CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA.

7

of Sefostris, they resumed their ancient maxims,and many ages elapsed before the commercialconnexion of Egypt with India came to be of suchimportance as to merit any notice in this Disquisition 7 .

The history of the early maritime operations ofPhenicia are not involved in the same obscuritywith those of Egypt. Every circumstance in the cha-racter and situation of the Phenicians, was favor-able to the commercial spirit. The territory whichthey possessed, was neither large nor fertile. It wasfrom commerce only , that they could deriveeither opulence or power. Accordingly, the tradecarried on by the Phenicians of Sidon and Tyre,was extensive and adventurous ; and, both in theirmanners and policy, they resemble the great com-mercial states of modern times, more than anypeople in the ancient world. Among the variousbranches of their commerce, that with India maybe regarded as one of the most considerable andmost lucrative. As by their situation on the Mediter-ranean , and the imperfect state of navigation,they could not attempt to open a direct commu-nication with India by sea ; the enterprising spiritof commerce prompted them to wrest from theIdumæans some commodious harbours towards thebottom of the Arabian Gulf. From these they held aregular intercourse with India, on the one hand,and with the Eastern and Southern coasts of Africaon the other. The distance, however, from the Ara-bian Gulf to Tyre was considerable, and rendered

B 4

SECT.

I.

7 See NOTE I.