The Second Fact To Which We Allude Is Related In The Commentary Of Abu
Sird, On The Travels Of A Mahommedan In India And China, In The Ninth
Century Of The Christian Era.
The travels and commentary are already given
in the first volume of this work; but the importance of the fact will, we
trust, plead our excuse for repeating the passage which contains it.
"In our times, discovery has been made of a thing quite new: nobody
imagined that the sea which extends from the Indies to China, had any
communication with the sea of Syria, nor could any one take it into his
head. Now behold what has come to pass in our days, according to what we
have heard. In the Sea of Rum, or the Mediterranean, they found the wreck
of an Arabian ship which had been shattered by tempest; for all her men
perishing, and she being dashed to pieces by the waves, the remains of her
were driven by wind and weather into the Sea of Chozars, and from thence to
the canal of the Mediterranean sea, and at last were thrown on the Sea of
Syria. This evinces that the sea surrounds all the country of China, and of
Sila, - the uttermost parts of Turkestan, and the country of the Chozars,
and then it enters at the strait, till it washes the shore of Syria. The
proof of this is deduced from the built of the ship we are speaking of; for
none but the ships of Sarif are so put together, that the planks are not
nailed, or bolted, but joined together in an extraordinary manner, as if
they were sewn; whereas the planking of all the ships of the Mediterranean
Sea, and of the coast of Syria, is nailed and not joined together in the
same way."
When we entered on this digression, we had brought the historical sketch of
the discoveries and commerce of the Phoenicians down to the period of the
destruction of Old Tyre, or about six hundred years before Christ. We shall
now resume it, and add such particulars on these subjects as relate to the
period that intervened between that event and the capture of New Tyre by
Alexander the Great. These are few in number; for though New Tyre exceeded,
according to all accounts, the old city in splendour, riches, and
commercial prosperity, yet antient authors have not left us any precise
accounts of their discoveries, such as can justly be fixed within the
period to which we have alluded. They seem to have advanced farther than
they had previously done along the west coast of Africa, and further along
the north coast of Spain: the discovery of the Cassiterides also, and their
trade to these islands for tin, (which we have shewn could hardly have
taken place so early as is generally supposed,) must also have occurred,
either immediately before, or soon after, the building of New Tyre. It is
generally believed, that the Cassiterides were the Scilly Islands, off the
coast of Cornwall. Strabo and Ptolemy indeed place them off the coast of
Spain; but Diodorus Siculus and Pliny give them a situation, which,
considering the vague and erroneous ideas the antients possessed of the
geography of this part of the world, corresponds pretty nearly with the
southern part of Britain. According to Strabo, the Phoenicians first
brought tin from the Cassiterides, which they sold to the Greeks, but kept
(as was usual with them) the trade entirely to themselves, and were utterly
silent respecting the place from which they brought it. The Greeks gave
these islands the name of Cassiterides, or the Tin Country; a plain proof
of what we before advanced, that tin was known, and generally used,
previous to the discovery of these islands by the Phoenicians.
There is scarcely any circumstance connected with the maritime history of
the Phoenicians, more remarkable than their jealousy of foreigners
interfering with their trade, to which we have just alluded. It seems to
have been a regular plan, if not a fixed law with them, if at any time
their ships observed that a strange ship kept them company, or endeavoured
to trace their track, to outsail her if practicable; or, where this could
not be done, to depart during the night from their proper course. The
Carthaginians, a colony of the Phoenicians, adopted this, among other
maritime regulations of the parent state, and even carried it to a greater
extent. In proof of this, a striking fact may be mentioned: the master of a
Carthaginian ship observing a Roman vessel following his course, purposely
ran his vessel aground, and thus wrecked his own ship, as well as the one
that followed him. This act was deemed by the Carthaginian government so
patriotic, that he was amply rewarded for it, as well as recompensed for
the loss of his vessel.
The circumstances attending the destruction of New Tyre by Alexander the
Great are well known. The Tyrians united with the Persians against
Alexander, for the purpose of preventing the invasion of Persia; this
having incensed the conqueror, still further enraged by their refusal to
admit him within their walls, he resolved upon the destruction of this
commercial city. 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:
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