THE SEA ROVERS
MOR and his men at last made up their minds to sail out across the
Great Water and see what was on the other side. The island people were
very strong and brave, and thought it much better to fight and have
adventures, than to stay at home in peace all the time. So they made
ready a fleet of twenty large boats, each one big enough to hold forty
men, and one bright morning, with the wind blowing straight across the
water, they raised their coloured sails, red, and blue, and yellow, and
set out.
Each man carried with him a wicker shield, covered with tough hide,
which he hung over the side of the boat within easy reach of where he
sat at his oar. Many wore rings of gold and copper and tin about their
arms. Their caps were made of leather, with the wings of birds in them,
one on each side. They carried bows and arrows, long spears with
points of polished flint, or copper, and stone axes and knives. Some of
the chiefs had axes with heads of copper.
They took water with them in great bottles made of the skins of
animals, and plenty of smoked meat and fish. When they set sail,
hundreds came down to the shore to see them off. Mor, a big strong
man, almost a giant, waved his glittering copper axe in farewell, then
turned his eyes toward the sea and led his little fleet out of the bay
on its journey.
For a day and a night they sailed without seeing anything but a few
birds. Some of the men, when they saw nothing but the ocean in every
direction, as far as the eye could reach, were frightened and wanted to
turn back, but Mor told them to wait, that they would soon reach land.
On the afternoon of the second day one of the men on watch gave a cry,
and soon they saw stretching along the horizon a thin grey line of
shore. A little later they could make out hills, and clumps of trees,
and the smoke from a village.
It was evening and the people of the village were cooking supper
about their fires. Mor led his boats into a little cove some distance
away, and as soon as they grounded on the sand he and his men sprang
ashore. Five men were left in each boat, to guard it, and the others,
nearly seven hundred in all, with Mor at their head, went to attack the
village.
The village men had sprung for their bows and spears as soon as they
saw Mor's ships nearing the land, and were now drawn up in front of
the village, ready to defend it. The two sides rushed at each other,
shouting fierce cries. A shower of arrows and stones met Mor and his
men, but the tough hides of their shields kept them from being much
hurt, and not many were lost. The village people, who did not have any
shields, suffered very much, and many of them fell.
Their chief, a huge man as big as Mor, came out, carrying a heavy
spear, and he and Mor began a terrible fight. The village chief aimed
a heavy blow at Mor with his spear, but Mor caught it on his shield.
When the sharp stone point of the spear cut through the shield it got
caught in the wicker-work, and would not come out. Then Mor jerked his
shield back and pulled the spear clear out of his enemy's hand. The
village chief drew a knife, but Mor rushed at him and killed him with
his copper axe.
At this the village people were discouraged, and the men from the
island set up a loud shout and rushing at them, killed many of them.
The rest, seeing their leader killed, ran away. Then Mor and his men
went into the village and captured the women, and took great stores of
grain, and wine, and furs back to the ships. After that they set the
village on fire.
By this time the village people had secured help, and were coming back
to renew the fight, so Mor called his men together, and guided by the
light from the blazing huts of the village, they pushed their boats off
the sand, sprang aboard, and rowed swiftly away. In a little while they
had vanished in the darkness.
When they got back home, Mor and his men had a feast, and all the
people thought him a hero. After that, he made many voyages, and so did
others of the island chiefs, and the people of the mainland were afraid
of them.
These rovers of the sea were no more than pirates, of course, but they
did a great deal of good. Year after year they would descend on the
people of the coast, burning and robbing, carrying off their women and
animals and taking them back to their island home, but sometimes they
could not get back, but were driven by storms to other lands, where
they settled and built new homes, taking with them all that they had
learned about metals, about building boats, and many other things. In
this way the knowledge they had gained was spread to other peoples.
Sometimes they would land in peace and trade with the people on the
mainland, giving them gold and copper and tin in exchange for grain
and cattle and pottery. They sailed great distances in their stout
ships and not only learned the things that other races knew, but at the
same time brought to these other peoples their own knowledge of metal
working, and carpentry, and the building of boats. Thus, through these
sea rovers, the different arts spread from tribe to tribe, and from
people to people, which was what Mother Nature intended.
When man discovered metals, and how to use them, the Stone Age began
to draw to a close. There was of course no exact time when the use of
stone stopped, and the use of metals began, for in some parts of the
world men were using metals for hundreds and even thousands of years,
while others, in other countries were still using stone. When Columbus
came to America, only a few hundred years ago, the Indians in North
America knew nothing of tools or weapons of metal, they were still
living in the Stone Age.
Another discovery which came about the same time as the use of metals
was the art of making glass. Just when men began to use glass we do
not of course know, but in some of the most ancient tombs, along with
weapons of copper, and ornaments of gold, we find beads and other small
objects made of glass.
How it came to be discovered is another thing we do not know, or
by what race. It is very likely that it was made by many different
peoples, at different times in the world's history. Over and over we
find that some race which had gone far along the road to civilisation,
would be swept away by savage tribes and its discoveries lost for
many centuries. We know this, because sometimes we find, when digging
in the earth, the remains of savage peoples, with thick skulls and
rude weapons, and under these are the skulls and polished weapons and
ornaments of a much more highly civilised race. The road which man
followed in his progress toward the civilisation we have to-day did not
run smoothly upward, like a path up a hill, but dipped up and down and
around in many circles, always rising a little higher, however, as the
ages went by.
It is thought that the sea people first discovered glass. Ordinary
glass is made of lime, soda-ash and sand, three very common substances.
Because sand is the thing most needed in making glass, we think it must
have been discovered by a people living on the seashore. It must have
been first made by accident, because man could not have set out to
discover something he did not know anything about.
The most common story about the first glass is that it was made by some
sailors belonging to the Phœnicians, one of the early sea-going tribes
living on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is supposed that
these sailors, building a fire on the seashore to cook food, may have
propped their pots up on pieces of limestone, which furnished the lime,
just as the beach furnished the sand, and the fire, the ash and the
heat. Probably they found in the ashes of their fire a hard, greenish
lump of glass. They did not know what it was, of course, but carried
it away because it was clear and bright and pretty in colour, like a
jewel. Wiser men, hearing their story, may have learned in this way how
to mix sand, lime and soda-ash together and by heating it form glass.
The earliest things made of glass were coarse beads, and little bottles
and vases. Later on, man came to make very beautiful glass vases and
bowls and drinking cups, such as those found in ancient tombs in Egypt,
and in the ruins at Troy, and on the Island of Cyprus. These cups and
bowls and other objects are tinted the most wonderful colours, blue
and green and gold, like the feathers of a peacock. It is said that
the ancient Egyptians knew how to make glass that would not break,
so that a vase, dropped to the floor, instead of being shivered to
pieces, would be only bent out of shape. This secret, like the way the
Egyptians had of hardening and tempering copper, has been lost, and the
most skilful glass makers to-day could not make glass like that.