principal were the purple of Tyre, their rich tapestry, and the exceeding fine linen fabricated in the Phoenician looms. The glafs of Sidon, the mother of Tyre, was another cele brated commodity exported to the countries of Afia by the Phoenician navigators; and, in the extenfive manufacture of this curious article, they had arrived to fuch a point of perfection, that not only plates nearly as large as any fabricated by the moderns were made in the glass-houses of Sidon, from the fine fand found on the fhore of that city, but we alfo know, from very high authority in antiquity, that they poffeffed the art of giving them a variety of the most striking and beautiful colours. The curious artificers of that nation were also celebrated for their skill in working in thofe coftly metals that formed the cargoes of their fhips, and in the ivory which they obtained in abundance from the neighbouring regions of Africa. For that expenfive and beautiful dye above-mentioned, which rendered the Tyrians famous over all the world, and which at this day is for its tranfcendent excellence appropriated to adorn the robes of princes and magistrates, they are faid to have been indebted to mere accident. A fhepherd's dog, incited by hunger to range.

the

ظر

the fea-fhore, near that city, feized with his teeth the hell of the fith called MUREX which, breaking in his mouth, ftained it of the colour fo much admired. The genius of that mercantile people took advantage of the accident, and, collecting a quantity of those fhells, impreffed the colour obtained from them on the ftuffs fabricated by them; which foon became in general request throughout the Eaft, efpecially at the courts of princes. This fpecies of purple fifh is faid to have been peculiar to the fhore of Tyre, and is thought to be extinct: at least it is not now to b be found there. The antiquity of the discovery is evident, from this colour being for part ticularly mentioned both in the Mofaic, writ ings and in Homer.* The astonishing perfection at which they had arrived, in the working in metals and ivory, is demonftrated by the funptuous defigns of that kind undertaken and finished by the artists of that nation in the temple of Jerufalem, and in the palace of the magnificent Solomon; the former abounding with emblematical devices in caft or fculptured gold, and the latter

* Confult Exodus, chap. xxv.X v.54. and Homer's Iliad, lib. vi.

adorned with that famous ivory throne, inlaid with pure gold, of which Scripture ittelf declares the like had not been made in any nation. For proof of their great advance in the elegant arts of engraving and fculpture, not lefs than of their prodigious wealth, we need not go further than the temple of Hercules, in their own city of Tyre, which was not lefs remarkable for the fuperb fuperb mythological devices, the egg of creation, the nymphæa, and the ferpent, that adorned its walls, than for thofe two magnificent columns, the one of mafly gold, the other confifting of a folid emerald, which were feeh and defcribed by Herodotus, on his vifit to that city; the latter of} which, he afferts, by niglit, illuminated the whole of that vaft fabric.j, dtod benoitus velpon

Freighted with the valuable articles of commerce above enumerated, but chiefl \ with gold gold and filver in ingots, which India ever ingulphed, or formed into ornamental vafes for the use of the temples and palaces of Afia, the Phænician thips failed directly up the Mediterranean to a port fituated on its molt southern extremity, and nearest the Arabian Gulph, Called in the Itinerary of A of “Antoninus

Rhinocorura. It is remarkable, that this important haven is not fo much as mentioned by fo accurate a writer as D'Anville, in his account of Idumæa, though Raphia the modern Refah, in its neighbourhood, is particularized for an event of far lefs moment in the annals of ancient hiftory.* Hence they were conveyed by land-carriage to Arfinoe or Suez, the first port on the Arabian Gulph; and, being there re-flipped, were tranfported down the western fhore of that gulph and through the straits of Babelmandeb, along the coafts of Arabia Felix and Deferta, and the maritime provinces of Perfia, to the Gulph of Cambay and the continent of India, where they were landed either at Patala, the pre fent Tatta, fituated at the mouth of the Indus, or Barygaza, the, prefent Baroach. Having taken this tranfient view of the ge neral route purfued by the Phoenician navi gators to India, previous to their difcovery of the Caffiterides, and the western coaft of Bri, tain, we must return to their flourishing colonies of Gades and Tarteffus on the coast of Spain, to trace the gradual fteps which led to that Discovery

* See D'Anville's Ancient Geography, vol. i. p. 405.

A SHORT

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE COMMERCE

ANCIENTEY CARRIED ON BETWEEN

PHONFCIA

AND THE BRITISH ISLES,

-160 2. /boedtroddaiSH

AND BY THE PHOENICIANS TO THE THE TE FOR

TR

EAST, FÖR TIN.

THIS valuable article of commerce owes its name to an Oriental word, intended to denote the appearance which it bore to thofe Afiatic traders who firft explored for tin the mines of the Cafliterides and Cornwall; for, when brought in its crude ftate from thofe mines, it is of a dark colour, and, when washed, resembles flime or mud. Pliny and other ancient naturalifts denominate it plumbum album, white lead, and, in truth, lead and filver are faid by the chemift to enter largely into the compofition of this ore. We read of no other country that anciently produced tin, at least, in fuch abundance and purity as the British ifles, nor of any people who extenfively traded in it, except the Phoenicians; and that trade muft have commenced early indeed, fince it is enumerated among other metals that paffed through the purifying fire

in