ir 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 Egyptia