What other people, about this period, distinguished themselves in the art of Navigation?

The Saracens or Arabians, whose fleets now rode triumphant in the Mediterranean; they had taken possession of Cyprus, Rhodes, and many of the Grecian islands, and extended their commerce and their discoveries in the East, far beyond the utmost knowledge of their ancestors.

What other circumstance also prevented commercial intercourse from ceasing altogether?

Constantinople, though often threatened by the fierce invaders, who spread desolation over Europe, was so fortunate as to escape their destructive rage.  In this city, the knowledge of ancient arts and discoveries was preserved; and commerce continued to flourish there, when it was almost extinct in every other part of Europe.

     Desolation, destruction, ruin.

Did the citizens of Constantinople confine their trade to the Islands of the Archipelago, and the adjacent coast of Asia?

No, they took a wider range; and, following the course which the ancients had marked out, imported the productions of the East Indies from Alexandria.  When Egypt was torn from the Roman Empire by the Arabians, the industry of the Greeks discovered a new channel by which the productions of India might be conveyed to Constantinople.

Did not the Barbarians, after a while, turn their attention to Navigation and Commerce?

No sooner were the brave among these nations well settled in their new provinces—­some in Gaul, as the Franks; others in Spain, as the Goths; and others in Italy, as the Lombards,—­than they began to learn the advantages of these arts, and the proper methods of managing them, from the people they had subdued; and that with so much success, that they even improved upon them, and set on foot new institutions for their advantage.  To the Lombards, in particular, is usually ascribed the invention and use of banks, book-keeping, and exchanges.  Thus the people of Italy, and particularly those of Venice and Genoa, have the glory of restoring to Europe the advantages that had been destroyed by their own ravages.

     Institutions, laws, regulations.

Exchange, a species of mercantile transactions by which the debts due to persons at a distance are paid by order, draft, or bill of exchange, without the transmission either of money or goods.

Who were the Franks?

A people who settled in Gaul; from them it took the name of Franconia, or France.

Who were the Goths?

An ancient people, who inhabited that part of Sweden called Gothland; and afterwards spread themselves over great part of Europe.

Who were the Lombards?

The Lombards, or Longobardi, were, like the Franks, a nation of Germany; who, upon the decline of the Roman Empire, invaded Italy, and, taking the city of Ravenna, erected a kingdom.