HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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smaller vessels, was collected in the secure and capacious harbour of Car-thagena in Spain.”

Under the conduct of so great a man, what might not have been expected ? I Icfulfilled the utmost hopes and expectations of his country, far as he himself wasConcerned, but that discipline, that spirit, that enthusiastic energy of conduct,which had once spread the Roman name as a sound of terror over the wholeface of the earth then known, was wanting to support the 'merit and the zealof the gallant leader. One anecdote of him, sufficiently well authenticated toprevent any doubt of its reality, may suffice to point out the splendour ofthis great character, whose only wish, abstracted totally from all vain boastingor show, was to serve his country as he ought* and to the utmost extent he felthimself capable of effecting.

“ Anxious (sa^ s Mr. Gibbon) to explore with his own eyes the state and internalarrangements of the Vandal;, he ventured, after disguising the colour ofhis hair, tovisit Carthage in the character ofhis own ambassador ; and Genseric was after-wards mortified by the discovery that he had entertained, and dismissed the emperorof the Romans. Such an anecdote may be rejected as an improbable fiction, butit is a fiction which would not have been imagined unless in the life of an hero.

“ Without the help ofa personal interview, Genseric was sufficiently acquaintedwith the genius and designs of his adversary. He practised his customary artsof fraud and delay, but he practised them without success. His applicationsfor peace became each hour more submissive, and perhaps more sincere ; butthe inflexible Majorian had adopted the ancient maxim, that Rome could notbe safe so long as Carthage existed in a hostile state. The king of the Vandalsdistrusted the valour of his native subjects, who were enervated by the luxuryof the south. He suspected the fidelity of the vanquished people, who abhorredhim as an Arian tyrant; and the desperate measure which he executed, of re-ducing Mauritania .into a desert, could not defeat the operations of the Romanemperor, who was at liberty to land his troops on any part of the African coast.But Genseric was saved from impending and inevitable ruin by the treachery ofsome powerful subjects envious or apprehensive of their master’s success. Guidedby their secret intelligence,' he surprised the unguarded fleet of Rome in the bayof Carthagena, many of the ships were sunk, or taken, or burnt, and the pre-parations of_three years were destroyed in a single day.”

So great however was the fame of Majorianus, and such the respectful awewith which his conduct inspired the victorious enemy, that instead of flattering- himself