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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

The prevalent opinion is, that the inhabitants of what was then called theCimbrian Chersonesus, and now Jutland, finding their country overpeopled, andthat it afforded too scanty provision to the immense numbers who had claimson the productions of it, sent forth three colonies of adventurers into differentquarters. The first, bore the name of the Suevi, and having no particularpredilection in favour of naval pursuits, bent their march by land into Spain,where, after many reverses of fortune, they fell victims to the superior powerof the Goths. A second colony, distinguished by the name of Franks, pur-suing the same measures, passed into Belgium, and, extending their ravagesthrough France, penetrated even into Spain. The third, on whom was be-stowed the name of Saxons, having possessed themselves of the whole countrysituated between the Rhine and the Elbe, extended their conquests, with con-siderable rapidity, along the whole coast of the German ocean. T he interiorof the countries was under the dominion of Rome, and the fortresses she hadestablished for the joint purpose of overawing the inhabitants, and protectingthem from invaders, preserved the tranquillity of them ; but the shores bothof Gaul and of Britain were for centuries open to the depredations of theSaxon invaders.

The territory which they had seized not improbably suggested the first idea,which, ripening by degrees into a propensity which assumed the stubborn formof nature itself, caused this hardy race to enter with avidity into the laboriousand dangerous occupations of fishing and piracy. Success in their first attemptnaturally created an emulation among the rest of their countrymen. Everytide, as has been judiciously remarked, might float down the Elbe whole fleetsof such vessels as they possessed, which, to say the truth, were rude, and illadapted to the purposes of naval war. T he prospect of the ocean, the field ofadventure, as well as of plunder which it held forth to these hardy, and intrepidassociates, inflamed their minds with the rage of curiosity, the thirst of power,and the lust of wealth. Riches as well as Juxurv were unknown ; but havingindistinctly heard of the fancied pleasures which attended the possession ofthem, they resolved to inform themselves of the truth or fallacy of the report.Allured by the example, or invited by the promises of their neighbours, theinhabitants of the contiguous states, if an assemblage of people in so rude anduncivilised a community could be said to deserve that name, flocked in crowdsas auxiliaries and followers of the Saxon standard. They possessed arms andvessels, the art of navigation, though of rather limited extent; and they had

acquired