CHAP. are obstructed with ice) confined their skill and courage within the limits of a spacious lake. The rumour of the successful armaments which sailed from the mouth of the Elbe, would soon provoke them to cross the narrow isthmus of Sleswig, and to launch their vessels on the great sea. The various troops of pirates and adventurers, who fought under the same standard, were insensibly united in a permanent society, at first of rapine, and afterwards of government. A military confederation was gradually moulded into a national body, by the gentle operation of marriage and consanguinity: and the adjacent tribes, who solicited the alliance, accepted the name and laws, of the Saxons. If the fact were not established by the most unquestionable evidence, we should appear to abuse the credulity of our readers, by the description of the vessels in which the Saxon pirates ventured to sport in the waves of the German Ocean, the British Channel, and the Bay of Biscay. The keel of their large flatbottomed boats was framed of light timber, but the sides and upper work consisted only of wicker, with a covering of strong hides t. In *The fleet of Drusus had failed in their attempt to pass, or even to approach, the Sound (styled, from an obvious resemblance, the columns of Hercules); and the naval enterprize was never resumed. Tacit. de Moribus German, c. 34. The knowledge which the Romans acquired of the naval powers of the Baltic (c. 44, 45.), was obtained by their land journies in search of amber. † Quin et Aremoricus piratam Saxona tractus,- Sidon. in Panegyr. Avit 369. The XXV. In the course of their slow and distant naviga- CHAP. tions, they must always have been exposed to the danger, and very frequently to the misfor tune, of shipwreck; and the naval annals of the Saxons were undoubtedly filled with the accounts of the losses which they sustained on the coasts of Britain and Gaul. But the daring spirit of the pirates braved the perils, both of the sea, and of the shore; their skill was confirmed by the habits of enterprise; the meanest of their mariners was alike capable of handling an oar, of rearing a sail, or of conducting a vessel; and the Saxons rejoiced in the appearance of a tempest, which concealed their design, and dispersed the fleets of the enemy *. After they had acquired an accurate knowledge of the maritime provinces of the West, they extended the scene of their depredations, and the most sequestered places had no reason to presume on their security. The Saxon boats drew so little water, that they could easily proceed fourscore or an hundred miles up the great rivers; their weight was so inconsiderable, that they were transported on waggons from one river to another; and the pirates who had entered the mouth of the Seine, or of the VOL. IV. U Rhine, The genius of Cæsar imitated, for a particular service, these rude, but light, vessels, which were likewise used by the na tives of Britain (Comment. de Bell. Civil. i. 51. and Gui chardt, Nouveaux Mémoires Militaires, tom. ii. p. 42, 42.). The British vessels would now astonish the genius of Cæsar. *The best original account of the Saxon pirates may be found in Sidonius Apollinaris (1. viii. epist. 6. p. 223. edit. Sirmond.), and the best commentary in the Abbé du Bos (Hist. Critique de la Monarchie Françoise, &c. tom. i. I. i é. 16. p. 148–155. See likewise p. 77, 78.). CHAP. Rhine, might descend, with the rapid stream of XXV. A. D. 971. the Rhone, into the Mediterranean. Under the reign of Valentinian, the maritime provinces of Gaul were afflicted by the Saxons: a military count was stationed for the defence of the seacoast, or Armorican limit; and that officer, who found his strength, or his abilities, unequal to the task, implored the assistance of Severus, master-general of the infantry. The Saxons, surrounded and out-numbered, were forced to relinquish their spoil, and to yield a select band of their tall and robust youth to serve in the imperial armies. They stipulated only a safe and honourable retreat and the condition was readily granted by the Roman general; who meditated an act of perfidy *, imprudent as it was inhuman, while a Saxon remained alive, and in arms, to revenge the fate of his countrymen. The premature eagerness of the infantry, who were secretly posted in a deep valley, betrayed the ambuscade; and they would perhaps have fallen the victims of their own treachery, if a large body of cuirassiers, alarmed by the noise of the combat, had not hastily advanced to extricate their companions, and to overwhelm the undaunted valour of the Saxons. Some of the prisoners were saved from the edge of the sword, to shed their blood in the amphitheatre: and the orator Symmachus complains, that twenty-nine of those desperate savages, by strangling themselves Ammian. (xxviii. 5.) justifies this breach of faith to pirates and robbers; and Orosius (1. vii. c. 32.) more clearly expresses their real guilt; virtute atque agilitaté terribiles. XXV. selves with their own hands, had disappointed CHAP. the amusement of the public. Yet the polite and philosophic citizens of Rome were impressed with the deepest horror, when they were informed, that the Saxons consecrated to the gods the tythe of their human spoil; and, that they Y ascertained by lot the objects of the barbarous sacrifice *. II. The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of Scandinavians and Spaniards, which flattered the pride, and amused the credulity, of our rude ancestors, have insensibly vanished in the light of science and philosophy t. The present age is satisfied with the simple and rational opinion, that the islands of Great Britain and İreland were gradually peopled from the adjacent continent of Gaul. From the coast of Kent, to the extremity of Caithness and Ulster, the memory of a Celtic origin was distinctly preserved, in the perpetual resemblance of language, of religion, and of manners: and the peculiar characters of the British tribes, might be naturally ascribed to the influence of accidental and local circumstances: U 2 * Symmachus (1. ii. epist. 46.) still presumes to mention the sacred names of Socrates and philosophy. Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, might condemn (1. viii. epist. 6.) with less inconsistency, the human sacrifices of the Saxons. In the beginning of the last century, the learned Cambden was obliged to undermine, with respectful scepticism, the romance of Brutus the Trojan; who is now buried in silent oblivion, with Scota, the daugher of Pharaoh, and her numerous progeny. Yet I am informed, that some champions of the Milesian colony may still be found among the original natives of Ireland. A people dissatisfied with their present conditiong grasp at any visions of their past or future glory. II. Bat ΤΑΙΝ. The Scots and Picts XXV. CHAP. circumstances *. The Roman province was reduced to the state of civilized and peaceful servitude the rights of savage freedom were contracted to the narrow limits of Caledonia. The inhabitants of that northern region were divided, as early as the reign of Constantine, between the two great tribes of the Scots and of the PICTs t, who have since experienced a very different fortune. The power, and almost, the memory, of the Picts, have been extinguished by their successful rivals; and the Scots, after maintaining for ages the dignity of an independent kingdom, have multiplied, by an equal and voluntary union, the honours of the English name. The hand of nature had contributed to mark the ancient distinction of the Scots and Picts. The former Tacitus, or rather his father-in-law Agricola, might remark the German or Spanish complexion of some British tribes. But it was their sober deliberate opinion: "In uni"versum tamen æstimanti Gallos vicinum solum occupasse "credibile est. Eorum sacra deprehendas... sermo haud "multum diversus (in Vit. Agricol. c. xi.)." Cæsar had observed their common religion (Comment. de Bello Gallico, vi. 13.); and in his time the emigration from the Belgic Gaul was a recent, or at least an historical event (v. 10.). Cambden, the British Strabo, has modestly ascertained our genuine antiquities (Britannia, vol. i. Introduction, p. ii-xxxi.). In the dark and doubtful paths of Caledonian antiquity, I have chosen for my guides two learned and ingenious Highlanders, whom their birth and education had peculiarly quali fied for that office. See Critical Dissertations on the Origin, Antiquities, &c. of the Caledonians, by Dr John Macpherson, London, 1768, in 4to. ; and, Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland, by James Macpherson, Esq. London, 1773, in 4to, third edit. Dr Macpherson was a minister in the isle of Sky: and it is a circumstance honourable for the present age, that a work, replete with erudition and criticism, should have been composed in the most remote of the Hebrides. |