to foreigners, the Greeks were not permitted to enter any port
except Naucratis, which they had been suffered to build for the residence
of their merchants and convenience of their trade. 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 the