fcribed with its splendid ornaments by his biographer Philoftratus. From this city, poffeffed of one of the moft fpacious havens in the world, the na foon commenced with the people of that country, which abounded in mines of gold and filver, an immenfe traffic for thofe precious metals. These were again exported to India, which then, as now, probably fwallowed up, as in a bottomlefs gulph, the bullion of Europe, and, in return, they received the filk of Serinda, and the fine linen and rich gems of the peninfula. LOKA The reader who adverts folely to the prefent afpect of Spain, and the indolent character of the people, will be rather surprised to read this account of the immenfe riches formerly dug from the bowels of that country, and the commercial exertions of the ancient inhabitants. But, in reality, no fact in hif tory can be better proved, than that mines, fearcely lefs productive of gold and filver than thofe of Peru and. Potofi, which are now the object of laborious research, were in thefe early periods worked, as well ell thofe fituated in the Montes Mariani, in Andalufia, mountains that skirt the territory of Seville, and now called Sierra Morenay as thofe of Corduba, now Cordova, a région fo fertile in golden golden ore, as to be called by Silius Italicus, who was a native of this country, Aurifera Terra,* the land that bore gold. Of this abundant wealth of the ancient Iberians, evidence may be found in the early hiftorical pages of all the great empires of the world, that carried on any commerce with them; and, in particular, we are informed by a Greek writer of great and merited celebrity that, when the Phoenicians first came among them, they found the inhabitants wallowing in gold and filver, and fo willing to part with their riches, from their ignorance of the value of thofe precious metals, that they exchanged their naval commodities for fuch an immenfe weight of them, that their fhips could scarcely sustain the loads which they brought away, though they used it for ballaft, and made their anchors and other implements of filvert. It is afferted, though perhaps with fome degree of exaggeration, by Diodorus Siculus, that when the Pyrenean mountains, fo called from the fact about to be related, were, in remote periods, on fire, owing to the incaus tious or criminal conduct of fome fhepherds, Di silius talicus, lib in verfe od tuled cod 10 Ste Aristotle De Mirabilibus Auferit. Opera, voi, ia pat 165. See Did. Sic. lib. B-358 svobi in in n kindling a fire too near one of its forefis bion to vidt Juods basovi to zbanog Again we are informed by the fame respectable Roman writer, cited fo often before,* 900 VIWB JINJONG 2clie that when the Carthaginians, the next in to abang 1990 order of the fucceffive invaders of Spain, firft ebied.baON filver in fuch amazing plenty, that their utenfils, even their very were made of mangers, wild have brand their horfes pounds of filver per day tow aburoq ovd gand The excellent hiftorian Livy, alfo ace Rome, carried with him fourteen thousandi besides an immenfe quantity of coins clothes,is -9877 corn, om, arms, and other valuable things. :Lot caltyd gebot! 4. 16. ni begolliq yo197 +Ibid, lib. xxxiii. cap.6. T Liv. lib. i. ii. and iii, Lentulus Bailbait Lentulus is faid to have brought away a ftill hundred dtiv found each ent much lårger Weasure, to wit, forty-four thousand pounds of ti fiver and two thousand five hundred and fifty of gold, og fou befides the money which he divided yn eu beam.J59. among his foldiery L. Manlius brought with him twelve h pounds of filver, and about thirty of gold. Corn. Lentulus, after having governed th the Hither Spain two years, brought away one thousand five hundred and fifteen pounds of gold, and of filver two thousand, befdes thirty-four thousand five hundred and fifty denarii in ready coin; coin, whilft his his colleague brought from Farther Spain fifty thoufand pounds of filvera vad bak Di Don hun hundred and -What is ftill more furprifing, is, that thefe immense sums, amounting in all to one sin dred and eleven thoufand five hund to 19brut forty-two pounds weight of way to troc filver, four thou fand and ninety-five of gold, befides coin and other things of value, were obtained from that country in The tidy DAITIBO OMOJ yeurs; for juft folmuch time elapfed between the first and the last of these tors; anchföt long after they R me 29bd Roman præbhad been as 2016” „MO) feverely pillaged, in all probability, by the The Phoenicians having eftablished them felves, as well as the religious rites Ttheir country, at the great commercial port of Gades, or Cades, were not long in making themselves masters of other places on the rich Iberian coaft, equally convenient for carrying on that traffic for which they were fo cele brated. The principal of thefe was Tarteffus, fituated ftill farther weft, and the capital of an island of the fame name, formed by the two ftreams by which the Bactis anciently emptied itself into the fea, though one of them has been fince ftopped up. To thefe two grand emporia were brought down that river the gold, filver, and other valuable productions of Bætica, the modern Andalufia, to be conveyed thence, in Phoenician bottoms, (to ufe a modern maritime phrase,) to those countries of the eaft, Perfia, Affyria, India, and Egypt, the magnificence, luxury, and military enterprizes, of whofe fovereigns rendered conftant fupplies of thofe precious commoditics neceffary to them. Their own country itfelf produced many articles of fuperior elegance, very eagerly fought after by thofe oftentatious and effeminate nations of Afia. Among these the principal (6 |