actorily makes out the nature of most of the articles mentioned
in it, as well as the locality of the places from which they are said
to have come.

[2] One of the most celebrated gods of the Phoenicians was Melcartus. He is
represented as a great navigator, and as the first that brought tin
from the Cassiterides. His image was usually affixed to the stern of
their vessels.

[3] In the time of Solomon, about two hundred years after the period when
it is supposed the Phoenicians began to direct their course by the
Lesser Bear,--it was 17 1/2 degrees from the North Pole: in the time
of Ptolemy, about one hundred and fifty years after Christ, its
distance had decreased to 12 degrees.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY AND COMMERCIAL ENTERPRIZE,
FROM THE AGE OF HERODOTUS TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, B.C. 324.

From the scanty materials respecting the Phoenicians, with which we are
supplied by ancient history, it is evident that they founded several
colonies, either for the purpose of commerce, or, induced by other motives,
in different parts of Africa. Of these colonies, the most celebrated was
that of Carthage: a state which maintained an arduous contest with Rome,
during the period when the martial ardour and enterprize of that city was
most strenuously supported by the stern purity of republican virtue, which
more than once drove it to the brink of ruin, and which ultimately fell,
rather through the vice of its own constitution and government, and the
jealousies and quarrels of its own citizens, and through the operation of
extraneous circumstances, over which it could have no controul, than from
the fair and unassisted power of its adversary.

The era of the foundation of Carthage is unknown. According to some
writers, it was built so early as 1233 years before Christ; but the more
general, as well as more probable opinion, assigns it a much later
foundation--about 818 years before the Christian era. If this opinion be
correct, Rome and Carthage were founded nearly about the same period. The
circumstances which led to and accompanied the foundation of Carthage,
though related with circumstantial fulness by the ancient poets, are by no
means accurately know to authentic history.

The situation of Carthage was peculiarly favourable to commerce and
maritime enterprize; in the centre of the Mediterranean; in reach of the
east as well as of