1800.] The Britiſp Merchant. 153

and in the iſles, of the Mediterranean ſca. But this was onl by the Carthaginians, who occupied it, ſolely for the ſake of its filver-mines and other natural wealtn, eftabliſhed in it no inde- pendent colonies, and were little anxious to diſſeminate any of the arts of civiliry among its unfubjugated natives. Spain was, at that times to the Carthaginians, juſt what Mexico and Peru have, fince, been to the Spaniards. Lt was their natural treaſury, of the precious metals, from which they derived ſtores, both of gold and ſilver, far all the uſes of trafic, ornament, and ſuperfti- tion. The native Spaniards, too, muſt, no doubt, have purchaſed at prices that afforded prodigious profit to the wily merchants, many manufa@ured commodities which the Carthaginians firſt introduced among them, and taught them to uſe,

Tt was reſerved for a Grecian Colony,‘either immediately from Greece or the Grecian Iſles, or perhaps from Italy or Sicily, to form the firſt commercial ſettlement on the coait of Gaul, by founding MARSEILLES, They fixed, there, probably, by accident. They became an opulent and flouriſhing commu- nity, by communicating to the ſavage nâtives, the manufaQures of Italy, Carthage, andthe Eaſt, and by deriving from them, in return, thoſe raw materials for the arts, which were the natural productions of Gaul.

While Commerce was thus extending her adve.tures beyond the weſtern limits of the Mediterranean ſea; and the ſceds of civilization were beginning to' germinate on* the ſhores of Europe: a maritime intercourſe had been already opened between hither and farther Aſia, by the way of the Red Sea and of the Perſian Gulph. The Egyptians, the Tyrians, the Jews, were accuſtomed to navigate the Red Sea, and, in this'tra&t ot adventure, to viſit the ſouth-eaſt ſhores of Africa, and the ſouth-weſt ſhores of Aſia, to uncertain diſtances. The inhabitants of the ſouth of Arabia, likewiſe failed, on mercantile enterprizes, to India. Between the people dwelling. on the Perſian guiph, and thoſe of Hindoſtan,' maritime intercourſe- was fill leſs tedious- and difficult. Yet, it is probable, that, during all this time, the commerce of Aſa in general, was carried on, much more by land, than by ſea. However, this might be; it is certain; that, the intercourſe of URAFFIEATIO early as about three thouſand and five hundred years after the Moßic æra of the creation of the world, had begun to eftabliſh a mutual interchange of com- modities among mankind, over 2 tratt of land and ſea extending irom the banks of the Ganges, to the coaſt of Britain.

GREECE, in the mean time, roſe to the dignity of a dif-- tinguiſhed ſeat of all the arts, and eſpecially of that commerce by which alone the arts can be duly foſtered and encouraged,— It was ſituated ſill more conveniently than the African domi- mions of Carthage, in the mid-way between the eaftern and