d, bridges built and tunnels dug. But the broad
statesmanship of the Hindoo did not pause here. To administer to the
convenience and comfort of the wayfaring public, and thus still more
encourage travel and the exchange of commodities, the state proceeded to
line these public roads with shade trees, to set out mile-stones, and to
establish stations provided with shady seats of repose, and wells at
which humane priests watered the thirsty beasts.

At intervals along these routes were also found commodious and
cleanly-kept inns to give shelter to the traveler at night. Buddha, the
great religious reformer of the Hindoos, commended the roads and
mountain passes of the country to the care of the pious, and the Greek
geographers speak with high praise of the excellence of the public
highways of Hindostan.

Among the Babylonians and Assyrians agriculture, trade and commerce
flourished at an almost equally remote period. The ancient inhabitants
of Mesopotamia cultivated the soil with the aid of dikes and canals, and
were experts in the manufacture of delicate fabrics, as linen, muslin
and silk. To them is attributed the invention, or at least the
perfection, of the cart, and the first use of domestic animals as beasts
of burden. Their cities had well-built and commodious streets, and the
roads which connected them with their dependencies aided to make them
the busy marts of Southeastern Asia.

During the later Babylonian Empire immense lakes were dug for retaining
the water of the Euphrates, whence a net-work of canals distributed it
over the plains to irrigate the land; and quays and breakwaters were
constructed along the Persian Gulf for the encouragement of commerce.
While highways among the Babylonians served the development of
agriculture and the exchange of industrial commodities, they were
constructed chiefly for strategic purposes by the more warlike
Assyrians, whose many wars made a system of good roads a necessity. The
Greek geographer Pausanias was shown a well-kept military road upon
which Memnon was said to have marched with an Assyrian army from Susa to
Troy to rescue King Priam. Traces of this road, called by the natives
"Itaki Atabeck," may be seen to this day.

The Phoenicians, who were the first of the great historic maritime
nations of antiquity, occupied the narrow strip of territory between the
mountains of Northern Palestine and the Mediterranean Sea. From their
situation they learned to rely upon the