66. The name of Polynesia has been already stated 20 to be applied to those extensive chains of islands, which lie scattered in the Pacific Ocean between the Equator and the Southern Tropic, to the Eastward of New Guinea and Australia: it is also considered by some as including the islands to the N. of the Equator, and E. of China and Japan. The principal groups to the S. of the Equator are the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the Friendly Islands, the Navigators Islands, the Society Islands, the chief of which is Otaheite, the Low Islands, and the Marquesas: the Sandwich Islands are by far the most important of those which lie N. of the Equator, and it was at Owhyhee, the principal one amongst them, that the famous navigator Captain Cook lost his life in a misunderstanding with the natives. These islands are mostly of coral formation, and new ones appear to be constantly springing up above the surface of the ocean: they are nearly all inhabited by a half-civilized race, subject to the capricious will of barbarian chiefs, and given up to the most degrading practices of idolatrous superstition, except in those places where the unwearied efforts of Protestant Europeans have converted them to Christianity. The major part of the islands belong to the British by right of discovery, but some of the most valuable ones have been formally ceded to them by the natives and their chiefs in council. 20 See p. 36, sect. 24, supra. CHAPTER XXVI. SARMATIA, SCYTHIA, ET SERICA. SARMATIA. 1. Sarmatia extended from the R. Vistula to the Caspian Sea, and from Mt. Caucasus and the shores of the Euxine to the Northernmost limits of the known world: it was divided by the R. Tanais into Europea and Asiatica. 2. All the inhabitants of this vast extent of country were formerly known to the ancients by the collective name of Scythians, as being a portion of that powerful nation inhabiting the whole Northern part of Asia as well as of Europe, from the shores of the Ister to the utmost Northern and Eastern limits of the known world. It was owing to this that Philip, in his ambitious designs upon Thrace, met with them in this province, and after a rapid and decisive campaign drove them beyond the Ister: his son Alexander became subsequently embroiled with them, but his troops were not so successful. Henceforward but little is heard of the Scythians in Europe, till the time of Mithridates, when the people of the Chersonesus Taurica begged his assistance against certain particular tribes: these he accordingly attacked, and, owing to the superior discipline of his army, as well as to the assistance which he received from the Roxolani, Jazyges, and Bastarnæ, he drove them from the shores of the Black Sea, and so completely defeated them that they are never afterwards mentioned in history by the name of Scythians, as inhabiting this part of the world. The appellation applied by late authors to the people hereabouts, is that of Sauromatæ1, or Sarmatæ according to the Latins, which was originally described as 1 Quid mihi nunc animi dirâ regione jacenti TT 4 Ovid. Trist. III. iii. 6. Tacta being that of a separate Scythian tribe on the shores of the Palus Mæotis, between the Borysthenes and Tanais: the Sarmata and Scythians are by others, however, called Jazyges, an indigenous name signifying merely people, that of Scythians having never been used by the natives themselves. It was hence that these Sauromatæ, or Sarmatæ, from being one of the most powerful tribes of the whole nation, contrived to gain over to their interest the Roxolani and Bastarnæ, and found it no difficult matter to make their name the collective one for the whole Scythian horde on the borders of the Euxine Sea and Dacia. And when the Romans, in a later age, found people speaking the same language, and using the same customs as these Southern Sarmatæ, on the shores of the Danube, the Vistula, and the Baltic Sea, they readily adopted a general appellation, which they had long wanted, to distin guish all the people as far Eastward as the Caspian Sea, and henceforward called them Sarmatæ, and their country Sarmatia. In the later ages they became exceedingly powerful, and in conjunction with the Huns, Goths, and other barbarous people, successfully invaded and ruined the Roman Empire, in the 3d and 4th centuries of the Christian era. 3. The Sarmatæ are described by the ancients as a most savage and uncultivated people, exceedingly immoral, and addicted to war and rapine; they were accustomed to paint their bodies, in order to appear more terrible to their enemies. They lived a Nomadic life, plundering all who fell in their way; and many of them are said to have fed upon the blood of horses mixed with milk, whence they were surnamed Hippemolgi. They generally lived under tents or in waggons, and were from the latter custom, particularly one tribe on the banks of the Borysthenes, called Hamaxobii3. 4. SARMATIA EUROPEA corresponded generally with modern Russia in Europe. It was bounded on the E. by the R. Tanais; on the S. by the Palus Mæotis, the Pontus Euxinus, and the R. Tyras; on the W. by a part of the Danube, by the R. Vistula, and the Codanus Sinus; to the N. it was said to be washed by the Hyperboreus Oceanus, the Arctic Ocean, but it is doubted whether the ancients had any knowledge of this, farther than as a part of that ocean, with which they supposed the earth to be surrounded. Sarmatia Europæa touched to the W. upon Germany and Pannonia, to the S. upon Moesia and Dacia, and to the E. upon Sarmatia Asiatica. 2 Tacta mihi tandem longis erroribus acto Juncta pharetratis Sarmatis ora Getis. Ovid. Trist. IV. x. 109. Sarmaticas etiam gentes, Istrumque, Getasque Juv. Sat. II. 1. Mart. VIII. ep. 11. · Αιθίοπες, Λίβυές τ' ἠδὲ Σκυθαὶ ἱππημολγοί. Fragm. Hesiod. ap. Strab. VII. p. 300. (according to the conjectural reading of Heyne.) See also note 36, infra. 3 Πρῶτον μὲν ἐνθένδ ̓ ἡλίου πρὸς ἀντολὰς Στρέψασα σαυτὴν, στεῖχ ̓ ἀνηρότους γύας Σκύθας δ' ἀφίξη νομάδας, οἳ πλεκτὰς στέγας Πεδάρσιοι ναίουσ' ἐπ ̓ εὐκύκλοις ὄχοις, Eschyl. Prom. V. 709. Hor. Carm. III. xxiv. 10. Quorum plaustra vagas ritè trahunt domos, 5. Amongst the great mountain ranges of Sarmatia may be mentioned that of the Carpates, or Carpathians, which quits Germany at the sources of the Vistula, and crosses over into Dacia, where it is known as the Bastarnic Alps. From it a range strikes out to the Eastward, as far as the Borysthenes, called Peucini Montes, after the people who dwelled near it; and another again to the Northward, known by the names of Venedici and Budini, from the Venedæ and Budini, who inhabited the country round it. The latter range separates the rivers which empty themselves into the Baltic, from those which fall into the Black Sea, and continues trending Eastward, between the sources of the Tanais and Rha, till it joins the Oural M. in Asia: in the latter part of it's course it was called the Rhipæi Montes Valdai Ms., and throws off a spur to the Southward, separating the waters of the Tanais and Rha, which was known under the names of Hippici and Ceraunii Montes, and attaches itself to the Caucasus. The Oural Ms., which, together with the R. Volga, formed the Eastern boundary of Europe, were called by the ancients the Hyperborei or Rhipæi M., and were said by some of the poets to be the receptacle whence Boreas sent out winds and storms, and the place where the Gorgons took up their residence. The earlier poets, however, who were less acquainted with the earth, place the Rhipæi M. much nearer Thrace, and sometimes only use the word to denote a high or cold mountain: hence the ancient Greeks give the name of Rhipai to the Alps. 6. The R. Rhubon, or Rhudon, Neman, flows with a N. W. course of 515 miles, into the Baltic Sea, a little to the N. of the Vistula. Between these two rivers dwelled the Veneda, whose possessions extended a considerable way into the interior of the country, and whose name may still be traced in that of Windau: being driven from their territory here by the Estiæi and other Sarmatian tribes, they crossed over the Vistula and seized upon the whole territory between this river and the Elbe, which had been evacuated by the Vindili about the close of the fourth century; they afterwards penetrated farther Southward beyond the Danube, into Styria and Carniola, where they have left many traces of their name in the district of Windishmark. Farther Northward were Turuntus fl. Windava, and Chesinus fl. Dvina, the latter of which rises in the Budini M3. and flows, with a N. W. course of 554 miles, into Cylipenus Sinus G. of Riga; between it and the Rhubon dwelled the Agathyrsi", said to have derived their name from Agathyrsus, a son of Hercules, and to have been so fond of finery as to have usually adorned their garments with golden fillets. Below these, towards the mouth of the Chesinus, were the Estiæi, who carried on an extensive trade in amber, and whose name is still preserved in Esthonia. At the mouth of Cylipenus Sinus lay the I. of Latris, now thought to be the same with Oesel; to the N. of which was Lagnus Sinus, or the G. of Finland. A considerable distance to the E. of this dwelled several hordes of the Šarmatæ, concerning whom nothing was known; some of them, however, were surnamed Basilici, Hippophagi, and Hyperborei, appellations clearly betraying the limits of Terra incognita. Above them were cantoned the Arimphæi, or Argippæi, reputed to be the justest amongst all the barbarians; they lived in the woods upon the fruits of the trees, never covered their heads, and were of such peaceful manners that all the neighbouring tribes took refuge from their oppressors amongst them. The Carambucis fl. and Lytarnis Pr., placed hereabouts by some of the ancients, are thought to correspond with the R. Dvina and Nanin Noss in Archangel; it is, however, exceedingly doubtful whether they were at all acquainted with this Northern extremity of Europe. 7. The Jazyges? Metanasta were so called from having been driven from their original habitations on the shores of the Euxine Sea. They settled in the South Western corner of Sarmatia, between the provinces of Pannonia and Dacia, along the banks of the R. Tibiscus, or Theiss, where they carried on a short but spirited warfare with the Romans; the latter people, in order to defend their provinces, built the Limes Romanus, or vallum, between the Danube and Tibiscus, whence such of the Jazyges as dwelled near it, received the name of Sarmatæ Limigantes. Beyond these, to the N. of the Carpathian Mountains, were the Peucini, who were a branch of the Bastarnæ, dwelling about the sources of the Vistula, Dniepr, and Dniestr; their chief town was Carro Τοῖσι δὲ Λητοῦς υἱὸς, ἀνερχόμενος Λυκίηθεν Qualis Hyperboreis Aquilo cùm densus ab oris Visam gementis littora Bospori, Ales, Hyperboreosque campos. 7 Jazyges, et Colchi, Meterêaque turba, Getæque, Danubii mediis vix prohibentur aquis. Ipse vides, onerata ferox ut ducat Jazyx Per medias Istri plaustra bubuleus aquas, Id. ex Pont. IV. vii. 2. Pind. Olymp. III. 28. Id. Pyth. X. 47. Apoll. Argon. B. 675. Virg. Georg. III. 196. Hor. Carm. II. xx. 16. Ovid. Trist. II. 191. 8 dunum Lemberg: a detachment of these, during the reign of Augustus, migrated to the Southward, and settled about the mouths of the Danube. The great nation of the Bastarnæ inhabited the country to the N. of Dacia, between the rivers Tyras and Borysthenes, extending, together with their brothers the Peucini, as far Westward as the Vistula; they were a people rather of German than Sarmatian extraction, though, from their frequent intermarriages with the latter people, much of this striking distinction was lost. They are first mentioned in history during the war, which Perseus, the last Macedonian king, carried on against the Romans: in the Mithridatic war they appear as allies of the king of Pontus, and as the bravest and most numerous of the barbarians on the shores of the Black Sea. To the E. of them dwelled the Geloni, who were descended from the Greek colonists and the Sarmatian women; they were a brave and hardy people, and it was their city, Gelonus, which was burnt to ashes by Darius Hystaspis. The Borysthenes fl.10 Dniepr, is the same length as the Tanais, which two rivers are the largest in Europe after the Danube; it rises from two sources, one of which, called Borysthenes Septentrionalis Dniepr, is in the Budini Montes; the other, or the Borysthenes Meridionalis Pripet, is in the Venedici Ms.: after their junction, it runs with a Southerly course of 1,260 miles into the Black Sea, which it enters near the town of Carcine Kherson. It was also called Danapris in the lower ages, and hence it's modern name Dniepr. 8. The town of Carcine, which has left such evident traces of it's name in Kherson, was a Greek colony founded by the Milesians, and was situated at the junction of Carcinitis fl. Ingoulets with the Borysthenes; from it the little gulf of Dnieprovskoi |