8 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

SECT, the conveyance of goods to it by land carriage foI. tedious and expenfive that it became necedaryfor them to take poffeffion of Rhinocolura, theneareft port in the (Mediterranean to the Arabian Gulf . Thither all the commodities brought fromIndia , were conveyed over land by a route muchIhorter, and more practicable than that by whichthe productions of the haft were carried at a fub-fequent period from the oppofite fhore of the Ara­ bian Gulf to the Nile*. At Rhinocolura, theywere refhipped, and tranfported by an eafy navi-gation to Tyre, and diftributed through the world.This as it is the earlieft route of communicationwith India, of which we have any authentic de-fcription, had fo many advantages over any everknown before the modern difeovery of a newcourfe of navigation to the Eaft, that the Pheni-cians could fopply other nations with the productionsof India in greater abundance, and at a cheaperrate, than any people of antiquity. To this circum-ftance, which, for a confiderable time, fecured tothem a monopoly of that trade, was owing, notonly the extraordinary wealth of individuals, whichrendered the “merchants of Tyre, Princes, and“ her traffickers the Honorable of the Earth 9 ;”but the extenlive power of the ftate itfelf, whichfirlt taught mankind to conceive what vaft refourcesa commercial people poffefs, and what great exer-tions they are capable of making to .

* Dior!. Sic lib. i. p. 70. Strab. lib. xvi. p. 1128. A*

* Ifaiah, xxiii. 8. l ° See NOTE II.