the Fancy of a Workman, who might be of that Nation, or, at the moft, may imply no more than that the French had made fome Improvements upon that useful Inftrument. As weak and inconclufive, I take to be, the Proof brought by the Flemish and Germans to fupport their Claim; namely, that in all the Countries in the World the Points of the Compass derive their Names from their Language. I call it a weak Proof, because I take it to be purely accidental, and that as 7. Goia, who is generally believed to be the Inventor of the Compass, distinguish'd his eight Points of the Winds (which were all for a great while that were known and defcribed) by fuch Words as were then in Use in the Kingdom of Naples, fo the Germans or Flemmings, when they added 24 more, gave them fuch Names as were made use of in their Country, which, being fhort, and therefore more convenient to exprefs the feveral Shiftings and Changes of the Wind, and being common to all the northern Nations, were at laft adopted, and became the universal Language of the Chart in all the Countries of the World. A learned Sweed, in the Year 1693, publifh'd a Differtation de Pyxide Nauticâ feu ut vulgo vocant de Compaffo, wherein he undertook to prove that this Invention for Navigation had been long fince known to the ancient Sweeds. As I have not seen the Piece, I cannot tell how he has manag'd the Argument, nor what Proofs he has brought to make good his Affertion. But the most probable Opinion, and moft generally receiv'd by learned Men, is, that the Honour of it is due to one John Goia, of the Territory of Amelphi, in the Kingdom of Naples, who, about the Year 1300, discover'd the Pyxis Nautica, confifting at firft of eight Points only, the four principal and the four collateral ones; in Memory whereof the Lordship of Principato, where that ingenious Man receiv'd his Birth, has B 4

ever

s, but under the Equator, where it furprising a Phoenomenon as any; ned Man obferves, first discover'd and could it be found regular, h help towards the Discovery of I know fome Writers have eny the Discovery of the Compass §

much

bferving this was the Ruin of that gallant Shovel, and of all the brave Men that h him. The Want, I fay, of observing, ing the Variation of the Needle, at that the Irish Sea inftead of the English Chanupon thofe Rocks where every Soul of them and fwallowed by the Waves. But, it been rejoicing and making merry for their ry again, and fome whofe Business it was, ntion they ought to the Variation of the ccafion of that Misfortune.

's Phyfico-Theology, B. 5. C. 1. p. 277. er has obferved, that before fome Mountains pafs will vary fix Degrees, and does not Situation, till after two Days and two

the Tropicks. This I take to proceed eins of Loadstone, that are in the Mounadftones we have, come from Sweden, DenThe Effect of which ceases of course when

the

much higher, to the Age of Plautus, from a Paffage of that Poet, in his Comedy of Mercator, where the Master of the Ship bids the Sailor take the Verforia, because the Wind is now fair, Ventus eft fecundus, cape modo Verforiam. I have often thought, in reading this Paffage, that by Verforia, was to be understood the Hein or Rudder, which turns a Veffel with the fame Eafe, as a Bridle does a Horfe. But fince I find fome learned Men have proved beyond Difpute, that it was a technical Word for a String or Rope, and part of the Tackle of a Ship, which the Sailors call the Pollin, which ferves to fhift and turn the Sails, and makes them receive the Wind from whatsoever Corner it blow. eth. Such a lucky Discovery was that of a learned Man who found out the Ufe of Spectacles, in these Words of Cafar's Commentaries, Cæfar autem fpeculis pofitis, which he wifely understood of that General's laying down the Spectacles, or Optic

the Veffel is gone fo far as to be beyond the Power and Reach of thofe Magnetick Effluvia. Some Years ago there happened an extraordinary Phænomenon in Relation to the Compass of the Ship of one Mr. Groften, by a violent Clap of Thunder and Lightning. One Mr. Hayward, who was failing in another Ship, in Company with him, was very much furprized to fee Mr. Groften's Veffel fail directly Home again, and going on Board, found that he did indeed fteer by the right Point of the Compafs, but that the North and South Poles, having changed the Situations, the Chart was turn'd round, and tho' by their Fingers they brought the Flower-date to point directly North, it would immediately, as foon as it was at Liberty, return to its ufual Pofture, and upon Examination he found that every Compass in that Ship had taken the fame Turn, and that they never could recover their right Pofition, so he lent him one of his own, to finish his Voyage.

N. B. Mr. Mathers, in a Letter to Dr. Woodward, thinks this may be accounted for by Mr. Boyle's Experiment; for by heating a Loadstone red hot, and altering the Pofitions in which it was cooled, he could change its Polarity; which might have happened to this Needle, fuppofing it was made red hot by Lightning, See Mr. Lowthorp's Abridgment of the Philof. Transact.

Glaffes,

This

Glaffes, with which he had been taking a View and Profpect of the Country; whereas a very little Attention, and confulting almost any Dictionary in the World, would have fet him right, and fhewn him that the Word Speculis here, meant no more than Hills, Mountains, or Watch Towers, which they made ufe of to take a View of the Country, to discover the Motions and Pofture of their Enemies, and to give a Signal and Notice to their Friends. Nicholas Fuller, a Writer of fome Figure in the last Century, very able and expert in the oriental Languages, but of no great Skill in Criticism, and Knowledge of Antiquity, took it into his Head to affert, that the Secret of the Compass was known to Solomon, and by him commu nicated to the Phenicians, who, by the help of this Inftrument, became the most extenfive Traders, and most famous Navigators in the World. feems to have been a pious Thought, which, I make no doubt, he grounded upon the wonderful Wifdom that God had beftowed upon the Son of David, and that vaft and univerfal Knowledge, which, in the holy Scripture, is afcribed to that Prince; from whence he might conclude, that no Secret in Nature could be concealed from him, But befides that all this is gratis dictum, advanced without any Manner of Proof, and that there is not the leaft Hint or Trace of it in the Writings of Solomon, can it be imagined that fo wife a Prince as he was, and who himself carried on a very confi. derable Trade, who went himself in Perfon to his two Ports Elath and Efiongeber, and there took care by his own Infpection of the Building of the Ships, and fettling every thing that might tend to the carrying on his Traffick, who by his wife Management drew to thofe Ports, and from thence to Jerufalem, all the Trade of Africa, Arabia, Perfia,

Perfia, and India, which was the chief Fountain of the immenfe Riches which he acquired, and whereby he exceeded all the Kings of the Earth, in his Time, as much as he did by his Wifdom; fo that (as the Scripture faith) he made Silver at Jerufalem, as the Stones of the Street, by Reason of the great Plenty with which it abounded there, during his Reign, and who in one Voyage brought four hundred and fifty Talents of Gold, which amount to three Millions two hundred and forty thousand Pounds of our prefent Sterling Money: Can it, I fay, be imagined that fo wife a Prince as Solomon, fhould have been fo impolitick, as to communicate fuch a Secret to a People, who even before his Time were the greatest Traders and Navigators in the World.

But if I may be allowed to hazard a Conjecture, I cannot think this Invention is fo very modern as 'tis generally thought, nor the Device of a barbarous ignorant Age, but verily believe that some of the Ancients, efpecially the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, were acquaintedwith this Secret, by reafon of the wonderful Voyages they performed, and the great Extent of Trade which they carried on through the World, which feems not poffible to have been done without the help of the Compass. Horace speaks of the Romans trayelling to the Indies: Impiger extremos currit Mercator ad Indos. Pliny relates, that fome Indians were caft away upon the Coaft of Gaul, whither they came in fearch of a Northern Paffage, and that the Carthaginians under Hanno had failed quite round Africa, and from the Streights, into the Arabian Gulph; which a learned Man faith, if it was Fact,

See Dr. Prideaux's Connection of the Hiftory, &c. Vol. 1, P. 7. Edit. 800.

As the Carthaginians drew their Original from the Phænicians, fo no doubt but they derived their Skill in Navigation, and perhaps this very Secret, from them.

was