gers sit on poles fastened to the bark.

It is said that the people of China were anciently lords of almost all
Scythia, and were in use to sail along that coast, which reaches from
east to west, in seventy degrees of north latitude. Cornelius Nepos says,
that, in the time when Metellus, the colleague of Afranius, was proconsul
of Gaul, the king of the Suevi sent to him certain Indians, who came to
his country in a ship by the north and the flats of Germany[5]. These
people probably came from China; as in that country, in the latitudes of
20, 30, and 40 degrees, they have strong and well-fastened ships, which
can bear the seas and encounter the severity of the northern climate.
Cambaia also has ships, and its inhabitants are said to have long used
the seas; but it is not likely they should have gone to Gaul; for they
only trade to Cairo, and are indeed a people of little trade and less
clothing.

Those who escaped from the flood kept the hills, not daring for a long
time to descend into the plains and low countries; and Nimrod, an hundred
and thirty years afterwards, built the tower of Babel, intending it as a
refuge in case of any future deluge[6]. Upon the whole, it seems probable
that the inhabitants of China and the east were the first sailors; though
others think the inhabitants of the west, particularly of Syria, were the
first to use the sea[7]. This contest about the antiquity of navigation,
I leave to the Scythians and Egyptians, who each challenge the honour to
themselves. But leaving all contested points in this matter, I now apply
to my proposed deduction, resting only upon what has been recorded in
authentic histories. Ancient history says that Tubal, in the hundred and
forty-third year after the flood, came by sea into Spain[8]; whence it
appears that in these early times navigation was usual from Ethiopia to
our parts of western Europe. It is also said, that Semiramis invaded the
country on the river Indus, whence the Indians derive their name, and
gave battle to king Stabrobates, in which he lost a thousand ships[9]; by
which it clearly appears there were then many ships in those parts; and
that the seas were much frequented.

In the six hundred and fiftieth year after the flood, there was a king in
Spain named Hesperus[10]; and Gonsalvo Fernandez de Oviedo, the
chronicler of antiquities[11], affirms that he made discoveries by sea as
far as Cape Verde and the Isle of St Thomas, of which he was prince,