NAVIGATOR'S ISLANDS NAVY. 



157 



with a reciprocity ; and in this nations are, at present, 

 willing to acquiesce. Another object of the naviga- 

 tion laws is to promote the fisheries, as a source of 

 wealth, and also a nursery of seamen. The laws of 

 England, Holland, France, and the United states of 

 America favour this branch of maritime industry by 

 strenuous encouragement and protection. 



NAVIGATOR'S ISLANDS ; a group of about 

 ten islands, in the southern Pacific ocean, to the 

 north-east of the Friendly islands ; between lat. 13 

 and 15 S., and Ion. 1G8 and 173 W. Like most 

 other islands of those seas, they are surrounded with 

 coral reefs, and appear to be of volcanic origin. 

 The natives are numerous, strong, well made, fierce, 

 and active. The islands abound in cocoa, bread- 

 fruit, bananas, and domestic animals of several sorts. 

 They were discovered by Bougainville in 1768. 



NAVY, in the usual sense of the word, the whole 

 body of the ships of war belonging to a nation or 

 monarch. In no state of society, however primi- 

 tive, has man long learned to navigate the rivers and 

 seas that surround him, before his evil passions 

 have involved him in contention and war. It is not 

 enough that murder should stalk the earth, and make 

 its fields drink the blood of him to whom it was given 

 as a heritage ; the ocean, already terrible in its own 

 horrors, is also too often crimsoned with the same 

 carnage. 



It may, perhaps, be questioned whether maritime 

 pursuits be not more likely to produce discord than 

 those of the land. The shepherd subsists upon his 

 Sock; it furnishes him at once with food and raiment; 

 the cultivator lives upon the produce of his field; but 

 the moment that the merchant goes forth to exchange 

 his superfluity for the superfluity of others, there arises 

 a collision of interests ; that spirit of cupidity which 

 has, in all ages, characterized commercial nations, is 

 aroused ; avarice, hatred, and revenge excite to dis- 

 cord, and the seeds of war are already sown. Thus 

 we are told that the Phoenicians, in their solicitude to 

 retain the vast monopoly of trade, for which they 

 were indebted to their enterprise and industry, not 

 only concealed studiously the courses of navigation 

 by which they arrived at the remote countries with 

 which they traded, but, if followed by strange vessels, 

 would seek to mislead them, conduct them into 

 dangerous situations, and even risk the loss of their 

 own vessels to effect that of their pursuers. To 

 complete the discouragement of their commercial 

 rivals, they plundered and destroyed every foreign 

 vessel and crew that they met with a system which 

 doubly favoured their desire of gain. Such is the 

 origin of maritime war and naval armies. 



The earliest instance of naval warfare recorded in 

 history, is that of one Erythras, a prince who made 

 himself master of the Red sea, and monopolized its 

 commerce, to the exclusion of the Egyptians, who 

 were only allowed to navigate it with a single ship. 

 The Egyptians, thus restricted, are said to have par- 

 tially evaded the edict by making their single ship 

 of an unusual size ; much as the British did, in past 

 centuries, with their single annual ship to Puerto 

 Bello. Erythras is not, however, allowed the undis- 

 puted honour of originating naval war. He has a 

 formidable competitor in Jason, and two still more so 

 in Neptune and Hercules. Without attempting to 

 settle the respective claims of these nautical worthies, 

 we will content ourselves with endeavouring to dis- 

 cover the nature of naval war in the earliest ages of 

 history. 



The most noted battle of ancient times is that 

 which took place between the Greeks and Persians 

 at Salamis, five centuries before the Christian era. 

 The situation of the Grecians struggling to preserve 

 their liberty from the threatened yoke of Xerxes ; 



the generous rivalry of Aristides and Themistoclos ; 

 the heroism of Artemisia, with many romantic inci- 

 dents, combine to shed a strong interest over this 

 famous engagement. The Grecian fleet consisted 

 of three hundred and eighty ships, all, doubtless, 

 very small, as we are told that the largest galley was 

 of but fifty oars, with only eighteen fighting men. 

 The vessels were without decks, and the contest 

 was decided either by running each other down, or 

 else by grappling and fighting hand to hand, the 

 victory declaring for those who excelled in numbers 

 or in personal prowess. The fleet of Xerxes was 

 superior in numbers, as well as in the size of its ships, 

 and as his army was numerous beyond anything known 

 in modern times, it was easy for him to man it power- 

 fully. But the situation of Salamis favoured the 

 Grecians, as it hindered the Persians and their allies 

 from displaying their whole force. The Greeks hav- 

 ing determined to give battle rather than await it to 

 their inevitable destruction, Themistocles bore down 

 with the full impetus of a fresh breeze, which blew 

 regularly every day. The Persians received the first 

 attack undaunted, and even returned It with so much 

 vigour that the Greeks began to falter, when, ac- 

 cording to Herodotus, an heroic Athenian by the 

 name of Pallene, retrieved their situation by boldly 

 steering his galley into the midst of the enemy, and 

 drawing his countrymen after him to his rescue. 

 And now the height and sluggishness of the Persian 

 vessels, even their excessive numbers thus embar- 

 rassed in a narrow strait, and the disconnected efforts 

 resulting from the various nations of the allies, and 

 from a plurality of commanders, threw them into 

 utter confusion. Moreover, among the Persians and 

 their allies, there was much disaffection ; while, on 

 the contrary, the Greeks had a good cause, and every 

 thing at stake ; their vessels, too, were light and 

 manageable, and they were expert in manoeuvring 

 them ; they did every thing in good order ; finally, 

 they had but one supreme commander, and he The- 

 mistocles. Under such circumstances, it is not much 

 to be wondered at that they should have proved 

 victorious. 



There are one or two incidents, which took place 

 during the battle, not a little characteristic of the 

 mode of fighting and of the manners of the times. 

 We are told of a Grecian galley being sunk by an 

 Ionian of the Persian fleet ; this, in turn, sustained a 

 like fate, being run down by a galley of Egina. But, 

 before their vessel sunk under them, the lonians had 

 time to throw themselves into the ship of their an- 

 tagonists, and by the desperate bravery to which 

 they were urged by their situation, seconded by their 

 dexterity in the use of the spear, for which they were 

 famous, gained possession of the Eginetic galley. 

 Still more peculiar was the stratagem by which the 

 queen Artemisia contrived to escape. She had op- 

 posed the engagement ; but when it was determined 

 to give battle, she displayed greater valour than any 

 of the followers of Xerxes, so that he took occasion 

 to say, as he viewed her conduct from his throne on 

 a neighbouring eminence, that only the women of the 

 fleet behaved like men. This unsustained courage 

 involved her, at length, in imminent danger, and she 

 found herself hotly beset by many enemies, when, as 

 the only means of escape, she resorted to the strata- 

 gem of hoisting Grecian colours, and attacking a 

 Persian ship, commanded by one Damasithymus, 

 king of Calynda, which she speedily sent to the bot- 

 tom. This deed, doubtless, cost her the less, that 

 Damasithymus had once been her enemy. Her pur- 

 suers, seeing this, believed her vessel to be one of 

 their own fleet, and so Artemisia escaped. 



In the two centuries succeeding this battle of 

 Salamis, many improvements were introduced intc 



