ACADEMY OF SCIENCEs. 69 
other observations are recorded three centuries later. Astronomical observa- 
tions made at Babylon, calculated the rotundity of the earth, which they esti- 
mated at 40,000 miles in circumference; and those when transmitted to Greece 
by Alexander, and seen by Aristotle, B. C. 324, contained a calendar of above 
nineteen centuries, extending back to within fifteen years of those ascribed to 
the Chinese. Europeans first learned this science from Jupiter Belus, king 
of Babylon. The ancient kingdoms of India appear to have had observations 
fully as early as the Babylonians. 
We will now attempt to trace chronologically the naval growth and ancient 
commerce of western nations by their records, from B. C. 2249 to the Chris- 
tian era, to demonstrate the possibility of early migrations of races in pre- 
historic times. Migrations by water, which appear by our own histories to 
have occurred around the Mediterranean, may likewise have occurred on the 
Pacific, and in other parts of the habitable globe. Shore lines and water 
courses were early availed of for the distribution and subdivision of races. 
Mountain ranges were natural barriers. 
The authenticity of ancient history necessarily rests upon the evidence of 
ancient writers, when unimpaired by later discoveries. This summary has 
therefore required a judicious digest of many original authors, from whom its 
Statistics are compiled and arranged. 
Few seem to be aware of how early and extended an intercourse existed be- 
tween Asia and the western world, which in its earliest ages was principally 
conducted by the South Arabians, a people apparently more enlightened by 
science and commerce than any nation farther East except the Phoenicians. 
The South Arabian commerce is supposed to be the most ancient inter- 
course between far-distant peoples, of which western nations have any 
remaining records. That next in importance, and apparently also in order of 
time, was that of the Phcenicians and their colonies, especially Carthage and 
Gadir (changed by the Saracens to Cadiz). Those general enemies of com- 
merce, the Romans, soon abolished that of Cathage and of Corinth. With 
the increase of the Roman empire came the decrease of commerce, excepting 
only that branch necessarily enlarged by an increasing demand for Oriental 
luxuries. Of this very early trade of the Europeans and nations of Asia 
Minor, with the Orient, we happily possess a description which, for accuracy 
and minuteness of detail, when compiled, may almost rival a modern official 
account. 
As the Roman empire declined, the Oriental trade, supported merely 
by the redundant opulence of Rome, gradually decayed; and in the sixth cen- 
tury we find the intercourse with India turned into a new channel. During 
the many dark ages which succeeded the subversion of the western empire, 
gross ignorance prevailed, and commerce, in common with literature and 
science, became neglected in the western hemisphere, until renewed attention 
was drawn to it by the Saracens, and at some of the Italian seaports. The 
spirit of commerce afterwards arose in the Netherlands and at some German 
seaports, followed by Portugal and Spain, and latterly by Great Britain and 
other European nations. 
The Greeks esteemed Phoenicians as the inventors of commerce, shipbuild- 
ing, navigation, and the application of astronomy to nautical purposes; their 
