HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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them, destroyed the whole of this very formidable force, three vessels excepted,which appeared as though exempted by fate from the general disaster, for thepurpose of spreading dismay more expeditiously, and conveying to their coun-trymen or adherents the earliest possible intelligence of the destruction whichhad overwhelmed their unfortunate friends and companions. This melancholyevent appeared to have convinced the Saracens how futile the attempt wouldbe, should they again endeavour to raise themselves into public or national con-sequence by the assistance of a naval power or fleet, for they totally abstainedfrom any similar attempt for the space of nearly fifty years. Having then, asthe forerunner of .their future operations, collected an immense armv, amount-ing, in the report of some historians, to no less than three hundred thousandfighting men, they compelled Nicephorus, the emperor, who then reigned,to consent to the payment of an heavy annual tribute, with other very dis-graceful terms, as the price of an ignominious peace. This treaty, according tothe general custom of nations with respect to such as are made under similarcircumstances, being as scandalously broken, as it had been submissively enteredinto, the conquerors, in the following year, to render their depredations still moreeffectual, equipped a very numerous fleet, with which they attacked the islandof Rhodes, and ravaged it with the most perfect impunity. The success wasnot, however, accomplished without mischief to themselves, the armament ofthe invaders having been assaulted on its return home, and almost totally anni-hilated by a tremendous tempest.

With the event just mentioned, it becomes necessary to close this section ofhistory, with respect to the Roman and Constantinopolitan empires. It hasnot been possible to avoid interweaving with them, that of almost every othernation in the universe, which during the same period merited the appellation ofa maritime power, or occasionally, through necessity, was compelled to assumethat character. The commencement of the ninth century forms rather a re-markable epoch in the political history of the world; and it certainly wereimproper not to embrace so favourable an opportunity of drawing a compa-rative view of the state of nations with respect to nautical pursuits. At thebirth ot the emperor Charles, better known to the world by the distinguishingappellation of Charlemagne; the empire of the west, considered as the truerepresentative of.one part of the ancient Roman dominion, had completelysunk beneath the horizon, nor did it ever throw out the smallest emanation ofthat splendour with which it had once astonished the greater part of the

"V 0L * I* D d world.