hina, 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 th