PH(ENICIAN TRADERS. 



53 



have been raised in modern times upon the accuracy of the 

 narrative ; but the objections are considered as having been 

 refuted by Rennell and Heeren. Bartholomew Diaz has the 

 credit of having discovered and having been the first to double 

 the Cape of Good Hope, in 1486 : it is clear that, if the claims 

 of the Phoenician pilots are to be regarded, Diaz was preceded 

 in this path at least twenty centuries. 



Soon after the date of this voyage, Tyre was besieged and 

 destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The inhabitants succeeded in 

 escaping with their property to an island near the shore, where 

 they founded New Tyre, which soon surpassed, both in com- 

 merce and shipping, the city they had abandoned. The 

 Phoenicians seem now to have advanced with their system of 

 colonization farther to the south upon the coast of Africa, 

 and farther to the north upon the coast of Spain. They dis- 

 covered the Cassiterides — now the Scilly Islands — upon the 

 coast of Cornwall, and retained the monopoly of the trade in 

 the tin which they found there. They carried spices and 

 perfumes, obtained from Arabia, to Greece, where they were 

 employed for sacrifice and incense. They also sold there the 

 manufactures, purple, and jewels of Tyre and Sidon. From 

 Spain they obtained silver, corn, wine, oil, wax, wool, and 

 fruits. They procured amber in some place which they visited 

 in the North, — doubtless the shores of the Baltic. As the value 

 of this article was equal to that of gold, they desired to retain 

 the monopoly of the trade and to keep all knowledge of the 

 regions yielding it from their commercial rivals. Hence the 

 secret was most carefully hoarded. 



A remarkable circumstance connected with the maritime 

 history of the Phoenicians was their jealousy of the influence of 

 foreigners. When a strange ship was observed to keep them com- 

 pany at sea, they would either outsail her, or at night change their 

 course and disappear. On one occasion a Phoenician captain, 

 finding himself pursued by a Roman vessel, ran his ship aground 



