8$ HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

The early ages may, without much hesitation, be passed over, for serious his-tory should not only decidedly avoid entering into the regions of fiction and ro-mance, but also act with extreme caution, whenever contradictory reports, doubt*or surmise, appear to cloud the face of narrative, and render it mysterious, oreven obscure. It seems universally agreed on, that previous to the Trojan war,all vessels, however large their dimensions might be, were entirely open : ofthis description were those employed in the transportation of the Grecianarmy ; for the useful addition of decks was a contrivance which certainly didnot take place till many years subsequent to the event just mentioned. Thereports of immense fleets equipped on various occasions, throwing the quality ofthe vessels which composed them out of the question, though they may havebeen considered by many persons as hyperbolical and incredible, by no meanstend to weaken the fact, which, on meeting with those reports, might at firstbe doubted by those who considered them in a mere cursory manner. How-ever high the genius of the Greeks may stand in public opinion, with respect toliterature, and the polite arts, it certainly may be assumed, without offence totheir consequence, or the opinion of the most zealous advocate for the dignityof ancient knowlege, that their skill in mechanics, particularly such as relatedto maritime affairs, little exceeded that of the more ingenious classes of inha-bitants among the newly discovered countries in the south seas.

Is it not probable that there are actually at this moment princes and chieftainsin that part of the world now called New Zeeland, or even in many other coun-tries of less note in the same quarter, who could collect, on the spur of the occa-sion, a fleet of four hundred fighting vessels, or twice or three times that numberif necessary; and what reason is there to suppose, that the armament under Aga-memnon was composed of vessels superior in description to those just mentioned?The supposed pre-eminence which in popular opinion one country maintainsover the other, consists, perhaps, in nothing more than that the wairior of thesouth seas has been destitute of an Homer to hand down his exploits, embel-lished with the necessary elegance of poetry and fiction, or of a Thucidides towrite the history of his wars. At least, if any such have ever existed, theystill continue in embryo with respect to European discovery.

The word naves (ships) being indiscriminately used for all vessels, whethermere boats, or such as were of the most extensive dimensions then built, itbecomes almost impossible to discriminate between the Isis of the Egyptians *,

* See page 17.

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