highest region of the veffel. To prevent attrition from conftant use, the blade, or broad part of the oar, was generally covered with plates of brafs; but, as this addition would naturally have the effect to render the long oars used in the highest range extremely ponderous in the water, it was cuftomary to put lead into their handles, by way of counterbalancing them. It was alfo the cuftom of the ancients to fortify the prow, that important part of the ancient veffels, on the ftrength of which fo much depended, with brafs; and Suidas even intimates, that those ufed by Semiramis against the Indians were thus armed;* a circumftance which, if credible, fully accounts for her fuperiority over the numerous but cane-conftructed barks of her enemy. For to these prows were faftened roftra, or beaks, (ftill preserving the allufion to birds of prey, whofe beaks, or bills, are their principal weapon of offence,) and these were generally fabricated of folid brass, fometimes to the number of ten, whence Eschylus gives to Nifter's fhip the epithet dexeμCoxos, ten-beaked. With the ftrong fharp points of thefe beaks, which protruded confiderably

Suidas in Voce Semiramis.

1

beyond

beyond the prow, under the water, they affailed, and broke in pieces, the hulls of the enemy's fhips, while a fhower of darts and javelins annoyed the crew from above, and those other terrible engines of deftruction ufed on board the ancient veffels, and enumerated by Scheffer, the dexo, or dolphin, an immenfe ponderous mass of lead or iron, caft in that form, and thrown with violence into the veffel with intent to fink it; the agwayes, harpagines, or vaft iron harpoons, for penetrating and rending it, the great naval ballista and arietes, or machines for hurling ftones and battering their fides, and the long fcythelike inftruments used for cutting their fails and cables, all acting together, contributed to render a naval conflict in ancient, fcarcely lefs tremendous than in modern, periods. Although fails are here mentioned, yet as we before obferved, it was late before they were brought in to the aid of navigation, and later ftill when they came to be made useful in marine engagements, from the ignorance of the ancients in the mode of rightly managing them, at a moment when mifmanagement muft infallibly have been attended with defeat and ruin. Ships, provided with oars only, were, therefore, at firft, ufed on these occafions,

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occafions, but at the fame time, to render them more under command, and that they might more easily tack about in an engagement, they were furnished with two, three, and even four, rudders, a circumstance alike perplexing to the comprehenfion of the modern mariner: of thefe, two were affixed to the fore-deck and ftern; and the other two to the fides. Thefe early engagements also neceffarily took place near that fhore from which they dared not venture far by day, and close to which, at night, they were accuftomed to anchor, till the Phoenicians, applying aftronomy to the purposes of navigation, began firft to undertake nocturnal voyages, and steer their courfe, after the fame manner as the Arabian and Syrian merchants had long directed theirs, through the fandy deferts of their respective countries, by the light of certain brilliant conftellations, whofe ftrong and conftant lufire invariably pointed out the polar regions of the heavens. Then it was that they boldly expanded the various fail, and, by long and diligent obfervation, becoming acquainted with the trade-winds that blow periodically in the equatorial regions, united in one centre the trade of diftant nations, and were enabled to barter the tin

of

of Britain for the gold of Ophir and the pearls of India.

THE ANCIENT COMMERCE

CARRIED ON

BY THE GREEKS, WITH INDIA AND

BRITAIN, DETAILED.

AFTER taking the preceding view of the trade of India, one of the greatest and most populous empires of the world, the eye of the hiftorian of Afiatic commerce is, by the course of time and events, directed to Attica, a country fo very contracted in its limits, as fcarcely to contain two hundred and fifty fquare miles, and in respect to population, fo little to be compared with the former, that its native inhabitants, at no period, exceeded fifty thousand, independent of its flaves, which were indeed difproportionably numerous, but are not to be ranked in the clafs of citizens. Small, however, as were its limits, and naturally barren as was its rocky foil, the republic of Athens produced fleets so numerous and powerful, as acquired for it the fupreme dominion of the ocean; and armies, whose invincible energy fubjugated to its control the most puiffant fovereigns of Afia. The recollection

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recollection of the military glory and the love of freedom that exalted this diftinguished nation, its unrivalled renown in the nobleft walks of genius and fcience, and indeed the very names of a long feries of celebrated statesmen, heroes, and philofophers, unavoidably kindle in the mind that takes this retrospective survey, an ardent defire to launch into nobler difquifitions than those which merely concern their commerce: that commerce, however, being the only allotted subject of this discourse, we must steer through it with the undeviating accuracy of the Grecian pilot, nor be tempted by the fascinating splendor of any foreign fubject to wander from our course. I muft, notwithstanding, take permiffion, previously to the fucceeding ftrictures, of repeating my former affertions in respect to the Greeks not being the inventors of the arts and fciences for which they were fo celebrated, though, doubtlefs, they furprisingly and rapidly improved those, the principles of which they originally received from their Oriental neighbours, as, for inftance, aftronomy, chemistry, and navigation; while all the more elegant and liberal arts, painting, fculpture, mufic, and defigning, may juftly be called their own. In truth,