108 DISCOVERY OF THE ATLANTIC. 



vailed ; and their establishments were planted in the 

 Grecian Archipelago and in Greece itself, on the 

 marshy shores of the Black Sea, in Italy, Sicily, the 

 African coast and Spain. 



Then becoming bolder and more skilful, they would 

 no longer be imprisoned within the lake-like waters 

 of the land-locked sea. They sailed out through the 

 Straits of Gibraltar, and beheld the awful phenomenon 

 of tides. They sailed, on the left hand to Morocco for 

 ivory and gold dust, on the right hand for amber and 

 tin to the ice-creeks of the Baltic and the foaming waters 

 of the British Isles. They also opened up an inland 

 trade. They were the first to overcome the exclusiveness 

 of Egypt, and were permitted to settle in Memphis itself. 

 Their quarter was called the Syrian camp ; it was built 

 round a grove and chapel sacred to Astarte. Their 

 caravan routes extended in every direction towards the 

 treasure countries of the East. Wandering Arabs were 

 their sailors, and camels were their ships. They made 

 voyages by sand, more dangerous than those by sea, to 

 Babylon through Palmyra, or Tadmor, on the skirts of 

 the desert ; to Arabia Felix, and the market city of 

 Petra; and to Gerrha, a city built entirely of salt on 

 the rainless shores of the Persian Gulf. 



Phoenicia itself was a narrow undulating plain 

 about a hundred miles in length, and at the most not 

 more than a morning's ride in breadth. It was walled 

 in by the mountains on the north and east. To those 

 who sailed along its coast, it appeared to be one great 

 city interspersed with gardens and fields. On the 

 lower slopes of the hills beyond gleamed the green 

 vineyard patches and the villas of the merchants. The 

 offing was whitened with sails ; and in every harbour 

 was a grove of masts. But it was Tyre which, of all 



