CHAPTER IV. 



THE SHIPS, COMMERCE, AND NAVIGATION OF THE PHOENICIANS — THEIR TRADB 

 WITH OPHIR — SIDON AND TYRE — THEIR VOYAGE ROUND AFRICA — NEW TYRE — A 



PATRIOTIC PHOENICIAN CAPTAIN THE EGYPTIANS AS A MARITIME PEOPLE 



THEIR SHIPS AND COMMERCE THE JEWS THEIR GEOGRAPHY — IDEAS UPON THE 



SHAPE OF THE EARTH THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE HEBREWS. 



It is upon the shores of the Mediterranean, alike the sea of 

 the Bible and of mythology, of Mount Ararat and Mount 

 Olympus, — among the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and the 

 Hebrews, — that we must look for the earliest traces of navigation 

 and commerce. The most cursory inspection of a map of 

 Palestine, Phoenicia, and Egypt will show how admirably these 

 countries were situated for trade both by land and sea. The 

 Phoenicians, though confined to the narrow slip of land between 

 Mount Lebanon and the Mediterranean, possessed a safe coast 

 and the admirable harbor of Sidon, while their mountains fur- 

 nished them an abundant supply of the best woods for ship- 

 building. The confined limits of their own territory prevented 

 them from being themselves producers or manufacturers, — a cir- 

 cumstance which naturally led them to be the carriers of pro- 

 ducing and manufacturing nations whose maritime advantages 

 were inferior to their own. The fact, also, that the Jews were 

 prevented by their government, laws, and religion from engaging 

 extensively in commerce, and that the Egyptians were character- 

 istically averse to the sea, augmented the commercial supre- 

 macy of the Phoenicians, — a supremacy recognised both in the 



sacred writings and in profane records. 

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