ession of the islands of the Archipelago made a necessity, while
at the same time it afforded the means.

The first five centuries of the Christian era afford but few events of
interest in maritime warfare. The Vandals, having acquired Spain, landed
in Africa, eighty thousand strong, under Genseric. They were defeated by
Belisarius; but, holding the Balearic Isles and Sicily, they controlled
the Mediterranean for a time.

At the very epoch when the nations of the East invaded Europe, the
Scandinavians began to land on the coast of England. Their operations
are little better known than those of the barbarians: they are hidden in
the mysteries of Odin.

The Scandinavian bards attribute two thousand five hundred vessels to
Sweden. Less poetical accounts assign nine hundred and seventy to the
Danes and three hundred to Norway: these frequently acted in concert.

The Swedes naturally turned their attention to the head of the Baltic,
and drove the Varangians into Russia. The Danes, more favorably situated
with respect to the North Sea, directed their course toward the coasts
of France and England.

If the account cited by Depping is correct, the greater part of these
vessels were nothing more than fishermen's boats manned by a score of
rowers. There were also _snekars_, with twenty banks or forty rowers.
The largest had thirty-four banks of rowers. The incursions of the
Danes, who had long before ascended the Seine and Loire, lead us to
infer that the greater part of these vessels were very small.

However, Hengist, invited by the Briton Vortigern, transported five
thousand Saxons to England in eighteen vessels,--which would go to show
that there were then also large vessels, or that the marine of the Elbe
was superior to that of the Scandinavians.

Between the years 527 and 584, three new expeditions, under Ida and
Cridda, gained England for the Saxons, who divided it into seven
kingdoms; and it was not until three centuries had elapsed (833) that
they were again united under the authority of Egbert.

The African races, in their turn, visited the South of Europe. In 712,
the Moors crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, under the lead of Tarik.
They came, five thousand strong, at the invitation of Count Julian; and,
far from meeting great resistance, they were welcomed by the numerous
enemies of the Visigoths. This was the happy era of the Caliphs, and the
Arabs might well pass for liberators in comparison with the tyrants