dominions of Alexander were, at his death, partitioned out, engaged in war with Ptolemy, in whose hands it then was, and confequently in a ftate of dependance on the Greek fovereigns of Alexandria, as it ever after continued. No longer, therefore, could either the Tyrians, or their defcendants, the Carthaginians, command the port of Rhinocolura for the tranfportation of the commodities of the western world to India, because both that port and the paffage of the adjoining ifthmus were neceffarily under the control of the monarch who commanded Egypt and the western diftricts of the Arabian Gulph.

Alarmed, therefore, at the blow aimed at their very existence by the deftruction of Tyre, and at the evident, though not yet declared, intention, of the Macedonian chief to deprive them of their monopoly of the Indian trade, and make it flow in a new channel, the Carthaginians dispatched to that prince, in Egypt, a man, named Hamilcar, of great addrefs and of a penetrating genius, to cultivate his goodwill, and to obtain every information in his power concerning this project, and the poffibility of carrying it effectually into execution. Hamilcar found the king bufied in the vi

gorous

gorous profecution of his great defign; the port of Alexandria already cleansed, enlarged, and defended by a wall, and the city itself, which was intended to render Carthage a defert, on every fide rifing in beauty and gran deur. The report of the great works carrying on at this future metropolis of Egypt filled the Carthaginians with dismay; and at the fame time fo incensed them, that, convinced as they were of the entire practicability of concentrating at Alexandria the whole commerce of the eastern and western world, in a transport of rage, they put to death the inno cent bearer of this unwelcome intelligence.* No other channel, therefore, for the conveyance of articles of commerce from the wef tern to the eastern world remained to the Carthaginians, befides that before pointed out, through Tadmore and the deserts, to the Euphrates and the Perfian Gulph; and, from the convulsed state in which, owing to inceffant wars, the Affyrian and Perfian empires continued for nearly half a century afterwards, even that channel must have been a very precarious and hazardous one. Patient, however, and perfevering as the camel that bears

Justini Hist. libl xxi p. 406, edit. variorum.

her

her commodities over the burning fands, com MERCE undauntedly urges her way through oppofing difficulties, climbs the fteep rock, ftems the rapid torrent, nor relaxes its laborious efforts till it gains the dazzling prize, which crowns its labours and rewards its fufferings.

Although the death of Alexander prevented, his own accomplishment of the plan which he had formed for making Alexandria the emporium of the trade of the world, Ptolemy Soter, his friend and fucceffor in the kingdom of Egypt, fedulously and inceffantly la❤ boured, during a long reign of thirty-nine years, to complete the magnificent project of his mafter. This firft and greateft of that learned and princely line decorated the noble harbour of Alexandria with a marble lighthoufe, fo grand and beautiful as to be once esteemed the wonder of the world; and he joined to it the island Pharos, on which it ftood, by a ftupendous mole, or causeway, carried, for three-quarters of a mile, through the fea. He alfo erected in it, for the encou ragement of science and the accommodation of the learned, a fuperb ftructure, which was called the Museum, or Academy, and a library, not lefs valuable for the beauty of the

architecture than for the rarity and number of the volumes it contained, which amounted to 400,000, unfortunately burnt about three centuries after; as was the ftill greater one begun by Ptolemy Philadelphus, his fon, at a more recent period, by the ferocious mandate of the barbarian Omar. The temple of Serapis, the royal palace, the lofty walls flanked with baftions of durable granate, the great canal by which the waters of the Nile were conveyed to the city, and the marble columns that fuftained the vaults, (at this day to be feen,) on which the whole city was built, long made Alexandria alike the thronged refort of the merchant and the fcholar; and justly entitled it to the diftinguished appellations of Queen of the Eaft, and the Metropolis of the World.

Ptolemy Soter died at the advanced age of eighty-four, and was fucceeded by a fon not lefs ardently defirous to fulfil the intentions of his wife father, than to perfect the extensive plans of the ambitious Alexander. The perpetual conflicts, by land, in which that father was engaged with the other competitors for the divided empire of their master, during the early part of his reign, had prevented his giving all that attention to his marine, though

that

that marine was far from contemptible, which appeared neceffary to fupport the pretenfions of a power afpiring to give law on the ocean, and make the commerce of diftant nations fubfervient to its own aggrandizement. Alexander had foreseen that this could never be effected while Tyre and Carthage were per→ mitted to retain fuch a numerous fleet in the Mediterranean; and, therefore, after ruining the Phoenicians of Tyre, he had formed defigns for the fpeedy deftruction of those of Carthage alfo. Among his papers were found memoranda of certain grand projects, which, if he had lived, it was his intention to have executed; and, firft of thefe, as the bafis of his future scheme of greatnefs, was recorded his resolution to build a thousand ftout gallies, to reduce the Carthaginians and other maritime nations, who might be inclined to oppose the progress of his arms in an intended conqueft of all the fea-coafts of Africa and Spain, lying on the Mediterranean; along the whole line of which the next memorandum ftated his intention to carry a broad and regular high road, as far as Ceuta and Tangier, for the convenience of commerce, and more easy communication between his land and fea forces; while a third proposed the

erecting