At the beginning of the seventh century we glean our last notice of any event connected with the commerce and maritime enterprise of the Romans; and the same period introduces us to the rising power and commerce of the Arabians.

Alexandria, though its importance and wealth as a commercial city had long been on the wane, principally by the removal of most of the oriental trade to Persia, was still the commercial capital of the Mediterranean, and was of the utmost importance to Constantinople, which continued to draw from it an annual supply of about 250,000 quarters of corn; but in the beginning of this century it was conquered by the Persians, and the emperor was obliged to enter into a treaty with the conquerors, by which he agreed to pay a heavy and disgraceful tribute for the corn which was absolutely necessary for the support of his capital.  But a sudden and most extraordinary change took place in the character of Heraclius:  he roused himself from his sloth, indolence and despair; he fitted out a large fleet; exerted his skill, and displayed his courage and coolness in a storm which it encountered; carried his armies into Persia itself, and succeeded in recovering Egypt and the other provinces which the Persians had wrested from the empire.

The very early commerce of the Arabians, by means of caravans, with India, and their settlements on the Red Sea and the coasts of Africa and India at a later period, for the purposes of commerce, have been already noticed.  Soon after they became the disciples of Mahomet, their commercial and enterprizing spirit revived, if indeed it had ever languished; and it certainly displayed itself with augmented zeal, vigour, and success, under the influence of their new religion, and the genius and ambition of their caliphs.  Persia, Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain, were successively conquered by them; and one of their first and most favourite objects, after they had conquered a country, was the amelioration or extension of its commerce.  When they conquered Persia, the trade between that country and India was extensive and flourishing:  the Persian merchants brought from India its most precious commodities.  The luxury of the kings of Persia consumed a large quantity of camphire, mixed with wax, to illuminate their palaces; and this must have been brought, indirectly, through India, from Japan, Sumatra, or Borneo, the only places where the camphire-tree grows:  a curious and striking proof of the remote and extensive influence of the commerce and luxury of Persia, at the time it was conquered by the Arabians.  The conquerors, aware of the importance of the Indian commerce, and of the advantages which the Tigris and Euphrates afforded for this purpose, very soon after their conquest, founded the city of Bassora:  a place, which, from its situation midway between the junction and the mouth of these rivers, commands the trade and navigation of Persia.  It soon rose to be a great commercial city; and its inhabitants,