years voyage; for, in that period, according to Herodotus, it was accomplished.*

The genius of Carthage being more martial than that of Tyre, whose object was rather commerce than conqueft, it is not improbable that the former might, by force of arms, have eftablished a fettlement in the Caffiterides, and by this means have fecured that mono→ poly of tin, which the Phoenicians and their colonies indubitably enjoyed for several cen→ turies; fince, according to the united judg→ ment of the two ableft writers on the Afiatic Antiquities of Britain, Bochart and Camden, the Greeks were not heard of in Britain much above a century and a half before the Chrif tian æra. At all events, it is rational to fuppose they appointed Phoenician or Spanish agents to fuperintend the working of the mines, and secure their produce from the intrusion of strangers. In confirmation of this, a paffage in Tacitus may be adduced, in which, defcribing the Britons as they ap peared in his time, he affirms, that the Silures, inhabitants of South Britain, or probably of the Scilly Ifles, were of a fwarthy complexion, and had curled hair, like the Spaniards.+

Norden, alfo, in his Antiquities of Cornwall, mentions it as a tradition univerfally received by the inhabitants, that their tin-mines were formerly wrought by the Jews. He adds, that these old works are there at this day, called Attal Sarafin; the ancient caft-off works of the Saracens, in which their tools are fre quently found. Miners are not accustomed to be very accurate in diftinguishing traders of foreign nations, and thefe Jews and Saracens have probably a reference to the old merchants from Spain and Africa: and those employed by them might poffibly have been Jews, escaped the horrors of captivity and the defolation which, about that period, befel their country. While I write this, however, I am not ignorant of the general application of this tradition to a later periòd in the British history, when the mines and their produce were actually farmed out by King John to the Jews, by whom the commerce of this country with Spain and the Eaft was, at that time, principally carried on. It being certain, however, that the Carthaginians traded hither, and fo continued to do, for ages, after the deftruction of Tyre, let us quit them for a moment, and attend to the new route to India, opened by the bold, but prudent, policy of

the

the Ptolemies, the fucceffors of the great Alexander in the empire of Egypt.

The expedition of Alexander to India, which, if enabled to proceed in the Hiftory of Hindoftan upon the extenfive scale in which I have engaged in it, it will be my province hereafter to relate in more ample detail than it has yet been done, was an event, as to its confequence upon the commerce and nations of Europe, of far more importance than is generally conceived. Without the knowledge of the internal state of the Panjab, obtained by means of that invasion, and, in particular, by the descent down the Indus; without the incentive of fuch wealth and power, acquired by fo large an addition of territory in the eastern quarter of Asia, by the Greeks, a people fituated on its western limits, as was the refult of the conquefts of Alexander in Perfia and India, the nations, inhabiting the shores of the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulph, would, in all probability, have ftill been the factors to Europe for the rich productions of the Indian continent. That wealth, a large portion of which centred in the Ptolemies, enabled them to execute the daring projects of their mafter, whofe mind, fired with the hopes of monopolizing its wealth, formed the judicious

T 4

cious plan of enlarging and deepening the port of Patala, at the mouth of the Indus, with intent to make it the emporium of a future commerce with Alexandria; while that power fecured to their efforts final fuccefs and lafting protection. The Greeks, at firft reluctant, like the old Egyptians, to engage in diftant excurfions by fea, or, at least, ad vancing by very flow degrees to improvement in the fcience of navigation, now began to expand more boldly the fail of commerce, to court the winds, and quit the fhore. Their frequent and fevere engagements with the fleets of Carthage and Rome failed not to ext tend their naval skill; and the treasures which the new theatre of India difplayed drew thither in multitudes the Athenian veffels, Having conquered their Grecian rivals, the Romans eagerly engaged in the fame line of commerce, and the decline of that empire opened the way to India for the Venetians and other European ftates, and thus fet in motion that active and restless spirit of adventure and research, which explored, and finally accomplished, the paffage by the Cape.

When, in the hope of monopolizing the trade of Tyre, and fecuring as an asylum for the rifing fleets of Greece its two deep and fpacious

1

fpacious bays ftretching out on each side of the peninfula, the one looking towards its parent Sidon, the other towards the great mart, Egypt, and ferving as a fummer and winter harbour for its vaft marine, the politie' Alexander demolished that ancient city, and inflicted fo exemplary a vengeance on its inhabitants, it was his intent only to annihilate it as a Tyrian colony; and, before he left the coaft, he rebuilt and repeopled it, affuming the flattering title of the founder of a new Tyre, Of the new inhabitants, many were Grecian adventurers, and many were collected from the maritime provinces in its neighbourhood, which had viewed its profperity with a jealous and malignant eye. Still, however, there remained a large portion of the natives, who had, during the fiege, tranf ported themfelves in fhips to Sidon and Carthage, and these, fhortly after returning, endeavoured to revive its ancient fplendour. Though thefe efforts were ineffectual in all the extent defired, much of its commerce and its confequence was recovered; for, fcarcely twenty years afterwards, Tyre was again become fo confiderable a city as to refift, for many months, the befieging army of Antigonus, one of the generals, among whom the

dominions