Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/58

 38 THE DECLINE AND FALL Duchy of Sleswig, or perhaps of Holstein^ was incapable of pouring forth the inexhaustible swarms of Saxons who reigned over the ocean, who filled the British island with their language, their laws, and their colonies ; and who so long defended the liberty of the North against the arms of Charlemagne.^*'^ The solution of this difficulty is easily derived from the similar manners and loose constitution of the tribes of Germany ; which were blended with each other by the slightest accidents of war or friendship. The situation of the native Saxons disposed them to embrace the hazardous j)rofessions of fishermen and pirates ; and the success of their first adventures would naturally excite the emulation of their bravest countrymen, who were impatient of the gloomy solitude of their woods and mountains. Every tide might float downi the Elbe whole fleets of canoes, filled with hardy and intrepid associates, who aspired to behold the unbounded pros- pect of the ocean and to taste the wealth and luxury of un- knoAvn worlds. It should seem probable, however, that the most numerous auxiliaries of the Saxons were furnished by the nations who dwelt along the shores of the Baltic. They possessed arms and ships, the art of navigation, and the habits of naval war ; but the difficulty of issuing through the northern columns of Hercules (which during several months of the year are obstructed with ice) confined their skill and courage within the limits of a spacious lake.^^*^ The rumour of the successful armaments which sailed fi-om 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 Avho fought under the same standard were insensibly united in a permanent society, at first of rapine, and afterwards of government. A militarj' 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 un- questionable 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 105 M. d'Anville (Etablissement des Etats de rEurope, &c., p. 19-26) has marked the extensive Hmils of the Saxony of Charlemagne. i^^The fleet [u'c] of Drusus had failed in their attempt to pass, or even to ap- proach, the Sound (styled, from an obvious resemblance, the columns of Hercules); and the naval enterprise was never resumed (Tacit, de Moribus German, c. 34X The knowledge which the Romans acquired of the naval powers of the Baltic (c 44, 45) was obtained by their land journeys in search of amber.