I.

tries in Europe, which now form its most opulent and BOOK powerful kingdoms. The interior parts of Spain and Gaul were imperfectly known. Britain, separated from the rest of the world, had never been visited, except by its neighbours the Gauls, and by a few Carthaginian merchants. The name of Germany had scarcely been heard of. Into all these countries the arms of the Romans penetrated. They entirely subdued Spain and Gaul; they conquered the greatest and most fertile part of Britain; they advanced into Germany as far as the banks of the river Elbe. In Africa, they acquired a considerable knowledge of the provinces which stretch along the Mediterranean sea, from Egypt westward to the straits of Gades. In Asia, they not only subjected to their power most of the provinces which composed the Persian and Macedonian empires, but, after their victories over Mithridates and Tigranes, they seem to have made a more accurate survey of the countries contiguous to the Euxine and Caspian seas, and to have carried on a more extensive trade than that of the Greeks with the opulent and commercial nations then seated round the Euxine sea.

ancients.

1

From this succinct survey of discovery and naviga- Imperfection, which I have traced from the earliest dawn of his- tion of geographical torical knowledge to the full establishment of the Roman knowledge dominion, the progress of both appears to have been among the wonderfully slow. It seems neither adequate to what we might have expected from the activity and enterprise of the human mind, nor to what might have been performed by the power of the great empires which successively governed the world. If we reject accounts that are fabulous and obscure; if we adhere steadily to the light and information of authentic history, without substituting in its place the conjectures of fancy, or the dreams of etymologists, we must conclude, that the knowledge which the ancients had acquired of the habitable globe was extremely confined. In Europe, the extensive provinces in the eastern part of Germany were little known to them. They were almost totally unacquainied with

I.

BOOK the vast countries which are now subject to the kings of Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, Poland, and the Russian empire. The more barren regions, that stretch within the arctic circle, were quite unexplored. In Africa, their researches did not extend far beyond the provinces which border on the Mediterranean, and those situated on the western shore of the Arabian gulf. In Asia, they were unacquainted, as I formerly observed, with all the fertile and opulent countries beyond the Ganges, which furnish the most valuable commodities that, in modern times, have been the great object of the European commerce with India; nor do they seem to have ever penetrated into those immense regions occupied by the wandering tribes, which they called by the general name of Sarmatians or Scythians, and which are now possessed by Tartars of various denominations, and by the Asiatic subjects of Russia.

A remarkable proof of this.

But there is one opinion that universally prevailed among the ancients, which conveys a more striking idea of the small progress they had made in the knowledge of the habitable globe, than can be derived from any detail of their discoveries. They supposed the earth to be divided into five regions, which they distinguished by the name of zones. Two of these, which were nearest the poles, they termed frigid zones, and believed that the extreme cold which reigned perpetually there rendered them uninhabitable. Another, seated under the line, and extending on either side towards the tropics, they called the torrid zone, and imagined it to be so burnt up with unremitting heat, as to be equally destitute of inhabitants. On the two other zones, which occupied the remainder of the earth, they bestowed the appellation of temperate, and taught, that these, being the only regions in which life could subsist, were allotted to man for his habitation. This wild opinion was not a conceit of the uninformed vulgar, or a fanciful fiction of the poets, but a system adopted by the most enlightened philosophers, the most accurate historians and geographers, in Greece

1.

and Rome. According to this theory, a vast portion of BOOK the habitable earth was pronounced to be unfit for sustaining the human species. Those fertile and populous regions within the torrid zone, which are now known not only to yield their own inhabitants the necessaries and comforts of life with most luxuriant profusion, but to communicate their superfluous stores to the rest of the world, were supposed to be the mansion of perpetual sterility and desolation. As all the parts of the globe, with which the ancients were acquainted, lay within the northern temperate zone, their opinion that the other temperate zone was filled with inhabitants, was founded on reasoning and conjecture, not on discovery. They even believed, that, by the intolerable heat of the torrid zone, such an insuperable barrier was placed between the two temperate regions of the earth, as would prevent for ever any intercourse between their respective inhabitants. Thus, this extravagant theory not only proves that the ancients were unacquainted with the true state of the globe, but it tended to render their ignorance perpetual, by representing all attempts towards opening a communication with the remote regions of the earth as utterly impracticable.*

But however imperfect or inaccurate the geographical knowledge which the Greeks and Romans had acquired may appear, in respect of the present improved state of that science, their progress in discovery will seem considerable, and the extent to which they carried navigation and commerce must be reckoned great, when compared with the ignorance of early times. As long as the Roman empire retained such vigour as to preserve its authority over the conquered nations, and to keep them united, it was an object of public police, as well as of private curiosity, to examine and describe the countries which composed this great body. Even when the other sciences began to decline, geography, enriched with new observa tions, and receiving some accession from the experience * See NOTE VIII.

I.

BOOK of every age, and the reports of every traveller, continued to improve. It attained to the highest point of perfec tion and accuracy to which it ever arrived in the ancient world, by the industry and genius of Ptolemy the philoImprove- sopher. He flourished in the second century of the chrisgeography tian era, and published a description of the terrestrial by Ptole globe, more ample and exact than that of any of his predecessors.

ments in

my.

The inva

Roman em

tions.

But, soon after, violent convulsions began to shake the sion of the Roman state; the fatal ambition or caprice of Constanpire by bar- tine, by changing the seat of government, divided and barous na- weakened its force; the barbarous nations, which Providence prepared as instruments to overturn the mighty fabric of the Roman power, began to assemble and to muster their armies on its frontier; the empire tottered to its fall. During this decline and old age of the Roman state, it was impossible that the sciences should go on improving. The efforts of genius were at that period as languid and feeble as those of government. From the time of Ptolemy, no considerable addition seems to have been made to geographical knowledge, nor did any important revolution happen in trade, excepting that Constantinople, by its advantageous situation, and the encouragement of the eastern emperors, became a commercial city of the first note.

Effects of

quests on

al inter

course.

At length, the clouds which had been so long gathertheir con- ing round the Roman empire, burst into a storm. Barcommerci- barous nations rushed in from several quarters with irresistible impetuosity, and, in the general wreck, occasioned by the inundation which overwhelmed Europe, the arts, sciences, inventions, and discoveries, of the Romans, perished in a great measure, and disappeared. All the various tribes which settled in the different provinces of the Roman empire, were uncivilized, strangers to letters, destitute of arts, unacquainted with regular government, subordination, or laws. The manners and institutions of some of them were so rude, as to be hardly compatible

⚫ Hist. of Charles V, vol. i, § I.

I.

with a state of social union. Europe, when occupied by BOOK such inhabitants, may be said to have returned to a second infancy, and bad to begin anew its career in improvement, science, and civility. The first effect of the settlement of those barbarous invaders was to dissolve the union by which the Roman power had cemented mankind together. They parcelled out Europe into many small and independent states, differing from each other in language and customs. No intercourse subsisted between the members of those divided and hostile communities. Accustomed to a simple mode of life, and averse to industry, they had few wants to supply, and few superfluities to dispose of. The names of stranger and of enemy became once more words of the same import. Customs everywhere prevailed, and even laws were established, which rendered it disagreeable and dangerous to visit any foreign country. Cities, in which alone an extensive commerce can be carried on, were few, inconsiderable, and destitute of those immunities which produce security or excite enterprise. The sciences, on which geography and navigation are founded, were little cultivated. The accounts of ancient improvements and discoveries, contained in the Greek and Roman authors, were neglected or misunderstood. The knowledge of remote regions was lost; their situation, their commodities, and almost their names, were unknown.

f

intercourse Commerce Constan- still preinvaders, the Eastern

served in

One circumstance prevented commercial with distant nations from ceasing altogether. tinople, though often threatened by the fierce who spread desolation over the rest of Europe, was so empire, fortunate as to escape their destructive rage. In that city, the knowledge of ancient arts and discoveries was preserved; a taste for splendour and elegance subsisted; the productions and luxuries of foreign countries were in request; and commerce continued to flourish there when it was almost extinct in every other part of Europe. The citizens of Constantinople did not confine their trade to

f Hist. of Charles V, vol. i, § 1, and note xx.