HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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of Jerusalem, a species of service in which they were considered to be particu-larly well versed, being universally esteemed as the ablest engineers in theworld. The naval force employed by them varied, according to circumstances,from twenty to forty gallies ; but even the lowest of those numbers fully provesthem to have acquired maritime strength with greater rapidity than even theVenetians themselves. It were uninteresting and irrelevant to the presentpurpose, to enter into any more enlarged detail of the different encounters whichtook place either while they were employed in this line of service, or in theirw-ars with the Pisans, whose tranquillity they never failed to disturb, till theyhad annihilated their power, and consequence as a maritime state. Their ■warswith the Venetians have been already recounted, and it is unnecessary to addany thing farther to that report than to observe, that even in the early part ofthe thirteenth century, Genoa, in imitation of Venice, boasted of its ships,,being vessels (on which that appellation was conferred) of superior size, and.different form from gallies ; and indeed if the political weight and force of eachrepublic be weighed and compared together, it will be very evident, allowingfor the superior length of time which Venice required ere she rose into publicnotice, that the exertions of the Genoese were by far the most rapid, and extea-sive of the two.

France, whose dominions, and consequently whose strength, might have ena-bled her to become superior to both the states last mentioned, even though thewhole of both their marines had been united, followed at very humble distance*Her force was entirely military, and a greater proof of this truth need not be.adduced than the march undertaken by the emperor and the king of Franceover land to Constantinople, in the middle of the twelfth century, when, thetransport by sea would have been so much more easy and expeditious, had theypossessed any possible means of using that species of conveyance. No mention,indeed, whatever, is made in history of any naval armament belonging to Francetill after the commencement of the thirteenth century, when Philip, who then:reigned, attacked by land the count of Flanders with a numerous army, whilewhat was called a naval armament repaired to the port of Dam, in order toassist at the siege of Ghent. Of the individual force of the vessels com-posing this fleet, it is as impossible to speak, as it is to believe implicitly the.-•account of their numbers. In respect to the total, cotemporary as well as sub-sequent authors are rather at variance, but if any estimate * can be formed froim

* The English chronicle writers assert, it consisted of seventeen hundred sail.

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