THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 85 



passengers, is of great interest, and suggests an inquiry as to the 

 channels of former communication between Europe and the East. 



According to Robertson, the Phenicians procured the products of 

 India, brought overland, to Rhinocolura, in the Mediterranean, a 

 port, according to the best maps I have had an opportunity of con- 

 sulting, not far distant from the modern El-Arish, and conveying 

 them by a short transport, thence to Tyre, made the latter city the 

 great emporium of that most profitable commerce. The conquests 

 of Alexander, and the founding of that city which still exists as an 

 enduring monument of his far-sighted sagacity, drew commerce into 

 a new channel, and transferred to Alexandria the trade of which the 

 Phenicians had had the monopoly. Subsequently, a portion of this 

 trade appears to have been carried on up the Euphrates and by land 

 carriage to Palmyra, and thence to the Mediterranean, until the con- 

 quest of Palmyra by Aurelian destroyed this commerce. Some por- 

 tion of the trade was also carried on through the Provinces which 

 extend along the northern frontier of India, either by land carriage 

 into the interior parts of Persia, or by means of rivers through Up- 

 per Asia to the Caspian, and thence to the Euxine sea. 



It was through such channels of communication that Constantino- 

 ple obtained its supply of East Indian products. The hostilities that 

 sprang up between the Christians and the Mahommedans, almost, if 

 not entirely, put an end to European intercourse with Alexandria, 

 and with such parts of Syria as had been the marts of Indian com- 

 modities. At a later period Venice obtained a great control over 

 this trade, which continued as long as Constantinople remained the 

 capital of the Latin Empire- The restoration of the Imperial 

 family to the throne, however, aided as it was by the Genoese, gave 

 these in turn the advantages which the Venetians had monopolized, 

 and the merchants of Venice were consequently driven to re-estab- 

 lish that commercial intercourse with Alexandria which had been so 

 long interrupted. But the final overthrow of the Greek Empire by 

 Mahomet II., in 1453, deprived the Grenoese of their advantages 

 and possessions both at Constantinople and in the Crimea, and 

 again limited the introduction of the commodities of the East into 

 Europe to purchases made in Egypt, or in certain ports in Syria, 

 and this state of things continued until the Portuguese doubled 

 the Cape of Good Hope, towards the close of the 1 5th century, and 

 thus discovered a new route by ocean navigation to the East. This 

 discovery, and the events consequent upon it, resulted in the almost 

 total extinction of the commerce which Venice had so long enjoyed, 



