rincipal
nations of the world looked for their supplies, either regularly, or at
any rate in times of difficulty.

West of Egypt was a dry and sandy tract, dotted with oases, but
otherwise only habitable along the shore, which in the time of the
Persian Empire was occupied by a number of wild tribes who were mostly
in the lowest condition to which savage man is capable of sinking. The
geographical extent of this tract was large, exceeding considerably that
of Egypt; but its value was slight. Naturally, it produced nothing but
dates and hides. The inhumanity of the inhabitants made it, however,
further productive of a commodity, which, until the world is
christianized, will probably always be regarded as one of high
value--the commodity of negro slaves, which were procured in the Sahara
by slave-hunts, and perhaps by purchase in Nigritia.

Still further to the west, and forming the boundary of the Empire in
this direction, lay the district of the Cyrenaica, a tract of singular
fertility and beauty. Between Benghazi, in east longitude 20 deg., and the
Ras al Tynn (long. 23 deg. 15'), there rises above the level of the adjacent
regions an extensive table land, which, attracting the vapors that float
over the Mediterranean, condenses them, and so abounds with springs
and rills. A general freshness and greenness, with rich vegetation in
places, is the consequence. Olives, figs, carobs, junipers, oleanders,
cypresses, cedars, myrtles, arbutus-trees, cover the flanks of the
plateau and the hollows which break its surface, while the remainder is
suitable alike for the cultivation of cereals and for pasturage. Nature
has also made the region a special gift in the laserpitium or silphium,
which was regarded by the ancients as at once a delicacy and a plant
of great medicinal power, and which added largely to the value of the
country.

Such was the geographical extent of the Persian Empire, and such
were the chief provinces which it contained besides those previously
comprised in the empires of Media or Babylon. Territorially, the great
mass of the Empire lay towards the east, between long. 50 deg. and 75 deg., or
between the Zagros range and the Indian Desert. But its most important
provinces were the western ones. East of Persepolis, the only regions
of much value were the valleys of the Indus and the Oxus. Westward lay
Susiana, Babylonia, Assyria, Media, Armenia, Iberia, Cappadocia, Asia
Minor, Cyprus, Syria, Palestine, Egyp