aa 'Cau/e why the DaHgiff of Scylla and Chatyba'is are dlmwijhed. 



Alter remus aquas, alter tibi radat arenas, , 

 Tutus eris ; medio maxima turba marl. 



Propert. Lib. Ill- 



To fliun the dangers of the ocean, fweep 

 The fands with one oar, and with one the deep. 



3But time, ftudy, and experience have rendered her more mature, better informed, and more 

 courageous » fo that flie can now pafs the wideft feas, brave the moft violent tempefts, and 

 laugh at the fears of her childhood. 



To exemplify and fupport the probability of this opinion, it will not be neceflary to recur 

 to the early and rude ages ; much more modern times will furnilh us with fufficient proofs. 

 That part of the Adriatic, which feparates Venice from Rovigno in Iftria, is certainly not 

 the moft propitious fea to navigators. The danger of being hurried in fix hours from one 

 ihore to the other, and there ftranded ; the frequency of violent winds which prevail there ; 

 the /hallows and fand-banks which break tlie waves and render them wild and irregular, 

 may certainly caufe fome ferious refledtion in thofe who embark to make the pafliige. So 

 ■lately as the laft century, the fhipwrecks in this fea were fo numerous, and had fo terrified 

 the people of Rovigno, that, when any one was obliged by urgent bufinefs or any other 

 caufe to go to Venice, he confidered himfelf as more likely to die than live ; and, if he was 

 the father of a family, ufed to make his will before he embarked. The Advocate Conftan- 

 tini, a native of that country, and a man of learning and ingenuity, tokl me when I was 

 -there, that he had read more than one of thefe teftaments, depofited among the public ar- 

 chives. 



But at prefent I will not fay it is a diverfion or pleafure to make this paflage, fince, a$ 

 ftorms are not unfrequent, it is neceflary to be cautious ; but ferious accidents rarely hap- 

 pen. I have myfelf three times made it without meeting with any caufe of alarm. To 

 what can this difference be attributed, but to the improvement of the nautical art ? Be- 

 iides that the mariners of Rovigno were not then fo expert in the management of their 

 veflels as at prefent ; they made ufe of certain barks of fo improper a conftrudion, as I 

 was aflured by the abovementioned Conftantini, that it was impoffible they fiiould long 

 refift the violence of the fea. Thofe on the contrary that have been built fince that time, 

 being of a broad and flat figure and very folid, are capable of withftanding the moft furi- 

 ous ftorms. They are there called Ircicere, and are in great reputation in all the neigh- 

 bouring countries. We here find a part of the fea in which veflels were formerly fo 

 frequently wrecked, and which could not be traverfed but at the rifle of life, now deprived 

 of all its terrors, and rendered eafily paflable, merely by the improvements made in the art 

 of navigation. 



As a farther and ftill more convincing proof that the dangers of Charybdis and Scylla, 

 though in themfelves the fame that they anciently were, have been diminifhed, and the 

 dread they infpired removed by the rapid advances to perfe£lion which this art has made 

 in madern times ; 1 fliall adduce an example in another fea no lefs an objedl of ter- 

 ror from tempefts and ftiipwrecks, I mean tfic Cape of Good Hope, called the Stormy 

 Cape by the firft difcoverer, and, by the mariners of thofe times, the Raging Lion. How 

 dreadful were the dangers of this place, where the two oceans defcending down the oppo- 



fitc 



