But that was not all. Already by the seventh century the rise of Moslem power had become such that in southern Europe Arab dominion had obtained control of the Levant and Egypt. Presently the whole of the north African coast, from the Nile to the Atlantic, fell under this sway, and during the eighth century the Arabs overran Spain, southern and central France, until in the same century they were forced back across the Pyrenees. How does this affect the rise of the Mercantile Marine? The answer is this. The Arabs were excellent sailors who were also expert navigators, and incidentally the very word “admiral,” which still survives in the sea service of all civilised powers, is an Arabic word. The Arabs took to trading, and that meant the employment of ships in the Mediterranean; so they introduced the triangular lateen sail from east of Suez, and to this day the lateen has survived as the characteristic local sail of Mediterranean craft. Thus between Venice and Africa overseas trade was created, business made still further business, and that in turn created a demand for shipping and for men who would use the sea as a career. Later on it was the Arabs who were to teach the Spaniards and Portuguese so much about navigation that India and America were discovered. In the early years of the Middle Ages, then, we have the Arabian and the Venetian ships trading about the Mediterranean, though frequently the former became corsairs and made havoc of the latter, even going to the length of raiding the Adriatic. But so far the peaceable Venetian craft were literally merchant ships: they existed for the purpose of carrying merchandise. There enters now another element—religion. The Catholic faith, trade, pilgrims, crusades and Arabs—all these influences had the greatest possible effect on the development of merchant shipping. It will be remembered that in the seventh century the Arabs had wrested the Holy Land from the Eastern Empire, but it was not until the latter part of the eleventh century that western Europe was really moved to action. Finally, in 1095, a holy war against the infidel was resolved, and there followed the first crusade; and in this expedition Venetian ships took part. The most famous crusade of all was that in which the English king Richard Cœur de Lion engaged, and this ended in a truce with Saladin by September 1192, on the understanding that pilgrims should be permitted to visit Jerusalem without being interfered with by the Moslems.