BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

13

show thee;" and his descendants have ever and anon manifested a peculiar migratory disposition, as you always find in holy writ.

Methinks, however, I hear some one say, It may be all true that the Jews betrayed a migratory disposition at a very early period of their history, which must, however, be confined to the east, for surely it cannot be imagined that they travelled as far as the west, at a remote age; especially, when we take into consideration the rudeness of the state of navigation in those days. I would respectfully call to such objectors' minds a statement of an eminent ancient writer-I mean Tacitus-who says that the first colonizing expeditions were performed by water, not by land;* and the result of research into the affinities of nations seems to have established, that at no time, however remote, has the interposition of sea presented much ob

* Nec terra olim, sed classibus advehebantur, qui mutare sedes quærebant.”

14

THE JEWS A MARITIME NATION.

stacle to the migratory dispositions of mankind.*

As I said before, however, that Abraham's descendants were trained to be a wandering people, so say I, moreover, now, that they were trained to be a maritime nation; in which pursuit we find them employed soon after they entered the land of promise. Not only did they possess the small sea of Gallilee, but they were placed all along the upper border of the great, or Mediterranean, Sea; and no sooner were they established in their country than they began to be engaged in maritime affairs, as we read in sacred history (1 Kings, ix. 26-28)—" And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four

* See Appendix A.

And

THE RENOWN OF SOLOMON'S FAME. 15

hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon."

As also in chap. x. 22-" For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish, with the navy of Hiram : once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, &c."

The Israelites, therefore, had an opportunity of traversing the known world at a very early period of their history, and thus made known the wisdom of their heaven-taught monarch; we can, therefore, admit in the amplest magnitude of signification the narrative contained in verses 23-26 of the same chapter. "So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.

"And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

"And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.

16

THE PHOENICIAN MARINE EXPEDITIONS.

"And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem."

It will be interesting to our subject to take a brief view of the navigating expeditions of the Phoenicians at that period, which was their most prosperous epoch, and who, with far more knowledge of the art of navigation than modern assumption gives them credit for, were to be seen in the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Atlantic-every where upon the waters; and in doing so, I must refer you to the twenty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel, where we have a concise, but precise description of their marine expeditions, which is as follows-"O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, thus saith the Lord God; O Tyrus, thou hast said I am of perfect beauty.

THE PHOENICIAN MARINE EXPEDITIONS. 17

"Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.

"They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir; they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee.

"Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.

"Fine linen, with broidered work from Egypt, was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.

"The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.

"The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers; all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandize.

"They of Persia, and of Lud, and of Phut, were in thine army, thy men of war; they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness.