who were in the fleet of Agamemnon. But the disparity will appear much more clearly, if, omitting the other provinces, we state the number of ships sent out from Corinth, and the cities of the Peloponnesus, both to Artemesium, and to Salamis, in the Persian War; and then state those which were fitted out from the same places to Troy.

If we multiply 75 by 200 it gives 15,000.

multiply 89 by the same, we shall have 17,800.

And if we
These will

be nearly the numbers of the Peloponnesians in each engagement. If we add six or seven hundred more for the pentecantores, the whole will be about 18,600, or 19,000 men. This is the greatest number of persons from those states, in either of those memorable Sea fights. Now the ships from the same part of the world mentioned by Homer, are as follow:

In this estimate, I have allowed, adds Mr. Bryant, to the Grecian ships, in the Persian War, the full complement of 200 men to each. But this is probably too great a concession, and the numbers may have fallen far short of this computation.

It is to be observed that the poet, when he gives an account of the Boeotians and their neighbours, who stand first in the list, mentions, that each of their ships held 120 men. Afterwards he speaks of the ships which belonged to Philoctetes of these the complement was only 50 men. Some of the commentators have taken these two numbers for the extremes: and suppose, that one ship with another had at a medium 85 men. If then we multiply 430, the number of Peloponnesian ships under Agamemnon, by 85 (the number of men at an average in each ship), there will be found to have been 36,550 men whereas there were at Artemisium but 15,000; and at Salamis 18,600 or 19,000. The disparity is apparent. If then the Peloponnesians in general, at their matured state, and in the height of their power and grandeur, when they abounded with every requisite, brought together no more than has been above mentioned, how can we suppose that such numbers could have been produced in those times of misrule, and in the infancy of those states, when many of them were hardly constituted?...

Another difficulty arises from the state of their Shipping, which, one would imagine, in the space of ten years, must have been rendered useless. This is in some degree confirmed by Agamemnon, who says:

The timbers of the ships are decayed, and the rigging is quite loose.
11. B. v. 135.

In the space of time above mentioned, the army must have been greatly diminished: and the same person is made to say, I have lost numbers out of my army. II. B. v. 115. Yet there is no mention made of recruits. Indeed the contrary is intimated. And though the fleet must have been in a state of ruin, yet we read not of any repairs; much less of any supply of new vessels. On the contrary we are informed, that the ship to which Hector set fire, was the self same which brought over Protesilaus. The ships of Ulysses had been particularly employed; yet he navigated the seas

for three years in his own ship, after he had left Troas. Menelaus is said to have used his ships for near eight years after the taking of Troy. He speaks of his spoils, and of the wealth which he had obtained, and adds:

These things, after many sufferings and various wanderings, I have brought safe in my ships, and have arrived in the eighth year of my travels after my departure from Troy.

-Homer was upon his guard in many respects; but it is difficult to render a complicated fable consistent. The Arcadians were a mediterranean people, and consequently removed from the sea; and not at all experienced in navigation. He, therefore, to obviate any objection, tells us, that the ships which they navigated were procured for them by Agamemnon. They were in number 60. (II. B. 610.) In consequence of this we must suppose, if we allow only 85 persons to a ship, that they amounted to above 5000 in

the whole. This is an incredible number for such a district. And when the poet has to supply these Arcadians with ships, he forgot to tell us who taught them to row, and to steer, and to manage the sails." After a variety of other arguments to confirm his opinion, Mr. Bryant subjoins the following corollary.

"If then the Grecians were never engaged in any war with the Trojans; and if no such city as Troy ever existed in these parts, to what does Homer allude in the long des cription afforded? Is the whole a mere figment, the vague offspring of his imagination; or is it at all founded in truth; and from whence was that truth derived? Strabo had a great veneration for Homer; and was born at no very great distance from the region called afterwards Troas. He also copied the opinions of Demetrius, who was a native of Scepsis, a city of note in this very region. He allows, notwithstanding his prejudices, that the poet made use of much Fiction to embellish his work: There are instances of the poct's forging what never existed. But at the same time he tells us in another place, that there was sufficient evidence

from collateral traditions to shew that the whole was not a fiction:-These traditional histories are proofs of what I have maintained, that the whole of the Ilias was not a mere invention of the poet. Homer had certainly some antient and foreign history before him, which he modelled to his own mind: and laid the chief scene of the operations in a region of Phrygia. In the performance of this work he has given a geographical account of the several states of Greece, to whose honour he transposed it, and also of the confederate cities and people, who were to be found in Phrygia, and upon the coast of Asia Minor. But the groundwork of his poem I am persuaded was foreign: and the great question to be decided is-from whence it was borrowed ?" Mr. Bryant is disposed to think that Homer was of a Grecian family, Which had long resided in Egypt; that this family came away either in whole, or in part, and settled in Greece: with them they brought many traditions, and histories. After illustrating this opinion, by the various and deep research, which the Author of the Antient Mythology is so much renowned for, Mr. Bryant proceeds: "Diodorus Siculus speaks of Troja Ægyptiaca, which he describes as so called in his time - The place called Troy, which still exists upon the river Nile. It stood close to Litopolis, or rather Latopolis, to which it was properly a garrison. From the quarries near this place, according to Herodotus, the stones were taken for the construction of the Pyramids; which Strabo mentions as being got from Troy. This city, by its situation, was the key to Egypt eastward; and therefore the first object to be obtained by every power that invaded that country. There had been, I imagine, in ancient times, some great war in Egypt; and a powerful contest about this particular place. This contest lasted for a long time, and probably gave birth to the original poem of Troy."

Mr. Bryant's valuable work has met with considerable opponents: it has been answered by Mr. Morritt; and its

merits have been discussed at large in the British Critic: very able answers have been published by Mr. Bryant to both-We shall conclude our short and imperfect view of his opinions respecting Troy, by the passage from Dion Chrysostom, which prefaces his learned dissertation on the subject:-You must know that Truth has in it something distasteful and unpleafing to perfons of little understanding, to whom fiction and fable feem agreeable and amufing. Just, I imagine, as when people have a diforder in their eyes; who find the light hurts them when they look at it; while darkness is not at all painful, but on the contrary acceptable, by preventing all power of vifion. Otherwise how could falsities have such a superior influence in opposition to existing truths, were it not from their being too acceptable to the human mind? If it be hard, as I said before is teach, it is still far more difficult to teach anew, and to erase any former impression, especially when persons have been accustomed to any figment. When they have not only been for a long time in a state of deception themselves, but their fathers also, and their grandsires, and almost all who have gone before them, have been equally deceived; for it is not easy to remove their prejudices, though conviction stares them in the face!

A REPORT of the Truth of the Fight about the Isles of Azores, the last of August 1591; betwixt the Revenge, one of her Majesties ships commanded by Sir Richard + Grauvill, commonly called Grenvill, Vice-Admiral, and an Armada of the King of Spain. Penned by the Honourable Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight.

B

ECAUSE the rumours are diversly spred, as well in England, as in the Low Countrys, and elsewhere, of this late encounter between her Majesties ships and the Armada of Spain; and that the Spaniards according to their usuall manner, fill the world with their

* Dion Chrysost. Orat 11. p. 151.

this distinguished officer was Vice-Admiral of England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and in the year 1585, had reduced Virginia to her Majesty's allegiance, and added it to her dominions: a relation of which was printed at Frankfort in 1590. by Theodre de Bry.-Sir Richard Granvill was lineally descended from Richard III. duke of Normandy, grandson of the famous Rollo. Vid. Collins's Peerage, vol. 5. p. 78.-The family of the Sharpes of Fulham, are of this stock; and trace their pedigree from Sir Richard Granvill:whose name is borne by the present Mr. Granville Sharp-well known for his singular erudition, and philanthropic character.