The Phoenicians for some centuries confined their navigation within the limits of the Mediterranean, the Propontis, and the Euxine, land-locked seas, which are tideless and far less rough than the open ocean.  But before the time of Solomon they had passed the Pillars of Hercules, and affronted the dangers of the Atlantic.[922] Their frail and small vessels, scarcely bigger than modern fishing-smacks, proceeded southwards along the West African coast, as far as the tract watered by the Gambia and Senegal, while northwards they coasted along Spain, braved the heavy seas of the Bay of Biscay, and passing Cape Finisterre, ventured across the mouth of the English Channel to the Cassiterides.  Similarly, from the West African shore, they boldly steered for the Fortunate Islands (the Canaries), visible from certain elevated points of the coast, though at 170 miles distance.  Whether they proceeded further, in the south to the Azores, Madeira, and the Cape de Verde Islands, in the north to the coast of Holland, and across the German Ocean to the Baltic, we regard as uncertain.  It is possible that from time to time some of the more adventurous of their traders may have reached thus far; but their regular, settled, and established navigation did not, we believe, extend beyond the Scilly Islands and coast of Cornwall to the north-west, and to the south-west Cape Non and the Canaries.

The commerce of the Phoenicians was carried on, to a large extent, by land, though principally by sea.  It appears from the famous chapter of Ezekiel[923] which describes the riches and greatness of Tyre in the sixth century B.C., that almost the whole of Western Asia was penetrated by the Phoenician caravans, and laid under contribution to increase the wealth of the Phoenician traders.

     “Thou, son of man, (we read) take up a lamentation for Tyre,
          and say
     unto her,
     O thou that dwellest at the entry of the sea,
     Which art the merchant of the peoples unto many isles,
     Thus saith the Lord God, Thou, O Tyre, hast said, I am perfect in
     beauty. 
     Thy borders are in the heart of the sea;
     Thy builders have perfected thy beauty. 
     They have made all thy planks of fir-trees from Senir;
     They have taken cedars from Lebanon to make a mast for thee
     Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars;
     They have made thy benches of ivory,
     Inlaid in box-wood, from the isles of Kittim. 
     Of fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was thy sail,
     That it might be to thee for an ensign;
     Blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was thy awning. 
     The inhabitants of Zidon and of Arvad were thy rowers;
     Thy wise men, O Tyre, were in thee—­they were thy pilots. 
     The ancients of Gebal, and their wise men, were thy calkers;
     All the ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee,
     That they might occupy