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 higheft range extremely ponderous in the water, it was cuftomary to put lead into their handles, by way of counterbalancing them. It was alfo the custom 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 thofe 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 thefe prows were faftened roftra, or beaks, (ftill preferving the allufion to birds of prey, whofe beaks, or bills, are their principal weapon of offence,) and thefe were generally fabricated of folid brafs, fometimes to the number of ten, whence fchylus gives to Nifter's fhip the epithet dexeμbonos, ten-beaked. With the ftrong fharp points of these beaks, which protruded confiderably

*Suidas in Voce Semiramis,

beyond

αρπαγες,

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 ag@ayes, 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 scythelike inftruments ufed 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 first, used on these occafions,

Y 2

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 circumftance 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 alfo 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, apply. ing aftronomy to the purposes of navigation, began firft to undertake nocturnal voyages, and fteer 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, whose strong and conftant luftre 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 distant 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 fo numerous and powerful, as acquired for it the supreme dominion of the ocean; and armies, whose invincible energy fubjugated to its control the most puiffant fovereigns of Afia. The recollection

Y 3

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 ftatesmen, heroes, and philofophers, unavoidably kindle in the mind that takes this retrospective furvey, an ardent defire to launch into nobler difquifitions than those which merely concern their commerce: that commerce, however, being the only allotted fubject 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 subject 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, doubtless, they furprisingly and rapidly improved thofe, 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,