260 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



short cut to wealth by robbing one another (for there 

 were no other seafarers to rob) ; and because, having 

 committed this crime, they dared not return to Tyre, 

 they would establish piratical colonies in suitable 

 ports on the shores of the Mediterranean. This led to 

 the honest merchantmen arming themselves against 

 the pirates a simple matter enough ; since in those 

 days there was not, there could not be, such a thing as 

 peaceful trading, the merchant must be a fighter if he 

 would keep what he had honestly gotten. For the 

 primal instinct of man is to take what he covets, and, 

 if resisted, to fight like any other animal, the reign of 

 law not having yet begun. This, of course, applies to 

 those early maritime traders whom I have called 

 honest, for there can be no doubt whatever that, while 

 they bought commodities when they were unable to 

 obtain them in any other way, they never scrupled to 

 take what they coveted without payment when they 

 were strong enough to do so. And this applies espe- 

 cially to that, in those days, most marketable of all 

 commodities man. 



Consequently, it was no long time after the birth 

 of navigation before there was developed a regular 

 system of sea-warfare ; but it is as well to note that, 

 at first, it was a warfare conducted by mariners alone 

 without the aid of land soldiers. Fighting as a pro- 

 fession, distinct from the useful peaceful avocations of 

 mankind, had long been practised, and, indeed, had 

 reached to a high pitch of efficiency, as of course it 

 should have done, being, as far as we can learn from 

 history, the principal occupation of the more advanced 

 of the nations. I point this out because it is a curious 

 fact that for many centuries of naval, or, rather, 



