NAVIGATION. 
614 
and, following the comae which the ancients had marked 
out, imported the commodities of the Eaft Indies from 
Alexandria. When Egypt was torn from the Roman 
empire by the Arabians, theinduftry of the Greeks dif- 
covered a new channel, by which the productions of India 
might be conveyed to Conftantinople. They were car¬ 
ried up the Indus, as far as that great river is navigable ; 
there they were tranfported by land to the banks of the 
river Oxus, and proceeded down its ftream to the Cafpian 
Sea. There they entered the Volga, and, failing up it, 
were carried by land to the Tanais, which conducted them 
into the Euxine Sea, where velfels from Conftantinople 
waited their arrival. 
But, no fooner were the more brave among thofe na¬ 
tions vrell fettled in their new provinces; fome in Gaul, 
as the Franks ; others in Spain, as the Goths ; and others 
in Italy, as the Lombards ; than they began to learn the 
advantages of navigation and commerce, and the proper 
methods of managing them, from the people they fub- 
dued ; and this with fo much fuccefs, that in a little time 
fome of them became able to give new lefions, and let on 
foot new inftitutions for its advantage. 
It does not appear which of the European people, after 
the fettlement of their new mailers, firft betook themfelves 
to navigation and commerce. Some think it began with 
the French ; though the Italians feem to have the jufteft 
title to it, and are accordingly ordinarily looked on as the 
reftorers of this fcience, as well as of the polite arts, which 
had been banifhed together, from the time the empire was 
torn afunder. The people of Italy then, and particularly 
thofe of Venice and Genoa, have the glory of this rellora¬ 
tion ; and it is to their advantageous fituation for naviga¬ 
tion they in a great meafure owe their glory. 
In the bottom of the Adriatic were a great number of 
marfhy iflands, only feparated by narrow channels, but 
thofe well fcreened, and almoft inacceflible, the refidence 
of fome fifhermen, who here fupported themfelves by a 
little trade of filli and fait, which they found in fome of 
thefe iflands. Thither, then, the Veneti, a people inha¬ 
biting that part of Italy along the coafts of the gulf, re¬ 
tired, when Alaric king of the Goths, and afterwards 
Attila king of the Huns, ravaged Italy. 
Thefe new iflanclers, little imagining that this was to 
be their fixed refidence, did not think of compofing any 
body politic ; but each of the feventy-two iflands of this 
little Archipelago continued a long time under its fepa- 
rate diftinft mailer, and each made a diftinft common¬ 
wealth. When their commerce was become confiderable 
enough to give jealoufy to their neighbours, they began 
to think of uniting into a body; and it was this union, 
firft begun in the fixth century, but not completed tiil 
the eighth, that laid the fure foundation of the future 
grandeur of the ftate of Venice. From the time of this 
union, their fleets of merchantmen were fent to all the 
ports of the Mediterranean ; and atlalltothofe of Egypt, 
particularly Cairo ; a new city built by the Saracen princes 
on the eaftern bank of the Nile, where they traded for 
their fpices, and other products of the Indies. Thus 
they fiourifhed, incr.eafed their commerce, their naviga¬ 
tion, and their conquefts on the terra firma, till the 
famous league of Cambray in 1508, when a number of 
jealous princes confpired their ruin; which was the more 
eafily effected, by the diminution of their Eaft-India com¬ 
merce, of which the Portuguefe had gained one pari, and 
the French another. 
Genoa, which had applied itfelf to navigation at the 
fame time with Venice, and that with equal fuccefs, w'as 
a long time its dangerous rival, difputed with it the em¬ 
pire of the fea, and fhared with it the trade of Egypt, and 
other parts both of the Eaft and Weft. Jealoufy loon 
began to break out; and, the two republics engaging in a 
conteft, it was three centuries almoft continual war be¬ 
fore the fuperiority was afcertained; when, towards the 
end of the fourteenth century, the fatal battle of Cliioza 
ended the noble ftrife; the Genoefe, who till then had 
pfually the advantage, haying now loft all 5 and the Ve¬ 
netians, almoft become defperate, at one happy blow, be¬ 
yond all expedlaticm, fecured to themfelves the empire of 
the fea, and fuperiority in commerce. 
The crufades contributed in a great meafure to the 
revival, or at lead to the more rapid progrefs, of com¬ 
merce, and navigation ; for the Genoefe, the Pilans, and 
Venetians, furnifhed the tranfports, which carried thofe 
vaft armies, compofed of all the nations in Europe, into 
Afia upon this w'ild enterprife ; and likewife fupplied 
them with provifions and military ftores. 
About the fame time that navigation was retrieved in 
the fouthern parts of Europe, a new fociety of merchants 
was formed in the north, which not only carried com¬ 
merce to the greateft perfeftion it was capable of till the 
difcovery of the Eaft and Weft Indies, but alfo formed a 
new lcheme of laws for the regulation thereof, which ftill 
obtains under the name of “fifes and Cuftoms of the 
Sea.” This fociety is that famous league of the Hanfe 
Towns, commonly fuppofed to have begun about the 
year 1164. 
The art of navigation has been exceedingly improved" 
in modern times, both with regard to the form of the 
veflels themfelves, and with regard to the methods of 
working them. The ufe of rowers is now entirely fu- 
perfeded by the improvements made in the formation of 
the Arils, rigging, &c. by which means fhips can not only 
fail much falter than formerly, but can tack in any direc¬ 
tion with the greateft facility. It is alfo very probable 
that the ancients were neither fo well lkilled in finding the 
latitudes, nor in fleering their veflels in places of difficult 
navigation, as the moderns. But the greateft advantage 
which the moderns have over the ancients is from the 
mariner's compafs, by which they are enabled to find their 
way with as great facility in the midft of an immeafurable 
ocean, as the ancients could have done by creeping along 
the coaft, and never going out of fight of land. Some 
people, indeed, contend, that this is no newinvention, but 
that the ancients were acquainted with it. They fay, 
that it w'as irnpoffible for Solomon to have fent fhips to 
Ophir, Tarfhifh, and Parvaim, which lad they will have 
to be Pent, without this ufeful inflrument. They infill, 
that it was irnpoffible for the ancients to be acquainted 
with the attractive virtue of the magnet, and to be igno¬ 
rant of its polarity. Nay, they affirm, that this property 
of the magnet is plainly mentioned in the Book of Job, 
where the loadftone is mentioned by the name of topaz, 
or “ the ftone that turns itfelf.” But it is certain that 
the Romans, who conquered Judea, were ignorant of this 
inflrument; and it is very improbable that fuch an ufe¬ 
ful invention, if once it had been commonly known 
to any nation, w'ould have been forgot, or perfectly con¬ 
cealed from fuch a prudent people as the Romans, who 
were fo much interefted in the difcovery of it. 
Among thofe, who admit that the mariner’s compafs is 
a modern invention, it has been difputed who was the 
inventor; as to which, fee the article Compass, vol. iv. 
p. 887. and refpefting the variation of the compafs, fee 
p. 889 of the fame article. 
The crofs-ftaff, or fore-ftaff, was another very ufeful 
invention. This ancient inflrument is defcribed by John 
Werner, of Nuremberg, in his Annotations on the Firft 
Book of Ptolemy’s Geography, printed in 1514. He re¬ 
commends it forobfervingthe diftance between the moon 
and fome ftar, in order thence to determine the longitude. 
See Fore-Staff. 
At this time the art of navigation was ftill very imper¬ 
fect, on account of the inaccuracies of the plane chart, 
which W'as the only one then know'n,and which, byitsgrofs 
errors, mull have greatly milled the mariner, efpecially in 
voyages far diftant from the equator. Its precepts were 
probably at firft only fet dowm on the fea-charts, as is the 
cuftom at this day ; but, at length, there were two Spanifh. 
treatifes publifhed in 1545; one by Pedro de Medina; 
the other by Martin Cortes, which contained a complete 
fyftem of the art, as far as it was then known. Thefe 
feem to have been the oldeft writers who fully handled 
