534

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

on the suddenness of their attack, which they Were accustomed to carry intoeffect, by an hasty collection of all vessels, various as they might be, in theirdescriptions and characters, which they caused, without creating alarm by themagnitude, or even appearance of particular preparation, to rendezvous, at astated time, at the particular point from whence they intended to direct thefury of their attack. The existence of naval power throughout the globe,might therefore be said to have been contracted, at the time of the emperorCharlemagne’s death, within the narrow bounds of the Venetian territories,who confined themselves entirely to the limits of the Mediterranean ; and to thefluctuating navies of the Saxons, together with those of other northern states,whose mode of warfare, conducted on principles requiring the most desultoryand rapid movements, have rendered the appearance of their fleets not unlikefhe flash and explosion of a cannon, which, though most grievously terrific onthe instant, has only an actual existence for the moment, and then totallyvanishing, creates dread merely by the continued apprehension of its sudden,.and unwarned repetition. “ In their engagements,” says Mr. Gibbon, “ bysea and land, they (the Saracens) sustained, with patient firmness, the fury ofthe attack, and seldom advanced to the charge till they could discern andoppress the lassitude of their foes.” However successful they might frequentlyprove in their nautical pursuits, their connection with them almost invariablyappeared as a species of violence done to their inclination, and as an act ren-dered necessary to the furtherance of their projected designs against the posses-sions and liberties of those to whom they declared themselves enemies. Drivenfrom France by the gallantry of the ancestors to Charlemagne, they sought torepair their disgrace, and obtain that which was of more serious consequenceto them, a proper compensation for the loss they had sustained in respect toterritory. They accordingly spread their arms to the southward; and Africa,with a considerable part of the dominions of the emperor of the east became,as it were, their devoted prey.

The birth of the phoenomenon, Mahomet, and his appearance in the worldat the commencement of the seventh century, might have proved of singularconsequence to nautical pursuits, had not his disposition, as well as that of hisimmediate successors, been entirely military. The spring of his actions is ob-vious, and the policy of the pretended prophet was too deep to adopt any otherconduct. The prosecution, or at least the success of a design, is frequentlyfrustrated by .an attempted promotion of it through varied means, and from

different