58 G. Elliot Smith on 



that " formerly the Phoenicians alone carried on this traffic from 

 Gades, concealing the ])assage from everyone." Elsewhere the 

 same writer tells us that the Phoenicians excelled all other 

 nations in their skill in navigation and by their expertness in the 

 manufacture of purple dye. As Rawlinson says : — " Phoenicia 

 had [circa 1000 B.C.] no serious commercial rival, and the trade 

 of the world was in their hands " 



If we recall the united testimony of the Old Testament and 

 the ancient Greek and Latin writers we cannot refuse to recog- 

 nise that the Phoenicians had almost complete command of the 

 sea and controlled far-reaching commercial enterprises in the 

 East and West. The fundamental factor underlying their material 

 prosperity was the possession of a great mercantile fleet and 

 sailors who had the knowledge and experience to enable them to 

 put out with confidence into the open sea and, trusting to the 

 guidance of the stars — more especially the Pole star, which the 

 Greeks called " the Phoenician " — to sail by night. It was the 

 expertness of her pilots which made other nations dependent 

 upon Phoenicia, without whose help Solomon could not venture 

 upon his greatest enterprises. At the time when the great 

 easterly diffusion of culture took place the Phoenicians were the 

 only people competent and able to direct such vast exploits by 

 sea ; and the combination of practices and beliefs that were so 

 spread abroad affords abundant testimony to the fact that it was 

 the Phoenicians, or sailors of other nations who had acquired 

 both their methods and their cultural equipment, who directed 

 and controlled the transference of Mediterranean civilization to 

 the East and America. The use of the purple dye, the conch- 

 shell trumpet, and the distinctive blend of Egyptian, Babylonian 

 and Mediterranean designs and ideas, all indicate that the 

 influence of the Phoenicians who inaugurated this great Oriental 

 drift of culture also continued to make itself felt in America long 

 after it had passed out of the control of these great commercial 

 adventurers. 



At the time when they were busy in Western enterprises 



