44 THE HOESE OF AMERICA. 



the candle." What a strange fact it is that Arabia, instead of 

 the first, should have been the last country in all the old world to 

 be supplied with horses! 



It is very difficult to comprehend or even imagine the changes 

 that may be wrought in a thousand years by a strong, enterpris- 

 ing, and aggressive people, colonized in a rich country occupied 

 by semi-barbarians and savages. This was the condition in 

 Northern Africa, when the Phoenician colonies were planted 

 there, a thousand years before the Christian era. The colony at 

 Utica in Algeria was planted about eleven hundred years before 

 the Christian era, which was contemporaneous with the reign of 

 Saul as king of Israel. The colony of Carthage, that afterward 

 contested with Rome for universal dominion, was planted in the 

 same country, about two hundred years later, and was contem- 

 poraneous with Jehu. The whole southern shore of the Mediter- 

 ranean was dotted with Phoenician colonies, from Egypt west- 

 ward. 



The oldest of the Phoenician colonies so far from home was 

 probably Gades, now called Cadiz, on the Atlantic coast of Spain 

 and outside of the Pillars of Hercules. This colony was planted 

 about fifteen hundred years B.C. and was contemporaneous with 

 Moses and the forty years' journeying of the Israelites in the- 

 wilderness. The more recent scholarship seems to have de- 

 veloped the fact that still north of Gades and extending from 

 the mouth of the Guadelete to that of the Guadiana, there was a 

 very large and flourishing colony planted by the Phoenicians, 

 possessing within itself many of the requisites and functions of 

 statehood, and that this was the ancient "Tarshish" of scripture. 

 This plantation became a secondary Tyre, and the "ships of Tar- 

 shish" not only made their voyages back and forth through the 

 length of the Mediterranean, but extended them northward, up 

 the European coast and to Britain, and southward along the 

 African coast for a great distance, establishing trading posts 

 wherever the products of a country promised profitable exchange. 



The planting of colonies in that age, even for the one ostensi- 

 ble purpose of trade, involved more than the mere erection of a 

 "trading post" at some selected harbor. A strong and well- 

 equipped and well-trained military force had to be employed to 

 protect and defend them. The Phoenicians were great traders, 

 and at the same time they were excellent fighters. Their numer- 

 ous colonies on both shores of the Mediterranean required a 



