HISTORY' OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

175

have provoked the divine vengeance Some judgement may be formed ofthe horrid extent of these depredations, not only from the brief account whichthe reluctant pen of the historian has been compelled to record, but from thepeculiar nature and character of the banditti who committed them. “ Asthey were more ambitious,” says Mr. Gibbon, “ of spoil than of glory, theyseldom attacked any fortified cities, or engaged any regular troops in the openfield. But the celerity of their motions enabled them, almost at the same time,to threaten and to attack the most distant objects which attracted their desires;and as they always embarked a sufficient number of horses, they had no soonerlanded, than thev swept the dismayed country with a body of light cavalry.Yet, notwithstanding the example of their king, the native Vandals and Alaniinsensibly declined this toilsome and perilous warfare ; the hardy generationof the first conquerors was almost extinguished, and their son9, who were bornin Africa, enjoyed the delicious baths and gardens which had been acquired bythe valour of their fathers. Their place was readily supplied by a various mul-titude of Moors and Romans, of captives and outlaws ; and those desperatewretches, who had already violated the laws of their country, were the mosteager to promote the atrocious acts which disgrace the victories of Genseric.In the treatment of his unhappy prisoners, he sometimes consulted his avarice,

* Mr. Gibbon gives the following animated account of the conduct of this tremendous scourge tohuman nature:—“ The discovery and conquest of the Black nations, that might dwell beneath thetorrid zone, could not tempt the rational ambition of Genseric ; but he cast his eyes towards the sea ;he resolved to create a naval power, and his bold resolution was executed with steady and active per-severance. The woods of mount Atlas afforded an inexhaustible nursery of timber ; his new subjectswere skilled in the arts of navigation and ship-building; he animated his daring vandals to embrace amode of warfare which would render every maritime country accessible to their arms : the Moors andAfricans were allured by the hopes-of plunder; and after an interval of six centuries, the fleets thatissued from the port of Carthage again claimed the empire of the Mediterranean. The success of theVandals, the conquest of Sicily, the sack of Palermo, and the frequent descents upon the coast ofLucania, awakened and alarmed the mother of Valcntinian, and the sister of Theodosius. Allianceswere formed; and armaments, expensive and ineffectual, were prepared, for the destruction of thecommon enemy ; who reserved his tourage to encounter those dangers which his policy could notprevent or elude. The designs of the Roman government were repeatedly baffled by his artful delays,ambiguous promises, and apparent concessions ; and the interposition of his formidable confederate, theking of the Huns, recalled the emperors from the conquest of Africa to the care of their domesticsafety. The revolutions of the palace, which left the western empire without a defender, and withouta lawful prince, dispelled the apprehensions, and stimulated the avarice, of Genseric. He immediatelyequipped a numerous fleet of Vandals and Moors, and cast anchor at the mouth of the Tybev, aboutthree months after the death of Valentinian, and the elevation of Maximus to the imperial throne.”

and