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and regular police were gradually introduced; the fciences and arts which are useful ornamental in life were carried to a high pitch of improvement, and several of the Grecian com'mon-wealths applied to commerce with fuch ardour and fuccefs, that they were confidered, in the ancient world, as maritime powers of the firft rank. Even then, howewer, the naval victories of the Greecks must be adfcribed rather to the native spirit of the people; and to that courage which the enjoyment of liberty inspires, than to any extraordinary progress in the science of navigation. In the Perfian war, thofe exploits which the eloquence of the Greek hiftorians has rendered fo famous, were performed by fleets, compofed chiefly of small veffels without deecks n); the crews of which rushed forward with impetuous valour, but little art, to board thofe of the ennemy, In the war of Peloponefus their fhips feem ftill to have been of inconfiderable burthen and force. The extent of their trade was in proportion to this low condition of their marine. The maritime ftates of Greece hardly carried on any commerce beyond the limits of the Mediterranean fea, Their chief intercourfe was with the colonies of their countrymen, planted in the Leffer Afia, in Italy and Sicily. They fometimes vifited the ports of Egypt, of Gaul, and of Thrace, or paffing through the Hellefpont, they traded with

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the countries fituated around the Euxine fea. Amazing inftances occur of their ignorance, even of those countries, which lay within the narrow precincts to which their navigation was confined. When the Greecks had affembled their combined fleet against Xerxes at Egina, they thought it unadvisable to fail to Samos, because they believed the distance between that ifland and Egina to be as great as the distance between Egina and the Pillars of Hercules o). They were either utterly unacquainted with all the parts of the globe beyond the Mediterranean fea, or what knowledge they had of them was founded on conjecture, or received from the information of a few perfons, whomcuriofity and the love of science had prompted to travel by land into the Upper Afia, or by fea into Egypt, the ancient seats of wisdom and arts, After all that the Greecks learned from them, they appear to have been ignorant of the most important facts, on which an accurate and scientific knowledge of the globe is founded.

The expedition of Alexander the Great into the eaft, confiderably enlarged the sphere of navigation and of geographical knowledge among the Greeks. The extraordinary man, nothwithstanding the violent paffions, which incited him, at fome times, to the wildeft actions and the moft extravagant enterprifes, poffeffed talents which fitted him not only to conquer, but to goo) Herodot, lib. viii, c. 132.

vern the world. He was capable of framing those bold and original schemes of policy, which give a new form to human affairs. The revolution in commerce, brought, about by the force of his genius, is hardly inferior to that revolution in empire, occafioned by the fuccefs of his arms, It is probable, that the oppofition and efforts of the republic Tyre, which checked him fo long in the career of his victories, gave Alexander an oportunity of obferving the vaft refources of a maritime power, and conveyed to him fome idea of the immenfe wealth which the Tyrians derived from their commerce, especially that with the Eaft Indies. As foon as he had accomplished the deftruction of Tyre, and reduced Egypt to fubjection, he formed the Plan of rendering the empire which he purpofed to establish, the centre of commerce as well as the feat of dominion. With this view he founded a great city, which he honoured with his own name near one of the mouths of the river Nile, that by the Mediterranean fea, and the neighbourhood of the Arabian Gulf, it might com-. mand the trade both of the east and weft q). This fituation was chofen with fuch difcernment that Alexandria foon became the chief commercial city in the world. Not only during the fubfiftence of the Grecian empire in Egypt and in the eaft, but amidst all the fucceffive revolutions in thofe countries p) Strab. Geogr. lib, xvii. p. 1143. 1149.

from the time of the Ptolomies to the difcovery of the Navigation by the Cape of Good Hope, commerce, particularly that of the Eaft Indies, continued to flow in the channel with the fagacity and forfight of Alexander had marked out for it.

His ambition was not fatisfied with having opened to the Greeks a communication with India by fea; he aspired to the fovereignty of those regions which furnished the rest of mankind with fo many precious commodities, and conducted his army thither by land, Enterprifing, howewer, as he was, he may be faid rather to have discovered, than to have conquered that country. He did not, in his progress towards the eaft, advance beyond the banks of the rivers that fall into the Indus, which is now the western boundary of the vaft continent of India. Amidft the wild exploits which diftinguifh this part of his hiftory, he pursued meafures that mark the fuperiority of his genius, as well as the extent of his views, He had penetrated as far into India as to confirm his opinion of its commercial importance, and to perceive, that immenfe wealth might be derived from intercourfe with a country, where the arts of elegance having been more early cultivated, were arrived at greater perfection than in any other part of the earth q). Full of this idea he refolved to examine the courfe of navi

9) Strab, Geogr. lib, xv. p. 1036, Q. Curtius lib. xviii, & 9.

gation from the mouth of the Indus to the bottom of the Perfian Gulf; and if it fhould be found practicable, to establish a regular communication between them. In order to effect this he proposed to remove the cataracts, with which, the jealoufy of the Perfians, and their averfion to correfpondence with foreigners, had obftru&ted the entrance into the Euphrates r); to carry the commodities of the east up that river, and the Tygris, which unites with it, into the interior parts of his Afiatic dominions: while, by the way of the Arabian Gulf, and the river Nile, they might be conveyed to Alexandria, and distributed to the rest of the world. Nearchus, an officer of eminent abilities was entrusted with the command of the fleet fitted out for this expedition. He performed this voyage, which was deemed an enterprife fo arduous and imimportant, that Alexander reckoned it one of the most extraordinary events which distinguished his reign. Inconfiderable as it may now appear, it was, at that time, an undertaking of no little merit and difficulty. In the prosecution of it, ftriking inftances occur of the fmall progrefs which the Grecks had made in naval knowledge s). Having never failed beyond th bounds of the Mediterranean, where the ebb and flow of the fea are hardly perceptible, when they first observed this phænomenon at the mouth of

r) Strab. Geogr. lib. xvi, p. 1075.

s) See NOTE IV,

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