244

HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

place of their residence, and the farther investigation terminated by no meansfavourably to them. It was readily discovered, that they were as nearly alliedin habits, as they were situated in respect to territory, to the Swedes andaboriginal Normans, whose inroads and devastations had rendered their vervname terrible to the Franks, and it was presumed, not unnaturally, that somelurking purpose of discovery, in aid of meditated attack, was the real causeof the circuitous visit, instead of that which was actually held forth as thepretext of it. Under this persuasion, the ambassadors of Theophilus were dis-missed, but their northern companions were detained till the emperor of theFranks should have acquired such information as he thought requisite to thesafety of his own, and the sister empire.

The Scandinavian origin, say historians, of this people, and of the princesof Russia, is confirmed and illustrated not only bv the annals of the countryitself, but the general history of the north. The Normans, who had so longbeen concealed by a veil of almost impenetrable darkness, burst suddenly forthin all the spirit and consequence of naval, as well as military enterprise. Theextensive, and as they are said to have been, the populous regions of Denmark,Sweden, and Norway, were parcelled out into districts, governed by indepen-dent chieftains, possessing, almost without exception, a desperate and dangerousspirit of adventure, which caused them, to use the same high flown terms ofcharacter that have already been applied to them, to sigh in the laziness ofpeace, and smile even in the agonies of death. Piracy, in proof of these asser-tions, is represented as having been the exercise, the trade, the glory, and thevirtue of the Scandinavian youth ; that impatience of the restraint imposed upontheir natural ardour by the inhospitable climate, and remote situation of thecountry which gave them birth, from the scene where enterprise promised to bemore frequent, became at times so violent, that they have been known to startfuriously from the banquet, grasp their arms, sound their horn, ascend their ves-sels, and explore every country, every coast, which promised either spoil, or set-tlement. The Baltic, from being naturally the first scene of their naval atchieve-ments, afforded them no difficult passage to the eastern shores, the silent resi-dence of the Fennic and Schlavonian tribes. The primitive or aboriginal inha-bitants of Russia itself, who bordered on the Ladoga lake, were content to pur-chase quietude by a tribute of the skins of white squirrels, which they paid tothese invaders, on whom they bestowed the appellation of Varangians, or Cor-sairs. The superiority of their discipline and know lege, with respect to military

tactics,