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which they were in such complete ignorance.
CHAPTER IX 47
"The sea, at first calm," says Tacitus, "resounded with the oars of a thousand ships; but presently a shower of
hail poured down from a black mass of clouds, at the same time storms raging on all sides in every variety, the
billows rolling now here, now there, obstructed the view and made it impossible to manage the ships. The
whole expanse of air and sea was swept by a south-west wind, which, deriving strength from the mountainous
regions of Germany, its deep rivers and boundless tract of clouded atmosphere, and rendered still harsher by
the rigour of the neighbouring north, tore away the ships, scattered and drove them into the open ocean or
upon islands dangerous from precipitous rocks or hidden sandbanks. Having got a little clear of these, but
with great difficulty, the tide turning and flowing in the same direction as that in which the wind blew, they
were unable to ride at anchor or bale out the water that broke in upon them; horses, beasts of burthen,
baggage, even arms were thrown overboard to lighten the holds of the ships, which took in water at their
sides, and from the waves, too, running over them. Around were either shores inhabited by enemies, or a sea
so vast and unfathomable as to be supposed the limit of the world and unbounded by lands. Part of the fleet
was swallowed up; many were driven upon remote islands, where the men perished through famine. The
galley of Drusus or, as he was hereafter called, Germanicus, alone reached the mouth of the Weser. Both day
and night, amid the rocks and prominences of the shore, he reproached himself as the author of such
overwhelming destruction, and was hardly restrained by his friends from destroying himself in the same sea.
At last, with the returning tide and a favouring gale, the shattered ships returned, almost all destitute or with
garments spread for sails."
[Illustration: HULL OF A ROMAN MERCHANT-SHIP. From a Roman model in marble at Greenwich.]
The wreck of the Roman fleet in the North Sea made a deep impression on the Roman capital, and many a
garbled story of the "extreme parts of the world" was circulated throughout the Empire.
Here was new land outside the boundaries of the Empire--country great with possibilities. Pliny, writer of the
Natural History, now arises and endeavours to clear the minds of his countrymen by some account of these
northern regions. Strabo had been dead some fifty years, and the Empire had grown since his days. But Pliny
has news of land beyond the Elbe. He can tell us of Scandinavia, "an island of unknown extent," of Norway,
another island, "the inhabitants of which sailed as far as Thule," of the Seamen or Swedes who lived in the
"northern half of the world."
"It is madness to harass the mind with attempts to measure the world," he asserts, but he proceeds to tell us the
size of the world as accepted by him. "Our part of the earth, floating as it were in the ocean, which surrounds
it, stretching out to the greatest extent from India to the Pillars at Cadiz, is eight thousand five hundred and
sixty-eight miles ... the breadth from south to north is commonly supposed to be half its length."
But how little was known of the north of Europe at this time is shown by a startling statement that "certain
Indians sailing from India for the purposes of commerce had been driven by tempests into Germany."
"Thus it appears," concludes Pliny, "that the seas flow completely round the globe and divide it into two
parts."
How Balbus discovered and claimed for the Empire some of the African desert is related by Pliny. He tells us,
too, how another Roman general left the west coast of Africa, marched for ten days, reached Mt. Atlas, and
"in a desert of dark-coloured sand met a river which he supposed to be the Niger."
The home of the Ethiopians in Africa likewise interested Pliny.
"There can be no doubt that the Ethiopians are scorched by their vicinity to the sun's heat, and that they are
born like persons who have been burned, with beard and hair frizzled, while in the opposite and frozen parts
of the earth there are nations with white skins and long light hair."
CHAPTER IX 48
Pliny's geography was the basis of much mediaeval writing, and his knowledge of the course of the Niger
remained unchallenged, till Mungo Park re-discovered it many centuries after.
[Illustration: A ROMAN GALLEY, ABOUT 110 A.D. From Trajan's Column at Rome.]
CHAPTER X 49
CHAPTER X
PTOLEMY'S MAPS
And so we reach the days of Ptolemy--the last geographer of the Pagan World. This famous Greek was born
in Egypt, and the great Roman Empire was already showing signs of decay, while Ptolemy was searching the
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