94 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



ing to the usual cautious method of those days. The con- 

 sequence was that the ship was stranded, and the cargo was 

 with difficulty saved. Eudoxus prosecuted the voyage in a 

 single ship of lighter construction, till he came to a race of 

 people who spoke, as he thought, the same language as those he 

 had met on the opposite side of the continent. Thinking this 

 discovery enough for the expedition in its now enfeehled state, 

 he returned to Spain and equipped another small fleet, better 

 fitted to buffet the waves of the open sea. 



He again set forth ; but the narrative, as handed down by 

 Strabo, breaks off at this point, and we are without information 

 upon the results of the enterprise. It is true that rumor and 

 fable have supplied the place of authentic facts, and that Eu- 

 doxus is described by one version as having actually circum- 

 navigated Africa ; by another, as having come to a race of 

 people who were born dumb ; and by another, as having fallen 

 in with a nation who had no mouths, but received their food 

 through an orifice in the ndse. These exaggerations are un- 

 worthy of notice ; and they do not seem to have thrown dis- 

 credit upon the account of the earlier experience of Eudoxus, 

 which ranks among the most esteemed narratives of ancient 

 maritime adventure. 



We have thus given, in some detail, descriptions of all the 

 noteworthy experiments in navigation previous to the birth of 

 Christ. Two features, it will be at once remarked, charac- 

 terized all these efforts: — 1st, The only reliable propelling force 

 continued to lie in the oars ; and, 2d, no sailor ventured out 

 of sight of land, unless, as when crossing the Mediterranean, 

 he knew that other lands lay beyond the visible horizon. We 

 close this division of the subject with the general observation, 

 that the opening of the Christian era found the world almost 

 entirely under Roman dominion, — one which preferred extending 

 its sway by land to prosecuting discovery by sea. . The Medi- 

 terranean was, thus far, the only seat of commerce and the ex- 



