We Have Already Mentioned The Maritime Expeditions Of The Saxons, Which
Struck Terror Into The Romans, During The Decline Of Their Empire.
The
other Scandinavian nations were acted on by the same causes and motives.
Neglecting the peaceful art of agriculture,
Inured to the sea from their
earliest years, and the profession and practice of piracy being regarded as
actually honourable by them, it is no wonder that their whole lives were
spent in planning or executing maritime expeditions. Their internal wars
also, by depriving many of their power or their property, compelled them to
seek abroad that which they had lost at home. No sooner had a prince
reached his eighteenth year, than he was entrusted by his father with a
fleet; and by means of it he was ordered and expected to add to his glory
and his wealth, by plunder and victory. Lands were divided into certain
portions, and from each portion a certain number of ships were to be fully
equipped for sea. Their vessels, as well as themselves, were admirably
adapted to the grand object of their lives; the former were well supplied
with stones, arrows, and strong ropes, with which they overset small
vessels, and with grappling irons to board them; and every individual was
skilful in swimming. Each band possessed its own ports, magazines, &c.
Their ships were at first small, being only a kind of twelve-oared barks;
they were afterwards so much enlarged, that they were capable of containing
100 or 120 men.
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