Under This Idea, The Art Of Casting Accounts,
Keeping Registers, And Every Thing, In Short, That Belongs To A Factory, Is
Attributed To Their Invention.[2] With Respect To Their Vessels, -
"Originally They Had Only Rafts, Or Simple Boats; They Used Oars To Conduct
These Weak And Light Vessels.
As navigation extended itself, and became
more frequent, they perfected the construction of ships, and made them of a
much larger capacity.
They were not long in discovering the use that might
be drawn from the wind, to hasten and facilitate the course of a ship, and
they found out the art of aiding it by means of masts and sails." Such is
the account given by Goguet; but it is evident that this is entirely
conjectural history: and we may remark, by the bye, that a work otherwise
highly distinguished by clear and philosophical views, and enriched by
considerable learning and research, in many places descends to fanciful
conjecture.
All that we certainly know respecting the ships of the Phoenicians, is,
that they had two kinds; one for the purposes of commerce, and the other
for naval expeditions; and in this respect they were imitated by all the
other nations of antiquity. Their merchant-ships were called Gauloi.
According to Festus's definition of this term, the gauloi were nearly
round; but it is evident that this term must be taken with considerable
restriction; a vessel round, or nearly so, could not possibly be navigated.
It is most probable that this description refers entirely to the shape of
the bottom or hold of the vessel; and that merchant ships were built in
this manner, in order that they might carry more goods; whereas the ships
for warfare were sharp in the bottom. Of other particulars respecting the
construction and equipment of the ships of the Phoenicians, we are
ignorant: they probably resembled in most things those of Greece and Rome;
and these, of which antient historians speak more fully, will be described
afterwards.
The Phoenicians naturally paid attention to astronomy, so far at least as
might be serviceable to them in their navigation; and while other nations
were applying it merely to the purposes of agriculture and chronology, by
means of it they were guided through the "trackless ocean," in their
maritime enterprises. The Great Bear seems to have been known and used as a
guide by navigators, even before the Phoenicians were celebrated as a
sea-faring people; but this constellation affords a very imperfect and
uncertain rule for the direction of a ship's course: the extreme stars that
compose it are more than forty degrees distant from the pole, and even its
centre star is not sufficiently near it. The Phoenicians, experiencing the
imperfection of this guide, seem first to have discovered, or at least to
have applied to maritime purposes, the constellation of the Lesser Bear.
But it is probable, that at the period when they first applied this
constellation, which is supposed to be about 1250 years before Christ, they
did not fix on the star at the extremity of the tail of Ursa Minor, which
is what we call the Pole Star; for by a Memoir of the Academy of Sciences
(1733. p. 440.) it is shewn, that it would at that period be too distant to
serve the purpose of guiding their track.[3]
II. The gleanings in antient history respecting the maritime and commercial
enterprises, and the discoveries and settlements of the Egyptians, during
the very early ages, to which we are at present confining ourselves, are
few and unimportant compared with those of the Phoenicians, and
consequently will not detain us long.
We have already noticed the advantageous situation of Egypt for navigation
and commerce: in some respects it was preferable to that of Phoenicia; for
besides the immediate vicinity of the Mediterranean, a sea, the shores of
which were so near to each other that they almost prevented the possibility
of the ancients, rude and ignorant as they were of all that related to
navigation and the management of ships, deviating long or far from their
route; besides the advantages of a climate equally free from the clouded
skies, long nights and tempestuous weather of more northern regions, and
from the irresistible hurricanes of those within the tropics - besides these
favourable circumstances, which, the Egyptians enjoyed in common with the
Phoenicians, they had, running far into their territory, a river easily
navigable, and at no great distance from this river, and bounding their
country, a sea almost equally favourable for navigation and commerce as the
Mediterranean. Their advantages for land journies were also numerous and
great; though the vicinity of the deserts seemed at first sight to have
raised an effectual bar to those countries which they divided from Egypt,
yet Providence had wisely and benevolently removed the difficulty arising
from this source, and had even rendered intercommunication, where deserts
intervened, more expeditious, and not more difficult, than in those regions
where they did not occur, by the creation of the camel, a most benevolent
compensation to the Egyptians for their vicinity to the extensive deserts
of Africa.
Notwithstanding the advantageous situation of the Egyptians for navigation,
they were extremely averse, as we nave already remarked, during the
earliest periods of their history, to engage in sea affairs, either for the
purposes of war or commerce; nor did they indeed, at any time, enter with
spirit, or on a large scale, into maritime enterprises.
The superstitious and fabulous reasons assigned for this antipathy of the
Egyptians to the sea [has->have] been noticed before; perhaps some other
causes contributed to it, as well as the one alluded to. Egypt is nearly
destitute of timber proper for ship-building: its sea-coasts are unhealthy,
and do not appear to have been inhabited [near->nearly] so early as the
higher country: its harbours are few, of intricate navigation, and
frequently changing their depth and direction; and lastly, the advantages
which the Nile presents for intercourse and traffic precluded the necessity
of applying to sea navigation and commerce.
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