modern discovery of a new course of navigation to the East, that the Phenicians could supply other nations with the productions of India in greater abundance, and at a cheaper rate, than any people of antiquity. This circumstance, for a considerable time, secured to them a monopoly of that trade; and so extraordinary was the wealth of individuals, that it rendered the "merchants of Tyre, princes, and her traffickers the honourable of the earth:" while the power of the state itself became so extensive, that it first taught mankind to conceive what vast resources a commercial people possess, and what great exertions they are capable of making. B. C. 992. B.C. 992. The Jews' this com 8. The Jews, by their vicinity to Tyre, had a favourable opportunity to observe the wealth which flowed into that city, from the lucrative attention commerce carried on by the Phenicians, and drawn to they were induced to aim at obtaining a share merce. of it. This they effected under the prosperous reigns of David and Solomon, partly by the conquests which they made of a small district in the land of Edom, whereby they obtained possession of the harbours of Elath and Esiongeber on the Red Sea. They were assisted also by the friendship of Hiram, king of Tyre, who enabled Solomon to fit out fleets, which, under the direction of Phenician pilots, sailed to Tarshish and Ophir.3 In what region of the earth we should search for these famous ports, which furnished the navy of Solomon with the various commodities enumerated by the sacred historians, is an inquiry that has long exercised the industry of learned men. Ophir was early 1 Isaiah xxiii. 8. CHAP. Supposed to be situated in some part of India, I. and the Jews were thought to be one of the nations which traded with that country. But the opinion now more generally adopted is, that Solomon's fleets, after passing the straits of Babelmandel, held their course along the southwest coast of Africa, as far as the kingdom of Sofala, a country so celebrated for its rich mines of gold and silver, that it has been deno. minated by Oriental writers-the Golden Sofala. It abounded also in all the other articles which composed the cargoes of Solomon's ships. The Jews, then, we may conclude, have no title to be reckoned among the nations which carried on intercourse with India by sea. B. C. 510. 9. The first establishment of any foreign Persians ob- power in India, which can be ascertained by tain the first evidence meriting any degree of credit, is that foreign esta of the Persians; and even of this we have only India. B. C. 326. Alexander the Great covets the Indian com a very general and dubious account. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, king of Persia, possessed an active and enterprising spirit. Having subjected to his dominion many of the countries which stretched south-east from the Caspian Sea towards the river Oxus, his curiosity was excited to acquire a more extensive and accurate knowledge of India, on which they bordered. But his conquests do not seem to have extended beyond the district watered by the Indus, nor was any general knowledge of India diffused at that time in consequence of his expedition. 10. About one hundred and sixty years after the reign of Darius Hystaspes, Alexander the Great undertook his celebrated expedition into India. Soon after his first successes in Asia, he B. C. 326. founds Alex cilitate the communica seems to have formed the idea of establishing a universal monarchy, and to have aspired to the dominion of the sea as well as of the land. From merce-he the wonderful efforts of the Tyrians in their andria to faown defence, when left without any ally or protector, he conceived a high opinion of the tion. resources of maritime power, and of the wealth to be derived from commerce, especially that with India, which he found engrossed by the citizens of Tyre. With a view to secure this commerce, and to establish a station for it that should be preferable in many respects to that of Tyre, as soon as he had completed the conquest of Egypt, he founded a city near one of the mouths of the Nile, which he honoured with his own name. With such admirable discernment was the situation chosen, that ALEXANDRIA Soon became the greatest trading city in the ancient world; and, notwithstanding many successive revolutions in empire, it continued during eighteen centuries to be the chief seat of commerce with India. Amidst the military operations to which Alexander was soon obliged to turn his attention, the desire of acquiring the lucrative trade which the Tyrians had carried on with the East, was never relinquished. Events soon occurred, that not only confirmed and added strength to this desire, but also opened to him a prospect of obtaining the sovereignty of those regions which supplied the rest of mankind with so many precious commodities. his first ex 11. After his final victory over the Persians, Commences in his pursuit of the last Darius, and of Bessus, pedition to the murderer of that unfortunate monarch, he India. was led to traverse that part of Asia which stretches from the Caspian Sea beyond the river Oxus. He advanced towards the East as CHAP. I. Is compelled to return. far as Maracanda, then a city of some importance, and destined in a future period, under the modern name of Samarcand, to be the capital of an empire not inferior to his own either in extent or power. In a progress of several months, through provinces hitherto unknown to the Greeks; in a line of march often approaching near to India, and among people accustomed to much intercourse with its inhabitants; he learned many things concerning the state of a country that had been long the object of his thoughts and ambition, which increased his determination to invade it. Decisive in all his resolutions, and prompt in their execution, he soon set out from Bactria, and crossed that ridge of mountains which, under various denominations, forms what oriental geographers have called the Stony Girdle. This range of gigantic hills environs Asia, and constitutes the northern barrier of India. 12. After passing the Indus, Alexander marched forward in the road that leads directly to the Ganges and the opulent provinces to the south-east, now comprehended under the general name of Hindoostan. But on the banks of the Hydaspes, known in modern times by the name of the Jhylum, he was opposed by Porus, a powerful monarch of the country, at the head of a numerous army, whom he overcame, and received the submission of Porus himself and his allies. This and other interruptions that he met with, induced him to alter his route. Stimulated by the descriptions he had received of the Ganges, he continued to press onward towards that mighty river and the regions through which it flows: but on reaching the banks of the Hyphasis, the modern Beyah, in the Punjab of Lahore, his army with one voice refused to advance further. They had already done so much, and suffered so severely, chiefly from excessive rains and extensive inundations, that their patience and strength were exhausted: and they persisted with such sullen obstinacy in their determination to return, that even Alexander, though possessed in the highest degree of every quality that gains ascendency over the minds of military men, was obliged to yield, and to issue orders for marching back to Persia. B. C. 326. and his do 13. Before setting out from the Hydaspes for Opens a the East, Alexander left some officers behind, communicawith orders to build and collect as many vessels with India as possible during his absence: and on his return minions. to that river, he found that they had executed his instructions with so much diligence, that a numerous fleet was waiting his arrival. Amidst the hurry of war and the rage of conquest, he never lost sight of his pacific and commercial schemes. The destination of his fleet was to sail down the Indus to the Ocean, then to proceed from the mouth of that river to the Persian Gulf, that a communication by sea might thus be opened with India and the centre of his dominions. The distance between the ocean and the place on the Hydaspes where this fleet was fitted out, cannot be less than one thousand British miles. Soon after they reached the mouth of the Indus, Alexander, satisfied with having accomplished this arduous undertaking, led his army by land back to Persia. The command of the fleet, with a considerable body of troops on board, he left to Nearchus, who, after a coasting voyage of seven months, conducted it safely up the Persian Gulf into the Euphrates. 14. In this manner did Alexander first open the knowledge of India to the people of Europe, Customs and manners of |