es, horses, and mules; carpets, ivory, and ebony;
pearls and silk; wheat, balm, honey, oil and gums; wine, and wool, and
iron, are enumerated as brought into the port of Tyre by sea, or to its
fairs by land, from Syria, Damascus, Greece, Arabia, and other places, the
exact site of which is not known.[1] Within the short period of fifteen or
twenty years after this description was written, Tyre was besieged by
Nebuchadnezzar; and after an obstinate and very protracted resistance, it
was taken and destroyed. The inhabitants, however, were enabled to retire
during the siege, with the greatest part of their property, to an island
near the shore, where they built New Tyre, which soon surpassed the old
city both in commerce and shipping.

A short time previous to the era generally assigned to the destruction of
old Tyre, the Phoenicians are said to have performed a voyage, which, if
authentic, may justly be regarded as the most important that the annals of
this people record: we allude to the circumnavigation of Africa. As this
voyage has given rise to much discussion, we may be excused for deviating
from the cursory and condensed character of this part of our work, in order
to investigate its probable authenticity. All that we know regarding it is
delivered to us by Herodotus; according to this historian, soon after
Nechos, king of Egypt, had finished the canal that united the Nile and the
Arabian Gulf, he sent some Phoenicians from the borders of the Red Sea,
with orders to keep always along the coast of Africa, and to return by the
pillars of Hercules into the northern ocean. Accordingly the Phoenicians
embarked on the Erythrean Sea, and navigated in the southern ocean. When
autumn arrived, they landed on the part of Libya which they had reached,
and sowed corn; here they remained till harvest, reaped the corn, and then
re-embarked. In this manner they sailed for two years; in the third they
passed the pillars of Hercules, and returned to Egypt. They related that in
sailing round Libya, the sun was on their right hand. This relation,
continues Herodotus, seems incredible to me, but perhaps it will not appear
so to others. Before proceeding to an enquiry into the authenticity of this
maritime enterprize, it may be proper to explain what is meant by the sun
appearing on the right hand of the Phoenician navigators. The apparent
motion of the heavens being from east to west, the west was regarded by the
ancients as the foremost