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 glafs-houfes of Sidon, from the fine fand found on the fhore of that city, but we álfo know, from very high authority in antiquity, that they poffeffed the art of giving them a variety of the most striking and beau-. tiful colours. The curious artificers of that nation were alfo celebrated for their fkill 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 tranfcendentexcellence appropriated to adorn the robes of princes and magiftrates, they are faid to have been indebted to mere accident, A fhepherd's dog, incited by hunger to range. the the fea-shore, near that city, feized with his teeth the hell of the fifth 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 thofe thells, impreffed the colour obtained from them on the ftuffs fabricated by them; which foon becaine in general requeft throughout the Eaft, especially 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 leaft it is not now to be found there. The antiquity of the discovery is evident, from this colour being fo particularly mentioned both in the Mofaic writings and in Homer.* The astonishing perfection at which they had arrived, in the working in metals and ivory, is demonftrated by the sumptuous designs of that kind undertaken and finifhed 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 * Confuit Exodus, chap. xxv. v. 4. and Homer's Iliad, lib. vi. V. 219. adorned 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 less than of their prodigious wealth, we need not go farther than the temple of Hercules, in their own city of Tyre, which was not lefs remarkable for the fuperb mythological devices, the egg of creation, the nymphæa, and the ferpent, that adorned its walls, than for those two magnificent columns, the one of maffy gold, the other confifting of a folid emerald, which were feen and described by Herodotus, on his visit to that city; the latter of which, he afferts, by night, illuminated the whole of that vaft fabric. Freighted with the valuable articles of commerce above enumerated, but chiefly with 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 Phoenician thips failed directly up the Mediterranean to a port fituated on its moft fouthern extremity, and nearest the Arabian Gulph, called in the Itinerary of Antoninus * 1 Kings, chap. x. v. 20. Rhinocorura. Rhinocorura. It is remarkable, that this im-portant 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 Arfinge or Suez, the first port on the Arabian Gulph; and, being there re-fhipped, were transported down the western shore 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 prefent Tatta, fituated at the mouth of the - Indus, or: Barygaza, the prefent Baroach. Having taken this tranfient view of the ge-neral route pursued by the Phoenician navigators to India, previous to their difcovery of the Caffiterides, and the western coaft of Britain, we must return to their flourishing colonies of Gades and Tarteffus on the coaft of Spain, to trace the gradual steps which led to that Difcovery. · 1 1 See D'Anville's Ancient Geography, vol. i. p. 405. A SHORT SHORT HISTORY OF THE COMMERCE ANCIENTLY CARRIED ON BETWEEN 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 Caffiterides and Cornwall; for, when brought in its crude ftate from thofe mines, it is of a dark colour, and, when wafhed, 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 extensively 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 |