86 Notices respecting New Books. 



drawing up of which he displays much industry, and a very 

 extensive knowledge of bibliography. The hitherto cele- 

 brated Histoire Gencrale des Foyages, is now found to have 

 been a literal translation, as far as the seventh vcluuie, and 

 part of the eighth, from a general collection of voyages and 

 travels, in four thick quartos, printed in London, for a 

 bookseller of the name of Astley, and compiled by Mr. 

 John Green. The merchant will peruse this volume with 

 interest from the information it necessarily aflbrds relative to 

 maritime commerce. Instead of the trite and confused ac-. 

 count of the Phoenicians, whom preceding writers have 

 considered as the first promoters of commerce, Mr. Clarke 

 refers his readers to maritime traders of much higher anti-: 

 quity ; and after favouring them with an abstract of Mr, 

 Brj-ant's sentiments respecting the Noachidce, the Amo- 

 nians (a name uhich comprehended all nations known as 

 inhabitants of Egypt, of Phoenicia, or Canaan) the Cuthitcs, 

 the Anakim, the Titans, the Scythae, and the Atlantians; 

 he clearly traces the progress of maritime nations from the 

 Indian Ocean to the shore of the Red Sea, where the 

 Edomites, the ancestors of the Phoenicians, formed their 

 first settlement at Mount Seir. (Sect. 2. p. 67-) Mr, 

 Clarke theri enters on the maritirnc history of the Hebrews, 

 in which the country of Ophir is considered, and the term 

 Taj-shish; the former hcig inclined to think, with Bochart, 

 was Ceylon, and that by Tarshish was meant the Sea, in 

 its most extensive signification. (Sect. 3. p. 64.) He then 

 coi;cludes his account of the sacred periods of maritime 

 history with a refutation of the Phoenician Periplus of 

 Africa. The maritime discoveries of the Greeks are de- 

 tailed with considerable interest from a variety of learned 

 writers, whose rare cHid expensive volumes can only be pro- 

 cured qt a considerable expense and difficulty. Costard's 

 excellent, but long neglected History of Astronomy, is 

 justly appreciated by Mr. Clarke ; and the Athenian com- 

 merce on the Euxine, is given from his grandfather's 

 learned work, the connej^ion of the Roman, Saxon, and 

 English coins. At the same time, however, that our au- 

 thor thus collects and combines the opinions of different 

 writers, which we must acknowledge is done in a fair and 

 candid manner, he occasionally favours and relieves the rea- 

 der with such original remarks as the nature of the digest lie 

 had in view would admi^. The naval character of the Cireeks 

 is thus describi-'d : — " The professional character of Grecian 

 seamen was ir.tluencedby the manners of the different states 

 to which they belonged j and it therefore fluctuated on an 

 1 extensive 



