Ocean's Story; or, Triumphs of Thirty Centuries
by Frank B. Goodrich · English · Gutenberg #46372 · 1,227,634 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Ocean's Story; or, Triumphs of Thirty Centuries
Author: Frank B. Goodrich
Contributor: Edward Howland
Release date: July 22, 2014 [eBook #46372]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OCEAN'S STORY; OR, TRIUMPHS OF THIRTY CENTURIES ***
[Illustration: GIGANTIC CUTTLE FISH. _See page 649._]
OCEAN'S STORY;
OR,
Triumphs of Thirty Centuries;
A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF
MARITIME ADVENTURES,
ACHIEVEMENTS, EXPLORATIONS, DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS:
AND OF THE
RISE AND PROGRESS OF SHIP-BUILDING AND OCEAN NAVIGATION
FROM
THE ARK TO THE IRON STEAMSHIPS,
BY
FRANK B. GOODRICH, Esq.
AUTHOR OF "LETTERS OF DICK TINTO," "THE COURT OF NAPOLEON," &C.
_WITH AN ACCOUNT OF ADVENTURES BENEATH THE SEA; DIVING,
DREDGING, DEEP SEA SOUNDING, LATEST SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS,
&c., &c., PREPARED WITH GREAT CARE_
BY
EDWARD HOWLAND, Esq.
AUTHOR OF MANY POPULAR WORKS.
OVER 200 SPIRITED ILLUSTRATIONS.
SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION.
HUBBARD BROS., PHILADELPHIA, BOSTON, AND CINCINNATI;
VALLEY PUBLISHING CO., ST. LOUIS AND CHICAGO; A. L. BANCROFT & CO.,
SAN FRANCISCO; FRANK W. OLIVER, DAVENPORT, IOWA; H. A. W.
BLACKBURN, DETROIT, MICH.; G. L. BENJAMIN, FOND DU LAC,
WIS.; SCHUYLER SMITH & CO., LONDON, ONTARIO;
W. E. ERSKINE & CO., ST. JOHN'S, N. B.; JNO.
KILLAM, SR., YARMOUTH, NOVA SCOTIA;
M. M. BURNHAM, SYRACUSE, N.Y.
1875.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878.
BY HUBBARD BROS.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
CONTENTS.
SECTION I.
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.--The Purpose of this Work--The Ocean in the Scriptural
Period--The Marvels of the Sea--The Classic Legends--The Fantastic
Notions entertained of the North and the Equator--The Giant of the
Canaries--The Sea of Sea-Weed--The Spectre of the Cape--The Gradual
Surrender of the Secrets of the Sea--It becomes the Highway of
Nations--Its Present Aspect--Its Poetical Significance--Its Moral
Lessons 19
CHAPTER II.--The Origin of Navigation--The Nautilus--The Split Reed
and Beetle--The Beaver floating upon a Log--The Hollow Tree--The First
Canoe--The Floating Nutshell--The Oar--The Rudder--The Sail--The
Tradition of the First Sail-Boat 31
CHAPTER III.--The Flood and the Building of the Ark--The Arguments of
Infidelity against a Universal Deluge--The Material of which the Ark
was built--Its Capacity, Dimensions, and Form--Its Proportions copied
in Modern Ocean-Steamers 36
CHAPTER IV.--The Ships, Commerce, and Navigation of the
Phoenicians--Their Trade with Ophir--Sidon and Tyre--Their Voyage
round Africa--New Tyre--A Patriotic Phoenician Captain--The Egyptians
as a Maritime People--Their Ships and Commerce--The Jews--Their
Geography--Ideas upon the Shape of the Earth--The World as known to
the Hebrews 46
CHAPTER V.--The Early Maritime History of the Greeks--The Expedition
of the Argonauts--The Vessels used in the Trojan War--Ship-Building in
the Time of Homer--The Poetic Geography of the Greeks--The Palace of
the Sun--The Marvels of a Voyage out of Sight of Land--The Geography
of Hesiod--Of Anaximander--Of Thales, Herodotus, Socrates, and
Eratosthenes--The Great Ocean is named the Atlantic 54
CHAPTER VI.--Construction of Greek Vessels--The Prow, Poop,
Rudder, Oars, Masts, Sails, Cordage, Bulwarks, Anchors--Biremes,
Triremes, Quadriremes, Quinqueremes--The Grand Galley of Ptolemy
Philopator--Roman Vessels--Their Navy--Mimic Sea-Fights--The Five
Voyages of Antiquity 65
CHAPTER VII.--The Voyage of Hanno the Carthaginian--He sees
Crocodiles, Apes, and Volcanoes--The Voyage of Himilcon to
Al-Bion--The Voyage and Ignominious Fate of Sataspes the
Persian--The Voyage of Pytheas the Phocian--The Sacred Promontory--A
New Atmosphere--Amber--Return Home--The Veracity of Pytheas'
Narrative--The Expedition of Nearchus the Macedonian--Strange
Phenomena in the Heavens--The Icthyophagi--Houses built of the
Bones of Whales--Fish Flour--A Battle with Whales--An Unexpected
Meeting--The Distance traversed by Nearchus--The Voyage of Eudoxus
along the African Coast--State of Navigation at the Opening of the
Christian Era 75
SECTION II.
FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE APPLICATION OF THE
MAGNETIC NEEDLE TO EUROPEAN NAVIGATION, A.D. 1300.
CHAPTER VIII.--Navigation during the Roman Empire--The Rise of Venice
and Genoa--The Crusades--Their Effect upon Commerce--Wedding of the
Adriatic--Creation of the French Navy--Introduction of Eastern Art
into Europe--Maps of the Middle Ages--Remote Effect of the Crusades
upon Geographical Science 92
CHAPTER IX.--The Scandinavian Sailors--Their Piracies and
Commerce--The Anglo-Saxons--Alfred the Great a Ship-Builder--The
Voyage of Beowulf--Discovery of Iceland by the Danes--Discovery
of Greenland--The Voyage of Bjarni and Leif to the American
Continent--Their Discovery of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Nantucket,
and Massachusetts--Adventures of Thorwald and Thorfinn--Comparison of
the Discoveries of the Northmen with those of Columbus 99
CHAPTER X.--The Travels of Marco Polo--The First Mention of
Japan in History--Kublai Khan--Marco Polo's Voyage from Amoy to
Ormuz--Malacca--Sumatra--Pygmies--Singular Stories of Diamonds--The
Roc--Polo not recognised upon his Return--His Imprisonment--The
Publication of his Narrative--The Interest awakened in China, Japan,
and the Islands of Spices 108
CHAPTER XI.--The First Mention of the Loadstone in History--Its Early
Names--The First Mention of its Directive Power--A Poem upon the
Compass Six Hundred Years Old--Friar Bacon's Magnet--The Loadstone
in Arabia--An Eye-Witness of its Efficiency in the Syrian Waters in
the Year 1240--The Magnet in China--Early Mention of it in Chinese
Works--The Variation noticed in the Twelfth Century--Other Discoveries
made by the Chinese--Modern Errors--Flavio Gioia--The Arms of
Amalfi--All Records lost of the First Voyage made with the Compass by
a European Ship 113
SECTION III.
FROM THE APPLICATION OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE TO EUROPEAN NAVIGATION TO
THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD UNDER MAGELLAN: 1300-1519.
CHAPTER XII.--The Portuguese on the Coast of Africa--The Spaniards and
the Canary Isles--Don Henry of Portugal--The Terrible Cape, now Cape
Bojador--The Sacred Promontory--Discovery of the Madeiras--A Dreadful
Phenomenon--A Prolific Rabbit and a Wonderful Conflagration--Hostility
of the Portuguese to further Maritime Adventure--The Bay of
Horses--The First Gold-Dust seen in Europe--Discovery of Cape Verd
and the Azores--The Europeans approach the Equator--Journey of
Cada-Mosto--Death of Don Henry--Progress of Navigation under the
Auspices of this Prince 122
CHAPTER XIII.--The Portuguese cross the Equator from Guinea to
Congo--John II. conceives the idea of a Route by Sea to the
Indies--His Artifices to prevent the Interference of other
Nations--The Overland Journey of Covillam to India--The Voyage of
Bartholomew Diaz--The Doubling of the Tremendous Cape--Its Baptism by
the King--Injurious Effects of Success upon Portuguese Ambition 133
CHAPTER XIV.--Birth of Christopher Columbus--His Early Life
and Education--His First Voyage--His Marriage--His Maritime
Contemplations--He makes Proposals to the Senate of Genoa, the
Court of Venice, and the King of Portugal--The Duplicity of the
latter--Columbus visits Spain--Juan de Marchena--Columbus repairs
to Cordova--His Second Marriage--His Letter to the King--The Junto
of Salamanca--Columbus resolves to shake the dust of Spain from his
feet--Marchena's Letter to Isabella--The Queen gives Audience to
Columbus--The Conditions stipulated by the latter--Isabella accepts
the Enterprise, while Ferdinand remains aloof 137
CHAPTER XV.--The Port of Palos--The Superstition of its Mariners--The
Hand of Satan--A Bird which lifted Vessels to the Clouds--The Pinta
and the Nina--The Santa Maria--Capacity of a Spanish Caravel--The
three Pinzons--The Departure--Columbus' Journal--The Helm of the Pinta
unshipped--The Variation of the Needle--The Appearance of the Tropical
Atlantic--Floating Vegetation--The Sargasso Sea--Alarm and threatened
Mutiny of the Sailors--Perplexities of Columbus--Land! Land! a False
Alarm--Indications of the Vicinity of Land--Murmurs of the Crews--Open
Revolt quelled by Columbus--Floating Reeds and Tufts of Grass--Land at
last--The Vessels anchor over-night 147
CHAPTER XVI.--Discovery of Guanahani--Ceremonies of taking
Possession--Exploration of the Neighboring Islands--Search
for Gold--Cuba supposed by Columbus to be Japan--The
Cannibals--Haiti--Return Homewards--A Storm--An Appeal to the
Virgin--Arrival at the Azores--Conduct of the Portuguese--Columbus at
Lisbon--At Palos--At Barcelona--Columbus' Second Voyage--Discovery
of Guadeloupe, Antigoa, Santa Cruz, Jamaica--Illness of
Columbus--Terrible Battle between the Spaniards and the
Savages--Columbus returns to Spain--His Reception by the Queen--His
Third Voyage--The Region of Calms--Discovery of Trinidad and of the
Main Land--Assumpcion and Margarita--Columbus in Chains 158
CHAPTER XVII.--The Failing Health of Columbus--His Fourth
Voyage--Martinique, Porto Rico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama--His
Search for a Channel across the Isthmus--He predicts an Eclipse of
the Moon at Jamaica--His Return--The Death of Isabella--Columbus
Penniless at Valladolid--His Death--His Four Burials--The Injustice of
the World towards Columbus--Christopher Pigeon--Amerigo Vespucci--The
New World named America--Errors of Modern Historians--The District
of Columbia--John Cabot in Labrador--Sebastian Cabot in Hudson's
Bay--Vincent Yanez Pinzon at the Mouths of the Amazon 168
CHAPTER XVIII.--Portuguese Navigation under Emmanuel--Popular
Prejudices--The Lusind of Camoens--Vasco da Gama--Maps of Africa
of the Period--Preparations for an Indian Voyage--Religious
Ceremonies--The Departure--Rendezvous at the Cape Verds--Landing
upon the Coast--The Natives--An Invitation to Dinner, and its
Consequences--A Storm--Mutiny--The Spectre of the Cape 179
CHAPTER XIX.--Da Gama and the Negroes--The Hottentots and
Caffres--Adventure with an Albatross--The River of Good
Promise--Mozambique--Treachery of the Natives--Mombassa--Melinda, and
its Amiable King--Festivities--The Malabar Coast--Calicut--The Route
to the Indies discovered 189
CHAPTER XX.--The Moors in Hindostan--Condition of the Country upon
the Arrival of Da Gama--Hostility of the Moors--They prejudice the
King of Calicut against the Portuguese--Consequent Hostilities--Da
Gama sets out upon his Return--Wild Cinnamon-A Moorish Pirate
disguised as an Italian Christian--A Tempestuous Voyage--Wreck
of the San Rafael--Honors and Titles bestowed upon Da Gama--An
Expedition fitted out under Alvarez Cabral--Accidental Discovery
of Brazil--Comets and Water-Spouts--Loss of Four Vessels--A Bazaar
established at Calicut--Attack by the Moors--Cabral withdraws to
Cochin--Visits Cananor and takes in a Load of Cinnamon--Is received
with Coldness upon his Return--Vasco da Gama recalled into the Service
by the King--His Achievements at Sofala, Cananor, and Calicut--He
hangs Fifty Indians at the Yard-Arm--Protects Cochin and threatens
Calicut--Withdraws to Private Life 197
CHAPTER XXI.--Spread of the Portuguese East Indian Empire--Alphonzo
d'Albuquerque--Immense Sacrifice of Life--Ancient Route of
the Spice-Trade with Europe--Commerce by Caravans--Revolution
produced by opening the New Route--Francesco Almeida--Discovery
of Ceylon--Tristan d'Acunha--The Portuguese Mars--His Views of
Empire--An Arsenal established at Goa--Reduction of Malacca--Siam and
Sumatra send Embassies to Albuquerque--The Island of Ormuz--Death of
Albuquerque--Extent of the Portuguese Dominion--Ormuz becomes the
great Emporium of the East--Fall of the Portuguese Empire 207
CHAPTER XXII.--Ponce de Leon--The Fountain of Youth--Discovery of
Florida--The Martyrs and the Tortugas--The Bahama Channel--Vasco
Nuñez de Balboa--He goes to Sea in a Barrel--Marries a Lady of the
Isthmus--His Search for Gold--Hears of a Mighty Ocean--Undertakes
to reach it--Preparations for the Expedition--Leoncico the
Bloodhound--Battle with a Cacique--Ascent of the Mountains--Balboa
mounts to the Summit alone--The First Sight of the Pacific--Ceremonies
of taking Possession--Balboa up to his Knees in the Ocean--Every
one tastes the Water--A Voyage upon the Pacific, and a Narrow
Escape--Ignominious Fate of Balboa--Juan Diaz de Solis--Discovers the
Rio de la Plata--His Horrible Death by Cannibals 213
CHAPTER XXIII.--Remarkable Foresight of the Court of Rome--A Papal
Bull--Ferdinand Magellan--He offers his Services to Spain--His
Plans--His Fleet--Pigafetta the Historian--An Inauspicious
Start--Teneriffe and its Legends--St. Elmo's Fire--The Crew make
Famous Bargains with the Cannibals--Heavy Price paid for the King of
Spades--Patagonian Giants--Pigafetta's Exaggerations--The Healing Art
in Patagonia--The Tragedy of Port Julian--Discovery of a Strait--The
Open Sea--Cape Deseado--The Ocean named Pacific--Ravages of the
Scurvy--A Patagonian Paul--The Needle becomes Lethargic--Discovery of
the Ladrones--The First Cocoanut--A Catholic Ceremony upon a Pagan
Island 225
CHAPTER XXIV.--Discovery of the Philippines--The King of Zubu
wishes the King of Spain to pay Tribute--He finally abandons the
idea--A whole Island converted to Christianity--Magellan performs
a Miracle--A Dumb Man recovers his Speech--Magellan invades a
Refractory Island--His Death--Attempts to recover his Body--The
Christian Island returns to Idolatry--The Ships arrive at Borneo--The
Sailors drink too freely of Arrack--Festivities and Treachery--Vivid
Imagination of Pigafetta--The Fleet arrives at the Moluccas--The
King of Tidore--A Brisk Trade in Cloves--The Spice-Tariff--The
Vittoria sails Homeward--Pigafetta is again imaginative--Arrival at
the Cape Verds--Loss of One Day--Completion of the First Voyage of
Circumnavigation--Pigafetta's Romance becomes Veritable History 236
SECTION IV.
FROM THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD TO THE DISCOVERY OF CAPE HORN:
1519-1616.
CHAPTER XXV.--Voyage of Jacques Cartier--Maritime Projects
of Francis I. of France--Gulf of St Lawrence--A Quick
Trip Home--Second Voyage--Canada, Quebec, Montreal--A
Captive King--Voyage of Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard
Chancellor--Discovery of Nova Zembla--Disastrous Winter--Fate of the
Expedition--Martin Frobisher--His Voyage in Quest of a Northwest
Passage--Greenland--Labrador--Frobisher's Straits--Exchange of
Captives--Supposed Discovery of Gold--Second Voyage--A Cargo of
Precious Earth taken on Board--Meta Incognita--Third Voyage--A
Mortifying Conclusion 245
CHAPTER XXVI.--Origin of English Piracy--Sir John Hawkins--Francis
Drake--His First Voyage to the Spanish Main--Commission granted by
Queen Elizabeth--Expedition against the Spanish Possessions--Exploits
at Mogador and Santiago--Crossing the Line--Arrival in
Patagonia--Trial and Execution of Doughty--Passage through
Magellan's Strait--Adventures of William Pitcher and Seven Men--Cape
Horn--Arrival at Valparaiso--Rifling of a Catholic Church 256
CHAPTER XXVII.--Drake's Exploit with a Sleeping Spaniard--His
Achievements at Callao--Battle with a Treasure-Ship--Drake gives
a Receipt for her Cargo--Indites a Touching Epistle--His Plans
for Returning Home--Fresh Captures--Performances at Guatulco and
Acapulco--Drake dismisses his Pilot--Exceeding Cold Weather--Drake
regarded as a God by the Californians--Sails for the Moluccas--Visits
Ternate and Celebes--The Pelican upon a Reef--The Return
Voyage--Protest of the Spanish Ambassador--He styles Drake the
Master-Thief of the Unknown World--Queen Elizabeth on board the
Pelican--Drake's Use of his Fortune--His Death--The Voyage of John
Davis to the Northwest 267
CHAPTER XXVIII.--Policy of Queen Elizabeth--Thomas Cavendish--His
First Voyage--Exploits upon the African and Brazilian Coasts--Port
Desire--Port Famine--Battles with the Araucanians--Capture of
Paita--Robbery of a Church--Repeated Acts of Brigandage--Capture
of the Santa Anna--The Return Voyage--Cavendish's Account of the
Expedition--The Spanish Armada--Preparations in England--The
Conflict--Total Rout of the Invincibles--Procession in Commemoration
of the Event 276
CHAPTER XXIX.--The Fiction of El Dorado--Manoa--Description of its
Fabled Splendors--Attempts of the Spaniards to Discover it--Sir
Walter Raleigh--His Voyage to Guiana--His Account of the Orinoco--His
Description of the Scenery--His Return--His Second Voyage--Expedition
to Newfoundland--His Death--Modern Interpretation of the Legend of El
Dorado 285
CHAPTER XXX.--Discovery of the Solomon Islands by Mendana--He seeks
for them again Thirty Years later--Quiros--The Marquesas Islands--The
Women compared with those of Lima--Strange Fruits--Conversions to
Christianity--Arduous Voyage--Santa Cruz--Mendana exchanges Names with
Malopé--Hostilities--War, and its Results--Death of Mendana--Quiros
conducts the Ships to Manilla 291
CHAPTER XXXI.--Attempts of the Dutch to discover a Northeast
Passage--Voyage of Wilhelm Barentz--Arrival at Nova Zembla--Winter
Quarters--Building a House--Fights with Bears--The Sun Disappears--The
Clock Stops, and the Beer Freezes--The House is Snowed up--The
Hot-Ache--Fox-Traps--Twelfth Night--Return of the Sun--The Ships
prove Unseaworthy--Preparations to Depart in the Boats--Death of
Barentz--Arrival at Amsterdam--Results of the Voyage 297
CHAPTER XXXII.--The Five Ships of Rotterdam--Battle at the Island of
Brava--Sebald de Weert--Disasters in the Strait of Magellan--The Crew
eat Uncooked Food--The Fleet is scattered to the Winds--Adventures of
De Weert--A Wretched Object--Return to Holland--Voyage of Oliver Van
Noort--Barbarous Punishment--The Emblem of Hope becomes a Cause of
Despair--Fight with the Patagonians--Arrest of the Vice-Admiral--His
Punishment--Description of a Chilian Beverage--Capture of a Spanish
Treasure-Ship--A Pilot thrown Overboard--Sea-Fight off Manilla--Return
Home, after the First Dutch Voyage of Circumnavigation 304
CHAPTER XXXIII.--Quiros' Theory of a Southern Continent--His Arguments
and Memorials--His First Voyage--Discoveries--Encarnaçion--Sagittaria,
or Tahiti--Description of these Islands--Manicolo--Espiritu Santo--Its
Productions and Inhabitants--Quiros before the King of Spain--His
Belief in his Discovery of a Continent--His Disappointment--Renewed
Solicitations--Death of Quiros--Discoveries of Torrès--The Muscovy
Company of London--Henry Hudson--His Voyages to Spitzbergen and Nova
Zembla--His Voyage to America--Casts Anchor at Sandy Hook--Ascends the
Hudson River as far as the Site of Albany--His Voyage to Iceland and
Hudson's Bay--Disastrous Winter--Mutiny--Hudson set adrift--His
Death 316
CHAPTER XXXIV.--The Fleet of Joris Spilbergen--Arrival in
Brazil--Adventures in the Strait of Magellan--Trade at Mocha
Island--Treachery at Santa Maria--Terrible Battle between the Dutch
and Spanish Fleets--Ravages of the Coast--Skirmishes Upon the
Land--Spilbergen sails for Manilla--Arrival at Ternate--His Return
Home--The Voyage of Schouten and Lemaire--Lemonade at Sierra Leone--A
Collision at Sea--Discovery of Staten Land--Cape Horn--Lemaire's
Strait--Arrival at Batavia--Confiscation of the Ships--General Results
of the Voyage--The Voyage of William Baffin--Arctic Researches during
the Seventeenth Century 326
SECTION V.
FROM THE DISCOVERY OF CAPE HORN TO THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO
NAVIGATION: 1616-1807.
CHAPTER XXXV.--A Famous Vessel--The Mayflower--Her
Appearance--The Speedwell--Departure of the Two Ships--Alleged
Unseaworthiness of the Speedwell--The Mayflower sails alone--The
Equinoctial--Consultations--A Remedy applied--First View of the
Land--Subsequent History and Fate of the Mayflower 339
CHAPTER XXXVI.--Discovery of New Holland--Tasman ordered to survey the
Island--Discovery of Van Diemen's Land--Of New Zealand--Murderers'
Bay--The Friendly Islands--The Feejees--New Britain--An Earthquake at
Sea--A Copious Language--Circumnavigation of New Holland--Return to
Batavia--Results of the Voyage--Dutch Opinions of Tasman's Merit 346
CHAPTER XXXVII.--Piracy--Origin of the Buccaneers--Their
Manner of Life--Dress--Occupation-The Island of Tortuga their
Head-Quarters--Their Religious Scruples--Manner of dividing
Spoils--The Exterminator--The Observance of the Sabbath--Exploits
of Henry Morgan--Impotence of the Spaniards--Career of William
Dampier--His First Piratical Cruise--Adventures by Land and
Sea--Description of the Plantain-Tree--Lingering Deaths by
Poison--Reproaches of Conscience--The New-Hollanders--Dampier's
Dangerous Voyage in an Open Boat--Piracy upon the American
Coast--William Kidd sent against the Pirates--He turns Pirate
himself--His Exploits, Detection, and Execution--His Buried
Treasures--Wreck of the Whidah Pirate-Ship 351
CHAPTER XXXVIII.--The Voyage of Woodes Rogers-Desertion checked by a
Novel Circumstance--A Light seen upon the Island of Juan Fernandez--A
Boat sent to Reconnoitre--Alexander Selkirk discovered--His History
and Adventures--His Dress, Food, and Occupations--He ships with
Rogers as Second Mate--Turtles and Tortoises--Fight with a Spanish
Treasure-Ship--Profits of the Voyage--The South Sea Bubble--Its
Inflation and Collapse--Measures of Relief 373
CHAPTER XXXIX.--The Dutch West India Company--Renewed Search for
the Terra Australis Incognita--Jacob Roggewein--His Voyage of
Discovery--Brush with Pirates--Arrival at Juan Fernandez--Easter
Island--Its Inhabitants--Entertainment of one on board the Ship--A
Misunderstanding--Pernicious and Recreation Islands--Glimpse
of the Society Islands--A Famine in the Fleet--Arrival at New
Britain--Confiscation of the Ship at Batavia--Decision of the
States-General--Vitus Behring--Behring's Strait--Description of the
Scene--Death of Behring--Subsequent Survey of the Strait 383
CHAPTER XL.--Piratical Voyage under George Anson--Unparalleled
Mortality--Arrival and Sojourn at Juan Fernandez--A
Prize--Capture of Paita--Preparations to attack the Manilla
Galleon--Disappointment--Fortunate Arrival at Tinian--Romantic Account
of the Island--A Storm--Anson's Ship driven out to Sea--The Abandoned
Crew set about building a Boat--Return of the Centurion--Battle with
the Manilla Galleon--Anson's Arrival in England--The Proceeds of the
Cruise 393
CHAPTER XLI.--The First Scientific Voyage of Circumnavigation--The
Dolphin and Tamar--Byron in Patagonia--Falkland Islands--Islands of
Disappointment--Arrival at Tinian--Byron versus Anson--The Voyage
Home--Wallis and Carteret--Their Observations in Patagonia--Wallis
at Tahiti--A Desperate Battle--Nails lose their Value--A Tahitian
Romance--Pitcairn's Island--Queen Charlotte's Islands--New
Britain--The Voyage Home--A Man-of-War Destroyed by Fire 410
CHAPTER XLII.--Colonization of the Falkland Islands--Antoine
de Bougainville--His Voyage around the World--Adventure
at Montevideo--The Patagonians--Taking Possession of
Tahiti--French Gallantry--Ceremonies of Reception--Sojourn at
the Island--Aotourou--The First Female Circumnavigator--Famine
on Board--Remarkable Cascade--Arrival at the Moluccas--Incidents
there--Return Home 426
CHAPTER XLIII.--Expedition despatched at the Instance of the Royal
Society--Lieutenant James Cook--Incidents of the Voyages--A Night on
Shore in Terra del Fuego--Arrival at Tahiti--The Natives pick their
Pockets--The Observatory--A Native chews a Quid of Tobacco--The
Transit of Venus--Two of the Marines take unto themselves Wives--New
Zealand--Adventures there--Remarkable War-Canoe--Cannibalism
demonstrated--Theory of a Southern Continent subverted--New
Holland--Botany Bay--The Endeavor on the Rocks--Expedient to stop
the Leak--A Conflagration--Passage through a Reef--Arrival at
Batavia--Mortality on the Voyage Home--Cook promoted to the Rank of
Commander 435
CHAPTER XLIV.--Cook's Second Voyage--A Storm--Separation of the
Ships--Aurora Australis--New Zealand--Six Water-Spouts at once--Tahiti
again--Petty Thefts of the Natives--Cook visits the Tahitian
Theatre--Omai--Arrival at the Friendly Islands--The Fleet witness
a Feast of Human Flesh--The New Hebrides--New Caledonia--Return
Home--Honors bestowed upon Cook 451
CHAPTER XLV.--Cook's Third Voyage--The Northwest Passage--Omai--His
Reception at Home--The Crew forego their Grog--Discovery of the
Sandwich Islands--Nootka Sound--The Natives--Cape Prince of Wales--Two
Continents in Sight--Icy Cape--Return to the Sandwich Islands--Cook
is deified--Interview with Tereoboo--Subsequent Difficulties--A
Skirmish--Pitched Battle and Death of Cook--Recovery of a Portion of
his Remains--Funeral Ceremonies--Life and Services of Cook 461
CHAPTER XLVI.--Louis XVI. and the Science of Navigation--Voyage
of Lapérouse--Arrival at Easter Island--Address of the
Natives--Owhyhee--Trade at Mowee--Survey of the American
Coast--A Remarkable Inlet--Distressing Calamity--Sojourn at
Monterey--Run across the Pacific--The Japanese Waters--Arrival at
Petropaulowski--Affray at Navigators' Isles--Lapérouse arrives at
Botany Bay, and is never seen again, alive or dead--Voyages made
in Search of him--D'Entrecasteaux--Dillon--D'Urville--Discovery of
numerous Relics of the Ships at Manicolo--Theory of the Fate of
Lapérouse--Erection of a Monument to his Memory 480
CHAPTER XLVII.--The Transplantation of the Bread-Fruit Tree--The
Voyage of the Bounty--A Mutiny--Bligh, the Captain, with Eighteen Men,
cast adrift in the Launch--Incidents of the Voyage from Tahiti to
Timor--Terrible Sufferings and a Marvellous Escape--Arrival of the
Mutineers at Tahiti--Their Removal to Pitcairn's Island--Subsequent
History--Voyage of Vancouver--Algerine Piracy--Burning of the
Philadelphia--Proud Position of the United States 492
CHAPTER XLVIII.--Application of Steam to Navigation--Robert
Fulton--Chancellor Livingston--Launch of the Clermont--She crosses the
Hudson River--Her Voyage to Albany--Description of the Scene--Fulton's
own Account--Legislative Protection granted to Fulton--The
Pendulum-Engine--Construction of other Steamboats--The Steam-Frigate
Fulton the First--The First Ocean-Steamer, the Savannah--Account of
her Voyage--Misapprehensions upon the Subject 508
SECTION VI.
FROM THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO NAVIGATION TO THE LAYING OF THE
ATLANTIC CABLE: 1807-1858.
CHAPTER XLIX.--Arctic Explorations--Russian Researches under
Krusenstern and Kotzebue--Freycinet--Ross--The Crimson
Cliffs--Lancaster Sound--Buchan and Franklin--Parry--The Polar
Sea--Winter Quarters--Return Home--Duperrey--Episodes in the
Whale-Fishery--Parry's Polar Voyage--Boat-Sledges--Method of
Travel--Disheartening Discovery--82° 43' North 519
CHAPTER L.--Ross's Second Voyage--The North Magnetic
Pole--D'Urville--Enderby's Land--Back's Voyage in the Terror--The
Great Western and Sirius--United States' Exploring Expedition--The
Antarctic Continent--Sir John Franklin's Last Voyage in the Erebus
and Terror--Efforts made to relieve him--Discovery of the Scene of
his First Winter Quarters--The Grinnell Expedition--The Advance and
Rescue--Lieutenant de Haven--Dr. Kane--Return of the Expedition 535
CHAPTER LI.--Kennedy's Expedition--Sir Edward
Belcher--McClure--Discovery of the Northwest Passage--Junction of
McClure and Kellett--Episode of the Resolute--Commodore Perry's
Expedition--Decisive Traces of the Fate of Sir John Franklin--The
Leviathan 553
CHAPTER LII.--The Second Grinnell Expedition--The Advance in
Winter Quarters--Total Darkness--Sledge-Parties--Adventures--The
First Death--Tennyson's Monument--Humboldt Glacier--The Open
Polar Sea--Second Winter--Abandonment of the Brig--The Water
again--Upernavik--Rescue by Captain Hartstene--Death and Services of
Dr. Kane--Attempt to lay the Atlantic Cable 561
CHAPTER LIII.--Second and Third Attempts to lay the Atlantic
Cable--The Failure in the Month of June--Description of the
Cable--The Voyage of the Niagara--The Continuity--All Right
again--Change from one Coil to Another--The Knights of the Black
Hand--Unfavorable Symptoms--The Insulation broken--The Third of
August--An Anxious Moment--Land discovered--Trinity Bay--Mr. Field
visits the Telegraph Station--The Operators taken by Surprise--Landing
of the Cable--Impressive Ceremony--Captain Hudson returns Thanks
to Heaven--The Voyage of the Agamemnon--The Queen's Message--The
Sixteenth of August--Deep-Sea Telegraphing--The Equator and the
Cable 576
CHAPTER LIV.--Diving--The first diving-bell--Fixed apparatus supplied
with compressed air--The submarine hydrostat--Operations at Hell
Gate--Diving apparatus--Submarine explosions--Improved diving
dresses--Their use--Work of various kinds done with them--Instances
of this--Seeking the treasure of the Hussar--Sunken ships in
Sebastopol--Operations in Mobile--The Dry Dock at Pensacola Bay--The
beauties of the submarine world--Habits of the fish--Possible depth of
descent 594
CHAPTER LV.--Fishing--The ocean as a field--The crops it yields--The
sponge--Transplanting sponges--Coral fisheries--The coral an
animal--The discovery of this--Oyster fishery--The oyster a social
animal--The young oyster--Oyster culture--Dredging for oysters--The
American oyster fishery--Pearl oysters--The value of the pearl
fishery--Shark fishing--Cuttle fish 627
CHAPTER LVI.--Dredging in modern times--What it has taught
us--Deep sea soundings--First attempts--Implements used for
it--The chance for inventors--The temperature of the sea--Deep
sea temperature--Self-regulating thermometers--Serial temperature
soundings--Animal life of the sea--Deep sea dredging--The dredging
apparatus of the Porcupine 652
CHAPTER LVII.--The development of ship building--New models
for ships--Steam ship navigation--Monitors--Iron-plated
frigates--Tin-clads--Rams--Torpedo boats--Their use in the
Confederacy--Life Rafts--Yacht building--Ocean yacht race--The cost of
a yacht 673
CHAPTER LVIII.--Our knowledge of the earth and sea--How it has
increased--The earth the daughter of the ocean--The opinion of
science--The mean depth of the ocean--The extent of the ocean--Its
volume--Specific gravity of sea-water--Constitution of salt-water--The
silver in the sea--The waves of the sea--The currents of the
ocean--The tides--The aquarium--The commerce of modern times--The
spread of peace 696
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
No. Page
1. Gigantic Cuttle Fish _Frontispiece._
2. Asiatic Deluge 18
3. Hand of Satan 19
4. Stormy Petrel 30
5. The First Navigator 31
6. Modern Row Boat 33
7. The Deluge and the Ark 35
8. Noctulius Miliaris 45
9. Supposed form of the ship _Argo_ 54
10. The World, according to Homer 61
11. The Earth, according to Anaximander 62
12. The Great Penguin 64
13. Greek Vessel of the 6th Century 65
14. The Ptolemy Philopator 72
15. Common Penguin 74
16. The Sacred Promontory 78
17. Plan of Pythias' Voyage 79
18. Plan of the Voyage of Nearchus 83
19. Supposed form of the ships of Nearchus 91
20. Venetian Galley of the 10th Century 92
21. Wedding the Adriatic 95
22. Danish vessel of the 10th Century 99
23. The Northmen of America 104
24. Fishing for Herrings 107
25. Ancient Chinese Compass 113
26. Chinese Junk 119
27. Ship of the 14th Century 121
28. Teneriffe 122
29. Cape Bojador 124
30. Cape Verd 130
31. Sea Swallow 132
32. Christopher Columbus 137
33. Violet Asteria 145
34. The Fleet of Columbus 146
35. Head of the Merganser 147
36. The _Nina_ homeward bound 157
37. Columbus taking possession of Guanchani 158
38. Reception of Columbus by Ferdinand, etc. 162
39. Columbus in chains at Cadiz 168
40. Water Spout 170
41. The Phaeton 178
42. Vasco de Gama 179
43. Map of Africa, drawn 1497 182
44. Spectre of the Cape 187
45. Phosphorescence 188
46. The Man overboard, and the Albatross 189
47. Calicut in the 16th Century 196
48. Wreck of the _San Raphael_ 197
49. De Gama's Flag Ship 204
50. Vessels employed in the Spice Trade in the 16th Century 207
51. Ponce de Leon and the Fountain of Youth 213
52. Balboa and the Indian 217
53. Balboa discovering the Pacific Ocean 219
54. Balboa taking possession of the Pacific Ocean 221
55. Fate of De Solis and his companions 224
56. Ferdinand Magellan 225
57. Cape Virgin, east end Magellan's Strait 231
58. Laminaria 235
59. Natives of Borneo prepare to attack Magellan 236
60. Tidore 242
61. Scene on the Canadian Coast 246
62. Henry VIII. Embarking at Dover 255
63. Francis Drake 256
64. Drake and his Raft 260
65. Drake and the Patagonians 261
66. Drake condemning Doughty 262
67. Sea Anemones 266
68. Drake interrupting Justin at Acopulco 270
69. Queen Elizabeth knighting Drake 274
70. British Ship of War. 1578 276
71. Cavendish in Brazil 277
72. Port Famine 278
73. Hull of a vessel of the Armada 282
74. Procession in honor of the defeat of the Armada 284
75. Sir Walter Raleigh 285
76. Native of the Solomon Islands 291
77. Islanders before a Breeze 296
78. The Dutch at Walrus Island 297
79. The Dutch in Winter quarters 299
80. The female Otter and her young 303
81. Funeral of Mahu at Brava Island 304
82. Affray between the Dutch and Patagonians 310
83. The Two Admirals at close quarters 314
84. A Dutch Pic-Nic in the Mauritius 315
85. Turtles Head 315
86. Woman and Child of Espiritu Santu 316
87. Scene at Tahiti 318
88. Hudson's vessel, _The Half Moon_, off Sandy Hook 323
89. Dutch vessel trading at the Ladrones 326
90. Conflict between the Dutch and Spanish Fleets 330
91. The Dutch surprised by the Spaniards 331
92. Cape Horn 335
93. The _Concord_ at Fly Island 336
94. Arctic Gull 338
95. _Speedwell_ and _Mayflower_ 339
96. Cod Fish 345
97. Tasman's vessel, _The Zeehaan_ 346
98. Murderer's Bay 349
99. Natives of Murderer's Bay 349
100. A Buccaneer 351
101. Boats used in the Philippian Islands 360
102. Surf Bathing by Natives 362
103. Polynesian Canoe with its Outrigger 364
104. Dampier's Boat in a Storm 365
105. Wreck of the Pirate Ship, _Whidah_ 372
106. Home of Alexander Selkirk 373
107. Selkirk and his Family 376
108. Catching Turtles 378
109. The Hammer-headed Shark 382
110. The Eagle and the Pirate 383
111. Mirage at Behring's Straits 391
112. Lord Anson 393
113. Bombardment of Paita 397
114. Anson's Encampment at Firman 401
115. The Centurion and the Treasure Ship 407
116. Byron at King George's Island 410
117. Parting of Wallis and Oberea 418
118. Burning of the _Le Prince_ 423
119. Chain of Phosphorescent Salpas 425
120. Bougainville 426
121. A Ferry Boat at Buenos Ayres 428
122. Bougainville at Magellan's Straits 429
123. Cascade at Port Praslin 433
124. Capt. James Cook 435
125. A New Zealand Canoe 443
126. Cape Pigeon 450
127. Cook's ship beset by Water Spouts 451
128. King Otoo's sister dancing 455
129. Reception of Cook at the Friendly Islands 456
130. Canoes of the Friendly Islands 458
131. New Caledonian double Canoe 460
132. Sandwich Island King to visit Cook 461
133. Omai 465
134. Habitations in Nootka Sound 467
135. Man of the Sandwich Islands 469
136. Woman of Sandwich Islands 470
137. Fight with the Natives 472
138. Death of Capt. Cook 474
139. Lapérouse 480
140. Lapérouse's Disaster at Frenchport 485
141. Remnants of the wreck 490
142. Consecration of the Cenotaph 491
143. Scene in Terra del Fuego 492
144. Colonists of Pitcairn's Island 498
145. A Deserted Village 501
146. The _Discovery_ on a Rock 502
147. Burning of the _Philadelphia_ 506
148. The _Clermont_, the first steamboat 508
149. The _Savannah_, the first ocean steamer 517
150. Head of a White Bear 519
151. Reception of Otzebue at Otdia 520
152. Sea Lions upon the Ice 523
153. Attacked by Walruses 524
154. White Bears 526
155. Cutting In 529
156. Cutting Out 529
157. The Whale of Capt. de Blois 531
158. The Navigators frozen in 535
159. The _Victory_ in a Gale 536
160. Dr. Kane 547
161. Dr. Kane passing through Devil's Nip 548
162. The Seal 552
163. Japanese Vessel 558
164. The Leviathan 559
165. Cape Alexander, the Arctic Gibraltar 561
166. Chaos 563
167. Wild Dog Team 565
168. Open Polar Sea 566
169. Seeking Eider Down 570
170. The Telegraphic Fleet 571
171. Hauling the Cable ashore 573
172. Landing the Cable 574
173. A hollow Wave 575
174. The Cable in the bed of the Ocean 576
175. Sections of Atlantic Cable 577
176. The Telegraphic Plateau 584
177. The _Agamemnon_ in a Gale 590
178. The Seal 594
179. Diving Bell 595
180. Fixed Apparatus supplied with Compressed Air 596
181. Payerne's Submarine Hydrostat 598
182. Mushroom Drill 601
183. Ready to go down 603
184. Putting in the Charges 605
185. Grappling Machine 606
186. Divers dressed in their Apparatus 607
187. Divers finding a Box of Gold 608
188. Arming the Diver 611
189. Casting off the Diver 612
190. Diver down 613
191. Cannon, bell, and bones, brought up from the Wreck 615
192. Salvage of Russian Ships 616
193. Caulking a Vessel 617
194. The Northern Diver 625
195. Star Fish 627
196. Sponge fishing 628
197. Coral fishing off coast of Sicily 631
198. Faggots suspended to receive Oyster Spat 636
199. Dredging for Oysters 639
200. A Shell containing Chinese Pearls 640
201. Pearl Fisher in danger 642
202. Shark fishing 646
203. Cuttle fish making his Cloud 648
204. Ideal Scene 650
205. Red Coral 651
206. Dredging 652
207. Brook's Deep Sea Sounding Apparatus 657
208. Bull Dog Sounding Machine 659
209. Massey's Sounding Machine 660
210. The stern of the _Porcupine_ 668
211. Sail boat in a Gale 673
212. _Pennsylvania_ and _Ohio_ on the Stocks 675
213. Monitors 678
214. Plans of the Monitors 679
215. St. Louis 680
216. Double Ender 681
217. _Minnehaha_, or Tin Clad 683
218. The Ram Ironsides 685
219. Torpedo Explosion 687
220. Life Raft 691
221. Ocean Yacht Race, _Henrietta_, _Vesta_ and _Fleetwing_ 694
222. Fancy Sail Race 695
223. Appearance of Ice at the Poles 710
224. Light Ship 711
225. A Coral Island 712
[Illustration: ASIATIC DELUGE.]
[Illustration: THE HAND OF SATAN UPON THE SEA OF DARKNESS.]
Section I.
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
CHAPTER I.
THE PURPOSE OF THIS WORK--THE OCEAN IN THE SCRIPTURAL PERIOD--THE
MARVELS OF THE SEA--THE CLASSIC LEGENDS--THE FANTASTIC NOTIONS
ENTERTAINED OF THE NORTH AND THE EQUATOR--THE GIANT OF THE
CANARIES--THE SEA OF SEA-WEED--THE SPECTRE OF THE CAPE--THE GRADUAL
SURRENDER OF THE SECRETS OF THE SEA--IT BECOMES THE HIGHWAY OF
NATIONS--ITS PRESENT ASPECT--ITS POETICAL SIGNIFICANCE--ITS MORAL
LESSONS.
A history of the ocean from the Flood to the Atlantic Telegraph, with
a parallel sketch of ship-building from the Ark to the Iron Clad; a
narrative of the rise of commerce, from the days when Solomon's ships
traded with Ophir, to the time when the steam whistle is heard on every
open sea; a consecutive chronicle of the progress of navigation, from
the day when the timid mariner hugged the coast by day and prudently
cast anchor by night, to the time when the steamship, apparently
endowed with reason, or at least guided by instinct, seems almost to
dispense with the aid of man,--such a theme seems to offer topics of
interest which it would be difficult to find in any other subject. The
reader will readily perceive its scope when we have briefly rehearsed
what the sea once was to man, and what it now is,--the purpose of the
work being to narrate how from the one it has become the other.
In early times, in the scriptural and classic periods, the great
oceans were unknown. Mankind--at least that portion whose history has
descended to us--dwelt upon the borders of an inland, mediterranean
sea. They had never heard of such an expanse of water as the Atlantic,
and certainly had never seen it. The land-locked sheet which lay spread
out at their feet was at all times full of mystery, and often even of
dread and secret misgiving. Those who ventured forth upon its bosom
came home and told marvellous tales of the sights they had seen and the
perils they had endured. Homer's heroes returned to Ithaca with the
music of the sirens in their ears and the cruelties of the giants upon
their lips. The Argonauts saw whirling rocks implanted in the sea, to
warn and repel the approaching navigator; and, as if the mystery of the
waters had tinged with fable even the dry land beyond it, they filled
the Caucasus with wild stories of enchantresses, of bulls that breathed
fire, and of a race of men that sprang, like a ripened harvest, from
the prolific soil. If the ancients were ignorant of the shape of the
earth, it was for the very reason that they were ignorant of the ocean.
Their geographers and philosophers, whose observations were confined
to fragments of Europe, Asia, and Africa, alternately made the world a
cylinder, a flat surface begirt by water, a drum, a boat, a disk. The
legends that sprang from these confused and contradictory notions made
the land a scene of marvels and the water an abode of terrors.
At a later period, when, with the progress of time, the love of
adventure or the needs of commerce had drawn the navigator from the
Mediterranean through the Pillars of Hercules into the Atlantic, and
when some conception of the immensity of the waters had forced itself
upon minds dwarfed by the contracted limits of the inland sea, then
the ocean became in good earnest a receptacle of gloomy and appalling
horrors, and the marvels narrated by those fortunate enough to return
told how deeply the imagination had been stirred by the new scenes
opened to their vision. Pytheas, who coasted from Marseilles to the
Shetland Isles, and who there obtained a glance at the bleak and
wintry desolation of the North Sea, declared, on reaching home, that
his further progress was barred by an immense black mollusk, which
hung suspended in the air, and in which a ship would be inextricably
involved, and where no man could breathe. The menaces of the South were
even more appalling than the perils of the North; for he who should
venture, it was said, across the equator into the regions of the Sun,
would be changed into a negro for his rashness: besides, in the popular
belief, the waters there were not navigable. Upon the quaint charts
of the Middle Ages, a giant located upon the Canary Islands forbade
all farther venture westward, by brandishing his formidable club in
the path of all vessels coming from the east. Upon these singular maps
the concealed and treacherous horrors of the deep were displayed in
the grotesque shapes of sea-monsters and distorted water-unicorns,
which were represented as careering through space and waylaying the
navigator. Even in the time of Columbus, and when the introduction
of the compass into European ships should have somewhat diminished
the fantastic terrors of the sea, we find that the Arabians, the best
geographers of the time, represented the bony and gnarled hand of Satan
as rising from the waves of the Sea of Darkness,--as the Atlantic was
then called,--ready to seize and engulf the presumptuous mariner. The
sailors of Columbus, on reaching the Sargasso Sea, where the collected
weeds offered an impediment to their progress, thought they had arrived
at the limit of navigation and the end of the world. Five years later,
the crew of da Gama, on doubling the Cape of Good Hope, imagined they
saw, in the threatening clouds that gathered about Table Rock, the form
of a spectre waving off their vessel and crying woe to all who should
thus invade his dread dominion. The Neptune of the classics, in short,
who disported himself in the narrow waters of the Mediterranean, and of
whose wrath we have read the famous mythologic accounts, was a deity
altogether bland and debonnaire compared to the gloomy and revengeful
monopolist of the seas, such as the historians and geographers of the
Middle Ages painted him.
And now Columbus had discovered the Western Continent, da Gama had
found an ocean route to the Indies, and Magellan, sailing around the
world, had proved its sphericity and approached the Spice Islands from
the east. For centuries, now, the two great oceans were the scenes of
grand and useful maritime expeditions. The tropical islands of the
Pacific arose, one by one, from the bosom of the sea, to reward the
navigator or relieve the outcast. The Spanish, by dint of cruelty
and rapacity, filled their famous Manilla galleons and Acapulco
treasure-ships with the spoils of warfare and the legitimate fruits of
trade. The English, seeking to annoy a nation with whom, though not
at war, they were certainly not at peace, sent against their golden
fleets the piratical squadrons of Anson, Drake, and Hawkins. For years
property was not safe upon the sea, and trading-ships went armed,
while the armed vessels of nations turned buccaneers. The Portuguese
and Dutch colonized the coasts and islands of India, Spain sent Cortez
and Pizarro to Mexico and Peru, and England drove the Puritans across
a stormy sea to Plymouth. Commerce was spread over the world, and
Civilization and Christianity were introduced into the desert and the
wilderness. Two centuries more, and steam made the Atlantic Ocean
a ferry-transit, and the electric telegraph has now made its three
thousand miles of salt water but as one link in that girdle which
Shakspeare foresaw and which Puck promised to perform. The cable is
complete and in working-order from New Orleans to Sebastopol.
Having thus rapidly described what the ocean once was in man's
estimation, and having cursorily traced the steps by which it has taken
its place in the world's economy, it remains for us to say what the
ocean now is, and what place it now holds. It is the peaceful Highway
of Nations,--a highway without tax or toll. Were the noble idea of
the late Secretary Marcy adopted by all nations, private property
upon the sea would be sacred even in time of war. If the distances
be considered, the sea is the safest and most commodious route from
spot to spot, whether for merchandise or man. It has given up its
secrets, with perhaps the single exception of its depth, and, like the
lightning and the thunderbolt, has submitted to the yoke. Though still
sublime in its immensity and its power, it has lost those features
of character which once made it mysterious and fantastic, and has
become the sober and humdrum pathway of traffic. Mail-routes are as
distinctly marked upon its surface as the equator, or the meridian of
Greenwich: steamships leave their docks punctually at the stroke of
noon. The monsters that plough its waters have been hunted by man till
the race is well nigh exhausted; for the leviathan which frightened
the ancients is the whale which has illuminated the moderns. The chant
of the sirens is hushed, and in its place are heard the clatter of
rushing paddle-wheels, the fog-whistle on the banks, the song of the
forecastle, the yo-ho of sailors toiling at the ropes, the salute in
mid-ocean,--sometimes--alas!--the minute-gun at sea. The romance and
fable that once had here their chosen home, have fled to the caves and
taken refuge amid the grottos; and the legends that were lately told of
the ocean would now be out of place even in a graveyard or a haunted
house.
The sailor, to whom once the route was trackless and untrodden, now
consults a volume of charts which he has obtained from the National
Observatory, and finds his course laid out upon data derived from
analogy and oft-repeated experience. He takes this or that direction in
accordance with known facts of the prevalence of winds or the motion of
currents. He keeps a record of his own experience, that in its turn it
may be useful to others. He has plans and surveys which give him the
bearings of every port, the indentations of every coast, the soundings
of every pass. Beacons warn him of reefs and sunken rocks, and buoys
mark out his course through the shallows of sounds and straits. A
modern light-house costs a million dollars, and a breakwater involves
the finances of a state. If a new light-house is erected, or is the
warning lamp for any reason discontinued, upon any coast, the fact is
made known to the commerce of all nations by a "Notice to Mariners,"
inserted in the marine department of the newspapers most likely to
meet their eye. A vessel at sea is safer from spoliation than is the
traveller upon the high road or the sojourner in a city; for there
are robbers and depredators everywhere upon the land, while there is
not a pirate on the ocean. There are well-laden treasure-ships in the
Panama and California waters, as in the times of Drake and Anson; but
the world is much older than it was, and buccaneers and flibustiers now
only infest the land.
In short, the ocean, once a formidable and repellant element, now
furnishes Christian food and healthful employment to millions. Instead
of serving to affright and appall the dwellers upon the continents
which it surrounds, it renders their atmosphere more respirable,
it affords them safe conveyance, and raises for them a school of
heroes. The ocean, then, has a history: it has a past worth narrating,
adventures worth telling, and it has played a part in the advancement
of science, in the extension of geographical knowledge, in the spread
of civilization and the progress of discovery, which it is eminently
worth our while to ponder and digest. Its gradual submission to
invasion from the land, its successive surrender of the islands in
the tropics and the ice-mountains at the poles, its slow but certain
release of its secrets, its final abandonment of its exclusiveness,
form--with a multitude of attendant incidents, accidents, battles,
disasters, shipwrecks, famines, robberies, mutinies, piracies--the
theme and purpose of these pages.
Although the ocean has lost its terrors and has given up its dominion
of dread over the mind of man, it is still poetic, and has been often
made to assume a profound moral significance and furnish apt religious
illustrations. In this connection, we cannot do better than to quote,
from Dr. Greenwood's "Poetry and Mystery of the Sea," a passage which
strongly and beautifully enforces this view:--
"'The sea is his, and He made it,' cries the Psalmist of Israel, in one
of those bursts of enthusiasm in which he so often expresses the whole
of a vast subject by a few simple words. Whose else, indeed, could it
be, and by whom else could it have been made? Who else can heave its
tides and appoint its bounds? Who else can urge its mighty waves to
madness with the breath and wings of the tempest, and then speak to it
again in a master's accents and bid it be still? Who else could have
peopled it with its countless inhabitants, and caused it to bring forth
its various productions, and filled it from its deepest bed to its
expanded surface, filled it from its centre to its remotest shores,
filled it to the brim with beauty and mystery and power? Majestic
Ocean! Glorious Sea! No created being rules thee or made thee.
"What is there more sublime than the trackless, desert,
all-surrounding, unfathomable sea? What is there more peacefully
sublime than the calm, gently-heaving, silent sea? What is there
more terribly sublime than the angry, dashing, foaming sea?
Power--resistless, overwhelming power--is its attribute and its
expression, whether in the careless, conscious grandeur of its deep
rest, or the wild tumult of its excited wrath. It is awful when its
crested waves rise up to make a compact with the black clouds and the
howling winds, and the thunder and the thunderbolt, and they sweep
on, in the joy of their dread alliance, to do the Almighty's bidding.
And it is awful, too, when it stretches its broad level out to meet
in quiet union the bended sky, and show in the line of meeting the
vast rotundity of the world. There is majesty in its wide expanse,
separating and enclosing the great continents of the earth, occupying
two-thirds of the whole surface of the globe, penetrating the land
with its bays and secondary seas, and receiving the constantly-pouring
tribute of every river, of every shore. There is majesty in its
fulness, never diminishing and never increasing. There is majesty in
its integrity,--for its whole vast substance is uniform in its local
unity, for there is but one ocean, and the inhabitants of any one
maritime spot may visit the inhabitants of any other in the wide world.
Its depth is sublime: who can sound it? Its strength is sublime: what
fabric of man can resist it? Its voice is sublime, whether in the
prolonged song of its ripple or the stern music of its roar,--whether
it utters its hollow and melancholy tones within a labyrinth of
wave-worn caves, or thunders at the base of some huge promontory, or
beats against a toiling vessel's sides, lulling the voyager to rest
with the strains of its wild monotony, or dies away, with the calm and
fading twilight, in gentle murmurs on some sheltered shore.
"The sea possesses beauty, in richness, of its own; it borrows it
from earth, and air, and heaven. The clouds lend it the various dyes
of their wardrobe, and throw down upon it the broad masses of their
shadows as they go sailing and sweeping by. The rainbow laves in it
its many-colored feet. The sun loves to visit it, and the moon and
the glittering brotherhood of planets and stars, for they delight
themselves in its beauty. The sunbeams return from it in showers of
diamonds and glances of fire; the moonbeams find in it a pathway of
silver, where they dance to and fro, with the breezes and the waves,
through the livelong night. It has a light, too, of its own,--a soft
and sparkling light, rivaling the stars; and often does the ship
which cuts its surface leave streaming behind a Milky Way of dim and
uncertain lustre, like that which is shining dimly above. It harmonizes
in its forms and sounds both with the night and the day. It cheerfully
reflects the light, and it unites solemnly with the darkness. It
imparts sweetness to the music of men, and grandeur to the thunder
of heaven. What landscape is so beautiful as one upon the borders of
the sea? The spirit of its loveliness is from the waters where it
dwells and rests, singing its spells and scattering its charms on all
the coasts. What rocks and cliffs are so glorious as those which are
washed by the chafing sea? What groves and fields and dwellings are so
enchanting as those which stand by the reflecting sea?
"If we could see the great ocean as it can be seen by no mortal eye,
beholding at one view what we are now obliged to visit in detail
and spot by spot,--if we could, from a flight far higher than the
eagle's, view the immense surface of the deep all spread out beneath
us like a universal chart,--what an infinite variety such a scene
would display! Here a storm would be raging, the thunder bursting, the
waters boiling, and rain and foam and fire all mingling together; and
here, next to this scene of magnificent confusion, we should see the
bright blue waves glittering in the sun and clapping their hands for
very gladness. Here we should see a cluster of green islands set like
jewels in the bosom of the sea; and there we should see broad shoals
and gray rocks, fretting the billows and threatening the mariner. Here
we should discern a ship propelled by the steady wind of the tropics,
and inhaling the almost visible odors which diffuse themselves around
the Spice Islands of the East; there we should behold a vessel piercing
the cold barrier of the North, struggling among hills and fields of
ice, and contending with Winter in his own everlasting dominion. Nor
are the ships of man the only travellers we shall perceive upon this
mighty map of the ocean. Flocks of sea-birds are passing and repassing,
diving for their food or for pastime, migrating from shore to shore
with unwearied wing and undeviating instinct, or wheeling and swarming
around the rocks which they make alive and vocal by their numbers and
their clanging cries.
"We shall behold new wonders and riches when we investigate the
sea-shore. We shall find both beauty for the eye and food for the body,
in the varieties of shell-fish which adhere in myriads to the rocks
or form their close dark burrows in the sands. In some parts of the
world we shall see those houses of stone which the little coral-insect
rears up with patient industry from the bottom of the waters, till they
grow into formidable rocks and broad forests whose branches never wave
and whose leaves never fall. In other parts we shall see those pale,
glistening pearls which adorn the crowns of princes and are woven in
the hair of beauty, extorted by the relentless grasp of man from the
hidden stores of ocean. And spread round every coast there are beds of
flowers and thickets of plants, which the dew does not nourish, and
which man has not sown, nor cultivated, nor reaped, but which seem to
belong to the floods alone and the denizens of the floods, until they
are thrown up by the surges, and we discover that even the dead spoils
of the fields of ocean may fertilize and enrich the fields of earth.
They have a life, and a nourishment, and an economy of their own; and
we know little of them, except that they are there, in their briny
nurseries, reared up into luxuriance by what would kill, like a mortal
poison, the vegetation of the land.
"There is mystery in the sea. There is mystery in its depths. It is
unfathomed, and, perhaps, unfathomable. Who can tell, who shall know,
how near its pits run down to the central core of the world? Who can
tell what wells, what fountains, are there, to which the fountains of
the earth are but drops? Who shall say whence the ocean derives those
inexhaustible supplies of salt which so impregnate its waters that all
the rivers of the earth, pouring into it from the time of the creation,
have not been able to freshen them? What undescribed monsters, what
unimaginable shapes, may be roving in the profoundest places of the
sea, never seeking--and perhaps, from their nature, never able to
seek--the upper waters and expose themselves to the gaze of man! What
glittering riches, what heaps of gold, what stores of gems, there must
be scattered in lavish profusion in the ocean's lowest bed! What spoils
from all climates, what works of art from all lands, have been engulfed
by the insatiable and reckless waves! Who shall go down to examine and
reclaim this uncounted and idle wealth? Who bears the keys of the deep?
"And oh! yet more affecting to the heart and mysterious to the mind,
what companies of human beings are locked up in that wide, weltering,
unsearchable grave of the sea! Where are the bodies of those lost ones
over whom the melancholy waves alone have been chanting requiem? What
shrouds were wrapped round the limbs of beauty, and of manhood, and of
placid infancy, when they were laid on the dark floor of that secret
tomb? Where are the bones, the relics, of the brave and the timid, the
good and the bad, the parent, the child, the wife, the husband, the
brother, the sister, the lover, which have been tossed and scattered
and buried by the washing, wasting, wandering sea? The journeying winds
may sigh as year after year they pass over their beds. The solitary
rain-cloud may weep in darkness over the mingled remains which lie
strewed in that unwonted cemetery. But who shall tell the bereaved to
what spot their affections may cling? And where shall human tears be
shed throughout that solemn sepulchre? It is mystery all. When shall
it be resolved? Who shall find it out? Who but He to whom the wildest
waves listen reverently, and to whom all nature bows; He who shall
one day speak, and be heard in ocean's profoundest caves; to whom the
deep, even the lowest deep, shall give up its dead, when the sun shall
sicken, and the earth and the isles shall languish, and the heavens be
rolled together like a scroll, and there shall be NO MORE SEA!"
It now remains for us to investigate the origin of navigation, as
preliminary to our subject, and then to commence the task before us
with the history of Noah, the first seaman, and the Ark, the vessel he
commanded.
[Illustration: THE STORMY PETREL.]
[Illustration: THE FIRST NAVIGATOR.]
CHAPTER II.
THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION--THE NAUTILUS--THE SPLIT REED AND BEETLE--THE
BEAVER FLOATING UPON A LOG--THE HOLLOW TREE--THE FIRST CANOE--THE
FLOATING NUTSHELL--THE OAR--THE RUDDER--THE SAIL--THE TRADITION OF THE
FIRST SAIL-BOAT.
The origin of navigation is unknown. It has baffled the research of
antiquaries, for the simple reason that men sailed upon the sea before
they committed the records of their history to paper, or that such
records, if any existed, were swept away and lost in the periods of
anarchy which succeeded. Imagination has suggested that the nautilus,
or Portuguese man-of-war, raising its tiny sail and floating off before
the breeze, first pointed out to man the use which might be made of the
wind as a propelling force; that a split reed, following the current of
some tranquil stream and transporting a beetle over its glassy surface,
was the first canoe, while the beetle was the first sailor. Mythology
represents Hercules as sailing in a boat formed of the hide of a lion,
and translates ships to the skies, where they still figure among the
constellations. Fable makes Atlas claim the invention of the oar, and
gives to Tiphys, the pilot of the Argo, the invention of the rudder.
The attributing of these discoveries and improvements to particular
individuals doubtless afforded pastime to poets in ages when poetry
was more popular than history. Instead of trusting to these fanciful
authorities, we may form a very rational theory upon the matter in the
following manner:--
Whether it was an insect that floated on a leaf across a rivulet and
was stranded on the bank, or a beaver carried down a river upon a log,
or a bear borne away upon an iceberg, that first awakened man to the
conception of trusting himself fearlessly upon the water, it is highly
probable that he learned from animals, whose natural element it is, the
manner of supporting his body upon it and of forcing his way through
it. A frog darting away from the rim of a pond and striking out with
his fore-legs may have suggested swimming, and the beaver floating on a
log may have suggested following his example. The log may not have been
sufficiently buoyant, and the adventurer may have added to its buoyancy
by using his arms and legs. Even to this day the Indians of our own
country cross a rapid stream by clasping the trunk of a tree with the
left leg and arm and propelling themselves with the right. Thus the
first step was taken; and the second was either to place several logs
together, thus forming a raft, and raising its sides, or to make use
of a tree hollowed out by nature. Many trees grow hollow naturally,
such as oaks, limes, beeches, and willows; and it would not require a
degree of adaptation beyond the capacity of a savage, to fit them to
float and move upon the water. The next step was probably to hollow out
by art a sound log, thus imitating the trunk which had been eroded by
time and decay. And, in making this step from the sound to the hollow
log, the primitive mariners may have been assisted by observing how an
empty nut-shell or an inverted tortoise-shell floated upon the water,
preserving their inner surface dry and protecting such objects as their
size enabled them to carry. It has been aptly remarked that this first
step was the greatest of all,--"for the transition from the hollow tree
to the ship-of-the-line is not so difficult as the transition from
nonentity to the hollow tree."
The first object for obtaining motion upon the water must evidently
have been to enable the navigator to cross a river,--not to ascend or
descend it; as it is apparent he would not seek the means of following
or stemming its current while the same purpose could be more easily
served by walking along the shore. It is not difficult to suppose that
the oar was suggested by the legs of a frog or the fins of a fish. The
early navigator, seated in his hollow tree, might at first seek to
propel himself with his hands, and might then artificially lengthen
them by a piece of wood fashioned in imitation of the hand and arm,--a
long pole terminating in a thin flat blade. Here was the origin of the
modern row-boat, one of the most graceful inventions of man.
[Illustration]
From the oar to the rudder the transition was easy, for the oar is in
itself a rudder, and was for a long time used as one. It must have
been observed at an early day that a canoe in motion was diverted from
its direct course by plunging an oar into the water and suffering it
to remain there. It must have been observed, too, that an oar in or
towards the stern was more effective in giving a new direction to the
canoe than an oar in any other place. It was a natural suggestion of
prudence, then, to assign this duty to one particular oarsman, and to
place him altogether at the stern.
The sail is not so easily accounted for. An ancient tradition relates
that a fisherman and his sweetheart, allured from the shore in the
hope of discovering an island, and surprised by a tempest, were in
imminent danger of destruction. Their only oar was wrenched from the
grasp of the fisherman, and the frail bark was thus left to the mercy
of the waves. The maiden raised her white veil to protect herself and
her lover from the storm; the wind, inflating this fragile garment,
impelled them slowly but surely towards the coast. Their aged sire,
the tradition continues, suddenly seized with prophetic inspiration,
exclaimed, "The future is unfolded to my view! Art is advancing
to perfection! My children, you have discovered a powerful agent
in navigation. All nations will cover the ocean with their fleets
and wander to distant regions. Men, differing in their manners and
separated by seas, will disembark upon peaceful shores, and import
thence foreign science, superfluities, and art. Then shall the mariner
fearlessly cruise over the immense abyss and discover new lands and
unknown seas!" Though we may admire the foresight of this patriarch,
we cannot applaud him for choosing a moment so inopportune for
exercising his peculiar gift: it would certainly have been more natural
to afford some comfort to his weather-beaten children. The legend
even goes on to state that he at once fixed a pole in the middle of
the canoe, and, attaching to it a piece of cloth, invented the first
sail-boat. Mythology assigns a different, though similar, origin to the
invention:--Iris, seeking her son in a bark which she impelled by oars,
perceived that the wind inflated her garments and gently forced her in
the direction in which she was going.
No research would bring the investigator to conclusions more
satisfactory than these. The fact would still remain, that the first
mention in profane history of constructions moving upon the water, is
many centuries subsequent to the period in which the idea of building
such constructions must be presumed to have been first conceived. It
would consequently be idle to devote more space to this subject; and we
proceed at once, therefore, to the first of recorded ventures upon the
sea.
[Illustration: THE DELUGE AND THE ARK.]
CHAPTER III.
THE FLOOD AND THE BUILDING OF THE ARK--THE ARGUMENTS OF INFIDELITY
AGAINST A UNIVERSAL DELUGE--THE MATERIAL OF WHICH THE ARK WAS
BUILT--ITS CAPACITY, DIMENSIONS, AND FORM--ITS PROPORTIONS COPIED IN
MODERN OCEAN STEAMERS.
The earliest mention of the sea made in history occurs in the first
chapter of Genesis. During the period of chaos, and before the creation
of light, darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters. Upon the third day the waters under
the heavens were gathered together in one place and were called Seas;
the dry land appeared and was called Earth. The waters were commanded
to bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life; and, upon
the creation of man in the image of God, dominion was given him over
the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth.
In the year of the world 1556--according to the generally accepted
computation--God determined to destroy man and all creeping things
and the fowls of the air, for He said, "It repenteth me that I have
made them." Noah alone found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and was
instructed to build him an ark of gopher-wood three hundred cubits in
length, fifty in breadth, and thirty in height. It was to consist of
three stories, divided into rooms, to contain one door and one window,
and was to be smeared within and without with pitch. Noah was engaged
one hundred years in constructing the ark,--from the age of five
hundred to that of six hundred years,--and when it was fully completed
he gathered his family into it, with pairs of all living creatures.
Then were the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of
heaven opened. The rains descended during forty days and forty nights.
The waters arose and lifted up the ark from the earth. The mountains
were covered to a depth of twenty-two feet, and all flesh died that
moved upon the earth: Noah alone remained alive, and they that were
with him in the ark.
The flood commenced in the second month of Noah's six hundredth year.
During five months the waters prevailed; in the seventh the ark rested
upon the summit of Mount Ararat. In the tenth month the tops of the
mountains were seen; in the eleventh Noah sent forth a dove, which
speedily returned, having found no rest for the sole of her foot; on
the seventeenth day he again sent forth the dove, which returned,
bringing an olive-leaf in her bill, and, being again sent forth,
returned no more. On the first day of the first month of his six
hundred and first year, Noah removed the covering of the ark and saw
that the face of the ground was dry. Toward the close of the second
month the earth was dried, and Noah went forth with his sons, his wife,
and his sons' wives. He built an altar and offered burnt-offerings of
every beast and fowl to the Lord. God then made a promise to Noah that
he would no more destroy the earth by flood, and stretched the rainbow
in the clouds in token of this solemn covenant between himself and the
children of men.
Such is the scriptural history of the Deluge,--the first great
chronological event in the annals of the world after the Creation.
The investigations of philosophy and of infidelity into the accuracy
of the Mosaic account have resulted in furnishing confirmation of the
most direct and positive kind. The principal objections of cavillers
turn upon three points: 1st, the absence of any concurrent testimony
by the profane writers of antiquity; 2d, the apparent impossibility of
accounting for the quantity of water necessary to overflow the whole
earth to the depth stated; and, 3d, the needlessness of a universal
deluge, as the same purpose might have been answered by a partial one.
These objections may be briefly considered here.
1. The absence of positive testimony from profane historians. However
true it may be that there is no consecutive account of the Deluge
except that given in the Bible, it is certain that records relating
to the ark had been preserved, among the early nations of the world
and in the general system of Gentile mythology. Plutarch mentions the
dove that was sent forth from the ark. The Greek fable of Deucalion
and Pyrrha is absolutely the same as the scriptural narrative of Noah
and his wife. The Egyptians carried their deity, upon occasions of
solemnity, in an ark or boat, and this ark was called "Baris," from
the name of a mountain upon which, doubtless, in their own legend, the
Egyptian ark had rested, as did the scriptural ark upon Mount Ararat.
The Temple of Sesostris was fashioned after the model of the ark, and
was consecrated to Osiris at Theba. This name of Theba given to a city
is an important point, for Theba was the appellation of the ark itself.
The same name was borne by numerous cities in Boeotia, Attica, Ionia,
Syria, and Italy; and the city of Apamea, in Phrygia, was originally
called Kibotos, or Ark, in memory of the Deluge. This fact shows that
the tradition of the Deluge was preserved in Asia Minor from a very
remote antiquity. In India, ancient mythological books have been shown
to contain fragmentary accounts of some great overflow corresponding
in a remarkable degree with that given by Moses. The Africans, the
Chinese, and the American Indians even, have traditions of a flood in
the early annals of the world, and of the preservation of the human
race and of animated nature by means of an ark. It is impossible to
account for the universality of this legend, unless the fact of the
Deluge be admitted.
2. The apparent material impossibility of producing water in sufficient
quantity to overflow the earth. The means by which the flood was
produced are stated in the Mosaic narrative: the fountains of the
great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened;
that is, the water rushed out from the bowels of the earth, where
it had been confined, and the clouds poured forth their rains. This
would seem to be a sufficient explanation, if any explanation of an
event clearly miraculous and supernatural be necessary at all. It has
been discovered, however, that the Deluge might have been caused, and
might at any time be repeated, by a very simple process. It has been
demonstrated that the various seas and oceans which invest the two
principal hemispheres, contain water enough to overflow the land and
cover the highest mountains to the depth of twenty-two feet, were their
temperature merely raised to a degree equal to that of the shallow
tropical seas! Were the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans suddenly warmed to
a point perfectly compatible with the maintenance of animal life, they
would expand sufficiently to overflow the Cordilleras and the Alps.
3. The needlessness of a universal deluge, as a partial one would have
answered all purposes. That the Deluge was universal is distinctly
stated by Scripture. Had not God intended it to be so, he would hardly
have instructed Noah to spend a hundred years in the construction of
an ark: a spot of the earth yet uninhabited by man might have been
designated, where Noah could have gathered his family; there would
have been no necessity for shutting up pairs of all animals in the
ark with which to re-stock the earth, for they could have been easily
brought from the parts of the earth not overflowed into those that
were. Then we are told that the water ascended twenty-two feet above
the highest mountains,--a distinct physical proof that the whole earth
was inundated, for water then, as now, would seek its level, and must,
by the laws of gravity, spread itself over the rest of the earth,
unless, indeed, it were retained there by a miracle; and in this case
Moses would certainly have mentioned it, as he did the suspension of
the laws of nature in the case of the waters of the Red Sea. Then,
again, had the Deluge been partial and confined to the neighborhood of
the Euphrates and Tigris, it would be impossible to account for the
fact that in remote countries--in Italy, France, Germany, England, the
United States--there have been found, in places far from the sea, and
upon the tops of high mountains, the teeth and bones of animals, fishes
in an entire condition, sea-shells, ears of corn, &c., petrified. The
explanation of this has always been derived from the circumstance of a
universal deluge. The fact, too, already mentioned, that the Chinese,
the Greeks, and the Indians have traditions of a deluge, seems to be
conclusive evidence that that terrible dispensation was not confined to
the district which was at that period scriptural ground, but visited
alike Palestine and Peru, Canaan and Connecticut.
We now return to the ark, the period of whose completion we have
already given,--the year of the world 1656, or the year before Christ
2348. Three points are now to be considered:--the material of which it
was built, its capacity and dimensions, and its form.
1. _The Material of which it was built._ The Mosaic account says
expressly that it was built of gopher-wood; but it has never been
satisfactorily determined what wood is meant by the term "gopher."
Numerous interpretations have been placed upon it: by one authority it
is rendered "timber squared by the workman;" by another, "timber made
from trees which shoot out quadrangular branches in the same horizontal
line," such as cedar and fir; by another, "smoothed or planed timber;"
by another, "wood that does not readily decay," such as boxwood or
cedar; by another, "the wood of such trees as abound with resinous,
inflammable juices," as the cedar, fir, cypress, pine, &c. That the ark
was built of cedar would seem to be probable, from the fact that this
wood corresponds more than any other with the numerous significations
given to the term "gopher," as it is quadrangular in its branches,
durable, almost incorruptible, resinous, and highly inflammable; from
the fact, too, that it is abundant in Asia, and known to have been
employed by the Assyrians and Egyptians in the construction of ships.
One or two authorities, however, maintain that the ark was made of
the wood of the cypress, their grounds being that the cypress was
considered by the ancients the most durable wood against rot and worms;
that it abounded in Assyria, where the ark was probably built; and that
it was frequently employed in the construction of ships, especially
by Alexander, who built a whole fleet from the cypress groves in the
neighborhood of Babylon.
2. _Its Capacity and Dimensions._ The proportions of the ark, as given
in the sacred volume, have been examined and compared with the greatest
precision by the most learned and accurate calculators; and, assuming
the cubit to have been of the value of eighteen inches of the present
day, it follows that the ark was four hundred and fifty feet long, by
seventy-five wide, by forty-five high. From these data its burden has
been deduced, and is now understood to have been forty-two thousand
four hundred and thirteen tons. Such a construction would have allowed
ample room for the eight persons who were to inhabit it,--Noah and
his wife, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives,--about two hundred
and fifty pair of four-footed beasts, the fowls of the air, such
reptiles and insects as could not live under water, together with the
food necessary for their subsistence for a twelvemonth. It has been
doubted whether Noah took with him into the ark specimens of all living
creatures. It is reasonable to suppose that, as the world was nearly
seventeen centuries old, the animal creation had spread itself over a
large portion of the antediluvian earth, and that certain species had
consequently become indigenous in certain climates. It is therefore
probable that many species were not to be found in the country where
Noah dwelt and where he built the ark. We are not told in the Bible
that any kind of animals were brought from a distance,--a fact which
renders it probable that Noah only saved pairs of the species which had
become natives of the territory which he inhabited. This would be to
suppose that many species perished in the flood and were consequently
never renewed,--a supposition which derives strong support from the
numerous discoveries made in modern times of the exuviæ of animals
which no longer exist, and whose destruction is attributed to the
Deluge. A list of such extinct species was drawn up by Cuvier.
The presumptive evidence which may be adduced in support of the
scriptural history of the preparation of the ark is very strong; it is,
indeed, the only solution of an otherwise insuperable difficulty. The
early records of the whole Gentile world, as has been stated, concur in
declaring the fact of a universal deluge; and yet the human race and
all the more useful and important species of animals survived it. Now,
the people of those times had no ships and were totally unacquainted
with navigation: it is evident, therefore, that they were not saved by
vessels in ordinary use. Even though we were to suppose them possessed
of shipping, it is impossible to believe that they would or could have
provisioned them for a year's cruise, unless we suppose them to have
been forewarned precisely as Moses relates; and it is certainly as
easy to believe the whole of the Bible narrative as a portion. Such a
structure as the ark, for the preservation and sustenance of the human
race and of the animal kingdom, seems, then, to have been absolutely
indispensable.
3. _Its Form._ From the dimensions given in the sixth chapter of
Genesis, it is evident that the ark had the shape of an oblong square,
with a sloping roof and a flat bottom; that it was furnished with
neither helm, mast, nor oars; that it was intended to lie upon the
water without rolling, and formed to float rather than to sail. Its
proportions, it has been remarked, nearly agree with those of the human
figure,--three hundred cubits in length being six times its breadth,
fifty cubits, and the average length of the human frame being to its
width as six is to one. Now, the body of a man lying in the water flat
on his back will float with little or no exertion. It would appear,
therefore, that similar proportions would suit a vessel whose purpose
was floating only. It is not necessary to suppose that the ark had to
contend with either storm or wind. The waves of water lying to the
depth of a few fathoms upon a submerged continent could not, at any
rate, be compared in violence to those of the ocean. The gathering
of the flood lasted but forty days, and although the ark floated for
a year, nearly eleven months were occupied in the subsidence of the
water. It is probable that the ark was gradually and slowly surrounded
by the advancing tide, was quietly lifted up upon its surface, that
it hovered about the spot where it was constructed, and finally, upon
the disappearance of the water, settled as quietly back upon its broad
basis and projecting supports.
It is a curious fact that many minds which have refused to accept the
evidences of a communication between God and man in the instances
of Moses and of our Savior, admit the strong probability of a
communication having passed from God to Noah. The chain of argument
is indeed exceedingly strong. Mr. Taylor thus seeks to establish
the fact that the Deity did, in the case of Noah, condescend to
make known his intentions to man. "Was the Deluge," he asks, "a
real occurrence? All mankind acknowledge it. Wherever tradition has
been maintained, wherever written records are preserved, wherever
commemorative rites have been instituted, what has been their subject?
The Deluge:--deliverance from destruction by a flood. The savage and
the sage agree in this: North and South, East and West, relate the
danger of their great ancestor from overwhelming waters. But he was
saved: and how? By personal exertion? By long-continued swimming? By
concealment in the highest mountains? No: but by enclosure in a large
floating edifice of his own construction. But this labor was long:
it was not the work of a day: he must have foreseen so astonishing an
event a considerable time previous to its actual occurrence. Whence
did he receive this foreknowledge? Did the earth inform him that at
twenty, thirty, forty years' distance it would disgorge a flood? Surely
not. Did the stars announce that they would dissolve the terrestrial
atmosphere in terrific rains? Surely not. Whence, then, had Noah his
foreknowledge? Did he begin to build when the first showers descended?
It was too late. Had he been accustomed to rains, formerly? Why think
them now of importance? Had he never seen rain? What could induce him
to provide against it? Why this year more than last year? Why last
year more than the year before? These inquiries are direct: we cannot
flinch from the fact. Erase it from the Mosaic records, still it is
recorded in Greece, in Egypt, in India, in Britain; it is registered in
the very _sacra_ of the pagan world. Go, infidel, take your choice of
difficulties: either disparage all mankind as fools, as willing dupes
to superstitious commemoration, or allow that this fact, this one fact,
is established by testimony abundantly sufficient; but remember that if
it be established, it implies a _communication from God to man_. Who
could inform Noah? Why did not that great patriarch provide against
fire? against earthquakes? against explosions? Why against water? why
against a deluge? Away with subterfuge! confess frankly it was the
dictation of Deity. Say that He only who made the world could predict
the time and causes of this devastation, that He only could excite the
hope of restoration, or suggest a method of deliverance."
It is a remarkable fact, and one which goes far to support the argument
often urged to combat the opinions of atheists, that the ark could
not have been built by man, unassisted by the divine intelligence, at
that age of the world,--that the ark, the first and largest ship ever
built, had precisely the same proportions as the ocean steamers of our
own day. Its dimensions were, as we have said, three hundred cubits,
by fifty, by thirty. Those of several of the fleetest Atlantic mail
steamers are three hundred feet in length, fifty feet in breadth of
beam, and twenty-eight and a half in depth. They have, like the ark,
upper, lower, and middle stories. It is, to say the least, singular,
that the ship-builders of the present day, neglecting the experience
acquired by man from forty-two centuries spent more or less upon the
sea, should so directly and unreservedly return to the model of the
vessel constructed to outride the Flood. It was therefore with obvious
propriety that, at one of the late convivial meetings in England during
the preparations for laying the telegraphic cable, after due honor had
been paid to the celebrities of the occasion and the moment, after
the health of the Queen and the memory of Columbus had been pledged
and drunk, a toast was offered to our great ancestor Noah. Though the
proposition was received with hilarity and the idea seemed to savor
somewhat of a jest, yet the patriarch's claims, as the first admiral
on record, to being the father of seamen and the great originator of
navigation, were willingly and vociferously acknowledged. After this
recognition--which must, from the circumstances, be regarded as in
some measure official and conclusive--we could not consistently have
ventured to withhold from him the first place in this record of the
triumphs of thirty centuries.
[Illustration: NOCTILUCA VILIARIS.]
CHAPTER IV.
THE SHIPS, COMMERCE, AND NAVIGATION OF THE PHOENICIANS--THEIR
TRADE WITH OPHIR--SIDON AND TYRE--THEIR VOYAGE ROUND AFRICA--NEW
TYRE--A PATRIOTIC PHOENICIAN CAPTAIN--THE EGYPTIANS AS A MARITIME
PEOPLE--THEIR SHIPS AND COMMERCE--THE JEWS--THEIR GEOGRAPHY--IDEAS
UPON THE SHAPE OF THE EARTH--THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE HEBREWS.
It is upon the shores of the Mediterranean, alike the sea of the
Bible and of mythology, of Mount Ararat and Mount Olympus,--among
the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and the Hebrews,--that we must look
for the earliest traces of navigation and commerce. The most cursory
inspection of a map of Palestine, Phoenicia, and Egypt will show how
admirably these countries were situated for trade both by land and sea.
The Phoenicians, though confined to the narrow slip of land between
Mount Lebanon and the Mediterranean, possessed a safe coast and the
admirable harbor of Sidon, while their mountains furnished them an
abundant supply of the best woods for ship-building. The confined
limits of their own territory prevented them from being themselves
producers or manufacturers,--a circumstance which naturally led them to
be the carriers of producing and manufacturing nations whose maritime
advantages were inferior to their own. The fact, also, that the Jews
were prevented by their government, laws, and religion from engaging
extensively in commerce, and that the Egyptians were characteristically
averse to the sea, augmented the commercial supremacy of the
Phoenicians,--a supremacy recognised both in the sacred writings and in
profane records.
It is now generally conceded that the date of the maritime enterprises
which rendered the Phoenicians famous in antiquity must be fixed
between the years 1700 and 1100 before Christ. The renowned city of
Sidon was the centre from which their expeditions were sent forth. What
was the specific object of these excursions, or in what order of time
they took place, is but imperfectly known: it would appear, however,
that their adventurers traded at first with Cyprus and Rhodes, then
with Greece, Sardinia, Sicily, Gaul, and the coast of Spain upon the
Mediterranean. About 1250 B.B., their ships ventured cautiously beyond
the Straits of Gibraltar, and founded Cadiz upon a coast washed by the
Atlantic. A little later they founded establishments upon the western
coast of Africa. Homer asserts that at the Trojan War, 1194 BC., the
Phoenicians furnished the belligerents with many articles of luxury and
convenience; and we are told by Scripture that their ships brought gold
to Solomon from Ophir, in 1000 B.C. Tyre seems now to have superseded
Sidon, though at what period is not known. It had become a flourishing
mart before 600 B.C. who lived at that time, has left a glowing and
picturesque description of its wealth, which must have proceeded from
a long-established commerce. He enumerates, among the articles used
in building the Tyrian ships, the fir-trees of Senir, the cedars of
Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the ivory of the Indies, the linen of
Egypt, and the purple of the Isles of Elishah. He mentions, as brought
to the great emporium from Syria, Damascus, Greece, and Arabia, silver,
tin, lead, and vessels of brass; slaves, horses, mules; carpets, ebony,
ivory, pearls, and silk; wheat, balm, honey, oil, and gum; wine, wool,
and iron.
It is about this period--600 B.C.--that the Phoenicians, though
under Egyptian commanders, appear to have performed a voyage which,
if authentic, may justly be regarded as the most important in their
annals,--a circumnavigation of Africa. The extent of this unknown
region, and the peculiar aspects of man and nature there, had
already drawn toward it in a particular degree the attention of the
ancient world. The manner in which its coasts converged, south of the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea, suggested the idea of a peninsula,
the circumnavigation of which might be effected even by the limited
resources of the early naval powers. The first attempt in this
direction originated in a quarter which had been accustomed, from
its agricultural avocations, to hold itself aloof from every species
of maritime enterprise. It was undertaken by order of Necho, king
of Egypt,--the Pharaoh Necho of the Scriptures,--and is recorded by
Herodotus as follows:
"When Necho had desisted from his attempts to join the Red Sea with the
Mediterranean by means of a canal at the Isthmus of Suez, he despatched
some vessels, under the guidance of Phoenician pilots, with orders to
sail down the Red Sea and follow the coast of Africa: they were to
return to Egypt by the Pillars of Hercules and the Mediterranean. The
Phoenicians, therefore, taking their course by way of the Red Sea,
sailed onward to the Southern Ocean. Upon the approach of autumn they
landed in Libya and planted corn in the place where they first went
ashore. When this was ripe they cut it down and set sail again. Having
in this manner consumed two years, in the third they passed the Pillars
of Hercules and returned to Egypt. This story may be believed by
others, but to me it appears incredible, for they affirm that when they
sailed round Libya they had the sun on their right hand."
In the time of Herodotus, the Greeks were unacquainted with the
phenomenon of a shadow falling to the south,--one which the Phoenicians
would naturally have witnessed had they actually passed the Cape of
Good Hope, for the sun would have been on their right hand, or in the
north, and would thus have projected shadows to the south. As this
story was not one likely to have been invented in the time of Necho,
it is the strongest proof that could be adduced of the reality of the
voyage. Doubts have been raised in modern times upon the accuracy
of the narrative; but the objections are considered as having been
refuted by Rennell and Heeren. Bartholomew Diaz has the credit of
having discovered and having been the first to double the Cape of Good
Hope, in 1486: it is clear that, if the claims of the Phoenician pilots
are to be regarded, Diaz was preceded in this path at least twenty
centuries.
Soon after the date of this voyage, Tyre was besieged and destroyed
by Nebuchadnezzar. The inhabitants succeeded in escaping with their
property to an island near the shore, where they founded New Tyre,
which soon surpassed, both in commerce and shipping, the city they
had abandoned. The Phoenicians seem now to have advanced with their
system of colonization farther to the south upon the coast of Africa,
and farther to the north upon the coast of Spain. They discovered the
Cassiterides--now the Scilly Islands--upon the coast of Cornwall,
and retained the monopoly of the trade in the tin which they found
there. They carried spices and perfumes, obtained from Arabia, to
Greece, where they were employed for sacrifice and incense. They
also sold there the manufactures, purple, and jewels of Tyre and
Sidon. From Spain they obtained silver, corn, wine, oil, wax, wool,
and fruits. They procured amber in some place which they visited in
the North,--doubtless the shores of the Baltic. As the value of this
article was equal to that of gold, they desired to retain the monopoly
of the trade and to keep all knowledge of the regions yielding it from
their commercial rivals. Hence the secret was most carefully hoarded.
A remarkable circumstance connected with the maritime history of the
Phoenicians was their jealousy of the influence of foreigners. When
a strange ship was observed to keep them company at sea, they would
either outsail her, or at night change their course and disappear. On
one occasion a Phoenician captain, finding himself pursued by a Roman
vessel, ran his ship aground and wrecked her, rather than lose the
secret which a capture would have revealed. This act was deemed so
patriotic that the government rewarded him, and compensated him for the
loss of his vessel. New Tyre was destroyed by Alexander the Great, 324
B.C. The inhabitants were either put to death or sold as slaves, and
thus the maritime glory of the Phoenicians came to an untimely end.
Little is known of the construction and equipment of Phoenician
ships. All that can be said with certainty is, that there were
two kinds,--those employed in commerce and those used for war,--a
distinction, indeed, which all nations, both ancient and modern, have
found it convenient to make. The hulls of the trading-vessels were
round, that they might carry more goods, while the fighting-ships
were longer and sharp at the bottom. In other respects they probably
resembled the vessels of Greece and Rome, for which they undoubtedly
furnished models. Of these fuller details have reached us, and we
shall speak of them in their place. The Phoenicians were better
astronomers than the unskilful navigators who had preceded them; for,
while these attempted to guide their course by the imperfect aid of
the constellation known as the Great Bear,--some of whose stars are
forty degrees from the pole,--the Phoenicians were the first to apply
to maritime purposes the Lesser Bear,--the group which has furnished to
more modern navigation the North or Polar Star. It is not probable that
they fixed upon this particular star, for at that period--1250 years
B.C.--it was eighteen degrees from the pole, too distant to serve any
positive astronomical purpose.
We come now to the Egyptians as a maritime people in the earliest
historical periods, of whom we have incidentally said that they were
characteristically disinclined to enter with spirit into any maritime
enterprises, whether for commerce or war. This may have been owing to
the want of proper timber, to the insalubrity of the sea-coasts, and
to the absence of good harbors; while the advantages presented by
the Nile for intercourse and traffic with the interior precluded the
necessity of resorting to commerce by sea. Sesostris, who lived about
1650 years before Christ, is supposed to have been the first king who
overcame the dislike of the Egyptians to the water. Herodotus assigns
him a large fleet in the Red Sea, and other historians attribute to him
fleets upon the Mediterranean. Upon his death, his subjects relapsed
into their former aversion for commerce. Bocchoris, 700 B.C., imitated
and revived his legislation upon the subject; and during the reign of
Psammeticus the ports of Egypt were first opened to foreign ships,
and intercourse with the Greeks was for the first time encouraged. It
was Necho, the successor of Psammeticus, who employed, 600 B.C., the
Phoenicians in the voyage around Africa of which we have spoken; and
this enterprise bespeaks a monarch bent on maritime discovery. Apries,
the grandson of Necho, took the city of Sidon by storm and defeated
the Phoenicians in a sea-fight. It is probable that the Egyptians,
had they continued independent, would have become distinguished as a
commercial people; but seventy years afterwards they were conquered by
the Persians, and became successively subject to the Macedonians and
Romans.
We possess but little knowledge of the construction and equipment of
the Egyptian ships. According to Herodotus, they were built of planks
of the thorn-tree, fastened together, like tiles, with a great number
of wooden pins, and were entirely without ribs. On the inside papyrus
was used for stopping the crevices. The sails were made of the papyrus,
or of twisted rushes. These vessels were always towed up the Nile,
while they descended the stream in the following manner. The current
not acting with sufficient force upon their flat bottoms, the sailors
hung a bundle of tamarisk over the prow and let it down under the keel
by a rope: the stream, bearing upon this bundle, carried the boat along
with great celerity.
The Jews, whose country was ill situated for commerce by sea, were
even more averse than the Egyptians to intercourse with foreigners
and to maritime occupations. Joppa was the only seaport of Judea and
Jerusalem, and into it many of the articles used by Solomon in the
construction of the Temple were imported. During Solomon's reign, he
employed the ships of his ally, Hiram, King of Tyre, in commercial
avocations, for which his own people were not fitted. It is among the
Jews, whose history is given in the Scripture with so much detail,
that we should naturally look for the earliest geographical records.
The sacred writers, however, seem to have entertained no idea of any
system of geography, having been occupied with the affairs of the world
to come, to the total exclusion of the concerns of the mundane earth.
They do not even allude to any such branch of learning as being then
in existence. It is clear that the Hebrews never attempted to form any
theory upon the structure and shape of the globe. Their ideas with
regard to the boundaries of the known world may be vaguely inferred
from the tenth chapter of Genesis, from the chapters treating of the
commerce of Tyre, and from various detached allusions in the prophets.
The idea, common to all uninstructed people, that the earth is a flat
surface and the heaven a firmament or curtain spread over it, prevails
throughout the Bible. The abode of darkness and of the shadow of death
was conceived to be a deep pit beneath it. One sacred writer speaks of
the earth as being "hung upon nothing;" another speaks of the "pillars
of the earth," and another of the "pillars of heaven." These allusions
show sufficiently that, though the writers of those days were impressed
by the external view of the grand scenes of nature, they did not
endeavor to group them into any regular system.
The localities always alluded to as being at the farthest bounds of
their geographical knowledge are Tarshish, Ophir, the Isles, Sheba,
Dedan, The River, Gog, Magog, and the North. The first has given rise
to infinite discussion. The best theory makes it the name of Carthage,
and gives it, by extension, to the whole continent of Africa. Ophir is
probably Sofala, on the eastern coast of Africa. The Isles are thought
to have been the southern coasts and promontories of Europe, Greece,
Italy, &c., which were supposed at that period to be insular. Sheba was
Sabæa, or Arabia Felix. Dedan is supposed to have been a port in the
Persian Gulf. The River was the Euphrates, beyond which were tracts
indefinitely known as Elam and Media, and still beyond a region known
as "The Ends of the Earth." Gog, Magog, and the North have been usually
supposed to refer to the inhabitants of Scythia and Sarmatia, and the
hyperborean nations in general, though a later and more natural theory
makes them refer to the migratory shepherds and warriors of Cappadocia,
Phrygia, and Galatia. It thus appears that the primitive Israelites
knew little beyond the limits of their own country, Egypt, and the
regions lying between the Mediterranean, or the Sea, and the Euphrates.
A knowledge of the water, we have already remarked, is essential to
the formation of any correct and adequate idea of the shape and extent
of the land. The Jews had never ventured forth upon the sea for the
discovery of new regions, and were, in consequence, ignorant even of
that in which they dwelt. We shall find that the Greeks and Romans,
whose maritime history we shall now briefly narrate, approached the
truth in regard to the form and extent of the world, precisely as their
commerce expanded and their ambition for conquest and colonization
augmented.
[Illustration: SUPPOSED FORM OF THE SHIP ARGO, (FROM AN ANCIENT
BAS-RELIEF.)]
CHAPTER V.
THE EARLY MARITIME HISTORY OF THE GREEKS--THE EXPEDITION OF THE
ARGONAUTS--THE VESSELS USED IN THE TROJAN WAR--SHIP-BUILDING IN THE
TIME OF HOMER--THE POETIC GEOGRAPHY OF THE GREEKS--THE PALACE OF THE
SUN--THE MARVELS OF A VOYAGE OUT OF SIGHT OF LAND--THE GEOGRAPHY
OF HESIOD--OF ANAXIMANDER--OF THALES, HERODOTUS, SOCRATES, AND
ERATOSTHENES--THE GREAT OCEAN IS NAMED THE ATLANTIC.
At what period the Greeks began to build vessels and to venture
upon the waters washing their coasts and girding their numerous
archipelagoes, is not known: it is certain, at any rate, that the
commencement of navigation with them, as with all other nations, must
be referred to a time much anterior to the ages of which we have any
record. Long voyages are mentioned as having taken place at periods
so early that they must be considered mythical. The first maritime
adventure which lays any claim to authenticity, and the most celebrated
in ancient times, is the expedition of the Argonauts to Colchis.
Though this enterprise is by many learned authorities deemed fabulous,
we shall nevertheless consider three points connected with it,--the
probable era of the voyage, its supposed object, and the various routes
by which the adventurers are said to have returned.
The date of the expedition, if it took place at all, may be safely
fixed at the year 1250 B.C. A theory propounded by Sir Isaac Newton
would connect it with the year 937; but this is regarded with less
favor than the earlier date. Its alleged object was the Golden Fleece;
but what this was can only be conjectured. It is hardly likely that
the people of that age would have been tempted by the prospect of
commercial advantages by opening a trade with the Euxine Sea. It is
quite as unlikely that they would have undertaken so dangerous a voyage
for the purpose of plunder, better opportunities for which existed much
nearer home. The supposition that the Golden Fleece was a parchment
containing the secret of transmuting the baser metals into gold, and
the opinion that the Argonauts went in quest of skins and rich furs,
hardly require discussion. There seems, indeed, no adequate motive
but a desire to obtain the precious metals, which were believed to be
furnished in abundance by the mines near the Black Sea. Why these mines
were symbolized under the appellation of a golden fleece it is not easy
to say, and no satisfactory reason has ever been suggested. The most
probable is that the gold dust was supposed to be washed down the sides
of the Caucasus Mountains by torrents, and caught by fleeces of wool
placed among the rocks by the inhabitants.
Jason, the son of the King of Thessaly, being deprived of his
inheritance, and having resolved to seek his fortune by some remote and
hazardous expedition, was induced to go in quest of the Golden Fleece
in Colchis. He enlisted fifty men, and employed a person named Argus to
build him a ship, which from him was called Argo, the adventurers being
named Argonauts. The Argo is described as a pentecontoros,--that is, a
vessel with fifty oars. The number of the Argonauts is usually stated
at fifty, though one authority asserts that they numbered one hundred.
They started from Iolcos in Thessaly, and with a south wind sailed
east by north. The narrative of the expedition is full of wonders.
They landed at the island of Lemnos, where they found that the women
had just murdered their husbands and fathers. The Argonauts supplied
the place of the assassinated relatives, and Jason had two sons by
one of the bereaved Lemnians. When the vessel arrived at the entrance
to the Euxine,--the narrow strait now called the Bosphorus,--they
built a temple, and implored the protection of the gods against the
Symplegades, or Whirling Rocks, which guarded the passage. A seer named
Phineas was consulted upon the probability of their sailing through
unharmed. The rocks were imagined to float upon the waves, and, when
any thing attempted to pass through, to seize and crush it. According
to Homer,--
"No bird of air, no dove of swiftest wing,
That bears ambrosia to th' ethereal king,
Shuns the dire rocks: in vain she cuts the skies:
The dire rocks meet, and crush her as she flies."
Phineas advised them to loose a dove, to mark its flight, and to judge
from its fate of the destiny reserved for them. They did so, determined
to push boldly on if the bird got through in safety. The pigeon escaped
with the loss of some of its tail-feathers. The Argo dashed onward,
and cleared the formidable rocks with the loss of a few of its stern
ornaments. From this time forward, the legend adds, the Symplegades
remained fixed, and were no longer a terror to navigators.
The Argonauts, after entering the Black Sea, sailed due east, to the
mouth of the river Phasis, now the Rione. Æetes, the king, promised to
give Jason the fleece upon certain conditions. These he was enabled to
fulfil by the aid of Medea, a sorceress, and daughter of Æetes. They
then fled together to Greece. The route followed by the Argonauts upon
their return is differently given by the various poets who have told
the story and the commentators who have illustrated it. By one they
are represented as sailing up some river across the continent to the
Baltic, and thence homeward along the coasts of France and Spain, and
through the Straits of Gibraltar. It is needless to say that there is
no river which flows between the Euxine and the Baltic. Other tracks
laid down are equally preposterous in the eyes of modern geography.
Herodotus adopts the tradition that they returned by the same way they
went,--the only way, indeed, they could have returned,--by water. The
reader, in view of the romantic embellishments with which this story
is loaded, and of the strong doubts resting upon it as an historical
event, must choose, from among the various theories, we have given, the
one he deems the most satisfactory.
One generation after the date we have assigned to this expedition
occurred the Trojan War. In the year 1194 B.C., all the Greek states,
with Agamemnon at their head, united to revenge the insult offered
to Menelaus, King of Sparta, by the Trojan prince Paris, who had
carried off the king's wife Helen. During the interval the Greeks,
if the Homeric account is to be believed, had made great advances in
the arts of ship-building and navigation; for in a very short time
eleven hundred and fifty ships were collected at Aulis, the general
rendezvous. The Boeotians furnished fifty, and the other states
contributed in proportion. Each of them contained one hundred and
twenty warriors; they must therefore have been vessels of considerable
magnitude. All the ships are described as having masts which could
be taken down as occasion required. The sail could only be used when
the wind was directly astern. The delicate art of sailing in the
wind's eye, or of making to the north with a north wind, was not yet
understood. The principal propelling power lay in the oars, which
turned in leathern thongs as a key in its hole. Homer represents the
ships to have been black, from the color of the pitch with which they
were smeared. The sides near the prow were often painted red, whence
vessels are sometimes called by the poets red-cheeked. On their arrival
upon the Trojan coast, the Greeks drew their fleet up on the land and
anchored them by means of large stones. They then surrounded them with
fortifications, to protect them from the enemy.
Homer, who lived two centuries later,--1000 B.C.,--has left us a
tolerably full account of the ship-building, navigation, and geography
of his time. The following passage from the Odyssey, as rendered into
English by Cowper, is regarded by antiquaries as important, showing, as
it does, the point at which the art of ship-building had now arrived.
Ulysses, having been wrecked upon an island, is enabled to build a ship
by the aid of the nymph Calypso.
"She gave him, fitted to the grasp, an axe
Of iron, ponderous, double-edged, with haft
Of olive-wood inserted firm, and wrought
With curious art. Then, placing in his hand
A polish'd adze, she led herself the way
To her isle's utmost verge, where loftiest stood
The alder, poplar, and cloud-piercing fir,
Though sapless, sound, and fitted for his use
As buoyant most. To that once verdant grove
His steps the beauteous nymph Calypso led,
And sought her home again. Then slept not he,
But, swinging with both hands the axe, his task
Soon finish'd: trees full twenty to the ground
He cast, which dextrous with his adze he smoothed,
The knotted surface chipping by a line.
Meantime the lovely goddess to his aid
Sharp augers brought, with which he bored the beams,
Then placed them side by side, adapting each
To other, and the seams with wadding closed.
Broad as an artist skill'd in naval works
The bottom of a ship of burthen spreads,
Such breadth Ulysses to his raft assign'd.
He decked her over with long planks, upborne
On massy beams: he made the mast, to which
He added, suitable, the yard: he framed
Rudder and helm to regulate her course:
With wickerwork he border'd all the length
For safety, and much ballast stow'd within.
Meantime Calypso brought him, for a sail,
Fittest materials, which he also shaped,
And to it all due furniture annex'd
Of cordage strong, foot-ropes, and ropes aloft;
Then heaved her down with levers to the deep."
Besides the facts contained in this passage, it is worth remarking
that Homer seems to regard ship-builders with no little consideration,
inasmuch as he calls them "artists."
The Greeks, like the Hebrews, were ignorant of the real figure of
the earth. It is in Homer that we find the first written trace of
the widely prevalent idea that the earth is a flat surface begirt on
every side by the ocean. This was a natural belief in a region almost
insular, like Greece, where the visible horizon and an enveloping sea
suggested the idea of a flat circle. Homer took the lead among the
poetic geographers of Greece, and his authority gave to the subject a
fanciful cast, the traces of which are not yet obliterated. Beneath the
earth he placed the fabled regions of Elysium and Tartarus: above the
whole rose the grand arch of the heavens, which were supposed to rest
on the summits of the highest mountains. The sun, moon, and stars were
believed to rise from the waves of the sea, and to sink again beneath
them on their return from the skies.
Homer's distribution of the land was even more fantastic. Beyond the
limits of Greece and the western coasts of Asia Minor his knowledge
was uncertain and obscure. He had heard vaguely of Thebes, the mighty
capital of Egypt, and in his verse sang of its hundred gates and of
the countless hosts it sent forth to battle. The Ethiopians, who lived
beyond, were deemed to be the most remote dwellers upon the habitable
earth. Towards the centre of Africa were the stupendous ridges of the
Atlas Mountains: Homer deified the highest peak, and made it a giant
supporting upon his shoulders the outspreading canopy of the heavens.
The narrow passage leading from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic,
and now known as the Straits of Gibraltar, was believed to have been
discovered by Hercules, and the mountains on either side--Gibraltar and
Ceuta--were, from him, called the Pillars of Hercules.
Colchos, upon the Black Sea, was believed to be an ocean-city; and
here Greek fancy located the Palace of the Sun. It was here that the
charioteer of the skies gave rest to his coursers during the night,
and from whence in the morning he drove them forth again. Colchos,
therefore, was Homer's eastern confine of the globe. On the north,
Rhodope, or the Riphean Mountains, were supposed to enclose the
hyperborean limits of the world. Beyond them dwelt a fabled race,
seated in the recesses of their valleys and sheltered from the contests
of the elements. They were represented as exempt from all ills,
physical and moral, from sickness, the changes of the seasons, and even
from death. A race directly the converse of the ideal hyperboreans
were the Cimmerians, located at the mouth of the Sea of Azof, who are
described by Homer as dwelling in perpetual darkness and never visited
by the sun. He imagined the existence of numerous other nations, who
long continued to hold a place in ancient geography. The Cyclops, who
had but one eye, were placed in Sicily; the Arimaspians, similarly
afflicted, inhabited the frontiers of India; the Pigmies, or Dwarfs,
who fought pitched battles with the cranes, were supposed to dwell in
Africa, in India, and, in fact, to occupy the whole southern border of
the Earth.
In the time of Homer, all voyages in which the mariner lost sight of
land were considered as fraught with the extremest peril. No navigator
ever visited Africa or Sicily from choice, but only when driven there
by tempest and typhoon, and then his woes usually terminated in
shipwreck: a return was not merely a marvel, but a miracle. Homer made
Sicily the principal scene of the lamentable adventures of Ulysses, and
sufficient traces are furnished by the Odyssey of the distorted and
exaggerated notions entertained in the poet's time of the character
of places reached by a voyage at sea. The existence of monsters of
frightful form and size, such as Polyphemus, who watched for the
destruction of the mariner and even roasted and devoured his quivering
limbs; of treacherous enchantresses, such as Circe, who lured but to
ensnare; of amiable goddesses, like Calypso, who offered immortality
in exchange for love,--was doubtless believed by Homer, though we must
make some allowance for poetical license. At any rate, the invention of
these fables is not to be attributed to Homer, who, at the most, gave
a highly-colored repetition of the terrific reports brought back from
those formidable coasts by the few who had been fortunate enough to
return. It was thus that an ideal and poetic character was communicated
to the science of geography by the fables with which Homer tinged his
narrative. In the early ages of the world, science and poetry were twin
sisters: every poet was a savant, and every savant was a poet.
[Illustration: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HOMER.]
As far as his ideas can be reduced to a system, the earth was a flat
disk, around which flowed the river Ocean. The accompanying plan
will enable the reader to form an adequate conception of the Homeric
geography. The radius of the territories described by Homer with any
degree of precision was hardly three hundred miles in length.
Hesiod, who lived a century after Homer, thus states the scientific
attainments of his time:--"The space between the heavens and the earth
is exactly the same as that between the earth and Tartarus beneath it.
A brazen anvil, if tossed from heaven, would fall during nine days and
nine nights, and would reach the earth upon the tenth day. Were it to
continue its course towards the abode of darkness, it would be nine
days and nine nights more in accomplishing the distance." It is worth
while remarking that this statement is at variance with that of Homer,
who makes Vulcan, when precipitated from heaven by Jupiter, land at
Lemnos in a single day: he had travelled, therefore, nearly twenty
times faster than one of his own anvils. Hesiod intended to convey, by
this illustrations, an imposing idea of the loftiness of the heavens.
In the eyes of modern astronomy, nothing can be more paltry. The time
that an anvil thrown from Halcyon, the brightest star of the Pleiades,
towards our globe, would require to reach it, may perhaps be imagined
from the fact that the rays of light emitted by Halcyon travel five
centuries before they strike the earth! It is thus that the positive
revelations of modern science surpass in marvels the most daring
inventions of ancient fable.
[Illustration: THE EARTH ACCORDING TO ANAXIMANDER.]
Anaximander, four hundred years after Homer, held that the earth,
instead of being flat, was in the form of a cylinder, convex upon its
upper surface. Its diameter was three times greater than its height;
and its form was round, as if it had been shaped by a turner's lathe.
The Oracle of Delphi was the centre of his system.
Somewhat later, Thales, one of the Seven Sages, declared his belief
that the earth was spherical, and remained suspended in mid air without
support of any kind. This frightful doctrine made few proselytes: it
was not likely, indeed, that any one but a sage would adopt a theory
which made him the inhabitant of a globe abandoned and isolated in the
midst of space.
In the fifth century before Christ, Herodotus, the most celebrated
traveller of antiquity, and consequently capable of forming rational
ideas upon the subject of geography, rectified many errors which had
crept into the popular belief, though Homer was still considered
infallible by the masses of the people. "I know of no such river as
the ocean," he says, ironically: "this denomination seems to be a pure
invention of Homer and the old poets. I cannot help laughing when
I hear of the river Ocean, and of the spherical form of the earth,
as if it were the work of a turner." He displaced the centre of the
inhabited surface, which the Greeks had at first made Mount Olympus
and afterwards Delphi, making Rhodes the fortunate possessor of the
privilege. Socrates, a century later, (400 B.C.,) asserted that the
earth was in the form of a globe, sustained in the middle of the
heavens by its own equilibrium.
About the year 230 B.C., Eratosthenes, a Greek of Cyrene, succeeded in
reducing geography to a system, under the patronage of the Ptolemies of
Egypt, which gave him access to the immense mass of materials gathered
by Alexander and his successors and accumulated at the Alexandrian
Library. The spherical form of the earth was now quite generally
considered by scientific men to be the correct theory, though it could
never be substantiated till some navigator, sailing to the east, should
return by the west. Eratosthenes, proceeding upon this principle, made
it his study to adjust to it all the known features of the globe. The
great ocean of Homer and Herodotus, surrounding the world, still
remained in his system. He compared, however, the magnitude of the
regions known in his time with what he conceived to be the whole
circumference, and became convinced that only a third part of the space
was filled up. He conjectured that the remaining space might consist of
one great ocean, which he called the Atlantic, from Mount Atlas, which
was fancifully believed to support the globe. He supposed, too, that
lands and islands might be discovered in it by sailing towards the west.
We shall now proceed to give such a description of the vessels used by
the Greeks after the time of Homer, as the confused and incomplete data
which have reached us will enable us to furnish.
[Illustration: THE GREAT PENGUIN.]
[Illustration: A GREEK VESSEL OF THE SIXTH CENTURY B.C.]
CHAPTER VI.
CONSTRUCTION OF GREEK VESSELS--THE PROW, POOP, RUDDER, OARS, MASTS,
SAILS, CORDAGE, BULWARKS, ANCHORS--BIREMES, TRIREMES, QUADRIREMES,
QUINQUEREMES--THE GRAND GALLEY OF PTOLEMY PHILOPATOR--ROMAN
VESSELS--THEIR NAVY--MIMIC SEA-FIGHTS--THE FIVE VOYAGES OF ANTIQUITY.
The prow or foredeck of Greek vessels was ornamented on both sides by
figures in mosaic or painted. An eye on each side of the cutwater, as
is represented above, was a very common embellishment. A projection
from the head of the prow, pointed or covered with brass, and intended
to damage an enemy upon collision, was often in the shape of a wild
beast, or helmet, or even the neck of a swan. Below this was the
rostrum or beak, which consisted of a beam armed with sharp and solid
irons. They were at first above the water; but their efficiency was
afterwards increased by putting them below the water-line and rendering
them invisible. The commanding officer of the prow was next in rank
to the helmsman, and had charge of the rigging and the control of the
rowers.
The deck proper, or middle deck, appears to have been raised above the
bulwark, or at least upon a line with its upper edge, thus enabling the
soldiers to see far around them and hurl their darts at the enemy from
a commanding position.
The POOP, or stern, was usually higher than the rest of the vessel, and
upon it the helmsman had his elevated seat. It was rounder than the
prow, though its extremity was likewise sharp. It was embellished in
various ways, but especially with the figure of the tutelary goddess
or deity of the vessel. Over the helmsman was a roof, and above that
an elegant ornament, rising from the stern and bending gracefully over
him. In consequence of its conspicuous place and beautiful form, this
ornament, named an aplustre, was considered emblematic of the sea, and
was carried off by the victor in a naval engagement, as a standard or a
scalp in more modern times.
The RUDDER was a singular contrivance. The origin of this very useful
invention is attributed by Pliny, as we have said, to Tiphys, of the
Argo,--a doubtful pilot of a doubtful vessel. Previous to this, vessels
must have been guided by the same oars which propelled them. The
Grecian rudder was a long oar with a very broad blade, inserted, not
at the extremity of the stern, but at either side where it begins to
curve; and a ship usually had two, both being managed by the same man.
In large ships they were connected by a pole which kept them parallel
and gave to both the position in which either was turned. The rudder
seems to have been considered an emblem, as it frequently occurs on
gems, coins, and cameos. Thus a Triton is found represented as blowing
a shell and holding a rudder over his shoulder. A tiller and cornucopia
are frequently seen in juxtaposition. A cameo, still preserved, shows
a Venus Anadyomene leaning with her left arm upon a rudder the same
height as herself, and thereby indicating, as is supposed, her own
maritime origin.
The OARS, bearing a name which at first signified only the blade, but
was afterwards applied to all oars except the rudder, varied in size
as they were used by a higher or lower rank of rowers. A trireme may
be said to have had one hundred and seventy oars, a quinquereme three
hundred, and even four hundred. The lower part of the holes through
which the oars passed appears to have been covered with leather, which
also extended a little way outside the hole. In vessels mounting five
ranks of oars, the upper ones were of course much larger than the lower
ones, and we therefore find it stated by Greek authors that the lower
rank of rowers, having the shortest oars and consequently the easiest
work, received the smallest salary, while those who had the largest
oars and the heaviest work received the largest salary. They sat upon
benches attached to the ribs of the vessel, each oar being managed by
one man.
The MASTS of Grecian vessels, of which there were one, two, and three,
were usually made of the fir-tree. A vessel with thirty rowers had two
masts, the smaller being near the prow. In three-masted vessels the
largest mast was nearest the stern. The part of the mast immediately
above the yard formed a structure similar to a drinking-cup, and the
sailors ascended into it in order to manage the sails, to obtain a
wider view, and to discharge missiles. In large ships these were
made of bronze and would hold three men: they were furnished with
pulleys for hoisting stones and projectiles from below. The portion
of the mast above the cup, or _carchesium_, was called the distaff,
and corresponded to the modern topmast. The sail was hoisted, as at
present, by means of pulleys and a hoop sliding up and down the mast.
The SAILS were usually square. It was not common to furnish more than
one sail to one ship, and it was then attached with the yard to the
great mast. Sometimes each of the two masts of a trireme had two sails,
which were spread the one over the other, those of the foremast being
used only on occasions when great speed was required. It does not
appear that the triangular or lateen sail, so prevalent afterwards
among the Romans, was ever used by the Greeks. In Homer's time, sails
were of linen. Subsequently, sail-cloth was made of hemp, rushes, and
leather. Originally white, the sails of the ancients were afterwards
dyed of various colors. Those of Alexander's Indus fleet, of which we
shall hereafter speak more particularly, were blue, white, and yellow.
Those of pirates were sea-green, and those of Cleopatra, at the battle
of Actium, were purple.
The CORDAGE used was of various sizes and strength. In the first
place, thick and broad ropes ran in a horizontal direction around the
ship from stem to stern, for the purpose of binding the whole fabric
strongly together. They ran around in several circles and at fixed
distances from each other. Their number varied according to the size
of the ship, a trireme usually requiring four, and six in case they
were intended for very boisterous weather. These ropes were always
held in readiness in the Attic arsenals. A second-sized rope was used
for the anchors, while those attached to the masts, sails, and yards
were altogether lighter and made with greater care. One of these ran
from the top of the mainmast to the prow, corresponding to the modern
mainstay.
The BULWARKS were artificially elevated beyond the height intended by
the builder of the frame by means of a wickerwork covered with skins.
These served as a protection from high waves, and also as a breastwork
against the enemy. They appear to have been fixed upon the upper edge
of the wooden bulwark, and to have been removed when not wanted. Each
galley had four, two of which were "white," and two "made of hair."
What these distinctions were is quite unknown.
The ANCHORS of Greek vessels, in the earlier periods, were stones or
crates of sand, but soon came to be made of iron, and to be formed with
teeth or flukes. The Greeks used the several expressions of lowering,
casting, and weighing anchor precisely as we do, and the elliptical
phrase "to weigh" meant then, as now, to "set sail." Each ship had
several anchors: we learn, from the twenty-seventh chapter of Acts,
that the vessel of St. Paul had four. The last and heaviest anchor
was considered "sacred," in the same way as it is now regarded as "a
last hope." The sailors, in casting it, recommended themselves to the
protection of the gods; and it was rather a pretext for resorting to
prayer than an instrument reliable from its strength and weight. "In
our day," says an eminent writer upon the art of ship-building, "when
every thing is calculated and weighed, and, even in this most poetic of
professions, tends to the driest and most prosaic materialism, instead
of the sacred anchor, cast in the midst of prayer and sacrifice, we
have the anchor of eight thousand pounds." With all proper deference
to the religious spirit of this learned commentator, we may remark,
without irreverence, that even the most "poetic" of mariners would
prefer a single modern best bower to a dozen of the sacred anchors of
the Greeks; and it can hardly be doubted that, if the latter themselves
had been acquainted with the "anchor of eight thousand pounds," they
would have dispensed with both prayer and sacrifice. Heaven helps those
who help themselves.
Every Greek vessel had a distinctive name, which was usually of the
feminine gender, and often that of some popular heroine. In many cases,
the name of the builder was added.
After the Trojan War, the establishment of Greek colonies upon foreign
coasts, the commercial intercourse with these colonies, and the very
prevalent practice of piracy, contributed largely to the improvement
of ships and of navigation. For many years no innovation was made upon
the custom of employing ships with one rank of rowers on each side. The
Erythræan Greeks are supposed to have invented the biremes, with two
ranks, and the Corinthians the triremes, with three. Themistocles, in
the fifth century B.C., persuaded the Athenians to build two hundred
triremes, for the purpose of attacking Ægina. Even at this period,
vessels were not provided with complete decks, some having partial
decks, and some none at all, the only protection for the men consisting
in the bulwark. The invention of decked ships is ascribed to the
Thasians. After Alexander the Great, the Rhodians became the greatest
maritime power in Greece. The Colossus of Rhodes, a brazen statue of
Apollo, one hundred feet high, seems to have been erected in assertion
of their commercial supremacy, for the legend is that it stood across
the mouth of the harbor, and that vessels passed between its legs.
Navigation still remained what it had been before, the Greeks seldom
venturing into the open sea, and considering it necessary to remain in
sight of the coast by day and to observe the rising and setting of the
stars by night, in order to replace the landmarks no longer visible in
the darkness. In winter, navigation was suspended altogether. Rather
than double a cape, they would drag their vessel across a neck of land
from one sea to another, by machines contrived for the purpose. This
was frequently done across the Isthmus of Corinth. The ordinary size
of a war-galley or trireme may be inferred from the fact that its
complement of men was two hundred and thirty; and its speed in smooth
water and with a favorable wind may be stated as very nearly that of a
modern steamboat.
Dionysius of Syracuse (405 B.C.) is said to have built the first
quadrireme and quinquereme in Greece,--inventions which he probably
obtained from the Carthaginians and Salaminians. Alexander the Great
built ships with twelve and thirty ranks of oars. Ptolemy Philopator,
of Egypt, is said to have constructed one of forty, after a Greek
model. Callixenus has left a description of this vessel; and this,
having been transcribed by Plutarch and Athenæus, was, until very
lately, thus supported by competent authority, regarded as quite
authentic. Late investigations have shown conclusively that the vessel,
with the proportions given, never could have existed. She was said to
have had forty tiers of oars, one above the other. It is clear that the
uppermost tiers must have been of enormous length to reach the water,
and we find their length stated, in consequence, at seventy feet.
Sixty feet of this length must naturally have been without the vessel,
leaving ten feet of handle within. As the strength of no one man would
be sufficient to manage an oar thus unequally poised, the fabulists
assert that the handles were made of lead, that the equilibrium might
be restored. What the story thus gains in weight, however, it certainly
loses in credibility. Oars of seventy feet were out of the question,
even in the heroic ages. Their number was equally extraordinary, for
they counted no less than four thousand, and were managed by four
thousand men. Besides these, there were two thousand eight hundred and
fifty combatants collected in castles and behind her bulwarks. She
had four rudders, each forty-five feet long, and a double prow. This
last feature would have been an impediment instead of an advantage,
as the re-entering angles of the two prows would have presented a
very violent resistance to the water, which, in its turn, would have
exerted a great power to separate them. Her stern was said to have
been decorated with resplendent paintings of terrible and fantastic
animals, her oars to have protruded through masses of foliage, and,
as if she was not already overladen, her hold was declared to have
contained huge quantities of grain. A critical comparison has shown
that this famous galley could not have turned her head from west to
east without describing an enormous orbit and occupying a full hour in
the manoeuvre. Indeed, had the Egyptians been foolish enough to build
such a ship, they would not have been fortunate enough to navigate her.
Nevertheless, as it is quite clear that Ptolemy did construct a galley
of unusual size and capacity, modern commentators have earnestly sought
to explain away the glaring exaggerations and impossibilities of the
description given by Callixenus. The chief difficulty lay in the forty
tiers of oars and in the four thousand oarsmen. The engraving upon
the opposite page gives a representation of the Ptolemy, as she may
reasonably be supposed to have appeared. Instead of forty _tiers_,
she has, when thus restored, forty _groups_ of oars: with this
substitution, and a liberal diminution in the aggregate number, it is
not improbable that she may have existed, and floated even. It is not,
however, pretended by Callixenus that she was ever useful in war: she
seems to have been regarded as a curiosity and a spectacle. She was,
in fact, the Leviathan of antiquity,--the original "Triton among the
minnows."
[Illustration: THE PTOLEMY PHILOPATOR.]
The Romans obtained the models of their vessels from the Greeks, though
they remained almost entirely unacquainted with the sea till the third
century before Christ. They then had no fleet, and few or no ships
for any peaceful or commercial use. Livy mentions the appointment of
naval decemvirs about the year 300 B.C. But it was not till 260 B.C.
that Rome became a maritime power. It was now seen that she could
not maintain herself against Carthage without a navy, and the senate
ordered the immediate construction of a fleet. Triremes would have
been of little avail against the high-bulwarked quinqueremes of the
Carthaginians. It so happened, very fortunately for them, that a
vessel of the largest class, belonging to Carthage, was wrecked upon
the coast of Bruttium, and thus furnished them a model. They built,
after this design, over one hundred vessels, the greater part of
them quinqueremes, the whole being completed in sixty days after the
trees were cut down. Thus built of green timber, they were unsound
and clumsy. Still, to their own astonishment, they achieved a naval
victory, capturing fifty of the enemy's vessels. Seventeen of their
own were taken and destroyed by the Carthaginians off Messina. It was
not long before the Romans completely crippled the maritime power of
their African foe. From this time forward they continued to maintain a
powerful navy, and built vessels with six and even ten ranks of oars.
The construction of their vessels differed little from that of the
Greeks, with the exception of the destructive engines of war and the
towers and platforms with which they furnished them.
During the Imperial period, the Romans took great delight in witnessing
representations of fights at sea, and their emperors were equally fond
of exhibiting them. The first spectacle of this kind, or _naumachia_,
was given by Julius Cæsar upon a lake dug for the purpose in the Campus
Martius. Augustus caused a lake or "stagnum" to be made for a similar
use. This remained as the permanent scene of such exhibitions. The
combatants in these fights were usually captives or criminals condemned
to death, who fought as in gladiatorial combats, until one side was
exterminated or spared by imperial clemency. In a naumachia given by
Nero, there were sea-monsters swimming about in the artificial lake.
Claudius ordered a naval battle upon Lake Fucinus, in which one hundred
ships and nineteen thousand combatants were engaged. Troops of nereids
were seen swimming about, and the signal for attack was given by a
silver Triton, who was made, by means of machinery, to blow the alarum
upon a trumpet.
We now proceed to narrate, in chronological order, the very few voyages
of discovery made previous to the Christian era. These were those of
Hanno to Sierra Leone, of Sataspes to Sahara, of Nearchus from the
Indus to the Tigris, of Pytheas from Massilia to Shetland, and of
Eudoxus from Cadiz to the Equator.
[Illustration: THE COMMON PENGUIN.]
CHAPTER VII.
THE VOYAGE OF HANNO THE CARTHAGINIAN--HE SEES CROCODILES, APES,
AND VOLCANOES--THE VOYAGE OF HIMILCON TO AL-BION--THE VOYAGE AND
IGNOMINIOUS FATE OF SATASPES THE PERSIAN--THE VOYAGE OF PYTHEAS THE
PHOCIAN--THE SACRED PROMONTORY--A NEW ATMOSPHERE--AMBER--RETURN
HOME--THE VERACITY OF PYTHEAS' NARRATIVE--THE EXPEDITION OF
NEARCHUS THE MACEDONIAN--STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE HEAVENS--THE
ICTHYOPHAGI--HOUSES BUILT OF THE BONES OF WHALES--FISH FLOUR--A
BATTLE WITH WHALES--AN UNEXPECTED MEETING--THE DISTANCE TRAVERSED BY
NEARCHUS--THE VOYAGE OF EUDOXUS ALONG THE AFRICAN COAST--STATE OF
NAVIGATION AT THE OPENING OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
At a period which it is no longer possible to settle with precision,
but certainly anterior to the fifth century B.C., the Carthaginians,
then in the height of their maritime and commercial prosperity, ordered
a navigator by the name of Hanno to make a voyage beyond the Pillars
of Hercules, and to found cities along the western shore of Africa. He
set sail with a fleet of sixty vessels, each of which was impelled by
fifty oars. He carried with him thirty thousand men and women, with
abundant supplies and provisions. Within a week after passing the
straits, they founded a city and erected a temple to Neptune; they also
established five trading stations along the coast. They saw a race
of people called Lixitæ, with whom they formed ties of friendship,
and by whom they were furnished with interpreters. Continuing their
course, they found another race dressed in the skins of wild beasts,
who repelled them from the shore with stones and other missiles. They
next came to the mouth of a river which was filled with crocodiles and
hippopotami. They soon arrived at a coast edged with high mountains
covered with trees, the wood of which was odoriferous and variously
tinted. Beyond was an immense opening of the sea, bordered by plains
on which they saw many blazing fires. Then they came to a large bay,
in which was an island enclosing a salt-water lake, in which, again,
was another island. Entering this lake in the night, they saw huge
fires burning and heard the sounds of musical instruments and the cries
of innumerable human beings. They next reached the fiery region of
Thymiamata, whence torrents of flame poured down into the sea. Here the
heat of the earth was such that the foot could not rest upon it. After
four days' farther sail, they again found the land at night enveloped
in flames. In the midst of these fires appeared one much more lofty
than the rest: this, when seen by daylight, proved to be a very tall
mountain, called the Chariot of the Gods. They soon met with a rude
description of people, who had rough skins, and among whom the females
were much more numerous than the males: the interpreters called them
_Gorillæ_. They endeavored to catch some of them, but only succeeded in
capturing three females, who made so violent a resistance, that they
were obliged to kill them and strip off their skins, which they carried
back to Carthage. Being out of provisions at this point, they were
unable to pursue their voyage, and returned home.
This narrative, as given by Hanno himself, hardly fills two octavo
pages: volumes of commentaries have been written upon it by geographers
and antiquaries. The most probable of the various hypotheses formed
upon it, is, that Hanno's voyage extended to Sherbro Sound, a little
south of Sierra Leone. The features of man and nature, as described by
Hanno, are to be found in Tropical Africa only: Ethiopians or negroes;
Gorillæ, who are clearly apes, or orang-outangs; rivers so large as to
contain crocodiles and river-horses. The great conflagrations of the
grass, too, and the music and dancing prolonged through the night, are
phenomena which have been observed only in the negro territories. But
this hypothesis is not accepted by all geographers, one of whom gives
to Hanno's course an extent of three thousand miles, while another
limits it to less than seven hundred.
While Hanno was thus exploring the western coast of Africa, another
Carthaginian, named Himilcon, was sent by his countrymen to the North
of Europe. From a very vague description of his voyage given in a Latin
poem entitled _Ora Maritima_, it is plain that he crossed the Bay of
Biscay, and found, upon islands, as is asserted, but probably upon the
mainland, a race of athletic people who went fearlessly to sea in barks
made of skins sewed together. They crossed, in the space of two days,
to a place called the Sacred Island, (Ireland,) which was not far from
another island, named Al-Bion, (England.) No further details of this
expedition have been preserved.
Upon the establishment of the Persian sway over the eastern coasts
of the Mediterranean, towards the close of the fifth century B.C.,
the exploration of Africa became the peculiar province of the Persian
monarchs. But this nation labored under an unconquerable aversion for
the sea, and the only maritime effort of theirs on record was entirely
casual in its origin, and futile in its results. It was as follows, as
recorded by Herodotus:
Sataspes, a Persian nobleman, having committed a crime punishable
with death, was condemned by Xerxes to be crucified. One of his
friends persuaded the monarch to commute the sentence into a voyage
around Africa, which, he said, was much more severe, and might result
advantageously to the nation. Sataspes obtained a vessel and recruited
a crew in Egypt, and, sailing through the Pillars of Hercules, bent
his course southward. He is represented as having beat about for many
weeks, and probably reached the shores of the Great Saharan Desert. The
aspect of this formidable and tempest-lashed coast might well appall
an amateur navigator accustomed to the luxurious indolence of a Persian
court. He seems to have preferred crucifixion to circumnavigation,
for he at once measured back his course to the Straits. He gave an
incoherent account of his adventures to Xerxes, attributing his failure
to the interference of an insurmountable obstacle, the nature of
which he was unable to explain. Xerxes would listen to no excuse, and
ordered the original sentence to be executed forthwith. Authorities
differ as to the fate of Sataspes,--one asserting that he suffered the
ignominious death to which he was condemned, and another alleging that
he made his escape to the island of Samos.
[Illustration: THE SACRED PROMONTORY.]
A colony which had been established at Massilia--now Marseilles--about
six hundred years before Christ, by the Phocians, was, in the year 340
B.C., at the height of its commercial prosperity. The citizens, being
desirous of extending their maritime relations, sent, at this period,
upon an expedition to the North of Europe, through the Pillars of
Hercules, a learned geographer and astronomer by the name of Pytheas.
He started with a single ship, the finances of the city not permitting
a larger outlay of means.
He passed the Pillars on the sixteenth day from Massilia; and on the
twentieth he arrived at the Sacred Promontory, the extreme western
point of Iberia or Spain. A temple to Hercules had been erected at this
spot. The inhabitants of the promontory declared, during the time of
Pytheas, and, indeed, for two hundred years afterwards, that as the sun
plunged at evening into the sea, they heard a hissing like that of a
red-hot body suddenly dropped into water.
[Illustration: PLAN OF PYTHEAS' VOYAGE.]
Following the coasts of Iberia and of Celtica, he came to the point of
land now known as Finisterre, in France, and the promontory Calbium.
Turning to the east, he was surprised to find himself in a wide gulf,
with Celtica on his right, and an immense island on his left. The gulf
was the British Channel, and the island the Al-Bion that Himilcon had
vaguely discerned some centuries before. It was at this point that
Pytheas may be said to have begun his career; and the discovery of
Great Britain may safely be attributed to him.
He described the island as having the form of an isosceles triangle,
as may be seen upon the foregoing plan. Three promontories formed the
three angles,--Belerium being now Land's End, Cantium Cape Pepperness,
and Orcas Duncansby Head. He found the inhabitants of the southern
coast industrious and sociable, peaceable, honest, and sober. They
raised wheat and worked rich mines of tin. As he sailed northward,
along the eastern coast, he noticed that the days grew sensibly
longer; and at Point Orcas, nineteen hours elapsed between the rising
and the setting of the sun. He sailed still northward, and six days
after leaving Orcas he came to an island, or a continent--he knew not
which,--which he called Thule. As he found he could go no farther to
the north, he spoke of this spot as _Ultima Thule_, an expression which
has passed into the figurative language of all modern nations as one
denoting any remote point. Thule is generally considered to have been
Shetland, although theories have been ardently advocated making it
respectively Iceland, Sweden, and Jutland.
The narrative of Pytheas, which has been thus far clear and reliable,
assumes at this point a very fabulous aspect. He declares that north
of Thule there was neither earth, nor sea, nor air. A sort of dense
concretion of all the elements occupied space and enveloped the world.
He compared it to the thick, viscid animal substance called _pulmo
marinus_, a sort of mollusk or medusa. He said that this substance was
the basis of the universe, and that in it earth, air, and sky hung,
as it were, suspended. This illusion has been explained by the dreary
spectacle of fogs, mists, rains, and tempests which at this point of
his voyage must have met the gaze of the daring navigator. It would
have been difficult for any mind, in those early ages, to have been
on its guard against the sinister impressions likely to result from
the contemplation of a scene so appalling. It must be remembered that
Pytheas was accustomed to the pure and transparent atmosphere, the
dazzling sky, and the phosphorescent waters of the Mediterranean. It
would have been astonishing if a man educated among the splendors of
an almost tropical climate had not been oppressed by influences so
gloomy. It was the belief of all early navigators that a point would
be found somewhere without the Pillars of Hercules beyond which it
would be impossible to penetrate. While timid adventurers declared they
had arrived at this point hardly a week's sail from the Straits, and
declared that an atmosphere of mist, darkness, and gigantic sea-weed
barred their passage, Pytheas did not allow his imagination to be
affected or his courage to be shaken till he found himself in presence
of the sombre and formidable scenery of what, with true geographical
propriety, he denominated "Thule and her utmost isles."
Leaving his animal atmosphere behind him, Pytheas returned to Orcas and
from thence to Cantium. Instead of following his former track through
the British Channel homeward, he turned to the eastward, and arrived,
in a few days' sail, at the mouth of the Rhine. He found the country
here inhabited by a race of fierce barbarians. Upon the shores of a
vast gulf, beyond, dwelt the Teutons and the Guttones. In this gulf
was an island named Abalcia, upon whose shores the waves deposited,
in spring, immense quantities of yellow amber, which the inhabitants
burned instead of wood, or sold for fuel to their neighbors the
Teutons. Pytheas pursued his voyage as far as a river named Tanais, now
supposed to be either the Elbe or the Oder. He considered this stream
to be the eastern boundary of Celtica, in which he included Germania.
He now turned his face homeward, and, coasting along the shores of
Celtica and Iberia, arrived without accident or adventure at Massilia.
He had sailed one hundred and eighty-six thousand stadia, or eleven
thousand miles: the duration of the expedition was less than a year.
Geographers subsequent to Pytheas strove zealously to discredit his
assertions. One denied the voyage altogether; another questioned the
veracity of the narrative. Strabo was particularly hostile to Pytheas,
whom he said he would prove "a liar of the first magnitude." He was
thus led to make long quotations from his descriptions for the purpose
of refuting them. As the original account given by Pytheas is not
extant, the world is indebted to the skepticism of Strabo for all that
it knows of one of the most interesting and daring maritime enterprises
of antiquity.
In the year 326 before Christ, Alexander of Macedon, having
accomplished the conquest of Persia, and having invaded Hindostan by
the north, found himself compelled, by a mutiny of his troops, to
arrest his course upon the eastern bank of the river Indus. He was here
seized with a desire to explore the lower course of that river, and
afterwards the southern shores of Asia, a tract of coast with which the
Greeks were entirely unacquainted. The object of the expedition was
partly exploration, and partly to convey a portion of the army back
to Babylon upon the river Euphrates. The dangers of the enterprise
and the improbability of success deterred the greater part of the
naval officers from attempting it, as neither the Arabian Sea nor the
Persian Gulf had ever been traversed before. Nearchus, the admiral
of the fleet, proposed several candidates for the perilous honor,
who variously excused themselves. Nearchus at last proffered his own
services, which, after some hesitation, were accepted. This selection
of a commander tranquillized the soldiers and sailors intended for
the expedition; for they felt that Alexander would not have sent his
intimate friend upon a voyage from which he would not be likely to
return. The splendor of the preparations, the beauty of the vessels,
the confidence of the officers, also went far towards dissipating their
fears. At the word of Alexander, says a modern poet,--
"The pines descend; the thronging masts aspire;
The novel sails swell beauteous o'er the curves
Of Indus: to the moderator's song
The oars keep time, while bold Nearchus guides
Aloft the gallies. On the foremost prow
The monarch from his golden goblet pours
A full libation to the gods, and calls
By name the mighty rivers through whose course
He seeks the sea."
Alexander accompanied his fleet to the delta of the Indus, from whence
he obtained a view of the gulf. He then returned to lead his men across
Gedrosia, Caramania, and Persis to Babylon. Nearchus then set sail,
after offering sacrifices to Neptune and Jupiter Salvator, and ordering
a series of games and gymnastic exercises. The voyage thus undertaken
was an event of real importance in the history of navigation: it opened
a route between Europe and the extremities of Asia. It was the source
of the discoveries made in later times by the Portuguese, and the
primary, though remote, cause of the successful establishment of the
British in India.
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE VOYAGE OF NEARCHUS.]
At the very mouth of the river they met a formidable obstacle,--a
rocky bar over which the waves broke with extreme violence. Through
this bar, in its softest parts, they cut a canal one-third of a mile
in length, and at high tide passed through it with the fleet. They
had hardly reached the open ocean before a heavy gale drove them into
an indentation of land protected by an island: to this natural harbor
Nearchus gave the name of Alexander. Here he caused a camp to be laid
out and entrenched, and remained for twenty-four days, the soldiers
subsisting chiefly on shell-fish. When the gale abated they again
embarked, meeting with constant adventures and difficulties upon their
way. One day they would pass through huge menacing rocks, so near
that they touched them with their oars on either side. On another
they would be compelled, on landing for water, to ascend for miles
into the interior before finding fresh-water sources. A storm caused
two galleys and a vessel to founder, the crews of which, however,
succeeded in swimming to shore. Nearchus caused his whole army to land
at this point, for they needed repose, and his shattered fleet required
repairs. He met with Leonatus, whom Alexander had detached from the
main body of the army to follow the coasts and keep up a communication
with Nearchus. Wheat was also sent to this spot by Alexander for the
fleet, and each vessel took a supply sufficient for ten days. Nearchus
exchanged such sailors and soldiers as had proved inefficient, for
fresh men selected from the division of Leonatus.
At this point the narrative becomes strongly tinged with the usual
exaggerations of the early navigators. Nearchus asserts that he
observed strange phenomena in the heavens. When the sun was in the
meridian, he says, no shadow was projected, and the stars which they
were accustomed to see above them were now crouching close to the
horizon; others, that had never before disappeared from the sky, now
rose and set at intervals. The assertion in regard to shadows at noon
is evidently a fabrication. Enough was known of astronomy and the
motions of the heavenly bodies, in the time of Nearchus, to convince
the learned that there must be a point where no shadow would be cast by
a body directly beneath the sun at the summer solstice; and Nearchus,
with a vanity quite usual in the conquerors and adventurers of those
times, chose to assert, and he perhaps believed, that he had seen this
singular phenomenon. Two circumstances will show the inaccuracy of his
statement. The alleged appearance took place in the middle of the month
of November, and twenty-five degrees north of the equator. Even had
Nearchus been at this spot in midsummer, he would have seen shadows of
very respectable length. Upon the coast of Gedrosia he found a people
called Icthyophagi, or Fish-eaters. The mutton here tasted of fish, and
Nearchus discovered that the sheep eat fish as well as the inhabitants,
for the land yielded no pasturage.
In one of the villages of the Fish-eaters Nearchus engaged a pilot who
undertook to guide him as far as Caramania. The aspect of the coast now
became less repulsive, and palm-trees, myrtles, and flowers grew wild
upon the hill-sides. Such was the delight of the Macedonians at this
sight, that they landed and wove garlands and wreaths of the foliage
for the wives and daughters of the natives. Farther on, at a spot where
the inhabitants made them presents of roasted tunny-fish--the first
cooked fish they had yet received from the Icthyophagi--and where they
noticed wheat-fields, they landed, and, after taking possession of the
village, demanded the surrender of all their wheat. The people made a
feeble resistance, and then gave up all the flour they possessed,--not
wheat flour, but fish flour,--flour made by reducing fish to powder, as
we make flour by pulverizing the kernels of wheat.
The coast again becoming almost desert, the crew were obliged to eat
the tender buds of palm-trees, and on one occasion were glad to devour
seven camels which they were fortunate enough to encounter. Besides
the dangers of famine, Nearchus had to contend with legions of whales,
many of them one hundred and fifty feet long,--a prodigious size for
inland seas like the Persian Gulf. One day he noticed a jet of water
of great height and violence, and soon the air was filled with spray
tossed up by a sportive herd of these monsters. The frightened sailors
let drop their oars: but Nearchus encouraged them and dissipated their
fears. He placed the vessels of the fleet abreast in a single line, and
ordered them to advance simultaneously at full speed, as in a naval
combat, and, upon approaching the whales, to terrify them by shouts
and the din of trumpets. At a given signal, the vessels started and
dashed forward upon the cetaceous army: the whales plunged into the
abysses of the water, and, reappearing at the sterns of the fleet, sent
up a shower of spurts in derision of their timorous enemy. Nearchus
found these fish so abundant that large numbers of them were stranded
in every storm: the inhabitants built houses of their bones, using the
larger bones for posts, planks, and doors; the jawbones furnished an
excellent thatch, or roofing material. He also saw huts constructed of
the back-bones of smaller fish.
The fleet now reached the coast of Caramania, after passing an island
supposed to be inhabited by an enchantress very much like the Circe
of the Greek fable, who was said to seduce navigators by the promise
of voluptuous pleasures and then change them into fish. Nearchus now
found his distresses nearly at an end, as the soil was productive of
grain and fruit, and as the streams yielded an abundance of water.
He soon came in view of a vast promontory on the Arabian side, (Cape
Mussendoun,) which seemed completely to close the entrance to the
Persian Gulf. The sailors, weary of their long voyage, earnestly
besought Nearchus to land here and to march across the country to
Babylon. Nearchus insisted that this would not be fulfilling the
intentions of Alexander, whose command it was to survey every portion
of the coast from the Indus to the Euphrates. They doubled the cape,
therefore, and entered the Persian Gulf. Keeping close to the northern
shore, they came at last to a tract of territory inhabited by friendly
races and yielding an abundance of every fruit except the olive. They
landed at the mouth of the Anamis,--the modern Minab,--and refreshed
themselves after their long hardships. They reposed under the shade
of palms, and conversed gayly of the dangers they had escaped and the
wonders they had seen. A party wandered from the coast towards the
interior, and, to their surprise and joy, met a man clothed in the
Greek chlamys and speaking the Greek language. They asked him who
he was and what country he was from. He replied that he belonged to
the army of Alexander, and that the camp was not far off. Transported
with delight, they took the stranger to Nearchus, whom he told that
Alexander was at five days' journey from the sea.
Nearchus, upon receiving this intelligence, caused his ships to be
drawn on shore, a rampart to be built round them, and repairs to be
commenced upon them, while he, Archius, a lieutenant, and six sailors
should set out to find the camp of the king. As they approached the
outposts, soldiers sent forward to meet them by Alexander, who had
been informed of their coming, did not recognise them, on account of
their changed dress and haggard aspect. Alexander received them with
kindness, but in deep sorrow, for he had conceived the idea that the
eight persons before him were all that had survived the perils of the
sea. "You two have returned," he said, "you and Archius, safe and
sound, and this alone renders the loss of my fleet endurable: tell
me in what manner perished my vessels and my army." Upon learning
the safety of the entire expedition, he is said to have burst into
a flood of tears, and to have sworn that he derived more pleasure
from this event than from the entire conquest of Asia. He offered
sacrifices to Jupiter, Hercules, Apollo, and Neptune. He then proposed
that Nearchus should repose from his trials, and that another should
conduct the fleet to Susa, the capital of Susiana. Nearchus thought it
unjust, however, that the glory of completing a task which he had so
successfully begun should be taken from him, and retained the command.
He was obliged to fight his way back to the sea through warlike and
hostile tribes.
The rest of the voyage, along the coasts of Caramania and Persis,--the
modern Fars,--was comparatively easy, orders having been given by
Alexander that Nearchus should find at intervals supplies of every
species of provisions. On the 24th of February, in the year 325 B.C.,
the fleet arrived at the mouth of the Euphrates. Nearchus learned
that Alexander had already reached Susa, which was situated some forty
miles towards the interior upon the borders of the Tigris. He therefore
ascended that river, and, at a bridge newly thrown over it for the
passage of Alexander's army, the junction of the long-separated naval
and land forces took place. Nearchus received a crown of gold for his
success in the expedition; the pilot was rewarded with a crown of
smaller size, and the debts of the army were discharged by Alexander.
The voyage had occupied nearly five months, and the distance sailed was
not far from fifteen hundred miles, if the sinuosities and indentations
of the coast are included, and twelve hundred in a straight line. Half
of this period of five months must be considered to have been spent
upon the land, in surveys of the coast, in repairs of the vessels, and
in forays in search of food and water. The same route is now usually
traversed by merchant vessels in the space of three weeks. Nothing can
give a better idea of the immense service Nearchus was thought to have
rendered the state, than the fact that it was in the convivialities of
a banquet in his honor, a year later, that Alexander abandoned himself
to the excesses which resulted in his death.
Eudoxus, the next navigator in chronological order, was a native of
Cyzicus, in Mysia, and was sent by its citizens, in the third century
B.C., upon a mission connected with the promotion of geographical
science, to Alexandria, then the seat of maritime enterprise. He became
strongly imbued with the spirit of exploration and investigation
which reigned there, and succeeded in inducing Ptolemy Euergetes, the
reigning king, to fit out a naval armament, and to send it under his
command upon an expedition down the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea. He appears
to have made a successful voyage, for he returned with a cargo of
aromatics and precious stones. It is supposed that he sailed down the
Red Sea, and, passing out by the Straits of Babelmandel, followed the
southern coast of Arabia as far as the Persian Gulf: it is altogether
unlikely that he reached the shores of India. Euergetes plundered him
of his wealth upon his return, but died soon after, leaving the throne
to his widow Cleopatra.
The queen took Eudoxus into favor, and sent him upon a fresh voyage.
He seems to have been driven by unfavorable winds upon the coast of
Abyssinia, where he made advantageous bargains with the inhabitants.
He rescued from the water a fragment of a wreck,--the prow of a vessel
which, from a sculpture representing the figure of a horse, seemed to
have come from the West. This prow was exhibited by Eudoxus in the
harbor of Alexandria, and was declared by some mariners from Cadiz to
be of the precise form peculiar to large vessels which went from that
port to fish upon the coast of Mauritania, or Morocco. It was evident,
therefore, to the ardent mind of Eudoxus, that this fragment of a
wrecked vessel, left to the mercy of the waves, had performed the grand
maritime problem of antiquity,--the circuit of Africa. He abandoned
himself with enthusiastic credulity to the enticing hope that he might
himself succeed in achieving this darling object of the ambition of
princes, kings, and states.
He determined to renounce the deceitful patronage of courts, and
to start with a new expedition from Cadiz. He went thither by way
of Massilia and other trading settlements, and urged all who were
animated by the spirit of progress to follow him. He thus succeeded in
equipping an armada, consisting of one ship and two large boats, on
board of which were not only goods and provisions and the necessary
crews, but artisans, scientific men, and musicians. The very ardor and
extravagance of their hopes, and perhaps, too, the undue gayety in
which they took their departure, unfitted them to encounter the dangers
and hardships of African discovery. The crew were frightened at the
swell of the open sea through which Eudoxus wished to make his way, and
insisted upon following the shore, according to the usual cautious
method of those days. The consequence was that the ship was stranded,
and the cargo was with difficulty saved. Eudoxus prosecuted the voyage
in a single ship of lighter construction, till he came to a race of
people who spoke, as he thought, the same language as those he had met
on the opposite side of the continent. Thinking this discovery enough
for the expedition in its now enfeebled state, he returned to Spain and
equipped another small fleet, better fitted to buffet the waves of the
open sea.
He again set forth; but the narrative, as handed down by Strabo, breaks
off at this point, and we are without information upon the results of
the enterprise. It is true that rumor and fable have supplied the place
of authentic facts, and that Eudoxus is described by one version as
having actually circumnavigated Africa; by another, as having come to
a race of people who were born dumb; and by another, as having fallen
in with a nation who had no mouths, but received their food through
an orifice in the nose. These exaggerations are unworthy of notice;
and they do not seem to have thrown discredit upon the account of the
earlier experience of Eudoxus, which ranks among the most esteemed
narratives of ancient maritime adventure.
We have thus given, in some detail, descriptions of all the noteworthy
experiments in navigation previous to the birth of Christ. Two
features, it will be at once remarked, characterized all these
efforts:--1st, The only reliable propelling force continued to lie in
the oars; and, 2d, no sailor ventured out of sight of land, unless,
as when crossing the Mediterranean, he knew that other lands lay
beyond the visible horizon. We close this division of the subject
with the general observation, that the opening of the Christian era
found the world almost entirely under Roman dominion,--one which
preferred extending its sway by land to prosecuting discovery by sea.
The Mediterranean was, thus far, the only seat of commerce and the
exclusive scene of navigation. Though Hanno and Eudoxus had indeed
passed the Pillars of Hercules, and had coasted along the African
shore as far as the negro territories, and though Pytheas, proceeding
to the north, had visited--still hugging the land--the Baltic and
the British Channel, their expeditions must be considered as at once
venturesome and futile, for the age was not able to repeat them, and
totally failed to make them useful either to geography or commerce. As
long as the centre of power, of luxury, of wealth, remains within the
Mediterranean, as long as Tyre, Sidon, Rome, Carthage, successively
control the destinies of the world, so long shall we find mankind
lacking both the motive and the means to seek new worlds, by sea,
beyond. Time, however, will furnish both the motive and the means:
we shall find the one, as we proceed, in the Spice Islands of the
East, the other in the Mariner's Compass. The next division of our
subject will narrate how the contests between the Crescent and the
Cross over the tomb of Christ brought Europe and Asia into contact
and acquaintanceship; and how the commerce and intercourse which were
the immediate consequences led to that general and absorbing interest
in the sea and ships which eventually produced Columbus and Magellan.
The influence of nutmeg and cinnamon upon the spread of the gospel and
the development of science is a theme which we shall show to be not
unworthy of earnest and philosophical inquiry.
[Illustration: SUPPOSED FORM OF THE SHIPS OF NEARCHUS.]
[Illustration: VENETIAN GALLEY OF THE TENTH CENTURY.]
Section II.
FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE APPLICATION OF THE
MAGNETIC NEEDLE TO EUROPEAN NAVIGATION, A.D. 1300.
CHAPTER VIII.
NAVIGATION DURING THE ROMAN EMPIRE--THE RISE OF VENICE AND
GENOA--THE CRUSADES--THEIR EFFECT UPON COMMERCE--WEDDING OF THE
ADRIATIC--CREATION OF THE FRENCH NAVY--INTRODUCTION OF EASTERN ART
INTO EUROPE--MAPS OF THE MIDDLE AGES--REMOTE EFFECT OF THE CRUSADES
UPON GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE.
We have taken the birth of Christ as a point of departure in the
history of navigation, merely because of the prominence of that event
in the annals of the world, not on account of any connection that it
has with the chronicles of the sea. So far from that, the first five
centuries of the Christian era are an absolute blank in all matters
which pertain to our subject. The Roman Empire rose and fell; and its
rise and fall concerned the Mediterranean only. Not even Julius Cæsar,
the greatest man in Roman history, has a place in maritime records;
unless, when crossing the Adriatic in a fishing-boat during a storm,
his memorable words of encouragement to the fisherman, "Fear nothing!
you carry Cæsar and his fortunes!" are sufficient to connect him with
the sea. Neither Pompey, nor Sylla, nor Augustus, nor Nero, nor Titus,
nor Constantine, nor Theodosius, nor Attila, can claim part or lot in
the dominion of man over the ocean. And so we glide rapidly over five
centuries.
Upon the invasion of Italy by the barbarians, A.D. 476, the Veneti, a
tribe dwelling upon the northeastern shores of the Adriatic, escaped
from their ravages by fleeing to the marshes and sandy inlets formed by
the deposits of the rivers which there fall into the gulf. Here they
were secure; for the water around them was too deep to allow of an
attack from the land, and too shallow to admit the approach of ships
from the sea. Their only resource was the water and the employments it
afforded. At first they caught fish; then they made salt, and finally
engaged in maritime traffic. Early in the seventh century their traders
were known at Constantinople, in the Levant, and at Alexandria. Their
city soon covered ninety islands, connected together by bridges.
They established mercantile factories at Rome, and extended their
authority into Istria and Dalmatia. In the eighth century they chased
the pirates, and in the ninth they fought the Saracens. At this period
Genoa, too, rose into notice, and the Genoese and the Venetians at once
became commercial rivals and the monopolists of the Mediterranean.
And now Peter the Hermit, barefooted and penniless, inveighing against
the atrocities of the Turks towards Christians at Jerusalem, exhorted
the warriors of the Cross to take up arms against the infidels. He
inspired all Europe with an enthusiasm like his own, and enlisted
a million followers in the cause. The passion of the age was for
war, peril, and adventure; and fighting for the Sepulchre was a more
agreeable method of doing penance than wearing sackcloth or mortifying
the flesh. The First Crusade, a motley array of knights, spendthrifts,
barons, beggars, women, and children, set out upon their wild career.
Then came the Second, the Third, and the Fourth. Crusading was the
amusement and occupation of two centuries. Two millions of Europeans
perished in the cause before it was abandoned. A few words concerning
its effect upon the civilization of Europe are necessary here, in
direct pursuance of our subject.
During their stay in Palestine the Crusaders learned, and in a measure
acquired, the habits of Eastern life. They brought back with them
a taste for the peculiar products of that region,--jewels, silks,
cutlery, perfumes, spices. A brisk commerce through the length and
breadth of the Mediterranean was the speedy consequence. Genoa, Pisa,
Florence, Venice, covered the waters of their inland sea with sails,
trafficking from the ports of Italy to those of Syria and Egypt. In
every maritime city conquered by the Crusaders, trading-stations
and bazaars were established. Marseilles obtained from the kings of
Jerusalem privileges and monopolies of trade upon their territory.
Venice surpassed all her rivals in the splendor and extent of her
commerce, and it was for this that the Pope, Alexander III., sent
the Doge the famous nuptial ring with which, in assertion of his
naval supremacy, "to wed the Adriatic." The ceremony was performed
from the deck of the Bucentaur, or state-galley, with every possible
accompaniment of pomp and parade. The vessel was crowned with flowers
like a bride, and amid the harmonies of music and the acclamations of
the spectators the ring was dropped into the sea. The Republic and the
Adriatic, long betrothed, were now indissolubly wedded. This ceremony
was repeated from year to year.
The Normans, the Danes, the Dutch, imitated the example of the
Italians, or, as they were then called, the Lombards, but were rather
occupied in conveying provisions to the armies than in trading for
their own account.
It was during the Crusades that the French navy was created. Philip
Augustus, who, on his way to Syria, and thence home again, could not
have remained insensible to the advantages of possessing a strong force
upon the ocean, formed, upon his return, the nucleus of a national
fleet, for the purpose of defending his coasts either against pirates
or foreign invasion.
[Illustration: THE DOGE OF VENICE WEDDING THE ADRIATIC.]
While the necessity of transporting articles from the East to supply
the demand thus created in the West gave a stimulus to commerce and
navigation, manufactures were encouraged and developed by the operation
of the same cause. The Italians learned from the Greeks the art of
weaving silk, which soon resulted in the weaving of cloth of gold and
silver. They learned to mould glass in a multitude of new and curious
forms. From the manufactories of Syria, where stuffs were made of
camels' hair, improvements were introduced into the manufactures of
Europe, where they were woven of no other material than lambs' wool.
Palestine also suggested to crusaders returning home the advantages of
windmills for grinding flour. Arabia furnished the art of tempering
arms and polishing steel, of chasing gold and silver, of mounting
stones in rich and massive settings. Constantinople furnished the
Christians with many splendid specimens of ancient art,--groups,
statues, and the Corinthian horses, and thus awakened European taste.
Nearly all the Gothic monuments of Europe which still excite the
admiration of the tourist owe their existence to this communication
with the Greeks by means of the Crusades, and to the wonder which
seized the Frank and Lombard at the sight of the churches and palaces
of Byzantium. The Europeans carried back with them the architecture
of the Saracens. Saint Mark's at Venice was built from the plans,
and under the direction, of an unbeliever. The Cathedral and Spire
of Strasburg, with their gigantic and yet delicate proportions, the
Minster of Amiens, the Sainte Chapelle of Paris, were constructed in
close imitation of the chef-d'oeuvres of Eastern art. Painting upon
glass was also brought from Constantinople, and the early painters of
Christendom were speedily employed in tracing in colors, upon the
windows of abbeys and cathedrals, the exploits of the Crusaders and the
triumphs of the Cross.
From the Arabs and the Greeks, too, the Europeans received their first
lessons in the natural and exact sciences. Imperfect and incomplete
as were the astronomy, the botany, the mathematics, and the geography
of the Arabians, they were far in advance of the same professions as
understood and practised in Europe. The languages were improved and
enriched by the association and exchange of ideas into which English,
Germans, Italians, and French were forced. The confusion of tongues,
which was as complete as at Babel, was somewhat corrected by the
harmony of interest and oneness of purpose which animated all, of
whatever name and lineage, who gathered around the Sepulchre.
It is obvious, therefore, that the effect of the Crusades, so far as
it is the object of a work like the present to trace and delineate
it, was to give the people of Europe a new motive for maintaining an
intercourse with the people of Asia. They had seen their superior
civilization, and sought to introduce it among themselves. They
had learned to appreciate their skill in the arts, and resolved to
acclimate those arts at home. They had accustomed themselves to many
articles of luxury, which had become articles of necessity, and which
it was now essential, therefore, to transport from the Levant, from the
Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, to the Bay of Venice and the Gulf of
Genoa. There was a demand, in short, in the West, for the products, the
manufactures, the arts, of the East. Here was the origin of the immense
Eastern commerce which now fell into the hands of the Genoese and
Venetians, and which, resulting from the Crusades, compelled us to the
digression we have made. It is not our purpose, however, to refer more
at length to this commerce, as it was carried on upon seas which had
been navigated for twenty centuries; and we must hasten forward to the
period when new paths were laid out over the immensity of the waters.
A map, published just anterior to the First Crusade, fully displays
the ignorance which then prevailed in geographical science. The sea,
as in the age of Homer, is made to surround the world as a river, the
land being divided into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Africa
and Asia are joined together in the South, and the Indian Ocean is an
inland sea. Asia is as large as the other two continents combined.
On the east there is a small spot indicated as the position of the
Garden of Eden by the words _Hic est Paradisus_. Europe and Africa
are separated from Asia by a long canal, which may be either the Nile
or the Hellespont. Africa is still considered the land of mystery and
fable: its northern part only is considered inhabitable, the south
being even unapproachable, on account of the torrents of flame poured
on it by the sun. The Frozen Ocean, the Baltic, the White Sea, and
the Caspian, are all united. The Northern regions are represented as
forming one single island. Scandinavia is made the birthplace and
residence of the Amazons, the famous women-warriors to whom antiquity
had given a home in the Caucasus.
We shall, in due order, proceed to show that the indirect and remote
effect of the Crusades, and of the intercourse produced by them
between two totally separated regions, was to induce the _Discovery of
America_, the _Doubling of the Cape of Good Hope_, and the _Passage
of the Straits_ at the southern extremity of Patagonia,--results due
to COLUMBUS, VASCO DA GAMA, and MAGELLAN, every one of whom were
seeking, in the voyages which have rendered them immortal, another
passage to the Indies than that held by the Italians--so far as they
could prosecute it in vessels upon the Mediterranean. But, before we
can proceed from the coasting enterprises of the Lombards upon the
land-locked waters of their inland sea, to the daring ventures of the
Portuguese and Spaniards upon the raging billows of the Tropical and
South Atlantic, we must turn for a moment to the North of Europe, and
inquire into the maritime achievements of the Anglo-Saxons and the
Northmen during the Dark and Middle Ages.
[Illustration: DANISH VESSEL OF THE TENTH CENTURY: FROM AN INSCRIPTION.]
CHAPTER IX.
THE SCANDINAVIAN SAILORS--THEIR PIRACIES AND COMMERCE--THE
ANGLO-SAXONS--ALFRED THE GREAT A SHIP-BUILDER--THE VOYAGE
OF BEOWULF--DISCOVERY OF ICELAND BY THE DANES--DISCOVERY OF
GREENLAND--THE VOYAGE OF BJARNI AND LEIF TO THE AMERICAN
CONTINENT--THEIR DISCOVERY OF NEWFOUNDLAND, NOVA SCOTIA, NANTUCKET,
AND MASSACHUSETTS--ADVENTURES OF THORWALD AND THORFINN--COMPARISON OF
THE DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTHMEN WITH THOSE OF COLUMBUS.
The nations inhabiting the borders of the Baltic and the coasts of
Norway, as well as those dwelling on the shores of the German Ocean,
were situated quite as favorably for maritime enterprise as those upon
the banks of the Mediterranean. Though their earliest expeditions by
sea were not stimulated by the same cause,--the desire for commercial
intercourse,--they arose from causes equally active. While the
Mediterranean countries possessed a fruitful soil and a balmy climate,
those of the North, under a sky comparatively ungenial, afforded their
inhabitants but a few of the articles which they needed: they were
led, therefore, to increase their power by sea, in order to establish
themselves in more favored climes, or at least to obtain from them by
plunder what their own country could not furnish. Thus they neglected
the arts of agriculture, and became inured to a life of piracy upon
the sea. They spent their lives in planning and executing maritime
expeditions. Fathers gave fleets to their sons, and bade them seek
their fortune on the ocean-highway. The ships, at first small,--being
mere barks propelled by twelve oars,--came at last to be capable of
carrying one hundred or one hundred and twenty men. They were supplied
with stones, arrows, ropes with which to overset small vessels, and
grappling-irons with which to come to close quarters.
It would be remote from our purpose to notice these piratical
excursions, were it not that they sometimes resulted in discovery or
commerce. Many of the marauders settled permanently in England in
the seventh century, and established there the Anglo-Saxon dominion.
Alfred, their most celebrated king, obliged to defend his territory
from the Danes, turned his attention zealously to every thing connected
with ships, commerce, discovery, and geography, and became the first
founder of that naval power which was at a later period to be the
world's dread and admiration. The idea of ship-building once conceived,
it was prosecuted with astonishing vigor. Alfred not only multiplied
their number, but introduced material improvements. Towards the latter
part of his reign, his fleet numbered one hundred sail: it was divided
into small squadrons and stationed at various places along the coast.
The oldest epic in any modern language, the Anglo-Saxon poem of
"Beowulf," the Sea-Goth, written in forty-three cantos, and containing
some six thousand lines, is occupied mainly in narrating the marvellous
exploits of its hero, his combats with a pestilential fire-drake, and
his slaying of "a grim giant named Grendel, a descendant of Cain." It
incidentally describes a voyage made by Beowulf previous to the ninth
century, and from this we may gather a few details, at best barren and
unsatisfactory, of the equipments of a vessel in those days. In the
extract which we give, the word "sea-nose" will readily be understood
as meaning headland, or promontory:
"When the king had awaited
The time he should stay,
Came many to fare
On the billows so free.
His ship they bore out
To the brim of the ocean,
And his comrades sat down
At their oars as he bade.
A word could control
His good fellows, the Shylds.
On the deck of the ship
He stood, by the mast.
Ne'er did I hear
Of a vessel appointed
Better for battle,
With weapons of war,
And waistcoats of wool,
And axes and swords.
* * * *
The ship was on the waves,
Boat under the cliffs.
The barons ready
To the prow mounted.
The chieftains bore
On the naked breast
Bright ornaments,
War-gear, Goth-like.
The men shoved off,
Men on their willing way,
The bounden wood.
Then went over the sea-waves,
Hurried by the wind,
The ship with foamy neck,
Most like a sea-fowl,
Till about one hour
Of the second day
The curved prow
Had passed onward.
So that the sailors
The land saw,
The shore-cliffs shining,
Mountains steep,
And broad sea-noses.
Then was the sea-sailing
Of the Earl at an end.
God thanked he
That to him the sea-journey
Easy had been."
In the year 863, a Dane of Swedish origin, named Gardar, adventurously
pushing off into the Northern Ocean, though upon an object which
history has not recorded, discovered the island-rock whose appropriate
name is Iceland. Eleven years later, a navigator named Ingolf colonized
the country, the colonists, many of whom belonged to the most esteemed
families in the North, establishing a flourishing republic. The
situation of these people, isolated in the midst of an Arctic ocean,
and their relation to the mother-country, compelled them to exert and
develop their hereditary maritime proclivities. In 877, a sailor named
Gunnbjörn saw a mountainous coast far to the west, supposed to be
now concealed or rendered inaccessible by the descent of Arctic ice.
Erik the Red, who had been banished from Norway for murder and had
settled in Iceland, was
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