The same view is entertained by Dr. William Robertson, principal of the University of Edinburgh, who, after announcing in his “History of the Reign of Charles V,” London, 1769, Vol. I. p. 78, that the mariner’s compass was invented soon after the close of the Holy War, gives at pp. 333–335 of his “Historical Disquisition,” London, 1812, a translation of the above passage taken from an early edition of that illustrious French naturalist George Louis Le Clerc, Comte de Buffon. Robertson adds: “This shows that the knowledge of this useful instrument was communicated to them (the Arabs) by the Europeans. There is not one single observation of ancient date made by the Arabians on the variation of the needle, or any instruction deduced from it for the assistance of navigators.... When Mr. Niehbuhr was at Cairo, he found a magnetic needle in the possession of a Mohammedan which served to point out the _Kaaba_, and gave it the name of _el magnetis_, a clear proof of its European origin.” The claims of France to the discovery of the compass have been laid by some to the fact that the north point of the early instruments was generally drawn in the form of a _fleur de lys_, but Voltaire says (“Essai,” etc., Vol. III. p. 251), that the Italians drew this in honour of the sovereigns of Naples, a branch of the French royal family. The able writer in the English Cyclopædia (“Arts and Sciences,” Vol. III. p. 102) considers the design to be only “an _ornamented cross_ which originated in devotion to the mere symbol; though, as the compass undoubtedly came, he says, into Europe from the Arabs, the _fleur de lys_ might possibly be a modification of the _mouasala_, or dart, the name by which the Arabs called the needle” (“Phil. Mag.,” Vol. XVIII. p. 88). REFERENCES.--Hallam, “Middle Ages,” Vol. III. chap. ix. part ii.; Klaproth, “La Boussole,” pp. 53, 54 and 64–66; Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. 12; “Silliman’s Journal,” XL. 242–250; “Nautical Magazine,” April 1903; “Ciel et Terre,” Juin 1, 1904, pp. 156–158; “Histoire de la Boussole,” par P. D. M. Boddært; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. I. pp. 136–137, 382, etc.; Article “Bussola” in “Nuova Encycl. Italiana,” by Bocardo, Vol. IV. Torino, 1877, p. 377, poesia di Ugo di Sercy (Bercy) e di Giovanni di Mehun; “Harper’s Magazine,” New York, for February, 1904; V. Molinier, “Notice ... boussole au xiii^e siècle,” Toulouse, 1850; G. Grimaldi, “Dissert. ... della bussola,” Roma, 1741; McCulloch, “Traités ... boussole,” Paris, 1853; Magliozzi, “Notizie ... bussola,” Napoli, 1849; Dr. Geo. Miller, “Hist. Phil. Illust.,” London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 180, note. For Edrisi, see “Journ. des Savants,” issued in April and August 1843, and in December 1846.