This City Lay On The
Canopic Branch Of The Nile; And If A Vessel Entered Any Other Mouth Of This
River, the master was obliged to return to the Canopic branch; or, if the
wind did not permit this, to
Unlade his vessel, and send his merchandize to
Naucratis by the country boats.
From the time of Psammeticus, when the Greeks were allowed to settle in
Egypt, frequent intercourse and correspondence was kept up between them and
their countrymen in Greece; and from this circumstance the Egyptian history
may henceforth be more firmly depended upon. It has already been remarked,
that as the alleged circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians took
place during the reign of Necho, the successor of Psammeticus, the grounds
for its authenticity are much stronger than if it had occurred previously
to the intercourse of the Greeks with Egypt.
The employment of Phoenician mariners by Necho, to circumnavigate Africa,
bespeaks a monarch bent on maritime and commercial enterprise; and there
are other transactions of his reign which confirm this character. It is
said that Sesostris attempted to unite by a canal the Mediterranean and the
Red Sea, but that he did not succeed in his attempt: Necho also made the
attempt with as little success. He next turned his thoughts to the
navigation and commerce of the Mediterranean and Red Sea, in each of which
he had large fleets.
The superstitious antipathy of the Egyptians having been thus broken
through, and the recurrence of this antipathy secured against, by the
advantages they derived from navigation and commerce, the Egyptian monarchs
seem, as long as Egypt continued free, to have directed their attention and
resources, with considerable zeal and success, to maritime affairs. Their
strength by sea, as well as their experience, may be estimated by an event
during the reign of Apries, the grandson of Necho: this monarch was engaged
in war with the Sidonians, Tyrians and Cypriots; he took the city of Sidon
by storm, and defeated both the Phoenicians and Cypriots in a sea fight. In
fact, during his reign the Egyptians had the command of the Mediterranean
Sea. It is probable, that if they had continued long after this time an
independent state, they would have been still more celebrated and
successful in their maritime and commercial affairs; but in the year 525
before Christ, about seventy years after the reign of Apries, Egypt was
conquered by the Persians.
Notwithstanding, therefore, this temporary dereliction of their antipathy
to the sea, and intercourse with foreigners, the Egyptians can scarcely be
regarded as a nation distinguished for their maritime and commercial
enterprises; and they certainly by no means, either by sea or land, took
advantages of those favourable circumstances by which their country seemed
to be marked out for the attainment of an extensive and lucrative commerce.
It is well remarked by Dr. Vincent, that "while Egypt was under the power
of its native sovereigns Tyre, Sidon, Arabia, Cyprus, Greece, Sicily, and
Carthage, were all enriched by the trade carried on in its ports, and the
articles of commerce which could be obtained there, and there only; the
Egyptians themselves were hardly known in the Mediterranean as the
exporters of their own commodities; they were the Chinese of the ancient
world, and the ships of all nations, except their own, laded in their
harbours." As soon, however, as it passed from the power of its native
sovereigns, and became subject successively to the Persians, Macedonians,
and Romans, it furnished large fleets, and, as we shall afterwards notice,
under the Greeks, Alexandria became one of the principal commercial cities
in the world. The Greek inhabitants of Egypt were the carriers of the
Mediterranean, as well as the agents, factors, and importers of oriential
produce. The cities which had risen under the former system sank into
insignificance; and so wise was the new policy, and so deeply had it taken
root, that the Romans, upon the subjection of Egypt, found it more
expedient to leave Alexandria in possession of its privileges, than to
alter the course of trade, or to occupy it themselves.
We possess scarcely any notices respecting the construction and equipment
of the Egyptian ships. According to Herodotus, they were made of thorns
twisted together, and their sails of rush mats: they were built in a
particular manner, quite different from those of other nations, and rigged
also in a singular manner; so that they seem to have been the mockery of
the other maritime states in the Mediterranean. But this description can
hardly apply to the Egyptian ships, after they had become powerful at sea,
though the expressions of Herodotus seem to have reference to the Egyptian
ships of his age. There can be no doubt that the vessels that navigated the
Nile, were very rude and singular in their construction; and most probably
the description given by the historian ought to be regarded as exclusively
confined to them. They were built of the Egyptian thorn, which seems to
have been very extensively cultivated, especially in the vicinity of
Acanthus: planks of small dimensions were cut from this tree, which were
fastened together, or rather laid over one another, like tiles, with a
great number of wooden pins: they used no ribs in the construction of their
vessels: on the inside, papyrus was employed for the purpose of stopping up
the crevices, or securing the joints. There was but one rudder; whereas the
ships of the Greeks and Romans had generally two; this passed quite through
the keel. The mast was made of Egyptian thorn, and the sail of papyrus.
Indeed, these two plants appear to have been the entire materials used in
the construction and rigging of their ships. They were towed up the Nile,
as they were not fit to stem its stream, except when a strong favourable
wind blew. Their mode of navigating these vessels down the river was
singular; they fastened a hurdle of tamarisk with a rope to the prow of the
vessel; which hurdle they strengthened with bands of reeds, and let it down
into the water; they also hung a stone, pierced through the middle, and of
a considerable weight, by another rope, to the poop.
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