Arabians, the industry of the Greeks discovered a new channel by which
the productions of India might be conveyed to Constantinople.

Did not the Barbarians, after a while, turn their attention to
Navigation and Commerce?

No sooner were the brave among these nations well settled in their new
provinces--some in Gaul, as the Franks; others in Spain, as the Goths;
and others in Italy, as the Lombards,--than they began to learn the
advantages of these arts, and the proper methods of managing them,
from the people they had subdued; and that with so much success, that
they even improved upon them, and set on foot new institutions for
their advantage. To the Lombards, in particular, is usually ascribed
the invention and use of banks, book-keeping, and exchanges. Thus the
people of Italy, and particularly those of Venice and Genoa, have the
glory of restoring to Europe the advantages that had been destroyed by
their own ravages.

_Institutions_, laws, regulations.

_Exchange_, a species of mercantile transactions by which
the debts due to persons at a distance are paid by order,
draft, or bill of exchange, without the transmission either
of money or goods.

Who were the Franks?

A people who settled in Gaul; from them it took the name of Franconia,
or France.

Who were the Goths?

An ancient people, who inhabited that part of Sweden called Gothland;
and afterwards spread themselves over great part of Europe.

Who were the Lombards?

The Lombards, or Longobardi, were, like the Franks, a nation of
Germany; who, upon the decline of the Roman Empire, invaded Italy,
and, taking the city of Ravenna, erected a kingdom.

Where is Ravenna?

In Central Italy. It is the capital of a province of the same name; it
is an ancient town, and the see of an archbishop.

_See_, the seat of episcopal power; the diocese of a bishop.

_Episcopal_, belonging to a bishop.

_Archbishop_, the presiding bishop of a province.

[Illustration: THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE, ITALY.]

What was the origin of the city of Venice?

In the Adriatic Sea were a great number of marshy islands, separated
only by narrow channels, but well screened and almost inaccessible,
inhabited by a few fishermen. To these islands the people of Veneti (a
part of Italy, situated along the coasts of the gulf,) retired when
Alaric, King of the Goths, ravaged Italy. These new Islanders, little
imagining that this wa