44§ TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



ans. But he did not long enjoy this good fortune, for the 

 year after, Rezin * was conquered by Tilgath-pilefer ; and 

 one of the fruits of this victory was the taking of Eloth, 

 which never after returned to the Jews, or was of any pro- 

 fit to Jerufalem. 



The repeated wars and conqueft to which the cities on 

 the Elanitic Gulf had been fubiecl, the extirpation of the 

 Edomites, ail the great events that immediately followed 

 one another, of courfe difturbed the ufual channel of trade 

 by the Red Sea, whofe ports were now confequently become 

 unfafe by being in pofTeflion of ftrangers,, robbers, and fol- 

 diers ; it changed, therefore, to a place nearer the center of 

 police and good government, than fortified and frontier 

 towns could be fuppofed to be. The Indian and African 

 merchants, by convention,, met in AfTyria, as they had done 

 in Semiramis's time ; the one by the Perfian Gulf and Eu- 

 phrates, the other through Arabia. AfTyria, therefore, be- 

 came the mart of the India trade in the EafL 



The conquefts of Nabopollafer, and his fon Nebuchadnez- 

 zar, had brought a prodigious quantity of bullion, both 

 lilver and gold, to Babylon his capital. For he had plun- 

 ured Tyre f, and robbed Solomon's Temple X of all the gold 

 that had been brought from Ophir; and he had, befides, con- 

 quered Egypt and laid it wafte, and cut off the communica- 

 tion of trade in all thefe places, by almofl extirpating the 



people. 



* 2 Kings, chap. xvi. ver. 6. 

 f Ezek. chap, xxvi. ver. 7. % 1 Kings, chap. x\iv ver. 13. and : Chron. chap, xxxvi. 



vsr. 7. 



