The Phoenicians alone in this time dared to
navigate. They were the commission merchants of the old world; they
went to every people to buy their merchandise and sold them in
exchange the commodities of other countries. This traffic was by
caravan with the East, by sea with the West.
=Caravans.=--On land the Phoenicians sent caravans in three directions:
1.--Towards Arabia, from which they brought gold, agate, and onyx,
incense and myrrh, and the perfumes of Arabia; pearls, spices,
ivory, ebony, ostrich plumes and apes from India.
2.--Towards Assyria, whence came cotton and linen cloths, asphalt,
precious stones, perfumery, and silk from China.
3.--Towards the Black Sea, where they went to receive horses,
slaves, and copper vases made by the mountaineers of the Caucasus.
=Marine Commerce.=--For their sea commerce they built ships from the
cedars of Lebanon to be propelled by oars and sails. In their sailing
it was not necessary to remain always in sight of the coast, for they
knew how to direct their course by the polar star. Bold mariners, they
pushed in their little boats to the mouth of the Mediterranean; they
ventured even to pass through the strait of Gibraltar or, as the
ancients called it, the Pillars of Hercules, and took the ocean course
to the shores of England, and perhaps to Norway, Phoenicians in the
service of a king of Egypt started in the seventh century B.
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