David MacDill, Jonathan Blanchard, and Edward Beecher - "Secret Societies"

Kate Langley Bosher - "People Like That"

George Sand - "Elle et lui"

Various - "The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 51, January, 1862"

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Book review: A Financial History of the World
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Robert Kerr\'s General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 18 written by William Stevenson

W >> William Stevenson >> Robert Kerr\'s General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 18



A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS,

ARRANGED IN SYSTEMATIC ORDER:

FORMING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF NAVIGATION,
DISCOVERY, AND COMMERCE, BY SEA AND LAND, FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE
PRESENT TIME.


BY

ROBERT KERR, F.R.S. & F.A.S. EDIN.

ILLUSTRATED BY MAPS AND CHARTS.

VOL. XVIII.


WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH:

AND T. CADELL, LONDON.

MDCCCXXIV.






HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY, NAVIGATION, AND COMMERCE,
FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS TO THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

BY WILLIAM STEVENSON, ESQ.


WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH:

AND T. CADELL; LONDON.

MDCCCXXIV.

Printed by A. & B. Spottiswoode,
New-Street-Square.


[Transcriber's Note: The errata listed after the Table of Contents are
marked in the text thus: [has->have]]




PREFACE.

The curiosity of that man must be very feeble and sluggish, and his
appetite for information very weak or depraved, who, when he compares the
map of the world, as it was known to the ancients, with the map of the
world as it is at present known, does not feel himself powerfully excited
to inquire into the causes which have progressively brought almost every
speck of its surface completely within our knowledge and access. To develop
and explain these causes is one of the objects of the present work; but
this object cannot be attained, without pointing out in what manner
Geography was at first fixed on the basis of science, and has subsequently,
at various periods, been extended and improved, in proportion as those
branches of physical knowledge which could lend it any assistance, have
advanced towards perfection. We shall thus, we trust, be enabled to place
before our readers a clear, but rapid view of the surface of the globe,
gradually exhibiting a larger portion of known regions, and explored seas,
till at last we introduce them to the full knowledge of the nineteenth
century. In the course of this part of our work, decisive and instructive
illustrations will frequently occur of the truth of these most important
facts,--that one branch of science can scarcely advance, without advancing
some other branches, which in their turn, repay the assistance they have
received; and that, generally speaking, the progress of intellect and
morals is powerfully impelled by every impulse given to physical science,
and can go on steadily and with full and permanent effect, only by the
intercourse of civilised nations with those that are ignorant and
barbarous.

But our work embraces another topic; the progress of commercial enterprise
from the earliest period to the present time. That an extensive and
interesting field is thus opened to us will be evident, when we contrast
the state of the wants and habits of the people of Britain, as they are
depicted by Caesar, with the wants and habits even of our lowest and poorest
classes. In Caesar's time, a very few of the comforts of life,--scarcely one
of its meanest luxuries,--derived from the neighbouring shore of Gaul, were
occasionally enjoyed by British Princes: in our time, the daily meal of the
pauper who obtains his precarious and scanty pittance by begging, is
supplied by a navigation of some thousand miles, from countries in opposite
parts of the globe; of whose existence Caesar had not even the remotest
idea. In the time of Caesar, there was perhaps no country, the commerce of
which was so confined:--in our time, the commerce of Britain lays the whole
world under contribution, and surpasses in extent and magnitude the
commerce of any other nation.

The progress of discovery and of commercial intercourse are intimately and
almost necessarily connected; where commerce does not in the first instance
prompt man to discover new countries, it is sure, if these countries are
not totally worthless, to lead him thoroughly to explore them. The
arrangement of this work, in carrying on, at the same time, a view of the
progress of discovery, and of commercial enterprise, is, therefore, that
very arrangement which the nature of the subject suggests. The most
important and permanent effects of the progress of discovery and commerce,
on the wealth, the power, the political relations, the manners and habits,
and the general interests and character of nations, will either appear on
the very surface of our work, or, where the facts themselves do not expose
them to view, they will be distinctly noticed.

A larger proportion of the volume is devoted to the progress of discovery
and enterprise among the ancients, than among the moderns; or,--to express
ourselves more accurately,--the period that terminates with the discovery
of America, and especially that which comprehends the commerce of the
Phoeniceans, of the Egyptians under the Ptolemies, of the Greeks, and of
the Romans, is illustrated with more ample and minute details, than the
period which has elapsed since the new world was discovered. To most
readers, the nations of antiquity are known by their wars alone; we wished
to exhibit them in their commercial character and relations. Besides, the
materials for the history of discovery within the modern period are neither
so scattered, nor so difficult of access, as those which relate to the
first period. After the discovery of America, the grand outline of the
terraqueous part of the globe may be said to have been traced; subsequent
discoveries only giving it more boldness or accuracy, or filling up the
intervening parts. The same observation may in some degree be applied, to
the corresponding periods of the history of commerce. Influenced by these
considerations, we have therefore exhibited the infancy and youth of
discovery and commerce, while they were struggling with their own ignorance
and inexperience, in the strongest and fullest light.

At the conclusion of the work is given a select Catalogue of Voyages and
Travels, which it is hoped will be found generally useful, not only in
directing reading and inquiry, but also in the formation of a library.

This Historical Sketch has been drawn up with reference to, and in order to
complete Kerr's Collection of Voyages and Travels, and was undertaken by
the present Editor in consequence of the death of Mr. Kerr. But though
drawn up with this object, it is strictly and entirely an independent and
separate work.

Kerr's Collection contains a great variety of very curious and interesting
early Voyages and Travels, of rare occurrence, or only to be found in
expensive and voluminous Collections; and is, moreover, especially
distinguished by a correct and full account of all Captain Cook's Voyages.

To the end of this volume is appended a Tabular View of the Contents of
this Collection; and it is believed that this Tabular View, when examined
and compared with the Catalogue, will enable those who wish to add to this
Collection such Voyages and Travels as it does not embrace, especially
those of very recent date, all that are deserving of purchase and perusal.

W. STEVENSON.

March 30, 1824.




TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery and of Commercial
Enterprise, from the earliest records to the time of Herodotus

CHAPTER II.

From the age of Herodotus to the death of Alexander the Great

CHAPTER III.

From the Death of Alexander the Great to the time of Ptolemy the
Geographer; with a digression on the Inland Trade between India and the
Shores of the Mediterranean, through Arabia, from the earliest ages

CHAPTER IV.

From the time of Ptolemy to the close of the Fifteenth Century

CHAPTER V.

From the close of the Fifteenth to the beginning of the Nineteenth Century

CATALOGUE.

Preliminary Observations on the Plan and Arrangement pursued
in drawing up the Catalogue

Instructions for Travellers

Collections and Histories of Voyages and Travels

Voyages and Travels round the World

Travels, comprizing different Quarters of the Globe

Voyages and Travels in the Arctic Seas and Countries

Europe

Africa

Asia

America

Polynesia

Australasia


INDEX to the Catalogue

---- ---- Historical Sketch

---- ---- XVII. Volumes of Voyages and Travels

CONTENTS of the XVII. Volumes

* * * * *

ERRATA.

Page 13. line 2. for _has_ read _have_.
6. for _near_ read _nearly_
28. 36. for _could sail_ read _could formerly sail_.
86. 6. for _Egypt_ read _India_.
87. 22. for _Leucke_ read _Leuke_.
102. 5. for _principal_ read _principle_.
213. 9. for _work_ read _worm_.
281. 28. for _Ebor_ read _Ebn_.
282. 20. for _Ebor_ read _Ebn_.
5O7. 22. for _as_ read _than_.


HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY, &c. &c.




CHAPTER I.


HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY, AND OF COMMERCIAL
ENTERPRISE, FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS, TO THE TIME OF HERODOTUS. B.C. 450.

The earliest traces of navigation and commerce are necessarily involved in
much obscurity, and are, besides, few and faint. It is impossible to assign
to them any clear and definite chronology; and they are, with a few
exceptions, utterly uncircumstantial. Nevertheless, in a work like this,
they ought not to be passed over without some notice; but the notice we
shall bestow upon them will not be that either of the chronologist or
antiquarian, but of a more popular, appropriate, and useful description.

The intercourse of one nation with another first took place in that part of
the world to which a knowledge of the original habitation of mankind, and
of the advantages for sea and land commerce which that habitation enjoyed,
would naturally lead us to assign it. On the shores of the Mediterranean,
or at no great distance from that sea, among the Israelites, the
Phoenicians, and the Egyptians, we must look for the earliest traces of
navigation and commerce; and, in the only authentic history of the remotest
period of the world, as well as amidst the scanty and fabulous materials
supplied by profane writers, these nations are uniformly represented as the
most ancient navigators and traders.

The slightest inspection of the map of this portion of the globe will teach
us that Palestine, Phoenicia, and Egypt were admirably situated for
commerce both by sea and land. It is, indeed, true that the Phoenicians, by
the conquests of Joshua, were expelled from the greatest part of their
territory, and obliged to confine themselves to a narrow slip of ground
between Mount Lebanon and the Mediterranean; but even this confined
territory presented opportunities and advantages for commerce of no mean
importance: they had a safe coast,--at least one good harbour; and the
vicinity of Lebanon, and other mountains, enabled them to obtain, with
little difficulty and expence, a large supply of excellent materials for
shipbuilding. There are, moreover, circumstances which warrant the
supposition, that, like Holland in modern times, they were rather the
carriers of other nations, than extensively engaged in the commerce of
their own productions or manufactures. On the north and east lay Syria, an
extensive country, covered with a deep rich soil, producing an abundant
variety of valuable articles. With this country, and much beyond it, to the
east, the means and opportunities of communication and commerce were easy,
by the employment of the camel; while, on the other hand, the caravans that
carried on the commerce of Asia and Africa necessarily passed through
Phoenicia, or the adjacent parts of Palestine.

Egypt, in some respects, was still more advantageously situated for
commerce than Phoenicia: the trade of the west of Asia, and of the shores
of the Mediterranean lay open to it by means of that sea, and by the Nile
and the Red Sea a commercial intercourse with Arabia, Persia, and India
seemed almost to be forced upon their notice and adoption. It is certain,
however, that in the earliest periods of their history, the Egyptians were
decidedly averse to the sea, and to maritime affairs, both warlike and
commercial. It would be vain and unprofitable to explain the fabulous cause
assigned for this aversion: we may, however, briefly and, incidentally
remark that as Osiris particularly instructed his subjects in cultivating
the ground; and as Typhon coincides exactly in orthography and meaning with
a word still used in the East, to signify a sudden and violent storm, it is
probable that by Typhon murdering his brother Osiris, the Egyptians meant
the damage done to their cultivated lands by storms of wind causing
inundations.

As the situation of Palestine for commerce was equally favourable with that
of Phoenicia, it is unnecessary to dilate upon it. That the Jews did not
engage more extensively in trade either by sea or land must be attributed
to the peculiar nature of their government, laws, and religion.

Having thus briefly pointed out the advantages enjoyed by the Phoenicians,
Egyptians, and Jews for commercial intercourse, we shall now proceed to
notice the few particulars with which history supplies us regarding the
navigation and commerce of each, during the earliest periods.

I. There is good reason to believe that most of the maritime adventures and
enterprises which have rendered the Phoenicians so famous in antiquity,
ought to be fixed between the death of Jacob, and the establishment of
monarchy among the Israelites; that is, between the years 1700 and 1095
before Christ; but even before this, there are authentic notices of
Phoenician commerce and navigation. In the days of Abraham they were
considered as a very powerful people: and express mention is made of their
maritime trade in the last words of Jacob to his children. Moses informs us
that Tarshish (wherever it was situated) was visited by the Phoenicians.
When this people were deprived of a great portion of their territory by the
Israelites under Joshua, they still retained the city of Sidon; and from it
their maritime expeditions proceeded. The order of time in which they took
place, as well as their object and result, are very imperfectly known; it
seems certain, however, that they either regularly traded with, or formed
colonies or establishments for the purpose of trade at first in Cyprus and
Rhodes, and subsequently in Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, Gaul, and the
southern part of Spain. About 1250 years before Christ, the Phoenician
ships ventured beyond the Straits, entered the Atlantic, and founded Cadiz.
It is probable, also, that nearly about the same period they formed
establishments on the western coast of Africa. We have the express
authority of Homer, that at the Trojan war the Phoenicians furnished other
nations with many articles that could contribute to luxury and
magnificence; and Scripture informs us, that the ships of Hyram, king of
Tyre, brought gold to Solomon from Ophir. That they traded to Britain for
tin at so early a period as that which we are now considering, will appear
very doubtful, if the metal mentioned by Moses, (Numbers, chap. xxxi. verse
22.) was really tin, and if Homer is accurate in his statement that this
metal was used at the siege of Troy; for, certainly, at neither of these
periods had the Phoenicians ventured so far from their own country.

Hitherto we have spoken of Sidon as the great mart of Phoenician commerce;
at what period Tyre was built and superseded Sidon is not known. In the
time of Homer, Tyre is not even mentioned: but very soon afterwards it is
represented by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the other prophets, as a city
of unrivalled trade and wealth. Ezekiel, who prophesied about the year 595
B.C. has given a most picturesque description of the wealth of Tyre, all of
which must have proceeded from her commerce, and consequently points out
and proves its great extent and importance. The fir-trees of Senir, the
cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the ivory of the Indies, the fine
linen of Egypt, and the hyacinth and purple of the isles of Elishah, are
enumerated among the articles used for their ships. Silver, tin, lead, and
vessels of brass; slaves, horses, and mules; carpets, ivory, and ebony;
pearls and silk; wheat, balm, honey, oil and gums; wine, and wool, and
iron, are enumerated as brought into the port of Tyre by sea, or to its
fairs by land, from Syria, Damascus, Greece, Arabia, and other places, the
exact site of which is not known.[1] Within the short period of fifteen or
twenty years after this description was written, Tyre was besieged by
Nebuchadnezzar; and after an obstinate and very protracted resistance, it
was taken and destroyed. The inhabitants, however, were enabled to retire
during the siege, with the greatest part of their property, to an island
near the shore, where they built New Tyre, which soon surpassed the old
city both in commerce and shipping.

A short time previous to the era generally assigned to the destruction of
old Tyre, the Phoenicians are said to have performed a voyage, which, if
authentic, may justly be regarded as the most important that the annals of
this people record: we allude to the circumnavigation of Africa. As this
voyage has given rise to much discussion, we may be excused for deviating
from the cursory and condensed character of this part of our work, in order
to investigate its probable authenticity. All that we know regarding it is
delivered to us by Herodotus; according to this historian, soon after
Nechos, king of Egypt, had finished the canal that united the Nile and the
Arabian Gulf, he sent some Phoenicians from the borders of the Red Sea,
with orders to keep always along the coast of Africa, and to return by the
pillars of Hercules into the northern ocean. Accordingly the Phoenicians
embarked on the Erythrean Sea, and navigated in the southern ocean. When
autumn arrived, they landed on the part of Libya which they had reached,
and sowed corn; here they remained till harvest, reaped the corn, and then
re-embarked. In this manner they sailed for two years; in the third they
passed the pillars of Hercules, and returned to Egypt. They related that in
sailing round Libya, the sun was on their right hand. This relation,
continues Herodotus, seems incredible to me, but perhaps it will not appear
so to others. Before proceeding to an enquiry into the authenticity of this
maritime enterprize, it may be proper to explain what is meant by the sun
appearing on the right hand of the Phoenician navigators. The apparent
motion of the heavens being from east to west, the west was regarded by the
ancients as the foremost part of the world; the north, of course, was
deemed the right, and the south the left of the world.

The principal circumstance attending this narrative, which is supposed to
destroy or greatly weaken its credibility, is the short period of time in
which this navigation was accomplished: it is maintained, that even at
present, it would certainly require eighteen months to coast Africa from
the Red Sea to the straits of Gibraltar; and "allowing nine months for each
interval on shore, between the sowing and reaping, the Phoenicians could
not have been more than eighteen months at sea."

To this objection it may be replied, in the first place, that between the
tropics (within which space nearly the whole of the navigation was
performed) nine months is much too long a time to allow for each interval
on shore, between the sowing and the reaping: and, secondly, that though
the period occupied by the whole voyage, and some of the circumstances
attending it, may be inaccurately stated, the voyage itself ought not to be
wholly discredited on these accounts.

The very circumstance which the historian rejects as incredible, is one of
the strongest arguments possible in favour of the tradition; though this
alone is not decisive, for the Phoenicians might have sailed far enough to
the south to have observed the sun to the north, even if they had not
accomplished the navigation of Africa. The strongest argument, however, in
our opinion, in support of the actual accomplishment of this
circumnavigation, has been unaccountably overlooked, in all the various
discussion to which the subject has given rise. It is evident that in most
voyages, false and exaggerated accounts may be given of the countries
visited or seen, and of the circumstances attendant upon the voyage;
whereas, with respect to this voyage, one most important and decisive
particular lay within reach of the observation of those who witnessed the
departure and arrival of the ships. If they sailed from the Red Sea, and
returned by the Mediterranean, they must have circumnavigated Africa. It is
obvious that if such a voyage was not performed, the story must have
originated with Herodotus, with those from whom he received his
information, or with those who were engaged in the expedition, supposing it
actually to have been engaged in, but not to have accomplished the
circumnavigation of Africa. The character of Herodotus secures him from the
imputation; and by none is he charged with it:--Necho lived about six
hundred and sixteen years before Christ; consequently little more than two
hundred years before Herodotus; moreover, the communication and commerce of
the Greeks with Egypt, was begun in the time of Psammeticus, the immediate
predecessor of Necho, and was encouraged in a very particular manner by
Amasis (who died in 525), who married a Greek, and was visited by Solon.
From these circumstances, it is improbable that Herodotus, who was
evidently not disposed to believe the account of the appearance of the sun,
should not have had it in his power to obtain good evidence, whether a ship
that had sailed from the Red Sea, had returned by the Mediterranean: if
such evidence were acquired, it is obvious, as has been already remarked,
that the third source of fabrication is utterly destroyed. Dr. Vincent is
strongly opposed to the authenticity of this voyage, chiefly on the grounds
that such ships as the ancients had, were by no means sufficiently strong,
nor their seamen sufficiently skilful and experienced, to have successfully
encountered a navigation, which the Portuguese did not accomplish without
great danger and difficulty, and that the alleged circumnavigation produced
no consequences.

It may be incidentally remarked that the incredulity of Herodotus with
regard to the appearance of the sun to the north of the zenith, is not
easily reconcileable with what we shall afterwards shew was the extent of
his knowledge of the interior of Egypt. He certainly had visited, or had
received communications from those who had visited Ethiopia as far south as
eleven degrees north latitude. Under this parallel the sun appears for a
considerable part of the year to the north. How, then, it may be asked,
could Herodotus be incredulous of this phenomenon having been observed by
the Phoenician circumnavigators. This difficulty can be solved by supposing
either that if he himself had visited this part of Africa, it was at a
season of the year when the sun was in that quarter of the heavens in which
he was accustomed to see it; or, if he received his information from the
inhabitants of this district, that they, not regarding the periodical
appearance of the sun to the north of the zenith as extraordinary, did not
think it necessary to mention it. It certainly cannot be supposed that if
Herodotus had either seen himself, or heard from others, that the sun in
Ethiopia sometimes appeared to the north of the zenith, he would have
stated in such decided terms, when narrating the circumnavigation of the
Phoenicians, that such a phenomenon appeared to him altogether incredible.

Before we return to the immediate subject of this part of our work, we may
be allowed to deviate from strict chronological order, for the purpose of
mentioning two striking and important facts, which naturally led to the
belief of the practicability of circumnavigating Africa, long before that
enterprise was actually accomplished by the Portuguese.

We are informed by Strabo, on the authority of Posidonius, that Eudoxus of
Cyzicus, who lived about one hundred and fifty years before Christ, was
induced to conceive the practicability of circumnavigating Africa, from the
following circumstance. As Eudoxus was returning from India to the Red Sea,
he was driven by adverse winds on the coast of Ethiopia: there he saw the
figure of a horse sculptured on a piece of wood, which he knew to be a part
of the prow of a ship. The natives informed him that it had belonged to a
vessel, which had arrived among them from the west. Eudoxus brought it with
him to Egypt, and subjected it to the inspection of several pilots: they
pronounced it to be the prow of a small kind of vessel used by the
inhabitants of Gadez, to fish on the coast of Mauritania, as far as the
river Lixius: some of the pilots recognised it as belonging to a particular
vessel, which, with several others, had attempted to advance beyond the
Lixius, but had never afterwards been heard of. We are further informed on
the same authority, that Eudoxus, hence conceiving it practicable to sail
round Africa, made the attempt, and actually sailed from Gadez to a part of
Ethiopia, the inhabitants of which spoke the same language as those among
whom he had formerly been. From some cause not assigned, he proceeded no
farther: subsequently, however, he made a second attempt, but how far he
advanced, and what was the result, we are not informed.