A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 / Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and / Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth / Century, By William Stevenson

by Robert Kerr; William Stevenson

With the figure and extent of the Caspian Sea, the Arabian geographers were tolerably well acquainted: and they describe, so as to be recognized, several tribes inhabiting the borders of this sea, as well as the vicinity of the Wolga. One is particularly noticed and celebrated, being called the People of the Throne of Gold, the khan of whom lived at Seray, near the mouth of the Wolga. To the east of the Caspian, the Arabian conquests did not extend farther than those of Alexander and his immediate successors. Transoxiana was the limit of their dominions towards the north, in this part of the world.

Of many of the districts which the Arabians, conquered, in this part of Asia, they have furnished us with such accurate and full information, that modern discoveries have been able to add or correct very little. That they were acquainted with Thibet and China, has already appeared, from the account given of their commerce. Thibet they represent as divided into three parts, Thibet upper, central, and lower. At the beginning of the eighth century, Arabian ambassadors were sent to China: they passed through Cashgar. After this period, journies to China by the route of Samarcand were frequent. Besides Canfu, described by the Mahomedan travellers of Renaudot, other cities in China were visited by the Arabian merchants, most of which were in the interior; but the Arabian geographers seem to have been puzzled by the Chinese names. We learn, however, that the provinces of the north were distinguished from those of the south; the former were called Cathay and Tehar Cathar, or Cathay, which produces tea: its capital was Cambalu: the provinces in the south were called Tchin or Sin. The appellation of Cathay was that under which alone China was long known to the Europeans. Under the name of Sin, given to the southern districts, the Arabian geographers frequently comprehended all the country to the Ganges. The Arabians divided the present Hindostan into two parts; Sind and Hind: the first seems to have comprised the countries lying on the Indus; Hind lay to the east, and comprehended Delhi, Agra, Oude, Bengal, &c. The Decan, at least the western part of it, belonged to Sind. The coast of Coromandel, as well as the interior, was unknown to them. On the west or Malabar coast, their information was full and accurate; but it terminated at Cape Comorin.

While part of the forces of the Caliph Walid were employed in the conquest of Spain, another part succeeded in reducing Multan and Lahore; and the Arabian geographers, always ready to take advantage of the success of their arms, to promote geographical knowledge, describe their new eastern conquests, and the countries which bordered on them, in the most glowing language. The valley of Cashmere, in particular, affords ample matter for their panegyrics. The towns of Guzerat, Cambay, and Narwhorra are described: in the last resided the most powerful king of India; his kingdom extended from Guzerat and Concan to the Ganges. The city of Benares, celebrated as a school of Indian philosophy, and the almost impregnable fortress of Gevatior, are mentioned by them, as well as a colony of Jews in Cochin, and the Maldive islands: these they frequented to obtain cowries, which then, as now, were used as money.

It is supposed that the isle of Sumatra is described by them under the name of Lumery; for the peculiar productions are the same, and Sumatra was known under the name of Lambry in the time of Marc Paul, and Mandeville. Java is evidently meant by Al D'Javah: it is represented as rich in spices, but subject to volcanic eruptions; circumstances by which it is yet distinguished. A short period before the Portuguese reached these seas, Arabian colonists established themselves at Ternate and some of the other spice islands; and their language, religious opinions, and customs, may clearly be traced in the Philippine islands.

From the geographical discoveries, the travels by sea and land, and the commercial enterprize of the Arabians, we pass to those of the Scandinavians; under that appellation, including not only the Scandinavians, properly so called, who inhabited the shores of the Baltic and the coasts of Norway, but also those people who dwelt on the northern shores of the German Ocean; for they were of the same origin as the Baltic nations, and resembled them in manners and pursuits.

By an inspection of the map it will appear, that all these tribes were situated nearly as favorably for maritime enterprize as the nations which inhabited the shores of the Mediterranean; and though their earliest expeditions by sea were not stimulated by the same cause, commercial pursuits, yet they arose from causes equally efficient. While the countries bordering on the Mediterranean were blessed with a fertile soil and a mild climate, those on the Baltic were comparatively barren and ungenial; their inhabitants, therefore, induced by their situation to attend to maritime affairs, were further led to employ their skill and power by sea, in endeavouring to establish themselves in more favored countries, or, at least, to draw from them by plunder, what they could not obtain in their own.

We have already mentioned the maritime expeditions of the Saxons, which struck terror into the Romans, during the decline of their empire. The other Scandinavian nations were acted on by the same causes and motives. Neglecting the peaceful art of agriculture, inured to the sea from their earliest years, and the profession and practice of piracy being regarded as actually honourable by them, it is no wonder that their whole lives were spent in planning or executing maritime expeditions. Their internal wars also, by depriving many of their power or their property, compelled them to seek abroad that which they had lost at home. No sooner had a prince reached his eighteenth year, than he was entrusted by his father with a fleet; and by means of it he was ordered and expected to add to his glory and his wealth, by plunder and victory. Lands were divided into certain portions, and from each portion a certain number of ships were to be fully equipped for sea. Their vessels, as well as themselves, were admirably adapted to the grand object of their lives; the former were well supplied with stones, arrows, and strong ropes, with which they overset small vessels, and with grappling irons to board them; and every individual was skilful in swimming. Each band possessed its own ports, magazines, &c. Their ships were at first small, being only a kind of twelve-oared barks; they were afterwards so much enlarged, that they were capable of containing 100 or 120 men.

It is not our intention to notice the piratical expeditions of Scandinavians, except so far as they tended to discovery, or commerce, or were productive of permanent effects. Among the first countries to which they directed themselves, and where they settled permanently, were England and Ireland; the result of their settlement in England was the establishment of the Anglo-Saxon dominion power in that kingdom; the result of their expeditions to Ireland was their settlement on its eastern coasts. In the middle of the ninth century, the native Irish had been driven by them into the central and western parts of the country, while the Scandinavian conquerors, under the appellation of Ostmen, or Eastmen, possessed of all the maritime cities, carried on an extensive and lucrative commerce, not only with their native land, but also with other places in the west of Europe. Their settlements on the Shetland, Orkney, and western islands of Scotland, are only mentioned, because in these last the Scandinavians seem to have established and encouraged manufactures, the forerunner and support of commerce; for towards the end of the ninth century, the drapery of the Suderyans, (for so the inhabitants were called, as their country lay to the south of Shetland and Orkney,) was much celebrated and sought after.

About this period the Scandinavian nations began to mingle commerce and discovery with their piratical expeditions. Alfred, king of England, obliged to attend to maritime affairs, to defend his territories from the Danes, turned his ardent and penetrating mind to every thing connected with this important subject. He began by improving the structure of his vessels; "the form of the Saxon ships (observes Mr. Strutt, who derives his description from contemporary drawings) at the end of the eighth century, or beginning of the ninth, is happily preserved in some of the ancient MSS. of that date, they were scarcely more than a very large boat, and seem to be built of stout planks, laid one over the other, in the manner as is done in the present time; their heads and sterns are very erect, and rise high out of the water, ornamented at top with some uncouth head of an animal, rudely cut; they have but one mast, the top of which is also decorated with a bird, or some such device; to this mast is made fast a large sail, which, from its nature and construction, could only be useful when the vessel went before the wind. The ship was steered with a large oar, with a flat end, very broad, passing by the side of the stern; and this was managed by the pilot, who sat in the stern, and thence issued his orders to the mariners." The bird on the mast head, mentioned in this description, appears, from the account of Canute's fleet, given in Du Cange, to have been for the purpose of shewing the wind.

The same energy and comprehension of mind which induced and enabled Alfred to improve his navy so much, led him to favour geographical pursuits and commere. In his Anglo-Saxon translation of Orosius, he has inserted the information he had obtained from two Scandinavians, Ohter and Wulfstan. In this we have the most ancient description, that is clear and precise, of the countries in the north of Europe. Ohter sailed from Helgoland in Norway, along the coast of Lapland, and doubling the North Cape, reached the White Sea. This cape had not before been doubled; nor was it again, till in the middle of the 16th century, by Chancellor, the English navigator, who was supposed at that time to be the original discoverer. Ohter also made a voyage up the Baltic, as far as Sleswig. Wulfstan, however, penetrated further into this sea than Ohter; for he reached Truse, a city in Prussia, which he represents as a place of considerable trade.