270 THE COMING OF MAN 



The Phoenicians, who hved just north of the place 

 Abraham chose to be the home of his people, early 

 learned to trust themselves to the sea, or, as it says in 

 the Bible, 'Hhey went down to the sea in ships." 

 At the time when remembered history begins, and 

 we do not have to depend on nature's book alone for 

 all we know about those who went before us, we find 

 the Phoenicians the greatest traders. Other people, 

 like the Egyptians and the Assyrians, traded between 

 themselves across the desert by means of camels; and 

 in central Europe where our lake-dweller had lived, 

 they probably traded with laden horses. But the 

 Phoenicians put out to sea in ships and went to all 

 the countries that bordered the Mediterranean, 

 carrying back and forth, from one people to another, 

 the articles each desired. 



As far as England those small and unseaworthy 

 ships went in their search for tin. This is a rare 

 metal, and most useful in giving the desired hardness 

 to copper. They even went to the Baltic Sea for 

 amber. That was a venturesome voyage for those 

 days. Those were brave men and ready for adven- 

 ture, or they never would have trusted their lives so 

 far from their home on the frail boats which they 

 called ships. Out of the Straits of Gibraltar they 

 sailed, over a rough ocean to a land of savages, to get 

 the much treasured tin, and far, far beyond to get 

 other things they wanted. 



For years and years theirs were the ships that 

 sailed back and forth in the Mediterranean and in the 

 Atlantic Ocean, carrying about to the different 

 peoples many a new idea as well as the articles of 



