CHAP. II. EUROPE AND GREEK COLONIES. 65 



gain, by which that people were distinguished, 

 may have led to the discovery of the European 

 ores, without its producing any benefit to the 

 natives of Europe, who were robbed of their 

 metallic treasures before they were acquainted 

 with their value ; for they were equally ig- 

 norant of the modes of extracting them from 

 the earth, and of purifying them from their 

 grosser particles. If the Phoenicians were the 

 first who carried on mining operations in Europe, 

 they were by no means the universal teachers of 

 that art. In most cases, other refugees, who 

 came from the more eastern parts of Asia, were 

 the first instructors of the .Europeans, and the 

 first explorers of their mines. 



The most civilized of the people of Europe 

 were found in the early ages along the shores of 

 the Mediterranean sea ; and it is among them 

 we discover the first steps in mining. The 

 earliest of those tribes were the Greeks, whose 

 progress in this branch of industry it will be 

 proper in the first place to examine. Then fol- 

 lowed the Romans ; and after them, but at a 

 great distance, both in time and in skill, those 

 called by the two former people the barbarians, 

 in the neighbourhood of the Danube. 



The Greeks explored beneath the surface in 

 various districts in their own country, as well as 

 in their eastern and western colonial establish- 

 ments. This searching for ore, when it had 



VOL. i. F 



