to a very late date.  The natives preserved their own language and customs, had their own chiefs, and maintained their national independence, while constrained to submit at the same time to the presence of Phoenician colonists or merchants on the coast, and in the neighbourhood of the mines in the mountains.  The trading centres of these settlers—­Kition, Amathus, Solius, Golgos, and Tamassos—­were soon, however, converted into strongholds, which ensured to Phonicia the monopoly of the immense wealth contained in the island.**

* An examination into the origin of the Cypriotes formed part of the original scheme of this work, together with that of the monuments of the various races scattered along the coast of Asia Minor and the islands of the AEgean; but I have been obliged to curtail it, in order to keep within the limits I had proscribed for myself, and I have merely epitomised, as briefly as possible, the results of the researches undertaken in those regions during the last few years.

** The Phoenician origin of these towns is proved by passages from classical writers.  The date of the colonisation is uncertain, but with the knowledge we possess of the efficient vessels belonging to the various Phoenician towns, it would seem difficult not to allow that the coasts at least of Cyprus must have been partially occupied at the time of the Egyptian invasions.

Tyre and Sidon had no important centres of industry on that part of the Canaanite coast which extended to the south of Carmel, and Egypt, even in the time of the shepherd kings, would not have tolerated the existence on her territory of any great emporium not subject to the immediate supervision of her official agents.  We know that the Libyan cliffs long presented an obstacle to inroads into Egyptian territory, and baffled any attempts to land to the westwards of the Delta:  the Phoenicians consequently turned with all the greater ardour to those northern regions which for centuries had furnished them with most valuable products—­bronze, tin, amber, and iron, both native and wrought.  A little to the north of the Orontes, where the Syrian border is crossed and Asia Minor begins, the coast turns due west and runs in that direction for a considerable distance.  The Phoenicians were accustomed to trade along this region, and we may attribute, perhaps, to them the foundation of those obscure cities—­Kibyra, Masura, Euskopus, Sylion, Mygdale, and Sidyma*—­all of which preserved their apparently Semitic names down to the time of the Roman epoch.  The whole of the important island of Rhodes fell into their power, and its three ports, Ialysos, Lindos*, and Kamiros, afforded them a well-situated base of operations for further colonisation.  On leaving Rhodes, the choice of two routes presented itself to them.  To the south-west they could see the distant outline of Karpathos, and on the far horizon behind it the summits of the Cretan chain.  Crete itself bars on the south the entrance to the AEgean, and is almost a little continent, self-contained and self-sufficing.