They colonized the island; it supplied them with pitch, timber, copper, and hemp,- everything that was required in the architecture of a ship. With smacks and cutters they . followed the tunny fish in their migrations; they discov5 ered villages on other coasts, pillaged them, and carried off their inhabitants as slaves. Some of these, when they had learned the language, offered to pay a ransom for release; the arrangement was accomplished under oath, and presents as tokens of good will were afterwards exchanged. 10 Each party was pleased to obtain something which his own country did not produce, and thus arose a system of barter and exchange. The Phoenicians from fishermen became pirates, and from pirates, traders; from simple traders they became also 15 manufacturers. Purple was always the fashionable color in the East, and they discovered two kinds of shellfish which yielded a handsome dye. One species was found on rocks, the other under water. When the supply of these shellfish on their own coast was exhausted, they obtained them 20 from foreign coasts, and as the shell yielded but a small quantity of fluid and was inconvenient to transport, they preferred to extract the dyeing material on the spot where the shells were found. This led to the establishment of factories, and permanent settlements were made. 25 Obtaining wool from the Arabs and other shepherd tribes, the Phoenicians manufactured woven goods and dyed them with such skill that they found a ready market in Babylonia and Egypt. In this manner they purchased from those countries the produce and manufactures of the East, and these they sold at a great profit to the inhabitants of Europe. When they sailed along the shores of that savage con- 5 tinent and came to a place where they intended to trade, they lighted a fire to attract the natives, pitched tents on shore, and held a fair, exhibiting in their bazaar the toys and trinkets manufactured at Tyre for this purpose, with purple robes and works of art in tinted ivory and gold for 10 those who, like the Greeks, were more advanced. But in the best trading localities the factory system prevailed, and their establishments were planted in the Grecian Archipelago and in Greece itself, on the marshy shores of the Black Sea, in Italy, Sicily, Africa, and Spain. 15 Then, becoming bolder and more skillful, they would no longer be imprisoned within their landlocked sea. They sailed out through the Strait of Gibraltar and beheld the awful phenomenon of tides. They sailed on the left hand to Morocco for ivory and gold dust, on the right 20 hand for amber and tin to the ice creeks of the Baltic and the foaming waters of the British Isles. They also opened up an inland trade. They were the first to overcome the exclusiveness of Egypt and were permitted to settle in Memphis itself. Their caravan routes extended 25 in every direction toward the treasure countries of the East. Wandering Arabs were their sailors, and camels were their ships. They made voyages by sand, more dangerous than those by sea, to Babylon, to Arabia Felix, and to the rainless shores of the Persian Gulf. Phoenicia itself was a narrow, undulating plain about a 5 hundred miles in length and at the most not more than a morning's ride in breadth. It was walled in by the mountains on the north and east. To those who sailed along the coast it appeared to be one great city interspersed with gardens and fields. On the lower slopes of the hills 10 beyond gleamed the green vineyard patches and the villas of the merchants. The offing was whitened with sails, and in every harbor was a grove of masts. But it was Tyre which of all the cities was the queen. It covered an island off the shore, and the Greek poet Nonnus has 15 thus described the mingling around it of the sylvan and marine: "The sailor furrows the sea with his oar, and the plowman the soil; the lowing of oxen and the singing of birds answer the deep roar of the main; the wood nymph under the tall trees hears the voice of the sea 20 nymph calling to her from the waves; the breeze from the Lebanon, while it cools the rustic at his midday labor, speeds the mariner who is outward bound." These Canaanitish men are fairly entitled to our gratitude and esteem, for they taught our ancestors to read 25 and write. That the alphabet was invented by the Phoenicians is improbable in the extreme; but it is certain that they introduced it into Europe. They were intent only on making money, it is true; they were not a literary or an artistic people; they spread knowledge by accident, like birds dropping seeds. But they were gallant, hardy, enterprising men. Those were true heroes who first sailed through the sea valley of Gibraltar into the 5 vast ocean and breasted its enormous waves. Their unceasing activity kept the world alive. They offered to every country something which it did not possess. They roused the savage Britain with a rag of scarlet cloth. They brought to the satiated Indian prince the wines 10 of Syria and the Grecian isles in goblets of exquisitely painted glass. From the amber gatherers of the Baltic mud to the nutmeg growers of the equatorial groves, from the mulberry plantations of the Celestial empire to the tin mines of Cornwall and the silver mines of Spain, emu- 15 lation was excited, new wants were created, whole nations were stimulated to industry by the Phoenicians. Phoenicia (fé nish'I ȧ): once a famous country of the East, lying along the Mediterranean Sea. Canaanites (kā'nan īts): Semitic tribes inhabiting Palestine and Syria. The date of their settlement of Phoenicia is hidden in the mists of the earliest history. - smacks and cutters: small sailing vessels. — tunny fish: large fish of the mackerel family. - Memphis: the ancient imperial city of Egypt. — Arabia Felix: the southern portion of the Arabian peninsula.- Tyre: a famous city of antiquity. It was settled previous to the thirteenth century B.C. and was at the height of its power in the time of Solomon, king of Israel. - sylvan: relating to woods. gallant brave. When accented on the last syllable the adjective means ❝courteous to ladies."—amber: the pale yellow, translucent resin of extinct trees, used in making beads, etc. - mulberry plantations: the nursery of the silkworm. Celestial empire: China. SAMSON JOHN MILTON JOHN MILTON (1608-1674) is second only to Shakespeare in the great names of English literature. His prose is scarcely less famous than his sonorous verse. Paradise Lost is his longest and most ambitious poem, in which his whole genius found expression. "We find in it the noblest 5 example which our literature affords of the majesty of classic form.” NOTE. The following lines are from Samson Agonistes (agonis ́tēz). Samson, a hero of old Hebrew tradition, was taken captive by his enemies, the Philistines, who put out his eyes and kept him in chains. His prodigious strength enabled him to work his revenge. For the whole story 10 see Judges xvi. 4-30. (A Hebrew Messenger speaks) Occasions drew me early to this city; I sorrowed at his captive state, but minded The building was a spacious theater, Half round on two main pillars vaulted high, The other side was open, where the throng |