84 ON THE DATE AND ORIGIN 
man. The indigenous products of all the shores of the Mediterranean 
very much resemble each other, and, except in occasional or partial 
failure of crops, would allow of little interchange ; but the earliest mer- 
chants would readily discover the avidity with which rarity and novelty 
are sought by those who have made the first advances in civilization. 
The fine cloths of India, the glass and scarlet robes of Tyre, the gold 
of Ophir, and the iron of the Chalybes ; the dried fruits of Palestine, 
of Syria, and of Sinai, the spices of Arabia and Hindostan, and the 
antipodal stores of Ultima Thule herself, would excite the cupidity of 
the purchaser, and remunerate the enterprise of the merchant; and 
it is interesting to contemplate in the commerce of Sidon and Tyre 
the prototype of British vigour and speculation. 
The citizens of those woe-doomed hayens+* ministered to the 
des siecles anterieurs a la guerre de Troye, et que sa decouverte a ete faite 
dans le temps de la grande puissance des Etrusques.” 
42 The prophet Ezekiel was taken captive to Babylon about five hun- 
dred and ninety-nine years before the christian era ; and it may be supposed 
that about the same time, or soon after, Nebuchadnezzar commenced his siege 
of the continental city of Tyre, which siege lasted 13 years. The Tyrian 
citizens, to avoid the inconveniences of a future siege, retired to the island, 
and established their city on the waters. The offended pride of Alexander 
the Great, 270 years after this period, was appeased only by the destruction 
of this independent and single-handed opponent, which had checked, during 
seven months, his lust of universal dominion. The city, however, was soon 
rebuilt ; and about 450 years after its destruction by the son of Philip, it 
was made the metropolis of a district by Hadrian, the fifteenth emperor of 
Rome. In the conflict of national fanaticisms, she fell in common with the 
cities of Spain, Africa, and Arabia, of Persia, Palestine, and Syria, under 
the zeal and scimitar of the disciples of Mahomet, 638 years after the pro- 
pagation of christianity on her borders. She was again wrested from the 
grasp of infidels by the devoted fanaticism of the crusaders, under Baldwin 
II. the phantom king of Jerusalem ; and after the holy sepulchre had been 
again abandoned to the keeping of infidels and Musselmen, was again de- 
stroyed and deserted, by the injured and avenged Sultan of Egypt, in 1289, 
In 1783-4, the philosophic and faithful Volney remarks, ‘‘ The whole village 
of Tyre contains only fifty or sixty poor families. The situation, neverthe- 
less, of the once empress of the ocean is favourable to mercantile enterprise, 
though the commerce of the east has been abstracted from her paths into the 
far Atlantic.” Mr. Buckingham, one of the most recent travellers in Syria, 
describes it as again rising into comparative importance. ‘‘ At the present 
time, the town of Sour (Tyre) contains about eight hundred substantial 
stone-built dwellings, mostly having courts and various conveniences at- 
tached to them, besides other smaller habitations for the poor. There are 
within the walls one mosque, three christian churches, a bath, and three 
bazaars ; at the lowest computation, it contains from five to eight thousand 
