another and with Rome itself bymeans of the public highways: these issuing from the forum, traversedItaly, pervaded the provinces, and were terminated only by the frontiers ofthe empire. The great chain of communication formed by means of them fromthe extreme north-west limit of the empire, through Rome to the south-eastlimit, was in length nearly 4000 miles. These roads were formed in the mostsubstantial manner, and with astonishing labour and expence; they wereraised so as to command a prospect of the adjacent country; on each sidewas a row of large stones for foot passengers. The miles were reckoned fromthe gates of the city and marked on stones: at shorter distances there werestones for travellers to rest on, or to assist those who wished to mounttheir horses: there were cross roads from the principal roads. The care andmanagement of all the roads were entrusted only to men of the highest rank. Augustus himself took charge of those near Rome, and appointed two men ofprætorian rank to pave the roads: at the distance of five or six mileshouses were built, each of which was constantly provided with forty horses;but these could only be used in the public service, except by particularand express authority. By means of the relays thus furnished, the Romanscould travel along their excellent roads 100 miles a day: they had nopublic posts. Augustus first introduced public couriers among the Romans;but they were employed only to forward the public despatches, or to conveypublic intelligence of great and urgent importance. 

Such was the facililty of communication by land from all parts of theempire to Rome, and from each part to all the other parts: nor was thecommunication of the empire less free and open by sea than it was by land. "The provinces surrounded and enclosed the Mediterranean; and Italy, in theshape of an immense promontory, advanced into the midst of that greatlake. " From Ostia, situated at the mouth of the Tiber, only sixteen milesfrom the capital, a favourable wind frequently carried vessels in sevendays to the straits of Gibraltar, and in nine or ten to Alexandria, inEgypt. 

3. In enumerating the principal articles imported into Rome, for the use ofits immense and luxurious population, we shall, necessarily, recapitulate, in some degree, what has already been stated in giving an account of thecommerce of the different countries which were conquered by the Romans. Butthis objection, we conceive, will be abundantly counterbalanced by theconnected and complete view which we shall thus be enabled to give of thecommerce of the Roman empire. 

Before, however, we enter on this subject, we shall briefly consider theideas entertained by the Romans on the subject of commerce. We have alreadyhad occasion incidentally to remark that the Romans thought meanly of it, and that their grand object in all their conquests was the extension oftheir territory; and that they even neglected the commercial facilities andadvantages, which they might have secured by their conquests. This was mostdecidedly the case during the time of the republic. The statue of Victory, which was erected in the port of Ostia, and the medals of the year of Rome630, marked on the reverse with two ships and a victory, prove that at thisperiod the Roman fleets that sailed from this port were chiefly designedfor war. The prefects of the fleet were not employed, nor did they considerit as their duty to attend to commerce, or to the merchant ships, except sofar as to protect them against the pirates. Of the low opinion entertainedby the Romans respecting commerce we have the direct testimony of Cicero:writing to his son on the subject of professions, he reprobates andcondemns all retail trade as mean and sordid, which can be carried onsuccessfully only by means of lying. Even the merchant, unless he dealsvery extensively, he views with contempt; if, however, he imports fromevery quarter articles of great value and in great abundance, and sellsthem in a fair and equitable manner, his profession is not much to becontemned; especially if, after having made a fortune, he retires frombusiness, and spends the rest of his life in agricultural pursuits: in thiscase, he deserves even positive praise. There is another passage of Cicero, quoted by Dr. Vincent, in his Periplus, in which the same sentiments areexpressed: he says, "Is such a man, who was a merchant and neighbour ofScipio, greater than Scipio because he is richer?" Pliny, also, though inhis natural history he expatiates in praise of agriculture and gardening, medicine, painting and statuary, passes over merchandize with the simpleobservation that it was invented by the Phoenicians. In the periplus of theErythrean sea, and in the works of Ptolemy, &c. The names of many merchantsand navigators occur; but they are all Greeks. Even after the conquest ofEgypt, which gave a more commercial character to the Roman manners, habitsand mode of thinking than they previously possessed, no Roman was permittedto engage in the trade of that country. 

Although, however, mercantile pursuits were thus underrated and despised bythe warlike portion of the nation, as well as by the philosophers, yet theywere followed by those who regarded gain as the principal object of life. The wealth of merchants became proverbial: immense numbers of them followedthe armies, and fixed in the provinces subdued or allied, --the _Italicigeneris homines_, who were agents, traders, and monopolizers, such asJugurtha took in Zama, or the 100, 000 Mithridates slaughtered in AsiaMinor, or the merchants killed at Genabum (Orleans). 

In the passage quoted from Cicero de Officiis, he expressly mentions themerchant who _imports_; but he does not once allude to exportation. Indeed, the commerce of the Romans, in the most luxurious period of theempire, was entirely confined to importation, and may, with few exceptions, be designated as consisting in the expenditure of the immense revenue theyderived from their conquests, and the immense fortunes of individuals, inthe necessaries, comforts, and, above all, the luxuries of the countrieswhich they had conquered. 

By far the most extensive and important trade which the Romans carried onat all periods of their history, was the conveyance of corn and otherprovisions to the capital. The contiguous territory at no time wassufficient to supply Rome with corn; and, long before the republic wasdestroyed, even Italy was inadequate to this purpose. As the populationencreased, and the former corn fields were converted into pleasure-groundsor pasture, the demand for corn was proportionally encreased, and thesupply from the neighbourhood proportionally diminished. But there wasanother circumstance which rendered a regular and full supply of corn anobject of prime importance: the influence of the patron depended on hislargesses of corn to his clients; and the popularity, and even the reign ofan emperor, was not secure, unless he could insure to the inhabitants thisindispensable necessary of life. There were several laws respecting thedistribution of corn: by one passed in the year of Rome 680, five bushelswere to be given monthly to each of the poorer citizens, and money was tobe advanced annually from the treasury, sufficient to purchase 800, 000bushels of wheat, of three different qualities and prices. By theSempronian law, this corn was to be sold to the poor inhabitants at a verylow price; but by the Clodian law it was to be distributed _gratis_:the granaries in which this corn was kept were called Horrea Sempronia. Thenumber of citizens who received corn by public distribution, in the time ofAugustus, amounted to 200, 000. Julius Caesar had reduced the number from320, 000 to 150, 000. It is doubtful whether five bushels were the allowanceof each individual or of each family; but if Dr. Arbuthnot be correct inestimating the _modius_ at fourteen pounds, the allowance must havebeen for each family, amounting to one quarter seven bushels, and one peckper annum. 

We have dwelt on these particulars for the purpose of pointing out theextreme importance of a regular and full supply of corn to Rome; and thisimportance is still further proved by the special appointment ofmagistrates to superintend this article. The prefect, or governor of themarket, was an ancient establishment in the Roman republic; his duty was toprocure corn: on extraordinary occasions, this magistrate was created forthis express purpose, and the powers granted him seem to have beenincreased in the latter periods of the republic, and still more, after therepublic was destroyed. Pompey, who held this office, possessed greaterpower and privileges than his immediate predecessor, and in a time of greatscarcity. Augustus, himself, undertook the charge of providing the corn: itwas at the same time determined, that for the future, two men of the rankof praetors should be annually elected for this purpose; four wereafterwards appointed. It would seem, however, that even their appointmentbecame an ordinary and regular thing: the emperors themselves superintendedthe procuring of corn, for one of their titles was that ofcommissary-general of corn. 

Besides this magistrate, whose business was confined to the buying andimporting of corn, there were two aediles, first appointed by JuliusCaesar, whose duty it was to inspect the public stores of corn and otherprovisions. 

Till the time of Julius Caesar, the foreign corn for the supply of Rome wasimported into Puteoli, a town of Campania, between Baiae and Naples, aboutseventy miles from the capital. As this was very inconvenient, Caesarformed the plan of making an artificial harbour at the mouth of the Tiber, at Ostia. This plan, however, was not at this time carried into execution:Claudius, however, in consequence of a dreadful famine which raged at Rome, A. D. 42, resolved to accomplish it. He accordingly dug a spacious basin inthe main land; the entrance to which was formed and protected by artificialmoles, which advanced far into the sea; there was likewise a little islandbefore the mouth of the harbour, on which a light-house was built, afterthe model of the Pharos of Alexandria. By the formation of this harbour, the largest vessel could securely ride at anchor, within three deep andcapacious basins, which received the northern branch of the Tiber, abouttwo miles from the ancient colony of Ostïa. 

Into this port corn arrived for the supply of Rome from various countries;immense quantities of wheat were furnished by the island of Sicily. Egyptwas another of the granaries of the capital of the world; according toJosephus, it supplied Rome with corn sufficient for one-third of its wholeconsumption: and Augustus established regular corn voyages from Alexandriato the capital. Great quantities were also imported from Thrace, and fromAfrica Proper. The ships employed in the corn trade, especially betweenEgypt and Rome, were the largest of any in the Mediterranean: this probablyarose from the encouragement given to this trade by Tiberius, andafterwards increased by Claudius. The former emperor gave a bounty of aboutfourpence on every peck of corn imported: and Claudius, during the time ofthe famine, made the bounty so great as, at all events, and in everyinstance, to secure the importers a certain rate of profit. He also usedall his efforts to persuade the merchants to import it even in winter, taking upon himself all the losses, &c. Which might arise from riskingtheir ships and cargoes, at a time of the year when it was the invariablepractice of the ancients to lay the former up. Whenever an emperor haddistinguished himself by a large importation of corn, especially, if bythis means a famine was avoided or removed, medals seem to have been struckcommemorative of the circumstance; thus, on several medals there is afigure of a ship, and the words _Annona Aug_. Or _Ceres Aug_. Many of thesewere struck under Nero, and Antoninus Pius. During the time of therepublic, also, similar medals were struck, with the figure of a prow of aship, and an inscription shewing the object for which the fleets had beensent. 

Having been thus particular in describing the importation of corn, we shallnotice the imports of other articles in a more cursory manner. The northernparts of Italy furnished salt pork, almost sufficient for the wholeconsumption of Rome, tapestry, and woollen cloths, wool, and marble; toconvey the latter, there were ships of a peculiar form and construction;steel, crystal, ice, and cheese. 

From Liguria, Rome received wood for building, of a very large size, shiptimber, fine and beautiful wood for tables, cattle, hides, honey, andcoarse wool. Etruria, also, supplied timber, cheese, wine, and stone; thelast was shipped at the ports of Pisa and Luna. Pitch and tar were sentfrom Brutium; oil and wine from the country of the Sabines. Such were theprincipal imports from the different parts of Italy. 

From Corsica, timber for ship building; from Sardinia, a little corn andcattle; from Sicily, besides corn, --wine, honey, salt, saffron, cheese, cattle, pigeons, corals, and a species of emerald. Cloth, but whether linenor cotton is uncertain, was imported from Malta; honey, from Attica. Lacedemon supplied green marble, and the dye of the purple shell-fish. Fromthe Grecian islands, there were imported Parian marble, the earthenware ofSamos, the vermilion of Lemnos, and other articles, principally of luxury. Thrace supplied salted tunnies, the produce of the Euxine Sea, besidescorn. The finest wool was imported from Colchis, and also hemp, flax, pitch, and fine linens: these goods, as well as articles brought overlandfrom India, were shipped from the port of Phasis. The best cheese used atRome, was imported from Bithynia. Phrygia supplied a stone like alabaster, and the country near Laodicea, wool of excellent quality, some of which wasof a deep black colour. The wine drank at Rome, was principally the produceof Italy; the best foreign wine, was imported from Ionia. Woollen goods, dyed with Tyrian purple, were imported from Miletus, in Caria. An inferiorspecies of diamond, copper, resin, and sweet oil were imported from Cyprus. Cedar, gums, balsam, and alabaster, were supplied by Syria, Phoenicia, andPalestine. Glass was imported from Sidon, as well as embroidery and purpledye, and several kinds of fish, from Tyre. The goods that were brought fromIndia, by the route of Palmyra, were shipped for Rome, from the ports ofSyria. Egypt, besides corn, supplied flax, fine linen, ointments, marble, alabaster, salt, alum, gums, paper, cotton goods, some of which, as well asof their linens, seem to have been coloured or printed, glass ware, &c. Thehoney lotus, the lotus, or nymphæa of Egypt, the stalk of which contained asweet substance, which was considered as a luxury by the Egyptians, andused as bread, was sometimes carried to Rome; it was also used as provisionfor mariners. Alexandria was the port from which all the produce andmanufactories of Egypt, as well as all the ports which passed through thiscountry from India, were shipped. In consequence of its becoming the seatof the Roman government in Egypt, of the protection which it thus received, and of its commerce being greatly extended by the increased wealth andluxury of Rome, its extent and population were greatly augmented; accordingto Diodorus Siculus, in the time of Augustus, from whose reign it becamethe greatest emporium of the world, it contained 300, 000 free people. 

That part of Africa which was formerly possessed by the Carthaginians, besides corn, sent to Rome, honey, drugs, marble, the eggs and feathers ofthe ostrich, ostriches, elephants, and lions; the last for theamphitheatre. From Mauritania, there were exported to the capital, timberof a fine grain and excellent quality, the exact nature of which is notknown; this was sold at an enormous rate, and used principally for makingvery large tables. 

Spain supplied Rome with a very great number and variety of articles; fromthe southern parts of it were exported corn, wine, oil, honey, wax, pitch, scarlet dye, vermilion, salt, salted provisions, wool, &c. From the easternpart of the north of Spain were exported salted provisions, cordage made ofthe _spartum_, silver, earthenware, linen, steel, &c. The Balearicislands exported some wine. The trade of Spain to Rome employed a greatnumber of vessels, almost as many as those which were employed in the wholeof the African trade; this was especially the case in the reigns ofAugustus and Tiberius. Even in the time of Julius Caesar, Spain hadacquired great wealth, principally by her exports to Rome. The ports fromwhich the greatest part of these commodities were shipped, were Cadiz, NewCarthage, and a port at the mouth of the Boetis, where, for the security ofthe shipping, a light-house had been built. Cadiz was deemed the rival ofAlexandria in importance, shipping, and commerce; and so great was theresort of merchants, &c. To it, that many of them, not being able to buildhouses for want of room on the land, lived entirely upon the water. 

From Gaul, Rome received gold, silver, iron, &c. Which were sent as part ofthe tribute; also linens, corn, cheese, and salted pork. Immense flocks ofgeese travelled by land to Rome. The chief ports which sent goods to Romewere Marseilles, Arles, and Narbonne, on the Mediterranean; and on theOcean, Bourdeau, and the port of the Veneti. It appears that there were aconsiderable number of Italian or Roman merchants resident in Gaul, whoseprincipal trade it was to carry the wine made in the south of thisprovince, up the Rhine, and there barter it for slaves. 

From Britain, Rome was supplied with tin, lead, cattle, hides, ornaments ofbone, vessels made of amber and glass, pearls, slaves, dogs, bears, &c. Thetin was either shipped from the island of Ictis (Isle of Wight), or sentinto Gaul: most of the other articles reached Rome through Gaul. Theprincipal article brought to Rome was amber. 

We now come to the consideration of the articles with which Asia suppliedRome; these, as may be easily imagined, were principally articles ofluxury. The murrhine cups, of the nature of which there has been muchunsatisfactory discussion, according to Pliny, came from Karmania inParthia; from Parthia they came to Egypt, and thence to Rome. It isprobable, however, that they came, in the first instance, from India, asthey are expressly mentioned by the author of the Periplus of the ErythreanSea, as brought down from the capital of Guzerat, to the port of Baragyza. These cups were first seen at Rome, in the triumphal procession of Pompey, when he returned from the shores of the Caspian Sea. They sold at enormousprices; and were employed at the tables only of the great and wealthy, ascups for drinking; they were in general of a small size. One, which heldthree pints, sold for nearly 14, 000_l_. ; and Nero gave nearly59, 000_l_. For another. So highly were they prized, that, in theconquest of Egypt, Augustus was content to select, for his own share, outof all the spoils of Alexandria, a single murrhine cup. [5] Precious stonesand pearls were imported from Persia and Babylonia; the latter country alsofurnished the wealthy Romans with _triclinaria_, which was furnitureof some description, but whether quilts, carpets, or curtains is notascertained. Persia supplied also incense of a very superior quality. Thevarious and valuable commodities with which Arabia supplied the profusionand luxury of Rome, reached that capital from the port of Alexandria inEgypt. We cannot enumerate the whole of them, but must confine ourselves toa selection of the most important and valuable. Great demand, and a highrate of profits necessarily draw to any particular trade a great number ofmerchants; it is not surprising, therefore, that the trade in the luxuriesof the east was so eagerly followed at Rome. Pliny informs us, that theRoman world was exhausted by a drain of 400, 000_l_. A year, for thepurchase of luxuries, equally expensive and superfluous; and in anotherplace, he estimates the rate of profit made at Rome, by the importation andsale of oriental luxuries at 100 per cent. 

Arabia furnished diamonds, but these were chiefly of a small size, andother gems and pearls. At Rome the diamond possessed the highest value; thepearl, the second; and the emerald, the third. Nero used an emerald as aneye-glass for short sight. But though large and very splendid diamondsbrought a higher price at Rome than pearls, yet the latter, in general, were in much greater repute; they were worn in almost every part of thedress, by persons of almost every rank. The famous pearl ear-rings ofCleopatra were valued at 161, 458_l_. , and Julius Caesar presented themother of Brutus with a pearl, for which he paid 48, 457_l_. Frankincense, myrrh, and other precious drugs, were also brought to Romefrom Arabia, through the port of Alexandria. There was a great demand atRome for spices and aromatics, from the custom of the Romans to burn theirdead, and also from the consumption of frankincense, &c. In their temples. At the funeral of Sylla 210 bundles of spices were used. Nero burnt, at thefuneral of Poppaea, more cinnamon and cassia than the countries from whichthey were imported produced in one year. In the reign of Augustus, according to Horace, one whole street was occupied by those who dealt infrankincense, pepper, and other aromatics. Frankincense was also importedinto Rome from Gaza, on the coast of Palestine; according to Pliny, it wasbrought to this place by a caravan, that was sixty-two days on its journey:the length of the journey, frauds, impositions, duties; &c. Brought everycamel's load to upward of 22_l_. ; and a pound of the best sort sold atRome for ten shillings. Alexandria, however, was the great emporium forthis, as well as all the other produce of India and Arabia. Pliny isexpress and particular on this point, and takes notice of the precautionsemployed by the merchants there, in order to guard against adulteration andfraud. Cinnamon, another of the exports of Arabia to Rome, though not aproduction of that country, was also in high repute, and brought anextravagant price. Vespasian was the first who dedicated crowns ofcinnamon, inclosed in gold filagree, in the Capitol and the Temple ofPeace; and Livia dedicated the root in the Palatine Temple of Augustus. Theplant itself was brought to the emperor Marcus Aurelius in a case sevenfeet long, and was exhibited at Rome, as a very great rarity. This, however, we are expressly informed came from Barbarike in India. It seemsto have been highly valued by other nations as well as by the Romans:Antiochus Epiphanes carried a few boxes of it in a triumphal procession:and Seleucus Callinicus presented two minae of it and two of cassia, as agift to the king of the Milesians. In the enumeration of the gifts made bythis monarch, we may, perhaps, trace the comparative rarity and value ofthe different spices of aromatics among the ancients: of frankincense hepresented ten talents, of myrrh one talent, of cassia two pounds, ofcinnamon two pounds, and of costus one pound. Frankincense and myrrh werethe productions of Arabia; the other articles of India; of course theformer could be procured with much less difficulty and expence than thelatter. Spikenard, another Indian commodity, also reached Rome, throughArabia, by means of the port of Alexandria. Pliny mentions, that both theleaves and the spices were of great value, and that the odour was the mostesteemed in the composition of all unguents. The price at Rome was 100denarii a pound. The markets at which the Arabian and other merchantsbought it were Patala on the Indus, Ozeni, and a mart on or near theGanges. 

Sugar, also, but of a quality inferior to that of India, was imported fromArabia, through Alexandria, into Rome. The Indian sugar, which is expresslymentioned by Pliny, as better and higher priced, was brought to Rome, butby what route is not exactly known, probably by means of the merchants whotraded to the east coast of Africa; where the Arabians either found it, orimported it from India. In the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, and likewisein the rescript of the Roman emperors, relative to the articles importedinto Egypt from the East, which was promulgated by Marcus Aurelius and hisson Commodus, about the year A. D. 176, it is denominated cane-honey, otherwise called sugar (sacchar). So early, therefore, as the Periplus(about the year A. D. 73, ) the name of sacchar was known to the Romans, andapplied by them to sugar. This word does not occur in any earlier author, unless Dioscorides lived before that period, which is uncertain. It may beremarked, that the nature, as well as the proper appellation of sugar, musthave been but imperfectly, and not generally known, even at the time of therescript, otherwise the explanatory phrase, honey made from cane, would nothave been employed. 

The first information respecting sugar was brought to Europe by Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander. In a passage quoted from his journal by Strabo, it is described as honey made from reeds, there being no bees in that partof India. In a fragment of Theophrastus, preserved by Photius, he mentions, among other kinds of honey, one that is found in reeds. The first mentionof any preparation, by which the juice of the reed was thickened, occurs inEratosthenes, as quoted by Strabo, where he describes roots of large reedsfound in India, which were sweet to the taste, both when raw and boiled. Dioscorides and Pliny describe it as used chiefly, if not entirely, formedical purposes. In the time of Galen, A. D. 131, it would appear to havebecome more common and cheaper at Rome; for he classes it with medicinesthat may be easily procured. It seems probable, that though the Arabiansundoubtedly cultivated the sugar-cane, and supplied Rome with sugar fromit, yet they derived their knowledge of it from India; for the Arabic name, shuker, which was adopted by the Greeks and Romans, is formed from the twomiddle syllables of the Sanskrit word, ich-shu-casa. 

But to return from this digression to the view of the imports into Rome:Ethiopia supplied the capital with cinnamon of an inferior quality; marble, gems, ivory; the horns of the rhinoceros and tortoiseshell. The lastarticle was in great demand, and brought a high price: it was used forornament, for furniture; as beds, tables, doors, &c. ; not only in Italy, but in Greece and Egypt: the finest sort was sold for its weight of silver. It was imported not only from Ethiopia but also from the east coast ofAfrica, and reached Rome even from Malabar and Malacca. The opsian stonementioned in the Periplus, and the opsidian stone described by Pliny, arestated in both these authors to have come from Ethiopia; but whether theywere the same, and their exact nature, are not known. The opsian isdescribed as capable of receiving a high polish, and on that account ashaving been used by the Emperor Domitian to face a portico. Pliny describesit as employed to line rooms in the same manner as mirrors; hedistinguishes it from a spurious kind, which was red, but not transparent. The dye extracted from the purple shell fish was imported into Rome fromGetulia, a country on the south side of Mauritania. 

Rome was supplied with the commodities of India chiefly from Egypt; butthere were other routes by which also they reached the capital: of these itwill be proper to take some notice. 

The most ancient communication between India and the countries on theMediterranean was by the Persian Gulf, through Mesopotamia, to the coastsof Syria and Palestine. To facilitate the commerce which was carried on bythis route, Solomon is supposed to have built Tadmor in the wilderness, orPalmyra: the situation of this place, which, though in the midst of barrensands, is plentifully supplied with water, and has immediately round it afertile soil, was peculiarly favorable; as it was only 85 miles from theEuphrates, and about 117 from the nearest part of the Mediterranean. Bythis route the most valuable commodities of India, most of which were ofsuch small bulk as to beat the expence of a long land carriage, wereconveyed. From the age of Nebuchadnezzar to the Macedonian conquest, Tiredon on the Euphrates was the city at which this commercial route began, and which the Babylonians made use of, as the channel of their orientaltrade. After the destruction of Tyre by that monarch, a great part of thetraffic which had passed by Arabia, or the Red Sea, through Idumea andEgypt, and that city, was diverted to the Persian Gulf, and through histerritories in Mesopotamia it passed by Palmyra and Damascus, through Syriato the west. After the reduction of Babylon by Cyrus, the Persians, whopaid no attention to commerce, suffered Babylon and Ninevah to sink intoruin; but Palmyra still remained, and flourished as a commercial city. Under the Seleucidæ it seems to have reached its highest degree ofimportance, splendour, and wealth; principally by supplying the Syrianswith Indian commodities. For upwards of two centuries after the conquest ofSyria by the Romans it remained free, and its friendship and alliance werecourted both by them and the Parthians. During this period we have theexpress testimony of Appian, that it traded with both these nations, andthat Rome and the other parts of the empire received the commodities ofIndia from it. In the year A. D. 273, it was reduced and destroyed byAurelian, who found in it an immense treasure of gold, silver, silk, andprecious stones. From this period, it never revived, or became a place ofthe least importance or trade. 

On the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, the commercial communication betweenIndia and Europe returned to Arabia in the south, and to the Caspian andthe Euxine in the north: there seem to have been two routes by these seas, both of great antiquity. In describing one of them, the ancient writers aresupposed to have confounded the river Ochus, which falls into the Caspian, with the Oxus, which falls into the lake of Aral. On this supposition, theroute may be traced in the following manner: the produce and manufactuersof India were collected at Patala, a town near the mouth of the Indus; theywere carried in vessels up this river as far as it was navigable, wherethey were landed, and conveyed by caravans to the Oxus: being againshipped, they descended this river to the point where it approached nearestto the Ochus, to which they were conveyed by caravans. By the Ochus theywere conveyed to the Caspian, and across it to the mouth of the riverCyrus, which was ascended to where it approached nearest the Phasis:caravans were employed again, till the merchandize were embarked atSerapana on the Phasis, and thus brought to the Black Sea. According toPliny, Pompey took great pains to inform himself of this route; and heascertained, that by going up the Cyrus the goods would be brought withinfive day's journey of the Phasis. There seems to have been some plan formedat different times, and thought of by the Emperor Claudius, to join Asia toEurope and the Caspian Sea, by a canal from the Cimmerian Bosphorus to theCaspian Sea. 

The route which we have thus particularly described was sometimes deviatedfrom by the merchants: they carried their goods up the Oxus till it fellinto lake Aral; crossing this, they transported them in caravans to theCaspian, and ascending the Wolga to its nearest approach to the Tanais, they crossed to the latter by land, and descended it to the sea of Azoph. 

Strabo describes another route: viz. Across the Caucasus, from the Caspianto the Black Sea; this writer, however, must be under some mistake, forcamels, which he expressly says were employed, would be of no use incrossing the mountains; it is probable, therefore, that this landcommunication was round by the mouth of the Caspian, --a route which wasfrequented by the merchants of the middle ages. 

As the Euxine Sea was the grand point to which all these routes tended, thetowns on it became the resort of an immense number of merchants, even atvery early ages; and the kingdoms of Prusias, Attalus, and Mithridates wereenriched by their commerce. Herodotus mentions, that the trade of theEuxine was conducted by interpreters of seven different languages. In thetime of Mithridates, 300 different nations, or tribes, met for commercialpurposes at Dioscurias in Colchis; and soon after the Romans conquered thecountries lying on the Euxine, there were 130 interpreters of languagesemployed in this and the other trading towns. The Romans, however, as soonas they became jealous, or afraid, of the power of the Parthians, would notsuffer them, or any other of the northern nations, to traffic by theEuxine; but endeavoured, as far as they could, to confine the commerce ofthe East to Alexandria: the consequence was, that even so early as the ageof Pliny, Dioscurias was deserted. 

The only article of import into Rome that remains to be considered is silk:the history of the knowledge and importation of this article among theancients, and the route by which it was obtained, will comprise all that itwill be necessary to say on this subject. 

The knowledge of silk was first brought into Europe through the conquestsof Alexander the Great. Strabo quotes a passage from Nearchus, in which itis mentioned, but apparently confounded, with cotton. It is well known thatAristotle obtained a full and accurate account of all the discoveries innatural history which were made during the conquests of Alexander, and hegives a particular description of the silk worm; so particular, indeed, that it is surprising how the ancients could, for nearly 600 years afterhis death, be ignorant of the nature and origin of silk. He describes thesilk worm as a horned worm, which he calls bombyx, which passes throughseveral transformations, and produces bombytria. It does not appear, however, that he was acquainted either with the native country of this[work->worm], or with such a people as the Seres; and this is the onlyreason for believing that he may allude entirely to a kind of silk made atCos, especially as he adds, that some women in this island decomposed thebombytria, and re-wove and re-spun it. Pliny also mentions the bombyx, anddescribes it as a natiye of Assyria; he adds, that the Assyrians madebombytria from it, and that the inhabitants of Cos learnt the manufacturefrom them. The most propable supposition is, that silk was spun and wove inAssyria and Cos, but the raw material imported into these countries fromthe Seres; for the silk worm was deemed by the Greeks and Romans soexclusively and pre-eminently the attribute of the Sinae, that from thisvery circumstance, they were denominated seres, or silk worms, by theancients. 

The next authors who mention silk are Virgil, and Dionysius the geographer;Virgil supposed the Seres to card their silk from leaves, --_Velleraque utfoliis depectunt tentuia Seres_. --Dionysius, who was sent by Augustus todraw up an account of the Oriental regions, says, that rich and valuablegarments were manufactured by the Seres from threads, finer than those ofthe spider, which they combed from flowers. 

It is not exactly known at what period silk garments were first worn atRome: Lipsius, in his notes on Tacitius, says, in the reign of JuliusCsesar. In the beginning of the reign of Tiberius, a law was made, that noman should dishonor himself by wearing a silken garment. We have alreadystated the opinion entertained by Pliny respecting the native country ofthe silk worm; this author condemns in forcible, though affected language, the thirst of gain, which explored the remotest parts of the earth for thepurpose of exposing to the public eye naked draperies and transparentmatrons. In his time, slight silks, flowered, seem to have been introducedinto religious ceremonies, as he describes crowns, in honour of thedeities, of various colours, and highly perfumed, made of silk. The nextauthor who mentions silk is Pausanias; he says, the thread from which theSeres form their web is not from any kind of bark, but is obtained in adifferent way; they have in their country a spinning insect, which theGreeks call seer. He supposes that the insect lived five years, and fed ongreen haulm: by the last particular, it is not improbable he meant theleaves of the mulberry tree. For 200 years after the age of Pliny, the useof silk was confined to the female sex, till the richer citizens, both ofthe capital and the provinces, followed the example of Heliogabalus, thefirst man, who, according to Lampridius, wore _holosericum_ that is, agarment which was all of silk. From this expression, however, it isevident, that previous to this period the male inhabitants of Rome had beenin the habit of wearing garments made of silk mixed with linen or woollen. 

Hitherto there is no intimation in ancient authors of the price of silk atRome; in the time of Aurelian, however, that is towards the end of thethird century, we learn the high price at which it was rated, in anindirect manner. For when the wife of that Emperor begged of him to permither to have but one single garment of purple silk; he refused it, saying, that one pound of silk sold at Rome for 12 ounces, or its weight of gold. This agrees with what is laid down in the Rhodian maritime laws, as theyappear in the eleventh book of the Digests, according to which unmixed silkgoods paid a salvage, if they were saved without being damaged by the seawater, of ten per cent. , as being equal in value to gold. 

In about 100 years after the reign of Aurelian, however, the importation ofsilk into Rome must have increased very greatly; for Ammianus Marcellinus, who flourished A. D. 380, expressly states that silk, which had formerlybeen confined to the great and rich, was, in his time, within the purchaseof the common people. Constantinople was founded about forty years beforehe wrote; and it naturally found its way there in greater abundance than ithad done, when Rome was the capital of the empire. 

From this time, till the middle of the sixth century, we have no particularinformation respecting the silk trade of the Roman empire. At this period, during the reign of Justinian, silk had become an article of very generaland indispensible use: but the Persians had occupied by land and sea themonopoly of this article, so that the inhabitants of Tyre and Berytus, whohad all along manufactured it for the Roman market, were no longer able toprocure a sufficient supply, even at an extravagant price. Besides, whenthe manufactured goods were brought within the Roman territories, they weresubject to a duty of ten per cent. Justinian, under these circumstances, very impolitically ordered that silk should be sold at the rate of eightpieces of gold for the pound, or about 3_l_. 4s. The consequence wassuch as might have been expected: silk goods were no longer imported; andto add to the injustice and the evil, Theodora, the emperor's wife, seizedall the silk, and fined the merchants very heavily. It was thereforenecessary, that Justinian should have recourse to other measures to obtainsilk goods; instead, however, of restoring the trade of Egypt, which atthis period had fallen into utter decay, and sending vessels directly fromthe Red Sea to the Indian markets, where the raw material might have beenprocured, he had recourse to Arabia and Abyssinia. According to Suidas, hewished the former to import the silk in a raw state, intending tomanufacture it in his own dominions. But the king of Abyssinia declined theoffer; as the vicinity of the Persians to the Indian markets for silkenabled them to purchase it at a cheaper rate than the Abyssinians couldprocure it. The same obstacle prevented the Arabians from complying withthe request of Justinian. 

The wealthy and luxurious Romans, therefore, must have been deprived ofthis elegant material for their dresses, had not their wishes beengratified by an unexpected event. Two Persian monks travelled to Serindi, where they had lived long enough to become acquainted with the variousprocesses for spinning and manufacturing silk. When they returned, theycommunicated their information to Justinian; and were induced, by hispromises, to undertake the transportation of the eggs of the silk-worm, from China to Constantinople. Accordingly, they went back to Serindi, andbrought away a quantity of the eggs in a hollow cane, and conveyed themsafely to Constantinople. They superintended and directed the hatching ofthe eggs, by the heat of a dunghill: the worms were fed on mulberry leaves:a sufficient number of butterflies were saved to keep up the stock; and toadd to the benefits already conferred, the Persian monks taught the Romansthe whole of the manufacture. From Constantinople, the silk-worms wereconveyed to Greece, Sicily, and Italy. In the succeeding reign, the Romanshad improved so much in the management of the silk-worms, and in themanufacture of silk, that the Serindi ambassadors, on their arrival inConstantinople, acknowledged that the Romans were not inferior to thenatives of China, in either of these respects. It may be mentioned, infurther proof of the opinion already given, that the silk manufactures ofCos were not supplied from silk-worms in that island, that we have theexpress authority of Theophanes and Zonaras, that, before silk-worms werebrought to Constantinople, in the reign of Justinian, no person in thatcity knew that silk was produced by a worm. This, certainly, would not havebeen the case, if there had been silk-worms so near Constantinople as theisland of Cos is. All the authors whom we have quoted, (with the exceptionof Aristotle, Pliny, and Pausanias, ) including a period of six centuries, supposed that silk was made from fleeces growing upon trees, from the barkof trees, or from flowers. These mistakes, may, indeed, have arisen fromthe Romans having heard of the silk being taken from the mulberry and othertrees, on which the worms feed; but, however they originated, they plainlyprove that the native country of the silk-worm was at a very great distancefrom Rome, and one of which they had very little knowledge. 

Having thus brought the history of this most valuable import into Rome, down to the period, when, in consequence of the Romans having acquired thesilk-worm, there existed no longer any necessity to import the rawmaterials; we shall next proceed to investigate the routes by which it wasbrought from the Seres to the western parts of Asia, and thence to Rome. Itis well ascertained, that the silk manufacture was established at Tyre andBerytus, from a very early period; and these places seem to have suppliedRome with silk stuffs. But, by what route did silk arrive thither, and tothe other countries, so as to be within the immediate reach of theRomans?--There were two routes, by which it was introduced to Europe, andthe contiguous parts of Asia: by land and sea. 

The route by sea is pointed out in a clear and satisfactory manner, by someof the ancient authors, particularly the author of the Periplus of theErythrean Sea. In enumerating the exports from Nelkundah, he particularlymentions silk stuffs, and adds, that they were brought to this place fromcountries further to the east. Nelkundah was a town in Malabar, abouttwelve miles up a small river, at the mouth of which was the port ofBarake; at this port, the vessels of the ancients rode till their ladingwas brought down from Nelkundah. This place seems to have been thecentrical mart between the countries that lie to the east and west of CapeComorin, or the hither and further peninsula of India; fleets sailed fromit to Khruse, which there is every reason to believe was part of thepeninsula of Malacca; and we have the authority of Ptolemy, that there wasa commercial communication between it and the northern provinces of China. But at a later period than the age of the Periplus, silk was brought by seafrom China to Ceylon, and thence conveyed to Africa and Europe. Cosmos, wholived in the sixth century, informs us, that the Tzenistæ or Chinese, brought to Ceylon, silks, aloes, cloves, and sandal wood. That hisTzenistsæ, are the Chinese, there can be no doubt; for he mentions them asinhabiting a country producing silk, beyond which there is no country, forthe ocean encircles it oh the east. From this it is evident that theTzenistæ of this author, and the Seres of the ancients, are the same; andin specifying the imports into Ceylon, he mentions silk thread, as comingfrom countries farther to the east, particularly from the Chinese. We thussee by what sea route silk was brought from China to those places withwhich the western nations had a communication; it was imported either intothe peninsula of Malacca by sea, and thence by sea to Nelkundah, whence itwas brought by a third voyage to the Red Sea; or it was brought directlyfrom China to Ceylon, from which place there was a regular seacommunication also with the Red Sea. 

The author of the Periplus informs us, that raw as well as manufacturedsilk were conveyed by land through Bactria, to Baraguza or Guzerat, and bythe Ganges to Limurike; according to this first route, the silks of Chinamust have come the whole length of Tartary, from the great wall, intoBactria; from Bactria, they passed the mountains to the sources of theIndus, and by that river they were brought down to Patala, or Barbarike, inScindi, and thence to Guzerat: the line must have been nearly the same whensilk was brought to the sources of the Ganges; at the mouth of this river, it was embarked for Limurike in Canara. All the silk, therefore, that wentby land to Bactria, passed down the Indus to Guzerat; all that deviatedmore to the east, and came by Thibet, passed down the Ganges to Bengal. 

A third land route by which silk was brought to the Persian merchants, andby them sold to the Romans, was from Samarcand and Bochara, through thenorthern provinces of China, to the metropolis of the latter country: this, however, was a long, difficult, and dangerous route. From Samarcand to thefirst town of the Chinese, was a journey of from 60 to 100 days; as soon asthe caravans passed the Jaxartes, they entered the desert, in which theywere necessarily exposed to great privations, as well as to great risk fromthe wandering tribes. The merchants of Samarcand and Bochara, on theirreturn from China, transported the raw or manufactured silk into Persia;and the Persian merchants sold it to the Romans at the fairs of Armenia andNisibis. 

Another land route is particularly described by Ptolemy: according to hisdetail, this immense inland communication began from the bay of Issus, inCilicia; it then crossed Mesopotamia, from the Euphrates to the Tigris, near Hieropolis: it then passed through part of Assyria and Media, toEcbatana and the Caspian Pass; after this, through Parthia to Hecatompylos:from this place to Hyrcania; then to Antioch, in Margiana; and hence intoBactria. From Bactria, a mountainous country was to be crossed, and thecountry of the Sacæ, to Tachkend, or the Stone Tower. Near this place wasthe station of those merchants who traded directly with the Seres. Thedefile of Conghez was next passed, and the region of Cosia or Cashgarthrough the country of the Itaguri, to the capital of China. Seven monthswere employed on this journey, and the distance in a right line amounted to2800 miles. That the whole of this journey was sometimes performed byindividuals for the purchase of silk and other Chinese commodities, we havethe express testimony of Ptolemy; for he informs us, that Maes, aMacedonian merchant, sent his agent through the entire route which we havejust described. It is not surprising, therefore, that silk should haveborne such an exorbitant price at Rome; but it is astonishing that anycommodity, however precious, could bear the expence of such a landcarriage. 

The only other routes by land, by which silk was brought from China intoEurope, seem to have corresponded, in the latter part of their direction, with the land routes from India, already described. Indeed, it maynaturally be supposed, that the Indian merchants, as soon as they learnedthe high prices of silk at Rome, would purchase it, and send it along withthe produce and manufactures of their own country, by the caravans toPalmyra, and by river navigation to the Euxine: and we have seen, that onthe capture of Palmyra, by Aurelian, silk was one of the articles ofplunder. 

We are now to take notice of the laws which were passed by the Romans forthe improvement of navigation and commerce; and in this part of our subjectwe shall follow the same plan and arrangement which we have adopted intreating of the commerce itself; that is, we shall give a connected view ofthese laws, or at least the most important of them, from the period whenthe Romans began to interest themselves in commerce, till the decline ofthe empire. 

These laws may be divided into three heads: first, laws relating to theprotection and privileges allowed to mariners by the Roman emperors;secondly, laws relating to particular fleets; and lastly, laws relating toparticular branches of trade. 

1. The fifth title of the thirteenth book of the Theodosian code of lawsentirely relates to the privileges of mariners. It appears, from this, thatby a law made by the Emperor Constans, and confirmed by Julian, protectionwas granted to them from all personal injuries; and it was expresslyordered, that they should enjoy perfect security, and be defended from allsort of violence and injustice. The emperor Justinian considered this lawso indispensably necessary to secure the object which it had in view, thathe not only adopted it into his famous code, but decreed that whoevershould seize and apply the ships of mariners, against their wishes, to anyother purpose than that for which they were designed, should be punishedwith death. In the same part of his code, he repeats and confirms a law ofthe emperors Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, inflicting death on any onewho should insult seafaring men. In another law, adopted into the same codefrom the statutes of former emperors, judges and magistrates are forbidden, on pain of death, to give them any manner of trouble. They were alsoexempted from paying tribute, though the same law which exempts them, taxesmerchants. No person who had exercised any mean or dishonourable employmentwas allowed to become a mariner; and the emperors Constantine and Julianraised them to the dignity of knights, and, shortly afterwards, they weredeclared capable of being admitted into the senate. 

As a counterbalance to those privileges and honours, it appears, thatmariners, at least such of them as might be required for the protection ofthe state, were obliged to conform themselves to certain rules andconditions, otherwise the laws already quoted did not benefit them. Theywere obliged to possess certain lands; and, indeed, it would seem that theprofession and privileges of a mariner depended on his retaining theselands. When these lands were sold, the purchaser was obliged to performtowards the state all those services which were required of a mariner, andin return he obtained all the privileges, dignities, and exemptions grantedto that class of men. This, however, was productive of great inconvenienceto the state; since, if the lands were purchased by persons ignorant ofmaritime affairs, they could not be so effective as persons accustomed tothe sea. From this consideration a law was passed, that when such lands aswere held on condition of sea-service passed into the possession of thosewho were unaccustomed to the sea, they should revert to their originalowners. It was also ordered, that such privileged mariners shouldpunctually perform all services required of them by the state; that theyshould not object to carry any particular merchandize; that they should nottake into their vessels above a certain quantity of goods, in order thatthey might not, by being over laden, be rendered unfit for the service ofthe state; and that they should not change their employment for any other, even though it were more honourable or lucrative. The whole shipping, andall the seamen, seem thus to have been entirely under the management andcontroul of the state; there were, however, a few exceptions. Individuals, who possessed influence sufficient, or from other causes, were permitted topossess ships of their own, but only on the express condition that thestate might command them and the services of their crews, whenever it wasnecessary. The legal rate of interest was fixed by Justinian at six percent. ; but for the convenience and encouragement of trade, eight wasallowed on money lent to merchants and manufacturers; and twelve on therisk of bottomry. 

2. There are several laws in the Theodosian code which relate to thedifferent fleets of the empire: the Eastern fleet, the principal port ofwhich was Seleucia, a city of Syria, on the Orontes, by which were conveyedto Rome and Constantinople, all the oriential merchandize that came by theland route we have described to Syria, was particularly noticed, as well assome smaller fleets depending on it, as the fleet of the island ofCarpathus. The privileges granted to the African fleet are expressly givento the Eastern fleet. 

In another part of the code of Justinian, the trade between the Romans andPersians is regulated: the places were the fairs and markets are to be keptare fixed and named; these were near the confines of the two kingdoms; andthese confines neither party was allowed to pass. 

From a law of the emperor Constans, inserted in the Theodosian code, itappears that some of the ships which came from Spain to Rome were freightedfor the service of the state; and these are particularly regulated andprivileged in this law. 

There were several laws made also respecting the fleet which the emperorsemployed for the purpose of collecting the tribute and revenue, andconveying it to Home and Constantinople. The law of the emperors Leo andZeno, which is inserted in the Justinian code, mentions the fleet which waskept to guard the treasures: and by another law, taken from the Theodosiancode, we learn, that the guards of the treasures, who went in this fleet, were officers under the superintendent of the imperial revenue. 

3. We have already mentioned the dependence of Rome on foreign nations forcorn, and the encouragement given, during the republic and in the earlytimes of the empire, to the importation of this necessary article. In theTheodosian and Justinian code, encouragement to the importation of it seemsstill to have been a paramount object, especially from Egypt; for thoughfrom an edict of Justinian it would appear that the cargoes from thiscountry, of whatever they consisted, were guarded and encouraged by law, yet we know that the principal freight of the ships which traded betweenAlexandria and Rome and Constantinople was corn, and that other merchandizewas taken on board the corn fleets only on particular occasions, or, whereit was necessary, to complete the cargoes. Among the other edicts ofJustinian, regulating the trade of Egypt, there is one which seems to havebeen passed in consequence of the abuses that had crept into the trade ofcorn and other commodities, which were shipped from Alexandria forConstantinople. These abuses arose from the management of this trade beingin the hands of a very few persons: the emperor therefore passed a law, dividing the management into different branches, each to be held byseparate individuals. From the code of Justinian we also learn, that cornwas embarked from other ports of Egypt besides Alexandria, by privatemerchants; but these were not permitted to export it without permission ofthe emperor, and even then not till after the imperial fleet was fairly atsea. The importance of the corn trade of Egypt fully justified these laws;for at this period Constantinople was annually supplied with 260, 000quarters of wheat from this country. 

The resources of the Romans were principally derived from the tributelevied on the conquered countries; but in part also from duties onmerchandize: in the latter point of view, alone, they fall under ournotice. No custom duties seem to have been imposed till the time ofAugustus; but in his reign, and that of his immediate successors, dutieswere imposed on every kind of merchandize which was imported into Rome; therate varied from the eighth to the fortieth part of the value of thearticle. The most full and minute list of articles of luxury on whichcustom duties were levied, is to be found in the rescript of the emperorsMarcus and Commodus, relating to the goods imported into Egypt from theEast. In the preamble to this rescript it is expressly declared, that noblame shall attach to the collectors of the customs, for not informing themerchant of the amount of the custom duties while the goods are in transit;but if the merchant wishes to enter them, the officer is not to lead himinto error. The chief and most valuable articles on which, by thisrescript, duties were to be levied, were cinnamon, myrrh, pepper, ginger, and aromatics; precious stones; Parthian and Babylonian leather; cottons;silks, raw and manufactured: ebony, ivory, and eunuchs. 

Till the reign of Justinian, the straits of the Bosphorus and Hellespontwere open to the freedom of trade, nothing being prohibited but theexportation of arms for the service of the barbarians: but the avarice, orthe profusion of that emperor, stationed at each of the gates ofConstantinople a praetor, whose duty it was to levy a duty on all goodsbrought into the city, while, on the other hand, heavy custom duties wereexacted on all vessels and merchandize that entered the harbour. Thisemperor also exacted in a most rigorous manner, a duty in kind: which, however, had existed long before his time: we allude to the annona, orsupply of corn for use of the army and capital. This was a grievous andarbitrary exaction: rendered still more so "by the partial injustice ofweights and measures, and the expence and labour of distant carriage. " In atime of scarcity, Justinian ordered an extraordinary requisition of corn tobe levied on Thrace, Bithynia, and Phrygia; for which the proprietors, (asGibbon observes, ) "after a wearisome journey, and a perilous navigationreceived so inadequate a compensation, that they would have chosen thealternative of delivering both the corn and price at the doors of theirgranaries. "

Having thus given a connected and general view of the Roman commerce, weshall next proceed to investigate the progress of geographical knowledgeamong them. In our chronological arrangement of this progress, incidentaland detached notices respecting their commerce will occur, which, thoughthey could not well be introduced in the general view, yet will serve torender the picture of it more complete. 

It is evident that the principal accessions to geographical knowledge amongthe Romans, at least till their ambition was satinted, or nearly so, byconquest, must have been derived from their military expeditions. It isonly towards the time of Augustus that we find men, whose sole object invisiting foreign countries was to become acquainted with their state, manners, &c. 

Polybius is one of the earliest authors who give us a glimpse of the stateof geographical knowledge among the Romans, about the middle of the secondcentury before Christ, the period when he flourished. Lie was the greatfriend of Scipio, whom he accompanied in his expedition against Carthage. From his enquiries while in Africa, he informed himself of the geography ofthe northern parts of that quarter of the world; and he actually visitedthe coast as far as Mount Atlas, or Cape Nun, beyond which, however, hedoes not seem to have proceeded. He wrote a Periplus, or account of hisvoyage, which is not in existence, but is referred to and quoted by Pliny. He possessed also more accurate information of the western coasts of Europethan was had before; derived, it would appear, from the voyages of someRomans. Yet, with all this knowledge of what we may deem distant parts, Polybius was ignorant of the real shape of Italy, which he describes asstretching from east to west; a mistake which seems to have originated withhim, and was copied by Strabo. 

Varro, who was Pompey's lieutenant during the war against the pirates, andobtained a naval crown on that occasion, among the almost infinite varietyof topics on which he wrote, was the author of a work on navigation;unfortunately, however, only the title of it is extant: had it yetremained, it would have thrown much light on the state of navigation, geography, and commerce among the Romans in his time. 

Julius Caesar's attention to science in the midst of his wars and perils iswell known. He first formed the idea of a general survey of the wholeempire; and for this purpose obtained a decree of the senate. The surveywas finished by Augustus: the execution of it was committed to three Greekgeographers. The survey of the eastern portion of the empire was committedto Zenodoxus, who completed it, in fourteen years, five months, and ninedays. The northern division was finished by Theodoras in twenty years, eight months, and ten days: and the southern division was finished intwenty-five years, one month, and ten days. This survey, with thesupplementary surveys of the new provinces, as they were conquered andadded to the empire, formed the basis of the geography of Ptolemy. Itappears from Vegetius, that every governor of a province was furnished witha description of it, in which were given the distance of places, the natureof the roads, the face of the country, the direction of the rivers, &c. : headds, that all these were delineated on a map as well as described inwriting. Of this excellent plan for the itineraries and surveys of theRoman empire, from which the ancient geographers obtained their fullest andmost accurate information, Julius Cæsar was the author. 

Julius Cæsar certainly added much to geographical knowledge by hisconquests of Gaul and Britain: his information respecting the latter, however, as might be expected, is very erroneous. Yet, that even its verynorthern parts were known by name to the Romans soon after his death, isapparent, from this circumstance, that Diodorus Siculus, who died towardsthe middle of the reign of Augustus, mentions Orkas; which, he says, formsthe northern extremity of the island of Britain. This is the very firstmention of any place in Scotland by any writer. 

One of the first objects of Augustus, after he had reduced Egypt, was toexplore the interior of Africa, either for the purpose of conquest, or toobtain the precious commodities, especially frankincense and aromatics, which he had learned were the produce of those countries. Ælius Gallus wasselected by the emperor for this expedition, and he was accompanied by thegeographer Strabo; who, however, has not given such accurate information ofthe route which was pursued as might have been expected. This is the moreto be lamented, as Pliny informs us that the places which were visitedduring this expedition are not to be found in authors previous to his time. 

Gallus was directed by the emperor to explore Ethiopia, the country of theTroglodytæ and Arabia. The expedition against Ethiopia, which Gallusentrusted to Petronius, we shall afterwards examine, confining ourselves atpresent to the proceedings and progress of Gallus himself. His own forceconsisted of 10, 000 men, to which were added 500, supplied by Herod, kingof the Jews; and 1000 Nabathians from Petra; besides a fleet of eightyships of war and 130 transports. Syllæus, the minister of the king of theNabathians, undertook to conduct the expedition; but as it was not for theinterest either of his king or country that it should succeed, he betrayedhis trust, and, according to Strabo, was executed at Rome for his treacheryon this occasion. His object was to delay the expedition as much aspossible: this he effected by persuading Gallus to prepare a fleet, whichwas unnecessary, as the army might have followed the route of the caravans, through a friendly country, from Cleopatris, where the expeditioncommenced, to the head of the Elanitic Gulf. The troops, however, wereembarked, and, as the navigation of the Sea of Suez was intricate, thefleet was fifteen days in arriving at Leuke Kome: here, in consequence ofthe soldiers having become, during their voyage, afflicted with variousdisorders, and the year being far advanced, Gallus was obliged to remaintill the spring. Another delay was contrived by Syllæus on their leavingLeuke Kome. After this, they seem to have proceeded with more celerity, andwith very little opposition from the natives, till they came to a city ofsome strength: this they were obliged to besiege in regular form; but, after lying before it for six days, Gallus was forced, for want of water, to raise the siege, and to terminate the expedition. He was told that atthis time he was within two days' journey of the land of aromatics andfrankincense, the great object which Augustus had in view. On his retreat, he no longer trusted to Syllæus, but changed the route of the army, directing it from the interior to the coast. At Nera, in Petræa, the armyembarked, and was eleven days in crossing the gulf to Myos Hormos: fromthis place it traversed the country of the Troglodytes to Coptus, on theNile. Two years were spent in this unfortunate expedition. It is extremelydifficult to fix on the limit of this expedition, but it is probable thatthe town which Gallus besieged, and beyond which he did not penetrate, wasthe capital of the Mineans. From the time of this expedition, the Romansalways maintained a footing on the coast of the Red Sea; and either duringthe residence of Gallus at Leuke Kome, or soon afterwards, they placed agarrison in this place, where they collected the customs, graduallyextending their conquests and their geographical knowledge down the Gulf, till they reached the ocean. This seems to have been the only beneficialconsequence resulting from the expedition of Gallus. 

We must now attend to the expedition of Petronius against the Ethiopians. This was completely successful, and Candakè, their queen, was obliged, as atoken of her submission, to send ambassadors to Augustus, who was at thattime in the island of Samos. About this period the commerce of theEgyptians, --which, in fact, was the commerce of the Romans, --was extendedto the Troglodytes, --with whom previously they had carried on little or notrade. 

The first account of the island of Ceylon, under the name of Taprobane, wasbrought to Europe by the Macedonians, who had accompanied Alexander intothe east. It is mentioned, and a short description given of it, byOnesicritus and Eratosthenes. Iambulus, however, who lived in the time ofAugustus, is the first author who enters into any details regarding it; andthough much of what he states is undoubtedly fabulous, yet there areparticulars surprizingly correct, and such as confirm his own account, thathe actually, visited the island. According to Diodorus Siculus, he was theson of a merchant, and a merchant himself; and while trading in Arabia forspices, he was taken prisoner and carried into Arabia, whence he wascarried off by the Ethiopians, and put into a ship, which was driven by themonsoon to Ceylon. The details he mentions, that are most curious and mostconformable to truth, are the stature of the natives and the flexibility oftheir joints; the length of their ears, bored and pendant; the perpetualverdure of the trees; the attachment of the natives to astronomy; theirworship of the elements, and particularly of the sun and moon; their cottongarments; the men having one wife in common; the days and nights beingequal in length; and the Calamus, or Maiz. It is extraordinary, howeve'r, that Iambulus never mentions cinnamon, which, as he was a dealer in spices, it might have been supposed would have attracted his particular attention. 

One of the most celebrated geographers among the ancients, flourishedduring the reign of Augustus;--we allude to Strabo: his fundamentalprinciples are, the globosity of the earth, and its centripetal force; healso lays down rules for constructing globes, but he seems ignorant of themode of fixing the position of places by their latitude or longitude, or, at least, he neglects it. In order to render his geographical knowledgemore accurate and complete, he travelled over most of the countries betweenArmenia on the east and Etruria on the west, and from his native country, on the borders of the Euxine sea, to the borders of Ethiopia. The portionof the globe which he describes, is bounded on the north by the Baltic, onthe east by the Ganges, on the south by the mouth of the river Senegal, andon the west by Spain. In describing the countries which he himself hadvisited, he is generally very accurate, but his accounts of those he hadnot visited, are frequently erroneous or very incomplete. His informationrespecting Ceylon and the countries of the Ganges, seems to have beenderived entirely from the statements brought to Europe by the generals ofAlexander. 

In the reign of Claudius, the knowledge of the Romans respecting theinterior of Africa, was slightly extended by the expedition of SuetoniusPaulinus; he was the first Roman who crossed Mount Atlas, and during thewinter penetrated through the deserts, which are described as formed ofblack dust, till he reached a river called the Niger. Paulinus wrote anaccount of this expedition, which, however, is not extant: Pliny quotes it. In the reign of Claudius, also, the island of Ceylon became better known, in consequence of an accident which happened to the freedman of a Roman, who farmed the customs in the Red Sea. This man, in the execution of hisduty, was blown off the coast of Arabia, across the ocean to Taprobane, orCeylon; here he was hospitably received by the king, and after a residenceof six months was sent back, along with ambassadors, to Claudius. Theyinformed the emperor that their country was very extensive, populous, andopulent, abounding in gold, silver, and pearls. It seems probable that thecircumstance of the freedman having been carried to Ceylon by a steady andregular wind, and this man and the ambassadors having returned by a winddirectly opposite, but as steady and regular, had some influence in thediscovery of the monsoon. As this discovery led necessarily to a directcommunication between Africa and India, and grea'ly enlarged the knowledgeof the Romans respecting the latter country, as well as their commercialconnections with it, it will be proper to notice it in a particular manner. 

This important discovery is supposed to have been made in the seventh yearof the reign of Claudius, answering to the forty-seventh of the Christianera. The following is the account given of it by the author of the Periplusof the Erythrean Sea, as translated by Dr. Vincent:

"The whole navigation, such as it has been described from Adan in ArabiaFelix and Kanè to the ports of India, was performed formerly in smallvessels, by adhering to the shore and following the indention of the coast;but Hippalus was the pilot who first discovered the direct course acrossthe ocean, by observing the position of the ports and the generalappearance of the sea; for, at the season when the annual winds peculiar toour climate settle in the north, and blow for a continuance upon our coastfrom the Mediterranean, in the Indian ocean the wind is constantly to thesouth west; and this wind has in those seas obtained the name of Hippalus, from the pilot who first attempted the passage by means of it to the east. 

"From the period of that discovery to the present time, vessels bound toIndia take their departure either from Kanè on the Arabian, or from CapeArometa on the African side. From these points they stretch out to the opensea at once, leaving all the windings of the gulfs and bays at a distance, and make directly for their several destinations on the coast of India. Those that are intended for Limurike waiting some time before they sail, but those that are destined for Barugaza, or Scindi, seldom more than threedays. "

If we may credit Pliny, the Greek merchants of Egypt for some years afterthe discovery of the monsoon, did not venture further out to sea than wasabsolutely necessary, by crossing the widest part of the entry of thePersian Gulf, to reach Patala at the mouth of the Indus; but theyafterwards found shorter routes, or rather stretched more to the south, soas to reach lower down on the coast of India: they also enlarged theirvessels, carried cargoes of greater value, and in order to beat off thepirates, which then as at present infested this part of the Indian coast, they put on board their vessels a band of archers. Myos Hormos, orBerenice, was the port on the Red Sea from which they sailed; in forty daysthey arrived at Musiris, on the west coast of India. The homeward passagewas begun in December or January, when the north east monsoon commenced;this carried them to the entrance of the Red Sea, up which to their portthey were generally favored by southerly winds. 

As there is no good reason to believe that the ancients made regularvoyages to India, previously to the discovery of the monsoons; yet, as itis an undoubted fact that some of the exclusive productions of thatcountry, particularly cinnamon, were obtained by them, through theirvoyages on the Red Sea; it becomes an important and interesting enquiry, bywhat means these productions were brought to those places on this sea, fromwhich the Romans obtained them. In our opinion, the Arabians were the firstwho introduced Indian productions into the west from the earliest period towhich history goes back, and they continued to supply the merchants whotraded on the Red Sea with them, till, by the discovery of the monsoon, adirect communication was opened between that sea and India. 

At least seventeen centuries before the Christian era, we have undoubtedevidence of the traffic of the Arabians in the spices, &c. Of India; for inthe 27th chapter of Genesis we learn, that the Ishmaelites from Gileadconducted a caravan of camels laden with the spices of India, and thebalsam and myrrh of Hadraumaut, in the regular course of traffic to Egyptfor sale. In the 30th chapter of Exodus, cinnamon, cassia, myrrh, frankincense, &c. Are mentioned, some of which are the exclusive produce ofIndia; these were used for religious purposes, but at the same time thequantities of them specified are so great, that it is evident they musthave been easily obtained. Spices are mentioned, along with balm and otherproductions of Canaan, in the present destined by Jacob for Joseph. Thesetestimonies from holy writ are perfectly in unison with what we learn fromHerodotus; this author enumerates oriental spices as regularly used inEgypt for embalming the dead. 

It is sufficiently evident, therefore, that, at a very early period, theproductions of India were imported into Egypt. That the Arabians were themerchants who imported them, is rendered highly probable from severalcircumstances. The Ishmaelites, mentioned in the 37th chapter of Genesis, are undoubtedly the Nabathians, whose country is represented by all thegeographers, historians, and poets, as the source of all the preciouscommodities of the east; the ancients, erroneously supposing that cinnamon, which we know to be an exclusive production of India, was the produce ofArabia, because they were supplied with it, along with other aromatics, from that country. The proof that the Nabathians and the Ishmaelites arethe same, is to be found in the evident derivation of the former name, fromNebaioth, the son of Ishmael. The traditions of the Arabians coincide withthe genealogy of the Scriptures, in regarding Joktan, the fourth son ofShem, as the origin of those trihes which occupied Sabæa and Hadraumaut, orthe incense country; Ishmael as the father of the families which settled inArabia Deserta; and Edom as the ancestor of the Idumeans, who settled inArabia Petræa. 

Eight hundred years before the Christian era, the merchandize of theSabeans is particularly noticed by the prophet Isaiah; and even long beforehis time, we are informed, that there were no such spices as the Queen ofSheba gave to Solomon. That Sheba is Sabæa, or Arabia Felix, we learn fromEzekiel:--"The merchants of Sheba and Ramah, they were thy merchants: theyoccupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all preciousstones and gold. " Six hundred and fifty years after Isaiah bore histestimony to the commerce of Sabæa, we have the authority of Agatharcides, that the merchants of this country traded to India; that the great wealthand luxury of Sabæa were principally derived from this trade; and that, atthe time when Egypt possessed the monopoly of the Indian trade, withrespect to Europe, the Sabeans enjoyed a similar advantage with regard toEgypt. 

Having thus established the fact, that, from the earliest period of whichwe have any record, the Arabians were the merchants who brought thecinnamon, &c. Of India into the west, we must, in the next place, endeavourto ascertain by what means and route this commerce was carried on; and wethink we can prove that the communication between Arabia and India, at avery early period, was both by sea and land. 

There were many circumstances connected with Arabia and the Arabians, whichwould necessarily turn their thoughts to maritime affairs, and when theyhad once embarked in maritime commerce, would particularly direct it toIndia. The sea washed three sides of the peninsula of Arabia: the Arabianswere not, like the Egyptians, prejudiced, either by their habits or theirreligion, against the sea. The monsoons must have been perceived by them, from part of the sea-coast lying within their influence; and it can hardlybe supposed that a sea-faring people would not take advantage of them, toembark in such a lucrative trade as that of India. "There is no historywhich treats of them which does not notice them as pirates, or merchants, by sea, as robbers, or traders, by land. We scarcely touch upon them, accidentally, in any author, without finding that they were the carriers ofthe Indian Ocean. " From the earliest period that history begins to noticethem, Sabæa, Hadraumaut, and Oman, are described as the residences ofnavigators; and as these places are, in the earliest historians, celebratedfor their maritime commerce, it is reasonable to suppose that they wereequally so before the ancient historians acquired any knowledge of them. 

We cannot go farther back, with respect to the fact of the Arabians beingin India, than the voyage of Nearchus; but in the journal of thisnavigator, we find manifest traces of Arabian navigators on the coast ofMekran, previous to his expedition: he also found proofs of their commerceon the coast of Gadrosia, and Arabic names of places--a pilot to directhim, and vessels of the country in the Gulf of Persia. Large ships from theIndus, Patala, Persis, and Karmania came to Arabia, as early as the time ofAgatharcides; and it is probable that these ships were navigated byArabians, as the inhabitants of India were not, at this time, and, indeed, never have been celebrated for their maritime enterprize and skill. Thesame author mentions a town, a little without the Red Sea, from whence, hesays, the Sabeans sent out colonies or factories into India, and to whichthe large ships he describes came with their cargoes from India. This isthe first historical evidence to prove the establishment of Arabianfactories and merchants in the ports of India. In the time of Pliny, theArabians were in such numbers on the coast of Malabar, and at Ceylon, that, according to that author, the inhabitants of the former had embraced theirreligion, and the ports of the latter were entirely in their power. Theirsettlements and commerce in India are repeatedly mentioned in the Periplusof the Erythrean Sea, and likewise their settlements down the coast ofAfrica to Rhaptum, before it was visited by the Greeks from Egypt. For, besides their voyages from India to their own country, they frequentlybrought Indian commodities direct to the coast of Africa. At Sabaea, thegreat mart of the Arabian commerce with India, the Greeks, as late as thereign of Philometor, purchased the spices and other productions of theeast. As there was a complete monopoly of them at this place, in the handsof the Arabians, the Greek navigators and merchants were induced, in thehopes of obtaining them cheaper, to pass the Straits of Babelmandeb, and onthe coast of Africa they found cinnamon and other produce of India, whichhad been brought hither by the Arabian traders. 

The evidence of the land trade between Arabia and India, from a very earlyperiod, is equally clear and decisive: Petra, the capital of Arabia Petrea, was the centre of this trade. To it the caravans, in all ages, came fromMinea, in the interior of Arabia, and from Gherra, in the Gulf ofPersia, --from Hadraumaut, on the Ocean, and some even from Sabaea. FromPetra, the trade again spread in every direction--to Egypt, Palestine, andSyria, through Arsinoe, Gaza, Tyre, Jerusalem, Damascus, and other placesof less consequence, all lying on routes terminating in the Mediterranean. 

The Gherrheans, who were a Babylonian colony settled in that part ofArabia, which extends along the south coast of the Persian Gulf, are theearliest conductors of caravans upon record. They are first mentioned byAgatharcides, who compares their wealth with that of the Sabeans, anddescribes them as the agents for all the precious commodities of Asia andEurope: he adds that they brought much wealth into Syria, and furnished avariety of articles, which were afterwards manufactured or resold by thePhoenicians. But the only route by which Syria and Phoenicia could havebeen supplied by them, was through Petra. The particular articles withwhich their caravans were loaded, according to Strabo, were the produce ofArabia, and the spices of India. Besides the route of their caravans, across the whole peninsula to Petra, it appears that they sometimes carriedtheir merchandize in boats up the Euphrates to Babylon, or even 240 mileshigher up, to Thapsacus, and thence dispersed it in all directions by land. 

The exact site of the country of the Mineans cannot be certainly fixed; butit is probable that it was to the south of Hedjaz, to the north ofHadraumaut, and to the eastward of Sabaea. According to Strabo, theircaravans passed in seventy days from Hadraumaut to Aisla, which was withinten miles of Petra. They were laden with aloes, gold, myrrh, frankincense, and other aromatics. 

We can but faintly and obscurely trace the fluctuations in the trade ofPetra, in the remote periods of history. We know that Solomon was inpossession of Idumea, but whether it was subdued by Nebuchadnezzar isdoubtful. This sovereign, however, seems to have formed some plan ofdepriving the Gherrheans of the commerce of the Gulf of Persia. He raised amound to confine the waters of the Tigris: he built a city to stop theincursions of the Arabs, and opened a communication between the riversTigris and Euphrates. After this there is no account of Idumea till someyears subsequent to the death of Alexander the Great: at this period twoexpeditions were sent into it against its capital, Petra, by Antigonus, both of which were unsuccessful. These expeditions were undertaken aboutthe years 308 and 309 before Christ. The history of Idumea, from thisperiod, is better ascertained: harassed by the powerful kingdoms of Syriaand Egypt, --contiguous to both of which it lay, --it seems to have beengoverned by princes of its own, who were partly independent, and partlyunder the influence of the monarchs of Syria and Egypt. About sixty-threeyears before Christ, Pompey took Petra; and, from that period, thesovereigns of Idumea were tributary to the Romans. This city, however, still retained its commerce, and was in a flourishing condition, as we areinformed by Strabo, on the authority of his friend Athenedorus, who visitedit about thirty-six years after it. He describes it as built on a rock, distinguished, however, from all the rocks in that part of Arabia, frombeing supplied with an abundant spring of water. Its natural position, aswell as art, rendered it a fortress of importance in the desert. Herepresents the people as rich, civilized, and peaceable; the government asregal, but the chief power as lodged in a minister selected by the king, who had the title of the king's brother. Syllaeus, who betrayed EliusGallus, appears to have been a minister of this description. 

The next mention that occurs of the trade of Petra is in the Periplus ofthe Erythrean Sea, the date of which, though uncertain, there is goodreason to fix in Nero's reign. According to this work, Leuke Kome, at themouth of the Elanitic Gulf, was the point of communication with Petra, thecapital of the country, the residence of Malachus, the king of theNabathians. "Leuke Kome, itself, had the rank of a mart in respect to thesmall vessels which obtained their cargoes in Arabia, for which reasonthere was a garrison placed in it, under the command of a centurion, bothfor the purpose of protection, and in order to collect a duty oftwenty-five in the hundred. " In the reign of Trajan, Idumea was reducedinto the form of a Roman province, by one of his generals; after this timeit not does fall within our plan to notice it, except merely to state, thatits subjection does not seem to have been complete or permanent, for duringthe latter empire, there were certainly sovereigns of this part of Arabia, in some degree independent, whose influence and alliance were courted bythe Romans and Persians, whenever a war was about to commence between thesetwo powers. 

From this sketch of the trade of the Arabians from the earliest period, wemay conclude, in the first place, that when navigation was in its infancy, it was confined, or almost entirely so, to a land trade carried on bycaravans; and that Petra was the centre to which these caravans tended fromthe east and the south, bringing with them from the former the commoditiesof India, and from the latter the commodities of the more fertile part ofArabia. From Petra, all these goods were again transported by land to theshores of the Mediterranean and to Egypt. In the second place, whennavigation became more commonly known and practised, (and there is goodreason to believe that it was known and practised among the Arabians, especially those near the Persian Gulf, at a very early period, ) a portionof the Indian commodities, which before had been carried by land to Petrawere brought by sea to Sabaea. It appears that in the age of Agatharcides, the monopoly of the trade between India and Europe by this route was whollypossessed by the Sabeans; that, in order to evade the effects of thismonopoly, the Greeks of Egypt found their way to Aden and Hadraumaut, inArabia, and to Mosullon on the coast of Africa. Here they met with otherArabians, who at this time also traded to India, and sold them Indian goodsat a cheaper rate. And, lastly, we have seen that these ports on thesouthern coast of Arabia, and on the coast of Africa, were frequented bythe merchants of Egypt, till, by the discovery of the monsoon, their shipswere enabled to sail directly to India. It is undoubtedly true that beforethis discovery, single ships occasionally reached India by adhering to thecoast all the way, but the direct communication was very rare. After thenature of the monsoon was thoroughly understood, and it was ascertainedthat complete dependence could be placed on its steadiness and regularity, and that by its change, the ships could be brought as safely and quicklyback from India, as they had reached it, the ancients, who at first onlyventured to the mouth of the Indus, gradually made their way down thewestern coast of the Indian peninsula. 

The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a work which has been frequentlyreferred to, is rich in materials to illustrate the geographical knowledgeand the commercial enterprize of the ancients in the part of the world towhich it relates. We have already assigned its date to the age of Nero. Ourlimits will prevent us from giving a full account of this work; we shalltherefore, in the first place, give a short abstract of the geographicalknowledge which it displays, and in the next place, illustrate from it, thenature of the commerce carried on, on the Red Sea, the adjacent coasts ofAfrica and Arabia, and the ports of India, which are noticed in it. 

At the time of Strabo, the geography of the ancients did not extend, on theeastern coast of Africa, further to the south than a promontory called NotiCornu, (the Southern Horn, ) which seems to have been in about 12-1/2degrees north latitude. Beyond this an arid coast, without ports or freshwater, arrested the progress of navigation; but it appears by the Periplus, that this promontory was now passed, and commerce had extended to the portof Rhapta and the isle of Menutias, which are supposed to correspond withBabel Velho and the island of Magadoxa. The author of the Periplus, whoseems to have been a merchant personally acquainted with most of the placeshe describes, had heard of, but not visited the promontory Prasum: herepresents the ocean beyond Rhapta as entirely unknown, but as believed tocontinue its western direction, and after having washed the south coast ofEthiopia, to join the Western Ocean. The whole of the west coast of India, from the Indus to Trapobane, is minutely described in the Periplus. Some ofthe particulars of the manners and customs of the inhabitants coincide in astriking manner with those of the present day; this observation applies, among other points, to the pirates between Bombay and Goa. 

Dr. Vincent, in his learned commentary on the Periplus, gives it as hisopinion, that the author of the Periplus never went further than Nelkundahhimself, that is, to the boundary between the provinces of Canara andMalabar. The east coast of the Indian peninsula is not traced so minutelynor so accurately as the west coast, though there are names anddescriptions in the Periplus, from which it may fairly be inferred, thatthe author alludes to Cavary, Masulapatam, Calingapatam, Coromandel, andother places and districts of this part of India. The countries beyond theGanges, the Golden Chersonese, and the countries towards China, are veryobscurely noticed in the Periplus, though the information he givesrespecting the trade carried on in these parts is much more minute andaccurate. His description of the direction of the coast of India, is on thewhole, surprisingly consonant to truth: according to him, it tends fromnorth to south, as far as Colchos (Travancore); at this place it bends tothe east, and afterwards to the north; and then again a little to the east, as far as the Ganges. He is the first author in whom can clearly be tracedthe name of the great southern division of India: his term isDachanabades, --Dachan signifying south, and abad a city; and Decan is stillthe general name of all the country to the south of Baroche, the boundaryassigned by the author. The particulars he mentions of the bay of Cutch, ofCambay, of Baroche, and of the Ghauts, may also be mentioned as proofs ofhis accuracy with respect to those parts of India, which he visited inperson. 

Having thus given a sketch of the geographical knowledge contained thePeriplus, we shall next attend to the commercial information which itconveys. As this work is divided into two distinct parts, the firstcomprising the coast of the Red Sea, and of Africa, from Myos Hormos on theformer, to Rhapta in the latter: and the second part, beginning at the sameplace, and including the whole coast of Arabia, both that which lies on theRed Sea, and that which lies on the Ocean, and then stretching from theGulf of Persia to Guzerat, describing the coast of Malabar, as far asCeylon, we shall, in our abstract of the commercial intelligence itcontains, enumerate the principal imports and exports of the mostfrequented marts in Africa, (including the Red Sea, ) Arabia, and India. 

I. The Red Sea and Africa. Myos Hormos is described as the first port ofEgypt on the Red Sea; as it lies in twenty-seven degrees north latitude, and Rhapta, the boundary of the Periplus to the south, in nearly tendegrees south latitude, the distance between them will be about 2, 500miles. It is to be supposed, that every thing relating to the geography, navigation, and commerce of the Red Sea, from Myos Hormos to Aduli, on thewestern side, and Moosa, on the eastern side of it, was well known to themerchants of Egypt, as the author of the Periplus gives no circumstantialaccount of any port, till he arrives at these places. It appears, also, that till the ships arrived at these places, they kept the mid-channel ofthe Red Sea, and, consequently, there was no occasion, or indeed, opportunity of describing the intermediate ports. We have alreadymentioned, that Myos Hormos was fixed on by Ptolemy Philadelphus, inpreference to Arsinoe, because the navigation of the western part of theRed Sea, on which the latter was placed, was intricate and tedious. Berenice was afterwards selected, as being still lower down: but it isworthy of remark, that neither Berenice, nor Ptolemais Theron, another portof the Ptolemies, were harbours, but merely roadsteads, though from ourauthor's description, there were an almost infinite number of safeharbours, creeks, bays, &c. In every part of the Red Sea. 

Aduli, the first port on the west side of the Red Sea, and the port ofcommunication with Axuma, was, in the age of the Periplus, subject to thesame prince, who possessed the whole coast, from Berenice. The exports fromthis place were confined to ivory, brought from the interior on both sidesof the Nile; the horns of the rhinoceros, and tortoise-shell. The importswere very numerous, forming an assortment, as Dr. Vincent justly observes, as specific as a modern invoice: the principal articles were, cloth, manufactured in Egypt, unmilled, for the Barbarian market. The term, Barbarii, was applied to the Egyptians, to the whole western coast of theRed Sea, and was derived from Barbar, the native name of the countryinhabited by the Troglodytes, Icthyophagi, and shepherds: as these weremuch hated and dreaded by the Egyptians, Barbarii became a term of reproachand dread, and in this sense it was adopted by the Greeks and Romans, andhas passed into the modern European languages. But to return from thisdigression, --the other imports were robes, manufactured at Arsinoe; clothsdyed, so as to imitate the Tyrian purple; linens, fringed mantles, glass orcrystal, murrhine cups, orichalchum, or mixed metal for trinkets and coin;brass vessels for cooking, the pieces of which, when they happened to bebroken, were worn by the women as ornaments; iron, for weapons and otherpurposes; knives, daggers, hatchets, &c. ; brass bowls, wine, oil, gold andsilver plate, camp cloaks, and cover-lids: these formed the principalarticles of import from Myos Hormos, and as they are very numerous, compared with the exports, it seems surprising that coin should also havebeen imported, but that this was the case, we are expressly told by theauthor of the Periplus, who particularizes Roman currency, under the nameof Denarii. The following articles imported into Aduli, must have comethrough Arabia, from India: Indian iron; Indian cottons; coverlids, andsashes made of cotton; cotton cloth, dyed the colour of the mallow-flower, and a few muslins. 

The Periplus next passes without the Straits of Babelmandeb: on the Africanside, four principal marts are mentioned, to all of which the epithet ofTapera, is applied, signifying their position beyond the straits. The firstof these marts is Abalitis: as this place had no port, goods were conveyedto the ships in boats and rafts; they were also employed by the natives, incarrying on a trade with the opposite ports of Arabia: what they importedfrom Arabia, is not specified; but they exported thither gums, a smallquantity of ivory, tortoise-shell, and myrrh of the finest quality. Thislast article being purchased by the Greek merchants, in Sabæa, was regardedby them as a native production of that part of Arabia, when, in reality, aswe learn from the Periplus, it was the produce of Africa. There wereimported into Abalitis, from Egypt, flint glass, and glass vesselsunsorted; unripe grapes from Diospolis, which were used to make the rob ofgrapes; unmilled cloths, for the Barbaric market; corn, wine, and tin; thelast article must have come from Britain. 

The next mart is Malao, likewise a roadstead; the imports were the same asthose of Abalitis, with the addition of tunics; cloaks manufactured atArsinoe, milled and dyed; iron, and a small quantity of specie: the exportswere, myrrh, frankincense, cassia, inferior cinnamon, substituted for theoriential; gum, and a few slaves. The only article of export peculiar tothe third mart, Mundus, was a fragrant gum, which seems to have grown onlyin its vicinity. 

The fourth and last mart mentioned as lying on the African side of thechannel, which opens from the Straits of Babelmandeb, is Mosullon; this wasthe most important mart on the whole coast, and that which gave a specificname to the trade of the ancients: the imports were numerous, comprising, besides those already mentioned, some that were peculiar to this place, such as vessels of silver, a small quantity of iron, and flint glass: theexports were, cinnamon, of an inferior quality; the quantity of thisarticle is noticed as so great, that larger vessels were employed in thetrade of this port, expressly for conveying it, than were seen in the otherports of Africa. We are informed by Pliny, that Mosullon was a great marketfor cinnamon, --and it would seem, from its being conveyed in large vesselsby sea, that it came from Arabia. The cinnamon mentioned in the Periplus, is, indeed, particularized as of an inferior quality, which is directly atvariance with the authority of Dioscorides, who expressly states that theMosulletic species is one of prime quality; if this were the case, it musthave been Indian. The other exports were gums, drugs, tortoise-shell, incense, frankincense, brought from distant places; ivory, and a smallquantity of myrrh. The abundance of aromatic articles, which the Greeksprocured on this part of the coast, induced them to give the name ofAromatic to the whole country, and particularly to the town and promontoryat the eastern extremity of it. Cape Aromata, the Gardefan of the moderns, is not only the extreme point east of the continent of Africa, but alsoforms the southern point of entrance on the approach to the Red Sea, and isthe boundary of the monsoon. At the marts between Mosullon and this Cape, no articles of commerce are specified, except frankincense, in greatabundance and of the best quality, at Alkannai. At the Cape itself, therewas a mart, with an exposed roadsted; and to the south of it, was anothermart; from both these, the principal exports consisted of various kinds ofaromatics. 

At Aromata, the Barbaria of the ancients, or the Adel of the moderns, terminates; and the coast of Azania, or Agan, begins. The first mart onthis coast is Opone, from which there were exported, besides the usualaromatics and other articles, slaves of a superior description, chiefly forthe Egyptian market, and tortoise-shell, also of a superior sort, and ingreat abundance. There was nothing peculiar in the imports. In this part ofhis work, the author of the Periplus, mentions and describes the annualvoyage between the coast of Africa and India: after enumerating thearticles imported from the latter country, which consisted chiefly of corn, rice, butter; oil of Sesanum; cotton, raw and manufactured sashes; andhoney from the cane, called sugar; he adds, that "many vessels are employedin this commerce, expressly for the importation of these articles, andothers, which have a more distant destination, sell part of their cargoeson this coast, and take in the produce in return. " This seems to be thefirst historical evidence of a commercial intercourse between India andAfrica, independent of the voyages of the Arabians; and as the parts fromwhich the ships sailed to India, lay within the limits of the monsoon, itmost probably was accomplished by means of it, and directly from land toland, without coasting round by the Gulf of Persia. The ports on the westcoast of India, to which the trade was carried on, were Ariake andBarugaza, in Guzerat and Concan. 

No mart is mentioned after Opone, till we arrive at Rhapta. This place wasso named by the Greeks, because the ships employed by the inhabitants wereraised from a bottom composed of a single piece of wood, and the sides weresewed to it, instead of being nailed. In order to preserve the sewing, thewhole outside was covered over with some of the gums of the country. It isa circumstance worthy of notice, that when the Portuguese first visitedthis coast, they found ships of exactly the same materials andconstruction. At Rhapta, the customs were farmed by the merchants of Moosa, though it was subject to one of the princes of Yeman. Arabian commandersand supercargoes were always employed in their ships, from their experiencein the navigation: the imports of Rhapta were, lances, principallymanufactured at Moosa; axes, knives, awls, and various kinds of glass: theexports were, ivory, inferior to the Aduli ivory, but cheap, and in greatabundance; the horns of the rhinoceros, tortoise shell, superior to any ofthis coast, but not equal to the Indian; and an article called Nauplius, the nature of which is not known. 

At the period when the Periplus was written, the coast was unknown beyondRhapta; at this place, therefore, the journal of this voyage terminates;but this place, there is every reason to believe that the author visited inperson. 

The commencement of the second voyage is from Berenice: from this port heconducts us to Myos Hormos, and there across the Red Sea to Leuke Kome inArabia. This port we have already noticed as in the possession of theRomans, and forming the point of communication with Petra. We have alsostated from our author, that at Leuke Kome the Romans kept a garrison, andcollected a duty of twenty-five per cent. On the goods imported andexported. From it to the coast below Burnt Island, there was no tradecarried on, in consequence of the dangers of the navigation from rocks, thewant of harbours, the poverty and barbarism of the natives, who seem tohave been pirates, and the want of produce and manufactures. 

In the farthest bay of the east or Arabian coast of the Red Sea, aboutthirty miles from the straits, was Moosa, the regular mart of the country, established, protected, and privileged as such by the government. It wasnot a harbour, but a road with good anchorage on a sandy bottom. Theinhabitants were Arabians, and it was much resorted to by merchants, bothon account of the produce and manufactures of the adjacent country, and onaccount of its trade to India. The imports into Moosa were principallypurple cloth of different qualities and prices; garments made in theArabian manner, with sleeves, plain and mixed; saffron; an aromatic rushused in medicine; muslins, cloaks, quilts, but only a few plain, and madeaccording to the fashion of the country; sashes of various colours; somecorn and wine, and coin to pay for the balance of trade. In order toingratiate the sovereigns of the country, horses, mules, gold plate, silverplate richly embossed, splendid robes, and brass goods were also imported, expressly as presents to them. One of these sovereigns was styled thefriend of the Roman emperors. Embassies were frequently sent to him fromRome, and it is probable that for him the presents were chiefly designed. The exports from Moosa were myrrh of the best quality, gum, and very pureand white alabaster, of which boxes were made; there was likewise exporteda variety of articles, the produce and manufacture of Aduli, which werebrought from that place to Moosa. 

We are next directed to the ports beyond the Straits of Babelmandeb. Thewind in passing them is described as violent, coming on in sudden anddangerous squalls, in consequence of its confinement between the two capeswhich formed the entrance to the straits. The first place beyond them, about 120 miles to the east, described in the Periplus, is a village calledArabia Felix: this, there is every reason to believe, is Aden. It isrepresented in the Periplus as having been a place of great importancebefore the fleets sailed directly from India to Egypt, or from Egypt to theeast. Till this occurred, the fleets from the east met in this harbour thefleets from Egypt. This description and account of it exactly correspondswith what Agatharcides relates: he says it received its name of Eudaimon, (_fortunate, _) on account of the ships from India and Egypt meetingthere, before the merchants of Egypt had the courage to venture furthertowards the eastern marts. Its importance seems to have continued in somedegree till it was destroyed by the Romans, probably in the time ofClaudius: the object and reason of this act was to prevent the trade, whichin his time had begun to direct its course to India, from reverting to thisplace. 

About 200 miles to the east of Aden was the port of Kane. The country inits vicinity is represented as producing a great quantity of excellentfrankincense, which was conveyed to Kane by land in caravans, and by sea invessels, or in rafts which were floated by means of inflated skins. Thiswas a port of considerable trade; the merchants trading to Baragyza, Scindi, Oman, and Persis, as well as to the ports in Africa, beyond thestraits. The goods imported were principally from Egypt, and consisted of asmall quantity of wheat, wine, cloaths for the Arabian market, common, plain, and mixed; brass, tin, Mediterranean coral, which was in greatrepute in India, so that the great demand for it prevented the Gauls in thesouth of France, according to Pliny, from adorning their swords, &c. Withit, as they were wont to do; storax, plate, money, horses, statues orimages, and cloth. The exports were confined to the produce of the country, especially frankincense and aloes. At Syagros, which is described as apromontory fronting the east, and the largest in the world, there was agarrison for the protection of the place, which was the repository of allthe incense collected in these parts. 

The island of Dioscorides (Socotra) is next described. It was inhabited onits northern side, (the only part of it that was then inhabited, ) by a fewArabians, Indians, and Greeks, who seem to have fixed a permanent ortemporary abode here, for the purpose of obtaining tortoise-shell: this wasmuch prized, being of a yellow colour, very hard and durable, and used tomake cases, boxes, and writing tables; this and dragon's blood were itschief productions. In exchange for them, there were imported rice, corn, Indian cotton goods, and women slaves. 

The first mart beyond Cape Syagros is Moscha, which is represented as muchresorted to on account of the sacchalitic incense which is imported there. This was so extremely abundant that it lay in heaps, with no otherprotection than that which was derived from the gods, for whose sacrificesit was intended. It is added that it was not possible for any person toprocure a cargo of it without the permission of the king; and that thevessels were observed and searched so thoroughly, that not a single grainof it could be clandestinely exported. The intercourse between this portand Kane was regular; and besides this, it was frequented by such ships asarrived from India too late in the season: here they continued during theunfavourable monsoon, exchanging muslins, corn, and oil, for frankincense. A small island, which is supposed to be the modern Mazeira, was visited byvessels from Kane to collect or purchase tortoise-shell: the priests in theisland are represented in the Periplus as wearing aprons made of the fibresof the cocoa tree: this is the earliest mention of this tree. 

Moçandon, the extreme point south of the Gulf of Persia, was the land fromwhich the Arabians, (to use a maritime phrase) took their departure, withvarious superstitious observances, imploring a blessing on their intendedvoyage, and setting adrift a small toy, rigged like a ship, which, ifdashed to pieces, was supposed to be accepted by the god of the ocean, instead of their ship. 

It is impossible to determine from the Periplus, whether the author waspersonally acquainted with the navigation, ports, and trade of the Gulf ofPersia: the probability is that he was not, as he mentions only twoparticulars connected with it; the pearl fishery, and the town of Apologus, a celebrated mart at the mouth of the Euphrates; the pearl fishery hedescribes as extending from Moçandon to Bahrain. Apologus is the presentOboleh, on the canal that leads from the Euphrates to Basra. 

If the author of the Periplus did not enter the Gulf of Persia, hecertainly stretched over, with the monsoon, either to Karmania, or directlyto Scindi, or to the Gulf of Cambay; for at these places the minuteness ofinformation which distinguishes the journal again appears. 

Omana in Persia is the first mart described; it lay in the province ofGadrosia, but as it is not mentioned by Nearchus, who found Arabs in mostother parts of the province, we may conclude that it was founded after histime. The trade between this place and Baragaza in India, was regular anddirect, and the goods brought from the latter to the former, seemsafterwards to have been sent to Oboleh at the head of the Gulf; the importswere brass, sandal-wood; timber, of what kind is not specified; horn, ebony; this is the first port the trade of which included ebony andsandal-wood: frankincense was imported from Kane. The exports to Arabia andBaragaza were purple cloth for the natives; wine, a large quantity ofdates, gold, slaves, and pearls of an inferior quality. 

The first place in India to which the merchants of Egypt, while theyfollowed the ancient course of navigation by coasting, were accustomed totrade, was Patala on the Indus; for we have admitted that single vesselsoccasionally ventured beyond the Straits of Babelmandeb, before thediscovery of the monsoon, though the trade from Egypt to India, previouslyto that discovery, was by no means frequent or regular. The goods importedinto Patala were woollen cloth of a slight fabric, linen, woven in checquerwork, some precious stones, and some kind of aromatics unknown in India, probably the produce of Africa or Arabia; coral, storax, glass vessels ofvarious descriptions, some plate, money, and wine. From Patala, theEgyptian merchants brought spices, gems of different kinds, particularlysapphires, silk stuffs, silk thread, cotton cloths, and pepper. As Patalais not mentioned in the Periplus, it is probable it was abandoned forBaragaza, a far more considerable mart on the same coast, and most probablyBaroche on the Nerbuddah. 

Before describing Baragaza, however, the author of the Periplus mentionstwo places on the Indus, which were frequented for the purposes ofcommerce: the first near the mouth of the river, called Barbarike; and theother higher up, called Minagara: the latter was the capital of a kingdomwhich extended as far as Barogaza. As the king of this country waspossessed of a place of such consequence to the merchants as Baragaza, andas from his provinces, or through them, the most valuable cargoes wereobtained, it was of the utmost moment that his good will and protectionshould be obtained and preserved. For this purpose there were imported, aspresents for him, the following articles, all expensive, and the very bestof their kind: plate of very great value; musical instruments; handsomevirgins for the haram; wine of the very best quality; plain cloth, but ofthe finest sort; and perfumes. Besides these presents, there were likewiseimported a great quantity of plain garments, and some mixed or inferiorcloth; topazes, coral, storax, frankincense, glass vessels, plate, specie, and wine. The exports were costus, a kind of spice; bdellium, a gum; ayellow dye, spikenard, emeralds, sapphires, cottons, silk thread, indigo, or perhaps the indicum of Pliny, which was probably Indian ink: skins arelikewise enumerated, with the epithet _serica_ prefixed to them, butof what kind they were cannot be determined: wine is specified as anarticle of import into this and other places; three kinds of it areparticularized: wine from Laodicea in Syria, which is still celebrated forits wine; Italian wine, and Arabian wine. Some suppose that the last waspalm or toddy wine, which seems to have been a great article of trade. 

We come now to Baragaza: the author first mentions the produce of thedistrict; it consisted of corn, rice, oil of Sesamum, ghee or butter, andcotton: he then, in a most minute and accurate manner, describes theapproach to the harbour; the extraordinarily high tides, the rapidity withwhich they roll in and again recede, especially at the new moon, thedifficult pilotage of the river, are all noticed. On account of thesedangers and difficulties, he adds, that pilots were appointed by thegovernment, with large boats, well manned, who put to sea to wait theapproach of ships. These pilots, as soon as they come on board, bring theship's head round, and keep her clear of the shoals at the mouth of theriver; if necessary, they tow the ship from station to station, where thereis good anchorage; these stations were called Basons, and seem to have beenpools retaining the water, after the tide had receded from other parts. Thenavigation of the river was performed only as long as the tide wasfavorable; as soon as it turned, the ships anchored in these stations. 

The sovereign to whom Baragaza belonged is represented as so very anxiousto render it the only mart, that he would not permit ships to enter any ofhis other harbours; if they attempted it, they were boarded and conductedto Baragaza; at this place were collected all the produce and manufacturesof this part of India: some of which were brought down the river Nerbuddah;others were conveyed across the mountains by caravans. The merchandize ofBengal, and even of the Seres, was collected here, besides the produce ofAfrica, and of the countries further to the south in India. The wholearrangement of this place was correspondent to this extensive commerce, forthe author informs us, that such was the despatch in transacting business, that a cargo could be entirely landed and sold, and a new cargo obtainedand put on board in the space of three days. 

From Ozeni to the east of Baragaza, formerly the capital of the country, there was brought to the latter place for exportation, chiefly thefollowing articles: onyx stones, porcelaine, fine muslins, muslins dyed ofthe colour of the melon, and common cotton in great quantities: from thePanjab there were brought for exportation, spikenard of different kinds, costus, bdellium, ivory, murrhine cups, myrrh, pepper, &c. The imports werewine, of all the three sorts already mentioned, brass, tin, lead, coral, topazes, cloth of different kinds, sashes, storax, sweet lotus, whiteglass, stibium, cinnabar, and a small quantity of perfumes: a considerablequantity of corn was also imported; the denarius, both gold and silver, exchanging with profit against the coin of the country, on account of itsgreater purity. 

From Baragaza the author proceeds to a description of the coast of theDecan, which, as we have already mentioned, is remarkable for its accuracy, as well as for its first mentioning the appellation Decan. At the distanceof twenty days' journey to the south lies Plithana, and ten days' journeyto the east of this is Tagara, both marts of great consequence, and thelatter the capital of the country. From these are brought down, throughdifficult roads, several articles to Baragaza, particularly onyx stonesfrom Plithana, and cottons and muslin from Tagara "If we should nowdescribe, (observed Dr. Vincent) the arc of a circle from Minnagar, on theIndus, through Ougein to Dowlatabad on the Godavery, of which Barocheshould be the centre, we might comprehend the extent of the intelligenceacquired by the merchant of the Periplus. But allowing that this was theknowledge of the age, and not of the individual only, where is thisknowledge preserved, except in this brief narrative? which, with all thecorruption of its text, is still an inestimable treasure to all those whowish to compare the first dawning of our knowledge in the east with themeridian light which we now enjoy by the intercourse and conquests of theEuropeans. An arc of this sort comprehends near three degrees of a greatcircle: and if upon such a space, and at such a distance from the coast, wefind nothing but what is confirmed by the actual appearance of the country, at the present moment, great allowance is to be made for those parts of thework which are less conspicuous, for the author did certainly not visitevery place which he mentions; and there are manifest omissions in thetext, as well as errors and corruptions. "

The province of Canara, called by the author of the Periplus Limurike, follows in his description the pirate coast; after Limurike, he describesPandion, corresponding with what is at present called Malabar Proper; thisis succeeded by Paralia and Comari, and the description of the west coastof India is terminated by the pearl fishery and Ceylon. There were severalsmall ports in Limurike frequented by the country ships; but the only martfrequented by vessels from Egypt was Musiris: it was likewise a greatresort of native vessels from Ariake or Concan. The articles imported werenearly the same as those at Baragaza, but the exports from it were morenumerous and valuable: this seems to have arisen from its lying nearer tothe eastern and richer parts of India. The principal exports were, pearlsin great abundance and extraordinary beauty; a variety of silk stuffs; richperfumes; tortoise-shell; different kinds of transparent gems, especiallydiamonds; and pepper in large quantites, and of the best quality. 

The port of Nelkundah, which, as we have already remarked, was the limit ofour author's personal knowledge, was a place of very great trade; it wasmuch frequented, principally on account of the betel and pepper, which wereprocured there on very reasonable terms: the pepper is distinguished, inthe list of its imports, as the pepper of Cottonara. Besides this articleand betel, the only exports were, pearls, ivory, silks, spikenard, preciousstones, and tortoise-shell; the imports were chiefly specie, topazes, cloth, stibium, coral, glass, brass, tin, lead, wine, corn, &c. 

The ports to the south of Nelkundah are described in a cursory manner inthe Periplus; they were frequented principally by the country ships, whichcarried on a lucrative trade between them and the ports in the north ofIndia. The exports of the island of Trapobane, or Ceylon, areparticularized as consisting chiefly of pearls, gems, tortoise-shells, andmuslins: cinnamon is not named; an almost decisive proof, if other proofwere wanting, that the author of the Periplus had never visited thisisland. That trading voyages were carried on by the natives from thesouthern ports of India, not only to the northern ports of the western sideof that country, but also to the eastern ports in the Bay of Bengal, and tothe farther peninsula itself, we are expressly informed, as our authormentions vessels of great bulk adapted to the voyages made to the Gangesand the Golden Chersonese, in contradistinction to other and smallervessels employed in the voyages to Limurike. 

Of the remainder of the Periplus little notice is requisite, the account ofthe countries beyond Cape Comorin being entirely drawn from report, andconsequently erroneous, both in respect to geography and commerce. In someparticulars regarding the latter, however, it is surprisingly accurate: theGangetic muslins are praised as the finest manufacture of the sort, andGangetic spikenard is also noticed; the other articles of traffic in theports on the Ganges were betel and pearls. Thina is also mentioned as acity, in the interior of a country immediately under the north, at acertain point where the sea terminates; from this city both the rawmaterial and manufactured silks are brought by land through Bactria toBaragaza, or else down the Ganges, and thence by sea to Limurike: theroutes we have already described. The means of approach to Thina arerepresented as very difficult; some merchants, however, came from it to agreat mart which is annually held near it. The Sesatoe, who from thedescription of them are evidently Tartars, frequent this mart with theirwives and children. "They are squat and thick-set, with their face broadand their nose greatly depressed. The articles they bring for trade are ofgreat bulk, and inveloped in mats made of rushes, which, in their outwardappearance, resemble the early leaves of the vine. Their place of assemblyis between their own borders and those of China; and here spreading outtheir mats, they hold a fair for several days, and at the conclusion of it, return to their own country in the interior. Upon their retreat the Thinæ, who have continued on the watch, repair to the spot and collect the matswhich the strangers left behind at their departure; from these they pickout the haulm, and drawing out the fibres, spread the leaves double, andmake them into balls, and then pass the fibres through them. Of these ballsthere are three sorts, in this form they take the name of Malabathrum. "

On this account Dr. Vincent very justly remarks, that we have here, uponthe whole, a description of that mode of traffic, which has always beenadopted by the Chinese, and by which they to this hour trade with Russia, Thibet, and Ava. 

Many of the particulars which we have given on the subject of the Romantrade are supplied by Pliny, who wrote his natural history when Rome was inits most flourishing state under the reign of Vespasian. His works consistof thirty-seven books, the first six comprise the system of the world andthe geography as it was then known. After examining the accounts ofPolybius, Agrippa, and Artemidorus, he assigns the following comparativemagnitudes to the three great divisions of the earth. Europe rather morethan a third, Asia about a fourth, and Africa about a fifth of the whole. With few exceptions, his geographical knowledge of the east and of thenorth, the parts of the world of which the ancients were the most ignorant, was very inaccurate: he supposes the Ganges to be the north-eastern limitof Asia, and that from it the coast turned to the north, where it waswashed by the sea of Serica, between which and a strait, which he imaginedformed a communication from the Caspian to the Scythian ocean, he admitsbut a very small space. According to the system of Pliny, therefore, theocean occupied the whole county of Siberia, Mogul Tartary, China, &c. Hederived his information respecting India from the journals of Nearchus, andthe other officers of Alexander; and yet such is his ignorance, or thecorrupt state of the text, or the vitiated medium through which he receivedhis information, that it is not easy to reconcile his account with that ofNearchus. Salmasius, indeed, charges him with confounding the east and westin his description of India. His geography, in the most importantparticular of the relative distances of places, is rendered of very littleutility or authority, from the circumstance pointed out and proved byD'Anville, that he indiscriminately reckons eight stadia to the mile, without reference to the difference between the Greek and Roman stadium. Hehas, however, added two articles of information to the geographical andcommercial knowledge of the east possessed before his time; the one is theaccount of the new course of navigation from Arabia to the coast ofMalabar, which has been already described; the other is a description ofTrapobane, or Ceylon, which, though inaccurate and obscure in many points, must be regarded as a real and important addition to the geographicalknowledge of the Romans. 

Pliny's geography of the north is the most full and curious of allantiquity. After describing the Hellespont, Moeotis, Dacia, Sarmatia, ancient Scythia, and the isles in the Euxine Sea, and proceeding last fromSpain, he passes north to the Scythic Ocean, and returns west towardsSpain. The coast of part of the Baltic seems to have been partly known tohim; he particularly mentions an island called Baltia, where amber wasfound; but he supposes that the Baltic Sea itself was connected with theCaspian and Indian Oceans. Pliny is the first author who names Scandinavia, which he represents as an island, the extent of which was not then known;but by Scandinavia there is reason to believe the present Scandia is meant. Denmark may probably be rcognised in the Dumnor of this author, and Norwayin Noligen. The mountain Soevo, which he describes as forming a vast baycalled Codanus, extending to the promontory of the Cimbri, is supposed bysome to be the mountains that run along the Vistula on the easternextremity of Germany, and by others to be that chain of mountains whichcommence at Gottenburgh. The whole of his information respecting the northseems to have been drawn from the expeditions of Drusus, Varus, andGermanicus, to the Elbe and the Weser, and from the accounts of themerchants who traded thither for amber. 

Tacitus, who died about twenty years after Pliny, seems to have acquired aknowledge of the north more accurate in some respects than the latterpossessed. In his admirable description of Germany, he mentions theSuiones, and from the name, as well as other circumstances, there can belittle doubt that they inhabited the southern part of modern Sweden. 

The northern promontory of Scotland was known to Diodorus Siculus under thename of Orcas; but the insularity of Britain was certainly not ascertainedtill the fleet sent out by Agricola sailed round it, about eighty-fouryears after Christ. Tacitus, who mentions this circumstance, also informsus, that Ireland, which was known by name to the Greeks, was muchfrequented in his time by merchants, from whose information he adds, thatits harbours were better known than those of Britain: this statement, however, there is much reason to question, as in the time of Cæsar, allthat the Romans knew of Ireland was its relative position to Britain, andthat it was about half its size. 

The emperor Trajan, who reigned between A. D. 98 and A. D. 117, was not onlya great conqueror, carrying the Roman armies beyond the Danube into Dacia, and into Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, and thus extending andrendering more accurate the geographical knowledge of his subjects; but hewas also attentive to the improvement and commercial prosperity of theempire. He made good roads from one end of the empire to the other; heconstructed a convenient and safe harbour at Centum Cellæ (Civita Vecchia), and another at Ancona on the Adriatic: he dug a new and navigable canal, which conveyed the waters of the Nahar-Malcha, or royal canal ofNebuchadnezzar, into the river Tigris; and he is supposed to have repairedor renewed the Egyptian canal between the Nile and the Red Sea. He alsogave directions and authority to Pliny, who was appointed governor ofPontus and Bithynia, to examine minutely into the commerce of thoseprovinces, and into the revenues derived from it, and other sources. 

The emperor Adrian passed nearly the whole of his reign in visiting thedifferent parts of his dominions: he began his journey in Gaul, and thenceinto Germany; he afterwards passed into Britain. On his return to Gaul, hevisited Spain; on his next journey he went to Athens, and thence into theeast; and on his second return to Rome, he visited Sicily; his thirdjourney comprised the African provinces; his fourth was employed in againvisiting the east; from Syria he went into Arabia, and thence into Egypt, where he repaired and adorned the city of Alexandria, restoring to theinhabitants their former privileges, and encouraging their commerce. On hisjourney back to Rome, he visited Syria, Thrace, Macedonia, and Athens. Byhis orders, an artificial port was constructed at Trebizond on a coastdestitute by nature of secure harbours, from which this city derived greatwealth and splendour. 

The only writer in the time of Adrian, from whom we can derive anyadditional information respecting the geography and trade of the Romans, isArrian. He was a native of Nicodemia, and esteemed one of the most learnedmen of his age; to him we are indebted for the journal of Nearchus'svoyage, an abstract of which has been given. His accuracy as a geographer, is sufficiently established in that work, and indeed, in almost all theparticulars respecting India, which he has detailed in his history of theexpedition of Alexander the Great; and in his Indica, which may be regardedas an appendix to that history. He lived at Rome, under the emperorsAdrian, Antoninus, and Marcus Aurelius, and was preferred to the highestposts of honour, and even to the consulship. In the year A. D. 170, he wasappointed governor of Pontus, by Adrian, for the special purpose ofopposing the Alani, who were invading that part of the empire. Hissituation and opportunities as governor, enabled him to derive the mostaccurate and particular information respecting the Euxine Sea, which headdressed in a letter to Adrian; this Periplus, as it is called, "containswhatever the governor of Pontus had seen, from Trebizond to Dioscurias;whatever he had heard from Dioscurias to the Danube and whatever he knewfrom the Danube to Trebizond. "

The letter begins with the arrival of Arrian at Trebizond, at which place, the artificial port already noticed was then forming. At Trebizond heembarked, and surveyed the eastern coast of the Euxine Sea, visiting everywhere the Roman garrisons. His course led him past the mouth of the Phasis, the waters of which, he remarks, floated a long time on those of the sea, by reason of their superior lightness. A strong garrison was stationed atthe mouth of this river, to protect this part of the country against theBarbarians; he adds, however, in his letter, that the new suburbs which hadbeen built by the merchants and veterans, required some additional defence, and that he had, accordingly, for the greater security of the place, strengthened it with a new ditch: he ended his voyage at Sebastapolis, themost distant city garrisoned by the Romans. The description of the coastsof Asia, from Byzantium to Trebizond, and another of the interior, fromSebastapolis to the Bosphorus Cimmerius, and thence to Byzantium, is addedto his voyage. The great object of this minute and accurate survey was toenable the emperor to take what measures he might deem proper, in case hedesigned to interfere in the affairs of the Bosphorus, as well as to pointout the means of defence against the Alani, and other enemies of the Romanpower. 

We have contented ourselves with this short abstract of the Periplus of theEuxine, because we have already given all the important information itcontains on the subject of the commerce of this sea. It is very inferior inmerit to the Periplus of the Euxine, which has also been attributed to thisArrian, though Dr. Vincent, we think, has proved that it is the work of anearlier writer, and of a merchant. 

As the Roman conquests extended, their geographical knowledge of courseincreased. In the reign of Antoninus Pius, their armies had forced apassage much further north in Britain than they had ever ventured before. One of the results of this success was a maritime survey, or rather twopartial surveys of the north part of Britain, from which the geography ofthat part of the island was compiled by Ptolemy. 

The maritime laws of the Rhodians, or those which passed under their name, seem to have been the basis and authority of the Roman maritime laws atthis period; for we are told, that when a merchant complained to theemperor that he had been plundered by the imperial officers at theCyclades, where he had been shipwrecked, the latter replied, that he indeedwas lord of the earth, but that the sea was governed by the Rhodian laws, and that from them he would obtain redress. This part of the Rhodian law, however, had been but lately adopted by the Romans; for Antoninus isexpressly mentioned as having enacted, among other laws, that shipwreckedmerchandize should be the entire property of the lawful owners, without anyinterference or participation of the officers of the exchequer, and thatthose who were guilty of plundering wrecks should be severely punished. 

One of the most important and complete surveys of the Roman empire (theidea of which, as has been already stated, was first formed by JuliusCæsar) was begun and finished in the reign of Antoninus, and is well knownunder the appellation of his Itinerary. It has, indeed, been objected tothis date of the Itinerary, that it contains places which were not known inthe time of Antonine, and names of places which they did not bear tillafter his reign; thus mention is made of the province of Arcadia in Egypt, and of Honorius in Pontus, so styled in honor of the sons of the emperorTheodosius. But the fact seems to be that alterations and additions weremade to the Itinerary, and that occasionally, or perhaps under eachsubsequent emperor, new editions of it were published. From the maritimepart of this Itinerary of Antoninus we derive a clear idea of the timidityor want of skill and enterprise of the Mediterranean seamen in theircommercial voyages. All the ports which it was prudent or necessary, forthe safety of the voyage, to touch at, in sailing from Achaia to Africa areenumerated; and of these there are no fewer than twenty, some of them atthe heads of bays on the coasts of Greece, Epirus, and Italy, and withinthe Straits of Sicily as far as Messina. Their course was then to bedirected along the east and south coasts of Sicily to the west point of it;from an island off this point they took their departure for the coast ofAfrica, a distance of about ninety miles. 

These Itineraries undoubtedly were drawn up in as accurate a manner aspossible; but till the time of Ptolemy they were of little service togeography or commerce, as, for a private individual to have one in hispossession was deemed a crime little short of high treason. Geography as ascience, therefore, had hitherto made little advances; indeed the discoveryand example of Hipparchus, of reducing it to astronomical basis, seems tohave been forgotten or neglected till the middle of the second century. Thefirst after him, who attempted to fix geography on the base of science wasMarinus, of Tyre, who lived a short time before Ptolemy; of his work wehave only extracts given by this geographer. He divided the terms latitudeand longitude, which, as we have already stated, were introduced byArtemidorus (A. C. 104) into degrees, and these degrees into their parts, though this improvement was not reduced generally to practice beforePtolemy, for we are informed by him, that Marinus had the latitude of someplaces and the longitude of others, but scarcely one position where hecould ascertain both. 

With regard to the extent of Marinus' geographical knowledge, or theaccuracy of his details, we cannot form a fair judgment from the fragmentsof his works which remain. According to Ptolemy, he had examined thehistory of preceding ages, and all the information that had been collectedin his own time, comparing and rectifying them as he proceeded in his ownaccount. 

It will be recollected that the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea did not tracethe African coast lower down than Rhapta; but Marinus mentions Prasum, which, according to that hypothesis, which fixes it in the lowest southernlatitude, must have been seven degrees to the south of Rhapta. So far, therefore, the knowlege of the ancients, in the time of Marinus, respectingthe east coast of Africa extended; but, as neither he nor Ptolemy mentionsa single place between Rhapta and Prasum, it is probable that the latterwas not frequently or regularly visited for the purposes of trade, but thatcommercial voyages were still confined to the limit of Rhapta. We have juststated that Prasum, according to the most moderate hypothesis, must befixed seven degrees to the south of Rhapta. Marinus, however, fixes iteither in thirty-five degrees south, or under the tropic of Capricorn. Hewas led into this and similar errors by assigning too great a number ofstadia to the degree. Ptolemy endeavours to correct him, and places Prasumin latitude 15, 30 south; it is remarkable that the Prasum of Ptolemy isprecisely at Mosambique, the last of the Arabian settlements in thefollowing ages, and the Prasum of Marinus, if under the tropic ofCapricorn, is the limit of the knowledge of the Arabians on this coast ofAfrica. 

Marinus, as quoted by Ptolemy, affirms that he was in possession of thejournals of two expeditions under the command of Septimus Flaccus andJulius Maternus: the former of these officers set off from Cyrene, and thelatter from Leptis; and, according to Marinus, they penetrated through theinterior of Africa to the southward of the Equator, as far as a nation theystyled Agesymba. The error of Marinus with respect to the valuation of thestadium, has led him to fix this nation in twenty-four degrees southlatitude; if allowance, however, be made for his error, the Agesymba willstill be placed under the Equator, --a great distance for a land expeditionto have readied in the interior of Africa. Flaccus reported that theEthiopians of Agesymba, were three months journeying to the south of theGaramantes, and the latter were 5400 of the stadia of Marinus, distant fromCyrene. According to the journal of Maternus, when the king of theGaramantes set off to attack the people of Agesymba, he marched four monthsto the south. 

There are also some notices in Marinus of voyages performed along the coastof Africa, between India and Africa, and along part of the coast of India;he particularly mentions one Theophilus who frequented the coast of Azania, and who was carried by a south-west wind from Rhapta to Aromata in twentydays; and Diogenes, one of the traders to India, who on his return after hehad come in sight of Aromata, was caught by the north-east monsoon, andcarried down the coast during twenty-five days, till he reached the lakesfrom which the Nile issues. Marinus also mentions a Diogenes Samius, whodescribes the course held by vessels from the Indus to the coast of Cambay, and from Arabia to the coast of Africa. According to him, in the formervoyage they sailed with the Bull in the middle of the heavens, and thePleiades in the middle of the main yard; in the latter voyage, they sailedto the south, and by the star Canobus. 

We now arrive at the name of Ptolemy, certainly the most celebratedgeographer of antiquity. He was a native of Alexandria, and flourished inthe reign of the emperor Marcus Antoninus. In the application of astronomyto geography, he followed Hipparchus principally, and he seems from hisresidence at Alexandria to have derived much information through themerchants and navigators of that city, as well as from its magnificent andvaluable library. His great work, as it has reached us, consists almostentirely of an elementary picture of the earth, (if it may be so called, )in which its figure and size, and the position of places are determined. There is only a short notice of the division of countries, and it is veryseldom that any historical notice is added. To this outline, it is supposedthat Ptolemy had added a detailed account of the countries then known, which is lost. 

His geography, such as we have described it, consists of eight books, andis certainly much more scientific than any which had been previouslywritten on this science. In it there appears, for the first time, anapplication of geometrical principles to the construction of maps: thedifferent projections of the sphere, and a distribution of the severalplaces on the earth, according to their latitude and longitude. Geographywas thus established on its proper principles, and intimately connectedwith astronomical observations and mathematical science. The utility andmerit of Ptolemy's work seems to have been understood and acknowledged soonafter it appeared. Agathemidorus, who lived not long after him, praises himfor having reduced geography to a regular system; and adds, that he treatsof every thing relating to it, not carelessly, or merely according to theideas of his own, but to what had been delivered by more ancient authors, adopting from them whatever he found consonant to truth. Agathodæmon, anartist of Alexandria, observing the request in which his work was held, prepared a set of maps to illustrate it, in which all the places mentionedin it were laid down, with the latitudes and longitudes he assigned them. The reputation of his geography remained unshaken and undiminished duringthe middle ages, both in Arabia and Europe; and even now, the scientificlanguage which he first employed, is constantly used, and the position ofplaces ascertained by specifying their latitude and longitude. 

It was not to be expected, however, that Ptolemy could accurately fix thelongitude and latitude of places in the remoter parts of the then knownworld; his latitudes and longitudes are accordingly frequently erroneous, but especially the latter. This arose partly from his taking five hundredstadia for a degree of a great circle, and partly from the vague method ofcalculating distances, by the estimate of travellers and merchants, and thenumber of days employed in their journies by land, and voyages by sea. Ashe took seven hundred stadia for a degree of latitude, his errors inlatitude are not so important; and though the latitude he assigns toparticular places is incorrect, yet the length of the globe, according tohim, or the distance from the extreme points north and south, then known, is not far from the truth. Thus the latitude of Thule, according toPtolemy, is 64 degrees north, and the parallel through the cinnamon country16° 24' south, that is, 80° 24' on the whole, a difference from the truthof not more than six or seven degrees. It is remarked by D'Anville, and Dr. Vincent coincides in the justice of the remark, that the grandest mistakein the geography of Ptolemy has led to the greatest discovery of moderntimes. Strabo had affirmed, that nothing obstructed the passage from Spainto India by a westerly course, but the immensity of the Atlantic ocean;but, according to Ptolemy's errors in longitude, this ocean was lessened bysixty degrees; and as all the Portuguese navigators were acquainted withhis work, as soon as it was resolved to attempt a passage to India, thedifficulty was, in their idea, lessened by sixty degrees; and when Columbussailed from Spain, he calculated on sixty degrees less than the realdistance from that country to India. Thus, to repeat the observation ofD'Anville, the greatest of his errors proved eventually the efficient causeof the greatest discovery of the moderns. 

Beside the peculiar merit of Ptolemy, which was perceived and acknowledgedas soon as his work appeared, he possesses another excellence, which, asfar as we know, was first pointed out and dwelt upon by Dr. Vincent. According to him, Ptolemy, in his description of India, serves as the pointof connection between the Macedonian orthography and the Sanscrit, dispersing light on both sides, and showing himself like a luminary in thecentre. He seems indeed to have obtained the native appellations of theplaces in India, in a wonderful manner; and thus, by recording names whichcannot be mistaken, he affords the means of ascertaining the country, eventhough he gives no particulars regarding it. We have applied this remark toIndia exclusively, but it might be extended to almost all the names ofplaces that occur in Ptolemy, though, as respects India, his obtaining thenative appellations is more striking and useful. 

Having offered these general remarks on the excellencies and errors ofPtolemy, we shall next proceed to give a short and rapid sketch of hisgeographical knowledge respecting Europe, Asia, and Africa. On thenorth-east of Europe he gives an accurate description of the course of theWolga; and further to the south, he lays down the course of the Tanais, much nearer what it really is than the course assigned it by Strabo. Heseems to have been acquainted with the southern shores of the Baltic fromthe western Dwina, or the Vistula, to the Cimbric Chersonesus: he alsodescribes part of the present Livonia. The Chersonesus, however, hestretches two degrees too far to the north, and also gives it too great abend to the east. He applies the name of Thule to a country situated to thenorth-east of Britain; if his usual error in longitude is rectified, theposition he assigns Thule would correspond with that of Norway. Such seemto have been the limits of his Europe, unless, perhaps, he had some vagueidea of the south of Sweden. 

He begins his geographical tables with the British isles; and here is oneof his greatest errors. According to him, the north part of Britainstretches to the east, instead of to the north: the Mull of Galloway is themost northern promontory, and the land from it bends due east. The WesternIslands run east and west, along the north shore of Ireland, the west beingthe true north point in them. He is, however, on the whole, pretty accuratein his location of the tribes which at that period inhabited Scotland. Strabo had placed Ireland to the north of Britain, but in its truelatitude. Ptolemy's map, which is the first geographical document of thatisland, represents it to the west of Britain, but five degrees further tothe north than it actually is. He delineates its general shape, rivers, andpromontories with tolerable accuracy, and some of his towns may be tracedin their present appellations, as Dublin in Eblana. It has already beennoticed that he was probably acquainted with the south of Sweden, and hisfour Scandinavian islands are evidently Zealand, Funen, Laland, andFalster. It is remarkable that his geography is more accurate almost inproportion as it recedes from the Mediterranean. The form which he assignsto Italy is much farther removed from the truth than the form of most ofthe other European countries which he describes. His fundamental error inlongitude led him to give to the Mediterranean Sea a much greater extentthan it actually possesses. According to him, it occupies nearly sixty-fivedegrees; and it is a singular circumstance, as well as a decisive proof ofthe influence of his authority, as well of the slow progress of accurateand experimental geography, that his mensuration of this sea was reputed asexact till the reign of Louis XIV. , when it was curtailed of nearlytwenty-five degrees by observation. 

The principal points in the geography of Asia, as given by Ptolemy, respectthe coasts of India, the route to the Seres, and the Caspian sea. Hisdelineation of India is equally erroneous with his delineation of theBritish Isles: according to him, it stretches in a right line from west toeast, a little to the south of a line drawn between the Ganges and theIndus. He possessed, however, information respecting places in the fartherpeninsula of India, the locality of several of which, by comparing hisnames with the Sanscrit, may be traced with considerable certainty. Heassigns to the island of Ceylon a very erroneous locality, arising from hiserror respecting the form of India, and likewise an extent far exceedingthe truth. He is the first author, however, who mentions the seven mouthsof the Ganges. The route to the Seres, which he describes, has been alreadynoticed: it is remarkable that the latitude which he assigns to his Serametropolis, is within little more than a degree of the latitude of Pekin, which, in the opinion of Dr. Vincent, is one of the most illustriousapproximations to truth that ancient geography affords. His description ofArabia is, on the whole, accurate; he has, however, greatly diminished theextent of the Arabian Gulf, and by at the same time increasing the size ofthe Persian, he has necessarily given an erroneous form to this part ofAsia. The ancient opinion of Herodotus, that the Caspian was a sea byitself, unconnected with any other, which was overlooked or disbelieved byStrabo, Arrian, &c. Was adopted by Ptolemy, but he erroneously describes itas if its greatest length was from east to west. The peninsula to which hegives the name of the Golden Chersonesus, and which is probably Malacca, hedescribes as stretching from north to south: to the east of it he places agreat bay, and in the most distant part of it the station of Catigara. Beyond this, he asserts that the earth is utterly unknown, and that theland bends from this to the west, till it joins the promontory of Prasum inAfrica, at which place this quarter of the world terminated to the south. Hence it appears that he did not admit a communication between the Indianand Atlantic oceans, and that he believed the Erythrean sea to be a vastbasin, entirely enclosed by the land. 

Strabo and Pliny believed that Africa terminated under the torrid zone, andthat the Atlantic and Indian oceans joined. Ptolemy, as we have just seen, rejected this idea, and following the opinion of Hipparchus, that the earthwas not surrounded by the ocean, but that the ocean was divided into largebasins, separated from each other by intervening land, maintained, thatwhile the eastern coast of Africa at Cape Prasum united with the coast ofAsia at the bay of the Golden Chersonesus, the western coast of Africa, after forming a great gulf, which he named Hespericus, extended between theeast and south till it joined India. The promontory of Prasum wasundoubtedly the limit of Ptolemy's knowledge of the east coast of Africa:the limit of his knowledge of the west coast is not so easily fixed: somesuppose that it did not reach beyond the river Nun; while others, with morereason, extend it to the Gulf of St. Cyprian, because the FortunateIslands, which he assumed as his first meridian, will carry his knowledgebeyond the Nun; and because, at the Gulf of St. Cyprian, the coast turnssuddenly and abruptly to the east, in such a manner as may be supposed tohave led Ptolemy to believe that it stretched towards and joined the coastof India. 

Of some of the interior parts of Africa Ptolemy possessed clear andaccurate information; regarding others, he presents us with a mass ofconfused notions. He clearly points out the Niger, though he fixes itssource in a wrong latitude. In the cities of Tucabath and Tagana, which heplaces on its banks, may perhaps be recognized Tombuctoo and Gana. The moststriking defect in his geography of the interior of Africa is, that he doesnot allow sufficient extent to the great desert of Sahara, while thesouthern parts are too much expanded. He places the sources of the Nile, and the Mountains of the Moon in south latitude thirteen, instead of northlatitude six or seven; but the error of latitude is not so remarkable andunaccountable as the very erroneous latitude which he assigns to CapeAromata, on a coast which was visited every year by merchants he must haveseen at Alexandria. The most difficult point to explain in Ptolemy'scentral Africa is the river Gir, which he describes as equal in length tothe Niger, and running in the same direction, till it loses itself in thesame lake. What this river is, geographers have not agreed. It is mentionedby Claudian, as resembling the Nile in the abundance of its waters. Agethimedorus, a geographer of the third century, regards it and the Nigeras the same river. 

What then was the amount of the knowledge of the ancients, as it existedamong the Romans, in the height of their power, respecting the form, extent, and surface of the globe? If we view a map drawn up according totheir ideas, we are immediately struck with the form they assigned theworld, and perceive with what propriety they called the extent of the worldfrom east to west longitude or _length_, and the extent from north tosouth latitude, or _breadth_. In some maps, especially that drawn upfrom the celebrated Peutingerian Tables, which contain an itinerary of thewhole Roman empire, thirty-five degrees of longitude occupy twenty-eightfeet eight inches, whereas thirteen degrees of latitude are compressedwithin the space of one foot. It is easy to conceive how it happened thattoo much space is assigned between places situated east and west of eachother, as the latitude of a place is much more easily determined than itslongitude. At the same time, as the routes of the Roman armies generallywere from east to west, the countries lying in that direction were betterknown than those lying to the north and south, though the longitudes, andgeneral space assigned the world, in the former deviation, were erroneous. It was the opinion of most of the ancient geographers, that there was asouthern continent or hemisphere, to correspond to and balance thenorthern; and this they formed by cutting off the great triangle to thesouth. The ancients also, while they curtailed those parts of the worldwith which they were unacquainted, extended the known parts. 

The limit of the Roman geography of Europe to the north was the Baltic, beyond which they had some very imperfect and obscure notion of the southof Sweden, and perhaps of Norway. They were acquainted with the countrieson the eastern boundary of Europe lying on the Danube and the Vistula, andthe rivers Wolga and Tanais seem also to have been tolerably well known tothem. Of the whole of the west of Europe they were well informed, with theexception of the general figure, and some part of the British isles. 

With respect to Africa, the Romans seem to have been acquainted withone-third of it. The promontory of Prasum was the limit of their knowledgeon the east coast: its limits on the western coast it is not so easy tofix. The western horn was the limit of the voyage of Hanno, which, according to some, is Cape Nun; and, according to others, Cape ThreePoints, in Guinea; and we have observed already, that the Gulf of St. Cyprian was probably the limit of Ptolemy's knowledge. The coasts of Africaon the Mediterranean, and on the Red Sea, were of course well known to theRomans; and some points of their information respecting the interior wereclear and accurate, but, as for these, they trusted almost entirely to thereports of merchants, they were as frequently erroneous. 

The northern, north-western, north-eastern, and east parts of Asia werealmost utterly unknown to the Romans; but they possessed tolerably accurateinformation regarding the whole hither peninsula of India, from the Industo the Ganges, and some partial and unconnected notices of the fartherpeninsula and of China. 

[5] The most probable opinion is, that they were made of fluat of lime, or Derbyshire spar. 

CHAPTER IV. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY AND OF COMMERCIALENTERPRISE, FROM THE TIME OF PTOLEMY TILL THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTHCENTURY. 

Although the period, which the present chapter embraces, extends tothirteen centuries, yet, as it is by no means rich or fruitful either indiscovery or commercial enterprise, it will not detain us long. Theluxuries and wealth of the east, which, in all ages of the world and to allnations have been so fascinating, had, as we have already seen, drawn tothem the interest and the enterprise of the Romans, in the height of theirconquests; and towards the east, with few exceptions, discovery andcommerce pointed, during the whole of the period which this chapterembraces. Yet, notwithstanding this powerful attraction, geography madecomparatively little progress: the love of luxury did not benefit it nearlyso much as the love of science. The geography of Ptolemy, and thedescription of Greece by Pausanias, are, as Malte Brun justly remarks, thelast works in which the light of antiquity shines on geography. We mayfurther observe, that as circumstances directed the route to the east, during the middle ages, principally through the central parts of Asia, thecountries thus explored, or visited, were among the least interesting inthis quarter of the globe, and those of which we possess, even at thepresent day, very obscure and imperfect information. 

The nations to whom geography and commerce were most indebted, during theperiod which this chapter embraces, were the Arabians, --the Scandinavians, --under that appellation comprehending the nations on the Baltic and in thenorth of Germany, --and the Italian states. Before, however, we proceed tonotice and record their contributions to geography, discovery, andcommerce, it will be proper briefly to attend to a few circumstancesconnected with those subjects, which occurred between the age of Ptolemyand the utter decline of the Roman empire. 

We have already alluded to the intercourse which was begun between Rome andChina, during the reign of Marcus Antoninus, for the purpose of obtainingsilk. Of the embassy which preceded and occasioned this commercialintercourse, we derive all our information from the Chinese historians. Asecond embassy seems to have been sent in the year A. D. 284, during thereign of Probus: that the object of this also was commercial there can beno doubt; but the particulars or the precise object in view, and the resultwhich flowed from it, are not noticed by the Chinese historians. There canbe no doubt, however, that these embassies contributed to extend thegeography and commerce of the Romans towards the eastern districts of Asia. 

Of the attention which some of the Roman emperors, during the decline ofthe empire, paid to commerce, we possess a few notices which deserve to berecorded. The emperor Pertinax, whose father was a manufacturer and sellerof charcoal, and who, himself, for some time pursued the same occupation, at that period an extensive and profitable one, preserved and exercised, during his reign, that sense of the value of commerce which he had thusacquired. He abolished all the taxes laid by Commodus on the ports, harbours, and public roads, and gave up his privileges as emperor, especially in all those points where they were prejudicial to the freedomand extension of commerce. It may indeed be remarked, that the very fewgood or tolerable princes who, at this period, filled the government ofRome, displayed their wisdom as well as their goodness by encouragingtrade. Alexander Severus granted peculiar privileges and immunities toforeign merchants who settled in Rome: he lowered the duties onmerchandises; and divided all who followed trade, either on a large orsmall scale, into different companies, each of which seems to havepreserved the liberty of choosing their own governor, and over each of whompersons were appointed, conversant in each particular branch of trade, whose duty it was to settle all disputes that might arise. 

Soon after this period the commerce of Rome in one particular direction, and that a most important one, received a severe blow. The Goths, who hademigrated from the north of Germany to the banks of the Euxine, wereallured to the "soft and wealthy provinces of Asia Minor, which producedall that could attract, and nothing that could resist a barbarianconqueror. " It is on the occasion of this enterprise, that we first becameacquainted with the maritime usages and practices of the Goths; a branch ofwhom, under the name of Scandinavians, we shall afterwards find contributedso much to the extension of geography and commerce. In order to transporttheir armies across the Euxine, they employed "slight flat-bottomed barks, framed of timber only, without the least mixture of iron, and occasionallycovered with a shelving roof on the appearance of a tempest. " Their firstobject of importance was the reduction of Pityus, which was provided with acommodious harbour, and was situated at the utmost limits of the Romanprovinces. After the reduction of this place, they sailed round the easternextremity of the Euxine, a distance of nearly three hundred miles, to theimportant commercial city of Trebizond. This they also reduced; and in itthey found an immense booty, with which they filled a great fleet of ships, that were lying in the port at the time of the capture. Their successencouraged and stimulated them to further enterprises against such of thecommercial cities or rich coasts of the Roman empire, as lay within theirgrasp. In their second expedition, having increased their fleet by thecapture of a number of fishing vessels, near the mouths of the Borysthenes, the Niester, and the Danube, they plundered the cities of Bithynia. And ina third expedition, in which their force consisted of five hundred sail ofships, each of which might contain from twenty-five to thirty men, theypassed the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, and ravaged Greece, and threatenedItaly itself. 

The extent to which some branches of trade were carried by the Romans aboutthis time, may be deduced from what is related of Firmus, whose ruin wasoccasioned by endeavouring to exchange the security of a prosperousmerchant for the imminent dangers of a Roman emperor. The commerce ofFirmus seems principally to have been directed to the east; and forcarrying on this commerce, he settled himself at Alexandria in Egypt. Boasting that he could maintain an army with the produce of paper and glue, both of which articles he manufactured very extensively, he persuaded thepeople of Egypt that he was able to deliver them from the Roman yoke, andactually had influence sufficient to prevent the usual supplies of cornfrom being shipped from Alexandria to Rome. His destruction was theconsequence. As an instance of his wealth and luxury, Vopiscus relates thathe had squares of glass fixed with bitumen in his house. The Roman commercesuffered considerably during the reign of Dioclesian by the revolt ofBritain, under Carausius, who, by his skill and superiority, especially innaval affairs, which enabled him to defeat a powerful Roman fleet fittedout against him, obtained and secured his independence. Carausius wasmurdered by Alectus: against the latter the emperor Constantine sailed witha powerful fleet, and having effected a landing in Britain, Alectus wasdefeated and slain. This fleet requires to be particularly noticed from twoconsiderations. In the first place, it sailed with a side wind, and whenthe weather was rather rough, --circumstances so unusual, if notunprecedented, that they were deemed worthy of an express and peculiarpanegyric: and, secondly, this fleet was not equipped and ready for seatill after four years' preparation, whereas, in the first Punic war, "within sixty days after the first stroke of the axe had been given in theforest, a fleet of 160 galleys proudly rode at anchor in the sea. "

Soon after this event, we are furnished with materials, from which we mayjudge of the comparative opulence, commerce, and shipping of the severalcountries which bordered on the Mediterranean. Constantine and Liciniuswere contending for the Roman empire; and as the contest mainly depended onsuperiority at sea, each exerted himself to the utmost to fit out aformidable and numerous fleet. Licinius was emperor of the east: his fleetconsisted of 380 gallies, of three ranks of oars; eighty were furnished byEgypt, eighty by Phoenicia, sixty by Ionia and Doria, thirty by Cyprus, twenty by Caria, thirty by Bithynia, and fifty by Africa. At this periodthere seems to have been no vessels larger than triremes. The navalpreparations of Constantine were in every respect inferior to those of hisrival: he seems to have got no ships from Italy: indeed, the fleets whichAugustus had ordered to be permanently kept up at Misenum and Ravenna, wereno longer in existence. Greece supplied the most if not all Constantine'svessels: the maritime cities of this country sent their respective quotasto the Piraeus; and their united forces only amounted to 200 small vessels. This was a feeble armament compared with the numerous and powerful fleetsthat Athens equipped and maintained during the Peloponnesian war. Whilethis republic was mistress of the sea, her fleet consisted of 300, andafterwards of 400 gallies, of three ranks of oars, all ready, in everyrespect, for immediate service. The scene of the naval battle betweenLicinius and Constantine was in the vicinity of Byzantium: as this city wasin possession of the former, Constantine gave positive orders to force thepassage of the Hellespont: the battle lasted two days, and terminated inthe complete defeat of Licinius. Shortly after this decisive victory, theRoman world was again united under one emperor, and the imperial residenceand seat of government was fixed by Constantine at Byzantium, whichthenceforth obtained the name of Constantinople. 

In the middle of the fourth century Ammianus Marcellinus gives us someimportant and curious information respecting the Roman commerce with theEast. According to him it was customary to hold an annual fair at Batnae, atown to the east of Antioch, not far from the banks of the Euphrates. Merchandize from the East was brought hither overland by caravans, as wellas up the Euphrates; and its value at this fair was so great, that thePersians made an attempt to plunder it. To the same author we are indebtedfor some notices respecting the countries which lay beyond the easternlimits of the Roman empire, and also for the first clear and undoubtednotice of rhubarb, as an extensive article of commerce for medicinalpurposes. 

Towards the end of the fourth century, the naval expeditions of the Saxonsattracted the notice and excited the fears of the Britons and the Gauls:their vessels apparently were unfit for a long voyage, or for encounteringeither the dangers of the sea or of battle; they were flat-bottomed andslightly constructed of timber, wicker-work, and hides; but such vesselspossessed advantages, which to the Saxons more than compensated for theirdefects: they drew so little water that they could proceed 100 miles up thegreat rivers; and they could easily and conveniently be carried on waggonsfrom one river to another. 

We have already noticed the itineraries of the Roman empire: of these therewere two kinds, the _annotota_ and the _picta_; the firstcontaining merely the names of places; the other, besides the names, theextent of the different provinces, the number of their inhabitants, thenames of the mountains, rivers, seas, &c. ; of the first kind, the itineraryof Antoninus is the most celebrated: to it we have already alluded: to thesecond kind belong the Peutingarian tables, which are supposed to have beendrawn up in the reign of Theodosius, about the beginning of the fifthcentury, though according to other conjectures, they were constructed atdifferent periods. 

The beginning of the tables is lost, comprising Portugal, Spain, and thewest part of Africa; only the south-east coast of England is inserted. Towards the east, the Seres, the mouth of the Ganges, and the island ofCeylon appear, and routes are traced through the heart of India. Dr. Vincent remarks, that it is a very singular circumstance that these tablesshould have the same names in the coast of India as the Periplus, butreversed. Mention is also made in them of a temple of Augustus or the Romanemperor: these circumstances, Dr. Vincent justly observes, tend to provethe continuance of the commerce by sea with India, from the time ofClaudius to Theodosius; a period of above 300 years. In these tables veryfew of the countries are set down according to their real position, theirrespective limits, or their actual size. 

The law of the emperor Theodosius, by which he prohibited his subjects, under pain of death, from teaching the art of ship-building to thebarbarians, was ineffectual in the attainment of the object which he had inview; nor did any real service to the empire result from a fleet of 1100large ships that he fitted out, to act in conjunction with the forces ofthe western empire for the protection of Rome against Genseric, king of theVandals. This fleet arrived in Sicily, but performed nothing; and Genseric, notwithstanding the law of Theodosius, obtained the means and the skill offitting out a formidable fleet. The Vandal empire in Africa was peculiarlyadapted to maritime enterprise, as it stretched along the coast of theMediterranean above ninety days' journey from Tangier to Tripoli: the woodsof mount Atlas supplied an inexhaustible quantity of ship timber; theAfrican nations whom he had subdued, especially the Carthaginians, wereskilled in ship-building and in maritime affairs; and they eagerly obeyedthe call of their new sovereign, when he held out to them the plunder ofRome. Thus, as Gibbon observes, after an interval of six centuries, thefleets that issued from the port of Carthage again claimed the empire ofthe Mediterranean. A feeble and ineffectual resistance was opposed to theVandal sovereign, who succeeded in his grand enterprise, plundered Rome, and landed safely in Carthage with his rich spoils. The emperor Leo, alarmed at this success, fitted out a fleet of 1113 ships, at the expense, it is calculated, of nearly five millions sterling. This fleet, with animmense army on board, sailed from Constantinople to Carthage, but iteffected nothing. Genseric, taking advantage of a favourable wind, mannedhis largest ships with his bravest and most skilful sailors; and they towedafter them vessels filled with combustible materials. During the night theyadvanced against the imperial fleet, which was taken by surprise; confusionensued, many of the imperial ships were destroyed, and the remainder savedthemselves by flight. Genseric thus became master of the Mediterranean; andthe coasts of Asia, Greece, and Italy, were exposed to his depredations. 

Towards the end of the fifth century, the Romans under Theodoric exhibitedsome slight and temporary symptoms of reviving commerce. His first objectwas to fit out a fleet of 1000 small vessels, to protect the coast of Italyfrom the incursions of the African Vandals and the inhabitants of theEastern empire. And as Rome could no longer draw her supplies of corn fromEgypt, he reclaimed and brought into cultivation the Pomptine marshes andother neglected parts of Italy. The rich productions of Lucania, and theadjacent provinces, were exchanged at the Marcilian fountain, in a populousfair, annually dedicated to trade: the gradual descent of the hills wascovered with a triple plantation of divers vines and chestnut trees. Theiron mines of Dalmatia, and a gold mine in Bruttium, were carefullyexplored and wrought. The abundance of the necessaries of life was so verygreat, that a gallon of wine was sometimes sold in Italy for less thanthree farthings, and a quarter of wheat at about five shillings andsixpence. Towards a country thus wisely governed, and rich and fertile, commerce was naturally attracted; and it was encouraged and protected byTheodoric: he established a free intercourse among all the provinces by seaand land: the city gates were never shut; and it was a common saying, "thata purse of gold might safely be left in the field. " About this period, manyrich Jews fixed their residence in the principal cities of Italy, for thepurposes of trade and commerce. 

The most particular information we possess respecting the geographicalknowledge, and the Indian commerce of the ancients at the beginning of thesixth century, is derived from a work of Cosmas, surnamed Indico Pleustes, or the Indian navigator. He was originally a merchant, and afterwardsbecame a monk; and Gibbon justly observes, that his work displays theknowledge of a merchant, with the prejudices of a monk. It is entitled_Christian Topography_, and was composed at Alexandria, in the middleof the fifth century, about twenty years after he had performed his voyage. The chief object of his work was to confute the opinions that the earth wasa globe, and that there was a temperate zone on the south of the torridzone. According to Cosmas, the earth is a vast plane surrounded by a wall:its extent 400 days' journey from east to west, and half as much from northto south. On the wall which bounded the earth, the firmament was supported. The succession of day and night is occasioned by an immense mountain on thenorth of the earth, intercepting the light of the sun. In order to accountfor the course of the rivers, he supposed that the plane of the earthdeclined from north to south: hence the Euphrates, Tigris, &c. Running tothe south, were rapid streams; whereas the Nile, running in a contrarydirection, was slow and sluggish. The prejudices of a monk, aresufficiently evident in these opinions; but, in justice to Cosmas, it mustbe remarked, that he labours hard, and not unsuccessfully, to prove thathis notions were all the same as those of the most ancient Greekphilosophers; and, indeed, his system differs from that of Homer, principally in his assigning a square instead of a round figure to theplane surface, which they both supposed to belong to the earth. Thecosmography of Homer, thus adopted by Cosmas and most Christian writers, modified in some respects by the cosmography they drew from the Scriptures, is a strong proof, as Malte Brun observes, of the powerful influence whichthe poetical geography of Homer possessed over the opinions even of verydistant ages. 

Having thus briefly detailed those parts of Cosmas's work, which are merelycurious as letting us into the prevalent cosmography of his time, we shallnow proceed to those parts which, as Gibbon remarks, display the knowledgeof a merchant. 

We have already noticed the inscription at Aduli for which we are indebtedto this author, and the light which it throws on the commercial enterpriseof the Egyptian sovereigns. According to Cosmas, the oriental commerce ofthe Red Sea, in his time, had entirely left the Roman dominions, andsettled at Aduli: this place was regularly visited by merchants fromAlexandria and Aela, an Arabian port, at the head of the eastern branch ofthe Red Sea. From Aduli, vessels regularly sailed to the East: here werecollected the aromatics, spices, ivory, emeralds, &c. Of Ethiopia, andshipped by the merchants of the place in their own vessels to India, Persia, South Arabia, and through Egypt and the north of Arabia, for Rome. 

Cosmas was evidently personally acquainted with the west coast of theIndian peninsula. He enumerates the principal ports, especially those fromwhich pepper was shipped. This article he describes as a source of greattraffic and wealth. The great island of Sielidiba, or Ceylon, was the martof the commerce of the Indian ocean. Its ports were visited by vessels fromPersia, India, Ethiopia, South Arabia, and Tzinitza. If the last country isChina, of which there can be little doubt, as he mentions that theTzinitzae brought to Ceylon silk, aloes, cloves, and sandal-wood, andexpressly adds that their country produced silk, --Cosmas is the firstauthor who fully asserts the intercourse by sea between India and China. Besides the foreign vessels which frequented the ports of Ceylon, thenative merchants carried on an extensive trade in their own vessels, and ontheir own account. In addition to pepper from Mali on the coast of Malabar, and the articles already enumerated from China, &c. , copper, a woodresembling ebony, and a variety of stuffs, were imported from Calliena, aport shut to the Egyptian Greeks at the time of the Periplus; and fromSindu they imported musk, castoreum, and spikenard. Ceylon was a depôt forall these articles, which were exported, together with spiceries, and theprecious stones for which this island was famous. 

Cosmas expressly states that he was not in Ceylon himself, but that hederived his information respecting it and its trade from Sopatrus, a Greek, who died about the beginning of the sixth century. This, as Dr. Vincentobserves, is a date of some importance: for it proves that the trade openedby the Romans from Egypt to India direct, continued upon the same footingfrom the reign of Claudius and the discovery of Hippalus, down to A. D. 500; by which means we came within 350 years of the Arabian voyagepublished by Renaudot, and have but a small interval between the limit ofancient geography and that of the moderns. 

From this author we first learn that the Persians having overcome theaversion of their ancestors to maritime enterprise, had established aflourishing and lucrative commerce with India. All its principal ports werevisited by Persian merchants; and in most of the cities there were churchesin which the service was performed by priests, ordained by a Persianarchbishop. 

We shall conclude our notice of Ceylon, as described by Cosmas, from theaccount of Sopatrus, with mentioning a few miscellaneous particulars, illustrative of the produce and commerce of the island. The sovereignty washeld by two kings; one called the king of the Hyacinth, or the districtabove the Ghants, where the precious stones were found; the other possessedthe maritime districts. In Ceylon, elephants are sold by their height; andhe adds, that in India they are trained for war, whereas, in Africa, theyare taken only for their ivory. Various particulars respecting the naturalhistory of Ceylon and India, &c. Are given, which are very accurate andcomplete: the cocoa-nut with its properties is described: the pepper plant, the buffalo, the camelopard, the musk animal, &c. : the rhinoceros, he says, he saw only at a distance; he procured some teeth of the hippopotamus, butnever saw the animal itself. In the palace of the king of Abyssinia, theunicorn was represented in brass, but he never saw it. It is extraordinarythat he makes no mention of cinnamon, as a production of Ceylon. 

The most important points respecting the state of Eastern commerce in theage of Cosmas, as established by his information, are the following: thatCeylon was the central mart between the commerce of Europe, Africa, and thewest of India, and the east of India and China; that none of the foreignmerchants who visited Ceylon were accustomed to proceed to the easternregions of Asia, but received their silks, spices, &c. As they wereimported into Ceylon; and that, as cloves are particularly specified ashaving been imported into Ceylon from China, the Chinese at this periodmust have traded with the Moluccas on the one hand, and with Ceylon on theother. 

Cosmas notices the great abundance of silk in Persia, which he attributesto the short land carriage between it and China. 

In our account of the very early trade of Carthage, a branch of it wasdescribed from Herodotus, which the Carthaginians carried on, without theuse or intervention of words, with a remote African tribe. Of a tradeconducted in a similar manner, Cosmas gives us some information; accordingto him, the king of the Axumites, on the east coast of Africa, exchangediron, salt, and cattle, for pieces of gold with an inland nation, whom hedescribes as inhabiting Ethiopia. It may be remarked in confirmation of theaccuracy, both of Herodotus and of Cosmas, in what they relate on thissubject, and as an illustration and proof of the permanency and power ofcustom among barbarous nations, that Dr. Shaw and Cadamosto (in Purchas'sPilgrimage) describe the same mode of traffic as carried on in their timesby the Moors on the west coast of Africa, with the inhabitants of the banksof the Niger. 

In the middle of the sixth century, an immense and expensive fleet, fittedout by the Emperor Justinian for the purpose of invading the Vandals ofAfrica, gives us, in the detail of its preparation and exploits, considerable insight into the maritime state of the empire at this period. Justinian assembled at Constantinople 500 transports of various sizes, which it is not easy exactly to calculate; the presumption derived from theaccounts we have is, that the smallest were 30 tons, and the largest 500tons; and that the aggregate tonnage of the whole amounted to about 100, 000tons: an immense fleet, even compared with the fleets of modern times. Onboard of this fleet there were 35, 000 seamen and soldiers, and 5000 horses, besides arms, engines, stores, and an adequate supply of water andprovisions, for a period, probably, of two or three months. Such were thetransports: they were accompanied and protected by 92 light brigantines, for gallies were no longer used in the Mediterranean; on board of thesevessels were 2000 rowers. The celebrated Belisarius was thecommander-in-chief, both of the land and sea forces. The course of thisnumerous and formidable fleet was directed by the master-galley in which hesailed; this was conspicuous by the redness of its sails during the day, and by torches fixed on its mast head during night. A circumstance occurredduring the first part of the voyage, which instructs us respecting the modeof manufacturing the bread used on long voyages. When the sacks whichcontained it were opened, it was found to be soft and unfit for use; and onenquiring into the cause, the blame was clearly traced to the person bywhose orders it had been prepared. In order to save the expense of fuel, hehad ordered it to be baked by the same fire which warmed the baths ofConstantinople, instead of baking it twice in an oven, as was the usual andproper practice. In the latter mode, a loss of one-fourth was calculated onand allowed; and the saving occasioned by the mode adopted was probablyanother motive with the person under whose superintendence the bread wasprepared. 

During the voyage from Methone, where fresh bread was taken on board to thesouthern coast of Sicily, from which, according to modern language, theywere to take their departure for Africa, they were becalmed, and 161 dayswere spent in this navigation. An incident is mentioned relating to thispart of the voyage, which points out the method used by the ancients topreserve their water when at sea. As the general himself was exposed to theintolerable hardship of thirst, or the necessity of drinking bad water, that which was meant for his use was put into glass bottles, which wereburied deep in the sand, in a part of the ship to which the rays of the suncould not reach. Three months after the departure of the fleet fromConstantinople, the troops were landed near Carthage; Belisarius beinganxious to effect this as soon as possible, as his men did not hesitate toexpress their belief, that they were not able to contend at once with thewinds, the waves, and the barbarians. The result of this expedition was theconquest of the African provinces, Sardinia, and Corsica. 

The absurd and injudicious regulations of Justinian, respecting the corntrade of the empire have been already noticed; nor did his other measuresindicate, either a better acquaintance with the principles of commerce, ormore regard to its interests. The masters of vessels who traded toConstantinople were often obliged to carry cargoes for him to Africa orItaly, without any remuneration; or, if they escaped this hardship, enormous duties were levied on the merchandize they imported. A monopoly inthe sale of silk was granted to the imperial treasurer; and, indeed, nospecies of trade seems to have been open and free, except that in cloth. His addition of one-seventh to the ordinary price of copper, so that hismoney-changers gave only 180 ounces of that metal, instead of 210, forone-sixth of an ounce of gold, seems rather to have been the result ofignorance than of fraud and avarice; since he did not alter the gold coin, in which alone all public and private payments were made. At this time, thegeographical knowledge of the Romans, respecting what had formerlyconstituted a portion of their empire, must have declined in a strikingmanner, if we may judge from the absurd and fabulous account whichProcopius gives of Britain. And the commercial relations of the Britonsthemselves had entirely disappeared, even with their nearest neighbours;since, in the history of Gregory of Tours, there is not a single allusionto any trade between Britain and France. 

At the beginning of the seventh century we glean our last notice of anyevent connected with the commerce and maritime enterprise of the Romans;and the same period introduces us to the rising power and commerce of theArabians. 

Alexandria, though its importance and wealth as a commercial city had longbeen on the wane, principally by the removal of most of the oriental tradeto Persia, was still the commercial capital of the Mediterranean, and wasof the utmost importance to Constantinople, which continued to draw from itan annual supply of about 250, 000 quarters of corn; but in the beginning ofthis century it was conquered by the Persians, and the emperor was obligedto enter into a treaty with the conquerors, by which he agreed to pay aheavy and disgraceful tribute for the corn which was absolutely necessaryfor the support of his capital. But a sudden and most extraordinary changetook place in the character of Heraclius: he roused himself from his sloth, indolence and despair; he fitted out a large fleet; exerted his skill, anddisplayed his courage and coolness in a storm which it encountered; carriedhis armies into Persia itself, and succeeded in recovering Egypt and theother provinces which the Persians had wrested from the empire. 

The very early commerce of the Arabians, by means of caravans, with India, and their settlements on the Red Sea and the coasts of Africa and India ata later period, for the purposes of commerce, have been already noticed. Soon after they became the disciples of Mahomet, their commercial andenterprizing spirit revived, if indeed it had ever languished; and itcertainly displayed itself with augmented zeal, vigour, and success, underthe influence of their new religion, and the genius and ambition of theircaliphs. Persia, Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain, were successivelyconquered by them; and one of their first and most favourite objects, afterthey had conquered a country, was the amelioration or extension of itscommerce. When they conquered Persia, the trade between that country andIndia was extensive and flourishing: the Persian merchants brought fromIndia its most precious commodities. The luxury of the kings of Persiaconsumed a large quantity of camphire, mixed with wax, to illuminate theirpalaces; and this must have been brought, indirectly, through India, fromJapan, Sumatra, or Borneo, the only places where the camphire-tree grows: acurious and striking proof of the remote and extensive influence of thecommerce and luxury of Persia, at the time it was conquered by theArabians. The conquerors, aware of the importance of the Indian commerce, and of the advantages which the Tigris and Euphrates afforded for thispurpose, very soon after their conquest, founded the city of Bassora: aplace, which, from its situation midway between the junction and the mouthof these rivers, commands the trade and navigation of Persia. It soon roseto be a great commercial city; and its inhabitants, directing theirprincipal attention and most vigorous enterprize to the East, soon pushedtheir voyages beyond Ceylon, and brought, directly from the place of theirgrowth or manufacture, many of those articles which hitherto they had beenobliged or content to purchase in that island. Soon after the conquest ofPersia was completed, the Caliph Omar directed that a full and accuratesurvey and description, of the kingdom should be made, which comprehendedthe inhabitants, the cattle, and the fruits of the earth. 

The conquest of Syria added comparatively little to the commerce of theArabians; but in the account which is given of this enterprize, we areinformed of a large fair, which was annually held at Abyla, betweenDamascus and Heliopolis, where the produce and manufactures of the countrywere collected and sold. In the account given of the conquest of Jerusalemby the Arabians, we have also an account of another fair held at Jerusalem, at which it is probable the goods brought from India by Bassora, theEuphrates, and the caravans, were sold. As soon as the conquest of thewestern part of Syria was completed, the Arabians took advantage of thetimber of Libanus, and of the maritime skill of the Phoenicians, which evenyet survived: they fitted out a fleet of 1, 700 barks, which soon rodetriumphant in the Mediterranean. Cyprus, Rhodes, and the Cyclades, weresubdued, and Constantinople itself was attacked, but without effect. 

The conquest of Egypt, however, was of the most importance to the Arabiancommerce, and therefore more especially demands our notice. --"In theirannals of conquest, " as Gibbon remarks, "the siege of Alexandria is perhapsthe most arduous and important enterprize. The first trading city in theworld was abundantly replenished with the means of subsistence anddefence. " But the Saracens were bold and skilful; the Greeks timid andunwarlike; and Alexandria fell into the possession of the disciples ofMahomet. As soon as the conquest of Egypt was completed, its administrationwas settled, and conducted on the most wise and liberal principles. In themanagement of the revenue, taxes were raised, not by the simple butoppressive mode of capitation, but on every branch from the clear profitsof agriculture and commerce. A third part of these taxes was set apart, with the most religious exactness, to the annual repairs of the dykes andcanals. At first, the corn which used to supply Constantinople was sent toMedina from Memphis by camels; but Omrou, the conqueror of Egypt, soonrenewed the maritime communication "which had been attempted or achieved bythe Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, or the Cæsars; and a canal, at least eightymiles in length, was opened from the Nile to the Red Sea. This inlandnavigation, which would have joined the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, was soon, however, discontinued, as useless and dangerous;" and about theyear 775, A. D. , it was stopped up at the end next the Red Sea. 

The conquest of Africa, though not nearly so advantageous to the commerceof the Arabians, was yet of some importance to them in this point of view:it gradually extended from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean. Tripoly was thefirst maritime and commercial city which their arms reduced: Bugia andTangier were next reduced. Cairoan was formed as a station for a caravan; acity, which, in its present decay, still holds the second rank in thekingdom of Tunis. Carthage was next attacked and reduced; but an attemptwas made by forces sent from Constantinople, joined by the ships andsoldiers of Sicily, and a powerful reinforcement of Goths from Spain, toretake it. The Arabian conquerors had drawn a strong chain across theharbour; this the confederate fleet broke: the Arabians for a time werecompelled to retreat; but they soon returned, defeated their enemies, burntCarthage, and soon afterwards completed the conquest of this part ofAfrica. 

The beginning of the eighth century is remarkable for their invasion ofSpain, and for their second fruitless attack on Constantinople; during thelatter, their fleet, which is said to have consisted of 1800 vessels, wastotally destroyed by the Greek fire. With regard to their conquest ofSpain, it was so rapid, that in a few months the whole of that greatpeninsula, which for two centuries withstood the power of the Romanrepublic at its greatest height, was reduced, except the mountainousdistricts of Asturia and Biscay, Here also the Arabians displayed the sameattention to science by which they were distinguished in Asia: ten yearsafter the conquest, a map of the province was made, exhibiting the seas, rivers, harbours, and cities, accompanied with a description of them, andof the inhabitants, the climate, soil, and mineral productions. "In thespace of two centuries, the gifts of nature were improved by theagriculture, the manufactures, and the commerce of an industrious people. "The first of the Ommiades who reigned in Spain, levied on the Christians ofthat country, 10, 000 ounces of gold, 10, 000 pounds of silver, 10, 000houses, &c. "The most powerful of his successors derived from the samekingdom the annual tribute of about six millions sterling. His royal seatof Cordova contained 600 mosques, 900 baths, and 200, 000 houses: he gavelaws to 80 cities of the first order, and to 300 of the second and third:and 12, 000 villages and hamlets were situated on the banks of theGuadalquivir. "

The religious prejudices, as well as the interests of the Arabians, ledthem to exclude the Christians from every channel through which they hadreceived the produce of India. That they were precluded from all commercialintercourse with Egypt, is evident, from a fact noticed by Macpherson, inhis Annals of Commerce. Before Egypt was conquered by the Arabians, writings of importance in Europe were executed on the Egyptian papyrus; butafter that period, at least till the beginning of the ninth century, theyare upon parchment. --This, as Macpherson observes, amounts almost to aproof, that the trade with Egypt, the only country producing papyrus, wasinterrupted. 

In consequence of the supply of silks, spices, and other oriental luxurieswhich Constantinople derived from the fair at Jerusalem, (still allowed bythe Arabians to be annually held, ) not being sufficient for the demand ofthat dissipated capital, and their price in consequence having very muchincreased, some merchants were tempted to travel across Asia, beyond thenorthern boundary of the Arabian power, and to import, by means ofcaravans, the goods of China and India. 

Towards the beginning of the ninth century, as we have already remarked, the commercial relations of the Arabians and the Christians of Europecommenced, and Alexandria was no longer closed to the latter. The merchantsof Lyons, Marseilles, and other maritime towns in the south of France, inconsequence of the friendship and treaties subsisting between Charlemagneand the Caliph Haroun Al Rasched, traded with their ships twice a year toAlexandria; from this city they brought the produce of Arabia and India tothe Rhone, and by means of it, and a land carriage to the Moselle and theRhine, France and Germany were supplied with the luxuries of the east. Thefriendship between the emperor and the caliph seems in other cases to havebeen employed by the former to the advancement of the commercialintercourse between Asia and Europe; for we are expressly informed, that aJewish merchant, a favourite of Charlemagne, made frequent voyages toPalestine, and returned with pictures, --merchandize before unknown in thewest. 

Hitherto we have viewed the Arabians chiefly as fostering and encouragingcommerce; but they also deserve our notice, for their attention togeographical science and discoveries. From the period of their firstconquests, the caliphs had given orders to their generals to draw upgeographical descriptions of the countries conquered; and we have alreadynoticed some of these descriptions. In 833, A. D. , the Caliph Almamonemployed three brothers of the name of Ben Schaker, to measure a degree oflatitude, first in the desert of Sangdaar, betweeen Racca and Palmyra, andafterwards near Cufa, for the purpose of ascertaining the circumference ofthe globe. 

We now arrive at the era of a most important document, illustrative of thecommerce of the eastern parts of India and of China, with which we arefurnished by the Arabians: we allude to the "ancient Accounts of India andChina, by two Mahomedan travellers, who went to those parts in the ninthcentury, translated from the Arabic by Renaudot. " The genuineness andauthenticity of these accounts were for a long time doubted; but DeGuignes, from the Chinese annals, has completely removed all doubt on thesubject. 

The most remarkable circumstance connected with this journey is, that inthe ninth century the Mahomedans should have been able to reach China; butour surprise on this point will cease, when we consider the extent of theMahomedan dominions towards the east of Asia, the utmost limits of which, in this direction, approached very nearly the frontiers of China. If, therefore, they travelled by land, no serious difficulty would lie in theirway; but Renaudot thinks it more probable, that they proceeded thither bysea. 

According to these travellers, the Arabian merchants, no longer confiningthemselves to a traffic at Ceylon for the commodities of the east of Asia, traded to every part of that quarter of the globe, even as far as the southcoast of China. The account they give of the traffic with this lattercountry, is very minute: "When foreign vessels arrive at Canfu, which issupposed to be Canton, the Chinese take possession of their cargoes, andstore them in warehouses, till the arrival of all the other ships which areexpected: it thus happens that the vessels which first arrive are detainedsix months. They then take about a third part of all the merchandize, asduty, and give the rest up to the merchants: of these the emperor is thepreferable purchaser, but only for ready money, and at the highest price ofthe market. " One circumstance is particularly noticed, which proves, thatat this period the Arabians were numerous and respected in China; for acadi, or judge, of their own religion, was appointed to preside over them, under the emperor. The Chinese are described as sailing along the coast asfar as the Persian Gulf, where they loaded their vessels with merchandizefrom Bassora. Other particulars are mentioned, respecting their trade, &c. , which agree wonderfully with what we know of them at present: they regardedgold and silver merely as merchandize: dressed in silk, summer and winter:had no wine, but drank a liquor made from rice. Tea is mentioned under thename of _sak_--an infusion of this they drank, and a large revenue wasderived from the duty on it. Their porcelaine also is described andpraised, as equally fine and transparent as glass. Every male child wasregistered as soon as born; at 18 he began to pay the capitation tax; andat 80 was entitled to a pension. 

These Arabian travellers likewise supply us with some informationrespecting the trade of the Red Sea. The west side of it was in their timenearly deserted by merchant ships; those from the Persian Gulf sailed toJudda on the Arabian coast of it: here were always found many smallcoasting vessels, by means of which the goods from India, Persia, &c. Wereconveyed to Cairo. If this particular is accurate, it would seem to provethat at this period the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, which hadbeen rendered navigable by Omrou, was regularly used for the purposes ofcommerce. 

In these accounts, the typhon, or whirlwind, so common in the Chinese seas, is mentioned under that appellation: the flying fish and unicorn aredescribed; and we have notices of ambergrise, the musk, and the animal fromwhich it is produced: the last is mentioned as coming from Thibet. 

The next Arabian author, in point of time, from whom we derive informationrespecting geography and commerce, is Massoudi. He died at Cairo in 957: hewas the author of a work describing the most celebrated kingdoms in Europe, Africa, and Asia; but the details respecting Africa, India, and the lesserAsia, are the most accurate and laboured. The account we shall afterwardsgive of the geographical knowledge of the Arabians, renders it unnecessaryto present any abstract, in this place, of the geographical part of hiswork; we shall therefore confine ourselves to the notices interspersedrespecting commerce. The Arabians traded to nearly every port of India, from Cashmere to Cape Comorin; and seem to have been protected andparticularly favoured in their commercial pursuits. In the year 877 a greatrebellion occurred in China, and the Arabian merchants had been massacredat Canfn. According to Massoudi, however, in his time this city hadrecovered from its disasters; confidence had revived; the Arabian merchantsfrom Bassora, and other ports in Persia, resorted to it; and vessels fromIndia and the adjacent islands. He also describes a route to China by landfrequented by traders: this seems to have been through Korasin, Thibet, anda country he calls Ilestan. With regard to the Arabian commerce withAfrica, the merchants settled at Omar traded to Sofala for gold, and to anisland, which is supposed to be Madagascar, where they had establishedcolonies. 

Of the geographical knowledge displayed by the next Arabian traveller inpoint of date, [Ebor->Ebn] Haukal, we shall at present take no notice, forthe reason already assigned; but confine ourselves to his notices regardingcommerce. According to him, the most wealthy merchants resided at Siraf, where they traded very extensively and successfully in the commodities ofIndia and China. Hormus was the principal trading place in Karmania; Daibulin Sind: the merchants here traded to all parts. The countries near theCaspian were celebrated for their manufactures of silk, wool, hair, andgold stuffs. In Armenia, hangings and carpets, dyed with a worm or insect abeautiful colour, called _kermez_, were made. Samarcand was celebrated forthe excellency of its paper. Trebezond was the principal trading place onthe Black Sea. Alexandria is celebrated for the grandeur of its buildings;but its trade is not mentioned. 

About the beginning of the eleventh century we derive our earliest noticeof the commerce of Spain under its Arabian conquerors. The port ofBarcelona was at this period the principal station for commercialintercourse with the eastern nations bordering on the Mediterranean; and asa proof of the character which its merchants held, it may be noticed, thattheir usages were collected into a code: by this code all vessels arrivingat, or sailing from, Barcelona, are assured of friendly treatment; and theyare declared to be under the protection of the prince, so long as they arenear the coast of Catalonia. How much Spain was indebted to the Arabiansfor their early commerce may be judged of from the number of commercial andmaritime terms in the Spanish language, evidently derived from the Arabic. 

In the middle of the twelfth century, Al Edrissi composed at the court ofRoger King of Sicily, whose subject he was, his Geographical Amusements. Inthis work we find little that relates to commerce: its geographical detailswill assist us when we give our sketch of the geographical knowledge of theArabians. 

In the work of [Ebor->Ebn] Al Ouardi, which was drawn up in 1232, Africa, Arabia, and Syria are minutely described; but comparatively little is saidon Europe, India, and the North of Asia. 

The next Arabian geographer in point of time is Abulfeda: he wrote a veryparticular description of the earth, the countries being arranged accordingto climates, with the latitude and longitude of each place. In theintroduction to this work he enters on the subject of mathematicalgeography, and describes the most celebrated mountains, rivers, and seas ofthe world. Abulfeda was a native of Syria; and this and the adjacentcountries are described with most fullness and accuracy: the same remarkapplies to his description of Egypt and the north coast of Africa. Theinformation contained in his work, respecting Tartary, China, &c. , is notnearly so full and minute as might have been expected, considering theintercourse of the Arabians with those countries. Of Europe, and all otherparts of Africa except Egypt and the north coast, he gives little or noinformation. 

Within these very few years, some valuable notices have been received, through M. Burckhardt, and Mr. Kosegarten of Jena, of Ibn Batouta, anArabian traveller of the fourteenth century. According to M. Burckhardt, heis, perhaps, the greatest land traveller that ever wrote his travels. Hewas a native of Tangier, and travelled for thirty years, from 1324 to 1354. He traversed more than once Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Persia, the coast of theRed Sea, and the eastern coast of Africa. Bochara, Balk, Samarcand, Caubul, India, and China, were visited by him: he even ventured to explore severalof the Indian islands; crossed the mountains of Thibet, traversed India, and then, taking shipping, went to Java. He again visited China, andreturned thence by Calicut, Yeman, Bagdad, and Damascus, to Cairo. Afterhaving visited Spain, he directed his travels to Africa; reached thecapital of Morocco, and thence as far as Sodjalmasa. From this place hecrossed the Desert with the slave merchants to Taghary--twenty-five daysjourney: he represents the houses here as built of rock salt, and coveredwith camel skins. For twenty days more he crossed a desert without water ortrees, and the sand of which was so loose, that it left no traces offootsteps. He now arrived at the frontier town of Soudan. After travellingfor some time longer, he reached the banks of the Niger, which, accordingto the information he received, flowed into the Nile at the secondcataract. He visited Tombuctoo and other places in this part of Africa, andfinished his travels at Fez. 

We shall now conclude our account of the Arabians, with a connected andcondensed view of their geographical knowledge. 

It is natural to suppose that they would be best acquainted with thosecountries which had embraced the faith of Mahomet; and that the prejudicesand contempt with which his disciples have always regarded Christians, and, indeed, all who were of a different religion, would stand in the way oftheir seeking or acquiring information respecting those portions of theglobe, the inhabitants of which were not of their faith. The exceptions tothis are to be found principally in those countries, from which theyderived the principal articles of their commerce; or which, though notproselytized, were conquered by them. 

Hence, Europe in general was scarcely known to them beyond their dominionsin Spain, and the adjacent parts of France. There are, however, exceptionsto this remark; for we find, scattered through their geographical works, notices tolerably accurate and just respecting Ireland, Paris, Antharvat, which seems to be England, the Duchy of Sleswig, the City of Kiov, and someother places. 

The whole of the north of Africa having been subdued, was thoroughly knownby them; and they seem to have extended their arms, or at least theirknowledge, as far into the interior as the banks of the Niger. On the eastside, their arms had penetrated to Sofala; but on the west their knowledgedoes not appear to have reached beyond Cape Blanco, in the Bay of Arguin. The fortunate islands of the ancients were known to them, and the Pike ofTeneriffe seems obscurely represented. Of the other islands and portsfarther to the south on this side of Africa, it is impossible to ascertaintheir identity; or whether, as represented by the Arabians, they may not beregarded as among those fables in geography, in which all the ancientnations indulged. We may, however, trace some resemblance, in name ordescription, to the Canary Islands, the River Senegal, and the Rio d'Ouro. Malte Brun is of opinion, that their knowledge extended beyond CapeBoyador, for so long a time impassable by the Portugese. 

On the eastern side of Africa, the Ethiopia of the Arabians seems to haveterminated at Cape Corrientes: their power and religion were establishedfrom the Cape to the Red Sea. In their geographical descriptions of thispart of Africa, we may trace many names of cities which they still retain. But they adopted the error of Ptolemy in supposing that the southern partsof Africa and Asia joined; for Edrisi describes an extensive country, extending from the coast of Africa to that of India, beyond the Ganges. 

The island of Madagascar seems to be faintly pourtrayed by them; and it iscertain that Arabian colonies and the Mahometan religion were establishedin it from a very early period. Massoudi mentions an island, two days' sailfrom Zanguebar, which he calls Phanbalu, the inhabitants of which wereMahometans; and it is worthy of remark, as Malte Brun observes, that in thetime of Aristotle a large island in this Ocean was known under a similarname, that of Phebol. It is surprizing that the island of Ceylon, withwhich the Arabians had such regular and constant intercourse, should beplaced by Edrisi near the coast of Africa. 

But it was in Asia that the conquest, and commerce, and religion of theArabians spread most extensively; and hence their geographical knowledge ofthis part of the globe is more full, accurate, and minute, than what theyhad acquired of the other portions. By their conquest of Persia, theancient Bactriana, Transoxiana, &c. Fell into their power; and according totheir wise plan, they immediately made themselves acquainted with thegeography, productions, &c. Of these countries. From their writers we canglean many new and curious particulars, respecting the districts which lieto the north and east of the Gihon: whether in all respects they areaccurate, cannot now be ascertained; for these districts, besides that theyare comparatively little known to the moderns, have suffered so much fromvarious causes, that their identity can hardly be determined. 

On the west of Asia, near the Black Sea and the borders of Europe, theArabian geographers throw much light; their information is minute andexact, and it reaches to the passes of Caucasus. Red Russia, it is wellknown, derives its appellation from the colour of the hair of itsinhabitants. Now the Arabian geographers describe a Sclavonic nation, inhabiting a country near Caucasus, called _Seclab_, remarkable forthe redness of their hair. Hence, it is probable that the moderninhabitants of Red Russia, who are Sclavonic, emigrated to it from thisdistrict of Caucasus. 

Some notices appear of those parts, of Russia which border on Russia:Maschput, which is represented as a city of consequence, probably isMoscow. On the borders of the salt plains of Susith, a country isdescribed, called Boladal Rus, evidently Russia, the inhabitants of whichare represented as noted for their filth. 

With the figure and extent of the Caspian Sea, the Arabian geographers weretolerably well acquainted: and they describe, so as to be recognized, several tribes inhabiting the borders of this sea, as well as the vicinityof the Wolga. One is particularly noticed and celebrated, being called thePeople of the Throne of Gold, the khan of whom lived at Seray, near themouth of the Wolga. To the east of the Caspian, the Arabian conquests didnot extend farther than those of Alexander and his immediate successors. Transoxiana was the limit of their dominions towards the north, in thispart of the world. 

Of many of the districts which the Arabians, conquered, in this part ofAsia, they have furnished us with such accurate and full information, thatmodern discoveries have been able to add or correct very little. That theywere acquainted with Thibet and China, has already appeared, from theaccount given of their commerce. Thibet they represent as divided intothree parts, Thibet upper, central, and lower. At the beginning of theeighth century, Arabian ambassadors were sent to China: they passed throughCashgar. After this period, journies to China by the route of Samarcandwere frequent. Besides Canfu, described by the Mahomedan travellers ofRenaudot, other cities in China were visited by the Arabian merchants, mostof which were in the interior; but the Arabian geographers seem to havebeen puzzled by the Chinese names. We learn, however, that the provinces ofthe north were distinguished from those of the south; the former werecalled Cathay and Tehar Cathar, or Cathay, which produces tea: its capitalwas Cambalu: the provinces in the south were called Tchin or Sin. Theappellation of Cathay was that under which alone China was long known tothe Europeans. Under the name of Sin, given to the southern districts, theArabian geographers frequently comprehended all the country to the Ganges. The Arabians divided the present Hindostan into two parts; Sind and Hind:the first seems to have comprised the countries lying on the Indus; Hindlay to the east, and comprehended Delhi, Agra, Oude, Bengal, &c. The Decan, at least the western part of it, belonged to Sind. The coast of Coromandel, as well as the interior, was unknown to them. On the west or Malabar coast, their information was full and accurate; but it terminated at Cape Comorin. 

While part of the forces of the Caliph Walid were employed in the conquestof Spain, another part succeeded in reducing Multan and Lahore; and theArabian geographers, always ready to take advantage of the success of theirarms, to promote geographical knowledge, describe their new easternconquests, and the countries which bordered on them, in the most glowinglanguage. The valley of Cashmere, in particular, affords ample matter fortheir panegyrics. The towns of Guzerat, Cambay, and Narwhorra aredescribed: in the last resided the most powerful king of India; his kingdomextended from Guzerat and Concan to the Ganges. The city of Benares, celebrated as a school of Indian philosophy, and the almost impregnablefortress of Gevatior, are mentioned by them, as well as a colony of Jews inCochin, and the Maldive islands: these they frequented to obtain cowries, which then, as now, were used as money. 

It is supposed that the isle of Sumatra is described by them under the nameof Lumery; for the peculiar productions are the same, and Sumatra was knownunder the name of Lambry in the time of Marc Paul, and Mandeville. Java isevidently meant by Al D'Javah: it is represented as rich in spices, butsubject to volcanic eruptions; circumstances by which it is yetdistinguished. A short period before the Portuguese reached these seas, Arabian colonists established themselves at Ternate and some of the otherspice islands; and their language, religious opinions, and customs, mayclearly be traced in the Philippine islands. 

From the geographical discoveries, the travels by sea and land, and thecommercial enterprize of the Arabians, we pass to those of theScandinavians; under that appellation, including not only theScandinavians, properly so called, who inhabited the shores of the Balticand the coasts of Norway, but also those people who dwelt on the northernshores of the German Ocean; for they were of the same origin as the Balticnations, and resembled them in manners and pursuits. 

By an inspection of the map it will appear, that all these tribes weresituated nearly as favorably for maritime enterprize as the nations whichinhabited the shores of the Mediterranean; and though their earliestexpeditions by sea were not stimulated by the same cause, commercialpursuits, yet they arose from causes equally efficient. While the countriesbordering on the Mediterranean were blessed with a fertile soil and a mildclimate, those on the Baltic were comparatively barren and ungenial; theirinhabitants, therefore, induced by their situation to attend to maritimeaffairs, were further led to employ their skill and power by sea, inendeavouring to establish themselves in more favored countries, or, atleast, to draw from them by plunder, what they could not obtain in theirown. 

We have already mentioned the maritime expeditions of the Saxons, whichstruck terror into the Romans, during the decline of their empire. Theother Scandinavian nations were acted on by the same causes and motives. Neglecting the peaceful art of agriculture, inured to the sea from theirearliest years, and the profession and practice of piracy being regarded asactually honourable by them, it is no wonder that their whole lives werespent in planning or executing maritime expeditions. Their internal warsalso, by depriving many of their power or their property, compelled them toseek abroad that which they had lost at home. No sooner had a princereached his eighteenth year, than he was entrusted by his father with afleet; and by means of it he was ordered and expected to add to his gloryand his wealth, by plunder and victory. Lands were divided into certainportions, and from each portion a certain number of ships were to be fullyequipped for sea. Their vessels, as well as themselves, were admirablyadapted to the grand object of their lives; the former were well suppliedwith stones, arrows, and strong ropes, with which they overset smallvessels, and with grappling irons to board them; and every individual wasskilful in swimming. Each band possessed its own ports, magazines, &c. Their ships were at first small, being only a kind of twelve-oared barks;they were afterwards so much enlarged, that they were capable of containing100 or 120 men. 

It is not our intention to notice the piratical expeditions ofScandinavians, except so far as they tended to discovery, or commerce, orwere productive of permanent effects. Among the first countries to whichthey directed themselves, and where they settled permanently, were Englandand Ireland; the result of their settlement in England was theestablishment of the Anglo-Saxon dominion power in that kingdom; the resultof their expeditions to Ireland was their settlement on its eastern coasts. In the middle of the ninth century, the native Irish had been driven bythem into the central and western parts of the country, while theScandinavian conquerors, under the appellation of Ostmen, or Eastmen, possessed of all the maritime cities, carried on an extensive and lucrativecommerce, not only with their native land, but also with other places inthe west of Europe. Their settlements on the Shetland, Orkney, and westernislands of Scotland, are only mentioned, because in these last theScandinavians seem to have established and encouraged manufactures, theforerunner and support of commerce; for towards the end of the ninthcentury, the drapery of the Suderyans, (for so the inhabitants were called, as their country lay to the south of Shetland and Orkney, ) was muchcelebrated and sought after. 

About this period the Scandinavian nations began to mingle commerce anddiscovery with their piratical expeditions. Alfred, king of England, obliged to attend to maritime affairs, to defend his territories from theDanes, turned his ardent and penetrating mind to every thing connected withthis important subject. He began by improving the structure of his vessels;"the form of the Saxon ships (observes Mr. Strutt, who derives hisdescription from contemporary drawings) at the end of the eighth century, or beginning of the ninth, is happily preserved in some of the ancient MSS. Of that date, they were scarcely more than a very large boat, and seem tobe built of stout planks, laid one over the other, in the manner as is donein the present time; their heads and sterns are very erect, and rise highout of the water, ornamented at top with some uncouth head of an animal, rudely cut; they have but one mast, the top of which is also decorated witha bird, or some such device; to this mast is made fast a large sail, which, from its nature and construction, could only be useful when the vessel wentbefore the wind. The ship was steered with a large oar, with a flat end, very broad, passing by the side of the stern; and this was managed by thepilot, who sat in the stern, and thence issued his orders to the mariners. "The bird on the mast head, mentioned in this description, appears, from theaccount of Canute's fleet, given in Du Cange, to have been for the purposeof shewing the wind. 

The same energy and comprehension of mind which induced and enabled Alfredto improve his navy so much, led him to favour geographical pursuits andcommere. In his Anglo-Saxon translation of Orosius, he has inserted theinformation he had obtained from two Scandinavians, Ohter and Wulfstan. Inthis we have the most ancient description, that is clear and precise, ofthe countries in the north of Europe. Ohter sailed from Helgoland inNorway, along the coast of Lapland, and doubling the North Cape, reachedthe White Sea. This cape had not before been doubled; nor was it again, till in the middle of the 16th century, by Chancellor, the Englishnavigator, who was supposed at that time to be the original discoverer. Ohter also made a voyage up the Baltic, as far as Sleswig. Wulfstan, however, penetrated further into this sea than Ohter; for he reached Truse, a city in Prussia, which he represents as a place of considerable trade. 

Alfred even extended his views to India, whether stimulated by religiousviews, or by the desire of obtaining its luxuries, is uncertain; perhapsboth motives operated on his mind. We know that the patriarch of Jerusalemcorresponded with him; and that the Christians of St. Thomas, in India, would probably be mentioned in these letters: we also know, that about acentury before Alfred lived, the venerable Bede was possessed of pepper, cinnamon, and frankincense. Whatever were Alfred's motives, the fact isundoubted, that he sent one of his bishops to St. Thomas, who brought backaromatic liquors, and splendid jewels. Alfred seems to have been rich inthe most precious commodities of the East; for he presented Asser, hisbiographer, with a robe of silk, and as much incense as a strong man couldcarry. After all, however, the commerce of England in his reign wasextremely limited: had it been of any importance, it would have been morespecially noticed and protected by his laws. It was otherwise, however, inthe reign of Athelstan; for there is a famous law made by him, by which therank and privileges of a thane are conferred on every merchant, who hadmade three voyages across the sea, with a vessel and cargo of his own. Byanother law passed in this reign, the exportation of horses was forbidden. 

From this period till the conquest, England was prevented from engaging incommerce by the constant irruption of the Danes, and by the short durationof their sovereignty after they had succeeded in obtaining it. There are, however, even during this time, some notices on the subject; as appearsfrom the laws of Ethelred: by these, tolls were established on all boatsand vessels arriving at Billingsgate, according to their size. The men ofRouen, who brought wine and large fish, and those from Flanders, Normandy, and other parts of France, were obliged to shew their goods, and pay theduties; but the emperor's men, who came with their ships, were morefavoured, though they were not exempt from duty. 

From what relates to the geographical knowledge and the commerce of theScandinavian inhabitants of England, we shall now pass on to thegeographical discoveries and commerce of the other Scandinavian nations. 

About the year 861, a Scandinavian vessel, probably on its voyage toShetland or Orkney, discovered the Feroe islands. This discovery, and theflight of some birds, induced the Scandinavians to believe that there wasother land in the vicinity of these islands. About ten years afterwards, Iceland was discovered by some Norwegian nobility and their dependants, whowere obliged to leave their native country, in consequence of the tyrannyof Harold Harfragre. According to some accounts, however, Iceland had beenvisited by a Norwegian pirate a few years before this; and if thecircumstance mentioned in the Icelandic Chronicles be true, that woodencrosses, and other little pieces of workmanship, after the manner of theIrish and Britons, were found in it, it must have been visited before theScandinavians arrived. The new colonists soon acquired a thorough knowledgeof the size of the island; for they expressly state, that its circumferenceis 168 leagues, 15 to a degree, which corresponds with the most accuratemodern measurement. 

Iceland soon became celebrated for its learning; the history of the North, as well as its geography, is much indebted to its authors: nor were itsinhabitants, though confined to a cold and sterile land very remote fromthe rest of Europe, inattentive to commerce; for they carried on aconsiderable trade in the northern seas, --their ships visiting Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, &c. ; and there is even an instance of theirhaving made a commercial voyage as far as Constantinople. 

To them the discovery of Greenland and of America is due. The first tookplace about the beginning of the tenth century: a colony was immediatelyestablished, which continued till it was destroyed by a pestilence in the14th century, and by the accumulation of ice, which prevented allcommunication between Iceland and Greenland. 

The discovery of America took place in the year 1001: an Icelander, insearch of his father who was in Greenland, was carried to the south by aviolent wind. Land was discovered at a distance, flat, low, and woody. Hedid not go on shore, but returned. His account induced a Norwegian noblemanto fit out a ship to explore this new land; after sailing for some time, they descried a flat shore, without verdure; and soon afterwards a low landcovered with wood. Two days' prosperous sailing brought them to a thirdshore, on the north of which lay an island: they entered, and sailed up ariver, and landed. Pleased with the temperature of the climate, theapparent fertility of the soil, and the abundance of fish in the rivers, they resolved to pass the winter in this country; and they gave it the nameof Vinland, from the quantity of small grapes which they found growing. Acolony was soon afterwards formed, who traded with the natives; these arerepresented as of diminutive stature, of the same race as the inhabitantsof the west part of Greenland, and as using leathern canoes. Themerchandize they brought consisted chiefly of furs, sables, the skins ofwhite rats, &c. ; and they principally and most eagerly requested, inexchange, hatchets and arms. It appears from the Icelandic Chronicles, thata regular trade was established between this country and Norway, and thatdried grapes or raisins were among the exports. In the year 1121, a bishopwent from Greenland for the purpose of converting the colonists of Vinlandto the Christian religion: after this period, there is no informationregarding this country. This inattention to the new colony probably arosefrom the intercourse between the west of Greenland and Iceland havingceased, as we have already mentioned, and from the northern nations havingbeen, about this period, wasted by a pestilence, and weakened anddistracted by feuds. Of the certainty of the discovery there can be nodoubt: the Icelandic Chronicles are full and minute, not only respectingit, but also respecting the transactions which took place among thecolonists, and between them and the natives. And Adam of Bremen, who livedat this period, expressly states, that the king of Denmark informed him, that another island had been discovered in the ocean which washes Norway, called Vinland, from the vines which grew there; and he adds, we learn, notby fabulous hearsay, but by the express report of certain Danes, thatfruits are produced without cultivation. Ordericus Vitalis, in hisEcclesiastical History, under the year 1098, reckons Vinland along withGreenland, Iceland, and the Orkneys, as under the dominion of the king ofNorway. 

Where then was Vinland?--it is generally believed it was part of America;and the objections which may be urged against this opinion, do not appearto us to be of much weight. It is said that no part of America could bereached in four days, the space of time in which the first discovererreached this land, and in which the voyages from Greenland to it seemgenerally to have been made. But the west part of Greenland is so near somepart of America, that a voyage might easily be effected in that time. Inanswer to the objection, that vines do not grow in the northern parts ofAmerica, where Vinland, if part of this continent, must be fixed, it may beobserved, that in Canada the vine bears a small fruit; and that stillfurther north, in Hudson's Bay, according to Mr. Ellis, vines grewspontaneously, producing a fruit which he compares to the currants of theLevant. The circumstances mentioned in the Icelandic Chronicles respectingthe natives, that their canoes are made of skins; that they are very expertwith their bows and arrows; that on their coasts they fish for whales, andin the interior live by hunting; that their merchandize consists ofwhalebone and furs; that they are fond of iron, and instruments made of it;and that they were small in stature, all coincide with what we know to becharacterestic of the inhabitants of Labrador. It is probable, therefore, that this part of America, or the island of Newfoundland, was the Vinlanddiscovered by the Icelanders. 

The beginning and middle of the tenth century witnessed an increasingspirit of commerce, as well as considerable attention to geographicalpursuits in other Scandinavian nations, as well as the Icelanders. Periodical public fairs were established in several towns of Germany, andother parts of the North: one of the most considerable articles of trafficat these fairs consisted of slaves taken in war. Sleswig is represented asa port of considerable trade and consequence; from it sailed ships toSlavonia, Semland, and Greece, or rather, perhaps, Russia. From a port onthe side of Jutland, opposite to Sleswig, vessels traded to Frisca, Saxony, and England; and from another port in Jutland they sailed to Fionia, Scania, and Norway. Sweden is represented as, at this time, carrying on anextensive and lucrative trade. At the mouth of the Oder, on the south sideof the Baltic, there seems to have been one, if not two towns which wereenriched by commerce. 

For most of these particulars respecting the commerce of the Baltic andadjacent seas, at this period, we are indebted to Adam of Bremen. He wascanon of Bremen in the eleventh century: and from the accounts of themissionaries who went into Lapland, and other parts of the North, toconvert the inhabitants to Christianity, the information he received fromthe king of Denmark, and his own observations, he drew up a detailedaccount of the Scandinavian kingdoms. His description of Jutland is full, and he mentions several islands in the Baltic, which are not noticed byprior writers. He also treats of the interior parts of Sweden, the coastsonly of which had been previously made known by the voyages published byking Alfred. Of Russia, he informs us that it was a very extensive kingdom, the capital of which was Kiev; and that the inhabitants traded with theGreeks in the Black Sea. So far his information seems to have been good;but though his account of the south coasts of the Baltic is tolerablycorrect, yet he betrays great ignorance in most of what he says respectingthe northern parts of the Baltic. In his work the name Baltic first Occurs. His geographical descriptions extend to the British isles; but of them herelates merely the fabulous stories of Solinus, &c. The figure of theearth, and the cause of the inequality of the length of the day and night, were known to Adam of Bremen. 

About the middle of the twelfth century, Lubeck was founded; and it soonbecame a place of considerable trade, being the resort of merchants fromall the countries of the North, and having a mint, custom-house, &c. Weshall afterwards be called upon to notice it more particularly, when wecome to trace the origin and history of the Hanseatic League. At present weshall only mention, that within thirty years after it was founded, andbefore the establishment of the League, Lubeck was so celebrated for itscommerce, that the Genoese permitted its merchants to trade in theMediterranean on board their vessels, on the same footing with their owncitizens. The success of the Lubeckers stimulated the other inhabitants ofthis part of the Baltic shores; and the bishop of Lunden founded a city inZealand, for the express purpose of being a place of trade, as its name, Keopman's haven, Chapman's haven, (Copenhagen, ) implies. Towards the closeof this century, Hamburgh is noticed as a place of trade. 

The two cities of Lubeck and Hamburgh are generally regarded as having laidthe foundation of the Hanseatic League. This League was first formed, solely to protect the carriage by land of merchandize between these cities;it is supposed to have been began about the middle of the thirteenthcentury. Other cities soon joined the League, and its objects became moremultiplied and extensive; but still having the protection and encouragementof their commerce principally in view. The total number of confederatedcities was between seventy and eighty. Lubeck was fixed upon as the head ofthe League: in it the assemblies met, and the archives were preserved. Inland commerce, the protection of which had given rise to the League, wasstill attended to; but the maritime commerce of the Baltic, as affordinggreater facilities and wealth, was that with which the League chieflyoccupied itself. The confederated cities were the medium of exchangebetween the productions of Germany, Flanders, France, and Spain; and thetimber, metals, fish, furs, &c. Of the countries on this sea. 

The conquest and conversion of the pagan countries between the Vistula andthe Gulf of Finland, by the Teutonic knights, was favourable to thecommercial views of the confederated cities; for the conquerors obliged thenatives to confine their attention and labour exclusively to agriculture, permitting Germans alone to carry on commerce, and engage in trade. HenceGermans emigrated to these countries; and the League, always quicksightedto their own interests, soon connected themselves with the new settlers, and formed commercial alliances, which were recognized and protected by theTeutonic knights. Elbing, Dantzic, Revel, and Riga, were thus added to theLeague--cities, which, from their situation, were admirably calculated toobtain and forward the produce of the interior parts of Poland and Russia. 

The northern countries of the Baltic shore, in a great measure inattentiveto commerce, and distracted by wars, were supplied by the League withmoney, on condition that they should assign to them the sources of wealthwhich their mines supplied, and moreover grant them commercial privileges, immunities, and establishments. Lubeck was chiefly benefited and enrichedby the treaties thus formed; for she obtained the working of the mines ofSweden and Norway, which do not seem to have been known, and were certainlynot productively and effectively worked before this time. The League alsoobtained, by various means, the exclusive herring fishery of the Sound, which became a source of so much wealth, that the "fishermen weresuperintended, during the season, with as much jealousy as if they had beenemployed in a diamond mine. "

Towards the close of the thirteenth century, the king of Norway permittedthe League to establish a factory and the staple of their northern trade atBergen. A singular establishment seems soon to have been formed here: atfirst the merchants of the League were permitted to trade to Bergen only inthe summer months; but they afterwards were allowed to reside herepermanently, and they formed twenty-one large factories, all the members ofwhich were unmarried, and lived together in messes within their factories. Each factory was capable of accommodating about one hundred merchants, withtheir servants. Their importations consisted of flax, corn, biscuit, flour, malt, ale, cloth, wine, spirituous liquors, copper, silver, &c. ; and theyexported ship-timber, masts, furs, butter, salmon, dried cod, fish-oil, &c. 

As the grand object of the League was to secure to themselves the profitsarising from the mutual supply of the north and south of Europe, with themerchandize of each, they had agents in France, Spain, &c. As well as inthe countries on the Baltic. England, at this period, did not carry on muchcommerce, nor afford much merchandize or produce for exportation; yet evenin it the Hanseatic League established themselves. Towards the end of thethirteenth century they had a factory in London, and were allowed to exportwool, sheep's skins, and tin, on condition that they kept in repair thegate of the city called Bishopsgate: they were also allowed the privilegeof electing an alderman. 

Bruges, which is said to have had regular weekly fairs for the sale of thewoollen manufactures of Flanders so early as the middle of the tenthcentury, and to have been fixed upon by the Hanseatic League, in the middleof the thirteenth, as an entrepôt for their trade, certainly became, soonafter this latter period, a city of great trade, probably from itsconnection with the Hanseatic League, though it never was formally admitteda member. We shall afterwards have occasion to notice it in our view of theprogress of the Hanseatic League. 

As the commerce of the League encreased and extended in the Baltic, itbecame necessary to fix on some depôt. Wisby, a city in the island ofGothland, was chosen for this purpose, as being most central. Mostexaggerated accounts are given of the wealth and splendour to which itsinhabitants rose, in consequence of their commercial prosperity. It iscertain that its trade was very considerable, and that it was the resort ofmerchants and vessels from all the north of Europe: for, as the lattercould not, in the imperfect state of navigation, perform their voyage inone season, their cargoes were wintered and lodged in magazines on shore. At this city was compiled a code of maritime laws, from which the modernnaval codes of Denmark and Sweden are borrowed; as those of Wisby werefounded on the laws of Oleren, (which will be noticed when we treat of thecommerce of England during this period, ) and on the laws of Barcelona, ofwhich we have already spoken; and as these again were, in a great measure, borrowed from the maritime code of Rhodes. 

But to return to the more immediate history of the HanseaticLeague, --about the year 1369 their power in the Baltic was so great, thatthey engaged in a successful war with the king of Denmark, and obliged him, as the price of peace, to deliver to them several towns which werefavourably situated for their purpose. 

The Hanseatic League, though they were frequently involved in disputes, andsometimes in wars, with France, Flanders, Holland, Denmark, England, andother powers, and though they undoubtedly aimed at, not only the monopoly, but also the sovereignty of the Baltic, and encroached where-ever they werepermitted to fix themselves, yet were of wonderful service to civilizationand commerce. "In order to accomplish the views of nature, by extending theintercourse of nations, it was necessary to open the Baltic to commercialrelations; it was necessary to instruct men, still barbarous, in theelements of industry, and to familiarize them in the principles ofcivilization. These great foundations were laid by the confederation; andat the close of the fifteenth century, the Baltic and the neighbouring seashad, by its means, become frequented routes of communication between theNorth and the South. The people of the former were enabled to follow theprogress of the latter in knowledge and industry. " The forests of Sweden, Poland, &c. Gave place to corn, hemp, and flax; the mines were wrought;and, in return, the produce and manufactures of the South were received. Towns and villages were erected in Scandinavia, where huts only were beforeseen: the skins of the bear and wolf were exchanged for woollens, linens, and silks: learning was introduced; and printing was scarcely inventedbefore it was practised in Denmark, Sweden, &c. 

It was at this period that the Hanse towns were the most flourishing; andthat Bruges, largely partaking of their prosperity, and the sole staple forall their goods, rose to its highest wealth and consequence, and, in fact, was the grand entrepôt of the trade of Europe. The Hanse towns were at thistime divided into four classes: Lubeck was at the head of the whole League;in it the meetings of the deputies from the other towns were held, and thearchives of the League were kept. Under it were Hamburgh, Rostok, Wismar, and other nine towns situated in the north of Germany. Cologne was thechief city of the second class, with twenty-nine towns under it, lying inthat part of Germany. Brunswick was the capital of the third class, havingunder it twelve towns, farther to the south than those under Lubeck. Dantzic was at the head of the fourth class, having under it eight towns inits vicinity, besides some smaller ones more remote. The four chieffactories of the League were Novogorod in Russia, London, Bruges, andBergen. 

From this period till the middle of the sixteenth century, their power, though sometimes formidable, and their commerce, though sometimesflourishing, were both on the decline. Several causes contributed to this:they were often engaged in disputes, and not unfrequently in wars, with thenorthern powers. That civilization, knowledge, and wealth, to which, as wehave remarked, they contributed so essentially, though indirectly, andwithout having these objects in view, disposed and enabled other powers toparticipate in the commerce which they had hitherto exclusively carried on. It was not indeed to be supposed, that either the monarchs or the subjectswould willingly and cheerfully submit to have all their own trade in thevery heart of their own country conducted, and the fruit of it reaped byforeign merchants. They, therefore, first used their efforts to gainpossession of their own commerce, and then aspired to participate in thetrade of other countries; succeeding by degrees, and after a length oftime, in both these objects, the Hanseatic League was necessarily depressedin the same proportion. 

The Dutch and the English first began to seek a participation in thecommerce of the North. The chief cities which formed the republic ofHolland had been among the earliest members or confederates of the League, and when they threw off the yoke of Germany, and attached themselves to thehouse of Bourbon, they ceased to form part of the League; and after muchdispute, and even hostility with the remaining members of it, theysucceeded in obtaining a part of the commerce of the Baltic, and commercialtreaties with the king of Denmark, and the knights of the Teutonic order. 

The commerce of the League was also curtailed in the Baltic, where it hadalways been most formidable and flourishing, by the English, who, in thebeginning of the fifteenth century, gained admission for their vessels intoDantzic and the ports of Sweden and Denmark. The only port of consequencein the northern nations, to which the ships of the League were exclusivelyadmitted, was Bergen, which at this period was rather under their dominionthan under that of Norway. In the middle of the sixteenth century, however, they abandoned it, in consequence of disputes with the king of Denmark. About the same time they abandoned Novogorod, the czar having treated theirmerchants there in a very arbitrary and tyrannical manner. These, and othercircumstances to which we have already adverted, made their commerce andpower decline; and, towards the beginning of the seventeenth century, theyhad ceased to be of much consequence. Though, however, the League itself atthis period had lost its influence and commerce, yet some cities, which hadbeen from the first members of it, still retained a lucrative trade: thisremark applies chiefly to Lubeck and Hamburgh; the former of these citiespossessed, about the middle of the seventeenth century, 600 ships, some ofwhich were very large; and the commerce by which Hamburgh is stilldistinguished, is in some measure the result of what it enjoyed as a memberof the Hanseatic League. 

We shall now turn our attention to the Italian states: Venice and Amalfiwere the first which directed their labours to the arts of domesticindustry, the forerunners and causes of commercial prosperity. New wantsand desires being created, and a taste for elegance and luxury formed, foreign countries were visited. Muratori mentions several circumstanceswhich indicate a revival of a commercial spirit; and, as Dr. Robertsonremarks, from the close of the seventh century, an attentive observer maydiscern faint traces of its progress. Indeed, towards the beginning of thesixth century, the Venetians had become so expert at sea, that Cassiodorusaddressed a letter to the maritime tribunes of Venice, (which is stillextant, ) in which he requests them to undertake the transporting of thepublic stores of wine and oil from Istria to Ravenna. In this letter, acurious but rather poetical account is given of the state of the city andits inhabitants: all the houses were alike: all the citizens lived on thesame food, viz. Fish: the manufacture to which they chiefly appliedthemselves was salt; an article, he says, more indispensable to them thangold. He adds, that they tie their boats to their walls, as people tietheir cows and horses in other places. 

In the middle of the eighth century, the Venetians no longer confined theirnavigation to the Adriatic, but ventured to double the southern promontoryof Greece, and to trade to Constantinople itself. The principal merchandizewith which they freighted their ships, on their return-voyage, consisted ofsilk, the rich produce of the East, the drapery of Tyre, and furs; about acentury afterwards, they ventured to trade to Alexandria. Amalfi, Genoa, and Pisa followed their example; but their trade never became veryconsiderable till the period of the crusades, when the treasures of theWest were in fact placed in their hands, and thus fresh vigour was given totheir carrying trade, manufactures, and commerce. 

There are a few notices, however, respecting the commerce of Venice, andthe other states of Italy, prior to the crusades, which it may be necessaryvery briefly to give. About the year 969, Venice and Amalfi arerepresented, by contemporary authors, as possessing an equal share oftrade. The latter traded to Africa, Constantinople, and, it would appear, to some ports in the east end of the Mediterranean; and Italy, as well asthe rest of Europe, entirely depended on these two states for their supplyof the produce of the East. At the beginning of the eleventh century, thecitizens of Amalfi seem to nave got the start of the Venetians in the favorand commerce of the Mahomedan states of the East: they were permitted toestablish factories in the maritime towns, and even in Jerusalem; and thoseprivileges were granted them expressly because they imported many articlesof merchandize hitherto unknown in the East. 

In the middle of the same century, Pisa rose into eminence for itscommerce; it traded principally with the Saracen king of Sicily, and withAfrica. The Genoese also, at this period, are represented as possessing alarge portion of the trade of the Levant, particularly of Joppa. 

As the most lucrative branch of commerce of all the Italian states was thatin the productions of the East, and as these could only be obtained throughConstantinople or Egypt, each state was eager to gain the favor of rulersof these places. The favor of the Greek emperor could be obtainedprincipally by affording him succours against his enemies; and these theVenetians afforded in 1082 so effectually, that, in return, they wereallowed to build a number of warehouses at Constantinople, and werefavoured with exclusive commercial privileges. Dalmatia and Croatia werealso ceded to them. 

We now come to the period of the crusades, from which may be dated therapid increase of the commerce and power of the Italian states. As none ofthe other European powers had ships numerous enough to convey the crusadersto Dalmatia, whence they marched to Constantinople, the fleets of Venice, Pisa, and Genoa were employed for this purpose. But before they agreed tolend their fleets, they bargained, that on the reduction of any cityfavorable to commerce, they should be permitted to trade there without dutyor molestation, and be favoured with every privilege and protection whichthey might desire. In consequence of this bargain, they obtained, in someplaces, the exclusive right over whole streets, and the appointment ofjudges to try all who lived in them, or traded under their protection. 

A quarrel which took place between the Venetians and the Greek EmperorManuel, in 1171, is worthy of notice, as being connected with the origin ofthe bank of Venice. The republic not being able to supply, from its ownsources, the means of carrying on the war, was obliged to raise money fromher citizens. To regulate this the chamber of loans was established: thecontributors to the loan were made creditors to the chamber, and an annualinterest of 4 per cent. Was allotted to them. If this rate of interest wasnot compulsive, it is a sure criterion of a most flourishing state oftrade, and of very great abundance of money; but there is every reason tobelieve if was compulsive. 

At the beginning of the 13th century, Constantinople was conquered by theVenetians, and the leaders of the fourth crusade: this event enabled themto supply Europe more abundantly with all the productions of the East. Inthe partition of the Greek empire which followed this success, theVenetians obtained part of the Peloponnesus, where, at that period, silkwas manufactured to a great extent. By this accession, to which was addedseveral of the largest islands in the Archipelago, their sea coast extendedfrom Venice to Constantinople: they likewise purchased the isle of Crete. The whole trade of the eastern Roman empire was thus at once transferred tothe Venetians; two branches of which particularly attracted theirattention, --the silk trade and that with India. The richest and most rarekinds of silk were manufactured at Constantinople; and to carry on thistrade, many Venetians settled themselves in the city, and they soonextended it very considerably, and introduced the manufacture itself intoVenice, with so much success, that the silks of Venice equalled those ofGreece and Sicily. The monopoly of the trade of the Black Sea was alsoobtained by them, after the capture of Constantinople; and thus some of themost valuable articles of India and China were obtained by them, eitherexclusively, or in greater abundance, and at a cheaper rate than they couldbe procured by any other route. In consequence of all these advantages, Venice was almost the sole channel of commerce in this part of Europe, during the period of the Latin empire in Constantinople. This empire, however, was of very short continuance, not lasting more than 57 years. 

In the interval, the merchants of Florence became distinguished for theircommercial transactions, and particularly by becoming dealers in money byexchange, and by borrowing and lending on interest. In order to carry onthis new branch of traffic, they had agents and correspondents in differentcities of Europe; and thus the remittance of money by bills of exchange waschiefly conducted by them. Other Italian states followed their example; anda new branch of commerce, and consequently a new source of wealth, was thusstruck out. 

In the year 1261, the Greek emperor regained Constantinople through theassistance of the Genoese; and the latter, as usual, were amply repaid fortheir services on this occasion. Pera, the chief suburb of Constantinople, was allotted to them: here they had their own laws, administered by theirown magistrates; and they were exempted from the accustomed duties on goodsimported and exported. These privileges raised their commerce in this partof the world above that of the Venetians and Pisans; who, however, werestill permitted to retain their factories. The Genoese soon began to aim atmore extensive power and trade; and under the pretext that the Venetianswere going to attack their new settlement, they obtained permission tosurround it, and their factories in the neighbouring coasts, withfortifications. The trade of the Black Sea was under the dominion of theGreek emperor, who, by the possession of Constantinople, commanded itsnarrow entrance: even the sultan of Egypt solicited liberty to send avessel annually to purchase slaves in Circassia and Lesser Tartary. TheGenoese eagerly looked to participating in the valuable commerce of thissea; and this object they soon obtained. In return they supplied the Greekswith fish and corn. "The waters of the Don, the Oxus, the Caspian, and theWolga, opened a rare and laborious passage for the gems and spices ofIndia; and after three months march, the caravans of Carizme met theItalian vessels in the harbours of the Crimea. " These various branches oftrade were monopolized by the diligence and power of the Genoese; and theirrivals of Venice and Pisa were forcibly expelled. The Greek emperor, alarmed at their power and encroachments, was at length engaged in amaritime war with them; but though he was assisted by the Venetians, theGenoese were victorious. 

The Venetians, who were thus driven from a most lucrative commerce, endeavoured to compensate for their loss by extending their power andcommerce in other quarters: they claimed and received a toll on all vesselsnavigating the Adriatic, especially from those sailing between thesouth-point of Istria and Venice. But their commerce and power on theAdriatic could be of little avail, unless they regained at least a portionof that traffic in Indian merchandize, which at this period formed thegrand source of wealth. Constantinople, and consequently the Black Sea, wasshut up from them: on the latter the Genoese were extending their traffic;they had seized on Caffa from the Tartars, and made it the principalstation of their commerce. The Venetians in this emergency looked towardsthe ancient route to India, or rather the ancient depôt for Indian goods, --Alexandria: this city had been shut against Christians for six centuries;but it was now in the possession of the sultan of the Mamalukes, and he wasmore favourable to them. Under the sanction of the Pope, the Venetiansentered into a treaty of commerce with the sultans of Egypt; by which theywere permitted to have one consul in Alexandria, and another in Damascus. Venetian merchants and manufacturers were settled in both these cities. Ifwe may believe Sir John de Mandeville, their merchants frequently went tothe island of Ormus and the Persian Gulf, and sometimes even to Cambalu. Bytheir enterprize the Indian trade was almost entirely in their possession;and they distributed the merchandize of the East among the nations of thenorth of Europe, through Bruges and the Hanseatic League, and traded evendirectly in their own vessels to England. 

In the beginning of the fifteenth century, the annual value of the goodsexported from Venice amounted to ten millions of ducats; and the profits onthe home and outward voyages, were about four millions. Their shippingconsisted of 3000 vessels, of from 10 to 200 amphoras burden, carrying17, 000 sailors; 300 ships with 8000 seamen; and 45 gallies of varioussizes, manned by 11, 000 seamen. In the dock-yard, 16, 000 carpenters wereusually employed. Their trade to Syria and Egypt seems to have beenconducted entirely, or chiefly, by ready money; for 500, 000 ducats weresent into those countries annually: 100, 000 ducats were sent to England. From the Florentines they received annually 16, 000 pieces of cloth: thesethey exported to different ports of the Mediterranean; they also receivedfrom the Florentines 7000 ducats weekly, which seems to have been thebalance between the cloth they sold to the Venetians, and the French andCatalan wool, crimson grain, silk, gold and silver thread, wax, sugar, violins, &c. , which they bought at Venice. Their commerce, especially theoriental branch of it, increased; and by the conquest of Constantinople bythe Turks, the consequence of which was the expulsion of the Genoese, theywere enabled, almost without a rival, to supply the encreasing demand ofEurope for the productions of the East. Their vessels visited every port ofthe Mediterranean, and every coast of Europe; and their maritime commerce, about the end of the fifteenth century, was probably greater than that ofall the rest of Europe. Their manufactures were also a great source ofwealth; the principal were silk, cloth of gold and silver, vessels of goldand silver, and glass. The discovery of a passage to the East Indies by theCape of Good Hope, the powerful league of Cambray, and other circumstances, weakened and gradually destroyed their commerce and power. 

We have said that they supplied almost, without a rival, the demand inEurope for the produce of the East. That rival was Florence: the success ofher merchants in a new branch of commerce has been already noticed. Theprofits they derived from lending money on interest, and from negociatingbills of exchange, aided by their profits on their manufactures, for which, particularly those of silk and woollen, they were celebrated so early asthe beginning of the fourteenth century, had rendered Florence one of thefirst cities of Europe, and many of its merchants extremely rich. In theyear 1425, having purchased the port of Leghorn, they resolved, ifpossible, to partake in the commerce of Alexandria. A negociation wasaccordingly opened with the sultan: the result of which was, that theFlorentines obtained some share in the Indian trade; and soon afterwards itappears that they imported spices into England. It is supposed, that thefamous family of the Medici were extensively concerned in the Indian tradeof Florence. Cosmo de Medici was the greatest merchant of the age: he hadagents and money transactions in every part of Europe; and his immensewealth not only enabled him to gratify his love for literature and the finearts, but also to influence the politics of Italy, and occasionally of themore remote parts of Europe. In the time of Lorenzo de Medici, about theclose of the fifteenth century, the commercial intercourse between Florenceand Egypt was greatly extended. Florence, indeed, was now in the zenith ofher prosperity; after this period her commerce declined, principally fromthe discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. 

In these brief notices of the commerce of the principal Italian states, Venice, Genoa, and Florence, in the days of their greatest glory, we havepurposely omitted any reference to the other states, except stating a factor two relating to Amalfi and Pisa, during that period, when they nearlyrivalled the three great states. It will be proper, however, to subjoin tothis account of Italian commerce, as it existed prior to the discovery ofthe Cape of Good Hope, some important facts respecting Amalfi, Pisa, Milan, Modena, &c. , in order that our sketch, though necessarily brief, may not bedeficient. 

A great rivalship existed between Pisa and Amalfi in the twelfth century, arising chiefly from commercial jealousy; and this rivalship leading towar, Amalfi was twice taken and pillaged by the Pisans, who, indeed, duringthe zenith of their power, had repeatedly triumphed over the Saracens ofAfrica and Spain. Amalfi, however, soon recovered; but we possess nomemorials of her commerce after this period, which deserve insertion here. Her maritime laws, the date of which is uncertain, seem to have beengenerally adopted by the Italian states. 

Towards the end of the twelfth century, the power and commerce of Pisa wereat their height: it partook, with Genoa and Venice, of the advantagesderived from the trade of Constantinople. In the beginning of the nextcentury, however, we find it became a mere auxiliary of Venice. Itssubsequent wars with Genoa, and the factions which arose within its walls, reduced its commerce so low, about the middle of the fourteenth century, that nothing respecting it worthy of notice occurs after this period. 

The wealth derived by Florence from a traffic in money has been alreadynoticed. The example of this city was followed by Asti, an inland town ofPiedmont, Milan, Placentia, Sienna, Lucca, &c. Hence the name of Lombard, or Tuscan merchant, was given to all who engaged in money transactions. Thesilk manufacture was the principal one in Italy; it seems to have beenintroduced by the Venetians, when they acquired part of the Greek empire. In the beginning of the fourteenth century, Modena was the principal seatof this manufacture; soon afterwards Florence, Lucca, Milan, and Bologna, likewise engaged in it. 

Within the period to which the present chapter is confined, there are fewtraces of commerce in any other parts of Europe besides the Italian statesand the Hanseatic League: the former monopolizing the commerce of the southof Europe and of Asia, and the latter that of the north of Europe, particularly of the Baltic, engrossed among them and the cities which wereadvantageously situated for intermediate depôts, nearly all the trade thatthen existed. There are, however, a few notices of commercial spirit andenterprize in other parts of Europe, during this period, which must not beomitted. 

In Domesday-book a few particulars are set down relating to the internaland foreign trade of England. In Southwark the king had a duty on shipscoming into a dock, and also a toll on the Strand. Gloucester must haveenjoyed some manufactures of trade in iron, as it was obliged to supplyiron and iron rods for the king's ships. Martins' skins were imported intoChester, either from Iceland or Germany. The navigation of the Trent andthe Fosse, and the road to York, were carefully attended to. 

If we may believe Fitz-Stephen, London, in the middle of the twelfthcentury, possessed a considerable portion of trade: among the imports, hementions gold, spices, and frankincense from Arabia; precious stones fromEgypt; purple drapery from India, palm oil from Bagdad: but it is certainthat all these articles were obtained directly from Italian merchants. Thefurs of Norway and Russia were brought by German merchants, who, accordingto William of Malmsbury, were the principal foreign merchants who traded toEngland. The same author mentions Exeter, as a city much resorted to byforeign merchants; and that vessels from Norway, Iceland, and othercountries, frequented the port of Bristol. Chester at this period alsopossessed much trade, particularly with Iceland, Aquitaine, Spain, andGermany. Henry I. Made a navigable canal from the Trent to the Witham atLincoln, which rendered this place one of the most flourishing seats ofhome and foreign trade in England. The Icelandic Chronicles inform us thatGrimsby was a port much resorted by the merchants of Norway, Scotland, Orkney, and the Western Islands. 

Previous to the reign of Henry II. , the sovereigns and lords of manors inEngland claimed, as their right, the property of all wrecked vessels; butthis monarch passed a law, enacting, that if any one human creature, oreven a beast, were found alive in the ship, or belonging to her, theproperty should be kept for the owners, provided they claimed it in threemonths. This law, as politic as it was humane and just, must haveencouraged foreign trade. In this reign the chief exports seem to have beenlead, tin, and wool, and small quantities of honey, wax, cheese, andsalmon. The chief imports were wine from the king's French dominions, woadfor dying, spiceries, jewels, silks, furs, &c. 

The laws of Oleron, an island near the coast of France belonging toEngland, are generally supposed to have been passed by Richard I. ; boththese, however, and their exact date, are uncertain: they were copied fromthe Rhodian law, or rather from the maritime laws of Barcelona. 

Though it appears by official documents in the reign of king John, that thesouth coast of England, and the east coast only, as far as Norfolk, wereesteemed the principal part of the country; yet, very shortly after thedate of these documents, Newcastle certainly had some foreign trade, particularly with the northern nations of Europe for furs. In this reignare the first records of English letters of credit. 

Some idea may be formed of the importation of wine at the beginning of thefourteenth century, by the following facts: in the year ending 20th Nov. 1299, the number of vessels that arrived in London and the other ports, (with the exception of the Cinque ports, ) bringing cargoes of wineamounting to more than nineteen tuns, was seventy-three; and the number inthe next year was seventy-one. It is probable, however, that we may doublethese numbers, since the Cinque ports, being exempted from the duty onwine, would import much more than any other equal number of ports. From acharter granted to foreign merchants in 1302, it appears that they camefrom the following countries to trade in England:--Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Navarre, Lombardy, Tuscany, Provence, Catalonia, Aquitaine, Thoulouse, Quercy, Flanders, and Brabant. The very important privileges andimmunities granted to them sufficiently proves, that at this period thecommerce of England was mainly dependent on them. That there were, however, native merchants of considerable wealth and importance, cannot be doubted. In the year 1318, the king called a council of English merchants on staplebusiness: they formed a board of themselves; and one was appointed topreside, under the title of mayor of the merchants, or mayor of the staple. 

About the middle of this century, Dover, London, Yarmouth, Boston, andHull, were appointed places for exchanging foreign money; and the entiremanagement was given to William de la Pole. His name deserves particularnotice, as one of the richest and most enlightened of the early merchantsof England. His son, Michael, was also a merchant, and was created earl ofSuffolk by Richard II. "His posterity flourished as earls, marquises, anddukes of Suffolk, till a royal marriage, and a promise of the succession tothe crown, brought the family to ruin. "

When Edward III. Went to the siege of Calais, the different ports ofEngland furnished him with ships. From the list of these it appears, thatthe whole number supplied was 700, manned by 14, 151 seamen, averaging undertwenty men for each vessel. Gosford is the only port whose vessels averagethirty-one men. Yarmouth sent forty-three vessels; Fowey, forty-seven;Dartmouth, thirty-one; Bristol, twenty-four; Plymouth, twenty-six; London, twenty-five; Margate, fifteen; Sandwich, twenty-two; Southampton, twenty-one; Winchelsea, twenty-one; Newcastle, sixteen; Hull, seventeen. 

In the year 1354 we have a regular account of such exports and imports aspaid duty; from which it appears, that there were exported 31, 651 sacks ofwool, 3036 cwt. Of woad, sixty-five wool-fells, 4774 pieces of cloth, and8061 pieces of worsted stuff; and there were imported 1831 pieces of finecloth, 397 cwt. Of wax, and 1829 tuns of wine, besides linen, mercery, groceries, &c. As tin, lead, and several other articles are not enumerated, it may be inferred that they paid no duty. In the year 1372 there is theearliest record of direct trade with Prussia. As the woollen manufacturesof England began to flourish, the importation of woollen cloths necessarilydiminished; so that, in the act of 1378, reviving the acts of 1335 and 1351for the encouragement of foreign merchants, though cloth of gold andsilver, stuffs of silk, napery, linen, canvas, &c. Are enumerated asimported by them, woollen cloth is not mentoned. The trade to the Balticgradually increased as the ports in the north of England, particularlyNewcastle, rose in wealth. In 1378 coals and grindstones were exported fromthis place to Prussia, Norway, Schonen, and other ports of the Baltic. Soonafterwards, in consequence of some disputes between the Prussians andEnglish, a commercial treaty was formed between the Grand Master of Prussiaand Edward III. , by which it was agreed that the Prussian merchants inLondon should be protected, and that English merchants should have freeaccess to every part of Prussia, to trade freely, as it used to be inancient times. In order to carry this treaty into full effect on the partof the English, a citizen of London was chosen to be governor of theEnglish merchants in Prussia and the other countries on the Baltic. Disputes, however, still arose, and piracies were committed on both sides. Meetings were therefore held at the Hague, to hear and settle thecomplaints of each party. From the statements then given in, it appears, that woollen clothes now formed a considerable part of the exports ofEngland to the Baltic. That they were also exported in considerablequantity to the south of Europe, appears from other documents. 

At the beginning of the fifteenth century the foreign commerce of Englandhad considerably increased; for we are informed, that some merchants ofLondon shipped wool and other goods, to the value of 24, 000_l_. , to theMediterranean; and nearly about the same time, the English merchantspossessed valuable warehouses and an extensive trade at Bergen in Norway, and sent vessels of the size of 200 tons to Portugal. The freight of one ofthese is stated to have been worth 6000 crowns in gold. The improvement ofthe woollen manufactures may be inferred from the following circumstance:alum is very useful to fullers and dyers. About the year 1422, the Genoeseobtained from the Greek emperor the lease of a hill in Asia Minor, containing alum: England was one of the chief customers for this article;but it undoubtedly was imported, not in English, but in Genoese vessels. Inthe year 1450 the Genoese delivered alum to the value of 4000l. To HenryVI. Bristol seems to have been one of the most commercial cities inEngland. One merchant of it is mentioned as having been possessed of 2470tuns of shipping: he traded to Finmark and Iceland for fish, and to theBaltic for timber and other bulky articles in very large ships, some ofwhich are said to have been of the burden of 400, 500, and even 900 tons. Towards the latter end of the fifteenth century, the parliament, in orderto encourage English shipping, (as hitherto the greatest part of theforeign trade of England had been carried on by foreign merchants inforeign vessels, ) enacted a species of navigation law, and prohibited theking's subjects from shipping goods in England and Wales on board anyvessel owned by a foreigner, unless when sufficient freight could not befound in English vessels. 

Such are the most instructive and important notices respecting the stateand progress of English commerce, which occur prior to the discovery of theCape of Good Hope and America. We shall now proceed to give similar noticesof the commerce of Scotland, Ireland, France, and the other countries ofEurope; these, however, shall be very brief and few. In the middle of thetwelfth century, Berwick, which then belonged to Scotland, is described ashaving more foreign commerce than any other port in that kingdom, and aspossessing many ships. One of the merchants of this town was distinguishedby the appellation of _the opulent_. Inverluth, or Leith, is describedmerely as possessing a harbour, but no mention is made of its trade. Strivelen had some vessels and trade, and likewise Perth. There was sometrade between Aberdeen and Norway. There were no trading towns on the westcoast of Scotland at this period; but about twenty years afterwards, aweekly market, and an annual fair were granted by charter to Glasgow. 

It is probable that the foreign commerce of Scotland, being confined to theeast coast, was principally carried on with Norway: with which country, indeed, Scotland had intimate connection; for we do not find any notice offoreign merchants from other countries trading to or settling in Scotland, till towards the end of the thirteenth century, when some Flemish merchantsestablished a factory at Berwick. Wool, wool-fells, hides, &c. Were thechief articles of export; salmon also was exported. Of the importance andvalue of the trade of this place we may form some idea, from thecircumstance, that the custom duties amounted to upwards of 2, 000_l_. Sterling; and of 1, 500 marks a year settled on the widow of Alexanderprince of Scotland, 1, 300 were paid by Berwick. 

In the year 1428. Foreign commerce attracted considerable attention inScotland; and in order to encourage the native merchants to carry it onthemselves, and by their own vessels, the parliament of Scotland seem, sometime previous to this date, to have passed a navigation act; for in an actpassed this year, the Scotch merchants were permitted for a year ensuing, to ship their goods in foreign vessels, where Scotch ones were not to befound, notwithstanding the statute to the contrary. Indeed, during thecivil wars in England, between the houses of York and Lancaster, when themanufactures and commerce of that country necessarily declined, thecommerce of Scotland began to flourish, and was protected and encouraged byits monarchs. The herring fishery was encouraged; duties were laid on theexportation of wool, and a staple for Scotch commerce was fixed in theNetherlands, In the year 1420 Glasgow began to acquire wealth by thefisheries; but until the discovery of America and the West Indies, it hadlittle or no foreign trade. Towards the middle of the fifteenth century, several acts of parliament were passed to encourage agriculture, thefisheries, and commerce; the Scotch merchants had now acquired so muchwealth and general respectability, that they were frequently employed, along with the clergy and nobles, in embassies. Even some of the Scotchbarons were engaged in trade. In 1467 several acts were passed: among themost important enactments were those which related to the freight of ships, the mode of stowing it, the mode of fixing the average in case goods werethrown overboard, and the time of the year when vessels might sail toforeign countries. 

The commerce of Ireland, when its ports were frequented by the Ostmen, hasbeen already noticed. In the middle of the twelfth century, we areinformed, that foreign merchants brought gold to Ireland, and that wheatand wine were imported from Bretagne into Wexford; but the exports inreturn are not particularized. About this period, some trade seems to havebeen carried on between Bristol and Dublin; and on the conquest of Irelandby Henry II. , that monarch gave his city of Dublin to be inhabited by hismen of Bristol. A charter granted by the same monarch, gives to theburgesses of that city free trade to England, Normandy, Wales, and theother ports of Ireland. From this time the commerce of Dublin seems to haveflourished. It is certain, that at the middle of the fourteenth century theIrish stuffs were in such request abroad, that imitations of them wereattempted by the Catalans, and they were worn as articles of luxury by theladies of Florence. But of the mode in which they were conveyed to foreigncountries, and the articles which were received in exchange for them, wehave no certain information. 

Though France possessed excellent ports in the Mediterranean, particularlyMarseilles, which, as we have seen, in very early times was celebrated forits commerce, yet she, as well as less favoured ports of Europe, wasprincipally indebted for her trade to the Lombards and other Italianmerchants, during the middle ages. The political state of the country, indeed, was very unfavourable to commerce during this period; there are, consequently, few particulars of its commerce worth recording. About thebeginning of the fourteenth century, Montpelier seems to have had aconsiderable trade; and they even sent ships with various articles ofmerchandize to London. Mention of Bourdeaux occurs about the same time, ashaving sent out, in one year, 1350 vessels, laden with 13, 429 tuns of wine;this gives nearly 100 tuns in each vessel on an average. But Bourdeaux wasin fact an English possession at this time. That commerce between Franceand England would have flourished and extended considerably, had it notbeen interrupted by the frequent and bitter wars between these countries, is evident from the consequences which followed the truce which wasconcluded between their monarchs in 1384. The French, and particularly theNormans, taking immediate advantage of this truce, imported into England animmense quantity of wine, fruits, spiceries, and fish; gold and silveralone were given in exchange. The Normans appear to have traded veryextensively in spiceries; but it is uncertain, whether they brought themdirectly from the Mediterranean: they likewise traded to the east countryor Baltic countries. About a century afterwards, that is in 1453, Francecould boast of her wealthy merchant, as well as Florence and England. Hisname was Jacques Coeur: he is said to have employed 300 factors, and tohave traded with the Turks and Persians; his exports were chiefly woollencloth, linen, and paper; and his imports consisted of silks, spiceries, gold, silver, &c. 

In all our preceding accounts of the trade of Europe, the Italian andFlemish merchants make a conspicuous figure. Flanders was celebrated forits woollen manufactures, as well as for containing the central depôts ofthe trade between the south and north of Europe. Holland, which afterwardsrose to such commercial importance, does not appear in the annals ofcommerce till the beginning of the fifteenth century. At this period, manyof the manufacturers of Brabant and Flanders settled in Holland; and aboutthe same time the Hollanders engaged in maritime commerce; but there are noparticulars respecting it, that fall within the limits of the presentchapter. 

It remains to notice Spain. The commerce of Barcelona in its earliest stagehas been already noticed. The Catalans, in the thirteenth century, engagedvery extensively in the commerce of the Mediterranean, to almost every portof which they traded. The earliest navigation act known was passed by thecount of Barcelona about this time; and laws were also framed, containingrules for the owners and commanders of vessels, and the clerks employed tokeep their accounts; for loading and discharging the cargo; for the mutualassistance to be given by vessels, &c. These laws, and others, to extendand improve commerce, were passed during the reign of James I. , king ofArragon, who was also count of Barcelona. The manufactures and commerce ofthis part of Spain continued to flourish from this time till the union ofthe crowns of Castile and Arragon, which event depressed the latterkingdom. In 1380, a Catalan ship was wrecked on the coast of Somersetshire, on her voyage from Genoa to Sluys, the port of Bruges: her cargo consistedof green ginger, cured ginger, raisins, sulphur, writing paper, whitesugar, prunes, cinnamon, &c. In 1401, a bank of exchange and deposit wasestablished at Barcelona: the accommodation it afforded was extended toforeign as well as native merchants. The earliest bill of exchange of whichwe have any notice, is one dated 28th April, 1404, which was sold by amerchant of Lucca, residing in Bruges, to a merchant of Barcelona, alsoresiding there, to be paid by a Florence merchant residing in Barcelona. Bythe book of duties on imports and exports, compiled in 1413, it appears, that the Barcelonians were very liberal and enlightened in their commercialpolicy; this document also gives us a high idea of the trade of the city ofBarcelona. A still further proof and illustration of the intelligence ofthe Barcelona merchants, and of the advantages for which commerce isindebted to them, occurs soon afterwards: for about the year 1432 theyframed regulations respecting maritime insurance, the principal of whichwere, that no vessel should be insured for more than three quarters of herreal value, --that no merchandize belonging to foreigners should be insuredin Barcelona, unless freighted in a vessel belonging to the king ofArrogan: the words, _more or less_, inserted frequently in policies, were prohibited: if a ship should not be heard of in six months, she was tobe deemed lost. 

Little commerce seems to have been carried on from any other port of Spainbesides Barcelona at this period: the north of Spain, indeed, had a littlecommercial intercourse with England, as appears by the complaints of theSpanish merchants; complaints that several of their vessels bound toEngland from this part of Spain had been plundered by the people ofSandwich, Dartmouth, &c. Seven vessels are particularly mentioned: one ofwhich, laden with wine, wool, and iron, was bound for Flanders; the others, laden with raisins, liquorice, spicery, incense, oranges, and cheese, werebound for England. The largest of these vessels was 120 tons: one vessel, with its cargo, was valued as high as 2500l. 

The following short abstract of the exports and imports of the principalcommercial places in Europe, about the middle of the fifteenth century, taken from a contemporary work, will very properly conclude and sum up allwe have to say on this subject. 

Spain exported figs, raisins, wine of inferior quality, dates, liquorice, Seville oil, grain, Castile soap, wax, iron, wool, goat skins, saffron, andquicksilver; the most of these were exported to Bruges. The chief importsof Spain were Flemish woollen cloth and linen. This account, however, ofthe commerce of Spain, does not appear to include Barcelona. The exports ofPortugal were wine, wax, grain, figs, raisins, honey, Cordovan leather, dates, salt, &c. ; these were sent principally to England. The imports arenot mentioned. 

Bretagne exported salt, wine, cloth, and canvas. 

The exports of Scotland were wool, wool-fells, and hides to Flanders; fromwhich they brought mercery, haberdashery, cart-wheels, and barrows. Theexports of Ireland were hides, wool, salmon, and other fish; linen; theskins of martins, otters, hares, &c. The trade of England is not described:the author being an Englishman, and writing for his countrymen, we maysuppose, thought it unnecessary. 

The exports of Prussia were beer, bacon, copper, bow-staves, wax, putty, pitch, tar, boards, flax, thread of Cologne, and canvas; these were sentprincipally to Flanders, from which were brought woollen cloths. ThePrussians also imported salt from Biscay. 

The Genoese employed large vessels in their trade; their principal exportswere cloth of gold and silver, spiceries, woad, wool, oil, wood-ashes, alum, and good: the chief staple of their trade was in Flanders, to whichthey carried wool from England. 

The Venetians and Florentines exported nearly the same articles as theGenoese; and their imports were nearly similar. 

Flanders exported madder, wood, garlick, salt-fish, woollen cloths, &c. TheEnglish are represented as being the chief purchasers in the marts ofBrabant, Flanders, and Zealand; to these marts were brought the merchandizeof Hainault, France, Burgundy, Cologne, and Cambray, in carts. Thecommodities of the East, and of the south of Europe, were brought by theItalians: England sent her wool, and afterwards her woollen cloth. 

From this view of the trade of Europe in the middle of the fifteenthcentury, it appears, that it was principally conducted by the Italians, theHanse merchants, and the Flemings; and that the great marts were inFlanders. Towards the end of this century, indeed, the other nations ofEurope advancing in knowledge and enterprize, and having acquired somelittle commercial capital, each began, in some degree, to conduct its owntrade. The people of Barcelona, at a very early period, form the onlyexception to this remark; they not only conducted their own trade, butpartook largely in conducting the trade of other nations. 

From the remotest period to which we can trace the operations of commerce, we have seen that they were chiefly directed to the luxuries of Asia; andas the desire of obtaining them in greater abundance, and more cheaply andeasily, was the incitement which led to the discovery of the Cape of GoodHope by the Portuguese, it will be proper, before we narrate that event, briefly to give such particulars respecting Asiatic commerce as occurwithin the period which this chapter embraces, and to which, in our accountof the Arabians, we have not already alluded. This will lead us to a noticeof some very instructive and important travels in the East; and theinformation which they convey will point out the state of the geography ofAsia, as well as its commerce, during the middle ages. 

The dreadful revolutions which took place in Asia in the twelfth andthirteenth centuries, and which threatened to extend to Europe, induced theEuropean powers, and particularly the Pope, to endeavour to avert the evil, by sending embassies to the Mogul potentates. So frequent were thesemissions, that, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, a work wascomposed which described the various routes to Grand Tartary. What was atfirst undertaken from policy and fear, was afterwards continued fromreligious zeal, curiosity, a love of knowledge, and other motives. So that, to the devastations of Genghis Khan we may justly deem ourselves indebtedfor the full and important information we possess respecting the remoteparts of Asia during the middle ages. 

The accounts of India and China by the two Mahomedan travellers have beenalready noticed: between the period of their journey, and the embassies andmissions to which we have just alluded, the only account of the East whichwe possess is derived from the work of Benjamin, a Jew of Tudela in Spain. It is doubted whether he visited all the places he describes: his objectwas principally to describe those places where the Jews resided in greatnumbers. 

After describing Barcelona as a place of great trade, frequented bymerchants from Greece, Italy, and Alexandria, and a great resort of theJews, and giving a similar character of Montpelier and Genoa, he proceedsto the East. The inhabitants of Constantinople being too lazy to carry oncommerce themselves, the whole trade of this city, which is represented assurpassing all others, except Bagdad, in wealth, was conducted by foreignmerchants, who resorted to it from every part of the world by land and sea. New Tyre was a place of considerable traffic, with a good harbour: glassand sugar were its principal exports. The great depôt for the produce andmanufactures of India, Persia, Arabia, &c. , was an island in the PersianGulf. He mentions Samarcand as a place of considerable importance, andThibet as the country where the musk animal was found. But all beyond thePersian Gulf he describes in such vague terms, that little information canbe gleaned. It is worthy of remark, that nearly all the Jews, whom herepresents as very numerous in Thebes, Constantinople, Samarcand, &c. , weredyers of wool: in Thebes alone, there were 2000 workers in scarlet andpurple. After the conquest of the northern part of China by Genghis Khan, the city of Campion in Tangut seems to have been fixed upon by him as theseat of a great inland trade. Linens, stuffs made of cotton, gold, silver, silks, and porcelain, were brought hither by the Chinese merchants, andbought by merchants from Muscovy, Persia, Armenia, &c. 

In the years 1245, 1246, the pope sent ambassadors to the Tartar and Mogulkhans: of these Carpini has given us the most detailed account of hisembassy, and of the route which he followed. His journey occupied sixmonths: he first went through Bohemia, Silesia, and Poland, to Kiov, atthat time the capital of Russia. Thence he proceeded by the Dnieper to theBlack Sea, till he arrived at the head quarters of the Khan Batou. To himwe are indebted for the first information of the real names of the fourgreat rivers which water the south of Russia, the Dnieper, the Don, theVolga, and the Jaik. He afterwards proceeded to the head quarters ofanother khan, on the eastern shores of the Caspian. After passing a countrywhere the famous Prester John is said to have reigned, he reached the endof his journey, the head quarters of the khan of the Moguls. Besides theinformation derived from his own observations, he inserts in his narrativeall he had collected; so that he may be regarded as the first traveller whobrought to the knowledge of western Europe these parts of Asia; but thoughhis travels are important to geography, they throw little light on thecommerce of these countries. 

Rubruquis was sent, about this time, by the king of France to the Mogulemperor: he passed through the Crimea, and along the shores of the Volgaand the Caspian Sea; visited the Khans Sartach and Batou; and at lengtharrived at the great camp of the Moguls. Here he saw Chinese ambassadors;from whom, and certain documents which he found among the Moguls, he learntmany particulars respecting the north of China, the most curious of whichis his accurate description of the Chinese language and characters. Hereturned by the same route by which he went. In his travels we meet withsome information respecting the trade of Asia. The Mogul khans derived aconsiderable revenue from the salt of the Crimea. The alum of Caramonia wasa great object of traffic. He is the first author, after AmmianusMarcellinus, who mentions rhubarb as an article of medicine and commerce. Among the Moguls he found a great number of Europeans, who had been takenprisoners: they were usually employed in working the mines, and in variousmanufactures. He is the first traveller who mentions _koumis_ andarrack; and he gives a very particular and accurate description of thecattle of Thibet, and the wild and fleet asses of the plains of Asia. Geography is indebted to him for correcting the error of the ancients, which prevailed till his time, that the Caspian joined the Northern Ocean:he expressly represents it as a great inland sea, --the description given ofit by Herodotus, but which was overlooked or disbelieved by all the otherancient geographers. 

While the pope and the French monarch were thus endeavouring to conciliatethe Moguls by embassies, the Emperor Frederic of Germany, having recoveredJerusalem, Tyre, and Sidon, formed an alliance with the princes of theEast; and this alliance he took advantage of for the purposes of orientalcommerce: for his merchants and factors travelled as far as India. In thelast year of his reign, twelve camels, laden with gold and silver, theproduce of his trade with the East, arrived in his dominions. The part ofIndia to which he traded, and the route which was pursued, are notrecorded. 

Among the most celebrated travellers of the middle ages, was Marco Polo:he, his father, and uncle, after trading for some time in many of thecommercial and opulent cities of Lesser Asia, reached the more easternparts of that continent, as far as the court of the great khan, on theborders of China. For 26 years they were either engaged in mercantiletransactions, or employed in negociations with the neighbouring states bythe khan; they were thus enabled to see much, and to collect much importantinformation, the result of which was drawn up by Marco Polo. He was thefirst European who reached China, India beyond the Ganges, and the greaternumber of the islands in the Indian Ocean. He describes Japan from theaccounts of others: notices great and little Java, supposed to be Borneoand Sumatra; and is the first who mentions Bengal and Guzerat by theirpresent names, as great and opulent kingdoms. On the east coast of Africa, his knowledge did not reach beyond Zanguebar, and the port of Madagascaropposite to it: he first made known this island to Europe. Such is a sketchof the countries described by Marco Polo; from which it will easily beperceived, how much he added to the geographical knowledge of Asiapossessed at that period. 

The information he gives respecting the commerce of the countries he eithervisited himself, or describes from the reports of others, is equallyimportant. Beginning with the more western parts of Asia, he mentionsGiazza, a city in the Levant, as possessed of a most excellent harbour, which was much frequented by Genoese and Venetian vessels, for spices andother merchandize. Rich silks were manufactured in Georgia, Bagdat, Tauris, and Persia, which were the source of great wealth to the manufacturers andmerchants. All the pearls in Christendom are brought from Bagdat. Themerchants from India bring spices, pearls, precious stones, &c. To Ormus:the vessels of this port are described as very stoutly built, with onemast, one deck, and one sail. Among the most remarkable cities of China, heparticularly notices Cambalu, or Pekin, Nankin, and Quinsai. At thedistance of 2, 500 Italian miles from this last city, was the port of Cauzu, at which a considerable trade was carried on with India and the spiceislands. The length of the voyage, in consequence of the monsoons, was ayear. From the spice islands was brought, besides other articles, aquantity of pepper, infinitely greater than what was imported atAlexandria, though that place supplied all Europe. He represents thecommerce and wealth of China as very great; and adds, that at Cambalu, where the merchants had their distinct warehouses, (in which they alsolived, ) according to the nation to which they belonged, a large proportionof them were Saracens. The money was made of the middle bark of themulberry, stamped with the khan's mark. Letters were conveyed at the rateof 200 or 250 miles a day, by means of inns at short distances, whererelays of horses were always kept. The tenth of all wool, silk, and hemp, and all other articles, the produce of the earth, was paid to the khan:sugar, spices, and arrack, paid only 3-1/2 per cent. The inland trade isimmense, and is carried on principally by numerous vessels on the canalsand rivers. Marco Polo describes porcelain, which was principally made at aplace he calls Trigui; it was very low-priced, as eight porcelain dishesmight be bought for a Venetian groat: he takes no notice of tea. Hesupposes the cowries of the Maldives to be a species of white porcelaine. Silver then, as now, must have been in great demand, and extremely scarce;it was much more valuable than gold, bearing the proportion to the latter, as 1 to 6 or 8. Fine skins also bore a very high price: another proof ofthe stability of almost every thing connected with China. He wasparticularly struck with what he calls black stones, which were broughtfrom the mountains of Cathay, and burnt at Pekin, as wood, evidentlymeaning some kind of coal. The collieries of China are still worked, principally for the use of the porcelaine manufactures. 

Marco Polo seems to have regarded Bengal and Pegu as parts of China: hementions the gold of Pegu, and the rice, cotton, and sugar of Bengal, aswell as its ginger, spikenard, &c. The principal branch of the Bengal tradeconsisted in cotton goods. In Guzerat also, there was abundance of cotton:in Canhau, frankincense; and in Cambaia, indigo, cotton, &c. He describesthe cities on the east and west coasts of India; but he does not seemeither to have penetrated himself inland, or to have learnt any particularsregarding the interior from other persons. Horses were a great article ofimportation in all parts of India: they were brought from Persia and Arabiaby sea. In the countries to the north of India, particularly Thibet, coralswere in great demand, and brought a higher price than any other article:this was the case in the time of Pliny, who informs us, that the men inIndia were as fond of coral for an ornament, as the women of Rome were ofthe Indian pearls. In Pliny's time, corals were brought from theMediterranean coast of France to Alexandria, and were thence exported bythe Arabians to India. Marco Polo does not inform us by what means, or fromwhat country they were imported into the north of India. The greater Java, which he represents as the greatest island in the world, carried on anextensive trade, particularly by means of the Chinese merchants, whoimported gold and spices from it. In the lesser Java, the tree producingsago grows: he describes the process of making it. In this island there arealso nuts as large as a man's head, containing a liquor superior towine, --evidently the cocoa nut. He likewise mentions the rhinoceros. Theknowledge of camphire, the produce of Japan, Sumatra, and Borneo, was firstbrought to Europe by him. The fishery of pearls between Ceylon and the mainland of India is described; and particular mention is made of the largeruby possessed by the king of that island. Madagascar is particularlymentioned, as supplying large exports of elephants' teeth. 

Marco Polo's description of the vessels of India is very full and minute:as he sailed from China to the Indian islands in one of these vessels, wemay suppose it is perfectly accurate. According to him, they were fitted upwith many cabins, and each merchant had his own cabin. They had from two tofour masts, all or any of which could be lowered; the hold was divided notmerely for the purpose of keeping distinct each merchant's goods, but alsoto prevent the water from a leak in one division extending to the rest ofthe hold. The bottoms of the vessels were double planked at first, and eachyear a new sheathing was added; the ships lasted only six years. They werecaulked, as modern ships are; the timbers and planks fixed with iron nails, and a composition of lime, oil, and hemp, spread over the surface. Theywere capable of holding 5000 or 6000 bags of pepper, and from 150 to 300seamen and passengers. They were supplied with oars as well as sails: fourmen were allotted to each oar. Smaller vessels seem to have accompanied thelarger ones, which besides had boats on their decks. 

When the power of the Romans was extinguished in Egypt, and the Mahomedanshad gained possession of that country, Aden, which had been destroyed bythe former in the reign of Claudius, resumed its rank as the centre of thetrade between India and the Red Sea. In this situation it was found byMarco Polo. The ships which came from the East, did not pass the straits, but landed their cargoes at Aden; here the _trankies_ of the Arabs, which brought the produce of Europe, Syria, and Egypt, received them, andconveyed them to Assab, Cosir, or Jidda: ultimately they reachedAlexandria. Marco Polo gives a magnificent picture of the wealth, power, and influence of Aden in the thirteenth century. 

When the Christians were expelled from Syria, in the beginning of thefourteenth century, and, in order to procure the merchandize of the east, were obliged to submit to the exactions of the sultan of Egypt; Sanuto, aVenetian, addressed a work to the Pope, in which he proposed to suppressthe Egyptian trade by force. In this work are many curious particulars ofthe Indian trade at this time; and it is highly interesting both on thisaccount, and from the clear-sighted speculations of the author. It appearsto have produced a strong sensation; and though his mode of suppressing theEgyptian trade was not followed, yet, in consequence of it, much moreattention was paid to Oriental commerce. According to him, the productionsof the East came to the Venetians in two different ways. Cloves, nutmegs, pearls, gems, and other articles of great value, and small bulk, wereconveyed up the Persian Gulf and the Tigris to Bassora, and thence toBagdat; from which they were carried to some port in the Mediterranean. Themore bulky and less valuable articles were conveyed by Arabian merchants tothe Red Sea, and thence across the desert and down the Nile to Alexandria. He adds, that ginger and cinnamon, being apt to spoil on shipboard, werefrom ten to twenty per cent. Better in quality, when brought by landcarriage, though this conveyance was more expensive. 

From the works of Sanuto, it appears that sugar and silk were the twoarticles from their trade in which the Saracens derived the greatestportion of their wealth. Cyprus, Rhodes, Amorea, and Marta (probablyMalta), produced sugar; silk was the produce of Apulia, Romania, Crete, andCyprus. Egypt was celebrated, as in old times, for the fineness of itsflax; European flax was far inferior. The Egyptian manufactures of linen, silk, and linen and silk mixed, and also the dates and cassia of thatcountry were exported to Turkey, Africa, the Black Sea, and the westernports of Europe, either in Saracen or Christian vessels. In return forthese articles, the Egyptians received from Europe, gold, silver, brass, tin, lead, quicksilver, coral, and amber: of these, several were againexported from Egypt to Ethiopia and India, particularly brass and tin. Sanuto further observes, that Egypt was dependent on Europe for timber, iron, pitch, and other materials for ship building. 

As his plan was to cut off all trade with the Saracens, and for thatpurpose to build a number of armed galleys, he gives many curiousparticulars respecting the expence of fitting them out; he estimates that agalley capable of holding 250 men, will cost 1500 florins, and that thewhole expence of one, including pay, provisions, &c. For nine months, wouldbe 7000 florins. The seamen he proposes to draw from the following places, as affording the most expert: Italy, the north of Germany, Friesland, Holland, Slavia, Hamburgh, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. 

In the year 1335, Pegoletti, an Italian, wrote a system of commercialgeography; in this, the route taken by the merchants who brought produceand manufactures from China to Azof is particularly described. "In thefirst place, " he says, "from Azof to Astracan it is twenty-five daysjourney with waggons drawn by oxen; but with waggons by horses, only ten ortwelve. From Astracan to Sara, by the river, one day; from Sara toSaracanco, on the north-east coast of the Caspian Sea, eight days by water;thence to Lake Aral, twenty days' journey with camels. At Organci on thislake there was much traffic. To Oltrarra on the Sihon, thirty-five or fortydays, also with camels; to Almaley with asses, thirty-five days; to Camexu, seventy days with asses; to a river, supposed to be the Hoangho, in China, fifty days with horses; from this river the traveller may go to Cassai, todispose of his loading of silver there, and from this place he travelsthrough the whole of Cathay with the Chinese money he receives for hissilver; to Gambelecco, Cambalu, or Pekin, the capital of Cathay, is thirtydays' journey. " So that the whole time occupied about 300 days. Eachmerchant generally carried with him silver and goods to the value of 25, 000gold ducats; the expence of the whole journey was from 300 to 350 ducats. The other travellers of the fourteenth century, from whom we derive anyinformation respecting Eastern geography and commerce, are Haitho, Oderic, and Sir John Mandeville; they add little, however, to the full and accuratedetails of Marco Polo, on which we can depend. 

Haitho's work, comprehends the geography of the principal states of Asia;his information was derived from Mogul writings, the relation of Haitho I. King of Armenia, who had been at the head quarters of Mangu Khan, and fromhis own personal knowledge. 

Oderic is the first missionary upon record in India; the date of hisjourney is 1334; among much that is marvellous, his relations contain someextraordinary truths. He went, in company with other monks, as far asChina. There is little new or valuable till he reaches the coast ofMalabar: of the pepper trade on this coast he gives a clear and rationalaccount. He next describes Sumatra and the adjacent islands, and mentionsthe sago tree. Respecting China, he informs us, among other things whichare fabulous, that persons of high rank keep their nails extremely long, and that the feet of the women are very small. He expresses great surpriseand admiration at the wealth of the cities through which he passed on hisreturn from Zartan to Pekin. Tartary and Thibet were visited by him, afterleaving China; he mentions the high price of the rhubarb of the formercountry and the Dalai Lama of Thibet. In his voyages in India he sailed onboard a vessel which carried 700 people, --a confirmation, as Dr. Vincentobserves, of the account we have from the time of Agatharcides down to thesixteenth century, --which sailed from Guzerat and traversed the IndianOcean. 

Sir John Mandeville, an Englishman, in order to gratify his desire ofseeing distant and foreign countries, served as a volunteer under theSultan of Egypt and the Grand Khan of Cathai. He travelled through Turkey, Armenia, Egypt, Africa, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Chaldea, Ethiopia, Tartary, India, and China. There is, however, little information in his travels onour present subject. He represents the Venetians as not only tradingregularly to Ormus, but sometimes even penetrating as for as Cambalu. Famagusta, in Cyprus, according to him, was one of the most commercialplaces in the world, the resort of merchants of all nations, Christians andMahomedans. 

Some curious and interesting particulars on the subject of Orientalcommerce are scattered in the travels of Clavigo, who formed part of anembassy sent by Henry III. Of Castile to Tamerlane, in 1403. Clavigoreturned to Spain in 1406. He passed through Constantinople, which herepresents as not one-third inhabited, up the Black Sea to Trebizond. Hencehe traversed Armenia, the north of Persia, and Khorasan. Tauris, accordingto him, enjoyed a lucrative commerce: in its warehouses were an abundanceof pearls, silk, cotton goods, and perfumed oils. Sultania also was a greatmart for Indian commodities. Every year, between June and August, caravansarrived at this place. Cotton goods of all colours, and cotton yarn werebrought from Khorasan; pearls and precious stones from Ormus; but theprincipal lading of the caravans consisted of spices of various kinds: atSultania these were always found in great abundance, and of the bestquality. From Tauris to Samarcand there were regular stations, at whichhorses were always ready to convey the orders of the khan or travellers. Weare indebted to Clavigo for the first information of this new route of thecommerce between India and Europe, by Sultania: it is supposed to have beenadopted on the destruction of Bagdat by the Moguls; but we learn from othertravellers that, towards the end of the fifteenth century, Sultania wasremarkable for nothing besides the minarets of a mosque, which were made ofmetal, and displayed great taste and delicacy of workmanship. 

Tamerlane lived in excessive magnificence and luxury at Samarcand; hitherhe had brought all his captives, who were expert in any kind ofmanufacture, especially in the silks of Damascus, and the sword cutlery ofTurkey. To this city the Russians and Tartars brought leather, hides, furs, and cloth: silk goods, musk, pearls, precious stones, and rhubarb, werebrought from China, or Cathay. Six months were occupied in bringingmerchandize from Cambalu, the capital of Cathai, to Samarcand; two of thesewere spent in the deserts. Samarcand had also a trade with India, fromwhich were received mace and other fine spices. Clavigo remarks, that suchspices were never brought to Alexandria. 

Schildeberger, a native of Munich, was taken prisoner by the Turks in 1394:he afterwards accompanied Tamerlane in his campaigns till the year 1406. During this period, and his subsequent connexion with other Tartar chiefs, he visited various parts of central Asia. But as he had not an opportunityof writing down at the time what he saw and learnt, his narrative isneither full, nor altogether to be depended upon for its accuracy. He was, besides, illiterate, And therefore it is often extremely difficult toascertain, from his orthography, what places he actually means to name ordescribe. With all these drawbacks and imperfections, however, there are afew points on which he gives credible and curious information. Heparticularizes the silk of Strana, and of Schirevan; and adds, that fromthe last the raw silk is sent to Damascus, and there manufactured into thestuffs or damasks, for which it was already so celebrated. Fine silk wasproduced at Bursa, and exported to Venice and Lucca, for the manufacture ofvelvet. It ought to be mentioned, that he takes no notice of Saray andAstrakan, the latter of which was taken and destroyed by Tamerlane, in1395. The wild asses in the mountainous deserts, and the dogs which wereharnessed to sledges, are particularly mentioned by this traveller. 

The interior parts of the north of Asia were visited, in 1420, by theambassadors of the Emperor Tamerlane's son; and their journey is describedin the Book of the Wonders of the World, written by the Persian historian, Emir Khond, from which it was translated into Dutch by Witsen, in hisNorden Oste Tartarye. Their route was through Samarcand to Cathay. Onentering this country, we are informed of a circumstance strikinglycharacteristic of Chinese policy and suspicion. Cathayan secretaries tookdown, in writing, the names of the ambassadors, and the number of theirsuite. This was repeated at another place, the ambassadors being earnestlyrequested to state the exact number of their servants; and the merchants, who were with him, having been put down by him under the description ofservants, were, on that account, obliged to perform the particular dutiesunder which they were described. Among the presents made by the emperor tothe ambassadors, tin is mentioned. Paper-money seems, at this period, tohave given place to silver, which, however, from several circumstancesmentioned, must have been very scarce. 

From the travels of Josaphat Barbaro, an ambassador from Venice, first toTana (Azof), and then to Persia, some information may be drawn respectingthe commerce of these parts of Asia, about the middle of the fifteenthcentury. He particularly describes the Wolga as being navigable to withinthree days' journey of Moscow, the inhabitants of which sail down it everyyear to Astrakan for salt. Astrakan was formerly a place of consequence andtrade, but had been laid waste by Tamerlane. Russia is a fertile country, but extremely cold. Oxen and other beasts are carried to market in thewinter, slaughtered, with their entrails taken out, and frozen so hard, that it is impossible to cut them up: they are very numerous and cheap. Theonly fruits are apples, nuts, and walnuts. Bossa, a kind of beer, is madein Russia. This liquor is still drank in Russia: it is made from millet, and is very inebriating. The drunkenness of the Russians is expressly andpointedly dwelt upon. Barbaro adds, that the grand duke, in order to checkthis vice, ordered that no more beer should be brewed, nor mead made, norhops used. The Russians formerly paid tribute to Tartary; but they hadlately conquered a country called Casan; to the left of the Wolga, in itsdescent. In this country a considerable trade is carried on, especially infurs, which are sent by way of Moscow to Poland, Prussia, and Flanders. Thefurs, however, are not the produce of Kasan, but of countries to thenorth-east, at a great distance. 

Barbaro is very minute and circumstantial in his description of themanners, dress, food, &c. Of the Georgians. He visited the principal townsof Persia. Schiraz contained 200, 000 inhabitants. Yezd was distinguishedand enriched by its silk manufactures. 

CHAPTER V. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY AND COMMERCE, FROM THEMIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The improvement of mankind in knowledge and civilization evidently dependson the union of three circumstances, --enlarged and increased desires, obstacles in the way of obtaining the objects of these desires, andpracticable means of overcoming or removing these obstacles. The history ofmankind in all ages and countries justifies and illustrates the truth ofthis remark; for though it is, especially in the early periods of it, veryimperfect and obscure, and even in the later periods almost entirelyconfined to war and politics, still there are in it sufficient traces ofthe operation of all those three causes towards their improvement inknowledge and civilization. 

That they operated in extending the progress of discovery and commerce isevident. We have already remarked that from the earliest periods, thecommodities of the east attracted the desires of the western nations: theArabians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans of the ancient world; theItalian and Hanseatic states of the middle ages, all endeavoured to enrichthemselves by trading in commodities so eagerly and universally desired. Asindustry and skill increased, and as the means as well as the desire ofpurchase and enjoyment spread, by the rise of a middle class in Europe, thedemand for these commodities extended. The productions and manufactures ofthe north, as well as of the south of Europe, having been increased andimproved, enabled the inhabitants of these countries to participate inthose articles from India, which, among the ancients, had been confinedexclusively to the rich and powerful. 

On the other hand, even at the very time that this enlarged demand forIndian commodities was taking place in Europe, and was accompanied byenlarged means as well as extended skill and expedience in discovery andcommerce, --at this very time obstacles arose which threatened the almostentire exclusion of Europeans from the luxuries of Asia. It may well bedoubted, whether, if the enemies of the Christian faith had not gainedentire possession of all the routes to India, and moreover, if these routeshad been rendered more easy of access and passage, they could have longsupplied the increased demands of improving Europe. But that Europe should, on the one hand, improve and feel enlarged desires as well as means ofpurchasing the luxuries of the east, while on the other hand, thepracticability of acquiring these luxuries should diminish, formed acoincidence of circumstances, which was sure to produce important results. 

As access to India by land, or even by the Arabian Gulf by sea, wasrendered extremely difficult and hazardous by the enmity of the Mahometans, or productive of little commercial benefit by their exactions, theattention and hopes of European navigators were directed to a passage toIndia along the western coast of Africa. As, however, the length anddifficulties of such a voyage were extremely formidable, it would probablyhave been either not attempted at all, or have required much longer time toaccomplish than it actually did, if, in addition and aid of increaseddesires and an enlarged commercial spirit, the means of navigating distant, extensive, and unknown seas, had not likewise been, about this period, greatly improved. 

We allude, principally, to the discovery of the mariners' compass. Thefirst clear notice of it appears in a Provençal poet of the end of thetwelfth century. In the thirteenth century it was used by the Norwegians intheir voyages to and from Iceland, who made it the device of an order ofknighthood of the highest rank; and from a passage in Barber's Bruce, itmust have been known in Scotland, if not used there in 1375, the periodwhen he wrote. It is said to have been used in the Mediterranean voyages atthe end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century. 

With respect to the nations of the east, it is doubted whether they derivedtheir knowledge of it from the Europeans, or the Europeans from them. Whenwe reflect on the long and perilous voyages of the Arabians, early in theChristian era, we might be led to think that they could not be performedwithout the assistance of the compass; but no mention of it, or allusion toit, occurs in the account of any of their voyages; and we are expresslyinformed by Nicolo di Conti, who sailed on board a native vessel in theIndian seas, about the year 1420, that the Arabians had no compass, butsailed by the stars of the southern pole; and that they knew how to measuretheir elevation, as well as to keep their reckoning, by day and night, withtheir distance from place to place. With respect to the Chinese, the pointin dispute is not so easily determined: it is generally imagined, that theyderived their knowledge of the compass from Europeans: but Lord Macartney, certainly a competent judge, has assigned his reasons for believing thatthe Chinese compass is original, and not borrowed, in a dissertationannexed to Dr. Vincent's Periplus of the Erythrean Sea. At what period itwas first known among them, cannot be ascertained; they pretend that it wasknown before the age of Confucius. That it was not brought from China toEurope by Marco Polo, as some writers assert, is evident from thecircumstance that this traveller never mentions or alludes to it. The firstscientific account of the properties of the magnet, as applicable to themariner's compass, appears in a letter written by Peter Adsiger, in theyear 1269. This letter is preserved among the manuscripts of the universityof Leyden; extracts from it are given by Cavallo, in the second edition ofhis Treatise on Magnetism. From these extracts it is evident that he wasacquainted with the attraction, repulsion, and polarity of the magnet, theart of communicating those properties to iron, the variation of themagnetic needle; and there are even some indications that he was acquaintedwith the construction of the azimuth compass. 

Next in importance and utility to the mariners' compass, in preparing theway for the great discoveries by which the fifteenth century isdistinguished, maps and charts may be placed. For though, in general, theywere constructed on very imperfect and erroneous notions of the form of theworld, and the relative size and situation of different countries, yetoccasionally there appeared maps which corrected some long establishederror, or supplied some new information; and even the errors of the maps, in some cases, not improbably held out inducements or hopes, which wouldnot otherwise have been entertained and realized, as we have alreadyremarked, after D'Anville, that the greatest of Ptolemy's errors provedeventually the efficient cause which led to the greatest discovery of themoderns. 

Malte Brun divides the maps of the middle ages into two classes: those inwhich the notions of Ptolemy and other ancient geographers are implicitlycopied, and those in which new countries are inserted, which had beeneither discovered, or were supposed to exist. 

In most of the maps of the first description, Europe, Asia, and Africa arelaid down as forming one immense island, and Africa is not carried so faras the equator. One of the most celebrated of these maps was drawn up byMarin Sanuto, and inserted in his memorial presented to the pope and theprincipal sovereigns of Europe, for the purpose of persuading and shewingthem, that if they would oblige their merchants to trade only through thedominions of the Caliphs of Bagdat, they would be better supplied and at acheaper rate, and would have no longer to fear the Soldans of Egypt. Thismemorial with its maps was inserted in the Gesta Dei per Francos, as we areassured by the editor, from one of the original copies presented by Sanutoto some one of the princes. Hence, as Dr. Vincent remarks, it probablycontains the oldest map of the world at this day extant, except thePeutingerian tables. Sanuto, as we have already noticed, in giving anabstract of the commercial information contained in his memorial, lived in1324. 

In the monastery of St. Michael di Murano, there is a planisphere, said tobe drawn up in 1459, by Fra Mauro, which contains a report of a ship fromIndia having passed the extreme point south, 2000 miles towards the westand southwest in 1420. 

Ramusio describes a map, supposed to be this, which he states to have beendrawn up for the elucidation of Marco Polo's travels. 

On this map, so far as it relates to the circumnavigation of Africa, Dr. Vincent has given a dissertation, having procured a _fac-simile_ copyfrom Venice, which is deposited in the British Museum; the substance ofthis dissertation we shall here compress. He divides his dissertation intothree parts. First, whether this was the map noticed by Ramusio, and by himsupposed to be drawn up to elucidate the travels of Marco Polo. On thispoint he concludes that it was the map referred to by Ramusio, but that hisinformation respecting it is not correct. The second point to be determinedis, whether the map procured from Venice was really executed by Mauro, andwhether it existed previous to the Portuguese discoveries on the west coastof Africa. Manro lived in the reign of Alphonso the Fifth, that is between1438 and 1480; the whole of this map, therefore, is prior to Diaz and Gama, two celebrated Portuguese navigators. Consequently, if it can be provedthat the map obtained by Dr. Vincent is genuine, it must have existedprevious to the Portuguese discoveries. The proof of the genuineness of themap is derived from the date on the planisphere, 1459; the internalevidence on the work itself; and the fact that Alphonso, or Prince Henry ofPortugal, who died in 1463, received a copy of this map from Venice, anddeposited it in the monastery of Alcobaca, where it is still kept. The sumpaid for this copy, and the account of expenditure, are detailed in a MS. Account in the monastery of St. Michael. 

The third, and by far the most important part of Dr. Vincent'sdissertation, examines what the map contains respecting the termination cfAfrica to the south. On the first inspection of the map it is evident, thatthe author has not implicitly followed Ptolemy, as he professes to do. Thecentre of the habitable world is fixed at Bagdat. Asia and Europe hedefines rationally, and Africa so far as regards its Mediterranean coast. He assigns two sources to the Nile, both in Abyssinia. On the east coast ofAfrica, he carries an arm of the sea between an island which he representsas of immense size, and the continent, obliquely as far nearly as thelatitude and longitude of the Cape of Good Hope. This island he calls Diab, and the termination on the south, which he makes the extreme point ofAfrica, Cape Diab. 

The great object of Mauro, in drawing up this map, was to encourage thePortuguese in the prosecution of their voyages to the south of Africa. Thisis known to be the fact from other sources, and the construction of themap, as well as some of the notices and remarks, which are inserted in itsmargin, form additional evidence that this was the case. Two passages, asDr. Vincent observes, will set this in the clearest light. The first isinserted at Cape Diab; "here, " says the author, about the year 1420, "anIndian vessel, on her passage across the Indian ocean was caught by astorm, and carried 2000 miles beyond this Cape to the west and south-west;she was seventy days in returning to the Cape. " This the author regards asa full proof that Africa was circumnavigable on the south. 

In the second passage, inserted on the margin, after observing that thePortuguese had been round the continent of Africa, more than 2000 miles tothe south-west beyond the Straits of Gibraltar; that they found thenavigation easy and safe, and had made charts of their discoveries; headds, that he had talked with a person worthy of credit, who assured him hehad been carried by bad weather, in an Indian ship, out of the IndianOcean, for forty days, beyond Cape Sofala and the Green Islands, towardsthe west and south-west, and that in the opinion of the astronomer onboard, (such as all Indian ships carry, ) they had been hurried away 2000miles. He concludes by expressing his firm belief that the sea surroundingthe southern and south-eastern part of the world is navigable; and that theIndian Sea is ocean, and not a lake. We may observe, by the bye, that inanother passage inserted in the margin, he expressly declares that theIndian ships had no compass, but were directed by an astronomer on board, who was continually making his observations. 

It is evident that the two accounts are at variance, as the first assertsthat the passage was round Cape Diab, at the termination of Africa, and thesecond that it was round Cape Sofala, fifteen degrees to the north of theextremity of this quarter of the world: but without attempting to reconcilethis contradiction, it is abundantly evident that Mauro, by noticing thePortuguese navigators, as having reached 2000 miles to the south ofGibraltar, and adding that 2000 miles more of the coast of Africa had beenexplored by an Indian ship, meant to encourage the further enterprises ofthe Portuguese, by the natural inference that a very small space ofunsailed sea must lie between the two lines, which were the limits of thenavigation of the Portuguese and Indian vessel. The unexplored space wasindeed much greater than Mauro estimated and represented it in his map tobe; but, as Dr. Vincent remarks, his error in this respect manifestlycontributed to the prosecution of the Portuguese designs, as the error ofthe ancient geographers, in approximating China to Europe, produced thediscovery of America by Columbus. 

We have dwelt thus long on the map of Mauro, as being by far the mostimportant of the maps of the second description, or those in which wereinserted real or supposed discoveries. The rest of this description requirelittle notice. 

A map of the date of 1346, in Castilian, represents Cape Bojada in Africaas known, and having been doubled at that period. A manuscript, preservedat Genoa, mentions that a ship had sailed from Majorca to a river calledVedamel, or Rui Jaura (probably Rio-do-Ouro, ) but her fate was not known. The Genoese historians relate that two of their countrymen in 1291, attempted to reach India by the west; the fate of this enterprize is alsounknown. The Canary Islands, the first discovery of which is supposed tohave taken place before the Christian era, and which were never afterwardscompletely lost sight of, being described by the Arabian geographers, appear in a Castilian map of 1346. Teneriffe is called in this map Inferno, in conformity with the popular notion of the ancients, that these islandswere the seat of the blessed. In a map of 1384, there is an island calledIsola-di-legname, or the Isle of Wood, which, from this appellation, andits situation, is supposed by some geographers to be the island of Madeira. It would seem that some notions respecting the Azores were obscurelyentertained towards the end of the fourteenth century, as islands nearly intheir position are laid down in the maps of 1380. 

In the library of St. Marc, at Venice, there is a map drawn by Bianco, in1436. In it the ancient world is represented as forming one greatcontinent, divided into two unequal parts by the Mediterranean, and by theIndian Ocean, which is carried from east to west, and comprises a greatnumber of islands. Africa stretches from west to east parallel to Europeand Asia, but it terminates to the north of the equator. The peninsula ofIndia and the Gulf of Bengal scarcely appear. The eastern part of Asiaconsists of two great peninsulas, divided by an immense gulf. Then appearCathai, Samarcand, and some other places, the names of which areunintelligible. All the kingdoms of Europe are laid down except Poland andHungary. To the west of the Canaries, a large tract of country is laid downunder the appellation of Antitia; some geographers have maintained that bythis America was indicated, but there does not appear any ground for thisbelief. 

Having offered these preliminary and preparatory observations, we shall nowproceed to the discoveries of the Portuguese. From the slight sketch whichhas already been given of the progress of geography and commerce, betweenthe time of Ptolemy and the fifteenth century, it appears that thePortuguese had distinguished themselves less, perhaps, than any otherEuropean nation, in these pursuits; but, long before the beginning of thefifteenth century, circumstances had occurred, connected with theirhistory, which were preparing the way for their maritime enterprizes. Soearly as the year 1250, the Portuguese had succeeded in driving the Moorsout of their country; and, in order to prevent them from again disturbingthem, they in their turn invaded Fez and Morocco, and having conqueredCeuta in 1415, fortified it, and several harbours near it, on the shores ofthe Atlantic. So zealous were the Portuguese in their enterprizes againstthe Moors, that the ladies of Lisbon partook in the general enthusiasm, andrefused to bestow their hand on any man who had not signalized his courageon the coast of Africa, The spirit of the nation was largely participatedby Prince Henry, the fifth son of John I. , king of Portugal, who took uphis residence near Cape St. Vincent, in the year 1406. The sole passion andobject of his mind was to further the advancement of his country innavigation and discovery: his regard for religion led him to endeavour todestroy or diminish the power of the Mahometans; and his patriotism toacquire for Portugal that Indian commerce, which had enriched the maritimestates of Italy. He sought every means and opportunity by which he couldincrease or render more accurate his information respecting the westerncoast, and the interior of Africa: and it is probable that the relations ofcertain Jews and Arabs, respecting the gold mines of Guinea, weighedstrongly with him in the enterprizes which he planned, encouraged, andaccomplished. 

It is not true, however, that he was the inventor of the astrolobe and thecompass, or the first that put these instruments into the hands ofnavigators, though he undoubtedly was an excellent mathematician, andprocured the best charts and instruments of the age: the use andapplication of these, he taught in the best manner to those he selected tocommand his ships. 

With respect to the compass, we have already stated all that is certainlyknown respecting its earliest application to the purposes of navigation. The sea astrolobe, which is an instrument for taking the altitude of thesun, stars, &c. , is described by Chaucer, in 1391, in a treatise on it, addressed to his little son, Louis; and Purchas informs us, that it wasformerly applied only to astronomical purposes, but was accommodated to theuse of seamen by Martin Behaim, at the command of John II. , king ofPortugal, about the year 1487. 

About the year 1418, when Prince Henry first began his plan of discovery, Cape Nun, in latitude 28° 40', was the limit of European knowledge on thecoast of Africa. With this part of the coast, the Portuguese had becomeacquainted in consequence of their wars with the Moors of Barbary. In 1418, two of Henry's commanders reached Cape Boyada in latitute 26° 30'; but theCape was not actually doubled till 1434. The Canary islands were visitedduring the same voyage that the Cape was discovered: Madeira was likewisevisited or discovered; it was first called St. Laurence, after the saint ofthe day on which it was seen, and afterwards Madeira, on account of itswoods. In 1420, the Portuguese set fire to these woods, and afterwardsplanted the sugar cane, which they brought from Sicily, and the vines whichthey brought from Cyprus. Saw mills were likewise erected on it. 

About the year 1432, Gonzalos was sent with two small vessels to the coastof Africa on new discoveries. In 1434, Cape Boyada was doubled: in 1442, the Portuguese had advanced as far as Rio-do-Ouro, under the tropic ofCancer. On the return of the ships from this voyage, the inhabitants ofLisbon first saw, with astonishment, negroes of a jet black complexion, andwoolly hair, quite different from the slaves which had been hithertobrought from Africa; for, before this time, they had seized, and sold asslaves, the tawny Moors, which they met with on the coast of Africa. In theyear 1442, however, some of these had been redeemed by their friends, inexchange for negroes and gold dust. This last article stimulated theavarice of the Portuguese to greater exertions, than Prince Henry had beenable to excite, and an African company was immediately formed to obtain it, slaves, &c. ; but their commerce was exclusively confined to the coast ofAfrica, to the south of Sierra Leone. Dr. Vincent justly remarks, thatHenry had stood alone for almost forty years, and had he fallen beforethese few ounces of gold reached his country, the spirit of discovery mighthave perished with him, and his designs might have been condemned as thedreams of a visionary. The importation of this gold, and the establishmentof the African company in Portugal, to continue the remark of the sameauthor, is the primary date, to which we may refer that turn for adventurewhich sprung up in Europe, which pervaded all the ardent spirits in everycountry for the two succeeding centuries, and which never ceased till ithad united the four quarters of the globe in commercial intercourse. 

In 1445, the Portuguese reached Senegal, where they first saw Pagannegroes: in 1448 and 1449, their discoveries extended to Cape Verd. Theislands of that name were discovered in 1456. The exact extent of theirdiscoveries from this time till 1463, when Prince Henry died, is notcertainly known. According to some, Cape Verd, or Rio Grande, was thelimit; according to others, one navigator reached as far as the coast ofGuinea, and Cape Mesanado: some extend the limit even as far south as theequator. Assuming, however, Rio Grande as the limit of the discoveries madein Prince Henry's time, Rio Grande is in latitude 11 north, and the straitsof Gibraltar in latitude 36 north; the Portuguese had therefore advanced 25degrees to the south; that is 1500 geographical, or 1750 British miles, which, with the circuit of the coast, may be estimated at 2000 miles. 

For nearly 20 years after the death of Prince Henry, little progress wasmade by the Portuguese in advancing to the south. At the time of the deathof Alonzo, in 1481, they had passed the equator, and reached Cape St. Catherine; in latitude S. 2° 30'. The island of St. Thomas under the line, which was discovered in 1471, was immediately planted with sugar cane; anda fort, which was built the same year on the gold coast, enabled them toextend their knowledge of this part of Africa to a little distance inland. Portugal now began to reap the fruits of her discoveries: bees' wax, ostrich feathers, negro slaves, and particularly gold, were imported, onall of which the profits were so great, that John II. , who succeededAlonzo, immediately on his accession, sent out 12 ships to Guinea; and in1483, two other vessels were sent, which in the following year reachedCongo, and penetrated to 22° south. The river Zaire in this part of Africawas discovered, and many of the inhabitants of the country through which itflows embarked voluntarily for Portugal. Benin was discovered about thesame time; here they found a species of spice, which was imported in greatquantities into Europe, and sold as pepper: it was, however, nothing elsebut grains of paradise. The inhabitants of Benin must have had considerabletraffic far into the interior of Africa, for from them the Portuguese firstreceived accounts of Abyssinia. By the discovery and conquest of Benin andCongo, the Portuguese traffic in slaves was much extended, but at the sametime it took another character for a short time; for the love of gold beingstronger than the hope of gain they might derive from the sale of negroes, (for which, indeed, till the discovery of the West Indies there was littledemand, ) the Portuguese used to exchange the natives they captured for goldwith the Moors, till John II. Put an end to this traffic, under thepretence that by means of it, the opportunity of converting the negroes waslost, as they were thus delivered into the hands of Infidels. About eightyyears after Prince Henry began his discoveries, John I. Sent out Diaz withthree ships: this was in 1486, and in the following year Covilham was sentby the same monarch in search of India, by the route of Egypt and the RedSea. 

The king displayed great judgment in the selection of both these persons. Diaz was of a family, several members of which had already signalizedthemselves by the discoveries on the coast of Africa. His mode ofconducting the enterprize on which he was sent, proved at once hisconfidence in himself, his courage, and his skill; after reaching 24° southlatitude, 120 leagues beyond any former navigator, he stood right out tosea, and never came within sight of the coast again, till he had reached 40degrees to the eastward of the Cape, which, however, he was much too farout at sea to discover. He persevered in stretching still farther east, after he made land, till at length he reached the river Del Infante, sixdegrees to the eastward of the most southern point of Africa, and almost adegree beyond the Cape of Good Hope. He then resolved to return, for whatreason is not known; and on his return, he saw the Cape of Good Hope, towhich, on account of the storms he encountered on his passage round it, hegave the appellation of Cabo Tormentoso. John II. , however, augured so wellfrom the doubling of the extremity of Africa having been accomplished, thathe changed its name into that of the Cape of Good Hope. 

As soon as John II. Ascended the throne, he sent two friars and a layman toJerusalem, with instructions to gain whatever information they couldrespecting India and Prester John from the pilgrims who resorted to thatcity, and, if necessary, to proceed further to the east. As, however, noneof this party understood Arabic, they were of little use, and in fact didnot go beyond Jerusalem. In 1487, the king sent Covilham and Paayva on thesame mission: the former had served in Africa as a soldier, and wasintimately acquainted with Arabic. In order to facilitate this enterprise, Covilham was entrusted with a map, drawn up by two Jews, which mostprobably was a copy of the map of Mauro, of which we have already spoken. On this map, a passage round the south of Africa was laid down as havingbeen actually accomplished, and Covilham was directed to reach Abyssinia, if possible; and ascertain there or elsewhere, whether such a passage didreally exist. Covilham went from Naples to Alexandria, and thence to Cairo. At this city he formed an acquaintance with some merchants of Fez andBarbary, and in their company went to Aden. Here he embarked and visitedGoa, Calicut, and other commercial cities of India, where he saw pepper andginger, and heard of cloves and cinnamon. From India he returned to theeast coast of Africa, down which he went as low as Sofala, "the lastresidence of the Arabs, and the limit of their knowledge in that age, as ithad been in the age of the Periplus. " He visited the gold mines in thevicinity of this place: and here he also learnt all the Arabs knewrespecting the southern part of Africa, viz. That the sea was navigable tothe south-west (and this indeed their countrymen believed, when the authorof the Periplus visited them); but they knew not where the sea terminated. At Sofala also Covilham gained some information respecting the island ofthe Moon, or Madagascar. He returned to Cairo, by Zeila, Aden, and Tor. AtCairo, he sent an account of the intelligence to the king, and in theletter which contained it, he added, "that the ships which sailed down thecoast of Guinea, might be sure of reaching the termination of thecontinent, by persisting in a course to the south, and that when theyshould arrive in the eastern ocean, their best direction must be to enquirefor Sofala and the island of the Moon. "

"It is this letter, " observes Dr. Vincent, "above all other information, which, with equal justice and equal honour, assigns the theoreticaldiscovery to Covilham, as the practical to Diaz and Gama; for Diaz returnedwithout hearing any thing of India, though he had passed the Cape, and Gamadid not sail till after the intelligence of Covilham had ratified thediscovery of Diaz. " One part of the instructions given to Covilham requiredhim to visit Abyssinia: in order to accomplish this object, he returned toAden, and there took the first opportunity of entering Abyssinia. Thesovereign of his country received and treated him with kindness, giving hima wife and land. He entered Abyssinia in 1488, and in 1521, that is, 33years afterwards, the almoner to the embassy of John de Lima found him. Covilham, notwithstanding he was as much beloved by the inhabitants as bytheir sovereign, was anxious to return to Portugal, and John de Lima, athis request, solicited the king to grant him permission to that effect, buthe did not succeed. "I dwell, " observes Dr. Vincent, "with a melancholypleasure on the history of this man, --whom Alvarez, the almoner, describesstill as a brave soldier and a devout Christian;--when I reflect upon whatmust have been his sentiments on hearing the success of his countrymen, inconsequence of the discovery to which he so essentially contributed. _They_ were sovereigns of the ocean from the Cape of Good Hope to thestraits of Malacca: _he_ was still a prisoner in a country ofbarbarians. "

It might have been supposed, that after it had been ascertained by Diazthat the southern promontory of Africa could be doubled, and by Covilham, that this was the only difficulty to a passage by sea to India, the courtof Portugal would have lost no time in prosecuting their discoveries, andcompleting the grand object they had had in view for nearly a century:this, however, was not the case. Ten years, and another reign, and greatdebates in the council of Portugal were requisite before it was resolvedthat the attempt to prosecute the discovery of Diaz to its completion wasexpedient, or could be of any advantage to the nation at large. At last, when Emanuel, who was their sovereign, had determined on prosecuting thediscovery of India, his choice of a person to conduct the enterprise fellon Gama. As he had armorial bearings, we may justly suppose that he was ofa good family; and in all respects he appears to have been well qualifiedfor the grand enterprise to which he was called, and to have resolved, froma sense of religion and loyalty, to have devoted himself to death, if heshould not succeed. Diaz was appointed to a command under him, but he hadnot the satisfaction of witnessing the results of his own discovery; for hereturned when the fleet had reached St. Jago, was employed in a secondarycommand under Cabral, in the expedition in which Brazil was discovered, andin his passage from that country to the Cape, four ships, one of which hecommanded, perished with all on board. 

As soon as the fleet which Gama was to take with him was ready for sea, theking, attended by all his court, and a great body of the people, formed asolemn procession to the shore, where they were to embark, and Gama assumedthe command, under the auspices of the most imposing religious ceremonies. Nearly all who witnessed his embarkation regarded him and those whoaccompanied him "rather as devoted to destruction, than as sent to theacquisition of renown. "

The fleet which was destined to accomplish one of the objects (thediscovery of America is the other)--which, as Dr. Robertson remarks, "finally established those commercial ideas and arrangements whichconstitute the chief distinction between the manners and policy of ancientand modern times, "--consisted only of three small ships, and a victualler, manned with no more than 160 souls: the principal officers were Vasco deGama, and Paul his brother: Diaz and Diego Diaz, his brother, who acted aspurser: and Pedro Alanquer, who had been pilot to Diaz. Diaz was toaccompany them only to a certain latitude. 

They sailed from Lisbon on the 18th of July, 1497: in the bay of St. Helena, which they reached on the 4th of November, they found natives, whowere not understood by any of the negro interpreters they had on board. From the description of the peculiarity in their mode of utterance, whichthe journal of the voyage calls sighing, and from the circumstance that thesame people were found in the bay of St. Blas, 60 leagues beyond the Cape, there can be no doubt that they were Hottentots. In consequence of theignorance or the obstinacy of the pilot, and of tempestuous weather, thevoyage to the Cape was long and dangerous: this promontory, however, wasdoubled on the 20th of November. After this the wind and weather provingfavourable, the voyage was more prosperous and rapid. On the 11th ofJanuary, 1498, they reached that part of the coast where the natives wereno longer Hottentots, but Caffres, who at that period displayed the samemarks of superior civilization by which they are distinguished from theHottentots at present. 

From the bay of St. Helena till they passed Cape Corrientes, there had beenno trace of navigation, --no symptom that the natives used the sea at all. But after they passed this cape, they were visited by the natives in boats, the sails of which seem to have been made of the fibres of the cocoa-palm. A much more encouraging circumstance, however, occurred: some of thenatives that came off in these boats were clothed in cotton, silk, andsattin, --evident proofs that intercourse, either direct or indirect, waspracticable, and had in fact been held between this country and India. Thelanguage of these people was not understood; but from their signs it wasinferred that they had seen ships as large as the Portuguese, and that theyhad come from the north. 

This part of Africa lies between latitudes 19° and 18° south; and as Gamahad the corrected chart of Covilham on board, in which Sofala was marked asthe limit of his progress, and Sofala was two degrees to the south of wherehe then was, he must have known that he had now passed the barrier, andthat the discovery was ascertained, his circumnavigation being nowconnected with the route of Covilham. This point of Gama's progress is alsointeresting and important in another respect, for we are here approaching ajunction with the discoveries of the Arabians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. 

At this place Gama remained till the 24th of February, repairing his shipsand recruiting his men. On the 1st of March, he arrived off Mozambique;here evidences of a circumnavigation with India were strong and numerous. The sovereign of Mozambique ruled over all the country from Sofala toMelinda. The vessels, which were fitted out entirely for coasting voyages, were large, undecked, the seams fastened with cords made of the cocoafibres, and the timbers in the same manner. Gama, in going on board some ofthe largest of those, found that they were equipped with charts andcompasses, and what are called æst harlab, probably the sea astrolabe, already discovered. At the town of Mozambique, the Moorish merchants fromthe Red Sea and India, met and exchanged the gold of Sofala for theircommodities, and in its warehouses, which, though meanly built, werenumerous, pepper, ginger, cottons, silver, pearls, rubies, velvet, andother Indian articles were exposed to sale. At Mombaça, the next place towhich Gama sailed, all the commodities of India were found, and likewisethe citron, lemon, and orange; the houses were built of stone, and theinhabitants, chiefly Mahomedans, seemed to have acquired wealth bycommerce, as they lived in great splendour and luxury. 

On the 17th of March, 1498, Gama reached Melinda, and was consequentlycompletely within the boundary of the Greek and Roman discovery andcommerce in this part of the world. This city is represented as well built, and displaying in almost every respect, proofs of the extensive trade theinhabitants carried on with India, and of the wealth they derived from it. Here Gama saw, for the first time, Banians, or Indian merchants: from themhe received much important information respecting the commercial cities ofthe west coast of India: and at Melinda he took on board pilots, whoconducted his fleet across the Indian Ocean to Calicut on the coast ofMalabar, where he landed on the 22d of May, 1498, ten months and two daysafter his departure from Lisbon. He returned to Lisbon in 1499, and againreceived the command of a squadron in 1502; he died at Cochin in 1525, after having lived to witness his country sovereign of the Indian seas fromMalacca to the Cape of Good Hope. "The consequence of his discovery was thesubversion of the Turkish power, which at that time kept all Europe inalarm. The East no longer paid tribute for her precious commodities, whichpassed through the Turkish provinces; the revenues of that empire werediminished; the Othmans ceased to be a terror to the western world, andEurope has risen to a power, which the three other continents may in vainendeavour to oppose. "

The successful enterprize of Gama, and the return of his ships laden notonly with the commodities peculiar to the coast of Malabar, but with manyof the richer and rarer productions of the eastern parts of India, stimulated the Portuguese to enter on this new career with avidity andardour, both military and commercial. It fortunately happened that Emanuel, who was king of Portugal at this period, was a man of great intelligenceand grasp of mind, capable of forming plans with prudence and judgment, andof executing them with method and perseverance; and it was equallyfortunate that such a monarch was enabled to select men to command inIndia, who from their enterprize, military skill, sagacity, integrity, andpatriotism, were peculiarly qualified to carry into full and successfulexecution all his views and plans. 

The consequences were such as must always result from the steady operationof such causes: twenty-four years after the voyage of Gama, and before thetermination of Emanuel's reign, the Portuguese had reached, and madethemselves masters of Malacca. This place was the great staple of thecommerce carried on between the east of Asia, including China, and theislands and the western parts of India. To it the merchants of China, Japan, the Moluccas, &c. Came from the east, and those of Malabar, Ceylon, Coromandel and Bengal, from the west; and its situation, nearly at an equaldistance from the eastern and western parts of India, rendered itpeculiarly favorable for this trade, while by possessing the command of thestraits through which all ships must pass from the one extremity of Asia tothe other, it had the monopoly of the most extensive and lucrative commercecompletely within its power. 

From Malacca the Portuguese sailed for the conquest of the Moluccas; and byachieving this, secured the monopoly of spices. Their attempt to open acommunication and trade with China, which was made about the same time, wasnot then successful: but by perseverance they succeeded in their object, and before the middle of the sixteenth century, exchanged, at the island ofSancian, the spices of the Moluccas, and the precious stones and ivory ofCeylon, for the silks, porcelain, drugs, and tea of China. Soon afterwardsthe emperor of China allowed them to occupy the island of Macao. In 1542they succeeded in forming a commercial intercourse with Japan, trading withit for gold, silver and copper; this trade, however, was never extensive, and it ceased altogether in 1638, when they were driven from the Japaneseterritories. 

As the commodities of India could not be purchased except with largequantities of gold, the Portuguese, in order to obtain it, as well as forother commercial advantages, prosecuted their discoveries on the east ofAfrica, at the same time that they were extending their power and commercein India. On the east of Africa, between Sofala and the Red Sea, Arabiancolonies had been settled for many centuries: these the Portuguesenavigators visited, and gradually reduced to tribute; and the remains ofthe empire they established at this period, may still be traced in the fewand feeble settlements they possess between Sofala and Melinda. In 1506they visited and explored the island of Madagascar; in 1513, by theexpulsion of the Arabs from Aden, the Red Sea was opened to their ships;and they quickly examined its shores and harbours, and made themselvesacquainted with its tedious and dangerous navigation. In 1520 they visitedthe ports of Abyssinia, but their ambition and the security of theircommerce were not yet completely attained; the Persian Gulf, as well as theRed Sea, was explored; stations were formed on the coasts of both: and thusthey were enabled to obstruct the ancient commercial intercourse betweenEgypt and India, and to command the entrance of those rivers, by whichIndian goods were conveyed not only through the interior of Asia, but alsoto Constantinople. By the conquest of Ormus, the Portuguese monopolisedthat extensive trade to the East, which had been in the hands of thePersians for several centuries. "In the hands of the Portuguese this islandsoon became the great mart from which the Persian empire, and all theprovinces of Asia to the west of it, were supplied with the productions ofIndia: and a city which they built on that barren island, destitute ofwater, was rendered one of the chief seats of opulence, splendour, andluxury in the eastern world. "

The Venetians, who foresaw the ruin of their oriental commerce in thesuccess of the Portuguese, in vain endeavoured to stop the progress oftheir rivals in the middle of the sixteenth century: the latter, masters ofthe east coast of Africa, of the coasts of Arabia and Persia, of the twopeninsulas of India, of the Molucca islands, and of the trade to China andJapan, supplied every part of Europe with the productions of the east, bythe Cape of Good Hope; nor was their power and commerce subverted, tillPortugal became a province of Spain. 

We have purposely omitted, in this rapid sketch of the establishment andprogress of the Portuguese commerce in the East, any notice of the smallerdiscoveries which they made at the same time. These, however, it will beproper to advert to before we proceed to another subject. 

In the year 1512, a Portuguese navigator was shipwrecked on the Maldives:he found them already in the occasional possession of the Arabians, whocame thither for the cocoa fibres, of which they formed their cordage, andthe cowries, which circulated as money from Bengal to Siam. The Portuguesederived from them immense quantities of these cowries, with which theytraded to Guinea, Congo, and Benin. On their conquest, they obliged thesovereigns of this island to pay them tribute in cinnamon, pearls, preciousstones, and elephants. The discovery and conquest of the Malaccas hasalready been noticed, and its importance in rendering them masters of thetrade of both parts of India, which had been previously carried onprincipally by the merchants of Arabia, Persia from the West, and of Chinafrom the East. In Siam, gum lac, porcelain, and aromatics enriched thePortuguese, who were the first Europeans who arrived in this and theadjacent parts of this peninsula. 

In the year 1511 the Portuguese navigators began to explore the easternarchipelago of India, and to make a more complete and accurate examinationof some islands, which they had previously barely discovered. Sumatra wasexamined with great care, and from it they exported tin, pepper, sandal, camphire, &c. In 1513, they arrived at Borneo: of it, however, they saw andlearned little, except that it also produced camphire. In the same yearthey had made themselves well acquainted with Java: here they obtainedrice, pepper, and other valuable articles. It is worthy of remark, thatBarros, the Portuguese historian of their discoveries and conquests in theEast, who died towards the close of the sixteenth century, already foresawthat the immense number of islands, some of them very large, which werescattered in the south-east of Asia, would justly entitle this part, atsome future period, to the appellation of the fifth division of the world. Couto, his continuator, comprehends all these islands under five differentgroups. To the first belong the Moluccas. The second archipelago comprisesGilolo, Moratai, Celebes, or Macassar, &c. The third group contains thegreat isle of Mindinao, Soloo, and most of the southern Philippines. Thefourth archipelago was formed of the Banda isle, Amboyna, &c. ; the largestof these were discovered by the Portuguese in the year 1511: from Amboynathey drew their supplies of cloves. 

The Portuguese knew little of the fifth archipelago, because theinhabitants were ignorant of commerce, and totally savage and uncultivated. From the description given of them by the early Portuguese writers, astotally unacquainted with any metal, making use of the teeth of fish in itsstead, and as being as black as the Caffres of Africa, while among themthere were some of an unhealthy white colour, whose eyes were so weak thatthey could not bear the light of the sun;--from these particulars there canbe no doubt that the Portuguese had discovered New Guinea, and the adjacentisles, to whose inhabitants this description exactly applies. These islandswere the limit of the Portuguese discoveries to the East: they suspected, however, that there were other islands beyond them, and that these rangedalong a great southern continent, which stretched as far as the straits ofMagellan. It is the opinion of some geographers, and particularly of MalteBrun, that the Portuguese had visited the coasts of New Holland before theyear 1540; but that they regarded it as part of the great southerncontinent, the existence of which Ptolemy had first imagined. 

We have already alluded to the obstacles which opposed and retarded thecommercial intercourse of the Portuguese with China. Notwithstanding these, they prosecuted their discoveries in the Chinese seas. In the year 1518, they arrived at the isles of Liqueou, where they found gold in abundance:the inhabitants traded as far as the Moluccas. Their intercourse with Japanhas already been noticed. 

From these results of the grand project formed by Prince Henry, and carriedon by men animated by his spirit, (results so important to geography andcommerce, and which mainly contributed to raise Europe to its present highrank in knowledge, civilization, wealth, and power, ) we must now turn tothe discovery of America, the second grand cause in the production of thesame effects. 

For the discovery of the new world we are indebted to Columbus. Thiscelebrated person was extremely well qualified for enterprizes thatrequired a combination of foresight, comprehension, decision, perseverance, and skill. From his earliest youth he had been accustomed to regard the seaas his peculiar and hereditary element; for the family, from which he wasdescended, had been navigators for many ages. And though, from all that isknown respecting them, this line of life had not been attended with muchsuccess or emolument, yet Columbus's zeal was not thereby damped; and hisparents, still anxious that their son should pursue the same line which hisancestors had done, strained every nerve to give him a suitable education. He was accordingly taught geometry, astronomy, geography, and drawing. Assoon as his time of life and his education qualified him for the businesshe had chosen, he went to sea; he was then fourteen years old. His firstvoyages were from Genoa, of which city he was a native, to different portsin the Mediterranean, with which this republic traded. His ambition, however, was not long to be confined to seas so well known. Scarcely had heattained the age of twenty, when he sailed into the Atlantic; and steeringto the north, ran along the coast of Iceland, and, according, to his ownjournal, penetrated within the arctic circle. In another voyage he sailedas far south as the Portuguese fort of St. George del Mina, under theequator, on the coast of Africa. On his return from this voyage, he seemsto have engaged in a piratical warfare with the Venetians and Turks, who, at this period, disputed with the Genoese the sovereignty and commerce ofthe Mediterranean; and in this warfare he was greatly distinguished forenterprize, as well as for cool and undaunted courage. 

At this period he was attracted to Lisbon by the fame which Prince Henryhad acquired, on account of the encouragement he afforded to maritimediscovery. In this city he married the daughter of a person who had beenemployed in the earlier navigations of the prince; and from hisfather-in-law he is said to have obtained possession of a number ofjournals, sea charts, and other valuable papers. As he had ascertained thatthe object of the Portuguese was to reach India by the southern part ofAfrica, he concluded, that, unless he could devise or suggest some otherroute, little attention would be paid to him. He, therefore, turned histhoughts to the practicability of reaching India by sailing to the west. Atthis time the rotundity of the earth was generally admitted. The ancients, whose opinions on the extent and direction of the countries which formedthe terrestrial globe, still retained their hold on the minds even ofscientific men, had believed that the ocean encompassed the whole earth;the natural and unavoidable conclusion was, that by sailing to the west, India would be reached. An error of Ptolemy's, to which we have alreadyadverted, contributed to the belief that this voyage could not be verylong; for, according to that geographer, (and his authority was implicitlyacceded to, ) the space to be sailed over was sixty degrees less than itactually proved to be, --a space equal to three-fourths, of the PacificOcean. From considering Marco Polo's account of his travels in the east ofAsia, Columbus also derived great encouragement; for, according to him, Cathay and Zepango stretched out to a great extent in an easterlydirection; of course they must approach so much the more towards the westof Europe. It is probable, also, that Columbus flattered himself, that ifhe did not reach India by a western course, he would, perhaps, discover theAtlantis, which was placed by Plato and Aristotle in the ocean, to the westof Europe. 

Columbus, however, did not trust entirely to his own practical knowledge ofnavigation, or to the arguments he drew from a scientific acquaintance withcosmography: he heard the reports of skilful and experienced pilots, andcorresponded with several men of science. He is said, in a particularmanner to have been confirmed in his belief that India might be reached bysailing to the west, by the communications which he had with Paul, aphysician of Florence, a man well known at this period for his acquaintancewith geometry and cosmography, and who had paid particular attention to thediscoveries of the Portuguese. He stated several facts, and offered severalingenious conjectures, and moreover, sent a chart to Columbus, on which hepointed out the course which he thought would lead to the desired object. 

As Columbus was at the court of Lisbon, when he had resolved to undertakehis great enterprise, and, in fact, regarded himself as in some degree aPortuguese subject, he naturally applied in the first instance to John II. , requesting that monarch to let him have some ships to carry him to MarcoPolo's island of Zepango or Japan. The king referred him to the Bishop ofCeuta and his two physicians; but they having no faith in the existence ofthis island, rejected the services of Columbus. For seven years afterwardshe solicited the court of Spain to send him out, while, during the sameperiod, his brother, Bartholomew, was soliciting the court of England: thelatter was unsuccessful, but Columbus himself at length persuaded Isabellato grant 40, 000 crowns for the service of the expedition. He accordinglysailed from Palos, in Andalusia, on the 3d of August, 1492; and inthirty-three days landed on one of the Bahamas. He had already sailed ninehundred and fifty leagues west from the Canaries: after touching at theBahamas, he continued his course to the west, and at length discovered theisland of Cuba. He went no farther on this voyage; but on his return home, he discovered Hispaniola. The variation of the compass was first observedin this voyage. In a second voyage, in 1492, Columbus discovered Jamaica, and in a third, in 1494, he visited Trinidad and the continent of America, near the mouth of the Orinoco. In 1502, he made a fourth and last voyage, in which he explored some part of the shores of the Gulph of Mexico. Theungrateful return he met with from his country is well known: worn out withfatigue, disappointment, and sorrow, he died at Valladolid, on the 20th ofMay, 1506, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. 

In the mean time, the completion of the discovery of America was rapidlyadvancing. In 1499, Ogeda, one of Columbus's companions, sailed for the newworld: he was accompanied by Amerigo Vespucci: little was discovered on thevoyage, except some part of the coast of Guana and Terra Firma. ButAmerigo, having, on his return to Spain, published the first account of theNew World, the whole of this extensive quarter of the globe was calledafter him. Some authors, however, contend that Amerigo visited the coastsof Guiana and Terra Firma before Columbus; the more probable account is, that he examined them more carefully two years after their discovery byColumbus. Amerigo was treated by the court of Spain with as littleattention and gratitude as Columbus had been: he therefore offered hisservices to Portugal, and in two voyages, between 1500 and 1504, heexamined the coasts of that part of South America which was afterwardscalled Brazil. This country had been discovered by Cabral, who commandedthe second expedition of the Portuguese to India: on his voyage thither, atempest drove him so far to the west, that he reached the shores ofAmerica. He called it the Land of the Holy Cross; but it was afterwardscalled Brazil, from the quantity of red wood of that name found on it. 

For some time after the discovery of America it was supposed to be part ofIndia: and hence, the name of the West Indies, still retained by theislands in the Gulph of Mexico, was given to all those countries. Therewere, however, circumstances which soon led the discoverers to doubt of thetruth of the first conceived opinion. The Portuguese had visited no part ofAsia, either continent or island, from the coast of Malabar to China, onwhich they had not found natives highly civilized, who had madeconsiderable progress in the elegant as well as the useful arts of life, and who were evidently accustomed to intercourse with strangers, andacquainted with commerce. In all these respects, the New World formed astriking contrast: the islands were inhabited by savages, naked, unacquainted with the rudest arts of life, and indebted for theirsustenance to the spontaneous productions of a fertile soil and a fineclimate. The continent, for the most part, presented immense forests, andwith the exception of Mexico and Peru, was thinly inhabited by savages asignorant and low in the scale of human nature as those who dwelt on theislands. 

The natural productions and the animals differed also most essentially fromthose, not only of India, but also of Europe. There were no lemons, oranges, pomegranates, quinces, figs, olives, melons, vines, nor sugarcanes: neither apples, pears, plumbs, cherries, currants, gooseberries, rice, nor any other corn but maize. There was no poultry (except turkeys), oxen, sheep, goats, swine, horses, asses, camels, elephants, cats, nordogs, except an animal resembling a dog, but which did not bark. Even theinhabitants of Mexico and Peru were unacquainted with iron and the otheruseful metals, and destitute of the address requisite for acquiring suchcommand of the inferior animals, as to derive any considerable aid fromtheir labour. 

In addition to these most marked and decided points of difference betweenIndia and the newly discovered quarter of the globe, it was naturallyinferred that a coast extending, as America was soon ascertained to do, many hundred miles to the northward and to the southward of the equator, could not possibly be that of the Indies. At last, in the year 1513, a viewof the Grand Ocean having been attained from the mountains of Darien, thesupposition that the New World formed part of India was abandoned. To thisocean the name of the South Sea was given. 

In the mean time, the Portuguese had visited all the islands of the MalayArchipelago, as far as the Moluccas. Portugal had received from the Pope agrant of all the countries she might discover: the Spaniards, after thethird voyage of Columbus, obtained a similar grant. As, however, it wasnecessary to draw a line between those grants, the Pope fixed on 27-1/2°west of the meridian of the island of Ferro. The sovereigns, for theirmutual benefit, allowed it to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verd islands:all the countries to the east of this line were to belong to Portugal, andall those to the west of it to Spain. According to this line ofdemarcation, supposing the globe to be equally divided between the twopowers, it is plain that the Moluccas were situated within the hemispherewhich belonged to Spain. Portugal, however, would not yield them up, contending that she was entitled to the sovereignty of all the countriesshe could discover by sailing eastward. This dispute gave rise to the firstcircumnavigation of the globe, and the first practical proof that Indiacould be reached by sailing westward from Europe, as well as to otherresults of the greatest importance to geography and commerce. 

During the discussions which this unexpected and embarrassing difficultyproduced, Francis Magellan came to the court of Spain, to offer hisservices as a navigator, suggesting a mode by which he maintained thatcourt would be able to decide the question in its own favour. Magellan hadserved under Albuquerque, and had visited the Moluccas: and he proposed, ifthe Spanish monarch would give him ships, to sail to these islands by awesterly course, which would, even according to the Portuguese, establishthe Spanish right to their possession. The emperor Charles, who was at thisperiod king of Spain, joyfully embraced the proposal, although a short timeprevious, Solis, who had sailed in quest of a westerly passage to India, had, after discovering the Rio de la Plata, perished in the attempt. 

It is maintained by some authors that Magellan's confidence in the successof his own plan arose from the information he received from a chart drawnup by Martin Behaim, in which the straits that were afterwards explored byMagellan, and named after him, were laid down; and that he carried theinformation he derived from it to Spain, and by means of it obtained theprotection of Cardinal Ximenes, and the command of the fleet, with which hewas the first to circumnavigate the world. 

As this is a point which has been a good deal discussed, and as it is ofimportance, not only to the fame of Magellan, but to a right understandingof the actual state of geographical knowledge, with respect to the NewWorld, at this era, it may be proper briefly to consider it. 

The claim of Behaim rests entirely on a passage in Pigafetta's journal ofthe voyage of Magellan, in which it is stated that Magellan, as skilful ashe was courageous, knew that he was to seek for a passage through anobscure strait: this strait he had seen laid down in a chart of MartinBehaim, a most excellent cosmographer, which was in the possession of theking of Portugal. In describing the nature of the maps and charts which, during the whole of the middle ages, were drawn up, we observed that it wasvery usual to insert countries, &c. Which were merely supposed to exist. The question, therefore, is--allowing that a strait was laid down in achart drawn up by Behaim, whether it was a conjectural strait or one laiddown from good authority? That Behaim himself did not discover such astrait will be evident from the following circumstances: in the Nurembergglobe, formed by Behaim, it does not appear: there is nothing between theAzores and Japan, except the fabulous islands of Aulitia and St. Brandon;no mention of it is made in the archives of that city or in his numerousletters, which are still preserved. The date of the Nuremberg globe is1492, the very year in which Columbus first reached the West Indies: Behaimtherefore cannot be supposed to have contributed to this discovery. It issaid, however, that he made a long voyage in 1483 and 1484: but this voyagewas in an easterly direction, for it is expressly stated to have been toEthiopia; probably to Congo, and the cargo he brought home, which consistedof an inferior kind of pepper, proves that he had not visited America. Besides, if he had visited any part of America in 1483 or 1484, he wouldhave laid it down in his globe in 1492, whereas, as we have remarked, nocountry appears on it to the west of St. Brandon. We may, therefore, safelyconclude that he did not himself discover any passage round the south pointof America. 

But all the other great discoveries of the Portuguese and Spaniards (exceptthat of Diaz in 1486) were made between 1492, the date of the NurembergGlobe, and 1506, the date of the death of Behaim, and between theseperiods, he constantly resided at Fayal. It is much more probable that heinserted this strait in his chart on supposition, thinking it probablethat, as Africa terminated in a cape, so America would. That Magellan didnot himself believe the strait was laid down in Behaim's chart from anyauthority is evident, from a circumstance mentioned by Pigafetta, whoexpressly informs us, that Magellan was resolved to prosecute his searchafter it to latitude 75°, had he not found it in latitude 52°. Now, asBehaim undoubtedly was the greatest cosmographer of the age, and had beenemployed to fit the astrolobe as a sea instrument, it is not to be supposedthat, if he had good authority for the existence of a passage round SouthAmerica, he would have left it in any chart he drew, with an uncertainty of23 degrees. 

Magellan sailed from Spain in 1519, with five ships: he explored the riverPlate a considerable way, thinking at first it was the sea, and would leadhim to the west. He then continued his voyage to the south, and reached theentrance of the straits which afterwards received his name, on the 21stOctober, 1520, but, in consequence of storms, and the scarcity ofprovisions, he did not clear them till the 28th of November. He nowdirected his course to the north-west: for three months and twenty days hesaw no land. In 15 south, he discovered a small island; and another in 9south. Continuing his course still in the same direction, he arrived at theLadrones, and soon afterwards at the Phillippines, where he lost his lifein a skirmish. His companions continued their voyage; and, on thetwenty-seventh month after their departure from Spain, arrived at one ofthe Molucca islands. Here the Spaniards found plenty of spices, which theyobtained in exchange for the cloth, glass, beads, &c. , which they hadbrought with them for that purpose. From the Moluccas they returned homeround the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Seville in September, 1552. Onlyone ship returned, and she was drawn up in Seville, and long preserved as amonument of the first circumnavigation of the globe. The Spaniards weresurprised, on their return to their native country, to find that they hadgained a day in their reckoning--a proof of the scanty knowledge at thattime possessed, respecting one of the plainest and most obvious results ofthe diurnal motion of the earth. 

The voyage of Magellan occupied 1124 days: Sir Francis Drake, who sailedround the world about half a century afterwards, accomplished the passagein 1051 days: the next circumnavigator sailed round the globe in 769 days;and the first navigators who passed to the south of Terra del Fuego, accomplished the voyage in 749 days. In the middle of the eighteenthcentury, a Scotch privateer sailed round the world in 240 days. 

In the meantime, several voyages had been performed to the east coast ofNorth America. The first voyages to this part of the new world wereundertaken by the English: there is some doubt and uncertainty respectingthe period when these were performed. The following seems the most probableaccount. 

At the time when Columbus discovered America, there lived in London aVenetian merchant, John Cabot, who had three sons. The father was a man ofscience, and had paid particular attention to the doctrine of the spheres:his studies, as well as his business as a merchant, induced him to feelmuch interest in the discoveries which were at that period making. He seemsto have applied to Henry VII. ; who accordingly empowered him to sail fromEngland under the royal flag, to make discoveries in the east, the west, and the north, and to take possession of countries inhabited by Pagans, andnot previously discovered by other European nations. The king gave him twoships, and the merchants of Bristol three or four small vessels, loadedwith coarse cloth, caps, and other small goods. The doubt respecting theprecise date of this voyage seems to receive the most satisfactory solutionfrom the following contemporary testimony of Alderman Fabian, who says, inhis _Chronicle of England and France_, that Cabot sailed in thebeginning of May, in the mayoralty of John Tate, that is, in 1497, andreturned in the subsequent mayoralty of William Purchase, bringing with himthree _sauvages_ from Newfoundland. This fixes the date of thisvoyage: the course he steered, and the limits of his voyage, are howeverliable to uncertainty. He himself informs us, that he reached only 56°north latitude, and that the coast of America, at that part, winded to theeast: but there is no coast of North America that answers to thisdescription. According to other accounts, he reached 67-1/2° northlatitude; but this is the coast of Greenland, and not the coast ofLabrador, as these accounts call it. It is most probable that he did notreach farther than Newfoundland, which he certainly discovered. To thisisland he at first gave the names of Prima Vista and Baccaloas; and it isworthy of notice, that a cape of Newfoundland still retains the name ofBona Vista, and there is a small island still called Bacalao, not far fromhence. 

From this land he sailed to the south-west till he reached the latitude ofGibraltar, and the longitude of Cuba; if these circumstances be correct, hemust have sailed nearly as far as Chesapeak Bay: want of provisions nowobliged him to return to England. 

Portugal, jealous of the discoveries which Spain had made in the new world, resolved to undertake similar enterprizes, with the double hope ofdiscovering some new part of America, and a new route to India. Influencedby these motives, Certireal, a man of birth and family, sailed from Lisbonin 1500 or 1501: he arrived at Conception Bay, in Newfoundland, exploredthe east coast of that island, and afterwards discovered the river St. Lawrence. To the next country which he discovered, he gave the name ofLabrador, because, from its latitude and appearance, it seemed to himbetter fitted for culture than his other discoveries in this part ofAmerica. This country he coasted till he came to a strait, which he calledthe Strait of Anian. Through this strait he imagined a passage would befound to India, but not being able to explore it himself, he returned toPortugal, to communicate the important and interesting information. He soonafterwards went out on a second voyage, to prosecute his discoveries inthis strait; but in this he perished. The same voyage was undertaken byanother brother, but he also perished. As the situation of the Strait ofAnian was very imperfectly described, it was long sought for in vain onboth sides of America; it is now generally supposed to have been Hudson'sStrait, at the entrance of Hudson's Bay. 

The Spaniards were naturally most alarmed at the prospect of the Portuguesefinding a passage by this strait to India. Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, undertook himself an expedition for this purpose; but he returned withoutaccomplishing any thing. After him the viceroy, Mendoza, sent people, bothby sea and land, to explore the coast as far as 53° north latitude; butneither party reached farther than 36 degrees. The Spanish court itself nowundertook the enterprize; and in the year 1542, Cabrillo, a Portuguese inthe service of that court, sailed from Spain. He went no farther than to 44degrees north latitude, where he found it very cold. He coasted thecountries which at present are called New California, as far as CapeBlanco: he discovered, likewise, Cape Mendocino; and ascertained, that fromthis place to the harbour De la Nadividad, the land continued without theintervention of any strait. In 1582, Gualle was directed by the king ofSpain to examine if there was a passage to the east and north-east ofJapan, that connected the sea of Asia with the South Sea. He accordinglysteered from Japan to the E. N. E. About 300 leagues: here he found thecurrent setting from the north and north-west, till he had sailed above 700leagues, when he reckoned he was only 200 leagues from the coast ofCalifornia. In this voyage he discovered those parts of the north-westcoast of America which are called New Georgia and New Cornwall. At thebeginning of the seventeenth century, the Spaniards, alarmed at theachievements of Sir Francis Drake on this part of America, and stillanxious to discover, if possible, the Straits of Anian, sent out SebastianViscaino from Acapulco: he examined the coasts as far as Cape Mendocino, and discovered the harbour of Montery. One of his ships reached thelatitude of 43 degrees, where the mouth of a strait, or a large river, wassaid to have been discovered. 

The expedition of Sir Francis Drake, though expressly undertaken for thepurpose of distressing the Spaniards in their new settlements, must benoticed here, on account of its having contributed also, in some degree, tothe geographical knowledge of the north-west coast of America. He sailedfrom Plymouth on the 15th November, 1577, with five vessels, (the largestonly 100 tons, and the smallest 15, ) and 164 men. On the 20th of August, 1578, he entered the Strait of Magellan, which he cleared on the 6th ofSeptember: "a most extraordinary short passage, " observes Captain Tuckey, "for no navigator since, though aided by the immense improvements innavigation, has been able to accomplish it in less than 36 days. " Aftercoasting the whole of South America to the extremity of Mexico, he resolvedto seek a northern passage into the Atlantic. With this intention, hesailed along the coast, to which, from its white cliffs, he gave the nameof New Albion. When he arrived, however, at Cape Blanco, the cold was sointense, that he abandoned his intention of searching for a passage intothe Atlantic, and crossed the Pacific to the Molucca islands. In this longpassage he discovered only a few islands in 20° north latitude: after anabsence of 1501 days, he arrived at Plymouth. The discoveries made by thiscircumnavigator, will, however, be deemed much more important, if theopinion of Fleurien, in his remarks on the austral lands of Drake, insertedin the Voyage of Marchand, in which opinion he is followed by Malte Brun, be correct; viz. That Drake discovered, under the name of the Isles ofElizabeth, the western part of the archipelago of Terra del Fuego; and thathe reached even the southern extremity of America, which afterwardsreceived, from the Dutch navigators, the name of Cape Horn. These are allthe well authenticated discoveries made in the sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies, on the north-west coast of America. Cape Mendocino, in about40-1/2 degrees north latitude, is the extreme limit of the certainknowledge possessed at this period respecting this coast: the informationpossessed respecting New Georgia and New Cornwall was very vague andobscure. 

In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the coasts of the east side ofNorth America, particularly those of Florida, Virginia, Acadia and Canada, were examined by navigators of different countries. Florida was discoveredin the year 1512, by the Spanish navigator, Ponce de Leon; but as it didnot present any appearance of containing the precious metals, the Spaniardsentirely neglected it. In 1524, the French seem to have engaged in theirfirst voyage of discovery to America. Francis I. Sent out a Florentine withfour ships: three of these were left at Madeira; with the fourth he reachedFlorida. From this country he is said to have coasted till he arrived infifty degrees of north latitude. To this part he gave the name of NewFrance; but he returned home without having formed any colony. Towards theend of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, theEnglish began to form settlements in these parts of North America. Virginiawas examined by the famous Sir Walter Raleigh: this name was given to allthe coast on which the English formed settlements. That part of it nowcalled Carolina, seems to have been first discovered by Raleigh. 

The beginning of the seventeenth century was particularly distinguished bythe voyage of La Maire and Schouten. The States General of Holland, who hadformed an East India Company, in order to secure to it the monopoly of theIndian trade, prohibited all individuals from navigating to the IndianOcean, either round the Cape of Good Hope or through the Straits ofMagellan. It was therefore an object of great importance to discover, ifpracticable, any passage to India, which would enable the Dutch, withoutincurring the penalties of the law, to reach India. This idea was firstsuggested by La Maire, a merchant of Amsterdam, and William Schouten, amerchant of Horn. They had also another object in view: in all the maps ofthe world of the sixteenth century, a great southern continent is laiddown. In 1606, Quiros, a Spanish navigator, had searched in vain for thiscontinent; and La Maire and Schouten, in their voyage, resolved to look forit, as well as for a new passage to India. In 1615 they sailed from Hollandwith two ships: they coasted Patagonia, discovered the strait which bearsthe name of La Maire, and Staten Island, which joins it on the east. On the31st of January next year, they doubled the southern point of America, having sailed almost into the sixtieth degree of south latitude; this pointthey named Cape Horn, after the town of which Schouten was a native. Fromthis cape they steered right across the great southern ocean to thenorthwest. In their course they discovered several small islands; butfinding no trace of a continent, they gave up the search for it, andsteering to the south, passed to the east of the Papua Archipelago. Theythen changed their course to the west; discovered the east coast of theisland, afterwards called New Zealand, as well as the north side of NewGuinea. They afterwards reached Batavia, where they were seized by thepresident of the Dutch East India Company. This voyage was important, as itcompleted the navigation of the coast of South America from the Strait ofMagellan to Cape Horn, and ascertained that the two great oceans, thePacific and the Atlantic, joined each other to the south of America, by agreat austral sea. This voyage added also considerably to maritimegeography, "though many of the islands in the Pacific thus discovered have, from the errors in their estimated longitudes, been claimed as newdiscoveries by more recent navigators. " In the year 1623, the Dutch found ashorter passage into the Pacific, by the Straits of Nassau, north-west ofLa Maire's Strait; and another still shorter, by Brewer's Straits, in theyear 1643. 

The success of the Portuguese and Spaniards in their discoveries of apassage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, and of America, induced, as wehave seen, the other maritime nations to turn their attention to navigationand commerce. As, however, the riches derived from the East India commercewere certain, and the commodities which supplied them had long been inregular demand in Europe, the attempts to discover new routes to Indiaraised greater energies than those which were made to complete thediscovery of America. In fact, as we have seen, the east coast, both ofSouth and North America, in all probability would not have been visited sofrequently, or so soon and carefully examined, had it not been with thehope of finding some passage to India in that direction. But it was alsosupposed, that a passage to India might be made by sailing round the northof Europe to the east. Hence arose the frequent attempts to find out whatare called the north-west and north-east passages; the most important ofwhich, that were made during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, weshall now proceed to notice. 

We have already mentioned the earliest attempts to find out the Straits ofAnian; the idea that they existed on the northwest coast of America seemsto have been abandoned for some time, unless we suppose, that a voyageundertaken by the French in 1535 had for its object the discovery of thesestraits: it is undoubted, that one of the objects of this voyage was tofind a passage to India. In this voyage, the river St. Lawrence wasexamined as far as Montreal. In 1536, the English in vain endeavoured tofind a north-west passage to India. The result of this voyage was, however, important in one respect; as it gave vise to the very beneficial fishery ofthe English on the banks of Newfoundland. The French had already engaged inthis fishery. 

In 1576, the idea of a north-west passage having been revived in England, Frobisher was sent in search of it, with two barks of twenty-five tonseach, and one pinnace of ten tons. He entered the strait, leading into whatwas afterwards called Hudson's Bay: this strait he named after himself. Hediscovered the southern coast of Greenland; and picking up there some stoneor ore which resembled gold, he returned to England. The London goldsmithshaving examined this, they reported that it contained a large proportion ofgold. This induced the Russian Company to send him out a second time, in1577; but during this voyage, and a third in 1578, no discoveries ofconsequence were made. In the years 1585, 86, and 87, Captain Davis, whowas in the service of an English company of adventurers, made three voyagesin search of a north-west passage. In the first he proceded as far north assixty-six degrees forty minutes, visited the southwest coast of Greenland, and gave his own name to the straits that separate it from America. At thistime the use of a kind of harpoon was known, by which they were enabled tokill porpoises; but though they saw many whales, they knew not the rightmanner of killing them. In his second voyage an unsuccessful attempt wasmade to penetrate between Iceland and Greenland, but the ships were unableto penetrate beyond sixty-seven degrees north latitude. The west coast ofGreenland was examined; but not being able to sail along its north coast, he stretched across to America, which he examined to latitude fifty-four. In his last voyage, Davis reached the west coast of Greenland, as far aslatitude seventy-two. All his endeavours, however, to find a north-westpassage were ineffectual. 

In 1607, Hudson, an experienced seaman of great knowledge and intrepidity, sailed in search of this passage. He directed his course straight north, and reached the eighty-second degree of latitude, and the seventy-thirddegree of west longitude. During this voyage more of the eastern coast ofGreenland was discovered than had been previously known. In his secondvoyage, which was undertaken in 1608, he endeavoured to sail between NovaZembla and Spitzbergen, but unsuccessfully: of this and his first voyage wehave very imperfect accounts. His third voyage was undertaken for theDutch: in this he discovered the river in America which bears his name. Hisfourth and last voyage, in which he perished, and to which he owes hisprincipal fame as a navigator, was in the service of the Russia Company ofEngland. In this voyage he reached the strait which bears his name: hiscrew mutinied at this place, and setting him on shore, returned to England. As soon as the Russia Company learned the fate of Hudson, they sent oneCaptain Button in search of him, and also to explore the straits which hehad discovered: in this voyage Hudson's Bay was discovered. Button'sjournal was never published: it is said, however, to have contained someimportant observations on the tides, and other objects of naturalphilosophy. 

The existence of such a bay as Hudson's was described to be, induced themerchants of England to believe that they had at length found out theentrance to a passage which would lead them to the East Indies: manyvoyages were therefore undertaken, in a very short time after this bay hadbeen discovered. The most important was that of Bylot and Baffin: theyadvanced through Davis's Straits into an extensive sea, which they calledBaffin's Bay: they proceeded, according to their account, as far north asthe latitude 78°. The nature and extent of this discovery was very muchdoubted at the time, and subsequently, till the discoveries of CaptainsRoss and Parry, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, proved thatBaffin was substantially accurate and faithful. 

Baffin's voyage took place in the year 1616: after this there was no voyageundertaken with the same object, till the year 1631, when Captain Foxsailed from Deptford. He had been used to the sea from his youth, and hademployed his leisure time in collecting all the information he couldpossibly obtain, respecting voyages, to the north. He was besides wellacquainted with some celebrated mathematicians and cosmographers, particularly Thomas Herne, who had carefully collected all the journals andcharts of the former voyages, with a view to his business, which was thatof a maker of globes. When Fox was presented to Charles I, his majesty gavehim a map, containing all the discoveries which had been made in the northseas. He discovered several islands during the voyage, but not the passagehe sought for; though he is of opinion, that if a passage is to be found, it must be in Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome, --a bay he discovered near an islandof that name, in north latitude 64° 10', not far from the main land, on thewest side of Hudson's Bay. He published a small treatise on the voyage, called The North-west Fox, which contains many important facts andjudicious observations on the ice, the tides, compass, northern lights, &c. Captain James sailed on the same enterprise nearly at the same time thatFox did. His account was printed by King Charles's command, in 1633: itcontains some remarkable physical observations respecting the intensenessof the cold, and the accumulation of ice, in northern latitudes; but nodiscovery of moment. He was of opinion, that no north-west passage existed. 

The last voyage in the seventeenth century, in search of this passage, wasundertaken in consequence of the representations of a Frenchman to CharlesII. From the same cause proceeded the establishment of the Hudson's BayCompany by that monarch. 

Canada was at this time colonized by the French; and a French settlerthere, De Gronsseliers, an enterprising and speculative man, aftertravelling in various directions, reached a country, where he receivedinformation respecting Hudson's Bay: he therefore resolved to attempt toreach this bay by sea. In the course of this undertaking he met with a fewEnglish, who had settled themselves near Port Nelson River: these heattacked, and by their defeat became master of the country. He afterwardsexplored the whole district, and returned to Quebec with a large quantityof valuable furs and English merchandize; but meeting with ill-treatment inQuebec, and afterwards at the court of France, he came to England, where hewas introduced to the Count Palatine Rupert. The prince patronized alllaudable and useful enterprises; and persuaded the king to send out CaptainGillam, and the Frenchman with him. The ship was loaded with goods totraffic for furs. They passed through Hudson's Straits to Baffin's Bay, asfar as 75 degrees north latitude: they afterwards sailed as far to thesouth as 51 degrees, where, near the banks of a river, called after PrinceRupert, they built Charles Fort. This was the first attempt to carry oncommerce in this part of America. 

We must now return to the period of the first attempt to find out anorth-east passage to India. A society of merchants had been formed inLondon for this purpose. Sebastian Cabot, either the son or the grandson ofJohn Cabot, and who held the situation of grand pilot of England underEdward VI. , was chosen governor of this society. Three vessels were fittedout: one of them is particularly noticed in the contemporary accounts, ashaving been sheathed with thin plates of lead. Sir Hew Willoughby had thechief command: Captain Richard Chanceller and Captain Durfovill commandedthe other two vessels under him. Willoughby, having reached 72 degrees ofnorth latitude, was obliged by the severity of the season to run his shipinto a small harbour, where he and his crew were frozen to death. CaptainDurfovill returned to England. Chanceller was more fortunate; for hereached the White Sea, and wintered in the Dwina, near the site ofArchangel. While his ship lay up frozen, Chanceller proceeded to Moscow, where he obtained from the Czar privileges for the English merchants, andletters to King Edward: as the Czar was at this period engaged in theLivonian war, which greatly interrupted and embarrassed the trade of theBaltic, he was the more disposed to encourage the English to trade to theWhite Sea. We have already remarked, in giving an account of the voyage ofOhter, in King Alfred's time, that he had penetrated as far as the WhiteSea. This part of Europe, however, seems afterwards to have been entirelylost sight of, till the voyage of Chanceller; for in a map of the mostnorthern parts of Europe, given in Munster's Geographia, which was printedin 1540, Greenland is laid down as joined to the north part of Lapland;and, consequently, the northern ocean appears merely as a great bay, enclosed by these countries. Three years afterwards, the English reachedthe coasts of Nova Zembla, and heard of, if they did not arrive at, theStraits of Waygats. The next attempts were made by the Dutch, who weredesirous of reaching India by a route, in the course of which they wouldnot be liable to meet with the Spaniards or Portuguese. They accordinglymade four attempts between 1594 and 1596, but unsuccessfully. In the lastvoyage they reached Spitzbergen; but after striving in vain to penetrate tothe north-east, they were obliged to winter on the north coast of NovaZembla, in 76° latitude. Here they built a smaller vessel out of theremains of the one they had brought from Holland, and arrived the followingsummer at Kola, in Lapland. 

In 1653, Frederic III, king of Denmark, sent three vessels to discover anorth-east passage: it is said that they actually passed through Waygats'Straits; but that in the bay beyond these straits they found insurmountableobstacles from the ice and cold, and consequently were obliged to return. 

The last attempt made in the seventeenth century, was by the English: itwas proposed and undertaken by John Wood, an experienced seaman, who hadpaid particular attention to the voyages that had been made to the north. His arguments in favour of a north-east passage were, that whales had beenfound near Japan, with English and Dutch harpoons in them; and that theDutch had found temperate weather near the Pole, and had sailed 300 leaguesto the east of Nova Zembla. The first argument only proved, that there wassea between Nova Zembla and Japan; but not that it was navigable, thoughpassable for whales: the other two positions were unfounded. Wood, however, persuaded the Duke of York to send him out in 1676. He doubled the NorthCape, and reached 76 degrees of north latitude. One of the ships waswrecked off the coast of Nova Zembla, and Wood returned in the other, withan opinion that a north-east passage is impracticable, and that Nova Zemblais a part of the continent of Greenland. 

But we must turn from these attempts to discover a northwest or north-eastpassage to India, which, from the accounts given of them, it will beevident, contributed very little to the progress of geographical knowledge, though they necessarily increased the skill, confidence, and experience ofnavigators. 

While these unprofitable voyages were undertaken in the north, discoveriesof consequence were making in the southern ocean. These may be divided intotwo classes; viz. , such as relate to what is now called Australasia; andthose which relate to the islands which are scattered in the southernocean. 

We have already stated that there is reason to believe some part of NewHolland was first discovered by the Portuguese: two ancient maps in theBritish Museum are supposed to confirm this opinion; but the date of one isuncertain; the other is dated 1542, and certainly contains a country, which, in form and position, resembles New Holland, as it was laid downprior to the voyage of Tasman. But allowing this to be New Holland, it onlyproves, that at the date of this map it was known, not that it had beendiscovered by the Portuguese. 

The Dutch, however, certainly made several voyages to it between 1616 and1644: the western extremity was explored in 1616. The same year VanDieman's Land was discovered. In the course of the ten following years, thewestern and northern coasts were visited. The southern coast was firstdiscovered in 1627, but we have no particulars respecting the voyage inwhich it was discovered. In 1642, Tasman, a celebrated Dutch navigator, sailed from Batavia, and discovered the southern part of Van Dieman's Landand New Zealand. From this time to the beginning of the eighteenth century, little progress was made in exploring the coast of New Holland. Dampier, however, a man of wonderful talents, considering his education and mode oflife, collected, during his voyage, some important details respecting thewest coast. And among the numerous voyages undertaken by the Dutch EastIndia Company towards the close of the seventeenth and beginning of theeighteenth century, to examine this vast country, which the Dutch regardedas belonging to them, there was one by Van Vlaming deserving of notice:this navigator examined with great care and attention many bays andharbours on the west side; and he is the first who mentions the black swansof this country. 

Papua, or New Guinea, another part of Australasia, was discovered by thePortuguese in 1528. The passage that divides this country from New Britainwas discovered by Dampier, who was also the first that explored and namedthe latter country in 1683. The discovery of Solomon Islands by theSpaniards took place in 1575: Mendana, a Spanish captain, sailed from Lima, to the westward, and in steering across the Pacific, he fell in with theseislands. On a second voyage he extended his discoveries, and he sailed athird time to conquer and convert the natives. His death, which took placein one of these islands, put an end to these projects. They are supposed tobe the easternmost of the Papua Archipelago, afterwards visited byCarteret, Bougainville, and other navigators. Mendana, during his lastvoyage, discovered a group of islands to which he gave the name ofMarquesas de Mendoza. 

This group properly belongs to Polynesia: of the other islands in thisquarter of the globe, which were discovered prior to the eighteenthcentury, Otaheite is supposed to have been discovered by Quiros in 1606. His object was to discover the imagined austral continent; but hisdiscoveries were confined to Otaheite, which he named Sagittaria, and anisland which he named Terra del Esperitu Sancto, which is supposed to bethe principal of the New Hebrides. The Ladrones were discovered by Magellanin 1521. The New Philippines, or Carolinas, were first made known by theaccidental arrival of a family of their natives at the Philippines in 1686. Easter island, a detached and remote country, which, however, is inhabitedby the Polynesian race, was discovered by Roggewein in 1686. 

Having thus exhibited a brief and general sketch of the progress ofdiscovery, from the period when the Portuguese first passed the Cape ofGood Hope to the beginning of the eighteenth century, we shall next, beforewe give an account of the state and progress of commerce during the sameperiod, direct our attention to the state of geographical science in thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

We have already stated that the astrolobe, which had been previouslyapplied only to astronomical purposes, was accommodated to the use ofmariners by Martin Behaim, towards the end of the fifteenth century. He wasa scholar of Muller, of Koningsberg, better known under the name ofRegiomontanus, who published the Almagest of Ptolemy. The Germans were atthis time the best mathematicians of Europe. Walther, who was of thatnation, and the friend and disciple of Regiomontanus, was the first whomade use of clocks in his astronomical observations. He was succeeded byWerner, of Nuremberg, who published a translation of Ptolemy's Geography, with a commentary, in which he explains the method of finding the longitudeat sea by the distance of a fixed star from the moon. The astronomicalinstruments hitherto used were, with the exception of the astrolobe, thosewhich had been employed by Ptolemy and the Arabians. The quadrant ofPtolemy resembled the mural quadrant of later times; which, however, wasimproved by the Arabians, who, at the end of the tenth century, employed aquadrant twenty-one feet and eight inches radius, and a sextant fifty-sevenfeet nine inches radius, and divided into seconds. The use of the sextantseems to have been forgotten after this time; for Tycho Brahe is said tohave re-invented it, and to have employed it for measuring the distances ofthe planets from the stars. The quadrant was about the same time improvedby a method of subdividing its limbs by the diagonal scale, and by theVernier. The telescope was invented in the year 1609, and telescopic sightswere added to the quadrant in the year 1668. Picard, who was one of thefirst astronomers who applied telescopes to quadrants, determined theearth's diameter in 1669, by measuring a degree of the meridian in France. The observation made at Cayenne, that a pendulum which beat seconds there, must be shorter than one which beat seconds at Paris, was explained byHuygens, to arise from the diminution of gravity at the equator, and fromthis fact he inferred the spheroidal form of the earth. The application ofthe pendulum to clocks, one of the most beautiful and useful acquisitionswhich astronomy, and consequently navigation and geography have made, wasowing to the ingenuity of Huygens. These are the principal discoveries andinventions, relating to astronomy, which were made prior to the eighteenthcentury, so far as they are connected with the advancement of the art ofnavigation and the science of geography. 

The discoveries of Columbus and Gama necessarily overturned the systems ofPtolemy, Strabo, and the other geographers of antiquity. The opinion thatthe earth was a globe, which had been conjectured or inferred prior to thevoyage of Magellan, was placed beyond a doubt by that voyage. The heavenlybodies were subjected to the calculations of man by the labours ofCopernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Galileo. Under these circumstances it wasnecessary, and it was easy, to make great improvements in the constructionof maps, in laying down the real form of the earth, and the relativesituations of the countries of which it is formed, together with theirlatitudes and longitudes. The first maps which displayed the new world werethose of the brothers Appian, and of Ribeiro: soon afterwards a morecomplete and accurate one was published by Gemma Frisius. Among thegeographers of the sixteenth century, who are most distinguished for theirscience, may be reckoned Sebastian Munster; for though, as we have alreadymentioned, he joins Greenland to the north of Lapland in his map, yet hisresearch, labour, and accuracy were such, that he is compared by hiscontemporaries to Strabo. Ortelius directed his studies and his learning tothe elucidation of ancient geography; and according to Malte Bran, noincompetent judge, he may yet be consulted on this subject with advantage. 

But modern geography may most probably be dated from the time of Mercator:he published an edition of Ptolemy, in which he pointed out theimperfection of the system of the ancients. The great object at this time, was to contrive such a chart in plano, with short lines, that all placesmight be truly laid down according to their respective longitudes andlatitudes. A method of this kind had been obscurely pointed at by Ptolemy;but the first map on this plan was made by Mercator, about the year 1550. The principles, however, on which it was constructed, were not demonstratedtill the year 1559, when Wright, an Englishman, pointed them out, as wellas a ready and easy way of making such a map. This was a great help tonavigators; since by enlarging, the meridian line, as Wright suggested andexplained, so that all the degrees of longitude might be proportional tothose of latitude, a chart on Mercator's projection shews the course anddistance from place to place, in all cases of sailing; and is therefore inseveral respects more convenient to navigators than the globe itself. Mercator, in his maps and charts, chose Corvo, one of the Azores, for hisfirst meridian, because at that time it was the line of no variation of thecompass. 

We have already alluded to Regiomontanus, as a celebrated mathematician, and as having published the Almagest of Ptolemy. He seems, likewise, tohave written notes on Ptolemy's Geography. In 1525, a later translation ofPtolemy was published, which contained these annotations. To Ptolemy'smaps, tables, &c. , are added a new set of maps on wooden plates, accordingto the new discoveries: from these we find, that in consequence of thevoyages of the Portuguese, the charts of the coasts of Arabia, Africa, Persia, and India, are laid down with tolerable accuracy. Nothing isnoticed regarding China, except that it may be reached by sea from India. America is called Terra Nova inventa per Christ. Columbus: this seems to beall the editor knew of it. That part of the work which relates to the northof Europe, is most grossly erroneous: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and theBaltic, seem to have been little known. A great bay is laid down betweenGreenland and Lapland, which bay is bounded on the north by a ridge ofmountains, thus retaining the error of Ptolemy with respect to this part ofEurope. There are two maps of England and Scotland: in one they arerepresented as one island; in the other as different islands. These mapsand charts must have been the work of the editor or translator, asRegiomontanus, whose annotations are subjoined, died before the discoveryof America. 

We have been thus particular in describing the principal maps of this work, as they prove how imperfect geography was, prior to the time of Mercator, and with how much justice it may be said that he is the father of moderngeography. There were, however, some maps of particular countries, drawn upin the sixteenth century with tolerable accuracy, considering theimperfection of those sciences and instruments, by which alone perfectaccuracy can be attained. George Lilly, son of William, the famousgrammarian, published, according to Nicholson, (English HistoricalLibrary, ) "the first exact map that ever was, till then, drawn of thisisland. " This praise must, however, be taken with great qualification; foreven so late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, the distance fromthe South Foreland to the Lands-end was laid down, in all the maps ofEngland, half a degree more than it actually is. We may here remark, thatNicholson represents Thomas Sulmo, a Guernsey man, who died in 1545, as ouroldest general geographer. 

In some of the MSS. Of Harding's Chronicle, written in the reign of EdwardIV. , there is a rude map of Scotland. In 1539, Alexander Lindsey, anexcellent navigator and hydrographer, published a chart of Scotland and itsisles, drawn up from his own observations, which were made when heaccompanied James V. In 1539, on his voyage to the highlands and islands. This chart is very accurate for the age; and is much superior to thatpublished by Bishop Lesley, with his history, in 1578. 

The first map of Russia, known to the other nations of Europe, waspublished in 1558 by Mr. Anthony Jenkinson, agent to the English RussiaCompany, from the result of his enquiries and observations during his longresidence in that kingdom. 

These are the most important maps, either general or of particularcountries, with which the sixteenth century supplies us. 

The seventeenth century continued the impulse which was given to thescience of geography by Mercator. As new discoveries were constantly inprogress, errors in maps were corrected, vacant spaces filled up, moreaccurate positions assigned, and greater attention paid to the actual andrelative sizes of different countries. Malte Brun justly reckons Cluverius, Riccioli, and Varenius, as amongst the most celebrated geographers of thiscentury. Cluverius was a man of extensive and accurate erudition, which heapplied to the illustration of ancient geography. Riccioli, an ItalianJesuit, devoted his abilities and leisure to the study of mathematics, andthe sciences dependent upon it, particularly astronomy; and was thusenabled to render important service to the higher parts of geography. Varenius is a still more celebrated name in geographical science: heexcelled in mathematical geography; and such was his fame and merit in thehigher branches of physics, and his ingenuity in applying them togeography, that a system of universal geography, which he published inLatin, was deemed worthy by Newton, to be republished and commented upon. Cellarius bestowed much pains on ancient geography. That branch of thescience which pays more especial regard to the distances of places, wasmuch advanced by Sanson, in France; Blew, in Holland; and Buraeus, inSweden. 

We must now turn to the progress of commerce during the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries. 

The discovery of a passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, gaveimmediately a great impulse to commerce; whereas, it was a long time afterthe discovery of America before commerce was benefited by that event. Thisarose from the different state and circumstances of the two countries. ThePortuguese found in India, and the other parts of the East, a race ofpeople acquainted with commerce, and accustomed to it; fully aware of thosenatural productions of their country which were in demand, and who had longbeen in the habit of increasing the exportable commodities by various kindsof manufactures. Most of these native productions and manufactures had beenin high estimation and value in Europe for centuries prior to the discoveryof the Cape. The monarchs of the East, as well as their subjects, weredesirous of extending their trade. There was, therefore, no difficulty, assoon as the Portuguese arrived at any part of the East; they found spices, precious stones, pearls, &c. , or silk and cotton stuffs, porcelaine, &c. , and merchants willing to sell them. Their only business was to settle a fewskilful agents, to select and purchase proper cargoes for their ships. Evenbefore they reached the remote countries of the East, which they afterwardsdid, they found depôts of the goods of those parts, in intermediate andconvenient situations, between them and the middle and western parts ofAsia and Europe. 

It was very different in America: the natives here, ignorant and savage, had no commerce. "Even the natural productions of the soil, when notcherished and multiplied by the fostering and active hand of man, were oflittle account. " Above half a century elapsed before the Spaniards reapedany benefit from their conquests, except some small quantities of gold, chiefly obtained from plundering the persons, the houses, and temples ofthe Mexicans and Peruvians. In 1545, the mines of Potosi were discovered;these, and the principal Mexican mine, discovered soon afterwards, firstbrought a permanent and valuable revenue to Spain. But it was long afterthis before the Spaniards, or the other nations of Europe, could beconvinced that America contained other treasures besides those of gold andsilver, or induced to apply that time, labour, and capital, which wererequisite to unfold all the additions to the comforts, the luxuries, andthe health of man, which the New World was capable of bestowing. When, however, European skill and labour were expended on the soil of America, the real and best wealth of this quarter of the world was displayed in allits importance and extent. In addition to the native productions oftobacco, indigo, cochineal, cotton, ginger, cocoa, pimento, drugs, woodsfor dying, the Europeans cultivated the sugar cane, and several otherproductions of the Old World. The only articles of commerce supplied by thenatives, were furs and skins; every thing else imported from the New Worldconsists at present, and has always consisted of the produce, of theindustry of Europeans settled there. 

But though it was long before Europe derived much direct benefit from thediscovery of America, yet in one important respect this discovery gave agreat stimulus to East India commerce. Gold and silver, especially thelatter, have always been in great demand in the East, and consequently themost advantageous articles to export from Europe in exchange for Indiancommodities. It was therefore absolutely necessary for the continuance of acommerce so much extended as this to India was, in consequence of thePortuguese discoveries, that increased means of purchasing Indiancommodities should be given; and these were supplied by the gold and silvermines of America. 

If these mines had not been discovered about the time when trade to Indiawas more easy, expeditious, and frequent, it could not long have been inthe power of Europe to have availed herself of the advantages of thePortuguese discoveries; gold and silver would have become, from theirextreme scarcity, more valuable in Europe than in India, and consequentlywould no longer have been exported. But the supply of the precious metalsand of Indian commodities increasing at the same time, Europe, by means ofAmerica, was enabled to reap all possible advantage from the Portuguesediscoveries. The gold and silver of Mexico and Peru traversed the world, inspite of all obstacles, and reached that part of it where it was mostwanted, and purchased the productions of China and Hindostan. 

Yet, notwithstanding the effectual demand for East India commodities wasnecessarily increased by the increased supply of the precious metals, yetthe supply of these commodities being increased in a much greaterproportion, their price was much lowered. This lowering of price naturallyarose from two circumstances: after the passage to India by the Cape, theproductions and manufactures of the East were purchased immediately fromthe natives; and they were brought to Europe directly, and all the way, bysea. Whereas, before the discovery of the Cape, they were purchased andrepurchased frequently; consequently, repeated additions were made to theiroriginal price; and these additions were made, in almost every instance, bypersons who had the monopoly of them. Their conveyance to Europe was long, tedious, and mostly by land carriage, and consequently very expensive. There are no data by which it can be ascertained in what proportion thePortuguese lowered the price of Indian commodities; but Dr. Robertson'ssupposition appears well founded, --that they might afford to reduce thecommodities of the East, in every part of Europe, one half. Thissupposition is founded on a table of prices of goods in India, the samesold at Aleppo, and what they might be sold for in England, --drawn up, towards the end of the seventeenth century, by Mr. Munn: from this itappears, that the price at Aleppo was three times that in India, and thatthe goods might be sold in England at half the Aleppo price. But as theexpense of conveying goods to Aleppo from India, may, as Dr. Robertsonobserves, be reckoned nearly the same as that which was incurred bybringing them to Alexandria, he draws the inference already stated, --thatthe discovery of the Cape reduced the price of Indian commodities one half. The obvious and necessary result would follow, that they would be ingreater demand, and more common use. The principal eastern commodities usedby the Romans were spices and aromatics, --precious stones and pearls; andin the later periods of their power, silk; these, however, were almostexclusively confined to rare and solemn occasions, or to the use of themost wealthy and magnificent of the conquerors of the world. On thesubversion of the Roman empire, the commodities of the East were for ashort time in little request among the barbarians who subverted it: assoon, however, as they advanced from their ignorance and rudeness, thesecommodities seem strongly to have attracted their notice, and they wereespecially fond of spices and aromatics. These were used very profusely intheir cookery, and formed the principal ingredients in their medicines. As, however, the price of all Indian commodities was necessarily high, so longas they were obliged to be brought to Europe by a circuitous route, andloaded with accumulated profits, it was impossible that they could bepurchased, except by the more wealthy classes. The Portuguese, enabled tosell them in greater abundance, and at a much cheaper rate, introduced theminto much more general use; and, as they every year extended theirknowledge of the East, and their commerce with it, the number of shipsfitted out at Lisbon every year, for India, became necessarily morenumerous, in order to supply the increased demand. 

Commerce in this case, as in every other, while it is acted upon by anextension of geographical knowledge, in its turn has an obvious tendency toextend that knowledge; this was the case with respect to India. Theancients had indeed made but small advances in their acquaintance with thiscountry, notwithstanding they were stimulated by the large profits theyderived from their eastern commerce; but this was owing to theircomparative ignorance of navigation and the sciences on which it depends. As soon as the moderns had improved this art, especially by the use of thecompass, and the Cape of Good Hope was discovered, commerce gave thestimulus, which in a very few years led the Portuguese from Calicut to thefurthest extremity of Asia. 

It is remarkable that the Portuguese were allowed to monopolize Indiancommerce for so long a time as they did; this, however, as Dr. Robertsonobserves, may be accounted for, "from the political circumstances in thestate of all those nations in Europe, whose intrusion as rivals thePortuguese had any reason to dread. From the accession of Charles V. To thethrone, Spain was either so much occupied in a multiplicity of operationsin which it was engaged by the ambition of that monarch, and of his sonPhilip II. , or so intent on prosecuting its own discoveries and conquestsin the New World, that although by the successful enterprize of Magellan, its fleets were unexpectedly conducted by a new course to that remoteregion of Asia, which was the seat of the most gainful and alluring branchof trade carried on by the Portuguese, it could make no considerable effectto avail itself of the commercial advantages which it might have derivedfrom that event. By the acquisition of the crown of Portugal, in the year1580, the kings of Spain, instead of the rivals, became the protectors ofthe Portuguese trade, and the guardians of all its exclusive rights. Throughout the sixteenth century, the strength and resources of France wereso much wasted by the fruitless expeditions of their monarchs to Italy; bytheir unequal contest with the power and policy of Charles V. , and by thecalamities of the civil wars which desolated the kingdom upwards of fortyyears, that it could neither bestow much attention on commerce, nor engagein any scheme of distant enterprize. The Venetians, how sensibly soeverthey might feel the mortifying reverse of being excluded almost entirelyfrom the Indian trade, of which their capital had been formerly the chiefseat, were so debilitated and humbled by the league of Cambray, that theywere no longer capable of engaging in any undertaking of magnitude. England, weakened by the long contests between the houses of York andLancaster, and just beginning to recover its proper vigour, was restrainedfrom active exertions during one part of the sixteenth century, by thecautious maxims of Henry VII. , and wasted its strength, during another partof it, by engaging inconsiderately in the wars between the princes on thecontinent. The nation, though destined to acquire territories in India moreextensive and valuable than were ever possessed by any European power, hadno such presentiment of its future eminence there, as to take an early partin the commerce or transactions of that country, and a great part of thecentury elapsed before it began to turn its attention to the East. 

"While the most considerable nations in Europe found it necessary, from thecircumstances which I have mentioned, to remain inactive spectators of whatpassed in the East, the seven United Provinces of the Low Countries, recently formed into a small state, still struggling for politicalexistence, and yet in the infancy of its power, ventured to appear in theIndian Ocean as the rivals of the Portuguese; and, despising theirpretensions to an exclusive right of commerce with the extensive countriesto the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, invaded that monopoly which theyhad hitherto guarded with such jealous attention. The English soon followedthe example of the Dutch, and both nations, at first by the enterprizingindustry of private adventurers, and afterwards by the more powerfulefforts of trading companies, under the protection of public authority, advanced with astonishing ardour and success in this new career opened tothem. The vast fabric of power which the Portuguese had opened in the East, (a superstructure much too large for the basis on which it had to rest) wasalmost entirely overturned in as short time, and with as much facility, asit had been raised. England and Holland, by driving them from their mostvaluable settlements, and seizing the most lucrative branches of theirtrade, have attained to that pre-eminence of naval power and commercialopulence by which they are distinguished among the nations of Europe. "(Robertson's India, pp. 177-9. 8vo. Edition. )

Before, however, we advert to the commerce of the Dutch in India, it willbe proper to notice those circumstances which gave a commercial directionto the people of the Netherlands, both before their struggle with Spain, and while the result of that struggle was uncertain. The early celebrity ofBruges as a commercial city has already been noticed; its regular fairs inthe middle of the tenth century; its being made the entrepôt of the HanseAssociation towards the end of the thirteenth. It naturally partook of thewealth and commercial improvement which Flanders derived from her woollenmanufactures, and was in fact made the emporium of that country at thebeginning of the fourteenth century; and within 100 years afterwards, thestaple for English and Scotch goods. When the increased industry of thenorth of Europe induced and enabled its inhabitants to exchange the produceof their soil, fisheries, and manufactures, for the produce of the south ofEurope, and of India, Bruges was made the great entrepôt of the trade ofEurope. In the beginning of the sixteenth century its commercial importancebegan to decline, but the trade which left it, did not pass beyond thelimits of the Netherlands; it settled in a great measure at Antwerp, which, as being accessible by sea, was more convenient for commerce than Bruges. This city, however, would not have fallen so easily or rapidly before itsrival, had it not been distracted by civil commotions. From it the commerceof the Netherlands, and with it of the north of Europe, and the interchangeof its commodities with those of the south of Europe and of Asia, graduallypassed to Antwerp; and about the year 1516, most of the trade of Bruges wasfixed here, the Portuguese making it their entrepôt for the supply of thenorthern kingdoms. 

Even before this time the ships of the Netherlands seem to have been thecarriers of the north of Europe; for in 1503, two Zealand ships arrived atCampveer, laden with sugars, the produce of the Canary Islands. Antwerp, however, continued till it was taken by the Spaniards, and its portdestroyed by the blocking up of the Scheldt, to be most distinguished forits commerce, and its consequent wealth:--its situation, its easy access bysea, joined to the circumstance of its being made the Portuguese entrepôtfor spices, drugs, and other rich productions of India, mainly contributedto its commerce. Merchants from every part of the north of Europe settledhere, and even many of the merchants of Bruges removed to it, after thedecline of their own city. Its free fairs for commerce, two of which lastedeach time six weeks, attracted merchants from all parts, as they couldbring their merchandize into it duty free, and were here certain of findinga market for it. In it also bills of exchange on all parts of Europe couldbe easily and safely negotiated. We have already mentioned the most wealthymerchants of England and France, in the fifteenth century: there existed atAntwerp, in the sixteenth, a firm of the name of Fugger, whose wealth wasvery great, and indicates the extent of their commercial dealings. Fromthis firm the Emperor Charles V. Had borrowed a very large sum, in order tocarry on an expedition against Tunis. In the year 1534, Charles, being atAntwerp, Fugger invited him to an entertainment at his house, made a firein his hall with cinnamon, and threw all the emperor's bonds into thatfire. About eleven years afterwards, the same merchant gave an acquittanceto Henry VIII. Of England, for the sum of 152, 180_l_. Flemish, whichthe king had borrowed of him. The Fuggers had a licence from the king ofPortugal to trade to India; and they used to send their own factor in everyship that sailed thither, and were the owners of part of every cargo ofpepper imported. 

In the year 1541, it contained 100, 000 inhabitants: soon afterwards thepersecutions on account of religion in Germany, England, and France, drovemany people thither, and of course increased both its population andwealth. If we may believe Huet, in his History of Dutch Commerce, it was, at this time, not uncommon to see 2500 ships at once lying in the Scheldt. 

The picture, however, which Guicciardini draws of Antwerp in 1560, when ithad reached the zenith of its prosperity and wealth, --being that of acontemporary author, and entering into detail, --is at once much morecurious and interesting, and may be depended on as authentic. It is alsovaluable, as exhibiting the state of the manufactures, commerce, &c. Ofmost of the nations of Europe at this period. 

"Besides the natives and the French, who are here very numerous, there aresix principal foreign nations, who reside at Antwerp, both in war andpeace, making above 1000 merchants, including factors and servants, viz. Germans, Danes, and Easterlings--that is, people from the ports in thesouth shores of the Baltic, from Denmark to Livonia--Italians, Spaniards, English, and Portuguese of these six nations; the Spaniards are the mostnumerous. One of those foreign merchants, Fugger, of Augsburg, died worthabove six millions of crowns; there are many natives there with from200, 000 to 400, 000 crowns. "

"They meet twice a day, in the mornings and evenings, one hour each time, at the English bourse, where, by their interpreters and brokers, they buyand sell all kinds of merchandize. Thence they go to the new bourse, orprincipal exchange, where, for another hour each time, they transact allmatters relating to bills of exchange, with the above six nations, and withFrance; and also to deposit at interest, which is usually twelve per cent. Per annum. "

"They send to Rome a great variety of woollen drapery, linen, tapestry, &c. : the returns are in bills of exchange. To Ancona, English and Flemishcloths, stuffs, linen, tapestry, cochineal; and bring in return such spicesand drugs as the merchants of Ancona procure in the Levant, and likewisesilks, cotton, Turkey carpets, and leather. To Bologne they export serges, and other stuffs, tapestry, linen, merceries, &c. And bring in return forit, wrought silks, cloth of gold and silver, crapes, caps, &c. To Venicethey send jewels and pearls, English cloth and wool, Flemish drapery, cochineal, &c. And a little sugar and pepper: thus, with respect to thesetwo latter articles, sending to Venice what they formerly obtained fromher. For, prior to the Portuguese discovery of the Cape, the merchants ofAntwerp brought from Venice all sorts of India spices and drugs: and evenso late as the year 1518, there arrived in the Scheldt, five Venetianships, laden with spices and drugs, for the fair at Antwerp. In 1560, however, the imports from Venice consisted of the finest and choicestsilks, carpets, cotton, &c. And colours for dyers and painters. "

"To Naples they export great quantities of Flemish and English cloths andstuffs, tapestry, linens, small wares of metal, and other materials: andbring back raw, thrown and wrought silk, fine furs and skins, saffron andmanna. The exports to Sicily are similar to those of the other parts ofItaly: the imports from it are galls in great quantity, cinnamon, oranges, cotton, silk, and sometimes wine. To Milan, Antwerp exports pepper, sugar, jewels, musk, and other perfumes, English and Flemish woollen manufactures, English and Spanish woollinens, and cochineal. The imports are gold andsilver, thread, silks, gold stuffs, dimities, rich and curious draperies, rice, muskets and other arms, high priced toys and small goods; andParmesian cheese. The exports to Florence are nearly the same as to theother parts of Italy, but in addition, fans are specified. Besides theusual imports of silks and gold stuffs, there are also fine furs. Householdfurniture is exported to Genoa, besides the usual articles: velvets, whichwere then the best in the world; satins, the best coral, mithridate, andtreacle, are the principal or the peculiar imports. Genoa, is the portthrough which Antwerp trades with Mantua, Verona, Modena, Lucca, &c. "

"Besides all these articles, Antwerp imports from Italy by sea, alum, oil, gums, leaf senna, sulphur, &c. And exported to it by sea, tin, lead, madder, Brazil wood, wax, leather, flax, tallow, salt fish, timber, andsometimes corn. The imports from Italy, including only silks, gold andsilver, stuffs, and thread camblets and other stuffs, amount to threemillions of crowns, or 600, 000_l_. Yearly. 

"Antwerp exports to Germany precious stones and pearls, spices, drugs, saffron, sugars, English cloths, as a rare and curious article, bearing ahigh price: Flemish cloth, more common and not so valuable as English, serges, tapestry, a very large quantity of linen and mercery, or smallwares of all sorts: from Germany, Antwerp receives by land carriage, silver, bullion, quicksilver, immense quantities of copper, Hessian wool, very fine, glass, fustians of a high price, to the value of above 600, 000crowns annually; woad, madder, and other dye stuffs; saltpetre, greatquantities of mercery, and household goods, very fine, and of excellentquality: metals of all sorts, to a great amount; arms; Rhenish wine, ofwhich Guicciardini speaks in the highest terms, as good for the health, andnot affecting either the head or the stomach, though drunk in very largequantities:--of this wine 40, 000 tuns were brought to Antwerp annually, which, at thirty-six crowns per tun, amounted to 1, 444, 000 crowns. "

"To Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Eastland, Livonia, and Poland, Antwerp exportsvast quantities of spices, drugs, saffron, sugar, salt, English and Flemishcloths, fustians, linens, wrought silks, gold stuffs, tapestries, preciousstones, Spanish and other wines, alum, Brazil wood, merceries, andhousehold goods. From these countries, particularly from Eastland andPoland, that is, the countries on the south shore of the Baltic, Antwerpreceives wheat and rye to a large amount; iron, copper, brass, saltpetre, dye-woods, vitriol, flax, honey, wax, pitch, tar, sulphur, pot-ashes, skinsand furs, leather, timber for ship building, and other purposes; beer, inhigh repute; salt meat; salted, dryed, and smoked fish; amber in greatquantities, &c. "

"To France, Antwerp sends precious stones, quicksilver, silver bullion, copper and brass, wrought and unwrought, lead, tin, vermillion; azure, blue, and crimson colours, sulphur; saltpetre, vitriol, camblets, andTurkey grograms, English and Flemish cloths, great quantities of finelinen, tapestry, leather, peltry, wax, madder, cotton, dried fish, saltfish, &c. Antwerp receives her returns from France, partly by land andpartly by sea. By sea, salt to the annual value of 180, 000 crowns; finewoad of Thoulouse, to the value annually of 300, 000 crowns; immensequantities of canvass and strong linen, from Bretagne and Normandy; about40, 000 tuns of excellent red and white wines, at about twenty-five crownsper tun; saffron; syrup, or sugar, or perhaps capillaire; turpentine, pitch, paper of all kinds in great quantities, prunes, Brazil wood, &c. &c. By land, Antwerp receives many curious and valuable gilt and gold articles, and trinkets; very fine cloth, the manufacture of Rouen, Peris, Tours, Champagne, &c. ; the threads of Lyons, in high repute; excellent verdigrisefrom Montpelier, merceries, &c. "

"To England, Antwerp exports jewels and precious stones, silver bullion, quicksilver, wrought silks, cloth of gold and silver, gold and silverthread, camblets, grograms, spices, drugs, sugar, cotton, cinnamon, galls, linens, serges, tapestry, madder, hops in great quantities, glass, saltfish, small wares made of metal and wood, arms, ammunition, and householdfurniture. From England, Antwerp imports immense quantities of fine andcoarse woollen goods; the finest wool; excellent saffron, but in smallquantities; a great quantity of lead and tin; sheep and rabbit skins, andother kinds of fine peltry and leather; beer, cheese, and other sorts ofprovisions, in great quantities; also Malmsey wines, which the Englishimport from Candia. "

Guicciardini observes, that Antwerp exported but little to Scotland, asthat country was principally supplied from England and France: somespiceries, sugars, madder, wrought silks, camblets, serges, linen, andmerceries, are exported. In return, Antwerp received from Scotland vastquantities of peltry of various kinds, leather, wool, cloth of coarsequality, fine large pearls, but not of quite so good a water as theoriental pearls. 

The exports to Ireland were nearly the same as to Scotland: the returnswere skins and leather, some low-priced cloths, and other coarse and commonarticles of little value. 

The exports to Spain consisted chiefly of copper, brass, and latten, wrought and unwrought; tin, lead; much woollen cloth, both Flemish andEnglish; serges, tapestry, linens, flax-thread, wax, pitch, madder, tallow, sulphur, wheat, rye, salted meat and fish, butter, cheese, merceries, silver bullion and wrought, arms, ammunition, furniture, tools; and everything also, he adds, produced by human industry and labour, to which thelower classes in Spain have an utter aversion. From Spain, Antwerp receivedjewels, pearls, gold and silver in great quantities; cochineal, sarsaparilla, guiacum, saffron; silk, raw and thrown; silk stuffs, velvets, taffeties, salt, alum, orchil, fine wool, iron, cordovan leather, wines, oils, vinegar, honey, molasses, Arabian gums, soap; fruits, both moist anddried, in vast quantities, and sugar from the Canaries. 

The exports to Portugal were silver bullion, quicksilver, vermilion, copper, brass, and latten; lead, tin, arms, artillery and ammunition; goldand silver thread, and most of the other articles sent to Spain. FromPortugal, Antwerp received pearls and precious stones, gold, spices, to thevalue of above a million of crowns annually; drugs, amber, musk, civet, great quantities of ivory, aloes, rhubarb, cotton, China root, (then andeven lately much used in medicine, ) and many other rare and valuable Indiancommodities, with which the greatest part of Europe is supplied fromAntwerp; also, sugars from St. Thomas, under the line, and the otherislands belonging to the Portuguese on the African coast; Brazil wood, Guinea grains, and other drugs from the west coast of Africa; Madeira sugarand wines. Of the produce of Portugal itself, Antwerp imported salt, wines, oils, woad, seeds, orchil, fruits, &c. &c. 

To Barbary, Antwerp exported woollen goods, linen, merceries, metals, &c. ;and received from it sugar, azure or anil, gums, coloquintida, leather, peltry, and fine feathers. 

From this sketch of the commerce of Antwerp, when it was at its height, wesee, that it embraced the whole commerce of the world: and that in itcentered all the commodities supplied by Asia, America, Africa, and thesouth of Europe on the one hand, and England, the Baltic countries, Germany, and France on the other. The account given by Guicciardini isconfirmed by Wheeler, who wrote in 1601. He observes, that a little beforethe troubles in the Low Countries, the people of Antwerp were the greatesttraders to Italy in English and other foreign merchandize; and also toAlexandria, Cyprus, and Tripoli in Syria; "beating the Italians, English, and Germans, almost entirely out of that trade, as they also soon did theGermans in the fairs of their own country. " He adds, that the Antwerpmerchants, being men of immense wealth, and consequently able to supplySpain for the Indies at long credit, set their own prices on theirmerchandize. Antwerp also supplied Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Eastlandwith the wares, which France was wont to supply them. He adds, "It is notpast eighty years ago, (that would be about 1520, ) since there were not, inLondon, above twelve or sixteen Low Country merchants, who imported onlystone pots, brushes, toys for children, and other pedlar's wares; but inless than forty years after, there were, in London, at least one hundredNetherland merchants, who brought thither all the commodities which themerchants of Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and Eastland, (of all whichnations there were, before that time, divers famous and notable richmerchants and companies, ) used to bring into England out of their owncountry directly, to the great damage of the said strangers, and of thenatural born English merchants. "

Guicciardini informs us, that in his time the port of Armuyden, in theisland of Walcheren, was the place of rendezvous for the shipping ofAntwerp: in it have often been seen 500 large ships lying at one time, bound to, or returning from distant parts of the world. He adds, that itwas no uncommon thing for 500 ships to come and go in one day; that 10, 000carts were constantly employed in carrying merchandize to and from theneighbouring countries, besides hundreds of waggons daily coming and goingwith passengers; and 500 coaches used by people of distinction. In hisenumeration of the principal trades, it is curious that there wereninety-two fishmongers, and only seventy-eight butchers; there were 124goldsmiths, who, it must be recollected, at that time acted as bankers, orrather exchangers of money. The number of houses was 13, 500. With respectto the shipping, which, according to this author, were so numerous at theport of Antwerp, comparatively few of them belonged to this city, as mostof its commerce was carried on by ships of foreign nations. 

This circumstance, of its having but few ships of its own, may be regardedas one cause why, when it was taken and plundered by the Spaniards in theyear 1585, it could not recover its former commerce, as the shippingremoved with the nations they belonged to. The forts which the Dutch builtin the Scheldt were, however, another and a very powerful cause. The tradeof Holland rose on the fall of Antwerp, and settled principally atAmsterdam; this city had indeed become considerable after the decline ofthe Hanseatic confederacy; but was not renowned for its commerce till thedestruction of Antwerp. The commerce of Holland was extended and supportedby its fisheries, and the manufactures of Flanders and the adjoiningprovinces, which in their turn received support from its commerce. Guicciardini informs us, that there were in the Netherlands, in time ofpeace, 700 busses and boats employed in the herring fishery: each madethree voyages in the season, and on an average during that period, caughtseventy lasts of herring, each last containing twelve barrels of 9OO or1000 herrings each barrel; the price of a last was usually about 6£. Sterling: the total amount of one year's fishery, was about 294, 000£. Sterling. About sixty years after this time, according to Sir WalterRaleigh, the cod and ling fishery of Friesland, Holland, Zealand, andFlanders, (the provinces included by Guicciardini in the maritimeNetherlands) brought in 100, 000£. Annually: and the salmon-fishing ofHolland and Zealand nearly half that sum. 

The woollen manufactures of the Netherlands had, about the time thatGuicciardini wrote, been rivalled by those of England: yet he says, that, though their wool was very coarse, above 12, 000 pieces of cloth were madeat each of the following places; Amsterdam, Bois-le-duc, Delft, Haarlem, and Leyden. Woollen manufactures were carried on also at other places, besides taffeties and tapestries. Lisle is particularised by him as next incommercial importance to Antwerp and Amsterdam. Bois-le-duc seems to havebeen the seat of a great variety of manufactures; for besides woollencloth, 20, 000 pieces of linen, worth, on an average, ten crowns each, wereannually made; and likewise great quantities of knives, fine pins, mercery, &c. By the taking of Antwerp, the Spanish or Catholic Netherlands losttheir trade and manufactures, great part of which, as we have alreadyobserved, settled in the United Provinces, while the remainder passed intoEngland and other foreign countries. 

The destruction of the Hanseatic league, which benefited Amsterdam, seemsalso to have been of service to the other northern provinces of theNetherlands: for in 1510, we are informed by Meursius, in his History ofDenmark, there was at one time a fleet of 250 Dutch merchant ships in theBaltic: if this be correct, the Dutch trade to the countries on this seamust have been very great. The circumstance of the Dutch, even before theirrevolt from Spain, carrying on a great trade, especially to the Baltic, isconfirmed by Guicciardini; according to him, about the year 1559, theybrought annually from Denmark, Eastland, Livonia, and Poland, 60, 000 lastsof grain, chiefly rye, worth 560, 000_l_. Flemish. They had above 800ships from 200 to 700 tons burden: fleets of 300 ships arrived twice a yearfrom Dantzic and Livonia at Amsterdam, where there were often seeing lyingat the same time 500 vessels, most of them belonging to it. He mentionsVeer in Zealand (Campveer) as at that time being the staple port for allthe Scotch shipping, and owing its principal commerce to that circumstance. 

The destruction of Antwerp brought to Amsterdam, along with other branchesof commerce, the valuable trade which the former city had with Portugal forthe produce and manufactures of India; these the Dutch merchants resold toall the nations of the north. As soon, however, as Philip II. Had obtainedpossession of the throne of Portugal in 1580, he put a stop to all furthercommerce between Lisbon and the Dutch. The latter, having tasted the sweetsof this commerce, resolved to attempt a direct trade to India. We havealready mentioned the voyages of Barentz in search of a north-east passage;these proving unsuccessful, the Dutch began to despair of reaching India, except by the Cape of Good Hope; and this voyage they were afraid toundertake, having, at this time, neither experienced seamen nor personsacquainted with Indian commerce. A circumstance, however, occurred whileBarentz was in search of a north-west passage, which determined them tosail to India by the Cape. One Houlman, a Dutchman, who had been in thePortuguese Indian service, but was then confined in Lisbon for debt, proposed to the merchants of Rotterdam, if they could liberate him, to putthem in possession of all he knew respecting Indian commerce; his offer wasaccepted, and four ships were sent to India in 1594 under his command. Theadventurers met with much opposition from the Portuguese in India, so thattheir voyage was not very successful or lucrative: they returned, however, in twenty-nine months with a small quantity of pepper from Java, where theyhad formed a friendly communication with the natives. The arrival of theDutch in India, --the subjugation of Portugal by Spain, which circumstancedispirited and weakened the Portuguese, and the greater attention which theSpaniards were disposed to pay to their American than their Indiancommerce, seem to have been the causes which produced the ruin of thePortuguese in India, and the establishment of the Dutch. 

The Dutch pushed their new commerce with great vigour and zeal. In the year1600 eight ships entered their ports laden with cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmegs, and mace: the pepper they obtained at Java, the other spices atthe Moluccas, where they were permitted by the natives, who had driven outthe Portuguese, to establish factories. 

In consequence of a wild and ruinous spirit of speculation having seizedthe Dutch merchants, the government, in 1602, formed all the separatecompanies who traded to India, into one; and granted to this extensivesovereignty over all the establishments that might be formed in that partof the world. Their charter was for twenty-one years: their capital was6, 600, 000 guilders (or about 600, 000_l_. ) Amsterdam subscribed onehalf of the capital, and selected twenty directors out of sixty, to whomthe whole management of the trade was entrusted. 

From this period, the Dutch Indian commerce flourished extremely: and thecompany, not content with having drawn away a large portion of thePortuguese trade, resolved to expel them entirely from this part of theworld. Ships fitted, either to trade or to fight, and having on board agreat number of soldiers, were sent out within a very few years after theestablishment of the company. Amboyna and the Moluccas were first entirelywrested from the Portuguese: factories and settlements were in process oftime established from Balsora, at the mouth of the Tigris in the PersianGulf; along the coasts and islands of India, as far as Japan. Allianceswere formed with many of the Indian princes: and in many parts, particularly on the coasts of Ceylon, and at Pulicat, Masulipatam, Negapatam, and other places along the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar, they were themselves, in fact, the sovereigns. The centre of all theirIndian commerce was fixed at Batavia in Java, the greatest part of thisisland belonging to them. From this general sketch of the extent ofcountry, which was embraced, either by their power or their commerce, it isevident that the Indian trade was almost monopolized by them; and as theywisely employed part of the wealth which it produced, to establish anddefend their possessions, they soon became most formidable in this part ofthe world, sending out a fleet of 40 or 50 large ships, and an army of30, 000 men. 

They were not, however, content, but aimed at wresting from the Portuguesealmost the only trade which remained to them; viz. Their trade with China. In this attempt they did not succeed; but in the year 1624, theyestablished themselves at Formosa. Soon after this, the conquest of Chinaby the Tartars, induced or compelled an immense number of Chinese to leavetheir native country and settle in Formosa. Here they carried on a veryextensive and lucrative trade; and Formosa became the principal mart ofthis part of Asia. Vessels from China, Japan, Siam, Java, and thePhilippines, filled its harbours. Of this commerce the Dutch availedthemselves, and derived great wealth from it, for about forty years, whenthey were driven out of the island. In 1601, the Dutch received permissionto trade to Japan, but this privilege was granted under several very strictconditions, which were, however, relaxed in 1637, when they discovered aconspiracy of the Spaniards, the object of which was to dethrone theemperor, and seize the government. The jealousy of the Japanese, however, soon revived; so that by the end of the seventeenth century, the lucrativecommerce which the Dutch carried on with this island for fine tea, porcelaine, lacquered or Japan ware, silk, cotton, drugs, coral, ivory, diamonds, pearls, and other precious stones, gold, silver, fine copper, iron, lead, and tin; and in exchange for linen, and woollen cloths, looking-glasses, and other glass ware; and the merchandize of India, Persia, and Arabia, was almost annihilated. 

Before proceeding to narrate the events which arose from the arrival of theEnglish in the East Indies, and the effects produced on the Dutch power andcommerce there, by their arrival, it will be proper to take a short noticeof the commerce of the Dutch to the other parts of the world. As theirterritories in Europe were small and extremely populous, they were in agreat measure dependent on foreign nations for the means of subsistence: inexchange for these, they had few products of their manufactures to give. The sources of their wealth, therefore, as well as of the means of theirexistence, were derived from the exchange of their India commodities, andfrom their acting as the great carriers of Europe. From these twocircumstances, their cities, and especially Amsterdam, became the greatmart of Europe: its merchants had commercial transactions to an immenseamount with all parts of the world. In consequence of the vastness andextent of their commerce, they found great payments in specie veryinconvenient. Hence arose the bank of Amsterdam. It is foreign to ourpurpose, either to describe the nature of this bank, or to give a historyof it; but its establishment, at once a proof, and the result of theimmense commerce of Amsterdam, and the cause of that commerce becomingstill more flourishing, and moreover, as the principal of thoseestablishments, which have changed the character of the commerce of Europe, could not be passed over without notice. It was formed in the year 1609. 

In this year, the Dutch had extended their trade to the west coast ofAfrica so much, that they had about 100 ships employed in the gold coasttrade. About the same time, they formed a colony in North America, in thatprovince now called New York. In 1611, having formed a truce with Spain, they resolved to venture into the Mediterranean, and endeavour to partakein the lucrative trade with the Levant: for this purpose, they sent anambassador to Constantinople, where he concluded a favourable treaty ofcommerce. But by far the most extensive and lucrative commerce which theDutch possessed in Europe, was in the Baltic: there they had graduallysupplanted the Hanseatic League, and by the middle of the seventeenthcentury, nearly all the commodities of the countries lying on, orcommunicating with this sea, were supplied to the rest of Europe by theDutch. In the year 1612, they first engaged in the whale fishery atGreenland. In 1648, taking advantage of the civil troubles in England, andhaving by this time acquired a powerful influence at the Russian court, they interfered with the trade of the English Russian Company at Archangel;and this new branch of trade they pushed with their national industry andperseverance, so that in 1689 they had 200 factors in this place. 

In the year 1621 the Dutch formed a West India Company: their first objectswere to reduce Brazil and Peru: in the latter they were utterlyunsuccessful. By the year 1636 they had conquered the greater part of thecoast of Brazil: they lost no time in reaping the fruits of this conquest:for in the space of thirteen years, they had sent thither 800 ships of warand commerce, which were valued at 4-1/2 millions sterling; and had in thattime taken from Spain, then sovereign of Portugal, 545 ships. In the year1640 the Portuguese shook off the Spanish yoke, and from this event may bedated the decline of the Dutch power in Brazil: in 1654 they were entirelyexpelled from this country. 

In the year 1651, they colonized the Cape of Good Hope; and in the sameyear, began the obstinate and bloody maritime, war between Holland andEngland. This arose principally from the navigation act, which was passedin England in 1650: its object and effect was to curtail the commercebetween England and Holland, which consisted principally of foreignmerchandize imported into, and English merchandize exported from, Englandin Dutch vessels. In this war, the Dutch lost 700 merchant ships in theyears 1652 and 1653. In 1654, peace was made. The object of the navigationact, at least so far as regarded the Dutch acting as the carriers of theEnglish trade, seems to have been completely answered, for in 1674, after agreat frost, when the ports were open, there sailed out of the harbour ofRotterdam above 300 sail of English, Scotch, and Irish ships at one time. The example of the English being followed by the nations of the north, theDutch carrying trade was very much reduced. Between the years 1651 and1672, when Holland was overrun by the French, their commerce seems to havereached the greatest extent, which it attained in the seventeenth century;and perhaps, at no subsequent period, did it flourish so much. De Wittestimates the increase of their commerce and navigation from the peace withSpain in 1648 to the year 1669, to be fully one-half. He adds, that duringthe war with Holland, Spain lost the greater part of her naval power: thatsince the peace with Spain, the Dutch had obtained most of the trade tothat country, which had been previously carried on by the Easterlings andthe English;--that all the coasts of Spain were chiefly navigated by Dutchshipping: that Spain had even been forced to hire Dutch ships to sail toher American possessions; and that so great was the exportation of goodsfrom Holland to Spain, that all the merchandize brought from the SpanishWest Indies, was not sufficient to make returns for them. 

The same author informs us, that in the province of Holland alone, in 1669, the herring and cod fisheries employed above one thousand busses, fromtwenty-four to thirty lasts each; and above 170 smaller ones: that thewhale fishery was increased from one to ten; that the cod and herring, whencaught, were transported by the Hollanders in their own vessels throughoutthe world; thus obtaining, by means of the sea alone, through their ownindustry, above 300, 000 lasts of salt fish. 

As the Dutch commerce was decidedly and undoubtedly more extensive thanthat of all the rest of Europe, about the middle of the seventeenthcentury, it may be proper, before we conclude our notice of it at thistime, to consider briefly the causes which cherished it into such fullgrowth and vigour. These causes are explained in a very judicious andsatisfactory manner by Sir William Temple, in his observations on theNetherlands. He remarks, that though the territory of the Dutch was verysmall, and though they laboured under many natural disadvantages, yet theircommerce was immense; and it was generally esteemed that they had moreshipping belonging to them than there did to all the rest of Europe. 

They had no native commodities towards the building or equipping theirships; their flax, hemp, pitch, wood, and iron, coming all from abroad, aswool does for clothing their men, and corn for feeding them. The onlyproductions or manufactures of their own, which they exported, were butter, cheese, and earthern wares. They have no good harbours in all their coast;even Amsterdam is difficult of approach, from the dangerous entrance of theTexel, and the shallowness of the Zuider Zee. 

What then were the causes which, in spite of these disadvantages, renderedHolland so commercial? In the first place, great multitudes in smallcompass, who were forced to industry and labour, or else to want. In thesecond place, the emigration of men of industry, skill, and capital, driveninto Holland from Germany, France, and England, by persecution and civilwars. In the third place, the security to property established by thegovernment of the United States; and akin to this, general liberty ofconscience in religious matters. The great fairs in the Netherlands may beregarded as another cause. These Sir W. Temple regards as the principalcauses of the foundation of their trade. He next enquires into the chiefadvancers and encouragers of trade in that country. 

These he considers to have been low interest, which caused money to beeasily obtained, not only for the purposes of commerce, but also to makecanals, bridges, &c. And to drain marshes. The use of their banks, whichsecures money, and makes all payments easy and trade quick, --the sale byregistry, which makes all purchases safe, --the severity of justice, especially with regard to forging bills, --the convoys of merchant ships, which gives trade security, the nation credit abroad, and breeds upseamen, --the lowness of their custom duties and freedom of their ports, which rendered their cities magazines as well as markets, --order andexactness in managing their trade, --each town affecting some particularcommerce or staple, and so improving it to the greatest height; asFlushing, the West India trade; Middleburgh, French wines; Terveer, theScotch staple; Dort, the English staple and Rhenish wines; Rotterdam, theEnglish and Scotch trade at large, and French wines; Leyden, themanufacture of all sorts of stuffs, silk, hair, gold, and silver; Haerlem, linen, mixed stuffs, and flowers; Delft, beer and earthen ware; Swaardam, ship building; Sluys, herring fishery; Friezeland, the Greenland trade; andAmsterdam, the East India, Spanish, and Mediterranean trade. Sir W. Templementions other two causes, the great application of the whole province tothe fishing trade, and the mighty advance the Dutch made towards engrossingthe whole commerce of the East Indies. "The stock of this trade, " heobserves, "besides what it turns to in France, Spain, Italy, the Straits, and Germany, makes them so great masters in the trade of the northern partsof Europe, as Muscovy, Poland, Pomerania, and all the Baltic, where thespices, that are an Indian drug and European luxury, command all thecommodities of those countries which are so necessary to life, as theircorn; and to navigation, as hemp, pitch, masts, planks, and iron. "

The next question that Sir William Temple discusses is, what are the causeswhich made the trade of Holland enrich it? for, as he remarks, "it is noconstant rule that trade makes riches. The only and certain scale of richesarising from trade in a nation is, the proportion of what is exported forthe consumption of others, to what is imported for their own. The trueground of this proportion lies in the general industry and parsimony of apeople, or in the contrary of both. " But the Dutch being industrious, andconsequently producing much, --and parsimonious, and consequently consuminglittle, have much left for exportation. Hence, never any country traded somuch and consumed so little. "They buy infinitely, but it is to sell again. They are the great masters of the Indian spices, and of the Persian silks, but wear plain woollen, and feed upon their own fish and roots. Nay, theysell the finest of their own cloth to France, and buy coarse out of Englandfor their own wear. They send abroad the best of their own butter into allparts, and buy the cheapest out of Ireland or the north of England fortheir own use. In short, they furnish infinite luxury which they neverpractise, and traffic in pleasures which they never taste. " "The whole bodyof the civil magistrates, the merchants, the rich traders, citizens, seamenand boors in general, never change the fashion of their cloaths; so thatmen leave off their cloaths only because they are worn out, and not becausethey are out of fashion. Their great consumption is French wine and brandy;but what they spend in wine they save in corn, to make other drinks, whichis brought from foreign parts. Thus it happens, that much going constantlyout, either in commodity or in the labour of seafaring men, and littlecoming in to be consumed at home, the rest returns in coin, and fills thecountry to that degree, that more silver is seen in Holland, among thecommon hands and purses, than brass either in Spain or in France; thoughone be so rich in the best native commodities, and the other drain all thetreasures of the West Indies. " (Sir W. Temple's Observations on theNetherlands, Chapter VI. )

Having thus sketched the progress and nature of Dutch commerce, during thatperiod when it was at its greatest height, and brought our account of itdown to the commencement of the eighteenth century, we shall next proceedto consider the English commerce from the time of the discovery of the Capeand America, till the beginning of the same century. 

From the sketch we have already given of English commerce prior to the endof the fifteenth century, it is evident that it was of very trifling extentand amount, being confined chiefly to a few articles of raw produce, and tosome woollen goods. The improvement of the woollen manufacture, theestablishment of corporations, and the settlement of foreign merchants, aswell as the gradual advancement of the English in the civilization, skill, and industry of the age, --in the wants which the first occasions, and inthe means to supply those wants afforded by the two latter, --these are theobvious and natural causes which tended to improve English commerce. Butits progress was slow and gradual, and confined for a long time tocountries near at hand; it afterwards ventured to a greater distance. Companies of merchant adventurers were formed, who could command a greatercapital than any individual merchant. Of the nature and extent of theirforeign commerce at the close of the fifteenth century we are informed byan act of parliament, passed in the 12 Hen. VII. (1497. )

From this act it appears, that England traded at this time with Spain, Portugal, Bretagne, Ireland, Normandy, France, Seville, Venice, Dantzic, Eastland, Friesland, and many other parts. The woollen cloth of England isparticularly specified as one of the greatest articles of commerce. In alicence granted by Henry VII. To the Venetians, to buy and sell at London, and elsewhere in England, Ireland, and Calais, woollen cloth, lead, tin, and leather, are enumerated as the chief exports. From this document italso appears, that there resided in or traded to England, the followingforeign merchants: Genoese, Florentines, Luccans, Spaniards, Portuguese, Flemings, Hollanders, Brabanters, Burgundians, German, Hanseatic, Lombards, and Easterlings. 

From these two documents, the nature and extent of English commerce at thisperiod may be inferred: its exports were sent as far north as the southerncountries of the Baltic, and to all the rest of Europe, as far south andeast as Venice; but this export trade, as well as the import, seems to havebeen almost entirely carried on by foreign capital and ships; the merchantadventurers having yet ventured very little from home. 

In 1511, English commerce, in English ships, extended into the Levant, chiefly from London, Bristol, and Southampton. Chios, which was still inthe possession of the Genoese, was the port to which they traded. Thisbranch of trade flourished so much in a few years, that in 1513 a consul, or protector of all the merchants and other English subjects in Chios, wasappointed. The voyages were gradually lengthened, and reached Cyprus, andTripoli, in Syria. The exports were woollen goods, calf-skins, &c. ; and theimports were silks, camblets, rhubarb, malmsey, muscadel, and other wines:oils, cotton wool, Turkey carpets, galls, and Indian spices. The commercewas in a small degree carried on by English ships, but chiefly by those ofCandia, Ragusa, Sicily, Genoa, Venice, Spain, and Portugal. The voyages toand from England occupied a year, and were deemed very difficult anddangerous. So long as Chios remained in the possession of the Genoese, andCandia in that of the Venetians, England traded with these islands; butceased to trade when the Turks conquered them. From 1553, to 1575, theLevant commerce was quite discontinued by England, though during thatperiod, the French, Genoese, Venetians, and Florentines, continued it, andhad consuls at Constantinople. 

The small and temporary trade with the Genoese and Venetian possessions inthe Levant, seems to have been attended with such profit, and to haveopened up such further prospects of advantage, as to have given rise to adirect trade with Turkey, and the formation of the Turkey Company. Theenlightened ministers of Elizabeth effected these objects: they first sentout an English merchant to the Sultan, who obtained for his countrymen allthe commercial advantages enjoyed by the Venetians, French, Germans, andPoles. Two years afterwards, in 1581, the Turkey Company was established. Sir William Monson, in his Naval Tracts, assigns the following as thecauses and reasons why England did not sooner embark in the Turkey tradefor Persian and Indian merchandize: 1. That there was not sufficientshipping; 2. The hostility of the Turks; and, lastly, England was suppliedwith Levant goods by the Venetian ships, which came annually toSouthampton. He adds, "the last argosser that came thus from Venice wasunfortunately lost near the isle of Wight, with a rich cargo, and manypassengers, in the year 1587. " The Turkey Company carried on their concernwith so much spirit, that the queen publicly thanked them, with manyencouragements to go forward for the kingdom's sake: she particularlycommended them for the ships they then built of so great burden. Thecommodities of Greece, Syria, Egypt, Persia, and India, were now broughtinto England in greater abundance, and sold much cheaper than formerly, andyet the returns of this trade are said to have been, at its commencement, three to one. 

It is not our object, nor would it be compatible with our limits, to tracethe progress of commerce minutely, in any of its branches, but rather topoint out, as it were, its shootings in various directions; and any specialcauses which may have given vigour to its growth, or have retarded it. Inconformity with this plan, we shall only notice some of the more marked andimportant eras of our Levant trade, prior to the commencement of theeighteenth century. The trade to the Levant, in its infancy, like all othertrades, at a time when there was little capital and commercial knowledge, required the formation of a company which should possess exclusiveprivileges. Charters were granted to such a company for a term of years, and renewed by Elizabeth. In 1605 king James gave a perpetual charter tothe Levant Company: the trade was carried on with encreasing vigour andsuccess: our woollen manufactures found a more extensive market: theVenetians, who had for many years supplied Constantinople and other portsof the Levant, were driven from their markets by the English, who couldafford to sell them cloths cheaper; and English ships began to be preferredto those of Venice and other nations, for the carrying trade in theMediterranean. According to Sir W. Monson, England exported broad cloth, tin, &c. Enough to purchase all the wares we wanted in Turkey; and, inparticular, 300 great bales of Persian raw silk yearly: "whereas a balanceof money is paid by the other nations trading thither. Marseilles sendsyearly to Aleppo and Alexandria at least 500, 000_l_. Sterling, and littleor no wares. Venice sends about 400, 000_l_. In money, and a great value inwares besides: the Low Countries send about 50, 000_l_. , and but littlewares; and Messina 25, 000_l_. In ready money: besides great quantities ofgold and dollars from Germany, Poland, Hungary, &c. ; and all these nationstake of the Turks in return great quantities of camblets, grograms, rawsilk, cotton wool and yarn, galls, flax, hemp, rice, hides, sheep's wool, wax, corn, &c. "

The first check which the Levant trade received was given by the East IndiaCompany: about the year 1670 the Levant Company complained that their tradein raw silk was much diminished; they had formerly imported it solely fromTurkey, whereas then it was imported in great quantities direct from India. In 1681, the complaints of the one company, and the defence of the other, were heard before the Privy Council. The Levant Company alleged, that forupwards of one hundred years they had exported to Turkey and other parts ofthe Levant, great qualities of woollen manufactures, and other Englishwares, and did then, more especially, carry out thither to the value of500, 000_l_; in return for which they imported raw silks, galls, grograms, drugs, cotton, &c. ; whereas the East India Company exported principallygold and silver bullion, with an inconsiderable quantity of cloth; andimported calicoes, pepper, wrought silks, and a deceitful sort of raw silk;if the latter supplants Turkey raw silk, the Turkey demand for Englishcloth must fail, as Turkey does not yield a sufficient quantity of othermerchandize to return for one fourth part of our manufactures carriedthither. 

The East India Company, on the other hand, alleged that the cloth theyexported was finer and more valuable than that exported by the TurkeyCompany, and that, if they were rightly informed, the medium of clothsexported by that company, for the last three years, was only 19, 000 clothsyearly: it is admitted, however, that before there was any trade to Chinaand Japan, the Turkey Company's exportation of cloth did much exceed thatof the East India Company. With respect to the charge of exporting bullion, it was alleged that the Turkey Company also export it to purchase the rawsilk in Turkey. The East India Company further contended, that since theirimportation of raw silk, the English silk manufacturers had much encreased, and that the plain wrought silks from India were the strongest, mostdurable, and cheapest of any, and were generally re-exported from Englandto foreign parts. 

We have been thus particular in detailing this dispute between thesecompanies, partly because it points out the state of the Levant Company andtheir commerce, at the close of the seventeenth century, but principallybecause it unfolds one of the principal causes of their decline; for, though some little notice of it will afterwards occur, yet its efforts werefeeble, and its success diminished, chiefly by the rivalry of the EastIndia Company. 

The Levant trade, as we have seen, was gradually obtained by the Englishfrom the hands of the Venetians and other foreign powers. The trade we arenext to notice was purely of English origin and growth;--we allude to thetrade between England and Russia, which began about the middle of thesixteenth century. The discovery of Archangel took place, as we havealready related, in 1553. Chanceller, who discovered it, obtainedconsiderable commercial privileges from the Czar for his countrymen. In1554, a Russian Company was established; but before their charter, theBritish merchants had engaged in the Russian trade. The first efforts ofthe company seem to have been confined to attempts to discover a north-eastpassage. Finding these unsuccessful, they turned their attention tocommerce: they fortunately possessed a very enterprising man, peculiarlycalculated to foster and strengthen an infant trade, who acted as theiragent. He first set on foot, in 1558, a new channel of trade through Russiainto Persia, for raw silk, &c. In the course of his commercial enquiriesand transactions, he sailed down the Volga to Nisi, Novogorod, Casan, andAstracan, and thence across the Caspian Sea to Persia. He mentions that, atBoghar, which he describes as a good city, he found merchants from India, Persia, Russia, and Cathay, --from which last country it was a nine monthsjourney to Boghar. He performed his journey seven different times. Itappears, however, that this channel of trade was soon afterwards abandoned, till 1741, when it was resumed for a very short time, during whichconsiderable quantities of raw silk were brought to England by the routefollowed by the Russian agent in the sixteenth century. The cause of thisabandonment during the sixteenth century seems to have been the length anddanger of the route; for we are informed that one of the adventures wouldhave proved exceedingly profitable, had not their ships, on their returnacross the Caspian, with Persian raw silk, wrought silks of many kinds, galls, carpets, Indian spices, turquois stones, &c. , been plundered byCorsair pirates, to the value of about 40, 000_l_. The final abandonment ofthis route, in the eighteenth century, arose partly from the wars inPersia, but principally from the extension of India commerce, which beingdirect and by sea, would, of course supply England much more cheaply withall eastern goods than any land trade. Beside the delay, difficulty, anddanger of the route from the Volga, already described, the route followedin the sixteenth century, till the merchants reached the Volga, wasattended with great difficulty. The practice was to transport the Englishgoods, which were to be exchanged, in canoes, up the Dwina, from Archangelto Vologda, thence over land, in seven days, to Jeroslau, and thence downthe Volga, in thirty days, to Astracan. 

The Russians having conquered Narva, in Livonia in 1558, the first placethey possessed in the Baltic, and having established it as a staple port, the following year, according to Milton, in his brief history of Muscovia, the English began to trade to it, "the Lubeckers and Dantzickers havingtill then concealed that trade from other nations. " The other branches ofthe Baltic trade also encreased; for it appears by a charter granted byElizabeth, in 1579, to an Eastland Company, that trade was carried onbetween England and Norway, Sweden, Poland, Lithuania, Prussia, Pomerania, Dantzic, Elbing, Konigsberg, Copenhagen, Elsinore, and Finland. Thiscompany was established in opposition to the Hanseatic merchants; and itseems to have attained its object; for these merchants complained to theDiet of the Empire against England, alleging, that of the 200, 000 clothsyearly exported thence, three-fourths went into Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and Germany; the other fourth being sent to the Netherlands and France. 

It was not to be supposed that our commerce with Archangel and Narva wouldlong remain without a rival. The Dutch, aware of its importance, preventedby their influence or presents, the Czar from renewing the RussianCompany's privileges. As this trade was become more extensive, and carriedoff, besides woollen goods, silks, velvets, coarse linen cloth, old silverplate, all kinds of mercery wares, serving for the apparel of both sexes, purses, knives, &c. Elizabeth used her efforts to re-establish the companyon its former footing; and a new Czar mounting the throne, she wassuccessful. 

The frequent voyages of the English to the White Sea made them acquaintedwith Cherry Island, of which they took possession, and where they carriedon for a short time the capture of morses: the teeth of these were regardedas nearly equal in quality and value to ivory, and consequently afforded alucrative trade; oil was also obtained from these animals. Lead ore is saidto have been discovered in this island, of which thirty tons were broughtto England in 1606. The Russian Company, however, soon gave up the morsefishery for that of whales. They also carried on a considerable trade withKola, a town in Russian Lapland, for fish oil and salmon: of the latterthey sometimes brought to England 10, 000 at one time. But in this trade theDutch likewise interfered. 

The fishery for whales near Spitzbergen was first undertaken by the companyin 1597. In 1613, they obtained from King James an exclusive charter forthis fishery; and under this, fitting out armed ships, they expelledfifteen sail of French, Dutch, and Biscayners, besides some private Englishships. But the Dutch persevered, so that next year, while the RussianCompany had only thirteen ships at the whale fishery, the former hadeighteen. The success of their whale fishery seems to have led to theneglect of their Russian trade, for, in 1615, only two vessels wereemployed in it, instead of seventeen great ships formerly employed. Fromthis period, the commerce carried on between Russia and England, by theRussian Company, seems gradually to have declined. 

The commerce between England and the other parts of Europe, during thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries, presents little that calls for notice;as the manufactures and capital of England encreased, it graduallyencreased, and was transferred from foreign to English vessels. The exportsconsisted principally of woollen goods, prepared skins, earthen-ware, andmetals. The imports of linens, silks, paper, wines, brandy, fruits, dye-stuffs, and drugs. The woollen cloths of England were indeed the stapleexport to all parts of England during the whole of the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries: as our cotton, earthen-ware, and iron manufacturessprung up and encreased, they supplied other articles of export;--ourimports, at first confined to a few articles, afterwards encreased innumber and value, in proportion as our encreased industry, capital, andskill, enlarged our produce and manufactures, and thus enabled us topurchase and consume more. A very remarkable instance of the effect ofskill, capital, and industry, is mentioned by Mr. Lewis, a merchant, whopublished a work entitled, _The Merchant's Map of Commerce_, in 1641. "Thetown of Manchester, " he says, "buys the linen yarn of the Irish in greatquantity, and, weaving it, returns the same again, in linen, into Irelandto sell. Neither doth her industry rest here, for they buy cotton wool inLondon, that comes first from Cyprus and Smyrna, and work the same intofustians, vermilions, dimities, &c. , which they return to London, wherethey are sold, and from thence not seldom are sent into such foreign partswhere the first materials may be more easily had for that manufacture. " Howsimilar are these two instances to that which has occurred in our own days, when the cotton-wool, brought from the East Indies, has been returnedthither after having been manufactured, and sold there cheaper than thenative manufactures. 

But though there are no particulars relative to the commerce betweenEngland and Europe, which call for our notice, as exhibiting any thingbeyond the gradual extension of commercial intercourse already established;yet in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were other commercialintercourses into which England entered, that deserve attention. These maybe classed under three heads: the trade to Africa, to America, and India. 

I. The trade to Africa. --The first notice of any trade between England andAfrica occurs in the year 1526, when some merchants of Bristol, which, atthis period, was undoubtedly one of our most enterprising cities, traded bymeans of Spanish ships to the Canaries. Their exports were cloth, soap, forthe manufacture of which, even at this early period, Bristol wascelebrated, and some other articles. They imported drugs for dyeing, sugar, and kid skins. This branch of commerce answering, the Bristol merchantssent their factors thither from Spain. The coast of Africa was, at thisperiod, monopolized by the Portuguese. In 1530, however, an English shipmade a voyage to Guinea for elephants' teeth: the voyage was repeated; andin 1536, above one hundred pounds weight of gold dust, besides elephants'teeth, was imported in one ship. A few years afterwards, a trade was openedwith the Mediterranean coast of Africa, three ships sailing from Bristol toBarbary with linens, woollen cloth, coral, amber, and jet; and bringingback sugar, dates, almonds, and molasses. The voyages to Guinea from theports of the south and southwest of England, particularly Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Bristol, were frequently repeated: the returns were uniformlygold dust and elephants' teeth. But it does not appear that other portsfollowed the example of these, that these sent many ships, or that thecommerce became very regular and lucrative, till the west coast of Africawas resorted to for slaves. 

This infamous trade was first entered upon by the English in the year 1562. Mr. John Hawkins, with several other merchants, having learnt that negroeswere a good commodity in Hispaniola, fitted out three ships, the largest120, the smallest forty tons, for the coast of Guinea. Here they boughtslaves, which they sold in Hispaniola for hides, sugar, ginger, and pearls. The other branches of the African trade continued to flourish. In 1577, English merchants were settled in Morocco; Spanish, Portuguese, and Frenchmerchants had been settled there before. In this year, Elizabeth, alwaysattentive to whatever would benefit commerce, sent an ambassador to theEmperor of Morocco, who obtained some commercial privileges for theEnglish. In 1588, the first voyage to Benin was made from London, by a shipand a pinnace: in 1590, a second voyage was made from the same port withthe same vessels. Their exports were linen, woollen cloths, ironmanufactures, bracelets of copper, glass beads, coral, hawks' bells, horses' tails, hats, &c. They imported Guinea pepper, elephants' teeth, palm oil, cotton cloth, and cloth made of the bark of trees. 

An African Company had been formed in Elizabeth's reign; but neither this, nor two others succeeded; their ruin was occasioned by war, misconduct, andthe interference of what were called interlopers. In 1672, a fourth companywas established, whose efforts at first seem to have been great andsuccessful. They bought the forts the former companies had erected on thewest coast: instead of making up their assortments of goods for export inHolland, as the former companies had been obliged to do, they introducedinto England the making of sundry kinds of woollen goods not previouslymanufactured. They imported large quantities of gold dust, out of which50, 000 guineas were first coined in one year, 1673. Their other importswere red wood for dyes, elephants' teeth, wax, honey, &c. The value of theEnglish goods exported to them averaged annually 70, 000_l_. Thiscompany was broken up at the Revolution. 

II. Though the Portuguese and Spaniards were very jealous of theinterference of any nation with their East India commerce; yet they werecomparatively easy and relaxed with regard to their American possessions. Accordingly, we find that, in 1530, there was some little trade betweenEngland and Brazil: this is the first notice we can trace of any commercialintercourse between this country and the New World. The first voyage wasfrom Plymouth: in 1540 and 1542 the merchants of Southampton and Londonalso traded to Brazil. We are not informed what were the goods imported;but most probably they were Brazil wood, sugar, and cotton. The tradecontinued till 1580, when Spain, getting possession of Portugal, put a stopto it. 

The next notice of any trading voyage to America occurs in 1593, when someEnglish ships sailed to the entrance of the St. Lawrence for morse andwhale fishing. This is the first mention of the latter fishery, or of whalefins, or whale bones by the English. They could not find any whales; but onan island they met with 800 whale fins, the remains of a cargo of a Biscayship which had been wrecked here. 

In 1602, the English had suspended all intercourse with America for sixteenyears, in consequence of the unsuccessful attempts of Raleigh. But, at thistime, the intercourse was renewed: a ship sailed to Virginia, the name thengiven to the greater part of the east coast of North America; and a trafficwas carried on with the Indians for peltry, sassafras, cedar wood, &c. Captain Gosnol, who commanded this vessel, was a man of considerable skillin his profession, and he is said to have been the first Englishman whosailed directly to North America, and not, as before, by the circuitouscourse of the West Indies and the Gulf of Florida. In the subsequent yearthere was some traffic carried on with the Indians of the continent, andsome of the uncolonized West India islands. 

Prior to the year 1606 several attempts had been made to colonize differentparts of the new world by the English, but they all proved abortive. Inthis year, however, a permanent settlement was established near JamesRiver, within the Chesapeake. It is not our plan to detail all theparticular settlements, or their progress to maturity; but merely to pointout the beginnings of them, as evidence of our extending commerce, and tostate such proofs as most strikingly display their improvement and theadvantages the mother country derived from them. In conformity with thisplan, we may mention that sugar plantations were first formed in Barbadoesin 1641: this, as Mr. Anderson, in his History of Commerce, justlyobserves, "greatly hastened the improvement of our other islands, whichsoon afterwards followed it in planting sugar to very great advantage. And, as it was impossible to manage the planting of that commodity by whitepeople in so hot a climate, so neither could sufficient numbers of such behad at any rate. Necessity, therefore, and the example of Portugal gavebirth to the negro slave trade to the coast of Guinea and it is almostneedless to add, that such great numbers of slaves, and also the increaseof white people in those islands, soon created a vast demand for allnecessaries from England, and also a new and considerable trade to Madeirafor wines to supply those islands. " The immediate consequence of the spreadof the sugar culture in our West India islands was, that the ports ofLondon and Bristol became the great magazines for this commodity, andsupplied all the north and middle parts of Europe; and the price of thePortuguese-Brazil sugars was reduced from 8_l_. To 2_l_. 10_s_. Per cwt. 

The rapid growth of the English colonies on the continent and in theislands of America, during the seventeenth century, is justly ascribed bySir Josiah Child, to the emigration thither, occasioned by the persecutionof the Puritans by James I. And Charles I. ; to the defeat of the Royalistsand Scotch by Cromwell; and, lastly, to the Restoration, and the consequentdisbanding of the army, and fears of the partizans of Cromwell. It may beadded, that most of the men who were driven to America from these causes, were admirably fitted to form new settlements, being of industrious habits, and accustomed to plain fare and hard work. 

The American plantations, as they were called, increased so rapidly incommerce that, according to the last author referred to, they did, even inthe year 1670, employ nearly two-thirds of all our English shipping, "andtherefore gave constant sustenance, it may be, to 200, 000 persons here athome. " At this period New England seems to have directed its chiefattention and industry to the cod and mackerel fisheries, which hadincreased their ships and seamen so much as to excite the jealousy of SirJosiah Child, who, however, admits that what that colony took from Englandamounted to ten times more than what England took from it. The Newfoundlandfishery, he says, had declined from 250 ships in 1605, to eighty in 1670:this he ascribes to the practice of eating fish alone on fast days, notbeing so strictly kept by the Catholics as formerly. From Carolina, duringthe seventeenth century, England obtained vast quantities of naval stores, staves, lumber, hemp, flax, and Indian corn. About the end of this century, or at the very commencement of the next, the culture of rice was introducedby the accident of a vessel from Madagascar happening to put into Carolina, which had a little rice left; this the captain gave to a gentleman, whosowed it. 

The colony of Virginia seems to have flourished at an earlier period thanany of the other English colonies. In the year 1618, considerablequantities of tobacco were raised there; and it appears, by proclamationsof James I. And Charles I. , that no tobacco was allowed to be imported intoEngland, but what came from Virginia or the Bermudas. 

The colony of Pennsylvania was not settled by Pen till the year 1680: hefound there, however, many English families, and a considerable number ofDutch and Swedes. The wise regulations of Pen soon drew to him industrioussettlers; but the commerce in which they engaged did not become soconsiderable as to demand our notice. 

III. The commercial intercourse of England with India, which has now grownto such extent and importance, and from which has sprung the anomaly ofmerchant-sovereigns over one of the richest and most populous districts ofthe globe, began in the reign of Elizabeth. The English Levant Company, intheir attempts to extend their trade with the East, seem first to havereached Hindostan, in 1584, with English merchandize. About the same timethe queen granted introductory letters to some adventurers to the king ofCambaya; these men travelled through Bengal to Pegu and Malacca, but do notseem to have reached China. They, however, obtained much useful informationrespecting the best mode of conducting the trade to the East. 

The first English ship sailed to the East Indies in the year 1591; but thevoyage was rather a warlike than a commercial one, the object being toattack the Portuguese; and even in this respect it was very unfortunate. Asimilar enterprize, undertaken in 1593, seems, by its success, to havecontributed very materially to the commercial intercourse between Englandand India; for a fleet of the queen's ships and some merchant ships havingcaptured a very large East India carrack belonging to the Spaniards orPortuguese, brought her into Dartmouth: if she excited astonishment at hersize, being of the burthen of 1600 tons, with 700 men, and 36 brass cannon, she in an equal degree stimulated and enlarged the commercial desires andhopes of the English by her cargo. This consisted of the richest spices, calicoes, silks, gold, pearls, drugs, China ware, ebony wood, &c. , and wasvalued at 150, 000_l_. 

The increasing commercial spirit of the nation, which led it to lookforward to a regular intercourse with India, was gratified in the firstyear of the seventeenth century, when the queen granted the first charterto an East India Company. She seems to have been directly led to grant thisin consequence of the complaints among her subjects of the scarcity andhigh price of pepper; this was occasioned by the monopoly of it being inthe power of the Turkey merchants and the Dutch, and from the circumstancethat by our war with Portugal, we could not procure any from Lisbon. Theimmediate and principal object of this Company, therefore, was to obtainpepper and other spices; accordingly their ships, on their first voyage, sailed to Bantam, where they took in pepper, to the Banda isles; where theytook in nutmeg and mace, and to Amboyna, where they took in cloves. On thisexpedition the English established a factory at Bantam. In 1610, thisCompany having obtained a new charter from James I. , built the largestmerchant ship that had ever been built in England, of the burthen of 1100tons, which with three others they sent to India. In 1612 the Englishfactory of Surat was established with the permission of the Great Mogul;this was soon regarded as their chief station on the west coast of India. Their first factory on the coast of Coromandel, which they formed a fewyears afterwards, was at Masulipatam: their great object in establishingthis was to obtain more readily the cloths of Coromandel, which they foundto be the most advantageous article to exchange for pepper and otherspices. For at this time their trade with the East seems to have beenalmost entirely confined to these latter commodities. In 1613, the firstEnglish ship reached a part of the Japan territories, and a factory wasestablished, through which trade was carried on with the Japanese, till theDutch persuaded the emperor to expel all Europeans but themselves. 

The year 1614 forms an important era in the history of our commercialintercourse with India; for Sir Thomas Roe, whom James sent ambassador tothe Mogul, and who remained several years at his court, obtained from himimportant privileges for the East India Company. At this time, thefollowing European commodities were chiefly in repute in India; knives ofall kinds, toys, especially those of the figures of beasts, rich velvetsand satins, fowling pieces, polished ambers and beads, saddles with richfurniture, swords with fine hilts inlaid, hats, pictures, Spanish wines, cloth of gold and silver, French shaggs, fine Norwich stuffs, light armour, emeralds, and other precious stones set in enamel, fine arras hangings, large looking glasses, bows and arrows, figures in brass and stone, finecabinets, embroidered purses, needlework, French tweezer cases, perfumedgloves, belts, girdles, bone lace, dogs, plumes of feathers, comb casesrichly set, prints of kings, cases of strong waters, drinking andperspective glasses, fine basons and ewers, &c. &c. In consequence of theprivileges granted the East India Company by the Mogul, and by the Zamorineof Calicut, their factories were now numerous, and spread over a largeextent of coast. 

If we may trust the controversial pamphlets on the East India Company whichwere published in 1615, it appears that up to this year they had employedonly twenty-four ships; four of which had been lost; the largest was 1293tons, and the smallest 150. Their principal imports were still pepper, cloves, mace, and nutmegs, of which 615, 000 lbs. Were consumed in England, and the value of 218, 000_l_. Exported: the saving in the home consumptionof these articles was estimated at 70, 000_l_. The other imports wereindigo, calicoes, China silks, benzoin, aloes, &c. Porcelain was firstimported this year from Bantam. The exports consisted of bays, kersies, andbroad cloths, dyed and dressed, to the value of 14, 000_l_. ; lead, iron, andforeign merchandize, to the value of 10, 000_l_. ; and coin and bullion, tothe value of 12, 000_l_. ; the outfit, provisions, &c. Of their ships cost64, 000_l_. 

The Dutch, who were very jealous of the successful interference of theEnglish in their eastern trade, attacked them in every part of India; andthough a treaty was concluded between the English and the Dutch East IndiaCompany, yet the treachery and cruelty of the Dutch, especially at Amboyna, and the civil wars into which England was plunged, so injured the affairsof the English East India Company, that at the death of Charles I. Itstrade was almost annihilated. One beneficial consequence, however, resultedfrom the hostility of the Dutch; the English, driven from their oldfactories, established new ones at Madras and in Bengal. 

Before, however, this decline of the English trade to India, we have somecurious and interesting documents relating to it particularly, and to theeffects produced on the cost of East Indian commodities in Europegenerally, by the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. These are supplied byMr. Munn, in a treatise he published in 1621; in favour of the East Indiatrade. We have already given the substance of his remarks so far as theyrelate to the lowering the price of Indian commodities, but as his work ismore particularly applicable to, and illustrative of the state of Englishcommerce with India, at this time, we shall here enter into some of hisdetails. 

According to them, there were six million pounds of pepper annuallyconsumed in Europe, which used to cost, when purchased at Aleppo, broughtover land thither from India, at the rate of two shillings per lb. ; whereasit now cost, purchased in India, only two-pence halfpenny per lb. : theconsumption of cloves was 450, 000 lbs. ; cost at Aleppo four shillings andnine-pence per lb. , in India nine-pence: the consumption of mace was150, 000 lbs. ; cost at Aleppo the same per lb. As the cloves; in India itwas bought at eight-pence per lb. : the consumption of nutmegs was 400, 000lbs. ; the price at Aleppo, two shillings and four-pence per lb. ; in Indiaonly four-pence; the consumption of indigo was 350, 000 lbs. ; the price atAleppo four shillings and four-pence per lb. ; in India one and two-pence, and the consumption of raw silk was one million lbs. , the price of which atAleppo was twelve shillings per lb. , and in India eight shillings. It willbe remarked that this last article was purchased in India, at a rate notnearly so much below its Aleppo price as any of the other articles; pepper, on the other hand, was more reduced in price than any of the otherarticles. The total cost of all the articles, when purchased at Aleppo, was1, 465, 000 _l. _; when purchased in India, 511, 458 _l. _; the price in thelatter market, therefore, was little more than one-third of their Aleppoprice. As, however, the voyage from India is longer than that from Aleppo, it added, according to Mr. Munn's calculation, one-sixth to the cost of thearticles beyond that of the Turkey voyage. Even after making this addition, Mr. Munn comes to the conclusion we have formerly stated, "that the saidwares by the Cape of Good Hope cost us but about half the price which theywill cost from Turkey. "

Mr. Munn also gives the annual importation of the principal Indian goodsinto England, by the East India Company, and the price each article soldfor in England; according to this table, the quantity of pepper was250, 000 lbs. , which, bought in India for twopence halfpenny, sold inEngland for one shilling and eightpence:--150, 000 lbs. Of cloves, whichbought in India for ninepence, sold in England for six shillings:--150, 000lbs. Of nutmegs, bought for four-pence, sold for two shillings andsixpence:--50, 000 lbs. Of mace, bought for eightpence, sold for sixshillings:--200, 000 lbs. Of indigo, bought for one shilling and twopence, sold for five shillings:--107, 140 lbs. Of China raw silk, bought for sevenshillings, sold for twenty shillings:--and 50, 000 pieces of calico, boughtfor seven shillings a piece, sold for twenty-six shillings. 

In a third table he gives the annual consumption of the following Indiagoods, and the lowest prices at which they used to be sold, when procuredfrom Turkey or Lisbon, before England traded directly to India. There wasconsumed of pepper, 400, 000 lbs. , which used to be sold at three shillingsand sixpence per lb. ; of cloves, 40, 000, at eight shillings; of mace, 20, 000, at nine shillings; of nutmegs, 160, 000, at four shillings andsixpence; and of indigo, 150, 000, at seven shillings. The result is, thatwhen England paid the lowest ancient prices, it cost her 183, 500_l_. Forthese commodities; whereas, at the common modern prices, it costs her only108, 333_l_. The actual saving therefore to the people of England, was notnear so great as might have been expected, or as it ought to have been, from a comparison of the prices at Aleppo and in India. 

There are some other particulars in Mr. Munn's Treatise relating to theEuropean Trade to the East at this period, which we shall select. Speakingof the exportation of bullion to India, he says that the Turks sentannually 500, 000_l_. Merely for Persian raw silk; and 600, 000_l_. More forcalicoes, drugs, sugar, rice, &c. : their maritime commerce was carried onfrom Mocha; their inland trade from Aleppo and Constantinople. Theyexported very little merchandize to Persia or India. Marseilles suppliedTurkey with a considerable part of the bullion and money which the latterused in her trade with the East, --sending annually to Aleppo andAlexandria, at least 500, 000_l_. And little or no merchandize. Venice sentabout 400, 000_l_. And a great value in wares besides. Messina about25, 000_l_. , and the low countries about 50, 000_l_. , besides greatquantities of gold and dollars from Germany, Poland, Hungary, &c. Withthese sums were purchased either native Turkish produce and manufactures, or such goods as Turkey obtained from Persia and other parts of the East:the principal were camblets, grograms, raw silk, cotton wool and yarn, galls, flax, hemp, rice, hides, sheeps' wool, wax, corn, &c. England, according to Mr. Munn, did not employ much bullion, either in her Turkey orher India trade; in the former she exported vast quantities of broad cloth, tin, &c. Enough to purchase nearly all the wares she wanted in Turkey, besides three hundred great bales of Persian raw silk annually. In thecourse of nineteen years, viz. From their establishment in 1601 to 1620, the East India Company had exported, in woollen cloths, tin, lead, andother English and foreign wares, at an average of 15, 383_l_. Per annum, andin the whole, 292, 286_l_. During the same period they had exported548, 090_l_. In Spanish silver. The East India Company employed in 1621, according to this author, 10, 000 tons of shipping, 2500 mariners, 500 shipcarpenters, and 120 factors. The principal places to which, at this period, we re-exported Indian goods, were Turkey, Genoa, Marseilles, theNetherlands, &c. ; the re-exportations were calculated to employ 2000 moretons of shipping, and 500 more mariners. 

From a proclamation issued in 1631, against clandestine trade to and fromIndia, we learn the different articles which might be legally exported andimported: the first were the following: perpalicanos and drapery, pewter, saffron, woollen stockings, silk stockings and garters, ribband, rosesedged with silver lace, beaver hats with gold and silver bands, felt hats, strong waters, knives, Spanish leather shoes, iron, and looking glasses. There might be imported, long pepper, white pepper, white powder sugar, preserved nutmegs and ginger preserved, merabolans, bezoar stones, drugs ofall sorts, agate heads, blood stones, musk, aloes socratrina, ambergris, rich carpets of Persia and of Cambaya, quilts of satin taffety, paintedcalicoes, Benjamin, damasks, satins and taffeties of China, quilts of Chinaembroidered with silk, galls, sugar candy, China dishes, and porcelain ofall sorts. 

Though several articles of Chinese manufacture are specified in theproclamation, yet we have no notice of any direct trade to China tillnearly fifty years after this time, viz. In the year 1680. In this year theEast India Company sent out eleven ships, including two to China and theMoluccas; their general burden was between 500 and 600 tons: in these shipsthere was a stock of nearly 500, 000_l_. Besides the articles importedfrom India enumerated in the proclamation of 1631, there now appearcowries, saltpetre, muslins, diamonds, &c. 

In 1689 the East India Company published a state of their trade, from whichit appeared that in the last seven years they had built sixteen ships from900 to 1300 tons each, --that they had coming from India eleven ships andfour permission ships, the value of their cargoes being above 360, 000_l_. :that they had on their outward voyage to Coast and Bay, seven ships and sixpermission ships, their cargoes valued at 570, 000_l_. : that they had sevenships for China and the South Seas, whose cargoes amounted to 100, 000_l_. That they had goods in India unsold, to the amount of 700, 000_l_. Aboutthis period, Sir John Child, being what would now be called governorgeneral of India, and his brother, Sir Jonah, leading member of the Courtof Committees, the policy was introduced through their means, on which thesovereign power, as well as the immense empire of the East India Companywas founded; this policy consisted of the enlargement of the authority ofthe Company over British subjects in India, and in attaining politicalstrength and dominion, by retaliating by force of arms, on those Indianprinces who oppressed their settlements. 

In the year 1698, in consequence of complaints against the East IndiaCompany, and their inability to make any dividend, they thought itnecessary to give in a statement of their property in India. In this theyasserted that they had acquired, solely at their own expence, revenues atFort St. George, Fort St. David, and Bombay, as well as in Persia, andelsewhere, to the amount of 44, 000_l_. Per annum, arising from customsand licenses, besides a large extent of land in these places; they had alsoerected forts and settlements in Sumatra, and on the coast of Malabar, which were absolutely necessary to carry on the pepper trade; they had astrongfort in Bengal, and many factories, settlements, &c. In other places. The result of the complaints against the Company was, that a new companywas established this year; the two companies, however, united in thebeginning of the eighteenth century. 

We shall conclude our account of the state of English commerce during thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with some more general andmiscellaneous topics. 

I. Exports. In the year 1534, the total value of our exports did not exceed900, 000_l_. Of the present value of our money: the balance of trade wasestimated at 700, 000_l_. : this arose principally from the very greatexportation of woollen goods, tin, leather, &c. , on which an export dutywas laid, bringing in 246, 000_l_. ; whereas, the duty on imports did notproduce more than 1700_l_. In the year 1612, according to Missenden, in hisCircle of Commerce, the exports to all the world amounted to 2, 090, 640_l_. , and the imports to 2, 141, 151_l_. ; on the latter, however, the custom dutiesare charged; the custom duties on the exports were 86, 794_l_. ; the impostpaid outwards on woollen goods, tin, lead, pewter, &c. 10, 000_l_. ; and themerchants' gains, freight, and other charges, to 300, 000_l_. :--if these beadded to the value of the exports, the total amount will be 2, 487, 435_l_, --from which the imports, including custom duty on them, being deducted, leaves 346, 283_l_. , --which Missenden regards as the balance gained thatyear by the nation. The principal articles of export have been enumerated:the principal articles of import were silks, Venice gold and silver stuffs, Spanish wines, linen, &c. At this time, London paid nearly three times asmuch for custom duties as all the rest of England together. In the year1662, according to D'Avenant, the inspector general of the customs, ourimports amounted to 4, 016, 019_l_. , and our exports only to 2, 022, 812_l_. ;the balance against the nation being nearly two millions. In the last yearof the seventeenth century, according to the same official authority, therewas exported to England from all parts, 6, 788, 166_l_. : of this sum, ourwoollen manufactures were to the value of 2, 932, 292_l_. ; so that there wasan increase of our exports since 1662, of 4, 765, 534_l_. The yearly averageof all the merchandize imported from, and exported to the north of Europe, from Michaelmas, 1697, to Christmas, 1701, is exhibited in the followingtable:

Annual Countries. Imported from. Exported to. Loss

Denmark and Sweden 76, 215_l_ 39, 543_l. 36, 672_l_. East Country 181, 296 149, 893 31, 403Russia 112, 252 58, 884 53, 568Sweden 212, 094 57, 555 154, 539 ---------Total annual average loss 275, 982_l_. 

II. Ships. In the year 1530, the ship which first sailed on a tradingvoyage to Guinea, and thence to the Brazils, was regarded as remarkablylarge; her burden amounted to 250 tons. And in Wheeler's Treatise ofCommerce, published in 1601, we are informed, that about 60 years before hewrote (which would be about 1541), there were not above four ships (besidesthose of the royal navy) that were above 120 tons each, in the riverThames; and we learn from Monson, in his Naval Tracts, that about 20 yearslater, most of our ships of burden were purchased from the east countrymen, or inhabitants of the south shores of the Baltic, who likewise carried onthe greatest trade of our merchants in their own vessels. He adds, to bidadieu to that trade and those ships, the Jesus of Lubec. A vessel thenesteemed of great burden and strength, was the last ship bought by thequeen. In 1582, there were 135 merchant vessels in England, many of them of500 tons each: and in the beginning of King James's reign, there were 400, but these were not so large, not above four of these being of 400 tons. In1615, it appears, that the East India Company, from the beginning of theircharter, had employed only 24 ships, four of which had been lost. Thelargest was 1293 tons; one 1100, one 1060, one 900, one 800, and theremainder from 600 to 150. In the same year, 20 ships sailed to Naples, Genoa, Leghorn, and other parts of the Mediterranean, chiefly laden withherrings; and 30 from Ireland, to the same ports, laden with pipe staves:to Portugal and Amsterdam, 20 ships for wines, sugar, fruit, and West Indiadrugs: to Bourdeaux, 60 ships for wines: to Hamburgh and Middleburgh, 35ships: to Dantzic, Koningsberg, 30 ships: to Norway 5;--while the Dutchsent above 40 large ships. The Newcastle coal trade employed 400 sail;--200for London, and 200 for the rest of England. It appears, that at this timemany foreign ships resorted to Newcastle for coals: whole fleets of 50 sailtogether from France, besides many from Bremen, Holland, &c. The Greenlandfishery employed 14 ships. 

The following calculation of the shipping of Europe in 1690, is given bySir William Petty. England, 500, 000 tons; the United Provinces, 900, 000;France, 100, 000; Hamburgh, Denmark, Sweden, Dantzic, 250, 000; Spain, Portugal, Italy, 250, 000: total 2, 000, 000. But that this calculation isexceeding loose, so far as regards England at least, is evident from thereturns made to circular letters of the commissioners of customs: accordingto these returns, there belonged to all the ports of England, in January1701-2. , 3281 vessels, measuring 261, 222 tons, and carrying 27, 196 men, and5660 guns. As we wish to be minute and enter into detail, while ourcommerce and shipping were yet in their infancy, in order to mark moredecidedly its progress, we shall subjoin the particulars of this return. 

Ports. Vessels. Tons. Men. 

London 560 84, 882 10, 065Bristol 165 17, 338 2, 359Yarmouth 143 9, 914 668Exeter 121 7, 107 978Hull 115 7, 564 187Whitby 110 8, 292 571Liverpool 102 8, 619 1, 101Scarborough 100 6, 860 606

None of the other ports had 100 vessels: Newcastle had sixty-three, measuring 11, 000 tons; and Ipswich thirty-nine, measuring 11, 170; but therecertainly is some mistake in these two instances, either in the number ofthe ships, or the tonnage. The small number of men employed at Hull arosefrom eighty of their ships being at that time laid up. 

III. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the great rivals ofthe English in their commerce were the Dutch: they had preceded the Englishto most countries; and, even where the latter had preceded them, they sooninsinuated themselves and became formidable rivals: this was the caseparticularly with respect to the trade to Archangel. Some curious andinteresting particulars of this rivalry are given by Sir Walter Raleigh, inhis Observations concerning the Trade and Commerce of England with theDutch and other foreign Nations, which he had laid before King James. Inthis work he maintains that the Dutch have the advantage over the Englishby reason of the privileges they gave to foreigners, by making theircountry the storehouse of all foreign commodities; by the lowness of theircustoms; by the structure of their ships, which hold more, and requirefewer hands than the English; and by their fishery. He contends thatEngland is better situated for a general storehouse for the rest of Europethan Holland: yet no sooner does a dearth of corn, wine, fish, &c. Happenin England, than forthwith the Hollanders, Embedners, or Humburghers, load50 or 100 ships, and bring their articles to England. Amsterdam, heobserves, is never without 700, 000 quarters of corn, none of it the growthof Holland; and a dearth of only one year in any other part of Europeenriches Holland for seven years. In the course of a year and a half, during a scarcity in England, there was carried away from the ports ofSouthampton, Bristol, and Exeter alone, nearly 200, 000_l_. : and if Londonand the rest of England were included, there must have been 2, 000, 000 more. The Dutch, he adds, have a regular trade to England with 500 or 600 vesselsannually, whereas we trade, not with fifty to their country. After enteringinto details respecting the Dutch fishery, by means of which, he says, theysell herrings annually to the value of upwards of one million and a halfsterling, whereas England scarcely any, he reverts to the other branches ofDutch commerce, as compared with ours. The great stores of wines and salt, brought from France and Spain, are in the Low Countries: they send nearly1, 000 ships yearly with these commodities into the east countries alone;whereas we send not one ship. The native country of timber for ships, &c. Is within the Baltic; but the storehouse for it is in Holland; they have500 or 600 large ships employed in exporting it to England and other parts:we not one. The Dutch even interfere with our own commodities; for our wooland woollen cloth, which goes out rough, undressed, and undyed, theymanufacture and serve themselves and other nations with it. We send intothe east countries yearly but 100 ships, and our trade chiefly depends uponthree towns, Elbing, Koningsberg, and Dantzic; but the Low Countries sendthither about 3, 000 ships: they send into France, Spain, Portugal, andItaly, about 2, 000 ships yearly with those east country commodities, andwe, none in that course. They trade into all cities and port towns ofFrance, and we chiefly to five or six. 

The Low Countries have as many ships and vessels as eleven kingdoms ofChristendom have; let England be one. For seventy years together, we had agreat trade to Russia (Narva), and even about fourteen years ago, we sentstores of goodly ships thither; but three years past we sent out fourthither, and last year but two or three ships; whereas the Hollanders arenow increased to about thirty or forty ships, each as large as two of ours, chiefly laden with English cloth, herrings, taken in our seas, Englishlead, and pewter made of our tin. He adds, that a great loss is suffered bythe kingdom from the undressed and undyed cloths being sent out of thekingdom, to the amount of 80, 000 pieces annually; and that there had beenannually exported, during the last fifty-three years, in baizes, northernand Devonshire kersies, all white, about 50, 000 cloths, counting threekersies to one cloth. 

Although there is undoubtedly much exaggeration in the comparativestatement of the Dutch and English commerce and shipping in the details, yet it is a curious and interesting document, as exhibiting a general viewof them. Indeed, through the whole of the seventeenth century, the mostcelebrated and best informed writers on the commerce of England dwellstrongly on the superior trade of the Dutch, and on their being able, bythe superior advantages they enjoyed from greater capital, industry, andperseverance, aided by the greater encouragement they gave to foreigners aswell as their own people, to supply the greatest part of Europe with alltheir wants, though their own country was small and unfertile. A similarcomparative statement to that of Raleigh is given by Child in 1655; heasserts that in the preceding year the Dutch had twenty-two sail of greatships in the Russia trade, --England but one: that in the Greenland whalefishery, Holland and Hamburgh had annually 400 or 500 sail, --and Englandbut one last year: that the Dutch have a great trade for salt to France andPortugal, with which they salt fish caught on our coasts; that in theBaltic trade, the English have fallen off, and the Dutch increased tenfold. England has no share in the trade to China and Japan: the Dutch a greattrade to both countries. A great part of the plate trade from Cadiz haspassed from England to Holland. They have even bereaved us of the trade toScotland and Ireland. He concludes with pointing out some advantagesEngland possesses over Holland: In the Turkey, Italian, Spanish, andPortuguese trades, we have the natural advantage of our wool:--ourprovisions and fuel, in country places, are cheaper than with theDutch;--our native commodities of lead and tin are great advantages:--ofthese, he says, as well as of our manufactures, we ship off one-third morethan we did twenty years ago; and he adds, that we have now more thandouble the number of merchants and shipping that we had twenty years ago. He mentions a circumstance, which seems to indicate a retrograde motion ofcommerce, viz. , that when he wrote most payments were in ready money;whereas, formerly, there were credit payments at three, six, nine, twelve, and even eighteen months. From another part of his work, it appears thatthe tax-money was brought up in waggons from the country. 

The gradual advancement of a nation in knowledge and civilization, which isin part the result of commerce, is also in part the cause of it. Butbesides this advancement, in which England participated with the rest ofEurope, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were othercircumstances peculiar to this country, some of which were favourable, andothers unfavourable to the increase of its commerce. 

Among the favourable circumstances may be reckoned the taking away of theexclusive privileges of the steelyard merchants by Edward VI. , by whichnative merchants were encouraged, private companies of them formed, and thebenefits of commerce more extensively diffused:--the encouragement given byElizabeth, particularly by her minister Cecil, to commerce; this was sogreat and well directed, that the customs which had been farmed, at thebeginning of the reign, for 14, 000_l_. A year, towards its close werefanned for 50, 000_l_. ;--the pacific character of James I. , and theconsequent tranquillity enjoyed by England during his reign;--the strongand general stimulus which was given to individual industry, by the feelingof their own importance, which the struggle between Charles I. And theParliament naturally infused into the great mass of the people;--theincreased skill in maritime affairs, which was produced by our navalvictories under Cromwell;--the great vigour of his government in hisrelations with foreign powers; and the passing of the navigation act. TheRestoration, bringing a great fondness for luxury and expence, naturallyproduced also exertions to gratify that fondness. If to these and othercauses of a similar nature, we add the introduction of East Indiacommodities direct to England, and the import trade to the West Indies andAmerica, the emigration of the industrious Flemings during the Spanish warsin the Low Countries, and of the French after the revocation of the edictof Nantz, we shall have specified most of the efficient circumstances, which, in conjunction with the progress of mankind in industry andcivilization, were beneficial to our commerce. 

The causes and circumstances which were unfavourable to it during the sameperiod are much fewer in number; and though some of them were powerful, yet, even these, for the most part, when they ceased to operate, gave birthto a reaction favourable to commerce. The more general causes may be soughtfor in the erroneous notions entertained respecting commerce, inconsequence of which monopolies were granted, especially in the reign ofJames I. ; and laws were made to regulate what would have gone on best, ifit had been left to itself. The civil wars, and the emigration occasionedby them, and the religious persecutions in the time of Mary, Elizabeth, andCharles, may be regarded as the most remarkable particular causes andcircumstances, which were injurious to commerce. 

We must again lay down the position, that in what respects the improvementof a country in industry and wealth, whether agricultural manufacturing, orcommercial, the same circumstances may often be viewed in the light both ofeffect and cause. This position will be clearly illustrated by a verycommon and plain case. The trade in a certain district improves, and ofcourse requires more easy and expeditious communication among differentparts of this district: the roads are consequently made better, and thewaggons, &c. Are built on a better construction; these are the effects ofan improved trade: but it is plain that as by the communication being thusrendered quicker, the commodities interchanged can be sold cheaper, agreater quantity of them will be sold; and thus better roads, which in thefirst instance proceeded from an improvement in trade, will, when made, improve the trade still more. 

We have introduced these observations as preparatory to our notice of theestablishment of the Bank of England. This undoubtedly was the effect ofour increased commercial habits, but it was as undoubtedly the cause ofthose habits becoming stronger and more general: it supposed thepre-existence of a certain degree of commercial confidence and credit, butit increased these in a much greater ratio than they existed before: and ifEngland owes its very superior wealth to any other causes besides its freegovernment, its superior industry, and improvements in machinery, thosecauses must be sought for in the very extensive diffusion of commercialconfidence and credit. The funding system, which took place about the same, time that the Bank of England was established, may be regarded as anotherpowerful cause of the increase of our commerce: we do not mean to contendthat the national debt is a national blessing, but it is certain that thenecessity of paying the interest of that debt produced exertions ofindustry, and improvements in manufactures, which would not otherwise, havebeen called forth; while, on the other hand, the funds absorbed all thesuperfluous capital, which, otherwise, as in Holland, must have had a badeffect on commerce, either by reducing its profits very low, or by beingtransferred to other countries; and the interest, which so many individualsfelt in the stability of the funds, induced them most steadily and stronglyto support government. 

The commerce of Scotland and Ireland during the sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies, supplies us with very few materials. In the year 1544, Scotlandmust have had no inconsiderable foreign trade, as in the war which tookplace at this time between that country and England, twenty-eight of theprincipal ships of Scotland, laden with all kinds of rich merchandize, werecaptured by the English, on their voyage from France, Flanders, Denmark, &c. ; and in the same year, when the English took Leith, they found moreriches in it than they had reason to expect. While Scotland and Englandwere at peace, however, the former was principally supplied through thelatter with the commodities which Antwerp, during the sixteenth century, dispersed over all Europe. The exports of Scotland to Antwerp, &c. Wereindeed direct, and consisted principally, as we have already remarked fromGuicciardini, of peltry, leather, wool, indifferent cloth, and pearls. 

The earliest account which occurs of the Scotch carrying on commerce to anyport out of Europe, is in the year 1589, when three or four Scotch shipswere found at the Azores by the earl of Cumberland. In the year 1598, itappears, from a letter of king James to Queen Elizabeth, that some Scotchmerchants traded to the Canaries. There is evidence that the Scotch hadsome commerce in the Mediterranean in the beginning of the seventeenthcentury; for in the "Cabala, " under the year 1624, the confiscation ofthree Scotch ships at Malaga is noticed, for importing Dutch commodities. The principal articles of export from Scotland to foreign countriesconsisted of coarse woollen stuffs and stockings, linen goods, peltry, leather, wool, pearls, &c. The principal imports were wine and fruits fromFrance, wine from Spain and Portugal, the finer woollen goods from England, timber, iron, &c. From the Baltic, and sugars, spices, silks, &c. FromAntwerp, Portugal, &c. 

The following statement, with which we shall conclude our account of Scotchcommerce, is interesting, as exhibiting a view of the commercialintercourse by sea between England and Scotland, from the commencement ofthe inspector general's accounts in 1697, to the Union in 1707. 

England received from Scotland Scotland received from EnglandMerchandize to the value of merchandize to the value of

1697. £91, 302 £73, 2031698. 124, 835 58, 0431699. 86, 309 66, 3031700. 130, 087 85, 1941701. 73, 988 56, 8021702. 71, 428 58, 6881703. 76, 448 57, 3381704. 54, 379 87, 5361705. 57, 902 50, 0351706. 50, 309 60, 3131707. 6, 733 17, 779

The earliest notices of Irish trade, to which we have already adverted, particularly mention linen and woollen cloth, as two of the mostconsiderable articles of export from that country. Hides, wool, fish ofdifferent kinds, particularly salmon, and the skins of martins, otters, rabbits, sheep, kids, &c. Are also specified, as forming part of her earlyexport. From Antwerp in the middle of the sixteenth century she receivedspices, sugar, silks, madder, camblets, &c. Pipe staves were a considerablearticle of export in the beginning of the seventeenth century; they wereprincipally sent to the Mediterranean. In 1627 Charles issued aproclamation respecting Ireland, from which we learn that the principalforeign trade of Ireland was to Spain and Portugal, and consisted in fish, butter, skins, wool, rugs, blankets, wax, cattle, and horses; pipe staves, and corn; timber fit for ship-building, as well as pipe staves, seem atthis period to have formed most extensive and valuable articles of exportfrom Ireland. In the middle of this century, Irish linen yarn was used inconsiderable quantities in the Manchester manufactures, as we have alreadynoticed. The importation into England of fat cattle from Ireland seems tohave been considerable, and to have been regarded as so prejudicial to thepasture farmers of the former country, that in 1666 a law was passed layinga heavy duty on their importation. This statute proving ineffectual, another was passed in 1663, enacting the forfeiture of all great cattle, sheep, swine, and also beef, pork, or bacon, imported from Ireland. Sir W. Petty remarks, that before this law was passed, three-fourths of the tradeof Ireland was with England, but not one-fourth of it since that time. SirJonah Child, in his Discourse on Trade, describes the state of Ireland ashaving been much improved by the soldiers of the Commonwealth settlingthere; through their own industry, and that which they infused into thenatives, he adds, that Ireland was able to supply foreign markets, as wellas our plantations in America, with beef, pork, hides, tallow, bread, beer, wood, and corn, at a cheaper rate than England could afford to do. Thoughthis country, as we have seen, exported linen goods at a very early period, yet this manufacture cannot be regarded as the staple one of Ireland, or ashaving contributed very much to her foreign commerce, till it flourishedamong the Scotch colonists in Ulster towards the middle of the seventeenthcentury. As soon as they entered on it with spirit, linen yarn was nolonger exported to Manchester and other parts of England, but manufacturedinto cloth in Ireland, and in that state it formed the chief article of itscommerce. The woollen manufactures of Ireland, which were always viewedwith jealousy by England, and were checked in every possible manner, gradually gave way to the restraints laid on them, and to the rising andunchecked linen manufacture, and of course ceased to enter into theexports. 

The commerce of Scotland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries waskept low, by ignorance and want of industry, by the disturbed state of thecountry, by disputes between the king and nobility, and, till the union ofthe crowns, by wars with England. The commerce of Ireland had still greaterdifficulties to struggle with; among which may be mentioned the ignorantoppression of the English government in every thing that related to itsmanufactures or trade. 

The commerce of France, during the sixteenth century, presents fewparticulars worthy of notice; that, which was carried on between it andEngland, was principally confined to the exportation of wines, fruit, silkand linen, from France; and woollen goods, and tin and lead, from England. There seems to have been a great exchange between the woollens of Englandand the linens of Bretagne. The French, however, like all the other nationsof Europe at this period, were ignorant of the principles, as well asdestitute of the enterprize and capital essential to steady and lucrativecommerce; and amply deserve the character given of them by Voltaire, thatin the reign of Francis I. , though possessed of harbours both on the oceanand Mediterranean, they were yet without a navy; and though immersed inluxury, they had only a few coarse manufactures. The Jews, Genoese, Venetians, Portuguese, Flemings, Dutch, and English, traded successivelyfor them. At the very close of this century we have a very summary accountof the commerce of France by Giovani Bolero. France, says he, possessesfour magnets, which attract the wealth of other countries;--corn, which isexported to Spain and Portugal;--wine, which is sent to Flanders, England, and the Baltic;--salt, made by the heat of the sun on the Mediterraneancoast, and also on that of the ocean, as far north as Saintoigne; and hempand cloth, of which and of cordage great quantities are exported to Lisbonand Seville:--the exportation of the articles of this fourth class, headds, is incredibly great. 

In the middle of the seventeenth century, the finer manufactures of woollenand silken goods having been carried to great perfection in France, herexports in these articles were greatly increased. In the politicaltestament of Richelieu, we are informed that a considerable and lucrativetrade in these articles was carried on with Turkey, Spain, Italy, &c. , andthat France had driven, in a great measure, out of those markets the sergesof Milan, the velvets of Genoa, and the cloth of gold of Italy. 

Early in the reign of Louis XIV. , Colbert directed his attention to theimprovement of manufactures and commerce; and though many of his plans werefrustrated from the operation of causes over which he had no control, andprincipally because he went before the age in which he lived, yet there canbe no doubt that to him France was indebted for the consolidation, extension, and firm footing of her commerce. Immediately before therevocation of the edict of Nantes, her commerce was at its greatestheighth, as the following estimates of that she carried on with England andHolland will prove. To the former country the exportation of manufacturedsilks of all sorts is said to have been to the value of 600, 000_l_. ;--oflinen, sail-cloth, and canvass, about 700, 000_l_. ;--in beaver hats, watches, clocks, and glass, about 220, 000_l_. ;--in paper, about90, 000_l_. ;--in iron ware, the manufacture of Auvergne, chiefly, about40, 000_l_. ;--in shalloons, tammies, &c. From Picardy and Champagne, about150, 000_l_. ;--in wines, about 200, 000_l_. ; and brandies, about 80, 000_l_. The exports to Holland, shortly before the revocation of the edict ofNantes, in silks, velvets, linen, and paper, are estimated at 600, 000_l_. ;--in hats, about 200, 000_l_. ;--in glass, clocks, watches, and householdfurniture, about 160, 000_l_. ;--in small articles, such as fringes, gloves, &c. , about 200, 000_l_. ;--in linen, canvass, and sail cloth, about160, 000_l_. ; and in saffron, dye-wood, woollen yarn, &c. , about 300, 000_l_. 

In the year 1700 a council of commerce was constituted in France, consisting of the principal ministers of state and finance, and of twelveof the principal merchants of the kingdom, chosen annually from Paris, Rouen, Bourdeaux, Lyons, Marseilles, Rochelle, Nantes, St. Maloe, Lisle, Bayonne, and Dunkirk. 

From the first report of this board, we gain some information of the stateof French commerce at this time; according to it, the French employed intheir West India and Guinea trade only 100 vessels, whereas the Englishemployed 500. The principal articles they drew from these islands weresugar, indigo, cotton, cocoa, ginger, &c. The exclusive trades formed in1661, when France was little versed in commerce and navigation, aredeprecated: the chief of them were, that granted to Marseilles for the soletrade to the Levant;--the East India Company;--the prohibiting foreign rawsilk to be carried to Paris, Nismes, Tours, &c. , till it had passed throughLyons;--the Canada and Guinea Companies, besides various farms ormonopolies of certain merchandize in trade: the principal of these last waslead from England, with which, made into shot, the persons who had themonopoly supplied not only France, but, through France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, the Levant, and the French West Indies. 

The report contains some information respecting the comparative commerce ofFrance, and the other nations of Europe. The Spaniards, it is observed, though they possess within their own country wool, silk, oil, wine, &c. , and are in no want of good ports, both on the ocean and Mediterranean, nevertheless neglect all these advantages. Hence it happens that the rawsilk of Valencia, Murcia, and Grenada, is exported to France: the wool ofCastile, Arragon, Navarre, and Leon, to England, Holland, France, andItaly; and these raw articles, when manufactured, are sent back to Spain, and exchanged for the gold and silver of the American mines. France alsosupplies Peru and Mexico, through Spain, receiving in return, cochineal, indigo, hides, &c. , besides a balance of eighteen or twenty million oflivres, and by the flotas, seven or eight million more. The report adds, onthis head, that latterly the English and Dutch have interfered with somebranches of this trade with Spain; and it also complains that the formernation carry on the Levant trade to much more advantage than the French, their woollen cloths being better and cheaper. The English also carry tothe Levant, lead, pewter, copperas, and logwood, together with a great dealof pepper;--with these, and the money received on the coasts of Portugal, Spain and Italy, for the dry fish and sugar they sell there on theiroutward voyage, they purchase their homeward cargoes. This superiority ofEngland over France in the Levant trade, is ascribed in the report to themonopoly enjoyed by Marseilles. 

The report, in relation to the commerce of France with the northern nationsof Europe, observes, that it appears from the custom books, that the Dutchhad possession of almost the whole of it. The Dutch also are accused ofhaving, in a great measure, made themselves masters of the inland trade ofFrance. In order to secure to this latter country the direct trade with thenorth of Europe, certain plans are suggested in the report; all of whichwere objected to by the deputies from Nantes, principally, it would seem, on the ground, that the Dutch trade to the Baltic was so well settled, thatit governed the prices of all the exports and imports there, and that theDutch gave higher prices for French goods than could be obtained in theBaltic for them, while, on the other hand, they sold at Amsterdam Balticproduce cheaper than it could be bought in the Baltic. One objection to adirect trade between France and the Baltic affords a curious andinstructive proof of the imperfect state of navigation at this time, thatis, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The deputy from Marseillesurged that the voyage from Dantzic, or even from Copenhagen to Marseilles, was too long for a ship to go and come with certainty in one season, considering the ice and the long nights; and that therefore, there is noavoiding the use of entrepots for the trade of Marseilles. Mr. Anderson, inhis History of Commerce, very justly observes, "that the dread of a longvoyage from the north to the south parts of Europe, contributed, in a greatmeasure, to make Antwerp, in former times, the general magazine of Europe. "

The decline of the commerce of the Italian states, in consequence of thediscovery of the Cape of Good Hope, has been already mentioned; theirefforts however to preserve it were vigorous, and we can trace, even in themiddle of the sixteenth century, some Indian commerce passing throughVenice. Indeed in the year 1518, Guicciardini informs us that there arrivedat Antwerp, five Venetian ships laden with the spices and drugs of theEast: and 1565, when the English Russia Company sent their agents intoPersia, they found that the Venetians carried on a considerable tradethere; they seem to have travelled from Aleppo, and to have brought withthem woollen cloths, &c. Which they exchanged for raw silks, spices, drugs, &c. The agents remarked, that much Venetian cloth was worn in Persia: in1581, Sir William Monson complains that the Venetians engrossed the tradebetween Turkey and Persia, for Persian and Indian merchandize. In 1591, when the English Levant Company endeavoured to establish a trade over landto India, and for that purpose carried some of their goods from Aleppo toBagdat, and thence down the Tigris to Ormus and to Goa, they found that theVenetians had factories in all these places, and carried on an extensiveand lucrative trade. It is difficult to perceive how Indian commoditiesbrought by land to Europe, could compete with those which the Portuguesebrought by sea. The larger capital, more numerous connexions, greatercredit, and skill of the Venetians, must however have been much in theirfavour in this competition. 

We have noticed that, even so late as the beginning of the eighteenthcentury, a voyage from Marseilles to the Baltic and back again, was thoughtby French navigators an impracticable undertaking in the course of oneyear; and yet a century earlier, viz. In 1699, Venice sent at least oneship annually for Archangel: the first instance we believe of a directcommercial intercourse between the northern and southern extreme seas ofEurope. 

We must turn to the northern nations of Europe, Sweden, Denmark and Russia, and glean what few important materials we can respecting their commerceduring the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We have already seen thatthe commerce of the Scandinavian nations of the middle ages was by no meansdespicable, though it was chiefly confined to Britain and Iceland, andamong themselves: the establishment of the Hanseatic League, some of thecities composing which lay in the Baltic, gradually made the Scandinaviannations better known, and by creating a demand for their produce, stimulated them to industry and commerce. In a poor country, however, witha sterile soil and ungenial climate; where winter prevented intercourse bysea, for several months every year, capital must increase very slowly, andcommerce, reciprocally the cause and effect of capital, equally slow. Besides the piratical habits of the early Scandinavians, were adverse totrade; and these habits shed their influence even after they werediscontinued. But though the Scandinavian nations were long in enteringinto any commercial transactions of importance, yet they contributedindirectly to its advancement by the improvements they made inship-building, as well as by the ample materials for this purpose whichtheir country supplied. Their ships indeed were constructed for warfare, but improvements in this description of ships naturally, and almostunavoidably, led to improvements in vessels designed for trade. In 1449, aconsiderable commerce was carried on between Bristol, and Iceland, andFinmark, in vessels of 400, 500, and even 900 tons burden, all of which, there is reason to believe, were built in the Baltic; and, about six yearsafterwards, the king of Sweden was the owner of a ship of nearly 1000 tonsburden, which he sent to England, with a request that she might bepermitted to trade. 

Gustavus I. Who reigned about the beginning of the sixteenth century, seemsto have been the first Swedish king who directed the attention and industryof his subjects to manufactures and commerce; but, in the early part of hisreign, the inhabitants of Lubec had the monopoly of the foreign trade ofStockholm. This sovereign, in 1540, entered into a commercial treaty withFrancis I. , King of France; the principal article of which was, that theSwedes should import their wine, salt, &c. Directly from France, instead ofobtaining them indirectly from the Dutch. The conquest of Revel by Sweden, and the consequent footing obtained in Livonia, in 1560, greatly increasedits commerce and wealth; while important improvements were introduced intoits manufactures of iron a few years afterwards by the Flemings, who fledthere on the destruction of Antwerp. Prior to their arrival, most of theSwedish iron was forged in Dantzic and Prussia; but they not only taughtthe Swedes how to forge it, but also how to make iron cannon, and otheriron, copper, and brass articles. The Swedes had from an early period, beensensible of the real riches of their territory, and how much their timber, iron, pitch, and tar, were converted for maritime and other purposes. Thepitch and tar manufacture especially had long constituted a veryconsiderable part of their commerce. In 1647, Queen Christiana veryunwisely granted a monopoly of these articles, which was productive of theusual effects, injury to commerce, without a correspondent benefit to thosewho held it. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, the tar company inSweden not only put a very high price on their goods, but refused to sellthem, even for ready money, unless they were exported in Swedish vessels. In consequence of this, England began at this period to encourage theimportation of tar, pitch, hemp, and naval timber, from her Americancolonies. 

The commerce of Denmark, besides its common origin with that of the rest ofScandinavia, seems, in the middle ages, to have been chiefly nourished bytwo circumstances:--The trade which Iceland carried on, and theestablishment of Bergen, first as the staple of the German merchants, andafterwards as the chief factory of the Hanse merchants. In 1429, it wasalso established by the king of Denmark, as the sole staple for the fishtrade. In 1553, its trade began to decline, in consequence, it is said, ofits being deserted by the Hanseatics. The historian of the Hanseatic Leagueadds, that "whereas the ancient toll of the Sound had been only a goldenrose-noble on every sail, which was always understood to be meant on everyship; the court of Denmark had for some time past put a new and arbitraryconstruction on the word sail, by obliging all ships to pay a rose-noblefor every sail on, or belonging to each ship". In consequence of this, theVandalic-Hanse Towns, or those on the south shores of the Baltic, desertedthe Bergen trade. 

The same sovereign, however, who increased the tolls of the Sound, counterpoised the bad effects of this measure, by the encouragement he gaveto manufactures and commerce; in this he was seconded by the Danish gentry, who began to carry on merchandize and factorage themselves, and alsoestablished manufactories. Copenhagen at this time was the staple for allDanish merchandize, especially corn, butter, fish, &c. 

The commercial history of this country, towards the close of the sixteenthcentury, is remarkable for having given rise to the earliest dispute, ofwhich we have any notice, respecting, the carrying of naval stores, ofcontraband of war, in neutral bottoms, to any enemy. It seems that theEnglish merchants endeavoured to evade the custom duties in the Danishports, particularly on their skins, woollen goods, and tin; on which theywere siezed. On a remonstrance however from Elizabeth, they were restored, when the king of Denmark, on his part, complained that the Englishcommitted piracies on his subjects; for now, says Camden, there began togrow controversies about such matters, that is, the carrying naval stores, &c. To the Spaniards. 

The commercial history of Denmark, during the period to which we are atpresent confined, presents no other circumstance sufficiently striking orinteresting to detain us; for the establishments of this country in theEast Indies are too trifling to deserve or require notice in a work whoselimits and objects equally confine it to those points which are of primaryimportance. 

The locality of Russia, cut off from the sea till a comparatively lateperiod, except the almost inaccessible sea on which Archangel stands; theignorance and barbarism of its inhabitants, and its wars with the Tartars, necessarily prevented and incapacitated this immense empire from engagingin any commercial intercourse with the rest of Europe till the beginning ofthe sixteenth century, when it became independent, and began to bepowerful. Novogorod, indeed, which was in fact a republic under thejurisdiction of a nominal sovereign, enjoyed in the fifteenth century, agreat trade, being then the mart between Russia and the Hanseatic cities. On its conquest by the Russians in the beginning of the next century, theHanseatic merchants deserted it, though it continued for a considerableperiod afterward the largest and most commercial city in Russia. In 1509, Basilicus IV. Conquered the city and territory of Pleskow and Smolensko, and consolidated the Russian empire, by reducing all the pettyprincipalities into which it had been previously divided. Pleskow, situatednear the head of the lake Czudskoc, soon became a celebrated emporium, andbefore the end of this century was frequented by merchants from Persia, Tartary, Sarmatia, Livonia, Germany, Britain, and other countries. 

The accidental discovery of the White Sea by the English, in 1553, has beenalready narrated: this led to the first intercourse by sea between Russiaand the rest of Europe, for previously, whatever of their produce wasexported, was carried in Livonian ships. In the following year, thefacilities of Russia with Asia were encreased by the conquest of the cityand kingdom of Astracan: by this conquest the entire navigation of theWolga became theirs, and by crossing the Caspian, they carried theircommercial transactions into Persia. The spirit of conquest was now aliveamong them, and exerting itself both to the east and west; for in 1558 theyconquered Narva, in Livonia, and by means of it formed a communication withthe rest of Europe by the Baltic sea. To this city the Hanseatic merchantsremoved their mart from Revel. The conquest of Samoieda and Siberia nearthe close of the sixteenth century, contributed to encrease the exportablecommodities of Russia by their furs, salmon, sturgeon, &c. 

In the mean time the Russian commerce in the Caspian was increasing: thePersian vessels brought into Astracan dyed silks, calicoes, and Persianstuffs, and returned with cloth, sables, martens, red leather, and oldRussia money. The trade from Archangel also increased in a still more rapidmanner, principally, as we have already seen, with the English and Dutch. In the year 1655, the exports were valued at the 660, 000 rubles, two rublesat that period being equal to one pound sterling. The principal articleswere potash, caviare, tallow, hides, sables, and cable yarn; the otherarticles of less importance, and in smaller quantities, were coarse linen, feathers for beds, tar, linen yarn, beet, rhubarb, Persian silk, cork, bacon, cordage, skins of squirrels, and cats; bees' wax, hogs' birstles, mice and goats' skins, swan and geese down, candles, &c. 

Peter the Great became emperor in 1689; he soon unfolded and began toexecute his vast plans of conquest, naval power, and commerce. He gainedfor his country a passage into the Black Sea, by reducing Asoph, at themouth of the Don, and he soon established a navy on this sea. His personalexertions in Holland and England, to make himself acquainted withship-building, are well known. The event of his reign, however, which mostcompletely changed the relative situation of Russia, and established her asa commercial nation, was the conquest from Sweden of Livonia, Ingria, andCarelia. Scarcely were these provinces secured to him, when he built, firstCronstadt, and then St. Petersburgh. The erection of this city, and thecanals he constructed in the interior for the purpose of facilitating thetransportation of merchandize from the more southerly and fertile districtsof his empire to the new capital, soon drew to it the greater portion ofRussian commerce. Archangel, to which there had previously resortedannually upwards of one hundred ships from England, Holland, Hamburgh, &c. Declined; and early in the eighteenth century Petersburgh, then scarcelyten years old, beheld itself a commercial city of great importance. 

Having now brought the historical sketch of the progress of discovery andof commercial enterprise down to the commencement of the eighteenthcentury, it will be necessary, as well as proper, to contract the scale onwhich the remainder of this volume is to be constructed. For, during nearlythe whole of the period which intervenes between the commencement of theeighteenth century and the present time, the materials are either soabundant or so minute, that to insert them all without discrimination andselection, would be to give bulk, without corresponding interest and value, to the work. 

So far as discovery is concerned, it is evident, from the sketch of italready given, that nearly the entire outline of the globe had been tracedbefore the period at which we are arrived: what remained was to fill upthis outline. In Asia, to gain a more complete knowledge of Hither andFarther India, of China, of the countries to the north of Hindostan, of thenorth and north-east of Asia, and of some of the Asiatic islands. InAfrica, little besides the shores were known; but the nature of theinterior, with its burning sands and climate, uninhabitable, or inhabitedby inhospitable and barbarous tribes, held out little expectation thatanother century would add much to our knowledge of that quarter of theworld; and though the perseverance and enterprise of the eighteenthcentury, and what has passed of the nineteenth, have done more than mightreasonably have been anticipated, yet, comparatively speaking, how littledo we yet know of Africa! America held out the most promising as well asextensive views to future discovery; the form and direction of hernorth-west coast was to be traced. In South America, the Spaniards hadalready gained a considerable knowledge of the countries lying between theAtlantic and the Pacific, but in North America, the British colonists hadpenetrated to a very short distance from the shores on which they werefirst settled; and from their most western habitations to the Pacific, thecountry was almost entirely unknown. 

The immense extent of the Pacific Ocean, which presented to navigators atthe beginning of the eighteenth century but few islands, seemed to promisea more abundant harvest to repeated and more minute examination, and thispromise has been fulfilled. New Holland, however, was the only portion ofthe world of great extent which could be said to be almost entirely unknownat the beginning of the eighteenth century; and the completion of ourknowledge of its form and extent may justly be regarded as one of thegreatest and most important occurrences to geography contributed by theeighteenth century. 

The truth and justice of these observations will, we trust, convince ourreaders, that, in determining to be more general and concise in whatremains of the geographical portion of our works, we shall not bedestroying its consistency or altering the nature of its plan, but in factpreserving both; for its great object and design was to trace geographicalknowledge from its infancy till it had reached that maturity and vigour, bywhich, in connection with the corresponding increased civilization, generalinformation and commerce of the world, it was able to advance with rapidstrides, and no longer confining itself to geography, strictly so called, to embrace the natural history of those countries, the existence, extent, and form of which it had first ascertained. 

The great object and design of the commercial part of this work wassimilar; to trace the progress of commercial enterprises from the rudestages of mankind, the changes and transfers it had undergone from onecountry to another, the causes and effects of these, as well as of itsgeneral gradual increase, till, having the whole of Europe under itsinfluence, and aided by that knowledge and civilization with which it hadmainly contributed to bless Europe, it had gained its maturity and vigour, and by its own expansive force pushed itself into every part of the globe, in which there existed any thing to attract it. 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, commerce had not indeed assumedthose features, or reached that form and dimensions by which it wasdistinguished at the end of this century; but as its dimensions graduallyenlarge, it will be necessary to be less particular and more condensed. 

Our plan indeed of being more minute in the early history of geographicalscience and commercial enterprise, is founded on an obvious as well as ajust and important principle. In the infancy of geography and commerce, every fact is important, as reflecting light on the knowledge and state ofmankind at that period, and as bearing on and conducing to their futureprogress; whereas when geography and commerce have been carried so far asto proceed in their course as it were by their own internal impulse, derived from the motion they have been acquiring for ages, their interestand importance is much diminished from this cause, as well as from theminuteness of the objects to which, --all the great ones having beenpreviously occupied by them, --they must necessarily be confined. 

Several circumstances co-operated to direct geographical discovery, duringthe eighteenth century, principally towards the north and north-east ofAsia, and the north-west of America. The tendency and interest of theRussian empire to stretch itself to the east, and the hope still cherishedby the more commercial and maritime nations of Europe, that a passage tothe East Indies might be discovered, either by the north-east round Asia, or by the north-west, in the direction of Hudson's Bay, were among the mostpowerful of the causes which directed discovery towards those parts of theglobe to which we have just alluded. 

The extent of the Russian discoveries and conquests in the north andnorth-east of Asia, added much to geographical knowledge, though from thenature of the countries discovered and conquered, the importance of thisknowledge is comparatively trifling. About the middle of the seventeenthcentury, they ascertained that the Frozen Ocean washed and bounded thenorth of Asia: the first Russian ship sailed down the river Lena to thissea in the year 1636. Three years afterwards, by pushing their conquestsfrom one river to another, and from one rude and wandering tribe toanother, they reached the eastern shores of Asia, not far distant from thepresent site of Ochotsk. Their conquests in this direction had occupiedthem nearly sixty years; and in this time they had annexed to their empiremore than a fourth part of the globe, extending nearly eighty degrees inlength, and in the north reaching to the 160° of east longitude; in breadththeir conquests extended from the fiftieth to the seventy-fifth degree ofnorth latitude. This conquest was completed by a Cossack; another Cossack, as Malte Brun observes, effected what the most skilful and enterprising ofsubsequent navigators have in vain attempted. Guided by the winds, andfollowing the course of the tides, the current and the ice, he doubled theextremity of Asia from Kowyma to the river Anadyn. Kamschatcka, however, which is their principal settlement in the east of Asia, was not discoveredtill the year 1690; five years afterwards they reached it by sea fromOchotsk, but for a long time it was thought to be an island. The KurileIslands were not discovered till the beginning of the eighteenth century. 

The direction of discovery to this part of the world, as well as the planby which it might be most advantageously and successfully executed, wasgiven by Peter the Great, and affords one proof, that his mind wascapacious, though his manners, morals, and conduct, might be those of ahalf-civilized tyrant. Peter did not live to carry his plan into execution:it was not, however, abandoned or neglected; for certainly the Russiangovernment, much more than any other European government, seems to pursuewith a most steady and almost hereditary predilection, all the objectswhich have once occupied its attention and warmed its ambition. On hisdeath, his empress and her successors, particularly Anne and Elizabeth, contributed every thing in their power to carry his plan into full andcomplete execution. They went from Archangel to the Ob, from the Ob to theJenesei. From the Jenesei they reached the Lena, partly by water and partlyby land; from the Lena they went to the eastward as far as the Judigirka:and from Ochotsk they went by the Kurile Islands to Japan. 

One of the most celebrated men engaged in the Russian discoveries in theearly part of the eighteenth century was Behring: he was a Dane by birth, but in the service of Catherine, the widow of Peter the Great, who fixedupon him to carry into execution one of the most favourite plans of herhusband. During Peter's residence in Holland, in the year 1717, the Dutch, who were still disposed to believe that a passage might be discovered tothe East Indies in the northern parts of America, or Asia, urged theEmperor to send out an expedition to determine this point. There was alsoanother point, less interesting indeed to commercial men, but on whichgeographers had bestowed much labour, which it was stated to the Emperormight be ascertained by the same expedition; this was, whether Asia andAmerica were united, or divided by a sea, towards their northernextremities. 

When Peter the Great returned to Russia, he resolved to attempt thesolution of these problems; and with his own hand drew up a set ofinstructions for the proposed voyage; according to these, the vessels to beemployed were to be built in Kamschatka; the unknown coasts of Asia andAmerica were to be explored, and an accurate journal was to be kept. 

It is not known whether the Emperor was induced to plan this expeditionsolely on the representations which were made to him in Holland, or from abelief that the close vicinity of the two continents of Asia and Americahad already been ascertained, or at least rendered highly probable, by someof his own subjects. It is certain that the Russians and the Cossacks intheir service had reached the great promontory of Asia opposite to America;and it is said that the islands lying in Behring Straits, and even thecontinent beyond them, were known to them by report. 

Peter, however, did not live to accomplish his design; and, as we havealready noticed, his widow Catherine fixed upon Behring to conduct theexpedition. After building a vessel in Kamschatka, he sailed in 1728: hisfirst object was to examine the coast of this part of Asia. He was thefirst who ascertained Kamschatka to be a peninsula, and he framed anaccurate chart of it, which is still regarded as one of the best extant. After reaching a Cape in north latitude 67° 18', and being informed by theinhabitants that beyond it the coast bended to the west, he resolved toalter his course to the south. This was accordingly done, but he did notdiscover the opposite coast of America; several circumstances were noticed, however, which indicated that there was land to the east, at no greatdistance, such as floating pine branches and other species of plants, unknown on the coast of Asia; these were always driven ashore when easterlywinds prevailed. The inhabitants also informed him, that, in very clearweather, they were able, from the top of their highest mountains, to descryland to the east. 

Encouraged by these circumstances, Behring resolved to undertake a secondvoyage from Kamschatka: in this voyage he was accompanied by a Russian, named Tchirikoff. They steered east, and first sought for land, which wassaid to have been discovered between the latitude of 40° and 50°; butfinding none, they separated, and steering further north, the Russiandiscovered the continent of America in about 56-1/2°, and Behring 2°further north. On his return, the latter was wrecked in the island whichbears his name, where he died. 

About four years after the death of this navigator, which happened in 1741, the sea between Asia and America was visited by some Russian merchants, whoobtained permission from the government to make discoveries, hunt andtrade; the vessels employed for this purpose were formed of a few boardsfastened together with leathern thongs; yet in these were discovered theAleutian Islands. Soon afterwards another group of islands were discovered;and then a third group, the Black Fox Islands, which are near the Americancontinent. It was not, however, till the year 1760, that the Russianslearnt that Ochotsk was only separated from America by a narrow strait; andit is said that in 1764, a Russian mercantile company sent out somevessels, which passed through a strait to some inhabited islands in 64°north latitude; these were supposed to belong to the continent of America;but if a strait was discovered by these adventurers, there must be an errorin the latitude, as in 64° there is no opening known to exist. 

It was reserved for an English navigator to ascertain the truth of thereport which the Russians had received from the inhabitants of Ochotsk, that their country was separated from America only by a narrow strait. 

This was done during the third and last voyage of Captain Cook; theprincipal design of which was to ascertain the existence and practicabilityof a passage between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, either to thenorth-east or north-west. For this purpose he carefully examined the north-west coast of America, beginning this examination in the latitude of 44°33' north. Previously to this voyage an act of Parliament was passed, granting a reward of 20, 000_l_. To any person who should discover anynorthern passage by sea between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in anyparallel to the northward of the 52° of northern latitude. This voyageof Cook began in 1778; on the 9th of August, in that year, he ascertainedthe position and latitude of the western extremity of America, and soonafterwards he determined the width of that strait which divides the twocontinents. He then steered to the north, and continuing up the strait tillhe was in the latitude 70° 41', he found himself close to the edge of theice which "was as compact as a wall, " and ten or twelve feet high. He wasof course obliged to return to the south, and in this part of his voyage heobserved, on the American side, a low point in latitude 70° 29', to whichhe gave the name of Icy Cape. After the death of Cook, Captain Clarkeentered the strait on the Asiatic side, and reached the latitude of 70°33'; he afterwards got sight of the land on the American side in latitude69° 34'. Such were the results of the last voyage of Captain Cook, respecting the proximity of Asia and America, and the nature of the straitby which they were divided. 

Although the Spaniards seemed to be most interested in whatever concernedthe west coast of America, yet they made no attempt to explore it from thecommencement of the seventeenth century till the year 1774. In 1769, indeed, being alarmed at the evident design of the Russians to settle inthe north-west coast, they formed establishments at St. Diego and Montory. In 1774 they traced the American coast from latitude 53° 53' to latitude55°, and it is said discovered Nootka Sound. In the following year anexpedition was sent from St. Blas, which proceeded along the north-westcoast, and reached to latitude 57° 58'. 

The voyage of Cook roused the Russian government to further exertions; andthey accordingly fitted out an expedition to explore the sea between Asiaand America: the command of it was given to an Englishman of the name ofBillings, who had served as a petty officer under Captain Cook. He was, however, by no means qualified for his situation, and abandoned theenterprise in the latter end of July, having proceeded only a few leaguesbeyond Cape Barrenoi: the whole amount of the information procured duringthis voyage being confined to a few of the Aleutian Islands, and somepoints in the coast of America and Asia. 

A few years afterwards the Empress Catherine sent out a secret expedition;the principal object of which was to ascertain the situation of the islandsbetween the two continents. Little is known respecting this expedition, except that some observations were made on Behring's Straits, which, however, were not passed. The distance between the continents was estimatedat forty-eight miles. 

About the same time, the great profits which it was expected would bederived from the fur trade on the north-west coast of America, inducedseveral commercial vessels to visit it; and during their voyages, nearlyall the parts of it which had not been visited by Cook, were examined asfar as the inlet which was named after him, in latitude 61° 15'. Thisextent of coast was found to consist of a vast chain of islands; and theappearance and nature of it revived the hope which Cook's last voyage hadextinguished, that in this part of the coast there might be a practicablepassage from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean. 

This hope was again extinguished in the opinion of most people, by theresult of two of the most celebrated voyages which have been performedsince the death of Captain Cook: we allude to the voyages of La Perouse, and of Vancouver: the former sailed with two frigates from Brest on the 1stof August, 1785: the object of this voyage was very comprehensive andimportant, being no less than to fill up whatever had been left deficientor obscure by former navigators, and to determine whatever was doubtful, soas to render the geography of the globe as complete and minute as possible:he was directed to supply the island in the South Seas with useful Europeanvegetables. At present we shall confine our notice of this voyage to whatrelates to the more immediate object of this part of our work, the coast ofNorth-west America. 

The north-west coast of America was made by La Perouse, in latitude sixtydegrees north: from this latitude he carefully traced and examined it tothe Spanish settlement of Monterey. --an extent of coast of which Cook hadhad only a transient and imperfect view. Of this he constructed a chart, which at the time was justly regarded as extremely accurate and complete, but was subsequently rendered much more so by the survey of particularpoints and bays made by the vessels engaged in the fur trade, andespecially by that which was constructed by Vancouver, from a close andcareful examination of the numerous channels with which this coast abounds, principally performed in boats, and therefore descending into very minutedetails. 

The accessions made by him to geography in other parts of the globe, aswell as his unfortunate fate, will be afterwards related. 

In the year 1790, a dispute arose between Britain and Spain, respectingNootka Sound: on the adjustment of this dispute, the British governmentdetermined to send out an officer to secure possession of the settlement, and also to determine the question respecting the existence of a navigablepassage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Captain Vancouver wasselected for these purposes: his instructions were, after accomplishing hismission at Nootka Sound, to examine that part of the coast occupied by thechain of islands, discovered by the vessels in the fur trade, "and toascertain, with the greatest exactitude, the nature and extent of everycommunication by water which might seem to tend to facilitate commercialrelations between the north-west coast and the countries on the east of thecontinent, inhabited by British subjects or claimed by Great Britain;" andin particular to search for the strait of John de Fuca, and to examine ifCook's River had not its source in some of the lakes frequented by theCanadian traders, or by the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company. 

He sailed from England with a sloop and brig on the 1st of April, 1791. Hebegan his examination of the west coast of America, in latitude 39° 27'north, and continued it as far as Nootka: finding that the Spaniards raiseddifficulties to the restoration of this settlement, he proceeded to carryinto execution the other objects of this voyage. During three summers, hesurveyed the north-west coast of America as far as Cook's River, with adiligence, attention, and accuracy which could not have been surpassed. Every opening which presented itself was explored, and never left till itstermination was determined; so that on a very careful and minute inspectionof every creek and inlet of a coast consisting almost entirely of creeksand channels, formed by an innumerable multitude of islands, he thoughthimself justified in pronouncing, that there is no navigable passagebetween the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, unless there may be a possibilityof sailing through the strait between Asia and America, and navigating theFrozen Ocean. The surveys which were made during this voyage, may justly besaid to have rendered perfect the geography of that part of the north-westcoast of America to which it extended, and indeed to have completed thewhole geography of this coast, which, from the multitude of its creeks, inlets, islands, &c. , presents formidable as well as petty and troublesomedifficulties in the way of its accurate and complete survey. CaptainVancouver, however, was extremely fortunate in the weather which attendedhim during the whole of the three summers which he spent on this coast. 

Upwards of twenty years elapsed after the voyage of Vancouver, beforeanother attempt was made to find out a passage from the north Pacific intothe Atlantic Ocean. This attempt proceeded from Russia: not however fromthe government, but an individual. Count Romanzoff, a Russian nobleman, iswell known for his liberal and judicious encouragement of every thing whichcan promote useful knowledge, especially in what relates to the improvementand benefit of his country. His first design was to fit out an expeditionto explore the north-west passage by Hudson's Bay or Davis' Straits; butlearning that the British government were making preparations to attempt itby that route, he changed his plan, and resolved to fit out an expeditionto attempt the discovery of a passage from the eastward. 

A ship was accordingly built and equipped, and the command given toLieutenant Kotzebue. He sailed from Russia in the autumn of 1815, and onthe 19th of June in the following year he reached Kamschatka. This he lefton the 15th of July and on the 20th of that month, Behring's Islands wereseen to the northward of Cape Prince of Wales. A tract of low land wasascertained to be an island about seven miles long, and a mile across, inthe widest part: beyond it was a deep inlet running eastward into thecontinent. Lieutenant Kotzebue, animated and encouraged by this appearance, proceeded in a northerly direction, and found that the land continued low, and tended more to the eastwards. On the 1st of August the entrance into abroad inlet was discovered, into which the current ran very rapidly. Theopening of this inlet was known before, and is indeed laid down in thecharts attached to Marchand's Voyage round the World; but Kotzebue iscertainly the first person who explained it. As it was perfectly calm whenhe reached this inlet, he resolved to go on shore, and examine from someeminence the direction of the coast. "We landed, " he observes, "withoutdifficulty, near a hill, which I immediately ascended; from the summit Icould no where perceive land in the strait: the high mountains to the northeither formed islands, or were a coast by themselves; for that the twocoasts could not be connected together was evident, even from the verygreat difference between this very low and that remarkably high land. Itwas my intention to continue the survey of the coast in the boats, but anumber of baydares coming to us along the coast from the east, withheldme. " He afterwards had an interview with the Americans who came in thesebaydares: he found that they prized tobacco very highly, and that theyreceived this and other European goods from the natives of the oppositecoast of Asia. It was probably the first time in their lives that theseAmericans had seen Europeans. They were of the middle size; robust andhealthy; ugly and dirty; with small eyes, and very high cheek bones: "theybore holes on each side of their mouths, in which they wear morse bones, ornamented with blue glass beads, which give them a most frightfulappearance. Their dresses, which are made of skins, are of the same cut asthe Parka, in Kamtschatka; only that there they reach to the feet, and herehardly cover the knee: besides this, they wear pantaloons, and small halfboots of seal skins. "

The latitude of this place, or rather of the ship's anchorage, at the timethis survey was made, was 66° 42' 30", and the longitude 164° 12' 50". There were several circumstances which induced Kotzebue to hope that he hadat length found the channel which led to the Atlantic: nothing was seen butsea to the eastward, and a strong current ran to the north-east. Underthese circumstances, thirteen days were occupied in examining the shores ofthis opening; but no outlet was discovered, except one to the south-east, which seemed to communicate with Norton Sound, and a channel on the westernside, which of course could not be the one sought for. Kotzebue, however, remarks, "I certainly hope that this sound may lead to importantdiscoveries next year; and though a north-east passage may not withcertainty be depended on, yet I believe I shall be able to penetrate muchfarther to the east, as the land has very deep indentures. " The name ofKotzebue's Sound was given to this inlet. Next year he returned toprosecute his discovery; but in consequence of an accident which happenedto the ship, and a very dangerous blow which he received at the same time, he abandoned the attempt. 

That there is an opening, either by Kotzebue's Inlet or near to it, to theFrozen Ocean, is probable, not only from the circumstances we havementioned of an opening and a strong current to the north-east having beenobserved, but also from other circumstances noticed in the account of thisvoyage. This current brings large quantities of drift wood into Kotzebue'sSound: and in the breaking up of the ice in the sea of Kamschatka, theicebergs and fields of ice do not drift, as in the Atlantic, to the south, nor do they drive to the Atlantic islands, but into the strait to thenorth. The direction of the current was always north-east in Behring'sStraits; and it was so strong and rapid, as to carry the ship fifty milesin twenty-four hours; that is, above two miles an hour. On the Asiatic sideof the strait it ran at the rate of three miles an hour; and even with afresh north wind, it ran equally strong from the south. The inference drawnby Kotzebue is as follows: "The constant north-east direction of thecurrent in Behring's Straits, proves that the water meets with noopposition, and consequently a passage must exist, though perhaps notadapted to navigation. Observations have long been made, that the currentin Baffin's Bay runs to the south; and thus no doubt can remain that themass of water which flows into Behring's Straits takes its course roundAmerica, and returns through Baffin's Bay into the Ocean. "

In 1819 the Russian government sent out another expedition, whose objectwas to trace the continent of America to the northward and eastward. InJuly, 1820, they reached Behring's Straits, and were supposed to havepassed them in that year; in the winter they returned to some of theRussian settlements on the coast of America: what they have since done ordiscovered is not known. 

Such is the result of what has hitherto been discovered by sea, withrespect to the contiguity of Asia and America, the northern parts of thesecontinents, and the probability of a passage from the Pacific to theAtlantic. 

Very lately some attempts have been made to reach the north-easternextremity of Asia by land. "In February, 1821, Baron Wrangel, an officer ofgreat merit and of considerable science, left his head-quarters in theNishney Kolyma, to settle by astronomical observations the position ofShatatzkoi Noss, or the North-east Cape of Asia, which he found to lie inlatitude 70° 5' north, considerably lower than it is usually placed in themaps. Having crossed this point, he undertook the hazardous enterprize ofcrossing the ice of the Polar Sea, on sledges drawn by dogs, in search ofthe land said to have been discovered in 1762 to the northward of theKolyma, He travelled directly north eighty miles, without perceiving anything but a field of interminable ice, the surface of which had now becomeso broken and uneven, as to prevent a further prosecution of his journey. He had gone far enough, however, to ascertain that no such land had everbeen discovered. " (Quarterly Review, No. LII. P. 342. )

Another attempt, still more extraordinary and hazardous, has lately beenmade to explore the north-east of Asia, and particularly to determinewhether the two continents of Asia and America do not unite at theNorth-east Cape, or in some other point. This enterprize was undertaken byHenry Dundas Cochrane, a commander in the British navy; who receivedassurances from the Russian government that he should not be molested onhis journey; that he should receive any assistance, protection, andfacilities he should require; and that he might join an expedition sent bythe Russian government toward the Pole, if he should meet it, and accompanyit as far as he might be inclined. He left Petersburgh in the beginning ofthe summer of 1820, and in one hundred and twenty-three days reached theBaikal, having traversed eight thousand versts of country, at the rate offorty-three miles a day. He seems afterwards to have gone as far as theAltai Mountains, on the frontiers of China. As, however, his principalobject was to explore the extreme north-east of Asia, he went down theLena, and reached Jakutzk on the 16th of October, 1820. On the Kolyma, where he arrived on the 30th of December, in longitude 164°, he met theRussian polar expedition. From Jakutzk to this place he travelled fourhundred miles, without meeting a single human being. At the fair held atTchutski, whither he next directed his steps, he received much informationrespecting the northeast of Asia. He ascertained the existence of thiscape; all doubts, he says, being now solved, not by calculation, but byocular demonstration. Its latitude and longitude, are well ascertained: heplaces this cape half a degree more to the northward than Baron Wrangel;but it is doubtful whether he himself reached it, and if he did, whether hehad the means of fixing its latitude, or whether he depends entirely on theinformation he received at the fair of Tchutski. His expressions, in aletter to the President of the Royal Society, are, "No land is consideredto exist to the northward of it. The east side of the Noss is composed ofbold and perpendicular cliffs, while the west side exhibits gradualdeclivities; the whole most sterile, but presenting an awfully magnificentappearance. " From the fair he seems to have returned to Kolyma, and thenceproceeded to Okotsk, a dangerous, difficult, and fatiguing journey of threethousand versts, a great part performed on foot, in seventy days. From thislast place he proceeded to Kamschatka, where it is supposed he was obligedto terminate his investigations, in consequence of an order or intimationfrom the Russian government not to proceed further. 

We must next direct our attention to what has been done since thecommencement of the eighteenth century, toward discovering a passage in thenorth-east of America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. 

One of the conditions on which the Hudson's Bay Company obtained theircharter, in the year 1670, from Charles II. , was, that they shouldprosecute their discoveries; but so far from doing this, they are accused, and with great appearance of reason, of not only suffering their ardour fordiscovery to cool, but also of endeavouring to conceal, as much aspossible, the true situation and nature of the coast about Hudson's Bay, partly in order to secure more effectually their monopoly, and partly fromthe dread they entertained, that if a passage to the Pacific werediscovered by this route, government would recal their charter, and grantit to the East India Company. They were indeed roused, but veryineffectively, from their torpor, by one of their captains intimating, thatif they refused to fulfill the terms of their charter, by makingdiscoveries, and extending their trade, he would himself apply to thecrown. In order to silence him, they sent him and another captain out intwo vessels, in 1719 or 1720; but they both perished, it is supposed, nearMarble Island, without effecting any thing. 

Two years afterwards they sent out another ship under the command of aperson, who, destitute of the requisite knowledge and enterprize, wastotally unfit for such an undertaking: the result was such as might havebeen anticipated--nothing was effected. An interval of twenty years passedover, and the company again sank into apathy on the subject of a north-westpassage, when the attention of government was directed to the subject bythe enthusiasm of an Irish gentleman of the name of Dobbs. Having wellconsidered what preceding navigators had ascertained, and especially theremarkable circumstance particularly noticed by Fox, that the farther heremoved from Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome the smaller was the height to whichthe tide rose, and who thence inferred, that if a passage were practicable, it must be in this direction, this gentleman applied to the company to sendout a vessel. Accordingly, a vessel was sent; but all that is known of thisvoyage, and probably all that was done, amounts merely to this, that thevessel reached 62° 30' north latitude: here they saw a number of islands, and of white whales, and ascertained that the tide rose ten or twelve feet, and came from the north. 

Mr. Dobbs next applied to government, who at his request sent out twovessels under Captain Middleton. But Middleton, who had been in the serviceof the company for many voyages, returned after having sailed up theWelcome to Wager's River, and looked into, or perhaps sailed round, a bay, which he named Repulse Bay. Mr. Dobbs accused him of having misrepresentedor concealed his discoveries; and there seems good ground for such anaccusation, which indeed was confirmed by the evidence of his officers, andnot explicitly denied by himself. Government was undoubtedly of opinionthat the voyage of Middleton had not determined the non-existence orimpracticability of a passage; for the next year an act of parliament waspassed, granting a reward of 20, 000_l_. To the person or persons whoshould discover a northwest passage through Hudson's Straits to the westernand southern ocean of America. 

Stimulated by the hope of obtaining this large sum, a company was formed, who raised 10, 000_l_. , in shares of 100l. , with which they fitted out twoships; the Dobbs, commanded by Captain More; and the California, by CaptainSmith. They sailed from London on the 20th of May, 1746. When they reachedthe American coast near Marble Island, they made some observations on thetides, which they found flowed from the north-east, and consequentlyfollowed the direction of the coast; they likewise ascertained that thetide rose to the height of ten feet. While they were in their winterquarters at Port Jackson, they received little or no assistance from theservants of the Hudson's Bay Company. On resuming their voyage, andreaching the vicinity of Knight's Island, the needles of their compasseslost their magnetic quality, which they did not recover till they were keptwarm. Proceeding northwards, they examined Wager's Strait; but inconsequence of a difference of opinion between the commanders, theyreturned to England. The only points ascertained by this voyage were, thatWager's Strait was a deep bay, or inlet, and that there existed anotherinlet, which, however, they did not explore to the termination, named bythem Chesterfield's Inlet. The fresh buffalo's flesh, which was sold tothem by the Esquimaux, was probably the flesh of the musk ox. 

After this voyage nothing was done, either by the Hudson's Bay Company, government, or individuals, towards the exploring of a passage in thenorth, till the year 1762, when the company, coinciding with the opinionthat was then prevalent, that Chesterfield's Inlet ought to be examined, asaffording a fair prospect of a passage into the Pacific Ocean, sent avessel to determine this point. The report of the captain, on his return, was, that he had sailed up the inlet in a westerly direction for more thanone hundred and fifty miles, till he found the water perfectly fresh; buthe acknowledged that he did not go farther, or reach the head of it. As theresult of this voyage was deemed unsatisfactory, still leaving the pointwhich it had been its object to determine doubtful, the same captain wasagain sent out, in company with another ship, with express directions totrace the inlet to its western limits, if practicable. They ascertainedthat the fresh water, which had been discovered in the former voyage, wasthat of a river, which was the outlet of a lake, and this lake theyexplored; it was twenty-four miles long, and six or seven broad; theylikewise found a river flowing into the lake from the west, but they wereprevented from exploring it to any great distance by falls, thatintercepted the progress of their boats. These particulars are detailed inGoldson's Observations on the Passage between the Atlantic and PacificOceans; the voyages themselves were never published, do not seem to begenerally known, and have escaped the notice of Forster, the author of theHistory of Voyages and Discoveries in the North. Forster is likewise silentrespecting an expedition that was equipped and sent out by some gentlemenof Virginia in 1772, to attempt a north-west passage. The captain on hisreturn reported that he reached a large bay in latitude 69° 11', which hesupposed hitherto unknown; that from the course of the tides, he thought itprobable there might be a passage through it, but that as this bay wasseldom free from ice, the passage could seldom if ever be practicable. 

In the year 1770 the Hudson's Bay Company, more alive to the prospect ofgain than to the interests of discovery and geographical science, havingreceived some information from the Indians that copper might be obtained ingreat quantity far to the west of Fort Prince of Wales, resolved todispatch Mr. Hearne, belonging to that fort, in search of it. Thisgentleman made four different excursions for this purpose, but it was onlyduring the fourth that he reached to any great distance from the fort. Inthis excursion he penetrated to what he conceived to be the mouth of theCoppermine River, in the Frozen Ocean, about the latitude of 72° north. According to his account, Chesterfield Inlet is not the north-west passage, and the American continent stretches very considerably to the north-west ofHudson's Bay. The whole extent of his journey was about thirteen hundredmiles. It was however doubted, whether what he deemed to be the mouth ofthe Coppermine River was actually such. It is certainly singular, thatthough he staid there for twenty-four hours, he did not actually ascertainthe height to which the tide rose, but judged at that circumstance from themarks on the edge of the ice. There are other points in the printedaccount, as well as discrepancies between that and his MS. , which tended towithhold implicit belief from his assertion, that he had reached the FrozenOcean. 

In the year 1789 the North-west Company having received information from anIndian, that there was at no great distance from Montreal, to thenorthward, a river which ran into the sea, Mr. M'Kenzie, one of thepartners of that company, resolved to ascertain the truth of this report, by going himself on an expedition for that purpose. He set out, attended bya few Indians; and after traversing the desert and inhospitable country inwhich the posts of the company are established, he reached a river whichran to the north. He followed the course of this river till he arrived atwhat he conceived to be the Frozen Ocean, were he saw some small whalesamong the ice, and determined the rise and fall of the tide. This river wascalled after him, Mackenzie's River, and to the island he gave the name ofWhale Island. This island is in latitude 69° 14'. 

In 1793 Mr. M'Kenzie again set out on an inland voyage of geographical andcommercial discovery, taking with him the requisite astronomicalinstruments and a chronometer. His course he directed to the west. Aftertravelling one hundred miles on foot, he and his companions embarked on ariver, running westward, which conveyed them to an inlet of the PacificOcean. Here he observed the rise and fall of the tide, and saw porpoisesand sea otters. The claim of the discovery of the Frozen Ocean by anorth-west route, to which Mr. M'Kenzie lays claim, has been questioned, aswell as Mr. Hearne's claim. It has been remarked, that he might haveascertained beyond a doubt whether he had actually reached the sea, bysimply dipping his finger into the water, and ascertaining whether it wassalt or not. The account he gives of the rise of the tides at the mouth ofMackenzie River serves also to render it very doubtful whether he hadreached the ocean; this rise he does not estimate greater than sixteen oreighteen inches. On the whole, we may conclude, that if Mr. Hearne actuallytraced the Coppermine River to its entrance into the sea, or Mr. M'Kenziethe river that bears his name, they have not been sufficiently explicit intheir proofs that such was really the case. 

At the time when the British government sent out Captain Cooke on his lastvoyage of discovery, Lieutenant Pickersgill was also sent out by them, toexamine the western parts of Baffin's Bay, but he never entered the bay. Government were equally unfortunate in their choice of Lieutenant Young, who was sent with the same object the following year: he reached no fartherthan the seventy-second degree of latitude; and instead of sailing alongthe western side of the bay, which is generally free from ice, he clung tothe eastern side, to which the ice is always firmly attached. Indeed, ifDr. Douglas's character of him was just, he was ill fitted for theenterprize on which he was sent; for his talents, he observes, were moreadapted to contribute to the glory of a victory, as commander of aline-of-battle ship, than to add to geographical discoveries byencountering mountains of ice, and exploring unknown coasts. 

Notwithstanding the unsuccessful issue of all these attempts to discover anorth-west passage, the existence and practicability of it still werecherished by many geographers, who had particularly studied the subject. Indeed, nothing had resulted from any of the numerous voyages to theHudson's or Baffin's Bay, which in the smallest degree rendered theexistence of such a passage unlikely. Among those scientific men whocherished the idea of such a passage with the most enthusiasm andconfidence, and who brought to the investigation the most extensive andminute knowledge of all that had been done, was Mr. Dalrymple, hydrographerto the Admiralty. "He had long been of opinion, that not only Greenland, but all the land seen by Baffin on the northern and eastern sides of thegreat bay bearing his name, was composed of clusters of islands, and that apassage through the _Fretum Davis_, round the northern extremity ofCumberland Island, led directly to the North Sea, from the seventy to theseventy-first degree of latitude. " This opinion of Mr. Dalrymple wasgrounded, in part at least, on the authority of an old globe, one of thefirst constructed in Britain, preserved in the library of the Inner Temple:this globe contains all the discoveries of our early navigators. Davisrefers to it; and Hackluyt, in his edition of 1589, describes it "as a verylarge and most exact terrestrial globe, collected and reformed according tothe newest, secretest, and latest discoveries, both Spanish, Portugal, andEnglish, composed by Mr. Emmeric Molyneaux, of Lambeth, a rare gentleman inhis profession, being therein for diverse years greatly supported by thepurse and liberality of the worshipful merchant Mr. William Sanderson. "

Mr. Dalrymple prevailed on the Hudson's Bay Company to send out Mr. Duncan, a master in the navy, who had displayed considerable talent on a voyage toNootka Sound. This gentleman was very sanguine of success, and very zealousin the cause in which he was employed. But this attempt also wasunsuccessful: Mr. Duncan, after a considerable lapse of time, reaching nofarther than Chesterfield Inlet. 

The attention of scientific men, and of the public at large, was calledagain to this important problem in the geography of the northern seas, bysome elaborate and well informed articles in the Quarterly Review, whichare generally supposed to be written by Mr. Barrow, the under secretary ofthe Admiralty, who also published an abstract of voyages to the NorthernOcean. 

The British government, influenced by a very laudable love of science, andperhaps regarding the discovery of a north-west passage as of the sameimportance to commerce as the reviewer evidently did, resolved to send anexpedition for the purpose of attempting the discovery. Accordingly, on the8th of April 1818, two ships, the Isabella and Alexander, well fitted bytheir construction, as well as strengthened and prepared in every possiblemanner for such a voyage, sailed from the Thames. Captain Ross had theprincipal command. It is not our design here to follow them during theirvoyage to their destination: suffice it to say, that on the 18th of August, exactly four months after they sailed from the Thames, the ships passedCape Dudley Digges, the latitude of which they found to agree nearly withthat assigned to it by Baffin, thus affording another proof of the accuracyof that old navigator, whose alleged discoveries have been latterlyattempted to be wrested from him, or rather been utterly denied. The sameday they passed an inlet, to which Baffin had given the name ofWolstenholme Sound. Captain Ross, in his account of his voyage, says it wascompletely blocked up with ice; but in the view taken of it, and publishedby him, there is a deep and wide opening, completely free from ice. Infact, on this occasion, as well as others of more consequence, to which weshall presently advert, Captain Ross, unfortunately for the accomplishmentof the object on which he was sent, contented himself with conjecture whereproof was accessible; for all he remarks respecting this sound is, that itseemed to be eighteen or twenty leagues in depth, and the land on the eastside appeared to be habitable. When it is considered that in these high andfoggy latitudes much deception of sight takes place, it ought to be theabsolute and undeviating rule of the navigator to explore so far, and toexamine so carefully and closely, that he may be certain, at least, thathis sight does not deceive him. The same negligence attended theexamination of Whale Sound: all the notice of it is, that they could notapproach it in a direct line, on account of ice; it was, in fact, neverapproached nearer than twenty leagues. Captain Ross does not seem to havebeen fully sensible of the nature of the object on which he was sent out. If there existed a passage at all, it must be in a strait, sound, or someother opening of the sea: it could exist no where else. Every such opening, which exhibited the least appearance, or the smallest symptoms ofstretching far, especially if it stretched in the proper direction, oughtto have been practically and closely examined, not merely viewed at adistance in a foggy atmosphere. As for the impediments, they were what wereto be expected, what the ships were sent out to meet and overcome; and tillpersevering and even highly hazardous efforts had proved that they couldnot be overcome, they ought not to have been suffered to weigh the leastwith the captain or his men, and especially not with the former. 

But to proceed: about midnight on the 19th of August, the sound describedby Baffin to be the largest of all the sounds he discovered, and called byhim Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, was distinctly seen; and the two capes whichformed its entrance were called by Captain Ross after the two shipsIsabella and Alexander. "I considered, " he informs us, "the bottom of thissound to be about eighteen leagues distant, but its entrance was completelyblocked up by ice. " Here again, a sound which seemed to promise fair tolead them into the great Polar Sea was left undiscovered, and in factunapproached; for at the distance of eighteen leagues, in that deceptiveclimate, nothing could be really known of its real state or practicability. Had Captain Ross made the attempt; had he spent but a couple of days, andactually encountered serious obstacles, even though he had not experiencedthat those obstacles were insurmountable, he would have had some excuse;but it is impossible not to censure him for approaching no nearer thaneighteen leagues to a sound such as this, and pronouncing at this distancethat the ice blocked it up completely. His reasoning to support his beliefthat this sound afforded no passage, and to defend his not having exploredit, is weak and inconclusive; but we shall not examine it, because thecommander to whom such an expedition is entrusted, should never reason, where he can prove by actual observation and experiment. It is unsafe inhim to reason, because he will most assuredly be tempted to make his lineof conduct bend to his hypothesis and reasoning. 

Captain Ross returned down the western side of Baffin's Bay. On the 21st anopening was seen, which answered to the description of Alderman JonesSound, given by Baffin; but here again the ice and fog prevented them fromapproaching near; as if the fog might not have cleared up in a day or two, and the ice might not either have been drifted off in as short a space, or, if it could not, have been passed by the crew, so far, at least, as to havegained a nearer and better view of this sound. 

Baffin describes this sound as a large inlet, and adds, that the coasttended to the southward, and had the appearance of a bay. This is confirmedby Captain Ross; for he informs us that the land was observed to take asoutherly direction. On the 28th of August the sea became more clear ofice, and no bottom was found with three hundred fathoms of line: in theafternoon of that day they succeeded in getting completely clear of theice, and once more found themselves in the open sea. Baffin and Davis bothmention that the northern parts of Baffin's Bay were clear of ice when theywere there, so that it is probably generally the case. On the 29th a wideopening was descried in the land; this they entered on the following day. "On each side was a chain of high mountains; and in the space between, W. S. W. , there appeared a yellow sky, but no land was seen, nor was there anyice on the water, except a few icebergs; the opening therefore took theappearance of a channel, the entrance of which was judged to be forty-fivemiles; the land on the north side lying in an E. N. E. And W. S. W. Direction, and the south side nearly east and west. " "As the eveningclosed, the wind died away, the weather became mild and warm, the watermuch smoother, and the atmosphere clear and serene. "

Even those who are little acquainted with the symptoms which in this highlatitude indicate an open sea, must be struck with the wide differencebetween these circumstances and those which had met the navigators inalmost every other part of their voyage, since they had approached theplace where a passage might possibly exist and be found. Yet, even at thistime and place, when expectation must have been high, and not without goodreason, and when we are expressly informed by Captain Ross that muchinterest was excited by the appearance of the sound, the attempt toascertain, by close and accurate investigation, whether this sound wasreally closed at its extremity, or led into another sea, was given up, after having sailed into it during the night, and till three o'clock thefollowing day. It is unnecessary here to examine the reasons which inducedCaptain Ross to leave this sound without putting the question of its natureand termination beyond a doubt, by an accurate and close survey. He says, that at three o'clock he distinctly saw the land round the bottom of thebay, forming a connected chain of mountains with those which extended alongthe north and south sides. No person seems to have been on deck when thisland was seen by the captain, and orders in consequence given to put theships about, except Mr. Lewis, the master, and another. So that in thislatitude, where the sight at all times is mocked with fogs and othercircumstances which mislead it, and where, therefore, it is absolutelynecessary that as many eyes as possible should be employed, that theseshould get as near the object as possible, that it should be viewed for aconsiderable length of time, and under as many aspects, and from as manypoints as possible--not a subordinate or incidental design of the voyage, but that for which it was expressly made, was abandoned, and on the soleresponsibility of the captain and two other persons. 

It is evident, too, that the entrance to many inland seas seems, whenviewed from a distance, to be blocked up by connected land. It is wellobserved by the reviewer, whom we have already quoted, that there is not areach in the Thames that to the eye does not appear to terminate the river;and in many of them (in the Hope, for instance) it is utterly impossible toform a conjecture, at the distance of only two or three miles, what part ofthe land is intersected by the stream. 

Although, however, this voyage was abandoned when it ought not to havebeen, and consequently failed in its peculiar and important object, yetsome access to geographical knowledge was gained by it. The existence ofBaffin's Bay is confirmed, though its width and form are different fromthose which were previously assigned it in the maps; and thus thisenterprising and deserving navigator has at length justice done to him. 

Other branches of science were benefited and extended by this voyage, however unsuccessful it proved in its grand and leading object; and some ofthe accessions were of a very interesting nature. We allude principally tothe observations made on the swinging of the pendulum, --the variation anddip of the magnetic needle, --especially by the influence of the iron in andabout the ship, --and on the temperature of the sea at different depths. 

Soon after the return of this expedition, an order in council was issued, which empowered and authorized the Board of Longitude to adopt a graduatedscale of rewards, proportioned to the progress of discovery made to thewestward in these high northern latitudes, from Hudson's or Baffin's Bay, in the direction of the Pacific Ocean. The first point of this graduatedscale is the meridian of the Coppermine River of Hearne, and whatever shipreaches this is entitled to a reward of 5000l. Government were so convincedthat Captain Ross's voyage had increased the probability of a north-westpassage, that they determined to lose no time in making another attempt todiscover it; and in order to afford every chance of success to this secondattempt, they also determined, not only to send out a maritime expedition, to follow out the route which Captain Ross had so unaccountably andprovokingly abandoned, but also to send out a land expedition, toco-operate in the same grand object. 

The latter, under the command and direction of Lieutenant Franklin, wasordered to proceed from Fort York, on the shores of Hudson's Bay, to themouth of the Coppermine River; and from thence along the shores of thePolar Sea, either to the east or to the north, as circumstances mightdetermine: they were expressly to have in view the determination of thequestion regarding the position of the northeastern extremity of thecontinent of America. As the route of this land expedition lay for a greatpart of it through those districts within which the Hudson's Bay Companywere accustomed to travel and trade, their co-operation and assistance wasrequested and obtained. The exact results of this land expedition are notyet fully and clearly known; but it is generally understood, that afterhaving undergone infinite hardships and sufferings, they have been enabledto confirm Hearne and Mackenzie's discoveries or conjectures respecting theCoppermine River, and to ascertain other points connected with thegeography and natural history of these remote and almost inaccessibleregions, though the most important and leading points of the expeditionhave not been settled. [6]

In consequence of Captain Ross having penetrated into Baffin's Bay, anobject only accomplished once before by Baffin himself, and which for twohundred years had been frequently again fruitlessly attempted, theGreenland ships which left England during the season immediately followingCaptain Ross's return, were induced, in order to reach a fresh and unfishedsea, to pursue the course that he had opened for them. The circumstancethat fourteen of them were wrecked, proves, unless the season had beenuncommonly tempestuous, that Captain Ross must have conducted hisexpedition with considerable care and skill, notwithstanding he missed anexcellent opportunity of either discovering a north-west passage, or ofadding one more opening to those which were proved not to contain it. 

The second sea expedition, to which we have already alluded, was under thedirection of Captain Parry, who had sailed along with Captain Ross in thefirst expedition; he was therefore possessed of much knowledge andexperience, which would prove essentially useful and directly applicable tothe object he was about to undertake. Two ships were fitted out with allnecessary preparations for such a voyage, the Hecla bomb, and Gripergun-brig, and they sailed from the Thames early in the month of May 1819. Of the high importance and value to navigators of the chronometer, CaptainParry had a striking and undoubted proof in the early part of his voyage. On the 24th of May he saw a small solitary crag, called Rockall, not farfrom the Orkney Islands. "There is, " he observes, in this part of hisjournal, "no more striking proof of the infinite value of chronometers atsea, than the certainty with which a ship may sail directly for a singlerock, like this, rising like a speck out of the ocean, and at the distanceof forty-seven leagues from any other land. "

About the middle of July he reached the latitude of 73°, after having mademany fruitless attempts to cross the ice that fills the central portion ofDavis's Strait and Baffin's Bay. The instructions of Captain Parryparticularly pointed out the sound which Captain Ross had left unexplored, and which there could be no doubt was the Sir James Lancaster's Sound ofBaffin, to be most carefully and minutely examined, as the one by which itwas most probable a north-west passage might be effected, or which, atleast, even if not navigable, on account of the ice, would connect thePacific and Atlantic Oceans. On the seventh day after entering this sound, he succeeded in reaching open water; but this was not reached withoutinfinite difficulty and labour, as the breadth of the barrier of ice wasfound to be eighty miles; through this they penetrated by the aid ofsailing, tracking, heaving by the capstan, and sawing, being able toadvance, even with the assistance of all the methods, only at the rate ofhalf a mile an hour, or twelve miles a day. 

For some days after this, their patience was tried, and nearly exhausted, by contrary winds, but on the 3d of August a favourable and fresh breezearose from the eastward. Advantage was immediately taken of it. "We allfelt, " says Captain Parry, "it was that point of the voyage which was todetermine the success or failure of the expedition, according as one orother of the opposite opinions respecting the termination of the soundshould be corroborated. It is more easy to imagine than to describe (hecontinues) the almost breathless anxiety which was now visible in everycountenance, while, as the breeze increased to a fresh gale, we ran quicklyup the sound. The masts' heads were crowded by the officers and men duringthe whole afternoon; and an unconcerned observer (if any could have beenunconcerned on such an occasion) would have been amused by the eagernesswith which the various reports from the crow's-nest were received, all, however, hitherto favourable to our most sanguine hopes. "

The weather, most fortunately at this interesting and important period, continued remarkably clear; and the ships having reached the longitude of83° 12', the two shores of the sound were ascertained to be still at leastfifty miles asunder, and what was still more encouraging, no land wasdiscerned to the westward. In fact, there seemed no obstacle; none of thosemountains with which, according to Captain Ross, the passage of the soundwas eternally blocked up, nor even any ice, an object of a less serious andpermanent nature. Other circumstances were also encouraging; the wholesurface of the sea was completely free from ice, no land was seen in thedirection of their course, and no bottom could be reached with one hundredand seventy fathoms of line, so that "we began, " observes Captain Parry, "to flatter ourselves that we had fairly entered the Polar Sea, and some ofthe most sanguine among us had even calculated the bearing and distance ofIcy Cape, as a matter of no very difficult or improbable accomplishment. This pleasing prospect was rendered the more flattering, by the sea having, as we thought, regained the usual oceanic colour, and by a long swell whichwas rolling in from the southward and eastward. " The first circumstancethat threw a damp over their sanguine expectations, was the discovery ofland a-head; they were however renewed by ascertaining that this was only asmall island: but though the insurmountable obstacle of a land terminationof the sound was thus removed, another appeared in its place; as theyperceived that a floe of ice was stretched from the island to the northernshore. On the southern shore, however, a large inlet was discovered, tenleagues broad at its entrance, and as no land could be seen in the line ofits direction, hopes were excited that it might lead to a passage into thePolar Sea, freer from ice than the one above described. At this period ofthe voyage a singular circumstance was remarked: during their passage downSir James Lancaster's Sound, the compass would scarcely traverse, and theship's iron evidently had great influence over it: both these phaenomenabecame more apparent and powerful, in proportion as their westerly courseencreased. When they were arrived in the latitude of 73°, the directivepower of the needle became so weak, that it was completely overcome by theattraction of the iron in the ship, so that the needle might now be saidto point to the north pole of the ship. And by an experiment it was found, that a needle suspended by a thread, the movements of which were of coursescarcely affected by any friction, always pointed to the head of the ship, in whatever direction it might be. 

To this inlet, which Captain Parry was now sailing down, he gave the nameof the Prince Regent. The prospect was still very flattering: the widthincreased as they proceeded, and the land inclined more and more to thesouth-westward. But their expectations were again destroyed: a floe of icestretched to the southward, beyond which no sea was to be descried. CaptainParry therefore resolved to return to the wide westerly passage which hehad quitted. On the 22d of August, being in longitude 92-1/4°, they openedtwo fine channels, the one named after the Duke of Wellington; this waseight leagues in width, and neither land nor ice could be seen from themast head though the weather was extremely clear; this channel tended tothe N. N. W. The other stretched nearly west: and though it was not so open, yet as it was more directly in the course which it was their object topursue, it was preferred by Captain Parry. By the 25th they had reached 99°west longitude, about 20 degrees beyond Lancaster Sound. On the 30th theymade the S. E. Point of Melville Island. By the 4th of September they hadpassed the meridian of 110° west longitude, in latitude 74° 44' 20": thisentitled them to the first sum in the scale of rewards granted byparliament, namely 5000_l_; as at this part of their course they wereopposite a point of land lying in the S. E. Of Melville Island; this pointwas called Bounty Cape. On the 6th of September they anchored, for thefirst time since they had left England, in a bay, called after the twoships. 

During the remainder of the season of 1819, which however contained onlytwenty more days, in which any thing could be done, Captain Parryprosecuted with much perseverance, and in the midst of infinitedifficulties and obstacles, a plan which had suggested itself to him sometime before; this was to conduct the ships close to the shore, within themain body of the ice; but their progress was so extremely slow, that, during the remainder of the year they did not advance more than fortymiles. On the 21st Captain Parry abandoned the undertaking, and returned tothe bay which was called after the two ships. Here they lay ten months; andthe arrangements made by Captain Parry for the safety of the vessels, andfor the health, comfort, and even the amusement of the crew, were plannedand effected with such admirable good sense, that listlessness and fatiguewere strangers, even among sailors, a class of men who, above all others, it would have been apprehended, would have soon wearied of such amonotonous life. The commencement of winter was justly dated from the 14thof September, when the thermometer suddenly fell to 9°. On the 4th ofNovember the sun descended below the horizon, and did not appear again tillthe 8th of February. A little before and after what in other places iscalled the shortest day, but which to them was the middle of their longnight, there was as much light as enabled them to read small print, whenheld towards the south, and to walk comfortably for two hours. Excessivecold, as indicated by the thermometer, took place in January: it then sunkfrom 30° to 40° below Zero: on the 11th of this month it was at 49°; yet nodisease, or even pain or inconvenience was felt in consequence of this mostexcessive cold, provided the proper precautions were used; nor did anycomplaint arise from the extreme and rapid change of temperature to whichthey were exposed, when, as was often the case, they passed from thecabins, which were kept heated up to 60° or 70°, to the open air, thoughthe change in one minute was in several instances 120° of temperature. 

Cold, however, as January was, yet the following month, though, as we havealready observed, it again exhibited the sun to them, was much colder; onthe 15th of February the thermometer fell to 55° below Zero, and remainedfor fifteen hours not higher than 54°. Within the next fifteen hours itgradually rose to 34°. But though the sun re-appeared early in February, they had still a long imprisonment to endure; and Captain Parry did notconsider it safe to leave their winter quarters till the 1st of August, when they again sailed to the westward: their mode of proceeding was thesame as that which they had adopted the preceding year, viz. Crawling alongthe shore, within the fast ice; in this manner they got to the west end ofMelville Island. But all their efforts to proceed further were of no avail. Captain Parry was now convinced, that somewhere to the south-west of thisthere must be an immoveable obstacle, which prevented the ice dispersing inthat direction, as it had been found to do in every other part of thevoyage. 

At last, on the 16th of August, further attempts were given up, and CaptainParry determined to return to the eastward, along the edge of the ice, inorder that he might push to the southward if he could find an opening. Suchan opening, however, could not be found; but by coasting southward, alongthe west side of Baffin's Bay, Captain Parry convinced himself that thereare other passages into Prince Regent's Inlet, besides that by LancasterSound. The farthest point in the Polar sea reached in this voyage waslatitude 71° 26' 23", and longitude 113° 46' 43:5". On the 26th ofSeptember they took a final leave of the ice, and about the middle ofNovember they arrived in the Thames. 

In every point of view this voyage was extremely creditable to CaptainParry; it is not surpassed by any for the admirable manner in which it wasconducted, for the presence of mind, perseverance, and skill of all thearrangements and operations. It has also considerably benefited all thosebranches of science to which the observations and experiments of CaptainRoss and his companions were directed, and to which we have alreadyadverted. Perhaps in no one point has it been of more use to mariners, thanin proving the minute accuracy of going to which chronometers have beenbrought. 

As this expedition very naturally encouraged the hope that a north-westpassage existed, and might be discovered and effected, and as Captain Parrywas decidedly of this opinion, government very properly resolved to sendhim out again; he accordingly sailed in the spring of the year followingthat of his return. He recommended that the attempt should be made in amore southern latitude, and close along the northern coast of America, asin that direction a better climate might be expected, and a longer seasonby at least six weeks; and this recommendation, it is supposed, had itsweight with the admiralty in the instructions and discretionary powerswhich they gave him. 

We must now direct our attention to the southern polar regions. Geographersand philosophers supposed that in this portion of the globe there must besome continent or very large island, which would serve, as it were, tocounterbalance the immense tracts of land which, to the northward, stretched not only as near the pole, as navigation had been able toproceed, but also west and east, the whole breadth of Europe and Asia. 

The second voyage of Captain Cook was planned and undertaken for theexpress purpose of solving the question respecting the Terra Australiswhich occupied the older maps. He sailed on this voyage in July 1772, having under his command two ships, particularly well adapted and fitted upfor such a service, the Resolution and Adventure; he was accompanied by aselect band of officers, most of whom were not only skilful and experiencednavigators, but also scientific astronomers and geographers; there werealso two professed astronomers, two gentlemen who were well skilled inevery branch of natural history, and a landscape painter. 

On the 12th of December, Captain Cook entered the loose and floating ice, in latitude 62° 10'; on the 21st he met with icebergs in latitude 67°; andby the end of the month he returned to latitude 58°. On the 26th of Januaryin the following year, he again penetrated within the Antarctic circle, andon the 30th, had got as far as latitude 71° 16'. This was the utmost pointto which he was able to penetrate; and he was so fully persuaded, not onlyof the impracticability of being able to sail further to the south, butalso of remaining in that latitude, that he returned to the northward thevery same day, deeming it, as he expresses it, a dangerous and rashenterprize to struggle with fields of ice. "I, " he continues, "who hadambition not only to go farther than any one before, but as far as it waspossible for man to go, was not sorry to meet with this interruption. " Theexistence of a southern continent was thus considered by Captain Cook, andall other geographers, as disproved to an almost absolute certainty. 

In this voyage Captain Cook also obtained a correct knowledge of the landdiscovered by La Roche in 1675, and gave to it the name of New Georgia; hediscovered, too, Sandwich land, which was then supposed to be the nearestland to the South Pole; he ascertained the extent of the Archipelago, ofthe New Hebrides, which had been originally seen by Quiros, andsuperficially examined by Bougainville. New Caledonia, and many of theislands among the groupe to which he gave the name of the Friendly Islands, were also among the fruits of this voyage. 

The French government had sent out an expedition, about the same time thatCaptain Cook sailed in quest of a southern continent, on a similar pursuit. A French navigator some time before had stated that he had discovered land, having been driven far to the south, off the Cape of Good Hope. Thissupposed land the expedition alluded to was also to look after. The personselected to conduct it, M. De Kerguelen, does not seem to have been wellchosen or qualified for such an enterprize; for after having discoveredland, situated in 49° south latitude, and 69° east longitude fromGreenwich, he returned rather precipitately to France, without havingexplored this land, concluding very rashly, and without any sufficientgrounds, that the Terra Australis was at length ascertained to exist, andits exact situation determined. He was received and treated in France as asecond Columbus: but as the French court seems to have had some doubts onthe extent and merit of his alleged discoveries, notwithstanding thereception which it gave him, he was sent out a second time, with two shipsof war of 64 and 32 guns each, and 700 men, to complete his discovery andtake possession of this new continent. But he soon ascertained, what indeedhe might and ought to have ascertained in his first voyage, that what hedeemed and represented to be the Terra Australis was only a dreary andinhospitable island, of small size, so very barren and useless, that itproduces no tree or even shrub of any kind, and very little grass. On suchan island, in such a part of the globe, no inhabitants could be looked for;but it is even almost entirely destitute of animals; and the surroundingsea is represented as not more productive than the land. The Frenchnavigator was unable to find safe anchorage in this island, though itabounded in harbours; to this miserable spot he gave his own name. It wasafterwards visited by Captain Cook, in his third voyage, and also byPeyrouse. 

As the southern ocean, in as high a latitude as the climate and the icerendered accessible and safe, had been as it were swept carefully, extensively, and minutely, by Captain Cook, and some subsequent navigators, without discovering land of any considerable extent, it was naturallysupposed that no southern continent or even large island existed. 

In the year 1819, however, this disbelief was partly destroyed by anunexpected and singular discovery. Mr. Smith, who commanded a vesseltrading between Rio Plato and Chili, was naturally desirous to shorten, asmuch as possible, his passage round Cape Horn. With this object in view, heran to a higher latitude than is usual in such voyages; and in latitude 62°30' and in longitude 60° west, he discovered land. This was in his voyageout to Chili; but as he could not then spare the time necessary to explorethis land, he resolved to follow the same course on his return voyage, andascertain its extent, nature, &c. This he accordingly did; and likewise ona subsequent voyage. "He ran in a westward direction along the coasts, either of a continent or numerous islands, for 200 or 300 miles, forminglarge bays, and abounding with the spermaceti whale, seals, &c. He tooknumerous soundings and bearings, draughts and charts of the coast. " He alsolanded and took possession of the country in the name of his sovereign, andcalled his acquisition New South Shetland. He represents the climate astemperate, the coast mountainous, apparently uninhabited, but not destituteof vegetation, as he observed firs and pines in many places; and on thewhole, the country appeared to him very much like the coast of Norway. 

It may seem extraordinary that land of this extent should not have beendiscovered by any former navigator; but the surprise will cease, when wereflect that though Captain Cook penetrated much further to the south thanthe latitude of New South Shetland, yet his meridian was 45 degrees fartherto the west, and that he thus left a large expanse of sea unexplored, onthe parallel of 62° between that and Sandwich land, the longitude of whichis 22° west. He indeed likewise reached 67° south latitude: but this was inlongitude from 137° to 147° west. Now the longitude of New South Shetlandbeing 60° west, it is evident that Captain Cook in his first attempt, leftunexplored the whole extent of longitude from 28°, the longitude ofSandwich land, to 60°, the longitude of New South Shetland; and in hissecond attempt, he was still further from the position of this newdiscovered land. Peyrouse reached no higher than 60° 30' latitude, andVancouver only to 55°. Thus we clearly see that this land lay out of thetrack, not only of those navigators, whose object being to get into thePacific by the course best known, pass through the Straits of Magellan andLe Maire, or keep as near Cape Horn as possible, but also of those who weresent out expressly to search for land in a high southern latitude. 

The intelligence of the discovery of New South Shetland, and that itscoasts abounded in Spermaceti whales, and in seals, quickly and powerfullyroused the commercial enterprise both of the British and the Americans. Inthe course of a short time, numerous ships of both these nations sailed toits coasts; but from their observations and experience, as well as from asurvey of it which was undertaken by the orders of one of His Majesty'snaval officers, commanding on the southwest coast of America, it was soonascertained that it was a most dangerous land to approach and to continuenear. Its sterility and bleak and forbidding appearance, from all theaccounts published respecting it, are scarcely equalled, certainly are notsurpassed, in the most inhospitable countries near the North Pole; whileships are suddenly exposed to most violent storms, from which there islittle chance of escaping, and in which, during one of the seal-catchingseasons, a great number were lost. 

There are, however, counterbalancing advantages: the seals were, at leastduring the first seasons, uncommonly numerous, and taken with very littletrouble or difficulty, so that a ship could obtain a full cargo in a veryshort time; but, in consequence of a very great number of vessels whichfrequented the coasts for the purpose of taking these animals, they becamesoon less numerous, and were captured with less ease. The skins of theseseals fetched a very high price in the China market; the Chinese, especially in the more northern parts of that vast and populous empire, usethese skins for various articles of their dress; and the seal skins of NewSouth Shetland being much finer and softer than those which were obtainedin any other part of the world, bore a proportionably higher price in theChina market. But the English could not compete with the Americans in thislucrative trade; for in consequence of the charter of the East IndiaCompany, the English ships were obliged to bring their cargoes of skins toEngland; here they were sold, and as none but the East India Company couldexport them to China, and consequently none except the Company wouldpurchase; they in fact had the monopoly of them, and obtained them at theirown price. The English indeed might take them directly from New SouthShetland to Calcutta, whence they might be exported in country ships toChina; but even in this case, which was not likely to happen, as fewvessels, after having been employed in catching seals off such a boisterouscoast, were prepared or able to undertake a voyage to Calcutta; muchunnecessary expence was incurred, additional risk undergone, and timeconsumed. To these disadvantages in the sale of their seal skins, theAmericans were not exposed; they brought them into some of their own ports, and thence shipped them directly and immediately to China. 

The last navigator whom we noticed as having added to our knowledgerespecting New Holland, was Dampier, who in this portion of the globe, notonly discovered the Strait that separates New Guinea from New Britain, butalso surveyed the north-west coast of New Holland; and, contrary to theDutch charts, laid down De Witt's land as a cluster of islands, and gave itas his opinion that the northern part of New Holland was separated from thelands to the southward by a strait. Scarcely any thing was added to thegeography of this portion of the globe, between the last voyage of Dampier, and the first voyage of Cook. One of the principal objects of this voyageof our celebrated navigator, was to examine the coast of New Holland; andhe performed this object most completely, so far as the east coast wasconcerned, from the 38th degree of latitude to its northern extremity; healso proved that it was separated from New Guinea, by passing through thechannel, which he called after his ship, Endeavour Strait. In the year1791, Captain Vancouver explored 110 leagues of the south-west coast, wherehe discovered King George's Sound, and some clusters of small islands. Inthe same year two vessels were dispatched from France in search of LaPeyrouse; in April 1792, they made several observations on Van Dieman'sLand, the south cape of which they thought was separated from the mainland; they also discovered a great harbour. In the subsequent year 1793, they again made the coast of New Holland, near Lewin's Land, and theyascertained that the first discoveries had been extremely accurate in thelatitudes which they had assigned to this part of it. 

In consequence of the British forming a settlement at Botany Bay, muchadditional information was gained, not only regarding the interior of NewHolland, in the vicinity of the settlement, but also regarding part of itscoast: the most interesting and important discovery relative to the latterwas made towards the end of the year 1797, by Mr. Bass, surgeon of HisMajesty's ship Reliance. He made an excursion in an open boat to thesouthward of Port Jackson, as far as 40 degrees of south latitude, andvisited every opening in the coast in the course of his voyage: he observedsufficient to induce him to believe that Van Dieman's Land was no part ofNew Holland. Soon after the return of Mr. Bass, the governor of the Englishcolony sent out him and Captain Flinders, then employed as a lieutenant ofone of His Majesty's ships on the New South Wales station, with a view toascertain whether Mr. Bass's belief of the separation of Van Dieman's Landwas well founded. They embarked on board a small-decked boat of 25 tons, built of the fir of Norfolk island. In three months they returned to PortJackson, after having circumnavigated Van Dieman's Land, and completed thesurvey of its coasts. The strait that separates it from New Holland wasnamed by the governor, Bass's Strait. The importance of this discovery isundoubted. In voyages from New Holland to the Cape of Good Hope, considerable time is gained by passing through it, instead of following theformer course. In the year 1800, Captain Flinders was again sent out by thegovernor, to examine the coast to the northward of Port Jackson; of thisnothing more was known but what the imperfect notices given of it byCaptain Cook supplied. In this voyage he completely examined all the creeksand bays as far to the northward as the 25th degree of latitude, and moreparticularly Glasshouse and Harvey's Bays. The English government at lengthresolved that they would wipe off the reproach, which, as Captain Flindersobserves, was not without some reason attributed to them, "that animaginary line of more than 250 leagues of extent, in the vicinity of oneof their colonies, should have been so long suffered to remain traced uponthe charts, under the title of UNKNOWN COAST, " and they accordinglyappointed him to the command of an expedition fitted out in England forthis purpose. 

Before giving an account of this voyage of Captain Flinders, we shallabridge, from the Introduction prefixed to it, his clear and methodicalaccount of the progressive discoveries which have been made on the coast ofNew Holland, and of what was still to be explored. He particularly dwelt onthe advantages that would result from a practicable passage through Torres'Strait; if this could be discovered, it would shorten the usual route bythe north of New Guinea, or the Eastern Islands, in the voyage to India andChina. The immense gulf of Carpentaria was unknown, except a very smallportion of its eastern side. The lands called after Arnheim and Van Diemanalso required and deserved a minute investigation, especially the bays, shoals, islands, and coasts of the former, and the northern part of thelatter. The north-west coast had not been examined since the time ofDampier, who was of opinion that the northern portion of New Holland wasseparated from the lands to the northward by a strait. The existence ofsuch a strait, Captain Flinders completely disproved. 

With respect to the south coast, at least 250 leagues were unexplored. Captain Flinders had examined with considerable care and minuteness theeast coast and Van Dieman's Land; but there were still several openingswhich required to be better explored. 

Such were the principal objects which Captain Flinders had in view in hisvoyage; and no person could have been found better qualified to accomplishthese objects. On the 18th of July, 1801, he sailed from England in theInvestigator, of 334 tons: there were on board, beside the proper andadequate complement of men, an astronomer, a naturalist, a natural historypainter, a landscape painter, a gardener, and a miner. As soon as heapproached the south coast of New Holland, he immediately began hisexamination of the coasts, islands, and inlets of that large portion of it, called Nuyts' Land; he particularly examined all that part of the coast, which lies between the limit of the discoveries of Nuyts and Vancouver, andthe eastern extremity of Bass' Straits, where he met a French ship, employed on the same object. In the month of July, 1802, he left PortJackson, whither he had gone to refit, and sailing through Torres' Straitsin 36 hours, he arrived in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the latter end of theseason. In the course of this part of his voyage, he examinedNorthumberland and Cumberland islands, and the great barrier reefs of coralrock; and every part of the eastern side of the Gulf of Carpentaria; not acape, creek, bay, or island on this coast of the gulf escaped his noticeand examination. It was his intention to have pursued the same mode ofclose and minute examination: "following the land so closely, that thewashing of the surf upon it should be visible, and no opening nor any thingof importance escape notice;" but he was prevented by ascertaining that thevessel was in such a crazy state, that, though in fine weather she mighthold together for six months longer, yet she was by no means fit for suchan undertaking. After much deliberation what conduct he ought to pursueunder these circumstances, as it was impossible, with such a vessel, hecould at that season return to Port Jackson by the west route, inconsequence of the monsoon (and the stormy weather would render the eastpassage equally improper) he resolved to finish the survey of the Gulf ofCarpentaria. This occupied him three months: at the end of this period hewas obliged, by the sickness of his crew, to sail for Timor, which hereached on the 31st of March, 1803. 

As the Investigator was no longer fit for service, she was condemned. Captain Flinders resolved, as he could not finish the survey, to return toEngland, in order to lay his journals and charts before the Admiralty: heaccordingly embarked on board the Porpoise store ship, which, in companywith the Cato and Bridgwater, bound to Batavia, sailed in August, 1803. ThePorpoise and Cato were wrecked on a reef of rocks nearly 800 miles fromBotany Bay: most of the charts, logs, and astronomical observations weresaved; but the rare plants, as well as the dried specimens, were lost ordestroyed. On the 26th of August, Captain Flinders left the reef in thecutter, and after a passage of considerable danger, reached Port Jackson onthe 8th of September. As he was extremely anxious to lodge his papers assoon as possible with the Lords of the Admiralty, he embarked from PortJackson in a vessel, something less than a Gravesend passage boat, beingonly 29 tons burden. Even in such a vessel, Captain Flinders did not losesight of the objects nearest his heart: he passed through Torres' Straits, examined Pandora's entrance, explored new channels among the coral reefs, examined Prince of Wales Island, crossed the Gulf of Carpentaria, and afteranchoring at some islands on the western side of the gulf, directed hisroute to Timor: here he refitted his vessel, and then sailed for the Isleof France, where it was absolutely necessary he should touch, in order thatshe might undergo a repair, as she was very leaky. Though he possessedpassports from the French government, he was detained at the Isle ofFrance, under the absurd pretence that he was a spy. All his books, charts, and papers were seized; and he himself was kept a prisoner in a miserableroom for nearly four months. He was afterwards removed to the gardenprison, a situation not so uncomfortable and prejudicial to his health asthat from which he was taken; at length, in consequence of an applicationfrom the Royal Society to the National Institute, the French governmentsent an order for his liberation; but it was not received, or, at least, itwas not acted upon till the year 1810; for it was not till that year thatCaptain Flinders was permitted to leave the Isle of France: he arrived inEngland on the 24th of October of that year. 

There are few voyages from which more important accessions to geographicalknowledge have been derived, than from this voyage of Captain Flinders, especially when we reflect on the great probability that New Holland willsoon rank high in population and wealth. Before his voyage, it wasdoubtful, whether New Holland was not divided into two great islands, by astrait passing between Bass' Straits and the Gulf of Carpentaria. CaptainFlinders has put an end to all doubts on this point: he examined the coastin the closest and most accurate manner: he found indeed two greatopenings; these he sailed up to their termination; and, consequently, asthere were no other openings, and these were mere inlets, New Holland canno longer be supposed to be divided into two great islands, but must beregarded as forming one very large one; or, rather, from its immense size, a species of continent. He made another important and singular discovery, viz. That there are either no rivers of any magnitude in New Holland, orthat if there be such, they do not find their way to the sea coast. Thiscountry seems also very deficient in good and safe ports: in his survey ofthe south coast, he found only one. He completed the survey of the wholeeastern coast; of Bass's Straits and Van Dieman's Land, observing verycarefully every thing relative to the rocks, shoals, tides, winds, currents, &c. Coral reefs, which are so common in most parts of thePacific, and which, owing their origin entirely to worms of the minutestsize, gradually become extensive islands, stretch along the eastern coastof New Holland. These were examined with great care by Captain Flinders: hefound that they had nearly blocked up the passage through Torres' Straits, so that it required great care and caution to pass it with safety. But oneof the most important results of this voyage respects the survey of theGulf of Carpentaria; previously the extent and bearings of this gulf werenot known; but from Captain Flinders's geography we have received anaccurate and full survey of it. Its extent was ascertained to be 5 1/2degrees of longitude, and 7 degrees of latitude; and its circuit nearly 400leagues. On the coast of this gulf he found a singular trade carried on. Sixty proas, each about the burden of 25 tons, and carrying as many men, were fitted out by the Rajah of Boni, and sent to catch a small animalwhich lives at the bottom of the sea, called the sea slug, or _biche demer_. When caught, they are split, boiled, and dried in the sun, andthen carried to Timorlaot, when the Chinese purchase them: 100, 000 of theseanimals is the usual cargo of each proa, and they bring from 2000 to 4000Spanish dollars. 

Notwithstanding the English had had settlements in New Holland for upwardsof 26 years, little progress had been made in exploring the interior of thecountry even in the immediate vicinity of Botany Bay. It was supposed thata passage across the Blue Mountains, which are within sight of thatsettlement, opposed insurmountable obstacles. At length, about the end ofthe year 1813, the Blue Mountains were crossed for the first time, by Mr. Evans, the deputy surveyor of the colony. He found a fertile and pleasantdistrict, and the streams which took their rise in the Blue Mountains, running to the westward; to one of the most considerable of these he gavethe name of Macquarrie river; the course of this river he pursued for tendays. On his return to the colony, the governor, Mr. Macquarrie orderedthat a road should be made across the mountains; this extended 100 miles, and was completed in 1815. Mr. Evans soon afterwards discovered anotherriver, which he called the Lachlan. 

As it was of great consequence to trace these rivers, and likewise toexamine the country to the west of the Blue Mountains more accurately, andto a greater distance than it had been done, the governor ordered twoexpeditions to be undertaken. Lieutenant Oxley, the surveyor-general of thecolony had the command of both. It does not fall within our plan or limitsto follow him in these journeys; we shall therefore confine ourselves to anoutline of the result of his discoveries. He ascertained that the countryin general is very unfertile: the Lachlan he traced, till it seemed toloose itself in a multitude of branches among marshy flats. "Perhaps, "observes Lieutenant Oxley, "there is no river, the history of which isknown, that presents so remarkable a termination as the present: itscourse, in a strait line from its source to its termination, exceeds 500miles, and including its windings, it may fairly be calculated to run atleast 1200 miles; during all which passage, through such a vast extent ofcountry, it does not receive a single stream in addition to what it derivesfrom its sources in the Eastern mountains. "--"One tree, one soil, onewater, and one description of bird, fish, or animal, prevails alike for tenmiles, and for 100. " There were, however, tracks, especially where thelimestone formation prevailed, of great beauty and fertility; but thesewere comparatively rare and of small extent. Level, bare, sandy wastes, destitute of water, or morasses and swamps, which would not support them, formed by far the greatest part of the country through which theytravelled. 

The second object Lieutenant Oxley had in view was the survey of the courseof the Macquarrie river; this he knew to be to the north-west of theLachlan. In crossing from the banks of the latter in search of the former, they reached a beautiful valley; in the centre of which flowed a clear andstrong rivulet. This they traced till it joined a large river, which theyascertained to be the Macquarrie. From this point to Bathurst Plains, thecountry was rich and beautiful. 

As from the size of the Macquarrie where they fell in with it, it seemedprobable that it either communicated with the sea itself or flowed into ariver which did, the governor sent Lieutenant Oxley on another expeditionto trace its course, and thus settle this point. For twelve days thecountry was rich and beautiful: the river was wide, deep, and navigable. The country then changed its character: no hill was to be seen; on allsides it was as level and uninteresting as that through which thay hadtraced the Lachlan in their former journey. Soon afterwards it overflowedits banks; and as the country was very flat, it spread over a vast extent. Under these circumstances, Lieutenant Oxley proceeded down it in a boat forthirty miles, till he lost sight of land and trees. About four milesfarther it lost all appearance of a river; but he was not able to continuehis route, and was obliged to return, without having ascertained whetherthis great inland lake, into which the Macquarrie fell, was a salt or freshwater lake. 

On his return he crossed the highest point of the mountains which dividesthe waters running west from those which run into the east; the mostelevated peak he calculates to be from 6000 to 7000 feet. Here he found ariver rising, which flowed to the east; and following it, he arrived at theplace where it fell into the ocean. 

It is pretty certain from these expeditions, that no river of any sizeempties itself into the sea, on the northern, western, or southern coastsof New Holland. Captain Flinders and the French navigators had examined allthe line of coast on the western side, except from latitude 22° to 11°south; it might therefore be supposed that the Macquarrie, after freeingitself from the inland lake to which Lieutenant Oxley had traced it, mightfall into the sea, within these limits. This, however, is now proved not tobe the case. In the year 1818, Lieutenant King was sent by the Board ofAdmiralty, to survey the unexplored coast, from the southern extremity ofTerre de Witt. He began his examination at the north-west cape, in latitude21° 45', from this to latitude 20° 30', and from longitude 114° to 118°, hefound an archipelago, which he named after Dampier, as it was originallydiscovered by this navigator. Dampier had inferred, from a remarkablecurrent running from the coast beyond these islands, that a great strait, or river, opened out behind them. Lieutenant King found the tide runningstrong in all the passages of the archipelago, but there was no appearanceof a river; the coast was in general low, and beyond it he descried anextensive tract of inundated marshy country, similar to that described byLieutenant Oxley. Cape Van Diemen, Lieutenant King ascertained to be thenorthern extremity of an island, near which was a deep gulf. Although wehave not learnt that Lieutenant King has completed his survey, 8 or 9degrees of latitude on the north-west coast still remaining to be explored, yet we think it may safely be inferred that no great river has its exitinto the ocean from the interior of New Holland. This circumstance, addedto the singular nature of the country through which Lieutenant Oxleyjourneyed, and the peculiar and unique character of many of its animals, seems to stamp on this portion of the globe marks which strongly and widelyseparate it from every other portion. 

It is remarked in the Quarterly Review, that, before Captain Flinder'svoyage, "the great Gulf of Carpentaria had as yet no definite outline onour nautical charts. It was the imaginary tracing of an undulating line, intended to denote the limits between land and water, without a promontory, or an island, a bay, harbour, or inlet, that was defined by shape ordesignated by name. This blank line was drawn and copied by one chart makerfrom another, without the least authority, and without the least reason tobelieve that any European had ever visited this wide and deeply-indentedgulf; and yet, when visited, this imaginary line was found to approximateso nearly to its true form, as ascertained by survey, as to leave littledoubt that some European navigator must at one time or other have examinedit, though his labours have been buried, as the labours of many thousandshave been before and since his time, in the mouldy archives of a jealousand selfish government. "

This remark may be extended and applied to other parts of the globe besideAustralasia; but it is particularly applicable to this portion of it. Therecan be no doubt that many islands and points of land were discovered, whichwere never traced in maps, even in the vague and indistinct manner in whichthe Gulf of Carpentaria was traced; that many discoveries were claimed towhich no credit was given; and that owing to the imperfect mode formerlyused to determine the longitude, some, from being laid down wrong, wereafterwards claimed as entirely new discoveries. 

We have stated that this remark is particularly applicable to Australasia:to the progress of geography in this division of the globe (including underthat appellation, besides New Holland, Papua or New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland, Solomon's Isles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, &c. ) we are nowto direct our attention; and the truth of the remark will soon appear to beconfirmed in more than one instance. 

One of the objects of Rogewein, a Dutch navigator, who, sailed fromAmsterdam in 1721, was to re-discover Solomon's Islands, and the landsdescribed by Quitos. In this voyage he visited New Britain, of which he hasenlarged our information; and be discovered Aurora Island, and a verynumerous archipelago, to which he gave the name of the Thousand Islands. Captain Carteret, who sailed from England in 1767, along with CaptainWallis, but who was separated from him in the Straits of Magellan, discovered several isles in the South Pacific, the largest of which thereis little doubt is that which was visited by Mandana in 1595, and called byhim Santa Cruz. In prosecuting his voyage in the track pursued by Dampier, Captain Carteret arrived on the east coast of the land named New Britain, by that celebrated navigator. This he found to consist of two islands, separated by a wide channel; to the northern island he gave the name of NewIreland. 

At this period the French were prosecuting voyages of discovery in the sameportion of the globe. An expedition sailed from France in 1766, commandedby M. Bougainville: he arrived within the limits of Australasia in May, 1768. Besides visiting a group of islands, named by him Navigators'Islands, but which are supposed to have been discovered by Rogewein, and alarge cluster, which is also supposed to be the archipelago of the samenavigator, M. Bougainville discovered a beautiful country, to which he gavethe name of Louisiade: he was not able to examine this country, and as ithas not been visited by subsequent navigators, it is generally believed tobe an extension of the coast of Papua. After discovering some islands notfar from this land, M. Bougainville directed his course to the coast of NewIreland; he afterwards examined the north coast of New Guinea. 

About the same time, M. Surville, another Frenchman, in a voyage from theEast Indies into the Pacific, landed on the north coast of a country eastof New Guinea; he had not an opportunity of examining this land, but itseems probable that it was one of Solomon's Islands. 

We have already had occasion to notice the first voyage of Captain Cook, during which he traced the eastern coast of New Holland, and ascertainedthat it was separated from New Guinea. In this voyage he made furtheradditions to our geographical knowledge of Australasia; for he visited NewZealand, which Tasman had discovered in 1642, but on which he did not evenland. Captain Cook examined it with great care; and ascertained not onlyits extent, but that it was divided into two large islands, by a strait, which is called after him. During his second voyage he explored the NewHebrides, the most northern of which is supposed to be described by Quitos:Bougainville had undoubtedly sailed among them. The whole lie between thelatitude of 14° 29' and 24° 4' south, and between 166° 41' and 170° 21'east longitude. After having completed his examination of these islands, hediscovered an extensive country, which he called New Caledonia. In hispassage from this to New Zealand he discovered several islands, and amongthe rest Norfolk Island. The great object of his third voyage, which wasthe examination of the north-west coast of America, did not afford him anopportunity of visiting for any length of time Australasia; yet he didvisit it, and examined New Zealand attentively, obtaining much original andimportant information respecting it, and the manners, &c. Of itsinhabitants. 

The voyages which we have hitherto noticed, were principally directed tothe southern parts of Australasia. Between the years 1774 and 1776, somediscoveries were made in the northern parts of it by Captain Forrest: hesailed from India in a vessel of only ten tons, with the intention ofascertaining whether a settlement could not be formed on an island near thenorthern promontory of Borneo. In the course of this voyage he examined thenorth coast of Waygiou; and after visiting several small islands, hearrived on the north coast of Papua. 

The next accessions that were made to our geographical knowledge ofAustralasia, are derived from the voyage in search of La Peyrouse. Theobject of La Peyrouse's voyage was to complete the discoveries made byformer navigators in the southern hemisphere: in the course of this voyagehe navigated some portion of Australasia; but where he and his crewperished is not known. As the French government were naturally and verylaudably anxious to ascertain his real fate, two vessels were despatchedfrom France in the year 1791, for that purpose. In April, 1792, theyarrived within the limits of Australasia: after having examined VanDiemen's Land, they sailed along an immense chain of reefs, extendingupwards of 3OO miles on the east coast of New Caledonia. As Captain Cookhad confined his survey to the north, they directed their attention to thesouth-west coast. After visiting some islands in this sea, they arrived atNew Ireland, part of which they carefully explored. In 1793, after havingvisited New Holland, they sailed for New Zealand; and near it theydiscovered an island which lies near the eastern limit of Australasia: tothis they gave the name of Recherche. The New Hebrides, New Caledonia, andNew Britain, were also visited and examined; near the coast of the lastthey discovered several mountainous islands. Beside the accessions to ourgeographical knowledge of Australasia which we derived from this voyage, itis particularly valuable "on account of the illustrations of the naturalhistory of the different countries, and the accuracy with which theastronomical observations were made. " It is worthy of remark that the twoships lost nearly half their men; whereas, British navigators have been outas long, in a climate and circumstances as unfavourable to health, and havescarcely lost a single man. 

At the beginning of this century, the French government planned a voyage ofdiscovery, the chief object of which was to explore the seas ofAustralasia. Those parts of New Holland which were entirely unknown, or butimperfectly ascertained, were to be examined; the coast of New Guinea to besurveyed, principally in the search of a strait which was supposed todivide it into two parts; a passage by Endeavour Straits to the easternpoint of the Gulf of Carpentaria was to be attempted; and then theexpedition was to sail to Cape Northwest. Besides these objects inAustralasia, the Indian Ocean was to be navigated. 

Two vessels, the Geographe and Naturaliste, sailed on this expedition inOctober, 1800; but they did not by their discoveries add much that wasimportant to the geography of Australasia. They indeed have made known tofuture navigators, reefs and shoals on the coast of New Holland; have fixedmore accurately, or for the first time, some latitudes and longitudesbelonging to this and other parts of Australasia, and have traced somesmall rivers in New Holland. They also confirmed the accuracy and justiceof preceding observations in several points; particularly relative to thesingular fineness of the weather, and serenity of the heavens in theseseas. 

Their greatest discovery undoubtedly consisted in a great archipelago, which they named after Bonaparte: the islands that composed it were ingeneral small; some volcanic or basaltic; others sandy. After examiningthese, they were obliged to return to Timor, in consequence of the sicknessof their crews. After they were recovered, they returned to the grandobject of their expedition, which, though interesting and important to thenavigator, or to the minute researches of the geographer, presents nothingthat requires to be noticed in this place. 

Such is the sum of the additions to our geographical knowledge ofAustralasia which has resulted from the voyages of discovery during thelast one hundred years. The great outline, and most of the subordinateparts, are filled up; and little remains to be discovered or ascertainedwhich can greatly alter our maps, as they are at present drawn. Additions, however, will gradually be made; errors will be corrected; a stronger andclearer light will be thrown on obscure points. Much of this will be doneby the accidental discoveries and observations of the many ships which areconstantly sailing from England to New Holland; or which trade from thelatter country to New Zealand or other parts of Australasia, to India, orto China. By means of these voyages, additions have already been made toour knowledge, especially of New Zealand; and its inhabitants are beginningto feel and acknowledge the benefits which must always be derived from theintercourse of civilized people with savages. 

Polynesia, extending from the Pelew Isles on the west, to the Isle of AllSaints on the north-east, and the Sandwich Isles in the east, and havingfor its other boundaries the latitude of 20° north, and of 50° south, nearthe latter of which it joins Australasia, is the only remaining division ofthe globe which remains to come under our cognizance, as having beenexplored by maritime expeditions; and as it consists entirely of groups ofsmall islands, we shall not be detained long in tracing the discoverieswhich have been made in these seas. 

The Pelew Islands, one of the divisions of Polynesia, though they probablyhad been seen, and perhaps visited by Europeans before 1783, were certainlyfirst made completely known to them at this period, in consequence of theshipwreck of Captain Wilson on them. The Sandwich Isles, the next group, have been discovered within the last century by Captain Cook, on his lastvoyage. The Marquesas, discovered by Mandana, were visited by Captain Cookin 1774, by the French in 1789, and particularly and carefully examinedduring the missionary voyage of Captain Wilson in 1797. Captain Wallis, whosailed with Captain Carteret in 1766, but was afterwards separated from himin his course across the South Pacific, discovered several islands, particularly Otaheite; to this and the neighbouring islands the name ofSociety Isles was given. Such are the most important discoveries that havebeen made in Polynesia during the last century; but besides these, otherdiscoveries of less importance have been made, either by navigators whohave sailed expressly for the purpose, as Kotzebue, &c. , or by accident, while crossing this immense ocean. In consequence of the advances which theSandwich Islands have made in civilization, commerce, and the arts, thereis considerable intercourse with them, especially by the Americans; andtheir voyages to them, and from thence to China, whither they carry thesandal wood, &c. Which they obtain there, as well as their voyages from thenorth-west coast of America with furs to China, must soon detect any islesthat may still be unknown in this part of the Pacific Ocean. 

Although, therefore, much remains yet to be accomplished by maritimeexpeditions, towards the extension and correction of our geographicalknowledge, so far as the bearings of the coast, and the latitudes andlongitudes of various places are concerned, there seems no room for whatmay properly and strictly be called discovery, at least of any thing butsmall and scattered islands. 

It is otherwise with the accessions which land expeditions may still maketo geographical knowledge; for though within these one hundred years theEuropean foot has trodden where it never trod before, and though ourgeographical knowledge of the interior of Africa, Asia, and America, hasbeen, rendered within that period not only more extensive, but also moreaccurate and minute than it previously was, yet much remains to be done andknown. 

In giving a short and rapid sketch of the progress of discovery, so far asit has been accomplished by land expeditions during the period alluded to, we are naturally led to divide what we have to say according to the threegreat portions of the globe which have been the objects of theseexpeditions, viz. Africa, Asia, and America. 

1. Africa. This country has always presented most formidable obstacles tothe progress of discovery: its immense and trackless deserts, its burningand fatal climate, its barbarous and treacherous inhabitants, have unitedto keep a very large portion of it from the intercourse, and even theapproach of European travellers. Even its northern parts, which are mostaccessible to Europe, and which for 2000 years have been occasionallyvisited by Europeans, are guarded by the cruel jealousy of its inhabitants;or, if that is overcome, advances to any very great distance from the coastare effectively impeded by natives still more savage, or by waterless andfoodless deserts. 

The west coast of Africa, ever since it was ascertained that slaves, ivory, gold dust, gums, &c. Could be obtained there, has been eagerly colonized byEuropeans; and though these colonies have now existed for upwards of threehundred years, and though the same love of gain which founded them musthave directed a powerful wish on those interior countries from which theseprecious articles of traffic were brought, yet such have been thedifficulties, and dangers, and dread, that the most enthusiastic traveller, and the most determined lover of gain, have scarcely penetrated beyond thevery frontier of the coast. If we turn to the east coast, still less hasbeen done to explore the interior from that side; the nature, bearings, &c. Of the coast itself are not accurately known; and accessions to ourknowledge respecting it have been the result rather of accident than of asettled plan, or of any expedition with that view. The Cape of Good Hopehas now been an European settlement nearly two hundred years: theinhabitants in that part of Africa, though of course barbarians, areneither so formidable for their craft and cruelty, and strength, nor soimplacable in their hatred of strangers, as the inhabitants of the northand of the interior of Africa; and yet to what a short distance from theCape has even a solitary European traveller ever reached!

But though a very great deal remains to be accomplished before Africa willcease to present an immense void in its interior, in our maps, and stillmore remains to be accomplished before we can become acquainted with themanners, &c. Of its inhabitants, and its produce and manufactures, yet thelast century, and what has passed of the present, have witnessed many boldand successful enterprizes to extend our geographical knowledge of thisquarter of the globe. 

As the sovereigns of the northern shores of Africa were, from variouscauses and circumstances, always in implacable hostility with one another, and as, besides this obstacle to advances into Africa from this side, itwas well known that the Great Desert spread itself an almost impassablebarrier to any very great progress by the north into the interior, it wasnot to be expected that any attempts to penetrate this quarter of the globeby this route would be made. On the other hand, the Europeans had varioussettlements on the western coast: on this coast there were many largerivers, which apparently ran far into the interior; these rivers, therefore, naturally seemed the most expeditious, safe, and easy routes, bywhich the interior might, at least to a short distance from the shore, bepenetrated. 

But it was very long before the Senegal, one of the chief of these rivers, was traced higher than the falls of Felu; or the Gambia, another river ofnote and magnitude, than those of Baraconda. In the year 1723, CaptainStebbs, who was employed by the Royal African Company, succeeded in goingup this river as far as the flats of Tenda. Soon afterwards, someinformation respecting the interior of Africa, especially respecting Bonda, (which is supposed to be the Bondou of Park, in the upper Senegal, ) wasreceived through an African prince, who was taken prisoner, and carried asa slave to America. 

All the information which had been drawn from these, and other sources, respecting the interior, was collected and published by Moore, thesuperintendent of the African Company's settlements on the Gambia; butthough the particulars regarding the manners, &c. Of the inhabitants arecurious, yet this work adds not much to our geographical knowledge of theinterior of this part of the world. 

In the year 1788, the African Institution was formed: its object was tosend persons properly qualified to make discoveries in the interior ofAfrica. The first person engaged by them was Mr. Ledyard; and, from allaccounts of him, no person could have been better qualified for such anarduous enterprise: he was strong, healthy, active, intelligent, inquisitive, observant, and undaunted; full of zeal, and sanguine ofsuccess; and, at the same time, open, kind, and insinuating in his looksand manners. At Cairo he prepared himself for his undertaking, by visitingthe slave market, in order to converse with the merchants of the variouscaravans, and learn all the particulars connected with his proposedjourney, and the countries from which they came. But be proceeded nofarther than Cairo: here he was seized with an illness, occasioned oraggravated by the delay in the caravans setting out for Sennaar, whichproved fatal. 

Mr Lucas was the next person employed by the African Institution. InOctober, 1788, he arrived at Tripoli, from whence he set out with twoshereefs for Fezzan, by the way of Mescerata. On the fourth day after hisdeparture, he reached Lebida, on the sea coast, the Leptis Magna of theRomans. He found, on his arrival at Mescerata, that he should not be ableto procure the number of camels necessary to convey his goods to Fezzan;and was obliged to abandon his enterprize. From the information which hederived, at Mescerata, confirmed as it was by what the Association hadlearnt from the narrative of a native of Morocco, the geography of Africawas extended from Fezzan, across the eastern division of the Desert, toBornou, Cashna, and the Niger. 

In a year or two after the return of Mr. Lucas, the African Association, who were indefatigable in endeavouring to obtain information from allsources, learnt some interesting and original circumstances from an Arab. This person described a large empire on the banks of the Niger, in thecapital of which, Housa, he had resided two years: this city he rathervaguely and inconsistently described as equalling London and Cairo inextent and population. As it was necessary to scrutinize the truth andconsistency of his narrative, what he related was at first received withcaution and doubt, but an incidental circumstance seemed to prove himworthy of credit; for in describing the manner in which pottery wasmanufactured at Housa, which he did by imitating the actions of those whomade it, it was remarked that he actually described the ancient Grecianwheel. 

In order to learn whether the accounts of this man were true and accurate, the African Institution sent out Major Houghton: he was instructed toascertain the course, and, if possible, the rise and termination of theNiger; to visit Tombuctoo and Housa, and to return by the Desert. Accordingly he sailed up the Gambia to Pisania, and thence he proceeded toMedina, the capital of the Mandingo kingdom. His course from this city wasnorth-east, which led him beyond the limit of European discovery, to theuninhabited frontier which separates Bondou and Mandingo. After some timespent in endeavouring to ingratiate himself with the king of the lattercountry, but in vain, he resolved to proceed into Bambouk. On arriving atFirbanna, the capital, he was hospitably treated by the king. Here beformed a plan to go with a merchant to Tombuctoo; but on his way he wasrobbed, and either perished of hunger, or was murdered: the exactparticulars are not known. To Major Houghton we are indebted for our firstknowledge of the kingdom of Bondou; and for the names of several cities onthe Niger, as well as the course of that river. 

Mr. Park was next employed by the African Association; and what he learnt, observed, did, and suffered, fully justified them in the choice of such aman. "His first journey was unquestionably the most important which anyEuropean had ever performed in the interior of Africa. He established anumber of geographical positions, in a direct line of eleven hundred milesfrom Cape de Verde: by pointing out the positions of the sources of theSenegal, Gambia, and Niger, he has given a new aspect to the physicalgeography of this continent; he has fixed the boundaries of the Moors andNegroes; unfolded to us the empire of Ludamar; and described, from personalobservation, some important towns on the banks of the Niger, or Joliba. Theinformation which he has communicated concerning this part of Africa, andtheir manners, is equally new and interesting. He has traced with accuracythe distinction betwixt the Mahometans and Pagans. " This journey wasaccomplished between the 2d of December, 1795, when he left Pisania, aBritish factory two hundred miles up the Gambia, and the 10th of June, 1797, when he returned to the same place, an interval of eighteen months. 

Notwithstanding the dangers and fatigues which he had undergone;notwithstanding that, on his return to his native country, he had married, and entered on a life which promised him competence and domestic happiness;yet his mind yearned for a repetition of those scenes and adventures towhich he had lately been accustomed. No sooner, therefore, did he learnthat another mission to Africa was in contemplation, than he set hisinclination on undertaking it, if it were offered to him. This it was: heaccepted the offer; and on the 30th of January, 1805, he left Portsmouth. 

It is surprising and lamentable, that notwithstanding his knowledge andexperience of the climate of the country to which he was going, he shouldhave begun his expedition at a time when her was sure to encounter therainy season long before he could reach the Niger. 

The expedition was most unfortunate: Mr. Park perished in it, after havingundergone dreadful hardships, and witnessed the death of several of hiscompanions; and of one of them who was his most intimate friend. The exactplace and circumstances of his own fate are not known: it is known, however, from his own journal, which he transmitted to England, that he hadreached Sansandang, which is considerably short of Silla, which he hadreached in his first journey; and from other sources, it is known, thatfrom the former place he went to Yaour in Haoussa, where he is supposed tohave been killed by the natives. 

The African Association were still indefatigable in their endeavours toexplore the interior of Africa; and they found little difficulty in meetingwith persons zealously disposed, as well as qualified, to second theirdesigns. Mr. Horneman, a German, who possessed considerable knowledge, suchas might be of service to him on such an enterprise, and who was besidesstrong, active, vigorous, undaunted, endowed with passive courage, (a mostindispensable qualification, ) temperate, and in perfect health, was nextselected. He prepared himself by learning such of the Oriental languages asmight be useful to him; and on the 10th of September, 1797, arrived atAlexandria. Circumstances prevented him from pursuing his route for nearlytwo years, when he left Cairo, along with a caravan for Fezzan. Hissubsequent fate is unknown; but there is reason to believe that he diedsoon after his departure from Fezzan. 

It is not necessary to mention any of the subsequent expeditions which weresent by the Association into the interior of Africa; since none of themhave added to our knowledge of this portion of the globe. There have, indeed, been communications received from some of the merchants tradingfrom the north of Africa to the Niger, which confirm the accounts of largeand powerful kingdoms on its banks, and the inhabitants of these kingdomsare comparatively far advanced in manufactures and commerce; but, besidesthese particulars, little respecting the geography of the interior has beenascertained. The course of the Niger is proved beyond a doubt to be, asHerodotus described it, upwards of 2000 years ago, from west to east; butthe termination of this large river is utterly unknown. Some think itunites with the Nile, and forms the great western branch of that river, called the Bahr el Abiad, or White River; others think that it loses itselfin the lakes or swamps of Wangara, or Ghana, and is there wasted byevaporation; while another opinion is, that its course takes a bend to thewest, and that it falls into the Atlantic, or that it discharges itselfinto the Indian Ocean. 

The British government, anxious to determine, if possible, this curious andimportant question, sent out two expeditions, about seven years since, toexplore in every possible way the course and termination of the Niger. Thefirst, under the conduct of Captain Tuckey, proceeded up the Zaire; theother ascended the Nunez in north Africa, in order, if possible, to reachthe navigable part of the Niger by a shorter course than that followed byPark, and with the design of proceeding down the river till it reached itstermination. The issue of both these expeditions, particularly of theformer, was singularly melancholy and unfortunate: Captain Tuckey, andfifteen persons out of the thirty who composed it, perished in consequenceof the excessive fatigue which they underwent after they had reached abovethe cataracts of the river, the want of sufficient and proper food, and afever brought on, or aggravated, by these causes. Captain Tuckey was thelast who fell a victim, after having traced the Zaire, till it became fromfour to five miles in breadth. The mountains were no longer seen, and thecourse of the river inclined to the north; these circumstances, joined tothat of its becoming broader, render the opinion that it is the same withthe Niger more probable than it previously was: the accounts given toCaptain Tuckey were also to the same effect. The second expedition, underthe direction of Major Peddir, reached Kauendy on the Nunez, where he died:his successor in the command, Captain Campbell, penetrated about 150 milesbeyond this place, but not being able to procure the means of proceeding, he was obliged to return to it, where he also died. 

Within 150 miles of the British settlement at Cape Coast Castle, there is apowerful and rich nation, called the Aahantees: they seem first to havebeen heard of by Europeans about the year 1700; but they were not seen nearthe coast, nor had they any intercourse with our factories till the year1807: they visited the coast again in 1811, and a third time in 1816. Theseinvasions produced great distress among the Fantees, and even were highlyprejudicial to our factory; in consequence of which, the governor resolvedto send a mission to them. Of this journey an account has been published byMr. Bowdich, one of those engaged in it. The travellers passed through theFantee and Assen territories. The first Ashantee village was Quesha; thecapital is Coomastee, which the mission reached on the 19th of May, 1817. Mr. Bowdich paints the splendour, magnificence, and richness of thesovereign of the Ashantees in the most gorgeous manner; and even hismanners as dignified and polished. But though his work is very full of whatalmost seems romantic pictures and statements of the civilization andrichness of the Ashantees, and gives accurate accounts of their kingdom, yet, in other respects, it is not interesting or important, in ageographical point of view. There are, indeed, some notices which werecollected from the natives or the travelling Moors, regarding the countriesbeyond Ashantee, and some of their opinions respecting the Niger. The mostimportant point which he ascertained was, that the route from the capitalto Tombuctoo is much travelled; and it is now supposed that this is theshortest and best road for Europeans to take, who wish to reach the Nigernear that city. Indeed, we understand that merchants frequently come to theBritish settlement at Sierra Leone, who represent the route into theinterior of Africa and the neighbourhood of the Niger from thence, as by nomeans arduous or dangerous. 

We shall next direct our attention to the north of Africa. 

The hostility of the Mahometans, who possessed the north of Africa, toChristians, presented as serious an obstacle to travels in that quarter asthe barbarism and ferocity of the native tribes on the west coast did todiscoveries into the interior in that direction. In the sixteenth century, Leo Africanus gave an ample description of the northern parts; and in thesame century, Alvarez, who visited Abyssinia, published an account of thatcountry. In the subsequent century, this part of Africa was illustrated byLobo, Tellea, and Poncet; the latter was a chemist and apothecary, sent byLouis XIV to the reigning monarch of Abyssinia; the former weremissionaries. From their accounts, and those of the Portuguese, all ourinformation respecting this country was derived, previously to the travelsof Mr. Bruce. 

Pocock and Norden are the most celebrated travellers in Egypt in thebeginning of the seventeenth century; but as their object was rather thediscovery and description of the antiquities of this country, what theypublished did not much extend our geographical knowledge: the former spentfive years in his travels. The latter is the first writer who published apicturesque description of Egypt; every subsequent traveller has borneevidence to the accuracy and fidelity of his researches and descriptions. He was the first European who ventured above the cataracts. 

The great ambition and object of Mr. Bruce was to discover the source ofthe Nile; for this purpose he left Britain in 1762, and after visitingAlgiers, Balbec, and Palmyra, he prepared for his journey into Abyssinia. He sailed up the Nile a considerable way, and afterwards joined a caravanto Cosseir on the Red Sea. After visiting part of the sea coast of Arabia, he sailed for Massoucut, by which route alone an entrance into Abyssiniawas practicable. In this country he encountered many obstacles, anddifficulties, and after all, in consequence of wrong information hereceived from the inhabitants, visited only the Blue River, one of theinferior streams of the Nile, instead of the White River, its real source. This, however, is of trifling moment, when contrasted with the accessionsto our geographical knowledge of Abyssinia, the coast of the Red Sea, &c. , for which we are indebted to this most zealous and persevering traveller. Since Mr. Bruce's time, Abyssinia has been visited by Mr. Salt, who haslikewise added considerably to our knowledge of this country, though onmany points he differs from Mr. Bruce. 

The most important and interesting accession to our knowledge of the northof Africa was made between the years 1792 and 1795, by Mr. Browne. Thisgentleman seems to have equalled Mr. Bruce in his zeal and ardour, but tohave surpassed him in the soundness and utility of his views; for while theformer was principally ambitious of discovering the sources of the Nile, --apoint of little real moment in any point of view, --the latter wished topenetrate into those parts of the north of Africa which were unknown toEuropeans, but which, from all accounts of them, promised to interest andbenefit, not only commerce, but science. His precise and immediate objectwas Darfur, some of the natives of which resided in Egypt: from theirmanners and account of their country, Mr. Browne concluded the inhabitantswere not so hostile to Christians and Europeans as Mahometans are ingeneral. He therefore resolved to go thither; as from it he could eitherproceed into Abyssinia by Kordofan, or traverse Africa from east to west. He therefore left Assiou in Egypt with the Soudan caravan in 1793, passedthrough the greater Oasis, and arrived at Sircini in Darfur: here heresided a considerable time, but he found insurmountable obstacles opposedto his grand and ulterior plan. He ascertained, however, the source andprogress of the real Nile or White River. The geography of Darfur andKordofan is illustrated by him in a very superior and satisfactory manner. The geography of Africa to the west of these countries is likewiseelucidated by him: he mentions and describes a large river which takes itsrise among the mountains of Kumri, and flows in a north-west course. Thisriver is supposed to be that described by Ptolemy under the name of Gir, and by Edrisi as the Nile of the Negroes. The fate of Mr. Browne, who fromall the accounts of him seems to have been admirably fitted by nature andhabits for a traveller, was very melancholy. After his return to Englandfrom Darfur he resolved to visit the central countries of Asia: heaccordingly set out, but on his way thither he was murdered in Persia. 

At the commencement of this century, circumstances occurred Which renderedEgypt and the countries adjacent more accessible to Europeans than they hadever been before. In the first place, the French, who most unjustly invadedit, took with their invading army a number of literary and scientific men, by whom were published several splendid works, principally on theantiquities of this ancient country. In the second place, the English, bydriving out the French, and by their whole conduct towards the ruling menand the natives in general, not only weakened in a very considerable degreethe dislike to Europeans and Christians which the Mahomedans here, aselsewhere, had ever entertained, but also created a grateful sense ofobligation and of favour towards themselves. Lastly, the pacha, whoobtained the power in Egypt, was a man of liberal and enlightened views, far above those who had preceded him, and disposed to second and assist theresearches and journies of travellers. 

In consequence of these favourable circumstances, and the additionalcircumstance, that by the conquests and influence of Bonaparte Englishtravellers were shut out from a great part of Europe, they directed theircourse towards Egypt. Their object was chiefly to investigate the numerous, stupendous, and interesting antiquities. 

In the year 1813, Mr. Legh, a member of the House of Commons, performed ajourney in this country, and beyond the cataracts. Above the cataracts heentered Nubia, and proceeded to Dehr, its capital. These travels are, however, chiefly interesting and instructive for that which indeed mustgive the chief interest to all travels in Egypt and Nubia--the descriptionof antiquities. 

The second cataract continued the limit of the attempts of Europeantravellers, till it was reached and passed, first by Mr. Burckhardt, andafterwards by Mr. Banks. No modern traveller has excelled Mr. Burckhardt inthe importance of his travels; and-few, in any age, have equalled him inzeal, perseverance, fortitude, and success. 

He was employed by the African Association to explore the interior ofAfrica. Having perfected himself in the knowledge of the religion, manners, and language of the Mahomedan Arabs, by frequent and long residences amongthe Bedouins, he proceeded to Cairo. Here, finding that the opportunity ofa caravan to Fezzan or Darfur was not soon likely to occur, he resolved toexplore Egypt and the country above the cataracts. He accordingly"performed two very arduous and interesting journies into the ancientEthiopia; one of them along the banks of the Nile from Assouan to Dar alMahas on the frontiers of Dongola, in the months of February and March, 1813, during which he discovered many remains of ancient Egyptian andNubian architecture, with Greek inscriptions; the other between March andJuly in the following year, through Nubia to Souakun. The details of thisjourney contain the best notices ever received in Europe of the actualstate of society, trade, manufactures, and government, in what was once thecradle of all the knowledge of the Egyptians. "

Although it will carry us a little out of our regular and stated course, tonotice the other travels of this enterprising man in the place, yet weprefer doing it, in order that our readers, by having at once before them abrief abstract of all he performed for geography, may the better be enabledto appreciate his merits. 

Soon after his second return to Cairo, he resolved to penetrate intoArabia, and to visit Mecca and Medina. In order to secure his own safety, and at the same time gain such information as could alone be obtained inthe character of a Mahomedan, he assumed the dress, and he was enabled topersonate the religion, manners, and language of the native Hadje, orpilgrims. Thus secure and privileged, he resided between four and fivemonths in Mecca. Here he gained some authentic and curious informationrespecting the rise, history, and tenets of the Wahabees, a Mahomedan sect. These travels have not yet been published. 

The last excursion of Mr. Burckhardt was from Cairo to Mount Sinai and theeastern head of the Red Sea. This journey was published in 1822, along withthe travels in Syria and the Holy Land; the latter of which he accomplishedwhile he was preparing himself at Aleppo for his proposed journey into theinterior of Africa. These travels, therefore, are prior in date to those inNubia, though they were published afterwards. 

He spent nearly three, years in Syria: his most important geographicaldiscoveries in this country relate to the nature of the district betweenthe Dead Sea and the Gulf of Elana; the extent, conformation, and detailedtopography of the Haouran; the situation of Apanea on the river Orontes, which was one of the most important cities of Syria under the MacedonianGreeks; the site of Petreea; and the general structure of the peninsula ofMount Sinai. Perhaps the most original and important of these illustrationsof ancient geography is that which relates to the Elanitic Gulph: itsextent and form were previously so little known, that it was eitherentirely omitted, or very erroneously laid down in maps. From what heobserved here, there is good reason to believe that the Jordan oncedischarged itself into the Red Sea; thus confirming the truth of thatconvulsion mentioned and described in the nineteenth chapter of Genesis, which interrupted the coarse of this river; converted the plain in whichSodom and Gomorrah stood into a lake, and changed the valley to thesouthward of this district into a sandy desert. 

But Mr. Burckhardt, considering all these excursions, and their consequentnumerous and important accessions to geographical knowledge, as onlypreludes to the grand expedition for which he had expressly come to theEast, still looked forward to the interior of Africa. This, however, he wasnot destined to reach; for while at Cairo, waiting for a caravan, which wasto proceed by Mourzouck, --a. Route which he had long decided on as the mostlikely to answer his purpose, --he was suddenly seized with a dysentery, onthe 5th of October, 1817, and died on the 15th. 

Travellers in. Egypt and Nubia have been numerous since the time of Mr. Burckhardt; but as they chiefly directed their investigations and inquiriesto the antiquities of the country, they do not come within our propernotice; we shall therefore merely mention the names of Belzoni, (whoseantiquarian discoveries have been so numerous and splendid, ) Mr. Salt, Mr. Bankes, &c. To this latter gentleman, however, geography is also indebtedfor important additions to its limits; or, rather, for having illustratedancient geography. He penetrated, as we have already mentioned, as far asthe second cataract: he visited some of the most celebrated scenes inArabia, and made an excursion to Waadi Mooza, or the Valley of Moses. Healso visited Carrac; but the most important discovery of this gentlemanrelates to the site of the ancient Petraea, which was also visited byBurckhardt. Onr readers will recollect that this city has been particularlynoticed in our digression on the early commerce of the Arabians, as thecommon centre for the caravans in all ages; and that we traced its ancienthistory as far down as there were any notices of it. Its ruins Mr. Bankesdiscovered in those of Waadi Mooza, a village in the valley of the samename. 

Since Mr. Burckhardt travelled, geographical discoveries have been made inthis part of the world by Messrs. Ritchie and Lyon, Lord Belmore and Dr. Richardson, Messrs. Waddington and Hanbury, Messrs. Caillaud and Drovetti, Sir Archibald Edmonstone, Sir Frederick Henniker, and by an American of thename of English. The travels of Messrs. Ritchie and Lyon were confined toFezzan, and are chiefly curious for the notices they give, derived fromnative merchants, of the course of the Niger, By means of the travels ofLord Belmore and Dr. Richardson, the latitudes and longitudes on the Nilehave been corrected from Assouan to the confines of Dongola. Mr. Waddingtonand Mr. Hanbury, taking advantage of an expedition sent into Ethiopia bythe pacha of Egypt, examined this river four hundred miles beyond the placeto which Burckhardt advanced. The travels of the two French gentlemenextended to the Oasis of Thebes and Dakel, and the deserts situated to theeast and west of the Thebaid. In the Thebaic Oasis some very interestingremains of antiquity were discovered: the great Oasis was well known to theancients; but the Thebaic Oasis has seldom been visited in modern times. Brown and Poncet passed through its longest extent, but did not see theruins observed by Mr. Caillaud. 

This gentleman, who was employed by the pacha to search for gold, silver, and precious stones, after a residence of five months at Sennaar, traversedthe province of Fazocle, and followed the Arrek, till it entered thekingdom of Bertot. At a place called Singue, in the kingdom of Dar-foke, which is the southern boundary of Bertot, situated on the tenth parallel oflatitude, and five days' journey to the westward of the confines ofAbyssinia, the conquests of Ishmaei Pacha terminated. Only short notices ofthese travels of Mr. Caillaud have as yet been published. 

Sir A. Edmonstone's first intention was to visit the Thebaic Oasis; butunderstanding from Mr. Belzoni that Mr. Caillaud had already been there, but that there was another Oasis to the westward, which had never beenvisited by any European, he resolved to proceed thither. This Oasis wasalso visited by Drovetti much about I he same time: he calls it the Oasisof Dakel. It seems to have escaped the notice of all the ancient authorsexamined by Sir Archibald, except Olympiodorus. Speaking of the ThebaicOasis, he mentions an interior and extensive one, lying opposite to theother, one hundred miles apart, which corresponds with the actual distancebetween them. 

The American traveller accompanied the expedition of the pacha of Egypt asfar as Sennaar. He commences the account of his voyage up the Nile at thesecond cataract; and as far as the pyramids of Meroe, where the voyage ofMessrs. Waddington and Hanbury terminated, his accounts correspond withwhat they give. He did not, however, follow the great bend of the riverabove Dongola: this he describes as 250 miles long, and full of rocks andrapid. He again reached the Nile, having crossed the peninsula in a directline, at Shendi. Near this place he discovered the remains of a city, temples, and fifty-four pyramids, which are supposed, by a writer in theQuarterly Review, to be the ruins of the celebrated Meroc, as theirposition agrees with that assigned them by a draughtsman employed by Mr. Bankes. The army halted on the western bank of the Nile, opposite Halfaia:about five hours' march above this place the Bahr el Abiad, or White River, flows into the Bahr el Azreck, or Nile of Bruce. In thirteen days from thejunction of these two rivers, the army, marching along the left, or westernbranch of the Azreck, reached Sennaar. 

In the year 1817, Delia Cella, an Italian physician, accompanied the armyof the bashaw of Tripoli as far as Bomba, on the route towards Egypt, andnear the frontiers of that country. He had thus an opportunity "of visitingone of the oldest and most celebrated of the Greek colonies, establishedupwards of seven hundred years before the birth of Christ; and in being thefirst European to follow the footsteps of Cato round the shores of theSyrtis, and to explore a region untrodden by Christian foot since theexpulsion of the Romans, the Huns, and the Vandals, by the enterprisingdisciples of Mahomet. " In this journey he necessarily passed the presentboundary between Tripoli and Bengaze, the same which was anciently theboundary between Carthage and Cyrene; and our author confirms the accountof Sallust, that neither river nor mountain marks the confines. He alsoconfirms the description given by Herodotus of the dreadful storms of sandthat frequently arise and overwhelm the caravans in this part of theSyrtis. At the head of the Syrtis the ground is depressed, and thisdepression, our author supposes, continues to the Great Desert. Soon afterhe left this barren country, he entered Cyrenaica, the site of Cyrene: thatmost ancient and celebrated colony of the Greeks was easily ascertained byits magnificent ruins. From Cyrene the army marched to Derna, and from thisto the gulf of Bomba, an extensive arm of the sea, where the expeditionterminated. 

Such are the most recent discoveries in this portion of Africa. 

The settlement of the Cape of Good Hope, originally established by theDutch, and at present in possession of the English, was naturally the pointfrom which European travellers set out to explore the southern parts ofAfrica. Their progress hitherto has not been great, though, as far as theyhave advanced, the information they have acquired of the face of thecountry, its productions, the tribes which inhabit it, and their habits, manners, &c. May be regarded as full and accurate. The principal travellerswho have visited this part of Africa, and from whose travels the bestinformation may be obtained of the settlement of the Cape, and of thecountry to the north of it for about 900 miles, are Kolbein, Sparman, LeVaillant, Barrow, Lichtenstein, La Trobe, Campbell, and Burcheli. To thegeography of the east coast of Africa, and of the adjacent districts, little or no addition has been made for a very considerable length of time. 

II. The discoveries in Asia may in general be divided into those which thevast possessions of the Russians in this quarter of the globe, and thecorresponding interest which they felt to become better acquainted withthem, induced them to make, and into those to which the English werestimulated, and which they were enabled to perform, from the circumstanceof their vast, important, and increasing possessions in Hindostan. 

The most important and instructive travels which spring from the firstsource, are those of Bell of Antermony, Pallas, Grnelin, Guldenstedt, Lepechin, &c. Bell was a Scotchman, attached to the Russian service: hiswork, which was published about the middle of the last century, contains anaccount of the embassy sent by Peter the Great to the emperor of China, andof another embassy into Persia; of an expedition to Derbent by the Russianarmy, and of a journey to Constantinople. Of the route in all thesedirections he gives an interesting and accurate account, as well as of themanners, &c. Of the people. Indeed, it is a valuable work, especially thatportion of it which conducts us through the central parts of Asia, --animmense district, which, as we have already remarked, is not much betterknown at present, (at least considerable portions of it, ) than it was threeor four centuries ago. The travels of Pallas, &c. Were undertaken by orderof the Russian government, for the purpose of gaining a fuller and moreaccurate account of the provinces of that immense empire, especially thoseto the south, which, from climate, soil, and productions were mostvaluable, and most capable of improvement. 

The English possessions in Hindostan have led the way to two sets ofdiscoveries, or rather advancements in geographical knowledge: one whichwas derived from the journies frequently made overland from India toEurope; and the other, which was derived from embassies, &c. From Calcuttato the neighbouring kingdoms. In general, however, the journies overlandfrom India, having been undertaken expressly for the purpose of expedition, and moreover being through countries which required the utmost caution onthe part of the travellers to preserve them from danger, did not admit ofmuch observation being made, or much information being acquired, respectingthe districts that were passed through. The travels of Jackson, Forster, and Fitzclarence, are perhaps as valuable as any which have been given tothe public respecting the route from India to Europe, and the countries, and their inhabitants, passed through in this route. 

From the embassies and the wars of the British East India Company inHindostan, we have derived much valuable information respecting Persia, Thibet, Ava, Caubul, &c. ; and from their wars, as well as from theinstitution of the Asiatic Society, and the facilities which theirconquests afforded to travellers, the whole of the peninsula of Hindostan, as well as the country to the north of it, as far as Cashmere and theHimaleh mountains, may be regarded as fully explored. Perhaps the mostvaluable accession to geographical knowledge through the English conquests, relates to these mountains. They seem to have been known to Pliny under thename of Imaus: they are described by Plotemy; and they were crossed by someof the Jesuit missionaries about the beginning of the seventeenth century;but they were not thoroughly explored till the beginning of the nineteenth. Mr. Moorcroft was the first European, after the missionaries, whopenetrated into the plains of Tartary through these mountains. The fullestaccount, however, of the singular countries which lie among them, is givenby Mr. Frazer, who in 1814 passed in a straight line, in a direction ofthis chain, between 60 and 70 miles, and also visited the sources of theGanges. 

Our commerce with China for tea, and the hope of extending that commerce toother articles, produced, towards the end of the last century and thebeginning of this, two embassies to China, from both of which, butespecially from the first, much additional information has been gainedrespecting this extensive country, and its singular inhabitants; so that, regarding it and them, from these embassies, and the works of the Jesuitmissionaries, we possess all the knowledge which we can well expect toderive, so long as the Chinese are so extremely jealous of strangers. 

The British embassies to China, besides making us better acquainted withthis country, added no little to our information respecting those placeswhich were visited in going to and returning from China. Perhaps the mostimportant correction of geography is that which was made by CaptainsMaxwell and Hall, who took out the second embassy: we allude to what theyascertained respecting the kingdom of Corea. They found a bay, which, according to the charts of this country, would be situated 120 miles in theinterior; and at the same time they ascertained, that along the southerncoast of Corea there was an archipelago of more than 1000 islands. Thesediscoveries; the valuable additions which were made during the voyage ofCaptain Maxwell to the geography and hydrography of the Yellow Sea; thecorrection of the vague and incorrect notions which were long entertainedrespecting the isles of Jesso and the Kuriles, by the labours of LaPerouse, Broughton, Krusentein, &c. , and the full and minute informationgiven to the public respecting Java, and other parts of the southern Indianarchipelago, by Raffles, Craufurd, &c. Seem to leave little to be added toour geographical knowledge of the eastern and southeastern portions ofAsia. 

III. We come now to America;--and though Africa is one of the most ancientseats of the human race, and of civilization and science, and America hasbeen discovered only about 350 years, yet we know much more respecting thecoasts and interior of the latter than of the former portion of the globe. 

Although the Spaniards and Portuguese, who, till very lately, possessednearly the whole of South America, guarded their possessions strictly fromthe curious intrusion of foreigners, and were themselves very sparing ingiving to the world the information respecting them which they must haveacquired, --yet, even during their power there, the geography of this partof America was gradually developed and extended; the face of the country;the great outline of those immense mountains, which, under the torrid zone, are visited by the cold of the Pole; the nature of the vast plains whichlie between the offsets of these mountains; and the general direction ofthe rivers, not less remarkable for their size than the mountains andplains, were generally known. The geography of South America, however, taking the term in the most philosophical and comprehensive sense, has beenprincipally enriched within these few years, by the labours of Humboldt andhis fellow-traveller Bompland, of Depons, Koster, Prince Maximilian, Luccock, Henderson, and by those Englishmen who joined the SpanishAmericans during their struggle with the mother country. From theobservations, enquiries, and researches of these travellers, ourinformation respecting all those parts of South America which constitutedthe Spanish and Portuguese dominions there, especially of Mexico, TerraFirma, Brazil, and Buenos Ayres, and generally the eastern and middleportions, has been much extended, as well as rendered more accurate andparticular. Humboldt, especially, has left little to be gleaned by anyfuture traveller, from any of those countries which he has visited anddescribed. 

The rapid and wonderful increase in the territories and inhabitants of theUnited States, has necessarily laid open the greater part of North Americato our acquaintance. The United States, limited in their wish andendeavours to extend themselves on the north by the British possessionsthere, and on the south by the Spanish territories, and moreover drawntowards the interior and the shores of the Pacific by the grand naturalnavigation which the Mississippi and its numerous streams afford for inlandcommerce, and by the commercial access to the wealth of the East which thepossession of the shores of the Pacific would open to them, have pushedtheir territories towards the west. First, the Alleghany Mountains, afeeble barrier to an encreasing population, and a most enterprising as wellas unsettled people, were passed; then the Mississippi was reached andcrossed; and at present the government of the United States are preparingthe way for extending their territories gradually to the Western Oceanitself, and for spreading their population, as they go westwards, to thenorth and the south, as far as their limits, will admit. 

All those countries, over which they have spread themselves, are of coursenow well known, principally from the accounts published by Europeans, andespecially Englishmen, who have been tempted to explore them, or to settlethere. The government of the United States itself has not been backward insetting on foot exploratory travels into the immense districts to the westof the Mississippi: to these enterprizes they seem to have beenparticularly directed and stimulated by the acquisition of Louisiana fromFrance, a country "rich and varied in its soil, almost inexhaustible innatural resources, and almost indefinite in extent. "

This acquisition was made in the year 1803, and within four years of thisperiod, three exploratory expeditions were sent out by the United States. The principal object of the first, which was under the direction of MajorPike, was to trace the Mississippi to its source, and to ascertain thedirection of the Arkansa and Red Rivers, further to the west. In the courseof this journey, an immense chain of mountains, called the Rocky Mountains, was approached, which appeared to be a continuation of the Andes. Theulterior grand object, however, of this expedition was not obtained, inconsequence of the Spaniards compelling Major Pike to desist and return. Asecond attempt was made, by another party, but the Spaniards stopped themlikewise. In the years 1804, 5, and 6, Captains Lewis and Clarke exploredthe Missouri to its source, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and proceedingtowards the North Pacific Ocean, ascertained, the origin and course of theRiver Columbia. 

In the years 1819 and 1820, several persons, well qualified for theundertaking by their science, spirit, and enterprize, accompanied byriflemen, hunters, and assistants, were sent out by the government of theUnited States, for the purpose of gaining a more full and accurateknowledge of the chain of the Rocky Mountains, and of the rivers, winch, rising there, flowed into the Mississippi. After passing through a greatextent and variety of country, and gaining some curious informationrespecting various Indian tribes, especially of those who inhabit the uppercourse of the Missouri, they reached the Mountains: these and the adjacentdistricts they carefully examined. They next separated, one party goingtowards the Red River, and the other descending the Arkansa. The formerparty were misled and misinformed by the Indians, so that they mistook andfollowed the Canadian River, instead of the Red River, till it joined theArkansa. They were, however, too exhausted to remedy their error. Thelatter party were more successful. 

The great outline of the coast, as well as of the greater portion of thevast continent of America, is now filled up. In the northernmost parts ofNorth America, the efforts of the British government to find a north-westpassage, the spreading of the population of Canada, and the increasingimportance of the fur trade, bid fair to add the details of this portion;the spread of the population of the United States towards the west, will asnecessarily give the details of the middle portion; while, with respect tothe most southern portions of North America, and the whole of SouthAmerica, with the exception of the cold, bleak, and barren territory ofPatagonia, the changes which have taken place, and are still in operation, in the political state of the Spanish and Portuguese provinces, must soonfill up the little that has been left unaccomplished by Humboldt, &c. 

What portions, then, of Asia, America, and Africa, are still_unknown?_--and what comparison, in point of extent and importance, dothey bear to what was _known_ to the ancients? In Asia, the interiorof the vast kingdom of China is very imperfectly known, as well as Daouriaand other districts on the confines of the Chinese and Russian empires;central Asia in general, and all that extensive, populous, and fertileregion which extends from the southern part of Malaya, nearly under theequator, in a northerly direction, to the fortieth degree of latitude, arestill not explored, or but very partially so, by European travellers. Thisregion comprehends Aracan, Ava, Pegu, Siam, Tsiompa, and Cambodia. Thesouth and east coasts of Arabia still require to be more minutely andaccurately surveyed. In the eastern archipelago, Borneo, Celebes, andPapua, are scarcely known. Though all these bear but a small proportion tothe vast extent of Asia, yet some of them, especially the country to thenorth of the Malay peninsula, and the islands in the eastern archipelago, may justly be regarded as not inferior, in that importance which naturalriches bestows, to any part of this quarter of the globe. 

Still, however, we possess some general notice, and some vague reports ofall these countries; but it is otherwise with respect to the unknownportions of Africa. The whole of this quarter of the world, from the Nigerto the confines of the British settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, may, with little limitation, be considered as unknown. Travellers have indeedpenetrated a short distance from the western coast into the interior, insome parts between the latitude of the Niger and the latitude of theextreme northern boundary of the Cape settlement: and a very little isknown respecting some small portions of the districts closely adjoining tothe eastern coast; but the whole of central Africa is still unexplored, andpresents difficulties and dangers which it is apprehended will not bespeedily or easily overcome. To the north of the Niger lies the Sahara, orGreat Desert; of this, probably, sufficient is known to convince us thatits extent is such, that no country that would repay a traveller for hisfatigue and risk, is situated to the north of it. To the east of the Niger, however, or rather along its course, and to the north of its course, as itflows to the east, much remains to be explored; many geographical detailshave been indeed gathered from the Mahomedan merchants of this part ofAfrica, but these cannot entirely be trusted. The course and termination ofthe Niger itself is still an unsolved problem. 

Captain Scoresby, a most intelligent and active captain in the whalefishery trade, has very lately succeeded in reaching the eastern coasts ofGreenland, and is disposed to think that the descendants of the Danishcolonists, of whose existence nothing is known since this coast wasblocked, up by ice at the beginning of the fifteenth century, still inhabitit. The northern shores of Greenland, and its extent in this direction arestill unknown. 

Notwithstanding the zeal and success with which the government of theUnited States prosecute their discoveries to the west of the Mississippi, there is still much unexplored country between that river and the PacificOcean. It is possible that lands may lie within the antartic circle, ofwhich we have hitherto as little notion as we had of South Shetland tenyears ago; but if there are such, they must be most barren andinhospitable. It is possible also, that, notwithstanding the care andattention with which the great Pacific has been so repeatedly swept, theremay yet be islands in it undiscovered; but these, however fertile from soiland climate, must be mere specks in the ocean. 

But though comparatively little of the surface of the globe is now utterlyunknown, yet even of those countries with which we are best acquainted, much remains to be ascertained, before the geography of them can justly beregarded as complete. Perhaps we are much less deficient and inaccurate inour knowledge of the natural history of the globe, than in its geography, strictly so called; that is, in the extent, direction, latitudes andlongitudes, direction and elevation of mountains, rise, course, andtermination of rivers, &c. How grossly erroneous geography was till verylately, in some even of its most elementary parts, and those, too, inrelation to what ought to have been the most accurately known portion ofEurope, may be judged from these two facts, --that till near the close ofthe last century, the distance from the South Foreland, in Kent, to theLand's End, was laid down in all the maps of England nearly half a degreegreater than it actually is; and that, as we have formerly noticed, "thelength of the Mediterranean was estimated by the longitudes of Ptolemy tillthe eighteenth century, and that it was curtailed of nearly twenty-fivedegrees by observation, no farther back than the reign of Louis XIV. "

To speak in a loose and general manner, the Romans, at the height of theirconquests, power, and geographical knowledge, were probably acquainted witha part of the globe about equal in extent to that of which we are stillignorant; but their empire embraced a fairer and more valuable portion thanwe can expect to find in those countries which remain to reward theenterprise of European travellers. The fertile regions and the beautifulclimate of the south of Europe, of the north of Africa, and above all ofAsia Minor, present a picture which we can hardly expect will beapproached, certainly will not be surpassed, under the burning heats ofcentral Africa, or even the more mitigated heats of the farther peninsulaof India. The short and easy access of all portions of the Roman Empire tothe ocean, gave them advantages which must be denied to the hithertounexplored districts in the interior of Asia and Africa. The fartherpeninsula of India is infinitely better situated in this respect. 

At that very remote period, when sacred and profane history first displaysthe situation, and narrates the transactions of the human race, thecountries, few in number, and comparatively of small extent, that werewashed by the waters of the Mediterranean, comprised the whole of the earthwhich was then known. Asia Minor, which possessed the advantage of lyingnot only on this sea, but also on the Euxine, and which is moreover levelin its surface, and fertile in its soil, seems to have been the firstadditional portion of the earth that became thoroughly known. Thecommercial enterprize of the Phoenicians, and their colonists theCarthaginians, --the conquests of Alexander the Great, and of the Romans, gradually extended the knowledge of the earth in all directions, butprincipally in the middle regions of Europe, in the north of Africa, and inAsia towards the Indus. At the period when the Roman empire was destroyed, little more was known; and during the middle ages, geography was feeblyassisted and extended by a desire to possess the luxuries of the East, (which seems to have been as powerful and general with the conquerors ofthe Romans as with the Romans themselves, ) by the religious zeal of a fewpriests, and by the zeal for knowledge which actuated a still smallernumber of travellers. 

The desire of obtaining the luxuries of the East, however, was thepredominating principle, and the efficient cause of the extension ofgeography. Actuated by it, the passage of the Cape of Good Hope wasaccomplished; the eastern limits of Asia were reached; America wasdiscovered, and even the Frozen Seas were braved and carefully examined, inthe hope that by them a speedier passage might be found to the countrieswhich produced these luxuries. At length the love of conquest, of wealth, and of luxury, which alone are sufficiently gross and stimulating in theirnature to act on men in their rudest and least intellectual state, andwhich do not loose their hold on the most civilized, enlightened, andvirtuous people, was assisted by the love of science; and though when thisunion took place, little of the globe was unknown, as respected its grandoutline, and the general extent and relative situation of the seas andlands which compose its surface, yet much remained to be accomplished indetermining the details of geography; in fixing accurately andscientifically the situation of places; in exhibiting the surface of theland, as it was distinguished by mountains, plains, lakes, rivers, &c. ; ingaining a full and accurate knowledge of the natural history of eachcountry, and of the manners, customs, institutions, religion, manufacturesand commerce of its inhabitants. 

Before we give a sketch of the progress of commercial enterprize during thelast hundred years, it will be proper to notice the advancement ofgeographical science during the same period, and the assistance which wasthus afforded, as well as from other sources, to those who travelled bothby sea and land, for the purpose of discovering or exploring foreign anddistant countries. This part of our subject seems naturally to divideitself into three parts; viz. The improvement of maps, which was equallyadvantageous to sea and land travellers; those particulars which renderednavigation more safe, easy, and expeditious; and those particulars whichbestowed the same benefit on land travellers. 

The science of geography dates its origin, as we have already mentioned, from Mercator, though he was unable to point out and explain the law, according to which the projection which bears his name might be laid downon fixed principles: this was effected by an Englishman of the name ofWright. Mathematical geography, strictly so called, seems to have owed itsorigin to the discussion respecting the flattening of the Poles, which tookplace, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, among Newton, Huygens, and Cassini, and which was afterwards continued by some of the mostdistinguished mathematicians and natural philosophers of France andEngland. Still, however, the construction of maps derived little advantagefrom the application of strict science to geography, till Delisle, inFrance, and Haase, in Germany, directed their attention and talents to thisparticular subject: their efforts were indeed great, but in some measureunavailing, in consequence of the want of sufficient materials. The sameimpediment lay in the way of Busching, notwithstanding he brought to thetask the characteristic patience and research of a German. To him, however, and the more illustrious D'Anville, accurate delineations and descriptionsof the countries of the globe may first justly be ascribed. 

D'Anville possessed excellent and ample materials, in authentic relations, and plans and delineations made on the spot: with these he advanced to thetask, calling to his aid mathematical principles. He first exhibited in hismaps the interior of Asia free from that confusion and error by which allformer maps had obscured it; and struck out from his map of Africa manyimaginary kingdoms. Ancient geography, and the still more involved and darkgeography of the middle ages, received from him the first illumination; andif subsequent geographers have been able to add to and correct his labours, it has been chiefly owing to their possessing materials which did not existin his time. 

Busching confined himself entirely to modern geography; and though hisminuteness is generally tiresome and superfluous, yet we can pardon it, forthe accuracy of his details: he was patronized and assisted in his laboursby all the governments, of the north, who gave him access to every documentwhich could further his object. 

Since the time of D'Anville and Busching, the description of countries, andthe construction of maps, have proceeded with a rapidly encreasing decreeof accuracy. In ancient geography, Gosselin, Rennell, Vincent, and MalteBrun, are among the most celebrated names. Two Germans, Voss and Munnert, have directed their labours to illustrate and explain the geographicaldetails and hints of the Greek poets. It would be almost endless toenumerate those to whom modern geography, and the construction of modernmaps are principally indebted. Gaspari and Zimmerman, among the Germans, have thrown into a philosophical and interesting form the labours and heavydetails which were supplied them by less original but more plodding men. The English, though, as Malte Brun observes, they are still without asystem of geography which deserves the name, are rich in excellentmaterials, which have been supplied by the extent of their dominions andtheir commerce in various parts of the globe; by their laudable and happyunion of conquest, commerce, and science; and by the advantage whichDalrymple, Arrowsmith, and other geographers have derived from thesecircumstances. The French, Russians, Spaniards, Danes, and indeed mostnations of Europe, sensible of the vast importance of accurate maps, especially such as relate to their respective territories, have contributedto render them much more accurate than they formerly were; so that atpresent there is scarcely any part of the globe, which has been visited bysea or land, of-which we do not possess accurate maps; and no sooner hasthe labour of any traveller filled up a void, or corrected an error, thanthe map of the country which he has visited becomes more full and accurate. 

The most direct and perfect application of mathematical and astronomicalscience to the delineation of the surface of the globe, so as to ascertainits exact form, and the exact extent of degrees of latitude in differentparts of it, has been made by the English and French; and much to theirhonour, by them in conjunction. The first modern measurement of degrees oflatitude was made by an Englishman of the name of Norwood: he ascertainedthe difference of latitude between London and York in 1635, and thenmeasured their distance: from these premises he calculated, that the lengthof a degree was 122, 399 English yards. At this time there was no reason tosuppose that the earth was flattened at the Poles. Shortly afterwards, ithaving been discovered that the weights of bodies were less at the equatorthan at Paris, Huygens and Cassini directed their attention, as we havealready stated, to the subject of the figure of the earth. In 1670 Picardmeasured an arc of the meridian in France; and in 1718, the whole areaextending through France was measured by Cassini and other philosophers. The results of this measurement seemed to disprove Newton's theory, thatthe curvature of the earth diminished as we recede from the equator. Toremove all doubts, an arc near the equator was measured in Peru, by someFrench and Spanish astronomers; and an arc near the arctic circle by someFrench and Swedish astronomers; the result was a confirmation of Newton'stheory, and that the equatorial diameter exceeded the polar by about 1/204part of the whole. 

Since this period, arcs of the meridian have been measured in severalcountries. In 1787 it was determined by the British and French governmentsto connect the observatories of Greenwich and Paris by a series oftriangles, and to compare the differences of latitudes and longitudes, ascertained by astronomical observations, with those ascertained by actualmeasurement. The measurement in England was extended to a survey of thewhole kingdom; and the accurate maps thus obtained have been sincepublished. Arcs of the meridian have also been measured lately from Dunkirkto Barcelona, --in Lapland, by which an error in the former measurementthere was corrected;--and in India. 

We have been thus particular in our notice of this subject, because it isevident that such measurements must lie at the foundation of all realimprovements in the construction of maps. 

Let us next turn our attention to the improvements in navigation which havetaken place during the last and present centuries; these seem to consist, principally, in those which are derived from physical science, and thosewhich are derived from other sources. 

The grand objects of a navigator are the accurate knowledge of where heexactly is, in any part of his course, and how he ought to steer, in orderto reach his destination in the shortest time. The means of ascertaininghis latitude and longitude, of calculating how far he has sailed, and atwhat rate he is sailing, and the direction of his course with reference tothe port to which he is desirous to proceed, are what he principallyrequires. We do not intend, by any means, to enter at any length, orsystematically, on these subjects; but a brief and popular notice of themseems proper and necessary in such a work as this. 

Astronomy here comes essentially to the aid of navigation: we have alreadyseen how, even in the rudest state of the latter, it derived its chiefassistance from this sublime science, confined as it then was to aknowledge of the position of a few stars. Astronomy enables the navigatorto ascertain his latitude and longitude, and to find the variation of thecompass. The principal difficulty in ascertaining the latitude at sea, arose from the unsteady motion of the ship: to remedy this, severalinstruments were invented. We have already alluded to the astrolobe; butthis, as well as the others, were imperfect and objectionable, till suchtime as Hadley's quadrant was invented, the principle and uses of whichwere first suggested by Newton. 

To ascertain the longitude was a much more difficult task: there areevidently two methods of doing this, --by time-keepers or chronometers, andby making the motions of the celestial bodies serve instead oftime-keepers. About the middle of the seventeenth century, Huygens proposedthe pendulum clock for finding the longitude at sea; but it was unfit forthe purpose, for many and obvious reasons. Watches, even made with theutmost care, were found to be too irregular in their rate of going, to bedepended upon for this purpose. In the reign of Queen Anne the celebratedact was passed, appropriating certain sums for encouraging attempts toascertain the longitude. Stimulated by this, Mr. Harrison invented histime-keeper, which on trial was found to answer the purpose with suchtolerable accuracy, that he was deemed worthy to receive the sum awarded byparliament: it went within the limit of an error of thirty miles oflongitude, or two minutes of time, in a voyage to the West Indies. Sincethis period, chronometers have been much improved, and excellent ones arevery generally used: perhaps the most trying circumstances in which anywere ever placed, existed during the voyage for the discovery of anorthwest passage by Captain Parry; and then most of those he had with himwere found to be extremely accurate. 

It is evident, however, that chronometers are liable to a variety ofaccidents, and that in very long voyages the means of verifying their rateof going seldom occur. Hence the lunar method, or the method ofascertaining the longitude by means of the motions of the moon, is moreuseful and valuable. Here again, the profoundest researches of Clairaut, Euler, D'Alembert, and La Place, were brought practically to bear onnavigation. Guided and aided by these, Tobias Mayer, of Gottingen, compileda set of solar and lunar tables, which were sent to the lords of theadmiralty, in the year 1755; they gave the longitude of the moon withinthirty seconds. They were afterwards improved by Dr. Maskelyne and Mr. Mason, and still more lately by Burg and Burckhardt; the error of theselast tables will seldom exceed fifteen seconds, or seven miles and a half. The computations, however, necessary in making use of these tables, werefound to be very laborious and inconvenient; to obviate this difficulty, the nautical almanack, suggested by Dr. Maskelyne, was published, which isnow annually continued. The longitude is thus ascertained to such a nicety, as to secure the navigator from any danger arising from the formerimperfect modes of finding it; "he is now enabled to make for his portwithout sailing into the parallel of latitude, and then, in the seaman'sphrase, running down the port, on the parallel, as was done before thismethod was practised. Fifty years ago, navigators did not attempt to findtheir longitude at sea, unless by their reckoning, which was hardly ever tobe depended on. "

Not long after the mariner's compass was employed, its variation wasnoticed; as it is obvious that, unless the degree and direction of thisvariation are accurately known, the compass would be of little service innavigation, the attention of navigators and philosophers was carefullydirected to this point; and it was ascertained that the quantity of thisvariation is subject to regular periodical changes. By means, therefore, ofa table indicating those changes, under different latitudes and longitudes, and of what are called variation charts, the uncertainty arising from themis in a great measure done away. Another source of error however existed, which does not seem to have been noticed till the period of Captain Cook'svoyages: it was then found, "that the variation of the needle differed verysensibly on the same spot, with the different directions of the ship'shead. " Captain Flinders attributed this to the iron in the ship, and made anumber of observations on the subject; these have been subsequently addedto and corrected, so that at present the quantity of variation from thiscause can be ascertained, and of course a proper allowance made for it. Itdoes not appear that any material improvement has been made in theconstruction and use of the log, --that useful and necessary appendage tothe compass, --since it was invented about the end of the sixteenth century. 

These are the most important improvements in nautical knowledge andscience, which renders navigation at present so much more safe andexpeditious than it formerly was; there are, however, other circumstanceswhich tend to the same object; the more full, accurate, and minuteknowledge of the prevalent winds at different times of the year, and invarious parts of the ocean; the means of foretelling changes of weather;and, principally, a knowledge of the direction and force of the currentsmust be regarded as of essential advantage to the seaman. When to these weadd, the coppering of ships, which was first practised about the year 1761, and other improvements in their built and rigging, we have enumerated thechief causes which enable a vessel to reach the East Indies in two-thirdsof the time which was occupied in such a voyage half a century ago. 

Nor must we forget that the health of the seamen has, during the sameperiod, been rendered infinitely more secure; so that mortality andsickness, in the longest voyages, and under great and frequent changes ofclimate, and other circumstances usually affecting health, will not exceedwhat would have occurred on land during the same time. 

The great advantages which the very improved state of all branches ofphysical science, and of natural history, bestow on travellers in moderntimes, are enjoyed, though not in an equal degree, by navigators and bythose who journey on land. To the latter they are indeed most important, and will principally account for the superiority of modern travels overthose which were published a century ago, or even fifty years since. It isplain that our knowledge of foreign countries relates either to animate orinanimate nature: to the soil and geology, the face of the surface, andwhat lies below it; the rivers, lakes, mountains, climate, and the plants;or to the natural history, strictly so called:--and to the manners, institutions, government, religion, and statistics of the inhabitants. Consequently, as the appropriate branches of knowledge relating to theseobjects are extended, travellers must be better able, as well as moredisposed, to investigate them; and the public at large require that some orall of them should at least be noticed in books of travels. The samescience, and many of the same instruments, which enable the seaman toascertain his latitude and longitude, and to lay down full and accuratecharts of the shores which he visits, are also useful to theland-traveller; they both draw assistance from the knowledge of meteorologywhich they may possess, to make observations on the climate, and from theiracquaintance with botany and natural history, to give an account of theplants and animals. But it is evident that so far as the latter areconcerned, as well as so far as relates to the inhabitants, the landtraveller has more opportunities than he who goes on a voyage. 

But there are other advantages enjoyed by modern travellers besides thosederived from superior science: foreign languages are at present better andmore generally understood; and it is unnecessary to point out how importantsuch an acquisition is, or rather how indispensible it is to accurateinformation. The knowledge of the languages of the East which many of thegentlemen in the service of the East India Company, and the missionaries, possess, has been of infinite service in making us much better acquaintedwith the antiquities, history, and present state of those countries, thanwe could possibly have otherwise been. There is at present greaterintercourse among even remote nations; and prejudices, which formerlyoperated as an almost insurmountable barrier, are now either entirelydestroyed, or greatly weakened: in proof of this, we need only refer to thenumerous travellers who have lately visited Egypt, --a country which itwould have been extremely dangerous to visit half a century ago. At thesame distance of time, natives of Asia or Africa, especially in theirappropriate costume, were seldom or never seen in the streets of London, or, if seen, would have been insulted, or greatly incommoded by thetroublesome curiosity of its inhabitants; now there are many such, who walkthe streets unmolested, and scarcely noticed. 

Commerce, which has derived such advantages from the progress ofgeographical knowledge, has in some measure repaid the obligation, bycreating a much greater, more intimate, and more frequent mutualintercourse among nations; and by doing away with those prejudices andantipathies which formerly closed many countries effectually againstChristian and European travellers: and to the zeal and perseverance ofmodern travellers, assisted as they are by commercial intercourse, we mayreasonably hope that we shall, before long, be indebted for a knowledge ofthe interior of Africa. Those countries still imperfectly known in thesouth-east of Asia will, probably, from their vicinity to our possessionsin Hindostan, be explored from that quarter. The encreasing population ofthe United States, and the independence of South America, will necessarilybring us acquainted with such parts of the new world as are still unknown. But it is difficult to conjecture from what sources, and under whatcircumstances, the empires of China and Japan will be rendered moreaccessible to European travellers: these countries, and some parts of theinterior of Asia, are cut off from our communication by causes whichprobably will not speedily cease to operate. The barriers which stillenclose all other countries are gradually yielding to the causes we havementioned; and as, along with greater facilities for penetrating into andtravelling within such countries, travellers now possess greatercapabilities of making use of the opportunities thus enjoyed, we may hopethat nearly the whole world will soon be visited and known, and known, too, in every thing that relates to inanimate and animate nature. 

The progress of commerce during the last hundred years, the period of timeto which we are at present to direct our attention, has been so rapid, itsramifications are so complicated, and the objects it embraces so variousand numerous, that it will not be possible, within the limits to which wemust confine ourselves, to enter on minute and full details respecting it;nor would these be consonant to the nature of our work, or generallyinteresting and instructive. 

During the infancy of commerce, as well as of geographical science, wedeemed it proper to be particular in every thing that indicated theirgrowth; but the reasons which proved the necessity, or the advantage, ofsuch a mode of treating these subjects in the former parts of this volume, no longer exist, but in fact give way to reasons of an oppositenature--reasons for exhibiting merely a general view of them. Actuated bythese considerations, we have been less minute and particular in whatrelates to modern geography, than In what relates to ancient; and we shallfollow the same plan in relation to what remains to be said on the subjectof commerce. So long as any of the causes which tended to advance geographyand commerce acted obscurely and imperfectly--so long as they were in sucha weak state that the continuance of their progress was doubtful, weentered pretty fully into their history; but after a forward motion wascommunicated to them, such as must carry them towards perfection withoutthe possibility of any great or permanent check, we have thought it properto abstain from details, and to confine ourselves to more general views. Guided by this principle which derives additional weight from the vastnessto which commerce has reached within the last hundred years, we shall nowproceed to a rapid and general sketch of its progress during that period, and of its present state. 

From the first and feeble revival of commerce in the middle ages, till thediscovery of the Cape of Good Hope, the Italian republics, and theHanseatic League, nearly monopolized all the trade of Europe; the former, from their situation, naturally confining themselves to the importation andcirculation of the commodities supplied by the East, and by the Europeancountries in the south of Europe, and the districts of Africa then knownand accessible; while the latter directed their attention and industry tothose articles which the middle and north of Europe produced ormanufactured. 

The discovery of the Cape of Good Hope gave a different direction to thecommerce of the East, while at the same time it very greatly extended it;but as it is obvious that a greater quantity of the commodities supplied bythis part of the world could not be purchased, except by an increase in theproduce and manufactures of the purchasing nations, they also pushedforward in industry, experience, skill, and capital. The Portuguese andSpaniards first reaped the fruits of the discovery of the Cape of GoodHope; subsequently the Dutch; and at the period at which this part of oursketch of commerce commences, the English were beginning to assume thathold and superiority in the East, by which they are now so greatlydistinguished. The industry of Europe, especially of the middle andnorthern states, was further stimulated by the discovery of America, and, indirectly, by all those causes which in the fifteenth and sixteenthcenturies tended to increase information, and to secure the liberty of themass of the people. The invention of printing; the reformation; thedestruction of the feudal system, at least in its most objectionable, degrading, and paralizing features; the contentions between the nobilityand the sovereigns, and between the latter and the people; gave a stimulusto the human mind, and thus enlarged its capacities, desires, and views, insuch a manner, that the character of the human race assumed a loftier port. 

From all these causes commerce benefited, and, as was natural to expect, itbenefited most in those countries where most of these causes operated, andwhere they operated most powerfully. In Holland we see a memorable andgratifying instance of this: a comparatively small population, inhabiting anarrow district, won and kept from the overwhelming of the ocean, by mostarduous, incessant, and expensive labour, --and the territory thus acquiredand preserved not naturally fertile, and where fertile only calculated toproduce few articles, --a people thus disadvantageously situated, in respectto territory and soil, and moreover engaged in a most perilous, doubtful, and protracted contest for their religion and liberty, with by far the mostpotent monarch of Europe, --this people, blessed with knowledge and freedom, forced to become industrious and enterprizing by the very adversecircumstances in which they were placed, gradually wrested from theiropponents--the discoverers of the treasures of the East and of the newworld, and who were moreover blessed with a fertile soil and a luxuriousclimate at home, --their possessions in Asia, and part of their possessionsin America. Nor did the enterprising spirit of the Dutch confine itself tothe obtaining of these sources of wealth: they became, as we have alreadyseen, the carriers for nearly the whole of Europe; by their means theproductions of the East were distributed among the European nations, andthe bulky and mostly raw produce of the shores of the Baltic was exchangedfor the productions and manufactures of France, England, Germany, and theItalian states. 

From the middle of the eighteenth century, the commerce of the Dutch beganto decline; partly in consequence of political disputes among themselves, but principally because other nations of Europe now put forth theirindustry with effect and perseverance. The English and the French, especially, became their great rivals; first, by conducting themselves eachtheir own trade, which had been previously carried on by the Dutch, and, subsequently, by the possessions they acquired in the East. The Americanwar, and soon afterwards the possession of Holland by the French during therevolutionary war, gave a fatal blow to the remnant of their commerce, fromwhich it has not recovered, nor is likely at any time to recover, at leastnearly to its former flourishing state. For, as we have remarked, the Dutchwere flourishing and rich, principally because other nations were ignorant, enslaved, and destitute of industry, skill, and capital. 

England took the place of the Dutch in the scale of commercial enterpriseand success: the contest between them was long and arduous; but at lengthEngland attained a decided and permanent superiority. She graduallyextended her possessions in the East; and after expelling the French fromthis part of the world, became in reality the only European sovereign powerthere. 

The manufactures of England, those real and abundant causes and sources ofher immense commerce, did not begin to assume that importance and extent towhich they have at present reached, till the middle, or rather the latterpart of the eighteenth century; then her potteries, her hardware, herwoollens, and above all her cotton goods, began to improve. Certainly thesteam engine is the grand cause to which England's wealth and commerce maybe attributed in a great degree; but the perfection to which it has beenbrought, the multifarious uses to which it is applied, both presupposeskill, capital, and industry, without which the mere possession of such anengine would have been of little avail. 

At the termination of the American war, England seemed completelyexhausted: she had come out of a long and expensive contest, deprived ofwhat many regarded as her most valuable possessions, and having contractedan enormous debt. Yet in a very few years, she not only revived, butflourished more than ever; it is in vain to attribute this to any othercauses but those alone which can produce either individual or nationalwealth, viz. Industry, enterprize, knowledge, and economy, and capitalacquired by means of them. But what has rendered Britain more industrious, intelligent, and skilful than other nations?--for if we can answer thisquestion, we can satisfactorily account for her acquisition of capital; andcapital, industry, and skill existing, commerce and wealth must necessarilyfollow. 

Britain enjoys greater political freedom, and greater security of propertythan any other European nation; and without political freedom, the mass ofthe people never can be intelligent, or possess either comprehensive viewsor desires; and where views and desires are limited, there can be noregular, general, and zealous industry. Unless, however, security ofproperty is enjoyed, as well as political liberty, industry, even if itcould spring up under such circumstances, must soon droop and decay. It isa contradiction in terms to suppose that comprehensive views and desirescan exist and lead to action, when at the same time it is extremelydoubtful whether the objects of them could be realized, or, if realized, whether they would not immediately be destroyed, or torn from those whoselabour, and skill, and anxious thought had acquired them. 

But there are other causes to which we must ascribe the extension ofBritish manufactures and commerce; of these we shall only enumerate what weregard as the principal and the most powerful: the stimulus which anyparticular improvement in manufactures gives to future and additionalimprovements, or rather, perhaps, the necessity which it creates for suchadditional improvements; the natural operation of enlarged capital; theequally natural operation of encreased wealth among the various classes ofthe community; the peculiar circumstances in which Britain has been placedsince the termination of the war which deprived her of her Americancolonies; and, lastly, her national debt. A short view of each of theseparticulars will, we believe, sufficiently account for the presentunparalleled state of British manufactures and commerce. 

The direct effect of improvement in the mode of manufacturing any article, by the introduction of a more powerful machinery, is to encrease thequantity, and to lower the price of that article. Hence it follows, thatthose who manufacture it on the old plan must be undersold, unless theyalso adopt such machinery; and as knowledge, both speculative andpractical, has greater chance to improve in proportion as it is spread, from this cause, as well as from the more powerful cause of rivalinterests, wherever improvements in manufactures have begun and beenextended, they are sure to advance. 

That this is not theoretical doctrine requires only an appeal to what hasbeen effected, and is yet effecting in Britain, to prove. A very curious, interesting, and instructive work might be written on the improvements inthe cotton machinery alone, which have been made in this country during thelast forty years: we mean interesting and instructive, not merely onaccount of the tacts relative to mechanical ingenuity which it wouldunfold, but on account of the much higher history which it would give ofthe mechanism of the human mind, and of the connections and ramificationsof the various branches of human knowledge. In what state would thecommerce of Great Britain have been at this time, if the vast improvementsin the machinery for spinning cotton had not been made and universallyadopted?--and how slowly and imperfectly would these improvements havetaken place, had the sciences been unconnected, or greater improvements, which at first were unseen or deemed impracticable, not been graduallydeveloped, as lesser improvements were made. The stimulus of interest, themutual connection of various branches of science, and above all theunceasing onward movement of the human mind in knowledge, speculative aswell as practical, must be regarded as the most powerful causes of thepresent wonderful state of our manufactures, and, consequently, of ourcommerce. 

2. The natural operation of enlarged capital is another cause of our greatcommerce. There is nothing more difficult in the history of mankind--notthe history of their wars and politics, but the history of their character, manners, sentiments, and progress in civilization and wealth--[as->than] todistinguish and separate those facts which ought to be classed as causes, and those which ought to be classed as effects. There can be no doubt thattrade produces capital; and, in this point of view, capital must beregarded as an effect: there can be as little doubt, that an increase ofcapital is favourable to an increase of commerce, and actually produces it;in this point of view, therefore, capital must be regarded as a cause. Asin the physical world action and reaction are equal, so are they, in manyrespects, and under many circumstances, in the moral and intellectualworld; but, whereas in the physical world the action and reaction are notonly equal but simultaneous, in the moral and intellectual world thereaction does not take place till after the immediate and particular actionfrom which it springs has ceased. 

To apply these remarks to our present subject, it is unnecessary to pointout in what manner trade must increase capital; that capital, on the otherhand, increases trade, is not, perhaps, at first sight, quite so obvious;but that it must act in this manner will be perceptible, when, we reflecton the advantages which a large capital gives to its possessor. It enableshim to buy cheaper, because he can buy larger quantities, and give readymoney; buying cheaper, he can sell cheaper, or give longer credit, or both;and this must ensure an increase of trade. It enables him immediately totake advantage of any improvement in the mode of manufacturing any article;and to push the sale of any article into countries where it was beforeunknown. Such are some of the more important effects on commerce of largecapital; and these effects have been most obviously and strikingly shewn inthe commercial history of Britain for the last thirty years, and thus givea practical confirmation to the doctrine, that capital, originally thecreature of trade, in its turn gives nourishment, rigour, and enlargedgrowth to it. 

3. Encreased wealth among the various classes of the community, may beviewed In the same light as capital; it flows from increased trade, and itproduces a still further increase of trade. The views, and desires, andhabits of mankind, are like their knowledge, they are and must beprogressive: and if accompanied, as they generally are, by increased means, they must give birth to increased industry and skill, and their necessaryconsequences, increased trade and wealth. 

Had the views, desires, and habits of mankind, and especially of theinhabitants of Europe and the United States, continued as they were fiftyyears ago, it is absolutely impossible that one half of the goodsmanufactured in Great Britain could have been disposed of; and unless theseadditional and enlarged views, desires, and habits, had been accompaniedwith commensurate means of gratifying them, our manufactures and commercecould not have advanced as they have done. Minutely and universally dividedas human labour is, no one country can render its industry and skilladditionally productive, without, at the same time, the industry and skillof other countries also advance. No one nation can acquire additionalwealth, unless additional wealth is also acquired in other nations. Beforean additional quantity of commodities can be sold, additional means topurchase them must be obtained; or, in other words, increased commerce, supposes increased wealth, not only in that country in which commerce isincreased, but also in that where the buyers and consumers live. 

4. Since the termination of the American war, Britain has been placed incircumstances favourable to her commerce: the human mind cannot long bedepressed; there is an elasticity about it which prevents this. Perhaps itis rather disposed to rebound, in proportion to the degree and time of itsrestraint. It is certain, however, that the exhaustion produced by theAmerican war speedily gave place to wonderful activity in our manufacturesand commerce; and that, at the commencement of the first Frenchrevolutionary war, they had both taken wonderful and rapid strides. Thecircumstances, indeed, of such a country as Britain, and such a people asthe British, must be essentially changed, --changed to a degree, and in amanner, which we can hardly suppose to be brought about by any naturalcauses, --before its real wealth can be annihilated, or even greatly orpermanently diminished. The climate and the soil, and all the improvementsand ameliorations which agriculture has produced on the soil, must remain:the knowledge and skill, and real capital of the inhabitants, are beyondthe reach of any destroying cause: interest must always operate and applythis knowledge and skill, unless we can suppose, what seems as unlikely tohappen as the change of our climate and soil, the annihilation of ourknowledge and skill, or that interest should cease to be the stimulatingcause of industry; unless we can suppose that political and civil freedomshould be rooted out, and individual property no longer secure. 

Circumstances, however, though they cannot destroy, must influence, beneficially or otherwise, the wealth and commerce of a country; and it mayhappen that circumstances apparently unfavourable may become beneficial. This was the case with Britain: during the American war, her manufacturesand commerce languished; during the French wars they increased and throvemost wonderfully. The cause of this difference must be sought forprincipally in the very artificial and extraordinary circumstances in whichshe was placed during the French war: and of these circumstances, the mostpowerfully operative were her foreign loans; her paper circulation; theconquests and subsequent measures of Bonaparte on the continent; and hersuperiority at sea. Foreign loans necessarily rendered the exchangeunfavourable to Britain; an unfavourable exchange, or, in other words, apremium on bills, in any particular country, enabled the merchant to sellhis goods there at a cheaper rate than formerly, and consequently to extendhis commerce there. The paper circulation of Britain, --though a bold andhazardous step, and which in a less healthy and vigorous state of publiccredit and wealth than Britain enjoyed could not have been taken, or, iftaken, would not have produced nearly the beneficial effects it did, andwould have left much more fatal consequences than we are at presentexperiencing, --undoubtedly tended to increase her commerce; and the verystimulus which it gave to all kinds of speculation has been favourable toit. The ruinous consequences of such speculation, though dreadful, arecomparatively of short duration; whereas it is impossible that speculationshould be active and vigorous, with commensurate means, without improvingmanufactures, and opening new channels for commerce; and these effects mustremain. In what manner the measures of Bonaparte on the continent, and oursuperiority at sea, were favourable to our commerce, it is unnecessary toexplain. 

Lastly. It only remains to explain how our national debt has beenbeneficial to our commerce. Necessity, if it is not absolutelyoverpowering, must act as a stimulus to industry as well as interest: thedesire to avoid evil, and the desire to obtain good, are equally powerfulmotives to the human mind. In the same manner as an increase of family, bycreating additional expense, spurs a man to additional industry; so thecertainty that he must pay additional taxes produces the same effect. Individuals may contrive to shift the burden from themselves, and pay theirtaxes by spending less; but there can be no doubt that the only general, sure, and permanent fund, out of which additional taxes can be paid, mustarise from the fruits of additional industry. We wish to guard againstbeing taken for the advocates for taxation, as in any shape a blessing: weare merely stating what we conceive to be its effect. But we should no moreregard taxation as a blessing, because it increased commerce, than weshould regard it as a blessing to a man, that, from any cause, he wasobliged to work fourteen hours a day instead of twelve. In both cases, increased labour might be necessary, but it would not the less be an evil. 

The only other nation, the commerce of which has increased very materiallyand rapidly, is the United States of America; and if we trace the chief andmost powerful causes of their commercial prosperity, we-shall still furtherbe confirmed in the opinion, that at least some of the causes which we haveassigned for the extension of British commerce are the true ones; and that, in fact, commerce cannot generally or permanently increase where thesecauses do not exist, and that where they do they must encourage and extendit

It is not our intention to enter into a detail of the causes of Americanprosperity, except so far as they are connected with its commerce. Theymay, however, be summed up in a few words. An inexhaustible quantity ofland, in a good climate, obtained without difficulty, and at littleexpence; with the produce of it, when obtained and cultivated, entirely atthe disposal and for the exclusive advantage of the proprietor. The samewith regard to all other labour; or, in other words, scarcely any taxes:and with respect to labour in general, great demand for it, and extremelyhigh wages. These are causes of increased population and of prosperity, andindirectly of commerce, peculiar to America. It requires no illustration orproof to comprehend how the increased produce of a new soil must supplyincreased articles for commerce. While Britain, therefore, finds increasedarticles for her commerce, from her improvements in the machineryapplicable to manufactures, by means of which the same quantity of humanlabour is rendered infinitely more productive, --the United States findsmaterials for her increased commerce, in the increasing stock of theproduce of the soil. 

Political and civil liberty, and the consequent security of property, arecauses of commercial prosperity, common to the United States and Britain. 

It may also be remarked, that the circumstances of Europe, almost eversince the United States have had a separate and independent existence, havebeen favourable to its commerce. The long war between Britain and Franceafforded them opportunities for increasing their commerce, which they mostsedulously and successfully embraced and improved. They became, in fact, the carriers for France, and in many cases the introducers of Britishproduce into the continent. 

There is only another circumstance connected with the United States towhich we deem it necessary to advert in this brief and general developementof the causes of their commercial prosperity: we allude to the wonderfulfacilities for internal commerce afforded them by their rivers, andespecially by the Mississippi and its branches. There can be no doubt thateasy, speedy, cheap, and general inter-communication to internaltrade, --whether by means of roads and canals, as in England, or by means ofrivers as in America, is advantageous to foreign commerce, both directlyand indirectly. It is advantageous directly, in so far as it enables themanufacturer with great facility, and at little expence, to transmit hisgoods to the places of exportation; and to ascertain very quickly the stateof the markets by which he regulates his purchases, sales, and even thequantity and direction of his labour. It is advantageous indirectly, in sofar as by stimulating and encouraging internal trade, it increases wealth, and with increased wealth comes the increased desire of obtaining foreignproduce, and the increased means to gratify that desire. 

We deemed it proper to preface the details we shall now give on the subjectof the present state of commerce with these general remarks on theprincipal causes which have enlarged it, in those two countries in whichalone it flourishes to a very great extent. But, as we have alreadyremarked, commerce cannot extend in one country, without receiving animpulse in other countries. While, therefore, British and American commercehave been increasing, the general commerce of the whole civilized world, and even of parts hardly civilized, have been increasing; but in no countrynearly to the extent to which it has reached in Britain and the UnitedStates, because none are blessed with the political advantages they enjoy, or have the improved machinery and capital of the one, or the almostinexhaustible land of the other. 

In the details which we are now about to give, we shall confine ourselvesto the statement of any particular circumstance which may have beenfavourable or otherwise to the commerce of any country during the lasthundred years, and to an enumeration of the principal ports and articles ofimport and export of each country. We shall not attempt to fix the value ofthe imports and exports in toto, or of any particular description of them, because there are in fact no grounds on which it can be accurately fixed. We shall, however, in the arrangement of the order of the goods exported, place ihose first which constitute the most numerous and importantarticles. 

1. The countries in the north of Europe, including Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the countries generally on the south shores of the Baltic. From the geographical situation of these countries, and their consequentclimate, the chief articles of the export commerce must consist in thecoarsest produce of the soil. These, and the produce of their mines, arethe sources of their wealth, and consequently of their commerce. 

The principal exports of Norway consist of timber, masts, tar, potash, hides, (chiefly those of the goat, ) iron, copper, cobalt, tallow, saltedprovisions, and fish. Corn, principally from the southern shores of theBaltic, is the most considerable article of import. The only event in themodern history of this country, which can affect its commerce, is itsannexation to Sweden; and whether it will be prejudicial or otherwise, isnot yet ascertained. 

Denmark consists of the islands in the Baltic, and the peninsula lying inthe north-west of Germany, comprizing Jutland, Sleswig, and Holstein. Theface of the country, both insular and continental, presents a strikingcontrast to that of Norway, being flat, and fertile in corn and cattle. Denmark possesses a large extent of sea coast, but the havens do not admitlarge vessels. The communication between the insular and continentalpossessions, the German ocean and the Baltic, and consequently the commerceof Denmark, was much facilitated by the canal of Keil, which was finishedin 1785. Prior to the year 1797, the commerce was much injured by numerousrestraints on importation. During the short wars between this country andBritain, it suffered considerably. At present it cannot rank high as acommercial kingdom. Denmark and the Duchies, as they are called, exportwheat, rye, oats, barley, rape seed, horses, cattle, fish, wooden domesticarticles, &c. ; and import chiefly woollen goods, silks, cottons, hardware, cutlery, paper, salt, coals, iron, hemp, flax, wines, tobacco, sugar, andother colonial produce. 

Sweden in general is a country, the wealth, and consequently the objects ofcommerce of which, are principally derived from its mines and woods. Itsprincipal ports are Stockholm and Gothenburgh. The political event in thehistory of this country which gave the most favourable impulse to itscommerce in modern times, is the alteration in its constitution after thedeath of Charles XII. ; by this the liberties of the people were encreased, and a general stimulus towards national industry was given: agriculture wasimproved, the produce of the mines doubled, and the fishery protected. Morelately, the revolution in 1772, and the loss of Finland, have beenprejudicial to Sweden. The principal exports are, iron, copper, pine-timber, pitch, tar, potash, fish, &c. ; the principal imports are, corn, tobacco, salt, wines, oils, wool, hemp, soap, cotton, silk andwoollen goods, hardware, sugar, and other colonial produce. 

The most important commercial port on the southern shore of the Baltic isDantzic, which belongs to Prussia. This town retained a large portion ofthe commerce of the Baltic after the fall of the Hanseatic League, and withLubec, Hamburgh, and Bremen, preserved a commercial ascendency in theBaltic. It suffered, however, considerably by the Prussians acquiringpossession of the banks of the Vistula, until it was incorporated with thekingdom in 1793. Dantzic exports nearly the whole of the produce of thefertile country of Poland, consisting of corn, hides, horse-hair, honey, wax, oak, and other timber; the imports consist principally of manufacturedgoods and colonial produce. Swedish Pomerania, and Mecklenburgh, neither ofwhich possess any ports of consequence, draw the greater part of theirexports from the soil, as salted and smoked meat, hides, wool, butter, cheese, corn, and fruit; the imports, like those of Dantzic, areprincipally manufactured goods and colonial produce. 

The immense extent of Russia does not afford such a variety, or largesupply of articles of commerce, as might be expected: this is owing to theungenial and unproductive nature of a very large portion of its soil, tothe barbarous and enslaved state of its inhabitants, and to thecomparatively few ports, which it possesses, and the extreme distance fromthe ocean or navigable rivers of its central parts. We have alreadymentioned the rise of Petersburgh, and its rapid increase in population andcommerce. The subsequent sovereigns of Russia have, in this as in all otherrespects, followed the objects and plans of its founder; though they havebeen more enlightened and successful in their plans of conquest than inthose of commerce. The most important advantage which they have bestowed oncommerce, arises from the canals and inland navigation which connects thesouthern and the northern provinces of this vast empire. The principalcommerce of Russia is by the Baltic. Petersburgh and Riga are the onlyports of consequence here; from them are exported corn, hemp, flax, firtimber, pitch, tar, potash, iron and copper, hides, tallow, bristles, honey, wax, isinglass, caviar, furs, &c. The principal imports consist ofEnglish manufactures and colonial produce, especially coffee and sugar, wines, silks, &c. The commerce of the Black Sea has lately increased much, especially at Odessa. The principal exports are, corn, furs, provisions, &c. ; its imports, wine, fruit, coffee, silks, &c. Russia carries on aconsiderable internal trade with Prussia, Persia, and China, especially, with the latter. Nearly the whole of her maritime commerce is in the handsof foreigners, the Russians seeming rather averse to the sea; and the stateof vassalage in the peasants, which binds them to the soil, preventing theformation of seamen. Latterly, however, she has displayed considerable zealin posecuting maritime discoveries; and as she seems disposed to extend herpossessions in the north-west coast of America, this will necessarilyproduce a commercial marine. 

2. The next portion of Europe to which we shall direct our attentionconsists of Germany, the Netherlands, and France. 

Germany, though an extensive and fertile country, and inhabited by anintelligent and industrious race of people, possesses few commercialadvantages from its want of ports: those on the Baltic have been alreadymentioned; those on the German Ocean are Hamburgh and Embden, of whichHamburgh is by far the most important, while, to the south, the only portit possesses is Trieste. It is, however, favoured in respect to rivers: theElbe, Weser, Rhine, and Danube, with their tributary streams affordinggreat facilities, not only for inland commerce, but also for the export andimport of commodities. The chief political disadvantage under which Germanylabours, affecting its commerce, arises from the number of independentstates into which it is divided, and the despotic nature of most of itsgovernments. As might be expected from such a large tract of country, theproductions of Germany are various. Saxony supplies for exportation, woolof the finest quality, corn, copper, cobalt, and other metals, thread, linen-lace, porcelain, &c. Hanover is principally distinguished for itsmines, which supply metals for exportation. The chief riches of Bavariaarise from its corn and cattle: these, with pottery, glass, linen, andsilk, are the exports of Wurtemburgh. Prussia Proper affords few things forexportation: the corn of her Polish provinces has been already mentioned, as affording the principal export from Dantzic. Silesia supplies linen toforeign countries. Austria, and its dependant states, export quicksilver, and other metals, besides cattle, corn, and wine. 

The commerce of the Netherlands, including Holland, though far inferior inextent and importance to what it formerly was, is still not inconsiderable. Indeed, the situation of Holland, nearly all the towns and villages ofwhich have a communication with the sea, either by rivers or canals, andthrough some part of the territory of which the great rivers Rhine, Meuse, and Scheld empty themselves into the sea, must always render it commercial. The principal ports of the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, andAntwerp. The exports of the Netherlands consist either of its own produceand manufactures, or of those which are brought to it from the interior ofGermany: of the former, butter, cheese, madder, clover-seed, toys, &c. Constitute the most important; from Germany, by means of the Rhine, vastfloats of timber are brought. The principal imports of the Netherlands, both for her own use and for the supply of Germany, consist of Balticproduce, English goods, colonial produce, wines, fruits, oil, &c. 

There is perhaps no country in Europe which possesses greater advantagesfor commerce than France: a large extent of sea coast, both on the Atlanticand the Mediterranean; excellent harbours; a rich soil and genial climate, adapted to a great variety of valuable productions; and some manufacturesvery superior in their workmanship, --all these present advantages seldomfound united. Add to these her colonial possessions, and we shall certainlybe surprized that her commerce should ever have been second, to that of anyother country in Europe. Prior to the revolution it was certainly great;but during and since that period it was and is vastly inferior to thecommerce of Great Britain, and even to that of the United States. 

The extent of sea coast on the Atlantic is 283 leagues, and on theMediterranean eighty leagues: the rivers are numerous, but none of thefirst class. The canal of Languedoc, though from its connecting theAtlantic and the Mediterranean it would naturally be supposed highlyadvantageous to commerce, is not so; or rather, it is not turned to theadvantage to which it might be applied. In England such a canal would beconstantly filled with vessels transporting the produce of one part toanother. It is not, however, so; and this points to a feature in the Frenchcharacter which, in all probability, will always render them indisposed, aswell as unable, to rival Britain, either in manufactures or commerce. Besides the want of capital, which might be supplied, and would indeed beactually supplied by industry and invention, the French are destitute ofthe stimulus to industry and invention. As a nation, they are much moredisposed to be content with a little, and to enjoy what they possesswithout risk, anxiety, or further labour, than to increase their wealth atsuch a price. 

The principal commercial ports of France on the Atlantic are Havre, St. Maloes, Nantes, Bourdeaux, and Bayonne: Marseilles is the only commercialport of consequence in the Mediterranean. The principal exports of Franceare wines, brandy, vinegar, fruit, oil, woollen cloth of a very finequality, silk, perfumery, &c. : the imports are Baltic produce, themanufactures of England; fruits, drugs, raw wool, leather, &c. From Spain, Italy, and the Mediterranean states. 

3. The next division of Europe comprehends Spain, Portugal, Italy, andGreece. 

Spain, a country highly favoured by nature, and at one period surpassed byno other kingdom in Europe in civilization, knowledge, industry, and power, exhibits an instructive and striking instance of the melancholy effects ofpolitical degradation. Under the power of the Arabians, she flourishedexceedingly; and even for a short period after their expulsion, sheretained a high rank in the scale of European kingdoms. The acquisition ofher East Indian and American territories, and the high eminence to whichshe was raised during the dominion of Charles V. And his immediatesuccessors, --events that to a superficial view of things would haveappeared of the greatest advantage to her, --proved, in fact, in their realand permanent operation, prejudicial to her industry, knowledge, and power. It would seem that the acquisition of the more precious metals, which maybe likened to the power of converting every thing that is touched intogold, is to nations what it was to Midas, --a source of evil instead ofgood. Spain, having substituted the artificial stimulus of her Americanmines in the place of the natural and nutritive food of real industry, onwhich she fed during the dominion of the Moors, gradually fell off incommercial importance, as well as in political consequence and power. Thedecline in her commerce, and in her home industry, was further acceleratedand increased by the absurd restrictions which she imposed on theintercourse with her colonies. All these circumstances concurring, aboutthe period when she fell into the power of the house of Bourbon, --that is, about the beginning of the eighteenth century, --she sunk very low inindustry and commerce, and she has, since that period, continued to fall. 

And yet, as we have observed, she possesses great natural advantages: a seacoast on the Atlantic and Mediterranean of considerable extent; a greatvariety of climate and soil, and consequently of productions, --she mightbecome, under a wise and free government, distinguished for her politicalpower and her commerce. 

On the Atlantic, the first port towards the north is Saint Sebastian; thensucceeds Bilboa, St. Andero, Gijon, Ferrol, and Corunna; but though some ofthese, especially Ferrol and Corunna, possess excellent harbours, yet thepoverty of the adjacent country prevents them from having much trade. Tothe south of Portugal is Seville, on the Guadalquiver, sixteen leagues fromthe sea; large vessels can ascend to this city, but its commerce was nearlydestroyed by the transfer of the colonial trade to Cadiz. This last town, one of the most ancient commercial places in the world, is highly favouredboth by nature and art as a port; and before the French revolutionary war, and the separation of the American colonies from the mother state, wasundoubtedly the first commercial city in Spain. The exports of the northernprovinces consist principally in iron, wool, chesnuts and filberts, &c. ;the imports, which chiefly come from England, Holland, and France, arewoollen, linen, and cotton goods, hardware, and salted fish. 

On the Mediterranean, Malaga may be regarded as the third commercial cityin Spain, though its harbour is not good; the other ports in this sea, atwhich trade is carried on to any considerable extent, are Carthagena, Alicant, and Barcelona, which ranks after Cadiz in commercial importance, and now that the colonial trade is destroyed, may be placed above it. Theprincipal exports from these Mediterranean towns are wines, dried fruits, oils, anchovies, wool, barilla, soap, kermes, antimony, vermilion, brandy, cork, silk, &c. Barcelona formerly exported an immense number of shoes tothe colonies. The imports consist chiefly of Baltic produce, the articlesenumerated as forming the imports of the north of Spain, and some articlesfrom Italy and Turkey. 

Portugal, not nearly so extensive as Spain, nor blessed with such a fertileterritory, is before her in commerce: she possesses two sea-ports of thefirst consideration, Lisbon and Oporto; and five of the second class. Thereare few cities that surpass Lisbon in commerce. The principal trade ofPortugal is with England; from this country she receives woollens and othermanufactures; coals, tin, salted cod, Irish linen, salt provisions, andbutter: her other imports are iron from the north of Spain; from France, linens, silks, cambrics, fine woollens, jewellery; from Holland, corn, cheese, and drugs for dying; from Germany, linens, corn, &c. ; and fromDenmark, Sweden, and Russia, Baltic produce. The principal exports ofPortugal are wine, oil, fruits, cork, &c. 

The Italian States, the origin of the commerce of the middle ages, are nolonger remarkable for their trade; the principal ports for commerce areLeghorn, Naples, Venice, Genoa, Messina, and Palermo. The exports ofLeghorn are silk, raw and manufactured; straw hats, olive oil, fruits, marble, &c. : its chief trade, however, consists in the importation ofEnglish merchandize, which it distributes to all parts of theMediterranean, receiving in return their produce to load the British shipson their home voyage. The greatest import to Naples consists in Europeanmanufactured goods, and salt fish; its exports are those of Leghorn, withcapers, wool, dye stuffs, manna, wax, sulphur, potash, macaroni, &c. Venicehas declined very much, from the influence of political circumstances: herexports are olives, looking-glasses, rice, coral, Venice treacle, scarletcloth, and gold and silver stuffs; the imports are similar to those ofLeghorn and Naples. The exports and imports of Genoa, consistingprincipally of those already enumerated, do not require particular notice. Sicily, a very rich country by nature, and formerly the granary of Rome, has fallen very low from bad government: her exports are very various, including, beside those already mentioned, barilla, a great variety ofdying drugs and medicines, goat, kid, and rabbit skins, anchovies, tunnyfish, wheat, &c. : its chief imports are British goods, salted fish, andcolonial produce. 

The principal trade of Greece is carried on by the inhabitants of Hydra, abarren island. The commerce of the Hydriots, as well as of the rest ofGreece, was very much benefited by the scarcity of corn which prevailed inFrance in 1796, and subsequently by the attempts of Bonaparte to shutBritish manufactures from the continent. These two causes threw thegreatest part of the coasting trade of the Mediterranean into their hands. The chief articles of export from Greece are oil, fruits, skins, drugs, volonia, and gall nuts, cotton and wool. The imports are principallyEnglish goods, and colonial produce, tin, lead, &c. 

We have already dwelt on the causes which produced the immense commercialsuperiority of England; and we shall, therefore, now confine ourselves toan enumeration of its principal ports, and the principal articles of itsexport and import. London possesses considerably above one-half of thecommerce of Great Britain; the next town is undoubtedly Liverpool; then maybe reckoned, in England, Bristol, Hull, Newcastle, Sunderland, Yarmouth, &c. ; in Scotland, Greenock, Leith, Aberdeen, Dundee, &c. ; in Ireland, Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Belfast, Waterford, &c. From the last return of theforeign trade of Great Britain it appears, that by far the most importantarticle of export is cotton manufactures and yarn, amounting in real ordeclared value to nearly one-half of the whole amount of goods exported;the next articles, arranged according to their value, are woollenmanufactures, refined sugar, linen manufactures, iron, steel and hardware, brass and copper manufactures, glass, lead, and shot, &c. &c. ; of colonialproduce exported, the principal articles are coffee, piece goods of India, rum, raw sugar, indigo, &c. &c. The principal imports of Great Britain arecotton wool, raw sugar, tea, flax, coffee, raw silk, train oil and blubber, madder, indigo, wines, &c. &c. The principal imports into Ireland consistof old drapery, entirely from Great Britain; coals, also entirely fromGreat Britain; iron wrought and unwrought, nearly the whole from GreatBritain; grocery, mostly direct from the West Indies; tea, from Britain, &c. &c. In fact, of the total imports of Ireland, five-sixths of them arefrom Great Britain; and of her exports, nine-tenths are to Great Britain. The principal articles of export are linen, butter, wheat, meal, oats, bacon, pork, &c. &c. 

On the 30th September, 1822, there belonged to the United Kingdom 24, 642vessels, making a total of 2, 519, 044 tons, and navigated by 166, 333 men; ofthe vessels employed in the foreign trade, including their repeatedvoyages, in the year ending the 5th of January 1823, there were about12, 000, of which upwards of 9, 000 were British and Irish, and the restforeign vessels. The coasting trade of England is calculated to employ 3000vessels. We have already stated the proportion which the trade of Irelandto Britain bore to her trade with the rest of the world; this point may bestill further elucidated by the following fact: that the number of vessels, (including their repeated voyages, ) which entered the ports of Ireland, from all parts of the world, in the year ending the 5th of January, 1823, was 11, 561, and that all these, except 943, came from Great Britain. 

From this rapid view of the commerce of the European states, it appearsthat, with the exception of Great Britain, by far the largest portion andgreatest value of the exports of each country consist in the produce of thesoil, either in its raw and natural state, or after having undergone achange that requires little industry, manual labour, or mechanical agency. Britain, on the contrary, derives her exports almost entirely from theproduce of her wonderful mechanical skill, which effects, in many cases, what could alone be accomplished by an immense population, and in a fewcases, what no manual labour could perform. 

In reviewing the commerce of the remaining parts of the world, we shallfind the articles that constitute it almost exclusively the produce of thesoil, or, where manufactured, owing the change in their form and value tothe simplest contrivances and skill. We shall begin with Asia. 

Turkey possesses some of the finest portions of this quarter of the globe;countries in which man first emerged into civilization, literature, andknowledge; rich in climate and soil, but dreadfully degraded, oppressed, and impoverished by despotism. The exports from the European part of Turkeyare carpets, fruit, saffron, silk, drugs, &c. : the principal port isConstantinople. From Asiatic Turkey there are exported rhubarb and otherdrugs, leather, silk, dye stuffs, wax, sponge, barilla, and hides: nearlythe whole foreign trade is centered in Smyrna, and is in the hands of theEnglish and French, and Italians. The imports are coffee, sugar, liqueurs, woollen and cotton goods, lead, tin, jewellery, watches, &c. 

China, from the immense number of its population, and their habits, possesses great internal commerce; but, with the exception of her tea, which is taken away by the English and Americans, her export trade is notgreat. She also carries on a traffic overland with Russia, to which We havealready alluded, and some maritime commerce with Japan. Besides tea, theexports from China are porcelain, silk, nankeens, &c. ; the imports are thewoollen goods, and tin and copper of England; cotton, tin, pepper, &c. Fromthe British settlements in India; edible birds' nests, furs, &c. 

The trade of Japan is principally with China: the exports are copper, lackered ware, &c. ; the imports are raw silk, sugar, turpentine, drugs, &c. The trade of the Birman empire is also principally with China, importinginto it cotton, amber, ivory, precious stones, betel nuts, &c. , andreceiving in return raw and wrought silk, gold leaf, preserves, paper, &c. European broad cloth and hardware, Bengal muslins, glass, &c. Are alsoimported into this country. 

But by far the most important commerce that is carried on in the easternparts of Asia, consists in that which flows from and to Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. In fact, the English country trade there, as it is called, isof great value, and embraces a very great variety of articles. Bombay isthe grand emporium of the west of India, Persia, and Arabia; here theproductions of those countries are exchanged against each other, and forthe manufactures, &c. Of England. The principal articles of export fromBombay to these places, as well as to England, are cotton piece goods, sugar, and saltpetre, received from Bengal; pepper from Sumatra; coffeefrom the Red Sea. The imports from Europe are woollens, tin, lead, &c. Avery lucrative trade is carried on from Bombay to China, to which itexports cotton in very great quantity, sandal wood, &c. , and receives inreturn sugar, sugar-candy, camphire, nankeens, &c. There is alsoconsiderable traffic between Bombay and Bengal, Ceylon, Pegu, and the Malayarchipelago. The exports of Ceylon are cinnamon, arrack, coir, cocoa nuts:the imports are grain, piece goods, and European merchandize. The commerceof the eastern coast of Hindostan centers in Madras: the exports from thisplace are principally piece goods, grain, cotton, &c. ; the imports, woollenmanufactures, copper, spirits, pepper, and other spices. The trade ofBengal may be divided into four branches: to Coromandel and Ceylon, theMalabar coast, Gulph of Persia and Arabia, the Malay archipelago and Chinaand Europe. The principal exports by the port of Calcutta are piece goods, opium, raw silk, indigo, rice, sugar, cotton, grain, saltpetre, &c. : theprincipal imports are woollen goods, copper, wine, pepper, spices, tea, nankeen, camphire, &c. 

A considerable trade is carried on in the Malay archipelago from Prince ofWales Island, which, since it was settled by the English, has become theemporium of this trade. --Batavia, Bencoolen, and Achen; the principalarticles of export from these islands are cloves, nutmegs, camphire, pepper, sago, drugs, bichedemer, birds' nests, gold dust, ivory, arecanuts, benzoin, tin, &c. : the imports are tea, alum, nankeens, silks, opium, piece goods, cotton, rice, and European manufactures. Manilla is the depôtof all the productions of the Philippines, intended to be exported toChina, America, and Europe. The exports of these islands are birds' nests, ebony, tobacco, sugar, cotton, cocoa, &c. The commerce of New Holland isstill in its infancy, but it promises to rise rapidly, and to be of greatvalue: a soil very fertile, and a climate adapted to the growth ofexcellent grain, together with the uncommon fineness of its wool, havealready been very beneficial to its commerce. 

The external commerce of Persia is principally carried on by the foreignmerchants who reside at Muscat, on the Persian Gulph: into this place areimported from India, long cloths, muslins, silks, sugar, spices, rice, indigo, drugs, and European manufactures; the returns are copper, sulphur, tobacco, fruits, gum-arabic, myrrh, frankincense, and all the drugs whichIndia does not produce. 

The Red Sea, washed on one side by Asia, and on the other by Africa, seemsthe natural transit, from this consideration, of the commerce of the formerquarter of the globe to that of the latter. Its commerce is carried on bythe Arabians, and by vessels from Hindostan: Mocha and Judda are itsprincipal ports. The articles sent from it are coffee, gums and drugs, ivory, and fruit: the imports are the piece goods, cotton, and otherproduce of India; and the manufactures, iron, lead, copper, &c. Of Europe. 

Egypt, in which anciently centered all the commerce of the world, retainsat present a very small portion of trade: the principal exports fromAlexandria consist in the gums and drugs of the east coast of Africa, Arabia, Persia, and India; rice, wheat, dates, oil, soap, leather, ebony, elephants' teeth, coffee, &c. The imports are received chiefly from Franceand the Italian States, and England; and consist in woollen and cottongoods, hardware, copper, iron, glass, and colonial produce. The commerce ofthe Barbary States is trifling: the exports are drugs, grain, oil, wax, honey, hides and skins, live bullocks, ivory, ostrich feathers, &c. ; theimports, colonial produce, (which indeed finds its way every where, )cutlery, tin, woollen and linen goods, &c. The exports of the rest ofAfrica are nearly similar to those enumerated, viz. Gums, drugs, ivory, ostrich feathers, skins, gold dust, &c. From the British settlement at theCape are exported wine, wheat, wool, hides, &c. 

The United States claim our first notice in giving a rapid sketch of thecommerce of America: we have already pointed out the causes of theirextraordinary progress in population and wealth. American ships, likeEnglish ones, are found in every part of the world: in the South SeaIslands, among people just emerging into civilization and industry; amongthe savages of New Zealand; on the north-west coast of America; and on thedreadful shores of New South Shetland. Not content with exporting thevarious productions of their own country, they carry on the trade ofvarious parts of the globe, which, but for their instrumentality, could nothave obtained, or ever have become acquainted with each other's produce. 

The exports from America, the produce of their own soil, are corn, flour, timber, potash, provisions, and salt fish from the northern States; corn, timber, and tobacco from the middle States; and indigo, rice, cotton, tar, pitch, turpentine, timber, and provisions, to the West Indies, from thesouthern States. The imports are woollen, cotton goods, silks, hardware, earthen-ware, wines, brandy, tea, drugs, fruit, dye-stuffs, and India andcolonial produce. By far the greatest portion of the trade of the UnitedStates is with Great Britain. The principal ports are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans. 

The British settlements in America export, chiefly from Quebec and Halifax, corn, potash, wheel timber, masts, lumber, beaver and other furs, tar, turpentine, and salted fish from Newfoundland. The imports are woollen andcotton goods, hardware, tea, wine, India goods, groceries, &c. 

The exports of the West India Islands are sugar, coffee, rum, ginger, indigo, drugs, and dye stuffs. The imports are lumber, woollen and cottongoods, fish, hardware, wine, groceries, hats, and other articles of dress, provisions, &c. 

Brazil, and the late Spanish settlements in America, countries of greatextent, and extremely fertile, promise to supply very valuable articles forcommerce; even at present their exports are various, and chiefly of greatimportance. Some of the most useful drugs, and finest dye stuffs, are theproduce of South America. Mahogany and other woods, sugar, coffee, chocolate, cochineal, Peruvian bark, cotton of the finest quality, gold, silver, copper, diamonds, hides, tallow, rice, indigo, &c. Carthagena, Porto Cabello, Pernambucco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Ayres, arethe principal ports on the east coast of South America; and Valparaiso, Calloa (the port of Lima), Guayaquil, Panama, and Acapulco, on the westcoast. 

Our sketch of commerce would be incomplete, did it not comprehend a shortnotice of the manner in which the trade of great part of Asia and Africa isconducted, by means of caravans. This is, perhaps, the most ancient mode ofcommunication between nations; and, from the descriptions we possess, thecaravans of the remotest antiquity were, in almost every particular, verysimilar to what they are at present. The human race was first civilized inthe East. This district of the globe, though fertile in various articleswhich are well calculated to excite the desires of mankind, is intersectedby extensive deserts; these must have cut off all communication, had notthe camel, --which can bear a heavy burden, endure great famine, is verydocile, and, above all, seems made to bid defiance to the parched andwaterless desert, by its internal formation, and its habits andinstinct, --been civilized by the inhabitants. By means of it they have, from the remotest antiquity, carried on a regular and extensive commerce. 

The caravans may be divided into those of Asia and those of Africa: thegreat centre of the former is Mecca: the pilgrimage to this place, enjoinedby Mahomet, has tended decidedly to facilitate and extend commercialintercourse. Two caravans annually visit Mecca; one from Cairo, and theother from Damascus. The merchants and pilgrims who compose the former comefrom Abyssinia; from which they bring elephants' teeth, ostrich feathers, gum, gold dust, parrots, monkies, &c. Merchants also come from the Senegal, and collect on their way those of Algiers, Tunis, &c. This divisionsometimes consists of three thousand camels, laden with oils, red caps, fine flannels, &c. The journey of the united caravans, which have beenknown to consist of 100, 000 persons, in going and returning, occupies onehundred days: they bring back from Mecca all the most valuable productionsof the East, coffee, gum arabic, perfumes, drugs, spices, pearls, preciousstones, shawls, muslins, &c. The caravan of Damascus is scarcely inferiorto that of Cairo, in the variety and value of the produce which it conveysto Mecca, and brings back from it, or in the number of camels and men whichcompose it. Almost every province of the Turkish empire sends forthpilgrims, merchants, and commodities to this caravan. Of the Asiaticcaravans, purely commercial, we know less than of those which unitereligion and commerce; as the former do not travel at stated seasons, norfollow a marked and constant route. The great object of those caravans isto distribute the productions of China and Hindustan among the centralparts of Asia. In order to supply them, caravans set out from Baghar, Samarcand, Thibet, and several other places. The most extensive commerce, however, carried on in this part of Asia, is that between Russia and China. We have already alluded to this commerce, and shall only add, that thedistance between the capitals of those kingdoms is 6378 miles, upwards offour hundred miles of which is an uninhabited desert; yet caravans goregularly this immense distance. The Russians and Chinese meet on thefrontiers; where the furs, linen and woollen cloth, leather, glass, &c. OfRussia, are exchanged for the tea, porcelain, cotton, rice, &c. Of China. This intercourse is very ancient. There are also caravans of independentTartars, which arrive on the Jaik and Oui, and bring Chinese and Indiancommodities, which they interchange for those of Russia. 

Tombuctoo is the great depot of central Africa: with it the maritime statesof Egypt, Tripoli, Algiers, Tunis, and Morocco carry on a very extensiveand lucrative trade by means of caravans. They take 129 days in travellingto Tombuctoo from the borders of the desert, but only fifty-four are spentin actual travelling. There is also another caravan which sets off fromWedinou, and after collecting salt at West Tagossa, proceeds to Tombuctoo. This goes as far as the White Mountains, near Cape Blanco, and is occupiedfive or six months in its journey. The merchandize carried by thesecaravans is German linens, Irish linens, muslins, woollen cloth, coralbeads, pearls, silk, coffee, tea, sugar, shawls, brass nails, &c. &c. Inexchange they bring back chiefly the produce of Soudan, viz. Gold dust, gold rings, bars of gold, elephants' teeth, gum, grains of paradise, andslaves. There are also several caravans that trade between Cairo and theinterior of Africa, which are solely employed in the traffic of slaves. There can be no doubt that caravans arrive at Tombuctoo from parts ofAfrica very distant from it, and not only inaccessible, but totallyunknown, even by report, to Europeans, and even to the inhabitants of NorthAfrica. 

What a picture does modern commerce present of the boundless desires ofman, and of the advancement he makes in intellect, knowledge, and power, when stimulated by these desires! Things familiar to use cease to attractour surprise and investigation; otherwise we should be struck with thefact, that the lowest and poorest peasant's breakfast-table is suppliedfrom countries lying in the remotest parts of the world, of which Greeceand Rome, in the plenitude of their power and knowledge, were totallyignorant. But the benefits which mankind derives from commerce are notconfined to the acquisition of a greater share and variety of the comforts, luxuries, or even the necessaries of life. Commerce has repaid the benefitsit has received from geography: it has opened new sources of industry; ofthis the cotton manufactures of Britain are a signal illustration andproof:--it has contributed to preserve the health of the human race, by theintroduction of the most valuable drugs employed in medicine. It hasremoved ignorance and national prejudices, and tended most materially tothe diffusion of political and religious knowledge. The natural philosopherknows, that whatever affects, in the smallest degree, the remotest body inthe universe, acts, though to us in an imperceptible manner, on every otherbody. So commerce acts; but its action is not momentary; its impulses, oncebegun, continue with augmented force. And it appears to us no absurd orextravagant expectation, that through its means, either directly, or byenlarging the views and desires of man, the civilization, knowledge, freedom and happiness of Europe will ultimately be spread over the wholeglobe. 

[6] Since this part of our work was written, the narrative of Lieutenant Franklin has been published: from this it appears, that he was engaged in this arduous undertaking during the years 1819, 1820, 1821, and 1822; that the route he followed to the Coppermine River was to the east o the routes of M'Kenzie and Hearne; that he reached the river three hundred and thirty-four miles north of Fort Enterprize; and the Polar Sea in lat. 67° 47' 50"; and in longitude 115° 36' 49" west; that he sailed five hundred and fifty miles along its shores to the eastward, and then returned to Port Enterprize. 

CATALOGUE OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 

_Preliminary Observations on the Plan and Arrangement pursuedin drawing up this Catalogue_. 

It is obvious, that whoever undertakes to draw up a catalogue of books onany particular subject, must proceed on one or other of these twoplans, --either to give a complete catalogue of all the works published onthat subject, or a select catalogue of what seems to him the best works. Itis scarcely necessary to point out the objection to the first plan, arisingfrom the impracticability of making any catalogue absolutely complete; butit may be said, though not absolutely complete, it may, by sufficientinformation and diligence, be rendered nearly so. Let us suppose, then, that by unwearied assiduity and research, aided and guided by the requisiteknowledge, a catalogue is rendered as perfect as it practically can bemade, --is the utility of such a catalogue enhanced in a proportion anything approaching to the labour, research, and time expended upon it; or, rather, would not such a catalogue be much less useful than one withinsmaller compass, drawn up on the plan of selection?

On all subjects there are more bad or indifferent works published than goodones. This remark applies with peculiar justice and force to modern worksof voyages and travels. A very extensive catalogue, therefore, must containa large portion of bad or indifferent books, which are not worth thepurchasing, the consulting, nor the perusing; consequently, if such worksappear in a catalogue drawn up for the purpose of guiding those who purposeto travel in particular countries, to write on the subject of them, ormerely to read respecting them for the sake of information, it is plainthat such a catalogue cannot be trusted as a safe and judicious guide; asif the persons consulting it select for themselves, there is an equalchance of selecting useless books as good ones; and if they attempt toperuse all, they must waste a great deal of time. 

It may be said, however, that this objection can easily be obviated, bydistinguishing such works as are bad or indifferent from such as are good, either by a short notice, or by a particular mark. The first plannecessarily must increase the size of the catalogue; and it really appearsa piece of superfluous labour to introduce works not worthy to be perused, and then, either by a notice or mark, to warn the reader from the perusalof them. Is it not much more direct to omit such works altogether?

As the object in view in the present catalogue is to render it useful tothe generality of readers, and not valuable to the bibliographer, thoseworks are omitted which have no other recommendation but their extremescarcity. For such works are of course accessible only to very few, andwhen obtained, convey little interest or information. 

A select catalogue then appears to be the most useful, and of course mustoccupy less room. But to this objections start up, which it will be properto consider. 

In the first place, What is the criterion of good works of voyages andtravels? The antiquarian will not allow merit to such as pass over, or donot enter, _con amore_, and at great length, into the details of theantiquities of a country: the natural historian is decidedly of opinion, that no man ought to travel who is not minutely and accurately acquaintedwith every branch of his favourite science, and complains that scarcely asingle work of travels is worthy of purchase or perusal, because naturalhistory is altogether omitted in them, or treated in a popular andsuperficial manner. Even those who regard man as the object to whichtravellers ought especially to direct their attention, differ in opinionregarding the points of view in which he ought to be studied in foreigncountries. To many the travels of Johnson and Moore seem of the highestmerit and interest, because these authors place before their readers ananimated, philosophical, and vivid picture of the human character; whereasother readers consider such works as trifling, and contend that thosetravels alone, which enter into the statistics of a country, conveysubstantial information, and are worthy of perusal. 

Whoever draws up a catalogue, therefore, must, in some measure, consult thejudgment, taste, and peculiar studies of all these classes of readers, andendeavour to select the best works of travels in all these branches. 

But there is a second objection to a select catalogue to be considered. Theinformation and research of the person who draws it up may be inadequate tothe task, or his judgment may be erroneous. This observation, however, applies to a complete catalogue--indeed the first part of it, --theinformation and research requisite, in a greater degree to a complete thanto a select catalogue; and with respect to the judgment required, it willbe equally required in a complete catalogue, if the bad and indifferentworks are distinguished from the good ones; and if they are not, such acatalogue, we have already shewn, can only lead astray into unnecessary orprejudicial reading. 

Whoever draws up a catalogue, or gives to the public a work on anyparticular subject, is bound to make it as good as he can; but, after all, he must not expect that there will be no difference of opinion about hislabours. Some will think (to confine ourselves to the catalogue) that hehas admitted books that ought not to have found a place in it; whereasothers will impeach his diligence, his information, or his judgment, because he has omitted books which they think ought to have entered intoit. All, therefore, that a person who engages to draw up a catalogue cando, is to exercise and apply as much research and judgment as possible, andto request his readers, if they find general proofs of such research andjudgment, to attribute the omission of what they think ought to have beeninserted, or the insertion of what they think ought to have been omitted, to difference of opinion, rather than to a deficiency in research orjudgment. 

It may be proper to remark, with regard to the principle of selectionpursued, that many works are admitted which do not bear the title oftravels; this has been done, wherever, though not under that title, theyare the result of the actual travels and observations, or enquiries of theauthors. The form into which information respecting the agriculture, manufactures, commerce, antiquities, natural history, manners, &c. Offoreign countries is cast, or the title under which it is communicated tothe world, is obviously of little consequence, provided the information isnot merely compiled by a stranger to the country, and is accurate andvaluable. Such works, however, as are avowedly written for scientificpurposes, and for the exclusive use of scientific men, and are consequentlyconfined to scientific researches and information conveyed in the peculiarlanguage of the science, are omitted. 

So much for the plan on which this catalogue has been drawn up. Before weproceed to explain the arrangement pursued, it may be proper to make a fewremarks on some intermediate points. One advantage of a select catalogueover a complete one is, that it occupies less room. With the same object inview, only the title in the original language is given where there is notranslation of the work into the English or French; only translations intoEnglish or French are noticed, where such exist, and not the original work;and all the articles are numbered, so that a short and easy reference maybe made from one article to another. 

Room is thus evidently saved, and not, in our opinion, by any sacrifice ofutility. For German or Spanish scholars it is unnecessary to translate thetitles of German or Spanish books, and for the mere English scholar it isuseless. Translations into the French are noticed in preference to theoriginal, because this language is at present familiar to every literaryman in Britain, and French works can easily be obtained; and the German orSpanish scholar, who wishes to obtain and peruse the original, can be at noloss to procure it from the translated title. The advantage of numberingthe articles will be immediately explained in treating of the arrangement. 

The catalogue is arranged in the following manner:

After noticing a few of the most useful works which contain instructions totravellers, in the first place, Collections and Histories of Voyages andTravels are placed: next follow Voyages round the World;--Voyages andTravels which embrace more than one quarter of the World;--Travels inEurope generally;--Travels in more than one Country of Europe;--Travels ineach particular Country of Europe. It is in this particular department ofthe Catalogue that the plan of reference by numbers is more especiallynecessary and useful; for the Index to the Catalogue being drawn up withreference to the numbers, not only those travels which are confined to onecountry, --France, for instance, --may easily be found, but also all thosetravels which comprehend France along with other countries. 

The same arrangement is pursued in the other parts of the world, --Asia, Africa, America, Australasia, and Polynesia. The articles are arranged asnearly as possible in the chronological order in which the voyages andtravels were performed in each particular country, and the countries areplaced according to their geographical relation to one another. 

I. 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR TRAVELERS. 

1. L'Utilité des Voyages qui concernent la Connoissance des Inscriptions, Sentences, Dieux, Larés, Peintures anciennes, Bas Reliefs, &c. Langues, &c. ; avec un Memoire de quelques Observations générales qu'on peut fairepour ne pas voyager inutilement. Par Ch. C. Baudelot Dairval. 2 vol. 12mo. Paris 1656. --The Rouen edition is much inferior. This is an excellentwork. 

2. C. Linnæus on the Benefit of Travelling in one's own Country. (InStillingfleet's Tracts. ) This was published in Latin, separately, and inthe Amoenitates Academicæ, in the Select, ex Amoenit. ; and in theFundamenta Botanices of Gilibert. 

3. Instructio Peregrinatoris, Dissertatio. Præside C. Linnæo. 1759, 4to. 

4. Mémoire Instructif sur la Manière de rassembler, de préparer, deconserver, et d'envoyer les diverses Curiosités d'Histoire Naturelle. ParTurgot. 1758. 8vo. --This work is also appended to "Avis pour le Transportpar Mer des Arbres, des Plantes vivaces, des Semences, et de diversesautres Curiosités d'Histoire Naturelle. Par L. H. Duhamel. " Published atParis, 1753. 12mo. 

5. Directions in what Manner Specimens of all Kinds may be collected, preserved, &c. By J. R. Forster. London, 1771. --This tract, worthy of itswell-informed and able author, was published along with his Catalogue ofNorth American Animals. 

6. The Naturalist's and Traveller's Companion. By J. C. Lettsom, M. D. London, 1799 8vo. 

7. Analysis of the Natural Classification of Mammalia, for the Use ofTravellers. 

Introduction to the Ornithology of Cuvier, for the Use of Travellers. 

Introduction to Conchology, for the Use of Travellers. By T. E. Bowdich. Paris, 1821-2. 8vo. 

8. Instructions for Travellers. By Dean Tucker. 1757. 4to. 

9. Essay to direct and extend the Enquiries of patriotic Travellers. ByCount Berchtold. --The second volume contains a Catalogue of Travels inEurope; the first alone relates to the subject of the title. 2 vols. 8vo. 1789. 

10. Essay on the Study of Statistics; intended to assist the Enquiries ofinexperienced Travellers. By D. Boileau. 12mo. 1807. 

11. Fried. J. Freyherr von Gunderode Gedanken uber Reisen. Frankfort, 1781. 8vo. 

12. Apodenick, oder die kunst zu Reisen von Posselt. Leipsic, 1795. 8vo. --This is an excellent work. 

13. Uber den Worth und Nutzen der Fussreisen. Hanover, 1805. 8vo. --Wenotice this work, because it points out the superior advantages possessedby foot travellers, in exploring the natural beauties and natural historyof a country. 

II. 

COLLECTIONS AND HISTORIES OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 

14. The principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of theEnglish Nation, made by Sea or Over-land, to the remote and farthestdistant Quarters of the Earth. By Richard Hakluyt, 3 vols. Fol. 1598, 1599, 1600. --This work is often incomplete; the completeness of it may beascertained by its containing the voyage to Cadiz, which was suppressed byorder of Queen Elizabeth, after the disgrace of the Earl of Essex. Thefirst volume of this collection contains Voyages to the North andNorth-east: The True State of Iceland; The Defeat of the Spanish Armada:The Victory at Cadiz, &c. The second volume contains Voyages to the Southand South-east Parts of the World: and the third to North America, the WestIndies, and round the World. It has lately been republished. 

15. S. Purchas, his Pilgrims and Pilgrimages, 5 vols. Folio, 1625-26. --Thefirst volume contains Voyages by the Ancient Circumnavigators of the Globe:Voyages along the Coasts of Africa to the East-Indies, Japan, China, Philippines, and the Persian and Arabian Gulphs. Vol. 2. Contains Voyagesand Relations of Africa, Ethiopia, Palestina, Arabia, Persia, Asia. Vol. 3. Tartary, China, Russia, North-west America, and the Polar Regions. Vol. 4. America and the West Indies. Vol. 5. Early History of the World; of theEast Indies; Egypt; Barbary, &c. &c. 

16. A General Collection of Voyages and Travels. Published by Astley. 4vols. 4to. 1745. 

17. A Collection of Voyages and Travels, some now first printed fromoriginal MSS. ; others now first published in English. By Churchill. 6 vols. Folio. 1732. 

18. Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca. Harris's Collection ofVoyages and Travels, from Hakluyt, Purchas, Ramusio, &c. The whole workrevised and continued, by Dr. John Campbell. 2 vols. Fol. 1744. 

19. A General Collection of the best and most interesting Voyages andTravels, in all Parts of the World. By John Pinkerton. 1808-1814. 17 vols. 4to. 

20. A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, arranged insystematic Order. By Robert Kerr. Edin. 1811-22. 18 vols. 8vo. 

21. Relation de divers Voyages curieux, qui n'ont point encore été publiés, et qu'on a traduits ou tirés des Originaux des Voyageurs Français, Espagnols, Allemands, &c. &c. Par M. Thevenot. Paris, 1696. 2 vol. Fol. --This work is seldom found complete: the marks of the complete andgenuine edition are given in the Bibliothèque des Voyages, vol. I. Pp. 82, 83. To this work the following is a proper supplement:

22. Recueil des Voyages de M. Thevenot. Paris, 1681. 8vo. 

23. Recueil des Voyages qui ont servi a l'Etablissement et au Progrès de laCampagne des Indes Orientates Hollandaises. Par Constantin. --The besteditions are those of Amsterdam, 1730, and of Paris and Rouen, 1705; eachin 10 vol. 12mo. 

24. Recueil des Voyages au Nord, &c. Amsterdam, 1717. 8 vol. 12mo. 

25. Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses. Paris, 1780, 1781. 24 vols. 12mo. 

26. Mémoires Orientales. Paris, 1789. 12mo. 

27. Collection Portative de Voyages, traduit de différentes LanguesOrientales et Europiennes. Par Langles. Paris, 3 vols. 18mo. 

28. Histoire Générale des Voyages. Par Prevot. Paris, 20 vols. 4to. --Thiswork is valuable for its excellent engravings, maps, plans, &c. , but inother respects its value has fallen, in consequence of the followingabridgment of it:

29. Abrégé de l'Histoire Générate des Voyages de Prevot. Par La Harpe. Paris, 1780-1786. 23 vols. 8vo. --The last five volumes contain voyages andtravels not given by Prevot. This work also has been continued by Comeyrasin 1798-1801, in 9 vols. 8vo. 

30. Abrégé de l'Histoire Générale des Voyages. Par La Harpe. 2 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1820. --This abridgment is executed with considerable judgment; it isnecessarily confined to the most novel and curious parts of the narrativesand descriptions. 

31. Annales des Voyages. Par Malte Brun. 25 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1814-1817. 

32. Nouvelles Annales des Voyages. Par Malte Brun et Eyries. --Twelvevolumes are already published: four volumes are published annually. Perhapsthe very high character of Malte Brun would lead us to expect a more severeand judicious selection than some parts of this work exhibit; but, on thewhole, it is valuable. 

33. Journal des Voyages, Découvertes et Navigations Modernes, ou ArchivesGéographiques du 19me Siècle. --This work began in Nov. 1818, and ispublished monthly. Like all collections of this kind, the value of it wouldhave been encreased, and the bulk much diminished, if the selection hadbeen more scrupulous. 

34. Delle Navigationi e Viaggi raccolti da M. G. B. Ramusio. Venet. --The mostcomplete and accurate edition of this book consists of vol. 1. Of theedition of 1588; vol. 2. Of 1583; the third of 1565; and the Supplement of1606. 

35. J. R. Forster und M. C. Sprengel, Beytrage zur Volker-und Landerkunde. Leipsic, 1781--94. 13 vols. 8vo. 

36. Magazin von merkerurdigen Reisebeschreibungen, aus fremden Sprachenubersizt. Von J. R. Forster. Berlin, 1790--1802. 24 vols. 8vo. 

37. Bibliothek der neuesten und wichtigstien Reisebeschreibungen. Von M. C. Sprengel. Weimar, 1801. &c. 22 vols. 8vo. --There are many othercollections in German; the best of which are noticed by Ersch, in hisLiteratur der Geschichte und deren Hulfswissenschaften. Leipsic, 1813. 

38. Samling af de beste og nyeste Reise-beskriveler. Copen. 1790--5. 12vols. 8vo. 

39. Danskes Reise-iagttagelser. Copen. 1798--1800. 4 vols. 8vo. 

40. Versamnelling der gedenkwaardegsten Reisen nae oost en West Indien doorde Bry. Leyden, 1707--10. 30 vols. 8vo. 

41. El Viagero Universal. Madrid, 1800. --This work was published originallyin small parts, which form a great many volumes in 8vo. 

42. Novus Orbis Regionum et Institutorum Veteribus incognitarum. Basle, 1532. Fol. Paris, 1582. Fol. 

43. Collectiones Peregrinationum in Indiam Orientalem et Occidentalem. Francfort, 1590--1634. 7 vols. Fol. , or 9 vols. Fol. --The first edition, when complete, is by far the most valuable. Several dissertations have beenpublished on this work, which is generally called Les Grands et PetitsVoyages. In 1742 the Abbé de Rothelin published Observationes sur desGrands et Petits Voyages. In 1802 Camus published Mémoire sur la Collectiondes Grands et Petits Voyages; and Debure, in his Bibliographe, has devotedupwards of one hundred pages to this work. Whoever wishes to ascertainexactly the best edition, should consult these authors, and theBibliotheque des Voyages, vol. 1. 57. 

III. 

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS ROUND THE WORLD. 

 Boucher de la Richarderie, the author of the Bibliothèque Universelle des Voyages, makes some just remarks on the nature and extent of those voyages to which this appellation is usually applied. He observes that for the most part, by a Voyage round the World, is understood a voyage either by the Atlantic Ocean or the Indian Sea to the Pacific or Great Southern Ocean, the visiting the isles in the last, exploring the Antarctic Seas, and returning by the route opposite to that by which the ship went out. This certainly is a voyage round the world, though probably scarcely any part of Asia, Africa, or America has been explored or visited, except for the purposes of refitting or provisioning the ship. But when these quarters of the globe, and especially the unknown parts of them, have been visited, the application of the term, though not perhaps so correct verbally, is more justly made. There is a third class of voyages thus denominated, which, though they embrace the four quarters of the globe, do not extend to the South Sea, or the Australasian Lands. All these three classes are comprehended in the following catalogue, and we have deemed it right also to follow the author of the Bibliothèque in dividing them into two parts, ancient voyages round the world, and modern voyages: the first comprehend voyages of the first class, and were performed from the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century. 

44. Il Viaggio fatto dagli Spanuoli attorno il Mondo, 1536. 4to. --This isthe first edition of the Voyages of Pigafetta, who sailed with Magellan inhis celebrated Voyage round the World, but it is incomplete. The genuineand complete work was published for the first time from a MS. In theAmbrosian Library of Milan, with notes, by Amoretti, under the followingtitle:

45. Primo Viaggio, intorno al Globo terraqueo fatto dal Casaglieri Ant. Pigafetta. Milan, 1800. 4to. --The same editor published a Frenchtranslation, with a description of the Globe of Behaim. Magellan's Voyageis published in the first volume of Harris's Collection. 

46. C. Ortoga resumen del primero Viage hecho ad rededor del Mundo. Per H. Magellanes. Madrid, 1769. 4to. 

47. The Famous Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, to which is added theProsperous Voyage of Mr. Thomas Candish. London, 1741. 8vo. Also in Harris, vol. 1. The second voyage of Candish is in Purchas. 

48. The principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffique and Discoveries of theEnglish Nation. London, 1599. 2 vols. Folio. 

49. The Discoveries of the World, from their original to 1555, translatedfrom the Portuguese, by R. Hackluyt. London, 1610. 4to. 

50. Funnell's Voyage round the World. London, 1607. 8vo. In Harris, vol. 1. 

51. Description du penible Voyage fait autour de l'Univers. Par O. Du Nord. Amsterdam, 1602, in folio. --This is translated from the Dutch. An Englishtranslation is given in Harris, vol. 1. 

52. Voyage de Jacques l'Hermite autour du Monde. Amsterdam, 1705-12. --Thisalso is translated from the Dutch. 

53. Dampier's New Voyage round the World. London, 1711. 3 vols. 8vo. --TheFrench translation in 5 vols. 12mo. Contains also the voyages of Wafer, Wood, Cowley, Robert, and Sharp. Dampier's and Cowley's are in Harris, vol. 1. 

54. A Voyage round the World. By Captain G. Shelvocke. London, 1757. 8vo. This is also in Harris, vol. 1. 

55. Voyage round the World, by Wood Rogers. London, 1728, 8vo. In Harris, vol. 1. 

56. Voyage round the World, by Lord Anson. By Walter, corrected by Robins. London, 1749. 4to. 

57. Hawksworth's Account of the Voyages for making Discoveries in theSouthern Hemisphere, performed by Byron, Wallis, Carteret, and Cook, 1773. 3 vols. 4to. 

58. Captain Cook's Voyage towards the South Pole, and round the World, 1777. 2 vols. 4to. 

59. Captains Cook, Clarke, and Gore's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. By Cookand King, with an introduction by Bishop Douglas, 1784. 3 vols. 4to. 

60. G. Forster's Voyage round the World, with Captain Cook, during1772-75-77. 2 vols. 4to. 

61. Bougainville's Voyage round the World, translated from the French. ByJ. R. Forster, 1772. 4to. 

62. Voyage round the World, more particularly to the North-west Coast ofAmerica, in 1785-88. By Captain Dixon, 1789. 4to. 

63. Captain Portlock's Account of the same Voyage; 1789. 4to. 

64 A Voyage round the World in 1785-88. By De la Perouse, translated fromthe French. 2 vols. 4to. And Atlas of Prints, 1799. 

65. Account of a Voyage in search of La Peyrouse, translated from theFrench of Labellaidiere. 2 vols. 8vo. And Atlas in 4to. 1800. 

66. Marchand's Voyage round the World, 1790-92. 2 vols. 4to. Translatedfrom the French. 

67. A Voyage of Discovery into the North Pacific Ocean, and round the Worldin 1790-5. By G. Vancouver, 3 vols. 4to. And an Atlas. 1798. 

68. A Missionary Voyage to the South Pacific Ocean in 1796-8. 4to. 1799. 

69. Flinder's Voyage to Terra Australis in 1801-3. 2 vols. 4to. With anAtlas, 1814. 

70. Liansky's Voyage round the World, 1803-5, performed by order ofAlexander the First. 4to. 

71. Langsdorffe's Voyages and Travels in various Parts of the World, 1803-7. 2 vols. 4to. Translated from the German. 

72. Krusenstern's Voyage round the World, 1803-6. 2 vols. 4to. Translatedfrom the German. 

73. A Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea, and Behring's Straits, in1815-18. By Kotzebue. 3 vols. 8vo. 1821. Translated from the German, butbadly. 

74. Voyage Pittoresque autour du Monde. Par Choris. Livraison, 1-9. Paris, 1821. --This splendid work illustrates Kotzebue's Voyage, by engravings ofthe savages of the different parts he visited; their arms, dresses, diversions, &c. On this account alone, however, we should not have given ita place here; but it is recommended to the natural historian, by thedescriptions which Cuvier has added to the engravings of animals; and tothe craniologist, by the observations of Gall, on the engravings of humanskulls. 

75. Peregrinacion que ha hecho de la mayor partè del Mundo. Par D. P. S. Cubero. Sarragoss. 1688. Folio. 

76. Giro del Mondo del G. F. Gemelli Carreri. Naples, 1699. 7 vols. 8vo. 

IV. 

TRAVELS COMPRISING DIFFERENT QUARTERS OF THE GLOBE. 

77. Letters from Barbary, France, Spain, and Portugal. By an EnglishOfficer (Jardine), 1794. 2 vols. 8vo. 

78. Cor. De Jong Reisen naer de Cap de Goede Hop, Ierland en Norwégen. Haarlem, 1802. 8vo. 

79. Friedrich, Briefe au einen freund, eine reise von Gibraltar nach Tangerund von da durch Spanien, und Frankreich, Zurich, nach Deutschland, betreffend. (In the Historical Magazine of Gottingen, 4th year. 1stcahier. )

80. Voyage to the Levant in 1700, by Tournefort. Translated from theFrench, 3 vols. 8vo. --These travels bear too high a character to beparticularly pointed out. They comprise the Archipelago, Constantinople, the Black Sea, Armenia, Georgia, the Frontiers of Persia and Asia Minor;and are rich and valuable in the rare junction of antiquarian and botanicalknowledge. 

81. Le Bruyn's Voyage to the Levant, and Travels into Muscovy, Persia, andthe East Indies. Translated from the French. 1720. 8 vols. Fol. 

82. Description of the North and Eastern Parts of Europe and Asia. Translated from the German of Baron Strahlenberg. 1738, 4to. 

83. Historical Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea, with aJourney of Travels from London, through Russia, Germany, and Holland. ByJames Hanway. 1754. 2 vols. 4to. 

84. Bell of Antermony's Travels from St. Petersburgh in Russia to severalParts of Asia. Glasgow, 1763. 2 vols. 4to. 

85. Memoirs of B. H. Bruce, containing an Account of his Travels in Germany, Russia, Tartary, and the Indies. 1782. 4to. 

86. A Journey from India to England, in the year 1797. By John Jackson. 1799. 8vo. 

87. Histoire des Découvertes faites par divers Voyageurs. Pallas, Gmelin, Guldenstedt, et Lepechin, dans plusieurs Contrées de la Russe et de laPerse. La Haye, 1779. 2 vol. 4to. & 6 8vo. 

88. Nouvelles Relations du Levant. Par Poullet. Paris, 1688. 2 vols. 12mo. --This is a scarce and valuable work, especially that part of it whichrelates to Asiatic Turkey, Georgia, and Persia: there is likewise in it aparticular account of the commerce of the English and Dutch in the Levantat this period. 

89. Le Voyage du Sieur Duloir. Paris, 1654. 4to. --This work, beside muchhistorical information respecting Turkey, and the Siege of Babylon in 1639, contains many particulars regarding the Religion, &c. Of the Turks. Itcomprises the Archipelago, Greece, European Turkey and Asia Minor. It islikewise particular in the description of antiquities. 

90. Les Voyages de Jean Struys en Moscovie, en Tartarie, en Perse, auxIndes. Traduits du Hollandais. Amsterdam. 4to. 1681. Rouen, 3 vols. 12mo. 1730. --The Travels of Struys, who was actuated from his earliest youth withan insatiable desire to visit foreign countries, are especially interestingfrom the account he gives of Muscovy and Tartary at this period. 

91. Voyages très Curieux et très Renommés, faits en Moscovie, Tartarie etPerse. Par Adam Olearius. Traduits d'Allemagne. Amsterdam, fol. 

92. Voyages en différent Endroits d'Europe et d'Asie. Par le P. Avril. Paris, 1692. 4to. --The object of this voyage, which was commenced in 1635, principally consisted in the discovery of a new route to China. Turkey, Armenia, European and Asiatic Russia. Tartary, &c. Are comprised in theseTravels. 

93. Voyage en Turquie et en Perse. Par M. Otter. Paris, 1748. 2 vols. 12mo. --The chief merit of this work consists in the exactitude of itsdescriptions of places, and in the determination of their distances andtrue positions, which are further illustrated by maps. 

94. Beschreibung der Reise eines Polnishchen Herrn Bothschafters genConstantinople und in die Tartary. Nuremberg, 1574. 4to. 

95. Sal. Schweiger Reise-beschriebung aus Deutschland nach Constantinopelund Jerusalem. Nuremberg, 1608. 4to. 

96. Reise van Erfurt nach dem gelobten land, auch Spanien, Franckreich, Holland und England. Erfurt, 1605. 4to. 

97. Muntzer von Babenbergh, Reise von Venedig nach Jerusalem, Damascus undConstantinopel, 1556. Nurembergh. 4to. 

98. Brand, Reisen durch Brandenburgh, Preussen, Curland, Liefland, Plescovien und Muscovien. Nebst, A. Dobbins Beschriebung von Siberien, &c. Wesel, 1702. 8vo. 

99. Itinera Sex a diversis Saxoniæ; Ducibus et Authoribus, diversisTemporibus, in Italiam, Palæstinam et Terram Sanctum. Studio Balt. Mincii. Wirtemberg, 1612. 12mo. 

100. Edwin Sandy's Travels into Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, and Italy, begunin 1610. Fol. 1658. 

101. Travels through Europe, Asia, and into several parts of Africa, containing Observations especially on Italy, Turkey, Greece, Tartary, Circassia, Sweden and Lapland. By De la Mottraye. 1723. 2 vols. Fol. Veracity and exactness, particularly so far as regards the copying ofinscriptions, characterise these travels. They are also valuable forinformation respecting the mines of the North of Europe. 

102. Travels of Thevenot into Turkey, Persia, and India. Translated fromthe French, 1687. Fol. The 4th edition of the original in 3 vols. Is veryrare; the more common one is that of Amsterdam in 5 vols. 12mo. Thesetravels comprise Egypt, Arabia, and other places in Africa and Asia, besides those places indicated in the title page. The chief value of themconsists in his account of the manners, government, &c. Of the Turks. Thisauthor must not be confounded with the Mel. Thevenot, the author of aCollection of Voyages. 

103. A View of the Levant, particularly of Constantinople, Syria, Egypt andGreece. By Ch. Parry. 1743. Fol. 1770. 3 vols. 4to. This work is much lessknown than it deserves to be: the author of the bibliotheque des Voyagesjustly remarks, that the circumstance of its having been twice translatedinto German is a pretty certain indication that it is full of good matter. 

104. Description of the East, and some other Countries: Egypt, Palestine, Arabia, Syria, Greece, Thrace, France, Italy, Germany. Poland, &c. By Dr. Richard Pococke. 3 vols. Fol. 1743-8. The merits of this work in pointingout and describing the antiquities of Egypt and the East are well known. 

105. Travels through Europe, Asia, and Africa. By Lithgow. Edinburgh, 1770. 8vo. --This is one of the best editions of a book, the chief interest ofwhich consists in the personal narrative of the author. 

106. Travels in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and Persia. By Olivier. Translated from the French, 1802. 4to. 

107. Dr. Ed. Dan. Clarke's Travels in various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. 6 vols. 4to. Vol. 1. Russia, Turkey, Tartary. Vol. 2. & 3. Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land. Vol. 4. The same Countries, and a Journeyfrom Constantinople to Vienna, and an Account of the Gold Mines ofTransylvania and Hungary. Vols. 5. & 6. Scandinavia. --There is nodepartment of enquiry or observation to which Dr. C. Did not direct hisattention during his travels: in all he gives much information in apleasant style; and to all he evidently brought much judgment, talent, andpreparatory knowledge. 

108. Chateaubriand's Travels in Greece, Palestine, Egypt, and Barbary, 1806-7. 2 vols. 8vo. --Those who admire this author's manner and stylewill be gratified with these travels: and those who dislike them, may stillglean much information on antiquities, manners, customs, religion, &c. 

109. Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Translated by Charles Stewart. 1814. 3 vols. 12mo. --These travels, of thegenuineness of which there can be no doubt, derive their chief interest, asdepicting the character and feelings of the author, and the impressionsmade on his mind by what he saw and heard. 

110. Les Observations de plusieurs Singularités et Choses mémorablestrouvées en Greece, en Asie, Inde, Arabie, Egypte, &c. Par PierreBelon. --Various editions from 1550 to 1585. 4to. Belon is supposed tohave travelled between 1547 and 1550. His work is rich in botany andnatural history, especially considering the period in which he lived; andthe accompanying plates are very accurate. 

111. Voyage à Constantinople, en Perse, en Egypte, dans l'année 1546, etles années suivantes. Par G. Lues d'Aramon, Ambassadeur de France àConstantinople. Paris, 1739. 3 vols. 4to. --This relates chiefly to themanners and customs; other pieces are contained in these volumes, whichrelate, in a manner more minute than important and edifying, the variousjournies in France, of the Kings of France, from Louis the Young to LouisXIV. Inclusive. 

112. Les Navigations, Pérégrinations, et Voyages, faits en Turquie. ParNicholas Nicholai, Antwerp, fol. 1576. --This also is instructive, relative to the manners, &c. Of many parts of Europe, Africa, and UpperAsia: the plates are engraved on wood, after the designs of Titian. 

113. Relations des Voyages de M. De Breves, tant en Grèce, Terre Sainte. Egypte, qu'aux Royaumes de Tunis et Alger. Paris, 1628. 4to. De Breves wasambassador from Henry IV. To the Porte, and sent afterwards on a specialmission to Tunis and Algiers. What he relates regarding these states is themost curious and valuable part of his work. 

114. Les Voyages et Observations du Sieur Laboulaye-le-Goux, où sontdécrits les Religion, Gouvernment, et Situation, des Etats et Royaumesd'Italie, Grèce, Natolie, Syrie, Perse, Palestine, &c; Grand Mogul, IndesOrientales des Portugais, Arabie, Afrique, Hollande, Grande Bretagne, &c. Paris, 1657. 4to. --This work bears a high character for veracity andexactness; and is very minute in its account of the casts and religions ofIndia. Prefixed to it is a short critical notice of travellers who precededhim, written with great judgment and candour. 

115. Voyage de Paul Lucas au Levant. Paris, 1704. 2 vols. 12mo. 

116. Voyage de Paul Lucas, dans la Grèce, l'Asie Mineure, la Macedoine, etl' Afrique. Paris, 1712. 2 vols. 12mo. --The credit and veracity of thisauthor, which was long suspected, has, in many of his most suspiciousparts, been confirmed by modern travellers. 

117. Mèmoire du Chevalier D'Arvieux: contenant ses Voyages àConstantinople, dans l'Asie, la Palestine, l'Egypte, la Barbarie, &c. Paris, 1735. 6 vols. 12mo. --This author was well qualified from hisknowledge of the oriental languages, and from the official situations hefilled, to gain an accurate and minute knowledge of the people among whomhe resided. His account of his sojourn among the Bedouin Arabs isparticularly curious. 

118. Viaggi di P. Della Valle dall Anno 1614, fin al' 1626. Venice, 1671. 4vols. 4to. --These travels comprehend Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, Persia, and the East Indies. They are written in a pleasant, lively manner; whatrelates to Persia is most valuable. They have been translated into French, English, and German. 

119. Schultz, Reisen durch Europa, Asien, und Africa. Halle, 1771-75. 5vols. 8vo. 

120. Læflingii Petri iter Hispanicum. Stockholm, 1758. 8vo. --This work, originally published in Swedish, was translated by C. Linnæus into German, under the following title: Reise nach den Spanischen Landern in Europa undAmerika, 1751--56. Berlin, 1776. 8vo. It is chiefly valuable for itsnatural history information. 

121. Voyage en Amérique, en Italie, en Sicile, et en Egypte, 1816--19. 2vols. 8vo. 

122. The true Travels of Captain J. Smith in Europe, Asia, Africa, andAmerica, from 1593 to 1629. London, 1664. Fol. --This work, like most ofthe old travels, derives its principal value from enabling us to comparethe countries visited, and their inhabitants, with their present state; andits principal interest from the personal adventures of the author. To suchworks, as well as to minute biography, time gives a value and utility, which they do not intrinsically possess. 

123. Itinerarium Portugalensium e Lusitania in Indiam et inde in Occidentemet demum ad Aquilonem, ab. Arch. Madrignan. 1508. Fol. --Originallypublished in Portuguese. 

124. Josten, Reisebeschreibung durch die Turkey, Ungern, Polen, Reussen, Bohemen, &c. Neue Jerusalem, Ost und West Indien. Lubec, 1652. 4to. 

125. Graaf, Reisen naer Asia, Africa, America, en Europa. Amsterdam, 1686. 8vo. 

126. Historia y Viage del Mundo en los cincos Partes; de la Europa, Africa, Asia, America y Magellanica. Par Levallos. Madrid, 1691. 4to. 

127. John Ovington's Voyage to Surat, with a Description of the Islands ofMadeira and St. Helena. London, 1698. 8vo. 

128. Le Bruyn's Voyage to the Levant. Translated from the French. London, 1702. Fol. --This work bears a similar character as the preceding travelsof the author already noticed. The plates are excellent. 

129. Irwin's Adventures in a Voyage up the Red Sea; and a Route through theThebaid hitherto unknown, in the year 1779. London, 4to. And 8vo. --Chieflyvaluable for the information which his personal adventures necessarilygives of the manners, &c. Of the Arabians. 

130. Memoirs and Travels of Count Beniousky. London, 1790. 2 vols. 4to. --Amidst much that is trifling, and more that is doubtful, this workcontains some curious and authentic information, especially relating toKamschatka and Madagascar: what he states on the subject of hiscommunications with Japan, is very suspicious. 

131. Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria. By W. G. Browne. London, 1799. 4to. --A most valuable work, and except in some few peculiarities of theauthor, a model for travellers: it is particularly instructive in whatrelates to Darfour. 

132. Travels in Asia and Africa. By A. Parsons. 4to. 1809. --These travelswere performed in 1772--78: they indicate good sense, and are evidently theresult of attentive and careful observation and enquiry. From Scanderoon toAleppo; over the desert to Bagdat: a voyage from Bussora to Bombay, andalong the west coast of India; from Bombay to Mocha; and a journey fromSuez to Cairo, are the principal contents. 

133. Travels. By John Lewis Burckhardt. Vol. 1. Nubia; vol. 2. Syria and theHoly Land; vol. 3, in the Hedjaz. 1823. 4to. --Few travellers have donemore for geography than this author: antiquities, manners, customs, &c. , were examined and investigated by him, with a success which could only havebeen ensured by such zeal, perseverance, and judgment as he evidentlypossessed. 

134. Lord Valentia's Travels in India. Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia, andEgypt. 1802-6. 3 vols. 4to. --It is not possible for a person to travel solong, in such countries, without collecting information of a novel andimportant kind: such there is in this work on antiquities, geography, manners, &c. ; but it might all have been comprised in one third of thesize. 

135. Travels along the Mediterranean and Parts adjacent, 1816-17-18, extending as far as the second Cataract of the Nile, Jerusalem, Damascus, Balbec, &c. By Robert Richardson, M. D. 1822. 2 vols. 8vo. --Muchinformation may be gleaned from these volumes; but there is a want ofjudgment, taste, and life in the narrative. 

136. Travels in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, and Turkey. 1803-7. By Ali Bey. 3 vols. 4to. --This traveller procured access to manyplaces, in his assumed character, to which Christians were not permitted togo: from this cause the travels are instructive and curious; but theycertainly disappointed the expectations of the public. 

137. Ludovici Patricii Romani Itinerarium Novum Ethiopiæ, Egypti, utriusqueArabiæ, Persidis, Syriæ, ac Indiæ ultra citraque Gangem. Milan, 1511. Fol. --This work is supposed to have been written originally in Italian. In the Spanish translation, published in Lisbon, 1576, the author's name isgiven, Barthema. This a very curious and rare work. It has been translatedinto German and Dutch. 

138. Baumgarten, Peregrinatio in Egyptum, Arabiam, Palestinam, et Syriam. Nuremberg, 1621. 4to. 

139. Voyages au Levant, 1749-52. Par Fréd. Hasselquist. Paris, 1769. 1 vol. 12mo. --This, originally published in Swedish by Linnæus, and translatedinto German and Dutch, is uncommonly valuable to the natural historian. 

140. Itinéraire de Paris a Jérusalem, et de Jérusalem à Paris, en allantpar la Grèce. Par Chateaubriand. 3 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1810. 

141. Le Nouveau Monde, et Navigations faites par Améric. Vespuce, dans lesPays nouvellement trouvés, tant en Ethiopie qu'en Arabie. Paris, 4to. --Translated from the Italian: both are rare. The claims and merits ofVespucius may be judged of from the following works: Canovai Elogio diAmerigo Vespucci. Florence, 1798. ; Tiraboschi Storia dell Litt. Vol. 1. P. 1. Lib. 1. C. 6. ; the Letters of Americo in Ramusio, 1. 138. ; Bandini Vitadel Amerigo, and an article in the North American Review, for 1822. 

142. Voyage d'un Philosophe (M. Poivre). Paris, 1797. 18mo. --This littlework, which embraces remarks on the arts and people of Asia, Africa, andAmerica, deserves the title it bears better than most French works whichclaim it. 

143. Langstadt, Reisen nach Sud-America, Asien, und Africa. Hildesheim, 1789. 8vo. 

144. Recueil de divers Voyages faites en Afrique et Amérique. Paris, 1674. 4to. 

145. Voyages du Cheval. Marchais en Guinée, Isles voisines, et à Cayenne. Par Labat. Paris, 1780. 4 vols. 12mo. 

146. Voyage en Guinée et dans les Isles Caraïbes. Par Isert. 1793. 8vo. Translated from the German. 

147. Voyage on the Coast of Africa, in the Straits of Magellan, Brazil, &c. In 1695-97. Translated from the French of Froger. London, 1698. 8vo. 

148. Hans Sloane's Voyage to Madeira, Barbadoes, St. Christophers, &c. London, 2 vols. Folio. 1707. --This work, generally known under the title ofSir Hans Sloane's History of Jamaica, is a rich mine of natural history, aad contains upwards of 1200 engravings of plants, &c. 

149. The Four Years' Voyage of Captain G. Roberts to the Islands Canaries, Cape Verde, and the Coast of Guinea, and Barbadoes. 1725. 8vo. 

150. Voyage to Guinea, Brazil, the West Indies, Madagascar, &c. By JohnAtkins. 1737. 8vo. 

151. Voyage aux Indes Orientales, Maldives, Moluccas, et Brésil. Par Fr. Pyrard. Paris, 1619-8vo. --These voyages, which occupied the author from1600 to 1611, are uncommonly well written, accurate, faithful, andcircumstantial, especially regarding the Maldives, Cochin, Travancore, andCalicut. There is appended a particular and methodical description of theanimals and plants of the East Indies. 

152. Curiosités de la Nature et de l'Art, apportés dans deux Voyages dansIndes: Indes Occ. 1698-9; Ind. Orient. 1701-2. Par C. Biron, ChirurgeonMajor. Paris, 1703. 12mo. --Valuable for its natural history, and itsaccount of the implements and arts of the inhabitants. 

153. The History of Travels in the West and East Indies. By Eden andWillis. 1577. 4to. 

154. Reise nach Ost und West Indien. Von R. C. Zimmerman. Hamburgh, 1771. 8vo. 

155. Variorum in Europa Itinerum deliciae. Collectae ab. A. Clytaeo. Bremen, 1605. 8vo. 

156. Ponz Viage fuera de España in Europa. Madrid, 1785. 2 vols. 12mo. 

157. Moryson's Travels through Europe. 1617. Fol. --A very curious work. 

158. Itinera through the twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohemia, Prussia, Sweden, Turkey, France, Britain, &c. 1617. Fol. 

159. Ray's Observations, made in a Journey through Part of the LowCountries, Germany, Italy, and France. 1738. 2 vols. 8vo. --Valuable for itsbotanical researches. 

160. Travels in Hungary, Macedonia, Austria, Germany, the Low Countries, and Lombardy. By E. Browne, M. D. 1685. Fol. --Natural history, the mines, mineral waters, as well as manners and customs, are described in this work, which bears a good character. The author was physician to Charles II. , toBartholomew Hospital, and afterwards President of the College ofPhysicians. 

161. Bishop Burnet's Letters on Switzerland and Italy. 1686. 8vo. 

162. Travels through Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. By DeBlainville. 1749. 3 vols. 4to. 

163. Smollet's Travels through France and Italy. 1766. 2 vols. 8vo. 

164. Barretti's Journey from London to Genoa, through Portugal, Spain, andFrance. 1770. 2 vols. 8vo. 

165. Dr. Moore's View of the Customs and Manners of France, Germany, andSwitzerland. 2 vols. 8vo. 

166. Stolberg's (Count) Travels in Germany, Italy, and Sicily. 1794. 2vols. 4to. 

167. Dr. C. J. Smith's Sketch of a Tour on the Continent in 1786-7. 3 vols. 8vo. 1807. --The travels of this celebrated botanist are not by any meansconfined to his favourite science, but comprehend well-drawn andinteresting sketches of manners, as well as notices of the antiquities, fine arts, &c. Holland, the Netherlands, France, and Italy, were the sceneof his travels. 

168. Beaumont's Travels from France to Italy, through the Lepantine Alps. 1800. Fol. 

169. Travels in Sicily, Greece, and Albania. By the Rev. T. S. Hughes. 1820. 2 vols. 4to. --Classical, antiquarian, and descriptive of the state ofsociety, political, civil, religious, and domestic; bearing marks of muchinformation and enquiry, a sound judgment and good education. 

170. Letters from the Mediterranean. By Ed. Blaquiere. 1814. 2 vols. 8vo. --The information in these volumes chiefly relates to the civil andpolitical state of Sicily, Malta, Tunis, and Tripoli. 

171. The Diary of an Invalid, 1817--1819. By H. Matthews. 8vo. 1820. --Lightand pleasant sketches of manners, and other popular information, onPortugal, Italy, Switzerland, and France. 

172. Travels through Holland, Germany, and Part of France, in 1819. By W. Jacob, Esq. 4to. 1820. --Agriculture, Statistics, and Manufactures. 

173. Journal du Voyage de Montaigne en Italie, par la Suisse etl'Allemagne, en 1580-81. Paris, 1774. 4to. --Italy and the Tyrol areparticularly the objects of those travels, which are interesting, much moreon account of the name of the author, and of the insight they afford intohis temper and feelings, than from the information they convey. 

174. Lettres du Baron de Busbec. Paris, 1748. 3 vols. 12mo. --These arewritten from Turkey, whither the author was sent as ambassador by FerdinandKing of Hungary, and from France, where he resided in an officialcharacter. The original is in Latin. There is a translation in English; butthis comprises only the embassy to Turkey. They are rich in politicalinformation, and in depicting the manners, &c. Of the people he visited, especially those inhabiting the neighbourhood of the Don, &c. 

175. Relations Historiques des Voyages en Allemagne, Angleterre, Holland, Boheme, et Suisse. Par C. Patin. Lyon, 1674. 16mo. --This author was son ofthe celebrated physician, Guy Patin, and distinguished for his knowledge ofmedals: his travels principally relate to antiquities. 

176. Relation d'un Voyage de Paris, en Espagne, en Portugal, et en Italie, 1769, 1770. Par M. Silhouette. Paris, 1770. 4 vols. 12mo. --This is theminister of finance, whose measures of economy were so much ridiculed bythe Parisians, and from whom the portraits, called Silhouettes, took theirname: his travels indicate considerable acquaintance with the arts andpolitical affairs. 

177. Lettres sur différens Sujets, écrites pendant le Cours d'un Voyage enAllemagne, en Suisse, dans la France Meridionelle, et en Italie. ParBernouilli. Basle and Berlin, 1777. 3 vols. 8vo. --The author of theseletters, one of the celebrated family of mathematicians of that name, hasborrowed the greater part of his work that relates to natural history froma Spanish work, entitled, "Cartas familiares del Abbatè Juan Andres, " ofwhich there is an edition published in Madrid, in 6 vols. Small 4to. Bernouilli has, however, added much information and interest to hisletters, by his description and account of collections of paintings. 

178. Tableau de l'Angleterre et de l'Italie. Par Archenholz. Strasburgh, 1788. 3 vols. 12mo. --This work is translated from the German. 

179. Voyage de Deux Français en Allemagne, en Danemarck, en Suède, enRusse, et en Pologne, 1790-1. Par Portia de Piles. Paris, 1796. 5 vols. 12mo. --This is a valuable work for all kinds of statistical information. 

180. Voyage Philosophique et Pittoresque sur les Rives du Rhin, à Leige, dans la Flandre, le Brabant, la Hollande, augmentée d'une Voyage enAngleterre, et en France. Par G. Forster. Paris, 5 vols. 8vo. --The author(whose acquirements in natural history, and in general science andphilosophical research, as well as whose peculiar temper, are well knownfrom his connection with Captain Cook during his second voyage, and hisworks on this voyage) has here produced an interesting and instructivework; particularly so far as relates to his favourite study: it is alsointeresting as depicting the political state of the countries he visited, and his strong, ardent, and sanguine views at the commencement of theFrench Revolution. 

181. Voyages en Sicile dans la Grande Grèce et au Levant. Par le Baron deRiedesel. Paris, 1802. 8vo. --This edition comprises all his travels, whichwere previously published separately. The travels in Sicily are the mostvaluable. 

182. Voyages de Guibert dans diverses Parties de la France et de la Suisse, 1775. 1785. Paris, 1805. 8vo. --The celebrated author of the "Essai sur laTactique" was employed to visit the different military hospitals in France;his journeys with this object, as well as when he went to join hisregiment, were the occasion of these travels, in which there is muchanimated description of nature, and several well-drawn portraits of publicmen. 

183. Voyage en Allemagne, dans le Tyrol et en Italie. 4 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1818. --This work is translated from the German of Mad. De la Recke, byMadame de Montelieu, and possesses much of that pleasing narrative anddescription which characterize female writers of talent. 

184. Pauli Hertneri Itinera Germaniæ, Galliæ, Italitæ. Basle, 1611. 4to. 

185. Joh. Bernouilli Reisen durch Brandenburgh, Pommern, Preussen, Curland, Russland, und Pohlen, 1777-8. Leips. 1779-80. 6 vols. 8vo. 

186. Sulzer Reisen nach Schweitz, und Hieris, und Nice. 1775. 8vo. --Thisauthor is well known for his "Universal Theory of the Fine Arts;" and thesetravels, as well as those in the middle states of Europe, and among theAlps, which he also published, are worthy of him. 

187. Bauman, Reise durch Deutschland und Walschland. Augsb. 1782. 8vo. --These travels in Germany and Italy contain observations on asubject little attended to by travellers; but one which they might muchbenefit: we mean domestic economy, or the different modes, plans, &c. Pursued by different nations in domestic life, as regards food, houses, clothing, &c. 

188. Fred. Nicholai, Beschriebung einer Reise durch Deutschland und deSchweitz, 1781. Berlin, 1783. 12 vols. 8vo. --This work is swelled beyondall due proportion with political disquisitions; but though bold andsevere, it is a just picture. 

189. Italien und Deutschland. Von C. P. Moritz. Berlin, 1790. --Manners, literature, and arts are the topics of this work. The same author published"Travels of a German in England. "

190. Reisen durch Deutschland, Danemarck, Schweden, Italien, 1797--99. VonKuttner. Leip. 4 vols. 8vo. --Statistical and political information, derived from authentic and official sources, especially as relates toAustria and Saxony, distinguishes this work. 

191. Streifzuge durch Inner Oestreich, &c. Vien. 1800. 4to. --Thequicksilver mines of Idria, the manners, &c. Of the people of Trieste andVenice, and the principal objects of arts and industry in all the countriesdescribed, give to this work a merit greater than its brevity would seem todeserve. 

192. Briefe woehrend meinis Aufenhalts en England und Portugal. Hamb. 1802. 8vo. --This work, by Mad. Barnard, is written with that peculiar charm andvivacity of style, which it would seem females only can attain. There arein it curious notices of Berlin, Hanover, and Cuxhaven, besides those onEngland and Portugal. 

193. Bemerkungen gesammelt auf einer Reise durch Holland, und einin TheilFranchreichs, 1801. Von J. F. Droysen. Goetting. 1803. 8vo. --Literaryestablishments and societies, especially those of Paris, and the state ofmathematical, physical, and chemical science, are particularly attended toby this author. 

194. Arndt, Reisen durch einer Theil Deutschlands, Ungaren, Italien, undFranckreichs, 1798, 1799. 4 vols. 8vo. Leip. 1804. 

195. Reisen durch das Osterreich, Illyrien, Dalmatien, und Albanien, 1818. 2 vols. 8vo. Meissen, 1822. 

196. Reisen durch einen Theil Deutschlands, die Schweitz, Italien, undGriechenland. 8vo. Gotha, 1822. 

197. Bemerkungen auf einer Reise aus Nord Deutschland, uber Francfort, nachdem sudlichen Franckreich. 1819. 8vo. Leips. 1822. 

198. Lettere Scritte della Sicilia e della Turkia. Dall. Abbote D. Sestini, 1774-78. Florence, 1780. 3 vols. 8vo. --These travels, which have beentranslated into French, are very full on the agriculture of Sicily, and onits internal and external commerce. 

199. Fred. Snedorfs Samlede Skrivter. Copenh. 1794. 4 vols. 8vo. --Of thiswork only the first volume relates to our present subject, containingletters from Germany, Switzerland, France and England. The author, whotravelled at two different times into these countries, pays particularattention to political and literary persons, whose character he draws withgreat spirit, candour, and acuteness. As he travelled at the commencementof the French Revolution, his sketches of political characters and eventsare especially interesting and valuable. The universities of England andGermany also attract a deal of his attention, and on these he offers somejudicious remarks. 

V. 

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS IN THE ARCTIC SEAS AND COUNTRIES. 

200. Chronological History of Voyages into the Polar Regions. By JohnBarrow, 1819. 8vo. 

201. History of North-Eastern Voyages of Discovery. By Captain Jos. Burney, 1819. 8vo. --These two works nearly exhaust the subject on which they treat:the character of their authors sufficiently warrants their accuracy andcompleteness. 

202. J. R. Forster's History of Voyages and Discoveries made in the North, 1786. 4to. --This work is not confined to voyages and discoveries in theArctic regions; but comprises those made in the central regions of Asia inthe middle ages, as well as those in the northern parts of America. Itscharacter is like that of all Forster's productions, to some of which wehave already had occasion to advert. 

203. Russian Voyages of Discovery for a North-west Passage. By Muller. London. 4to. 1800. --The following work, though relating rather todiscoveries in the sea between Asia and America, than to attempts for anorth-east or north-west passage, may be placed here, as a continuation ofthe work of Muller, which comes no farther down than the expedition ofBehring, in 1741. 

204. Account of the Russian Discoveries between Asia and America. ByWilliam Coxe, 1780. 8vo. --This work is interesting, not merely from theparticular subject which the title indicates, but also on account of thesketch it contains of the conquest of Siberia, and of the Russian commercewith China. 

205. Historia Navigationis Mar. Frobisberi, 1577. Nuremburg, 1580. 8vo. 

206. Descriptio novi Freti, recens inventi, ab Hen. Hudson. Amsterdam, 1613. 4to. 

207. Captain James's Voyage for the Discovery of the Northwest Passage, in1632. London, 1633. 4to. --This narrative contains some remarkable physicalobservations on the cold and ice; but no hint of any discovery ofimportance. 

208. Henry Ellis's Voyage for the Discovery of a North-west Passage, in1746-7. London, 1748. 2 vols. 8vo. --Some important facts and remarksrelating to Hudson's Bay are given in this voyage. 

209. Account of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-west Passage, byHudson's Straits, in 1746-7, in the California. By the Clerk of that Ship. 2 vols. 8vo. 1748. --This relates to the same voyage as the work of Ellis. 

210. Hearne's Journey from Prince of Wales' Fort, in Hudson's Bay, to theNorthern Ocean. 1795. 4to. 

211. Mackenzie's Voyage from Montreal, through the Continent of NorthAmerica to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, in the Years 1789 and 1793. 4to. --Besides the interesting details in these voyages, respecting thecountries travelled over, and the manners of the inhabitants, they areimportant, particularly Mackenzie's, as having effected the discovery ofthe Polar Sea by land, and as introductory to the following work:

212. Voyage of Discovery for a North-west Passage. By Captain Ross, 1819. 4to. --Although the end was not accomplished, nor that done which might havebeen, yet this volume is valuable for its scientific details on naturalhistory and meteorology. 

213. Voyage for the Discovery of a North-west Passage from the Atlantic tothe Pacific. By Captain Parry, 1821. 4to. --Geography, natural history, andespecially the sciences connected with, and contributing to the improvementof navigation and geographical knowledge, together with a most interestingnarrative of sound judgment, presence of mind, perseverance and passivecourage, characterize this volume. 

214. Narrative of a Journey from the Shores of Hudson's Bay to the Mouth ofthe Copper Mine River, &c. By Captain. J. Franklin, 1823. 4to. --A work ofintense and indeed painful interest, from the sufferings of those whoperformed this journey; of value to geography by no means proportional tothose sufferings; but instructive in meteorology and natural history. 

215. Geschicte der Schiffahrten zur endeckung des Nordeest-lichen Wegs nachJapan und China. Von J. C. Adelung. Halle, 1768. 4to. --Some of the aboveworks, as well as others relating to attempts to discover a north-west andnorth-east passage, are inserted in Harris and Churchill's Collections. 

216. Les Trois Navigations faites par les Hollandois au Septentrion. ParGerard de Ver. Paris, 1610. 8vo. --This contains Barentz's Voyages. 

217. Histoire des Peches, des Découvertes, &c. Des Hollandois, dans la Merdu Nord. Paris, 1801. 3 vols. 8vo. --This work, translated from the Dutch, is full of curious matter, not only respecting the fish and fisheries ofthe North Sea, but also respecting Greenland, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, andon subjects of natural history. 

218. Beschriebung des Alten und Neuen Grenland, nebist einem begrift derReisen die Frobisher, &c. Nuremberg, 1679. 4to. 

219. A Voyage towards the North Pole. By Lord Mulgrave, in 1773. 4to. 

220. An Account of the Arctic Regions. By W. Scoresby, 1820. 2 vols. 8vo. --This, together with a voyage to Greenland, published subsequentlyby the same author, is full of most valuable information on the meteorologyand natural history of this part of the World, besides containinginteresting particulars on the Whale Fishery. 

221. Déscription et Histoire Générale du Gröenland. Par Egede, traduite duDanois. Genève, 1763. 8vo. --In 1788-9, Egede published two other works onGreenland in Danish, which complete his description of this country. 

222. Crantz's History of Greenland, translated from the High Dutch, 1767. 2vols. 8vo. --A continuation of this history was published by Crantz, inGerman, 1770, which has not been translated. 

VI. EUROPE. 

LAPLAND AND THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES. 

223. Canuti Leemii de Lapponibus. Copenhagen, 1767. 2 vols. 4to. --Thiswork, containing a rich mine from which travellers in Lapland, particularlyAcerbi, have drawn valuable materials, is seldom met with complete and withall the plates: there should be 100 of them. 

224. Histoire de la Lapponie, traduite du Latin de M. Schaeffer. Paris, 1678. 4to. 

225. Journal d'un Voyage au Nord, 1736-7. Amsterdam, 1746. 12mo. --Thiswork, though principally and professedly an account of the labours ofMaupertuis, to ascertain the figure of the earth, is interesting to thegeneral reader, from the descriptions it gives of the manners, &c. Of thenatives of Lapland, &c. 

226. Mémoires sur les Samoyedes et les Lappous. Copenhagen, 1766. 8vo. 

227. Voyage dans le Nord de l'Europe, 1807. Par La Motte. 4to. Paris. --Norway and part of Sweden were visited by this traveller on foot, and he gives details of scenery, &c. Which only a foot traveller couldprocure. 

228. The natural History of Iceland. By Horrebow, 1758. Folio. 

229. Von Troil's Letters from Iceland. 1780. 8vo. --This translation is notnearly so accurate as that into French, published in Paris, 1781. 8vo. 

230. Travels in Iceland during the Summer of 1810. By Sir G. Mackenzie, 1811. 4to. --Almost every topic on which a traveller is expected to giveinformation is here treated of: the history, religion, natural history, agriculture, manners, &c. ; and all evidently the result of much previousknowledge, good sense, and information collected on the spot. 

231. Hooker's Journal of a Tour in Iceland in 1809. 2 vols. 8vo. --NaturalHistory, especially Botany; the travels of this author, Mackenzie, andHenderson, would seem to leave nothing to be desired on the subject of thisextraordinary island and its inhabitants. 

232. Journal of a Residence in Iceland, 1814-15. By Henderson. 2 vols. 8vo. --The state of society, manners, domestic habits, and religion, arehere treated of; but there is too much minuteness, and a tediousness anddryness of style and manner. 

233. Voyage en Islande. Par Olafsen et Povelsen. Paris, 1801. 5 vols. 8vo. --This work, translated from the Danish, though tedious and prolix, supplies many curious particulars respecting the natural history of thecountry and the manners of the people. 

234. OEconomische Reise durch Island. Von Olavius. Leip. 4to. 

235. Landt's Description of the Feroe Islands. Translated from the Danish. 8vo. --This work, which was published at Copenhagen in 1800, is the onlyaccurate account of these islands since the Feroe Reserata of Debes in1673; but it is too minute and long for the subjects it describes. 

236. Coxes's Travels in Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark. 5 vols. 8vo. --The substantial merits of this work are well known. 

237. Acerbi's Travels through Sweden, Finland, and Lapland, to the NorthCape, in 1798-9. 2 vols. 4to. 1801. --These travels are interesting andattractive; but they bear evident marks of having been made up by aneditor. The author has been attacked by Rihs, a Swede, for misrepresentingthe Swedes, and for having borrowed largely without acknowledgment fromLeemius; and by his fellow-traveller, Skieldebrand, with havingappropriated the views and designs which he made. The latter published inFrench a Picturesque Tour to the North Cape. 

238. Lachesis Lapponica, or a Tour in Lapland. By Linnæus, 1811. 2 vols. 8vo. --These travels were performed in 1732, when Linnæus was very young. Botany of course forms the principal subject; but the work is alsoinstructive and interesting from the picture it exhibits of the characterof the author, and of the manners of the Laplanders. 

239. Travels through Norway and Lapland. By Baron Von Buch; with Notes byProfessor Jameson, 1818. 4to. --This work, translated from the German, contains much new and valuable information, chiefly on mineralogy andgeology. 

240. Thomson's Travels in Sweden, during the Autumn of 1812. 4to. --Mineralogy, geology, satistics, and politics form the chief topics:the work is carelessly written. 

241. Travels through Sweden, Norway, and Finmark, to the North Cape, 1820. By A. De Capell Brocke. 4to. 1823. Picturesque. 

242. Nouveau Voyage vers le Septentrion. Amsterdam, 1708. 12mo. --Thecustoms, religion, character, domestic life, &c. Of the Norwegians andLaplanders are here sketched in an interesting and pleasant manner. 

243. Lettres sur le Danemark. Par Mallet. Genève, 1767. 2 vols. 8vo. --This work is worthy of the author, whose introduction to the Historyof Denmark is so advantageously known to English readers, by Bishop Percy'sexcellent translation of it. It gives an excellent and faithful picture ofthis country in the middle of the eighteenth century, and comprises alsothe southern provinces of Norway. 

244. Voyage en Allemagne et en Suède. Par J. P. Catteau. Paris, 1810. 3vols. 8vo. --Sensible and judicious on arts, manners, literature, literarymen, statistics and economics; but more full and valuable on Sweden than onGermany. Indeed few authors have collected more information on the North ofEurope than M. Catteau; his Tableau des Etats Danois, and his TableauGénéral de la Suède, are excellent works, drawn up with great accuracy andjudgment. The same may be said of his Tableau de la Mer Baltique; in whichevery kind of information relative to the Baltic, its shores, islands, rivers, ports, produce, ancient and modern commerce, is given. 

245. Voyage en Norwège, traduit de l'Allemand de J. Fabricius. Paris, 1803. 8vo. --This too is an excellent work, especially in what regards the naturalhistory and economics of the country. 

246. Reise en die Marschlander au der Nordsee. Von J. N. Tetens. Leip. 1788. 8vo. --Holstein, Jutland, and Sleswick, countries in which we possess fewtravels, are accurately described in this work. 

247. Reise durch einige Schwedische Provinzen. Von J. W. Schmidt. Hamburgh, 1801. --These travels contain curious particulars respecting the NomadicLaplanders. 

248. Arndt, Reise durch Schweden, 1804. 4 vols. 8vo. Berlin, 1806. 

 There are several travels by Linnæus (besides the one published by Sir J. Smith, already noticed) and his pupils into different provinces of Sweden, relating to their natural history, which botanists will value highly; but we omit them, as interesting only to them. They are written in Swedish, but German translations have appeared of most of them. There are also valuable travels by Germans, especially Huelfer and Gilberg, which give full and accurate details of the copper mines, and the processes pursued in them; but these also we omit for a similar reason. 

RUSSIA AND POLAND. 

 Whatever object has once been pursued by a Russian sovereign, seems to descend as a hereditary pursuit to his successors. This is true, not only of their plans of conquest, but also of their means of improving their country; but it is evident of all countries, and especially of such a vast extent of country as Russia exhibits, where new districts are from time to time added, the very limits of which are scarcely known, that no sure and regular means of improvement can be adopted, until the actual state and the capabilities of each district are fully known. The Empress Catherine gave great attention and encouragement to these enquiries: a number of men, well qualified for the undertaking, were sent to investigate the state of each district, especially its natural history, and the addition to the national strength and wealth which might be drawn from it. When the name of Pallas is mentioned as one of the scientific men employed for this purpose, and empowered to direct the enquiries of his associates, and to revise them, in it a sufficient pledge is given of the accuracy and value of their labours. 

249. Michalonis Lithuani de Moribus Tartarorum, Lithuanorum et MoschorumFragmenta. Basle, 1615. 4to. --We notice this work as exhibiting a livelypicture of the manners of these nations at this period. The same reasoninduces us to notice the following. Indeed, the chief interest of these oldworks, and it is no languid one, is derived from being introduced into themidst of ancient manners and people. 

250. Ulfedii Legatio Moscovitica. Franck. 1617. 4to. --This work, whichparticularly notices the Tartar tribes at that time subject to Russia, proves, by a comparison with what Pallas relates of them, that theirmanners, customs, and acquirements had been quite stationary for nearly 150years. 

251. State of Russia. By Captain Perry. London, 1716. 8vo. --Captain Perry, who visited Russia in 1706-12, at the request of Peter the Great, to assistin the formation of a fleet, navigable canals, &c. , has in this work givenan accurate account of this vast empire; the first indeed that may be saidto have introduced a knowledge of it into England. 

252. View of the Russian Empire during the reign of Catherine II. By theRev. W. Tooke. 3 vols. 8vo. --As this work is drawn up from a personalknowledge of the country, and aided by access to the best authorities, wehave admitted it into the Catalogue, though not exactly falling within thedescription of travels. It is full of matter, physical, statistical, political, commercial, &c. ; but heavily written, and displaying ratherextent and accuracy of research, than a perspicuous and profound mind. 

 The following are the principal works by Pallas and his associates, or works undertaken with similar objects. They require no particular criticism, after the general notice we have given of them. 

253. Reisen durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs, 1768. 1773. Peters. 3 vols. 4to. 

254. Bemerkungen auf einer Reise in die Sudlichen Statthalterschaften desRussischen Reichs, 1793, 1794. --Of these travels by Pallas, the last ismore particularly devoted to science, and therefore is interesting togeneral readers. Both have been translated into French, and the travels in1793-4, into English. 

255. Georgi Bemerkungen auf einer Reise im Russischen Reichs, 1772--1774. Peters. 1755. 2 vols. 4to. 

256. Georgi Beschriebung alter Nation des Russischen Reichs. Leipsic. 2vols. 4to. 

257. Georgi Geographische, Physicalische und Naturhistorische, Beschriebungdes Russischen Reichs. Koning. 3 vols. 4to. --This work of uncommon labourand research, treats of the geography, physical, and natural history ofRussia, divided into zones, each of which will be separately described, when the work is completed. 

258. Gmelin, Reisen durch Russland. Peters. 1770-4. 3 vols. 4to. --Of theTravels of Lepechin, the other associate of Pallas, which were performed1768-1771, and published in Russian, there is a German translation. Altenburgh, 1774. 3 vols. 4to. , of which we have not been able to procurethe exact title. 

259. Reise von Volhynien nach Cherson en Russland, 1787. Von J. C. Mæller. Hamb. 8vo. 

260. Bemerkungen uber Russland en rucksicht auf wissen-schaften Kunst, Religion. Von J. J. Bollerman. Erfurt. 1788. 8vo. 

261. Mineralogische, Geographische, und andere vermischte, Nachrechten vonder Altaischen Gebirgen. Von H. M. Renovanz. Freyberg. 1789. 4to. 

262. Tableau Historique et Statistique de l'Empire Russie à la fin du 18mesiècle. Par H. Storch. Paris, 1800. 2 vols. 8vo. --This work, by the authorof the Picture of Petersburgh, well known to the English reader, isadmitted here for the same reason which gave insertion to Tooke's Russia. It is, however, we believe, not yet complete according to the original planof the author; and the French translation only comprises what relates tothe physical and civil state of the inhabitants. Storch's Work, inconjunction with that of Georgi, on the geography and natural history ofRussia, will comprise all that is interesting respecting this vast country. 

263. Polonia, sive de Situ, Populis Moribus, &c. Poloniæ a Mart. Cromero. Cologne. 1578. 4to. 

264. Sarmatiæ Europeæ Descriptio. Ab Alex. Gaguin. Spire, 1581. Fol. 

265. Reise durch Pohlnische Provinzen. Von J. H. Carosi. Leip. 8vo. --Thesetravels are chiefly mineralogical. 

266. Nachrichten uber Pohlen. Von J. J. Kausch. Saltz. 1793. 8vo. 

267 Letters, Literary and Political, on Poland. 1823. 8vo. --Rather feeblywritten, and too minute on uninteresting points; in other respectsvaluable, as relating to a country of which we know comparatively little. 

TURKEY, GREECE, DALMATIA, &C. 

 The countries of Europe, the travels into which we have hitherto enumerated, do not present very various and numerous objects of research. In Scandinavia the natural historian, especially the mineralogist, will be chiefly interested. The vast extent of the Russian empire also affords objects of curious and novel research to the botanist and zoologist, few to the mineralogist. The Salt Mines of Poland afford the principal objects of investigation to scientific travellers in this country. Manners, habits, political institutions, and religion, of course, are interesting in all; and to those whose studies and enquiries lead them to investigate the differences in the different families of the human race, the opportunities afforded them by the Gothic Nations of Scandinavia; the Slavonic nations of Russia and Poland; and the totally distinct and singular races which inhabit Lapland and Finland, must be valuable and useful. 

 When we enter Turkey, the scene changes, or rather expands. Within its European, as well as its Asiatic empire, travellers of all descriptions, however various their objects, will find rich and ample materials. Situated in a mild climate, with great variety of soil, in it are found plants remarkable for their uses in medicine and the arts, or for their beauty: its mountainous districts contain treasures for the mineralogist; and to the politician and student of human nature, it exhibits the decided effects of the Mahometan religion, and of Asiatic despotism. But what principally distinguishes it from the other countries which have hitherto occupied us, must be sought in its ruins of Grecian magnificence and taste: in the traces and evidences it affords of ancient times, manners, and acquirements: in the hold it possesses over our feelings, and even over our judgment, as being classic ground--the soil which nourished the heroes of Marathon and the bard of Troy. --The language, the manners, the customs, the human form and countenance of ancient Greece, are forcibly recalled to our recollection. 

 The travels in this part of the world have been so numerous, that we must be strict and limited in our selection, having regard principally to those which exhibit it under its various aspects with the greatest fidelity, at various periods. 

268. Nicholai Clenard Epistola de Rebus Mahomediis, in Itinere scriptis. Louvain, 1551. 8vo. 

269. Petrus Gyllius de Bosphoro Thracio. Elzerer, 1561. 4to. --This is oneof the first travellers who describes the antiquities of this part ofTurkey: manners and natural history, such as it was in his time, also comeunder his notice. Dallaway praises him. 

270. Sandy's (Geo. ) Travels, containing the State of the Turkish Empire, ofGreece, Egypt, and the Holy Land. 1673. Fol. --Sandys was an accomplishedgentleman, well prepared by previous study for his Travels, which aredistinguished by erudition, sagacity, and a love of truth, and are writtenin a pleasant style. 

271. Ricault's History of the Present State of the Ottoman Empire. 1689. 8vo. --Ricault was secretary to the English Embassy at the Porte in 1661. The Mahometan religion, the seraglio, the maritime and land forces ofTurkey are particularly noticed by him. An excellent translation intoFrench, with most valuable notes, by Bespier, was published at Rouen, in1677. 2 vols. 12mo. 

272. Lady Mary Wortley Montague's Letters. --A great number of editions ofthese Letters have been published. In 1805, her Works were published in 5vols. 12mo. , containing Letters which had not previously appeared. Thecharacter of her work, which principally relates to Turkey, is well known. 

273. Porter's Observations on the Religion, Laws, Government, and Mannersof the Turks. 1768. 2 vols. 12mo. --Sir James Porter was British ambassadorat the Porte; his work is faithful and accurate, and is chieflyillustrative of the political state, manners, and habits of the Turks. 

274. Eton's Survey of the Turkish Empire. 1801. 8vo. --This work is dividedinto four parts: government, finances, religion, arts, manners, commerce, and population; state of the provinces, especially Greece; causes of thedecline of Turkey; and British commerce with Turkey. As it is the result ofpersonal observation, and of excellent opportunities, it falls within ournotice. Many of the opinions, however, and some of the statements of theauthor, have been controverted, particularly by Thornton in his PresentState of Turkey. 2 vols. 8vo. 1809. In a note to the preface, Mr. Etonenumerates the best authors who have written on Turkey. 

275. History of the Russian Embassy to Constantinople. By M. Reimers, Secretary to the Embassy, 1804. 3 vols. 4to. --This work is translated fromthe German. Though the title in its original language would lead the readerto suppose that it principally related to the Russian provinces traversedby the embassy on its going and return, this is not the case: the Turkishempire, and chiefly Constantinople, form the most extensive and importantdivision of these volumes; in all that relates to the Turks there is muchcurious information; the work is also interesting from the picture itexhibits of the manner in which the embassy, consisting of a caravan of 650persons, travelled. They were six months in going from one capital to theother. 

276. Tour in 1795-6 through the Crimea. By Maria Guthrie. 1800. 2 vols. 4to. --This work contains a lively description of the various tribes thatinhabit the Crimea; their manners, institutions, and political state; theantiquities, monuments, and natural history, and remarks on the migrationsof the Asiatic tribes. That part of the work which relates to antiquitieswas written by her husband, Dr. Guthrie. 

277. Walpole's Memoirs relative to European and Asiatic Turkey. Edited fromMS. Journals. 

278. Travels in various Countries of the East, being a Continuation of theMemoirs. 2 vols. 4to. 1817 and 1820. --The information in these volumes isvery various, classical, antiquarian, and statistical: on natural history, manners, religion, politics; and most of it valuable. 

279. Wheeler and Spon's Travels into Greece, 1681. Fol--This work relateschiefly to the antiquities of Greece and Asia Minor, and is valuable forits plates of them, and of medals, inscriptions, &c. 

280. A Journey into Greece, &c. By Wheeler, 1688. Fol. --This work (whichembraces, in some degree, the same countries as the former, but which takesin also Dalmatia) is also devoted to antiquities, descriptions, and medals, and bears a good character in these respects. 

281. Travels in Asia Minor, &c. By Richard Chandler, 1775-6. 2 vols. 4to. --These are valuable travels to the antiquarian. The author, guided byPausanias, as respects Greece, Strabo for that country and Asia Minor, andPliny, has described with wonderful accuracy and perspicuity the ruins ofthe cities of Asia Minor, its temples, theatres, &c. 

282. Savary's Letters on Greece. Translated from the French, 8vo. --Rhodesand Candia are most particularly described in this volume, --islands ofwhich we previously had meagre accounts. 

283. Fortis' Travels in Dalmatia. 4to. --The geology, natural history, andantiquities of this country, with curious and instructive notices on thesingular races which inhabit it, form the subject of this volume, which istranslated from the Italian. 

284. Travels in Hungary. By Rob. Townson, M. D. 1796. 4to. --This is avaluable work to the natural historian, particularly the mineralogist: italso contains a very particular account of the Tokay wines. 

285. Travels in the Ionian Islands, Albania, Thessaly, and Greece, 1812-13. By Dr. Holland. 4to. 1815. --Classical, antiquarian, and statisticalinformation is here intermixed with valuable remarks on the naturalhistory, manners, political state, &c. Of the countries visited, especiallyAlbania. 

286. Dodwell's Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece, 1801. 1805and 6. 2 vols. 4to. 1819. --This work displays great research, aided anddirected by much preparatory knowledge, and a sound judgment and goodtaste. 

287. Hobhouse's Journey through Albania and other Provinces of Turkey, toConstantinople, in 1809-10. 4to. 1813. --Classical, antiquarian, andstatistical, with sketches of manners, national character, &c. 

288. Tableau Général de l'Empire Ottoman. --Of this splendid and celebratedwork 2 volumes folio were published in 1787, which comprised the religiouscode of Turkey. The 3d volume was published in 1821, divided into twoparts: the first part on the political, military, civil, and judicial code;the second part on the state of the Ottoman empire. This completes the planof the author D'Ohsson. Under all the heads, into which he has divided hiswork, he has introduced authentic and curious notices of the agriculture, arts, manners, domestic life, &c. Of the Turks. The third volume waspublished under the superintendence of his son. 

289. Voyage dans la Grèce Asiatique. Par Sestini. Paris, 1789, 8vo. --Thiswork, translated from the Italian, comprises an account of the environs ofConstantinople, the peninsula of Cyzicum, formerly an island in thePropontis, to which it was united by Alexander the Great; and the districtsof Brusa and Nice. The antiquities of the peninsula, but especially thebotany of the countries he visited, are treated of in a masterly manner. 

290. Voyage de Vienne à Belgrade. Par N. E. Kleeman, 1768--1770. Neufchâtel, 1780. 8vo. --This work, translated from the German, comprehendsan account of the Crimea, and of the Tartar tribes who inhabit it, full, minute, and accurate. 

291. Traité sur le Commerce de la Mer Noire. Par M. De Peysonnel. Paris, 1783. 2 vols. 8vo. --Besides the commerce of the Crimea, its soil, agriculture, and productions, and its political state before it was annexedto Russia, are treated of in these volumes. 

292. Description Physique de la Tauride. La Haye. 8vo. --This work, translated from the Russian, is intended to complete the survey of theRussian empire: it relates chiefly to natural history in all its threebranches. 

293. Voyage en Crimea, 1803. Par J. Reuilly. Paris, 1806. 8vo. --The authorwas assisted by the celebrated Pallas, who, at this time, lived in theCrimea. The physical as well as political state of this country arecomprised in this work. 

294. Les Ruins des plus beaux Monumens de la Grèce, considérés du côté del'Histoire et du côté de l'Architecture. Par M. Le Roi. Paris, 1770. Fol. 

295. Voyage Littéraire de la Grèce, ou Lettres sur les Grecs Anciens etModernes, avec un parallèle de leurs Moeurs. Par M. Guys. Paris, 1783. 4vols. 8vo. 

 The peculiar nature of these two works is sufficiently indicated by their respective title: they are both interesting. 

296. Voyage en Grèce et en Turquie. Par Sonnini. Paris, 1801. 4to. --Thiswork, which is translated into English, is rich in natural history, commerce, and manners, particularly regarding some of the islands of theArchipelago, Rhodes, Macedonia, the Morea, and Asia Minor. 

297. Voyage en Morea, à Constantinople, en Albania, &c. 1799--1801. ParPouqueville. 

298. Voyage dans la Grèce. Par Pouqueville. Vol. 1. 4to. Paris, 1820. --Thefirst work has been translated into English: they are both full ofinformation, especially respecting Albania, though more accurateinvestigations, or perhaps different views and opinions, have inducedsubsequent travellers to differ from him in some respects. 

299. Bartholdy, Voyage en Grèce, 1803-4. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1807. 

300. Moeurs, Usages, Costumes des Ottomans. Par Castellan. Paris, 1812. 6vols. 12mo. --The value of this work is enhanced by the illustrationssupplied by Langles from oriental authors. 

301. Lettres sur la Grèce. Par Castellan. Paris, 1810. 8vo. --The Hellespontand Constantinople are the principal subjects of these letters, which arelively and amusing in their pictures of manners and life. The samecharacter applies to his "Lettres sur l'Italie. " Paris, 1819. 3 vols. 8vo. 

302. Voyage à l'Embouchure de la Mer Noire. Par Andreossy. Paris, 1818. 8vo. --A valuable work on physical geography, and to the engineer andarchitect, and such as might have been expected from the professionalpursuits and favourable opportunities of the author. 

303. Lettres sur le Bosphore, 1816--19. 8vo. 1821. 

304. Voyage Pittoresque et Historique de l'Istrie et de la Dalmatie, rédigéd'après l'Itineraire de L. F. Cassas, peintre. Par J. Lavallée. Paris, 1802. Fol. --This splendid work, as its title indicates, principally relates toantiquities: there are, however, interspersed notices on manners, commerce, &c. Zara, celebrated for its marasquin, is particularly described. 

305. Scrofani, Reise en Griechenland, 1794-5. Leip. 1801. 8vo. --The Germantranslation of this work, originally published in Italian, is superior tothe original, and to the French translation, by the addition of valuablenotes by the translator, and the omission of irrelevant matter. Scrofanipays particular attention to commercial details respecting the IonianIsles, Dalmatia, the Morea, &c. 

 The Germans were celebrated for their skill in metallurgy, and their knowledge of mineralogy, at a period when the rest of Europe paid little attention to these subjects; and German travels in countries celebrated for their mines are, therefore, valuable. Of the German travels in Hungary and Transylvania, the greater part are mineralogical. We shall select a few. 

306. Born, Briefe uber Mineralogische gegenstande auf einer Reise durch denTemeswarer Bannat, &c. Leip. 1774. 8vo. --This mineralogical tour in Hungaryand Transylvania by Born, and published by Ferber, possesess a sufficientguarantee of its accuracy and value from the names of the author andeditor. It is, however, not confined to mineralogy, but contains curiousnotices on some tribes inhabiting Transylvania and the adjacent districts, very little known: it is translated into French. 

307. Ferber, Physikalisch-metallurgische Abhandlunger uber die Gebirge andBergewecke in Ungarn. Berlin, 1780. 8vo. 

308. Balthazar Hacquet, Reise von dem Berge Terglou in Krain, au den BergGlokner in Tyrol, 1779--1781. Vienne, 1784. 8vo. 

309. Neueste Reisen, 1788--1795, durch die Daceschen und SarmateschenCarpathen. Von B. Hacquet. Nuremb. 1796. 4 vols. 8vo. 

310. Briefe uber Triestes, Krain, Kærnthen, Steyermark, und Saltzburgh. Franck. 1793. 8vo. 

311. Briefe uber das Bannet. Von Steube, 1793. 8vo. 

312. F. Grisselini, Lettere di Venetea, Trieste, Carinthia, Carnioli eTemeswar. Milan, 1780. 4to. --Natural history and manners are heredescribed. 

GERMANY. 

 This large district of Europe offers, not only from its extent, but also from numerous causes of diversity among its parts, --some established by nature, and others introduced by man--various numerous and important objects to the research and observation of the traveller. Its mines, -- the productions of its soil and its manufactures, --the shades of its expressive, copious, and most philosophical language, --from the classical idiom of Saxony, to the comparatively rude and uncultivated dialect of Austria, --the effects on manners, habits, feeling, and intellectual and moral acquirements, produced by the different species of the Christian religion professed, --and the different forms of government prevailing in its different parts;--all these circumstances, and others of a more evanescent and subtle, though still an influential nature, render Germany a vast field for enquiry and observation. 

 The travels in this country, especially by its native inhabitants, are so numerous, that we must content ourselves with a scrupulous and limited selection;--referring such of our readers as wish to consult a more copious catalogue, to "Ersch's Literatur der Geschichte und deren Hulfswissenschaften. " We shall follow our usual plan, selecting those travels which give the best idea of the country, at remote, intervening, and late periods. 

313. Martini Zeilleri, Itinerarium Germaniæ nov-antiquæ. Strasb. 1632. 4to. 

314. Christ. Dorrington's Reflections on a Journey through some Provincesof Germany in 1698. Lond. 1699. 8vo. 

315. The German Spy. By Thomas Ledyart. 1740. 8vo. 

316. Keysler's Travels through Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, and Lorrain. Translated from the German, 1756. 2 vols. 4to. --Keysler, though a German, was educated at St. Edmund's Hall: hetravelled with the Count of Gleich and other noblemen. His favourite studywas antiquities; but his judgment, in those parts of his travels whichrelate to them, has been questioned. His work, though heavy, is interestingfrom the picture it exhibits of Germany, &c. In the middle of the 18thcentury. 

317. Adams's Letters on Silesia, during a Tour in 1800-2. Philadelphia, 3vols. 8vo. --Mr. Adams was ambassador from the United States to Berlin: hiswork contains some interesting information, especially on the manufacturesof Silesia. 

318. Cogan's Journey up the Rhine, from Utrecht to Frankfort. 2 vols. 8vo. 1794. --The style of this work is lively and interesting: its pictures ofmanners and scenery good; and it contains a learned disquisition on theorigin of printing. Dr. Cogan resided the greater part of his life inHolland. 

319. Travels in the North of Germany. By Thomas Hodgskin, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. 1820. --That part, of Germany between the Elbe and the frontiers of Hollandis here described: the topic is rather new; and Mr. H. Has given us muchinformation on the agriculture, state of society, political institutions, manners, &c. ; interspersed with remarks, not in the best taste, orindicating the soundest judgment or principles. 

320. Letters from Mecklenberg and Holstein, 1820. By G. Downes. 8vo. --Thisbeing a part of Germany seldom visited, every thing relating to it isacceptable. Mr. Downes's work is, however, not so full and various as mighthave been expected: on manners and German literature it is mostinstructive. 

321. An Autumn near the Rhine, or Sketches of Courts, Scenery, and Society, in Germany, near the Rhine, 1821. 8vo. --The title indicates the objects ofthis volume, which bespeaks an observant and intelligent mind. 

322. Travels from Vienna, through Lower Hungary. By Dr. Bright. 1817. 4to. --Agriculture and statistics form the principal topics of this volume, which would have been equally valuable and much more interesting if thematter had been more compressed. 

323. Historical and Statistical Account of Wallachia and Moldavia. By W. Wilkinson. 1820. 8vo. --Mr. Wilkinson, from his situation as British Consul, has been enabled to collect much information on these portions of Europe, chiefly such as the title indicates, and also of a political nature. 

324. Voyages de Reisbeck en Allemagne. Paris, 1793. 2 vols. 8vo. --This workwas originally published in German, under the title of Briefe einesreisenden Franzosen durch Deutschland: there is also an Englishtranslation. The travels took place in 1782: and the character of a Frenchtraveller, in the German original, was assumed, to secure the author fromthe probable effects of his severe remarks on the government, manners, andcustoms of Germany. To these subjects, and others connected with man, hisagriculture, commerce, and other pursuits, Baron Reisbeck has chieflyconfined his attention: perhaps the truth and impartiality of hisstrictures would be more readily acknowledged, if they were not so stronglyimpregnated with a satirical feeling. 

325. Journal d'un Voyage en Allemagne, 1773. Par M. Guibert. Paris, 1802. 2 vols. 8vo. --The celebrated author of the "Essai General sur la Tactique, "naturally directed his attention during his travels to military affairs, and to an examination and description of the sites of famous battles. Butthis work by no means is confined to such topics; and the remarks withwhich it abounds on more interesting subjects, are so evidently the fruitof an acute and original mind, that they equally command our attention, andinstruct us. 

326. Voyage en Hanovre, 1803-4. Par M. A. B. Mangourit. Paris, 1805. 8vo. --Politics, religion, agriculture, commerce, mineralogy, manners, andcustoms, are discussed in this volume; and in general with good sense andinformation. Hamburgh, Hanover, its government, universities, andespecially its mines, are particularly described. 

327. Voyage dans quelques Parties de la Basse-Saxe, pour la Recherche desAntiquités Slaves ou Wendes, 1794. Par J. Potocky. Hambro. 1795. 4to. 

328. Journal d'un Voyage dans les Cercles du Rhin. Par Collini. Paris, 1777. 8vo. --Chiefly mineralogical. 

329. Voyage sur le Rhin, depuis Mayence jusqu'à Dusseldorf. Newied, 1791. 8vo. --This tour contains some curious details on the subject of the winesof the Rhingau. 

330. Voyage en Autriche, &c. Par De Serres. Paris, 1814. 4 vols. 8vo. --Animmense mass of geographical and statistical information, in a greatmeasure drawn from German authors, on Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia. 

331. Viaggio sul Reno e ne suoi contorni di P. Bertolo. 1795. 8vo. --Thesetravels, performed in the autumn of 1787, are elegantly written, ratherthan very instructive. They contain, however, some valuable noticesrespecting the volcanic appearances in the district of Andernach. 

332. Briefe auf einer reise durch Deutschland, 1791. Leignitz, 1793. 2vols. 8vo. --Arts, manufactures, and economy, are the principal topics ofthese letters. 

333. Die Donnau reise. Ratesbonne. 1760. 8vo. --These travels describe thebanks of the Danube, and the streams which flow into it. 

334. Donnau Reise von Regensburgh bis Wein. Montag. 1802. 8vo. --The sameremark applies to this work, only, as the title indicates, it is confinedto the river and its streams, from Ratisbon to Vienna. 

335. Reise durch Ober-Deutschland, OEsterreich, Nieder Bayern, OberSchwaben, Wirtemberg, Baden, &c. Saltz. 1778. 8vo. 

336. Litterarische reisen durch einen theil von Bayern, Franken und dieSchweitz, 1780-2. ; Von Zapf. Aug. 1782. 8vo. --The same author publishedanother literary tour among the convents of Swabia, and Switzerland, andBavaria; and in other parts of Franconia, Bavaria, and Swabia, in 1782. These tours are strictly literary; that is, have regard to MSS. And scarceeditions, and are not scientific. 

337. Reise durch einige Deutsche Provinzen, von Hollenberg. Stendal, 1782. 8vo. --Architecture and mechanics are the topics of these travels. 

 The following travels relate to the Hartz:

338. Geographische und Historische, Merkwurdigkeften des Ober Hartz. Leip. 1741. 8vo. 

339. Reise nach dem Oberhartz. Von J. C. Sulzer. --Inserted in a collectionof travels published by J. Bernouilli. 

340. Reise nach dern Unterhartz. 1783. Von Burgsdorf. --In the naturalhistory collection of Berlin. 

341. Reise durch Ober Saxen und Hessen, von J. Apelbad. Berlin, 1785. 8vo. --Apelbad, a learned Swede, published a Collection of Voyages indifferent Parts of Europe, in Swedish, Stockholm, 1762, 8vo; and Travels inSaxony, in the same language, Stockholm, 1757, 8vo. There seems to havebeen another of the same surname, Jonas Apelbad, who published in Swedish, Travels in Pomerania and Brandenberg, Stockholm, 1757, 8vo. The work, ofwhich we have given the title in German, was translated by Bernouilli, whohas greatly enhanced the merits and utility of the original by his remarks. Bernoulli's Collection of Travels, --Samlung kleiner reise beschriebungen, Leips. 1781-7, 18 vols. 8vo. , contains many interesting short narrativesand descriptions, particularly relating to Germany. 

342. Reise durch die Norischen Alpen. Von Hacquet. Leips. 8vo. 1791. --Thesetravels, like the former by the same author, which we have mentioned, arechiefly botanical and mineralogical. 

343. Ausfluge nach dern Schnee-Berg in Unter-OEsterreich. Vienna, 1800. 8vo. --Botany, mineralogy, and what the Germans call economy, andtechnology, are principally attended to in this work. 

344. Wanderrungen und Spazierfahrten in die gegenden um Wien. Vienna, 1802-4. 5 vols. 8vo. --The title of this work would not lead the reader toexpect what he will find; valuable notices on mineralogy, agriculture, arts, and manufactures, in the midst of light and lively sketches ofmanners, places of amusement, &c. 

345. Reise durch Sacksen. Von N. G. Leske. Leips. 1785. 4to. --Naturalhistory and economy. 

346. Beobachtungen uber Natur und Menschen. Von F. E. Lieberoth. Frankfort, 1791. 8vo. 

347. Economische und Statische reisen durch Chur-Sacksen, &c. Von H. Engel. Leips. 1803. 8vo. 

348. Bemerkungen einer Reisenden durch die Prussischen Staaten. Von J. H. Ulrich. Altenb. 1781. 8vo. 

349. Briefe uber Schlesien Krakau, und die Glatz. 1791. Von J. L. Zoellner. Berlin, 1793. 2 vols. 8vo. 

350. Reise durch einer Theil Preussen, Hambro, 1801. 2 vols. 8vo. --Thiswork was drawn up by two travellers: one of whom supplied the statisticalremarks, and the other, who traversed Prussia on foot, the remarks onentomology, amber, the sturgeon fishery, and other branches of naturalhistory and economics. 

351. Wanderrungen durch Rugen. Von Carl. Nernst. Dusseld. 1801. 8vo. --Thisisland affords interesting notices on manners, ancient superstitions, particularly the worship of Ertha, besides statistical and geographicalremarks. 

352. Rhein-Reise. Von A. J. Von Wakerbert. Halberstadt, 1794. 8vo. 

353. Ansichten des Rheins. Von Jno. Vogt. Bremen, 1805. 8vo. --This is astrange mixture of the picturesque, the romantic, and the instructive: theinstructive parts contain historical and topographical notices of thecities on the Rhine, and curious details on its most famous wines. 

354. Historische Jaarbocken, von oud nieven Friesland door Foeke Siverd. Leowarden, 1769. 8vo. --We insert the title of this work, though notstrictly within our plan, because it gives an accurate account of a part ofGermany, the dialect of which more resembles old English than any otherGerman dialect; and in which there still lurk many very curious traditions, customs, and superstitions, which throw much light on our Saxon ancestors. 

SWITZERLAND. 

 Perhaps no country in the world, certainly no district within such a small circuit, presents so many interesting objects to a traveller as Switzerland. Be he natural historian, and geologist, drawn by habit, feeling, and taste, to the contemplation of all that is grand, romantic, and picturesque in natural scenery, or attached to the study of man in that state, in which civilization and knowledge have brought with them the least intermixture of artifice, luxury, and dissoluteness--in Switzerland, he will find an ample and rich feast. It does not often happen that one and the same country attracts to it the abstract and cold man of science, the ardent imagination of the poet, and the strong, enthusiastic, and sanguine sympathies of the philanthropist. 

355. Descriptio Helvetiæ, a Marso, 1555-9. 4to. --Marsus was ambassador fromthe Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V. , to the Swiss, and gives acurious picture of their manners at this period. 

356. Helvetia Profana et Sacra. 1642. 4to. --This work by Scotti, which iswritten in English, depicts the manners of the Swiss a century afterMarsus. 

357. Travels through the Rhætian Alps. By Beaumont, 1782, fol. --Travelsthrough the Pennine Alps, by the same, 1788. Small folio, both translatedfrom the French. 

358. Travels in Switzerland, and in the country of the Grisons, by the Rev. W. Coxe, 1791. 3 vols. 8vo. --These travels were performed in 1776, andagain in 1785 and 1787, and bear and deserve the same character as theauthor's travels in Russia, &c. , of which we have already spoken. Mr. Coxegives a list of books on Switzerland at the end of his 3d volume, which maybe consulted with advantage. There is a similar list at the end of histravels in Russia, &c. 

359. A Walk through Switzerland, in Sept. 1816. 12mo. --The scenery andmanners sketched with much feeling, taste, and judgment, in an animatedstyle. 

360. Journal of a Tour and Residence in Switzerland. By L. Simond. 1822. 2 vols. 8vo. --A description of Switzerland and the Swiss, which brings themin a clearer and stronger point of view, to the presence and comprehensionof the reader than most travels in this country: though the range ofobservation and remark is not so extensive in this work, as in the author'swork on Great Britain; in every other respect it is equal to it. The secondvolume is entirely historical. 

 The following French works particularly and accurately describe the natural history and the meteorology of the Swiss mountains and glaciers; the names of at least two of their authors must be familiar to our readers, as men of distinguished science. 

361. Histoire Naturelle des Glaciers de Suisse. Paris, 1770. 4to. Translated from the German of Gruner. 

362. Nouvelle Description des Glaciers. Par M. Bourrit. Geneva, 1785. 3 vols. 8vo. --This work of Bourrit is chiefly confined to the Valais andSavoy, and its most important contents are given in the following work bythe same author. 

363. Nouvelle Description des Glaciers de la Savoie, particulièrement de laVallèe de Chamouny et du Mont Blanc. 1785, 8vo. --This work contains anaccount of the author's successful attempt to ascend the summit of MontBlanc. There are several other works of Bourrit on the Glaciers andMountains of Savoy: the latest and most complete is the following:

364. Descriptions des Cols ou Passages des Alpes. Geneva, 1803. 2 vols. 8vo. 

365. Voyage dans les Alpes, précédé d'un Essai sur l'Histoire Naturelle desEnvirons de Geneva. Par Saussure. Geneva, 1787--1796. 8 vols. 8vo. 

366. Relation abrégée d'un Voyage à la Cime du Mont Blanc, en Aout, 1787. Par Saussure, Geneva. 8vo. 

367. Voyage Minéralogique en Suisse. Lausanne, 1783-4. 8vo. 

368. Voyage Minéralogique dans le Gouvernement de l'Argh, et ne partie duValais. Lausanne, 1783. 8vo. --The first of these works by Razoumousky, andthe other by Behoumwesky, are valuable, as noticing those parts whichSaussure has not noticed. 

369. Lettres sur quelques Parties de la Suisse, &c. Par J. A. De Luc. Paris, 1785. 8vo. Geological. 

370. Voyage de J. M. Roland en Suisse, 1787: incribed in the 3d vol. Of herworks. Paris, 1800. --This celebrated, but mistaken and unfortunate woman, has thrown into her narrative much information on the manners of the Swiss, anecdotes of Lavater, &c. Besides giving a most lively account of her visitto the glaciers. 

371. Descriptions des Alpes Grecques et Cottiennes. Par Beaumont. 2 vols. 4to. --Part of this work is historical; the remainder embraces naturalhistory, mineralogy, statistics, and manners. --The same character appliesto No. 357. 

372. Histoire Naturelle du Jurat et de ses Environs. Par le Comte deRazoumousky. Lausanne, 1789. 2 vols. 8vo. --The lakes of Neufchàtel, Morat, and Bienne, and part of the Pays de Vaud, are described in this work, whichcontains valuable information in meteorology, commerce, &c. Besides naturalhistory. 

373. Journal du dernier Voyage de Dolomieu dans les Alpes. Par J. C. Bruien-Neergard. Paris, 1803. 8vo. --The French government directed Dolomieuto examine the Simplon; he was accompanied by the author, a young Dane, hispupil. Dolomieu died soon after his return: this work, therefore, is notnearly so full as it would have been, had he lived to give his observationsto the public. 

374. Lettre sur le Valais. Par M. Eschasseraux. Paris, 1806. 8vo. --Thiswork, written in a pleasing style, gives important information on themanners and natural history of this most interesting part of Switzerland. 

375. Voyage dans l'Oberland Bernois. Par J. R. Wyss. Leipsic, 1818. 8vo. --This work, translated from the German, is chiefly picturesque. 

376. Fodere, Voyage aux Alpes Maritimes. Paris, 1820. 2 vols. 8vo. --Agriculture, natural history, and the state of medicine, are theprincipal topics. 

377. Briefe aus der Schweitz, &c. Von Andreæ. Zurich, 1776. 4to. --Naturalhistory, and a particular description of the celebrated bridge ofSchaffhausen, and its mechanism, are what recommend this volume. Bernouilli, in his travels in Switzerland, has copied Andreæ in whatrelates to mineralogy and cabinets of natural history; but he has addedsome interesting descriptions of paintings. 

378. Kleine reisen durch einige Schweizer-Cantons. Bâle, 1780. 8vo. 

379. Letters on a Pastoral District, (the Valley of Samen in Fribourg). ByBonstellen (in German). Zurich, 1792. 8vo. 

380. Physikalesch-Politische Reisen, aus der Dinarischen durch dieJulischen, &c. In die Norischen. Alpen, 1781-83. Von B. Hacquet. Leipsic, 1784. 8vo. 

381. Malerische Reise in die Italianische Schweitz. Von J. H. Mayer. Zurich, 1793. 8vo. --Mayer, in this work, as well as in travels in Italy, has beenvery happy in picturesque description. 

382. Meine Wanderungen durch die Romanische Schweitz, Unterwaller undSavoyen. 1791. Tubingen, 1793. 8vo. 

383. Kleine Fuss-reisen durch die Schweitz. Zurich, 1804. 2 vols. 8vo. --Parts of Switzerland are here described, which are seldom visited, and can be thoroughly known only by foot travellers. 

384. Anleitung auf die nuzlichste und genussvollste art die Schweitz zuBereisen. Von J. C. Ebel. Zurich, 1804-5. 4 vols. 8vo. --This most excellentwork affords every kind of information which a person proposing to travel, or reside in Switzerland, would wish to acquire. It has been translatedinto French under the title of Manuel du Voyageur en Suisse. Zurich, 1818. 3 vols. 8vo. This contains all the additions of the 3d German edition. 

ITALY. 

 As the traveller descends the Alps, the first regions of Italy into which he passes present him with mountains subdued in size, and gradually passing from magnificence to grandeur and beauty; then the rich and luxuriant plains of Lombardy meet him with their improved agriculture, and in some places curious geology. He next advances to those parts of Italy which are rich in the finest monuments of art, and associated with all that is interesting in the period of the revival of literature; with Dante, Boccacio, Petrarch, Ariosto, Tasso, and the Medici. The proofs of commercial wealth, united with magnificence and taste, present themselves to him in the palaces of Genoa, Venice, and Florence; and he hears, on every side, the most classical tongue of modern Europe. 

 Rome, with which, in conjunction with Greece, the associations of his frank and enthusiastic youth have been deeply formed, next rises to view: to the classical scholar, the antiquarian, the man of taste and virtue, the admirer of all that is most perfect in human conception, as brought into existence by the genius of Michael Angelo, and Raphael, this city affords rich and ample materials for study and description, though it is unable to excite that grandest feeling of the human breast, which is raised by the land of Leonidas and of Socrates. Greece fought for liberty! Rome for conquest! The philosophy of Rome is less original, less pure and disinterested, less practical than that of Greece. 

 Through all this part of Italy the geologist finds materials for examination and conjecture, in the ridge of the Appennines: and these, rendered still more interesting, accompany him into the Neapolitan territory, both continental and insular. 

 Such are the principal subjects to which travellers have directed their attention in Italy; and the travels which chiefly relate to these subjects, and treat of them in the best manner, we shall select. 

385. Les Observations Antiques du Seigneur Symion, Florentin, en sondernier Voyage d'Italie, 1557. Lyons, 1558. 4to--The principal merit ofthis work consists in the description and engravings of several remains ofantiquity, which no longer exist. 

386. An Itinerary of a Voyage through Italy, 1646, 1647. By John Raymond. 1648. 12mo. 

387. Misson's New Voyage to Italy, 1704. 4 vols. 8vo. --This work istranslated from the French; and contains the first general account of thiscountry which appeared, but in many places incorrect and prejudiced. Addison's remarks on Italy are published with this edition of Misson; theyare classical; and in fact a commentary made on the spot, on thedescriptions of Virgil. Subsequent travellers, however, in some placesdiffer from him in opinion, and in others question his accuracy andjudgment. 

388. Grosley's Observations on Italy. 2 vols. 8vo. --Chiefly political andanecdotal; in some parts of doubtful authority: translated from the French. 

389. Sharp's Letters on Italy. 1769. 4 vols. 8vo. --Barretti's Account ofthe Manners and Customs of Italy. 1770. 2 vols. 8vo. --These works arenoticed principally because they afford a curious and instructive proof ofthe very different views which may be taken of the same objects, accordingto the extent and accuracy of the knowledge, and the preconceived opinionsand feelings of the observer. Barretti's work is certainly more accuratethan that of Sharp, but in opposing him, he has sometimes gone into theopposite extreme: from comparing both, perhaps the reality may often beextracted. Manners and national character are their chief topics. 

390. View of Society and Manners in Italy. By Dr. Moore, 1781. 2 vols. 8vo. --The peculiar felicity of description and style with which this authorpaints manners, render these travels, as well as his others, extremelyinteresting. 

391. Observations on Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna, and other Volcanoes. BySir W. Hamilton. Naples, 1776. 2 vols. Folio. --London, 1772. 8vo. 

392. Travels in the Two Sicilies. By H. Swinburne, 1790. 4 vols. 8vo. 

393. Denon's Travels in Sicily and Malta, translated from the French. 8vo. --Denon, an artist, accompanied Swinburne in his excursions to thevicinity of Naples, and into Sicily. These works are historical, geographical, and antiquarian, but heavily written. 

394. Spallanzani's Travels in the Two Sicilies, and some parts of theApennines, 1798. 4 vols. 8vo. --Translated from the Italian. Natural historyforms the principal subject of these volumes, which are worthy of theauthor, who was esteemed one of the first natural historians of His age. 

395. Boisgelin's Ancient and Modern Malta. 3 vols. 4to. Translated from theFrench. --Only the first part of this work is descriptive, and it certainlycontains an interesting account of Malta and the Maltese; the rest of thework is historical. 

396. Brydon's Tour through Sicily and Malta. 2 vols. 8vo. 1776. --Livelinessof description of scenery and manners, couched in an easy and elegantstyle, has rendered these volumes extremely popular, notwithstanding theydonot display much learning or knowledge, and are even sometimes superficialand inaccurate. 

397. Boswell's Account of Corsica. 1768. 8vo. --Interesting detailsrespecting Paoli, as well as on the island and its inhabitants. 

398. Eustace's Classical Tour through Italy. 4 vols. 8vo. 

399. Classical Tour through Italy and Sicily. By Sir R. C. Hoare, Bart. 1819. 4to. --Mr. Eustace's work is very full and minute in the subject which thetitle indicates; it is written in good taste, but in rather a prolix style;his statements, however, are not always to be depended on, especially wherehis political or religious opinions interfere. Sir R. Hoare's work is meantas a supplement to Mr. Eustace's. 

400. Remarks on Antiquities, Arts and Letters, during an excursion inItaly, in 1802-3. By Joseph Forsyth. 1816. 8vo. --This is an admirable work, giving in a short compass much information, and indicating strong powers ofmind, and a correct taste. 

401. Sketches Descriptive of Italy, 1816-17. 4 vols. 12mo. 1820. 

402. Letters from the North of Italy. By W. S. Rose, 1819. 2 vols. 8vo. --Free and judicious remarks on the political degradation of this fairportion of Italy, with notes on manners, the state of society, &c. 

403. Three Months passed in the Mountains East of Rome, in 1819. By MariaGraham, 8vo. --An interesting and well-written picture of manners andcharacter, together with notices on the productions of the soil, &c. 

404. Voyage to the Isle of Elba. By A. T. De Berneaud, 1814. 8vo. --Thiswork, translated from the French, contains a very accurate survey of thisisland. 

405. Tour through Elba. By Sir R. C. Hoare, bart. 1814. 4to. --Only seventeenpages are devoted to the journal, the remainder of the books consists of 8views and a map: and a sketch of the character of Buonaparte. 

406. Le Voyage et Observations de plusieurs Choses qui se peuvent remarqueren Italie. Par le Sieur Adelier. Paris, 1656. 8vo. --Interesting, fromexhibiting a well-drawn picture of the manners of Italy at this period:with greater attention to natural history than was usual when Adelierwrote. 

407. Voyage en Italie. Par M. De Lalande. Geneve, 1790. 7 vols. 8vo. --Thislarge work embraces a vast variety of subjects, and in general they aretreated in a masterly manner; manners, government, commerce, literature, the arts, natural history, antiquities, sculpture, paintings, &c. Hisnarration of the building of St. Peters is very full, curious, andinteresting. 

408. Voyage en Italie. Par. M. Duclos. Paris, 1791. 8vo. --Chiefly remarkson the government and political situation of the various states of Italy, with anecdotes and facts relating to these topics; expressed with an openand unshrinking boldness, not to have been expected from one who was thehistoriographer of France at the period when Duclos travelled, 1766-7. 

409. Lettres Historiques et Antiques de Charles de Brosses. Paris, 1799. 3vols. 8vo. --These letters by the celebrated De Brosses, author ofL'Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes, and other works, hardlyare equal to the literary reputation of the author; they paint withconsiderable force, though sometimes in too strong colours, theimperfections, follies, and vices of the Italians; and display good tasteand judgment respecting the fine arts. 

410. Voyage en Italie. De M. L'Abbé Barthelemi. Paris, 1802. 8vp. --Theauthor of the travels of Anacharsis has here exhibited himself in the midstof his favourite pursuits; the precious remains of antiquity are describedwith an accuracy seldom equalled, and in a style which renders thedescription attractive, even to those who are not particularly conversantor interested in these topics. The work is grounded on letters written toCount Caylus; and contains, in an Appendix, some remarks of Winkelman, Jacquier, &c. This work has been translated into English. The travels of DeBrosses and Barthelemi were performed in the middle of the eighteenthcentury. 

411. Voyage dans le Montaniata et le Siennois. Par G. Santi. Lyons, 1802. 2vols. 8vo. --This work, translated from the Italian, relates to mineralogy, botany, agriculture, and statistics. 

412. Voyage sur la Scène des six derniers livres de L'Eneide. Par C. V. DeBonstetten. Geneva, 1805. 8vo. --The first part of this work, the nature ofwhich is expressed by the title, is much superior to the travels ofAddison, in extent of classical research, in originality of views, and inclearness of description: in this part there are also interestingparticulars respecting Latium. In the second part, the author principallydwells on the Campagna, the causes of its depopulation, and itsagriculture; this introduces some excellent observations on the agricultureof the ancient Romans, and the connection between it and their manners andreligion; other topics are introduced, and treated in an able manner. 

413. Voyages Physiques et Lithologiques dans la Campagna. Par ScipionBrieslack. Paris, 1800. 2 vols. 8vo. --Facts and conjectures on theformation of the Campagna, and on the soil of the territory andneighbourhood of Rome; on the extinct craters betwixt Naples and Canna, andon that of Vesuvius, render this work instructive and interesting to thegeologist, while the picture of the Lazaroni must render this portion ofhis work attractive to the general reader. 

414. Voyage en Sicile et dans la Grande-Grèce. Par le Baron de Riedesel, Paris, 1773. 12mo. --This work, translated from the German, is formed ofletters addressed to Winkelman, describing minutely, and with great taste, learning, and accuracy, the magnificent views with which the scene of histravels abounds, and contrasting them in ruins with their originalperfection, as delineated in ancient authors. Interspersed are remarks onthe manners and character of the inhabitants. 

415. Lettres sur la Sicile et sur Malta, de M. Le Comte de Borch, 1777. Turin, 1782. 2 vols. 8vo. --The object of the author is to supply theomissions and correct the mistakes of Brydon. 

416. Voyage aux Isles Lipari, 1781. Par D. Dolomieu. Paris, 1788, 8vo. . --The character of Dolomieu sufficiently points out the nature andvalue of this work. A Supplement was published the same year, under thetitle of Mémoire sur les Isles Ponces. Par Dolomieu. Paris. 8vo. 

417. Voyage Historique Littéraire et Pittoresque dans les Isles etPossessions ci-devant Venétiennes du Levant. Par A. Grasset-Saint-Sauveur, jun. Paris, 1800. 3 vols. 8vo. --The author was French Consul at the IonianIslands for many years; and hence he had opportunities which he seems tohave employed with diligence and judgment, of gathering materials for thiswork, which, besides what its title indicates, enters fully into theagriculture, navigation, commerce, manners, &c. 

418. Histoire Géographique, Politique, et Naturelle, de la Sardignie. ParD. A. Azami. Paris, 1801. 2 vols. 8vo. --Of this island we know less than ofany other part of Europe; it has been seldom explored, and still seldomerdescribed. There is certainly no work we are acquainted with, that givessuch a complete and accurate account of this island and its inhabitants asAzami's. 

419. Moeurs' et Coutumes des Corses. Par G. Faydel. Paris, 1798. 8vo. --Agriculture and natural history, rather popular than scientific;commerce and other similar topics are treated of in this work, though thetitle would lead us to expect only description of manners and customs. 

420. Voyage Antique à l'Etna, en 1819. Par Gourbillon. 1820. --Chieflyrelating to the natural history, and meteorology of the mountain. 

421. Historisch Kritische Nachrichten von Italien. Von J. J. Volkman. Leipsic, 1770--1778. 3 vols. 8vo. --Manners, customs, politics, commerce, the state of the arts and sciences are treated of in these volumes. 

422. Zusætze zu der Neusten Reise Beschriebung von Italien. Von J. Bernouilli. Leip. 1777--1782. 3 vols. 8vo. 

423. Darstellungen aus Italien. Von F. J. L. Meyer. Berlin, 1792. 8vo. --Thisis a romantic work for a German; the author actually luxuriates in therecollections called up by the country of Michael Angelo, Raphael, Palladio, &c. , and in his contemplation of the scenes of the convulsions ofnature, and of the most striking incidents in the classical and middleages. Independently of this extravagance of style, this work is valuable, especially in what relates to the Tyrol, where indeed his style is moresimple. It is translated into French. 

424. Briefe uber Calabrien und Sicilien. Von J. H. Bartels. Gottingen, 1789-1792. 3 vols. 8vo. --This is an excellent work on a part of thecontinent of Italy little known; the physical constitution of the country, natural productions, agriculture, manners, &c. Are treated of in a sensibleand pleasant manner. 

425. Brieven over Italien. Door W. R. Jansen. Lugden, 1793. 8vo. --We noticethis work, principally because it relates to the state of medicine, as wellas the natural history of Italy. 

426. Eichholz, neue Briefe uber italien. 4 vols. 8vo. Zurich, 1806. 

427. Reise nach Dalmatien und Ragusa. Von. E. F. Germar, 8vo. Leip. 1817. 

428. Viaggio Geologico sur diversi Parti Meriodinali dell Italia. Milan, 1804. 8vo. --This work, by Pini, a naturalist of reputation, is instructivein the geology of the country between Modena and Florence, of the Campagna, and of part of Naples; there are also remarks on the antiquity and extentof the Italian Volcanoes. 

429. Viaggio da Milano ai tre Laghi Maggiore, di Lugano, e di Como. Del C. Amoretti. Milan, 1803. 4to. --Mineralogy, and especially the various speciesof marble, zoology, and manners and customs, are here described, as well asthe celebrated lakes mentioned in the title. 

430. Spallanzani Lettere al Sig. Marchese Luchesini, Sopre le Coste dellAdriatico. Paris, 1789. 4 vols. 4to. 

FRANCE

 The author of the Bibliothèque des Voyages remarks, that no country in Europe has been so imperfectly described by travellers as France: certainly, if we compare the descriptions they give of it with the descriptions given by travellers of other countries, there appears good ground for this observation. And yet France offers a rich harvest for travellers of almost all kinds: the customs and usages of the people; the general character so strongly stamped on the whole nation, and the various shades of it in different provinces; the effects that have been produced by the different events of their history, and especially by their revolution; all these things present to the traveller, who studies human nature, rich and ample materials. To the geologist, the mineralogist, and botanist, especially to the former, France also is an interesting country, especially since Cuvier and other learned men in this department of science, have displayed the stores of important facts which France offers on this subject: her agriculture, and especially her vine districts, present a source of interest of a different kind; while, in the southern provinces, her antiquities, though not numerous, attract by their beauty the man of taste. 

431. Matthæi Quadt Delicicæ Gallicæ, seu Itinerarium per Universam Galliam. Frankfort, 1603. Fol. 

432. Deliciæ Galliae, seu Itinerarium in Universam Galliam, a Gasp. Ens. Cologne, 1609. 8vo. 

433. A Tour through the Western, Southern, and Interior Provinces ofFrance. By N. W. Wraxall. London, 1772. 8vo. --This work bears all thecharacters of Mr. Wraxall's other productions: slight and superficial sofar as manners are concerned: offering no information on agriculture, statistics, or natural history; with, however, some interesting historicaldetails. It is noticed here, because the travels in France are so few, thateven those of moderate merit must be admitted. 

434. Travels through France: to which is added, a Register of a Tour intoSpain in 1787-89. By Arthur Young. 2 vols. 4to. 1792. --This is a mostvaluable and useful work; for though the professed object of Mr. Young wasagriculture, yet it abounds in well-drawn pictures of manners and nationalcharacter, and it derives additional interest from having been performed atthe commencement of the revolution. 

435. Journal during a Residence in France, from the beginning of August tothe middle of December 1792. By Dr. John Moore. 2 vols. 8vo. --This work maybe regarded in some measure as historical; yet it may also properly beplaced here as exhibiting a strong picture of manners and feelings, as wellas of events, at this interesting period. 

436. Tour through several of the Midland and Western Departments of France, in the Summer of 1802. By the Rev. H. Hughes. London, 1802. 8vo. 

437. Bugge's Travels in France. 1798-99. 12mo. --This work was writtenoriginally in Danish, and was afterwards translated into French. Theauthor, a celebrated astronomer and professor of mathematics at Copenhagen, was sent to Paris to attend a committee on weights and measures. Histravels are particularly interesting from the account they give of thedifferent scientific and literary establishments in France. 

438. Anglo-Norman Antiquities considered, in a Tour through Normandy. ByA. C. Ducarel. Fol. 1767. --A valuable work on this particular subject. 

439. Narrative of a Three Years' Residence in France, principally in theSouthern Departments. 1802-5. By Anne Plumptree. 3 vols. 8vo. --Some usefulinformation on the productions, scenery, and manners of this part ofFrance, may be collected from these volumes. 

440. Travels through the South of France, 1807-8. By Lieut. -Col. Pinckney. 4to. --These travels were performed in a part of France not often visited. They give light and amusing sketches of the manners, customs, and state ofsociety there; but there is a manifest tendency to exaggeration in them. 

441. Account of a Tour in Normandy. By Dawson Turner. 1821. 2 vols. 8vo. --Architectural antiquities form the chief topic; historical noticesand manners are also given: all indicating a well-informed and intelligentmind. 

442. Letters written during a Tour through Normandy, Brittany, and otherParts of France, in 1818. By Mrs. C. Stothard. 4to. 1821. --Much informationon the manners, habits, &c. Of the inhabitants of Brittany, a part ofFrance not much visited by travellers; besides local and historicaldescriptions. 

443. Itinerary of Provence and the Rhine. 1819. By J. Hughes. 8vo. --Auseful book, and some parts of it very interesting. 

444. Voyage Littéraire de la France. Par Deux Bénédictins. (D. D. Martine etDurand. ) Paris, 1730. 2 vols. 4to. --This work relates to monuments andinscriptions, of which it gives an accurate account. 

445. Voyage Géographique et Pittoresque des Départements de la France. Paris, 1794-97, 11 vols. Fol. 

446. Voyage dans les Départements de la France. Par La Vallée, pour leTexte; Brun père, pour la Partie Géographique; Brun fils, pour celle deDessein. Paris, 1790--1800. 100 cahiers, 8vo. 

447. Voyage en France, enrichi de belles Gravures. Paris, 1798. 4 vols. 18mo. --These works, in conjunction with the following, though not strictlywithin our plan, as being not the result of the observations of the authorsthemselves, are noticed here, because they give the most full andsatisfactory information respecting France, geographical, descriptive, statistical, &c. Statistique Générale et Particulière de la France. Par uneSociété des Gens de Lettres. Paris, 1805. 7 vols. 8vo. 

448. Collection des Statistiques de chaque Département, imprimée par Ordredu Ministère du l'Intérieure, au nombre de trente-quatre. 

449. Recherches Economiques et Statistiques sur le Departement de la LoireInférieure. Par J. R. Heuet. Nantes, 1804. 8vo. 

450. Statistique Elémentaire de la France. Par J. Peuchet. Paris, 1805. 8vo. 

451. Essai sur les Volcans éteints du Vivarais. Par Faujas de Saint Fond. Paris, 1778. Fol. 

452. Histoire Naturelle du Dauphiné. Par le Méme. Grenoble, 1781. 4to. --These works, the result of travels in the district to which theyallude, are valuable to the mineralogist and geologist. 

453. Voyage en Provence. Par M. L'Abbé Papou. Paris, 1787. 2 vols. 12mo. --The objects of these travels are historical, literary, andpicturesque. 

454. Observations faites dans les Pyrenées. Par Ramond. Paris, 1789. 8vo. 

455. Voyage au Mont Perdu, et dans les Partes adjacentes des HautesPyrennées. Par Raymond. Paris, 1801. 8vo. --Although these works principallyrelate to the formation, natural history, and meteorology of the Pyrennees, yet the dryness of scientific observation and research is most agreeablyrelieved by a lively picture of manners, as well as by the interestingpersonal adventures of the author in his attempts to reach the summit ofthe mountains. There is an English translation of the former of theseworks. 

456. Voyage en 1787-88, dans la ci-devant Haute et Basse Auvergne. Par LeGrand D'Aussy. Paris, 1795. 3 vols. 8vo. 

457. Tableau de la ci-devant Provence D'Auvergne. Par Rabine Beauregard, etP. M. Gault. Paris, 1802. 8vo. --No district in France presents such avariety of interesting objects as Auvergne; its inhabitants, in theirlanguage, dress, manners, and mode of life; its agriculture, its naturalhistory, and its antiquities of the classical and middle ages. Le GrandD'Aussy treats well of all but the last, and this is supplied by the otherwork; its agriculture is more fully considered in the following:

458. Voyage Agronomique en Auvergne. Paris, 8vo. 1803. 

459. Description du Département de l'Oise. Par Cambri. Paris, 1803. 2 vols. 8vo. --Agriculture, roads, canals, manufactures, commerce, antiquities, aretreated of in this work in such a satisfactory manner, that the author ofthe Bibiothèque expresses a wish that all the departments were described aswell as this, and the department of Finisterre by the same author, andAuvergne by Le Grand D'Aussy. 

460. Voyage Agronomique dans la Senatorerie de Dijon. Par N. Francais deNeufchâteau. Paris, 1806. 8vo. 

461. Voyage dans le Jura. Par Lequinio. Paris, 1801. 8vo. --Much informationin agriculture, natural history, &c. Is given by this author, in anunpleasant style, and with little regard to method. 

462. Voyage de Paris à Strasbourg. Paris, 1802. 8vo. --Relates to theagriculture and statistics of the departments through which the authortravelled, and particularly the Lower Rhine. 

463. Voyage dans la ci-devant Belgique, et sur la Rive Gauche du Rhin. ParBriton, et Brun père et fils. Paris, 1802. 2 vols. 8vo. --Commerce, manufactures, arts, manners, and mineralogy, enter into these volumes. Sometimes, however, rather in a desultory and superficial style. 

464. Voyage dans les Départements nouvellement réunis, et dans leDépartements du Bas Rhin, du Nord, du Pas de Calais, et de la Somme. 1802. Par A. G. Camus. Paris, 2 vols. 8vo. --Camus was sent by the Frenchgovernment to examine the archives and titles of the new departments: theInstitute at the same time deputed him to examine into the state ofscience, literature, and manufactures: on the latter topics, and on thestate of the hospitals, the work is full of details. The information hecollected respecting the archives, he does not give. 

465. Briefe eines Sudlanders, von Fischer. Leipsic, 1805. 8vo. --Besidesdescriptions of the principal cities in France, this work contains anaccount of the fisheries of the Mediterranean; the arsenal of Toulon; thedepartment of Vaucluse; the Provencal language, &c. The same author haspublished Travels in the Pyrennees, drawn up from the works of mostscientific travellers among these mountains. 

466. Reise durch eine theil des Westlichen Franckreichs. Leipsic, 1803. 8vo. --This is also by the same author, and contains an excellentstatistical description of Britanny, a full account of Brest and itsmaritime establishments, and of the famous lead mines of Poulavoine, and ofHuelgeat. The first part of this word, _huel_, is exactly the prefixto the names of many of the mines in Cornwall. 

467. Reise door Frankryk. Door Van der Willigen. Haarlem, 8vo. 

468. Reisen durch die Sudlichen, Westlichen und Nordlichen, Provinzen. VonFrankreich. 1807-9. Und 1815. Frank. 2 vols. 8vo. 1816. --French literature, the Spanish revolution in 1808, and the Basque language, are chieflytreated of. 

469. Remarques faites dans un Voyage de Paris jusqu'à Munich. Par Depping. Paris, 1814. 8vo. --A most judicious and instructive book, noticing all thatis really interesting in this route, and nothing else, and thus conveyingmuch information in a small compass. 

THE NETHERLANDS. 

 This portion of Europe presents to the traveller fewer varieties for his research and observation than any other part of Europe: in almost every other part the mineralogist and geologist find rich materials for the increase of their knowledge or the formation of their theories; and the admirer of the beautiful, the picturesque, or the sublime, is gratified. The Netherlands are barren to both these travellers; yet in some respects it is a highly interesting country: and the interest it excites, chiefly arises from circumstances peculiar to it. The northern division discovers a district won from the sea by most laborious, persevering, and unremitted industry, and kept from it by the same means. The middle division recalls those ages, when it formed the link between the feeble commerce of the south of Europe, and of Asia and of the Baltic districts. Antwerp, Ghent, and Bruges then were populous and rich above most cities in Europe. The whole of the Netherlands, especially Flanders, may be regarded as the birth-place of modern agriculture, which spread from it to England, where alone it flourishes in a vigorous and advanced state, but still in some points not to be compared to that of the country from which it came. Such, with the admirable paintings of the Dutch School, are the chief objects that attract the traveller to the Netherlands, independently of the desire to study human nature, which here also will find ample materials. 

470. Descrizione di Ludovico Guicciardini di tutti Paesi Bassi. Antwerp, 1501. Fol. --This work, which was translated into Latin, French, and Dutch, was written by the nephew of the historian; it is the result of his owntravels in the Netherlands, and contains a full description of them, particularly of their principal towns, and their commerce. 

471. Observations on the United Provinces. By Sir W. Temple. 8vo. &12mo. --Sir W. Temple was embassador at the Hague in 1668: his little workcontains much information on the history, government, manners, religion, commerce, &c. Of the United Provinces. 

472. Travels in Flanders and Holland in 1781. By Sir Joshua Reynolds. Confined to pictures. 

473. Tour through the Batavian Republic during the last part of the year1800. By R. Fell. 1801. 8vo. --This work gives an interesting picture ofHolland and the Dutch at this period, besides historical and politicaldetails and observations on its connexion with France. 

474. Neue Beschriebung des Burgundischen und Neiderlan dischen Kreises. VonMart. Leiller. Ulm, 1649. 8vo. 

475. Statische-Geographische, Beschriebung der Semtlichen EsterreichischenNiederlande. Von Crome. Dessau, 1785. 8vo. 

476. Neueste Reisen durch die Sieben Vereinigten-Provinzen. Von Volkman. Leip. 1783. 8vo. --This is a valuable work, comprising the arts, manufactures, agriculture, economy, manners, &c. Of the United Provinces. 

477. Briefe uber die Vereinigten Niederlande. Von Grabner. Gothen, 1792. 8vo. 

478. Lettres sur la Hollande Ancienne et Moderne. Par Beaumarchais. Frankfort, 1738. 8vo. --A good description of Holland and the Dutch, by asensible and observant author: principally relating to manners andpolitics. 

479. Lettres sur la Hollande, 1777-79. La Haye, 1780. 2 vols. 12mo. --Thisisby far the fullest, most minute, and, we believe, the most accurate pictureof the Dutch national character, as exhibited in their manners, customs, cities, villages, houses, gardens, canals, domestic economy, pursuits, amusements, religion, &c. 

480. Histoire Géographique, Physique, Nationelle et Civile de la Hollande. Par M. Le Francq de Berkhey, 1782. 4 vols. 12mo. --This work was written inDutch by the professor of Natural History in the University of Leyden, andon this topic and manners it is particularly instructive and interesting. 

481. Statistique de la Batavie. Par M. Estienne. Paris, 1803. 8vo. --In ashort compass, this work contains, not only statistical information, strictly so called, but also much information in natural history, the stateof the arts and sciences, manners and politics. 

482. Voyage Historique et Pittoresque dans les Pays Bas, 1811-13. ParSyphorien. Paris, 1813. 2 vols. 8vo. 

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

 When we reflect on the political institutions of our own country; the circumstances in our history to which their origin, improvement, and modifications may be traced; the influence they have had on our habits of thought, our feelings, our domestic and public life, and the other elements of our national character, as well as on agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and influence and power;--we shall not be accused of vanity or presumption, if, so far as man is concerned, we deem our native country rich in materials for the philosophical traveller. But besides the study of our national character and institutions, and our agriculture, manufactures, commerce and arts, Britain is deserving of the careful and repeated observation of the natural historian, especially of the mineralogist and geologist; whilst her Roman remains and her Gothic edifices render her interesting to the antiquarian and the man of taste. 

 We must confess, however, that hitherto there are few books of travels in our country that are worthy of it: till very lately, its mineralogy and geology have been much neglected; and even at present, they must be studied rather in professed works on these subjects, or in the transactions of societies, instituted for their express and peculiar investigation, than in books of travels. With respect to our national character, it is obvious, that will be found more carefully studied, and more frequently attended to, in the travels of foreigners in Britain, than in native travels, though necessarily in the former there must be much mistake and misapprehension, and there is often much prejudice and misrepresentation. 

 In one department of travels Britain is, we believe, original and peculiar; we allude to picturesque travels, of which those of Gilpin are an interesting and most favourable specimen. These differ essentially from the picturesque travels of foreigners, which are confined to the description of antiquities, buildings, and works of art; whereas our picturesque travels are devoted to the description of the sublimities and beauties of nature. To these beauties, the British seem particularly sensible, and Britain, perhaps, if we regard both what nature has done for her, and the assistance which tasteful art has bestowed on nature, is as favourable a country for the picturesque traveller as most in Europe. 

483. Paul Hentzer's Journey into England in 1598. London, 1600. 8vo. InDodsley's Fugitive Pieces, vol. 2. Also published at the Strawberry HillPress. By Horace Walpole. --Interesting from the description of our manners, &c. In the reign of Elizabeth. 

484. Travels of Cosmo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, through England, 1669. 4to. 1822. --Amidst much that is very tedious and stupid, relative to theceremonies observed in receiving this prince, and all his most minutemovements and actions, there are curious notices of the state of England, the mode of life, manners, and agriculture at this period. 

485. Letters on the English Nation. By Baptista Angeloni, translated fromthe Italian. 1756. 2 vols. 8vo. 

486. Grosley's Tour to London, translated by Nugent, 1772. 2 vols. 8vo. --These two works exhibit much misrepresentation of our character; atthe same time they are instructive in so far as they, in several respects, paint accurately our national and domestic manners, in the middle of thelast century, and exhibit them as viewed by foreigners. 

487. Historical Account of Three Years' Travels over England and Wales. ByRogers. 1694. 12mo. 

488. Gilpin's Tour in South Wales: his Tour in North Wales: Observations onthe Western Parts of England: Observations on the Lakes of Cumberland andWestmoreland: Observations on the River Wye: Tour in Norfolk and SouthWales. --All these works display a deep and sincere feeling of the beautiesof nature; a pure taste and sound judgment; and are written in a styleappropriate to the subject, and worthy of the matter. 

489. Warner's Tour through Wales--Warner's Second Tour throughWales--Topographical Remarks on the South Western Parts of Hampshire. 2vols. --History of the Isle of Wight--Tour through the Northern Parts ofEngland and the Borders of Scotland. 2 vols. --Excursions from Bath--Walkthrough some of the Western Counties of England--Tour through Cornwall. --These travels, generally performed on foot, contain good accounts of theantiquities, and some notices of the natural history, manners, &c. Of thoseparts of England and Wales to which they respectively relate. 

490. Pennant's Tours from Downing to Alston Moor--from Alston Moor toHarrowgate and Brimham Cross--Journey from London to the Isle of Wight. 2vols. --Journey from Chester to London--Tour in Wales. 3 vols. --Thesetravels are written in a dry style; but they abound in accuratedescriptions of antiquities. 

491. Bingley's Tour round North Wales in 1798. 2 vols. 8vo. --The language, manners, customs, antiquities, and botany, are particularly attended to andwell described. 

492. Rev. J. Evans's Tour through Part of North Wales in 1798; Tour throughSouth Wales in 1803. --These works likewise are valuable for botanicalinformation, as well as for descriptions of scenery, manners, agriculture, manufactures, antiquities, &c. And for mineralogy. 

493. Barber's Tour in South Wales, 1802. 8vo. --This work is chieflypicturesque, and descriptive of manners. 

494. The Scenery, Antiquities, and Biography of South Wales. By B. H. Malkin. 1805, 4to. --This work is hardly valuable in proportion to its size;but from it may be gleaned interesting notices on the history andantiquities of this part of Wales, as well as manners, &c. 

495. Arthur Aikin's Journal of a Tour through North Wales, and part ofShropshire. 12mo. --An admirable specimen of a mineralogical and geologicaltour, in which the purely scientific information is intermixed with noticesof manufactures, and pictures of manners, &c. 

 From the above list of Tours in Wales which comprehends, we believe, the best, it will be seen that this part of the united kingdom has not been neglected by travellers. Indeed, its natural scenery, mineralogy, geology, botany, antiquities, manners, &c. Have been more frequently and better described by travellers, than those of any other portion of the British empire. 

496. The History and Antiquities of Selborne, in the County of Southampton. By the Rev. Gil. White. 1789, 4to. --This most delightful work has latelybeen republished in 2 vols. 8vo. It is an admirable specimen of topography, both as to matter and style; and proves in how laudable and useful a mannera parish priest may employ his leisure time, and how serviceable he may beto the natural history and antiquities of his country. 

497. Six Weeks' Tour through the Southern Counties of England and Wales. ByArthur Young. --Six Months' Tour through the North of England. 4vols. --Farmer's Tour through the East of England. --Though these works arealmost entirely directed to agriculture, yet they contain much informationon the subject of manufactures, population, &c. As they were about themiddle of the last century. 

498. Hassel's Tour in the Isle of Wight, 1790. 2 vols. 4to. --1798. 2 vols. 8vo. --Picturesque. 

499. A Picture of the Isle of Wight. By Penruddocke Wyndham, 1794. --Thisauthor also wrote a Tour in Monmouthshire and Wales; they are bothprincipally picturesque. 

500. Observations relative chiefly to the Natural History, PicturesqueScenery, and Antiquities of the Western Counties of England, 1794-96. By W. George Maton. 1796, 2 vols. 8vo. --The title sufficiently indicates thenature of the work, which is valuable, especially in what relates tonatural history. 

501. Journal of Tour and Residence in Great Britain, 1810-11. By aFrenchman. M. Simond. 2 vols. 8vo. --There are few Travels superior tothese: literature, politics, political economy, statistics, scenery, manners, &c. Are treated of in a manner that displays much talent andknowledge, and less prejudice than foreigners usually exhibit. The onlybranch of natural history, on which the author descants, is mineralogy andgeology. 

502. Itinerarium Magnæ Brittaniæ, oder Reise Beschrievbung durch Engel. Schott. Und Irland. Strasburg, 1672. 8vo. 

503. Reise durch England. Von Volkman. Leipsic, 1781-2. 4 vols. 8vo. --Arts, manufactures, economy, and natural history. 

504. Der Lustand der Staats, der Religion, &c. In Gros Britanien. VonWendeborn. Berlin. 4 vols. 8vo. --This work, which exhibits a prettyaccurate picture of the statistics, religion, literature, &c. Of Britain, at the close of the eighteenth century, has been translated into English. 

505. Beschriebung einer Reise, von Hamburgh nach England. Von P. A Nemnich. Tubingen, 1801. 8vo. --The state of our principal manufactures is the almostexclusive object of this work. 

506. Mineralogische und Technologische Bemerkungen auf einer Reise durchverschiedene Provinzen in England und Schottland. Von J. C. Fabricius. Leipsic, 1784. 8vo. --This work, the nature of which is indicated in thetitle, is enriched by the notes of that distinguished mineralogist Ferber. 

507. Reise nach Paris, London, &c. Von. Franck. Vienna, 1804. 2 vols. 8vo--This work of Dr. Franks, which is chiefly confined to England andScotland, is principally interesting to medical men, as it contains anaccount of hospitals, prisons, poor-houses, infirmaries, &c. 

508. Gedenkwaardije a antkeningen gedaan door en reisiger, van geghelEngland, Schottland, ent Irland. Utrecht, 1699. Fol. 

509. Kort Journel eller Reise beskrievelse til England, ved Christ Gram. Christiana, 1760. 4to. 

510. Reise durch einen Theil von England und Schottland, 1802-3. 8vo. Marburg, 1811. --These travels, --which, like all travels in our own countryby foreigners, are interesting, independently of any intrinsic merit, because they exhibit the impressions made on them by what to us is eithercommon or proper, --are translated from the Swedish: the author's name isSvedensgerna. 

511. Erinnerungen von einer Reise durch England, 1803-5. Von JohannaSchopenhauser. 2 vols. 8vo. Rudolst, 1813. --Light and lively sketches. 

512. P. Coronelli Viaggio nell' Enghilterra. Venice, 1697. 8vo. --Thesethree works, Nos. 509, 510, and 512, by a Dutchman, a Dane, and Italian, are interesting from the picture they exhibit of Britain at the close ofthe seventeenth, and in the middle of the eighteenth century. 

513. Journée faite en 1788 dans la Grande Bretagne. Paris, 1790. 8vo. --Theauthor, who recommends himself by stating that he could speak English, principally directs his enquiries to agriculture and manufactures. 

514. Voyages dans les Trois Royaumes d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse, et d'Irlande, 1788-89. Par Chantreau. Paris, 1792. 3 vols. 8vo. --The politicalconstitution, religious opinions, manners, prejudices, state of arts andsciences, &c. Of Britain, are treated of here with considerable talent forobservation, and on the whole not unfairly. 

515. Tableau de la Grande Bretagne et de l'Irlande. Par A. Baert. Paris, 1800. 4 vols. 8vo. --This author frequently visited England, and residedhere for some time: his work relates to our commerce, finances, naval andmilitary force, religious opinions, literature, arts and manufactures, andphysical and moral character. 

516. Voyage de trois Mois en Angleterre, en Ecosse, et en Irlande. Par M. A. Pictet. Paris, 1802. 8vo. --The state of the arts and sciences principally, and the state of agriculture, and the natural history, especially geology, are the objects of this work. The literary character of the author is wellknown; this work, perhaps, hardly is worthy of it. 

517. Londres et les Anglais. Par Saint Constant. Paris, 1804. 4 vols. 8vo. --Manners, government, religion, domestic life, and the state ofagriculture, the arts, sciences, manufactures, and of literature ingeneral, --all fall within the observation of our author, and are treated offully, and with fewer mistakes and prejudices than Frenchmen generallydiscover when writing on England. 

518. Voyage en Ecosse, &c. Par L. A. Necker-Saussure. Paris, 1821. 3 vols. 8vo. --These travels, by the honorary professor of mineralogy and geology atGeneva, were performed in 1806--8. They relate chiefly to the geology ofthe country, and the character and usages of the Highlanders, and will befound interesting to the general reader, as well as instructive to thescientific. 

519. Faujas St. Fond's Travels in England, Scotland, and the Hebrides, 1797. 2 vols. 8vo. --Amidst much mineralogical and geological information(the latter, perhaps, led sometimes astray by theory), there are someinteresting notices of the arts and sciences, and of literary men. 

520. Monroe's Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, in 1549. Edin. 1774. 12mo. 

521. Account of the Orkney Islands. By James Wallace. Edin. 1693. 8vo. 

522. Martin's Voyage to St. Kilda. Lond. 1698. 2 vols. 8vo. 

523. Martin's Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, and of theOrkney and Shetland Isles. 1716. 8vo. 

524. Edmonstone's View of the Ancient and Present State of the ShetlandIslands. 2 vols. 8vo. 1809. --Dr. E. Is a native of these Islands, and haslong resided there: perhaps, if these favourable circumstances had beenaided by a sounder judgment, a better taste, and more knowledge, this workwould have been improved. As it is, it may advantageously be consulted forwhat relates to the civil, political, and natural history; agriculture, fisheries, and commerce; antiquities, manners, &c. Of these islands. 

525. Description of the Shetland Islands, comprising an Account of theirGeology, Scenery, Antiquities, and Superstitions. By Dr. Hibbert. 4to. --Thetitle indicates the objects of the work: the information is valuable: someof it new; but not sufficiently select or condensed. 

526. The Rev. Dr. Barry's History of the Orkney Islands. 4to. --Besideshistorical information, Dr. B. Gives full notices on the inhabitants andnatural history: in the latter respect, however, this work is improved inthe Second Edition, published by Mr. Headrich. 

527. Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, including the Isle ofMan. By Dr. J. Macculloch. 2 vols. 8vo. And 1 vol. Of plates, 4to. 1819. --Although, as might be expected from the pursuits of the author, mineralogy and geology are particularly attended to, yet this work isvaluable and instructive also on the subjects of the agriculture, scenery, antiquities, and economy of these islands, and is indeed a work of greatmerit. 

528. Sibbald's History and Description of Fife. 1720. Fol. 

529. Sibbald's History and Description of Lithgow and Stirlingshires. 1710. Fol. 

 These works are curious from the description they give of these parts of Scotland, at a period when manners, customs, sentiments, feelings, and superstitions, had not been acted upon by much civilization, knowledge, or intercourse with England. Sir Robert Sibbald's works also are valuable, even yet, for their natural history. 

530. Letters from the North of Scotland. Written by a Gentleman to hisFriend in London. 2 vols. 8vo. --These letters, which describe theHighlanders a century ago, are extremely curious and interesting. They seemto have been little known, till the author of Waverley introduced them topublic approbation. Since that they have been twice republished; once withdissertations and notes. 

531. Pennant's Tour to Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides. 3 vols. 4to. 1774. 

532. Dr. Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. 1775. 8vo. 

533. Account of the present State of the Hebrides and Western Coast ofScotland. By John Anderson. Edin. 1785. --Written expressly to point outmeans of improvement. The two following works had the same object in view:

534. Knox's Tour in the Highlands of Scotland and the Hebrides. 1786. 2vols. 8vo. 

535. Buchanan's Travels in the Western Hebrides, 1782-90. Lond. 1793. 8vo. 

536. Cardonnel's Antiquities and Picturesque Scenery of the North ofScotland. 1798. 4to. 

537. Stoddart's Remarks on the Local Scenery and Manners of Scotland, 1799-1800. Lond. 1801. 2 vols. 8vo. --The principal design of these two worksis sufficiently indicated in their titles. 

538. Dr. Garnett's Tour through the Highlands and Part of the WesternIslands of Scotland. 1800. 2 vols. 4to. --Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, antiquities, botany, and manners, are treated of, though not in amasterly manner. 

539. Travels in Scotland and Ireland, 1769-72. Chester, 1774. 2 vols. 4to. 

540. Tour in Scotland and Ireland, 1775, 8vo. 

541. Ed. Spencer's View of the State of Ireland, 1633. Folio. --Also in hisworks, and in a collection of old tracts lately published on this kingdom. 

542. A Natural History of Ireland, in Three Parts. By several hands. Boateand Molyneaux. Dublin, 1726. --This work contains much curious information, sound and accurate, considering when it was written. 

543. Tour in Ireland, in 1715. London, 1716. 8vo. 

544. Bush's Hiberna Curiosa. Dublin. 4to. --The materials of this work, which chiefly is occupied with a view of manners, agriculture, trade, natural curiosities, &c. Were collected during a tour in 1764-69. 

545. Hamilton's Letters on the Northern Coast of Ireland, 1764. 8vo. --Thisis a valuable work respecting the mineralogy and geology, and especiallythe Giant's Causeway. 

546. Campbell's Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland, 1777. 8vo. 

547. Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland, 1776-79. 2 vols. 8vo. --An admirablepicture of the agriculture and general state of Ireland at this period. 

548. Cooper's Letters on the Irish Nation, 1800. 8vo. --Manners, nationalcharacter, government, religion principally; with notices on agriculture, commerce, &c. 

549. Account of Ireland, Statistical and Political. By Edward Wakefield, 1812. 4to. --An immense mass of information, chiefly relating to theagriculture, statistics, political and religious state of Ireland, not wellarranged; and the bulk much increased by irrelevant matter. 

550. Robertson's Tour through the Isle of Man, 1794. 8vo. 

551. Wood's Account of the Past and Present State of the Isle of Man, 1811. 8vo. 

552. Falle's Account of Jersey, 1734, 8vo. 

553. Berry's History of Guernsey, with particulars of Alderney, Sark, andJersey, 1815. 4to. 

554. Dicey's Account of Guernsey, 1751. 12mo. 

555. Neueste reisen durch Schottland and Ireland. Von Volkman. Leip. 1784. 8vo. --Economy, manufactures, and natural history. 

556. Briefe uber Ireland. Von Kuttner, Leip. 1785, 8vo. --This authorpublished Travels in Holland and England, which, as well as the present, indicate an attentive, careful, and well-informed observer of manners, national character, and statistics. 

PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. 

 Good travels in the Peninsula, especially in the English language, are by no means numerous, yet there are portions of it highly interesting in a physical point of view; and the Spanish national character, and manners, as well as the Roman and Arabian antiquities in Spain and Portugal, furnish ample and rich materials to the traveller. 

557. Memoirs of Lord Carrington, containing a Description of the Governmentand Manners of the present Portuguese, 1782. 8vo. 

558. Murphy's Travels in Portugal, 1789-90. 4to. --Monuments, publicedifices, antiquities principally; the physical state of the country, itsagriculture, commerce, arts, literature, &c. Sensibly but not extensively. 

559. Link's Travels in Portugal, 1797-99. 8vo. --This work, originallypublished in German, consists in that language of 2 vols. 8vo. There waslikewise published in French, Paris, 1805. 1 vol. 8vo. , Voyage en Portugal, par M. Le Comte de Hoffmansegg, --as a continuation of Link's Travels, theCount having travelled in this country with Mr. Link, and continued in itafter the latter left it. Mr. Link being a distinguished natural historian, directed his attention chiefly to geology, mineralogy and botany; but hedoes not neglect other topics, and he has added a dissertation on theliterature of Portugal, and on the Spanish and Portuguese languages. Thesupplemental volume is also rich in natural history, and extends to anaccount of the manufactures, political institutions, &c. Of Portugal. 

560. Twiss's Travels through Portugal and Spain, 1772-73. 4to. --Literary, antiquarian, and descriptive of manners, customs, and national characters. 

561. Dalrymple's Travels through Spain and Portugal, 1774. Dublin, 1777. 12mo. 

562. Southey's Letters on Spain and Portugal, 1797. 8vo. --Literature andmanners; but in a manner not worthy of the author's talents and reputation. 

563. Ed. Clarke's Letters on the Spanish Nation, 1765. 4to. --The author waschaplain to Lord Bristol, in his Spanish Embassy. Antiquities and Spanishliterature; in the Appendix there is a catalogue of MSS. In the library ofthe Escurial. 

564. Swinburne's Travels through Spain, 1775-76. 2 vols. 8vo. Roman andMoorish architecture are particularly attended to; this work is alsovaluable and instructive for its full details in every thing relating toCatalonia and Grenada, two of the most interesting provinces in Spain. 

565. Dillon's Travels through Spain, 1782. 4to. --Natural history andphysical geography. 

566. Bourgoing's Travels in Spain, with Extracts from the Essays on Spain. By M. Peyren, 1789. 3 vols. 8vo. --This is an excellent work, translatedfrom the French. The author, however, did not visit Catalonia or Grenada. Natural history is not attended to; but all that relates to manufactures, the civil, political, and religious state of Spain, manners, literature andsimilar topics, is treated of fully and well. The work of M. Peyren, fromwhich extracts are given, is entitled Nouveau Voyage en Espagne, Paris, 1782. 2 vols. 8vo. And treats of antiquities, manners, commerce, publictribunals, &c. ; it notices some cities and parts of Spain omitted, or butpartially noticed by Swinburne and Bourgoing. The work of the latter hasalso been added to by the following work, Voyage en Espagne, 1797-8. Par C. A. Fischer. Paris, 1800. 2 vols. 8vo. Fischer also published in 1804. 8vo. , Description de Valence, to complete his Travels in Spain. Both these wereoriginally published in German, and translated into French, by Cramer; andthey both are most valuable additions to Bourgoing's works. 

567. Townshend's Journey through Spain, in 1786. 3 vols. 8vo. --An excellentwork, particularly on the economy, agriculture, manufactures, commerce, andgeneral statistics of Spain. 

568. Voyage du ci-devant duc du Chatelet en Portugal, 1777. Paris, 1798. 2vols. 8vo. --This work, which has been translated into English, was inreality written by M. Cormartin, one of the Vendean chiefs; it is very fulland various, as well as excellent in its contents, embracing physicalgeography, agriculture, arts, sciences and manufactures, government, manners, religion, literature, &c. , in short, every thing but antiquitiesand public buildings. 

569. Observations du Physique et de Médecine, faites en différens lieux del'Espagne. Par M. Thiery. Paris, 1791. 2 vols. 8vo. --This medical Tourcontains much information on the climate, soils, geology of Spain; and onthe food, domestic life of its inhabitants, particularly relating toCastile, Arragon, Navarre, Biscay, Gallicia and Asturia. There is also aparticular description of the quicksilver mine at Almaden, in La Mancha. 

570. Voyage Pittoresque et Historique de l'Espagne. Par La Borde. Paris, 4vols. Fol. 

571. Itinéraire Descriptif de l'Espagne. Par La Borde. Paris, 1809. 5 vols. 8vo. 

572. Lettres sur l'Espagne, ou Essais sur les Moeurs, les Usages, et laLitérature de ce Royaume. Par Beauharnois. Paris, 1810. 2 vols. 8vo. 

573. A Visit to Spain in the latter part of 1822, and the first four Monthsof 1823. By Michael Quin. 8vo. 1823. --A sensible and impartial view of thestate of Spain at this interesting period; giving much insight into thecharacter of the Spaniards. 

574. Reise beschriebung durch Spanien und Portugal. Von M. Zeiller. Ulm, 1631. 8vo. 

575. Reise beschrieburg nach Spanien. Franchfort, 1676. 8vo. --These twoworks are chiefly valuable for that which gives interest and value to allold travels; as describing manners, &c. At a distant period. 

576. Neueste reise durch Spanien. Von Volkman. Leipsic, 1785. 2 vols. 8vo. --Arts, manufactures, commerce and economy. 

577. Nieuve Historikal en Geographische Reise beschryving van Spanien enPortugal. Don W. Van den Burge. Hague, 1705. 2 vols. 4to. 

578. Descripcion de España de Harif Alcides Coneido. Madrid, 1799. 4to. --This work, by the geographer of Nubia, as he is generally called, isextremely interesting from the picture it gives of Spain under the Moors. It was translated by D. J. A. Condé, who has added notes, comparing its stateat that remote period, and in 1799. 

579. Ponz Viage de España. Madrid, 1776, &c. 18 vols. 12mo. --Full of matterof various kinds, but tedious and dry. 

580. Introduccion a la Historia natural y geographia-fisico del Reyno deEspaña. Par D. Guill. Bowles. --The Italian translation of this work, Parma, 1783. 8vo. (the nature of which is sufficiently indicated by the title)contains a commentary and notes by the translator, A. Zara, which adds toits value, in itself not small. 

581. Descrizione della Spagna di Don A. Conca. Parma, 1793-7. 4 vols. 8vo. --This work is chiefly devoted to the fine arts, of which it entersinto a full and minute description. There are also notices of antiquities, and natural history. It is admirably printed by Bodoni. 

VII. AFRICA. 

AFRICA IN GENERAL. 

582. Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Africa. By the lateJohn Leyden, M. D. , enlarged and completed to the present time by HughMurray, Esq. , 2 vols. 8vo. 1817. --A useful, correct, and, in general, accurate and complete compilation, which satisfies the purpose and promiseheld out in the title. 

583. Leoni Africani totius Africæ Descriptionis. Lib. VIII. Leyd. 1682. 8vo. --This work was originally written in Arabic, then translated intoItalian by the author, and from Italian into Latin, French, Dutch, andEnglish. The Italian translation is the only correct one: to the French, which is expanded into 2 vols. Folio, and was published at Lyons in 1566, there are appended several accounts of Voyages and Travels in Africa. Leowas a Spanish Moor, who left Spain at the reduction of Grenada, andtravelled a long time in Europe, Asia, and Africa: his description of thenorthern parts of Africa is the most full and accurate. 

584. L'Afrique de Marmol. Paris, 1669. 3 vols. 4to. --This translation, byD'Ablancourt, of a very scarce Portuguese writer, is not made withfidelity. The subsequent discoveries in Africa have detailed severalinaccuracies in Marmol; but it is nevertheless a valuable work: theoriginal was published in the middle of the sixteenth century. 

585. Geschichte der neuestin Portugeiesischen Entdeckungen en Africa, von1410, bis 1460. Von M. C. Sprengel. Halle, 1783. 8vo. --This account of thediscoveries of Prince Henry is drawn up with much judgment and learning. 

586. Neue Beitrage zur Keuntniss von Africa. Von J. R. Forster. Berlin, 1794. 2 vols. 8vo. 

587. Neue Systematescke Erd-beschriebung von Africa. Von Bruns. Nurem. 1793-99. 6 vols. 8vo. --A most valuable work on Africa in general. 

THE NORTH OF AFRICA. 

 Those portions of Africa which are washed by the Mediterranean sea, possess strong and peculiar attractions for the traveller. It is only necessary to name Egypt, to call up associations with the most remote antiquity, --knowledge, civilization, and arts, at a period when the rest of the world had scarcely, as it were, burst into existence. From the earliest records to the present day, Egypt has never ceased to be an interesting country, and to afford rich materials for the labours, learning, and researches of travellers. The rest of the Mediterranean coast of Africa, where Carthage first exhibited to the world the wonderful resources of Commerce, and Rome established some of her most valuable and rich possessions, are clothed with an interest and importance scarcely inferior to that which Egypt claims and enjoys. While the countries on the north-east, washed by the Red Sea, in addition to sources of interest and importance common to them, and to Egypt and Barbary, are celebrated on account of their having witnessed and assisted the first maritime commercial intercourse between Asia, and Africa, and Europe. 

588. Relation d'un Voyage de Barbarie, fait à Alger, pour la Redemption desCaptifs. Paris, 1616. 8vo. 

589. Relation de la Captivité à Alger d'Emmanuel d'Arande. Paris, 1665. 16mo. --This work, originally published in Spanish, contains, as well as thepreceding one, some curious particulars regarding the manners of Algiers, especially the court, in the middle of the seventeenth century. 

590. Voyage en Barbarie, 1785-88, par Poiret. Paris, 1789. 2 vols. 8vo. --This work, which was translated into English in 1791, is chieflyconfined to that part of Barbary which constituted the ancient Numidia, andis interesting from the picture it exhibits of the Bedouin Arabs, and fromthe details into which it enters regarding the natural history of thecountry, especially the botany. 

591. Relations des Royaumes de Fez et de Maroc, traduites de Castellan deDiego Torrez. Paris, 1636. 4to. 

592. Histoire de la Mission des Pères Capuchins, au royaume de Maroc. 1644. 12mo. 

593. Relation des Etats du Roi de Fez et de Maroc, par Frejus. Paris, 1682. 12mo. --Frejus was sent by the French King to Fez in 1666, for the purposeof establishing a commercial intercourse: his work is full and particularon the manners, customs, &c. , of the country and people of this part ofAfrica; there is, besides, much curious information drawn from theobservations of M. Charant, who lived 25 years in Fez and Morocco, respecting the trade to Tombuctoo. The coasts, currents, harbours, &c. , arealso minutely described. The French edition of 1682, and the Englishtranslation of 1771, contain the letters of M. Charant, giving the resultsof his information on these points. 

594. Recherches Historiques sur les Maures, et Histoire de l'Empereur deMaroc, par Chenier. Paris, 1788. 3 vols. 8vo. M. Chenier was Charge desAffaires from the King of France to the Emperor of Morocco. The two firstvolumes are historical; in the third volume there is much valuableinformation on the physical, moral, intellectual, commercial, and politicalstate of this kingdom. 

595. Histoire du Naufrage, et de la Captivité de M. De Brisson. Paris, 1789. 8vo. This work, together with the travels of Saugnier, is translatedinto English; it contains a description of the great desert. This singularportion of Africa is also particularly described in the following works. 

596. Voyage dans les Deserts de Sahara, par M. Follies Paris, 1792. 8vo. 

597. Travels or Observations relating to several parts of Barbary and theLevant, by T. Shaw. 1757. 4to. --The character of this work, for theinformation it contains in antiquities and natural history, is too wellknown and firmly established to require any particular notice orcommendation. Algiers, Tunis, Syria, Egypt, and Arabia Petrea, were thescene of these travels and researches. 

598. A Journey to Mequinez, by J. Windhus. 1723. 8vo. In 1721, CaptainStewart was sent by the English government to Fez and Morocco to redeemsome captives; this work, drawn up from the observations made during thisjourney, is curious: the same remark applies generally to the other works, which are drawn from similar sources, and of which there are several inFrench and English. 

599. History of the Revolution in the Empire of Morocco in 1727-8, byCaptain Braithwaite. 1729. 8vo. Besides the historical details, theaccuracy of which is undoubted, as Braithwaite was an eye-witness of theevents he describes, this work gives us some valuable information on thephysical and moral state of the people. 

600. Lemprieres Tour from Gibraltar to Tangier, Sals, Mogador, &c. , andover Mount Atlas, Morocco, &c. 1791. --The author of this work, (who was amedical man, sent by the Governor of Gibraltar at the request of theEmperor of Morocco, whose son was dangerously ill, ) possessed, from thepeculiar circumstances in which he was placed, excellent opportunities ofprocuring information; the most interesting and novel parts of his workrelate to the haram of the Emperor, to which, in his medical character, hehad access; the details into which he enters, respecting its internalarrangements and the manners of its inhabitants, are very full and curious. 

601. Tully's Letters from Tripoly. 3 vols. 8vo. --Much curious informationon the domestic life and manners of the inhabitants, and more insight intofemale manners and character, than is generally gained respecting thefemales of this part of Africa. 

602. Captain Lyons' Travels in Northern Africa, from Tripoly to Mouzzook. 1821. 4to. --Though the object of these travels was not accomplished, theycontain much information on the geography of central Africa collectedduring them. On this important point, the Quarterly Review should beconsulted. 

603. Schousboe Betrachtungen uber das Gewæsrich, en Marokko. Copenhag. 1802. 8vo. --This work, translated from the Danish, relates chiefly to thebotany, metereology, soil and productions of Morocco; and on other topicsit gives accurate and valuable information. 

604. Viaggio da Tripoli alto Frontiere dell' Egitto. 1817. P. DellaCella. --The scene of these travels must give them an interest and value, since they embrace "one of the oldest and most celebrated of the Greekcolonies, " and a country "untrodden by Christian feet since the expulsionof the Romans, the Huns, and the Vandals, by the enterprising disciples ofMahomet, " The work, however, proves that its author was not qualified toavail himself of such a new and interesting field of enquiry, remark, andresearch, to the extent which might have been expected. 

EGYPT

 Whoever wishes to be informed respecting the state of Egypt and its inhabitants during the remotest ages to which they can be traced, must have recourse to the accounts given of them in the Scriptures, and by Herodotus and other ancient writers. During the dark and middle ages, as they are called, information may be drawn from the following sources. 

605. Abdollatiphi Historiæ Egypti Compendium, Arabice et Latine. Oxford, 1800. 4to. --There are several editions of this work: the one, the title ofwhich we have just given, was edited by Professor White. He also publisheda preceding one without the Latin version; which was republished atTubingen, with a preface by Paulus. An interesting and instructive "Noticede cet ouvrage, " was published by Sacy, the celebrated orientalist, atParis, in 1803. The Arabian author relates what he himself saw and learntin Egypt, and is particularly full on the plants of the country; thehistorical part occupies only the two last chapters; he lived towards theend of the twelfth century. 

606. Abulfedæ Descriptio Egypti, Arabice et Latine, notas adjecit J. Michaelis. Gottingen, 1776. 4to. --This author lived in the fourteenthcentury, and was celebrated for his geographical knowledge, of which thiswork is a valuable proof. 

607. L'Egypti de Murtadi. Paris, 1666. 12mo. --This work of the middle ages, translated from an Arabic manuscript belonging to Cardinal Mazarin, iscurious, but extremely rare. 

608. Nouvelle Relation d'un Voyage en Egypte. Par Wansleb. 1672-73. Paris, 1678. 12mo. --Wansleb was a German, sent into Egypt and Ethiopia by the Dukeof Saxe Gotha, to examine the religious rites and ceremonies of theChristians there. He was afterwards sent again into Egypt by Colbert; thefruit of this journey was a great number of curious and valuablemanuscripts, which were deposited in the Royal Library at Paris. Besidesthe work just stated, he published in Italian "Relatione dello Statopresente dell' Egypto". Pans, 1671. 12mo. --Both these works areparticularly useful and instructive on the subject of antiquities, and forthe accuracy of the descriptions and names he gives to the different placesand ruins. 

609. Description de l'Egypte, composée sur les Mémoires de M. Maillet. Paris, 1741. 2 vols. 12mo. --Maillet was French Consul at Cairo for sixteenyears: his work is valuable on antiquities, and the religion of the ancientand modern Egyptians. It may also be consulted with advantage forinformation on the manners and customs; but in what he relates regardingthe Nile and natural history, he is not so accurate and judicious. 

610. Lettres sur l'Egypte. Par M. Savary. Paris, 1786. 3 vols. 8vo. --Thiswork, very celebrated and much read for some time after it appeared, andtranslated into English, German, Dutch, and Swedish, gradually lost thecharacter it had acquired; partly because his descriptions were found to beovercharged and too favourable, and partly because he describes Upper Egyptas if he had visited it, whereas he never did. Nevertheless, the learningand judgment which this author displays in drawing from scarce and littleknown Arabic authors, curious notices respecting ancient and modern Egypt, give to the work an intrinsic and real value, which is not affected by theobservations we have made. 

611. Voyage dans la Haute et Basse Egypte. Par Sonnini. Paris, 1799. 3vols. 8vo. --This work deservedly bears a high character for the accuracyand fulness of its natural history; especially its ornithology:antiquities, manners and customs, are by no means overlooked: there are twotranslations into English, --the one published by Debrett, 1800, 4to. Is thebest; it was afterwards published in 3 vols. 8vo. 

612. Voyage dans la Haute et Basse Egypte. Par Denon. Paris, 1802. 2 vols. Folio. 

613. Description de l'Egypte, ou Recueil des Observations, &c. Faitespendant l'Expédition de l'Armie Française, en 3 livraisons. Paris, 1809, &c. 

 These magnificent works, the result of the observations and researches of the savans who accompanied Bonaparte, undoubtedly add much to our knowledge of Egypt; but they are more decidedly specimens of French vanity and philosophism, than of sober and real science. Denon's work is translated into English and German: the best English translation is by Aikin. 

614. Norden's Travels in Egypt and Nubia, with Templeman's notes, publishedand translated under the inspection of the Royal Society of London, 1757, 2vols. Folio. --Norden was a Danish physician; his work was originallypublished in that language. A French translation was published atCopenhagen, in 1755; and a subsequent one at Paris in 1795-98, in 3 vols. 4to. With very valuable notes and illustrations from ancient and modernauthors, and Arabian geographers, by Langles. The merits of Norden's work, are of the most enduring and substantial kind, so far as relates to theAntiquities of Egypt, and the Cataracts: it is high and unequivocalcommendation of this author, that subsequent travellers have found him ajudicious and sure guide. 

615. Legh's Journey in Egypt, and the Country beyond the Cataract, 1816, 4to. --In a small compass, there is much new information in these Travels, though not so much respecting the ancient country of the Ethiopians, inwhich Mr. Legh went beyond most former travellers, as could have beenwished. Some parts of the personal narrative are uncommonly interesting. 

616. Belzoni's Operations and Discoveries in Egypt, 4to. 1820. --Whoever hasread this book, (and who has not?) will agree with us in opinion, that itsinterest is derived, not less from the manner in which it is written, thepersonal adventures, and the picture it exhibits of the author's character, than from its splendid and popular antiquarian discoveries. 

617. Edmonston's Journey to two of the Oases of Upper Egypt, 1823. 8vo. 

618. Notes during a Visit to Egypt, Nubia, &c. By Sir F. Henniker, 8vo. 1823. 

619. Waddington's Journal of a Visit to some parts of Ethiopia, 1823. 4to. 

620. Narrative of the Expedition to Dangda and Sennaar. By An American. 1823. 8vo. --These works, and especially the last, make us acquainted withparts of Africa inaccessible to Europeans till very lately, and addconsiderably to our stock of physical and moral geography. Sir F. Henniker's work brings us in contact, in a very lively and pleasing manner, with many points in the character and habits of the natives of the countryhe visited. 

WESTERN AFRICA, AND THE ADJACENT ISLES. 

622. Voyages de Aloysio Cadamosto aux Isles Madère, et des Canaries au CapBlanc, au Sénégal, &c. En 1455. 4to. Paris, 1508. --This work was originallypublished in Italian; its author was employed by Don Henry of Portugal, toprosecute discovery on the Western Coast of Africa. Besides an interestingdetail of the voyage, it makes us acquainted with the manners and habits ofthe people, before they had been accustomed to European intercourse. 

622. Voyage de Lybie, ou du Royaume de Sénégal, fait et composé par C. Jannequin, de retour en France, in 1659. Paris, 1645. 8vo. --This also is aninteresting work, as depicting with great naïveté and force the manners ofthe inhabitants, and affording some curious particulars respecting theirdiseases. 

623. Nouvelle Relation de l'Afrique occidentale. Par Labat. Paris, 1728. 5vols. 12mo. --Though Labat never visited the countries he describes, whichare, Senegal, and those that lie behind Cape Blanc and Sierra Leone; yet ashe derived his information from the Director General of the French AfricanCompany, it may be depended upon. This work enters into full particulars onthe subject of African commerce, especially that carried on by the Moors inthe interior. The plants, animals, soil, &c. As well as the religion, government, customs, manufactures are also described. 

624. Histoire Naturelle du Sénégal. Par M. Adanson. Paris. 1757. 4to. --M. Adanson was in this part of Africa, from 1749 to 1753; his chief study andinvestigation seems to have been directed to conchology; and thedescriptions and admirable plates in his book, certainly leave little to bedesired on this subject. There are besides remarks on the temperature, productions, economy, and manufactures of the country. 

625. Nouvelle Histoire de l'Afrique Française. Par M. L'Abbé Dumanet. Paris, 1767. 2 vols. 12mo. --Dumanet was a missionary in Africa, and seemsto have united to religious zeal, much information, and an ardent desire togain all the knowledge, which his residence and character placed within hisreach. His notices regarding Senegal in particular, are very valuable, buthis work is not distinguished for order or method. 

626. Relations de plusieurs Voyages entrepris à la Côte d'Afrique, auSénégal, à Goree, &c. Tirées des Journeaux de M. Saugnier. Paris, 1799. 8vo. --M. Saugnier was shipwrecked on the Coast of Africa, along with M. Follies, and was a long time a slave to the Moors, and the Emperor ofMorocco: he afterwards, on his liberation, made a voyage to Galam. Thefirst part of his work relates to the great desert, and has been alreadynoticed; the second part describes the manners, &c. Of several tribes nearGalam; and the third relates to the commerce of Galam and Senegal. 

627. Voyage au Sénégal, 1784-5. Paris, 1802. 8vo. --The materials of thiswork were drawn from the Memoirs of La Jaille, who was sent by the FrenchGovernment to examine the coasts from Cape Blanc, to Sierra Leone. Theeditor, La Barthe, had access to the MS. In the bureau of the minister ofmarine and colonies, and was thus enabled to add to the accuracy and valueof the work. It chiefly relates to geography, navigation, and commerce, andon all these topics gives full and accurate information. 

628. Fragmens d'un Voyage dans l'Afrique occidentale, 1785-87. Par Golbery. Paris, 1802. 2 vols. 8vo. --The French commercial establishments in Senegal, the tribes in their vicinity, and the diseases to which Europeans areliable in this part of Africa, and more particularly the topics of thiswork, which has been translated into English. 

629. Account of the native Africans in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone. By T. Winterbottom, 1803. 2 vols. 8vo. --A very instructive work, enteringinto many details on subjects not generally noticed by travellers, but towhich, the thoughts and enquiries of the author, as a medical man, werenaturally drawn. 

630. Description of the Coast of Guinea. By W. Bosman, translated from theDutch, 1703. 8vo. --This work is very full on most topics relating toGuinea, not only in its physical, but also its economical and commercialstate; and deservedly bears the character of one of the best old accountsof this part of Africa. 

631. New Accounts of some parts of Guinea and the Slave Trade. By Wm. Snelgrave, 1727. 8vo. --Works that describe the Slave Trade, before itroused the notice and indignation of England, are valuable and useful, because in them no exaggeration can be suspected in the detail, either ofits extent or its horrors: on this account, as well as for its othercommercial information, this work deserves to be read. 

632. New Voyage to Guinea. By W. Smith, 1750. 8vo. --The author embracesalmost every thing relating to Guinea, and has succeeded, in a shortcompass, to give much information. 

633. Observations on the Coast of Guinea. By John Atkin, 1758. 8vo. --Personal adventures, which however let the reader into the mannersand habits of the people, and are told in an interesting manner, nearlyfill this volume. 

634. Historical Account of Guinea. By An. Benezet, Philadelphia, 1771, 12mo. --This is one of the first works, which exposed the horrid iniquity ofthe Slave Trade. 

635. History of Dahomy, an inland Kingdom of Africa. By And. Dalzell, 1789. 4to. --The official situation which the author held, gave him opportunitiesof gaining much valuable information in this kingdom and its inhabitants, the accuracy of which may be depended on. 

636. Bowditch's Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, 1819. 4to. --This work is full and minute, but we suspect exaggerated respectingthe Court of Ashantee; on the mass of the people it gives littleinformation. The part that relates to the geography of middle Africa, isconfused and unsatisfactory. 

637. Tuckey's Narrative of an Expedition to explore the River Zaire, in1816. 4to. The Quarterly Review very justly remarks, that this volume"contains an important and valuable addition to the records of Africandiscovery. " Natural history was especially advanced by this unfortunateexpedition. 

638. Relatio et Descriptio Congo et Cham. Amsterdam, 1659. 4to. --Thematerials of this work, are drawn from that of Lopez, which was originallypublished in Italian, and forms part of the Grands Voyages. It it very fullon the different races of people, their manners, government, religion, traffic, &c. As well as on the productions of the soil. 

640. Histoire de Loango, Kakougo, et autres Royaumes d'Afrique. Paris, 1776. 12mo. --This work, which is drawn up from the Memoirs of the FrenchMissionaries, describes the physical state of the country, the manners, language, government, laws, commerce, &c. Of the inhabitants, with greatcare; a large portion of it, however, is devoted to an account of thelabours of the missionaries. 

641. Voyage à la Côte Méridionale d'Afrique, 1786-7. Par L. De Grandpiè. Paris, 1802. 2 vols. 8vo. --Much information on the Slave Trade, and a planfor abolishing it, by introducing civilization and a love of commerce intothis part of Africa, occupy the greater part of the first volume; thesecond volume, which comprises the Cape of Good Hope, gives details whichwill be found useful to those who navigate and trade in these parts. Themanners, &c. Of the people are by no means overlooked. 

INTERIOR OF AFRICA. 

642. Travels in the inland parts of Africa, to which is added, CaptainStubbs's Voyage up the Gambia, in 1723. By Francis Moore, 1758. 4to. --1742. 8vo. --This is a valuable work, and introduces the reader to many parts andtribes of Africa, which even yet are little known, partly drawn from theaccounts of an African prince who came to England. Of this information, andthat collected by Captain Stubbs, Moore, who was superintendant of theAfrican Company's establishments in the Gambia, availed himself in drawingup this work. 

 Little additional information respecting the interior of Africa was obtained, till the establishment of the African Association in 1788. It is unnecessary to give an individual and particular character of the works which were drawn up under their auspices; the persons they employed, were, in many respects, in general admirably calculated for the ardous enterprize, and certainly by their labours have added not a little to our knowledge of the geography, manners, trade, &c. Of this part of Africa. But it is to be regretted, that they were not qualified to investigate the natural history of the countries they visited, especially as these must be extremely rich in all the departments of this branch of science. To these preliminary observations and general character, we add the titles of the principal travels undertaken under the auspices of the African Association. 

643. African Association, their Proceedings for prosecuting the discoveryof the interior parts of Africa, containing the Journals of Ledyard, Lucas, Houghton, Horneman, Nicholls, &c. 1810. 2 vols. 8vo. 

644. Park's Travels in the interior districts of Africa, 1795-97, withgeographical illustrations, by Major Rennell, 1799. 4to. 

645. The Journal of a Mission to the interior of Africa, in 1805. By Park, 1815. 4to. 

 In 1803, there was published at Paris, a French translation of Horneman's Travels, with notes, and a memoir on the Oases, by Langles. Those notes and memoirs were principally drawn from Arabian authors; and, together with the rectification of the names of places, render the translation valuable. 

646. Jackson's account of Tombuctoo and Housa, with Travels through Westand South Barbary, and across the Mountains of Atlas, 8vo. 1820. --So longas it is so extremely dangerous and difficult for Europeans to penetrateinto the interior of Africa, we must be content to derive our informationregarding it, from Africans who have travelled thither; and it is evidentthat those will be best calculated to collect accurate information fromthem, who are acquainted with their language and character, and who haveresided among them. On these accounts, Mr. Jackson's work is valuable andimportant; the same remarks apply to his Account of Morocco, 1809. 4to. 

647. Riley's Loss of the Brig Commerce, on the west Coast of Africa, 1815. With an account of Tombuctoo and Wassanah, 4to. 

648. Adam's Narrative of a Residence in Tombuctoo. 4to. If these Narrativescan be perfectly depended upon, they add considerably to our informationrespecting the Great Desert and the interior of Africa. 

649. Sammlung Merkwurdiger Reisen in das innere von Africa, heraus gegeben. Von E. W. Kuher. Leips. 1790. 8vo. 

650. Descrizione dell' Isola della Madera, scritta nella Lingua Latina dalConte Julio Laedi, tradotta in volgare da Alemano Fini. Plaisance, 1574. 4to. 

651. Histoire de la première Découverte et Conquête des Canaries, 1412. ParJ. Bethancourt: écrite du temps même. Par P. Bouthier, et J. Leverier. Paris, 1630. 12mo. --This curious and rare work, depicts with great fidelityand naïveté, the manners, opinions, government, religion, &c. Thatprevailed in the Canaries, when they were first conquered. 

652. Essai sur les Isles Fortunées, et l'Antique Atlantide. Par Borry deSaint Vincent. Paris, 1803. 4to. The author of this work resided for sometime in these Islands; and his work, besides historical information, bearstestimony to his having employed his residence in gaining minuteinformation respecting their soil, climate, natural history, andproductions; and likewise respecting the manners, &c. Of the inhabitants. There is much learned discussion respecting the origin of the Guanches, andinteresting information regarding their civilization and knowledge. 

653. Noticias de la Historia general de las Islas de Canaria. Par D. J. Dariera y Clavigo. Madrid, 1771. 3 vols. 8vo. Borry de Saint Vincent, whoderived much of his information from this work, justly characterizes it asa valuable and accurate performance. 

 The Islands of Madeira, Teneriffe, St. Jago, &c. Are described in many Voyages to the East Indies, particularly in Barrow's Voyage to Cochin China. In the first volume of Sir Hans Sloane's Jamaica, there is also a good account of Madeira. 

THE SOUTH OF AFRICA. 

 The Cape of Good Hope being generally visited by ships going to the East Indies and China, there are many accounts of it and the adjacent country, in the relation of voyages to those parts. Since it came into the possession of the British, this part of Africa has frequently become the ultimate and special object of travellers. The oldest accounts were published in the Dutch and German languages. 

654. Reise Beschriebung, 1660-1667 unter die Africanisken Vælker besondersdie Hottentiten. Von. J. Breyer. Leips. 1681. 8vo. 

655. Reise nach dem Vorgeberg der Guten Hopnung. Von Peter Kolb. Nuremberg, 3 vol. Fol. --This voluminous work, originally published in Dutch, wasabridged and published in French, in 3 vols. 12mo. From this abridgment, anEnglish translation was published in 2 vols. 8vo. In 1738. Both the entireand abridged work have been frequently published. The reason for thispopularity and general sale, must be sought in Kolben's work, being, for along time, the only detailed account of this part of Africa, and from itsenjoying a reputation for accuracy, which subsequent travellers havedestroyed, especially De la Caille, the celebrated astronomer, in thefollowing work. 

656. Journal du Voyage fait au Cap de Bonne Espérance. Paris, 1673. 12mo. --This work is well known to astronomers; but it also deserves to beperused by those who wish to detect the errors of Kolben, and by the lightwhich it throws on the manners of the Hottentots. 

657. Description du Cap de Bonne Espérance. Amsterdam, 1778. 8vo. --Thiswork, translated from the Dutch, contains a Journal of Travels into theinterior, undertaken by order of the Dutch Governor. The first part gives ashort description of the Cape, and the adjacent districts, which seemsdrawn from the authority of Kolben, in too many particulars; the secondpart contains the Journal of the Travels: and it is more full andinstructive on objects of natural history, than on the customs and mannersof the people. The plates of these are very valuable. 

658. Voyage de M. Levaillant, dans l'Intérieur de l'Afrique, 1780-85. Paris, 2 vols. 8vo. 

659. Second Voyage, 1783-1785. Paris, 3 vols. 8vo. --These Travels, whichhave been translated into English, possess a wonderful charm in thenarrative, attained, however, too often by the sacrifice of plain andunadorned truth, to the love of romance and effect. Notwithstanding thisdrawback, Levaillant's Travels are valuable for the light they throw on thenatural history of the South of Africa. 

660. Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, 1772-1776. By Sparman, 1785. 2 vols. 4to. --This work was originally published in Swedish; it is interesting, notonly on account of the valuable information it conveys on natural history, especially botany, and on the manners, &c. Of the people, but likewise forthe perseverance and zeal with which Sparman, without friends, assistance, and almost without pecuniary assistance, forced his way into remote andbarbarous districts. 

661. Barrows Travels into the interior of Southern Africa, 1797-1798. 4to. 2 vols. Very few writers of travels have possessed such a variety andextent of information, both political and scientific, as Mr. Barrow; hencethese volumes are acceptable and instructive to all classes of readers, andhave attained a celebrity not greater than they deserve. In Mr. Barrow'svoyage to Cochin China, there is some information respecting the Cape, especially an account of a journey to the Booshuana nation. In Thunberg'svoyage to Japan, there is also much information on the geography, naturalhistory, manners, &c. Of the South of Africa. 

662. La Trobe's Journal of a Visit to South Africa, in 1815. 4to. 

663. Lichtenstein's Travels in Southern Africa, 1803-06. 2 vols. 4to. 

664. Campbell's Travels in Africa, by order of the Missionary Society. 2vols. 8vo. 

 Additional information may be gleaned from these travels, respecting South Africa; Campbell penetrated farthest, and discovered some populous tribes and large towns. La Trobe's is the most interesting narrative. 

665. Histoire de la Grande Isle de Madagascar. Par du Flacourt. Paris, 1661. 4to. 

666. Relation des Premiers Voyages de la Compagnée des Indes, faits enl'Isle de Madagascar. Par de Rennefort. Paris, 1668. 16mo. 

667. Voyage à l'Isle de France, à l'Isle de Bourbon, &c. Par Bernardin deSt. Pierre. Paris, 1773. 8vo. --This work is full. Of accurate and detailedinformation on the soil, climate, productions, &c. Of the Isle of France, and on the manners and morals of its inhabitants: on the other Island it isless instructive. 

668. Voyage à l'Isle de Madagascar, et aux Indes Orientates. Par Rochon. Paris, 1791. 8vo. --This work enters into every subject relating to thisisle and its inhabitants, which can be interesting and instructive to thenaturalist, the political economist, and the moralist; and the informationbears all the marks of accuracy and completeness. 

669. Voyages dans les quatre principales Isles des Mers d'A Afrique, 1801-2. Par Borry de Saint Vincent. Paris, 1804. 3 vols. 8vo. --The authorwas chief naturalist in the voyage of discovery, under the command ofCaptain Baudin. The isles of France and Bourbon are most minutely describedin this work; and the isles of Teneriffe and St. Helena in a less detailedmanner. The information, as might be imagined, relates principally tonatural history, on all the branches of which the author is very full andinstructive; he also extends his remarks to the soil, climate, agriculture, topography, commerce, manners, &c. 

670. Grant's History of Mauritius, or the Isle of France. 1801. 4to. --Thiswork is drawn principally from the memoirs of Baron Grant, by his son. TheBaron resided nearly twenty years in the island: hence, and from hisacquaintance with most of the scientific and nautical men who visited theisland, he has been enabled to collect much information connected with itsphysical state, its harbours, climate, soil, productions, and the mannersof its inhabitants. 

ABYSSINIA, NUBIA, &C. 

 The most ancient descriptions of these countries are to be found in the collections of M. Thevenot, and Ramusio, already noticed. 

671. Lobos's Voyage to Abyssinia, with fifteen Dissertations relating toAbyssinia. By Le Grand. 8vo. 1789. --This account of Abyssinia during themiddle of the seventeenth century, though principally relating to churchaffairs, is yet valuable for its information on the government and mannersof the people, and curious, as giving indications or descriptions ofseveral animals and birds, the existence of which had been previouslydoubted. 

672. Travels in Abyssinia. By James Barretti. 1670. 8vo. 

673. A new History of Ethiopia. By Joseph Ludolphus. Fol. 1684. --ThoughLudolphus did not visit this country, yet his work, originally published inLatin, with a commentary and appendix by himself, is well worthy ofperusal, as it is full of recondite and important information on the originof the Abyssinians, the climate, soil, productions, and the naturalhistory, physical and moral state of the inhabitants, &c. 

674. Bruce's Travels to discover the Source of the Nile. 5 vols. 4to. 1790. --Account of his Life and Writings, and additions to his Travels. ByAlex. Murray. 4to. 1808. 

675. Observations on Bruce's Travels. By Warton. 1799, 4to. 

676. Observations on the authenticity of Bruce's Travels. Newcastle. 1800. 4to. We have added to the title of Bruce's work, those of two works whichremarked on its authenticity; there were also some acute papers on thesubject in the Monthly Magazine: the result of these, and of the researchesof subsequent travellers, seems to have established the credit of Brucegenerally, though it is now known he did not reach the source of the realNile, and that in some descriptions he coloured too highly. After all thesedrawbacks, however, his Travels are very valuable, and, with the exceptionof the tedious annals of Abyssinia, may be perused with interest andprofit. 

677. Salt's Voyage to Abyssinia, and Travels into the interior of thatcountry. 1809-10: with an account of the Portuguese Settlements on the eastcoast of Africa. 4to. 1814. 

678. Pearce's true account of the ways and manners of the Abyssinians. (Inthe Transactions of the Bombay Society, vol. 2. )

 These two works have extended our knowledge of Abyssinia, especially of the moral state of the people, much beyond what it might have been expected we should have acquired regarding a country formerly so inaccessible. Mr. Salt's zeal, and opportunities of information and observation, have left little to be desired: and from Mr. Pearce, who resided fourteen years in the country, many particulars may be gathered, which only a long residence, and that intimacy and amalgamation with the natives which Mr. Pearce accomplished, can furnish accurately, minutely, and fully. 

VIII. ASIA. 

 Several circumstances concurred to direct the travels of the dark and middle ages to Asia. Pilgrimages to the Holy Land;--the wish to ingratiate the Tartar chiefs, which was naturally felt by the European powers, when the former were advancing towards the western limits of Asia; and subsequently, and perhaps consequently, the spirit of commercial enterprise, were amongst the most obvious and influential circumstances which led to travels into this quarter of the world, from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. Although the travellers during this period were by no means, in general, qualified to investigate the physical peculiarities of the countries they visited, and are even meagre, and often inaccurate in detailing what was level to their information and capacities, yet, as has been justly observed, "there is a simplicity in the old writers, which delights us more than the studied compositions of modern travellers;" to say nothing of the interest which the first glimpses of a newly discovered country never fail to impart. 

 We shall therefore annex the titles of the most interesting and instructive of these travels, which were performed between the ninth and fifteenth centuries, referring such of our readers who wish for a more complete list or fuller information on the subject, to the Bibliothèque des Voyages, Vol. I. P. 32. , &c. ; Murray's Asiatic Discoveries; the Review of Murray's work in the 48th number of the Quarterly Review; Forster's Voyages and Discoveries in the North; and Collection portative de Voyages. Par C. Langles. 

679. Ancient accounts of India and China. By Two Mahomedan Travellers inthe ninth century; translated from the Arabic by E. Renaudot. 8vo. 1733. --The authenticity of this work is established by M. De Guignes, having found the original in the Royal Library at Paris: and theinformation it contains, though mixed with much that is fabulous, is verycurious and valuable, especially in what relates to China. 

680. Voyages faites principalement dans les 12, 13, 14, and 15 siècles, parBenjamin de Tudela, Carpin, Ancilin, Rubruquis, Marco Polo, Haiton, Mandeville, et Contarini; publiés par P. Bergerin, avec des CartesGéographiques. La Haye, 1735. 2 vols. 4to. 

 This is a valuable collection, except so far as regards Marco Polos' Travels, the translation of which is neither elegant nor faithful. The most elaborate and instructive edition of this excellent traveller is the following:

681. Marco Polos' Travels, translated from the Italian, with notes. By W. Marsden. 4to. 1818. --"The reproach of dealing too much in the marvellous, which had been attached to the name of Marco Polo, was gradually wearingaway, as later experience continued to elucidate his veracity; but Mr. Marsden (who has rendered a special service to literature by his elegantand faithful translation of these remarkable travels, ) has completelyrescued his memory from all stain on that score, and proved him to be notonly an accurate observer, but a faithful reporter of what he saw, and whathe learned from others. "--(_Quarterly Review, No. 48. Page 325. _)

682. Marco Polo Reisen en der Orient, 1272-1295. 8vo. Ronneburgh, 1802. --This translation is accompanied by a learned commentary by theEditor, F. B. Peregrin. 

683. Sauveboeuf, Mémoires des ses Voyages en Turque, en Perse, et enArabic. 2 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1807. 

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF ASIA. 

684. Voyages célèbres et remarquables, faits de Perse aux Indes Orientates. Par J. A. De Mandeso. Amsterdam, folio, 1727. --This work, originallypublished in German, exhibits a curious picture of Indostan, the Mogulempire, Siam, Japan, China, &c. , as they existed in the seventeenthcentury. 

685. Les Voyages et Missions de P. Alex. De Rhodes. Paris, 1682. 4to. --Thisis one of the most valuable of the missionary travels in Asia, comprisingGoa, Malacca, Macao, Cochin China, Tonkin, &c. 

686. Amenitatum exoticarum fasciculi. Autore E. Koempfer. Lemgo, 1712. 4to. --This work relates principally to Persia, and the easternmost parts ofAsia: M. Langles justly characterizes it as a rich mine of information ofall kinds respecting this portion of the world. 

687. Samlung der murkwurdigsten Reisen in den Orient. Von E. Panlus. Jena, 1792-1798. 10 vols. 8vo. --This collection contains many scarce and curiousarticles, and is illustrated by learned and judicious notes. 

688. Asiatic Researches. 12 vols. 8vo. 1801. 1818. --Though many of thearticles in this valuable work do not strictly and immediately come underthe description of travels, yet even these are so essentially necessary toa full acquaintance with the most interesting parts of Asia, that we havedeemed it proper to insert the title of this work. A valuable translationof most of the volumes has been published in Paris, enriched by theoriental literature of M. Langles; the astronomical and physical knowledgeof M. Delambre; and the natural history knowledge of Cuvier, Lamark, andOlivier. 

689. De la Roque, Voyage de Syrie et du Mont Liban. 2 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1722. 

690. Voyage de l'Arabie heureuse par l'Océan Oriental. 12mo. Paris, 1716. 

691. Voyage de M. D'Arvieux dans la Palestine, avec Description del'Arabie, par Abulfeda. Mémoires du Chevalier d'Arvieux, contenant sesVoyages à Constantinople, dans l'Asie, la Palestine, l'Egypte, laBarbarie, &c. Paris, 6 vols. 12mo. 1735. --These are all valuable works, containing much and accurate information on almost every topic of physical, statistical, commercial, political and moral geography; the result of longpersonal observation, enquiry, and experience. The travels of la Roque intoArabia are particularly full respecting the history of coffee in Asia andEurope. The Voyage de M. D'Arvieux was published separately from hisMémoires, and previously to it, by la Roque, and is very interesting notonly from the simplicity of its style and manner, but also from the vividpicture which it exhibits of the Bedouins. 

692. Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte, 1783-1785. Par Volney. Paris, 1800. 2vols. 8vo. --The character of this work, of which there is an Englishtranslation, is too well known to be insisted upon here. What relates toSyria is the most detailed and important, and has been less superseded bysubsequent travellers. 

693. A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, in 1697. By H. Maundrel. 

694. The Natural History of Aleppo, and parts adjacent. By Alex. Rumel. 2vols. 4to. 1794. --This excellent work was translated into German by Gmelin, with valuable annotations. 

695. Mariti's Travels through Cyprus, Syria, and Palestine. 3 vols. 8vo. --The original work in Italian consists of 5 volumes. On all thatrelates to Cyprus, this work is particularly interesting and full; there isalso much information regarding it in Sonnini's Travels. 

696. Kinnear's Journey though Asia Minor, Armenia, and Koordestan, 1812-14. 8vo. --This work will be particularly interesting to those who wish to tracethe marches of Alexander, and the retreat of the ten thousand, on whichpoints of history Mr. Kinnear has made some judicious remarks. 

697. Beaufort's Karamania. 1818. 8vo. --A valuable addition to the maritimegeography and antiquities of a part of Asia Minor not often described. 

698. Reisebescriebung von Arabien. Von C. Niebuhr. Copenhagen, 1772. 4to. 

699. Reisebescriebung nach Arabien. Von C. Niebuhr. Copenhagen 1774-1778. 2vols. 4to. 

700. Recueil des Questions proposées à une société des Savans, qui, parordre de S. M. Danoise, font le Voyage de l'Arabie. Par M. Michaelis. Frankfort, 1753. 4to. 

701. Pet. Forskal Descriptiones Animalium, Avium, &c. &c. In ItinereOrientale observatorum. Hafnioe, 1775. 4to. 

702. Pet. Forskal Icones rerum naturalium, quas in Itinere Orient, depingicuravit. Hafnioe, 1776. 4to. --Every thing preparatory to, and connectedwith the travels of Niebuhr and his associate, was judiciously and wellplanned and executed: the selection of Michaelis to draw up the enquiriesand observations to be made; those he actually proposed: and the learnedmen sent out, who were respectively conversant in physics, natural history, geography, and the connected and auxiliary branches of science. Henceresulted most admirable works on Arabia: those of Niebuhr, together withMichaelis, have been translated into French, in 4 vols. 4to. The Englishtranslation, besides omitting the most valuable and scientific parts, is, in other respects, totally unworthy of the original. 

703. Il Viaggio dell Ambrosio Contarini, Ambasciatore della Signiora diVenetia, al Uxam Cassan, Re de Persia. Ven. 1543, 12mo. 

704. Relacion de Don Juan de Persia, en III Libros. Vallad. 1604. 4to. 

705. Chardin, Voyages en Persie, et autres lieux de l'Orient. Amsterd. 3vols. 4to. 1711. --It may justly be said of these travels, that by means ofthem, Persia was made better known in every thing relating to its civil, military, religious, intellectual, moral, scientific, and statisticalcondition, than any other part of Asia, at the period when they werepublished. Very few travellers are more to be depended upon than Chardin. 

706. Tavernier, Voyages en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes. 6 Vols. 12mo. Rouen, 1713. --The credit of this traveller, which had been for some timesuspected, is recovering itself since it has been ascertained that manypoints in which he was supposed to have been inaccurate or credulous, arewell founded. As his object was commercial, especially for the purchase ofdiamonds, his travels may be consulted with advantage on the subject of thediamond mines, the traffic in these precious stones, and the various moniesof Asia, and other topics not to be found in other travellers. 

707. Observations made on a Tour from Bengal to Persia. By W. Franklin. 1790. 8vo. --The most original and valuable portion of this work relates toPersia, especially the province of Farsistan; it contains also muchinformation respecting Goa, Bombay, &c, M. Langles translated it intoFrench, and added a learned memoir on Persepolis. 

 The same orientalist, M. Langles, has added to the value and interest of his translation of G. Forster's Journey from Bengal to England, by his judicious and instructive notes. 

708. Waring's Tour to Sheeraz. 1807. 4to. --This work is chiefly confined tothe manners, laws, religion, language, and literature of the Persians; onall of which it is instructive and interesting. 

709. Morier's Two Journeys through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor. 1808-1816. 2 vols. 4to. --The opportunities which M. Morier possessed fromhis residence in Persia being much superior to those of a mere traveller, his work is justly regarded as one of authority on the civil, political, domestic, and commercial circumstances of the Persians. 

710. Sir W. Ousely's Travels in Persia. 1810-12. 4to. --The connexionbetween England and Persia, formed, or rather strengthened, in consequenceof the vicinity of our East India possessions to that country, has muchextended our knowledge of it, and this work has contributed not a little tothat knowledge. 

711. Kotzebue's Narrative of a Journey into Persia, in the Suite of theImperial Embassy, in 1817. 8vo. --It is always desirable to have travelsperformed in the same country, especially if it be one remote and littleknown, by persons of different nations: thus, different views of the samecircumstances are given, and the truth is elicited. These travels areinteresting in this and other points of view. 

712. Ker Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, &c. 2. Vols. 4to. --A severer judgment, by suppressing much that is minuteand uninteresting, and dwelling more on important matters, and a knowledgeof natural history, would have enhanced the value of these travels, which, however, are much more creditable to the author than his Travels in Russia. 

713. Reise in den Kaukasies und nach Georgien, 1807-8. 2 vols. 8vo. Halle, 1812. --These travels were undertaken by command of the Russian government, and are similar in design to those of Pallas; there is an Englishtranslation, but it is indifferently executed. 

714. Reisen nach Georgien und Imerethi. Von J. A. Guldenstadt. 8vo. Berlin, 1813. --This work is edited by Klaproth, and is chiefly mineralogical. 

715. Lettres sur la Caucase et la Georgie, et un Voyage en Perse en 1812. 8vo. 

THE EAST INDIES. 

 The histories of the discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese in the East Indies are interspersed with various and numerous particulars regarding the political state of that country, and the manners, customs, religion, &c. Of the inhabitants. The following French work is valuable in this respect. 

716. Histoire de Portugal; contenant les Entreprises, &c. Des Portugais, tant en la Conquête des Indes Orientales par eux découvertes, qu'en Guerresd'Afrique et autres Exploits: nouvellement mise en Français. Par S. Goullard. Paris, 1581. 4to. 

717. Navigatio et Itinerarium in Orientalem Indiam, &c. Autore JoanneLinschot. Amsterd. 1614. Folio. 

718. Premier Livre de l'Histoire de la Navigation aux Indes Orientales, parles Hollandois. Amsterd, folio, 1558. 

719. Le Second Livre. Amsterd. 1609, folio. 

720. Relatio de Rebus in India Orientale, a Patribus. Soc. Jesu. 1598-1599, peractis, Mayence, 1601. 8vo. --The preceding works give an interestingpicture of the East Indies during the 16th century. 

721. Beschrievyng van oude niewe Ostinden. Von. F. Valyntyn. Amster. 1724-1726. 8 vol. Fol. --This work appears to be little known, except inHolland; the author resided upwards of twenty years in India, and has mostindustriously, though not always with a good taste, or scrupulous judgment, collected much minute information on its natural, civil, and religiousstate. 

722. Alex. Hamilton's Account of the East Indies, 2 vols. 8vo. 1744. 

723. Grose's Travels to the East Indies, 1772. 2 vols. 8vo. 

724. Zend Avesta. Par Anquetil du Perrin. Paris, 1771. 3 vols. 4to. --M. Anquetil has prefixed to his translation of this supposed work ofZoroaster, an account of his travels in the East Indies, in which there ismuch valuable information, especially on antiquarian subjects. The Germanshave translated and published separately, this part of M. Anquetil's work. 

725. Voyages dans les Mers de l'Inde. Par M. Legentil, 1781. 5 vols. 8vo. --M. Legentil's object was to observe the transit of Venus, in 1761 and1769. His work, besides entering into the subject of Indian astronomy, gives many important details on antiquities and natural history. 

726. Description Historique et Geographique de l'Inde. Par J. Tieffenthaler. Recherches Historiques et Geographiques sur l'Inde. ParAnquetil du Perrin. Publiées par J. Bernouilli. Berlin, 1785. 3 vols. 4to. --The most curious and original portion of this work is that whichrelates to the Seiks, by the missionary Tieffenthaler. 

727. Forrest's Voyage from Calcutta to the Menguy Archipelago, 1792. 2vols. 4to. --This work is justly of great authority, for its details inmaritime geography, 728. Stavorinus's Voyages to the East Indies, comprising an account of allthe possessions of the Dutch in India, and at the Cape of Good Hope, 3vols. 8vo. 1798. 

729. Fra. Paolino's Voyage to the East Indies. With notes by J. ReinoldForster. 8vo. 1800. --A translation of this valuable work, which originallyappeared in Italian, was published in Paris, in 1805, by Anquetil duPerrin, in 3 Vols. 8vo. There are few works which throw more light thanthis does, on the religious antiquities of India. 

730. Rennel's Memoir of a Map of Indostan. 2 Vols. 4to. 1793. --Forgeographical research, this work justly bears the highest character. 

 Particular parts of the East Indies are specially described in the following works:

731. Nouvelle Relation d'un Voyage fait aux Indes Orientales. Par M. Dellen. Amsterd. 1699. 12mo. ---Malabar, Calecut, and Goa, are particularlynoticed by this author, who, being a medical man, is full and instructiveon the poisonous animals, and the diseases. 

732. Voyage de Francois Bernier, contenant la Description des Etats duGrand Mogul. Amsterd. 1725. 2 Vols. 12mo. --This author was also a medicalman, and from that circumstance obtained favour from the Mogul, and anopportunity of visiting parts of Asia, at that time little known, particularly Cachemere, of which he gives a full and interestingdescription. 

733. Voyage aux Indes Orientales, 1802-6, revu et augmenté de notes. ParSonnini. 2 Vols. 8vo. Paris, 1810. --The notes by Sonnini sufficiently pointout the nature and character of this work. 

734. Voyage dans la Peninsule Occidentale de l'Inde, et dans l'Isle deCeylon. 2 Vols. 8vo. Paris, 1811. --This work is translated from the Dutchof Haafner; and as latterly few, except the English, have publishedaccounts of India, it is for this reason interesting. 

735. A Journey from Madras, through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar. By F. Buchanan. 1811, 4to. --Much information, not well arranged or agreeablycommunicated, on the most valuable productions of these districts, on theirclimate, manufactures, and the manners, religion, &c. Of their inhabitants. 

736. Heyne's Tracts, historical and statistical, on India; with Journals ofseveral Tours: and an account of Sumatra. 1814, 4to. A work not so wellknown, as from its information, particularly statistical, it deserves tobe. 

737. Forbes's Oriental Memoirs. 1813, 4 Vols. 4to. --It is to be regrettedthat this very splendid and expensive work was not published in a cheaperform, as it abounds in most striking pictures of the manners, customs, &c. Of India. 

738. Major Symes's Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava, in 1795. 4to 1800--Little was known in Europe respecting Pegu and Ava before thetravels of Hunter, and Loset and Erkelskrom were published; these travels, translated respectively from the English and German, were publishedtogether in Paris, in 1793. From these, and Major Symes's works, much maybe gathered respecting the manners, religion, and government of theinhabitants of this part of Asia; but unfortunately, these travellers donot instruct us on the topics of natural history. We are indebted for mostthat we know respecting Siam, to a notion that was put into Louis XIV. 'smind, that the King of Siam was desirous of becoming a convert toChristianity. Under this idea, Louis sent an embassy and missionaries, fromwhom proceeded the following works: in which, allowing for a littleexaggeration, in order to flatter the vanity of the French monarch, thereis a deal of curious and valuable information of all kinds. 

739. Premier Voyage de Siam des P. P. Jésuites. Redigé par Tachard. --SecondVoyage du P. Tachard, Paris, 1686-89. 2 Vols. 12mo. 

740. Histoire Naturelle et Civile de Siam. Par Gervaise. Paris, 1688, 4to. 

741. Description du Royaume de Siam. Par M. De la Loubere, EnvoyéExtraordinaire du Roi auprès du Roi de Siam. Amsterd. 1714. 2 Vols. 12mo. 

742. Barrow's Voyage to Cochin China, 1792-93. 4to. 1806. This is perhapsthe most valuable of Mr. Barrow's works, as it relates to a country notpreviously known, except by the accounts of the missionaries, and which hasbeen scarcely visited since Mr. Barrow's time. 

743. Relation Nouvelle et Curieuse du Royaume de Tonquin, et de Laos. Traduite de l'Italien du P. De Marini. Paris, 1666, 4to. This work is fullof a variety of topics connected with the civil, political, military, agricultural, and commercial state of Tonquin; nor is it deficient in whatrelates to the natural history, and the manners, religion, &c. Of theinhabitants, 744. Histoire Naturelle et Civile du Tonquin. Par l'Abbé Richard. Paris, 1788. 2 Vols. 12mo. --The first volume of this work, which describes Tonquinand its inhabitants, is drawn from the accounts of the missionary St. Phalte, and from other sources, with considerable neatness and judgment;the second volume is confined to a history of the missions thither. 

745. Exposé Statistique du Tunkin. London, 2 Vols. 8vo. 1811. This work isdrawn up from the papers of M. De la Bessachere, who resided 18 years inTunkin; and it is rich in new and curious information on the physicalproperties of the country, and the national character. 

746. Letters on the Nicobar Islands. By the Rev C. G. Haensel, Missionary ofthe United Brethren. 1812. 8vo. --This short account is written with greatsimplicity and appearance of truth, and conveys much information on theinhabitants, as well as the soil, climate, &c. Of these islands. 

747. A Description of Prince of Wales Island. By Sir Home Popham. 1806, 8vo. 

748. Sir George Leith's Account of the Settlement, Produce, and Commerce ofPrince of Wales Island. 8vo. 1805. 

INDIAN ISLANDS. 

749. Historical Relation of Ceylon. By Robert Knox. 1681. Folio. --Thiswork, though published so long ago, and by one who was a prisoner, stillretains its character, as the fullest and most interesting account of theinhabitants of Ceylon in the English language. The voluminous work ofValyntyn, in Dutch, which we have already noticed, may be advantageouslyconsulted on this island, as well as on all parts of India formerlypossessed by the Dutch. 

750. John C. Wolfe's Life and Adventures in Ceylon. 1785. 8vo. --This work, translated from the Dutch, amidst much that is merely personal, containssome curious notices on Ceylon and its inhabitants. To the Englishtranslation is appended an account by Erkelskrom, which is valuable, asdescribing the island at the period when it passed from the Dutch to theEnglish. 

751. Davy's Account of the Interior of Ceylon. 1821, 4to. --This is anexcellent work, though like many other works of excellence, too bulky; itschief and peculiar merit and recommendation consist in its details on thenatural history of Ceylon. 

752. Marsden's History of Sumatra. 1783. 4to. --This is a most excellentwork in the plan and execution, embracing almost every topic connected withthe island and its inhabitants. 

753. Voyage to the Isle of Borneo. By Capt. Beckman. 1718, 8vo. --Of thislarge island, so little known, this volume, and an article inserted in theTransactions of the Batavian Society of Java, gives us many interestingparticulars; there are also some notices of it in Forrest's Voyage. 

754. The Narrative of Captain Woodward, with a Description of the Island ofCelebes. 1804, 8vo. --Woodward was an American captain who was takenprisoner by the Malays of Celebes: this work is the result of hisobservations and experience during his captivity; but it is confined to thewestern division of the isle: of this, however, it gives many particulars, respecting the produce, animals, inhabitants, &c. Stavorinus's works mayalso be consulted regarding Celebes. 

755. Crawfurd's History of the Indian Archipelago. 1820. 3 vols. 8vo. --Thisis a valuable work, particularly in what relates to the actual commerce andcommercial capabilities of these islands: it also treats of the manners, religion, language, &c. Of the inhabitants; but on some of these points notwith the soundest judgment, or the most accurate information. 

756. Raffles's History of Java. 1817. 2 vols. 4to. --Had this work beencompressed into a smaller compass, by a judicious abridgment of thehistorical part, its value as well as interest would have been enhanced;these, however, are not small, as it gives by far the fullest and mostaccurate account of Java, and its inhabitants, that has appeared; and asthe author, from his residence and high official situation, possessed everyadvantage, its accuracy may be depended on. When the natural historyillustrations of Java, by Mr. Horsfield, are completed, they will, inconjunction with this work, and the Transactions of the Batavian Society, leave nothing to be desired on the subject of this part of Asia. 

757. E. Koempfer's Geschichte und Beschriebung von Japan. Lemgo, 1777-79. 2vols. 4to. --This edition of Koempfer's celebrated work on Japan containsseveral things which are not to be found in the English translation. 

758. Histoire du Japan. Par Charlevoix. Paris, 1754, 6 vols. 12mo. --Thisis the best edition of Charlevoix's work, many parts of which, especiallywhat relates to natural history, are drawn from Koempfer. Charlevoix hasadded important details on the administration of justice in Japan, and onthe moral character of the Japanese; but the bulk of the work is swelled bytiresome ecclesiastical details. 

759. Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa. By Thunberg. 1794, 4 vols. 8vo. --This work relates principally to Japan; and it may justly beremarked, that few parts of the world have met with sucn admirabledescribers as Japan has done, in Koempfer and Thunberg. Certainly thenatural history of no part, so rich in this respect, has been so fully andscientifically investigated. A French translation of this work waspublished in Paris in 1796, in 2 vols. 4to. Enriched by the notes ofLangles and La Marck. 

760. Golownin's Narrative of his Captivity in Japan, 1811-13. 2 vols. 8vo. --Japan is a country so little accessible, that every work on it isacceptable. This work does not add very much to what Koempfer and Thunberghave told, but perhaps quite as much as the author, under hiscircumstances, could collect or observe. The same remarks apply to hisRecollections of Japan. 1 vol. 8vo. 

 The history of the missions in the East Indies, Japan, and China, which were published in the Italian, Spanish, German, and French languages, towards the end of the sixteenth, and the beginning of the seventeenth century, is interspersed with some curious and valuable information regarding these countries; the titles and character of the principal of these may be found in the Bibliothèque, vol. 5. P. 264, 272, &c. 

761. Voyage to China and the East Indies, by Rel. Osbeck; with a Voyage toSurat, by Torreens; and an Account of the Chinese Husbandry, by Ekelberg. Translated from the German by J. R. Forster. To which is added a Fauna etFlora Sinensis. 1777, 2 vols. 8vo. --Travels, embracing scientific naturalhistory, by competent persons, are so rare and valuable, that the titles ofsuch should not be omitted: the nature of this work is sufficientlyindicated by the title, and its merit by its having been translated byForster. 

762. Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes Orientals et à la Chiné, 1774. 1781. Paris, 1806. 4 vols. 8vo. --This work is particularly full and minute on thetheography of the Hindoos: besides the East Indies and China, it embracesPegu, the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, Malacca, &c. A translation of part ofit into English was printed at Calcutta. 

763. Nouvelles Mémoires sur l'État present de la Chine. Par Le Comte. Paris, 1701, 3 vols. 12mo--The best account of China previous to Duhalde'swork, though in many particulars extremely partial to the Chinese. 

764. Mémoires concernant l'Histoire, les Sciences, et les Arts des Chinois. Par les Missionaires de Pekin. Paris, 1775, &c. 15 vols. 4to. --In thisvoluminous work is contained a wonderful deal of information on China; thecontinuation of the work was put a stop to by the French Revolution: it isby far the best the Jesuits have produced on China; and if there arematerials for perfecting it, they ought to be given to the public. 

765. Description Geographique, Historique, Chronologique, Politique, etPhysique de la Chiné et de Tartarie Chinoise. Par Duhalde. Le Hague, 1736, 4 vols. 4to. --Of this work there is an English translation. Duhalde hasdrawn his materials from a variety of sources, especially from the printedand manuscript accounts of the missionaries; but he has failed to exercisea sound judgment, and a scrupulous examination into the truth of many factsand opinions which he has admitted into his work. 

 But though the public are certainly much indebted to the missionaries for the information they have given respecting this singular country, yet there are obvious circumstances which rendered their accounts suspicious in some points, and defective in others, so that the publication of the accounts of the Dutch and British Embassies added much to our stock of accurate knowledge regarding China. The following is the title of the French translation of part of the Dutch Embassy:

766. Voyage de la Campagne des Indes Orientales vers l'Empire de la Chiné, 1794-5. Tiré du Journal de Van Braam. Philadelphe. 1797, 4to. --There isalso an English translation. 

767. Sir George Staunton's Account of the Embassy of the Earl of Macartneyto China. 2 vols. 4to. 1797. 

768. John Barrow's Travels to China. 4to. 1804. 

 These works, especially the latter, together with Lord Macartney's own journal in the second volume of his life, contain a deal of information, considering the jealousy of the Chinese; some additions, corrections, and different views of the same circumstances, as well as a further insight into the manners of the Chinese, as indicated by their conduct, will be found in the two following works which relate to the Embassy of Lord Amherst. The first is by the naturalist to the Embassy. 

769. Abel's Narrative of a Journey in the Interior of China. 1816-17. 4to. 

770. Ellis's Journal of the Proceedings of the late Embassy to China. 4to. 

771. Relation du Naufrage sur la Côte de l'Isle de Quælpeart, avec laDescription de Coree. Paris, 1670, 12mo. --This work, translated from theDutch, besides the interest which personal adventures in a foreign country, and under unusual circumstances, always inspires, gives much informationregarding the manners of the inhabitants, and the ceremonies, &c. Of thecourt of Corea, --a part of Asia very little known. 

772. Captain Hall's Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea, and theGreat Loo-choo Island. 4to. --A work not less valuable for its maritimegeography and science, than for the pleasing interest which it excites onbehalf of the natives of Loo-choo, and the favourable impression it leavesof Captain Hall, his officers and seamen. 

TARTARY, &C. 

773. Noord-Oost Tartarie. Par Nic. Witsen. Amsterd. 1705, 2 vols. Folio. --Forster, an excellent and seldom too favourable a judge, speakshighly of this work. 

774. Nomadische Streifereisen unter den Kalmuken. Von B. Borgman. Riga, 1805-6, 4 vols. 8vo. --The author of this work resided some time with theKalmucks, at the command of the Emperor of Russia; and he seems to haveemployed his time well, in gaining information respecting the past andpresent state of their country, and their manners, intellectual, moral, andreligious state. 

THIBET, &C. 

775. Antonio de Andrada novo Descubrimento de Grao Catayo ou dos Regnos deTibet. Lisbon, 1626, 4to. --This work has been translated into French, Italian, Flemish, and Spanish; it contains the narrative of the firstpassage of the Himalaya Mountains. (_See Quarterly Review, No. 48. Page337, &c. _)

776. Turner's Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teesho Lama, inThibet. 1800, 4to. --This work is full of information and interest: itrelates to the soil, climate, and produce of Thibet; the moral character, and especially the singular religion of the inhabitants, and theirinstitutions, manufactures, disorders, &c. 

777. Kirkpatrick's Account of Nepaul in 1793. 4to. --This is one of the bestaccessions to our information respecting this part of Asia which has beenproduced by our establishments in India. 

778. Account of the Kingdom of Nepaul. By Francis Hamilton, (formerlyBuchanan). 1819, 4to. --The same character applies to this as to the otherwork by the same author. 

779. Fraser's Journal of a Tour through part of the Snowy Ridge of theHimalaya Mountains. 1820. 4to. --Notwithstanding Mr. Fraser's ignorance ofnatural history, in a country quite new, and full of most interestingobjects in this science, and that he had no means of measuring heights, orascertaining the temperature or pressure of the air; and notwithstanding awant of method, and a heaviness and prolixity in the style, this bookpossesses great interest, from the scenes of nature and pictures of mannerswhich it exhibits. 

780. Elphinstone's Account of Caubul and its Dependencies. 1815. 4to. --Theinterest and value of this work arises more from the subject of it, thanfrom the manner in which it is executed; respecting such countries, however, as Caubul, and others as little known and remote, we are glad ofall accessions of information. 

ASIATIC RUSSIA. 

781. Reisen durch Siberien, 1733-1743. Von J. G. Gmelin. Gott. 4 vols. 8vo. --This work is worthy of the name which it bears: it is full andparticular on the physical and moral geography of Siberia, but especiallyon its mines and iron foundries. 

782. Voyage en Siberie, 1761. Par Chappe d'Auteroche. Paris, 1768. 3 vols. 4-to. --This work gave rise to a severe attack on it, under the title ofAntidote. D'Auteroche's object on his travels was principally scientific, but he has entered fully into the character of the inhabitants, andespecially those of the capital, and into the character, and intellectualand moral state of the Russians in general. 

783. Relation d'un Voyage aux Monts d'Altai en Siberie, 1781. Par Patrin. Peters. 1785, 8vo. --Mineralogical. 

784. Recherches Historiques sur les Principales Nations Établies enSiberie. Paris, 1801. 8vo. --This work, translated from the Russian ofFischer, displays a great deal of research, and is not unworthy of anauthor who imitated Pallas, Gmelin, Müller, &c. 

785. Recherches sur les Principales Nations en Siberie. Traduit du Russe deStollenweck. 8vo. 

786. Description de Kamschatcha. Par Krascheninnikof. Amsterd. 1770. 2vols. 8vo. --The soil, climate, productions, minerals, furs, habitations, manners, employments, religious ceremonies and opinions, &c. , and even thedialect spoken in different parts, are here treated of. 

787. Journal Historique du Voyage de M. Lesseps. Paris, 1790. 2 vols. 8vo. --Lesseps sailed with Le Peyrouse, but left him in Kamschatcha, andtravelled by land to France with despatches from him; his narrative gives alively picture of the inhabitants of the northern parts of Asiatic andEuropean Russia. The work has been translated into English; there is also aGerman translation by Forster. 

788. Sauer's Account of Billing's Geographical and Astronomical Expeditionto the Northern Parts of Russia, 1785-94. 4to. --An account of thisexpedition was also published in Russian by Captain Saretschewya, one ofthe officers engaged in it. Parts of the continent, and islands and seaslittle known, are described in these two works, but they are deficient innatural history. 

789. Holderness's Notes relating to the Manners and Customs of the CrimTartars. 1823. 8vo. --Mrs. Holderness resided four years in the Crimea, andshe seems to have employed her time well, having produced an instructivebook on the manners, domestic life, &c. , not only of the Crim Tartars, butlikewise of the various colonists of the Crimea. 

IX. AMERICA. 

 Those works which relate to the discovery of America, derive their interest rather from their historical nature than from the insight they give into the physical and moral state of this portion of the globe. In one important particular; America differs from all the other quarters of the world, very early travels in Asia or Africa unfold to us particulars respecting races of people that still exist, and thus enable us to compare their former with their present state, whereas nearly all the original inhabitants of America have disappeared. 

 Referring therefore our readers to the historians of the discovery and conquest of America, and to the Bibliothèque des Voyages, for the titles and nature of those works which detail the voyages of Columbus, Vespucius, &c. , we shall confine ourselves chiefly to such works as enter more fully into a description of the country and its colonized inhabitants. 

790. Journal des Observations Physiques, Mathematiques, et Botaniques, faites par le P. Feuillée, sur les Côtes de l'Amerique Méridionale et dansles Indes Occidentales. Paris, 1714. 2 vols. 4to. 

791. Suite du Journal. Paris, 1715. 4to. --Excellent works on the subjectsindicated in the title. 

792. Notizias Americanas sobre las America Meridionel y la Septentrionel-Oriental. Par Don Ant. De Ulloa. Madrid, 1772. 4to. --This work, which mustnot be confounded with the conjoint work of Ulloa and Juan, is rich invaluable matter, physical, political, and moral; it was translated intoGerman by M. Diez, Professor of Natural History at Gottingen, who has addedlearned and judicious observations. 

793 Voyages intéressans dans differentes Colonies Françaises, Espagnoles, Anglaise. Paris, 1788. 8vo. --The most original and interesting portions ofthis work relate to Porto Rico, Curaçoa, Granada, the Bermudas, &c. ; thereare also valuable remarks on the climate and diseases of St. Domingo. 

794. Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the BahamaIslands. 1734-43. 2 vols. Folio. 

795. Appendix to ditto. 1748. Folio. --The celebrated naturalist, GeorgeEdwards, published an edition of this splendid work, with the appendix, inLatin and French, in 2 vols. Folio. 1764-71. 

796. Peter Kalm's Travels in North America, translated by R. Forster. 1772. 2 vols. 8vo. --Chiefly geological and mineralogical; in other respects notinteresting. 

797. Adair's History of the American Indians. 1775. 4to. --The speculationsof this writer are abundantly absurd; but there are interspersed somecurious notices of the Indians, collected by the author, while he residedand traded with them. 

798. Travels through Carolina, Georgia, Florida, &c. By W. Bertram. 1792. 2vols. 8vo. --A most interesting work to lovers of natural history, especially botany, a study to which Bertram was enthusiastically attached. There is an account of Mr. Bertram in the American Farmer's Letters. 

799. An Account of the Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay. By Ar. Dobbs. 1744. 12mo. 

800. The State of Hudson's Bay. By Ed. Humphraville. 1790. 8vo. 

801. Account of Prince of Wales Island, in the Gulph of St. Lawrence. By J. Stewart. 1808. 8vo. --A good deal of information on the soil, agriculture, productions, climate, &c. : the zoology imperfect. 

802. Hall's Travels in Canada and the United States, 1816-17. 8vo. 

802. Howison's Sketches of Upper Canada. 8vo. 1821. 

 Hall's is a pleasant and lively work, unfolding many of the peculiarities of the manners, customs, &c. , of Canada and the adjacent parts of the United States. Howison's is the work of an abler man: it is rich in valuable information to emigrants; and is, moreover, highly descriptive of scenery and manners. The part relative to the United States is superficial. 

804. Collection des Plusieures Relations du Canada, 1632-1672. 43 vols. 12mo. 

805. Charlevoix's Travels in North America, translated from the French. 1772. 2 Vols. 4to. --The physical and moral state of the inhabitants are theprincipal objects of this work. 

806. Carver's Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, 1766-68. 8vo. --There is much information in this work respecting that part ofAmerica, which has lately attracted so much attention from its vicinity tothe supposed north-west passage; it is in all other respects, exceptnatural history, an interesting and instructive work. 

807. Long's Voyage and Travels of an Indian Interpreter. 1774. 3 vols. 4to. Volney characterizes this work as exhibiting a most faithful picture of thelife and manners of the Indians and Canadian traders. 

808. Weld's Travels through North America, 1795-7. 2 vols. 8vo. --Travels inthe United States derive their interest and value from a variety ofsources: the inhabitants of these states under their government, and thepeculiar circumstances in which they are placed, must be a subject of deepattention and study to the moralist, the philosopher, the politician, andthe political economist, while the country itself presents to thenaturalist many and various sources of information and acquisitions to hisknowledge. The travels of Mr. Weld, and most of those which we shall haveto enumerate, were undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining whatadvantages and disadvantages an emigrant would derive from exchangingEurope for America. Thus led to travel from the principal motive ofself-interest, it might be imagined that these travellers would examineevery thing carefully, fully, most minutely, and impartially: in all modesexcept the last, it has certainly been done by several travellers; butgreat caution must be used in reading all travels in the United States, because the picture drawn of them is too often overcharged, either withgood or evil. Mr, Weld's is a respectable work; and like all travels, evena few years back, in a country so rapidly changing and improving, from thiscause as well as its information on statistics, toil, climate, morals, manners, &c. May be consulted with advantage. It is to be regretted thathe, as well as most other travellers in America, was not better preparedwith a scientific knowledge of natural history. Canada, as well as theUnited States, is comprized in Mr. Weld's travels. 

809. Mellish's Travels through the United States of America, 1816-17. 2vols. 8vo. --This is perhaps as impartial and judicious an account of theUnited States as any that has lately appeared. 

810. Lettres d'un Cultivateur Americain, 1770-86. Par M. St. John deCrevecoeur. Paris, 1787. 3 vols. 8vo. --We give the French edition of thiswork in preference to the English, because it is much fuller. This work ofa Frenchman, long settled in the Anglo-American colonies, gives, in ananimated and pleasing manner, much information on the manners of America atthis period, the habits and occupations of the new settlers, and on thesubject of natural history. 

811. Voyages dans les États Unis, 1784. Par J. F. D. Smith. Paris, 1791. 2vols. 8vo. --Virginia, Maryland, the two Carolinas, and Louisiana, partsof North America, not so often visited by travellers as the northernstates, are here described with considerable talent, and in a pleasingstyle. We are not acquainted with the English work, of which this professesto be a translation. 

812. Nouveau Voyage dans les États Unis, 1788. Par Brissot. Paris, 3 vols. 8vo. --Statistics, religion, manners, political economy, agriculture, commerce, manufactures, the arts and sciences, are here treated of in asensible, but rather an uninteresting manner. 

813. La Rochefoucault's Travels to the United States of America, 1799. 2vols. 4to. --Agriculture, statistics, manufactures, commerce, national anddomestic habits, form the chief topic of these volumes, which, allowing forsome prejudices, present a fair picture of America at this period. 

814. Tableau du Climat et du Sol des États Unis. Par C. F. Volney. 1803. 2vols. 8vo. --Though physical geography and statistics form the principalportion of this valuable work, yet it is by no means uninstructive on thesubject of national and domestic character; and it enters fully into thecondition of savage life. 

 Particular histories and descriptions have been published of several of the United States; we shall merely notice such as are the result of personal observation, and as give interesting and instructive information respecting their past or present state. 

815. Belknap's History of New Hampshire, 1792. Boston, 3 vols. 8vo. --Thetwo first volumes are historical, but many things in them are instructiveto those who wish to trace the formation of character: the third volumerelates to climate, soil, produce, &c. 

816. The History of Virginia, by a Native and Inhabitant of the place. R. B. Beverley. 1722. 8vo. --The first part is purely historical; in the second, the author gives an account of the productions of the country; the thirdrelates to the manners, &c. Of the Indians; the fourth is political. Thereare, besides, many pertinent remarks on the physical geography of Virginia, and on its climate and diseases. 

817. Notes on Virginia. By Thos. Jefferson. 1788. 8vo. --Politics, commerce, manufactures, and navigation, are here treated of in a satisfactory andinstructive manner, but with rather too much the air of philosophy. 

818. Michaux's Travels to the West of the Alleghany Mountains. 1805. 8vo. --These travels are instructive regarding the manners, commerce, soil, climate, and especially botany. 

819. Lewis and Clarke's Travels up the Missouri to the Pacific Ocean, 1804-6. 4to. 

820. Pike's Exploratory Travels through the Western Territory of NorthAmerica. 4to. 

821. James's Account of an Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 1819-20. 3vols. 8vo. 

822. Schoolcraft's Travels to the Sources of the Mississippi. 1820. 8vo. 

823. Nuttall's Travels into the Arkansa Territory. 1819. 8vo. --Thesetravels describe a vast portion of America to the west of the AlleghanyMountains, especially the valley of the Mississippi, and its tributarystreams. They are rather prolix and heavily written. Mr. James's work isrichest in natural history. 

824. A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida. By Bernard Romans. New York, 1766. 12mo. --The climate, productions, and diseases of Floridaare here treated of by this author, who was a medical man, and had goodopportunities of observation and experience. 

825. Description de la Louisiane. Par L. P. Hennepin, Paris, 1688. 12mo. --This author first made Europe acquainted with Louisiana; but hiswork is meagre on every topic, except the manners, &c. Of the natives. 

826. Histoire de la Louisiane. Par M. Le Page du Prats. Paris, 1758. 3vols. 12mo. --During a residence of 15 years, this author seems to have paidparticular attention to geology, mineralogy, and other branches of naturalhistory, and has given the results of his observations in these volumes. 

827. Travels through that part of North America called Louisiana. Translated and illustrated with notes by R. B. Forster. 1771-2. 2 vols. 8vo. --The author of this work was a M. Bossu; who also published, a fewyears afterwards, Nouveaux Voyages dans l'Amerique Septentrionale. Amsterdam. 8vo. --The first of these works is chiefly interesting from theminute details into which it enters respecting the Illinois territory. Mr. Forster's translation contains a catalogue of American plants. 

828. Voyage en Californie. Par l'Abbé Chappe D'Auteroche. Paris, 1778. 4to. --The city of Mexico, as well as California, is here described in aninteresting manner. As concerns the latter, this work may be regarded as astandard one. 

829. The History of Mexico; to which are added, Dissertations on the Land, Animals, &c. Translated from the Italian of Clavigero, by C. Cullen. 1787. 2 vols. 4to. --Besides natural history, there is in this work much learnedresearch on the ancient history of Mexico. 

THE WEST INDIES. 

830. Histoire Generale des Antilles. Par le P. Dututie. 1667-1671. 4 vols. 4to. --This work is very full in all the branches of natural history, andis by no means uninstructive on intellectual and moral geography. 

831. Voyages aux Antilles, &c. , 1767-1802. Par J. B. Le Blond. Paris, 1813. 8vo. --Statistics, climate, geology, mineralogy, diseases, and manners, are the principal topics of this work, and are treated of with ability andinterest. 

832. Voyages aux Isles de Trinidad, &c. Par J. J. D. Laraysee. Paris, 1813. 2vols. 8vo. --The first volume relates to Trinidad: the second to Tobago, Cumana, Guiana, and Margarita. The soil, climate, productions, andoccasionally the natural history and geology of these parts are heretreated of. 

833. Baudin Voyage aux Isles Teneriffe la Trinite, Porto Rico, &c. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1810. --To these travels Sonnini has added some valuablenotes. 

834. Voyage d'un Suisse dans differentes Colonies de l'Amerique. 1783. 8vo. --Martinique and St. Domingo are particularly described, and themineralogy of the latter fully entered into. 

835. Bryan Edwards' History of the British Colonies in the West Indies, andthe French Colony in St. Domingo. 1801. 3 vols. 8vo. --This work justlybears an excellent character, and is very full and minute on almost everytopic connected with these islands. 

836. Histoire de St. Domingue. Par le P. Charlevoix. Paris, 1722. 2 vols. 4to. --This work, drawn up chiefly from the memoirs of the missionaries, treats of the political, military, and moral state of the island, and morebriefly of its produce, animals, &c. --This briefness is compensated in thefollowing work:

837. Essai sur I'Histoire Naturelle de St. Domingue. Par le P. Nicolson. Paris, 1766. 8vo. 

838. Ed. Long's History of Jamaica. 3 vols. 4to. 1774. --A work ofsterling merit, and if read in conjunction with the following to supply thenatural history of the island, will leave little to be known respectingthis important island. 

839. Pat. Brown's Civil and Natural History of Jamaica. 1756. Folio. 

840. Ligon's History of Barbadoes. 1695. 8vo. 

841. Labat Voyage aux Isles de l'Amerique. La Haye, 1724. 6 vols. 12mo. --This is esteemed the best work of Labat, and it certainly is veryinstructive in all that relates to Martinique, Guadaloupe, St. Vincent, St. Thomas, St. Lucia, St. Eustatius, &c. 

842. Voyage à la Martinique. Par Chauvalson. Paris, 1763. 4to. --Naturalhistory, meteorology, agriculture, and manners. 

843. Account of St. Michael, one of the Azores. By Dr. Webster. --This work, which is published in America, contains an interesting description of St. Michael, particularly in what relates to its natural history and geology. 

SOUTH AMERICA. 

844. Preliminar al Tomo primero de las Memorias Historico-Physicas, Critico-Apologeticas, de la America Meridional. Par D. J. E. Lamo Zaputa. Cadiz, 1759. 8vo. 

845. Reise eineger Missionarien in Sud America. Von C. Gott. Von Murr. Nurem. 1785. 8vo. 

846. Depon's Travels in South America, 1801-4. 2 vols. 8vo. --The Caraccas, Venezuela, Guyana, Cumana, are the principal objects of this work; therural economy, the political and commercial situation of these parts atthis period, and the manners of the Spanish Americans are here treated ofin a superior manner. 

847. Nouvelle Description de la France Equinoctiale. Par Pierre Barrere. Paris, 1743. 12mo. 

848. Essai sur l'Histoire Naturelle de la France Equinoctiale. Par P. Barrere. Paris, 1749. 2 vols. 8vo. --The former of these works is chieflyconfined to a description of the natives, their weapons, manners, mode oflife, &c. : the latter work is full on the natural history of Guyana. 

849. Bancroft's Essay on the Natural History of Guyana. 1769. 8vo. --Besidesnatural history, this work may be consulted with advantage on the manners, &c. Of the natives. 

850. Stedman's Narrative of a Five-Years' Expedition against the RevoltedNegroes of Surinam, 1772-7. 2 vols. 4to. --There is an air of romance inseveral parts of this work, which, though it adds to its interest, raisessuspicions of its accuracy and faithfulness, and that it has been in thehands of a trading editor; still it is a work from which a lively picturemay be obtained of Surinam and its inhabitants. 

851. Tableau de Cayenne. Paris, 1793. 8vo. --Climate, produce, mode ofculture, manners and nautical observations form the principal topics ofthis work. 

852. Narrative of a Voyage to Brazil. By Th. Lindley. 1804. 8vo. --This workcontains much information regarding the political, commercial, and domesticstate of the Brazilians, with some notices on natural history. As Brazilused to be visited by our ships before we obtained the Cape, on theirvoyage to the East Indies and China, much information may be gained fromseveral voyages to the latter, especially from the accounts of LordMacartney's Embassy by Staunton and Barrow. 

853. Luccock's Notes on Rio Janeiro, and the Southern Parts of Brazil. 1820. 4to. --Mr. Luccock resided eleven years in Brazil, and he seems tohave been a careful observer; his work gives much new and importantinformation on agriculture, statistics, commerce, mines, manners, &c. , butit is heavily written. 

854. Koster's Travels in the Brazils. 1816. 4to. --This work, together withLuccock's, Henderson's, and Mawe's, comprize a body of information onBrazil, nearly complete on all points except natural history, and that mustbe sought in Prince Maximilian's Travels. 

855. History of Paraguay. By Charlevoix. 1760. 2 vols. 8vo. --This work isfull on the plants, animals, fruits, &c. , of this country; and isparticularly interesting from the account it gives of the celebrated andsingular Jesuit establishment in Paraguay. 

856. Voyages dans l'Amerique Meridionale, 1781-1801. Par Don F. De Azara. 4vols. 8vo. Paris, 1809. --The author, who was commissioner of the lines ofthe Spanish frontier in Paraguay, gives in this work much information onthe climate, soil, &c. Of countries little known; and the value of it isenhanced by the notes of Cuvier and Sonnini on natural history. 

857. Relation de la Voyage dans les Provinces de la Plata. 8vo. Paris, 1819. 

858. Historia de Abifponibus. Autore Dobutzhoffen. Vienna, 1784. 8vo. --Thiswork has lately been translated into English: had it been carefully andjudiciously abridged it would have been acceptable, but it is tiresome fromits extreme minuteness on uninteresting points. 

859. Historia del Descubriniento y Conquesta del Peru. Par August deZarate. Anvers, 1555. 8vo. --This work is not merely historical, but it alsoembraces many interesting particulars on physical geography, and themanners, religion, &c. , of the Peruvians. 

860. Histoire des Incas, traduit de l'Espagnole de Garcilasso de la Vega. Amsterdam, 1737. 2 vols. 4to. --The interest of this work arises from itsaccuracy and fullness on the laws, government, religion, &c. , of theancient Peruvians. To this French translation is added a history of theconquest of Florida. 

861. A Voyage to the South Sea along the Coasts of Chili and Peru, 1712-14. By Mr. Frezier. 1717. 4to. --The object for which Mr. Frezier was sentrelated to the defence of Peru and Chili; but he also enters fully into anaccount of the mines and the mode of working them, and into a descriptionof manners, domestic life, &c. 

862. Journal du Voyage fait à l'Equateur. Par M. De la Condamine. Paris, 1751. 4to. --Besides the detail of astronomical observations, this work isinteresting from the personal narrative of the labours of the academician, and instructive on several points of physical and moral geography. 

863. Humboldt, Voyage aux Régions Equinoctiales du Nouveau Continent, 1799-1804. 6 vols. 8vo. 

864. Humboldt, Relation Historique de son Voyage aux Régions Equinoctialesdu Nouveau Continent. 2 vols. 4to. 

865. Humboldt, Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne, Paris, 5 vols. 8vo. 1811. --Perhaps no traveller ever equalled Humboldt inthe possession and exercise of such an union of qualifications requisite torender travels instructive and interesting; nor would it be easy to nameany travels which have so completely exhausted the subject of them, asthose, the titles of which we have given, if taken in connexion with themore purely scientific appendages to them. 

866. A Voyage to South America. By Don George Juan and Don Ant. De Ulloa. 1758. 2 vols. 8vo. --Peru, Chili, Carthagena, Porto Bello, and Panama, aredescribed in these volumes with great talent and science with regard totheir natural history, climate, and productions; and together with thecivil, political, and domestic life of the inhabitants, and various othertopics. 

867. Helm's Travels from Buenos Ayres by Potosi to Lima, 1806. 12mo. --Natural history, and chiefly geology and mineralogy, with a veryparticular account of the mines of Potosi. 

868. Compendio della Istoria Geografica, Naturale e Civile de Chili. Bologna, 1776. 8vo. 

869. Chiliduga sive res Chilenses. Opera Bern. Havestad. Munster, 1777-79. 8vo. --Natural history, the character of the inhabitants, their music andlanguage are here treated of in a superior manner. 

870. Molina's Geographical, Natural, and Civil History of Chili, 1809. 2vols. 8vo. --An excellent work, which fulfils what the title promises. 

POLYNESIA. 

871. An Historical Collection of the several Voyages and Discoveries in theSouth Pacific Ocean. By Alex. Dalrymple. 1770. 2 vols. 4to. 

872. Captain James Burney's Chronological History of the Voyages andDiscoveries in the South Seas. 5 vols. 4to. 1803-16. --Both these works areby men well qualified by science, learning, research, and devotedness totheir object, to perform well what they undertook on any subject connectedwith geography and discovery. 

873. Keate's Account of the Pelew Islands. 1788. 4to. 

874. A Missionary Voyage to the South Pacific Ocean. By Captain Wilson. 1799. 4to. --Otaheite is the principal subject of this work. 

875. Mariner's Account of the Tonga Islands in the South Pacific. 1817. 2vols. 8vo. --This is a very full, accurate, and interesting picture of themanners and character of a singular people, drawn from long and attentiveobservation on the spot. 

AUSTRALASIA. 

876. Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes. Par le President deBrosses. Paris, 1756. 2 vols. 4to--This work is more highly prized on thecontinent than with us: it certainly is not equal to some of our historiesof voyages either in judgment, accuracy of information, or extensive views. 

877. Relation de deux Voyages dans les Mers Australes et des Indes. 1771-73. Par M. De Kerguelen. Paris, 1781. 8vo. 

878. Voyage à la Nouvelle Guinée. Par Sonnerat. Paris, 1776. 4to. --Natural history, and especially zoology and ornithology. 

879. Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes. 1800-4. Par Peron. 2 vols. 4to. Paris, 1811. 

880. Captain Th. Forrest's Voyage to New Guinea and the Moluccas, 1774-6. Dublin, 1779. 4to. --This work supplies what is wanting in Sonneret's, asit is full on the physical and moral character of the inhabitants, and ontheir language, mode of life, and trade. 

881. Governor Phillips's Voyage to Botany Bay. 1789. 4to. 

882. Collins' Account of the English Colony in New South Wales. 1801. 2vols. 4to. 

883. Wentworth's Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of NewSouth Wales, and Van Dieman's Land. 1819. 8vo. 

884. Oxley's Journey of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New SouthWales. 1820. 4to. --These British colonies are improving so rapidly thatno description can long be full and accurate. Mr. Wentworth's work is, webelieve, as good an account as we have; and Mr. Oxley's is interesting fromgiving an authentic description of the interior of this singular country. Aperusal and comparison of the best works that have been published regardingit from the date of that of Collins to the present time, would exhibit arapidity of improvement, of which there are few examples. 

885. Some Account of New Zealand. By John Savage. 1808. 8vo. --A judiciousand instructive work on the manners, religion, and character of thenatives. Further information on these points, and likewise on theproductions of New Zealand, may be gathered from Captain Cruise's TenMonths' Residence there, just published. 

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX TO THE CATALOGUE, WITH REFERENCE TO THE NUMBERS PREFIXEDTO THE TITLE OF EACH WORK. 

A

Abyssinia, 134. 671-678. Adriatic, Shores of, 430. Africa, 112. 116. 147. 582-587. ---- West Coast, 622-641. ---- South, 654-664. ---- Interior, 642-649. Algiers, 113. 588, 589. Alps, 168. 186. 342. 357. 364-366. 371-373. 376. 380. Albania, 169. 195. 285. 287. 297, 298. Aleppo, 693, 694. Apennines, 394. Arctic Seas and Countries, 200-222. Archipelago, 80. 89. 296. Armenia, 80. 92. 696. 708. 712. Arabia, 102. 104. 110. 117. 129. 132. 136, 137, 138. 683. 690, 691. 698-702. Asia Minor, 80. 89. 114. 116. 132. 281. 296. ----, Eastern parts, 82-84. ----, Upper, 112. Ashantee, 636. Austria, 191. 195. 330. 343, 344. Auvergne, 456-458. Ava, 738. Australasia, 876-885. 

B

Barbary, 77. 108. 117. 590. 597. Balbec, 135. Basque Language, 468. Bahamas, 794. Barbadoes, 840. Bedouin Arabs, 590. Bermudas, 793. Black Sea, 80, 291, 302. Bohemia, 124. 158. 175. 316. 330. Bosphorus, 303. Bornea, 753. Brazil, 147. 150, 151. 852-854. Britain, 158. 483-538. 

C

Collections of Voyages and Travels, 14-43. Cape of Good Hope, 78. 641. 654-664. ---- Verde, 149. Caspian Sea, 83. Carraib Islands, 146. Canaries, 149. 622. 651-653. Candia, 282. Campagna, the, 412, 413. 428. Cachemere, 732. Caubul, 780. Carolina, 794. 798. Canada, 802-807. California, 828. Carpathian Mountains, 309. Caraccas, 846. Cayenne, 851. Ceylon, 134. 734. 749-751. Celibes, 754. China, 92. 679-682. 684, 685. 761-770. Chili, 868-870. Circassia, 101. Constantinople, 80. 94, 95. 97. 108. 111. 287. 289. 297. 301. Corsica, 397. 419. Congo, 638. Cochin-China, 742. Corea, 771, 772. Crimea, 290-293. 789. Cumana, 846. Cyprus, 136. 695. 

D

Damascus, 97. 135. Darfour, 131. Dalmatia, 195. 283. 304, 305. 427. Danube, 333, 334. Dauphiny, 452. Dahomy, 635. Denmark, 179. 190. 236. 243. Desert, Great, of Africa, 595, 596. 

E

East Indies, 81. 85. 90. 102. 110. 118. 123. 132. 134. 137. 151-154. 679. 690. 706, 707. 716-748. Egypt, 100. 102-104. 106-108. 110, 111. 113. 117, 118. 121. 131. 135-138. 605--620. Elba, 404, 405. England, 96. 175. 178. 180. 192. 199. 483-520. ----, Western Counties, 488. 500. ----, Northern, 489, 490. 497. ----, Southern, 497. ----, Eastern, 488. 497. Ethiopia, 137. 608. 615. 619, 620. 673. Etna, 391. 420. 

F

Feroe Isles, 235. Fez, 591. 593. 598-600. Finland, 237. Florida, 794. 798. 824. France, 77. 79. 96. 104. 158, 159. 163-165. 167. 171, 172. 177. 180. 182. 184. 193, 194. 197. 199. 431-469. Friesland, 354. 

G

Georgia, 80. 88. 712-715. ---- in America, 798. Germany, 79. 83. 85. 104. 158-160. 162. 165, 166. 172. 175. 177. 179. 183, 184. 187-190. 194. 196, 197. 199. 244. 313-354. Glaciers, the, 361-363. Greece, 89. 101. 103, 104. 107, 108. 113, 114. 116. 160. 169. 181. 196. 279-282. 285-287. 294-299. 301-305. Guadaloupe, 841. Guayana, 846-849. Guernsey, 553, 554. Guinea, 145. 149, 150. 630-634. 

H

Histories of Voyages and Travels, 14-43. Hanover, 326. Hartz Mountains, 338-340. Hesse, 341. Hebrides, 519, 520. 522, 523. 527. 531-535. 538. Holland, 83. 96. 162. 167. 172. 175. 193. --See Netherlands. Holstein, 246. 320. Hungary, 107. 124. 160. 194. 284. 306, 307. 316. 322. 330. Hudson's Bay, 799. 

I and J

Japan, 681. 684. 757-760. Java, 756. Jamaica, 148. Jerusalem, 95. 97. 135. 140. Jersey, 552. Jura, 461. Jutland, 246. _Instructions_ for Travellers, 1-13. Iceland, 228-234. Indian Archipelago, 755. Ionian Islands, 285. 305. 417. Ireland, 78. 508. 514-516. 539-549. Italy, 99, 100, 101. 104. 114. 121. 159-163. 167. 171. 173. 176-178. 183, 184. 187. 189, 190. 194. 196. 316. 385-430. 

K

Kamstchatcha, 130. 786-788. Karamania, 697. 

L

Lapland, 104, 223-226. 237-239. 242. 247. Lakes of Cumberland, &c. , 488. Levant, 81. 88. 115. 128. 139. 181. 597. Lithuania, 249. Lipari Isles, 416. Loo Choo, 772. Louisiania, 825-827. 

M

Madeira, 127. 148. 622. 650. Madagascar, 130. 150. 665, 666. 668. Magellan Straits, 147. Maldives, 151. Malta, 170. 393. 395, 396. 415. Man, Isle of, 527. 550, 551. Malacca, 685. Martinique, 841, 842. Mauritius, 667. 669, 670. Mecklenbergh, 320. Mexico, 828, 829. 863-865. Morocco, 156. 591-594. 598. 603. Moluccas, 151. Moldavia, 323. Mogul Empire, 684. --See E. Indies. 

N

Naples, 392-394. 414. 424. 428. Netherlands, 159, 160. 167. 180. 470-482. --See Holland. Nepaul, 777-779. New Hampshire, 815. --- Guinea, 878. 880. --- Holland, 881-884. --- Zealand, 885. Norway, 78. 227. 239. 241-245. Normandy, 438. 441, 442. Nubia, 133. 614. 618. 620. 

O

Orkney Islands, 521. 523. 526. Otaheite, 57-61. 874. 

P

Palestine, 99, 100. 104. 107, 108. 113, 114. 117, 118. 133. 138. Paraguay, 855, 856. Persia, 81. 87, 88. 90, 91. 95. 102. 106. 111. 114. 118. 137. 683. 703-712. 715. Peru, 859-867. Pelew Islands, 873. Portugal, 77. 164. 171. 176. 192. 557-562. 568. 574. 577. Poland, 104. 124. 179. 185. 236. 263-267. Polynesia, 871-875. Prussia, 98. 158. 185. 348. 350. Provence, 443. 453. Prince of Wales Island, 747, 748. Pyrenees, 454, 455. 

R

Ragusa, 427. Red Sea, 129. 132. 134. Rhine, the, 180. 318. 321. 328, 329. 331. 352, 353. 443. 462, 463. Rhodes, 282. 296. Rugen, Isle of, 351. Russia, 81. 85. 87, 88. 90, 91, 92. 98. 107. 124. 179. 185. 236. 249-262. 

S

Saxony, 327. 341. 345. 347. Sardinia, 418. Sahara, Desert of, Africa, 595, 596. St. Eustatius, 841. St. Lucea, 841. St. Michael, 843. St. Thomas, 841. St. Vincent, 841. St. Helena, 127. Scandinavia, 107. Scotland, 501, 502. 506, 507, 508. 510. 513-516. 518-540. Selborne, 496. Senegal, 622-628. Shetland, 524, 525. Sicily, 121. 166. 169, 170. 181. 198. 392-394. 396. 399. 414, 415. 424. Silesia, 316, 349. Sierra Leone, 629. Siam, 739-741. Siberia, 781-785. Sleswick, 246. Spain, 77, 78. 96. 164. 176. 434. 560-567. 569-581. Spanish possessions in Europe and America, 120. Surat, 127. Surinam in South America, 850. Sumatra, 752. Sweden, 101. 158. 179. 190. 227. 236, 237. 240, 241. 244. 248. Switzerland, 161, 162. 165. 171. 175. 177. 182. 186. 188. 199. 316. 355-384. Syria, 103, 104. 131. 133. 136-138. 689. 692. 

T

Tangier, 79. Tartary, 85. 90, 91, 92. 94. 101 107. 249. 773, 774. Thibet, 775, 776. Thessaly, 285. Thrace, 104. Tonquin, 685. 743-745. Tonga Isles, 875. Transylvania, 107. 306. 311, 312. Tripoli in Africa, 601, 602. 604. ----in Asia, 136. 170. Turkey, 88, 89. 92-95. 100-102. 106, 107. 112. 118. 124. 136. 158. 174. 198. 268-278. 288, 289. 296. 683. Tunis, 113. 170. Tyrol, 173. 183. 308. 310. 512. 423. 

U and V

United States, 794, 795-798. 802, 803. 808-814. 818-823. Valais, the, 368. 374. Venezuela, 846. Vesuvius, 391. Virginia, 816, 817. Volcanoes, 391. 428. 451. 

W

Wallachia, 323. Wales, 488-495. Wendes, the, 327. West Indies, 148. 150. 152-154. 793. 830-842. 

Z

Zurich, 79. Zaire River, in Africa, 637. 

INDEX TO THE HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

A

Abyssinia, ancient trade, 93. Adam of Bremen, 293. Africa, East of, trade to in time of Nero, 241. ----, Discoveries in by Portuguese, 333. ----, Travels and Discoveries in, in 18th and 19th centuries, 472. ----, in the west and interior, 473. ----, in the N. 478. ----, in the S. 485. Agatharcides, geographical knowledge, 93. Alexander the Great encourages geography and commerce, 57. 77. Knowledge of India, 60. Alexandria built, 83. Its advantages for commerce, 83. Library and librarians, 87. Alfred's attention to geography and commerce, 288. America discovered by the Icelanders, 291. By Columbus, 348. Productions when discovered, 349. ----, travels in, in 18th and 19th centuries, 488. Antwerp commerce in 16th century, 375. Argonautic expedition, 24. Aristotle's knowledge of geography, 50. Arabians carrying trade with India at a very early period, 229. In time of Nero, 240. Commerce in middle ages, 275. Geography in ditto, 279. Arrian's knowledge of geography, 251. Athens, ancient commerce, 144. Commercial laws and taxes, 146. Corn trade, 148. Slave trade, 150. Asia, commerce of, in middle ages, 316. ----, N. E. Discoveries in, 428. ----, travels in, in 18th and 19th centuries, 486. Augustus's attention to maritime affairs and commerce, 197. Australasia, discoveries in, 467. 

B

Baltic commerce in 11th century, 293. Barcelona, early commerce of, 313. Baffin's voyages and discoveries, 360. Benjamin of Tudela, his notices of Asiatic commerce, 316. Behaim's Chart, 351. Behring's discoveries, 360. Black Sea, ancient commerce in, 159. Britain invaded by Cæsar, 192. Britons, their ships, 193. ---- ---- ---- commerce, 195. Bruce's Travels, 479. Burckhardt, 481. 

C

Carthage, ancient, 34. Commerce, 37. Destroyed, 176. Naval wars, 121. 124. Cæsar, Julius, survey of the Empire, 223. Carpini, 317. Cape of Good Hope discovered, 357. ---- ---- ----, travels in, 485. Cabot, 353. Caravan trade, 525. Ceylon, ancient notices of, 226. Cilicia, ancient commerce, 177. China, in middle ages, 279. ----, route from, in 14th century, 322. Corvus, the, described, 120. Corinth, ancient commerce, 152. Cosmas, 269. Cook's, Captain, discoveries, 431. 454. 468. Commerce in 18th century, 502. 512. Crete, ancient commerce, 177. Crusades, effect of, on commerce, 300. 

D

Denmark, commerce in 16th and 17th centuries, 422. Dutch commerce in 16th and 17th centuries, 383. 410. 

E

Egyptian ancient commerce, 13. 82. 106. Ships, 17. English commerce in 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, 314. 390. 397, 398. 401. 4O4. 407. 410. 412. ---- shipping, 409. England, commerce and shipping in 1822. 520. English and Dutch commerce in 16th and 17th centuries compared, 410. Eratosthenes, 88. Etruscans, commerce, 112. Ethiopia explored by Romans, 825. Euxine, ancient commerce, 251. Europe, general view of its trade in 15th century, 314. At present, 512. 

F

Fairs, ancient, 150. France, commerce in middle ages, 304. In 16th and 17th centuries, 417. At present, 516. Florence, commerce in middle ages, 304. 

G

Gaul, commerce of, 186. Genoa, commerce in middle ages, 302. Gama's Voyages, 339. Germany, ancient commerce, 195. At present, 515. Greenland discovered, 291. Grecian ancient commerce, geography, and ships, 20. 30. 144. ---- Colonies, 157. 

H

Hamilcar's Voyage, 41. Hannos, 41. Hanseatic League, 294. Henry, Prince of Portugal, 334. Herodotus, 45. Hipparchus, 101. Hudson's Voyages, 359. 

I and J

Iceland discovered, 290. Jews, commerce of, 18. India, as known to Alexander, 60. Direct ancient trade with, 105. Ancient routes to, 210. Trade in time of Nero, 243. And China, ancient trade between, 271. In middle ages, 279. Indian commodities, price of, affected by discovery of the Cape, 370. Trade at present, 522. Inland trade in middle ages, 311. In 16th and 17th centuries, 416. Itineraries, Roman, 253. Italian commerce in middle ages, 299. Justinian's Fleets, 273. 

K

Kotzebue's discoveries, 434. 

L

Liburnians, 115. Laconia, ancient commerce, 154. La Maire, 356. La Perouse, 433. Lyons, ancient commerce, 189. 

M

Macedonia, ancient commerce, 161. Marseilles, ditto, 187. Marinus, the Geographer, 254. Marco Polo, 318. Mariners' Compass, earliest notice of, 328. Maps and Charts of middle ages, 329. In 16th and 17th centuries, 367. Magellan, 352. Mauro's Map, 330. Mercator, 366. Monsoon discovered, 227. 

N

Navigation, improvements in, in 18th century, 497. Nearchus, 61. New South Shetland discovered, 456. New Holland, 363. 468. Netherland commerce in 16th century, 374. North-west passage, 358. 438. North-east passage, 361. 

P

Park's Travels, 475. Petrea, ancient trade of, 232. Periplus, geography of the, 235. Commerce of, 236. Persia, ancient trade, 243. Penteugarian Tables, 267. Peter the Great's attention to geography and commerce, 425. 429. Phoenician commerce and ships, 3. 5. 10. Pharos described, 84. Pliny, 248. Polynesia, 470. Posidonius, 104. Ptolemy, 255. Ptolemies of Egypt, their attention to commerce, 84. Polybius, 223. Portuguese discoveries, 333. 342. Pythias of Marseilles, 51. 

R

Red Sea, 95. 225. 236. Rhodes, ancient commerce, 166. Maritime history, 39. 116. 167. Conquered by Romans, 172. Rome, ancient naval wars, 118. 123. Commerce, 197. 200. 219. 221. 264. Romans, ancient geography of, 223. 261. Survey of empire, 223. Rubruquis, 317. Russian commerce in 16th and 17th centuries, 424. At present, 514. 

S

Sabea, commerce of, 97. Sanuto, his notices of commerce, 321. Scandinavian maritime affairs, 287. Scotland, commerce of, in middle ages, 310. In 16th and 17th centuries, 414. Scylax's Voyage, 43. Sicily, ancient trade, 134. Silk, history of, 212. Spain, ancient commerce, 129. At present, 517. Sugar, history of, 208. Sweden, commerce in 16th and 17th century, 482. At present, 513. Strabo, 326. Syene, Well of, 88. 

T

Troy, Siege of, ships at, 39. Travellers, modern, advantages of, 500. 

V

Vancouver, 433. Venetian commerce in middle ages, 299. 3O3. United States, commerce, 524. 

W

World, what still unknown of, 491. 

INDEX TO THE SEVENTEEN VOLUMES OF A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OFVOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 

_The Roman Numerals refer to the Volumes: the Arabic Numerals tothe Pages. _

A

Abyssinia, vi. 176. ---- Customs of, 306. Acapulco described, x. 264. Adams, W. Voyage to, and Residence in Japan, viii. 64. Aden, in Arabia, vi. 265. 298. Vii. 68. Africa in general, vii. 220. West Coast . Ii. 210. 270. Xi. 73. Manners, dress, &c. Ii. 223. 227. 242. 251. Animals, 231. Produce, 230. Ships, 250. East Coast, ii. 319. Vi. 448. 470. Viii. 406. 468. Alfred's Geography of the World, i. 21. Albuquerque's Voyage, ii. 456. Conquests, vi. 402. Death, 161. Almago, iv. 415. Defeated by F. Pizarro, 4. 37. Put to death by him, 440. Character, 459. Expedition against Chili, v. 262. Aleppo, viii. 3. Aloes, vi. 114. Viii. 181. 267. Alligator, x. 302. Albicore, x. 309. Ambergriss, i. 92. Ambassadors, Voyage of three, from England to Constantinople, i. 56. America discovered by Icelanders, i. 43. Discovered by Columbus, ii. 52. 59. Iii. 43. 255. ----, North West Coast, Cook's discoveries on, xvi. 260. Americus Vespasius, iii. 342. His first Voyage, 352. Second Voyage, 366. Third Voyage, 373. Fourth Voyage, 379. Amboina, Massacre at, ix. 537. Described, x. 319. Xv. 143. Amsterdam, Isle of, and Inhabitants, xiv. 190. 204. Xv. 385. Dances, 395. Wrestling and Boxing, 401. Kava, mode of preparing, 412. Natural History, 421. Grand solemnity, 427. See also Friendly Isles. Anson's Voyage round the World, xi. 200. Controversy respecting the account of, 527. Armenia, i. 281. Arabia in general, vi. 336. ---- Felix, interior of, described, viii. 380. Arabian Settlements, on East Coast of Africa, vi. 73. Arabian Manners, vii. 50. Armada, the Spanish, vii. 365. Assassins, History of the, i. 291. Ascension Island, xii. 346. Xv. 66. ASIA, North East Cape of, xvi. 356. Remarks on the Geography of the North East of, xvii. 122. Atlantic South, discoveries in, xv. , 118. Atooi, Isle, xvi. 148. 173. Produce, 176. Inhabitants, 150. 177. Morai, 156. Feather cloaks, 159. Dress, 179. Houses, 181. Amusements, 182. Manufactures, 184. Canoes, 188. Agriculture, 189. Government, 190. Weapons, 191. Religion, 192. Language, 193. Auracanians, Manners, &c. V. 233. X. 122. Religion, v. 256. Orators, Poets, &c. 260. ----, War with the Spaniards, v. 276. Azores discovered, ii. 196. Described, xi. 195. ---- Fayal, vii. 381. Xv. 73. 

B

Babylon, vii. 145. Bagdat, vii. 473. Viii. 5. Bahamas, iii. 410. Baker's Voyage to Guinea, vii. 299. Banda Isles, vii. 117. 187. Xi. 147. Trade of, ix. 449. Wrongs done the English at, 432. Bantam, xi. 183. Barbaro's Travels to Azof, i. 501. Bassora, vii. 146. 474. Viii. 6. Bashee Islands, x. 284. Batavia. X. 330. 395. Xi. 123. Xii. 113. Xiii. 425. Fruit, 435. Flowers, 441. Inhabitants, 447. Bear hunting, xvii. 154. Benjamin of Tudela's, Travels to China, i. 95. Bengal, vi. 242. See India and Mogul. Benzoin, viii. 181. Best's Voyage to the East Indies, ix. 96. Betel Nut, vii. 163. Ix. 390. Betagh's Appendix to Shelvock's Voyage, xi. 20. Bezoar, viii. 182. Birmah Empire, vi. 255. See Pegu. Bolabola, xvi. 101. Borneo, x. 21. Xi. 174. Bourgainville, abstract of his Voyage, xiii. 477. Brazil discovered, ii. 57. 398. Described, 105. Xi. 79. 259. Gold, 259. Diamonds, 261. Xii. 388. St. Sebastian, xi. 79. Rio Janeiro, xii. 382. 391. Manners, 382. Produce, 386. Burrough's Voyage to the Azores, vii. 444. Butkeley's Narrative of Byron's shipwreck, xvii. 419. Byron's own Narrative, xvii. 315. Shipwrecked, 324. Occurrences during his Voyage in the boats, 343. Lands in Chiloe, 381. Arrival at St. Jago, 399. In England, 414. 

C

Cabral's Voyage, ii. 395. Cabot, iii. 346. Vi. 3. Cabbage-tree, x. 246. Caffres, xi. 187. Calicut, vii. 90. See India. California, xi. 4. Camboya, vi. 227. Island, x. 390. Camoens, v. 421. Canary Islands discovered, ii. 19. Iii. 352. Described, ii. 207. X. 402Canada, Natives, vi. 50. Language, 67. Candish's Voyage round the World, x. 66. Cannibalism, xiv. 237. Cape Verd Islands discovered, ii. 246. Described, 269. X. 194. 404. Cape of Good Hope discovered, ii. 286. Described, viii. 16. 88. 115. Ix. 117. 122. 221. X. 234, xi. 154. 182. Xii. 117. Animals, 188. Sheep, xv. 209. Note. Remarkable stone, 212. Cape Horn discovered, x. 171. Remarks on the navigation round, xi. 288. Real position of, xv. 3. Note. Carpini's Travels into Tartary, i. 123. Carvagal, Francis de, character, v. 26. Death, 167. Cartier's Voyage to Newfoundland and Canada, vi. 15. Carlet's Voyage to Guinea, vii, 306. Caravans, vii. 52. Viii. 7. Carteret's Voyage round the World, xii. 243. Cassowary, x. 325. Caspian Sea, ii. 151. Cattle, mode of slaughtering in South America, xi. 272. Celebes, x. 328. Xi. 149. Xii. 334. Ceylon, early notices of, i. 49. 382. 412. Described, vi. 167. Vii. 104. 169. 501. Xi. 141-165. Charts of the Sea between Asia and America, account of, xvi. 380. Chili, geographical view of, v. 219. X. 121. Produce, v. 250. Agriculture, 253. Food, Houses, &c. 254. Religion, 256. Origin, Manners, Language, 239. Natives of the Mountains, 256. Trade, xi. 47. State of in the 18th century, v. 380. Proper, v. 221. St. Jago, v. 223. Xvii. 399. Climate, 401. Inhabitants, 401. Houses, 403. Bull Feasts, 404. Amusements, 405. Cujo Province, v. 229. Productions, 230. Mines, 231. Xi. 52. Inhabitants, 231. Chiloe Archipelago discovered, v. 314. Described, 228. 392. X. 447. China, early notices of, i. 51. 68. Manners, Dress, Food, &c. 53. 60. 72. 364. Xi. 127. Laws, i. 62. 66. 71. 81. Paper-money, 233. Kublai Khan, 318. 420. 429. Court, 326. 330. 368. 475. Ships, 374. Junks, x. 283. Notices of early trade to, ix. 549. Commodities, viii. 190. Ware, early notice of, i. 59. Cambalu (Pekin, i. 323. 419. 472. ) Macao, xi. 471. Manners there, 522. Canton, xvii. 237. Sampanes there, 238. Price of provisions at, 264. Christmass Harbour, productions and animals, xv. 241. Christmas Island, xvi. 141. Chronometer, Table of its going, xvii. 165. 169. Cinnamon, early notice of, ii. 108. Civet, viii. 181. Clerke's, Capt. , Death, xvii. 136. 158. Clipperton's Voyage round the World, x. 400. Cloves, xi. 144. X. 22. 322. Cocoa Nut Tree, vii. 98. X. 304. Xi. 112. Coffee, ix. 390. Columbus, ii. 52. His Life, iii. 8. 245. Death, 241. First Voyage, 43. 255. Second, 90. 307. Third, 147. 339. Fourth, 191. 339. Cold, effects of excessive, xii. 398. Comora Isles, ix. 224. Compass, variation of, xii. 239. 307. 352. Xiii. 73. 473. Xiv. 58. 438. 488. Xv. 215. 286. 489. Xvi. 108. 196. 249. 330. 368. 401. Xvii. 18. 264. 282. 289. 292. 298. Contarini's Journey to Persia, ii. 117. Cook, Capt. _John_, Voyage round the World, x. 66. ----, Capt. _James_, First Voyage, xii. 359. Second Voyage, xiv. 1. Third Voyage, xv. 114. Circumstances of his Death, xvi. 446. 469, note. Character, xv. 177. Xvi. 455. Orders from France and United States respecting, xvii. 268. Cook's river, xvi. 299. Coral Islands, formation of, xiv. 141. Note. Xv. 344. Corea, ix. 77. Cortes, Hermando, iii. 454. 468. Iv. 314. Coryat's Journey to India, ix. 419. Covilhaim's Journey to Æthiopia, ii. 300. Cotton-tree, x. 245. Cuba, iii. 271. 320. 404. Cumana, iii. 361. Cumberland's, Earl of, Voyage to the Azores, vii. 375. 

D

Damascus described, vii. 47. Dampier's Voyage round the World, x. 236. Darien described, iii. 397. Dates, viii. 267. Davis's, Capt. John, Voyage to the East Indies, viii. 43. Dangerous Archipelago discovered and described, xii. 167. Derbent described, ii. 150. Diamond Mines in Brazil, xi. 261. ---- ---- ---- in India, i. 387. Downton's Voyages to India, viii. 406. Ix. 167. Drake's, Sir F. , Voyage to the West Indies, vii. 356. 360. Round the World, x. 27. Drugs, account of various, viii. 181. Dutch factories in the East, at the beginning of the 18th century, xi. 131. 

E

Easter Island, and its Inhabitants, described, xi. 91. Xiv. 270. 278. East India Company, English, established, viii. 102. First Voyage to the East Indies, 507. Egypt, Cairo, i. 109. Vii. 45. ----Alexandria, i. 111. Trade of, 112. Eimeo Isle described, xvi. 62. 70. Eldred's Voyages and Travels to Bagdat, Bassora, &c. Viii. 1. Elephants, ii. 252. Vii. 87. 189. 236. Ix 394. Eooa Isle, xv. 441. Erigena's Voyage to Athens, i. 20. Euphrates, Navigation of, viii. 3. 

F

Falkland Islands described, xii. 47. Fayal described, vii. 381. See Azores. Fenner's Voyage to Guinea, vii. 310. Fernando de Noranha, Isle, described, xv. 69. Fitch's Journey overland to India, vii, 470. Viii. 254. Flamingo, iii. 406. Flick's Voyage to the Azores, vii. 417. Flowers, great variety of, at Batavia, xiii. 435. Florida, iii. 410. V. 410. 419. 440. 488. Frederic, Caesar, Travels in India, vii. 142. Friendly Islands, xiv. 204. 369. General description of, and of the Inhabitants, xv. 447. Number and names, 449. Inhabitants, stature, 459. Character, 462. 474. Dress, 465. Domestic life, 467. Agriculture, 468. Houses, 469. Manufactures, 467. 470. Food, 472. Burials, 475. Religion, 477. Government, 479. Language, 485. 491. See Amsterdam Isle. Fruit, great variety of, at Batavia, xiii. 435. Funnell's Voyage round the World, x. 291. Furs, collection of, at Oonalashka, xvi. 386. At Kamtschatka, xvii. 184. 

G

Galvana's Summary of Discoveries to the Year 1555. Ii. 23. Gama's Voyages, ii. 302. 432. ----Stephano de, Voyage to Suez, vi. 287. ----Vasco de, vi. 200. Gasca, Pedro de la, v. 101. 107. L61. 170. Gambia River, ii. 251. Gambroon described, xi. 158. Georgia, Isle of, described, xv. 25. Gold Trade in Africa, early notice of, ii. 218. Goa conquered by the Portuguese, vi. 131. Described, 477. Goitres in India, ix. 236. Gothic Language, i. 165. 507. Greenlanders described, i. 41. Guadaloupe described, iii. 98. 142. 308. Guam Island described, x. 230. Guana, The, described, x. 306. Guava fruit, x. 261. Guayaquil described, x. 365. Guinea, Voyages to, in the 16th Century, vii. 211. ----, Natives of, described, vii. 245. See Africa, West Coast. Guinea pepper described, x. 461. 

H

Haicho's Travels into Tartary. I. 262. Hawkin's residence in the Mogul Empire, viii. 220. Hawkesworth's, Dr. , vindication of himself, as editor of the Voyages, xiii. 272 note. Hearne's Journey in the North-west parts of America, Abstract of, xv. 148. Hepaei Isles described, xv. 358. Music and Dancing, 583. Lefoogan, one of them described, 369. Hervey's Isle discovered and described, xv. 334. Helix Janthina and Violacea described, xii. 370. Hippopotamus described, ii. 253. Hispaniola described, iii. 133. 159. 277. 329. 387. Hippon's Voyage to India, viii. 436. ----Account of, by Floris, viii. 440. Hogan's Embassy to Morocco, vii. 320. Holythura Physalis described, xii. 370. Honduras described, iv. 267. Horn Island, x. 179. ----, Cape. See CAPE Horn. Hottentot's described, x. 234. Xi. 185. Huahcine Island described, xiii. 78. ----, religious ceremonies in, xvi. 73. See Society Islands. Hudson's Bay, Abstract of Discoveries in, xv. 144. Hurricanes in American Seas, xi. 83. 

I and J

Iceland discovered, i. 4. Ice Islands, xiv. 48. 243. Note. ----, on the formation of, xv. 43. Icy Cape, xvi. 344. Incas of Peru, iv. 362. India described, ix. 373. Produce, Animals, vi. 269. Ix. 387. 392. 394. Pepper, i. 404. Diamond Mines, 387. Houses, ix. 391. Castles, viii. 280. 284. Climate, ix. 393. Manners, Customs, i. 85. 94. 384. 408. Vi. 269. Vii. 157. 482. Mahometans in, ix. 404. Hindoos, 409. Brahmins, i. 387. Idols, 407. Pagodas, ii. 362. Laws, 253. Court Ceremonies in the 16th Century, 364. 407. See Mogul. Bengal described, i. 251. Vi. 242. Vii. 109. 478. Calicut described, ii. 345. 522. Vii. 90. Cambay, vii. 80. 475. Viii. 302. Candahar, ix. 212. Cochin, ii. 419. Vii. 164. Xi. 162. Coromandel Coast, xi. 155. Deccan, vii. 84. Delhi, viii. 292. See Mogul. Goa, Diu, vii. 149. Guzerat, vi. 227. Lahore, viii. 295. Ix. 208. Malabar Coast, ii. 347. 467. Vi. 481. Xi. 160. Surat, viii. 275. Ix. 119. 230. 391. Xi. 157. Sinde, ix. 131. Trade before discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, vi. 73. State of, at the beginning of the 16th century, vi. 81. English Factories in, in 1616, ix. 258. Indians of America, food, iii. 215. Dress, Canoes, &c. 266. 270. 277. 322. 369. At south extremity of South America, v. 40l. Xii. 152. 155. 405. SeePatagonians. Indigo, viii. 289. Irish, account of, in 16th century, vii. 394. Isabella, first colony in the West Indies, iii. 313. Jaloffs, ii. 221. 227. Jamaica described, iii. 115. Japan described, i. 375. Vi. 382. Viii. 78. Xi. 178. Commodities vendible in, ix. 71. 75. Japanese manners, ix. 10. Court, 25. Festival, 51. Java described, i. 378. 408. Vi. 153. Vii. 119. Viii. 142. 183. X. 46. 86. 331. Xi. 118. 166. Court Ceremonies, viii. 166. Bantam, viii. 183. First English Factory in, viii. 141. Jesso, ix. 70. Xvii. 227. Note. 

Juan Fernandez described, x. 201. 219. 296. 353. 481. Xi. 88. 311. 

K

Kamtschatka, description of, xvii. 66. 171. Climate, 175. Produce, 173. 178. Curious Plants in, 180. Animals, 184. 194. Note. Furs, 184. Fish, 191. Salmon, 192. Volcanoes, 177. Inhabitants, 197. Dress, 216. Houses, 87. 213. Towns, 215. Sledge, 77. Trade, 307. Discovery and History of, 198. Kava drink, xv. 412. Keeling's Voyage to the East Indies, viii. 199. King George's Island discovered and described by Byron, xii. 83. Kossir, part of, described, vi. 330. Kublai Khan, Account of, i. 318. Kurile Isles described, xvii. 217. 

L

Lancaster's Voyages to India, viii. 13. 107. Ladrones, the, described, x. 13. 206. Le Maire's Voyage round the World, x. 162. Straits discovered, 170. On the Navigation of, xii. 412. Le Hermite's Voyage, x. 192. Lediard, Mr. , account of, xvi. 375. Note. Lima, account of, in 1550, iv. 350. See Peru. Llama, the, described, x. 462. Locusts described, ii. 219. Lok's Voyage to Guinea, vii. 229. 

M

Mahommedans, Travels of two, to India and China in the 9th century, i. 47. Macassar, Straits of, described, xii. 318. Madagascar described, vii. 2. Viii. 261. Madeira discovered, ii. 19. 177. Described, 206. Xi. 234. Xii. 362. Vines of, 363. Malacca described, vii. 113. Xi. 152. Mandeville's Travels, i. 432. Maro Polo's Travels, i. 266. Mauritius described, viii. 218. Marlow's Voyage to the East Indies, ix. 91. Magellan's, F. , Voyage round the World, x. 4. ---- Straits discovered, x. 11. ----, remarks on the Navigation of, xii. 74. Anchoring places and distances in, 157. Manilla, x. 83. 281. Mallicolo Island described, xiv. 379, 425. Mangea Isle described, xv. 306. Marquesas Islands and Inhabitants described, xiv. 295. Melinda described, ii. 336. Mecca, Port of, vi. 262. City, vii. 58. Medina described, vii. 54. Mexico, iii. 421. 432. ----City described, iv. 37. 167. Taken by the Spaniards, 165. Mexican Painters, iii. 477. Manufactures, 478. Idols, 495. Michelburne's Voyage to India, viii. 86. Middleton's, Capt. Henry, Voyage to India, viii. 191. 361. ---- Capt. David, Voyage to Bantam and the Moluccas, viii. 3O7. 343. Mindanao Islands described, xii. 309. Middleburg Islands described, xiv. 204. Moscow described, ii. 162. Mosquito Shore described, iii. 189. Montezuma, iii. 21. 35. 39. 55. 67. 70. His court, 43. Treasures, 71. Death, 109. Moluccas described, vi. 183. Vii. 117. Viii. 188. Trade and State of, ix. 3. X. 22. Mogul, meaning of the word, and Empire, of in the 16th Century, vi. 233. , in 1616. Ix. 378. Court of, viii. 229. Ix. 302. 311. 320. His birth-day, ix. 343. Tomb, viii. 306. Power, customs, &c. Viii. 245. 291. Ix. 260. 413. 421. Mogul Empire, climate of, ix. 389. Animals, 387. Trees, 389. Rivers, 390. See India. Mocha described, viii. 328. Xi. 172. Trade, viii. 483. 489. Governor of, his feast, viii. 479. Monomotapa, vi. 449. See Africa, East Coast. Monsoons, account of, viii. 9. Musk, i. 313. Viii. 181. 

N

Navy, English, in Queen Elizabeth's time, vii. 460. Nautical Instruments, account of, taken by Capt. Cooke in his Second Voyage, xiv. 20. Note. Natural History, notices on, xv. 335. Xvi. 266. 312. Shells, xii. 370. 372. Botany, xii. 395. Xiv. 507. Note. Xvii. 180. Green Ants, xiii. 253. 341. Their Nests, 260. 342. Caterpillars, ibid. Crabs, xiii. 257. Two new species of Birds, xv. 17. Of Van Dieman's Land, xv. 259. Of Amsterdam Isle, xv. 421. Blatta, the, xvi. 77. Medusa, &c. Xvi. 98. Arctic Walrus, xvi. 345. Arctic Gull, xvii. 104. White Bear, xvii. 114. New Holland, general description, x. 288. Xiii. 338. Produce, 339. Animals, 302. 341. Inhabitants, 345. Personal appearance, 346. Houses, 349. Food, 351. Weapons, 355. Canoes, 357. Language, 359. Botany Bay, xiii. 230. 240. Port Jackson, xiii. 243. Endeavour River, xiii. 311. Straits, xiii. 335. Newfoundland discovered and described, iii. 346, vi, 3. Language of, iii. 32. Newport's Voyage to the East Indies, ix. 137. New Guinea described, x. 188. New Britain, xi. 107. Xii. 296. New Zealand, xiii. 101. Face of the country, 118. 148. 155. 161. 218. Xv. 267. Plants, Animals, xiv. 99. Xv. 287. Inhabitants, xiii. 125. 147. 164. 187. 192. Xiv. 103. 119. Xv. 281. 293. Language, xv. 301. Villages, xiii. 150. Queen Charlotte's Sound, xiii. 199. Xiv. 119. 226. Dusky Bay, xiv. 97. New Caledonia, xiv. 139. 451. 473. Contrast between its Inhabitants and those of the New Hebrides, xiv. 451. Note. New Hebrides, xiv. 423. Norfolk Isle, xiv. 476. Norway, i. 493. Food, Manners, 494. Nootka Sound, xvi. 221. Produce, 223. Animals, 225. Inhabitants, 208. 214. 217. 230. Houses, 239. Villages, 216. Furniture, 241. Food, 244. Employment, 245. Weapons, 247. Manufactures, 248. Languages, 255. Vocabulary of, 301. Nutmegs, vii. 117. X. 323. Xi. 147. 

O

Oderic's Travels into China and the East, i. 392. Omai, notices of, xiv. 165. Xv. 183. 327. His reception among his Countrymen, xvi. 7. Established on his Island, xvi. 73. 81. Oonalashka described, xvi. 321. 373. Vegetables, 395. Animals, 394. Furs at, 386. Inhabitants, 387. 398. Ormus described, vi. 105. Vii. 78. 148. 475. Ships of, viii. 6. Ostrich, xi. 189. Otaheite discovered and described by Wallis, xii. 175. 204. Extent, xiv. 131. Surface, xiii. 2. Produce, 3. Xvi. 112. 119. Winds, 111. Animals, xiii. 4. Inhabitants' stature, xiii. 4. Personal customs, 6. Xiv. 155. Note. Tattooing, xiii. 7. Clothing, 10. Houses, 12. Food, 15. Xiv. 176. Xvi. 119. Bread-fruit, xiii. 16. Drink, 18. Xiv. 179. Meals, xiii. 19. Musical instruments, xiii. 23. Dances, 25. Theatre, xiv. 153. Xvi. 39. Female morals, xiii. 26. Xiv. 180. Xvi. 122. Arreoy, xiii. 27. Manufactures, xiii. 294. Xvi. 118. Cloth, 29. Dyes, 32. Matting, &c. 34. Fish-hooks, 36. Tools, 37. Canoes, xii. 214. Xiii. 38. Xiv. 315. Naval review, xiv. 307. 326. Xvi. 46. Extent of their navigation, xvi. 138. Swimming, xii. 467. Wrestling match, 454. Division of time, xiii. 44. Numeration, 45. Language, 46. Xvi. 117. Diseases, xiii. 47. Xvi. 115. Mourning and Funerals, xii. 478. 491. Xiii. 54. Xvi. 41. 51. Religion, xiii. 59. Xvi. 125. Human Sacrifices, xv. 24. Priests, xiii. 61. Government, 66. Xvi. 132. Inhabitants contrasted with those of the Friendly Isles, xvi. 114. Customs of, similar to those of distant Islands, xvi. 122. Note. Circumnavigation, xii. 482. --See Society Islands. Owhyhee discovered and described, xvi. 321. 373. Ceremonies used to Captain Cook, 424. Inhabitants, 431. Games, 436. Taboo, 427. --See Sandwich Islands. 

P

Pagodas, ii. 362. Palm-tree in Chili described, v. 230. Palmito described, viii. 260. Patagonians, account of, x. 8. Xi. 272. Xii. 29. 127. 133. Panama described, x. 250. Produce, 255. Paradise, bird of, described, x. 325. Xi. 114. Palliser Islands described, xi. 99. Pacific Ocean, discoveries in, xv. 120. Payta described, xi. 372. Pearl Fishery, account of, i. 93. Iii. 392. Vii. 167. X. 506. Pearl Oysters, account of, x. 248. 3O6. Pear, prickly, v. 261. Pegu described, vi. 173. 255. Vii. 110. 184. 490. Viii. 448. Pelican described, x. 305. Peruvian Spaniards, their character, v. 182. Peru, houses, &c. X. 240. Pedlars, xi. 25. Lima, xi. 30. Climate, 32. Manners, food, &c. 32. Mines near, 37. Persia described, vii. 77. Persian Gulf, account of, vi. 189. Pepper, viii. 183. Penguins described, x. 145. Penguin fruit, 269. Peyton's Voyage to the East Indies, ix. 45l. Philippine Islands described, x. 274. See Manilla. Pizarro, v. 75. 129. 151. 161. Death of, 167. Plaintain Tree, viii. 259. X. 204. Portuguese transactions in India, vi. 88. Empire in the East, in the 17th century, vii. 36. Settlements in the East in 1616, ix. 239. Potosi Mines discovered, v. 94. Prince William's Sound described, xvi. 279. Animals, xvi. 286. Inhabitants, 279. Language, 285. Pring's Voyage to India, ix. 451. Proa, flying, described, xi. 464. Pulo Timooan described, xii. 1O9. Pulo Condore described, x. 281. Xvii. 280. 

Q

Queen Charlotte's Island (o' Wales) discovered and described, xii. 168. Islands of Carteret, xii. 275. Quito, Island of, described, xi. 393. Quirinis's Voyage into Norway, i. 485. 

R

Rainold's and Dassel's Voyage to the Senegal and Gambia, vii. 342. Red Sea, vi. 149. 262. 285. 291. 299, 315. 334. 349. 352. Rhinoceros, account of, i. 379. Viii. 25. Robart's Embassy to Morocco, vii. 327. Roe's, Sir Thomas, Embassy to the Mogul, ix. 247. Roger's, Wood, Voyage round the World, x. 327. Roggewin's Voyage round the World, xi. 65. Rowle's Voyage to the East-Indies, viii. 335. Rubruquis' Travels into Tartary, i. 161. Russia, early account of, i. 509. Ii. 162. Rutter's Voyage to Guinea, vii. 293. 

S

Salt Trade in Africa, account of, ii. 215. Solomon's Voyage to the East Indies, ix. 110. Sago described, x. 175. Samarkand described, i. 298. Saris' Voyage to the East Indies, viii. 465. Savage Island described, x. 359. Sandwich Island, of Carteret, xii. 298. Sandwich Land, xv. 34. Sandwich Islands of Cook discovered and described, xvi. 172. 195. Xvii. 1. Number, xvii. 2. Owhyhee, 3. --See Owhyhee. Mowee, 11. Atooi, 13. --See Atooi. Climate, 14. Animals, 15. Inhabitants, 19. Stature, 20. Numbers, 22. Character, 23. Dress, 27. Villages, 32. Food, 33. Dances and other amusements, 34. Arts, 38. Government, 41. Religion, 45. Taboo, 48. Marriages and Funerals, 49. 51. Savu Island and Inhabitants described, xiii. 387. 407. Schouten and Le Maires' Voyage round the World, x. 162. Senegal River described, ii. 220. Sea Fights in the 16th century, vii. 396. Selkirk, Alexander, account of, x. 349. Sea Lion described, xi. 318. Xv. 6. 15. ---- Bear, xv. 15. Sea, warmth at different depths, xiv. 33. Note. Shelvock's Voyage round the World, x. 434. Xi. 20. Sharpey's Voyage to India, viii. 314. Shah Rokh's, the Embassador, Travels to Cathay, i. 461. Siam described, vi. 169. Vii. 177. Viii. 188. 448. Ix. 110. Xi. 171. Silver Fish, early notice of, x. 295. Small Pox, Ravages of, among the Auracanians, v. 297. Soto's Expedition into Florida, v. 440. Solyman Pacha's Expedition to India, vi. 257. Sofala kingdom described, vi. 89. Socotra described, vi. 96. 227. Viii. 264. 412. Ix. 226. Solomon's Islands described, xi. 103. Society Islands, general description of, xiii. 92. Vocabulary, xv. 81. --See Otaheite. South Hemisphere, short account of Voyages to, xiv. 2. Spanish Commere between Manilla and Acapulco, in the middle of the 18thcentury, xi. 405. Spilbergen's Voyage round the World, x. 149. Steven's Voyage to Goa, vii. 462. Steele and Crowther's Voyage from India to Persia, ix. 206. Staten Island described, xv. 5. 11. St. Laurence River described, vi. 44. 55. St. Helena described, ix. 116. X. 88. Xi. 193. Xv. 64. St. Catherine off Brazil, x. 437. Xi. 254. St. Jago, Port Praga Bay, xiv, 29. Sugar, early notice of, i. 373. Sumatra, Account of, i. 381. Iv. 180. Vii. 113. 174. Viii. 50. 55. 121. Xi. 167. Surat described, viii. 275. 

T

Tanna Island described, xiv. 393. 415. Volcano and hot springs in, 403. 411. Tartary described, i. 115. Soil and climate, i. 127. Dress, manners, 128. Superstitions, 131. Military habits, 140. 311. Court, 152. 180. 188. 197. 217. 224. Khan of, 154. Houses, 166. Food, &c. 188. Laws, 177. Burial, &c. 177. 184. 501. Religion, 209. Samarcand, i. 298. Tea, early notice of, i. 61. Manner of cultivating, ix. 554. Terry's Voyage to India, ix, 368. Terra del Fuego described, x. 196. Xii. 404. 410. Xiv. 497. 505. Ternate described, xi. 151. Teneriffe, Peak of, account of, xii. 368. ----Island described, xv. 191. 194. Thibet, early notice of, i, 342. 425. Vii. 34. Timor Isle described, viii. 187. Tinian Isle described, xii. 102. Note. Timoan Isle described, xii. 109. Tobacco, early notices of, in. 213. 369. Vi, 54. Towerson's Voyage to Guinea, vii. 273. Torpedo Fish, account of, xi. 423. Tongataboo Isle described, xv. 385. Natural history of, 421. Inhabitants, dancing, 395. Wrestling and boxing, 401. Grand solemnity at, 427. Kava, mode of preparing, 412. --See Amsterdam Isle and Friendly Isles. Tortoises' Land, x. 122. Toobouai Isle described, xvi. 3. Inhabitants, 5. Trade Winds, xiv. 139. Note. Trinidad, iii. 340. Tripoli in Asia, viii. 2. Tschutski described, xvi. 338. 362. 387. Turkey, Account of, i. 96. Constantinople, 96. Turtles described, x. 223. 306. 376. Xi. 396. Xv. 67. 

U and V

Ulietea Island and Inhabitants described, xvi. 97. --See Society Island. Unicorn, early notice of, i. 57. Verthema's Travels in Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Persia, and India, vii. 41. Van Noort's Voyage round the World, x. 112. Vanilla described, x. 261. Van Dieman's Land, notices of, xv. 256. Natural history and animals of, 259. Inhabitants, 262. Vicuma, the, described, x. 462. Voyages of Discovery, advantages of, xv. 154. To nautical science, 160. To the history of the Human Species, and its migrations, 167. To the inhabitants discovered, 170. 

W

Wallis's, Capt. , Voyage round the World, xii. 120. Wallis's Island described, xii. 221. Water Spouts described, x. 287. Xix. 105. Xiv. 106. Note. Wateeoo Isle described, xv. 312. Weenooa-ette Isle described, xv. 332. Weert Sibbald's Voyage round the World, x. 130. Welsh's Voyage to Benin, vii. 331. Whales, notices respecting, xv. 4. Note. Whiddon's Voyage to the Azores. Vii. 358. Windham's Voyage to Guinea, vii. 216. Wood, Benj. , Voyage to the East Indies, viii. 40. Wulfstan's Voyage to the Baltic, i. 15. 

Z

Zenos' Voyage, i. 438. 

GENERAL PLAN OF KERR'S COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 

PART I. 

Voyages and Travels of Discovery in the middle ages; from the era of AlfredKing of England, in the ninth century, to that of Don Henry of Portugal, atthe commencement of the fifteenth century. 

PART II. 

General Voyages and Travels, chiefly of Discovery; from the era of DonHenry in 1412, to that of George III. In 1760. 

PART III. 

General Voyages and Travels of Discovery during the era of George III. , which were conducted upon scientific principles, and by which the Geographyof the globe has been nearly perfected. 

PART IV. 

Historical Deduction of the Progress of Navigation, Discovery, andCommerce, by sea and land, from the earliest times to the present period. 

TABULAR VIEW OF THE CONTENTS OF THE SEVENTEEN VOLUMES. 

 * * * * *

VOLUME I. 

Discovery of Iceland by the Norwegians. 

Voyages of Ohthere to the White Sea and the Baltic. 

Remarks on the situation of Sciringe-heal and Haethum, by J. R. Forster. 

Voyage of Wulfstein in the Baltic. 

---- of Sighelm to India. 

Travels of John Erigena to Athens. 

Geography of the known world as described by King Alfred. 

Travels of Andrew Leucander. 

Voyage of Swanus to Jerusalem. 

---- of three ambassadors from England to Constantinople. 

Pilgrimage of Alured to Jerusalem. 

---- of Ingulphus. 

Original discovery of Greenland by the Icelanders in the ninth century. 

Early discovery of America by ditto, in 1001. 

Travels of two Mahometans into India and China, in the ninth century. 

---- of Rabbi Benjamin from Spain to China, in the twelfth century. 

---- of an Englishman in Tartary, in 1243. 

Sketch of the Revolutions in Tartary. 

Travels of Carpina to the Moguls, &c. In 1246. 

---- of Rubruquis into Tartary about 1253. 

---- of Haitho, in 1254. 

---- of Marco Polo into China, &c. From 1260 to 1295. 

---- of Oderic, in 1318. 

---- of Sir John Mandeville, in 1322. 

Itinerary of Pegoletti between Asofand China, in 1355. 

Voyages, of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, in 1380. 

Travels of Schiltberger into Tartary, in 1394. 

---- of the Ambassadors of Shah Rokh, in China, in 1419. 

Voyage and Shipwreck of Quirini, in 1431. 

Travels of Josaphat Barbaro from Venice to Tanna (now Asof), in 1436. 

VOLUME II. 

Various early pilgrimages from England to the Holy Land, between 1097 and1107. 

Discovery of Madeira. 

Discovery and conquest of the Canary Islands. 

Discoveries along the coast of Africa; and conquests in India, from 1412 to1505. 

Summary of the discoveries of the world, from their commencement to 1555, by Antonio Galvano. 

Journey of Contarini into Persia, in 1473-6. 

Voyages of discovery by the Portuguese along the western coast of Africa, during the life of Don Henry. 

Original journals of the Voyages of Cada Mosto, and Pedro de Cintra, to thecoast of Africa, from 1455. 

Voyages of discovery by the Portuguese along the coast of Africa, from thedeath of Don Henry, in 1463, to the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in1486. 

History of the discovery and conquest of India by the Portuguese, between1497 and 1505, by Herman Lopes de Castanecla. 

Letters from Lisbon in the beginning of the 16th century, respecting thediscovery of the route by sea to India, &c. 

VOLUME III. 

History of the discovery of America, and of some of the early conquests inthe New World. 

Discovery of America, by Columbus, written by his son Don FerdinandColumbus. 

---- written by Antonio de Herrera. 

An account of the Voyages of Americus Vespucius to the New World, writtenby himself. 

Discoveries and settlements of the Spaniards in the West Indies, from thedeath of Columbus, to the expedition of Hernando Cortes against Mexico. 

History of the discovery and conquest of Mexico, written in 1568, byCaptain Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of the conquerors. 

VOLUME IV. 

History of the discovery and conquest of Peru, written by Augustus Zarate. 

VOLUME V. 

Continuation of the history of Peru, extracted from the Commentaries ofGarcilosso de la Vega. 

History of the discovery and conquest of Chili, taken from various sources. 

Discovery of Florida, and ineffectual attempts to conquer that country bythe Spaniards, --from the General History of America, by Herrera. 

VOLUME VI. 

Early English Voyages of discovery to America. 

Voyages of Jacques Cartier, from St. Maloes to Newfoundland and Canada, in1534-5. 

Continuation of the discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese in theEast; with some account of the early Voyages of other European nations toIndia. 

Discoveries, &c. &c. From 1505 to 1539. 

A particular relation of the expedition of Solyman Pacha, from Suez toIndia, against the Portuguese; written by a Venetian officer in the Turkishservice on that occasion. 

Account of the Voyage of Don Stefano de Gama, from Goa to Suez, in 1540;written by Don Juan de Castro. 

Continuation of the account of the Portuguese transactions in India, from1541 to the middle of the 17th century; from De Faria's Asia. 

VOLUME VII. 

Voyages and Travels in Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Persia, and India, by LudovicoVerthema, in 1503-8. 

---- in India, &c. By Cesar Frederic, in 1563-81. 

Second Voyage to Barbary, in 1552, by Captain Thomas Windham. 

Voyages to Guinea and Benin, in 1553, by Captain Windham and Antonio AnesPinteado. 

---- in 1554, by Captain John Lok. 

---- in 1555, by William Towerson, merchant, of London. 

Second Voyage to Guinea, in 1556, by William Towerson, merchant, of London. 

Third, in 1558. 

Instructions for an intended Voyage to Guinea, in 1561. 

Voyage to Guinea, in 1562; written by William Rutter. 

Supplementary account of the foregoing Voyage. 

Voyage to Guinea, in 1563, by Robert Baker. 

---- in 1564, by Captain David Carlet. 

---- and to the Cape de Verd Islands, in 1566, by George Fenner. 

Account of the embassy of Mr. Edmund Hogan to Morocco, in 1577; by himself. 

Account of the embassy of Mr. Henry Roberts from Queen Elizabeth toMorocco, in 1585; by himself. 

Voyage to Benin, beyond Guinea, in 1588, by James Welsh. 

Supplement to the foregoing. 

Second Voyage of ditto in 1590. 

Voyage of Richard Rainolds and Thomas Dassel to the Senegal and Gambia, in1591. 

Some miscellaneous early Voyages of the English. 

Voyage to Goa, in 1579, in the Portuguese fleet, by Thomas Stevens. 

Journey over-land to India, by Ralph Fitch. 

Supplement to ditto. 

VOLUME VIII. 

Voyage of Mr. John Eldred to Tripoli, and thence by land and river toBagdat and Basorah, in 1583. 

Account of the Monsoons in India, by William Barret. 

First Voyage of the English to India in 1591, by Captain Geo. Raymond andJames Lancaster. 

Supplement to ditto, by John May. 

Voyage of Captain Benj. Wood towards the East Indies, in 1596. 

---- of Captain John Davis to the East Indies, in 1598. 

---- of William Adams to Japan, in 1598. 

---- of Sir Edward Michelburne to India, in 1604. 

First Voyage of the English East India Company in 1601, under Captain JamesLancaster. 

Account of Java and of the English at Bantam, from 1603 to 1605. 

Second Voyage of the Company, in 1604, under Captain Henry Middleton. 

Third Voyage of the Company, in 1607, under Captain William Keeling. 

Narrative by William Hawkins during his residence in the dominions of theGreat Mogul. 

Observations of William Finch, who accompanied Hawkins. 

Voyage of Captain David Middleton, in 1607, to Bantam and the Moluccas. 

Fourth Voyage of the Company, in 1608, under Captain Alexander Sharpey. 

Voyage of Captain Richard Rowles. 

Fifth Voyage of the Company, in 1609, under Captain David Middleton. 

Sixth Voyage of the Company, in 1610, under Sir Henry Middleton. 

Journal of the same, by Nicholas Downton. 

Seventh Voyage of the Company, in 1611, under Captain Anthony Hippou. 

Notices of the same, by Peter Floris. 

Eighth Voyage of the Company, in 1611, under Captain John Saris. 

VOLUME IX. 

Ninth Voyage of the Company, in 1612, under Captain Edward Marlow. 

Tenth Voyage of the Company, in 1612, by Mr. Thomas Best. 

Observations made on the foregoing by different persons. 

Eleventh Voyage of the Company, in 1612, in the Salomon. 

Twelfth Voyage of the Company, in 1613, under Captain Christopher Newport. 

Voyage of Captain Downton to India, in 1614. 

Supplement to ditto. 

Journey of Richard Steel and John Crowther, from Agimere to Ispahan, in1615-16. 

Voyage of Captain Peyton to India, in 1615. 

Proceedings of the factory at Cranganore, by Roger Hawes. 

Journal of Sir Thomas Roe, ambassador from James I. To the Emperor ofHindoostan. 

Voyage to India, in 1616, by Mr. Edward Terry. 

Journey of Thomas Coryat from Jerusalem to the Court of the Great Mogul. 

Wrongs done the English at Banda by the Dutch, in 1617-18. 

Fifth Voyage of the Joint-Stock by the Company, in 1617, under CaptainPring. 

Voyage of the Ann-Royal from Surat to Mokha, in 1618. 

Voyage to Surat and Jasques, in 1620. 

War of Ormus, and capture of that place by the English and Persians, in1622. 

Massacre of the English at Amboyna, in 1623. 

Observations during a residence in the island of Chusan, in 1701, by Dr. James Cunningham. 

VOLUME X. 

Historical account of early circumnavigations; of Magellan, in 1519-22. Of Sir Francis Drake, in 1577-80. Of Sir Thomas Cnmlish, in 1586-8. Of Van Noort, in 1598-1601. Of George Spilbergen, in 1614-17. Of Schouten and Le Maire, by Cape Horn, in 1615-17. Of the Nassau fleet under Jacques Le Hermit, in 1623-6. Of Captain John Cooke, accompanied by Captains Cowley and Dampier, in 1683-91. In 1703-6, by William Funnell. In 1708-11, by Captain Woods Rogers and Stephen Courtney. In 1719-22, by Captain John Clipperton. In 1719-22, by Captain George Shelvocke. 

VOLUME XI. 

Voyage round the world, in 1721-3, by Commodore Roggewein. 

---- in 1740-4, by Lord Anson. 

VOLUME XII. 

Commodore Byron's Voyage, in 1764-6. 

Captain Wallis's Voyage, in 1766-8. 

Captain Carteret's Voyage, in 1766-9. 

Captain Cook's first Voyage, in 1768-70. 

VOLUME XIII. 

Captain Cook's first Voyage continued and concluded. . 

Abstract of Bougainville's Voyage, in 1766-9. 

VOLUME XIV. 

Captain Cook's second Voyage towards the S. Pole, in 1772-5. 

VOLUME XV. 

Captain Cook's second Voyage concluded. 

Captain Cook's third Voyage, in 1776-80. 

VOLUME XVI. 

Captain Cook's third Voyage continued. 

VOLUME XVII. 

Captain Cook's third Voyage concluded. 

Commodore Byron's narrative of his shipwreck, &c. ; written by himself. 

Bulkeley's narrative of the same. 

THE END.