virtue of pointing to the poles had entirely efcaped their obfervation. Deftitute of this

faithful guide, which now conducts the pilot with fo much certainty in the unbounded ocean, during the darkness of night, or when the heavens are covered with clouds, the ancients had no other method of regulating their courfe than by obferving the fun and ftars. Their navigation was of confequence uncertain and timid. They durft feldom quit fight of land, but crept along the coaft, expofed to all the dangers, and retarded by all the obftructions, unavoidable in holding fuch an awkward courfe. An incredible length of time was requifite for performing voy. ages, which are now finished in a fhort space. Even in the mildeft climates, and in feas the least tempeftuous, it was only during the fummer months that the ancients ventured out of their harbours. The remainder of the year was loft in inactivity. It would have been deemed moft inconfiderate rashness to have braved the fury of the winds and waves during winter a.

While both the science and practice of navigation continued to be fo defective, it was an undertaking of no fmall difficulty and danger to vifit any remote region of the earth. Under every dífadvantage, however, the active spirit of commerce exerted itself. The Egyptians, foon after the establishment of their monarchy, are faid to have opened a trade between the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea, and the western coaft of the great Indian continent. The commodities which they imported from the eaft, were carried by land

A Vegetius de Re milit. lib. iv.

from

from the Arabian Gulf to the banks of the Nile, and conveyed down that river to the Mediterranean. But if the Egyptians in early times applied themselves to commerce, their attention to it was of fhort duration. The fertile foil and mild climate of Egypt produced the neceffaries and comforts of life with fuch profufion, as rendered its inhabitants fo independent of other countries, that it became an established maxim among that people, whose ideas and institutions differed in almoft every point from thofe of other nations, to renounce all intercourfe with foreigners. In confequence of this, they never went out of their own country; they held all feafaring perfons in deteftation, as impious and profane; and fortifying their own harbours, they denied ftrangers admittance into them. It was in the decline of their power, and when their veneration for ancient maxims had greatly abated, that they again opened their ports, and refumed any communication with foreigners.

The character and fituation of the Phenicians were as favourable to the spirit of commerce and discovery as thofe of the Egyptians were adverse to it. They had no diftinguishing peculiarity in their manners and inftitutions; they were not addicted to any fingular and unfocial form of fuperftition; they could mingle with other nations. without fcruple or reluctance. The territory which they poffeffed was neither large nor fertile. Commerce was the only fource from which they could derive opulence or power. Accordingly,

b Diod. Sicul. lib. i. p. 78. Ed. Weffelingi. Amft. 1756. Strabe, lib. xvii. p. 1142. Ed. Amft. 1707.

the

the trade carried on by the Phenicians of, Sidon and Tyre, was more extenfive and enterprifing than that of any state in the ancient world. The genius of the Phenicians, as well as the object of their policy and the spirit of their laws, were entirely commercial. They were a people of merchants who aimed at the empire of the fea, and actually poffeffed it. Their fhips not only frequented all the ports in the Mediterranean, but they were the first who ventured beyond the ancient boundaries of navigation, and paffing the Straits of Gades, vifited the western coafts of Spain and Africa. In many of the places to which they reforted, they planted colonies, and communicated to the rude inhabitants fome knowledge of their arts and improvements. While they extended their difcoveries towards the north and the weft, they did not neglect to penetrate into the more opulent and fertile regions of the fouth and eaft. Having rendered themselves mafters of feveral commodious harbours towards the bottom of the Arabian Gulf, they, after the example of the Egyptians, eftablished a regular intercourse with Arabia and the continent of India on the one hand, and with the eastern coaft of Africa on the other. From these countries they imported many valuable commodities, unknown to the rest of the world, and, during a long period, engroffed that lucrative branch of commerce without a rival".

The vaft wealth which the Phenicians acquired by monopolizing the trade carried on in the Red Sea, incited their neighbours the Jews, under the profperous reigns of David and Solomon, to

aim at being admitted to some share of it. This they obtained, partly by their conqueft of Idumea, which ftretches along the Red Sea, and partly by their alliance with Hiram king of Tyre. Solomon fitted out fleets, which, under the direction of Phenician pilots, failed from the Red Sea to Tarshish and Ophir. These it is probable were ports in India and Africa which their conductors were accustomed to frequent, and from them the Jewifh fhips returned with fuch valuable cargoes as fuddenly diffused wealth and fplendour through the kingdom of Ifrael. But the fingular inftitutions of the Jews, the obfervance of which was enjoined by their divine legiflator, with an intention of preferving them a feparate people, uninfected by idolatry, formed a national character incapable of that open and liberal intercourfe with ftrangers which commerce requires. Accordingly, this unfocial genius of the people, together with the disasters which befel the kingdom of Ifrael, prevented the commercial spirit which their monarchs laboured to introduce, and to cherish, from spreading among them. The Jews cannot be numbered among the nations which contributed to improve navigation, or to extend discovery.

But though the inftructions and example of the Phenicians were unable to mould the manners and temper of the Jews, in oppofition to the tendency of their laws, they tranfmitted the commercial spirit with facility, and in full vigour, to their own defcendants the Carthagi nians. The commonwealth of Carthage applied

d Memoire fur le Pays d'Ophir par M. D'Anville, Mem. de l'Academ. des Infcript. &c. tom. xxx. 83.

to

to trade and to naval affairs, with no lefs ardour, ingenuity, and fuccefs, than its parent ftate. Carthage early rivalled, and foon furpaffed Tyre, in opulence and power, but feems not to have aimed at obtaining any fhare in the commerce with India. The Phenicians had engroffed this, and had fuch a command of the Red Sea, as fecured to them the exclufive poffeffion of that lucrative branch of trade. The commercial activity of the Carthaginians was exerted in another direction. Without contending for the trade of the east with their mother-country, they extended their navigation chiefly towards the weft and north. Following the courfe which the Phenicians had opened, they paffed the Straits of Gades, and pufhing their discoveries far beyond thofe of the parent ftate, vifited not only all the coafts of Spain, but those of Gaul, and penetrated at last into Britain. At the fame time that they acquired knowledge of new countries in this part of the globe, they gradually carried their refearches towards the fouth. They made confiderable progrefs, by land, into the interior provinces of Africa, traded with fome of them, and fubjected others to their empire. They failed along the western coaft of that great continent, almost to the tropic of Cancer, and planted feveral colonies, in order to civilize the natives, and accustom them to commerce. They difcovered the Fortunate Iflands, now known by the name of the Cana, ries, the utmost boundary of ancient navigation in the western ocean e

e Plinii Nat. Hift. lib, vi. cap. 37. edit. in ufum Delph. 4to. 1685.