36 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



was wrenched from the grasp of the fisherman, and the frail 

 bark was thus left to the mercy of the waves. The maiden 

 raised her white veil to protect herself and her lover from 

 the storm ; the wind, inflating this fragile garment, impelled 

 them slowly but surely towards the coast. Their aged sire, the 

 tradition continues, suddenly seized with prophetic inspiration, 

 exclaimed, " The future is unfolded to my view ! Art is ad- 

 vancing to perfection ! My children, you have discovered a 

 powerful agent in navigation. All nations will cover the ocean 

 with their fleets and wander to distant regions. Men, differing 

 in their manners and separated by seas, will disembark upon 

 peaceful shores, and import thence foreign science, superfluities, 

 and art. Then shall the mariner fearlessly cruise over the 

 immense abyss and discover new lands and unknown seas ! " 

 Though we may admire the foresight of this patriarch, we 

 cannot applaud him for choosing a moment so inopportune for 

 exercising his peculiar gift : it would certainly have been more 

 natural to afford some comfort to his weather-beaten children. 

 The legend even goes on to state that he at once fixed a pole 

 in the middle of the canoe, and, attaching to it a piece of cloth, 

 invented the first sail-boat. Mythology assigns a different, 

 though similar, origin to the invention : — Iris, seeking her son 

 in a bark which she impelled by oars, perceived that the wind 

 inflated her garments and gently forced her in the direction in 

 which she was going. 



No research would bring the investigator to conclusions 

 more satisfactory than these. The fact would still remain, 

 that the first mention in profane history of constructions moving 

 upon the water, is many centuries subsequent to the period 

 in which the idea of building such constructions must be pre- 

 sumed to have been first conceived. It would consequently be 

 idle to devote more space to this subject ; and we proceed at 

 once, therefore, to the first of recorded ventures upon the sea. 



1 



