6. A voyage, in ancient times, was a momentous undertaking, and was usually preceded by sacrifices to those gods who were supposed to preside over the winds and the waves. All omens were carefully regarded; and a very small matter, such as the perching of swallows on the ship, or an accidental sneeze to the left, was sufficient to delay departure. When, under proper auspices, a vessel or fleet had set sail, and had advanced some distance, it was customary to release a number of doves, which had been brought from home. The safe arrival of these birds at the houses of the voyagers, was considered an auspicious omen of the return of the fleet.
7. Having escaped the multiplied dangers of the sea, the sailors, on their return, fulfilled the vows which they had made before their departure, or in seasons of peril, offering thanks to Neptune, and sacrifices to Jupiter, or some other of their gods, to whose protection they may have committed themselves. Those who had suffered shipwreck, felt themselves under greater obligations of gratitude; and, in addition to the usual sacrifices, they commonly offered the garment in which they had been saved, together with a pictorial representation of the disaster. If the individual escaped only with life, his clothing having been totally lost, his hair was shorn from the head, and consecrated to the tutelar deity.
8. There is much that is beautiful in these simple acts of piety; and similar customs, with regard to shipwrecked mariners, are still in existence in the Catholic countries of the Mediterranean; but the worship of the heathen deities having been discontinued, a favourite saint, or perchance the true God, is substituted for them. Although such acts of piety may not avail to avert impending danger, yet their natural tendency doubtless is to inspire courage to meet it, when it may arise.
9. The Carthaginians, for several centuries, were more extensively engaged in commerce, than any other people of antiquity; and, as they carried on their lucrative trade with other nations and their own colonies, by means of ships, they exceeded all others in the art of navigation. Not content with exploring every nook and corner of the Mediterranean, they passed the Pillars of Hercules, as the promontories of the Straits of Gibraltar were then called, and visited the Atlantic coasts of Europe, as far north as the Scilly Islands, then denominated the Cassorides. It is asserted by Pliny, that Hanno even circumnavigated Africa.
10. The destruction of Carthage by the Romans, in the year before Christ 146, interfered with improvements in the art of navigation; and the invasion of the northern barbarians, several centuries afterwards, extinguished nearly all the knowledge which had been previously acquired; nor was it again revived, and brought to the state in which it existed in the most flourishing era of antiquity, until about the middle of the fourteenth century.
11. After the period just mentioned, improvements in this art followed each other in close succession. The chief cause of this rapid advance was the discovery of the polarity of the magnet, and the consequent invention of the mariner's compass. The power of the loadstone to attract iron, was early known to the Greeks and Chinese; but its property of pointing in a particular direction, when suspended, and left to move freely, was not suspected until about the year 1200 of our era.
12. At first, mariners were accustomed to place the magnetic needle on a floating straw, whenever they needed its guidance; but, in 1302, one Flavio Giaio, an obscure individual of the kingdom of Naples, placed it on a permanent pivot, and added a circular card. Still, it was nearly half a century after this, before navigators properly appreciated, and implicitly relied on this new guide. The compass did not reach its present improved state, until the middle of the sixteenth century.
13. As soon as the reputation of this instrument had become well established, navigation assumed a bolder character; and the capacity of vessels having been enlarged to meet this adventurous spirit, oars were laid aside as inapplicable, and sails alone were relied upon, as means of propulsion.
14. Navigation, in the early days of its revival, was indebted to the Portuguese for many valuable improvements. To them, also, is the world under obligation for many splendid discoveries, among which was that of a passage by sea to India. This long-desired discovery was made in 1497, by Vasco de Gama, who had been sent out for the purpose by Emanuel, king of Portugal.
15. Five years before Vasco de Gama had found his way to India, by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, Columbus made his discovery of the New World. This great man had conceived or adopted the idea, that the form of our earth was spherical, in opposition to the generally received opinion, that it was an extended plane; and learning that India stretched to an unknown distance eastward, he supposed, that, by sailing in an opposite direction, the navigator would meet with its eastern extremity.