CHAP. II. 



SPAIN. 95 



the place of those native workmen who had been 

 destroyed by the excessive toil imposed on them 

 by their Asiatic intruders. This horrid traffic 

 was extended and continued, and it augmented 

 the produce of the mines of Spain in such a 

 degree as to have an influence on the whole 

 commerce of the world at that period. That 

 influence was continued till the government of 

 the Romans, who succeeded the Carthaginians 

 in the mastery of Spain, had fallen into the hands 

 of the Gothic monarchs. 



The first mines excavated by the Phoenicians 

 were probably confined to Andalusia. The 

 chief of them were at the foot of the Sierra 

 Morena, near the frontier of Jaen, and not far 

 from the river Guadalquiver, by which the pro- 

 duce could be conveyed by water to Hispalis, 

 now Seville, one of the chief garrisons and 

 marts ; and where even at the present day stands 

 the magazine called the Torre del Oro, said to 

 have been built before the Christian era. 



Silver was the chief mineral wealth ; but be- 

 sides that metal, gold, iron, and lead were pro- 

 cured in the south, and some tin in the north of 

 Spain. The gold was probably inconsiderable. 

 It is not mentioned by Ezekiel in his curious 

 catalogue of the wares which formed the trade 

 of Tyre in the chapter before referred to, and it 

 is but slightly noticed by the profane writers. 

 The commerce of Spain was not however con- 



