Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/32

 boats as distinguished from rafts, were the inhabitants of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, and, notably, the Phœnicians of Sidon and Tyre.

The Phœnicians, however, as is now admitted, were not originally inhabitants of the territory they have made famous by their commercial operations, but immigrants from the shores of the Persian Gulf, whence they carried with them the nautical tastes and knowledge they had been maturing, perhaps for centuries, to develop them in a new and enlarged sphere. Indeed, it is not unlikely that, antecedently to History, these enterprising people had made voyages even to the far-distant East, as the "Erythræan Sea" comprehended an area far wider than our Red Sea, being really, as in Herodotus, what we now call the "Indian Ocean." If it be true that Jacob's blessing, "Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships," is probably the earliest written document implying navigation of any kind, it is at the same time impossible to determine at what period that prophecy was to take place, while the occurrence of the name Zidon in the next paragraph, "His border shall be unto Zidon," might suggest the inference that the wording of this announcement, as we have it now, is of later date than Jacob himself.

Neither the Egyptians nor the Greeks have any claim to be considered among the first navigators; indeed, the former people were during their whole