Development of the types of vessels in the North-East of Europe in relation to the first inhabitants of the Netherlands 105 [Illustration: PREFACE De scheeps- en sterke bouw ’t heeft ons ’t gebruik geleert, Dees gaf ons wet en reght Hoe men de landen heert.[1] (~Nic. Witsen.~) ] Holland’s struggle for life has been a constant battle against the invasion of water. If this has been, on the one hand, an enemy to be feared, it has been, on the other, the natural line of communication above all others which has made our ancestors, since time immemorial, a nation of seamen. The boat was a necessity as indispensable as the house. It is impossible to say who invented the boat; every one has contributed his mite to its building and this has given rise to its gradual development. The discovery that wood would float was due, evidently, to chance. Use must have been made first of the trunk of a single tree, and afterwards several must have been joined together to make a raft. Then came the hollowed trunk which was followed, in its turn, by a boat with a framework covered with skins from which the finished boat was born. Between the floating trunk of a tree and the most complete ship, there have come into existence all sorts of intermediate forms, of which most are still to be found even in our day. [Sidenote: III 1] Noah, according to the writers of antiquity, must have been the first shipwright. The old authors enter into circumstantial details on this subject and give various drawings of Noah’s “ark”. Several of these drawings are reproduced in the atlas of this work. The only value of these reproductions of the ark lies in the fact that they probably represent a ship of the time of their author. It must also be noted that the first shipbuilder is as entirely unknown as the first inventor of the boat. That which is beyond any doubt is; that the mutual influences of various nations have been important factors in the evolution of the ship. This latter, on its side, served to bring into contact nations widely separated by water and to open up countries as yet unexplored. Hence shipbuilding must first have shone forth, under these conditions, among the most civilized races. Mexico and Peru excepted, it may be said that civilization was developed first among the Chinese in the valley of the Hoang-Ho, then among the Babylonians in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, and among the Egyptians in the valley of the Nile. The question of knowing whether the Babylonians learned shipbuilding from the Chinese, or the reverse, is one of minor importance. It is certain however that reciprocal influences were at work among the races of Asia Minor and there is no doubt that the Babylonians influenced the Phœnicians, the pioneer shipwrights of the Mediterranean. The Egyptians, who were not a seafaring people do not here enter into consideration.