Lastly, The greatest Pleasure of those Seas, is visiting Towns and Countrys that have been worthy History; the most famous do somewhere or other border there, and have given birth to the greatest Men and greatest Actions. Greece, that was the Mother of Arts and Sciences, the Oracle of the World, that brought forth a Homer, Socrates, Alexander, &c. and was one of the four great Empires, stands to those Seas (though changed now to European Turky, by a Progress as wonderful) so does Italy, the Seat of the last universal Empire. That Rome, which subjected almost all the Kings and Kingdoms of the known World, gave Britain Laws, and left every where eternal Monuments of their Power and Magnificence: Here lived Virgil, Horace, Cæsar——Hither some say St. Paul made his Voyage, having coasted along Crete, and suffered Shipwreck at Malta, Islands famous here, the one being the Birth-place of Jupiter, the other for a renowned Order of Knights, the professed Defenders of Christianity against the Turk.
Volcanos, Catacombs, Triumphal Arches, and Pillars, Baths, Aqueducts, and Amphitheatres, are peculiar Curiosities of Italy. There is scarcely a Spot in that delicious Country, but is recorded for some remarkable Occurrence; is memorable for High-ways, Grottos, Lakes, Statues, Monuments, some Victory gained, or Battle lost, the Birth or Death of Cæsar or his Friends. On the African Side, stands or did stand, Carthage, Troy, Tyre, Nice, Ephesus, Antioch, Smyrna; and on that shore was once Christianity firmly planted (no less than 300 Bishops being expelled thence;) but alas how all things change! neither Greatness nor Virtue can exempt from Mortality: Towns, Countries, and Religions, have their Periods.
Thebes, Nineveh, &c. are now no more.
Oppida posse mori,
Si quæras Helicen & Burin, Achaidas Urbes,
Invenies sub Aquis.
They have a determined Time to flourish, decay, and die in. Corn grows where Troy stood: Carthage is blotted out. Greece and her Republicks (Athens, Sparta, Corinth,) with other fam’d Asian and African Cities the Turkish Monarchy has overturned. Their Magnificence, Wealth, Learning, and Worship, is changed into Poverty and Ignorance; and Rome, the Mother of all, overrun with Superstition. Who, on the one hand, but feels an inexpressible Pleasure in treading over that Ground, he supposes such Men inhabited, whose Learning and Virtues have been the Emulation of all succeeding Ages? And who again but must mourn such a melancholly Transposition of the Scene, and spend a few funeral Reflections over such extraordinary Exequiæ: Perhaps the Revolution of as many Ages, as has sunk their Glory, may raise it again, or carry it to the Negroes and Hottentots, and the present Possessors be debased.
The next pleasant Sailing to the Mediterranean, is that part of the Atlantick, Southern, Pacifick, South, or Indian Seas, that are within the Limits of a Trade-Wind; because such Winds are next to invariable, of such moderate Strength as not to raise heavy Seas, or strain a Ship; no Storms at Distance from Land; and equal Days and Nights.
The Atlantick, and Southern Ocean, without the Limits of this Trade-Wind, that is, from 30 to 60°° of Latitude, are far the worst for Navigation; wide, rough, and boisterous Seas, more subject to Clouds, Storm, and Tempest, variable Weather; long, dark, cold Nights, and less delightful Countries and Climates out of Europe.
Lastly, Beyond 60 Degrees of Latitude we have little Commerce, and the Seas less frequented; the Countries growing more and more inhospitable, as Latitude and Cold increases towards the Pole; however, Men who have used Greenland, tell me, those inclement Skies contain no other Vapors, than Mist, Sleet, and Snow; the Sea less ruffled with Winds, which blow for the most part Northerly, towards the Sun, i. e. towards a more rarified Air, seen in those Drifts of Ice from thence, that are found far to the Southward, both on the European and American side. Another Advantage to cheer the Winter’s Melancholy of Northern Regions, is the Moon’s shining a Length proportioned to the Absence of the Sun; so that where he is entirely lost, she[2] never sets, but with reflected and resplendent Light on Ice and Snow, keeps up their Consolation.