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anguage, and religion, to a hollow dependance. Colonies were also planted beyond the straits of Gibraltar, or, as they were called by the ancients, the Pillars of Hercules. Trade was extended to the British, islands and the coasts of the North sea, which must have led to the establishment of colonies and naval stations along the western and northern coasts of Spain.

The colonies in northern Africa, Leptis, Carthage, Utica, &c., attained greater splendor than any of the other Phoenician cities, and rivalled Tyre itself in wealth and magnificence. It is exceedingly probable that they had also settlements in western Africa, and that they had even reached the island of Madeira. But to prevent any interference with their lucrative commerce, they designedly cast a veil of mystery over their intercourse with the western regions, of which the Greek poets took advantage to embellish their narratives of fictitious voyages and travels with the most fanciful inventions.

It is known that the Phoenicians preceded the Greeks in forming commercial establishments along the coast of Asia Minor and the shores of the Black sea; but we have no account of the mode in which they were deprived of these possessions by the Greeks. It is probable that the Phoenicians resigned this branch of commerce to attend more closely to their lucrative trade with the western regions.

In the eastern seas they had establishments on the Persian and Arabian gulfs; but their settlements on the latter were probably not made. until David had conquered their commercial rivals, the Edomites, or Idumeans. From that time they paid great attention to their southern. trade, and seem to have become close allies of the Egyptians.

SECTION VII.-Phænician Manufactures and Commerce.

THE textile fabrics of the Sidonians, and the purple cloths of the Tyrians, were celebrated from the earliest antiquity.

The Tyrian purple was not a single color, but was a generic name for all the shades of purple and scarlet. The dye was obtained from a shell-fish found in great abundance on the shores of the Mediterranean. Vegetable dyes of great beauty and variety were also used; the dyeing was always performed in the raw materials; and the Phonicians alone understood the art of producing shot colors by using threads of different tints. Glass was very anciently manufactured both at Sidon and Sarepta: tradition, indeed, ascribes the invention of glass to the Phoenicians; but the Egyptians seem to have a claim at least as good to the discovery. Carvings in wood and ivory, manufactures of jewelry and toys, complete all that has been recorded of the products of Tyrian industry; and it seems probable that their commerce consisted more in the interchange of foreign commodities than in the export of their own wrought goods.

The land-trade of the Phoenicians may be divided into three great branches: the Arabian, which included the Egyptian and that with the Indian seas; the Babylonian, to which is referred the commerce with central Asia and north India; and the Armenian, including the overland trade with Scythia and the Caucasian countries.

From Yem ́en, called Arabia the Happy, the southern division of the

Arabian peninsula, caravans brought through the desert frankincense, myrrh, cassia, gold, and precious stones, the gold being probably obtained from the opposite shores of Africa. But before the Phonicians had a port on the Red sea, they obtained, through Arabia, the produce of southern India and Africa, more especially cinnamon, ivory, and ebony. This trade is fully described by Ezekiel,* by whom the traffic in the Persian gulf is also noticed.†

The Arabian trade appears to have been principally carried on by caravans. The northern Arabs, especially the princes of Kédar and the Midianites, were in ancient times great travelling merchants: and the kingdom of Edom, or Idumæa, in the north of the Arabian peninsula, attained a very high degree of commercial prosperity. On the seacoast the Idumeans possessed the ports of E'lath and Eʼzion-géber (Akʼaba); in the interior, they had for their metropolis Pétra, whose magnificent remains have been but recently discovered. So permanent and almost immutable is the aspect of civilization in Asia, that the commercial caravans of the present day scarcely differ in any particular from those which were used in the flourishing days of Tyre. The merchants travelled in bands organized like an army, having their goods on the backs of camels, the only animals which can endure the fatigues and privations of the desert. They were escorted by armed forces, sometimes supplied from home, but more frequently consisting of one marauding tribe, hired at a large price, to save the caravan from the exactions and attacks of the rest. The greater part of the Phoenician trade with Egypt was overland, at least so long as the seat of government was at Thebes in Upper Egypt: when Mem'phis rose into power, an entire quarter of the city was assigned to the Phoenician merchants, and the trade by sea to the mouths of the Nile grew into importance. The first branch of the eastern Phoenician trade was with Judæa and Syria Proper. The dependance of the Phoenicians on Palestine for grain fully explains the cause of their close alliance with the Jewish kingdom in the reigns of David and Solomon.

But the most important branch of eastern trade was that through Bab'ylon with the interior of Asia. A great part of the route lay through the Syrian desert; and to facilitate the passage of the caravans, two of the most remarkable cities of the ancient world, Baal'bec and Palmy'ra, were founded. They were both built by Solomon: "he founded," says the Scripture, "Baálath (Baal'bec) and Tadmor (Palmy'ra) in the desert." They were erected by that wise monarch to procure for his subjects a share in this lucrative traffic; but this object was frustrated by the subsequent revolt of the ten tribes, and the wars between Israel and Judah.

The northern land-trade of the Phoenicians is described by no an cient writer but the prophet Ezekiel: "Jávan [Iónia, and the Greek colonies], Túbal, and Méshech [the countries around the Black and north Caspian seas], they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy markets. They of the house of Togar'mah [Arménia and Cappadócia], traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules."||

Ezekiel xxvi. 19-23.

Ezekiel xxvii. 17, 18. § 1 Kings ix. 18.

† Ib. xxvii. 15.
Ezekiel xxvii. 13, 14.

But the Mediterranean sea was the great high road of Phoenician commerce: it probably commenced with piracy; for in the infancy of Grecian civilization, we find frequent mention of the kidnapping practised by corsairs from Tyre and Sidon. But when Greece advanced in power, and Athens and Corinth had fleets of their own, the Greeks became the rivals and political enemies of the Phoenicians, purchasing from them only such articles as could not be procured from their own colonies in Asia Minor. Spain was the richest country of the ancient world in the precious metals. The Phoenician colonies enslaved the natives, and compelled them to work in the mines: these metallic productions are enumerated by Ezekiel. "Tar'shish [Tartes'sus, or southwestern Spain], was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches: with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in th fairs."* From Spain the Phoenicians entered the Atlantic ocean, and proceeded to the south of the British islands, where they procured the tin of Cornwall; and probably to the coasts of Prussia for amber, which in the ancient world was deemed more precious than gold. In the eastern seas, the Phoenicians had establishments on the Arabian and Persian gulf, whence they traded with the coasts of India and Africa, and the island of Ceylon. During the reign of Pharaoh-Nécho, king of Egypt, they discovered the passage round the Cape of Good Hope; but this led to no important results, on account of the calamities that Tyre endured from the invasion of Nebuchadnez'zar. Though their voyages did not equal in daring those of modern times, yet, wher we consider that they were ignorant of the mariner's compass, and of the art of taking accurate astronomical observations, it is wonderful to reflect on the commercial enterprise of a people whose ships were to be seen in the harbors of Britain and Ceylon.

Ezekiel xxvii. 12.

CHAPTER V.

PALESTINE.

SECTION I.-Geographical Outline

PALESTINE, or the Holy Land, lies between Phoenicia on the north, and Idumæ'a on the south, separated from both by chains of lofty mountains; to the east its boundaries were the Asphaltic lake, the river Jordan, and the sea of Galilee; on the west it extended to the Mediterranean. The mountains are the most remarkable features in the geography of Palestine. These mountains divided Palestine into a series of valleys and tablelands, leaving two great plains, called "the region about Jordan," and the plain of Esdraélon, or Jez'reel. These valleys and plains were of very unequal value; some were so unproductive as to be called deserts, others were the most fertile spots in western Asia.

Jordan was the only great river of Palestine; it falls into the Asphaltic lake, or Dead sea, which occupies the site of the ancient cities Sodom and Gomor'rah. There is no outlet from the Asphaltic lake, and its waters are bitter and unwholesome. The sea of Galilee, through which the Jordan flows, is a beautiful fresh-water lake, abounding in fish.

The principal cities were Jerúsalem, the metropolis of the kingdom of Judah, and Samária, the capital of Israel. Idumæ'a lay south of Palestine, beyond the chain of Mount Seir: it was in general a rocky and barren country; but being the high road of Arabian traffic, its nat ural capabilities were improved to the utmost, and it contained the great city of Pétra, whose commercial wealth was deservedly celebrated. Idumæla, or Edom, was annexed to the kingdom of Israel in the reign of David.

The valleys of Palestine were in general very fruitful; and the varied elevations of the country, causing so many different climates, gave the country a greater variety of natural productions than is usually found in so confined a space.

A series of calamities, unparalleled in any other portion of the globe. has now reduced Palestine almost to sterility; but even now there are spots to be found whose luxuriance revives the memory of the verdure and beauty that once covered the entire country.

SECTION II.-History of Palestine.

FROM B. C. 1920 To B. c. 975.

GOD called Abram from the land of the Challees to Palestine, then named Canaan, to be the founder of a nation that should be his peculiar

people (B. c. 1920). Abraham, at his death (B. c. 1821), transmitted the inheritance of the divine promise to his son Isaac; and he was deceived into making his second son Jacob, or Israel, the heir of this glorious privilege. The sons of Jacob sold their brother Joseph as a slave to some Arabian merchants, by whom he was carried into Egypt. There he became the chief minister of the Pharaoh of Egypt; his brethren having come into that country to purchase corn, he made himself known to them, and invited his father, with his whole family, to dwell to the rich district of Góshen (B. C. 1705). In process of time, the Israelites became so numerous as to excite the envious alarm of the Egyptians: they were in consequence cruelly persecuted, until God raised up Moses as their deliverer. The miraculous plagues he inflicted on the land of Egypt induced the reigning Pharaoh to consent to the departure of the Israelites (B. c. 1491). Repenting of his permission, he pursued them with a mighty host; but he and all his followers perished in the Red sea.

After the miraculous deliverance of the Hebrews from the Egyptian army, and their safe passage through the Red sea, it seemed as if their chief difficulties had been overcome; that with Jehovah for their protector, and Moses for their guide, they would soon reach the frontiers of Canaan, and find no difficulty in subduing its idolatrous inhabitants. Were there no other difficulties to be overcome than the ruggedness of the way, and the hostility of the various warlike races in and round Palestine, the wanderings of the Israelites would soon have terminated, but during their protracted bondage they had been deeply imbued with all the vices of slavery; they had become stubborn, rebellious, and inconstant; they vacillated between the extremes of cowardice and rashness, and they had acquired an almost invincible fondness for idolatry and superstition, which proved a constant source of misfortunes to themselves and of the most harassing vexations to their leader.

In the beginning of the third month after the departure from Góshen, the Israelites reached the plains around Sin'ai, where amid the most awful manifestations of the Divine presence, Moses ascended the mountain, and received from the Lord the sacred code of laws by which the Israelites were thenceforth to be ruled under God's immediate government, and which was moreover designed, both by its moral and ceremonial institutions, to be "a schoolmaster to the Jews to bring them unto Christ." The constitution thus given to the Israelites may be described as a theocracy; that is, a government in which God himself was the sovereign, communicating his will by certain authorized ministers. The priests through whom the Divine commands were made known, could only be chosen from the descendants of Aaron; and all the inferior ministers of religion belonged to the tribe of Levi. All the institutions appointed for the people were directed to one great object, the preservation of the purity of religious worship: the Israelites were not chosen to be the most wealthy or most powerful of nations, but to be the guardians of the knowledge of the true God, until the arrival of that divine Savior who was to unite both Jews and Gentiles as one flock, under one shepherd. While Moses continued on the mount, the Israelites, impatient at his long absence, formed a golden calf, or representation of a young bull, as an object for their idolatrous worship

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