Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/61

 the brazen vessels procurable at Mosul and other Turkish entrepôts derive their copper from the mountain districts of the Taurus.

Again, "They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules," a species of merchandise equally existent now in Armenia (or Togarmah), that country being still as famous for its horses and mules as it was then. The constant denunciations of the prophets show how the baneful trade in slaves prevailed of old. The Mossynoeci and Chalybes were famous for their mineral wealth; and the prophet adds, "Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs." "The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market." Tarshish has been identified by some with Tartessus in Spain, by others with other places; but the probability is that the phrase "ships of Tarshish" was an accepted term for any vessels with large and rich cargoes, like our name "Indiamen." Ancient history abounds with notices of the mineral wealth of the Spanish Peninsula. Aristotle tells us that silver was once so abundant there, that the Phœnicians not only freighted their ships with it, but even made their anchors of that precious metal; and iron, lead, salt, corn, and wine, were among its most common productions.

Tin, which has been often attributed, as by the