the ships, as armies necessarily must be when transported by sea. They
could not go far out to sea, for, as they had no compass in those
days, there were no means of directing the course of navigation, in
case of storms or cloudy skies, except by the land. The ships
accordingly made their way slowly along the shore, sometimes by means
of sails and sometimes by oars, and, after suffering for some time the
hardships and privations incident to such a voyage--the sea-sickness
and the confinement of such swarming numbers in so narrow a space
bringing every species of discomfort in their train--the fleet entered
the mouth of the Rhone. The officers had no idea that Hannibal was
near. They had only heard of his having crossed the Iberus. They
imagined that he was still on the other side of the Pyrenees. They
entered the Rhone by the first branch they came to--for the Rhone,
like the Nile, divides near its mouth, and flows into the sea by
several separate channels--and sailed without concern up to
Marseilles, imagining that their enemy was still hundreds of miles
away, entangled, perhaps, among the defiles of the Pyrenees. Instead
of that, he was safely encamped upon the banks of the Rhone, a short
distance above them, quietly and coolly making his arrangements for
crossing it.

When Cornelius got his men upon the land, they were too much exhausted
by the sickness and misery they had endured upon the voyage to move on
to meet Hannibal without some days for rest and refreshment.
Cornelius, however, selected three hundred horsemen who were able to
move, and sent them up the river on an exploring expedition, to learn
the facts in respect to Hannibal, and to report them to him.
Dispatching them accordingly, he remained himself in his camp,
reorganizing and recruiting his army, and awaiting the return of the
party that he had sent to explore.

Although Hannibal had thus far met with no serious opposition in his
progress through Gaul it must not, on that account, be supposed that
the people, through whose territories he was passing, were really
friendly to his cause, or pleased with his presence among them. An
army is always a burden and a curse to any country that it enters,
even when its only object is to pass peacefully through. The Gauls
assumed a friendly attitude toward this dreaded invader and his horde
only because they thought that by so doing he would the sooner pass
and be gone. They were too weak, and had too few means