ment (Is. xxiii. 8; Ezek. xvii. 4). It is
a significant proof of the commercial activity and trading
establishments of the Canaanite race throughout the civilized world.
Even a cuneiform tablet from Kappadokia, which is probably of the same
age as the tablets of Tel el-Amarna, gives us the name of Kinanim "the
Canaanite" as that of a witness to a deed. It was not always, however,
that the Canaanites were so honourably distinguished. At times the name
was equivalent to that of "slave" rather than of "merchant," as in a
papyrus [Anast. 4, 16, 2.] where mention is made of Kan'amu or
"Canaanite slaves from Khal." So too in another papyrus we hear of a
slave called Saruraz the son of Naqati, whose mother was Kadi from the
land of Arvad. The Egyptian wars in Palestine must necessarily have
resulted in the enslavement of many of its inhabitants, and, as we have
seen, a certain number of young slaves formed part of the annual tax
levied upon Syria.

The successors of Thothmes III. extended the Egyptian empire far to the
south in the Soudan. But its Asiatic limits had already been reached.
Palestine, along with Phoenicia, the land of the Amorites and the
country east of the Jordan, was constituted into an Egyptian province
and kept strictly under Egyptian control. Further north the connection
with the imperial government was looser. There were Egyptian fortresses
and garrisons here and there, and certain important towns like Tunip
near Aleppo and Qatna on the Khabur were placed under Egyptian prefects.
But elsewhere the conquered populations were allowed to remain under
their native kings. In some instances, as, for example, in Anugas or
Nukhasse, the kings were little more than satraps of the Pharaoh, but in
other instances, like Alasiya, north of Hamath, they resembled the
rulers of the protected states in modern India. In fact, the king of
Alasiya calls the Pharaoh his "brother," and except for the obligation
of paying tribute was practically an independent sovereign.

The Egyptian dominion was acknowledged as far north as Mount Amanus.
Carchemish, soon to become a Hittite stronghold, was in Egyptian hands,
and the Hittites themselves had not yet emerged from the fortresses of
the Taurus. Their territory was still confined to Kataonia and Armenia
Minor between Melitene and the Saros, and they courted the favour of the
Egyptian monarch by sending him gifts. Thothmes would have refused to
believe that before many years were ov