CHAP. XIIL] THE SPREAD OF PHCENICIAN COMMERCE. 457 



passed under its dominion. This dominion was so 

 widely extended in Spain that no less than 200 towns 

 are said to have been founded by them, some of which, 

 such as Malacca, Carteja, Hispalis (Sevilla), still remain. 

 The great mineral riches and natural fertility of the 

 country caused a trade to spring up, and, as in the case 

 of most of our colonies, the trade was rapidly followed 

 by supremacy, which, if the Eomans had been con- 

 quered, would have turned the Iberian peninsula into 

 a Carthaginian province, and might have resulted in 

 Carthage becoming the mistress of the world. The 

 silver enabled them to make that metal a standard of 

 value, and thus gave enormous facilities for traffic, 

 while the tin and the copper gave them the materials 

 for making bronze, used so largely in the Mediterranean 

 trade. 



The Spread of Phoenician Commerce to Britain. 



The adventurous Phoenician mariners having estab- 

 lished themselves in Spain, pushed their enterprises 

 farther and farther northwards along the shores of the 

 ocean. According to Pliny, Himilco l set out from 

 Gades on his voyage of discovery about the same time 

 that the Carthaginians sent Hanno to plant factories on 

 the west coast of Africa, in B.C. 500. 2 He first rounded 

 the Sacred Promontory (Cape St. Vincent), coasted 

 along the shores of Lusitania (Portugal), and made for 

 the harbour of the Artabri 3 (Bay of Corunna), passing 



1 Pliny, ii. 67. From Pliny's incidental notice it is obvious that the 

 account of Himilco's voyage was extant in his time. 



2 B.C. 475, according to Sir G. C. Lewis, Astronomy of the Ancients, 

 p. 450. 3 Strabo, iii. c. 176 ; Meineke, vol. i. 239. 



