For Seven Months, The Natural Strength Of The Place, And
The Resources And Bravery Of The Inhabitants, Enabled Them To
Hold out; but
at length it was taken, burnt to the ground, and all the inhabitants,
except such as had
Escaped by sea, were either put to death or sold as
slaves.
Little is known respecting the structure and equipment of the ships which
the Phoenicians employed in their commercial navigation. According to the
apocryphal authority of Sanconiatho, Ousous, one of the most ancient of the
Phoenician heroes, took a tree which was half burnt, cut off its branches,
and was the first who ventured to expose himself on the waters. This
tradition, however, probably owes its rise to the prevalent belief among
the ancients, that to the Phoenicians was to be ascribed the invention of
every thing that related to the rude navigation and commerce of the
earliest ages of the world: under this idea, the art of casting accounts,
keeping registers, and every thing, in short, that belongs to a factory, is
attributed to their invention.[2] With respect to their vessels, -
"Originally they had only rafts, or simple boats; they used oars to conduct
these weak and light vessels. As navigation extended itself, and became
more frequent, they perfected the construction of ships, and made them of a
much larger capacity. They were not long in discovering the use that might
be drawn from the wind, to hasten and facilitate the course of a ship, and
they found out the art of aiding it by means of masts and sails." Such is
the account given by Goguet; but it is evident that this is entirely
conjectural history:
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