Before Chrifl; 585. 39 



In this lively pidure we fee Tyre the center and the enlivening' foul 

 of a commerce, not lefs extenfive than the utmoll; limits of the then 

 known world, dircding and animating the operations of the merchants 

 and manufadurers in the rnofl diflant regions, and through their hands 

 difpenfmg to the induftrious, in every biifinefs and profellion through- 

 out the world, the bleflings of a comfortable and independent fuhfift- 

 ence for themfelves and their families ; or in a word, enriching all the 

 world by enriching herfelf, which is the grand and charaderilHcal dif- 

 ference between the acquifition of wealth by commerce, and the feizure 

 of it by conqueft. 



Unhappily the vafl: wealth, which thus flowed into Tyre from all 

 quarters, brought along with it its too general confequence of extrava- 

 gant diflipation and diiToIutenefs of morals. 



585 — The commercial prolperity of the Tyrians, hitherto almofl: un- 

 interrupted, now iuffered a fliort eclipfe. Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty 

 king of Babylon, fat down before the city with an innumerable army. 

 Though deprived of all fupplies from the adjacent country by the ene- 

 my, the command of the fea enabled the Tyrians to ftand out no lefs 

 than thirteen years againft a monarch, whole territories were at leafl a 

 thouiand times as extenfive as theirs. But feeing that it would be im- 

 poflible to repell fuch an unequal landed force from their walls, they 

 wifely availed themfelves of the fuperior value, which moveable pro- 

 perty in fuch an emergency has in the hands of a people poflefling the 

 command of the fea : and they came to the refolution of totally aban- 

 doning their city and territory on the continent, and eftablidiing them- 

 felves on a fmall iiland near the fliore. For this purpofe they kept up 

 the defence for many years, during which the new city was built, and 

 every valuable article removed to it. Then, after baffling the power of 

 the great conqueror of the Eaft during thirteen years, was the fiiell, or 

 carcale, of old Tyre abandoned to his exhaufled and difappointed army. 

 And from her alhes fprung up a new Tyre, which, like the imaginary 

 bird bearing her national name of Phoenix, was in all things the perfedl 

 refemblance of her parent, and with little or no interruption continued 

 in nearly the fame career of commercial profperity, till fhe in her turn 

 was fubjeded by the irreiiftible power of Alexander. 



573 — The Egyptians difpleafed with the condud of their king 

 Apries, appointed Amafis to be king inftead of him. In his time Egypt 

 is laid to have contained 1,020 inhabited towns. Having more enlight- 

 ened ideas of commerce and maritime affairs than any of his predecef- 

 fors, he eftabliflied an emporium at Navicratis, a town on the weftern 

 or Canopic mouth of the Nile, to which he made traders of all nations 

 welcome, as the Chinele do now at Canton ; but, like his predecellor 



cal knowlege and enterprise fliould fee the regu- availing themfelves of the advantages offered by 

 lar periodical changing of the monfoons without them to their navigation. 



