Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/69

 ORIGIN OF THE PHOENICIANS. 49 attention of Carthage, a Phoenician Columbus might have dis- covered America twenty centuries before that event actually took place. We know that a Tyrian captain, subsidized by Nechao, king of Egypt, anticipated Vasco de Gama and circumnavigated Africa about the year 600 B.C. 1 While Hanno steered towards the South Atlantic, another commander, Himilco, made his way north, reconnoitring the western coasts of Spain and Gaul and touching the British Isles. 2 It has been said that the Tyrians also reached those coasts, but no evidence that they did so has been adduced. On the other hand we know that, during the Carthaginian period, ships of Gades went to an archipelago which they named the Cassiteridcs, or " tin islands." These were the Scilly Islands, to whose inhabitants they gave salt, bronze vases, arms and pottery in exchange for hides and metal. 3 No doubt they landed at several points on the coast of Cornwall and Ireland, but according to their usual habits, they preferred to establish themselves on small islands, where their safety was more assured. There they would set up markets to which the tribes on the main-land could bring any merchandize they had to dispose of. 4 This Atlantic trade was a monopoly. The Carthaginians spared no pains to keep away competitors. Their pilots jealously guarded their knowledge of the prevailing winds, of the currents and anchorages, while they spread such reports as to the difficulties and dangers of the navigation as would discourage any but the most dauntless souls. When a foreign captain refused to be frightened and attempted to follow the track of a Carthaginian ship, the crew of the latter were ready for any extreme, either of cruelty or enterprise, to choke him off and preserve the national secrets. If they felt themselves to be the stronger party, they would turn upon their pursuer and put him and his crew to death ; 5 if inferior strength made this impossible they would risk 1 HERODOTUS, ii. 42. 2 The report of Himilco has not been preserved, but some of its facts appear to have been utilized in the Latin poem of Festus Arienus. 3 STRABO, iii. v. n. 4 Without naming the Carthaginians, DIODORUS tells us that the inhabitants of the south-western extremity of Great Britain had their habits and manners much softened by their intercourse with the strangers who came to their shores for tin. 5 APPIAN, Punica, 5 ; STRABO, xvii. i. 19. VOL. I. ir