39^ 



A. D. 1249. 



lieve that the commerce of Scotland was much more fiouriflilng at this 

 time than in the calamitous ages, which fucceeded the death of Alex- 

 ander III : and it is very certain, that Invernefs, fituated near the 

 mouths of feveral confiderable rivers, which ran through vaft forefts of 

 excellent oak and fir, mufl have been a very convenient port for build- 

 ing veffels *. 



Frederic, emperor of Germany, a prince whofe native powers of mind 

 raifed him above the barbarifm of the age in which he lived, though he 

 was plunged by papal authority into the madnefs of a crufade, faw the 

 abfurdity of facrificing the blood and treafure of his fubjects to the in- 

 ordinate ambition of the fee of Rome; and, having recovered Jerufalem, 

 Tyre, Sidon, and a confiderable part of Palefi;ine, in the year 1229, he 

 wifely accepted the beneficial friendfhip of the princes of the Eaft. In 

 confequence of that rational and advantageous connexion, his merch- 

 ants and fadors traveled, by land and water, as far as India f : and in 

 the lafi: year of his life (a°. 1250) twelve camels came to him loaded 

 with gold and filver, the produce of his trade in the Oriental regions. 

 It was from his wealth, thus acquired, that he was enabled to make pre- 

 fents of large quantities of filk and other pretious articles to Henry III 

 and his brother Richard earl of Cornwall, and to bequeath by his will 

 100,000 ounces of gold to the fervice of the Holy land (for he ftill had, 

 or thought himfelf obliged to profefs, a good will to the caufe), and 

 20,000 ounces to his younger fon and grandfon, befides what he left in. 

 fmaller legacies. [M. Paris, pp. 356, 431, 812.] 



The emperor Fi-ederic pofTelfed a celeftial globe, which reprefented 

 the motions of the planets ; and to him we are indebted for the firfl: 

 Latin tranflations of fome of the mod efteemed authors of antiquity, 

 and particularly of Ptolemy, which, in an age wherein very few could 

 read Greek, rendered the fludy of geography common, if compared tO' 

 the almoft-total extindlion of it for fome centuries bypafl:. {Motitucla 

 Hijl. dcs mathem. V. i, p. 418.] This enlightened emperor and merchant 

 was literally perfecuted to death (fome fay a6tually poifoned) by that 

 infernal monfter of rapacity and ufurpation, Innocent IV. 



12^1 — Among the commercial fi:ates of Italy the Tulcans were now 

 diftinguiflied as the mofi: eminent. The merchants of Florence, the 

 metropolis, though it is an inland city, had efi;abliflied commercial 



* Invernefs appears to have furniflicd vcflils to hind, V. ix, p. 615. — Fhtcher''s worhs, p. 103, ed. 



foreigners in the feventecntli, as well as in the thir- 1749. J It may be obferved, that the harbour of 



tccnth, century. A large (liip was buili tlierc for Invernefs does not admit what is now called z. great 



the fervice of Venice, as appears by the Phihifrt- fliip ; but all things arc great or fmall by compari- 



phicul Iranjiitiions, F. xxi, p. 230. The writer Ion. 



tiocs not give the year : but the paper is dated in f I would not be pofitive, that the weftern 



\f)ijcj; and it appears that Invernefs was in a writers may not have given the name of India, a 



floiiridiing condition during the feventeenlh ccn- name vaguely applied to the remote regions of the 



tiiry, and alfo that the Scots and Venetians were Ead, to fome country lefs dillailt than liilldoc- 



tlicii on friendly teims. [Slali/liiaf accoiiiil 0/ Scot- llan. 



