But we have found out, that these People originally came from that Country which lies between the Rhine and the Elb, and is bounded on the West by the Sea, almost in the same Tract where the greater and the lesser Chauci dwelt.  “A People (says Tacitus) the most noble among all the Germans, who founded their Greatness and maintained it by Justice.”  These were next Neighbours to the Batavians; for ’tis agreed on all Hands, that the Franks had their first Seats near the Sea-shore, in very marshy Grounds; and were the most skilful People in Navigation, and Sea-fights, known at that time:  Whereof we have the following Testimonies.  First, in Claudian, who congratulating Stilicon’s Victory, writes thus;

—­Ut jam trans fluvium non indignante Chayco
  Paseat Belga pecus, mediumque ingressa per Albin
  Gallica Francorum montes armenta pererrent.

In which Place he makes use of a Poetical License, and calls those People Chayci, which the Geographers call Chauci.  Now that they were seated near the Sea, that Panegyrical Oration made to Constantine the Great, is a Testimony:  “Quid loquar rursus, &c.  What should I speak more of those remote Nations of the Franks, transplanted not from Places which the Romans of old invaded; but plucked from their very original Habitations, and their farthest Barbarous Shores, to be planted in the waste Places of Gallia; where with their Husbandry, they may help the Roman Empire in time of Peace; and with their Bodies, supply its Armies in time of War—.”  And in another Panegyrick, by Eumenius the Rhetorician, we find this Passage, “Aut haec ipsa, &c.  Or this Country, which was once overspread with the Fierceness of the Franks, more than if the Waters of their Rivers, or their Sea, had cover’d it;” but now ceases to be barbarous, and is civilized.  To the same Purpose is Procopius Testimony, in his first Book of the Gothick War; for where he describes the place where the Rhine falls into the Ocean; “In these Parts (says he) there are great Marshes, where of old the Germans dwelt; a barbarous People, and at that time of small Reputation, which now are called Franks—.”  And Zonaras, in the 3d Tome of his Annals, quotes this very Passage of Procopius.  Also Flavius Vopiscus, in his Life of Probus, tells us, That the Franks were discomfited by Probus in their inaccessible Marshes.—­Testes sunt Franci inviis strati paludibus. Also Sidonius Apollinaris says thus;

   “Francorum & penitissimas paludes,
    Intrares venerantibus Sicambris.”