APPENDIX. 419 



sented as bringing from Tarshish gold and silver, ivory, apes, 

 and peacocks. These are products of Africa or southern 

 Asia, rather than of Europe. If we could be quite certain 

 that "peacocks" is the right rendering of D^DID (Tukiirri), 

 it would fix this voyage to oriental Asia ; and the same con- 

 clusion would be confirmed if we could certainly identify this 

 fleet with that of Solomon and Hiram, which (1 Kings ix. 26- 

 28) sailed from the Red Sea to Ophir. In 2 Chron. xx. 36, ships 

 are represented as built at Ezion-gaber, (in the Red Sea,) for a 

 voyage to Tarshish ; but in the parallel passage (1 Kings xxii. 

 48) these ships are called u ships of Tharshish," intended " to 

 go to Ophir" 



The evidence in favour of a western Tarshish is far too 

 strong to be set aside by these passages, allowing them the 

 full weight of an opposing character, of which they are ca- 

 pable. At the utmost, one could only admit two Tarshishes, 

 one oriental, the other occidental ; and some have adopted 

 this hypothesis. But to me it seems far more probable that, 

 owing to the celebrity of the proper western Tarshish, the word 

 came to be used indefinitely for any remote country beyond 

 sea ; and that the Hebrews used the expression, " a voyage to 

 Tarshish," or " ships of Tarshish," as equivalent to " a voyage 

 to foreign parts," or " ships that go foreign." 



I come now to examine what light we have for identifying 

 the true (i.e. the western) Tarshish, as characterized by pro- 

 positions 1-13, with any country or town known in ancient or 

 modern times, or in both. 



Commentators have generally been content to fix on Tar- 

 tessus, a city said to have been early founded by the Phoeni- 

 cians, in the south of Spain. There is much doubt about the 

 actual position of this city : according to Herodotus (iv. 152), 

 it was outside the straits of Gibraltar ; but all agree that it 

 had ceased to exist before the Christian era. This fact alone 

 is fatal to the identification of Tarshish with Tartessus.* 

 Whatever points of agreement there may have been, Tartes- 



* I think it probable that this Phoenician colony was named after the 

 original Tarshish. 



